A Fishy Story

Last night, while reflecting on the evolving political scenario in Kenya, I drew parallels between what's happening right now, and my personal experience in the hands of a fishy man who promised to hand me his boat, and decades later, it never came to be.

Please sit down. Let me tell you a fishy story.

Around 2010, I developed an appetite for fish. You see, I wasn't born in fishing land, but coming to the city, I encountered fish. Fried fish, boiled fish, fish engine, fish tail, fish big, fish small, thin fish, long fish - fish of all sizes - cooked in all manner of fishy styles. So to expand my taste of fishy things, naturally, I gravitated towards fishology.

There was a place in the Kilimani part of Nairobi where people went to eat fish and drink other things. One day while there, I was introduced to this guy who comes from the fishing community. Some called him the Fish Legend. He owned a much coveted fishing boat. He loved authentic African fish, and had a fine taste for all things fish.?

We shared our love for fishology, and we instantly became fish-mates. Many moons went by, and our love for sharing, eating and talking fish things grew. I became a protege of his style of fishology. I learnt many things about authentic African fish, but also about the boat owner.

He was born pre-independence Kenya, and had grown fighting his way to establish his name in the fisheries. He always needed young blood around him to help him execute his fishing projects. But he paid and treated them poorly, but always promised them fish heaven - including international fishing tours, and to some, that one day, that he will hand over the fishing boat to them, or make them a shareholder in the fishing boat. A few enthusiasts died in his hands, one died of pneumonia, while waiting to go for a fishing expedition abroad.?There was money to take him abroad but not to treat his pneuomonia.

Fish Legend was also known to be truly fishy - he was a corrupt, narcissistic manipulator who only cared for leaving a legacy of sorts in the fisheries. Owing to his struggle to make it to the title of legend, he felt that the country owed him - whether reward, recognition or whatever, he deeply felt that the country owed him. His proteges, including myself - laboured for the love of fishology, until they couldn't hold fish anymore. Then they left.?

But, I decided to take a chance on him, because I could see the potential of taking on the fishing boat, and diving into deeper waters where he couldn't have gone going by his level of exposure to the information age…I became a loyal supporter of the fishing boat. I wrote, sang and mobilzed all manner of support for the boat. The boat grew exponentially, and started to venture into waters that they hadn't gone before.?

But every time you met the Fish Legend, he would say, in a very patronizing way "You see, my son, I am now old, I am 60, soon am retiring from the fishing boat, and I would like you to take it - you are very capable, you have helped us a lot to make this fishing boat, I know you can take this boat very far, you are the best placed to do it, but for now, drink this wine".?

Then, we would drink wine, eat dry fish bones and go home - drugged and smelling fishy.

This fishy cycle repeated for like 5 years, till I realized that the hand-me-down rhetoric paired with wine was a trap. My appetite for wine had increased exponentially, and I was starting to get sick and addicted. This was a trap. In that light bulb moment, the Fish Legend, turned into a Fishy Legend who had no intention of relinquishing his boat.?

So I left him, and went to start my amateur fishing boat to actualize the love of African fishology. Fishy Legend was now very angry. He talked so ill of my boat, so ill - till, at some point, it capsized. He also sabotaged other peoples boats, drowned them in wine till they couldn't fish anymore. Wine, promises, threats and bad mouthing were his weapon.?

Soon after, he published a book about different “Sides of Fishing”, and till the time of writing this article, the boat is dying a natural death as he walks around with that book - selling his fishy legacy. In his eyes, none of his proteges could own or run a fishing boat, unless it was his boat, even if a dying boat. All the young proteges left him drinking wine with his grumpy peers, and are slowly reassembling to pursue other authentic interests. ?

Fast forward to today, there is a Kenyan dinosaur of a politician who is selling his fishy legacy by cutting deals with the government for continued self preservation in the name of “stabilizing the country”. He has kept his proteges waiting for their turn for like 3 decades. When you look around - this pattern speaks to a pre-independence born mindset.

This baby boomer generation is largely preoccupied with consolidating power, terminating competitors and would rather die holding onto power, even when the power holder is incapable of functioning.?Mostly, and they go up the ladder, they incorporate their family and tribes mate into their fishy enterprise, for self protection.

This mindset believes the young ones are inexperienced and best at supplying services to the Fishy Legends who fought and suffered to become who they are now. They will always remind the young ones of their wounds, and warn them that they came into Legendhood by bloodshed, and therefore they will never leave without an equivalent shed of blood. They are masters of propagating generational trauma, and this has to stop!

This has to stop. This moment calls for Gen Zii and millenials to disrupt this cycle. They collectively have the technology and creativity (power) to create an alternative reality outside of the imagination of these Fishy Legends. They have the language and music that can power their dissent. They can groom their alternative leaders. They have the power to boycott services of these Fishy Legends and build a peer-to-peer economy that serves them, and sustains their long term goal of liberation.??

My boat capsized, but since the day I made a decision to move on, I collaborated with other like minded people and together we built a ferry. Unlike having a small boat that only serves personal interests, it means, we are responsible for helping others to learn to navigate the fishing waters with confidence. It might take time for the Genzii (and millennials) to create their own ferry, but it's possible to birth another reality without bloodshed, greed, and scarcity mindset hovering at all corners.?

Unlike the fishy legends, Gen Zii embodies a different animal - a buzzing bee… Nyuki, in Swahili. Full of authenticity, energy, tact, productivity, but also stinks when threatened. They work in hives, mzinga - in a? new form of synch solidarity that keeps? the fishy folks unsure of where it's gonna sting next. This is the disruption we need to change society from a self preserving enterprise of a few brokers to a flowery field where every bee can find a flower.?

There is enough for all of us - political power is transient - and we get back from the universe that which we give. The Fishy Legends built a house of cards on lies and manipulation, its getting slippery by the day, and they are struggling to keep a fishy house standing.?

I encourage all of us, proponents of the fourth struggle for our liberation,?to stay true to the course of getting back our means of thriving? from the toxic reality that has been handed down to us by low vibrating human doings that came before us.?

Thanks for listening to a fishy story, may the universe be in your favor!?