From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2013

Fifth Sunday of Lent is the final week prior to Easter. Today I celebrated one mass. The first reading was taken from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, 43:16-21. It talks of God’s promise to restore His people after they have suffered in exile.

The second reading is from the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, 3:8-14, and is a warning to the Philippians about false teachers; Judaizers who would try to hang on to the old ways while at the same time claiming to be Christians.

The Judaizers taught that in order to be a Christian, you first had to be a Jew: to be circumcised and to obey all 613 Old Covenant commandments. This question, whether or not Gentile converts to Christianity must first become full and legal Jews, prompted the Council of Jerusalem.

The Gospel is from St. John, 8:1-11 and is about the woman caught in adultery. God wants to prove to us that all of us are sinners. “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

When Jesus and the woman were left alone, he looked up and said, “Woman, where are they?” Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

Specific theme for the Kenya Episcopal Conference Justice and Peace commission Lenten Campaign is the child and the family as the basic unit of society. As the second reading puts it that in Christ there should be no Jew, circumcised, or uncircumcised, in Kenya where tribalism or negative ethnicity as media refer to it nowadays is the order of the day children are faced with lots of challenges as they grow up.

Recently I was challenged by my 11 years old niece when she asked me how comes that Kikuyus do not want other tribes to lead this country, and why specially Luos. That they think they are the only tribe who matter in Kenya as if they own it. No matter how much I tried to convince her that it is not the case she insisted it is.

The question of my niece is the question other children and Kenyans ask about other tribes. It demonstrates how negative ethnicity is tearing Kenya apart. Each tribe in Kenya thinks it is the best.

This is seen specifically when a particular tribe becomes the president. It favours its own tribe mates when it comes to the appointments of key positions in the government since independent. Jomo Kenyatta favoured his tribe mates when he became the president. Daniel arap Moi did the same and now Mwai Kibaki.

This makes tribalism and nepotism to be one of the deadly cancer diseases in Kenya which will take time to heal. Children are growing seeing this and that is why they ask such challenging questions.

Children are aware that this type of bad governance has not only been the main factors hindering Kenya from achieving important development milestones, it is also affecting children emotionally.

Nepotism is the showing of favoritism for relatives or friends based upon that relationship, rather than on an objective evaluation of ability or suitability, for instance by offering employment to a relative, despite the fact that there are others who are better qualified and willing and able to perform the job.

Children need to be told clearly that such type of bad governance and leadership can no longer be entertained in modern society. This can be done in schools and churches. In Kenya this is currently being done in form two through three literature set books, Betrayal in the City, the Caucasian Chalk Circle and the River and the Source.

Betrayal in the City by Francis Imbunga tries to help students understand that power is in the hand of the people and can be used to throw away bad leaders. The play starts by cutting a clear distinction between leaders and the mass.

It opens by showing the life of Nina and Doga who mourn for their lost child, who was killed on an organised demonstration, which was focused on African dictatorship and corruption.

The play portrays Mulili an illiterate soldier who was employed and given high post because the president was his uncle. On the same scene we also meet Jere who is a faithful soldier and he adores African style of life, he and Mulili fell into a fight since they take different courses of reasoning, here Mulili represent the ruling class and its common habits of bulldozing the society.

It demonstrates how the whole country is proven rotten and how harmful speaking the truth is, we see how those dared to open their mouths and the reveal the truth face difficulties, and sometimes going to the extreme of being imprisoned for example Jusper and other prisoners.

Finally some people gather courage and plan a revolution on which now Mulili betrays the president and he realizes how bad he is. It calls for peoples powers to demonstrate against such leadership, to remove them from the office and replace them with leaders who are patriotic-leaders who consider Kenya to equally belong to other Kenyans.

On respect and protection of human life, the Caucasian Chalk Circle fits. This is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. The play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than its natural parents.

To demonstrate that all children are equal, whether boys or girls the River and the Source by Margaret A Ogola fits. The novel tries to convince readers that a home without daughters is like a spring without a source. It kills the culture in some societies that think that only boys are valuable in the home.

It is a sweeping story following the lives of three generations of women, from Akoko, born into a traditional Luo community, to her grandchild Awiti, whose children live into the late twentieth century.

Yet still, far from being the cradle in which the life of an individual is nurtured, family can be a source of personal identity in providing the template of social norms and values that go into shaping the individual’s personality.

These values have been however challenged. This is because traditional family structure has been put under pressure from rapid social change, undergoing erosion, and is generally splitting up to such an extent that it is failing to fulfil its primary role of socialization affected by urbanization and modernization.

Today is not as easy as in the past to provide children with the same amount of care and attention they automatically receive in the extended family set-up. Urbanization and modernization directly cuts across ancestry-based residence and mutual social, spiritual, and economic co-operation.

In the modern era the family has gradually shrunk to become the nuclear family, consisting solely of parents and their children – thus denying many parents the assistance they once received from extended family support networks. As a result, many parents find it increasingly difficult to carry out all their work and family responsibilities.

Due to high cost of living children often have to devote most of their day to helping the family in its income-raising ventures. Even if they should manage to attend school, regularly, eventually, the lack of suitable clothing, footwear, or money to buy the basic school equipment and needs encourages them to drop-out voluntarily.

Yet still, marriage has gradually become the individual’s concern rather than a concern of two extended families. The divorce rate has risen sharply. The number of single parent families has increased dramatically despite the fact that for growth and development of a child’s personality, it is desirable for both parents.

More still, a child whose mother is repudiated by the father, or where life at home becomes intolerable due to threats, quarrels, even physical violence, where a father resorts to drinking heavily to drown his sorrows, or abandon his family altogether because of his inability to meet the family needs, develops psychological problems in empathy with the abandoned mother.

Many of these children end-up in the street to earn a living and to support their mother and siblings. Street-children are becoming of great concern of late. They roam the streets, offering their services as load carriers, ice water vendors, scrap metal sorters, wooden toy makers, peanut, orange and banana sellers. The boys chase cars with their wares – a risky business life.

Adolescent girls drift naturally into early marriage, unplanned teenage pregnancies/abortion, frequent childbearing and a new generation of impoverishment. Others may take up prostitution.

The issue of abandoned babies and infants is gradually becoming a problem in this country and may continue to be worse unless measures are taken to redress the fundamental factor of a supportive family system in the modern society.

We have not even talked about over 50 percent of orphaned children as a result of HIV/Aids; either from their parent(s) dying from it, or abandonment as a result of having it. HIV children need three things: Good nutrition, love, and adequate medical care.

Another big problem with our children is sexual abuse which includes the employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of any child to engage in, or assist any other person to engage in.

Any sexually explicit conduct or simulation of such conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct; or the rape, and in cases of caretaker or inter-familial relationships, statutory rape, molestation, prostitution, or other form of sexual exploitation of children, or incest with children.

There is also a problem with emotional abuse, a pattern of behavior that impairs a child’s emotional development or sense of self-worth. This may include constant criticism, threats, or rejection, as well as withholding love, support, or guidance.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002