From: Bernard Kingara

Francis thanks for the very poetic verse. I’m just curious to read your adaptation on events concerning the reappointment of suspended PS’s and a one administrative secretary. I’m guessing you would title the poem say ‘the 4 billion shilling maize comedy & other high jokes’. Please take the stage if you don’t mind.

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Francis Tome wrote:

Dear Sir/Madam,

The most glaring and outrageous comedy titled “The No Rhapsody” is now showing countrywide. In this show, one Wilfred Machage is depicted as a mean, ill-tempered character whose heart burns with rage and who in the frenzy of igniting his audience often veers off into tangents and asides while hoping to be applauded for his apparent audacity and bravado. His sardonic treatment of politics, helps bring out his inner, primal self, stripped of its civilized veneer.

You will see him superbly rave as his eye balls gyrate in different directions. Being a gallant Kuria warrior he always carries with him a very lethal arsenal-his mouth. Be sure to be treated to his armor-clad syllables that hurtle and rattle out of both sides of his mouth in quick succession.

As he deftly caresses his mane in a somewhat philosophical stance, and as his chest heaves, gigantic are the words he hurls at his perceived political enemies. You are left with little doubt that this man can hew epithets out of stone. I must quickly admit that for a man who is accustomed to using his heart more than his head, I am insensible to his condescension.

He comes out as one who does not regard patriotism, duty to God and country, or allegiance to noble principles as worthy goals. In his estimation society provides a shallow and often evil structure for living. At this juncture one is left with the impression that his opposition to the draft constitution is just but a revolt against the ignominy of his meteoric rise to a ministerial portfolio only to be demoted as fast as the promotion came.

The absurdities and the crudities in which Machage indulges are almost unlimited. At one time, he rants that “his people”, must evict the Luos all the way to Awendo and that the Gikuyu have to be evicted from Rift Valley while the Maasai have to take over Nairobi if the draft constitution passes. And when the law takes its course he instantly cries foul. What Machage fails to understand is that it would be a manifest absurdity for him to say that his liberty was abridged for being punished for doing that which he never had a liberty to do in the first place.

But perhaps the most comical of it all is when he throws tantrums at the two principals. He waxes lyrical that Kibaki and Raila must resign if the “NO” vote wins the day. Really? Shouldn`t Machage think for once that parliament overwhelmingly passed the draft constitution in its current form. Any failure in the passage of the draft at the plebiscite would therefore mean that Kenyans have no confidence (not in the President or the Prime Minister) but in parliament and therefore, it is parliament that must be dissolved and fresh elections held under the current constitution.

By the end of the show, I have no doubt whatsoever that the audience is thoroughly desensitized to Machage`s indifference and insipidness. This show reminds the audience of how far our day-to-day world of politics is from the idealization of comedy.

TOME FRANCIS,

BUMULA.

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