Wueh, ngori

Hey there readers. I hope you have all had a great week. It has been very rainy lately, a relief after what we witnessed at the beginning of the year. At least there has been some reprieve to the drought stricken areas which we should all remember to be thankful for. On the other hand though there have been floods in the coastal areas like Bamburi but that's just yin and yang for you, my thoughts are with all the people having to deal with these terrible flood waters. 

Anyway, today I wanted to speak a little about the state of our country and its effects on me and probably some of you who may find my position relatable. So over the past few months we have seen a steady increase in the price of fuel brought about by a series of 'unfortunate' events and factors. I'll highlight some of them for you. 

1. Taxation- according to an article on The Business Daily Africa, taxes now account for 37% 33% and 31% of the price of petrol, diesel and kerosene respectively

 (link-https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/economy/government-now-takes-up-to-sh79-in-tax-for-every-litre-of-fuel--4373160.)

 This amounts to nearly 80ksh of the price per litre of these commodities. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) who're one of Kenya's biggest donors push policies of taxation of petroleum products (carbon tax) and this in addition to the doubling of Value Added tax to 16% has played a significant role in the increment of fuel prices.

2. Brokerage costs- An article in The Nairobi Law Monthly spoke about Uganda's decision to halt petroleum purchases from Kenya due to rogue middlemen who inflate prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene by 58.53%, 44.3% and 44.3% respectively. Link;

(https://nairobilawmonthly.com/museveni-calls-out-kenyan-brokers-for-inflating-fuel-prices-by-to-58-percent/)

I bet you all know the drill, high cost of fuel = high cost of living and that paired with the new tax laws means money is now a sore subject to most Kenyans. Now that's understandable seeing as it is our literal livelihood, nowadays, you cannot live without cash. So naturally its scarcity means there's a lot of tension going around. Now more than ever I'm hearing political discussions being held, at this point you cannot escape them. I'm melancholic about it all because on one hand I see  more and more people raising opinions challenging our leadership and holding them accountable but, on the other they're sort of serving as a constant reminder that things times are tough and they might be for a considerable amount of time to come. 

Now, most of the people who read this blog are either unemployed (It's not funny but it kinda is, I'm not throwing shots) or just breaking into the job market. I think we honestly picked the wrong time to start adulting bro, there's very little to smile about for real. I recently started working an industrial attachment, it's the first time I am experiencing the 9-5 life and I am honestly getting my ass handed to me. I'm not complaining, with our Capitalist world, this lifestyle is a reality over 90% of us have to live. It's just a very taxing transition to make as a young adult in this day and age. 

It's a little disheartening. You devote about 3 hours of your day to a commute on the same route and 8 hours of the same day to work. It is so easy to lose yourself to this cycle, it starts becoming a robotic routine. You're devoting yourself to this theoretically 'higher cause' like an organization, company or career and in a way you get nothing fulfilling in return (this is excluding money). So in some twisted systemic way we're almost being rewired to find all our fulfilment from money. It's inescapable though, you need money to find fulfilment which is sad. I read a book that said, the greatest return on investment money gives you is the ability to do what you want with who you want whenever you want. In a way that's all we slave away for, right?

So what happens when your time is taken from you and you have very little reparations to show for it? Anguish, you can't live with it and you can't live without it. It's almost as if you're being forced to sit in that little cubicle or stand in that dark warehouse, if you don't you quite literally might starve. The problem isn't money itself, it's how concentrated it is in the hands of a few people. I'm sure you've heard it one million times but seeing it in real time is something else, at least for me. You watch the 'owners' ordering expensive food into their offices while their workers skive lunch to eat supper. You watch them show up in new flashy cars every other day while the soles on their employees' feet fall apart because of how far they walk. 

The worst part is they refuse to acknowledge their privilege, sometimes they even use the hard times prevailing most of the country to scapegoat their distasteful cost-cutting strategies. I look at this surrounding from the perspective of your average young-adult. We all come in to the world starry eyed with our expectations, only to be met by this soul-crushing reality. It's taxing to realize that that may be the reality for most if not all of the rest of our lives. We work to live and live to work. Unmotivated and disoriented as we spend most of our youthful years being 'productive' members of our very broken society.

We have been geared and groomed for this, theoretically, but our syllabus and teachers did not account some things. For one, I think our generation of adults is way more focused on being individuals able to freely express and indulge in what they want rather than members of a society (amateur opinion). Our value systems fundamentally clash with those of the workplace. Another is the age of globalization and the internet whereby there are options left right an centre (seemingly). What happens is now you're aware of how much better things could be, but they aren't so you feel like you're not doing enough or you physically cannot get something that's seemingly so close to your reach. Even worse we try to fast-track to these better options which can be detrimental. It's a train-wreck of a situation.

Unfortunately, itabidi tuzoee. Until most of us are in positions to challenge and change the situation, we have to play the game. You need to remind yourself of where you stand before you can start moving. Now more than ever we need the mental fortitude to withstand the horrors of late stage capitalism. Above all we all need to remember our individuality and creativity, these are the diving forces of fulfilment. Do not forget that you are way more than a cog in a gear system, you are way more than a statistic. As for the hard times man, for every boom there is a bust, for every yin a yang. With fortitude we will learn to survive and then we will thrive. "Tough times never last, only tough people last....bleughuegheu"