The Daily Nation

The local news stand is simply a man sitting on a rock selling a few copies of three varieties of papers. One day this week on my way into the office I stopped to buy the local favorite --the Daily Nation. In many ways it is not so different that the newspapers at home – focusing primarily on ‘newsworthy’ items that point to the problems of society instead of what is good. Inside the paper is more stories, letters to the editors which are always an interesting read, classified ads, obituary’s, sports, political cartoon (this one focusing on China’s involvement/contributions to the crisis in Sudan), and of course the daily crossword and suduko puzzles that apparently no paper in the world can be printed without.

For the past week whenever I walked by the stand I would glance at the front page. They have been filled with stories about a group called the Mungiki sect (a politically motivated group of a religious organization whose actions have become barbaric) and stories about the retaliation by Kenyan police of Mungiki suspects (emphasis on suspects). Just trust me when I tell you that you really do not want to know the graphic details.

The inside stories are the same thing we see in the States – domestic violence, disgruntled employees who turn violent, stories of people who take justice into their own hands instead of the courts, and of course the politically slanted stories (Sorry to shock those of you who thought American news sources don’t slant their stories -- you really need to get out of America more). The difference is that here the headlines are a bit more attention grabbing – at least to this American.

‘Boy’s shocking tale of father’s death over goat’,
‘Experts asked to fight quacks’,
‘Woman, 70, lynched over loss of child’,
‘Boy shot dead as raiders steal cattle’,
‘Stop sexual abuse of young girls by close relatives and other pests’, and
‘Man who killed wife over utensils vows to use them.’

The last headline caught my attention because there are very few Kenyan men whom I have met that would even consider using a kitchen utensil for something other than eating. According to the story, a 70 year old man killed his wife of forty-five years after a quarrel about the utensils. He hit her several times with a Jembe (hoe) handle. He said he didn’t know if she knew she was going to die that day but before she did, she cursed him by saying he should never use some of their utensils after her death.

The man spent a day and a half in jail for her death.
Frankly, I hope there is something to her curse.