TRUE FRIENDS!

They are hard to come by,true friends.

True friends are not always the ones you know.

They will walk up to you, true friends.

True friends are those that come to sort you out.

True friends, who are they?

They will come to your aid, in the darkest hour.

True friends, they will hold your hand,

Just as you start to stumble and fall.

True friends are a joy to behold,

They are jewels,true friends.

When you are opposed,

These true friends will stand by you,with you.

True friends are a blessing,

They do what it takes to show you the way.

Wen you get lost or at risk of,

True friends will bring a compass.

True friends have a mirror through which you will see,

True friends, they make you see yourself through their eyes.

True friends support your positive plans,

They plug holes in your ideas, to make them better.

True friends wish you nothing, but the best,

True friends are better than your siblings at times.

True friends form a bond unlike unrequited love,

True friends are never an endangered species.

True friends engender compassion,

True friends will not bother with your celebration

Of success as much as how to make you successful.

True friends are the embodiment of things great.

True friends do not despise you or envy you,

True friends ask how they can be like you

True friends want you to emulate their blueprint

True friends want you up.

True friends, oh true friends!

What a joy,true friends.

I shall sing the song of peace,

For you my true friends.

True friends, I shall wallow in the sea of sultry tunes,

True friends, I stand for you have stood with me.

True friends,I watch as you come and go,

True friends, you compliment me.

To you my friends who are yet to be friends,

The world needs more true friends,

The world is full of lies,true friends

With you true friends, this is a better world!

SO DO I!

As the rain falls,so do my tears.

As the ground gets wet,so do I.

As the mud forms,so do I.

As the tree branches swirl, so do I.

As the wind blows, so do I,

As the sand spreads, so do I.

As the seas are calm, so am I,

As the forests are luscious, so am I.

As the heat warms, So do I,

As the cold bites,so do I.

As the pollen rises,so do I,

As the flowers bloom,so do I.

As the mist settles, so do I,

As the river runs, so do I.

As the waterfalls drop, so do I,

As the river runs dry, so do I.

As the moon shines, so do I,

As the stars twinkle, so do I.

As the moon takes of the sun,so do I,

As the stars shine on you, so do I!

LOVE

As a river flows,so does love flow,

As a flower blooms, so does love bloom.

As drought brings withering flowers,

So does a love not watered.

As a rock is strong,

So solid, is love.

As the wind blows,

So does the love of your life move you.

As patience is profound,

So does love,as a virtue.

As the flora is flaunted,

So is love never hidden.

As one is betrothed to another,

So does love pave the way.

As the animals hunt,

So is love sought.

As life is lived,

So should love be inculcated.

As the morning is misty,

So fresh should love seem.

FRIENDS.

I did not know I had friends,

Until somebody had to stop traffic for me.

I did not know I had friends until somebody

had to watch the road for me.

I did not know I had friends, until somebody had to give up their pleasure,for my comfort.

I did not know I had friends,

Until somebody had to miss a day's work

because I had a hospital appointment.

I did not know I had friends

Until I fell ill and could not support myself.

I did not know I had friends,

Until somebody had to loose something.
so that I could gain.

I did not know I had friends,

Until somebody said they loved me to make me feel better.

I did not know I had friends until I became so sick.

I did not know that anybody cared

Until I could not care for myself.

I did not know I had neighbours,

Until I needed to know.

I did not know God existed

Until I became so desperate.

I did not know I was so human

Until somebody made me feel less human.

I did not know anything,

Until somebody said I knew.

Now I know something,

That I never knew anything.

Until I was accused of knowing something,
Something I still know not!

I AM IN THE LOVE LANE.
My mother, like most, was a wonderful woman.
She bequeathed me great morals, but her love for me was extreme.
She showed me what it takes by her actions.
As a respected member of her community, she sat on all the Boards of Governors in my locality.
She was a morally upright woman.
A woman of stature.
Never grandstanding(no chocha).
A woman like others. She made sense when she had to opine.
She was an entrepreneur.
She was selfless.
Since I could comprehend,
We lived with relatives and relatives of friends.
Through her lifetime she made great strides.
She chose her friends wisely.
They were very similar.
My younger brother and I lived with some when she went back to college,
She was keen on education.
She paid through the nose as a widow.
She was ably supported by great relatives.
My uncle at my father's burial lightened the load.
He chose to pay my tuition fees.
He did this without failing.
He even started buying me uniforms, the type my mum would never have afforded.
I was accorded the pleasure of switching from one school to the then Kakamega High School.
This was my dad's doing. He had formed great relationships with others in the know.
He passed on in 1992 while I was in form two.
I remember the man with effusive nostalgia.
He did not have much to say.
If he had to express himself, it was love or discipline.
He was unencumbered by life's intricacies.
Whenever he came back home from slogging it out,
We all got on our toes.
One had to take stock of what had been done right or wrong.
Getting in his intermittent and temporary black book would accord you some lashings.
I remember an occasion on a Saturday like this, when he called the three boys back from our usual sojourns in the neighbourhood.
The man had taken note of our disorganised room.
My late elder brother, went in first. I followed and the other love of my life, that intelligent Rastaman of a brother I have, last.
Within moments of entry into the mess of a room, he asked us what was wrong with the room.
What a rhetorical question that was.
Upon that direction and with no detection of a cane,
We embarked on putting the room in order.
No sooner had we commenced than the gent, swiftly lashed my elder brother who wailed instantly like a boy hit by a bolt of lightning.
Upon the profane act of pain infliction, my brother and I scampered together for the door.
He was quicker, yet having been a coward I beat him to it.
I opened the door in haste and took off at the speed of a fighter jet.
With him in tow, we ran into the bright sunlight and into my uncle's homestead.
My mother shall always remain the essence of my life.
She has been gone since 2003 but in me her spirit of love burns fiercely. It's an ember that I pass on at any given opportunity.
She made me the man I am, a feminist to boot.
Her love taught me how wonderful women are.
Never having been hit by her lover aka her husband,
I learnt to never hit a woman.
I only ever hit a girl in primary school. I have been apologising for decades since the awful act. She forgive me.
My mother did her best for us as family.
She was my first love, a philanthropist extra ordinaire.
She put her all in everything she did.
She always stated that a chore must be done properly.
Yes, she was a perfectionist.
If you couldn't do it properly, she would tell you off.
"If you did not want to do it you should not have bothered" was her mantra.
I loved that woman as I still do to date.
I am lucky that her sister was raised in the same mould.
Wonderful sisters, even the third one.
My matriarchal uncles are so cool and calm, albeit strict.
Their children, such loving and wonderful souls.
Life has accorded me a lot.
On this occasion when I dedicate this to the one irreplaceable woman, I dedicate this to my sisters Sylvia, Milly and Linda.
We truly had a gem of a mother. We are who we are for her.
To the mothers who are like the one I loved so deeply, keep it up.
To those girls aspiring to mother, I hope you can emulate what my mother was and in my heart still remains.
To the boys, your mother is your first love. Those who still have theirs cherish them.
SPOIL YOUR MOTHER THIS SATURDAY!

LOVE
Love is like a wild flower,
It grows anywhere.
In the harshest weather,
It survives.
In optimum conditions,
It thrives.

Love is like the sun,
It lights the heart.
In the heat of love,
The rays can burn the heart.
As the sun provides for the moon,
So does love nourish the soul.

Love is like a forest,
With compassion,tenderness,peaceable,
Compromising,jealous, longing,
Caring,Defending,sensitive, triumphant.
Just like a myriad flora and fauna,
Love presenukibdts in numerous facets.

Love is like a river,
Calmly and wildly flowing.
Just like a river reacts to the weather,
So does love react according to its reception.
With waterfalls in some places,
In others utter calm.

Love is wild yet often tamed.
Love is all encompassing.
Love is enduring.
In good and bad times,
Love is a shining light.
Love is a fire that ceaselessly burns.
With love all dreams are made real.

I dedicate this to all the lovers out there.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

On this day, Friday 08/07/2016, I stand in solidarity with the course of being right by virtue of my skin colour. I, along with many others and the families of the murdered four feel a grave injustice and sorrow at their passing at the hands of the convoluted criminals.

I am on this day utterly irate at a system that judges a man only by colour. Being black is neither a disease nor a disability. Nobody chooses the colour they are born with. African Americans have suffered under the hands of these nefarious criminals called the police.

For how long will black human beings be treated as second rate and second class? First it was slavery, and with it came a thuggery that has never left the black psyche. Mired into the doldrums of mental stifle. Permanently enslaved.

A black man in this world works twice as hard to get the same chances and opportunities another race is accorded as a matter of course.

I am on this day pacified by the actions of Caucasians,those who walk side by side with their black friends, neighbours and all other monikers you can Christen. I am just glad, that though the system is festered,festooned and saddled with institutionalised racism, not all who are not black deem it fit or fair.

Every human life matters. Nobody has the right to neuter another's life. Not even the white racist American police. They have a legal system which should address criminality and not lethal force where it's uncalled for. When you carry weapons, expect weapons to be used against you. In the case of the supremacist Police forces of the great Uncle Sam, their weapon is discrimination. To be black is deemed a crime in the USA. It has been the case from the advent of slavery. It continues unabated.

Martin Luther King would have been unimpressed by having a black President and slavery continues. Malcolm X would have had a field day,albeit of mourning.Rosa Parks and Ralph Abernathy cringe in their graves at a sniper who uses deadly force against evil that you can't take down by lethal force.

The forces of the grand and the great, need to educate eruditely the general character flaws of wanton disregard and injustice. Most imperative, the African American elites need to roll out a plan of enlightening the masses, at the fore, the state of policing.

Americans need to divorce their dalliance with violence and the notion that gun ownership for all and sundry creates safety,it's delusional!

When a black life is muted to the violence of officialdom that smacks of specious intonations, we as a human race lose something. We erode our ability to feel what pain others feel when we keep shooting at will and blaming it on the colour of your perceived adversary.

It takes a lot of planning and intent for a man to rise with intent to mow down another through a lens. We must all sit at the table of humanity. We must all be #Philando. We must all become black and look at life through the prism of being black.

I do not condone violence but so long as our love for each is superseded by our judgement based on the colour of a man's eyes and not the content of his character, (Martin Luther King) we shall forever flirt with our obsessive compulsion to defend the indefensible.

There has never been a better time for the African American leaders to stand up and do more dialogue. There has never been a better opportunity to show some love and respect for another, only on this occasion, just because they don't belong to your race. There has never been a time when level headed police leaders need to issue orders to back down from the killing. It's time to stop the carnage. The police have no RIGHT to take the lives of others, blacks or whites. Let that be served by the Justice department.There has never been a better time than now.

NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE TO REIGN.

I dedicate this to all those who have lost loved ones in the struggle to be accorded the same rights and opportunities. It's my prayer that we shall learn to love one another and not feel threatened by our differences. GOD BLESS AMERICA, GOD BLESS THE WORLD, GOD BLESS HUMANITY.

WONDERFUL WOMAN

You are the essence of existence,
Without you, there is no patience or existence,
Created as a masterpiece, you are a marvel of nature,
Without you there can be no man.

You are wonderfully sculpted,
Your curvy physique, the embodiment of lustre,
Illustriously gifted, you lure man,
Your allure spellbinding.

You are breath taking, men brake at your sight,
With eyes, icy testosterone you break,
Seeing through the specious deviousness,
With confidence you devise.

With you, a man is more special,
Without you, most are empty species,
With you, creativity ensues,
With your love , peace ensues.

Delicate and delectable, like a fresh flower,
In the morning dew, you dazzle,
Dizzy, do you leave most,
With your scent, fresh as an aromatic perfume.

You are the rock upon which hope is built,
Though at times pained,
You pen the story of man.
Whenever there are pangs, your plans subsist.

As a mother, you nurture man and child,
Without you, this world, a man's,
would be nothing,
With you, darkness turns into sunlight.

Exquisite, emotional, sensational, sensual,
With empathy, you carry on,
When rest beckons,
You reckon, being all that, you can move on.

In a man's world, you are a joy,
Without you, the world would be a ploy,
With you, the world is a rock,
Without you, it would be a wreck,

Woman, quintessentially sultry,
The salacious are sundry,
Without you, there would be a void.
Woman, you are the essence of existence!

I dedicate this to all the women. I support the cause of women empowerment in all its forms!

WOMEN CAN AND SHOULD DO BETTER

Sometimes I read and observe women lament about the unfair treatment that society and especially men mete out to them with a snigger and utter disdain with what I would allege to be good reason.
Women as a percentage outnumber men. This translates into first and foremost votes should we choose to look at electoral office. If women were to take the mantle and elect their own, this would mean that all over the world we would not need positive discrimination to empower women as If they are a marginalised group. We would in essence have more Angela Merkels, Gloria Aroyos and Imelda Marcoses. In fact this would in effect curtail these testosterone fueled wars that we have on this earth.  The problem  seems to be the apathy with which they regard their very own sisters.
Women seem hell bent on sabotaging each other rather than elevating each to higher echelons of society be it in business or other sectors of society. With more of them in political office, they would then enact laws that ensure more of them take up leadership positions not just by virtue of greater numbers but their ability to lead which needless to say is no less than men's.
Feminism has in a way become too militant and deviated from empowerment and sort of devolved into antagonistic madness which at times has targeted their very own, instead of uplifting them. Women should empower each other to be greater rather than be lectured to by those who have achieved certain status in society which come with higher financial rewards and respect from across the board but negated by lack of a grand plan to positively influence the cause of women leadership.
Women in the UK for instance are routinely paid less than their male counterparts in the same roles. The issue has festered for generations and no solutions have been forthcoming, albeit mooted. There are advances promulgated towards ending this malpractice but we are yet to reach that nirvana of equal pay.
From time immemorial we have had strong women, the likes of Nefertiti and others who charted the course of society and history in general by their mercurial leadership and oratory. Women can and should emulate these and others who were able to lead patriarchal societies. There are numerous excuses for inability and lack thereof of leaders female. Not many stand out as reason, when exhaustively examined. The root cause can be easily subverted If their course can be changed to that of valuing each other , rather than taking on their usual cat like tendencies and clawing at those deemed capable and instead supporting them to purvey this cause which to me is a misnomer and seems like inverted snobbery in terms of sex.(The lack of aforesaid).
Looking at Kenya there are very few women in positions of power who can influence society. It's great to see some who can doing their best to empower the girl child. With more of these new generation trickling through institutions of higher learning and empowered to dream I see a day when there will be more of these ladies occupying their rightful place in leadership. This in so many ways will create a more amicable and peaceful world. Due to the nurturing nature of women this will simply purvey into greater social discourse and a better world for us all.
It's my humble submission that should women believe and be daring enough, without instigating negative and demeaning attitudes towards each other, they would  easily eclipse men to positions of power in whatever sphere of life they choose. It's not up to men to help women curtail themselves of this vicissitude to achieve  this lofty ambition. Women can and should be able to map out a golden path to attaining this that I could call a special project which I passionately believe in.  With a bit of sisterly love, cooperation, careful coordination and strategic planning this is quite attainable once the negative attitudes and stereotypes have been alleviated and ameliorated as should be the case.

I dedicate this article to all those aspiring ladies who think they have it and are willing to get to the apex of life while uplifting each other by being upstanding members of their societies wherever they may be.

LETTER TO MY MOTHER

Love is the most wonderful of virtues! To be loved or love is like Utopian reality. Every man thinks his mother is the best. Real or imagined, mothers form the greatest link to what a man becomes in life, just as a father is likely to positively influence his daughter.
This I say, for in part I read -She's the incarnation of nature, that which is within us which can not be without, for it stays with us from the commencement of life to the time we go back to whither we came! There is an African proverb that states that a man who has never eaten food apart from that cooked by his mother, thinks she is the best cook! ha ha ha, fathom that!
The ululations upon which I can heap on my very own are extensive, exhaustive and rather sentimental, but then again I am just a man. Lucky are those of us who have been around the block long enough to know that we hold our own in stratospheric regard yet they could be the worst of parents. A mother's love supersedes every other. More so If it's pure, but then again is there any mothers without a pure love for their children?
As this is personal yet dedicated to the one I loved albeit absent to read this or be told of it, her love shall forever burn within me. It shall and remains the greatest weapon she bequeathed me,to fight for what I believe in, and against the ills of society; wherever that society might be. She taught me to love myself first and foremost. It's that red ember that lights up my path everyday even when amber comes on. For If I fail in everything else,love keeps me trudging on like a rock hurtling downhill! Love is unstoppable, can't be hidden, it flummoxes, it's a challenge, it's a mirage, a figment of the imagination.
Yet after all has been said and done, it's the only virtue that allows others to flourish It's through the streams of love that peace can be ploughed and irrigated. Love knows no boundaries, no borders, no rules, it just exists. It's Godly, it's everywhere. When all else fails, love takes over, It's the El Capitan of all things necessary and positive. For love we fight, for it we save life, It's only in love as in dreams that everything is possible. Even though we are inherently evil, love can delete that file of cruelty.
Mine was loved by her society. She was intelligent, affable, caring, responsible but most imperative, she gave back to society more than that society ever accorded her. She got what she deserved, respect and honour for being an outstanding and upstanding member of her community. It's that forthrightness and her willingness to follow the common diktats of decency, decorum, and doing for others what you wish upon thyself that I hope to emulate.
Each and everyday I appreciate and love the lessons. I remember with nostalgia, the one rather favourite lesson. It goes thus-If you didn't want to do it you should not have. That always followed on tasks completed in mediocrity of which normally riled her set high standards. She introduced to me the concept of guilt. That you are guilty until charged as being guilty. I say that in jest, she had no cruel bone in her physiology.
I would go on forever about my mother! It would make little sense and as I do detest to bore with long missives without the adequate epithets.
 Let me sign off by saying to all those who will read this, whose mothers are still around, TREAT THEM RIGHT. LOOK AFTER THEM IN OLD AGE( OR ONCE YOU ARE EARNING EVEN IF SHE STILL EARNS TOO). THEY ARE DIAMONDS,ALREADY REFINED. MOST IMPORTANTLY LOVE THEM BACK BY DOING RIGHT BY THEM.

I would like to dedicate this message to all mothers for this forthcoming Mother's day! And those who would like to be! Be the diamond that this world needs, Light it up, Teach it whether it reciprocates or not should never be the issue. GOD BLESS ALL MOTHERS AN WOMEN IN GENERAL AS EVERY WOMAN IS A POTENTIAL MOTHER NATURE CONCURRING!