LAST WORD
On The Other Pandemic
Ochieng was alarmed to see his
favorite aunt leave their home
in tears and wondered what
misfortune could have landed that had
made his otherwise jolly aunt so morose.
He trailed her for a while gathering courage
to approach her and enquire into the nature
of the misery.
But soon they were already at her house
since she did not live far from them and
when her aunt noticed him she called for
him to go inside as she prepared tea as was
the norm when one had visitors but which
was surprising since young relatives are
never accorded ‘visitor’ status.
Ochieng was nevertheless excited since
he knew that his aunt always had tasty
homemade biscuits that he was sure she was
going to serve. He perched on his favorite
stool and waited expectantly for the tea to
be ready.
Ochieng’s aunt then regarded him pensively
and told him that what she was about to
share with him was a matter of life and
death and that Ochieng should carefully
consider what she was about to tell him and
share it with his family.
That already was odd since the normal
channel of communication in all matters
to do with the family would be through
his father who was also his aunt’s elder
brother. Now Ochieng was all ears as
he waited to be let into the important
message that his aunt had.
The date was September 1977 and
according to Ochieng’s aunt the pastor at
her church had received a revelation direct
from god that the world was ending by
December that year. The said pastor had
already caused a scandal in the village after
breaking away from the main church.
The splinter church was definitely growing
in popularity judging by the number of
adherents who all wore white garments
to signify their purity and as the number
grew so did the schism in families as their
new doctrine pitted the new aggressive
followers against established order.
Ochieng could not see any reason to make
one cry about the world ending and he said
as much to his aunt who corrected him by
insisting that God was going to only pick
his chosen ones to heaven and the rest of
the people would go to eternal damnation.
He was then informed that the only way
to prepare for heaven was to attend her
It never ceases to amaze Ochieng that
Kenya is full of miracle churches where
adoring congregants are hoodwinked every
day to fund a luxurious lifestyle for
their fake deliverance messages. Why
don’t we see any of them stationed at
Mbagathi Hospital to cure the sick?
church and to get white garments so
that god would not have a difficult time
identifying his own. Again this seemed
reasonable enough for a young mind.
Confusion set in when he went back
home and requested his father to buy
him a white shirt and he flew into a
temper berating him for stupidity and
listening to silly end time stories from
his aunt. He also pointed out irritably
that her own husband was not dressed
in white.
Ochieng was forbidden to visit his aunt
again but that did not stop him noticing
that a lot more villagers were wearing
white and that they spent more and
more time in their tabernacle, as they
called their place of worship.
Torn between his love for his aunt and
the fear of his father Ochieng took to
carrying a white handkerchief as a sort
of insurance since Ochieng rather liked
the idea of going to heaven, whatever it
is that they did there and since his aunt
was determined to get there.
Ochieng remembers that December 31st
of that year was a Saturday and that day
when going to bed he actually wore a
white shirt and took the extra precaution
of taking a bible which he put under his
bed to help god identify the person he
was looking for and went to bed.
January 1st 1978 came and went and
the lord did not come, in fact nothing of
importance seems to have happened that
year except that the lord later decided to
come for the president, which seemed
a wise choice since he represented all
Kenyans.
Ochieng was later in life to realize
that he had unwittingly been a gullible
swallower of fake news, a word that was to
be popularized and used to great effect by
president Trump who history will surely
remember as the greatest proponent of
fake news and misinformation.
Over the years Ochieng has wondered
on what kind of mental derangement
makes a person a purveyor of fake news
and why this type of deception has been
so successful as it appeals to a person at
the emotional level where all rational
thinking is suspended.
Ochieng likes to call fake news gossip
on steroids since people seem more
interested in a world of make-believe
to avoid confronting the real issues that
face them daily or better still to find an
explanation to the daily grind especially
where one can easily find someone or
something to blame.
Religious institutions have remained the
most active disseminators of fake news
and even in the current corona era you
hear many claim to have had a revelation
that God was angry with the world
because of our milliard sins and has sent
this pestilence to punish the world.
The cure is always the same that people
need to turn to God in supplication and
repent of their sins and he will save the
world which seems to have a penchant of
re-sinning once the scourge of the day is
absent and people go back to business as
usual.
It never ceases to amaze Ochieng that
Kenya is full of miracle churches where
adoring congregants are hoodwinked
every day to fund a luxurious lifestyle for
their fake deliverance messages. Why don’t
we see any of them stationed at Mbagathi
Hospital to cure the sick?
But be sure that when this virus is under
control, and it will be, they will tell their
churches how they fasted and prayed for
God to deliver his beloved nation Kenya
and how God explained to them exactly
what his followers need to do to stay safe
in future and secure their first class tickets
to heaven.
The politician has always been the expert
user of fake news and there is a sanitized
word for their fake news called propaganda
which usually comes in well-crafted
documents called manifestos which are
just a pack of lies designed to propel a
politician to power.
The politician has refined the art of mass
manipulation that the current world is
led by demagogues who attained power
through detestable appeal to public
frustration and fears that they create in
the first place and then pose as the solvers.
Trump in America has managed to use
under currents of bigotry and racist
sentiments to whip up a diehard following
under the banner of making America great
again. Racial tensions have never been this
high since the early sixties.
What makes Trump special is that he is
the master generator of fake news but
has managed to deflect the blame onto
the media who are constantly labeled as
fake news carriers whenever the media
disagrees with his opinion on any issue.
Trump is such a demagogue yet his hair
brained schemes that are plain stupid and
impractical like his wall along the Mexican
border is still strongly supported by right
thinking Americans who seem to be in a
stupor under a Trump spell.
His counterpart in the UK has led his
country out of Europe in a move that
lacks logic and practicality on a platform
of misguided nationalism and personal
egos but mainly by well-crafted fake
news that has made the Briton become a
Eurosceptic.
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