LAST WORD
On Misplaced Loyalty
Ochieng was savoring the memory
of that glorious year in high school when he had captained the school ’ s soccer team to victory at the provincial soccer tournament . It was a nail biting final where they managed to pip the tournament ’ s favorite team .
In those days the school ’ s honor and reputation was determined by exploits of twenty two players who represented each school ’ s select first eleven . These warriors were the face of the school and on their young shoulders hang the pride of the school .
That Ochieng ended up as his school ’ s soccer captain is one of those interesting twists of fate because in the same class with him was a much more gifted and better player who should have transitioned into the captain when the appointments fell due .
His name was Ignatius Owino and he was such a talented player that every time he took possession of the ball the school spectators would howl , ‘ Owino 123 ’ because he had such excellent dribbling skills that he was wont to beat three opponents as the game surged forward .
He was what we currently call a play maker , the whole team got energized the minute the ball got to his feet and the spectators responded in kind and urged him on . He also had a devastating kick and it was no surprise that he was the top scorer .
Off the soccer pitch he was a confident and sociable type and he was immensely popular in school as expected there were tons of juniors who hero worshipped him and all wanted to be like Owino . This role model status elevated the quality of soccer in the whole school .
Then Owino abruptly left school and joined a rival school not far away , a seminary . Ochieng was to later learn that Owino ’ s mother had prevailed on him to change schools as she wished to have one of her sons become a man of the cloth . Apparently she had dedicated him at christening .
Ochieng still thinks to date that the canny fathers at the seminary offered Owino what we would today refer to as a sports scholarship to bolster their lackluster football team and their reputation as the school had failed to pick up since the area was predominantly protestant .
With the clear frontrunner out of the way that is how Ochieng found himself with the honor of captaining his school soccer team and at the finals they were up against Owino ’ s school . The seminary ’ s soccer team had improved tremendously . The father ’ s gambit had paid off .
During that final , a very strange thing happened , every time Owino got the ball , the spectators rose in unison and screamed ‘ Owino 123 ’ led by Ochieng ’ s school . The
America as the leader of the free world has many unwritten roles that it plays in stabilizing the world . But their charlatan president , oblivious of those crucial responsibilities and evidently surprised that he actually won the election by a quirk of American voting system , set out to do political carnage . spectators seem to have forgotten that Owino was now in a rival school and were still spellbound by his skill .
Ochieng ’ s school was cheering against their own school . Ochieng ’ s moment of reckoning had arrived , spectator support , the lifeblood of players had been hijacked by the talent of Owino and his eleven players were now left to their own grit and determination .
That Ochieng ’ s team won by a last minute gasp goal that was to later become a legend in the school was a near miracle , as the team , which was superior to Owino ’ s nearly lost due to frustration and discouragement as the stadium was rooting for only one team . Owino ’ s team .
Ochieng cannot but wonder whether this phenomenon is not just what happened in America where the rise of a non-politician celebrity television personality , so enthralled the American public that they forgot what they were as a nation and got carried away in his toxic rhetoric .
America as the leader of the free world has many unwritten roles that it plays in stabilizing the world . But their charlatan president , oblivious of those crucial responsibilities and evidently surprised that he actually won the election by a quirk of American voting system , set out to do political carnage .
To mention America and Russia in the same positive statement is as strange as githeri for thanksgiving but it actually came to pass . The president was unable to chastise Russia , many claim because they actually helped him rig the elections .
The fact is that although Americans instinctively mistrust Russians they
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