MAL55:23 | Page 53

It has become customary to lump all issues pertaining to employee productivity and work culture on a generalized global model that addresses the emerging challenges of working styles and expectations of Millennials and Generation Z .

There is however a nagging undercurrent in this country that the prescribed panacea of how to deal with the new global citizen who is primarily also a digital netizen , is not working and things are generally falling apart , to paraphrase Achebe , as the center can no longer hold .

The following narratives have been selected to illustrate a host of problems that have become typical in Kenya . You read about these occurrences in the media and they are a topic of discussion in practically all middle class and affluent social settings .

The events narrated are real but where applicable names and settings have been changed to protect the privacy of the principles . The events are also narrated in the present tense as a literal license although the events took place in the past .

Scenario One

There were twenty-seven missed calls from two of my cousins when I eventually looked at my phone at eight in the morning , as is my habit . I usually put my phone on silent and leave it in the living room when I am going to bed .

That many missed calls from relatives usually spells trouble and I noticed that they had been trying to reach me from about three in the morning . Before I could get myself organized to return one of the calls a third cousin called .

After the usual customary greeting and noting that we haven ’ t spoken for a while she asked me if I was aware that Jim , our nephew , had committed suicide . Not the type of information that you want to have for breakfast but no , I had not heard .

When I enquired about the details , she did not have much but I realized that was the reason for all those night calls . I couldn ’ t but wonder exactly why they wanted me to know about my nephew ’ s demise at three in morning since there was no immediate action required .

There seems to be a morbid need in the African social settings to spread bad news as quickly as possible even when as in this case the news is tragic . I am sure as soon

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A more insidious current development is that the now successful girl is finding it hard to associate with a timid and rudderless boy and she is now finding it easier to find the type of man she admires in her father ’ s age group .

as she put down my phone , she would be calling another relative to deliver the same message .

I remembered that three years had not yet passed since the young man graduated and as he was one of my favorite nephews , I had asked why I had not been invited to the ceremony and was informed that due to the large number of graduands , invitations were limited .

I also did not get to go to his graduation party as I was informed that the party was mainly for his agemates and the mother told me that I wouldn ’ t have wanted to go anyway as the young men ’ s parties could get quite wild .

I was informed that on that day ’ s agenda there would be a brief lunch for the yearmates who had decided to combine their celebrations and have just one cake cutting ceremony for all of them as a class then they would paint the town red .

In retrospect that statements should have been a red flag , and especially because the information was being relayed to me by the mother not the sister . Since we all get carried away by what keeps us busy daily , the issue was mentally filed and forgotten .

Although I had used the term , favorite , suddenly it hit me that I had not seen the young man for nearly two years . Yes , we had spoken on the phone a couple of times mainly about introduction to people he wanted to meet that he knew I knew .

There was really very little that I could do with the sad news and so I decided I was not calling my cousin but would make my way to her house in that afternoon to mainly begin the burial process since that is one ceremony one is never invited to . He was twenty-six

Scenario Two

I got a call from an old school mate who worked in the industrial area asking for a favor . His son , twenty-three years old , had apparently been admitted to a hospital suffering from depression and had disappeared from the hospital four days earlier .

He had just received a call from the parliament police post , who told him that there was an unidentified young man who was being held in their cell who had written down a number for them to call but was not cooperating or speaking .

Since my office was on Harambee avenue , near the police post , he wanted me to walk over and check if it was indeed his son since I knew him . I readily agreed and walked over to the police post to verify and then call him back .

I had forgotten how unhelpful official bureaucracy can be in Kenya since when I got to the report desk at the post and began to explain my mission , I soon felt as though I was a prime suspect in a serious crime that I was reporting myself to have committed .

The stone-faced police constable who did not bother to stop writing whatever he was writing when I arrived was cross examining me as though I had been arrested and he was booking me on a holding charge .

The police officer wanted to know what my complain was and didn ’ t seem to understand that I did not have a complaint but an enquiry . He drew a line after finishing what he was writing and wrote the days date and again asked my name and the nature of my complaint .

After realizing that I wasn ’ t making any progress , I excused myself and stepped aside and called my friend asking him to call the number that had called him to pre-introduce me and the reason I had presented myself to the station .

He agreed he would call and after about five minutes another officer emerged from the back office and asked if I was the person that had been sent to identify a young man and on answering to the affirmative , he asked me to follow him and ushered me into an office .

The police inspector I found in the office