Last word
On Absurd Choices
What had started out as a simple disciplinary issue was spiraling out of control and Ochieng as the head of house had to be consulted to determine what at first sight looked like a straight forward issue .
To set this issue in context one has to state from the outset that Ochieng ’ s high school was a catholic institution , run by a brotherhood sect that put religion at the center of all activities and students were expected to demonstrate proper religious rectitude .
The school did however admit students of other denominations who were expected to uphold a similar moral uprightness in line with the catholic ethos and that was the genesis of the issue that now confronted Ochieng .
Eliphanea , was a new form one student and a professed Seventh Day Adventist , and the SDAs observe their Sabbath on
Saturday as opposed to Sunday for the Catholics . On Saturday the SDAs abstain from secular work as it is their day of rest .
The issue was that Saturday mornings was a compound cleaning day for the school and the afternoon was devoted to sports activities neither of which were permissible to the SDA student as it run contrary to his faith .
Eliphanea , even his name was weird , had requested that he carry out his portion of duties on the Sunday and be excused from any sports . Ideally , he would have liked to attend church but since there was none nearby , he requested to study his bible in a classroom .
The prefect , who in a moment of irritation , had reminded the student that he had chosen to join a catholic school and therefore he was expected to follow the school ’ s regulation was met with a surprisingly determined religious
resistance .
The student insisted that he should not be compelled to make a choice against his conscience and he was quite happy to do his share of the work and participate in sports as long as it was not on his Sabbath .
He had dutifully attended morning preclass mass and respectfully listened to catholic liturgy even though he was not Catholic and could not understand why it was difficult for him to be allowed to practice his beliefs in line with his sect .
The fact is that both these sects pray to the same God and they are both identified as Christian but their practices are so different as to make one totally foreign from the other to a degree of creating an incapacitating ritual impasse .
Ochieng realized that the above-described incident paled in comparison with what is happening in that proverbial land of the free and the undisputed leader of the free world - The United States of America .
It is quite apparent that the government of the people , by the people for the people in practice is actually a government of the rich , by the rich , for the rich and it really doesn ’ t matter which clown is supplanted on top since the system is run by cartels .
This country that Kenya likes to emulate is in the throws of an election year and what has been taking place there in the name of democracy , can only be likened to the theater of the absurd at the very best and an abomination at worst .
Although America had championed multiparty democracy across the world , in its own backyard the mythical multiple parties have dwindled to two monolithic parties that have held power since independence .
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