Before I release my picture I must tell you that I have been watching the calender very often after I moved in with Kanini. Ever since the legalisation of all come-we-stay relationships that had lasted for at least 6 months as legal marriages, all women here in Maili Kumi have been a nuisance. I have witnessed this and some go to the extent of hosting big ceremonies in the mans house without his consent or awareness to celebrate these “marriages”. This is not my worry, however, but I should anticipate to happen anyway.
I am watching for the date the new president is going to be sworn in because I am not optimistic of surviving long enough after this process. Here in Maili Kumi there was a big misunderstanding about the Biometric Voter Registration process and most of the people were skeptic on registering to be a voter in this entirely new process.
“We are not fools anymore the government is trying to track us and watch our lives” baba Marlon said in the bar.
“This president Kibaki is taking our DNA, blood type, eye, where we are going to be born and where we are going to die….I do not like this at all and I am not going to be bought” retorted my friend Banda.
“The electoral commission is going to use computers to save this information then the new constitution will protect us if this privacy is infringed and used without our will” Anyago, the attendant, said when Banda ordered for more beer for me. She is a very knowledgeable girl who came form the city to visit her parents, owners of the bar.
Logically, it would have been very shameful and threatening to my status if she would have continued. I am the only person who has the most education in computers in Maili Kumi so everyone waited for me to say something.
“It is false we are our own defense. I have used a lot of computer software in my life like mother board, toshiba, keyboard, password, Microsoft word and antivirus and all of them made people to be manipulated, we shall not allow this here.” I immediately made my firm contribution and everyone cheered me as I gasped to my last breath.
I am glad to be the last resort for the people in Maili Kumi but this time it was different. My wife Kanini lead a different crew to go to register and this was against everything that we had agreed as men in the bar. I had gone to the bar with Banda around 9am not but found nobody there. We made sure we had passed through Kibogoyo market in Maili Kumi.
On the morning of registration the electoral officer send me a text saying that I was needed to come and assist with the laptops because they could not come on. I wondered even whether there were people there to register but I bought a drink for Banda and left. When I got there I found long lines of villagers waiting to register and in front on the line was Kanini. She had mobilised them I later learned. The problem was that the officers had not connected the power source to the computers, this had caused a delay. I helped them do it, then they realised they had forgotten their passwords. I had to call electoral commission offices in Nairobi, to assist with the password. I also had to assist with the registration to all of the illiterate voters, of which there were many.
Even though I was angry at Kanini, I was more angry at Issac Hassan, the chairman, for employing workers who could not even put on a computer and did not know how to use google to register the voters. I went home to my root soup because I had also given off my information to the government and I needed to relax and enjoy life while it lasts.
Kisongo
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