If I committed a crime on the eve of my birthday. The news would report that a boy, aged 17, committed the crime and I would be tried as a juvenile. But if I committed the same crime on my 18th birthday, the news would report that an 18 year old MAN committed the crime and would be tried as an adult, a man.

But soon after my 18th birthday, I was horrified to note that there was a group of people who insisted on calling me a youth while addressing the nation. I was told that I am not a man yet until I reached the official age of 45 even though everything else about me and how I was supposed to interact with society was unmistakably man. I was a youth in Parliament and State House but a man in the Supreme Court. You could say I was unequal in these supposedly equal branches of our government where judges goes unconfirmed for two helpless years. My prospects as a man was that of a youth but my punishment as a youth was that of a man. I mean, I could live in curtain divided room with my family of four in a police post but expected go to Kamiti prison as man if I was on the other side of the law.

But it’s stop today! Today, I will regain my status as MAN and I am not going to need anyone’s permission! According to Kenya Bueareu of Statistics, Kenyans aged 15-64 constitutes 57% of the population. Those below 15 years of age form 40% while those above 65 years just 4% of Kenya. So, Men form the largest portion of this nation. The men who have ‘wo’ infront of them aka women are not exempted here. They too are men!

To cluster people between 15-45 years of age into a single general category called youth is symptomatic of a deeper and dire problem. It’s propagated by those in elective and selective positions and celebrated by those who should be embarrassed by it. Those in leadership positions uses the term to refer to a group of helpless people who need mercy and compassion. It makes the leader therefore a representative of beggars and thus uses this to justify the exorbitant salary and perks to share with his begging constituents called the YOUTH.

In the just past National Prayer Breakfast, a Senator complained that unlike his counterpart in the National Assembly, he has to help the sick in his constituency from his personal pocket. That in way way to suggest that Senators need a mercy purse too to help the helpless. In the use of the term YOUTH in this manner, the politician propagates the sense of helplessness to what should be the most productive portion of society because this helplessness butters his bread. These are his employer but helpless employers. His livelihood is dependent on their sense of helplessness. How pathetic!

On the other hand, the grown men who refer themselves as youths exhibit a victim’s mindset. They need the mercy and compassion of the grown ups. Someone to make their bed in the morning when they wake up. Someone to open their drainages that threaten their own lives with malaria, typhoid and cholera but need a simple spade to unclogg. Someone to plant grass and trees in their neighborhoods to stop dust borne infectious diseases that kill their children daily. Someone to untangle traffic jam that was started by 100 grown men adorned in office attire trying occupy the same space at the same time.

These are victims who are men but proud to be titled, youths aka mbeu njíthí. Youth is their noble title and they eagerly fight to keep it. To keep their helplessness that afford then bread cramps every 5 years.

They do not see the fact that they have solutions to all our problems within and among themselves. That solutions beckon daily from their own FIVE FINGERS. They don’t realize that they can decide that the oldest member of the next Parliament is going to be 25 to reflect the nation and no one can change it, period! They don’t realize that they determine who lead them. They always have but in their grafted helplessness they have been swindled by blind men who walk infront of them as leaders. Leaders of the self-inflicted beggarly and grafted helplessness. As I say in a song in my first tongue, simply BURURI MWONJU!!!

Don’t get me wrong. I am sympathetic and emphathetic to the plight of those with disabilities among us. In fact, we should redouble our efforts to meet their needs. But to group Women, Youth and the Disabled in the same category speaks volume. Those that represents the disabled Kenyans should be the first to reject these hijackers. Seekers of empathy, consideration and inclusion where none is needed whatsoever! Those that have prerogative to include (vote) should not seek to be included if they misVote.

Even though women have been disadvantaged in the past, they can still access preferential access to private and public funds and opportunities to level pockets without debasing them. Besides, there has been affirmative action that has almost leveled the playing field. Consider this, Women activism in legal spheres is what has given us the three most powerful people in the Judiciary who are all women and not affirmative action. Martha Koome, The Chief Justice and The President of the Supreme Court of Kenya is not a product of affirmative action, begging or mercy but sheer hardwork, self-determination, effective activism and leadership. But men are begging for mercy to get there.

Likewise, Wangari Maathai didn’t keep the desert away from Kenya because of Moi’s benevolence but in spite of the ruthlessness of the clueless dictator who told the nation that rain comes from the skys not trees. She was one of many women who provided practical solutions to decent housing in rural Kenya, balanced nutrition and reforestation to wade off the desert, all encapsulated in trees. I am sure she would have been the first to reject the categorization of women among the disabled. Again, no offense to the disabled Kenyans and everywhere but to state the misuse of the terminology to defraud an entire nation by a small group of puppeteers.

The men between 18- 45 hidding behind this demeaning label must reclaim their dignity. The men between 18-45 who form the largest portion of men in this nation must step in confidently into their rightful name. In a figure of speech, if you call a lion a hyena long enough it starts scavenging like a hyena. These are lions lost in scavenging and must summon themselves to hunting again!

These are they who clogg our streets with shameful aggression with 8 year olds shaking their heads in the back seat in disbelief, they must keep to their lane. These are they who import everything with endless containers rendering their OWN children hopelessly jobless, they must produce it here in Kenya with masters’ skills. These are they who only teach our children to pass void exams, they must make men who make men and things men use. These are they who complain about problems around them while sitting on their FIVE FINGERS, they must make toothpicks and toilet paper from their many trees. These are they with wings but walk the back street in despair, they must fly like eagles. These are lions who walk around with tails between their legs, they must defend their prides. These are leaders dethroned by the blind and the clueless, they must ascend to rulerships. These are MEN! not mere youths! Simply, I am, Man!