THE TSUNAMI OF THE POOR IS UNSTOPPABLE

              Believers of inventions and creativity affirm that necessity is the mother of all inventions. They seem to advance the philosophy of- challenges come before success. That thoughts of men - progressive thinkings - are anchored on the need to satisfy a certain need.

             On the other hand, the system - through its actions - is equating poverty to criminality. People tend to doubt the ability of a poor man to lift himself out of the dungeons of life's challenges. There is this belief that poor people are less humans and hence should be treated differently. Any progressive move advanced by them is viewed as a “threat to the well being of others". That keeping poor people at bay is the only guarantee of being secured. I find this hollow and devoid of substance. It is a move destined to failure. The tsunami of the poor will rise against the tides of opposers and oppressors. This is why.

             Recently a small click of clever people tacked in a slum in the coastal city of Mombasa came up with an innovative idea of "formalizing" their barter trade. They "invented" what they called bangla pesa as mode of exchange to help members exchange goods and services. This according to them was a "response" to lack of liquid money among members. 

            They discovered that albeit lack of money, members had commodities that everybody needed. A member here had hundred kilos of maize while another there had fifty kilos of beans. Their move was simply meant to bridge the needs of this kind of members. Theirs had nothing to do with creating a parallel currency to rival the national legal tender. It was simply a "bridge" - an innovation of a poor folk trying to lift themselves.

            But the "reward" they received from the government was brutal and painful. They were threatened, arrested and charged in a court of law. Their crime? “Their innovation was undermining the national legal tender”. Nobody thought it better to interrogate the genesis of this noble idea. Neither did the authorities propose an alternative solution to their challenges. They were left on their own to sort out their problems.

           This is a true demonstration of a system that thinks not for its people but rewards creativity through punishments. It is blinded by the darkness of power. It has forgotten that a tsunami of the poor is unstoppable. They have nursed their wounds and injuries for long. Inflicting additional wounds on them won't stop their move to Canaan. It is thus foolhardy to send them to prison for thinking outside the box. You win them by harboring their ideas and rewarding them not by brutality. That is what will stop the tsunami.