Prayer for the Nation

Let us pray,

Dear Lord, as we mourn the departed leaders and rejoice at the onset of the dry season, I pray for your guidance and wisdom.

I bring before thee politicians who are known for their wickedness to stop their sinning ways and seek your redemption.

 What I have in mind are not small cheats who falsify mileage claims, but those who routinely gang up foreigners to plunder this land.

There are scandals as tall as Mt. Kenya, the holy shrine on which you dwelt before we cut down the trees, and many more are still being hatched in white-washed board-rooms.

In this regard I pray that, as we approach next year’s General Election, you will give them wisdom to understand that they don’t understand your son’s gift- the sort that helped him multiply loaves, fish and wine.

So when our politicians want to multiply paper money, and distribute it in sacks, may you curse them and unleash on them the curse of devalued currency that will haunt them and their children after them.

There are those who tell lies every day, and if their spouses are to be believed, even lie in their sleep. For such characters, may the deceit lure of sleep deliver them closer to the fireside till their bellies touch the flames.

Lord, there are many things that have gone wrong in this land, but there are equally many things that are going right.

You have revealed unto us, for instance, that it is wrong to fight over fruit. So when politicians brought oranges and bananas, people devoured them and smiled. But there are many others still fighting over water and pasture.

Some do it to provoke others, like in the Tana Delta, but then there are those in genuine thirst of you. For you say in your holy book that you are the fountain of the water of knowledge.

Dear lord, let that knowledge trickle down to us, that we may know you and learn to value fellow human beings, who you created in your own image.

There are those who say we deserve the leadership that we elect. But i also know that many have ascended to power through deceit, by pretending by pretending to deliver the children from the wilderness to the Promised Land.

Many others come and display their distended bellies, but fail to reveal the source of their wellness- if one can call it so- for their bellies are stuffed with public funds.

When the election period comes, Lord, help us separate the wheat from the chaff, and get to see through the aspirants lies.

And when electing new leaders, make them understand that driving those monsters that guzzle oil like the air we breathe will not drive our problems away.

My heart is heavy with grief when I think of the hardships I have seen in our midst, as widows and orphans struggle to make ends meet.

We used to think that once the struggle for freedom ended, no Kenyan would suffer from want. But the multitudes of children in the streets, and those who suffer cruelty in the privacy of their homes, are too many for our comfort.

But you also teach us to remember to count our blessings. We are blessed to have our country, with all its imperfections.

About those people who risk life and limb to protect your children, may you embolden them even more. And give them extra valour to pluck from their midst the oil-sniffing policeman.

We used to think only street boys had an appetite for ngata, but now we know that fully grown, uniformed officers also do. They like a bit of petrol on the nose.

For, we pray this trusting in your holy name.