Parting need not be so painful; let’s say bye like we said hello

This week could have been the best of times, but to paraphrase Charles Dickens, it could also turn out to be the worst of times.

As he famously said in the opening of his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, “it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”.

I was reminded of these words on Tuesday when I woke up to find four Saturday Nation columnists had gone with the wind, like the Mama in Emmylou Harris’s song, To Daddy, which was made popular by Dolly Parton’s cover.

It is not every day that a newspaper editor wakes up to this kind of news, though, I must admit, I had gotten wind of it a few days before.

JUSTICE

The news for me, however, was the revelation that they were leaving because they loved the truth more than the rest of us yet we, collectively as a nation, have over time built a society in which it has become possible for each of us to speak their truth to power without fear of retribution.

Together, we share in the undying hope that even when there is retribution, we are each other’s minders.

Where everything else has failed, we have held steadfast faith in the recourse to justice even if the wheels of justice have not turned fast enough for us.

We hold this truth to be self-evident even when, as has happened in the case of Miguna Miguna this week, the government of the day has yanked the rims from those wheels with abandon, leaving us stuck in the rut of national despair.

DEMOCRACY
Still, the wheels of justice grind, and a time will surely come when just desserts will be served, cold as a salad or hot on a platter.

That infinite faith in the triumph of the weak over the mighty is what gives impetus to our public life even when the government of the day rolls back the gains we have chalked up for ourselves since independence.

We ought, therefore, to avoid the temptation of crediting ourselves individually for the expansion of the democratic space.

We must also disabuse ourselves of the notion that nation-construction is a private enterprise.

Indeed, we ought to be humble enough to acknowledge not everyone who has fought in the trenches of democracy wears their troop colours on their sleeves.

Some fought and went their way as unsung heroes.

VIOLENCE

In the end, those who have stood at the forefront have as much right to claim credit as do the families who lost their loved ones in the election violence of 1992, 1997, 2007 and 2017.

Our collective contribution to democracy ought not to be appropriated by a few.

Like the mud-walled school in a remote village in Kakamega, or the library on the back of a camel in northern Kenya, our contribution to nation building and democracy is a collective good.

It does not matter who brought the wood, and who the door knob, or who donated a classic and who a manual.

In my view, the teacher who encourages her students to shun corruption and embrace diversity is much a contributor to democratisation as the lawyer who acts pro bono for a prisoner of conscience.

None should embellish their democratic credentials to the exclusion of the other.

COLUMNISTS
Having said that, I acknowledge, as did Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula recently, that divorces are “messy, noisy, not easy and they have casualties”.

But, if we take a step back, they do not have to be. I am reminded of the refrain in Ernest Tubb’s song in which he says; “let’s say goodbye like we said hello”.

Like the sailors of yore, who had the courage to leave behind familiar shores in the hope of discovering new lands, we must all have the moral fortitude to “just kiss and say goodbye” as The Manhattans exhorted us in their golden oldie.

For me, my joy rests in knowing that wherever the wind of change directs the sails of the four columnists, they will always take a piece of the Saturday Nation with them.

Similarly, the soils they have left behind in the old shores are still fertile. New flowers will sprout, and their fragrance will fill the land.

In a sense, we are all like the English premier league football clubs.

Some star players will come and go, but the clubs endure. And as James Baldwin famously said, “every goodbye ain’t gone”.

Mr Mbugua is the Editor, Saturday Nation. [email protected]. Magesha’s column resumes next week.