Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Corruption kills a dream: A tribute to Joshua Orina

Throughout my life in the United States, news of a death of a family member or a friend has never ceased. In the last 13 years I have lost a father, two grandparents, an aunt, four uncles, and five cousins.

Then there is the countless number of friends I grew up with who are no longer alive. One committed suicide because an accident had left him blind, another killed himself because his parents could not approve a girl he was courting, and the third one hanged himself for undisclosed reasons. On two different occasions, two of my friends were killed by speeding cars. A childhood buddy drank himself to death, while several others have fallen victim to that villain whose name my kinfolk are still too ashamed to utter, AIDS.

Read more from Ombuya E. Okong'o here.