My-Once Molly (Praying for a Rainbow),

Dear Molly, I hope you are ok and are keeping safe in these floods. As for me, I am heartbroken. I am in pain. My mind, my body, my spirit aches. I am numb with grief. As is the nation of Kenya. The picture just won’t get out of our minds – the father, trudging stoically, his dead, muddy son slung over his shoulder. It’s a devastating image… the screams, elsewhere, as a boat capsizes, the swollen river swallows a lorry… Izrael has visited the land.

Dear Molly, a while back, the nation faced drought. Then, images of dead livestock, emaciated men, women and children, parched, cracked earth, haunted our screens. Elsewhere where there was a glut in food production, the farmers cried for their fellow starving countrymen. They demanded for lorries to traverse the rutted roads and take the produce to their brethren… collectively, we prayed for rain.

Dear Molly... will we ever catch a break as Kenya? The Covid-19 pandemic that paralysed lives and livelihoods in 2020 as we recovered from the aftermath of the contested 2017 general elections… The gruelling and divisive 2022 general elections, the economic downturn, now, the flooding that has disrupted many a people… our tears just won’t dry. So, my dear Molly, please join me in prayer for our dear nation:

Dear Lord, before you we prostate
Paralysed, Kenya – this beautiful nation-state
Tears wash our faces, salty, our lips taste
Lord, for our relief, send us a rainbow.

Dear Lord, our daily iniquities angers you
We lie, we steal, we kill, to you – we haven’t been true
The skies are now grey, menacing, faded (pierced) – the blue
Lord, for our relief, we pray for a rainbow.

Dear Lord, feeble creatures we are – be merciful
Dear Lord, sinful beings we are – be graceful
Dear Lord, forgetful as we are – Save our Souls
Dear Lord, for a little, dry earth – send us a rainbow.

Molly, bye for now. I have to look for a handkerchief and hide my tears away. I have to be strong. At least, that I can do. It’s my humble wish that our prayers will be heard and that the Lord will be gentle with us.

Also, I hope that you, me and everyone is taking precautions as advised by the authorities to keep safe. Lastly, that we will come through for our brethren in their hour of need. Foremost, that is what defines us as Kenyans and makes us a resilient people. We shall overcome!

Yours in grief,
Sant Mark

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