SMART ADvice

REGRETS FREE     People are good at making us feel sorry for the mistakes we make. Simple mistakes will be blown out of proportion. Some make us remember our mistakes for the rest of our lives. We are all human.     But do we really have to regret at some things? Before regretting we should evaluate ourselves and see what made us come up with the decisions we made. And  that is why when people give your advice, they remind you to make your own choice so that you don't start pointing fingers at them when things go wrong.          Regrets make us look ugly, it makes us stagnate, it makes us live in the past instead of the present. regrets look- a-like we can never be right with everybody, we should be daring enough to make our own choices no matter how risky they may seem as long as your conscience is clear and you know what you are doing is right.      Another thing that makes you not  regret is doing t...

HUMILITY SAYS IT ALL     A car stopped near the church gate and a small man got off and the chauffeur drove off. The man went straight into the church and sat at a corner and started praying. One of the workers came and said to the man,      "You can't afford to pray now when other people are busy with preparations to welcome the high priest." The man got up and started assisting others. One of the church elders walked in and when he saw the man , he called the worker and angrily asked him why he let the high priest arrange chairs. The high priest said,      "He has nothing to do with this, I couldn't just look at him struggling with all the work and it's already past time and people will be coming in."      The way up is down. The high priest could not have become so if he never knew to serve others and to listen to what they say.   We miss out on our greatness simply because we think we know it all. Mos...

GOOD FRIDAY     Human is to error, so they say. There are always times when we sit down and ask ourselves, "what was I  thinking when I did such a thing?" no reasonable answer comes by, we then promise ourselves not to repeat such mistakes again. But somehow we find ourselves repeating the mistakes or we get into worse mistakes.      After such mistake some people will condemn themselves over and over, reminding themselves how foolish they have been. Some will just get over their mistakes and move on  quickly. The latter know how Good Friday is important to them, while the former may have no idea what this day is all about.     I always wondered why the day was called Good and yet I was told that such a great being dead on this day, to me it have been "Bad Friday" if not evil. As I grew up I learnt that the death had everything to do with my redemption of all the foolish things I have ever done and will do(not deliberately though). ...

SELF COMPETITION     Competition is almost everywhere. Competition requires us to be the best in everything we do but there will always be people ahead of us. Whenever we were on the highway, my dad at the drivers seat was always  under pressure, my little brother insisted that he goes past each and every car ahead of us. But there were always cars ahead of us.      Even in car races when the first car is behind the last car in the race, even if the last car is the last in the race , it is still ahead of the first car, especially if they are going round in circles. But if  they are going through a straight path still many cars have passed the same path before so still there have been many more cars ahead of that car. We always want to outdo other people in life even when we know we cannot, we still waste our time trying, and all we do is go round in circles.      For those who are daring enough, they create their own roads o...

EMOTIONAL SPEED GOVERNOR      It is like our country has become the shooting stage of "The Tournament," but unlike in the movie where people kill on another for monetary gain, people here kill each other over petty issues. Am not advocating for killing for financial gain.    Murder has become a norm in the news today, the other day a young footballer was stabbed by his equally young girlfriend, reason; she suspected him of cheating. Diana "Chelele," the musician was also a victim. Last year a lawyer decided to kill his wife and three little, beautiful and innocent children then he took his own life. He is said to have been involved with a cult. Men killing others because of a match, and little angels in heaven numerous other stories of men and women killing one another and some even killing their children have been heard. But what makes one turn against his/her loved one(s) all of a sudden?      We all have mood swings at ti...

THE MORAL COMPASS     The best is always saved for last. The calm and collected pastor Terry Gobanga spoke of the moral compass.The way she carried herself, no one could tell of her history. The moral compass should always point north. We are to do what is right not because we stand to gain but because it is the right thing to do.     She stated that everybody has an unfair advantage, that something you have that nobody else in this world has.We don't have to hate others simply because they have what we don't have and we are to assume goodness  in others, let's not be quick in judging others. We are also to pay attention how the people around us influence our moral compass. A great testimony she is  We are also to love the Jesus way, everybody deserves our love, we are not supposed to hate people who are not like us, she gave the example of gays. we are to hate the sin and not the sinners. In all this we are to put our family first. We should ...

DISABILITY: ALL IN THE MIND     Godfrey Ipalei spoke of the essentials of a good leader. He said that there's a leader in everybody but not every seed which has the potential to be a tree becomes a tree. True and authentic leadershipis self-manifested, it takes your own will   to be and the purpose of authentic leadership is the production of leaders. Leaders are not to clung to power for decades, they are to produce better leaders than themselves just like good fathers encourage their children to be better than them.     He also said that leadership is not about control but it's all about serving, it is not about power rather it's about empowering others, it is not about manipulation but inspiration and lastly it is more of becoming than doing. There is more to it than what you see     He also stated that becoming a leader starts by discovering your purpose then getting a conviction and believing in your significancce.     Initial...

CORRUPTION NOT THE PROBLEM      The man realized that he himself was the problem, and so he had to work on himself. This happens everyday, people tend to think that where they belong  or the people they are with are the problem.     I remember back when in high school, there were so many of us who kept complaining  about  our school. Many of us were talking of the "great" schools we were to transfer to forgetting that we were the ones to make our school great. Change is supposed to start with I.I believe  where I am is the best place and the people I come across are the best, in my home, my school and community at large.   We have so many of us complaining of corruption in our country  but we ourselves practice it behind closed doors, thinking it won't affect anybody  but that is what makes us among the top three in corruption.  Corruption might not be the problem, the problem might be us ourselves.   ...

CHARLES KANJAMA'S TAKE ON AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP   Charles Kanjama, an advocate of the high court of Kenya was asked to tackle the topic "Rebuilding the broken walls," he started by asking if the walls were broken in the first place, or if the walls needed to be broken or if bridges were to be built instead of wall, just like Pope Francis had said in the case of illegal immigrants.     People had different views, some said walls of ignorance,immorality, corruption, tribalism and such needed to be broken.  Others said that the walls of trust, unity and such needed to be rebuilt. quite the same things, I thought. The advocate stuck to his topic of discussion and said the first step to rebuild the walls was to acknowledge that the walls were broken(acknowledging the problem). He gave the example of Nehemiah in the bible. After that we need to have a vision then identify the values needed to build the walls, then incorporating virtue and then we get the victory....

SINGAPORE- KENYA: THE CONTRAST      It was a great experience for those of us who attended the Inter-varsity Leadership Conference at Citam- Karen over the weekend. Among the speakers were, pastor Terry Gobanga, Charles Kanjama, an advocate of the high court of Kenya, Julius Kipngetich, the current Uchumi supermarket CEO, Godfrey Ipalei among other speakers.     Julius Kipngetich dealt mainly with facts. He started by saying how a while ago Singapore admired Kenya's administration and how the tables turned and Singapore inspired Kenya's vision 2030. opportunity meets preparedness: The selfie tells it all   Lee Kwan Yew who was the prime minister, transformed Singapore from a tiny struggling island into one of the world's richest countries. He was intolerant of corruption, graft, failure and mediocre results. The CEO echoed my sentiments that we are not yet there. He explained how Singapore managed to build a floating stadium since there was no...

WOMEN'S DAY     It always feels good to be celebrated.  Women are the ones who are mostly celebrated. Never heard of men's day or boy's day only father's day. Women contribute a lot to the society, men also do but our focus is on women. Where something goes wrong, they quickly correct it. Where there is no joy they bring happiness. They are a source of peace and warmth.     My mother, Margret Kenyatta, Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale, Maya Angelou and  Malala Yousafzai are some of the influential women on earth.  Women go through a lot but they see each struggle as a stepping stone rather than a stumbling block. Take Maya Angelou for  instance, her parents divorced when she was little, being raped by her mother's boyfriend when she was just eight years, endured emotional torture when her uncles killed the culprit. She grew  up and worked as a nightclub waitress, got involved with drugs and prostitution in the process. She ...

THE  PRESIDENTIAL RACE      We recently held elections in our university, the campaign period was hectic especially for the contestants. They quite a lot of money and sacrificed a lot of their time moving room to room and class to class to try and convince people to vote for them. A lot of money was spent in the making of banners, some had their brand t-shirts others facilitated rallies plus they had to dig deeper into their pockets to make people run all over the place shouting their names.     At the end of the day, only one contestant is elected for every post. Omwoyo Maranga took the presidential seat. He always seems happy, he went by the slogan "This is that" which he usually said with a lot of vigor. The main challenge I believe lied with those who lost. I tried to imagine how they felt and I could not stand it. I said a prayer for them and  I respect them more now, they never made people to cause chaos. Some of them have vi...

THINK BIGGER NOT BIG     Selfishness is the root of every evil, that is my latest discovery. Everyone wants to leave a good life. Me too. Beautiful big houses filled with all sorts of gadgets, the parking lots  hosting  Lamborghinis, Bugattis and jaguars.           Almost everybody is busy thinking of himself. Kenya was recently said to be the third most corrupt country in the world, been there done that.  We have children with no roof on their heads, in this very country we have big expensive houses accommodating two or at most four people. school dropouts due to lack of fees wander here and there. Sickly and widowed mothers struggle mostly in vain to put food on the table. Special schools lack most necessities, despite all these, we have the audacity to be corrupt.     "Hallo, this is Kenya, kama wewe si mjanja unaumia," we normally justify ourselves.    If every privileged person could...