Dear Isiolo county professionals and youth I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is we must change if we are to get better.*

Ibrahim Musa wario (from Kinna ward of g/t sub-county Isiolo county.Sincere message to learned Isiolo residents

Dear Isiolo county professionals and youth I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is we must change if we are to get better.* 

If only those who count are given elective leadership roles instead of  "the counted" we could have been in a better place now.Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. The given quote is famously believed to be quoted by the great scientist, Einstein. In its first appearance, it may sound a bit clumsy in tone. In reality, though, it is one of the best life lessons one can count upon in life.

As I grow older and encounter many aspects of life and try to at least do what I have to do for my society, with like-minded people, I have learned that things/people that matter don't count and things/people counted doesn't even matter most of the times.

I believe being honest in every situation helps us build credibility. When we tell the truth, we never have to retrace our steps. There is real freedom in being able to live without having to keep track of various storylines. Being honest is about living with simplicity. We need not think about what to say or how to frame our argument and it’s that simple.

Your honesty helps build confidence; you gradually end up realizing that people like you and are in your life because of who you are. Those that authentically care about others, help them by being real with them, and allowing them to uplift their own lives through honesty as well.

In addition to everything, honesty and integrity pave the way for greater intimacy. People who are trustworthy and honest attract friends like they are. Pretending to be something you do not require constant attention to detail. There are several pretenders around than I thought, those who are worse than murderers. Honest people are better able to relax in every situation and very resent turn if events in Kinna made me realize that pretenders are more than real and honest people in my home base. (topic for another day).

Back to the point to decode the meaning of the saying our story is based on today let's take a deeper dive into the meaning of the words ‘counts’ and ‘counted’. Here, ‘things which one counts on’ are those things which have real importance in one’s life. They matter a lot about our personality development, the way we perceive life, and the way we come out of our grief period. ‘Things which can be counted’ can be understood as related to material aspects like money, property, or something having less intrinsic and more monetary value. We make every decision as a society on things that can be counted instead of the one that does count. This is the roots cause of our problem especially having self-centered individuals in leadership positions, Who, intern made Isiolo county the most corrupt county in Kenya. They work hand in hand and made the county their business empire, They initiate shady policies, pass a nonsense budget, they open various companies using the names of their family members and associates then acquired all the contracts through the illegal procurement process. And what they do for the whole year is to loot and loot more. You and I  know that there is a procurement law that says 30% of contracts in  any forms of Government in Kenya must be given to Youths/Women/people with disabilities and others who are disadvantaged.  Some of these fellas even promised to stand with us especially youths so that we shall be "empowered" through such projects. As innocent as we are, We then went ahead sold everything we had, open companies, and started applying for tender after tender. A very tiresome and expensive process for us since we had Zero source of income. Later on, all we are left with is the word  "ish" from our beautiful Borana language as a sign of regrets; if only we knew this selfish hyenas we call leaders are going to award themselves, their families, and worst of all sale those contracts meant to not only empower our people but provide us with infrastructure development which intern will facilitate the economic activities and uplift our people from poverty to Somali/Garri tycoons, we couldn't have invested our little resources in such nonsense activities...But the worst is yet to come since we provided our KRA pin since its a requirement to start a company,  now we own KRA a lot of money we can't even afford since we were supposed to file our returns every year. And there is no option for a nil return if you own a company. We end up running like a fugitive in most cases to avoid arrests. Double lose for us, unfortunately...All this is simply because we were told to chose those counted over those who count for various unreasonable reasons like age, wealth, clan, and semi clan of individuals instead of judging and choosing them with the content of their characters..using society's evil "common sense" that doesn't make any good sense!!! And the sooner we start a conversation about this ill-motivated norm the better for us.

So, what we can understand from the given quote is that- all those things which we can count (things which can be counted- say, money) ain’t always important in life (not always count). Similarly, the things which do matter (that count) are those which can’t always be counted (measured). Here, we can interpret the word counts as something which holds importance and we can rely upon in difficult times- like, family, friends, emotions, a little act by some acquaintance, anything. The interpretation for the phrase ‘things that can be counted’ is more related to material of monetary value.

Einstein probably would have quoted the above quote in the context of mathematics and Physics-related sums and problems (that can be counted). They really would not have mattered to him at a point of time in his life when he combined these famous words. And probably he would have understood the importance of all those immaterial, uncountable humanly attributes that he had missed all this while.

The same goes for many of us in our lives. The youth my colleagues of present times, unfortunately, we are busy running behind the luxuries of life- money, home, car, comfort, etc. Certainly, for a better life, these things are necessary to an extent. But sacrificing one for the other, especially neglecting your parents, responsibilities, attacking a humanitarian course meant to help the needy and poor in a society you belong, creating hatred and enmity between friends through emotional manipulation when there is a conflict and failing to unite and demand for our right from the government of the day for whatever reasons, choosing  people with no interest of the society at heart apart from their own interests because they give us handout or they came from our clan, all this nonsense for the material comfort of our personal life isn’t a wise decision.

Similarly, we can also understand the meaning of the quote as a bigger number (things that can be counted) do not always represent a greater value (can not always be counted upon). For example, a Large number of poverty alleviation schemes, committees, reports want to eliminate poverty in our county. Just because the County government is coming forth with a lot of schemes on paper doesn’t mean the problem is getting lesser. What matters is the right implementation of a single scheme, diligently. For example, starting from planning Commission’s working group, and volunteering. We must sit at the table with those in leaders mostly at the county level and start some kind of dialogue.

And learned class in Isiolo county must have to come forth and steer policy advocacy and awareness, we must think and think hard because our people are suffering and yet they have elected government in place who are suppose to deliver services to them,...look at what Makueni county government   is doing and how it has improved the living standard of its population up to 58%, likewise with West Pokot county Government look at what Governor Lonyangapou has done; the county that its history is cattle rustling and insecurity with its neighbours  now has more "gumbaru schools"  more than our primary schools, grown-ups people who usually use to be cattle raiders are all in school studying, their number is also almost the same with our primary school children in different schools, ..They  are now supplying foodstuff which they produce to their neighboring counties, their animal products are supplied almost everywhere even abroad, this is people whom 90% were illiterates 5 years back, ..They use to suffer the most when drought and famine strike Kenya..look how they have transformed in a short period. What is happening in Isiolo is what we as learned members of Isiolo have to ask ourselves!... 

All those people in most developed counties in Kenya since devolution did was formulations of policies as per demands of their societies and implemented them accordingly through their budgetary process. 

Almost 3.5 Billion  Ksh and above given to Isiolo county by the national Treasury every financial year plus the revenue they collect from locals which by the way is insanely rising higher every day is a lot of money to formulate and implement policies that can transform a population of nearly 268k people. Why they do shoddy and baseless budgetary processes every year at the cost of poor people? Why is the "mega international slaughter project " started in the previous regime installed to date? With all these funds coming in every year, Do we have any idea how many could have benefited from that project if only it's accomplished? How many jobless youths could have been employed? And instead of creating this awareness and open eyes for our society we just sit there and being sycophants for the same people who are purposely denying us our right?..what are we?

 Climate change is one of the major causes of poverty in Isiolo just like any other place and this crucial subject of the environment has yet not seen the focused effort from those concerned and also those affected. Just there are numerous schemes, forums, platforms, one can't even count properly as they are so numerous in every social media application where professionals are put under one forum. The efforts and genuine intention are still missing even at this grave hour of global warming. There are always similar cases in our county with the Planning Committee and Finance committee- they had overlapping functions. committees, double manpower, funds for a single task that could have been easily achieved even if there was a single body dedicated to it. Nobody is not seeing those meant to oversee the executive in Isiolo have joined hands with them and seriously looting funds meant for poor society. Our first enemy as a county is corruption and for us to change this for the better we the learned in Isiolo county must start a serious conversation. For this, the number of forums, schemes, and whichever groups do not matter. What is important (a thing which counts) is whatever efforts are there, they are accomplished with full commitment.

Many of us are very well aware of the fact that the best things in life are hidden behind the small acts & things and not always in material possession. In the personal sphere, people value the importance of a degree from a highly famous institute over a degree from a government college.  Certainly, education from a good institute makes you a capable person but that does not mean a student from a lesser-known college is necessarily less capable, as generally believed in our society. What is counted here is the name and prestige of the college; what counts is the hard work one puts in his/her work and the knowledge one possesses and how to use the knowledge not only for oneself but for one's community as well.

Similarly, People respect those who have wealth or those who occupy highly prestigious positions. They are said to be generous. What one counts here is the monetary help they are providing as an act of charity, or maybe the lavish lifestyle that makes them appear smarter.infact a parameter we use to choose leaders but What counts here is no matter the person is having money in his/her hands or not; he/she is having resources at his/hr disposal or not but is still willing enough to help others and make a difference in their lives small acts.

The great social reformers of our country since ancient times, the poets and saints through their little acts tried to bring a change in the miserable condition of our society ridden with caste system.For example JATTANI ALI TANDU left us a legacy , he told us the importance of education, savings, and investments. Those educated are meant to be society's eye-opener. But what is happening in Isiolo is the opposite of what we are taught. We must wake up fellas.

Moreover, the great freedom fighters of our country Kenya spend their entire lives for the independence of their country. Their qualities of compassion towards other human beings made them stand apart from the rest of the masses. What counts here is their efforts, their human qualities which money and wealth cant bring. These qualities cant be counted (measured), but they certainly count.

Hence, what matters the most in one’s life is little things that we generally ignore being so indulged in earning comfort and material things. Their importance is realized when time slips from our hands. So it's necessary to understand the difference between the intrinsic and face value of things. One needs to understand the importance of inculcating the humanly attributes in one’s personality. That would make you a better person and make your life the best among others.

I hope and pray that one day my community will make the right choices and put in place leaders who count instead of the fake counted leaders who only go for leadership to be wealthy through corruption. The age, the clan, wealth and all those sorts of things we use to select leaders don't have to be counted rather the qualities and abilities of an individual have to count. But what more can I say apart from repeating this "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted".

Galatoma

Horra Bulla Theban.