Why This Kenyan June - July 2021 Winter Is A Godsend

Globally, the weather seems to have returned to its factory settings. This confirmation has manifested here in a prolonged period that many had only heard of in folklore. We had forgotten the importance and effects of low temperatures.

This year's winter in Kenya has proved harsher than those we've experienced in the past five years. Worse still, on the graph, the cold weather is surfing the same high wave with yet another Covid-19 round now at its peak. The pandemic's far-reaching sting has already wreaked havoc on the economy and families. So, many are frozen, broken and broke in a country that in many respects, leaves you to fend for yourself solo.

When winter sets in and proves too harsh for animals, they hibernate — this is a coping mechanism that sends them into a deep slumber underground. They are well sheltered from the cold and their state of inactivity saves them the energy needed to live on as metabolism ceases, save for breathing. Humans cannot afford to hibernate as the bills will pile up and must therefore get going despite the cold conditions, sorry for that.

But near-zero or subzero weather has a thick silver coating to it — just as every cloud has a silver lining.

Real winters have made the world what it is today, and particularly the developed world. The harsh climate has caused the inhabitants of such places to plan well, for winter is a definite occurrence that brings with it no smiles.

Winter has brought order to the more advanced world. It has inculcated in people both the concept of time and the respect for it. Everything runs on the clock, for every second that ticks away gets them closer to winter.

Colonialism was partly driven by the search for conducive climatic conditions, and armed with the technologies and efficiencies bequeathed them by experiences and adaptations from extreme-weathered environments, the invaders overrun sunbaked natives whose innocent cultures, hitherto had taught them nothing more than to trust in nature's abundant providence, as winter in a harsh sense, was unfathomable.

The natives lightly dressed bodies then were well adapted to the elements. But not anymore as our lives were disrupted from their ideal conditions and wrapped in that unfamiliar white man's clothing — and precisely his summertime selection.

And speaking of colonialism, nothing that I know of today epitomises the exploitation of our weather in a much better way than the British army does in Kenya to date. A little of recent history drives home the point.

When the austerity measures became necessary after the subprime market-triggered economic crisis of the late 2000s, Britain found itself required to shut down expensive military bases abroad. Kenya was amongst the four under closure consideration. One in North America, another in Asia and one other in the Oceania realm — all more advanced regions than ours by eons, never made it past the chopping block. Kenya survived. It got upgraded. Let's take it slowly now.

The reason was simple, Kenya provided all desirable climatic conditions within one geography all year round. Further, it afforded the Brits the lowest running costs within the quartet. Logistically, that meant plenty more soldiers could train in Kenya at any one time. This, effectively more than compensated for the lost opportunities in base closures.

The soldiers are here for body conditioning training. So, Mt. Kenya in the vicinity of their army base provides European-like cold-weather conditioning opportunities while a hundred kilometres away further north of there, desert-like conditions greet them when preparing for hot-weather combat.

Nanyuki is by the equator and body-endurance conditioning for that altitude is attained at no cost to them just as the sea level body conditioning occurs for free along our coastline. So, we have an all-seasons-all-terrains in one tropical military training-ground miracle that's aiding to further strengthen one of the world's greatest armies.

And in the same manner, as you remotely switch TV channels, these soldiers bodies can quickly adapt to the prevailing conditions of where they then get sent to going forward. We must take such lessons from the British and apply them in our day-to-day living. We must not just harness the sun but the cold too.

This winter season will henceforth aid our planning. The warm clothing market will peak as the cold season approaches. We shall have to do what must get done for winter is now an indelible calendar item. We've started seeing innovative blanket suits circulated in jest on social media. Such visions must be actioned through tangible missions. By the way, where is Fundi Frank? We need to see his label stitched in these suits if he is to get more of our dough.

We have gotten away with so much but now, not anymore because the government will have to plan well for the cold season's effects on the population. The good thing is that it coincides with the government's new financial year when resources are plentiful.

The government once set aside funds for an impending El Niño and acted swiftly, and luckily when it never made landfall or got accompanied by heavy rains, some excavator-dug drainages were already in place as benefits accruing from the preparation. But our winter is real and will keep coming and hence the need to use the boy scouts motto: Be prepared. This is yet another weather-based situation. The government too must be prepared to act and not just await the consequences — normally passed as a cash flow management strategy in favour of tastier priorities.

Some warm clothing for our veterans and seniors alongside their government Mpesa-sent allowances is now critical.

Because little can be achieved in winter — save for voluntary baby-making endeavours and eating, we can look to the outside world for a steady tourist market. Our winter happens to provide the ideal conditions for those coming from extreme winter-blessed environments. They find warmth out here when we are tucked away in our thick blankets. The places we avoid at such times become available for their enjoyment.

Perhaps county governments can also sponsor employees to attend base camp at Nanyuki for all-weather conditioning training as a way of enhancing all-year-round productivity back at the counties. And what stops the national government from sending civil servants to the same conditioning training camp albeit a civilian one? If this camp produces world-class soldiers, then it can produce for us very determined world-class civil servants who like the boy scouts, will be prepared to serve us all alike.

This winter season comes as a blessing because, at 45 million or so Kenyans, we must step up our game in the community of nations — marked by intense competition for prosperity in an ever-changing world. Our goal to be industrialised and enjoying the life of a middle-income country by 2030, is now just nine years away, yet in many aspects, it feels like we live in 1980s Kenya. We are still many nations in one — different eras within one time zone. The Mkokoteni and Chokoraa nations still roam and scavenge the landscape, as a matter of life and death in the tough financial emancipation race, long after independence.

This clock that is behind by three and a half decades, must by all means necessary still achieve for us what was envisaged to be in place in less than a decade from now.

This winter is that hard shake-up that must awake us from our long hibernation and instil in us the fear of time. We must get off autopilot mode and take control of everything that counts going into the future.

So if you are crawling, start walking, and if you are walking, start jogging and if you are jogging leisurely, start running fast. We cannot afford anymore to keep marking time for a stitch in time saves nine.

What have we started planning today? The next winter is surely coming, same time, and same places next year. Let that very Kenyan word "kung'ethia" only exist in the dictionary and not in our daily parlance. Tujipange tafadhali.