Thread by @DrCarrieM

I'm going to say something about young people and gambling. Nothing that hasn't been said before, but I do it to emphasise that demonising young men especially, without understanding the nuances of the lives they live, is toxic entitlement and privilege.

So, there is this young dude. Just cleared campus a couple of year ago or thereabouts. Girlfriend just had a baby. He's doing the right thing and brought her to live with him in a flat in Zimmer. He therefore has rent, elec, water, uchafu, food, baby clothes, medical bills.

And of course, transport, airtime, internet etc.

This guy has no job. He has a guitar and plays gigs in pubs and joints such as Kosewe to make ends meet. Like all businesses, this one is saturated, so he doesn't usually have lots of cash on him.

Dude also has a mum and dad in ocha. And siblings. Weekly, he gets the please call me from mum asking for money for this and that. Someone is sick, a sibling needs etc in school, the usual.
He also gets the beep from pops every week which he knows means "Tuma kitu"...

These are not texts to avoid. He knows pops is probably going to kunywa the money, but what to do? We all do this with our folks, especially those of us with folks in ocha. Maybe out of guilt or whatever, we do it.

So, add this to his list of reponsibilities that require cash.

This dude works one evening at some joint in Githurai and gets his 5k at the end of the night. He gets home and finds the small pack of diapers he bought jana are over because baby has been having diarrhoea, coz, teething.
He is told "babe, stima inabeep, na hakuna gas".

Which means supper haijapikwa. He dashes out to buy something to eat and find gas before everything closes by midnight. By the end of the small dash outside, he is down by 1200.
Stima inabeep. And he got the weekly call from mum saying some money was needed.

He thinks of asking a friend he is in the band with to skuma him some small small coins on Mpesa, 2k or something. Then he remembers he has Fuliza and abandons that idea. He goes to bed with his mind spinning faster than the blades of a full-blown fan. He can't sleep.

How do you divide less than 4k between all these responsibilities? Easy. SIM card number two comes out of hiding, jaza mobile money with gig money from last night- which is down to below 3k coz he had to wake up to buy diapers and milk for morning tea. And tissue paper.

Quick, log onto Betika/Betin etc. Iko match leo. Liverpool and Man U. Man U is sure to win. Quick bet, heart pounding, cross fingers, talk to friends to find out if there's a gig to play, etc. Match time is here. The jitters are enough to intoxicate a hard man. Kick off.

Match starts. Nerves. Jitters. Headache. Pounding veins and arteries. Mum flashes as the match starts. "Nakucall back mum, niko pahali noisy!"

Two hours later.

Liverpool gave Man U a drumming.

Fuck!!!!!

Remaining money is gone. Just like that.

F.U.C.K.

I know this sounds dramatic. And improbable.
But trust me, this is the reality of these young men. Some of them are my students. Some have cleared campus and we follow up.
Life is so tough for these guys - who must procreate and enjoy life same as other people...

...so please, no comments on "why are they getting kids". Poor people and young people have the same privileges as anyone else. None of that argument here please. Things happen. Life happens.

What we need to address is the responsibility without resource here.

Why social security is dead so that mum and dad must rely on their barely-started son to cater to their economic needs is a problem in a Kenya where NSSF is struggling, or dead in some quarters, or inaccessible to many.

Same with medicare. Why dude has to send money for...

...dad's pressure medication, and to pay for younger siblings to stay in school is also mind boggling in a country where Kibaki reportedly established "free primary education" and CDF scholarships that are being gobbled up by political vampires with large throats and stomachs.

Why we don't have a social support system for young mothers to access diapers and other baby things as they pick up their lives is also mind-boggling in a country with trillions being stolen left, right, centre, sideways. We have money, we just don't care for these young ones...

Why our parents live productive lives, but sink into poverty in old age, necessitating our diverting funds to them, is also befuddling. In this capitalistic space, when you are deemed too useless to create capital, you are dumped to the wild wastes to live out your existence...

...out of sight.

So dude must step in. Dude is me and you, fam. This is us.

And where our young people can only access low-wage jobs with no social security, medicare, life can be rough. After being listed on CRB for not paying back MShwari loans, and after exhausting Tala etc

...the only other way out for most is gambling.

I know a guy who had stopped gambling, but picked it up again to get money to go to ocha in Western because his dad wanted him to come with money to perform some family ceremony, I forget which. He's the 1st born son, had 2be there

...and had to come with money from Nairobi.
And let me tell you, going back to a habit he had quit really killed him. We could all see it. The guilt caused him to be grumpy, short-tempered. Because he knew, he could do better, kick the habit - but he had no other choice.

His work supervisor is a close friend, and she's the one who shared this story with me in frustration.

When he came back he sold his smart phone to pay rent, and bought a kabambe to have a working line. Totally dejected currently.

This guy is 42 btw.

Which ties in to the stories of older men we have been hearing committing suicide all over the country when they reach the end of the rope and see nothing but darkness and no more choices.

So. Gambling is not always because young people are out of control and are playing with $$

I think majority are just trying to keep heads above water, trying to keep afloat in an environment where tokens are now so expensive, everything is expensive.

Trying to do the right thing in difficult financial circumstances.

The language of pathology must be dropped.

We can't have privileged folk who have never known lack in their lives coming out here saying, young people are gambling away their lives.

No. They are gambling to try fix the economy and social systems you have killed with your greed and avarice and capitalistic tumbocracy.

The irony is, they are gambling with your companies, which you have rigged, because the house always wins. So they are damned either way. That's the irony, a painful one. They are trying to fix their lives, but are only making you richer, and them, poorer.