The Power of Resilience: A Journey Fired by Determination

By Peniel Mugo

Individuals don't choose when, where, and in what circumstances to be born. They just find themselves there. It, therefore, calls for focus, patience, hard work, determination, and, above all, trust in God to get to the desired end. This book is about where, when, and under what circumstances this author was born and raised. It also informs about the Kenyan people and what Kenya can offer to the rest of the world. It also attempts to prepare new arrivals to the United States, especially those from developing countries on the challenges that they are likely to encounter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662483073

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The Power of Resilience

A Journey Fired by Determination

Peniel Mugo

Copyright © 2022 Peniel Mugo

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-6624-8310-3 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-8307-3 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgment

Chapter 1

About the Book

Chapter 2

About the Author

Chapter 3

Struggle for Independence

Chapter 4

Patriarchy and Matriarchy

Chapter 5

Nation's Unification and Development

Chapter 6

Intellectual Development

Chapter 7

Experience Working in a Donor-Funded Project

Chapter 8

Treatment at Rigs Hospital in Copenhagen City

Chapter 9

Life after Retirement from Civil Service

Chapter 10

Relocation to the United States of America (USA)

References

In memory of my mother, Janet Wanjiru, who passed on in the year 2016 and in appreciation of the love and encouragement from my wife, Mary, and my sons Eric, Lee, and Kevin in writing this book.

Acknowledgment

Although it was a long journey completing writing this book, it was made fun and enjoyable by ideas and support that I received from friends and relatives, and I wish to thank all those who, in one way or another, contributed to the successful completion of this book. I would like to appreciate those who might not have known how much they opened me up by giving me ideas on the structuring and inclusion of features and quotes in order to enrich and enhance clarity.

My immediate family members which include my wife, Mumbi, and sons, Eric, Lee, and Kevin, were a strong pillar in the process of writing this book. They encouraged and reminded me constantly that the book I was writing is a critical resource when it came to sharing my rich experience in life with other members of the society and therefore had the potential of impacting social change within communities. They rationalized their support by making observations that those below forty years within the community had reached a stage of desperation after facing a few downfalls and therefore asserted that this book that tells a lived story would encourage and impact lives of the said cohort within the community positively.

Chapter 1

About the Book

There is a great quote that life is like a book where some chapters are sad, some happy, and, some exciting; but if you never turn the page, you will never know what the other chapter has in store for you (unknown, n.d.).

This book is about the life lived and above all the experience acquired by the author as a child and as an adult and on how that experience modeled his character and personality. The reader is therefore encouraged to read the ten chapters in the book in order to appreciate how dynamic life is and how important it is not to never give up as long as one lives. The uniqueness of this book is the different situations under which this author went through and the resiliency in overcoming the various challenges along the way. It is a book that shows that with determination, trust in God, and remaining focused, individuals have the potential of achieving their life dreams. However, the environment under which individuals are raised might have a great influence on their future live which is the case with this author, and in order to depict this phenomenon, the book starts with explaining Kenya's administrative setup at the time when the author was growing up and lays deliberate focus on the county where he was born and spent his early life. This author was born and raised in Kenya and below is a map of Kenya:

Map of Kenya

The Kenyan administrative structure when the author was growing up had a sublocation as the smallest administrative unit, followed by a location, a division, a county, and then a province in the aforementioned order. Three or more sublocations formed a location with a chief as the one in charge at the location level and the assistant chief as the one in charge at the sublocation level. The two offices coordinated activities in such a way that a chief would require referral documentation raising issues which required his or her review. The subchief was required to provide an explanation, his assessment, and judgment on the pertinent issues before forwarding them to the chief. This was important because the subchief was at the grass roots and, therefore, in the best situation of gathering all the relevant information regarding the origin and subsequent development of issues, which created conflicts within the community, and this was critical in the decision-making process.

A division had three or more locations with a divisional officer as the lead administrator, and a district had three to four divisions with a district commissioner in charge. There were about five districts in a province with a provincial commissioner as the chief administrator. Provincial commissioners were answerable to the president who was the head of government and leader of the majority political party. The aforedescribed structure explains power levels in which individuals were appointed in the civil service and were therefore required to have specific qualities and qualifications before appointment. Education is one of the aspects that was considered as critical before being hired in any of the positions, and the higher education an individual had, the higher the position he or she would be hired for. The political patronage was also an important issue during the hiring process to this position. Individuals who worked in the stated positions lived dignified life and were therefore an envy to many. I admired the respect and esteem in which individuals in government positions were held in the community and therefore continued to dream of how I would enter in their class one day. I knew the secret lay in the efforts that I put in my education and therefore worked hard in school.

District focus approach which was community-driven was engaged by the government as a development strategy, and it made both political and government leaders accountable to the people. The government employees' major role was therefore to mobilize communities and empower them to participate in the development agenda without fear of intimidation. This approach of development enabled communities to embrace projects and enhanced ownership that was critical in the sustainability aspect. Government officials engaged community leaders and prominent stakeholders such as religious and formed groups leaders as their entry point in the community. These were the stakeholders at the grassroot level who were the opinion leaders and therefore had a big following. This approach was aimed at ensuring ownership and consequently sustainability of projects. In order to realize good outcomes, the communities appreciated support from administrators who were conversant with local issues.

Administrators articulated existing issues and prompted individuals to suggest solutions and propose various development approaches. Their role was therefore challenging and required individuals who had the right skills in order to remain relevant. Communities with support from administrators and other government departmental officials generated and prioritized development ideas and passed them to the locational level for further deliberation. This grassroot approach was critical because it focused on issues which were pertinent to the livelihood of the ordinary member of the community, and individuals who were recruited to the leadership positions were expected to be conversant with development issues at this level.

The role of the locational chief was played earlier by men, and women were recruited later to this role. The locational chief operated with a development committee with whom development issues from the sublocations were scrutinized and compiled. A list of the proposed projects was thereafter forwarded to the divisional development committee where the list was further analyzed, and projects in which a consensus was reached from all the stakeholders was passed and sent over to the district development committee for ratification. The district development committee had the final role of prioritizing and allocating funds from the government treasury, and the provincial administration together with provincial department officers monitored and evaluated implementation progress of projects and made reports to various heads of government ministries in Nairobi.

I learned good lessons from the administrative system at a tender age. I learned and appreciated that understanding and submitting to authority was critical in becoming successful in life. I learned that it was through playing within the rules of authority that I would be able to maneuver plans and achieve my cherished dreams of making a contribution toward social change within communities. I, for example, learned that the assistant chief, though at the lowest level in the administrative hierarchy, had a great influence on the community because he or she was a part of the community, and associating with him or her was critical in realizing recognition and appreciation. The community appreciated the afore-explained development strategy because it gave them an opportunity to give their views during planning, implementation, and evaluation stages of the project, and this was critical in ensuring community ownership that guaranteed sustainability concerns after the completion of the project. It is notable that community leaders were empowered and therefore able to lead in evaluating the progress made during project implementation, reviewed, and addressed any existing constraints. This was a good lesson in understanding the benefits of empowerment, and I was therefore keen to learn new approaches in solving community problems and took pride in carrying out challenging tasks. I associated with older folks at a young age and consequently sought to know how I would join the administrative system, and in response, they slammed on me with challenging statements such as "Young man, the answer to your wants and desires lies in working hard in school and you have no any other choice!" I realized that there was no shortcut in achieving a better life and that education was a critical requirement to success. I then developed great interest in excelling in school and remained focused on my schoolwork. I had teachers who were supportive and keen to see me succeed, and I, therefore, took full advantage of this opportunity.

My Early Life

I was born in Ngariama location in a sublocation that bounders Mount Kenya forest and deep inside Kirinyaga County. I therefore assimilated and developed values which were influenced greatly by behaviors and mannerisms of individuals within my neighborhood. My habitat was very cold especially during the night and early in the morning. My parents moved to Kiamutugu which was a colonial village where the community was settled in order to maintain a distance from the forest which was Mau Mau freedom fighters' habitat and where they made their attacks from. The village was sealed off with deep trenches and planted with spikes with one entrance in order to facilitate effective administration of the local population. Kiamutugu was in a central position where the colonial chief was stationed and had a moderate weather condition.

My mother was a strong believer in Christian faith and therefore guided me and my siblings on the fundamentals of Christian life and encouraged me to go to Sunday school in a nearby mud and wattle church building at Kiamutugu. It is here where as a young boy had an opportunity to learn the importance of being respectful, hopeful, faithful, honest, and trust in God. One critical thing that I learned at the tender age was not to mention the name of God in vain. At the Sunday school, we were taught to sing praises to God, be humble, honest, and respectful to all people irrespective of their age, beliefs, or social status. Below is a map of the Kirinyaga county where I was born.

Kirinyaga County

Mount Kenya is slightly over seventeen thousand feet above sea level and the second-highest mountain in Africa, and its local name is Kirinyaga. Although there are other counties that surround the mountain, Embu in the east, Meru in the north, and Laikipia in the west, the county in the south adopted the mountain's local name of Kirinyaga. The neighboring counties derive their names from the tribes that live in them—that is, Embu from Aembu Tribe and Meru from Ameru Tribe. Laikipia is inhabited mainly by Maasai community, and the name means a treeless plain in the Maasai language. Kirinyaga stretches from the slopes of Mount Kenya on the southern part of the mountain to the lowlands and has three ecological zones that include the upper zone which is moderately chilly, the middle that is fairly warm, and lowlands with the highest temperatures in the county. Temperatures and rainfall patterns differ as one moves from upper to lower parts of the county, and the communities, therefore, adapt to different lifestyles.

The upper zone has volcanic soils, and communities grow tea and coffee as cash crops and subsistence crops such as maize, beans, and vegetables among other crops. Nyamindi and Thiba are two big rivers in the county and have their source in the mountain. They flow through the upper, middle, and the lowland to join Tana River that flows into the Indian Ocean. The water from the two rivers is used for irrigation in the lowlands to grow rice and horticultural crops such as French beans, tomatoes, vegetables, and tobacco among other crops. The crops grown in the three zones fetch good prices both in the local and in the international markets and are therefore the major revenue earners. The economic empowerment generated stereotype statements that reflected on behaviors and mannerisms of the diverse communities within the county, where some communities were perceived as prudent in the way they utilized their income while others who did not spend their income in a rational manner were perceived as reckless. The smart members of the community use their money to take their children to school and invest it in the income-generating activities while other members of the community go into a drinking spree and unplanned activities and make merry at the expense of their families.

Coffee beans