Dubai by night, dreams of home that workers hold, cherish every new day

“Does Kenya neighbour Senegal? Is Usain Bolt Kenyan?” These questions are delivered in soft cadences as the driver of the sleek, black sedan glides on the smooth stretches of tarmac. His name is Ustadh, a Nepalese who is in Dubai, “just for work.”

There is an edgy testiness to the way he spits out “just for work,” even though he has been in Dubai for 12 years. It reveals both alienation and dislocation.

His wife is in Dubai as well, he says, as is their three-year old daughter. His brother and his wife also live and work in Dubai, but they seldom see each other, even though they live 15 minutes apart.

Reason? Ustadh has only one day off a week, and he sleeps through it, he chuckles, given the unpredictable nature of work. He glances at his watch and counts the hours. By the time he gets home, his wife will be asleep, and she will be off to work when he wakes up…

This is the rat-race that the Kenya Kwanza administration have been championing as the bedrock of their “broad-based” economic transformation agenda, and I’m here to confirm if the well-paying jobs dangled to the Kenyan youth, actually exist.

I am not suggesting Prezzo Bill Ruto, or even his Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfie Mutua, have not been telling the truth. But since the Germans saw a need to “clarify” when Prezzo claimed some 250,000 jobs had been set aside for Kenyans, and Canadians fact-checked Alfie while he served in the Foreign Affairs docket, their words cannot be taken as face value.

I suppose nothing can be taken at face value of any of our politicians; even Prezzo Ruto is ruing his decision to accept former Deputy Prezzo Rigathi Gachagua aka Riggy G at face value. Now that he has done a bit of probing, he disparages Riggy G as corrupt, tribal and incompetent.

If you may recall, Riggy G’s selection to be Prezzo Ruto’s running mate was preceded by a thorough screening from a panel that hailed his credentials. Now one must wonder if similar attributes can be used to define the panel that selected Riggy G. They must have been corrupt, tribal and incompetent to have missed such obvious blemishes.

But that’s not my problem. Since Riggy G appears destined for a life as a mole catcher in Wamunyoro village, having failed miserably in trapping humans at State House, I think the focus should be on post-Riggy G politics.

He refuses to go quietly (and gently) into the night of politics, so Riggy G is back in the limelight, not in the courtroom, where he is fighting his ouster, but on TikTok, where he is holding “public participation.”

He wants to know what Kenyans want addressed, even though I have no idea how he would go about implementing that without a portfolio in government.

My night-ride in Dubai terminated at a hotel near the Sharjah airport where I was met by a Bangladeshi valet. He smiled politely as he hauled my luggage on a trolley, held an elevator door and ushered me into my room.

At the Dubai International Airport, other aides were deployed to ensure a fast-tracked clearance and hotel transfer.

I don’t know how many of them think Usain Bolt is from Kenya, or that our country neighbours Senegal, though these intimations are insightful about the job market that the government is seeking to serve in the United Arab Emirates.

My last assignment here is to look into the “Hustler” jet that was offered to Prezzo Ruto to fly to the US last year, gratis, and see if the books balance out between what Dubai is extending to our country and countrymen and women.