This archive report was first published on 25 August 2019.
It's a sad reality that Kenyans have become a nation of fakeness and faking. We're good at pretending to be friends, but when it comes to showing genuine support and care, we often fall short. This is evident in the way we behave at funerals, where we parade ourselves as 'friends' of the deceased, often with little to no knowledge of their lives.
What's even more striking is that we're quick to declare ourselves as friends when things are good, but when times get tough, we're nowhere to be found. We're good at sniffing out friendship opportunities that come with good jobs, grand houses, and good connections, but we often overlook the administrative side of friendship, like finding out what our friends are really all about.
Our fear of trouble and strife is a uniquely Kenyan phobia. We refuse to talk to, walk with, or be seen with our friends in distress, and instead, we often resort to selective amnesia, forgetting to return messages and phone calls. It's a shameless display of abandoning our friends in times of need, and yet, we still manage to show up to funerals, giving teary tributes and participating in the 'funeral dance'.
Unless things change soon, we'll be the nation of fake friendships that hardly ever stand the test of time.
