I think many of us Malawians know that Kenyans and Malawians are not exactly similar in the way we handle things. We believe that for most Zambians, we could claim to be similar. Some Mozambicans have what they French call ‘compartment’ which is similar to that of Malawians. Lately, as we discussed Lake Malawi with our brothers and sisters from Tanzania, we emphasised that many of the Taifa are similar to Malawians. It is the colonial boundaries, thus we argue, that separated us. Let me propose then, that we join the East African Commission to cement our oneness with the Tanzanians!

Now, I come to Kenyans. These people are different from Malawians in many ways. First, they had the unfortunate episode six years ago when they killed one another just for politics. They fought the ‘Mau Mau wars’ in the 1950s and 1960s. They have had the misfortune of having more than one prime minister while we have had only one prime minister so far. They run marathons and we participate without earning medals. They valued education whereas back home here, we love the certificates while despising education. In fact, we give education lip service.

On August 25 2012, I was convinced even more that Kenyans are different from Malawians. Hospital workers at and the community surrounding Friends Lugulu Mission Hospital were demonstrating. This mission hospital is a 110-bed Quaker-affiliated hospital located in a densely populated rural area of western Kenya. The hospital serves a catchment area of 710 445 people who are mainly rural subsistence farmers. The issue that forced the hospital workers and the community to demonstrate was that a hospital administrator had been fired by management of the hospital.

The community and the hospital workers wanted the fired administrator re-instated. This is where we differ. While the Kenyans demonstrate to keep their hospital administrators, we, in Malawi, demonstrate to have our hospital administrators fired. Strange indeed!.