Retired Captain of the Kenya Airforce turned philanthropist, politician and son of my mother. This quote, posted on his Facebook page, was his last. This is Mccleans Iganza Sloya on culture.
Who is Mccleans Iganza Sloya?
Sloya was a rising star in Vihiga politics and a frontrunner for the Sabatia parliamentary seat come the 2022 Kenya general elections. A member of the ANC party, he was a close ally of his party leader and presidential hopeful Musalia Mudavadi.
A philanthropist with a touch for the people, the late Mccleans Iganza Sloya was eulogized as: ‘the one who helped me’ , ‘you have done a lot’, ‘ aliyotenda hapa duniani mbinguni kuna taji’, ‘thanks for everything you did for your people’, ‘a leader who embraced everybody’, and such kind, glowing tributes.
He died at a Nairobi hospital from what was reported as complications from a blood clot in his lungs.
“Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbor is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.
— Mccleans Iganza Sloya
Why we love this quote
It echoes that infamous Chinua Achebe quote on kinship and community: ““A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.”.
Mccleans Sloya left us with many things: widows had roofs over their heads; those eking out a living, the boda boda guys, mama mboga, any of the rural working folks got something for the pocket (cho omuya); children of the poor went to school and churches built.
Good things, impact you could argue. If there’s fault in his work, it must be that he didn’t have the time to reach more of us, something we can’t fault him for as such things are in the hands of Nyasaye.
Maybe if he could have lived and made MP, Kenya would have been better for it. But we can only speculate on what could have been. One thing is for sure though, in this quote, he’s left us and generations to come, a blueprint to keep the spirit of mulembe alive.
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