Fathers of Nations Essay Questions and Answers 

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FATHERS OF NATIONS KCSE ESSAY QUESTION  

Seeking revenge results in more pain.

Using illustrations from Fathers of Nations, write an essay to support this statement. 

Sometimes we suffer at the hands of others. Usually, we feel the urge to get even or to retaliate. However, seeking revenge leaves one with more pain or anguish as in the case of Professor Kimani and Engineer Tahir, in Paul B. Vitta’s Fathers of Nations.

First, when Professor Kimani's wife runs off with a randy member of parliament, he seeks revenge but ends up in more anguish. Initially, professor Kimani is a trailblazing tutor who joins the university of Nairobi as a high-flying senior lecturer in its Institute of Development Studies. He also marries a campus beauty, Asiya Omondi. This is before he becomes a professor. His woes begin when Walomu steals his wife. When Asiya tells him that she is leaving him for Walomu, he asks if it is for his money. Before, professors used to earn more than MPs. Now MPs earn a hundred times more and are also exempted from paying tax – a legal coup. Due to the recession, professor Kimani is strapped for cash. He eats in a low end restaurant and his car is down again. He will fix it when he gets the next salary. Asiya humiliates him when she asks him to quit teaching and join politics like Newborn Walomu, who now owns four cars unlike Kimani who only has a dying old Toyota. It is painful for professor to lose his wife to a rowdy fellow and former junior colleague. After Tuni's death, Asiya loathes him and her hatred and gloom culminate when she quits their thirty year marriage. She mocks him that Tuni would still be alive if he had a real car.  He limply defends himself saying that Tuni did not die in their car. She is sixty when she leaves him. Kimani seeks revenge when he visits Walomu's office. He insolently refers to the MP as a fat baboon and even tries to physically assault him. The three blows miss and he even falls down. Instead of closure, Kimani suffers more pain. Walomu humiliates him by talking about statistics of “wife-stealing” in USA, Britain and Greek. He also boasts about his three beautiful wives making Kimani appear like a green-eyed sore loser. Apart from this humiliation, Kimani is locked up for six months for assaulting a member of parliament. He is also demoted from the position of professor to senior lecturer for disgracing the university. Tuni's death, desertion by Asiya and mistreatment by the university test him hard. These three losses harden into a grudge. After his jail term, he is weary due to lack of sleep. He even decides to walk out of the teaching job, a post he had initially purposed to do for life. Surely, seeking vengeance may cause more harm than good and pepper salt on a wound.

Apart from that, when Engineer Seif Tahir feels rejected by a junior female colleague, he is infuriated and decides to avenge. Does this vengeance buy him peace? No. He becomes even more restless. It causes him nothing but pain. Tahir falls in love with a kind woman aptly named Rahma - Arabic for very kind. She has a big smile and big eyes. She is beautiful. Rahma is Tahir’s junior by a million miles. This difference in rank is ironically a disadvantage to Tahir. This is because he cannot stand the indignity of rejection by a junior colleague. Tahir regrets obsequiously saying “Sabah Kher” and quickly invites Rahma for tomato soup assertively. It is Wednesday. He suggests a tomato soup date during the weekend giving the lady four days notice. She does not say anything but her big eyes shine like a light bulb. She also gives him a big smile revealing big white teeth and big purple gums. Tahir also notices that she has a dimple on her left cheek. Her head is covered in a head veil as per the Libyan customs. Tahir suggests that they meet on Saturday. She says no. A sweet no to conceal her eagerness to accept the tomato soup offer. Enthusiasm to say yes would be unseemly for a Libyan woman. Tahir mistakes the sweet deceptive no for a sour no. He cannot stand the ungracious rejection. He storms back to his office in a fit of fury vowing to pay back. And revenge he does. He slaps Rahma during the “Heritage week” when she removes her head veil, an impediment for her laboratory work. He does it ostensibly to punish a female colleague violating the culture but in truth he only does it as vengeance out of disappointment and humiliation of rejection. Without thinking, Rahma hits back. Tahir loses his left eye when she strikes back with a letter opener. He spends a month in hospital and when he is discharged he is bitter and vengeful. He wins the case and Rahma loses her eye according to the “an eye for an eye” Hammurabic verdict. This victory of revenge leaves Tahir with an air of unrelenting sorrow and self-hatred instead of joy. The agony is compounded by the artificial eye concealing the hole in his face. He sinks into deep gloom and leaves Tripoli for Benghazi for a retreat in solitude to escape nagging friends trying to talk him out of his anguish. Indeed, revenge only causes more pain rather than relief.

Thirdly, Comrade Melusi Ngobile tries to attack Zimbabwe’s president in a bid to avenge his wife Ziliza but ends up with an egg on his face when he is ignominiously seized and whisked away by security guards. Zimbabwe’s president commits many atrocities against Melusi and his Ndebele tribesmen but the biggest pain emanates from the death of his dear wife. First, the new ruler refuses to appoint comrade Melusi minister solely on ethnic grounds. He is Shona while Melusi is Ndebele - thus a perceived enemy. He also sacks the leader of Melusi's group for supposedly plotting to execute a coup. Anti-government protests that erupt following this dismissal result in a cruel response from the government. The 5th brigade “Gukurahundi” unleashes untold terror on the Ndebele insurgents killing many people including Ziliza, Melusi's wife. They strangled her and splayed her on the kitchen floor as if in a taunt, with her eyes popping out in a deathly stare. The bigotry with which the new ruler treats the Ndebele is a story of betrayal since both tribes fought as allies against Smith - the colonial master. Furthermore, the ruler uses “Murambatsvina” to expel the urban poor from the slums without warning or alternative settlement. They chew Comrade Melusi up and spit him out. He daydreams about his wife who has been dead for 20 years yet his bitterness lingers. In a photo, she mournfully pleads with him to avenge her death. While standing at attention, he executes a wobbly salute and swears that he will revenge her death. The next day when he attempts to execute the vengeance, his plan is nipped in the bud when the hawk-eyed security guards at the summit grab him by the collar before he could attack the offending president - his arch nemesis. He is then shamelessly whisked away. When the summit reconvenes, he does not resurface. Revenge can indeed be an effort in futility that aggravates rather than alleviates the victim's pain.

Rahma regrets when she strikes back after Tahir slaps her. Her instant revenge has far-reaching consequences that she finds out when the Hammurabic verdict goes against her. Rahma is Engineer Tahir’s junior colleague. When he approaches her offering to take her out on a date, she conceals her eagerness to say yes by burying her response under layers of coyness. She simply gives him a big smile while her big eyes shine like a bulb but says nothing. When he persists, she says no. But she means yes. He had to fill in the blanks. He misinterprets her sweet no for a sour no and vows to revenge. He slaps Rahma as she is removing her head veil for work. Rahma does not stop to think of her next step of action. She strikes back instead of restraining herself. She fails to reason logically in the heat of anger. She reacts on reflex after being hit first. She fails to consider future consequences. Turning the other cheek would have been a better response, wouldn’t it? She splits Engineer Tahir’s left eye open using a letter opener. He spends a month in hospital and comes back bitter and vengeful, taking her to court the same day. He avers that he slapped her to stop her from imitating Americans and disgracing Libya. In her defense, she cites temporary insanity caused by extreme provocation. She regrets her thoughtless act of vengeance when the court returns a Hammurabic verdict, “an eye for an eye”. She cries but the court is not moved. She loses her left eye through surgery. Rahma’s quest for revenge causes her more pain in the long run.

When the new Shona ruler fires the leader of Melusi’s group, his Ndebele tribesmen retaliate but this results in more pain for them. In a bid to retain power, the new ruler decides to strengthen his supporters and weaken his opponents by sacking the ruler of Melusi’s group. A cache of weapons materialised at his home and it was presumed he was plotting a coup. This led to the eruption of anti-government protests. The Ndebele retaliated because of their man’s humiliation. They went on a rampage attacking any government supporter in their sight. However, the pain of that humiliation was compounded by the government’s retribution against them after they sought revenge. They are attacked by the 5th brigade - Gukurahundi. The Ndebele insurgents are washed off like chaff. Comrade Melusi’s wife is killed by the Gukurahundi in the ensuing violence. He recounts the story in a faltering voice, while sniffling and his eyes glistening with the beginning of tears. He had rushed home from the office and found the front door of his house wide open, the living room in shambles and an empty backyard. He calls out for his wife, Ziliza, who does not respond. He finds her strangled, eyes bulges of a dead stare, and splayed on the kitchen floor as if to taunt him. She was killed by the 5th brigade. Melusi dissolves in his tears recalling this. After the insurgency, the Ndebele who had once fought alongside Shona as allies, were now seen as rivals and foes to be eliminated. Indeed revenge can result in more pain.

In conclusion, tit for tat is a fair game or so they say but clearly, reprisal may worsen a bad situation. Kimani, Tahir, Melusi and Rahma move from the frying pan into the fire while seeking vengeance.

FATHERS OF NATIONS KCSE ESSAY QUESTION  

Closely referring to Professor Kimani in Fathers of Nations, write an essay to show how one problem can lead to another.

Sometimes we find ourselves in certain problems.  It is possible that one problem can lead to another one.  In Fathers of Nations, Professor Kimani is faced with a series of problems that seem to result from one another.

The problem of global recession means low wages for professors like Karanja Kimani. The changes proposed by the donors come with tough consequences. They catalyse excesses. Members of parliament who earned less than professors when Kimani started working now rack up a hundred times more than professors do. While professors' salaries are taxable, MPs exempt themselves from paying taxes. Kimani tells his daughter about this while spending time with her in a low-end restaurant. Kimani can only afford an old Toyota unlike members of parliament like Walomu who own up to four vehicles. Kimani gets pressure from his wife who compels him to quit teaching and seek greener pastures. Indeed, one problem can lead to another.

Professor Kimani's financial woes contribute to the death of his daughter Tuni. Tuni wants to borrow her father’s car which his wife Asiya refers to as a dying old Toyota. The request makes Kimani wince. It is like dirt that an enemy had shot into his face to mock him. He is forced to tell her the truth after unsuccessfully fumbling for an excuse. The car is down again. He hopes to fix it when he gets his next salary. His wife initially saw him like a young man going places but now, like his car, he is an old man going nowhere. She even suggests that he goes for greener pastures like Newborn who owns four cars. When Tuni uses a public minivan instead, she is involved in a tragic crash that claims her life. For six months, the parents are inconsolable. Asiya blames Kimani saying Tuni would be alive if he had a real car. Truly, one problem can lead to another.

Following Tuni’s death, the strain in the relationship between Asiya and Kimani is compounded further. After Tuni’s death, the parents are inconsolable for six months. After grieving the death of her daughter, the dejection shifts to her husband. Asiya suddenly loathes him. When he tries to touch her, she jumps back and shrinks away. He is forced to keep out of her way. Their communication is reduced to wordless nods and wordless smiles. All along, she remains gloomy. She moans until one evening when she drops the bombshell. She was leaving professor Kimani. Surely, one problem can result in another.

Professor Kimani's financial woes and his daughter’s death result in the separation between him and his wife. His wife of over 30 years, Asiya Omondi, deserts him barely six months after the untimely death of their daughter Tuni. Asiya did not want to live with him anymore. Newborn Walomu had asked to marry her. Asiya had earlier opened some wounds when she suggested that Kimani quits teaching and seeks greener pastures. She peppers the wound by comparing him to Newborn who owns four cars. Newborn was a rowdy fellow and Kimani’s former junior colleague at the university. Kimani asks if Asiya was marrying Newborn for his money. It was not a guarantee of happiness, he says. Asiya mocks him about not having any money. His efforts to convince his 60-year-old wife to stay with him is futile. She leaves the next morning.

Even after taking his wife, Newborn adds insult to injury when he mocks professor Kimani. Professor Kimani considers Newborn an archenemy. He calls him a greedy fat baboon. Kimani confronts him for stealing his wife. He wonders what good she is to him but feels the question degrades both he and Asiya. Newborn victoriously rocks in his chair. He mocks Kimani when he gives him spouse stealing statistics citing a Texas professor who said that 17% of Americans, 30% of Britons and 40% of Greeks are spouse stealers. He says that although Asiya is old, old is gold. Unable to tolerate the derision, Kimani takes three swings at Newborn, misses each time, loses balance and falls. The two angry men are arrested after the clumsy scuffle. For Kimani, one problem surely leads to another.

Newborn makes fun of professor Kimani after stealing his wife and the ensuing scuffle leads to Kimani’s arrest. After Asiya leaves him for Newborn, Kimani confronts him. He insults him calling him a fat baboon and inquires why he stole his wife. Newborn casually mocks his former colleague. The professor decides to fight him but the physical altercation only results in his arrest. He is charged with assaulting a member of parliament. He serves six months and leaves prison utterly dejected.

Following his arrest, Professor Kimani is demoted from his current rank as professor back to his starting rank as senior lecturer. This comes after a scuffle with Newborn. Kimani is charged with assaulting a member of parliament. Newborn Walomu was Kimani’s junior colleague at the university. He marries Kimani’s wife Asiya. When he confronts and fights him, he is demoted as due punishment for disgracing the university in the eye of the public. Kimani had joined the university of Nairobi as a senior lecturer in the Institute of Development Studies after completing his studies at the University of Oxford. He successfully advocates for a number of ‘radical’ changes. He later marries a campus beauty Asiya Omondi and is promoted to rank of professor. All this happiness comes crashing down when Asiya is stolen by Newborn, Kimani is arrested and demoted. His career is doomed beyond revival. Going against his vow, he thinks of quitting teaching once and for all.

In conclusion, when it rains it pours. Sometimes one problem ends up creating another one.

FATHERS OF NATIONS KCSE ESSAY QUESTION  

Citizens in a country with failed leadership face many problems. With reference to Zimbabwe in Paul B. Vitta's Fathers of Nations, write an essay in support of this statement.

A country that has bad leadership is riddled with a myriad of problems. Citizens living in such countries bear the brunt of the failed leadership. Melusi and others live in agony because of the bad leadership in Zimbabwe.

Citizens living in a country with failed leadership are poor. At 1:30 p.m., Chaminuka Restaurants is empty. It only has two customers Melusi and Longway. People do not eat out anymore unless a foreigner is footing the bill. The empty restaurant has a mournful look of a funeral parlour. This is because the economy had crashed so people had no money. Melusi looks darker than usual because of hunger. After polishing off his chicken, he also eats Longway’s rejected meal of steak and mashed potato. Zimbabwe’s leader had bombed the economy back to the stone age. Melusi is forced to relocate from the suburbs to the slums because he cannot afford rent anymore. Most of the urban poor live in the slums. They do not support the current leadership. They support the opposition. The failed leadership is responsible for the poverty in Zimbabwe.

Negative ethnicity in Zimbabwe is a result of failed leadership. The largest ethnic group is Shona and the other is Ndebele. The national anthem is translated into the two languages. Longway is shocked to learn that the new ruler refused to appoint Melusi minister merely on ethnic grounds. The leader is Shona while Melusi is Ndebele. The ruler also fires the leader of Melusi's group because of tribalism. A cache of weapons materialised at his home and he was accused of allegedly plotting a coup. The Ndebele protest against the dismissal of their leader. Anti-government unrest erupts in the southern part of Zimbabwe. They attack government supporters. The government retaliates by sending their Gukurahundi - a Shona word for first rainstorm - to wash off the Ndebele insurgents. Although they fought a common enemy together, the leader who is Shona now regards the Ndebele as rivals to be eliminated. Only fellow Shona could be trusted. Tribalism is as a result of failed leadership in Zimbabwe.

During the retaliation against the anti-government protests, the government kills many people. The Ndebele insurgency against the government attracts retribution from the Shona government. Their leader had been humiliated after an unceremonious dismissal from government. They go on a rampage attacking government supporters. The Gukurahundi attack and kill their the Ndebele in retaliation. Melusi is teary when he recounts how his wife was murdered by the fifth brigade. She was strangled and splayed on the kitchen floor as if to taunt him. After desperately looking for her everywhere he found her dead, her eyes bulging. He cries a lot and dissolves in tears recounting this sad story. The failed leadership is responsible for the murder of innocent civilians.

Although Zimbabwe was doing badly and everything spelled the ruler’s defeat in the elections, he still won by ninety-nine percent of the votes because he rigged the results. Melusi formed the New Independence Party – NIP, ran for presidency and still failed. The transition government was to aid a peaceful passage to an elected government. The economy crashed under the leader’s watch. The disjointed opposition was no match for the bomber. The election was a sham and he had a landslide victory. This resulted in disaffection. Failed leadership results in election malpractices and needless to say, the citizens suffer.

The urban poor are evicted from their homes in the slums because of supporting the opposition. The government uses Murambatsivina -  a Shona word for expelling the trash to tear down houses of the slum dwellers and evict the residents. Melusi and others are forcefully evicted without prior warning or alternative accommodation. The leadership did not care if they lived or died. The bomber claimed the aim of the eviction was to prevent diseases and curb crime but in real sense it was to punish the poor who supported the opposition. Longway acknowledges that Melusi went through hell. Melusi says Murambatsvina chewed him up and spit him out. Failed leadership is intolerant and inconsiderate to those who do not support it.

Businesses were doing badly because of inflation. The inflation was eroding incomes faster than they could grow. Melusi and other people had no money. He is forced to move from a clean suburb and relocate to a slum in a poor part of Harare. He smiles but his eyes betray the sorrow in his soul.

In conclusions, citizens suffer innumerable problems as a result of poor leadership in their countries.

FATHERS OF NATIONS KCSE ESSAY QUESTION  

When one acts without thinking, they may end up in trouble. Referring to Paul B. Vitta's Fathers of Nations, write an essay to support this statement.

Sometimes people make illogical decisions. Rahma and Pastor Chiamaka land in problems because of taking actions that are devoid of reason.

Professor Kimani acts irrationally when he decides to attack Newborn Walomu, and he suffers. He attacks him for stealing his wife. Asiya Omondi, Kimani’s wife, suggests that he leave the university and seek greener pastures. This suggestion hurts him, but she peppers the wound when she compares him to Walomu, a former junior colleague, who is now a member of parliament with four cars. When Asiya leaves him for Walomu, he decides to confront him. First, he calls him a fat baboon. Then when Walomu mocks him, he is unable to tolerate it and assaults him. He takes two swings at him but misses. He swings again loses his balance and falls. He ends up in trouble when he is arrested and charged with assaulting a member of parliament. He is demoted from full professor back to his starting rank as senior lecturer by the university. He serves a six-month jail term and is so dejected when he is released. The mistreatment by the university and the state tests him hard and long until he reaches a breaking point. He even quits teaching. (Pgs. 21-38, 45, 102, 155)

Engineer Seif Tahir makes a rash decision to slap Rahma when she ‘rejects’ him, and he suffers. Engineer Tahir falls in love with a beautiful junior colleague called Rahma Mahmoud. He avoids approaching her to avert the indignity that would come with the rejection by a colleague who was his junior by a million miles. One Wednesday he musters up courage and asks her out for tomato soup. Rahma remains silent, simply smiling sweetly, but finally says no when he suggests Saturday. In the heat of passion, he fails to reason clearly and misinterprets the ‘sweet no’ as a ‘sour no’ and reacts to it violently. Thinking it was a rebuff to hurt him, he storms out of the office in a fit of rage, believing Miss Mahmoud had said no to put him down. Rejection by a woman and a junior colleague humiliates him. Unwisely, he vows to avenge. He slaps Rahma during the ‘Heritage Week’ for removing her head veil, a retribution for rejecting his advances. He ends up in trouble when she strikes back and slits his left eye open. He spends a month in the hospital. He becomes bitter and vengeful. He sues Rahma, who loses the case and has to lose her eye. This vengeance does not buy Tahir peace. He becomes more restless about the removal of head veils in public and sinks into a deep gloom from losing an eye and having an artificial replacement in its place. He leaves Tripoli and relocates to Benghazi when his friends try to talk him out of his gloom. (Pgs. 117-125)

Pastor Chineke Chiamaka makes an illogical decision when he preaches a combative sermon attacking the president. He says the president has made public a memo he has written to his staff about an ongoing problem. That Nigeria expects its president to find a solution, not to write a memo. He says the government is supposed to take action, not to advise itself. He gets this information from a memo leaked out to him by a newspaper reporter. It says, ‘My government advises its officers to treat recent events with caution.’. He also talks about riots and makes sensitive remarks that had sparked rebellions in three cities in the past. The president had done nothing but call the fires consuming the cities ‘recent events.’. The congregation gives no response because he was trying to drag it into politics. It kept quiet since it was afraid of the consequences if it followed him. This sermon was unlike his previous sermon, ‘God is Watching You!’ which was excellent: witty and persuasive. Pastor Chiamaka attacks the president for writing a memo instead of solving the problem. He lands in the soup when the police pick him up at dawn the following morning. He is locked up in a rat-infested cell with smelly inmates for two weeks. After he is set free, he is banned from preaching. (Pgs. 108-116)

Rahma Mahmoud acts without thinking when she strikes and splits Engineer Seif Tahir’s left eye, and she suffers. Tahir had asked her out for tomato soup. She coyly declines his offer, but her ‘No’ actually means yes. She does this only to conceal her eagerness to accept the offer, which would have been unseemly. Feeling humiliated following the rejection by a woman who is many miles his junior, Tahir vows to retaliate. The next morning, he slaps her apparently to administer discipline on a female subordinate for shedding her head veil in public. She does not stop to think when she strikes back. In the heat of anger, she hits back by reflex, without thinking of the future consequences. Turning the other cheek would have been a better response. She slits Tahir’s left eye open using a letter opener. Rahma is taken to court, and she pleads her innocence, citing temporary insanity caused by extreme provocation. The court returns a Hammurabic verdict—an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. She cries, “No,” but the court is not moved. She also loses an eye to surgery. (Pgs. 118-123)

The Ndebele act irrationally when they go on a rampage and attack government supporters, but this leads to untold suffering. The anti-government unrest erupts following the sacking of their leader. A cache of firearms materialised at his home, and it was presumed that he was plotting a coup. However, this was simply a ploy by the new ruler to strengthen his supporters and weaken opponents. The dismissed leader was Ndebele, while the ruler was Shona. The Ndebele decide to attack government supporters, irked by their man’s humiliation. In retribution, the 5th brigade, Gukurahundi, strikes back, killing Ndebele insurgents. Gukurahundi is Shona for the year’s first rain that washes chaff off fields before soil tilling. They washed off the insurgents like chaff. As a result, hundreds of Ndebeles are killed. One of the victims is Ziliza, comrade Melusi’s wife. She was strangled by Gukurahundi and splayed on the kitchen floor. Melusi dissolves in tears when recounting this heart-breaking reminiscence. After the insurgency, the new ruler changes and regards all Ndebele tribesmen as rivals. Even well-meaning Ndebele are regarded as foes to be eliminated. (Pgs. 87-88, 90-91, 103)

Comrade Melusi gets in trouble when he acts irrationally by trying to attack Zimbabwe’s ruler during the summit convention at Banjul. He does this to avenge the death of his wife, Ziliza, among other grievances. He hates the ruler immensely for murdering hundreds of people, including his wife, driving thousands of Zimbabweans out of their homes, and ruining the economy. When the Gukurahundi strikes, they strangle Melusi's wife and splay her on the kitchen floor as if to taunt him—her eyes bulge with a dead stare. Twenty years later, Melusi decides to seek revenge. When staring at a photo of his wife, he feels she was urging him, in a mournful plea, to avenge her death. Melusi swears that she will have her revenge. He rises on his feet, stands at attention, executes a wobbly salute, and intones an oath. Despite the tight security at the summit opening, Melusi is determined. He insists on attending the convention with his diabetes needle, a potential weapon. During the summit, he imprudently hurtles toward the ruler of Zimbabwe, dying to take his revenge. The guards seize him by the collar and whisk him away. The incident causes pandemonium in the summit hall. After the arrest, Melusi does not resurface. (Pgs. 82-85, 85-99, 103, 143-144, 155-156, 174)

In conclusion, we have to stop and think before taking action; otherwise, we may land in the soup. Illogical actions may result in problems.

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