Here is a sad reality even for we who are not so churchy
Mark 14:7 - "For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them"
Strange that even countries with GDPs per capita in excess of $70,000 still have homeless people. Where then do you draw the "all clear" line to give tokens to close partner nations facing a once in a life time tragedy? Zero poverty? Zero lack? In my view, this is one gesture that was too long in coming.
We have huge problems but 86M is a minuscule fraction of Kenya's GDP. Inter-governmental goodwill (not necessarily aid or loans), just like big business is determined not so much by how poor or desperate we are, but by interpersonal relationships.
Obviously we cannot dish it out to everybody like its Christmas. Gifts should be dished out sparingly. But if we stop looking at the Japanese government as some distant, amorphous entity and start seeing it as a collection of decision makers & real people that have been on Kenya's side through thick and thin, then we will see this token to one of their nation's biggest tragedy in recent memory, is a no brainer.
In the greater context of Japan-Kenya relations & history, $1million will be little more than a blip on the financial radar but whose goodwill will pay off for generations.
To date (230 years later), Americans still remember that the French stood with them during their struggle for independence against conventional European opinion at the time.
Yes, the poor you will always have among you. Helping IDPs and the hungry does not mean we cannot use cash for anything else at the same time. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.
It is time African nations start to see the forest from the trees.
Katika Jangwa la Jangili ndipo Pwagu hupata Pwaguzi.