The introduction

You have heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. It is used so frequently now that we accept it as a basic truth. It is almost a statement of fact like: The world is round. My own understanding is a simple one; that a picture can tell a story far better than a whole load of descriptive text.

This post is about a picture. You may have seen this picture, read about it or even seen a video about the events of the day that the picture was taken. To avoid issues of copyright I cannot post it here but nothing says I cannot tell you what has happened since. In any event you have the picture imprinted in your mind.

You may recall how a few weeks ago a well known politician was enjoying a lovely dance with his supporters when a man in the crowd got up waving a kiboko. The disciplinarian villager whacked the leader a couple of times before security personnel could restrain him. Nobody was seriously hurt during the bizarre drama and as it happened the incident made great news as a comedy piece drawing hilarious comments on social media.

The political leader graciously forgave his cane attacker asking for all charges against him to be dropped and the matter was soon forgotten. Or was it?

The man with the cane incident was like a small pebble that is thrown into a quiet pool. Ripple waves spread out in all directions from the centre touching the lives of many people in a way that nobody would ever have imagined.

to be continued