Contrary to popular belief, this is
not the 50th year of
independence
The Sunday Nation
Nairobi,
12 January 2014
There is no argument about this: Kenya is 50 years old (plus a few weeks). The question that is being debated is whether we are in our 50th year of independence. A similar issue arose in 1999: was the January 1st 2000 the correct day to celebrate the coming of the new millennium?
At that time, some 14 years ago, the argument was that since year zero does not exist in history, then the first millennium [1,000 years] ran from 1st January of year 1 to 31st December of year 1000. After that the second millennium started on 1st January of year 1001 and should have ended on 31st December of the year 2000. But we know what happened: the New Millennium was celebrated on 1st January 2000 – a whole year early!
Using the same logic, it is clear that Kenya's first year of independence ran from 12th December 1963 to 11th December 1964. The second one started on 12th December 1964 and ended on 11th December 1965... If we continue counting in this manner, it we shall find that the date 12th December 2013 marked the END of the 50th year. Thus we are now in the 51st year of independence – and this will end on 12 December 2014.
But even after clearing that up, a small matter remains. It was raised by Festus Mbuimwe when he wrote: “My figures question relates to the number of days to an event. Do we also count the day of the event?”
For example, today is the 12th of January; how many days remain before we reach the last day of the month? Do we simply subtract 12 from 31 to get 19? Or do we count today as day 1, tomorrow as day 2 and so on up to the 31st (which will be day 20)?
Well, the best way to figure this out is by asking ourselves whether on
31st January we can be justified to say that we are one day
from the end of the month. Obviously not! One day from the end of the
January is the 30th; consequently, two days from the end of
the month must be on the 29th and so on… Then it turns out
that today (the 12th of January) is indeed 19 days from the
end of the month. For once, a simple calculation (31 – 12 = 19) was the
correct one.
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Michael Mungai (not related to me!) wants to know how to express quantities that are not very large. He writes: “We talk of trillions of things and also about billions, millions, thousands and hundreds. What should we call them if they are less than 100? When I hear some one saying that ‘tens of things’, it sounds very awkward to me.”
I agree with you, namesake; while it is mathematically correct, “tens of things” does sound awkward. I would prefer “dozens of things”. And if they are fewer than ten, then I’d say “several”
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