Dissent

My dear Kenyans

Please do not shout us down because some of us after the election still dissent. We are not any less patriotic for thinking otherwise. Do not chastise us for having serious reservations about our president elect. Do not deny us the liberty to shudder at the serious human rights violations charges leveled against our president elect and want answers. After all, not every African leader is walking around with similar charges and for our Nation’s sake, we deserve answers.  We have many other reasons and suspicions and we ask you to please not mistake our dissent for hatred, it is not. Some of us are Christians and know our duty to pray for the leader of our Nation and the content of those prayers may not be “Oh God how thankful we are” but, “Have mercy on us O God that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life in all Godliness”.  And some of us dissent because we do not view a Democratic decision as the equivalent of God’s approval, for we are well aware that many nations before us including Israel have asked for a King and God gave them a King. We also dissent because although we agree that it is God who raises up leaders and puts others down, it is also God who raises up those leaders for good or for evil and we just want to be sure for Democracy does not provide these assurance. Yes we dissent and we are proud to dissent and we are not six, we are a couple million strong. We may not pay homage to the majority, but we keep democracy vibrant dissenting even after the election, for the end of tallying does not signal the end of peaceful dissent… We too are going back to work, doing other things like dissenting and making widgets and building nations and paying homage to God alone who has never been known to be democratic and who may not necessarily shout for joy because the people have spoken. Personally I think the boy from Starehe is pretty smart..he he. Peace!!

Kenyans for Kenya

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Taking the initiative to save our own...Yes We Can!

We Were Going to Get an Education If it Killed Us

Maybe the memory of kneeling on kokoto is fading; wewe umechelewa may no longer set your nerves on edge. But yes, we were going to get us an education if it was the last thing we did!

The glory days of the raggy [for all you sophisticates that was the only backpack to have] It was a book bag that gave us the dash of military men and gals with the easy-go of commercial travelers. The utter genius of stuffing these book-bags with books that we took home, did nothing with, and carried back to school the next morning will soon be explained...by a philosopher.

The next morning when, had it rained, the rich would come in unscathed with gumboots and the richer still would be dropped off in their dad's Toyota. For the other unwashed masses who had to walk, the mud was simply afraid of us, else how would we manage the rugged muddy terrain?

Hata tu ni break time and we would be unleashed to buffet the poor canteen lady with jostling of warm bodies with hands upraised whilst levitating as needed. If your body, attached to your arm, clenching five kashatas and two mabuyus and five ten-cent buns has never felt the sheer thrill, you have not yet began to live. In this case as well the rich would send the 'less-rich' at a premium named by the former and would gladly miss out on the aforementioned rush of adrenaline.

We had struggling, undiscovered 'artists' who due to scarcity of art supplies, an uncouth sense of art, or something worse entertained one and all with their muses on the bathroom walls! One gets the fleeting idea that maybe even then artists needed to get a real job.

We were where the life was; as a matter of fact, fiction writers had nothing on us, we were stranger than fiction itself: Breezing through the pledge of allegiance on Friday assembly; singing "I am happy today" and "father Abraham, had many sons, many sons had father Abraham..."; sticking out our fingernails to the merciless teacher/inspector who for some reason forgot that after all, we were children and whacked us with a ruler for long/dirty fingernails...or was it because we had failed to apply the second coat?

Mrs. K, demanding that you splain' a math concept that you couldn't if your life depended on it, proceeded to beat you with that electric or water pipe as if that would jack up your IQ a few notches. We were forced to bear these teachers with a thousand servilities and bury our anger in dumb stoicism.

The class of wajinga and the class of waclever was an enigma wrapped up in another enigma...oh, the arrogance of it all!.

We had an education-in-a-can that was supposed to work for all and if someone did not measure up they were labelled as mwendawazimu or mujinga....and beaten some more. Within any human being, right beneath the surface is sterling stuff and it's not all subject to KCPE filters. Students were reduced to standardized tests and insults were heaped on the pragmatic, kinesthetic, artistic who in all honesty were a lot more than martyrs to their own nerves. Only the theorists and scientifically inclined were exalted as if everybody's dream was to one day sit in a lecturer's office or a laboratory. A cheerful, hardworking disposition not marred by any superfluity of theories and beakers is cheerful and priceless nonetheless-don't crush it!

If on closing day you were "wanted" you groveled at the mercy of the 'first-body' to save you from the 'second-body'. Of course this 'first-body' was saving you from silly things you said during the term like: "Asubuhi asubuhi kwenyu tu mnasosi magoti ya dede na maji moto". or "Kwenyu nyinyi ni wapoor sana mpaka mkipika chapo fathe yenyu tu ndiyo anakula original. watoi tu wanakula photocopy za hiyo chapo moja."

Yet in all honesty, asubuhi asubuhi we all came: Some were hungry others were full; some were clean, others did their best. Most of us walked to school to face our fears or our fear-generating teachers who would punish someone's child for not having proper shoes as if the child had anything to do with buying a pair of shoes! Look for the parent and punish the parent, you heartless cowards! You wise educators whose pedagogy managed to drown out primitive reasoning powers. We had teachers who did not have or care to feign a heart, or polite thoughtfulness for that matter, honest enough to look at different economic situations in their classrooms as a fact of life and not as a weapon to intimidate and harass children. These unreasonable teachers would enter the room and our entire nervous system seemed to be stirred up with a pole. I wonder if they are very proud of their actions today.

The same variety of teachers that, during class while you were struggling with those decimals from hell, would dine a few feet from you. With a cold heart of stone, they would unleash a thermos with piping hot tea, with masala, and bread with jam and proceed to prepare themselves a table in the presence of their enemies...enough said. Well, not quite enough- that, in my opinion, was bordering insolence.

Enter the préfet...ata Maina ana stars ngapi? It was bad enough that Maina was on the noisemakers list, but Maina's name was adorned with stars that depicted degrees of evil-doing. Mere noisemakers were not the thing to be, you've got to have your star on the noise-makers walk of fame!

And for the oblivious creatures who dared raise a hand to ask a question after bell ya 3:45pm ishaa ring, somebody save them from themselves! How dare you retain a teacher to elaborate a point about a sheep with an obscure English name after the official bell has rung? What did you say? Agriculture lesson? What is that? Knowest thou not that samo zitaisha canteen? We did not mean it our dear brainiacs, we were just hungry or restless but you should have known that the bell was almighty.

The tone of the week was set by whatever teacher was on duty. Mteeche mgani yuko on duty? as that could mean merely kneeling down or kneeling with your hands upraised above your head-and that was not to firm your triceps either! Or it could be the kind that cleared the hallway with the sound of their pumps. Too exalted to be magnanimous to you who had to walk home and wait for the mfanyi-God bless our maids, past and present, they were saints- to finish making the ugali. No, the teacher on duty would look at you with an indulgent air and in the rare occasion that she forgave you, her affected magnanimity would set your blood on fire. All that escaped your plight this time around, all your fellow student's watched, listened and felt your pain with silent applause.

Nigay, nigay, nigay hata tu kidogo, woishe tu, Njeri went the singsong chant between the borrower and the buyer and the beggar and the beggee'. It was a tear-jerking display that could break the will of the strongest and coldest of hearts. Of course the bludgeoning blow of poverty had not wholly scorched in us a human weakness for break-time snacks.

To say nothing of the ilk that would engage in the illicit comportment known as copying; that copied everything including the name of the copyee' in the test.

After the end of term exams, we spent the week before closing day in unimaginable self-importance and complacency. The bold among us did not even bring our back-packs to school and we went on to play endless rounds of 'start-stop'. We 'helped' the teachers mark our desk-mate's exam papers and we could be persuaded to divulge who got 92% if the price was right. During this brief rendezvous with freedom, we engaged in overly exaggerated school cleaning activities or anything-idle. After all, we were well-oiled, 'test-taking machines' and when the tests are over, what to do?

Those were the days, but today the untouchable washees na madems back then have become gorgeous women who hold their own and break a few hearts along the way. The 'first-bodies' and the fellas have transmuted into men in whose company we are all proud beyond degrees. We were the ones we had been waiting for-well before Mr. Obama ever coined the phrase- and thank God we made it men!...and gals!

Continent Stalked by Bad Governance

KENYANS INDIGNANT OVER THE OBAMA SNUB?

June 10th 2009 President Obama embarks on a trip to Accra, Ghana and other Africans nations minus Kenya. The President praised Ghana as a role model in true democracy, and some Kenyans were just not going to take this affront sitting down.

With a human rights records that is abysmal at best, the Kenyan leadership should know by now that US presidents have a thing for human rights: just ask Sadam Hussein.

In a country where it is who you are descended from that matters rather than your abilities, I can see why there is a misapprehension...if you can call it that.

Kenyans danced and hailed Mr. Obama as the true son and representation of Africa. While Mr. Obama waltzed his way into the White House as the first African American US President, they hailed him mostly for who he was and not for what he had accomplished to get to where he was. Now that President Obama is calling on Kenya to 'shape up', the luster of the son of the motherland is beginning to wane: now he is not all that magical after all.

They did not know if Obama was for bigger government of smaller government; they did not know if he was pro or anti-abortion; they did not know if he was for cap and trade or cap and not trade or just trade or maybe just cap... and they sure did not know that he was going to declare himself champion of the gay cause in America: they would have choked on that one.

They knew hardly anything about the man, his beliefs, his political persuasions and they sure were not trying to find out. They knew one thing: Obama was their own and that was enough. They offered their support as a patronage; after all, one good turn deserves another. Who you are is something Kenyans do well: forget what you can do or what you know, but who you are and who you know is your only hope for a better existence.

They cried 'foul!' when Obama said 'shape up or I won't show up'. Why, how dare he? When they supported him not for what he believed or did but for who he was.

Obama must have missed the memo that listed down the expectations to help 'his people' of Kenya because he was one of them, and please don't anyone bring up their attainments, pursuits or record as a nation.

The cry went out, "Help us Obama, because we knew your father, and we know your grandmother and we even know what district your father belongs to". Unfortunately, Mr. Obama was looking at "What are you doing as a nation for the good of your citizens for me to stop by and give you all that positive PR?

Now they say, Obama is not that extra-ordinary after all, he was just in the right place at the right time and we have thousands of other 'Obamas' in Kenya who are even more talented than 'the' Obama is. Furthermore, if this Obama doesn't work out, we'll just churn out another 'Obama'; we have more where that one came from. Yes, and so we can; We may if we can get rid of the crippling machine that is the corrupt system that suffocates everyone and everything and ties everybody up in red, green black and white tape.

Any admonition to do better as a Nation should not be a call to defensive arms, but a call to do better from those on the outside looking in.

According to Transparency International: the global coalition against corruption, Kenya ranks an appalling 147 out of 180, well behind Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, India and Ghana which ranks 67. Well, some aide must have forgotten to alert Obama to remember not to look at such damning statistics and just come on out to Kenya and have a grand ol' time with the folks. Family is family right?

It is an indignity for millions to be subjected to an uncivil civil government whose wheels have to be greased by bribes else nothing gets done. It is unacceptable to dash the hopes of millions by promising change and delivering corruption and poverty decade after decade. It is the twenty first century in this brave new world and somewhere in Kenya, somebody has to fear for their lives for opposing a government that is a disgrace if not an outright sham.

So before coming down on president Obama for taking the Kenyan leadership to task for their horrid record on human rights, and before you write a scathing commentary on how you "Dont need Obama to show you how to make a great country"...yes, I read the Kenya Standard Newspaper July 10th 2009, thank you very much; Before you reprove him for articulating what is evident to the whole world, consider that Obama was not visiting to "show you how to style up"... He was asking a rather poignant long overdue question: What the hell is taking you decades to provide for your citizens a decent existence? This question has been asked by millions of Kenyans behind closed doors and many times in despair and even fear. Maybe it is a kindness for the President to ask it from the rooftops of the world. Maybe...just maybe he will shame you into 'styling up'.

The leaders of Kenya for decades have oppressed the average citizen who subsists on less than a dollar a day, while the members of parliament make more money than US congressmen.

Kenya is home to president Obama's father. Kenya is the land of Mr. Obama's ancestors... some of them at least; but Kenya is not the land of president Obama's work ethic. Barack Obama has had to work hard to become president of the United States of America, and making it through a grueling two years plus campaign across the US of A is no child's play. He worked hard and did not attain the presidency by wearing a T-shirt that says "I am from Kenya and I am brilliant". Whether you supported him or not, one would be overtly dishonest to say that Mr. Obama made it by chance or patronage. You get election landslides by hard work not tribal affiliations.

Pray, let the millions of brilliant Kenyans trapped in a decaying corrupt state and local government have the same opportunity that Mr. Obama had: the prospect to work hard and make it count.

After the 2007 disputed Kenyan election that was a display of greed, lust for power, a disrespect for basic human rights, cold blooded organized killings and a chilling reminder that freedom of anything in Kenya is limited to as long as you don't oppose a corrupt leadership too loudly.

In an interview not too long ago with allafrica.com, Mr. Obama said that Kenya's leaders "do not seem to be moving into a permanent reconciliation that would allow the country to move forward."

In Kenya the leaders are more concerned about being addressed as "Your Excellency", or "Honorable so and so" sheesh, even President Obama is not "His Excellency", he is Mr. President! And what excellency have you bestowed on 35 million people, O you few excellent ones?

The president also noted that the West Coast country of Ghana that he intends to visit "has now undergone a couple of successful elections in which power was transferred peacefully,"

Whilst president Bill Clinton's legacy in Africa was the Somalia Debacle and the abandoned Rwandan Tutsi to a hellish genocide, George W. Bush's legacy is extraordinary:

The 2003 launching of PEPFAR: America's initiative to combat the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.
$15billion was made available over five years with a goal of providing medical care for 19 million people with HIV mainly in Africa and the Caribbean.
PEPFAR succeeds by combining enormous amounts of money to fund drugs and broadens assistance beyond the individual with HIV by supplying medical equipment and training very many health care staff members and by helping put children from HIV homes through school.

By 2008 PEPFAR's budget in Kenya was about $535million. This supplied ARVs, food and microfinance so that people that are infected can still make a living.

The head of the PEPFAR programme in Nairobi, said of the distribution of this aid to the needy that resistance was NOT in Washington; "the people we have to push are the (Kenyan government)health officials".

President George W. Bush quietly tripled U.S. aid to Africa.

Another program in the Bush administration provided free bed nets in 15 African countries cutting malaria infections by half and saving the lives of millions of very young children. Malaria had been killing one million children under five years old every year.

Nobody danced on the streets of Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya when George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004. Forget what George W. Bush did for Kenya: he was not 'one of us'...and forget what Obama intends to do or not do for Kenyans: he is 'one of us' and so the saga continues...

Mr. Barrack Muluka of the Kenya Standard: "Obama is only the latest custodian of American doublespeak"...Give me a break!