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The time has come for those of us in this blog who claim to love our country to start doing something other than just "talking here."
After considering your comments it is clear that opinion is divided over whether we should call for the resignation of the police commissioner and the Internal security minister or not. So for the sake of unity I have left out that issue and concentrated on what we all agree on. Which is the fact that something has got to be done about insecurity in the country.
Our campaign is not opportunistic as somebody has suggested or designed to draw attention to us. NO. All we want is action to be taken so that our brothers and sisters who do not live in Muthaiga can be safe from Mungiki and company, during this election year.
I suggest that starting Monday, we each take the time to draft letters to all the media houses whose addresses we can get. Via email, P.O. Boxes etc. Our campaign will be simply appealing for the violence against poor Kenyans who do not have the resources to defend themselves, to stop. The plan is to bombard every media outlet we can find with this issue so that Kenyans and the authorities can wake up to the danger that looms large before us.
I urge you not to underestimate this simple sounding strategy. If we can all participate and call on as many other Kenyans to participate, we can influence public opinion enough to make a difference. Especially now when our beloved preferred presidential candidates have ALL gone to sleep and are dreaming ONLY of the motorcycle motorcades and being called “MUTUKUFU.”
If you can send a copy of each letter that you send out to the media to our email address here umissedthis@yahoo.com, I will keep count of how many letters each of us has sent out. By the way it is also useful to indicate as you send me copies of the letters, how many letters you have sent out. The second phase of the plan will involve getting as many mobile telephone numbers of like-minded Kenyans as possible to push our message and agenda forward to the people. But let us start with the simple before moving to the more complex and involving.
Ladies and gentlemen, together we can do a lot and I remind you once again that unity is of utmost importance in this noble project.
Just one more very important thing I would like to say. I have noticed that many younger Kenyans have fear of one thing above everything else. They fear this thing more than they fear a carjacker with a loaded gun. That thing is failure. Well, I have news for you. If you fear failure, you are already a failure. How many times did man fail before mechanized flight was made possible? Today man flies better and further than the birds themselves with his flying machines. If I feared failure I would have given up on the first week I launched this blog because everybody ignored it.
I will tell you what you should really fear. It is inaction because that is exactly what has gotten us into the mess we are in at the moment.
So please, don’t start analyzing how successful or how unsuccessful our campaign here will be. Let’s just roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Can you folks share here the email addresses of the daily newspapers TV stations and other media outlets outside Kenya that report on Kenya and accept comment and letters from their audiences? Let’s collect all these between today and Monday (Kenyan time) when we will launch our campaign.
Father and son seduced by the same woman called "death."
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Noble idea. Lets give it a shot and shun all the (real) scepticisms. However, we must explore this venture with the full knowledge that our media houses have their own selfish agenda as evident in the various shades of slants they give to hot/sensitive news.
ReplyDeleteAny regular contributor to our two leading dailies will coil very fast from their unprofessional response to critical (controversial) pieces. Your will mostlt be published the peg is stale or edited to remove the punch. This is naivity if you consider the fact that some of these authors are authorities published internationally (journalist not academics, even both).
So lets get moving and have the addresses of oulets outside Kenya too. Cumulative small voices will definitely be a defeaning voice that cannot be ignored eventually. We are starting from somewhere and the frogs scream themselves hoarse as we take to the pond.
In the words of one wise man "lets bring the "power" of blogs (our voice)to bear fruit"
ReplyDeleteThe time has come. We must do something...anything...to stop this Mungiki thugs!!
ReplyDeleteIf you're like me, you often imagine getting a hair curling call in the wee hours of the night and a relative informing you that your family/brother/sis has had their head sawn off by Mungiki thugs...and left on the road somewhere. Then reading about it on the next day's Nation. As gory as that is, it's happening to innocent people just like you and me...kawaida people almost everyday. My stomach's in a knot even as I write this... (I've just read that Mungiki has just killed a taxi-driver infront of his watching family. Nothing was stolen)
I'm reminded of a poem I read a while back. It struck me in my heart's core...as to what can happen to a country when good people choose to be quiet.
"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up for me."
-- by Martin Niem�lle
We'll join together with you in writing the letters, come Monday next week. Tuko Pamoja.
I agree with you, Chris, that this is the way forward. This is not the time for us to continue resting on our laurels while our country continues to languish under the incompetence of the “leaders” we let sail into the August house.
ReplyDeleteBut sometimes the poignant words of Jonathan Swift ring in my mind and I sigh heavily and let them run the breadth of my mind:
“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.”
Sometimes it seems to me that laws are put in place to stifle, strangulate and asphyxiate some people while some others toy around with them and have a field day. (Otherwise what do you make of the Anglo Leasing and Goldenberg masterminds enjoying the free air while someone who stole Ksh 100/- rotting in jail!)
I know some of us have ever read “The Nation’s Prayer” but I reproduce it here for the benefit of all of us:
“God give us men!
A time like this demands: strong minds, great heights, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who posses opinions and a will;
Men who have honour; Men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue;
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking;
Tell men, sun-crowned who live above the fog;
In public duty and in private thinking;
For while they rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds;
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps;
Wrong rules the land, and waiting justice sleeps.”
Kenya needs serious men and women who can give their eye teeth to afford the electorate the best their country can and could offer. That’s what we should ruminate over this election year.
Check out this interactive Kenyan website (http://www.kenyaimagine.com). It could be used as one of the platforms you suggested.
I think you should also consider to include other blogs and not just mainstream media houses in this grand scale project. (Blogs are a force to reckon with in this digital age). So, it will be, mainstream media on the one hand and blogs on the other, waging this necessary war. I call it “The War of Liberation”.
Folks,
ReplyDeleteLet me repeat something i have said in this blog before. Most problems we see in Kenya today can be traced to our politics.We need to fix our politics. Thre was a drive sometime eraly this year for aspirants to sign a charter of sorts with the electorate. I remember one of the requirements was for the aspirants to promise to forego half of their salaries. I am not jealous of the MPs salaries but my take is that they don't deserve it. Most importantly, we need politicians who are truly accountable to the people. I propose we back this initiative by roping in some media houses to support this cause.
Chris, what do you think of this? Can readers of this blog fine-tune this idea so that we can focus on it until we achieve our goal? On my part i will keep reminding you because i believe it is worth trying.
Joe, you seem to be new but welcome and feel at home.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your input. This is something close to my heart and we need every available patriotic Kenyan to make it work.
The advantage of doing things online is the fact that they've invented something called "Beta" meaning that you can launch something and finetune as you go along. That is exactly what we are going to do here. So you can say we have already launched and are in beta mode.
If you can get the said media houses on our side, that would be great. But remember that ultimately this is a campaign designed to reach the people directly so that even if the compromised media houses censor our message, it will still reach people. That's the online advantage.
Let's keep talking and polishing this, it will work, just wait and see.
-Kumekucha-
Folks, let us also be careful about our enemies. This is an open forum and they will obviously try to infiltrate. Let's make our plans with that in mind.
ReplyDelete-Kumekucha-
P.S. As long as we do it the way I have suggested, it won't matter because the idea is to give the campaign it's own feet so that even if key players are neutralised, the campaign will still be self-sustaining.