It’s the desire of every normal human being to be in an environment where they can further their dreams and hopes as they go about doing their everyday business to build their lives. Be they children the very young at home or those going to school, the young adults in colleges or those starting life after school or the adults and young parents, old parents or grandparents or the older citizens. Every day is a day to improve their living conditions (or enjoy the fruits of their labour).
But when you see a people despair and reach a point where they are totally OK with all the evil going on or they are just silent doing nothing … just know that something is very wrong and they are simply at a point where they are consider “not normal”. The normal behavior of a human being to improve life at all times for the betterment of everybody around them … even when all seems pretty cool.
Of coz we can go to the details of the reasons why they despairing but that will take us no where but keep us Kenyans in the same place … experiencing the same things for decades, only that they keep getting bigger in magnitude.
The legacy of evil we see in the nation must be dealt with. As Kenyans, as normal people, it would be “not normal” to always make noise expecting noise to sort things out. What are we as the people doing to eliminate the evils? Sources of disunity must be faced and corrected by all means. Kenyans should never have room for ethnic hatred. We have experienced what hate groups can do … the hate groups that preach bigotry and prejudice. We have to use all our resources to eliminate them … to bring them down. We all know the simple rules of life. Love your neighbour as yourself, do unto others what you want done to you, work honestly for what you need, etc. Let us stop compromising these principals and standards … let us never abandon them.
Be aware of the temptations of pride, bribery, self importance, greed. These will always keep us behind. We should be accountable for each an every single thing we do. Planing for the long term as we do what we should be doing right now correctly, wholeheartedly and lovingly … and at all times upholding the marks of democracy and freedom.
We have every right to dream heroic dreams … and why not, the world is made by the dreamers. We need to dream that we can do better than before and have and keep the faith that the dream will come true. And then act and the time to act is NOW.
Let us keep the hope alive and burning … as we walk our talk. Let those that come after us say that we did what could be done to make things right ... we did what we could to make the walk easier.
Chris:
ReplyDeleteWaache wale wanataka kupigana waende wakapigane.
The Mau Mau fought, the Homeguards ate the fruits.
Matiba fought Moi, Kibaki became the president.
In January 2008 the Luo youth were maimed and killed, now Raila Junior is driving govt Mercedes and screwing Kikuyu beauties.
Let the fools go fight.
As for me and my little sons we will wait and join the winners at the dining table.
Go on and wait annon @ 3:32....go on and wait you and your sons...go on wait for whoever you and your sons will join at the dinner table...go on and wait for your turn to eat. People,this is the disease that has maimed brand kenya...brokers like you who know they have a place at the dinner table when brand kenya is being gobbled up...for the rest of us kenyans who desire change,change begins with you...yes we can.
ReplyDeleteGood post, if only it could raise specific courses of action expected of each one of us.
ReplyDeleteSo now molasses thinks the media is the enemy and KTN in particular forgeting the support this station gave him prior and after the 2007 election fiasco.The man seems to be having the illusion nobody should tell him he's wrong.Truth of the matter is he swore to fight corruption when he was not in government and now he's in he wants the media to turn a blind eye to the excesses of the 'grand collusion'.And who said politicians are any different?
ReplyDeleteWE must all first get interested in our local politics...we must join political organisations that have a manifesto and vision for the country...we must make sure our representatives are men and women who are ready and willing to be our official brokers for development...we must make sure the councilmen we ellect are educated and schooled in politics and management and we must be ready to demand results on time...no more functionally illiterate councilmen and mps...we must prioritise development and monitor use of public funds...we need a major overhaul of the current system and ways of working...we need change...yes we can
ReplyDeleteDitto that drummer. Therein lies the starting point. we have to participate. Otherwise if we are not in the game then we can not influence the outcome but merely watch from the sidelines. And everyone knows that. That is why once they get into GK, they focus on personal issues as opposed to national issues. The public is willing to screwed so it can not claim rape.
ReplyDeleteDon't ask "for whom the drumbeats roll"...that is your song,get up and dance....and beat the drum to a different tune while you are at it....
ReplyDeleteWe must join organizations that have a vision for the country? Will you please name me one such organization and I will be placing a call to them right away?
ReplyDeleteIn simple terms, Mr. Drummer, no such organizations exist. Not in Kenya.
"...we must make sure the councilmen we ellect are educated and schooled .......no more functionally illiterate councilmen and mps.."
The above makes no sense at all. The flaws we have in our governance today have very little to do with a lack of education among our elected officials. We have so many Phds in Parliament it would surprise you. People like Hon Kiraitu and Dr. Kosgey are Harvard and Stanford educated. I am not sure they offer your idea of sound leadership.
My position has always been that we have to change. At the individual level. If you and I come up with a set of values and stand by them, there will be a multiplier effect and consequently we will have a virtuous society from where to draw our leadership. Anything short of that is 'living a lie' if I may use Taabu's jargon.
It is these flaws that we have in governance that we should direct our combined energies to and not fighting everyone with an idea...don't kill an idea and not give a way foward,instead be positive and hope we could mould and shape our collective ideas into a way foward. "We must elect those who are ready and willing to serve us the people" first,not enriching themselves through politics.Some of these Havard graduates are the biggest crooks, ...among the willing and ready we pick the educated and schooled,that is my two cents...Nothing short of a paradigm shift in how we view each other ,as countrymen willing to dare have an idea and demand change will work right now i agree...and we may one day have change visit us...meanwhile the drumbeat rolls...
ReplyDeleteI second you Vikii. Everything starts at the individual level.
ReplyDeleteAre you ready to patiently correct or mentor people who you very well know that their political ideals are off ... that is just one of the basic thing you can do. At the moment those already in the political class know that in 2012 the borns 1994 will be voting. These are the teenagers now aged 15 most of whom are now in form two in high school. And the political class are already campaigning and talking to them (remember the gutuka rally). That is a cleaver thing to do but the point is ... we who already know these are not the kind of political leaders we need come 2013 ... what are we doing to 'protect' or rather educate the teenagers?
Do you care enough to mentor in the right direction ... and practice what you preach? This is a collective responsibility and we cant leave it to a certain group or some people. Are we going to let more & more citizens get trapped by the dogma which is living in the results of other people's selfish thinking?
Sayra aka "Say"
ReplyDeletethe problem with us has never been lack of ideas-bad governance, corruption and tribalism exist not because we don't know how to get rid of them...
our failure even at the individual level is in the execution of doing what we say i.e.taking any necessary decisions required to tackle this country’s manifold problems
take for example the so called "cabinet re-shuffle" yesterday-by returning to cabinet a minister who has not yet been given the clean bill of health in so far as allegations made against him the powers that be on either side have slapped us collectively in the face-now the people we have representing us on both sides of the coalition uninspire our confidence in their right to be at the helm of managing Kenya's affairs
why weren't any hard decisions made? how come no one ever bites the bullet?its this vacuum of leadership at the top that betrays all the eloquence we espouse here as being nothing more than merely hot filled gaseous oratory
ideas we don't lack-and in March we shall be getting even more "ideas" in the useless "the Kenya we want" conference being organised-why don't they just read what we write here or on the more than 100 top kenyan internet sites on the web-that will tell you the kenya we want stupid
where we fail is in our delivery not even one of the plenty good ideas have we implemented and seen through to the end- until we are serious and mean business lets dispense with the hope and keep chanting overused mantras like "yes we can" nothing is moving forward now and that will not get anything moving either
C'mon people...let us realise that for any movement to occur we need a critical mass of like minded kenyans who are ready and willing to look foward and think of who we will pass the baton on to....we may not have been handed the baton yet,maybe coz the current carrier refuses to hand it over or we have not stretched out our hand to receive it,...when we have me and you and everyone here influencing our friends and their friends and our relatives on the need to get interested and involved...then the giant locomotive "brand kenya" may be stirred to life...not to grease the pockets of our current politicians but to deliver goods and services to me and you...yes we can!
ReplyDeleteChoma Man,
ReplyDeleteLeadership vacuum brought us to where we are now. And bring in new faces ... the likes of Ababu ... is not the issue, that can always be done every 5yrs. The issue is who are we the kenyans taking to parliament? In all honesty these guys are just a reflection of our society ... of who we really are. That is why one of my recommendation of cleaning up is to get the sober kenyans standing up and taking the time to mentor fellow kenyans ... reason why it should be a long term solution. And these sober Kenyans are individuals who know and understand what been clean means ... not been clean purely at an intellectual level.
Its not that Kibs does not know what is the right thing to do. He knows but he is not capable of moving beyond tribal politics and narrowly defined interest groups and of coz acquiring wealth just like those before him and those with him.
Question is can we get someone who know what is the right thing to do and one who is capable of doing it? One who will be indifferent to the politics of identity and grievance and focus on service to the people.
Kenyan are full of ideas. A 12yr old can write you a perfect essay on how to have a better kenya ... they do have a rough idea on how to go about it. But we can't let them be hijacked thru trickery by the current political class. We need them for the mass that Drummer is talking about. If in the years before people never saw the need to act for whatever reasons ... it does not mean we also sit pretty ... why don't we deliver it ourselves.
spot on sayra
ReplyDeleteexcellent post and comment above
That's what am talk n abt Sayra...i heard the drumbeats too and got up to dance,then realised i can drum too...so am now drummung a different tune that vibrates with and rhymes to the heart beat...my heart may be broken but this new beat is soothing...maybe healing...yes we can!....drum on and dance to a new tune...
ReplyDeleteYes, we the leaders we deserve.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes a Kenyan steal from public coffers at the detriment of his brothers and sisters? Why do we have leaders stand up and be counted in defence of the kenyan costitution?
Mentoring is a good idea.
In the US, most of the wealthiest people dedicated a lot of funding towards mentoring such as the Carnegie libraries, the vanderbilt university, Rockerfeller University and many others who took up causes other than making money. The Vanderbilts for instance was a patron of the arts. Such acts by unspeakably wealthy individuals engenders a feeling of greatness as an American citizen that one would not find in a Kenyan. We just do not celebrate ourselves. Witness that we just started rewarding our world renowned athletes when other countries started offering them citizenship and money; notice too that we just piped electricity to Kongelo for fear that the area was getting too much coverage and that many would think of Kenya as Kongelo!
Lastly, Kenyans need therapy.
Choma man said:
ReplyDelete...How come no one ever bites the bullet?
C'mon you SOCIALIST don't you know that biting the bullet not only leaves you TOOTHLESS but you also suffer ETERNAL CONSTIPATION and eventually extinguish life.
We are not where we are because of lack of glossy white papers (ever wondered why white?). Just like Kenyans are not adept to supping with the devil for lack of good preachers. The somple reason is we even have the termerity and guts to mock God. We have people who have not outgrown the high school CU kesha sessions in adult life.
Meanwhile it is Sunday and everything is falling into place. How evanegelistic. We are busy re-inventing the wheel and shamelesly enough our product is not even round. We were 5 years ahead of the Americans with hope and what do we say now? Live the lie and grow fat. In the meantime we enjoy the charade that is circular motion. Ole wetu.
Many ODM sycophants have fed us with a diet of half-baked facts and figures that are conspicuously a set of lies agreed upon. For example ODM claims they won the elections, probably they did, but can they prove it? I think it would be easier to prove they lost than to prove they won. But that not withstanding, and I appreciating that the polls were marred by irregularity, I must admit that not to oppose error is to approve it, but worse, not to defend truth is to suppress it.
ReplyDeleteSo justice ought to be done here. ODM must repent!!
UrXlnc,
ReplyDeleteI live in Karen not far from Prime Minister Raila Odinga, I have PHD from Havard University, married to two wives, one in Nyalugunga and one with me + a mistress who have all bore me 5 children. I drive latest hummer and eat in upmarket resturants in Hurlingham.
What do you think?
i heard you get suicidal when you hear things like that.
UrXlnc, r u a witch?
ReplyDeleteHarvard educated anon 2:40/2:42,
ReplyDeleteLet me speak on behalf of UrXlnc because am sure he will not dignify you with a comment- ask your fellow hater Kwale matumbo.
It's HARVARD not HAVARD.
Sayra, Excellent post...I agree with you but where do we start i ask? you see Domo Domo alone won't take us any where,there must be a course of action to be planned and executed.I wonder why can't we put our heads together and come up with good ideas,What is holding us back ? ama are our heads empty just like our hearts?
ReplyDeleteSayra......amen to the post!
ReplyDeleteRight again on Kenyans (12 year old analogy very apt) brimming with brilliant ideas that are never executed. What a curse!