The candidates have done their part. They have hawked their manifestoes. They have peddled their values and virtues. They have cajoled us and shoved each other. They have danced themselves lame.
Well, their time is over. It is now the time for the real opinion poll. The Kenyan voter must now make an appointment with his/her political destiny.
The candidates may have generated plenty of heat. But the campaigns have been relatively very peaceful. Kenya appears to have learned the bitter lessons from the 2007/8 near-Armageddon.
Seeing all the candidates commit themselves to peace and honour the outcome was a giant step to political maturity. While our smelly past may make many conjure up conspiracy theories, hope remains our best asset. Only fools would lead Kenya to another cesspit.
There comes a time when the late Saitoti's clarion call of Kenya being bigger than all of us is most apt. Come Tuesday and Kenya will still be there for both the losers and winners.
The real revolution of 2002 may have been betrayed. Kibaki did his part. Now let the 4thn President pick the gaunlet and take Kenya to where we belong.
It is time for the Kenyan voter shine the light of democracy and run away with it. Come on Kenya, make yourself proud and join the society of civilized nations.
Monday, March 04, 2013
Finally Here Comes the Tyranny of Real Numbers
The candidates have done their part. They have hawked their manifestoes. They have peddled their values and virtues. They have cajoled us and shoved each other. They have danced themselves lame.
Well, their time is over. It is now the time for the real opinion poll. The Kenyan voter must now make an appointment with his/her political destiny.
The candidates may have generated plenty of heat. But the campaigns have been relatively very peaceful. Kenya appears to have learned the bitter lessons from the 2007/8 near-Armageddon.
Seeing all the candidates commit themselves to peace and honour the outcome was a giant step to political maturity. While our smelly past may make many conjure up conspiracy theories, hope remains our best asset. Only fools would lead Kenya to another cesspit.
There comes a time when the late Saitoti's clarion call of Kenya being bigger than all of us is most apt. Come Tuesday and Kenya will still be there for both the losers and winners.
The real revolution of 2002 may have been betrayed. Kibaki did his part. Now let the 4thn President pick the gaunlet and take Kenya to where we belong.
It is time for the Kenyan voter shine the light of democracy and run away with it. Come on Kenya, make yourself proud and join the society of civilized nations.
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The writing is already on the wall in bold neon green ink, with a very simple reminder that leo ni leo asemayo kesho ni mwongo, na asiye kubali kushindwa si mshindani.
ReplyDeleteSuffice it to say that lisemwalo lipo ikiwa halipo liko njiani laja hapo mnamo Ijumaa, tarehe tano, nyakati za alfajiri, adhuhuri, alasiri ua usiku wa manene, once the election dust has settled in all pollings stations around the country.
Some of the whole painful truth is that it is very easy for some us to imagine but at the same time hard to grasp the fact that out of the 290 who will soon be victoriously elected members of parliament, there will be over 1,160 losers who will have been defeated at the polls.
Or after being rejected by the majority of the electorate by the end of the day, inspite of the tons, gunia and countless heavy loaded 9" x 12" brown manila envelopes loaded with money that have exchanged hands in the last couple of months, weeks, days, hours and last minute efforts leading to Monday, 4th, 2013.
That is why tupende tusipende, maji tuliyavuliya nguo hatuna budi tuyaogelea leo hii, yaani siku kuchaa.
We have waited for this day since early-mid-late 2003 and 2007, and the crucial moment is now in our midst for all intent and purposes.
So, the big question remains, what do we, the people, owe to our country of Kenya at this moment in time?
Simply put, first and formost, we, the people, owe ourselves a peaceful election, then smooth transitional govermnment to our fifty-year old nation.
When all is said and done, liandikwalo ndiyo liwalo.
youtube: KENYA ELECTIONS 2013[PEACE.LOVE.KENYA] from a dispora voice!!!!i wish i could vote :) proudly kenyan! watch&share :)
ReplyDeleteCome on Kenya, make yourself proud and join the society of civilized nations.
ReplyDeleteThe polling process has been so far so good in most regions around the country since the early morning hours of the day.
All things considered, the operative phrase on the minds and in the hearts of most alw abiding Kenyan people is let there be peaceful election against all odds in our nation's fifty-year old political history.
A peaceful election will be a real plus for the country so that legions of foreign journalists who have flown into the country in drodes, such as the likes of Nichole Sobecki, Jeffrey Gettleman may desperately end up failing to re-edit their piece on Hope and Fear in Kenya's Election, where Gettleman writes about his so-called "return to Kenya" after five years in order to SEE and write (sent exotic gossip) back home to his people and usual readership regarding how a new election COULD affect the still-scared region.
Journalists-cum-tourists like the aforementioned never cease to amaze because they have certainly been missing in action at a time when countless episodes to write home about continue to take place in nations like Syria, Algeria, Chad, Somalia, D.R. of the Congo, Mali, Bangladesh, Pakistan, et al.
By the way, it would really be fair, right and fitting if several local Kenyan journalists, and others based in the diaspora were to (re)visit Selma, Alabama (in the United States of America).
One of the well known former notorious and deadly hot-spots for political violence and deep seated racial strife, in order for them to SEE as well as find out about whether the homemade racial segregation and former KKK - now neo-nazi - engineered racial tensions and violence COULD or continues to AFFECT the still-scared southern regions (states) of a civilized country like America.
Further, they could also find out whether the Hope(s) and Fear(s) in the last several America's Elections have subsided in to a reasonable degree since the civil rights marching in the 1965 battle(s) for voting rights, and in light of the current political uncertainity for most (ethnic) people of colour who still live in the sourthen region of America.
Those of us who have been to JKIA and Wilson Airport lately, may have noticed the countless number of foreign crews of journalists who have been arriving in the country with sole aim of pointing their cameras at any imagined situations they would really love to associate with the ongoing general elections throughout the country.
By the end of the day and week, Kenyans from all works of life will have proven the vultures of journalism wrong, causing most of them to flock to the destinations in order to justify their special trips and asignments abroad - on the "dark African continent, where anything and everthing goes." ~ said one mzungu journalist who was drunk with hubris.
I am NOT voting!!! It is my democratic right not to vote.
ReplyDeleteFear not the tyranny of real numbers because there is always several silver linings in any constructive political economy of such numbers in the long run.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, the eagerly awaited spectable of the tyranny of the numbers in the East African savanna grasslands is what gives rise to the great annual migration of millions of zebra, wilderbeest and many other types of antelope in their pursuit of naturally embracing the cycle of life to the fullest, so that the next four generations of their respective species maybe able to survive.
Although we, the people, may not be part of the natural cycle of life in the wild, that is always engaged in renewing itself along the savanna grasslands of East Africa in tune with nature's dictates, our today's version of the spectacle of uchaguzi mkuu uedelea hivyo hivyo with regard to the nationwide pickings - by majority of the electorate - of those deemed worthy to be the next suitable occupants of the few available seats in the new senate, governor's mansions plus county adminstrations offices that yet to be built, the very well refurbished several hundred million shillings parliament, and the newly created 'observatory council' of W-Reps, no pun intended, is unfolding and will continue to peacefully unfold without any restrictions or hickups until the last hours of the today, Monday, 4th, 2013.
As for those of us who are still owned or possesed by any types of personal or communal fearful political interests when it comes to the dreaded mathematics of the real tyranny of numbers.
Today's nationwide polling exercise should end up being essential to understanding its invaluable impact on the new history of the country's general elections and how such numbers will definitely end up working in the best interests of a non-tyrannical majority as well as for the common good of the non-tyrannical and bitter minority, including other pockets of the population may not have participated in the general elections due to own or another.
As it has always been said in the past, there is always a calm after a political storm that has been gathering for the last five years, and our country's peaceful election process will not be any different, except for those who will be forced to reself, incubate or abandon their political dreams and aspirations by mid-night or mid-day on Tuesday.