For how long will Kenya suffer?

Nicholas Oloo berates the selfishness of Kenya's leaders and their apparent disdain for the welfare of the wider population.

For how long will the members of parliament (MPs) guided by selfishness and ethnic chauvinism make decisions that the people they pretend to serve can applaud? These are MPs who in the majority are graduates of the Nyayo school of plunder, deceit, torture and tyranny, who are regrouping and apparently trying a Chinese hunting technique in which a hunter clothes himself as a harmless pig and confronts a smart tiger. To the over-confident tiger this is an easy prey that requires no effort to kill and eat, but to its surprise the hunter emerges from underneath the camouflage savouring and killing it instead. The old politics must die. Are we Kenyans ready to give a hyena a knife to cut the meat in a butcher?

Our politicians have no sense of national interest; they are propelled by personal interest, hypocrisy, greed and malice, and their overriding interest is the fate of their thirst for power. Their inclination is towards family interests, while the wider population gets poorer by the day. They are selfish, greedy, arrogant, insensitive, dishonest, incompetent, irresponsible and tribalist. They deal with a politics of tribe and self-preservation. They are suffering from an ideological rallying point. They should understand that they may drive this country to anarchy. The country is in a critical stage of its political life, but the monsters of parliament seem to be preoccupied with mismanaging the very establishment they are supposed to manage. They are behaving like irresponsible parents who sell all their meagre resources to go out and make merry while their children are starving to death at home. They don’t know we the young people exist. They only see us when they want to use us. And it is our future they are busy ruining. They have ruined the economy.

My heart bleeds when I see increasing levels of general degradation besetting our lovely country, only to see the fat cats feasting on the very resources which are supposed to be used to uplift poor people's living standards. I salute the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development with its partnership with donors on cash transfer on OVCs (orphaned and vulnerable children) and money for the disabled and the old aged. We need action as youths now, not tomorrow. As young people we have to defend our stake because we have seen that nobody else will. Let us arise from our slumber to be the giant that God ordained us to be – after all civilisation and mankind originated from Africa

We are going to be the generation that never grew old. Aids and drugs are finishing young people, the economy is crippled and the environment is being killed. Joblessness is so high that even though degrees do not guarantee one a job, the country has the prefect old Sicilian mafia system of government of which personnel of questionable competence are placed in crucial decision-making positions. People no longer earn merit or qualify for appointments; appointments are the rewards of a web of patronage. Merit has gone out the window. We may be wiped out before we do something meaningful with our lives. It is becoming crystal clear that this country does not merely need radical reform but a revolutionary transformation. There is no need of being alive in this political and economic disaster; some have died and others also must sacrifice for the sake of this motherland. A great leader has no end to his quest, and remember that the great dies to be remembered while the weak sits idle and condemn the world in favour of heaven. There is nothing so satisfying to the spirit of a dead victor than a great history achieved while serving his people. It is time for young men and women in this country to stand upright. It is also desirable for Kenyan society at large to depart from old traditions and cultures that a woman’s work is only confined to the kitchen – the men have failed us; we don’t need populist politics like the Mau issue.

Who the hell do they think they are? Why do they think they are indispensable?

The 10 million Kenyans starving are just numbers to them. The 2.5 million army of orphaned heads of families are mere stories, while IDPs (internally displaced persons) and street families are a non-issue and unemployment is nothing to them. So for whose welfare are they elected?

The problem of this country will not be solved by cheap politics, hatred speeches and resolutions of sycophants at public rallies, but through a politics of reconciliation and economic empowerment. Even if we have a good constitution that is as clean as the mother of Jesus Christ, without economic empowerment people will still gamble.

Our politicians have suddenly become strident adherents of spinozism 'wazee walisema aliye juu mgoje chini' ' lakini wahenga wakiongeza wakasema' aliyejuu mgojee chini, utamgoja milele na utakufa bila kilele' walimaanisha hata shuka na utakufa bila kusikika kwa hivyo lazima tuende tuwashukishe hata kama itabidii wao watumie barabara sisi tupitie msituni'. To the right honourable prime minister, the wananchi are behind you in the Mau issue and the same people who detained you and the late Titus Adongosi have resurrected from the grave and don’t be scared, you are going to win the battle. Joshua chapter one verse nine says:

'Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.'

I am aghast at the pitiless audacity of some cabinet ministers. I am horrified that the cabinet ministers and some MPs working in cahoots would actually have the temerity to politicise the Mau issue. 'Msifikiriye tukinyamaza sisi ni wajinga ' na hata wahenga hawa kukosea walipo sema mjinga akierevuka mwerevu huwa mashakani. Tume erevuka zaidi sasa. Mnajifanya ngangari sisi tutakuwa ngunguri.'

In fact we still have the newspaper copies of the 1990s which carried questionable dealings by those claiming to be the m essiah of this country come 2012. In fact we are going to take you to Guetano Mobey, not the Hague.

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