Who bewitched us!

Who bewitched us!

I know few people who know me and my interest in the development of our country are surprised at how silent I am in this political period. Don’t worry or get it twisted I am still here trying to look to get an agenda I can talk about. But kid you not, it’s the same old political rhetoric that gets worse by the day.

I have been looking for some new political “noise” that would get me thinking. But too bad I keep forgetting I am in Kenya and we have a status quo to maintain. My Bad.

Dear Kenyans time has come for us to sit with manifestos presented to us in 2012. Forget those papers they spent our money and launched over the weekend, trust you me even them do not trust their own agenda. It was all over their face, you can take that to the bank or take me to court I will defend that.  Let us sit with the Jubilee Manifesto or was it TNA then, Lord the metamorphosis, and ask the hard questions. Where is that highway from Nyayo to Westlands that was supposed to ease the Mombasa road traffic? Don’t even get me started on the laptops. Ooh no there was even a 100 day plan, an accelerator to greatness. Don’t forget the drought and the whole food security agenda let alone the fact that I have suspect Unga in my house because suddenly, ugali became a luxury. Let Jubilee give us real figures on unemployment then let us audit that. After we are done with Jubilee let us ask Baba and his people if they knew what role they should have been playing in the opposition. That they can answer before they all account for their political career and the mile stones they have achieved, since my grandma was a teenager some of them have been in government. So let our politicians give us the answers.

Before I forget we have a whole 47 governors, who all had manifestos that looked like our villages would be more beautiful than Malibu beaches in California. Have you been to your village to check whether Canaan was delivered? Mine is yet to, if yours has let me know I need a new home may be just may be. Our dear governors the best you have done is complain to have more funds devolved, what have you done with the little you were allocated? Btw how come some counties are yet to even finalise the construction of their headquarters?  Build an office for yourself and at least lie to us how you spent money setting structures. While at it lets unearth all this small lies they built, remember the golden wheelbarrows, what about the golden curtains and the fish that swam downstream before audit. Don’t get me started!

What I am saying is if we asked the real hard questions we would ask IEBC or is it we would organize a walk of shame to Supreme Court to ask for a cancellation of the elections. We would most definitely need time to pick new candidates for all this positions. We would frog march all the politicians from their offices and make sober decisions on who we want as leaders.

Worry not I have woken up from dream land. This is Kenya let us all wait for 8th August, we will queue for long hours and vote in one of our own and sit b**tch for 5 years and wait for another election. Oooh dear Kenyans who bewitched us!!

Nominations what!!

If you are a Kenyan like I am, then you know all we are hearing or is it listening to is nominations. I don’t know whether any of you wonders like I do whether nominations existed before these elections because, boy, have we not been treated to a whole roller costa.

For me what the nominations have done is the reminder that there is devolution and surely power has been taken closer to the people. Whether it is a good thing or a bad thing it is for you to judge and think about. But if Nyeri and Nandi county were our bench mark then trust you me the voters are awake. Ask the “big boys” in Kiambu they will also tell you they are yet to understand what’s going on. All we know as at now the political narrative has changed. Whether we will elect better leaders or not is a discussion for another day, but truth be told there is a shift from comfort and Kenyans are looking for a new experience. The status quo is at war, brace yourself.

 Wanjiku left marikiti and took part in the nominations. Wanjiku stopped her daily business to take someone home, Wanjiku may not even know who she wants as a leader but truth be told she knows who she does not want.

The nominations are just but an eye opener and a confirmation that the power belongs to the people. Article 1 of the Constitution vests power on the people and if we can take the bull by the horns and be true to this Constitution we are going very far. We have finally realized that as much as the President may determine the level of development in your region, your governor is King. If he is a sly one, then just sit and watch your neighbors develop otherwise call the “peoples servant” to task and let them deliver. Otherwise the power is in our hands.

Kenyans are hungry for change. That is not even up for debate. What we need to debate about is what change will come. Will we elect a better government or will we change the “monkeys” and place them in different forests? Dear Kenyans as 8th August approaches by the minute let’s make a decision to stand up for change let us rewrite the Kenyan story and take that step of courage to grow. Natujenge taifa letu.

Was IEBC the real problem?

I am a worried voter. It is not peculiar but when the opposition and those who form the government of the day agree on something I tend to pay a little more attention. If you have not realised by now that CORD and Jubilee are in agreement that IEBC must go you are yet to wake up! What began like an opposition war against IEBC has now become a war of the political class against free and fair elections.
Kid me not, none of the two sides is interested in an elections body that will preside over free and fair elections because that will not take care of their interests. So dear Kenyans this is where we come in . We are getting into the electioneering period at a time when this country is highly polarised.
At a period when we are increasingly being made to believe that our safety either lies in the last name we bear or the communities we come from; we are slowly but surely creeping back to our ethnic enclaves as the count down to the next polls begin. Of course issue based politics has never been our cup of tea. Why should it be when politics is only about clans, tribes and last names, right? After all we go to the polls to elect tribal chiefs who will represent our last names out there and that alone is enough to improve our well being as voters. We must wake up to the reality that politicians put their interests first and so should we put ours. We must wake up and protect this country, even if it takes the little sense of patriotism we have left. We should be on the streets, apparently that is the language we all understand, it is perhaps the only thing we have in common with the political class, to demand inclusion in the ongoing process. We cannot afford to have an elections body that is chiselled to satisfy the whims of politicians. 2017 will not be an election year like any other we have had before. It will be the election after people have realised that MCAs can also be chauffeured in fuel guzzlers and they also wield significant power, *read they can arm twist governors and blackmail them*. It might just be the election where we have MCAs election petitions reach the supreme court, yes the stakes are that high. 2017 cannot be business as usual and we are only courting disaster by letting the political class to marionette the most important institution in our country at this point.
I may have no solutions at hand but this is a conversation we need to start.

Nchi yetu ya Kenya Tunayoipenda tuwetayari kuilinda. 

Matiangi is not the problem: Give the guy a break!

Lets all cut Matiangi some sluck and stop behaving like the spoilt brats burning schools are not our children.This is a reflection of how well our children learn, the violent very destructive demos by our political leaders have been good lessons. I almost forgot the top students from all over Kenya who made it to the University have also been good examples,do I even need to go there. Then we go closer home and see how teachers behave in the name of industrial action.I am not a saint and I am not adding my voice because I am the best example.I am adding my voice and calling out the society that has failed in parenting. The reason I could never ever even dream of starting a strike let alone burn a school is because I knew a little to well that I would have no where to go. My father would surely kill me and yes I said kill! Those that know "Mwalimu" know he does not mince his words.
Lets face it the reason this young people are so easily burning down schools is because "baba" and "mum" have a place to run to and parents who will have their backs no matter what. We are the enablers of violence and unrest in our society. We have raised spoilt brats in the name of love and now morality has been sacrificed at the alter of "love". Until we wake up to the failure of society in raising responsible human beings then the number of closed schools will go higher. We may soon have no high school unless we ask the tough questions. Meanwhile can you live Matiangi alone and realise already that his children are not in those schools!!! Its you and I we are the major stakeholders.
‪#‎Unrestinschools‬ ‪#‎letstakethebullbythehorns‬ ‪#‎nchiyetuyakenya‬ ‪#‎myvoice‬

The Cry of a Comrade...

Those who truly feel the pain of the recent UON drama is us who have the name stuck with us forever. Even if I went to another university and did the exact course I studied in UON nothing will ever change about the fact that I spent solid four years of my life at UON.

I have been on record many times saying that demos at UON are pointless and will never achieve anything not in the way they are done! Never mind that SONU and food cannot be ignored (really!).

Dear comrades being in university should set you apart from each and every other villager out there who has never had the privilege of setting foot there. Being a university student means you were among the best in more ways than one. It is expected that you have a certain thinking capacity that millions out there do not have. But guess what? We have just given life to the old joke of "selling a cow to educate another cow". No sober university student burns buildings because they are throwing a cheap tantrum, didn’t your mother spank you enough when you threw tantrums at two!! Then you need to meet my mother! So how many solutions did you get when you burnt down the SONU office? After burning down the Mess, how many lecturers or the UON administrators went hungry?

About the vandalism at what was to be an event by the US Embassy, really comrades did we have to stoop that low, hadn’t we gone low enough already?

The ramifications of our thoughtless actions will be dire my friends and trust me Sam Gichuru only showed us a tip of the iceberg. Mo Sounds will never employ a UON graduate not because we are all violent but because once beaten twice shy. You can insult Sam Gichuru all you want but if you know what he does you should be peacefully matching to his office with a bouquet of roses and perhaps attempt to appease him. Trust me when more players in the private sector pick up the same spirit and attitude concerning this matter and they speak in one voice we will all wish we studied at University of Matopeni.

You do not stone cars that belong to a potential future employer.

My dear comrades we are surely better than that! We have allowed a hand full students decide the fate of more than 500,000 others. We have entrusted our legacy to a few people who stumbled and found themselves in UON. Let the law take its course and let’s see real action, let people be jailed and do not put them in a cell and allow them to take a selfie with a bottle of whisky. It’s okay IG Boinet I took note of that and now I know there exists classes of criminals. Last I checked electronic gadgets let alone alcohol were not allowed in cells, but again not all animals are equal, RIGHT?

Dear Dr. Matiang’i, I liked you, your energy and enthusiasm. Perhaps I still do. I had this illusion and a really good dream that sanity would eventually return to our institutions of higher learning. Sir we need you to stop acting like UON does not exist, let people answer and take responsibility for slowly but surely degrading the reputation of that great university. If for nothing else, do it for your grandchildren. They need to have a better narrative about their mothers and fathers so that they not only read about their ability to hurl projectiles and brave the torture of tear gears. It’s an institution of HIGHER learning, please let it remain so. Don’t kill the little trust I still have in you. It’s a cry from an innocent young girl who shaped her life in UON. She also knows that there are many incredibly great minds back there and still, a handful that only stumbled and fell there. They neither value intellect nor the reputation of an institution whose name they will carry throughout their lives. 

ITS YOUR LIFE

I am far from perfect but I am work in progress. I am perhaps too young to talk about my generation and its weaknesses but who is better placed to talk about this than a sister who wants and desires to see a better tomorrow for my generation? 
I have watched people close to me and others i do not know, make choices not too good for their own lives. Don't get it twisted, what they choose to do with their lives is not my problem, trust me I have enough going on in my own life to care about what people decide for themselves. What bothers me however is the excuses we form to justify our misdoings. So you came from a dysfunctional family and this has been the excuse you keep peddling for being an abusive partner. Make me understand how this is the same brain that makes you realise that the cause of your abusive nature is your family experience yet that same brain cannot tell you to get help and change that nasty narrative.
Why does your absent parent have to be the reason you cannot do well in school and decide to drop out? Is it because we all dont know how bad a dad your father was or how much your mum did not care about you? It is your life and you are punishing yourself and not them by using their mistakes to justify your bad choices. The best punishment to those that do not wish you well is not proving them right by making a wreck out of your life, its actually making it better and leaving them surprised.
When you turn 18 you have a responsibility to make decisions that can either make you or ruin you. No one can make decisions for you no matter how much they try. It gets to a point where its about me and what I decide to do with my life. My father can be the military general for all I care but it is my choices that make me stand out not his status in society and his supposed authority to kill in case I go astray.
‪#‎ITSYOURLIFE‬

ETHNICITY WILL SURELY BE THE DEATH OF US!

The time has come and we are now gathering in our tribal cocoons, once more! We are crawling back to the places someone made us believe is home and even after whole 16 or more years in school you still believe the greatest possession you have is an ethnic identity.  Well done Kenyans let’s see how long we survive by doing things the same way and proving beyond doubt our insanity, guess what we shall surely eat the fruits of our great labour, we shall be paid handsomely so it’s not in vain after all. Whether good or bad the pay day will come. We have sank even lower and its now inter tribal wars! Its clanism. We thought it would be a better idea to bring our little wars closer home so why not start realising that even that which I thought was my ethnic group also has other groups and then why not begin superiority wars and try proving who more “Meru” than the other is.

As I have said time and again its either we unite or we will perish together as fools.

If what I am seeing is anything to go by then 2007/8 was child play. We are prepared for war we have put our tools together and we are waiting to be called and we will diligently report to duty to protect our own. Our own who forget about us the moment they get the coveted political offices. They disappear on us and after 4yrs they crawl back to us and since we are very faithful we embrace them and we protect them as if our next breathe depends on them. It’s called an abusive relationship but it’s too sweet to leave so we are hanging in there for reasons we also do not know. We are just faithful, we submit and we don’t question.

We forget they presented us with promises and not only that but a full manifesto and we were taken on a full dream  of how we would live in heaven if we gave them the only power we have, our vote. But we are too naive and we have forgotten all that and now we want to give them another chance to make this dream turned nightmare longer.

We love our politicians more than we love life and that we keep proving without fail. And for sure we will be true to that Kenyan spirit unless we transform

By Sarah Makena