+254: A CALL TO ACTION

Every 5 year cycle, politicians outdo each other to see who gets to ruin run Kenyans for the next five years. For 49 years without fail, we have entrenched them and validated their desire to disenfranchise us of our pursuit of happiness time and again. 

For once the good Lord of all creations has smiled upon us with a candidate cut from a finer cloth, far above tribal hegemonies and the culture of ‘let’s eat and eat some more still’. Self made, genuine to a fault, a track record to die for and a strong proponent of the people’s potential… but wait a minute…

Years of brainwash, mesmerize politics, balkanization and entrenchment of hopelessness upon us as a people have spellbound us to almost believe that our leaders shall come from a certain region, shall have a pre-determined financial might, shall be from a certain closed group of families et cetera et cetera…We marvel and aawww at genuine new comers and tweet-book on how they are the right people for this nation then in the same breath dismiss their candidature and go back to wriggling to our normal tribal dances. This need not be the case this season.

We are positioned by fate and grace at a strategic point in Kenya’s history to change the destiny of our nation. This generation of social media technocrats has embraced the ideologies of nationalism in all other spheres of their lives except politics. We love and marry across the board. We are raising forth a rainbow generation of kids who answer to one or more ethnicity or have blood relations cutting across multiple ethnic groups or races. We embrace nationhood in our work places, nationhood in times of calamities, nationhood when fighting against government oppression, nationhood in sports 

and in social events….

We subscribe to the tariff ‘Kenya’ until a politician stands on a podium and declares ‘it’s our time to eat’ or ‘our time to continue eating’ or ‘our time to get rid of those preventing us from eating’… For those of you who have been ‘eating’ since independence, what do you have to show for it? For those who are still waiting for their ‘turn to eat’, I can tell you this for free: The president’s table just like Jesus’ can only seat 12 disciples. The rest of ‘us’ just like ‘you’ and other Galileans must wait for the crumbs to fall from the high table or for the occasional miracle when el presidente decides at will and ‘benevolence’ to multiply fish and loaves of bread…

This need not be the case this season.

Let us write our children, our future children and future grandchildren a new history. A history interpolated by peace, love, unity and determination of a nation in every page. A history that narrates what we achieved as a people when we stuck together as a solid block of 42 pillars. Let us rewrite this history not with the might of the gun or the battle of the streets but with the power behind the ballot. With little tales of how we turned things round and decided to be true to ourselves. With beautiful narrations of how our individual vote was so critical in wrestling the reigns of our great nation from opportunists and champions of the status quo… Let us write this history

Let us go out and create our own revolution. Let us call it “The ballot Revolution”. A revolution created not because we have no rights and options but because we have at our disposal the greatest weapon invented by free men. That every so often in the lands of the free and willing, a people shall be equipped with the power and instruments to pick those who will govern them and how that government will be exercised. Let us go out and create a revolution so loud and decisive that no amount of underhand play and manipulation and intimidation and loss of election papers and ballot stuffing and natural calamities and any other element designed by masters of election malpractice will stifle our voice. 

As yet you may be having multiple voices speaking to you at once. Some so loud that you have no chance to listen to your subconscious voice. I’m also surrounded by noise from my myriad levels of consciousness; my selfish conscience, my doubtful conscience, my I’m-too-insignificant-to-change-anything conscience, my it’s-already-decided-at-another-level-on-who-will-win conscience, my it-has-to-be-someone-from-my-tribe conscience and so many other consciences that cloud my judgement and duty to a better Kenya. This time however, I chose to listen to that very small whisper-like inner voice that prods me and asks me to be real with myself. The one that demands of me to asks three things from my would-be president:

1. Why does (s)he want to be my president?
2. What has (s)he done (or not done) with the little at his/her disposal currently?
3. What makes him/her different from the rest?

If in addition to these questions I’m able to genuinely answer one to myself that asks why I’m voting for the candidate I’m intending to vote for, then I’ll have done my portion of duty towards getting Kenya back to the safe orbit of prosperity for all.

Change comes in no easy measure. In change, the course of a river is re-directed and the risk of the currents sweeping you away is imminent. It’s for those who believe in a cause greater than themselves or any single individual. It’s embraced by those who even without knowing whether they will enjoy the harvest in Canaan are glad to guide others through the wilderness and point to them the land of bounty. It’s for the hopeful and true believers.

The haves and have-more might choose to ignore. No need to stir the pool if the fish still has plenty to feed on. The have-less and have-nots might sit back and await the current to sweep them to whichever shore. It’s the middle class millions in their wake that must champion the case for change. We have a reason to, we have the means and we must embrace the will to do so in a resounding and resolute manner.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us go make a president in our own image. Let us define him/her, let us not expect handouts from him/her; matter of fact let us fund his campaign and let him/her know from the onset who the employer is. Let us go make a president. One who will breathe a fresh lease of life into our loose fabric of Nationhood. One who will serve and not deserve. One whose fortunes will rise when ours rise and fall when ours do. One who has nothing to lose if he loses and little to gain if he wins. One who will give us face value; devoid of scandals, untainted by corruption, detached from political wheeler dealers who parade the corridors of power to seek favours and coalitions of anarchy. LET’S GO MAKE A PRESIDENT…

The journey begins on 19^th Nov. Let’s all register and wield upon our very hands the power to change the course of this our land and nation. I’m asking us to hope; not in them but in our ability to define and decide who is them.

If you don’t want the ogre to flourish, STOP FEEDING IT!

MMG2012^©