The Man Who Sold A Country (reply)

I am a young man in Kenya, of sane mind, of voting age (mid twenties) and aware of my surroundings. I don’t mean to sound like a lawsuit but I have interacted with enough learned friends to know it is important to introduce myself, also it helps inform readers of my identity.

I have been an avid reader and fan of Owaah over the years and have learnt a great many things about our nation’s history and trajectory. I have ventured further to more research on the same history and consequently discovered a passion for history. Suffice it to say I have gone through thousands of articles and videos on history and wars in the past few years thus confident in saying that I am a little more informed on the subject than your average Kenyan.

I started blogging a while back, first on facebook posts and replies to some mediocre pathetic posts fellow Kenyans put up once in a while. To me it was a noble act, a way to give back to my country, a way to propagate the futuristic dream our grandparents birthed as they established our free nation. I have taken the existence of our country, state and people with the highest importance and their success with devine purpose. It is with this in heart that I appeal to their innermost honour and self-respect to rise above mediocrity and backward thinking, petty squabbles and ignorance and arrogance. I have since then realised that this is neither a new battle nor am I a lone ranger. For a while now I have had a lingering feeling, lethargic really, a disturbing feeling about our society, one that I unconsciously sought to avoid, run away from.
I opted to seat it out, probably seating it out was the wise move uncovered by my fellow countrymen. I resigned myself to ignorance as a form of therapy for the many inconsistencies we suffer as a nation. Mine is a social science where effect is evident, the cause is hidden and as such I take it uoon myself to find and define the cause.

In my silence, after the infamous ‘President Raila’ swearing in, we have had an anti-climactic handshake, a not so loud NASA deception and a sizeable number of people without a leader and without direction. We have had a governor, claiming to defend those with property on public/riparian lands, suggest that developers should move rivers away from their buildings. We have had a maize scandal at NCPB that has left the once valiant and proud Kalenjin men on their knees, we have had a governor run a county from another county, we have had the chinese run our expensive SGR, and commit crimes and acts of indecency that could only be translated to disrespect to us as a collective people with a police statement urging us to condone the Chinese for a while longer. We seem to have generally decided to let our fate be decided by the winds of time, after-all we shall survive as we always do!

Perhaps the biggest deception is the SGR CBA (Cost-Benefit Analysis) we decided to vuiod the SGR, proceeded to botrow the money in such quick succession there was a public belief that ‘surely the system would be profitable to our country’ now all social and economic indications show that ee are in the red-zone! A hole that we may jot be able to pull ourselves from.

I am often disappointed by the depths our nation goes to with every Scandal that arises, but am at a point that am downright speechless by the audacity of those in power to pillage our nation and suck it dry.

There is a joke we share as cousins at home, where we say “you may assume that the one in the kitchen knows how to cook, until the food comes to the table” it is usually to dissuade us from assumptions about those we let take the reigns, with the same tone we reply to graft and government expenditure ;
‘you may assume that the Finance minister is a gifted economist, but wait until the budget is read’
‘you may assume that there is a serious committee that seats down to plan our cities and sewerage systems, but wait until the floods come’
‘you may assume that the guy who commissioned the SGR to be built have done his/her due diligence on cost against benefit now and in the long term, but wait until the taxes come’

The story goes on and it is always the same in every case. Sad that our nation has not embraced progress nor an upward trend.

I read the articles #AManWhoSoldACountry and sadness welled up within. We are apparently the generation that will ensure that Kenya sinks in to the ‘shit hole’ status we had been called.
We are apparently the generation that will normalize, digitize and celebrate corruption in our nation/region.
We arr the ones who will sell this nation for peanuts and take the loot to other stable economies.
We are the ones who will embrace outsiders and insult locals on a daily.
We are apparently the people who will pick the worst possible solution and insist it as truth and fact!

We were the Generation X, during our time the future looked brighter, technology sipped in, Kibaki revolutionized our politics and Kenya was happier.
We were the ones to raise our nation to the levels of world powers and leading influencers in good.
We were to be those who would kick out ignorance and mediocrity fron our leadership!
We were the ones who would collectively uplift Kenya from misery and inequality.
Tribalism wasn’t to be an issue, nepotism a forgotten fact!
The Digital Age was nigh!

Saddest thing is that we are never united in any of these, we are always divided on what Kenya should be. We have an idea but never one thought through, never one detailed enough to be out on paper but we would be willing to kill for it, a simple #TanoTena #Uthamaki #Tibim is sufficient to get you hacked, or you to hack another. We follow individuals and never ideas, we pursue money never wealth, we dream of riches and never value.

At the same time our hospitals turn into death traps, our water & sewage same cup, roads insufficient /undeveloped and still we pay our taxes and licences, comfortable that our own will take it home.

I have spent hours analysing our nation and have come to a point of mental exhaustion! A point of no return! A clash between preserving my sanity in silence and sacrificing it all to a blind nation. I can see clearly the road leading to state assassinations and a public that forgets, the road to exile and recipient to a public smear campaign. Many before my time have endured this: Pio Gama Pinto, JM Kariuki, Tom Mboya, David Manyakei, John Githongo and many more unnamed heros.

I do understand the frustration of independent, good-willed, patriotic bloggers in our nation and across Africa. I envy their courage and selflessness, i can only wish to emulate their discipline. So to our courageous Story tell Owaahh keep on and don’t tire… Iron sharpens iron