THIS IS OUR TIME: LIVING
UPON THE FULFILLED PROPHESY
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| Transitional Song: Going, going...gone! Raila, Ruto and Uhuru |
“I’ve
been to the mountain-top…and I have seen the Promised Land. I may not take you
there, but I can confirm that I have seen the Promised Land.” And we have seen
the generation that prophesized the paradigmatic shift in the manner our
institutions, laws and the society generally operates. I am glad the older folk
actually envisaged it: a land where man shall not be adjudged by colour, race
or tribe, “but by the content of their character…” They dared to dream, and
initiated a movement that saw the total annihilation of the tyrannical system,
and instead, sought to indoctrinate a structure of egalitarianism. Petulant as
the then governments were, the Saviours of Masses dared the state, and were
bullied. You remember the
assault on Reverend Timothy Njoya. You remember the Nyayo Torture Chambers. In
your mind, you can already see the dreadlocked Koigi wa Wamwere, Paul Muite,
Raila Odinga, James Orengo…you know them.
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| Koigi wa Wamwere |
They were persecuted and afflicted
for the good of the populace. It may be unsurprising that the same people, we
with our wretched selves, cannot pay tribute to them. We, the latter generation
may demonize and denounce their ‘uncouth’ methods of seeking redress of social
justice and equality. We may actually be blind to the brutality and dictatorial
state of government then, which had become a rogue leviathan: eating up its own
children and killing the neighbour’s. Seeing the light of day became a luxury, and
sleeping with your own family was more than enough to ask for. Well, the
supposed protector of the people became the biggest violator of their rights.
Hence the push for reforms…
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| Moi: The father of misgovernance inspects his weapons |
Reforms:
that very oil that ought to oil the squeaking dry wheels of governance. Reforms
were made a mandatory requirement for submission to the state. Resistance and
apathy began mounting, and the government could not take it lying down.
Amendment after amendment of the constitution was predicated upon hard-core
high-handedness and strong-armed techniques employed by the state to dissuade
dissent. Torture, detention without trial, mysterious disappearance and
assassinations…we saw it all! But the Prophets of our People did not deter.
They risked their lives, families and possession, to inculcate justice,
constitutionalism and rule of law. Sadly, some of them are now fallen heroes,
only remembered in legends drafted hurriedly in old journals. J.M. Kariuki, the
Voice of the Poor; Martin Shikuku, the People’s Watchman; Raila Odinga, Son of
Sorrow… Not these neo-colonialists who were carried in the pockets of President
Moi, Youths for KANU, and surrogates of the tyrant himself, now disguised as
“youth” and masquerading
as angels of light (sic). But this is not for offspring of KANU, and their
families. It is for the true heroes. Those men and women who made us take the
dreadful first step. Slaves of justice…
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| Sons of Impunity: taking after the Master |
Looking
back, we may not have enough to recompense them for the sacrifices they made.
They saw the Promised Land, while at the mountain-top, and came with the news.
They will not get us there: no, they are frail, haggard and blood-stained. They
need rest. There is need to have new blood, untainted, so-to-say, to take the
helms and lead the nation to the Promised Land. The likes of Raila, Kalonzo
Musyoka, Otieno Kajwang, Kivutha Kibwana, Orengo, Kiraitu Murungi, Muite…you
name them: their time is well spent, and we should be ushering them to a dusk
in peace. They should not be tormented with the sickness and troubled of
governing a country they so fervently delivered from the jaws of the big bad
wolf. And we ought not to entrust this duty on the sons of the wolf. Listen,
sons and daughters of my motherland, a serpent’s offspring is a serpent. Uhuru
Kenyatta, William Ruto, Dalmas Otieno, Cyrus Jirongo…those are Moi’s children.
In fact, they are more skewed towards the older generation than the youth: out
they should go. We are talking about youth properly-so-called, and not those
oldies with dyed hairs and borrowed tongues on “maze jo.. Hizi ni ma-time za digital.” No way…so shall we not be
fooled! Our heritage shall not be under siege again. We, the youthful
generation, are coming out clear with the sound of change. This is our time.
The wind of change is blowing, can’t you perceive it? Cant’ you see it?
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| Transition: Youth properly-so-called |
Stand up
to the thieves of age: the generational strata. We will be discouraged by the
‘youth’ who have conformed to the ideologies of the old folk, or permutated to
the likeness of the children of the oppressive leadership. The Murkomens and
Kindikis are grandchildren of oppression, by the way. You cannot expect milk
from a guava. We should now look at a new and final order of transition: we are
on a mission! Youth properly-s-called, such as may be, ought to be ready to
chin up. We hold the quail and the knife: we decide whether it lives, or it
becomes soup. But we are in control. Inasmuch as we appreciate the role played
by the Railas and Kiraitus (read Moses), we the youth (read Joshua) are now
charged with the responsibility of taking the children of our Motherland to the
Promised land. They will not take us to the Promised Land, if their minds are
about combat, rebellion and uprising. Revolutions are now ballot-papered, not
coups. And we can have a law, like the United State’s Second
Amendment to their Constitution, to exterminate any leadership that turns
out oppressive and dictatorial.
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| Protest against inequality and oppression |
Meanwhile,
we ought to seize the power. It is our Time! Not for handouts and scraps off
state jobs…no. It is our time to take the economy of this nation to new
heights. It is our time to ensure the protection of the constitutionally
entrenched rights of the people are respected, promoted and protected. Yea, it
is our time to see to the development of our nation, where each man is equal
before the law, and has enough to eat, has a home to live, and his property is protected.
It is our time to iron out the hatred that was planted by the older generation,
perpetuated by their surrogates, and tolerated by prodigies of oppression. It
is our time, not to eat ourselves silly, but to ensure that the utilitarian
interstice is abridged. To share the resources equally amongst the people, and in
a voice known to all of us, sing the song of unity.
We the people have the
power, we the youth have the key to unlock the potential of our nation. We
ought to distrust those who have been there and done nothing: in effect they
have failed us. Those are acts of negligent omission. They are as wicked in
comparison with those who ran the nation down to its knees in corruption,
malfeasance, poverty and non-development. Not those that saw our young children
die of starvation, or our mothers and sisters raped…Aha. It is time the
untainted generation took the real power. This is our time. Hold hands…
