Why i shall be at Uhuru Park tomorrow...

In a relay race, one runner does their best to deliver the baton to the next runner in good time. If one runner should slack, trip, delay or waste time, he / she risks sabotaging the race for all of the other runners in the race. It is a matter of trust, teamwork and sacrifice. The win is vital if not for yourself, at least for your team. 

I tend to apply the same to Kenya. We are constantly in a race against different things; hunger, disease corruption, bad leadership (and any other vice you can insert here). In my model, the different generations are the runners in our relay race. And the vices are the opposing teams that threaten to bring this country back.

 Our grandfathers made up the first runners on the relay team. They fought against the colonizers the best way they could. They didn’t care that they had inferior weapons. They didn’t care that their tactics were far more unsophisticated than those of the whites. They didn’t care that some of their friends and neighbors were the very ones that informed on them and led their executions when they were arrested. They did not care because it was all about making a better future for their children; the next generation. For this, they were willing to give up anything, including their lives. 

They ran a good race and hooray! independence. But vices are not ones to give up easily and we were soon on the run again. And the baton was passed on to our fathers; the second generation. In the late 80’s and early 90’s they fought. Not with guns and pangas this time, but with protests, marches and constitutional arguments. They were fighting for a multiparty democracy. They were fighting for the right for you and I to openly laugh at Gaddo’s cartoon of MP’s raping the cow after it has been milked dry. They fought for the right for you and I to bitch and lament on social networks about anything under the sun without the fear of persecution. For these, they were struck with teargas, arrested, assassinated, exiled, tortured, some were scarred for life. But fight they did.

That battle too, they won. The race is not finished however for even now with freedom from colonialism, freedom of speech and a multi-party democracy, the vices have once again presented themselves to us in the form of corruption and bad governance. Billions are looted by the few in power while the majority is left to die from hunger, suffer in tents and wallow in disease in poorly financed hospitals. Not a week goes by without a multimillion scandal in government. And these are the few that get to us. What about the many that do not get to us?

The race is still on and the baton has been passed to us. As part of the team, it is up to you and I to ensure that the baton does not fall. It is up to us to ensure that the baton is passed on safely and timely to the next generation. If we do not do this, we will have failed our national heroes who began the race. The national heroes whose statues we erect so proudly in the different parts of our capital. We will have disrespected them and spat in their face. They would have sacrificed their lives for cowards who can do nothing about deplorable governance. Cowards who hide behind laptop screens and throw laments from afar.

There is an extract from Field Ruwe’s article titled “You Lazy (Intellectual) African Scum!”  He speaks of the people who term themselves educated Africans…it says;

“When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.”

I see you there African intellectuals, reading this from your Blackberrys, your sophisticated touch screen phones and your ipads. Making excuses as to why you can not be there tomorrow. Blaming it on your busy intellectual lives. On that important corporate meeting or fancy coffee date you have at nine. Leaving the marching and the protesting to someone else…the uneducated poor maybe.

 I saw you there admiring the graffiti that calls the greedy politicians vultures, and you liked it. You agreed with it. You discussed it with your friends, you facebooked about it and twitpic’d it.

 You admired the courage of those who did it. And now, the chance is here for you to give up a few hours from your busy tweeting and blogging life to march with other like-minded individuals who want the best for this country. Who want to protect the future of their children. Who want to show the vultures that we too have a say in how our country is run…and you are going to pass it up?

When we are long gone and the history books are updated to fit our generation, let it not be us that remembered for not taking that baton and running with it. For not having done as little as peaceful marching to stand up for what is right. For not having done our part.

And for that reason, I shall be at that freedom corner tomorrow at ten to take that baton. 

I leave you with lyrics from Tracy Chapman's "Talkin' about a revolution"

They're talkin' about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
While they're standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion

Poor people gonna rise up
And get their share
Poor people gonna rise up
And take what's theirs

Don't you know
You better run, run, run
Oh I said you better
Run, run, run

Finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin' bout a revolution

Join us wont you? Kenya ni kwetu.