People living in Havana in the 1960s learnt how to live with the constant shrieking voice of some woman screaming "Fatherland or death" every time they picked up the phone, instead of the customary dial tone
What is really sickening about this question is the fact that anybody should be asking it at all. It should be so obvious that this should be a stupid question to ask.
Sadly a clever sustained campaign by the Kibaki administration to lie to the public (for self-preservation) has convinced many that Kenya is headed in the right direction and we just need to be patient.
Propaganda is a powerful thing. When you repeat something over and over again, (as this message that all we need is more time with the Kibaki administration and everything will be super) it soon becomes accepted truth. We are tol;d the Kibaki administration is much better than Moi’s and then we see the two holding frequent consultations and yesterday’s appointment of Moi is a message that is louder than words which tells Kenyans; Moi wasn’t all that bad.
People living in Havana in the 1960s learnt how to live with the shrieking voice of some woman screaming “Fatherland or death” every time they picked up the phone, instead of the customary dial tone. It worked because Cubans soon realized there were only two options, to flee the country or to comply. And that is why to date despite the best covert efforts of the very best in the world, Castro is still in power. Propaganda works when you repeat it over and over again in the media.
So many Kenyans today are being patient.
Patient as corruption in high places continues unabated. Patient as violence in the country escalates to new unprecedented levels. Patient as tribalism increases and is encouraged by our political class as a strategy for them to remain in power. Patient as the perpetrators of Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing play political chess to influence election results this year so that they will be free to do another Anglo Leasing and another Goldenberg.
Asking Kenyans to be patient now is akin to raping a woman or a man and telling them to be patient because things will soon get better.
The naked truth is that as long as Kenya is headed in the wrong direction, things will never, ever be the same again.
Meanwhile those Kenyans not doing well are being made to feel small and inadequate by being told that the economy is growing and that the only reason they are not doing well is because they are attending endless ODM rallies and activities rather than working hard. I ask working hard doing what?
I am an entrepreneur with vast experience and once even got involved in hawking activities. Believe me when I tell you that there was a time, not too long ago in our beloved motherland called Kenya when you could wake up in the morning with Kshs 10/- in your pocket, go out there and roast maize or something and have in your hands Kshs 200/- at the end of a day of hard work. Not anymore!! That is no longer possible today. Reason? Too many Kenyans are living on a desperate hand to mouth budget that is sinking them deeper into debt, let alone leaving them with any disposable income. And those are the lucky ones. The rest are having a serious problem putting food in their stomach regularly. What this means is that there are very few if any opportunities remaining for the common man to work hard and make good.
Many people reading this article may shake their heads in disbelief. One can after all invest in the stock exchange and you do not need too much money to start. If you are thinking in this direction then you have just delivered further evidence of a very dangerous situation that has developed and is rapidly escalating even as everybody ignores it. This is the widening gap between the vast majority of poor Kenyans and the rest of the country. The saddest thing is that the rest of Kenya can hardly understand the poor. I have met many Kenyans who believe that the poor in Kenya are poor because they are not very bright. Some say that there will always be poor people and nobody can do anything about it. NO!! That is not true.
Figures show that a vast majority of Kenyans, well over 70 per cent of the population live on less than a dollar a day. That is Kshs 65 (using current exchange rates). What many of the bureaucrats doing this research do not know is the fact that a vast majority of Kenyans do not handle Kshs 65 for months on end. But even with that kind of money, how long will it take you to raise Kshs 10,000 to purchase the minimum of 100 shares of stocks? Assuming that you starve yourself and eat nothing for a month, you will only have Kshs 1,950 and you'll have died of starvation.
Most of the people who are poor in Kenya today are poor mainly because of bad governance and corruption as well as a government that hardly understands what it means to be poor in Kenya today. In fact more privileged Kenyans have openly stated in this forum that Mathare residents got what they deserved in the massacre that happened during the crack down on Mungiki. That is what it means to be poor in Kenya today because those poor innocent victims do not live in Mathare out of choice. They would gladly prefer Muthaiga or Lavington where Mungiki crackdowns of the kind that happened in June this year never happened.
It is interesting that the terrorists who assembled the bomb that went off at the American embassy in Nairobi 1998 did their dirty work in the up market Runda estate. Therefore using the reasoning I have seen here, the police should have carried out a major crackdown in Runda estate to flash out terrorists. Well, it never happened. Never mind the fact that by the time the police were killing innocent people in Mathare the real Mungiki had already fled. Guess where the nearest best refuge is. Yep! Muthaiga. So why did the rape and shooting operation not extend to Muthaiga.
I guess we just need to patient; it will get there soon enough.
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The Untold story of the Mathare massacre and where the bodies were dumped
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What Grown Men Do When Their Wives Say, "Not tonight sweetie"
