12/12/2003
WECHE MOKADHO
JEXJALUO ****
;
Jotelo ma onge tich
Jonam,
Weche gi nene andiko ka iya owan'g. Ne aoro ni jo nation to kod
standard to angeyo ni ok gi bi goye e gazede go. Koro som uru.
Ngatto
man gi neno ondikna.
Isaiah Nengo
Slave trade, colonization, globalization and the constitution review: A
few questions for our so-called leaders.
The statistics do not even begin to capture the hardships that Kenyans
have had to endure because our leaders have failed to protect us from
the ravages of globalization. Considering the unbearable burden
that
an average Kenyan must shoulder, one might wonder whether our so-called
leaders are really Africans for they seem not to really notice.
What
type of mentality allows one to continue to squander the resources of
our young children like this? How can, you, our leaders meet with
European, American, and Asian leaders and expect to be treated as
equals? If you have any conscience, you would not even show up
anywhere and claim to be leaders. Leaders of what exactly;
poverty,
unemployment, or infant mortality? You fight so hard for
leadership,
but when you are given the power what have you done with it?
Another
child in Machakos or Uyoma is going to die because you never stopped to
think about what is causing your people to be so poor. Not
surprisingly, that has always being Africa’s problem; leaders who have
always failed to care for their women, protect their children, and
allow their men a dignified life.
The worst event to have ever happened in human history is the African
slave trade. We will continue to suffer on account of our
collective
amnesia about the worst holocaust in human history. Foreign “
investors” docked their ships at our coasts. The investment was
whiskey, clothe, guns and other junk. The resource they were
after was
free African labor. Our leaders obliged beyond even the investors
dreams. And so through untold savagery, pain and sorrow millions
of
Africans died and millions were deposited in the Americas to go through
the horror of slavery. Of course, our average leader is
blissfully
ignorant about how African Americans got to America and what they had
to endure there since. Meanwhile, at home in Africa, the
investors now
wanted minerals and agricultural products. Again, our leaders
obliged.
Millions lost their lives and the rest were subjected to a
life of
servitude right in their own homelands. These days, the investors
demand more raw materials and cheap labor. All we hear about
these
days is investor this, investor that, investor, investor, investor, as
our ministers, like clowns, fall over themselves to provide an enabling
environment for the so-called investor. How about what Wanjiku
needs
for her own country? Even though, our universities are full of
researchers who know how we should respond to globalization, but what
do you know, our leaders are too busy starving our thinkers to death or
exile to realize their worth for the society.
Kenyans now give more money to the west than Kenya receives in so
called investments. Our leaders, pliant, greedy, unimaginative,
lazy
and spineless, oblige. Where are our industries, leaders?
What cars,
radios, watches, and tinga tingas are manufactured by industries using
titanium and other minerals from Kenya? Minister for industry?
What
industry? The minister thinks his job is to hand over quick to
some
Canadians our children’s titanium for pesa nane? Wangari Mathai,
whatever, happened to the iron lady who once had the spine to stand up
at Uhuru Park against the injustices from Moi? What are you going
to
do with the results of your fact-finding mission to S. Africa about
titanium mining, professor Mathai? Are you scared of Canadians or
did
you think that getting rid of Moi was the final solution to our
poverty? Why does the Canadian investor deserve a billion dollars
and
the African child from Kilifi does not? Is your job getting the
most
for the children of Kwale or the children of Toronto? If you do
not
know how to get more for the Kwale child, why are you there? What
gives you the right to take your children’s bread and throw it away to
the “wolves”? Every time you meet, Bush goes home with something
for
America, and Blair for England. But you, what do you bring back
for
Kenya? Mkono mtupu.
Did Kenyans beg you to be leaders or did you volunteer yourselves?
Mayor Aketch, just do one thing: get the goddamn trash in Nairobi
picked up, Raila fix the roads, Muranguri bring the crime down, the
commissioners, delegates, Muite and Murungi, stop the subterfuge and
get the constitution done fast time, Kombo fix the sugar industry and
start a titanium industry, Awori go after AIDS and give us some real
jobs not the slavery at EPZ’s, Michuki fix the rail system and let your
quick son take care of his own business, Nyongo calm down, go back to
real honest thinking and come up with a real development plan to deal
with globalization, Kibaki just please once for all put a stop to this
wizi, and hold full cabinet sessions and strategize on how
to deal
with globalization, and Jaindi Kisero, and the rest of our scribes,
write about globalization , even as you continue to hold our
leaders
accountable.
We need to put our house in order quickly so we can begin to put
together adequate responses to the real cause of misery now, i.e.
globalization. The people have realized that they need a system
that
holds their so-called leaders accountable. They want a new
constitution with checks and balances, through devolution of powers.
They have fought and paid for it for the last 8 years. Have the
commissioners forgotten what they witnessed with their own eyes when
they toured the country collecting views from wananchi?
African leaders, like Peter who thrice denied Christ, you sold your
brethren to slavery, you sold your brethren to colonization, and now
you are selling your own people to globalization. Spare us the
sophistry by pretending to protect some tribal gains, for which tribe
did you, our leaders, ever protect from slavery, colonization, and now
globalization: the Kikuyus, Luos, or Kambas? When are you ever
going
to wake up, like Peter who at least became the rock upon which the
church was built, and work for your people? We, the people, are
not
waiting for history any more; we are already judging you, very harshly.
Just for once, stand up and act like real leaders, give as
a new
constitution and real Kenyan owned and operated industries. To my
fellow Kenyans, do not cave in, the journey is long, but at least we
have left “Misri”.
Isaiah Odhiambo Nengo Ph.D. Lecturer, Department of Anthropology,
232
Kroeber Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.
Email:
nengoio@comcast.net
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