POETRY

LABOUR ISSUES AND CHILD RIGHTS
TITLED "ECHOING VOICE OF SILENCE"
BY AKECH OBAT MASIRA
DIRECTOR MISANGO ARTS ENSEMBLE-(KISUMU KENYA)

Drums pounding
Loud and clear
Drums pounding
Far and wide
In Great Luo Nation
A Nation living in silence

Drums pounding
Echoing voices of silence
Voices of silence
Amidst
Enslavement, poverty and greed
Enslavement of children by adults
As poverty bites toiling children
Toiling without food to eat
As greed falls in love with adults for enrichment

Drums pounding
Loud and clear
Drums pounding
Far and wide
In Great Luo Nation
A Nation living in silence

Drums pounding
Lamenting and wailing as children cry
Crying for a voice
Crying to be heard
In the silent world of adult
Children crying for mercy
Children denied civil rights
Children abused by mothers and fathers
Children crying for rights to education
Rights to good health
Rights to protection
Rights to human dignity
Rights from sexual abuse by adults

Drums pounding
Loud and clear
Drums pounding
Far and wide
In Great Luo Nation
A Nation living in silence



As children ferrying firewood
Firewood from forests to markets
Hawking, fishing, hunting, baby sitting, farming and sex-ploited by adults

Drums pounding
Far and wide
In Great Luo Nation
A Nation living in silence

As our babies and children disappears
Into distant lands
As our offspring's disappears from maternity wards, hospitals, schools, homes
and villagers
To enrich the overfed adults
Who will lead us?
What shall we leave for posterity?
Why enslave our own children?
Why worship blood money?


Drums pounding
Far and wide
In Great Luo Nation
A Nation living in silence
As children disappear
A Nation is a Nation.
If it listens to the voices of silence
Voice of silence is a voice of children.

END