WHY WE NEED CHANGE

For quite a long time, actually since independence, Kenya has perennially been held hostage by a few predominant personalities majorly in the political arena. Our lives, futures and even more profoundly, our destinies, have been dangled maliciously on the palms of a bunch of self  acclaimed leaders. I actually, for a moment, tend to surmise that 'leaders' would be too much an appraisal to mount to such fellows. These are a pack of power hungry hounds who along the years have considered the vast majority of Kenyans not as fellow countrymen and compatriots but rather as mere voting machines who are due to be used and later dumped upon achieving their unpalatable Nirvanas.

Our interests as due citizens of this republic have always been bulleted first in the politicians' to-do lists (manifestos) only to be trashed by the very same drafters upon ascension to power. We are taken for a ride every five constitutional years but we don't seem to be privy to that. And quite intriguingly, the very same majority of the Kenyan electorate still elevates the same megalomaniacs to power every election cycle. To our own detriment of course.

The cause for this? An empty rhetorical argument of perceived social as well political injustices in the dawn years of independence. In Central Kenya, its highly probable that you've heard of a notion regarding Raila-phobia that has been skewed at impeding the ascension of Mr Odinga to the presidency. Likewise in Luo Nyanza, the tune is the same. Only with alternate lyrics. A 'selfish Kenyatta' understanding has been taking rounds and is now entrenched deep in the hearts of the locals.
Quite seminal, isn't it?

Fellow countrymen, such logics are the sugarcoated detonators of self destruction. For us to thrive robustly as a nation, it is paramount that we ostracize from amongst ourselves the imprudent fallacies of ethnicity and general discrimination. Otherness will only leave us on the precipice of failure. Let us fondly embrace oneness and shun off the hounds that endeavour each day to pit us against each other for selfish gain. Let us pioneer the change we want to realize. Let us be independent as we should really be. Let us disappoint those who think divisiveness is the waters to chart their vessels.

In the words of the late Tom Joseph Mboya, that if one set of leaders fails to give the people what they want, the people will demand a change in leadership or policy. And true to that, he exquisitely depicts what Kenya is braced for: A change in leadership and policy. It is inevitable. The winds are blowing, the trees are swaying and the birds are seeking high refuge. Need I say a storm is brewing?

©oiraqaleb esq.