Celebrating 50 years of [In]dependence

For those of you who have those entertainment boxes connected to some cable, you must have heard that we have been celebrating 50 years since [in]dependence. The top honchos or clowns as I prefer to call them decided that one day wasn’t enough so gave us Friday off too which I must say was a good thing- I left my bed at 1200 noon :-P.

As a great cynic, I don’t see any reason for celebration and I will tell you why in a second.

50 years later, close to 60% of the population have no access to clean water and proper sanitation and this demographic includes those living in the city slums. What is there to celebrate?

50 years after the British left, we have not added a single unit length to the railway. On the contrary, those who were managing it have left it disuse, it’s land grabbed, train service to most parts discontinued. What is this we are celebrating?

When the founding fathers of the nation, such men as Jaramogi, Ramogi Acheing’ Oneko, Kaggia, Ngei fought for independence, they imagined a just society. What happened later is a far cry from their ambitions. We still have Kenyans who are called squatters in their own country while a few families sit on acres of land they don’t know what to do with. What independence is this? They were better of in settlement schemes run by the white overlords!

Most parts of the country are unreachable because of poor roads, roads which donor agencies funded but appears to me to have been built in people’s bellies for we see them nowhere. I must add here that the last regime made an attempt to improve this situation. At least a number of roads are being carpeted and missing links being upgraded. Maybe this is what they are celebrating, I don’t know.

A big population do not have access to proper medical facilities and if there is a medical facility, then there is insufficient staff to attend to the big population. What is there to celebrate?

50 years down the line, the country is divided along tribal lines so severe that in most government offices, one feels like he interupted a village baraza being addressed by the village headman for the lingo is local dialects. How is this anything to celebrate when we can’t live in harmony with one another?

A country that has relatively large tracts of arable land is so food insecure that any major drought in some parts of the country always results in Kenyans for Kenyans initiatives. How do we celebrate such poor governance?

Public transport in our major cities is for lack of a better word non existent. It is a mess run mostly by thieves and would be thieves. It is unreliable, inefficient and most times the crew have little respect for passengers if they have any. How do we celebrate such lack of progress?

Insecurity, especially with proliferation of small arms is on the increase. One is never sure where the robber is. At any place you are a candidate for muggers or armed robbery while parliament and treasury in every consecutive budget allocates millions of money to the defense department and office of the president. How, dear friends, is this something to celebrate?

After several years of struggle for media freedom, we have the vice president saying media freedom is alien to Africa and is being promoted by the west for selfish reasons and the top clown says in Britain the fines that are attached to media laws are higher and prohibitive than what the current parliament has passed. What madness is this? How can we as a people sit and celebrate such mediocrity, such lunacy, such madness without feeling some shame. Am appalled at the type of people who we elected as representatives.

7 or so years ago, we fought because a few stupid clowns we paid to conduct elections bungled it so badly that the then chairman in a later interview declared he doesn’t know who won the elections yet he declared some clown as the winner, a clown who was immediately sworn in as president in moonlight like the rest of the country wasn’t to know. Now we still have internally displaced persons waiting to be resettled by the government. Tell me, what are they to celebrate?

For those Kenyans who think we have a lot to celebrate, please weigh in, I really would want to hear you out.

Happy holidays everyone