From: odhiambo okecth

Cornelius,

I want to take the flip side and address the issues you are raising and complaining about in a nutshell.

At Independence, all across Africa, we had a few issues that drove the need for Independence. First, we wanted to rule ourselves and help achieve certain key issues we thought were dear to us.

In Kenya, we zeroed on 3 cardinal issues; Poverty, disease and illiteracy. We had some other issues we thought were dear to us.

But immediately we attained Independence, some of our leaders changed the goal posts. Many states in Africa went dictatorial; where the big man became the Mister Know it all. Democracy was defecated upon and what we had in reality were sham elections. And then they invented tribalism as a buffer for their leadership, and we promptly swallowed that.

In those sham elections, the people were used to rubber stamp the pre-determined electoral choices of the ruling elite. This led to the fight and agitation for the Second Liberation wave across all Africa.

Again, in Kenya, the people decided that we had seen enough of this electoral malaise and with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, George Moseti Anyona, Masinde Muliro, Kenneth Matiba, Raila Odinga and others in the front line, the journey to the Second Liberation had started.

The people won in the fight for the Second Liberation, but lost in electing people, men and women of repute to electoral offices. Instead of electing leaders, we elected fleecers; men and women whose main preoccupation once in office was to fleece the common man.

Food prices went up. Housing units went up. Fuel went up. School Fees went up. Taxation went up. MPs salaries went up and the common man’s salary was gravely eaten into. Then, we were given another chance to elect new leaders and promptly, we elected and returned to office the same known thieves who had messed us up.

The end result is that we are in the mess we are in, courtesy of ourselves. We are constantly given a chance to correct the mess, but we vote tribe. We vote for money. And we vote for ineptness. Then we blame the leaders we have voted for.

Have you ever heard of garbage in garbage out?

That is our malady and untill we will make up our mind to stop voting for tribe, money and ineptness, we will keep blaming the garbage we keep piling in.

My take is simple; change will not come from somewhere else. We are the change we have been waiting for. Let us join hands and help Clean Kenya.

Oto

—
Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com

— On Sun, 3/4/12, Cornelius Ambale wrote:

Dear Presidents/Prime Ministers, of Africa

On behalf of the poor people of Africa, I send you this protest letter.

We are angry. Yes, we the people are very angry. We have endured your ill conceived, harsh and austere economic and social policies for quite too long. We have watched silently to see you and your cronies enjoy while we the masses continue to suffer. We have no jobs, no income, no savings and no place to lay our heads while you and your selected few live in mansions at the expense of the very poor you are refusing to take care of. You have consistently ignored all our cry for help even though you know our plights very well.

Are you not appalled by the scale of poverty and the living condition of the people? Are you not appalled to see children selling on the street instead of being in the classroom? Are you not appalled to see children scavenging for food while you and you cronies frequent five star hotels? Don’t you care about the dignity of the people you claim to be serving?

For years, you have asked us to sacrifice and even today we are still sacrificing. How many more years should we continue to sacrifice and tighten our belts while you and your cronies enjoy from our sweat? We cannot continue any longer. No we cannot.

We are tired of all of you who call yourself leaders of the people. We are tired of dictatorship, media censorship, torture, imprisonment without trial, war and political instability. We are tired of being refugees. We are tired of seeing our children die of preventable diseases. We are tired of sharing water from the same source with animals; water infested with bacteria and viruses. We are tired of lack of access to education, health, energy, food, medicine, shelter and clothing. We are tired of having to work with cutlasses and hoes in this 21st century. We are tired of having to rely on nature to plant our crops. We are tired of having to plant without fertilizers. We are tired of having to use 18th century seeds that yield next to nothing. We are tired of having to endure poverty, starvation, diseases, humiliation, torture, oppression, in your hands.

Above all, we are tired of your excesses. We are tired of your corrupt practices and the looting of the treasuries. Your foreign bank accounts are swollen with hundreds of millions of dollars, pounds and Euros while hundreds of millions of people live on one dollar a day.

We are tired of you using our money to procure arms for your own protection while children go to school barefooted and on empty stomach; while hospitals are without essential medicines; while factories are folding up for lack of electricity; and while harvested crops remain in the bush for lack of good roads. We are tired of all your inactions, the wait- see – and – do – nothing approaches to problem solving.

There are many of you that we have not chosen or asked to lead us yet are carrying themselves as our leaders. Such people we demand should retire and allow elections to take place. We demand an end to torture in Egypt and starvation in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. We demand an end to the dictatorial rule in Libya, Egypt, Cameroon, Gabon, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Uganda and the Gambia. We demand an end to the instabilities in DR. Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Northern Uganda, Chad and Madagascar. We demand an end to the genocide in Darfur and the killing of innocent children, women and civilians.

We demand an end to the official corruption and graft in Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Angola, DR. Congo, Chad, South Africa, Kenya and Guinea. We demand an end to the eroding of democratic values in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Gabon. We demand an end to the injection of tribalism in our politics. We demand an end to the use of the continent as a hub for cocaine shipment to Europe.