As we celebrate 45 years of self rule, let us pause for a moment and look at what we have achieved.

We set at Independence with 5 clear issues we wanted to address; Illiteracy, poverty, disease, shelter and water for all by some year. 45 years down the line, can we look at our leaders and agree that, yes, they deserve leading Kenya?

At the time Kenya was attaining her self rule, we had many people who were well educated, people who could read and write well in the English Language. This was our chosen medium of education, and at that time, teachers were teachers.

Down the line, we started enrolling those who had failed all the exams into teacher training colleges, so that after they have been taught in what they had failed to pass in, they can go out as teachers, to teach our children.

The result is out in the open for all to see today; we have graduates who cannot read and write; we have graduates who cannot punctuate their sentences properly; we have phd holders who write in continuous prose with no respect to comas, paragraphs and fullstops.

We have created an education system that is not definate. You can not be sure what your child will be reading in school the following year, for they are taught in different books each year nowadays.

In short, we have messed our own education system because of greed, and ended churning out half baked products from our learning institutions.

How do you employ those who fail exams to become Teachers?

At the time we were attaining self rule, Kenya was very rich. Rich in human resource, rich in food production, rich in personal health care. Today, we stare poverty in the eye every day.

What might have gone wrong?

Again, it is the same self question of greed. The man-eat-man mentality caught up with our leaders, and they forgot that in this world, it is better when we share. There must be distribution of labour. One can be a Farmer, a Teacher, a Doctor, a Driver, name it. But one cannot be all these people roiled together.

Our political class went into leadership with insatiable lust for everything, and in the process, we ended up creating what JM used to refer to as a class of 10 millionaires against 10 million beggars.

With this kind of greed, we have created poverty by our own selves. Look at the kind of loans Kenya has borrowed, or rather, our leaders have borrowed on our behalf. What has it done for us? Where is it? What can show for the kind of loans we are being taxed heavily to pay for?

Again, look at the grants Kenya has received, or rather, our leaders have received on our behalf. It has really made them very rich, while Kenya is still wallowing in the top 20 in the world poverty index.

Disease is now rampant more than at Independence. With all the Doctors that we have churned out, what has been happening? Are we able to control even simple infectious diseases? We have come from bad to worse.

After Independence, there was an attempt to build spacious 2 bedroomed houses for the common man. Through this initiative, Kariokor, Jamhuri, and such houses were built. I do not know at what time the sharks were let in.

We have by-laws that require any housing unit 6 storeys and above to have a lift. If you take a walk around Nairobi, you will find 9 storey buildings with stair cases where you cannot even by pass each other. If you want to move in with a stool, you rope it from the side of the house.

These housing units are very dark in the corridors, and yet nobody bothers. Simply because the owners, the people who have by-passed the law with impunity, are our leaders.

Shelter is hence still a problem because our leaders focused on self aggrandizement at the expense of service delivery.

We all know that even in Nairobi, the capital City of Kenya, water is a perennial problem.

With Kenya having failed to achieve any of these clear objectives 45 years into self rule, is it time we looked at the calibre of the kind of leadership that we have had all along?

I bet time has come for Kenyans to vet those who aspire for leadership positions, not on how heavy their pockets are, but on the content of their character and leadership ability.

We have had people in leadership who have seemed very rudderless, yet, they win elections all the times. Kenyans must change course and go for people who can deliver.

In so doing, we must take into account that we belong together as Kenyans. Let us move with speed to educate our children that your neighbour is not a Kikuyu, a Luo, a Luhya, a Kalenjin etc, but that your neighbour is a Kenyan just like you are.

The first 45 years have been wasted years.

Odhiambo T Oketch
Komarock Nairobi

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Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 06:44:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: odhiambo okecth
Subject: Enjoy a Peaceful Madaraka

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Bravo
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Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2008 00:36:55 +0000
From: songoso@ . . .
Subject: Re: Enjoy a Peaceful Madaraka

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— On Sat, 5/31/08, patrick opondi wrote:

I often read with passion articles written by OTO but i feel moved and overwhelmed beyonds words by your posting today. It is apparent that greed is the norm of doing things within our midst. Corruption is no longer abhorred,for it creates a wealthy class, with venomous power to crush its’ critics. No wonder at integrity house men and women of integrity are paid billions of tax payers monies yet they do nothing to justify their being.
But who is to blame,the leaders or the citizens? A glimpse of our country leadership is a pointer that we are recycling leaders.They are related,descendants of our liberation leaders.They have monopolized power, business and public policy, failing to see the world our way.The voters have blindly shown loyalty to them, based on their brand names to keep up with the tradition and complete the projects their ancestors began.Thus we have with us a culture of inept,vision-less leaders incapable of transforming the nation.
OTO,you are the lamp of the society.Continue to illuminate the world.

Patrick Lumumba OpondiNB!

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Date: Saturday, May 31, 2008, 7:23 AM
From: patrick opondi
Subject: Re: Enjoy a Peaceful Madaraka

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Thank you Patrick.

Oto

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Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2008 01:06:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: odhiambo okecth
Subject: Re: Enjoy a Peaceful Madaraka