Kenya-Stockholm’s 2011 Jamhuri Pix
Ambassador Purity Muhindi with Artist Kidum at Elite Hotel During the 2011 Jamhuri bash: 2nd December 2011
Is Kenya’s Independence for Real?
Starving to death in Turkana, Kenya
After staging this year’s Mashuja day in Oslo, Ambassador Purity Muhindi will be staging this year’s two hour Jamhuri day drinking spree at the Elite Palace Hotel today, Friday 2nd December at St Ericksgatan 115. The event is scheduled between 18.00-20.30hrs.
In reality, Jamhuri day should be celebrated on 12th December but Purity has no sense of dates when it comes to National days. By inventing her own dates for National days, Purity is actually violating the Kenyan Constitution although Wakenya here have never bothered to challenge her. Apart from Purity’s weird deviations, is there any reason why Kenyans should celebrate this day in ten days time?
The country has just been named by Transparency International as one of “the most corrupt” in the world. Forty eight years after independence, more than 10 million Kenyans are faced with starvation but instead of addressing the food crisis, the country is engaged in a hopeless war in Somalia where our soldiers are losing their lives because some European tourists were kidnapped from Kenya.
We are independent but food in our country is unaffordable because of high inflation occasioned by mismanagement of the economy and corruption. In Kenya, the government plays no role in the lives of millions of Kenyans and that is why our concept of global economic crisis is different from that of Europe and the United States. Why? A few examples will do.
If a Kenyan is sick, the citizen will have to fix treatment because the country’s health care system has collapsed and now, treatment is only possible in private hospitals and clinics. If you cannot fix a miti shamba and you have no money for private treatment, you can easily die of a treatable disease. Even if you make it at a private clinic or hospital you will still die if you have no money to buy medicine from a private chemist because the government plays no role in maintaining the health of citizens.
Without money, you will never get an education in Kenya and millions of parents are sweating blood to educate their children because the government plays no role in its citizen’s education. One can argue that the government introduced free primary education but surely, what can a standard eight achieve with a standard eight education in today’s Kenya?
Foreign Policy
If you have no money to buy food in Kenya, you either live on your relative’s resources, become a criminal and make a living or starve to death. Many youths are opting to become criminals because they are tired of living on their relatives while they do not want to starve to death when they can steal and survive. The reason why it has been impossible to end crime under the capitalist system in Kenya is because of the threat of starvation of millions of citizens who have chosen to become professional criminals instead of starving to death. If the government cannot carter for your health care, education and food, then the government is playing no role in your life. You are basically alone although you have the illusion of a government in place.
If you have no house in Kenya, you have to figure out how to put a roof above your head. The options are limited. You build a “paper house” aka nyumba ya carton, set up a shack in town or sleep in the streets. That is if you are not in shags. Why? Because it is not the job of the government to house you. If you are in this category, what are you gaining out of independence?
You are a university graduate and you have no job because the government no longer creates jobs to keep its citizens at work. We have a government without a “Labour Office” which the unemployed can visit to look for work because the concept of employment by the government evaporated eons ago. If graduates cannot get jobs, the case of school drop-outs cannot even be discussed. For Kenyans in this category, Independence is a meaningless word.
And then, a glance at our Foreign policy: Africa Union comes and tells the government not to recognize ICC and our government agrees. When our Ocampo six are being taken to the Hague, we begin shuttle diplomacy to stop the process and end up spending millions of shillings that could have fed millions of starving Kenyans. In the middle of fighting ICC, one of our courts rules that the Sudanese President should be arrested next time he comes to Kenya because he is wanted by ICC. When our Ambassador is expelled by the Sudanese, we send non other than the Foreign Affairs Minister to cool down the Sudanese President arguing that nothing will happen to him and that he can come to Kenya after all. This is our version of independence! Is our Jamhuri day for real or is it just another word in the Kenyan vocabulary?
Okoth Osewe
Recent Comments
Kubaya Sweden on “Kenya-Stockholm’s… Kubaya Sweden on “Kenya-Stockholm’s… Prisoner of my skin on 11 Kenyan Women Caught Having… Naumiya kuwa Mkenya on Ten Reasons Why Kikuyu Ruling… Uhuru useless on Kenyan Businessman Swindled Mo… NEW: COUNTRY STATS
