Razzle-Dazzle

En ny artikkel fra Fred i Nairobi. Jeg anbefaler den!

Fred Oguttu er miljøarbeider i Maisha Mema-stiftelsen i Soweto Township i Nairobi. Han er utdannet arkitekt fra universitet i Nairobi.
Fred har besøkt Solborg Folkehøgskole i Stavanger flere ganger, og vil komme med jevnlige innspill i «Så var det sagt…»

«Simba,»the king of the jungle, must be musing as he ponders his next move in his trek across the terrains of Africa,in what has been labelled as one of the great wonders of the world…»and they say we are the wild animals?!»

O how great the mighty have fallen, when He who is on top of the food chain, he who claims to operate beyond instinct,survival-mode into the realms of reason,rationality,conscience, a primate animal far above the rest of the animal kingdom and specifically mammals!

The next time «simba» comes through into Kenya, will he find the country he left behind intact? The going ons in our country should not be mis-construed as a war between two rival communities, no,no,no!its an explosion of the lack of what I have always argued for in this forum ever since, transparency, equity, accountability, truth, credibility, openness, rationality, exposure, adequate, appropriate relevant functioning systems in place!

What started as political has transcended boundaries into a socio-economic catasrophy which has tweaked hitherto latent democratic passions into ethnicity.

O my land Kenya? Where else in civil society would you findsuch impunity,where saints are demonized whilst cannonizing devils. How power corrupts so mouh so that one would rather go to the grave than admit they are sorry,that they made a mistake. True leadership consents to weakness, a true leader worth his salt is humble yet bold and strong enough to ask for assistance in their moments of weakness.

A soldier in a movie I watched recently gave advice to the effect that the new recruit should save one final bullet, not for the adversary but for himself, seeing the battle would be so fierce!

The bullet saved in our case will be in knowing that we, the elite educated and enlightened professionals, relinquished leadership to demagogues,cliques and cartels and that in reaping,we will harvest that which we sowed. Where is the voice of reason, where is the voice of hope, where is the voice of direction when the princes are on foot as the robbers are on horses? In unconventional warfare where territory is everything,ceasefire might mean relative calm, but also a time feuding opposites regroup, re-strategize,rethink…

As the inks dry up in truce deals, ground soldiers cover as much ground as possible before official declarations are announced, such that in the end, territory covered and occupied translates into power and a burgain chip or tool.

Our institutions have not passed the test given to them yet. The question here is in our institutions as they affect individuals who create them in the first place.

We for sure do not know what is at the end of the tunnel, whether it will be change or status-quo. As I pen off, just like stratification is structured, it is sad to note that the majority dying are the poor-the pawns this society has birthed.

This is our hope, our pride and our resolve,in that wherever we will end up,be it the grave,in refugee camps or as assylum seekers and maybe in diaspora,

KENYANS will have learnt a very big lesson and will be the voice, the example and the direction of how humanity ought to be…and teachers we shall be, teachers with experience,teachers with history, teachers indeed!