Let Kenya Be

We will never leave you

For at the darkest hours we stood by

We know your pain, for we have lived it,

We know what sorrow is, for we have felt it

Kenya, the land of hypocrites

Where, the sons of mau mau live in holes

Figuratively interred by the graves of their fathers

Yet you who have lived the pain, show us your scars

Show us your bullet marks, strip so that we may witness

We are the defining moment, countrymen and women,

The point where we are at take-off

We were left by Singapore and Korea

We cannot afford to get lost again

It has always been defining moments, for all we care

1963 was a defining moment too

And year by year, we have grown weary of speeches

Speeches coated with poetry and stolen from America

With time, brother, we have shut our ears to those take offs

1963, we had all the hope, all the dream, all the vision

What makes you think we are excited by these?

At independence, we swore to fight disease, ignorance and illiteracy

This remains our rallying call

And with it, we have new challenges,

Corruption at our offices, boss leadership,

Nepotism, favouritism, tunnel-visioned leadership…

Blah blah blah blah

Name them all, name them all,

But like a song from a scratched CD, you annoy,

There was a time we were excited by you,

You naming all the vices strangling us

And with the naiveté we had, we exclaimed,

‘Now, that is our prophet, our seer’

And with all our energy from our malnourished stomachs

We carried you high, your big body weighing upon us,

Some, like victims of any revolution, died from suffocation

Or dislocated spines, and we buried them silently

But now, you are no seer, tell us what you will do

When, how, why, and if need be slap your forehead

Lick your tongue and swear before our ancestors

This is the blue-print to our future, Wanjikus,

In it, I lay out what I will do for Kenya

In agriculture for example—no rain-fed agriculture

In security— two pistols for every cop

In education— a salary hike to teachers

In health— bigger and well-equipped hospitals

Blue-prints, that’s right,

Written by technocrats holed up in offices

Consulting on big tomes and countless reports

Pray, mr. blue-print, if only you listened to the

Hoes of farmers in the fields, you wouldn’t speak a thing

The police are shot every day, their numbers are few,

They live in decrepit shacks divided by curtains

And there you are, unashamedly promising them more pistols,

No, they need no pistols, they need more respect,

To patrol the city with the dignity worth their ranks

To retreat to houses that speaks of the Nation’s respect for them

The teachers, the teachers need not be lied to

As if they were the children they educate

We owe it to teachers for who we are,

Pray, was it fair to reduce all this to carrot and stick?

And health care, why should it be promised?

Why should doctors strike?

What message does it send to a mkokoteni pusher?

You have known me all this time,

I helped establish blah blah blah,

Trust me with this honour,

I am different

I am not like my predecessors

I was in a bad system

I was not corrupt

Same lies, same mouth, different times,

We have watched you silently, in disgust,

You talking in our TVs, speaking filth all your life,

You did less, you spoke much, you forgot us,

And in the corrupt system you grew up in,

You trained yourself how to bend your head,

To look away when the darkest crimes were committed

Your hands are filled with blood

Of the many you killed when you didn’t speak

You looted much, you gave less,

You have done a little less out of shame

Not by some sense of service within you

You are power-hungry, you are after yourself

And you are corrupt, very corrupt

What Kenya needs are leaders who can preach peace

We should not have a repeat of 2007/2008

Well said, well said,

Yes, they need leaders who can preach peace

Not you, not you,

You are the greatest enemy to Kenya’s peace

If only you had noticed how the skies sigh

Every time you spew bilge, you would not speak,

Why is it that vultures hover around your meetings?

May be I should not ask, but with respect,

You will do everyone good if you let Kenya be