Mirror In The Eyes...

                                     [Image from womentcb.com ]

I saw you
on telly
the other day
Your face
furrowed with grief
Your lips
clammed in raw emotion
For the I.D.P's,
you said.

Your eyes betrayed you,
though
In them I saw
an ocean of guilt
In them I saw
a reflection of your
Ghost,
unrelenting, unapologetic.

C) Lorot Salem 2011

Ode to Nelson Mandela

African Son, Child of Earth
The Great One, The Horn of Peace
Embarrassed I am to pen a poem of your profile
I am a nonentity.

I have read your biography
I have read your speeches
I have watched mankind welcome you
Just to be close to who you really are.

But I have no inkling of being in jail
For people's liberation.

Now in sunset of your years
With power struggles
Famine
Poverty
Corruption
Our continent is still poisoned
Mzee Madiba, what apt lesson should we extract?

What lesson of selflessness
Told to the world at Robben Islands
Should we seek?

Mzee Mandela, African Son, Child of Earth
The Great One, The Horn of Peace
What tribute do we pay to our fallen gallant fighters
For self-determination?
What shall we say of Sharpeville and Sisulu?
Did our forefathers have to die in vain?
Where is Matunda ya Uhuru?

I have an idea, Mzee Madiba
Let every elder from every hamlet meet you
Let them pour libation and ward off evil
Let them unearth arrows and bayonets
Let them speak blessings.

Call this meeting soon, I beg of you
Let our sons and daughters who lead us converge
Let them tell the elders why they are poisoning our land
Let them tell us why they keep kola nuts to themselves
Let them tell us who bewitched them with failed leadership.

Call this meeting soon, I beg of you
The Great One, the Horn of Peace
Then call poets who can chew words
Let them sing for peace
Let them sing dirges of buried dreams
Let them chastise our sons and daughters who shame us
Let them craft rhyme and meter to laugh at us
Let them satirize our pretence and hypocrisy.

Call this meeting soon, I beg of you
The Great One, the Horn of Peace.

C) Lorot Salem 2011

Political Speech

This is meant to be a political speech

I have to say this early because it will screech your ears

And tug at your heart..wrench it even

For we have grown apolitical

Traded our voices, our freedom

This speech will capture that dream

That was conceived times past

But is kicked around in non-recognition

This speech is the tablet of the people, the masses

Their commandments to the powers-that-be

That it will not be business as usual

For in every hamlet and slum, every corner and abode

This speech will be carried through

To give a re-birth to that dream

To dramatize the upsurge of the downtrodden

The masses will gather to hear the cause of their suffering

They will boil in their hearts

They will seethe, they will simmer

They will constrict in their throats

They will unite

They will join hands and join the dots

The bits and pieces, the odds and ends

The downtrodden will rise out of their slums

To carry this message, this political speech

And make it their own

They will ignite fire in their marrows

And blaze in their eyes

They will heave with disgust

To hear about this dream they once had

But was snatched away from them

They will envision the lost opportunities

The smokescreen

The bluff

The stooges will quake in their boots

Listening to this speech

For it will not be heard and forgotten

It will plant the seed of another dream

A dream bigger and grand, a dream that will never be stolen

It will shake every corner of slums

It will fire up the masses

It will cause a seismic twist to the powers-that-be

For this speech is a political speech

Written by the blood of the slum-dwellers

Carrying the breath of debased men living in misery

Inked by the lost dreams of youths in garbage mounds

Nursed by the bare-chested mothers with malnourished babies

This political speech is not written actually

Because the illiterate masses will not read them

It is the wind of hope blowing across the slums

It would not be comprehensible

It will not follow any style

It will not bear any introduction

It will not have any conclusion

It will not follow any particular pattern

For this speech is a speech of revolt

Against structures, layouts, formats

It is not pre-defined

It will lump everything together

With no specific order

Yet remain true to its message and intent

This political speech is not actually political

Because it is not empty rhetoric and witchhunt

But it could be political, if you think about it.

C) Lorot Salem 2010

Let's Talk About My Political Rivals

Let's talk about my political rivals
Who, like shadows, keep tracking me
As if my shadow is blacker than theirs

Listen, thrice I have been tracked
By tinted-glasses vehicles
On my way home
A choreographed plan to assassinate me!

Now, they tarnish my character
Built in nineteen of public scrutiny
On the scandal scheme
And cooked-up past crimes

The object is this ministerial post
And the attendant fat allowances and mileages
My rivals would rather sell their kidneys
Than see me in a Fuel Guzzler
But I don't care

As this flag flutters in free Kenyan wind
They fritter away to corridors of shame
As I carry this portfolio
They wither in the face
How I make freaks out of them!

I once invited them in my cosy office
Air-conditioned and adorned with leather chairs
I told them of my plan for the higher seat in the land
In the coming General Elections-
Of course I was kidding!

As if working on a script
My rivals' faces lit up
All of them talked
Of how Kenya badly needed me
Yes, how badly Kenya misses me!

C) Lorot Salem 2010

Are We Children of a Lesser God?

When I wake up every morning minus a revolution in Kenya
I say my prayers
As I read the papers-- of violence, power-lust and bickering
I say my prayers
That our God saves Kenya

When I hear our leaders talk about themselves
About their salaries, about who will run in 2012,
About Vision 2030, about stolen maize
And witch-hunting and ethnicity and eating the national cake
And forming other parties
And keeping mum about floods, starvation and IDPs
I say my prayers
That our God saves Kenya

God, where did we go wrong?
When did we stand in the path of your anger and vengeance?
God, where have we stirred your patience
and stoked the fires of your retribution?

This is not what we bargained for, God,
About these leaders, about their developments
About our wishes and aspirations and the Kenyan Dream
and the Kenyan Promise
No, No, God, this was not it

For if it was, Almighty God,
They would have saved us from hunger and floods
And pay themselves less and hear the IDPS
For if it was, dear God,
They would have moved heaven and earth
and represent our issues
For if it was, Powerful God,
they would have not sown the seeds of discord
among us
No, God, this is not what we bargained for
This was not it

Whence went our African pride?
Of the green savannaland and steppes and cliffs
Whence went our unity and brotherhood?
Where are the latterday Mandelas and Nkurumah's and Nyerere's?
Whence went the Pan-Africanism spirit?
Kenya, whence went your dream and vision?
Kenya, whence went the spring in your feet and sense of purpose?

God, whence did our pride go?
Whence went our cheer and leadership
God, when did we falter in our steps
To steal, to hide shame, to smear others,
to be indifferent?

When did the ghost enter us
To suffer the tyranny of electing the worst elements
To run our affairs?
When did it start that we elected 'one of our own'
even when they had stolen chicken in village?

God save us, Save us oh Lord,
If it be that we erred, we repent
If it be that we can't run our affairs, guide our leaders
For from soil you created Kenya
Though it be from soil, return should it not to the soil
This soon.

C) Lorot Salem 2010

Surviving Mole

They told you that the world was unfair
that the gap kept widening
between the rich and poor

They told you about Economic Emancipation
to catapult you from the squalor of poverty
and grime

They told you about ''Program for Equal World in 2020'
to keep your hopes high
and keep chasing after the wind

But they told you
they never lived with you.

In the leafy Karen suburbs they lived
You squeezed in a rat-hole in a slum

As they woke up to Dormans, fried eggs and fruits
You drank a tasteless liguid that passed for tea

As you held your nose from the stench of flying toilets
They held their noses to foreign dishes in Hilton

And you believed their 'Economic Emancipation' and
'Program for Equal World in 2020'
and kept hope alive
for an 'emancipated world'

Brother, why is there a tear in your eye now?
Why are you tired with them that you listened to?
Any way, I believed them sometimes back till when I discovered
I belonged to a lower rung--the surviving mole

C) Lorot Salem 2010

The Politician

He called the press conference
In one of those rare occasions
His belly forming a plateau
On the treacherous landscape of politics
He gave one of those sinister grins
That clenched the face in twists of fury
His eyes stared a tad too long
On cameras
Trying to pick his enemies: real or imagined
Then he went ballisitic:
Dear people, this thing has stretched far
Scandals that never were
Lootings created by the media
A ruthless design to fritter away
The kind spirit of the politician
'Who, but theLiving Saints of the land
Are smeared with the damndest words
On earth
Yet they bring Mwananchi development?
He ranted and raved, the politician
As his belly shook in tandem
With his cataclysmic anger
Then, in a swoop, he gathered his papers
And concluded:
No more comment--but trim the rumours!

C) Lorot Salem 2010

Visions

I have strange visions nowadays
Of blades and swords and skulls
Dancing ballet near my grave
Now littered with weeds
Stunted by mortal fear.

C) Lorot Salem 2010

Vision Launch

You heard him
launch his
vision at the
Conference Centre
the pomp and pomposity
delegates from as far as Land Paved with Gold

you remember the solidarity speeches
for our 'son'
the psycophancy songs
how the visionary's supporters
hollered and howled and scowled

you remember how the audience
was electrified
by the speech
the French phrases
the quotes from Martin Luther King Jnr.
to Lincoln to American Declaration of Independence
thunderous applause


the press splashed the story
and called it 'My Dream For Kenya'
there will be free primary
free secondary
free university
no taxes
lean government
katiba in 100 days
tarmacked road
affirmative action
free sanitary towels

no one mentioned
the fuel guzzler
the tax free perks
the mileage
the anglo-leasing scandal
the grabbed land

any way, the vision was tight
to allow such miniature things

C) Lorot Salem 2010

December 27th

We voted-December 27th
We voted
We voted for democracy
We voted for peace
We voted for rule of law
We voted knowing well that whoever won will be president
for us all-
We cared less about PNU, ODM or Wiper
We never bothered about the Ng'ethes and Nazlins of this,
Our beautiful Kenya

How we danced to Banjuka, Bado Mapambano
and gave Steadman Wiper
We even listened to Bishop and sang tip tip amani Kenya
with our brother Kalembe Ndile

In all our shades we voted
Kikuyu and Luo
Kamba and Kalenjins
Muslims and Christians
From Kacheliba to Oloitokitok
From Kondele to El Wak
We all voted
For our brothers who owned TV
They might have seen that advert-
agege sasa ni wakati wa kabila yetu, tutakanyagana
but we just ignored and went on with our campaigns

So on December 27th we turned in our millions
to speak through ballot
we voted with our conscience
we voted the man we loved
we voted as a duty

December 27th we braved sun and sand
Braved shack and slum life
we voted
we spoke

but now we sing no banjuka anymore
we sing no bado mapambano anymore
we give no one wiper anymore-not even to Steadman
we sing no tip tip amani Kenya anymore
we are not Kenyans
we are Luos, Kikuyus, Kambas and Kalenjins
we are us and them
like in the advert we sing agege ni wakati wa kabila
tutakanyagana

behind the mask of Kibaki and Raila
we vent our anger
we kill 'them'
we burn 'their' business and
chase 'them'
with our narrow eyes we let our
brutalities show
we kill each other with passion
we torch our neighbour's houses

we voted, we spoke
but Kenya is bigger to nest us all
when we kill the other, don't they die?
when they hurt don't they cry?
when the sun hits doesn't it hit us all?

We voted, we spoke
but we spoke for peace
we spoke for unity in Kenya
we never voted for bloodbath!

Mzalendo

To an electrified crowd
he orchestrated a speech never heard
punctuated by enhanced body movement
diction dictated
pauses posed
mustering a standing ovation

none thought his miniature frame
could have commanded a presence
among ambassadors, lawyers and men of cloth
inside the towering Six-Eighty Hotel

none expected
that the unknown man will mouth platitudes
capable to shatter walls of undecidedness

like Martin Luther King Jnr.
he launched his 'Dream Speech'
Only that he was blind and paraplegic!

during the charged katiba days
he spoke
spoke of conciliation
spoke of Wanjiku
spoke of voice of reason

he spoke again
in August House- against MP's pay hike
the House booed him
nearly skidded his wheelchair

i fear he speaks a lot
against the Establishment
throwing barbs in small intoxications
in his trademark satire juggle

people call him Mzalendo
because he hates magendo and makwerekwere
Mzalendo established Mzalendo Foundation
to tap wasted brains

Mzalendo is a small man
with big brain and big heart
Mzalendo mixes freely
with the tailored-suits and tattered-soots

i once asked Mzalendo whether he's rich or poor
quipped: rich or not but I am not intellectually dishonest.

C) Lorot Salem 2010