By Allan Chesang (African Times Guest Writer)
If you struggle to put food on the table despite
all your daily hard work… If government policies
greatly disadvantage you and are more of a
barrier than an enabler… If you are highly taxed
but still can’t access basic needs like quality
healthcare, and have to watch a loved one die
helplessly… If education has only added to your
misery, and you just can’t find opportunities
because you are neither a somebody nor know
somebody somewhere… Then you are a victim
of a broken system.
This country, and the future that we need,
desperately calls for people who are ‘woke’.
Selfish politicians, strong cartels and
incompetent leaders have their knees on our
necks.
They are stifling our growth and threatening our
survival. Our detriment though is apathetically
waiting on hope for politicians or activists to fix
the broken system. But how long will we wait?
We need people who can champion a new
cause leading to tangible change. People who
can redefine our vision as a nation. We need to
resist and stand up against the status quo.
It’s time to make politicians pay attention to the
needs of the ordinary people instead of yielding
to the needs of cartels and political financiers/
wheeler dealers who only serve to oil the wheels
of corruption.
We need a judiciary that is uncompromisable,
swift and fair – if justice is to be our shield and
defender.
We need a parliament that is more loyal to the
people that elected them than political parties
and leaders that are hungrier for change than
they are for power!
We want to be remembered as the generation
that changed a nation!
That we fought against the status quo and
stood to be counted… That we did something
about the state of affairs and made a difference
where we could. That we did our best, given the
circumstances.
Just as the Mau Mau rose against the British
invasion, we can rise against the cartels that
deprive us of our basic rights, as basic as
access to clean water, good shelters . We can
rise against corruption and bad governance.
Let us take action and create the change that
we want. Most politicians are afraid of a
populace that is conscious and actively seeks
its rights. By holding politicians to greater
levels of accountability, we can elevate the
standard of leadership.
Unfortunately, our education system does not
culture or condition us to stand up against
injustice. This is accentuated by the
diminishing number of role models who fight
for what is right.
Since Okiya Okoiti Omtatah went the less
acrimonious legal route for an individual to
demand for change, and Bonny was threatened
that he would be snuffed out like the Jacob
Jumas… The streets are practically silent.
Waiting for someone to make the change…
Waiting for you… Waiting for me.
Truly, there is no better time to demand for
change than now! It is time to get that damned
knee off our necks! Let us use all avenues to
demand, clamour and call for change. Let us
cripple the broken system until it is fixed. Let us
have the courage to change what we can, the
wisdom to use the best approaches and the
unity to stand together for what is right.
Let us raise a new generation of fiery, firebrand,
passionate activists using modern means to
shape society. That generation is you and me.
If you can’t find a reason good enough… Then
just do it because you can!
(Allan Chesang is a commentator on socio
political issues and Founder of the Allan
Chesang Foundation)
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