By James Shikwati
Posted Wednesday, January 19 2011 at 00:00 Business Daily
I am a great admirer Dr. Martin Luther King Junior’s oratory skills. Famous for his “I have a dream speech, ” the late Dr. King had key messages in each speech he gave that also ring true today.
One of his key messages was: “A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.” Kenyan backs have bent over in terms of justice, famine and education.
Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s recent remarks on some of the six individuals named by International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in regard to the 2008 post-election violence were revealing. If one took the Vice President’s word seriously, he was indirectly telling Kenyans, that the government will spend taxpayers’ money to defend itself. As far as Kenyans are concerned, the suspects are innocent until proven guilty.
In the corridors of famine afflicting Kenyans, the government apparently has billions set aside for the defense of the suspects at the International Criminal Court, but has to fund raise close to Sh42 billion to feed its people.
Reports indicate that National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) outlets have run out of money to buy maize as hundreds of farmers queue at the NCPB depots.
It is the work of donors and NGOs to feed the hungry whilst the political elites ride people’s backs to State power.
For farmers, the government is riding their backs literally. According to Crop Life Foundation, an African woman walks 10 kilometers in a stooped position to weed one hectare of land. To remove weeds using handheld hoes, a farmer needs an estimated 60 hours per hectare.
In the corridors of education, the Millennium Development Goals experiment on education has been challenged by a surge in private schools outshining public ones. While parents want quality education, the government and its sponsors want numbers. The dispute between the government’s admission criteria that compromises performance for affirmative action is a clear indicator that Kenyans need to look inward in terms of what their children are offered as education.
The political class is riding Kenyan backs through poor quality public schools for the masses.
If Dr. King was to visit Kenya today, he would countenance close to 48 million Kenyans with bent backs in the fields.
Riding the “Kenyalins” would be individuals with great titles such as professor of this and that, honorable this and that and so forth.
What would shock our great orator is the type of messages Kenyans are fed with. He would be amazed that the government does not take collective responsibility for those who die of famine (that is assumed to be nature’s guilt).
Finally, and most shocking will be the little or no investment in designing a “software” that ought to launch the country into first world economic status. To get the excess and stressing baggage off Kenyans backs, each citizen must simply stand up.
