By Peter Amunga.
The Mashujaa who brought us what we enjoy today, were the bearers of the Kenyan dream. Independence required dreaming heroically, embracing the unknown, and offering to die for an ideal. Our forefathers including the founding president Hayati Kenyatta, Jaramogi, Masinde Muliro, dreamed of a Kenya that was a land of milk and honey. Mzee Jomo then summed the dream in this slogan
“Wakenya, tunagamize, Umaskini, Ujinga na Ugonjwa..”
Jomo and his peers at independence dreamt of a Kenya that was free of disease, poverty and ignorance.
But this was not an easy feat.
The first few years after independence, these leaders lived the Kenyan dream. They envisioned a Kenya with an Africanized economy. An economy largely locally owned; whose industries were producing for regional markets; and in which, technology was the light and heat of commerce. A nation that drew from itself, for itself.
This dream was further articulated by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga in his book: “Not Yet Uhuru”, published in 1967. The central theme of this book was that Independence was not complete until the economy was in the hands of Africans.
Tom Joseph Mboya, one of our other Founding Fathers, echoed the dream. But, in his book “Freedom and After” he reminds us that great things are made of a series of small things. Fifty years ago, Mboya warned Kenyans against constitutional rigidity. He told us that a constitution is not an end in itself; it is a means to a greater end. Tom Mboya became Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, In this role, he wrote the important “Sessional Paper 10” on Harambee and the Principles of African Socialisim, which provided a model of government based on African values
*2022 GIVES US ANOTHER CHANCE TO GET A LEADER WHO CAN CARRY THE DREAM OF OUR FOREFATHERS*
We need TO THINK about electing political leaders totally committed to promoting not self but what will transform lives of our people in line with THE DREAMS our founding fathers yearned for. Indeed, as Martin Luther King, Jr said: “We need political leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity”. For example… Tribalism, corruption and the so called hustlers nation… cannot fit in the dreams of our founders. Tokenisim and gifting youth with wheelbarrows cannot be part of the independence dream.
*CONCLUSION*
This Mashujaa day,
let us think of electing leaders, who like Tom Mboya, Jaramogi, Jomo and others had dreams. Let us not fall for the current crop of leaders, who have no dreams but instead are stage performers, clowns, greedy, billionaires, corrupt, lovers of themselves and not lovers of Kenya. Killers of our economy and KILLERS OF THE KENYAN DREAM.
#HappyMashujaaDay
#DreamsOfOurForefathers
#MudavadiHasKenyans
#PeterAmunga
