Skip to main content

Unemployment & Public Rallies: A Comment on the leaders we yearn for ...


A comment on the large crowds often witnessed at public rallies and more recently pact signings, and the continued castigation of them by a middle-class tweeting and blogging away at their businesses, in their cars and at places of work, for being unemployed idlers being misled by a political elite that feels nothing for them.

Is it not a genuine concern that any leader worth his salt ought to be concerned about even while ‘pacting’ away? As they sign away to share spoils, an eager and expectant crowd watches on – chanting their names out loud.   

Why are these many people here …. “well am popular and a tribal chief in my own right” … but then again; it is in the middle of the week, a Monday, a Tuesday – days that essentially ought to be the most productive days of the week, did they seek or get the day off work?
They are there because like every other five years they hope that the ‘pacting’ is FOR ONCE about job creation and the general welfare of the citizenry, not about who gets the spoils after the forth coming gruesome political battle, aren’t they?

I read a very interesting book – The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State , by Basil Davidson (I thoroughly recommend it despite the many criticisms leveled against it). It talks about the prevailing political situation in which citizens merely remain present as existential phenomena …. But are absent as participating actors. He gives an example of East Germany where after the Berlin rising, official leaflets of the government informed “the people” that they had “forfeited the confidence of the government” - in which case “would it not have been simpler for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?”

If any leader is ‘pacting’ covertly or overtly at the KICC or Jivanjee gardens, surrounded by mammoth crowds and not for once thinks (because that is how we feel when during five years they act as though they do not give a rat’s ass) about why all these people are not at their places of work, then they are simply not worth either e-effort (as the tweeters and blogging middle class has been termed) or actual rally attendance effort!

My Take_ 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Madaraka Day @49 – What Exactly Does Attaining Self Rule Mean?

Courtesy of The Daily Nation The Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (adopted 14 th December, 1960) says the following about the importance of Independence; “ The General Assembly, Mindful of the determination proclaimed by the peoples of the world in the Charter of the United Nations to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Convinced that all peoples have an inalienable right to complete freedom, the exercise of their sovereignty and the integrity of their national territory… .” The Preamble to the Constitution of Kenya 2010 says; “ We the people of Kenya – Honouring those who heroically struggled to bring freedom and justice to our land: Exercising our sovereign and inalienable right to determine the form of governance ...
Post a Comment
Read more

LATEST COURT OF APPEAL APPOINTMENTS - Kudos JSC!!

Once again the JSC is 'on-point' in its latest appointment of 7 new judges of the Court of Appeal. The ration of appointments is clearly in favour of the women i.e. 5 out of the 7 are women. This follows the earlier appointment of 28 new judges of the High Court 13 of whom were women. Indeed, the Court of Appeal has been largely identified with a perpetual delay in the administration with many calling upon it to work at changing its public image. Indeed, the Justice William Ouko led Task force report not only only found that there were vacancies at the court of appeal (11 instead of the then 14 allowed) but even out of the 11 judges, there was no woman judge at the Court of Appeal. The Constitution of Kenya, as a result of a reflection on some of these grave inequities and disparities is very clear on the issue of gender representation at all levels of and in all arms of government. Whether a woman judge matters can be seen from some reflections in this rather short, simple...
Post a Comment
Read more

Supreme Court Presidential Petition Number 4 of 2017 (Njonjo Mue & Another Vs. Chairperson IEBC & 3 Others

Post backdated to 20th November, 2017:  About 2 weeks ago, i was called up by a seniour lawyer who asked me to join him for an early morning meeting. It is at that meeting that i was invited to be part of the legal team preparing a petition challenging the election of Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta - Supreme Court Presidential Petition 4 of 2017.  To have been found worthy of inclusion for this assignment is humbling, any lawyer (young or old) would be excited at such an opportunity. An opportunity to practice law at Kenya’s  apex court, in one of the most contentious issue the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over! One hell of an emotive issue too!  I accepted and was immediately tasked with the preparation of the Petition’s principal affidavit. The next 7 days were going to be a roller coaster. From sleepless nights and nights with little sleep, to change of location nearly 4 times for fear of police raids, late night meetings with lawyers i never dream...
3 comments
Read more