Michael

If you just dropped onto the planet from wherever then I should inform you that there was an occupy Parliament in town yesterday. Boniface Mwangi (who I previously wrote about here) led a crowd of people through town to standing outside parliament, raising placards and culminating in pouring blood on some pigs. The police, in retaliation to the blood that had been spilled on the pigs – they were deeply ashamed for the pigs – picked up their clubs and beat up the people in the crowd. When that seemed to be working less effectively than they had hoped they decided to fire live bullets into the air. No birds have been reported as injured.

Boniface and his friends, on the other hand, were arrested for cruelty to animals. First of all, I doubt such a law exists in Kenya, and if so, if they’re ever applied (anyone here been harassed by KSPCA)  . Second, was the guy who did the entire coast dogs drama charged with it? These are question that will, of course, never be answered. After rigorous processing Boni and friends were released on bail and the streets outside parliament were swept clean of the filth left there by the protestors.

So that’s what’s been happening. We’re now on the day after. When pounded backs ache and teargassed eyes burn. Kenyans have protested, we are tired. We’ve now got ourselves busy with “moving on” because that is what we do best.

But, for some reason, I’d rather not move on. I’d like to dwell a little. Let’s think about the matters that affect us now where we are. Let’s think about the fact that 58% of our people of employable age are unemployed. Let’s think about the fact that no one has been held responsible for what happened in 2007 and 2008. Let’s think about a certain Indian businessman who has the audacity to claim that all revenue generated by our duty free shops should be his. Let’s think about politicians who get elected and, their first order of business, is raising their salary. Let’s think deeply about Kenya. And what it has become, and what it will become.

A man recently walked into a bus I was on carrying a boy on his back. The boy was, obviously, mentally ill (or a exceptionally talented actor). The man had a laminated A4 paper, on this paper was a plea. The plea talked about how it would cost about three hundred thousand shillings to treat his son. Money he did not have. Above the plea was a seal “office of the president.” The boy on his back just kept coo-ing seemingly oblivious to what was happening. Some people handed the man change, some didn’t. The man got off the bus and, presumably went to the next one.

The child lingered in my mind.

He stayed with me because there is legislation that the people here are trying to push for that will protect him from being exploited for empathy. And it’s not passing because a man whose name rhymes with pot pouri seems more interested in adding 300,000 bob to his salary. And yet still we want to shrug our shoulders and move on. Pat our backs like the protest march was all we needed to do.

Well, here’s a shocker, it wasn’t.

16 people were arrested yesterday. They were arrested for being a menace. For saying things that would rather be left unsaid and for thinking things that would rather be left unthought. And for pouring blood on a couple of swine. But mainly for being a menace. Robert Alai is actually being charged with posting an annoying tweet. It cannot be illegal to be annoying. It just can’t. If it could I’d have sent several people to jail. And, if it really is, then, by all means, arrest us. Arrest us all.

This disturbs me, deeply so. But, as a people, it is the brand we have developed for ourselves. We will bicker, tweet and even sign online petitions, then we will forget. Columns have been written about our society’s alzheimer’s; we’ve talked about it left, right and sometimes even in the centre. But we do nothing about it.

I deeply believe that society is smarter than it would have us think. Evidence of this is in plain sight. How can you explain inception making the list of top ten grossing films of 2010? Or the current market domination of HBO? Suddenly, it is cool to be smart. People are even wearing geek glasses as a fashion trend - if you can’t be smart, pretend you are.

Of course, it could be argued that evidence of society’s lack of intelligence is all around as well. Kids are still wearing skinny jeans,  KOT are attacking everyone online, and Justin Beiber is still popular. However, I’d like to see the glass as half full, and assert that society is smarter than we think.

We have mastered the art of silence to a fault.

I’ve been bothered for a while now. One question, has been eating at me over the last couple of weeks. What is the point of all these congratulatory advertisements? Every single day since the promulgation there has been a plethora of advertisements congratulating Hon. Freedom and Billy on winning their seats in government. I can’t help but wonder who they are targeted at. Is it toward the government? It’s not like our president is scanning through them and taking note of the people who congratulate him, he is too busy looking at some policemen. And it’s not like the rest of Kenya is watching, because we are too busy “moving on.”

Yesterday the Supreme Court released their detailed judgment. It explained, in detail, why the court had to decide for our dear president. As I read through it, I could feel a pleading. As if the person who wrote the judgment was trying to convince the reader. As if he was saying, “you see, I just had to do it.” But that’s not the most interesting part. The interesting part is what happened in the 24 hours between the yesterday and today. The people I know who supported the president emailed, called and texted to convince me that the Supreme Court ruling was fair. They were trying to convince me. All my friends who supported the other guy called me too. They were telling me an entirely different story, of course.

Long live the king, indeed.

Yes, this is another thing about Kenya power and general infrastructure in the country. According to my tonnes of research (multiple refreshing of my twitter stream) most people in our country have been in the dark for the larger part of the week. Furthermore, a discussion I had helped me reach the realisation that the Kenya Power monopoly does not only just exist; it is entrenched in the law. This means that in order for a competitor to come into the market laws must be changed.

And that’s not all.

The country has been awash with political euphoria over the last couple of weeks. Most focussed on is our dear President, Freedom’s, laptops. Everyone is talking about how he will give all the class ones laptops. Dissenters are talking about the larger need for educational reform. Blog posts are coming up saying that we don’t need laptops there are more immediate problems. To which the government responds “we know, that’s why we’re giving milk too.”

A new report has shown that there are 1 million children in Kenya that are still locked out of school.Given, in 1999 the number was twice that, but that’s still one million children. However, I think they are not going to school because they don’t see the value. The estimates place Kenya’s unemployment at 40%, although some analysts say it may be as high as 58%. You can imagine this kid asking himself “Why should I go to school? My brother went to school and it did nothing for him.” You can see the child’s parents thinking about why they need to waste resources on a potentially valueless education.

This is not to say that school is mainly to get you a job. But, let’s be honest, that’s the rhetoric isn’t it? Work hard, go to a good college, get a good degree then get a job. Without faith in that rhetoric, we will always have kids out of school.

Our fuel price formula has been criticised left right and centre. In fact, many people talk about the 7 shillings in the formula for inefficiency  How will the fuel companies ever get efficient if they don’t have incentive to be efficient? Especially since the price of fuel affects the price of everything. Even Kenya Power translates the fuel cost to the consumer.

Clearly we have a myriad of issues in our country.

I have, however, decided that the real solution is in those laptops. His Excellency President Freedom, has made it clear that the laptops will be solar powered. The thing is, he never said what type of solar battery would come with these laptops. And here’s where the solution lies. I’m putting it to the government that they use any of these solar devices to power the laptops. With that amount of power the laptops could power the laptops, the villages and solar cars. If that happens Kenya Power will lose customers, if Kenya power loses customers they will have to clean up their act.

But what about the educational reform?

What about it? I already solved that one here.

Oh bother, Gathara has done it again, he has put to words the things that we, as a nation, seem afraid to say. In his latest blogpost he spoke of the republic of fear. It seems that we are stuck in a nation where to speak, is to be wrong, to write, is to be criticized and to disagree with any “official truth” is just absurd. When the Supreme court made their ruling I thought about what I would write if I was commissioned to write a big piece for a magazine. I settled on the headline “A Nation Exhales.” It would be 1000 words of witty, capturing and mellow quips about how Kenya had collectively held its breath leading up toward the elections. It would then talk about how we had pursed our lips tighter leading up to the supreme court ruling.

“Please don’t let it be controversial.”

That was our collective, non verbal prayer. Held in silent lips to a god who must read our thoughts to hear our pleas. And they were granted. The supreme court gave the only plausible ruling they could have. That president elect Mr Freedom had become president in a free and fair election. And there was nothing wrong with anything.  And the country exhaled. We let our hair down, and danced in the streets. It would have been an amazing story.

Also, it would have been wrong.

We are not exhaling. Celebrations are looked upon with frowns and wailing, well, that’s even worse. We have fallen into step. Like the sheep we are we are blindly following. “Moving on,” that’s what we call it. Forget the fact that we don’t know what we are moving on to. And if you ask where this particular train is going, no one will give you an answer, because no one knows.

But we need to get over it? Don’t we? We need to stop dwelling on the past, we need to believe in the courts, in the IEBC, in God – from where all power is given. Even though we know that God went out of the business of choosing leaders once democracy came to life. Mugabe claims to have been chosen by God, I’m not sure what the Deity would have to say about that. This, however, is not about defending God’s name against defamation, no. He can do that for himself, and quite effectively at that.

This isn’t even about politics, which is what it may seem to be about.

No, this is about society. This is about the effects of 40+ million people walking in silence. This is about going to a party and looking for a place where people with your political views are seated so that you can be safe. This is about a country where we go out of our way to avoid the truth. This is about Wanjiku, and her death. This is about moving on, and not moving on. This is about silencing people who clearly have something to say. This is about the militarisation of peace. This is about a man in Kisumu, who cried on national tv because his political candidate had lost the elections.

This is about fear. A fear that grips you so hard that you read your email twice before you send it. That you dare not ask questions in public. That you make sure you have mentioned all 42 tribes of the country in equal measure before you say anything. The same fear that will stop you from sharing this post because it is inflammatory. That fear that wishes I’d just keep silent.

Don’t hold your breath.