STEP UP, OR STEP OUT

Every time I stop to close my eyes, all I can see is fear, in the papers, on the TV, written everywhere I go, with women crying and young innocent children dying and with most people having no place to call home.

From the “Westgate siege” to the “Garissa massacre” not forgetting all the numerous Al-shaabab attacks that happened in between, and after all said and done, all Kenyans get is a PR kind of leadership, a government too proud and afraid to call a spade a spade and rather opts to refer to it as a big spoon.

President Kenyatta writing a condolence letter to bereaved Garissa families. (Photo-Jamuhuri Magazine)

Am not a politician but can someone please help me understand how banning foreign child adoption will help stop child trafficking or chasing away Somalis from the daadab refugee camp and erecting a wall along the Kenya/Somali border will help the al-shaabab?

I mean, how does a presidential condolence letter to bereaved families of terrorist attack help them? Is this really the price Kenyans have to pay for being ethnic? I wonder.

Truth is I only got like 5 minutes to let out all that’s burning within me. Listen, Kenya is a bleeding country, a country found vulnerable by the Al-shaabab not because we are a stupid nation but because circumstances have pushed the youths to the core, a point of no return because of a few egocentric and selfish being out to please their friends and families.

Who said that Al-shaababs are only Muslims or that Nkaiseri is responsible for any attack on the Kenyan soil. Wait, have you stopped to ask yourself why our security officers are hell-bent on asking or accepting bribe on any given opportunity. 

You know, the problem with us, we are always quick to pass judgment and point finger's on others without actually putting on their shoes to understand and comprehend the emotional motivation that led to them doing the unthinkable.

Have for the past two years woken up with fear of not knowing where and when next an explosion will cross my path. And for these two years all have got is a PR kind of leadership from the Government and I ask myself where exactly Kenyans went wrong.

I might not be right but again am also not wrong and just as no one will ever come from nowhere to break and steal from you unless those close to you, so can one come all the way from Somalia and God knows where to terrorize Kenya. It doesn't really take a mad person to realize that we are our own enemies. 

Screw the saying, “security begins with you and I” because it sure as hell begins with employment, that’s the real key to fighting the growing insecurity in the country.

We have toiled in school on the belief that we are out making a better tomorrow, sacrificed our time and energy and continue to toil and sacrifice with the hope of building and living our dreams in our desired careers of choice, but at the end of it, we graduate to nothing because our government has taken selfishness upon itself to return favors, to continuously build and develop their friends and families at the expense of giving this opportunities to young, sound and fresh minds with passion and vigor to make it in life. We’ve become a country whose employment wave is based on ethnicity, religious affiliation, and the-who-knows-who within the various ministerial positions.

Millions of young people graduate every year but only ten out of them get employment opportunities. With an economy that is more expensive than the word expensive itself. Have you stopped to wonder exactly what becomes of all these unemployed fresh idol minds on the streets, the kind of pressure they go through in their bid to survive or make ends meet? Have you even stopped to wonder why young people have growingly become the target recruits for the Al-shaabab or why Kenya has become the land of their comfort in the past two years?

I know and understand that even as I put this down in plain black and white, I risk a lot but then again I got nothing to lose because this is what my country has reduced me to, “a hater and a beggar” and so I think it’s time Mr. president that you woke up and opened your eyes to the realization that PR presidency is doing the country more harm than good and so is employing your friends or enemies to return one favor or another. The time has come for you to fully realize that neither Somali nor Muslims are Al-shaabab, that we are our own enemies.

It is time you realized that your mode of leadership and governance is frustrating us, pushing us to the core, a point of no return forcing us to join illegal yet well paying groups in a bid to make hay. And then you sit there and ask yourself how these groups got intelligent minds? Please don’t mistake me; I am not an Al-shaabab or part of any illegal group but only speaking from the view point of all the young frustrated youths in the country with no hope or choice to choose from.

So Mr. President the next you want to start pointing fingers, ask yourself if you really fit the shoes of a true president and leader.

Wait do you even know and understand the reason you were elected the president, does any of our so-called leaders understand why Kenyans bestowed upon them the responsibility to lead… I don’t think so

Even as my 5 minutes comes to an end, I’d love to say, “It is well,” but believe me you, it is “Extremely Frustrating,” and I am tired, we are tired Mr. President. So I think it’s time you either step up to your responsibilities as the president or step out.

But until then, AL-SHAABAB will forever remain a household name in Kenya.