Shut it Up Caroline Mutoko

Having just read the Facebook post by Caroline for those of you who haven’t gone through it yet,I find it hard to resist the urge to respond.First on my behalf, then on the behalf of every single Comrade who took to the streets on Tuesday to rally behind the Kenya Universities Students Organisation KUSO under the leadership of Babu Owino.

I will begin by saying categorically that I do not support hooliganism as well as individuals who take advantage of demonstrations to destroy and loot the property of other hardworking Kenyans.As a student leader,I still think that that caliber of students need to mature.I however take offence with Mutoko for insinuating that we students are at the beck and call of politicians living comfortable lives.And if at all we are then Tuesday was never about any politicians.It was about University students who expect the government who in adopting to the changing times and circumstances still find ways to accommodate the fact that we have less fortunate students who may be unable to keep up.

Whereas you Caroline relied on your parents to pay your fees, we have a great deal of students who weren’t as lucky!They too however are also winners.They are there in the form of your colleagues,bosses or even working under you.They got jobs with others creating jobs.They are still winners.They who relied on HELB to fund their education are still winners!And today,just like them yesterday,we ask to be given the chance.We call for affordable education at the tertiary level.If not, then we ask for loans to fund our education and maintaining our upkeep with the hope of one day living decent lives and even providing for others.Furthermore,isn’t it the role of government to ensure the provision of the said services?

The constitution provides for the right to demonstrate.You think we are stupid for exercising that?Well,you are lucky to have a radio station complete with 4 uninterrupted hours at your disposal where you can blurt out anything you think is unjust without having to pay for it.You have a history of playing into the hearts of your sympathizers even when it is apparent that you are the one with mud on your nose.This therefore comes as no surprise.Or is it just fuel prices and bloated wage bill that are worth complaining again?Well,more immediate for us now is Tuition Fees.

It is true that Degrees hold individual names,then again who doesn’t know that? We rally behind a cause we believe in.Just as you do because it is an advert and it is your job to do it.Claiming self righteousness because of your opinionated nature and antics doesn’t fool everyone.

We shall still get our degrees and succeed in life in our own terms.I will still be a living proof that whenever I am pressed against the wall,I can rally the support of friends and other affected colleagues and marshal enough effort to overcome the obstacle. So help me God.

Ooko Victor.

Dear Salva Kiir; Dear Riek Machar

I know that you two are safe and sound wherever you are. Your families, safely tucked away from any risk of harm. That is what fathers do. That is what parents do for their children. Yet safe is a vocabulary to the citizens of your country. The fathers and mothers; the sons and daughters of your great republic. Not many of them can get this platform to talk to you; to the entire world. In fact, most of them are out looking for their lost children or busy trying to shield them from the hungry firearms of your loyalists. Others are not out looking for their children; their children are out looking for them, or their remains.

It hurts me to look at you and call you leaders. I therefore refuse to acknowledge any of you as president. My president would not degenerate to the level you have. History tells me that I came from South Sudan; a place called Bahr el Ghazal. Where I settled and call my home today, I celebrated with you on the milestone of attaining independence. I was confident that the future for South Sudan would embrace the sky as the limit. I idolized the late John Garang’ for his servitude and steadfast commitment. I adored him for his vision for his people. Your people.

How many more need to die? How many more need to be burnt alive whether Dinka or Nuer? And why? So you can fulfil your own selfish egos? Or are you out to rule corpses and humans with memories of a president who sat and watched as their subjects were massacred? Why is it so important for you two to be in charge?

Look at Rwanda, hardly 20 years on and you pick up from where they left! Almost all countries in Africa attained their independence through bloodshed. Back then, we were fighting the white man. We were fighting the colonialist. Whom are you fighting today? What has that neighbor done to deserve death by your cruel hand? Are you guys so proud now that you cannot see eye to eye? Is this how you repay a republic that was optimistic enough to rally around you with the hope of reaching the Promised Land?

I have heard enough. I have seen enough. The pictures of human beings now laying lifeless arranged on various open lands. The humanitarian group now reduced to counting corpses and burying them in mass graves! Was this the only way that we could attain peace? Is this what you had to do to measure each other’s guts?

I wish you could talk to me. I wish you two could be locked up with me in the same room and answer me these painful questions. Questions that one day, the generation of tomorrow will float before you and your successors expecting satisfactory answers. Answers on why South Sudan had to burn by the hands of its own trusted sons. Tomorrow, no one will care whether one was Dinka or the other was Nuer, I don’t care already and neither does the entire world. My worry, the worry of the international community is why the innocent have to pay with their lives to sustain your raw egos. Why after winning back the country, you first of all had to reduce it to ashes!

We are 42 tribes in Kenya. And yet we have survived more than half a century together. You are only two tribes; why can’t you put your house in order? Mr. Kiir, is this the history you would like to have for your people? Mr. Machar, is the sword the only way to air you reservations with the government?

Even as I pen this letter, thousands more continue to perish. Not because of hunger and neither because of disease or accidents! In Kenya, terrorism troubles us; in your country, under your very watch, civilians are murdered in cold blood. Someone will read this letter. I hope one of them shares its contents with you; both of you. I wish you will hear the cry of your children. Your sons and daughters; your brothers and sisters. And I hope upon hope; that you will rise to their cry.

Ooko Victor.

Of Kalonzo Musyoka and Media Righteousness.

Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka is a man under siege for snubbing a QTV journalist, Kennedy Murithi, on grounds of his ethnic affiliation to the ruling Jubilee Coalition. Kalonzo, a leader of a national stature was absolutely wrong in his insinuations. Whether or not the issue is being blown out of proportion, he could not have been move reckless in his statements at a media briefing. And just as expected, his ‘partisan’ comments have attracted fierce attacks from very familiar quarters; the ‘righteous’ media fraternity as well as the politicians from the opposing camp. Politicians are very predictable!

While watching the 7 O’clock news yester evening however, I decided to test Kalonzo’s theory. Guess what, as much as I would hate to admit it; he was absolutely right. The social media was divided right in the middle with the names betraying the opinions of whoever was out commenting on the trending subject! We were divided right in the middle in line with where our ethnic allegiance and political loyalty lay. Why then was it a major surprise when the national leader epitomized the already established prejudices that we harbor? Are we, just like our politicians so bent towards living the political means of divide and rule at the expense of actual national unity? Have we really stopped looking at ourselves in terms of where we come from, whether Kamba, Luhyia, Kikuyu or Luo?

The other surprising factor was that our media seemed to have embraced the righteousness tag in the whole melee! One of the questions I expected from the media, one which apparently never came was whether Kenyans think that they have been objective in their reporting or whether they have shown bias in some areas as was implied by Hon. Musyoka. None of these was asked. Our media played the victim. The victim in an apparent game where even journalists are bribed to air stories!(I have been solicited by one before). An environment where with a few ndovu’s (bucks) you can have a journalist at your beck and call. This, I know is no news! And maybe, just maybe Kalonzo knows that game so well!

At the end of the day, it’s all about the coalition that makes the most noise. Whether creative or destructive, the public; the compact majority, will always be aligned according to where their allegiances lay. 

Ooko Victor