Margaret Uhuru. She made history. She ran (though ‘walked’ most of it) in the imperial scorching sun of London; the same locality where her majesty the queen managed the affairs of a then British East Africa Protectorate, now Kenya.
She went to London to raise awareness of the difficulties of giving birth in Kenya. Her campaign, the ‘below zero’, is, at best, a media hype, and at worst, a reality show.
Let’s face up to the sad truth about living in the current Kenya. Everything is buzz; every undertaking is frenzied to tango with a digitalised propaganda which summarizes a country of over 40 million to just less then 9,000 or so on twitter and slightly under 10 million on Facebook.
We are hypnotized, wanting to be part of a make-believe iBelieve nightmare that has refused to go away, one year after the tragedy was officially inaugurated on a calm cloudless Nairobi day.
We are damned if don’t join in, damned if we do; for in this Jubilee Alliance government, no undertaking is left to speak for itself. Every project has a public relations company spinning for the gallery, a media relations ‘consultant’ and a full-time events directorate right inside state house.
We are, in the enduring words of Sir Winston Churchill, so much like Britain before World War II. We resolve only to be irresolute. We decide only to be undecided.
We all know, for we’ve been here now for a while, that running in London don’t and can’t solve the problem. By its very nature, the problem does not need any futher ‘awareness’. The problem has existed since the days’ Margaret’s father-in-law. In fact, it was part of the reasons we were at Lancaster. We wanted ‘independence’ to end ‘poverty, disease, and ignorance’.
The problem had been laid down in the Sessional Paper no.10 of 1965, African Socialism and Its Application to planning in Kenya. I say bravely, countrymen, the problem has been elucidated for decades now. We know it. We know how to solve it and we know running in London isn’t part of the solution!
Millenium Development Goals? Vision 2030? Jubilee Agenda?
We know the solutions.
Anyway, in other news, it is now emerging that donors may have shunned the whole Mrs Uhuru thing.
Apart from those who were already in the programme right from the beginning, no new entrants made endorsements or contributions to the Kenyattas noble cause.
The Kenyan taxpayer, on the other end, has been left to foot a staggering Ksh 100 million for the First Lady, including costs to her aides, PR ‘handlers’, security, food, and small shoppings in London’s upmarket malls.
The other day, one of his handlers revealed they turned London upside down looking for the right drinking (bottled) water!
Joining the first lady were the usual joyriders in the Kenyan politics. At hand to cheer the First Lady walk around in London included ODM-Jubilee politician John Nkaissery. Also present was the Somali hegemon Aden Duale, Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko and, of course, Margaret’s husband, Uhuru Kenyatta, president.
Ksh 100 million. Gone.