Musalia Mudavadi-A KENYAN REBIRTH THIS MADARAKA

PRESS RELEASE

Issued in Nairobi Kenya on 31st May 2020

WANTED – A KENYAN REBIRTH THIS MADARAKA

1. Tomorrow, Monday 1 June 2020, is MADARAKA DAY. What should this important holiday in our annual calendar mean to us in the difficult NEW CORONAVIRUS SEASON that Kenya is going through? We are reminded that there are VERY FEW Kenyans alive today, who WITNESSED the coming of MADARAKA and Independence in 1963.
2. Indeed, even some of us who were already born, like myself, do not have vivid memory of that day, more THAN HALF A CENTURY back. Going forward, therefore, there are going to be even fewer and – eventually – none, who actually saw the first ever Madaraka Day. The significance of this day, therefore, is going to reside in HOW new generations of Kenyans INTERPRET and LIVE THE DREAMof the FOUNDERS OF OUR NATION. If we should lose sight of that dream then the day, conversely, risks losing its sacrosanct significance on our national calendar. It risks becoming a day to CELEBRATE LONGEVITY and hardly much more.
3. It is useful that we should continue to remind ourselves about the significance of this day and to keep doing an AUDIT OF OUR PERFORMANCE, in the face of the ORIGINAL KENYAN VISION of 1963. We must, indeed, pass this tradition and A BEAUTIFUL PROSPEROUS COUNTRY to SUBSEQUENT GENERATIONS of Kenyans – one generation after the other. So, once again, what should Madaraka mean to us? MADARAKA IS THE MOTHER OF INDEPENDENCE and of the KENYAN NATION. We have come to fondly embrace this day as the start of our SELF-DETERMINATION as a Kenyan people.
4. On this day in 1963, we began breaking away from the YOKE OF COLONIALISM. The determination of our destiny eventually fell into our hands. From there on, we would flourish or perish in line with our OWN CHOICES AND ACTIONS. Accordingly, we are where we are today NOT BECAUSE of any OTHER PERSON’S DOING, but because of the DECISIONS WE HAVE MADE over the past 57 years. When we began this journey, our founders summed up the task ahead as A WAR AGAINST POVERTY, IGNORANCE AND DISEASE. They dedicated themselves to building a GOD FEARING NATION, in which JUSTICE would be the SHIELD and DEFENDER; A WORKING NATION in which the FRUIT OF OUR LABOUR would be our greatest REWARD.
5. Fifty-seven years later, unfortunately, we have hardly moved. Every so often, we make ONE STEP FORWARD only to make TWO STEPS BACKWARD. Our performance has left us firmly in the grip of ignorance, poverty and disease. The NEW CORONAVIRUS is only the latest of our many challenges. It is, in itself, a challenge that has exposed our SOFT UNDERBELLY in many other areas. It has exposed our UNDER PREPAREDNESS in HEALTHCARE and the overall SHAKINESS of our ECONOMIC BASE. According to professional and institutional estimates, some 4 MILLION JOBS in the country are AT RISK. A number of leading ENTERPRISES are already CLOSING DOWN. We don’t know where this will end. We mark this year’s Madaraka under UNPRECEDENTED UNCERTAINTY.
6. We are all aware that SCHOOLS and other learning institutions are ON SHUTDOWN. National EXAMINATIONS are IN LIMBO. Elsewhere, the PLANTING SEASON has been affected both by the fallout of covid-19 and OUT-OF-ORDINARY RAINS and FLOODS. Kenyans are facing SERIOUS FOOD CHALLENGES. Indeed, we are already experiencing serious FOOD ISSUES, as a factor of the partial economic shutdown in the country. What is more, the floods have rendered hundreds of thousands HOMELESS in diverse parts of the country. And, as if this is not bad enough, there have been official EVICTIONS and DEMOLITIONS of homes, that have displaced some 9,000 FAMILIES in Nairobi alone.
7. In short, all is not well in the country. We are in the MIDST OF SERIOUS NATIONAL CRISES. They call for focused and action-based leadership. Sadly, Kenyans are marking this year’s Madaraka Day virtually ON THEIR OWN. We must accept to FACE THE HARD FACTS and DIFFICULT QUESTIONSin this season of Madaraka. Where have the great dreams that the founders of our nation had for our country gone? Why have Kenya’s political leaders ABANDONED THE CITIZENS and the founding vision, preferring instead, to focus on POLITICAL POWER GAMES? Why have these political power games now led to the CAPTURE OF PARLIAMENT? Both the National Assembly and the Senate no longer work for the people. With very few exceptions, the Legislature is now the FORUM OF SELF-SEEKING INDIVIDUALS. The Executive has capitalized on LEGISLATORS’ ANXIETY FOR THE GOOD LIFE, to take PARLIAMENT HOSTAGE, with the FREE WILL AND INVITATION of the Legislature itself. Capture of the people’s representatives in Parliament mocks what we are celebrating, as this year’s Madaraka Day.
8. On another plane, TRADE UNION LEADERS have ABANDONED WORKERS to their OWN DOOM. As workers wallow in UNCERTAINTY, their leaders are immersed in CELEBRATORY DANCES with sections of the political class. The wider relevance of what the CENTRAL ORGANIZATION OF TRADE UNIONS (COTU) is doing for the workers at these celebratory jamborees is not known. What is known is that THE WORKER IS ALONE. He has lost his JOB and EARNINGS, but nobody seems to care about him. She has not paid her RENT, she has been EVICTED, her children have NO FOOD. But her trade union leaders are enjoying themselves at LAVISH FUNCTIONS and jamborees that have defied CORONAVIRUS GUIDELINES. This is where our country is in this season of Madaraka. We may indeed want to ask, “If leaders defy these guidelines with impunity, why should wananchi observe them? If wananchi who party are rounded up and QUARANTINED, why don’t leaders who do the same get quarantined? Or do we have different categories of citizens – those for whom the law was made, and those who are ABOVE THE LAW?”
9. The BAD NEWS for us in the ELITE POLITICAL CLASS is that this cannot go on forever. We must REDISCOVER and REDEDICATE ourselves to the original values and vision of Madaraka. We must go back to our responsibility of placing THE PEOPLE FIRST. It does not matter what we the leaders become, if the people are not part of the equation. This Madaraka season, my message is to the LEADERSHIP CLASS. We must REDISCOVER THE LOST VALUES OF LEADERSHIP in the country. We must do some very DEEP SOUL SEARCHING and go back to the people. Our COUNTRY IS HURTING and CRYING FOR LEADERSHIP. A leadership that understands the YEARNINGS OF THE COUNTRY and REINCARNATES them.
10. The challenge of poverty remains, as does the challenge of ignorance. Indeed, there is now a challenge of leadership. Leaders no longer respect their CONSCIENTIOUS CALL TO DUTY. This is, at once, a challenge of ignorance and poverty in leadership. The citizens have, for their part, a major challenge, to ask themselves questions about the CHOICES THEY HAVE PREVIOUSLY MADE on leadership in their country. A REBIRTH of the Kenyan nation is a must.
11. Going forward, it is my prayer that this Madaraka can be the start of this rebirth we so badly need; the KENYAN RENAISSANCE. We need to return to the DECENCY OF LEADERSHIP. We must arrest our thirst for self-grandeur and replace it with FOCUS ON PEOPLE FELT NEEDS. The RENAISSANCE must begin in this season of Madaraka. I am inviting all Kenyans of goodwill to rally behind this call and join me on the mission of restoring hope in the spirit of Madaraka.

H. E. Musalia Mudavadi, EGH

ANC PARTY LEADER