An Open Letter to the People at the Kenyan Coast

Dear good friends at the Kenyan Coast,

This is an open letter to you people at the Kenyan Coast. First receive greetings from the man on the streets of Nairobi. We are doing fine here. If I knew some Swahili I would have said “Wakubwa zangu shikamooni na kwa wadogo zangu hamjambo!” (A greeting for both the young and the elderly).

Enough with the greetings dear friends. Dear people at the Kenyan Coast, I have been sitting and watching the political events that have been unfolding in your region. From the streets of Nairobi, I have been observing with a lot of concern how you are being turned into fools for the benefit of the ruling class. You past is being used to influence your present and your future will surely be affected.

People down here, on the streets of Nairobi, say that you have a long history of kindness and tolerance and that you are in a habit of accommodating every Tom, Dick and Harry. I don’t know if that is true. I have no strong foundation on which to base that premise. But as one of the oldest Swahili saying goes, lisemwalo lipo na kama halipo basi laja (something that is being talked about is already there and if not then it is on the way coming).

But somehow I feel like you are being played by the political class for their own benefit. Do you remember a time when President of the Republic of Kenya came and camped in your region for months? If you have forgotten, let me try to awaken your memory. Do you remember when an unknown number of our gallant soldiers were killed in Somalia? Yes. That was the time when President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta was in your region. I remember he was so busy that he could not come back to Nairobi to receive the remains of our gallant soldiers. Sources closer to the source indicated to me that developments were more important than those who had died which to some extent is true.

From that time, your region has been a pitch of political matches; exit President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta comes Raila Amolo Odinga, exits Raila Amolo Odinga, enters William Samoei Ruto. Am reliably informed that two weeks ago, the CORD brigade led by Raila  Amolo Odinga and the Jubilee wing led by Deputy President William Samoei Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta were in your region hunting for votes.

Dear people at the Kenyan Coast, don’t you think that you are being played? Don’t you think that the politicians know that you don’t know that they know that you are ignorant? Year in, year out, politicians have been using the issue of squatters to solicit votes from your region. Has the problem been solved? Why do you think it has not been solved? The answer is simple. So that on each electioneering period, the issue may be used as a bait to catch you to vote for them, the politicians. And let me tell you this for free, the issue of land will never be solved in your region because the culprits are the same people who are promising to change the situation.

Your political leaders appear to be confused. Most of them, especially Members of Parliament, do not know where they should belong. Some are neither in CORD nor Jubilee and some are loudly saying that they are in Jubilee but their political affiliation is CORD. This has affected developments in your region, the confusion of your leaders. Why do you want to flow with that confusion? Is it true that when a politician gets satisfied, you as the man on the ground gets automatically filled?

People down here say that there are two confused regions in Kenya; you from the Coast and your brothers and sisters in Western Kenya. I will write them a letter too but after you have read this. I understand you are busy people who don’t like being compelled to do something.

The truth my dear people at the Kenyan Coast is, whether you go to Jubilee or remain in CORD, your problems are not going to change. Poverty will still reign, land issues will still dominate, corruption will still rule the region and the rich will continue being rich. Now tell me good people, what are you going to do to change your situation?

You have to decolonize your minds. Your mind is being colonized by the political class. Decolonize yourself from them first. Then you have to choose what you want and where you want to go for the sake of the economy of your region. Having done that, tell your leaders the truth and put their intentions bare. Their intentions if you don’t know is to fill their stomachs and not you people on the ground. In case you didn’t know too, caring politicians are no longer in Kenya, may Magufuli in Tanzania has some, but not in Kenya.

I would have loved to continue with this letter but I know that you are busy people and you may not find time to read the whole of it.

Let me end it here with a greeting, “masalkheri ndugu zangu wapwani!”

Yours Faithfully

The Man on the Street

Read: Dear Mr President, We Love You But For The Sake of our Economy