You can say that again Mwenda Mwinzi................/ GREAT ARTICLE

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COMMENTARY

Amid all the chaos, something shines Story by MWENDE MWINZI /Talking Point Publication Date: 7/24/2005

You might not have heard of Bar Sauri but you should have because while you were busy focusing on the review debates and their ensuing violence, elsewhere in the world, some attention was being directed at this little town. Located right here in Kenya’s Siaya District, Bar Sauri was celebrated this week for being the very first UN Millennium Project to be successfully completed. Its accomplishments – something achieved in just one year, were hard to miss. With the aid of non-nitrogen fertilisers, the farmers have grown maize taller and perhaps more handsome than their tallest and finest sons. Large, ripened avocados – the kind our traditionally heavy set women like to eat, hang from trees begging passers-by to indulge in their delicious and creamy meat. Once plagued with malaria, Bar Saurians now smile, relieved that they no longer have to contend with malaria, thanks to mosquito net donations. And there’s more. Bar Sauri also has, thanks to the community, a small health centre which boasts a humming generator and a small pharmacy. It is not that this manna fell from heaven because indeed it did not. To build the health centre, the community donated their land, labour and burned the bricks needed to erect the modest structure. To grow their crops they tilled the land and with little resistance, embraced a new way of farming – and thinking. I sat at their celebrations drenched both in my sweat and in the residents' intoxicating energy. For where else was there a better example of transformation from simple change? Could this not be duplicated in other regions such as mine – Mwingi – where the residents would do anything to kill the hunger that destroys them? But then it dawned on me. Somewhere in between Bar Sauri’s maize crops and Nairobi’s street violence lay a message not on farming but on our feelings towards change and on what can be accomplished when (with reason) we think progressively. Undeniably, this government will be remembered for many things among them, its failure to deliver a new constitution in its originally promised (and unrealistic) timeframe of 100 days. But here’s the interesting bit – it is some of the same MPs now cheering about the demonstrations that were flocking into (and sleeping) at Bomas not too long ago, collecting hefty allowances in the name of constitution building. If only they had such zeal when it came to attending parliamentary hearings where they could, for a change, earn their leadership positions by debating and passing the bills we need! Without exploring which of the two constitutional drafts might be right, we need to once more examine our point of origin and our desired future direction. If Kenya is to move forward (and hopefully that is the goal), there is reason for us to forsake the individual agenda in favour of the national interest therein supporting or rejecting ideas based not on their point of origin but on their potential output. There are many wondering, as I am, why such debate must be violent and why presumably intelligent individuals must barbarically take to the streets to express themselves. Clearly, a majority of those protesting are not engaging in such violence for democratic expression because if such were the case, then they would restrain themselves from harming the same people they are purportedly fighting for. It is the shopkeepers, citizens like us, that suffer from looting and not the government. Leadership, like respect, is one of those few things that must be earned though that obviously depends on who is giving either one. This latest line of violence might represent a legitimate concern on the part of some but it is no more than a paycheck for most. While many politicians have called for these demonstrations, it is not they but rather some scraggly folks that have hit the streets to take stones, tear gas and even death all in the name of a constituency and, well let’s pretend, the constitution. If what’s been said is true, Kenya shall be governed by a new constitution come year end though of course, that is yet to be seen. And we can either facilitate the process or oppose it by engaging the government on a civil level or bearing with the consequences of defiance. Either way, it is rather hypocritical, I dare say, for us to condemn and pursue the long line-up of thieves that has destroyed our nation then, even with "justification," engage in the same thieving behaviour. Broken windows and violent robberies might get us in the papers but they are not the way – at least not the democratic way, to peacefully nation build. They are destructive and victimising and amounts to preaching water and drinking wine – something we’re certainly had enough of.

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