Opinion: Uhuru and Raila must join hands to make this nation great

President Uhuru Kenyatta and NASA flag bearer and ODM leader Raila Odinga photo:courtesy

Uhuru and Raila must join hands to make our beloved nation great

As we step into the New Year in a few hours, Kenya’s future is beholden to two individuals. Between the two of them, they can decide to pull the string and release the parachute that will finally stop the country’s free fall or keep their hands selfishly glued to their sides and let the plunge continue unabated.

In 2018, Kenyans expect so much from President Uhuru Kenyatta and his biggest rival Raila Odinga. To the President and the NASA leader, if either of you has an ounce of belief in what your fathers helped build, you will seek each other’s hand in a reconciliatory handshake that will steer the country back on course.

Because of you, the past two years have been particularly difficult on numerous fronts. We have seen inflation rise to an all-time high.

We have lacked many basic foodstuffs in shops, and at some point in the course of this year, we have had to make choices on whether to buy maize flour or kerosene to prepare our meals, but never both. We have lost jobs in our hundreds of thousands.

We have seen investors move to neighbouring countries to set up plants after shutting down factories in Nairobi and other Kenyan towns. We lost huge business opportunities to Tanzania, Ethiopia and Rwanda.

Our fathers have returned home crestfallen because of layoffs. Our sons have returned home tired and beaten from days of searching for employment. Our mothers have returned home battered and bruised, after getting caught up in turf wars between the two of you. Our daughters look on helplessly as the promise of a once bright future dims with each verbal exchange between the two of you.

We have helplessly followed news of mega corruption, while the two of you, individuals with immense influence and following, have stood by the sidelines more concerned with making each other look bad than joining hands to make this country great again.

The year that is coming to an end has brought Kenyans to their knees. Backs have been broken and sanity lost. Our prayer in the New Year is that the two of you and your surrogates and lieutenants will find a way to move the country forward. That the two of you will somehow look beyond your political differences and for once work for Kenya. It is clear that both of you are on your final active political legs. Why not make this year the beginning of your legacy years when those who come after you will look back and marvel at the levels you took Kenya? Why not, for once in your political careers lock out the noise and distraction and get a room to just brainstorm on how you can help improve the lives of the people who zealously follow you?

As Kenyans, we are ready to shoulder part of the blame. Perhaps we have not given you the best supporting cast. As voters, we have from time to time let you down. But ultimately you have the power to whip all under you into line. We hope in 2018, you will do that.

We hope that next year, the politics between the two of you will not hold the country hostage. That for once in a long while, our Mondays will not be interrupted by the incessant sounds of sirens and exploding teargas canisters. That our days will not be filled with tales of despair from mothers whose sons who were protesting have been felled by the police.

That our weeks will not be filled with your right-hand men spewing ethnic venom from the sacred podiums of churches or the respected pews at funerals. The country prays that the two of you will think about preserving Kenya by fighting corruption engineered by Jubilee and NASA sympathisers, and that when it matters most, the two of you will see eye-to-eye and shun this sibling rivalry that threatens to tear the country apart.

We know you believe in the greatness of Kenya. The possibilities, the ambitions, and the hope of a brighter future. The drive of her citizens and a future unparalleled by any other nation. We hope 2018 will be the year that you show us a path into these lofty ideas on which the great nation of Kenya was founded on.