Wake up and smell the unga

Roseleen Nzioka

As Kenyans usher in 2009, it is with a lot of baggage that cannot be wished away. The year 2008 was a bad year for any right thinking Kenyan. And for hundreds of thousands of Kenyans still suffering the adverse effects of the post-election chaos, it was a literal nightmare they are yet to recover from.

The end of 2008 was just as bad as the beginning. It began with violence and ended with poverty and despair never before seen in our land. What with MPs categorically refusing to pay taxes; the government failing to adequately resettle and pay the meager Sh10,000 to all the internally displaced Kenyans (you wonder why it would take more than a year to make these payments); food and fuel prices shooting up to unprecedented levels! The list of vagaries bedeviling Kenyans goes on and on.

That is why it is baffling that our politicians want to carry on as if everything is back to normal. Some of the MPs still have Internally Displaced People camping in their constituencies and they choose to host "homecoming parties" where they chest-thump and talk gibberish.

Our politicians (I refuse to call them leaders) are blind to the fact that people power in Kenya is beginning to come alive. Ask President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga what it felt like to be booed on Jamhuri Day 2008.

Kenyans sent out a clear signal that they had had enough of rhetoric. (Remember Raila’s feeble, pathetic attempt at the "Yes we can" mantra)? It was met with resounding shouts of "unga, unga" from Kenyans of all walks of life.