{UAH} There’s a past President Uhuru Kenyatta must never take us to

-- There's a past President Uhuru Kenyatta must never take us to Updated Thursday, December 12th 2013 at 22:46 GMT +3 0 inShare By Kipkoech Tanui Kenya: The cloud of nostalgia is hanging over our land Kenya. You can feel it in the rendition of songs by the gone greats like Daudi Kabaka, Kakai Kilonzo and even the king of mass choirs Timothy Wesonga, particularly with his Tawala Kenya crowd puller. There is in this league the song by the late Habel Kifoto and the Maroon Commandos asking us to wake up and get down to work or go to school because kumekucha (it has dawned). Our 50th anniversary has taken us back in time, far into the 1960s in which some of us lived in for just a few months. In this period you see a country struggling to get a grip of self-rule. The dominant figures of the time included Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who would leave us in 1978, and Jaramogi Odinga who would live right into the 1990s. He died in 1994 to be exact. In here you will also find two personalities who have ruled us and have lived through the whole 1960s to this day: former President Moi, the second to lead Kenya, and his successor Mzee Mwai Kibaki.




These leaders and their generation know how life was under the colonist. In their own way, though they didn't take up the gun, they fought for our independence through political negotiation and political agitation. I respect the wisdom of the two leaders because of the experience they have mustered over the last five decades when Kenya, albeit with her own internal struggles, elbowed its way to a prominent position in the common room where the global family of nations sits. Nostalgia is good because it reminds us of the past, shows how different the present is and how far we have come, and encourages us to resolve to do even better for ourselves and better the citizenry. In this collective nostalgia it is not that we are just got up in a time warp in as far as music is concerned. Those who love football will tell you that there were better days when on the pitch you would find legends like Ambrose Ayoyi, Wilberforce Mulamba, Kadenge Junior and Senior, Dr JJ Masiga, Benson Abwaga, Peter Dawo, Mahmoud Abbas and many others who have since left the stage.




The beauty of football then was that it would still pull crowds to shopping centres and neighbours' homes where Kenyans would sit around one transistor radio and cheer as legendary commentators like Mambo Mbotela and Mohammed Njuguna, shouted Aaahhh! and Goaaaal! Those of my generation who had a taste of this moment when TV was black and white and would open from 4pm to 11pm, will tell you that it appeared Kenyans were happier and less stressed. But maybe I am wrong because money was not an issue to us then but our parents' headache. It was in this period when there was only one brand of sugar and salt, and you could never imagine a day their marketers would put out adverts boasting theirs was better, tastier, healthier and more affordable. Packed unga and Panga soap also came in two brands and when you wanted cooking fat it was either Kimbo or Cow Boy, and the manufacturer was one; East African Industries. For batteries you only had Eveready, bread came from Elliots, and milk KCC.




As reporters we had something called 'reverse' calls, where we would ask the operator from a lonely booth in the markets we had been sent to get stories, to call the office and ask the boss to call us back on the number emblazoned on the red box. To call you had to queue with coins and in secondary school after lunch you all rushed to the raised ground where one of the prefects would read out the recipients of the letters that came that day.


Some bore perfumes and powders, an innocent and pure expression of love. Many would have inscriptions of flowers and hearts. The line at the bottom mostly ran like this: Sealed with a loving kiss. In the virtual space between the two hearts, one in a boys' and the other in a girls' school, were the images of two succulent lips aching to be kissed. 'Home-grown' democracy Back to radio, there was only VoK (Voice of Kenya), which had English and Kiswahili channels. But my God the joy we got listening to Mambo Mbotela's Jee Huu Ni Ungwana?, and Fred Obachi Machoka's Sanyo Juu, Sanyo Tops!



Then in the evening we would be Sundowner with the likes of John Karani and the late Ike Mulembo and Tony Msalame. For presidential functions you were sure to listen to toughies like Salim Juma and Salim Mohammed.  We can go on and on and but the let me come to the point; we have a glorious past which, compared to the advancement we have gone through between then and today, is simply hilarious. The fax machine followed typewriters; and, yes, we now have computers and smartphones. A lot  has changed indeed. What we need to talk of, however, is this; let us not take this nostalgia too seriously and carry it over to our politics. Gone are the days shops and schools used to close because a President was going to Lake Nakuru or Lake Bogoria to bathe in the sun as Kenyatta did.



There are too many channels now and to cope, even KBC no longer starts with news about the President and church. When you go to supermarkets, even Coca Cola these days is also in the juice, water and tea business! Let's marvel at the past but avoid replicating how those in power mistreated opponents and civil society. Let's not give democracy the the narrow definition it had then, that it was 'home-grown', meaning not like America's and Britain's. Let's not take Yoweri Museveni seriously when he goads us to defy the West, when in fact he is surviving on its funding.



Maybe he wants another pariah leader in this region to divert attention from his rogue tongue and spirit. Uhuru please, let them sing you Tawala Kenya, but do not take us back there politically. If this doesn't sink in then soon you will hear about detentions and arrests. A Bill of this nature is already on the way, seeking to subjugate the Inspector General of the Police to a Cabinet Secretary who can order arrests. Just where are we headed? I am asking myself not you please! The writer is Managing Editor, The Counties at The Standard Group. ktanui@standardmedia.co.ke
Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000099973&story_title=there-s-a-past-president-uhuru-kenyatta-must-never-take-us-to&pageNo=2

Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000099973&story_title=there-s-a-past-uhuru-must-never-take-us-to

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