Change for the better coming, says Raila

By PMPS newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Monday, April 18 2011 at 22:00

In Summary

• PM urges Kenyans to re-awaken the big dreams that characterised the independence years

Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Monday said Kenya was caught in a struggle pitting the forces of change against those for status quo.

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The forces of change would prevail, Mr Odinga told more than 400 Kenyans at California State University in Los Angeles.

“People can gang up along tribal lines but in the end, it never counts. I have seen this tribal arithmetic before, and it never works,” said the PM.

He continued: “In 2002 when I declared support for President Kibaki, some said Raila is finished. They began writing my political obituary because they reasoned that the Luo would never vote for a Kikuyu. I have seen all this posturing before.”

The Prime Minister urged Kenyans to re-awaken the big dreams that characterised the earlier years of independence if the country was to remain competitive.

He said something went wrong in the late 1960s, and Kenyans lost faith in their ability to chart their destiny.

Speakers at the function, including reknown writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o, singled out bad governance, the culture of betrayal and tribalism as the ills that killed the country’s dreams.

Mr Odinga recalled that after the 1968 Olympic games, the government declared that Kenya would bid to host the 1980 Olympics, and there was agreement that the country was equal to the task.

“Six years ago, when our minister for sports announced that Kenya would bid to host the 2016 Olympics, the overall feeling was that we were joking. That was a far cry from the feeling in 1968 when we agreed we could host the games or 1964 when we believed we could attain Developed Country Status by 1990. Forty years into independence, the self-confidence of the people is gone,” he said.

The PM said that whereas in the 1960s, the victory over the British colonial rule by ill-equipped Mau Mau fighters filled Kenyans with hope, the dictatorship and suppression that followed killed initiative and confidence of the people.

“The conquering spirit that brought down the British was still burning in Kenyans in the 1960s. That spirit died between 1968 and 2000.

Repression made Kenyans submissive and hopeless, then we split along tribal lines and things changed for worse,” he said.

Culture of betrayal

Prof Ngugi decried the culture of betrayal, amnesia and tribalism, saying they had killed Kenyans’ fighting spirit. He said the culture of betrayal ensured the Mau Mau fighters were forgotten soon after independence.

“When the British left, we began to behave as if independence had been given on a silver platter. We forgot the fighters. In 1992, violence gripped Kenya because some people had asked for multiparty politics. That too was forgotten and it happened again in 1997 and 2002 and we kept forgetting until it happened again in 2007,” he said.
 
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