General Elections, 2017

The iconic Dr. Martin Luther King Jr has a variety of things that people occasionally reminisce about him, among those being a section of a speech that he gave in a session with some students, one of my favourites; “We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

We have exactly 19 days to vote in our next Head of State, and with this we also have some major decisions to make as to who we would prefer to be our leaders in the various dockets in the next government. We’re all stoked for this and are really looking forward to seeing what happens come August 8th…or lets say a week after that since nothing’s ever 100% efficient in 3rd world countries and things take too long to be finalized. I was telling a friend the other day how I wished we would not even need to wait for a week to know who takes whichever seat. We just log onto the web and just like we witnessed with the US elections, we get to know who got what and who didn’t. How awesome would that be? We remain hopeful for growth, maybe one day we shall get there….

As a voter (feels good to say this seeing as this will be my 2nd time voting), but mostly as a youth, I vote for peace and prosperity. Why do I choose peace? I choose peace because while the leaders incite us to fight each other, they get into their bullet-proof cars that a sharp panga cannot get through and drive away to unknown destinations, where trouble is only heard of and barely experienced. While I’m hurting and bleeding from the betrayal of a friend who has chosen not to be Tribe-All, my leader with his friend (the other leader) are making a toast over how successful their campaigns have been. While I’m protecting my siblings from stone-throwers along the path leading to my local shop, Mr. Mheshimiwa already made arrangements last year for his family to be flown into his holiday home in Guangzhou, far away from the chaotic common mwananchi.

Why prosperity? In the humble home that they bore me in, they struggled to make both ends meet, living from hand to mouth with hope that their young daughter grows and flourishes into a successful professional. I choose and vote for prosperity because I have to see that the dreams of my folks don’t just fade into a cloud of chaos that leaves me devoid of any hope of a good future. I choose prosperity because I want to see my sisters and brothers grow. My sister is my classmate, my brother is that one boy I have seen being bullied in school a couple of times but stood up with courage and gave the bullies a piece of his mind and they all became friends. My brother is that handsome young man selling roasted maize by the roadside and always smiles at me whenever I pass by. My sister is that woman I sat next to in a matatu carrying a toddler in her lap singing silly songs on her way home from hospital. You are my sister, you are my brother….we all need to prosper. We can only prosper when we choose peace!

We all want to see our country grow, we all want to live in a peaceful environment and as we’ve heard not once but a couple of times “CHANGE BEGINS WITH YOU.” It really does….think about it for a second. Even if things turn out contrary to your desired outcome, accept with grace and dignity then go ahead and keep chasing those dreams you’d set as resolutions at the beginning of the year. We learnt from the PEV in ’07/’08, even if not directly affected, we got wind of the cruelty that was sparked by us not choosing peace and prosperity! We know better, let’s do better. So yes, Lets live together as brothers and sisters……let love be the song you sing to and from the ballot box and even days and years after that, otherwise we’ll all perish as fools for letting a leader incite us against each other.

Tusiblead ndio walead.