"Standing up for the aspirations that we believe in"

The politics of division is a threat to harmony, writes Eric Omwanda, 23, a Commonwealth Correspondent from Nairobi, Kenya, who argues that citizens need accountability from their politicians, rather than exploitation of differences. 

I was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. I have lived to see the beauty of my country from the migration of the wildebeest to the beautiful waters of the Indian Ocean. What makes these features important to us? Is it the strategic political leader, who will preach about policies that they cannot implement about the features, or the beauty and amazement that they possess? Today as we are speaking I want us to be emancipated from political slavery and stand up for the truth at all cost.

We can no longer fight each in the name of politics, only to leave our beloved country on its knees. A society that has its own morals and lives to the expectations of its inhabitant can never be defeated. We should never at any one point disagree on grounds of our ethnicity or political affiliation, instead we must embrace each other. Our forefathers fought so hard with the common enemy of the colonialist for us to have the colossal freedom that we exercise today. How can we again be our own enemy?

We all have our challenges but we cannot try to use politics as a scapegoat. If the colour of my skin and my mother tongue can separate me from other Kenyans, then we have to change this mindset. I never chose to be born in a certain ethnic community, nor did you. We all breathe the same air and we all have our different shortcomings, but that does not force us to be at loggerheads with one another. Our struggles are more or less the same. We must not embrace incitement from the political class. Politicians will come and go; they come to drum up support for their own agendas, which are based on political reasons. Politicians may come from the same ethnic tribe as you, but they do not share the same dreams, aspirations and philosophy as you.

The majority of the different political parties in the world were formed to support a clique of elites who are rich and want to protect themselves, their families and their properties. They use us to make sure that they achieve their objectives. Today Kenya is a country that practices capitalism, where we have the very rich people and the very poor people. The gap that exists between the rich and the poor is so big that we can only be amazed. What I know is that we do not have 42 tribes in Kenya. We only have two tribes in Kenya, and possibly all over the world. The tribe of the rich and that of the poor.

The political leaders will ensure that their sons and daughter study abroad in the best schools, so when they call for violence their beloved ones cannot be hurt. We must raise and fight a good fight; we must embrace each other as common citizens who share the same dream, aspirations and philosophy. We cannot and must never stand and watch the politicians taking advantage of us; we must stand up and give our people some sense of direction.

We agree that most of the time the political leadership has fought so hard to protect our territorial integrity, make access to basic education affordable and improve our infrastructure. On the world stage, they are our representatives and they mean a lot to other nations. They are trusted in implementing development projects. We cannot forget their strength, but they need to improve in the above stated areas.

Today we must make sure that we live up to the expectations of what we can do as responsible citizens, and make sure that the political leadership is accountable in its mandate.

photo credit: Atelier Teee via photopin cc

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About me: I am aspiring to be world class journalist who will share stories beyond my community and countries because stories happen beyond set boundaries and they need to be told.

My interests are issues affecting humanity either positively or negatively, taking photos and videos. You may kindly visit http://matharefoundation.blogspot.com

Currently I  am a freelance journalist based in Nairobi. I do commercial video production and photography when hired by clients.

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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commonwealth Youth Programme. Articles are published in a spirit of dialogue, respect and understanding. If you disagree, why not submit a response?

To learn more about becoming a Commonwealth Correspondent please visit:
http://www.yourcommonwealth.org/submit-articles/commonwealthcorrespondents/

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