TALKING NOTES BY EMMANUEL DENNIS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE MODEL UNITED NATIONS IN GIGIRI, NAIROBI: THURSDAY 26TH MARCH 2009
To Your honors I oblige.
I am greatly humbled by your invitation to address this great young people at this defining moment in the history of our country.
The world is going through an economic recession as never seen before. The environment has been depleted. The Global Warming has caught up with us due to climate change. Our natural resources are shrinking. Our young people are getting ever hopeless due to lack of sustainable livelihoods.
Kenya is going through a very difficult time in the economic front, leadership, and social well being. The government is broke, the people are poor, millions dying of hunger and starvation, the IDP situation and our leaders are stealing from us.
The Governance structures are crumbling by the day while our leaders take advantage of the situation and are busy auctioning the country to themselves in the form of corruption never seen before in our lifetime as a country.
The graduates from our institutions of learning are finding themselves in a more difficult situation while those that had no chances of going to school are more vulnerable to helplessness.
The situation is grimmer when funds allocated to the basic primary education is missing. Then very soon you will hear that funds saved by the now retired citizens is missing.
Very recently, we saw the government launch the Kazi kwa vijana initiative. They failed to realize that Kazi ya mkono has always existed and that not all the young people would opt for it. While there is no sustainability structure for this very obnoxious initiative as it will only see 30,000 shillings in the pockets of those who will be engaged in a period of 6 month.
While I recognize the Youth Enterprise Development Fund in trying to solve the ever increasing youth unemployment challenge, I also know that we can not create a nation of more than 20 million business entrepreneurs, who will consume, what happens to those who cant manage businesses? That is what happens when you trust the old to handle the needs of the future. They do not have capacity to foresee the future and as such will mislead the nation to the vision never ever. Did you know that it is a crime to be a youth in Kenya? Mungiki, Vijana ya Mkono, Idlers and the like. The police will arrest you, disappear you or simply kill you.
While the above happens, we have a president and a prime minister and institutions. The only mandate that this government has is to implement the National Accord. Scientific eveidence shows that no one won the election according to judge Waki. The President has been quoted to be “Moribund” and the Prime Minister “Ineffective” With the current leadership in place, the future is black.
The questions that linger in my mind today as a young person is where is our country headed to? What legacy will we leave when our children and grand children come face to face with the effects of our actions today?
Ladies and gentlemen, I see the future generation haunting us and asking questions, “you saw as they destroyed our livelihoods upon which the future is peged on,… You did nothing to save us” I see a country full of disasters, civil strife and militia men taking charge. I see a country where suicide bombers will take center stage, I see a country where the youth will survive by the rule of the gun. I see a country where War lords will be in control of ethnic enclaves for survival.
If any of the experiences on our roads are to go by, where Mungiki collect taxes everyday from matatus and busses, where the illegal groupings provide security in slums upon paying of the daily taxes. It is happening ladies and gentlemen, and it is only a matter of time before they come to your neighbourhood, or at least you become one of them. There will be no country called Kenya. We will be more like Somalia or even worse.
In the wake of the above realities,
I also see a ray of hope, a silver lining embedded on our youth to take up responsibility and say enough is enough. It is only the young people of this country that must rise above the ethnic politics and embrace nationhood and take this country to the next level of transformation.
We don’t need reforms as that is what we have lived with for along time. We need total make over Reworking the world. Transforming our Country into a robust economic hub, where our neighbors shall depend on us to show them the gateway to the future.
I would like to request all of you to join me as we start this long journey of transforming our country. The first step is to ensure we take total control of the decision making organs of our country. We need to support the religious leaders in calling upon the two principles to concentrate on their mandate. Or at least give way so that we can have a fresh election of responsible leaders for our country.
Kenya needs not more than 13 cabinet ministers. Kenya needs a president of not older than 40 years. Kenya needs not the retirement cap above 55. Kenya needs to use the resources, energy, vibrancy, spirit, and willingness of its youth in facing the challenges of the 21st century.
We have started that journey, we invite you to join us. By recruiting individuals in creating a national grassroots movement of individuals in taking responsibility to holding their leaders accountable. The National youth Convention, The National Youth Movement in collaboration with the Partnership for change is that ultimate vehicle of bringing positive change in our communities.
We need to do things differently in order to achieve results.
As Barack Obama said and I will rephrase..
If our children live long enough to see what we have done in this country, what change would they see, what progress would we have made? This is our chance to answer that call, this is our moment, to put our youth to work, to restore the doors of opportunity for our kids and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that we are one nation, one country out of our diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, while we go through this difficult time we shall always remain hopeful, and while we are met with cynicism and doubt, we will respond with that timeless creed, the spirit of the people, YES WE CAN.
And Franz Phanon summarized the struggle “Every generation must rise from relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it”
Which generation are we going to be?
Will we rise up and fulfill our mission for Kenya?
Or are we going to betray our noble duty?
Thank you.
May God Bless the Beautiful Country of Kenya.
emmanuel@yesweb.org
