Sometimes I guess the government thinks newspapers are all out to get them, but we must challenge certain things that the government is doing or undoing for humanity’s sake.
We are in this together after all. It is one Kenya or bust. Hence, the leadership of the country needs to be criticised for not having feelers for the challenges facing the citizens. It is their legal duty to do so and provide mitigating support.
The national prayer breakfast is something that I have been critical of in the past and still do. It makes a mockery of God in a country where billions meant for the poor are lost. In fact, Sh2 billion a day, according to President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Kenya is where citizens die of preventable diseases because Kemsa is looking the other way as drugs are stolen or left rotting due to bottlenecks borne of impunity. Runaway corruption at such a critical department in the health docket should shame and shock ‘religious’ people the most. There is so much social injustice (read poverty) and miscarriage of justice in Kenya (extrajudicial killings), that for leaders to ignore all that and gather in an expensive hotel, feasting on expensive breakfast every year in the name of God, is sinful, my brothers and sisters in ‘God’!
Covid-19 pandemic
These last couple of years have been challenging for the country. The global Covid-19 pandemic and rise in cost of living has affected Kenya too. Food prices have gone up, leaving many families struggling to afford basic foods. In Kenya’s contest, the ongoing drought in Northern Kenya has left many facing famine. The United Nations has estimated that close to 3.5 million Kenyans in the north are facing starvation as drought continues.
All in all, close to 20 million people are food insecure across the Horn of Africa, Kenya included. This grim picture is not a background in which the leadership of this country can sit comfortably and tuck into hearty breakfast while some of those that elected them are going hungry. I am not suggesting we should stop eating because there is drought elsewhere, but it is a case of being sensitive to the plight of millions of Kenyans facing starvation and uncertainty.
It is important to note that the government has declared the drought in Kenya a national disaster and set money aside to mitigate its impact on victims. They could do more by showing solidarity with those going hungry during famine. It is in bad taste for the government to show the opulence with which they conduct themselves amidst all the suffering in some regions.
If they are not keen to have a modest national prayer breakfast, they could at least have shown a bit of sensitivity to those dying of hunger this year by not hosting it or scaling it back by hosting it in a less opulent way. Prayer breakfast should have been charged to help boost drought kitty at least.
When life was better in the north during previous elections, presidential candidates tripped over each other to visit the north scouring for votes. I have not seen any attempt to do so this time. Voters in the north should not only matter when times are better but when they face starvation too. Kenyan leaders have found it easier to travel the world but not found the time to travel to northern Kenya to witness starvation and effects of drought themselves. To show drought victims that they care.
Mount Kenya has been visited countless times and those visits ain’t ending anytime soon, because we keep being told Mount Kenya votes matter. Maybe so but even then, it is the wrong way of looking at building a nation. Every vote counts and so does every voter, whether times are good or bad. Mt Kenya cannot stand on its own; they would still need votes from the rest of the country to gain a respectable majority.
Drought
UN under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs took time to visit northern Kenya to see the impact of drought for himself. The agency has been working hard to get support for victims of Kenya’s drought. The least the leadership of the country could do is to ratchet up that support by also visiting those affected by drought and keeping the relief campaign at the front and centre of the international community’s mind.
The north should not be the work of the UN alone to save it every time there is a humanitarian crisis, but the government needs to be seen leading the way. Politics and campaigns that have engulfed the country have overshadowed the suffering of drought victims in Northern Kenya and it is shameful.
Let us learn to pause and give limelight to those in need at their hour of need, rather than thinking politicians should steal the limelight from the dying too because votes matter more. Lavish national prayer breakfast is insensitive amidst hunger and suffering within the population. Time to review its relevance. BY DAILY NATION