Rebecca Mwakichako: Natukae na Uhuru, reflections of a Kenyan youth

The author is a student at the University of Nairobi School of Medicine and the class president of the emerging leaders foundation cohort of 2017.

Narokians will relate when I talk about Majengo and Tasaru communicating. The distance between the two divides is normally characterized by pin drop silence at least most of time except for some Fridays when one or the other insists on having a loud crusade and almost forcing the other side to join in and come to the Lord but even so the public address system has to be extremely powerful, for us to communicate.

But this was a Friday and there was the obvious pin drop silence from about six pm up until about  9 when believe you me ,we started to communicate or at least they started communicating to us and this time there was no coming to Jesus vibe. Anyway what did we expect? After Mr Ezra became form thiry four beee Chilobae, and his life was all over social media, after we met the githeri man and we all knew that shakalakala was Mr Jirongos other name, results were bound to come out. And even if Mr. Chebukati decided that Abraham was Lingon and took the route of reading all 47 counties report forms and their results the announcement was going to be done at some point. It was at that point when our neighbours decided that we needed some communication.

So at last young Mr. Kenyatta was declared the winner after all stakeholders decided that the election was free and fair. One of the things that I must emphasize is that despite my other reservations Lingon and our new found sweetheart were quite professional. I specifically liked how Mr. Chebukati handled Kenyans and the members of the 4^th estate in the past few days. He remained calm and very composed amidst the seemingly heated environment of Bomas.

I had been experiencing palpitations and difficulty in breathing .A feeling all too familiar to any medical student facing unexpected results. You see the thing they don’t tell you about the heart is that when it decided to race, you can’t control it; I mean it runs away from you and all efforts of catching it may culminate in serious fatigue by the way. So it had been racing, and I had been trying to catch it. I resorted to finding comfort in singing old hymns such as ‘ancient words”to no avail but when we sang the National anthem right before heard the results, I found peace.

I mean if you were following these “wahalas ‘’ closely you would know that the opposition walked out in protest and openly  declared its lack of confidence in the court systems .KICC had been well prepared to receive the president and the jubilee supporters had begun jubilation all over social media while the rest of us waited patiently clinging to the old adage that goes ‘vindu vichenjanga’ and sort of believing that at Mr Chebu would buy us time to show evidence of the hacking scheme, but eventually form thiry 4 c I think was signed and certificates issued to our new found leaders, okay maybe not so new but somewhat new leaders

What followed was a peace of mind and I suddenly seemed to have gotten hold of my jumping heart. Contrary to what I had previously foreseen, should my preferred candidate lose which went something like this, borderline hypertension and a sudden loss of control of all my voluntary sphincters. Suddenly I didn’t feel like vomiting anymore and I had gained control of my emotions. What you don’t know is that I was voting for the first time. Not because I was not eligible last time but the pressures of first year medical school had made it clear all too well that this civic duty was not a priority and that is why my body had not been adequately immunized and challenged appropriately to release antibodies that would fight against the disease called failure; This kind of failure at least. But even so after talking to my wise old man those antibodies are usually short leaved and booster doses every five years would be needed to at least keep you protected from the lethal strains or life threatening complications of failure. But be that as it may  I deserve some sympathy because out of the choices I had made ,only one got the seat and  now you see why Alex kubo (my brother) could have been justified to  call me a nonstarter.

We are here now. After we all became part-time political analysts and experts of form thirty four bee regardless of the motivation. We are here and we have a president. Whether we chose him or not we have our very own master Uhuru to hang out with us for another term at least as per the constitution. After we all saw what happened in Kisumu ,Mathare and other areas, we can all agree that contrary to the song,natukae na undugu Amani na uhuru, tumebaki na uhuru pekee yake. Amani na undugu seems to have followed our athletes to London maybe explaining why they are shinning amidst the current situation .But I will echo the words of  Bishop Oginde that the honours of uniting Kenyans lie on the victors. I voted otherwise but I am hopeful.

I had packed to go to Canaan and as I sat thinking of whether to unpack or not the good Lord encourages my heart by asking’ what if Canaan is somewhere not so far from here’ what if we can create a Canaan here where even the Egyptians can stay and enjoy the milk and honey with us. It will help to go back and remember the story of Joshua’s predecessors Moses who came face to face with the lord in the form of a burning bush. What was in his hands was what the lord wanted to know. I doubt that God didn’t know the answer. My thought is that the lord wanted Moses to see his human limitation of not being able to associate his staff with what would go on to become a weapon of mass destruction, delivering the children of Israel of bondage. What do you think Moses would have done had the lord come in a dream to informing him that in the next day the two of them will be having conversations over his staff? My bet is that he would have curved out other one; Embroidered it in silver and gold. Not this one that had hit the sheep severally, it was maybe broken in some areas and was used last night by his wife to instill discipline when their children misbehaved. Not this one that has had some ‘ukarabati’ of black bladda wound around it as if to secure falling apart areas. No the lord is god isn’t he excellent and doesn’t he deserve better. He would have made another one .But god wanted that one.

So I believe, now that young Mr. Uhuru is our staff. And the lord can use him to deliver us into the Promised Land. What if Mr. Odinga was the Moses to show point us to the Promised Land and Uhuru the Joshua to take us there? It is hard ,I Know coming from the one who lost all but one seat after voting ,maybe Gods way of saying ‘you live to fight another day?’ I don’t know. All I know is that we can have a better Kenya I believe that Uhuru, should he decide can create us something worth handing down to our children and their children. My prayer is that the high cost of living, corruption, tribalism and unemployment will concern him as they do the Canaanites and as you begin this new term mine is to wish you well and to appeal to you to ensure you meet the athletes so that you can pick Amani and undugu from them, because then and only they can We ‘pata Raha na Ustawi.’

Meanwhile Canaanites, let us soldier on. Let us not abandon the dream. Life will have to continue. Stare at your already packed bags and gather inspiration as I did. We don’t need to die fighting, we can have Canaan here. If we have London here in Mjaengo Narok we surely can have Canaan here as well. Take your time and let us heal, because eventually we will need to roll up our sleeves and build the nation once again. After all that is what patriotism is all about. As for the jubilites, and in particular my majengo neighbours, my appeal to you is to let us lick our wounds in peace, and manage your victory with modesty, life is hard I  mean Ezra Chilobae is married, neither is he Muslim ,Mr. Sifuna is out of reach now that he was fronted as worthy alternative plus you already see what Chebukati decided to call  the great son of America, we are not children of a lesser God. So I am finding my own peace and I have accepted nitakaa na Uhuru in the hopes that that’s not all I will end up with in these coming years.

-Mwakichako Wughanga