KALENJIN YOUTH SHOULD MAINSTREAM THE COMMUNITY’S UNITY OF PURPOSE TO HELP SPUR GROWTH Good afternoon/evening Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to congregate with you today to interact, know each other and share ideas that will add value to our noble pursuits here and beyond. From the onset I want to congratulate you very sincerely for having worked very hard at home and in school thus being able to clinch the few chances of joining University. You should be proud of this initial achievement because Egerton University, where you study today, is deservedly a prestigious institution of higher learning in Kenya and your passing through here guarantees better prospects in life. I equally should hail other bright, hard working Kalenjin youths who are pursuing higher education in other Universities and colleges here in Kenya and abroad. Their love for and pursuit for academic achievements is not only an honor to their families and the community but a source of hope for a prosperous future. This love for academics and pursuit of professional qualifications will surely improve your capacities to contribute to our community’s pursuit for greater achievements and to general nation building. I greatly value this occasion because your presence in this great University reminds all of us of the hard work by our people out there as they struggle with determination to see our children succeed in their schooling in order to qualify for higher education. We all know that education is the ultimate ingredient for development. Hence, this higher education you are pursuing improves our capacity to achieve greater development for both the individual and the community at large. This pursuit of education drives us straight to the theme of my address to you today, which is “ACHIEVEMENT”. It entails success in freedom and knowledge. You the youths of our community are our assurance of continuity and the future. Out there in the countryside and amongst our various community sub-groups, our people are engaged in various efforts to achieve better livelihoods. Better livelihoods include better health, better education, better production, better incomes, better communication and even better transport infrastructure among others. All these and many other pursuits are only possible through a Unity of Purpose by all our people and sound socialization (Nb:- education) of all to remain focused, innovative, industrious and motivated to ensure positive cultural, social, economic and political growth. We should always as a community reflect back, with pride, on the great sacrifices of our heroes like Koitalel Arap Samoei ,--------------------, -----------------, in fighting against British colonialists at the turn of the 20th century. Though each of our Kalenjin sub-groups had their own Orkoiyot(s) and grand warriors oral history and other records reveal that at the very top they used to liaise and network properly; hence they corporate fully in protecting the larger Kalenjin interests while forging Unity. That is why they did not betray one another. That is why you don’t hear of wars pitting one Kalenjin sub-tribe against another during those early days. We similarly are proud of our second liberation heroes like Hon. Jean Marrie Seronney, Chelagat Mutai and Bishop Alexander Kipsang Arap Muge who joined hands with other Kenyans to press for good governance, democracy and leadership accountability. Their efforts exemplified our community’s love and pursuit of freedom and good governance. For it is only in freedom that a people can plan and execute their various programs towards achieving their core goals. We should also commend former President Daniel Arap Moi who hearkened to the cries of Kenyans and scrapped section 2(a) from the old constitution which had for many years made Kenya a one party democracy. In real sense, before the scrapping of that section, this country had no democracy. Many have said it operated more like a Police State and a single party dictatorship. We should however note that, even as many amongst us celebrate the achievements of our great sons as mentioned above including Daniel Arap Moi’s, it should be recalled that most were both products of and beneficiaries of the community’s virtues and tradition of working together, supporting one another and rallying behind an outstanding personality who exhibited sobriety, bravery and wisdom to lead the community. It is instructive that Mzee Moi rose out of a clear consultative process in which most Kalenjin opinion leaders participated. That is why he stood out and endured the tribulations of high office as President of Kenya during the difficult times of the Cold War (Soviet Union Vs. Western powers) abroad and local ethnic based attempts at sabotage. Because he enjoyed the blessings of an entire community and had been well selected as one able to lead. This is very much contrary to the case today when political opportunists are invading all the available space for leadership. These cadre of political leaders lack courtesy and the wisdom to unite our community effectively. In the ensuing challenges they are resorting to commercial politics and underhand dealings in efforts to subdue or manage their critics and opponents. Such retrogressive survival tactics by some misguided political types in our community are not different from the ones that reduced Kenya into a police state in the past. They only backfire and breed animosity amongst the people. Thus as a community we need to re engineer our politics, especially how we groom and appoint our political leaders. The consequences of such a political environment (as President Moi found out by 1991/2) was a total lack of freedom. During that era Kenya lost many of its professionals and scholars who fled to foreign countries for fear of repression. This had the ripple effect of impoverishing our country in academia and many other fields including in politics. It got hard for us to benefit from our top professionals and leaders in key fields. If Kenya ran away from that why should the Kalenjin in this day and age revert to it again? It is in recognition of such setbacks that we give freedom a special place as a key pillar in our people’s efforts to pursue their dreams and realize major achievements. It should be noted that a people bogged down by slavery or any other form of restrictions cannot harness their energies for development nor self improvement. The greatest threat to our people’s freedom is rogue political leadership that breeds disunity. Yet rogue leadership can only be tamed by the people. You the youth are a Key agent for righting our politics and leadership ethics. Former President Daniel Arap Moi was never wrong when he tried to engineer his succession in favor of youthful heirs. Even if you look at the opposition during Moi’s days, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga had his faith in his “Young Turks” whom he believed would steer the country forward. This strong belief in the leadership by youth to safeguard the a people’s interests and prosperity is also what GOD himself did in the Bible for the Children of Israel. David was a young man when GOD helped him to kill Goliath and made him King, Jesus performed his miracles and saved mankind as a young man up to about only 33 years. This is the reason why I urge you the Kalenjin youth to stand up now and take your rightful place in the leadership of our community. You rise up and network energetically to revive our cultural and traditional practices about leadership so that we can rebuild the Unity and intra-subclan trust and brotherhood. Once that is regained we can then as a community reclaim our political leadership from opportunists and mercenaries. However, we should underline the fact that Unity and freedom without knowledge are dead gains. It is in fact a bigger bondage to live in ignorance. That is why, our people, since the days of missionaries, have emphasized education of their children. We are here partly to witness and celebrate our people’s commitment to empowering society and future generations through formal education. It is perceived that those lucky enough to acquire higher education, like you, are best placed to champion growth of our society through enlightened leveraging of their better professional skills and greater understanding of the parameters of growth challenges of modern world. Ladies and Gentlemen (Comrades), I should emphasize to you that the freedom we are enjoying coupled with the good education you are receiving should catapult our community to greater heights if well harnessed. However, we need to improve on all tenets of the two to ensure they are sustainable as a guarantee that our future generations are secured. It is our responsibility to secure our children’s future while we live. More importantly, our knowledge and freedom will go to waste if we do not embrace Unity. Allowing our 8 or 9 sub ethnic groups to work at cross purposes has the potential of denying us the due bargaining power for our rightful place in Kenyan society. This is in recognition of the prevalent ethnic polarization in this country. It is very undesired. But we can help tone it down or even eradicate it completely if we Unite and engage other Kenyans to confront the vice. As learned Kenyans from this community, my call for you to harness the community’s unity is not at all to promote negative ethnicity in Kenya. It is not to pursue a type of primitive unity used to antagonize communities. It is modern unity founded on the motive of harnessing resources, knowledge and efforts to improve the welfare of our community while at the same time befriending other communities in the country to share our experiences to copy their good achievements as they too borrow from ours. Note that as you grow both biologically and intellectually into the future you need a country at peace with itself, where all communities live in harmony to be able to effectively pursue and achieve your goals that is why our pursuit of ACHIEVEMENT should be driven with a universal desire to benefit all. Signed, MICAH KIGEN Chairman of Kagoech Foundation
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 09:33:00 +0000
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