‘If you are not on the table, break that table’
Read that twice, words by the very notable member of parliament Embakasi East, Hon. Dr. Babu Owino. Times have changed, and it’s only good if we keep up right? Youths have been on the menu ever since, being cut, shared, overlooked and even forgotten for a long time now. A looming beast, ready to bite. Well it seems like it has not yet bitten deep enough, because once again, youths are not on the table, but on the menu.
The political class has regrouped yet again, ready to cut deals with delay tactics of ‘dialogues’. Just a reminder we have had the Waki report, Ndungu report, TJRC report, BBI report and the latest NADCO report. We are now set to have another dialogue of which youths are not in liaise with. The script took a turn three weeks ago, handshake politics is a past thing now, times have indeed changed and it’s either you board the bus or stay home.
Charisma and smooth talk cannot replace integrity, accountability and incompetence. Case in point we are about to host AFCON games as well as open and closing ceremonies and yet no stadium has been completed,1.3 trillion worth of development projects cannot be accounted for, and yet you want us to have dialogue? And say what exactly? Every single day there is a report of corruption, embezzlement ,fraud and you want to convince youths to have a sit down and dialogue? Is it crack?
It’s quite un-lucky being a youth in this times, you don’t know whether to start a family, a business, stay in employment where you are under-paid, black tax is waiting, rent, food, travel ,etc. Just basic survival needs are hard to get as it is and its unfortunate that the government of the day does not recognize this. It is the reason why the word dialogue fuels anger , the reason why there is so much anger on our representatives.
Youths will break the table and burn it to ashes, they are no longer accepting being on the side dishes, its upon time decision makers recognized and set up a fair table with equal servings, emphasizing on the hunger that the Youth ‘chair’ across the table has.
