[afro-nets] Swaziland: The King can do no wrong? (5)

[A. Odutola <chpss_abo2@yahoo.com>]

Swaziland: The King can do no wrong? (5)
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At the risk of over-beating this topic, I make available below a
contextually relevant opinion piece in The Standard of Kenya.

Enjoy it.

A. Odutola
mailto:chpss_abo2@yahoo.com

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Copied as 'fair use'

Our leaders can celebrate, but can we?
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By: Mumbi Ngugi
The Standard, Kenya
Published: Dec. 17, 2004

Online Source:
http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=8645

Perhaps one of the most intriguing statements this year has come
from Health minister Charity Ngilu.

While addressing mourners at a funeral over the Jamhuri weekend,
she is reported to have told them that big positions are nice.

I tell you what, one can believe it.

Big positions in Kenya mean everything big. Big cars, big sala-
ries, big benefits.

It means the ability to go anywhere and do anything at public
expense.

It means not paying taxes, but getting all the benefits, and
more that taxes can get you: good education for your children,
good healthcare and security, good housing.

It would be interesting to find out how those listening to Ngilu
reacted to her statement.

Did they cheer and celebrate with her the "niceness" of big po-
sitions?

Did they celebrate with her the fact that one of their own is in
a big position?

Of what benefit is her big position, or that of any other
leader, to the ordinary man in the street?

During the Jamhuri Day celebrations, chiefs reportedly begged
wananchi to wait and listen to the President?s Speech.

They did not heed the chiefs? pleas.

In Murang?a, the District Commissioner read the speech to an
empty stadium.

For the residents of Murang?a, the only interesting thing was
the entertainment that preceded the speech.

And for most Kenyans, national holidays are the days when those
in formal employment take time off from their daily drudgery to
watch the leaders celebrate.

The self-employed traders and artisans would probably rather go
on with the hard task of trying to eke out a living from a
floundering economy.

For them and for other workers, national days are for watching
the leaders being driven into the stadium in their beautiful
cars, walking in with their beautiful spouses, in their beauti-
ful matching outfits.

For the hoi polloi, what is there to celebrate? During the Nyayo
era, we had given up.

We would attend national celebrations to be entertained, and to
listen to former President Moi castigate other leaders in his
usual colourful off-the cuff remarks.

We had really hoped for a lot from the Narc administration, but
two years into their term, what do we have?

If you stop to think about it, you will realize that we still
pay twice, for everything.

We pay taxes so that the Government can provide security,
healthcare, and education.

In addition, we pay a tax on fuel so that our roads can be kept
in good condition.

We pay rates and other levies to the local authorities so that
we can get reasonable services and infrastructure, but do we? We
still pay private security guards, put in alarms systems in our
houses, burglar-proof our houses and still we are not safe.
Health care is a myth.

Education is free at primary level today, but tomorrow we hear a
different story.

Can we really celebrate independence? We are living in the pris-
ons that are our homes, with irregular or non-existent supplies
of water, erratic or non-existent electricity supplies, and our
jobless sons and daughters looking to us for maintenance.

Even the basic things that may not require too much money - the
removal of noise from bars and religious groups from our resi-
dential and business premises, the removal of garbage from our
estates, decent and efficient service from the Civil Service, we
do not get.

Big positions are nice, certainly, but only for the holders.

When we mark Independence Day - we should not call it celebrate
­ we should observe, in passing, that our rulers are now our own
people, but our lives have not changed for the better, and as
the years we have been independent have increased, our situation
seems to have worsened.

As we enter into the third Narc year, we should demand two
things, one from the leaders, and the other from ourselves. From
the leaders, we demand that they speak no more.

No more politics.

You should do something that will justify your big positions.
Show us why we gave you the mandate to rule over us. But please
do not tell us about big positions.

They are of no use to the mother who cannot feed her children
and the woman who cannot sleep at night for fear of robbers and
rapists.

 From ourselves, we must demand a strong voice, form ourselves
into a group that represents our interests, as our leaders no
longer do. It was reported recently that a group had been formed
to encourage citizens to pay taxes.

On the contrary, what we need is a strong consumer group to
check how our taxes are spent.

If they are not spent the way they should be, and are only used
to make things nice for leaders, then we should demand the right
not to pay them.

If we can get these two things in the coming year, then future
Jamhuri days can be real celebrations, days when we mark some-
thing good, something joyful.

Otherwise they are just empty rituals, days when we go to the
stadiums for the entertainment, but turn our back on the
speeches, for they have no meaning to us.

The writer is an Advocate of the High Court and Editor of The
Lawyer magazine.

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