'Rev' year opening

After staying indoors, consuming acres and decibels of media both foreign local and diasporian-local blogs on the sorry state of our democracy (or is it dictatorship?) i eventually decided time was ripe to listen and watch Musa Juma do his thing. the crowd was small and rather cautious. most tables had just two or three patrons almost whispering not the often happy lots that patronize this joint. it was clear that throats had suffered a great deal during the house arrest of the past two weeks. the stage was set by Musas band who belted instrumentals of some of the best kenyan productions of the past decades done by musicians across the country. then Musa went the well known path of his numbers. but it was when he took a break that things really did change, the DJ started with one of the most famous campaign songs praising Raila Odinga. the rather long song that goes through the history of ODM from the Kivuitu announcement of ndizi na chungwa during referendum, the squabbles in ODM, the Kalaonzo betrayal, the presidential nominations till the launch of ODMs campaign in the day of the thunder, got everyone on the feet. it is a deeply emotional praise for a man. you could almost touch the emotions of the people reminiscing on what would and should have been. the revelers danced almost unnaturally as if to get rid of the spell it had cast on them during the campaigns, or as being controlled by the mysterious spirit of the composition.

but elsewhere, the situation still doesn't let pple 'rev' instead, people still cant believe that their long time neighbors could rise against them. but i also met one of those neighbors from the 'bad' areas who also could not believe that their long time neighbors could betray their collective cause. they thought that all those who had lived with them for 30 years of govt neglect, without proper roads , hospitals, schools, etc would vote with them for change. they could not see why the neighbor would vote for Kibaki when they both suffered the lack of proper services , resources and equality. what informed their choice of Kibaki? i was asked. "you can see for yourself, the bad roads, the lack of basic amenities and so on" so why would someone living in this area not want change? thats why we asked them to leave. if they cant see our problems then we dont need them!!!"

Well now i know. but elsewhere, disturbing reports are reaching the country that museveni has sent his troops to Kenya, i have recieved several of such messages. even one claiming that Jimmy Kibaki was shot by his mum for asking the dad to step down. i never forward those things. but am not only getting those sides of the rumor. i also get smses suggesting very nasty things about Raila and his purpoted coup plan, even nasty ones about his sexual life and one comparing Raila with Congo. how does one man compare with a whole country , i dont know.

it only scares me that the nasty hate smses that characterized the campaign period are still very much alive. this is a very sad situation only made worse by insistence by the authorities that things are normal. THINGS ARE NOT NORMAL! quit burying your heads in the sand and act!