Monday, February 02, 2009

'I Take Responsibility'

Those 3 magic words are what I would like to hear more from my countrymen and women. Its time to take responsibility over our actions and basically give those guys we call leaders a small break. The fire was tragic but death could have been avoided. Our people need to know that their life is their responsibility period. I actually got angry that even after so many people had died before in similar conditions, more had to perish out of sheer acts of irresponsibility and after the fire Many people went on a blaming spree saying the govt should do A or B. what about the citizens!

Even after that tragedy, when driving around town, people kept on jumping in front of the car and running across the road. They basically were leaving their lives in my hands or let me say in my breaks and my feat. They trusted that my breaks would not fail, that I would have seen them on time, that my personal reflexes were good etc

After the Nakumatt fire, the ministers and the city council treated us to an exchange of blame about who did not do his job. Even the COO of Nakumatt came out and put blame on someone else. I expected him at least to say the fire was my fault or it accidentally started but it was in my business premises and I take responsibility that we locked the only door when fire started, that we do not have smoke or fire detectors, that we did not have emergency exits. That I did not train my people on emergency management etc.

Two years ago, I talked to people against pyramid schemes until my mouth went dry . They couldn't listen instead they kept on asking me which ones were most lucrative. when they lost their money they looked for someone to blame and the government came in handy. Some even vowed to sue the government. Please just take responsibility for your actions.

Even the food crisis calls for some responsibility. Drought visits Kenya every 5 or so years. Every citizen should take it upon himself or herself to ensure their families food security. It does not have to be left to those people called leaders all the time. take charge of your life it is your responsibility.

On another note, I wonder why Kenyans have this obsession to reap where they did not sow and rejoice at their neighbors misfortune. That a tanker rolled with so many litres of fuel was already tragedy to the poor businessman who was transporting it. Why do people look at that as manna from heaven. It is the same mentality that makes people rob accident victims or even people who have passed out in crowded places. I suppose its the same mentality which creates those mega scandals once they reach a national scale.

By the way how come we are still transporting fuel on the road while we already have Kenya Pipeline from Mombasa to Kisumu and even Eldoret?

5 comments:

  1. Mmh-we are worryingly thinking along similar lines. Kenyans need to realise that actions have consequencies.
    And yes, whtf are we still transporting oil by road when we have a pipeline all the way to Kisumu?

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  2. Pipeline ends at Eldoret not Kisumu.

    And with the constant corruption & scams at KPC, when will the Eldoret-Kisumu-Kampala pipeline be built?

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  3. I don't blame our so called leaders for these tragedies. People took themselves there, they should answer for their actions (not saying this badly though-just the truth).

    However, I differ on your point on food security, that my dear is the responsibility of the government. They have all the resources to formulate advantageous policies for our people. They need to start serious irrigation schemes, they need to start projects on massive water harvesting not this never ending hollering to wananchi of how bridges are swept every other time and about recurring floods in Budalangi.

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  4. @coldi, I happen to have lived in Kisumu. I even know where it is, whats more, my friend works there!

    The Kampala line was to go through eldoret-malava not Kisumu-Busia

    @mama, who are those pple called leaders? my drift is that everyone must decide to be a leader of his/her own life and his/her own family

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  5. No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy -Amartya Sen

    Kenya is a perfect example of this. Our responsibility is not to build individual granaries but to ensure we keep our leadership honest and accountable. On this score we have failed mightily.

    ReplyDelete

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