Every year, we do three meaningless public holidays, where individuals gather in some stadium, traditional dancers (is there such a thing) embarrassing themselves before whichever Supreme leader(they are given handsome lunch for shaking their behinds), the police march to their music, and then president of the day will rise and read the most boring speech ever, the only thing that can spice the occasion is Museveni lecturing us on some BS when visiting.
We do this on June 1st, the day we became independent. And then repeat it on October 20th, to celebrate the guys who fought for our independence. On this day, charlatans and well connected people are sneaked into the list of people to be honoured by the president. Same drill. Same music. Same program.
And then we do it on December 12th to celebrate the day we became a Republic. I actually no longer know the difference between Madaraka and Jamhuri Day.
What are we exactly celebrating after 60 years of self-rule? We don’t even rule ourselves. The colonisers are always in town telling us what to do, what to eat, what laws to sanctions and if we fail, they close their taps.
What exactly are we celebrating when Kibera, Mathare, Kariobangi, Dandora, Kayole and Kitengela all remind us that successive regimes have failed us consistently.
What are celebrating if we can’t even feed ourselves.
What are we celebrating when mothers and children die avoidable deaths due to our poor healthcare system?
Poverty exists.
Illiteracy is a fact of life.
When will we change the format of these celebrations?
This stadium nonsense is so boring, so 1968, it makes me sick and tired. It makes me feel like we are not advancing at all.
We got our independence. We got our self rule. Celebrating the day is not the problem. How we do it what I have beef with.