protest poem

Poetry

Dashed hopes: Shattered Dreams

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Do you see them, Young energetic and eager, Their faces brightened with hope the day they walked out of those educational institutions, With their certificates, diplomas and degrees, Their mission, To contribute and change a small part of their world.   Do you see him, How he makes promises on every public platform and behind every microphone? Of economic growth, How he will address unemployment, Jobs, jobs, jobs, Technologia.   Do you see them, The factories, The foreign companies, The way they close shop every day, The way the cotton farms, the pyrethrum farms, the sugarcane farms, the textile EPZ, Did you notice how they faded into thin air? Yet every year, Children of the nation filled with hope, They hope to earn a decent wage, Live decent lives.   Do you see them scavenging? Their ID and certificates at hand. He will gather them at the public arena, Remind them of his humble beginnings, The son of a peasant, Making a name for himself amongst the political bigwigs, How he built from scratch, He started with an egg, And now is the biggest distributor of eggs in the east, west, north and south, That if they work a little hard, They will get there, That they should give him another political term to fulfill all his promises.   Dashed hopes, Politically killed dreams.

Poetry

Voiceless Little Girls

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I was shut down and asked to avoid the spotlight.

They say little girls shouldn’t be immersed in a man’s world,

Little girls shouldn’t be engaged in politics,

Little girls shouldn’t be anyone’s pawns,

Little girls should therefore not have a voice of their own,

Poetry

Sensational Sound Bytes: #protestpoem

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The political elite, The ones we elected after a mountain of promises were made, On those days when they spent hours on end on the campaign trail, Do you see how they laugh at us now?   Our lives, Mere sound bites for them, Another opportunity to sell their agenda on national television, Yet we keep giving them airtime.   We became footnotes, Forgotten, Our parents, living in fear, Threatened about how well they raised us, A barometer of whether we deserve to be abducted or not. A barometer for the guarantee of our safety and security.   We must end this impunity! Let’s make our voices count, Our ballots, our shield and defender! Come next election, Dawn will find us at the polling station!

Poetry

She was just but a little girl.

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She was just but a little girl, Living her life and enjoying her childhood, Trying to make memories, That would last her a lifetime.   She was just but a little girl, When they killed her dreams and aspirations   She was just but a little girl, When they married her to a 70-year-old man.   She was just but a little girl, When they pinned her down so he could put his manhood into her.   She was just but a little girl, Holding onto a little girl Hoping that she doesn’t grow up so soon, For the world was ready, But she wasn’t ready to go.   She wasn’t ready, For her little one to become another child bride, This story would have turned out differently, Is a song she sings in her head.   She was just but a little girl, Wishing, hoping, and now, She sheds a tear, Then a river, She hopes that this is not ocean bound.    

Poetry

What lies!

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He told so many lies he forgot what the truth looked like, He sowed seeds of hope that he could not keep up with, He took away from the poor their last dime in the name of development, Then he vanished until the next elections.   Now we see him walking, He wants to be relatable, So, he left his range rover at the edge of the village.   He knocks on every door, Accepting the cup of tea offered with disdain, He is selling his manifesto again A humble servant of the people, He wants us to re-elect him, That he will finish tarmacking the old Nairobi Road. That the government hospital will finally get a new x-ray machine in his new term, That the new health insurance will finally cover the poor Eti afya yangu bima yangu.   He came with his usual bribe, A 50 bob here and there, A packet of unga, He left feeling accomplished, That a difference he had made.   We looked at him disappear, We now know his tactics, Tomorrow we will show up at the ballot box and vote for change, We are tired! And we finally realize that it has always been our decision to make!    

Poetry

Its Never Business

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Skip the formalities, get to the real questions,  As if she even had a choice,  Maybe, maybe not,  Time would eventually tell Didn’t they all echo that? So… What’s your take on development, youth participation, gender equity?  Is it even real? Do we have to go through this? Any other question? For I assume those were no questions,  Just another interview,  On another channel, It would come to pass anyway,  Isn’t that right? And the economic, social freedom we sought,  Behind those malicious intentions hid,  And the better tomorrow they sought,  Another day they had to work.  They said its earned And not freely given, Welcome to the kingdom yee slaves. 

Poetry

We Ate Them Whole

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In our desperation, Or should I call it greed? To ascend to the helm of it all, We ate them whole, We ate what was to be their breakfast, lunch and their dinner, We guzzled the fuel that was to propel them to their destination, We ate of what was to be their children’s future; leaving them in abject poverty. We took out the bulldozers to bring down mother nature to feed our unending greed for animal skin, ivory and meat, nice jewelry, For tomorrow didn’t really count, We set the slaves free to “enjoy” what freedom had to offer, But behind the scenes we knew what awaited them as they sang those songs of freedom, So we smiled inwardly , See, We ate them whole, We embezzled their public funds, Took our children to Dubai for vacation After all the hard work in these international schools; work without play would make Jack and Jill dull kids, And their mum deserves it too, she has been serving the maendeleo ya wanawake diligently , I know this few millions clocking at a billion won’t bother anyone much, After all, even the bible says that when we ask it shall be given to us, So I asked myself, why not? I deserve this!!!!! And my family agreed that that was the best idea , Especially where their holiday and welfare was concerned . See, We ate them We ate them whole , We cleared the plate with even no leftovers, We made sure that even the meatless bones to their dogs they couldn’t feed, And now we watch their children grunt from this holocaust called hunger, As saliva drips the sides of their mouths at the mere sight of simple food like githeri , This doesn’t even give us goosebumps, Ain’t this the reason they elected us? We lead, They follow.

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