We are increasingly getting ashamed of being Kenyans

US president Barack Obama excites. He motivates. When he speaks, sincerity is written all over him. He speaks what he thinks, and means what he says. His children make him even more appealing to families. His wife Michelle completes the Obama package.

We’re obsessed with the Obama moment. But in our country, we lack what Obama means to Americans. We lack someone to inspire us, to get things done. We lack someone a boy in Baricho can aspire to be. We lack someone who represents modern ideals.

I have forgotten so many things Obama has said. But I will never forget his humility, a down to earth president who appreciates the little things that make the big happen.

At the Congress luncheon, he told the waiters, amid applause, that he appreciated their dedication to a challenging job where they serve politicians who are difficult to deal with.
Obama for you.

MURIUKI MUKURIMA,
Baricho

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We had high hopes on good governance, but the seemingly intelligent leaders are munching at us with relish.

But all is not lost. There will be time when the now expanded carnivorous group will exhaust our flesh and set upon each other in cannibalism. That is when a son or daughter will rise from nowhere to set off a revolution. Where is this Kenyan?

KARIUKI WATURU,
Nairobi

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Our government is not learning anything from US. Corrupt people in the Cabinet. Maize scandal. Attending Obama’s inauguration in US as Kenyans die of hunger.

We have to do something. The world expects something better from Obama’s original home. Soon they’ll start visiting Kogelo and get embarrassed at how the rich mistreat the poor.

MUSUNGU MURILA,
Kakamega

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The richest Kenyans are, or are linked to, politicians. Are the rest of us less intelligent and so can’t do business?

We pay a professional Sh30,000 and an MP 30 times more. Teachers are asking for Sh3,000 more and we set GSU on them. Shame on us!

We subsidise consumption and punish production and still dream of becoming rich? We make nonsense of hard work by paying farmers below production cost while willing to import at a higher price.

Patriotic graduates are stuck in one miserable civil service job, if they get the job at all — “a bunch of poverty- stricken intelligentsia”.

Does it surprise when right thinking people lose hope and either flee to other countries where their labour can be appreciated or become heart- broken, crest-fallen individuals as they watch their dreams and those of their children being used as firewood in the kitchens of the affluent?

Yes, Kenyans are bitter at being hemmed in by corruption and wicked politics.

DAVID CHANGWONY,
Eldama Ravine