If we will it, who can dare stop us from joining the First World?

Now that Barack Obama has successfully dreamt of being the president of USA, Kenya and Africa must also dream of joining the First World immediately.

Without a dream, no individual or country can develop. To develop, we must dare dream. Countries leap forward when they dream. They stagnate and die when they don’t.

Our freedom fighters dreamt of independence. For it, many were killed, detained and tortured. In 1963, however, they hoisted our national flag.

Then came one-party dictatorship. A second generation of freedom fighters dreamt of multiparty democracy. They too were persecuted, but eventually won.

Despite these successes, we are not yet free. We are too poor to be. To be truly free, we must dream of moving our nation from Third to First World. We must dream of eliminating

poverty for all.

The dream Kenya needs is not the dream of individuals becoming rich and famous or of MPs, ministers, the president or communities capturing the presidency. It is the collective dream of moving the nation from poverty to prosperity, stagnation to development and hell to heaven.

But can we succeed if we dream? Yes, we can — like Malaysia, Singapore, China and South Korea.

To succeed however, Kenyans must jump over certain hurdles. Although we have weakened it considerably, dictatorship is not dead, and no people can develop if they are oppressed by tyranny. To develop, we must be completely free.

To develop, our dream must come from within, not without. A dream dreamt for us like Vision 2030 will not take us to the First World because it comes to us dead and cold and sparks no fire and passion in us for action. To take us there, we must embrace the dream with the same passion we desired uhuru (freedom).

After uhuru, the mission and dream of our generation is to take Kenya to the First World where no one but ourselves can take us. Only we must remember to expect opposition and not approval, support or welcome from our friends who are already there.

But on the tumultuous way to the First World, we must hold hands. A country at war with itself cannot develop. To get to the First World, all our communities must reconcile, renounce and combat negative ethnicity everywhere.

By the way, thieves have never taken any country to the First World. Our visa to the First World is to punish corruption without mercy, not put thieves at the head of the match.

To reach the First World, Kenyans must free themselves from cynicism and believe they can develop. Without faith in themselves, Kenyans will perish just where they are.

Already our athletes have shown the way. Through their kind of effort, hard work and determination, Kenya can be a First World country. Before we set out, however, let us consider a few more things.