Jaguar’s claws: The voter must take responsibility for the pain
What you need to know:
- I get teargassed while walking on the streets of Nairobi just because cops are dramatically arresting a Kenyan politician.
- It turns out it is my rea Member of Parliament who had made reckless, inflammatory remarks against foreigners running businesses in the CBD - 'his' constituency.
- All this started at the ballot and i think at times we get what we deserve.
Yesterday, when I was walking through town, around Integrity Centre, I caught a whiff of teargas that proceeded to grip and choke me while I was minding my business. Unfortunately, Jaguar and his people didn’t want me to enjoy the afternoon. Apparently, teargas canisters were unleashed as soon as Jaguar and his supporters showed up, because they were heckling, because Jaguar is being seen at Integrity centre for charges questioning his – well, integrity.
First of all, as someone who has innocently inhaled copious amounts of teargas for things that are not my fault, I wonder at the person who decides that these volleys should be let loose in the first place. I mean, more often than not, they are shot at people defending their own rights – as has been my experience every time I’m marching for Kenya, with other Kenyans, as other Kenyans with Kenyans threaten us with water cannons.
That being said, if his hecklers were actually just being unruly because he was arrested, it really makes me question how, in 2019, the Kenyan mind is still functioning on voting for and supporting the guy who has the hit songs that all sound the same (like his campaign promises) and the other guy with the shiniest Range Rover.
I vote in Starehe. I was really hoping that Boniface Mwangi would take this seat. I know that is wishful thinking, somewhat, considering everything Boniface is and what he is generally associated with – but I was hoping that the people of Starehe would at least give him a chance. I didn’t think he would be in fourth place. Fourth! After we have been crying for leadership and assistance and begging for our rights to be fought for. Fourth! It’s enough to shake even the most patriotic of souls.
Instead, Jaguar was the choice. Jaguar who, to my knowledge, above and beyond crying on television, hasn’t done much more for Starehe. Jaguar who, in spite of his associations, as well, was voted in and now riles up his people to rile up others when he’s facing the possibility of accountability for what he is suspected to have done. And who is running with him, causing chaos? The people he has done nothing for.
It has always been my deepest hope that Kenyans rise from the slumber that they’re so comfortable with. But today, after I choked on the air, I realised that it is not yet Uhuru, even with Uhuru at the supposed helm. The revolutionaries are treated so badly, no one even wants to be revolutionary now. So what happens to a dying country? Who saves it, since it apparently won’t be ourselves?
Twitter: @AbigailArunga
