‘KILL ME ON THURSDAY’. THE POEM RUTO, GACHAGUA & KINDIKI WILL HATE TO RECITE
The world has been introduced to Kenya’s worrying situation in a poem by one Wafula Buke, adressed to President William Ruto, his deputy Gachagua and Interior CS Kithure Kindiki over the ongoing protests and pupported government plan against its citizens. While citing our fallen heroes and victims of political extra judicial killings, Wafula wrote,
“William Ruto, Gachagua and Kindiki!
Kill me on Thursday!
Do I have a choice? You have killed me before. Remember? I was Nyanjiru in the last century. Harry Thuku had just been arrested. We needed him freed to continue the fight for our land. You shot me.
Kill me on Thursday.
Do I have a choice? You have killed me before. Remember? I was the Dini ya Musambwa under Elijah Masinde in 1947. I felt you needed land then owned by the white man. You shot eleven of us at Malakisi in Bungoma.
Kill me on Thursday.
You have killed me before. Remember? I was Dedan Kimaathi. You were landless and leaderless. You required a revolutionary president to ensure equitable sharing of land. You hanged me and buried me in an unmarked grave in kamiti.
Kill me on Thursday.
Do I have a choice? You have killed me before. Remember? 1965. I was Pio Gama Pinto. I had a dream for a country with free education, health, minus slums. You shot me when I was taking my kids to school.
Kill me on Thursday.
Do I have a choice? You have killed me before. Remember? 1975. I was JM Kariuki. I wanted an equitable society. You sprayed 5 bullets into my body and handed me over to sympathetic hyenas in Ngong who refused to eat me.
Kill me on Thursday.
Do I have a choice? You have killed me before. Remember? 1990. I was Bishop Alexander Muge. I sympathized with hungry pokots and supported political reforms. You killed me at Kipkaren River through a freak accident.
Kill me on Thursday.
Do I have a choice. Remember? You killed me before. 1982. We needed a multi party system. I was Senior Sergeant Pancras Oteyo and Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka and many civilian supporters of the coup. You murdered me.
Kill me on Thursday.
Do I have a choice? You have killed me b4. Remember? 1990. I was the Saba Saba casualty under Kenneth Matiba, Charles Rubia, Raila Odinga , Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Jaramogi Odinga struggling to create conditions for the formation of UDA, ODM, FORD KENYA etc. You killed too many of us.
Kill me on Thursday.
Do I have a choice?. You have killed me b4, remember? 1980s. I was Titus Adungosi, the only hope of my family. You jailed me and followed me in prison and killed me for supporting change as SONU chair. No child of my own. You wiped me out!
Kill me on Thursday.
Do I have a choice? Remember? I am a Saba Saba campaigner for a new constitution in 1997. You killed 16 of us. Kenyans earned the right to organize rallies with police as mere rubber stumps. The reform process was midwifed by the Inter Party Parliamentary Group.
Killed me on Thursday.
Do I have a choice? 2007-8. You killed me as a protester against election rigging. We were many. Kenyans shared the stolen loaf and shared the task of shaping our destiny.
Kill me on Thursday.
Do I have a choice? You have killed me before. I am baby Pendo, Musando, Sergeant Yebei etc who went about my bussiness unaware that being harmless and straightforward is a crime to some in Kenya. You killed me.
Kill me on Thursday coz it’s a holy day.
Do I have a choice? I am a Kenyan led by Raila Odinga. I am hungry, can’t pay fees, rent, transport and medication for my children. I hunger for electoral justice.
Kill me on Thursday because Kenya must continue becoming better and better for us and posterity.”
The poem continues to become a global fenomenal as protests go on in kenya.
