I am happy to join with you today in these open plains of Oloyiankalani, Kajiado District of the Great Rift Valley, in Kenya to demonstrate unto God and people, and to ignite an inspiration within ourselves that education is the master key for freedom; freedom from ignorance, poverty, chaos, impoverishment, and freedom from unrepresentative and imposed leadership. You can rise up now and walk into the bank with these words that; ‘If education is good for the Luo it’s good for the Kamba, if it’s good for the Kalenjin it’s good for the Pokomo, if it’s good for the Kikuyu it’s good for the Maasai and thus if it’s good for ANY it is good for ALL’.
But today I am here to tell you why you young people must participate in civic and reform processes. This is because your future cannot be postponed anymore. Forget about the excuses they give you and especially the fallacy that “you are tomorrow’s leaders’’ for you cannot allow your future to be postponed every day. Those who think the youth should always live in subservience, on an endless waiting end, and reserved as gun-powder for the next episode of electoral violence shall suffer a rude shock if we rise up as the youth and reject the business as usual strategy. Reforms are projected into the future. You are the greatest stakeholders of that future. Reforms seek to enforce equitable sharing of resources that include information, educational opportunities, decision-making, public appointments, infrastructure and development. Reforms give you the power to force change. It gives power to regain your rightful position as a citizen of this country. Reforms empower you to participate in the determination of your own destiny.
But since agents of the status quo and oppression know information is power, they want to ensure you don’t get it. You must not allow to be auctioned on the laps of ignorance and hateful politicians who want to reduce you to mere spectators and fence-sitters in that which appertains to your very lives. I am here to urge you to keep hope alive and strive to do better for it’s never over until God says it’s over. The Almighty God the Creator of all the universe has fearfully and wonderfully made you and destined you for the top. This is why you must rise as individuals, as groups and teams to grab the price that God has set before you, their posturing notwithstanding.
For who is he that says and it comes to pass if the Lord commanded it not? All humans’ are mortal but God is mighty. Can a nation be born in a day? Yes it can. If this community and nation can redirect their efforts to support and empower our young people a nation shall be born in a day. But since this bad leadership is our nation’s biggest con we will wait forever to get our rightful position as the youth of Kajiado and of Kenya. Thus we must push and refuse to go under. For as soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children. We must push to give birth to a new Nation, push for a new leadership, push for a new community, push for a new order, push for a new dispensation of a young generation who God shall inspire, whose service is to their people, whose honor is in their achievement and who shall kick out a leadership that worship their stomach and whose god is their belly.
Whereas this oppressive non-reformist leadership belong to a dying order, you young people are the representatives of a nation reborn. Whereas they believe in money wickedly acquired, you believe in the dignity of your life and the beauty of freedom. Whereas they are fallen and lost all hope you are a risen generation keeping hope alive and striving to do better. My friends, participate in reforms! May this spirit and these virtues be restored in the life of the young people of Kajiado and of Kenya to serve as an inspiration for my two sons, Mayiana and Mandela, their generation and future generations of the Maasai people. God bless this generation.
In closing I say, rise up my brothers and sisters, pursue your education like hungry men, follow hard wherever it may be found, grab it and let it stick into your life for it will provide a defense against anyone who wants to extend the period and the suffering of the young people of Kajiado. Tell them straight face that your future and that of this community cannot be postponed. May God bless this generation.
PHILLIP S. WUANTAI
CONVENOR/ASSOCIATION OF MAA ACADEMICS
(This speech was delivered by Phillip S. Wuantai, Convenor, Association of Maa Academics on Saturday 19th December, 2009 at Oloyiankalani Day Mixed Secondary School before a congregation of over three hundred youth during the Education-Open-Day organised in partnership with Esiloyia Welfare and Development Initiative (EWADI), OLmaa Pastoralist and Development Program(OLPADEP), and all local churches from Keekonyokie South location in Kajiado)
