By Booker Matemvu
There are times you wish you were as lucky as MCP who became a ruling party without winning an election. They might pretend otherwise but the truth is that they have never won an election. Yet, they strut around, pumping themselves up with borrowed bravado to create an impression that they really did. But we all know they didn’t.
There are times that I wish I was as lucky as the MCP panga wielding goons who hack innocent people for just expressing themselves on a democratic right enshrined in the constitution. They get police protection and hide from the police at police stations. When arrested they get to walk the red carpet to a guard of honour mounted by the very men who were meant to arrest them. They get cappuccino and flowers before being set free and receiving bonuses for the appearance.
There are times that I wish I was as lucky as the SG who, suddenly, can afford to pay hooligans K15 million in cash for threatening demonstrators or disrupting opposition rallies. Sources of cash that even the ACB can’t investigate.
There are times I wish I was as lucky as the Police Commissioner who has risen to the rank without merit but paternalism. The man who cooks up arrests for both politicians and fellow men in uniform to eliminate competition and intimidate. The man eyeing the top position that he will never get. Mwati anapita sukulu yake iti?
I wish I was as lucky as the goons who have taken over the ministry of Lands. They can allocate themselves plots in town and nobody can do anything. They are protected while mere mortals get their illegal plots razed to the ground.
When the citizens watch in fear and stand aside, it’s not because they are in awe. It is because they are boiling inside. That these very people who walked the streets in sandals would this very day forget where they came from. The streets. That they would be this corrupt. Stealing and plundering. It can’t be luck.
When the citizens start talking in small voices with downcast eyes, it is because they are galvanising. To take on the behemoth. And, you won’t be so lucky again. For you will not know where they came from.
Join in the chanting of the song around the walls of Jericho while they perch up high asking why we are going round and round the walls. For we know, Babylon is coming down.
Midume Diaries 2025
