Parliamentary building
As we draw close to the #March2Parliament slated to take place on July 23, 2024, I would like to salute the Gen Zs who have decided to take the corruption bull by its horns.
I am glad to see that we are finally organising to fight the injustices that plague our country. We are Gen Zs, the unstoppable force that the cabals in power never saw coming. Ask the Ruto administration in Kenya. Let us march for ourselves, for our own liberation and for the freedom to determine our own destiny.
But please, beware of “Giants” who promise to support our march for change yet they are here to manipulate the cause for selfish gain. Do not let them steal the revolution from your hands. Do not hand it over to them. They may speak of solidarity yet their true intention is to control the narrative and maintain their grip on power.
Some of them are big NGOs and they may come at you with promises of diplomatic connections and ‘strategic support’ yet in actual sense, their goal is to tame our revolutionary spirit and make us pawns in their game of controlling the narrative.
Sadly, such NGOs are under the capture of powerful players; donors, who pretend to be friends of the revolution yet they continue to facilitate our abuse through funding the military dictatorship we are under. If you hand them the revolution, your sweat will be erased. Don’t be fooled by their empty promises. Instead, rise up and reclaim your power. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
Solidarity is important. But, let’s not be deceived by false narratives and excuses of those who would use us for their own gain. They too have voices and they usually claim to speak for the voiceless. I hope that they take a stand and publicly declare their support for the march to parliament.
It will. be a show of good faith if they do that. Let us rise up and demand for justice, not just for ourselves, but for all those who have been silenced, oppressed and marginalised. Liberation will not be handed to us on a silver platter. It is a process, a painful, costly and deadly process that we all must be willing to take part in.
The son of Kaguta promised to secure our future but he has systematically destroyed it. He stamped corruption into the national code of conduct as early as. the 1990s. He let his brother get away with procuring junk helicopters. His continuous empty rhetoric on crashing corruption only stops at catching the small insignificant mukene while he dines with the big fish.
The 1986 group has outlived its relevance. They shot their way to power under the guise of liberation but you and I know who the beneficiaries of that struggle are.
They are still armed to the teeth. Freedom fighters who stifle dissent with violent unlawful arrests, detention without trial, and cold murder of unarmed civilians are nothing but cowards, big cowards. We should not give in to the fear they have bottle-fed us on for long. Remember what the Kenyan Gen Zs say, “When we lose our fear, they lose their power.”
Suffering is the price we pay for silence. Your voice matters, my voice matters, our voices matter. Get that placard, print that T-shirt, call that cousin of yours, text your ex, your sneaky link, and everyone else in your circle. Tell them that we were a little late but our time has come to clean the mess that’s holding our country in stranglehold.
Let us chant, dance, rhyme, recite, draw, colour, paint, and march to the house that is supposed to be working for the interest of every Ugandan. And, let us not forget the people and children of Gaza whose annihilation is happening right before our eyes. The Gaza genocide, committed by the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, should stir our collective conscience.
Let us raise our voices in condemnation of the USA-UK-Israeli governments’ complicity in the horror of our time. You may think that the Gaza issue is none of your business but when you look closely, you will realise that our oppression is intertwined with what is happening in Gaza and sadly, we may be playing a hand in it.
The same people that fund and fan the annihilation of Palestinians are the ones that come to us to award us for being human rights defenders, as if there should be a prize for human rights. They are quick to condemn how ‘undemocratic’ their far-flung neo-colonies (which we call our countries) are, while they continue to enable the genocide against the people of Palestine.
Our common humanity demands that we speak up against injustice regardless of where it happens because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Viva!
ashabannah@gmail.com
The writer is a tired Gen Z
Source: The Observer
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