09/12/2023
In a few days, we will mark a momentous occasion. Sixty years ago, our people proclaimed our country’s independence. With that, we affirmed our natural right as a people to be masters of our own fate and destiny.
Over the years, the joy of independence has been tempered by many battles, a struggle that has continued for six decades. We have fought poverty. We have fought ignorance. We have fought disease. We have fought corruption, and we have fought tribalism. But these challenges march on with us. In spite of our tribulations, and against monumental odds, we have fought and we are still struggling to build a thriving democracy.
We are still fighting for individual freedom within our free nation. We have become the beacon of hope for millions of immigrants from the four corners of the Earth. We are struggling to forge a free and modern society that lives by the ideals of liberty, justice, and respect for human rights. We have fought, and we are still fighting not to let any obstacle stand in the way of our destiny.
I've been extremely fortunate to see the emergence and progression of Kenya up close, as the son of a freedom fighter, as the son of the first vice president for a brief period, as the son of a Vice President turned detainee, a fighter for the second liberation, a detainee myself, as a minister, opposition leader, and as prime minister.
The people of Kenya endured the pain of colonialism, the tragedy of single-party dictatorship, and the horror of the economic collapse of the 1980s and 1990s, enabled by elite corruption and weird policies like the Structural Adjustment Programs of the IMF. In these periods, of colonialism, elite corruption, and ethnicization of national life, callous and cruel leaders took away lives and broke apart families through detention camps, jails, assassination, and state-enabled high levels of poverty.
But all these tragedies and unfortunate turn of events could not take away the spirit of the Kenyan people.
I have see
