“Recently, the Kenya Football Federation kicked out our national team, Harambee Stars, out of the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, and invited the better-known Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions to practise at Kenya’s best stadium.
Instead, the national team was taken to Ruaraka, a field not as good as Kasarani. It mattered little that at the time, Harambee Stars was preparing for a match with Eritrea. In the end, Kenya lost to a team that had been dismissed as minnows.”
Koigi’s recent comment on the Mzungu/Obama/adoring-problem (“Our people have a long history of self-hatred”) …now, although I am not willing or able to dive deeper into this matter and although I don’t want to openly wonder about his continued efforts to entertain readers with his views on various matters (seems to me he has an opinion on almost anything – anyone remember JJ?), I find it quite entertaining how he puts in this vivid example from the Fussballwelt.
(note to myself: learn the names of your local football/soccer team and be prepared to talk about this subject more often to enhance business opportunities in Kenya :-)
“The malaise of our collective inferiority has sunk into depths of great shame. We have lost our confidence. We seek foreigners’ approval in what we do and say. We consider something said only when foreigners say it. When they walk half-naked in New York or Paris, we walk naked in Nairobi. Whom they crown, we make a hero. Whom they attack, we kill. We seek them to anoint us as leaders. Without them, we feel impotent!”
HOW ART THE TRUTH!!!! SHAME ON US FOR BEING ALL SO BRAINWASHED. I agree with this statement from Koigi , we adore anything foreign, blog about it too and run like Githongo to foreign countries to air our dirty laundry to seek sympathy and protection , oh how are minds are still colonised!
Even a senator equivalent of an MP is adored , hailed and worshipped in Kenya ROFL!!!
Irena if i had not read it i would have belived it .i am glad to see that kenyans are waking up. i have to say what koigi was saying was not entertainment but a painful truth that needs to be told.Its time we woke up from our slumber and started thinking for ourselves . what london and washington says does not matter its what we say as a people that matters.For a long time i have continued to speak against governments especially the british government( i wont go into how much a loathe that government )and the shameless githongos who work for them .but i always wonder about the kenyan masses that have come to believe the trash western capitals spew on us . we should listen to koigi and the many like him.
I concur with Koigi. I have often, while calling fellow Kenyans stupid or idiots maintained that they need to research information, form their own opinions and absolutely refuse outside influence and blatant unsolicited, rude outbursts. Anyone remember Clay’s outburts? I should have been in Kenya. There would have been a single female picketing his rude behaviour towards a government in whose country he happened to be in. Such outbursts, outside of expected communication channels in such high circles would not be tolerated here in his country of citizenship and the least he could do is to respect the president of the country to which he’s a delegate.
In the same basket goes John Githongo’s reveal. Running to give information he was paid to garner by the Kenyan taxpayer to the white people in power… very very stupid behaviour!
Mimiz: I remember how the Kenyan newspaper hailed Mr. Clay as if it was the first time that we have had corruption in Kenya and better yet the world including the “western- holier- than thou countries. Just like Wangari Mathaai said when she spoke in Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)last fall in NYC, the same Mr. Clay’s govt condemning our misconduct, the same govts that are harbouring the source of corruption, so they should stop behaving as if we created corruption when we all know who is the master mind. Africans and in this case Kenyans should stop being all so gullible and behaving stupid. We need to have minds of our own like Joe said and deal with ourselves and what is ours instead of kissing ass left and right. How long are we going to be brainwashed and be puppets to some other worlds. No wonder we will never gain respect. The other day Standard Newspaper dedicated a whole article of how Raila has important friends in the Western World .. Gimmie a break! so now he is much more worth because he has GREAT Western friends or was it some ground work of some deals incase he makes the president of kenya..We Kenyans need to read between the line or better yet make Political/economic science mandatory from class one, so we can learn to understand that the asses we are kissing including that of mr. Clay! ! do not really care much about us but what they are gaining from us.
JKE,
You read this one right, this is Koigi’s horse, he has to ride it else what does he have? This is his platform and he has to stay on it at all costs.
While the stuff he is saying is true, you have to wonder, how do you start with Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions & Sen. Obama and end up with a piece about self-hatred and the white man etc etc. You start with apples and you end up telling facts about oranges . . .
– Steve
Steve,
exactly, that’s what I wanted to highlight – not the mzungu issue or other already known facts.
For me it is interesting to see many frustrated intellectuals who have been ignored by the media and are never published or printed although having good or at least creative ideas. Their frustration often turns into hatred and provokes overreactions. As for Koigi, I found it interesting how he used this soccer example to explain certain situations.
@Mimmz: what exactly is it that ppl have against Githongo? It might be true that western countries are even worse when it comes to corruption (and here he goes blaming Kenya as an example), but my understanding of him did not only start when he blew the whistle on Angrro Rrreasing, but instead his continious work during all these years as a journalist and @ TI. I think he could have pursued a private career as well – so at least he did something for the masses / the country, and not only for himself (as compared to the many other selfish ppl) although, yes, his career in the US & UK might add to his ego. Let’s see where he is in 2 years.