ourafrica: #OccupyPlayGround This is one moment in my life where I can say that I’m asha
ourafrica: #OccupyPlayGround This is one moment in my life where I can say that I’m ashamed to be a Kenyan. I’m sure many of you, nationally and internationally, have seen the disturbing pictures of tear gassed children all over the news and papers. For those who are not familiar with #occupyPlayGround, it was a demonstration that was organized by various activists, parents, teachers and students of Langata Primary School. The demonstration was held as a protest against the land grabbers who confiscated the school’s playground to turn it into a parking lot for the Weston Hotel, next door.The grabbing took place over the Christmas holiday when around 50 young men were hired from Kibera slums to guard construction workers who worked day and night to fence off the school playground. On Monday, January 19th the peaceful demonstration started to take place however it took a violent unexpected turn. In the history of my country, kids have protested before, something we take pride in. Kids as young as 6, standing up against injustice. However, for the 1st time things turned violent. Our children, the future of our nation, were attacked by tear gas by police who held guns and walked around with police dogs. The images look as if it was apartheid in South Africa. As i saw the photos being uploaded, I felt so ashamed. Is this the direction we are headed? Why would anyone attack school children? Is this the message we want to send to these children? The message of fearing the police and the government? The message that their rights could be violated at any given moment? These kids were brave. If it were not for them, the wall would still be standing and the land grabbers would have won. We are witnessing a generation of kids that will not give in to any kind of injustice or oppression. “Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery apologizes to Langata Primary School pupils over police brutality. He added the land will be fenced by the state to protect it against grabbers.” stated lead activist Boniface Mwangi via facebook. Although the children won, the actions that took place are shameful. Why should a 6yr old child have to fight corruption? Has greed manifested to hearts of politicians and investors to such shameful levels? If a child can see the wrongness of such a situation, why can’t adults? Between this and the arrests of bloggers who are exercising their freedom of speech, I’m beginning to be fearful of the state of our nation. I’ve questioned the capability of Uhuru’s government before but this has solidified so much. This will go down as the most shameful act of his presidency and also our history. I will post a short documentary of the incident in the next post. (Photos 1-5, were taken from Boniface Mwangi’s FB, Photo 6-8 via mashable.com) -V Twitter:@vohandas Email:vivian@ourAfricaBlog.com -- source link