• There is as much a cycle of scandals as there is a tendency of venting and moving on
Image: DOUGLAS OKIDDY
The nature of the country’s divisiveness was brought to light after the release of King Kaka’s spoken word song that addressed scandals, corrupt civil servants and the state of the nation.
King Kaka, also known as Kennedy Ombima, released the song titled, 'Wajinga Nyinyi' to point out the hardships we face are a result of the voter’s foolishness in electing our leaders in the first place. He questions the aftermaths of big scandals that rocked the nation and the voters' silence on the matter.
The song went viral almost immediately and is currently still trending on YouTube. The hashtags #WajingaNyinyi #WajingaSisi trended on Twitter all weekend long as Kenyans took to the popular social media site to express their feelings on the song and its subject matter. While the song did stir up many emotions from particularly the youth, the reactions to the song were mixed. Some people argued propaganda on King Kaka’s side.
Most politicians chose to refrain from commenting on the song. However, those who felt like they were attacked in the song found ways of trying to prove their innocence. Woman representatives Zuleikha Hassan (Kwale) and Esther Passaris (Nairobi) were among the first to react to the song as they took to Twitter to defend themselves over the line, “Is it true, women rep ndio wanadishi pesa ya pads meant for girls?”
Meanwhile Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru did not take the song too lightly. On December 16, three days after the official release of the song, Waiguru posted a defamation suit notice on her Twitter account. The letter, written by Waiguru’s legal counsel Kiragu Wathuta and Advocates, was addressed to King Kaka, citing that the song contained allegations that caused “deliberate mischaracterisation of our client’s conduct”. The letter specified three lines from the song where King Kaka alleges she was involved in the NYS scandal.
As the song trended for most of the week after its release and bore loud reactions from the people, I believe the furore will die down just as the fury of NYS died down. Just as we forgot about the maize scandal and the NHIF scandal. We forget about them because the next scandal will be bigger and more disastrous than the previous.
I do not believe King Kaka has said something new in his song. What he managed to do was to summarise our sentiments in six minutes. Six hard-hitting minutes. While the song is reflective of our current situation, at the end of the day, it does not matter how much poetry we compose or how loudly we yell on Twitter. The problems will always be the same. Why? Because once Election Day comes, and the sweet promises of change have intoxicated us, we will still vote the same people in. WajingaSisi.
Image: Courtesy