By Shazia Majale,
On most days, patriotism involves wearing a Kenyan beaded bracelet, fighting X wars against another country to defend your country’s honor, and reminding people to buy Kenyan.
Patriotism in the past days has been activism in all kinds of places.
Standing up to ‘The Man’: the young, old, youthful, institutions, politicians, business people, and influencers.
All have somehow been caught up in the advocacy for better policies and accountability from the government.
The disparity between the ruling class and an ordinary citizen in matters of patriotism is very stark.
While the common folk toil harder for better futures, politicians keep enacting oppressive laws that strip the decency of the majority. They increase taxes, corruption, and questionable affluence while claiming their actions are in the best interests of those already ill-treated.
In the spirit of patriotic duty, leaders are held at a higher moral standing and should be proud of their country, its policies that they help put in place, and its citizens, who follow suit by advocating for their country within and across.
Liberty is a right in the Kenyan constitution, but apparently, not really a right when used to air grievances against the government. Protesting leaves people dead, injured, or disappeared. Being vocal about the ills of the government risks one getting abducted and threatened.
Action to call out the government equates to being criminalized. Any acts against the government are an attempt to terrorize it.
The aftermath after protests in this country often leaves a heartache.
Every time you’re walking down the streets in the CBD, you are reminded of violent happenings. Either someone witnessed another being shot or falling dead or the images on social media a vivid reminder of tales the road pavements will never tell.
Deciding to be proud of Kenya also means, along with it, a reminder of souls lost in the innocence of devotion to demand better policies and systems that you are one action away from being criminalized.
A reminder that the police will brutalize you for holding a placard, and on an unlucky day, you’ll disappear, and chances that you’ll be found will be very slim.
Choosing to be a patriot also means you’ll have to overlook many systems that could work for you if you were otherwise complacent. You’ll have to pay bribes for all the services you need.
You’ll be overtaxed and still lack basic institutions and services. You’ll keep quiet when being oppressed and even applaud when asked to and with a standing ovation every so often.
The scope of patriotism remains to be different among different citizens of a country. The government fanatics definitely rank differently as they’d support anything by the government of the day.
On an average day, patriotism is tasteless and has little reward, but on a good day, patriotism is everything. A bad day, however, runs out of adjectives to describe patriotism in Kenya.
