A Year Later Poem by kelvin karani

At KICC bitter words were traded
The media was asked to leave
The police came; then the barrage
And in a secret office came results
Kivuitu announced Kibaki winner
Got friend to statehouse
And in a low key ceremony
Kibaki took his vow amid the ominous dark

All the while
Kenya burnt; everything went wrong
To the streets the youth ran
With leaves, sticks and machetes
Against the doctored results
Cheated they felt and disliked
And for their godamn rights they got shot!

A police state is what we became
Gun shots became our national lullaby
You couldn’t help but marvel at the great music
Oh! The symphony of flowering bullets!

And during the day?
Running battles of police and youths
Running children and the old
To safety, to IDP camps

And our sisters, girlfriends and mothers
Got raped by irate and drunk youths
While some others pointed fingers at,
The holy Police force
At our `Utumishi kwa Wote’

And it then became apparent
The police were outnumbered; outwitted
The army came and did their thing
Still wonder why they didn’t take over
Perhaps Kenya would have fall
Outdone by might not malpractice
Or were they maintaining their record,
The disciplined forces in sub-Saharan Africa,
But what for? Why watch Kenya die?

Annan and team came
And after unnecessary delays
The opposing sides came to consensus
Winner conceding defeat, or something like that!

Anyway, a year later today
The nation is trying to pretend to forget
As it sings praises to a suspect, unclear
And also to a winning looser
Stupidly accepting to be tricked
May be he was just a failure!

And, one more thing please
Inflation and skyrocketing prices
Are killing us by the day
And if the prices don’t come down
I may not e writing another
For lack of strength – this hunger!