Blood in the City

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The time of reckoning is here, people everywhere are no longer keeping silent to the injustices happening in our country.

We live in a world where the lives of human beings are not held in high regard; where each day humans are taken out at the hands of cowards, who shouldn't even call themselves human. But we don't only see that here in Nigeria, we see it in other parts of the world too, like Palestine and Syria. All over the world we see children being killed, women being raped, houses and property being burnt to ashes. We see innocents killed, and it's just like nothing to anyone – their lives don't matter. As I'm writing this I'm realizing how sad I am that we have come to this point.

The time for silence is over, the time for change is now. It's time for us to rise up and speak up so that there will be a change in this generation and generations to come.

As a young boy, I took the time to visit many countries in the world. During my trips, I always saw how the rich people lived. They have the best of everything. They were so happy and they loved to share. I even had an opportunity to walk around in their backyards and I witnessed how they treated their animals. Even though some of these rich men were old and had lost their thinking capacity, they still made sure that their animals were happy and had food to eat. There was one particular man from a rich family that had a large fenced compound. He used to have so many fishes in his pond. He also had an elephant in his compound with an equally large compound for it to walk around; that was where he also kept his little hut for him to sleep whenever he felt like it.

I walked around and discovered that the rich men never thought of building another compound for their pets instead they preferred to keep building more and more rooms inside their own house instead of adding a new building for their pets; this was because they were too old and weak to take care of two places instead of one. This is how our land was once upon a time, it was very rich, very beautiful and our people were so smart that they never failed to leave behind a heritage or inheritance for the unborn future but today, we see poverty all over the land.

As we all know, thousands of people gathered at the Mashambas social night club in Eldoret town center on Sunday evening 2nd December 2016. The night started off with a hour long singer preparation and then they danced to their hearts’ content. In the middle of it all, there was a sudden commotion. A group of heartless souls armed with machetes entered the social club and started chasing innocent people with the aim of murdering them. The security guards who were already on duty tried their best to save lives but were overpowered by the intruders, who were about 8 people. They successfully stabbed about 20 people and shot 3 others. The ones that could not escape fast enough suffered deep gashes from machetes.

Having been given the mandate from above, we are using our platform to ask President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto to probe this brutal act of violence and bring forth justice for the families of the deceased. We should all be reminded that it is our common responsibility as human beings to watch out for each other’s lives. What happened at Mashambas night club is as a result of our leaders’ busy schedules and quick moves to foreign lands while we, as citizens remain insecure at home.

For the past few weeks, South Africa has been gripped by a brutal wave of barbaric farm attacks. A few days ago, the situation reached boiling point when South Africans woke up to the news that yet another elderly person had been brutally murdered on a farm in the hills south-west of Pretoria

What makes this particular event so tragic and untenable is that Mr Grobler was a well-known musician in the Afrikaans music industry and had no intention of retiring from his profession.

Lament is an understatement. It is heart wrenching that one of our own is brutally slaughtered at the hands of an unbridled and lecherous couple who were clearly out for blood.

We cannot continue to stand idle or allow this trend to flourish among the farming community, which represents a significant portion of the population.

It is not enough to listen to government's hollow promises, because in a matter of months, another attack will occur and we will be right back where we started.

The country needs more than just a few moments of silence, we need action across all sectors in all provinces – to ensure that our people are safe and protected.