I walk in the slams of obunga with eyes open,
I here the ground speaking before these people do
The crunch of broken plastics under my feet,polythene papers,
The sigh of rotting heaps
The whisper of a river choking on what we forgot to care for
Me,a daughter of this soil
A son of the dust
A witness in a ward where waste has become a neighbour that overstayed its welcome
Loud
Smelly
Sickening
Yet somehow invisible to the ones who should see it first
Because they are one with us
The garbage
These garbage grow taller than promises here in obunga
Where trash sit like tombstones of neglect
Where we hold our breath longer than our leaders hold there words
These effects pulls down even the toughest walls
coz I have watched the walls of Kisumu breweries fade under the weight of waste
I have watched obunga complex sag with the burden of everyone…
‘’not my problem’’
I have watched the river
Our river
Turn from a source of life to a carrier of our carelessness,
A flowing graveyard of what we toss away
Yet still
Mothers and daughters wash clothes in it
Children bath in it
Livestock drink from it
And somehow they say
‘’we are fine’’
Ama tuachie ‘’ SAJA’’
But we are not fine
We are surviving on borrowed breath,
On borrowed hope
On borrowed time
Coz diseases hit us first as it spreads like wildfire
And what hurts and burn the most
Is that solution stand in front of us
Like a closed door with the key stuck on the inside
FOR FLOCCA PROGRAM
A material recovery facility rose in pap mbuta
Shinning like a promise curved in concrete
A building built to turn our mess into money
Our waste into worth
Our struggle into steady jobs
A place meant to say,
“we can do better,we will do better’’
But reality is a truth never overshadowed
For it stands there
Unopened
Unused
Untouched
A silent monument to delayed action
A sleeping giant waiting for someone,
Anyone, to say,
“ wake up,we need you’’
And we really do
We need change louder than garbage trucks that never come
We need accountability stronger than the stench rising from open dump
We need leaders who show up before the cameras do,
Who care more about our health than about headlines and news spotlights.
For we need a sustainable future
where children in obunga and entire Kisumu grow up learning that water should be clean,
That air should be breathable,
That their neighbourhood is not a dumping ground
But a living ,breathing home.
I’m angry ,and tired.
I’m mourning what we’ve lost
But I’m hopeful too for a better tomorrow though these voices living for the alpha generation.
Because hope is the only thing they haven’t managed to bury
Hope is the drumbeat in our chests
The rhythm that keep us rising
Hope is the whisper in the river that shouts
‘’clean me,and I will live again.’’
So this is not just cry
This is a revolution wrapped in rhyme
This is a reminder that obunga deserves better
Not someday
Not maybe
But now.
CHANGING THE MINDSET
LOUREEN ALMA.
