By Clifford
“Democracy… democracy…
They told us it’s the people’s voice,
but in my hood, the loudest voices are sirens and teargas smoke.
Wananchi line up at dawn,
with torn IDs, dusty shoes, and hopeful hearts,
only for ballots to be flipped like chapatis at midnight.
A world upside down!
Freedom of speech?
Yes—until you speak against power,
then your microphone is silenced like a drum with a torn skin.
Inclusion?
We shout serikali saidia!
but some tribes eat ugali with beef,
others chew democracy with stones.
We talk gender equality,
yet mama mboga’s hands are still chained by poverty,
while her daughter is locked out of the table of decisions.
Listen!
Can you hear that creeping?
Democracy has joined hands with global warming
Kisumu kids cough, Nairobi chokes,
Mombasa beaches buried in plastic jokes.
Ozone zones collapsing like dominos,
We plant corruption, then harvest sorrows.
Pause…Tongue-twister time—
Smoky smog sneaks, slowly suffocating streets,
Petrol pumps puff poisons, polluting peasants’
Still—hatujamaliza!
From Kibera to Obunga Kisumu,
from Turkana sands to the coast tides,
voices are rising,
vijana are chanting,*
not for chaos, but for inclusion.
Because a democracy upside down
is just dictatorship wearing lipstick.
And we, the youth,
refuse to be decorations in a political poster.
So let the ballot not be a bullet,
let leadership not be looting.
Let our unity be louder than tribal drums.
And let our future be built not by the insecure,
but by the included.
Kenya ni yetu!
Demokrasia ni yetu!
We shall turn the world right side up—
by turning our voices into action!”
