*****
The utterances by one Raila Odinga left others like Musikari Kombo turning to the bible for consolation. His idea of a two horse race might just be one costly burden for Kenyans to bear. Compared to a horse, there are a million and one jobs that a donkey can do. As for horses, they are known to race once in a while then spent the rest of their time in a stable feeding. This is exactly what our politicians do but is it what Kenyans want? A donkey will carry you, carry your firewood, carry your water from hundreds of miles, carry your bags of produce from the farm; they are even the only means of transportation in a certain district at the coast.
When it comes to diet, a horse eats like a king while a donkey will make do with cheaply available diet. Will Kenyans be able to buy the special biscuits and other cereals that the horse demands to eat? Will Kenyans really afford this bearing in mind that this horse only sits in the stable eating as it awaits that occasional race to the house on the hill?
A donkey is also submissive and will even take a whipping from its owner when it goes wrong but a horse does what it wishes to. You have to soothe and cajole the horse to get its services.
A donkey can drag a cart behind it and this increases its load capacity. It can be able to carry more than one Kenyan at a go. A horse is only mounted by an individual on its back. In case a carriage (mind you not a cart) is attached, it can only carry at most a royalty couple. I am yet to see a horse that carries luggage.
A horse needs great care. It has to be groomed with expensive shampoos and perfumes at least once every week. It has to undergo medical checkups every month whether sick or not. A donkey would make it into the Guinness book of records if it were to receive as much as a shower leave alone don cologne. Donkeys don’t require any grooming coz they understand they are there to serve the mwananchi and not to look good for the cameras. To donkeys, grooming is such an ungodly luxury.
I am yet to see a horse that lives in a humble abode. All horses will be found living in where’s where (compare who’s who) addresses like Muthaiga, Runda, Ridgeway, Nyali, name it. Their stables are usually boasting of state of the art technologies like central heating, burglary alarms, automated feeding machines etc. As for donkeys some don’t even have sheds. They sleep tethered under trees with rains and storms threatening to sweep them away everyday.
The most important fact about horses is that they are white elephants; completely useless yet very expensive to maintain. They are beasts of leisure and ask any level minded Kenyan about it: the last thing in our mind right now and in a few years to come is leisure.
So as Raila and company try to make us place our bet on the citrus loving beast (the acidity levels and galaxy of jockeys won’t allow it see the finish line) and as their rivals get busy fattening their horse with a diet of roses (this horse might not even start the race if it doesn’t die of constipation first or from lack of a jockey) we are left wondering if a horse is what we need for Kenya. If you ask me, I think we need to find we a nice donkey that will race gracefully come December 2007, win and then go back to carrying us and our luggage to greener pastures for the next five years (isn’t that what happens in Lamu? The donkeys come out to race only once a year then the rest of the days they are out there serving their owners). If we go the horse way, we shall be treated to five years of continuous racing 24/7. When the horse is not in arenas racing, it’s in its stable being groomed and eating biscuits.
PS: why can’t the youths and women come up with this race winning underdog donkey and go ahead to make this nation a true working nation for all true patriots. We need to be proud to be Kenyans by action coz talk is cheap. And to Raila and all the others who pooh pooh donkeys, I suggest they read the tale of kaka sungura na chameleon. This is a Vijana Tugutuke wake up call. Ni Tyme yetu jo.
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