While en route coming home I decided to stop in Dubai at the Atlantis Hotel. It is amazing how many young Kenyans are working and earning a living that pays them double if not triple of a similar job back home.
But more than that it gives them an opportunity to work and earn an honest living. This is the resilience you find with Kenyans.
It is nice that they are so happy to see fellow Kenyans which reaffirms to me that our bond as a people is being Kenyan. It is not in our tribe or party? That is the patriotism that we should preach and practice back home, that we are one people united by the same values each of us hold dear in our heart!

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• Grace Wanjiku : Kenya (kiva.org)

I visited Bangalore, India for a franchise exhibition where my hope was to sign up a few franchises for our youth and also for other hard working Kenyans.

One of the areas that Driving Kenya Foundation will embark on when I come back home is to start the drive for 1 million jobs. This will not come easy, for success we have to work hard to transform our mentality & attitude to help us derive work ethics within us that can drive and see us dedicate & commit ourselves to reach our goals of a perfect Kenya by 2015.

One thing we need to cultivate are debates on issues that will serve the best interests of our people, whether The Hague, Local Tribunal, TJRC, Mau Forest or review of land tenure systems & jurisdictions. The best discussions are those that will help us transform ourselves individually and also collectively.

My trip to my elder sister’s home here in Mysore which is a small town 5 hours drive from Bangalore, India has been an eye opener.

This place is very beautiful but what is amazing are the hospital and affordable medical facilities. I went for dental check ups and the prices quoted are half or less than what we are charged in Kenya. Consultation fees comes to about Kshs 500.00 compared to the Kshs. 2,500.00 we cough back home. The drugs are almost a third of what we pay.

We can now see why Kenya medical care are way above the reach of a mwanainchi. The reason is; we  are being ripped off in Kenya! What we need are some selfless doctors who can give affordable medical services to our people.

Well it’s simple. I am matured, a bit too late. I have realized that there is so much wrong amid our lives and its time to act. The truth is it’s too darn late. I wish I had the strength and the resources to have addressed poverty sooner! But what keeps me on track is the saying – it’s never too late?

I believe we have serious problems in Kenya and we desperately need to start chatting – honesty being the key word. We need to chat to the point where it (our honesty) comes out. We are a self destructive nation that believes going to church every Sunday or to the mosque or temple makes it all right? And when that is done we are back to being who we are until the next hour with the Almighty which I call living the big lie…amid all the wrongs. We also have convinced ourselves that we are great and everything is great too and all the problems are the colonials, our politicians, the donors, or just someone else’s problem to fix? It’s called passing the buck!

So why this blog? Poverty is our problem to fix! And if we don’t address it with the urgency it deserves then I liken the post election violence to just a tip of the iceberg or rather a trailer to a horror movie that has yet to begin! At this point I want you to take a deep breath and read the words of a great man:

“The mother of revolution and crime is poverty” by Aristotle the Ancient Greek Philosopher.

A point to ponder; look around you…Is poverty on the decrease? Is Vision 2030 working? Are we truly on course with the world leaders pledge under goal No. 1 of the Millennium Development Goals that is – To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by the year 2015?

Maybe these questions can make us examine our individual roles as Kenyans in addressing these issues by brain storming and coming up with solutions. This is at least a start to our proactive stance!