Jamhuri: Door for slow change closing fast as Kenya turns 62

This week Kenya celebrated its 62nd Independence Day with the usual pomp and pageantry, and the political leadership promising its citizens, as it has done on 61 occasions, to deliver them to the elusive promised land.

For those privileged to watch the country from infancy to present, there is no doubt that there have been exhilarating successes, but there also has been some unforgivable failures. Independence by itself was exhilarating. While in today’s world we can take self-government for granted, one only needs to view peoples that remain under occupation, the most obvious being Gaza, to appreciate freedom. Beyond freedom, we have kept our nation united, despite its many crevices. There have been major threats to that unity, the most obvious being the Shifta war as parts of Northeastern threatened to secede in late 60s.