Stand for Kenya!

It's been a while since I posted anything on my blog but I am revived today and think this is a worthy cause to come out of my self-inflicted hiatus! Lately, I've been seeing the Feb 28 avatar on some people's Face book profile pics and I Googled it to find out what was happening on that date. Someone came up with the great idea to unite all Kenyans on February 28 by participating in something as simple as singing our National Anthem wherever we are. While I call the idea "simple" it's impact should be felt all across the country and hopefully across the diaspora!!  This comes at a time when our news is filled with political rhetoric and bickering from mediocre leaders.  I think it is time that Kenyans who want to stand TOGETHER, under one nation, do so! That is what this Feb 28 effort means to me. I wish we could get some choppers in the air that day to film this historic event...what I would give to be a bird on that day!

If you haven't been to the website, you can read about it at http://28feb.co.ke/ and decide for yourself whether you want to participate in it or not.  Don't ask what "singing our anthem will do to our situation" just do it for the simple fact that you are a Kenyan. That you care about your country.  That you want to pray for your country.  There is no reward in efforts like this but trust me, when a people decide to do something TOGETHER, it counts for something.  That's the underlying basis of most revolts in past history (think American Civil Rights Sit-Ins led by Martin Luther King) or current events (Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain).

However, the most poignant example of a similar effort is the march for immigrant rights in the US in 2006 aka "A Day Without Immigrants." It was great, as an immigrant myself, to watch how by mere word of mouth, all Latinos across the US decided to march in their respective cities wearing white T-Shirts on May 1.  Although the general feeling was that the impact was not great...trust me, it was felt that day - Latino businesses remained closed and that would be restaurants, construction, yard companies, car washes etc.

So, in the same spirit, that is why I will be singing my national anthem on Feb 28 at 1:00pm.

I've taken the following from the Feb28 page that reads "Stand For Kenya!"

We are extremely proud to be Kenyan!
We are proud of our beautiful country!
We are proud of our diversity cultures and traditions!
We are proud of our heroes!
We are proud of our high achievers!
We are proud of being hustlers!
We are proud of our hoods!
We are proud of our tribes and twengs!
We are proud of our kanges and our mats!
We are proud of our artists and musicians!
We are proud of our industries and farms!
We are proud of our sports teams!

On the 28th of February 2011 at 1pm, wherever you are, at work, in the supermarket, in traffic, in school, on campus, in hospitals, in churches, in mosques, in temples, in synagogues, on sports pitches, in court, on your farm, at police stations, at armed forces barracks, in matatus, in buses, on the beach, in the game parks, at the airport, in parliament, in State House, in your homes ...

On the 28th of February 2011 at 1pm, we stand
On the 28th of February 2011 at 1pm, we unite
On the 28th of February 2011 at 1pm, we shall speak in one voice.

On the 28th of February 2011 at 1pm, let’s sing our beautiful and powerful National Anthem, all three verses.
On the 28th February 2011 the world will watch as Kenyans stand UNITED;
1pm, 1 nation, 1 people, 1 anthem, united in 1 prayer for 1 Kenya
We are Kenya!"