Last Saturday 29th September 2007 was an interesting day for the residents of Waruku, Kileleshwa ward. They woke up in the morning to witness 46 young men and women embark on a thorough clean-up exercise of the informal settlement.Starting from the deplorable Waruku CDF bridge to the proposed chief’s office site, the young people of Waruku cleared bushes, trenches and collected garbage from all around Waruku. By the end of the day, there was a remarkable difference in the general appearance of the place.
This event was a culmination of two weeks of planning between a progressive youth group in Waruku known as the Last born generation group and myself. My friends managed to raise some allowances to pay the group, hire a garbage collection vehicle and obtain the chief’s and police permits.
The clean-up exercise was meant to improve the environment of the voters I aspire to lead while demonstrating concern for their welfare. It went very well with the sentiments I’ve been expressing while interacting with voters; that “Uongozi ni vitendo” (Leadership is about actions).
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Please write to dmuhindi@gmail.com if you wish to support this ongoing campaign to have credible leaders elected into our local authorities. Donations in kind are most welcome. For example, cellphone airtime sent to my phone has been extremely invaluable in my communication with voters (The line is 0722-781042). Thank you friends for your great support. God bless.
I was invited by Diwani Dancan to take part in the clean up exercise. Its amazing how much goodwill there is amongst our people, the turn out was impressive. It was also amazing to see how a small effort by an individual can make a big difference to a whole community. It was a re-definition of leadership, where leadership is about service and about uplifting people’s lives. Congratulations once again.
ReplyDeleteThank you Charlie.
ReplyDeleteIt was certainly a fantastic event. The credit truly belongs to Waruku residents and especially the youth who took part. What is truly amazing is that such efforts from the leadership are extremely rare at council level. The feedback am getting from voters is that nobody has ever thought of doing such a clean-up until I came along!
The youth group told me that a similar CDF funded initiative last year in Kangemi left them with a bitter taste in the mouth. They've not been paid to date despite cleaning up the place for two days.
I have gone through all the articles on your blog and I must say its quite insightful. I only wish we could get more aspirants like you in the other wards. Its high time that urban voters stood up for their rights to good service delivery. I will be visiting your blog regularly to catch up on how you are fairing. Kudos Bwana Muhindi, keep up the spirit!
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteKaribu tena. Please feel free to share your insights on some of these issues. And tell a friend about this initiative. That way, we shall ensure urban voters make informed decisions when electing their local Councillors.
On finding more aspirants like me, I've seen that the electoral playing ground is heavily tilted against professionals wishing to run for office. Very few would want to leave the comfort of their jobs to go into the uncertain zone of council politics. The salary is much lower and it doesn't have much prestige compared to being an MP.