"ANSWER ME MOMMY"
Mummy, why are we freezing?
Why is everybody in our village outside?
Why did they do it?
Please mom tell us,
Why did they burn our house?
I heard them tell you to leave
Everyone in our village was forced out,
Why mummy?
Where do we go mummy,
Isnt this our home?
Are we going to school tomorrow?
What will I tell teacher?
My books
My uniform
All charred!
Will I take my examinations tomorrow!
My lunch box is burnt too mummy.
You said they killed daddy,
Why did daddy and you build on their land?
Or grandpa took their land?
I remember him tell us a story about
msongari river
How it was hijacked and
Its cause diverted.
Thats when they killed daddy in the protests
Thats when this village was widowed
I remember grand pa give us the story about
The big battle that orphaned him
We got uhuru though!
Is it really uhuru mummy?
We are shivering in this cold
Our house is gone
They drove away the few cows you had
Why have they changed this fast
A few weeks ago we were playing with their children
We laughed together
Went to the well together
Fetched kuni together
But we are together no more
Mummy, we need msongari river
We need our playground back
We need uhuru mummy!
Daughter,
I am sorry. We got uhuru
Thats why they want to push us out
It is the vote that has made them hostile
They call us aliens
That is why we are now outside here
They want to see us leave
Immediately!
Daughter, we have to go now
Its the only option we have
Let us go now
And meet our luck somewhere else
Or face our fate here
This Poem is also dedicated to men, women and children in Dafur, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Congo, Tibet, and the rest parts of the world who are suffering in IDP Camps. Not that they deserve to be in that state but because somebody who has no place for mankind has deliberately subjected them to that fate.
AUTHOR:MWANGI WA MUTHIORA
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