KENYAN “VULTURES” BEWARE GRAFFITTI ART SPEAKS!
They target Kenya’s political elite with a
single message in mind- “Kenyan politicians are vultures, preying on the weak”.
Our people, here in Africa,
say that ears that do not listen will roll into the rubbish pit with the head.
They also say that such ears don’t understand the meaning of the word “medicine”.
This is especially so when the word is
pronounced by the lips, which these ears would not like to hear that they have
been seen eating, drinking, laughing, kissing, smiling and doing all the simple
things of life that lips do.
At any rate, royal ears ought to listen,
even to lips they do not like. But even if they will not listen, they must
still be told.
The lips of these young men have vowed to
speak via graffiti art to the royal ears, even when they know such ears are
deaf. Their pain turned to anger then to activism.
Ours may be the dialogue of the deaf. For
what do you do when the leadership elects tend to be hard of hearing? Despite
decades of corruption, scandals implicating leaders and other injustices, not
one senior Kenyan politician has been brought to justice.
The power of visual art, whether
photography and now graffiti can do so much. That is why they have decided to
paint walls of major buildings in Nairobi CBD with a plea to Kenyans that the
power is in their vote and that there needs to be a ballot revolution.
The idea according to these talented
artistes is for everyone to see it wherever they go and they burn inside with
questions as to whether they are stupid and why do we still vote for these
people.
That was why, when the rock would not
respond to the hyena’s greetings, the poor animal said to the rock, “RESPOND
YOU MAY NOT WANT TO, BUT YOU HAVE HEARD ME ALL THE SAME.”
(Additional reporting, photos and insight from THE
CNN and MR BARRACK MULUKA.)