PLO Lumumba

P. L. O. Lumumba Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba (born 17 July 1962) is a Kenyan lawyer, activist, and public speaker. Born in Usenge, a town in Siaya County, Kenya., he is an Advocate of the High Courts of Kenya and Tanzania and a notable Pan-Africanist recognised as one of the leading public speakers across the African diaspora.He served as the director of the Kenya School of Law and as director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission from July 2010 to August 2011. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana and Bells University in Nigeria. Quotes We live in a country where our young ladies who have recently attained the age of puberty cannot afford sanitary pads, but our men and women in public offices have ipads which they do not even know how to use. You do not respond to a mosquito bite with a hammer. I believe that we have reached a stage in life in the economic development of Africa where moving forward is perilous, moving backwards is cowardice and standing still is suicidal but we must persevere because winners do not quit and quitter never win. When I look at Africa many questions come to mind, many times I have asked myself what would happen if Dr Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba were to rise up and see what is happening, many times I have asked myself what would happen if Nelson Madiba Mandela were to rise up and see what is happening, because what they will be confronted with is an Africa where the Democratic Republic of Congo is unsettled, there is a war going on there, but it's not on the front pages of our newspapers because we don't even control our newspapers and the media. We are the third world not because the sun rises on the West and sets in the East but because we have engaged the reverse gear and we are moving with jet like speed in the wrong direction -we must change this by rolling up our sleeves and working for the growth of our country. Third World is a state of the mind and until we change our attitude as Africans, if there is a fourth, fifth and even sixth world, we will be in it. Our country must morally re-arm. We cannot run a country where virtue is vice and vice is virtue. We cannot live in a country where the looters of yester-years assume they have undergone a Pauline conversion because they are in opposition and oppose the Government of the day. Some of our richest men and women are to be found in politics and their creed is, thou shall reap what thou hath not sown. Patrice Loch Otieno Lumumba Quotes We live in a country where our young ladies who have recently attained the age of puberty cannot afford sanitary pads, but our men and women in public offices have iPads which they do not even know how to use. We cannot live in a country where the looters of yesteryears assume they have undergone a Pauline-conversion because they are in opposition and oppose the Government of the day. Parliamentarians must always remember that they are the people’s representatives. They must put themselves at the service of their Nation and not their Nation at their service as they often do. A man may be a political animal, but there comes a time in a person’s life when true service must be the ultimate goal. In the history of our country, this is the time. This country is so hypocritical that when Barack Obama is elected, they say he is Kenyan, but I said then that if Barack Obama were to come to this country, he would not even be elected a Councilor. Sometimes our leaders behave like hunters and gatherers. The only difference is that they gather money, land, houses, and cars. They will not talk about agriculture, about education, about unemployment… the most critical thing is that it is going to be an ethnic census to determine which formation brings together the largest number of tribes. You know one of the things that I find painful is for anybody to tell me to vote an individual because he is from my ethnic group. It is the greatest insult. Why did I go to school? The tragedy of this country is that one is judged by his ethnic extraction rather than the content of his mind. I am always surprised when I hear our so-called political leaders saying they want their tribesmen to enjoy the national cake, yet, I never hear then talking of baking the national cake. Even divine manna was exhausted. Our Country must not have leaders whose greatest claim to fame is ill-gotten wealth and bellicose speeches at funerals. Behind most of our so-called successful civil servants who have joined politics and business, there is collapsed or collapsing public institution they once served. We cannot run a country where virtue is vice and vice is a virtue. At all times, it should be remembered that our nations are fragile and like an egg, must be dealt with carefully. The tiger does not shout about its tigritude, you see the skeleton of an antelope, and you know that some tigritude has emanated. Follow my footsteps and let history be my judge. Women must protect their gains as prescribed in the Bomas Draft but within the context of a comprehensively sound Constitution. They must not seek a golden window in a house with a foundation of sand. Christians must be the salt of the earth, but before they combine their brigade with organs of the state to quell the billowing fires of socio-economic and political degradation that bedevil our country – they must agree on what will best quell the fire – the water of truth or the oil of political intrigue. Let us combine the energy of the Luhya with the entrepreneurship of the Kikuyu, with a little dose of the Wakamba and Miji Kenda humility, the Maasai’s zeal and zest and the Luo’s quest for perfection and the beautiful qualities of all Kenyan nations and what looks like the tower of Babel will become the power of Babel. Today to say, ‘disability is not inability’ is a politically correct cliché. But let me tell you; our level of development will be measured by how we treat our men and women with disability. If Kenya is to be great in fact and not in prospect, then you young men and women must make a resolve today, that you are the young suckers that will take over when the old bananas die. I will not embrace cheap heroism by pretending to be a fire eating pseudo-revolutionary. I prefer to be called names, but I will remain a servant of my conscience and a warrior for truth and justice. If our country is to realize its full potential, then the girl child must soar in education like the Eagle. It is not for nothing that we Africans say mother is supreme. There is no comparison between that which is lost by trying and that which is lost by not trying. We must therefore not burden God with minutiae. Praying without action is mere superstition. Faith must be accompanied by action. Never lose sight of an antelope for a dashing squirrel. Verily, verily, I tell you; any society that does not pay regard to the girl and her education is built on a foundation of sand. If our young men and women desire to compete with their counterparts from other countries, they must exorcise the ghost of self-doubt and suckle from the breasts of knowledge. Knowledge is the potent antidote against underdevelopment. The youth are the true barometers of the political and economic climate of any country. Therefore, take your pride of place; you are not leaders of tomorrow, start serving today. Success is failure turned inside out. If you want to graduate from a “Johnny nobody” to a big “Kahuna”, you must obey the divine order to subdue the earth and have dominion over it; otherwise, the earth will subdue you and have dominion over you. I knew that my mind could think something better than being subjected to believe that violence gives birth to solutions. When you serve your country, you sacrifice personal comfort. Like the man for whom I am named, I prefer to die with my head high above with indestructible faith and profound belief in the destiny of my country, than to live in humility and renounce the principles which I consider sacred. I know we are looking forward to the General Election and metaphorically speaking, from the Egypt of KANU misrule to the Canaan of a new dispensation; but I have my doubts fellow countrymen and women that those who represent change today are graduates of the KANU school of politics whose curriculum has no course on change. Peace has had a flirtatious relationship with this University. I want to be the High Priest who will preside over the marriage between peace and this University. The tree of democracy must inevitably be watered with blood. In this case, I am prepared to be the sacrificial lamb. External links