Show Me Where To Steal! Poem by DEDAN ONYANGO

Show me where to steal,
Coz I am tired of being honest
In a society where values are only learnt in class
Yet practiced none on the grass.

Show me where to steal
O you who have PHDs in grabbertology
Coz I have nothing to lose now,
My peers are now experts.

Show me where I can loot,
The public cake,
That the pauper bakes
Yet gets none out of the sweat!
Please show me,
I am ready "kutoa kitu kidogo'
Show me I beg!

Show me where to steal,
I, your Grandpa am tired too
Of sitting down waiting for godot
Yet my age mates are eating in kempinski
Yet my grandson, is now a grand stealer,
Let's all take part
A reverse in time won't help neither.

Mummy, show me where to steal,
Daddy was arrested yesterday
For he took only a penny
That the boss left on his
Mahogany covered teli,
Where dollars exchange hands,
Yet he gets none.

Mummy
Please show me!
I am no longer innocent,
Only yesterday I scooped your brown sugar,

Baby,
I am willing to show you,
Promise not to show your little brother,
I don't want a colony of thieves around me to bother!

Show me
Where to loot,
The youth fund,
For the youth are now project X,
Few are keen to save their generation,
Yet fifty shillings is enough
To buy them in the next General election.

Mummy
Sh-o-w ….me...where to…
STEAL,
In a society where we canonize demons
And demonize saints.
Our tribesman is untouchable,
Even if he steals in broad day light and night,
He is ours, they will say!

Show me,
Hospitals where drugs are now elusive,
Yet death is selective,
Across the streets one dies and one lives.
Show me I want to steal the drugs too,
Mama Mboga died
There were no painkillers
The doctor so said sadly.

Show me where,
Show me there,
Shore me here,
Show me….

Please show me
The good roads that were built
But now they don't exist,
Political rhetoric it has become
My people vote me in
And heaven I shall erect
Water will overflow like milk and honey
Tumaini our village shall shine like the sun;
Show me where I can steal; village mates!


Show me where I can steal
For now law is lawless
Crime is crimeless
Guilty is innocent
Innocent is guilty
Freedom is captivity
Captivity is now freedom
A bribe for the jury
Is enough to quench the story!
But poor me my pockets ain't that deep
I will have to spend a night in the dips.


Show me where to steal
The stationeries that once slept idle in the stores
But now legs they seem to have grown.
Teacher, we are six, just one read less text book
Are we just getting free- knowledge?
That is full of bondage
Yet so stone age!
Have had enough
Show me!

Show me where I can…

Enough!
Show me less
Show me none of these!
Show me a change in the DNA
Where values are just not mentioned but practiced
Where we live in a NATION but not a county divided on greed
Where unity for development is our slogan but not our slow- gun.


SHOW ME ….