Asking The Goverment Poem by Major Elazia

Take time my friend and walk around

See the desperation of the people,

Witness their stories and understand their plight

And you will know they have gone a little bit too far.



I heard a man boasting of having children

Countless children whom he'd named after all his great ancestors

And started naming them after calamities

Soon, he said he has honored the government

By naming his last child Benevolent Government

He was just asking the government help him feed his children



By the way I met another beggar

No one could tell the difference between man and garbage

He seemed to do well looking like a walking dump site

He had sold all his lands and went after women

Now he is asking the government

To donate to him alternative land and settle him urgently

So that he can vote in the next general election



One day when I was walking in the hospital

I came upon a man who was frail and sick

And I inquired into the source of his misfortune borrowing

He had found his wife with another man in bed

And in protest he chopped off his thing

Now he is also asking the government

To rehabilitate his thing so that he can function again.



At the Muthurwa and Machakos country bus

I met young strong energetic men loafing about

They had dropped from school as early as in Std 3

They said they were tired of the hard manual laborer's lives they hard

They needed decent jobs as teachers and bank clerks

They were now asking the government to help them

Secure such good jobs in Dubai, the land of Manna



I met some street urchins at Uhuru Park

They were in cohorts with pick pockets and muggers plus robbers

They wanted to form a SACCO and save

So they were asking the government to recognize them

And offer them security so that they excel

Because they can pay larger taxes than others

If only given a chance to professionalize their work.



And went to the North of the country

I saw the ravishes of the famine and the hunger of the people

For once even if they were making a request

Asking the government to bring rain to their land

This was the first genuine impossible request

But then can't the goverment dig bore holes,

Where underground water is said to be plents?