Happy 50th Birthday my Motherland Kenya!

How does it feel to be 50 years old?

I'm sure you are happy even if it's just cos of age,

I'm not the best placed to write to you, at my age,

I'm slightly above half your age, too young to speak,

I'll write to you anyway for who else will do it?

They tell me my day is tomorrow but I doubt their today,

Happy 50th Birthday my Motherland Kenya!

Your body and heart's eyes carry all the history within,

Your fearless and courageous sons you clearly remember,

Them whose blood was shed in the freedom struggle,

Neither jail nor gunshots could stop their course,

The course within which you were painfully born,

I wasn't there but the old man whose name I've got tells me,

Happy 50th Birthday my Motherland Kenya!

And the days of your weaning you remember very well,

Some genuinely doing it, others cunningly doing it too,

The not fully baked cake reducing in size every single night,

Till you gave birth to the 2nd liberation sons and daughters,

A new battle had began between wenye nchi and wananchi,

The seeds of hatred and stereotypes easily grew in this battlefield,

Happy 50th Birthday my Motherland Kenya!

The greedy children's hunger has hardly been satisfied,

More seeds of hate and stereotypes they've daily scattered to blind,

Among the poor and helpless they've put the divisive fire on,

Preaching water and getting drunk with wine is their the routine,

Frustrations and chaos of poverty, crime and insecurity on the rise,

Tribalism, nepotism, corruption getting more rooted, I sigh!

Happy 50th Birthday my Motherland Kenya!

Good news is that at 50 there are those who rejoice in you,

The faithful children whose hard work has kept you alive to date,

Their devotion and hope for a better tomorrow has inspired many,

Their tireless toil has given you the beautiful side of the coin,

Even though they are not many their light has not stopped glowing,

From their sweat and tiny love baskets they have cared for the poor,

Happy 50th Birthday my Motherland Kenya!  

I know my words are heavy on your ears motherland,

I know they make you feel like you are already a 100 years old,

I now know why you will have few birthday cards,

Where is your hope oh Kenya? Where is the light?

Will you awaken all your children once more?

Will you raise more of a loving and a caring generation,

Happy 50th Birthday my Motherland Kenya!

I believe at this age you really need more hope for all,

I believe you need more healing and reconciliation for all,

I believe you need more justice and truth for all,

I believe you need more patriotic, caring and loving children,

I pray that you will consider me as you raise a new generation,

I pray that all those you will raise will not watch as evil prevails,

Happy 50th Birthday my Motherland Kenya!

Looking back the half decade of the Kenya's Life since independence.

by Newton JG.