Jacob Birgen

Professor Mendez

ENGL 102-051

3/13/18
March 13, 2018

Dear Professor Mendez:

Although I turned in my paper on time, I did not get a peer review from anyone. So, I made my
changes based on what we discussed during our meeting on Thursday morning. After rereading
my paper and thinking about what I could do to make the paper better on top of what we had
discussed together. I made the following changes:

 I corrected all my grammatical errors.

 When citing my quotes, I did not put the page number/paragraph number in the
citation, so I added that for the final draft.
 I went back and indented all the lines after the first one for all my sources on the
Works Cited page.
 On the first line of my poem I decided the change the work desparity, to disparity.
Since desparity is not an actual word, and the definition of disparity somewhat fit
the description of what I wanted in that line.
 I decided to rewrite the last four lines of my poem, because I did not like the flow. I
felt like it was rushed and did not connect very well.

Sincerely,
Jacob Birgen
Jacob Birgen

Professor Mendez

ENGL 102-051

3/13/18
Corruption in the Kenyan government (CP3)

What is the one thing that every country in the world may have in common? I will tell

you what it is. Deception. Every government from any country has some form of deception

integrated within it. Whether it’s the government in a first world country like the US, Japan, or

even Australia. Or the governments in third world countries like Kenya, India, Ethiopia, and so

on. Because of our human nature, leaders will let things like pride and greed to get in the way

of what is important for their country and for their people. Which is why there are so many

countries in the world that has the potential to be as advanced and wealthy as other countries.

But because of the leadership that they have had in the past centuries they are now considered

as a “Third World Country.” Which is why I decided to do my paper on deception in

government. However, unlike other people who may have chosen this topic. I decided to talk

about deception in the Kenyan government. I found out that, “Following the advent of

multiparty democracy in 1992, media and civil society have frequently exposed corruption

scandals in an environment that is less repressive, yet where corruption continues with

impunity” (AfriMAP, pg. 7). I wanted to know how this was able to happen. Also, this topic has

always been in the back of my mind for a couple years now because a couple of years ago I

traveled to Singapore with my family. At my time there I learned that Singapore’s

independence was around the same time as Kenya’s. However, what bothered me was that

Singapore as a country was way more developed then Kenya. I asked my father and uncle how
Jacob Birgen

Professor Mendez

ENGL 102-051

3/13/18
that was possible, and they told me that the reason why was because Kenya had a lot of leaders

who used their position only to help themselves which hurt the country in their development

tremendously. To show and explain my frustration I decided to write a poem. I wanted my

target audience to be people between the ages of 18-28-year-old. The reason being that we are

the generation that will be able to make changes in our country within the next 10 years. I do

not think that people here in the US would really care about the poem or what it talks about,

but I believe that teens and young adults in Kenya would be more receptive of my poem and

would care a little more.

The poem begins with:

I look on tv and I see a lot of disparity

But in real life, I know that they have a lot of prosperity

That does not mean that they don’t have problems

Kenya is just another country with their own problems

Their corruption revolved around the ruling elite

Kenyatta was the first to cheat

Cheat the people of their hope and trust

Jacob Birgen

Professor Mendez

ENGL 102-051

3/13/18
Until there’s nothing but despair and distrust

The stanza starts off by talking about how many Americans perceive Africa. Many

people see the commercials on tv and they think that the poverty that they see is the only thing

that Africa has to offer. However, that’s very untrue. There are countries in Africa, like Kenya,

that has as much to offer as any other prospering country. Then it goes on to explain that even

those beautiful countries have their own problems. I got the idea to write the line “Their

corruption revolved around the ruling elite” from the quote “…corruption in Kenya has

notoriously revolved around the Presidency and those who demonstrated loyalty to the ruling

elite” (Mutula, Muna, and Koma, pg. 263). In that line it basically explains how the corruption

would revolve around anyone with power such as senators and governors. Not only the

president, hence the words “ruling elite.” The stanza then goes on to talk about how Kenyatta

was the first to cheat his people. “Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of the Republic of Kenya,

concentrated on amassing political power under the control of the central government (Mutula,

Muna, and Koma, pg. 263). Kenya gained their independence in 1963, and Jomo Kenyatta was

the first president of Kenya. As the first president, Kenyatta wanted to give all the control to his

fellow peers, instead of giving some power to the people. Which is how a democracy should be.

Since Kenyatta, and the following presidents have done their people wrong there is distrust

between the people and the government, which is where the line “Until there’s nothing but

despair and distrust” comes from.

Jacob Birgen

Professor Mendez

ENGL 102-051

3/13/18

The second stanza is as follows:

Kenya has come a long way, since going the wrong way

Cause back in the 2000’s

Scandals would flood the street, like an army in full retreat

Scandals like the Angelo Leasing affair

Broke the trust between the people and the multimillionaires

This stanza begins to talk about how Kenya has a little better over the years. “Kenya has

made significant strides toward realizing meaningful democracy since the inception of reform

initiatives in the early 1990s” (Akech, pg. 341). That sentence explained to me that Kenya

started to move away from corruption for a little bit, but I know that they did have a setback

due to a huge scandal in 2004. The line “Scandals like the Angelo Leasing affair” is talking about

the largest scandal to this day in Kenya. “Anglo Leasing Finance was paid about 30m euros

($33m; £21m) to supply the Kenyan government with a system to print new high-technology

passports; other fictitious companies involved in the scam were given money to supply naval

ships and forensic laboratories” (“Kenyan officials charged over Angelo Leasing scandal”,

paragraph 4). Of course, none of the money made it to the Kenyan government, because the

money went to a bunch of dummy companies where it was then given to who knows how many

corrupted politicians. The last line then says, “Broke the trust between the people and the
Jacob Birgen

Professor Mendez

ENGL 102-051

3/13/18
multimillionaires.” I thought that it was clever to say multimillionaires instead of politicians,

because the politicians who broke the people’s trust basically became millionaires in the

process which is wrong and unfair to the citizens of Kenya.

The last stanza is as follows:

But we refuse to take a fall

And complain about our countries downfall

We are the next generation, and will change the narration

Kenya will be known as a country of liberation

Liberation from the corruption of men

I know our parents care

I see my dad giving his country a simple prayer

But they left us the responsibility

Responsibility to find peace and stability

The last stanza talks about the next generation (which is my generation) and how we

don’t want to be pushed around by politicians, complain, or pretend like our government
Jacob Birgen

Professor Mendez

ENGL 102-051

3/13/18
doesn’t have problems. Millennials in Kenya have already started voicing their concerns of the

country’s problems via social media. For example, “Every Thursday the hashtag

#TribelessyouthKE trends on Twitter and other social media platforms. It is an initiative

launched by young Kenyans who are tired of tribal politics. They hope to change Kenya's long

history of going back to ethnic groups during election years” (“In Kenya, politics split on ethnic

divide”, paragraph 2). The best part is that they use tools such as social media, to voice their

concerns in a way that makes it hard for politicians to suppress their voice! At the end of the

stanza, the line “I know our parents care” explains about what my dad said in my interview with

him. He said, “Even though we do not live in Kenya anymore, I still care about the country and

the family that we have still living there. I pray for them every day” (Interview). Some may read

this poem and not care or even understand what I am talking about, but I know that there are

people thousands of miles from me that would understand what this poem is about.

Works Cited

AfriMAP. Effectiveness of Anti-Corruption Agencies in East Africa. African Minds, 2015.

Jacob Birgen

Professor Mendez

ENGL 102-051

3/13/18
10 February 2018.

Akech, Migai. “Abuse of Power and Corruption in Kenya: Will the New Constitution Enhance

Government Accountability?” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, vol. 18, no. 1,

2011, pp. 341–394. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/indjglolegstu.18.1.341.

Birgen, Nahashon. Personal Interview. 10 February 2018.

“Kenyan officials charged over Angelo Leasing scandal.” BBC. 4 March 2015.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-31733052. 10 February 2018.

Mutula, Stephen, Wilson K. Muna, and Geoffrey P. Koma. "Leadership and Political Corruption

in Kenya: Analysis of the 2010 Constitutional Provisions on the Presidency." The

Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies 38.3 (2013): 263-86. ProQuest. 27 Feb.

2018. .Nyambura, Zipporah. “In Kenya, politics split on ethnic divide.” DW. 26 October2017.

http://www.dw.com/en/in-kenya-politics-split-on-ethnic-divide/a-

37442394. 10 February 2018.