When did Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon? Which year was it again? Do you know? Can you remember? Well if you can't...just google! Better yet, let me save you a few micro seconds and give you an answer. The year was 1969. The actual date was July 20th.
"It is not surprising that some will have as stay where we are a little longer to wait and rest...but this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them...this country was conquered by those who move forward and so must SPACE...the exploration of space will go ahead...no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to be left behind in this race for space...but 'why some say the moon'?...'why choose this as our goal'? And they may well ask..."Why climb the highest mountain?...why 35 years ago fly the Atlantic?..." We choose to go to the moon! We choose to go to the moon risk....and do other things, not because they are easy but because that goal will serve to organize and measure our energies and skill....because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept...one we are unwilling to post pone...and one we intend to win and the others too!!
While campaigning for his presidency, His Excellency Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta ambitiously told Kenyans that he would as President of the republic supply Laptops to every child joining Primary school. Can you compare that with going to the moon? Yet as sure as going to the moon had its own cynics, a noble and lesser goal that is Uhuru Kenyatta's has attracted its own cynics and nay sayers! Of course many cynics (and this is in millions) took it as a campaign carrot being dangled for votes. Those many I dare say included members of his own coalition, the Jubilee Coalition!
When the man ascended to Presidency as the 4th Kenyan President in exactly 50 years, in his speech, he said the following:
"Within the first one hundred days, we will put measures in place to ensure that all students , joining class one next year , within the public school system receive a laptop. We made a promise to our children and we will keep it because we believe that early exposure to technology will inspire future innovation and be a catalyst for growth and prosperity".
Now...this man has come out twice and spelt out his vision boldly. Yet we still have cynics and doubters. Some are even laughing at this bold pronouncements. Some senior journalist was interviewing experts and he called the move "too ambitious"
To be honest with you, I am getting fed up with Kenyans who are so comfortable with the status quo. All they see is impossibilities. It is time to change.
Some are even asking questions...valid questions I must add. Some want to know who will teach the children how to use the laptops...others say that it is better for schools to be built before laptops are given...that it is better for parents to have blankets before children can have laptops!
Cynics! Impossibility thinkers! Would you all just shut up!
Look, there are two things when it comes to being a visionary...three things that matter in making a dream come true:
- Dreaming: This is paramount to success. Great visionaries are master bold dreamers like JFK. Uhuru Kenyatta is a dreamer. Allow him to dream. Let us dream together with him. This is critical. This is a purely inspirational phase that every humans hopes and aspiration hinge. If we do not dream, we dead! "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams". Yet, we cannot keep sleeping in our dreams. They wont become a reality that way.
Uhuru Kenyatta - Strategy: This is where cynics go wrong. When we are dreaming...they have already gone ahead of us, throwing as many obstacles as they can conjure on us...trying to scuttle our dream even before we can wake up. Strategy is paramount...yet you do not move to strategy too soon until the dream is clear as crystal.
- Action: "Whatever is conceived it can be achieved". Period. Several months from today...there will be laptops in Primary schools...plus many other numerous 'ambitious' projects that will stem from it. People will have jobs because of the implementation of that dream alone. The President and his Deputy and (hopefully) their team have conceived this wonderful dream. It is revolutionary nonetheless.
- Blankets will be torn in few years
- The food that you want supplied before laptops will be eaten in a meal and forgotten...heck...you have always eaten even before Uhuru Kenyatta came to the scene
- The schools can be built. No fool will give you a laptop to use under a tree...there is no electricity there.
Habakkuk 2:2 (in the Bible) says: Write the vision down...though it tarries (could be JFK's 7 years)...wait for it, it shall come to pass.
Over to you Kenyans.
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