Those animals are mine!!

All I can say is AMEN! AMEN!

From the Nation
Court halts animal sale to Thailand Story by JILLO KADIDA
Publication Date: 12/21/2005

The High Court yesterday stopped the deal to export 175 wild animals to Thailand until a case by two wildlife conservation groups is heard.
Granting the order, Judge Joseph Nyamu said he was satisfied the memorandum of understanding between Kenya and Thailand might not amount to a treaty.
The 60-day order arose from an application by the National CBO Consortium and the Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals, who demanded a stop to relocating assorted animals to Thai zoos in line with a reported deal between ministers of the two countries.
When the case was filed last week, the judge declined to order a stop, saying the court was not keen on interfering with a treaty.
The court could not review treaties between countries, unless the provisions are incorporated in Kenyan laws or passed as Acts of Parliament, he ruled.
The controversial deal was sealed on November 9 by Tourism and Wildlife minister Morris Dzoro and Thai Natural Resources and Environment minister Yongyut Tiyapairat.
And despite protests by local and international wildlife conservationists – who said the transfer would violate the animals' welfare – it was signed at State House, Nairobi, as President Kibaki and Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra watched.
Lawyer Mbugua Mureithi told the court that wildlife conservation and management was legally under the Kenya Wildlife Service, and that the minister was required only to give general or special directions to KWS. "The national heritage should not be left to the disposal of one person or one arm of government," he argued.
The deal was signed without consulting the KWS, Parliament, other interested organs and the public, he said, adding that identifying and capturing the animals had begun.
Yesterday Mr Justice Nyamu noted that the issues raised by the applicants were of national importance.
After hearing both parties, the judge said the applicants had argued points which defined treaties, and had argued that only KWS was authorised to say whether the animals can be exported.

while my eyes were closed

they sold my animals
they sold my land
they are selling my people

they talk of politics in the near future
of 2007
while they sell my land
land that Dedan died for
to build houses
that my people can't afford

they tell me to go to school and come back to help my country
they know that while I am away they can sell my land

they talk of poverty and the effects it has on my people
yet the only true poor are they in spirit

they have a short memory
they have forgotten that we lived on camps
we lived behind barbed wire
us women were raped
our children went hungry
our men were broken

they talk of their tribesmen
they forget that when they look at us,
they see filthy African
not Luo
not Kalenjin
not Kikuyu
not Muslim
not Christian
not rich
not slum dweller

they see slave

they look at my land
not because they are hungry
but because it is only a matter of time
before the "they" that we have become kills us

they talk about new cabinet ministers
they talk about a new consititution
they talk

while my eyes we closed

my children have become slaves
my children are squatters
my children

our children

it is only a matter of time
before we live on camps again

while my eyes were closed
my people lay dead
bleeding the same blood
that Dedan bled