State Funeral
Please check out my protest photos also on my photographers collective Metaphor Images
The images look great!
2 weeks ago members of parliament secretly passed a controversial Sh9.3 million golden handshake. The MPs also approved that each of them gets an armed bodyguard, a diplomatic passport for the retiree and his wife and unlimited access to the executive lounge for Very Important Person in all the airports within Kenya. President Kibaki declined to assent to the Retirement Benefits bill enacted by the National Assembly on Thursday 10th January 2013 but allowed himself to take those benefits.
As a chance to join other Kenyans in speaking out against impunity and organize to vote for change Kenyans from all walks of life were invited on Wednesday, 16th January 2013 at 10am to Uhuru Park’s Freedom Corner to give the members of parliament the golden handshake they deserve.
Parliament officially closed on Tuesday 15th and the following day 221 coffins one for each outgoing Member of Parliament were delivered by protesters outside Parliament buildings in downtown Nairobi. The peace procession walked from Uhuru Park to Parliament with thousands of Kenyans anti-vulture flags while carrying the coffins. The protest was meant to signify the end of five years of impunity by the 10th parliament, a reminder to the leaders that Kenyans are ready for a peaceful ballot revolution and that Kenyans are holding leaders responsible for their actions hence the coffins symbolising death to impunity & bad leadership.
For more info there is an event page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/events/587686414581944/?notif_t=plan_user_joined
These are a selection of my images from the protests:
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin.
All Rights Reserved.
Demonstration against Kenyan MPs voting their own salary increase
A text was sent to some of us Kenyans who have subscribed to local mobile phone network news information saying that some Kenyan Civil Society Groups had planned a peaceful demonstration that was to start at Uhuru (Swahili for Freedom) Park at 1Pm and move through Nairobi city centre to Parliament buildings, to end at 2pm. The reason? To protest peacefully (ie no police needed, no tear gas, no rioting, no closed streets) against our wonderful Members of Parliament voting themselves, for the second time, a rise in salary which would further distance them from the people they are supposed to be serving (us Kenyans) and also making them the absolutely highest paid politicians in the world.
Only 40 (approx) out of our 40 million population turned up to protest. And these were well spoken, well dressed and seemingly well educated Kenyans. I am told the ‘war’ against this issue is online, with petitions being passed and signed…More demonstrations were planned to follow which were more successful but we have yet to fully understand the weight of this matter as a nation and to empower ourselves to make the changes necessary to allow us the lives we dream to live and the country we all dream Kenya to be.
