As doctors and university lecturers continue to strike in Kenya, rapper Muthoni Drummer Queen timeously released a call to action in the form a banger titled, “Kenyan Message”. Modelled on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five‘s classic song, “The Message,” Muthoni’s hit is a rallying call against the Kenyan government.
“This is an artist using her voice, her platform to tell everybody who is Kenyan that we can do better, because we are better, we deserve better, we are able to change our circumstance, we are able to design the country that we want, the situation that we want and it’s truly up to us,” wrote the artist.
Switching between English and Sheng (A commonly used Swahili-English-based slang), Muthoni expresses her frustration over an inept government and a widening wage gap, calling for Kenyan people to demand more.
“I feel that all over the world, particularly in America, you have people mobilising, people coming together and say ‘we want more’ to the leadership and ‘we deserve a certain standard of living.’ And these are ideals that we are not willing to give up for any leader or for any government,” reads her statement.
“WE THE PEOPLE, for me, that is what Kenyan Message is. ‘WE THE PEOPLE.’ I’m not willing to give up. We are not willing to give up our ideals anymore to make somebody in power happy and have a great life while the rest of us are struggling.”
