Eng P3 MS
Eng P3 MS
Lii The Gambian government causes pain to its citizens during the heads of state summit. The
livelihood of whole families is jeopardized when bulldozers are dispatched at night to bring
down road side kiosks in a slum- clearance exercise which was meant to give some streets a
semblance of once having sidewalks. In addition, roads are given rare layers of tarmac at times
of maximum traffic hurting motorists most. Checkpoints are elected everywhere a ground for
guards to extort bribes from passers - by further causing pain to the citizens. Basic commodities
become rare. Water taps where whole neighbourhood queue to get water run dry. All this is done
in the pretext of mesmerizing the visiting heads of states. ( p. 11 )
Liv. The suffering that plagues citizens is necessitated by elected leaders. Professor Kimani
Karanja in a conversation with the daughter, Tuni, paint the parliamentarians as leaders who are
selfish to the core. They are also heartless as they institute financial challenges to their own
benefit. The parliamentarians use parliament to raise their salaries at the citizens’ expense. The
lawmakers do things with a lot of impunity and Professor Kimani likens it to staging a coup
against the people. The MPs legislate the laws to break the law. This has left professionals like
Professor Kimani disillusioned and financially constrained hence they cannot meet their financial
obligations. P. 23 - 25, 29
Lv. The 49 presidents at the Banjul Summit end up bickering over unimportant things and
proposing petty issues instead of putting the citizen’s interest at heart. The leaders fail t follow
summit rules and regulations and end up consuming valuable time bickering pettily. They
deviate from the real reason that made them assemble here for the Summit. Instead of adopting
Way Omega , developed by Nobel laureates, as a common strategy for all Africa, they later fall
for another strategy which was to water down this document. They are the beneficiaries of
military coups, rigged elections and foul plays that Way Omega document advocates against. At
the end of the Summit, nothing substantial is agreed upon that can alleviate the citizens’
suffering at the hands of these leaders. (p 7, 8, 9, 39, 40, 41, 150, - 156, 159)
Lvi. Citizens living in a country with failed leadership are poor. At 1:30 p.m., Chimanuka
Restaurant is empty. It only has two customers Melusi and Longway. People do not eat out
anymore unless a foreigner is footing the bill. The empty restaurant has a mournful look of a
funeral parlour. This is because the economy had crashed so people had no money. Melusi looks
darker than usual because of hunger. After polishing off his chicken, he also eats Longway’s
rejected meal of steak and mashed potato. Zimbabwe’s leader had bombed the economy back to
stone age. Melusi is forced to relocate from the suburbs to the slums because he cannot afford
rent anymore. Most of the urban poor live in the slums. They do not support the current
leadership and support the opposition. The failed leadership is responsible for the poverty in
Zimbabwe.
Conclusion
In conclusion, our leaders unapologetically sometimes ruin our lives by ineptitude. It is therefore
important to go for leaders who have the citizens’ interest at heart.
Language ( 4 marks )
INTRODUCTION
In Leonard Kibera’s story A Silent Song, individuals living with physical body
impairments experience a range of difficulties most of the times. Mbane for instance who is
blind and lame experiences pain in his stomach and spine.
Content
Ci. Mbane suffers from pain in his spine and stomach that rapidly gathers violence. He
crawls weakly on his knees and elbows. The sharp pangs from his navel tear into his body and
for one short tormenting moment, he becomes paralyzed. The pain then disappears with the same
fury of its onslaught leaving him cold with sweat leaving no other mark as if it had not been
there. He knows that it is just recoiling for another attack. Mbane gives up the fight letting go of
his chin and hits his forehead on the dirt flea - ridden floor.
Cii. Mbane experiences hopelessness and is resigned to his fate. He does not know what
time it is, he is hungry. Time for him did not matter, in the gloom of his eternal darkness, things
like day or beauty had no meaning. To him, they were flat almost imperceptible and lay almost
beyond the limits of darkness. His world responded to what he could feel, hear and ran away
Ciii. Mbane experiences neglect after his brother, Ezekiel, picks him from the streets of the
city. He claims to have rescued him from the barbaric city so that he could see the light of God.
He takes him to a hut that seemed serene yet suspicious. Mbane can tell that there is meaning in
his brother’s silence, something strange and perhaps well intentioned in his voice when he spoke.
Mbane stays alone in the hut away from the urban ruggedness and noise and can only feel the air
and the wind whizzling through the trees around his new confinement. Further more, he lays on
the bed as he tried to accustom himself away from the hard pavement. When Ezekiel comes he
could not initiate a conversation for all his life he had been speaking to himself in his thoughts
apart from the mechanical plea of Yes. Out of neglect, Mbane had a lonely life for he had no one
to talk to.
Civ. Mbane begs at the streets to survive which makes him suffer psychological torture. He
depends on people who occasionally answer his plea to keep him alive with a drop of copper in
his hat. He earns a living on one street only which had come to mean his life. He depended on
the gay people to answer his plea, the good men and women who would evoke the generosity of
the previous day’s mean men, pray for him and drop a coin. These Christians instead of bringing
the knowledge of God would curse him and call him able- bodied and only crippled more
everyday by the idleness of leisurely begging. This is torturous to Mbane but he has to survive on
the streets.
Cv. Mbane faces the harsh street life. When the sun pours its heat upon him and flies crawl
along the edges of his lips while good people spend their time working inside the building next
to him. When the sun withdrew to where he did not know and yield the street to hostile cold,
Mbane would steal into the back lane, unsheltered but undisturbed, and surrender his
vulnerability to sleep and, occasionally, the basest of thieves.
Cvi. Mbane suffers self pity. His condition has restricted him from getting married. His brother
Ezekiel is married to Sarah and he would never be able to reach out his hand in fulfillment of his
life the same way as Ezekiel. He can only yearn impotently, sadly constrained because of his
darkness and lameness. He is overcome by self - pity and can only console himself about his own
light and thus he would only smile broadly and bravely. He feels that he does not belong and
that the people in the street had forgotten him, wondering whether they had actually noticed
him. He would therefore wish he be left alone. He cannot seek refuge in brothels like other
Conclusion
In conclusion, Mbane lives a life full of challenges because of his disability.
Language
Content language
0- 4 1
5-7 2
8-9 3
10 - 12 4