We’re all still buzzing after President Barrack Obama’s visit to our city. Social media is abuzz and everyone who had a chance to meet him is letting everyone know that they did. As they should! I’d have gone wild as well, and I even toyed with the idea of getting a professional to photoshop me with him, and then thought the better of it. I shouldn’t be giving competition to others who are far ahead of this photoshop game.

We all marveled at how our city was suddenly clean and safe just for the visit of the President of the United States (POTUS). Even our President Uhuru Kenyatta lauded the efforts of the grass that was under pressure to grow in less than a week. I’m going to digress here a bit. I’ve been trying to grow grass on my lawn patch since last year October when the short rains commenced and it has had to be planted thrice with an enormous amount of rainfall from early this year when it finally started showing some life. Towards the end of July, there are still dark patches on my lawn so even I knew Governor Kidero’s grass would not grow overnight.

We started noticing security cameras everywhere. I’ve been under pressure to dab some lipgloss every morning as I do the school run so that I look halfway decent in the security cameras. I even stopped dropping the kids off in my jammies! The roads were suddenly spruced up, lines were painted, and many parts of Nairobi lit up overnight – I swear. One night I drove down Kiambu Road in darkness and the next I wondered if there was a party in the neighbourhood when I suddenly realized the bright lights on the road were from the newly installed streetlights. I hooted in delight!

We asked why it took the POTUS to have these cameras set up and we were told this is not just because of that. The government had already taken steps towards safeguarding our country. I’m asking, though, who is manning these cameras? Who is looking at them? How are they being utilized to their full potential? I would think employment must have increased to enable all this, right? Whom do I ask? Who will answer my questions? Does anybody care to reply back to me?

The weekend POTUS was being hosted by us, I was barricaded at home, watching the proceedings on TV. Traffic was being managed beautifully and then come Monday, it’s like Obama never happened to us. Why isn’t anyone concerned with all this? Are we all just a buzz on social media? Does anyone listen to our woes of being stuck in traffic forever? We are so unproductive when we spend so much time stuck on the roads, does anyone care about this?

POTUS’s visit to Kenya has definitely shown us that our country can progress if anyone cared for our interests as if we too were VVIPs. We as citizens DESERVE to enjoy being in our country, to not be stuck in traffic, to enjoy the overnight potted palms along Uhuru Highway and UN Avenue (they got whisked away after POTUS left), the clean and safe streets and also shake a leg with Sauti Sol. (Please make it happen. They’re SO COOL!)

Come on, people running Kenya, do it for us as well. Put up potted plants for us too. Make us feel safe and protected. Don’t let us swelter in traffic. We’ve seen the high standards we can afford our guests so why not us at home too?

Or are you like my Mum? She takes out the good dinner set for when guests come. I don’t wait for guests to come to my place to live well. I live well in my own bubble because I know I deserve it. Extend this attitude to the rest of the country and we all know we deserve to be looked after by our government as well. We pay our taxes to do so, don’t we?

I had asked some questions about the security cameras and if you have answers please do let me know. Also a selfie with Sauti Sol would be brilliant, thanks.

By the way, thanks Obama for coming. No I’m not being sarcastic. I mean it!

Have a great weekend.

Twitter: @kamz26