A Ugandan journalist’s New Year prayer (By William Odinga Balikuddembe)

Lord,

In my silence please hear me loud:

For people to speak it is I you picked

My lips they have taped

My head they have clubbed

My legs they have clumped

My tools they have smashed

I am timid

like a Katanga kid at a Kololo gate

I am as tense as a cow in City Abattoir

I want to run

but I can’t:

My feet, my head, my pride…

They say I am the Fourth Estate;

The voice of the voiceless

But in this state I am useless!

I am a journalist, Yes!

A Uganda journalist

Ask me twice: Who are you? Who are you?

I WORK IN THE MEDIA, so I say

Lord, I want to be a journalist in 2014

May you touch the hearts of Kayihura’s men!