I am Prepared to Die. Okong´o Arara, a true Hero

“I do not ask for leniency from this court for to do so is to recognize its right to judge me. I expect no mercy and ask for none, for if there is no mercy for millions of Kenyans, what will mercy for one individual serve?..Those apostles who have attempted to rescue justice have found themselves in detention, prison or exile….I am proud and happy to join the company of such illustrious sons and daughters of the land. The people of this nation are simply demanding their fundamental rights and freedoms. They are simply demanding their rights to a descent living, right to education, right to proper medical care, right to housing. In short right to be human beings. If that is sedition, so be it. These are the goals for which I have always fought, and for which I am prepared to die” The former Kenya Air Force officer Harris Okong'o Arara, answering to sedition charges before a magistrate, now a high court judge.

Comment: Nelson Mandela had the following to tell a judge in a Pretoria Supreme Court on, 20 April 1964

"Their struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by their own suffering and their own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live. During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die" .

Fidel castro said this in a court of law. "I know that imprisonment will be harder for me than it has ever been for anyone, filled with cowardly threats and hideous cruelty. But I do not fear prison, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives of 70 of my comrades. Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me."