By C Luanda Magere
Dr David Ndii, as usual, wrote a brilliant article in his Saturday Nation column yesterday. He said what many people in this country have toyed with for years; secession! Reke tumanwo.
The reaction from the Mountain quite surprised me. Arrest Ndii, they said. He is a threat to national security, he is fanning war, Kenya is one….the usual pea brained bullshit. I found this reaction interesting. Because the message it conveyed was confounding in its arrogance; “we don’t need you, you are useless and lazy, we will give state jobs only to our tribe, we will run this country as if there is just one tribe, we will marginalize you….but you must stay here and watch us do it…you are going nowhere!”.
Bob Marley, in his revolutionary song “Zimbabwe”, says “Every man got a right to decide his own destiny…and in this judgement there is no partiality”.
In a country where tribalism and state marginalization has moved from being just a tool for political arm twisting to state policy, I just can’t wrap my head around what the motivation is for staying together.
It is easy to forget that God never created a country called Kenya. That upto a few centuries ago when the colonialists drew the boundaries and forced us into this nasty experiment, we had our Kings and Kingdoms and life was sweet. We don’t share a destiny.
A nation is built out of unity of purpose. When that purpose is lost, there is no nation and you don’t need it in the first place. We all just want to live lives of dignity where our children will have equal opportunities, and where we their fathers, don’t have to change our names because our tribes have come in the way of our opportunities.
I think we have come to the end of our tether with this experiment. In the same Zimbabwe song, Bob Marley says “soon we will find out who is the real revolutionary”.
Pharaoh, let my people go. The People’s Democratic Republic of Kavirondo + Western Kenya circuit beckons.
Reke tumanwo!
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