By C Luanda Magere
Every time elections approach since 2007, an article pops out of nowhere and is shared widely. This article goes something like this; Kenyans wake up…Raila, Uhuru, Ruto, Kalonzo and all rich people are friends…they dine together…..they don’t know tribe…you must not be fooled by these people into hating each other…we are one…..tribe must not divide us…blah blah.This article is pure bullshit! The writer must be an idiot!
First, ethnic relations in Kenya are not premised on how the rich and famous treat each other. Secondly, the article is a poor attempt at making all of us responsible for the breakdown of such ethnic relations. You can not heal a country based on six paragraphs of a romanticized article.
We are where we are because the homeguards and their descendants systematically destroyed everything that glued us together. The foundations of the Nation. Totally. If anyone is looking for a good start at healing, let us see the Kikuyu community go out and vote for Raila Odinga like the Luo community did for Mwai Kibaki in 2002. Or like Jaramogi did when he declined the colonialists’ offer to form a government before Kenyatta was released.
Let us see someone resolve the burning land injustices in the Rift Valley and Coast. Let us see people get jailed for the Wagalla Massacre. Let us see the killers of Ouko, Mboya etc brought to book.
Those of us born when New Blue Omo washed brightest have watched state marginalization become policy. The modern voter is largely a kid born when “liberation” meant being rescued from police cells after a night of rowdy drinking. Many of them think you can dismiss tribe with the wave of a hand. Many, with trousers sagging and with as little ambition as cockroaches in a cupboard, will author articles wondering what the fuss is about with tribes! Ignorance is bliss.
For those of us who know the pain of this journey, do not dare share that article with us! The only thing we will share across tribes for the time being is sex.
Until we recover our nation from the devil.
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