2017 has been the longest political year in Kenya since I came to birth. The year was ushered in with campaigns that took almost half a year before the electioneering period. Elections happened, another campaign period came and then a re-election; the whole world knows. Businesses have suffered, the economy has been shaken and potential investors are thinking twice. Innocent lives have been lost, sadly. The whole process has caused more pain than joy to the directly affected, if not the whole nation at large.
Thanks to the social media, we can reach out to millions in a click of a button. We also get to interact with different minds and learn or even unlearn. In the same regard, the hypocrisy of a majority of us gets exposed in a crystal clear manner. In as much as almost every Kenyan can write a call to peace or claim to be praying for peace, the tribal hatred and political divide betrays us. What is the need of prayer for peace when we vehemently refuse to coexist?
We are one!
This is the hypocritical cliché most Kenyans use to pretend that they love each and every person regardless of who they are. It is a lie. This should be so, but it is not the current reality. A majority of Kenyans love “their own”. They are willing to even do the wrong things because the son of their land has spoken. They will defend and even justify the wrong deeds just because it is “their own”. It is unfortunate.
Oneness will come to us only when we condemn the wrong whether or not it is our tribesman in the picture. We can confidently say we are one if we join hands and build the nation together, rather than seek to be on our own.
Let’s pray for peace
“By their fruits you shall know them”, so says the Holy book. It is very pleasing to hear that a people are calling for prayer, and a prayer for peace. I even know of people who fast and hold day and night prayers for the peace of the nation, which is commendable. I presume that our cry for peace should be that God helps us to live with each other peacefully, Luo or Luhya, Kikuyu or Kamba; the 44 of us as one.
You will be surprised at what some Kenyan’s prayer sounds like;-
“Oh God, save us from the Kikuyu.” “Father save us from being ruled by the Luo.” “I will be happy if tribe xyz perishes or gets burnt down or disappears from Kenya!” “May Raila never be president, May Uhuru go back to Hague…”. The list is endless, and maybe you, my reader, are guilty.
Is this how we make peace? And people will shamelessly tear down a specific tribe and their people, hating on them on the social media while others like and even find it amusing. I doubt peace can be achieved this way. It is hypocritical to pray for peace and at the same time hate on a person because they do not belong to our tribe. Our actions speak louder than our prayers.
Accept and Move on
This is normally used by a winning side, with the mind that it only applies when they are winning. A fresh instance; when Jubilee party was declared the winner of the first election, their supporters asked the NASA people to accept and move on. When the very results were invalidated, Jubilee condemned the Supreme Court as NASA asked them to accept and move on. A re-election was held and again it was NASA’s turn to accept and move on.
What is this ‘accept and move on?’ It is hypocrisy! When you get a fractured leg, it will be absurd if a friend asked you to “accept and move on” instead of advising you to seek medical attention.
We as a nation must refuse the sugar-coated accept and move on, in its literal sense. We must go back to the drawing board. Where did the rain start beating us? Now that we are wet, what is the way forward? What measures can we take to avoid being rained on again?
Accepting and moving on is what keeps us going round in circles. Every half a decade, our politics are full of hate speeches and our tribal hatred awakens. We call for peace and prayers for the nation then accept and move on. It will go on and on. Now is the time to stop the hypocrisy of accept and move on.
Let’s embrace the truth and deal with what needs to be dealt with, not in favor of our chosen ones, but for the good of our beloved nation.
Kenya doesn’t belong to the politicians. It does not belong to any tribe. Kenya belongs to Kenyans, and if we must belong to a tribe, then it is Kenya, and peace should be the language.
Peace.
By Liz Ekakoro:Diaspora Messenger contributor
Liz,
Your mind as translated through your pen should cause all of us to think when we hear the phrase “accept and move on”
As Kenyans, we need to interrogate our own complicity in hating “those enemies ” of our son. We have to learn what democracy means: freedom to make a choice among opposing points of view. People with well intentioned opposing views are not enemies.
That’s right.
It’s sad ,but truth be told. We Kenyans have a long way to go. The earlier the reconciliation process is initiated the better for us.
Yeah.