When you look around the vast expanse of Kenya, you see a
beautiful grandeur with quite an interesting tinge of a welcoming common
farmer. This farmer toils day and night
to make a leaving and even educate his/her children. You will also see peaceful
neighbourhoods where the men exchange news from Nairobi as they lazy the day
off and the womenfolk till the land.
Young boys will be spotted digging or looking after the cattle
and later playing football. These images are a mock-up in almost all Kenya with
slight variation as it may be.
Quickly scan your mind into the Kenyan slum, and this image
though dirty and disoriented has that sense of harmony. Young boys will be seen
playing games and some women keeping mama mboga busy with stories, call it town
gossip.
Now creep into the Kenyan affluence and that smile that was
forever ached on your face fades with a façade grim and glum. Our posh areas
are putrid not in sanitation but in the manner in which issues are run. No one
talks to the other and even neighbours rarely share a ‘hi.’
Bring your mind to the current political situation and the
temperature slowly turns wild. Everyone is throwing insults to the other, call
it mudslinging. Our politics is impulsive and the temperatures almost reaching
the boiling point.
After the ’08 post election violence there are talks of that
disunity in Kenya which needs healing. I believe If Kenya is disunited;
it is not the events and the feelings of ‘08 but the war of words skyrocketing
in the press. Therefore, before the leaders try to demonise the issue of
tribalism and discourse unity, they opt to come to reasonable grounds of
political campaigning. Evident and unsung are those tribal echelons who speak
of uniting people when they have the whole family in their offices.
My point is that, there is not that much enemity among the
common mwanainchi. Where acrimony lies is among the middle class and the upper
class. This dragging of the common man into the dirty linen of the
crème-de-la-crème of the society show a true adage of, a country where the rich
use the poor to stir a storm, not in a tea cup, and go on ululating how bad
blood so exist among the poor.
Those at the grassroots know how easily and gainful it is to
swallow the bitter pill, you need your neighbour and so does he need you. A
neighbour might accidentally let his cow get into the garden of a fellow, this
will of course lead to some yelling and intimidation which is quietly quelled
and in the evening a child will be seen going to borrow salt. Therefore talking
of that bad blood that needs reconciliation is just trying to create a storm in
a tea cup.
The problem that is imminent in Kenya now lies with the
political class. The enormity of their utterances could easily influence what I
might call, national catastrophe. They have become that thorn in the flesh with
their bickering, and cruel show of their might. They traverse the country
planting seeds of revulsion in the guise of campaigning. Their tip tops and
clip clops are wanting. Therefore reconcile them. Talk to them about unity.
Preach to them the essence of patriotism. Show them what national unity is and
try to ring a bell to them that they are not in diapers. Let them know good
marketing skills and progressive leadership. Enlighten them on the role the
masses have to play in nation building; it is not nominating them to the state
house. After that, now go to that simple man and ask him if he holds a grudge
with his neighbour and as the heavens would attest. He will look at you and
say, NO.
The political class is the one lot full of disunity, with
either tribal loyalty or a conglomeration of a few tribes, which of course have
a common concentration.
These divisions do not get to the common mwanainchi and it
is he who receives the tag of not being a patriot. Commissions will be formed
with the very people who are tribally inclined to look into the issue that is
causing tension in the country. That commission might also be another tribal
cliché.
What is ironic though is, the fact that the leaders hold the
chains which possibly when shaken cause a storm, but they will be the one to
call on the on the people to be united. They already know the position and the
role they could play in the uniting the country but would rather not do it.
As long as we continue looking at the common wanjiku and
blaming her for the atrocities we so commit in big offices so shall we further
divide.
We pay homage to those busy bodies in suits. We look at them
as epitomes of civility, custodians of morals and wearers of that code of
ethics. The poor and those at the villages are just wasted souls carrying
hatred and ready for vengeance, blood thirsty and criminal. A misconception
that has made our realist view turned into a maze of confusion. Not discerning
the problem and clearly at the ready to solve it where it is not. Our conceited
view has us not see that the mistake, anarchy and filth of tribalism that lie
in us; the elite class.
Starting with the politicians, the National Cohesion and
Integration Commission (NCIC) should begin by may be, developing a curriculum.
Take back the politicians to class and at least thump some words of wisdom in
them. The current hauling of insults among our cream of the crop politicians
leaves the country in a sorry state. The sharp division within politics and
that party or tribal loyalty exhibited by some of them raises our brows.
Thus, in working towards national healing and cohesion, we
got to start by healing the wounds at the domain. We got to let our political
class know the essence of unity. Then narrow down to the government offices,
let the Christian name of Kenya sink in and be reflected in appointments. Quite
thorny, but it may slowly disintegrate. This does not however mean that we got
to employ from all and sundry hence putting service delivery jeopardy.
With efficiency and passion among the elite community, the
process of healing shall be a walk in the park, hand in hand of course.
Lest we forget, the IDPs and the squatters also need a share
of the national cake.
Finally, national cohesion is in the hands of you and me,
the educated and the politicians.
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