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The Tribe is Innocent - Can You
Say the Same of Yourself?
The Nation (Nairobi)
OPINION
18 January 2008
Lucy Oriang
Nairobi
Looking at images of the violence that threatens to rip our
country apart is an unnerving experience. I have to pinch myself
to confirm that this is really happening at a time when we should
have outgrown political chaos.
You watch the helplessness of a people who have lost everything
they hold dear. You hear the halting speech of a woman who has
lost three of her children. She is shattered, and you can tell it
from her vacant eyes. Her faith in her country has gone to the
dogs.
You watch a policeman gun down an unarmed protester who is lying
on the ground injured. You watch him cock his gun and turn to
others who are running as fast as their legs can go. What happens
when the people who are supposed to keep the peace and protect the
law turn criminals right in front of our eyes?
MY FRIEND PHILOMENA IKONYA, A journalist and budding politician,
puts it succinctly when she says: "This is not my Kenya." She is
right, but only to some extent.
Someone did indeed steal her country, but this is the Kenya we
keep under wraps. Every now and then, we allow ourselves to see
it. If it doesn't affect us directly, we march on without missing
a beat. We choose to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil
as long as it does not take up residence in our house.
We are shattered today only because of the tortured images being
beamed into our living rooms. There are many ways to brutalise a
nation, and political manipulation tops the list. We have been
subjected to this ever since Kenya became a modern state. Some
people may even want to blame it on the colonial divide-and-rule
policy that allocated special status to some groups and dismissed
others as being of no consequence.
But there is a generation or two of Kenyans who did not live the
colonial experience. What's their excuse? At some point, we will
have to grow up and own up to our mistakes. We chose to go the
business-as-usual way with tribal politics because it suited our
prejudices. This way we could justify working tooth and nail to
exclude others, who were lesser beings beneath our contempt.
We have lived a lie all these 45 years. This is our Kenya. We have
gone through elections every five years or so, and we have
convinced ourselves that this is enough evidence that we are a
democratic nation.
Even when such elections have been clearly polluted and aimed at
manipulating us, we have refused to see them for what they are.
The tribe is innocent. It is what we have made of it that is the
problem with Kenya.
We can choose to continue this way. And we can expect to see this
great country of ours degenerate into anarchy. A problem postponed
doesn't vanish into thin air. It will return to haunt you as
surely as day turns into night.
We can also be bold enough to lay down arms and name the problem
for what it is. This country will know true peace only when we
separate State House and "development"... and understand that a
shared tribal bond is no protection from death and destruction.
As we seek a lasting solution to the sword that hangs over Kenya,
we must confront the realities of our times. Emotions are roiling
around tribes. The Kikuyu have been targeted in different parts of
the country - innocent traders and businesspeople attacked as they
went about their lawful business. They were made to pay for the
sins of others, mainly political leaders at the centre of our
national crisis.
There are two sets of Kikuyu peoples in the mind of the average
Kenyan: the friendly and street savvy mama mboga who brings stuff
to your doorstep or the taxi driver who'll be there on time when
you need him - until the election comes round again. And there are
Martha Karua, John Michuki et al. Their hard line approach to
virtually everything under the sun does their community and
President Mwai Kibaki no favours.
The Luo will have to broaden their world view and begin to think
the unthinkable - that there can be leadership beyond the Odinga
family. With all due respect to that family, which has produced at
least two brilliant politicians, democracy demands that each and
every one of us be judged on their own merit.
It is also true that this particular community has had its share
of trauma in independent Kenya, which has led to a retreat into
the belief that their strength lies in a common front.
They have gone some way in contemporary history to work with other
communities, and voted almost to a man for Mr Kibaki in 2002. It
is an investment that has paid off, if you take into account this
year's voting patterns.
AND THEN THERE IS THE CONNECTION between the Luhya and the
vice-presidency. They have resisted efforts to get them to huddle
into a tribal cocoon by voting for various parties. Some may see
this as a weakness; I say being independent-minded is a virtue.
I met a Kamba man recently who was in a celebratory mood because
Kalonzo Musyoka had wrestled the vice-presidency from Western
Province. He was already seeing their man in State House in 2012,
upon which their part of Eastern Province will turn into a land of
milk and honey. We have come full circle in this debate. Will
someone please give us back the country we worked so hard to put
together just five years ago - a country where the tribal fault
lines were all but disappearing?
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