Last week, I suggested that Kenyans would not lose their country to thugs and criminals. I nearly changed my mind this last weekend and with good reason. But even after all this, I still think we shall and must save our country.
Last Friday when having a drink with some friends at a local pub in Nairobi West, I was aghast at the discussion taking place. And this was going on among some Kikuyu friends. They were tired of the mayhem and murder of Kikuyus by gangs of marauding Kalenjin warriors.
Progressively the discussion took the direction that other tribes are taking the Kikuyus for granted and that it was time that revenge took place for the kikuyu to reclaim their pride. Someone blamed Kibaki for this and that is when I noticed that the feeling amongst most of the discussants was that Kibaki had let down his community watching them being massacred and with all the power of state did nothing. A middle aged man made the passing remark that it is the mistake the Kikuyus made for allowing the presidency to cross the Chania River. I laughed and said that revenge should not be the way to go as it will only start a cycle of violence. None could hear my point of view.
The following day I am at another pub and sitting with some Meru friends. To them, they cannot understand why the Kikuyus have not slaughtered the Kalenjins in Nairobi in revenge. One in fact said that if it was a Meru who had been killed, then the murder and mayhem would have been untold!
So here I am thinking about how absurd we can all get when at about 8 p.m., I received this call from my mother. Some of you may have heard about her exploits as a milk farmer and how hard working this pensioner is at the age of 72! She was a worried woman as she told me that in her busy schedule on the farm and her house (she lives alone), she did not realise that the neighbouring farms had evacuated their women and children earlier in the day following a rumour that Kalenjin warriors would attack them that night. Apparently the men around forgot that her husband died several years ago and considered her the man of the house! Well I tried assurance that I did not think this would happen but would get the authorities to know about it. I spoke to several people in authority both in Nairobi and also in Nakuru where we managed to get the message to the PPO who must have alerted Njoro Police station. This only managed to assuage my mother's concerns only a bit. I was still not sure that such an attack would materialise since the area had no previous problem with tribal clashes.
You can imagine my horror when my mother called me at 3.30 am to say the attack had started and that she and two other ladies who had joined her had abandoned the house and were hiding in bushes so that they do not get burnt in the house. The men of the area managed to repulse the raiders who had started burning drying maize and fences about two farms away from my mother;s. The police also responded quickly enough and helped in scaring the raiders by shooting in the air [the police response though very welcome was disappointing since they did not pursue the raiders]. At that time and reflecting on the police response, I imagined how other people would be suffering when they do not have contacts like those I had which perhaps helped save the situation.
Yesterday morning we understook an exercise to evacuate her from the area after securing her livestock and now she is safely with her daughter in law in Nyahururu.
This incident brought home the reality of the clashes and you can imagine my anger that my mother spends half the night in a bush outside her house and at her age. I thought of all the things that I would do to such raiders. Then Naivasha exploded. Kikuyu youths went on the rampage looking for "foreigners" and harming them. They even went to the extreme of burning alive some people from the Luo community who were hiding in a house. It was a struggle reconciling the violence we saw in Naivasha and what my mother went through the previous night. The initial anger I had during the day would have been justified by this action, but I was so revolted by the sight of people chasing a human being like an animal and killing him. Just like my mother, this fellow had done these people no harm and he did not deserve what they were doing to him.
Fellow Kenyans, a lot of people will write about the violence in the country, blaming it on elections, arrogant Kikuyus, idle Luos or murderours Kalenjins. Some will even try to justify it with historical explanations, but once it hits you, the choices between degenerating to and animal or staying sane and hope this thing ends become limited. But the choice to take muct not include revenge. These people committing these crimes are not human beings you can reason with. I guess if you cannot reason with a person, then there is little reason to get angry with them.
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Kamale,
I can only imagine, actually I'd rather not..good to hear Mama is safe!
I think the media needs to focus on the VOICES crying out as opposed to the marauding "gangs". Focus on the camps and groups of people moving with all their children and earthly belongings on their backs and let these people SPEAK! Maybe their tears and cries will reach our COWARDLY "leaders", just maybe! Somehow I feel like the message is not getting across!
The Media should abandon airing all these press conferences and junk and focus on the SUFFERING maybe this will cause a further outcry from those in "safer" areas to demand some kind of "action" from the "leaders". The leaders need to get on the ground and stand inbetween these warring gangs, or are they scared of of the people?