When ECK Chairman Samuel Kivuitu announced that Mwai Kibaki had won the election, I was incensed. I could not understand how a man who gave the appearance of an unshakable patriot would betray the tenets of democracy so.
Anger filled my heart, an insatiable rage at the system, and those who controlled it. Rage against the PNU. Rage against Mwai Kibaki.
I consider myself a patriot, one true and pure in my love and devotion to Kenya. To understand how I got here, you would have to know my life story. Too long to be told here, but one that must be heard to understand my journey. I will not attempt to make you understand me, I fear it may be an impossible task. Besides, I may only have your attention for the next few minutes. Instead I will tell you about the two days that I came to realize just what being Kenyan is about.
These two days are different points in my metamorphic journey into Kenyaness. The first was when I realized that I am, above all else, Kenyan. It was the day H.E. Mwai Emilio Kibaki got sworn in as the third president of Kenya. You see, I have not always been a Kibaki opponent. The euphoria I felt that day can only be compared to falling in love. I knew in my heart Kenya had made it. She had survived the rape and pillage of corrupt post-colonial governments and had emerged once again as one of the few shining beacons among the war ravaged, rag-tag group of countries that made up Africa.
This was indeed the second liberation, and Kibaki was our white knight. When the bloom started to fade, I still stood with my president. I defended Kibaki long after the annulment of the MoU, against all kinds of traitorly charges. Kibaki, I assured them, was doing much to alleviate the lives of kawaida wananchi and even more for the economy. Free education, less business regulation, CDFs, a strengthening currency, the list was endless. I believed in my president, our president, and I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I was convinced history would prove me right!
That dream ended one day when I saw a picture of President Moi with President Kibaki, my heart shattered. It was something akin to finding your lover in the arms of another. It could not all have been a lie, could it? I did not want to believe, yet here was Napoleon walking on two feet (George Orwell circa 1945)! That was the end of that. I understood then that power was corrupting and vowed not to vote for any president more than once.
Now back to where I began, Kivuitu’s announcement. The riots that broke out in all parts of the country, I felt, were justified. Even though Raila Odinga was not the candidate I had supported, I believed that Mwai Kibaki had stolen the election. It was the people’s right to exercise civil disobedience when their government let them down. I was silent when I saw the looting in Kisumu. Concerned, but still silent when I heard about the deaths in Kibera. Appalled, but still silent when I heard about the burning of the church in Eldoret. Things would resolve themselves, I whispered as I turned my head away.
That brings me to the second of the two days; today. Today I read words that shook me to the core. I remember reading them over and over not understanding why those words affected me so. They stood out against the white background of the screen, small and black, two words seemingly ordinary words – Kenyan refugees. Kenyans did not become refugees, those were the Somalis, and the Sudanese or the Rwandese in fact any country in Africa, but Kenya? Kenyan refugees in Uganda! These were my brothers and sisters forced to flee their home. This was my aunt Chebet cradling her three year old son for he was too weak to stand as they waited for food relief. My cousin Mwaniki lying in a tent slowly succumbing to the septic wound on his arm awaiting medicine. My friend Adhiambo cowering in the corner in fright, ashamed that she had been gang raped, her mind broken forever. These were my people, my family. For the first time since all this began, today I cried.
I cried for my for that Kikuyu shop owner who had just lost his life savings when his neighbours of fifteen years burnt it down. I cried for that Luo man who had been trying to get some medicine for his sick child, when he was shot for breaking curfew. I cried for all those mothers who could hear the screams of their dying children as they burnt alive in the church. I cried for you. I cried for us.
Why do we do these things to each other when the men we fight for know nothing of our pain! Politics is meant as a service, not to destroy those it is meant to serve! Never again will I blindly follow these men. They can fight their power tussles by and themselves.
Today I cried, but tomorrow I will do something about it.
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Doris, What is going on in Kenya today is disheartening and sickening. But I don't believe that when the "skirmishes" first broke out was because of Raila or Kibaki. It is for our democratic right. These people went out on 27th and chose their leaders; they were not only exercising but fighting for their democratic right. What FIRST angered some of our fellow Kenyans is that their democratic right which they had exercised diplomatically through balloting was robbed of them in broad daylight. What next? they are fighting for it unfortunately forcefully. When diplomacy fails, force must be applied.
Everyone is calling upon Raila to calm his people down and yet it is not Raila who has angered them, it is FOREMOST Kivuitu and those people around Kibaki he talked of who forced him to announce fake presidential results and Kibaki.
My question to President Kibaki; in 2002 your swearing in ceremony was that of a true king and all Kenyans celebrated with you. What has happened in 2007 that immediately you were announced president most Kenyans who were supposed to have elected you instead were wailing and mourning. Why is that you were sworn in a hurry if you truly won the election? Your swearing in ceremony was like that of school prefect with no national anthem played in the presence of your ministers most of whom were not elected to parliament. The recorded video footage showed Mama Lucy with a big frown on her face glancing from side to side as if she was afraid of something!
Are you really happy being president of a mourning nation? My plea to you, please don't listen to unscrupulous advisers surrounding who should never have been brought to this world (just to use Kivuitu's words), the situation in your country is terribly bad and the only way is for you to resign and call for presidential elections again. If you truly won the elections then you will win again this time with Kalonzo's votes on your side. Although most people will not agree with me, but the TRUTH is that this will calm down the moment you step down, Raila or Ruto calling for their people to calm down wont help because they did not ask them to riot.
And please do not correct my grammar - the most important thing is passing the message on and letting the truth be told.