A university collegue recalls how she and her boyfriend had gone to Kenya Cinema to watch Prince of Egypt, and as is the custom there, the audience was expected to rise for the national anthem ;played as a sturdy Kenyan flag fluttered to its insipid melody. Her boyfriend bearing neither fealty nor fear refused to take part in the meaningless ritual.  In a minute he was attacked by apoplectic, even foaming ushers. The terrified boy was surrounded and had all manner of threats coming his way.

I am not sure whether or not we still participate in this anachronistic ritual but the Kenyan flag, another symbol of this pandering to a nationalistic cult is still revered everywhere, even as it morphs into bandanas and bikinis.   

In his 1983 book, The Trouble with Nigeria, Chinua Achebe recalls an episode when a Nigerian military head of state requested individual members of his cabinet to recite the national pledge. Many of them could only do a few lines, many others only the title line. In Kenya, episodes such as the one described above and the 'kufunga kituo' episodes of the KBC only days,  ensure that most of us have an indelible etching of those words in our minds, even if we do not know what they mean or believe in them. 

Let's go through the first stanza together then, which is properly a National Prayer. In the first line we are assaulted with a supplication to the God of Creation, an attempt perhaps at bringing together all those of the Abrahamitic/Ibrahimic faiths, and hugging close the animists too, but leaving one of my nature nothing but a cold shoulder.

Next is a plea that this God bless our land and nation. Again the nature of the blessings may be useful to those of a religious persuasion, an amorphous, inextant but warm blessing being the best of Providence's goody bag. I admit that  I would not know- I have long got off that breadline. The service was bad, and I got the feeling that no one was listening to the all those children singing this silly ditty every morning at school, or even the intercession on our behalf by foreigners like Sakura's boyfriend. 

In the next line is a more rational call that justice be our shield and defender. In the way of most platitudes though, it hangs rather limp; a hymn to what is one of the most unjust societies anywhere on earth. Kenya; a land where life is best defined as an endless, tortuous straining against the colossal weight of injustice, the most of it either underwritten or meted out by the state. 

The penultimate petition beseeches heaven for unity, a commodity unlike justice that we in Kenya are no doubt enamoured with. From pre-independence times and down to this day, the idea that unity is an intrinsic good runs solid, and unity have we been granted, mostly in poverty and ignorance but also in hypocrisy and bigotry. Perhaps asking for too much, next we seek peace and liberty.

There are many who would contend that we have enjoyed this peace, as described by the absence of civil wars. President Moi certainly saw this peace as his greatest achievement doubtless discounting the absence of peace that wears the majority of Kenyans down to a life expectancy of under 50 years. A poor man, a hungry man, a cold man, a sick man cannot be in peace, neither is he free as these beasts that ravage him imprison him in a cell darker and more terrible than any prison, but perhaps ‘twas a Delphic blessing granted. 

The prayer is rounded off as the nation importunes the God of Creation for plenteousness within its borders. It is undoubtedly such carelessness that results in the strife in the countries next door, and in the terrible consequences for our citizens. I will not whistle this tune in the shower, nor salute any flag. I am not even a patriot, but I love and care deeply for Kenyans. National anthems and nationalism belong in a lost world, a world we would do our best not to live in.

As we approach this year's election, this is something we need to think about. Do we owe allegiance to the flag or to the best interests of the wananchi.