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I was afraid to go because I was afraid of remembering and I was afraid not to go because I was afraid of forgetting.

I went.

I was reminded.

It was a sobering experience.

Just so you are forewarned, some of the photographs on display are quite brutal. The most grisly of them, though, are displayed in an enclosed space, and viewer discretion is sombrely advised.

That is probably why the organisers thought the exhibition was unsuitable for children. They created a separate play area, away from the display, for children to be kept busy while their parents walked the aisles.

I am informed that some parents defied this arrangement and insisted that their children see the photographs with them. They wanted their children to see 'reality' stark as it was.

I passed by SocialSphere Blog some time yesterday and this particular blogger was speculating on how two key events, first 9/11 and now the economic crisis are shaping the current generation of Americans, the millenials, in a very particular way.

That, coupled with my visit to the Kenya Burning Exhibition, got me wondering about our young people in Kenya and how the Post Election Violence of last year will shape them. I wonder how these photographs, and the events they depict, will impact upon, perhaps even define, the next generation in Kenya-especially those who were old enough to have at least a basic understanding of what was happening, but who were not yet old enough to vote during the last election.

Will they take a step back or a step forward? Have we driven them into negative ethnicity, or are they going to find the courage to reach for a better way to be, to ensure that what happened will never happen again?

I predict at least, that they will be a Haki Yetu/Our Rights generation. They are already visibly more feisty, more defiant, more rowdy and, in many ways, more hardened than we are. On the face of it, it is a welcome change from the pathetic way in which our generation has allowed its rights to be trampled on time and again and done nothing.

I worry though, about the ways in which this new awareness of their rights will be channelled. In selfish or unselfish ways? Negatively or positively? For the good or detriment of society? This is what remains to be seen.

As we wait to see, if you are in Nairobi and have not yet visited the Kenya Burning Exhibition at the KICC, there’s still tomorrow, and, as a recent bonus, Tuesday. It is well worth your time.

Never Forget. Never Again.

Rombo blogs at What An African Woman Thinks . Visit her sometime, at her window where she doesn't own the view.