AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?

In the last three weeks, we have been completely absorbed by the events which have unfolded in Kenya. Now, with the fighting over, the body count begins. The numbers of charred bodies feeding hungry dogs in smoldering fields; the bodies putrefying in warm mortuaries overwhelmed by sheer number in Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kisumu; the crops burnt in the field signaling the impending famine… it’s time to take stock. Interestingly some parts of the media, some blogs, websites and commentators still carry on and on about the marginalization of the Luo… the Kikuyu…etc… never considering that in Kenya, every ethnic community is justified in claiming marginalization. The Marakwets and Elgon people, constantly facing attack from armed rustlers, the Cushites and Somalis of the North East, having to carry separate documents just to prove that they are Kenyan and even then, still being subjected to racial taunts, stop-and-search procedures and being rendered stateless. The people of Tana and Athi River who cry for help to access clean water safely; the people of the North who live in fear of more attacks and massacres from Somali, Sudanese, Ethiopian militia; the Dorobo and forest people at the loss of their habitats, the Asians whose properties are looted and homes attacked; the Coast people simply for being of a different religion; even the animals in Kenya for being poached, sold off to other countries, their migratory routes cut off… In wonderment, I have read commentaries and blogs where people show off their ethnicity as though it is a medallion yet none of us can prove that they actually chose to belong to that ethnic group. Once we realize that no one in Kenya has the corner on ‘victimization’ and ‘marginalization’ then we can get off the cycle of blaming one another [and justifying the killings] and get on with the business of building our nation in the way that works for everyone. Everyone. KISUMU CITY

We have seen the shocking pictures of the burnt out shell that was once Kisumu city. The UK Sunday Times carried pictures of the piles of dead bodies in its mortuary, together with a story wherein a young mother was fighting back tears as she came out of the mortuary to tell her 8 year old [?] son that his father is dead. Right there, his childhood is over, his scars permanent. The merits or demerits of burning Kisumu are not in issue. Certainly not for that little boy and for his mother who may not have a job, or food, and certainly has lost her lover, friend and the father of her child[ren?]. And whatever our politics may be, it takes a cold hearted person not to feel the pain of that woman, the bewilderment of that little boy, the cries of that family as they and others mourn the death of their loved ones. Not just in Kisumu and Kendu Bay, but all over the country. WHY WE MUST ALL UNITE TO REBUILD KISUMU

The rebuilding must be a joint effort by all. Kisumu’s devastation stands not as a testament to the wrath of the Luo community, or as a loss to those from outside the community who have lost businesses. Kisumu’s devastation is graphic demonstration the frustration of Kenyans who feel marginalized. Their mode of expression notwithstanding, the message must now be heard and heeded. For as long as those cries continue unheeded, Kenya is a human time bomb waiting to explode. No people should be expected to suffer indefinitely because of history. No matter what the justification of the moment.

To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inextricable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow [tribal “hao wa-Kikuyu/Luo/Luhya/Somali/Masai/Pokomo/Swahili”] idea”.[1] No longer can we sit smugly before our television sets, or computers, or in the quiet of our homes, or the warm seats of our worship centers/bars and shake our heads at ‘those Luos’ or pray that ‘God may help them’ while we do naught. For those at whom we shake our heads and snigger quietly, those in whose names we offer feeble prayer without effectual action are in fact, ourselves.

Those in the Diaspora know only too well that outside of Kenya, we are identified not as the Luhya, Oromo, or Rendille but as Africans. We can no longer play the tribal card even if in jest for it is that jest that opens the mind to seeing ourselves as ‘us’ and ‘them’.

We must rebuild Kenya. Let me rephrase that. You and I together must rebuild Kenya. Yes, you. And Yes, All of Kenya. Including Kisumu. To subject any one of us to go begging cap in hand to ‘the West’ is to affirm our inability to care for our own, it is to give up our sovereignty as a nation. It is to walk past the injured man lying on the road smugly muttering to ourselves, “He should have thought before setting out on this road.” How can we expect outsiders to show the kindness of the Samaritan to our brother, while we pass him by on account of him being from a different ethnicity – and still claim to love and serve God? I do not say; don’t take help from the West. That is a different argument for another day, but by God, doe not turn your face from the men, women and children of Luo Nyanza, of Eldoret, of Burnt Forest, of Mombasa, of Mukuru, of Mathare, on account of something as random as the fact that they are of a different ethnicity, a different race, a different belief. By doing them, you and I condemn them to a life of unbearable hardship, and possibly to death. And how different does that make us from the ones who threw the children who were fleeing the burning buildings, back into the fire?

We have an opportunity here. To rebuild our nation not to what it was before, because clearly that did not work for everyone; but to a nation where everyone is an equal citizen. Where diversity in culture is celebrated in the unity of nationhood. A Kenya where I am proud to be Kikuyu Kenyan, Luo Kenyan, Kamba Kenyan because I am Kenyan. Hard hitting? I hope so. I certainly hope and pray that it is hard hitting enough to take action. In the words of that great philosopher Socrates, in the Republic, sometimes it is necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals can rise from the self imposed bondage of myth, half truth and inaction to the unfettered realm of creative analysis, objective appraisal and just action. THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Genesis 1: 9-12, The Bible [1] Martin Luther King Jr. Letter from a Birmingham jail, 16 April 1963