YOU CAN CREATE A NEW FUTURE FOR KENYA

In Kenya, there may be 42 ethnic communities but there are only 2 tribes - the Haves and the Have-Nots. And if you can read this, then no matter our ethnicity, you and I belong to the same tribe, the Haves. The fact of our 'tribal brotherhood' puts us a unique position - the opportunity to influence the future and to increase our 'tribesmembers'. I spoke to an aunt who lives [or rather lived, as she and others have been displaced] in the Molo area and asked her, "What can I do to help?" Her response? "Sponsor a child. If you do, then we begin to create a future where more people have opportunities, and where it is more difficult to kill a person of a different ethnic group because maybe that person comes from the same ethnicity as the child's sponsor." I was stunned by this response. I expected a request for clothes, food, funds. Not a commission to change the future. Now, I would not dare to dissect the complexities of all the reasons why one person would hack another to death, or burn a child alive, or would rape a neighbour, or would loot from his place of work or from her nearest shop in the name of a rigged election. I could not begin to engage the debate of the elections. Mr. Odinga did not burn down my uncle's granary and displace his family. My uncle's neighbours did. Mr. Kibaki did not hack down a Luo man in Mathare. The people who swung their machetes against him, did. We can argue incitement, anger, disenfranchisement and there is merit to these, however, to the best of my knowledge, the person who lit the match on that church in Eldoret did not have a gun to his or her head. There is a level at which each one of us must take personal responsibility for our actions, whether we are political 'leaders', disenfranchised poor, or those like you and I, who have been blessed with the education and opportunities that have kept us out of Mukuru, Mathare and Kibera. We can talk 'til the cows come home, and we should, for dialogue changes minds. However, in addition to the talk among the Haves, it is our action that will change the state of the 80%+ Kenyans who are the Have-Nots now and for the future. The drastic events of the recent past require drastic action; not only to stem the present crisis but to change the future now. To change it so dramatically that my uncle's neighbours' children never feel they can be justified to attack my cousins - so my cousins never find reason to attack their neighbours. So what can we do? To remedy the present - Continue sending the money to 'shags' to help the folks. Send the money to the Red Cross and other humanitarian charities working to provide food, water and other essentials, for people need to eat now. To create a new future. Sponsor a child. Change the future. Now I can almost hear you saying, that's all very well but between my mortgage/rent, car payments and food, I don't have any money. Really? How about an extra shift hour a week for a monthly $20 or a par down of some expenses for £20 a month? Or maybe one less movie/DVD rental or round of drinks. Whatever it takes. Someone once said that the difference between the Good Samaritan and the other chaps who walked past the injured man on that highway was that the others asked what will happen to me if I stop and help this man. The Samaritan asked,"What will happen to this man if I pass him by?" Whatever our ethnicity, whether Luhya, Kikuyu, Luo, Somali, Indian, Swahili, Arab, as members of one tribe, we can change our country's future. We have the power. We have the means. We have the motive. And now, more than ever, we have opportunity. Find out how you can sponsor a child. Check the World Vision website. If anyone knows of other organisations whether Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Catholic, non-religious in or outside Kenya where we can send clothes, money etc spread the word so no one can say, I didn't know. [No, I do not work for or have any affiliation to any charity. Like you however, I do have a personal interest in a bountiful, rich, peaceful Kenyan people] Thank you for reading this. Thank you for caring. Thank you for taking action. THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Evil abounds when good people do nothing. Do something.