Hapa Kenya
Yesterday I had the opportunity to feel the real pain of the Post-Election violence that has rocked the country over the past one month. For the better part of the day my fingers were glued to the dial key on my phone. Early that day my small bro who works in Nakuru had called, sounding disturbed, to indicate that some of the attackers were meters away from his house. Ten minutes later his phone went dead. He was unreachable for the better part of the day. I have never been worried that much in my entire life.
In numerous posts and in many forums I have always maintained that all that is happening is a sacrifice that the Kenyan people have to make in order to attain democracy. I hereby do change my mind. Kenyans need not die for anything. NOBODY deserves the kind of treatment that fellow citizens have brought upon one another. We need to get sober and avoid the cannibalization of our country.
My brother had to be in it for me to realize all these. For Kibaki, Raila and all those political leaders, it might just take the same to make them understand that this nation is crying. If only the pain could hit where it hurts most for these leaders, then we can stroll out of these skirmishes a better nation than before. Kibaki will not see the tears and suffering in Kenyan people unless it hits him too. The same can be said of all those other leaders.
For once since these violence started, I never considered what was happening to be a political issue but a moral issue. All the images of mutilated Kenyans kept reappearing to me, only this time my brother’s face glaring back. In those images it was never a Kikuyu neither was it a Luo nor a Kelenjin but a mutilated Kenyan. Do I care about democracy anymore? Yes I do. Do I care about Justice anymore? Yes I do. I care but let’s stop the Killing each other to achieve all these. Democracy and Justice can’t be that expensive.
