Can we ever Heal? Kenya after post election violence

I think none of us really know the gravity of the post election violence until we meet someone who really suffered directly from the violence that rocked the country after the elections of 2007.

Unless we hear someone talk of watching a loved one get shot with an arrow through the heart, watch them die and not have a chance to bury them.

Unless we hear of people who after having built their dream home have to watch it burn and run away from their homes back to a life of renting rooms and struggling to pay rent not temporarily but for almost two years now and as things are now probably indefinitely.

Unless we hear of dedicated farmers who saw their cattle stolen or killed and watched their grain burn.

Unless we hear of primary school children who saw their classmates armed with bows and arrows destroy them and their families in the very homesteads they once played together. Small children brainwashed that to kill another is to become a man in twisted rituals of passage and circumscision.

It is painful to begin seeing your friends of many years who you never bothered before to find out which tribe they were from through tribal eyes and all over sudden realise they are Kalenjin, Kikuyu, Kisii, Luo, Maasai or whatever tribe. It is painful for those of us like myself whose roots are so intertwined with so many tribes Meru, Kalenjin, Maasai etcetera to be forced to pick which one defines you.

It is painful to see a country that had so gotten past the tribal barriers and only used tribes when making stereotype jokes, a country whose people had come to see each other as Kenyans taken back to this dark age of more than a century ago.

It is sad when politicians make a circus of a Commission CIPEV that was supposed to bring to justice the people who led us through such pain. It is sad to hear them trash the Waki List and poke fun at the possibility of being prosecuted at the Hague the International Criminal Court.

It is obvious they have never cared for Kenyans, people who care for you don't laugh at your pain. Our politicians are callous they don't care about the victims of this violence who still live in camps, others suffer untold suffering in silence and live in fear with memories they can't erase.

Our politicians still have the nerve to pull the tribal card saying that members of their community are being persecuted when the accusing finger points to them as individuals.

Let us not kid ourselves that these politicians will ever deliver anything to Kenyans. These people don't want justice whether in the Hague or in a local tribunal.

These politicians have no community or tribe. I am sure they don't even have a country if there was a willing buyer they would sell us all at any price.

Let us not lie to ourselves. The August house has nothing August about it. We only have a lost generation of people who do not know what they want of themselves let alone what they want for the country.

What we have in parliament today are self seekers not servants of the people, greedy human beings who have no morality or law to control their lust for power and wealth. They are not leaders who are capable of making laws or a constitution or bringing wealth to a nation.

Let us not expect Law or morality or justice from them they do not know what it means to be just, to be moral or to have a conscience.

If they had a conscience they would not sleep at night while their constituents are scattered in tents in the Rift valley and in Central province awaiting speeding buses to run over cattle so that they can get a meal.

If they had a conscience they would not enjoy their salaries running to a million shillings per month while approving 30,000 shillings to be paid to each family in the IDP camps to rebuild their lives, houses, farms, businesses and bury their dead. Even a financial magician could not do all that with 30,000 shillings. Not 30,000 shillings per month like some of us salaried people no...not even that 30,000 shillings lump sum, and - Kappish rebuild your life.

If they had a conscience they would not mock the justice process, they would not mock the dead, the would confess their guilt and step down from their positions.

But they do not have a conscience To them the dead people, the people those who lost their livelihoods, their lives efforts and wealth. To them these were only just a small price for them, part of the cost, collateral damage to pay for the benefits to come benefits of power sharing, squabbling over cabinet posts, salary raises, refusal to pay taxes.

They do not have a conscience because instead of sharing the pain of their constituents they have large extravagant homecoming parties flying in with helicopters to avoid the bad roads and spending huge amounts of money.

But my question is not for the politicians. Their fate in my mind is sealed they must cease to lead this country whether by the ballot, the bullet or petition by all means.

My question remains Can we ever Heal. Can we ever look at each other again as Kenyan families not Luo-Kisii-Kikuyu-Kalenjin couples and mixed children. Can we make tribal stereotype jokes without taking offence as we did before this chaos. Can we do business with each other. Can the children who were brainwashed to execute their neighbours lead normal lives with the trauma they suffered.

Can we look at each other as one people under one flag, with one prayer for a national anthem

Ee
Mungu nguvu yetu

Ilete baraka kwetu

Haki iwe ngao na mlinzi


Natukae na undugu

Amani na uhuru

Raha tupate na ustawi.



Amkeni
ndugu zetu

Tufanye sote bidii


Nasi tujitoe kwa nguvu

Nchi yetu ya Kenya

Tunayoipenda

Tuwe tayari kuilinda.



Natujenge
taifa letu


Ee, ndio wajibu wetu

Kenya istahili heshima

Tuungane mikono

Pamoja kazini

Kila siku tuwe na shukrani.

O
God of all creation

Bless this our land and nation

Justice be our shield and defender

May we dwell in unity

Peace and liberty

Plenty be found within our borders.





Let one and all arise

With hearts both strong and true

Service be our earnest endeavour

And our homeland of Kenya

Heritage of splendour


Firm may we stand to defend.



Let
all with one accord

In common bond united

Build this our nation together

And the glory of Kenya


The fruit of our labour

Fill every heart with thanksgiving.