Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Lucy must save Kenya NOW

The running battles in Kenya and the genocide that is unfolding right before our eyes have nothing to do with a Luo-Kikuyu war. The Luo don't live in Eldoret, neither in Mombasa. It is a war between the disillusioned Kenyans whose election victory was stolen from them and innocent people bearing the brunt just because the thieves happen to belong to their ethnic community. No single Kikuyu, Luo or Kalenjiin deserves to die for mistakes they did NOT commit. Why should so many Kikuyus bear the brunt of violence and near annihilation for the mistakes of a select group of hardliners, while the thieves of a heavily flawed process are cordoned away in the security of heavy police protection? Those people who stole for, and encourage, Mr Kibaki, to hang on to power have little regard for the common good of Kenyans.

The poll was not interfered with and stolen by the ruling class because of their love for Kenya, certainly not for the peasant Kikuyu who were born and grew up in the Rift Valley. My friends in Nandi Hills who grew up and went to school with me need not be displaced. They have no other place they can call home. Nandi Hills is their home. Whether they voted for Kibaki is a non-issue. It was their democratic right to vote for whomever they wanted to vote for. That the poll was stolen from a victor IS NOT democratic. I am ashamed of what I will have to tell my students and colleagues when college opens on Monday. Kibaki does not deserve to be equated to Mugabe, he has worked to leave a legacy and he needs to do one thing to safeguard that legacy. He needs to stop accepting the counsel of insensitive people who are now doing irreparable damage to his reputation. We know who stole the poll for him.

Kenya is witnessing something strange, yesterday's champions of reforms have turned themselves into deformers of democracy and petty thieves of the peoples' popular will. The country is wounded, it is bleeding and it defeats logic why a leader worth his salt should stay away while the country is smouldering and the air is polluted with the stench of roasting human flesh. Do we need this incense to allow Kenyans exercise their God-given freedoms? Innocent Kenyans are being killed by Mungiki (that gang of goons which beheads people in ritual killings) in Eldoret, Kapsabet and Kericho. Mungiki is taking orders from the government because the police are feeling the pain of a battered country and are slowing dfown. Innocent Kenyans need not die, where is the first lady Lucy the civil-servant-slapping champion of women and children. Kibaki did not steal this poll for the Kikuyu, he did it for some narrow vested class interests and please allow me to speak to Lucy Kibaki and her family.

Talk to your husband, Lucy. Tell Kibaki that as a mother and a grandmother you can no longer stand the sight of one more innocent Kenyan dying for no other reason but that he and his senseless supporters stole victory from the people. Kenyans will remember you as the mother of the nation who stood up to the hegemony that has besmirched your family. Save our country, otherwise you will be remembered as the spineless mugger of the nation who stood by as Kenyans were being killed by Mungiki and the Police. Please Lucy, you may even slap all those who stole the ballot for your husband, we will lionise you for that effort and forgive you for slapping a hapless civil servant the other Jamhuri day. If you fail to act now, your family is going down the ignominious class that Bakili Mulusi and Fredrick Chiluba and Mugabe have gone. Lucy, may the billowing smoke and the sharp cry of women and children startle you to act NOW. Save Kenya, Mama Lucy

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