By Edwin Mwambeo
“There is a natural mystic blowing through the air… many more will have to suffer. Many more will have to die –don’t ask me why…â€Â  – Robert Nesta Marley.
That somebody can have the audacity to parade and brutally kill the other on grounds of religious dichotomy is a matter of utmost awe. Is it because you, the Christians, are really a nation of unbelievers or is it mere and unproved foolishness of the other ‘religion’? The type which comes with the tendency of reading religious books up-side-down? Is it, however, not more incompetent and non-believing to call for the fall from glory of Kimaiyo (Kalenjin) and Lenku (Maasai)? Just because of a miscalculation they are not at the core of!
There are more serious issues that we know to be obstacles to our well-being. When we are frank with them, God will be interested in our course as a people. What of the commercialised cattle-rustling and the immunity that our ethnic war-lords enjoy? We should not cite Mandera, it is just a precipitate of our folly and dwindling patriotism. Methinks security is only possible if we were to resign from our dear tribes, unwarranted political and religious creeds and embrace informed statesmanship.
The enemy is not dividing us but utilising our division; we are already radicalised by our forty-something tribes, poverty and politics. It is unfortunate that all that runs in our grey and red matter is tribal bile, religious name-calling and simplicity. Such are the times Christians claim that the principle of “love your enemy and turn the other cheek†which the Lord Jesus of Nazareth taught was a typographical misfortune in The Word.
Do not be cheated, security has become a complex issue in Kenya. As such, it is only fair that we suggest complex solutions to this problem. This means that we will have to be very sincere and tackle anything we suspect is the reason for our worry. Alibis like the #OccupyHarambeeHouse of yesterday are only proving our inability to tackle issues maturely.
Or you think that those who were at the front of that abortive demonstration will be of the same unity if their tribesmen were to be dethroned for mismanaging our security?
Even before Al-Shabaab comes in, distrust has made us worried of all including ourselves. This has resulted in a desperate running away from everybody, everything and nothing.
I pity President Kenyatta for the nation he leads. A country of citizens who do not understand leadership and all they think is “sack all those who have slept on their jobs†they are the same beings who will be baying for blood should their tribesmen be fired? Do you now see how impossible it is to govern a people who are nothing but small bunches of discord?
If recruitment to the forces can for example be marred with corruption to the extent of being cancelled by courts, what assures you that those who penetrate that narrow-corrupt-nozzle of recruitment will perform with patriotism.
It is unfortunate that some of us are expecting security from politicians who are always preoccupied with the 2017 succession theatrics. We could be wasting our intelligence in making them political researchers whose sole business is to monitor the moves of opposition leaders, including when they are abroad or even in the washrooms.
The problem with us is forgetting one another in terms of resources but wailing together whenever disaster visits. Maybe tragedy is our only unifying factor and that God should bring some more! If Kenya had equal chances and means of production for all, I do not see how one will come all the way from Kisii, Nyeri or Kakamega to find a meager teaching job in Mandera.
In a country where it is rumoured that positions in the forces and the security apparatus are determined by one’s tribe, I wonder why sacking Kimaiyo and Lenku is not a joke.
Doesn’t it come out more ugly when the military seem more recognised in the task of protecting Kenya? What do the police feel whenever the leadership seems to show a leaning towards the army? What do the people in insecure places feel whenever they get rumours of what the KDF is doing to human beings in Kapedo, Lamu and Turkana?
The problem of our enemies is the same foolishness of always attack the small and poor people. Ama kifo ni a preserve of the poor? Maybe that is why say die but pass on; not mortuaries but funeral homes and; never buried but laid to rest/interred –whenever we are talking about the likes of the Late hon. Kajwang’.
Unless we are modern-day colonialists who are worried of losing their economic towers and grabbed lands, it is time we rethink such imperialist ideals as concentrating our security apparatus in the city. Why have numerous police posts and army barracks in Nairobi yet our borders remain prone to intruders.
“The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.†– Ellen G. White.