Ce texte est paru dans la presse kenyane ce jour. Note d'espoir et de deceptions meles, comme le ressentent beaucoup de Kenyans apres des resultats contestes d'elections tumultueuses.
Je vous laisse a la lecture de ce texte dans son integralite.

POUR REFLEXION

We can resolve dispute peacefully

I am a young man who believes in this country and participated in the just-concluded General Election as a voter and parliamentary candidate.

Today, I write, disappointed, as I watch my dream of a united and prosperous Kenya slowly turning into a nightmare. Sadly, in a case of misdirected emotions, we have turned against each other and are perpetuating all forms of atrocities.

I mourn, for political differences need not lead to loss of life, neither do we deserve the pain and suffering endured in the past weeks.

I mourn all innocent lives lost due to intolerance and misdirected emotion. I mourn the violence visited on innocent children and women. I mourn the seeds of hatred and distrust that have been planted in the minds of Kenyans. I mourn lost investments and looted property all under the guise of “political anger”.

For the sake of this country, I call for peace and pray that all concerned parties will heed my call for peace.

I plead peace on behalf of our children and women — innocent victims of this dispute. I plead peace on behalf of displaced families, who will spend another night in the discomfort of a police station, church or exhibition centre. I plead peace on behalf of Kenyans who are going without basic commodities due to insecurity. I plead peace on behalf of thousands who require a peaceful environment to earn their daily bread. I plead peace on behalf of our neighbours who lack essential commodities due to the dispute in Kenya.

I am sure we have the capacity to resolve our disputes peacefully, and cannot afford any more senseless loss of life. All leaders have a responsibility to this nation and must take the lead in calming the people, while we seek peaceful ways of resolving the impasse.

Fellow Kenyans, we have lived together for so many years and cannot let events of a single day and actions of a few individuals shake our foundation, and bring disunity amongst us.

Let us calm down, view each other as brothers and sisters and let peace prevail.

Ce texte est paru dans la presse kenyane ce jour. Note d'espoir et de deceptions meles, comme le ressentent beaucoup de Kenyans apres des resultats contestes d'elections tumultueuses.
Je vous laisse a la lecture de ce texte dans son integralite.

POUR REFLEXION

Kenyans are fighting inequality, not ethnicity

As every middle and upper class Nairobian will tell you, one of the most irritating things about the violence that rocked Kenya in the week after the elections was the fact that many maids, guards and nannies did not show up at work for a whole week.

This was not because they were protesting over their inhuman working conditions or low salaries; it was because many of their shacks had been burned and some were actually living as refugees in various government facilities within the city. Others lived in notoriously dangerous slum areas that had been cordoned off by militia or police.

Yet all I heard from my well-to-do friends, relatives and neighbours in my neck of the woods was how awful it was to do the housework without help, what with all the children in the house during the holidays, and the piles of clothes that needed washing.

NEITHER THEY NOR I BORE THE brunt of the violence that rocked all of Nairobi’s slums and some parts of the country last week. We all live in areas where killing your neighbours is not only considered bad manners but bad for business.

We don’t look at each other through ethnic eyes, though we do sometimes wonder if the muhindi in Block C bought a new Mercedes through corruption money or if the Luo woman down the road believes in witchcraft.

We decried the inhumanity of Nairobi’s wretched slum dwellers, who we concluded were tribalists who could not see the big picture. Why, we wondered, couldn’t they remove their ethnic blinkers and see how their activities were affecting tourism and the Nairobi Stock Exchange? And why, for God’s sake, were they not reporting for work?

Foreign correspondents, who transmitted the violence in Nairobi’s slums for all the world to see, were quick to describe what was happening in Kenya as ethnic cleansing. Like my friends, relatives and neighbours, they totally ignored the social, economic and political forces that were plunging Kenya into mayhem.

They failed to see that the main reason for the violence and protests around the country was not because one ethnic group wanted to forcibly take over the presidency from another ethnic group, but because Kenyans perceived the elections to be unfair.

More importantly, they failed to realise that the root causes of the violence had more to do with the economic and political reality of Kenya than it had to do with ethnic chauvinism (although all three are linked in the Kenyan context, as I will explain).

Kenya is one of the most unequal societies in the world. Ten per cent of the country’s 35 million people control 42 per cent of the nation’s wealth, leaving nearly half of the country’s population to subsist below the poverty line.

Inequalities within cities such as Nairobi are stark; Nairobi’s ethnically diverse slums, rated as the biggest and most deprived slums in the world, service some of the wealthiest homes and neighbourhoods in Africa.

Inequality tends to manifest itself ethnically and regionally, with some ethnic groups and regions benefiting more from public resources than others.

Because the current constitution bestows enormous powers on the executive and because there are no constitutional provisions to ensure equitable distribution of the country’s resources, various presidents have used their powers to accumulate ill-gotten wealth for themselves and their cronies (usually from their own ethnic group), and to allocate disproportionate public resources to projects and regions of their choice (usually to regions where their ethnic base is strongest).

Kenya’s struggle is, therefore, more fundamentally linked to inequity than to ethnicity, although wealth and poverty have developed distinctly ethnic tones.

MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, THIS election was seen by the poor and the marginalised as the one that would address past injustices and regional inequalities. In essence, the violence that erupted after the elections was a class war — one in which the impoverished masses took up arms against all those they thought represented the interests of the ruling class, in this case, some of their neighbours, regardless of their political affiliation and despite the fact that some of these neighbours were as dirt poor as they were.

It is no wonder then that the most impoverished parts of the country witnessed some of the most violent clashes. What was most tragic about the violence was that Kenya’s dispossessed, instead of uniting to demand justice and equity, turned on each other.

But as the country counts its human and economic losses, there are glimmers of hope and solidarity emerging. As one woman who lives in Nairobi’s Kawangware slum told me: “I know that when my child gets sick, I can’t call my MP to take him to hospital. I have to call my neighbours. In the end, I have to rely on them to save my child.”

Story by RASNA WARAH
Rasna Warah is currently an editor with the United Nations. The views expressed here are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the UN. This opinion is part of a collection put together by Concerned Kenyan Writers, a coalition of writers formed to save Kenya in these polarised times in the country’s history.

Ce texte est paru dans la presse kenyane ce jour. Note d'espoir et de deceptions meles, comme le ressentent beaucoup de Kenyans apres des resultats contestes d'elections tumultueuses.
Je vous laisse a la lecture de ce texte dans son integralite.

POUR REFLEXION

We need to address children’s plight urgently

UNICEF, the UN agency responsible for ensuring the welfare of children throughout the world, estimates that post-election violence has displaced at least 100,000 children in Kenya.

Together with their families, the children have been sleeping in police stations, church compounds and show grounds where existence is informed by a host of indignities that go side by side with homelessness.

With primary schools set to open tomorrow, now is an appropriate time to reflect on the plight of those children. A new school year marks an important milestone in the life a child. It is critical in determining the pathway to the future in a dynamic and competitive world where there is no substitute for education and the attendant skills.

Sadly, for those displaced children who should be in school, tomorrow is neither a happy nor a hopeful day. Their immediate future is threatened by intransigent circumstances way beyond their control.

Scores of schools have been razed the ground, and even where they have been left standing, the volatile atmosphere rules out the possibility that the children will be returning home for a long time to come.

Given the violent circumstances under which the children and their families were uprooted from their homes, school materials like books and uniforms have been lost. Reduced to destitution, their parents can hardly be expected to replace them.

And the politically-driven violence has not spared teachers either.

Some of them have been killed while others have fled with their families. It is unlikely that they would be willing to go back to their work stations until peace prevails and their security can be guaranteed.

All this points to a situation where these displaced children will certainly be absent from school. There is nothing to indicate that the government is seriously working out ways of ensuring that they will be able to report to a school tomorrow.

It is nowhere near adequate to request that displaced parents take their displaced children to the school nearest to their place of refuge. As it is, thanks to free primary education, schools are already congested.

Classrooms are bursting, and the teacher-pupil ratio has been stretched to the limit, making quality learning elusive.

It also important to bear in mind that many schools in the violence-torn areas have been turned into refugee camps for displaced families. So the additional challenges arises of providing alternative shelter for the displaced to create room in time for the commencement of learning tomorrow.

Many children have been separated from their parents in the mayhem. This situation is made worse by the fact that provincial education departments in the areas of conflicts are yet to resume work, so accurate information on absent children is not readily available.

Hungry children wandering around on their own face many dangers and are particularly vulnerable to child traffickers and pedophiles.

Children separated from their parents and lucky enough to find their way to refugee camps might find themselves in a situation where they will be ill-informed of availability of opportunities in the absence of adults close enough to watch out for their interest.

The displaced camps are poor substitutes for homes. Stories coming out them paint a gloomy picture of hunger, lack of adequate clothing and shelter.

We are talking of young souls whose innocence and sense of security have been profoundly shattered. Some of them have witnessed the killing of their parents and siblings. Others have witnessed their playmates being killed. Their homes, their last lines of security, have been burned before their eyes.

Besides proclaming their commitment to peace, the protagonists in this whole saga need to go out and assure those children of the rapid resumption of lives that have been arrested mid-stream. They need to guarantee them that they will never again suffer because of the politics of the day. They owe the children this much.

Ce texte est paru dans la presse kenyane ce jour. Note d'espoir et de deceptions meles, comme le ressentent beaucoup de Kenyans apres des resultats contestes d'elections tumultueuses.
Je vous laisse a la lecture de ce texte dans son integralite.

POUR REFLEXION

Kenyans, learn to coexist in peace

I am worried about the mayhem that has been taking place in parts of Kenya.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind my fellow Kenyans that we are all one. Killing your fellow colleagues because they come from a certain tribe is not reasonable at all.

Nobody applied to be born in a particular community. Please, realise that the blood of a human being is very expensive to shed and more so innocent ones.

Again, it is primitive to suggest that one tribe vote as a bloc where as every person has a democratic right to vote the way they want.

Religious leaders should lead the people in all the affected areas to pray for a better country.

Even food was burnt in stores, livestock killed and shops looted. Why? Were all these voting?

I don’t belong to either of the feuding camps. But whatever the outcome of election, either now or in future, Kenyans must learn to co-exist peacefully.

ISAAC MWANGI





This beast called tribalism is choking our beautiful country.

When President Kenyatta took over leadership, he promised to fight, among other things, tribalism. Almost 50 years later, this ugly monster is very much alive and stronger than ever before. I am crying for my beloved country.

Dear Kenyans, wherever you are, please do not destroy this great nation. God has given us this beautiful country. If we allow ourselves to be driven by hatred, we will have no other place to go to.

The world is crying for Kenya so overwhelmingly. We see leaders from across the world flocking into the country, pleading with us to stop fighting.

TIM TAMENO

Ce texte est paru dans la presse kenyane ce jour. Note d'espoir et de deceptions meles, comme le ressentent beaucoup de Kenyans apres des resultats contestes d'elections tumultueuses.
Je vous laisse a la lecture de ce texte dans son integralite.

POUR REFLEXION

Let's stamp put this madness

Story by MILDRED NGESA

It is enough! Snap out of this madness. We have battered this country almost to a pulp, turned on the bloodshed with a vengeance and reneged all that we used to hold dear and true. Enough! If it was a point we were struggling to make, then surely we have made it. If it was fury we re burning to blow then there is no doubt that the atmosphere is awash with so much anger that the hearts of our ancestors can explode just by the mere toxicity of it all.

Enough! Kenyans, Enough! How much more property can we burn? Just how much more can we keep brandishing out machetes and batons? How many more stones and deadly arsenal can we pelt? How many more throats can we slit?

We used to be called Kenyans with pride, a name said in awe at the track-fields and the game reserves – the shining phoenix of a continent that was marred by so much. We used to be that safe haven sought after by the world amidst the smouldering chaos that are common in Africa. It was other countries in Africa, never Kenya. No, Kenya was different. Kenyans are more democratically wealthy. Kenyans are more sensible, more mature, reasonable and logical. No, this kind of hellhole never had a Kenyan print. It used to happen in other worlds, somewhere far away which we could only read or watch on TV. So now we have changed the tides. We have shown to the whole world just how much of animals we really are. Yes, we have done it. We have defiled all that we hold sacred by attacking the sanctity of life, we have proved that power supersedes all. We have displayed our demonic sides and allowed our hearts to be over-taken by the darkness that defies all human understanding. We have killed our very souls.

Kenyans it is enough! We have done it all now, it is enough!

Just how much more do we want to continue displaying our dirty laundry to the rest of the world? How much more do we want to continue smashing hard-earned independence after 44 years of struggling to rebuild a nation?

Yesterday, only yesterday we were giving each other high-fives, amazed at how advanced we have become compared to others in the continent. Just yesterday, the whole world was impressed and cheering us on for a bloodless transition after 24 years of tyrannical rule. Only yesterday, we were the rising shinning pebble amongst Africa’s muddy waters of political turmoil. Today, we stand before the world, forlorn and stained with the blood of senseless killings and wanton destruction. We stand accused as a people who lost their souls, relinquished their sanity to embrace thoughtless violence and acts of anarchy beyond comprehension.

It is enough. Enough, fellow Kenyans, it is enough.

The wars we are fighting in the streets, engaging the innocents and causing unrest is nothing short of misplaced fury directed at the wrong target. That innocent motorist you are pelting with stones could be the very same saviour to whisk you to hospital for a life-saving intervention if the bullets unfortunately hits you. Those markets, food stores and shops you are looting and burning down, you will need them tomorrow when you children are wailing themselves sick because hunger stalks them from every corner. The dysfunctional hospitals and health centres that are incapacitated because of riots and barricaded could save the life of a loved one, if only we could put aside the lawlessness and let peace prevail.

The damage has been done now. It is impossible to re-wind the clock and pretend that this nightmare was never a reality. It is impossible to stare the innocent dead in the face and beg pardon for nipping lives in the bud from those who had nothing to do with this madness. It is impossible to hide the scars that have run so deep in our conscience that we have been left with questions, which can never be answered. It is impossible to be normal again.

Therefore, it is enough! We have to abandon our warlord tendencies and give logic a chance. We have to pause and breath and look around and wake up from this crazy reverie. Take a grip on yourselves. Take a hard look at yourselves and summon whatever energy you can summon and accept that it is indeed enough. This madness has to stop. It either it stops now or we tumble over the bottomless abyss of irredeemable destruction. It is either we stop it now or we forever disappear from the map of peace.

This country we are destroying is the only soil, which we will ever tread in freedom. This very same country we are reducing to rubble is the only identity we can flash out on our passports, birth certificates and Identity cards. This country is the only birthright you and I ought to preserve and jealously guard.

Today we wake up craving normalcy, craving busy mornings, bursting afternoons and sun-downer evenings. We are waking up to the realization that we take so much for granted. We are busy butchering each other forgetting that as Kenyans, there is no other reserved Kenya for us to run to, that at the end of it all we will still need to be home – to be here, in this very same Kenya we are destroying. People, let us snap out of the madness. It is enough.

Ce texte est paru dans la presse kenyane ce jour. Note d'espoir et de deceptions meles, comme le ressentent beaucoup de Kenyans apres des resultats contestes d'elections tumultueuses.
Je vous laisse a la lecture de ce texte dans son integralite.

POUR REFLEXION

Save our beloved country

Our beloved country, the Republic of Kenya, is a burnt-out, smouldering ruin. The economy is at a virtual standstill and the armies of destruction are on the march in the Rift Valley and other places.

In the midst of this, leaders — who are the direct cause of this catastrophe — are issuing half-hearted calls for peace, from the comfort of their hotels and walled homes in Nairobi, whence they are conveyed in bullet-proof limousines.

It is unbelievable foolishness for Kenyans to destroy their economy, their homes and their entire way of life in the name of politics and on behalf of people whose lives of comfort and luxury are going on normally.

The media in Kenya today propose to be forthright and united in confronting this bloodshed and disunity in the country.

Right to life

There is no cause and no right more valuable than the right to life.

Political leaders on both sides must be told in no uncertain terms that they are currently in great danger of losing their credibility in the eyes of Kenyans and the international community because of systematic killing of the innocent sweeping Kenya, destruction of the economy and the spread of disaffection throughout the land.

No grievance and no cause is worth the innocent blood of Kenyan children. The orgies of looting, burning, rape and wanton, well-orchestrated blood-letting are undermining the moral basis of the politicians’ cause.

Those in authority must not have more regard for their — tenuous — grip on power than lives and property.
It must be a blind and deaf person who does not hear the cries of the 70,000 people, many of them our children, who are now refugees in their own country.

A final opportunity now presents itself for the political leadership to pull the country back from the brink and help restore the public’s confidence and sense of safety.

Tough talk, grand-standing and empty point-scoring is not getting the nation anywhere. The moment has come to isolate the hard-liners on both sides and to allow the voices of reason to be heard across the political divide.

Negotiations cannot take place, and probably drag on, as Kenyans are slaughtered and the country burns. The first objective, therefore, is to secure the safety of all Kenyans. Let those with armies call them back, let those fanning the fires stamp them out so that an environment is created for constructive dialogue.

The priority now is for leaders — if at all they are interested in their own credibility and in saving the lives of Kenyans and the country as a whole — to get out of their meeting rooms and into the countryside and preach peace and patience to their supporters.

Kenyans expect to see Mr Raila Odinga leading a peace mission to Kondele and other troubled parts of Kisumu and Nyanza in general. They expect to see Mr William Ruto and Mr Henry Kosgey at the head of an effort in the Rift Valley, restoring peace and calm. They expect President Kibaki to come out and calm the passions in Dandora, Huruma and other volatile parts of Nairobi.

It is only with the restoration of peace that reason will prevail.

But there can be no lasting peace without justice. It is therefore important for President Kibaki and Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga to enter into immediate negotiations on the disputed elections and arrive at a solution that both sides can live with. The hard-line positions, such as demanding the President’s immediate resignation or the refusal to accept questions raised over the presidential election results, are not very helpful at the moment.

More middle-ground positions that should be explored could include a power-sharing arrangement.

The second option is the creation of an interim government excluding both Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga, and a time-table for fresh presidential elections under a reformed electoral process.

The question yet to be resolved is whether an exhausted country nearing a state of civil war can survive another presidential election.
After the restoration of peace and the reaching of a political agreement, the truth about what went on in this election needs to be established, publicized and used to strengthen our democratic institutions.

There is an urgent need for an open and thorough public inquiry to determine the veracity of rigging allegations which have been raised by ODM, PNU and international observers.

Equally, it would be utter madness to try and go to an election with the same discredited Electoral Commission and election procedures. The ECK must be overhauled, and the laws and procedures of casting, counting and tallying votes made tamper-proof.

Kenya must be prepared to invest billions of shillings in technology and processes to guarantee the integrity of future elections.

Ce texte est paru dans la presse kenyane ce jour. Note d'espoir et de deceptions meles, comme le ressentent beaucoup de Kenyans apres des resultats contestes d'elections tumultueuses.
Je vous laisse a la lecture de ce texte dans son integralite.

POUR REFLEXION...

It is time we returned to our fundamental human values

Story by SUNNY BINDRA
Publication Date: 1/2/2008

WHERE DID MY COUNTRY go? Just a few days ago I lived in a seemingly vibrant country that was going somewhere. A country that was attracting the attention and investment of the entire globe. A country that seemed set to resolve its differences through a properly conducted, peaceful ballot.

Today, I find myself in a land of security trucks rolling across a landscape of burnt vehicles and looted shops. A place where bodies are lined up in morgues. A nation filled with hatred and vitriol which has retreated into its tribal kraals. A place of closed shops and closed minds, where fear rules.

How did we get here? Two things have led us to this awful place. One, the hatred that lies deep in many hearts which was uncorked by a disputed election; two, the lamentable state of our institutions, and the mistrust that this engenders.

If we viewed our fellow Kenyans as fellow human beings, we would not be here. If we had institutions whose authority and respectability we could believe in, we would not be here.

BUT WE ARE, INDEED, HERE, AND we must find a way out. This is a time when temperatures are running feverishly high. It is difficult to get even educated people to demonstrate any sense of balance. The smell of fear and anger is everywhere, and fearful and angry people do not behave rationally.

That is why, more than ever before, there is only one place to go to. We must return to that place in our hearts where our fundamental human values reside. Just because we are angry, let us not forget what it means to be human. Just because we are afraid, let us not forget that we still have to do what is right.

Each and every one of us knows what is right and what is wrong. For some, that knowledge is covered in dust, not having been used for years. For others, it is closer to the surface, but hidden by a fresh layer of anger.

We do not have to teach ourselves anything new. We know it is wrong to kill, and we should not kill anyone. We know it is wrong to deceive, and we must stop the deceptions.

Every person is given an opportunity to be great in his or her lifetime. There is a moment in every life where the right thing must be done. It is a time where a choice must be made: either we choose to do the bad thing, which is seductively easy; or we choose the good thing, which is painfully hard.

Many key individuals were faced with that choice in the past few days, and they chose to do the bad thing. Some chose to deceive and manipulate. Others chose to let anger blind them and strike down innocents. Yet others chose to walk off with the property of others. All of those choices will cost us dearly.

Only the truth will save us now. I have no idea what the truth of this election is, and neither do you. All we have are our suspicions and prejudices, our observations and hypotheses. That is not enough to warrant bloodshed. Let Kenyans take shelter in the truth.

If this election was stolen, then that must be known by all. If this election was won fairly, then that must be shown to be true. In the absence of truth, we are led by conjecture and emotion.

If our leaders truly have our well-being in mind, let them agree on a formula to uncover the truth of what happened. And after that, let us all accept that truth, forgive whoever we have to, and move on.

I do not know what the formula for getting to the truth is. But I do know that it does not involve machetes on one side and bullets on the other. Our leaders must stop seeing the people of Kenya as pawns in their power struggles. I urge them to see the people huddled in churches in fear of genocide.

I urge them to see the tears on the face of the man who found his car – his only livelihood – burnt to a shell. I urge them to see the face of the little child whose mother has just been killed by a flying bullet outside her house.

Bad actions have real consequences. If we are not very careful, we are going to shatter this country. Once that happens, it will be very difficult to put the pieces together again.

It will be very difficult for us to work together in our organisations again. It will be very difficult to have thriving markets and businesses again. Let us not get to that point, for it may be a point of no return.

THE OPPORTUNITY STILL REMAINS for our leaders on both sides of the divide to become heroes. Heroism will not come from intransigence and belligerence. It requires something bigger. If key figures stopped to think strategically for a moment, they would realise that the hero will be the one who goes for peace.

A tsunami of ill-will has indeed swept across the nation, and we are all seeking higher ground. But there is only one high ground worth heading for: the moral high ground.

History is likely to cast a very harsh judgment on some of the key players of December 2007. If any of them wish to be remembered kindly, let them still step forward and do the right thing. Let them place their inflamed egos to one side, and do something bigger than themselves. There is no victory in ruling a country reduced to ashes.

Mr Bindra is a Sunday Nation columnist.

Ce texte est paru dans la presse kenyane ce jour. Note d'espoir et de deceptions meles, comme le ressentent beaucoup de Kenyans apres des resultats contestes d'elections tumultueuses.
Je vous laisse a la lecture de ce texte dans son integralite.
POUR REFLEXION...

ESPERANT NEANMOINS UNE ANNEE 2008 APPORTANT PAIX ET PROSPERITE A CE PAYS ET SES HABITANTS

I want to go on living in Kenya

Story by MILDRED NGESA | Monday Mix
Publication Date: 12/31/2007


I want to stay here in Kenya. Yes, I want to stay, even though every part of me is telling me that I probably shouldn’t. On the way to the office Sunday, the ghost of a deserted city centre was mocking me with every step I took. It was the ghost of past events which appeared to suggest that all was not well in this country — that all might not be well for a long time. Empty streets. One or two pedestrians strolling towards uncertainty as they braved the chilling silence in the city.

And on lamp posts, walls and buildings were posters of politicians, they in whose hands the fate of a Kenya remains. It is Monday, the 31st. The very last day of the year 2007. I had planned to write something invigorating and uplifting, something full of cheer. Something warm to celebrate the end of an eventful year. However, the events of the past four days have shifted my focus because the fate of Kenya hangs in the balance.

On Saturday, it all dawned on me, just how dangerously we were treading on the throes of violence. A friend’s brother knocked on my door in the evening. He was accompanied by his wife and a two-year-old child.

They were seeking refuge, fearing that violence would erupt in Kawangware slums. They did not even bring with them basic belongings after rowdy crowds spilled into the streets to protest over delayed results.

As I fumbled for provisions to make the family comfortable, I wondered to myself: is this really what we are coming to? Does it really have to be this bad?

On television, the images from across the country were not encouraging either. So much anger and anxiety! So much hatred and resentment! So much pent-up fury! What has happened to us my brothers? Just when did the rain begin to beat us so hard? In so short a time, the country has been transformed into a potential time-bomb just waiting to burst at the seams. I am not sure what will happen tonight. I don’t even know if we shall wake-up to bask in the sunlight tomorrow. But if you are reading this and feeling the way I am, then you will agree with me it is just not worth fighting for.

Still I am angry with politicians who have been sending out insincere messages of peace and tranquillity. Some of them have failed to put the well-being of the country ahead of everything else.

Now I know for sure and I have been convinced beyond doubt that the problem is never really with us the voters. It is not with you and me who woke up on the morning of Thursday the 27th to line-up and cast our vote.

Greedy for power

The problem is and has always been with those at the top, those hungry and greedy for power, and those with the responsibility to decide for the rest of the millions of Kenyans. The problem has always been with those already in power and those scrambling for it.

We were tribe-less on that early morning queue on voting day. We all braved the chill to stand up and be counted in a major historic event. We met in the queue — strangers from different parts of this nation. For over five hours, while moving along slowly and in orderly and patient manner, we became friends of the moment, chatting and joking among ourselves about this and that.

The discussions were wide and vast, bordering on family, careers and other life issues. We laughed as we waited. We knew why we were there, surprisingly none of us got into the nitty-gritty of the political tempo that was the undeniable reason for our meeting.

We did not need to. We had exhausted that in months of campaigns countrywide. It did not matter then that we had dissenting views on who our favourite candidates were. We knew that. It just did not matter. At the end of it, we gave each other the thumbs-up, wishing each other well as we entered the voting booth. There was no fight, no scuffle.

This is one of the reasons why I want to remain in this county even as it seems like an un-attractive place to be in at the moment. Kenyans are peaceful people.

They are calm and rational. They love their country. Trust me, they do. That is why even amidst all the melee and pockets of violence reported across the country, Kenyans still want to see and experience the best of positivism that can come out of an anxious situation.

Today, despite the uneasy calm in the city, I caught myself staring into the eyes of strangers so that I could catch a glimpse of their souls.

Something profound

Eyes do not lie. Believe me when I say that what I saw in the eyes of the strangers was something profound. It was something peaceful and calm. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason I want to stay here.

Lu dans la presse kenyane de ce jour, au lendemain des elections...

There's need for civic education

When Kenya got its independence more than four decades ago, we were told that our greatest enemies were poverty, ignorance and disease. The new government promised to wage a full scale war on these enemies of the people.

Fourty-four years later, I cannot see any battles that have been won. This is particularly true of the first two enemies, namely ignorance and poverty. I blame this on Kenyans themselves. This is mostly because they seem to have left the political class to be their warriors in this war

However, if what we saw during the campaigns for this year’s General Election is anything to go by, I do not see us winning any battle against these enemies in any foreseeable future.

This is because politicians are relying on these enemies of the people of Kenya to sustain them in power. The political class is also taking advantage of ignorance and poverty to assuage bloated egos.

During the campaigns, the politicians spread lies and cheap propaganda to achieve their ambitions. Knowing Kenyans very well, these politicians knew that they could say anything and get away with it.

It is the ignorance of some Kenyans which makes it easy for them to be manipulated during elections to vote for certain groups, whose only interest is to gain power and get elected to Parliament or a local council. These gullible Kenyans are also easily incited to butcher one another in the name of defending tribal interests.

Poverty is also proving to be a very powerful ally of politicians as they go out hunting for votes. During the campaigns, I came across groups of men, women and children wasting a whole day waiting for politicians come and give them as little as Sh20.

This bribery happened in the poorer rural areas and slums in towns and even in the well-endowed areas such as central Kenya.

Nobody can dispute the fact that Kenya has made giant strides as far as democratisation is concerned, and especially since the restoration of multi-party rule in the run-up to the 1992 elections. However, this will be an exercise in futility if steps are not taken to eradicate ignorance and poverty.

IT IS A FACT THAT THE POLITICIANS who have amassed obscene wealth during the reign of previous governments are using these resources to manipulate voters so they can retain power and influence in society.

It is for this reason that I believe civil society must embark on an aggressive campaign to impart civic education in the people in every corner of the country. We cannot rely on the political class to eradicate poverty and ignorance as long as they are the beneficiaries of the status quo. This is particularly urgent taking into consideration how the politicians conducted their campaigns for 2007 elections.

Every right thinking Kenyan will agree that many of the politicians played the tribal card to rally support.

The politicians in power make their people feel that their tribe is under siege. And those gunning for power make it look as if the tribe from the incumbent leader have had it too good.

Kenyans should be educated to say no to this divisive kind of politics. Civil society should educate people so that our people reclaim their dignity as human beings and shun the culture of selling their heritage for a song to politicians.

The people should be taught that they can “eat” money from politicians and still have the last laugh at the ballot box. Land grabbers and looters of public coffers should not be voted for at the expense of worthy men and women who can make this country prosper.

Unless this happens, we will have no business bragging that we are a most democratic country. And it is because those who call the shots today merely take advantage of the poverty and ignorance of our people. Unless we can change the current state of affairs, our independence will literally have gone to the dogs.

Avant un voyage au Kenya, pages a visiter, informations a glaner...

VOIR : http://www.magicalkenya.com/

ET AUSSI :http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/conseils-aux-voyageurs_909/pays_12191/kenya_12271/index.html