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Commantary: Who will be the first to break cycle of violence?

The worst thing about violence is that it begets violence. Any attempts at avenging any violent acts in the hope that by so doing the other party is silenced, is the last thing that can make the violence stop. A party or parties have to be prepared to take a back seat and ask the question, till when the violence?

This is not the time for every party, individual or even community to take a hard line position. This is not the time for people to look at what the other party did or even to shout the loudest. 

THIS IS THE TIME FOR EVERYBODY WHO cares for this nation to retreat and reach out to one another. It’s the time to realise we all need each other and that the one who retreats is not necessarily a coward or a weakling. 

Retreating does not mean that one has failed. It just means that one is rational enough to see what is happening and taking responsible decisions. 

And responsibility is not the preserve of elected leaders only. Every Kenyan should act and behave responsibly.

Who among us chose the ethnic community to be born in? Who among us chose the parents to be born to? Who among us has the capacity to change their ethnic destiny? Who? Now, when a matatu is stopped and a Kenyan is violently flushed out and killed, what do those killing expect the victim to have done so as to escape their heinous acts? And what would they themselves do if the roles were reversed? What would they do if they found themselves in such a situation? What would you do about your ethnic identity? I know I can’t do anything about mine. Yet, for it, I am already guilty and deserve to die in the court of some and I’m a hero in the court of others and yet both courts are wrong in passing judgment on the basis of my ethnicity.

I long for a Kenya in which we are all going to be proud of our ethnicity and, instead of using it negatively, use our diversity to realise more progress. 

I want to be proud to be Wanjiku Wainaina, Otieno Onyango or Wakesho Mwabili. I don’t want to be scared to mention my name among a crowd for fear of being singled out for harassment or denied opportunities.

I am saddened by the events that have taken place over the last few weeks. What wrong did the priest killed in Eldama Ravine or the man pulled out of a bus and killed in Naivasha done to deserve a premature death? Or even hundreds of others who have lost their lives in the violence? Your guess is as good as mine. Their only mistake is to belong to a particular ethnic group.

Who will be the first to break this murderous cycle of violence? Who will let our people know that violence only begets violence and that no one among us, individual, organisation or community, shall emerge the winner? We are all losers in this game fellow Kenyans. There can never be any development without peace. 

No meaningful dialogue without tolerance and patience. No progress without peace. If we are to forge ahead, we must all shun violence and embrace one another.

In the public court leaders are either heroes or losers, depending on which side one stands. For those fighting others, their leaders are heroes because they watch as others from other communities are violently robbed of their livelihood and lives. 

They don’t utter a word even as others’ human rights are violated with impunity. Yet those harassed are loudly wondering where leadership is.

Watching men, especially young men, brandishing crude weapons is sad. I keep thinking if I had the ability to turn those young men into women I would do so promptly. And why not? Women suffer the most in times of conflict as mothers, as wives, and sisters. 

THEY AGONISE FOR DAYS ON END AS TO the whereabouts of their sons and husbands. They agonise over whether their day to be raped has arrived and shrink in fear yet they know there is absolutely nothing they can do. They still have to carry the pregnancy to term despite the goings on around them and, when the hour comes, they fear how and where to deliver their little angels and bring them up. 

They have the responsibility of ensuring that their little ones have food to eat, even when there is nowhere to buy the food and no one to turn to.

They fall in love with men of all shades and ethnicities and have to live with their families even when they belong to different communities and clans. I would turn those young men into women and then ask them to deal with the circumstances. And why not?

To live together as Kenyans again, we need to separate ourselves from the clan, ethnic identity and live freely as human beings. We all need to do as a man of God in Nairobi asked his congregation to do recently. 

Write down all the things that we do not like about other communities and together burn them to symbolise a rebirth. Failure to free ourselves from the yolk of tribalism will only see this country disintegrate, leaving us with no country to belong to or talk about.

Let us all take our roles seriously. Wananchi should seriously guard their neighbours instead of guarding themselves against their neighbours. Let us embrace one another. The leaders should preach peace regardless of which regions they come from. 

I have waited for leaders say, from Coast or North Eastern or any other region, to come together to condemn the ongoing violence but all in vain. Leaders should be universal. 

The fact that your ethnic group is not “affected” by violence doesn’t mean that you can’t offer your leadership skills to get those fighting out of the quagmire. It is the effort of every Kenyan that will help end this violence and save our country. This includes you.

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The writer is Deputy Director, Media Focus on Africa.

Story by MBURUGU GIKUNDA
Publication Date: 2/3/2008

posted by: Moosecow at 08:02 | link | comments |
africa, kenya

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