How Many Friends Do I have Left. My Two Cents.

I started writing this column after the 2007/8 election when Kenyans took to the streets, homes and forests chasing after fellow Kenyans and thereafter killing, maiming them and causing destruction in a way never witnessed before in the young nation called Kenya.

I had to really contemplate on whether I still had any friends left around, (I had/have many friends, left, right and centre, I think) cause at the time it seemed like Kenya would burn to ashes and very few if any of my friends would be left. But thank God that did not happen, Kenya lived on and became much stronger. And to mark the political maturity and sovereign might, a new constitution was born.

Of course, reading through any of the previous articles on this column, you will notice that I was not really worried about losing friends. Actually, it has nothing to that effect, but the tittle and the theme is purely and intentionally meant to catch your attention, especially after such a dramatic and suspenseful exercise as electioneering.  

Before I lose your attention, it is true and unfortunately so that around these times several Kenyans lose their lives, in and during this process, while others become eternal enemies with their neighbours. It is also possible that you, reading these and I, writing these, may have lost friends in the said process, or each other as friends. I choose not to think about the latter, simply because it is not worth it.

But the last general election, held in Kenya on the 8th of August and confirmed on the 26th of October last year has brought out some hitherto unimaginable ways of parting friendship. 

It makes no sense in rushing to condemn me by ruthless or demeaning words just because I fail to sing a song you like. It is ignorant to expect everyone to think as you do and especially in the political way of thinking.

If you happen to be my friend by any category, you would probably mind your wording if I am to consider your counteraction for a worthwhile debate. Throwing demeaning, abusive or just dismissive words will never encourage me to see the difference between you and the words you use. 

In that context, my response is diverted from the real issue and wasted on explaining what should be otherwise obvious.

That Kenya is divided is that obvious. Anyone who would not see that would have to be mentally blind. But the situation has become so dire that every statement, comment, opinion or view is treated with suspicion, judgement, contempt or jubilation depending on who you sound positive/negative towards.

There are two political sides of Kenya today and those two sides must and should NOT be fathomed as Luo and Kikuyu. However much it may seem so.

There is the one side that supports Raila Odinga as the opposition or the NRM (National Resistance Movement), and the other, that leans towards the Jubilee Party, Uhuru Kenyatta and his constitutionally elected government. Kenya with its 45(more or less) tribes and over 44 million people is supposed to be divided along these two parts.

In any democratic state, and assuming that Kenya is one, it is wrong to always expect that all must see things your way and so must support your political persuasion, with or without ideology. It should neither be expected that we must change from the following doom and share the exact same thoughts and expectations. That would corrode the meaning of true democracy.

At just over fifty, we are probably asking for too much of our nation, without recognising the much we have achieved within a very short time. But that is looking at Kenya from independence to where we are today. Some of the most democratic and developed countries in the world have taken hundreds of years to be where they are today. It is a fact, but not an excuse for the slow growth politically and otherwise, that we’ve experienced.

It will still take us many more years before we are where we want to be as a country and as a nation, and no matter how much it might pain, it will not come through one person but by generations. We might not necessarily live to see it, especially if we continue to get all emotional when things don’t go our tribe’s way.

Within this time, a lot of patience and patriotism will be required. Patriotism unlike most words that end with ‘ism’ is positive as love for one’s nation and land no matter what!

Along the path of democratisation, we must address past and present wrongs. Above all we must accept that as a nation of over 40 million people and over 42 indigenous communities, we must think and feel the same about Kenya. Though that is not necessarily a must, ideologically.

We are too quick to see things through that tribe’s eye, that we have lost sight and feel of the nationhood we crave. Hence, we remain divided for so long, and though we all seem to will and want to respond to mental emancipation, we are still held in slavery by tribal knots. Not that there's anything wrong about our tribes.  

Without the beautiful colours that are our tribes, Kenya is not complete as a nation. We can talk about secession. It is healthy because it calls for attention where it may seem lacking. We must talk about the iniquities that we experience. Its crucial. We must address all the ills that befall our country without exemption of ANY tribe. This was indeed one of the founding reasons for the new constitution of 2010 and the introduction of devolution.

We must hear the cry of those who, in one way or another feel left behind. Though, it must remain as talk, a wakeup call, a mind joggler, secede we shall and must not!

It is sorrowful that we still experience bloodshed and loss of life because of our political leanings. It is even worse that our political leanings are influenced by tribe and thus cannot give reason to tolerance.

Mental Health.

Through my Facebook account I have experienced straight up and meaningless ridicule just because of my political stand. I have been called a fool more times than I care to count. My fore “acknowledged” intelligence has been thrown out of the book and even my mental health, me being abroad and all, has been put into doubt.

These has really put me in a position where I had to rethink everything I know about myself and my so-called friends and those friendships. It has left me in a position of defence because you see, it is not the first time I am at the receiving end from friends who suddenly emerge as wolves in sheeps' skins all over sudden because I have put my believes forward. Not that they don’t know that I am anti-Raila(the politician, not the luo) for example, they do.

Look at me through a fair eye and you will see no traits of tribalism. If you do, tell me where or how, I would like to know.

Somewhere along the way, Raila’s cult has become the word that has to be Kenya. When they say baba your last word is final, we are all supposed to say, yes baba! Horsefeathers! We have every right to proclaim our own leaders and differ. Just like any other part of the democratic world.

We will not accept nonsensical politics in the worship of one lost old man with a suicidal mission to carry Kenya down with him. And any person of age who does not see the old man RAO for what he is today is not only in denial, he or she has lost it themselves, but do we say? 

Raila has an excuse of being a perennial loser and running out of time for his bitterness, what’s yours?

Just how petty can it become? One chides that 'we' that have crossed the border are indeed expected to be of a “healthy mind”. Now my fren, this is where I really wonder if this fellow knows what “healthy mind” means, politically, grammatically or medically and how it applies in here. 

Because if he did, he would not have used those words in his comment, especially being a person who knows me well.  

They all come out one by one from the friend’s holes they were all hiding in because this njoro has become too much! How dare he portray our father who art on earth in such obvious terms!?

Because when I put up a video about ‘Raila-worshiping’ which is an occultism already allowed in Kenya, according to some, I brought everything intelligent they had ever considered of me into question. I cannot, in their opinion be intelligent and post a video about Railaism, the worshipping of Raila Odinga that is an open secret in Kenya, to the world of facebook, forget about the fact that the video has been collecting views on youtube.

Bringing that up in the past campaign period was unacceptable! Though the facts are all there, even to the blind.

To be continued.

P Bryan Njoroge.

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How Many Friends Do I Have Left.