BY DAUD
The more things change, the more the stay the same.
My take on the situation will be short.I found this interesting video on you tube. It was on Tom Mboya’s death. I am struck by the differences
and the similarities to the situation today.
Most striking, is the much bandied about and simplistic ‘Luo vs Kikuyu’ Kenyan problem. We all know
it is more complex than that.Notice that the video commentary would not be out of place on CNN today. That was 1969. When Tom Mboya died,
the riots were more about a loss of Kenya’s second president. The out pouring of pain and anger was not as terrible as has been witnessed in the
last few days.But it was pain of the lose of what could have been.
Just like now, people were massacred in Kisumu then. In essence, we are like a broken record, every few decades destined to dance with the devil.
Where the worst of what makes Kenya what it is, comes to the fore.
I am not sure Kenya will survive another round of anger let loose. But that is what is in store for us in the future. Unless…..we heal wounds that go
way back, that run so deep that it transcends time; I lay it squarely on how we choose to be governed henceforth by whom ever. As someone once
said, Siasa Mbaya Maisha Mbaya. We have been living siasa mbaya since 1963 (may be even longer)and until that is recognized the future does
not bode well for Kenya…..but strangely, I have faith.This may just be our seminal moment. I hope we all pay attention and never forget.
Heres another video of Police shooting unarmed civilians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtFhwgyeVyI
fire on a rioting crowd, saying she was forced to because police were overwhelmed during protests over disputed elections.
The comments from Grace Kaindi, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, were the first to acknowledge police fired on crowds. Previously, police had denied shooting anyone in the turmoil.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_re_af/kenya_opening_fire_1;_ylt=AgSw5F_OzhZEyZ3GBnmOeJFOs6YB
“It was an extreme situation and there was no other way to control them,” Kaindi said of the Dec. 29 clash in Kisumu. “I gave the order to open fire myself when I heard that my officers were being overwhelmed. If we had not killed them, things would have got very bad.”
The toll, according to hospital records: 44 shot dead, 143 wounded. Kaindi said one police officer was hurt by a rock hurled from the crowd.
Human rights workers say Kisumu, 200 miles northwest of Nairobi, suffered the worst police brutality because it is a stronghold of opposition leader Raila Odinga, who accuses President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the Dec. 27 election. International and local observers say the vote count was deeply flawed.
The acknowledged use of deadly force by police was likely to further inflame protesters who believe they are fighting a government that does not represent them, adding to the volatile mix of grievances in a conflict that has political and ethnic overtones. Clashes have pitted members of Kibaki’s Kikuyu people against Odinga’s Luo and other groups; most of those shot in Kisumu were Luo.
KISUMU, Kenya – The police chief in this opposition stronghold said she ordered her officers to fire on a rioting crowd, saying she was forced to because police were overwhelmed during protests over disputed elections
Daud,
I share your sentiments. Thank you for the Youtube clip. History is repeating itself. I am trying to hang on to some element of hope.
Wow, thanks for the clip.
Am not scared to say am a kikuyu, but am glad i saw today where all this hatred came from. Way back before God decided to have me been born from a Kikuyu womb.
It takes God’s hand to pave way for forgiveness ad forgetfulnesses, all for the sake of the future.
Nobody regardless of their tribe needs to be shot to death, or even burnt to death. Nobody, God save us all…..