Well, well, well. Its the eve of August. Pretty exciting right? okay well, maybe cold. Being on a break from school is very refreshing and I intend to stay away from school stuff till I get back. This break might be doing some damage to me though. The amount of blankness that is in my mind is riveting, see? I don't even know whether I've used the word riveting correctly but I wont remove it. At least it makes me look intelligent and my work may be perceived to be very coherent. Now, before you accuse me of being verbose, I shall stop bombarding you with bombastic words but if you cannot comprehend the ingenuity of my post, please don't blame yourself. Blame my rigorous academic pedagogy and my linguistic prowess. okay seriously I better stop now before I make you question your entire academic journey and cause you to demand a refund of your fees. So, remind me what I was talking about. Oh yes, the eve of August. Yes 1st August will mark eight months since I asked a certain young lady to go out with me as I decided to venture in this quest of love. A BEAUTIFUL lady if I may add. Mark you, I'm using the word beautiful just to be modest. I don't want some of you thinking that I brag but yes, she is quite a catch. For some reason, when I asked her, she said yes. Flabbergasted? Don't be. Actually, you shouldn't be. I mean who wouldn't say yes to yours truly?
I don't know why I told you all that, I just felt like sharing, to create a bond with you but that's that. Let me go to what has brought you here this fine evening (or day, depending on your time zone).
Politics, politics, politics. This thing, this animal that rears its head every day. It basically is our news. Politics here, politics there. Jubillee and CORD, the main subjects. While the elections were done with like 5 months ago, bitterness is still rife in this great nation of ours. Guys are insulting each other like everywhere especially in the social media. Tribal wars or if I may say tribal cyber wars are there all over. While you may say, "But that is how our nation is, it is in our DNA" and other feeble attempts to justify this nasty thing, I think and I truly believe that this is a source of concern for me especially.
You see, in facebook, I am in a group formed by guys who I was with in high school, as a matter of fact, the founders of a group are guys who were behind me ie they are younger than me and the group was created to "Make A Difference." Of course, having being in a national school (though private). No, sorry, let me rephrase that. Having been to the BEST high school in this country, ie school number one (check this year's results, the school that led) we have people from all corners of the country and from various communities, both male and female (the beauty is that it is a mixed school). As a result, this group is very diverse, guys have different ideologies support different people. Is having diversity wrong? absolutely not!! as a matter of fact, it is very good. With diversity comes harmony, and unity, and integration and eventually development. Prior to the elections, stuff were good, guys were interacting very well and I thought "Yes, this is how it should be. This is MY generation, the way we are doing, in the next couple of elections we will be issue based" I had hope. I felt great. Then came the elections. Of course we all know that the elections were disputed in court and the court decided. The opposition may not have been satisfied but the elected government took office. That done, essentially, we were supposed to move on and everything but apparently that hasn't happened. After the elections I saw guys going back to the tribal caves, saying how they will reproduce more, how this is a government of only two tribes (to some extent it is a point looking at the cabinet appointments) and even further of guys supporting revolutions. Egyptian style! some of these guys calling for revolutions are barely out of high school. I don't think they voted, they haven't started university but here they are calling for a revolution. That is a course of concern for me. If guys our age, guys who are enlightened. Guys of the social media age are meant to be beyond this. But if we have young guys our age having all tribal connotations and insulting each other it is a course of concern. I mean, these are guys who studied with you, you interacted together, played ball together, were punished together, our parents struggled to pay the fees (the school is fairly pricy) you learnt together but guys still go back to the tribal shells and caves. It is a concern when it is our generation doing that.
I admit. The older generation (our parents' generation) are fairly tribal but we should not blame them. It all started with multiparty politics. When section 2A was repealed (I hope I have my history right) political parties were formed to protect each other's community. This was seen up to these past elections. URP, TNA, ODM, name them they were tribal based. Am I saying that the constitution should be amended to remove these political parties, maybe I am, and maybe I am not. What I am saying is that we should look beyond our tribes when it comes to such decisions. We should have policies, clear and well thought out, well-defined structure. Have efficient systems. These are what we should be looking at and calling for, not being agents of propaganda here and there. You just hear something and go about saying without thinking about this "Oooo Jubillee this, Ooooo CORD that.." and blaming members of a particular community for something. We got to grow beyond that. Take the recent teachers strike for instance. It is the Jubillee government. You hear guys saying, "Oooo tribe X (to avoid mentioning tribes) are stealing our money, tribe Y tumeibiwa" yet, the teachers were all over the counry. Its not like teachers from central were paid while those from Nyanza were not paid. It was national, yet from that people were spreading propaganda everywhere alienating each other on the basis of our tribes. Having useless politicking if I may say.
All in all, I am trying to say that we should look beyond our tribes. Lets think first before saying stuff. Unite together and argue on ideas not on people and their names. You see, ideas develop the nation, tribal arguments bring bitterness.
Let me explain it this way. With tribes, it brings a sense of belonging. It has a sense of belonging. Therefore, using tribes it brings a sense of victimization to those who lost. "We lost as a community" it brings bitterness and you tend to go deeper within yourself as a community so as to win. However, with ideas, you may improve each other and borrow from each other. Matters to do with belonging are very close to the heart and that explains the tragic post election violence.
Violence, in my view could be avoided if we focus on ideas and selling the ideas to everyone, not just "My people". That is why I get very concerned when I see young people, oozing with talent, bright people using tribal arguments coz we are the change that we want. It starts with us.
Michael Jackson was very insightful when he sang Man in the mirror.
In the chorus, he sang
I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change
Its true. for us to make that change, it starts with us, within us. Break away from the useless politicking of tribes and lets look at issues and not just criticize, but also come up with solutions.
God bless y'all
