Business Daily (Nairobi)
James Shikwati
22 January 2008
opinion
The movie Godzilla depicts a giant mutated man-eating lizard wreaking havoc in New York's Madison Square. It takes the courage of a few individuals to destroy the monster and its offspring.
A Godzilla in the form of tyranny, manipulation of law, arrogance and theft has been set loose on Kenyans.
We are now watching Godzilla eggs vibrate in readiness to hatch. We are depressed; what we thought belonged to the African history of the 60s is here with us. Who will be the brave men and women that will destroy the Godzilla offspring before it devours humanity in Kenya?
What started as a legitimate quest for fairness in the just-concluded presidential elections in Kenya has unleashed a brutal Godzilla.
Marriage as a basic molecule of our society is in danger. A friend was the other day disowned by two communities because she is of mixed blood (mother and father from different communities); she had to rescue her siblings through Kisumu airport, clad in buibuis, to the temporary safety of the city.
Another friend aged over 50 and highly educated has trouble with her husband because they voted for rival parties. Another has had to move her mother from her matrimonial home - the husband is helpless and cannot protect his wife any more.
Another Godzilla egg has hatched in the business sector. Managers are forced to use ethnicity to assign duties. Sales and marketing teams are being recalled and redeployed to areas they can be safe.
While some of us have been working hard to build a united Africa, a few people seem hell-bent on reintroducing ethnic kingdoms and destroying Kenya.
The eggs are hatching in the religious sector too. The men of God have opted to identify with their own communities. Spiritual guidance has been replaced by whims of time as human egos eager to partake of the national cake divert attention from issues of justice to those of glorifying theft.
Media houses are not spared either. It is shocking how the Godzilla eggs spread so fast. Listening to FM radio stations, one is left wondering whether they are keen on expunging the word justice from the dictionary.
If Kenyan FM stations are not offering sedatives to bury the problem under the carpet, they are busy inciting ethnicity. Where is the famed Media Council? Have they been swallowed by the Godzilla already?
To back up the stations is the "Kiplagat committee" that is not keen to frankly address the cause and effects of the current crisis. They simply want Kenyans to heal.
How can Kenyans heal when every other day, the two political warring factions drive nails deep into the wounds they unleashed upon the nation on December 30, 2007?
With their heads in the sand, the middle class , if not calling for prayers for peace or concerts for peace, are fundraising to erect billboards for peace at every residential area.
Nairobi's hinterland is burning; passions are being whipped up by the day. The middle class is busy checking the dictionary for high sounding moralistic words while privately urging on their fellows to protect the supremacy of their communities.
The Godzilla and its eggs must be destroyed. They must not hatch.
It is not going to be easy, but each one of us must re-examine our sense of humanity and the future of the Kenyan republic. Brutish force without power will not bring peace in Kenya, neither will power without legal force. Mr Odinga and Mr Kibaki, Kenyans of goodwill will not watch the republic burn because of you.
Shikwati is the Director of Inter Region Economic Network
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