Gitau Warigi
15 June 2008
opinion
Nairobi — I fully agree in principle with ODM about the matter of Kilgoris. Which is, anybody who is a Kenyan is free to contest any parliamentary seat anywhere in the Republic as long as he or she meets the legal criteria to contest in such a place.
I say this in full knowledge of the fury generated among the Maasai leadership by the fact that the Kipsigis had the cheek to front a candidate in the Kilgoris by-election, a guy called Johanah Ng'eno of ODM.
In the light of this country's post-election mayhem -- and dare I say the recurrent ethnic-based violence since 1991-- this is a vital principle worth repeating. Again and again.
The problem is that the people who shouted the loudest in defence of this principle concerning the Kilgoris by-election are guilty of applying a double standard. Principles or laws are not worth anything if you apply them when they only suit you.
I was amused to hear one of Mr Ng'eno's prominent ethnic backers protest that the candidate was not a Ugandan or a Congolose so as to be disqualified from standing in Kilgoris.
I have no quarrel with his reasoning. What struck me as bizarre was the way he said it without any sense of irony. He sounded strangely oblivious of how what he was saying would make the average internally displaced family sitting somewhere in Kericho or Eldoret feel.
It should be remembered that this family, too, is not Ugandan or Congolese. No member of this family probably ever had any intention to run for a parliamentary seat in Buret, or Uasin Gishu, or wherever.
All this family wants is for its right to property and a secure life to be respected by neighbours.This country is only just beginning to recover from one of its most traumatic experiences ever.
Hundreds of thousands of people were violently dislocated from their homes and their lives terribly disrupted. About 1,200 people lost their lives. Property worth billions of shillings went up in smoke in just a matter of days.
For the first time we witnessed the sad spectre of internally displaced people huddled in tented camps.
The worst of this violence happened in Rift Valley province, with some of the hotspots being in the "home" districts from whence the diaspora which was voting for Mr Ng'eno migrated.
There is no point in pretending that the epicentre of this repeated violence we have been witnessing since 1991 has been anywhere but the Rift Valley. The documented facts are there for all to dig.
The victims get brutalised for no other reason than the fact that they are deemed to be "foreigners" and "aliens". Nothing threatens to cause this country's disintegration more than this malignant mentality.
It's no use pointing accusing fingers at the Maasai alone while refusing to acknowledge where all this devastating and foolish logic first took root.
Personally, I have no stomach or sympathy for Thursday's sudden attacks on homesteads of migrants living around Kilgoris who were accused of voting for ODM.
The right to vote, like the right to stand for office, is no different from the right to own property and live anywhere one wants. Anyway, scores of houses were destroyed by arsonists who have somehow not been apprehended. Nobody is even saying who they were.
Granted, as anybody with a casual acquaintance with history knows, the Maasai have never been an entirely pacific group when they feel provoked. The wazungus(whites) did not call them warlike because they thought they looked cute.
But acts of arson are not quite their preferred demonstration of manhood. However, one must pause before fully blaming them if what they did was only to pick a cue or two from others who have a habit of burning people's houses just because they have voted differently.
It is called paying back with the same coin. If your pastime is to preach ethnic hate, always remember that fate has a way of making all this boomerang on you. It is just a matter of time.
Nairobi's Wilson airport boasts of being the busiest of its kind anywhere in the region. Quite true, the number of take-offs and landings of small planes is of an order that makes the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport look sleepy.
What goes unsaid is the very high rate of accidents of small planes based at Wilson. The country only notices the spectacular ones such as the KQ jet crash in a Cameroonian forest en route to JKIA.
Questions have been raised about the safety compliance and maintenance records of some of these Wilson planes. The Civil Aviation Authority should take a closer look before these jalopies kill more people.
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