Nairobi — After going through the "machete democracy" days at the beginning of the year, Mombasa is back to its old ways of wooing the world.

And nowhere is this more evident than in the carnival mood during the Idd celebrations, seemingly in an attempt to erase memories of the mayhem brought about by hatred.

As usual, but more so this year, neighbours feted one another with steaming bowls of exotic-spiced dishes, irrespective of race or tribe, and in an amazing overflow of genuine brotherhood, which is the real Mombasa spirit.

This "biriani diplomacy" is not only religious, but also truly African. It proves that the politically engineered outbursts witnessed once every five years are an indictment of Kenya's callous political system.

The first visitor to my home on Wednesday morning was a family friend who asked us not to cook anything as she was going to bring us some lunch.

And at 11am, a work colleague called to say he would, as he did last year, be delivering sumptuous biriani to my house to take care of the rest of the day.

But the most revealing moments were those of small groups of decorated children visiting their favourite homesteads to wish everyone Eid mubarak, but for a few coins to treat themselves with sweets or labaniya.

And this carnival mood is not confined to just Muslim children; it is done in every neighbourhood, just like we used to do during early Christmas days in the 1960s.

But the climax of the day for the young is to descend on the Makadara grounds (once threatened by grabbers) where merry-go-rounders, acrobats and other fun vendors will run riot for the next week to usher in the end of the fast.

Interestingly, the same politicians who incited the local residents into murderous shows of rage are now over-zealous with messages of peace and co-existence of the various ethnic groups that make Mombasa -- and Kenya.

To watch them in shimmering kanzus all over the Coast and the other Muslim-infested areas is a study in the art of hypocrisy typical of our politicians.

Some questions come to mind when one remembers the ugly scenes of the beginning of the year. How come that despite all the incitement, certain sectors of our society were able to move on without trooping into the tribal cocoons ?

Several times at the height of the anarchy and also during the cooling-off period I was in Nairobi where, despite the amazingly intellectual discourses as to what the problem was, the social groups I normally interact with maintained their unity in ethnic diversity.

All the plays I watched or even gleaned through media advertisements had national casts, while further afield local musicians continued to preach peace in their songs with greater results than what would have been achieved by even the political actors.

Even our athletes continued to keep us thinking nationally as the normally dismal Harambee Stars showed some sparkle and pulled us all in with some wonderful performance. Is there a pattern? It looks as if where merit determines membership to a professional organisation, there is less strife among Kenyans than in spheres ruled by patronage and cronyism.

The latter is the preserves of politicians and normally the sources of the gripes that rip our humanity to shreds in the pursuit of personal ambitions.

Kenya needs to pro-actively seek to empower positive synergies such as in the sports and the performing arts to ensure they create the parameters for choice for the electorate.

Kenya must strive to reward merit in all spheres to inspire the youth to aspire to greater things and not the depths of mediocrity provided by political charlatans and corrupt public servants.

Then and only then will we be able to lay claim to a nation devoid of hate, war and tribalism.