Will The Real Patriotic Kenyans Please Stand Up?

Dear Kenyans:

I am compelled to interrupt my ongoing discussion on the “Pursuit of National Happiness” to issue this Urgent Personal Appeal.

We must take a break from the rage, frustration, hopelessness or despair that we are feeling right now and think about two things:
What Are We Doing Individually To Stop The Chaos And To Reach Out To Each Other With Forgiveness And A Call For Peace?
What Are We Doing to Build the Foundations for National Reconciliation?

With respect to the former, life in Kenya as we once knew it has irrevocably changed.

The Kenya we knew and loved is gone. That is now cliché. We are in a new Kenya.

A Kenya that is experiencing the labor pains of a new dawn, a new child.

The evidence is all around each Kenyan. For the staticians, over 800 mostly innocent children, women and men are dead and over 250,000 are displaced and counting. Infrastructure and institutions and machinery are being destroyed day in day out. Public roads are blocked by gangs who demand to know one’s tribal affiliations before they can move from point A to Z, and the railway line, the old dilapidated railway line that connects Mombasa to Kisumu is being uprooted in stretches. Hundreds of homes have been burned to the ground, farms full of agricultural produce have burned to the ground and other properties of economic value such as supermarkets, retail shops and petrol stations are either being looted or burned and others abandoned for fear of attacks. Most of the tourists anticipated in the January tourism season have cancelled and several hotels have been forced to close.

The police and the dreaded General Service Unit appear overwhelmed and now the government is turning to the military in an attempt to restore internal security. The economy is slowly grounding to a halt. With each day of chaos, we are sending potential investors scattering with their pocketfuls of money to other economies. Other investors are now repatriating the profits they made in Kenya.

Fellow Kenyans:

Take a moment and think about the long-term implications of these criminal actions.

For each closed shop, each burned petrol station, each looted supermarket, innocent men and women are losing jobs and the ability to feed, clothe and educate their children. This also translates to lower taxes to the exchequer and therefore reduced delivery of public services to the nation. For each man and woman killed, we are leaving helpless orphans and elderly parents who will need assistance.

No matter how intense the rage is, or how wronged we believe we are, and I strongly passionately believe that the public institutions including the ECK, the Attorney General, the Police Force and GSU, the Members of the half Cabinet and the Judiciary have let Kenya down, let us think twice before we let the passions influence our actions.

Kenyans, instead of pointing out who belongs to which tribe, let us provide food, clothing, healthcare and shelter. Instead of forwarding strong messages by telephone, SMS, posters, leaflets or email that inflame the ethnicity passions, let us use these modes of communications to spread messages of forgiveness, of solidarity and of national peace. Instead of chanting war cries of “No Peace” let us sing our national anthem. Let us remind each other that we are Kenyan and the pain or suffering or sense of injustice in the eyes of one Kenyan affects all Kenyans. Let each patriotic Kenyan consolidate efforts to shun violence and to promote the peace.

It behooves each of us to carry out this one sacred civic duty with conviction.

Dear Kenyans:

As we reach out to each other with forgiveness, let us strive to find a long-term way to deal with the root cause of the chaos and the destruction occasioned by the ongoing violence.

This will be form the strong foundation necessary for national reconciliation.

This foundation must provide for institutions, through which the families that bore the brunt of the violence will be assisted, of rebuilding towns that have been destroyed, and of holding the perpetrators of the criminal acts accountable for the pain and destruction they have occasioned.

Most important of all:

This foundation must include mechanisms for revamping all existing public institutions like the judiciary, and the electoral commission into independent entities manned by persons with high integrity.

Please say this with me: Will the Real Patriotic Kenyans Please Stand Up?