The tribal catch 22... We Do Not need it in Kenya!

It is the people of Kenya who must be as tall as giraffes and look all around, not get stuck in small houses and windows... 

photo by Martti Lintunen, Finland

No doubt this is a marvellous photo. See many more giraffe in the article. My kind friend and photographer Martti Luntinen is reminded of curiosity by this photograph. The giraffe has already climbed the stairs outside. It is on second floor. It could reach the third floor. But with its head inside the house, it cannot see the third floor. What is more is that it's neck could be stuck in there. That is not place for her. It is a giraffe in the wrong place? Many Kenyans are not using their grace and voice to resolve the problems of xenophobia that we all face for being different. 

Back to the photo. The house is beautiful. It is fine that it is old. Something happens to both the beauty of the giraffe and of the house however. We only get to see the giraffe's flank and wonderful legs.It is still beautiful. I know that her eyes are powerful but her vision is not for seeing inside beautiful houses. She must see above trees and in the long range. He must see better than a gazelle. We, the people of Kenya have to see far and wide for us to love the 'other'. We must stop building little 'tribal' homes now. It is time to build a home called Kenya. The mentality of if everything is not in my house then it cannot be anywhere else must vanish. And State House must not be run like an elders hut.

The politician who called himself a giraffe was Moi. I do not know. What I know is that if we have a Kenyan Awakening, we shall be better for it. We have weaknesses but none as dangerous as our view of 'us' and 'them'. I am going to talk about Kenya's weak point at this time and before- tribalism.

The giraffe and the leopard or cheetah have something in common. I found out about cameleorpardis when I wondered about the relationship between a giraffe and a camel. We must not get held by stereotypes. They are awful. Between a giraffe and a camel, there is a strong link. However, alone in the bush without birds, without elephants and other animals, giraffe would be unhappy. Crocodiles too would be unhappy alone in rivers. No matter their tears.Hippos too.  No matter their eyes. Diversity is great in humans too.


It was not just that Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki have been tribal in their approach to national life. It was also the way of the British. The wound is deep but we must heal it. We must find a way, like a giraffe does to see and to drink water. We cannot waste time on this, it is dangerous. Once reason is clouded one can never tell what happened. Our words must be clear especially this coming year, an election year. No to this blindness! We must lead ourselves, we cannot trust the politicians.

Tribalistic drivel robbing Kenyans of power to reason and common sense

Many of us in Kenya, but not all of us have seen how a giraffe drinks water. The gracious animal puts its front legs astride and makes room for its long neck to fall to the ground. Then it 'whoops' down as I like to imagine gulps and gulps of water, gallons in the end. They run like a river down a long throat. The joke about a giraffe that has a sore throat I heard often. 

I wish that we in Kenya learn to look outside of ourselves, outwards. It is hard to do this when those in power look inwards all the time. Into their 'house'. The speak of 'our people' meaning 'our tribe'.  'Our presidential candidate' (whatever that means if he or she is tribal), our own (US) versus the 'other'. Right now this discussion is worrying. I remember it towards 2007 and an election that ended in 1 333 deaths, massive rapes and transmission of HIV/Aids virus and the growth of suspicion and even a word I dislike but is real. Hatred. No matter what, we have to try and be above the big challenge humans have with 'otherness'. Remember the lioness who brought up an oryx? She did not care that this was another species.

Stamp of Kenya pic by Philo Ikonya

I wish that Kenyans such as Hassan Omar the head of the Kenya National Commission of Human Rights could help us with the truth.. I completely agree with him and was incensed and said it on media about Kenya Revenue Authority being so Kibaki's people top heavy. Kibaki, I lost hope after your election in 2002 when you started inviting old men and business pals to State House once again making it a home of buddies of your age and ridge. 

I expected better because your children and grandchildren I saw were not so tribally educated? When my poet friend and I found your daughter drinking at a pub, she was not drinking traditionally from a horn. She was on her own. She drank silently in a corner. My poet friend told me she always did that. Judas had before told me that you also used to drink long and hard alone in your garden in the mornings. And that was not traditional either. What is this about tribal leanings?

I saw Moi take us back to a place of tribe that many of us had left. I saw education retreat to villages when people could no longer go to secondary schools outside of their home areas. I saw us dwindle from a people who were becoming a nation of many different nations of Kenya into people only aware that the President is of this or the other race. 

We must enrich Kenya with better presence in a whole spectrum of society. This should be so in Civil Society and that is not all. Kenya needs a very strong group of leaders with moral authority and voice but who are not going into politics. Our politics like politics everywhere perhaps but more so in Afrika is not ours. It is so divisive and dangerous that even as some must go into it, others with clear and well heard voices must remain vigilant outside of politics. This level of leadership must be cultivated. We cannot talk of Kenya as if a president were enough. It is not possible. We must change things. We must recognize leadership not just at a political level but at many other levels of our society. We have to be there to staring without blinking. Watchful. 

By John Berga of Stavanger in Norway
(Eye of giraffe in Kenya)

Omar, teach us to be above political rhetoric no matter what his own goals may be. I remember the MP for Kikuyu was of interest to Omar Hassan before he got his posting  and so were many others. I remember Hassan Omar protecting me and other human rights defenders so very often. At that time we did not think, at least I have never thought of us as group from here and not there. We cannot do it now. The people are as tall as giraffes and they have good eyes. We cannot allow ourselves to lead them to look into small windows if they want to see Kenya as one house with many rooms as my photo shows. There will be many doors of exit and entry. It is dangerous to join in sectarian chats on the presidency because you could have millions of misled voters belonging to a group you talk against digging in and insisting and we all saw what happened in 2007/2008. 

Seize your freedom Kenya ! Take it once and for all. Kenya  has had 48 years of independence and we are not free

It behoves the Uhuru or independence generation, and even younger generations of Kenyans to awaken. We have to light a different fire. To do that, we have to borrow some fire from somewhere. We do not have to re-invent the discovery of fire.

Look. Mohammed Bouazizi awakened the Arab world. Look. You have known fighters for freedom in Kenya. They were never fighting for one tribe. They did not fight for a presidency and no land. We, today are threatened with a diminished scope.

We must light ourselves up inside and awaken. Forget about just voting an individual in. Make yourself feel and be as important as the Head of State. Kenya is your country. The Head of State is you. It is not the person who will be voted in as president. It is all of us. You will be the president of Kenya. Then the president of Kenya will live like all of us. Then the president of Kenya will be someone who knows that all of us are that person and those close to her or him in whom we invest our power through our vote.

It would be strange to vote in a new constitution and we did that in August 2010, get more freedom and still remain as at independence only level. We must claim our space. We must be and are important. We are the people who have to say.

If a young person is busy talking this or that tribe. If a person is looking at many millions of Kenya as just a tribe who have no right to this and that, then this person has grown older than the oldest and erred. You may think I live in an ivory tower.

Daily, we are told what politicians did. How they travelled, what they ate. Who visited them. Where they are going tomorrow. And where are we going tomorrow, 2012 as a nation? 

Politicians are the headline news of our country. They have become the main thoughts that we have. So often, they speak. You do not hear of an agenda. The media does not push them to tell us why they want to become presidents.

Or why they sit together across ethnic divides whenever they need a position. And as for Omar, Omar is every group of Kenya, that is why he is heading a human rights organization in Kenya. The Kenya National Human Rights Comission. Watch out for Kenya all of you, not just for your own agenda.

By Marisa Fushile

Justice marching into Kenya's judiciary

Let justice flow like a new river in Kenya

So many sing that they want to be there when saints go marching in ... to be in the number. Not so many sing that they want to stand up and be counted for justice on an unknown street today, tonight when a woman is being arrested and molested for nothing. Not many. Not many of us sing that we want to be there to see to the end of impunity. To be there when presidents will know and feel and understand that they like all others are not above the law. These words "above the law" have been said of presidents in Kenya and in Africa for so long.

So, It is with a flourish that I open the doors and see that there are people marching into justice in Kenya. I see that justice has occupied some space. I hope that Kenya's new Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga, who says on facebook call me Willy, remains that justice. I hope that Kenyans rise with him to protect this justice in floods... It is important, he reminds us to be good citizens. A good citizen in his definition must know, understand and respect the constitution.

Last week, December 5th to 8th 2011,  Kenyans reviewed the reports of the Eminent Persons who were called in when in 2007/2008 the country went ablaze after elections. The report cards are frank and serious. The Chief Justice has told all of us that we have to accept and show better signs of wanting to implement our new constitution passed by the people of Kenya on AUgust 27 2010. Kenya is not going to fiddle with injustice at any time. In fact, she shall protect justice according to all her signatures also to international conventions. The Rome Statute is key here. Finally we are standing up to claim what we have struggled for decades. If as Justice Kriegler says we lack political will, if we the electors are not wise this time round in 2012 and violence ensues in Kenya, it will be a disaster. In 2008, Justice Kriegler said that if we do not reform and follow the right course what we had in Kenya in 2007 will be like a Christmas party in comparison to where we could end up if we do not stop political shenanigans and get on with the job of making sure that the rule of law is followed. 

I want to hear many Kenyans singing that they want to be in the number. The number that will not take up violence to retaliate regarding the electoral procedure. The number that will plant justice in their hearts and forever walk together with the others without discriminating race or gender or tribe. Blessings of peace beacon Kenya, let none be distracted!

I will say am proud of Dr. Mutunga's work at this moment and the work of the Eminent persons, Kofi Annan, Graca Machel and Benjamin Mkapa will not be forgotten.

Eyes on Kenya as state attempts to influence who will replace Ocampo in 2012

By Philo Ikonya

Right: The Deputy Prosecutor of The International Criminal Court, Gambian Fatou Bensouda, meets Africans in Oslo on 14th October 2011. In the picure, Philo Ikonya in exile from Kenya, and Benta H- Kenya.

The name of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, ICC, Luis Moreno Ocampo sends shivers down the spines of some Kenyan politicians. But it is the hope of those who look for justice in the International Criminal Court. “We will go to Ocampo,” the people said when justice failed at home. And they did. Those called before the court as suspects regarding the planning and execution of violence after the 2007 election are in for days of anxiety. Could they hope for better times after Ocampo's tenure as Prosecutor is over in 2012? Some of them have dared think so and even began acting.  

Summoned to the Hague have been: Uhuru Kenyatta the finance minster, William Ruto, Eldoret MP and Henry Kosgey, Head of Opposition. The ex- Commissioner of Police Hussein Ali, Francis Muthaura the Cabinet Secretary and a radio journalist Joshua Sang too. The ICC is in the early part of interrogation and this part of the process will determine if the ICC will press charges against them regarding the use of a militia gang and the Kenya police to kill those who were opposed to Kibaki’s party.

There are many others in Kenya, not before the court who the name Ocampo scares the wits out of,  for he  has much in store in terms of evidence, the only thing that counts before the law. Ocampo is, much as some may dance at the airport at home each time they return from the Hague, very well equipped. In the conference, the Kenyan media was said to be misleading Kenyans when it gives great coverage to such sideshows as essential matters of the justice and protection of victims and witnesses require more attention. The return from an ICC session should be a sober matter. In Den Hague, the court has witnessed strange Kenyan's strange behaviour as suspects are escorted by large numbers. Kenyans have been advised to keep their expectation of justice from the court but to look to other organs to help towards a peaceful election in 2012 and in good time. Eyes are on Kenya. 

Post Election violence led to the deaths of 1 333 persons and may be more. Some 500 000 and upwards were displaced in days. Women were raped in great numbers. Genocide was at Kenya’s doorstep. Now some hope that as Ocampo’s term comes to an end next year, maybe things will change at the Hague. The ICC will not change in terms of its mandate and statute. 

Ocampo and the success of the ICC, said the Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, A Gambian, speaking in Oslo “Is not to be judged by the number of prosecutions in his tenure which started in 2003, but by its impact. Bensouda was speaking at a conference organised by African Information and Development (ACID). She said she was happy that Africa is fully behind the ICC inspite of the propaganda that has been spread in an argument that the ICC is only after African failures. She took on such points and reduced them to sheer cheap talk as she referred to the Rome Protocol with great clarity. The meeting was opened by the South African Commissioner in Norway H. E.Sisulu, BR who always does Africans in Norway proud in her insistence on peace and justice. There are 55, 000 Africans in Norway.

          Luis Moreno Ocampo

Ocampo was elected by consensus in an Assembly of State Parties to the Rome protocol in April 2003. On that day he said:

 "I deeply hope that the horrors humanity has suffered during the 20th century will serve us as a painful lesson, and that the creation of the International Criminal Court will help us to prevent those atrocities from being repeated in the future."

The Kenyan politicians and others, summoned to the ICC hope that things could be different for them, without Ocampo at the ICC. That way they think, one of them, Uhuru Kenyatta would be elected president of Kenya.

First they got many to use the propaganda that this court was western and only going for Africans. Then they got the AU and Gadaffi to try and help them out. The Arab Spring undid all the work they had put in. Some including Kenya's president Kibaki, had earlier suggested that they unsign the Rome Statute as did Sudan, Jordan and the United States of America in the past. This did not work. The Bush Administration unsigned the U.S.A. in May 2002.The effort Kenya made to get the UN Security Council to enforce a deferral on their case failed too.

Civilians can impact the ICC

It is to be noted that states that are not party to the Rome Statute can refer cases to the ICC as can civilians of any nation and also the UN Security Council. States that are not party to the Statute can be investigated by the ICC on the basis of the fact that it hosts citizens whose countries are party to the Rome Statute. 

Information received Friday 14th October, in Oslo while the Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda addressed the meeting on the topic: The ICC and Afrika, which way forward? indicated that some Kenyan politicians, led by the ones who are summoned to the Hague are doing their best to see that the next prosecutor will be someone who can sympathise with them.

They are thinking that since Ocampo’s term ends next year, their salvation would lie in a new prosecutor who would not be as determined as Ocampo has been on their case. They forget that there is a bench of judges and a plethora of other ‘cogs’ in this justice system.

        Will  justice be Africa's shield and defender?

Many judge Africa by the political leaders who fail the continent. A number of concientious African leaders, some of them who have died recently have left a legacy of peace and change in Africa. The name of the late Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Tajudeen Rahman kept coming up in inspiring and positive comments. Botswana was singled out as a country that is not allowing justice to be tampered with in its strong support for the ICC.

The idea that Kenya will try to support a new male prosecutor from Africa as the one who takes over from Luis Moreno Ocampo and who will be malleable is base. It is not intelligent. Thequality of wisdom lacked in Kenya’s election gone awry. Kenyan leaders only looked at raw power, more votes and not at the law. Thousands of people were made to feel the nation as an ethnic reality were cheated into violence.  Those trying to influence the ICC’s Prosecutor’s succession do not know that the ICC is organising a number of things to cope with its duty. They are trying to get a possible candidate from a country neighbouring Kenya.

Do they know that the ICC has a very strong African personell and one of them is a Deputy Prosecutor in  Mrs. Fatou Bensouda? She has her eyes trained on peace and justice in the world.

It is about the law and ICC’s mandate, She says urging all to read the Rome Statute. She wants to see justice not being hampered by borders. Bensouda if one is to judge by a few hours with her yesterday is magnetic in her pull for justice. She told us that she feels the urgency for Afrika where women in many places have to choose between going to fetch water and be raped or having their husbands killed all because some people do not want justice and peace. Behind her vision is powerful international support. Voice and Vote has learned, she has support from a big number of countries in Afrika and around the globe.

She is focused, energetic and young. She is passionate about the urgency for justice for so many, especially women, in Afrika so abused in crimes against humanity. She was moved deeply when a man in the audience narrated the situation in Darfur and called on the ICC to continue its quest for justice in Sudan. She thinks of Dafur and other places where justice is not being done and sleep becomes a luxury. She is ready to work and reminds all that civilians can call upon the court.

Kenya is holding a General Election in 2012

But first she must hold her peace. Those summoned before the court have been warned to stop using tribal blocks of people to argue that the country is being treated unfairly or for political mileage. Uhuru Kenyatta has particularly been engaged during his own defence in blaming Raila Odinga, the current Prime Minister. Uhuru and Ruto are in an alliance with Kalonzo Musyoka to push one of them, Uhuru Kenyatta, with the backing of president Kibaki, for the presidency in 2012.  Kibaki terms are over.

When Uhuru keeps blaming Odinga saying that he is being crucified for Raila’s sins, what is happening to the people of Kenya is the widening of the ethnic rift between the Luo and the Kikuyu people which the British opened to an incredible degree in Kenya’s colonial days.Citizens must lead to end this abuse which politicians and colonial powers used to rule us.

The last election in 2007 ended up in a deadlock and a peace process had to be set in place. The ethnic card is played in the making of political parties and more viciously it was used in the tension and violence that ensued after the 2007 election.  

The eve of 2008 raged with violence. Kenya was on fire for the early months of that year. After the death of 1333, many rapes and abuses of human rights, the International Criminal Court swung in investigations not only because Kenya is a signatory to the Rome Statute but also because the the judiciary system had lost credibility. The Chief Justice then Gichuru, swore Kibaki in fast before Kenyans could rationalise the outcome.Only the local Kenya Broadcasting Corporation was allowed to televise in some instances.

It was Koffi Annan, Graca Machel and Benjamin Mkapa who camped in Kenya to bring the peace. Kenyan civil society was praised for the role it played at a difficult time. The International Crisis Group’s Nairobi office had sent in Comfort Ero who addressed the meeting. She said Kenya ‘ s  case the “saving grace” of the ICC.

The matter of a local tribunal to redress this had been debated in Kenya. A member of Parliament had worked on a bill which Parliament did not pass. The ICC begun work to see if some Kenyan authorities had committed a crime against humanity.

2012

Kenyans may be in for a hard time. Organised violence because somebody did not win an election is deadly. The devil is in the planning. Whichever way this case goes, Kenya needs wisdom. The legacy of Wangari Maathai and Tajudeen Rahman should not go to waste. Kenyans must look at our ancestral deep roots of justice and peace and keep doors open to hope. It is not a case that will be easy.

The Deputy Prosecutor of the ICC Mrs Fatou Bensouda says that the ICC only moves on strong evidence and that Kenya’s case is not likely to be as easy as the Kenyan politicians seem to be thinking. “The ICC only moved because there is strong evidence against those who have been summoned,” She says.

Voices from the continent cried out to her. The voice of Darfur was present. Ethiopia and Eritrea too. The discussions on Ivory Coast and Liberia and Somalia were profound. One could not help but note that commitment to Africa is strong here. Africa’s must come to overflow.

In the conference, Her Excellency Sisulu spoke about Africa’s growing economy in many countries. She said African solutions must be found for Africa.  She regreted the loss of Wangari Maathai who died on September 25th but said that the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has gone to two African women is encouraging.

She quoted a Chinese philospher on peace Lao Tzu (570- 490 B.C). His Holiness the Tibetan Dalai Lama, and Nobel Peace Prize winner 1989,  was denied a visa by the South African government recently. He had been invited to attend Nobel Peace Prize winner 1984 Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday celebration on 6th October 2011.

Kenya had done that before quoting China as a trade partner. The big powers, China and the USA are not party to the Rome Statute. This, Comfort Ero said is the ICC’s single most significant problem. And yet, it is the easiest. It does not only a signature but the realisation that justice is indivisible. No justice, no peace. That humanity is threatened by those who would be violent. This wisdom has failed. Russia has signed but not ratified the Rome Statute according to Wikipedia.

Dr. Abiola Ogunsola, British born Nigerian lecturer at the University of East London and a feminist was articulate on women of Africa who said it is the place where the “I can!” spirit is fully alive. This is the spirit that leads African Foundation for Developm.nt, AFFORD, which she represented and which fosters that Africans abroad invest in Africa. It was touching to hear how Somalinas like Dr. Abdi Hassan are in a program which allows them six months of living in Somalia, a country he loves, to try and build peace and contribute to growth.

A poem for Wangari Wa Maathai, a tribute

http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Li-Ou/Maathai-Wangari.htmlhttp://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Li-Ou/Maathai-Wangari.html

We saw and felt her energy speaking like a girl! I danced with her in a meeting and she was full of vigor! That  was in Nyeri. I was in Oslo in June 2009 when she gave a wonderful speech. I shall not let her go quietly into that gentle night.. I rage! (Dylan Thoma's Poem)
 

Kenya has lost a brave, bold and humble warrior for freedom and the environment. Wangari Muta Maathai 
( her biography is titled Unbowed) is going to be sorely missed in Kenya. 


She was the first woman to become a doctor and a professor in Kenya. She is a Nobel laureate for Peace.


Wangari's voice united Kenyans. She was loved. She did not care for ethinic connections. She was just. She fought relentlessly for women and she planted trees and helped poor people to do the same. This way, they not only generated an income but also helped clean the environment.

Like most Kenyans I met Wangari. And felt that she was a friend. She was like that.

Wangari Wa Maathai
died on 26th September 2011

Poem for Wangari
by Philo Ikonya ©

After the tears-  Wangari
Trees are celebrating - Wangari
The rivers singing - Wangari
The women rising - Wangari
The girls winning - Wangari
The world is dancing- Wangari

It is breathing - Wangari
You cured our lungs - Wangari
You cleaned our water- Wangari

And as for poverty - Wangari
You run it out of town- Wangari
out of our villages - Wangari
On barefeet - Wangari
With ABC and 123 - Wangari

Dictators tremble - Wangari
Kenya victorious - Wangari
The earth so precious - Wangari
Wangari smiling Wangari

I dress myself with meaning- Wangari

In your name faith- Wangari

Of the leopard- Wangari

Bold like courage – Wangari

Focused and pouncing- Wangari

Bold mother of the land- Wangari

Daring keeper- Wangari

Of land and freedom- Wangari

Go well- Wangari

Rest in Peace- Wangari

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 Wangari Wa Maathai was the 2004 Nobel Prize Winner and the recipient of many other awards for her exceptional commitment, focus and courage. She linked up environmental issues with governance and indicted corruption. She was behind the women who stripped naked at Freedom Corner on the last day of February 1982 to force president Moi to release political prisoners. These prisoners of conscience had spent years languishing in the underground cells of Nyayo House and Nyati House just because they spoke their mind against Moi. IT was a very dark period in Kenya. Wangari was the only beacon of hope. After this the Release Political Prisoners organisation which now works for the disappeared of Kenya (some over 600 people in the days of President Kibaki.. see Philip Alston's Report.. ex Chief of investigations, UN.

 

You can read more about these brave women some of whom have lived to mourn Wangari.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/4187015

Wangari stood up alone against President Moi, a very dangerous man at the time. He wanted to build Times Tower right inside Uhuru Park. Uhuru means freedom and it is there that the Freedom Corner where women stripped is.  She won this battle. But again like in the case of the release political prisoners times, she was beaten, humiliated, arrested and taunted. 

In 2002 the people of Tetu Constituency elected Wangari to Parliament. It was such a joyous ocassion. She had wanted and had bid for the presidency of Kenya in 1997. Kibaki elected president in 2002 felt threatened by Wangari at all times. That is the way I saw it. That is why she was made an assistant minister for environment regardless of her more sophisticated knowledge and commitment to serving nature. That is why this president cold shouldered her before cameras in a UN meeting.

But it is he and Moi who mourn her now. And she will have a state burial. For this, I have none of them to thank. I thank Wangari for her resilience and her ever beautiful smile.

Only a very giften woman can be this simple and humble. She left a message that will inspire you. Look at it in seconds here on You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw

Now, isn't that refreshing?
Thank you Wangari!

The natural colour of your skin is lovely! Come my sister

Keep you black skin sister, I love your hair

Inspiration. Thinking about it, we fly with the sprightly spirit in the word! A la Ariel in The Tempest, we all propose to find inspiration off the ground, flying around somewhere. Topics about inspiration i agree have to have some air in them, some desire to be up there. And there is no better way of being inspired than starting in the way of loving oneself.

I do not know if many African men bleach their skins but it is common with the sisters. Whereas one can understand a need for a change of hair style, the skin is a rather sensitive and important organ to destroy! It is not dead cells!

I was walking with my friend PL in Oslo. She is so beautiful and of ebony color. We went into a shopping mall. I noticed that PL was uncomfortable. I looked at her and I got the hint. Trying on some smart and expensive stuff was an older looking woman (you never know about age these days) and she had bleached her lovely African skin to some non natural Fanta like look. In some countries in Africa such people are actually called Fanta girls. You can always tell the natural so called lighter or brown skin from this one. She also had harsh pencil lines for eyebrows. This type of woman has to have a long wig. I had seen a totally blond one in Heathrow only last week. A sleek woman had it on. A little girl gifted with more melanin was looking at her. I hoped she was not asking where she could get such a wig.

I think we have to inspire ourselves by loving our natural self. No need to fly. Just touch your skin and love its own color. I fear the west did a lot of damage to our psyche and this is not going away.

Black dolls

On the other hand, I was so happy to see a father drawing his little one on carrier. Next to the chubby caucasian baby was a lovely black doll. I loved that. It was inspiring. I believed that baby would never think not to love anyone for reasons of darkness. I do hope that this person treats all people well and without prejudice and not just loves dolls. As for shop keepers and sellers..stock more of these! Make them famous. We in Afrika for ages had only Caucasian dolls around. Often you find black ones at home now but they are most often made of fabric meaning big toy makers may not be fully into the idea. I feel we must try out best to give a whole people their self esteem back. I mean also in India where casts dominate and the darker one is apparently the less beautiful or important they are. We are simply equal. Skin is not a gauge even for beauty!

I think in that behaviour of hating one’s own skin many are to blame. Models are normally chosen even if African from the less dark Africans. I was shocked to hear that from Judy, an African -American. She said she felt small and black and all her lighter colored friends got the jobs. Shame. We made her feel small. In some countries you can live in a suburb depending on the shade of your skin. We shamed South Africa for apartheid, fought and won but we are guilty of not having moved as a world without colour bar! Two old words still applicable ! At home in Africa also many people praise their ‘brown’ child above the darker one in some cases. I know we are free to love our natural ‘blonds’ but not at the expense of hating who we are naturally. But fine, do what you like with your body and hair! You are free. Only remember that this is often based on despising oneself. I dislike it very much especially to see someone like that in Europe. I know that there even tablets for it. I know many famous people did this and that to self.. but how can I inspire your spirit if you hate your body? It is hard. We see these as very separate but they are deeply connected no doubt!

In my house and stories, I have lovely black dolls. I am not afraid to quote from my work because this is genuine. Of course am not saying eliminate the caucasian one! Look@ Kenya, will you marry me? my latest novel published in May 2011. I have:

“They need to sit on my little arm chair at home and 'eat stories' and food. I need them. They are dolls with black hair and skins. Lovely dolls dressed colorfully. Meet Savaiva. Savaiva does not have clothes on. She used to wear clothes before. Now, she ties a loose cloth over her shoulders. This loose cloth, is expected to cover her below the waist. Someone beat her up. Someone tore off her clothes. Did you hear the silence? Silence must be broken, this pain must break the the silence, like a flood breaks banks, and pours out. “ Philo Ikonya ©

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“I forgot to tell you. I made Pamoja long, long ago. She keeps all our history close to heart and always tells it to her younger brother Umoja and his friends. When she speaks, all the girls gather around her long pleated skirt that spreads out on the ground so that they can all sit down. She is the pillar that stands in a skirt but who the skirt honors in its round wide shape, like a home. She is a griot who does not only recite history; she tells people what signs of trouble to watch out for. She is not the only seer in the village. One of her stories is about how women see. She says that women have to sight many, many moons in different shapes and forms. The world does not understand them easily for women will say just what they see in the smallest crescent of the tiniest moon. Men like these women are rare. Now you have met many of us, but do not worry. We are easy people. You are one with us. Together, we are of many colors and we like how we look: tar, chocolate, café au lait, black, ripe mango color and tea au lait and even white like milk. Baba brought me a brand new Caucasian doll from Nairofii. I did not remember giving it a name. It could eat and drink and cry. We were all amazed. Maybe he got it as a gift, may be he bought her in a shop. Everyone in the family and some in the village talked about the doll and how wonderful she looked with long blonde eyelashes that fluttered over her beautiful blue eyes. Differences should fascinate.

“How did she go to the toilet?” became a common question. As if it could be any different, except of course in a doll that has no life. All ours do. The question was a good one in the village. The Caucasian doll one day asked a question. It was about her mother's nipples. She asked if she had just seen them on De Gado's mother. Same darkness. She wanted warm milk. The same milk. We were happy she did not ask that same old tired question, “Oh, why are the palms of our hands and the soles of our feet the same color?” Did you think that some peoples blood was really blue and others white? I get tired of this story. It nearly tore Kenya apart when she was young in 1962. It wanted us apart and separated by color of skin. We somehow beat it. De Gado asks if we really did or if we just pretended to. I did not expect that our children still had to deal with it both at home and abroad. It is so strange a fascination. It is too old fashioned. Kenya will you marry me? Philo Ikonya©

Honestly, President Kibaki!

President of Kenya

Mwai Emilio Kibaki

June 2011

In which direction are you steering Kenya?

It is June 2011. The people of Kenya are starving again. Some have died of hunger and from boiling and drinking the hot juice of poisonous wild berries. This happens as usual in Turkana. I saw the images of starving women and children in 2009. I saw them dying and I could not sleep. I screamed. I cried out loud with two young men. We were arrested and accused of Illegal Assembly. Three people in an assembly? We are out on bond for many similar arrests.

The next day we saw your sleek motorcade heading out of State House. We tried to tell you our pain but you could not be reached. Your motorcade, just like Moi's, is too powerful and fast. It can crush us to death too. On 18^th of February 2009, I was arrested on Parliament Road for explaining to the people that our politicians do not care about our land. That we do not starve for lack but because of greed. Your friends do not tell you the truth many people say, but do you not see for yourself?

Besides the hunger and the thirst to death, many people in Kenya cannot afford the prices of food today, and that has been proven to be due to corruption on prices. It is not about the price of oil from Libya and if it were, we also know that you have not addressed the question of oil prospection in Kenya properly. You preferred to work with China on this. China is slow to find oil for us for very obvious reasons. Her company, the media and others told you in 2006, drags its feet on this. Canadian companies took a shorter period to find oil in neighboring Uganda which is now bullying our islands and you are quiet.

Mainly since you are a graduate of the London School of Economics and you endured much under KANU, I wanted to hear you speak un-doubting leadership so that the youth of Kenya would stop crying. I wanted to hear your voice regarding the many disappeared youth of Kenya, and specifically in Central Province and if you could not speak, I wanted to see a positive impact of action from your office.

Some say that you have built up good roads in Kenya. This means that more tourists should flock to Kenya to fly around too on Kenya Airways and other crafts. But Mr. President, there are many types of roads in and out of a country. Some say that you are a calm and quiet man who no longer calls his people Pumbavu, and not to be disturbed, but Mr President, I wish I could hear your voice heal Kenya. I wish I could see you talk to her about values that we share. I wish I could see them become part of your legacy. I wish I would not see your mind protecting people summoned by the International Criminal Court. Above all, I had wanted to see the difference between you and the former presidents of Kenya, especially Moi.

When Moi left office, he wanted Uhuru Kenyatta to become the president of the Republic of Kenya. Moi openly said he disliked Raila very much and you have learned from Moi not to heal this hatred, knowing full well that it brings two big communities in Kenya into a confrontation which has tended to define Kenyan politics since it was introduced by the British colonialist in Operation Anvil and many other hideous actions against Kenyans. Where is your wisdom? Are you any different when even after Uhuru Kenyatta features among six men summoned by the International Criminal Court at the Hague for the post poll violence of 2007, you would support him?

Honestly, Kibaki, am so ashamed of you. I have not forgotten that some months ago, you burned my Grandmother’s granary so that you could see the words as you swore yourself back to power on the strength of a flawed election. I cannot forget this because many people, {the government figure is 1, 333} died. 500 000 people, if figures could be so round, were displaced and it has taken time to change their names from Internally Displaced Persons, a name they got overnight when their homes and livelihoods were burnt up in hot fire, to Kenyans who are striving to begin again. The Waki Report is trashed.

I am ashamed of you because you live at a time when the world, especially in Kenya where Justice is supposed to be our shield and defender, the disappearance of even 6 people, should keep you sleepless. But your government shuns the truth about the disappearance of hundreds. Disappearance of people is not to be tolerated in any society, Mr. President. Now, the denial by your government of a report by Philip Alston a Special Rapporteur of the UN, that over 600 young men have disappeared in your time as president in Kenya, is not a footnote to your history. 

I could not care less where these people come from. I do not want to here list names so that I then should continue answering questions just because these people come from one region. No. I ask for them as I would ask for any disappeared human beings in any part of the world. This word 'disappeared' is not to be taken lightly. It is a serious indicator of impunity in a government. A terrible and worrying sign for the future. Disappearances, whether in Chile, Colombia or anywhere follow those in power to their graves. You know, your government has denied consistently, a report on the disappeared people of Kenya, the desaparecidos.

At the London School of Economics and before in Makerere, you were brilliant. In 1978, when Moi could not stand the liberty of the pen, you attended the launch of Petals of Blood, by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Traditionally, justice is not foreign to any of us. We know that actually most Afrikan societies believed and pursued justice. Could you please tell me why you do not see what I see or feel what poor people feel? You endured pain under a dictator. I am surprised that in your time, more than any other justice and human rights are so often cited as things from the West and people who stand for them ridiculed and not appreciated. In the community in which you were born in 1932, it is said, and this is still repeated in an active proverb, that one pays here on earth for what is done here on earth. Wathi urihagirwo o thi.

Have you noticed that you pay practically nothing while you set up the rest of the community you hail from up for trouble? Would you be shocked to know that many of us from that region were surprised that you were vying for presidency in 2007? Could plain prudence not tell you how the country was going if the national intelligence did not? Intelligence? They say their reports on the violence awaiting Kenya in 2007 were ignored. How you make our children pay for your sins!

We have our own Kenyan constitution since August 2010. After many years since the first effort to get a new constitution in 1991, we gave ourselves one that is quite different from the Lancaster Constitution. We support and are signatories to many international conventions and organs of justice. We see reason in facing the difficulties of this world with a global perspective. Almost all nations on their own could turn despotic, after all they are ruled by human beings and we all need to watch out. Kenyans have been alive to the course of justice for many years. I am ashamed however, that I have to register in my days the times when this country, Kenya, has been least of what was expected, many years after independence. Why are identity documents such as Identity Cards and passport still an issue in Kenya? Why are millions of youth kept down by this unable to participate fully in their national lives?

Why has the Republic of Uganda disrespected our boundaries? Why are you silent about Libya and the rest of Afrika? Do you not care for our continent? Why would you receive Museveni of Uganda at home while his opponent lay in a Kenyan hospital being treated for injuries caused by Ugandan police brutality? What do you think about police brutality in Kenya? Why did your government secretly invite Omar Al Bashir to the launch of our new constitution? Why did you visit Gadaffi in the past to discuss oil in Kenya when you knew too long he had been a dictator? Why did your government reach out to him to try and kill Kenya's case before the International Criminal Court?

I used to know it in my deepest self, that forty years after independence Kenya would harvest her endless struggles and fill her granaries with wonderful produce, a great name. I was sure I would play my role in bringing this forward. I thought you were one of the most rational persons in our country and I threw my weight behind your unspoken dream in 2002 as did most of the country. We believed what other people said of you- Kibaki tosha. Most of the time you were quiet and watching as if when you got the chance to lead us, we would fly as smoothly as this plane on which am writing this article after so many months of thinking. The craft flies without hesitation.

I have to tell you that since a year and half ago  I have been away from Kenya not out of choice but in exile after my life was made impossible by people who work for you, I have seen so many changes. I have seen how people focus and move their country with collective responsibility step by step to its future. Step by step to its greater security. I have been always in Kenya, in spirit I never left and with the news I see that Kenya marches on the same spot. Marches through the sun and the rain.Marches through winds. Marches in the dust. Marches and marches and marches. You must tell those who are pleased with you to challenge you much more. Psychopancy is not new. As long as mothers fear for their children and for the country, we cannot say you are succeeding!

On 31^st December 2010, Kenyans celebrated Six years since the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. You talked about the possibility of reneging this ratification, why?

I have seen that your Parliament has recently moved a motion to withdraw from the Rome Statute. Before this, I had heard you make this consideration as if jokingly many months ago. If the you, as the President of Kenya signs this into law, I will always remember that you sowed the seed of doubt and showed little regard for the ICC first.

On 15th March 2005, Kenya ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Kenya became party to the Statute as country number 98 and today the ICC has 108 members. The Statute entered into force for Kenya on 1st June 2005, a day Kenya celebrates having received internal or self governance from the British in 1963, Madaraka Day.

Coming back to today, if the people who died as a result of post poll violence, normally quoted as 1 333, they maybe more, do not get justice, if the women raped and those 500 000 displaced people do not get justice can we say we have internal self government? We are the ones who have failed to provide justice for them.

But honestly, Kibaki, you know that before December 30^th 2007 when the presidential results of the General Election were announced almost in a way that mocked us the people who celebrated your inaugration after your first election in 2002, you never had a doubt about the ICC. Now you do because it does not suit you.  I know that I have seen how you regard the international community as one that bothers Kenyans from time to time, but the signing of a statute is a different matter. Can we really say the people have internal self government today?

I feel that Kenya has sold out our self governance yesterday. Indeed in the first place, the people should have been the main celebrants in the promulgation of the new constitution which we say, we the people of Kenya, give ourselves.” Instead military power took centre stage and we did not even know our full guest list.

In an endless night of watching rights abuse with only a few candles left to burn, I see Bashir astride our lands in Africa, from Chad to Kenya, Cairo and Sudan and I see a graveyard of human rights without hope as Africa looks more to China today. Who will stand with us? The U.S. A is not part of the I.C.C and Europe is being bashed as the colonial past machinery in Africa. Yes, we can stand alone and we did, but how does the world justify international diplomacy, the UN and all the money we pay to have a ministry of Foreign Affairs, and all that Diplomatic Corp in Nairobi from where it serves the Horn of Africa? We are, especially we the women who are raped daily in Congo and in Darfur and other places, betrayed all the time. Where do we begin?

Kenya has bound herself by law to facilitate the work of the ICC because Kenya has signed up to do so. Kenya did not do that. A valid question is, therefore, what does any law, including the constitution of Kenya mean to the Kenyan state? You said we Kenyans are difficult people. Why should we be easy in the circumstances. Honestly, Mr. President, tell me, is your heart concerned about the future generations of Kenya, our children? Really?

I am not writing to ask for presidential pardon which you excercise in your prerogative of mercy as Head of State. I am writing to remind you that we do not need to pray about corruption in Kenya, as you asked us to do the other day. In being against corruption we can answer our own prayers. I am full of questions about where and how you want Kenya to remember you. Remember I was always interested in speaking out and you were once told that when I was introduced to you at the Democratic Party offices where you had an office and they called you Chairman. Even then, I have to point out, you really did not have much time for ordinary people as they are poor. I wish for Kenya, a good change. I imagine that you will not tolerate Kenya falling back into violence in 2012.

Next year we have another General Election, there is little time but we had plenty of it for healing after your election disagreement with Raila in 2007 and 2008 when Kenyans were organised to kill one another because of your votes.

Philo Ikonya

Kenyan

Writer in Exile