I was just thinking…

Try as I might, I am unable to write other ‘nicer’ posts. I am unable to tear myself away from the goings-on in Kenya. I have therefore allowed myself some time to go on writing about Kenya, for a while. I suppose, like one with a bad stomach-ache, I need to vomit it all out, to clear my system. After that, I will feel better, and resume regular programming. In the meantime, I was just thinking…

1. The silence by our women leaders is deafening. Apart from Wangari Maathai, I am yet to hear from others. Martha Karua might as well have snubbed that interview on BBC’s Hardtalk! At best, it made me cringe with indignation. Women are known to quell raging fires that men carelessly light. It would have been comforting to hear the voices of Aida Odinga, Lina Chebii, Sally Koskey, Beth Mugo, Charity Ngilu and others, urging Kenyans not to slaughter each other. A mother’s call for sobriety.  However, I am grateful that one famous Lucy has been quiet.
2. Samuel Kivuitu owes Kenyans a book, which I predict would be a Best Seller in Kenya and beyond. What with the recent world-wide media coverage!  I am waiting for that book. And I hope it will be 600+ pages.
3. Kivuitu would do well in a theatrical arts career. He has all it takes, and what’s even better, is he does not need to ‘get into character’. He will just be himself. Not that he has a job anyway, or is he still the Chairman of the Electoral Commission?
4. Didn’t the ECK have a solid 5 years to prepare for the just concluded elections? Simple Excel spreadsheets would have gone along way in ensuring correct tallies! Golly me! What’s more, for just a pittance of a salary, there is a good lot of budding Kenyan techies who would been excited to come up with a vast selection of exciting web-based interfaces for ECK to do a good job.
5. When all has been said and done, and when dust finally settles, I pray that somebody will be answerable for the innocent that were massacred in Kenya. Even us we grapple with current impasse, I hope that someone somewhere is preparing a lawsuit. Did we say we want justice? I too would like to see justice done. I want a day to come when politicians will be answerable to the consequences of their words and actions. What happened in Kenya recently was not ’spontaneous’ , it was well planned. By somebody.

Last year, well before the general elections took place, I extended an invitation to a Kenyan couple that we regularly meet at Church, to come for dinner to our house. This past Sunday, I met the lady and amidst talking about the state of affairs in Kenya, I reminded her of the invitation, which we agreed is still on. Moments after we talked, it occured to me…….. they are Luo and we are Kikuyu. For a moment, I got wondering, will they come? Will they trust my food? Will they have some hidden machetes? I know it’s not a laughing matter but,  surely,  this cannot be the way we want to move forward, can it be?