ETHNIC WARLORDS DIVIDING KENYA

By Netia Shuindu
netiashiundu@yahoo.com

With reference to your article above, I would like to seek your opinion on a scenario that is rarely if ever mentioned, namely that Kenya should go the way of the former Yugoslavia.

It might seem simplistic but one of the assumptions that ethnic chauvinists seem to have is that Kenya as a state will always be there. Yet none of them seem to have contemplated an end-game that almost happened should the 2008 PEV have spiraled out of control.

It seems we as Kenyans have acquired a taste for ethnicity on both personal and political levels and this reminds me of the historical Israelites who at one point also had acquired a taste for idols.

As part of God's judgment, they were invaded, pillaged and forced into exile where the hardship and shame of being slaves made them lose the taste for idols and upto today, Israelites have never ever been prone to idolatry.

Kenyans practice negative ethnicity because they assume that Kenya will always be there. I subscribe to a personal belief that a taste of the former Yugoslavia model of national breakdown would offer the best hope of a rebirth devoid of ethnic chauvinism.

It might seem simplistic but yet again after 49 years of independence, Kenya is proving a bad return for Kenyans esp the poor who are living from day to day, grateful if they have something to eat and a place to sleep.

The gross injustices and inequities in our increasingly fragmented society point to the need for a rebirth of the Kenyan nation. Our society is now more fragmented than at anytime before and the worst perpetrators are those who would know better from politicians to the educated elite.

Kenya needs to die in order for it to live again. Only by having a taste of no-Kenya would there be any hope of building a new Kenya.

Thanks

NS