Dear Sir/Madam, 02.01.2019
Ref: An open
letter to the Kenyan Peace Builders Initiative
Happy
new year to you all,
Allow
me address each one of you in your capacities as elders with due respect you
deserve. From the day you took the responsibility to work around the bridge peace
building initiative, you all became enthusiastic and well-focused and you seemed
to know what you were out to do. In the eyes of many Kenyans politics took an
upper hand and party alignment and loyalty became a display, you all wanted a
prevailing peace to take place. Each one of you represented your interests of
who appointed you to the committee. You take the risk to get into the political
Kenyan drammers, with a good intention of making them sober up.
I
am one kind of person who is very curious to take risks to know people at a
closer range. To know and help a drammer, you should have travelled on that
route so as to help the drammer, lest you are simply becoming an academic emotional
diffuser. The intervening rage, hatred, sadistic emotions and contempt seem to
be part and parcel of the Kenyan society, because we never address such issues
publicly.
Building
a peace initiative or what you loved to call it Kenya bridge peace initiative
should also carry peace in each one of you.
You
cannot not give or construct a bridge of peace if your own backyard is stinking
due to waste disposal of hate, tribalism, tribal clashes, discrimination and political
rivalry. Most of us have learnt to suppress the impulses of hate, anxiety and
love, reproducing memories of situations in many bad ways.
It’s
my deep utmost prayer that each one of you carry something personal to share
with other committee members this New Year 2019. Individually as committee member
of this committee what are you bringing of a traditional, ethical, moral value
of your tribe to share with others to learn.
I
want to think good in each one of you in good faith, that you have no political
interest whatsoever, of course many will think and say we are political beings
and we are all entitled to take a stand in political matters more so in Kenya where
politics is part and parcel of life, we eat, talk, play, and think politics
24/7.
You
were chosen because you have lived in Kenya, witnessed great unfolding that the
nation has gone through since independence to date, you sound to be wise men
and people of substance, for that we say thanks for your different experiences
open to great hopes for this multi-coloured nation, but remember the future you
are building has to connect with the young people. These same strong wasted
force that is mobilized every five years, give few shillings to become lethal
to everyone, even to themselves in the long run. If the young men are not
involved in this dream peace bridge building initiative, sorry to let you know
the committee will be collecting water with a basket and expecting to fill the
water tank.
We
have 43 or so tribes in Kenya, and the country seems to be talking only about
top three as if other tribes don’t matter. There are issues you have to carry
along in 2019 and we what to be part of this talk in our small way down there
in the rural areas, schools, colleges, barasas, churches, mosques, market
place, matatus, buses and name it.
1.
Building
peace bridges starts when my grandmother can engage and she becomes part of the
talk about bridge peace initiative. If herself is not even sure whether that
bridge cross road made of wooden will be repaired for her so that she does not
get occupied of falling into the river, during rainy season, that to her
occupies her, very concrete and vivid, her life is there.
2.
Involve
young men in your discussions country wide and allow them talk and say all they
feel
3.
Listen
to those tribes who have never talked or their voices heard, you all know who
they are.
4.
Break
off yourselves from tribal associations however much you have a tribe at the
end of the day…building a bridge, builders never write their names on it, but
the engineering construction firm, how long it will take, which sometimes
elapses without a true shape but money is spent, how much it will cost, how
many people will it employee, more so the locals of the place and the
structural law that guides the construction etc
5.
Be
transparent in your dealings, don’t say one thing as a group and the say something
else in your tribal barasas in your villages
which doesn’t create cohension.
6.
Peace builders have to be Christians, no necessarily
belonging to any institutionalized, structured hierarchy but respecting God in
the first place and respecting people in their humility in collaboration,
interreligious dialogue, the kingdom of God made real hinc et nunc.
7.
Involve
the women in your discussions. Women do a lot of behind the scenes work when it
comes to peace initiatives, this should be brought on board and recognized.
8.
Kenyans
have to be educated right from kindergarten to the highest institutions that
peace is a lifelong process that goes beyond five years or two term presidency.
This starts and ends in families, once the family is ruined with no peace then don’t
expect it out there with politicians.
9.
Institutions
should not be tribalised, the national map should not only remain on paper but
should be felt in every ministerial department.
10.
The
agenda four issues should be addressed concretely
11.
The
integrity chapter of the constitution should not be politicized, or polarized
12.
Stop
the board office meetings in Nairobi, get down on peace talk, social media
platforms, create concrete day to celebrate national diversity.
I
remain sincerely a true son of the soil and patriot at heart,
