What is your tribe? Not in a million years
did I ever think I will ask this question until last week when I attended and
spoke to a Christian gathering. After thirty minutes of an eloquent sermon on what
I believe Christian faith is all about, the audience burst into an ecstatic and
thunderous applause.
Satisfied, I begged to leave as soon the
presiding pastor had said the closing prayer because I had more pressing things
to attend to.
While quickly descending the stairs I heard someone calling after
me, I hesitantly halted and turned around: A balding man, in
ill-fitting,oversize black suit,whom I presumed to be in his middle age was
trying to catch up with me. He was surprisingly agile, considering his age,
that piqued my interest.
He held out his hand with an enormous grin
on his face, ‘that was a powerful sermon’, he said as my hand disappeared in
his
‘Thanks’; I answered with a comparatively
lesser smile, still unsure of what he really wanted to say
Without flinching his gaze, he dropped the
bombshell, ‘are you Kamba, Luo or Luhya?’
I could have answered that question in an
instant but I deliberately paused to think. He had hardly looked at ease the
entire duration I was preaching, I recalled retrospectively.
‘I am neither’, I decided to break the
silence that had fallen between us, ‘I am a writer’, I added
Frustrated, ‘even writers belong to some
tribe, don’t they?’ the smile had vanished
It might just be me but the sound of that
question brings a little vomit into my mouth each time I encounter it, I did
not respond thinking that, it would discourage him. It did not
‘Where do you come from?’, he changed tact
‘Eldoret’, I answered almost immediately
‘I mean originally, where do you come
from?’
‘Would you please excuse me if you have
nothing else to say’, I cut in, ‘I have a bus to catch’
I left him standing there like a
statue,absolutely distraught, with his eyes boring into my back until I
disappeared around the corner. Confused thoughts wracked my brain as I walked
away, I wondered if knowing someone’s tribe is such a big issue to make someone
so restless to the point of missing a whole sermon just trying to figure
out? Unlike most Kenyans my name and
accent doesn’t give any clue as to which ethnicity I belong to perhaps that is
why the middle aged man had ran after me to satisfy his ethnic curiosity.
Here I should stress that there is nothing
wrong with telling someone what ethnicity you belong to but for me and for most
of us, the effect of post poll violence was profoundly personal consequently I
have decided to be known by the identity I have chosen, learnt and developed
over the years. It is my firmly held belief someone’s ethnicity is an intensely
personal and private matter, it should be seen like that. Infact, my tribe has
absolutely nothing to say about my personality.
You would assume that we would have learnt
our lesson as a nation by now but events of the past few weeks give a
horrifyingly different picture. The re-emergency of previously defunct tribal
groupings such as GEMA and KAMATUSA is a real ground for concern. I presume by
now you [editor] are inundated by letters on this matter, so I’ll keep mine
brief. These groups represent the worst side of old politics that I thought to
be dead and buried. Forgive me for being frank but it is my conviction that in
a country as diverse and multicultural as ours, such groups are simply not
acceptable. I have not been alone in thinking like this, reading all the major
dailies the past one week prove that such groups are plainly rattling many.
I know I’m going to get absolutely
slaughtered for this but I feel obliged to let this bearing weight off my
chest, GEMA and KAMATUSA don’t represent the interests of communities they
purport to but those of money men fighting for power and bankrolling them. The
sad fact is, these groups are responsible for fragmenting this country along
tribal lines and what is more baffling is that it is going on right under the
noses of the president and the prime minster. Why would GEMMA support Uhuru
Kenyatta and not William Ruto? Perhaps on the grounds that this is the devil
they know. It is worth bearing in mind that, when the NCIC organized the
diversity conference last month, which I was privileged to attend most of these
tribal chiefs gave it a wide berth. You would expect that anyone who aspires
for office of presidency would be there but that is not what happened.
To sum up,I am trying very hard not to be
pessimistic but to believe it is possible reclaim this country from the hands
of tribal chiefs. Don’t think for one minute that this is going to be easy but
we have to try because the cost of doing nothing is unbearable. We owe it to
the victims of PEV who were killed in appalling atrocities,an event
unparalleled in the history of this country. We owe it to our country. This is
what I believe so must you also that we can build a country where everyone
hopes for the same things and treasures the same values.
BONNKE
MUTI’AS
YOUR
