PROGRESS CAN NEVER TOLERATE INTOLERANCE

In our struggle to become a united nation, several obstacles have continued to thwart our quest.

One such obstacle is undoubtedly tribalism . Just like you,  I have been involved in many discussions on tribalism. Most of them will quickly degenerate into a blame game with the politician on the receiving end.

While the politician remains indicted for his tribal dance moves, we must concede  that it’s the mwananchi who is playing the tribal music.

The ordinary Kenyan thrives on irrational love and irrational hate. .’While irrational love may at worst engender foolish acts of indiscretion,’  Chinua Achebe warns that ‘irrational hate can endanger the life of a community’ It is our failure to heed this warning that led to the Kenyan conflict of 2008.

Why are Kenyans including the young and the educated so intolerant in a century that demands the opposite?

This past week social media has been ablaze with accusations directed at Abraham Mutai who recently made headlines for exposing corruption in Isiolo for which he was arrested and detained.

Abraham Mutai , going by the twitter handle @ItsMutai  is accused of having attended the recent African Union summit in Addis Ababa on alleged government sponsorship.

Despite him showing the invitation letter from the AU which invited him to attend the meeting as a journalist, the attacks have gone on and nearly gone viral.

This wave of attacks serves to reveal an archaic political culture that for long has remained polluted with despicable intolerance and militant extremism.

In this old and outdated model, the lines between the opposition and government are written in blood red. Supporters are then herded like cattle into holding pens that are styled as political parties when in essence they are no more than slave cages.

The culmination of this hate driven politics is that loyalty is measured by your capacity to be in agreement with all your party policies and positions no matter how obnoxious they are.

When in govt. the expectation is that you incessantly sing praises to the the government of the day like a parrot in a permanent trance of sycophancy.

Any attempt to see sense on the opposite side of the political divide is quickly met with preposterous accusations of impropriety.

There are parliaments on this planet, in which voting outside your political party’s preferred position is not viewed as a capital political offence.  On the contrary you may be praised as a maverick who places national interest above partisan positions.

If we were a country devoid of political intolerance, I would have expected to see several govt. MPs vote with opposition and some opposition members vote with government on the security bill last December. Such exercise of political maturity and patriotism appears like an abomination in Kenya.

The culture in our country that being in opposition means enmity to govt. and vice- versa is way past its ‘sell-by-date’ if it was ever palatable.

We don’t expect the govt to be always right and in that regard an opposition movement must offer an alternative policy.However, should the govt make the right call , shouldn’t a genuine opposition be honest even humble enough to applaud it? Again in this country honesty and humility often leads to political crucifixion.

Recently this policy of intolerance in the two major political movements was explicitly put on display during the call for a referendum on constitutional reforms. Both Jubilee and CORD coalitions threatened their members who would dare use their conscience before making a choice on whether to support the referendum or not with dire consequences including expulsion from either movement and loss of their seats. If you thought that such threats were so KANU, you share one more ideology with me.

We have unwittingly grown into a nation that criminalizes freedom of association.

Today, when an opposition member is seen in a photo with the president, they must quickly clarify (as did Hon. Hassan Omar Hassan ) or face allegations of being moles (as did happen to Hon Ababu Namwamba).

It makes me wonder how convictions built over a lifetime can all be lost in one moment of handshake with the president. In fact such a stance confers non-existent ‘mystical powers’ on the latter.

If our nation is going to enjoy the fruits of unity, progressive voices must loudly rise above petty and calculated extremism. We must assert that we can no longer tolerate intolerance.

TRIBALISM: THE DARK PRIMITIVE INSTINCT.

Human evolution has been a journey of survival. We are the survivors –through our ancestors- of great earthquakes, countless disease epidemics, extreme weather conditions, famines, human-wildlife conflicts and some nasty wars.

Central to our survival story has been the need to adapt – shedding baggage and acquiring the wings to take flight towards the bright new horizon.

One and half a century ago, Charles Darwin developed a theory published under the title ‘origins of species by natural selection.’ Through this theory we learn that variations that occur randomly within a species can confer advantage or disadvantage thereby determining survival or the extinction of a species.

Natural instincts must have developed as part of the natural selection process. In this regard we can safely assume that all instincts initially had some positive value. The motherly instinct, procreation, fight or flight responses and territorial-ism are instincts that helped our cave-dwelling ancestors to survive the savage contingencies of their age.

The coming of civilization has rendered certain human instincts at once irrelevant and harmful. Revenge, anger, greed and tribal loyalty are incompatible with civilization hence men led by intellect have formulated laws which negatively reinforce these primitive tendencies by severe punishment culminating in suppression, disuse and programmed attrition of retrogressive behavior.

Tribal loyalty has seen better days: When communities positively responded to their instincts of fighting over resources such as water, food and grazing land. Those were the dramatic days of ‘survival for the fittest’. ‘In the incessant inter-tribal wars of those days, heroes were as thick as the flies that throve on the battlefields they created for their glory.’ (Bindeh’s gift by Sarif Easmon). 

To survive in these perilous times, political organization around a common language and common culture was of unquestionable primacy. The tribe was born. Tribal loyalty became established and has since outlived its welcome and gate crashed our golden age of cooperation, nationalism and globalization.

Tribal loyalty is at the heart of many human conflicts. It is the hidden driver of the Israel-Palestinian crisis. It was partly responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It is this same instinct that led to the Nazi policy of expanding its lebensraum (living space) partly resulting in the second global war. Many human lives have been lost over an identity that is as abstract as they come.

Will human intelligence triumph over this dark primitive instinct?

Tribal instincts like racist instincts are firmly entrenched in the human psyche. Embracing tribal instincts is as easy as gliding downstream the happy river to destruction. Defying the natural tendency demands one to run ahead in evolution. This attempt to aid evolution can itself result in violent conflict between the person and his society.

If the laws of evolution were left in place and nature allowed its course, tribal instincts would meet their extinction between 200 to 300 hundred years from today. There is no certainty that this journey will be marked by tranquility.

Education and civilization have given us the power to defy nature. Why should we wait for 200 to 300 hundred years to bury ‘the tribe’ that was proclaimed dead at the birth of civilization and independence?

Every human being has the power to destroy his own tribal instincts. On a large scale, this could form a new survival story based on artificial selection and reaffirm the place of Homo sapiens in history as a truly intelligent organism.

RUFAA MAHUTUTI : SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT. By Dr Boniface Chitayi.

The health workers in Kenya have the answer to the question of public health. They have had these solutions for the past 50 years .The generations that came before us were as passionate as the current one on matters public health.

However every time we articulate these solutions, we are dismissed. We are told to go back to the wards and treat. We are told that we have no business in management. We are harshly silenced.  The result is that since 1965, virtually anybody and everybody has been at the apex of the health ministry except the health expert.

In the end the health system in Kenya has been run on trial and error for the past 50 years.

When Kenyans sit back in the evening to watch the horrors unfolding in the corridors of a national referral hospital, they are staring at the accumulation of errors of management and government neglect over the past 50 years.

I hope that after the airing of the ‘rufaa mahututi’(a critically ill referral system) on K24, no hypocrite will rush to KNH to look for scapegoats in the hapless KNH casualty workers for cheap PR reasons.The scenes aired in that feature have nothing to do with the ineptitude of the worker but everything to do with chronic miscalculations and systemic failures.

KNH is only an embodiment of a dysfunctional health system that was left behind five decades back. The hospital itself is performing the functions of 47 referral hospitals.The poor Kenyans who come to the public hospitals for treatment are what Alex La Guma in his short story, ‘out of darkness’ refers to as the ‘wreckage which mankind left behind in its onward march’. This is the guilt of the whole nation and crucifying the health worker will never wash away the sins of the health care system.

In fact, all health workers still working for government deserve the highest medal of honour in Kenya ,perhaps EBS, for their patriotic service. The most sensible of us resigned many years back and fled into exile in various countries around the globe. Others are in private practice and NGOs.

The few health workers remaining in the system are only doing so in the stretched hope that somehow things might change someday. That somebody with the goodwill and the expertise will come a long and fix the system. The longer the wait, the more health experts throw in the towel.

We the health workers have the solutions to the ailing system and have known all along how to make it work. We can in a few years fix the mess and save Kenyans from this hell-on-earth that public health has been all these years.

However our solutions like the proverbial ‘stone that builders rejected’ have been ignored in preference to the incantations of what a young kenyan doctor – Paul Bundi calls ‘charlatans’.

There can never be a better time for the whole nation to embrace a change of heart and join the health experts in their quest to reclaim the health sector. Kenyan citizens should not be quick to accept mediocrity but must challenge leadership.

Kenyans, drop that gullible demeanor and ask your leaders why they do not bring their family members to be treated in public hospitals as a sign of patriotism and faith in the public health system.

The celebrated Kenyan master playwright the late Francis Imbuga in his book ‘betrayal in the city’ once said and I quote ‘When the madness of an entire nation disturbs a solitary mind, its not enough to say the man is mad’.

 

 

 

A NEW BLOG IS BORN!

Following a lot of encouragement from my friends, I am happy to announce that a new blog has finally arrived. It will be called ‘kalamusscriptorius’ which translates to ‘ a pen that writes’.

The new forum will be used to articulate subjects close to my heart: History, government, science and society. I welcome all my friends who wish to share their articles on kalamusscriptorious to do so. Just inbox me your piece, I will edit then post and acknowledge the source.

The moderates are highly encouraged to contribute. The official launch will be coming soon but kalamusscriptorius is already up and running.

KENYAN MODERATES VS KENYAN EXTREMISTS.

In the midst of all the toxic tribal rhetoric that has been doing the rounds lately, the emergence of a more assertive moderate has been the silver lining on the cloud.

In primary school, we begin to learn interesting scientific concepts that appear to contradict our own natural inclinations. One such concept is that the moon does not produce light but only reflects light originating from the sun.

Science wins because its based on facts and not emotions. I have argued before and would still do so that TRIBES DO NOT EXIST. I am offering to give a hefty monetary reward to anyone who can scientifically prove to me that tribes exist therefore deserve a form of loyalty from the 21^st century inhabitants of Kenya. If theres no proof, we should make a correction to all social studies textbooks and make them state that ‘Kenya has about 44 commonly spoken languages.’The word ‘tribe’ should be deleted from all spoken and written language in Africa and it should be seen as ‘very stupid’ inquiring of some ones tribe.

We can scientifically prove the existence of languages but not tribes. Language is beautiful. Language is dynamic. There are words in your first language which you may not find an equivalent in English or Kiswahili. Words which when translated completely lose their meaning.

One may of course challenge my argument by bringing in the aspect of culture. My response is simple. Currently a majority of Africans are now either Christians or Muslims. The AFRICAN CULTURE when distilled produces the values of respect, kindness, love, generosity, hospitality, integrity and such like values. If you want to feel African practice those.

The fact that most Kenyans and indeed Africans can speak at least 3 languages should be a source of pride. This is uncommon in other places including Europe.

Therefore when an extremist uses a language as an excuse to call for genocide, its not about the language but the hatred in his heart.He is a murderer but language remains flawless.When an extremist states that only fellows who speak his first language can rule Kenya, there is nothing wrong with his first language but his heart is full of selfishness hence darkness. If a leader does not distribute resources across the country equitably, it is not his language that is faulty. He just lacks a sense of fairness. His moral compass is at fault not the language that he speaks.

Man has always waged war against fellow man but in todays world their has to be justification for war. In old times people fought over resources, today the only remaining justification for war is self defence by a state against external aggression.

How shameful of our generation if 500 years from today history books will read that the people who lived in Kenya went into a civil war because of languages(all of which will be extinct by then.)  That they had two common languages spoken across the country but 42 different locally spoken languages. So they fought over the difference in the third language and millions were killed and many more millions injured. Maybe you and I will be in the statistics of the dead. Think about it.

This would be both primitive and scandalous in the eyes of our much wiser descendants. Yet it happened in Rwanda 20 years ago.The only reason why it hasn’t happened in our own country is because of millions upon millions of moderates who are against such nonsense. In fact we can classify Kenyans into two camps – the extremists, who want the country to burn and the moderates who love this country too much to see it burn over a trivial non-scientific concept of tribe.

The moderates must grow bolder and tell off the extremists. If the blood thirsty extremists want war, the moderates should come together and curve them out of Kenya so they can slaughter themselves to death for primitive reasons. There are millions of peace loving Kenyans who have radical ideas but who believe that if there radical ideas are good enough for the country, they will peacefully try to convince Kenyans to accept their ideas and put them into office as government for implementation.

I am proud to be a moderate.

 

I HEAR MY ANCESTORS LAUGH.

MY great, great, great, great grandparents lived about 200 years ago in a quiet paradise of peace , prosperity and good health.

Has the civilization of the past two centuries brought harm or good? This question can only be answered by a careful assessment of the likely socio-economic set up of 1814 kenya as compared to that of 2014.

The land was abundant, free and fertile. The planted crops produced bumper harvests. There was sufficient grazing land. It was not uncommon to find one family with over 500 heads of cattle. This is equivalent to todays ten million Kenyan shillings without counting the granaries full of sorghum, millet, cassava, dried bananas and several hundred bales of dried locusts for stew. The guys were wealthy.

No title deeds. No ministry of lands. No national land commission. No district land offices and the baggage that goes with it.

What amazes me most is the simplicity of the system. Hard work paid. In the book, ‘Things fall apart’ , The late Chinua Achebe makes an attempt to illustrate the point. Unoka was lazy, he ended up poor. Okwonkwo was hardworking, he became wealthy. No middlemen. No con men. No businessmen. No cheap labor. No exploitation.

There were far fewer diseases then. Lifestyle diseases were non-existent. Mr Chitayi (the seniormost) walked distances of over 100km regularly. Wake up time was about 4 am, followed by a long trek to the gardens. Toiling would follow for the next 8 to 10 hours. Those folks were simply healthy and strong.No bicycles. No motor cycles. No cars.

Access to health was 100% for 100% of the population. When one suffered a flu, you just informed your grandma and she could point to the ‘okemba’ bushes in the compound. A few minutes of enduring the extremely bitter taste and you are sorted. No more coughing. No long queues. No side effects. No needle pricks.

Serious ailments were treated by the experienced medicine man whose skills had been horned through apprenticeship. The knowledge was refined through many generations of practice. Payment was made through a hen or a goat depending on the nature of the ailment. No huge bills. No admission to the wards. No ICU. In todays Kenya few genuine traditional healers exist. 

Education in the year 1814 in Kenya was a continuous process. It was a rich mine of proverbs, riddles and songs depending on the age of the learner. The process of education was inextricably intertwined with life. Everyday was a learning day. The process was intensified during initiation into adulthood when the candidates would be separated from their family for about 2 to 3 months to be taught lessons of adulthood. The focus of the education system was in nurturing wisdom that is a pre-requisite to peaceful co-existence in society.  Specialised skills like metalwork, medicine and construction were learnt through apprenticeship. No fees. No certificates. No vain memorization of volumes of useless facts.

Most African cultures were monotheistic. There was one almighty God who was the creator and sustainer of life. Worship was done through sacrifices of animals and various other foods. Prayers were made at shrines . Most communities had a mediator who was in some cases also the medicine man. Ancestors were considered infallible hence prayers were often made through them. Importantly , no African village ever took up arms against the next village because of religion. No wealthy preachers. No choppers. No miracles for cash. No schisms. No explosions.

The laws governing marriage and family life were written in the hearts of the people. Parents played a major role in the selection of a spouse. Marriage could not proceed if one of the parents rejected a spouse. Most often there were solid reasons for rejection some of which the parents were often reluctant to share. Marriage was not just another business venture with divorce as a desired end-point. Virginity was revered. No show weddings. No pretentious monogamy. No divorce. No court cases.

When I look back 200 years, I hear my ancestors laugh. This laughter could be one of the reasons why they are healthier and happier than me, but that’s a story for another day.