I've been a little silent lately. I remember a song I used to hear when I was young(er) that 'if you can't say something nice don't talk thats my advice' or something to that effect. The situation in Kenya has been personal in that of course its my country and I was there during the elections to witness how this mess went down in the first place. But I must admit that it was still distant. Not yet personal enough. Or shall I say personal enough that I was affected but not so personal that I could not go on with every day life.
Until this past weekend.
My folks traveled to Kisumu for family reasons. They had to. And because the roads are currently impassable and highly uncertain, they had to fly there. For me this partly raises my awareness to the fact that flying was an option to them, but what of those who cant afford to do so - and still have to travel? What have they been doing. And the reality is that some of them have been traveling and have lost their lives on the way or have been intimidated. Anyways, that aside, my folks got there fine, but their return to Nairobi was an adventure to say the least.
Between Sunday night and Wednesday morning, I realised the true value of family. And my parents. They were stranded in the village because of the tension and violence in Kisumu and no vehicles were going for the most part, even within the province. And then came their even more eventful trip to Kisumu to try and catch their plane. As I sent sms after sms trying to find out their whereabouts and well being, I suddenly realised that this current situation in Kenya is about as personal as it gets.
And to console myself or better yet to get past the wait, as I chatted with a couple of friends we collectively came to the realization that it is not longer about the elections. When my parents safety is at stake, it is no longer about who won and who stole what.
There was a time for justice and that time will come again. But right now, Kenyans not politicians but Kenyans are turning against each other. And one month later, it is no longer about one man stealing votes and swearing himself in at night, robbing even his own supporters of their legitimacy. Its about Kenyans stealing other Kenyans' right to live freely and peacefully with each other. It is Kenyans stealing from other Kenyans the innocence of not knowing the reality of a civil war. It is Kenyans creating deep wounds that will take years to heal, long after we eventually choose our rightful leader democratically.
Again I say this: my faith was tested beyond measure through those 36 hours. Calling upon my friends to join me in asking God to intervene. And my faith is growing through this situation because I am realizing that these every day things, jobs, stuff we own, places we hope to visit: they mean nothing in the context of those we truly love and care about. And thats a beautiful lesson to learn this early in life. My parents are now safe. For how long I don't know. Yet this is not about fear. Its about appreciation. Its about valuing the important people that God has deposited in our lives while we are still here to appreciate each other.
"Tell You Something (Nana's Reprise)"
Get so caught up everyday
Tryna keep it all together
While the time it slips away
You see I know nothing last forever
Imagine there was no tomorrow
Imagine that I couldn't see your face
There would be no limit to my sorrow
So all I can say
[Chorus:]
I wanna tell you something, give you something
Show you in so many ways
'cause it would all mean nothing if I don't say something before it all goes away
Don't wanna wait to bring you flowers, waste another hour let alone another day
I'm gonna tell you something, show you something, won't wait till it's too late
[2x] (I can't wait, I can't wait, I won't wait, I don't wanna wait)
Just a simple conversation
Just a moment is all it takes
I wanna be there just to listen
(I wanna be here)
And I don't wanna hesitate
Imagine there was no tomorrow
Imagine that I couldn't see your face
There would be no limit to my sorrow
'cause there's nothing that could fill that space
I don't wanna put it off for too long
I didn't say all that I had to say
I wanna take my time and right the wrong before we get to that place
[Chorus]
Just lean on my shoulder,
It's not over till it's over
Don't worry about it cause
I'm gonna make sure our bond gets stronger
I don't wanna wait till the storm and something wrong and now you're gone and I can't find you
[Chorus x2]
[x4] I can't wait, I can't wait, I won't wait, I don't wanna wait
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Camera's that Dont Lie
I found this picture referenced on Kenyan Pundit's blog from South of West's blog (sounds kinda he said she said:)) But it was very intriguing. These creative kids in Kibera, one of the slums that has seen alot of violence post elections, have made mud cameras to mimic the hoards of western journalists who are camping there to take pictures of them. I trust their mud camera's any day of the week...
Thanks to South of the West for the Pic.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary General to Mediate in Kenya - What fruits might he bear?
I realise I've been ranting an raving over the past little while - some of it can't be helped and I guess some of it can. I watched this clip from NTV a Kenyan news group and I thought it was quite balanced. So in the spirit of my 'boycott' on international media, I am posting it here.
The original title was Annan Due for Talks and was posted January 21, 2008
The original title was Annan Due for Talks and was posted January 21, 2008
Boycotting International Media reporting on Kenya
I can't stand them. They prey on divisions and build their lives on making other people's lives look miserable. They unfairly obtain, fabricate, re-package and distribute peoples lives everyday. They are international journalists...or better yet Western journalists. The words 'ethnic' seem only to belong next to 'cleansing' in their dictionaries. As do 'tribal' and 'war'.
Why do I launch so vehemently against them? Because they are part of the reason the world only ever hears bad news from Africa. Previous to this election, Kenya was only commonly known for it's runners. Indeed most of my conversations with most westerners tended around my explaining that I only in fact run for the bus, and that I almost never catch it because I am not fast enough - my tribe often only coming in to explain that most of our Kenyan runners are from the Rift Valley - which is not where I am from. Or our conversations would center around Coffee, given their extensive encounters with Kenyan coffee at starbucks of course. Occassionally our conversations might tend towards safari's and wild animals.
But lately, when I say I am from Kenya, a vacant look is what I get: the person perplexed at what to say. "It's very sad, the situation, isn't it?". And how am I to respond. Now I cannot blame the International Journalists for the current political impasse, for that would be thoroughly misdirected. However, could it be that the reason Africa has such a rugged, broken, destitute image internationally is because these very journalists prey on any situation gone bad and fuel it to the point at which they can no longer milk it for its goriness, and then they move on to the next country, keeping us as the public falsely lamenting on the sad state of Africa.
No one needs to tell me that we have problems in Africa. Indeed there are problems everywhere in the world. Lets not go into the current debt situation of average Americans or the related mortgage crisis. Yet, these are not as sexy as people killing each other. And my peeve heightens when I am trying to find an objective source of information and instead I am bombarded with the words: killings, cleansing, butchering. Moreover, most of the stories are not well researched if at all. CNN prophetically declared a tribal war was imminent and this became a self-fulfilling prophesy in their journalism of the post-election violence: All they choose to see is clashes, ethnic, cleansing, machetes, and tribes.
As much as blogs are subjective and in this day and age accessible, one would think that journalists would at least put their ears to the ground or in this case their fingers to their laptops to see what us, REAL Kenyans are saying rather than inflate us, REAL Kenyans with horrific stories that to them might be yet another 'failed state' in Africa, but to us its our country, our people, our childhood, our future. But that would make too much sense. In the meantime, I blog for therapy and I read other blogs for information...works just fine and keeps me off the international press. I boycott.
An excerpt from a fellow Kenyan blogger Nanjala Nyabola:
Living outside the country I know for a fact that Kenya barely gets two mentions in the international press until people start dying. Does anyone else get the sense that these guys are like blood thirsty vultures waiting on the sidelines for Kenya to collapse?
...Today however, following harsh indictment in the past, it seems that the media are scrambling over themselves to have the most gruesome and the most alarming reports possible. Peace initiatives, generosity, the calm days, or tranquil regions do not make for good television, but gore, the starkest doom and comparisons with Rwanda do.
This is not to deny credit to all those putting themselves at great risk to deliver such content. The Kenyan media, in particular the radio stations and KTN and NTV have shown excellent judgment and a great deal of impartiality while reporting. And their new Save our Country initiative, undertaken, thankfully, by all media houses in the country is commendable and should be supported by all well-meaning Kenyans.
Why do I launch so vehemently against them? Because they are part of the reason the world only ever hears bad news from Africa. Previous to this election, Kenya was only commonly known for it's runners. Indeed most of my conversations with most westerners tended around my explaining that I only in fact run for the bus, and that I almost never catch it because I am not fast enough - my tribe often only coming in to explain that most of our Kenyan runners are from the Rift Valley - which is not where I am from. Or our conversations would center around Coffee, given their extensive encounters with Kenyan coffee at starbucks of course. Occassionally our conversations might tend towards safari's and wild animals.
But lately, when I say I am from Kenya, a vacant look is what I get: the person perplexed at what to say. "It's very sad, the situation, isn't it?". And how am I to respond. Now I cannot blame the International Journalists for the current political impasse, for that would be thoroughly misdirected. However, could it be that the reason Africa has such a rugged, broken, destitute image internationally is because these very journalists prey on any situation gone bad and fuel it to the point at which they can no longer milk it for its goriness, and then they move on to the next country, keeping us as the public falsely lamenting on the sad state of Africa.
No one needs to tell me that we have problems in Africa. Indeed there are problems everywhere in the world. Lets not go into the current debt situation of average Americans or the related mortgage crisis. Yet, these are not as sexy as people killing each other. And my peeve heightens when I am trying to find an objective source of information and instead I am bombarded with the words: killings, cleansing, butchering. Moreover, most of the stories are not well researched if at all. CNN prophetically declared a tribal war was imminent and this became a self-fulfilling prophesy in their journalism of the post-election violence: All they choose to see is clashes, ethnic, cleansing, machetes, and tribes.
As much as blogs are subjective and in this day and age accessible, one would think that journalists would at least put their ears to the ground or in this case their fingers to their laptops to see what us, REAL Kenyans are saying rather than inflate us, REAL Kenyans with horrific stories that to them might be yet another 'failed state' in Africa, but to us its our country, our people, our childhood, our future. But that would make too much sense. In the meantime, I blog for therapy and I read other blogs for information...works just fine and keeps me off the international press. I boycott.
An excerpt from a fellow Kenyan blogger Nanjala Nyabola:
Living outside the country I know for a fact that Kenya barely gets two mentions in the international press until people start dying. Does anyone else get the sense that these guys are like blood thirsty vultures waiting on the sidelines for Kenya to collapse?
...Today however, following harsh indictment in the past, it seems that the media are scrambling over themselves to have the most gruesome and the most alarming reports possible. Peace initiatives, generosity, the calm days, or tranquil regions do not make for good television, but gore, the starkest doom and comparisons with Rwanda do.
This is not to deny credit to all those putting themselves at great risk to deliver such content. The Kenyan media, in particular the radio stations and KTN and NTV have shown excellent judgment and a great deal of impartiality while reporting. And their new Save our Country initiative, undertaken, thankfully, by all media houses in the country is commendable and should be supported by all well-meaning Kenyans.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Sick Feelings...Why cant we all just get along?!
I haven't yet talked to my family to find out how they are doing after the protests today/yesterday. All I have is snippets of information from the internet, and the situation does not look good. I have such mixed emotions, on the one hand I am taking in the cold and trying to adjust to being in a new place. On the other hand, I am reading with horror the new developments in Kenya. There were fresh protests yesterday all over the country as was planned for by ODM. What is most disturbing is that the media reports that police were shooting at people at close range! Here is an excerpt from the East African Standard:
"Journalists watched as a lone policeman pursued and shot two youths in the chest and shoulder at close range in the volatile Kondele area of Kisumu. The 10-year-old boy was shot dead at Arina Estate in Kisumu. One of the two victims died moments after being taken to the Nyanza Provincial Hospital, where his colleague was also admitted in critical condition. The officer kicked one of his prostrate victims thrice on the ribs before casually walking away. TV footage captured the events. "
I am sick to the stomach just reading about it, and I am even more disturbed by the wounds the deep wounds that are being created by this crisis. Surely the politicians see that this is tearing our country apart in a way that will take years to heal.
p.s. picture courtesy of BBC
Monday, January 14, 2008
Ushahidi.com - A tool for Reporting Acts of Violence in Kenya
Report Acts Of Violence In Kenya A number of Kenyan bloggers both in Kenya and in the Diaspora have developed this tool that will allow individuals to report acts of violence in Kenya with a goal of addressing the current situation, bringing immediate help to those who need it.
On the website there are other resources of ways that you can help including a website through which you can provide assistance. Please visit Ushahidi.com
The Week that will be...
Its hard to imagine that it has been nearly a week since I posted to the blog. I am back in Canada now, and its such a surreal experience that is hard to document. I can empathize with the other Kenyans in the Diaspora. While on transit in Seattle, everyone else looked so 'normal' going about their lives. And here I was thinking how could they? Don't they get that things are very tense in Kenya? And then I realised that just because we had been eating, drinking and sleeping politics in Kenya, that is not necessarily what others were going through. Hard to internalize, but it makes even the quest for information more challenging. The blogging so far by other Kenyans in the Diaspora has been impressive to say the least.
On the eve of my leaving, Kibaki in what is becoming his signature of hasty declarations, named half of his cabinet, a day before Kufuor was due in Nairobi, a move almost unanimously condemned as acting in bad faith of the mediation - this while the government was still in disavowal of the need for mediation - one wonders what cheap drugs they must be on. After much hope was restored and placed in the possibility of a breakthrough in the talks, they fell apart almost as soon as they had began. That the government announced half the cabinet before the talks did not help the situation in the least bit. This week, Kofi Annan former UN Secretary General, Graca Machel, activist, wife to Nelson Mandela and Benjamin Mkapa, former President of Tanzania head to Nairobi to continue the talks. Meanwhile 3 days of mass action as expected in Nairobi at the end of the week by ODM and their supporters while parliament should be in session tomorrow. All this when schools are scheduled to open today. Lets wait and see what the week has in store.
On the eve of my leaving, Kibaki in what is becoming his signature of hasty declarations, named half of his cabinet, a day before Kufuor was due in Nairobi, a move almost unanimously condemned as acting in bad faith of the mediation - this while the government was still in disavowal of the need for mediation - one wonders what cheap drugs they must be on. After much hope was restored and placed in the possibility of a breakthrough in the talks, they fell apart almost as soon as they had began. That the government announced half the cabinet before the talks did not help the situation in the least bit. This week, Kofi Annan former UN Secretary General, Graca Machel, activist, wife to Nelson Mandela and Benjamin Mkapa, former President of Tanzania head to Nairobi to continue the talks. Meanwhile 3 days of mass action as expected in Nairobi at the end of the week by ODM and their supporters while parliament should be in session tomorrow. All this when schools are scheduled to open today. Lets wait and see what the week has in store.
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