A LETTER TO THE FALLING LEADERS

            When we formed Ukabila ZI Society, we did everything possible, on this part of the continent, to reach as many people as we could to join the movement. In the same spirit, I sent a request on Face-book to join a forum, which I thought was a great idea, Comrades Forum. I must have been naive or very trusting may be... In my mind, this was a place to share ideas and pass information on what’s happening to Comrades. I was far from right; any sensible post would get no attention. Try some silly jokes and insults… the world would be on your back and the attention would just be a killer.

            It broke my heart to see the elite in our society parade their unbecoming ‘village’ behaviors. I say us because, no matter how good you are as an individual, when UoN goes on strike then it is us, when comrades’ forum becomes shady its all of us. 

            I made the long overdue exit from comrades’ forum last year after my graduation. Not because I was no longer a comrade but because I was bitter. Bitter because I was not able to do a thing to change the slowly dying reputation of the legendary ‘Comrade’. One year down the line, it has dawned on me that I cannot run away. I have friends in UoN and they keep drawing my attention to the much hyped campaign period for SONU elections. As such, I have once again searched the comrades’ forum and my heart is broken. My heart is bleeding at the mediocre thinking of some in the young generation. It is the campaign period in UoN and all we see are tribalism posts and comments and worse yet we turn to gender.

            I want to ignore what’s going on but I remember I have siblings; besides, I will have children some time. I have a whole life ahead of me and I do not want them to find our Universities in a sorry state. Thus, my action is a call to all varsity students who believe in change, to be in the forefront of fight against leaders who do not have a student’s interest at heart. If we achieve this, then it will reflect on the national politics in our country. We are the pace setters, thus, if we keep getting it wrong, our lives and those of our generations will be marred. 

            We have been called the leaders of tomorrow but we claim to be the leaders of today... does it reflect in our thinking and actions? Do we have the capacity to be change agents or are we slowly failing?

            Let’s shun negative ethnicity!

Writer of the Article is the Co-founder of Ukabila Zi Society.

Sarah Makena.

Nyumba Kumi (The Ten Houses) Initiative

The good neighbours.

            Nyumba Kumi... and we had varied opinions on the “know your neighbour” initiative. But a quick look at my life and I realise it’s time we all rise above our tribal cocoons. I grew up in Tharaka Nithi, the ultimate stronghold. Unlike many of my friends, I was born and raised in one region and hardly interacted with people from other tribes. I had few Kikuyu friends but my world was all “mball and ndoor.”

            Growing up, I realized that there are various perceptions about our tribes. For instance; Kisiis ni warogi ( I have a number of friends and am yet to be bewitched), Luos love money  and great life (I am dating one he is yet to see the end of my whining and wanting of a merc..... and a big mansion, who hates money and good life anyway), Wakikuyu ni wezi (I lived in Meru and we had village thieves we buried one the other day, let there be peace) and the stereotyping goes on and on... then I came to Nairobi and now Merus are hot tempered they kill, I am yet to kill one rat in my life.

            To cut my story short, we are in the arms of our believes and at the mercy of our culture. We have been fed so much lies that we no longer know what to believe. We do not hate people for any reason, we found our folks hating them so we keep the wheel moving. Then one day we wake up to the sad reality that we need all these people that we so much hate for no reason. It’s the post elections violence that opened my eyes and my soul. Hate poisons the soul and its outcome can be dire! We killed neighbours we had been with for decades, torched their houses because they spoke a different language. We forgot the days we fought crimes as a team, our children played together…why we let our strange ways lead our thoughts?

            Nyumba Kumi should be an opportunity to know and appreciate that neighbour who does not speak your language. It’s our chance and only time to learn how to appreciate the diversity in our country. Let’s take time and think of the great opportunity that nyumba kumi is presenting to us. Let us let go our strange ways of hate and teach our hearts to love and appreciate.

An article by Sarah Makena

Co-founder

Ukabila Zi Society

Same forest: New Breed of Monkeys..2014?

         
   It’s about a year since the peaceful general elections, God bless Kenya, and not much has changed though. The nation has seen a new phase of “industrial action”… let me call it the county edition. I am not sure whether to say we failed or we keep failing. Are we too afraid to keep our leaders accountable or do we just don’t give a damn?  

            It’s the same old forest, the only change being the breed of monkeys. We can only cross our fingers and hope that this breed is not worse than the past one. A good look at the county governments and I can confirm that we have broken away from the long dance of “Kikuyus, Luos, Kisiis, Luhyas…are being favoured.” We have been given an equal ground to grow and develop our ‘homes’ but we choose to whine instead. 

            Our leaders may be failing, the milk is already spilt, we made the decisions…it’s time to move on. We are good at pointing fingers when we are not doing anything ourselves. 2014 is the year we need to wake up to responsibility and stop sitting but do something. 2014 is the year we will raise our voices and say no to our leaders when they go wrong. In 2014, we will break from ok and want more.

            It’s no longer about the future; it’s what we are doing. We have a choice to correct our poor choices of leaders (if we really did not make good decisions) and keep them on their toes. On the other hand we need to be agents of change, the leaders who are ready to work need us to cooperate and be useful. No development is a surprise project… our effort makes the difference.

An article by Sarah Makena

Co-Founder

Ukabila Zi Society.

Wazee’s advice: Consequences of marrying from another tribe

            A Wednesday evening: apparently, we had just finished our VCD recording. Yes, you got it right…the St. Monica Catholic Church class of 2014 (Lower Kabete campus) has been working on this VCD production project, and I not only belong to the class of 2014 but also the choir. Nairobi matatu drivers (most) never keep time. This is especially so if you have hired their services.  They always delay as they try to make the required number of squadi in order to raise the daily payment for the matatu owner…we can’t blame them. Due to this delay, we were forced to turn the 2-hours wait in to a bonding session. Although I was literally mad at the driver and his tout for keeping us waiting, I must say the bonding session was amazing. Well, I wouldn’t mind such a delay in future especially if this particular person I was chatting to will be there. I must confess that I didn’t have enough of his stories…probably this was because I always feared talking to him; you know this person who sets your heart racing whenever you meet…please get me right!

            We were on the bench! A bench because we were doing the sort of Jeff Koinange’s thing…Q & A, though on very personal things…like when I will get married, the kind of a guy I am looking for as a marriage partner, and the complexion of this Mr. Right among other nitty-gritty. It also warranted the title ‘A bench’ because it was actually a bench placed on the studio’s corridor, probably meant for clients to rest. We explored many subtopics, I loved it...guess he also did! Of course the main topic was relationships bordering marriage; the kind of subtopics that are on every 8-4-4 system finalist’s tongue. I listened and paid attention to every word…even making some weird conclusions at some of his comments. Don’t mind the keen attention, I am looking!

            This particular subtopic did not go down my ear-canal very well; the do’s and don’ts as advised by his parents and wazees. In Gikuyu tradition a man can only sit among wazees if he has paid mburi cia athuri (Wazee’s goats). As for him, his father had already paid the ‘goats’ thus giving him a ticket to wazee’s meetings. It is during these meetings that a young man is asked if he has started looking! The wazee’s are usually very curious and eager to show you the right direction in terms of the tribe to marry from, the family, the complexion, the standard, and basically the qualities of a good wife material. They have life experiences which you can only ignore at your own peril and as they say…choices have consequences. From the wazee’s advice, choices have consequences if one marries from another tribe. The consequences are many but the one that pricked my ear was discontinuity of the Gikuyu tribe. 

           You may wonder why this ‘consequence’ pricked my eardrum: my brother once did a research about my parent’s true origin and found out that we are not pure Kikuyu’s. In fact, my mum is an Ethiopian plus Kikuyu, while my dad is a Kamba plus Kikuyu…probably this unravels the mystery of my complexion, which is rangi ya thao (the color of a thousand note). Just a reminder, I am looking!  Further, I am a strong believer of Ukabila Zi Society bible which preaches against tribalism. According to this bible, intermarriage would help cure negative ethnicity. 

            Needless to say, marrying from another tribe is a prerequisite for extinction of our tribes. I totally value our diverse ethnic cultures, values, and traditions. But does it mean that we should not intermarry? This can be a hot debate. During my four years in campus, I have realized that most young people have already been advised by their parents and wazee’s about this issue. Once, my girlfriend in campus told me that she was advised to avoid other tribes but Kisii (her tribe), Luo, and Luhya. I must say that she has strictly followed that advice because she only ‘attracts’ suitors from the above mentioned lands. As a matter of fact, all my campus friends attract suitors (get attracted to) from their tribes. For such a long time, I thought the attraction is a coincidence. I was wrong! Have you been advised by wazee’s, please get in touch with them. Personally, I have been out of touch with mine since my teen years and I think this is the high time I started seeking their advice because I am looking!

  By Gladys Muthara

Finance Major,

University of Nairobi.

TRIBALISM: A FAMILIAR CRY IN OUR LIPS

Tribalism is a familiar cry in our lips, a song that has been and will be sung for many years, and it has become the proverbial broken record. Is there a solution to this “problem” that we face? Tribalism or ethnicity has been blamed for many of our country’s woes and rightfully so. From conflicts that have arisen with startling frequency, the economic performance of our organizations where inept and incapable employees are hired or appointed on the basis of tribe, to the distribution of resources, the sharing of the so called national cake.

Yet here I stand and state that tribalism is not and never has been a problem, especially in our great country Kenya. Why do I say this?  This is because tribalism is a guise, a mask worn by great and many others (REAL) problems that plague us. Because tribalism is a weapon for the conqueror to use in managing his oppressed; from the Colonialists divide and rule policy to the modern day politicizing of tribalism to obtain votes. The aforementioned problems include ignorance, our lack or too little national spirit, economic hardships uneven development across the country and many, many more.

Economic issues are the main problem of our country. Many Kenyans live below the poverty line, the cost of living seems to be increasing in geometric progression and many other numerous problems requiring money keep arising. A man would be less inclined to entertain vehement tribalism in his mind if he is economically secure. When you find a large group of the youth being unemployed and nothing worthwhile to do their minds end up being the proverbial devils workshop and these are the people you find in the conflicts believing that some tribe is responsible for their situation or on the other hand protecting “their” tribes wealth.

While who to blame (for the economic situation) is an open question, most people’s favorite answer and mine would be our politicians whose antics can only be said to be unbelievable. Now as most of these politicians would rather not have us demanding for their heads on a platter, they have devised various ways of distracting us from themselves. The most common way is the tribe issue, which they have perfected as a weapon of misdirection, as they rob the nation’s coffers.

We even find violent conflicts arising over some tribe’s watering holes in the arid and semiarid areas of Kenya. Read that again…Yes, watering holes. In this age and time a person may lose his life over a watering hole. Why can’t the so called entertainment budgets we all read about be used to dig more holes? Or even have the tribes in question join hands and dig more holes. Instead, politicians are busy stroking the fire of tribalism instead of solving their peoples’ problems.

Ignorance is one of the greatest perpetrators of tribalism in Kenya. If all I know about tribe X comes from local myths, stories and general view of my society, if all I know comes from my politicians, if I have never gotten to meet a flesh and blood person from tribe X; then how do you expect me to believe or know otherwise? It is not until you meet and interact with people from other tribes that you realize how generally alike we all are. For those who have interacted with people from other tribes, it is painfully obvious that most of our preconceived ideas are dead wrong, not all members of tribe Z are witches and wizards, not all members of tribe Y are thieves and this can go on to ad infinitum. No tribe is composed of a single individual so no tribe stands to be judged by the conduct of a few of its members.

We need to realize that everybody in Kenya is fighting their own battles regardless of the tribe. All tribes in Kenya have poor people, all tribes in Kenya face the same economic hardships like everyone else and all of us are Kenyans.

An Article by Wanyoike Muiruri

University of Nairobi

Law Student