Spare thought for the real victims of ‘fixing’
What you need to know:
- Whoever thinks that he or she is man or woman enough should stand up and confess to having “fixed” these people and confining them to their current circumstances.
- It is, to paraphrase what the former British High Commissioner to Nairobi, Sir Edward Clay, once said, politicians vomiting on the bare feet of those who escaped alive and, at worst, dancing on the graves of the innocent Kenyans who were killed.
- But as the politicians make wild claims and confessions about who procured or did not procure what witnesses, they should also be honest enough to tell the public who “fixed” the victims of the violence and who visited some of the most barbaric crimes on them.
As politicians trade accusations on who “fixed” or did not “fix” the other, one voice critical to the 2007/2008 post-election violence and its aftermath is quiet. Sadly, this has been the trend since that terrible time more than seven years ago.
Women who bore children whose fathers they do not know. Parents who lost their children in the most barbaric way. Children who were left orphans.
Victims who were left with scars of the violence. Property owners and workers who lost their source of livelihood.
Whoever thinks that he or she is man or woman enough should stand up and confess to having “fixed” these people and confining them to their current circumstances.
There is no doubt that the hundreds of ordinary Kenyans who were killed and thousands more who were subjected to untold suffering would want to know who did this to them and why. They would want to know why all these years later, no justice has been served.
They would want to know why tribalism is still at the core of our politics and why their second name should matter.
While this should be the debate that we ought to have been having since 2008, sadly, and sickeningly so, the narrative has been twisted. It is now about saving “our” political and ethnic leaders.
This is why this whole debate, as well as the so-called “prayer” rallies, are a gross insult to the people who suffered in the violence.
It is, to paraphrase what the former British High Commissioner to Nairobi, Sir Edward Clay, once said, politicians vomiting on the bare feet of those who escaped alive and, at worst, dancing on the graves of the innocent Kenyans who were killed.
Resettlement of IDPs alone is not and will never be enough. The prayer rallies should be about the victims whose harrowing tales are worth listening to.
Prayer rallies for politicians are of no use to this country and whoever is bankrolling them would do better to use the resources to make those responsible to own up and apologise to the victims.
The “fixing” claims that politicians are working so hard to get to consume Kenyans can only further sow seeds of discord and unnecessary tension
Of course when that seed germinates, those who would have sown it will run to their mansions, protected by the security forces that are paid by our taxes.
They will never feel the pain and their children will never understand the suffering of the other Kenyan children.
The prayer rallies should go on. After all our Constitution guarantees freedom of assembly. But as the politicians make wild claims and confessions about who procured or did not procure what witnesses, they should also be honest enough to tell the public who “fixed” the victims of the violence and who visited some of the most barbaric crimes on them.
Fellow Kenyans, spare a moment for the real victims of “fixing”, those who suffered during that dark period in the history of our country and whose voice has been drowned in the noise generated by unfeeling politicians.
Mr Menya is a journalist with the Nation Media Group who reported on the 2007/8 post-election violence and covers the ongoing Kenyan cases at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. [email protected]
