The Gema generation was bad for national unity

Eulogies must rank among the most boring acts of public drama.

They are often heavily scripted, are performed without any real conviction whatsoever, and the protagonist almost always comes out an angel.

In my lifetime, I can only recall one incident when a man deviated from the script of mourning speeches.

It was back in the 1980s, and I was only a boy in primary school.

Being the death of a dashing young woman married to a star teacher, the pre-burial period was characterised by some of the most sombre moments I ever witnessed in the village.

The burial ceremony was dominated by speakers taking turns to shower praise on the dead.

But nothing could have prepared the gathering for the unflattering words of Opiyo Nyiamo alias Top, the woman’s brother-in-law.

“Betty [the deceased] was a very good person and we got along very well. But one thing I didn’t like about her is that she liked to sulk over small things … She would keep a little grudge in her heart for a very long time,” he told the disbelieving audience.

Opiyo, then a newly born-again Christian, explained that his faith did not allow him to speak nothing but the truth.

The eulogy would be the subject of negative reviews for weeks. Privately, though, a number of people admired his courage.

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough ruthlessly honest people like Opiyo around to point out the other side of prominent personalities in Kenya upon their demise.

John Michuki and Njenga Karume, who sadly died this past week, have predictably received flowing eulogies for their contributions to society in business and public service.

This is perfectly understandable in a country where virtue and self-drive are particularly scarce among the people in public service.

What is lost in the din of praise-singing is that the two gentlemen belonged to a generation of politicians that has been very bad for national unity.

Their political age-group designed the divisive template for politics that is set to outlive even the Facebook generation.

Karume was the architect of the Gikuyu, Embu, Meru Association (Gema), a grouping that has largely pursued exclusionist agenda in politics and other spheres of public life based on the notion of ethnic supremacy.

Michuki similarly had a very narrow view of Kenya as was evident in some public remarks he made as late as last year.

Too bad they only left the political scene after they anointed their heirs.

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