They gave us a 'non-NATION'

I want a neo-KENYA. Give me my Kenya – OUR Kenya. 

They gave us a 'non-NATION' - a country; a state - patched up space inhabited by conveniently settled ethnicities.

They gave us a ‘non-NATION’ - lands and wealth they already stolen from us - owned by them; not us.

They gave us a non-NATION - a creed; a prayer to cram; an anthem to brainwash us and our children and our children’s children to the fakeness of a NATION that never existed.

They gave us a non-NATION – a flag; an insincere symbolism of fake blackness (Afrianness); fake redness of blood of just a few important ones; fake whiteness of non-existent peace riddled with undertones of deep hatred; fake greenness of the lands – flora and fauna not ours but theirs.

They gave us a non-NATION - already deeply unequal; deeply divided; deeply sectarian.

They called it Kenya; but there was never a NATION. Just a country - an engineering of the people who wanted it to stay that way – a country, coordinates on the world map, an enterprise; a corporation; GDP; because they profited from it and planned to profit from it further. Not develop us.

So forgive me when I disregard that freedom twaddle. That self-decided heroism. 

I am Kenyan; but I do not know what Kenya really means; what Kenya truly stands for! Because that’s the dishonest vagueness that was handed down to me by our greedy; selfish fore-fathers; our ‘heroes’. And am expected to pass it down that way – religiously to my unsuspecting children.

What did they free us from? Poverty? – NO. Disease? – NO. Ignorance? – NO. Gave us better institutions to govern ourselves? NO – in fact they screwed up some of the white man’s better legislation/laws.

So what are they heroes for? Fighting for they stomachs and their children's stomachs? Or for conquering their subdued folks?

So why should we sing their names; why should our children be condemned to cramming; reciting the names of a people so selfish they took our nation even before we began. Why should our streets, our schools, libraries, hospitals, bridges be named after them?

They gave us a non-NATION – Luo, Kikuyu, Kamba, Kalenjin, Luhya etc NOT Kenya. But they baptized us Kenyans. Divided us into ethnic little-hoods but remembered to balkanize us into a fake ‘nation’ – Kenya.

A Kenya to refer to when legitimacy to plunder further is needed; A Kenya to summon when authority to dominate is required; A Kenya to call on to when sovereignty to protect themselves and their perverse wealth is of the essence.

They gave us a non-NATION. Hungry; sick, ignorant and esteem-less beings - oppressed by the white man and fleeced, raped, maimed and killed by the black 'hero' – the Shujaa!

I want my nation; our nation. A redefined meaningful sense of nationhood - that inspires genuine patriotism - not forced; fake sense of sovereignty - Kenya one-ness that never exists.

I want our 'nation' - of fairness in opportunity;

I want our ‘nation’ – of greatness in aspiration and discipline to work and live our dreams;

I want our 'nation' of inalienable rights to own something; to share our prosperity;

I want our nation of some sort of ‘true morals’ – not shameless double standing.

I want a neo-KENYA. Give me my Kenya – OUR Kenya. 

#WeAreNotOne – Sorry to burst your bubble Kenyans

If there is an international medal that Kenyans deserve, it is that for hypocrisy, pretence and shameless double-standing. Now because of #Westgate #WeAreOne?. I say HOG WASH. These are the kind of scapegoats we so look forward to. Those that help us forget our evil, burry our heads in the sand, avoid the truth and fail to confront the structural and historical cradles of our disunity.

Look we lost more than double the statistic at WestGate in Tana River not so long ago. How about Bungoma? Baragoi? Sinai? yet we #wereNOTONE? Wait until we burry the fallen at WestGate, we will come back home. Yes, we will return home to our filth, to our stinking ethnocentrism, to our neolithic political bigotry and of course to the chronicty of our poverty of morals.

Wake up Kenyans, WE ARE NOT one. Such faddish sloganeering is the reason we miss out on every opportunity to confront our inadequacies and mend the fabric of our tired tattered nationhood (if we ever did the wafts and the wefts in the fast place).

Come to think of it: Didn't we pass a new constitution thinking it’s the panacea for all our ills, was it? - NOPE. Didn't we insist on devolution thinking it is the answer to all our inequities, is it? - NOPE. Didn't we spend resources, intellect and emotions reforming our judiciary thinking it is the rebirth our justice framework, is it? - NOPE. Didn't we give our all to the IIEC/IEBC hoping it is the ultimate rejuvenation of our electoral system, was it? - NOPE. 

I am almost convinced that for Kenya, the problem has got nothing to do with the institutions or laws or legislation. The problem is squarely on us Kenyans. Yes YOU and ME. Shameless human beings so bent on our selfish inclinations that public interest - nationhood - has no bearing absolutely. That is why we need foreign aggression to remind us that we are all Kenyan. That is why we need Al Qaeda to bomb us, Al shabab to take us hostage kill and maim our loved ones, CNN to demean our psyche or Museveni to undermine our intelligence.

Until we learn and appreciate that we are all bound by the same history, bound by same joys and pains of living Kenya, and bound by the commonality of our aspirations we will not be ONE.