Friday 17 February 2012

This monster called tribalism must be smote!

The derogatory and stereotypical slurs by some people in Kenya really ticks me off particularly when they refer to people of other tribes in a condecending manner.

Where a certain community comes from that were once famously told to 'lie low like envelopes' by one Bill Ntimama, it is a known fact that  terms such as "mumera" & "nyangori" will be used to denote people from the lakeside and around Kisumu City while "murumbwa" refers to any other tribe in Kenya but in the recent past seems to have  most commonly been used to refer to the Kalenjin community.

Theologists will opine that in the course of history, different racial groups have been given all kinds of names as they are being discussed by others including 'spics' and 'hispanics' to denote the latin speaking, 'niggers' to refer to the black americans, 'honky' or 'jungu' to denote a white person etc.

In Kenya some of these tags go way overboard with silly, demeaning and foolish utterances often referring to certain bits of the male anatomy as being intact and therefore these persons not being worthy of ruling the rest of the Kenyans!!

A recent incident comes to mind where a well known ex-politician wondered aloud how a foreigner who had come to live and work in Kenya could come so far marry a Luo. In his opinion, this person needed to have his head examined since there were 41 other tribes in Kenya tha he could have chosen a bride from!!

If these are the kinds of leaders and the kind of leadership that they will offer then I want nothing to do with them for the simple reason that this is tribalism being practised and condoned at the highest levels in this country. This same chap that I refer to has loads of money earned not through the sweat of his brow but from the high level political patronage he enjoyed as a powerful figure in the Moi government and now even wants to stand as a governor in his area.

If these are the things that he will preach to his people, then I shudder to think what kind of example he will be to our kids!!

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