Pseudonyms & the internet: A political perspective

The blogosphere is awash with comments, blogs and suggestions about the forthcoming General Elections here in Kenya in 2013 from a host of armchair politicos scattered across the diaspora as well as right here in Kenya. Many tend to use pseudonyms to cushion themselves from the wrath of those who may preach an alternative gospel to that in their political bibles as well as to have an anonymous identity that they can safely use to expound their views, bigotries and biases without revealing who you are or what tribe you represent.

This use of pseudonyms led to an interesting exchange sometime back when one Kevinah, who described herself as a 17 year old Kenyan in the diaspora born of a mixed marriage between a Kikuyu and a Luyia, was accused of being an uncircumcised Luo man!! Shock on me........when she described herself as mentioned above and then went on to heap decidedly uncomplimentary (and un-seventeen like) abuse on the hapless idiot (no apologies intended) who had commited the 'faux pas'.

This, unfortunately, is replicating itself more and more as people hide their true identities behind a plethora of pseudonyms yet sell their tribal identity by their comments and blogs. Whether Kevinah was or was not whomever they professed to be is debatable because the fact of the matter is you can be anonymous and whomever you want to be on the internet and get away with it because no one has the time or inclination to crash your legend party. In any case anonymity guarantees that people will speak their minds without worrying about the consequences of their actions...........unless Mzalendo Kibunjia and his team begin to take a keen interest in what you have written!

Which brings me, in a rather roundabout manner, to the point. Can someone please let a confused Kenyan male whose origins are in Central Province and who is married to a damsel whose origins are in Eastern Province and who have two gorgeous  daughters (of mixed tribal parentage) know the answer to the following questions?

Does it mean that comments favoring your preferred candidate automatically means that you are from that persons tribe? Does it mean that irrespective of your political preferences tribe is more important than political conviction? Does it also mean that since you are the son or daughter (by default) of one or another tribe in this great country you automatically subscribe to follow an unwritten pact with certain political/tribal personalities? If my wife bears my surname that has nothing to do with her tribe, what political personality is she identified with when she mentions her name?

It is at such times as this that I can safely say that I am ashamed to be a Kenyan. Ashamed because despite our ‘Kenyan-ness’, we tend to quickly gravitate towards one of our own tribe in matters political even if that person has myriad skeletons in their closet, has numerous court cases pending, has faced accusations of theft of public property etc. Ashamed because the name given to me by my parents and that I had no control over identifies me as belonging to a certain tribe and therefore everyone expects me to fall into a certain sorting box and subscribe to certain stereotypical behavior and schools of thought and blindly follow certain political personalities for the sole reason that they belong to my tribe.

If as a Kikuyu I say that I will vote for Uhuru, the Kikuyus shout alleluia, while the rest of the country shouts themselves hoarse saying that I am a tribalist! If as a Kikuyu I say that I will support Raila or Kalonzo, I am termed a sell out and a 'msaliti' of my people but embraced as a nationalist by everyone else. Kwani, must I vote for Uhuru merely because he and I share a tribe – Kikuyu?

Can people not put it through their thick tribally blinkered skulls and skins that in whoever might be my choice of candidate come 2013, I see a visionary who has the capacity to transform this country into something worth being proud of and that gives me hope for my children and grandchildren in the future?

If I choose to support Raila, Mudavadi, Ruto or any of the many alternative candidates that do not belong to my tribe because it is my right to do so, why should my  tribes people cry foul when I say so or ask me to justify my God given right? Ultimately, politics is about making independent individual choices and I take great umbrage with people who suggest that merely because I am from a certain tribe I am under some form of unsigned oath to support a candidate from my tribe.

So in public I will continue to make the right noises and support the 'correct' presidential candidate depending on the circumstances of where I am and who is doing the talking so as not to make enemies merely because of politics. But come D-day, my mind will be made up and the rest will be history and upto me and my God to know if we did the right thing or not within the confines of that polling booth.