I am on a self-imposed travel advisory:

There is no other way to describe the shooting dead of someone other than to say that the movies glamorize the act of dying through a gunshot. Usually the person who is shot in the movies goes down and is dead before his body hits the ground, or else is able to make a last minute dying confession as his life’s blood ebbs away. But this was no movie that was being shot - pun intended- this is the real deal and real people has been fatally shot before our eyes and shocked the whole world.

But let me start from the beginning by firstly stating that I am neither a bigot nor a racist. What I am about to state is from the bottom of the heart of a peace loving and non-confrontational individual who is also a peace maker at heart and who loves humanity.

Like many of you I have watched the viral footage of those African Americans that were shot by white police officers leading to their eventual deaths in Minnesota and Louisiana whose only crime it would seem was being black American and male and who seemingly posed no threat to the armed police officers involved in the shooting incidents. This has traumatized me immensely for reason that I shall reveal.

This appears to the untrained eye to be the use of unjustifiable and excessive force in a situation which could have been easily resolved without the use of firearms. There is also no gainsaying that the work of law enforcement officers anywhere in the world is dangerous at best and risky at worst and that a split second decision when caught up in a confrontation with someone who could be hiding a concealed weapon and be liable to use it at the slightest dropping of the guard by the police officer is all it takes between life and death. The question on everyone’s lips now is would the same threat level have been perceived should the suspect been a white male American or conversely would the same level of deadly force have been used towards a white male suspect?

The resultant and unjustified sniper attacks on police officers in Miami in what was dubbed as a peaceful anti police rally that has led to the deaths of several police officers has also taken the world by surprise and now threatens to rock to the core the bastion of freedom known the world over amid loud calls to action for stricter control of gun laws in the United States. That action was totally uncalled for despite the levels of provocation that the black community felt in regards to seemingly unprovoked attacks on their community over the years. Is this the start of a civil war of epic proportions?

However that is not the point of this post despicable as the action by all those involved is, my point is to register the reason for my trauma ever since I watched one of the videos. This is the one of the man being subdued by two burly police officers one of who then draws his firearm and then appears to shoot the man at close range in the chest area then rolling off as the man now in his death throes makes feeble attempts to do something, anything as his life slowly ebbs away and all in the full glare of the public who were recording the whole incident. My trauma is probably being replicated manifold across the African continent where many have relatives and friends who are based in the United States.

It is one thing to hear of police officers fatally shooting a suspect but it is quite another to see this replayed in real life and it frightens and traumatizes those who are by nature squeamish and repelled by the sight of blood as I am. Those young men had families just like me, they had dreams and aspirations to see their children grow up into productive members of the communities and their society, they had dreams of being responsible fathers and parents and making a difference in the lives of their families but this was not to be as they have been felled by a policeman’s bullet at the prime of their lives.

I now wonder if I’d be safe as a visitor in the United States and if my African American and Kenyan brothers in law are safe in that country that they call home or if they might also suffer the same fate as has befallen their community member’s victims of tragic shooting incidents through no fault of their own other than supposedly being black.

I also wonder if my nephew who has recently joined college in that country is safe as he makes his way to and from school and his job with his car that may have him pulled over for having a busted tail light. What of my old high school friends who chose to make a livelihood in the United States many years ago and whom we regularly communicate with on social media and meet up with when they are visiting Kenya? Are they safe presently and will their safety continue to be assured?

I can only hope that reason prevails and that these incidences do not provoke an overzealous reaction by the police force intent on stamping their power and authority over a community that has seemingly had enough of their excesses over the years. If 9/11 is anything to go by it is likely that the authorities will want to tame what they fear may be a hot topic for years to come with some sweeping Senate legislation to back up any actions that they might take.

As things stand we had a planned visit to the USA next year with my wife which she is free to go for but which I shall have to put on hold for my own safety until someone, somewhere can guarantee me that I shall be safe in that country because a black man seems to be a walking and legitimate target for overzealous and mostly white police officers.

Accordingly and even as I mourn the senseless shooting deaths of the latest victims of police excesses in the United States I have put a self-imposed travel advisory on myself until further notice to the United States.

For now let me wallow in the difficulties of my own country anonymous amongst millions of other Kenyan males and unlikely to be stopped by police officers for the crime of being a man of African extraction. As for my male family and friends in the United States you need to remain safe as you move and travel around making sure that you do not fall foul of the law for the sake of the sanity of all of us back here not only in Kenya but across the African continent.

Even if I did not know any of the victims over the years I mourn with their families for the senselessness of it all and may God rest their souls in eternal peace!!