Do you Know....Never Again!!!
Religious leaders and civil
society groups accuses the police of failing to quell clashes now and then, but
wait a minute...In Kibusu village (Tana Delta) villages were in great grief
viewing the bodies of their relatives. This comes about due to thirsty of
revenge.
According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, revenge means to:-
I.
Punish
or hurt somebody because they have made you to suffer.
II.
Something
you do in order to make somebody suffer because they have made you suffer.
In this context I prefer the
second statement .Barrack Muluka one of my greatest friend in The Standard
opinion once reminded me that in times of Anarchy even the best lacks all
conviction. Further explanation of this philosophical statement is that in tribal moments even most educated
citizens is tempted to take weapon of violence against fellow citizen in
defense of “tribal right” .Isn’t this ridiculous ,may be may be not ; it all
starts with ethnocentric statement(..This is must not rule us…) uttered by
people with great command in our society and because politics is the game, they
careless on magnitude these words has to the ordinary mwananchi who is always
thousands miles behind the reality of country’s politics. These incitements
created by “our good leaders” have
made our African continent to retrogress with political instability and we only
hear of fuels of bloodbath brought by bitterness and thirst for revenge.
Are we therefore immune to these
symptoms as a religious seminarian? No.The fact that we are religious
seminarian makes us even more volatile than a common mwananchi. One of the reasons
is the cultural diversity in which we share happiness as the main richness. We
have an objective to value, cherish and preserve this wonderful gift that
nourishes and strengthens our community and the nation in general.
These few days towards the
general election in March 4th must act as our personal
measure on how we value and safeguard our cultural diversity
(diversitiomometre).How we act or react towards the political temperature is what
will give us the next Dubai or Darfur .We therefore should avoid at great
extent obsession and indoctrination which comes from our dear politician whom
we admire. They are important in our cultural affiliation but should not make
us disintegrate bur rather integrate as a community.
Why all this? If we cannot end
now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity
because our cultural diversity has most certainly shaped our national character.
We also live with the objective of being happy; and our lives are all different
and yet the same. Let also remember in our work and in our living that we must
recognize that difference is a reason for celebrating and growth, rather than a
reason for destruction. Our differences will never divide us but rather our
inability to recognize, accept and celebrate these differences. Therefore we
should be fore thinkers who are willing to use their mind without prejudice and
without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges
or beliefs, when we lose the right to be different; we lose the privilege to be
free.
Thank you as you say…Never
again!!!
Martin Ndumia
