Dear all,
The topic about Ruto and the Waki report has really brought to the fore the fact that Kenyans are truly tribal. The majority of the contribtutors went ballistic defending their ‘tribes’ and made it appear like death and destruction of property is not bad when ‘the other’ tribes are affected by it. This is quite sad, given that the majority in this group and young guys (say 20-35 years), guys who for long have been taunted to be ‘the leaders of today / tomorrow’.
I have always premised that God gave each of us brains, the power of choice and self-control. Whenever we turn tribal and then claim that our leaders made us do it, it’s like admitting that we are brainless and act like robots, waiting to receive our instructions from our leaders on who to hate and who not to hate!!
As I said, radical problems call for radical solutions. If I were the minister of education / president / key guy in this country, I would propose the following long-term plan towards eradicating tribalism;
a) From an early age, language learning should be introduced in schools. Each pupils should learn at least 2 other local languages outside his / her main tribal grouping (a bantu to learn a nilotic / cushitic language, etc). These should form part of the curriculum and should be examined.
b) No student should be allowed to spend all his school life within his area. For instance, if a student is born in Nyanza and goes to primary school there, they should then go to secondary school in Rift Valley, College in Central and University in Coast province. This way, people will be exposed to diverse Kenya cultures so as to remove the phobia that makes most people tribal.
c) Tribalism should be made a crime against Kenyans. Special courts dealing with matters tribal only should be set up to try all people perceived to be tribal – whether is violence during / just after elections, appointments to public offices, etc. People found guilty should be shot by a firing squad and their families made to pay for the cost of the bullets.
d) It should be illegal for people to speak in mother-tongue in public places. Just like smoking is illegal in public places (because it is poisonous and harmful), so should speaking in mother-tongue be!! People found engaging in such acts should face the court in c) above and made to do community service for a looooooong time.
If this is effected, I believe we would be reading about tribalism in history books in 20-30 years.
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Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:17:31 -0800 [08:17:31 AM CST]
From: Harun Kaburiah
Subject: Radical problems call for radical solutions!!!
Tribes are here to stay just as races are here to stay. We cannot assume that we are all white or that we are all black. That is wrong. Tribe is a source of pride and people should be proud about their tribes and culture. But in addition to this, people should be taught to appreciate other tribes and not seek to demonise them as it has been done in Kenya. The withdrawal into tribal or racial coccons is a reactionary instinct and the only way to stop it is if law and order were to be equatably applied. Raila should know that he rose to power on a tiger’s back. He must end up in the tiger’s mouth. He rode on the balkanization and paranoia that Kenya has created since 1963, and he cannot run away from it now. I would say that Ruto is right and Ruto should be supported for what he stands for. It was of necessity for people to be mobilised in order to make changes that needed to be made. It will be necessary even in future for people to be mobilized to make further changes. The police killed people with impunity in Kisumu. Ruto and his tribesmen saved Raila’s pride and more critically, the Luo who were due to be extrminated by the Kikuyu sponsored police killings.