Dear Sir/Madam,

The Inuit (who are the natives of Canada) have a saying that states that “even if you disagree fiercely with your neighbor, you still have to trust him with the harpoon at the ice edge.” It struck me that the knowledge of this conventional wisdom can help us understand the strength and the beauty that is present in our diversity.

If only we elect to emulate the calmness and civility of the traditional Inuit then we will begin to see the wisdom in not allowing anybody to incite us into dismembering our nationhood after the 4th of August. I say this because many of our politicians have always perfected the “false label trick” often referred to as the Hitlerite technique of sanitizing “the big lie” to create chaos as a means of maintaining the status quo. In order to make the lie look real, they engender fear and animosity, appealing to people`s ethnic identities, fomenting disturbances and filling people`s ears with all sorts of inflammatory speeches to charge them against others.

But I implore all Kenyans of goodwill not to follow such politicians in their wicked ways. We must begin to actively dissociate ourselves from their dangerous cult of opportunism, double-talk and chicanery. We must begin to unequivocally demand that any politician who speaks in pompous double-talk interspersed with negative ethnicity and pure hatred against any section of the Kenyan citizenry in an attempt at urging us to a course whose intent is to break up our nationhood must be incarcerated.

On the 4th of August we shall have an opportunity; clear and shining for our country. I pray that the constancy of mind, persistency of purpose, and the grand simplicity of decision shall guide and rule our conduct on this special day. I have no doubt whatsoever that we shall prove ourselves equal to this severe requirement.

It is my firm conviction that we shall never again let ourselves to be willing victims of their cynical indifference and weltering web of confusion that they so desperately try to subject the country to. I have no doubt whatsoever that on the 4th of August we shall step outside our ethnic enclaves so that together we can truly appreciate our nationhood. Kenya shall still have sinews of permanent peace.

Lastly, in borrowing the words of the American poet Wallace Stevens, I pray that we shall step outside our ethnic ways of perceiving reality, so that we can see “the moon and not the image of the moon.”

TOME FRANCIS,

BUMULA.

http://twitter.com/tomefrancis