From: Francis Tome

Dear Sir/Madam,

When Jean Jacques Rousseau opined that “freedom is a most succulent dish, but one that is difficult to digest”, his prophetic eye must have peered through Kenya. I say so because high above our national, tumultuous joy for the ratified constitution (after years of unparalleled hardships, incarcerations and callous deaths), I still hear loud and clear talks of ethnic-political barbecues whose taste is completely unpalatable. Even as the political big guns publicly denounce such schemes as a mere creation of the media, their foot soldiers have made it crystal clear that indeed such plans are afoot. It is even worrying that Kenyans, who yearned and fought for this constitutional dispensation, and who ought to be naturally incensed by such infantile designs, seem to be applauding the most, the unsavory architects behind such farcical schemes.

Such pacts presuppose the continuation of the negative ethnicity that this country has decried for so long. It promises to continue treating Kenyans as a collection of tribes in the bounds of a new Kenya. It purports to endorse the fact that the coalescing of populous ethnic groups is the highway to the much coveted presidency. It also means that the presidency in this country will almost certainly be determined by the odious ethnic driven merry- go- rounds.

Unfortunately, we seem not to recall the fact that such pacts are only executed wholly at the benefit of its conspirators. We readily allow them to invoke the hydra of negative ethnicity, and bang, we dance ourselves lame for them. We supplicate at the altar of these ethnic deities and humbly allow them to take advantage of our credulity and inexperience. The question that we ought to ask ourselves is just how long shall we continue to be used as mere pawns in their political chess game? Don`t we know that if we refuse to learn from the past and ignore vital lessons from our previous mistakes then we shall simply be heading in to the future covered with the deceptive warmth of our ignorance? For how long shall we gladly become blind tools of our own destruction?

The logical thing for us to do is to give a wide berth to any politician whose intention is to pitilessly tear asunder the motley ties that bind our pluralistic state. We must nail in the coffin of bigotry, the

nauseous qualifications to the presidency based on ethnicity, gender and religion. Such qualifications bear no relationship whatsoever to the exercise of leadership skills.

It is incumbent upon Kenyans from all walks of life to earnestly embrace our diversity and never allow a cabal of ethnic zealots to use it (diversity) as a source of friction and division. With the ratification of the new constitution such politics must be frozen in an out-of-date mould. It is bad for our social and economic health.

I therefore implore all of us not be unencumbered by past ethnic perceptions and loyalties. We must remember that even with the new constitution in place, the evolution of a national identity will not just happen without the concerted efforts by both the political class and the citizenry.

TOME FRANCIS,
BUMULA.
http://twitter.com/tomefrancis