I am Kenyan - To many Kenyans that also means that they will automatically check my last name. Its become second nature to inquire of people's second names and somehow the assumption is that this surname will automatically inform the person's psyche'. Stereotyping, ethnic profiling, these are all words that can easily describe that attitude, that approach to life.
Its illegal in Kenya to discriminate along ethnic lines. Our constitution is categorical about this, you may not discriminate against anyone and deny them their social and fundamental rights based on their ethnicity. But everywhere you go, every single person, will distinguish you by your ethnicity, your last name, your surname.
It begs the question really, what is the use of a constitution that no one uses? Kenyans keep complaining that their Members of Parliament are truly reluctant to implement the new constitution, Kenyans are really mad at the two principles for subverting due process in the matter of nominations for the Chief Justice (Feb 2011), and now Kenyans are mad at the clergy for picking on Dr. Willy Mutunga for being nominated while wearing a stud earring. But how many Kenyans are practicing and believing in the spirit of the constitution? How many Kenyans are really and truly looking past the surname?
Lets face it, the constitution of Kenya is a national document that will only become a national matter when everyone in this nation takes it seriously, loves it, embraces its ideals, its laws and its promises as we had hoped when we fought to have it drafted for over 20 years.
No single ethnicity delivered that promise of hope, that fundamental writ. Not just one ethnicity, but all Kenyans.
It serves us all then to read this constitution over and over again, to imbed it in our minds, in our hearts, to write it on our walls, to teach our children to recite our national prayer our national ANTHEM, until we finally deliver to each and every Kenyan that fundamental right - NO DISCRIMINATION.
Yes my fellow Kenyans, there are rights, there are privileges and there are RESPONSIBILITIES OF EVERY KENYAN CITIZEN. Be responsible, look past my surname, today and everyday. Rise up! you are KENYAN, and we are not a nation of last names, first names or middle names, but a nation of people who live, work and survive together!
For better understanding each of you please download a copy of the Kenya Constitution here, and read it, please.
http://muigwithania.com/2010/05/05/kenyan-constitution-pdf/
on a side note - a surname is the name of whoever is your "sire 'or 'master' - my surname indicates who my dad is, not who I am. LOL!
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Incredible
INCREDIBLE
That we as a race are so caught up in our own individual survival, never noticing the rush towards annihilation that we are in, the rat race, we, the human race are – incredible
Blind to the many ways in which Mother Nature, God, the Devil, all the same one thing that has found a billion ways to extinguish our fragile lives; our oblivion to our situation is just – incredible
If we would just take a moment to count the toll this year alone 100,000 in Burma, 71,000 in china, 50,000 in Darfur and millions more to die from the diseases that spring from the corpses of the counted, our continued pretence and removal from this reality is – incredible
How we feel, that there is an “us” and a “them,” and use this thin distinction to separate ourselves from the massive tide of suffering all around us, amongst us, within us – incredible
When we practice deafness for so long that we will never again hear the soft cries for help until they become a gigantic wall of sound manifested in open sores, broken bones, and bloated dead bodies in rivers of blood – incredible
Why, when the destruction of our lives and the promise of death are so acute, we dare to hope and to believe in a future greater than this for ourselves and our children – incredible
If in every 100 million there is just one seed of eternity planted with truth in the hearts and minds of our children just to move and inspire, perhaps even direct the flow of human energy away from survival and towards excellence, this would just be – incredible
That this person with the promise of the gods and the hopes of a demented race sitting within his very being manages to live past hunger, disaster, war and disease, manages then to rise to the position that would be a perch for him from which he can then through the excellence of his own life divert the flow of human history away from death and toward eternal life, this miraculous person would just be – incredible
Given the insurmountable odds of such a being existing in the first place and living to completion so as to become living excellence; given the unlikelihood of such a person meeting with the sort of life encounters that may guide his spirit towards such accomplishment, given the harsh nature of the environment in which he is to do his life’s work, putting all this together within the limited moment we call a lifetime it is incredible that YOU are here, just - INCREDIBLE
That we as a race are so caught up in our own individual survival, never noticing the rush towards annihilation that we are in, the rat race, we, the human race are – incredible
Blind to the many ways in which Mother Nature, God, the Devil, all the same one thing that has found a billion ways to extinguish our fragile lives; our oblivion to our situation is just – incredible
If we would just take a moment to count the toll this year alone 100,000 in Burma, 71,000 in china, 50,000 in Darfur and millions more to die from the diseases that spring from the corpses of the counted, our continued pretence and removal from this reality is – incredible
How we feel, that there is an “us” and a “them,” and use this thin distinction to separate ourselves from the massive tide of suffering all around us, amongst us, within us – incredible
When we practice deafness for so long that we will never again hear the soft cries for help until they become a gigantic wall of sound manifested in open sores, broken bones, and bloated dead bodies in rivers of blood – incredible
Why, when the destruction of our lives and the promise of death are so acute, we dare to hope and to believe in a future greater than this for ourselves and our children – incredible
If in every 100 million there is just one seed of eternity planted with truth in the hearts and minds of our children just to move and inspire, perhaps even direct the flow of human energy away from survival and towards excellence, this would just be – incredible
That this person with the promise of the gods and the hopes of a demented race sitting within his very being manages to live past hunger, disaster, war and disease, manages then to rise to the position that would be a perch for him from which he can then through the excellence of his own life divert the flow of human history away from death and toward eternal life, this miraculous person would just be – incredible
Given the insurmountable odds of such a being existing in the first place and living to completion so as to become living excellence; given the unlikelihood of such a person meeting with the sort of life encounters that may guide his spirit towards such accomplishment, given the harsh nature of the environment in which he is to do his life’s work, putting all this together within the limited moment we call a lifetime it is incredible that YOU are here, just - INCREDIBLE
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