Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Balala: We reduce them to an Island like Lesotho

I was shocked to read Najib Balala's calls for renewed violence against the Kikuyu. Balala’s unfortunate rhetoric comes hours after Raila promised, “The moment it is announced that the talks collapsed, I am sure there will be an eruption countrywide,” he said. “It will be chaos.”

Najib Balala's war rhetoric below shows that voilence against innocent Kenyans reamins their only bargaining chip on the table.
“They don’t believe this country has a crisis. They are not in a hurry. They don’t believe it is a powerhouse of Sub-Saharan Africa. They believe they want to rule and be able to steal what they have lost in 24 years,” he (Najib Balala) said.

The Pentagon member added; “We are pressurised by our people, if the negotiations are not working, then we change the terms of reference of the negotiations to discuss boundaries then we reduce them to an Island like Lesotho and that is the language they understand.”
Obviously he was not referring to PNU. PNU was just euphemism for the Kikuyu community. There are two pointers to this.
First, Balala talked about his subject wanting to rule so that they could “be able to steal what they have lost in 24 years.” The 24 years he is talking about is what is known as the Nyayo era when Daniel Arap Moi –a kalenjin- ruled Kenya. He cannot be talking about President Kibaki because Kibaki was a vice president in Moi’s government for many years. This leaves us with the Kikuyu community. For the past 5 years, ODM -and Raila Odinga- has been telling Kenyans that the Kikuyus are stealing to “recoup” what thy lost in 24 years. This kind of propaganda was meant to create an environment where Kenyans vote out Kibaki because of anti-Kikuyu sentiments and not because of how he performed during his first term.

The second pointer is Balala’s talk about reducing “them to an Island like Lesotho.” He cannot be talking about PNU because PNU is a party that members can join or leave on their own resolve. It is a party with members across the country represented by elected Members of Parliament. This was a direct attack on the Kikuyu people because they have unchangeable ethnic heritage. One cannot wake up one morning and decide that he is not a Kikuyu. His accent and facial features, will definitely do him in.




Looking at the map above, you can clearly see that Central Province –a region predominantly occupied by the Kikuyu- will be doubly-landlocked just like Lesotho should ODM succeed in balkanizing Kenya.

Najib Balala’s unfortunate comments have been made in the past. William Ole Ntimama (an ODM MP) once said, "I told them that because of their (the Kikuyus’) arrogance, they will be cut down to size as it happened to the Ibos of Nigeria."

The above sentiments have been repeated over and over by politicians and the outcome has always been ethnic cleansing. Some politicians have mastered the art of blaming the Kikuyu of all ills that afflict our country. This is done to rally with supporters around them (the politicians) against a common “enemy”.

The international community is yet to realize that creating powerful seats for politicians, who have openly called for, planned and financed ethnic cleansing in Kenya will not be a permanent solution to the violence. They will continue killing with impunity because their action will always be rewarded with seats in government.

Violence against innocent Kenyans should not be used as a bargaining chip to negotiate power.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i dont mind if all this cockroaches are wiped from the face of kenya

Anonymous said...

msema ukweli:
It's too bad no such thing will happen. People with sentiments like yours will pay for GENERATIONS for their gross miscalculation.

Anonymous said...

I am a Luhya who thinks that killing people because they do not belong to your tribe is backward and barbaric and has no place in the modern century. However, Kenyans need to be real. It is a fact that the other 40 plus tribes view the kikuyu tribe with suspicions and feel they have received a raw deal in all sectors of the economy. Whether this is true or not is not the point now. The point is two people live together if they agree. So if the PNU (largely a Gema outfit)do not want to to work with other communities in the ongoing discussions, then the solution is simple as Balala said. Let all of them get back to Central Province, be compensated for their properties in other parts of the country and then we can have peace. No need to quarrel over who should be the legitimate President, the one who stole votes or the one who was voted for by the majority. Some of our communities may be poor but we have no time for Mungiki lifestyles. Is it not that simple? Central and ukambani can have Kibaki for President as they so badly want and the other six provinces can have Raila.

Anonymous said...

You need not worry about Balala, instead call his bluff. for a good example check out
http://ramantosh-harambee.blogspot.com/

your thoughts welcome

Anonymous said...

how can KENYANS choose someone who tried to over throw the government selfish,look how kenya was affected do we what war in future?President MOI SAID THE FUTURE WOULD DESTORY.

Unknown said...

I think it is too cruel, and frankly, all the things that happen now in Nigeria are horrible, almost every day I read news about people that have been killed, or raped or something like that, and what is more important, is that most of newspapers and internet sites are being corrupted. Here you can see some real news: https://tuko.co.ke/>https://tuko.co.ke/ .