In a span of a hundred days, close to a million lives were lost. Thousands were left homeless. But one thing is to stand; that the killing of innocent lives did not come out of the blues.
Followed were years of disgrace. The tiny city of Kigali literally went down. Refugees were elevating overnight.
The act of turning against a neighbor is not something to smile about. In the twenty years I've lived on this Kenyan soil, a neighbor is someone I've treated with highest respect.
A neighbor is someone who will be next to you whether you like it or not. When in trouble, the guy next is the one with highest probability of giving you a hand.
A leader from my tribe can incite me to fight my neighbor because of not voting for him. But, do I have to turn against the person who lives in my near environs?
Do we have to follow the wave of hatred?
Do we have to hate each other to make someone happy?
Do we have to turn against each other to prove our superiority?
Do we?
Our old folks moved out of their comfort zones to fight. To reclaim the land which their fathers were buried. The viral thing is that they never questioned their neighbors about their tribes.
One cold morning, they came up with a resolution. That enough is enough. Let's join our minds and defeat these self proclaimed powerful bodies of the whites.
The ethnic language coming out of their mouths did not separate them. It made them be more united.
They had a dream. A dream of a better eight provinces. A dream that their sons and daughters will one day walk freely to feel the good air.
The worrying thing is that the dreams of the old men and women have not been realized as of yet. Different sets of hooligans have ended up ruling this country with negativity in their minds.
But this should not at any cost divide us. Our ethnic bases has been there, will be there and will remain to make us differentiate from one another.
The language I speak should never be a reason to lose our lives.
In early 2008, Kenya was burning. Someone went to the streets to fight an ethnic group because of a ruler. From towns to villages, we fought each other. We killed. We raped. We also burnt houses to please someone who lives in the comfort of his well secured home.
I was a young teenager in his final moons of primary school. Some of my classmates then, I haven't seen them since. Were their lives done away with? A question that dances in my mind up to date.
What has the mama mboga got to do with your ethnic front runner who does not know the size of room the mama mboga will lay her head tonight.
Our land gradually calmed down after the two people, we were fighting for, shook hands in full glare of both local and international media. The masses who were fighting for the principals were fooled. The people they worked hard for finally agreed on how to share the bigger cake.
A good student will learn and move on. Months later, we passed a new super document known as the constitution to curb hatred and make us one. We started living together again and promised each other not to fight.
I watched these events with smiles all over my face. That my country Kenya is one again. No tribal alienation. No fighting again. No killing a neighbor in the name of my leader.
Years later, we are here again. Preaching hatred instead of peace and liberty. The events shows that we are in a cycle. We fight, come together, tell each other lies that we regret the fight again.
Aren't we the most stupid human beings on earth? There is no difference between us and a hyena. Lets grow up and know the difference between fighting for a better Kenya and fighting for the same Kenya.
Lets view each other as siblings. We all have blood after our skin. Many young men and women do not know their ethnic languages fluently, I included. So why fight?
I want my children and my fellow countryman's children to view each other as one people with one goal. The goal of a good land to live in.
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