The Season Has Changed

Nothing lasts forever. How true those words have proved to be in Kenya in the last few days.

There was a time in this country when it did not matter how corrupt you were or how you earned your money. What really mattered was how much money you had. It was the season for money-talks-it-doesn’t-matter-how-you-earned-it.

Apart from many politicians making such fantastic fortunes, virtually overnight, it was also a season of great injustices. To date the people languishing in jail are those who did not have the money, and many of them are innocent and taking somebody else’s medicine for them. Meanwhile the real criminals are still free and out there.

That season brutally came to an end in the last few days and as usual there were a number of people caught unawares.

As you read this there are a number of filthy rich (pun intended) Kenyans who can no longer enjoy their wealth. Kenyans whose vast resources cannot help them anymore. The Kenyan public are usually skeptical and you really can’t blame them. They saw Nicholas Biwott and the late Hezekiah Oyugi arrested in connection to the murder of slain foreign Minister Dr. Robert Ouko. They saw the two released when things had cooled down.

But this time, the season has changed and the chain of events is unstoppable. It matters little how serious Mwai Kibaki’s government is about going through with the prosecution of some of the most prominent and wealthiest Kenyans. It is out of their hands.

It reminds me of a little story that was played out in the late 50s. An African cook was going home from work and on passing outside the vast compound of a mzungu somewhere in Karen, a dog came to the fence and started barking at him. He picked up a stone and threw it at the dog. It missed its’ mark but the owner was seated quietly in his balcony and saw what had happened. He went into his house and got his revolver, chased after the poor Kenyan and shot him dead in cold blood. Similar incidences must have happened many times before and the perpetrators had always gotten away with it. But that time was over, the season had changed and Independence was beckoning. The man (I forget his name) was tried for murder and despite many pleas for a pardon from many quarters, he ended up being the first white man to be hanged in Kenya.

The seasons always change. That was the dawn of Uhuru and the Karen cowboy never saw it coming.

History just keeps on repeating itself because we are now in the dawn of the much heralded second liberation for Kenya and Africa.

As George Saitoti, Kiraitu Murungi and a host of others exit the cabinet, it is a clear sign that things have changed in Kenya and indeed in the world. No longer will it be possible to loot national coffers and get away with it, let alone survive politically. It is highly unlikely that those who have gone and those who are still to go, will be back, whatever the outcome of the investigations now going on. The Kenyan people have already passed their verdict and that is what will hold sway, whether it is true or not.

Kiraitu Murungi will be remembered as the arrogant minister who made (what he thought was a joke) about a woman only too willing to be raped. George Saitoti will be remembered as the mathematician who not only moved from driving a VW to immense wealth (within the blink of an eye) but also reached the second highest office in the land. It has always been rumored that he is childless, just as well because no father on earth would like to be in that position where your son or daughter asks you if what they are reading in the papers about you is true. Whether you are guilty or not, what do you tell them?

Former President Moi is in a much more difficult position. For the first time in their lives, his sons will find that there is very little that Daddy can do.

But for the 42-year old lady called Kenya, the gang-rape that looked like it would last forever has now ended – that is for sure. She is badly bruised and traumatized but the physical wounds will heal. However, what remains may prove to be even more painful. She will have to relive and recount the whole nightmare in a court full of men, giving embarrassing details of the ordeal. Not to mention the fact that she will have to look up to identify the culprits. The merciless rapists – one by one. Although the physical wounds will heal there are other wounds that will never mend properly, forever

Let us hold her hand and tell her to be brave. Let us promise her that we will never allow it to happen again. It is the only thing we can do. But let not anybody cheat himself or herself (no matter who they are or how much money they have) that they will stop this rape-trial from going ahead.

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