Beware Of The Clear Thinking Kenyan Voter

Ouma (real name with-held) would never have imagined in his worst nightmare what was about to happen as he happily collected his Kikuyu wife from maternity and took her and their bouncing new baby boy home to Kibera. This was at about the time that post-election troubles broke out for the first time.

On their way home, Ouma and his wife met a rowdy group of Luos who proceeded to cut his wife and baby into pieces in front of his very eyes. The response came hours later from the Akorino in the area who cut down dozens of Luos in search of Ouma whom they wanted so as to settle scores. Ironically the man who hid Ouma and thus saved his life was a Kikuyu man. He risked his own life terribly to save the life of Ouma.

The informant who passed on this heart-rending tale to me says they have not been sleeping too well since they learnt about it.

Sadly there are many stories from the worst chapter of Kenya’s history that will probably never be told. The wounds inflicted are much deeper than many people think. However what is surprising is the resilience of the Kenyan people and their eargerness to put the past behind them as they keep their eyes focused on the desired goals. What has become clear to this blogger is the sharp contrast between the ordinary folk of Kenya, down there struggling to survive and the rest of Kenyans sitting in comfortable air-conditioned rooms making hate comments in a blog like this one.

That is the good news.

Reading this blog, one would be forgiven for thinking that the country is about to break into a vicious civil war. Fortunately there is much less tribalism down there in the grassroots than most people will ever realize. Ordinary folk don’t really care about tribalism. Indeed important lessons have been learnt from the troubles of this last January that will help fight the cancer of tribalism pretty effectively in the years to come.

But what has amazed me most of all from my latest of the frequent research I do, to keep my feet on the ground, is how clear in their thinking the masses in Kenya are right now. This is in sharp contrast to all the confusion and uncertainty we see in the media these days concerning our politics. Basically the people want nothing to do with corruption and they want a new beginning, and they want it yesterday. Real change for a better tomorrow. Amazingly many care less what tribe that “Moses” who will lead Kenyans to a new promised land happens to come from. As long as they can be trusted.

Methinks the people who are in for a serious shock are the political class. Despite what people think, the next presidential race will have some very strange names running right at the forefront. And that is coming from a man who told you here that Senator Obama would be the next president of the United States when most people were still asking; Barack who?


P.S. History continues to be made in the American presidential race as McCain picks little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate. This means whoever wins history will be made because even if we do not have a black man in the White House, we will have a woman Vice President for the first time ever.