A Story of Progress

I have always thought of myself as a work in progress. I engaged with the world from a tender age and I always pondered on how and where I fit in the bigger picture that is life. From my childhood I placed images on the future in my mind and constantly thought and dreamed of successful moments that befriended me. And just like I have developed to become a man, so has my thesis progressed from a mere idea to a substantial work of scholarly art.

The pace is now intense as I come close to completion of the PhD. And it reminds me of those beautiful days at the University of London where I strained and studied so hard, lived in the excitement of knowing I would emerge one of the best students. How so I feel now? I am even more confident and I know I am capable of making a great impression.

The PhD is examined through a viva. Basically, I have to defend my thesis to a panel of experts of international law. It must be shown that my work is original and makes a significant contribution to knowledge. That a whole three years of work will be determined by my performance in one or two hours is intriguing.

But it is the preparation that I embark on that is the full measure. I have now become my own critic and a perfectionist at that. I have notes and reminders posted on my wall. I continue to keenly read on anything with regard to the viva. Furthermore, I have been reading a lot, particularly on philosophy as well as watching debates and other communication material, including the Prime minister’s question time on the BBC news channel.

My confidence, eloquence and passion in articulating the subject has grown immensely. This is a significant page in my history and that of my family and all those that my efforts represent. It is a time of reflection, calm, peace, anxiety, turbulence and all the essentials of a healthy life. I write a thesis, but it is also an African story, my story.

The Threads of My Essence: Full Circle

It has been a while since I last wrote here. In fact, it’s a first this year. And time has flown. My life has taken a cruel beating since the chaotic elections in Kenya altered my perception on things and destabilised my senses. And even more disturbingly, it led to the deaths of thousands and left hundred of thousands homeless. Simply put, Kenyan burnt and as it did, I lived a full life, of pain and sadness but also of love and faith. In order to understand the correlation between this event, my life and that of many others, a bit of background is essential.

I was only 14 years old when the Rwandan genocide occurred. That dark period saw the slaughter of up to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus, as the world stood aside and watched. I only understood later that my new found Rwandese friends were refugees and that the reason Uganda’s economy performed so poorly was due to the barbarism that Idi Amin unleashed on his own people. Fortunately, ten years later, I was at the University of London, well equipped as a lawyer to investigate the international community’s ambivalent attitude towards Africa.

And I do remember the particular day that the UN Secretary General stood at the Memorial Conference on the Rwanda Genocide in 2004 to mark the 10^th anniversary of the 1994 genocide and express his deep sense of remorse on behalf of the world. And I remember it so well because as the Kofi Annan gripped his audience with his well know eloquence, a somewhat similar catastrophe was underway in Darfur region in the Sudan. And it was then that my mind was made up to write an essay on the Darfur for my LLM. Not only did my paper score a distinction, it has literally shaped my life.

But who would have thought that images of Kenyans hurling machetes at each other would be screened across the globe, and with such intensity? And how would I approach such an analysis given the combination of my own innocence, naivety, education and pride of being a Kenyan? What I learnt with regard to Kenya and the face of utter horror within the last few months has transformed me into a maturity of contradiction. Now with a clear mind, I can look back and reflect on the lessons learnt and uncover the blur that prevented me from updating my blog. There are many stories to be told, and so I share mine, before convicting Kenyans of complicity, if not active participation in turning the island of peace to utter hell.

I am one of the people who went back to Kenya to vote. And you can imagine how excited I was having missed the huge celebration of 2002. For me, December 2007 was going to be the first time to vote as I was too young in 1997. I couldn’t wait!! Armed with the voting card, I queued with Kenyans. We joked and laughed as well as helped old women to vote, indeed a show of Kenyan spirit. That was the last positive thing I thought of Kenya. And up to this day, I have been unable, even having tried, to say anything positive about Kenya. I can talk of the beauty of Maasai Mara and the Great Rift Valley, but that is not Kenyan, it is God's work of art.

For a start, the majority of Kenyans rarely consider education, health and sustainable development as a platform from which to vote for their future. I will not lecture on the importance of these concepts given that we, especially those in the Diaspora, know they shaped the developed world. Instead, Kenyans largely vote on ethnic grounds. The educated lot are generally the most hypocritical of them all. They will talk about the economy, employment and then rally behind their tribal leader as having the best vision for the country. Our fallen heroes and all others that fought for our freedom must turn in their graves.Kenyans let themselves down at all levels. The country's new found resolve must go beyond mere power sharing agreements.

Until then, for me, and with all due respect, the fact that neighbours turned on each other on account of their ethnicity, neutralises any past glory. Kenya needs an overhaul of the education system, one that buries the primitive hatred on account of ethnicity. The country also needs strong anti-tribal laws and a new culture based on diversity as a national heritage. Most of all, the nation need leaders that will deliver the Kenyan promise and complete the liberation of Kenyans that commenced time immemorial. In the end the citizens will be governed but such rule can only based on their own aspirations, hopes and dreams. God Bless Africa.