Interesting Quotes on the Current Situation

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation
where they will not be judged by the color of their skin
but by the content of their character."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

“For the nation to live, the tribe must die.”

Samora Machel, Mozambique’s President between 1975-1986

I gathered the following quotes primarily from the Daily Nation (the newspaper that I read in Kenya):

“Kenya's poor are the ‘explosive dispossessed’, ready to erupt into violence.”

Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society in London

"I cannot state with certainty that Kibaki won the election."

Kivuitu (Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya)

“Kenya has been operating pretty much like a pressure cooker. That it has finally come to this impasse is evidence that you cannot sweep every issue under the carpet and expect the rubbish to sit there quietly. It will turn toxic in the long run, as we have learned – not for the first time. We just never seem to learn from our mistakes, which we almost fondly refer to as ethnic clashes.”

Lucy Oriang’ (regular columnist), January 11

“The immediate challenge the education sector has to confront is displacement of learners who have been cut off from their schools. In other words, the environment for systematic and coordinated learning has been disrupted irreparably.”

Martin Kajwang’ (curriculum expert), January 12

“The generally peaceful and orderly voting process, and the record voter turnout, was a triumph for the Kenyan people, but the serious flaws in the vote tallying process damaged the credibility of the process. At that point Kenyan institutions failed the Kenyan people.”

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Dr. Jendayi Frazer

“Is there any doubt that the killings in various parts of the country are eerily reminiscent of the crimes against humanity perpetrated in this country in the 1990’s? That is why I still lament the refusal in 2003 by the Kibaki government to establish a truth commission, the only vehicle that could have led our nation to openly address those abominations to avoid their recurrence.”

Makau Mutua, Chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, January 13

“There is much to be angry about and many of us find the rage difficult to contain. And yet, this is precisely the time to live up to the higher purpose of the human being. There is a savage that lurks deep in all of us and there are times when that savage rises to the surface and is expressed in violent forms.”

Sunny Bindra (regular columnist)

“It is hard to believe that there are people who are ready to kill you because you don’t speak with their accent or have blood links with them or have chosen to live in ‘their’ area.”

Gerry Loughran (regular columnist)

“It is not that African leaders cannot unite their ethnic communities. It is simply that too many of them choose not to, because it serves their narrow self-interests to keep the people divided.”

Ken Kamoche (frequent columnist)

“More than anything else, this election was seen by the poor and the marginalized as the one that would address past injustices and regional inequalities. In essence, the violence that erupted after the elections was a class war – one in which the impoverished masses took up arms against all those they thought represented the interests of the ruling class, in this case, some of their neighbors, regardless of their political affiliation and despite the fact that some of these neighbors were as dirt poor as they were.”

Rasna Warah (frequent columnist), January 14

“We are seeing a creeping regression to the totalitarian methods of the past. The government is going out of its way to curb the inherent rights of the people to associate, express themselves, communicate, and assemble.”

Macharia Gaitho (regular columnist), January 15

“… this is the Kenya we keep under wraps. Every now and then, we allow ourselves to see it. If it doesn’t affect us directly, we march on without missing a beat. We choose to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil as long as it does not take up residence in our house… A problem postponed doesn’t vanish into thin air. It will return to haunt you as surely as day turns into night.”

Lucy Oriang’ (regular columnist), January 18

“The negotiated solution to this crisis must take account of past failures and seek to prevent future conflict… The frustrations felt by so many Kenyans are understandable. There is no doubt that much more remains to be done for Kenya to become a more equitable and democratic society. But Kenya has come too far to throw away decades of progress in a storm of violence.”

US Senator Barack Obama (whose father was a Kenyan), January 23

“Conflicts are painful and they leave very deep wounds. Let your wounds bleed and then you heal. In the process of healing, seize the opportunity to build a society of justice… This is not an ethnic conflict. It is about inequality and about exclusion.”

Mrs. Graca Machel, former First Lady of Mozambique and South Africa, January 25

“What we saw was heart-wrenching. We saw houses burning, grandmothers and children being pushed out of their homes, and people suffering everywhere. What we saw today was rather tragic.”

Kofi Annan (after touring some of the violence-struck areas in Rift Valley province, January 26

“What is presumed to be the ‘Kenyan nation’ is in fact a loose assembly of diverse and dissonant groups of ethnic communities with conflicting political, economic, and social interests. The constitution fails to recognize this fundamental reality and therefore remains irrelevant in resolving tensions that emanate from a clash of ethnic interests… Kenya is currently bleeding from very old wounds that badly need a balm. The post-election violence is symptomatic of a deeper malaise. The violence expresses political, economic, social, and spiritual wounds. Let us not fear to lance the boil and halt current and future blood-letting in Kenya.”

Frederick Iraki (associate professor at USIU), January 27

“We want to exhort Kibaki to come out of State House and tackle the unfolding crisis. He cannot keep quiet while the country is burning.”

Daily Nation editorial, January 29

“We must debunk the myth and fantasy of a peaceful, stable, and prosperous nation. We must confront the reality that ours is a volatile, inequitable society, with deep ethnic odium. The current crisis presents a historic opportunity, a tipping point or threshold. There is a cathartic streak about the post-election violence. In a gruesome way, the crisis is a kind of purging, cleansing, and emptying of the bowels of ethnic hatred that could lead to a redressing of socio-economic inequities. The hundreds dead did not die in vain. In death, they have something to say to every politician who has fed us on the stale bread of ethnic vitriol and the rotten meat of tribalism. They have something to say to every Kenyan who embraces the tyranny of tribalism and rejects aristocracy of merit, equity, and socio-economic justice.”

Dr. Alex Awiti (post-doctoral fellow at Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York)

“This is not about who won or who did not win the presidential election. It is not about who is responsible for organizing or fueling the violence. This is about the simple and indisputable fact that, whatever the circumstances of his victory, Kibaki now occupies State House and owes this country a responsibility. Granted the legitimacy of his presidency is in question, but nobody is better placed than he to deal with the daily slaughter of innocent Kenyans and the rancid climate of ethnic distrust. For now, he controls the instruments of State. If then there is a government in place, why has the situation been allowed to get out of hand? The killings and evictions in northern Rift Valley province, the revenge attacks in Nakuru and Naivasha and the ethnic fighting in Nairobi slums all indicate an abysmal failure of government.”

Daily Nation editorial, January 30

“This is a case of emergency where certain things have to be done very quickly to stop the killings. There’s no time to go into niceties and debates when the killings are taking place.”

Rwanda President Kagame (heads a nation recovering from a 1994 genocide that claimed nearly a million lives in three months)

“There can be no healing and reconciliation unless and until the truth is laid bare and justice is administered. This time round, let Kenyans not sweep tribal clashes, demonstrations, murders, rapes, and destruction of property under the carpet. Let the truth be known! Only when the truth is known and justice is received can anxiety be reduced and the wounds begin to heal. Only then can reconciliation start and people begin to look into the future with hope.”

Wangari Maathai (2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner and former member of the Kenya parliament), January 31

“At the last count, more than 800 people have died and another 300,000 have been displaced. Millions of others have been mentally and emotionally displaced and they no longer know what to make of the day’s developments. How do we mitigate the effects of the emotional fallout that Kenya is experiencing right now? What is the price of a human life? How do you tell an orphaned child that she will experience great hardship in life because her parents were burned to death for belonging to a particular ethnic group?”

Lucy Oriang’ (regular columnist, Daily Nation), February 1

“Wherever the two leaders look, they are going to see a united international community saying sit down and deal with each other and stop this before your country spirals out of control.”

Lord Malloch-Brown (UK Minister for Africa, Asia, and the UN)

“If we keep the pace, the long-term issues will take less than a year. The time table is, however, one year. What is at stake is not individual interests, otherwise we will destroy Kenya.”

Kofi Annan (former UN Secretary General, conducting mediation talks with PNU and ODM)

“It has to stop.”

UN chief Ban Ki-Moon (he repeated this crisp message, referring to the post-election violence, three times upon his arrival in Kenya)

“Crises, tragic as their consequences may be, are always accompanied by lessons that have to be learned. The current chaos means that Kenyans will not be the same again, for it has brought into sharp focus illnesses that afflict the nation. The country cannot move forward without urgently addressing the fragile State institutions, gender inequality, ethnicity, class, corruption, politics of winner-takes-all, constitutional review, need for political change, and a new democratic order that will undertake fundamental reforms, top among them the demarginalization of the youth.”

Cabral Pinto (frequent columnist, Daily Nation), February 2

“Displacement breaks up families, cutting important social and cultural ties; affects and even terminates stable employment relationships; precludes or forecloses formal education opportunities (especially for children); deprives infants, expectant mothers and the sick of access to food, water, adequate shelter, or vital health services, and makes the displaced especially vulnerable to act of violence such as becoming the target of attacks at the camps. Thus, the displaced have special needs to be addressed by both governments and the rest of the international community.”

Richard Bosire (political science lecturer at the University of Nairobi)

“As we search for solutions, it is time we give names, faces, and identity to people killing and being killed. It is a tragedy when people are killed because the police suspect they were going to burn property, and it is a catastrophe when we shy away from identifying the names and tribes of all the protagonists and victims. Part of Europe wanted to behave the same way on the killings of the Jews until states legislated to make denial a crime. Do we want legislation to force us to do the same? We cannot move on until we face the brutal truth as it is. The death of any Kenyan – whether Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luo, or Luhya – carries the same weight. No tribe is superior or has the monopoly of political hegemony. The church in Kenya has no moral integrity to guide us. Church leaders have taken sides and are demanding that we maintain peace and move on. Kenya deserves peace, not mere peace, but peace based on the truth, justice, and equity.”

Donald B. Kipkorir (prominent Nairobi lawyer)

“Let’s face it, these gangs are the product of desperation among the youth, who have no future and couldn’t care less for anybody’s life. Denied an honest livelihood, they are easy prey for political manipulation and brainwashing by the key players in the dirty game of political vendetta. The ferocity and ruthlessness with which innocent people have been hacked to death across the country points to pent-up hatred in the murder squads. This hatred is explained by these gangsters loathing of a system that has failed to address their poverty. The killers, sadly, have a grudge against society as a whole and against anybody perceived to be better than them. Poverty dehumanizes, which explains the beastly manner in which the recent killings have been executed.”

Dorothy Kweyu, (journalist)

“Vernacular radio stations that air comments referring to communities as ‘baboons’, ‘weeds’, or ‘animals of the west’ are being singled out as a partial cause to the ethnic bloodletting in Kenya. You’ll hear things like ‘let us remove the weeds from our crops’ or ‘let us remove the spots amongst us’. Because of believability of radio amongst locals, it becomes very easy for people to take up what is said on radio and believe it as a form of gospel truth.”

Caesar Handa (executive director of Strategic Research)

“It was catastrophic. The brutality exhibited was only reminiscent to horror movies.”

A resident of Naivasha, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals,

“Kenya has 42 tribes so that each one can seek God in their own language and so they can each be represented around God’s throne.”

Bishop Adoyo (Nairobi pastor and bishop, heard on a Christian radio station), February 3

“Even as the gangs continue to barricade major highways, drag passengers out of vehicles, and hack them to death, the Commissioner of Police, Major General Hussein Ali, has on several occasions insisted that the force is not overwhelmed by the situation.”

Dominic Wabala (writing in the Sunday Nation)

“Through our actions in the last 30 days, we have all but destroyed our social fabric, and all our institutions lie discredited and dishonored.”

Mumbi Ngugi (an advocate of the High Court, writing in the Sunday Nation)

“I thought Kenyans were God-fearing. I now see that they are merely church-going. Which set of religious beliefs can allow you to pick up your panga and attack your neighbor and turn him into pieces of meat? How is it that people who sing hymns every Sunday have turned into blood-crazed savages who burn churches if they harbor the ‘wrong’ people? Can we not hear their screams? I may be very confused but one thing I do still understand: If we are all going to shrink back into tribal enclaves, on the ground and in our minds, then we can kiss goodbye the dream of ever being a ‘first-world’ country. I thought we were a country that thought big. It seems that what we really think is pathetically small. We never really left our villages; we never really want to sit with anyone but our immediate cousins. We wish to think amongst our kinsmen and breed within our hamlets.”

Sunny Bindra (regular columnist with the Sunday Nation)

“Nigeria’s leader came to power in a violent and fraudulent vote, yet he’s been accepted on the international stage. It’s no wonder Kenya’s president felt able to rig his re-election.”

Kenneth Roth (director of New York-based Human Rights Watch)

“I invite you to unite with the brothers and sisters in Kenya, some of whom are present here in St. Peter’s Square, in prayer for reconciliation, justice, and peace in their country.”

Pope Benedict, during his weekly Angelus blessing

“This place is hell on earth. Even after losing all our belongings, some marauding gangs are still following us inside the police station, threatening. All of us lack food, medicines, toilets, and water. We’re sleeping in the open where we are at the mercy of mosquitoes and the biting cold. Almost all the children are coughing, while most of us require drugs to treat various ailments.” / “I lived in Thika for more than 20 years, but after receiving death threats from colleagues whom I have known for a long time, I decided to flee.”

Willis Onyango (camp spokesman) and Elijah Odek (staying at a police station in Thika district), illustrating the fear, misery, despair, and untold suffering thousands of displaced people are experiencing

“Resolving the current crisis is not about individuals. It is not about Raila or Kibaki, but about strong institutions that will ensure the country will not have to return to this kind of crisis every couple of years.”

Kofi Annan (former UN Secretary General, conducting mediation talks with PNU and ODM), February 5

“Differentiation through ethnicity has always existed in Africa and humans have a universal propensity to form collective identities, to distinguish outsiders from insiders, along ethnic lines… Manipulating ethnicity for political gain is a dangerous game, however. In its half-century of independence, sub-Saharan Africa has been scarred by multiple internecine conflicts, many of which could have been wholly avoidable.”

Donald Mogeni (Nairobi consultant)

“I call upon the global village to condemn the diabolical and barbaric ethnic warfare being unleashed on children, the lame, women, and other innocent people.”

Letter to the editor, February 6