“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
― Elie Wiesel
I am one of those people who is so conscious about security. I want to feel safe in my country (although alot of times feeling safe and being safe are two different things.) I want to not be scared every time I receive a Whatsapp message or text telling me that the terrorists may or may not bomb that building or be in a particular mall. I want to be able to over-ride my fear and not in turn cause panic by sending those messages to others I am concerned about. I want to feel safe in my town, my city and my country. I don’t but I want to.
At the same time I am conscious that two wrongs do not make a right. Rounding up people like cattle and putting them in a camp does not make Kenya safe from terrorists. Some of these people’s only crime is not having an ID. How easy is it to get an ID if you are from the North Eastern Province? Very hard. Is it possible to have an ID and have left it at home when you have gone out on business or to have fun? Yes it is. So if you arrest somebody based on their physical characteristics and don’t even give them a chance to give their side of the story are you being fair. No. Don’t even get me started on the allegations that people were bribing their way out of the roundup.
There is a Somali problem. Illegal Somali immigrants have been coming to Kenya and living here for a long time. It is not that the security forces did not know this. They are everywhere. Somalis (legal or otherwise) took over Eastleigh and South C (sort of). They are even in Kileleshwa. Do you mean to tell me the police and immigration officials were not aware of what is happening? They did but they shut their eyes. Now they are trying to fix the problem when it is too late. And many innocent Kenyan Somalis are getting caught up in the crossfire.
I am ashamed that our leaders are not speaking out. Of course we know this is a sensitive issue, security is a serious and sensitive issue. But by keeping quiet they are silently agreeing with what the government is doing. I am not a fan of Duale but at least he spoke up for his people. Where is Raila when these things are happening? Where is Peter Kenneth who I voted for? Where is Martha Karua who should be a beacon for justice? Where is Mohammed Abduba Dida who had many Somali votes? This quote comes to mind “to sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men.” ― Ella Wheeler Wilcox
History will judge us harshly for not speaking out against injustice. Our leaders have failed us.
Some things you must always be unable to bear. Some things you must never stop refusing to bear. Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame. No matter how young you are or how old you have got. Not for kudos and not for cash: your picture in the paper nor money in the back either. Just refuse to bear them.” ― William Faulkner
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,
“You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.”
― Marian Wright Edelma
A journalist live tweets his arrest and how people were bribing their way out of arrest.
