Ocampo 6, deferral, hate speech, mudslinging, sound bites from the last couple of weeks in Kenya. The temperatures have already started rising and it's not even an election year! what's more if we are to follow the constitution as it is we're even closer to it than in other pre- election years.
When I look at all the dust that's been raised by the ICC process I look back to what started it all the 2008 Post Election Violence, and even further to the 2007 campaigns. I believe those two are connected somewhat but to what degree is another question.
Before the election I remember seeing a very worrying trend of hate speech I remember once reading an email and getting really worried about what would happen. The bile that was being unleashed about a certain community was simply worrying and it ended up manifesting itself in the PEV in 2008. Character assassination was flowing both ways against Raila and Kibaki until it looked no more like a political competition but a mud slinging match. More so were the texts that were being sent, the ones I got dissing Raila, they looked funny at the time but in hindsight very foolish. All these you may argue are just words but they are very powerful more so when they come from people who've been idolised by their communities.
A good development is that we now have the Cohesiona and integration commission to check on the hate speech coming from our leaders. However there's still our own role to play in refusing to forward hateful messages be it email, sms or on the social networks that are all the rage. We all have a role to play in keeping the peace in this ethnically diverse community of ours. I pray that we've learn from the mistakes of last time and will check what we say and write as we don't want a repeat of that dark hour in our nation's history! A few weeks back we rallied together to sing our national anthem let's keep that peace, love and unity going. Na ukinitumia some bure (useless) message it's going straight to the trash!
God bless Kenya!
