What Purpose Is This Website Serving?

Sir,

I first visited your website out of curiosity to find out what kinds of issues it wants to articulate and I must say I was utterly disappointed by the content of the postings appearing on the site.

If your intention is to market a prticular candidate to the electorate, then beleive me you that you are doing a pretty shoddy job. How do you expect to woo the undecided voters to your side if all you are excelling at is to whip up fear, hate and resentment in the minds of people? Surely these kinds of emotions are not helpful. Skillful vote hunters seek to reassure and lure people to their camp through positive messages that give hope and assurance.

You condemn Kikuyus for being perpetrators of the vice of tribalism. How different are you from them when your messages to people during this electioneering period are laced with similar principles you pretend to be condemning? You cannot alienate them and expect your candidate to have it easy were he to ascend to power. May I point out to you that what this website does best is to promote tribal extremism which is a pretty lethal concoction that has the capacity to plunge our country into unimaginable bloodshed.

What you need to understand is that tribalism will not be eradicated by a few people being appointed to a few public positions. Infact these sorts of arrangements cannot guarantee any equitable distribution of resources across the board. For Kenya to get out of the current morass of inequality in terms of resource allocation is for the government to roll out a marshall plan whose aim is to radically alter the state of infrastructure countrywide. This plan should also target key areas such as farming, education, health, industrialization and the promotion of internal as well as external trade. This is a framework that has the ability to sustain all Kenyans.

Past experience shows that the appointment of a few tribesmen and home boys to lucrative public positions only serves to benefit a clique of people in society.

The rest of the masses are left to wallow in dire poverty as a class of a few priviledged emerge from the civil service and parastatal bosses of the day. Poverty is not confined in one corner of our dear country. It is everywhere. The Luos experience it so do Kambas, Luhyias, Kikuyus, Kalenjins and the rest of the Kenyan ethnic groups. A few public appointees cannot eradicate poverty from the face of Kenya

What most of your contributors fail to see is that the problem with Kenya is not the Kikuyu tribe but rather the ruling elite who have on countless occasions used their kinsmen and tribesmen as a lever for perprtuating their hold on power. Neither Raila, Kalonzo nor Kibaki are the panaceas of our problems. They are all politicians whose sole objective is to either get hold of power or to remain in it. They may serenade us with sweet words and promises during this period but things will remain the same come December 2007.

Do you ever stop to ask yourselves why Raila is in the company of Musalia, Ruto and Kosgey? Have you ever wondered why Kibaki has the wholehearted support of Moi? If Raila is a true agent of change as he would want most of us to believe, he would eschew the cast he has. Remember the saying that birds of the same feathers flock together. The point I am putting across here is that the Kenyan is a captive of the political elite period.

We as Kenyans need to actualise a paradigm shift. We should completely make a break with the politician. We give them the energy and the ammunition they need to stay in the limelight when we give them lots of our attention. They literally straddle over our lives in every sense of the word. They are our inspiration, entertainers, etc. We've turned them into celebrities to an extent that we think and idolise them all the time. We hardly put to scrutiny what they tell us. We don't examine them at all.

May I take this opportunity to urge you to turn your website into a tool of positive and meaningful change. Do not allow it to be used as a medium of hate campaign that will propel our country on the road of anarchy. Ask your candidate"s supporters to tone down their rhetoric as it is not helpful to him. Afterall Kenya is home to us all

Isaac Were
Independent Observer and Thinker