A Call to Kenyan Minorities to Unite: Let Us Form the Minorities Tribal Group

I have tried forgetting the GEMA and KAMATUSA meetings since the day they were convened. I do not have to say that I have not been successful in that regard. The memory of the meetings stalk my shadow during the day and hover above me at night like some malevolent fiend. I have tried pushing back the resolutions they made to the back of my head where bad dreams are, but it has not worked either.


Now I have to face reality. These meetings were real and not some bad dreams I had sleeping on my rickety bed. The resolutions were real and so are the implications to my beloved divided country.

I do not understand why someone had to convene these meetings. Had they done a survey of sorts and realized that we were not divided enough and needed some prodding in that regard?

One reason why those behind these meetings had the impudence to call them is because they had the numbers behind them - numbers of politicians who have definitely been beaten by the rain of tribalism for so long that they have probably forgotten where it all started. There is no doubt that they were also counting on the numbers of many youths who after school (for those who managed that feat) found nothing to do and have since been feeling dispossessed in their own country. Yes, there is no doubt that the numbers counted on are of hopeless people who, tired of struggling too hard and getting nothing at the end, are too willing to dance to some tribal tune. I do not know whether to condemn or pity these folks.

So much has been said about the GEMA and KAMATUSA meetings. Kenyans from across the country have condemned the meetings.And I don't see this ending soon! No one has however come up with a clear plan for those of us called minorities. Where do we go from here?

Before I tell you how we should proceed, let us ask ourselves who the minorities are. They include my people, the Iteso, with no roads, no tapped water, no jobs and such things. They include our cousins the Turkana, hungry, dispossessed and looking wistfully at oil fields guarded by armed police officers from across a fence. They include the good people of Northen Kenya, suspected by authorities, blasted by terrorists and haunted by poverty. They include the warm people of the Coast (of the Mombasa si Kenya fame!), earning the country so much and gaining almost nothing from it. They include the people of Central, Rift Valley, and Nyanza who only belong to one tribe: the hardworking and peace loving Kenyans. The minorities are those of us who were disgusted with the impudence of politicians calling for tribal meetings.

It is time for the minorities to form the Minorities Tribal Group. Let us seek ways of bringing the divided parts of this country together; let us seek ways of empowering the poverty stricken; let us seek ways of taking the children to school (with full stomachs!); let us seek ways of ensuring that the resources we have benefit all of us; and let us seek ways of shunning those who may want to divide us. And while at it, we might as well gather 30 million signatures to petition the ICC to speed up justice for us who had our country destroyed, for us who lost our loved ones and neighbors and for those of us who lost our property.