LAST WORD
ON INTERNATIONAL
REFERENCES
F
or the last twenty five minutes
Ochieng had been on the phone
listening to a near monologue
from his cousin. In a nutshell he was
ranting about police brutality and the
fact that they were going to continue
demonstrating until the police stopped
killing innocent civilians.
How ironic thought Ochieng that
the country that periodically chastises
Kenya on its human rights record with
the active cooperation of Kenyans
who would love to see all our leaders
incarcerated in foreign jails should
have its own human rights issues.
In fact they were prepared to
demonstrate every day if necessary
until the government takes notice and
puts an end to the wanton killings. He
was in the movement and they were
not going to be cowed by strong arm
tactics of the police.
So on what moral ground do
Americans get to preach to Kenyans
about human rights when it is
apparent they are out of order and
cannot manage their domestic issues?
Or could it be that those are Kenyan
demonstrators imported by their
‘Kenyan’ president.
For records purpose this was not
ODM reaffirming its stand that police
were using unnecessary force and
carrying live ammunition to quell the
party’s peaceful demonstration, the
call was from the States and Ochieng’s
cousin was referring to the ongoing
demonstrations across the States.
It could also be that Trump’s threats,
issued on his campaign trail about
sending immigrants back to their
native countries, starting with the
president, has been taken literally by
the white community and they are
just trying to encourage non whites to
leave.
‘‘ Why with all the
conflict in African
and the legendary
poverty that is
documented has
there never been
a shortage of guns
and ammunition yet
there is no African
country that we know
of that manufactures
arms, artillery and
armoured vehicles.’’
That protests dubbed ‘Black Lives
Matter’ could even be taking place
in America, that great land of liberty
and democracy, is shocking to say the
least. It appears that the Kenyan police
learnt extrajudicial killings from a
worthy source.
94 MAL 13/16 ISSUE
Interestingly, when people ‘peacefully’
protest in America and are deemed
to be disturbing the peace the police
are sent out to keep law and order.
The protesters are duly arrested and
locked up in a democratic country
that enshrines in their constitution the
right to demonstrate and freedom of
speech.
Or is America preaching water and
drinking wine? The situation has
so deteriorated that a crazed ex-
serviceman has taken it upon himself
to redress what he felt was a deaf
society who have ignored the protests
and has ambushed white policemen
and shot several of them dead.
This is the country that Kenyan civil
rights activists and the opposition
quote whenever an incidence takes
place in Kenya. Is police brutality
any different in America when it is
perpetrated by a super power that has
dutifully preached democracy as the
only path to good governance?
The quintessential Trump, should he
be elected president, has promised
to build a wall along the American
southern border to keep off
undesirable immigrants. Kenya, not to
be left behind, is proposing to build
such a wall along the Somalia border
to also keep undesirables, perhaps
rioting Americans.
If we read our history right, only
the Red Indians are native to the
Americas and the blacks were forcibly
taken there, everybody else is an
immigrant so who gets to decide who
the desirable immigrants are. Is this
just another example of home grown
racism?
Trump has successfully campaigned
on a xenophobic, sexist and racist
platform and the fact that he is the
presumptive Republican nominee
means he has a lot of support. Is it
surprising then that we are seeing an
upsurge of racial tension in the States
– the so called land of the free.
But isolationism is becoming the
trend again after many years of
concerted international effort to
curb it and is being fuelled by fear.