It is Our Turn to Eat; Crucify This!!!

“Kibaki has never found a fence he couldn’t sit on.” that was a punchline referring to President Kibaki’s laid back style that always seems to accommodate all forms of atrocities throughout his career (In Kenyatta’s, Moi’s and in his own Government). If this is just the tip of the iceberg of what we should expect from the Michela Wrong book, I simply cannot wait to get me a copy. And here is why.

The serialization of the book in the Daily Nation newspaper reads like the Godfather thriller. It has drama, nerve chilling suspense, anxiety, corruption, tribalism, dark secrets, naive idealism, betrayal, and undercover agents. It only needed a sex scandal for it to become an American Story that would have been immortalized in Hollywood.

But here is the real reason why I look forward to its release…

Kenya has been cursed by too much politeness. I have said this before and I will say it again. We are too fucking polite when we need to say it like it is. And now that I think about it, it seems we would rather kill each other as we did in the post election violence instead of speaking some hard truths that most of us need to hear. Well, in this case, we do not have to for this book finally does. And I hope that it will be the first of many which will expose the rot we have kept covered since independence.

This is a ‘tell it all’ book that does not give a shit about your feelings. It tells it the way it is without fear or favour, and the beauty of it is that it cannot be dismissed on rational grounds. This is that book that will force us to finally address the tribal issues that we face in this country, whether we like it not A tale of Five Wives. Hopefully, this will be the book that will make us finally understand that exclusive leadership has never had place in the hearts of great men, and that it has not served this country one bit since independence.

In a country of secret envelopes and hidden reports, this book mentions names, places and motive. It goes further to give insight from several perspectives such that the dots can be connected even by a half wit. In a country where we shout that tribalism is rife but whisper tribal slurs about other tribes, this book writes those whispers on the wall for all to see. This ties in very well with my policy in life, which is, “never say something about somebody else to others that you cannot tell that person to his/her face.”

In a country where those privileged with state secrets are either bought off or mysteriously killed, one man has survived both to finally reveal the thick and thin of the mega corruption scandals, including the key players and their respective roles. And unlike the usual stories, the characters in the book are alive and well, awaiting our verdict after we read the case made by Githongo. Who knows, similar books about the murders of Tom Mboya, J. M. Kariuki, Pio Gama Pinto, Robert Ouko, and Father Kaiser may soon follow suit.

I wrote about Githongo a while back, The Definition of Honour, and I may as well have written the prologue to this book. To those who might feel compelled to dismiss this book and the man too, I only have this to ask. In a country where ministers have to be censured to resign, a country where the two traditionally rival ministers accused of corruption gang up to prevent a censure, a country where even the censure means nothing to the executive, what else if not honourable, can you call the one man who simply said, no thank you, and walked away?

I call this honour, and I hope this book cuts deep, really, really deep. For Kenya has reached that point in time where we have to destroy in order to establish. To the youth, this is your opportunity to do what your parents have failed to do, and that is uniting this country on national agendas, as opposed to regional enclaves. We must destroy the old generation to establish the youth (no more compromises), and Githongo is the big brother for us younger youth. He has lit the way forward, and I hope we have the balls to follow.

Please look at the list of Kenyan Heroes on this blog  and suggest people that you feel I should add to this new breed of youthful leaders, the one’s keeping hope alive in this country.

I have witnessed may books that attempted to do what Michela Wrong has done being choked or crucified, but in light of the Integrity that the Anti Corruption Czar has shown this far, all I can say to those implicated is, “Crucify This!”.