Dear Prof. Makau Mutua,
“I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.” ― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Prof, you and J.D Salinger clearly share no beliefs. And maybe you shouldn’t. I feel that you would be the man with an evil laugh pushing the thousands of little children off the cliff.
Let me explain.
Your tweet on the 23rd of Dec 2012, Buffalo, New York
"@makaumutua 2h I predict a military coup in Kenya after the March 2013 elections if those indicted for crimes against humanity are elected."
5 years ago, today, I was in my mother’s house in Kitale, watching Television as the country began to break into tension. Our thoughts began to turn into dreadful fears of what could or would happen. The KICC, the heartbeat of election reporting was a buzz; everyone was crying foul over vote rigging, delays in reporting, all sorts of accusations and counter accusations were on live TV, for all Kenyans to see.
At home, we all stayed in my mother’s living room flicking channels, watching quietly, afraid to think of the impossible.
At home, we all stayed in my mother’s living room flicking channels, watching quietly, afraid to think of the impossible.
2 days later, the breaking news began flying. Fires everywhere, people were being hacked to death, and the Kikuyu, Luo and Kalenjin false superiorities began to tear the country down. It was a terrible time, but of course, you were not here; it perhaps was a chilly winter, perhaps in London, were you in New York? Catching the latest from stations like CNN or the BBC?
You see, my daughter is called Wambui, named after her paternal grandmother, and I, am called Chebet, translated as daughter of the Sun, in Kalenjin, my mother’s language. The two tribes were not allowed in the same place in that period of December 2007. But I managed; we got a flight from Eldoret and flew back to Nairobi where it was safe for her. Many people didn't make it.
Children her age were slashed to death for mistakes they never made.
Children her age were slashed to death for mistakes they never made.
We, Kenyans, do not want to go through that again.
We hurt, Kenya hurt, and all we have left, is a benign feeling of hope.
When you are at the brink of despair, you don’t need someone to push you off the cliff, you need someone to hold your hand and tell you to hang in there. Make things better. Start loving our neighbours, preach peace, and build bridges.
When you are at the brink of despair, you don’t need someone to push you off the cliff, you need someone to hold your hand and tell you to hang in there. Make things better. Start loving our neighbours, preach peace, and build bridges.
On Christmas day, Just a few days after your tweet about a possible Military Coup in 2013, you said,"
Prof Makau Mutua @makaumutua
walk up to a complete stranger today and tell him, or her, that you love them. Then hug them."
Prof Makau Mutua @makaumutua
walk up to a complete stranger today and tell him, or her, that you love them. Then hug them."
Prof, If that is not the epitome of doublespeak, then I, a lifetime student of Journalism have no idea what double speak means.
Your 25th December tweet about hugging a stranger shows a side of you that believes in the ability of human kind to be good, in a strange Marxist kind of way. Remember his argument that man was inherently good, especially if given the right social environment all that good would shine through and illuminate the world with righteousness?
Now with your doublespeak, part of me wondered why such an influential, Hague appointee, Harvard trained, Buffalo Dean would predict such a massive collapse of the Kenyan government.
It isn’t so much the prediction, but the lack of politesse that is expected from people like you at this time of year, when many Kenyans are so willing to own their country once again.
Perhaps you have been away too long?
Perhaps you have forgotten what it means to be hopeful?
Many of us are clutching onto that hope, and spreading it as far as we can, you call it burying our heads in the sand, but you are in faraway New York.
Professor, as you drive your Hague agenda, remember and 38 million Kenyans call this country home.
Please keep your predictions to yourself.
I believe that the real winners never give up on hope.
P.S
I do not write this as a journalist, I write it as a mother and a Kenyan who is hopeful that 2013's election will be a feather in the Kenyan cap, after all we have had successful elections since 1963, one bad one, will not rain on our parade.
I do not write this as a journalist, I write it as a mother and a Kenyan who is hopeful that 2013's election will be a feather in the Kenyan cap, after all we have had successful elections since 1963, one bad one, will not rain on our parade.
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