Luos have hit the World record. First, to most Kenyans, narratives abound that, they are demonstration enthusiasts, thanks to their lack of assets so they enjoy destroying others’ assets as they have nothing to lose. Second, a few of their leaders who defected from the opposition to join the government have mounted a campaign against their community labeling the latter, as idlers and blind followers. Consequently, deadly violence has been unleashed on the community by police leaving in its wake death that has surpassed the genocidal threshold. Ironically, the UDaist Luos have joined the other Luos in mourning. Led by Interior PS Raymond Omollo the political whores are mourning about a Chief’s burnt house, one dead policeman and police cars and police stations that have been destroyed. The rest of the community is in shock, as it comes to terms with the massive killings by police and injuries to thousands of youth majority Luos.
Two prominent Luo leaders have shocked me this week. When I asked the one I encountered in Mombasa what his take was regarding the police actions in Kisumu, he told me rather wryly, “Polis ok luong ga, kiluongo polis to kaka inyalo konyi onge”. The second one was asked by a colleague I know a day after my encounter why the state is turning its back on the many Luos who were killed, and the egghead had this to say, “Jaluo mawuoyo koda no to dak otho”. I choose to let these quotes fly in their original language because I am still digesting what these two Luo leaders, one an elected opposition Member of Parliament and a second one a former MP now appointed to some state agency, both now working with the ruling party, meant. These two are part of a larger group of Luos who joined Kenya Kwanza and are cheering the cancel culture. As the script would have it, Raymond Omollo the PS Interior then followed with his no frills, unduly inflammatory statement in which he confirms, only one policeman died according to him, and that, together with an attack on a Chief’s home and loss or damage to some chattels, were his most important concerns.
He actually proceeded to visit Bondo to assess the damage caused by Maandamano to the Chief’s home. The gall with which these idiots look down their noses at Luos who have a different opinion from theirs is deeply unsettling. The criminalization of demonstrations through brutalization, murder and rape of the poor is unacceptable. The targets of Ruto’s guns have died and made clean corpses, many of them Luos and Kenyans across the country are enraptured and are righteously angry save for these ‘Joluo Mowar’ who are unapologetic in their support for the murder of Luos and their cancellation that makes their victims nothing, or something akin to mere flies, for it is houseflies that get buried with the corpse for lacking someone to advise them not to follow the corpse into the grave.
For many years I have always thought that leadership is about standing up to speak for your people, bravely and unapologetically. Omollo and Joluo Mowar have burst my bubble, I now know that self-seekers can drive a sword into Luo chests and as if that is not enough turn the sword inside the already vulnerable enemy again and again, for that is what Omollo’s act of announcing only one death signifies. But if what I describe of Omollo is figurative, the more literal parallel to my sword analogy is the case of a youth the police felled in Nyamasaria, then proceeded to open their chest with a knife to remove the bullet cartridge and destroy evidence for anyone who may care to investigate. These are animals! Only vampires can be this atrocious. How can a government you pay taxes kill and subject its dead citizens to further ignominy, public vilification through cancel culture or mutilation to conceal evidence? Friends and comrades in the struggle, Luos who remain true to the spirit of Ramogi, this is my plea to you,
My dear friends,
Let us start identifying leaders and comrades who continually respect and take the high road, those who continually suffer the strings and arrows of public ridicule for being Luos, comrades whose souls and politics are intact and those among us who continually find some personal space to keep things in perspective and fix their eye on higher ideals. Even as I take recourse to the motivating words of Alfred Tennyson, the English poet laureate: “So little done, so much to do!” my eyes are open. We have enemies among us, our task now is simple, look around you, and identify these whores, vampires, and pigs, we must name them, shame them and push back their machinations.
Great article
Spor on. A leaders is chosen to defend the honour of its people.
indeed. but ours are self seekers
thank you doktari. i was angry