The Kenyan wounds that never healed

She was clobbered to near-death and raped. On August 30, 2016, her child will turn 8 years. She is Elizabeth Njeri. Her talk on a local television station greatly contrasted with the political hooting disguised as a prayer rally at Afraha Stadium, Nakuru County.

At Laini Saba in Kibera, Nairobi County, the opposition held its purported prayer rally. In both gatherings where God’s name was soiled, the plight of the victims was used to score political points.

They are the forgotten Kenyans. Children of this great nation whose hope for justice collapsed on the day all the suspects had their cases terminated at The Hague. 

Our politicians play cheap politics with everything. On Saturday, prayer rallies danced upon the graves of innocent souls who were butchered between December 2007 and February 2008.

The media too got lost in the heat and relegated the plight of the victims to the back foot. The talk was all about the politicians. This is the nation where unfortunately the big always have their way and the low are down-trodden upon.

National healing never happened. The Waki Report is still sealed with names of various suspects. The rhetoric is on and elections are around the corner. 

It is a shame that no one has been held to account yet we have Kenyans living in dilapidated camps. They are captives in their own land.

We blatantly refused to pursue the tough road of reconciliation as Rwanda did after the 1994 genocide. This is Kenya where politics transcend everything. 

Our neighbors in Rwanda initiated Gacaca courts which took care of all the small fish involved in the genocide. The big boys such as Jean Kambamba (former prime minister) have already been convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. 

The tiny Central African nation can claim that truth and justice which must come before reconciliation, indeed took place. Both local and international efforts made it possible.

Sadly, Kenya failed to learn from them. We chose to roll a carpet over the bitter and fresh wounds we inflicted on our fellow brother and sisters. 

In churches, political rallies and other gatherings, our politicians shout and gloat over how well we have dealt with the matter. Ridiculous at best.

Eight years and two elections later, the Kenyans of a lesser god are living with the nightmares. To some, the little monetary compensation have done little to heal them.

Led by our politicians, a media that chose suspects as the main focus of The ICC trials and a section of religious charlatans who chose to misrepresent God, we became insensitive to the plight of our scarred Kenyans.

Some babies were born out of brutal rape ordeals, children became orphaned, Kenyans lost their property and economic stability, and others cannot go back to their homes in Naivasha and other parts of the nation.

The wounds are fresh and the hatred keeps growing. Political talk ahead of the general elections in 2017 is rife with ethnic undertones! The embers of the post-poll violence are slowly being re-kindled. They might burn us one day if we do not put them off.