Saturday, November 10, 2007
Let’s Tread Cautiously
Where there is smoke, there is fire. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between National Muslim Leaders Forum and ODM – read Raila Odinga – currently in circulation is astounding as it is stunning. This, on the heels of the Obiero interview.
I do not claim to know the veracity of the document neither have I known the NMLF or even heard of them before. What I do know is that this is a group willing to stake their reputation, credit and public support -if any- over dogmatic statements over what they perceive to be the Kenya we want. What are the issues propagated there in?
· Their clamor for establishment, recognition and perpetuation of sharia laws in Kenya
· Decimation of a unitary state into fragments serving parochial religious interests
· The myopic intended neutering of the recovering tourism industry at the coast
· The underlying threat of all the non coastal people and investors
· The threat on religious freedom
· The establishment of a theocratic Jimbo
· The threat on the Kenyan women
· And the other myriad issues enumerated in the document or impinging on the rights of the people of Kenya.
Expressions of these and other extremist views are within the purview of constitutional freedom of speech. But when they are views endorsed by a presidential candidate, one who seeks to lead a nation resplendent with a diversity of cultures, religions, economic endowments, ideologies, aspirations and the whole plethora of assorted tribal interests and infatuations, then there is cause to stop and ponder.
Why should any leader, least of all a presidential hopeful, subscribe to such ideas? Is this election going to be worn at any and all cost? Are we going to mortgage our future and that of our nation to such extremism and dangerous views for our nation? Are these the principles we shall see guiding our nation the next five years? We cannot and should not experiment with the freedom that was won through the shedding of blood. Raila and his cabal are selling our freedom to radical Islamists. By placing his signature on this MOU, he has placed his signature on the death knell of our freedom, our sanctity, our future and the essence of our nationhood. The witness to this document is Balala, as a Muslim his interests in the document are well manifested. Yet this is one of the people advising and supporting Raila in his effort to destroy our freedom and demarcate our nation into tribal kingdoms and ethnic supremacy.
It has taken long to build our country, it is not the best, but we should not dynamite a house to rambles because of flawed plumbing. This MOU is dynamite. The signatories do not have the interests of the nation at heart. Support them at your own peril. This marriage must not be consummated.
I do not claim to know the veracity of the document neither have I known the NMLF or even heard of them before. What I do know is that this is a group willing to stake their reputation, credit and public support -if any- over dogmatic statements over what they perceive to be the Kenya we want. What are the issues propagated there in?
· Their clamor for establishment, recognition and perpetuation of sharia laws in Kenya
· Decimation of a unitary state into fragments serving parochial religious interests
· The myopic intended neutering of the recovering tourism industry at the coast
· The underlying threat of all the non coastal people and investors
· The threat on religious freedom
· The establishment of a theocratic Jimbo
· The threat on the Kenyan women
· And the other myriad issues enumerated in the document or impinging on the rights of the people of Kenya.
Expressions of these and other extremist views are within the purview of constitutional freedom of speech. But when they are views endorsed by a presidential candidate, one who seeks to lead a nation resplendent with a diversity of cultures, religions, economic endowments, ideologies, aspirations and the whole plethora of assorted tribal interests and infatuations, then there is cause to stop and ponder.
Why should any leader, least of all a presidential hopeful, subscribe to such ideas? Is this election going to be worn at any and all cost? Are we going to mortgage our future and that of our nation to such extremism and dangerous views for our nation? Are these the principles we shall see guiding our nation the next five years? We cannot and should not experiment with the freedom that was won through the shedding of blood. Raila and his cabal are selling our freedom to radical Islamists. By placing his signature on this MOU, he has placed his signature on the death knell of our freedom, our sanctity, our future and the essence of our nationhood. The witness to this document is Balala, as a Muslim his interests in the document are well manifested. Yet this is one of the people advising and supporting Raila in his effort to destroy our freedom and demarcate our nation into tribal kingdoms and ethnic supremacy.
It has taken long to build our country, it is not the best, but we should not dynamite a house to rambles because of flawed plumbing. This MOU is dynamite. The signatories do not have the interests of the nation at heart. Support them at your own peril. This marriage must not be consummated.
