COMMERCIAL ACTIVIST BONIFACE MWANGI has claimed that the reason President Ruto is compensating victims of the 2013, 2017 and 2023 protest-related violence is to APPEASE Luos.
APPEASE LUOS?
The current relentless opposition to compensation stems from this evil notion that injuries to Luos should never be compensated.
Coming from a people whose tribesmen and women gobbled billions in IDP compensation and resettlement, the playing field is truly unlevelled.
There is nothing wrong in compensating Luos who suffered the worst forms of political violence in Kenya. The killings. The rapes. The sodomy. The machetes. Those who escaped from burning houses. Those with chopped arms. Those with gunshot deformities.
If today the opposition is faltering, it is because of the cavalier mistreatment of Luos, a community which has been the bedrock of opposition politics in Kenya, helping sustain momentum for change and reforms and paying the heaviest price in body counts.
People like Boniface Mwangi are not human rights activists. These are commercial activists playing favourites with human rights.
Oathed tribalism is a bad thing. You can never extricate yourself from it.
The official photographer of the Mungiki in 2007 has relapsed into toxic, primitive tribalism.
If Luos suffered, let them be compensated.
Compensation is not new in Kenya. What’s new now is that Luos too are getting compensated. The donkeys of Kenya are getting compensated too.
Equality is oppressive to those used to privileged access to state resources.
The battle my generation of Luos face is to ensure no Luo finds himself/herself in a situation where they beg for compensation.
This is why we reject blanket activism.
The Luo community’s exit from the streets is so that commercial activists don’t foam and froth how we are being appeased just because the state is compensating for the gruesome human rights infractions inflicted on a people who did nothing wrong.
Baby Pendo was not killed on the streets of Kisumu. The police, mostly GEMA killer cop thugs sent from Nairobi, clobbered her right inside their home in Obunga slums. The mother suffered worse physical and emotional torture.
Many of you may not have followed the inquest but on that night, that low income estate suffered animalistic violence. The rapes and sodomy. These violations need lifelong care, and the little compensation these families will finally get is not even enough to cover the pain, but life must go on and a family could use the sh1 million or sh500,000 to rebuild.
Those saying you cannot buy human life; we agree, but where was this argument when billions were being spent to resettle mostly Kikuyu IDPs?
It is a gravely dangerous for a people to surrender to the notion that some people must suffer forever.
Treat us the way you’d want us to treat you because as it appears, we may just come to POWER.
“Not immediately, but definitely.
Dikembe Disembe is a Political Researcher and Writer
