Recycling Seasons2

I want to put my past post in context. And I will say things that many may not be comfortable. But as God’s minister I do not have much choice.

Treat me as a social commentator, an observer.

I read a book with the title Healing of Memories several years ago. I must look for it to get their message afresh. I need to state that it is research based.

One thing I remember is the finding that a child in the womb is shaped by what the mother experiences.

They shared incidences where pregnant mothers witnessed a suicide and the children became suicidal in their adulthood.

We know that the first seven years of a child imprint more than experiences. They imprint values. They imprint goals. They shape their whole lives.

This cycle I have shared confirms that.

Allow me to say that even the freedom struggle was itself shaped by the second world war.

One reason the cycle repeats is that the perpetrators become so traumatized that they never want to speak about their experiences.

My father was in Mau Mau with his brother, the one I was named after.

Yet they never even once wanted to say anything about their struggle.

It was very recently that my aged aunt, who was also a mother in detention, told me that they are the ones who dug what we thought was a natural river. And my uncle also told me what drove him to the forest.

New generations therefore can only remember the adventure of war.

As I stated, I was a child in those tumultuous seventies and, apart from those clandestine records, knew nothing about the struggle since I was far from the action and there were no radios.

But yesterday I spoke with a brother and mentioned that time. He was of your age and was also informed and told me that those times were bad. It was no show time.

I was of your age in the nineties and can confirm to you that it was bad.

People walked to and from Kiambu to work in Nairobi because Matatus were part of the resistance. Many lost their livelihoods.

I do not even want to talk about lives.

But there was not much information about the sufferings of the common Kenyan.

Again, the pain was so bad that nobody who was bitten then wants to hear about it except the leaders who benefitted from the blood that was shed and the resultant suffering.

2007 is closest to us and we have some records.

But the Gen Z do not have that experiential association with the happenings then.

We are reminded of the gains and told to forget the pains.

But ask the people who were displaced and had to start their whole lives afresh.

Ask a victim of those clashes about them and the common refrain is,

Do not remind me of those times.

The pain is still smoldering almost twenty years later.

When Gen Z therefore talk about revolution, they have no context on which to base it.

That is why they are calling everybody but themselves cowards. That is why they are the only patriots since they think nobody else fought for anything they are enjoying.

But that is a delusion, a very damaging deception.

They think their parents are being docile and cowardly because they have refused to join them on the streets without knowing how paranoid the parents become looking at their children demonstrating with the hindsight of experience.

Let me get to the conflict at hand and offer a word of advice to these our children.

I think you have started overdoing it.

You asked the president to reject the bill and he did it.

You asked him to meet with you and he agreed.

Why are you still on the streets?

It is cowardly of you to continue hitting someone when he is down.

You enjoyed the support of the populace when you were making your statement. Nobody complained when you were having peaceful demonstrations.

But someone with hindsight knew that there was bound to be infiltration. There were bound to be opportunistic elements joining your protests, even young people like you with a different agenda.

Let me give an incidence to hopefully to make you understand me.

One time I was walking along River Road when a small demonstration passed along the road.

One guy came out of the group snatched the phone of a man walking ahead of me and quickly went back to the crowd.

What do you think the victim will feel for the agenda they were pushing?

That is what I am saying.

Your protests no longer belong to you, especially since what you were advocating for was granted.

You do not change the rules of the game midway.

Another thing I will respond to you is the assertion that you are leaderless.

That is a lie.

The truth is that your leaders are cowards.

If I joined your twitter space for a few hours, I would be able to easily spot your leaders. But they are afraid of taking the bullet at the front.

This has played flash in the opportunist’s court since he can then take leadership from those scared leaders.

Politicians and paid activists have since taken over your cause because your leaders refused to take their positions and nobody else was willing to take charge of your cause.

For those looking from outside, it is not Gen Z that is on the streets. And I am sorry I have to be the one to say it. Someone has seized your momentum and is running with it to pursue his goals.

And that plays you very badly because the nature of the confrontation has changed.

When in the beginning you were fighting for Kenya, now you are fighting for the interests of a few who are not even Gen Z.

What is my advice then?

Pull the rug out of the opportunists by calling off the demonstrations.

Then have a meeting with the president in that twitter space you sought and he agreed.

Nobody whose business has been brought down or can’t pay the loan for his matatu will support your cause if you continue bashing a person who has ceded ground. Nobody whose phone and money has been stolen will continue being sympathetic to your cause if you continue playing hard ball.

Whether the president is honest or not is not your business. Find out the genuineness or otherwise of his concession after you meet him.

Finally, let your leaders take charge. It is cowardly to lead from the shadows.

Otherwise, it will be another Babel in those meetings.

I write this as a father to five Gen Z children.

But the decision is yours

God bless you