Kenyans are a loud, rumbustious people — outwardly, especially behind a keyword, or at a funeral rally. Kick the tires and you discover that most Kenyans are actually cowards.
They shout, but they don’t seriously confront questions directly. That’s because the people we call Kenyans don’t really know who they are, or what they should become.
Many are trapped in primeval identity gaols, tribal stereotypes, and racial tropes. In short, Kenyans are a traumatised lot. They haven’t got the magic key to open the door of nationhood, and create a national zeitgeist. This is what the raging debate on Somalis, their wealth, and national belonging have revealed. Let’s make this conversation real by turning it into Kenya’s “E Pluribus Unum” moment.
“E Pluribus Unum” is Latin for the motto which appears on the Great Seal of the United States. It signifies the formation of a nation out of many and competing identities. Simply put, “out of many, one.” This is pivotal because the US is the most diverse country on earth.
It was formed out of colonialism and Empire but forged in the struggle for equal protection and anti-discrimination. It’s in my view the greatest human experiment of living with diversity.
In comparison, Kenya is a dot on the map of history. My belief is if we could understand this basic fact, we might make Kenya a paradise. But alas, we insist on competing, dividing, and splitting over virtually nothing.
Most Kenyans haven’t yet entered the age of modernity although social media lies to them that they’ve arrived. Even in the most developed parts of the country, we see scenes, sights, sounds, smells, and features of not the Third World, but the Fourth. Anyone who’s travelled to the Western world has seen this first-hand.
My good friend, the flamboyant lawyer Donald Kipkorir, likes to remind us of this uncomfortable truth by posting pristine pictures of manicured villages and towns in Switzerland or even Italy. Then he despairingly asks, “When will Kenya be like this?” You can’t blame him. He’s a wealthy man who desires a life not overcome by poverty and penury. That’s why we must go to “Singapore.”
This reminds me of whites who think that all Blacks are “stupid,” “lazy,” or they “stink.” These narratives are driven by fear, guilt, or ignorance and stupidity about “the other.” Even people who didn’t pass history 101 are now experts on Somalis. What’s even more disgusting is that the Minnesota kerfuffle has been weaponised for political purposes in Kenya. South C and Eastleigh are on the lips of every fool.
Somali haters now want us to believe that Somalis are the first people of African descent to commit crimes of fraud in America. Suddenly, all investments by Somalis in Kenya are the proceeds of crime from Minnesota. Let me tell you something. I have lived in America for over four decades and I can tell you that crime doesn’t have an African, let alone a Somali, face. Crime is committed by all groups and races in that country.
As for Africans there, I have for decades read about fraud cases committed by Kenyans of Gikuyu, Kamba, Kisii and Luo origin among others. There was even a Kenyan serial killer in Texas, and he wasn’t Somali if I remember correctly.
Give us a break. I’ve never heard anyone weaponise those cases of crime in America against the Akamba, Agikuyu, Luos, or the Kisii. They are reported in Kenya and understood as crimes by individuals, not by ethnic communities. I heard a so-called pastor preaching hate against Somalis. With vigour and passion, he intoned that Kenya shall not be built by stolen wealth and invested in Eastleigh and South C by Somalis.
He should go back to school. I don’t condone theft and believe it must be punished without pity. But does the good pastor know that most Western countries were built by stolen loot and enslaved labour from Africa, Asia, and Latin America? That is what Empire and Colonialism were all about.
This discourse has now veered and morphed into blaming Somali leaders for the poor development of the North. Guess what? They are not the only ones who steal from counties. It’s only that since the 1960s, the underdevelopment of the region is more visible because it’s been planned state policy. Where there’s more development historically, governors can steal but it’s not glaring. The same pastor blamed the failure to catch the Minnesota fraud on our National Intelligence Service. This is bigotry 101. We won’t build one Kenya this way.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. He’s Senior Advisor on Constitutional Affairs to President William Ruto. On X: @makaumutua.
