I will Remain Prolife Despite the Pain Anger and Anguish

Yesterday, I spent the whole day praying for Kenya. Then in the evening I received the message of the death of Fr. Kamau. I then read all the messages that were sent out to honour the life of Kamau and the other Kenyan martyrs. And I decided that I am going to promote a PRO-LIFE interest. As for positions, that will come later; the immediate thing is to save lives and to assist all those who have been affected by sending appeals and helping directly where I can. This I can do by sending a word of encouragement, material assistance etc. And let us continue with our prayers so that the healing of our nation may happen so fast.

I have been following what has been happening in our country in recent times. And I know that we shall one time come out of this mess. But the way in which we shall come out of it will be a challenge. This situation will leave us with many bruises; will make us lose many of our trusted friends, but on the other hand we could emerge out of it as a nation or tribes. However, I know that Kenya shall always be victorious. God is accompanying us! At the moment we are all in a very fragile situation and the pressure that has been mounted on all of us is just too much. All of us have taken a position and have stuck to this position and this position is the cause of our anger. However the most important position is the one that is pro-life.

The truth of the moment is that Kenya is balkanized into an inter ethnic war. The people at the helm of this war are our brothers and sisters the poor. The other truth is that the violence experienced at the moment is something that might have been planned by some of our leaders. They might not have anticipated that this situation would get really ugly. Now this situation is uglier than ever imagined. I am really sure that what some of my friends feel might happen. People might in the long run turn against the perpetrators of violence. At the moment nobody is safe in Kenya.

For this reason, I request all of us to hold onto their positions being promotion of Truth and Justice but all our interest should be PRESERVATION OF LIFE. Let all of us be PRO-LIFE agents. Let us be a bit moderate in everything we do and all the words we use. Let us avoid name calling, stereotyping and tagging but let us state the facts the way they are and not add negative adjectives to them. In our discussions with friends, let us recognize that we have a divine mission to reconcile Kenya. These tags are tags likeTraitor, Thief, Killer, “Kenyans”, wrong tribe. It has been proved that the words that we use in our everyday language have an empowering or disempowering effect. Also in as much we are all hurt, let us take care ofour framing of sentences. This moment requires extreme caution and moderation as a word wrongly uttered though with good intentions could cause so much pain and hurt.

Then, there is the danger of extreme positioning. This is where we view those not agreeing with ours with less regard. Hence we might not feel so much loss if one of them happens to be badly hurt. But we only feel bad when one of our own is injured. I do pray to God that we all rise above our positions at the moment and also do pray that God protects Kenya. That God protects our friends such as Solomon, Simple man, Oruko, Ngethe, Mwikali, Nyale all my former and present colleagues, all my clients friends and foes, amongst others.

Let us be pained in the same way if those holding our positions hurt those not holding our positions. Let us be pained in the same way when wesee the perpetrators of violence in the same way we see those who have been violated. Let us reprimand them when they do any action that is not PRO-LIFE. The perpetrators of violence are not only the ones wielding machetes, bows and arrows etc. But also those known as “Subtle Perpetrators of Violence,” those who pass different messages in different forums when it suits them. Also the emails we send to each other have much on the promotion of this violence. I know that different positions have taken into texting and emailing each other inflammatory messages. Let us not wait until when we cannot reconcile to stop this violence. Then it will be a heavy price we shall have to pay.

And to the children too, we need to give them a message of hope. I also pray for all of you that you may find peace of mind and heart. I pray that God may protect you and all your loved ones!!

By the way I have been invoking the intercession ofone holy man...
Oh Lord bring back peace in Kenya. In Jesus name AMEN

Mwadhama Mourice Otunga Utuombee

Annan Presses Kenya for accord http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7211549.stm and people speak of their losses in Kibera http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7190263.stm