The Luhya Nation

                                                                              Photo: Luhya leaders in unity

Shalom my Luhya brothers and sisters. I would like to first remind you about some words of wisdom from Kuka Juma. He used to say “Ukhuleka yopanga mao nosinjile “this is Tachoni dialect that can be translated to mean a person who sees you as worthless is one who beats up your mother in your presence. In the luhya community, mothers take a very big role in the society and therefore through them, one can earn blessing and curse on the flip side. That is why uncouth utterances from Dwale ‘ Hii pesa  si ya mamako’ cannot be taken lightly.

Back to my main point. The saying by  kuka Juma transcends to what we are have been witnessing in the recent past. As a luhya nation, we have had leaders caught up in different scandles.The problem is not scandals as they were meant for our leaders now they are like like an elevated flag that can be seen by everyone. The problem is how we have always reacted to the allegations. Remember everyone is innocent until proven guilty. As compared to brothers from other regions of the country, we have made our leaders vulnerable. I’m not in any way covering up for impunity. All am saying is that our leaders are our representation at the national level. Whatever picture they are painted, it’s reflected on us as their subjects.

In a family setting, when a child steals a neighbor's sugarcane, good parents will not expose the child to the whole village as a thief. The parents will say.

”Okay, I haven’t heard my son is  a thief, I’ve never seen him steal but if at all you have caught him red handed doing that, then it is wrong. Leave the job for me to instill some discipline in him because I understand him better. “

Yes, that is the true parent who knows the consequences that come about with exposing your son to the community. If exposed, another day someone may refer to you as that is the father of a thief. Does it sound good ….really? Your answer is definitely NO.

When you bring your son (who is a suspected thief) home, you let him sit down, interrogate him and you can also whip him to instill fear in him and make him know that stealing is not accepted so that he will never be found doing such thing again or even walk with friends who steal. 

Sorry for taking you through an ECD class. What I meant was we cover up our leaders when exposed on a national level then bring them home so that they can sit around namwima with our council of elders at least to share a word or two. Who knows, maybe they were doing it at the interest of the community as Prof. Ongeri did to our education funds?

Some of the scandals that made me think in this line are:

•  Jirongo’s   Ruai land scandle.
•  Musalia Mudavadi’s golden berg and  Cemetery Scandal
• Nancy Baraza - Kerubo Village Market Incident 
• Wetangula - Tokyo Embassy scandal

During these times, the luhya community was at the front of exposing their own people and as a result weakening the internal unity and the strength we have had nationally. It is high time we emulate a simple example of a child and its parent. 

When you want to cane a child, you will always use your other hand to pull him/her to you. That’s the simplest way of showing  discipline in a concerned way.

Nancy Baraza - Kerubo Village Market Incident cannot be more serious as PNU guys stealing votes and causing internal war that came with many other negative effects not limited to internal displacement. Can these scandals even be compared to

1. Wagalla massacre
2.  Michuki  order to  raid the Standard Media Group
3.  2009 Kenyan Maize Scandal
4.  IEBC chicken scandal
5.  The 2009 Triton Oil Scandal
6.  Safaricom in the IPO.
7.  Fraud by Charter House Bank Ltd.
8.  Goldenberg and Anglo-Leasing scandals

I will be back after some popcons

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