I attended Wahundura Primary School in Murang’a, so I was thrilled and intrigued to read your column last week on the institution and the ruinous drinks reversing past gains. It’s true there are many bachelors there, but it is also true many young people have migrated to other places due to high population.
Chris Mutahi
Let’s bury prejudice and celebrate cultural inclusion
So, Joshua Orwa Ojode was a friend of all, who espoused no prejudice whatsoever?
Indeed, what should we expect of a man who received meaningful education at home and abroad, and served in both private and public sectors?
The glowing tributes paid to the former Assistant Minister for Internal Security and his boss, George Saitoti betray the erosion of some basic values now seen as novelty.
We are still mesmerised at ordinary people doing perfectly ordinary things, like remaining true to themselves, or discharging their duties without fear or favour.
This speaks to the growing acceptance of sycophancy to replace principle, favouritism in place of merit. And due to this twisted logic, we barely pay attention to an even more ordinary narrative that should provide enduring lesson from Saitoti’s life: he was born in Kiambu of Kikuyu parents, who migrated to Kajiado where he grew up and received early education, and later returned to seek an elective post.
That’s as it should be. But rather than celebrate the accommodation that the Maasai people accorded Saitoti’s parents, and later the man himself, details of his parentage remained buried, thereby entrenching discrimination on account of ethnicity, instead of celebrating the cultural inclusion that Saitoti represented.
