Are we witnessing the initial stage of actualisation of Abuja Declaration?

By Barrack Muluka

You must wonder what happened to civility and decorum in discourse. Indeed, you must wonder whether they still teach such things in institutions of learning in Kenya. The antisocial media that we call social media is awash with diatribe, insolence and bad form in the guise of social conversation.

Young people in these forums excel in the discharge of invective and raw rudeness. They certainly don’t even respect themselves, if nobody else. And so they pour out vitriol when they should be illuminating their thoughts and sharpening their arguments. They imagine there is heroism in being the king or queen of foul language. When they do not agree with you, therefore, they dress you up in appalling imagery. They are unable take on the offending discourse and show its flaws.

They are ad hominem in the lowliest possible sense of the notion. Where is the rigour of thought, the capacity to attack the argument and not the man? Where is the grasp of issues and the choice of idiom?

Where is the ability to organise and put across your thoughts with dignified persuasion? In the respected schools that I was privileged to attend in a gone age, they taught you how to diagnose the mental apepsia and chronic intellectual marasmus that seems to afflict these youngsters. You learnt how to pass on the message without digressing into personalised insolence. You respected yourself and your interlocutors. For now conversation continues to sink into a moronic abyss.

But perhaps even more worrying is verbal incontinence on the part of the so-called national leadership. I ask once again, with Lee Iacocca, where have all the leaders gone? Where is our outrage at the dearth of leadership? The recent outburst against a Kikuyu journalist was most unfortunate. I have gone through life being discriminated against because of my tribe. I was born in the wrong tribe. I have missed opportunities in my country because of belonging to this wrong tribe.

Nine years ago, my son got a First Class Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Actuarial Science from a public university. He hopelessly moved from one interview session to another seeking placement. Meanwhile minnows from the correct tribe were getting absorbed. The panelists would say to him, “Mr Muluka, you are extremely good. You have greatly impressed us, both at the interview and by your qualification. You are too good for this position. Why don’t you try something else?” But it was all so simple; he was from the wrong tribe. He carried the curse of the wrong name in his country. Feeling betrayed and rejected, he left the country he loved so much. The rest is history. But I understand how it feels to be discriminated against, because of your name. Man, it is painful. Maybe someday we shall just be Kenyan, regardless of our names. Coincidentally, one of the names in my identity card is Maina. It hasn’t done me much good, however, for it lives in the shadow of Muluka. But again that is a story for some other day.

But let me say something to CORD leaders. Can they answer the offending question put to former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka? And Kalonzo will excuse me, for he is my friend. We have sat together, drank together and eaten together. We have even been to the villages of Emanyulia and Tseikuru together. However, what exactly should this government do in the face of mounting terrorist attacks against innocent civilians? You keep telling us, “Intelligence.” What is that?

If Intelligence tells you that they plan to attack a certain area, what should you do? The merchants of terror are making our country exceedingly unsafe. We cannot go to our places of worship, because we are afraid. We cannot go to shopping malls. We are afraid at bus stops and on the buses. We are afraid on the train. Our children are afraid in schools. We are worried in our hospitals. We even fear to talk about it in the open.

Why does CORD think it should make political capital out of this situation? If you really think you are going to boost your chances of victory at the next election, I have bad news for you. Kenyans are losing faith in you. You know what, there comes a time when you must demonstrate that you are a patriot. That is regardless that the only way to do that is to support your government. And yes, a patriot supports his country all the time and the government when it is right. Where is your sense of patriotism?

It is all fine to talk of things like human rights, the Constitution and all that. But I have got more bad news for you. Things like these make sense only in peaceful environments. When people murder us in our places of worship – where we meet God and cry out to him – you become irrelevant when you appear to be the killers’ spokesperson. Sorry, but you are prosecuting the wrong agenda. Just now Kenyans want to know that they can be safe in their own country. This entire agenda about IEBC, 2017 and all that, paints you in very selfish and unfeeling colours. You will lose the election again, very badly this time. For, even we shall not vote for you. Change tact, today – now.

Finally, let me address the elephant in the room. In November 1989 Islamic leaders assembled in Abuja, Nigeria under the Islam in Africa Organisation (OIC). Their agenda was how to Islamise Africa. They resolved that they would “win the whole of Africa for Islam.” The Abuja Declaration, as it came to be called, stated, “Africa should become completely Islamic.”

They also pledged “to eradicate all forms and ramifications of non-Muslim religions in Africa, and especially Christianity.” Finally, the Abuja Declaration said that Islamising Africa was a just cause, regardless of the means. Delegates even made such pronouncements as, “Even Europe was not Christianised through peace and persuasion.”

Could someone reassure us that we are not in the incipient stages of the actualisation of the Abuja Declaration? When you make our places of worship unsafe, are you preparing to herd us into your own shrines? Are you preparing to dress us after your preferred fashion and to send our children into your kinds of schools? When Imams call from holy minarets for “the slaying of all Kaffirs” should we continue to feel safe in our Christian faith? When they openly vilify Jesus Christ on sonorous public address systems in mosques in Kangemi, Kawangware and Kibera should we continue to believe that all is well?

This week we narrowly missed witnessing the worst on live national television in our living rooms and bedrooms.  Yes, we need intelligence. But what next?

The writer is a publishing editor, special consultant and advisor on public relations and media relations