OPINION: We should erect a monument in honour of Mary Mokaya, Kenya's true patriot

For over half a century, Kenyans have been preoccupied with whining and philosophising about ethnicity. Fellow citizens, everything has a shelf life!

Consider this: Mary Mokaya, the 14-year-old Form One student who died in the Moi Girls School Nairobi fire, faced the greatest adversity of her life when she made every effort to save her fellow students from the burning dormitory.

She didn’t care who she was helping but played her part heroically, irrespective of ethnic considerations, and ultimately paid the highest price with her life. Have we learnt a lesson from this very young but innocent patriotic Kenyan who died on September 1?

Kenya was a protectorate and colony under the British Empire from the 1884 Berlin Conference to 1963. We have about 44 officially recognised tribes banded together to form Kenya. However, under the colonial regime, the ethnic differences were nurtured and assigned stereotype connotations for the sole purpose of furthering the colonial power’s doctrine of divide and rule.

It worked perfectly for the imperial power but it also sowed seeds of animosity and hatred, which post-independent governments have grappled with ever since. Meanwhile, in the national discourse and depending on whose perspective you listen to, our diversity is either a curse or an opportunity. Coincidentally, there is now even talk of secession.

It is naive and simplistic of the political class to be obsessed with assigning our challenges to our ethnic differences. What we don’t acknowledge is the reality that Kenya is a blessed nation. We have incredible geographical diversity, where virtually anything can grow. We must acknowledge that human beings will always have differences so our country should not preoccupy itself with the glorification of ethnicity but rather celebrate and embrace each other’s contributions and uniqueness.

This was spotlighted by the example of Ms Mokaya, a beacon of light that must never be extinguished and to whose memory the nation should erect a monument along the new Ngong Road highway under construction, as a symbol that never again shall ethnicity be the basis of our identity and or differences.