The CNN story that was the source of Kenyans on Twitter anger towards the CNN (www.vibe.com)
#SomeoneTellKOTs to first remove the log in their own eyes before they can even say #SomeoneTellCNN! Kenyans were livid and angry towards the CNN because of a CNN reporter who said that US President Barack Obama was coming to Kenya, a country that is “a hotbed of terror”. Of course that is not true. Kenya, like any other country in the world, is currently facing security challenges. No one can deny that fact. Countries in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Europe, and North America itself, are confronted with the problem of extremism in various forms. What annoys about the way Kenyans reacted to the exaggerated statement by one CNN reporter is the way it helps to remind us of how hypocritical we are as a nation! We are fast to accuse others but slow to point out our own short-comings! Kenyans on social media are the most abusive people that I have ever seen in recent times. They don’t respect each other and keep abusing each other week after week. What is different when it is a person from another part of the world saying the very same things we say about each other every other every day? We say that Kikuyus are hopelessly greedy and tribal, Luos are arrogant and proud and cannot lead, the people from the Coast are lazy and can never prosper, all Somalis are al-Shabaab sympathizers and should be pushed out of Kenya, Luhyas are led by their stomach, Kalenjins are primitive and clueless etc. There is no tribe that we spare when it comes to derision. I wish that Kenyans could get as angry when someone from their tribe is accused of corruption as they did when CNN made the unfounded statement! I wish that Kenyans could get as angry when someone misuses his office to advance his own interest or that of his relatives, as they did when CNN made the unfounded claims! I wish Kenyans could get as angry when someone steals a piece of land as they did when CNN made a fool of itself! I wish Kenyans could be as vigilant as when going to the elections to elect leaders as they are vigilant when CNN keeps goofing! But that is not Kenya. We get angry for the wrong reasons and direct our anger to the wrong people. The behavior of Kenyans reminds me of the following story from Aesop’s Fables. An Ass besought a horse to spare him a portion of his feed. “Yes, said the horse; “if any remains out of what I am now eating I will give it you for the sake of my own superior dignity, and if you will come when I reach my own stall in the evening, I will give you a little sack full of barley.” The Ass replied, “Thank you. But I can’t think that you, who refuse me a little matter now, will by and by confer on me a greater benefit.” We treat each other so shabbily then expect other people, who know nothing about us, and who don’t care for what we are, to treat us nicely. It can’t happen! Why do we expect so much from others and yet we give each other a raw deal every day? Why do we lower the standards for ourselves and then raise the bar for others? There is only one word to express that; hypocrisy! And that is what is going is killing this nation. It is ironical that we are so cynical about each other and yet expect to leave a mark in the world affairs. It won’t happen! This weekend, President Obama will be opening the Sixth Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES). I bet the summit will come and go, and if Kenyans don’t change their attitudes towards each other, no big change is going to happen in this nation. Some of the people that the US president is bringing along to the summit, like the Shark Tanks, are not native Americans but they have prospered because their country treats them with dignity and respects them for their talents and abilities, not for their race or where their parents and grandparents came from. The fact that #SomeoneTellCNN was a trending topic on Twitter throughout yesterday shows that there is strength in numbers. When you speak in unison, others will listen to you. But it is unfortunate that Kenyans always use their strength to pull each other down and not to synergise each other. The African renaissance that many Africans are talking about will not happen soon, with the kind of pessimism and cynicism that we exhibit towards each other. As long as we continue to look down on each other and pull each other down, we will not reach our full potential as a nation.
Comments