MATOKE FOR DINNER

Colonial period in Kenya were hard times but every community in Kenya had heroes that led the resistance. Dedan Kimathi is the best-known person for leading the Mau-Mau rebellion. Moraa wa Ng’iti  was for the the Abagisii community in Kenya, what Muthoni wa Kirima was for Agikuyu, or even more. Moraa wa Ng’iti is a documented heroine of the Abagusii people and a review of the heroic stories of Moraa makes for an interesting read.  Sotries are told that Moraa Wa Ng’iti belonged to the great Kitutu clan. She was married to Ng’iti, a highly regarded traditional healer in colonial times. She was a different kind of woman because, while women in those days were only required to bear, take care of children and tend farms, Moraa was very outspoken against colonial rule in Abagusii land at a time when women were not supposed to speak before men. At the height of political resistance and when some Kisii chiefs were giving in to pressure to collaborate with the British, Moraa wa Ng'iti continuously incited her people to revolt. The worst time is said to have been in 1905 when the colonial army, driven by vengeance against the Abagusii rebellion, killed so many people, burning their homesteads, seizing livestock and destroying their crops.

One leader of the colonial army was Geoffrey Northcote who was one of the Britons most hated person by the Kisii people for his heartless killings of locals. Moraa burnt with anger for what Northcote was doing to her people. She incited the entire community, telling them that Northcote was a sick man because only very sick people were yellow or white in colour.

Otenyo Nyamantere was brought up by Moraa wa Ngi’ti. He was nephew to her and learnt brevity from her to become the best warrior of Abagusii people at that time. Otenyo was encouraged by Moraa to lead the rebellion against the colonizers. So, he assembled the finest Abagusii warriors and took on the British. His warriors were armed with only poisoned arrows and spears. They laid an ambush for the British who were led by Northcote.  During the attack, Otenyo is said to have speared Northcote on the right shoulder before Northcote could draw his gun in defence, leaving him for dead. That was victory that made the Abagusii to celebrate Otenyo through song and dance. He had become a superhero to them for having killed the white colonial administrator who had tormented them in the past, or so was thought. The Abagusii warriors meanwhile were so motivated by Otenyo’s bravery that they started carrying out frequent raids. Unknown to them, Northcote had not only survived being speared by Otenyo but had sent a message to Kisumu for reinforcements, which arrived in three days. Many people were killed so that Otenyo could come from hiding and be captured. Moraa Ng’iti was pressured to hand over her nephew in exchange for end to the killings. The Abagusii elders agreed to the deal and Otenyo was made the ransom. Otenyo was executed, beheaded and hung from a bridge. His head was transported to London as proof that he was dead and put into a British museum.

Abagusii people are not short of heroes. George Moseti Anyona contested the presidency in 1992 but prior to that, he had had unending trouble with the government for being outspoken against corruption and bad governance. For instance, he was arrested by the Jomo Kenyatta government in 1977 for protesting award of a tender for supply of wagons to the then East African railways. Between 1977 and 1992, he was always in trouble, in and out of prison for questioning illegalities in government at a time when people were afraid to do so. All through, he kept a reputation as principled, championing free expression of thought, democracy and a just and equal society. He lived a modest life, never seeking to enrich himself from the offices he held and hated the culture of corruption and insatiable greed for money that prevailed in the country.

Today, there is a young man called Morara Kebaso who has set himself apart as outspoken person against corruption. He has risked his life several times for assessing actual projects funded or launched by both national and county governments. He gathers information on the amounts in funding and the projects on ground and on many occasions has exposed grand corruption that happens in the governments that we elect. He has also had trouble with KRA regarding tax payments, and one cannot be quite sure whether it is genuine or witch hunt by the government. He wants to be president and whether fit, ready or not is anyone’s decision to make.

Fred Matiang’i was once e a cabinet secretary in uhuru’s government and when he held the education docket, he is credited with efficiency and just to remember, he ensured KCPE results were released like 3 weeks before Christmas and KCSE results before the new year as opposed to what was normal, February the following year. He wants to contest for presidency in the coming elections and seems to be favored as a compromise candidate by many political formations. President Ruto seems frightened by Matiang’i. I saw his tweet on X tagging world bank informing them of political activities of their employee, Matiang’i, questioning whether world bank allowed such conduct for their employees. Whether Matiang’i is fit for presidency or not is for any Kenyan to judge considering some corruption mentions especially in the 1.5B Ruaraka land saga and also a fact of being fronted by usual politicians who would later require him to pay royalties.

David Kenani Maraga was Kenyan chief justice from 2016 to 2021 and famous in his tenure was nullification of 2017 general election that was allegedly won by uhuru Kenyatta, after protests by the opposition side led by Raila Odinga. Maraga comes as a brave person who is not afraid to stand by the rule of law and is a believer that proper adherence to the rule of law would bring order to our country. Maraga seems to be fronted to run the presidency by Gen Z leaders and seems to be buying the idea. He presents himself as a person who never involved himself in any corrupt deals and at one time dared anyone with information about his involvement in corruption to come public and say so. No one has taken the challenge to date and that may mean that the man is completely clean.

In the coming elections, we ought to be wiser and first judge whoever presents themselves for elective posts to ensure we elect only clean ones. The formula for electing the most popular has only worked to hurt us. We have trusted people with questionable pasts and the results are a country sinking into more troubles in all spheres of society. What if I based my vote on a track record of integrity and not verbal promises and voted wisely even if alone?  Things would change if all of us did so.

Romans 14:2 says that ‘One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.’ It is boring to keep eating the same kind of food and a new meal works well as a relief to our sense of taste and appetite. I think our next meal just needs to be different. Fish seems a little expensive and like we have not afforded it for some time now, it seems much more difficult to come by in our next meal. What we are sure of is that we are not eating any Githeri or drinking any Mursik. Those foods have not been very good for our stomachs, especially the last glass of Mursik. What seems available and ready is Matoke and I think we should have matoke as our next meal. At worst, we should have a combination of Matoke and Mothokoi, that is an already known 7^th heaven combination. But if we must take bananas, let’s choose the best that are clean and without blemish.

So, for our country not to go bananas, we should have matoke as our next meal but only of choice clean bananas. But any food we are served should be clean and healthy, that is of utmost importance regardless of what we take.

But first, we all need to agree to take good food. So, what will that be? Or shall we have matoke for our next dinner?

 

@ Stephen Mungai