A CALL FOR EXTREMIST IN TURKANA

Let's not leave an educational vacuum to be filled by religious extremists who go to families who have no other option and offer meals, housing and some form of education. If we are going to combat extremism then we must educate those very same children.
Hillary Clinton

   
    Today I want to pontificate something to my very immediate people and the world. I know that as I grow old in my youth, I do not have the monopoly for wisdom but I just want to share my mind, thoughts, message and commentary. I am among those few optimistic individual who believes that Turkana like any other community is progressing well despite of the hiccups that can imbues any river flow pattern.

    I want to have just an of-the-cut chat just between you and me, us. We want to talk down into the grassroots a language that everyone can easily understand. We must agree here today, that Turkana has a serious problem, that our people have a serious problem. Turkana problem is us (Schooled elites) . We are her problem. The only reason she has problems is because she has been rejected and disregarded by people she gave birth to - sons and daughters of the soil. And every time you look at yourself, you represent such a person who posses such a serious problem for Turkana because you're not wanted anymore. Once you face this as a fact, then you can start plotting a course that will make you appear intelligent, instead of unintelligent.

     Our locals though unschooled, they value education so much to the core. They understand that education is light, it's influence, it's power and transformation. They respect school so much. That's why they took us to school, that's why our unschooled parents woke us up in the early days to go to school though we used to woke up with some resistance. They believed and hoped that the future of our Turkana Land and the world lies in our education. They believed that when we acquire education, we will illuminate the light and our brilliance will upgrade our community and change the status quo. But their love and expectations for education has been used against them. Their understanding of progress as having roots in education has been deployed not to further their collective interest but to bolster individual prospects.

     I still hold the view that schooled Turkanas have no ‘inherent right' to be respected and to be praised by the unschooled majority out there. I reject this practice that villagers should praise and honour us in the name that we're schooled. Respect is like good health, must accrue from many years of sacrifice. We must prove that we deserve the respect. Our people are not that poor or unable. The worst malady that's maiming them is deprivation of information. We the  schooled ones are the ones to be blamed for this.

     Our people need enlightenment, they need information in lexically defined format, we have failed our community elites and professionals, we should be having circus moving around Thorps educating the masses, they need civic education and civic engagement. Our community is not meant to breed hogs. We are far greater than what I see today. Village elders can be trained and given enough information to pass over to the people. I am aware that oral tradition is finding it's way to the dark corners out of our community. Don't be shocked in future when we find a generation that can't even identify itself, it will be our worst failure.

     I am highly perturbed sometimes when I see and hear ugly commentaries in social media that Turkana is the poorest county. NO, I say BIG NO. Even elites themselves claim that Turkana is poor. Turkana was, is and will never ever be poor. Because its resource basket is full to the brim. The so called ‘influential' sons and daughters of the soil are principally hollow and have no plans for the masses. They control us, but they have never incited or excited us. They control us, they contain us, they have kept us in their confines and ironically instead of using them to reform the community, we chant and sing their names in the WhatsApp groups arguing on the next election political line up. Surely, my educated and learned comrades who bewitched us?

    Our people are in the dark, we should educate them, using several means even the local radios but I am shocked that no one can sacrifice his/her time for their progress. They are just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's strong. What do you have to do? You integrate it with milk, you make it weak. But if you pour too much milk on it, you won't even know you ever had coffee. That's what our people need -to be informed, to be updated, to be inspired, to be mentored, to be motivated and enlightened. Otherwise even you all here know, that owners of many big successful businesses that attracts enormous cash in Turkana are not from Turkana land. They are investors. I am saying this not to mean that foreign investors should be excommunicated. But our people should also be sensitized to own such.

   What you and I need is to forget our geographical and political differences and work towards changing our own people. I am more inclined to the words of Thomas Jefferson: “ We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal... " so what a man can do in USA to create millions of cash, someone in Turkana is not incapable. So my question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists will we be in redeeming Turkana?

   

        Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of our moral values, traditions and beliefs or disregarding our people? Will we be extremists for redeeming our people or the architects for their hopelessness and doom? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all the three men were crucified for the same crime - the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above His environment. Perhaps Turkana and the world are in dire need of creative and committed extremists. Those who can rise above their environment and change the status quo.

       Optimistic extremism is sinless, extremism is hostile, extremism does not compromise, extremism builds and establishes everything that meets in its way and destroys the bad one . If you're afraid of Turkana nationalism, then you're afraid of redeeming your own people. Shame on you! And if you love and cherish your people, be proud of them and redeem them.

       So, I should not be optimistic anymore when the situation in Turkana is still the same since time immemorial. We can't operate with the same reasoning and expect change. This is just ceteris paribus. No change at all. If you and I must change Turkana and the world then we must first change our reasoning. We must uproot this negative extremism that has percolated and infiltrated into our community. I am shocked that this disease has even found its way into the Turkana County Government.

    Currently our own land is faced by a crisis of professional land grabbers, without the best lawyers, without the best surveyors, without the best engineers in our midst, are we able to defend our own land really? Wake up from this slumber, stand tall, do your education as if it is your last day on earth, educate our local. After your education and perhaps you get employed get back and live in your village. Let the locals and unschooled feel the impact of education in you over there lives. Leave an indelible mark. Be the architects for progress and transformation. Educate them and update them all the time. They need our love and attention. Let's build home and change the narrative.

    If we do not change direction, we may end up at the point at which we are heading. History will one day question our intervention. The good thing is that the population can be clueless but it won't be so forever. Let's stand up for what we believe in and change the destination.