President Uhuru Kenyatta with NASA's Raila Odinga. Photo/buzzkenya.com
If your house is on fire, even kanju who should be the first to you in such cases are rarely found.In case you have a funeral, those politicians will be unreachable but your neighbour from the wrong tribe will make sure they offer you something to make it easier for you to deal with the loss.When you have a wedding, the one who makes you sneer every five years because of politics is your friend who will make the wedding happen. But, the politician who makes you hate them passionately is nowhere to be found. Their excuse, busy schedule.Every election year, we Kenyans tend to morph into monsters due to what politicians are feeding us. We uproot people from their homes because they do not belong-yet they were there for us when we had to take our kids to school and the fee wasn’t enough.When your daughter was graduating and had a fee balance, your neighbour came to your rescue when you hurriedly planned an impromptu harambee. The politicians you so idolise weren’t there. Yet, despite their not knowing you exist, you’re the first to cast the stone against that ‘foreigner’ who has been bailing you out every so often.Remember that ka-Mpesa loan you received from that dastardly neighbour and you’re yet to pay? Where was the politician when you needed him to give you an ear and a shoulder to lean on?Why do you persecute the one who knows your problems and the practical solutions to them?Your neighbour is not running for office.However, you have already betrayed them because they are different from your tribal god. Your eyes have just opened and now you can see clearly that they do not belong. They belong to the wrong tribe. Why wasn’t their support wrong when they spent cold nights at the hospital when you were to deliver the son who has become your warrior against them?Why does your memory so conveniently fail you that they brought you matoke last time they went to their shags?Is it that we have become so twisted in our thinking that we can no longer be each other’s keeper?The election is almost over and as you run amok against your neighbour, be warned that they may never be there for you because this period unmasked the chameleon you are.