Observing Moi Day is Deeply Abusive to Kenyans

When you finally come to the realization that Kenya is not only resurrecting Moism / Nyayoism but actually elevating it to the level of celebration. When you think of who Moi (as President was) and how his absolute dictatorial regime killed, maimed and disappeared Kenyans in their numbers. When you remember how Moi killed a whole generation by ruining dreams of hundreds of thousands of Kenyans especially those born in the 80s through early 90s. When you remember how Moi plundered, looted and pillaged public resources. When you remember how Moi (through his Nyayo philosophy) continued with Emperor Kenyatta I's legacies of de-landing of thousands of Kenyans creating a precarious ethno-land problem that existentially threaten Kenya as we know it. When you remember Moi’s small and vicious wars of ‘othering’ including ethnic cleansing in the Rift Valley (Molo etc); genocides in North Eastern and Coast (God all those massacres). When you recall Moi’s banditry through which he entrenched the deadly cult of cattle rustling especially in the North Rift. When you think about how Moi engineered a total collapse of Kenya’s economy. When you remember. When you remember. When you remember. All. And then come into the realization that Kenyans are now actually meant to honor and celebrate this man by observing a national holiday dedicated to him. When you remember that Kenyans rejected this day during the constitutional making process. When you think that millions of Kenyans are not aware of these painful histories and that some may actually ignorantly, and unfortunately genuinely so, meant to believe that Moi is a character worth celebrating. What then do you do? Yaani utado?! Memory is a ghost. Your deal with your ghosts.