Mama Charity Ngilu’s spirit of political rebellion soars over Ukambani with bemused contempt for the hypocrisy with which her tormentors and saboteurs mourn her premature political death. It is no secret that Ngilu is a new breed of Kamba politicians who has rubbed the old demagogues of Kamba politics the wrong way. For decades, since independence, Kamba politicians have bred and nurtured a culture whose sole agenda is to impoverish the majority in the society for easier political subjugation. It is in this class that we had the likes of Paul Ngei, Mulu Mutisya, George Ndoto and now Kalonzo Musyoka. Talk of social empowerment of the masses and you’ll get spit at, right on your face, by the same persons you seek to empower and who have been brainwashed by the Kamba’s ruling elite. It is this class that Ngilu is trying to fight and in so doing, exposing herself to hatred and ridicule from her opponents who hold the masses at their mercy.
I hold in high esteem those who believe in things beyond their stomachs, and have the courage to speak the truth even at the risk of losing friendships, opportunities and even their freedom or worse. Those who dispense with the hypocritical silence that enables many to eat with the powerful folks they privately despise, or even oppose find great favour in my estimation. And in this league lies Charity Ngilu, a woman who has been labeled crazy and disrespectful of men in the Kamba community. When Ngilu voices her democratic political opinion and rightfully points out that Kalonzo is an anti reformer and lacks the qualities of a Kamba ‘messiah’ everybody condemns her for being selfish and a traitor. Many remember to forget the fact that when Ngilu stood for president in 1997, Kalonzo and his cronies stood by the then president Moi, without posing to think that she was their kinsmen. Why then, do the same people brand her a traitor for supporting Raila?
To challenge a conservative culture that despises and exploits women is to act out one’s beliefs without certainty about outcome. To do so in a society without the democratic institutional protection of one’s freedom is supremely courageous. And even so in a society that thinks that by propelling their son to the house on the hill, they will have solved all their problems. We forget that as the number two community in the country, basing on the fact that one of our own holds the second highest office in the country, we’ve not gained much, save for the boreholes that have been sunk by Ngilu amid political witch hunt from her detractors. Then again Ngilu would not have it otherwise. Everything about her speaks of a sincere commitment to her beliefs, regardless of the painful consequences. One marvels at a society that want to miss an opportunity to elect her the Kamba presidential flag bearer, even as one understands the reasons why my fellow Kambas are not ready to do the right thing.
Ngilu can be described by her Kamba male chauvinists as a woman “too strong, too successful, too stubborn and too hard to control.” This is a perfect description of a woman who would soon inspire millions of intelligent men and women alike, she who believes in something beyond herself; she who stubbornly refuse to sell her soul or betray the voiceless masses from whom she was raised as a genuine beacon of hope.
Ukambani and indeed Kenya in general needs more women who are too educated to be deceived or intimidated by the insecure men in their lives; too strong in their beliefs and self-confidence to play flower girls and ornaments to the rich and powerful; and too stubborn to yield to a culture that desires to control their thoughts and actions. Ukambani needs crazy citizens - men and women – who, like Ngilu, are free from fear of fellow mortal beings; who claim their right to think and to speak the truth to power; who refuse to be exploited by those who pretend to lead them.
