If it's my son, he is innocent

When one of our relatives or friends is accused of misbehaving, our first instinct as human beings is to protect them from the ‘false’ claims.  In our eyes, our kith and kin can do no wrong.

Try accusing my brother of something evil or criminal and I will stare at you in disbelief, accuse you of malice and dismiss your ignorant claims. After all, this is my 'innocent' brother we are talking about. Never mind that I hardly know anything about him any more. My brother is not capable of veering from the straight and narrow simply because he is my kin. No wonder they say blood is thicker.

Even in schools, when a child is sent home for a misdemeanour, the parents take him back breathing fire. Their fury caused by an unimaginable accusation visited upon an innocent child – in his parent’s eyes.

It comes as no surprise then when Kenyan politicians retreat to their tribal or political cocoons for protection knowing very well that they will find the very desired protection therein. No one in the political class can ever be held to account without his kinsmen coming to his rescue with cries of persecution.

Lately the sense of kinship has extended to political parties. Whereas in the past a party could easily treat their disgraced member like a disposable fall guy; recently we are seeing strange things where party officials rally behind one of their own, whenever he or she is put in the dock.

It is not uncommon to hear claims of "our members are being targeted" or "they want to decimate our numbers before the next election" among other tactics employed to protect members from alleged persecution.

While it is good to show loyalty to one of your own, the law must be allowed to run its course. Our friends and relatives are not infallible and they should be allowed to face the consequences of their actions, without any interference on our part.

It would be a better society if we could release our dear ones to the same law we want to apply to others.

Introduce quotas to help Kenyans from poor backgrounds marry into wealth

Statement on the need for relationship quotas by Best Kenya - the only genuine human rights organisation

The introduction of the new quota system that gives pupils from public primary schools a chance to attend national secondary schools is timely. We laud the government for implementing this long overdue policy that will promote a more equal society.

The government should now go a step further to ensure that only students from public secondary schools attend public universities and other public institutions of higher learning. In the same vein, only graduates from public universities should be employed in the public sector. This will complete the whole equality equation.

In the spirit of providing equal opportunities to all Kenyans, the government should also introduce other quotas to bridge the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor.

As the only genuine human rights civil organisation, it has come to our attention that it is not only the education system that needs these quotas. There are many areas in the Kenyan society that require deliberate government intervention if we are to achieve vision 2030 in the next twenty years and the time to act is now.

We all know how important relationships are to the achievement of the above-mentioned vision. In fact without relationships, the Kenyan state as we know it would probably degenerate into an unstable country. Relationships are the basic unit of the Kenyan society and the government must acknowledge the crucial role they play in the stability of our beloved country.

The current situation makes it difficult for poor people to marry into riches and kiss poverty goodbye. Young women who try to win the affections of richer men have been incorrectly labelled gold-diggers; when in reality they are just working towards the personal achievement of vision 2030.

We are, therefore, asking the Minister for Gender to come up with a policy to ensure equal opportunities for all in accessing rich spouses. Bearing in mind that people from poor backgrounds may have difficulties meeting wealthier marriage partners, the Minister should issue a directive to the effect that all rich Kenyans are compelled by law to marry economically disadvantaged citizens. This will go a long way to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor and create a more equal society.

This policy should be implemented in the next four weeks. If the ministry does not heed our call, we will mobilise all citizens who desire a better Kenya in mass protests like those that happened recently in Tunisia until this issue is resolved.

We are also preparing a list of other areas where quotas should be applied to address historic inequalities in this country.


Signed this 17th January 2011

Hakim Mzalendo
Chairman Best Kenya