LEADERS SHOULD CONFESS TO BE FORGIVEN

A call by President Kibaki to Kenyans to forgive each other after the post election violence is a good move. The Prime Minister Raila Odinga also calls upon Mps to be on the frontline in forging reconciliation.
What a wise call from our leaders!
Regarding that all efforts: by the International Criminal Court, Kriegler report and now Waki’s report have pending results, why don’t we take it the Godly way?
If Kenyans can follow Kibaki’s, Raila’s calls and add on it ‘confession’ then the healing process would be rapid than expected.
Who are the suspects in all these reports? Would they come out and confess their sins?
If they are known, they should be brought to book and punished. If they are to be forgiven, let them conform guilt.
Take a scenario where one is sure that ‘Fulani’ committed these atrocities and he goes away with it. How is h/she expected to trust the authorities? One can claim that the offenders are too many to fit in our jails. It’s easier to go up the ladder and get who ignited who. Individuals would be easier to deal with.
Politics is a dirty game! If ‘they’ are let to go now, ‘they’ might repeat the same or be copied by others. If punished today, they will be on the look out for someone who commits the same crime in future, so that he would face the music as well.
Kenyans can forgive those who were misled and acted with ignorance but the source still stands blame. Even the Bible allows punishment to those who mislead the innocent.
Just like when students go on strike, those who came up with the idea are isolated and either suspended or expelled. The students identify the ringleaders and the administration uses the information to solve the matter.
If the society that carried out the atrocities points fingers to certain leaders, the government should urge these leaders to confess and then forgiveness would follow suit.
Imagine a pastor who eats his flock one by one. Anyone who notices it and keeps quiet deserves punishment. If anyone knows those who fuelled the post election violence and sits on it, or hinders justice, he will suffer endless guilt.
There is one plea to our dear government to call out to the leaders, “confess and you will be forgiven.”

By Scola Kamau,
Makerere University