Patriotism lessons that citizens must gather from terror attack

Relatives mourn at City Mortuary after viewing the body of their kin killed in the Westgate mall attack. We must be Kenyans first. AFP 

By CHARLES GACHERU

In Summary

• Merchants of death must have been living with us, sheltered by our neighbours, but somebody turned a blind eye.

Kenyan is under attack, from religious fundamentalists whose agenda the ordinary Kenyan does not understand. This week I dedicate my column to the victims of the senseless killing at the Westgate Mall.

Kenyans of all walks of life died there. The workers, the supply chain guys, the cleaners, our own defence forces who were among the first responders, people just having lunch, children participating in a cooking competition, shoppers, a couple planning a wedding, a grandmother baby-sitting her grandchildren, the unarmed security guards and many others.

Our country is still in shock from the senseless, mindless killing of innocent civilians who did not invade Somalia, who did not bomb Mogadishu, who know nothing about oil and gas in Southern Somalia – just ordinary everyday people, going about their business, sharing a coffee, laughing, chatting or even visiting a doctor or a pharmacy to buy medicine.

Asked whether he knew anyone held hostage at Westgate, one man is reported to have responded, “I know them all, they are Kenyans.”

I may not have met Bidco’s Mitul Shah or the Parapet lady who lost her life at Westgate, I only met Ruhila Adatia on my TV screen and I may not have known Malti Ramesh Vaya or David Muthumbi Karechu or Master Pramsu Jain; I may not have met Rosemary Wahito, Mbugua Mwangi, Anuj Virchand Shah, Dalvinder Kaur Ghataurhae or Pavraj Sigh Ghataurhae, Elif Yavuz who was pregnant or lawyer Peter Simani, but my name could so easily replace any of these had the devil visited Westgate a mere 36 hours earlier.

I never met Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor or Salima Ayaz Merali or her daughter Nurianna Ayaz Merali, but again, you could replace my name with anyone one of them.

These people and more than 60 others were killed in cold blood by extremists who did not care for their age, religion, colour or nationality; they were killed by people who can only be described as dead themselves.

Weapons

But who is to blame? In a tweet this week, I averred that our collective corruption as Kenyans was to blame for the Westgate tragedy. Let me explain. These merchants of death must have been living among us, they were housed and sheltered by individuals among us and the system.

They managed to smuggle heavy weaponry and ammunition into our country — perhaps one, perhaps many government officials turned a blind eye and took a bribe to allow a consignment of what they thought was mobile phones into the country.

We have all heard tales of aliens acquiring Kenyan ID cards and passports — what can’t Sh50,000 get you after all? But while it’s easy to blame government officials, we generally break the law and take short-cuts whenever we can.

How many times do we “jump” red traffic lights? How often do we import goods using not-so-legal-channels? How often do we bribe the traffic police? We are all largely responsible for the culture of corruption that is slowly killing our great nation.

For me, Westgate presents a few lessons; firstly, death is always around the corner and secondly, we must all do more to help Kenya become a better, safer nation.

We must be responsible citizens who can be held accountable. We must be Kenyans first