The Post Election's Violence

Words words words
Words without end
Words without end
We stand and watch
On fireless fireplaces

Heads of clan stand and stare
They come and go
Some die by beheading
Clans have no heads
They wait in pain for peace
But peace for scattered skeletons
Recks of bloody emptiness

Down the country side I know
Elephants fight daily
But the common grass I know
Under their feet
Bleeds, starves and dies
Under the strain of gun powder excreted
We are maimed daily
And the mime continues
This time again without words

From East African Poetry, Longman.

This is a poem I couldn't help but write down in my favorite journal. The time was during the brutal post election violence period, immediately after the 2007 general election, in Kenya. Thousands had to shed their red blood, other thousands had to heartlessly die, leave alone the destructions, molestations, rape and maximum hatred among tribes. I vividly remember standing a distance away, not believing my own two eyes as I witnessed neighbors collectively breaking another neighbor's shop. Why? Simply because the latter was a member of another tribe.

It was not just tribalism, but prejudice full to the brim. This is a time Kenyans will live to morn. A time when... the answer is silence. Silence because we don't just comprehend it.