From: David Neita
Poet Lawyer
London
UK


3rd January 2008

To: The People of Kenya Kenya and the World

Brothers and Sisters:

The world is watching as you self-destroy; you are all over our TV screens We see people's lives in anguish and pain and we hear the children's screams The world is watching yet doing nothing about it; a definition of "entertainment" This expensive show you're putting on is snuffing out your God-given investment

I don't see the cavalry coming; you have no precious oil or precious stone It is up to you to resolve this conflict, look to God as you begin to atone

We have had so many genocides throughout human history, billions of people slaughtered at the hands of their fellow specie: Native Americans at the hands of Colonists, Aboriginals at the hands of Colonists, Africans at the hands of Europeans during "Trans-Atlantic-Slavery", Jews at the hands of the Nazi, Blacks at the hands of the Nazi (to recall just a few to memory). We have had Rwanda 1994, now Darfour…please! No more! No more! Let Kenya not descend further into that ominous listing. Let Kenya relent and stop the killing.

Humanity is weary of these wretched hells No more sequels! Stop! No more sequels!

It is hard to imagine that anyone could set in motion and then supervise the burning of living children, living people to death - especially in a place of worship, a place that should be a sanctuary. These children, these people were made human sacrifice on the pyre of an inhumane lust for degradation, murder and ethnic supremacy. It is an outrage that children could not find refuge in a Church. Over 40 years ago in Birmingham, Alabama another assembly of Church-going children (not-so-distant relatives of the children murdered on New Year's Day 2008 in that Church in Eldoret, Kenya) were also murdered, innocent victims of the inhumane lust for degradation, murder white supremacy in America's apartheid era.

Around 2000 years ago Jesus went into a Church in Jerusalem and cast out all those who were buying and selling within, He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and went on to say, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you have made it a den of thieves." That was for the offence of 'turning a house of prayer into a den of thieves'. Imagine God's response to the odious offence of 'turning houses of prayer into houses of mass murder! Are we prepared for God's response to the murder of his creation in Churches?

We are more than just Luo and Kikuyu. We are more than just Black and White. We are more than just our nationality and our ethnicity. We all share a common humanity and we must never sacrifice our neighbourly responsibility.

It is interesting that on Sunday 15th September 1963, when the 4 African-American girls were murdered by the white supremacists in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, the lesson for the day was, "The Love that Forgives". This lesson was based on the Bible teaching, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

This is so profound and relevant to our times: times of turmoil and division, times of war and uncertainty, times of greed and selfishness and a focus on self-gratification with no regard for others. We have not understood what it means to be a good neighbor and we have certainly not understood exactly who is our neighbor. Our neighbors are not only those close to us, in physical or genetic proximity. Our neighbors are sum-total of all the people of the world - God's ultimate creation! We are all God's children and our heavenly Parent commands that we love each other. The Good Samaritan, who was an African, understood both who his neighbor was (anyone in need!) and how to be a good neighbor (help out!). Let is live out this simple and beautiful philosophy in this New Year and for all eternity.

The other interesting thing about that Sunday on the 15th September was that the prayer of the day in that Alabama Church was "Dear God, we are sorry for the times we were unkind."

Again, a most profound and pertinent prayer for our times; so let us truly be sorry (and repent) for the times we were unkind, let us restore our humanity to each other, let us learn from our human history and that great history book called the Bible and rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We are each other's keepers, We are each other's neighbors and we have a Good-Neighborly Duty to love and care for each other"

God's Guidance & Blessings,
David Neita

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AN ACCOUNT OF TWO PICTURES by David Neita These two pictures are very similar; chillingly similar; too similar for comfort. Given that they were taken more than thirty years apart, they are depressingly similar. Viewed individually, each evokes empathy (if we still have our humanity).

In the first picture we see the innocent defenceless youngsters fleeing from the bloodthirsty apartheid South African police, who fired live rounds at schoolchildren (merely staging a peaceful protest in Seweto in 1976) murdering 172 (including the child in the hands of the youth) and injuring 439 of the young African assembly full of spirit and leadership and promise. In the second picture we see a strikingly similar image; this time a woman, a man and a child (in the hands of the man); a family together fleeing for their lives in Nairobi, this time the fear generated by people with the same skin colour.

In our times we have faced oppression from those with different skin pigmentation as well as from those with the same skin tone as our own. Cruelty will readily occupy humans of any hue, anyone who will evict their own humanity and welcome brutality in its place. Viewed individually these pictures stir up compassion but viewed together it is difficult to escape depression, a feeling of hopelessness even. We wonder who might be the unfortunate subjects of the voyeuristic camera, and in what African Nation will human horror repeat itself in time to come. We look at the anguish on the faces of the Africans in the pictures and we resent the constant association of pain and suffering a grief. We know that these expressions do not belong to these noble faces, indeed they do not belong to any of our global faces...God's faces, beautiful faces. We long for a calm countenance and a regal reflection.

We are drawn to the pictures and we wonder when it will end. We want and end to the senseless sequels but somehow we know that our utopian desires are insufficient to hold back these earthly hells. As we grow tired of self-interested interventions we recognise that the panacea has got to be the Creator. So I encourage the viewer, the reader to submit to God in prayer as we bring about peace in Kenya, Africa and our World...every corner...every area!