WHY KENYAN GAYS NEED TO RISE UP

Misery - Spread it around

I have just negotiated with the Editorial board of Gay Kenya, for one more article, on account of my opinion being “a little on the extremist” side. Given the assurance that at least one more article will be published, I wish to make my case very clear – just in the event you never get to hear from me again!

Now, I know we all have hopes – for some, becoming multi-millionaires, driving big cars, owning big houses and the like. You know, having dreams where everyone will respect us and appreciate how “we have made it.” We all dream of how “wataacha kutucheka” and just admire us for who we are, how good we look, and basically becoming the centre of attraction.

Well if you are a “kuchu” living in Kenya, you need to get real. That is one dream that will never see the light of day. You need to know that if you are a Kenyan and gay, your life is destined to be one of misery and pain, for the government has made a fiat. So shall it be, and there is nothing you or I can do about it.

Before you stop reading, there is something you can do to make your life and that of others after you more meaningful now and in the future – and am talking about immortality here (immortality – is the desire to be remembered long after you are dead).

Here is the thing – you need to start enjoying the little joys the world brings your way. If you drink, do it with moderation, take every sip of your favourite drink as if your life depended on it, but don’t over do it. If you get a date, go to great lengths to make it memorable and pleasurable, therefore have it in a safe way, that way you will not worry whether you got some bug or not. (Am talking about condoms and Lubricants here - always)! If you have friends, treasure them and do not “udaku” them behind their backs – always say good things about people, and for the few, for whom there is nothing good to say, well just don’t say anything. With time they will change and there will be plenty of good from them, to talk of.

After you have done all that, you will realize that you need more than you are getting from the society. You will realize you are not a criminal, and you should not be treated as such. You will realize that your rights are not recognized by the Kenyan law and the politicians with their zealot religious leaders are hell bent on making your life an enduring misery.  At that point, and you will most probably be in your late 30s or 40s, you will need to take a stand.

What is it that you want to do so that your life can have significance? You will need to devise means and ways in which their lives and that of their children too, can become an enduring misery. But you need to be clever about it – you must not do it in a way to land you in jail.

Yet since they have taken it upon themselves to make your life a disaster, the consequence of that must be that their own lives become disastrous as well. There are safe ways in which you can make their lives a living hell. One such example is the rates of Crime – they need to go up, we need as many guns as possible in the hands of criminals.

I know you are thinking, if that happens all of us will suffer. Yes you are right, everyone suffers in that case, but  you need to understand, you are already suffering anyway. You see, if you frequent the Nairobi Back streets e.g., kwa Mwaura’s, you should simply not hope for a day in which you will dine at “Ronaldos” it will simply never happen, and the sooner you realize and accept it the better for you. The question is, why should others dine at Ronaldos in peace while they take every measure to consign you to the back street?

As a gay person, you should learn to live with blackmail, extortion and police brutality. That is your fate! You should learn to accept being called shoga, being spit at and if you are weak, being beaten up by the public, no matter how well you may be educated. That is your fate! You should learn to live with the fear of being arrested and taken through humiliating experiences both by the society and by the public. That is your fate! The heterosexual Kenyans are the majority and they have decided your fate! About your fate, there is nothing you can do to change it.

But you can do a lot to make their lives just as miserable, but you must do it within the law, for if you break the law, they will be more than happy to strip you off the little dignity you may have remaining. That is why you must be cleaver and ingenious in the way to drive misery to their lives. Let me give you an example, suppose you knew of the cache of arms in Narok – what do you think would have been the right gay thing to do?

The right gay thing to do is to inform criminals to steal it. Imagine what life would become in Nairobi if every petty robber had a gun – we would all live in misery. If you get typhoid, ensure it spreads to as many people as possible – not directly, but ingeniously e.g., helping yourself near a water source and the like. That is what am talking about! -  creative ways of making misery the National Character! Engage in non-criminalized activities that bring misery to all of Kenya. If you see a rotting lead battery for example, and its near a source of water, why not make it slip right inside, that way their children will become greater imbiciles than they are!

Not about changing the heterosexuals to know and appreciate that we are all human beings, and there are basic minimum conditions that make living human life bearable – some call them basic human rights. Forget ever convincing heterosexual people to appreciate that, they cannot – for that is their fate! They strongly believe misery is our Fate – and maybe it is.

But we must also make misery their fate. If we cannot have life without hope, then they too and their children should not. One day, - in the very distant future someone will come along and s/he will preach equality, fairness and love. Gay Kenyans of the future will be recognized as equals with all other Kenyans, and will not be subject to discriminatory laws and policies. The government will no longer imprison them for whom they are or whom they love. But that is not your life, yours is in the current Kenya, in which misery is your permanent and sure partner.

That is why you must make a resolution, to spread it around. Every evening you must question yourself not against the grid of how you improved human life for all, but against how you managed to spread your fate, your misery around. You must (within the confines of the law) a miserable Kenya for all, for as long as you can, and to the greatest level of misery as possible. That is Kenya’s Fate – misery for all, must become our new rallying call!

Free Thinker Ngotho – freethinker.ngotho@gmail.com

Mr. Ngotho is a guest writer on the opinion’s page for this website and his views do not necessarily reflect those of GAY KENYA TRUST.