Kenyans were on this day of 20 October 2011 marking Mashujaa Day [Heroes and Heroines day] celebrations in appreciation of those who fought for her independence and this was somewhat with some similarity to our event that was scheduled to take place in the vast Mathare area on this same day . Both Maji mazuri youths, Miss Koch and SPI [Simama Pamoja Initiative], all of whom are Mashujaa wa amani [Warriors of peace] were on the verge of advocating for peace in Mathare in a bid to quell tribalism, gender violence, just to mention a few.
In the early morning, the sun was barely shinning but if the Swahili adage that says ‘Siku njema uonekana asubuhi’ [A good day is seen in the morning] is anything to go by, there was more that the day could offer than could meet the eye. We all assembled at the Maji mazuri youths’ hall hence what could start us off were some directives from Samuel Kiriro, better known as MC. It was clear to us that what could guide us through the noble initiative was the brief message ‘Amani mtaani’ [Peace in the hood]. Before we started a procession, it started to pour; the rain might have dampened the event but it did not dampen the spirits. Luckily enough, it did not take long!
Off we went to the main road at the heart of Mathare, Slowly by slowly; children started joining our crowd, what caught their attention were two puppets that led us. The puppets helped us a great deal in mobilization which saw an early audience start to build up. Both the young and the old came in large numbers to see, hear and taste the energy and livelihood of the noble course. Passengers were not spared either , they were seen peeping through the window to have a glimpse of what was going on, the pedestrians were equally perplexed and the least they could do was to stop and listen to the message that was being projected across. The messages had to do with promoting peace, strengthening relationships, shunning tribalism and building bridges between antagonistic groups. For the antagonistic groups, we had some stop over at their bases and had their representatives share something to that effect.
At different spots, we had some stop over to spread the message and it is during this time that also residents were given the platform to share what they had with regard to promoting peace. Young ones did not disappoint, they also had something to share more than one could imagine and this made most of us come to a conclusion that Mathare needs such initiatives for a permanent observable change.
The procession continued for the better part of the day with no major predicaments. By this time, Mathare was filled with peace; all of us were literary breathing peace. The peak of it all was when we went to Mashimoni area in Mathare and advocated peace for close to three hours. It’s during this time that we had some entertainment from both the children, residents and the groups that were present. The entertainment from children was breathtaking hence it translated to capturing a greater audience. Having been there and done that, we were good to return back while equally spreading peace. In a couple of minutes, we were back at the youths’ hall where we had a stop over after which we continued with our course in a short while then we called it a day.
By this time, we were all extremely tired, some of us could barely talk anymore but we walked home happy warriors of peace and all we hoped for was that the message will linger in the minds of the Mathare people and our nation as a whole. There is no better way that we could have marked the Mashujaa day!
Peace be with us all.
