ON REMEMBERING G.P.O & OSCAR KING'ARA

On Remembering G.P.O & Oscar King’ara

By Khainga O’Okwemba



Human rights lawyer and parliamentarian Gitobu Imanyara has called on the government to investigate and bring to book the people who assassinated human rights defenders G.P.O Oulu and Oscar King’ara. “It does not matter how long it takes. Kenyans will not relent in demanding justice,” he said.



Imanyara was speaking at Freedom Corner gardens at Uhuru Park where human rights defenders gathered to mark the first anniversary of the assassination of their colleagues on March 5, 2009 along Lower State House Road .



Also murdered on that fateful day was Godwin Ogato, a university student who was the first person at the scene. Ogato was trying to mobilize university students to offer fast aid. It is believed that he was short at a “conversational distance,” or short range by a trigger happy police officer just outside the university.



G.P.O worked at the Oscar Foundation, an NGO founded by his colleague, human rights lawyer Oscar King’ara. The foundation specialized in documenting cases of extra-judicial killings and offered free legal aid to victims of police brutality. The two are said to have had information incriminating senior government officers and politicians.



The human rights activists met today under the auspices of Bunge la Mwananchi, a militant civil society organization that is known for its legendary grassroots mobilization of the masses. They planted trees and proceeded to hold a peaceful procession along Uhuru Highway to the scene of the murders where they lit candles.



Government came under strong criticism for its continued perpetuation of political impunity and the silencing of outspoken personalities. Kenya has a long history of political assassinations; beginning with Pio Gama Pinto, JM Kariuki, Masinde Muliro, Robert Ouko, et al, and a young Kenyan murdered on the day Luis Moreno-Ocampo came to Kenya last year to begin investigation into the post election violence.



Individuals who are said to have committed mass murder or sanctioned the assassination of a compatriot will never run away from the long arm of the law. Time is when Kenya is a society founded on constitutionalism and the rule of law. This seems to have been the refrain of today’s memorial.



Those present included playwright and human rights activist Okiya Omtatah Okoiti, Cyprian Nyamwamu, the Executive Director of NCEC, Fwamba NC Fwamba, blogger and PEN member, George Nyongesa , Gacheke Gachihi and several members of Bunge la Mwananchi. The human rights defenders travel this evening to Kisumu to lay wreaths on the tomb of G.P.O Oulu.



Last year PEN Kenya organised a poetry memorial as a tribute to the slain at the Kenya National Theatre. This year I was invited to the preparatory meetings and asked to do poetry on the subject of political assassination and a refusal of the individual to be muzzled. I attended today’s memorial and chose to document and preserve for tomorrow.





POEMS ON POLITICAL ASSASSINATIOS &

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

(I salute Bunge la Mwananch for its Bravery)



By Khainga O’Okwemba





SON ET LUMIERE



And that romantic hour’s gone



After another poet’s born



Speak when there’s someone



Where there’s none refrain



Pheroz Nowrojee, Poet-Lawyer

Khainga O’Okwemba, Poet









SON ET LUMIERE



Exponent on psychological warfare



Swift slogan of a virile wordsmith



Impregnating the impotent –



Ferments a revolution, aluta continua



Masizi Kunene, Poet

Khainga O’Okwemba, Poet

























PARABLE FROM DUNGEON

By Khainga O’Okwemba



I do not read this poetry

By the Orientel scribe, poet

However, it is read readily

By those who think it may confront



I do not read this poetry

That seeks a platform to speak

And to the audience, dole a pack

Full of a chaliced inventory



I do not read this poetry

That amplifies a small truth

For fear of being branded the uncouth

Like tissue paper to drain in lavatory



And that is a historical harbinger

For the ostentatious tourist, a habitual

Inhabitant in that magnificent hotel –

News filter from the dungeon, scribes tell



And their lives are measured half spoonfully

Its useless to be one of them, absolute folly

In their trail, they make all and sundry enemy

Let alone, they swam and sting like a bee army



The tourist will not want to be stung

And the shoe boots, he will surely hung

To placate the scribe and be on safe side –

The day was yesterday – to falter and slide



Now the tourist will eat in the house

He has refused to eat in the hotel

And the voice becoming hoarse

You have been denied the tale





















IMMORTAL SPEECH

By Khainga O’Okwemba



Even that disquietude, and mirth

Even those unmuted soundbites, and mirth

Are borne with a sting in the tail



A seaful of young stars, moving together

Whereful dark clouds, gather

We hear footfalls of metal whips –



Footfalls forging ahead, on your way

Footfalls and metal whips

Footfalls and dark clouds



And now your arms are frozen

And your limbs are immobilized

And now they have cut your tongue



And now they have red ribboned your eyes –

Oh comrade, here is the unbridled bard

With a pen mightier than them bullets



Preserved to render this immortal speech

That it may inspire another generation

And we are made of clay.