People, Let My Pharaoh Go!

Ever wondered why it took 10 plagues to persuade Pharaoh to let God's people go and ironically it was God who hardened Pharaoh's heart. What sort of game was God playing at?

Well, the hardness of Pharaoh's heart was not for Pharaoh's benefit, for it only postponed the inevitable. It was for the benefit of the Hebrew slaves. For 400 years, they had been hypnotized by the power of Egypt into idolizing Pharaoh and all the gods of Egypt. They had long forgotten the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; their God, the only true God, who alone was to be served and worshiped. God had to put on a 10 act play to display once and for all who between Pharaoh and Himself was the true God. It was an epic drama and the Hebrews were invited to take front row seats and enjoy the show in order to know beyond doubt not only who they were, but whose they were.

The Kenyan people have endured slavery for a long time. We have been made to serve and worship first the white masters of colonial rule and later their black nyaparas who we have regularly 'elected' to take care of the white masters' economic interests while feeding off the fat of our land while the rest of us starve and strive and enjoy our 'democracy'.

Our God has issued the directive "Go to Pharaoh and tell him 'Let my people go that they may worship me'". The only problem is that there seem to be few takers of this divine command.

We have fooled ourselves into believing that an election will dismantle the system of oppression that has been perfected over centuries without the necessary preliminary display of power to show who the real God is. Whether it is our Pharaoh comprising Western multinationals, Anglo-Saxon hegemonic geopolitical interests, China, and their black nyaparas - the Kenyattas, the Mois, the Kibakis, the Odingas, and a bunch of MPs and Senators and Governors and MCAs, or it is the only true God who alone is to be served and worshiped and enjoyed forever.

And so we continue making bricks without straw - manufacturing clothes in export processing zones for the white man's back which we re-import years later as mitumba; growing pineapples, tea and coffee for his palate, while we can barely feed ourselves; setting aside the most beautiful landscapes, flora and fauna for his enjoyment and not our own; giving him preferential treatment no matter what his status or achievement in life while abusing our own brethren.

We have been worshiping at the altars of Egypt for too long to realize that Pharaoh is not God and that our lives and livelihoods do not after all depend on him. Our God is perfectly able to take care of His own. If only we could trust Him; if only we could pause and listen... we would hear Him asking 'Who will go for us, whom shall we send to break the spell that Pharaoh's magicians have cast over my people?"

Amkeni ndugu zetu.