The Mt Kenya Times 
THE MESSIAH WITHIN:
A Foretaste…
By Njonjo Mue
On the first anniversary of the Uhuru Generation Speech which I delivered in July 2000 to an audience of the Kenyan Diaspora in St. Paul Minnesota, I wrote a sequel titled ‘The Messiah Within’ which I circulated to Kenyan audiences at the time.
I will post the actual essay here tomorrow, but today, I thought I would share some of the reactions I received from my audience at that time.
Enjoy reading and reflecting on them below, and remember to come back tomorrow to read the words that they were responding to.
The names of those responding have been omitted to protect their privacy.
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I am speechless. Your words are a pure and powerful expression of human faith, hope and love – to be prayed, not merely read.
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Thank you for your thought provoking articles. They have made me weep.
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Wow! Wow! My brother I feel you totally! Well done for not just lamenting but deciding to do something!
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Hi Njonjo,
Greetings from Geneva.
Last weekend I met one of your old teachers at Alliance, and she wanted to read all your articles. Below is her reply. Feel free to copy her directly on future articles. Very impressive lady.
Listen, the next time you are in Europe let me know and we can organize a meeting for Kenyans here which you can address. You have no idea how much people appreciate these views that you propagate.
Cheers
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[From my former teacher]
Wow!! I have not read anything so fine, so noble and so beautifully written in such a long time. I am just about to send it to certain friends who will enjoy reading Njonjo’s articles, as well as agree to the sentiments expressed. I would love to get hold of all these in book form, and I’m sure he’s thinking of compiling them as such. I feel humbled to have known this brilliant young man at one time as his teacher.
Many many thanks for these.
Regards
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Hii Njonjo mue
(Quoting from the speech) “But if we wage our struggle with honour and discipline, and if we raise our cause above ourselves, then, even if we die in the struggle, death becomes redemptive. For hundreds and thousands will rise up to take our place; and our blood shall water the tree of freedom and invigorate our nation. Soon, our nation shall be truly free!”
Great!!
By Guatemala peasant.
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I really thank God that you have such a precious gift. He has indeed taught your fingers to war and I praise Him for that. I pray that you will always remember to love, jealously guard and continue to equip the ‘Messiah within you’. I can only wait to see what the Lord will accomplish in you as you faithfully do this and continually walk together in this journey!
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Njonjo,
Keep up the good fight.
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Njonjo,
We are reading from the same script,standby will join hands soon!
Shukran
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It sure was long but it is an excellent piece and I cannot agree
with it more.
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Njonjo,
I agree that the real challenge is in getting many Kenyans, especially the alleged middle-class, from their comfort zones, since the price of achieving a truly free Kenya is very high — death et al!
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Hi Njonjo,
Thanks this is inspiring and calls for serious reflection and action.
blessings
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Thanks Njonjo. Am with you. And share this with my groups.
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Njonjo,
I have received 2 of your fantastic articles and I love your line of thought.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Remember November 6th 2004 article in Nation Newspaper calling for young Kenyans to arise? I had bought space to highlight the need for a real change.
I do hope we can meet in the coming week to exchange notes.
Best Regards,
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Dear Sir,
I must say I am proud of you. This piece has touched my heart. You are a true Kenyan. A true Kenyan…
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I _ do hereby join and commit my all to the army of ordinary citizens that will change the story of this country. God help me.
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Njonjo,
How does one join this army of ordinary people?..how can we make a difference in our own environs…?
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Njonjo
CHRISTIANS MUST SEEK JUSTICE
Our society is hurtling towards destruction because as CHRISTIANS we have not understood our call and our responsibility to seek for social justice!
Isa 1:17
Seek JUSTICE,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.
NIV
Prov 28:5
Evil men do not understand JUSTICE,
but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.
NIV
It is up to the Church of Jesus Christ to seek justice. We cannot claim that it is not our responsibility because it is already written;
Prov 24:11-12
Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?
If the church fails to rise to the occasion, it is certainly in a position where it deserves judgment. As individuals we must see our salvation as a call for social justice. While we are here on earth, the religion that God considers worthwhile is;
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
NIV
Why have we as individual Christian thought that we should remain aloof to the injustice that we see in our society? Each one of us has been put in a specific situation where we see a certain form of injustice. Why have we not seen this as a call to live out our salvation?
It is safe to say that we are salt by being seen by others- we don’t go to bars, we don’t run after other people’s wives or daughters, we avoid situations that call for bribes- but isn’t the call more than a passive agreement? Are we not called for active SEEKING for justice? Shouldn’t we be the first to match peacefully to protest corruption in government?
If we say we did not know about it, shall not He who sees in secret judge us?
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Pray over the prayer initiative. This is united prayer and it will bear fruit.
Blessings
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Njonjo,
These are powerful and challenging thoughts… my experience within and outside government makes me think that the problems we face are three…
(1) We know what is right but we do not do it. We are afraid of doing the right thing. We are not willing to sacrifice ourselves for the good thing. In short we need good men and women who do good things..remembering always that in the design of things, the good shall overcome the evil. what is needed is a few good acts everywhere and we shall change this generation.
For example, everyone knows that we need to increase irrigation in order to be self sufficient. All we need is to identify potential areas and invite Kenyans to participate in the process. For example, we could go to the Tana River Delta.. dig a canal and zone the government land so that we designate what is to be irrigated where. we then ask Kenyans who are interested to apply and we move on. We form marketing cooperatives and off we go. It’s that simple. Let’s get doing something.
(2) The sophistication syndrome. The challenges we face are many but to the surprise of many, the solutions we require are simple and obvious. Our problem is we complicate things and make ourselves believe that we need super humans to deal with them. I am just from a PSS meeting where many issues were discussed. One of the most interesting things I heard was on youth employment. somebody suggested that if we ban the importation of finished textile products, we would employ close to one million tailors in order to meet the clothing needs of Kenyans. Have you thought about that..its simple really. we are now buying finished textiles from China, Turkey and Indonesia basically creating employment for their tailors and well as their cotton farmers. When we make small things complex, we disempower people. We make them believe that a consultant is needed and that foreign aid is required and that somebody else must do something to help them. If we do small things with discipline , we will get out of our mess.
(3) Leadership…. when countries such as ours face the kind of challenges we face, there will be need for someone to take the lead. The duty to lead does not belong to the political class only as some suggest. It requires everyone of us to lead.. wherever they are.. And to lead means that one must see the future clearly and make the decision to take positive steps to realise that future. Our experience as a nation is there for every one to see. we cannot rely on the politicians. In fact I think what is needed is not just political leadership… but the leadership of men and women who sincerely desire to deliver this country to the next level.
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Dear Njonjo,
Greetings from ____; I hope this finds you well.
__ has a bi-annual community newsletter which has a circulation of 2,000 copies to community based Human Rights Networks (HURINETs) in different parts of Kenya. We have noticed that while there are very useful and thought provoking articles on national issues available at national level through newspapers, websites, blogs etc, these articles do not get to the human rights activists at community level
This is thus a request for your permission to publish in ___ community newsletter, your article below ‘The Messiah within” (which I first read on Pambazuka).
___ is distributed for free to these human rights networks (HURINETs) and thus I can assure you that the ___ will not get any monetary gains from this. Further,__ will not be able to pay for the use of the article.
Kindly let us know if we have your permission to publish the same. (Permission was gladly granted.)
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Hallo!!
So you can imagine that I return from leave (1 month of bliss) to find your deep email which makes me wonder, when are you running for elected office?????? We need people like you. The newspapers and news continue to distress me with politicians doing things that are disgusting and offensive to Kenyans at large. When and if you decide to ever run, holla so that I can join the campaign team.
Have a nice day and keep ’em coming!
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Bro. Njonjo you drove some points into my heart and mind, i’m rising up to the occasion and on my way to do what is permitted in the realm of law to stop these thieving, overbearing and old despots. keep on inspiring us with this kind of mind-provoking writings–its a powerful tool!
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I always say, living in harmony as a nation does not have to be through love for one another, but out of respect for the contract we have signed to define ourselves as Kenyans. The law and the enforcers ought to ensure that this state is kept for the individual as well as community’s preservation and advancement. If we still believe, that the country Kenya must still be seen in Africa’s map, and that every ‘ethnic region’ identified as part of it, then we have no choice but sign the contract once again. We must also learn to get rid of violators of of this contract before they destroy the nation. We must learn to identify potential leaders who understand the reason for being a nation.
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Perhaps a Kenya that has thus far refused to draw lessons from the brutal civil wars its neighbors have gone through might just heed Njonjo Mue’s prophetic warnings. Those of us who have made Kenya our home, but are not citizens marvel at the absence of rabid nationalism amongst our Kenyan brothers and sisters. Under certain conditions that may be a virtue. But if the country is to avoid descending towards Civil war one hopes that more Kenyans would assume a nationalistic rather than a tribalistic posture. Njonjo’s essay will surely nurture that process. This is an essay that should be required reading.
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If the above sentiments from friends who love and care deeply for our nation have aroused your curiosity, please come back tomorrow to read Part One of ‘The Messiah Within’. Thank you for your time.
Yours truly,
Njonjo Mue
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