MY KINDNESS CAMPAIGN

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, yesterday in a televised national speech, declared three days of mourning for the victims of the terror attack on the country’s international mall, the Westgate Mall. The attack which is reported to have killed 61 civilians, six soldiers and five terrorists, came as a cooking competition organized for children was holding at the mall.

One thing that struck me as I watched clips of the unfortunate incident is how people were willing to volunteer and assist victims when the attack took place. Many people came out to donate blood; to the extent that medical officials had to turn some back because they already had more than they needed. Many were on hand to assist even the Red Cross in attending to victims.

Seeing this and recognizing that it was not long the country ended an election that saw citizens pitch themselves against each other, tribally and politically, I praise the kind spirit they showed.

The incident also made me think of what would have happened if the incident took place in my country. Is it not possible that people will distance themselves from victims, shy away from donating blood and question the government for not providing blood for the victims?

The Dictionary defines Kindness as the quality of being warmhearted and considerate and humane and sympathetic. It is the act of being considerate in dealing with other people. It is the act of being kind and forgiving.

Kindness is a major way of expressing Love. 1 Corinthians 13: 4 states that Love is patient and kind. This therefore means that being kind means loving. It is caring for another person’s interest and knowing that doing so will not deny you your interest. It is overlooking wrong done to you by another and knowing that doing so does not mean that you are happy with it. It is overlooking such wrong and knowing that it does not mean you are weak to react.
Kindness means deciding not to avenge a wrong and forgiving in advance, even before you are offended. It is being humane in the way we treat one another.

My Kindness campaign stems from the fact that Kindness is lacking so much in our society. What we see is harshness, prejudice, revenge and the likes. My campaign is a call to a new order. We can treat each other better; we can feel for each other and we can be kind to each other.
Sometimes riding on public bus, one sees manifestations of harshness in the way we treat one another. It is evident in the tone by which we respond to simple questions; our unwillingness to give a car space on traffic; our prejudicial tendencies against people from other tribes as well as our impatience with one another.

Those in public leadership are not kind to those being led and those being led are not kind to one another.  The need for change is already over-flogged, what remains is action towards change. The change must now begin with me, with you, with us.