Over the last month in Nairobi, we have watched as thousands of people were made homeless as police and eviction crews stormed Ruai and Kariobangi in the middle of the night, demolishing homes.
We watched as people cried on live television, begging the president to have mercy on them, to think of their children who had to shelter under trees. This all happened as Nairobi county was under Covid-19lockdown and curfew, barring movement for those evicted.
We watched as the police were repeatedly sent to demolish even more homes in the middle of the night. To add horror to this nightmare, a few days after the demolitions, the government further gave a directive to destroy the tents that had been donated to the Kariobangi evictees, saying that the land belongs to Nairobi Water Company. In Kariobangi alone, 8,000 people were left out in the cold.
The newspapers say that the demolitions were to make way for a sewerage plant, while other outlets reported that the demolitions are to pave way for water and sewerage facilities to serve Northlands City, dubbed “city of the future” a Kenyatta (president’s) family investment. This city, meant for expats and the upper ruling class, is being built at the expense of the Kenyan people, and for what? So that the rich are able to shit.
All this happened while court orders were in place barring demolitions. This is an unjustified attack on the Kenyan people. The government does not get to decide who is allowed to have homes, who is allowed to be safe or even who is allowed to reside in the city. To unleash violence upon your people, more so in the midst of a global pandemic is evil. The Kenyan government is evil. As feminists who believe in honouring the dignity and humanity of each and every person, we believe in channelling our rage, grief and collective pain to mourn, to rage, and to act.
We have written this curse in honour of the despots who oppress, rob and disregard the people of Kenya. It is a practice in uncloaking those who use bureaucracy to cloak themselves. This curse is also an acknowledgement of our connection to our ancestors, our many freedom-loving, freedom fighting ancestors, from the Mau Mau to Wangari Maathai to the dead whose names we do not know. This connection is a resource that the state cannot control, cannot cut off; this curse chant is also an invitation to other Kenyans, to rage with us. It is the channel of our rage and the honoring of it.
Before we begin, we root ourselves in beauty. in sweetness. in protection. Our intention is freedom. Our intention is freedom and comfort and tenderness for the many. Homes. Warm
beds. Dignity.
we curse you northlands
we curse you in the name of all those who came before us
we curse you in the spirit of abolition, in the spirit of freedom
we curse you
may your soil be rotten
may you never be built
may the ancestors in the ground wreck havoc
may our words like thorns forever pierce at your sides
we curse you
we wish you ill
we take back our lives
we do not consent
we do not consent
we do not consent
we do not forget
we do not forget
kamwana and co
may your joy wilt to ashes
may your dreams be haunted
we do not know peace, you take it away but hear this
may you not have peace, may peace never define anything you touch,
anything you think up, anything you utter
(if we do not have peace may you not have peace)
may your khanga suits choke you
may your laughter arrest the air flowing in and out of your rotten bodies
may your words gather like bile in your mouth and poison your plots against you
suffocate
today today today may it all happen today
may your plans mock you
we drag these curses to your door
they enter your home
muthamaki and co
tangatanga and co
hustler and co
these curses are for your homes, for your bodies, for your minds
these curses are for your soul
you demolish houses in the dark, may this arrow find you in the light of day
you work in confusion, you use bureaucracy to cloak yourself, we reveal you now. may these.
our words. our tears. our anger uncloak you in the middle of the street. may you be left with
nothing. not even the air will cover you.
may your brown animal print shirts choke you
may the newspapers you conspire with suffocate you
whatever you plant will not grow
whatever you water will dry up
whatever you touch will wither
whatever you speak will turn against you
whatever you plot against the people will consume you.
whatever you send into the air will come crashing down onto you
whatever you hide in the water will drown you
whatever you burn with fire will consume you
whatever you dig up in the soil will bury you
you, scum
you, evil
you, the poison that eats up this land, the poison that ails the people
your existence is haram
your existence is an atrocity
your existence is a burden
you tire us
here,
here where we say,
may these words annihilate you
may these words haunt you
may we haunt you
may we haunt you
may we haunt you
we declare it
we call it
we summon it
may this curse, like liquid, like the blood that is spilled at your hands,seep into your bones, flood
in your chests, may this curse drown your souls in eternal agony, may this curse eat you up
from the inside, may it ring in your ears, as the cry of the people. may our voices shout at you in
your sleep. no peace. no peace. no peace.
may these words invade you, like you invade our lives,
may they invade your homes, your thoughts, your lives, your mind,
may they invade you and finish you
mchomeke from the inside
kichapo kwenu
we twist time we beckon time we make the future now we create a portal
here is where you will end
Kisu na Wembe are feminist writers and organizers in Nairobi. They are interested in movements that centre politics of love, care and abolition. Fuck the Patriarchy.
Fuck despots, fuck middle class, fuck kamwana, fuck fuck!!!
may we haunt you
we declare it
we call it
we summon it
VERY THAT! ✊