Duale’s tongue and parable of the three birds

This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.

This is the parable of the three birds – Kiumbara, Nchunguriku and Nchinchigiri from my homeland, up in the mountains where the nights are pitch dark and still, when all creatures shut up to better listen to the roar of freezing air, smashing aside its rising warm sibling, in a desperate plunge to embrace the warmth of the earth; the bulky shoulders of Ithanguni peak exploding out of the inky blackness of the land of the gods below, thrusting into the silver magic of the moonlit heavens above.

But for the clashing winds, the black nights of the upper reaches of Imenti are deadly quiet. More often than not, however, the peace is torn by the discordant wailing of the Kiumbara, the homeless bird, begging: Nchinchigiri mpa kiraro! (Nchinchigiri make room for me in your nest!).”

I am told the English name for Nchinchigiri is the heron, a lovely bird with a red head, white neck, black body, feathers and legs, a proud grey plume at the back of his head. He is a hard worker and great builder, living in a warm, beautiful nest.

Kiumbara is the European Nightjar (or Montane Nightjar), it is all the worst things a bird could ever be, except for that deceptive, mellifluous voice asking for space in Nchinchigiri’s nest. It is not colourful but a dull grey, a ground dweller, “Kiumbara” is actually translated to “one who squats in the dirt”, too feckless and restless to build its own nest.

It is not even from here; it is European and only migrates through East Africa. It is not graceful of build, being lumpy, and reputedly blind during the day, seeing only at night. But being a nomad, it has powerful wings which it uses in its migration from continent to continent.

The subtext of its nagging has a disturbing insistence to it. It’s judgmental, as if to suggest that there is something down-market with working hard and building your own nest, minding your own business and giving others respectful space to do their thing too. It might also suggest that your refusal to let others in your nest means you are entitled and looking down upon them. The Kiumbara has a problem not only with the fact that you are hardworking and built a comfortable nest for yourself, but it will also find fault with things you have no control over: with your genes, your looks, your hair. You are ugly, a hyena, you have bad hair, you are not pure, you are mixed race, and a million other bad things.

The other noisy bird is called Nchunguriku, the Woodpecker. The pecker gets a daily headache hammering at trees with its beak. But from its high perch, it also spies on other birds. When other birds land on a banana tree and help themselves to juicy ripe banana, from the highest tree, the Woodpecker launches a vicious diving attack and, like a bunker buster bomb, hammers dry banana leaves at top speed.

The explosive sound of the banana leaves echoes through the neighbourhood, frightening away the feeding birds and most likely drawing the attention of the farmer and his dogs. The pecker does not feed, instead he flies back to his perch and sings triumphantly: Ntikwenda munda o ngwataniro (I hate sharing).

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, in two decades of public life, has developed a pattern of combative, reckless, ethnically-charged, and personally insulting rhetoric, inheriting Peter Habenga Okondo’ forked tongue.

When he opened his mouth in Lafey Constituency, Mandera County on July 20, his baseless claim understood to mean that the Kikuyu believed “no one else should live in Kenya” and apparently likening them to hyenas, using a Somali proverb, "Waraabe la-tagis bartay, ka-ridis waa ku dhib", which translates roughly to a hyena that has grown accustomed to a habit and struggles to abandon it, has, at the very least, caused a damaging political storm for UDA, already struggling in the Mt Kenya region.

And he has adamantly doubled down. “I'm not going to apologise. And when I make such statements, I know what I am saying, because I worked with Kibaki. I worked with Uhuru, and I am now working with Ruto.” And that is not the only abuse he has directed at others. He is the Kiumbara of Kenyan politics, never letting the peace be, a constant, damaging irritant.

I would have characterised Senator Oburu Oginga as the Woodpecker, swooping from his high ODM perch to scatter, with his demands for pawa, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki’s feasting, but the poor fellow is doing more of lumbering than swooping of late.

And we the Kenyan people are the herons, we make the nest. This past fortnight High Court judgement that we need not wait until August next year, we can start cleaning our nest now.

Reporting originally appeared via Nation Africa. Read the full source for additional context.