Kenya, I’m not a Terrorist Blog Challenges Perceptions

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the tumblr, #KenyaImnotaterrorist is worth innumerable words. The blog that has gone viral and has been featured on online meme central, Buzzfeed, is one that touches all who see it. The face of the crackdown on Somalis, terrorists and illegal immigrants (terms that have been used by media interchangeably) has finally been unveiled. The human face of men, women and children bearing their simple truths questioning wide perceptions of who we, as Kenya, are fighting.

In one of the pictures, the statement ‘Refugees did not fall from the sky. Go investigate how they got here’ brings to the fore the issue of corruption. With porous borders and police who only speak the language of money, it is important to question who is responsible for all these.

‘I was in Kenya before Kenya was a Kenya, and I shall be in Kenya till I die’ says a sign held by an elderly Somali man. The caption explains that he was born in 1946 and he still lives in the house where he was born in section 3 – Eastleigh. This instantly purges the misconception that all Somalis are not Kenyan citizens. Many Kenyan Somalis have been caught up in the xenophobic rants but this is not something novel in Kenya. As early as the 1984 Wagalla Massacre of Somalis, that has never been addressed by any Kenyan administration, many Kenyan Somalis have felt that they simply not yet Kenyan enough.

Check out the viral photo campaign at: www.kenyaimnotaterrorist.tumblr.com

By Amal Mohamed