Have you ever been discriminated against in your own country because of your skin colour? Well, there seems to be a rise in cases of Kenyans who are discriminated against by their fellow Kenyans based on skin colour.
The denominator in all these cases appear to be common: a black Kenyan is denied service, offered poor service, or is rejected altogether in favour of a white person or a person of the Asian community. The perpetrator? Their fellow black mwananchi!
This is the form of racial discrimination that Dr Keith Dindi came face to face with recently when he returned home from a morning exercise walk. Dr Dindi shared that was shockingly blocked by a residential guard in the estate he lives in from using a particular gate because he was black, even though the same gate was being used by non-blacks. When he inquired why, Dr Dindi was told bluntly that those who were using the gate were Indians! Here’s what Dr Dindi shared:
“This morning, something happened that left me deeply disturbed. I was coming back from my morning walk, as I do most days. I approached our gate—the one my family and I usually use when walking back home. It’s technically the “exit” gate, but it’s closer to the main road, and we’ve always used it without issue. But today, the guard stopped me.
“You can’t use this gate,” he said.
Confused but calm, I turned and walked around to the entry gate and got in. A few minutes later, I was leaving the compound again—and I saw the same guard opening the very same gate for another resident. A non-African gentleman. So I stopped and asked, “Why did you let him in, but not me?” His answer stunned me:
“Yeye ni Mhindi.” (“He is Indian.”)
I asked again, seeking clarity:
“So… you opened for him because he’s Indian, but denied me because I’m African?”
He nodded.
“Yes. Those are the rules.”
“But I live here.”
“I’m just following the rules.”
I was speechless. This happened in my own country. In our beloved 254. In a gated community in Kenya where my family happens to be the only black family.
I’ve traveled to many countries, experienced many cultures. But the harshest discrimination I’ve ever felt has been right here at home. The airport where I’ve felt the most disrespected? JKIA. The restaurants where I’ve been treated like a second-class citizen? Right here, in Nairobi. The airline that has frustrated me most? Our own Kenya Airways.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Why is it that we, in our own country, have accepted systems that diminish us? I will definitely take it up with the management, I would like to know exactly how those “rules” were worded. And yet, even in my frustration, I couldn’t be angry at the guard.
Because here was a man who honestly believed he was less than. Who believed he had to treat others as more deserving than his own. That broke my heart more than the discrimination itself. We are still enslaved—but now it’s in the mind. Oh the emancipation we need from this mental slavery!”
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