“Guilty Until Proven Innocent” by Wilson Thiongo Gathungu

We welcome Wilson Thiongo Gathungu as a guest blogger to provide one African perspective on the war going on in Ukraine along with the broader issues.  Wilson’s peacemaking story is on our website under Peacemaking Bios along with many photos in our Photo Gallery.
Amani Milele, Peace Forever!
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     I think all people are at loss of the era in which the world is currently in. It seems as if the world is gradually drifting back to the dark ages  or it’s confirming Charles Darwin theory of the survival of the fittest in a very negative light.
     Russian invasion in Ukraine has appalled the mighty, the weak and the learned and the ignorant in equal measure. Under the watch of all of the above, a sovereign nation is being decimated.
     What guarantees that another super power will not wake up and conquer its neighbor over a small dispute or disagreement. Yet there are bodies like  UNITED NATIONS, NATO, AU, EU, etc mandated with peacekeeping in this world.
     In which era are we living? where are we heading? Is the Russian war in Ukraine a repercussion of  the cold war and arms race that characterized  the cold war in 1970s and 80s?
     During the cold war Nuclear weapons were built by super powers.  Now if a crazy leader gets into power they can threaten the peace of the world with a catastrophic demise. Hence no BODY wants to confront Putin because he can detonate a nuclear gas that can usher in an unprecedented eschatological catastrophe.
     As a peacemaker and a peace-lover and a director of a small peace-building organization, I am  appalled and disturbed by the Russian war in Ukraine.
     From here going forward no one is safe unless a novel method of keeping peace and making peace is crafted.  No one is safe unless a disarmament process is put in place immediately.  No one is safe unless nuclear stations and nuclear warheads  and all weapons of mass destruction are completely destroyed.
     When Iraq boasted of having capacity to build nuclear stations, the UN seconded United States of America to  inspect and destroy the nuclear stations in Iraq and Iran.
     They vindicated their actions by saying that such weapons of mass destruction cannot be trusted to be in the hands of nation like Iraq or North Korea which were referred to as, “an axis of evil”.
     Now the hearts of human beings are secret to themselves and the evil or good in their hearts cannot be known. Since we cannot develop an evil-meter, the only option we have is to destroy what can destroy the whole world at a brink of an eye; the weapons of mass destruction regardless of who holds them.
     All nations should be perceived guilty and capable of unleashing terror and therefore no nation should be  trusted with a nuclear weapon or any other weapon of mass destruction.
Wilson Thiongo Gathungu is Director of the Peace, Reconciliation and Rehabilitation Initiative (PRARI) in Kenya.  He is a recipient of the Peace and Justice Award from Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kansas where he received a Masters in Theology degree.  Click here to see his story under our peacemaker bios, including some music videos of peacemaking songs he wrote.
This photo is of Wilson standing on a road that was a dividing line for massive ethnic violence.  After extensive conflict transformation training and community work, Wilson led a multi-ethnic peace march down this road in the Molo District of Kenya.

One Comment

Wilson Thiongo Gathungu

Bubles of cold war could be on the offing. Unfortunately human beings are usually concerned with immediate safety and immediate security in lieu of long-term future catastrophies. Every individual should take responsibility of making peace.

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