Post by Onyango Oloo on May 15, 2013 0:08:26 GMT 3
I, Onyango Oloo, who was part and parcel of the group of Kenyans who helped organize the event, was at the Occupy Parliament demonstration on the 14th of May 2013 and I am prepared to sign an affidavit attesting to the following facts:
1. Boniface Mwangi did NOT knife, spear, shoot or hurl a grenade at any pig;
2. Onyango Oloo did not barbecue, fry or eat alive any piglet or for that matter any of their parents, siblings, relatives or forbears;
3. No demonstrator skinned any pig or sold any freshly killed pig portions before, during or after the Occupy Parliament protest.
Having stated the above disclaimer, let me go on the record and say that I, Onyango Oloo did raise concerns with at least four of my comrades within the organizing committee in our last meeting (and they can publicly attest to that fact), a day before the protest, when I heard an inkling that a pig or some pigs would be employed for the Occupy Parliament event.
To be quite candid, my reservations were along RELIGIOUS grounds, believe it or not, especially to those who know my secular views.
Having grown up in Mombasa among Muslim friends and neighbours, I cautioned that there was a possibility of alienating at least 20 % of the Kenyan population who were Islamic adherents because in the Quran, a pig is considered haram. To find out more about this, click on this Muslim blogger's article:
themuslimvoice.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/why-is-pig-haraam-in-islam/
There is more here:
www.islamreligion.com/articles/2513/
and here:
www.city-data.com/forum/islam/1011270-what-does-quran-say-about-consumption.html
In the light of the above, I suggested that the key organizers should make a point of consulting with Hussein Khalid the well known Muhuri human rights activist from Mombasa who was slated to be a key speaker at the Occupy Parliament event.
At the same time, I can understand WHY the matter was not discussed thoroughly during our planning meetings. The very idea of using pigs was hush hush top secret even within the organizing committee itself. There was this dilemma over the extent to which we could discuss all our plans in detail.
Given the democratic space Kenyans have won over the years, all our meetings were open to whichever member of the public was interested in contributing to the success of Occupy Parliament protest. Essentially planning was done openly with some details even being shared on the internet.
Obviously we assumed that part of this "public" could be state security agents, their informers and agents provocateurs.
Thus, if certain details were withheld from the majority of the committee for either security or dramatic reasons, I can understand.
They say hindsight is 20/20. Had this matter been fully discussed, perhaps we would have modified our tactics and taken due consideration over matters pertaining to animal cruelty and religious sensitivities.
Nevertheless, and with all due respect to those well meaning Kenyans who have raised valid concerns pertaining to animal cruelty, I have been astounded by the crass hypocrisy of some veteran ANTI-Human Rights Campaigners who have suddenly discovered that they care more about pigs than their own oppressed, exploited and marginalized fellow Kenyan human beings.
By extension, these fake pig baby sitters seem to care more about the parliamentary pigs in human form who are obsessed with gorging at the national trough, greedily gulping billions of our hard earned tax shillings while the majority of Kenyans subsist BELOW the poverty line.
Meanwhile not a pip, not a squeak or even a squeal about the acts of state terror and brutality perpetrated with impunity by heavily armed robocops while millions of traumatized Kenyans watched aghast, on live television as innocent, unarmed, peaceful protestors were clobbered, tear gassed and bombarded with water cannons for simply exercising their constitutionally sanctioned democratic rights to protest, picket, assemble and express their views as they spoke truth to power.
These are very same human beings who gleefully condone the daily mass slaughter of these farm animals for one reason and one reason alone:
That these very same lovers of pigs can feast on the freshly killed flesh of the very same pigs.
Whether these dead pigs are served as bacon, ham, salami, chorizo, sausages or whatever, the same pig lovers dutifully go to the butcheries, super markets and even pig farms to purchase pig flesh.
Do they have an idea of what these pigs go through before they end up on the dinner tables of the pig lovers?
How does a live pig
Become this:
Well, if you want to see how a live pig is transformed into a series of pork products, please watch the following video which I must warn you in advance IS NOT FOR THE QUEASY:
