KAIKAI KICKER: Dear NCIC, 'sipangwingwi' is innocent

On my kicker tonight, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) kicked up a storm this week when it came up with a list of words that should be added to those that can be categorised as hate speech in Kenya. The NCIC list of 21 words was greeted with scorn and predictable defiance and rejection. None of the words stood out more than the mouthful slang, 'sipangingwi' which translates loosely to 'I can’t be told what to do' or something cocky like that. The second term that generated both scorn and controversy is the term ''watajua hawajui', which translates to 'they won’t know what hit them' or something like that.

Let me admit, I am not a sheng expert by any measure. I am not familiar with most of its words and I have not done a good job keeping pace with the head-spinning evolution of the sheng words. Words change meaning or relevance so fast that 'hatupangwingwi' may not even mean the same thing for the NCIC five years from now.

But here is my problem with the NCIC. First, I found its interpretation of some of the words too simplistic. 'Hatupangwingwi' for example cannot really carry the meaning communicated by NCIC chairman Rev. Samuel Kobia who stated that 'sipangwingwi' was 'a phrase targetting certain families and communities that have been in power for long, particularly the Luo and Kikuyu communities.’

I want to accuse the NCIC of over-imagination on this one. ‘Sipangwingiwi’ is more of a protest term and 'protest' is the easiest way to political mobilization. I also want to accuse the NCIC of turning up late and jumping on the wrong word. If the NCIC was truly concerned about divisive terms, it should have spoken out when the 'hustlers versus dynasties' narrative came to the scene. In my view, ‘sipangwingwi’ is by far moderate and mild compared to the hustlers versus dynasty narrative that sought to pursue political objectives along the divisive line of social and economic classes.

And so I think, the NCIC will not win the argument against the term 'hatupangwingwi' because in many ways, it does not meet the interpretation attached to it by the NCIC. The NCIC should also have done a better job in digging up the background of some of these words. A casual check of both ‘sipangwingwi’ and ‘hustler’ indicates that those words are actually older even if slightly than the presidential ambitions of Deputy President William Ruto. Nairobi residents, especially those in Eastlands have for years used the word 'ku-hustle' to mean 'working hard to make a living in whatever way.’ We, as Kenyans, say in ordinary conversations, 'ni-kuhustle tu.' And the word hustle has for long been associated with the common hard working and law-abiding mwananchi. NCIC should have dug deeper too in the same streets of Nairobi where regular folks say 'hatupangwingwi' to mean 'I am capable of sorting my stuff out'; a common man's version of ‘Yes, I can', if you may.

These are the reasons DP Ruto and his allies have found it so easy to defy the NCIC because for sure, we haven’t heard yet hate speech terms resting on such weak logic as presented to Kenyans by the cohesion body.

Now, there is one more thing worse than getting the terms 'sipangwingwi’ and ‘watajua hawajui' wrong. And that is, the NCIC wasting time and money in Nairobi barking up the wrong tree. On national politics and specifically the presidential campaign, the NCIC should stop cherry-picking words as hate speech but instead confront the general decline of our national discourse. When national leaders squabble in public, call each other names and show contempt for rules and customs that should worry the NCIC more than ‘watajua hawajui.’ Common decency is dying, respect and decorum is collapsing and increasingly government and authority are becoming the ultimate prizes for the boldest of the dirtiest players.

At the local level, the NCIC should remind itself the real reason it was formed - cohesion and integration of communities and tribes of Kenya. In an election year, the NCIC should for example be concerned about election arithmetic that rests entirely on the principle of one tribe against another or one set of tribes or clans against another set of tribes or clans. Is the NCIC aware for example that this is the standard formula applied in elections across the country and indeed the very basis the next government, whichever side wins, will be formed? Surely NCIC, it takes more than 21 words.

That is my kicker!