The irritating thing about the settler-expat-KC community in Kenya is that they mistake the silence of Kenyans with a Forgetting or an Unseeing. Most Kenyans speak varying quantities of English, Kiswahili and vernaculars, but we're all very, very fluent in SILENCE.
Silence is the language of a people for whom truth and violence were too-often intertwined. Our parents taught us to shut up, and our State reinforces that lesson every day. Silence is our third national language. This does NOT mean Kenyans do not see, or do not know.
We know, for instance, that the settler-expat-KC community thinks Kenya was better off under British rule. We see you point derisively at our infrastructure/ politics/ economy and mutter about how much more orderly and 'civilized' things were 'before the locals took over'.
We know that you use words like 'getaway', 'exclusive' and 'luxe' to subtly signal your carved out resorts, gated communities and conservancies as white-only safe spaces. We know you stop hanging out in Kenya's newest clubs and restaurants when 'too many locals' start showing up.
We know that in your local-free spaces you're free to voice ugly thoughts about the Kenyans who host and clean up after you, and we know that the only Kenyans allowed in these spaces are those who don't ask questions about your contentious presences and unlawful 999-year leases.