There is so much to say in this sad moment but I can only profess that Rasna Warah was one of the bravest and most truthful Kenyans I have known. She stood on principle and exposed mischief within the United Nations at the cost of her job. She quit a prominent columnist role at the Nation because she wouldn’t stomach government-directed editorial interference with her writing.

Rasna Warah warned us many times over the years that capitulation to wrongdoing because the wrongdoers have current power was ill-advised, and we would pay the price for taking the soft option, rather than face the facts. 

I especially remember an opinion piece she wrote on the apocalyptic implications of lowering the constitutional integrity bar to allow candidates facing charges at the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity to run for the Kenyan presidency in 2013. Rasna struck a nerve. 

The ICC suspects column received hundreds of comments within minutes of being posted, a greater number of them being essentially racist and sexist abuse by rabid supporters of the usual political suspects. These horrible comments are no longer accessible at the online archive, but I would hazard that if one were to read those comments today, Rasna would stand vindicated. 

We lowered our guard and allowed dregs to pretend to be cream.  We can now trace a straight line between the entrenchment of impunity in Kenya and even the state orchestrated abductions we complain of today, and the fateful decisions Kenyans made (or opted to remain silent about) in 2012-2013. 

Rasna Warah took on Howard Zinn’s challenge and courageously took on the enormous responsibility to bring to the attention of others information they do not have, offering us all the opportunity to rethink long-held ideas. I heard her loud and clear and know what needs to be done. 

Thank you, Rasna Warah. Aluta Continua!