Equality and Anti-Discrimination

ATTACK OF THE SHIDAS AKAs SAVE THE PLANET

Synopsis

The story captures present day society issues of ethnic intolerance, gender inequality, discrimination on grounds of disability and age, as well as economic status disparities. Subtle discrimination is displayed when the mistakes of an individual are attributed to his/her entire ethnic community.  The book is intended to bring equality and human rights conversation among Kenya’s school children, parents, teachers and society at large.

Three children, Tosha, Shana, and Pato discover invisible aliens, the Shidas, have invaded the town’s only borehole and are sucking out all water from the borehole. No one believes the children. The story turns when the three children find out they have special powers that can stop the Shidas, but can they?

The town’s three communities, Northeens, Southeens and Centreens, become suspicious of each other and trade accusations. The Northeens blame the Southeens while the Southeens blame the Centreens. Some people say the Northeens are responsible for the loss f water at the town’s lone borehole because they are engaged in the business of importing water. Word is fast spreading in the town, that it’s a moneymaking scheme by the Northeens to profit by selling water at an inflated cost. Others blame the Southeens saying it’s a plot to force the Centreens out of the town. Tension is high, and there are fears that communities could attack each other.

Shana considers the idea that she and her two friends Pato and Tosha could band together to stop  the Shidas. But she is not sure Tosha, a Southeen would want to combine his special power with Tosha, a Northeen and herself a Centreen.

Despite the pressure, Shana shares her idea, to put their special powers together and confront the Shidas, and is pleasantly surprised when Tosha embraces the idea with passion. And the team begin to prepare.

On the appointed day, word goes round that the whole town would be at the borehole to witness the saving of the town’s borehole from thieves. Tosha and Pato arrive at the borehole on time, but Shana is nowhere.  They need her special power to combine with theirs if they are to face the Shidas and overcome them.  They fear her family may not have allowed her to be out late at night.  The crowd get restless and begins to complain as Tosha and Pato are gripped by fear that the Shidas might attack before Shana arrives.

Just in the nick of time, Pato and Tosha spot Shana in the crowd as she is led by her older sister to where Tosha and Pato were standing. The  Shidas are already at the borehole and are getting bigger than the children had known them to be. But the children concentrate on their plan and put their special powers together to suck the Shidas out.

Suddenly the Shidas begin to attack the crowd sucking all liquid from people and heading for the borehole. People in the crowd started hurling accusations at each other’s communities raising anger.

But the resolve of Tosha, Shana and Pato to unite their special powers against the Shidas prevails.

The book is retailing in Nakumatt's Books First Outlets (Kenya)  and also available on Amazon at:  http://www.amazon.com/Attack-Shidas-Planet-Earth-ebook/dp/B0091D8V2Q/ref=sr_1_19?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347276253&sr=1-19&keywords=storymoja

The KHRC seeks to introduce an equality storybook that tackles issues of tolerance of ethnic, gender, disability, age and economic status differences to primary school students. The book is conceptualised to bring equality and human rights discourse to schoolchildren and their teachers. A study of the Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice (KAP) of pupils in 12 schools targeted for the pilot use of the equality storybook was carried out prior to the introduction of the book; the survey focused on the 5 equality themes (ethnicity, gender, disability, age, economic status).

The study used both quantitative and qualitative approaches and revealed that children apractitsing discrimination to please their parents from whom they learn the practice. There is not much difference between children living in urban areas that are large cosmopolitan compared to those who live in the largely homogenous rural areas. The study had revealed that there is an urgent need for cohesion to be integrated in the Kenyan education system in order to deconstruct the negative ethnicity and other forms discrimination from children and change the society beginning with the children.

The KHRC has always worked with minority, marginalized and disadvantaged groups to enable them, in their own way, articulate, defend and realize their human rights be they civil, political, economic, social and cultural. One such group is Kenya’s LGBTI community which includes gender and sexual minorities, that is, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) persons. The KHRC and LGBTI Organizations’ continue to receive cases of human rights abuses against the LGBTI persons.

Once a neglected issue in political discourse, citizenship has now emerged as a central concern. It has become a highly contested conceptual territory as individuals are less defined as members of social class and more as citizens. As the prominence of dialogue on citizenship increases, so have its challenges. Decades of associating citizenship with human rights may have elevated its profile, but has not liberated citizenship from politics and violations.

In general, Kenya has a strong record of ratifying major international and regional human rights instruments. It is a party to six of the seven core UN human rights treaties, with the exception being the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.