Of Bethwel Kiplagat and the ‘Samson Option’ in TJRC
By Mwenda Njoka
The holy Bible—in the book of Judges—tells the fascinating but tragic story of the great warrior; Samson. Now, Samson was so strong and powerful that nothing could put him down. As a result, he became conceited and impervious to parental advice.
At the time of his birth, his clan—the Danites—was in perpetual war with the Philistines. And the Philistines were regularly having the upper hand in these fights; that is until Samson came to the scene.
His strength single-handedly turned the tables on the Philistines. The Philistines sought various ways to maim and tame the mighty Samson without luck. However, one day, lady luck smiled on them. She came in the form of a beauty queen known as Delilah.
Against the wishes and advice of his parents, Samson married Delilah, who was a Philistine. They would perhaps have lived happily ever after, but did they? Of course not.
Delilah’s kith and kin put pressure on her to find the source of Samson’s might. Using all the feminine sweetness and guile she could muster, Delilah traced Samson’s strength on his long hair. You see, Samson’s hair had never been cut since birth growing into long strands of rastas.
Once she discovered the source of Samson’s strength, everything else was easy for Delilah. She sent a coded message to her people. Philistine warriors came and hide in Samson’s compound. When the mighty man was sound asleep, his ‘loving’ wife cut his long hair to Jordan-like clean-shaven style and then shouted “Samson, Samson! Wake up, the Philistines are here!”
Samson got up in a flash only to find he could not break loose of the ropes tying his hands. Then touching his head, he realized it was clean shaven. His strength had deserted him. The Philistine warriors gorged off his eyes and took him captive.
For several months Samson was held in solitary confinement and his hair grew again. Then one day, the Philistines had a big celebration and they needed to show off their big catch. So Samson was brought into the temple.
While there, he asked to be placed next the two main pillars of the temple to lean on them. While there, he pushed the pillars with all his might and the temple collapsed on the crowds below killing Samson and thousands of Philistines.
What Samson did has come to be known in modern warfare as taking ‘The Samson Option’. This is a situation where a leader decides that if he has no way out of a tricky situation, the best solution is to bring the temple down killing himself together with everyone else.
What has this got to do with the Truth, Justice & Reconciliation Commission (TJRC)? Well, if you place the embattled TJRC Chairman, Bethwel Kiplagat in place of Samson, you begin to get the drift.
Our own ‘Samson’ seems to have decided that rather than die alone, he would rather bring the temple down and die with everyone else. Is taking ‘The Samson Option’ the best alternative open to the once-upon-a-time venerable Ambassador Bethwel Kiplagat? I don’t think so.
Right now, the ‘Philistines’—so to speak—have outsmarted our ‘Samson’. When they started hurling all manner of accusations at him, they figuratively and effectively took him captive, gorge his eyes and cut his rastas and, alas, no new hair has grown!
A couple of months ago when the ‘Philistines’ started hurling stones at him, he had a very good chance to escape with his hair intact and possibly reign again within the ‘temple’ (read TJRC).
All that he needed to do at the time was to humble himself, step aside and while outside the ‘temple’, quote to his accusers the words of Jesus in the Book of John: “Let he who has no sin be the one to cast the first stone…”
There is no doubt that majority of his accusers are guilty of scarlet-red sins. But that is beside the point now. If our ‘Samson’ had shown humility at the right time, I am convinced he would have survived the tide of the ‘Philistines’ and regained his place in the ‘temple’ stronger and better. But now it is too late.
For some strange reasons, he allowed himself to be deluded by the sheen and might of his silver mane. He sadly let hubris take over his erstwhile sense of humility replacing it with a misguided sense of entitlement. And once that happened, the game was over.
There is only one honorable thing left for our ‘Samson’ to do now. Rather than bring the temple down with him, he can still walk away, save the temple and, hopefully, reclaim a modicum of his erstwhile image as a humble and unassuming diplomat.
Ends
(Mwenda Njoka is a journalist working with Royal Media Services and founder-member of
