the hotel called kamiti

a wag, a kenyan wag
was chortling, braying loudly
when the abu ghraib torture scandal broke loose
during the first half of the year just past
this wag, this kenyan wag
an avid reader of a right wing rag
known as the national review
chortled with delight
at the sizzling details of the inhumanity at abu ghraib
and nodded approvingly of the monstrosities at guatanamo
musing with regret
why moi did not slaughter the political inmates of naivasha
and shimo-la-tewa, kingongo, kodiaga and kibos, not forgetting kamiti
this kenyan wag, in his delirious mirth wondered
what it was that the onyango oloos were complaining about
when after all, kamiti maximum was a five star hotel
without the star treatments meted out at the most notorious american prisons
outside america
the wag wished the oloos were in orange jumpsuits, blind folded
forced to repeat the unspeakables of abu ghraib

i then remembered that this same wag
once boasted that on the days we were arrested
he was an armed supporter of the moi dictatorship
pumping innocent civilians in nairobi with the deadly bullets
of the brutal counter-coup and its repressive aftermath...