'Pirate or Al-Shabaab' is the black mark beside my name....

Now I've got another black mark beside my name, these days they call me ‘the pirate’ or the Al-Shabaab whenever I meet with my friends.

I was hurt many times by supposedly best friends; I don’t know why my Kenyan colleagues enjoy insulting me. They don’t know that they make me hate the world.

I distance myself from those types of friends these days, not because I’m afraid but because they will make me guilty of crimes that I have not committed. I still give my friends the polite smile that they deserve and which emanates from my worried face. I must forgive and keep smiling.

Even my local barber shop attendant calls me pirate or Al-Shabaab these days. Not mentioning the streets when every staring human being looks me through their gloomy eyes, as if I have a long nose or as If I am walking on my head down.

A woman we boarded the same Matatu in Mombasa, insulted me the worst of all. I had just taken ablution to pray at a town Mosque, but as I entered the vehicle, this woman cautioned her friend to be wary of this Al-shabaab passenger. I gave her the usual polite smile, when I had the opportunity to curse her for ever for insulting me at a time when I am going to pray.

I know why they call by these names; it is simply because I am Somali and to them every Somali is a pirate or an Al-shaabab. It is like in the West where every Muslim is a terrorist.

I am a Kenyan, born and brought up in Kenya, but it seemingly sounds that I am not a Kenyan like them, perhaps that is why my friends call me ‘pirates or Al-shabaab.

It was better the days when I made the name ‘Waryaa’ but now naming me ‘pirate or Al-Shabaab’ sounds like a completely different brand.

In Kenya today, I am completely a label of the pirates and the Al-Shabaab in Somalia. I've always been that way ever since these names started cropping up a few years ago.

When a ship is hijacked by Somali pirates, that day the number of times I respond is so enormous, numerous times, they call me by those names oblivious of how many times my heart misses a beat. These names make me feel guilty of been a Somali, even when my community means a lot to me.

I ask you, do I look like an Al-shabaab or a pirate. Kenyans why do you call me, it pisses me off. I feel like insulting you really bad but all I do is hold it in. I am cool with everyone except the people which call me that. What can I do about the people who call me that?

Okay, I know I should just ignore and all that, but seriously I have had enough of that and that’s. You don’t say anything and they take advantage of your silence....