Kenya Stockholm Blog

Miguna Miguna Debate: Reply to Wafula Buke

Despite progress in Kenya's democratization process, millions of Kenyans are starving to death

There is no doubt that Miguna Miguna’s Canadian-Kenyan citizenship has plunged him into a serious political crisis and opened him to attacks from left, right and center. Given his circumstances, it was fool-hardy for Miguna Miguna to have abandoned his Kenyan citizenship, assumed Canadian citizenship, proceeded to Kenya to illegally acquire a Kenyan Passport and stand for election on the platform of an illegal dual citizenship.

After losing election, it was equally uninspiring for Miguna to have proceeded to assume high political office expecting to get away with the illegal act of acquiring dual citizenship simply because he was serving in the Office of Prime Minister, Hon Raila Odinga. Miguna’s critics are right in questioning his credentials as a defender of the Constitution which he has already violated without recourse.

Miguna’s problems have further been exacerbated by what is perceived by his critics as “sheer arrogance” in his dealings with people and an unwelcome assumption of a “higher moral ground” from where he has supposedly been pontificating and attacking “political opportunists” whom he has allegedly accused of “betraying the struggle”. It is against this background that I wish to respond to Wafula Buke’s onslaught on Miguna Miguna titled “Miguna Miguna, while you were away…” published in the East African Standard (Sunday, January 24, 2010).

The likes of Wafula Buke, former graduates of Nyayo House torture chambers, former detainees, former political prisoners currently inside or outside government, the fraternity of former Kenyan political exiles (at home and in foreign bases) together with numerous unsung heroes/heroines (dead or alive) of the struggle for democracy and human rights in Kenya over the past decades deserve sincere recognition for their invaluable contribution to the struggle in Kenya. There is no way of compensating these patriots for the enormous human sacrifices they made so that Kenya could be where it is today. Regardless of their current stations in life, to undermine their contribution to the struggle is unacceptable and politically suicidal.

Equally prominent in the list are millions of resilient people of Kenya – workers, peasants, students and, most importantly, the youth without whose contribution “in the theatre of war”, the struggle against the one party dictatorship under the authoritarian regime of former President Daniel arap Moi could not have been won. It is the Kenyan youth who took to the streets to pay with their lives for Kenya to become a multi-party state at the height of the Saba Saba uprising.

Back in exile, I cannot count the number of demonstrations we held outside the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm and Statements we released as part of the contribution for change in Kenya. Throughout the 90s, President Moi could not travel to Sweden because of threats of being followed by Kenyans here to remind him about human rights violations, theft of public funds through corruption, political assassinations, ruling by the mafia, extra-judicial executions and a host of other vices. We organized specific demonstrations to demand for the release of the likes of Koigi wa Wamwere and other political prisoners and the repeal of section 2A of the Kenyan Constitution so that Kenya could become a multi-party State. In our struggles, we viewed ourselves, not just as Kenyan exiles but also as part of the protracted political struggle in Kenya.

Whether or not they are in exile, the contribution of Kenyans abroad to the struggle for a better Kenya cannot be rubbished simply because one Miguna Miguna has found himself on the wrong side of the law. Through his writing, and until his gaffe, Miguna made very significant contributions to the struggle in Kenya. It has to be appreciated that writing is part and parcel of the revolutionary struggle regardless of one’s location.

In as much as it was wrong for Miguna Miguna to have assumed that every Comrade active during the anti-Moi struggle has metamorphosized into an opportunist, one does not have to be in Kenya to make contributions to the struggle otherwise the late Ayatollah Khomeini could not have surfaced from exile in Paris, France to assume power following the historic Iranian revolution in 1979. The African National Congress leadership was, for a long time, based abroad as Mandela and others languished in prison.

Eritrea is the newest State in Africa but during the country’s 30 year secessionist guerilla war, the financial support and political leadership of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front was based abroad with a history of having been founded in Cairo, Egypt. Dalai Lama is leading a struggle for greater autonomy for Tibet from exile. The late PLO leader, Yasar Arafat, led the Palestinian struggle from exile, time when he was also called a terrorist by agents of Western imperialism. The leadership of Hezbollah has operated from exile since its founding in the early 80s.

The Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) still operates from exile despite the capture in Kenya of its leader, Abdullah Ochalan by the Turkish regime assisted by the CIA. Examples in which serious political work has been done from outside the country abound.  To assume that the struggle can only be waged when one’s foot is in Kenya is simplistic and ignores both documented experience and changing dynamics of political struggles across the world.

What happened after re-introduction of political pluralism?
Instead of exploiting the unfortunate “Miguna tragedy” to undermine contributions made by Kenyans abroad in the struggle for our country’s emancipation, serious questions need to be asked as to what happened because despite the enormous gains in Kenya’s liberation struggle by way of re-introduction of political pluralism and the defeat of the Moi/KANU dictatorship, millions of Kenyans are facing starvation.

The installation of the Coalition government led by former detainees and political prisoners has not ended corruption, tribalism, mass unemployment, deplorable living standards, stagnant wages in the face of rising inflation, collapsed social infrastructure, land grabbing by the rich, internal exploitation, external dependencies, nepotism, cronyism and other massive failures only identical with the vanquished Moi dictatorship. In his analysis, Miguna’s limitation is that he has not been clarifying why despite the enormous democratic gains in the last two decades, many Kenyans cannot put food on the table, send their children to school or have access to medical services because the public health care system has collapsed.

In the current dispensation, no Party is pointing out that the massive “delivery failure” after Moi’s defeat is intertwined with the failure to defeat capitalism, a system of government in which greed and wealth grabbing by the rich is an acceptable policy. In criticizing former Comrades and consequently drawing their wrath, Miguna’s fundamental oversight appears to have been his inability to point out the wanton ideological lethargy of these Comrades that has seen them retreat into NGO’s, set up ethnic/reformist parties when the country is ripe for revolution and their failure to attack capitalism, a blood-sucking system which needs to be overthrown.

After the Saba Saba uprising, political Parties were set up but they all practiced politics from the point of view of a rotten version of deformed capitalism, just like KANU. What is known about capitalism is that it is a rich man’s system of government that promotes corruption. It is a system designed to produce a few millionaires and millions of poor people. After the much celebrated democratic gains paid for with sweat and blood of thousands of Kenyans, isn’t it time to address the question of a failing political system managed by a minority class of wealth grabbers answerable to nobody but themselves?

Throughout the developed world, politics is about ideological competition but in our country, we remain stuck with ethnic politics, a weakness that has blocked the emergence of class politics at the electoral level and subsequently blocked workers (the producers of wealth) from participating in politics “which has been left to politicians”. Do our liberators lack perspective? Today, Kenya is probably the only country in the world without an Official opposition in Parliament and this condition has been accepted.

Our economy continues to be on the hands of Western multi-national companies and no Party is complaining or pointing out to the masses of the Kenyan people that this is a serious mistake that is hugely responsible for our problems. Almost all our distribution networks, the transport industry, telecommunication industry, key financial institutions (including insurance companies and major Banks), Nairobi Stock Exchange together with leading industries are either foreign controlled or on the hands of local capitalist sharks and their allies.

The country’s wealth is therefore being repatriated abroad with the government acting as a facilitator under a liberalized economic system of government where every profitable public property is on sale under the privatization program. This is why our people are languishing in poverty. Apparently, all established parties are not questioning this defective arrangement. Our politics is controlled by the United States and Britain so we are the leading exporters of flowers in the world presided over by a foreign controlled horticultural industry when our people are starving to death especially in Eastern and North Eastern Provinces because we cannot grow maize.

Despite his current difficult situation brought by his own political myopia, Miguna and others should not apologize for having fled the country to exile. Kenyans involved in Kenyan politics from their bases abroad must also defend their positions because they constitute a “Constituency” that can no longer be ignored in the country’s liberation struggle.

No one owns the struggle, the country has moved on and it needs contributions from everywhere as the struggle continues. Veterans of the struggle should not sit on their laurels or resort to blanket condemnation of contributors from outside the country because despite progress, the country is still under the York of neo-colonialism and imperialist domination. Miguna Miguna has made his mistakes but let us look at the wider picture, stop finger pointing and chest thumping and build a revolutionary Movement or Party that can give direction to millions of struggling Kenyans looking for a way out of the political, social and economic crisis.

Okoth Osewe

January 24, 2010 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | 9 Comments

Take A Break!

African origin of the concept of Ambulance; If you think you are swimming in problems, wait…

January 24, 2010 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | Leave a Comment

Kenyan Baby-Sitter Needed

UPDATE: KSB would like to report that the lady has found a suitable candidate out of a list of contacts and this position is no longer available. She has called KSB and reported that the vacancy is now filled. We take this opportunity to thank everybody who responded and wish them well.

A Kenyan lady is looking for a baby-sitter to be engaged on a long term contract. Interested candidates will negotiate the terms and conditions with the lady who is kind, jolly and very organized. Get in touch with KSB (via telephone or email) for a link with the lady.

Okoth Osewe

January 24, 2010 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | Leave a Comment

Chapter Five on Culture Should Remain in Draft Constitution

Ndugu Mwandawiro Mghanga

The Parliamentary Select Committee on constitution has far exceeded its mandate. It is mandated to discuss about the contentious issues in the harmonised draft but instead it has decided to rewrite the draft and messing up an otherwise good draft. Its proposal to remove chapter five from the harmonised draft constitution is regrettable, to say the least. I suspect this decision is brought about by lack of understanding and appreciation of the meaning of culture, especially in the context of national freedom, values and development.

As rightly put by the draft, culture is the foundation of our nation, Kenya. Kenya is composed of a diversity of ethnic groups, languages, religions, customs, geographical locations and ways of lifes -which is culture. Culture is all that has been created and continues to be created by human beings as distinguished from that human beings find in nature. It is about life and society, history on earth. All human activities that manifest their conscious existence on earth is culture. This means that in the process of producing their material needs, people create and recreate culture.

In other words, in the struggle for survival, freedom and development, which is in fact increasing ability to make a living from nature, human beings are ever engaged in the activities of producing and reproducing material culture. And while producing material culture they, simultaneously, produce intellectual culture. Intellectual culture is the manifestation of peoples’ consciousness in nature and society. It is the historical achievements of people in science, education, literature and art. It is about the morals, customs, philosophy, beliefs, values and relations of the people concerned. Intellectual culture is also embodied and expressed by language that also contains and manifests the psychology of a people. It is for this reason that the draft constitution seeks to conserve and develop Kiswahili as our national language and the languages of our various ethnic groups.

Culture can therefore be summarised as the sum total of material and intellectual achievements of a society constituting its traditions and level of civilization that forms the basis for further development and progress. All Kenyan ethnic groups have, over time, created their material and intellectual culture to a lesser or greater degree respectively, depending on the historical, environmental, geographical and other material conditions that exist at a particular place and time. That is why all ethnic groups have always had something to contribute to Kenya’s national culture while assimilating the cultures of others into their own. It is also for the same reason that we should be proud of and celebrate our ethnic and cultural diversity.

Perhaps the recent post election violence may have influenced the MPs in Naivasha to remove the chapter on culture that celebrates the diversity of Kenya’s ethnic groups, languages and cultures. Some people conclude and suggest that doing away with our ethnic identities, cultures and languages and, instead, adopting the use of only Kiswahili and English will end tribalism.

During the national census there were attempts to misadvise Kenyans to avoid answering the question about their ethnic identity. In other words, Kenyan ethnic diversity is seen as a curse rather than a blessing and is even blamed for the post-election violence. Yet the fact is that there is nothing wrong with a person’s ethnic identity. On the contrary, it is not only inevitable but also desirable. What we should fight against is negative ethnicity – ethnic chauvinism – that destroys our common nationhood, humanity, democracy and peace by making us hate, despise, exploit, oppress and discriminate against other ethnic groups.

The truth of the matter is that negative ethnicity has always been used by the elites of Kenya since the time of colonialism to perpetuate themselves in power. Just before, during and after national elections, the political and economic elites of the various ethnic groups deliberately provoke negative ethnic feelings and even organise and sponsor violence against other ethnic groups in order to propel and maintain themselves to elective positions.
They do this by pretending to be champions of the political, economic, cultural, land and land resources interests of their ethnic groups, districts or provinces that are purportedly violated by the members of other ethnic groups. And since it is the ideas of those in power that dominate in a given society at a given time and place, ordinary citizens also imbue and even embrace the ideology of tribalism.

Our ethnic and cultural diversity has never been the cause of tribalism. It is the underdevelopment and myriad of injustices and social problems created by the current political and economic system that is to blame. Chapter Five of the harmonised draft should, therefore, remain to conserve culture and cultural diversity that forms the foundation of our Kenya.

Mwandawiro Mghanga, Nairobi Thursday, 21 January 2010

January 24, 2010 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | 1 Comment