7 thoughts on “Father Dominic Wamuganda: A Liberation Theologist”
The truth of the matter is that we don’t have leaders in present Government.President Kibaki has allowed wrong things to happen in his watch and then what can one say? How can a Government have Hundred speakers with different messages? Which one can Kenyans believe? Kenya is a failed State whether you like it or not.We are fed up with too much nonsense leaders. Fr, Wamugunda speaking the truth about Kenyans leaders. I have commented on that issue for many times.
Moses Kuria Says When PM hinted earlier this month that he may support another candidate for the Presidency, my friend wished that the PM would keep his word. He summarized what would happen if the PM was to give up his presidential ambition “The NSE 20-Share index will rise by more than 50%, cows will produce more milk, children will be happier when they play games, chicken will produce more and better quality eggs, infant mortality rates will drop significantly and most importantly, Luo Nyanza which has been waiting all the years, will finally exhale” Read Blog
Read For yourselves (Gibberish& Hogwash) From the Person who is Kibakis Advisor as well as PNU think-Tank!Ati Proffessor (Waitina) Kagwanja!>
.Does Miguna Have Traits Of A Populist Charlatan? .
Friday, 22 April 2011 00:11 BY PROFESSOR PETER KAGWANJA . From the dark Mau Mau days, stray dogs have come to occupy a privileged place in the political psyche of the people of Rwathia hills—where I was born and weaned. Here, the stray dog—a real menace in the Balkans, India and the former Soviet Union—has become an idiom of plight and fright. This political rendition of the ‘stray dog’ hacks back to the legend of “Waitina”, the fabled colonial brute who routinely chopped off the tails of dogs upon encounter. Ever since, Rwathia is enchanted as the “Valleys where dogs have no tails.” Riding on the wisdom of the valleys, my grandfather’s clarion cry was, “beware of a stray dog bite, it is the most awkward and potentially fatal encounter.”
Many pundits in ODM and PNU alike agree that an encounter with Miguna Miguna, the advisor to the Prime Minister, can turn out to be a nasty, brutal and fatal affair. On that account, I have an axe to grind with the media anchor and colleague, Mutegi Njau, who invited me to the Breakfast Show on Citizen TV without a forewarning that my co-guest would be Miguna. In its aftermath, I have paid dearly for this fateful encounter (Star of April 19, P20 or http://www.the-star.co.ke).
Far be it from me to ask, “who is Miguna and who pays the piper”? For this line of inquiry would hurtle down the dodgy strait of honoring an invite to a fight in a pigsty— where all come out muddled and reeking. I shall instead squeeze the unfolding ‘Miguna syndrome’ for any intellectual insight it may offer on Africa’s troubled politics. “We live in an age of charlatans,” wrote one professor of politics recently. What is emerging as a ‘Miguna syndrome’ in Kenyan politics has a long pedigree in charlatanism as a strategy of controlling power especially in fluid political settings.
Three traits have come to identify political charlatans: a missionary zeal and passion about political positions; proclivity to demonize opponents; and claim to martyrdom including false claims that they represent the greater good (a ‘non-tribal’ and ‘reformist’ moral order and viewpoints).
For centuries, wielders of power have entreated the services of populist charlatans to confuse, disorganize and contain diverse political interests. In Africa, the services of rabble-rousers have been instrumentally used to demonize, demobilize and out-flank foes in fiercely contested democratic elections or in the post-election power sharing arrangements.
The rise of the modern (Westphalian) state thrust to the centre-stage of politics the spectre of political charlatans. One of the most celebrated populist charlatans in modern history is Grigori Rasputin (1869 –1916) better known as Russia’s “Mad Monk.” As an icon of populist charlatanism, Rasputin’s evil spell over Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their only son Alexis so thoroughly soiled the Tsarist government that he is cited as the decisive factor in the fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1917.
The first wave of democratic revolutions in France and America threw up a new kind of a rabble-rouser like Maximilien Robespierre (1758 –1794), an icon of the French Revolution, whose excessive zeal for the revolution pushed too many Frenchmen to the guillotine on flimsy grounds. This prompted one historian to quip that Robespierre would have made a better man had he concentrated on growing roses.
Contemporary African politics has had more than its due share of populist charlatans. Colonial charlatans mainly consisted of chiefs whose withering measures to dramatize loyalty to the crown drew too much African blood.
But it is the single party regimes, which stalked Africa’s political landscape in the Cold War era, which thrust the rabble-rouser syndrome to its high-noon. Many of these charlatan demagogues have since become part of the continent’s comic relief, cynical jokes and black humor as society struggled to come into terms with this difficult memory.
Africa’s political charlatans have come of age in the wake of the pro-democracy wave that washed over the continent from the late 1980s. But it is the continent’s contested democracies which have given populist charlatans a new lease of life. As its hallmark, charlatanism has amplified ‘wedge issues’ such as ethnic, religion, class, gender, age/generation and other ideologies that set communities against each other in order to win votes or support.
As such populist charlatans have fuelled what one historian has dubbed “the clash of peoples” driven by ethno-nationalism, now defining the contours of Africa’s troubled democracy which is everywhere in retreat.
Contemporary Africa’s best known populist charlatan is South Africa’s Julius Sello Malema, the president of the African National Congress Youth League. Malema’s vociferous support for Jacob Zuma was the game-changer in the 2008 deadly power tussle that saw Zuma defeat the former President Thabo Mbeki. But some fear that his alleged “reckless populist” can destabilize South Africa and stoke racial conflict.
Power sharing experiments in Africa have transformed the populist rabble-rouser into the most lethal weapon in the arsenal used to out-manoeuvre rival factions of the political elite within grand coalition governments particularly in Kenya and Zimbabwe.
The heckling, name-calling, reckless remarks and confrontational tactics used by the charlatan demagogue have contributed to heightened political tensions in coalition arrangements, everywhere threatening reforms and raising stakes for democratic peace.
Like the proverbial tailless mongrel stray dogs of Rwathia, Africa’s power-sharing governments are risky and uncertain, forcing democracies into retreat. But in this pervasive fluidity the career of the political charlatan is assured.
Professor Peter Kagwanja is the founding president of the Africa Policy Institute and policy adviser.
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Uzan32 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand Professor? did you ever attend a University or you bought your degree on the America black market?
you sound like a whining kid of grade 5 who lost an argument, my friend you are an embarrassment.. by bother posting your nonsensical gibberish in Kenya newspapers? did you read what you wrote before forwarding it?
by the way how old are you? my 9 year old could have handled himself better.. as a Kenyans my advise to you and those who have the same frame of mind like yours is
1. Kenya belongs to Kenyans and not a few individuals who you think you can anoint.. but if you want to anoint your own leader or worship one like Uhuru or Ruto please do it in your house behind closed doors..
The Era of dictatorships is coming to an end in Kenya.. 2012 will be the best thing that ever happened to Kenya, hopefully before that some of the 2007-08 perpetrators will be behind bars..
Professor grow up or else shut up..
A Like Reply 5 hours ago 0 Like
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Tomomondi 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand Good Professor. I’ve gone through this article twice. Seems too vague and not specific at all. The only thing I get is the story of dogs without tails. Obviously it was embarrassing for you in the breakfast show. your body language told it all. You seems to be the one that has the traits of a populist charlatan. Next time give points and facts to back up your big mouth more or less the way your counterpart does.
A Like Reply 1 day ago 0 Like
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Gio 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand Well put professor . Miguna syndrom has been critisized by bot friends and foe .follow this link even Raila sympathizers despise him -http://jukwaa.proboards.com/in…
A Like Reply 2 days ago 0 Like
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Kiboranx 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand Professor Kagwanja needs to address what Miguna talked about and stopped these side shows of folkstories and dogs barking. Mazee you brought a knife to a gun fight na uliungua mbuyu. Too late to try picking up the pieces after wasting all that time on TV licking your dry lips and defending the impossible.
A Like Reply 3 days ago 0 Like
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commes 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand For those interested in know why the good prof is reacting this way, follow the discussion from the below link
WHY POLITICAL QUISLINGS AND OTHER RETROGRESSIVE FORCES WILL NEVER EFFECTIVELY ENTRENCH IMPUNITY IN KENYA
BY MIGUNA MIGUNA – APRIL 23, 2011
Peter Kagwanja likes to introduce himself as ‘chief strategist’ for PNU/KKK, President Mwai Kibaki and the ministry of foreign affairs. When it pleases him, he also says he is a ‘consultant’. It is unclear what he consults on.
He attaches the title ‘Professor’ to his name, though many have paused to wonder when, by which university, and for what he was acclaimed with this honorific. In his attack on me (Star, Friday, April 22), he described himself as ‘Founding President of the Africa Policy Institute and a policy adviser’.
It must be difficult, even for the acrobatic Kagwanja, to remember all the titles he has arrogated himself. In his byline last week, he deliberately omitted the ‘chief strategist’ tag. Was this because of the spectacular failures he has encountered recently, and was the article – a vicious assault on me and misrepresentation of my character – an attempt to justify his fat paycheck?
Kagwanja and I met recently in a Citizen TV programme, and the timing suggests that this might be the primary reason for his attack on me. During the programme, Kagwanja was completely unable to defend his half-baked theories and strategies. He totally failed to explain and justify why PNU/KKK is always hurtling from one embarrassing controversy to the next. He clutched at one theoretical straw after another, before collapsing into a heap of gibberish.
He tried to recite his purported academic publications and ridiculously claimed that some of them are being relied on as authorities by the ICC. Quite paradoxically, Kagwanja also claimed that the ICC is biased and the ongoing proceedings have been manipulated by enemies of his KKK chauvinistic clients in order to “remove them from the 2012 presidential race”.
As usual, Kagwanja can’t make up his mind whether to embrace or reject the ICC. Having failed, he has now resorted to post-facto convoluted articles. If he is smart, which is now in great doubt, he should know that you don’t win a debate through post-contest dirges.
As a person accustomed only to shadow-boxing, Kagwanja spectacularly failed to perform spontaneously, as most intellectuals would. He just could not answer the questions, and he ended up mincemeat.
In what is obviously a pathetic attempt to excuse himself for this dismal performance, Kagwanja claims in his Star article, without a shred of evidence, that “many pundits in ODM and PNU alike agree that an encounter” with me “can turn out to be a nasty, brutal and fatal affair”.
He sounds like a general who goes to war but runs away crying for a ceasefire the moment he is confronted by superior firepower. If a political opponent comes armed and ready to shoot, he must expect a vigorous and robust response. Kagwanja is a sore loser.
He has disparagingly called me names and compared me to Grigori Rasputin (also known as the “evil genius”), Maximilien Robespierre and Julius Malema. That is his knee-jerk reaction to his own embarrassing failure during what was a live TV debate on important national issues. He wants to blame me and the programme anchor, Mutegi Njau, for his self-inflicted misfortune. He complains he did not know in advance that I had been invited. How would that have helped him? Did he want Mutegi to ‘fix’ things for him? Is that what excess power and privilege does?
Neither did I know he would be there. But as I am sure of the honesty and factual validity of my arguments, it didn’t matter. Kagwanja has presented no evidence or facts to substantiate any of his unfounded claims and name-calling against me. He should concentrate on facts and let readers, viewers and observers pass judgment on our respective performances. He can’t judge his own performance, can he?
Robespierre was one of the leaders and orators of the French Revolution. He was a strong advocate of the Reign of Terror which used the guillotine to settle all political differences. In the end Robespierre himself was guillotined by his political enemies. On the other hand, Rasputin used his charm and intellectual spell over Emperor Nicholas II leading to unimaginable abuses and excesses by the Romanov dynasty. Kagwanja has dragged Julius Malema’s name only for colour.
But unlike Kagwanja, I have opposed dictatorship, corruption, ethnic exclusion and discrimination throughout my life. Together with other brave sons and daughters of Kenya, we fought the Moi Reign of Terror until its defeat. As an intellectual hawker, Kagwanja peddles snake oil for miserable and desperate Ethnic Chieftains who mistakenly believe that power and national resources are their private preserve.
As we continue the process of democratization and constitutionalism, anti-reformers and the Moi Orphans are relying on intellectual prostitutes like Kagwanja to subvert change and undermine the full implementation of the Constitution.
The truth is that Kagwanja suffers from an undiagnosed and untreated intellectual ailment called failure. After going through his convoluted mashed-potato of an argument in the Star, my first reaction was to think of telephoning him and recommending The Harvard Business Review of April 2011, which is dedicated to “Failure: how to understand it, learn from it, and recover from it”.
In a seminal article in the Review, Amy C Edmondson, Novatis Professor of leadership and management at the Harvard Business School, lists a spectrum of nine reasons for failure.
First is ‘deviance’, when an individual violates a prescribed process or practice. Second is ‘inattention’, when an individual inadvertently deviates from specifications. Third is ‘lack of ability’, when an individual doesn’t have the skills, conditions, or training to execute a job. Fourth is ‘process inadequacy’, when an individual adheres to a prescribed but faulty or incomplete process. Fifth is ‘task challenge’, when an individual faces a task too difficult to be executed reliably every time.
Sixth is ‘process complexity’, when a process composed of many elements breaks down when it encounters novel interactions. Seventh is ‘uncertainty’, when a lack of clarity about future events causes people to take seemingly reasonable actions that produce undesired results. Eighth is ‘hypothesis testing’, when an experiment conducted to prove that an idea or a design will succeed fails. And ninth is ‘exploratory testing’, when an experiment conducted to expand knowledge and investigate a possibility leads to an undesired result.
My view is that Kagwanja’s condition spans the entire spectrum except the last point. He exposes his incompetence and primitive noisiness and tries to operate beyond his mediocre capabilities, with spectacular failure the inevitable result.
Prof Edmondson makes important observations that might be useful to Kagwanja. She states: “Once a failure has been detected, it’s essential to go beyond the obvious and superficial reasons… to understand the root causes… The challenge is more than emotional; it’s cognitive, too. Even without meaning to, we all favour evidence that supports our existing beliefs rather than alternative explanations. We also tend to downplay our responsibility and place undue blame on external or situational factors when we fail [my emphasis], only to do the reverse when assessing the failures of others – a psychological trap known as fundamental attribution error [my emphasis].”
Personalising important issues is part of a juvenile strategy to deflect failure, and Kagwanja and his PNU/KKK strategists have been desperately trying to caricature, lampoon and stigmatise me for the past three years.
But trying to fit me into a KKK-tailored clown’s garb will not work. I am not responsible for Kagwanja’s inability to articulate his thoughts. I have not stopped him devising practical strategies and tactics for avoiding, overcoming or recovering from the numerous political debacles his side has encountered. Rather than being a captive of his tragic and repeated failures, Kagwanja should learn to embrace them, honestly analysing their causes and figuring out how he might do better in future. Blaming me will not help him.
Neither will diversions, such as suggesting that Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto are too powerful, too influential and too important to be tried at the ICC. Kagwanja has long been peddling the myth that the two are “anointed” leaders of two major ethnic communities, and as such should be immune from alleged responsibility in crimes against humanity.
How or when the two assumed these vaunted leadership credentials nobody knows, but for Kagwanja, power, wealth and influence apparently immunize one from legal proceedings or criminal responsibility. Kagwanja wants Uhuru and Ruto to be forgiven or “dealt with politically”. He suggests that, since arsonists, petty thieves, vandals and rapists have not been prosecuted, we should not bother with the Ocampo Six. What a nerve!
Fortunately, Kenyans remain unconvinced by Kagwanja and his team of bumbling strategists. Kagwanja forgets that actual crimes were committed here between 2005 and 2009, and that there are real victims, suffering today and every day, people in their hundreds of thousands who will bear the marks of brutality and loss forever. Perpetuating the culture of impunity is not an option.
From the rigging debacle of 2007, through to formation of the Grand Coalition government, the aborted Kilaguni talks, the attempt to undermine the constitutional review process, the attempt to illegally edit the draft Constitution, the massive theft of referendum funds, the botched and unconstitutional nominations of judicial officers, the ‘peace rally’ at the 64 Stadium in Eldoret, the ‘shuttle diplomacy’ and deferral sham at the UN Security Council and now the ICC ‘prayers’ and admissibility circus, it is obvious that Kagwanja and his fellow PNU/KKK ‘strategists’ have run out of options.
I challenge anyone to show me when the ODM side has goofed as spectacularly as their counterparts on any issue.
The PNU/KKK side has been so badly exposed to ridicule, so bruised and repulsed, that they must find it difficult to keep tabs on their failures. Like all cowards and hypocrites, however, Kagwanja and Co cannot accept the fact that these retrogressive strategies have flopped – so they are forced to create a scapegoat. They will call that man a charlatan, a demagogue or any other name; try to stigmatize and isolate him; personalize everything. Their hope is that this strategy will deflect attention from their own failures.
During the second liberation struggle, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga would refer to people such as Kagwanja as “quislings” – vulgar, noisy people.
Quislings have always been with us, and they were vocal during all of Africa’s liberation struggles. The great emancipators of our continent –Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore, Jomo Kenyatta, Nelson Mandela, Bantu Steve Biko, Samora Machel, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Dedan Kimathi, Patrice Lumumba, Amilca Cabral – were all in their time called charlatans and populist demagogues.
Here in Kenya, the same fate befell the leaders of the second liberation. George Anyona, Koigi Wamwere, James Orengo, Anyang’ Nyong’o, Raila Odinga and Ngugi wa Thiong’o were all branded dissidents, charlatans and other more graphic names.
If I am, by Kagwanja’s definition, a charlatan, I am proud to be in their company. To a quisling like Kagwanja, being a charlatan means being progressive, courageous and honest. He and his ilk have never stood for progressive changes and liberation of the people of Kenya from the clutches of oppression, exploitation, corruption, exclusion and discrimination.
If I was ineffective, wouldn’t Kagwanja and Co be happy? The fact that I am causing them pain is a good result for me. We defeated retrogressive forces during the independence struggle and again during the second liberation. At the last constitutional referendum, Kenyans forced ‘watermelons’ like Kagwanja to swallow the bitter pill. During this, the third liberation struggle, we shall do it again. Mark my words.
Mr. Miguna is the PM’s advisor on coalition affairs. The views expressed here are his own.
Maisha ni Mangumu sana Hapa Kenya Na sana sana Mjini Nairobi>
Kenya it too Expensive
4 days at home was enough to call it a rip off.
The Good
1.Nairobi city is clean and very refreshing
2.People are very friendly – karibu mingi
3.Coast is still worth a visit even if for a day- I had good time at Whitesands Hotel
4.People are less bothered with politics except for opportunists and punks
5.There are still good people down there- a vendor brought back my phone
6.Places like Isli is mushrooming like Dubai, I think Somalis have money to flash
7.Plenty of soft bank loans, you can actually land at the airport and apply for a soft bank loan. they don’t ask ati wapi letter from your local sheriff
8.Tusker is still tasting better, better and more better
The Bad
1. I stayed with my Cousin for 2 days at Buru buru and his rent is way too expensive
2. It is impossible to drive to tao and make a quick transaction, everything takes ages..,very slow
2. 500 bob was not enough to reach me at Tao, had to swing to several gas stations to refill my tank, I think they are boiling gas or storing in hot storage reserves ( wells)
3.Buru to tao is 75 bob by bus,, my cousin has a wife and 2 kids all of them slicing to tao daily , we are talking of ksh 1500 a week on bus fares only, bado hajalipa nyumba, bank loan, fees, ama kuweka mandodo kwa meza. anyway he is relocating to Thika where he does not have to pay house rent
4. 80 bob for Tusker at any rejareja viosk hapo Umoja or 150-180 if you have to swallow at town
5. Ngong imekua wasiwasi, people are building bila mpango, no air to breath
The Ugly
1. NO linkage between the Poor and the Rich, I mean no middle class at all, Those that have , have it and those that do not have dont have it
2. Corruption, corruption and more corruption. Read enigma written by former MP for Bahari Mr Joe Hamisi. http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/-/1064/1150320/-/7rdi4g/-/index.html
.MARTHA FRIGHTENED BY OCAMPO SUSPECT .
Wednesday, 27 April 2011 00:03 BY FRANCIS MUREITHI . UNEASY: Martha Karua at parliament buildings.
.
GICHUGU MP Martha Karua yesterday sensationally claimed that her life is in danger for not towing the line on Central Province politics. Karua, while issuing a personal statement in Parliament, claimed that some members of the Ocampo Six had publicly ordered politicians from Central Kenya to toe the line or face the consequences.
Without directly mentioning names, Karua said one of the Ocampo Six who is a Cabinet minister issued the threats during a rally in Murang’a on March 26.
She said the politicians during the rally uttered words threatening to injure her, her family and her supporters and linked the utterances to last Saturday’s attack of her campaign manager in Kirinyaga.“This makes me fear not just for my safety but for the safety of members of my family, my supporters, and my friends,” said Karua. During the Muranga rally Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta was made a Kikuyu elder.
The ceremony was held just before Uhuru and the other five suspects left for The Hague to answer summonses issued by International Criminal Court over the 2007-08 post-election violence.
Yesterday a close associate of Uhuru declined to comment on Martha’s allegations. Karua told Parliament that the attackers broke into her campaign manager Emily Wanja’s home on the night of April 23.
The attackers injured Wanja and stole a few items including her vehicle which was recovered the following day. Karua said the attack was not an ordinary crime saying it could be linked to the threats made during the Murang’a rally.“The attack on Emily Wanja, my key supporter, is it a coincidence, or is it the beginning of political thuggery?” asked Karua.
Karua said if anything happened to her, her family or her supporters, the first suspects would be those politicians who attended the Murang’a rally.
The former Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister accused the police of failing to investigate the threats issued during the Murang’a rally. Karua said she was reviewing the video clips of the rally before making a formal complaint with the police.
She said there was a deliberate plan to deny government services to her Gichugu constituency and cited police vehicles. She claimed the denial was intended to facilitate political thuggery. Karua has declared she will stand for President in 2012 in competition with Uhuru.
At the Murang’a rally Uhuru warned that leaders who divide the Kikuyu will be flushed out and dealt with.“We should not be afraid to be called Kikuyus. All of us should follow our muthamaki (great leader) Kibaki. None of these leaders here would have made it to Parliament in 2007 if they did not support Kibaki. Now they pretend they made it to Parliament on their own. When Kibaki says something or shows the direction to follow, they are the first ones to contradict him. The first person to betray us to others is one of us. I want to tell all the leaders here that if anyone of them fails to toe the line, they should know that their politics is over,” Uhuru said in Kikuyu.
Murang’a is the home area of Planning assistant minister Peter Kenneth, considered a potential rival to Uhuru. He was not at the ceremony because he was in Ikolomani campaigning for Bonny Khalwale in the upcoming by-election in May.
The truth of the matter is that we don’t have leaders in present Government.President Kibaki has allowed wrong things to happen in his watch and then what can one say? How can a Government have Hundred speakers with different messages? Which one can Kenyans believe? Kenya is a failed State whether you like it or not.We are fed up with too much nonsense leaders. Fr, Wamugunda speaking the truth about Kenyans leaders. I have commented on that issue for many times.
Moses Kuria Says When PM hinted earlier this month that he may support another candidate for the Presidency, my friend wished that the PM would keep his word. He summarized what would happen if the PM was to give up his presidential ambition “The NSE 20-Share index will rise by more than 50%, cows will produce more milk, children will be happier when they play games, chicken will produce more and better quality eggs, infant mortality rates will drop significantly and most importantly, Luo Nyanza which has been waiting all the years, will finally exhale” Read Blog
Read For yourselves (Gibberish& Hogwash) From the Person who is Kibakis Advisor as well as PNU think-Tank!Ati Proffessor (Waitina) Kagwanja!>
.Does Miguna Have Traits Of A Populist Charlatan? .
Friday, 22 April 2011 00:11 BY PROFESSOR PETER KAGWANJA . From the dark Mau Mau days, stray dogs have come to occupy a privileged place in the political psyche of the people of Rwathia hills—where I was born and weaned. Here, the stray dog—a real menace in the Balkans, India and the former Soviet Union—has become an idiom of plight and fright. This political rendition of the ‘stray dog’ hacks back to the legend of “Waitina”, the fabled colonial brute who routinely chopped off the tails of dogs upon encounter. Ever since, Rwathia is enchanted as the “Valleys where dogs have no tails.” Riding on the wisdom of the valleys, my grandfather’s clarion cry was, “beware of a stray dog bite, it is the most awkward and potentially fatal encounter.”
Many pundits in ODM and PNU alike agree that an encounter with Miguna Miguna, the advisor to the Prime Minister, can turn out to be a nasty, brutal and fatal affair. On that account, I have an axe to grind with the media anchor and colleague, Mutegi Njau, who invited me to the Breakfast Show on Citizen TV without a forewarning that my co-guest would be Miguna. In its aftermath, I have paid dearly for this fateful encounter (Star of April 19, P20 or http://www.the-star.co.ke).
Far be it from me to ask, “who is Miguna and who pays the piper”? For this line of inquiry would hurtle down the dodgy strait of honoring an invite to a fight in a pigsty— where all come out muddled and reeking. I shall instead squeeze the unfolding ‘Miguna syndrome’ for any intellectual insight it may offer on Africa’s troubled politics. “We live in an age of charlatans,” wrote one professor of politics recently. What is emerging as a ‘Miguna syndrome’ in Kenyan politics has a long pedigree in charlatanism as a strategy of controlling power especially in fluid political settings.
Three traits have come to identify political charlatans: a missionary zeal and passion about political positions; proclivity to demonize opponents; and claim to martyrdom including false claims that they represent the greater good (a ‘non-tribal’ and ‘reformist’ moral order and viewpoints).
For centuries, wielders of power have entreated the services of populist charlatans to confuse, disorganize and contain diverse political interests. In Africa, the services of rabble-rousers have been instrumentally used to demonize, demobilize and out-flank foes in fiercely contested democratic elections or in the post-election power sharing arrangements.
The rise of the modern (Westphalian) state thrust to the centre-stage of politics the spectre of political charlatans. One of the most celebrated populist charlatans in modern history is Grigori Rasputin (1869 –1916) better known as Russia’s “Mad Monk.” As an icon of populist charlatanism, Rasputin’s evil spell over Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their only son Alexis so thoroughly soiled the Tsarist government that he is cited as the decisive factor in the fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1917.
The first wave of democratic revolutions in France and America threw up a new kind of a rabble-rouser like Maximilien Robespierre (1758 –1794), an icon of the French Revolution, whose excessive zeal for the revolution pushed too many Frenchmen to the guillotine on flimsy grounds. This prompted one historian to quip that Robespierre would have made a better man had he concentrated on growing roses.
Contemporary African politics has had more than its due share of populist charlatans. Colonial charlatans mainly consisted of chiefs whose withering measures to dramatize loyalty to the crown drew too much African blood.
But it is the single party regimes, which stalked Africa’s political landscape in the Cold War era, which thrust the rabble-rouser syndrome to its high-noon. Many of these charlatan demagogues have since become part of the continent’s comic relief, cynical jokes and black humor as society struggled to come into terms with this difficult memory.
Africa’s political charlatans have come of age in the wake of the pro-democracy wave that washed over the continent from the late 1980s. But it is the continent’s contested democracies which have given populist charlatans a new lease of life. As its hallmark, charlatanism has amplified ‘wedge issues’ such as ethnic, religion, class, gender, age/generation and other ideologies that set communities against each other in order to win votes or support.
As such populist charlatans have fuelled what one historian has dubbed “the clash of peoples” driven by ethno-nationalism, now defining the contours of Africa’s troubled democracy which is everywhere in retreat.
Contemporary Africa’s best known populist charlatan is South Africa’s Julius Sello Malema, the president of the African National Congress Youth League. Malema’s vociferous support for Jacob Zuma was the game-changer in the 2008 deadly power tussle that saw Zuma defeat the former President Thabo Mbeki. But some fear that his alleged “reckless populist” can destabilize South Africa and stoke racial conflict.
Power sharing experiments in Africa have transformed the populist rabble-rouser into the most lethal weapon in the arsenal used to out-manoeuvre rival factions of the political elite within grand coalition governments particularly in Kenya and Zimbabwe.
The heckling, name-calling, reckless remarks and confrontational tactics used by the charlatan demagogue have contributed to heightened political tensions in coalition arrangements, everywhere threatening reforms and raising stakes for democratic peace.
Like the proverbial tailless mongrel stray dogs of Rwathia, Africa’s power-sharing governments are risky and uncertain, forcing democracies into retreat. But in this pervasive fluidity the career of the political charlatan is assured.
Professor Peter Kagwanja is the founding president of the Africa Policy Institute and policy adviser.
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Uzan32 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand Professor? did you ever attend a University or you bought your degree on the America black market?
you sound like a whining kid of grade 5 who lost an argument, my friend you are an embarrassment.. by bother posting your nonsensical gibberish in Kenya newspapers? did you read what you wrote before forwarding it?
by the way how old are you? my 9 year old could have handled himself better.. as a Kenyans my advise to you and those who have the same frame of mind like yours is
1. Kenya belongs to Kenyans and not a few individuals who you think you can anoint.. but if you want to anoint your own leader or worship one like Uhuru or Ruto please do it in your house behind closed doors..
The Era of dictatorships is coming to an end in Kenya.. 2012 will be the best thing that ever happened to Kenya, hopefully before that some of the 2007-08 perpetrators will be behind bars..
Professor grow up or else shut up..
A Like Reply 5 hours ago 0 Like
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Tomomondi 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand Good Professor. I’ve gone through this article twice. Seems too vague and not specific at all. The only thing I get is the story of dogs without tails. Obviously it was embarrassing for you in the breakfast show. your body language told it all. You seems to be the one that has the traits of a populist charlatan. Next time give points and facts to back up your big mouth more or less the way your counterpart does.
A Like Reply 1 day ago 0 Like
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Gio 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand Well put professor . Miguna syndrom has been critisized by bot friends and foe .follow this link even Raila sympathizers despise him -http://jukwaa.proboards.com/in…
A Like Reply 2 days ago 0 Like
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Kiboranx 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand Professor Kagwanja needs to address what Miguna talked about and stopped these side shows of folkstories and dogs barking. Mazee you brought a knife to a gun fight na uliungua mbuyu. Too late to try picking up the pieces after wasting all that time on TV licking your dry lips and defending the impossible.
A Like Reply 3 days ago 0 Like
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commes 1 comment collapsed Collapse Expand For those interested in know why the good prof is reacting this way, follow the discussion from the below link
http://jukwaa.proboards.com/in…
: WHY RETROGRESSIVE FORCES WILL FAIL:
WHY POLITICAL QUISLINGS AND OTHER RETROGRESSIVE FORCES WILL NEVER EFFECTIVELY ENTRENCH IMPUNITY IN KENYA
BY MIGUNA MIGUNA – APRIL 23, 2011
Peter Kagwanja likes to introduce himself as ‘chief strategist’ for PNU/KKK, President Mwai Kibaki and the ministry of foreign affairs. When it pleases him, he also says he is a ‘consultant’. It is unclear what he consults on.
He attaches the title ‘Professor’ to his name, though many have paused to wonder when, by which university, and for what he was acclaimed with this honorific. In his attack on me (Star, Friday, April 22), he described himself as ‘Founding President of the Africa Policy Institute and a policy adviser’.
It must be difficult, even for the acrobatic Kagwanja, to remember all the titles he has arrogated himself. In his byline last week, he deliberately omitted the ‘chief strategist’ tag. Was this because of the spectacular failures he has encountered recently, and was the article – a vicious assault on me and misrepresentation of my character – an attempt to justify his fat paycheck?
Kagwanja and I met recently in a Citizen TV programme, and the timing suggests that this might be the primary reason for his attack on me. During the programme, Kagwanja was completely unable to defend his half-baked theories and strategies. He totally failed to explain and justify why PNU/KKK is always hurtling from one embarrassing controversy to the next. He clutched at one theoretical straw after another, before collapsing into a heap of gibberish.
He tried to recite his purported academic publications and ridiculously claimed that some of them are being relied on as authorities by the ICC. Quite paradoxically, Kagwanja also claimed that the ICC is biased and the ongoing proceedings have been manipulated by enemies of his KKK chauvinistic clients in order to “remove them from the 2012 presidential race”.
As usual, Kagwanja can’t make up his mind whether to embrace or reject the ICC. Having failed, he has now resorted to post-facto convoluted articles. If he is smart, which is now in great doubt, he should know that you don’t win a debate through post-contest dirges.
As a person accustomed only to shadow-boxing, Kagwanja spectacularly failed to perform spontaneously, as most intellectuals would. He just could not answer the questions, and he ended up mincemeat.
In what is obviously a pathetic attempt to excuse himself for this dismal performance, Kagwanja claims in his Star article, without a shred of evidence, that “many pundits in ODM and PNU alike agree that an encounter” with me “can turn out to be a nasty, brutal and fatal affair”.
He sounds like a general who goes to war but runs away crying for a ceasefire the moment he is confronted by superior firepower. If a political opponent comes armed and ready to shoot, he must expect a vigorous and robust response. Kagwanja is a sore loser.
He has disparagingly called me names and compared me to Grigori Rasputin (also known as the “evil genius”), Maximilien Robespierre and Julius Malema. That is his knee-jerk reaction to his own embarrassing failure during what was a live TV debate on important national issues. He wants to blame me and the programme anchor, Mutegi Njau, for his self-inflicted misfortune. He complains he did not know in advance that I had been invited. How would that have helped him? Did he want Mutegi to ‘fix’ things for him? Is that what excess power and privilege does?
Neither did I know he would be there. But as I am sure of the honesty and factual validity of my arguments, it didn’t matter. Kagwanja has presented no evidence or facts to substantiate any of his unfounded claims and name-calling against me. He should concentrate on facts and let readers, viewers and observers pass judgment on our respective performances. He can’t judge his own performance, can he?
Robespierre was one of the leaders and orators of the French Revolution. He was a strong advocate of the Reign of Terror which used the guillotine to settle all political differences. In the end Robespierre himself was guillotined by his political enemies. On the other hand, Rasputin used his charm and intellectual spell over Emperor Nicholas II leading to unimaginable abuses and excesses by the Romanov dynasty. Kagwanja has dragged Julius Malema’s name only for colour.
But unlike Kagwanja, I have opposed dictatorship, corruption, ethnic exclusion and discrimination throughout my life. Together with other brave sons and daughters of Kenya, we fought the Moi Reign of Terror until its defeat. As an intellectual hawker, Kagwanja peddles snake oil for miserable and desperate Ethnic Chieftains who mistakenly believe that power and national resources are their private preserve.
As we continue the process of democratization and constitutionalism, anti-reformers and the Moi Orphans are relying on intellectual prostitutes like Kagwanja to subvert change and undermine the full implementation of the Constitution.
The truth is that Kagwanja suffers from an undiagnosed and untreated intellectual ailment called failure. After going through his convoluted mashed-potato of an argument in the Star, my first reaction was to think of telephoning him and recommending The Harvard Business Review of April 2011, which is dedicated to “Failure: how to understand it, learn from it, and recover from it”.
In a seminal article in the Review, Amy C Edmondson, Novatis Professor of leadership and management at the Harvard Business School, lists a spectrum of nine reasons for failure.
First is ‘deviance’, when an individual violates a prescribed process or practice. Second is ‘inattention’, when an individual inadvertently deviates from specifications. Third is ‘lack of ability’, when an individual doesn’t have the skills, conditions, or training to execute a job. Fourth is ‘process inadequacy’, when an individual adheres to a prescribed but faulty or incomplete process. Fifth is ‘task challenge’, when an individual faces a task too difficult to be executed reliably every time.
Sixth is ‘process complexity’, when a process composed of many elements breaks down when it encounters novel interactions. Seventh is ‘uncertainty’, when a lack of clarity about future events causes people to take seemingly reasonable actions that produce undesired results. Eighth is ‘hypothesis testing’, when an experiment conducted to prove that an idea or a design will succeed fails. And ninth is ‘exploratory testing’, when an experiment conducted to expand knowledge and investigate a possibility leads to an undesired result.
My view is that Kagwanja’s condition spans the entire spectrum except the last point. He exposes his incompetence and primitive noisiness and tries to operate beyond his mediocre capabilities, with spectacular failure the inevitable result.
Prof Edmondson makes important observations that might be useful to Kagwanja. She states: “Once a failure has been detected, it’s essential to go beyond the obvious and superficial reasons… to understand the root causes… The challenge is more than emotional; it’s cognitive, too. Even without meaning to, we all favour evidence that supports our existing beliefs rather than alternative explanations. We also tend to downplay our responsibility and place undue blame on external or situational factors when we fail [my emphasis], only to do the reverse when assessing the failures of others – a psychological trap known as fundamental attribution error [my emphasis].”
Personalising important issues is part of a juvenile strategy to deflect failure, and Kagwanja and his PNU/KKK strategists have been desperately trying to caricature, lampoon and stigmatise me for the past three years.
But trying to fit me into a KKK-tailored clown’s garb will not work. I am not responsible for Kagwanja’s inability to articulate his thoughts. I have not stopped him devising practical strategies and tactics for avoiding, overcoming or recovering from the numerous political debacles his side has encountered. Rather than being a captive of his tragic and repeated failures, Kagwanja should learn to embrace them, honestly analysing their causes and figuring out how he might do better in future. Blaming me will not help him.
Neither will diversions, such as suggesting that Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto are too powerful, too influential and too important to be tried at the ICC. Kagwanja has long been peddling the myth that the two are “anointed” leaders of two major ethnic communities, and as such should be immune from alleged responsibility in crimes against humanity.
How or when the two assumed these vaunted leadership credentials nobody knows, but for Kagwanja, power, wealth and influence apparently immunize one from legal proceedings or criminal responsibility. Kagwanja wants Uhuru and Ruto to be forgiven or “dealt with politically”. He suggests that, since arsonists, petty thieves, vandals and rapists have not been prosecuted, we should not bother with the Ocampo Six. What a nerve!
Fortunately, Kenyans remain unconvinced by Kagwanja and his team of bumbling strategists. Kagwanja forgets that actual crimes were committed here between 2005 and 2009, and that there are real victims, suffering today and every day, people in their hundreds of thousands who will bear the marks of brutality and loss forever. Perpetuating the culture of impunity is not an option.
From the rigging debacle of 2007, through to formation of the Grand Coalition government, the aborted Kilaguni talks, the attempt to undermine the constitutional review process, the attempt to illegally edit the draft Constitution, the massive theft of referendum funds, the botched and unconstitutional nominations of judicial officers, the ‘peace rally’ at the 64 Stadium in Eldoret, the ‘shuttle diplomacy’ and deferral sham at the UN Security Council and now the ICC ‘prayers’ and admissibility circus, it is obvious that Kagwanja and his fellow PNU/KKK ‘strategists’ have run out of options.
I challenge anyone to show me when the ODM side has goofed as spectacularly as their counterparts on any issue.
The PNU/KKK side has been so badly exposed to ridicule, so bruised and repulsed, that they must find it difficult to keep tabs on their failures. Like all cowards and hypocrites, however, Kagwanja and Co cannot accept the fact that these retrogressive strategies have flopped – so they are forced to create a scapegoat. They will call that man a charlatan, a demagogue or any other name; try to stigmatize and isolate him; personalize everything. Their hope is that this strategy will deflect attention from their own failures.
During the second liberation struggle, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga would refer to people such as Kagwanja as “quislings” – vulgar, noisy people.
Quislings have always been with us, and they were vocal during all of Africa’s liberation struggles. The great emancipators of our continent –Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore, Jomo Kenyatta, Nelson Mandela, Bantu Steve Biko, Samora Machel, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Dedan Kimathi, Patrice Lumumba, Amilca Cabral – were all in their time called charlatans and populist demagogues.
Here in Kenya, the same fate befell the leaders of the second liberation. George Anyona, Koigi Wamwere, James Orengo, Anyang’ Nyong’o, Raila Odinga and Ngugi wa Thiong’o were all branded dissidents, charlatans and other more graphic names.
If I am, by Kagwanja’s definition, a charlatan, I am proud to be in their company. To a quisling like Kagwanja, being a charlatan means being progressive, courageous and honest. He and his ilk have never stood for progressive changes and liberation of the people of Kenya from the clutches of oppression, exploitation, corruption, exclusion and discrimination.
If I was ineffective, wouldn’t Kagwanja and Co be happy? The fact that I am causing them pain is a good result for me. We defeated retrogressive forces during the independence struggle and again during the second liberation. At the last constitutional referendum, Kenyans forced ‘watermelons’ like Kagwanja to swallow the bitter pill. During this, the third liberation struggle, we shall do it again. Mark my words.
Mr. Miguna is the PM’s advisor on coalition affairs. The views expressed here are his own.
Maisha ni Mangumu sana Hapa Kenya Na sana sana Mjini Nairobi>
Kenya it too Expensive
4 days at home was enough to call it a rip off.
The Good
1.Nairobi city is clean and very refreshing
2.People are very friendly – karibu mingi
3.Coast is still worth a visit even if for a day- I had good time at Whitesands Hotel
4.People are less bothered with politics except for opportunists and punks
5.There are still good people down there- a vendor brought back my phone
6.Places like Isli is mushrooming like Dubai, I think Somalis have money to flash
7.Plenty of soft bank loans, you can actually land at the airport and apply for a soft bank loan. they don’t ask ati wapi letter from your local sheriff
8.Tusker is still tasting better, better and more better
The Bad
1. I stayed with my Cousin for 2 days at Buru buru and his rent is way too expensive
2. It is impossible to drive to tao and make a quick transaction, everything takes ages..,very slow
2. 500 bob was not enough to reach me at Tao, had to swing to several gas stations to refill my tank, I think they are boiling gas or storing in hot storage reserves ( wells)
3.Buru to tao is 75 bob by bus,, my cousin has a wife and 2 kids all of them slicing to tao daily , we are talking of ksh 1500 a week on bus fares only, bado hajalipa nyumba, bank loan, fees, ama kuweka mandodo kwa meza. anyway he is relocating to Thika where he does not have to pay house rent
4. 80 bob for Tusker at any rejareja viosk hapo Umoja or 150-180 if you have to swallow at town
5. Ngong imekua wasiwasi, people are building bila mpango, no air to breath
The Ugly
1. NO linkage between the Poor and the Rich, I mean no middle class at all, Those that have , have it and those that do not have dont have it
2. Corruption, corruption and more corruption. Read enigma written by former MP for Bahari Mr Joe Hamisi.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/-/1064/1150320/-/7rdi4g/-/index.html
.MARTHA FRIGHTENED BY OCAMPO SUSPECT .
Wednesday, 27 April 2011 00:03 BY FRANCIS MUREITHI . UNEASY: Martha Karua at parliament buildings.
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GICHUGU MP Martha Karua yesterday sensationally claimed that her life is in danger for not towing the line on Central Province politics. Karua, while issuing a personal statement in Parliament, claimed that some members of the Ocampo Six had publicly ordered politicians from Central Kenya to toe the line or face the consequences.
Without directly mentioning names, Karua said one of the Ocampo Six who is a Cabinet minister issued the threats during a rally in Murang’a on March 26.
She said the politicians during the rally uttered words threatening to injure her, her family and her supporters and linked the utterances to last Saturday’s attack of her campaign manager in Kirinyaga.“This makes me fear not just for my safety but for the safety of members of my family, my supporters, and my friends,” said Karua. During the Muranga rally Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta was made a Kikuyu elder.
The ceremony was held just before Uhuru and the other five suspects left for The Hague to answer summonses issued by International Criminal Court over the 2007-08 post-election violence.
Yesterday a close associate of Uhuru declined to comment on Martha’s allegations. Karua told Parliament that the attackers broke into her campaign manager Emily Wanja’s home on the night of April 23.
The attackers injured Wanja and stole a few items including her vehicle which was recovered the following day. Karua said the attack was not an ordinary crime saying it could be linked to the threats made during the Murang’a rally.“The attack on Emily Wanja, my key supporter, is it a coincidence, or is it the beginning of political thuggery?” asked Karua.
Karua said if anything happened to her, her family or her supporters, the first suspects would be those politicians who attended the Murang’a rally.
The former Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister accused the police of failing to investigate the threats issued during the Murang’a rally. Karua said she was reviewing the video clips of the rally before making a formal complaint with the police.
She said there was a deliberate plan to deny government services to her Gichugu constituency and cited police vehicles. She claimed the denial was intended to facilitate political thuggery. Karua has declared she will stand for President in 2012 in competition with Uhuru.
At the Murang’a rally Uhuru warned that leaders who divide the Kikuyu will be flushed out and dealt with.“We should not be afraid to be called Kikuyus. All of us should follow our muthamaki (great leader) Kibaki. None of these leaders here would have made it to Parliament in 2007 if they did not support Kibaki. Now they pretend they made it to Parliament on their own. When Kibaki says something or shows the direction to follow, they are the first ones to contradict him. The first person to betray us to others is one of us. I want to tell all the leaders here that if anyone of them fails to toe the line, they should know that their politics is over,” Uhuru said in Kikuyu.
Murang’a is the home area of Planning assistant minister Peter Kenneth, considered a potential rival to Uhuru. He was not at the ceremony because he was in Ikolomani campaigning for Bonny Khalwale in the upcoming by-election in May.