THIS IS NOT A TRIBAL MOMENT, IT’S KENYA’S MOMENT
1. We note with profound concern the return of the politics of hostile ethnic polarisation – through Gema and Kamatusa.
2. We have watched in keen silence as the leaders of these organizations have rapidly and dangerously postured in public for a return to their conceptual and injurious roots of the early 1970s and 1990s.
3. From the start, Gema has always been a hegemony out-fit. It has been an exclusivist organization, keen on protecting narrow sectarian interests, disguised as community interests, while marginalizing everybody else.
4. In the 1970s, Gema attempted to enforce loyalty through a narrow, stringently imposed, ethnic agenda. It engaged incoercive and widespread oathing of its members. It planted terror and fear in everybody, both within and outside the so-called Gema communities. This history is well documented.
5. Kamatusa, for its part, came into existence in 1991 in opposition to the democratization of Kenya. In particular, it was stridently opposed to the removal of Section 2A from the Constitution and the opening up of Kenya to multiparty democracy. It demonized the search for good and accountable governance.
6. Kamatusa is notoriously remembered for the Kapkatet Declaration of 1991. This declaration was an edict to the non-Kamatusa communities to leave parts of Rift Valley Province or be forcefully evicted. This was followed by systematic ethnic cleansing in Rift Valley Province. Kamatusa committed heinous crimes against innocent Kenyans. There has been no restitution to date.
7. Over the years, Kenyans who rightfully own property in Rift Valley Province have been steadily traumatized. They have been disinherited of their property by the architects of Kamatusa. Some of these leaders have not hesitated to “inherit”, personally, land belonging to evictees. It is appalling that such unjust leaders nurse ambitions of higher national office, including Office of the President.
8. If leaders can rally tribes under dangerous organizations whose history is well known, how more dangerous could they get, should the country suffer the misfortune of having them as President? How many more people would they dispossess of their property and displace, now they brazenly flaunt potentially violent ethnicity with impunity?
9. Gema and Kamatusa were never about representing the poor. Instead, both have oppressed the poor people from the communities they purport to speak for. Both are regrouping themselves around precisely the wicked old objectives and ways.
• They are still protecting narrow sectarian interests. In the case of Kamatusa, the injustice of forced evictions and dispossession is once again on the cards. The big irony is that some of those targeted for the next wave of eviction are from the same communities that Kamatusa leaders fraternize with in daytime. They laugh together and hugeach other during the day and plot evictions in the night.
• Both Gema and Kamatusa are still attempting to enforce loyalty through a narrow ethnic agenda. They are beginning to look like cults that everybody in the tribe must kneel before. Those who refuse are demonized and terrorized.
10. It is instructive that both Gema and Kamatusa leaders have threatened to take away the right of the people of Kenya to go to free and fair democratic elections. One speaker after the other at the Gema meeting in Limuru last month stated that there would be no peaceful elections in Kenya if Uhuru Kenyatta’s name was not on the presidential ballot paper. This is overt incitement to violence and a threat to the rest of the country. We call upon the Minister for Internal Security to assure Kenyans that they can continue to feel comfortable, at peace, and safe in the belief that they can approach the forthcoming elections without being afraid.
11. Equally instructive is the threat by Kamatusa leaders to disrupt the election calendar (read the elections). They have promised to engage in dangerous ethnic based mobilization to ensure that there will be no elections. Alternatively, they intend to unleash violence during the elections. The Minister for Internal Security needs to reassure Kenyans against threats of this kind. We have the history of threats of this kind. It informs us that these are not idle threats. Are we safe?
12. We hail leaders from Central Kenya and the greater Mt. Kenya region, as well as those from the North and South Rift who have distanced themselves from the ruinous intentions of the two sinister organizations. This is Kenya’s time. It is not a tribal moment. We cherish the pursuit of the Kenyan dream of one people, one nation, one voice.
13. Finally, the time has come when we must say a firm NO to the shameless and cheap propaganda and hate speech that has been spewed against the Prime Minister. The politics of lies, hostility and threat to violence have no room in the democracy that we crave. Democracy must be dignified. We are keeping a keen eye on the captains of violent lies and propaganda. We know their history very well. We know the history of Kenya. From now on, we shall no longer quietly stand by as they spin lies and use them to prepare communities for tribal violence. We shall robustly expose them for what they are.
14. Kenyans have the chance to save this wonderful country that God has given us from slipping into the culture of hate and violence of the kind we saw in 2008. It is a culture that has sunk other countries. We have no need for it. We want our children to grown up in a peaceful society where people respect and love each other. We must begin by rejecting the captains of hate and injustice. We must reject cheap propaganda and dangerous ethnic mobilization. We must reject those with no respect for citizens’ rights to life and property; those who believe you have no right to live in some part of the country. This is not a tribal moment. This is Kenya’s moment. Let us not lose the moment to tribal chieftains.
Raila for President:
About the Author
UHURU/KENYATTA>Just what does a Cabinet minister, a top military officer, a top policeman and the scion of one of the country’s political families have in common? It seems these are all people who may be involved in the plot to kill Prime Minister Raila Odinga as alleged by Jakoyo Midiwo. The identities of the so called plotters will not be made public as those responsible are concerned it might cause too much tension.
===
Raila is the good person that can do good as a Kenyan President to take over from Mwai, because he not only has the needed experience political or otherwise (him being a head and shoulders above the rest in the already crowded presidential pack), but also because he has the charisma he inherited from Jaramogi which he demonstrated when he uttered the famous ‘Kibaki Tosha’ phrase. I am a GEMA and would have no problem voting for him. But an article like the one posted above kills all the goodwill in me. After such abuse and naked hatred packed in the article, instead of building bridges and mending the broken walls, only a sick GEMA and Kamatusa who will cast a vote in favour of Raila. That article has not been written by Raila, because even though he knows whatever is reported in the article actually happened, he is not as suicidal as to openly say it. Raila is a diplomat and political wizard who thinks before he opens his mouth. His handlers will be his undoing — they are denying Kenyans the president the country badly needs.
Gema Does Not Represent Me
Friday, 13 April 2012 23:52 BY ERIC WAINAINA
Gema does not represent me, my views or where I see us going as a country. What it does awaken in me is a feeling of guilt. In a sense the ICC got it wrong. It’s not the Ocampo 4 but more like the Ocampo 40 million. We are all on trial. We are all guilty. But now we are also guilty of wasting time. Allow me to tell you a story. A cab driver that we frequently use, let’s call him Peter, rushed his then three month-old son to Kenyatta Hospital. The child was diagnosed with meningitis. The doctor looked at Peter and said, “You look like someone who can afford the medicine that your child needs. I can either inject your child with the medicines that we have in stock here, which won’t help- they will only make you feel like something is being done. Or you can get into your car, rush to Nairobi Hospital and buy the real meningitis medication for Sh18,000.” Peter did as he was advised. He returned with the medication which the doctor administered. While he had been away, the child in the bed next to his own child died from meningitis. His parents had been too poor to afford the treatment.
I tell this story not to criticise Kenyatta Hospital but to illustrate a larger point. If we take the problems at Kenyatta Hospital to be indicative of the problems in Kenya we can only assume that every other sector is suffering equally. The problems we face in Kenya are huge. We need to make quality healthcare affordable or free for all Kenyans, we need to reform our education system, we need to improve housing on all levels, we need to guarantee food security, we need to invest in renewable energy, we need to safeguard the peaceful coexistence of majority Christians and minority Muslims. The task ahead and presently with us is vast.
Which is why I think the sustained debate surrounding Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, two of the men accused of crimes against humanity, other than being divisive is actually a waste of our time. From a technical standpoint all the prayers and all the rallies can’t help. The beauty of the ICC process is that it is unaffected by all this clamour. It is blind justice, unhampered by stature of the accused, personal history or biases. Like one wise person said you can’t stop a train by shouting at it.
What’s more is that these two men are proposing running for president. Kenya is a nation of over 40 tribes. How can you be a president of a nation when you have been accused of organising the deaths and displacement of people you are to serve? You can’t be president of the Kikuyu alone. You can’t be president of the Kalenjin alone. You have to be president of Kenya and the crimes these two men are being accused of are wholly un-presidential.
What we have to remind ourselves of as voters is that many politicians (these two included) are not in politics for service. I wish I could get people to see that. It’s about access. It’s about knowing what deals are going down where and knowing before anyone else. It’s about making sure that when the big contracts are being signed your 10% is in the mix. But we are so poor as a nation, so easily deceived. You build a bridge in a constituency you become a hero- no one asks where you got the money from. You’re suspected of dealing drugs but you pay school fees for hundreds so somehow you’re exonerated- even exalted. It doesn’t occur to anyone that building bridges and providing education is the job of the government. It is better to have a government that works than an individual who can by the wave of his wand make one of your many problems temporarily disappear. The government is the great equaliser between those who are born into privilege (and who probably work hard too) and those who are born into situations that beleaguer all attempts at self-improvement. Right now, if you are born poor in Kenya you will probably die poor. But a domestic worker needs to know that when she shows up at her local clinic her baby will get the attention he or she deserves. A rape victim needs to know that the courts will provide justice. A university student needs to know that a lecturer will turn up to class, teach him and judge his efforts fairly. The debate right now is about building the structures that will outlive individuals and provide for citizens in perpetuity. It’s not about Uhuru. It’s not about Ruto. They are so irrelevant to this debate. I can’t overstate it. I can’t shout it loudly enough.
Finally, let me say that if Kenyans vote for a Kikuyu man who cares so little for members of our Kalenjin and Luo family, or for a Kalenjin man who cares so little for our Kikuyu, Luhya and Kisii family, then we should all consider, out of conscience relocating to a neighbouring country. For how can we live in a country led by these men or men like them and how can we live with people who would vote them into power?
The Reincarnated GEMA Is No Match For Kikuyus for Change and Progressive Kenyans Looking to the Future
By Ngunjiri Wambugu, April 17, 2012
On that day, Uhuru Kenyatta gathered his sycophants and other supporters calling themselves GEMA at a meeting at the end of which the so-called GEMA Declaration was made which, among other things, informed the International Criminal Court (ICC) that there were far more important things for Uhuru to keep himself busy with than bothering to answer to the serious crimes against humanity he remains charged with at the ICC.
One of those things, GEMA declared, is that Uhuru must seek to be president over the same people he is accused of having had their loved ones, relatives and friends killed, raped and displaced from their homes in the tens of thousands.
GEMA felt that a collection of 5 million signatures will do the trick.
If there was any mockery of the justice system, it could not get worse than that.
Fortunately, ICC is one last place such antics will never have an impact other than backfiring on Uhuru.
The Gema gathering was, however, condemned almost immediately by Kenyans from all walks of life who saw it as an attempt to return Kenya to the old when the same organization was used as a vehicle to marginalize and lock out of power all other communities in Kenya.
Politicians from the region with common sense and a spot in their hearts for the country and its unity such as Gitobu Imanyara, Mithika Linturi and Alex Mburi called out the organizers of the Gema meeting as opportunists who were using the occasion to advance their own narrow political and legal interests and not the interests of the communities they purport to represent and demanded an apology.
Other leaders from the region echoed the same sentiments much to the relief of the rest of the country, which began wondering whether we are regressing back to the old GEMA days again.
While one cannot say this with any degree of certainty, it is obvious the Gema ploy has backfired on Uhuru and his sycophants who organized it.
Indeed, judging from how things are progressing in the country, more and more Kenyans are simply being turned off by Uhuru and Ruto’s blatant efforts to divide the country and potentially laying the ground for a repeat of PEV by the manner in which they are basically saying they are entitled to run for president the country or the law be damned.
What an arrogant but reckless attitude!
Meanwhile, our progressive brothers and sisters from the Mt. Kenya have been spearheading efforts joined by others from the country to slay the ugly animal of tribalism that has been terrorizing our country for decades.
Leading in these efforts is the organization Kikuyus for Change convened by Ngujiri Wambugu and like minded brothers and sisters from the region.
On this eve of the group’s Second Convention to be held in Limuru tomorrow, I wish to thank organizers for their efforts and pray for their success at the convention and urge as many progressive minded brothers and sisters from across the country who are able to, to attend.
It is a convention I would definitely not miss, if I were on the ground.
In advance of this convention, Wambugu has published the following article, which I wholly associate with and support fully:
Many things have been written about the forthcoming Limuru 2B meeting this Wednesday. Most Kenyans see the meeting as a public statement from members of the Kikuyu, Meru and Embu communities that we do not agree with the politics of ethnic exclusion and tribal alliances that some leaders are trying to sell to us as the way forward after President Kibaki retires. Others see it as a platform where a new generation of opinion leaders from all over the country congregate to declare that everyone will only prosper when all of Kenya prospers. Others are coming to the meeting with only one message; ‘Kenya Yetu, Si Mtu Wetu’ (Our Kenya is not My Tribesman).
However Limuru 2B is much more than just a rebellion or platform; it is also where we compare alternative visions of Kenya, to the one being sold by what I call ‘separitist’ ethnic outfits. A key alternative vision to be presented at Limuru 2B is the Vision 2030, Kenya’s long-term development blueprint that explains how Kenya can transform from a 3rd world economy to a newly industrializing country in the next 18 years.
If you have interacted with any presentation by the Vision 2030 secretariat then you are familiar with the depiction of the vision in the form of a traditional African Hut; with the ‘vision’ as the roof and three main pillars as the support of this roof over the heads of Kenyans.
The first pillar is the economy and our ‘roof’ requires a sustained economic growth of at least 10% each year. The second pillar is social relations, and this vision calls for us to exist as a just and cohesive society, where there is equitable social development and a clean and secure environment. The third pillar is politics and to achieve this vision requires us to practice issue-based, people-centred, result-oriented politics; and to do so in an accountable democratic system.
At Limuru 2B we will compare the GEMA and KAMATUSA economic policy suggestions as based on what was in existence in their hey-days, with the economic pillar of Vision 2030. The Vision 2030 pillar asks us to focus on 10 key sectors that form the foundation of our nation’s economic growth; i.e. Macroeconomic stability which is a prerequisite for long term development; developments in infrastructure, energy, STI (science, technology and innovation), Land Reforms, Human Resource Development, Security and/or Public Service Reforms.
I cannot seem to understand what the GEMA/KAMATUSA proponents have as a social pillar, but the Vision 2030 one asks us to look at 6 key areas, i.e.: education and training; health; water and sanitation; environment; housing and urbanization; and gender, youth and vulnerable groups
Politically it is quite clear that the GEMA/KAMATUSA ideology is about how to split Kenya into religious, tribal and demographic units, and pit them against each other in some form of divide and rule. Vision 2030 on the other hand tells us to look at what we can do in 5 strategic areas to transform Kenya’s political governance; i.e. rule of law; electoral and political processes; democracy and public service delivery; transparency and accountability; and security, peace-building & conflict resolution.
The foundation of the Vision 2030 ‘hut’ looks at the systems and process that need to be in place for these pillars to exist; what Mugo Kibati calls the ‘enablers and macro-foundations’ of our ‘hut’ that include cross cutting infrastructural development, public sector reforms and macroeconomic stability, etc. The GEMA/KAMATUSA vision does not deal with this at all.
The lowest foundation and fundamental part of Vision 2030, upon which the entire structure rests, is the development of a National Value System. GEMA/KAMATUSA proponents would like us to believe that issues like respect for our humanity are not important; or how else would they find nothing wrong with trying to marshal support behind individuals suspected of having committed crimes against humanity, whilst trying to postpone the processes that could very well find them innocent?. Limuru 2B will look at whether there is need to launch a signature campaign calling upon all Kenyan Citizens to step up, again, and sign up as ‘Kenyans for Kenya’
Vision 2030 on the other hand calls upon us to develop a national value system that will enable Kenya be a globally competitive and prosperous country, with a high quality of life for all its citizens, and a newly industrializing country. Some of the tangibles of this include the Lamu Port Southern Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor; a Great Equitorial Land Bridge that is a multi-aspect transport system literally cutting Africa in half and joining Lamu directly to Duoala. This will be a natural trade route between the Eastern and Western nations of the world; imagine the trade opportunities for Kenya! Then of course there is the ‘One’; Africa’s largest building shaped like Kenya’s National Shield Emblem.
I know GEMA/KAMATUSA sees Kenya as mini-nations, while Vision 2030 speaks of Kenya as one nation with amazing potential. I have a feeling Limuru 2B will opt to go the Vision 2030 route.
End
EVERYBODY IS WATCHING HOW THE ICC IS BEING MANIPURATED BY THEIR CLIENTS IN THE RUN(HIDING)(CRIMINALS SUPPOSED TO BE LOCKED IN HAGUE CELLS Kenya police, have their hands still tightly tied behind their back (Ref: the Commish and the CID chief) in the matter of the hacker, but not so in the case of Matsanga’s complaint. Maina Kiai anf Prof. Mutua were contacted by police officers regarding a complaint made presumably by Matsanga’s lawyer that they were interfering with ICC witnesses, and have defamed him through articles in the Daily Nation Newspaper.
Usually any paper that publishes such articles should also be accused in the complaint. But here it seems it is not. Also noteworthy is Kenya police now deal with defamation cases which is always handled by lawyers and courts.
The police officers, one Mr. Kariuki and one Ms. Rop have kindly provided their private e-mail addresses to the accused, Kiai and Mutua.
It’s also interesting that the same officers are dealing with the hacking case. This gives us much hope that the case will be cracked soon.
However, the M-Pesa or bank a/c numbers of the officers were not indicated. So it can be safely assumed that they are not after ‘chai’.
Oh, Good Lord, when will you give us a police force?
======
An international arrest warrant should be out immediately if the ICC is serious in curbing attempts to scuttle its programmes. He may hide in Kenya, Sudan, China, North Korea, Zimbabwe, and he will remain hidden for ever. Museveni may even charter a plane to take him to the Hague if he dare set foot in Uganda, his mother country, after the warrant is out.
Why I agree with Kiyiapi but reject the Kamatusa
By PHILIP OCHIENG
Posted Saturday, April 21 2012 at 17:52
James ole Kiyiapi, Kipkoeech araap Sambu and I have many things in common. One is that we come from the same larger ethnic background.
James is a Maasai, Kipkoeech a Kalenjin and I a Luo – three clusters of what ethno-linguistic anthropologists call Nilotes.
Even more importantly, we three are dedicated to the study of our respective clusters. For, like charity, knowledge must begin at home. Only from self-discovery can one inspire others to study and discover themselves. As Socrates used to admonish, Know Thyself.
Of course, the Athenian magus was addressing only compatriots. But he probably knew that his Aryan Hellenes owed a heavy cultural, religious, linguistic and technological debt to the Pelasgic Danaans, the autochthonous Greeks who – like the Maasai, Kalenjin and Luo – had come from the lower reaches of the Nile.
If he didn’t know, he must have been the victim of the same disease that ails my modern siblings. For practically no Elmolo, Iljamus, Kalenjin, Luo, Maasai, Ndorobo, Ogiek, Samburu, Teso or Turkana has any conception that they are descendants of the same mother not too long ago.
It is instructive that, only in the pursuit of knowledge – only through books – have I discovered that Kalenjin, Maasai, Teso and Turkana are of my own blood.
It is to Kipkoeech, among others, that I owe this knowledge. I once drew Kenya’s attention to his book on Kalenjin history, culture and religion.
He has recently sent me a copy of the sequel – subtitled A Linguistic Inquiry into the Kalenjin People’s Oral Tradition of Ancient Egyptian Origin – which clinches the culturo-linguistic identity of not only the Kalenjin with the ancient Coptic Egyptians but also of them with such other Nilotes as the Luo.
Extremely saddening
Yet this knowledge is always extremely saddening. For, by the time we acquire it, Euro-Protestant individualism has dredged such a Rift Valley between us as to make reunion seem impossible.
It is to that tutelage that we owe the extreme ignorance both of our ethnic histories and of the objective needs of our peoples, singly and together.
That is why it is now so easy for self-seeking politicians to drive a wedge between all these children of Myoot (the Kalenjin equivalent of mankind’s “Mitochondrial Eve”).
Wouldn’t she commit suicide if she woke up today to find that some of her children have formed themselves into something called “Kamatusa” to wage war on her other children?
That “Kamatusa” stands for the “Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana and Samburu” raises a stark question: If the strategy is to bring together peoples of the same mother, why this selectiveness?
Why aren’t the Luo in it? Where are Elmolo, Iljamus, Ndorobo, Ogiek, Teso and other descendants of Dawa (the Luo equivalent of Myoot)?
The answer seems obvious. Being so large and with a paramount tribal chief of its own – whose ambition for State House is also vaulting – the Luo cannot fit into the political scheme of the Kamatusa fraudsters.
The other Nilotes – Elmolo, Iljamus, Ndorobo, Ogiek, Teso – are ignored because, in any election, they are numerically insignificant.
That is why I just cannot visualise Prof Kiyiapi – a longstanding educationist and top functionary of the Education ministry – having led his Maasai people into anything as jingoistic as Kamatusa.
For Kenya is not a monopoly of the Nilotes. Our Constitution welcomes all good human beings of all races, tribes and sectors.
That is why, though Prof Kiyiapi admits the necessity of Nilotic unity, he points out that, in the context of Kenya, Nilotic unity cannot be pursued at the expense of the higher unity of all Kenyans.
I support Prof Kiyiapi because I am convinced he believes that Kenya should be ruled by a good individual – not necessarily by a Nilote or a Bantu.
That is why I would reject Kamatusa even if it included my Luo people.
Where are Embus, Merus in the Gema power equation?
21/4/2012 The Standard Online
By Kilemi Mwiria
I will start by restating my opposition to tribal associations such as Gema. They are of no value to majority of those whose interests they claim to safeguard. Nor do they enrich our capacity to achieve Vision 2030.
Ordinary Kikuyus, Merus or Embus do not enjoy any special privileges from the political elite of their regions; however, the political brokers who champion these initiatives reap more than their fair share.
They want to be present when personal power is being shared. This is why their stand on Gema is not permanent; at one time, it is bad for Kenya�s unity, the next day it is their community�s political saviour. Kenyans have to be reminded again and again that with the new Constitution, a sitting president cannot donate any public goods to the friend�s community; so, please do not fight to have one from your community!
The other day a trader in Meru town asked me; if I support Gema candidate for president so that Merus can be in his good books, who will love the Turkana and others?
Another reminded me that when Gema was established in the 1970s, with a president from the association�s community, the Meru had little to be proud of by way of development projects or senior appointments.
These are clear messages that most Kenyans are now less likely to be cheated by the political class. Our youth are more concerned about employment; their tribal leaders have not solved their problem.
But the big question is whether Gema is there merely for the political supremacy of only one of its three-member ethnic groups. When will Kikuyu politicians support a Meru or Embu counterpart for the presidency, the same way some Embu and Meru politicians die to sell Kikuyu candidates?
Or are Merus and Embus incapable of the top leadership? Is the presidency a preserve of one Gema community? But, come to think of it, why should Kikuyu politicians worry about Embu and Meru, when vocal Meru and Embu politicians go an extra mile to anoint and sing praises of their cousin candidates?
However, if Gema advocates for equality of communities, it is time Kikuyu Gema adherents looked beyond their own. It is time we built our political alliances around matters of our most critical challenges � youth unemployment, insecurity, tribalism, corruption and poverty in general. What the association�s advocates should tell us is; what their preferred candidates will do about our common challenges, not simply that they are ours. If there must be regional groupings, they should focus on how we can make Kenya a great country for all and not on negative ethnicity.
A good starting point is strengthening ties with neighbours with whom we have long term economic interests, irrespective of their ethnicity. For Meru, these neighbours are to the North of us. With the developments coming to Isiolo, Merus have convincing strategic and security reasons to build bridges with Turknanas, Samburus, Borans and Somalis even as they embrace everyone else.
Likewise, the Kamatusa communities may find that their first strategic allies are their immediate neigbours, Maasais, Luos and Kisiis as they talk to Gema and the rest of Kenya.
The writer is MP for Tigania West and Assistant Minister Higher Education, Science and Technology
Why the Meru and Embu have never been Gema
By MAKAU MUTUA
Posted Saturday, May 5 2012 at 19:52
Opinion
Why the Meru and Embu have never been Gema
By MAKAU MUTUA
Posted Saturday, May 5 2012 at 19:52
In Summary
•Outsiders: But even the Meru elite knew then, as they do today, that they weren’t Gema insiders
In warfare, psychology is critical. That’s why boxer “Iron” Mike Tyson usually knocked out his opponents before he threw the first punch.
He psyched them out. Tribal warfare isn’t different. Gema has perfected the script. It purports to usurp the agency of every breathing and living Kikuyu, Meru and Embu person. Except it can’t.
But that doesn’t matter. The key words are “purport” and “usurp”. Gema was a clever project of tribal hegemony cooked up by conniving Kiambu-Kikuyu political-business elites. Truth be told – they scared the daylights out of other Kenyans.
There’s only one minor problem. The Meru and Embu didn’t get the memo. Like mannequins, they were mere escorts, dummy passengers used to pad numbers.
Records show that Gema was registered by former Attorney- General Charles Njonjo in 1971. History says he did so at the instruction of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
Gema’s originators were former Foreign minister Njoroge Mungai, the hawkish Kihika Kimani, the late Njenga Karume, Mzee Kenyatta’s nephew Ngengi Muigai, and State minister Mbiyu Koinange – Mzee’s “kitchen Cabinet”.
But Gema was mooted way before 1971. Lore has it that it was even to include the Akamba, for whom the “A” in Gema was supposedly reserved.
But it’s said that the late Mulu Mutisya and the combative Paul Ngei balked, preferred to silo themselves in the New Akamba Union (Nau).
Imagine the psychological propaganda value of all “four cousins” together – Kikuyu, Kamba, Meru, and Embu.
What’s my point? In politics, you want to create the impression of a juggernaut, even when you are a small tractor. Strike fear in the “enemy”.
There’s nothing more important than numbers. That’s why politicians care deeply about the size of rallies. “Mammoth” is the magic word.
The original Gema ideologues understood this point better than their opponents. They knew that by claiming the Kikuyu, the single largest group, and then augmenting it with the Meru and the Embu, was great visual optics.
Except that the Meru, and to some extent the Embu, have many important differences with the Kikuyu. So do the Kamba, although culturally and linguistically there’s unarguable cousinage.
Some of the differences are stark – very stark.
For example, the Meru can’t understand, nor speak, Kikuyu. It’s that simple. The two communities are virtual linguistic strangers. Don’t get me wrong.
Linguistically, the Kikuyu, Meru, Embu, and Kamba languages have the same logic and share virtually the same root words.
But that’s no consolation for the untrained ear. For example, the Kikamba equivalent for the Kikuyu “Wanjiku” is “Wanziku”. Or the Kikuyu “Mucii” for “home” is the Kikamba “musyi”.
Used in spoken language, the two words are as foreign as French is to Japanese. But this didn’t prevent Gema hegemonists from creating a political community out of the groups. They understood the value of “bundling” groups for elite political gain.
Which brings me to the presence of the Meru in Gema. Let me be clear – the Meru, as a people, were never in Gema.
But former Meru supremo, the late Jackson “Harvester” Angaine, purported to bring the Meru into Gema. One might even say he “harvested” the Meru for Gema. He singlehandedly tried to yoke the Meru to the Kikuyu elite.
There was little or no public dissent. You didn’t dissent when Mzee was alive. Those who did met uncertain fates. That’s why the Meru elite went along with the Gema “thing”.
But even the Meru elite knew then, as they do today, that they weren’t Gema insiders. But they were happy to accept the benefits that came with the association.
Today, Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi is Meru’s “Jackson Angaine”. Mr Murungi seems to have no qualms about auctioning “his people” to the Kikuyu Gema elite.
As Education assistant minister Kilemi Mwiria has eloquently argued, Gema exists to foster the political supremacy of one of the groups, the Kikuyu, over the other two.
Dr Mwiria, the consummate intellectual, has pointedly asked: “When will Kikuyu politicians support a Meru or Embu counterpart for the presidency?” I think the answer may be never.
That’s partly why Meru MPs Gitobu Imanyara, Mithika Linturi, Mburi Muiru, Ntoitha Mithiaru, and Dr Mwiria have defied Mr Murungi.
They refuse to be used like mules to advance Kikuyu hegemony. Thank goodness one can defy self-anointed tribal kingpins these days.
This brings me to the Embu. Of the Gema three, the Embu are the most insignificant group. They are the “rump” of the group. It doesn’t matter that assistant minister Cecily Mbarire has become the biggest Embu Gema supporter.
She’s trying – in vain – to carry on the legacy of the late Jeremiah Nyagah, the patriarch who dragged the Embu into Gema. It’s true that politically the numbers of the Embu are less significant than the Meru.
Nevertheless, they are a catch for Kikuyu tribal hegemonists. They are supposed to be more loyal to the Kikuyu than the Meru. But Embu is very cosmopolitan. It’s a melting pot for all the “cousins” – Kikuyu, especially the Kamba, and the Meru.
I meant to demystify the view that Gema represents the Kikuyu, Meru, and Embu peoples. It doesn’t, and never has. It doesn’t even represent their elites. So, it’s hubris – and utter hogwash – for any politician to claim that Gema speaks for the Kikuyu, Meru and Embu.
Equally preposterous is the claim by Gema that those groups can, or have, endorsed a single presidential candidate. Gichugu MP Martha Karua is right – tribalists mustn’t be allowed to impose tribal “leaders” on Kenyans.
Every citizen must be treated as an individual, not a member of an unthinking tribal herd.
GEMA: The Myth and Lies of the Kikuyu Connection
Friday, 18 May 2012 23:46 BY CHARLES WACHIRA
“Gema is going round telling Kenyans only a Kikuyu can lead this country again. This is misleading….We had a Kikuyu as the first Head of State when the country attained independence and now we have a Kikuyu as the president. Who says that other women outside the Mt.Kenya region have not born children bright enough to lead this country?” — Charles Njonjo
“You first murdered Pio Gama Pinto, and you told us that he was simply a Goan, then you murdered Tom Mboya and you went ahead to explain to us that he was a member of the Luo community, today we are finally burying one of our own who has also been murdered by the same government, what are you going to tell us this time round,” asked a distraught, Mama Habiba, one of the many anonymous mourners who had turned up during the interment of Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, a flamboyant and populist politician at his Gilgil farm, in the Rift Valley.
Recalling this unraveling incident that took place in 1975, Wanyiri Kihoro, now a lawyer but formerly a legislator and political detainee says this single sanguinary blight in the chequered history of Kenya, pervasively brought to the fore the existing estrangement existing between the governors and the governed at the time, nicely defining a chasm that cut across the ethnic, religious and gender aisle.
“Mama Habiba hailed from Majengo area within Nyeri County. When she spoke at the funeral, she captured the looming mood of the country,” explains Kihoro, then just one of the ubiquitous students drawn from the University of Nairobi who had attended the burial of J.M, as the legislator was fondly known, an event which signally indicted the establishment under the peremptory heel of President Jomo Kenyatta of committing the heinous crime.
A sanctioned parliamentary inquiry headed by the late Elijah Mwangale, a former foreign Affairs Minister, into the murder revealed that underlings of Kenyatta were the quintessential smoking gun.
Then the international media speculated that the murder of gregarious MP, a man widely thought to harbour presidential ambitions, had the latent effect of stirring a people-led revolution, jettisoning the plutocracy that underlined the Establishment of Kenyatta.
To date 37- years after the grisly murder was committed not a single soul has been persecuted with the murder, a phenomenon that sorely symbolizes the anaemic and enfeebled stature of Kenya’s judicial arrangement.
When current President, Mwai Kibaki, himself a Kikuyu and the only Cabinet Minister drawn from the Kenyatta Government to attend the funeral ascended to the presidency in 2002 the world was inauspicious that, the JM file would be rifled out, triggering a much- waited- for but belated public inquiry into the murder, bearing in mind that during the emotive funeral the Othaya MP had publicly proclaimed that “even if it takes 100 years we will get to know who killed J.M.”
With no follow out to date, ten years after been elected President, Kibaki’s words will immortally be remembered by generations to come as having part of a legacy of a politician who in times of convenience sought the I.D of a recidivist addicted to hyperbole.
For after all, politicians all over the world cherish nothing better than getting an opportunity that allows them to be seen as casting their lots with the under dogs. Veritably President Kibaki is analogous to this tribe. “The irony was that JM Kariuki belonged to the Kikuyu community just like Kenyatta himself. And so did Mr. Kungu Karumba, who coincidently had been incarcerated together with Kenyatta prior to independence but who disappeared without trace soon after Kenya got independence.
And the Government of Kenyatta was thought to be behind the disappearance. But the most telling of events was the fall out between Kenyatta, his acolytes with Mr. Bildad Kagia also a former prison mate of Kenyatta who happened to also be a Kikuyu.He suffered political prosecution for the sin of bearing an ideological bent that identified itself with Socialism while the inner circle of the Kenyatta regime favoured a rapacious form of larceny that was conveniently wrapped up as capitalism,” says Wanyiri.
Tellingly, the assassination of JM; the disappearance of Kungu and ostracization of Kagia all exclusive members of the Kikuyu community by a Government whose reins were in the hands of arguably one of their own opens up the seminal query of whether the Kikuyu community can truly be labeled as being a homogeneous society as some people would wish to believe or whether the term heterogeneous, is much more suitable.
Fact: In big measure, its believed that the guerrilla warfare, famously referred to as the Mau Mau (1952 – 1958) war which is widely thought to have speeded up the departure of the invading British colonial Administration, leading to Kenya’s independence or “Uhuru na Bedera” in 1963 remains relevant to day as a classical study of the disparate mosaic that is the Kikuyu nation, for example..
As the protracted war, whose central theater was within the Mt. Kenya region – a forested swathe of real estate settled predominately by the Gema community- got underway, cold acts of fratricide morphed with unparalleled zeal as members of the community opted either to become quislings ( home guards) of the British army aka “ Kamutimus” or alternatively freedom fighters ( Njamba cia ita).
It was rather telling that even on the eve of independence, the differences between these two groups subtly played out behind the scenes as some of the former freedom fighters temporarily balked in leaving the forest, arguing that land – the resource which had led them to the war front in the first instance- which had been expropriated by the British and the local quislings must be handed back to their rightful owners. In a way what the freedom fighters were expressing was an axiom that pontificates that the absence of war does not amount to the possession of peace.
Kenyatta, who scandalously denied having been part of the gallant Mau Mau freedom army and his oligarchy, disproportionately stitched up of home guards understandably thought the thinking of the Mau Mau remnants was basically farcical.
It’s popularly believed that a sizable number of the intransigent fighters were eventually tracked down and eventually mowed down under a hail of gun fire by home guards that had been handed a tacit go-ahead by Kenya’s inaugural first government. The vile incident has remained a hush-hush affair in government circles for rather obvious reasons.
Unfortunately the historical burden of being a member of the Kikuyu community – because vicariously that’s what it is- has not escaped the ivory towers too where occasionally, biased interpretation or interrogation of the role played by members of the Kikuyu community in emancipating the country from the clutches of British imperial rule has remained a dubiety. Can you imagine?
For according to a derisory lot of enthusiastic sophists who occasionally view history through ethnic lenses and sometimes appear to ail from self-inflicted amnesia, the Mau Mau war was simply a tribal affair (read Kikuyu) and had nothing to do with the granting of independence in 1963.
A random pick on the academic works of Professors’ William Ochieng, Bethwell Ogot and Dr Henry Mwanzi will attest to this with the celebrated and internationally acclaimed local novelist Prof. Ngugi wa Thiongo – a Kikuyu elder- receiving arguably the short shrift for highlighting the nationalistic valour displayed by particularly the Mau Mau during the war leading to independence.
Said the local Weekly Review weekly magazine of October 1984: “Historians have been taking him (Prof. Ngugi wa Thiongo) to task over what they see as a distortion of history in his novels, particularly in regard to the role of the Mau Mau and that of the late Jomo Kenyatta in the struggle for Kenya’s independence. Led by Professor William Ochieng, now famous for his passionate dislike of Ngugi’s work (some say it is personal) other prominent historians who have taken time out to discredit his literary achievements include Professor Bethwell Ogot and Dr. Henry Mwanzi.”
Elsewhere, the senseless murder of Mboya on July 5 1969 doubly triggered an ethnic backlash whose aftermath continues to reverberate to date as the world noted a burgeoning of an intractable political relationship between Mboya’s Luo community and Kenyatta’s Kikuyu tribe which has transcended the passage of time.
It turns out that a small cabal imbibed with hubris that had the ear of President Kenyatta, exclusively drawn from the Kikuyu tribe and which traced its ancestral roots to the Kiambu County believed that it possessed an ethnic linage blessed with an entitlement to rule the country.
“Events took an ugly turn after 1969.A powerful and influential group, surrounding a senescent President Kenyatta was intent on retaining power at any cost. It’s now public knowledge that the membership was made up of Mbiyu Koinange who happened to be Mzee’s (Kenyatta) brother in law including serving as the Minister of State; Dr. Njoroge Muigai who headed the powerful Ministry of Defence and who coupled up as Mzee’s personal doctor; Ngengi Muigai who happened to be a nephew of the President and the late Dickson Kihika Kimani and Njenga Karume, two guys who were arguably Kenyatta alter egos. Coincidentally all these guys including the President himself hailed from Kiambu,” says Mr. Koigi Wa Wamwere, a former legislator and political detainee.
According to Koigi, after the murder of Mboya, an internecine plot with heavy ethnic undertones was executed by the group which witnessed the coerced act of oathing taking place in parts of the country with the target been locals of Kikuyu extract.
“Kikuyu’s of all persuasions were forcibly been given an oath and were also required to pay Ksh 5 for the exercise. The event which began in late 1969 running up to 1972 had a clarion call that pontificated that the Presidency of the country was the exclusive business of those born in Kiambu County. Leadership of the country would never pass River Chania, they foreswore. Gullible Kikuyus were made to believe that their collective safety would only be assured if a Kikuyu remained President,” explains Kihoro.
To day its logical to state without watching your back, that the forces intent on keeping the presidency within Kiambu county were at the time throwing straws against the wind, in other words they were engaged in perpetrating a rearguard action.
Why?
Simply because since Kenyatta’s death, his two predecessors so far, trace their roots away from the Kiambu region.
And if Kihoro is to be believed, the oathing at times went horribly wrong, like when worshippers of a Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) based in Naivasha, Rift Valley,-almost all of Kikuyu extraction- refused to take the oath arguing that there faith forbid them to embrace atavistic practices such as oath taking – and as a result they were allegedly summarily shot dead.
Seeking a ballast to further entrench possession of redoubtable power, President Kenyatta in his twilight years forced the hand of then Attorney General, Charles Njonjo, to register an organisation that would ostensibly advance the economic, social and political goals of the Kikuyu people including their related kindred, namely the Embu and Meru people.
This led in 1971 to the registration of GEMA (an acronym for Gikuyu, Embu, and Meru Association) Holdings.
Ironically despite Njonjo being a Kikuyu himself he overtly displayed a punfunctionary interest in the goals of GEMA Holdings. Privately he held the top membership of the organisation in severance. And as proof of his disdain for the group’s goals, he in 1976 saber rattled the leadership of the organisation, with a sophistry that spelt out that to “imagine, think or compass” the death of a sitting president would be considered a treasonable act.
At the time, the GEMA leadership was plotting to snooker the automatic ascendancy of the Vice President – then Mr. Daniel arap Moi, a chap who cut the sorry image of a wooden character with a disposition cut out for the sticks alone- to the acme of power, notably the presidency, in the event Kenyatta’s health, suffered irreparably or if he became incapacitated or on the extreme died in office.
Suffice to point out, that upon the death of Kenyatta on August 1979, a hesitant Moi received a popular mandate to run the country thus throwing a spanner in the works for the 1976 change- the constitution group which beginning in August of the latter year had embraced an itinerant character as it traveled the length and breadth of the GEMA territory, preaching a gospel that sought to stymie the inchoate ambitions of the then Baringo Central MP, a geographical locale ensconced within the vast Rift Valley country.
A year later an emboldened Government under the heel, of a now confident arap Moi issued a legal writ banning all tribal organizations, GEMA Holdings, been an exemplar. But bad blood between Moi and Njonjo saw the duo break up, catapulting Njonjo to political wilderness for close to 15-years. But today a rejuvenated and reinvented Njonjo is hogging public attention with invectives towards a resurrected GEMA raising the specter of carrying out an old war by other means.
Said this former Constitutional Affairs Minister recently, “GEMA is going round telling Kenyans only a Kikuyu can lead this country again. This is misleading….We had a Kikuyu as the first Head of State when the country attained independence and now we have a Kikuyu as the president. Who says that other women outside the Mt.Kenya region have not born children bright enough to lead this country?
Njonjo was alluding to the endorsement of Uhuru Kenyatta, the political scion of the Kenyatta household, by a cross section of political, business and spiritual leaders drawn from the GEMA fraternity, as the preferred Presidential flag bearer for the Mt. Kenya region, the ancestral home of the GEMA populace.
The elections which are scheduled not later than March 2013 have also drawn in three other candidates from the region who have also declared publicly that they too will be running for the country’s top seat. “This endorsement is bad and should be discarded if we want Kenya to be free of tribalism,” said Dr. David Gitari, retired Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya.
Both Njonjo and the retired man of the cloth are widely thought to be batting for Prime Minister Raila Odinga,a member of the Luo community in the forthcoming Presidential race despite the duo tracing their ancestral to the Kikuyu community. Like Uhuru, Raila also traces his roots to a powerful political dynasty that is equivalent to a local Croesus. Rubbish, is what Justin Muturi, a confidant of Uhuru thinks of the assertions of Njonjo & company.
Charity begins at home, he says, providing a somewhat fitting anecdote. “When Raila ran for the presidency in 1997 on a National Development Party(NDP), the voter turnout in his ancestral Luo Nyanza was an overwhelmingly 98 % and five years later when he famously endorsed Kibaki for the Presidency, voter turnout in Luo Nyanza dwindled significantly to about 60 %.
What does that tell you about the voting patterns in the country? And even in Europe the belief that all politics is local resonates very well as witnessed in the UK where the Liberal Democrats opted to form a coalition government with the Conservative Party despite having more in common with the Labour Party. Why? Because, Gordon Brown, the leader of the Labour Party is Scottish while David Cameron is a British national just like the leader of the Liberal Democrats. It’s therefore a total fallacy that when members of the GEMA community meet, the conclave is labeled tribal but when other communities meet to discuss their affairs it’s considered OK.
Also one needs to recall that when Raila visited parts of Luyia land awhile back, he reminded the audience that he belonged to the linage of Nabongo Mumias adding that it was now “their time” to lead. Why was this public pronouncement given latitude but when we as GEMA people say Uhuru Kenyatta will be our Presidential flag bearer, people make all sorts of noises? When Musalia Mudavadi sort endorsement for his presidential ambition, did he not initially seek blessings from his ancestral Luyia backyard?
Even Muthui Kariuki,a media advisor to Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, who identifies himself as a Kikuyu elder says there is nothing wrong in an ethnic group meeting to chart their way forward. Pointing out that not all Kikuyus are members of GEMA because entrée into the organisation requires one to purchase a membership card, Mr. Muthui says ethnicity should be the least of factors when deciding whom should led the country.
“It’s totally wrong for anybody to suggest that someone should not run for public office simply because they hail from a certain community. Mature democracies eschew that sort of archaic thinking. Look, I taught Mr. Peter Kenneth, one of the presidential candidates, in Starehe High school, here in Nairobi. If one needed a reason to back him up, I believe I posses all the required qualifications. He happens to be a Kikuyu like myself and I am very well acquainted to him, as well. But I believe that as a country we should avoid parochialism. Lets vote in, the best possible candidate because our destiny as country is intertwined. If we vote in a capable leader, the entire spectrum of the country benefits and the converse is true. As a Kikuyu elder, I find nothing wrong with GEMA people congregating together.”
Veritably a legion of GEMA naysayers are agreed about the relevance and role of the outfit to day, arguing that the Organisation is quintessentially a club catering exclusively for the interests of elitist drawn from the Mt. Kenya region, alone. “GEMA is a club of Kikuyu aristocrats. Non elitist leaders from the Kikuyu community such as the late Prof. Wangari Maathai , Paul Muite, Peter Kenneth , Martha Karua including myself cannot be admitted into the organisation.This is because our interests and those of the Kikuyu aristocrats are different. When Mr. Maina Njenga, formerly leader of the Mungiki sect) initially attended the Limuru one discussions, he was denied an opportunity to address the attendees. Why because he is a member of the hoi pol-loi class. It is therefore mischievous to say all Kikuyus are members of GEMA,”says Koigi.
We luv u mr president