Today, August 1st, Kenyans at home and abroad solemnly observe the 30th anniversary of the 1982 coup attempt whose leaders were seeking to topple the dictatorship of former President Daniel arap Moi from power. After 3 decades which has produced a new generation of Kenyans, the fundamental political, social and economic crisis that catapulted the coup leaders into action has deepened.
Deep in the consciousness of millions of poor, unemployed and idle youths who have been paying the ultimate price of the crisis in Kenya, the most urgent question is what needs to be done to salvage their shattered lives and to exhume hope for the future in the face of endless social frustrations, economic hardships, human deprivation and political subterfuge that has been perfected by political vultures who have been masquerading as leaders in today’s Kenya.
When the late Hezekiah Ochuka masterminded the coup together with his Comrades in arms, the basic agenda was to end poverty, starvation, homelessness, mass unemployment especially among the youth, landlessness, rampant corruption in government, spiralling inflation, tribalism, human rights violations, nepotism, lack of healthcare services, looting of the economy by the rich, collapsing infrastructure, starvation wages of workers, exploitation of the poor, widening gap between the rich and the poor, imperialist domination of Kenya’s politics, economy and culture, ruling by organized mafia cartels at State House and a host of other vices that had created millions of wrecked citizens who no longer appreciated the existence of an institution called government.
Thirty years after the coup, the very ingredients of political marginalization, economic inequalities and social frustrations that nourished the coup continues to tare the lives of millions of Kenyans apart. The illusion of change born out of democratic gains of the reform movement is slowly crystalizing into hard conclusions that something may have gone seriously wrong somewhere thirty years after the coup. Why?
The defeat of single party dictatorship and current ideological bankruptcy
Kenyans no longer suffer under a one Party dictatorship following the re-introduction of political pluralism in 1990 but this democratic step forward has not created political parties that can address the myriad questions which have reduced millions of Kenyans to sub-human existence in their own country because these parties are ideologically bankrupt.
After a protracted struggle, political pluralism was re-introduced in Kenya. However, twenty years later, the emergent political parties have failed to metamorphize from ethnic-based mobilization of the masses to ideological organization of the parties because the leaderships of these parties are hopelessly inclined towards old-style ethnic chieftainship, a backward and retrogressive concept that was more relevant during the pre-colonial period.
It is instructive that thirty years after the coup, and forty nine years after flag independence, millions of young and energetic Kenyans are not only being mobilized along ethnic lines but are also pledging allegiance to empty-headed political vultures bereft of ideas which can radically transform the lives of millions of citizens who are unable to afford a square meal per day. In summary, since the coup failed thirty years ago, there is still no real political alternative in Kenya that can put forward programs that can show the way out of the crisis the country is plunged in.
KANU was vanquished but a more vicious KANU B is in power
It is true that since the coup failed, the former dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi and his KANU party has since been vanquished. But what do Kenyans have as replacement? A typical replica of KANU, complete with a duplicitous and corrupt leadership drawn from a dirty and murderous ethnic Mafia cartel whose every political plot is structured to maintain the oldish Kanu status quo.
The long-awaited departure of Moi’s KANU, which was apparently greeted with glee and rhapsodic ululations, was superseded by a new and megalomaniac coterie of wealth grabbers that quickly assumed the distinction of a Mafia cartel whose ethnic roots could be traced back to the plains of the Kikuyu dominated region of Mount Kenya. Over the years, the conclusion of millions of conscious minds in Kenya is that despite the defeat of Moi’s KANU, the nation may have been short-changed because a more lethal, dirty, arrogant, corrupt and murderous conglomeration of political gangstas from Kikuyu land may have assumed the reins of power.
Nothing could be far from the truth because after this cabal ran down the country under Kibaki’s dictatorship following the dethronement of KANU in 2002, it proceeded to steal elections in 2007, plunging the country into a gory and atavistic blood-letting that nearly created a fratricidal civil war in Kenya before Western imperialism intervened to safeguard their vested interests in an ex-colonial enclave.
Today, this cabal is shamelessly trying to install a suspected war criminal called Uhuru Kenyatta as President to perpetuate the status quo against the backdrop of a widely held view by millions of Kenyans that another Kikuyu President in the Republic of Kenya is untenable especially under the current dispensation. The disheartening dilemma is that this cabal of latter day thieves and robbers never learnt a single lesson from the 1982 coup attempt – that the gallant coup leaders were propelled into action because they were opposed to a monolithic, totalitarian, dictatorial, thieving and narrow-minded ethnic grouping of political vultures in control of the capitalist state machine. The tragedy does not end there.
A new Constitution has failed to put food on the table
After forty seven years of struggle (1963-2010), and thirty years after the coup, a new constitution was promulgated by the octogenarian President Mwai Kibaki in August 2010. However, since this historic event was celebrated with pomp and funfair, prices of basic consumer commodities have continued to systematically sky-rocket raising the cost of living to unaffordable levels for millions of poor Kenyans who have been dehumanized by the crisis of capitalism under which Kenyans continue to suffer.
More precisely, the new constitution was promulgated without a caveat that within the framework of a rotten capitalist system of government controlled by a corrupt mafia cartel that is answerable to nobody but themselves, the Constitution would remain a worthless piece of paper that would not put food on the table for the 10 million Kenyans constantly facing the threat of imminent death as a result of starvation. Many youths have resorted to crime as a way survival.
Secondly, the Constitution was promulgated without a warning that as long as its implementation remained firmly on the hands of the thieving capitalist ruling class and their appendages (going by many toothless and puppet Committees), the new Constitution would continue to serve the interests of this rich class of wealth grabbers regardless of the good intentions encapsulated in the elaborate syntactic strings weaved magnificently in this document. In fact, expectations that a new constitution could stop prices of basic consumer commodities from rising has virtually evaporated.
What is to be done?
After thirty years following the botched coup attempt, and, from a communist perspective, we are where we are because capitalism has failed to deliver. The system is not only time-barred but also rotten to the core.
Unfortunately, there is no solution to the crisis as long as Kenyans are not yet ready to interrogate communist ideas, strategies and solutions to national problems whose ideological solutions cannot be examined because of long-standing and organized brainwashing of generations after generations that communism is bad for Kenya.
The French have just elected a Socialist government while both Bolivians and Venezuelans have cut the head of the capitalist snake and replaced it with their brands of Socialism to address local problems. Across Europe and the United States, huge anti-capitalist-pro-communist movements have pitched tent in the very backyard of capitalist regimes and, the “Occupy Movement”, that is shaking capitalism to its very foundations in the United States, is a constant reminder that the working people and oppressed masses in the United States are beginning to tackle the problem from its root-cause – blood-sucking of poor people by vampires who control big business and who will do everything within their power to maintain a system that builds on wealth accumulation at the expense of the poor.
As Kenyans mark the 30th Anniversary of the 1982 coup attempt, it must not be forgotten that the country has experimented with capitalism for almost five decades and the system has failed Kenyans at each and every stage. Although the nation ought to be making progress with every democratic gain (political pluralism, defeat of KANU, a new constitution, democratic elections etc), the country is actually moving backwards. Why?
The living conditions of Kenyans is worse now compared to the last 30 years; unemployment is at its highest compared to the last three decades; prices of basic consumer commodities have doubled ten-fold in the last three decades; millions of Kenyans cannot put a single meal on the table; hundreds of University graduates cannot find jobs while the growth of slums in urban areas continues to shock even the most conservative thinkers.
Surely, when will Kenyans wake up to the reality that the more the situation changes, the more it gets worse? Which language must be spoken before the youth can understand that the main problem is the system and that the country needs a Socialist revolution to turn things around?
It is great that the reforms brought back political pluralism, removed KANU from power and produced a new constitution. However, there is still no food on the table, no shelter for millions of Kenyans while health care, education, social services, jobs and other basic human necessities are the preserve of the rich class of thieves with the means to exploit the system through their positions. In the current political marketplace, there is no real solution in sight.
Our message to Kenyans seeking a solution to the crisis is that the reform era is coming to an end and the reformists are becoming history. What the country needs now is a Socialist revolution (a change of the system) to divide and share the national cake, sweep away the rotten capitalist class and build a new society where every Kenyan can live a decent life. Unfortunately, there is no short-cut and regardless of how long it takes, socialism is the answer to the capitalist crisis ravaging the country. The Kenya Red Alliance (KRA) has the ideas and the challenge is to organize. The ambition of the 1982 coup leaders shall have been abandoned if the injustices that inspired them to organize the coup remain unaddressed, thirty years after the event. Capitalism can no longer deliver because the system is rotten beyond reform.
Okoth Osewe
Secretary General
Kenya Red Alliance (KRA)
About the Author
nouthing good comes out of coup, the only way forwad is through a free and demokratik system, something that was stolen form kenyans in the last election. Funy enought even those who cried foul that time are all enjoyingnayma choma now forgeting the past. Kenya neads a people revolution not by millitary means but by people, like the wind blowing now in the midleeast. Chase those boldheads and fat politicians and drug venders out of the town….
Justice is required urgently for those executed soldiers who tried to rescure us from a foolish dictatorial regime of Moi.Moi should go to hague and answer charges of human right violation(human massacre).
http://www.vogue.it/en/uomo-vogue/people/2012/05/raila-odinga
· The Inquiry against Njonjo heard testimony from a total of 62 witnesses, including Raila, and took 106 working days before it completed its work. The Commission’s report of the Inquiry was made public on December 12, 1984 and soon afterwards, President Moi announced a pardon for Njonjo who then went into political hibernation. · Twenty one years later after Raila was brought out of detention without trial to testify against Njonjo, the former Attorney General returned to the national political limelight as one of Raila Odinga’s most ardent supporters in 2005, two years before the disputed 2007 elections. · What has changed in the last twenty seven years to make Njonjo who hated Luos with a passion and especially the Odingas, turn full circle into one of Raila’s ardent supporters and a “born again” friend of the Luos?” Nothing to add: enough said!