Kenya Stockholm Blog

The Kenya Red Alliance (KRA) has always reiterated that from a Socialist perspective, what is called “The Constitution” is a piece of paper which will always be violated by the capitalist ruling thugs whenever their interests are threatened. In other words, The Constitution can only be implemented effectively if the process of implementation is on the hands and controlled by the working people of Kenya together with the oppressed majority. The rich owners of capital will never implement the Constitution in the interest of the oppressed.

Millions of Kenyans who have not even waded through the Constitution will quickly agree that one fundamental right that is enshrined in that Constitution is the right to free Assembly and the Right to Free Speech.

Today, a group of Kenyans gathered at the Freedom corner in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park to exercise their right to Free Assembly, a right protected by the Constitution. According to a Statement released by Boniface Mwangi, a leading member of the group who was also attacked:

“Slightly over 50 percent of Kenyans still live below the poverty line; the health sector is on its knees – thanks to underfunding and corruption, as a result of which most Kenyans can no longer access basic healthcare; although illiteracy levels have risen over the years, education sector faces numerous challenges, including underfunding and lack of infrastructural development that has stunted the sector”.

“The protest will highlight the above mentioned issues and many others. It is the responsibility of every citizen to play their role and hold their government accountable if our country is to become a middle income economy in the foreseeable future”.

Yesterday, the idle National security Advisory Committee (NSAC) released a poorly written statement stating that “The National Security Advisory Committee (NSAC) has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to urgently summon the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) officials with IMMEDIATE EFFECT to give more information over its plans to topple the Government using activists”.

The NSAC’s Statement was designed to send warning signals to Kenyans that USAID was planning to topple the government by sponsoring youths to demonstrate in the streets. With the promulgation of a New Constitution in August 2010, many Kenyans believed that situations where security organs intervene to contravene or subvert the Constitution were long gone with the Moi era. Is the Jubilee government so weak that it fears overthrow by a demo in Nairobi organized by a small group of Kenyans seeking to exercise their democratic rights?

For now, it is a small demo at a corner being attacked by police but does the government know that a revolution is unstoppable when it comes? Is the government aware that by banning harmless demonstrations, it is, in reality, sending signals to millions of unemployed youths that time for revolution is here? Where in the world has a government managed to stop a revolution using riot police when the revolution breaks out? For today, these will remain rhetorical questions.

Attack by Police
When the demonstrators showed up, they were not only chased away from the Freedom Corner and tear-gassed but also brutalized ruthlessly by a reckless riot police acting on orders. The conditions which encourage citizens to take to the streets to protest include high unemployment especially among the youth, lack of medical care, starvation of millions of citizens when the rich have more than their share of the cake, rampant tribalism in government, political thuggery,  violation of human rights, corruption, nepotism, cronyism just to mention but a few.

All these vices are present in Kenya today and now, an illegal government that was installed in power by the military after a rigged election and led by suspected war criminals who deserve to be caged is sending its police thugs to violate the rights of the very people they oppress.

The illegal government of Uhuru Kenyatta and his suspected criminal ally, William Ruto, are using various arms of the Kenyan state to unleash violence against its own people. The Kenyan Red Alliance would like to warn the Jubilee government that it is playing with fire by subjecting a population which cannot feed itself to even more oppression by a government which ought to be protecting them.

For now, government apparatchiks can continue joking with the word “revolution” but as the struggle continues and the real revolution gains momentum, every single individual in government responsible for every violation currently being documented by revolutionary forces will be captured and brought to face justice at a revolutionary court of law.

In this regard, the National Intelligence Security Services, the entire leadership of the National Police Force, the entire leadership of the General Service Unit (GSU) including any identifiable person or persons currently responsible for violating the rights and freedoms of Kenyan citizens will have to take responsibility after the capture of thieving Jubilee leadership led by Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto.

While KRA condemns today’s attacks on innocent civilians in the streets of Nairobi, the Alliance takes this early opportunity to warn the Jubilee government that there exists citizens of the Republic of Kenya who will no longer accept oppression and subjugation by an irresponsible government whose leaders deserve to be locked in The Hague due to their rolls in the 2008 post-election massacres that resulted in the deaths of more than 1500 civilians.

Kenyans have come a long way with the struggle for democracy and human rights. To be exact, it has been more than 50 years of struggle, time when thousands of Kenyans have lost their lives in the process of struggle. It should therefore be unthinkable that any sane Kenyan should passively accept a roll-back of the democratic gains of the last 50 years by an illegal regime whose agents rigged the 2013 elections to install them to power. The situation is even more serious when basic rights such as Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Speech are among the Rights and Freedoms being taken away in broad day light. After 50 years in power, the capitalist ruling class consistently failed Kenyans and even the promulgation of a New Constitution is of no help. Who says that Kenya is not ripe for a Socialist revolution?

Okoth Osewe
Secretary General
Kenya Red Alliance (KRA)