What Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s support for Kibaki means
Published on November 17, 2007, 12:00 am
By Egara Kabaji
IN a paid up advertisement, Party of National Unity (PNU) claims that Ngugi wa Thiong’o, renowned novelist, supports Mwai Kibaki’s re-election.
The fact that the party found it necessary to announce this through a paid-up advertisement means it considers Ngugi’s endorsement of Kibaki politically significant.
But it is necessary to examine the true implications of this declaration. Ngugi wa Thiong’o, like other Kenyans, has a right to state his political stand.
As a distinguished Kenyan, he is also under obligation to give direction when necessary. The question is: what political mileage does Ngugi’s declaration bring to PNU?
To understand the true implications of Ngugi’s support for Kibaki, it is important to assess what Ngugi wa Thiong’o is to the Kenyan voter. He belongs to the first generation of Kenyan writers. He is, no doubt, the most widely read East African writer. But there is more to Ngugi.
If there’s any Kenyan writer I know of, who has suffered the indignity of dictatorship from oppressive regimes, then that is Ngugi. He suffered both under Jomo Kenyatta and the Moi regimes. It was the last regime that destroyed Ngugi’s experiment with the people’s theatre at Kimiriithu.
True, President Moi finally released Ngugi from detention without trial, but his system went ahead to make it difficult for Ngugi to get back his job at the University of Nairobi, thereby driving him into exile.
It is notable to add that Ngugi and Raila Odinga were incarcerated by the last regime for their beliefs in democracy and the rule of law. At that time, Kibaki was serving as the vice-president.
Ngugi wa Thiongo’s book Ngugi Detained: A Prisoner’s Diary records some of the most bizarre treatment he and others underwent in detention. As the vice-president, Kibaki never raised a finger for those detained without trial. Kibaki was actually the chair of the National Security Council.
Well, Ngugi may argue that Kibaki was not the one driving policy then, but great men have to distinguish themselves at such dark hours. One such person who comes to mind is the late Masinde Muliro. After the murder of JM Kariuki, Muliro opposed the government’s cover up of the murder and declared that the idea of collective responsibility does not apply to Cabinet members in an open case of assassination. He fell off with the Kenyatta regime, but will go down in history as a great Kenya.
Perhaps it is prudent to direct inquiry into the pertinent issues at the centre of Ngugi’s books to appreciate the import of his latest declaration. Thematically Ngugi’s works explore the trauma of dispossession that ordinary people went through under colonialism, the struggle for independence and the evils of the post colonial governments.
Ngugi’s works resonate with the idea that those who fought for independence did not benefit from the successive regimes. The progression from Weep not Child through A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood, Devil on the Cross to Wizard of the Crow can only be seen in terms of the development of these pertinent issues. Has this vision been fulfilled in the Kibaki presidency?
Ngugi’s position on language is equally controversial. When Ngugi declared in Decolonising the Mind that he would start using Kikuyu as his language of creative endeavour, many Kenyans who do not speak Kikuyu, felt abandoned by an icon. Some even wrongly branded him a tribalist. Their perception of him was, in a nutshell, therefore ethnicised. Now he seems to confirm it.
Does Ngugi’s endorsement of Kibaki mean that the government has achieved what Ngugi has been advocating for all these years? In Ngugi’s estimation, out of the top contenders for the seat of president of the Republic of Kenya, it is Kibaki he sees as the best bet for Kenya at the moment?
By announcing Ngugi’s position in a paid up advertisement, PNU definitely aims at gaining political mileage. But in my considered opinion, the way PNU has marketed Ngugi’s opinion serves the party negatively. In an ethnically charged Kenya today, Ngugi will be seen as pandering to tribal instincts.
It is a fact that support for various candidates is distributed along ethnic lines right from the ordinary voters to the sophisticated one. Ngugi’s support for Kibaki will, therefore, be perceived as influenced by ethnic considerations and nothing more. After all, a good number of the evils that Ngugi has been against are visible in the present government.
It is also important to note that even within the group of Kenyans in the Diaspora, where Ngugi resides, groupings, which support the various presidential candidates, are ethnically driven. For Ngugi to ally with one makes it clear to the anti-Kibaki group that he does not rise above ethnic affiliation. This solidifies their position on Kibaki.
I wish Ngugi’s support for any of the presidential candidates, come with a caveat specifying what he wishes to be done. Take the obvious case of the constitution. Ngugi was detained partly because the constitution provides for that. The constitution can even corrupt an angel. All the powers are rested in one person. Now Kibaki’s 10-point agenda does not provide specifically for a new constitution.
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