KESDEMO: NO Camp Should Prepare for Kibaki's Exit

[Onyango Oloo]

REFERENDUM: “NO CAMP” SHOULD PREPARE FOR KIBAKI’S EXIT FROM POWER

Statement by
Kenya Scandinavia Democratic Movement (KESDEMO)

October 5th 2005

Soon after President Mwai Kibaki took power in January 2003, thousands of poor Kenyans in the Rift valley were violently evicted from their land by armed security bandits in a brutal and merciless act of State sponsored terrorism in Kenya’s recent history. Millions worth of property was completely destroyed and thousands of livelihoods shattered as defenseless citizens were rendered homeless by the new Narc government. Now, tactless Mount Kenya Mafia strategists of the panicky President Kibaki have convinced the old man that bribing these poor victims of State terror with promises of resettlements could hand the “Yes” camp 2.3 million votes in the Rift valley on November 21st! We ask: When will Kibaki bribe the marginalized Rendiles, Pokots, Giriama, Bajuns etc with empty promises to salvage the faltering “Yes” campaign?

This desperate announcement of “resettlement” by the President should be the latest and one of the strongest indicators that the Orange fighters are not just shattering the pillars of the “Yes” camp but are also shaking the very foundations of the Kibaki Presidency. A defeat for the “Yes” vote will be an effective defeat for both the President and extortionist Mount Kenya blockheads who are, in reality, campaigning for their political survival under the guise of a “Yes” vote in the coming referendum. It is for this reason that the “Yes” campaign has been dubbed “A government project” whose core objective is to ensure that President Mwai Kibaki, Mirugi Kariuki, Dr. Chris Murungaru, John Michuki, Kiraitu Murungi, Njenga Karume and other Kikuyu elites in the corridors of power remain in firm control of the State machine. Can a handful of greedy opportunists change the direction of democratic struggle in Kenya?

To underline the fear of a doomsday scenario that has engulfed the President and his loyalists, Kibaki has disastrously incorporated intermittent use of foul language in his public speeches to lace government propaganda for a “Yes” vote. By using words like “Wapumbavu” (stupid people) and “Mavi ya kuku” (chicken this is not your toilet) to refer to “No” sayers being led by his own rebel Cabinet Ministers like Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, the President is actually exposing himself as having a “chicken brain” for how on earth did he appoint “mavi ya kuku” to his Cabinet in the first place? One “Pumbavu” called Prof Anyang Nyongo is actually the National Planning Minister!


Condemn the Arrest of MPs, David Mwenje and Reuben Ndolo

We salute the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) for their strong opposition to the Kibaki Constitution and declaration that KNUT members will vote “No” on November 21st. We call upon the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU), the Kenya Civil Servants Union, the Kenya National Army, The National Police Force, Student organizations, all Unions not allied to COTU and millions of youth across the country to follow suite because this Constitution is a national document which should be written for posterity, not for personal political ambitions of individual wealth grabbers.

We send warm solidarity greetings to Mombasa Mayor Taib Ali Taib for his mature decision to abandon “the sinking Banana ship” on time to join the growing Orange battalion and his progressive decision to work with Najib Balala (Minister of National Heritage) to help deliver a devastating defeat to Kibaki’s Banana project especially in the marginalized Coast province. Kudos to the Masaais for the recent Suswa declaration that has added impetus to the “No” camp and returned the 100 year old marginalization of the Masaais to the Constitutional agenda. Revolutionary greetings to the new “Orange Democratic Movement” which will definitely play a big role in the coming anti-Kibaki struggles in Kenya.

As the “No” camp begins to smell victory, we believe that the “No” campaigners should begin a coordinated psychological preparation of the masses for Kibaki’s exit from power after the impending funeral service of the “Yes” vote on November 21st. We take the view that the “Yes” vote will not emerge from the “Intensive Care Unit” where it is currently in complete comatose.

We condemn the arrest of two MPs and prominent Orange campaigners, Mr. David Mwenje of Embakasi and Mr. Reuben Ndolo of Makadara and their subsequent arraignment in court on tramped up charges. richard nixon perhaps?son Odero, the General Manager of City Cabanas Hotel who is listed as the key complainant in the bogus Mwenje-Ndolo case, told the press that he wasn’t aware about the damage the MPs had been charged with and that he had not recorded any statements with police. Njeri, the proprietor of the Hotel, told journalists that “I never pressed charges against them…” What emerges is a clear and dastard strategy masterminded by security agents to harass, humiliate, intimidate, scare, terrorize and even silence top “No” campaigners and journalists like Mr. David Ochami who has also been arraigned in court on tamped up charges. After the MPs were held incommunicado under fascist conditions for three days, it is actually true that Kenya is quickly slipping back into dictatorship!

Arrest Murungaru for criminal activities

After openly breaking the law, known criminal members of the ruling class are escaping the loop without recording a single statement with police while government opponents and journalists doing their work are being hounded by police in massive operations in the name of “State security”. Dr. Chris Murungaru, a Cabinet Minister and Kibaki’s political bed-mate, masterminded an attack this year on a white farmer in his Kieni constituency in revenge after the Minister was banned from entering Britain “because of security reasons”. To date, Murungaru has not recorded a single statement with police in connection with the attack neither has he been arrested. This is despite the existence of ample and real evidence that could send this leading “NAK gang member” behind bars for illegal criminal activities. What is the difference between the Mwnjes and the Murungarus when it comes to dispensation of justice in Kibaki’s Kenya?

The issue here is that the Kibaki government is dispensing justice selectively, just like former dictator Moi did. It’s simple. Opponents are persecuted and supporters get away with crime. A clean defeat at the referendum should be a big step towards kicking the capitalist gangsters who have taken control of KANU’s instruments of violence which they are using gleefully, not just to get their way but also to violate the rights and freedoms of Kenyan citizens. Both Mwenje and Ndolo claimed that they were tortured by police while Kenyans have suddenly started fearing illegal arrests by security police in a convoy of civilian cars. Hasn’t Kibaki done enough damage already to warrant his exit from power or is it us exaggerating the situation?

Even with the colonial KANU Constitution, the ruling class under President Kibaki is above the law. What the Kibaki Constitution does is that it provides further and more dangerous loop holes to enable the ruling class to continue remaining above the law and this is why the “Yes” camp should lose. We don’t have to give further examples where John Michuki has not recorded a single statement after ordering police to execute innocent civilians in the streets in the name of controlling crime. Whenever police execute their victims, they call journalists and after delivering a one-sided story, the matter normally ends there without any further investigations. The Kibaki Constitution should be opposed because it does not alter the above status quo. Human life is precious and in any democratic society, police should be accountable especially when they take away the life of an innocent Kenyan citizen.

Defeating The Wealthy Kikuyu Ruling Class

On two separate occasions, Kibaki tried to come to power using votes from members of his Kikuyu ethnic group and failed. It was only after he combined forces with other ethnic groups that he came to power. Now, the President has erected a monolithic “Kikuyu government” and is treating other ethnic groups like “Mavi ya kuku”, calling them “Wapumbavu”. The “Yes” campaign has officially been dubbed “a government project” by Kiraitu Murungi while political opportunists like John Michuki are being used to remind the Kikuyu “to sleep soundly” because the government is firmly under Kikuyu control. We urge Kenyans not to be cheated with these outmoded power games played by looters trying to split the country on ethnic lines to postpone liberation from neo-colonialism.

Our view is that there are two classes of Kikuyus in Kenya. One Kikuyu is stinking rich, well fed with body guards, owns big chunks of land and zooms around town in chauffer driven, fuel guzzling cars bought with money stolen from the tax payer. After failing to build schools and hospitals since the colonial revolution, this class of Kikuyu travels and sends children abroad for education and treatment, lives in luxury as they preach water to the poor and comfortably drink their wine.

The second Kikuyu belongs to the class Franz Fanon described as “The Wretched of the earth”. They are the harassed supuerile swear word wiki hawkers and poor landless squatters in their own country. This Kikuyu wakes up every morning without food in Mathare valley or Korogocho along side other oppressed Kenyan tribes languishing in perpetual poverty and hoping for liberation by high flying wealth grabbers in government. The wealthy Kikuyu is no comparison to the exploited Kikuyu worker who toils everyday day but lives from hand to mouth because of poverty wages.

Under capitalism, the above arrangement is the same with all members of the ruling classes regardless of their ethnic groups. A defeat of the “Yes” vote will be a defeat of the Kikuyu ruling class, not a defeat of the Kikuyu community as ethnic chauvinists in the “Yes” camp would like Kenyans to believe. A “No” victory will be a victory for workers, peasants, students and millions of unemployed youth regardless of their ethnic origin. The fundamental question will be the destination of the Kenyan revolution after the “Yes” vote is comfortably buried.


The Need for a “Plan B”

In mobilizing for a “No” vote, Kenyans ought to remember that President Kibaki engineered the transformation of Kenya into a ruthless one party dictatorship when he was Moi’s Vice President. He opposed the re-introduction of political pluralism because he was diametrically opposed to the introduction of many political parties in Kenya. Kibaki told Kenyans not to waste their time trying to remove Moi from power because, according to him, doing so was like trying to cut a Mugumo tree with a razor blade. The President is in power by accident and he doesn’t care.

He jumped ship only after he was dropped by former President Moi as Vice President before setting up his Kikuyu populated Democratic Party. After the defeat of Moi in 2002, we are where we are because Kibaki has converted the government into a play ground of a thin layer of Kikuyu fanatics around him who are playing hopeless political chess games at State House in the false name of the Kikuyu ethnic group.

Thirty two million Kenyans will never again accept to be dominated by one ethnic group but Kibaki and his bogey men have not understood this important point. From his brand of leadership characterized by deception, corruption, Moi-style tactics and open subterfuge, Kibaki is the last person who can be trusted with the drafting of a new Constitution. The President has all the credentials of a person who can try and rig the vote in his favor as a matter of survival. If this happens, we believe that the “No” camp should have a “Plan B” in the run up to the November vote.


Mr. Martin Ngatia

Interim Chairperson

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Mr. Okoth Osewe

Interim Secretary

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Kenya Scandinavia Democratic Movement (KESDEMO)

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KESDEMO is an umbrella Movement bringing together Kenya People’s Democratic Movement (KEPEDEMO Mapinduzi), Kenya Socialist Democratic Alliance (KSDA), Kenya Social Forum in Norway (KSF-Norway), Muungano Ya Akina Mama Scandinavia, Organization of Kenyans in Denmark (OKD) and Association of Kenyan Students in Finland (AKSIF). The Movement is in its formative stages and further details will be released as the anti-Imperialist, anti-Kibaki struggle in Kenya continues.