An Ideological Reading of Kenya....

[Onyango Oloo]

Towards an Ideological Reading of the Kenyan Condition

A Digital Essay by Onyango Oloo

1.0. Rewinding an Old Canadian Videotape

I remember an incident that happened in Toronto in early 1990.

There we were at 361 University Avenue, on the sidewalk, separated by a fence and “protected” by Toronto’s finest just outside the US Consulate in Canada’s financial capital.

Swaddled in winter coats, sweatshirts and other cold fighting textiles of various hues, we could see the fumes from our own breath waft in the air as we chanted, “Moi must go! Moi must go now! Moi must go! Moi must go now! Democracy Yes! Dictatorship NO! No Justice, No Peace!” and so on and so forth.

Who were we?

A gaggle of Kenyan political exiles, refugee claimants, students and new immigrants united by our indignation against the KANU dictatorship. My elephant memory is playing tricks with me: I am not sure if we were protesting the grisly killing of Moi’s loyal foreign minister, the late Dr. Robert Ouko or just another one of KANU’s routine repressive policies. At any rate, Moi was visiting Washington and we were sending a message to him that if he ever ventured into Canada he had a pretty good idea of what kind of reception awaited him. For the record, the former Kenyan head of state never set foot in Canada between 1988 and 2002- largely because of the feisty Kenyan anti-KANU sentiment, especially in the Greater Toronto Area- a fact often glossed over by the revisionist historians of contemporary Kenyan politics.

The point of this anecdote is illustrated by what happened next in the course of this demonstration. As we were pacing the sidewalk with our slogans, chants and brief impromptu political speeches and fleeting pep talk to a handful of curious journalists, a small breakaway group suddenly started demanding that we should change our slogans and start imploring Uncle Sam to send a military force to go to Kenya and violently overthrow Moi and bring him to a United States jail where he would face trial for crimes against humanity, in much the same way that Noriega had been toppled and incarcerated.

Too stunned and flabbergasted, I was briefly lost for words.

Was I seeing what I was seeing and hearing what I was hearing?

Were my protesting compatriots being ironical in asking the world’s most notorious underwriter of Third World dictatorships to come to Kenya and clean up our society on our behalf?

When I rediscovered my gift of speech, I quickly confirmed my very worst fears- these guys were dead serious!

CONTINUED>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Onyango Oloo]

2.0. Our Penchant for Using American Acronyms for Kenyan Political Formations

The first serious challenge to the Moi-KANU dictatorship was the massive democratic movement called the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy in Kenya, more familiarly known by its acronym FORD.

The coalition which buried the KANU dictatorship and derailed the Uhuru Project had the moniker NARC.

To Kenyans living in the States, North America and even Kenya (thanks to the cultural imperialism that inspires our television programming) these two sobriquets echoed respectively, the brand identities of one of the most powerful Fortune 500 corporations and evoked the anti-narcotics squad in the USA.

Of course most Kenyans will insist that these names merely coincided with the American brand names.

Whatever.

What is most interesting about a critical phase of the struggle to reintroduce legal political pluralism is the historical milestone of a speech by the American ambassador to Nairobi-a former editor of the rabidly anti-communist Washington Times. The ascendancy of Smith Hempstone into the pantheon of Kenyan democratic heroes is simply bizarre.

To find that Smith Hempstone’s speech to the Kenya Press Club is now credited in some quarters as having “launched” the Kenyan pro-democracy movement is a grave insult to the memories of Kenyans who died or were maimed in confronting the KANU dictatorship right from the time of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.

The Hempstone advocacy for political pluralism helped to set the stage for the Americanization and NGOization of mainstream Kenyan politics from the mid nineties to date. About six or seven years ago I was listening intently to one of my younger compatriots in southern Ontario tell me how they went about creating a political strategy in one of the prominent Kenyan electoral vehicles- they wrote a proposal to a Nairobi based outlet of a Western foundation, received a grant which they promptly used to hire a management consultant, project coordinator etc. The management consultant then proceeded to give a report and recommendation not far removed from those of a run of the mill company. Stacked with technocrats and fugitives from the NGOs many of these political formations were a far cry from the grass roots, often clandestine formations of the 1980s which were formed by comrades who had a shared ideological vision, powered by their commitment to fundamental social change and sustained through meager, but consistent member contributions. The style of some of the political campaigns in 1992, 1997 and even 2002 (I am thinking of Uhuru’s campaign) seemed to have borrowed heavily from mainstream American politics.

Apart from its derivative style, what distinguished mainstream Kenyan political activities of the post 1991 period was its thematic, programmatic and ideological (to the extent that there existed any vestiges of ideology) content. All of a sudden the deafening mantra of "transparency, accountability and good governance" was being broadcast everywhere even as the socio-economic platforms of these outfits lurched much farther to the right of KANU in terms of endorsing some of the most draconian IMF policies trumpeting retrenchment, cutting back on social services and the like.

The most significant democratic movement spawned by the 90s political reawakening in Kenya- the change the constitution movement-had by the turn of the century divested itself of its earlier militant anti-imperialism to cloak itself in technocratic NGOese, seemingly ideologically neutral but in actuality anchored in a quasi post-modernist liberal democratic discourse.

What with the plethora of seminars, workshops, retreats, visioning sessions and what not it was becoming difficult to demarcate where civil society turf ended and political party territory commenced- largely because many ex-civil society big wigs were suddenly budding mainstream politicians.

By the first half of the first decade of the twenty-first century the introduction of public opinion poll extrapolations had signaled the triumph of mainstream American style ideological grafting onto the skin of mainstream political contestations.

The Kenyan print and electronic media with their symbiotic and often incestuous infatuation with civil society started looking, in sections, like they were churning out NGO pamphlets and flyers rather than independent news and analytical stories. The fact of the matter is that some NGOs produced their own papers and many media pundits on the idiot box and in the dailies were themselves civil society insiders and commentators.

I consider all the developments in this section a triumph for the ideological machinations of the United States and her G-7 allies.

CONTINUED>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Onyango Oloo]

3.0. Ideological Underpinnings of the War on Corruption

In another digital intervention, I cited three sources that provide a useful framework for me in looking at the ongoing anti-corruption campaigns in Kenya:


www.globalpolicy.org/nations/launder/general/2001/0705sng.htm


www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/develop/2004/1012goodgovernance.htm


www.transcend.org/t_database/articles.php?ida=453

I will therefore comment no further except to make the following observations:

1. Is it NOT amazing how sincere, well-meaning Kenyans have actually managed to whip themselves into an insane lather about the much touted war on corruption and simultaneously remained completely indifferent and insulated against much bigger matters that should be cause for serious national concern:

(a) The massive retrenchment affecting tens of thousands of Kenyan workers by agents of the very same regime that these same said workers elected to power with the expectations that one of its primary concerns would be to improve the socio-economic and material conditions of the ordinary wananchi;
(b) The growth of export processing zones and the state romanticization of the jua kali sector which is a symbol of underdevelopment rather than development;
(c) The zeal with which the Kenya government has flung open the gates of the Kenyan economy to the looting hands of transnationals and other foreign based firms;
(d) The greed with which forces close to the ruling cabal have been gobbling up sections of the former public sector now gutted through mindless privatization;
(e) The complete lack of movement on land and agrarian reforms;
(f) The continued immiseration of women and the increasing number of girl children thrown out of the educational system; on a related point the persistent scourge of violence against women and girl children including the inhuman crimes of rape and child molestation;
(g) The marginalization of more than half of the Kenyan population-the youth;
(h) The marginalization, infantalization and romanticization of cultural and ethnic minorities even as their over-idealized pastoral and rustic life styles are exploited by unscrupulous tourist profiteers who prefer to maintain such Kenyan peoples in conditions of pre-colonial squalor and backwardness;
(i) The encroaching ideological over-reach of the Made in America Christian far right movement and its Islamic Wahabbist mirror image;
(j) The lack of movement on democratic and constitutional reforms- an obstacle which provides a carte blanche for past Goldenbergs, present Anglo- Fleecings and future hybrid and monster corruption scandals that are destined to dwarf in severity the afore-said graft scandals;
(k) The increasing repression of an already very violent state of the very civil and political liberties they swore to protect- attacks on independent minded journalists, using government organs and tax payers money to push factional and parochial pro-Kibaki agendas;
(l) The growing cultural imperialism and its corollary, village style tribal propaganda in certain sections of our print and electronic media;
(m) The mitumbaization and dubaization of the Kenyan economy;



One could go on; one chooses not to.

2. Why are Kenyans content with shallow, superficial and pat political takes on what are otherwise deeply rooted political, economic, cultural and social problems in our society? When will Kenyans learn to look behind and beyond the headlines? Why is there a shrinking space for serious, ideologically based reflections on our national condition?

3. Why do we subtract Kenya from the global equation when we look at what bedevils us? Why do we insist on one-sided takes which pluck at aspects of the whole while eschewing a more comprehensive analysis of issues?

4. Why are we OBSESSED with personalities who occupy the mainstream political space- in other words is everything in Kenya about Kibaki versus Raila and so on?

5. In looking at the question of the ethnic factor in Kenyan politics, when will we extend beyond knee-jerk name calling and contextualize the toxic nature of tribalism within a wider analysis of class and so on?

6. Aren’t we tired ALREADY of chanting Fulani Must Go! Fulani Must Go Now! I mean the other day we were screaming that Moi Must Go! And he went. Now we are screeching Kibaki Must Go and he undoubtedly will. But we are still stuck with the problems that gave rise to those superficial chants.

Folks, I am done for today. I await your feedback and comments.

Onyango Oloo
Nairobi, Kenya

[miguna]

Oloo,

Kenyans will shout very loudly and consistently that "Moi," "Kibaki" - or anybody or anything else for that matter - representing an oppressive, looting and callous regime - MUST GO.

Kenyans have done this for decades. They will. They must. And nothing will stop them from doing that - even if that shout is termed shallow, ideologically ignorant or whatever. I respect the intelligence of ordinary Kenyans too much to accept your elitist stance here. Yes, you heard it right - ELITIST! That's right.

Kenyans will and have also been fighting the foreign, colonial or imperialist "encroachments" at the same time as they have been shouting their "Kibaki Must Go".

From the look of things, their shout has been very successful at shaking up the lethargic regime. Remember November 21st? That deafening result was not a vote against Kibaki the individual. It was more significantly a message. A very clear one at that - that the people are awake and alive to their interests.

The battle is multi faceted, multi-pronged, complex and at many fronts. That is necessary in order for complete liberation to be realized.

However, the folly of your analysis is to think and suggest that Kenyans must not shout "Kibaki Must Go Now!". Instead, you are suggesting - because of your suspicions that the imperialists are trying to impose lackeys in Kenya - that Kenyans must shout "Kibaki Must Stay Now!."

You have conveniently omitted to mention what Adongo and I reminded you of elsewhere that "Kibaki is THE imperialist stooge."

The imperialists you have expressed concerns over are responsible for Kenyatta, Moi and now Kibaki taking power in Kenya. They are the ones that undermined and sabotaged Jaramogi and all the other socialist minded Kenyans before Kibaki was enthroned.

At the end of the day, you must seriously ask yourself: "Are Kenyans better off and better served by my new mantra of "LET US DEFEND THE KIBAKI REGIME NOW?" If not, why are you insisting on this fallacious message?

For me, Kibaki and George Bush are on the same side. So, when I say Kibaki Must Go, I also mean, together with George W Bush! Is that supporting imperialists?

Anyway, I take issue with a few things you have done here and in those other threads. First, you find it very easy to brand everyone that questioned your faulty analysis as a "footbal or soccer hooligan" trying to drown you out of a debate. That is belittling people and it is unacceptable in a serious debate.

Now, you have started off by giving a "historical" example of your disagreement with some demonstrators in Toronto, without explaining where, on the ideological divide these people were compared to yourself and why you were still demonstrating with them despite these perceived ideological differences. The clever insinuation here is that "some of those ideologically inept Tronto demonstrators that were calling for a foreign invasion of Kenya" are the same ones now calling for the downfall of Kibaki's regime.

This strategy is clever but dishonest. You know that neither Adongo's nor my voice were among those voices you've quoted. My friend, for you to have given this example speaks of something much troubling. Why are you so fond of putting yourself in the middle of a political debate and transforming the debate into a discussion about you, your ideological beliefs, commitments etc? Can't we discuss these things without personalizing them?

Why, for example, did you not carry a placard reading "Moi Must Stay Now!" in order to "protest" the "imperialists' attempts at overthrowing an Afrikan government in the same manner you are currently carrying on?

Personally, I think you have tried to use these contradictory "ideological" questions as a diversionary tactic. So far, they are not working. And I hope that they fail completely as they do not seem to be aimed at propelling Kenyans to victory over their oppressors - whether local or foreign.

[unedited]

-Miguna-

[abdulmote]

miguna,

Thanks for your effort above. It is adequately enough. Unfortunately it seems Onyango has decided to go in circles! As you had aptly responded, it will not wash.

To me personally, either this is another sad episode unfolding, or perhaps I may have overestimated his 'evolving' patriotism! But never mind, life has to carry on. Onyango is certainly not the first, neither will he be the last but the battle has to continue.

Below is my simple response which I had posted after Onyango's call of "Time to DEFEND Kibaki regime is NOW"! I still cannot believe those words to have come from him after just a few weeks in Nairobi! The weather there must be 'wicked'!:-

"Some of us are NOT 'foolish' enough to even imagine that the Westerners are by any chance genuinely helping us simply for our own sake! Absolute nonsense!

The fact is, the so called 'Imperialist forces' have always been over our shoulders from time immemorial! If anything at all, when can you suggest that they were not?

Yes it is true and right to observe that these guys are doing what they are doing simply because there may be some selfish strategies about about them. But we should also as a matter of fact, be very clear of the parallel existence of rape and squander taking as being led by Mwai wa Kibaki against our republic!

In saying that, I think it is even more dangerous to try and 'hide behind the cover' of Imperialists, whilst 'cleverly' warning us of the impending dangers as posed by the same, as an alternative to focussing on the robbery and destruction by one of our own! That categorically does not wash and will never wash!

You know what? I would have thought by now we are all smart enough to appreciate that the Mabeberus have been with us, within us, and will be in between us for a long time to come. But what really alarms me, is this suggestion that Kibaki is not one of them! And if you are saying that yes he is, then aren't we fighting against the right enemy right now? How does anyone dare seperate these and under what justifiable categories?"

[aeichener]

The interests of various Western (id est Northern) nations is one. The interest of Kenyans is another. Both sets of interests can be diametrically opposed, both interests can converge and conincide nicely, as is the case presently.

A certain distance and detachedness benefits the spectator. Kenyans neither need to kiss the ex-colonialists' boots, and to expect all salvation from abroad, nor do they need to rage and frothe in the tremors of a long-passed and outdated 1960s anti-imperialism.

Alexander

[Onyango Oloo]

Please desist from your intellectual terrorism. You have noticed that I veer away from your personalized attacks every time you make them.

Anybody who has actually read what I have written, including the piece on "Why Kenyans Must Defend Kibaki Now" will notice that I actually and repeatedly say that the NAK regime must go. I have insisted that this is a task for Kenyans, not our imperialist masters. Both of you have wilfully chosen to ignore what I have said in the space of over 100 essays over the last year including the very latest ones in a bid to jump start an unnecessary online spat.

Miguna: please continue with the dressing down- I do not think you have had your fill yet.

Abdul Mote: one hopes that your commitment to fundamental change is NOT hinged on what an Onyango Oloo says on the internet. Let us do some actual political work TOGETHER before you presume to judge my political commitment. You are free to jump to any wild conclusions about my stances regarding social transformation in the country. At the end of the day you should realize that MOST of my political work is done offline. The comrades that I meet everyday here in Nairobi and the ones I have interacted with outside Kenya for the last eighteen years are in a better position to gauge my ideological clarity and consistency. Is it not sad that you would deign to offer conclusive "proof" based on an essay that you obviously misunderstood.

Both of you have put on the hats of Drs. Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung respectively to engage in some deep psychoanalysis of Oloo's personality. Good luck doctors!


Perhaps, when you are done with the psychoanalyzing you will spare some time to RESPOND to the issues I raise, rather than using each new thread I post as an opportunity to trash talk.

Onyango Oloo
Nairobi, Kenya

[abdulmote]

OO,

Let us simplify the point/s of our contention instead of emotionally going in cirles.

1. Fact is at no time any of us appeared to have dissagreed with you on your points regarding the "Imperial forces" working against Kenya. Indeed I can confidently say that we are all aware of the threat and dangers these may pose against our 'infant' nation.

2. Where I personally feel categorically 'offended' by your observations, is when you had clearly and unreservedly declared your "taking of sides", and this by calling to "DEFEND the Kibaki regime"! This you have done, despite cunningly and deliberately contradicting yourself by observing that "Kibaki and NAK must go".

David, I still have some of James Patras' essays which you had generously linked in one of your essays through your 'blog' sometime in August/September of 2004 which touched upon similar arguments. I also do remember you suggesting the need of Kenyans putting 'alternative' measures put in place, and infact you even played with the idea of some kind of a "mixed economy", an idea which you did not go all the way with even after I had indicated to be anxiously waiting for! But the bottom line is I agreed with you at that time and still do agree with you now, but so long as you leave Kibaki out of this!

Now then, do you remember using words "I have been washed, spun and dried" in one of those essays in response to Patras? Well, there is nothing new and here we are!

All you had to do was to say; "OK, I made a mistake. I should not have used those words which implied DEFENDING kibaki at all"! That would have been it.

But to do so and even observe that some may imagine your "drink to have been spiked" by suggesting such a line? What did you hope to achieve at all eh?

If it is the "Imperialist" we are concerned about, I say lets focus on them as we should at an appropriate time and moment, with appropriate dedication and vigour, without 'polluting' our thrust with unwanted garbage, and that would be brilliant. And if it is the obvious vacuum of leadership which is infact our biggest concern, then again, lets continue with the needful without diverting that attention and focus as is the case. Lets indeed work "together" as you correctly put it, without threatening our integrity in so cheap a manner.

[roughrider]

Alex your comment- up there - is apt. But like the good book says while ‘Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; She uttereth her voice in the broad places’, who listens?

Miguna and Abdulmote: As a matter of record we need to recall that the fight for a just, equitable society is not and cannot be based on personalities. A staunch fighter for reform and human rights today could quickly transform into a rabid defender of corruption a la Kiraitu Murungi. And who knows, this chameleon could even be your best friend.

However, I do not believe Oloo is there yet. I urge that we suspend judgment. I prefer – for his sake - to see this newfound ‘defend Kibaki now’ mantra as a probably well meaning but misguided and misinformed position. Even the most carefull and consistent analysts make mistakes. We must allow them a soft landing.

On the six or so issues raised in the essay, there is no silver bullet. But a starting point is obviously fighting corruption and implementing a new, people driven constitution ASAP.

[miguna]

Roughrider,

Precisely my point. However, once notified of a mistake, a true fighter acknowledges it. S/he does not resort to insults as I've seen from my friend Oloo.

Kenya is bigger than all of us. And yes, Kenya will be fully liberated through the construction of people-focused institutions, policies, laws and ultimately Constitution. But only the ordinary Kenyan people will do this - both individually and in groups.

Kenyans will never be liberated through some form of theoretical ideological purity. No society has ever been liberated in this manner. In point of fact, the very idea of ideological purity is more of a fanatical ailment than a proper strategic means of liberation.

These do not constitute a "dressing down." They represent strong disagreements.

I never imagined that my sentiments here would be glorified by Oloo as "intellectual terrorism." I guess George W. Bush's influence is deep...it reaches and touches even "committed communists!"

Alas, anti terrorism has become the new fad, even to committed Marxists.

Enough folks. Let's discuss Kenya and its future...

[unedited]
-Miguna-

[kamalet]

I think the question people should have asked Oloo was defend Kibaki from whom? I do not think he was suggesting that Kibaki be defended from Kenyans - especially those so miffed with they wish him out today!