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Post by Onyango Oloo on Aug 10, 2012 2:58:06 GMT 3
Rough Rider:Please be SERIOUS. I wanted to scoff at your rejoinder but paused in bewilderment when I realized that you actually believed in your yarn. First of all, Peeling the Mask can not be tabled as evidence of "anti-Railaism". The 614 page book is a political memoir written by Miguna about his life. Does it criticize the Prime Minister? Of course it does. Now it does take a considerable leap of sycophantic faith to posit that if someone called Onyango Oloo proof read the manuscript, reviewed the book upon publication and acted as MC then that book was launched then that person is definitely a sworn foe of the PM. So where do you place Muite who was the CHIEF GUEST on July 14th? Before and after the book launch, Muite continues to be one of Raila Odinga's closest allies in the Mount Kenya region. As to my actual as opposed to fictional relationship with Raila Amolo Odinga over the years, I will let my writings do the talking: Here is a LOOONG excerpt from an essay I posted online at 3:26 am (Eastern Standard Time) December 24, 2003:
Mashada Forums » News & Politics » Politics
Reload this Page The Raila Odinga Factor in Kenyan Politics
Old 24th December 2003, 02:29 AM
Onyango Oloo
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The Raila Odinga Factor in Contemporary Kenyan Politics
A Critical Assessment by Onyango Oloo in Montreal
Started: 11:30 pm, December 23, 2003; Finished 3:26 am December 24, 2003
ONE: A Sad Sigh As We Bid Bye to the Old Year
The year is drawing to an end. Yes, this year, which sparked off with so much hope is coming down like an unfortunate Diwali explosive coming back to earth with a thud as a dud instead of lighting up the sky with a multi-coloured flair.
It has been a painful, disappointing year, especially to Kenyans who had hoped that NARC would shine a few bright candles to brighten up the country after the long, dreary and unfortunate night of the Moi-KANU dictatorship.
Alas, instead of turning a new page and negotiating a fresh corner, some of us are seeing the familiar symptoms of the malaise Ngugi wa ThiongÂ’o baptized KANUism or Moism.
As we write these lines the Martha Karuas, the Kivutha Kibwanas, the Koigi wa Wamweres and the Kiraitu Murungis are now the new Kariuki Chotaras, Oloo Aringos, Moses Mudavadis and Wilson Leitichs. The new sycophants are clamouring to compose the most groveling praise songs to the new Moi, named eerily Mwai.
Around this coterie of shameless opportunists we see a bevy of choir boys and choir girls singing from their lairs in New England, Southern Ontario, London, Scandinavia and elsewhere. Some of them are refugees from the democratic movements and fugitives from the civil society sector.
It is all about consolidation of power. The unfortunate thing is that this consolidation of power is being done at the behest of a particular rapacious bunch of parvenu custodians lurking here and there along the winding corridors of power.
The Kenyan people, who just yesteryear were front and square on the centre stage of our national dance for democracy have now been swept off that stage, indeed, hounded out of the theatre because the new chieftains want to convene one of their year end by invitation only wine and cheese affairs where they will hob nob as to whose cousin will get that vacancy coming up at the Ministry of Finance and whose wife shall get that consulting to study what poverty alleviation proposals will be given to the IMF guys the next time the b*stards are in townÂ…Â… Total demobilization is the net effect of the laborious and nefarious machinations of the so called Mount Kenya Mafia to wield power and appoint an heir apparent to Kibaki (Muite? Kibwana? Kiraitu? Mudavadi? Kirwa? Kituyi? Biwott?) before the year 2005.
In all these machinations, the role of Chief Villain has been assigned to one man and one man alone:
Raila Amolo Odinga, the Minister for Public Works, Housing and Roads.
He is definitely the single most discussed political personality in Kenya today.
And he is the subject of my essay tonight.
TWO: A Few Words about Kenyans Abroad
Having lived in North America for the last fifteen years, I think I am in a position to comment about Kenyans who live, study or work outside the country, especially Kenyans in Canada and the United States.
We are a very diverse lot-in all senses of the term: men and women, young and old, professionals and businessmen, workers and students, spouses and dependents and every single permutation in between and beyond. We come from all racial groups and represent a sampling of almost all the known ethnic groups in Kenya. Politically we are an ideological mosaic as well: arch conservatives who subscribe religiously to far right rags like the National Review and the Washington Times to die hard communists who quote Le Duan, Blade Nzimande and Amilcar Cabral at the drop of a hat as well as the motley crew of liberal democrats, Pan Africanists, Christian and Islamic Fundamentalists, anarchists, social democrats and just plain old empty headed political idiots who have an opinion on everything, without bothering to equip themselves with even a modicum of understanding of anything that they are so rash to chatter and rave on and on about. Some Kenyans arrived on these shores a few months ago while others have been freezing their immigrant and refugee butts away from home since 1966.
Whoever we are, wherever we are, we have no shortage of viewpoints, opinions, suggestions, judgments and what have you on the unfolding drama playing itself out on the national tapestry.
For reasons which will be obvious momentarily, I want to isolate a small culture of these Diasporic Kenyans and place them under an imaginary microscope. I have labeled this sample “pundits abroad”.
We are strange creatures- yes; I am one of these so called “pundits”. We have strongly held opinions which we are always ready to volunteer, irrespective of whether or not someone actually wants to hear our views. A very opinionated lot, Kenyan pundits are notorious for going at each other’s throats on a daily basis on the many online Kenyan discussion forums scattered in cyberspace and spawning like eager, frisky rabbits on a viagra regimen from the neighborhood’s friendly vet.
I have been curious about those special Kenyan pundits whose modus operandi is ETHNICITY. Everything, but everything is seen from a tribal angle. During the Kenyatta era, we spoke of the Kiambu Mafia. During MoiÂ’s term it was a Kalenjin Kleptocracy and of course Kibaki and his back room boys have given us the Mount Kenya Mafia. Yes, FORD-People is seen as a vehicle for the Abagusii. The LDP is essentially, according to these benighted tribal experts, a Luo outfit and so on and so forth.
Those of us who argue politically from Marxist ideological positions have never failed to be mystified by the stubborn survival of the INNER VILLAGER in the foreground of the consciousness of these TRIBAL POLITICAL ANALYSTS. Everything starts and finishes with tribe and tribalism as far as these creatures are concerned.
For example, there is a certain fairly intelligent university professor teaching somewhere in the United States, who is OBSESSED with all things Luo. To him, this particular ethnic community is the Devil Incarnate, the stumbling block to Kenyan national unity, civic reforms, government stability, the key to capturing Osama bin Laden, toppling Fidel Castro and I believe, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Not surprisingly, Raila Odinga figures prominently in all the recorded nightmares and waking dreams of this don who seems to be afflicted with an acute case of political myopia; an academic who never hesitates to share his latest pet peeve, tribal conspiracy theory, breathtaking expose and newest rumour about Raila Odinga this and Luos of Nyanza that.. Some narrow minded ethnic chauvinists from the Luo community regularly attack him viciously from a tribal standpoint assuming, mistakenly, that he is Gikuyu (and therefore, in their jaundiced eyes, fair game) when as a matter of fact he comes from one of the ethnic groups in western Kenya. To him I dedicate this essay as a Xmas Gift straight from my Communist heart.
THREE: What Moi and KANU Did to the Universities and Academic Discourse
Most of us are familiar with the ghoulish midnight knocks on the door or the brazen daylight raids on university lecture theatres that dragged progressive and radical Kenyan academics to prison and detention and forced some to flee into exile in the 1980s and 1990s. Less known and discussed is what happened to the other academics. Yes, the ones who did not rebel; the ones who cheered when their colleagues were flung into the Manyani dungeons; the ones who continued singing ardently from the Nyayo hymn book.
Far from being punished, these “loyal” academics were generously rewarded: Prof. Saitoti became Vice President, as did Prof Karanja; Philip Mbithi headed the Civil Service at one point; William Ochieng was a PS in the President’s Office; Dr Kipkorir became the head honcho at the Kenya Commercial Bank; Henry Mwanzi and some other mediocrity were the ghost writers of Moi’s forgettable magnum opus…you can add dozens of other academics. And it did not just stop at the lecturers. Student leaders who collaborated with Moi were very well rewarded. PO Lumumba built a very quick fortune as one of the brashest KANU connected lawyers; Isaac Ruto, one time deputy to the late Titus Adungosi became a cabinet minister and… you get the picture.
These plum appointments of course provided a very direct incentive for other Kenyan academics, especially if they were intellectual lightweights to crawl on their bellies like abject snails looking for handouts and morsels dropped from the gorge fest of the political kleptomaniacs looting the state coffers dry during the Moi-KANU reign of error and terror.
Due to the uneven development of underdevelopment in neo-colonial Kenya, this patronage system as far as Kenyan academics were concerned was run on the basis of a tribal rat race. It was tacitly understood that those from the PresidentÂ’s ethnic community or close cronies of the same, would get first dibs at the slush funds, appointments and crooked deals happening all the way from the University of NairobiÂ’s Central Catering Unit to KenyattaÂ’s UniversityÂ’s academic promotions.
Because this was an elitist dog fight, in our neocolonized African reality, these academic prostitutes proffered themselves based on ethnicity. It was not completely unheard of Gikuyu academics suddenly “discovering” their so called Nilo-Hamitic roots during the time of Moi, nor would it surprise me greatly if some Luo lexicographers found out to their pleasant "surprise" that their pint sized grandfathers were actually kidnapped from Runyenjes or deepest Imenti thus earning them a ticket to clutch in their attempt to enter the ever exclusive Mount Kenya Safari Club.
During the 1980s and 1990s Kenya was devastated by three things, the IMF induced SAPS which created a serious economic crisis; KANUÂ’s political tyranny and HIV/AIDS. There are others of course. These three factors in turn helped to decimate the ranks of the Kenyan domestic academic community. Scores died from this much misunderstood plague, presumably; a handful were forced to literally run for their lives because of their real or perceived threat to the political system, but the vast majority simply starting seeking greener pastures in Southern Africa, Europe and North America.
The last batch- the academics and technocrat forced to emigrate for economic reasons had really no substantive problems with the Moi-KANU dictatorship. In fact, some of them had been ACTIVE IDEOLOGUES of the same- vociferously agitating against political pluralism; screaming blood-curdling war cries for political prisoners to be “slaughtered” and generally belittling the efforts of democrats underground and in the civil society movement who were coalescing into a massive national reform movement, especially as from the late 1980s.
When they relocated, especially to the United States and Canada, they found other Kenyan nationals (some of them having acquired permanent residency and citizenship in these two countries) who were equally rabid supporters of the KANU dictatorship. I will only cite two individuals, sharing the same name- Prof. Ed Karanja in the United States who formed the ill-fated FROKUSA (Friends of Kenya in the USA) an reactionary overseas Nyayo choir and Dr. Karanja Njoroge, formerly of Trent University who moved back to Kenya to be one of the key architects of the disastrous Central Province Consultative Group whatever they heck it was called which gave Moi exactly ZILCH Gikuyu votes during the 1997 elections
This brief sociological thumbnail sketch of Kenyan academics, professionals and technocrats abroad who are on the conservative end of the political spectrum( of course we still have the Alamin Mazruis, Kamoji Wachiiras, Micere Mugos, Ngugi wa Thiongos, Omari Onyangos, Masolos, Atieno Odhiambos , Ronald Edaris, ROK Ajulus and many, many more who remained steadfast to democratic and progressive principles) this overview has served to explain the phenomenon of the tribal driven “academic” analyses of Kenyan politics that abound in many of the online forums.
Most of these Kenyan relocated conservatives have a tacit or overt political agenda to support the most BACKWARD political currents back in Kenya. No wonder they spend their days and nights bathing in the tribal **** creek, collecting mounds of ethnic turd and mistaking them for revealing jewels of political brilliance.
That is why I will be the last person to be surprised to see this particular essay smeared from head to foot in ukabila sludge liberally spilled by our resident tribal pundits.
All one of them would have to do is to take one look at the spelling of my first and last names, connect to the subject matter and then launch into their earth shaking tribal deconstructions. To me, these thoughts represent the very last dredges of the intellectual impoverishment we have suffered during our long night of enslavement to the forces of international finance capital.
Having rolled out the red carpet to our bevy of KENYAN TRIBAL EXPERTS ON THE INTERNET, let me now proceed to look at the Raila Odinga Factor in Contemporary Kenyan Politics.
Five: Is Raila Odinga the GOD of Onyango Oloo?
Of course not.
This is standard fare flowing from the keyboards of some of the aforementioned reactionary Kenyan intellectuals.
Because Raila Odinga is the most prominent Kenyan politician from the Luo community, it follows that EVERY SINGLE LUO ALIVE must be a Raila sycophant. This tribal gibberish has been elevated into an exact science by the Kenyan equivalents of Newt Gingrich in cyberspace. If Raila Odinga is the GOD whom ALL LUOS worship, it therefore follows, according to this stupid village mentality that Onyango Oloo, being a Luo, must ipso facto WORSHIP Raila. Therefore Raila is OlooÂ’s GOD. Quod Erat Demonstrandum as the Latinos of yore would put it, if you asked them.
It is amazing how many people, INCLUDING young Kenyans in their twenties who HAVE MOSTLY GROWN UP ABROAD are quick to swallow such ethnic manure without even blanching or blinking at the putrid outpourings. The number of times I have been attacked on Mashada, RC Bowen and even more respectable forums like KCA and Africa-Oped for being a supposed Raila emissary is just beyond counting, perhaps trying to live up to Goebbel's dictum about propaganda: if you repeat a lie often enough, at some point some people begin to believe that it is the truth.
The facts on the ground are that members of the Luo community are as politically and ideologically diverse and complex as any other ethnic group in Kenya. The fact that there has ALWAYS been a Mboya for every Jaramogi and an Orengo for every Raila is often conveniently glossed over. To sketch the Luo community as an unvariagated monolith can only be done from a straight up tribalist drawing board.
For instance, let us quickly explode the myth that has given rise to the question with which I opened this section.
Onyango OlooÂ’s relationship with Raila can be quickly gleaned from this Open Letter, sent on November 1st, 1999 when Agwambo was still a leader of the NDP and Ochuodho and Aringo were thorns in his flesh:
groups.google.com/groups?q=%22oloo%22++insubje ct:raila&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=381E4E5C.54D78AB4%40myna.com&rnum=1
From: Dr. Matunda Nyanchama (matunda@myna.com)
Subject: [Fwd: [kca-l] Open Letter To Raila Odinga]
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: soc.culture.kenya
Date: 1999/11/01
Onyango Oloo wrote:
>
> From: "Onyango Oloo" <ooloo@hotmail.com>
>
> Ndugu Raila:
>
> Greetings from Toronto.
>
> If my memory serves me correctly, the last time I saw you face to face was
> on Wednesday, April 8, 1992.
>
> You and Imanyara and a bunch of us Kenyans were at the Pearson International
> Airport. The two of you were on your way to Ottawa to sensitize Canadians
> and Kenyans living in Canada about the multiparty campaign and in particular
> what the Forum for Restoration of Democracy was doing to topple, via the
> polls, the Moi-KANU regime.
>
> As you will recall, the meeting in Toronto at the Ontario Institute for
> Studies in Education that evening was quite successful: after you and
> Imanyara addressed the attentive audience, there were very many lively
> questions that emerged from the floor.
>
> We were all so full of hope then.
>
> How many of us could have forseen the debacle awaiting FORD?
>
> Of course, a lot has happened since 1992.
>
> Kenya has gone through two general and presidential elections and is looking
> forward to a third one since the the reintroduction of legal multiparty
> politics.
>
> Oh, the permutations and vagaries of Kenyan politics!
>
> You are now the leader of the National Development Party, an organization
> that has emerged dominant in Nyanza province while making inroads elsewhere
> in the country. We all see you as one of the key architects of the KANU/NDP
> Cooperation Pact, an alliance that has raised as many eyebrows as it has
> drawn applause.
>
> As I reflect on all of these happenings I can not help remembering those
> long gone, far off days, the years long gone by when you,Koigi, Willy
> Mutunga, Maina Kinyatti, Alamin Mazrui, a bunch of us from the university
> student ranks and hundreds of young airforce soldiers shared this dreary
> home called Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.
>
> Before we "graduated" to Kamiti some of us had been "apprentices" at the
> Nairobi Area Remand Home. In fact that is the last place that I ever saw
> Shem Ochuodho, who was then a University of Nairobi Student leader and who
> is now a Member of Parliament representing the people of Rangwe on your
> party's ticket.
>
> In the early 1980s, behind those bars that were supposed to shut us up and
> keep us isolated, we kept on discussing, dreaming and struggling for a new
> Kenya; amidst the worst of the draconian measures of the KANU one party
> state we saw visions of political pluralism; even as our rib cages provided
> target practice for the prison askaris' Kivunja Mbavu boots we could chuckle
> at the inanity and insanity of the Kariuki Chotaras and the Ole Ntimamas; we
> could still laugh at Omamo Kaliech and yes, Oloo Aringo (was'nt he the KANU
> Chairman at one point?) we could laugh at all the KANU sychophants like Keen
> and all those like him would later turn out to be very keen converts to
> liberal democracy after the repeal of Section 2A; we marveled at the
> unscrupulous denounciations of the left by Ngweno and other right wing
> scribes. Even behind bars, all of us, you included, were very much abreast
> of the latest battles in the struggle to bring democracy to Kenya.
>
> In the meantime, Moi tried to hang you three times, only to be stopped by
> the strong international outcry and the growing clamour by Kenyans for
> change.
>
> You must be wondering by now: what is the point of all these reminiscences?
>
> I am writing to you because it is November 1, 1999.
>
> I was jailed on November 1 1982.
>
> In today's edition of the Nation and the Standard there is a front page
> story that you are going to table a motion in parliament next week to expel
> Peter Oloo Aringo and Dr. Shem Ochuodho from the National Development Party.
>
> Tell me ndugu: Is this true?
>
> Is it true that your party is planning to expel two of its most dynamic
> members because they have challenged the party's leadership? Is this true?
>
> If it is true, then this is nothing short of bizarre and macabre.
>
> I simply can not believe that a party headed by you, Kenya's longest serving
> political detainee, could countenance the expulsion of party members who
> have dared to exercise their democratic right to dissent from the party
> line. After all, what was the whole struggle against Moi, KANU and the one
> party dictatorship all about?
>
> Was'nt your father, the late much beloved Jaramogi Oginga Odinga shunted out
> of KANU by Kenyatta and Mboya and kept in the political doldrums by Moi and
> Njonjo for the very same reason? Were these not some of the very same
> reasons that saw you and hundreds of other patriotic and democratic voices
> left to languish in the dungeons of Manyani, Shimo-la-Tewa and Naivasha?
>
> Ndugu Raila: what crimes precisely have Oloo Aringo and Shem Ochuodho
> committed against you and the NDP?
>
> As you very well know, I am not a member of the NDP, or indeed, any other
> mainstream political party in Kenya.
>
> At the same time I must go on the record to question, publicly, the wisdom
> of the KANU-NDP pact. Whom does it serve? What has it achieved?
>
> Has this pact assisted Moi to become less dictatorial? Has it made Kenya
> more democratic? Who, in actual fact, has gained from the KANU-NDP pact?
>
> Some people have lauded the pact as an act of sheer realpolitik(al)
> brilliance. Others, including myself, are left wondering whether or not the
> NDP has been duped into a dubious opportunistic alliance that only serves to
> bolster the intra elitist political and economic intrigues of the comprador
> bourgeoisie in Kenya today.
>
> Ndugu Raila: some of your staunchest lieutenants are very, very good friends
> of mine-people like Oginga Ogego whose sentence was increased from six to
> ten years because he showed no remorse for oppsoing the MOi dictatorship;
> compatriots like Dr Adhu Awiti who was railroaded to prison on trumped up
> charges of belonging to MwaKenya in 1986; there are others, but I suppose
> you get my drift- I have no axe to grind; I bear no malice against NDP and
> any section of its leadership.
>
> My question to you is this: if today I was an NDP member (and who knows, may
> be the MP for Baringo Central) and I sent you this very same letter that I
> am now e-mailing you from Toronto, what would be my fate? A reprimand? a
> suspension? an expulsion? Or what?
>
> Ndugu Raila: I strongly urge you and the NDP to reconsider any attempt to
> muzzle Oloo Aringo and Shem Ochuodho because they disagree with the
> direction your party is taking.
>
> Instead, I urge you to listen very, very attentively to what they are both
> saying because I think what they are saying makes sense.
>
> I think they are right to criticize you and I think they have the
> constitutional and democratic right to do so without fearing the loss of
> their seats.
>
> Please let us not go back to those ignoble days of the KANU Clearing System
> that did so much damage to the good patriotic work that your late beloved
> father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Bildad Kaggia and others were trying to do
> over such a long period of time.
>
> Ndugu Raila: ten, fifteen, twenty years from now it would be such a
> wonderful thing if your legacy was restored to be among those self-less,
> courageous Kenyans who upheld democratic principles throughout their lives.
>
> In closing, please pass my greetings to Rateng, Daktar and all those in the
> NDP who know me.
>
> I hope to be in Kenya in the very near future so that we could continue
> these discussions face to face, perhaps at your home sipping some
> thick,succulent nyuka from an intricately designed agwata from Chiro
> Mbero.....
>
> Yours Sincerely,
>
> Onyango Oloo, Toronto, Canada
> The Kenyan Community Abroad (KCA), P. O. Box 996,
> Rochester, MN, 55903-0996. welcome.to/kca
> ================================================== =========================
In short, it has been a relationship which has been punctuated by comradeship, critical interventions, consultations and mutual respect.
When Raila Odinga, William Ruto, Najib Balala, Kavetsa Adagala, Kyalo Kaindi, Prof. Tumbo, Orwa Ojode and others rolled into Toronto on Friday, August 25, 2000 I was the one who was on hand at the airport to meet the visiting parliamentarians and Kenyan public figures. For some reason, Raila Odinga had been held up the previous night after a very raucous town hall meeting with the Kenyans in Minnesota and he was the last to arrive at the Pearson International Airport. I remember spending several hours at the airport with him as he tried to change his flight to London before he reconnected with his colleagues in Switzerland. During our enforced wait, I asked, in my customary manner, some very direct questions to Raila. Why were he and the NDP collaborating with KANU? Was it true that his company Spectre was bankrupt and that Moi had to bail him out? Why was he going after the dissidents in the NDP? Did he realize that many of us in the Kenyan Left had seen his pact with KANU as a betrayal? What did he hope to gain etc?
To his credit, let me report what others who have interacted with him know already: the man is a patient and keen listening and will reply in detail to each and every question asked, not squirming from even the toughest challenge. Kenyans who were at the library on Dufferin and Eglinton later that day will attest to this last statement.
Regarding my questions, here is what Raila told me in response: NDP was cooperating with KANU for strategic reasons; he told me he had been shocked by the betrayal of Mwai Kibaki and the DP soon after the 1997 election when Kibaki did an about turn and refused to plod on with boycotting the election results and challenging it firmly (I am recalling from memory so details may be fuzzy, but I am sure Raila will clarify if he gets to read this); No it was not true that Spectre was in any financial trouble and that Moi had bailed him out; he never answered the question of dissidents to my satisfaction, especially when I later learned from Mwandawiro that some of the enraged NDP goons had almost killed Mwandawiro and Kibwana in Kisumu at one point; Raila likened the NDP dalliance with KANU to how the ANC had negotiated the transfer of power in South Africa; he informed me that as a result of the NDP pact with KANU, the ruling party had become more open and allowed for the passage of progressive legislation in parliament; because of the same pact, Raila informed me, it was now possible for Kenyan opposition politicians to go unfettered in the hitherto so called KANU Zones; in any case, he advised me to wait and see what would happen in the 2002 elections( remember we were talking in August 2000).
Later that evening, I moderated the panel discussion that included, apart from the visitors I mentioned above, Dr. Matunda Nyanchama, then the President of Kenya Community Abroad and my buddy Adongo Ogony of the Kenya Human Rights Organization in Canada. MOST of the visitors were ADAMANTLY opposed to the moderated forum we had proposed because Kenyans in Toronto were determined that our meeting would not degenerate into a soap box for these wanasiasa from home. I remember Orwa Ojode expressing his SHOCK (or as they Luo say, “SOK”) at my temerity to LIMIT EVERYONE, including Raila to a brief five to ten minute presentation before we opened the floor to Q&A.
MOST, with the notable EXCEPTION of Raila. He exhorted his colleagues to respect us as the local organizers. In any event, our panel discussion worked very well, as any honest observer at the meeting will readily attest.
Shortly after that Toronto visit, Raila was appointed to the cabinet together with our fellow Kamiti alumni Adhu Awiti. Once again, it did not take long for me to express my disquiet with this KANU-NDP courtship. I remember writing a letter that was published in the local papers addressed to Awiti. Here it is:
“From: onyango_oloo@c...
Date: Fri Jul 13, 2001 3:40 am
Subject: OPEN LETTER TO DR. ADHU AWITI
“OPEN LETTER TO DR. ADHU AWITI
Dear Dr. Awiti:
“Greetings from Montreal, Quebec!
This is Onyango Oloo.
I do not know if you remember me:
“Way back in the late 1980s we were fellow political prisoners and
socialist comrades discussing revolutionary change in the dungeons of
Kamiti. We had a lot in common: like hundreds of democracy loving
Kenyan patriots, we had been thrown unceremoniously into the maximum
penitentiaries by robotic magistrates acting at the behest of the
dreaded Special Branch and the KANU ruling clique.
“I remember how optimistic we felt then: in spite of our incarceration
we held on to the stubborn hope that peaceful, democratic and
egalitarian waves would one day wash over the Moi's one-party
dictatorship to welcome a new era of clean and just rule in our oft-
tortured motherland. Even as we received news of fellow prisoners
dying because of abuse, neglect and disease, we held on to our vision
of a new Kenya that would one day surely emerge....
“Ah! Those were the days of daily political classes and discussion
groups on Kenya's history; those were the days that your brilliant
economist's mind help to decipher, from a Marxist-Leninist
perspective the class cleavages in neo-colonial Kenya and your
veteran's touch in grassroots political organizing help to point the
way for progressive strategies and tactics.
“Do you recall how we shuddered with disgust when we analyzed and
condemned former colleagues who had opted to shave their beards and
burn their books to escape the police dragnets? Remember how we
lampooned by namesake Aringo's court poetry?
“Long before Rubia and Matiba, we-and I use that collective pronoun to
refer to people like yourself, Maina wa Kinyatti, Mwandawiro Mghanga,
Oginga Ogego, myself and a bunch of radical ex-Air Force service men
and politically conscious social prisoners- we were reflecting,
agitating, demanding and fighting for multi-party democracy even
though we were behind bars, even though the Moi-KANU dictatorship had
consigned us to Shimo-la-Tewa, Naivasha, Kodiaga, etc to waste away
and perish in oblivion.
“I still recall how we all used to support each other; how we would
share the exciting novels, magazines and pamphlets that were smuggled
in by our courageous contacts from the outside; I still recall how we
sent letters to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Angela Davis, Kim Chi
Ha, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others; and how we
cheered silently every time one of us "toboad", in other words
finished their sentence and went back to "raia" the outside world..
“Then all of a sudden I left you guys at Kamiti on May 11, 1987.
Thanks to Amnesty International and courageous lawyers like Kiraitu
Murungi, I was able to successfully sue the Government of Kenya for
false imprisonment. We all know how the Kenya Court of Appeal ordered
my release on May 8, 1987 and how I was not informed until days
later. And as we all know, that was not just an individual victory
for Onyango Oloo: thanks to that land-mark ruling on remission,
hundreds of other political prisoners were also released between 1987
and 1989.
“Later on I was glad to hear, while I was already an exile in
Tanzania, that you too had been released. It was not long before you,
Mwandawiro, Maina wa Kinyatti and others that we both know and do not
to mention publicly had to hastily follow in the nyayos of others
like Ngugi wa Thiongo, Shadrack Gutto, Micere Mugo, Wangondu wa
Kariuki, Adongo Ogony and countless patriots who were forced to seek
asylum in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Sweden, Australia, Denmark, England,
the United States and Canada.
“Even though those historical texts have not been officially
published, you and I and several others are aware of the modest but
sterling role that Kenyans with an anti-imperialist political
consciousness did inside and outside the country in the late 1980s
and early 1990s to help usher in the constitutional reforms that
presaged the resumption of official multi-party politics in Kenya. We
know that you, Dr. Awiti was a key part in those progressive
endeavours.
“Since this, is, in a very literal sense a very public document I will
omit the details of all that transpired quietly within the various
groupings of Kenyans abroad who were forced, during those dark days
to operate clandestinely within the context of underground democracy
seeking formations. All I can say is that I am glad that there were
seasoned people like yourself to guide younger activists like myself
and others in finding themselves politically.
“In the meantime, life intervened. After a brief sojourn in the
Netherlands you returned home to do some important work in helping to
solidify the grassroots structures in the original FORD. Later on you
rose to be one of key architects and main ideologues in the fast-
growing National Development Party.
“Today you are the Minister for Economic Planning in the KANU/NDP
Coalition Government.
“How times have changed! A lot can happen in a short decade!
“To be quite honest, I do not know whether to congratulate you or
castigate you.
“On the one hand I know that Moi's government now has one of the most
intelligent, hard-working, generous and grassroots minded ministers
in your person. A mutual friend who was recently home told me a
couple of weeks ago that you are so close to your constituents in
Karachuonyo that you refuse to have a house in Nairobi. Instead, he
told me, you rent a small servant's quarters that you stay in when
you are in the capital on parliamentary business and take off for
western Kenya every weekend to be with those who sent you to the
National Assembly. To what extent this is true I can not attest, and
in any case, I hardly think that you can continue hosting receptions
for visiting dignitaries in your fabled former abode.
“In any case, why am I writing to you today?
“For a couple of reasons. In the first place it is a long time since
we were in touch. In the second place I do not know if you got the
salaams I sent to you, Ogego and other friends in the NDP through
Raila when he was last here in North America in August of 2000.
“Apart from those personal reasons, I have four political concerns.
“1. How do you reconcile our collective past history of progressive
political struggles with your current role in the government of
Daniel arap Moi who once railroaded you and other innocent Kenyans to
prison after hastily arranged kangaroo trials?
“2. What did you think of the recent hooligans by the Kenya police who
attacked Orengo, Mathaai, Kibwana and other activists after giving
the official go-ahead to organize the Saba Saba rally a few days ago?
“3. Do you personally support the recent undemocratic call by Otieno
Kajwang to prolong the life of the current parliament?
“4. In the light of recent calls by Raila Odinga regarding the
importation of Sudanese oil into Kenya what do you think of the
following story from this Dutch organization(I remember you being
exiled in the Netherlands and perhaps familiar with this particular
group) on the issue of Sudan, oil and human rights?
www.ms-dan.dk/Kampagner/Sudan/oil.htm
“Dr. Awiti, I eagerly await your response.
“Sincerely,
“Onyango Oloo
“Montreal, Quebec”
This letter was later published, in a modified form in the August 3rd 2001 edition of the Standard.
Later on, in early 2002, I was among the most trenchant critics of the KANU-NDP merger which culminated in March 18th nuptials at Kasarani. Here is what I wrote at the time:
www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&to pic_id=3333&mesg_id=3333&listing_type=search
www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&to pic_id=3322&mesg_id=3322&listing_type=search
www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&to pic_id=3481&mesg_id=3481&listing_type=search
www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&to pic_id=3982&mesg_id=3982&listing_type=search
In August 2002, when many Luos were part of ORI (“Operation Raila In”), I penned the following essay:
www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&to pic_id=8015&mesg_id=8015&listing_type=search
I have gone into considerable detail in documenting my actual historical relationship with Raila Odinga as opposed to superficial internet legends distributed by tribal rumour mongers in Kenyan cyberspace circles. It is therefore an absolute falsehood to suggest that Onyango Oloo is Raila Odinga’s “errand boy.” Any time you see that or any similar charge please underline the bigoted origins of that bare faced lie.
SIX: What is Behind the Rampant Raila Phobia?
Well, you guessed it:
F-E-A-R.
No single politician dominates the national political scene as the son of KenyaÂ’s first vice president.
For a very long time, Raila Odinga was a very low profile university lecturer and technocrat, quietly managing his family business, East African Spectre Ltd which had a virtual monopoly in Kenya as far manufacturing gas cylinders. It always amuses me to hear one of KenyaÂ’s prominent businessmen and one of the wealthiest individuals in Nyanza being referred to be some tribal cold warriors as a Castro loving Communist. Perhaps it is because Raila named one of his sons Fidel. I can think of no other reason, because I can not remember ANYWHERE where Raila Odinga has ever referred to himself as a Marxist, leave alone a Communist. But such is the stuff of internet legend and urban myths.
Agwambo burst into the headlines when he was arrested in 1982 and charged with treason as one of the alleged masterminds behind the August 1 coup attempt. He was eventually detained without trial. He was to serve two other stints of detention. We are all familiar with his later political history as Ford- KenyaÂ’s Director of Elections; his fall out with the late Wamalwa Kijana; his taking over the little known NDP and making it a force to reckon with in Nyanza and the national scene and of course his dalliance with KANU culminating, first with his elevation as KANU SG and later on, the guru behind the Rainbow faction which later became the Liberal Democratic Party.
Raila Odinga is feared not so much because he is a Luo as some idiots would posit, but rather because he is one of the ablest and most efficient political organizers in the country with a very keen strategic mind. That is why it was such a coup when Moi wrested him from the opposition ranks- people forget that he opposed the IPPG while Murungi who now accuses him of cavorting with KANU, did.
The other part of the fear of Raila is what people have seen him do to his opponents- completely vanquishing them. Sometimes this has been done using brutal and undemocratic methods as in the campaigns against Ochuodho and Orengo. More recently we associate him with the plan that helped to forge that huge DEMOCRATIC victory over KANU.
Raila Odinga thus embodies this contradiction- he can be simultaneously prone to near fascist tendencies just as quickly as he can embrace the most democratic of paths.
For me the critical factor depends on which social forces are around him.
When Raila Odinga is surrounded by progressive, democratic forces, he elevates his game to very admirable degrees. That is exactly what he is doing at the moment. He has read the national mood and he knows that the NAK gang has all but discredited itself in the eyes of the Kenyan people. They have lied to the Kenyan people; they have gone back on written agreements; they have sent police goons to beat up innocent protestors; they have been implicated, directly in allegations of a cover up(perhaps more) in the still unexplained assassination of Dr. Odhiambo Mbai; they have been fingered trying to bribe delegates and as we speak, they are trying to scuttle Bomas of Kenya III and also stage a palace coup that consolidates power in the hands of the so called Mount Kenya Mafia.
In my estimation, right now as we speak, the two most popular politicians in Kenya are Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka.
Kalonzo is a born again democrat, in the sense that it is just recently that he made his transition from KANU sycophant to principled patriot.
Whatever the case, Kenyans are looking to them as two of the most viable (not the only ones, there is Nyachae and there is Uhuru) alternatives to the fatigue prone Kibaki Presidency.
I mentioned that Raila is a bundle of contradictions based on who has around him.
When he is surrounded by elements from the Luo lumpen proletariat, he sometimes can embark on very disturbing and intolerant trends as Luo politicians in Nyanza who have crossed him have found out to their extreme cost. These lumpen hangers on do not do anything to improve RailaÂ’s national stature. Let me point out that Onyango Oloo IS NOT saying that Raila SHOULD NOT hang out with Luos. No. I am saying that there are, unfortunately a coterie of Raila groupies who see Agwambo as a Luo Chieftain leading them to battle against the Gikuyu. These Neanderthal throngs must be jettisoned as Raila cashes in on his very wide NATIONAL appeal that was most starkly evidenced, not just during 2002 mammoth rallies across the country, but during that historic home coming visit by President Kibaki earlier in 2003. I have seen this respect and love for Raila in all kinds of unlikely places including this nightclub in Mombasa where this Mswahili guy came to me, and pointing at RailaÂ’s contacts intoned: there is your next President.
SEVEN: Raila and the Kenyan Left:
Raila Odinga has a very uneasy relationship with a large chunk of the Kenyan left. Many in our ranks berate him bitterly for abandoning the opposition ship to take his party to KANU after 1997. The fact that he actually became KANUÂ’s Secretary General after being detained twice at the behest of KANUÂ’s Chair was to us something like the last straw.
And yetÂ… there is NO SINGLE POLITICIAN in Kenya, whether on the Left or the Right who has DONE MORE to bring the ordinary wananchi into the mainstream of democratic organizing to the extent that Raila has done. Mass mobilization, long a staple of many a leftist leaflet or pamphlet seems to be the stock in trade of the Langata MP.
Those of us who have had a chance to interact with Raila Odinga know first hand about his progressive politics, his sincerity and integrity and above all, his untiring work ethic.
That is why we always grapple with this complex contradiction that is Raila Odinga.
On balance, Raila Odinga is squarely at the heart of the Kenyan democratic forces and therefore definitely a person that the Kenyan left should embrace firmly as one of its most powerful torch bearers. RailaÂ’s defence of Ghai and the constitutional review process is proof positive that he does belong into that camp that some of us identify as progressive.
The main base of RailaÂ’s contradictions is of course to be found in his class background. With the recent sale/merger of Spectre International with a Canadian corporate partner, I think it is safe to say that Raila Odinga has finally arrived as a member of the Kenyan comprador bourgeoisie.
In my analysis of the forces of change in the country, I DID NOT SEE ANY PROGRESSIVE ROLE AT ALL to be played by the Kenyan comprador bourgeoisie.
That is, UNLESS they commit CLASS SUICIDE.
Will Raila Odinga do that?
Time will tell and that will help to determine not his eventual legacy.
EIGHT: What Lies in Store from 2004 and Beyond?
Unless something dramatic happens, the NAK gang is going to implode, as a result of the amateurish tribal plotting, within the next eight months.
President Kibaki is increasingly being sidelined from the national picture by his kitchen cabinet to the detriment of his once sky high popularity around the country.
Bomas of Kenya, unless it is forcibly stopped by army bayonets and police truncheons, will push through a parliamentary system.
If something happens to Kibaki (like death from natural causes) before the year 2007, the LDP will have Kalonzo Musyoka run for President with Raila as the designated Prime Minister with Musikari Kombo as the Vice President. FORD –People will field Nyachae with Uhuru Kenyatta as the PM designate while NAK will try either Muite, Kibwana, Mudavadi, Kituyi, Ngilu or any of the other discredited NAK schemers.
Who will win?
You tell me.
I do not really care.
As a Marxist-Leninist I am already thinking beyond 2007.
PS: and this is no mere footnote. A rightwing, pro- KANU military putsch is still possible, so let us not kid ourselves.
Onyango Oloo
Montreal
3:26 am
December 24, 2003 NOW CHECK OUT THIS EXTENSIVE EXCERPT OF A DIGITAL ESSAY I DID IN AUGUST 2004:
2.0. Why Do People Fear Raila Odinga So Much? from the essay, On Oloo, Raila and Rampant Luophobia, posted online on Thursday, August 05, 2004
Two of the most VILIFIED names in Kenyan cyberspace circles are Onyango Oloo and Raila Odinga-for mostly TRIBAL and PAROCHIAL reasons.
It has been SHOCKING to contemplate and calibrate the depth of INSECURITIES that some GROWN MEN and WOMEN display when these two names are mentioned.
Since Onyango Oloo is NOT a billionaire, a tenured Ivy League Don or even a notorious POLYGAMIST like Okuku Danger, it is often perplexing to see the obsessive craze he has inspired among the bevy of GROUPIES who follow him anonymously from website to website flinging their freshly generated excrement at him.
Onyango Oloo is CLONED on an almost hourly basis.
Every TEN MINUTES on the www.rcbowen.com forum, there is SOMETHING DERANGED posted by a nitwit about him; it appears(although it could be a technical hitch) that some INTOLERANT forces at kikuyu.com have finally succeeded in BANISHING him from a forum where he has contributed since December 2000; on Africa-Oped and Kenya Online two of his detractors are unabashed tribal nincompoops who think they are way too CLEVER and too CUTE calling Onyango Oloo with the juvenile sobriquet “olow” or the racist epithet “kavirondo”.
Raila Odinga is of course LARGELY FEARED because he is the MOST EFFECTIVE POLITICIAN operating in Kenya at the moment.
He is also without a doubt one of the most POPULAR in the country.
A few weeks ago, the country’s media BLACKED OUT a story when he and Kalonzo Musyoka received a TUMULTOUS WELCOME by THOUSANDS of people in the Meru region, the home turf of Kiraitu, Muthaura and Mwiraria.
Two things connect Oloo to Raila-they are both LUOS who became EVEN MORE RADICAL after SPENDING YEARS BEHIND BARS AT KAMITI.
We each sought different paths to practice our politics-Raila immersed himself in the MAINSTREAM LEGAL and ABOVE GROUND National political organizing, while Oloo continued his long apprenticeship in the Kenyan socialist underground.
In many other respects, our ideological leanings are like night and day- Oloo is a Marxist-Leninist while Raila Odinga is a Liberal-Democrat; Raila sold his company to a Canadian multinational while Oloo is busy DENOUNCING Canadian multinationals…
But has that stopped the TRIBALISTS who FEAR LUOS more than they fear a bite from a tarantula or a vicious Indian cobra?
Of course not.
Oloo according to them is the LDP’s Chief Whip.
Raila according to these idiots CONTROLS the mind of every single Luo.
According to these jack asses, every time Oloo or Adongo writes something, it is on the express instructions of Agwambo Tinga Tinga-something that would surely startle the Langata MP who was so busy the last time I was in Kenya that I was UNABLE to see him DESPITE at LEAST THREE ATTEMPTS by Mwandawiro Mghanga who took me to Raila’s office to see the Roads and Public Works minister.
It appears as if it is a CRIME to rise to Railas’ defence if you happen to be a Luo- and especially if your name is Onyango Oloo.
In early 2003, I was kicked out of the Safari Lady web site, PARTLY because of this posting:
Bonyeza Hapa
That is when I discovered that tribal IDIOCY is not confined to the male of the homo sapiens sapiens species.
At the very same time the same TWISTED tribal logic would INSIST that Only LUOs and especially Oloo should write about a MANUFACTURED CORRUPTION SCANDAL conjured up by a TRIBAL WAR LORD called Maina Kamanda.
I commented on this matter elsewhere and suggested that these tribal attacks were part of a bigger, stinkier RED HERRING to DIVERT attention from getting the crooked cabinet ministers fingered in the Anglo-Leasing scandal to resign.
In any case, I did not see WHY these chauvinists were targeting Luos to go after Raila Odinga when the same tribalists consider it anathema for ANY Luo to say ANYTHING positive about Raila Odinga.
I will comment more on this presently because I want to lay bare the machinations of these characters, having tolerated their attacks on various Kenyans forums for quite some time.
But before that, as expected Raila Odinga promptly responded to his critics within hours of his arrival back in the country.
Here are links from the three Kenyan dailies:
Bonyeza Hapa
Bonyeza Hapa
Bonyeza Hapa
And this is what I was telling my critics:
Raila Odinga and Dr Oburu and the rest of the Jaramogi family are quite capable of responding to questions related to their business interests and certainly do not need a Kenyan living in Quebec to “defend” them.
And the “sketchy” agenda of anonymous hounds who are themselves INCAPABLE of “exposing” Raila Odinga but would insist that only Onyango Oloo is up to that task is quickly revealed when they yelp and yelp and yelp from the shadows of forums infested with bigots throwing turd, mud and vomited curd while keeping their apparently explosive dossiers on the so called “Molassesberg Scandal” a closely guarded secret accessible to select members of this or that tribe.
The way people like Maina Kamanda and his associates on rcbowen, mashada, kca-main, Kenyaonline, Africa-Oped and other forums have approached the question of alleged graft clearly demonstrates the difference between a genuine campaign against corruption and a vendetta driven side show.
Let me illustrate by talking about the Anglo Leasing scandal.
Away from the public discussion forums, I stay in touch with several key people in the Kenyan civil society sector.
At the forefront of these individuals is ONE PARTICULAR person whose real name I will not mention because I do not want to compromise this person who remains a valuable Nairobi based source with his ear very close to the ground.
Suffice to say that this individual is a leading executive of a very prominent graft fighting outfit.
And no, my friends, he is not a Luo, he is not a Luhyia and he is certainly not a Mswahili so stop jumping to your ethnic conclusions.
What I like about this person is the way he regularly provides me with concrete 411 from a variety of very hard to locate pay dirt that even the most intrepid investigative journalist would kill for.
And whenever he does this it is not about, “Oloo let us go after politician from Tribe X or Faith Community W or Race J or Region S or Political Faction Q because if that was the criteria he would not have shared some information linking individuals with whom he may or may not share some of the above attributes. It is without malice.
This morning, when I opened my email I found that he had responded to my inquiry about the Molasses plant by directing me to an objective, non- Kenyan source chock full of data that I am studying as we speak.
It is a professional joy to work with individuals like these who do not care how my first or last name is spelt and do not look at the ethnicity of the crooks they expose before they expose them.
There are at least a dozen people like that back home.
It is sincere and honest compatriots like those who spur me on- genuine democrats, genuine reformers, and genuine anti-corruption campaigners-people who will expose you in a heartbeat even if you are their first cousin.
Sad to say, very few of the so called leaders of the Kenyans in the Diaspora can live up to this benchmark.
Sad to say, Kenyans abroad seemed to be MORE CONSUMED with TRIBAL affiliations than the Kenyans at home.
While it is true that at home there is no shortage of chauvinists FROM EACH AND EVERY ETHNIC COMMUNITY AND REGION IN Kenya and in a sense since some of these bigots actually wield power they are more odious- but by and large, the Kenyan elite abroad are far more POLITICALLY BACKWARD compared to the villagers of Mwatate, Sagana, Kilgoris, Nyamira, Shimba Hills, Katse, Mazeras, Kibiciku, Karatina, Kajiado, Kabarak, Wajir, Isiolo, Lodwar, Migori, Ugunja, Lunga Lunga, Bura, Garsen, Makueni or Runyenjes.
3.0. Tracking Luophobia Among Kenyan Professionals Abroad
As someone who comes from a dual ethnic heritage, was born in the Rift Valley and grew up literally all over the republic among Kenyans of diverse backgrounds, and especially as a true son of cosmopolitan Mombasa, it has been very difficult for me to understand the tenacity, for instance, of Gikuyuphobia among some rabid Luos doing the post graduate studies in San Francisco-especially when said tribal bigots are in their mid to late twenties and live in , of all places, libera, open minded California on the outskirts of a city famous for its tradition of tolerance.
Nor can I understand the rationale behind the blind hatred for Kenyans of South Asian heritage among Kenyans who have been victims of racial profiling in Texas, New York, Toronto, Vancouver and other North American cities.
Equally, I am perplexed when I witness a fairly well adjusted Kenyan woman with above average intelligence living in the Washington DC area expressing what amounts to strident anti-Muslim rants-knowing how her own bi-racial background may have made her a target-as it did some of my own first cousins with a similar heritage.
Likewise when a Kenyan of South Asian descent repeats KKK lines when his own father in Edmonton was called a Paki in the late seventies and early eighties, then I just shake my head in bewilderment.
Last December, I referred to this phenomenon as the Inner Villager Syndrome- referring to the survival of parochial and simplistic ethnic reductionisms among Kenyan middle class transplants in places like New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Toronto, Leeds and elsewhere.
In retrospect I have realized I was wrong-but only because I was unduly harsh on the VILLAGERS.
As I have tried to argue above, Kenyan villagers are not this dense, backward, myopic and tribal. In 2002 when young Kenyans abroad were killing each other digitally to line up behind their respective ethnic chieftains, rural Kenyans all over Kenya had grasped the democratic imperative of uniting nationally behind the candidacy of Mwai Kibaki to defeat the Uhuru Project.
Initially when I was confronted by deranged tribal attacks from anonymous strangers, I used to assume that these were some ignorant kids who were raised by tribal wolves in the jungles of Ukabilaland.
Can you imagine my shock when I finally realized that these were not some gibbering primitive cave dwellers who thought that people who lived in the next mbari were their sworn enemies, but rather, HIGHLY EDUCATED KENYANS, some armed with four or five degrees; some, actual PROFESSORS with a mandate to PROMOTE ethnic and racial DIVERSITY in their respective campuses?
Can you imagine my disgust when I realized that some of these closeted tribalists were the VERY SAME individuals who would call me at home asking me to assist their friend so and so with their immigration matters by writing a support letter?
Can you imagine my disappointment when I realized that some of these ethnic hounds were two faced hypocrites who posed as Born Again Christians in public while practicing their ukabila in private?
Can you imagine my surprise when I found out that some of these individuals were former political prisoners and former exiles like me?
Can you imagine my amazement when I found out that some of these creeps used to be in the same underground Marxist oriented revolutionary movements like myself?
Can you imagine my disillusionment when I discovered that some of these closeted faceless tribalists on the rcbowen forum for instance ARE AMONG THE CURRENT LEADERSHIP of the KCA?
After recovering from my shock, disgust, disappointment, surprise, amazement and disillusionment, my immediate task was to FIND OUT WHY IT WAS NECESSARY FOR THESE BIGOTS TO HIDE THEIR HATEFUL TRIBAL FEARS, MYTHS, OBSESSIONS AND AGENDAS.
That task was made easier because I am now a “Canadian” in the sense that I have lived in this country for long enough (close to twenty years) to know how your average Canadian practices their bigotry.
Unlike their Uncle Sam relatives south of this border, Canadian racists and bigots are rarely overt and the few who are, quickly find themselves isolated.
And yet Canada is a DEEPLY RACIST COUNTRY.
How then does one explain the official veneer of tolerance and the actual lived reality of systemic racist oppression that people from the communities of colour undergo everyday?
I have one word for it:
CODE.
Yes, the racists, sexists, homophobes, classists and ageists, lookists and ableists of Canada have their own abracadabra glossary of code words that they use to hide their prejudice and discrimination.
When they want to attack gays and lesbians for instance, they do not use crude words like “homophobic slurs” and “d**es”(those words have been reclaimed anyways). Rather they talk of “family values” and a “traditional definition of marriage”.
When they are rich people looking down on the poor, they do not call them “bums” and “losers”- rather they would borrow Bill Cosby’s term about “people from the lower income community”.
When they want to denounce people with disabilities fighting for accessibility to public buildings they will not call them “ungrateful cripples and stupid deaf mutes”; rather they will talk of the “unrealistic demands of special interest groups who have an unreasonable feeling of entitlement”.
When they want to call on the police to crackdown on INNOCENT Jamaican youth in Toronto or their Haitian counterparts in Montreal, they do not say “go after those ganja smoking coons of Jane and Finch or the Creole spitting black persons of St. Michel”; rather, they say something like, “we feel it is important to support the efforts of police chief Julian Fantino in his campaign to eradicate drug dealers, pimps and petty criminals from our inner cities”.
And I do need to unlock the passwords to the code words for human beings that are labelled "ugly" because they do not fit the Barbie and Brad Pitt profile or people who society consider to be “too old” or conversely, “too young” ...
READ MORE:
onyangooloo.blogspot.com/2004/08/on-oloo-raila-and-rampant-luophobia.html
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