Reformers Risk Political Irrelevance

[Onyango Oloo]

Kenya Middle Class Reformers Risk Political Irrelevance by Staying Aloof from the Referendum

A Digital Essay by Onyango Oloo, Toronto, Thursday, September 29th, 2005

PART I

Summary:

Since the referendum campaign kicked off, there has been a palpable sneering and contemptuous attitude from a section of the Kenyan reform movement regarding the whole process which has now reached the frenzied Orange versus Bananas crescendo of accusations and counteraccusations. There are those veteran social justice activists who are basically sulking in the corner, sullenly refusing to engage in the ongoing debates, rallies, discussions and interventions regarding the next stage of the constitutional review process in Kenya. It is Onyango Oloo’s considered opinion that this hi falutin stance betrays a deep elitist contempt for the ordinary wananchi and will serve to entrench the hegemony of the very mainstream politicians that reformers are cautioning their friends to steer away from. Onyango Oloo calls on ALL Kenyan social justice activists and democratic, reform minded Kenyan patriots to jump off their high horses, climb down from their supercilious mountain peaks and participate in the muddy puddles of this very murky Katiba tussle. Failure to do so, Oloo argues, will be an objective and inexcusable BETRAYAL of the very hallowed reform process that these Kenyan middle class liberals are trying to saran wrap and sanitize from the very mainstream wanasiasa they love to trash. Onyango Oloo says that exiting from the referendum campaign is a historic abdication of urgent democratic responsibilities and will disqualify the abstainers from ever having the credibility in the future of justifying why they sat apart, sulking with arms folded, while the power hungry politicians took over the process.

For those who love précis- which I rarely give, you can jump to the next thread now because I am about to expand, in my usual long winded way, what I just summarized above.

It has been interesting gauging the reactions and stances of liberal minded members of the Kenyan middle strata holding forth on the ongoing referendum campaign.

Of course they are hundreds who are passionate partisans for either the Yes/Banana or No/Orange teams while there are others who are critically engaged without being wedded to either camp.

I am ignoring that bunch.

The people I want to go after, because, yes, I am taking bow and arrow and pursuing them, believe me- the people I want to go after are my haughty marafiki who think they are all that. I want to grapple with those supercilious, high minded “reformers” who are staying above the fray, lest their lofty (and somehow lefty) principles be sullied and contaminated through their engagement with the referendum process.

As anyone reading these lines is aware by now, I am firmly in the NO, yes, the Oranges camp consisting of those Kenyans who are campaigning actively, ardently and tirelessly against the caricature and mockery called the Wako Draft. Idle-minded tribalist louts are of course assuming that I am doing it because after all, Onyango Oloo is a LUO and must obey what his “god” Raila, commands. Let those jackasses wallow in their feverish delusions.

I am in the NO camp because I support our people’s collective struggle for a democratic constitution- a struggle that has been going on for several years, and like a relay race has had several key people taking over the baton from one part of the race to the other. I believe that before the baton is handed over to the final anchor who powers the wananchi to ultimate victory, that baton will have changed hands several times.

I support the NO campaign for the same reason why I supported Matiba and Rubia when they came out in 1990 and demanded the legalization of multi-party politics; the same reason why I championed the human rights advocacy of the Davinder Lambas, Richard Leakeys , Timothy Njoya and Gitobu Imanyaras. Many if not most of these names just cited are from my Marxist standpoint, MAINSTREAM political players who nevertheless, at specific points in Kenya’s recent history, articulated the collective aspirations of the Kenyan people- despite their class backgrounds, despite their ideological limitations and irrespective of their own personal and political agendas- including their covert or overt quest for political power.

I support the NO camp for the very same reasons why I was an almost deranged fanatic of the Mwai Kibaki candidacy in 2002- despite knowing his decades long sojourn in KANU, his dalliance with Moi and his conservative politics. In 2002 supporting Mwai Kibaki went beyond the personality of the MP for Othaya and the DP leader of the Official Opposition- Kibaki symbolized the crystallization of our people’s national determination to consign the ruling party KANU to the dung heaps of Kenyan history. Those of us who were socialist and still supported NARC did so soberly, with open eyes, realizing the inherent class and ideological contradictions of throwing our support behind a known comprador bourgeois mainstream Kenyan politician with a consistent wishy washy attitude towards democratic reform.

Were we stupid and naïve?

Only the politically obtuse and the ideological amateurs will aver thus.

When South African communists campaigned long and hard for a revered nationalist like Nelson Mandela, rather than any of the dozens of equally capable revolutionaries in their own party ranks, they were not being opportunists.

They were on the contrary, applying rigorously some of the canons of Marxist-Leninist theory:


“.....Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living. And just when they seem engaged in revolutionizing themselves and things, in creating something that has never yet existed, precisely in such periods of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service and borrow from them names, battle-cries and costumes in order to present the new scene of world history in this time-honoured disguise and this borrowed language....”

- Karl Marx, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1983, p.12.


“...The more powerful enemy can be conquered only by exerting the utmost effort, and by necessarily, thoroughly, carefully, attentively and skillfully taking advantage of any, even the smallest, ‘rift’ among the enemies...by taking advantage of every, even the smallest, opportunity of gaining a mass ally, even though this ally be temporary, vacillating, unstable, unreliable and conditional...”

- Vladimir Lenin, “Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder, International Publishers, New York, 1940, p.50.

“... Far from pinning our hopes on antagonisms within the ranks of the enemy, we are fully aware that the development of these contradictions and the extent to which they be capitalized upon are in the last analysis determined by the strength of the revolution. The experience of all genuine popular revolutions shows that the stronger the revolutionary forces become and the higher the revolutionary tide rises, the more the enemy’s ranks are torn by contradictions and are likely to split. Ultimately the time comes when these conflicts have grown so exacerbated as to render impossible all compromise between the various enemy factions. This constitutes one of the unmistakable signs of the maturity of the revolutionary situation. The revolution then breaks out and the enemy’s rule is overthrown in decisive battles....The victory of the revolution depends primarily on a correct determination of the general orientation and strategic objective, as well as the specific orientation and objective for each period. But just as important as defining the orientation and objective is the problem of how to carry them into effect once such decisions are made. What road should be followed? What forms should be adopted? What measures should be used? Experience has shown that a revolutionary movement may mark time, or even fail, not for lack of clearly defined orientations and objectives, but essentially because there have been no appropriate principles and methods of revolutionary action. Methods of revolutionary action are devised to defeat the enemy of the revolution, and in the most advantageous way, so that the revolution may attain its ends as quickly as possible. Here one also needs wisdom as well as courage; it is not only a science, but also an art. Decisions over methods of revolutionary action require, more than in any other field, that the revolutionary maintain the highest creative spirit. Revolution is creation; it cannot succeed without imagination and ingenuity. There has never been nor will there ever be a unique formula for making a revolution that is suited to all situations. One given method may be adaptable to a certain country but unsuitable in another. A correct method in certain times and circumstances may be erroneous in other situations. Everything depends on the concrete historical conditions..... It is a matter of principle that either in the daily policies or in the practice of revolutionary struggle... a revolutionary should never lose sight of the final goal. If one considers the fight for small daily gains and immediate targets as ‘everything’ and views the final goal as ‘nothing’... then one displays the worst kind of opportunism which can only result in keeping the popular masses in eternal servitude. However, it is by no means sufficient to comprehend only the final objective. While keeping in mind the revolutionary goal, the art of revolutionary leadership lies in knowing how to win judiciously step by step. Revolution is the work of millions of popular masses standing up to overthrow the ruling classes, which command powerful means of violence together with other material and spiritual forces. That is why a revolution is always a long-term process. From the initial steps to the final victory, a revolution necessarily goes through many difficult and complex stages of struggle full of twists and bends, clearing one obstacle after another and gradually changing the relation of forces between the revolution and the counter-revolution until overwhelming superiority is achieved over the ruling classes...”

- Le Duan, “The Vietnamese Revolution: Fundamental Problems and Essential Tasks, New World Paperbacks, New York, 1971, pp22-27.

Briefly what these excerpts are reminding progressives and revolutionaries is the need to pay special attention to the actual and material conditions prevailing in the country and being guided by these objective realities rather than basing our stances on our subjective whims and our political wishful thinking on what we ideally want rather than what is.

The mainstream Kenyan politicians- from Kibaki and Kiraitu to Raila and Kalonzo are four steps ahead of many, many Kenyans of far more radical and more lucid ideological visions because these mainstream politicians live in the present and for their own reasons and machinations, have their finger on the pulse of the wananchi seeing the wananchi in their unvarnished, crude and contradictory reality rather than polished and finished product that many of our reformers wish they could transform Wanjiku into. Of course these mainstream politicians for their own myopic ends will exploit regional fears, tribal stereotypes, religious prejudices, academic backwardness, poverty, lumpenization and all the social, political and economic contradictions that came with these to push their own agenda.

In the meantime, some of us, who think we know better walk off in a huff to our cloistered political caves, our ideological backs turned to the mainstream politicians.

But guess what is also happening simultaneously?

The mainstream politicians are organizing public rallies and guess what again?

The wananchi are dropping everything they are doing and trooping to these Banana and Orange rallies.

With all due respect to Father Gabriel Dolan a person who inspires me for his impeccable credentials as a true democrat and a true social justice activist, I was a bit perturbed by what I felt was the following condescending remark in his Daily Nation op-ed appearing in the September 28th 2005 edition of that Nairobi daily:

It is a sad reflection of the failure of our current regime that thousands of the nation's youth are idle and free to attend these rallies even in mid-week.

At least, if the ECK had put symbols representing cows and sheep to represent the 'Yes' or 'No' votes, then the poor might have eaten meat when the campaign circus hit town. With the high price of meat everywhere, this might also have dampened the two camps' enthusiasm for campaigning.

Now, it must be stressed that in his opinion piece, Father Dolan is actually calling for the Faith community to abandon the illusion of “neutrality” and provide a leadership impetus to the referendum process- a position that I am not exactly unsympathetic to- but I still feel that he comes across as a tad patronizing in his imputation that the only people trooping to the referendum rallies are the “nation’s idle youth”. I know from my contacts with both Yes and No camps that workers, professionals, business people, bureaucrats are taking time off work or making time to participate in these rallies, not because they are “idle” but because they believe, as they did in 2002- and in 1992, 1991 and in 1990 and in 1979 and in 1975 and in 1966 and in 1963 and every major democratic turning point in our history that patriots have to be part of the upsurge, the rising ferment- even if our detractors call us “rent- a-mobs” and our own allies and friends dismiss these crowds as composed of “idle youth”.

It is true that politicians are dishing out muthendi to generate support- for a tiny fraction of people who are passionate about this referendum campaign.

But who is paying off the Kenyans who troop online to Africa-oped, Kenyaonline, Kenya Talk, Mambogani, Mashada, and Kenyaniyetu? Who is paying me to stay up for hours on end at night administering the JUKWAA discussion forum or posting and circulating opinion pieces on the Leta Siasa and KDP blogs?

Speaking for myself, I know that I am spending my own time and my own money and my own skills and resources participating in these discussions and debates- not beholden to anyone and I would imagine the same goes for my co-discussants logging in from Vienna, Austria, Harare, Zimbabwe, Mombasa, Kenya, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Uppsala, Sweden, Helsinki Finland, Leicester, the UK, Zurich Switzerland, Dallas, Texas, Toronto, Canada and Mumbai, India.

It is simply insulting to read another democrat belittling the time and effort other democrats are taking to be engaged in the process.

It is my considered opinion that many Kenyan middle class liberals are so contemptuous of the wananchi that they think that ordinary Kenyan people do not have the intelligence to assess the merits and demerits of the Railas, the Kiraitus, the Kibakis, the Mungatanas and the Ngilus. Come election time in 2002, who was it that made sure that KANU was demolished at the polling booths. It was certainly not the “advanced, progressive democratic minded reformers” ensconced in the country’s middle strata.

It was those very “idle youth” those unvarnished wananchi who made sure that almost the entire Moi cabinet was thrown out of parliament and Kibaki got 70% of the popular vote. Some of them “ate” the money thrown at them by the bag men of the Uhuru Project, but come election time, they knew who to vote for.

This reminds me of a small anecdote about an unfortunate pot bellied Nairobi parliamentary aspirant that found us at Kamiti after he had been swung in for some corrupt misdeed that Kenyan politician-businessmen are notorious for. For some reason, my usual elephant memory is failing me tonight because I am somehow confused whether his name was Chege wa Gachamba- or I am confusing him with someone who was a mainstay in the VOK salamu programs back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In any case, this mwanasiasa, whatever his name is, tried to be elected in Madaraka, Starehe, Bahati – one of those three Nairobi constituencies. As part of his plan to storm parliament as a brand new MP, he printed thousands of tee shirts graced with his own ungracious likeness. He freely dished out these T-shirts to anybody who promised to vote for him. Come election day, he came up either dead last or second to mkia, next to chuta as they say in the patois. Now, when he came to be our neighbour in the “big house” he mostly conversed with his riika, Mwalimu Maina wa Kinyatti- who was part of our Marxist Study Circle at Kamiti. Usually before we started our formal sessions, we shot the breeze for a few minutes, getting updates from the invisible “Kamiti Times”- our euphemism for the prison rumour mill- and sharing any hilarious incidents that happened to spice up our otherwise drab existence behind those penitentiary walls. So there was this evening when Mwalimu could not stop chuckling and suppressing a wide grin as he recalled the pathos and bathos of a “sad” ordeal suffered by our unsuccessful Nairobi parliamentary aspirant on the night the election results were announced- I think he ran in 1979- I will double check and see if I can remember the name- at any rate, this is what happened. He found out that those thousands of “well wishers” and “confirmed voters” who had vowed to “vote for him” after eating his muthendi and grabbing his electioneering T shirt had unfortunately deserted him on the fateful and crucial day. To our politician’s shock, judging from the paltry vote, it appeared as if he was shunned even by members of his own family. Having invested a small fortune in the design, production and distribution of the t-shirts, our mwanasiasa resolved to exact “revenge” while going some way towards “recouping” his electoral expenses and losses. So this is what he did. He positioned himself in strategic places- for instance, in the vicinity of the Gikomba market. Since he knew that NONE of his tee shirts had gone on sale, he figured that anyone wearing his tee shirt is likely to have received his or her issue from his own or agents’ hands. Therefore whenever he saw a Mwananchi whistling happily towards the open air market- but wearing the doomed tee shirt- he aggressively accosted the accursed tee shirt wearer with these abrasive words:

“Nani! Hebu Vua Hiyo Fulana Mara Moja! Ninajua Hukunipigia Kura! Nirudishie T- Shirt!”

I do NOT have the figure of the exact grand total of the used T-shirts that the politician-thief managed to harvest back from their hapless ex-wearers.

But I digress.

(continued...)

[Onyango Oloo]

PART II:


The moral of the story is that the wananchi will eat your money and vote exactly for the person they were planning to vote for all along.

Now- that is a mark of political intelligence.

My point is that the Kenyan middle class reformers risk political irrelevance if they keep sulking haughtily from the referendum campaign.

After the 2002 elections and following the conclusion of the national constitutional conference- this campaign is the largest manifestation in the mass mobilization of the ordinary wananchi that we have seen in our country in a long time.

There is a reason why the campaign is dominating our daily headlines- it is the most important political battle that is happening in Kenya right now.

Middle class pundits with complexes about particular mainstream politicians may sniff arrogantly with their ideological noses in the air- but it is this campaign that is right now, as we speak reshaping our country’s destiny for good or for ill for decades to come.

The outcome of this vote will mean either an advance or a retreat of our collective struggles.

Liberal reformers who can only see Raila Odinga, William Ruto, Uhuru Kenyatta, Musalia Mudavadi, Mwai Kibaki, Simeon Nyachae, Kiraitu Murungi, Charity Ngilu and Morris Dzoro are ignoring the fact that at those rallies the wananchi outnumber the mainstream politicians 50,000 to one, 20,000 to one, 10, 000 to one, 5,000 to one. More ordinary Kenyans are passionate about oranges and bananas than all the Kenyan mainstream politicians quadrupled.

These ordinary Kenyans have their own agenda, their own aspirations, and their own vision.

Elitist elements from the Kenyan middle class are depicting the wananchi as MORONS who are being “misled” by the Kiraitus and the Balalas.

Consider this possibility:

Is it possible that the very mainstream politicians that middle class liberals like to despise are much more attuned to what the wananchi are saying, what they want? Is it possible that these very power hungry politicians perhaps have a better feel of what is being muttered in the gicagis and whispered in the urban slums? While our middle class liberals vegetate in suburban workshops and recover from Trans-Atlantic jet lag, perhaps these very mainstream politicians have been following what the Maasai in Kajiado are saying; what the Kipsigis in Kericho are complaining about and what the Dawidas in Werugha are nungu nikaring about.

And speaking of the Wadawida wa Werugha, I had a chance to spend an entire day with the ordinary voters in this section of the rural Wundanyi constituency in early October 2003 when I accompanied the area MP on a weekend visit. I attended a Sunday afternoon meeting which began with earnest prayers-the two Communists present dutifully bowed and closed their eyes along with three dozen or so Anglican adherents- before the village women and the village men started waxing eloquently about what they wanted to do with their trees, their local resources and how they wanted to harness the potential of the tourist revenue windfalls- as soon as the new Katiba was in place. Mind you, Mwandawiro, their MP, did more listening than talking and Onyango Oloo who was a guest who did not speak the local tongue was just a keen observer of participatory democracy in action.

Get this:

Mwandawiro Mghanga drives down that treacherous Nairobi-Mombasa road every single weekend, branching off at Voi, veering past Mwatate, snaking up the hills via Aggrey High School going up, up, up the milima until he reaches his village of Werugha where he heads straight to his Born Again mother’s house before dropping off his stuff at his nearby house. When I visited the area with him I found dozens of constituents already waiting for him- a mix of impoverished Kenyans desperate from some personal intervention from their mbunge to very politically conscious area activists with an ever present cahier of urgent democratic demands.

We do not often appreciate that former President Moi bolstered his long dictatorial reign not just through rigging but also through the undeniable fact that he had visited almost every location in the republic.

These mainstream politicians-be they in Ford Kenya, be they in Ford-People, be they in DP, be they in KANU be they in LDP are very much attuned to what the vast majority of Kenyans who happen to live in the countryside are thinking and saying.

A good illustration is the dilemma facing the Ford-Kenya leadership. In July we heard stories from Nairobi that people like Kombo were paid off by figures rumoured to hovering around 800,000 and may have been recipients of another recent stash of swag swiped from state coffers as per Kiraitu’s “government project”- paid off to prostitute themselves for the atrocious Wako wacky draft.

But they had to meet the other day- the Ford Kenya leadership at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga House- where they heard their people on the ground reporting to them candidly that the ordinary Bukusu, the ordinary Mwana Ingo who voted in a FORD-Kenya MP is firmly in the NO camp. So they were dithering this way and that way before Kombo finally decided to sell out that Ford-Kenya mass base and throw his lot with his NAK political masters. But Kombo knows, Wekesa knows, Kituyi knows, Wanjala knows, Wetangula knows- they all know that wamejikaanga na mafuta ya ndizi. That is why Noah Wekesa is teaming up with Syyongo to bleat for a postponement. Why? Simply because these uncouth sell outs want to have it both ways- eat Kiraitu’s handouts AND retain their parliamentary seats! To which I say, good luck ladies and gentlemen of the shifty Middle Ground….

Why am talking so passionately?

Well for one- I always talk passionately because I wear my political heart on my goddammed sleeve.

Secondly is because I want to share with my liberal middle class friends the lesson the Kenyan socialist Left learned in 1991/92. I recently wrote about this so I will just recycle the relevant passage:

Since 1991 Kenyan Leftists have been whining that the mainstream politicians have repeatedly hijacked popular struggles for their myopic interests.

Well that may be so, but what have we on the Left done?

Let me tell you.

In late 1991, after the repeal of Section 2A of the constitution legalized multiparty politics there was a very vigorous discussion in then semi-clandestine Kenyan Leftist demi-monde. What were we to do?

I was then a member of an outfit called UWAKE which included in its top ranks at least two current Members of Parliament- one of whom was actually a cabinet minister not too long ago. We had units in Kenya, in Tanzania, in Uganda, in Southern Africa, in Scandinavia, in Canada and in the United States. Through our underground channels we debated fiercely what to do. Some of us wanted us to follow the lead of Umoja and Mwakenya and boycott the entire multiparty euphoria because like Ngugi said at that time, Kenyans had to be wary about Moism without Moi. Others wanted to immediately jump out of clandestinity and join Ford-Asili, Ford-Kenya and all those other mainstream upstarts. There are those who wanted to retain our independent existence and perhaps come out of the political closets gradually after a careful assessment of the concrete situation.

Long story short, before we had a chance to consummate these discussions, a section of our leadership based in East Africa arbitrarily decided to disband UWAKE! Just like that. One day we were all members of a compact Marxist-Leninist formation and the next day we became political waifs without a political home. And our leaders fanned out- one basically was a ghost writer for one of the Presidential aspirants of 1992; another one became a key lieutenant of the other FORD Presidential candidate- others became advisors and strategists for an assortment of candidates- three or four ran for parliament- at one point in the late 1990s one of our former cadres was a KANU MP and assistant minister while another one was a FORD-K MP and cabinet minister while a third one became the Secretary General of another new mainstream political party.

In one sense we had simply evolved with the times and to a certain extent we were secretly proud that so many of our members and supporters as well as members of other formerly Leftist groups including Mwakenya were very active in mainstream politics-especially in the 1992-1997 period.

But the stark reality is that the multi-party euphoria thoroughly DISORGANIZED the Kenyan Left as we scrambled to latch on to short term political agendas led by politicians who had long held the socialist underground in undisguised contempt. We were now dancing to their tune, singing their song. We deluded ourselves that we needed this opening up of democratic space, with a handful of us convinced that sooner or later we would be able to infiltrate and take over these mainstream outfits and push our own explicitly socialist and anti-imperialist agendas.

Well that did not happen. Even the most radical of the so called Young Turks had a healthy disdain for Marxism- and remember this was the immediate post Fall of the Wall period where everybody was shouting their anti-communist credentials from the rooftops.

So the organized Kenyan Left that had remained intact throughout the darkest years of the Moi-Dictatorship- 1982-1990- were suddenly obliterated because we allowed ourselves to be gobbled by FORD and all her children; DP and her clones and even KANU! I remember how traumatized some of us were when one of our ex- members announced that he was going to take a second stab at a parliamentary seat on a KANU ticket- he had been runner up in his first try in 1992. We were simply horrified. He explained to us that he was in a KANU zone and that is why he opted for the ruling party- in any case he pointed out that his previous party was simply a KANU clone. He won handily and soon enough he became an assistant minister. Almost as predictably, his politics started veering sharply to the right. Far from “infiltrating” KANU, the ruling party had CO-OPTED him.

By the time the 1997 elections came around, there had been a lot of shifting sands…

What I am trying to tell members of the reform minded Kenyan middle strata- realizing objectively that I fall among their number- is that we ignore mainstream Kenyan politics at our peril.

The referendum campaign, debates, rallies and demonstrations are not politically neutral events.

Rather everything is unfolding in contested territory. There is a contest to shape the destiny of Kenya. The mainstream politicians from the mainstream political parties are in the thick of things- correctly as middle class liberal reformers posit- because they want to acquire political power.

By the way, that alone makes them ten times SMARTER than the most astute liberal reformer.

These mainstream politicians grasp one thing that revolutionaries also know- without political power you are worth zilch.

If you control a section of the state like Kibaki, Kiraitu, Mirugi, Michuki and the NAK gang do- you can shape political policies to suit your own interests, however narrow and parochial. The failure of middle class liberals to be gung ho, to be actually drunk with dream of political power will forever consign them to mercies of their ideological opponents who have no such qualms.

Folks, there is NOTHING wrong with a Pan Africanist, a Social Democrat, a Liberation Theologian and GASP! a Marxist-Leninist “grabbing” political power in Kenya. In fact, I can think of several good things if such an eventually were to occur.

The default of staying away from the contestations for political power is to suffer the consequences of ceding these battles to people we know are NOT democrats or reform oriented.

Comrades and friends from the Kenyan Middle Class Liberal Reform Brigade:

Dream of political power!

Work with the wananchi to achieve this state power!

Then with that power, implement your democratic reforms.

That is a diluted version of a national democratic revolutionary agenda for Kenya.

Here is a concentrated version:

www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_mesg&forum=22&topic_id=32859&mesg_id=32859&listing_type=search

Onyango Oloo
Toronto

[kamalet]

I always come to your essays on this constitutional debate hoping that you can perhaps engage your readers on what is all so very wrong with the Wako draft, that convinces you that you must vote No.

Unfortunately, all I get is a political grouse about how Kiraitu is a con, recycled rumour and self justification of why you are not a Raila worshiper etc. You preach how the ordinary Kenyan has been shafted by this government, but rarely try to find if the Wako draft shafts them further or in actual fact ameliorates their suffering. To me as an ardent reader of yours, I see no difference between you and Balala or Mungatana. All these two tell us is the same story but in different terms - none of you ever talk about the constitution, its merits or demerits.

Even attempts at justification of the Bomas draft as the true will of the people falls flat, I am afraid! Some of the things I hear being preached about how bad Wako is are a cut and paste job from the Bomas document, but in the political heat we are happy to ignore this!

My concern at the moment is that there are very many people talking about the will of the ordinary Kenyan. I am an ordinary Kenyan who is totally amazed at the continued abuse of my intelligence by politicians and activists whose agenda is a very distant relative of the constitutional process.

What I was told in 2001 was that we would have a new constitution soon. I even wrote a memorandum to the CKRC which apart from being ignored was not even acknowledged. I was told that there was someone from Dagoretti (whom I did not elect/appoint) representing my interests at Bomas including my MP who at least I elected. I lookedat the nonesense going on in there and remained hopeful that we shall get a good document.

Fast forward to 2005 and I have been a given document that I have now read about 4 times, and I am being asked to go to the voting booth and decide if I want it or not. I shall go to that booth on 21st November at Riruta and I shall vote.

Can you imagine if another 4 million voters can do just that? I am certain there are more literate people than that in Kenya with voting cards. These are the people who should tell the politicians and activists to take their lofty ideas and shove them!

My point really is that there are those like you who want to lord it over Kenyans that this process is about this or that politician or this or that cause! I am afraid to use terms such as 'Kenyans want' or 'Kenyans have decided' since this numeralist policy of imagining that the statement translates to popular will is wrong. But then I could be the disgruntled one that cannot see what "Kenyans want" !!

[Onyango Oloo]

Kamale:

I can only assume that you logged in to JUKWAA and was looking frantically for a blank space from where you could launch the above rant and seeing this essay right at the top decided- great, here is a spot, I will park myself here and spit makohozi at Oloo from this vantage point.

Why do I say this?

Because you have NOT engaged the contents of this particular essay, which I took the trouble to first summarize and then discuss meticulously in a two-part contribution. Just to remind you, I was addressing those sections of our country's middle class liberal formations who are shying away from the referendum debate.

You on the other hand, had a pre-fabricated agenda which was one- to show how Oloo, the Marxist is no different from Balala or Mungatana and two, basically to try and peddle some poisoned bananas on the internet.

To start with the bananas. My late paternal grandmother, Doris Awiti used to cultivate and harvest some of the best bananas in our village of Luanda Doho ka Agina, aka Luanda Dudi, Kisa Location, former Kakamega district in the current Khwisero constituency. I loved her sweet bananas. My grandmother was a super sleuth who could tell from the foot-prints alone whether our neighbour from across the rang'ach, the gate, the mlango kubwa, my namesake Onyango owad gi Musa had sneaked in last night after the midnight rain to cut off one or two with his panga to hastily tie on to his baisikeli from where he would sneak off, pre-dawn for either Yala or Luanda Siala next to Maseno to sell. In other words, I love my bananas. Right now however, whenever I make smoothies on my blender I use seven oranges for every two bananas and I throw in pineapples and mangoes as well.

But back to your rant.

You see Kamale, hijacking my essay to push the Wako Draft just wont fly you know.

Contrary to what you impute, I think that I have tried, quite successfully at that, to raise discussions about that wacky Whacko Wako Caricature and its associated Kilifi Draft through this forum and the various blogs I maintain.

For instance, on this very forum, you will find a very scholarly dissection of the Wako Draft by a young Kenyan lawyer who is doing his doctorate degree- Shermit Lamba. I posted his analysis of the Wako Draft on the very day he published it- August the 26th over one month ago on this very forum. Did you even deign to comment on it? Of course not.

Look the thread is still intact, and it still shows zero replies to it:

jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1125055778

Before that, while your NAK and affiliated Ford-People and Ford-Kenya friends were frolicking at Sun 'n Sand, I interviewed 4 CKRC commissioners- among them one of Africa's most distinguished constitutional lawyers, Prof. Okoth Ogendo and the brilliant lawyer Dr. Mutakha Kangu- who dissected what the govenment drafts were all about. Did I see you grapple with what they had to say? Again, you were missing in action. Just to refresh your memory, here is a link to the audio interview that I posted on the Indymedia Kenya website:

216.17.145.92/news/2005/08/286.php

Related to that are two documents that go into a fair amount of detail about the very matters you accuse me of brushing over:

letasiasa.blogspot.com/2005/08/prelminary-analysis-of-kilfi-draft.html

letasiasa.blogspot.com/2005/08/ckrc-sends-legal-note-to-nyachaes.html

Did you read Tom Kagwe's dissection of the Wako Draft when I posted it on this forum? Here is another opportunity for you to do so:

jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1126028817

In an essay I posted on this forum on the 7th of September, I embedded an opinion piece by lawyer James Orengo who also did a dissection of the same Wako Draft

jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1126114631

Again, it is not a coincidence that you were silent on threads which actually took their time to analyse that Wako Draft.

That is why I think you are being mischevious when you become economical with the truth with your outlandish claims that you have looked in vain for any postings associated with me where we have pointed out the short-comings of the Wako Draft.

More than those specific references, I have told you, when you recycled your standard speech on yet another thread in this forum what my other concerns with this whole Wako wackiness were all about. Instead of wasting time, let me just reproduce the thread where you and I had a very lengthy back and forth on this very issue:

jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1126690605

Perhaps, Kamale, you can come back and give me feedback on this essay that is titled, "Middle Class Reformers Risk Political Irrelevance."

I can see right through you, you know.

Onyango Oloo
Toronto

[miguna]

Kamale:

How is Nairobi?

You have forced me from my cyber sabbatical into your discussion with Oloo. Let me apologize for this short message. I had prepared a comprehensive one, but it suddenly disappeared before I sent it. I blame my techono ignorance for that.

My friend Kamale, you are being unfair to yourself, Oloo and to all of us. Oloo has specifically stated in his "Introduction" what his essay deals with. He has informed us that his challenge is specifically directed to the so-called "Liberal Reformers" in Kenya. I do not know whether you responded to him because you consider yourself a "Liberal Reformer", or you simply did so to "put him in his place." Either way, I believe that you missed the point of his piece.

In any event, I thought that Job had a few postings ago, vey capably and comprehensively given you a detailed analysis of the Wako Draft and pointed out to you some of the reasons why some of us have decided to say "NO" to it. I could not have done better than Job. If Job's analysis meant nothing to you, then clearly you have made up your mind not to be convinced otherwise. That is your democratic choice. We need not quarrel over this.

It is not helpful to always project the image of ubiquity like Kibaki has been doing. To always tell those who disagree with you that they are wrong, stupid or foolish like Kibaki has now done repeatedly is not just an insult of one's own intelligence, it is a sign of senility.

We, the so-called "educated" Kenyans, have let our people down. Regardless of our political views, positions or affiliations, we should recognize and appreciate each other's contributions, viewpoints and positions. It does not serve us to always suspect that we are holding specific positions because of some ulterior motives. And that even if or when we hold divergent opinions, we can still debate, argue and discuss. We can also still take tea with one another (like you and I did in Nairobi sometime back). Without the ability to magnanimously tolerate and accomodate each other, we can never find long-lasting solutions to our common problems.

I find it quite interesting that Kibaki and Co have been arguing that their opponents are saying the Wako Draft is bad without having read it first. Why would anybody say this when the draft is available and some of the most vocal draft's opponents are literate? And what is wrong if one opposes something s/he has not read simply because s/he opposes what one considers an illegitimate process? How come you completely ignore what even adamant supporters of the Wako Draft have acknowledged; that "20 per cent of the draft is poison?" By the way, I don't buy this. The whole thing is poison. Incidentally, why did they deliberately make the 20% defective? They seem to have recgnized this but never made those sections acceptable to the Kenyan people.

Ultimately my friend, democratic practice demands that the ordinary people (not the talking elites) are the ones whose decisions matter. So, if the ordinary person had no input in the Kilifi Draft, expect them to say "NO." You can't blame them, can you?

Avoid fighting with anyone that disagrees with you. It dilutes your otherwise very lucid opinions.

Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you on November 21st.
[unedited]
-MIGUNA-

[roughrider]

This is a beautiful essay that I will print and read carefully at home.

However I will make some quick remarks based on my previous assessment of what I call ‘the missing middle-class’ (economists might know about ‘missing markets’)

First I believe it is being written by the wrong person and again I will demonstrate later in detail.

Briefly this writer and the lot he represents must remove the logs from their eyes. They stand accused of the same abdication in a different and perhaps lesser extent.

I plan to deal with the issues raised in that essay and specifically my opinion that the people represented by Oloo are part of that inactive middle class that will be rendered irrelevant. Their political involvement is grossly insufficient and inadvertently serves the function of preventing more meaningful and real participation. You can identify the people i am talking about in part by how how they sign off: The writer is ‘social justice activist’ or a ‘human rights lawyer’ or some other sexy title.

make no mistake: I respect and admire many of these people and I am not saying this to spite them but I am only saying this because we must be truthful to one another.

The truth is that they are in it for either the money or because of lack of better alternative employment. They are never prepared to put their money where their mouths are. I do not believe they are willing to roll up their sleeves and do the real everyday political spadework that churns out revolutions.

(to be fair specifically to Oloo, he has suffered from what I regard to be the unfortunate excesses of the Moi regime in the 80's, so he is out of my crosshairs for the moment, I only use his name figuratively. And after all moderators must know that they are fair game!)

Apart from my grouse with the middle-class, holier-than-thou, hands off-to-political-development attitude, I also have serious problems with the Oloo’s and Kamale’s of this world for absconding leadership to an ageing aristocracy. They must have been lulled by years of being told “you are the leaders of tomorrow” – this last comment is not as much a ‘class’ issue but more correctly an ‘age’ issue.

Again this is a thesis I will demonstrate this later.

Kamale, haven’t you learnt how to demolish Oloo after all these months? I can tell you where his soft underbelly is, so that you avoid those frantic blows into the dark; they are rarely on target.

[Onyango Oloo]

Roughrider:

Thank you for your provisional feedback- barbs and all.

Many people have looked for that elusive soft underbelly of Oloo- but all I see are putrid corpses of my former adversaries rotting unclaimed in the morgues of cyberspace.

I wrote my piece and I am looking forward to your detaled critique.

Onyango Oloo
Toronto

[kamalet]

Oloo,

My apologies if my response can only be seen as a diversion from the main essence of your essay. Perhaps I am guilty of being selective in picking bits of your essay and responding to them - for that I offer no apology!

I have seen all the opinions that you have posted, and you never claim them to be yours. What I sought was actually your own take on the matter that makes you forcefully assert NO. Wherever I have an issue with a particular position by any of those people whose articles you have posted, I have responded and invariably I am not in agreement with them. But one thing is certain, I respect their right to the opinions they hold.

Perhaps you are going to accuse me of baiting you - Yes that is what I am doing. I do not want you to recycle what others have said, I want to know if you have read the Bomas Draft, The Wako Draft and finally the mutilated Lancaster constitution currently in force. My mind is fixated on these documents and what they contain. I frankly do not give a rats ass what Kiraitu or Raila say about their political inclinations and frustrations - that is their day trade.

I am hopeful that one day, before 21st November, I shall see a digital essay from Oloo that discusses his mind with regard to the documents (and please not the process!!).

Miguna,

I hope you are keeping well!

With regard to Job's input, we had an interesting engagement, and the fact that we could not agree on a number of things, was good enough for me as I am still convinced that he has his right to the interpretation that he holds. Being a lawyer, I am sure you are aware of the black and white theory of everything!!! Your interpretation is only as good as it favours your client!

It is regrettable that the positions I hold get me branded as someone's lackey ( I can live with that!!), but I am ever grateful that despite all these disagreements over the net, we still recognise that they are at an intellectual level only.

Wish you all a good day!

[Onyango Oloo]

Kamale:

Let me share something with you.

I have been involved with the media as an insider for over fifteen years now- as a magazine writer, radio host, community television producer, web master and news forum administrator. On an individual basis I make a point of being a critical "consumer" of messages conveyed on mainstream television and other major print and electronic outlet.

due to this, i have had a lot of time to familiarize myself with the tactics of pundits, spin doctors, public relations people and a whole of individuals who are PAID to lie for politicians, political parties and other agents of the status quo.

here is a typical media tactic:

let us say there is an election, referendum or raging debate dominating the country in the united states, canada or whichever country you choose- say kenya to take another hypothetical example.

in fact, let us use the last american elections to be precise.

pundit xyz for the republican party is invited to face off pundit abc on larry king live.

now pundit xyz has an agenda for pushing the following message:

" the american people should re-elect george w bush because he is tough on terrorists and supports the pro-life movement."

the gop pundit knows that he has at most six minutes on live cable television to reach a global audience of millions with that message. therefore he resolves that NO MATTER what larry king asks in terms of a direct question or the democratic pundit says in response, his republican message will remain the same:

" the american people should re-elect george w bush because he is tough on terrorists and supports the pro-life movement."

so here is how matters will unfold:

larry king: pundit xyz- some people blame george bush for katrina and rita because he refused to sign the kyoto protocol. comment?

pundit xyz: " the american people should re-elect george w bush because he is tough on terrorists and supports the pro-life movement."

pundit abc: larry, xyz is deliberately avoiding the question! here is what john kerry will do about global warming, destruction of the wet lands and excessive use of fossil fuels, first of all...

(jumping in and cutting abc off)pundit xyz: " the american people should re-elect george w bush because he is tough on terrorists and supports the pro-life movement."

larry king: xyz, images depicting the torture and humiliation of iraqi prisoners were flashed around the world to the great embarassment of every american. do you think our government has a moral leg to stand on hectoring third world governments on human rights?

pundit xyz: " the american people should re-elect george w bush because he is tough on terrorists and supports the pro-life movement."

pundit abc: there he goes again larry! he did not answer your question. let me tell you what president john kerry would do on his first day in office....

(jumping in and cutting abc off)pundit xyz: " the american people should re-elect george w bush because he is tough on terrorists and supports the pro-life movement."

larry king: xyz, during the 2000 presidential debates with al gore, then candidate george bush vowed that he would ensure that the budget was balanced. today america is borrowing from china, japan and virtually every other country apart from kenya to finance the war in iraq and the tax cut for the rich. why should the american voters trust that in his second term bush would not make things worse for the american economy?

pundit xyz: " the american people should re-elect george w bush because he is tough on terrorists and supports the pro-life movement."

pundit abc: larry i really must protest! this is getting ridiculous! you have asked xyz a series of questions which has consciously spin doctored away with the same tired line of prefabricated lies. unlike bush, my candidate, john kerry the next president of the united states believes in telling the truth to the american people. here is what he would do about creating new jobs and providing new incentives for american business to make our country competitive again in the global market place. apart from cancelling that atrocious corporate welfare for the rich, president john kerry would...

( jumping in and cutting abc off)pundit xyz: " the american people should re-elect george w bush because he is tough on terrorists and supports the pro-life movement."

larry king: gentlemen, i am sorry we would have to end it there because that is all the time we have got. thank you very much for agreeing to come on larry king live... next, a candid conversation with michael jackson sisters about the crippling miners strike in poland. do not go anywhere- we will be right back after those painkiller commercials....

kamale, this is exactly what you are trying to do on this forum. for whatever reason, you have positioned yourself as nak's spin doctor on this jukwaa forum and you have decided that your mission on this forum is to flog the infamous wako draft and the yes campaign on every single thread with your content free incantations about what is good with the wako draft.

unfortunately kamale, you are simply not as suave, or even half as persuasive as those polished gop spin doctors that many of us can see right through. you are free to hawk your poisoned bananas on this forum. however you should know that it is irritating for you to hijack every thread to do that. here is a suggestion, and i can give with some firm assurance as the administrator of this forum. why don't you do this:

please start a brand new thread consisting entirely of the full length text of the yes shtick- it does not matter whether it comes from your pen( you are a fairly competent writer, i will grant you that) or my former lawyer kiraitu or attorney general wako himself. post it here and i will place a sticky on it ensuring it top billing. then let people discuss that yes propaganda piece in one spot rather than you tainting every thread with droppings from that dripping rotten and poisoned banana, ama?

onyango oloo
toronto

[kamalet]

Oloo,

Your singular problem is that you are happy to brand others, but take great offence when you are equally branded. This compliment that I can only be PAID can be returned in kind. But that will only continue to demean the forum, and I will not be party to that - but do feel free to continue!

I would have expected a bit more tolerance in Jukwaa, and the fact that I struggle to agree with you on very many things, is not licence enough to imagine that I can only be writing at the behest of someone. Personally I do not care whether you write for anyone or represent anyone.

The least I can demand from you as the moderator of this forum is to remove your personal feelings about issues, and then stop lecturing me on what I stand for. If you are finding offense in my postings that do not agree with the general mindset in the forum, please feel free to strike me off the forum. But as long as I am able to post to this forum, I expect not to be lectured on whom I represent, because I believe I can represent myself in this forum. I am far intelligent than you imagine Oloo.

As for the attempt at mind reading, may suggest that you are much better at writing than that. All I can say is that this intolerance will be the death of this forum.

[Onyango Oloo]

You know that no one has ever curtailed your freedom of expression on this forum- even when you blatantly take over threads to push through your fairly transparent agenda.

Therefore your charges of "censorship" simply do not wash.

Far from restricting your freedom and displaying an iota of "intolerance", I am actually guaranteeing you that if you penned a more HONEST propaganda piece for the Yes campaign and posted it here, I would pin it for an entire day to ensure that it remained at the top of the page.

If you read what I said carefully you will notice that there is nowhere I say that you Kamale are paid by anyone- only that you are acting as a paid spin doctor.

The topic is not Oloo and it is quite patent that you are determined to derail it with another set of red herrings.

Good luck.

Onyango Oloo
Toronto

[miguna]

My friend Kamau...oops, Kamale,

It is good to see that you are as vigorous as ever. I don't think that even Oloo can accuse you of lack of consistency in your cyber participation in these fora.

I have a few things to quible with on your brief response to me:

1. I am not aware of the "theory of "black and white theory of everything." Please educate me.

2. You state that a lawyer's interpretation is only as good as it favours that lawyer's client(s). I am not sure where you are getting this from. My small dictionary simply defines a "lawyer" as a "member of the legal profession." As you must know, a lawyer's function, job or position may vary from day-to-day. A lawyer is also a human being, a political animal, an advocate, et cetera. In this discussion, I wonder who my clients are or are assumed to be. I can tell you that I am not working on any retainer from any of the participants. I actually wish I were. But that is only an honest wish. You know what they say of wishes and beggars. However, in a more serious note, I happen to know one or two things about "correctness," "fairness", "reasonableness" and "objectivity" in matters of interpretation. You may be right to be suspicious about those who claim to be "neutral" or "impartial," but, fortunately, I do not graze with that herd, at least not now/ yet. Maybe I will, after ODM takes over from Kibaki and his confused brigade. Only maybe...

3. Finally Kamau, how is project Saitoti going?

So long. [unedited]

-MIGUNA-

[kamalet]

Miguna,

When the theory was explained to me by a lawyer it made sense...am struggling to explain it away!

One the lawyer thing, seriously nothing to do with you, it was a general remark regarding different legal interpretations by laywers in defence of their client's positions. Once again, it had nothing to do with Miguna the solicitor!

As for project Saitoti, I think it awaits the Yes victory now that Uhuru has finished himself politically.

You probably ask what I mean by Yes victory when all else are talking about a No victory. This is simply because they No camp has a poor strategy of going out seeking large crowds and then disappear. Let me give an interesting thing going on in the back yard of Kibutha Kibwana's constituency. In every market centre he has positioned a para legal to explain away the draft constitution. Now this lawyer friend of mine is eyeing that sit and has taken the No position for that purpose. His problem is that he goes to the same market centres every weekend ( he works in Nairobi), talks to the people and these para legals are taunting him that he is seen for a day only whilst they are camped for the whole week. That is hurting my friend's chances. He also has a deal through an NGO to do civic education on the Kamba station of KBC for 20 minutes every day. Unfortunately KBC broadcasts in Kikamba for only 1 hour daily. To counter him S K Macharia he of Citizen Radio has a 24 hour Kikamba station broadcasting that the Yes vote is the way to go! Now this is repeated in all the populous constituencies where the votes will count!

As I have said elsewhere, I think the orange camp is misreading things - but I could be wrong!

[miguna]

My friend,

There is no such theory in law that I know of, and I should know. Perhaps your lawyer friend either just wanted to impress you or he had had one too many. Go back to him and ask.

On Saitoti, the ODM is waiting. I wish they actually go ahead with Saitoti since he is the most poltically damaged goods in Kenya...remember Goldenberg?

As for Kivutha, SK Machari, et al, let me remind you of Moi & KANU. Once upon a time, KBC was on air 24 hrs singing "Twala Kanya Tawala" - but where did the Uhuru Project go?

So long,

-MIGUNA-