Post by Onyango Oloo on Dec 11, 2017 10:07:22 GMT 3
A digital essay by Onyango Oloo
Like most progressive Kenyans, Onyango Oloo was shocked at the last minute cancellation of the meticulously planned swearing scheduled for December 12, 2017. I share with millions of Kenyans my disappointment at the big let down.
I am very far from Nairobi and not close to the NASA powers that be or any of my good friends in that formation so I am jotting down this digital essay to give my honest ideological assessment of what probably went down.
First of all, it is significant to note who was at the press conference and who was missing. Of course NASA has to diplomatically come “together” in a collective soothing voice to allay the anger of their followers who saw the December 12th swearing in not as the coronation of Raila Amolo Odinga but rather as the beginning of a new chapter in Kenya’s struggle for democracy.
Secondly, a few months ago I criticized NASA’s “coalition” approach and contrasted it with the revolutionary united front strategy. I argued that the coalition approach was a mainstream, basically bourgeois grasp for political power. I said at the time that bringing ODM,Wiper, Amani,FORD Kenya and other mainstream petit-bourgeois parties together to confront Jubilee was merely an attempt to work out a way of dividing up the spoils once NASA had grabbed state power.
For a while, especially with the development of the People’s Assembly campaign and the economic boycott culminating with Raila’s refusal to participate in the October 26th charade of a so called second election my hopes returned and I said publicly that NASA was finally on the right track.
What is now emerging is that the ideological rifts in NASA are deep and real. Without name checking anyone, some of the players are right wing to their very core having been brought up and nurtured in KANU. For some of them, the lure of flying a flag was more alluring than giving the wananchi an opportunity to at last realize some of the dreams of Dedan Kimathi and the Mau Mau, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and KPU, Pio gama Pinto, Makhan Singh and the DTM underground activists of the 1980s or those who have shed blood, sweat and tears from the 1980s or the hundreds of youth who have bravely taken police bullets in the last few months.
It appears that outside this internal reactionary core within NASA,on the outside there is the Kenyan neo-colonial state-through NIS,through Jubilee, the Gikuyu-Kalenjin holoi poloiand theAmericans, the British and other imperialists.
Without painting Raila Odinga as a Che Guevara or some revolutionary saint,it appears to me that at least in his case he has been struggling to move from his wishy-washy social democratic moorings into a revolutionary nationalist direction. I argue it is because the NASA flag bearer is in touch with the masses and he knows what the people in Tononoka,Chaani, Kondele, Homa Bay, Migori, Makueni, Athi River,Kibra, Eastliegh, Ugenya,Gem,Alego, Kendu Bay and Pand Pieri are striving for. And for that matter the Diaspora folks in Stockholm, London, Dallas, Johannesburg, Durban, Riyadh,Seoul are hankering for.
Quite frankly, the ordinary Kenyan people are the ones who are leading the movement for social justice transformation in Kenya-not the imperialist funded NGOs, not the “instant democrats” who like Intel have KANU inside. They are the ones who have been pulling Raila Odinga and NASA to come over to their side.On the other hand, it is the right-wing in NASA who have been acting as a break to thwart radical developments.
It is significant that Uhuru Kenyatta has not yet announced his new cabinet. Could this be as a a wait and see game of some quiet wheeler dealership with elements within NASA for positions? After all, the cases of Musila, Rege, Otuoma and even Isaac Ruto and Munya has demonstrated that our mainstream politicians are at the end of the day, virtually tumbocrats at heart.
Kenya, even more than Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia is crucial to the geo-political plans of the Americans,the Europeans and NATO. There is a severe risk for the military-industrial complex and the Fortune 500 corporations if anything were to happen to threaten their neo-colonial stranglehold on Kenya.
We have seen that Uhuru Kenyatta and Jubilee have not hesitated to use Mungiki thugs to kill and maim innocent civilians to maintain their dictatorship. You can be sure that US Ambassador Godec and the Western envoys in Nairobi know this. Recently, there was a blatant attempt to assassinate Raila Odinga. Who knows how many NASA leaders were waiting in the wings to jump is as replacements?
My plea to Kenyans reading this in Jukwaa, Twitter, Facebook whether they are inside the country or scattered in Scandinavia, Britain, America, other parts of Africa, the Middle East or elsewhere is to remember the Kiswahili expression: “mapambano sio ngoma ya lele mama” which roughly translates that working for progressive change is not an ohangla, lipala, benga, rumba or soukous dance.
The time has come to rip off the hypocritical masks which the NASA turncoats who schemed to cancel the Raila swearing in are lurking behind. We must embolden the Oduor Ong'wens, the James Orengos, the Gladys Wangas, the Millicents, the Mishis, the Aishas, the Migunas, the Johos and the Kingis who have been keeping the national democratic dream alive. Those of us who work with the progressives inside will do our outmost to isolate the reactionaries and strengthen the progressives.
That is what Onyango Oloo has to say today.
Like most progressive Kenyans, Onyango Oloo was shocked at the last minute cancellation of the meticulously planned swearing scheduled for December 12, 2017. I share with millions of Kenyans my disappointment at the big let down.
I am very far from Nairobi and not close to the NASA powers that be or any of my good friends in that formation so I am jotting down this digital essay to give my honest ideological assessment of what probably went down.
First of all, it is significant to note who was at the press conference and who was missing. Of course NASA has to diplomatically come “together” in a collective soothing voice to allay the anger of their followers who saw the December 12th swearing in not as the coronation of Raila Amolo Odinga but rather as the beginning of a new chapter in Kenya’s struggle for democracy.
Secondly, a few months ago I criticized NASA’s “coalition” approach and contrasted it with the revolutionary united front strategy. I argued that the coalition approach was a mainstream, basically bourgeois grasp for political power. I said at the time that bringing ODM,Wiper, Amani,FORD Kenya and other mainstream petit-bourgeois parties together to confront Jubilee was merely an attempt to work out a way of dividing up the spoils once NASA had grabbed state power.
For a while, especially with the development of the People’s Assembly campaign and the economic boycott culminating with Raila’s refusal to participate in the October 26th charade of a so called second election my hopes returned and I said publicly that NASA was finally on the right track.
What is now emerging is that the ideological rifts in NASA are deep and real. Without name checking anyone, some of the players are right wing to their very core having been brought up and nurtured in KANU. For some of them, the lure of flying a flag was more alluring than giving the wananchi an opportunity to at last realize some of the dreams of Dedan Kimathi and the Mau Mau, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and KPU, Pio gama Pinto, Makhan Singh and the DTM underground activists of the 1980s or those who have shed blood, sweat and tears from the 1980s or the hundreds of youth who have bravely taken police bullets in the last few months.
It appears that outside this internal reactionary core within NASA,on the outside there is the Kenyan neo-colonial state-through NIS,through Jubilee, the Gikuyu-Kalenjin holoi poloiand theAmericans, the British and other imperialists.
Without painting Raila Odinga as a Che Guevara or some revolutionary saint,it appears to me that at least in his case he has been struggling to move from his wishy-washy social democratic moorings into a revolutionary nationalist direction. I argue it is because the NASA flag bearer is in touch with the masses and he knows what the people in Tononoka,Chaani, Kondele, Homa Bay, Migori, Makueni, Athi River,Kibra, Eastliegh, Ugenya,Gem,Alego, Kendu Bay and Pand Pieri are striving for. And for that matter the Diaspora folks in Stockholm, London, Dallas, Johannesburg, Durban, Riyadh,Seoul are hankering for.
Quite frankly, the ordinary Kenyan people are the ones who are leading the movement for social justice transformation in Kenya-not the imperialist funded NGOs, not the “instant democrats” who like Intel have KANU inside. They are the ones who have been pulling Raila Odinga and NASA to come over to their side.On the other hand, it is the right-wing in NASA who have been acting as a break to thwart radical developments.
It is significant that Uhuru Kenyatta has not yet announced his new cabinet. Could this be as a a wait and see game of some quiet wheeler dealership with elements within NASA for positions? After all, the cases of Musila, Rege, Otuoma and even Isaac Ruto and Munya has demonstrated that our mainstream politicians are at the end of the day, virtually tumbocrats at heart.
Kenya, even more than Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia is crucial to the geo-political plans of the Americans,the Europeans and NATO. There is a severe risk for the military-industrial complex and the Fortune 500 corporations if anything were to happen to threaten their neo-colonial stranglehold on Kenya.
We have seen that Uhuru Kenyatta and Jubilee have not hesitated to use Mungiki thugs to kill and maim innocent civilians to maintain their dictatorship. You can be sure that US Ambassador Godec and the Western envoys in Nairobi know this. Recently, there was a blatant attempt to assassinate Raila Odinga. Who knows how many NASA leaders were waiting in the wings to jump is as replacements?
My plea to Kenyans reading this in Jukwaa, Twitter, Facebook whether they are inside the country or scattered in Scandinavia, Britain, America, other parts of Africa, the Middle East or elsewhere is to remember the Kiswahili expression: “mapambano sio ngoma ya lele mama” which roughly translates that working for progressive change is not an ohangla, lipala, benga, rumba or soukous dance.
The time has come to rip off the hypocritical masks which the NASA turncoats who schemed to cancel the Raila swearing in are lurking behind. We must embolden the Oduor Ong'wens, the James Orengos, the Gladys Wangas, the Millicents, the Mishis, the Aishas, the Migunas, the Johos and the Kingis who have been keeping the national democratic dream alive. Those of us who work with the progressives inside will do our outmost to isolate the reactionaries and strengthen the progressives.
That is what Onyango Oloo has to say today.
commander of the armed forces of .... republic ... Kenya!
office. Being the duly elected president, I will not hesitate to carry the Bible on the day to be announced to Kenyans tomorrow (Monday). NASA co-principal Musalia Mudavadi said they will announce a new date for the launch of the Peoples Assemblies and the swearing-in for Raila. 