Post by Onyango Oloo on Jan 7, 2008 12:41:26 GMT 3
A Digital Essay By Onyango Oloo
PART I
A week after the violent post-election crisis in Kenya exploded onto the global stage, there is an emerging consensus among progressive, patriotic and democratically minded Kenyans:
At the other, reactionary, backward and right wing end of the ideological and political spectrum, there is a desperate fight back to revise the reality of the recent developments and create a counter-discourse that is characterized by the following hall marks:
Bearing in mind the patriotic and democratic consensus I spoke about above, let us look at the reactionary counter-discourse and its political implications.
I will deal with each factor in turn.
In my opinion, those hankering for a so called "government of national unity" are those members and supporters of the PNU who realize that their leader Kibaki has lost all moral authority to govern this country. More importantly, they know that in parliament they simply DO NOT HAVE THE NUMBERS to form a legitimate working government that can enact laws and implement policies. Even though they have Kalonzo's ODM-K as their not so secret trump card, they do know also that Kalonzo Musyoka has been totally discredited as a national politician not just by his pathetic showing at the polls, his obscene pressures on the ECK to release fraudulent results, his opposition to an internationally brokered mediation process but most principally by his cynical horse-trading behind the scenes to ascend to the position of vice-president-this in an outfit that he spent his entire campaign trashing at every pit stop. Any attempt by Raila Odinga to even consider this possibility will thoroughly undermine Agwambo’s credibility and national stature especially in the aftermath of the stolen elections. If he did this it would confirm those slurs that all the Lang’ata MP is interested in is raw political power, devoid of any devotion to principles.
I analyzed this phenomenon in depth in my recent essay, No Justice No Peace!! so I need not rehash anything here. Please click on the following link if you have not the essay:
jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1199355331
In many respects this is perhaps the most manipulative and devious of the counter-discourse being perpetrated by the PNU camp. It goes something like this:
While it is 100% correct to say that many, many members of the Agikuyu people have been direct victims and targets of ethnic specific violence and also true that thousands are now displaced and homeless, it takes a huge stretch of the imagination to sustain the allegation that Raila Odinga and ODM are behind the criminal attackers of innocent Agikuyu.
Facts are often not very convenient to those who want to make sweeping allegations unsupported by empirical evidence.
For instance, Raila Odinga went out of his way to plead for a peaceful, democratic and just determination of the contentious issues swirling around the controversial tabulation process leading to the announcement of the fake presidential results and he stressed that it would be very unfortunate and Kibaki and the powers that be would be held responsible if Kenya became another Ivory Coast. This demeanour is not consistent with a blood-thirsty tribal war monger who was intent on Kenya descending into an ethnic dystopia.
Moreover, the ODM was prevented, by bayonets, tear gas, live and rubber bullets to address its followers and pass them ANY KIND OF MESSAGE. Raila and the ODM leadership can hardly be now accused of "inciting" and "instigating" their followers when Michuki unleashed his triple fascist weapons: an effective gag on the media; an illegal ban on opposition rallies and the flooding of public and civil spaces with ferocious looking trigger happy members of the GSU and other security troops.
CONTINUED>>>>>>>
PART I
A week after the violent post-election crisis in Kenya exploded onto the global stage, there is an emerging consensus among progressive, patriotic and democratically minded Kenyans:
1. Kibaki and his PNU cronies stole the Presidential election using the Electoral Commission of Kenya, and it should be underscored, the police, the paramilitary and other coercive organs of the state;
2. What we have in the country today is the reality of a civilian coup with increasingly fascist tendencies as can be evidenced by massive presence of the police and the paramilitary in the Kenyan capital and the fact that it is often Police Commissioner Major-General Hussein Ali and the Chief Propagandist, Dr. Alfred Mutua who are the visible expression of government policy;
3. Mwai Kibaki’s credibility as a would be elder statesman is forever tarnished and his credentials as a "reformer" and "democrat" shattered to smithereens;
4. The poor and other elements of the lumpen elements de classe have turned their anger on each other reducing the conflict to crude tribal terms as they simultaneously hunt the “evil ethnic other” and cower from the same; unless stanched and nipped in the bud, the ethnicized violence poses immediate and long term threats to the very notion of Kenya;
5. That the business and professional elite as well as other sections of the comprador/petit bourgeoisie, rattled by the financial ramifications of the current unrest are desperate to restore an element of “stability” and social control by bombarding Kenyans, via the air waves and media channels of the need for a “peace” which is not necessarily anchored in justice or democracy;
6. The major players in the capitals of capital- from Condoleeza Rice at the US State Department, to David Miliband the British Foreign Secretary to their counterparts and opposite numbers in Ottawa, Canberra, Paris, Berlin and elsewhere are concerned that the current unrest could degenerate into something that they cannot control or to a situation that threatens the economic and geopolitical strategic interests of international global monopoly capital;
At the other, reactionary, backward and right wing end of the ideological and political spectrum, there is a desperate fight back to revise the reality of the recent developments and create a counter-discourse that is characterized by the following hall marks:
(a) A strident attempt to force a shot gun marriage between Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki that will effectively legitimize the December 30th civilian coup and undermine the potency of Raila’s popular, national democratic bedrock of support around the country;
(b) A dishonest attempt to broker "peace" without paying attention to the blatant injustices perpetrated on the Kenya people by the stealing of the presidential election;
(c) A melodramatic campaign alleging that some specific communities are the subject of a "genocidal attack" as a convenient smokescreen to wish away the totalitarian acts of state terror and fascist reprisals against peaceful pro-democracy campaigners;
(d) A crass push for political realignments spearheaded by power hungry election losers like Kalonzo Musyoka and the majority of former government ministers who were trounced by ODM at the parliamentary elections.
Bearing in mind the patriotic and democratic consensus I spoke about above, let us look at the reactionary counter-discourse and its political implications.
I will deal with each factor in turn.
A strident attempt to force a shot gun marriage between Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki that will effectively legitimize the December 30th civilian coup and undermine the potency of Raila's popular, national democratic bedrock of support around the country;
In my opinion, those hankering for a so called "government of national unity" are those members and supporters of the PNU who realize that their leader Kibaki has lost all moral authority to govern this country. More importantly, they know that in parliament they simply DO NOT HAVE THE NUMBERS to form a legitimate working government that can enact laws and implement policies. Even though they have Kalonzo's ODM-K as their not so secret trump card, they do know also that Kalonzo Musyoka has been totally discredited as a national politician not just by his pathetic showing at the polls, his obscene pressures on the ECK to release fraudulent results, his opposition to an internationally brokered mediation process but most principally by his cynical horse-trading behind the scenes to ascend to the position of vice-president-this in an outfit that he spent his entire campaign trashing at every pit stop. Any attempt by Raila Odinga to even consider this possibility will thoroughly undermine Agwambo’s credibility and national stature especially in the aftermath of the stolen elections. If he did this it would confirm those slurs that all the Lang’ata MP is interested in is raw political power, devoid of any devotion to principles.
A dishonest attempt to broker "peace" without paying attention to the blatant injustices perpetrated on the Kenya people by the stealing of the presidential election;
I analyzed this phenomenon in depth in my recent essay, No Justice No Peace!! so I need not rehash anything here. Please click on the following link if you have not the essay:
jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1199355331
A melodramatic campaign alleging that some specific communities are the subject of a "genocidal attack" as a convenient smokescreen to wish away the totalitarian acts of state terror and fascist reprisals against peaceful pro-democracy campaigners;
In many respects this is perhaps the most manipulative and devious of the counter-discourse being perpetrated by the PNU camp. It goes something like this:
Hundreds of innocent Gikuyu men, women and children have been slaughtered and thousands more forced to become internally displaced people as a direct result of the hatred whipped up by Raila Odinga and ODM and that the ethnic violence flows directly from ODM’s Majimbo/Ugatuzi electoral platform which they equate with rabid Kikuyuphobia.
While it is 100% correct to say that many, many members of the Agikuyu people have been direct victims and targets of ethnic specific violence and also true that thousands are now displaced and homeless, it takes a huge stretch of the imagination to sustain the allegation that Raila Odinga and ODM are behind the criminal attackers of innocent Agikuyu.
Facts are often not very convenient to those who want to make sweeping allegations unsupported by empirical evidence.
For instance, Raila Odinga went out of his way to plead for a peaceful, democratic and just determination of the contentious issues swirling around the controversial tabulation process leading to the announcement of the fake presidential results and he stressed that it would be very unfortunate and Kibaki and the powers that be would be held responsible if Kenya became another Ivory Coast. This demeanour is not consistent with a blood-thirsty tribal war monger who was intent on Kenya descending into an ethnic dystopia.
Moreover, the ODM was prevented, by bayonets, tear gas, live and rubber bullets to address its followers and pass them ANY KIND OF MESSAGE. Raila and the ODM leadership can hardly be now accused of "inciting" and "instigating" their followers when Michuki unleashed his triple fascist weapons: an effective gag on the media; an illegal ban on opposition rallies and the flooding of public and civil spaces with ferocious looking trigger happy members of the GSU and other security troops.
CONTINUED>>>>>>>