Last Friday I managed to take some time off my rather busy schedule and enjoy some evening at a pub in one of our out-of-reach up market estates. And as I sat there that chilly evening, trying to absorb the last heat of the day and the hustles and bustles of our day to day life, I began to feel the full impact of our history, the history of my land and people. What did our past have to do with our present? But you see, I have always hated history since my high school days and had in fact devised ways of dodging history classes all through my schooling. The reason why I despised the subject that gave us legitimacy is that I hated to hear how Adam and Eve had disobeyed God leading to their expulsion from Eden and thus the beginning of our sorrows as mankind. I hated to hear how my community had migrated from Eastern Congo through Mt. Kilimanjaro to the present Mbooni hills and scattered eastwards toward Kapiti and Athi plains. I hated the thought that that my ancestors armed with bows and arrows had given elephants and buffalo a priority and had forgotten that such animals some day would come to extinction or some authority somewhere would have a say over such animals. I hated to imagine that instead they should have remained in the Congo and mine gold or still remain around Mt. Kilimanjaro and grow coffee and other wonderful cash crops. Instead they had opted to come to Ukambani and settle in Masaku, Kitui, Mwingi and such other places like Kyuso. Those were my ancestors. And so I hated that history.
I hated the history of the origin of my country. I hated to hear how the British came to Kenya. How they had deprived our people of their land, of how they had disintegrated our communities into small holdings for easier subjugation. I hated the thought how of our forefathers had been forced to work in European farms and how they had been segregated. I thought such thoughts of the colonial atrocities and couldn’t stand to hear how our people had to gang up and go to the forests to fight for the restoration of our land and the blood that had to be shed for us to be granted self rule and independence.
I hated to hear of the events of our early years of independence, of how our leaders full of hatred had turned against each other and slaughtered one another. I hated to hear of the collapse of our economy, and the birth of corruption in our country. I hated to hear of the tribal clashes predominant in our independent nation, the Molo clashes, the Wagalla massacre and the army aggression in the war against the shifta, and such other social crimes that occurred deep into our independence. I hated that history, of anything that reminded me of the past, a past that we all knew about but failed to draw lessons from. I hated it because it revealed to me the selfish and avaricious nature of our past leaders. I hated the fact that this history had found its way into our present. That’s why, to me, any history session was an insult. Thus that’s why I found it quite odd for me to sit through an historical tale of our present in a pub.
A pub is one of the very few places that one can expect to sit and hear of anything constructive, let alone enjoy a normal conversation. But in Kenya, you know that can be. Go anywhere in Nairobi, mostly in the evenings when the working class has just finished their office work and the so called Mututho Hours hit the clock. Most of them will converge at the more relaxed parts of the city. It is there you’ll find them seated around a table with black cushioned seats and the table littered with all manner of drinks ranging from Tusker malt to Bond 7. It is here you will catch on with the latest commentaries, be it social or political or even economical. Unlike in the past when people used to sit and talk about football, how Chelsea thrashed Manchester United in the F.A Community Shield Final or why Arsene Wenger sold Adebayor to Manchaster City etc etc, it is now a bit different and may be more philosophical! You sit and listen to the great politics of our time; why the perpetrators of the post election violence should be tried at the Hague or why and how the maize that was meant for the starving Kenyans just disappeared from the cereal boards and so on an so forth. You either speak or you listen.
It was there this Friday evening that I sat through an interesting tale of our political history that almost made me change my misconception of history as a subject. Maybe it was probably the venue or the art of the narration employed by the narrator. The narrator, one of those of our few spirited brothers who given a fair chance could transform the state of our nation into something better was speaking to a group, presumably his visitors at a table adjacent to ours but loud enough for everyone to hear. Soon, all the conversations in the pub died slowly leaving him as the sole speaker. Perhaps noting how enthusiastic the subject had become to his listeners, the narrator raised his voice for all to hear. A little tipsy he probably was, but he sounded quite serious and his voice slightly wrought with emotion. I took a gulp of my cold Pilsner and cocked my ears in anticipation and soon I was able to gather the subject of the story. He was speaking about what he thought to be the genesis of the recent problems in the country.
“…no gentlemen, no,” he was saying. “That argument lacks merit and, in fact it has been advanced, time and again to the effect that our problems today are as a direct result of colonialism. In fact gentlemen, the truth of the matter is that the Kenya we live in today is as a direct result of our own actions prior to and after independence. You say that? Oh no! I had also thought about it until…brothers, until the events that shook the country after the general elections. I had not personally thought otherwise about this concept until I had witnessed the violence that followed the general elections we had. Come to think of it gentlemen, as you say, our struggle for independence, how was it different from the aftermath of the general elections in early days of 2008? No…no brother, what happened after the election was very different from the events preceding our independence. Let me tell you gentlemen, the war for independence was against a common enemy. Our independence heroes were fighting for a common cause. We needed our country back from the imperialists, we needed our land back and we wanted a taste of the power that the colonialists wielded in their hands, the power that the colonialists had taught us…of course gentlemen, Kenya at the advent of colonialism was a vast of land where most communities lived and carried out their activities without a centralized authority.
The colonial factor was the introduction of a centralized authority with use of excessive force. An authority exercised by those entitled to it, a form of authority where the minority ruled over the majority. And when the time came, we all rose against the colonial system and demanded self rule. Let the African rule herself and sort out or worse still create more problems for her. We blindly fought against the colonialists without pausing to think about the consequences of our actions…yes brother; we mixed politics with armed struggle…what was later branded as violence. We let our politicians collaborate with the Mau Mau freedom movement. These two groups differed in context and in ideologies. While Dedan Kimathi and the rest of the Mau Mau fought against the British for the return of the lost land, which was of course justifiable, our politicians led by Kenyatta and the famous Kapenguria six struggled for political power. See the difference? To them…yeah, the politicians, it didn’t matter whether the land was returned or not. What was important to them is that the colonialists’ relinquish their political power to them. I’m beginning to think that they were ready, had the colonial governor agreed to step down in favor of one of them, to work out a power sharing formula which would incorporate those Africans agitating for power into the grand coalition. Mau Mau fought for the peasants, it is they who needed the land badly, for the other faction it was the promotion of an elite class, those who could buy land if they wanted to, but for the poor peasants in Mt. Kenya who had to solely rely on the land, they had to fight. But it was difficult, given the opposing forces. As a result a lot of innocent blood was shed in the forest, the blood of a people liberating their land, a people who wanted the British out the country without further ado. To them, I think, the Lancaster conferences before independence were non essential. First things first, let the white man go and we can negotiate when he is already in England…betrayal? Yes, I agree with you gentlemen. Our overzealous heroes were betrayed by their colleagues agitating for political independence. While Dedan Kimathi was leading a pack of intrepid fighters in terrorizing the white settlers, Kenyatta with his group were busy negotiating with the colonialists on how to hand over power or probably working out a power sharing formula. Had he agreed to join the fighters? Gentlemen, history tells us that in 1951, Kenyatta denounced violence and the Mau Mau. That was before the state of emergency was declared the following year and Kenyatta arrested…yeah, yeah, I find it rather odd too, that the Mau Mau fought for his release after he had denounced them. But those were the fighters, and as I already had said, their main cause of resorting to armed struggle was to take out the white settlers from the country. These were the same soldiers who had served in the King African Rifles during the world war. They had been short changed shortly after the war and the promise to give them land abandoned…yes that’s why they ganged up against the colonialists, using the same knowledge acquired from their masters during the world war, they had waged guerilla warfare in Mt. Kenya region.
The funny part of it all, gentlemen, and you will agree with me that those who benefited most from Uhuru were not the liberators but the collaborators. While Kenyatta and his colleagues got away with the instruments of the power they had agitated for, our intrepid fighters came from the bush to find no land for them. Those who served as home guards and police officers continued to serve in similar capacities in the independent Kenya. If I may ask you gentlemen, was it fair for our Uhuru leaders to neglect and abandon those who pinched the colonialists most? Yes…I agree with you, Kenyatta with his cronies should at least have invited those who fought in the liberation to serve in the new African administration…oh yes, you’ve mentioned the point. All what our political leaders wanted was a grip on the power and once it was secure in their hands, the rest could be forgotten. Hey madam, add us some more rounds here…I mean leta kama tulivyo!
Now let me see…yes, as I earlier on said…or rather put it to you, our political problems are not as a result of the departing colonialist. We were the architects of our own miseries. Our leaders bred a culture that has time and again been used, a culture of using the common mwananchi for their own political interests…but we still harbor a great share of the blame as wananchi. When we chose to mix politics with armed struggle and violence, we gave our politicians a leeway to trample on us. Democracy you say? Democracy, my friend, is only invoked in our country when a politician wants to achieve his goals, and if he fails, he calls on his political supporters for mass action and the Mapambano song goes up in the air. It is time to burn and kill all those who did not join in the struggle for the realization of his political dream…
I don’t know how you will take on this, but I’d rather personally believe that those of you who have taken a keen interest to critically asses the development of this nation; you will agree with me that our children or rather ourselves have only had a grip of the political development of the country. I am of the opinion that we lack a concrete constitutional development. Right from the beginning our country evolved into a political state and not into a constitutional state. Our history is full of politics coupled with armed struggle. I repeat the rapid progress of our nation from a nation full of dreams and promise at independence to a state of hopelessness that we now live was caused by our disregard of constitutional development and seek political development instead. Politics have outlived our dream for a new constitution. You know gentlemen the constitution involves each and every one of us but politics is for those few who have chosen the path of politicking. Politics, a social vice that takes us back to the history of our troubled past...”
To be continued…
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