Why I maintain faith in my country -NGUGI WA THIONG'O (Sunday nation)

Story by NGUGI WA THIONG'O
Publication Date: 12/9/2007             

I am one of thousands of Kenyans abroad who will not be able to cast their vote in the coming elections because there are no provisions for us to vote at our embassies and consulates. I am also not a member of any of the contesting parties. They don’t adequately embody the vision of the unity of the small farmer, the worker, the jobless and landless Kenyans across all the regions of their birth and residence. They don’t seem to recognise sufficiently that Kenya, like Africa as a whole, has only two tribes: the haves and the have-nots.

Membership in the two camps comes from all regions and communities. But there is a misleading tendency in the haves of one community and region to point at the haves of another community as the only haves. They then set themselves as the defenders of the entire haves and have-nots of their own community against the entire haves and have-nots of another community and region, thus setting the stage for personal fiefdoms and political warlords.

A political party must take responsibility for the development of the entire country. The condition for the real development of any one region must be development of all regions throughout the country.

Real development must be measured from the standpoint of those at the bottom of the mountain and not those at the top.

But even with those political-parties misgivings, I celebrate with my fellow Kenyans the present moment in our country. We can now exercise the right to form and join a political party of one’s choice, without fear of prison, detention camps, exile or death.

We must not forget that this uhuru to form and join political associations of one’s choice did not come of itself. We owe it to the Mau Mau and all other patriots who stood up to the might of the British Empire and opposed the settler colonial state. Let us not forget that we also owe this uhuru to those maimed, jailed, exiled, disappeared and killed opposing the Daniel Moi dictatorship. The resistance against Moi’s dictatorship was waged inside and outside the country led by groups who believed in the unity of the have-nots of our nation and Africa.

In the years of struggle against the Moi dictatorship, Mwai Kibaki and I were on different camps.

The famous statement likening those who were struggling against Kanu to a person trying to cut down a Mugumo tree with a razor blade is enshrined in a document called Struggle for Democracy in Kenya, published in London in 1987.

Copies of that document were smuggled into the country during the Moi regime. The image of the Kibaki who made that “razor blade cutting a Mugumo” statement clashed with other more positive images of him that I carried in me from three previous encounters.

My first encounter with Kibaki was in 1961 at Makerere University, Kampala, where I took his classes in economics. Shortly thereafter, he left us to join Kenya African National Union (Kanu) as its executive officer.

Kanu, of course, was the party that crossed over Kenya to independence. With the death of Achieng Oneko recently, Kibaki now remains the highest living high-profile figure with linkage to the nationalist Kanu of Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

Kanu took power with a manifesto of one Kenya one people. Theirs was opposed to Kadu’s majimbo programme. Kadu’s manifesto was said to have been drafted by a group of white settlers who wanted a weak central government for Kenya. Most of us students, at that time, shared Kanu’s nationalist vision and rejoiced at its victory over Kadu.

The joy exuding in the famous picture of the triumphant trio, Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboya and Mwai Kibaki, dancing in the streets at the party’s victory was shared by millions across the whole country. It spoke hope. Years later, Kadu, the party of “uhuru pole pole” took over Kanu, the party of uhuru. Nationalist credentials Kadu then undermined Kanu’s nationalist credentials and social vision of African socialism.

My second encounter with Kibaki was in 1964 after I had published the novel Weep not, Child. I had joined the Nation Newspapers as a reporter and feature writer. Kibaki was then an assistant minister in Kenyatta’s government.

One evening he gave me a lift from Sans Chique, a restaurant and bar near the old Nation House, on what was then Government Road, to the YMCA near United Kenya Club where I was staying. Just before I stepped out of his car, Kibaki took his time and talked movingly about the vital importance of the freedom of the Press for democracy. I had not thought of the role of journalism in society in the way he put it.

The third and last encounter, but one forever engraved in my mind, was in July 1977 on the occasion of the publication of my novel, Petals of Blood. Grab- and-eat mentality

The novel was very critical of conditions in post-colonial Kenya. It castigated, for instance, the close economic ties of dependence between Kenya and the West. It also castigated the chauvinism and the grab-and-eat mentality of the rising African middle class.

Kibaki was then Finance Minister and he agreed to an invitation from the directors of Heinemann Educational Books to launch the book at Nairobi’s City Hall.

He praised the novel and said he did not agree with everything in it. Nevertheless, he observed that the very publication of Petals of Blood, despite its critique, was a manifestation of democratic space in Kenya. Once again Kibaki dwelt on the importance of free exchange of ideas in a democratic society. It was really a call for tolerance, as against the intolerance then coalescing around then Attorney General Charles Njonjo who later made critical comments about Kibaki’s launch of the novel.

Five months later in December 1977, I was in Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. There are some who claim that Petals of Blood, as much as the play Ngaahika Ndenda, was the real reason for my incarceration.

Democratic space

Years later, looking back to the political situation at the time, I came to realise the enormity of Kibaki’s courage in accepting to launch the book. But it was not just his courage; it is the fact that on those two occasions he had talked to me about democratic space when he had absolutely nothing to gain from me.

The memory of those encounters influenced my belief that Kibaki meant it, when, on assuming national leadership in 2002, he talked of accountability, performance, stability of institutions, and commitment to democracy.

Under the euphoria of Kibaki’s victory many people looked for social revolution from him, which I did not or even expect. But I was secretly fascinated to see whether he would keep to the democratic values that he had stated - which seemed to have come from deep conviction and commitment.

The five years of Kibaki’s presidency are known in Kenya and the world.

I have not been in Kenya for long periods so I cannot fully assess the impact of his rule on the different classes and communities.

But I can say that despite the fact that when my wife Njeeri and I returned home in 2004 after 22 years in exile we were brutally attacked by clearly hired hands, I have been very impressed by the atmosphere of free speech prevailing in the country. I have not seen people looking over their shoulders as they speak in support or censure of his government.

Embarrassing episode There are of course negative marks like the attack on the Standard Group; the very nationally embarrassing episode of the Armenian brothers; and the recent allegations in a report by the Kenya Human Rights Commission of extra-judicial killings of those suspected of being involved in crime.

No crime, however hideous, can justify police becoming prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner.

There have also been stories of corruption. But, in the main, these are the first five years including colonial and post-colonial times of Kenyatta and Moi when Kenyans have not been killed, exiled or imprisoned on the basis of their political views and political positions.

No one has been imprisoned for attacking Kibaki either in Parliament, outside Parliament or from within his own Cabinet. And nobody can deny that there has been a vigorous opposition no matter what one may think of its tactics.

It gives me pride as a Kenyan and African to hear of an increased economic growth largely financed from within instead of its being brought about by a crippling and humiliating dependence on handouts from foreign sources, as in the past.

Our relatives from Mang’u, Limuru, and elsewhere in Kenya, have told us of their excitement for accessing electricity in their villages under the rural electrification programme.

Access medicines

Others have told us how they have started taking care of their coffee plants because they are now certain of the market and fairer returns for their efforts. There have been similar stories from those with a cow or two to milk. They have told us of how they are able to access medicines in local health centres.

But people can only speak from their own experiences and encounters. Every Kenyan has to ask and honestly respond to the question: are we better off now than we were before Kibaki took over? Does he deserve a chance to build on the positives of his rule? Or are there others who can do a better job?

The advantage of having a political track record is that people have a basis for taking positions. This applies to all seeking public office. The electoral period should be the time that people scrutinise the track record of all candidates and their position on the national, regional, continental and international scene.

Despite the existence of several parties, there are now in Kenya no real parties -- except perhaps Kanu - with a history, and a questionable one at that, to examine. They are paper parties, mostly, or like vehicles driven by drivers always poised to abandon them for new ones.

Sometimes they leave the old vehicles with engine running, as a fallback position just in case things don’t work out for them in the new vehicle! The party represents the leader, not the leader representing the party. Or rather the leader is the party itself.

We have moved thus from a one party state to a “paper-parties” state. We have even turned these paper parties into commodities for sale. This is a very poor heritage for the Kenya of tomorrow.

Paper parties

These paper parties may in the end negate the very democracy which enabled their birth. A country needs stable political parties with clear mechanisms for change of leadership within them.

Whatever the outcome of this year’s elections, the struggle continues for a prosperous Kenya, from the standpoint of those at the bottom of the mountain. Hopefully, with continued stability of institutions, there will emerge parties that, in their history, programmes and practice, will embody the vision of a united self-reliant Kenya. The hope is for a united nation certain of its base in the people as it engages with East Africa, Africa and the world in a rapidly globalising space.

We have to create a Kenya in which the worker and peasant can see all they have fought for in history finally placed at the centre. The vote is a necessary first step.

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Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and Director of the International Centre for Writing and Translation, at the University of California Irvine.