Eyes on Kenya

Kenyan novelist and play writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o published a comment today from the diaspora in the United States via BBC news. He compares the incident of the Eldoret church massacre with the massacres in Bosnia, Iraq and Rwanda. He then says that the “ethnic cleansing” must be separated from the accusations of a rigged election. To him it seems like a “co-ordinated program with similar acts occurring in several other places at about the same time against ordinary members of the same community.” He also says that Ethnic cleansing does not happen spontaneously, that it is almost always premeditated by members of the political elite, who usually do not have to suffer the consequences of their actions. He proposed an inquiry by the United Nations as necessary, that if political organizations have a “campaign on a program that consciously seeks to isolate another community as a community, then they ought to be held fully accountable for the consequences of their ideology and actions.” He continues to say that this should not only be the case if such is instigated by the government, but also if “such a massacre is inspired by a program of an opposition movement… “ He then says that they must be condemned “even when they (the campaigns) are clothed in progressive, democratic-sounding words and phrases.” In conclusion he urges “all progressive forces not to be so engrossed with the political wrongs of election tampering that they forget the crimes of hate and ethnic cleansing.”

Ngugi wa Thiong’o

We would like to add some remarks to Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s comment. We can not say that we could have foreseen what happened in post-election Kenya, not even after reading Ngugi’s novel “Wizard of the Crow”, “…where the ruling party and the opposition parities engaged in Western-sponsored democracy become mirror images of one another in their absurdity and indifference to the poor.”, as he writes. No doubt, it is a great novel with fitting reflections on Kenya’s and Africa’s political situation. But the book does not lift Ngugi wa Thiong’o to the position of the prophetess Cassandra as he implies. Despite the inadequateness of the Kenyan political Parties, one should take into account that ODM obtained so much support, because it was more likely to deliver the promised constitution. Of course, from the lookout of a prophetess, that might be very little, not bringing uhuru, not breaking the claw of the World Bank. But, decentralizing and sharing power, having control bodies against corruption, and elevation of human rights would have made a difference especially for the poor. Or in Binyavanga Wainaina’s words: “A Constitution that names and recognizes the tribal nations within our nation, that decentralizes some power and that includes us all in the process is possible.”

An 11-year-old survivor stands amid the burnt out ruins of the Kenya Assemblies of God Pentacostal church, where at least 18 people were burnt alive ,near Eldoret in western Kenya (from josephkaroki)

(more…)

I have just come across a piece by Binyavanga Wainaina. It may have been criticised as a literary piece but it does have some message that I have read and found powerful. Its a message that would echo my experience, in reference to media reports. He says:

We are a strong economy in this continent. We have a well-trained army, and police force and civil service. We have some of the most competent technocrats in any developing country. We even have a lot of goodwill across ethnic and class lines, and if we act now, things will improve quickly. All the foreign correspondent stuff about “atavistic hatreds” and such is not true. For every place where there are things burning, there is a recent historical problem that has got to do with big political games, by big political leaders.

My experience with foreign media came from an article by the Guardian. It had this sentence and I quote

“In the worst incident of post-election violence so far, dozens of Kikuyus – members of the same tribe as the president, Mwai Kibaki _were burned alive in a church by Luos_, members of the tribe to which Odinga belongs.”

I wrote back to writers and the editors saying the information they gave was a dangerously wrong information that is misleading as well as inciting. I also told them to get their facts right and urged them that in understanding the current political situation, one should exercise care in such a report and so should care be exercised in tribal labels in such incidents. I asked them to take the article off the web or make corrections.
Within a couple of minutes, it had been corrected to read: “In the worst incident of post-election violence so far, dozens of Kikuyus – the tribe to which the president, Mwai Kibaki, belongs – were burned alive in a church by members of another tribe, the Kalenjin.”

The country is currently having a media black-out imposed on local media and there is a heavy reliance on foreign media. Many a reputable foreign media with millions of readers often make such “mistakes” which unduly influences perception of the situation in Kenya by those who could be Kenya’s saving grace, the people who can exert external pressure. There is a call for a thoughtfulness behind reporting so that there is not such a stark reference to ethnicity and a realization that one cannot draw such an ethnic line to Kenya’s troubles.

Another interesting change was made in the Reuter’s article Kenya govt says ready for new vote if court orders

Reuters wrote:

“More than 300 people have died in the clashes — some between police and protesters, others pitting members of Odinga’s Luo ethnic group and other tribes against Kibaki’s Kikuyus.”

Odinga’s Lous and Kibaki’s Kikuyus? It seems that in the eyes of writers of such remarks Kibaki and Odinga are kings of two tribes in war because the leaders told them so.

I belief that I was not the only one complaining to Reuters. It was changed to the sentence:

“At least 300 people have died in the wave of bloodshed that followed Kibaki’s disputed victory.”

The old version can still be found in google’s cache.

More and more Kenyans get involved in what could be a civil society peace and democracy movement independent from tribal heritage or Party Membership. Those people deserve better than being put into such categories.