It seems the honeymoon is nearly over for Kenya
Jun 17, 2010
KENYANS have reason to be worried. It would seem like for many decades, they lived under a false impression that violent turmoil that consumed Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC would never touch them.
An East African perspective
Jerry Okungu
KENYANS have reason to be worried. It would seem like for many decades, they lived under a false impression that violent turmoil that consumed Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC would never touch them.
As the region agonised and gasped in violent civil wars, displacement and even exile with an influx of refugees streaming from all corners into its borders, nobody, not even foreign exiles on Kenyan soil, would imagine that their adopted country would follow in their footsteps. Here they had found a place to call home.
Indeed the unmarried got spouses locally and raised their families away from home. Their children went to school there and became success stories until they returned to their countries of origin when the situation improved. No, that seemingly blissful period is no more in Kenya. Yes, the tinderbox has been there all along. Every time someone tried to ignite it, another nipped it in the bud.
The 1964 mutiny was squashed by the British Army. The 1971 military plot led by General Joseph Ndolo, Chief Justice Kitili Mwendwa, Gideon Mutiso and Collins Omondi was also scuttled by knowledgeable British intelligence. Of the four known suspects, Ndolo and Kitili got off lightly with retirement from public service. Omondi and Mutiso were not so lucky. They each languished in prison for at least 10 years.
Between 1971 and 1982 when we had the first most serious attempt at military rule, Kenyan politics remained a predominantly authoritarian one-man rule. Multiparty politics had been emasculated.
With Kenyatta enjoying unchallenged authority following the murder of Mboya, Pinto and JM Kariuki, all occurring within the first 13 years of independence and with brief detentions of Jaramogi Odinga, Ramogi Achieng’ and a few of their followers soon after the 1969 Kisumu massacre, the peace that Kenyans enjoyed was definitely fake.
So when Kenyans woke up on August 1, 1982 to find soldiers on the streets with Voice of Kenya then announcing the overthrow of Moi’s four-year regime, it was like the violent bug of our region had bitten us at last.
Fortunately for us, the powerful ground battalion led by General Opande and Mahmoud Mohammed managed to run the Air Force rebels out of town in time to let Moi resume power. Had the coup succeeded, we would at that time have joined the long line of troubled states in the Horn of Africa if not the rest of the Great Lakes Region and West Africa.
After the 1982 Air Force uprising, we had to wait for a quarter of a century to witness one of the ugliest social unrests in Kenya’s Independence history. The messed up 2007 elections were the cause of our violent chaos that caused us 1,500 deaths and nearly 500,000 internally displaced Kenyans we now call IDPs.
And for the first time, 5,000 Kenyans fled their country into neighbouring Uganda as international refugees. As Kenyans grapple with the trauma and after-effects of the 2008 turmoil, and as they wait for the ICC to arrest and try perpetrators of the 2008 mayhem, they are now staring another civil if not ethnic strife in the face.
The constitution ghost has stirred the worst amongst us. This time round, it would appear like this ghost has coiled itself around us together with our usual ghost busters.
The hate speeches spewed on local media in the last two weeks are enough to make the fainthearted afraid, very afraid. The drums of war coming from Mt. Elgon to Bungoma and the Rift Valley all the way to the land of the Kurias are signs that all is not well in Kenya unless something is done pretty fast.
Unfortunately for Kenyans, the men of the cloth who are supposed to be the salt of the earth and the peacemakers have themselves taken up arms and are also beating the drums of war. We have made matters of abortion and the Kadhis courts more important than the lives of Kenyans.
Like ordinary political hirelings, some of the clergy are breathing fire and brimstone, vowing that if they cannot have it their way with the constitution, so be it. Let more blood flow.
If the Uhuru Park bombings are anything to go by, it would appear like the stage is set for more polarisation than ever before. And as we approach the home stretch with the referendum campaign before the August 4 ballot, divine power must be sought to bring Kenya to its senses. If this divine power doesn’t come soon, the 2008 chaos may look like a children’s picnic in the next two years. The danger is real and nobody can pretend that it will go away.
The tragedy is that a chaotic Kenya will disorganise East Africa in more ways than one. It will completely wipe out the gains we have made in our movement towards a Common Market with remote chances of ever realising an East African political federation.
Yet as ordinary Kenyans yearn for peace and benefits of the Common Market, a few selfish politicians are bent on derailing their dreams. Maybe it is time we completely overhauled our political system.
jerry@jerryokungu.com
Jerry Okungu
KENYANS have reason to be worried. It would seem like for many decades, they lived under a false impression that violent turmoil that consumed Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC would never touch them.
As the region agonised and gasped in violent civil wars, displacement and even exile with an influx of refugees streaming from all corners into its borders, nobody, not even foreign exiles on Kenyan soil, would imagine that their adopted country would follow in their footsteps. Here they had found a place to call home.
Indeed the unmarried got spouses locally and raised their families away from home. Their children went to school there and became success stories until they returned to their countries of origin when the situation improved. No, that seemingly blissful period is no more in Kenya. Yes, the tinderbox has been there all along. Every time someone tried to ignite it, another nipped it in the bud.
The 1964 mutiny was squashed by the British Army. The 1971 military plot led by General Joseph Ndolo, Chief Justice Kitili Mwendwa, Gideon Mutiso and Collins Omondi was also scuttled by knowledgeable British intelligence. Of the four known suspects, Ndolo and Kitili got off lightly with retirement from public service. Omondi and Mutiso were not so lucky. They each languished in prison for at least 10 years.
Between 1971 and 1982 when we had the first most serious attempt at military rule, Kenyan politics remained a predominantly authoritarian one-man rule. Multiparty politics had been emasculated.
With Kenyatta enjoying unchallenged authority following the murder of Mboya, Pinto and JM Kariuki, all occurring within the first 13 years of independence and with brief detentions of Jaramogi Odinga, Ramogi Achieng’ and a few of their followers soon after the 1969 Kisumu massacre, the peace that Kenyans enjoyed was definitely fake.
So when Kenyans woke up on August 1, 1982 to find soldiers on the streets with Voice of Kenya then announcing the overthrow of Moi’s four-year regime, it was like the violent bug of our region had bitten us at last.
Fortunately for us, the powerful ground battalion led by General Opande and Mahmoud Mohammed managed to run the Air Force rebels out of town in time to let Moi resume power. Had the coup succeeded, we would at that time have joined the long line of troubled states in the Horn of Africa if not the rest of the Great Lakes Region and West Africa.
After the 1982 Air Force uprising, we had to wait for a quarter of a century to witness one of the ugliest social unrests in Kenya’s Independence history. The messed up 2007 elections were the cause of our violent chaos that caused us 1,500 deaths and nearly 500,000 internally displaced Kenyans we now call IDPs.
And for the first time, 5,000 Kenyans fled their country into neighbouring Uganda as international refugees. As Kenyans grapple with the trauma and after-effects of the 2008 turmoil, and as they wait for the ICC to arrest and try perpetrators of the 2008 mayhem, they are now staring another civil if not ethnic strife in the face.
The constitution ghost has stirred the worst amongst us. This time round, it would appear like this ghost has coiled itself around us together with our usual ghost busters.
The hate speeches spewed on local media in the last two weeks are enough to make the fainthearted afraid, very afraid. The drums of war coming from Mt. Elgon to Bungoma and the Rift Valley all the way to the land of the Kurias are signs that all is not well in Kenya unless something is done pretty fast.
Unfortunately for Kenyans, the men of the cloth who are supposed to be the salt of the earth and the peacemakers have themselves taken up arms and are also beating the drums of war. We have made matters of abortion and the Kadhis courts more important than the lives of Kenyans.
Like ordinary political hirelings, some of the clergy are breathing fire and brimstone, vowing that if they cannot have it their way with the constitution, so be it. Let more blood flow.
If the Uhuru Park bombings are anything to go by, it would appear like the stage is set for more polarisation than ever before. And as we approach the home stretch with the referendum campaign before the August 4 ballot, divine power must be sought to bring Kenya to its senses. If this divine power doesn’t come soon, the 2008 chaos may look like a children’s picnic in the next two years. The danger is real and nobody can pretend that it will go away.
The tragedy is that a chaotic Kenya will disorganise East Africa in more ways than one. It will completely wipe out the gains we have made in our movement towards a Common Market with remote chances of ever realising an East African political federation.
Yet as ordinary Kenyans yearn for peace and benefits of the Common Market, a few selfish politicians are bent on derailing their dreams. Maybe it is time we completely overhauled our political system.
jerry@jerryokungu.com