In writing the above article, Mukoma Ngugi comes across as very partisan and exercising selective amnesia. He does not live out the very impartiality he expects from the people writing the Kenyan constitution to exercise. In spite of the misrule and deterioration of the economy, security and quality of life in the last 10 years of former President Moi's rule (and not the entire 24 years of his political life), there are various facts that Kenyans cannot ignore.
1. That President Moi historically will be remembered as the 2nd President of Kenya.
2. That the current FRUITS of peace in the Sudan and Somalia, not to mention the Great Lakes regions, were largely a result of Moi's efforts. The current government or any genuine historian cannot ignore this.
3. That during the course of multi-party elections, Mr Moi never lost a single election. The defeat of KANU in 2002 cannot be counted as a defeat of Moi, but a defeat of Uhuru Kenyatta and KANU. Moi ran his full term, out-foxed the entire opposition and continues to enjoy a lot of popularity in Kenya (yes, people want him to address them etc, but he has asked people to build the nation under Mr Kibaki). Mr Kibaki's acceptance speech at Uhuru park during his inauguration as Kenya's third President cannot have been said to be graceful or state manly both to the office of the presidency and to the man he served under as VP. Moi remains a true statesman. You have to differentiate Moi the man, from Moi the politician.
4. That the same people who clamoured for "no constitution no election" prior to the 2002 are the same people who are forestalling the review process. Most of these people were in KANU and some are still life members of KANU (yes, President Kibaki still has his life membership with KANU!)
5. The Kenyan press online has continued to highlight that the present NARC government has performed worse than the KANU government in just two years of its existence, in ALL of the areas surveyed, EXCEPT for free education. But free education, if you will recall, is nothing new. At independence, Kenyatta promised and implemented free education and so did Moi in 1978/9, but slowly and surely, cost-sharing is creeping in, and worse still under NARC the standards of public primary school education have plummeted! If you live in Kenya (and not in some safe sterile environment where you only hear pre-processed news, or still live on old bitter perceptions) then you will know that the morale of Kenyans is at an all time low, with respect to the NARC government's running of affairs. It is not just the in-fighting, it is the insecurity in the country, the deteriorating sense of worth, the blatant abuse of office not to mention the total distrust of the current government. Who would have thought they would even woo Biwott ? (not to say he is bad, there surely has been no proof in court, but if perception is anything to go by, what is the difference between old KANU and NARC?)
6. You imply that the KANU government got away with misrule yet enjoyed support in foreign aid. Again this is selective use of information. The KANU government earned itself 10 years of no foreign AID at least from the IMF and World Bank, and SOME Kenyans praised the Bretton Woods Institutions for that, while the bulk of the people bore the burden!! We survived ten years! We need to re-think the "foreign aid" and "foreign investor" nonsense. Read the recent comments by Dr Mukhisa Kitui (Kenya's Trade Minister, and champion against WTO "imperialism").
7. The judiciary is still largely corrupt and sympathetic to the powers of the day. There are no systems and of course no one wants such things. There is no genuine desire to bring surgical and radical change!! The thinking of Kenyans and politicians is still the same as it was in 1972.
8. I put it that there was no "debate" on health: the president simply did not SIGN the bill that was PASSED BY PARLIAMENT. There was pressure to re-discuss the bill in parliament, and of course you know that the members of the house were treated to a "holiday" in Mombasa before they could warm up to this. While President Kibaki rightly exercised his powers in not signing the health bill, you should recollect the facts more accurately. It is your responsibility to paint the country in balanced light, and not be bogged down by your own idiosyncrasies.
Finally, the problems Kanya is facing are POLITICAL. Initially people were driven by a preoccupation to "REMOVING MOI". The constitutional changes suggested before the 2002 elections were all geared towards "containing" Moi, reducing his powers etc etc, even when it was clear to all, that he was NOT going to run for elections. The problems of Kenyan politics is the selective amnesia on the ills of the Kenyatta government. The rot in Kenya begun at Independence. We must re-examine our journey from back there.
In January 2003, Kenyans were a united nation, under NARC, having removed KANU from government. Change was needed then and the politicians provided a united front that had been elusive all along. Kenyans did not elect a Kikuyu, or Luo, or Luhya or....(fill in whatever tribe). They wanted change and progress. A very optimistic people bequeathed the NARC government a lot of good will and grace. They were patient when the NARC government begun reneging on its election promises, saying that they needed time to understand the "rot" that had accumulated. Rightfully, there was a lot of rot after 24 years of one party. Well and good. But soon, people begun to realize that the country was going back to the situation that it was in the late sixties and early seventies. The issue of tribes begun to surface again!! Right now there is a lot of bitterness and distrust towards the "Mt Kenya community". The PEOPLE of Kenya have themselves to blame. They complain a lot and don’t do anything about the situation. Kenyans, and NOT politicians will save their own country.
Thank you.
MUKOMA NGUGI responds:
It seems to me that Jinha's response is largely caught up in a nowhere place. Used to the certainty of the Moi dictatorship, Jinha is unable to deal with the uncertainty of the movement towards democracy. So in a lot of ways, Jinha wants to vindicate Moi since even though his rule has been thoroughly discredited, it was certain and predictable. We know that a lot of people during Kenyatta's dictatorship would sigh for the days of colonialism. But did they mean it? Or should such statements have been read as an indictment of the Kenyatta government?
But it is this uncertainty, an uncertainty at once positive and yet negative to the extent that NARC is still caught up in the legacies of the Moi’s misrule that I was seeking to address in my article. In short, if our project is liberation, then we simply must find the space to make nuanced arguments in uncertain times and time of change – otherwise, we end up with a dictatorship of views and broad generalizations that deny the truth of both the past and the present and are hence of no use when it comes to constructing a future.
I really do not want to take up much time attending to Jinha’s defense of Moi. But nevertheless, Pambazuka Editor, let me address the concerns raised point by point. I do this with the hope that I will not disappoint or even insult those who have spent their entire lives opposed to both the Kenyatta and Moi governments; who understand the full magnitude of what it is to live under a dictatorship and why we must seize the moment and once and for all put Kenya on a road towards irreversible change (to use terms from the anti-apartheid struggle).
For Ngugi's full response, please click on the link below.
Mukoma Ngugi's response:
1. Jinha writes that “President Moi historically will be remembered as the 2nd President of Kenya”.
To which I respond “So what?” It is a fact he was the 2nd president of Kenya and no historian would deny that. Hitler also went down in history as did Mobutu, Idi Amin and Samuel Doe. The question is what kind of a leader was he?
2. Jinha writes that “the current FRUITS of peace in the Sudan and Somalia, not to mention the Great Lakes regions were largely a result of Moi's efforts. The current government or any genuine historian cannot ignore this”.
To this I respond, President Moi always projected himself as an elder statesman who sought to bring about peace and prosperity to Africa. But certainly there is a big difference between Moi and lets say Mandela who has also tried to bring an end to war in Africa. The difference lies in their track records while in office – with Mandela there was justice, with Moi there was injustice. At some point Moi was also the chairman of the OAU but then again so was Idi Amin.
But it should be stated that both the Kenyatta and Moi governments are responsible for massacres against the Somali people in the North Eastern Province. And indeed this is a present history that all Kenyans should be cognizant with. A quick look at Moi’s policy in regards to the Somali people will show his hypocrisy in that even as he brokered for peace, he had dead bodies under the very ground he stood on. A genuine historian should recognize that dictators always try to wear cloaks of legitimacy.
3. Jinha writes that “during the course of multi-party elections, Mr Moi never lost a single election. The defeat of KANU in 2002 cannot be counted as a defeat of Moi, but a defeat of Uhuru Kenyatta and KANU. Moi ran his full term, out-foxed the entire opposition and continues to enjoy…You have to differentiate Moi the man, from Moi the politician…”
To which I respond, I am not sure of the differentiation Jinha is trying to make between Uhuru and Moi. Uhuru was Moi’s candidate and Uhuru stood for KANU policies which means Moi’s policies. Had Uhuru won, it would have been Moi’s rule by proxy. Moi did not leave office because he wanted to in the same way Apartheid did not fold because it wanted to: both were forced to fold due to internal resistance and international pressure.
I, (and I think a lot of people will agree with me), am unable to differentiate between Moi the man and the politician and indeed I have no interest to. Does it matter whether it was Moi the man or Moi the politician who ordered the tortures, detentions, assassinations and exiling of Kenyans? Does is matter that Moi the man loved children and Moi the politician denied them access to health and education?
4. On the point that the same people who clamoured for "no constitution no election" prior to the 2002 are the same people who are forestalling the review process.
To which I respond – at last a point from Jinha that one can actually debate. This is a contradiction in the NARC coalition. And perhaps this is why we should support those calling for a truth and reconciliation forum. We certainly need to address the past and those responsible for atrocities brought before justice. But also please note that a contradiction within NARC does not redeem Moi’s past, a wrong by NARC does not vindicate KANU’s oppressive rule, it just proves that there are contradictions that we, as a collective, need to rise above or bring to a close.
5. On Jinha’s response point no. 3 I respond that I do not think we should be speaking about Kenya as if outside a globalized world (or at least one that globalizes poverty). Structural Adjustment Programs and World Bank policies, the rush to privatize social services etc played a role in the demise of not only free primary education but also health services. I do not think it requires a visionary eye to see that by calling for free education and universal health care the NARC government is on a collision course with these policies. And I think once we contexualize the current debates in a globalized world, then it becomes clear that the push for privatization has always been to the detriment of those without. One just needs to think about the worldwide push to privatize water – what will that do to the poor? Or even better, since it is an ongoing process one just needs to look at South Africa or Guatemala.
6. Responding to Jinha's point number 5: Ignoring the first part of your statement on sterile environments etc. I respond that you are again pointing out a contradiction within NARC - especially on Biwott who has been understood as Moi's right hand man and tainted by the brutal assassination of Robert Ouko and numerous corruption scandals. But how does that redeem KANU or Moi? At its most persuasive, your argument can only be that they (NARC and KANU) are equally bad. A more constructive argument from my end would be how do we bring about genuine change? How do we stop a second betrayal (the first being independence) from taking place? How can we use the freedom of speech as a platform towards a true liberation?
7. Jinha writes, “You imply that the KANU government got away with misrule yet enjoyed support in foreign aid…” To which I respond – No, Jinha I was not implying that the Moi government got away with a lot. I was indeed stating that the US foreign policy is and has always been hypocritical. One just needs to look at the string of dictators the United States government has supported throughout the world – in Africa shall we forget that Reagan once called Mobutu America’s best friend? Or the assassination of Lumumba? Or America’s support of the Apartheid government until the citizens of the United States forced Reagan to declare sanctions? And the list goes on… But even if we use your mathematics, then Moi’s government, in spite of gross mismanagement and dictatorial rule, out of its 24 years got support from the West for 14 years. NARC has barely been in power for two years. I think it is okay, no matter how one feels about NARC, to say something is not quite right here.
The same argument you make about the withdrawal of foreign Aid hurting most Kenyans is the same argument that those who supported Apartheid made. Reagan and Botha, in asking the rest of the world not to declare sanctions, argued that sanctions would hurt black South Africans. I do believe that the lifting of foreign Aid, together with internal political activism, encouraged Moi to step down.
8. “The judiciary is still largely corrupt and sympathetic to the powers of the day…” I respond that I think the ability to make nuanced arguments is crucial especially in times of transition. Now, the Kibaki government did clean out almost half of the judiciary under suspicion of being corrupt. Now, even as much as I raise contradictions in the NARC coalition, we simply must recognize some of the helpful things it has done. For indeed, it is these kind of things that we want to encourage them to keep doing with the knowledge that failure to address some of the fundamental problems will be tantamount to a second betrayal.
9. On the health issue, I respond by asking what is the meaning of the word debate? A quick google search (I hate bringing google in to the debate) under the terms “health free Kenya Ngilu” shows otherwise. Also, I think it is clear from my article that I consider free Health Care a basic human freedom and am therefore not thrilled that Kibaki did not sign the bill into Law – again a contradiction within NARC. But my point was, and those who remember Moi’s rule, will agree, that at least the debate was there in Kenyan media and talk shows – that there is freedom of speech that did not exist in Moi’s time. Certainly, national policies were not under debate. But the question is what to do with it in light of the contradictions and amount of work that needs to be done.
10. “Finally, the problems Kenya is facing are POLITICAL…”
I respond that surely Kenyan memory of Moi is still too fresh to begin rehabilitating him – Moi was a political criminal, a murderer and at times a common thief who should be tried by either a Kenyan court or an international court for atrocities committed. And for that matter so should have Kenyatta whose footsteps Moi vowed to follow – and he did. And we should even go back to colonialism to understand Kenyatta’s betrayal of the freedom fighters and his consequent dictatorship. As one historian put it “Let us not start the historical clock where it suits us”. But perhaps I am in agreement with Jinha that I suffer from an idiosyncrasy that translates into blindly opposing Moi – it doesn’t sound too bad a case of blindness from where I sit opposed to all forms of dictatorships.
Let me end by repeating what I said at the beginning: that Jinha appears to be caught in a nowhere place. It seems to me that Moi’s dictatorship provided a certainty that Jinha relished. On the other hand, Kibaki’s government cannot offer the certainty of a dictatorship or the stability of a democracy that meets the needs of the Kenyan people due to internal contradictions. Yet, as opposed to trying to find a space from which we can un-tether ourselves from the current predicament, Jinha wishes for Moi’s rule and at the same time sees each contradiction in the NARC as a vindication of Moi. It is only natural, following this logic, that Jinha’s argument can only end with “The PEOPLE of Kenya have themselves to blame. They complain a lot and don’t do anything about the situation. Kenyans, and NOT politicians will save their own country”. First Jinha blames the Kenyan people even though our history indicates that we fought against Colonialism and against Kenyatta’s and Moi’s dictatorship. But in the same breath, after ignoring this history of continuous resistance, Jinha expresses faith in the Kenyan people and not the politicians. On the future of Kenya resting on the people and not the politicians, we can both agree. But just as quickly we have to disagree because Jinja has as yet to come to terms with Moi’s reign of terror and I, and the millions of Kenyans who were opposed to Moi’s rule, are more concerned with the way forward.
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