Translated from Kibakizungu
Written by Kwani · February 6, 2008
We have the most hallucination-inducing leaders—they are surpassingly bad at everything, or extremely good, depending on your point of view.
Kibaki, in effect, has said:
… Look. We Kikuyus endured twenty-four years of that Kalenjin man’s rule, and were regularly rigged out. We knew it, and so did you. We, unlike our violent Luo lesser-citizens or our wanna-be Kalenjin friends, did not engage in wanton acts of destruction for this reason. We bore our Moi-years burden in silence and with decorum, like everybody else in this country, we even managed to keep our heads above water, more or less. We had saved and secreted away enough, although diminished, shillings to begin to build again—and we have been working hard.
You must admit that the street lights in Nairobi work now, and remember the new beauty of the roundabouts. Don’t you like flowers? And on this point: please tell your guys to stop burning our flower farms in the Rift Valley: there is going to be a rose crisis in Europe if you don’t watch out. It isn’t as if the new supermarkets and shops only sell things to Kikuyus: we’re all winning, here, guys! We were about to do global IPOs, bwana! We waited for our turn to come, and in 2002, it did (okay, it came for us again, but who’s counting?).
We now do not understand what all this unmannerly screaming and shouting and wielding of pangas and matchboxes and gallons of petrol is all about, as we expect you to understand that you must stand in line. It isn’t your turn yet.
Yes, we rigged: so what? So did you—we were just better at it, as you well know, as you admitted privately at the golf club. We won that rigging game, fair and square. So, shut up and get on with preparing for the next campaign in five years—we’ll have wrapped up our most important business by then, or at least convinced you to follow our plan instead of yours. We’ll buy you out, as always—what’s all this fuss about? You are welcome to have another factory or two, if that is the problem; if this will make you shut up.
Kibaki has said this, or words certainly to that effect, at the recent meeting of African Union heads recently. He was speaking to his peers—other rulers and regulators of Africans of a bewildering variety of tongues and tendencies, and yet, he was confident that they would understand his meaning. He knew that they knew how to read between his lines of “law and order,” of “institutional redress”: he was basically saying to his fellow African Excellencies, with a nudge and a wink, that the real problem in Kenya has come about because those idiot Luos don’t know how to take a fall, and the Kalenjin have always had dreams of grandeur; they think they’re in a movie for white people, or something. Someone, one of his Excellent Brothers, might even guffaw, at his subtleties. They understood his meaning clear and well.
In the meantime, Raila Odinga is failing every test of greatness that has walked up to him and practically slapped him in the face, this last month: he has been looking at the good of his country each day and deciding against it. He has decided that the chance of the presidency means more to him than the chance to be truly great, to be an outstanding African instead of just another quarrelsome Kenyan, petty and power-blinded. They’ll still write about him in the history books fifty years from now, and he doesn’t care what the reasons are, what stories we will be telling our children about him. His party may have planned mass human rights violations; they may indeed have been a touch over-enthusiastic, but his injured innocence knows no bounds. Kibaki’s Presidential Cronies would understand Raila’s point of view, too—they practice its tenets daily.
They are all one of a kind.
Despite our differences across this continent, the overwhelming commonality between us Africans is the astoundingly debased and degrading quality of our leaders. That, despite all that our own senses and our own intellects have assured us is true, this past month, Kibaki was able to say the things that he did, in the place that he did, with the intentions and nuances that he deployed, without the heavens sundering open in scorn, without thunderbolts striking us all, is proof of our sadly decayed expectations of our leaders, across the board.
Why do we not have a Martin Luther King? Has our Fanon been delayed in a bar? It can happen, what with the Nairobi traffic and all. Is Malcom X having some nyama choma at his local estate joint, and can’t be bothered to attend to our little problem? What house does our Aung San Suu Kyi live in? A Mandela of our own would probably be too much to hope for, but we can dream…..
It is remarkable that there is so much unanimity between intellectuals, artists, activists and people of goodwill that the violence is deplorable; that a new vision of Kenya needs to emerge; that communities are looking to our newly-elected (or not) leaders—most recently minus two, of course– in this time of peril to guide us out of this maze; that it is time for a new national conversation about our identities and the uses to which we put them; that whoever is able to do this will live as a hero in the annals of Kenyan history;—so where is this person? Where is this person who will, now, this moment, mount that podium and give Kenyans a credible reason to stop this violence and to find new ways of expressing our fears and our frustrations? Who will explain us to each other, who will clarify our options about our neighbours and our living patterns, our prospects of employment and our hopes, our challenges of salvaging and rebuilding our battered selves, who will exhort and extort us to remember that it is our neighbour and friend who is our usual source of that emergency cup of sugar, our neighbour to whom we look when our child is sick and needs transport to the hospital, our neighbour with whom we have exchanged those I-hate-matatu stories even as we board another one together. Or complained about the politicians —we do that well together, we Kenyans.
Who will convince us that this untidy, resentful, sullen, bleeding, wounded, bewildered, defensive, psychotic , irrational, betraying, dangerous place we call home, this our Kenya, has any point left to it at all?
I am still waiting. I am getting pissed off at the delay.
Of course, when she turns up, we’ll probably shoot her dead. Viva Kenya
Wambui Mwangi, teaches Political Science at the University of Toronto. She is a member of the Concerned Kenyan Writers Initiative.
Wow!!! History professor? what a pathetic loser, you such an ignorant retarded motherfucka, go to hell……..go back to the cause of all these vurugus first then gives us a well detailed fact on what you think went wrong before you just tribalistically critize luos and kales.
solomon
UC-Berkeley
The most fundamental question is, Will Mount Kenya Mafia accept the past and current crimes against other communities. It does not matter whether the moi stole or Kibaki is a smarter thief … the truth is that Kikuyus just like Colonialist are lording and depriving other communities out of their resources. Infact the next book will be “How Kikuyus underdeveloped other Communities in Kenya” not by Walter Rodney, but a Kenya.
Compare this, British slave were forced to occupy the land of aborigine in Australia, Mau Mau Children are forced to occupy Kales and Maasai land in Rift Valley. With the help of British soldier aborigines almost went extinct, With help of Mungiki and GSU Kales and Luos being extinguished in Rift Valley, Nyanza, Nairobi and Central province.
While it took time for the British empire to realise that you cannot colonise people, We will teach Kikuyus that colonisation ended with British empire and never again will it occur on our land.
You may kill us by GUNS but you will never kill the will in us and our future generation
The most fundamental question is, Will Mount Kenya Mafia accept the past and current crimes against other communities. It does not matter whether the Moi stole or Kibaki is a smarter thief … the truth is that Kikuyus just like colonialist are lording and depriving other communities out of their resources. In fact the next book will be “How Kikuyus underdeveloped other Communities in Kenya” not by Walter Rodney, but a Kenyan. If being a Kenya means accepting Kikuyu Colonialism, then we better redefine what Kenya mean to us.
compare this:
The British slave were forced to occupy the land of Aborigine in Australia, Mau Mau Children are forced to occupy Kales and Maasai land in Rift Valley, and Taita Land.
With the help of British soldier Aborigines almost went extinct, With help of Mungiki and Kenyan paramilitary GSU, Kales and Luos are being extinguished in Rift Valley, Nyanza, Nairobi and Central province.
Colonialist were welcomed to live in other people’s land out of good faith, they in turn claimed the land and native communities to be their possessions. Kikuyu were welcomed to live in other people’s land out of good faith they in turn force themselves to be cheifs, DOs, DCs and PCs in other peoples land and claim the inheritance of that land. Take count, How many DCs DOs and Chiefs are Kikuyu in Rift Valley, Nyanza, Western, Coast and North Eastern Province.
When Colonialist arrived in Australia you hear of New Wales, New Zealand etc which were regions in Europe. When Kikuyus arrived in Rift Valley and other parts of Kenya you hear of Rironi, Kiambaa, Munyaka, ya Mumbi, Kimumu etc. The general principle here is to kill anything that will leave a mark that Kikuyus are settlers
While it took time for the British empire to realise that you cannot colonise people, We will teach Kikuyus that colonisation ended with British empire and never again will it occur on our land.
The Kikuyu ruling elite are more worse than Colonialist yet their disadvantage is that we are more well informed from Colonial Experience.
You may kill us by GUNS but you will never kill the will in us and our future generation. For we will teach our children that the settlers are occupying our land and the Lord will deliver us from slavery Deut 6:4-12
Irony of ironies, all is irony.
For with self-satire comes much sorrow;
What does woman gain from all her labor
at which she toils under the lava lamp?
Generations come and generations go,
but the stereotypes remain forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
The incomprehension is wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hate-radio.
For with self-satire comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.
Even if they blog the wind can not be stopped at home or abroad the win will blow
I think all this fascination with kikuyus is really very sad. I am one but I havent seen any of the said advantages of being one. When you compete with a fellow african; the best you can be is what he currently is. Let us look beyond the tribalism that our leaders have forced down our throats. Let us be more than our haters expect of us.
lastly for herbie, you probably far away from Kenya n havent lost anything in the post election crisis. if you had you would sound less war like. If I may quote his excellency. ‘Hakuna mtu yeyote anaweza kwambia mwenzake we we huwezi kuishi hapa. ama anamuua mkenya mwingine. Hata wewe utauwawa. Utauwawa na utakwisha’. You should not take kibaki’s weakness to be the weakness of the entire Kikuyu population. nor his above mentioned elite society.
I told by Kikuyu friends to be careful when they call other people lazy, to be careful when they say they are smarter, to be careful when they say they are the rulers, and you think they listen. No! they are so big, so blinded. Mohamed Mahtir former prime minister said, when people get arrogant they make mistakes and indeed the powers that are in Kenya have made mistakes.
You can not trade with poor people, you can not live among the lazy, you can live among the stupid. If you do, I do not know what it makes you. Yes, Kenyans have become stupid. Kama walivyosema wahenga, sikio la kufa, halisikii dawa. again, Siku ya Kufa nyani miti yote huteleza. Now Kibaki and his cronies are the sikio and Nyani. Siku ya kufa hawatasikia dawa, na miti yote itateleza. Bado kuna nafasi, if they are wise, they should listen to reason, if not, recruiting Mungiki is just an exercise in futility. Death and Death, and they will achieve nothing. I do not even understand why they insist on Killing, a dead man does not need his body, you still have to deal with the living who will be hundred fold as a result of the death of one man. Wisdom wisdom Wisdom is not for every body. It is for a selected few.
It seems that the satire of Prof Mwangi’s piece is lost to some readers. She was not ‘tirbalisitcally criticizing Luos and Kales’. She was, in her own way, exposing Kibaki’s failure as a leader. Luos, Kales, Kaos, Kiuks, whoever, as a group have not failed the country. Certain leaders, from each, and more of these communities, have misled the country. We need to look at the true situation and see that most of our present leaders are one and the same thing. At the end of the day, after all these ‘peace talks’ and ‘mass demonstrations’, they will end up at their golf clubs teeing off together as they discuss how next to rip off the country. Whatever community you are from, we all need to safeguard the country from neo-colonist elites who are selling us, skin, bone and hooves, to the West.
Wow!!! I don’t know if I’m more shocked than embarrassed for the COMPLETE blind hatred for another ethnic group/person that the whole satire in this peice is ignored! Ms. Mwangi I applaud you for this GREAT writing; and to your point it is so easy to see how one’s life could be endangerred by simply trying to speak truth and justice for ALL people of color!!! I stand in solidarity with you as YOUR SPIRIT is truly that of Frantz Fanon and all the great leaders you have mentioned. As Kenyans many of us have sold our souls and our ancestral ways to the West. We are now mere puppets as they (the West) wheel and deal with each other over how to satisfy their own individual interests in the region. Let us not fall into these “games” only because of our proximity to the Middle East we need a shift in conciousness and to re-align ourselves with OUR destiny. I will leave you with a quote from one of our elders Ayi Kwei Armah:
“A people losing sight of origins are dead. A people
deaf to purposes are lost. Under fertile rain, in
scorching sunshine there is no difference: their
bodies are mere corpses, awaiting final burial….It
was not always so.”
what are this resources the kikuyus are depriving other people of and how exactly are they going about, for 24 yrs kikuyus sacrificed all to educate their children and it is they who are now working wonders with their edu. other tribes chose to say ’serikali haitufundishii watoto’ so grow up to all who think that resources grow in govmnt offices and even it they do how many kikuyus have received tokens from the govmnt infact the kibaki gova has been so mean to kikuyus,with tax additions like land tax and still some luos say they wont pay rent then they shd buy land and build their own houses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AMA?????????????????????????
Gandhi said “An eye for an eye leaves us both blind” .Just like the cold is not the only definition of weather then a tribe cannot be the only definition of a country.We are now describing Kenya using the post-election violence (though i do believe there was pre-election violence involved which everybody now fails to mention).Yes i know the good old days probably don’t mean anything to all of you but i believe that they would take our hearts to a better place when we shared without the inconceivable need to find out each others ethnicity beforehand.I know this wasn’t a good situation but i shed more tears in August 1998 when i watched the whole of Kenya especially the residents of Nairobi be they from Langata’s affluence or the poverty stricken Kibera taking shifts to help find,search and keep conversations with those trapped under the Ufundi Co-op house.I was only a child then but for me there will never be a greater display of patriotism than the one witnessed by the whole world in those terrifying days.In the late 90’s we all trooped to Kasarani and Nyayo stadium to cheer Harambee stars when they toppled Burkina Faso and narrowly missed embarrassing the Super eagles of Nigeria.No one cared then if Musa Otieno was Luo and i believe no one should now.Am not Kalenjin but I have been there since i was a kid cheering Daniel Komen,Kiptanui and all other kenyan athletes that have done us proud over the years to the point of my parents having to console me when one of our finest didn’t get the gold.I have played hockey games against Friends school Kamusinga from the west of Kenya and won some of the games after having passed to one of my team-mates form the same area but my best buddy in high school.This is the Kenya i know and am not happy or supporting anyone who is trying to change it be you the President,P.M,an artiste or just a misguided psychophant.We should all borrow a leaf from the comedians of Vioja Mahakamani,Vitimbi and others.They were there barely 2 weeks after the election results acting on stage together promoting peace as if nothing had ever happened.Yes something did happen bit did it incite Mzee Ojwang’ a Kikuyu to change his stage name to Mzee Njoroge No!! This is the type of character that we should all possess.Yes our country was almost burnt down but we won’t be able to rebuild it if we are still holding weapons in our hands.The Israelites had weapons when rebuilding Jerusalem because they had external enemies but what are our weapons for if we actually did the damage ourselves.Am not ashamed to be Kenyan and i never will be.Do u know what the Bible says about Kenya,uh huh the bible does talk about Kenya it says this of the country below Ethiopia-It is an oasis of peace.I never heard of anyone changing anything that had been said by the Almighty and i don’t think any of the tribalists out there willl ever get even close to changing that.Do you know what my pastor preached about last sunday Lamentations 3:37 Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
If we continue fighting we will all end up dead and no one will be able to distinguish whether it was a massacre or it was mass suicide.
The only thing left to say is a tribe against another tribe will only render our future kids tribeless.
Peace out everyone or should i say peace in.
I didn’t get it…wtf’s this about ?