Antony Otieno Ong'ayo
3 July 2009
(Page 3 of 4)
The issues around Mungiki and similar groups, high levels of crime in urban centres and even in rural areas, the high unemployment rate among the youth and the desperate actions of many Kenyans to secure their livelihoods in the context of politically motivated exclusion and marginalisation have their roots in the wrong start in Kenya immediately after independence. With the gap between the rich increasingly reaching alarming proportions, a sound system of governance and the use of national resources for the benefit of all Kenyans are the only remedy to the bleak future that Kenya as a nation faces in terms of the threats posed by its internal contradictions and historical injustices. And any political party or leader not paying attention to this is just exacerbating the already vulnerable situation in Kenya today.
There is no valid point in explaining these problems using colonialism as an excuse. The case of the miscarriage of justice in the case of the grandson of the colonial rancher Lord Delamare points to the colonial legacy which is very alive in the post-colonial Kenya where the ruling elite are the beneficiaries of the draconian laws and the status quo.
Forty-six years is too long for a country to keep crying over issues that it could directly address without looking sideways if there is the political will and ability of the national leadership to grasp the long-term communal and national interests. It is not possible in any modern society that someone can kill two unarmed and defenceless human beings and the matter treated so lightly as if the person just killed two birds in shooting practice. That is only possible in Kenya where the political and judicial systems seems to serve the interests of the elite - both local and international - whose interests often converge in a very intricate relationships that have their roots in the historical injustices in Kenya.
The Tom Cholmondeley case is just one of the many examples of how far things have gone wrong in Kenya, especially the culture of impunity which is mainly an elite privilege. These happenings are not bypassing the ordinary person, they are watching hence developing a tendency to take law into their own hands when redress in the courts prove futile. Cholmondeley could have been one of the most humble persons of British origin in Kenya as way of appreciating the wealth which the Masaai and Kalenjin communities have bequeathed on his family. He could do this by sharing this wealth or just allowing people living around his 3,000-hectare ranch to access the few natural water points that are now part of his property. Cholmondeley's case mirrors 'a distinctly colonial view of the rule of law, which saw the British leave behind legal systems that facilitated tyranny, oppression and poverty rather than open, accountable government' as noted by Elkins. But it is not only a problem with Tom Cholmondeley; there are local Kenyan Cholmondeleys, both in Central, Rift Valley and Coast provinces, whose sense of communal interests is long gone.
Displacements and evictions in many regions in Kenya are often motivated by elite interests in certain prime plots - whether public or otherwise - and many Kenyans have taken all these in a prostrate position in the past. However, times have changed and people are beginning to react and the unfortunate thing is that this reaction might be brought under control, depending on its magnitude. In short Kenyans may not be able to stoop too low too long, as shown by the recent post-election violence. One may want the world to believe that it was ethnic violence, however the truth is that Kenyans are disillusioned and have very little hope in the national leadership and the elite who have time and again manipulated their vulnerable conditions for political expediency. This vulnerability is exemplified by the acts of such immortal beings as Tom Cholmondeley and the Kenyan elite of his ilk who were behind some of the post-election atrocities. In this regard, genuine reforms in Kenya are only likely when the local ruling elite and middle-class experience some pain, especially in the event of a disruption of the status quo and their current comfortable lifestyle in Nairobi.
WHICH WAY TO GO?
I wish to highlight a few issues that must be addressed if one would want to envision a long-lasting peace in Kenya or even a united country. This is not a doomsday prophecy but a realistic assessment which has been repeated time and again after some level of normalcy returned, with Kofi Annan's intervention.
The first point is that any person or a community whose daughter or son or party may ascend to the political power in Kenya must seek ways and means of addressing the historical injustices in Kenya? That is, finding ways of restitution in the context of landlessness and squatter conditions caused by the unlawful and immoral acquisition of land belonging to ordinary Kenyans in Central Province, Rift Valley and Coast Provinces by the elite regardless of their ethnic background. They should either pay for those parcels at the market rate and the money be used to compensate the victims of their acts and those of the British, or the government of the day should repossess them and redistribute them equally, because there is no justification for owning 3,000 hectares of land which one never bought from its original owners in the first place or owning such land while millions do not even have a place to put up a house in their own place of birth.
Alternatively, the government may find money to compensate the victims of this horrific act in Kenyan history. The argument for the right to private property does not hold any water in Kenya and must be addressed head on by opening a new chapter, including the reversal of the unlawful and immoral leases of 99 and 999 years given to some people in Kenya. I say this because any close scrutiny of land or property ownership in Kenya will show that land owned by individuals in most urban areas and prime agricultural areas are fraudulently acquired and the papers and title deeds often flashed in the face of public outcry are not often genuinely and honestly acquired. The original maps showing city planning and so on are also clear on this, yet no one is prepared to accept that truth as various forces and interests keep fiddling with official records at the Ministry of Land. The farms that the British settlers left after the so-called £20 million compensation are in the hands of a few people who were not even residents of those locations by virtue of birth or ancestral connection, and if they acquired them through purchase, none of them has shown any proof of the price paid and which government authority authorised such a purchase and on what grounds. These suggestions may sound radical or even impractical, but it is better to face the truth and pain of accepting this reality. Without doing something about the land issue, no matter where, Kenyans will not have any peaceful coexistence, especially now that so much blood has been shed over land.
The second point is that every community in Kenya must wake up to the reality that Kenya belongs to all who belong in it and that anyone from one of the numerous communities can ascend to its leadership if he or she has the qualities to fill such a position. Any myth that puts 'us against them' or implies that only certain groups have more claim to the independence struggle and its fruits are hypocritical insinuations that will continue to breed hatred. Eventually, such hatred will explode once ignited by other circumstantial factors, especially those that relate to deprivation, marginalisation and insecure livelihoods. The elite who are managing the country in the name of their ethnic groups are not helping any member of those groups. Instead they are creating hatred and enmity that might be silent for a while only to explode during an electioneering period. The arrogance and blatant looting of public coffers and open defence of such culprits in the name of a community and open tribalism in public service appointments are some examples of the hypocrisy that does not augur well for Kenya's future. No sane person would literally stuff a whole ministry with people from his ethnic group, no matter how qualified they are. This is a sign of arrogance, which Kenyans tolerated under duress during the Kenyatta and Moi administrations, but their objections to such political immorality only appears in situations where they take matters into their own hands. It is the ruling elite of whichever ethnic group that is in power that always incites Kenyans to violence through their rhetoric, arrogant actions and massive looting of public coffers, or skewed allocation of resources. This is incensed by the fact that many communities have not seen a nursery school or health centre for the better part of Kenya's 46 years of independence.
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