The Day Karl Max Was Expelled From Kanu

Are Kenyans Their Own Worst Enemies?
…. You bet!!

Yesterday I received a very angry response to my Tuesday blog on former ethics PS John Githongo. I have decided to republish it in full in my next post, see below (many people sometimes miss comments) because although I disagree with the main gist of the comment, there is a particular characteristic that the writer accuses Kenyans of that is 1000% true.

But before we delve into that, some points on a lighter note first.

It is in order for me to explain why I have no problem with people who do not agree with me. Admittedly this is very strange behavior in Kenya. (odd when we are fighting for more democratic space. I guess in Kenya democracy means freedom to agree. Imagine debates in Parliament where everybody is nodding their heads in strong agreement even as some of them nod off to sleep. This was Kanu's big vision. (Moi says it is the African way of doing things and that was how he came up with the nightmarish queue-voting system of the late 80's).

The right Kenyan thing for me to have done when I received the comment, would have been to castigate the writer as an unpatriotic Kenyan serving the same interests of the foreign masters I was talking about. An enemy of development, and of the good people of Kenya. …And all that rubbish. Or maybe I should have called for his expulsion from all political parties in Kenya including the ODM.

A Kenyan politician at the height of Kanuism, in the 1980s having heard of the alleged increased Karl Marx influence at the University of Nairobi made a strange call. He called for the immediate expulsion of the said Karl Max from the University of Nairobi and from Kanu (there was no other political party in those days so the politician was sure that anybody as politically active as Mr Karl Max was, had to be a member of Kanu.)

My point is that the current crop of politicians still have "old Kanu blood" running through their veins and they therefore cannot absorb new ideas and democracy is a pretty new idea to them. That's all the more reason why we need a generational change in our politics.

This point was brought home to me rather vividly shortly after the 2002 general elections. My 65 year old father who had cheered the Narc victory with me frowned on any opposition the government was receiving. Coming from a man who's level of education and understanding is higher than that of most Kenyans, you begin to get a picture of what I am talking about here. A lot of other things we disagreed on made on thing very clear.

In the Kanu days we agreed on everything which was that Kanu had to go as soon as possible. Now that the common enemy was gone, the generation gap became very clear. Whatever the outcome of the coming general elections, this is going to be the major issue and since Kenyans can often be their own worst enemies, the possibility is that some voters may refuse to shift from the old-tired-tried-tested-and-failed-miserably crop of current politicians. These guys are currently a big embarrassment to the people of Kenya. Let's start debating these issues early before the wise old foxes start working people's emotions and tribal demons.