Tom Mboya: What is Kumekucha Hiding?

Is Kumekucha now resorting to twisting history in an attempt to influence current and future political events? I hope this right-of-reply will shed the light on some of the more recent misrepresentations.

Chris said;
Somebody wanted to be convinced that Oginga Odinga practiced tribal politics. Here we go;

i) Odinga senior hated Mboya because Mboya did not respect tribal ways where the older man is respected by the younger. Which meant that Mboya was supposed to shut up and blindly follow Odinga because he was also from Nyanza and older.

Bw. Chris,

On what basis do you make the accusation that Jaramogi ‘hated’ Mboya? Is it recorded anywhere as a fact? And then you go ahead and make very skewed conclusions that Jaramogi wanted Mboya to shut-up and blindly follow Odinga. I would like to see evidence of these allegations Chris because just in the same way, did you expect Jaramogi to shut up and follow Mboya blindly? I think you ought to get a copy of the book ‘Not yet Uhuru’ then perhaps you can understand that the white colonialists were much better than the African ‘liberators’ whom Mboya represented with zeal.

ii) When Odinga snr saw that Mboya was in poll position to be the first president of Kenya, he played the tribal card by calling for the release of an old man who was badly out of touch called Kenyatta not because he loved him but because he knew this would "fix" Mboya who drew the bedrock of his cosmopolitan support from the Kikuyu. This single action forever changed "the gear" of politics from the nationalistic approach Mboya was pursuing to a tribal one.

Prior to independence, Mboya was never in pole position to be the first president of Kenya. If anything, Kenyatta was in jail and Jaramogi was approached by the British to be Kenya’s first Prime Minister but he declined saying that no Kenyatta, no Uhuru. In case you did not know, Kenyatta was in the 50s the leading nationalist and along with the famous Kapenguria six a leading politician in his own right. How then do you accuse Jaramogi (a Luo) of tribal politics when without him Kenyatta (a Kikuyu) would probably have died in Kapenguria detention centre, and he (Jaramogi) would have proceeded to be Kenya’s first head of state?

As far as my knowledge of pre/post-independence history is concerned, Mboya was a mere labour union official (much like present day Francis Atwoli) who was jealous of Jaramogi's close relationship with Kenyatta and was desperate to get close to Kenyatta so as to up his political chances in the Kenyatta succession that was sure coming after independence. If Kenyatta radically changed midstream and converted from hero to villain, and even in the process fell out with his Kapenguria cellmates and Jaramogi regarding land redistribution and sharing of the national cake, how does this become a creation of Jaramogi?

iii) Despite his many years in the opposition trying to create the image of a nationalist, when the first multi-party elections were called, Odinga snr could not get national support and instead made a tribal deal with the Bukusu (Luhya sect) but this was not enough to win the elections or even to beat second placed Kenneth Matiba.

Please do not display your ignorance of multi-party politics in Kenya on this esteemed blog. Odinga did not try to create an image of a nationalist. That he WAS a nationalist who was later to be christened the DOYEN OF OPPOSITION POLITICS in Kenya are matters of FACT and not fiction. This was not without reason and his record speaks for itself. His quest for the presidency in 1992 was successful in so far as the prevailing circumstances then goes.

Although he was number 4 in the highly rigged elections in which Moi led Matiba, Kibaki and Odinga in that order, it is well known that Matiba and Kibaki were number 2 and number 3 because of reasons I have explained elsewhere on this board and as proof, the MPs who got elected to parliament in their respective political parties were all clustered in one region!

In contrast, No. 4 Jaramogi's party FORD-K managed to obtain an MP from each province in this republic a feat that not even KANU or any other party for that matter has achieved to date. In subsequent by-elections in Webuye, Kisauni, Kasarani/Mathare, FORD-K emerged tops despite the then mighty KANU machinery. Which national party did Mboya, Moi or Kenyatta lead? Please Chris, you can do much much better than try to twist history here!

I am further inclined to believe that FORD-K was the most effective official opposition since the advent of multi-part politics. For instance, without FORD-K, the famous IPPG reforms would never have come to fruition and by now it is probable that Kumekucha himself could as well have been wasting away in Manyani or Shimo-la-Tewa prison for running this blog. Chris you have every reason to thank Jaramogi for bringing together level headed and highly courageous young turks together in FORD-K to fight the might of Moi and KANU. While we are at it, could you please enumerate any political or constitutional achievement of significance that Mboya brought forth in his more than a decade long career in Kenyan politics and if any such achievements are impacting positively on the life of any Kenyan today?

If Bukusu’s vote for FORD-K in 1992 is tribal, what was Matiba’s (FORD-Asili) vote from Kakamega in the same region and the same election? What was Moi’s from NEP or Kibaki’s from Maasai land? Arent all these regions in Kenya? What about those who stood in their own areas and failed; like Mukaru N'gan'ga of KENDA and George Moseti Anyona of KSC? I am kindly asking you to spare us this shameless hypocrisy and tell the facts as they are.

iv) Contrast Mboya and Odinga senior. Odinga's support in the 60s was tribal where all Luos were supposed to follow him blindly without question. Mboya represented a cosmopolitan constituency where the intelligent voters had to be convinced with intelligent arguments and actions rather than mere words. Mboya resisted all calls to go back to his "easier" rural home (although admittedly he was virtually unknown there having grown up mostly amongst the Akamba people and the Kikuyu in parts of Kenya very far away from his home in Rusinga Island. Odinga saw this as a weakness he could exploit in Mboya and played the tribal card again and again against him.

You see, what you are trying to imply here is that it is negative tribalism for Jaramogi to be MP for Bondo, while it is quite alright for Kenyatta to represent Gatundu, or Kibaki to represent Othaya, or Moi to represent Baringo. Is Bondo not part of Kenya?

Incidentally, Kibaki was MP for Bahati in Nairobi before relocating to his Othaya in Nyeri. Chris does not see anything wrong with this, but continues to see something wrong with Jaramogi reprepresenting Bondo, which he only represented for a year or two before his unfortunate demise. All the other leaders served their home constituencies for life with current President Kibaki now approaching half a century of representing his birth place of Othaya yet Chris see this quite perfect.

There are only 8 constituencies in Nairobi against 210 others spread all over the country. Do we take it that one can only be a nationalist if one represents any of the 8 constituencies in Nairobi? Are the likes of Maina Kamanda, David Mwenje, Norman Nyagah, Beth Mugo or Simon Mbugua all nationalists since they were all elected MPs in Nairobi like our ‘hero’ Mboya? Incidentally Chris, and just for the records ODM boasts the first non-indigenous Kenya MP outside Nairobi through the election of one Shakeel Shabir in Kisumu. Another Kenyan Somali councillor was also elected Mayor of Migori. Can a Maasai or a Luhya be elected councillor and then Mayor say in Mwingi or Nyeri? For ODM, this has already come to pass and this is apart from being the party boasting the most widespread MPs nationally. So which is the tribal party, is it ODM or ODM-K and PNU?

I see your pro-Mboya posts as a wicked attempt at trying to influence young voters through gross misinterpretation of facts. Only the truth (and reforms) shall set us free. Not fables published by Kumekucha and packaged as history.