Re-discovering the old Kumekucha

I crave for the old Kumekucha. The real Kumekucha that built such a formidable reputation that I received several reports that people were saying that there was no other place to be online or offline if you wanted to understand the politics of Kenya and know what was really going on.

The old Kumekucha is desperately needed just now as our beloved Kenya stands at a cross roads desperately seeking a firm hand to lead it in the right direction.

I have sifted through many of the old posts in this blog that I consider classics and in the spirit of re-discovering the old desired Kumekucha I have pasted one of those posts below. It was a brief post but what really stands out is the informative sober debate that follows the post. There are no tribal comments only a decent debate that is a joy to read even now.

So what went wrong?

One of the things that went badly wrong and caused the old Kumekucha "to be lost in the sea" was an invasion (still ongoing) of this blog by what I would refer to as “paid hands”. Their objective was (and still is) to discredit this site and thus dilute any power it may have in Kenyan politics. Can the rest of us refuse to be dragged down by these very clever and well trained chaps and urgently address the immediate and desperate needs of mother Kenya?

I hope so.

But meanwhile I, Kumekucha cannot escape blame. I want to admit that I lost focus and departed from the straight and narrow path that carried this blog from obscurity to worldwide fame within such a short time.

Today my fellow Kenyan I re-dedicate myself to my original mission statement. I do it selflessly with the realization that despite the risks involved we will all probably never live to enjoy the new Kenya we fight so passionately for. Not even our sons and daughters will. It is for our grand children and great grand children. Even if they don’t remember us, it is a dream worth fighting for.

Oh God of all creation bless this our land Kenya.

Here is that old "classic" post;

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Biggest Risk Taken In Posting A Comment: Kumekucha Nomination For Comment Award

I would like to nominate this reader for the award of post made at greatest risk to the personal security of a Kenyan but for the good of the motherland.

This post pointed me in the right direction for research that led to new evidence and angles published only here in this Kumekucha blog that have never before been presented anywhere else in the still unsolved riddle of the Mboya assassination.

This same reader made a number of other very illuminating comments with pointers which I will not reveal for security reasons (to protect the commentator). Obviously this is a person who has worked with the security aparatus in this country in the past if not in the present as well.

It is interesting how many younger generation Kenyans who have never studied the history of Kenya and especially the life and death of Tom Mboya get upset when we mention that tribalism exists in Kenya and it is a dangerous monstor that should be faced and not swept under the carpet (like they want us to do). It is impossible to understand Kenyan politics if you have no idea who Mboya was, a man who relied on almost 90% Kikuyu votes during his entire political career... that was before the Kisumu riots and deaths and the propaganda that followed. My friends I do not peddle lies here, only very carefully researched truths that you are free to investigate on your own an verify.

Please my dear readers, study the history of your country and don't come to this blog to get upset over things you do not understand. PLEASE.

Congratulations to this annonymous blogger. Whoever you are, thank you for loving your country enough to have given us these and other vital leads.


Anonymous said...
On the right track Chris. To describe Kingsway House as eerie confirms that I was not the only one who shuddered when I entered that building. I visited it when it was Kenya's hub of intelligence and indeed Nyayo or Nyati houses pale in comparison. Blood curdling is the phrase I would use. You have explored TJ's threat to the status quo very well. Let's rummage abit further, who were the intelligence apparatchiks at that time (1969)? Indeed one very relevant observation you made is that there were no mobile phones then, so that 'wet job' involved considerable operational and communication resources. Only the security organs had these resources. I believe this matrix holds the key...a garden path that keeps getting missed year in year out.


The original post can be found here;

http://kumekucha.blogspot.com/2006/07/kingsway-house-building-in-nairobi.html#comments

Posted by Chris at 7:17 AM

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chris, thank you very much for that. But have you ever thought of an idea that has been largely circulated that TJ was a CIA agent.
It was at the height of the ideological Cold War between America and USSR and anything could have happened, to any one.
TJ was opposed to Oginga Odinga's communism ideolgy and with the history that us younger Kenyans have been able to read, TJ was the one who coined the infamous 'there shall be no other political party in Kenya' thus giving Kanu the armophous powers that it enjoyed for over three decades.
Well, in Nyanza, TJ and Odinga divided the Luo along imaginary ideological and political boundaries, something that the government of the day enjoyed and even split the massive Nyanza province in South Nyanza, while the boundaries could not be defined up to this date.
As I said earlier, let the spirits of this great man rest.
He could ganner all Kikuyu votes at that time. Why? He was in a cosmopolitan province that drew most of the inhabitants from the tribe, and he was not wrong at all. He was popular. It is not a lie.

3/31/07 8:01 AM

chris said...

Hi Annonymous,

You have much more knowledge on the man than most. Now I encourage you to dig deeper. Find out the following;

During the famous Lancaster house talks that led to independence, who was the chief negotiator on the Kenyan side and what were his tactics?

Who first told bewildered Kenyans; "Uhuru sasa"

From the deep research I have done, I too am convinced that Mboya was a CIA operative. However in my book, that does not downplay his achievements.

It was not any easier for a Luo to get Kikuyu votes in 1958 than it is now. Mboya's charisma and political craftiness was just exceptional. By the way there were Kikuyu candidates he beat in 1958. One of them was called Munyua Waiyaki.

Oh and please note that Mboya was despised in Nyanza and practically had no following there. It was said that he looked down on the Luo (I agree). The man was brought up in Thika amongst the Akamba and traveled widely. Spend a lot of time in Tanzania and was a great friend of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere (the front he used at the Kanu financier for the 1963 elections. The real source as you may have guessed was from America). Also perfected his Kiswahili in Tanzania and Kenyatta borrowed many words from him.

Ironically Mboya became very popular in Nyanza only after his assassination.

The rivalry between TJ and Jaramogi is a joy to study and much more complex than just a difference in ideologies. The most fascinating final analysis is that of David Goldsworthy author of the only Mboya biography so far who points out that in dealing with Jaramogi so effectively on behalf of Kenyatta, Mboya paved the way for his own assassination, because his job was well don and now he remained the only threat.

Also ask yourself the question why Goldsworthy called his biography on Mboya “The man Kenya wanted to forget.” Hidden somewhere there you will find the source of today’s tribal woes.

Finally although other Kikuyus did not benefit from the Kenyatta grabbing and wealth, they swallowed the anti-Luo propaganda hook line and sinker and me and you were brought up on the same. I remember as a kid being told that Luos were too proud to rule Kenya.

Once again I have nothing against Kikuyus or any tribe in Kenya, my desire is for Kenyans to discuss what they usually don’t dare discuss. It is very important for our national healing.

Thank you for being such a frequent visitor here. I really appreciate it. And never think for one day that you have to agree with me for me to like you and appreciate your visits.

Have a nice weekend my brother and God bless the people of Kenya.

-Kumekucha-
P.S. By the way for anybody reading this who wants to take a short cut and avoid them books just ask any older person irrespective of their tribe or even nationality who was a grown up in Kenya in the 60s what they thought of Mboya.

3/31/07 9:17 AM

Anonymous said...

Chris, thank you for that. Sorry, I dont want to divulge id in this forum, i fear the repercussions of the Kenyan media, nomenklatura, and not at this time that Kumekucha is being said to be behind the back-stabbing at The Nation.
I agree with every word that has been said about TJ. I once spoke to a British lecturer who once taught at Makerere. He is very old now (may be dead). His wish was to visit TJ's grave before he departs to the ancestors.
He told me something that i thought only my grandfather told me, thereby confirming it. "We (they) argued for three hours in the Commons that the young man was not a university graduate. I am convinced he was hiding something". This old man says that Mboya's address at Makerere broke with tradition. 'the first non-graduate to lecture' (I dont know, i stand to be corrected whether the first Kenyan, east african or black man'.
But Chris, if you go back to benefits that the Luo got from Mboya, apart from the 'flights' which Oginga Odinga answered with the Russian ones, and the first beneficiaries were Oburu, Osewe and Agola, his three sons, what else did the luo get from TJ.
Yes, California estate in Nairobi was out of his infleunce as MP there, but what do you think happened. the Causeway leading to his Rusinga home remains as it was, the famous Homa Bay-Kendu Bay Road remains as he left it.
I have said before, thanks to the two luo greats but what are we, the current generation reaping from them. This is my bitterness with Raila and His family. Still the Homa bay Road remains as it is and he was the minister for roads. Instead, his first priority was to slap Nyachae on the face by completing the Kisii-Chemosit Road.
Chris with respect and sober arguments only. Dont take it personal. I might be wrong and stand to be corrected.
NB: Have you read the Steadman latest. I think they are very right.

3/31/07 11:50 AM

Taabu said...

Granted, TJ was a great leader and apolitcal organzer per excellece. But with due respect (may God reast his bones in peace) aren't we losing the wider plot by glorifying the dead and leaders of yore? If anything, what dynamics and relevance has the Makerere model of the 1960s as myopically practiced by the present regime achieved apart from tokenism and plastic growth only justfied inself denial?

True, a drowning man clutches to a straw to stay a float. Similarly we are gropping in the dark looking for foccused leadersip that is presently but a mirage. The truism that no future exists without a related past is no excuse to be slaves to the past. In effect we are simply being blinded by nostalgia and living a lie of counterfactual (what ifs) proportions.

To be brutally honest, who knows, maybe TJ's death was a blessing in disguise for he would part of the dinosaurs and gang now driving us to political oblivion, nay abyss. That bullet stoped may have been the silver kind that literally created a martyr and political hero out of a scheming opportunist.

TJ's brialliance, political and otherwise, remains undeniable. But to extrapolate genuis of the 60s to the present millinium is to turn intellectualism on its head.
Mboya died and got intered with all the values he lived for. To imagine that he would win in Thika today, were he to resurect, is the height of political naivity. The guy would look for the next available noose were to wake up to the monster they inadvertently and invariably nurtured.

Lest I appear ignorant of our history and heroes, I couldn't agree and appreciate more with their ideals which we must retrace and live in their honor and respect. Their era is long past and time waits for no man. Let souls of TJ, JM et al rest in peace. Equally, we the leaving must stop propagating their negative traits of tribalsm and regionalism.

3/31/07 4:19 PM

Anonymous said...

Yes, TJ was and remains part of the problems we have in this country today. He inserted the words 'there shall be no other political party in Kenya' remember the Section 2 (a) that Oginga Odinga continued hitting at, more than three decades after TJ was dead. It showed Odinga still held the grudge mentioned above.
Again, 'the president is above the law'. Who said that? TJ Mboya. Taabu, you are dead right. He is part of the calamity that we face in present life. Let his soul rest in peace.

4/1/07 3:33 AM