From left to right; Tom Mboya, Jomo Kenyatta and Njoroge Mungai
Today is Madaraka day. It should be a day of careful reflection because we can only map out the way forward when we fully know where we came from and what our current exact location is.
According to me the saddest thing that ever happened to Kenya is that we distorted and rewrote our history to make a few people look good. Let me start very early in my post today by stating (for the sake of those who don’t know me well) that this piece is NOT about tribalism but about a few individuals who enriched themselves greatly at the expense of the masses. Sadly some of those individuals are still our national heroes.
Uhuru Kenyatta himself has recently said that he should not be judged for the sins of his father and that we should “let that mzee rest in peace.” However in my humble opinion noble sons should make good for the sins of their fathers where they can.
A long long time ago a man called Johnstone Kamau had gone to school and that is why illiterate Kenyans trusted him with their money and send him with a petition to the United Kingdom. But when Bwana Kamau arrived in Britain, did not do what he had been sent there to do. But even more disheartening is that when the same Johnstone Kamau became the first leader of independent Kenya, he received hefty cash donations to buy settler farms at the market price then and to settle Africans on the farms, especially our gallant freedom fighters. But what Mr Kamau did instead was to buy up all the land and transfer it to his personal name and that of his close associates. As you read this the family of Kenyan hero Dedan Kimathi is wallowing in poverty. Indeed many other Kenyan heroes and heroines who put their lives on the line and others who lost their parents are living bitter lives with nothing to show for what they did for all our sakes. Kenyans are really not interested in what this great men and women did for them.
Admittedly this culture of rubbishing the achievements of the patriotic and rewarding the prosperous thieves instead did not start yesterday. It is something that was used to build the very foundations of this banana republic we call Kenya. It is the reason why people who knew what was happening had to be killed. Pio Gama Pinto (a prominent fundraiser who helped raised the cash for Johnstone Kamau’s defence at the famous Kapenguria trial) was confronted by his excellency Bwana Kamau one day in the precincts of parliament and asked why he was causing trouble. He pointed to Kamau’s land grabbing ways. The next day he stopped two bullets from an assassin as he was reversing out of his driveway to take his young daughter to school. Tom Mboya complained in a book he wrote that he had changed his mind about having a powerful leader as the uniting force of the nation. Anybody reading between the lines knew exactly what he was talking about. That powerful leader had greatly enriched himself at the expense of the people. People like Mboya were there right from the beginning and knew everything about this god who was the president of Kenya and that is why it was just a matter of time before he would have had to be sent to meet his maker much earlier than his time. And that is exactly what happened on the streets of Nairobi on that fateful day of July 5th 1969.
As we prepare to vote in Uhuru Kenyatta as the next president of Kenya to continue with the Kenyatta legacy we are all so proud of let us remember…
…Let us remember the sins of our fathers as well as their genuine mistakes made out of ignorance and lack of wisdom. We loved our fathers with their flaws but we must always remember that only a fool fails to learn from history.
Happy Madaraka day Kumekuchans!!!
P.S. There has been a concerted campaign by some of my friends to bring to the attention of Kenyans the achievements of this humble blog. For instance I have been told to make sure that Kenyans know that it was in this blog that the term Wenye-nchi was first used. It is now at the centre of a campaign in the media. My response is simple and direct. I did not start Kumekucha to become famous. I started it to fight for a better Kenya. I am not interested in the glory or in being recognized and that is one of the reasons for me remaining anonymous (although the main one is my personal security). My great fear is that when people start wallowing in some small victories they take their eyes from the ball and lose focus on their objectives. It is my sincere prayer that whatever side-shows come up on this journey that I have chosen, I will never lose sight of the vision that drove me to launch this blog in May 2005.
Get free samples of my past raw notes at
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Chris,
ReplyDeleteHappy Madaraka day. But wait a minute una madaraka kweli? Well, at leas you are not paying for Kenyan oxygen yet.
Now to your post, WHY THE JEALOUSY? Please get rich or die trying. And stop spreading the gospel according to FOOLS, will you?
Leave Jomo Junior alone. Who do you think you are to question him. Wait till he starts banging tables asking for your head.
If you HATE UK pleas ejoin Maina Njenga. You are so ungrateful you dare disturb the bronze stature of founding father.
Yes, he founded TRIBALISM and corruption but move on since you don't have the right DNA. UTADO?
Chris,
ReplyDeleteHappy Madaraka day,but how dare you SNUB wanaNICHI in favor of wenyeINCHI? hio ni Upumbavu
Where is Mzalendo Kibunja when you need him? BRAZEN Taabu's E-IMPUDENCE for the founding father's bronze Statue is tantamount to ANTI-NATIONAL INTEGRATION&COHESION SPEECH arrest him at once won't you?
PS:-can you please CONFIRM or DENY that the statue of Wanjiku unveiled by CJ Mutunga yesterday has BLING (ear-ring)?
just curious bro.....
We have always been told if not consistantly reminded that location, location, location, location is of paramount importance when establishing what is hoped to be an economically viable business enterprise.
ReplyDeleteHowever, given that a picture - Kenyatta and his entourage - is worth a thousand words, most of our dead politicians as well as the old political guard who are still heavily involved in their usual business of meddling with Kenya's political affairs as well as propagating ugly seeds of ethnic discord in 2012 (heading into 2013), should have been reminded during the early-mid 1960s that laying a strong foundation - yeah, foundation, foundation, foundation, foundation - was very essential for the steady growth and development of a young nation such as Kenya and for the unity of all fourty-nations (42) of people therein.
But it seems obvious that most of the first generation of politicians missed the urgent if not prophetic memo that had urged them all to start establishing very strong foundations once a multitude of people who had thronged to Uhuru Park to celebrate the birth of a new nation - Kenya - had dispersed.
Chris, while we may disagree over ideas, there are those of us who would like to know what commemorative aspect of 'Madaraka Day' did you have in mind?
In a basic sense, there is very little to celebrate or be thankful for at this moment or point in time of our soon to be fifty year old nation that was christened Republic Kenya some decades ago.
And don't you dare ask wenyeKenya how much of their double or triple matunda ya uhuru have they botherd to share in a constructive manner with the rest of the population in the name of 'nation building', but just go out into the streets and mashinani (or "mashini ya nani" as some would say) and ask wanaKenya what is there to be celebrated after all these years of orduous and toilsome existence under the Kenya skies with nothing to show for in their respective regions?
And what has the nation and its people - 42 nations and counting - gained from successive governments, ongoing trademarked political tribalism, factionalism, regionalism, corruption, impunity and the so-called democratic facade of holding general election?
Lest we forget the eagerly awaited facade of a general election which will end up costing the nation a hefty Ksh $41 billion if the IEBC is allowed to have its way - to the feeding trough put in place by the Lords of impunity - for all the wrong reasons?
Oh, how Kenyans wish that the nationalism, optimism, enthusiasim, hopefullness, courage, what passed for patriotism at the time and as seen in the picture in question had translated into a reality in the following decades.
ReplyDeleteChris, thanks for the picture from an era when Kenya was literally Kenyatta's playground and all the politicians were comfortably linned up in his left-hand pocket, while the rest of the population were left hanging on the backbunner or left to fend for themselves as was the case under colonial adminstration.
ReplyDeleteHow comes you have provided Kumekucha with a historic picture but without caption to fit the image?
So, who is who is in the picture, where was it taken, when was it taken and what was the special occasion?
kenya is owned by zanzibar,somalia,uganda,tanzania and sudan the british just stitched parts from these territories during the scramble for africa so yes kenya was borrowed and the real owners have started to claim it.
ReplyDeleteIs Madaraka Day an ceremonial occasion worth remembering at a time when the more things have changed the more they remained the same for many people in Kenya?
ReplyDelete'Time will tell' sounds so cliche, but what many political contenders for the state house have failed to grasp is the fact that there was a time when presidential aspirations were never realised as expected for the guy with a confident smile, hand in pocket, standing on Kenyatta's left, and the other guy with a distance look in his eyes and in a pensive mood while positioned behind Kenyatta's back as if he was a designated aid-de-camp in civilian clothes.
As it turned out the much anticipated political windfall never came knocking at their door steps as they had hoped for during their hay day.
One of the guys had his dreams cut short in 1969, while the other had of all his hopes for the peresidency drastically reduced to ashes nine years later.
The rest is forgotten history that keeps repeating itself in various forms reancted by the usual cast of know-it-all political characters during different times but under the same old style of leadership.
Time will tell whether the more things change the more they will remain the same or radically change for the better in the next decade - 2013-2022.
@10:29 PM
ReplyDeleteWas there ever such geopolitical entities known as Zanzibar, Somalia, Uganda, Tanzania and Sudan? Please educate the Kumukucha for a change, it will be very refreshing to learn more from your perspective. And who are the indigenous people trying to relcaim their native homeland or rather ancestral land and natural resources?
mmmmmmm, when men personalize their public problems it will always lead to catastrophic failure like your the new constitution.
ReplyDeleteAs an example, when you study the collapse of states like Rome,men even today, continue to blame Caesar.
However, the truth is this. Even if there were no Caesar, Rome, would still have fallen. Other men would have played his role.
So, screw all this personalisation of public problems.
The failure of Kenyatta and his successors, has all to do with IVY LEAGUE of FOOLS BRAINWASHING system, a. k. a. BABY SITTING OPERATIONS.
As such then, should you desire any meaningful change, it must start there. How so?
If you are well versed with the meaning of politics, you should know that, the SOLE OBJECTIVE of politics is the PROTECTION OF:
(a) property/estate/wealth, and
(b) human life.
Now, if you are well versed with the definition of the SCIENCE that is supposed to study wealth/property/estate, i.e. economics, it defines itself as:
- the SCIENCE of:
(a) production,
(b) exchange, and
(c) distribution of WEALTH/PROPERTY/ESTATE.
Therein, you will realize this VITAL and BITTER TRUTH.
Land/soil/lakes/rivers/oceans is not PRODUCED by man. As such, it falls OUTSIDE of the meaning of property/wealth.
Now, go and check the ACCOUNT BOOKS of any person, corporation etc, and you will see that, land is counted as capital.
Land can never be capital and can never be wealth. It is an ILLUSION to think so.
However, when the IVY LEAGUE of FOOLS teach men like Kibaki to perceive land as capital, they CORRUPT the human mind and their can NEVER be ANOTHER REMEDY, apart from rectifying this fallacy. Any "solution" on top of this fallacy, can only lead to more social economic chaos.
As such, the problem is not political. It is intellectual.
We are aware of the charge that these kind of things are too difficult to understand.
Well, what you think is difficult to understand is what matters. As such, if you think you have a choice of what you want to understand, you are living in that famous world of FANTASY.
Anyway, we are off to study the Babylon System which makes SHEEPLE think land is wealth by hiding it in the skirts of capital while we enjoy:
You can't blame the youth after you have CORRUPTED their minds:
http://is.gd/7Ew0SB
Great read Chris, keep up the good work. I wish you could investigate why Uhuru has become very popular- Muthamaki (king) literally- in Gemaland over the last few years. Kenyans, including GEMA rejected Uhuru in 2002 and would have rejected him again in 2013 was it not for one thing which is....??? If you dig deeper like I did on WHY Uhuru will garner 99 percent of Gema votes, the answers will blow your socks off like it happened to me. My findings are too sensitive to be published here by a weakling like me, so it would take someone with guts like Chris to to that. All I can say is fr now is......... WOW!!!
ReplyDelete.....when men personalize their public problems it will always lead to catastrophic failure like your the new constitution.....
ReplyDeleteSo what have you done as a person to better your life and those of Mbeere using your BRILLIANT IDEAS. Or you are yapping hoping that your e-verbiage will be trolled by future generation.
You tend to have the mistaken belief that HISTORY (never put in perspective) solves all problems. And all are stupid except youself.
WELL THAT IS THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO FOOLS. Educate yourself first.
M.Pesa,
ReplyDeleteWhat is so shocking or rather too sensitive to be published in present day Kenya?
Why not publish a tell all book about your new found shocking discovery that may help turn the scales in favour of real democracy and the tide against the same old ethnic groupings and political games by the elite and tribal chieftains that end up benefiting few characters from both sides of the political divide rather than the whole country?
Uhuru or no Uhuru, the lines had already been drawn and there is very little that is going to sway, influeence or change the minds of some voters on both sides of the electorate fence.
The ongoing political feuds will have to be democraitically resolved in one way or another by the camp(s) that will hold the majority after the general election unlike the manner in which things out ugly - in '07-'08 - during one of our darkest moment ever recorded in Kenya's short history.
The saddest thing that ever happened to Kenya is that we distorted and rewrote our history to make a few people look good.
ReplyDeleteWhen in reality the so called heroes and a fair percentage of heroines were considered traitorous, turncoats, corrupt, committed to the imperial system, socially despised, disliked and shunned by most of their peers.
Further, their whole lifetime activities did nothing more than benefit the colonial reminants, a generation of Kenya's elite, local and foreign corporations, unjust status guo and abject poverty.
While the focus is always on those who never deserved to be celebrated as heroes and heroines, we never pause for a second and ask ourselves what about their grandchildren, children, siblings, close relatives, bossom friends and associates who are still in our midst yet have benefited enormously from the successive political empires?
And worst of all the afore mentioned are still revered, adored, idolized and loved by those from the upper, middle and lowest strata of society.
Where and how does one begin to undone the damage that has already been inflicted upon the collective psyche of several generations of Kenyans?
Or should we continue to embrace the solgan - tubaki hivyo, hivyo ili kazi endelea kama kawaida.
Johnstone Kamau just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and that's why Kenya got cheated big time by having a wrong leader imposed on them at a very critical time in the nation's history.
ReplyDeleteKenyatta's legacy is nothing more than that of arrogance, political oppression, the entrenchment of myopic tribalism, corruption, nation wide underdevelopment, land grabbing, political killings, and the country being left at the mercy of his kitchen kabinet while he took his extended afternoon siestas.
The so-called national leader, founder of the nation (as if land that comprises Kenya as it stands today had been lost or not yet discovered) or rather father of the nation was known to wake up at between 9:30 and 10:00 AM from Monday to Friday.
Then his handlers would take him out to some well crafted fundraising function or official opening day of some urban or rural government/harambee project here or there.
And very often selected guests would be invited to the state house or wherever he was so that the presidential press would take well staged photographs for the next day's front page news in the local media - under the banner hard working president or look busy our beloved leader is at all times.
Elaborate luncheons would follow after the photo opportunity sessions coupled with extended afternoon siestas until he was woken up for the 4:15 o'clock tea laid in the gardens or in side depending on the weather conditions.
While the rest of his early evenings were spent on lavish dinners and then followed by traditional/culutural entertainment by groups from various parts of the country until mid-night.
He may have had good oratory skills, brutal with his opponents at times (as most dictators at time), but good governance and the gift of sensing the mood of the nation as well as reading the poker faces of the tribal and political sychophants that kept him company 24/7 was not his forte at all.
In essence, he had abdicted his duties and left the country to be basically run by his henchmen (the kitchen mafia) and other self-serving governemnt officials who had been stratedically placed in high places, all fo whom did not have Kenya's and the people's best interests at heart, other than indulged themselves in corruption, grabbing and looting exercises of mega proportions.
These lands Jomo stole..do you have their locations, plot numbers etc?
ReplyDeleteAnon 6/5 4AM
ReplyDeleteYes,
the land lies to the east of Uganda, south of Ethiopia and Sudan, north of Tanzania, West of Somalia
Plot number LR: The Republic of Kenya
Jomo not just stole land that belonged to Kenyans but with it dashed hopes and dreams of a better government by the locals and for the locals.
Today 50 years after independence we are still reeling from the effects of Kenyatta's mis-rule, continued by Moi and perfected by Kibaki