Kenya — Another Front Line of Resistance

From what I gather, the political violence roiling Kenya is not nearly as brow-furrowingly unfathomable as our fake news outlets would have you believe: a presidential election between a populist reformer named Raila Odinga [pictured], and a corporate-backed incumbent named Mwai Kibaki, has been stolen. Unlike in the US, a lot of citizens in Kenya are not okay with this. So Kibaki's corrupt regime is holding onto power through repressive state violence, presumably to the satisfaction of the multinational conglomorates with whom he has been wheeling and dealing and putting down carefully laid plans involving his country's resources and markets.

The progressive challenger, Raila Odinga, is the son of famed revolutionary leader Ogingo Odinga and has successfully galvanized a multi-ethnic coalition of the poor, the marginalized, and the dispossessed, who are desperate for progressive change and who turned out to vote in impressive numbers. So Kibaki simply rigged the election in plain view and is enforcing the crooked result with a campaign of violence and intimidation against Odinga's supporters. I don't think this is simply fueled by some mysterious ancient tribal rivalry between the Kikuyu and the Luo, or any of the other regional ethnic identities (though the British did do their best to foster inter-ethnic hatred during colonization, and of course this continues to play a role); I think this is about corporatist globalization and the staggering inequality, displacement, and deprivation it so often produces.

So why is this narrative more or less absent from popular discussion of the crisis in Kenya? Why instead do most Western journalists resort to stammering asinine questions such as, "Could this turn into another Rwanda?" Part of it might be sheer intellectual laziness; but I think the more fundamental ideological picture comes from following the money. Remember, Kenya has a $45 billion (USD) economy. The European Union recently cemented a trade deal with the Kibaki administration which paves the way for further prying open Kenyan markets, amid strong criticism from anti-poverty campaigners, local farm advocates, and environmental activists. Indeed, the majority of farm land in Kenya is still owned by white colonialists; and like so many places in the Third World, foreign agribusiness is destroying indigenous agriculture in favor of globalized corporate cash crops. Moreover, just last month France Telecom acquired a 51% stake in Telkom Kenya for $390 million (their first management move will be to lay off 4,000 employees, over half of the workforce). Basically, there's serious money involved and the Odinga-led movement threatens to mess up certain hustles for certain people. Which people? The same captains of corporatism who own the mass media and who really don't want people talking about their predatory business practices and corrupt neo-colonial schemes. I'm pretty sure they would frown upon this subject.

I'm glad that Kofi Annan has the diplomatic chops to get Kibaki and Odinga to sit down in the same room and start talking about how to stop the violence. I hope it helps. But it seems to me that the forces at play in this conflict are much larger than either of these two men. Kenya has burst onto the world stage as yet another dangerous and fiery front line in the struggle to resist the crushing tides of corporatist subjugation and exploitation. There are good guys and bad guys in this fight; it's good to keep an eye on which is which.

Comments

[ansel]

Your take on the situation is probably much closer to the truth than the nonsense spewing out of the corporate media, but it also might not be that simple. Reading your post reminded me of this interview on Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/18/kenyan_opposition_to_end_demonstrations_launch

AMY GOODMAN: Maina Kiai in Nairobi, we’re also joined by Mukoma wa Ngugi, a Kenyan writer in Cleveland, Ohio. He’s a commentator on BBC’s Focus on Africa magazine. Mukoma wa Ngugi, you are very critical of Raila Odinga and the Orange Democratic Movement.

MUKOMA WA NGUGI: Yeah, I think—well, first I should say that, you know, most of the things I’ve been critical of ODM can also apply to PNU.

What I’m trying to argue and I’ve been arguing in my writing is that we need—first we need to name things, we need to call things what they are. We need to realize that the nature of African politics for the last fifty years has been changing. So we find that people automatically assume that because somebody’s in the opposition it means they’re good guys, because traditionally that has been the role of the opposition. Now we’re in a situation where the government in power in most African countries is neoliberal, and the opposition party is equally neoliberal. This is to say that both parties in power, or once the opposition gets into power, we shouldn’t expect a people power, a revolution, if you will, or progressive politics. So, essentially, that’s my first criticism of the way we’re approaching African politics. Certainly, things have changed. You know, we can no longer assume the opposition automatically means they’re good guys.

JUAN GONZALEZ: You also make the point in some of your articles that Odinga is actually a multimillionaire and with a company, a family-owned company with ties to multinationals, as well. Could you talk about that?

MUKOMA WA NGUGI: Yeah, certainly. OK, what we have seen in Kenya is two elites, you know, two elite leaders. We have Mwai Kibaki, a very wealthy Kenyan, and then we have Raila on the other side, a very wealthy Kenyan, using ethnicity on both sides to mystify, to mystify their servicing of international capital, if you will. So we end up in a situation where you have a large majority of poor Luos and a large majority of poor Kikuyus fighting each other, but not realizing that indeed they are proxies to maintain these two leaders in power.

So, yes, Raila cannot put himself as a people power president. And I think that’s something that we are seeing in the whole of the opposition. I mean, certainly, the opposition has a spectrum of people—you have very progressive individuals—but at the same time you have very, very retrogressive individuals. So I think we need to have a nuanced, a nuanced approach in dealing or in analyzing ODM or PNU politics.

[Kai]

ansel, thank you for the Democracy Now excerpt and comment, and of course I utterly defer to Mukoma Wa Ngugi on a more nuanced view of the socio-political dynamics, which are important to keep in mind, in addition to the broad strokes I was trying to lay down here. I certainly oversimplified and glossed over some nuance for the sake of brevity. I've read/heard quite a bit of principled progressive critique of Raila Odinga, his tactics and strategy, his background and ethics. I will continue to deepen my own view and include such perspectives in what I have to say. Certainly ODN can't escape scrutiny, including the key criticism in your excerpt above that both Kibaki and Odinga mystify their service to international capital. But I wonder if ODN and PNU can be said to serve capitalism equally? Also, in this instance, PNU is the party in power, the party with the guns, and the party which has stolen an election, so I've gone for criticizing them far more heavily in this context.

I guess another thing I'm trying to avoid is a certain kind of helpless attitude so common in the West, "Oh all sides are rotten and goodness there's just nothing one can do about it!" because I think this turns into paralysis, and I'd rather get clear on a few graspable fundamentals before digging into the murky twists and turns and shades of gray. I certainly do agree that those details are important, though, and I'll continue to dig for a clearer picture of what's happening. I'll try to take sides without deifying anyone or glossing over anything. That'll be the goal, anyway. Thanks again for your comment.

[Joan Kelly]

Sometimes I don't have anything to add, like now, but then too much time passes where I haven't said "Kai! Love this place!"

Consider this a drive-by of love.

[Kai]

Thanks, Joan, drive-by taken, with return fire. ;-)