MIGUNA MIGUNA's thoughts when he was with RAILA.....What about NOW?

The Kenyan DAILY POSTEditor's Choice04:17

No one should be permitted to quibble or equivocate about the status of Luos in Kenya. Luos, just like any other Kenyan community has the right to exist, to belong to any political groupings of their choice, to state their opinions publicly and fearlessly, and yes, even to openly peacefully demonstrate or protest against the government of the day. They have the right to do this without constantly being brutalized and murdered by a government that they are paying to protect them.

Luos owe nobody any apology for their existence or for holding any particular opinion. Not Kibaki. Not Lucy. Not Kombo. And certainly not the likes of Githae, Kiraitu, Kimunya, Karume, Karua or Nyachae.

This should be self-evident and fairly simple in a society where there is respect for life and the rule of law. Apparently not so in Kenya.

The Kenyatta and Moi governments repeatedly brutalized, dehumanized and oppressed members of the Luo community; mostly for simply demanding their rights to state a different political opinion; to organize and assemble; and even to want to participate in electoral politics.

Despite being one of the key architects of the independence struggle that culminated into the election of Jomo Kenyatta as the first president of Kenya, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was always treated with suspicion and resentment by the Kiambu, then GEMA mafia, that surrounded, then suffocated the Kenyatta regime, excluding the most popular members of the Luo community from the corridors of power.

Thus, when Jaramogi disagreed with Kenyatta on ideology, political direction and policies, he was firstly hounded out of office and the government he had helped bring to power, then detained without trial. Jaramogi’s subsequent attempts to exercise his constitutional rights were suppressed and extinguished, first by Kenyatta, and later by Moi.

When TJ Mboya, another Luo political giant, was perceived by the Kenyatta regime as too ambitious, brilliant and a potential competitor for State House, his life was cut short by an assassin’s bullets. They did not even wait to see whether or not their suspicions were right or wrong before killing him. And as usual, Kenyans have not been told about why he had to die.

The same fate befell the first Kenyan African Barrister and president Kenyatta’s own former lawyer during his Kapenguria trials, CMG Argwings Kodhek. His heroic service to the nation was neither remembered nor rewarded.

Later, the articulate and illustrious Dr. Robert Ouko met the same fate. We are still waiting for the results of the Parliamentary Inquiry into the circumstances leading to his death. His killers are still free and boastful.

Then came this Kibaki regime. Kenyans, including Luos, had great hopes and expectations this time.

Although Luos still remembered Kenyatta’s betrayal of Odinga, Mboya, Kodhek and the brutal thwarting of their collective post-independence dreams, they prayed and hoped that Kibaki would treat them differently. The entire community seemed to believe that Kibaki had seen their suffering, poverty, oppression, brutalization and complete desolation by successive post-independence regimes, and that he was human enough not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Like South Africans, Luos thought that by exercising the spirit of forgiveness, that indomitable ubuntu, all would be overcome.

Once more, a formidable political operator and a courageous Kenyan; one well known for his bold exploits and strategic vision, another Luo, almost single-handedly bestowed power on another Kikuyu. Hate him or love him, it was Raila Amolo Odinga, who was instrumental in the NARC victory in December 2002. It was definitely not Simon Nyachae, Njenga Karume, Musikari Kombo, Lucy Kibaki, Kiraitu Murungi, John Michuki or Amos Kimunya.

As full grown adults, these later-day political opportunists could have made significant contributions. After all, they are all circumcised. But they did not.

Those who have accused him of perennial party hoping forget that more than any other current political operator in Kenya, Raila has struggled for the opening of the democratic space in Kenya, served nine years in political detention, managed to demolish KANU, made Kibaki president and is still committed to claiming the gains already made while creating more fundamental democratic spaces for the future.

This government had barely been in power for one year when another Luo luminary, Dr. Crispin Odhiambo Mbai, was assassinated. And just like with the other political murders, no one has been arrested, charged or convicted of this crime.

Of all the case cited above, the one striking similarity among them is that the innocent victims of this systemic violence have been both prominent and ordinary Luos who have been perceived as threatening to the establishment. Like ants, their lives were deemed disposable by those in power.

Jaramogi’s attempts to form the Kenya People’s Union (KPU) and the Kenya Socialist Congress (KSC) were frustrated, first by Kenyatta and then later by Moi. These democratic attempts were completely smashed by the powers that be, because, again, as a Luo, there was a strong belief that Jaramogi should not be allowed to ascend to the pinnacle of power in Kenya.

When Jaramogi eventually managed to organize a successful campaign against one party dictatorship, culminating in the repeal of Section 2A, the formation of the FORD in his political twilight, he was undermined, frustrated and sabotaged by the likes of Kenneth Matiba, Mwai Kibaki, Simon Nyachae and Njenga Karume. Again, a Luo was never allowed to assume the most prestigious office in the land.

It was mainly Luos that bore the brunt of the repressive instruments of power – the GSU and police truncheons, bayonets, bullets and torture chambers. Luos have been physically and economically suffocated under successive post-independence Kenyan regimes.

I have been particularly offended by some published statements attributed to some of president Kibaki’s henchmen in the recent past. Because we have neither heard the president chastise those who uttered these statements nor distance himself from them, we are left wondering whether the silence suggests a deliberate government policy or whether our president condones these kinds of dangerous hate propaganda directed at an entire Kenyan community by some of his closest confidantes.

Press reports have recently quoted the Assistant Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Robinson Githae, as saying, while addressing a Banana rally in Central Province, that “Luos are like red ants that are not worth talking about or associating with.”

Mr. Githae is a serving member of this government. By calling Luos red ants, Mr. Githae clearly showed that he does not value Luos as human beings. His statement demonstrates that he does not believe that Luos, as a people, have the same legal, moral or constitutional entitlements like himself. He was thus implying that Luos are easily disposable like ants. He imputed that Luos, like ants, have no feelings, rights, privileges or claims that the Kibaki government respects or wishes to honour. Mr. Githae does not believe that Luos are equal to other Kenyans. Thus, he wishes to justify the historical government orchestrated brutalities against the Luos and the persistent government policy of undermining economic and infrastructural development in Luo Nyanza as not just the right thing to do, but the inevitable thing, since ants are not human.

No one in the Kibaki government has had the common sense to condemn this hate propaganda. Githae has neither been publicly admonished nor suspended.

Githae’s statement was eerily followed by Radio Citizen’s replay of the most unfortunate statements uttered by the late president, Jomo Kenyatta, when opening the Russian funded New Nyanza General Hospital in Kisumu in 1969. In that audio recording, which Radio Citizen played for its Central Province audience repeatedly, president Kenyatta is heard calling the Luo “Odinga’s dirty people.”

I was therefore baffled today to read a report about the president’s wife, Lucy Kibaki, saying that “Raila is like his father who gave Kenyatta a hard time until he was detained as a punishment” [sic]. She then publicly accused Raila of funding the “violence in Kisumu;” “ferrying youths from Nairobi to cause chaos in Kisumu;” and for being “an enemy of Kibaki’s government.”

Apart from that lame jab at a dead Kenyan hero, Lucy Kibaki made very serious allegations against Raila that the Kenyan police should promptly investigate, and if found to be credible, then charges should be laid. However, should these statements be found to have been made mischievously in order to score political points, then we should demand that the president’s wife be charged accordingly and tried. This time, we hope that the high and the mighty will not enter a nolle prosequi, like they did the last time Lucy openly broke the law.

These are the kinds of talk that can lead to genocide. They cannot and should never be tolerated.

Section 5(2) (a) to (c) of the current Kenyan Constitution allow any Kenyan who has reached the age of 35 and is registered in some constituency as a voter in elections to the National Assembly to stand for and be elected president of the Republic of Kenya. Raila is a Kenyan citizen who has attained the age of 35. He has a right to think, dream and imagine that he can be the president of Kenya. He also has the right to organize and popularize himself in readiness for such a contest.

The nonsensical talk emanating from some mighty corridors of power that a Luo cannot be elected the president of Kenya is simply balderdash. Luos are tax paying citizens of this country. They are entitled to all rights and privileges accorded Kenyan citizens. Luos are not second class citizens. Luos are here to stay.

Miguna Miguna