Revolution and revolutionaries

Yesterday I heard a commentary on the BBC on genocide and today I read with interest Mukoma's intervention. It is good that the discussion on revolution and revolutionaries has begun. (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/45291) There can be no revolution without revolutionary theories and it was good that Mukoma went back to Cabral.

But we must remember that Cabral told us that when the revolution breaks out it would be like a seed that has long awaited germination. Kenya has a long tradition of progressive organizing and revolutionaries from the period of Dedan Kimathi. Revolution may break out in Kenya but revolutionary intellectuals must be sure that they are on the side of the people who want change.

While this discussion on revolution is taking place, we must seek ways to stop the theft and manipulation by those in power. My biggest worry is the role of the US. If we remember that after the Ethiopian fraud in 2005, the US and specifically, Jendayi Frazier worked to rehabilitate Meles and supported their incursion into Somalia. All of the evidence of the alliance between the US and the present Kibaki regime should alert us to the ways in which Kenya is being used as a based to subvert peace and transition in all parts of Eastern Africa. Jendayi and the US representatives on the ground are up to no good. I can agree with Mukoma on the call for fresh elections between Kibaki and Raila.

WE must exhaust constitutional, legal and political means to ensure that war of the kind that broke out in the Ivory Coast does not break out in Kenya. This is not far from the surface and while we are critiquing Raila and the ODM, we have to be aware that there are forces at work bigger than Raila. Progressive and if need be revolutionary Pan Africanists cannot be on the side of the killers who are now in power. All lives of the poor are important.

The Rwanda genocidaire (living in Nairobi since 1994) is being protected by the present group in power. The "rebel" leader from Burundi who is subverting the peace process in Burundi is hiding in Kenya. Both the Tanzanian and South African governments has requested that the Kenyans hand over this killer, but to no avail. Both the US and the Kenyans are holding these forces (Rwandan and Burundi) in reserve for their long term plans. Kenya is also the rear base for the war that is being planned in the Sudan. This does not even bring us to the fabricated terrorist campaign against the people of Somalia. We cannot compare Raila to the Ukrainian movement and overlook these realities.

So, at this moment we have to be very careful about revolutionary language. WE do not want any kind of armed confrontation between the poor in Kenya. All forms of non-violent political struggles must be exhausted. This means that we have to be responsible. We cannot point to Raila's potential alliance with imperialism while overlooking the current clear alliance between the Kibaki regime and the US military. Look at the base that was recently built in Wajir for use by the US military.

Mukoma has rightly pointed to the fact that the police have killed over 500 innocent young people. Brother Mukoma should rightly identify these persons as Mungiki. This was a terror group that was being held in reserve. It is the kind of militia that was organized to terrorize poor men and women. And to give them the necessary, resources, they placed them into the pyramid schemes of the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The past Ministry of Internal Affairs and the thugs who mobilized Mungiki killed members of Mungiki that they could not control. Hence, there should be a call for an investigation into the police killings of these 500 young men. This is to ensure that those who want to turn on and off these young people for their purposes will be exposed before the poor Kikuyu workers, trades and youth. This is especially the case for poor Kikuyu women.

These terrorists would terrorize poor women about cultural practices yet not say a word of the imperialist culture of the settlers in the Rift Valley. All sections of the Kenyan ruling class are against the rise of the political consciousness of the workers, poor peasants and itinerant traders. The rise in consciousness will be a potent force for the revolution. Revolution needs revolutionaries. If we are looking toward the future organization of the poor in Kenya toward revolution, then we must identify those in power at the moment as the enemy of the poor. One cannot criticize Raila as a capitalist owning the molasses company and overlook those who currently dominate the Nairobi Stock Exchange. This criticism of Raila without a concomitant criticism of Trancentury and those behind Vision 2030 will not go over well for those who are thinking of revolution. For the moment, there are no revolutionary leaders in the mainstream political parties. But while those of us who are organizing for the break are engaged with this recent spontaneous combustion, ponder the nature of our involvement, let us target the primary contradictions (Kibaki, the leaders of the Nairobi Stock Exchange and US imperialism.

We can place this group on the defensive by calling for the enactment of the UN Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative. Bring back Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing to the front pages by implicating the British government as collaborators. This means that Moi and the allies of Kibaki in the Anglo Leasing scandal will be further exposed. And in the process, any future government will know that they cannot steal with impunity. I found it odd that the criticism of Mukoma were directed at Raila and not at the capitalist class in general.

Struggles over transparency and the use of the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament will in the short run act as a way to educate the poor in Kenya. Ethnic manipulation is running its course. It can only survive by the use of intellectuals to support one-sided analysis. Those of us who supported the struggles for liberation in the Congo in 1998 understand the long-term consequences of the talk of revolution without real revolutionaries. After more than 2 million dead in the Congo, as intellectuals we have not done a proper summing up of that debacle. Philippe Wamba died while thinking through ways to reach the youth for a new revolution. He went to the source to be with the youth. War and partisan analysis will not do at this time. Our platforms must be different from the imperial media outlets.

Peace.