KenyaTuitakayo: We declare our humanity and our dignity

#KenyaTuitakayo: We declare our humanity and our dignity

By Dr @WM Njoya

On this great occasion where we come to reaffirm the

people as the center of Kenya in this People's Charter, m​y

fear is that it is not specific enough. We live in a neoliberal

age where the language of progressives, language about rights

and pain with injustice, is hijacked by the oppressors from

the oppressed.

For instance, the president won the elections in 2013 by

saying he was a victim of imperialism, until even those

whose relatives were killed in the crimes for which he was

charged pitied him.

Sonko has got as far as he has got in politics by presenting

himself as a victim of unnamed powerful enemies. Ruto is

running on a ticket of being a hustler and the only main

contender who was not born into a rich family.

Every time we who fight for the people define a problem, the

politicians pick it up. Before the selections last year, we were

talking about social mobility and wanting a country where

nobody has to know someone to get a good education.

Within months, the president was talking of social mobility

and everyone was agreeing with him, despite the fact that

his very presidency contradicts social mobility.

So a charter that is very polite and is hesitant to identify

the people and classes by name and interest, is likely to be

adopted by the very people responsible for the mess Kenya

is in. Our politicians are like the ogres of our folktales, who

were handsome young men and very good dancers, but who

turned out to have mouths at the backs of their heads with

which they ate flies and who kidnapped girls to eat, before

the girls were rescued by warriors. So I'm here to call the

ogres by name.

We are ruled by a comprador elite whose job is to protect

and promote the interests of international capital. That is

why since independence, every Kenyan government's focus

has been on getting wazungus here to invest and relax. So

the roads, ports and infrastructure are for wazungu

investors, and the underdeveloped areas are for wazungu

tourists. In every sector, even health and education, the

government talks of foreign exchange.

For instance, 3 years ago, members of the Kenya Tourist

Board signed a health tourism MOU, and one of the directors

was quoted as saying that Kenya is looking to the health

sector to attract tourists, and has enough doctors for

export. Just this year, the PS in education for TVET said that

we are looking for enough train enough technicians to be able

to export to neighboring countries. When there was panic

about toxic sugar in the market, former minister Kimunya

reprimanded us for speaking publicly about it, because we

may discourage tourists from coming to Kenya.

Even when Melania Trump came to Kenya, her itinerary was

to visit orphaned elephants and orphaned animals, as if to

say that in Kenya, nobody grows to adulthood, and that's

why wazungus must protect us.

All this racist mess comes from a succession of economic

plans that treat Kenya as if it has no people. From Sessional

paper no 10 of 1965, to Vision 2030 to the Big 4 Agenda, these

plans put lofty goals above the people. Tribalism is written

into these plans as well, because these plans divide Kenya

into two. There are areas which are developed for wazungu

investors, and there are areas which are denied development

so that wazungu tourists can visit these areas to relax. We

must call for an end to this economic tribalism, not just the

one that politicians use to incite us. And that tribalism is

dependent on racism. If you look at the way the Laikipia

governor talks about the Maasai pastoralists, it's no different

from how European anthropologists talked about us.

Therefore, the first thing we must declare is that we

Kenyans, coming from a history of racist domination despite

independence, hereby declare that we are human beings and

deserve to live in dignity in this Kenya. The declaration must

be made that WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS. And we are in this

Kenya.

Having declared our dignity, we have a right to services that

affirm our dignity, that support us when we are most

vulnerable - either young, sick, challenged or old, and that

help us be the best we can be. We need social services in

addition to basic services, because the idea is that it takes a

village to raise a child. We want not just water and

infrastructure, but also healthcare, education, recreation,

culture, public libraries, museums and a vibrant cultural life,

because these are important for helping us to respect one

another, maintain our mental health, and take care of our

environment.

Even prisons are part of social services, when one thinks

that with the kind of lifestyle Muigai Kinyatta lives, he would

not have been president if he was not rich. He would have

either died or gone blind from adulterated alcohol, been shot

dead by police or livestock raiders, or have gone to jail. Like

him, everyone has the right to a second chance.

Land scarcity is not just about somewhere to live or dig. The

cramped up urban centers and rural villages, where youth

have no land for recreation or to work on, are partly to

blame for our poor mental health, alcoholism, the lynchings

of elders in the name of them being witches, or the murder

of family members because of frustration or land disputes.

Culture must feature as a strong component of the

charter.

Another reason why culture must be included is because we

need a way to mourn what has happened to us since 1895.

Every Kenyan is a walking trauma. We need culture to help

us decide how to apologize, mourn and heal, and how to

honor our heroes and sheroes.

In addition, we must respect the environment for more

than just using resources for our benefit, as the charter

says. We must respect mother nature because our African

traditions demand that we do. In the African sensibility, the

natural environment is part of us, that is why our animals

belong to the same ngeli ya a-wa. Kwetu, wanyama si vitu, ni

viumbe wenye uhai. We must stop looking at the

environment as capitalists do, as commodities to sell. We

must start respecting the environment, the rivers, the

mountains, the plants and the animals as if they too have

the right to be here. That is what our ancestors taught us.

The same applies to education. When we say that we want

an education that is "competitive in the global geo-political

and economic arena," we are still keeping our focus on

foreigners to tell us how to educate. We need a pan-African

education that teaches us about how our ancestors were

innovative, that makes Kiswahili a language of academic work,

science and law, and most of all, that affirms our dignity.

The violence in the education sector is a scandal that is

embarrassing. We are abusing our children mentally with high

stakes exams and prison-like schools, and even sexually and

physically.

We must talk about the rich. We must name the inequality

that is gripping Kenya, where 8,300 people own more than 99%

of Kenyans. The rich and the corporations they invite must

pay taxes commensurate with their wealth, as opposed to

know where the government relies on taxing the people at

the bottom, either through salaries or taxing goods rather

than company profits.

We also must talk about the oppressive feudal system of

land ownership. Title deeds are a tool of the devil. Their use

as documents to get credit from the bank are alienating our

young people who cannot get credit to be entrepreneurs.

Selling land also means that the rich get money from what

they did not create. We must talk about how a few become

rich on public wealth, and then capture the state and

manipulate elections in their favor.

We need fundamental land reform that abolishes the sale of

land as a commodity and that empowers the people in

deciding what land shall be used for. We must have an idea

of the commons, and of the public good.

The Kenya we want is a Kenya that cares for people. That is

cares for the sick, supports the challenged, educates the

public. We Kenyans have great ideas, and great skills. We

want to work and contribute to this economy, not be

sabotaged by sons of the rich whose only job is to inherit

their fathers' wealth and power. And the test of that Kenya

is that a child from Turkana or Kwale can tell the parents "

I want to be president of Kenya when I grow up," and we

won't think it's a joke or wonder who he has to sleep with

or what she has to steal for that to be a real possibility.

Amandla! Awethu!

* This is an edited version of remarks she made at the

launch of the People's Charter under the Kenya Tuitakayo

initiative on 11th October 2018.