RANDOM THOUGHTS Wahome Thuku, an honest fellow I must, but just another kenyan struggling to understand it all, moments ago posted something I want to repost here. TRUTH: Every Mount Kenya man/woman who was alive and kicking in December 2007 has a soft spot for Mungiki very far deep inside their hearts. Each one of them, whether a Bishop, a priest or a politician. They may deny it a thousand or a million times in public but when they are in the privacy of their homes and groupings they openly appreciate that were it not for Mungiki intervention, their communities would probably have been wiped out. I say this because we all condemn Mungiki in public, which is a criminal gang by the way. Its no secret that Mungiki massacred people in retaliation (yes retaliation) because they never started the fighting. Now whether Uhuru Kenyatta financed it as accused, will be determined by the ICC, not Wahome Thuku. Unlike Thuku, I do not wish to venture into whether the ICC will determine if Uhuru financed the Mungiki in 2007 or not. There are people who know he did but believe he did not. There are other people. I also wish to reject a lie. It is a lie so repeated that it has gained some truth in it. I reject as fallacious, and revisionist, all attempts to christen the Mungiki as an organization which only acted in retaliation during the 2007/08 post-election settlement. Take Naivasha, for instance. Did the foreign communities in the area deserve Mungiki? They were the minority. Their numbers couldnt have allowed them to fight even the civilian population there, leave alone an organised murderous gang. What, then, does retaliation mean? The post election violence, as reified in Thukus sense of retaliation, mean that for every Kikuyu death or property destroyed anywhere, there would be a Luo/Kalenjin/Luhya death anywhere. Lets assume the latter communities didnt have properties to be destroyed. If the offence was happening in Kisumu/Eldoret/Busia etc. a counter-offence would be in Tigoni/Limuru/Naivasha/Nakuru etc. Thats retaliation. But it is the covert [hidden] acceptance by the Kikuyu community of the vital role, and significance, of the Mungiki, as the last vanguard to their existence,mortally and economically, then and NOW, that should worry all. Whether by design or pre-determined, there have been swathes of the opposition ODM which always found it heart-wrenching whenever Maina Njenga, the Mungiki leader, was seen to be partaking of the opposition agenda. If pre-determined, then God save your people! While serving as a student leader in Moi University in 2012/13 academic year, I remember one day the Dean of Students [a kikuyu, just so know] asking me about the Maina Njenga- Raila Odinga dalliance. According to Dean Mureithi, he couldnt understand how the Mungiki, the 2007/08 killer gang which was being accused of killing, raping, maiming, hacking and burning of opposition/Raila/ODM supporters could so easily find sanctuary at the high table of ODM/Opposition politics. Did it happen by design? Was it pre-determined? Who-was-fooling-who? Who-was-being-fooled? Methink ODM/Raila Odinga was being fooled! Dean Mureithi told me that the Mungiki leadership, no matter how much it darlings the opposition, will never deliver the votes of its members, most of whom are Kikuyu youths, to Raila Odinga - the person - and, to ODM - the party - or whatever alliance it will form. He told me, and he was right, that somehow, to survive, and, help Uhuru, the Mungiki will stay in ODM, or close to ODM, till it is apparent that the mission is achieved. Having the hindsight of an old cog in the murky politics of this country, for this same dean admitted Kithure Kindiki in Moi as a Freshman and saw him become a professor, or Hassan Omar, and saw him get expelled in the 1990s and readmitted after Kanu and Moi left, and watched as Hassan ended in Kindikis class, despite the fact that the two were freshmen in the same year - in short, if you want to understand the politics of this country - be it university politics and, or national politics, dean Mureithi is the master. And, being a kikuyu, he also had the rare insight into the thinking of Mumbis lowly ragamuffins, or her best children - the high society morticians. Pun, intended. At a convenient time, he told me, no matter how long they pretend to love the opposition, and Raila, the Mungiki will return home to roost. He was telling me all these, as a young student leader, may be, to find a way of delivering the information to Raila Odinga, or to someone who would deliver the information to Raila Odinga, or just to witness history repeat itself; and, be glad, or sad, or prepared. That was 2012. Of course I tried to tell Raila Odinga. But 2012 was also the height of arrogance by those who surrounded Raila Odinga and the fiefs at Orange House. A little older now, I have learned to accept and move on. So it is true. It was true. It will remain to be true, that every Mt. Kenya man/woman who was alive and kicking in December 2007 has a soft spot for Mungiki very far deep inside their hearts. Each one of them, whether a Bishop, a priest or a politician. They may deny it a thousand or a million times in public but when they are in the privacy of their homes and groupings they openly appreciate that were it not for Mungiki intervention, their communities would probably have been wiped out. Put the other way, every Mt. Kenya man or woman wants the Mungiki to remain alive, to watch out, just in case another electoral shit repeats. . . From where I recollect these events, nothing convinces me that shit wont repeat itself. You see, the Mt. Kenya thinking which led to the 2007 post-election settlement scarily resembles TNA. Back then it was PNU. Look at it now. It already got a powerful, no nonsense, hard-working, iron lady. Weve seen her before. She used to be called Martha Karua! When she roared, with eyes peppered with power and authority, the whole political world stood still. There was no law, no precedent, no MoU, that couldnt be broken. Whether it was a 1997 IPPG agreement on the composition of the ECK, or the events at KICC that fateful December as narrated in Peeling Back the Mask by Miguna Miguna, Karua stood out as a staunch establishment mama. In her motherly hands PNU humanised the worst inhumanities that could ever happen to the body politic. At the peak of the violence, with our people arriving in droves, bundled in lorries, some carrying body parts that remained of their loved ones, I remember dedicating a poem, Refugee Blues, by W. H Auden, for her: Say this city has ten million souls, Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes: Yet theres no place for us, my dear, yet theres no place for us. Once we had a country and we thought it fair, Look in the atlas and youll find it there: We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now Be that as it may, the only thing not constant is change. So Karua exited. Then she returned, calling herself Anne Waiguru. She is a little prettier, politically, but her power, influence and authority is the same, even heavier. What are we witnessing now? Another round of the mercilessness of the fakes of Mt. Kenya. At the university, borrowed from the black-market, you can call it washment. Someone is being washed, or white-washed. They love it when they are washing you. Sadly, they never rinse you. Should you demand to be rinsed. . .should you. . .should you...even when the sun is hotter...that will be a tragedy. But, assuredly, I say unto, if these things continue as they are, theres gonna be demands....and tragedies...and the MUNGIKI! #Randomthoughts
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 16:06:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015