Mau Mau Crucible of War by Githuku Nicholas K.;Maxon Robert M.;Lonsdale John;

Author:Githuku, Nicholas K.;Maxon, Robert M.;Lonsdale, John;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books

Figure 5.1 JM warned that the mess Kenya was in could result in the creation of a small elite island of wealth with the masses on a different island of poverty. This would necessitate the maintenance and entrenchment of political power by the ruling elite through the ruthless means of police and military suppression. Source: “Poverty,” by Gado, 21st September 2005.

JM’s scathing denunciations of high-level corruption struck a chord among people. Barred from speaking at any public meeting since 1970, JM put together thoughts that had been throbbing in his heart, and ideas distilled in his mind, for at least four years, into a seminal printed campaign “speech” tract distributed just before the October 1974 elections.186 In this document, JM made the compelling argument that every Kenyan was entitled to a decent and just living which is a birthright; and that s/he was entitled, as far as it was humanly possible, to equal education, job and health opportunities irrespective of parentage, race or creed or area of origin. This, JM added, was the primary task of the government machinery. After all, many Kenyans had fought for independence with sweat, blood and sacrificed their lives. To what end had they suffered, and was such suffering justified, JM posed.187 JM captured and spoke to the very heart of the nation when he added:

All of us big and small alike, some educated, many uneducated, few rich, many poor, few employed and many unemployed, few privileged and vast numbers without privilege joined hands together to expel colonialism because that system was unjust, discriminatory, sectional and to a large measure irrational when it came to considering the interests of the indigenous peoples of this land.

We combined forces for many years to fight colonial and racialistic injustices; Injustice in social, economic and political opportunities. The result of our independence indeed its meaning; is, or ought to be, justice among all our peoples.

But it is no justice if some of our children cannot afford education; live in inhuman conditions, die before getting to health centres and die of hunger or malnutrition. It is no justice to spread education, health, agricultural, business and other opportunities unevenly and without regard to the interests of the nation as a whole concentrating them on [sic] certain areas only.

It is no justice for a few to live in, and own the best houses in the cities and towns while the majority of our hard-toiling men and women live in squalid conditions in cities and towns, not to mention in most of rural Kenya.

It is no justice for a few greedy people with influence and connections to utilize resources of the public, now Government supported or funded institutions to unfairly acquire wealth of all manner of things; houses, the best commercial premises and the best and largest tracts of land.188

In light of such profound truth-telling, its resonance, with the sociopolitical reality, and the ordinary people affected by it, cannot be left to the imagination. The people’s voice had spoken and, in so doing, echoed reality.

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