FocusNigeria.com

By Kola Ibrahim

No sane being will see tens of lives being roasted in Kenya daily by frenzied youth who are being intoxicated by the poisonous gin of ethnicity produced from the brewery of Kibaki/Odinga; a brewery ably licensed by imperialism after satisfying the neo-liberal structural adjustment standards. As at last count over 900 persons have been wasted by the post-election crisis in Kenya.

The crisis has been portrayed by many commentators as a reaction to election rigging. Of course, the crisis started on the premise of criminal rigging of the election by Kibaki, but the source of the crisis is much deeper than this. According to the European Union, Kibaki’s emergence is fraught with fraud and result crunching. As in the case of Nigeria, the Electoral Commission of Kenya – a body comprising appointed persons of Kibaki – led the election fraud against the people. To further outline this fact, Kibaki’s party only got less than 45 of the parliamentary seats while the Odinga ODM got over 90 seats in parliament. In fact, opinion polls before the election had shown that Kibaki will lose the election. Despite this, he was still poised by imperialism as the saviour of the economy. But the real source of the crisis in Kenya is the economic crisis that had dislocated the economic lives of millions of Kenyans. This is reflection in the campaign of Odinga that called for end to the economy that produces 1000 millionaires but condemns 35 million Kenyans to economic dislocation.

This picture of mass rejection contrasted sharply with the manner Kibaki emerged in 2002 will reveal the reality. Mwai Kibaki, a former Prime Minister in the corrupt Daniel Arap Moi’s government came to power on the hill of total rejection of the Arap Moi by the Kenyan masses whose lives have been condemned to misery by the neo-liberal economic policies of Moi that favours the minority business class as against the majority. Then, Kibaki was painted by imperialism as a genuine alternative. This is meant to stave off a possible radicalisation of the masses and emergence of radical candidate. Unfortunately, there was no working class alternative that could present a complete radical alternative to neo-liberalism. Despite the involvement of Kibaki in the repressive, corrupt Arap Moi’s government, he was poised as a direct opposite of Moi. This is not unexpected as Arap Moi, despite its repressive and corrupt nature still serve the business community and imperialism through neo-liberal policies of commercialization, privatization, liberalization and labour flexibility. Five years after his emergence, Kibaki has emerged as a continuation if not worse form of Arap Moi’s government. Despite the claim of increasing GDP of 6 percent since 2006, the poverty level has increased from its 45 percent in the 1990’s to over 54 percent in 2005 while inequality has widened more than ever coupled with increasing unemployment. Corruption has reached high heavens to such an extent that the head of the Anti-Corruption Commission had to flee the country because the government is not committed to fighting corruption. In fact, the anti-corruption head had to release a tapped conversation between state officials revealing unprecedented corruption. Despite all this, Kibaki’s government was portrayed as one of development, democracy and stability.

All this emboldened Kibaki to force himself on the nation since he was supported by the business community and imperialism . Therefore, the crisis in Kenya cannot be divorced from the selfish interest of imperialism. But, can Odinga serve as an alternative? Odinga, despite his grandstanding is part of the problem of Kenya. He was the Finance Minister under the corrupt Arap Moi’s government and a member of his corruption-ridden KANU party. In fact, he was the chief campaigner for Kibaki in 2002 with the hope of becoming the Prime Minister in the government only to be given a Ministerial post. His quest for power made Kibaki to sack him in 2005. Despite all the fraud and increasing isolation of the Kenya masses, Odinga did not stand by the masses. He was part of the government that killed the workers’ strike in 2003. It was his inability to get favourable political power from Kibaki that made him become an enemy of Kibaki. Definitely, if he had been given the Prime Ministerial Job in 2002, the current Odinga that we know will be a different one. Despite all his radical rhetoric's, when he was confronted as a communist agent, he bluntly denied being in favour of nationalization and expressed his unflinching support for “private sector-driven economy” – the economic policy that has denied millions of Kenyans, basic living standards.

Therefore, Odinga cannot be an alternative to Kibaki. Odinga has claimed that Kibaki’s government has been favouring his Kikuyu elite but this can only be replaced by corruption of the Odinga’s Luo elite or that of all ethnic groups that are as corrupt as Kibaki as the economy will be handed over to the corrupt, rapaciously exploitative capitalist class. The appeal to votes on ethnic lines by both candidates has been one of the causes of the current ethnic crisis in Kenya. While Kibaki is using state resources to commit himself to the Kikuyu elite, Odinga, rather than rally the masses of the country together across ethnic lines, he has concentrated on the argument that Kibaki only favours his Kikuyu Elite who constitute a tiny percent of the Kikuyu population, thus posing the problem as that of ethnicity, yet millions of Kikuyu working class are suffering. This is now unexpected for Odinga, after aligning himself with the neo-liberal economy of failure, there is no other way of campaigning than appealing to ethnic sentiment. Also, the ethnic partitioning of the country’s geo-politics by the British colonists contributed to the current ethnic crisis in Kenya. In a bid to sustain their control over the nation when the call for independence was high, the British colonists, as in other African countries, resorted to divide-and-rule tactics of handing over power to a particular ethnic elite that are favourable to its continuous exploitation of the nation’s huge resources after lumping different ethnic groups with different cultures together without their consent. Furthermore, inability to lift the masses out of economic deprivation fuel this ethnic division. Neo-liberal capitalism supervised by Kibaki’s government coupled with high corruption only bring this crisis to its ripened state.

The only way to avert the crisis in Kenya is for a working class solidarity. The source of the crisis in Kenya is the neo-liberal economic policy that had deprived millions access to basic lives which has degenerated to ethnic disharmony in the absence of a working class solidarity that will oppose economic policies of public service privatization, social service commercialization, trade liberalization and retrenchment. This is where the role of the labour leadership comes in. Workers, cutting across ethnic lines can unite all other poor and oppressed class together to oppose economic and political policies that deprive the masses the basic necessities of lives. This will mean the formation of a working class political party that will oppose imperialism, neo-liberalism and capitalism but will fight for the nationalization of the commanding height of the economy under the working poor democratic political control and management, which will see the huge resources of the country, rather than going to the pockets of the rich few in big business and multinationals, will be used to provide adequate and secure jobs for all citizens, adequate living wages for workers, massive development of the economy, technology and infrastructure and provision of basic social services like free education, healthcare, housing, road, etc. This will mean the labour leadership abandoning the political support for the corrupt ruling capitalist class and wrest power from the political class through a democratic socialist policies. Though the example of failed Stalinist Soviet Union may be cited, but it is obvious that the lack of democratic control of the economy by the masses led to the collapse of the Stalinist Russia (a caricature of genuine Marxism), yet the gains of nationalised Soviet economy, despite its caricature, has never being rivaled in the world.

It is however unfortunate that the labour leadership in Kenya has been running away from this. Rather than lead the masses, it has been echoing imperialism’s and Kibaki’s slogan for peace without defining any alternative for achieving peace. The labour leadership even condemned the protest led by civil societies to reject the posture of imperialist nations. A genuine labour leadership will call for a rerun of the elections and end to all neo-liberal capitalist policies alongside building a pan-Kenya political platform to provide radical alternative to the two pro-imperialist candidates. Political activities would have been built around these programmes. But whether Odinga emerge or join Kibaki’s government as is being proposed by imperialism, the misery of the masses will continue. Twice, Odinga had called off protest marches in order to appease imperialism. Therefore, he cannot be relied upon to confront the election fraud; only a working class alternative can do this. Is it not hypocritical that none of the imperialist governments have called for the rerun of the election. This is not unexpected as they fear the radicalization of the masses who may be emboldened by the victory to move towards radical economic demands. This further shows the rotten nature of imperialism which the labour leadership are so entangled with.

What is happening in Kenya resembles to some degree what is obtainable in many African countries where neo-liberal capitalist economic policies presided over by the pro-capitalist cum corrupt governments on behalf of imperialism and local big business has led economic deprivation for the masses who are looking for alternatives but could not find one in their labour leaderships (who prefer to hobnob with imperialism rather than fight for the masses). From South Africa where the lack of independent political leadership of Cosatu has led to masses choosing between the two evils of Mbeki or Zuma (both of whom stand for neo-liberalism), to Nigeria where failure of the labour leadership, despite having led seven general strike, to provide radical, working class political alternative for the exploited masses, thus making the masses to choose among the arch-neo-liberalist capitalist elements, leading to continuation of the old ruinous capitalist policies by a new government that emerged from a rigged election. Already, the crisis in Kenya is affecting other East African Countries that depend on Kenya's refined oil, which can further spread the crisis.

Therefore, unless the genuine working class and youth activists start building a political alternative to the rotten capitalist around the African countries, misery will continue in the land. A genuine working class platform will fight for socialist voluntary collaboration of all ethnic groups, not only in Kenya, but in the whole Africa to build the nations and continent for the benefits of the millions and not millionaires as against the divisive politics of capitalism and imperialism. It is only the working people’s alliance to combat neo-liberal capitalism that can unite all ethnic groups together, not only in Kenya and Africa, but around the whole world.

Kola Ibrahim
Obafemi Awolowo University (Ile-Ife)
kmarx4live@yahoo.com

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