KENYA SOCIALIST
DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE (KSDA)
Sunday 13th July 2003
TEN CRITICAL POINTS MISSED AT THE JULY 2003 KCA CONFERENCE
INTRODUCTION
Just like its predecessors,
the just concluded KCA (Kenya Community Abroad) Conference that was held
in the United States was definitely a remarkable and commendable achievement.
KCA members and other Kenyans of goodwill gathered to discuss the future
of Kenya and to rate the new Narc government. It was an event which should
not have been missed by KSDA because some of the issues that were raised
are issues that remain central in the Alliance’s political agenda. We take
this opportunity to wholly congratulate the KCA leadership for the
undisputable success of the Conference with the message that the future of
Kenya is slowly getting on the hands of the new Kenyan generation. We believe
that KCA should link up with KSDA to discuss common points of convergence
and to introduce a new era abroad based on sharing political perspectives.
Our political view is very Socialist and we also take this opportunity to
encourage KCA members not to embrace stereotypical impressions of Kenyan
Socialists but to open up to ideological thinking and to honestly discuss
a political alternative to the deformed capitalist system in Kenya.
After wading through initial reports from the Conference and absorbing
briefs from our contacts who attended the historic event, our conclusion
is that the Conference was generally pro-Narc government in Kenya and that
the next big issue for majority of those who attended the Conference is
that Kenya should begin a period of “reconstruction” following the
Narc take-over. In other words, delegates appear to have accepted that Narc
is a suitable government that can be trusted with the future of the Nation
and that if it is given enough time and pumped with more and dynamic ideas,
the kind of changes that will take place in Kenya will also transform the
lives of 30 million Kenyans to the better. Here, we wish to add our
input to the comments that have so far been rendered since the Conference
ended. This is because there are certain critical points that we feel were
totally blacked out at the Conference. We have not seen these points being
raised seriously by independent commentators who have so far rendered their
postmortem findings since the Conference ended..
In adding our comments, we are doing so in the spirit of struggle and solidarity
with all KCA members and other progressive Kenyans who are relentlessly
searching for a permanent solution to the political, social and economic
crisis that has been facing our country in the last four decades. We feel
that the following points should have been given serious attention at the
Conference.
1. LANDLESSNESS:
Since Narc took over power, the Coalition has failed to take up the issue
of landlessness among millions of Kenyans who are squatters in their own
country. Although there has been limited repossession of small pieces
of land that were grabbed by Moi’s cronies, the government appears to have
frozen all possibilities of resettling the landless. Land was the main reason
why the Mau Mau Land and Freedom Army took up arms to topple British colonialism.
To date, the objective of ensuring that every Kenyan has land to settle
on has not been met. In other words, one of the major reasons why thousands
of Kenyan freedom fighters shed their blood during the colonial revolution
has not been met fourty years after the so called independence. Many Kenyans
believe that the independence Movement was betrayed by home guards who later
seized power through Jomo Kenyatta. Both the Kenyatta and the Moi dictatorships
failed to meet the objective of settling the landless while there is no sign
that the Narc regime will accomplish this mission. What happened is that the
Kenyatta and Moi dictatorships distributed vast chunks of land to their political
contacts. The rest of the landless population has been kept waiting with
empty promises that will never be realized on a capitalist basis.
A major reason for landlessness in Kenya is that both the Kenyatta and
Moi dictatorships have failed to recognise the fact that it is impossible
for the government to resettle the landless without first possessing the
land through a major renationalization programme. As we write, thousands
of acres of land are still owned by former colonial masters and home guards
from both the Kenyatta and Moi dictatorships who stole them from the Kenyan
people before and after the colonial revolution. Some top Narc politicians
are themselves owning thousands of acres that may have been acquired dubiously.
We think that the question of landlessness in our country can only be solved
through nationalization of land, a measure that will give the government the
opportunity to be able to determine who owns which piece of land through a
radical land redistribution program. The issue of land remains very sensitive
in Kenya and we feel that it could have been given space at the KCA Conference.
2. PRIVATIZATIONS:
Just like the KANU regime, Narc continues to invite looters from the advanced
capitalist countries to come and steal the country’s resources through privatizations
in the name of “Foreign investments”. One would have expected that
after the defeat of KANU which sold almost every profitable State enterprise
cheaply to agents of multi national companies and other globalization sharks,
Narc would reverse this economically retrogressive process by renationalizing
these enterprises so that wealth generated through them could be redirected
to finance the national reconstruction effort and thousands of workers who
were retrenched in the process redeployed. Instead, the contract for
the controversial mining of Tiomin in Kenya has just been awarded by
Narc to a foreign company with the new government providing hopeless justifications
for what will most likely, become one of the biggest robbery of Kenya’s natural
resources by a foreign company.
State Corporations continue to be privatized under the Narc government
which has now recommended that even roads in Kenya should be put on private
hands for foreign companies to reap profits through the establishment of
toll stations. Privatization of more than 100 State enterprises are on the
cards (see the list at KSDA website) while the renationalization of more
than 50 other enterprises that were sold by KANU is not on the agenda. What
is publicly known with privatizations is that this measure does not help
in building the economy but in entrenching foreign domination of national
politics and economy. Kenyans should oppose all forms of privatizations of
enterprises that were acquired through the tax payer’s money. In all the
glamorous speeches that came up at the KCA Conference, opposition to privatizations
in Kenya should have been raised. This is because the new regime is duping
people that privatization is a kind of solution to the crisis in our country
while in reality it is contributing to poverty at a national level as the
country’s wealth is siphoned abroad.
3. RETRENCHMENTS:
As KCA hosted Narc luminaries like Charity Ngilu (Minister of Health) at
the Conference, there are thousands of Kenyans who have been condemned to
lives of mystery and great human suffering as a result of IMF/World
Bank inspired retrenchments during the Moi dictatorship. What is shocking
is that these retrenchments have continued since Narc took over power without
government intervention. We ask: “What kind of political changes will transform
the lives of Kenyans if the little income that workers in Kenya have through
employment are being taken away through retrenchments?”. KSDA continues
to receive letters from retrenched Kenyan workers who are on the verge of
starvation, Kenyans who voted for Narc expecting that their situations would
change. Some of these letters have been published at our website. The situation
is acute because Narc has refused to address the crisis and some retrenchees
have demonstrated against the government to try and get their cases across.
From our perspective, we think that all retrenched workers should be reinstated
while the government should announce an immediate freeze on all retrenchments.
How does Narc expect Kenyans to believe that its politics will transform
their lives when retrenchment of workers is being conducted against the
background of 11 million able bodied Kenyans who are out of work?
Narc has long stopped talking about the creation of half a million jobs
because their thinkers have understood that this cannot be done on a capitalist
basis. To create jobs, the government must invest in both construction and
industry. To invest in construction and industry, the government must control
the means that produces the wealth of the Nation so that the country’s wealth
can be put to investment through independent decisions taken by Parliament.
These processes are currently impossible under Narc because the means of
producing wealth in Kenya is under imperialist agents while major decisions
about development are made by IMF and World Bank through their programs.
In fact, the government depends on the IMF and World Bank to finance its
budget. From our stand point, the twin issues of retrenchments and unemployment
ought to have been taken up at the KCA Conference because they touch on bread
and butter issues of voters who put Narc in power expecting real changes
in their lives.
4. MPs MILLION SALARIES:
Since Narc took over power, MPs have awarded themselves salaries
running to a million Kenyan shillings. This is at a time when the country
is in deep economic crisis and constantly begging from Western Imperialism.
What is paradoxical is that although KCA has been collecting signatures through
its website to oppose the MPs salaries, the issue was totally blacked out
at the Conference. From our sources, there was no serious attempt to confront
the Narc MPs who attended the Conference on this issue because of the increasing
courtship between KCA and Narc, a posture that we think, bordered on the
conspiratorial. Through the Conference, Narc MPs ought to have been reminded
that although they claim to be fighting corruption, they are looting
the Kenyan economy. Failure to confront the thorny issue of MP salaries could
be interpreted to mean that KCA’s collection of signatures on this issue
is a farce. Why should Narc kneel before the IMF and World Bank for hand
outs when its very MPs are involved in an organised and systematic looting
of the country’s meagre resources in order to sustain luxurious life styles
at the expense of the tax payer? We think that the one million MPs salaries,
the 3 million car grants, the 10 million insurance schemes for MP and other
so called benefits are issues that were worth taking up on a serious scale,
not just by individual speakers but by KCA as an organisation of Kenyans
abroad..
5. NARC/IMF/WORLD BANK COURTSHIP:
From our view, it is unbelievable that a three day Conference of the KCA
type ended without an open challenge or even a memorandum calling on the
new Narc government to end its courtship with the IMF and World Bank. Psychologically,
millions of Kenyans who do not understand the dynamics of economic exploitation
of Kenya’s resources through the IMF and World Bank have been made to believe
that these imperialist financial Institutions are contributing to the country’s
economic development. The nightmare scenario came when Narc, a new regime
that was supposed to govern differently from KANU, embarked on an active
KANU style courtship rituals with IMF and World Bank.
President Mwai Kibaki met World Bank Chief’s at State House to beg for
money while other top State Officials have been busy with IMF personnel,
trying to sell Kenya to these agents of imperialism. Are speakers who were
paraded at the KCA Conference ignorant about IMF/World Bank’s blood-sucking
schemes in Kenya or was this critical issue avoided for political convenience?
True, IMF has now promised to resume aid to Kenya. But in exchange, the Narc
government will have to take draconian measures that will not just continue
to ravage the economy but also lead to further loss of jobs and sale of public
property to western companies. The economy will be opened up for uncontrolled
exploitation through liberalization programs that leaves the government a
perpetual beggar. What kind of different politics does Narc have that Kenyans
have not experienced through KANU? Wasn’t this a better topic at KCA Conference?
We think so.
6. NARC AND THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM:
This could have been our first point. Almost fourty years of experiment
with capitalism in Kenya under KANU ended in total disaster as evidenced
by the mass poverty and total collapse of social services in our country.
The defeat of KANU in December did not mean the beginning of the end to
the gap between the rich and the poor because a new capitalist government
is in power. The system has several loop holes through which the ruling class
can use to run down the country while at the same time telling voters that
changes are on the way. Narc has inherited the system intact and every so
called change is being worked out on the basis of capitalism. From our perspective,
the core of the crisis in our country was not even KANU as a political party
or Moi as a ruthless dictator but the rotten political system under which
Kenyans were dictated to by KANU. At the KCA Conference, every speaker appeared
to have departed from the point of view that the political, social and economic
crisis facing our country can be solved on a capitalist basis.
Appeals were made for investments in the country, an environment
“conducive to investments” was encouraged by speakers while Kenyans were
encouraged to convert themselves into businessmen (i.e. capitalists) and
return to Kenya to “invest”, signs that the Conference itself was loaded
with speakers with huge capitalist ambitions. We think that the issue of
an alternative to the capitalist system of government ought to have been
raised at the Conference even if it might have appeared far-fetched. It
is unfortunate that KSDA was never invited to the Conference because we
could have provided a comprehensive critique of Narc’s capitalist system
of government while at the same time providing a viable alternative based
on clear Socialist program. We know that not everybody at the Conference
is a Socialist. But Kenyans with different ideological persuasions could
also have been invited to pull the mask from Narc’s face because the country
needs a Socialist revolution, not fresh experiments with a rotten system.
It could have been a perfect opportunity to answer the “Socialism has collapsed”
thinkers because new ideas are needed in Kenya. Multiparty politics is about
competition of political ideas and the truth is that Kenyan Socialists have
never really been heard. They have only been condemned, detained, imprisoned
and forced into exile where many of our Comrades are currently operating
from. The banning of Socilaist books in Kenya should be lifted.
7. MINIMUM LIVING WAGE FOR WORKERS IN KENYA:
Kenyan workers, who produce the wealth which makes capitalists rich are
living on what we call “starvation wages”. They can hardly live from hand
to mouth. Salaries have been stagnant for ages despite rising inflation. In
cases where salaries have been increased by the State to appease workers,
the increments have turned out to be little crumbs on the table that have
been unable to change the lives of workers in any way. We think that there
should be a national campaign for the minimum living wage of Kenyan workers.
If there is a Commission which has not yet been formed by the new Narc regime
but which is the most urgent, it is a Commission to establish the minimum
living wage commensurate with Kenya’s current rate of inflation. The old wage
system that was left behind by KANU does not meet the needs of Kenyan workers
if looked at from the point of view of rising prices of consumer commodities
. The KCA Conference was an International platform and it is pathetic that
although delegates are individuals who live in countries where the minimum
living wage is defined according to the rate of inflation, this issue was
left out of the Conference.
8. NATIONALIZATION OF WEALTH PRODUCING INSTITUTIONS IN KENYA:
It is not possible to nationalize the means of producing wealth in Kenya
without first changing the system. For the system to change, there will
have to be a revolution. Revolution doesn’t mean taking up arms to kill
each other. A Socialist revolution means a change of power from the ruling
class represented by Narc to the working class. The nationalisation of major
wealth producing institutions in Kenya should have been raised at the Conference
because without taking control of wealth produced internally, the country
will continue to beg from abroad regardless of whether KANU or Narc is in
power. The reason why the government continues to invite IMF and World
Bank to give Kenya the so called aid is because almost all institutions which
produce wealth - the industries, factories, major distributions networks,
Banks, insurance companies etc. are in the firm hands of foreign multinational
companies whose bases are abroad.
What happens is that the IMF gives us loans so that we can privatize say
the Kenya Power and Lightning Company (KPLC) so that every Kenyan who uses
electricity can make the Western company which buys KPLC rich. The situation
is the same with Kenya Airways and all other privatised State firms. If
the bulk of the wealth produced in Kenya is prevented from being repatriated
abroad, we will not need IMF and World Bank and even the most informed capitalist
in the Western world knows this. Nationalisation of the major “means of
production” is a key element of Socialism. It was unfortunate that this
issue was never raised at the KCA Conference despite the fact that it remains
part of the solution to the crisis in our country.
9. THE CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW PROCESS:
Several good points were made on the on-going Constitutional Review process.
But what the speakers forgot was that within the framework of capitalism,
the Constitution is a piece of paper whose content is designed to serve
the interest of the ruling class that, in this case, are members of the
Narc government. Capitalist principles dictates that the implementation of
the Constitution depends on the whims of the ruling class who control State
power which, in the case of Kenya, is the Narc government. The point is that
a review of the Kenyan Constitution in whatever form will not put food on
the table to the starving millions of Kenyans even if that Constitution says
that all Kenyans have a right to food. The Constitution might say that all
Kenyans have a right to clothing, shelter, jobs, medical care etc. but these
commodities and services will never be provided by the government to all
Kenyans on a capitalist basis.
The Constitution will always be violated by the ruling class if their interests
are threatened. Mr. Gideon Moi, son of former President Moi, has just been
prevented from holding a public meeting in his constituency in total violation
of the Constitution. The younger Moi does not threaten Narc in any way.
But he is being reminded that the Constitution is a piece of paper currently
under the control of Narc ruling class. Kenyans should not be led en masse
to believe that a review of the Constitution will transfer millions living
in the slums of Nairobi to apartments in Buru Buru. For there to be
any real changes in the situation, the property system will have to be changed
so that the vast natural and human resources currently being looted in the
name of profit by local and International capitalists can be redirected to
build houses for slum dwellers. This is what we mean when we say that the
system has to be replaced for any real changes to occur. The bigger task
is that the process of changing the system requires another revolution which
will have to be organized.
10. THE QUESTION OF THE NEXT REVOLUTION IN KENYA:
From what we gather, the general mood at the KCA Conference was that Kenyans
should engage in a collective dance with the Narc government because KANU
is out of power. True, Narc has implemented lots of progressive changes
since the Coalition seized power. However, the KCA Conference provided a
perfect platform for Kenyans who attended it to put Narc where it belongs.
Narc facilitated the “Velvet revolution” in Kenya, just like the Multiparty
advocates brought about the “Multi-party” (or Saba Saba) revolution. We
honour the Mau Mau for having brought about the “Colonial revolution” which
nevertheless, ended in “Flag independence” and singing of the National anthem
as Professor Ngugi wa Thiongo puts it. After the Narc take-over, there appears
to be a poverty of ideas as to how Kenya should proceed and much of the
rhetoric at the Conference was focused on “reconstruction” with a capitalist
Narc at the helm. What we are saying is that the game is not yet over.
The next revolution will be the kind of revolution that will put the wealth
of Kenya on the hands of Kenyans, transfer land ownership back to the Kenyan
people, end dependency of Kenya on Western Imperialism, put workers and peasants
in power, change the exploitative capitalist system and enable Kenyans to
control their own destiny. We are preparing the grounds for a Socialist revolution
in Kenya and although we did not expect this subject to come up at the KCA
Conference, it is important that Kenyans who are open minded begin to look
further than the capitalist system under which Narc rules. The system has
enslaved us under Neo colonialism. If we were to summarise answers to the
question we have raised here, we would put forward the following alternatives
to what Narc is offering.
1. LANDLESSNESS: Nationalize all land in Kenya as the basis of land
redistribution. All landless Kenyans to be resettled on nationalised State
land.
2. PRIVATISATIONS: Stop privatisations now. Renationalise all privatised
State enterprises and put them under democratic workers control and management.
3. RETRENCHMENTS: Stop all retrenchments in Kenya. Re-employ all
workers who have so far been retrenched both under the Moi and Narc government.
4. MPs MILLION SALARIES: Reduce MPs salaries to that of a skilled
worker. No privileges to People’s Representatives at the expense of the
tax payer.
5. NARC/IMF/WORLD BANK COURTSHIP: Abolish all IMF/World
Bank programs. Stop all contacts with these imperialist economic institutions
whose main agenda is exploitation and plunder of Kenya’s natural and human
resources.
6. NARC AND THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM: We stand for a democratic socialist
system of government with Kenyan working class taking a leading role in
the anticapitalist struggle.
7. MINIMUM LIVING WAGE FOR WORKERS IN KENYA: Introduce a minimum
living wage of between 15-20,000 Kenyan shillings for all workers in Kenya.
Abolish starvation wages which have reduced Kenyan workers to paupers. This
is possible if the country’s wealth is under the control of the toiling
workers.
8. NATIONALIZATION OF WEALTH PRODUCING INSTITUTIONS IN KENYA:
Nationalize the commanding heights of the Kenyan economy. Stop repatriating
the wealth of Kenya abroad through multinational companies which have taken
over the economy of our country.
9. THE CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW PROCESS: Overhaul the colonial and
undemocratic Constitution in Kenya. We stand for a new Constitution under
the control of the working class, not the rich millionaire MPs in Narc who
will violate it at will.
10. THE QUESTION OF THE NEXT REVOLUTION IN KENYA: We stand for a
democratic socialist revolution in Kenya led by Kenyan workers under a Workers
Party armed with a revolutionary theory and a clear Socialist program for
real change and transformation of the Kenyan society.
Further info about KCA
Okoth Osewe
Secretary,
Kenya Socialist Democratic Alliance (KSDA)
KSDA is a revolutionary Socialist Alliance which
fights for Socialism in Kenya and the World. The Alliance believes that the
fundamental social, economic and political crisis facing Kenya today requires
a democratic Socialist revolution with Kenyan working class taking a leading
role in the struggle. The Alliance advocates for the formation of a Workers'
Party in Kenya and the abolition of capitalism in the country. Contacts:
KSDA Box 74, 123 22 Farsta, Sweden. website: http://www.kenyasocialist.org.
Tel: 00 46 736533068.