KENYA SOCIALIST DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE (KSDA)
June 19th 2004
REGISTER CHAMA CHA
MWANANCHI
The Kenya
Socialist Democratic Alliance
(KSDA) has received disturbing information from Mr. Stephen Kanyingi
Njoroge, the Secretary General of the newly formed Chama cha Mwananchi Party, that the Narc government
has refused to register the Party. Chama cha Mwananchi applied for registration on January 9th
2004 but when a decision was made on the application, the government decided
not to register the Party. According to Mrs Catherine
Kaswii Nyihia, a senior
Assistant Registrar of Societies who signed the rejection letter, the party
could not be registered because the government “…has reasonable cause to
believe that the interest of peace, welfare or good order in Kenya
is likely to suffer prejudice by reason of your registration as a
society”. In refusing the Party
registration, the government quoted section 11 of the Society’s Act.
When Chama cha Mwananchi
tried to challenge the grounds upon which it had been denied registration, they
were told that the Party had been denied registration because it had “Marxist
leanings”. In an email dated 10th
June 2004, Mr. Njoroge wrote: “Separately
they told us that our constitution had Marxist leanings and therefore they
cannot register a Marxist party in Kenya”.
From documents that were presented to the Registrar of Societies and which
articulated the political line of Chama cha Mwananchi, the Party does not have any Marxist position in
politics. Even if it had a “Marxist leaning”, it would be illegal for the Narc government to deny the Party registration because the
right to form and register Political parties is enshrined in the Constitution. So
far, Chama cha Mwananchi
has fulfilled all conditions necessary for registration and it is difficult to
understand why it cannot be registered.
Ideologically, KSDA has nothing in common with Chama cha Mwananchi. But, just
like many Kenyans opposed to former political control by the Moi/KANU
dictatorship, we will not hesitate to defend the Party’s right to be registered
so that it can practice politics freely and openly. Soon after the introduction
of political pluralism in Kenya,
Dictator Moi declared that “Ideological parties” would not be registered
especially parties that opposed “Parliamentary democracy”. The real intention
of this road-side declaration was to prevent Kenyan Socialists from setting up
a Party for registration to challenge the authority of capitalism. The strategy
was to block the introduction of Socialist ideas based on the principles of a
“Workers’ democracy” from challenging the distorted “bourgeoisie democracy” the
Kalenjin/KANU ruling class was using to “suck the
blood” of millions of poor exploited Kenyans.
It is this declaration that partly prevented Kenyan Marxists
from pooling resources at home and abroad to set up a Socialist Party after the
reintroduction of political pluralism because every conscious Comrade knew that
the security apparatus had understood Moi’s code
words. There was a general unease that any attempt to set up “an Ideological
Party” in Kenya
would be liquidated directly or indirectly with a heavy toll on the limited
human resources even in the multi-party era. To send a clear message that Moi
did not want Marxists in politics after he was forced by the mass movement to
abolish the one party dictatorship, the dictator banned Marxist literature from
all institutions of higher learning, public libraries and other archives and
anybody who was found with this kind of literature risked seven years in prison
for processing “seditious publications”. As a consequence, Left-leaning Kenyans
who were at home kept their cool while high profile Kenyan Marxists who had
fled into exile like Professor Ngugi wa Thiongo
refused to return home because of the uncertain nature of the new multiparty
environment where not everybody could practice politics at an organized level.
Why was Moi averse to Marxist intervention in Kenyan
politics even after the re-introduction of political pluralism? The answer is
that the dictator had noticed that during the struggle for political pluralism
in the 80s, almost every individual he murdered, crippled, maimed, sent to
prison, detained or forced into exile for political reasons had links “with the
Left” or was somehow associated with Marxist thinking. Ngugi
wa Thiongo, Mukaru Nganga, George Anyona, Raila Odinga,
Willy Mutunga, Onyango Oloo, Mwandawiro Mghanga, Anyang Nyongo, Titus Adungosi, Wafula Buke, Shadrack
Guto, Ngugi wa Mirie, Kimani
Gecau, Achieng Odinga, Gacheche wa Miano, Micere
Mugo, Adhu Awiti, Okongo Arara
and numerous others who paid the ultimate price in the struggle for political
pluralism in Kenya were all associated with the Left, Karl Marx, Lenin or
Socialism. Although some of these fighters have retired or switched positions
by abandoning the ideological struggle, the role they played at that time
cannot be erased from history.
What was worrying to Moi was that he was facing stiff
challenge from the Left after he converted Kenya
into a one Party dictatorship in 1981 in order to abort the formation of the
Kenya Socialist Alliance whose leader was pioneer Kenyan Socialist, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. The underground Mwakenya Movement and other Leftist
groups that sprung up in the 80s to challenge the single party dictatorship
were well known to the oppressive KANU state apparatus as Marxist-driven
vehicles. Publications like Pambana, Mpatanishi, Mzalendo, Behind the
Pretences, The Frail Aide de Camp, Guerilla Warfare in Kenya and other
mouth pieces of groups like Uwake, Ukenya, December
12th Movement, Mwakenya etc that were
challenging KANU’s capitalist class rule minced no
words as to who was responsible. When the fear for Marxists assumed rabid
proportions, Kariuki Chotara,
an illiterate member of the KANU ruling class, publicly directed the Internal
security unit to “arrest Karl Marx” since it had been established that he was
“responsible” for influencing both writers of “seditious publications” and
riots at the University of Nairobi.
This brief background is necessary because denying Chama cha Mwananchi registration
using illegitimate reasons and strategies that were invented by a corrupt
government that suffered defeat at the hands of the Kenyan masses will not work
in today’s Kenya.
Mass consciousness around
political pluralism as a guarantor of competition of political
ideas in the marketplace is strong in Kenya
and by denying Chama cha Mwananchi
registration, Narc politicians who have not yet
spoken against this violation are sacrificing their own credibility in a
situation where mass confidence in the Coalition has already waned. In fact, by
falsely using “Marxist leanings” as an excuse to deny the Party registration, Narc is creating interest in Marxism especially among the
radical sections of the youth who will begin to question why Marxism is considered
so dangerous by the previous and current governments to an extent that a Party
is being denied registration even in the Narc era.
KSDA will be there to feed the ideologically thirsty and to show the way out of
the capitalist crisis. Our unequivocal position is that Chama
cha Mwananchi has a right to be registered as a
political Party with or without “Marxist leanings”.
From our view, to deny the Party registration is an
abrogation of the Kenyan constitution and a violation of the basic principles
of multiparty democracy which Kenya
ascribed to and which Narc vowed to defend. The blood
that was shed, the hundreds of lives that were lost, the political persecution
and brutal torture that was endured by thousands of Kenyans in police custody,
prisons and detention centers together with the naked human suffering that
millions of Kenyans underwent so that Kenya could become a multiparty State
will all have been in vain if Chama cha Mwananchi cannot be registered or if Kenyans cannot stand
up to defend the Party’s right to be registered. Instead of moving forward, Narc shall have rolled the democratization process in Kenya
backwards with a very huge step. KSDA will not let this to happen without
intervening.
Apart from the demand that Chama
cha Mwananchi be registered, KSDA is demanding that
the decree by Moi that “Ideological Parties” be denied registration be scraped
because this decree is not consistent with healthy multi-party politics. We are
also demanding that the second decree by Moi that “Parties that oppose
Parliamentary democracy” be denied registration be scraped to prevent partisan
State bureaucrats from referring to these illegal rules to deny new political
Parties registration. Further, it is our position that the banning of Socialist
literature be lifted so that Kenyans can be free to come into contact with
Socialist ideology, the only ideology which, we believe, will liberate our
country from the capitalist greed and exploitation that is ravaging our
country.
As we challenge the refusal of the government to register Chama cha Mwananchi, we are
adding extra demands because KSDA practices “Ideological politics” while the Alliance
is advocating for the abolition of “Parliamentary democracy” to be replaced
with a “Workers democracy” that will enable the working class to run society
after overthrowing the stinking capitalist ruling class running down Kenya.
We are Marxists preparing the ground for the Socialist revolution in Kenya, a
process that will take time but that will have to happen if the Kenyan masses
are to be liberated from the cycle of capitalist crisis that has systematically
converted a rich and resourceful country into a starving Nation full of
poor slaves being controlled and manipulated by the rich. The implication of
what is happening to Chama cha Mwananchi
is that KSDA or any other Socialist/Workers’ Party may easily be denied
registration using rules that were outlined by a dictator who has since been
expunged into the dustbins of history.
The refusal by the government to register the Party because
of its alleged “Marxist leaning” raises two major questions that begs for answers. Are Kenyan Marxists out of the ring when
it comes to registration of political parties in the country? Are Kenyan
Marxists still viewed as dangerous elements who should continue to be kept out
of organized politics in the country?
Narc has too many failures and it
is not in the interest of the government to begin to attract new attention by violating
the rights and freedoms of Kenyans enshrined in the Constitution. Chama cha Mwananchi is planning
to take the government to court and as this process continues, we encourage the
Party to open a major campaign for its registration because it has a right to
exist legally and practice its politics in Kenya
without state interference. All progressive Kenyans, political groups/Parties
and the civil society should defend the right of Chama
cha Mwananchi to be registered. KSDA will do whatever
it takes to challenge the continued refusal of the Narc
government to register the Party. We
say: Register Chama cha Mwananchi
now!
Okoth Osewe
KSDA Secreatry
Published by Kenya Socialist Democratic Alliance (KSDA)
email: harakatips@hotmail.com
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