Kenya: Identity crisis weighs down political class

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From Nationmedia.com

Identity crisis weighs down political class

Story by MAKAU MUTUA
Publication Date: 7/2/2006

The recent presidential campaign swings in the United States by Raila
Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka speak volumes about the ideological identity of
Kenya's political elite. Even more poignantly, Mr Odinga's display of a
picture of himself and American Senator Barrack Obama betrays an acute
crisis of confidence in one of the country's most dominant politicians.
What the trips of both politicians and the unconscionable exploitation of
the Obama photo-op demonstrate is a vacuous dependent elite, bereft of a
moral centre and devoid of public shame.

Africa may be the origin of man, but the 50-odd states that comprise the
continent are all virtually imperial impositions on Africans. You may
wonder why this is important, or what it has to do with the two
presidential hopefuls. It is central to the identity of the African state
and the character of the political elite that govern it. Most African
states, Kenya included, are not nations as such, but nations in embryo.
The country is still trying to establish an irreversible identity, an
irreducible core that defines what it is to be Kenyan.

This is not a problem that is unique to Kenya or even Africa. Many
countries in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America that were haphazardly
carved up by imperial powers have faced similar challenges. Some have
remarkably resolved the riddle of identity. Others, such as Iraq, Sudan
and Chad are still paying the steep price of imperial conception. Closer
home, Tanzania, another concoction of the West, has done better than most.
Whatever one might say about Mwalimu Nyerere, it is an indisputable fact
that he almost single-handedly forged a single nation out of dozens of
disparate pre-colonial nations.

In Kiswahili, the country has a truly authentic national African language.
The language is part of the national psyche of Tanzania.

But that is not all. Tanzanians are pan-Africanists. Their admirable
sacrifices and unwavering commitment to the liberation struggles in South
Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Angola and Zimbabwe are legendary.
Internally, Tanzania pursued Ujamaa, the policy of self-reliance and
economic equity. Although Ujamaa failed, it implanted in the people a
culture of self-respect and national dignity.

My point is that young countries require visionary leadership to define
their national psyche and identity  and give a particular meaning to the
concept of citizenship. That's exactly what Mwalimu did for Tanzania.

Except for the late Oginga Odinga and a few others, Kenya's political
class has since independence been incubated in a culture of economic,
social and political dependency on the West. The country's pop culture is
a bastardisation of American and British values. Kenyans do not really
have a grasp of what their citizenship means. Success requires the brazen
mimicry of the West  in language, dress, education and culture. We are a
country of cultural itinerants, not anchored in a Kenyan culture or moored
in a particular Kenyan identity.

It is because of the country's dependency on the West that certain members
of the political and business elite have been so aghast at the
cancellation of their American and British visas. These folks educate
their children in America and the UK. What does that say about their
belief or interest in Kenya's educational institutions? Is it any wonder
that they have not put resources in our universities? Excuse me, but I do
not think that is how one defines a nationalist.

This brings me back to Mr Odinga and his photograph with Senator Obama. It
is downright degrading when a Kenyan presidential candidate waves his
picture with an American Senator to indicate his access to the corridors
of American power. It is sick, disgraceful and pathetic.

Mr Musyoka is guilty of similar sins. Under the pretext of meeting the
Kenyan Diaspora, Mr Musyoka sought to "sell" himself to senior officials
and influence peddlers in the United States. These include a section of
the American clergy that is particularly conservative and which has been
accused of racist agenda. The belief is that such supporters are
financially flush and would make for good campaign contributors. That is
why Kenya needs a political finance law to keep out undesirable cash. Both
Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka apparently believe that the United States should
bless their presidential bids.

It behoves Kenyan presidential aspirants to first and foremost tell
Kenyans why they should be elected to be head of state. I have not
identified either Mr Musyoka or Mr Odinga with any particular philosophy
or positions on key challenges facing Kenya. Gentlemen, what are your
ideas on the economy, foreign policy, the press, globalisation, health and
the Constitution, among others? Shouldn't you spell out your positions at
home before hawking yourselves in front of Americans?

Makau Mutua is Professor of Law at the State University of New York at
Buffalo and Chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.


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