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NEWS & LETTERS, March 2003
People's power defeats tyranny in Kenya
Koigi wa Wamwere, Kenya's most famous dissident, was
elected to parliament from Subukia in Nakuru by a landslide in the December
election that unseated the long dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi. The new
government has already ended fees for primary education and health care and
return may soon land stolen by the Moi regime. Koigi wa Wamwere had spent 13
years in prison for his human rights work over the past three decades. His
autobiography, I REFUSE TO DIE, MY JOURNEY FOR FREEDOM, was recently published
by Seven Stories Press. His comments, excerpted, are from a meeting in New York
City Feb. 2, co-sponsored by News and Letters Committees and the African
Services Committee. --Editor * * * I can't tell you how happy we are at the change in
government. After 40 years of tyranny following independence, at last Kenyans
are talking about a "second liberation." It is not a complete
liberation, but it's a very big step toward it. The whole country was involved
in the struggle to get rid of the dictatorship. Children were in the forefront
of the struggle because everyone felt that Moi must go. But those in the leadership of the new government are
not the people who fought the hardest. The real heroes remain outside the power
structures. As the saying in my community goes, "The one who cultivates the
food is not the one who eats it." We are celebrating not just Moi's defeat,
but also Kenyatta's [the anti-colonial leader who was the first ruler after
independence and became a dictator]. He was the mother and father of Moi. The
roots of the dictatorship and oppression go even deeper, back to the British
colonialists. IS ALL POSSIBLE? Kenyans voted for the opposition party, but now I see
members of the new government going home in helicopters. Even Moi didn't do
that, so I have to ask myself, is this really what we fought for? Ninety-nine percent of the people who voted for the new
government have simple aspirations: three meals a day, water, health care, a job
at decent wages. Kenyans voted against Moi with the slogan, "All is
possible without Moi," but I wonder how completely true this is. Moi handed over power, but people are still hurting,
they are still without work, there is still a sea of hell in the society. There
has to be more than just Moi's departure. We don't get to heaven from that. We
have to dismantle the system that Moi, Kenyatta, and the colonial powers put
into place, a system of oppression and exploitation, or nothing much will
change. I first came to the U.S. as a student. It was during the
Civil Rights Movement and I came across Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and
others fighting for freedom. I made their dream my dream for Kenya, and went
home to fight. I didn't think anyone could be put in jail just for
asking for human rights, for democracy, for freedom. But I was arrested I don't
know how many times. The police even made it a habit to come to our house and
stay all night watching us. I learned to go to sleep. I figured they could kill
us just as easily whether we were awake or asleep. Later I was detained without
charge or trial, indefinitely. My first detention lasted three and a half years.
It was only mentioned once in the newspapers the whole time. DEBT HAMPERS AIDS FIGHT Sitting in my cell, I wondered why the U.S. and British
governments did not once ask for me. At least during the Cold War, they said
they were fighting for freedom. Why did they not ask for my freedom? I later
learned they had encouraged Kenyatta to set up this dictatorship as a weapon
against Communism. They helped Kenyatta, Moi, and all the right-wing
dictatorships in Africa. When a democrat arose like Patrice Lumumba, they killed
him. Has the West changed? Will they support our effort? Whether they do or not,
the defeat of Moi was also a defeat of them. We need a moratorium on the foreign debt. They have to
do it, because Kenya is a dying nation. Every day, 750 people die from AIDS. How
do you justify using your money to repay a foreign debt instead of medicine?
Paying the debt and dying makes no sense. We can't be any worse off if we don't
pay it. Land reform won't hurt just one race in Kenya; the large
landowners are both Black and white. One man owns 140,000 acres, and he doesn't
even cultivate it since the price of sisal fell. He has not paid his farm
workers for six years, yet he won't allow them to grow food on the land. If foreign governments will not support us, then we ask
for the people's support. In the U.S. today, people are also fighting for
democracy. I hear about detentions, tapping telephones, reporting on your
neighbors--this is the same terror that we went through. We can tell you what a
police state means--it is terrible. We should form one world force fighting for democracy
all over. Dictators are the same all over, and they help each other. People in
the West can help us by helping yourselves. The human condition is infectious;
when you walk among free people, you feel freer yourself. We need to consolidate
our victory, and we need all the assistance we can get. My constituency is 95% poor, especially since the
economy collapsed. Today farmers are not even picking their coffee or tea
because the price is so low that it's not worth selling. Instead people are
growing maize and potatoes for their own consumption. Only 5%` have work that
earns them three meals a day. My constituents start coming to my house at five in the morning to seek help with their problems. Many are seeking school fees for their children and for the many AIDS orphans. Secondary school costs about $450 per year. For them, I've started the Subukia Scholarship Fund. Please send donations to Kenya Commercial Bank, Nakuru Branch, P.O. Box 18, Nakuru, Kenya, account no. 200776351. The bank's sort code is 01-103 and swift code is KCBLKENX. |
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