Last King of Africa

Fare thee well old man! Your Excellency, Commander in chief of the Kenyan Armed forces, Chancellor of all Public Universities in Kenya, 2nd and longest serving President of the Republic of Kenya, Professor of Politics Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi !

(for purposes of this blog allow me to refer to the late Kingpin as simply Moi, no disrespect, but readers don’t read long texts as much)

For the longest time from my nascent years I thought Arap was an actual name (like Alex, Mungai, Kiptoo) ;that the President was, is and always will be the imposing Moi. I remember fondly how when Mr. Kibaki got into power, a cloud seems to have lifted, an awakening realised, guys could breath and raise fists, voices, you suddenly had no ceiling stoping your rise! The business community were poised to make a killing, the banks joined the fray, all sectors across the nation could now do exactly what they were designed for without supervision, an overlord, an all seeing eye chastening them to proper behavior. Perhaps the best way to define the time is to point to the most notable change that succeeded Moi’s departure (feels weird calling him that!) you could now criticise the Presidency! Politicians were free!

As easy as it is and natural to refer to His Excellency, Commander in chief of the Kenyan Armed forces Mwai Kibaki as simply Mr. Kibaki, Ubako it was second nature to never refer to Moi as simply Moi! How dare you! The man was an enigma wrapped in a riddle, cross him once and that might be the last thing you did. Apart from creating a utopia for his form of administration (let’s all just call it that) he centralised power and wield it selfishly all through his time. This kind of power wasn’t shouted from the rooftops nor was it broadcast through TVs, radios, it was a quiet seething power ready to explode in acute ways against ‘enemies of state’ torture, detention, impoverishment(making poor), intimidation all this justified with as they say ‘due to public interest’. Consequently those who dared imagine any other kind of existence other than the prescribed one, those creatives foolish enough to create anything unlikeable to the powers that be, those ‘wayward’ University students who got ideas of a new sort of society were faced down, punched down, thrown out, intimidated and in some cases lost limbs and lives in no particular order. Those were just the few cases of those elite enough to know the difference of this and that political move. So the regime proceeded to entrench itself into society, starving the country of development and financial breakthroughs the GoK became the only source of wealth and being there meant you were in Moi’s good graces. Consequently the wealthy guys all were Moi’s Lieutenants.

For Moi’s love of Children he instituted ‘Maziwa ya Nyayo‘ which current H.E Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (aka Kamwana) says is the pre-cursor to the School feeding programme in schools today. ‘The Loyalty Pledge’ was placed in schools and those who ventured into scouting in schools know full well it was up there with the national Anthem, both determined your Patriotism points. School children were taught to strictly adore the President and respect him, the fear from the elders then was infectious. Students living through his tenure remember being forced to stand next to the highways for hour prior to his drive through! In contrast Mr Kibaki’s motorcade at times sped through your area, unceremoniously with no prior notice, Uhuru on the other hand is said to at times drive himself! Sigh! How far we have come. In the famous 1984 Book, a regime establishes itself and ensures it’s prosperity by turning its children into an extension of itself! And that we were! Imagine being a Liberal-thinking author/play-writer composing plays to define the nation at the time, and your 10year old son comes home reciting Nyayo’s Loyalty pledge!? Sic

As it is human nature and to some extent an African way, we offer the benefit of the doubt to our elders, after-all they should be wise! Or wisdom incarnate. We also tend to not vilify the dead, lest their spirits reach out from the other side and deal us a blow. We tend to exalt the dead as Saint and is controversially said “all politicians are saints in death“. King Leopold II to me is the best tale of caution towards this, despite committing unexplainable atrocities, as had never been seen before, and overseeing a killing/butchering campaign that is said (by approximation) to be second to Hitler’s Jew Holocaust in Europe. After a media campaign exposing his mals, the Belgian government decided to take over ‘his African properties’ consolidate them under the government and take ownership of all the documentation from Leopold’s time. To date the documentation detailing King Leopold’s greed in the Congo is under lock and key, we can only discern his darkness from effects in the Congo people! In brief, the Belgium Government and its people sanitised the mornach and ensured he received a befitting send-of at the start of the 20th Century! Today his descendants are alive and well, going about their monarch responsibilities (maybe unaware of their grandfather’s actions) That right there is a tragedy that the world suffered in the form of a repeat of the same in Hitler! At least they learnt and have documented Hitler’s atrocities to ward off the same, what about us here in Kenya?

Will we sanitize the man who overlooked the KANU party supremacy to the extent of chopping one finger off those who dared salute to a two-party state?
Will we forget the extra-Judicial killings that saw us lose the likes of Ouko, JM, and more?
Will we forget the state capture on business, media that saw them flourish and fall as befitted KANU (read MO1)?
Shall we forget the state intimidation to free thought, seasoned writers, play-writers, independent journalists, who had formed the elite society of Kenya, run away from this our beloved state(brain-drain)?
Will we forget the political patronage that help secure vile fellows like the feared and powerful Biwott who till his death maintained secrecy and mystery unto his ways?
Remember corruption and tribalism was deeply entrenched and rooted during this now-sanitised Nyayo period!
Let us never doctor our own history, it will be as if we never learn! And a mistake repeated is just dumb stupid!

This is not to say the imposing man is all bad, nooooo!  Every dark cloud has a silver lining, perhaps his had a golden one!

The man had some enviable traits, long-life being the most insignificant of them all! He had the patience and humility to master state-craft, politics and administration with no formal training of the same. So efficient was his methods that nothing happened anywhere in Kenya without his know-how! Unlike someone we know who at times seems bewildered (more than us) of what is happening!
Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, an orphan boy who sought missionaries to assist in his early-life education, rose from those extremes to be the most powerful Man in our nation, so powerful he ruled with his precense and pictures hung in almost all offices. The man was a marvel! A disciplinarian, since his teaching days, eloquent and elaborate! He knew how to present himself, assert himself, dress up, keep time, communicate to his audience of all origins.

The man is admirable! A true statesman, with the same dedication and discipline to his work he crashed those that opposed what he knew (not think) was right! We, in this age, can never relate to his profound existence and clarity of thought, purity of decision and thorough action. Best description is by the Pentecostal Priest who claimed Moi pointed to the Biblical advice ‘Whatever thy hands findeth to do, do it with all thy heart’ (pardon the ‘thy’s but I had to!) the man Moi was a foe or a friend! Never an in-betweener! We shall be lucky to see and experience such a man twice in a lifetime!

Fare thee well Your Excellency! May the Lord of Hosts forgive your iniquities as you stride in, ever as imposing, to the corner of like-minded leaders, from Alexander The Great, Mao to the more recent Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba and a host of others! Let your guard down and have a mug of mursik, as youblay your burdens aside and kick it with the ‘Boy’s Club’ (I salute immediately after this)

You may as well be the Last King of Africa!