Makau Mutua gets it wrong again. By claiming civilised society status for Kenya (Physical attacks on Miguna are barbaric, Sunday Nation,
2 September 2012), he betrays that he has been away from home for far
too long. Let us examine some of the characteristics of a civilised
society. Leadership, even when corrupt, is held to account. The members
of the community take an active, sometimes loudly vocal, part in the
governance of their communities, be it at grassroots, regional or
national level. This is how someone like Barack Obama was able to rise
from the level of a community organiser to the President of the United
States. Institutions matter; it is why even in their decline, trades
union, political parties, professional societies, and the like continue
to play an important role in organising the voices of the masses.
Everyone pays their taxes; those who cannot afford to are assisted to
rise to a level where they can pay. In the USA and the UK, "the dole" or
"unemployment" is not a permanent subsidy; one is usually assisted to
get off it and into a job as quickly as possible. Even in the middle of a
battle over the curriculum offered in institutions of learning,
politicians in civilised societies accept the vital role that
well-managed schools play; for this reason, schools are funded to an
astonishing degree.
Even a casual examination of Kenya betrays the fact that it is far from being considered a civilised country. Prof Mutua points out that in a civilised society, "free speech" is to be celebrated and protected. I couldn't agree more. For this reason, whether I think Miguna Miguna is wrong or the paid agent of the Prime Minister's nemeses, his right to speak and publish what he wants cannot be infringed upon, save under the laws of libel and slander. But Kenya is not civilised and speech is far from free. The history of the past decade has been a history of missteps and political corruption n a colossal scale. Mwai Kibaki, with the support of Raila Odinga, swept into power with the promise of a new beginning; a new broom to sweep out the Augean Stables that was the Kenya body politic.
What we got instead was the ever ballooning corruption and rights violations that culminated in the murderous blood-letting after the 2007 general election. Speech is only free in Kenya if it sings the tune of the politician of the hour. Miguna Miguna is discovering this to his eternal sorrow. When he hitched his wagon to the Raila Odinga movement, Miguna Miguna distinguished himself amidst all the lackeys, kiss-asses and sycophants, for his devotion and loud loyalty to the Prime Minister. His every public move until his spectacular falling out with the PM was calculated to paint Raila Odinga as Kenya's Second Coming and the PM's detractors as nitwits, nincompoops, morons and idiots-for-hire. He single-handedly contributed to making the PM the most loathed figure in the PNU camp; nothing the PM does today will erase the anger that Miguna Miguna aroused in his enemies. When he did what he did, no one saw fit to ask him to tone down his rhetoric; speech is free, right? It is only after he turned his cudgels on the PM and his coterie that we have somehow discovered the limits of free speech.
The hallmarks of a civilised society are only appreciated by the men and women with the wherewithal to blind themselves to the realities of the day. Kenya is a poor country, yet we behave as if we have a bottomless Treasury. We can afford to keep our army of elected representatives in a style to which many Kenyans can only imagine, but it is "unsustainable" to give in to the demands of doctors, teachers, nurses or policemen who live hand-to-mouth and suffer the indignity of being thought of as failures for their chosen careers. We can afford to take out massive foreign loans to build highways and bridges while hundreds of thousands of Kenyans live in hovels not even fit for the most rabid of dogs. We can afford to send our defense forces to fight wars in foreign lands (a popular move no doubt) but we are unable to prevent the corruption of our immigration and citizenship services which sees foreign pederasts and sundry other criminals claim Kenyan nationality on a daily basis. On what basis does Makau Mutua make the claim that Kenya is a civilised society? What?
Even a casual examination of Kenya betrays the fact that it is far from being considered a civilised country. Prof Mutua points out that in a civilised society, "free speech" is to be celebrated and protected. I couldn't agree more. For this reason, whether I think Miguna Miguna is wrong or the paid agent of the Prime Minister's nemeses, his right to speak and publish what he wants cannot be infringed upon, save under the laws of libel and slander. But Kenya is not civilised and speech is far from free. The history of the past decade has been a history of missteps and political corruption n a colossal scale. Mwai Kibaki, with the support of Raila Odinga, swept into power with the promise of a new beginning; a new broom to sweep out the Augean Stables that was the Kenya body politic.
What we got instead was the ever ballooning corruption and rights violations that culminated in the murderous blood-letting after the 2007 general election. Speech is only free in Kenya if it sings the tune of the politician of the hour. Miguna Miguna is discovering this to his eternal sorrow. When he hitched his wagon to the Raila Odinga movement, Miguna Miguna distinguished himself amidst all the lackeys, kiss-asses and sycophants, for his devotion and loud loyalty to the Prime Minister. His every public move until his spectacular falling out with the PM was calculated to paint Raila Odinga as Kenya's Second Coming and the PM's detractors as nitwits, nincompoops, morons and idiots-for-hire. He single-handedly contributed to making the PM the most loathed figure in the PNU camp; nothing the PM does today will erase the anger that Miguna Miguna aroused in his enemies. When he did what he did, no one saw fit to ask him to tone down his rhetoric; speech is free, right? It is only after he turned his cudgels on the PM and his coterie that we have somehow discovered the limits of free speech.
The hallmarks of a civilised society are only appreciated by the men and women with the wherewithal to blind themselves to the realities of the day. Kenya is a poor country, yet we behave as if we have a bottomless Treasury. We can afford to keep our army of elected representatives in a style to which many Kenyans can only imagine, but it is "unsustainable" to give in to the demands of doctors, teachers, nurses or policemen who live hand-to-mouth and suffer the indignity of being thought of as failures for their chosen careers. We can afford to take out massive foreign loans to build highways and bridges while hundreds of thousands of Kenyans live in hovels not even fit for the most rabid of dogs. We can afford to send our defense forces to fight wars in foreign lands (a popular move no doubt) but we are unable to prevent the corruption of our immigration and citizenship services which sees foreign pederasts and sundry other criminals claim Kenyan nationality on a daily basis. On what basis does Makau Mutua make the claim that Kenya is a civilised society? What?
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