A letter of fearsome eloquence has been doing the rounds on social media, attributed to author Ngugi wa Thiong’o on Kenya’s participation in the mission to Haiti. Prof. Ngugi is critical of Kenya’s new pro-American stance, particularly the Haiti mission.
The criticism follows the same valley of arguments: President William Ruto has driven us like cattle to Shimoni, strapped us in the dhow for the short ride to Zanzibar for gelding and back to the crowded dhows and on to our new life serving in the harems of our new masters. In a word, the argument goes, he has sold our country and its freedoms.
A companion allegation is that Kenya is going to destroy the freedoms and independence of the previously prosperous and proud nation of Haiti. I’m sorry for being shortsighted but, when I look at the reporting on Haiti, I don’t see any pride or prosperity. I see a violent nation reduced to a desperate wasteland by gangs and warring politicians.
There is no doubt in my mind that there could be malign foreign interference but that does not mean given the chance to do something about it we shouldn’t. Actually, we should and leave a stable, peaceful country, if possible.
Much has been made of the quote attributed to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that “it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal”, which is, perhaps, best understood when read in full and in context. Generally, the perception is that the US is pitiless and uses weak nations to serve its interests. But isn’t this par for the course? No sensible nation bases foreign—or any other—policy on mere sentiment. Of course, the US exploits other nations; and so has every power in the history of man.
The US is not making Kenya an ally so that it can come and spend its money and the lives of its people fighting for us. It quite likely wants us to fight its wars and allow it to station troops and military equipment on our land. As a poor country, you have to fight with what you have, and we don’t have oil.
By all means, we should fight for America, but not in exchange for a swing around the Oval Office. America’s major interest in this region is security. Ours should be equally clear. Access to technology, education, a better chance to industrialise and strengthen our democracy could be ours. The tragedy is not doing a deal where we have to pay for our lunch. The tragedy would be for the US to get what it wants and we only get a chance to try out the Resolute desk.
America is in Africa to beat China; but the two countries have strong trade ties. That is our template. Kenya should strengthen its legs and fangs: To run with the hares and hunt with the hounds—without ending up in their jaws.
Podcaster Steven Bartlett’s interview of Walter Isaacson—the biographer but better known as editor of Time, who followed Elon Musk for two years—reveals an important ingredient in breeding driven, risk-taking disruptors. Elon’s upbringing was “free range”; he was let loose to discover the world with the parents never hovering over him to prevent him from doing dangerous things. His father bought him a motorcycle at 11. It is the same way that he is raising his son.
Kenya can play it safe, stay in the house where there is no risk and become the national equivalent of a mum-raised “kababa”, clean, never leaving the house, never letting go of your toys and getting all blocked up by merely looking at the cat. Or we can get out, get the stuffing kicked out of us a couple of times, jumpstart our immunity and have a really good chance of becoming something.
Muguka is a terrible drug, no question about it. But miraa is a reasonably mild drug, taken for centuries with moderation and without major health effects. Some countries have banned it because they don’t understand it; for political reasons or to make immigrants, who are its only consumers, uncomfortable in their shores.
Recreational substances, if they must be consumed at all, need moderation, like everything else. If you wake up at 6am to eat ugali and do it the whole day without a break until midnight, every day, the result might be the same, perhaps even worse, than similar consumption of muguka. Prohibition alone will, sadly, not protect the misguided youth. More needs to be done lest somebody finds a way of making fentanyl at muguka prices for them.
Africans are addicted not just to drugs. Some have abused religion and become enslaved to con men masquerading as preachers. They walk around like mad people, scattering salt and muttering prayers—or eating towels! Others take pride in killing their families and eventually themselves. Others strap bombs on their bodies, indiscriminately massacring the innocent in a version of holiness fed to them by fringe foreign preachers.
The fight against muguka and miraa has fallen into the crevice of politics and fits in the new ethnic and religious cleavage taking shape, I suppose, ahead of the 2027 elections. Most people know the farmers of Meru North, where miraa grows, rarely own the crop (It is rented out for years, if not decades) or the vans and aeroplanes that transport it. A ban, as the joke goes, might be a question of taking a strand of the girl’s hair to the witchdoctor and an innocent entrepreneur in Mogadishu catching the love. We should fight drugs and protect the youth. But let’s keep politics and feeble dreams of ethnic conquest out of it.
Mr Mathiu, a former Editor-in-Chief of Nation Media Group, is a media consultant at Steward-Africa. [email protected] .
