Author: Cabral Pinto
Date: January 29, 2007
Type of article: Commentary
Source: The Daily Nation - only available online by registration and paid subscription fee

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DURING THE PEAK OF mass action against the Moi-Kanu dictatorship in 1997, the famous East African intellectual, lawyer and activist Issa Shivji humourously remarked: “Tanzanians spent their time theorising; Kenyans spent their time organising and demonstrating; but Ugandans take up arms and overthrow their governments.”

In the last two decades Kenyans were in the news all over the world for their organising and the demonstration of their activist spirit.

The World Social Forum (WSF) has just ended, but Kenyan activist spirit was not very pronounced. Kenyans seemed lost in their expressions on continental, regional and global issues. 

They seemed to have retreated to theorising, producing leaflets, selling food and artefacts sometimes at exorbitant prices, while admiring activists from the rest of the world.

There were, of course, a few exceptions. The usual activist suspects, in the names of Davinder Lamba, Zarina Patel, Zaid Rajani, Muthoni Wanyeki, the Rev Timothy Njoya, Kaari Murungi, Kepta Ombati, Cyprian Nyamwamu, Steve Ouma, Mwambi Mwasaru and others, found comfort in the bosom of their continental and global middle class allies and comrades.

The Kenyan secretariat of the WSF did, indeed, deliver the WSF. Prof Edward Oyugi, Onyango Oloo, Wahu Kaara and Oduor Ong’wen played their part amid allegations of nepotism and authoritarianism. 

These allegations seem unbelievable, It was unimaginable that these respectable activists hired their relatives into the secretariat of local WSF amidst critical national discussions on the Anglo Leasing scandal.

Kenyan activism is still alive and well, but we have refused to recognise it because it is from below. What has been ailing is the middle class activist spirit that had taken the lead during the Moi-Kanu regime and achieved great legitimacy from ordinary Kenyans.

It is the middle class activism that see-saws. The activism that we refuse to recognise is constant and consistent, and is from below — the very type of activism the middle class activists wanted to spark in the first place.

Those who went to the Bunge la Wananchi (the People’s Parliament) tent at the WSF must have experienced the activism of the youth in Kenya. Many of the speakers have been heard at Jevanjee Gardens in Nairobi. 

The idea of a people’s voice through their parliaments is spreading and is led by youth. To many of the middle class civil society organisations, the Bunge is a rag tag army of anarchists, adventurists and rumour-mongers, the same perception the Kenyan state has had of the middle class activists. 

The interventions of these young women and men in seminars have been greeted with typical middle class intellectual arrogance. What is clear is that this youth activism is visible and courageous and cannot be ignored.

At the WSF, a demonstration took place against Windsor and Norfolk food stands against the high prices both stands were allegedly charging. 

The activists also wanted food kiosks that were affordable to be given space at Kasarani. The Kenyan demonstration was joined by foreign participants at the WSF. The demonstrators had audience with the Kenyan secretariat of the WSF to make these demands. 

The day after the demonstration, the Windsor and Norfolk food stands were raided by children from the slums bordering Kasarani. The children’s raiding cries were, “We want food.” 

There are allegations that the demonstrators of the day before mobilised these children. Nobody knows this for sure, but what could not escape the eyes of an impartial observer is that the raids were planned and executed successfully. 

What is the future of this new activist spirit from below? It could be defused the way the Kenyatta regime defused it by setting up the National Youth Service. It could be defused in the manner Raila Odinga suggested to Narc that the youth be employed to construct roads in rural areas. 

Defusion, however, is mitigation of a problem, not its solution. The state may take the easy option and treat this spirit as yet another form of activism that is rattling a cobra and must be bitten! What is clear is that this spirit of activism from below is organising and demanding recognition by the middle classes. 

While in the yesteryear, activist from below provided cannon fodder for middle class projects, this new spirit of activism is demanding equality in its propagation of its vision, mission, ideology and politics from below.  
 
Mr Pinto is a political scientist working in Nairobi.