Have The Chinese Thrown A Life Line to Kibaki?

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Onyango Oloo Deciphers China's True Agenda in Kenya

1.0. Kenyans from the Mountain Should Denounce the Andu Aitu Arrogance Now:

I have a question for my comrades from the Gikuyu, Embu, Meru, Chuka, Tharaka and affiiated ethnic communities whether in Central, Eastern and Rift Valley Provinces or wherever in Kenya and around the world they be based. Yes, I am talking to you, Njuguna Mutahi, Micere Mugo, Kangethe Mungai, Nganga Thiongo, Kamoji Wachiira, Waikwa Wanyoike, Njeri Kabeberi, Ndungi Githuku, Wahu Kaara and yes you too, Kathure Kebaara with whom we have a fourteen year old son called Sankara.

Here is my question:

Why are you keeping quiet even as the

Chris Murungarus,

Amos Kimunyas,

Kiraitu Murungis,

David Mwirarias and

Mwai Kibaki plunge this country closer and closer to precipice of ethnic conflagration?

When will you remind Murungaru that he does NOT speak for the Agikuyu?

When will you tell Mwiraria that his interests are NOT synonymous with the interests of the Meru people?

When will you tell Mwai Kibaki that he was NOT elected as a Gikuyu President or a leader for the GEMA communities?

Comrades and friends from the Mount Kenya region: your voices must get louder in castigating the dangerous swaggering and posturing of haughty windbags like Amos Kimunya.

The other day, the beleagured Chris Muranguru chose to go on the radio and speak his mind. He did not choose the state owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation-even though he remains one of the most powerful ministers in the NAK ruling clique. He did not speak on the English or Kiswahili service of KTN, which has a national reach. He chose to take his message to Kameme FM-the Gikuyu language radio station.

Now there is NOTHING wrong with that-only that by CHOOSING Kameme, Murungaru targeted a Gikuyu speaking audience. He had a message to convey in Kikuyu to a Gikuyu audience. Nothing wrong with that-Ngugi wa Thiongo and Wahome Mutahi among others have had NATIONAL messages conveyed in the Gikuyu language.

But wait, there is more-someone I know likes to say.

Chris Murungaru who is a Mgikuyu serving in a cabinet which is largely seen be tilted to the interests of the GEMA elite had a very tribal, a very narrow, a very backward message to convey to his Gikuyu listeners.

What was that message?

He was ranting and raving against Sir Edward Clay. Again nothing wrong with that. Onyango Oloo has also been ranting and raving against the imperial arrogance of the British envoy.

I was just flabbergasted when I read a report of what Murungaru said on Kameme. To my mind, these sentiments were almost a bad, if not actually worse than the gaffe by Kiraitu Murungi about women who are only too willing to be raped.

So what did Dr Murungaru say?

Well here is a link to a report published on a South African web site.

Here are some consolidated quotes:

"This is a fight against the British and the Kikuyu. They previously divided our own between loyalists and terrorists and made us turn against each other. Today, they are dividing us using corruption and they want us to tear each other apart," he said. "The British high commissioner is spy number one fighting for the interests of his government. Edward Clay was appointed in 2001 but he never criticised the grand corruption that existed here during the Kanu regime. But now that it is a Kikuyu leading, his government is not happy since we are making international tenders for government contracts that were once exclusively British,"

Let us review that piece of TRIBAL UJINGA line by line.

Is Murungaru ACCURATE in saying that this is a fight pitting the British against the Kikuyus?

Is he trying to suggest that it is the Kikuyus, en masse who are implicated in corruption and that the British are targeting the tribe en masse?

Is Mwiraria a Mgikuyu?

How about his accomplices at the Coast?

Are all the principals named in AngloLeasing Kikuyus?

How about all the other scandals?

Is Murungaru therefore implying that when John Githongo resigned he was betraying the House of Mumbi?

Is that why Githongo feared for his life?

Was Murungaru planning to have the former Anti-Corruption Czar eliminated for ethnic treason?

Has there been an oathing ceremony among the Agikuyu binding each and every Mgikuyu to defend each corrupt practice by a Mgikuyu in the Kibaki regime?

Second piece of Murungaru CRAP. Is it true that it was the British who "divided" the Agikuyu and was the division between "loyalists" and "terrorists"???

Who were these "terrorists"?

Could Murungaru be referring, by chance, to people like General Muthoni, Stanley Mathenge, Karari Njama, Kimathi wa Waciuri and General Bamuinge as "terrorists"?

And could he be referring to sellout homungati collaborators like the Gethis, Mahihus, Hingas, Njonjos and Michukis as "loyalists"?

Loyal to who?

These are people who had betrayed their fellow Kenyans and a minister in so called independent Kenya still referring to them as "loyalists"???

Third piece of Chris gibberish...So when Clay says that Murungaru should be fired because he is one corrupt DOG, is the British envoy "dividing" Murungaru from say,

John Githongo or

Jane Kiragu who are both Kikuyus but want NOTHING to do with a corrupt regime?

Fourth piece of fear mongering baloney. Is Edward Clay the number one spy? Do you need to be a "spy" to spy the open corruption among the NAK parvenu thugs and hoodlums?

Fifth and the most odious piece of andu aitu drivel. So are Kibaki's critics right along when they say that his regime is actually a Kikuyu government? Is that why Murungaru went to speak to his fellow Gikuyus-because the British wanted to bring down a Kikuyu government? Some of us have been railing at Clay for trying to bring down an elected Kenyan government, kumbe all along Murungaru and company are busy defending this Kikuyu government?

Well, if the Kibaki regime is indeed a Kikuyu government as opposed to a Kenyan one, then it should be overthrown as soon as possible because I was not aware that millions of Kenyans who are not Wagikuyu stood in line for hours in Kisumu, Kakamega, Mombasa, Kajiado and elsewhere to elect a Kikuyu president. Let us refresh our memory. in 2002, the Kikuyu candidate went by the name of Uhuru Kenyatta and at one point Mama Ngina openly told voters in Gatunda that they should elect her son to prevent the Luos ruling through Kibaki.

As if that was NOT enough, we then see Amos Kimunya's rather strange call for the arrest of Edward Clay-an envoy who enjoys diplpomatic immunity. Today (Wednesday, February 23, 2005) Murungaru repeated the same junk - these are the people who have been obstructing justice on corruption scandals.

For what?

APPARENTLY, for the capital offence of stealing andu aitu corruption secrets.

Even the normally pro- NAK establishment Daily Nation came out with a scathing anti-Kimunya editorial.

To get an idea of how the Amos Kimunya angle is playing in Britain, take a look at how the conservative rag, the Daily Telegraph depicted the whole sordid scenario:



Kenya threatens to arrest British envoy for 'theft and corruption'
By Adrian Blomfield in Nairobi
(Filed: 23/02/2005)

Relations between Britain and Kenya plunged to their lowest point in decades yesterday after a senior minister in President Mwai Kibaki's government threatened to arrest the British high commissioner on charges of theft and corruption.


In an outburst reminiscent of an angry tirade by Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, Kenya's lands minister, Amos Kimunya, claimed that Sir Edward Clay had used stolen government files to prepare a controversial dossier alleging corruption in the cabinet.

Sir Edward has become the bane of Mr Kibaki's administration since he began a crusade against top-level corruption last year. This month he accused ministers of "massive looting" and said he had handed over details of 20 major scandals to the president.

The government was quick to brand Sir Edward "an incorrigible liar" and "an enemy of the state" but was alarmed by the overwhelming support he received among Kenyans.

In what amounted to the first tacit admission that Sir Edward's allegations were true, Mr Kimunya said senior civil servants leaked the details that formed the basis of the dossier. "The information was corruptly obtained," Mr Kimunya said. "He should be taken in."

Mr Kimunya is seen as one of President Kibaki's closest allies. Both men are members of the Kikuyu, Kenya's largest tribe. A cabal of Kikuyu ministers is accused of cashing in on a series of procurement tenders, costing Kenya up to £500 million half the government's annual budget since Mr Kibaki came to power two years ago.

It is unlikely that the government would be rash enough to fulfil its threat and breach diplomatic immunity by arresting Sir Edward. But there are signs that Nairobi is prepared to ignore international condemnation and assume a policy of defiance similar to that practised by Mr Mugabe.

In a worrying sign of a return to the repression that characterised Kenyan politics in former years, Mr Kimunya announced that all civil servants who leak information on corruption to foreign diplomats or the press would be charged with treason, a hanging offence.

The move is seen as particularly targeting the former head of the anti-corruption unit, John Githongo, who resigned this month and fled the country. His departure prompted the United States, Britain and Germany to suspend aid.

The British High Commission has ignored Mr Kimunya's threat but there is growing concern among the 30,000 British residents in Kenya that they could become victims.

Kenyan ministers claim that the British Government is behind all corrupt deals in the country and there have been veiled threats against British business interests.

There are fears that Mr Kibaki could seek to deflect anger among Kenyans by demanding the redistribution of white-owned farms, as has happened in Zimbabwe.

Kimunya's outburst was almost as in your face as Mwiraria's own defiant, I will NOT QUIT No Matter What defiant pep talk to the media.

Make no mistake- it is a coordinated NAK response, right from the top.

Mwai Kibaki publicly announced that he was going stand loyally by each and every corrupt minister in his discredited regime.

The clear message from Kibaki, Kiraitu, Murungaru, Kimunya and Mwiraria to their local and overseas critics is:

"FUCK YOU! The Andu Aitu Gang is in Power, Deal With It! If we feel like providing waivers for our friends, we will do exactly that! If we want to skim something off the top, kwani mutaupeleka wapi? Tunatamba kumanyoko zenu!"

You heard Kibaki ask Kimunya or was it Ndwiga sarcastically the other day:

"Kwani ulikula mbuzi ya nani? Whose goat did you eat?"

This massive TRIBAL arrogance, in face of the national outcry against the return of grand corruption is simply unbelievable.

Surely, Kibaki and his fellow thugs know that they have very little support within the country and that if an election was held right now, they would be completely vanquished.

As we speak, a contingent of Kenyans from the Mount Kenya region are on a 150 Km trek from Meru to President Kibaki's home town of Nyeri over some pressing land allocation issue. Clearly the bunch in power has very little in common with the interests of millions of ordinary Merus, Agikuyu, Embu,Chogoria, Tigania and affiliated ethnic groups from the Mount Kenya region on whose behalf they have so arrogantly arrogated the irresponsibility of looting and theft by public servant.

They know that they have zero credibility among the British, the Germans, the Canadians, the Scandinavians, the Japanese and the Americans.

So why are the Kibakis, Murungarus, Mwirarias, Ndwigas and Kimunyas so smug? Especially now, when 10 million Kenyans are facing starvation?



2.0. The Chinese Trump Card

The answer lies in the largest country in the world in terms of population- a country that has been experiencing annual economic growth rated hovering near 10%.

We are talking about China.

Here are some pointers.

A few days ago, the Chinese gave the Kibaki regime a huge gift in the form of special concessions for Telkom Kenya as you can in this story.

This commentary from South Africa does not mince any words in talking openly about China's quasi imperialist forays into the deepest Africa.

Another commentator from Namibia weighs in along similar lines.

China is ostensibly a socialist country-the ruling party is still called the Chinese Communist Party.

Anyone who has been following global events will not have missed the rather cozy relationships between China and US imperialism. In the 1960s, the conventional wisdom was that it was the Chinese who were to the "left" of the ideological spectrum in terms of the Sino-Soviet split and many socialist militants in Africa and Asia were proud to call themselves Maoists-seeing this as an intensfication of their Marxist-Leninist political radicalism.

In practice however, China did play right into the machinations of US led imperialism, acting as a counterweight against the Soviet Union in Asia even as the European Union consolidated itself visavis the Warsaw Pact states. The People's Republic of China benefited materially and politically from the Cold War and the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. In Africa we saw the strange phenomenon in Angola where the Chinese AND the CIA were both supporting the UNITA murderous thugs largely because the Soviet Union, East Germany and their allies at that time backed to the hilt the MPLA led by the communist physician-poet, Dr. Agostinho Neto.

One person who has looked closely at China's emerging dominance in the world today is the African-American progressive historian who happens to be a veteran member of the Communist Party USA

Gerald Horne. In the February 2005 issue of Political Affairs(the theoretical journal of the CPUSA) Prof. Horne has an article entitled Tug of War which shows the growing tensions between US imperialism on the one hand and European Union and the China.

In my view, Prof. Horne's article is one of the most insightful contributions offered in the ongoing debates about global power dynamics as we re-examine the nature of contemporary imperialism and geo-political situation globally. We therefore must transcend the easy reductionist appellations that is so tempting when we get intellectually lazy on the Left. An obvious pointer to this is the reluctance of France and Germany to play ball in Iraq even though both European states are imperialist to the core, with the government in France led by an unabashed right winger. The possibility of China hooking up with Malaysia and even Japan to create an Asian Monetary Fund is a scenario that even the most over-confident neo-con in Washington is likely to view with poorly disguised trepidation-especially if you throw in the fact that China is essentially helping to pay the expenditure of the US government through the Treasury bonds.

When one takes a closer look at Sino-Kenyan relations, one notices that things started going closer many years during the time of Daniel arap Moi.

In 2001 the two countries signed a pact on academic exchanges;in

April 2002 the Chinese Premier met with Moi on the same day that he met with Francis Ole Kaparo the speaker of the National Assembly; five months later the Chinese ambassador was outlining the broad areas of bilateral relations with Kenya; by March 2004, the Kenya Tourism Board was inking a deal with its Chinese counterpart and that is why when I saw the

Zeng Peiyan the Chinese Vice Premier being enthusiastically greeted in Nairobi the other day by Chinese nationals residing in Kenya waving KENYAN and Chinese flags, I knew that the guy was not just in town for the UNEP shin dig, especially since there was a
parallel China-Africa Environmental Cooperation Conference taking place in Nairobi at the same time.

And my hunch was right.

Today,(February 23, 2005)Zeng Peiyan called for enhanced ties with Kenya after meeting with Mwai Kibaki.

When and if we do get a Second National Carrier to compete with Telkom Kenya what are the chances of the tender being "won" by a Chinese entity? I want to bet that it will be better than 60%. Am I just talking through my non-existent kofia? Not really. I like looking at the implications of obscure hard facts-for example this small news item about a function that took place in the sleepy town of Thika last October which therefore does not make the big news of this week that surprising in retrospect. People like Ayisi Makatiani are already lining up to take advantage of this opportunity when it happens.

3.0. Chinese Foreign and Business Policies Towards Africa Are Opportunistic and Social Imperialistic in Character

Many years ago, when

Enver Hoxha(pronounced Ho-ja) the late Albanian leader used to rail against BOTH the Soviets and the Chinese for being "revisionist" and "social imperialist" I was not sure if it was not just ultra-leftist rhetoric. Today, with the Soviet Union gone with only bitter after taste left behind and China becoming prosperous at the expense of American workers and cheap African and Third World resouces-deftly moving forward with cynical alliances with union busting corporate behemoths like Wal-Mart, and cutting deals with shady African dictatorships like Zimbabwe, the Sudan and being involved in Sierra Leone and now getting ready to prop up the corrupt NAK regime in Nairobi, it is quite clear that China is "socialist" in name largely. Ironically, Wal-Mart recently agreed to unionize its Chinese operations, while being adamantly anti-union in North America to the extent that they shut down their operations here

in Quebec rather than countenance a unionized work-place.

Here is a synopsis of the book

China and Socialism new book that is being published in March 2005,by Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett:

The fastest-growing economy in the world today is that of China. For many on the left, the Chinese economy seems to provide an alternative model of development to that of neoliberal globalization. Although it is a disputed question whether the Chinese economy can be still described as socialist, there is no doubting the importance for the global project of socialism of accurately interpreting and soberly assessing its real prospects.

Hart-Landsberg and Burkett's China and Socialism argues that market reforms in China are leading inexorably toward a capitalist and foreign-dominated development path, with enormous social and political costs, both domestically and internationally. The rapid economic growth that accompanied these market reforms have not been due to efficiency gains, but rather to deliberate erosion of the infrastructure that made possible a remarkable degree of equality. The transition to the market has been based on rising unemployment, intensified exploitation, declining health and education services, exploding government debt, and unstable prices.

At the same time, China's economic transformation has intensified the contradictions of capitalist development in other countries, especially in East Asia. Far from being a model that is replicable in other Third World countries, China today is a reminder of the need for socialism to be built from the grassroots up, through class struggle and international solidarity.

A November 2004 report on energy security by the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security indicates that the Chinese quest for crude oil is what drives its renewed interest in Africa. And we do know that there is a serious prospecting for oil off the Kenyan coast which has been yielding encouraging results.

One can therefore assume that there is a confluence of interests between the national strategic interests of China(in terms of trade and energy security) and the need for the Kibaki regime to outflank its internal rivals and overseas critics to carve a Macchiavelian survival plan built in my opinion on a platform of andu aitu ethnic demagoguery, banking of the wishy washy political umalaya of the likes of Ndingi Mwana a Nzeki and other wobbly civil society figures, the opportunism of certain elements of the Nyachae linked Kisii elite, the power maniacs in the Biwott faction of the Rift Valley Mafia, the anti-Raila social climbers in Nyanza close to people like Raphael Tuju, Odongo Omamo and Dalmas Otieno and individual sell outs from the Somali, Maasai, Kalenjin, Dawida, Swahili, Mijikenda and Abaluhyia communities.

I am therefore revising my earlier prognosis regarding the catastrophe facing NAK, Kibaki and his acolytes.

I can now begin to appreciate afresh the open disdain and sneering posturings of the Kimunyas and the Murungarus.

On closer examination, one can see that the reshuffle in the Kibaki regime was only partly driven by donor pressure-it is an internal strategic realignement within the andu aitu MKM cabal. Michuki and Murungaru will actual wield greater power rather than less.

But there is a VERY BIG IF.

4.0. How the Wananchi Can Scuttle the Devious Agenda of the Corrupt Kibaki-Murungaru-Mwiraria-Kimunya-Ndwiga Gang

If all the political machinations happen ENTIRELY within the Kenyan comprador elite, then MOST DEFINITELY the andu aitu gang will survive because they realize like Mugabe that they can try to play the nationalist card(yes these offspring of the homungati who include Mau Mau era colonial police torturers like John Michuki will try to put on the "anti-imperialist" cloak). If all the so called "Yellow Movement" are waiting for is more vomiting speeches from Edward Clay, then we may as well give the NAK regime a second mandate.

But this particular gang happens to be even MORE UNPOPULAR than the Moi dictatorship- something that no one ever thought was possible. This is a selfish, narrow minded, elitist and tribal coterie who do not even have a mass base within their own ethnic constituencies.

That is why the real key to removing this Kibaki misleadership(make no mistake: THEY HAVE TO GO!) is not to be found in any of the lobbies of any of the embassies of the Western donors.

The answer lies in Uhuru Park, in Tononoka, in Kamkunji. The answer lies in mass democratic action.

China may plot with Murungaru and Michuki all they like- at the end of the day, if Kenya is ungovernable, they will be nobody to cut deals with. Those of us who are outside the country must start putting pressure on China to links its trade policies in Kenya to some social justice principles. We did that with apartheid South Africa- why not with a venal regime that happens to be headed by Black Africans?

This is where the roles of Kalonzo Musyoka, Charity Ngilu, Wangari Maathai, Raila Odinga, Koigi wa Wamwere, Musikari Kombo, Najib Balala, Kivutha Kibwana- if they were serious Kenyan patriots as opposed to people waiting for a signal from the imperialists, this would be time to go back to the mass wananchi base to the days of the UNBWOGABLE public rallies and demonstrations. If they stay within the coalition they will play into the devious hands of the NAK forces.

Will this actually happen?

Let's wait and see...


By the way, before I go, I have TWO poems dedicated to political fence-sitters.
Here is the first one. And you can click here for the second poem.

Onyango Oloo
Montreal