We are UnDWOKABLE and Completely UnDWOGABLE!!

Oloo Goes Two Strides Past UNBWOGABLE...


1.0. February 18th Should Be a Siku Kuu.



















I have four proposals:

1. Scrap Kenyatta Day.
2. Scratch Moi Day.
3. Proclaim February 18th as Kimathi Day
4. Declare October 20th as Wazalendo Day

While we wait for the Kenyan government to catch up with the Kenyan people why don't we go ahead and join other wazalendo who are ALREADY celebrating Kimathi Day today, Friday, February 18th, 2005?

Exactly 48 years ago, the British colonialists hanged Field Marshall Dedan Kimathi wa Waciuri at Kamiti prison. At the time he was killed by the imperialists, he was the Kenyan equivalent of Nelson Mandela-forget about that impostor called

Jomo Kenyatta who had DENOUNCED the Mau Mau in this July 1952 speech and later on sold out to the British while serving time in colonial dungeons.

Here is how one of his white colonial jailers remembers Kimathi's last days.

It is shocking how little Kenyans know about one of Africa's pre-eminent anti-colonial heroes.

How many Kenyans know when and where Kimathi was born?

Yet we can pinpoint the exact second and the exact location where

Princess Diana died and how
her Greek father in law was the mastermind of her untimely demise.

Who was Kimathi's mother?

What was the name of his father?

Yet we know the name of the dude starring
in the nuptials that launched Britney Spears'non 55 hour marriage.

Did Kimathi get married?

Did he have any children?

What was his educational background?

Yet we know all the words in
Sisqo's Thong Song.

How did Kimathi emerge as the leader of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army?

Yet some of us could rattle off the number of free kicks



Beckham has curled deviously past many a surprised goalie.

Fortunately, someone somewhere has stepped forward to SAVE YOU from acute embarrassment the next time your own kid, cousin, nephew or niece asks for your help with their "Do a Profile of Kimathi" homework.

Save face quickly by clicking here.

The other day, I practically called


John Githongo a British agent. Having come across this moving tribute to our heroes and sheroes, I am inclined to take SOME of my words back.

A news item in the Nation newspaper of Sunday, February 20, 2005 features revelations from Kimathi's widow,

Mukami that are startling-but only to those unfamiliar with Kenyatta's long history of duplicity.

When I was in Kenya in September and October 2003, I was talking to friends like

Njuguna Mutahi and new acquaintances like

Andiah Kisia about the search for Kimathi's remains at Kamiti. But veteran journalist Joseph Karimi has another theory-Mzalendo Dedan was buried at Langata, at least according to this 2001 piece.

The only problem with Karimi is that his credibility currently languishes at minus 26 ever since that fiasco when he tried to pass off a befuddled


Ethiopian farmer as long lost Mau Mau hero and Kimathi contemporary, Stanley Mathenge.

That travesty inspired one of my many digitals, as I mused on how we as Kenyans deal with our national legacy of the Mau Mau.

Earlier on the same theme had made me compose a Jamhuri Day poem about five years ago.

More recently, I was compelled to fire off an angry missive to the editor of the Daily Telegraph when I came across news reports of an aging kaburu spouting racist hatred against Kimathi and the movement he led...

Speaking of the Mau Mau, it is worth reminding the Edward Clays of this world that what the British did to Kenyans in the 1950s is far, far worse than the horrors of Abu Ghraib.








John Newsinger has documented these atrocities.





Did you know that the notorious Ian Henderson, the butcher of the Mau Mau went on to have a distinguished career in Bahrain after

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga had him deported in 1964?

Incidentally,were you also aware that it took the neo-colonial Kenyan political rulers FORTY YEARS to lift the colonial ban on the Kiama Kia Muingi?

2.0. What Happened to the Wahu Kaara wing of Katiba Watch?

These days, I cringe when I read some of the pronouncements from the constitutional pressure group known as Katiba Watch. When I hear certain men associated with that outfit pledge how they are going to "defend" to the death the reactionary clause that denies Kenyan women reproductive rights including termination of pregnancy services I keep wondering what happened to the most progressive, the most militant and most consistent voice that made me want to associate myself with Katiba Watch so much in the heady days of last summer?

Where is

Wahu Kaara and why has her feminist, anti-imperialist female voice been drowned by the bass baritones of right-wing nationalists and wishy washy male pro-lifers? Why is it that people like Mwandawiro Mghanga and Oduor Ongwen who used to be linked to the group are no longer seen or heard from during Katiba Watch affiliated events?

For a glimpse at the militancy, dynamism and ideological clarity of this Kenyan comrade, please click here to listen to this interview and then go to this link to drink in a continuation of the same flavour...

Many of you remember this online movie that was shot by activists in Nairobi during the Uhuru Park rally that was brutally suppressed








by goons in riot police uniform ordered into action by the Kibaki/Murungaru/Kiraitu forces

What was macabre was to realize that the a big percentage of those being tear-gassed had probably chanted "Kibaki Tosha!" singing "We are UNBWOGABLE" as they went to vote for NARC in 2002.

It has been more than passing strange, at the same time, to see the sullen reluctance of veteran Kenyan social justice campaigners many of them running their own NGOs and CBOs to come to the fore and bolster people like Wahu Kaara and other campaigners for a new democratic constitution.

I simply DID NOT BUY the EXCUSE from some of my very close comrades in Nairobi that they refused to go to Uhuru Park because of the "2 Rutos"-William and Isaac- insiders and left-overs from the Moi-KANU dictatorship. They could have been marching next to Wahu, next to hundreds if not thousands of other pro-democracy activists who too bore the brunt of the one party dictatorship.

To my mind, many of these comrades and friends have been abject FENCE SITTERS, unable to overcome their own political prejudices about the role of people like Raila Odinga in Kenyan democratic struggles and further hobbled by the fact that their pay cheques were essentially being signed by imperialist funders in places like Canada, the United States, the UK, Scandinavia and elsewhere and they have to be very careful about the ideological timbre of their public pronouncements.

But guess what?

It is now the foreign envoys of the UK, the United States, Japan, Canada, the European Union and elsewhere who SOUND as if THEY are champing at the bit IMPATIENT for some feisty mass action!

And that is why I have been completely UNSURPRISED to see people changing tack slowly. These days Makau Mutua is no longer an apologist for NAK, but on the contrary one of its most vituperative public critics; these days Prof. Kivutha Kibwana is no longer a Kibaki attack dog, but rather, one of the leading lights of the shifty so called "Third Progressive Force". I wonder, first, where are the First and Second Progressive Forces and whether or not Messrs. Mungatana, Kibwana and Co. are aware that the term THIRD FORCE is associated in African progressive circles with a shadowy RIGHT WING Death Squad bankrolled by the apartheid state in the closing years of white minority rule in South Africa.

I am therefore openly suspicious about the TRUE AGENDA of the recently formed, unfortunately named YELLOW Movement on Constitutional Review. Who is the GENIUS who came up with a name which is SYNONYMOUS with political cowardice? For the last two years these very same civil society groups have fought tooth and nail to defend the Kibakis and Kiraitus in opposing the Bomas process- even though some of them continued picking up their allowances regularly even as they rushed to the media to trash the constitutional conference as soon as they got back to downtown Nairobi after a session at Bomas.

Many of the people associated with the Kenyan YELLOW Movement regularly read the Kenya Democracy Project blog so I know they are already bursting with rage as they scan these very lines. If you find that upsetting, wait until I give you a massive coronary by asking you to HONESTLY answer the following question:

HOW MUCH OF YOUR AGENDA IS BEING DRIVEN BY THE MACHINATIONS OF THE WESTERN DONORS-and specifically the British, American, Canadian and European Union envoys?

I do not like political GOSSIP and that is WHY I am asking these questions LOUDLY and in the OPEN and in my own name so that you can know that yes, it is that "paranoid ultra leftist" in Canada who has the audacity to QUESTION the moral probity of the so called YELLOW Movement on Constitutional Review.

Believe me, I am TOTALLY JUSTIFIED to be skeptical, if not outright cynical. The Kenyan political scene is replete with copious examples of renegades, opportunists and fence-sitters wanaofuata upepo kama bendera.

More than that, we have seen, in other parts of the world, imperialists using NGOs and civil society movements to execute the uniquely early 21st century NGO coups like the recent example in Georgia and to a certain extent in the Ukraine and the leadership of people like Yushchenko is becoming more and more common place.

Closer to home, many progressive commentators (who hold no brief for the despot Robert Mugabe) have documented the role of the imperialists in the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe- transforming a once vibrant pro-democracy formation into a neo-colonial conduit riddled with unreconstructed and unrepentant racist Rhodesians. Patrick Bond and Masimba Manyanya in their book



detail not only the empty rhetoric of the neocolonial Mugabe dictatorship, but also of the imperialist clout behind the MDC.

Last July, when Shikuku, Mwachiro and other leading lights of Katiba Watch were sipping English tea with Edward Clay at a posh Nairobi hotel I loudly complained of a danger of the imperialists hijacking the Kenyan democratic movement. Very few people listened to what I was saying.

Today,I think that the danger is even more acute with the predominantly urban based Kenyan civil society organizations even hungrier for dwindling donor funds and starving politicians locked out by the greedy NAK bunch hankering for their turn at the till.

The subjective and objective conditions therefore exist for an imperialist designed, NGO orchestrated, Georgia/Ukraine style putsch against the tottering Kibaki regime.

A few days ago, I said that it was possible that certain mainstream Kenyan politicians and civil society figures could already be in deep conversations with certain Western donors on how to replace the discredited NAK bunch with a more amenable, technocratic and pro-Western clique that can efficiently implement a neo-liberal agenda of retrenchments, privatizations, tax vacations and anti-terrorist legislative measures in line with the geo-political machinations of international finance capital in the East, Central and Southern African region.

What has been interesting for me is to see the speed at which the so called YELLOW Movement has swung into action, given its notorious lethargy over the very same issues for the last two years.

I am yet to be convinced that any drastic changes in the Kenyan political leadership which happens in the next eight months will not be pro-imperialist.

These observations are based on the FACT that the Kenyan Left is practically non-existent as a vibrant organized force, despite the GAPING VOID, the HUGE CHASM that yawns and groans for a home grown national democratic movement.

That is why my challenge to my comrades and friends in the Kenyan civil society sector is to examine who their so called "allies" are locally and internationally. It never ceases to amaze me to find the Kenyan NGO heavyweights count among their most trusted and cherished confidants ALL the imperialist ambassadors- when they do not know a single trade unionist or reply emails sent to them by certain pesky Kenyan communists on matters about their own organizations. These same individuals, on their trips abroad to North America and Europe will remain cloistered in their hotels and barricaded in the offices of their overseas funders, studiously ignoring their Kenyan activist counterparts abroad and radical and progressive Americans, Canadians, Brits, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, French and other anti-imperialist fighters in the metropolitan North.

The Edward Clays, the Bellamys and the Jim Walls of Nairobi know exactly what their ideological agendas are in Kenya. They know that sooner or later, Kibaki will not be on the scene and they want to ensure that whoever comes to power is someone they can do business with. It is sad and unfortunate to see former socialists and ex-Marxists, participate directly or indirectly in a long term agenda of recolonization of Kenya.

That is why it is very important to think very soberly right now, when the Kibaki regime is tottering on the brink of absolute annhilation.

One of the questions we need to ask is this:

Who will be the primary change agent in Kenya?

The imperialists and their embassies in Nairobi or the Kenyan wananchi?

What are the implications for Kenyan progressives allowing themselves to be swallowed by the populist twaddle and double speak emanating from the mouths of Edward Clay and his ilk?

In Haiti as we speak, a former US ambassador of that tortured Caribbean nature is one of the veteran founders of the Haiti Democracy Project! We know it is not that far-fetched you know. Remember the original FORD. The former editor of the anti-communist far right Washington Times was one of its chief mentors! That's right- I am talking about Smith Hempstone, the former US ambassador to Nairobi who got such uncritical star billing when he ripped into Moi back then in 1990. Today Edward Clay is doing the same thing and people suffering from political amnesia think it is all a coincidence. Think again folks.

On a lighter, more paranoid note, I have always found it weird that some of the acronyms of our parties resonate with such obvious US echoes-FORD (GM, Chrysler anyone?) DP(are there any Republicans in the house?) NARC(how about HUD, CIA the FBI?). Anyone who has even a cursory curiosity in branding techniques will know that marketers spend months and months fussing over not just the name, but the sound of a new brand. I can safely predict that the next mainstream so called pro-democracy grouping will also have this Gringo resonance....

3.0. We Are More Than Unbwogable: We are Now UnDWOKABLE and Completely UnDWOGABLE!!

three years ago we chanted the lyrics of






Gidi Gidi Maji Maji's song UNBWOGABLE:

who can bwogo me?
who can bwogo me?
i say who can bwogo me?
i am unbwogable!
who can bwogo me?
who can bwogo me?
i say who can bwogo me?
i am unbwogable!
at the same time we sang hopefully the entire stanzas of the pulsating RKK tune:

rkk-rudisha kila kitu

yote yawezekana

bila moi
yote yawezekana

bila kanu
yote yawezekana

bila uhuru
yote yawezekana

bila kanu
walimu watalipwa

bila moi
watoto watasoma bila moi
harambee tutafanya bila moi
barabara tutajejenga bila moi
yote yawezekana bila moi
yote yawezekana

bila kanu
yote yawezekana

bila uhuru
yote yawezekana bila kanu
uchumi tutainua bila moi
madaraka tutapata bila moi
amani tutapata bila moi
tutasimama imara bila moi
yote yawezekana bila moi
yote yawezekana bila kanu
yote yawezekana

bila uhuru
yote yawezekana bila kanu
maji tutafikisha mashambani
sitima mtapata mashambani
ufisadi tutamaliza bila moi
umasikini tutamaliza bila moi
unyakuaji wa mashamba tutamaliza
vita vya ukabila tutamaliza
nayo katiba mpya tutapata
nayo maendeleo tutapata
yote yawezekana bila moi
yote yawezekana bila kanu
yote yawezekana bila uhuru
yote yawezekana bila kanu
yote yawezekana bila moi
yote yawezekana bila kanu
yote yawezekana bila uhuru
yote yawezekana bila kanu...
in february two thousand and five
we notice that
mwiraria hajarudisha kila kitu
murungaru hajarudisha kila kitu
ndwiga hajarudisha kila kitu
three years later we discover
hakuna chochote chawezekana na kibaki
so we begin to sing a new song:
yote yawezekana bila kibaki
yote yawezekana bila murungaru
yote yawezekana bila kiraitu
kibaki told the teachers to forget about being paid
narc has smuggled back school fees through the back door
the economy is in shambles
peace does not reign in the land
tribal clashes have flare up once again
moi is no longer with us
but mwai is busy reading pg wodehouse
when he is not taking his twelve hour power naps
three years ago we chanted:
who can bwogo me?
who can bwogo me?
i say who can bwogo me?
i am unbwogable!
who can bwogo me?
who can bwogo me?
i say who can bwogo me?
i am unbwogable!

this year we chant in unison:
tumechoka!
tumechoka kudanganywa tumechoka!
tumechoka!
tumechoka kusalitiwa tumechoka!
tumechoka!
tumechoka kugongwa na kupunjwa tumechoka!
hatutaki!
hatutaki walanguzi na matapeli hatutaki!
hatutaki!
hatutaki machungudoa na magagula wa kisiasa hatutaki!
tumekataa!
tumekataa ujambazi wa kisiasa tumekataa!
tumeamua!
tumeamua kujiamulia nafsi yetu tumeamua!
tumeamua kuwafukuza madarakani akina kibaki tumeamua!
twasonga mbele!
twasonga mbele na harakati za kidemokrasia twasonga mbele!
tumesimama wima!
tumesimama wima kama mnazi tumesimama!
who can dwoko us?
who can dwoko us?
we say who can dwoko us?
we are undwokable!
in two thousand five we sing in chorus:
yote yawezekana bila mwai
yote yawezekana bila ukabila
yote yawezekana na ukenya
who can dwoko us?
who can return us to the dark days of the dictatorship?
who can dwoko us?
who can dwoko us?
who can dwoko us?
we say who can dwoko us?
we are undwokable!
who can return us to the sordid years of betrayal?
who can dwoko us to the comical days of sycophantic praises?
who can dwoko us to the kenya without a katiba mpya?
who can dwoko us?
who can dwoko us?
we say who can dwoko us?
we are undwokable!
we are undwokable!
we are undwogable!
we are undwokable !
who can dwoko us?
who can dwoko us?
we say who can dwoko us?
we are undwokable!
we refuse to go back to the one party dictatorship
we refuse to go back to neo-colonial fascist repression
we refuse to go back to wanton looting of the treasury
we refuse to go back to tribal clashes
we refuse to go back to retrenchments
we refuse to go back to unemployment
we refuse to condone the continued rape and violence against kenyan women and girls
who can dwoko us?
who can dwoko us?
we say who can dwoko us?
we are undwokable!
we are undwokable!
we are undwogable!
we are undwokable !

Today we sing one of our new anthems, Jivunie Ukenya by Nairobi based Kenyan revolutionary underground hip hop group, Sinpare.

And this becomes ever apparent as we spy from afar, the shenanigans of the NAK parvenu schemers in the process of self-combustion. As we watch their suicidal moves, the words and music of Sinpare are reverberating inside our heads as remembered what they had do say in another militant, ideologically charged, class conscious tune about Mapebari...

It is partly because of this that we are completely sympathetic to the sentiments that must washed over

Njonjo Mue in the split second BEFORE he decided to scale that fence, grab that penant and slap that minister's assistant.

On Valentine's Day Kibaki had a chance to get it right, but he blew it in a MAJOR way prompting some of us to tell him in English and Kiswahili that his days were numbered in a very LITERAL sense.


What lurks ahead?

Briefly:


Progressive Kenyans must take the LEAD in fighting for national democratic renewal in this country. Clearly, the major mainstream players will not, on their own, and of their own volition, push our freedom struggle forward. They are too busy cutting poltical survival deals. We can not AFFORD to cede this crucial, PATRIOTIC task to Western Donors who even now, are ONLY TOO GLAD to play the role of conquistadors and liberatodors, fighting our own battles for us. Let us avoid the pitfalls of the Zimbabwe reform movement.

There must be an ORGANIZATIONAL,POLITICAL and BROAD practical attempt to bring the various fractions and factions of the Kenyan Left together, no matter how amorphous and ideologically confused they happen to be at this very instant.

Let us NOT FORGET that the most demented and diabolical plot dreamt up the greediest members of the NAK gang does not even come close to the naked imperialist agenda of the Western Donors. That is why we must be doubly worried when we see that Clay et al are trying to sing from the same hymn books(metaphorically speaking) of the Kenyan social movement-or vice versa. So even as skewer the noxious two faced canards being roasted and boiled in the overcrowded kitchens of Ikulu, let us remember that Mwai Kibaki, no matter how venal and mentally incapacitated, had the saving grace of being elected with an overwhelming majority by millions of KENYAN voters, as opposed to haughty European diplomats, in December 2002 and that we simply cannot undermine or undercut that democratic experience by participating in an undemocratic, Anglo-American Canadian-German-French/Japanese coup de tat- even when such putsch comes to shove courtesy of thos "progressive" middle of the road, monetarist civil society actors who run all those NGOS floating with donor money.