{UAH} Pojim/WBK: By seeing beyond his tribe, JM was simply trying to be a true Kenyan - Opinion - nation.co.ke

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/By-seeing-beyond-his-tribe/-/440808/2645096/-/uahm9qz/-/index.html

By seeing beyond his tribe, JM was simply trying to be a true Kenyan - Opinion

By MAINA KIAI
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Forty years ago, on March 2, 1975, the charismatic MP for Nyandarua North, Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, or JM, was brutally murdered.

His murder has never been solved, even after a parliamentary committee recommended leads that could have enabled accountability. That investigation found that powerful people in the Jomo Kenyatta regime knew more than they were saying.

We may never know the full truth of what happened to JM, as a lot of those close to power then are long dead. But there are a few still alive and one hopes that they will bequeath us with the truth of this and other political assassinations of that era.

But it is clear that this was a killing sanctioned by some very powerful people and that the entire state apparatus was used to cover it up, and continue the impunity that clouds our country so darkly.

JM left an indelible mark on Kenya, something his killers would not have expected. Songs were composed after his death, the most prominent — titled JM Kariuki — by Joseph Kamaru, which is available on YouTube.

Originally part of the powerful elite himself at independence — he was Jomo Kenyatta's private secretary, much like a personal assistant — JM endeared himself to ordinary Kenyans when he started questioning some of the excesses of the Gikuyu elite that controlled the security, and governance and commanded heights of the economy.

Virtually all the state-controlled financial institutions — from the Central Bank to the Kenya Commercial Bank to the ICDC to the AFC to the Treasury — were dominated by members of the Gikuyu elite.

Their mad rush to accumulate resources — at the expense of ordinary Kenyans, Gikuyu and non-Gikuyu alike — led to JM's most famous quote that Kenya risked being a country of "ten millionaires and ten million beggars."

How prescient he was! And today these inequalities make us extremely vulnerable as a nation and weaken our efforts to forge ahead. JM also remarked that the leaders had perverted democracy to be "Government by a few for a few on behalf of many, whether the many like it or not."

JM was bold, unafraid to speak the truth to power even when the power was the same ethnic group as he was. He saw Kenya beyond the tribe, something that few in power did at the time, which increased the revulsion from the powerful elite, for their hold on power depended on total and absolute loyalty from the tribe, pitting theirs against the rest of Kenya.

But JM was not alone in the Gikuyu community speaking against evils and questioning the idea of "speaking with one voice." Ngugi wa Thiong'o was emerging as an intellectual heavyweight clear about the need for more equality within Kenya.

Bildad Kaggia had suffered for daring to go against the political line in Gikuyuland; and within the universities there were young Gikuyu intellectuals — such as Micere Mugo, Kamoji Wachira, Mukaru Ng'ang'a and others standing up to be counted as Kenyans rather than Gikuyu.

But how times have changed since! A community that thrived in standing up for the poor, for Kenya as a whole, for dissent, has since seemingly been reduced to toeing the line, and speaking in the voice of the "leader." Never before has there been just the one "voice" that the Gikuyu community followed so meekly and obediently; pouring vitriol to anyone who dares to raise a different narrative.

I know, for every time I write anything that criticises Uhuru Kenyatta, I get a deluge of hate-mail from Gikuyu community members abusing me, rather than the ideas and opinions I am expressing.

But I know that anyone who sees Kenya as bigger than the tribe will eventually be proven right. The challenge is achieving this nationhood without more sacrifices: JM, Tom Mboya and the thousands killed in Wagalla, Kisumu and during the post-election violence should be enough.

By seeing beyond his tribe, JM was simply trying to be a true Kenyan - Opinion - nation.co.ke
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/By-seeing-beyond-his-tribe/-/440808/2645096/-/uahm9qz/-/index.html‎

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