{UAH} NRM: Revolutionaries or a bunch of charlatans?

NRM: Revolutionaries or a bunch of charlatans? By Macharia Munene | Published Mon, November 6th 2017 at 11:37, Updated November 6th 2017 at 11:41 GMT +3 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share on Facebook Share on Twitter There are times when individuals arise who in their minds feel bigger than themselves and plunge countries and communities into prolonged chaos in the name of the people. Some have magnetic attractions that at times make them develop messianic attributes and even assume they are divine. ALSO READ: Why Raila should not expect support from the West While they imagine themselves to be the new Moses, Joshua, or Mandela, however, they fall far short of the substance of such spiritual and political giants. Kenya has more than enough of such pretenders to greatness; their position as role models is negative. Kenyan pretenders are like those "revolutionaries" who portray themselves as liberators of something. The "revolutionaries" fall into two categories. First are those who are stuck in time as "revolutionaries" and become nuisances. Stokley Carmichael, a "black power" firebrand in the early 1960s, is an example. He changed his name to Kwame Ture and watched the 1960s and 1970s pass him by and became irrelevant because he did not adjust to the times. His speeches, a critic noted, degenerated into being "depressingly dead". He remained a relic of the 1960s and died in Guinea in 1998 still claiming to be "ready for the revolution". Obote reincarnates? Second, Kenyan pretenders are like those "reformers" who on tasting power evolve into tyrants. They are akin to Maximilian Robespierre, the leader of the Jacobins in the French Revolution, with his belief that "Terror is nothing else than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible."  The Jacobins inflicted so much terror that they ended up "eating" each other and gave the world a word for swift execution, the guillotine. They also admire and would like to imitate Uganda's Milton Obote who thought he was a "liberator" with his pseudo-socialism that reportedly turned him into "a socialist ogre". They recite Mao Zedung's slogan that a "revolution is not a dinner party" to justify blood sacrifice. They dance to Fidel Castro's "socialism or death" tune and imbibe his dictum that "a revolution is not a bed of roses. ALSO READ: Key issues that could form basis of presidential petition A revolution is a struggle between the past and the future" and then imagine themselves to be that future. Mao, Castro, and Obote have important admirers that are desperate to emulate them. Such admirers, imagining that they are Castro's mythical future, indulge in wrongness knowingly and hope to gain fame. They simply suffer from the malady of brilliant wickedness as they abuse their influence. It has, for long, been a global challenge on how to handle people who know they are doing wrong and still go ahead and do it. self-conceited In this, the appropriate advice is the one contained in Proverbs (9:7-10) not to bother correcting "conceited people" whose response would simply be insults. Powerful individuals, those with influence, subvert the rules and thrive in lawlessness, in operating outside the norms or rules, or in provoking conflict in order to get their way. People of influence subvert rules and thrive in lawlessness, Aurelia Augustine of Hippo observed, and are always "plotting to disturb the peace," so as "to fashion a new peace nearer to heart's desire." This allows powerful robbers to obtain obedience through "sheer brutality". Thus despite the common agreement on the rules of fairness in doing things, these are people knowingly violate those understandings, often get away with it, and boast about their achievements to destroy and destruct. ALSO READ: Raila Odinga endorses boycott as NASA set to name more products Lawless credo Kenya has an excess of such people who thrive on lawlessness, appear to be above the law, and get away with it. They are brilliantly wicked in manufacturing "crises" of political and violent types and then boast about their successes in incapacitating the state. The launching of NASA Resistance Movement and its commitment to destroy the economy in order to bring the government down or fragment the country is one such show. The noisy disciples or "generals", sound like Kwame Ture in Havana talking of "urban guerrillas" and "fight to the death." Question is; do those on the NRM roll call have Fidel Castro's magic? Are these would-be "revolutionaries" like Maximilian Robespierre, Milton Obote, and Kwame Ture. The three revolutionaries whose ends were tragic if not comical? And do they really believe that the people can buy their liberation narative? Prof Munene teaches History and International Relations at the USIU- Africa RELATED TOPICS: NRM national resistance movement Raila Odinga WATCH THIS NASA to unveil its national resistance movement SHARE THIS ARTICLE
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NRM: Revolutionaries or a bunch of charlatans? By Macharia Munene Kenyan pretenders are like those "revolutionaries" who portray themselves as liberators of something.

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