04/08/2020
Kenya is today a police state run by a mafia-like clique of self-serving politicians-cum-businessmen. Jomo Kenyatta, two-time betrayer of the Kenya masses (in 1953-4 at Kapenguria and 1962-3), largest African landowner in Kenya, leader of the new Black bourgeoisie and of the corrupt bureaucratic bourgeoisie which comprises the government, was described to me in 1962 by Pio Gama Pinto - then editor of Sauti ya Mwafrika and a top Kenyatta advisor - as simply an "amoral man". Pinto was assassinated by the regime on 24 February 1965 and Kenya has yet to replace him.
Towards the thousands of freedom fighters who fought in the forests, reserves and towns during Kenya's "Mau Mau" revolt, the Kenyatta regime has shown nothing but scorn and contempt. This became clear in a speech by Kenyatta shortly after his release in 1962. At Githunguri, an African run Teacher Training School turned into a butchery during the revolt, where over one thousand Kikuyu were hung by the British forces of law and order, Kenyatta referred to Mau Mau as "...a disease which has been eradicated and must never be remembered again" (East African Standard, 10/9/1962). For those who remembered the promises of the revolution, to which the detained "leaders" paid lip service on the eve of "independence", the repression was swift and severe.
Karari Njama, co-author of Mau Mau from Within, described the situation to me in a letter dated 12 July 1965.
The Kenya revolution is now a mere history covered by a sweeping statement that everyone fought for freedom until we grabbed it from the Colonial Imperialists - and that no forest fighter should call himself a freedom fighter. This being strongly advocated by the Government shows that the forest fighters' past service is not appreciated. I am filled with great regret on realization of the fact that the forest fighters' survivors, the widows and orphans of those who volunteered to sacrifice their lives in order to liberate the Kenya nation from colonial rule, have no place to enjoy the fruits of their fallen parents' and husbands' labour. Indeed, many of them are still jobless, landless and hungry as before. And worse, they are covered by shame because of their participation in our unrecognized fight for freedom. The realization that nobody now admits to having promised them that they could occupy the stolen land if they could get rid of the white settler is a shocking one. The Government has ruled that there is no "free land" and that anyone who wants to occupy land would have to buy it direct from the settler or from the Government - which will buy it from the settlers and then sell it to peasant farmers. The peasant who succeeds in getting land would then get a loan from the Government to develop his farm.
Please note that last year a number of Mount Kenya forest fighters, who had remained in their hideouts for the last eleven years before independence, returned to the forest and stated that they wouldn't come out again until they were given free land which they were promised and which they had fought for for eleven years. The Government sent its forces to Mount Kenya with authority to shoot them as "enemies of peace". Their leader and three others were shot dead; the rest surrendered. Government threatened all the other forest fighters, warning them that if they wanted anything free they had better go back to the forests and be prepared to fight against the Government - which was quite strong enough to combat them. One Member of Parliament criticised the Government for this and he was dismissed from his position as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education. He was rebuked as being anti-Party, anti-Government, anti-President and an advocate of imported Communism.
The story of "Mau Mau", Kenya's peasant revolt of 1952-56, as well as its aftermath in the years leading up to and following the "granting" of independence to this British colony, should be studied carefully for the lessons that can be learned from such bitter failures (Odinga O. Not Yet Uhuru, 1967).
Political independence without genuine decolonization and socialism yields continued misery and oppression for the peasant-worker masses.. caught up in a web of neocolonial accomodation after long years of struggle.. they and their children will be forced to fight again.
Don Barnett
Vancouver, B. C.
11 September 1972
