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“If confusion is the first step to knowledge, I must be a genius” Larry Leissner
by Mohamed Mukhtar
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Mr. Kipkorir
You said your article about Somalia’s division had caused shockwaves across ethnic Somalis. Frankly, I was tempted to join the debate but find difficult to understand your views on some basic issues. I present here two of your writings without exposition and interpretation and let us know how you reconcile the two articles.
Failed state
You argued in your article – Views on Somali annexation have been misinterpreted – that: “Kenya, by all standards, is a state, while Somalia is a state in name only.”
However, at the beginning of your other article - At this rate, it’s about time we asked Britain to come back – you questioned if Kenya has a viable state: “We [Kenyans] need to ask ourselves if we have a nation-state capable of nurturing ideological or institutional development. We seem to be held in a hole and are continuing to go deeper.”
At the end of the article, you concluded: “Liberal democracy is the highest form of human political development, and this political thinking has certain mandatory imperatives that include the rule of law, a transparent and independent judiciary, a vibrant civil society, genuinely free and fair periodic free elections, accountability of security apparatus to civilian rule and applicable law and supremacy of and fidelity to the constitution. In Kenya, all these parameters are either absent or falling short. We are a long way away from meeting the barest minimum.”
So, Sir, do you mean Kenya also exists in name only?
Allegiance
You mentioned the importance of allegiance and the consequences of disloyalty: “One cannot carry a country’s passport and owe allegiance to another. This split loyalty brings to the fore the issues of tribalism, nationalism and patriotism.”
Yet, you told Kenyans where they should pledge their loyalty: “I propose that one of the options we [Kenyans] need to seriously mull over is that we pledge allegiance to London.”
So, Sir, you are Kenyan and you want to pledge your allegiance to London, what does that make you?
Tribe
You told your readers that state comes first for you: “Our loyalty is now to the state, and not the tribe, when the two conflict. My ethno-nationalist beliefs do not in any way undermine my loyalty to Kenya despite its imperfections. Nationalism is our spiritual consciousness.”
Nonetheless, when a friend of yours asked you what your political ideology was. You replied confidently: “Politics in Kenya has never been ideological and, therefore, Kenyans do not belong to the centre, left or right. Instead, we follow our tribal chiefs, whether they lead us up a rocky hill or down a ravine.”
So, Sir, were you a nationalistic man or a tribal man during the last crisis in Kenya?
Europeans
You blamed European countries including Britain for border conflicts in Africa: “When the European imperial powers divided Africa among themselves in the mid-19th Century, artificial state boundaries were imposed on us.”
Despite that, you glamorized Britain and, in fact, called for the replacement of the Kenyan flag with the British flag: “All these countries [Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Vanuatu], though independent, pledge fealty to the House of Windsor. And there are many reasons that compel me to appear so unpatriotic and to suggest that we swap our flag with the Union Jack. It is time we begged Britain to come back and even send a viceroy.”
So, Sir, do you consider Europeans as imperial powers or as saviours?
IGAD
You consider Ethiopia as Kenya’s strategic partner resolving Somalia’s problem: “Kenya and Ethiopia have a duty as the brother’s keeper to impose peace on Somalia — and annexation is one of the options... Kenya cannot make much progress as long as Somalia remains the sick man of eastern Africa, and Ethiopia cannot export or import goods as long as Somalia remains a failed state.”
But in your other article this is what you said about IGAD in general and Ethiopia in particular: “When I read in the media the other day that Igad member countries are sending Foreign ministers prop up the Annan initiative, I was torn between laughing and crying. Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda and Somali are failed states, and do not know the meaning of elections, and they are bottom in every global ranking of achievements. Their leaders are tin-pot dictators who brook no divergent view. Ethiopia restricts the use of mobile phones and camcorders. In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni is an emperor. God help us that these are the countries that wish to help us.”
So, Sir, do you impose others what you would not choose for yourself?
Re-colonisation
Finally, Sir, check if I have got the essence of your argument right: Somalis should come under Kenya’s flag. Kenyans should place themselves under the Union Jack. Isn’t that a call for re-colonisation?
Mohamed Mukhtar
[email protected]
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