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KSDA SITE UPDATE
http://www.kenyasocialist.org
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#Register Chama cha Mwananchi
#Union News
#KSDA’s Open Forum Link Launched
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June 19th 2004
REGISTER CHAMA CHA MWANANCHI
The Kenya Socialist Democratic Alliance (KSDA) has received disturbing
information from Mr. Stephen Kanyingi Njoroge, the Secretary General of
the newly formed Chama cha Mwananchi Party, that the Narc government
has refused to register the Party. Chama cha Mwananchi applied for
registration on January 9th 2004 but when a decision was made on the
application, the government decided not to register the Party. According to Mrs
Catherine Kaswii Nyihia, a senior Assistant Registrar of Societies who
signed the rejection letter, the party could not be registered because
the government “…has reasonable cause to believe that the interest of
peace, welfare or good order in Kenya is likely to suffer prejudice by
reason of your registration as a society”. In refusing the Party
registration, the government quoted section 11 of the Society’s Act.
When Chama cha Mwananchi tried to challenge the grounds upon which it
had been denied registration, they were told that the Party had been
denied registration because it had “Marxist leanings”. In an email dated
10th June 2004, Mr. Njoroge wrote: “Separately they told us that our
constitution had Marxist leanings and therefore they cannot register a
Marxist party in Kenya”. From documents that were presented to the
Registrar of Societies and which articulated the political line of Chama cha
Mwananchi, the Party does not have any Marxist position in politics.
Even if it had a “Marxist leaning”, it would be illegal for the Narc
government to deny the Party registration because the right to form and
register Political parties is enshrined in the Constitution. So far, Chama
cha Mwananchi has fulfilled all conditions necessary for registration
and it is difficult to understand why it cannot be registered.
Ideologically, KSDA has nothing in common with Chama cha Mwananchi.
But, just like many Kenyans opposed to former political control by the
Moi/KANU dictatorship, we will not hesitate to defend the Party’s right to
be registered so that it can practice politics freely and openly. Soon
after the introduction of political pluralism in Kenya, Dictator Moi
declared that “Ideological parties” would not be registered especially
parties that opposed “Parliamentary democracy”. The real intention of
this road-side declaration was to prevent Kenyan Socialists from setting
up a Party for registration to challenge the authority of capitalism.
The strategy was to block the introduction of Socialist ideas based on
the principles of a “Workers’ democracy” from challenging the distorted
“bourgeoisie democracy” the Kalenjin/KANU ruling class was using to
“suck the blood” of millions of poor exploited Kenyans.
It is this declaration that partly prevented Kenyan Marxists from
pooling resources at home and abroad to set up a Socialist Party after the
reintroduction of political pluralism because every conscious Comrade
knew that the security apparatus had understood Moi’s code words. There
was a general unease that any attempt to set up “an Ideological Party”
in Kenya would be liquidated directly or indirectly with a heavy toll on
the limited human resources even in the multi-party era. To send a
clear message that Moi did not want Marxists in politics after he was
forced by the mass movement to abolish the one party dictatorship, the
dictator banned Marxist literature from all institutions of higher learning,
public libraries and other archives and anybody who was found with this
kind of literature risked seven years in prison for processing
“seditious publications”. As a consequence, Left-leaning Kenyans who were at
home kept their cool while high profile Kenyan Marxists who had fled into
exile like Professor Ngugi wa Thiongo refused to return home because of
the uncertain nature of the new multiparty environment where not
everybody could practice politics at an organized level.
Why was Moi averse to Marxist intervention in Kenyan politics even
after the re-introduction of political pluralism? The answer is that the
dictator had noticed that during the struggle for political pluralism in
the 80s, almost every individual he murdered, crippled, maimed, sent to
prison, detained or forced into exile for political reasons had links
“with the Left” or was somehow associated with Marxist thinking. Ngugi
wa Thiongo, Mukaru Nganga, George Anyona, Raila Odinga, Willy Mutunga,
Onyango Oloo, Mwandawiro Mghanga, Anyang Nyongo, Titus Adungosi, Wafula
Buke, Shadrack Guto, Ngugi wa Mirie, Kimani Gecau, Achieng Odinga,
Gacheche wa Miano, Micere Mugo, Adhu Awiti, Okongo Arara and numerous
others who paid the ultimate price in the struggle for political pluralism
in Kenya were all associated with the Left, Karl Marx, Lenin or
Socialism. Although some of these fighters have retired or switched positions
by abandoning the ideological struggle, the role they played at that
time cannot be erased from history.
What was worrying to Moi was that he was facing stiff challenge from
the Left after he converted Kenya into a one Party dictatorship in 1981
in order to abort the formation of the Kenya Socialist Alliance whose
leader was pioneer Kenyan Socialist, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. The
underground Mwakenya Movement and other Leftist groups that sprung up
in the 80s to challenge the single party dictatorship were well known to
the oppressive KANU state apparatus as Marxist-driven vehicles.
Publications like Pambana, Mpatanishi, Mzalendo, Behind the Pretences, The
Frail Aide de Camp, Guerilla Warfare in Kenya and other mouth pieces of
groups like Uwake, Ukenya, December 12th Movement, Mwakenya etc that
were challenging KANU’s capitalist class rule minced no words as to who
was responsible. When the fear for Marxists assumed rabid proportions,
Kariuki Chotara, an illiterate member of the KANU ruling class, publicly
directed the Internal security unit to “arrest Karl Marx” since it had
been established that he was “responsible” for influencing both writers
of “seditious publications” and riots at the University of Nairobi.
This brief background is necessary because denying Chama cha Mwananchi
registration using illegitimate reasons and strategies that were
invented by a corrupt government that suffered defeat at the hands of the
Kenyan masses will not work in today’s Kenya. Mass consciousness around
political pluralism as a guarantor of competition of political ideas in
the marketplace is strong in Kenya and by denying Chama cha Mwananchi
registration, Narc politicians who have not yet spoken against this
violation are sacrificing their own credibility in a situation where mass
confidence in the Coalition has already waned. In fact, by falsely using
“Marxist leanings” as an excuse to deny the Party registration, Narc is
creating interest in Marxism especially among the radical sections of
the youth who will begin to question why Marxism is considered so
dangerous by the previous and current governments to an extent that a Party
is being denied registration even in the Narc era. KSDA will be there to
feed the ideologically thirsty and to show the way out of the
capitalist crisis. Our unequivocal position is that Chama cha Mwananchi has a
right to be registered as a political Party with or without “Marxist
leanings”.
From our view, to deny the Party registration is an abrogation of the
Kenyan constitution and a violation of the basic principles of
multiparty democracy which Kenya ascribed to and which Narc vowed to defend. The
blood that was shed, the hundreds of lives that were lost, the
political persecution and brutal torture that was endured by thousands of
Kenyans in police custody, prisons and detention centers together with the
naked human suffering that millions of Kenyans underwent so that Kenya
could become a multiparty State will all have been in vain if Chama cha
Mwananchi cannot be registered or if Kenyans cannot stand up to defend
the Party’s right to be registered. Instead of moving forward, Narc
shall have rolled the democratization process in Kenya backwards with a
very huge step. KSDA will not let this to happen without intervening.
Apart from the demand that Chama cha Mwananchi be registered, KSDA is
demanding that the decree by Moi that “Ideological Parties” be denied
registration be scraped because this decree is not consistent with
healthy multi-party politics. We are also demanding that the second decree by
Moi that “Parties that oppose Parliamentary democracy” be denied
registration be scraped to prevent partisan State bureaucrats from referring
to these illegal rules to deny new political Parties registration.
Further, it is our position that the banning of Socialist literature be
lifted so that Kenyans can be free to come into contact with Socialist
ideology, the only ideology which, we believe, will liberate our country
from the capitalist greed and exploitation that is ravaging our country.
As we challenge the refusal of the government to register Chama cha
Mwananchi, we are adding extra demands because KSDA practices “Ideological
politics” while the Alliance is advocating for the abolition of
“Parliamentary democracy” to be replaced with a “Workers democracy” that will
enable the working class to run society after overthrowing the stinking
capitalist ruling class running down Kenya. We are Marxists preparing
the ground for the Socialist revolution in Kenya, a process that will
take time but that will have to happen if the Kenyan masses are to be
liberated from the cycle of capitalist crisis that has systematically
converted a rich and resourceful country into a starving Nation full of
poor slaves being controlled and manipulated by the rich. The implication
of what is happening to Chama cha Mwananchi is that KSDA or any other
Socialist/Workers’ Party may easily be denied registration using rules
that were outlined by a dictator who has since been expunged into the
dustbins of history.
The refusal by the government to register the Party because of its
alleged “Marxist leaning” raises two major questions that begs for answers.
Are Kenyan Marxists out of the ring when it comes to registration of
political parties in the country? Are Kenyan Marxists still viewed as
dangerous elements who should continue to be kept out of organized
politics in the country?
Narc has too many failures and it is not in the interest of the
government to begin to attract new attention by violating the rights and
freedoms of Kenyans enshrined in the Constitution. Chama cha Mwananchi is
planning to take the government to court and as this process continues,
we encourage the Party to open a major campaign for its registration
because it has a right to exist legally and practice its politics in Kenya
without state interference. All progressive Kenyans, political
groups/Parties and the civil society should defend the right of Chama cha
Mwananchi to be registered. KSDA will do whatever it takes to challenge the
continued refusal of the Narc government to register the Party. We
say: Register Chama cha Mwananchi now!
Okoth Osewe
KSDA Secreatry