By Wafula Buke Can President Uhuru Kenyatta immortalize Kenya’s progressive history as recommended by TJRC? Renowned journalist David Lamb (1987) poetically captures abuse of memorialization in the Central African Republic in the most self-explanatory manner. On the occasion of the coronation of Jean Bedel Bokasa who wanted to replicate the glorious adventures of Napoleon Bonaparte, he decided to upgrade himself from ‘President for Life’ to ‘Emperor’. “A voice boomed over the loudspeakers” announcing his arrival for the event. “Bokasa entered the Bokasa Sports Stadium which was next to Bokasa University on Bokasa Avenue a stone throw from The Bokasa Statue.” Back in Kenya, we have a perfect replay of the same exercise in nomenclature as exemplified by the following report. “In April this year, Uhuru Kenyatta addressed parliament, where Jomo Kenyatta was buried, opposite the Kenyatta International Conference Center, a stone throw from the Kenyatta statue (at KICC), meters away from Kenyatta Avenue which is next to mama ngina kenyatta street and exactly one kilometer to the Jomo Kenyatta Memorial library. Thereafter, Mr Kenyatta’s motorcade headed to Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) after a brief stopover at Kenyatta University where he gave away several thousand shilling notes bearing Kenyatta’s picture before proceeding.” If the same literary effort is directed at former President Moi’s dominance in this regard, it really gets absurd and scandalous to the collective intellect of the nation. First and foremost, we have the two national sports centers in Nairobi, Kasarani and Nyayo. Proceed to think about the many primary and secondary schools, and other learning institutions named in Moi’s honor in all counties. The only institutions that survive the naming epidemic are churches though several churches were opened by Moi and bear that inscription. Just about every institution has a building or something named after the retired president. Are these acts of generosity from Kenyans to deserving historical personalities or desperate attempts to fill moral voids and build cultism? Evidently, these are historical anomalies that have to be revised under Uhuru. Historical events and their protagonists leave impact on later generations in ways that call on us to exercise maximum care on what and how we immortalize historical occurrences. That Jomo Kenyatta was buried in Parliament when two of its members, Martin Shikuku and Jean Marie Seroney were in detention on his orders demystifies the lie that he deserved parliamentary space for burial. It will be recalled that the late Martin Shikuku after release from detention led a campaign to get the remains of Kenyatta transferred to Gatudu without success. As parliament continues extending constructions towards Kenyatta’s grave, one can’t resist reflecting on the value of Shikuku’s campaign for the transfer of Kenyatta’s remains to a “fitting site”. Does President Uhuru Kenyatta have the moral courage to address the matter if the implementation Commission declared it a historical error? What do the architects of this conduct hope to achieve by appropriating to themselves this space of the nation’s memory? African countries that have had leaders who have excessively grabbed historical space in the above manner have similarly been beneficiaries of other forms of grabbing. In a way their dominance in the above regard is directly proportional to their dominance in other spheres of life. In Kenya’s case, the Kenyattas dominate Kenyans in land and property ownership in general. Politically, they have had more than their rightful share in leadership climaxing in the return of Uhuru, Jomo’s son as Head of State. The Kenyatta and Moi families have a controlling hand in so much in our national life making it difficult to stop the spread of the naming epidemic leave alone changing the existing ones. The excessive presence in the public domain through names serves as a supporting superstructure to the control they command at the sub structural level of our society. Their values, ideas, vision and aspirations find excellent billboards in their names spread countrywide while their ideological competitors disappear into oblivion with all that they represent. Emerging generations compare their visibility to the oblivion of their opponents and resolve to draw inspiration from the wrong source. That is why the TJRC report represents a step in the right direction. For instance, by making Nyayo House a Monument of Shame as ordered by the TJRC, the nation is vindicating and appreciating the struggle for the second liberation by victims of the torture chambers in the 80s. Nyayo House will acquire a competing ideological billboard in the anti-Moi rebels who suffered at his hands in the same place. Kenya’s Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission conducted the most inclusive effort ever in reflecting on the subject and went further to give guidelines that would execute the will of the people as expressed in the 40,000 or so statements and memoranda. Towards that end, attention was consciously directed to gaps in our history such as those who shaped the politics Kenya but were muscled into oblivion during memorializing. It will be interesting to see how the Uhuruto administration complies with the TJRC recommendation seeking to raise ideological billboards that challenge the moral authority of their political lineage. Against this background, it is easy to project a rough road ahead for the implementation of the report under Uhuru.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 06:46:15 +0000
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