Chicanery is not the way to gain power in any democratic state

NASA’s great talent is linguistic trickery. Using language in almost complete contradiction of the actions it puts in motion. They recall, if in milder form, the Trotskyist traditions of moralistic propaganda followed by bloody acts. Thus demonstrations are in reality riots — with the clear understanding that the latter is much more politically useful than the former.

Article 1 of the Constitution, which is clear on the people exercising their sovereignty through their elected representatives – in other words, marking Kenya as a constitutional democracy – becomes the faux-revolutionary democracy of the ‘Peoples’ Assembly’.

Civil disobedience, with its history of the powerless routing the powerful without violence, becomes a harsh incitement of vigilantism. An election boycott becomes the illegal and illicit acts that block – or attempt to prevent – the electoral commission from setting up for a legally-mandated election on October 26. Rather than allow the voting to be free, and then point to empty voting booths in Nyanza and parts of Western regions as a sign of a true boycott, NASA directly disenfranchises voters.

Violence and intimidation rule. Today, we have the boycott of well-known companies, launched with a nod and a wink since almost everyone with an iota of awareness knows this is a futile gesture. NASA supporters will not stop using M-Pesa, nor indeed will the coalition leaders.

What connects these actions is NASA’s need to give old-fashioned political brinksmanship a modicum of legality and moral cover. The risk, of course, is the unintended consequence. David Ndii’s lazily Googled “resistance” is actually damaging our business environment, to the detriment of the jobs and livelihoods of working-class Kenyans. Those young men in Kisumu burning tyres on the road are being given an altogether mistaken diagnosis of their situation; a diagnosis that will keep them disempowered and confused for years to come.

By the way, and to digress only briefly, kids, you can recognise a Googler, as opposed to a truly erudite and intellectually honest mind, from the number of quotes in an opinion piece. People who haven’t read and understood whole books, and the arguments they both contain and advance, tend to use lots of direct quotes.

The same indiscipline that afflicts its intellectuals explains why NASA cannot run a real civil disobedience campaign; at least, not one based on principled non-violence. ODM, after all, is the party of the 'Men in Black' who violently disrupt their own elections when the result is not favourable to the leadership. How, then, were they ever not going to use violence to disrupt elections in their backyard if the result was not expected to be favourable?

Principled non-violence is hard to achieve. It requires strong planning and organisation. Every site of protest must be carefully chosen, and the protesters prepared to remain passive even in the face of intimidation. It depends on a strong conviction that your opponents have a moral conscience that will be shamed and moved to change by your willingness to endure suffering to make your point. Think of Babu Owino, who is 'Baba’s' political offspring, as you try and compare NASA with the American civil rights movement of Martin Luther King. Did you just choke on your tea?

Moral consciousness

Non-violence as an effective strategy calls for a deep moral consciousness and committed citizenship; it will not work as well for secession and false claims of genocide. It demands that leaders lead from the frontline. Inciting young, jobless men to attack the police while their leaders hold press conferences in fancy hotels? That’s not the Martin Luther King way.

NASA heaps abuse on its political opponents; it uses lies and distortions to deliberately de-legitimise the police; and its leaders stand on platforms laughingly spewing hatred, while they urge a “boycott of Njeri”. NASA, you see, is not an honest outfit. It is a party of sore losers; political giants who have been shown the door; leaders who would poison the political well so that few, if any, leaders in their strongholds will be able to drink from it for years to come.

This “resistance wing” now wants dialogue of its own choosing. This, as usual, is linguistic trickery. What they really want is relevance, access to power, access to wealth-by-tender, and to try and hold an entire country to ransom. The best response from patriotic Kenyans would be to seal off the economy from these jokers; to laugh them out of the building; and to prosecute those who cross the line. But it remains for us all to prepare serious measures to reach out to the young men and women they have so grievously misled.

Mr Mabonga is MP for Bumula Constituency and a key observer of international affairs