Dalliance with communists alarming

 

Adage has it that a man is as good as the company he keeps. Friendship has a way of rubbing off on one, either improving or corrupting morals and attitude to life.

It is in this light that I am led to muse over what will arise from the camaraderie between the Jubilee Party and the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The ideals of the two stand worlds apart, yet it would seem a working relationship is being cobbled out of it. The question is, how will it impact on the country should Jubilee extend its rule beyond 2016?

The Chinese Communist Party was represented during the launch of Jubilee at the Kasarani Stadium on September 10, 2016. Party diehards hailed it as a milestone. Last week, Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi led a delegation of Jubilee officials to China believably to further bond the ties of friendship.

It would be fallacious to assume CPC seeks to learn from Jubilee in terms of political organisation, trade, foreign policy or governance, but the reverse holds true.

An alliance with Jubilee, and given Kenya’s strategic geographical location and influence in Africa, could simply be used to spread Chinese influence in Africa as China seeks to dislodge our traditional partners; the West and America. There is a parallel in militant Islamists and Communists, both of whom are seeking to vanquish Western democracy and values.

Chinese communism stretches back to 1949 when Mao Zedong, then the communist leader, proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) after a successful revolution in which the Nationalist Party was defeated in a drawn-out civil war.

Needless to add, the Nationalist Party had been distracted and weakened by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Perhaps this uninterrupted run by CPC and lessons learnt so far are what prompted a Jubilee mandarin to aver Jubilee will rule for the next one century.

Early this week, Opposition leader Raila Odinga was in England where it is reported he urged foreign powers to fund opposition parties in Africa. That immediately gave Deputy President William Ruto ammunition to fire a broadside at Raila.

In a way, however, it evoked memories of the Chinese reaction to the reception of the Dalai Lama (leader of Tibet) in Washington in 2010. The Chinese protested and threatened America with repercussions but Washington ignored them.

The Tibetans struggle for self-determination exposes gross human rights violations by CPC. In his book ‘The Black Book Of Red Terror’, Jeremy Reedy writes that communism has killed at least 65 million people in China alone.

Globally, the author says communism has killed at least 100 million people. Juxtaposed with recent claims by human rights watch groups in Kenya that extra judicial killings and enforced disappearances had claimed not less than 300 people in a couple of years, there is cause for worry.

While Kenya has no State religion, it observes the freedom of worship. Contrariwise, Communism denies the existence of God. China would offer paradise to a handful of Kenyan atheists who want to expunge the word ‘God’ from our national anthem, even burn houses of worship. Communism is moulded more on hero worship.

Interestingly, it is this concept of hero worshipping that brought about the disintegration of the defunct United Republican Party. The National Alliance party did not fare better. With Jubilee, one only needs to listen to the rants of women leaders who threaten to strip naked in protest against those opposing their hero.

It is absolutely impossible for their male counterparts to string a complete sentence without the word “Uhuru”. Sadly, loyalty is to the individual, not the country.The Communists’ denial of God and by extension the biblical Ten Commandments, simply means morality is not much of an issue. If anything advances the cause of communism; whether plunder, murder or perjury, so be it.

In typical communist fashion, our Government has severally attempted to muzzle the press. In 2014, ‘Reporters Without Borders’, a watchdog group based in France, ranked China at position 175 out of 180 on the press freedom index. Communists believe a free press undermines their authority hence the need to control it.

It is exactly this that the Security laws (Amendment) Bill 2014 sought to do. China routinely jails bloggers, journalists and activists whenever they rub the authorities the wrong way. That is gaining traction here too.

Communism brooks no challenge; it is a mass enslavement median. We must be wary of communist influences on our leaders who, increasingly, display a form of authoritarianism that is not in keeping with our constitution. The political, even personal intolerance we witness bodes ill for national unity.