Rejuvenation of Jubilee Party ideals on the cards

Ruling political parties in Africa that are seeking longevity and effectiveness are busy recasting themselves in the light of changing global power realignment. Kenya's Jubilee Party is one of them and it seems serious about learning from others. It sought out the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa for being the oldest continuity party in Africa. As a ruling party, however, ANC is of the same age as Rwanda’s Patriotic Front (RPF). Jubilee leaders also went to Kigali to find out how President Paul Kagame does it.

Jubilee is also interested in the success and longevity strategy of the most powerful political party in the world, with nearly 90 million members. This is the Communist Party of China (CPC), which is turning Beijing into a global geopolitical hub with its twin focus on the One Belt One Road initiative and the Common Destiny of Shared Values. This was not the case back in the 1960s.

Then, Communist China was just one of the powers competing to have a foothold in Kenya. It quarrelled with its ideological neighbour and inspiration in the north - the Soviet Union - which was the pre-eminent interpreter of Marxism-Leninism when applied to the Third World environment.

Moscow and Peking accused each other of deviating from Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy and even exchanged border gunfire. And China could hardly compete in propaganda warfare with the United States as John F. Kennedy’s “peace corps” flooded newly-independent countries with idealistic young men and women. China was tearing itself apart and its attempt to export “revolution” was rebuffed, with Kenyans asserting that they already had a revolution in the Mau Mau war.

Kenya's appeal

At the time, Kenya was a magnet for ideological forces trying to claim positions of influence. In part, this was because it had the Mau Mau 'revolutionary' war, one of only two 'revolutionary' wars in Africa. The other was the Algerian war against the French. Together, they dismantled territorial colonialism and attracted much “revolutionary” attention. The two wars led the two Cold War protagonists, the US and the Soviet Union, to turn their attention to Africa for potential influence.

European imperial blunders enabled the two countries to make serious Cold War inroads in Africa. They often offered help in education and assorted training that included airlifts, building institutions in situ. Kenya received both the airlifts and training institutions. The Lumumba Institute in Ruaraka was one of them.

The Soviets were on a revolutionary high as they exploited the West's killing of Congo’s Patrice Lumumba to win African friendship. They even created a Lumumba Friendship University in Moscow to teach party students the finer points of Marxist-Leninism. At independence, Kenya’s ruling party, Kanu, supposedly led by anti-imperialist firebrands Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was seemingly ready to partake of Soviet party training generosity. This was in the form of opening up the Lumumba Institute.

But something went wrong when, as far as Kanu was concerned, the institute deviated from its core mandate of training Kanu party cadre. Lecturers seemed confused about their assignment - to strengthen the party structure and policies but not engage in Kanu’s internal power struggles. Having failed to read the country’s political mood, the Kanu government unceremoniously closed the institute with its Marxist-Leninist ideologues.

Best friends

More than 50 years since then, China and Kenya are now the best of friends in a world of power realignment. The Chinese are taking control of global power realignment, having learned from the mistakes of the 1960s, and are surpassing the Soviet Union and the West in terms of credibility by not stressing ideological dogmatism.

Kenya finds China attractive because they have points of interest convergence. Both claim to be 'socialist' countries, only that the socialism has either Chinese characteristics or a Kenyan twist in 'African socialism.' In both Chinese and Kenya socialism, the emphasis is on wealth production. Both countries are currently led by focused sons of revolutionaries, trying to move beyond the achievements of their parents.

Kenya’s ruling Jubilee Party is interested in the Chinese ruling party's ability to govern over 1.3 billion people almost flawlessly for so long. The CPC has responded positively by offering to train Jubilee members and even to establish a party academy. When it is established, will the academy officials and lecturers understand the dynamics of Jubilee Party politics and thereby avoid the mistakes of the Lumumba Institute?

Mr Munene is a professor of history and international relations at USIU-Africa