How Politics has chained Activism in Kenya

Activist Boniface Mwangi being confronted by a police officer in a past protest. [FIle, Standard]

Many Kenyans cannot tell apart activism from politics and vice versa. Sometimes activists launch offensives against political elites. Other times, and these are many, we have witnessed activism sleep with politics. Whenever activism compromises, the ‘third sector’ aka civil society, suffers. It is a tragedy of capture of the activism in this land.
 

Last week, I visited my alma mater Egerton University, for a saunter. Along the tree-flanked boulevard to the institution, I saw haustoria (modified roots of a parasitic plant) piercing through stems and birthing for themselves healthy foliage. Just as these parasitic plants thrive on water and nutrients, politics colonises activism from the host tree. At least going back to the 1990s clamour for multipartyism, we have evidence to support this claim.
 

Observably, the 1990s activism sought coalition with politics. It was one deadly mistake because any symbiotic relationship between the two is susceptible to turning parasitic. Whenever activists get into elective politics, political heavens pull a red alert.
 

Charles Blow, a television commentator, in an article titled, ‘Obama’s curious cautiousness’ in the New York Times, remarked: “There is a reason most of our greatest activists in America never became politicians: They would have to compromise too much of themselves and their cause.”
 

This claim is subtle and cryptic. A similar argument is made by Jeffrey Ogbar, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut in his article ‘Activism is politically essential to society. He avers that “holding an elected position [for an activist] requires a willingness to engage in a range of compromises, power-sharing, deal-making, quid pro quo efforts with a cross-section of interests — often in conflict with each other.


 

Mr Blow and Mr Ogbar speak to the Kenyan situation as well. We have numerous examples of activists who once went into politics. Politics lured them the way vicious generals are lured into placidity by their weak wise opponents. Going by Abraham Lincoln’s assertion, politics destroyed activism (its enemy) by making them friends. That is how activists like the late Nobel laureate Prof Wangari Maathai, Martha Karua, Paul Muite, Kivutha Kibwana, James Orengo, Gitombu Imanyara got into politics full throttle in the 1990s and held elective and appointive offices.
 

While some of them have made excellent contribution to the country’s governance, others compromised so much of their principles that they find it difficult to speak loudly as activists. Like the Judaic angels who did not keep their first estate, such activists will be bound in everlasting chains of politics until they learn to stick to their calling.
 

But why do activists slip into politics? In most cases, activists seek what they aren’t supposed to seek from citizens—populism. Ordinary citizens, and they are many, are dependent minds. Citizens are highly vulnerable to political parasitism by choice. In this country, to the surprise of many activists, citizens sign into enslavement.
 

That’s not unique to Kenya though. It is the nature of citizenry all over the world—be it in the sophisticated streets of Tennessee, Georgia or Florida in the United States or Castle Combe’s thoroughfare in England or even the York’s Shambles of medieval Britain. The electorate behaves like an imprudent young rat that cuddles a cat and calls it mother.


 

Human rights activists address a Press conference at Uhuru Park in Nairobi in protest against Covid-19 billions' theft. They were teargassed and some arrested. [FIle, David Njaaga, Standard]


Here are a few things that make politicians and activists incommensurable. Politicians are populists in their way of doing things, but activists must not seek populist gains. Activists are supposed to be lovers of truth and justice for all—both the great and the wretched of the earth.
 

Right and wrong
 

While politicians prefer playing the middle grounds and compromising some ideals to please the masses, activists uphold the principles of right and wrong. Activists draw a clear line between what is right and what is acceptable regardless of numbers. They have no space for a middle ground and the philosophy of virtue lying at the centre.
 

John Githongo well illustrated the water-oil relationship between activism and politics. When he was appointed Governance and Ethics Permanent Secretary, he witnessed massive looting of public coffers in what came to be known as the Anglo Leasing scandal. Being an activist, he could not understand them! He lost them! He could not join them! He let his legs off the plane and chose to resign.
 

From Githongo’s action, it is clear that while a politician can navigate the system and hold nose for corruption and injustices, dedicated activists oppose the system if they deem them immoral.
 

Isn’t it time for activists rethink their relationship with politics?

 

Dr Ndonye is a Political Economist of Media and Communication

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