Extol bravery over personal ambition

By Okech Kendo

Just a few days on this side of the first Mashujaa Day, it would be unpatriotic to slant the meanings of such virtues as bravery, boldness, and courage as basic ingredients of heroism and sheroism.

To limit the meanings of these words to acts aimed at personal glorification is to abuse history as a record of feats, flaws, successes, and failures of actors who make history. Individuals who act entirely to boost personal ambitions cannot therefore be rated as heroes or heroines, unless the meanings of these words are downgraded to accommodate ‘affirmative action’.

For courage and boldness on a national scale demand much more than engaging in acts aimed at fulfilling personal ambitions. To be sure personal ends could inspire actions that could constitute heroism, but the weightier side of the scale should lie on the collective public good arising from such actions. The overall common interest in the results of ‘boldness’ is necessary for the rating the action and the actor.

Play sycophant

Kenneth Matiba became a national hero in 1990 when, along with others, he was detained for advocating for expansion of the democratic space through multi-party politics. He could be described as ‘brave’ and ‘bold’ because he was a very wealthy man, mobilising with others, to challenge the status quo.

The former minister, who became a permanent secretary while he was still under age 30, could easily have played a sycophant to protect his vast business, and political interests. He was a wealthy man rising against the system that had created him. Matiba chose to fight for the national good and became a national hero.

The former Kiharu MP was brave, bold and courageous.These character traits served the national interest in Matiba’s case. The clamour for multi-party democracy, which Matiba’s courage and clout gave new impetus, was a public cause for progressive Kenyans.

A man who knowingly jumps into a lion’s den may be brave, but he is by no means a hero. For he could merely be on a suicide mission or hunting for treasure he may believe is hidden in the den of the king of the jungle.

But even that kind of bravery is limited and relative. Were there others who were too scared to take the plunge for the same purpose?

Former Minister for Higher Education William Ruto jumped into the lion’s den, and reportedly stayed there for 30 hours, which is brave and bold.

But his act of courage — travelling to The Hague to meet the lion from Argentina, cannot rank as heroism because its inspiration is limited to preparing the ground for the realisation of his personal presidential ambition.

This daring has kept tongues wagging and computer ‘mice’ mowing across the superhighway for weeks. The Eldoret North MP is certainly brave in relation to other suspects who dare not face the ambition-breaking prosecutor.

But Ruto’s purpose for wanting a meeting with Luis Moreno-Ocampo would pale in comparison to the higher mission of Nandi resistance hero, Koitalel arap Samoei.

When courageous young men and women from Central Province founded a freedom movement that would graduate into what history has called Mau Mau — Mzungu Aende Ulaya Mwafrica Apate Uhuru — they were giving higher meaning to boldness, courage, bravery and heroism.

From cross to crown

Their bravery lay in the very idea of young Kikuyu men and women organising into a militia with the purpose of fighting to reclaim lost land. Their rebellion against wabeberu land grabbers later graduated into a large-scale struggle against colonialism.

They were against white rule; slavery of Africans in their own land, and they wanted freedom for Africans. Their struggle represented right to self-determination against colonial intruders.

Wazungus first came as preachers of the Word, to save and reclaim lost souls of their African brothers and sisters. But their mission changed as the Crown soon followed the Cross, with a colonisng fury that would last about 100 years.

The elephantine British Empire had founded another colony under the guise of saving lost souls. This is the allegory of the elephant in Jomo Kenyatta’s anthropological piece, Facing Mount Kenya.

It would take the courage of determined freedom fighters to eject wabeberu from the British colony "where the sun never set". The sun set in Kenya for the British Empire in 1963 thanks to the courage of freedom fighters.

Voiceless majority

These are some of the men and women whose living legends and legacies are captured in the collective spirit of Mashujaa Day.

By so representing such a huge public interest in fighting to reclaim grabbed lands, particularly the White Highlands, the Mau Mau fighters became heroes and heroines in the estimation of the voiceless majority, who had been thrown into arid reserves as white settlers grabbed rich, fertile agricultural lands in the highlands.

History has fond memories of Dedan Kimathi, the bearded Bildad Kaggia, Kung’u Karumba, Achieng’ Oneko and Paul Ngei for largely remaining faithful to the national struggle for freedom.

History should not be compromised to ‘lionise’ individuals who act merely to enhance their own personal ambitions.

The writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor Quality and Production.

[email protected]