Why we need a fresh Mau Mau movement

The NLC chairman Muhammad Swazuri on September 10, 2015 said that proposals in the land Bills amount to amending constitutional provisions in land administration and management without following due process such as involving the public. PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI | NATION MEDIA GROUP   NATION MEDIA GROUP.

In Summary

• Britain acknowledged the misdeeds of its past and the freedom fighters got some of the recognition denied to them for decades.
• When Kenya achieved independence most of the land went to the home guards.
• White settlers were replaced by indigenous ones who in half a decade abandoned plans to redistribute the nation’s land.
• Parliament is about to amend the land laws in breach of the Constitution.

By GABRIEL DOLAN
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With the unveiling of the Mau Mau monument last Saturday, Britain acknowledged the misdeeds of its past and the freedom fighters got some of the recognition denied to them for decades.

The aging heroes and heroines came in their thousands, donned out in red t-shirts that read ‘Shujaa ni Mau Mau’.

Yet the smart t-shirts concealed the harsh reality of the nation’s liberators who arrived in battered footwear, faded colours and worn out attire that confirmed the poverty under which most of them live.

The Mau Mau may have been established as a Freedom and Land Movement, but when Kenya achieved independence most of the land went to the home guards.

Mau Mau however survived but the movement was deemed illegal until 2003, condemned to silence and poverty, only tolerated when they were too old to resist.

The absence of The President and his Deputy at Saturday’s event spoke volumes about priorities and exposed the ambiguities that persist in remembering the independence struggle.
Mau Mau still pricks the nation’s conscience and are a constant reminder that the poor struggled to liberate the nation but got dumped by the roadside as powerful elites took over the power, the glory and the land from the settlers.

The white settlers were replaced by indigenous ones who in half a decade abandoned plans to redistribute the nation’s land.

The same laws that the foreigner used to evict, grab and allocate themselves land were used by the new regimes to enrich themselves and their cronies.

LAND GRABBERS

Land grabbers and private developers became the new colonialists and police and provincial administration deployed to evict squatters and protect the property of the new elites.

Brief hope was restored with the 2010 Constitution, the National Land Policy and the establishment of the National Land Commission.

However, hopes for reform and justice are fading fast as MPs spent this week at a Mombasa resort attempting to reverse all the gains of the last five years.

Aden Duale has prepared bills that are designed to bury the National Land Commission and to give the Cabinet Secretary and Executive complete control over land matters.
Jubilee is also determined to deny ethnic communities any voice over their own land and natural resources.

LAND LAW

In effect, Parliament is about to amend the land laws in breach of the Constitution.

Civil Society was locked out of the Mombasa deliberations with MPs only permitting bodies that share their predetermined plans of mischief included on the programme.

There is not a single political party in Kenya that has a reform agenda based on social justice.

They only differ in terms of ethnicity.

Civil Society keeps pecking away like a woodpecker but will never toss the tree. There is no saviour on the horizon.

GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT

Only the poor can save themselves. A broad based national movement that is grassroots based like Mau Mau and that possesses a network and strategy appropriate to the modern age is urgently required.
This is neither rocket science nor romantic idealism.

It begins with an awakening when decent folk realise that they have power and numbers; when they realise they are tired of lies and games and are ready to recover their dignity and destiny.