More on how the colonial-independence government enforcd tribalism using the education system.

An article by Klopp and Janai Orina. Orina was a Moi University student persecuted by GoK in the late 90s for forming a national university student body. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0002020600031541

The article covers colonial times to the late 90s. I lived through some of that history, saw some of those events and know some of the people mentioned. But I hadn't seen the bigger picture till I read this.

So before I continue, let me remind us what kind of government we have.

Berman calls Kenya a "paternalistic authoritarian" state. GoK is an obsessive control freak, micro-managing our lives, esp in rural areas, but they justify it by saying we wananchi are too stupid to know better. This also makes GoK a nervous wreck : it panics at new ideas.

The Kenyan state also runs on the a bureaucratic-excutive principle. The president controls the civil service and uses it to control us through the county commissioner network and the police.

That means that elections are ceremonial for cheating us wananchi that we have a say.

The president has politicians by the balls. If they get too out of line, he sends the police or blocks their access to the state (aka ).

That's why the time between elections is about politicians negotiating and haggling over who's Uthamakistan's favorite. Hence #BBINonsense

Now to universities.

GoK trembles in the face of thinking citizens and new ideas. So it treats ideas like it dealt with locusts: it shoots ideas with guns. So many died for thinking.

GoK controls students by sending them to rural areas to be under surveillance by chiefs and DCs

During colonial times, the people who went to school had to get a letter from the chief confirming that the person looks sufficiently adoring of government and without a mind of their own.

Children of the Mau Mau were not allowed to go to school.

That is how Mbiyu Koinange, son of a chief, became the 1st Kenyan graduate. He got scholarships and studied in Oxford and Harvard. And we know how he turned out.

This also meant that at independence, loyalist Kikuyus formed the majority of students and of grads in civil service.

Remember that GoK's language is order. Negative peace. It's fine as long as nothing is happening.

So Jomo didn't care what happened in the unis. After all, most who attended had his political sympathies.

But things started to change when Jaramogi left GoK to form KPU.

UoN students finally got on Jomo's wrong side when they invited Jaramogi to give a lecture at UoN. Jaramogi arrived and was blocked from speaking, supposedly because the students hadn't obtained the right paper work.

When the students did the paperwork, they were given some bureaucratic bs about why Jaramogi can't speak. The students went on a boycott, and the university was closed.

And of course, they were sent to the chiefs to report, and get letters from to be allowed to return.

Remember: the village. In the GoK mind, the village is where we are good tribal natives controlled by kind chiefs for our own benefit.

So things got worse when Ngugi wa Thiong'o did the play at Kamirithu, GoK had a panic attack. Villagers understanding class politics? Ouuiii!

So Jomo detained Ngugi. But as Ngugi was still in detention, Jomo died.

After the transition blues, Moi started his presidency with goodies. Nyayo milk for the kids, release from detention for the adults. So Ngugi got out.

But Moi lacked one thing Jomo had: uthamakistan.

So unlike Jomo who could assume that uthamaki ni witu, Moi couldn't afford the same tolerance as Jomo.

Those days, students had an international consciousness. So they were vocal about:

1. Anyona and Jaramogi being barred from contesting the results of the 1979 elections

2. the doctors' strike
3. Ngugi wa Thiong'o's reinstatement as a lecturer
4. the assassination of Walter Rodney
5. apartheid in South Africa
6. the role of multinational corporations in Kenya

Every time students spoke, Moi sent GSU to shoot, closed the uni, sent them back to

The principle of controlling unis was the same as that of political parties:

1. Prevent any university-wide or country-wide organization
2. encourage tribal students associations, with area politicians as patrons
3. bribe students with increase in boom and dining with Nyayo

4. bribe and choose student leaders, or arrest or kill them if they are too mang'aa
5. Keep closing the varsity, force students to
- report to chiefs twice a week so that they don't leave the village
- get a letter from the chief to be allowed readmission or a a university loan

When Moi had to give in to multi-partism in 1991, he changed tactic.

Enter YK 92.

This is the story your shallowed minds want to hear, right?

You'll have to get to the article to find the names of the creators. Some were professors.

This is what YK 92 meant:

1. lecturers and students flashing money and wealth at a time when most students were barely surviving (Boom had been completely removed

2. university resources used to shuttle district (aka tribe) student association members to State House dinners, cash handouts, contacts for plush jobs after graduation

When Moi "won" the election, YK 2 was disbanded. But as we all know, we're still feeling the ripple effects

So much more to say. I haven't mentioned professors who suffered, and they were many. But the thread is already too long.

Let me finish with some names of the young shujaaz who withstood trying times for our right to simply think. I have so so much respect for them.

All the unnamed men and women who were killed, and those who were raped by the GSU

Those who died as students and whose names we know:

Tito Andugosi
Joseph Wandera
Shadrack Opiyo
Solomon Muruli

AMANDLA!

To the living, and some who gone ahead of us, who paid a high price for standing up for freedom as youth:

Rok Ajulu
Chelegat Mutai
Ochieng K'Onyango
Shadrack Gutto
Adhu Owiti
Oduor Og’wen
Wahinya Boore
Francis Kinyua
Muga K'Olale
Jeff Mwangi Kwirikia

Peter Oginga Ogego
Onyango Oloo,
Mwandawiro Mghanga
Tirop arap Kitur
Karimi Nduthu
Wafula Buke
Munoru Nderi
@MigunaMiguna
@iKombati Kepta Ombati
Justus Mochoge
Njoroge Wiathera
Suba Churchill
@waikwawanyoike

And of course Janai Orina, and all the other people who have talked about our history, even though the people in power want us to forget.

Much respect.

END.