On Kenya’s Public Sphere. A long thread
Democracy is often characterized as government by deliberation. This presupposes wherewithal to engage in reasoned public debate. My lessons from debating Kipkorir on the printing of money are not encouraging. I’v learned four things.1/13

1. The banalization of education that Mwalimu @wmnjoya laments
This is manifested in the calls suing for “peace” even going as far as asking for mediation. Inability to distinguish adverserial debate and conflict means debating clubs served no useful

More importantly, they did not learn that knowledge advances by means of fiercely adverserial “paradigm shifts” —new ideas battling established ones—Corpenicus vs Ptolemy, germ theory vs humorism, Luther vs Infallible Popes(Re:Thomas Kuhn. Structure of Scientific Revolutions)
/3

2. Inferiority complex. Even after painstakingly explaining in the simplest language I could what Quantitative Easing (QE) is and why its not relevant to us, I continued to be inundated with western “authorities.” The more I disagreed, the more authorities were sought. 4/

Surely if the FT and Economist say so, who am I to disagree. Unable to evaluate ideas on merit, the default setting, even for many an educated African is to trust the mzungu. 5/

3. Class deference and subservience Appeal to decorum has been another theme. Please stop, you are both “respectable” gentlemen, we look up to you, you are stooping too low.
The other day someone asked my why I am responding to someone who has only seven twitter followers.6/

That aside, I am intrigued by people who routinely engage in the crudest most bigoted verbal wars on foreskins, abortion, atheism, homosexuality and even physical fights for politicians, are mortified by a harmless adversarial intellectual debate.7/

4. Culture of mediocrity
Another recurring theme from my corner is why I am roiling in the mud with someone who is “not my level” (and other epithets used in private and best left there), and on a subject that is clearly out of his depth. This in my view is the crux. 8/

Moi, like his predecessor and most dictators had a problem with intellectuals. The African dictator’s dilemna is that they sometimes need intellectuals, especially when they are in trouble, if only to impress donors. So in the 80s, he figured out how to square the circle. 9/

Seduce gullible intellectuals to work for him, and simultaneously deploy the lowliest political hitmen to stalk them. Josephat Karanja’s takedown by David Mwenje and Kuria Kanyingi is the most famous. 10/

Mulu Mutisya, Kariuki Chotara and Ezekiel Barng’etuny’s were deployed to cheapen public discourse so that no intellectual would stoop so low, leaving Moi as the unchallenged Teacher No.1. The strategy worked, begeting Casper Odegi Awuondo’s rise of the cheering crowd. 11/

Distinguished scholars like Phillip Mbithi, William Ochieng, Henry Mwanzi and Eshiwani were reduced to sycophants. Philip Ochieng, a world class journalist, also succumbed. Before he knew Oloo Aringo, a brilliant radical politician was exalting Moi as the “prince of peace.” 12/

The Kiprorir’s and Mutahi Ngunyi’s are the KANU 2.0 Barngetuny’s, Kanyingi’s and Ochieng’s. They are the court poets of mediocrity on a mission to privilege money and power over reason and competence. To let them be, is to fail to learn, and act from the lessons of history. 13/