Conversation with Ngugi Wa Thiongo

Before our last General Elections in 2007, Ngugi Wa Thiongo wrote an article about his take on the politics of the time. Read the article here - Ngugi Wa Thiong’o reflects on Mwai Kibaki and the 2007 Kenya General Elections I particularly took issue with some of the ideas fronted by my greatest writer on earth and did a comment on the article. Allow me to share the comment here since next year is an election year and the players are still pretty much the same. The issues too haven't changed a bit!

(It would be worth noting that Ngugi's article was written before Kibaki (allegedly) STOLE the elections leading to the post election violence in Kenya. Mine comment was written after the violence)

Mr Ngugi,

To say I am an ardent fan of yours would be an under statement. I named my pet dog after your character Matigari. Having studied Literature at the University, you struck me as Africa’s best yet but things are changing and am sad to note so.

This article is naive to say the least. It might have been written before the violence flared up and its no wonder it has such glaring gaps. In the article, you rightfully note that there are the haves and the have nots, Kibaki never changed this.

It took Kibaki Five years to do what Moi did in Ten years of his rule, create disparity between the rich and the poor. You remember, when Mwaura in the Petals of Blood led the villagers to the Golden Heights cave In illmorog, that is what the poor did after Kibaki’s government disenfranchised them. Like the crowd in Matigari, the people burnt down cars and houses in protest.

Dont misunderstand me, I am one of the most faithful students of your socialist take. ’Great Hapiness I saw among the women and the children, even a bean that fell on the floor was shared among them.’

The Viloence that occured after the election did not have a socialist push to it, and its because you have deserted us and there is no one to give us that guidance. What we have are politicians who take the revolutionary in us and make it flow along tribal lines. That is why it was a tribal upheaval and not a socialist one.

Though you display concerns in the article for the motherland with the mention of the Armenian brothers, the Anglo leasing scam and the ’Standard’raid, alot that goes on misses in the article. One cannot talk about the politics in Kenya and mention Kibaki’s name thrice without mentioning Raila even once.

You talk of your encounters with Kibaki, how he transformed from a hardliner for Kanu to a president and that was a good analogy but how about Raila. What about the almost ten years he spent in detention cells under Kibaki’s supervision. He shared the same detention facilities with you. How has he developed and what has he become. we need to hear your take on this. What’s more, Raila shares your communist ideals.

When your people tell you Kibaki has given them electricity, Kibaki’s allies have been given more than electricities. His friends businesses are growing threefolds. When he came to power, bread was Ksh 22, It is now Ksh 32, only after five years and the economy is growing. And the poor us have to buy this bread at the same price with the rich them.

One thing I am sure about you, Ngugi, is that you are biased towards the poor. It is for this reason that I ask you not to praise Kibaki because he has not helped poor kenyans anyway anyhow. And am talking about the kind of help you advocate for, not some small electricity here and some few boreholes there.

You remember when Gikonyo in A Grain of Wheat was swindled out of buying the settler’s farm by the politicians, that is what Kibaki has done to Kenyans. They trusted him to help them get prosperity like Gikonyo trusted the Politician and he took all the property for himself.

My biggest challenge to you, come back home. Dont be Like Leopold Sedar Senghor who wrote so much negretude against the french only to go and spend the rest of his life in France.

Otherwise, I am still your fan, I have read all your books except Murogi wa Kagogo and I still kind of worship you.

Otiato Opali (20 February 2008  at 14h16)