Kenya must break the shackles from former colonial rulers, forge own path

It’s a well-known fact, unless you live on Mars or lack comprehension, that I don’t adore the Jubilee regime. The ruling party’s stalwarts have choice epithets for me. On occasion, I’ve paid them in the same coin. I admit I am an unabashed critic of Jubilee’s numero uno — Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta. It’s nothing personal. We simply have a difference of opinion and divergent, or competing, political philosophies. I would like to think that’s a hallmark of democracy, and a good thing for Kenya. But today, I write to agree — sort of — with Mr Kenyatta. He recently kicked the British in the teeth, and I loved it. No — in case you are wondering. I am not a sociopath.

Allow me first to dispense with some historical minutiae. The British — those of the Empire — regard themselves as a race apart. Although the sun long set on their dominion, their offspring — the United States — bestrides the globe like a colossus. English, their language, is now the international mother tongue. Two of their universities — Cambridge and Oxford — are among the top ten in the world. I know they’ve fallen on hard times recently, but they still exert “mental slavery” on free peoples everywhere.

One dirty factoid — Kenya’s increasingly proud middle and upper classes are in fact dumb copies of the original, the British middle class. The British accent is still a coveted asset in Kenya. British names are Kenyan names.

Mind you, I didn’t say Kenyan names are British names. No sir. Kenyans watch, sleep, eat, fight, love, and die British soccer. The excuse of the clever ones these days is that many Africans play on those clubs. Please — go tell it to the birds.

The basic problem is one of history and conception. The British made Kenya up at the turn of the last century. Kenya didn’t exist before the British created it out of thin air. It was the British who — after decades of plunder, torture, murder, and pillage of our people — gave Kenya a birth certificate in 1964. Imagine that — the British dreamt us up, and then “gave” us the right to be free. They “emancipated” us.

I know you want to argue that we fought for our independence. Indeed we did. We opposed colonialism. We forced the British imperialists to give us the baton. But don’t forget this stubborn fact — we had to negotiate for that baton at Lancaster. Then Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was given the premiership with the Governor-General, the Queen’s man, as his overlord. Remember the little ceremony in which the Union Jack was lowered and the flag of independent Kenya raised? That ceremony told you who was boss. Who was father, and who was son. Who was superior, and who was inferior. Who was senior, and who was subordinate. This is why— way deep down — the British think they own Kenya.

It’s a narrative written in the larger European script of history. There’s a name for it — Eurocentrism. It’s a narrative that puts white over black, European over the African, the Global North over the Global South.

It’s a narrative about the hierarchy of races and cultures. Its central germ is that European cultures are superior to all others — African, Asian, Native Americans, and indigenous peoples.

The clincher is that colonialism was a gift to native peoples because it ushered them into modernity. This is what the Age of Europe was about — transforming people in the Global South into copies of the European. That’s why more Kenyans are likely to name their child Peter or Jane, not Makau or Wambui.

Which brings me to my central point. Mr Kenyatta has told the British their soldiers can’t have Nanyuki as their plaything.

He argued — correctly — that the 2010 Constitution forbids him from signing a lease that exempts British soldiers in Kenya from Kenya’s municipal law. He’s told our “colonial masters” they can’t have what they’ve always had under unconstitutional terms.

This is a language the British, who profess the rule of law and human rights, ought to fully understand. Unless of course there’s one law for them, and one for the native states. I will give Mr Kenyatta the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t have anything else up his sleeve. Methinks the Chinese aren’t whispering in his ear.

It was inevitable African post-colonial states would “talk smack” to the “master” and demand full sovereignty. That’s what most Asian states have done. Ditto Central and South American states. I’m not talking about the false nationalism of Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe. He’s a hypocrite. I admit the jury is still out on why Mr Kenyatta is poking the British in the eye. But I support him on this, and hope he’s pissing off the Brits for the right reasons.