Mungiki’s noble dream crumbled a long time ago

By Martin Mwangi

They have been beaten, humiliated, scattered, imprisoned, silenced and killed. The dream of the Mungiki founders has slipped from their hands. The dream was to liberate the lowly and especially the youth from political, cultural and economic domination of the rich and old elite who enjoy State protection.

Although the dream was short-sighted for its failure to accommodate like-minded people from other communities, it nevertheless was a noble idea. Every youth today would support a dream that would topple the status quo to usher in an era of equal opportunity and distribution of resources regardless of who their ancestors were.

In Citizen Power, Chaacha Mwita writes: "Mungiki was a reaction to poverty and political disenfranchisement... the founders interpreted poverty as lack of means of production — especially land to farm, build houses on and rent out, use as collateral for loans or to sell and start business with the proceeds...."

The dream to redeem Kenya from the old guard, whose only mission in life is to entrench their dominance even after they are dead, was a welcome one.

But the old guard saw the power in the dream and where it would leave them if realised. They saw in it the making of a revolution that would force them out of control of State resources to usher in a new dawn and order, and decided to kill the dream. The haves, united by common terror, just like with every other revolution, decided to repress the have-nots, who were united in common envy.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  Salary delays as counties face cash crunch
• 
  Athletes continue to pay tribute to fallen Cheptegei
• 
  KECOSA Games: Posta, MOTIHUD battle for athletics title
• 
  Uhuru mourns 17 lives lost in Endarasha Academy fire

False sense

Like the harlot who seduced Samson in the Bible, so did politicians plot the death of Mungiki by infiltrating it and desecrating its leaders with blood money. They knew the leaders were poor peasant youth and so big money and protection, coupled with a false sense of power would suffice.

That’s how a fighter for emancipation of the poor ended up owning seven palatial mansions and huge tracks of land. They gave them something to lose if they continued the fight for equality. For how could they reclaim grabbed land from the ruling elite who had so much, when they too had benefited from politicians’ rot?

After they accomplished their mission, it was now time for the politicians to walk out of the movement. They lied to the nation about the existence of an illegal sect made of tobacco sniffing youth. And there, they gave the people an enemy to fight. It was then youth from Central Province and Nairobi started disappearing and bodies of some found in forests. Mungiki felt betrayed and in retaliation metamorphosed into the dreaded group it now is.

Had Mungiki kept politicians at bay and focused on the goal, there would have been no need for visa bans from the US today.

Mungiki would have done the job for us for indeed, Mungiki was originally neither a sect nor a gang of extortionists and killers. It was a liberation movement against the wealthy ruling class — the same ones the US is trying to help us deal with.

Kenyans should not rejoice when Maina Njenga and others profess Christianity. For this is how the ruling class wanted it to be in the end — to instil the fear of God in Mungiki literally.

But if Christianity is really the way to go, why then do we still suffer when the ruling class comprises of mainstream churches? If Christianity is our real hope for and vehicle to a better future, why can’t I tell the difference between the presiding bishops and all other politicians who do not pay tax? How many in Government are not baptised? Who does not invoke the name of God?

If those who cause so much pain to Kenyans are all believers, why then do we celebrate when Maina joins their ranks? Rather, we ought to cry for the death of the noblest idea of our generation and pray for the birth of another movement to liberate us — a movement whose leaders will remain true to their goal despite roadblocks erected by the ruling class. Mungiki has lost the dream and so a better and purer dream must of necessity sprout from the middle the rot.