A history lesson for Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika

Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika. [Courtesy]

Good morning, Hon Susan Wakarura Kihika! to take charge of the military

In the generous spirit of the season - it’s almost Christmas, so we must be gentle with each other - I’ll not delve into the substance of your pronouncements about history earlier in the week. After all, a week is such a long time in politics; it might even be considered history!

And if we were to get down to it, your very presence at the United Democratic Alliance promoting ideas about “bottom-up economic modo,” is a precarious one. Since you purport not to prescribe to any elements of history, you solidly sit in a category known as “dynasty” in our unique political parlance.

That’s a strange term, alright! Given that your politician father had peasant roots, and his claim to fame was organising other peasants buy out and redistribute previously white-owned farms.

I will not repeat here the slander swirling online about your old man’s land manenos, suffice it to say he soon became the embodiment of Deep State. How he got there isn’t particularly interesting, especially for someone so averse to history.

History teaches us that Kihika senior was unsuccessful in blocking Man from Sacho from ascending to power in 1978. Well, to invoke one of your quips: enough of history lessons!

Now, let’s focus on the matter at hand. As promised, I’ll steer clear of the substance of your claims and instead focus on your style of delivery. You rock, Madam Wakarura, even the syllables of your name roll so gently!

Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika. [Kipsang Joseph,Standard]

I have watched half a dozen times that short video clip circulating online, just for fun. I understand it has since gone viral and, in a week awash with news about viruses, I must clarify this was a good sort of “viral.” Everybody just wanted to get a glimpse of your eloquent exposition on the End of History.

When I say “eloquent” I am of course being generous, overlooking those grammatical fractures, like “inbearable” life that you spoke of and focus on the dramatic punctuations that you added with your arrow-like fingers, puncturing the air!

“We are students of the future,” you said triumphantly, without elaborating when that future would start, or even the preparations needed today to herald that future.

Hhhmm! When and where did you become “student of the future?” A quick Google search reveals you went to school in America’s South. And given your ignorance of the past, I suspect you haven’t heard of William Faulkner.

He’s a dead, white writer who wrote about the South, which was mainly black. He said: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” I will not recommend Faulkner; he’s too “difficult” for someone who’s not interested in history.

I’ll not recommend any reading at all, since you indicated you read enough history books in school, back in the day, that distant past you wouldn’t want to remember.

Rather, you would profit from oral histories from those politicians you sneer, and also from those you adore. Their point of departure: 1992. That’s when you turned 18.

Once you are done, come narrate to us if what you proudly claimed this week will stand, or if you will silently doubt the veracity of your claims. And ask Wiperman Kalonzo Musyoka to remind you of his favourite quote: “Even your name betrays you!”