kenyaimagine.com

Home

Loving our unfreedom

Written by Keguro Macharia

Wednesday, 07 January 2009

Before I left Kenya, a friend told me that freedom is overrated. It is far better, he said, that we have economic prosperity and safety. I wonder what it means to be safe and un-free, and whether my freedom is a price I'm willing to pay. This question is neither new nor unique. Living together means we have to sacrifice elements of what we want. Yet, I wonder how freedom has become such a maligned concept in Kenya.

President Kibaki signing the Media Bill into law is tragic. That Kenyans online and on the streets support him and hold the media culpable for the post-election violence is more than tragic. It is frightening to read how many Kenyans believe that a gagged media is better for Kenya. It is terrifying to comprehend how many Kenyans believe that the tyrant, dictator Moi is now a figure to emulate. It is astounding how many Kenyans believe that John Michuki's harsh and unrelenting methods of administration are what this country needs.

How did we come to love un-freedom?

Increasingly, I am convinced that we must answer this question if we are to understand why we keep electing the same kind of people into office, why we keep working against our own best interests. And we do.

I had thought, before I went home, that the problem was with the middle-class, those who can afford to complain because they have full bellies. That a certain apathy, part of it induced during the trauma of the Moi years, foreclosed political engagement and fostered an uncritical, while loud, attitude toward politics.

Yet, we are not a middle-class country. And so one must look around, use compound vision, and try to understand why and how the political class continue to manipulate us, and we follow blindly, supplicants to their will, loving and reveling in our un-freedom.

In forum after forum, in plush hotel rooms and unsafe buildings in Kibera, I heard the same thing: we need to talk to government. We keep looking up. Looking toward indifferent sources of support, and while we look up, we remain in quicksand.

Contrary to myth, one does not sink and die in quicksand. One remains suspended, and one can maneuver one's body out, but one has to look to the side, work with one's body, with what's around and available. Looking up keeps one suspended.

Kenyans look up a lot. As long as we keep looking up-to the government, to donors, to foreign institutions, to powerful individuals, we fail to realize we are a chain of people, we can pull each other along, up, out of the quicksand.

But we have to value our freedom.

Keguro Macharia
		About the author:
		Dr. Keguro Macharia teaches literature in the Continental United States. He has written extensively on an array of subjects for Kenyan and American audiences. He publishes the Gukira blog.

Articles by this Author:

From Citizens to Strangers
Impunity, Take Two

View all articles by this author

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (4)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

freedom?
written by jke , January 08, 2009

I think it already starts in school where real freedom isn't thaught. Or is there any intellectual in Kenya that feels supported by the prevailing system?

I am afraid that as long as a university professor has a lower public image than someone who owns a Mercedes, we will also keep asking for the intelligent masses who will stop and ask the right questions at the right time.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

Schools
written by Keguro , January 08, 2009

I hadn't thought about that, but it seems right to me that schools teach us to love subordination, to privilege order over the "disorder" that freedom might bring. We are so very scared of what losing our anchors might mean. So we "cling," as Obama put it, to things that work against our own best interests, including leaders we should discard.

While I love intellectuals, I know people with good ideas live and work in all sectors of Kenya. I just want to see the best ideas succeed, the best minds and abilities thrive.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

...
written by manta ray , January 11, 2009

Kenyans who have expressed support for the media bill do not necessarily support its gagging. It is more an instinctive reaction to the media's unresponsiveness to constructive criticism. If you point out to the media its ills, you are more often than not to be ignored or arrogantly dismissed as uninformed.
The media itself muzzles free expression, as you will see by the limited space it gives to online commentators. The EA Standard allows just 400 letters of comment per columnist. The Daily Nation just about 200 words per story. The effect in totality is to prevent free discussion as should be expected in any self proclaimed world class newspaper. This hypocrisy is what really pisses me off. The media want to be judged and treated like world class business enterprises but on the other hand they treat their audience with unwarranted and paternalistic contempt. In essence, they take it for granted that Kenyans owe them exalted status, but it is status they have yet to earn.
An example of their shallowness and low standards is the highly unprofessional and unethical manner in which they covered the 2007 General election, telling deceitful lies and promoting tribal hatred openly. They have not learnt any lessons from that debased behavior. Many Kenyans, understandably, have yet to forgive them for that. It has not occurred to the media fraternity that they should first apologize to Kenyans before asking for their support against censorship.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

...
written by Kimemia , January 12, 2009

Real freedom comes with resposibility and therefore a lack of order cannot ever be freedom. When Kenyans truly realize the responsibility that comes with the freedo to send anybody to become a lawmaker through the ballot and these lawmakers respect the responsibility that comes with the freedom they are granted wjilst in power then maybe we can hope that they will direct their legislation on things like media regulation to put responsibility on those from whom they derive their power, the people of Kenya

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

Show/Hide comment form