Is there such a thing as a communal psychosis? First of all, there needs to be an accurate translation for what a psychosis is. It is not sufficient to call it madness. Whereas the strict medical term defines a severe mental condition, a more general term like the one used by the professor in his article would better describe an abandonment of reality, a prediliction for irrational thought.  The word irrational is not here an insult. Flinching when threatened with a blow from a balloon is instinctive, even as it is irrational, that is not based on reason. The trouble with the continuing discourse on Professor Makau's article is that the term is viewed as an insult, instead of seeing it purely as a description of a perceived reality, even a social diagnosis if you like.

The people of Nyanza have for a fact been at the receiving end of the ruling elite's baton for a very long time, dating in some senses to well beyond the rubicon of independence. There are some, many in fact, who would say that this ban exists down to this day, but I do not. I think instead that it exists merely in people's minds, part of an unrelenting Kenyan belief that control of State House is control of Kenya. Our constitution, and the reality on the ground, certainly militate against this notion.

For a certainty, the dominating political force in Luo Nyanza from 1992 to this day has been native, and independent. At the same time, the present Parliament has ( foolishly in my view) seen fit to dole out massive amounts of money to the constituencies in what are euphemictically termed Consituency Development Funds. Surely, the corollary of this, is that Nairobi is not in a position anymore to shun the provinces and non-worthy citizens like it did before.  Further, examples such as the successful Dominion rice scheme in Yala, of MP Rev. Nyagudi's shows that it is possible to bring the cake to the people without going through Nairobi. A savvy and well-intentioned MP, can work independent of the machinations, evil or otherwise of the Central Government and bring meat to his village.

It follows then, that anyone persisting under a notion that Nairobi is punishing Nyanza is doing so out of a disconnect with reality. Nairobi can do so, but only to a slight degree, transfer payments to the local governments and to constituencies being salient present day realities. It also follows that when this sense of victimhood, in what is one of Kenya's largest communities survives into institutions where it is the largest player, like ODM-K for example, then it is an irrational fear. It is a phobia and sense of victimhood that is not based on ration, and hence it is a psychosis.

But this psychosis does exist, and not just among the Luo. Kenyans of all shapes and sizes keep blaming President Moi for the downturn in our country's fortunes completely oblivious of the reality of the 1980s. First, that he did not act alone, and second, there were extraneous factors that impacted not just on Kenya but on the whole of the Third World. Trade Minsiter Mukhisa Kituyi recently gave a speech where he made mention of the fact that we were only now, and slowly recovering from the effects of the ESAPs and other Bretton Woods measures from the 1980s . It is these more than anything that caused our economic collapse. We also failed completely to transform our economy in line with global trends, in the manner that the Asian Tigers did. Moi could have been the nicest kindliest old man alive, our economy would still have collapsed. It is important that we grasp this fact, because as comforting as the delusionary worldview that blames everything on Moi is, our lack of preparedness, visible today in the careless cheering on of economic growth that is not based on any radical shift in our economics, will lead us back to the very same quicksands.

That however, is not the end of our psychosis. That a man with the history of President Mwai Kibaki could be voted into office as a reformer is also symptomatic of our communal malaise, call it a psychosis again expressly because that is what it is. There are few Kenyans who were more a part of the system of KANU, more responsible for the poor economic decisions and more complicit in the robbery of Wanjiku than President Kibaki. Still, the mentally maimed defended him, and promoted him as the deux ex machina, a veritable Messiah come to solve all our problems.

The indictment then is not just on the Luo, but extends to the whole of Kenyan society. The Agikuyu loved to believe that they were expelled from the good graces of the Moi government, and that Moi was anti-Kikuyu. Many of them blame Moi for everything, from their run-down coffee mills to the fact that their tea and coffee can no longer take their children to university abroad. Nothing could be further from the reality. Moi's government was not only packed with the Agikuyu, but many of them were in immensely powerful positions.  Several of the people who made most money out of the public coffers in those times were Kikuyus, and the various interests that had lorded it over Kenyans in the 1970s, continued to do so well into the 1980s and 1990s.  Again, we love to repeat that 2003, ended 24 years of great misrule, the big marker  here being Moi's ascension to office. However again, as this link shows , reality teaches different. Corruption of a crippling nature had already taken root well before Moi took over the Presidency.

It really is simple. Take a piece of paper and write down the names of all the big thieves you know from the Moi years. Now count out how many of them were from that fancy community of lance bearing, herdsmen we call the Kalenjin. If this was Moi's tribalism, then count how many Tugen there were in these high offices. Given that culturally, the Pokot are just as alien to the Nandi as the Luo are - but all still Nilotes ( is the appointment of the late Francis Lotodo to Prisons boss a tribalistic one? Was that of the late Hezekiah Oyugi also?) See the psychosis now? When we declare that Moi finished the Kikuyu by destroying KFA, KGGCU, NPCB, KTDA and so on, how does it escape our notice that these organisations were of great importance in the Rift Valley? How does it escape our notice that the Rift Valley did not back Moi in the 2002 election? Why do we persist in claiming that the people of the Rift Valley will vote as Moi tells them to? 

A lot has gone wrong since the cathartic renewal of 2003, and it is now clear that the  most lasting legacy of the Kibaki government will be an entrenchment of the tribal polarisation of Kenya. A return to the bitterness of the 1970s.  The rejection of the MoU that thrust NARC into office,both in fact, and in the President's reneging on almost every last covenant from that period has definitely scarred our national political consciousness. Still, as Professor Makau has written, it is only out of a sense of victimhood, an irrationality that these are seen as reasons to rally one and all behind the candidature of Raila Odinga, and most often in the most fundamentalistic and brash manner.

In ending, may I say that yes, there is a thing as communal psychosis. The psychosis is caused by prolonged suffering ( real or imagined ), a prolonged disenfranchisement or any other trauma that denatures a community. The Afro-Caribbean does suffer a psychosis, as do descendants of slaves in North America. The Kenyan Luo does suffer a psychosis, as does the Kenyan Kikuyu. The people of South Africa, the people of Zimbabwe, the Arab nations, the Jewish people, the USA in its entirety, they all suffer communal neuroses from the nightmares in their pasts. The question for the present is whether they take on those psychoses, or whether they persist in boxing shadows in the dark.