Hmm
written by Daniel.Waweru , March 22, 2008

Okoiti Omtata argues in today's Nation that Christianity justifies violence; one must assume he intends to justify recent blood-letting. A truly egregious piece of confirming evidence for your thesis.

But you're mistaken about the corporate identity of Kenyan intellectuals -- there was a strong one about. They certainly fancied themselves the conscience of Kenya: Ngugi never let go of the theme of post-Uhuru betrayal.

African leaders are mostly sovereignty pimps. The buyers are quite happy to provide the expertise necessary for the sale. So Kenya didn't really need intellectuals to keep the machinery of the state running -- it could get technical assistance from outside. As soon as the intellectuals became troublesome, the stick came out. The resulting drop in status and income explains why it was easy to co-opt them, and why all the better ones left, as well as why there are no good ones about now. That's my first pass, anyway.

Lack of intellectuals
written by Kim G , March 22, 2008

Like someone said in an earlier post, Kenya still suffers the effects of Moism. 24 years of Moi leadership taught Kenyans that education is meaningless, that you can succeed and become extremely wealthy and powerful without having gone to school. Thus intellectuals lost their value to society and, in some cases, deliberately scorned by the Big Man. It was not for nothing that Moi called himself, the Professor of Politics at a time that Prof George Saitoti was his Vice President. Moi was making a statement that his power was greater than those who had higher academic credentials than he did. Heck, he could even hire and fire them along the roadsides whenever he felt like! The lack of appreciation for their work caused genuine intellectuals to leave the country for places where they could be appreciated.

The pseudo intellectuals left behind are the people we see in the media masquarading as political analysts when in reality they are just tribal cheerleaders for their patrons. In Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, almost every Minister or head of parastatal is a Phd or Professor. In Kenya, we are talking of tribal formulas in cabinet appointments. Clearly, theres no role for the intellectual here.

Wapi Messianic Intellectual?
written by Advocatus Diaboli , March 23, 2008

Kenyatta was an intellectual, Moi was not, Kibaki is an intellectual or perhaps not. It could be that the spoils are evenly shared between the intellectuals and non-intellectuals for our successes and failures.

Kenya's problems do not need intellectuals to solve them. They are simple issues of planning, foresight and service. These are not provided at university but long before then by the hand that rocked the cradle.

As for Kenyan high culture, culture would be a good place to start before differentiation between high and low. Redykyulass for example seamlessly move from high farce to pithy satire and social commentary effortlessly.

Besides which, there is a strong vein of both anti-intellectualism and academic dishonesty in our society anyway which feed on each other.

At the end of the day we are judged by our bank account and have no one but ourselves to blame.

a rant, incoherent
written by Stephen Wanyama , March 23, 2008

First things first, the siege of the university started not under Moi, but under Kenyatta. I seem to remember the likes of Orengo having to traipse the border lands and finish their courses in Dar, no? When did Ngugi's travails begin, was it with Kenyatta or with Moi? I forget, who released Ngugi from prison? The country was exultant when Moi became President expressly because Kenyatta was the original choker, the tyrant himself.

You see if we were really to open our minds to it, the Moi oppression only started truly in 1982 and lasted at most to 1997. Indulge me and explain how 15 mere years would kill the spirit of intellectualism in a country with so many people while at the same time rapidly increasing access to higher education. Was there a true intellectual tradition before Moi?

I am unsympathetic to this view because Moi has always provided a too convenient scapegoat for Kenya, thereby precluding the necessary introspection that is the portal between this rotten past, the present retardation and a worthwhile future. History is persuasive that while the kind of intellectualism that attacks the state may be under siege under a tyrant, other pursuits may actually benefit from the patronage of the state. Evidence of this in Kenya? Bila!

Next, let us contemplate the heritage of all such intellectual traditions that were borne of tyrannies such as those of the Soviet Bloc, or of Latin America or of Eastern Europe. Look at Google's founders for example, they are bizarrely a product (or by-product) of the Soviet intellectual tradition. Let us contemplate South African intellectuals thriving under apartheid. I would really like to be reminded of an intellectual pursuit, or intellectual activity that was checked by the oppression of the Kenyan state, whether Moi's or Kenyatta's apart from debate and such on the nature of the Kenyan state. I mean we really are not saying that writing political treatises against the government is the entire scope of intellectual life are we?

Where are the Kenyan inventors, even now that the academy is free and well rewarded? Even among those exiled, where are the ideas? What good does it do Luo Nyanza to have all those PhD holders in parliament? What good did it do Kenya to have Wangari Maathai in Parliament? Exiles and those detained by the state around the world have taken the discomfort of their cocoon and spun the most exotic silks in it. Where is the evidence that ours are similarly engaged? Seriously, Iran, Iraq, even North Korea have their intellectuals in abundance, where are ours? Where are those that rose before the oppressive Moi state, or those that came after it? Little evidence of them anywhere. If necessity be the mother of invention, where are our inventors? Was there no scope for intellectuals to thrive under the flood of money coming in from international NGOs?

My theory? Well, I just do not think we as a society value fresh thinking or ideas. The child who tells his parents that he wants to be a writer is unlikely to get any encouragement. Do you remember that boy from Teso who built an airplane? Where is his reward? A mere curiosity he lasted the best of two days in the national media. How many books do we publish in a year, how many books do we read in a year (outside the school curriculum), how many of us have read Ngugi outside school, who is Sam Kahiga? or Meja Mwangi? Sorry to bring this in to the conversation but is there any other country in the world where people can proudly proclaim that they do not need to read a document, that they take umbrage purely because some politician (not a particularly intelligent one) has read it and found it faulty? Why was the media and civil society so indignant about the Wako Draft? How different was it than Bomas? Who advised Kibaki at the last election, and really was that their best effort? Perhaps Advocatus has a point, we are all looking too much to comfort and the tumbo, NGOs provide that even as they kill the initiative in us, we must now work to please our donors, not to improve our society.

Mr
written by kenyaone , March 30, 2008

They're broke. Plain and simple. There's no deep logic to it. The ones who are in politics you will notice went the other way and made crooked money to enable them to get where they are. Kenyans have glorified politics and ill gotten wealth. As such the entry level to politics and a viable political platform is to high financially for most of our intellectuals. Were paying the price for our love of money

Deserved criticism?
written by aeichener , April 04, 2008

Dear Daniel Waweru,

when I first read this open thread piece, I had only thought that one of the editors had once again gone overboard, and had extended his increasingly rabid and hateful rants now to "intellectuals in generals". I did, in other words, feel that a more differentiated and maybe - dare I use the word - fairer treatment of the role of the (few!) Kenyan intellectuals would have been warranted.

But now I have just perused a joint statement from 1st February 2008, that so far seems to have escaped the attention of KenyaImagine and its readers, I am wondering whether the initial criticism, in spite of its harshness, may not still have been deserved after all.

The statement which I address so negatively now, is the following:
Civil Society Responses to the Kenyan Crisis

9 pages full of nothingness, wishy-wash, and totally self-centered navel-gazing, without ever opening the clenched jaws, clearuing the blocked throat, and addressing the real elephants and hippos who have destroyed the living room, and now demand to be fed.

What a shame!

Alexander