02-03-2018, 11:28 PM
*** 4-Feb-18 World View -- Kenya cracks down on political opposition after mock inauguration
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Kenya cracks down on political opposition after mock inauguration
****
![[Image: g180203b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g180203b.jpg)
Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga holds up a Bible as he swears himself in as "the people's president of the Republic of Kenya" (AFP)
Kenya is in crisis after the government led by president Uhuru
Kenyatta, an ethnic Kikuyu, has been cracking down on free speech in
violation of a court order, and is making arbitrary arrests of leading
figures in the opposition, which is led by Raila Odinga, an ethnic
Luo.
The government earlier this week ordered Kenya's top three independent
TV channels to stop broadcasting, to prevent them from broadcasting
Odinga's mock inauguration ceremony. The shutdown was originally
supposed to be temporary, but the government has ordered the shutdown
to continue. On Thursday, a pro-Odinga activist obtained a court
order saying declaring the shutdown at an end, but the Kenyatta
government has used police force to prevent the court order from being
served on the government.
At the same time, the government have ordered the arrests of several
pro-Odinga supporters. In one case, that of political activist Miguna
Miguna, the police are ignoring a court order that he be released on
bail.
Kenya's government chaos began in August of last year, when Uhuru
Kenyatta won reelection as Kenya's president in an election that
claimed was invalid because of numerous irregularities. In a ruling
that shocked not only Kenya but all of Africa, Kenya's Supreme Court issued a ruling, overturning the election.
A new election was held on October 26. Odinga's
party declared that election invalid and boycotted it. Kenyatta won
that election as well.
On Tuesday of last week, Odinga held a mock inauguration ceremony at
Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi, Kenya's capital city. (Uhuru is
Kiswahili for freedom.) He held up a bible and declared himself the
"people's president," at a "swearing-in" ceremony where he said that
he was answering to a "high[er] calling to assume the office of the
people's president of the Republic of Kenya."
Despite the fact that Kenyatta's government called the ceremony an act
of treason, and despite fears that police would prevent the event from
taking place, thousands of enthusiastic Odinga supporters attended the
mock inauguration.
The government permitted the ceremony to go ahead, but called it an
act of treason. It shut down the independent TV stations, forbidding
anyone from broadcasting the event, and then began the arrests of the
"conspirators" in the mock inauguration. CNN and Reuters and The Nation (Nairobi) and NPR
****
**** Fears grow of repeat of 2008 post-election violence
****
In 2007, there was a presidential election where Odinga from the Luo
tribe was defeated for president by another member of the Kikuyu
tribe.
After the December 2007 president elections, there was a period of
extremely bloody inter-tribal violence in the Rift Valley in Kenya,
beginning early in 2008. The worst atrocity occurred when 30 people
were lured into a church to escape violence, and a young gang locked
the doors and set the church on fire, burning everyone alive. All in
all, more than 1,200 people were killed in the tribal violence between
the Kalenjins, who are mostly herders, and the Kikuyus, who are mostly
farmers. The Luos are an offshoot of the Kalenjins.
Kenya's last generational crisis war was the Mau-Mau rebellion that
climaxed in 1956. At that time, Kenya was a British colony, and the
Mau-Mau rebellion was largely a fight against the colonists. The 2008
violence was not a full-scale war, and it fizzled quickly. But today,
nine years later, a new crisis war is overdue, and with the British
colonists long gone, it's feared that there will be a new full-scale
crisis war between the Kikuya, Kalenjin and Luo tribes.
Kenya's history has been something of a clash between two dynasties,
the Kenyatta and Odinga dynasties. During the Mau-Mau rebellion, both
the Kikuyus, led by Jomo Kenyatta, and the Luos, led by Jaramogi
Oginga Odinga, opposed the British colonists, although because of the
country's geography, the Kikuyus bore the brunt of the fighting.
The Kenyattas and the Odingas were united after the war ended, but as
the younger generations grew up, there was a clear split by the
Awakening era of the 1980s, with Odinga and the Luos leaning toward
Communist Russia and China, while Kenyatta and the Kikuyus were
strongly pro-Western.
Incidentally, Barack Obama's ancestors were Luos. When Obama won the
U.S. presidency in 2008, Kenyans were ecstatic, and his victory was
declared a national holiday. But by the time of his re-election in
2012, Kenyan audiences celebrated him less as the son of a nation than
as the son of a particular ethnic group, the Luos.
The Kikuyus have been in power for most of Kenya's history, and the
Luos have been continually marginalized. After a failed coup in 1982,
Raila Odinga himself was placed under house arrest for seven months.
Today, Kenya is just entering a generational Crisis era. The
survivors of the Mau-Mau rebellion have wanted to prevent a new
full-scale war from occurring, but now those survivors are almost
completely gone, replaced with younger generations, many of whom are
thirsting for war. The 1982 coup, which occurred during a
generational Awakening era, fizzled quickly, as did the violence in
2008. But the population is very different today, and an attempted
coup, if one occurred, could quickly spread into a larger war.
Uhuru Kenyatta is probably aware of this, and that's probably the
reason he tells himself that it's necessary to shut down opposition
television stations and jail opposition leaders. Unfortunately, those
repressive actions will not prevent violence, and in fact could bring
about the violence more quickly. The Nation (Kenya) and The Herald (Zimbabwe) and NPR (24-Jul-2015)
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Kenya, Nairobi, Miguna Miguna,
Uhuru Kenyatta, Kikuyu, Raila Odinga, Luo, Kalenjins,
Mau-Mau rebellion, Jomo Kenyatta, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga,
Barack Obama
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Kenya cracks down on political opposition after mock inauguration
- Fears grow of repeat of 2008 post-election violence
****
**** Kenya cracks down on political opposition after mock inauguration
****
Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga holds up a Bible as he swears himself in as "the people's president of the Republic of Kenya" (AFP)
Kenya is in crisis after the government led by president Uhuru
Kenyatta, an ethnic Kikuyu, has been cracking down on free speech in
violation of a court order, and is making arbitrary arrests of leading
figures in the opposition, which is led by Raila Odinga, an ethnic
Luo.
The government earlier this week ordered Kenya's top three independent
TV channels to stop broadcasting, to prevent them from broadcasting
Odinga's mock inauguration ceremony. The shutdown was originally
supposed to be temporary, but the government has ordered the shutdown
to continue. On Thursday, a pro-Odinga activist obtained a court
order saying declaring the shutdown at an end, but the Kenyatta
government has used police force to prevent the court order from being
served on the government.
At the same time, the government have ordered the arrests of several
pro-Odinga supporters. In one case, that of political activist Miguna
Miguna, the police are ignoring a court order that he be released on
bail.
Kenya's government chaos began in August of last year, when Uhuru
Kenyatta won reelection as Kenya's president in an election that
claimed was invalid because of numerous irregularities. In a ruling
that shocked not only Kenya but all of Africa, Kenya's Supreme Court issued a ruling, overturning the election.
A new election was held on October 26. Odinga's
party declared that election invalid and boycotted it. Kenyatta won
that election as well.
On Tuesday of last week, Odinga held a mock inauguration ceremony at
Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi, Kenya's capital city. (Uhuru is
Kiswahili for freedom.) He held up a bible and declared himself the
"people's president," at a "swearing-in" ceremony where he said that
he was answering to a "high[er] calling to assume the office of the
people's president of the Republic of Kenya."
Despite the fact that Kenyatta's government called the ceremony an act
of treason, and despite fears that police would prevent the event from
taking place, thousands of enthusiastic Odinga supporters attended the
mock inauguration.
The government permitted the ceremony to go ahead, but called it an
act of treason. It shut down the independent TV stations, forbidding
anyone from broadcasting the event, and then began the arrests of the
"conspirators" in the mock inauguration. CNN and Reuters and The Nation (Nairobi) and NPR
****
**** Fears grow of repeat of 2008 post-election violence
****
In 2007, there was a presidential election where Odinga from the Luo
tribe was defeated for president by another member of the Kikuyu
tribe.
After the December 2007 president elections, there was a period of
extremely bloody inter-tribal violence in the Rift Valley in Kenya,
beginning early in 2008. The worst atrocity occurred when 30 people
were lured into a church to escape violence, and a young gang locked
the doors and set the church on fire, burning everyone alive. All in
all, more than 1,200 people were killed in the tribal violence between
the Kalenjins, who are mostly herders, and the Kikuyus, who are mostly
farmers. The Luos are an offshoot of the Kalenjins.
Kenya's last generational crisis war was the Mau-Mau rebellion that
climaxed in 1956. At that time, Kenya was a British colony, and the
Mau-Mau rebellion was largely a fight against the colonists. The 2008
violence was not a full-scale war, and it fizzled quickly. But today,
nine years later, a new crisis war is overdue, and with the British
colonists long gone, it's feared that there will be a new full-scale
crisis war between the Kikuya, Kalenjin and Luo tribes.
Kenya's history has been something of a clash between two dynasties,
the Kenyatta and Odinga dynasties. During the Mau-Mau rebellion, both
the Kikuyus, led by Jomo Kenyatta, and the Luos, led by Jaramogi
Oginga Odinga, opposed the British colonists, although because of the
country's geography, the Kikuyus bore the brunt of the fighting.
The Kenyattas and the Odingas were united after the war ended, but as
the younger generations grew up, there was a clear split by the
Awakening era of the 1980s, with Odinga and the Luos leaning toward
Communist Russia and China, while Kenyatta and the Kikuyus were
strongly pro-Western.
Incidentally, Barack Obama's ancestors were Luos. When Obama won the
U.S. presidency in 2008, Kenyans were ecstatic, and his victory was
declared a national holiday. But by the time of his re-election in
2012, Kenyan audiences celebrated him less as the son of a nation than
as the son of a particular ethnic group, the Luos.
The Kikuyus have been in power for most of Kenya's history, and the
Luos have been continually marginalized. After a failed coup in 1982,
Raila Odinga himself was placed under house arrest for seven months.
Today, Kenya is just entering a generational Crisis era. The
survivors of the Mau-Mau rebellion have wanted to prevent a new
full-scale war from occurring, but now those survivors are almost
completely gone, replaced with younger generations, many of whom are
thirsting for war. The 1982 coup, which occurred during a
generational Awakening era, fizzled quickly, as did the violence in
2008. But the population is very different today, and an attempted
coup, if one occurred, could quickly spread into a larger war.
Uhuru Kenyatta is probably aware of this, and that's probably the
reason he tells himself that it's necessary to shut down opposition
television stations and jail opposition leaders. Unfortunately, those
repressive actions will not prevent violence, and in fact could bring
about the violence more quickly. The Nation (Kenya) and The Herald (Zimbabwe) and NPR (24-Jul-2015)
Related Articles
- Kenya's Supreme Court issues 'historic' ruling, overturning presidential election (02-Sep-2017)
- Torture and murder of election official raise fears of violence in Kenya (01-Aug-2017)
- Severe drought in Kenya increases violence among herders, farmers and police (14-Nov-2017)
- Kenya protests take an increasingly dangerous turn (08-Jun-2016)
- Post-election massacre in Kenya raises concerns of tribal war (02-Jan-2008)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Kenya, Nairobi, Miguna Miguna,
Uhuru Kenyatta, Kikuyu, Raila Odinga, Luo, Kalenjins,
Mau-Mau rebellion, Jomo Kenyatta, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga,
Barack Obama
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
