Published by Pambazuka News on September 26, 2013
As peace loving beings in all parts of the world absorb the enormity
of the terrible attack on innocent civilians in Kenya leading to the
deaths of over 70 persons, it is important to start out by condemning in
no uncertain terms the cowardly nature of this attack by the extremists
who claimed responsibility in the name of Al Shabaab. This attack on
innocent civilians at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya had nothing to
do with Islam and everything to do with the debasement of human beings
in Africa and the need for a clear political project to expose and
isolate the extremists. One of the many realities of this form of
violence and low intensity warfare is the ways in which global
competition for African resources have served to manipulate gullible
elements within and outside of Africa. While the media has
sensationalized this attack, it is worth reflecting on some of the
underlying contradictions inside the region of Eastern Africa and how
these contradictions are being played out inside of Kenya and the
region. For many entrepreneurs in the strategic industries that profit
from militarism, the events in Nairobi are a god send in so far as it
vindicates the argument that Africa is a hotbed of terrorism and it is
not possible to wind down the Global War on Terror. For the planners who
are strategizing for the rich oil and gas resources of the East African
coast, this episode of the siege of the Mall in Kenya provides another
opportunity to deepen the divisions within Eastern Africa and pump out
more stories and images of ‘failed states.’ For the discredited leaders
of Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, this episode provides an opportunity to
grand stand in support of the Kenyan political leadership against the
International Criminal Court (ICC). In a speech before the General
Assembly of the United Nations on 24 September, Museveni said, ‘The ICC,
in a shallow, biased way, has continued to mishandle complex African
issues. This is not acceptable. The ICC should stop.’
That Yoweri Museveni, the President of Uganda serving for 27 years, has
now stood before the 68th session of General Assembly of the United
Nations as a champion of Pan Africanism and African independence is most
ironic in so far as the army of Museveni has been the most servile in
the interests of US forces in Eastern Africa. These distortions call for
clarity in the ranks of the peace and justice forces internationally
and for sharper analysis and actions within the global Pan African
Movement.
Kenya is an important base for the consolidation of the unification of
the peoples of Africa and the recent experiences of warfare, famine,
alienation and militarism point to the urgency for coordination for
peace from the peoples of Africa. The massive discovery of oil and
natural gas off the East African Coast from Djibouti down to Mozambique
has the possibility of changing the geo-political map of the world as
all and sundry now see the future of the world economy as centered in
the Indian Ocean as opposed to the Atlantic Ocean. The genius and
creativity of the youths of Eastern Africa can be mobilized by the
progressive Pan African forces if there is slow and careful planning for
the Pan African project of removing the artificial boundaries that were
established at the Conference of Berlin in 1884. In our contribution
this week we assert our opposition to the extremists who are
manipulating Islam in the name of violence. At the same time we are
opposing the imperial forces in Africa and their allies in the Gulf who
are opposed to the dignity and peaceful existence of African peoples.
The veteran Pan African writer Prof. Kofi Awoonor, 78, was a one of
those who lost his earthly life in this senseless attack by individuals
who are as anti-African as they are anti-human. Awoonor had served in
the literary ranks of the Pan African movement with distinction in areas
of importance for the Global Pan African family, Brazil, USA, UK and
Africa. He had been in Nairobi to commune with other literary Pan
Africanists in the Storymoja Hay Festival.
Kenya is the base of a vibrant populace whose creativity in literature
has produced some of the leading Pan African writers and activists such
as Micere Githae Mugo and Ngugi Wa Thiongo. Kenya also gave to the world
the spirit of Wangari Mathaai. It is from the same Kenya where we are
in the midst of new platforms for finance and technology that has
democratized banking and changed the political economy of Kenya and East
Africa. The challenge for the progressive wing of the global Pan
African movement is to mobilize energies in the midst of this tragedy to
speed the processes of political transformation and unification in
Africa.
WHO CONTROLS THE NARRATIVE ON KENYA AND SOMALIA?
When tragedies such as the killings and hostage taking in the Westgate
Mall occurs, there are immediate calls from within the movement for the
right kind of literature and analysis that can make sense of the
nonsense that comes from the western media. As the images were being
played out in the media in print and television, I remembered the many
meetings that were held by Fahamu staff and this writer at this Mall.
The office of Fahamu (parent organization for Pambazuka) is just next
door to this mall. This is just one of the messages that I received from
comrades in Kenya,
‘Hi Prof,
Many days? 'Ope you've been keepin' well. Trust me, I'm safe and sound.
Do you remember the last time I was with you, we sat at Art Cafe at
Westgate? Just thought of all the times I've been at the shopping mall
and I recalled meeting you there, last year.’
This was a journalist from a prominent Daily in Nairobi who has kept in
touch over the past six years. One of our students from our Pan African
Master’s Program in Syracuse wrote to ask, what should I be reading? I
referred him to the writings of Abdi Samatar and alerted him to the fact
that I had been in the middle of reading the book by James Fergusson,
‘The World's Most Dangerous Place: Inside the Outlaw State of Somalia.’
This book written by an English journalist is presented in the mode of
psychological warfare from the British point of view. It represents the
disinformation from the British journalistic world to reinforce the
arguments about failed states in Africa. From the contents of the book,
especially the sections on Al Shabaab, one can see that the writer had
access to British intelligence sources on the different factions in the
differing regions of Somalia; Somaliland, Puntland and the areas of
central Somalia around Mogadishu.
The other noteworthy book to have come out recently by a British writer
is that by Mary Harper, ‘Getting Somalia Wrong.: Faith and War in a
Shattered State.’ Although less strident in its vilification of
Africans and praise for western humanitarianism, this book again carries
the underlying analysis of Somalia as a ‘failed state.’ These writers
are part of the network of experts and journalists who are then fed into
the counter-terrorism networks for consultancy and news that forms the
background for the reports to the Security Council of the United
Nations. What was significant about the book by Mary Harper was that in
its discussion of the numerous resources in Somalia: livestock, cattle,
camels, charcoal, khat, etc there is no mention of the massive oil
resources that lie off the coast of Somalia and East Africa. Instead the
topics of piracy and terrorism grace the pages without clarity on the
interconnections between the so called pirates and the international
insurance companies. In an effort to control the narrative on Somalia
and Africa we are bombarded with details of the ‘tribal’ and clan
factions in Somalia. African anthropologists and social scientists who
have written extensively on the politicization and militarization of the
clan structures in Somalia are not usually cited in the reviews and
commentaries about the rise of violent extremism in Somalia. There are a
few Kenyan researchers who have been writing and commenting on the
conflagration but their output has come in the form of consultancy
reports. One of the better studies from the pan African point of view
was that by Afyare Abdi Elmi, entitled ‘Understanding the Somalia
Conflagration: Identity, Political Islam and Peace-building’ on the
decomposition of the Somalia state and the responsibility of progressive
Somalians and Africans to rise above political Islam
Abdi Samatar has been consistently working and writing to articulate a
Pan African analysis of the conflagration in Somalia and from time to
time the Public Broadcasting stations in North America call on him for
commentaries but the resources for labeling Somalia as a hotbed of
terror ensure that progressives in the Pan African intellectual circuits
do not have access to the big research budgets. I remember vividly the
differences between Professor Abdi Samatar and Jendayi Frazier (then
Assistant Secretary of State for Africa) over how the world should view
the response of the peoples of East Africa to the Ethiopian invasion and
incursions into Somalia. The Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union, a
coalition of a dozen groups, had created the basis for a peaceful life
and had isolated the military entrepreneurs who the West called
warlords. We now know that the violence and destruction of the past
seven years could have been avoided if the arguments of Samatar and
other peace activists in and outside Somalia had been heeded. The
Ethiopians and the Bush Administration could not tolerate peace breaking
out in Somalia because instability in Somalia and Eastern Africa served
the geo-strategic interests of war planners in Washington. Along with
its allies in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and Yemen the networks for violent
extremism were tolerated while the United States rolled out the Africa
Command to fight terrorism in Africa. That fight against terror has now
been complicated by the intense competition between the differing states
of Europe over the future oil and gas mining in Somalia.
THE FUTURE OIL BONANZA IN SOMALIA
In the past two years the news from Somalia has been dominated by the
information that there could be as much as 110 billion barrels of oil
and gas off the shores of Somalia. There is also likely to be vast
natural gas reserves in Somali waters in the Indian Ocean. Fields
containing an estimated 100 trillion cubic feet of gas have been found
off Mozambique and Tanzania. British politicians and British oil
companies have been the most active in seeking to corner the future
exploration of this oil and it is not by accident that the most recent
conferences on the future of Somalia has been held in London and hosted
by David Cameron, the Prime Minister and head of the Conservative Party
of Britain. One of the first companies to have signed a contract with
the Government of Somalia is the front for British petroleum interests
that is now registered as Soma Oil & Gas Exploration Ltd. This
company was recently founded in the United Kingdom and its chairman is
Michael Howard, a former leader of the Conservative Party. We are also
informed that CEO Robert Sheppard has experience an adviser for the UK
oil company BP PLC (LON: BP) in Russia.
Very soon after the long transition and the more than fifteen meetings
to organize a sensible form of governance in Somalia, the British moved
in to muscle out an African as the Special Representative of the
Secretary General (SRSG) for Somalia. Nicholas Kay has emerged as the
SRSG for Somalia at a moment when Britain is seeking to dominate the
institutions and organizations that will have control over the decision
making processes for the oil and gas exploration in Somalia. From the
moment of the decomposition of the Somalia government and the
manipulation of the military entrepreneurs by western forces, Britain
had been cooling its heels working with the political elements in that
section of Somalia that had been colonized by Britain after the Berlin
Conference. During the colonial era Britain had used this region to
provide meat for its troops in the Gulf and British Somaliland was
governed from India.
British oil companies for decades had knowledge of the massive oil
reserves off the coast of Somalia and the British teased the ‘leaders’
of Somaliland with the gesture that they would recognize this
secessionist region as a breakaway state. Pan Africanists will remember
that at the Berlin Conference in 1885 the peoples of Somalia were
divided into five areas (French Somaliland, -now called Djibouti,
British Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, the Ethiopian areas of Somalia
–in the Ogaden and the Somalia peoples who were located in what came to
be known as Kenya), There are up to 300,000 citizens of Somali
extraction in Europe and while the racism of Britain alienate the more
than 100,000 Somali youth, Britain is opportunist and when Mo Farah won
the gold medal for the 10000m at the London 2012 Olympics, the British
press forgot the jingoism that alienated and confused many youth of
Somali extraction who yearned for some purpose in their lives.
British newspapers and politicians had showered praises on the breakaway
region telling them that this was a region of peace in a haven of
violent Somalia. However, the British always had their eyes on the
massive oil resources. Some foreign companies signed deals with the
breakaway governments of Puntland and Somaliland but these entities were
never recognized by the African Union.
For about ten years the British were waiting in Somaliland until they
knew that the Ugandans cleaned up the situation and many Africans died.
They were quite willing for Africans (Ugandans and Burundians) to die in
the AMISOM operation while the western P3 members of the Security
Council quibbled over how much money the UN should spend on the
peacekeeping force in Somalia. Nicholas Kay, the new SSRG has traveled
to the General Assembly this week to lobby for more resources for
AMISOM, presumably because it will be important to guard the British
nationals who will be flocking to Mogadishu. Kay is by no means a small
player in the British political establishment. Before he was deployed to
Mogadishu as the SSRG he had been the Africa Director at the United
Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Prior to this position
at the FCO, he served as Ambassador to the Republic of the Democratic of
the Congo and the Sudan from 2007 to 2010 and 2010 to 2012,
respectively. He was also the United Kingdom’s Regional Coordinator for
Southern Afghanistan and Head of the Provincial Reconstruction Team for
Helmand Province from 2006 to 2007. In short, he has the experience of
serving British interests in war zones. There are numerous other British
elements in the interstices of the United Nations system working to
ensure the ascendancy of British interests.
MOVING AGAINST AFRICA AND MANIPULATING AFRICANS
The US form of warfare in Somalia had followed the new template of
drones, local militia forces, private military contractors and third
party countries. In the war in Libya, this form of warfare had been used
with the army of Qatar acting as the Third party country. In Somalia;
Uganda had been the country most willing to serve imperial interests
after the Ethiopians had invaded to oust the Union of Islamic Courts.
The historic differences between Somalia and Ethiopia ensured that
Ethiopia could not be a real force for peace, especially in the very
undemocratic and repressive conditions inside Ethiopia. Ugandans
deployed more than 6000 fighters to Mogadishu and hundreds lost their
lives. The Ugandans and Burundians formed the bulk of the African Union
Peace Keeping forces (AMISOM) that drove Al Shabaab out of Mogadishu.
The reports from the families in Uganda were that hundreds, if not
thousands of Ugandans lost their lives in the forms of battle that raged
from street to street and alley to alley in Somalia. Reports of the
fighting were that it was similar to the kind of warfare of 1914-1918.
While this fighting was going on, the western countries were opposed to
financing the AMISOM mission and were quite willing and ready to have
Africans die in the streets of Mogadishu as it turns out now to serve
the interests of western oil companies.
If Museveni was a front for the US military in Somalia, by the time the
body bags were being flown back to Kampala, Museveni had his own
interest in ensuring that the violent extremists in Somalia were
decapitated. Museveni worked closely with Augustine Mahiga who had moved
from the safety of Nairobi when he took up the position of SRSG in
2010. Both Mahiga and Museveni had worked closely with Nyerere and both
had been on the periphery of the Dar es Salaam school in the era of
Walter Rodney, Issa Shivji and the period when all operatives in
Tanzania identified with the African liberation project. When Britain
wanted to get the position of SRSG, the campaign of disinformation
intensified about the diplomatic and military capabilities of their
African allies such as Mahiga and Museveni.
After the Ugandans died in the hundreds, the Western military lobby
moved against Augustine Mahiga the Special Representative of the
Secretary General. Mahiga is a Tanzanian and he worked hard from
Mogadishu while the European members of the UN team spent their time in
Nairobi. There had been a struggle between Germany, Norway, Britain and
South Africa to get this SRSG post that can be like the neo-colonial
governor in Mogadishu. Kay won out using the British special
relationship with the USA to succeed.
The Norwegians wanted the position of SRSG and promised US $30 million
in aid to the new Somalia government, but the British muscled out the
Norwegians. The secessionist state of Somaliland had signed a production
sharing agreement with DNO, a Norwegian oil and gas company, but
British interests were working hard against Norway. Enter David Cameron
who became the champion for the convening of conferences to reconstruct
Somalia. This very same Cameron who had been attacking Somali nationals
in Britain as the forces that ensured that multiculturalism does not
work was the same who dispatched William Hague to Mogadishu in n 2012.
The Prime Minister of Turkey, Edrogan had been the first leader of a
foreign government to visit Mogadishu in 2011 and Britain wanted to be
counted as a state that supported the people of Somalia. More recently
September 2013, there had been the convening of a special EU New Deal
for peace meeting in Brussels. The European Union pledged 650 million
euros to help Somalia's peace and rebuilding process but after one read
the fine print one could see that most of what was said amounted to
pledges. The British Department for International Development (DFID)
rolled out and published its own commitments made in the meeting but
when the sums were added it did not come to the US $30 million that had
been pledged by Norway and rejected by the Government of Somalia in
favor of the British promises.
REGIONAL DIMENSIONS
The heavy fighting to remove Al Shabaab from Mogadishu had been
undertaken by Ugandans and Burundians but in September/October 2011, the
Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) invaded Somalia under the banner of Linda
Nchi (Kiswahili for defend the Nation). At the time of the Kenyan
incursion in 2011, I had written in Pambazuka that the intended
remilitarization of Africa will fail. I had written,
‘The government of Kenya has declared that it will end its military
campaign against Al-Shabaab in Somalia when it is satisfied it has
stripped the group of its capacity to attack across the border. If one
goes by the experience of the past 18 years, then this statement can be
read that Kenya will be in for a long-term deployment to Somalia. The
corollary to this is the reality that Kenya and its cities will be
spaces of war, security clampdown and general destabilisation of the
population. Since the Kenyan foray, there have been two grenade attacks
at a bar and a bus terminal that killed one person and wounded more than
20 people in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. These attacks have already
affected the tourism industry, one of the most important sources of
revenue for the government of Kenya.’
From the books mentioned above, we have read that the Kenyan incursion
into Somalia had been planned long in advance by the KDF and that the
Kenyans were looking for the most opportune time to justify the
incursion into Somalia. The international media blitz about famine,
refugees and Al Shabaab in 2011 provided the right background for the
Kenyan people to support the KDF into Somalia. Kenyans had been lukewarm
towards the military after the security forces had failed to protect
innocent civilians after the violence of 2008.
The political leaders of Kenya had been working with French companies to
map out the future of the recovery of oil resources in Kenya on land
and offshore. There had been disputes between Kenya and the Federal
Transition Government of Somalia over the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ)
of Kenya and Somalia. Both countries had produced competing maps to lay
claim to the EEZ off the coast of Southern Somalia. The Kenyan forces
had collaborated with a questionable military entrepreneur of the Ras
Kamboni group and the Ugandans were not happy that Kenya had intervened
in Somalia after hundreds of Ugandans had already lost their lives.
CONTRADICTIONS BETWEEN KENYA AND BRITAIN
There is now a growing contradiction between Britain and Kenya over the
future of Somalia. In the past one hundred years, Kenya had been the
base for British imperial operations in East Africa. From Nairobi,
British capitalism had sought to dominate the East African region and
Britain had encouraged Kenyan capitalists to break up the East African
community in the seventies. British exploitation of the resources of
Kenya was originally concentrated on agriculture with the production of
tea, coffee, flowers and other products high on the list. In the era of
energy, consumer products, telecommunications and security, British
companies did profitable business in Kenya while the academic
institutions of Britain and the USA churned out data on the tribal
differences in Kenya.
After the contested elections in 2007, the Kenyan political leadership
had gestured economically to China while firmly linked ideologically to
western capitalism. Britain was most concerned about this gesture of the
Kenyan leadership towards China crowned by the successful visit f Mwai
Kibaki to China in 2010. Bilateral trade volume between Kenya and China
has increased significantly in recent years, with China becoming Kenya's
major trading partner. In 2012, imports from China were $1.92 billion,
imports from the United States $776 million, and from the United Kingdom
$575 million. When the Kenyans rolled out plans for the Lamu port and
the corridor to link the coast to South Sudan and Ethiopia, western
capitalist companies could not compete in the bidding and so Britain
decided to switch and plan to control Somalia.
The impressive Lamu Port and South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET)
Corridor project involves the development of a new transport corridor
from the new port of Lamu through Garissa, Isiolo, Mararal, Lodwar and
Lokichoggio to branch at Isiolo to Ethiopia and Southern Sudan. This
will comprise of a new road network, a railway line, oil refinery at
Lamu, oil pipeline, Isiolo and Lamu Airports and a free port at Lamu
(Manda Bay) in addition to resort cities at the coast and in Isiolo. It
will be the backbone for opening up Northern Kenya and integrating it
into the national economy. Despite this impressive planning for LAPSSET,
the shortsightedness of the Kenyans about the future Pan African
Unification meant that the planning for this project fell under the
banner of the dubious Kenya 2030 project. For Pan Africanists by 2030
Africa will already be united with one currency, one army and a more
democratized polity.
Britain had been the number one trading partner of Kenya right up to 2008.
France waited quietly and patiently while the relationship between Kenya
and Britain deteriorated and the French oil company Total prepared
itself to be the major partner of the Kenyan financial and real estate
barons. France has methodically maneuvered to become a force in the
English speaking enclaves of Eastern Africa.
US PRIVATE CONTRACTORS AND THE GULF CONSERVATIVES
For the preservation of the investment in militarism in Africa, Somalia
had been the most important talking point for the strategic planners in
Washington. With the awareness that the presence of US troops had
fuelled a massive anti-imperialist consciousness inside Somalia, the US
maintained a very low profile with in Somalia working with drone warfare
and private contractors. In the book by James Fergusson on Somalia we
have the most detailed information of Bancroft International as a CIA
front in Mogadishu and Nairobi. Western intelligence agencies cannot
deny knowledge of the various networks of violent extremists because it
is from this very same network that the West is now recruiting Jihadists
for its war in Syria.
From the annexes of the Reports of the Secretary General of the United
Nations to the Security Council we have the names of the ten or so
prominent private contractors that are involved in the war against
Africa in the differing parts of Somalia. According to the press, all of
these private military contractors dream of being as successful as
Bancroft International. According to the UN Report of June 2013,
‘In Kismaayo, the United States-based Atlantean Worldwide represented
itself to the Monitoring Group as a “life support” company. Meanwhile,
it is marketing its presence in Somalia to oil and gas companies with
the image of a risk management company, as well as portraying itself to
several Nairobi-based diplomats as the “Bancroft of Kismaayo”.’
It is from Kismayo where Kenya is seeking to create a buffer state
called Jubaland, dividing Somalia even further so that the Kenyan
bourgeoisie can control the oil of the coast of Kismayo.
SALAFISTS AND WAHABISTS
We now know from the information provided by Edward Snowden that the
National Security Agency (NSA) of the USA has a massive information
gathering apparatus all around the world. Hence, it would be incredible
to believe that the US does not have the information about the
foundations and organizations in the Gulf that finance the violent
extremists that are labelled as Al Shabaab. The spoilers for the Kenyan
bourgeoisie in their manipulation of the war on terror are the
conservative fronts from the Gulf and Saudi Arabia. They finance the
religious extremists in Somalia who have links to the militarists. These
spoilers finance extremists all over East Africa. It is here important
that these extremists act in the name of Islam but their activities have
been most unislamic. As Samir Amin rightly observed, ‘The Islam
proposed by political Islam in all its diverse organizations
(‘extremist’ or even ‘terrorist’ and so-called ‘moderate’) is definitely
an obscurantist Islam, unable to help understand the nature of
contemporary world challenges. It is a version of Islam at the service
of primitive and brutal forms of exploitation of the weak (‘the people’)
by the ‘strong’ (the ruling cliques who exploit the return to
religion). And these ‘strong’ are nothing but transmission belts for the
country’s integration into the global system dominated by the
monopolies of the Triad (USA, Europe, Japan). The Somalian ‘small
market’ provides no means of resistance to this domination, and the
leaders of Islamic movements may not even be aware of this.’
Somalia must be kept unstable in preparation for the coming war in the
region. Africa must be Africa must be destabilized so that imperialism
and their allies can use African resources in the coming wars.
INTELLECTUAL AND IDEOLOGICAL WARFARE
The intellectual and ideological war over the future of Africa is now
intense and it is important that Somalians at home and abroad along with
their allies in the overseas Somali community as well as in the wider
Pan African community get more information on how this attack on the
Mall fits into the overall imperial strategy. Whatever the outcome of
this Mall event, it will be used to strengthen repression and to isolate
progressive forces. Progressive forces internationally must intensify
our opposition to religious extremism and at the same time expose how
the Global War on Terror fuels actions such as the one that took place
at the Mall.
Kenya is in a very difficult situation because the Kenyan leadership
will want to gesture in an anti-imperialist direction over the
International Criminal Court. They also want to be anti-imperialist so
that the financial forces that control banking and telecommunications
can branch out into the energy sector and control the oil in Somalia.
PSEUDO ANTI-IMPERIALISM AND THE AFRICAN UNION
Progressives in Africa cannot fall for the pseudo anti-imperialism of
Uhuru Kenyatta that is now being voiced by Museveni. This
anti-imperialism is so layered that it will require a high level of
sophistication to grasp the subtexts of game playing that is going on
with the Kenyan leadership. At the time of the 50th anniversary of the
struggles for the unification of Africa the discussions were hijacked by
Kenya who called for the African Union to boycott the ICC in solidarity
with the leadership of Kenya. After the meeting in May, that same
leadership went on a diplomatic offensive to call on African people to
oppose the ICC. Yoweri Museveni was the front person for this task and
his presentation before the General Assembly this week was part of the
alliance between the Ugandan leadership and the Kenyan leadership.
Museveni had been one of the first leaders in Africa to refer a case to
the ICC when he cooperated with the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for
Kony of the Lord’s Resistance Army to the ICC.
Kenya had mounted a diplomatic offensive using Museveni as a front
calling on the African Union to hold a special summit on the question of
the trial of the President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President
William Ruto before the ICC. The Kenyan information platforms had argued
that, ‘the trial of Kenya’s top two executives will undermine their
ability to govern the country; that a lot of work has already been done
to resettle the people displaced by the post-election violence in 2008;
that the trial will reopen old wounds; that Kenya has a new Constitution
that can be used to create local courts to try the cases; and that the
AU request to have the case moved to Kenya has been ignored by the ICC.’
From the East African newspaper of the region, one can see that there
are many different levels to the manipulation. When William Ruto, the
Vice President of Kenya was slated to travel to The Hague to stand
trial, both Uganda and Rwanda asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to stop
Deputy President William Ruto from flying to The Hague as his trial on
charges of crimes against humanity kicked off.
According to the same newspaper, ‘the request was tabled when President
Kenyatta met Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa and Rwanda’s
Louise Mushikiwabo in Nairobi on September 8, two days before Mr Ruto
flew out to the International Criminal Court.’ The East African has
learnt that President Kenyatta insisted on his deputy attending court,
arguing that failure to appear before the ICC could trigger a warrant of
arrest and ‘the argument of whether they are innocent would be lost.’
Future revelations will inform the people of Kenya if this is another
layer of the financial and political struggles inside Kenya where some
sections may be willing to sacrifice William Ruto.
There is genuine opposition within Africa to the selectivity of the ICC
but the progressive forces within Africa may oppose the ICC but they
cannot support the impunity that is embedded in the campaign of Yoweri
Museveni. In the post-election violence of January 2008 there were over
1300 Kenyans who died violently and more than half a million have been
displaced. Up to the present time of writing September 2013, five years
after the carnage no one has been held accountable for the deaths of
these Kenyans. Just as how Uhuru Kenyatta has appeared on the world
stage calling for the prosecution of those who carried out the Westgate
Mall attack, so it is necessary for Kenyans for find the right basis for
holding accountable those who orchestrated the post-election violence.
PAN AFRICANISTS MUST BE VIGILANT AND INTENSIFY THE POLITICAL WORK
Since 1992 Somalia has been destabilized by imperial forces. Imperialism
has attempted to solve the political problems of Somalia by military
means. Millions of people in Somalia have been traumatized by this 21
years of perpetual warfare. Millions more have been displaced and thrown
around the world as refugees. This effort to militarize Somalia drew in
the entire region as the militarization of ethnicity emboldened
military entrepreneurs who understood the business of warfare. The
peoples of Somalia are now spread over the length and breadth of Eastern
and southern Africa. What affects Somalia will affect all of Africa.
The political solution to the questions of destabilization cannot be
resolved outside a process of demilitarization, reconstruction and
unity. The new oil resources have provided the basis for a new round of
militarism as the British have switched sides in East Africa. The siege
of the Mall and the killing demand a higher level of understanding than
to shout about terrorists. There must be a sober inquiry into the nature
of the forces that carried out this terrible attack.
Kenyans and the peoples of East Africa have been suffering from economic
terrorism for decades. It is in Kenya where there are some of the most
sophisticated political forces. Imperial Britain, the USA understands
this and since the period of the Land and Freedom Army has worked to
divide the people of Kenya. Tribe was the preferred tool but in the era
of extreme fundamentalism, religion is now the tool to divide and
dominate. These extremists all thrive on the oppression of women.
The political leaders of Kenya and Uganda want to divert the
reconstruction project of Africa by calling a special session to defend
Uhuru Kenyatta. Progressive Pan Africanists cannot support this special
session that is called and being masterminded by Yoweri Museveni. There
must be special courts in Kenya and a Truth and Reconciliation
Commission to heal the wounds of the political killings that took place
in 2008.
Kenyan researchers and progressive intellectuals must go beyond the media to work against impunity.
Somalia will have to be integrated into a people centered Eastern Africa. There is too much at stake.
The covert struggles between Britain and Kenya over the oil has to be
uncovered while progressives find a way to undercut the Museveni call
for a special session of the African Union. Kofi Awoonor, Tajudeen Abdul
Raheem and Philippe Wamba were outstanding Pan Africanists who departed
this life in Kenya. They have joined the hundreds of thousands whose
lives watered the seeds for freedom and unity. We cannot disappoint
them. As Tajudeen would say, ‘Don’t Agonize, Organize!’

Horace Campbell is Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University. His recent book is Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya. He is author of: Rasta and Resistance From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney; Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation; Pan Africanism, Pan Africanists and African Liberation in the 21st Century; and Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics. Follow on Twitter @Horace_Campbell.
- Order Horace Campbell's recent book, Global Nato and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya
- Welcome to horacecampbell.net. Horace Campbell is Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University, New York. His recent book is Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya. He is the author of: Rasta and Resistance From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney; Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation; Pan Africanism, Pan Africanists and African Liberation in the 21st Century; and Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics. Follow on Twitter @Horace_Campbell.