The United Movement for Democracy in Kenya Takes up the Baton from December Twelve Movement
INTRODUCTION — The Struggle Continues Overseas
The December Twelve Movement (DTM) in Kenya used evasive tactics to avoid attacks from the Moi- KANU bourgeois dictatorship in the 1980s. The organisation was weakened by these attacks, but it survived in different forms. Some cells continued as DTM, others evolved into MWAKENYA. While not officially a successor of MK, UMOJA in London was much influenced by many of the policies and practices of DTM. UMOJA was formed by many DTM exiles from Kenya in several countries around the world, as indicated later in this book. They was now joined by some earlier political exiles and non-DTM Kenyans. Some surviving DTM Cells in Kenya worked closely with UMOJA. UMOJA and MWAKENYA then came together in 1996 and became a united, strengthened MWAKENYA-DTM. The earlier MWAKENYA was an attempt at survival by some cells of DTM and came under heavy attack from the Moi government. Many of its members had also to seek shelter outside Kenya. Some of them later joined UMOJA. The long and difficult journey from DTM to the strengthened MWAKENYA-DTM can be seen in the history of each strand.
DTM found its roots again in 2017 when MWAKENYA-DTM, Vita Books and Mau Mau Research Centre set up the Ukombozi Library which now houses, in central Nairobi, the 1980s DTM underground Library. Ukombozi Library is also the home of the Kenya Resistance Archives consisting of key documents from DTM, UMOJA and MWAKENYA. It is perhaps the only library in Kenya to hold such a collection. This article comments on, and examines, documents from Umoja wa Kupigania Demokrasia Kenya/United Movement for Democracy in Kenya — UMOJA — formed in London in 1987 to support resistance against the comprador KANU-B government in Kenya. The article sees UMOJA as one strand of the December Twelve Movement which President Daniel arap Moi sought to suppress following the attempted coup in 1982. The documents of the other strand — MWAKENYA — are outside the scope of this article. Many of the documents that UMOJA produced remain lost or hidden from public access. Some of them have now been placed in the Ukombozi Library in Nairobi. But not many people have access to them, or have time to study them. While an attempt is being made to digitise them, this article brings together some of the fundamental ideas and experience that made UMOJA unique in the history of resistance in Kenya.
UMOJA was formed in London at the Unity Conference in1987. The aims were captured succulently by the Salutation message from the Committee for Democracy in Kenya (CDK), Denmark:
We have to work together — not because we like each other but because the main objective in our unity is the complete liberation of Kenya from external domination and the overthrow of the neo-colonial regime. That is the basic meaning of our unity in resistance. Unity is our power — our only power — in the struggle to liberate our country, Kenya.
It is a fact that lack of a united resistance organisation against the comprador governments has enabled the comprador regime to stay in power so long. The study of the history of earlier resistance organisations is essential to avoid mistakes of the past and to chart a new path of resistance. There are many lessons to be learnt from the experiences of December Twelve Movement, UMOJA and MWAKENYA and their history needs to be made available and studied by all.
Resistance Continues
Organised resistance against the takeover of power by comprador governments in Kenya began even before independence in 1963. This was a continuation of Mau Mau’s war of independence when political independence was just one of the aims towards total liberation. Mau Mau was aware of the danger of neo-colonialism and imperialism and warned about the homeguard-compradors being manipulated into power by Britain and USA. Kenya African National Union (KANU), at its formation in 1960, carried on this anti-imperialist line. When this came under attack from KANU-B under Jomo Kenyatta, resistance continued, first within KANU until the assassination of Pio Gama Pinto in 1965, then under Kenya People’s Union (KPU) from 1966 to 1969 when KPU was banned. After that, resistance went underground with movements such as the December Twelve Movement (DTM). Using the excuse of suppressing the attempted coup in 1982, the Moi government almost killed DTM too. Almost, but not quite. The Moi government’s repression following the attempted coup in 1982 had grave consequences for DTM. Many of its leaders were detained. This was a major blow to the organisation. However, many cells continued to functioning continued be active. Some of them later emerged under the new name, Mwakenya.
The emergence of Mwakenya was thus one strand of DTM that continued resistance.
At the same time, many DTM members in various countries around the world joined with local activists to form the UMOJA in 1987 in London. Umoja merged with Mwakenya in 1996 and re-energised it. It is thus true to say that DTM did not die in 1980s but continued to exist in UMOJA and MWAKENYA.
This article takes up the story of this second strand of DTM — UMOJA — formed in London which later returned to Kenya when it merged with Mwakenya in 1996.
Moi attacks DTM
The attempt by the Moi government to suppress DTM had unforeseen results for the Moi government. The threat it had tried to kill remerged with two strands and with renewed vigour. Moi detained or imprisoned many leaders and members of DTM, and forced many others to flee into exile. Those who remained in Kenya continued resistance as DTM cells while others resumed their activities under the name MWAKENYA. Many of those forced into exile continued their political activities in whichever country they settled in. As a result of their organisational experience, study, activities and discipline, DTM members had developed a particular mindset that was, and still is, rare in Kenyan politics and organisations. They were totally committed to the cause of socialism and liberation, they had studied and absorbed local and international literature on resistance to imperialism and had developed a high level of organisational discipline. They had learnt to apply the lessons from their ideological, theoretical and historical studies to whatever situation they faced, whether in prisons, overseas or ‘free’ in Kenya. The brutal rule of Moi had hardened them and prepared them to carry on the struggle wherever they were. Thus the Kenyan struggle went international. There were members of DTM in Britain, USA, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Australia, Italy and a number of African countries which have remained unnamed because the murderous arms of Moi reached other African countries too. But these DTM members did not remain isolated as individuals in foreign lands. They formed local political organisations with the same aims as those of DTM, but adopted to their being outside Kenya. The following organisations from all these countries came together in 1987 to form UMOJA, as listed in the Umoja Unity Conference documents:
- UKENYA: Movement for Unity and Democracy — UKENYA, UK
- Patriotic Alliance for Kenyans, Southern Region (Africa) — PAKE
- Organisation for Democracy in Kenya — ODK. Sweden
- Muumgano wa Demokrasia Kenya — MDK, USA
- Kenya Democratic Alliance — KDA, Norway
- Kamati ya Ukombozi wa Kenya — KAUKENYA, East and Central African Region
- Committee for Democracy in Kenya — CDK, Denmark
The Australian delegates could not attend the Conference, but formed the UMOJA Australia branch soon after the Unity Conference. It was based at the Glen Huntly suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Kenya Democratic Alliance from Norway could also not attend, but sent Salutation to the Conference carried by a member. Some of the participating organisations were active in supporting the struggle for liberation in Kenya before the formation of UMOJA, but as solidarity movements, not as Kenyan organisations. They now organised themselves as Kenyan political movements.
It is regrettable that many of the documents of this period were lost at the London Secretariat of UMOJA due to an administrative mishap when the documents were destroyed by the landlord of the UMOJA office. However, they are likely to have survived in the archives of participating organisations.
A few examples of the political work in some of the countries is recorded below to indicate their commitment to the struggle in Kenya. The work in Norway was reported in Umoja (1987a):
The solidarity movement in Denmark was among the very first organisations to make contact with parliament over the violations of human rights in Kenya and had actually forced a discussion of the issue of political prisoners in Kenya.
The stand of the Organisation for Democracy in Kenya (Sweden) was made clear in their document, The ODK Declaration (1986):
We, the Organisation for Democracy in Kenya (Sweden), [are] totally opposed to the past crimes and the present atrocities committed by Moi’s dictatorial KANU regime against Kenyan people … We express our total solidarity with every initiative taken by peasants and workers of Kenya in their demand for higher wages, in their fight against the naked looting and robbery perpetrated by the regime, in their struggle for the rights to form themselves into exploitation and social oppression.
The ODK Declaration ended with these calls:
Out with all foreign imperialist theft and robbery of our wealth.
Out with the Moi regime and all the internal parasites
Out with all United States military facilities in Kenya.
Long Live Mwakenya and Mpatahishi
Long live the struggle of workers and peasants of Kenya.
It will be seen that the tone and the content of the ODK Declaration were as militant as the calls from DTM in Kenya. The Organisation for Democracy in Kenya (Sweden), although based in Sweden, was totally in support of the struggle of workers and peasants in their homeland.
Before UMOJA UKENYA: Movement for Unity and Democracy in Kenya (London)
The organisation of activists in London is described by UKENYA:
There have been groups of politically active Kenyans in Britain going back to the 30s and 40s. In the history of neo-colonial Kenya, a number of individuals and groups of Kenyans have had to seek exile in Britain. During the late 60s and 70s, these individuals were mainly those connected with the opposition party Kenya People’s Union [KPU). One of the better known groups of exiles of that period is the Kenya Democratic Alliance which was very active in the 70s. There were other equally active groups. some of who produced a newspaper Sauti ya Wananchi. These Kenyans played an important role in exposing the Kenyatta-KANU neo-colonial regime. internationally. We in UKENYA are proud of this heritage of resistance from generations of Kenyan exiles.
In the late 1970s, progressive Kenyans were active in the work of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya (CRPPK) which was formed, not as a political movement for Kenya, but as a solidarity movement, as is explained below by the Committee:
The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya (CRPPK) was a London- based organisation established on 2 July 1982 and coordinated by John La Rose from New Beacon’s Stroud Green address. The Committee emerged as a response to evidence of increasingly repressive tendencies in the Kenyan government under President Daniel Arap Moi. It aimed to act as a ‘solidarity organisation’ for those arrested, detained or harassed for their political activities in Kenya.
As such, the Kenyan members of the Committee could not take part in any political activities on behalf of CRPPK. It was in 1986 when some members of DTM in exile in London formed the first DTM cell in London. It was from these two developments — the solidarity front and the DTM London cell — that the Movement for Unity and Democracy in Kenya (UKENYA) was formed in 1987, as explained by the UKENYA Manifesto (1987):
… It is against this background of repression and resistance that we Kenyans living in Britain have come together and decided that we cannot stand idly by without taking a firm side in the struggle. After four years of intense debate and discussion on the situation in Kenya, we have taken the decision to form Umoja wa Kupigania Demokrasia Kenya UKENYA. UKENYA is [an] anti-imperialist organization committed to [the] struggle for democracy and the regaining of Kenya’s sovereignty. We declared our total opposition to the present KANU-led neo-colonial regime and our commitment to the dismantling of the neo-colonial structures in all sectors of our economic, political, social and cultural lives.
This was the first Kenyan political organisation that became active in London after the attacks by Moi- KANU on DTM in Kenya. It is instructive to note that the four years’ ‘intense debate and discussion’ came to fruition only when ignited by the newly- formed DTM Cell.
The UKENYA Manifesto sets out its Objective as follows:
UKENYA is fully committed to the restoration of Kenya’s sovereignty and national integrity. UKENYA shall therefore strive for the unity of all patriotic Kenyans who are struggling against neo-colonialism and hence are fighting for a national economy; a national democratic society; and a national independent culture which reflects the diversity of the nationalities of Kenya.
The Manifesto gives detailed objectives under different headings: Economic, Political, Social, and Foreign Relations. It was significant that UKENYA saw that there different roles for organisations based in Kenya and those based overseas. It stated:
UKENYA pledges to promote activities of democratic resistance in Kenya in cooperation with Internal and External democratic movements towards a unified national resistance movement. This will be done with the clear knowledge and understanding that externally based movements can only get guidance from those internally based (i.e. those within Kenya) and therefore that those abroad will mainly play a supportive role. [Emphases in the original].
It was this desire for a ‘unified national resistance movement’ that was led to the formation of UMOJA. In the meantime, each organisation carried on political and cultural activities in their country of residence.
ODK: Organisation for Democracy in Kenya (Sweden)
The ODK Declaration was issued on 24 May 1986. I showed an active organisations of Kenyans which se an example to other organisations that participated in the UMOJA Unity Conference in 1987. Its ODM Declaration was among the first public documen from Kenyans overseas which proclaimed it opposition to the Moi government and showed i stood for radical change in Kenya. A short selection from the declaration is reproduced below:
We, THE ORGANIZATION FOR DEMOCRACY IN KENYA (Sweden) do hereby DECLARE: — our total commitment to the restoration of Kenya’s sovereignty and National integrity which has been seriously compromised by the Moi regime and hence our total opposition to the United States military facilities and any other foreign military presence on our soil; — our total commitment to the creation of a Nationally Controlled Economy and to the termination of the present Moi-KANU supervised drainage of Kenya’s wealth to imperialist countries and hence our total opposition to the mortgaging of our country to the IMF, WORLD BANK, THE MULTINATIONALS and the virtual entrusting of the running of our country to aid agencies from the very countries that loot our wealth;
— our total commitment to the restoration of Democracy in Kenya:
— the rights of workers, peasants, students and professionals to organize themselves without government interference,
— the freedom of the National Press in Kenya
— and the freedom of speech, expression and assembly;
— our total commitment to the restoration of Justice and therefore our opposition to the colonial based Preservation of Public Security Act, detentions without trial, the entire Kangaroo court system, the use of physical and mental torture in police custody;
— our total commitment ·to the Revolutionary Culture rooted in the historical struggles of peasants and worker of our country, a culture which is the basis for the creation of a new man and woman of Kenya and hence our uncompromising opposition to the nee-colonial culture of subservience, servility, meekness, sycophancy, gratitude to charity,
— the begging culture being promoted by the Moi regime.
Towards the promotion of the above, we, THE ORGANIZATION FOR DEMOCRACY IN KENYA (Sweden) do hereby:
DECLARE our total and unreserved alliance with all the democratic forces struggling against the nee-colonial regime of Moi and his clique; APPLAUD the heroic and patriotic stand taken by MWAKENYA (Muungano wa Wazalendo wa Kukomboa Kenya) in championing nationally organized resistance against this corrupt, anti- Kenya, anti-people regime;
CALL UPON all the progressive and democratic forces in the world to come out in support of MWAKENYA and all other nationally based resistance movements inside Kenya;
PLEDGE our alliance with all the Kenyan democratic and progressive forces operating outside the country for the restoration of· democracy in Kenya;
EXPRESS our total solidarity with every initiative taken by peasants and workers of Kenya in t~eir demand for higher wages, in their fight against the naked looting and robbery perpetrated by the regime, in their struggi’e for their right to form themselves into organizations and in their struggle against external and internal exploitation and social oppression;
— APPLAUD the gallant role of University students in spear-heading the course for a democratic Kenya, often paying for their stand with life, blood, imprisonment, exile and expulsions.
OUT WITH ALL FOREIGN IMPERIALIST THEFT AND ROBBERY OF OUR WEALTH OUT WITH THE MOI REGIME AND ALL THE INTERNAL PARASITES OUT WITH ALL UNITED STATES MILITARY FACILITIES IN KENYA
LONG LIVE THE UNITY OF ALL PATRIOTIC FORCES IN OUR COUNTRY LONG LIVE MWAKENYA AND MPATANISHI LONG iIVE THE STRUGGLE OF WORKERS AND PEASANTS OF KENYA
A PEOPLE UNITED CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED VICTORY TO THE KENYAN PEOPLE
Issued by THE ORGANIZATION FOR
DEMOCRACY IN KENYA (Sweden)
24th May 1986
Stockholm, Sweden
Address: Box 45237
104 30 Stockholm Sweden.
The Birth of UMOJA at the London Unity Conference (1987)
These externally based Kenyan organisations supported Mwakenya in various ways and co- operated with each other as independent bodies. The decision to come together followed a request from UKENYA to the future Co-ordinator of UMOJA to ‘seek out the various organised groups of externally based Kenyans’, as mentioned in Umoja (1987) which also explains the basis of coming together:
In April this year [1987] I was asked by UKENYA, London, to seek out the various organised groups of the externally based Kenyans. I was asked to seek out their views on how best the externally based organisations could work together while each retained its autonomy. Different organisations; different names; but all working together on a common platform of anti- imperialist struggle for democracy in Kenya. In keeping with their manifesto they wanted to forge a strong working alliance with all the patriotic, democratic and progressive resistance forces abroad. This in their view would be only the first but an essential step towards the eventual total unity of all the forces abroad and those inside the country. Almost at the same time, I received a message from forces inside our country wanting me to meet them somewhere in Africa.
The Co-ordinator visited Norway, Sweden, Denmark, ‘Southern Africa’, another African-based group, the Central Africa Committee for the Liberation of Kenya. He also met leaders of Mwakenya from Kenya who he described as:
I have not recently come across the faces of such absolute dedication to the liberation of our country. These young people living underground in the country had risked so much, their lives even, in order to make that contact.
The Co-ordinator’s report concluded with the wishes from outside and inside the country thus:
They from the inside wanted all the democratic forces operating abroad to rally round the banner of unity to help liberate our country from the neo- colonial dictatorship of the Moi-KANU regime. And so both, from the inside and the outside, were issuing the same cry for unity of action of all patriotic, democratic and progressive forces.
Both the forces, internal (MWAKENYA) and external (soon to be formed UMOJA) became active in achieving the aims mentioned at these meetings. This article examines the formation of UMOJA in 1987. The developments with MWAKENYA will be the basis of a future article.
The Unity Conference of Patriotic, Democratic and Progressive Kenyan Organisations Abroad, 1987
Events moved fast after the visit of the Spokesperson to various centres of Kenyan organisations. The Unity Conference of Patriotic, Democratic and Progressive Kenyan Organisations Abroad took place in London from October 16-19, 1987, hosted by UKENYA. Attending the Conference were representatives of the seven Kenyan organisations listed above.
The Conference was well planned and organised one. Delegates had prepared documents for presentation at the Conference. The List of Conference documents (reproduced in Part 2 of this article) shows four main Agenda items. Each delegate gave their views on each of these agenda items which were:
I. Salutations to the Conference
II. Learning from our Past – Unity in Resistance
III. Learning from Ourselves – Organisational Lessons and Experiences
IV. Where do we go from here? This was in two parts:
A. Letter & Programme of MWAKENYA
B. Proposed Structure [of UMOJA]
The delegates were given about 10 Background Papers based on the above programme. The full Conference proceedings have not been published, although some centres were supposed to produce them. However, a paper version is available at Ukombozi Library in Nairobi. There has been no similar conference on Kenya where the past, the present and the future struggles are investigated with such precision from a working class perspective. In view of this, this articles reproduces some key points from the Conference. These indicate the seriousness with which participants attended the Conference and shows their ideological understanding and commitment to the liberation of Kenya. The first part is taken from Agenda item I.
Salutations to the Conference
Message from UKENYA: Movement for Unity and Democracy in Kenya, Britain
After years of analysing the neo-colonial situation in our country, we came to the simple truth that imperialism and the ruling comprador class were the enemy of our people. The comprador alliance has mortgaged our country to the leading imperialist power — the United States of America. It has sold our economy. It has killed democracy. It rules by dividing Kenyans along nationality lines. It has decreed that to organise is subversive. There is no doubt that this comprador clique is the enemy of our national interests and of development. Having identified the enemies of our society, we look towards the natural allies in the struggle – the oppressed and exploited masses. We must unite to remove the unholy alliance of imperial ism and its local agents. The Kenyan worker, the Kenyan peasant, the students and progressive and patriotic elements must unite to defeat the ruling comprador class and its foreign masters … MWAKENYA represents the culture and spirit of resistance in our country. From the Kenya Land and Freedom Army’s armed struggle to the patriotic parties that later emerged in independent Kenya, to the underground tradition of radical groups such as the December 12th Movement, we can clearly see the thread that links this history of resistance and struggle for real independence.
Message from Kenya Democratic Alliance (KDA), Norway
Our nation’s history of struggle should be a guiding star in our deliberations and we should never be shy in expressing what we want or what seems to be the effective solution to our problems at home. We should not lose sight of Moi-K AN U’s repressive state machine which is sending hundreds of our compatriots to the gallows, prisons and exile. Already, he has inside the country, U.S. and allied powers naval and military extensions at his disposal if need be to realise his fascistic dreams. He has as well through his machinations made Kenya a legally one party state. And the only party, KAN U has been declared supreme, that is above parliament and the judiciary. In reality the party does not function at all.
Moi just rules through decrees and directives either worked discreetly through members of his kitchen cabinet or through his general public pronouncements which occasionally are contradictory. This repression should be seen as a measure of silencing the ongoing resistance inside the country against his despotic regime. A clear indication that, this Moi-KANU’s neo-colonial regime will never give Kenyans any meaningful change. Having realised the predicament we are in, those of us in Norway with the same patriotic sentiments decided to organise ourselves into a movement committed to struggle for restoration of democracy in our homeland.
Message from the East & Central African Group Kamati ya Ukombozi wa Kenya (KAUKENYA)
The struggle we are engaged in has everyday continued to become more and more demanding not only of our energies but the united action of the various patriotic organisations and individuals. We, KAUK EN YA based in the East and Central African region, outside our motherland, fully support this unity conference. But beyond the conference itself, we look further to material and active unity for the liberation of our country Kenya. We view unity in this struggle as nothing less than a dynamic and not static. Not only desirable but as a basic prerequisite for the defeat and dismantling of the forces of repression, exploitation and oppression; and other reactionary forces in Kenya. Unity not only for the immediate state of the struggle against the neo-colonial regime, but unity that is founded firmly enough, structured and organised to go beyond individuals here to be part of the greater unity of our people’s victory in the building of a new revolutionary society in Kenya.
We were forced to leave our homes, families, jobs and country just like all the comrades here because we protested against the undemocratic and repressive neocolonial rule of Moi and his KANU clique. We rejected exploitation — the continuing exploitation and domination by foreign forces, being inspired by goals similar to those of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau) movement.
KAUKENYA has great confidence and faith that the Kenyan people will triumph in this struggle and never allow again the hijacking of our social revolution. For us who are abroad, we must exploit the extra freedom of movement and association that we have, compared to the Kenyan masses, to the fullest. We have started by organising this unity conference and we must continue, with maximum vigilance on our whole security, to organise ourselves fully.
Discipline among members was paramount. This is particularly so for recruitment and training of new members. DTM was strict in recruitment and admitted new members only after a long process of study and proven action in resistance activities at political, social or cultural levels. However, this practice was not followed under Mwakenya, at least in the initial stages. This allowed members who did not have ideological clarity and experience to capture leadership positions, bringing liberalism into the organisation. The need for constant struggles for a clear political line is essential if resistance is to succeed.
It is to the credit of DTM members in exile that they continued the struggle in countries of their exile. Various organisations in different countries came together to form Umoja in 1987 in London. Umoja became an important part of Mwakenya after that. An overseas partner is a useful asset to support local actions.
Committee for Democracy in Kenya (CDK) — Denmark
The Agenda of our meeting is a very important one for it deals with one of the most crucial aspects in organising a political movement. UNITY is the crux of our meeting. Unity with each other is unity of all Kenyan nationalities: it is the unity with peasants and workers: it is unity against the comprador ruling class in our country: it is unity against imperialism: unity for change and the social transformation of our country and unity to liberate Kenya.
At this historic conference we shall be looking at details of resistance — past and present — in relation to the task of overthrowing the present neo-colonial order in our country. These details are the reality of the struggle to liberate Kenya from the imperialists who have sat on Kenya’s back for almost a century: and it is also the reality of the struggle to dismantle the neo-colonial regime. Unless careful attention is given to the details, any talk of liberating Kenya will be a mere illusion.
As October 20 draws near, for patriotic Kenyans and the entire world the memories of the heroic resistance of all Kenyan nationalities against the British invasion and occupation of our land are fresh in the mind. All actions of resistance developed out of a felt need of people to liberate themselves. We have reasons indeed to be proud of noting these heroic acts of resistance of the past but this pride in the past must be realised in terms of how we face the challenges of our time. We must take these challenges which every Kenyan knows in order to regain our personal and national integrity which has been sold to imperialists.
Comrades, we have come together in order to form one united resistance movement for the liberation and transformation of our society. The present system in Kenya was created by imperialists to serve their needs. This is a matter of historical fact, not a moral judgement! The result is that imperialists control the levers of the Kenyan regime and also control the wealth produced in Kenya. Again, we are stating facts, not making moral judgements. If morality enters into the matter — as we believe it does — it refers to the future of our country. The present system in Kenya, as we have already said, was created by imperialist powers for their own ends. As you know, for example, the transport and communications network were organised for the extraction of Kenya’s wealth. In order to siphon off Kenya’s wealth, the imperialists established forces of oppression and a top-down administrative system. Further, the education system was established to colonize the minds and the church institutions were built to take care of the bleeding souls. The achievements of all these well planned colonial activities were clearly demonstrated during the struggle for independence.
Today, these achievements of the colonialist are displayed on every product of colonialism and neo- colonialism in our country. If you like, take a good look at us Kenyans. Look at our cities, our food, our music our language today, in short — our culture today. We Kenyans have no choice but to fight on until we dismantle the slave situation existing in our country today if a meaningful independence and democracy is ever to come to Kenya. We make this decision as Kenyans being fully aware of certain basic facts, and because of them. We know that the intention of imperialists in Kenya is to milk our blood until the last drop. We know that the neo-colonial regime in Kenya is ready to co-operate with the imperialists in this cause. We are forced to declare war against our oppressors. And as you know comrades, this is not a choice — it is the only way out of the present repressive situation in Kenya.
Why Unity in Resistance?
We Kenyans have been denied the right to live in our country and decide anything concerning ourselves or our country. We are either slaves or prisoners in the country of our birth. Independence has meant that Kenya has been turned into a “no man’s land.” In other words, independence was only meant to open up Kenya for Americans, Japanese, Israelis, Germans, Scandinavians etc. This opening up of our country to foreign exploitation has also meant the wholesale mortgaging of our country and the imposition of an alien culture on us. It is tragic that we are even forced to communicate with each other in English — the language of the colonialists as if we are still a colony of Britain.
It is this colonisation of our minds and the domination by foreign forces over which we have no control that all of us gathered here have rejected. Our coming together has the purpose of enabling us to deal with these problems collectively and in great seriousness. The situation in our country forces us to hold this historic gathering in a foreign country. Our being in this place attests to our situation. We have no choice but to have unity in our resistance: to unite with all oppressed Kenyans. For it is our situation which has caused us to come together, not just the ideals of human brotherhood or love for each other. The immediate reason for each of us coming together depended on the point at which s/he had experienced repression in our country. It is the practical experience of the fact that Kenya is not truly independent which made all of us here think in terms of struggling to liberate our country. We stress the fact that it is our situation which has forced us to come together because we have to understand ourselves in order to fight against this situation. We are not necessarily friends with each other but basically PATRIOTS wanting to liberate our country.
The pressures towards disunity are strong. We all feel the cold winds of neo-colonial repression and in desperation there will be a strong temptation to look at ourselves as individuals rather than as a group of the oppressed.
Comrades, as we understand it, our purpose at this meeting is to come to an agreement on the formation of a united resistance group. Our goal is to liberate Kenya and her people. and on that goal there can be NO compromise. Nothing we have said is new. It can only be a reminder of well-known truths to you. For there are NO miraculous answers to our problems.
What can we do as a united resistance group?
We must ensure that we continue united and speak with one voice and that none of us makes a separate deal which might weaken our unity in resistance. This will not get easier as time goes on. But we have to do more than stand united. We have to work together — not because we like each other but because the main objective in our unity is the complete liberation of Kenya from external domination and the overthrow of the neo-colonial regime. That is the basic meaning of our unity in resistance. Unity is our power — our only power — in the struggle to liberate our country, Kenya.
Thank you!
London 15-19 October. 1987
Learning From Our Past — Unity in Resistance UKENYA
The brave Turkana warriors were successful in defeating the British army of 1500 soldiers in May 1918 at Kangalila; the well drilled Marakwet army overcame the 300 strong British army in 1012. British army in 1912. These battles were won by our people. Their courage, sacrifice and heroism became a legend. But the war was lost. This was mainly because our people had not yet clearly understood the enemy tactic of creating, supporting and then using against us its new weapon: the traitorous collaborators whose greed for small gifts from imperialist plunder turned them into willing tools of the enemy against us. In each historical stage, it was this enemy that undermined our resistance. The traitors who formed various traitor organizations at the beginning of the century were no different from the homeguard traitors whom the Kenya Land and Freedom Army fought. It was the remnants of the same collaborators who regrouped with imperialist support and have taken over power in our country today.
But just as the enemy developed its own comprador class to act as its agents, our own struggle in successive periods has devised ways of neutralising this enemy. The highest manifestation of this was the fact that the KFLA waged its fiercest battles against this class, showing no mercy in trying to eliminate this danger.
And the danger was real. It was easy to aim a bullet at a foreign face. But it was difficult to root out the enemy from our own midst. It requires a clear analysis about which class is the enemy, and how best to eliminate this threat. This shows the necessity of uniting our forces to fight against the enemy. This unity is not based on subjective concepts, of who our allies are. The lessons from our history of resistance are clear. The nationalist forces coming together did not unite with every voice that claimed to be its friend. The various patriotic associations united with their own class allies: KCA, KAU, Taita Welfare Association, Luo Thrift, Kavirondo welfare, Somali Youth … all these brought together progressive elements from the same budding working class. In joining hands with each other, these associations were affirming the truth that there can be no success unless they were united on the basis of a shared class interest. Just as there were collaborators in every nationality, the progressive working class also came from different nationalities. Me Katilili represented the coming together of all progressive people of the Giriama against the homeguard elements who very clearly represented the class interests of the exploiters.
The lesson of unity based on the class interests of workers and peasants answers the question “Uniting with whom?” One cannot unite with forces opposed to the very values one is fighting for. It is thus absurd for Moi to call for ‘love, peace. and unity’ in abstract, as if there is only one class in Kenya which needs to come together. For us, the unity is one of bringing together forces of those classes whose economic and political needs dictate that they struggle against imperialism and the comprador class. Here again, the KLFA reached the highest level in understanding the need to have unity of working class and peasants against colonialists, homeguards and other regressive classes.
…
The search for a united organisation, based on the material needs of the people, the material needs of the working people, and their world outlook and on a basis of practice — such is the lesson taught us by our history which was well learnt by the combatants of the KLFA. It is to such a need in our own times that we have to answer today.
The KLFA represented the height of our ability in the colonial era to learn the lessons from our past and to organize on the basis of learning from our past mistakes and building on our successes. The greatest lesson was to root out the enemy from our midst and form a united organization and fight the enemy with the appropriate weapons at different times. We are called upon today to learn similarly from past mistakes, come together on the basis of a principled unity dependent on the concrete needs of our times, join hands with the progressive forces within the country and march ahead. History will judge our success or failure on the basis of whether or not we answered appropriately to this call.
PAKE: Unity in Resistance, 1885-1963
What lessons can we draw from our history of resistance? What mistakes did our people make which obviously need not be repeated in our struggle against neo-colonialism and imperialism led by the United States of America?
From our history we can draw the following lessons:
- Unity is created on concrete issues and demands, Unity is not something to be declared but must be worked for even it if takes long periods.
- Unity in resistance can dramatically change the balance of power and the course of history,
- We have also learned that our people when faced with national political repression have never been afraid to take up arms.
Today, the struggle to unite various forces in our history are significant and this is why this Unity Conference of Progressive, Democratic and Patriotic groups is gathered here to share experiences.
Learning From Ourselves — Organisational Lessons and Experiences
At one level, UMOJA can be seen as the continuation of the December Twelve Movement (DTM) some of whose activities were examined earlier. Among the DTM practice it continued were secrecy, discipline and self-criticism as a way of strengthening the organisation. The contribution of the London Centre, formally organised as UKENYA, at the UMOJA Unity Conference in 1987 shows the DTM influence in its work and practice. The first selection looks at its approach to secrecy and discipline:
At this early stage of our discussions, we agreed to maintain organisational secrecy and adopt a slightly higher level of discipline. It was in fact easier to say we would accept slightly more discipline and observe secrecy, than to actually do so. For example, after coming under this new discipline, friends and relatives as well as other political acquaintances, still expected us to relate to them on the basis of other social relations and divulge organisational details. There are instances when this actually happened.
It continues its analysis on discipline and contradictions:
As the new organisational structure called for an even higher discipline. contradictions became sharper. Some of our members failed to struggle against the harmful petty-bourgeois tendencies of liberalism and dropped out of the organisation. This liberalism manifested itself in the failure to complete tasks, failure to accept responsibilities, lateness for meetings, failure to respect established channels of communication, failure to take security seriously with decisions on security not being implemented, failure to take criticism seriously or taking criticism as personal attacks and failure to put politics in command. i.e. putting personal. family or other considerations before the organisation. Some of these liberal tendencies still exist in our midst and are a reflection of the contradictions within us because of our petty-bourgeois class backgrounds.
The above sums up the germ of destruction that eats up political organisations from the inside. This was particularly prevalent among political organisations in countries outside Kenya when there was no immediate danger from Kenya security forces and where the life-threatening conditions that face Kenyan working people were not present. Nor were there the same security precautions in UK as there were in Kenya and liberalism was the norm rather that a side- line tendency. That the organisation survived was due in no small measure to the dedication, discipline and hard work of a relatively small number of members. But it is refreshing to note that such destructive tendencies were given official expression at the Unity Conference. The statement continued with a look at the need for a ‘struggle for democracy’ and to ‘educate ourselves’, aspects that are often under- estimated in many resistance organisations:
In organising ourselves to struggle for democracy and unity in our country. we have found a great need to inform ourselves, educate ourselves. We have, therefore, paid attention to study of our history, our concrete experience and learning from other people’s experiences but always ensuring that these lessons are taken in consideration of the concrete conditions existing in our country. We have also made great efforts to struggle against the tendency of high mental theory and the disdain of ‘menial’ tasks.
Another important lesson we have learnt is the principle of self-reliance. From the history of our people, we have seen how various struggles were waged and won by relying on the resources and strengths of our people. Equally, we ourselves have experiences the tremendous joy and confidence that comes from organising pubIic meetings ourselves and publishing our various documents. By the collective pooling together of our meagre resources we have managed to finance all of our activities while always attempting to present the best possible.
It called for the need of ‘higher form of resistance’ to meet new challenges:
As the struggle in our country has heightened, we have it necessary to respond to the new situation by an even higher form of discipline. The new conditions call for us to be more conscious of security, secrecy and discipline.
It is the lack of such practice that has seen the sad end of many organisations in Kenya over the years. UKENYA had understood the historical needs of the time very well. But the problems highlighted by UKENYA were not unique to their organisation. Similar issues were raised by others as well. PAKE’s position, given to the Conference, highlighted problems of organising unity among Left movements:
The group of Kenyans represented by our delegates to the London conference are made up of individuals who are either in exile, or deliberately living outside Kenya because of their political convictions which would not be tolerated by Moi’s neo-colonial, repressive regime. Attempts to operate together as a group go back to 1983. Since then the group has been faced with problems of differences that have made it difficult for them to come up with, or to follow a comprehensive collectively agreed upon programme. These problems have ranged from ideological differences, to the kind of programme that should be adopted, to the question of how some of the envisaged activities should be carried out etc. etc. To date, our group has not succeeded in ironing out our basic differences, but has agreed to overcome them.
…
The question of ideology has been a central problem and has been discussed heatedly and extensively by the group over a number of meetings. Some members have been of the opinion that any kind of political programme adopted should include a systemic agenda for the study of Marxist-Leninist classics and other studies in Scientific Socialism. The argument has been that it is necessary for the individual members of the group to have political education in Marxism-Leninism and that studying together would facilitate collective ideological growth. This would provide a common and collective frame of reference that would enrich our political work. Other members have opposed the idea of studying Marxist-Leninist works, describing it as unnecessary pre-occupation with theory. Tlhey have argued for political activism, suggesting that theory should only be dealt with in so far as it relates to specific issues being dealt with in the programme of political action. Tlhis difference of opinion and orientation almost led to the complete break up of the group at one time.
…
The lesson from all this was that whatever differences political activists may have between themselves, they should not fight against one another as this will only serve the purpose of the enemy who would gain from our state of disunity. We must rally together around the issues that we agree upon and collectively work around those while looking for solutions to our differences. Another lesson is that any movement, group, or organisation that consciously goes out to attack, undermine and destroy the other ones, is unconsciously fighting for the enemy by doing the work for him.
Similarly, the Organisation for Democracy in Kenya (ODK, Sweden raised a number of important organisational issues on a number of issues, some of which are mentioned below:
- We did not analyse as to who we are, who we could work with, our weaknesses and our strengths.
- We did not study our situation as best as we should have. The enemy was not always understood.
- Some of us looked for external solutions when faced with a number of problems. We depended on others to think and bring about solutions … Others felt we needed huge sums of money before we could move an inch.
- Discipline has not been observed at individual or organisational level.
- Security, if wrongly emphasised could be and has been a great drawback.
- At all levels dialogue and democracy must prevail.
The ODM document ends:
Historically, it has been observed that it is not necessarily those who start off organisations that lead them to triumph. Ours is to see that a genuine movement with proper roots is off the ground come what may and that it will outlive individuals and be destined to triumph in the total liberation of Kenyan people. At this juncture we would like to emphasise that correct leadership at every stage of our evolution and revolution will determine our success or failure. So effectiveness of correct leadership is not being over-looked. Practice and the Kenyan people are the best arbiters and no individual should feel or believe that he or she is INDISPENSABLE.
LONG LIVE KENYA PEOPLES’
REVOLUTIONARY ORGANISATIONS
USHINDI NI WETU!!
The above indicates the clear awareness among Kenyans overseas of the dangers that the liberation movement faced — both external from the ruling class and imperialism and internal from individual and organisational weaknesses. The Kamati ya Kuikomboa Kenya (KAUKENYA) -East & Central Africa mentioned the learning lessons of the exiles and raised additional issued facing overseas organisations:
The exiles have undergone diverse experiences in difficult conditions. They have learnt many lessons in terms of organisation, ideological orientation, political education and many have emerged more educated, experienced, hardened and tested within this practice in exile. Our organisation KAUKENYA (EA) is an example of people’s efforts to organise themselves and we would like to share our experiences and lessons drawn with other patriotic Kenyans in exile. This is done with the hope that all of us will be able to contribute something to the struggle in our beloved motherland. This is in the light of our endeavour to nurture the collective spirit in unity.
KAUKENYA then listed some of the problems they experienced:
Ideology: In undertaking the efforts of organising, we have had some problems. For example we have had some people who were bent on pursuing their self- interests. This was evident during some discussions to solve problems collectively and sharing our meagre resources. Some members take decisions only when they are in their favour. We solve that problem by vigorous debates pointing out the mistakes in adopting such a stance. The members are then persuaded after such exhaustive discussion.
The other problem faced is the ideological diversity among individuals. This requires a lot of patience because some individuals take long to see the alternative of what they uphold. We encourage debates and serious critique of each belief that is contrary to the accepted collective spirit. It is after much discussion that the identification of the correct ideological orientation is made. It never works when you literary force one to adopt the chosen ideology. The whole idea is to persuade and let the individual to be transformed. Some members have difficulty in identifying the real enemy of the Kenyan people clearly. Some say Moi, or this or that tribe, race etc.
Opportunism: Opportunistic tendencies among individuals eg vying for leadership, in a group are checked by criticism before it is allowed to persist. Despair: Some comrades have been apathetic to the struggle arguing that the system is formidable. They are educated to learn that this is a protracted struggle that could take many years to accomplish.
Discipline: Before a group becomes evolved, capable of working as a unit, discipline must be observed. But there are always individuals who do not like to work within disciplined rules. The spirit of collective work/collective responsibility needs to be consciously developed.
Once the ideology has been defined. any organisation must take the necessary steps to provide education on the identified ideology. Our organisation recognised this as necessary in order to raise and improve the political/ideological and organisational knowledge of members. We encouraged comrades to read and write papers for discussion with the other members as a means of helping them grow and have confidence in the exposition of the ideology. Though this, in cases, can be a slow process, nevertheless, we find that patience gives rewards. Through discussions, comrades are led to see the dangers of their shortcomings or tendencies. Those who cannot fit collective discipline are often given tasks or isolated as lessons for them to learn. We educate and persuade without tiring.
Vying for leadership is one of the biggest group problems. Working relationships bring these ambitiious selfish interests and can only be solved by showing the need to follow democratic principles. The emphasis is for people to stop seeing leadership as a privileged status but as a duty. The values attached to good leadership are devotion to duty and selfless service. Some affected members have failed miserably when given the coveted position after realising that it required too much devotion rather than providing the imagined privileges.
In undertaking political education we have had to face some problems. Some members had not nurtured the idea of forming good reading habits. We usually encourage people to constantly read and see it as a vital aspect of preparing and preserving oneself.
The other problem is building courage especially among the ideologically inadequate to assume responsibility. Many underrate themselves and feel inferior for some duties. Here we constantly expose this tendency and provide learning situations for alI. By giving practical examples members actually improve and shed their complexes.
We also face a problem of acquiring adequate literature especially the relevant material and also the rare publications. This problem we partly solved by making and building a library from members’ material and financial contributions and by borrowing materials from whatever source. It is no longer a major problem. even though books are never adequate.
Information/Communication:
It is necessary to keep the members informed of what events are taking place within and outside our country and around the world. This is a recognised aspect of our programme of activities. We have therefore established a system of gathering news/information, analysing the news, recording the news and disseminating it to members. We have also established a system of obtaining current journals. newspapers and magazines to make them accessible to members.
…
We have had a problem of reporting, recording and dissemination of information because some members are inexperienced. This we are solving by emphasizing the need to learn in practice. In any organisation. a system of communication among members and with other patriots elsewhere must be set up. Such a system must be functional to always serve the need to communicate. However some problems have so far been identified. Major among them is a method of communication that would be safe without endangering the security of the organisation. Arrangements continue to be made in this respect but we have to constantly change the methods due to the changing conditions.
Security:
An organisation must also establish a security system for the members. This is because of the need for vigilance at all times: to identify enemy agents and dangerous elements: maintain surveillance on the security of members: check out on the possibility of infiltration by enemy forces and set guidelines of action in case the security of members is threatened.
Programme:
Our organisation recognised the need to have a political programme. As pointed out earlier, for any organisation, such a programme is solely to guide political activities: identify major goals and tasks. The programme must have a brief outIine of what the organisation intends to do. Therefore it must be action-oriented, goal-focused and task-oriented.
Constitution:
Any organisation/group must have an outIine of its rules. The outline must be made very clear, simple and following particular guiding principles understood by all members. Our organisation has recognized the importance of such an outline. The guiding principles are of necessity based on the working people’s ideology that was chosen by the members.
The Unity Conference’s next item of agenda was ‘Where do we go from here?’ Appropriately, this section began with a message of solidarity from MWAKENYA ‘to all our Kenyan comrades abroad’. The Conference ended by passing a resolution on October 19, 1987, signed by all the seven participating organisations. Selection from the Resolution are reproduced below:
Patriotic, Democratic and Progressive Kenyan Organisations Abroad Unite
Following several consultations over the years, we, the following organisations of Kenyans, namely, Muungano wa Demokrasia Kenya (MDK), USA; UKENYA: Movement for Unity and Democracy in Kenya, Britain; Kenya Democratic Alliance (KDA), Norway; Committee for Democracy in Kenya (CDK), Denmark; Organisation for Democracy in Kenya (ODK),Sweden; Kamati ya Ukombozi Kenya (KAUKENYA) and Patriotic Alliance of Kenyans (PAKE), Africa, met in London from 16th to 19th October 1987 for the Unity Conference of Patriotic, Democratic and Progressive Kenyan Organisations Abroad.
We discussed and reviewed several issues related to our history and the current political situation in Kenya. We noted with pride the long history of our people’s resistance to forces of foreign occupation and internal repression, a heroic history stretching from the 16th Century to the present. The highest peak of that resistance was the armed struggle waged by the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau movement) which forced the British colonial power to concede independence.
Evaluating these experiences we noted that the successes were always dependent on a clear understanding:
- of who was the real oppressor and who the real oppressed;
- of the necessity of unity of the oppressed against the oppressor;
- that unity depended on the oppressed being guided by a set of common principles.
- that this unity can result in victory against the oppressor only through and organization;
- that the oppressed had to be vigilant against infiltrators and other divisive enemy agents among them.
We noted that every time our people ignored any of these lessons there inevitably followed defeat. Even where there was victory, failure to observe discipline and maintain vigilance could result in the hijacking of the success by the enemy and his agents. This was indeed what happened to our hard-won victory over colonialism. The homeguard and empire loyalists in KANU regrouped with the KADU renegades to hijack our independence and to take the state machinery.
These renegades ended up integrating Kenya’s economy into imperialism. The economy today is controlled by the transnationals and the IMF. The wealth created by the people goes into the coffers of foreigners or into the pockets of a local minority led by the Presidency. Landlessness, mass unemployment, starvation wages, death through lack of medicine and adequate medical care is the lot of the vast majority of Kenyans. The gap between the rich and the poor is the widest in the world. In the same way the KANU renegades have sold our political independence and polluted our culture with crude imitations of the worst aspects of western bourgeois values.
We noted with pride that the resistance traditions of the pre-colonial and colonial eras had continued after independence making the KAN U renegades react with venom against the people. We reviewed the current situation under the Moi-K AN U regime. Various delegations expressed their indignation at the utter disregard of human life and democracy. The jailings, detention without trial, torture, disappearances, deaths in policy custody and massacres have become the order of the day. Every day sees more Kenyans flee abroad. Democratic organisation is banned.
The Moi-K AN U regime has specialised in sowing seeds of discord and division among the nationalities as a way of survival. Thus the regime wants to make people believe that the problems are caused by this or that nationality. It seeks to blow up minor contradictions among the people into false pictures of the real cause of underdevelopment. Similarly it seeks to divide up the patriotic forces.
We evaluated the state of repression and resistance and noted with pride the increasing international and national isolation of the regime.
This isolation is a direct consequence of resistance at home and abroad.
The conference noted with pride that Kenyan exiles have continued resistance by forming Kenyan organisations abroad and have inspired solidarity movements in different parts of the world.
The Resolution then examined the situation of the Kenyan organisations abroad:
In examining the work done by the organisations abroad, the delegates observed that while the organisations in conjunction with solidarity groups have been successful in causing the increasing isolation of the Moi-KANU regime internationally, they have suffered from the following problems:
- Lack of communication resulting in misunderstandings.
- Isolation of groups in terms of information.
- Contradictions among groups resulting in lack of trust.
- Looseness of organisation resulting in lack of discipline, factionalism and anarchic tendencies manifested in suspicion of all authority without differentiation.
- Lack of programme of action has resulted in the disillusionment of individuals and organisations.
- Unevenness in the development levels of activities and of understanding the needs of the struggle.
- Isolation and lack of proper integration with the struggle at home.
The above have resulted in denying these organisations the benefits of the potential force of a well-coordinated and united front.
Realising these weaknesses, the delegates of the organisations represented, i.e, UKENYA, MOK, KDA, CDK, ODK, KAUKENYA and PAKE decided to dissolve themselves and to form a single democratic organisation of all patriotic, democratic and progressive organisations operating outside Kenya — UMOJA: UMOJA WA KUPIGANIA DEMOKRASIA KENYA (UNITED MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRACY IN KENYA) with a central secretariat and branches in various parts of the world.
UMOJA which now brings together the resistance abroad under one umbrella is an anti-imperialist organisation wholly committed to the restoration of our national sovereignty and the building of a truly democratic Kenya and the restructuring of the economy for the social progress of the Kenyan people. UMOJA is not a new party but a support movement for the struggle at home. Towards this end UMOJA is pledged to the unwavering support of the democratic and social struggle in Kenya.
The Conference produced a structure of UMOJA, its Secretariat and branches which became operational as rom the end of the Conference. A notable part of the Conference was a series of Background papers under two headings: Learning from our Past and Learning from Ourselves. The former had 5 papers on the history of Kenya written by delegates from different participating organisations. These were:
Background Papers
- Resistance in Central and Rift Valley
- Resistance in the Coast and the North
- Women in Kenyan People’s resistance to Imperialism
- Kenyan Asians in resistance to imperialism
- Resistance in Nyanza and Western Kenya
Taken as a whole they provide an overall history of resistance in Kenya. It is due to liberalism in UMOJA that these papers were never published as two of the Branches tasked with editing and publishing them failed to do so. Only one of the papers, Kenyan Asians in Resistance to Imperialism is available in the public domain after a revised edition was published in 2017. All the papers are, however, available at Ukombozi Library in Nairobi. The section Learning from Our Past had two other documents, the MWAKENYA newspaper, Pambana Nos. 1 (may 1982) and No. 2 (June 1983).
The Section Learning From Ourselves consisted of these documents:
Learning From Ourselves Documents
- From Kimathi to Mwakenya: Resistance in Kenya Today. Speech delivered by the Chairperson of UMOJA on Wednesday 18 February, 1987 at Friends House, London
- Pambana: Legacy of Resistance. An unpublished paper by Shiraz Durrani written for the UMOJA Conference.
- MWAKENYA (1987): Kenya Register of Resistance, 1986
- The ODK Declaration: We Oppose the Despotic Moi-KANU Regime (1986): Stockholm: The Organisation for Democracy in Kenya (Sweden).
To be Continued inTKS No.7
