My Love Affair with Kenya

“Power is not vested in the people, it is vested in the hands of rich, the mafia, and the people who become president because they can bribe every voter, electoral official, and if need be member of the judiciary. But things change. Information is power, and the reason the rich have more power than we, is because ignorance is a weakness and as long as the electorate is ignorant, we’ll never have any power.”

The award winning photographer sits comfortably behind his desk at Pawa254, as people rush in and out of his office. He looks busy but relaxed, in his element, as he beckons me to a chair. The walls are filled with evidence of his life and character with posters of Malcolm X and Che Guevara, as well as graffiti and press passes pinned on a board.

Founded by Mwangi in 2011, PAWA254 is a collaborative hub where journalists, artists and activists can meet to find innovative ways of achieving social change. A perfect venue for our conversation about the state of Kenya from the perspective of the renowned activist.

What makes you the angriest about Kenyan politics and politicians?
The pettiness and the politics is very dividing. When you look at what issues are being discussed, our leaders don’t consider the long term implications; there’s a lot of short term thinking. The politicians end up doing things for political expediency not because they care about this
country.

How do you curb that kind of thinking?
It’s the electorate; the way we vote. We vote for a leader not because of their merits or what they represent, we vote along party lines, tribe and who’s backing them up. If that’s how we elect our leaders, it is a guarantee that we won’t get the best. We’ll get the compromiser, someone who will pressure the party, someone who is not their own person. They are a reaction of the political system.

It seems like a catch 22 because the people we vote for are the people who compromise, and the people who don’t compromise never get elected.
We need to educate the voter, we need them to understand the power of their vote. We need the electorate to decide I’m going to elect someone based on my judgement of what they represent and their agenda for the community. We need to push our politics beyond tribe and party affiliations, to the character of the person.

Is the education of the voter the responsibility of the media, the government, or the schools?
You need to remember that the people in government are politicians, they benefit from the ignorance of the voter. The media is a reflection of the people and a conveyor belt of what’s happening in the system and will report what people want to hear; most of the time and dwell on personalities not on issues. It is the role of the citizen to educate their fellow citizens. It is my responsibility to try and educate my fellow villagers and my friends about good governance.

To what extent is the Kenyan system democratic/autocratic?
Kenya is democratic to a particular point because we elected our president through the vote; there was a ballot confirmed by the Supreme Court. But we have an autocratic president operating in a democratic space. This is possible because the president has a lot of power and the tyranny of numbers in parliament. His word becomes the law, even if it’s not set in law. Because of how corrupt the Members of Parliament and Senators are, the president can compromise a politician through a phone call, or with favourable incentive.

How do we curb this power?
By ensuring that the constitution is fully implemented. Constitutionally the president is not above the law but we have very weak courts that are allowing the government to do things that they shouldn’t do. We also have very ignorant citizens who, when an issue is raised, go back to defending their man or woman based on their tribe.

Do you consider yourself a patriot?
Yes I am very patriotic. I think I’m Kenya’s biggest lover. If Kenya was a woman I’d love her most.

How do you deal with her issues?
I protest, I teach, I talk, I do things, I take action because I care about this country, I care about mother Kenya.

How has coming from a low-income household and seeing the different ways we live life affected your activism?
I’m more empathetic, and when I talk about issues it’s not because I read a story, it’s because I understand them and I feel them, and I’ve lived them.

You’ve also seen a lot of terror and tragedy, how has that affected you as a person?
I get pissed off at the politicians that cause social violence. I know what hate speech can do, it’s not just words; it can destroy a whole system, destroy a whole family.

Is there an end in sight to the struggle?
It’s continuous, the struggle never ends. There’s always a new battlefront, a new issue to fight for. But there are basic standards that we’re trying to achieve like good governance, reduced corruption levels, a safer country. A safe city that’s clean, the lights work, our kids are safe and you can walk at night without being afraid you’ll be mugged by police officers and thugs.

It feels like we’re leading up to a revolution of sorts, or a civil war.
It’s more like chaos or anarchy, but it can be stopped.

How?
We have a president who’s in power; he needs to control what he says and how he says it. He needs to engage the opposition. We need more action and less rhetoric. If he doesn’t take action then he transfers the power to act to the citizens who go into defensive mode and when that happens, anything can trigger violence. We know that Kenya is very divided along tribal lines, the nation is very fragile. Right now we’re operating in a state of normalcy you get up, you go to work, and you go home. But underneath the normalcy it’s bubbling.

It feels like we’re repeating the stories of Rwanda, or Vietnam, or Sudan.
I don’t think we’re going to go the way of Rwanda. I think we learnt our lesson; we have more self-control in how things are done. And there’s the ICC, even if the president is not eventually convicted, he can’t do anything that would imply he is a violent person; to that extent the ICC acts as a deterrent. We also have a very critical international community, so if we were to resort to violence tomorrow, it will be stopped before it gets too far. The only danger is the country being divided into tribal counties, that’s what we need to avoid. It should be possible for any Kenyan to live and go anywhere in this country. You can be a Somali or Muslim, or whoever without being called the opposition or worse.

What would you say is wrong with Kenya?
The people. They have a very backward mentality towards leadership, with regards to issues and they are corrupt; they are very retrogressive, and tribal. So Kenya has corrupt, retrogressive people electing very poor leaders who are therefore corrupt and very self-centred.

Are you afraid for yourself or yourfamily?In February the press reported you were hanging up your activism boots.
Yes I was afraid then and I stopped. I’m not going to the streets again unless ni mambo ya kukufa na kupona, life or death.

What do you do now?
I do what I can when I can. I am still an artist so I use art for activism. I work at Pawa254, I’m a full-time student and I do a lot of trainings. I speak for a living actually, I get speaking engagements abroad.

What social change has Pawa254 performed?
From the graffiti, to Sarabi Fwata Sheria, to the Juliani Utawala song, to a place where poetry is performed every week, and hip hop, urban cypher, Pawa salon and master class. As in Pawa254 is the centre of the art community in Kenya.

How has going abroad affected your perception of Kenya?
Kenya can be a better place. I believe in this country and I think eventually I want to go into politics. If I can’t change Kenya from outside then I’ll change it from inside.

Are you afraid that that will change you?
No I don’t think so. From where I’ve come and where I’m going I don’t think power will change me. I think I would quit before I sell out.

What is your most optimistic view of Kenya in the next five years?
That devolution will be working, we’ll have no terrorist attacks, and we’ll be a cohesive country, and the president will learn to work for the people and not serve his own interests.

 

By Ondi Madete