Now that the ‘Occupy Parliament reloaded’ is a day away, I have
been thinking about the past Nairobi demonstrations that I have attended, which
are quite a few.
I happened to miss out on the last ‘Occupy Parliament’ demo,
and it looks like I missed quite some action.
For some reason, Nairobians just do not attend
demonstrations, even when the issues being addressed affect most of them in a
very personal way, for instance the demonstrations against high food prices and
high fuel prices. They prefer complaining about it, blame the cartels, the
politicians and the government and so on, but they never come out to express
their frustrations when called upon to do so. Maybe a study should be conducted
to explain why this happens, but below are some of the more known reasons:
·
“Facilitation”
Many Nairobians will support the idea, and
then ask for a fee to attend the demo, this fee is usually referred to as ‘facilitation’:-
Which is a phenomenon that the NGOs-CSOs-
Popularised especially in the low income areas and is now an almost permanent trend(The
name ‘facilitation’ came up because every time some NGO would organize a
community meeting to address real issues affecting the community, you’d hear at
the end of the meeting the organizers going like “…We do not pay people to attend our forums, since these forums are for
your own benefit as a community. But we will give you some facilitation because we know that you left your affairs today, and
you need to eat at the end of the day”.) In fact, these days if you do not
intend to give “facilitation” in these forums, you have to be very clear about
it right from the beginning, otherwise you might land yourself in very big
problems thereafter.
The same phenomenon was exported to
demonstrations, hence one of the explanations to the usually low turnout even
when the issues being addressed are pertinent to the masses.
(ION//if
you ever thought that these NGOs do this by default and not by design, then it
will be important that you read James
Petras’ NGOs in Latin America)
·
The idea that others will attend
Then there is this idea especially among
the middle-class that they can hype the demo on twitter and facebook, and then
because of the hype, other people will attend.
They find it easier to seek leave from
office to attend trivial matters, but never a demo. That is why you will have
3, 000 people attending the demo on facebook, then 200 attending the actual
demo.
·
Fear of Police violence
This is a bit understandable; Pictures such
as those of Reverend Timothy Njoya being clobbered by state machinery during
some demo back in the 90’s tend to instill some fear into potential participants.
Others fear the teargas, water cannons….
Still, a research needs to be done, so that the solutions
can be found. From my experience, the average number of demonstrators in a
small demo is usually between 20 and 40 people. The average number in a big demo
is usually between 300 and 400 people. The smallest demo I have participated in
had 5 participants while the biggest and the most successful that I ever
attended was the one that was organized by Kenyan Muslims 4 years ago, after the
atrocious Israeli bombardments in Gaza that left close to 1000 Palestinians
dead. The demo attracted several thousands.
Post-Moi
demonstrations
The first years of the Mwai Kibaki regime did not see a lot
of street action, I think there was one by journalists against a “media censure
bill,” and two by University students. This was until Okoiti Omtatah came into
the scene with a series of demos, and I credit him with differentiating between
getting a police permit for demonstrations, and notifying the police of the
intention to hold a demo (he once even pinned a notification on Central police
station’s OCS’s door after the guy kept on hiding so as not to approve the
demos)
In this era, it became rare for police to beat up protesters
like they used to do in the 90’s…..just some tear gas here and here, water
cannons, illegal arrests…… and things got even better with the promulgation of
the current constitution in 2010.
Article 37 gives
Kenyans the right to peaceably and armed to assemble, demonstrate, picket and
to present petitions to public authorities. This means that one can demonstrate
at any time, without notifying anybody. Unfortunately, some people still insist
on notifying the police even when they do not need police protection in those
demonstrations.
Things to know
The fact that Kenyans have this right, and that ‘it belongs to them and is not granted by the
state’, then it will be important that they exercise it whenever necessary.
From the few experiences that I have had, these are some of the things that one
should know as they attend a demo:
You should eat well
before the demo
This especially applies to demos that are scheduled to begin
early. Eating some Ugali and sukuma wiki before the demo is important
due to the unpredictability of Nairobi demos. You never know when they will
end. You may have the intention to present a petition to Parliament by noon,
but then you find it being received at 4pm in the evening. The problem is that
all the chanting and the singing tends to make you hungry, and the bigger
problem is that it will not be in order if you leave before the intention of
the demo is fulfilled.
Do not take fluids
One is usually tempted to drink a lot of water with the
reasoning that the sun might burn too much. The problem comes when you need to
take a leak…….i am yet to discover where the Parliament, High Court or Office
of the President’s toilets are!
Make sure that you
can sing the National Anthem
There are a few songs that are sung in demonstrations, most
of them from the NCEC and RPP days. It is understandable when you can’t sing
along to those, but it is extremely embarrassing when you cannot sing the
National anthem. And here I don’t mean singing the first verse like we do in
the stadiums, no, I mean all the three verses. Rarely will a demo start off
without the national anthem…and it is usually re-sung severally during the
demo.
I hope that Juliani’s Utawala
chorus will in the future be included in the list of these demo songs.
Carry a jacket or
some warm clothing
This is obvious. Reason is that the weatherman in Kenya is
usually wrong.
The second reason which my friend Mulialia Okumu, who is a
veteran in the Post-Moi era demonstrations jokingly shared with me once is
that, should you end up in a police cell, the warm clothing comes in very
handy.
Handling violent
policemen
Though this is rare in peaceful protests these days, there
are some policemen who still have the animalistic Moi era mentality, who tend
to violently disrupt peaceful protests.
Just before the teargas and the batons, a senior policeman
will approach the demonstrators and give them the orders to disperse, after
which he gives orders to the anti-riot squad to charge.
The demonstrators will always refuse to disperse, and three
scenarios always occur:
1.
The demonstrators will hold hands and stand
their ground. The police will charge at them but there is nothing that they
will do. They will just threaten the people with the batons or push them away
using their shields. If any of them lands the baton on you, hold his hand
firmly and tell him that you have a right to demonstrate and he has no right to
beat you. This ‘rights’ thing always works magic.
This is the best scenario, but it needs
quite some courage.
2.
The second scenario is when the demonstrators
run away either out of fear or because of the teargas and the sound of rubber
bullets being shot in the air. The best scenario as stated above is to stay put
and in solidarity stand your ground, but when everyone else is running away,
then run away also. If you don’t, you will be beaten up. I have seen it happen
many times, but the one that I have never forgotten is when my friend Gacheke
Gachihi, another veteran, continued sitting at Harambee Avenue even after
everyone else had run away. They almost broke his leg.
3.
The third scenario is that some people will run
away, some will stand their ground. The right thing to do here is to be part of
those that stand their ground.
In case in the teargas confusion, you get cornered by one or
two policemen, never kneel down (I have seen many people do this, I think it
comes about automatically, where you lift your hands and kneel, begging for
mercy.) These policemen go for the easiest and most vulnerable situations. I
remember during that huge anti-Israel demo, the police had laid an ambush near
Pan-Afrique hotel, but before I explain how I was beaten up, I’ll first
describe this demo;
As I had indicated, it is the biggest and best organized
demo that I have ever attended. I think it was Al-Amin Kimathi who addressed us
first after the Muslims came from their prayers, then a young man took over the
mic of the PA system(not a megaphone)with one hand, and held a shoe with the
other (just like the Iraqi who threw shoes at Bush)and began the chants. The
chants were the most passionate that I have ever experienced. He would lead in
chants like “down down Israil” and we
would respond the same……”down down bush”…..”Takbir---Allahu Akbar”….”la ilaha ilalah”…and so on and so forth.
Others were distributing pamphlets and placards and off we left for the Israeli
embassy. The women were militant, the men were energetic.
We then found GSU trucks having blocked the road at the
traffic lights just before Pan-Afrique, we sat down and continued with the
chants as more demonstrators arrived. We then stood up and demanded that we be
allowed to go through. After some push and shove, one of the trucks opened up
the way, and thinking that we were now victorious, we excitedly ran through,
only to find that more trucks had barricaded the road a few meters ahead on the
other side. As we were demanding for the second barricade to be opened, the one
behind us was closed again (I think they had gotten enough people within the
two barricades) and that is when all hell broke loose. Teargas and batons with
nowhere to run. I tried running in all directions but the ambush was well
prepared. Some three policemen descended on me and I made the mistake of going
down and pleading thinking that they would have some sympathy, none came
through. Just when I began to think that they might kill me, woman came running
and stumbled down not far from me. two of the policemen that were on me decided
to shift their attention to her, and that is when I found an opening and ran
towards the NSSF building where like others, I stepped on the sharp pointed
metallic fence and jumped onto the other side, a process that left both soles
of my new shoes pierced. There still were tens of policemen on the other side
of the road that leads to community, who just threatened us but did not act on
us. It was decided that we go back to the mosque and re-organise, but I found
myself going back to my campus room, still holding on to my placard (pictured
below)
End The Occupation! |
I didn’t share the ordeal with anyone, until a year-mate of mine who had attended the
demo after their prayers told me of how he was beaten, and since he was very
light-skinned, the marks were still there, and we laughed a lot as we exchanged
our experiences……….apparently, he did not see the opening on the NSSF side, so
his story was much different…
The only flaw in that demo was that the organizers (or maybe
it was the media?) had packaged the protest as a Muslim demo, rather than an
all-Kenyan demo against the Murder, occupation and apartheid being perpetrated
by the Israeli fascist regime.
Going back to violent policemen, there are two occasions
when they came with dogs. Not running away is again, the solution.
But people should not fear, the beatings and dogs are rare
these days, especially in this constitutional dispensation, that is why I was
shocked to watch on TV some policemen beating up a protester (Joseph Kimani)
like a sack of maize. That is why we must rein in or better still, do away with
this incompetent I.G of police Mr.Kimaiyo or he will take us back to the Moi
days.
In related news, i was
also happy to read in today’s newspaper that Justice Mumbi Ngugi had ruled
that Policemen should also take personal responsibility when it comes to matters
of them using violence illegally. She deserves a Nobel award.
For the organizers
There are some things that organizers need also to do.
Reconnaissance visits-
The organizers need to make reconnaissance visits to the route and venue of action,
so that they can take the best positions. I remember we had once planned to
raise the food prices issue directly to the president during a Madaraka day
celebrations at Nyayo stadium. Unfortunately, we sat at a non-strategic place,
and what we did not know was that the gates are usually closed such that one
cannot move from one area to the other.
Taking control-
At times some demonstrators can get excited and begin to harass other people,
or even come up with ideas that may not be useful for the demo. The organizers
need to deal firmly with such.
Agent provocateurs-
These are the most dangerous people, and most difficult to deal with. They
pretend to be with you but they are actually state agents. Their
characteristics include; Charging at the Police for no reason, changing the
agenda/program of the demo in a manner that belittles the cause, they become
unnecessarily violent, and may even begin to throw stones at the peaceful demo,
in case of arrests, they are taken to different locations away from the rest,
and so on. There is one perennial demonstrator that I believe is an agent
provocateur. The best way to deal with such is to set the people against them.
Gathering point-
My brother Emmanuel noted that in the Nairobi demos that we participated in, we
never had gathering points in case of forced dispersal. It is important to have
a re-gathering point, just in case.
Legal contacts-
Should there be arrests, there is always need for legal intervention. Since
demonstrating is a constitutional right, these days the police might arrest you
and leave you free outside the police station, but should they take you in, a
lawyer will come in handy. Paul Muite has always assisted demonstrators-Pro
bono.
Back up batteries-
There is nothing as disappointing as having to send someone to the supermarket
to buy some Megaphone batteries because the ones that you were using have run
out of power.
One of the best demo organizers
that I have seen in action, and probably the best there is, is CD Otieno. Ever since
he became the President of bunge la Wananchi Movement, he has led uncountable
demonstrations in the city, and he continues to learn from the failures and
successes of each manifestation.
But all in all, Kenyans need to understand the role of
demonstrations, so as to appreciate them, and conduct them responsibly.
Benedict Wachira
10th June 2013
4:06am
nice blog Benedict
ReplyDeleteDC.
Thanks DC!
DeleteThat is so true. Informative piece
ReplyDeleteThanks,
DeleteThank you for this information.
ReplyDeleteKaribu...i hope it helps for the future struggles.
DeleteShukran!
ReplyDeleteVery encouraging. I have rembered we were even talking about facilitation with you and Simbi today.
ReplyDelete