Thread by @wmnjoya

I don't feel hopeless. I feel vindicated that for the last 5 years, my analysis about the Kenyan state was correct. This is the time to invent new ideas and dismantle old colonial logics instead of wallowing in self pity. GoK is not God.

https://twitter.com/Msnyaguthii/status/1638781474198659075

I also dont get what about WSR makes middle class feel hopeless. The only answer I seem to arrive at is class snobbery. WSR is no different from the last 5 characters we have had in State House except in one small and important detail: he appealed to the Kikuyu poor as a class.

But surely, for 5 years some of us went over the Swynnerton plan and talked about how the British violently imposed class politics in Kikuyuland, splitting the community into the rich and poor and hoping that the cleavage would be sealed by ethnic bigotry. Why are we surprised?

WSR has succeeded where KPU failed in the 60s. Kaggia and Jaramogi tried to appeal to the same population on the issue of land, but that didn't work because the land question was still stuck in the feudal logic of land as access to power and wealth.

The land question was always going to be rigged in favor of the African landowners because they controlled the government that provided the title deeds. They could rig the title deeds system, own huge tracts of land and use that to give themselves loans, use GoK to rig business.

So WSR changed the appeal from land to credit. Instead of using title deeds to bribe the poor like Muigai did, he used access to finance. The middle class doesn't know what to do with that. They had got used to education being an escape from being tied to the land and to poverty.

The middle class saw education in the feudal logic, as a way to negotiate with land owners to become their accountants and managers. They were not interested in dismantling the feudal system and expanding social services. They watched as healthcare and education were privatized.

The best way to have prevented this was to demand an education system that was fairer and more accessible to more Kenyans. But what did middle class do? They marked territory and instead of rejecting CBC, they asked how their own kids could gain from CBC.

This is a wonderful time to break this attachment some of us seem to have to the colonial state and the privilege that is promoted by our education system. If you're not willing to give that up, Ndii will continue to gloat as you suffer from class angst.

The key to overturning this situation is understanding WORK. What unites the middle class and the poor, and excludes the political elite is the fact that we work. The political class makes money from assets, not from work.

Our problem is our traumatizing, aristocratic education system that cheats us that doing better in school makes us "merit" a better life than those who can't attend school or own land. That's why doctors are still negotiating with GoK for jobs instead of talking to the people.

We need to wake up and talk about opportunities to work and social services for everybody, not just credit for the poor that makes the bank owners rich. Instead, the middle class is looking at the rich and despairing.

The rich have nothing but money. That makes them vulnerable.

AND READ HISTORY (what WSR calls Vasco da Gama subjects). Or ask your folks their life stories. There's a wealth of information there. You have the minds, you have the internet. You have recording gadgets on your phones.

You will find the answers in history. #Sankofa