Koigi wa Wamwere's tal vid Amnestys årsmöte i Uppsala 1997


Today I came to this meeting to thank Amnesty International and other human rights organizations for saving our lives during our recent trial when we were fighting for our lives.

We escaped death because of international pressure and not because we got justice from Kenyan courts. A little before our case was concluded, Ken Sero Wiwa and his colleagues died because although international pressure was mounted to save them, it was not enough. But when Ken Sero Wiwa and his colleagues were killed, international reaction was strong and fast. When Moi saw all the reaction against Nigeria, he decided that without oil like Nigeria, it was unsafe for him to provoke similar onslaught against his dictatorship by imposing a death sentence upon us.

In a very real sense therefore, we owe our lives both to the living and to the dead. And to both we owe a debt. To repay this debt to Ken Sero Wiwa and his friends, we feel it is necessary for us to continue fighting for the same freedom, the same justice and the same human rights they died for. Should we fall casualty to the same evil forces that killed Ken Sero Wiwa, we hope there will be others to take up the struggle and continue.

Apart from thanking Amnesty International, I also thought I could take this opportunity to tell you why I continue fighting for freedom, justice and human rights in Kenya despite my spending 13 years of my precious life in prison.

WHY I CONTINUE FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM AND JUSTICE

Choosing Politics Of The Good Samaritan
Long time ago when I was still a student, I decided that, if I was going to be a politician, the only politics I could do would be the politics of the good Samaritan. And to me politics of the good Samaritan are the politics that seek to liberate the poor from their poverty and the oppressed from the shackles of dictatorship.

To be able to do politics of the good Samaritan, I accept that both as a politician and as a private person, I must all the time try to be my brother's keeper. To be able to live as a good Samaritan, both as a politician and as a private person, I must believe in the philosophy of the Kikuyu proverb which says that "A cry in the village does not permit one to sleep - Kiriro kiri itura gitingireka mundu akome." As a politician who believes in the politics of the good Samaritan, it is impossible for me to fall asleep as long as some Kenyans out there are crying because of hunger, torture, unemployment, untreated diseases, low pay, lack of housing, wrongful arrest, unfair trial, murder of their children by police, ethnic discrimination or ethnic murder.

Trying to be the good Samaritan in politics also means that as I think of my own problems as an individual, I must also pay attention to other people's problems. I think of other people's problems because I believe that other people's problems are also my problems. As the Swahili proverb says, "When one finger Is hurt, the whole body suffers - Athari ya kidole hasara ya mwili." When other people have problems, I try to suffer their loss of comfort with them



Visit To President Moi
A short while after I had joined parliament in 1979, I was invited to see President Moi together with my wife, Jane Nduta Koigi. While at Kabarak, we had a long discussion with President Moi when he warned me against inciting poor Kenyans into a rebellion with my incessant demands for land reform to settle the landless, democratic freedoms and constitutional rights for the people, higher wages and better working conditions for workers and eradication of corruption in all spheres of our national life. He further told me that if I continued raising these issues in parliament, I would soon become the victim of the very evils that I was fighting against. President Moi quoted to me the Swahili proverb which warns, "Do not awaken one who is asleep, else you shall sleep yourself - Usimwamshe ahyelala, ukimwamsha utalala wewe." With this proverb, President Moi was telling me that if I continued fighting for the poor and the oppressed, I would myself become a victim of poverty and oppression.

My reply to President Moi was that if I were him and the government mine, I would concentrate more on eradicating the poverty of the poor and getting rid of the oppression of all the people than in currying favor with a few rich people. I also told Moi that if he and his government failed to help the poor and the oppressed, one day his government would become as loathed as the colonial government and as unpopular as Kenyatta's government in its last years.

A Frightening Nightmare
Alter my visit to Kabarak but while still in parliament, I had a frightening nightmare. In the nightmare, I was standing before a public meeting in my constituency but when I tried to speak to the people, my voice would not come out. The harder I tried to speak, the clearer it became to me that my voice had dried up. I approached a doctor wanting to know whether such loss of voice was possible. The doctor told me that the only time I might lose my voice is if I became hoarse. But he was wrong.

Losing My Voice Through Detention without Trial
Soon after my nightmare of losing my voice, Moi sent police to my home and detained me without charge or trial while I was still a sitting member of parliament. While in detention, I remembered my nightmare of losing my voice and realised that my nightmare had come true. As a political detainee who was kept one hundred per cent incommunicado, I had lost all my freedom and my voice too. But my detention was the culmination of many other efforts by Moi to silence me.

While I was still in parliament, Moi had threatened to dissolve the Public Accounts Committee just to stop me from being its chairperson. Top civil servants accused me of wanting to use my position as chairman of the PAC to carry out a witch-hunt on civil servants and asked me to step down as chairman to save the committee from presidential dissolution. When I refused to step down a majority of MPs was bribed and intimidated into voting me out as the chairperson on the cowardly excuse of trying to save the committee from dissolution by Moi. Despite my loss of the committee's chair I continued to fight for the rights of the unemployed, landless, workers and women. It was when Moi saw that I could not be silenced by the loss of the chair of Public Accounts Committee that he decided to have me more effectively silenced through detention without trial.

Being Sent To Political Sleep with Detention And Political Imprisonment
When I arrived at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, I did not only remember my nightmare of silence, I also remembered Moi's threat to me that if I did not stop trying to awaken the poor and the oppressed from their slumber, I would myself be made to sleep. In detention, without a voice, all I could do is sleep, sleep and sleep. And by doing all in his power as a dictator to keep me out of political circulation through all forms of imprisonment, Moi has not allowed me to get out of that sleep.

Second Nightmare
While in detention, I also remembered an earlier nightmare that I had while in my first detention between 1975 and 1978 and which I have never been allowed to forget.

I was in a very thick jungle with very tall and huge trees in a very dark night. There was a very heavy downpour and the jungle was full of thunder and lightening. The jungle was also shrouded in a very thick fog.Whenever there was lightening, I could see men, women and children looking all wet, shivering with cold, hungry, bedraggled and miserable huddled below these tall and big trees for shelter. But each time thunder and lightening struck, a tree would come crashing down and men, women and children could be seen running to another tree for shelter and to avoid being killed by the falling tree. But there was no tree that fell without killing some men, women and children.

Suddenly, the tree I was huddled under was also struck by lightening and I scampered for cover. But I was not lucky enough to escape the falling tree. My leg was struck and I was knocked down and could hardly free my leg from the fallen tree. I was struggling to free my leg when I woke up, all drenched in sweat. When I looked around, I saw that I was in my cell at Kamiti Prison. So the tree that had fallen and was pinning my leg down was detention without trial. And the thick jungle? The thick jungle is Kenya. Kenya has to all intents and purposes been turned into a political jungle by Kanu leadership. And the tall and huge trees? The tall and huge trees that were falling and are still falling and killing men, women and children are hunger, unemployment, untreated diseases, corruption, low wages, lack of housing, lack of decent clothing, road accidents, ethnic clashes, rigging of elections, political trials, trumped-up charges and 50 forth.

Dictatorship Is The Biggest Tree In Kenya's Political Jungle
But the most ominous tree in Kenya's political jungle is dictatorship. It has huge branches labeled torture, police shootings, injustice, TKK, oppression and 50 forth.

Released But Not Free
Though my leg was finally released from the tree of detention, I, like other Kenyans have never left the political jungle of Kenya. And since the nightmare, I have been fallen upon by another tree of detention. I have also been fallen upon by the tree of treason and the tree of armed robbery is still pinning my leg down not to mention the trees of unemployment, denial of democratic and constitutional rights, exile for my family and unending harassment by police.

My Prophecy Of The Unpopularity Of Moi-Kanu Government Has Come True
Since we talked at Kabarak, the government of President Moi has became a complete dictatorship with Moi using every means at his disposal to make sure that the poor and the oppressed do not ever come out of their eternal slumber and those who speak for them do not ever come out of prisons. But Moi has not only refused to save the poor and oppressed from poverty and oppression. Since Moi's accession to power, his government through its commitment to dictatorship, corruption, tribalism and robbery of our country's resources has multiplied poor people's poverty and all people's oppression a thousandfold. In the process, my prophesy of Moi's government becoming more hated than the colonial and more unpopular than the Kenyatta governments has also come true.

AS VICTIMS OF DICTATORSHIP, HOW DO WE REACT TO IT?

The Story Of The Little Girl And The Limping Ogre
Once upon a time, a girl saw a limping ogre coming to her. In fear of being eaten up, the girl climbed a tree and stayed up there. When the limping ogre came, he persuaded the girl to come down the tree, with assurances that he had no intentions of eating her up. After all, he was only a limping ogre! Persuaded, the girl finally came down. And to show that the limping ogre was not as bad as other ogres, he asked the girl to give him only the little finger to quench his burning hunger and he would spare her by not asking for any more.

Thinking this was a reasonable request from an ogre, the girl accepted and gave the ogre her little finger. Soon after, the ogre asked for the other little finger just to quench his hunger and he would ask for no more. Again the girl gave the ogre her second little finger. Then the ogre asked for the other finger and the girl agreed. Then the hand and the girl agreed in the hope that the rest of the body would be spared. Then the ogre asked for the other hand, then toes, then legs and finally the whole body was eaten up. Giving herself to the ogre bit by bit did not save the little girl.

The little girl are Kenyans and the limping ogre is Moi. The limping ogre is the Kanu government that has been eating up Kenyans, one limb after another under the promise that given one limb, it would not ask for more.

In dealing with Moi and his dictatorship, Kenyans may to their detriment act like the little girl - give themselves up to the dictator bit by bit but in the end nothing of them would be spared by the dictatorship.

Spoiling Spirits
Apart from the limping ogre, Africa is full of stories of spirits who make people's children sick and each time demand meat for appeasement. But appeasement does not stop them from making children sick again. In fact the more meat they are given, the more children they make sick in search of more meat for appeasement. Finally, their victims lose patience and tell them to go to hell.

Churchill
During the 2nd World War, it was Winston Churchill who never tired of warning European leaders that giving larger and larger chunks of meat to the Nazi and fascist crocodiles would not finally spare donors of these huge chunks of meat from being eaten up by the crocodiles. Many European leaders did not listen and when they did, it was too late. Dictators like bad spirits and the limping ogre are not appeased with silence, small fingers or large chunks of meat.

A Leopard In The village
The only way of dealing with a dictator that will work, is doing what African people used to do when a leopard came to their village and started killing animals, children, women and old people. Many able-bodied men would put all their other activities and duties aside and go hunting the rogue leopard until it was killed. In hunting the leopard, no man was exempted and no wives or children would think of asking their husbands and fathers to avoid death by refusing to go and hunt the leopard. Neither individual nor collective morality could allow any man to avoid this sacred duty not just to his society but to his family as well.


And Other People Where Do They Come In?
In our village, when a hut caught fire, we did not stop to find out who its owner was. We all rushed to put out the fire first. To us, it was irrelevant that the hut might belong to a friend or foe. Why did we not think it important to find out who was the owner of a hut before saving it from a fire? Most important was because, if not put out in time, a fire in one hut could spread and burn all huts in the village. So in saving either a friend's or an enemy's hut, we were also saving our own huts. Similarly, when any country is burning from the fire of dictatorship, all people in the world should unite in putting that fire out not because they love the people of that country necessarily, but because, the fire of dictatorship could also spread to their own countries.

Martin Luther King Jr.
It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said that one reason why all people in the world should unite to fight racism was because, "injustice anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere." As in the days of Martin Luther King Jr., today all people must unite to fight dictatorship because dictatorship anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.

The Rat Trap-Mtego Wa Panya
As the story of the rat trap will show, we should never say other people's problems are none of our business. In saving others, we save ourselves and in letting others die, we let ourselves die too.

One day a rat went into a farmer's store to eat millet. But when it entered the store, it found the farmer had set a trap to catch it. Fearing for its life, it left the store and went to the other rats and told them about the trap. But seeing that there was nothing the other rats could do to unset the trap, the rat decided to approach a cock for help. But when the rat told the cock what his problem was and asked for help, the cock told the rat that the rats' problem was none of his business. And so the rat went to see a goat for help but the goat also said that the rats' problem was none of his business. From there, the rat went to see a cow. He told the cow his problem and asked for assistance. Like the others, the cow also said the rats' problem was none of her business. Unable to get help from either the cock, the goat or the cow, the rat went home ready to die of starvation.

At night the farmer heard a bud voice in the store and went to check what it was, hoping that it was a stealing rat that his trap had caught. Against the advice of his wife, he went to the store without a light. When he tried to touch the trap, his hand was bitten. And because he could not see, he rushed to the house for a lamp. When he returned to the store with a lamp, he was frightened to see that what had bitten him was not a rat but a snake.

The poison of the snake spread fast into the body of the farmer and by nine at night the farmer was already dead. Immediate neighbours came to mourn and for them the cock was soon slaughtered. Later before dawn the goat was slaughtered for the mourners who had grown more in number. The burial was for the following day and lots and lots of people came to bid the dead farmer final farewell. Around mid-day the cow was also slaughtered for the mourners. Towards the end of the day, the farmer was finally buried.

When the rat heard all this, he was shocked by the folly of others. The trap that was meant for him had led to the deaths of the snake, the farmer, the cock, the goat and the cow. If the cock, the goat and the cow had listened to the pleas of the rat for help, most likely neither the snake, the farmer or themselves would have died. From that day it has always been said that "The rat

trap catches those who are there and those who are not there - Mtego wa panya huingia waliomo na wasiokuwamo." Dictatorship is like the rat trap.

It catches those who are there and those who are not there. Those who refuse to participate in the struggle against dictatorship or refuse to help the victims of dictatorship might end up being killed or victimised by that same dictatorship.

In The Struggle Against Dictatorship, There Is No Neutrality
Julius Nyerere, the ex-president of Tanzania once said that if you meet a bully fighting a child and do nothing to help the child, your refusal to do anything about a bad situation will have helped the bully to continue bullying the child. Similarly in the struggle between democracy and dictatorship, there is no neutrality. Those who do nothing to stop dictatorship from oppressing and making people poor and miserable are not neutral. They are on the side of dictatorship.

In The Struggle Against Dictatorship, Silence Means Consent
But it was Martin Luther King Jr. who expressed the unacceptability of silence in the struggle against racism. There is little doubt that that unacceptability also applies to silence in regard to the struggle against dictatorship. In all struggles against corruption, dictatorship, racism and tribalism, those who keep quiet and refuse to condemn these evils are on the side of dictatorship, corruption, racism and tribalism. Martin Luther King Jr. was replying to those who condemned him for speaking out against racism when he condemned the silence of the so-called good people in the face of evil in these terms.

"Many too many are still silent. It may well be that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition is not the glaring noisiness of the so-called bad people but the appalling silence of the so-called good people. It may be that our generation will have to repent not only for the diabolical actions and vitriolic words of the children of darkness but also for the crippling fears and tragic apathy of the children of light."

Co-operating with Evil Is Evil
In struggling against dictatorship and evil systems, those victims of dictatorship that choose to co-operate with dictatorship are as evil as the system is because their co-operation helps to perpetuate an evil system that cannot be brought down by those who create it and benefit from it. It is this refusal by the victims of evil systems to struggle against them that justifies the cynicism of the political statement that "People get the government they deserve." When people refuse to unshackle themselves from a dictatorship, they help to impose that dictatorship upon themselves. Martin Luther King Jr. put it this way:

"Passively to co-operate with an unjust system makes the oppressed as evil as the oppressors."

Your Freedom Lies In The Freedom Of Others
By fighting dictatorship wherever it is, we secure our own freedom wherever we are. It is my sincere belief therefore that just as the freedom of others lies in our freedom, my own freedom lies in the freedom of all Kenyans. As the Swahili proverb says "One who does good to others does good to oneself - Mtenda mema kwa watu atendea nafsiye."

Imagine all the money that many countries have to spend feeding refugees who have been displaced from their homes and countries by dictatorship. It is my opinion that working for peaceful democratic changes is cheaper than fighting civil wars or feeding and settling refugees. How expensive and destructive civil wars or all wars are is expressed by another Swahili proverb which says "Wars are blind - Vita havina macho." We have all seen images of African dictators like Samuel Doe, Mengitsu, Siad Barre, Habriyamana and Idi Amin either being killed or being driven into exile by events which they provoked with their dictatorship. Had these dictators helped to end oppression and dictatorship they would not have been killed or forced into exile by people whom they had forced into violent opposition. As someone said, freedom is the only thing you cannot have if you deny it to others. You protect your hut by saving your neighbour's hut from fire. When you answer and help to end a cry in the village you make your own sleep possible. I believe it is the freedom of other Kenyans that will make my own freedom possible.

After 13 Years Of Detention And Imprisonment, Is It Time For Me To Give Up?
For me there is no giving up as long as the leopard is still in the village. There is no giving up as long as there is still a cry in the village. There is no giving up as long as Kenya is a political jungle where none of us is safe. There is no giving up as long as the tree of wrongful conviction is pinning my leg down. There is no giving up as long as my voice has not been restored to me. There is no giving up as long as I am forced into sleep for trying to awaken the poor and oppressed from sleep.

Is Suffering For Freedom Worthy It?
Was the death of Jesus for the salvation of mankind worthy it? Yes it was. Was the dying of Mau Mau freedom fighters for the independence of Kenya worthy it? Yes it was. Was Mandela' s imprisonment for 28 years for the liberation of South Africa worthy it? Yes it was.Was Abraham Lincoln's death for his opposition to slavery in the US worthy it? Yes it was.

A lot of people think that suffering is worthy it as long as we are finally successful and by successful they mean as long as finally we come to power. But freedom, justice and progress in this world have been pioneered by people who died for their beliefs, truths, discoveries and controversial views without ever seeing the fruits of their own labour.

Remember Moses. He led his people out of Egypt but he never set foot into the promised land. Remember Martin Luther King Jr. He fought hard for racial equality in America but was not to see his dream come true. Remember Dedan Kimathi. He fought and died for the independence of Kenya but he never saw it.

Why Fight For Freedom When victory Is Nowhere Near?
Some people think that political victory means coming to power. For me, political victory does not always mean accession to power. In many instances, political victory means public or official acceptance of a disputed idea, truth, belief or policy and laying a foundation for future action.When I am right I keep fighting whether I see prospects of getting political power or not. When I am right I keep fighting whether my ideas enjoy immediate acceptance or not. When I am right, I continue fighting whether there is anyone with me or I am all alone. I do not fight for victory. I fight for what is right. I agree that in this life nothing is sweeter than savouring the victory of a righteous cause. But I will never surrender fighting for what is right because political power or acceptance of my ideas is nowhere near. As long as I fight for what is right, even if I don't ever get political power or see the victory of the struggle for freedom, justice and democracy in Kenya in my lifetime, my conscience will always be at peace. After all, however long it takes, what is right must one day succeed, must one day be victorious.

Having said so much about myself, let me close by saying that when one is being tortured, raped, imprisoned without trial, executed for one`s beliefs and denied one`s other rights, the worst frustration suffered is the loss of one`s tongue, the loss of one`s voice. On the other hand, what persecutors, oppressors and dictators love best is their victims`silence. As one of our people`s proverb says, the one who kills does not yell. It is the one being killed who yells for help.

Our people also say that an entelope does not hate him who sees it but him who calls people to it. Likewise, dictators do not hate those who see them but keep their mouths shut, but those who criticize or call the world to the evil that they do. To continue violating human rights, dictators must through fear silence all people who see them and especially their critics.

It is in order to silence people that government critics are detained without charge or trial. I have myself been detained without charge or trial for 6 years. It is in order to silence people that government critics are imprisoned on trumped-up charges. I have myself been in prison on trumped-up charges for 6 years and have 3 more years waiting to be served in prison. It is in order to silence people that journalists are intimidated and others bought into denying government critics a voice in the media. It is in order to silence people that judges and magistrates deny accused political defendants the right of free speech in court. It is in order to silence people that lawyers are punished for representing and defending government critics in court. And it is in order to silence people that families of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience are intimidated into keeping quiet when their own members are arrested, detained or killed.

Without a voice, to whom do victims of human rights violations turn to? For many years in Kenya we looked up to western governments to speak for us, but they did not for the strategic reasons of supporting African dictators as bulwarks of keeping communism out of Africa. Since the collapse of communism and the end of cold war, western governments still hesitate to speak strongly for the people, human rights and democracy in Kenya because they fear that if they do so their businesses will close and their people will lack employment. This is an interesting argument given that dictatorships are inherently instable and fatal to long-term interests of honest business as situations in Somalia, Liberia and Rwanda can testify.

Whatever the merits and demerits of this argument by western governments, the truth is that dictatorship in Kenya and Africa was created with the help of the West. Dictatorship in Kenya and Africa still survives because European and American taxpayers` money still flows to maintain these dictatorships either directly or indirectly through such institutions as IMF, World Bank and the European Union. Without western military and financial support dictatorship in Kenya will not survive at all. To be able to speak for the victims of dictatorship in Kenya and Africa, Western democracy must terminate its marriage with African dictatorshhip now.

So if western governments do not speak for us, who does? Right now, it is Amnesty International and other human rights organizations.

Apart from being a political jungle, Kenya is also a kingdom of hyenas and in a hyena`s court, our people say a goat does not get justice. When we were put on a trumped-up capital charge in 1993, we were tried like sheep in the court of a hyena. To know how trials are conducted in the court of a hyena just listen to this short story. It wont take minutes.

One day, a hyena and the kid of a goat were drinking water in a river. The kid was drinking in the lower part of the river below where the hyena was. Suddenly, the hyena called out:

“Hei you!”
“Yes” the kid answered.
“Stop soiling the water for me.”
“But sir, I am drinking water below you. I cannot possibly soil water for you. The water I am soiling is not coming up your way. It is not going upstream. I am in fact the one who is drinking the water which you have soiled.”
“Stop insulting me” the hyena said angrily and then asked.
“Are you not the one who abused me one week ago also?”
“But sir, I could not have abused you one week ago.”, the kid explained. “One week ago, I was not born. I am only four days old.”
“If it was not you, then it was your mother and I will get you for it alright. If not today, tomorrow.”

A few days later, the unfortunate kid was eaten up by the hyena. All the other talk about the kid soiling the water, insulting the hyena and its mother abusing the hyena was just an excuse the hyena needed to justify the killing of the kid.

Fortunately, when sheep and goats are taken prisoner by the hyena, Amnesty International does not hesitate to categorize sheep and goats as prisoners of conscience.

But in the kingdom of hyenas, hyenas attack, imprison, kill and eat other innocent animals like porcupines. When porcupines are attacked by hyenas they defend themselves by shooting hyenas with their quells. And when porcupines use quells for self-defence, Amnesty International does not classify them as prisoners of conscience but as political prisoners.


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Skapat av : Sven Bodin	Index: ORG 51/001/1997	Kategori: Organisation - Årsmöten 1964 -
Ändrat: 98-01-15	År: 1997	Status: Medlem

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