The elections in Kenya on August 9, 2022, elicited mixed reactions. The elections were essentially a race pitying candidates with the shadow of capitalism cast over them, each faction promising a qualitative leap in the development of the Kenyan society. Elections in Kenya continue to be a competition of the rich, not for the people, but by the people for the leaders. At most, presidential elections in Kenya are an echo of the American liberal democracy of a forced two-horse race, two sides of the same coin. One side was that of a seasoned opposition leader, former MP, Cabinet Minister, and Prime-minister who was endorsed by the who is who in the circle of economic magnates. On the other hand was a sitting deputy president cum opposition leader in the same government he is serving. A deputy president who takes credit of the government’s achievements with one side of the mouth and does otherwise with the other side of the mouth.
For the left, each of them lifting a lid seemingly too hot to lift, the conversation around political -economic contradiction in Kenya, in a word growing class instinct. A conversation which their mouths seem too impatient to cash but their hearts very hesitant to cheque. Once again, a bourgeois ritual with unlimited economic euphemisms, a shift from purely ethnic mobilization to a sprouting issue-based conversation thanks to the sharpening objective conditions, the primacy of class contradiction in Kenya. It should not be lost to the reader that the primary currency of mobilization in Kenya has been raw ethnic saturation characterized with all the pomp and splendor.
The voter turnout of 85.91%,79.5%, and 65.4% for 2013,2017 and 2022 respectively indicts the bourgeois election in the Court of public opinion with nearly 8 million voters “boycotting” the 2022 election. For another time the left got a national moment to denounce the inhuman system of capitalism while announcing a qualitative order, socialism. But is there need for the left to participate in bourgeois elections? The radical debates (rhetorical or otherwise) are healthy in uncloaking ethnic chauvinism, the topic around the expropriation of the Roots and Agano party, hanging the corrupt as a merciless retaliation against a few who disrespects the Kenyan masses and the invisible hand of the imperialist forces in the election, among other debates.
In Gem where the Communist Party of Kenya (CPK) had rolled an elaborate political programme, my experience as a candidate for the County Assembly in a largely peasantry population confirmed my belief in the socialist struggle and what leftist candidates need to do. While the peasants are responding to the consciousness imbued from their realities, the capitalist system has skillfully programmed them to conform to the logics of primitive accumulation idealism and thrown them away from their reality. It was Karl Marx who said, that in order to abandon the illusions about the conditions of the dispossessed, the conditions which requires such illusions must be destroyed. The onus of raising the political consciousness of the masses then rests on the unity of theory and practice among the people to help in negating the establishment and as such, the left should not shy away from participating in bourgeois elections even when their chances of being elected are minimal.
As a leftist joining the contest 3 – 4 months to the elections, I was torn between being a spectator or an actor in the wake of criminals routinely running away with the dignity of the peasants. Such an election in my Marxist faith helps us (peasants) in preserving our independence as a class, to count our force among the people and to propagate our political positions. I can’t agree more with comrade Engels that;
“Universal suffrage is thus the gauge of the maturity of the working class. It cannot and never will be anything more in the modern State….on the day when the thermometer of universal suffrage shows boiling point among the workers, they as well as the capitalist will know where they stand”
The peasants need to solidify under their own party (the workers party) and vote for their representatives in bourgeois elections to completely dissociate them from any tendencies of identifying with reactionaries. Such elections require the party of workers to field cadres with deep conviction in the leftwing struggle otherwise the disease of politicians prostituting in parties during elections may dilute the left. Insisting on the participation of party cadres in bourgeoisie elections dilutes obsession with parliamentarism for the masses who view political parties as vehicles to advance selfish interests. Parliamentarism in the intervening period provides elected leftists with a platform for advancing pro-peasant reforms and in defending the wanton plunder of public coffers. This should not in any way turn the left into reformists, only a windscreen to look through in the ongoing struggles for just social order.
Economic Violence
From my experiences as a candidate, the rural peasantry in regards to the international and national bourgeois network forms the unfortunate category and by the very nature of their life may not sufficiently conceive the real alternative. Reforms count for small wins for the peasants in continuation for the protracted struggle. A look into the life of the peasantry brings forth the sharp class contradiction; those who live as human beings verses those who pretend to live like human beings – the prisoners of want. The peasantry wallow in extreme poverty. In the words of Paulo Freire, poverty has no specific date of departure within the establishment and has made itself at home without an end in sight. Biting hunger, broken healthcare system, child mortality, low quality education, debts, malnutrition – a people relegated to the lifestyle of wild animals, makeshift houses, domestic violence, lack of water, petty crimes and in some cases landlessness. It’s no accident that Kenya registers unprecedented mental health issues arising from the harsh economic conditions.
While analysing the same peasantry community of Gem, comrade Booker Ngesa, the Vice chair of the Communist Party of Kenya (CPK) observes: “Every time my political work takes me to the poor neighbourhoods and I listen to the dreams of our people; they are full of disappointments but also hope; they want to change their lives and that of their neighbours. They probably do not know how, but by the time we get to talk about our problems, they can see a way out of their disappointments.” The absence of direct relation in the production process with the parasitic class limits their rapid awareness of the systemic violence. Often, the relation of the peasantry is limited to the local petty bourgeois members such as the shopkeeper, local money lenders, landlords and the local administration comprising of the chiefs, the police, such. By virtue of subsistence agriculture, the hand to mouth existence has succeeded in pacifying the peasants.
What then do reactionaries do? They wage anti-leftist propaganda that go along the incitement that communists will take even the very little properties the peasants own. This arises out of the inability to distinguish personal and private property.
Organization/Mobilization
Political contests in bourgeoisie elections is a cut-throat competition, where indeed throats of the poor peasants and workers are literary cut off. So, which is the way out for political organizing and mobilization?
Scientific organization. This will entail the establishment of party structures up to the smallest unit of organization for them to be effective in driving campaigns in bourgeois elections. These party structures should be made up of committed cadres, individuals who are unrepentant, incorruptible party members whose nexus with the political project is common. The structures of our party in Gem were loose, some comprised by non-cadres, vulnerable to the push and pull within the party such as the unpopular decision by some self – seeking party leaders of the party to join Kenya Kwanza Coalition. One of the greatest shock in our party was the barbaric act of failing to submit the name of Gem CPK candidate, Comrade Booker Ngesa for clearance by the Independent Boundaries and Electoral Commission (IEBC). Such heinous moves eats the party from within.
Militant party cadres in a campaign process can be trusted to provide ideological direction and shaping up the campaign programme. That way, the ideas of the party/candidate capture the masses ahead of mobilization thus acting as a safety valve in negating the possibility of a candidate becoming the ideology and the danger of personality cults.
Rules of Bourgeois Elections
Money laundering, divide and rule, populism, smear-campaigns, violence, corruption, ethnicity among other ills that characterize bourgeoisie elections often divide the left on whether they should participate in elections and what that means. To avoid bourgeois election on these grounds means leaving masses at the mercy of reactionaries with a singular mission of dominating them. What should the left do? Compromises in relation to the ideological level of the people to avoid tailism or commandism while at the same time maintaining ideological purity of the left.
In his rebuttal to the Blanquist Communards, Engels opined:
“..to very young and inexperienced revolutionaries, as well as petty bourgeois revolutionaries of even very respectable age and great experience, it seems extremely “dangerous”, incomprehensible and wrong to permit compromises..”
The left for instance of Marxist ideological orientation should use theory as a guide to action based on varying realities. Marxist analysis meets the immediate objective of participating in bourgeois election at whatever point in time. It should be remembered that compromises made by the left are informed by the objective conditions as opposed to opportunistic compromises. You need only to have a look at voter bribery and opportunistic alliances in local campaigns. In our campaigns for elections in Gem, we heeded to various calls by the people on strategic alliances. However, these alliances did not interfere with the overriding mission and programmes of our party. They were only tactical compromises made to defeat a common enemy of the people. In as much as our maximum programme is to overthrow the establishment and the capitalist system, strategic compromises towards achieving this goal are permitted in the ranks of the leftist otherwise we become dogmatic.
The financial requirement for participating in bourgeoisie elections has succeeded in throwing the peasants out of elective politics. It’s not news that no sooner does a peasant declare interest in elective politics than the question of the depth of their pockets emerge. The image of a monied politician is so engraved in the minds of the masses. Elections then becomes a field day for criminals.
Materialism
The ideas of the peasants are conditioned by their material circumstances. From dialectical analysis, circumstances of the peasantry are viewed as a struggle between two contrasting outlooks: materialist leftist alongside idealism. Ideology seeks to forge convergence between the two. Idealism has often been used as a stepping stone for the continued subjugation of the masses. As long as the peasants remain unaware of the causes of their conditions, they remain docile in the face of man-made poverty thus attributing the systemic failures to an imaginary force, often equated to God.
To participate in bourgeoisie elections calls for objective compromises among the peasants, even in the faculty of ideological thought. Whenever we speak of our challenges in the campaign trail, the masses often demonize and dismiss our adherence to socialism. Then as if to vilify this current order, they end up describing capitalism with the exactitude of Karl Marx.
The supreme institution among the peasantry is the church. Even the most radical leftist must tread with caution not to shake up in this institution. Religion will die a natural death. The political importance of idealism is grievous, such that when called upon for street action, the peasants tremble with the imagination of bullets flying in their minds and resign to prayers for the corrupt, the eternal punishment from above.
Questions to ponder
Did we Succeed in the elections? How can the left measure their level of success in an election? Did we remain faithful to the “alternative” agenda? Is a leftist electable in bourgeoisie elections? Did we build our party? Did we drive the class agenda in our campaigns? Did we clarify why healthcare system is broken and why the death of the poor people is so prevalent? Did we explain clearly what we think should be done? Did we sufficiently drive the agrarian agenda among the rural peasantry and why compromises in agriculture/industrialization is murder to the poor? Did we dialogue with the people on matters education, unemployment among the youth in relation to petty crimes? Did we advance our plan on co-operative movements as a way of collectively pooling our wealth? Did we sufficiently highlight the contradictions in families meeting their basic needs, domestic and gender based violence, mental health issues etc? Did we elaborate our anti-corruption agenda as a form of economic genocide against the poor?
Questions, and more questions.
While there was an attempt to forge a united front for the Left in Kenya sometimes back. This did not take off. The left in Kenya whilst sharpening their ideological contradictions must roll up their sleeves and hit the ground running. The behaviour of sticking in intellectual spaces, no matter how ideological they may be will only afford us more bookworms and armchair leftists in the movement. The victory of the left does not lie in colloquiums, seminars, boardroom meetings, etc. The struggle will be won in the streets, the struggle built on revolutionary love.
Is a leftist electable?
The left in our campaigns uses different tactics to ascertain the level of political consciousness among the people. That way, we measure our strength/force among the people. One way is through the ballot where we can interrogate the political consciousness of the people against the political wing they identify with.
For example, in Central Gem, a perceived “ODM zone” there were five political parties fielding candidates for MCA’s seat. In Rawalo polling station with a voter turnout of 200, 9 voted for us. In Gongo, out of 700 votes, 86 voted for us. In Migosi, out of 450 votes, 181 voted for us. In a nutshell, the 9 who voted for a candidate of the left can be a representative sample on our strength in that particular area. That they consciously voted for a leftist candidate representing the aspiration of the peasants in an election where the Communist Party took part for the first time is a great feat. I finished second out of five candidates in the campaign for the MCA’s seat for Central Gem.
Participation in bourgeosie elections can in effect help the left to measure the extent of our ideas among the people thus informing the continued organization of ideological politics. While elections outcomes does not gauge the basis of our participation in bourgeois elections, they help in giving feedback on the political consciousness of the people when faced with an option between the left and the right. For example, on the ballot paper for MP, instead of voting for the candidates of right – wing political persuasions, majority in Gem constituency added (hand-written) the name of the left wing MP candidate, Booker Ngesa, as the fourth candidate on the ballot paper. This signified the popular protest against the deliberate blocking of the leftist candidate in that constituency.
Did we build our party?
With the activated political atmosphere, bourgeois elections gave us a broad platform to popularize the party among the people and to declare our political positions. However, we continue to interrogate ourselves: Did we win more hearts? Did we receive new party cadres or mass membership to the party? Does the party now command mass following? Did the party reach the “unreachable”? Did we declare to the people that at the national level, the party cannot choose one thief over another? Did we clarify to the people that two rogue comrades in the leadership of the party negated the stated principles of the party? The answers are all to the affirmative
The left should therefore forge a united front for history has bestowed upon them the difficult task of changing the cause of humanity. Participation in bourgeois elections for young people especially of the left comes with systemic challenges like financial deprivations, ageism, cultural barriers and even raw violence. Nevertheless, we continue with ultimate goal for the left – Socialism for all said and done, socialism is still the answer.
* The writer is the national organizing Secretary of the Young Communist League (YCL) of the Communist Party of Kenya (CPK)
This is very well written.
Great article by Comrade Victor