MULEMBE NATION STATEMENT
Issued in Nairobi, Kenya, on 01 June 2020
1. We are gathered here today as a part of the national leadership in this country to say a loud NO to the emerging worrisome state of affairs in the country. While we are predominantly from Western Kenya, we know that we speak for the whole country. For, what we feel today is felt everywhere. We want to say that enough is enough.
2. Very often, people mistake humility and common decency for weakness. When you respect people; defer to them in the spirit of common decency; and acknowledge their natural right to be heard, some mistake that for weakness. They may even begin thinking that they can boss and toss you around, and decide things for you. They imagine that they can own you and rule you, howsoever they may wish.
3. In our country, Kenya, this attitude has become deeply ingrained in sections of the political fraternity. This attitude now informs the disorder that we witness, being sown into the democratic space, everywhere, by a few self-seeking and self-deceived individuals. Within that spirit of misplaced self-grandeur, they are dictating things to virtually everybody, and taking people and institutions hostage.
4. Today, all vehicles of free expression and self-determination stand in great danger. Parliament is in captivity by the Executive. The strings that hold the Judiciary together are perpetually being tested. Political parties are being shaken all the time. The Media is often under assault. The free space is ever in mortal danger.
5. As leaders from Western Kenya, we are perturbed at the incessant efforts to keep our region perpetually divided and in disharmony. There are those who think we are ladders that they can use to climb to the top. These have formed themselves into an axis of evil, seeking to ruin our destiny as a people.
6. In the good spirit of cooperation and trust, we have previously worked with leaders from other communities and allowed them to enjoy leverage in certain situations, because of what we understood to be the greater good of our country. We have worked with President Moi and supported him at election time. Our communities in Western Kenya have also supported President Mwai Kibaki, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, President Uhuru Kenyatta and indeed the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. We have always done this in good faith and in expectation of mutual reciprocity. The very minimum we expect is respect for our people and their recognized leaders.
7. Unfortunately, some of those we have supported think that we are horses. They think that they can ride us to their desired destinations and – having arrived – they discard and abuse us. We have seen this especially on the part of the ODM leadership under Hon. Raila Odinga. More than anybody else, Odinga has been the single leading beneficiary of the goodwill of the people of Western, the Land of Mulembe – Peace.
We have repeatedly allowed him to be the compromise presidential candidate, even when we knew there were better candidates. We have treated him like the beloved brother we thought he was. But what has he done, in turn? He has behaved like the rude guest, who rattles the house and upsets his welcome. This guest has gone into every nook and cranny of the house, including into forbidden spaces. He has encouraged our children to be rude to their elders. He has schemed with them to hurl insults at their parents. He has encouraged our sons to commit sacrilege in the home. We don’t doubt that this has perhaps been done with the intent of bringing the Oedipus Curse and destruction to these young men, and ruin to their descendants. Odinga has turned things upside down in our house, and expected that the owners of the home will not call him to order.
8. We have now come to a point where handpicked henchmen now presume that they can raise themselves up, to be our leaders and to speak for us. Together with their principals, they have hatched sinister agendas to wreak havoc in our political parties; to disorganize us. People presumed to be our own brothers and sisters are now agents of destruction of our people’s dreams.
9. The Mulembe spirit of peaceful co-existence sits at the heart of our matrix of values as a people. In this spirit, the people of Mulembe have over the ages lived with visitors who come to settle in our community from outside. We have allowed them to integrate with us and even to ascend to high positions of leadership, forgetting that they are not pedigree Mulembe people. We do not believe in ethnic cleansing in whatever guise. Unfortunately, subsequent generations of persons whom our forefathers welcomed into the Land of Mulembe; and whom we have lived well with, are now being used to disorganize us.
10. Regardless of whatever position you have risen to because of the goodwill of our people, we caution you not to presume that you can speak for us without our consent. In that regard, we want to state categorically that Francis Atwoli, Wycliffe Oparanya and Eugene Wamalwa cannot speak for Luhya people.
11.We also want to state clearly that our community issues cannot be canvassed outside our native homeland. Nor can such matters be stage-managed by outsiders. We caution outsiders and their assignees to lift their hands off our community and its affairs. Nobody is going to organize us, or presume to speak for us.
12. For avoidance of doubt, our leaders in Western Kenya are Hon. Musalia Mudavadi and Hon. Moses Wetang’ula. Anyone who loves the people of Mulembe must recognize, respect and work with us through the joint leadership of Hon. Mudavadi and Wetang’ula. If you do not recognize and respect our true leaders, the people of Mulembe will not recognize you. As the late John Michuki famously said, “Sisi tutakutwanga kisiasa.” And let this in particular be a warning to political leaders from Western Kenya. If you are not with our true leaders, “Sisi tutakutwanga kisiasa.” You have signed your own political death warrant.
13. Finally, we restate our faith in our country, our national institutions and the rule of law. We stretch the hand of goodwill to our fellow Kenyans and communities from other parts of the country. In this regard, we refuse to be placed on ventilators. Going forward, we will determine ourselves, in the spirit of self-determination that is Madaraka. We shall choose our own future friends and partners. We are going to work with those who respect us and are willing to work with us and to support us, no matter whom they may be, without exception. In that regard, we will refuse to be blackmailed by anybody. We wish you well, wherever you may be on this Madaraka Day and look forward to working with all Kenyans of goodwill towards a better Kenya.
Signed
1.Hon. Moses M Wetang’ula, Ford-K Party Leader and host
2.Hon. Musalia Mudavadi, ANC Party Leader
3.Hon. Chris Wamalwa, MP
4.Hon. Ben Washiali, MP
5.Hon. Justus Murunga, MP
6.Hon. Catherine Wambilanga, MP
7.Hon. Didymus Baraza, MP
8.Hon. Ferdinand Wanyonyi, MP
9.Hon. Tindi Mwale, MP
10.Hon. Christopher Aseka, MP
11.Hon. Dan Wanyama, MP
12.Hon. Injendi Malulu, MP
13.Hon. Janet Nangabo, MP
14.Hon. Charles Gimose, MP
15.Hon. Alfred Agoi, mp
16.Hon. John Waluke, MP
17.Hon. Beatrice Adagala, MP
18.Hon. Nassir Sahal, MP
19.Hon. Vincent Gimosi, MP
20.Hon. Mwambu Mabonga, MP
21.Hon. Sakwa Bunyasi, MP
Apologies
1.Hon. Dr. Enock Kibunguchy
2.Hon. James Mukwe Lusweti
3.Hon. Bishop Khamala
4.Hon. Fred Kapondi
5.Hon. Ernest Kagesi
6.Hon. Oku Kaunya
7.Hon. Saidi Hirbhai