Interview | Kenya Left Alliance

At The World Transformed (TWT), rs21 members interviewed a range of activist groups. In this article we spoke to Njuki Githethwa of the Kenya Left Alliance about building left unity in Kenya and its vision for socialism, decolonisation and liberation.

rs21: Can you tell us a bit about why the Kenya Left Alliance came about? What are your key priorities?

Njuki: The Kenya Left Alliance (KLA) has been an idea that has been brewing for a long time in the country. It began initially as the Kenyan Left Forum, set up on WhatsApp and other forums where we discussed the topic of the day, organising and reawakening socialist discourses in the country. Back then, our aim was to ‘reinvigorate socialist thought, experiences, practices and organise a united front of the radical left in Kenya’. That was how it was for about 16 years. We used to meet online and in person, and we discussed such topics as food, water, anti-imperialism, neoliberalism, the Kenyan economy and Pan-Africanism.

These conversations eventually evolved into the KLA – an alliance of progressive political parties, organisations, movements and individuals within Kenya. We realised there was no united front for all the struggles in the country, and that a people who are united will never be defeated; conversely, a disunited people will always be defeated. We are stronger together, so we brought about 30 organisations together, including parties, feminist collectives, student unions, cultural and artistic groups, radical academics and many more. We also include individuals who are not aligned to any organisation. While they might not feel they belong anywhere, they may still want to belong to the people and the KLA offers them that space and helps build their consciousness.

The KLA is based on what we call ‘the four pillars’: socialism, Pan-Africanism, anti-imperialism and feminism. Every member must work towards these. We see them as a point of reference; you might not be socialist right now, but you must work towards them. We don’t necessarily disqualify membership using these principles; we see them as a process of growth. Let me be clear: if, for example, people display abusive tendencies towards women, we will not let them join. But if you come with an element of understanding of socialist ideology, you can come with us, you can grow with us and we can grow with you . 

One of our main focus is political education. While reading classic Marxist texts is important, such study groups are already being run by organisations like the Revolutionary Socialist League and Kongamano La Mapinduzi (Congress for Revolution). We take a different approach. For us, political education is about clarifying and debating what the four pillars actually mean in practice. For example, when we say anti-imperialism, what do we mean? When we say feminism, what does that look like in context? When we say Pan-Africanism, what form of Pan-Africanism are we talking about? All of these questions are discussed as part of our political education process.

The second focus is meeting people at the point of their need. We must respond to both objective and subjective conditions. People must be able to feel and touch the revolution through what they see and experience. For us, the issues people feel most deeply are threefold: Land, Food and Liberation. By this last one, we mean decolonisation, more specifically decolonising our minds, our culture, our ideas of alliances and economies, our language itself, the way we relate to the West, and the dependency that runs throughout Africa.

The politics of the left must be the politics of listening. We believe in a politics of action rather than reaction and there must also be a politics of conversation. Too often, the left is dominated by top-down politics, on who is more correct and who has no place. In these times, socialism must be understood as a conversation and a dialogue, one that listens and takes in other points of view. We frame these conversations in terms of immediate experience, without trying to recreate historical movements, because we understand the present as being built upon the debts of the past. As Marx said, ‘The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living’. History is important for reflection, whether the history of the Jacobins or the Mau Mau, but the contexts and conditions today are different. History is not a hammer to shape the present; it is a mirror of experiences.

Beyond that, we work on what we call ‘liberating zones’, both metaphysical (of the mind) and physical. We work with people to liberate their thinking about land and freedom. We don’t see land merely as physical space, but as a means of production, a foundation for people’s control over their lives. Land should not be held for speculation, buying or selling. We question land ownership, who owns land, who has access, where peasants and workers live. For us, land is a symbol of resistance.

By getting people to think about these questions, we engage in what we call cognitive liberation. If we can free people from the mindset that land is a commodity, that will be a form of liberation. The same goes for water, forests and natural resources; they must not be seen as private capital, but as shared wealth. We carry out this liberation work through our focus on Land, Food and Liberation.

When we talk about food, it’s not just about eating, but about what we eat. We don’t want our people eating genetically modified foods simply because they are hungry. We must respect our traditional food cultures, ensuring access to quality, nutritious food across the country.

To do this work, we work within the working classes, where they live, talk, organise and fight. That is how we build our bases, by moving alongside our people, working at their level and within their understanding. There is no point talking about socialism if you cannot translate it into the language and realities of people’s daily lives.

rs21: What are some of your successes?

Njuki: The biggest achievement for us is locating the left agenda within emerging politics in Kenya and putting socialism back on the agenda and into public discourse in Kenya and the wider region. Another major achievement, which we continue to build on, is bringing together leftist organisations, movements, political parties and individuals. This process has been ongoing for about 30 years. There was an earlier attempt at left unity in the 1980s by figures such as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, which sought to create a united front for leftist organisations in Kenya and abroad. That effort did not succeed and many left-wing individuals in Kenya went on to align with mainstream political parties, both in terms of organising and electoral politics. That was the first attempt and although it fizzled out at various points, we have finally managed to bring it together again.

A third key achievement is ensuring that our politics are rooted in the real needs of the people, in Land, Food and Liberation. It is not an elite contest, not a tribal rivalry and not revenge by one politician against another. It is about righting the wrongs and misdeeds of history in Kenya.

rs21: What is something you’d like to see come out of TWT?

Njuki: I would like us to keep building and sustaining the links we have made today, and to continue developing this as a space for sharing and hearing experiences. We want to maintain the networks that have formed this weekend, creating a platform to exchange experiences of resistance, struggle and efforts to build left unity internationally. This is part of a broader attempt to understand what the agenda of left politics is, not only in Britain but globally.

It is important that there is a willingness to learn from other parts of the world, without reproducing the British colonial mentality of prescribing what governance and politics should look like. Here, people are learning from one another. I sense a strong desire across the conference to build a left political party, which is promising. In the assemblies, participants have shown real enthusiasm for such a project, but if that energy is not properly sustained and harnessed, it risks dissipating, leaving the left with a bitter taste at a missed historic opportunity. You must make sure you do not miss it.

rs21: What traditions or historical struggles do you draw from, or feel a connection with?

Njuki: For me and my comrades, we are inspired by the Mau Mau, the Kenyan Land and Freedom army. The Gen Z in Kenya refer to themselves as ‘the New Mau Mau’, so it is still important to a lot of people here. Look at the KLA, we take our slogan from the Mau Mau, adding ‘Food’ to ‘Land and Freedom’. 

We also feel linked to struggles in Britain, particularly the struggle of the working class and the ways they fought to secure welfare gains. We look to the Windrush generation as a major source of inspiration, as well as the civil rights movement in Britain. The Brixton riots, for example, stand as a historical affirmation of Black liberation.

I also admire the mass consciousness within the British working class. While it may not have gone as far as some hoped, these were still achievements from which we draw inspiration. I admire the strong wave of Palestinian solidarity in Britain, which goes against the current government and its colonial power. What we see here among the left and the wider public is very uplifting to see.

rs21: What does your organisation’s work mean for people?

Njuki: It means bringing back the respect of the people, the respect of the working class, bringing back the confidence of the people who suffer and who struggle. It’s believing that working class people are the ones who shape politics, discourses and their own destiny. It means the people get to decide what Kenya we want and what Africa we want. It is not coming from the ruling class nor dictated by imperialists, it is what people want themselves.

It is also about making the young people proud of their country. It is making sure the uprisings and protests that are happening in Kenya and Africa are not wasted. It is making sure the blood and sweat of the people means something and will give back to a new republic. It is also making sure the over 80 young people we have lost in the protest in Kenya have not died in vain – that their sacrifice will usher in the liberation of the country and water the trees of liberation. We will make sure the politics of betrayal, of personality cults, of self-interest will be a thing of the past. 

That is what the Kenya Left Alliance desires to do. We want to see social justice in the country, where nobody will lack food, housing, healthcare, quality education and many other basic things. Kenya is now over 65 years old, but the country, instead of becoming better, has become worse. The inequality that was there before, between the poor and the rich, has deepened and continues to grow. The Kenya Left Alliance will see an end to that.