Mad dogs and Englishmen

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PRESIDENT Daniel arap Moi of Kenya has declared that henceforth that country will be a one-party state. The party he heads, KANU, has for some time been the only visible political party. Now that position is constitutionally guaranteed.

The press of British imperialism is happy.

Just over twenty years ago they were happy because Daniel arap Moi had done the opposite. He and some others split from KANU, accusing it of being dictatorial, to set up KADU.

Then the press showed its pleasure: "Congratulations to KADU" crowed one paper: "We can expect a return of business confidence.

Inside Kenya the press is effectively gagged. Thus, when George Githii, editor of the Kenyan Standard, spoke out, he was sacked by the paper's board.

Githii had written: 'In the past six months, this country has incrcasingly been gripped with fear • • There are also instances in which editors of our national newspapers have been told in no uncertain terms that they can publish certain things at their peril."

The Standard is owned by the British-based Lonrho company. Lonrho's chief, Tiny Rowland, recently put in a bid for the Sunday Times, promising a liberal editorial pollcy...

James Cameron has just finished a short and shallow series of articles entitied "Cameron's Wars" in which he reminisces about his warreporting days.

Drama

On September 21 his subject was "The Mau Mau period" in Kenya which started with the declaration of a state of emergency there on October 21, 1952.

After a couple of paragraphs Cameron profoundly opines "Nobody will write a drama about Kenya. Probably the only one who might have was Noel Coward..

Yes, Noel Coward, just the man to depict a war of liberation against imperialism! Fortunately Cameron is wrong. Drama's have been written about Kenya's struggle to throw off the yoke of settler colonialism. James Ngugi's "The Trial of Dedan Kimathi" is one of them.

Cameron then reminisces about the brutality of "the Mau Mau". • But how about a few statistics! 1 quote trom the autobiography of one of the liberation movement's leaders: "Casualties inflicted by the so-called 'Mau Mau' were about 2,000, of whom only 30 were white. By contrast government forces killed over 11,000 Africans and detained 90,000 in detention camps (with many) permanently disabled by torture to extract confessions... tional weight and authority to the Lebanese Army as it emerges from relative impotence and obscurity to form the main pillar of the right wing Gemayel regime in Far from protecting the Palestinian and Lebanese masses from the violence of the Phalangists, the imperialist troops have been sent to complete the defeat inflicted by the Zionist armed invasion, whieh forced the evacuation of the PLO detachments:

The leaders of the left wing militias, which had, in alliance with the PLO, previously protected the Palestinians protest on the West Bank Some 13 years later, the British troops have not succeeded in their mission. When President Reagan says now that US troops will stay in Lebanon until such time as there is "a stable government* 'established" he could well be opening the door to a long term US presence in this key area of Middle Eastern politics.

Meanwhile we must fight within the labour movement to draw attention to the facts of the situation in Lebanon - and demand the withdrawal of Israeli and imperialist troops.

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Socialist Organiser no:104 October 14, 1982 Page 6