Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba is a renowned Kenyan lawyer, activist, and advocate for Pan-Africanism and social justice. He has held various notable positions, including Director of the Kenya School of Law and Director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission from 2010 to 2011.
In a no-holds-barred interview with Comrade Erasmus Ikhide, Lumumba bared his mind on African’s socio-political trajectory hovering around slavery; colonialism, independence, social injustice, iniquity, identity politics, governance and human rights, and posit that the continent shall rise Again, Excerpts:
After your book titled: “Kenya Quest for a Constitution: The Postponed Promise” and the constitutional review in 2010, has anything changed significantly_?
If you follow me keenly, you will discover that the book, “The postponed promise,” was written after the failed referendum in the year 2005. Subsequently, I have written a book called Swearing by Kenya, which is the one that speaks to the actual promulgation of the Constitution on the 27th day of August, the year 2010. Then, the subtext of your question is whether indeed the title postponed promise is still valid. It is still valid. It is true that certain gains have been made structurally. We have a new parliament. We have all those structures, but the spirit of the Constitution is still crying to be fulfilled, fulfilled in the sense that the critical promises that change the quality of the people’s lives have not been attended to as intimately as they should be. The promise is still begging to be fulfilled.
Since Captain Ibrahim Traore came to power two years in Burkina Faso, African Genzs has been advocating military vanguardism in line with African modern types of Democracy. Do you agree with the ideology?
Let’s look at your question from a broad perspective, and let me anchor it upon a statement which I have now made perhaps too many times, statement made by the great African American John Henry Clark, when he said that when African countries regained independence, almost all of them, without exception, adopted the colonizer system of governance, so that we have had electoral processes in the early days we had single party states. Then, we were persuaded that democracy equals many parties. Then we went through a wave where electoral process are manipulated by incumbent politicians, and the people are now asking the question, why is it that we have elections every five years or four years, depending on the country in question? But our circumstances don’t change positively, but our politicians and senior civil servants become multi billionaires and millionaires to the detriment of the people. So when we saw the wave of extraordinary change of power, which we saw happening initially in Guinea and then in Mali and then in Niger, then in Burkina Faso and then in Gabon, the younger people are saying, perhaps we need extraordinary interventions in order to eliminate a whole generation of politicians who have perfected the art of manipulating the electoral process. And I am sympathetic to that. It is sad that we have to get to this. But sometimes when circumstances are extraordinary, you need extraordinary responses, and that is why you see that attempts to remove the regimes or the hunters that were brought about in Burkina in Mali and in Niger have been met with popular resistance against those who are trying to remove those regime which must make us reflect, is there a crisis of governance in Africa which calls for a re examination of how we govern ourselves? And I dare say there is a call for it, and the time is now to introspect and to make painful decisions going forward.”
A school of thought believes that there is a new face of neo-colonialists and imperialists designed agenda to keep African nations in perpetual servitude and stagnation. Do you share the belief?
It is not new. It has always been there from day one when Kwame Nkrumah is writing his book, neocolonialism, the last stage of imperialism, and the most dangerous. He was conscious that although the classical Neo colonialists had left in quotes and quotes, he had introduced a new system, and this new system is anchored by inherited economic systems, inherited political systems, inherited governance architecture. Now, when there is a new consciousness in Africa where younger people without umbilical cord to neocolonialism in its early days and colonialism in its early days, they are beginning to interrogate governance. And it is true that the colonialist is now very worried. They are so worried that you can see them being frantic and desperate in their quest to remain in control because Africa is the fountain that feeds the West and increasingly feeding the Chinese. So, neocolonialism is alive and well. It is alive through institutions such as the Commonwealth. It is alive and well, through institutions such as La Francophonie, it is alive and well, through institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF, it is alive and well. But the beauty is Africans are beginning to coordinate their efforts and beginning to resist, not in a stupid and fussy way, but in a sophisticated and sometimes subterranean way. This is how I understand, for example, the declarations by African Union, such as agenda 2063, such as Africa, and the continental free trade area, one may say. But what have they done? They may have done very little. But it begins with a declaration. Once it is declared, it is indicative that there is consciousness. It is now the duty of this generation and generations yet to be born, to be faithful to the declared agenda as a means of realizing total liberation, total liberation to mean political liberation, to mean economic liberation, and also to re-examines governance. Somebody wrote to me yesterday and said, “Why don’t we talk about African governance systems such as the Gada system of the Oromo?” we should. We should talk about how do the Yorubas govern themselves? How do the Akans govern themselves? How do the Igbos govern themselves? How do the Buchas govern themselves? How do the Basothos govern themselves? How do the Swatis govern themselves. How do the Bunyoro Kitaras govern themselves? And how can we use wisdom that is gleaned from those systems to rethink and to introduce a governance system that is uniquely responsive to the needs of Africa in her diversity? Those conversations are beginning, and it is my source of joy.
As a professor of law and anti-corruption, Czar, who has superintendent the agency in Kenya in the past, do you believe Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in her book that ‘fishing corruption is dangerous’, particularly in Africa?
Very dangerous. It is dangerous because your typical African politician is not interested in the fight against corruption. Your typical senior civil servant is not interested in the fight against corruption. And I think your kinsman, Chinua Achebe, when he was writing in 1983, “The Trouble With Nigeria”, which could very well be the trouble with Africa, he recognizes these, and even a little earlier, when he was writing the “No Longer at Ease”, he was talking about them, and it is dangerous, because politics is seen in Africa as an opportunity and a shortcut to gaining material wealth without any effort, and these anti corruption commissions have been created not because there was a feeling that corruption was wrong enough, but because the international community said, under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, if you don’t create an anti corruption body, whether it’s Kenya ethics and an anti corruption commission, whether the anti corruption bureau in Malawi, whether the EFCC in Nigeria, then we will not give you aid. So, if you look at your typical African country, you will find that the laws are there. You will find that the institutions are there, but the institutions are not allowed to function. And when you want to function, then you will suffer. Ask Nuhu Ribadu in Nigeria, ask McCarthy in South Africa, ask me in Kenya, and ask many others, they’ll tell you, when you come out and you are saying, we are going to fight corruption, they will create a hostile environment, and some have gone into exile, some have been killed in this fight. It is dangerous!”
Why is it that the US and Western Democracies are embracing authoritarian China and the rest, while wearhousing looted funds by African leaders, at the same time destroying African nations that are embracing and enjoying military regimes?
You know, if you don’t organize yourself, you’ll be organized by others. If you don’t plan for yourself, you’ll be planned for, if you are not awake, you will be kept sleeping for all times. The truth is that many Western countries, and you’ve used a very creative word, are the ones that warehouse ill gotten wealth. It used to be Switzerland. That is where the Mobutu’s and the Bokosa’s kept their money, and they were kept in numbered accounts, so that when they died, they retained their bachelors. It used to be Cayman Islands. It used to be gamsy. It used to be Panama, even the United States. We have a case in Nigeria, which I can mention because it is in the public domain of Alison Madueke, where the United States government actually returned, or is in the process of returning, 50 million United States dollars. So, this contradiction is what you tell Africans that nobody is interested in being your keeper, your sister or brother’s keepers. You must, Africans must remember that in international relation, there are no good Samaritans. There are only bad Samaritans, and until the day that we recognize that we are going to continue to suffer, we are going to continue to be fed with the poison as if it were milk, and we are going to consume it gleefully as it kills us slowly.”
In your estimation, what do you think is bedeviling the effort at unified African common currency, and in your own opinion, do you think such a dream will come to pass?
It is possible. It may be difficult, but it’s possible. Look at some of the arguments, and I keep on reminding Africans who are of the pan Africanist persuasion, to go back to 1963, to go back to the debates that were held in Addis Ababa between 23rd and 25th days of May to listen, particularly to Kwame Nkrumah. He was clear. He said, If we don’t have one army, if we don’t have one currency, if we don’t have a coordinated foreign policy, we’ll be dominated.” Today, Africa has no less than 33 currencies, all of which are pegged to the dollar. In the Francophonie, it used to be pegged in the early days, the French franc, then to the Europe. If we could have a single currency, you can imagine the ease with which we’ll be trading. Look at Europe now in different countries, but 27 countries. Increase in the Eurozone. See what it’s does for inflation. See what it’s does for trade. But here we have currencies which don’t make sense. They are not considered to be serious currencies. And when the Eco, I think there was an attempt by the ECOWAS members, led by Nigeria, to introduce a currency called Eco. I wish it would have succeeded. In the East African Community, there is an attempt to have a common currency. Is still the jury is still out, but in short, sharp answer to your question, the day we move in that direction, particularly as an anchor for the Africa continental free trade area, the safer we will be. And remember, as early as 1980 under the Lagos plan of action, one of the things that the heads of states and government agreed on that we should enhance intra African trade. But intra African trade is only going to benefit the continent of Africa if we de dollarize our economy, if every transaction that is initiated in the continent of Africa is terminated in the Euro or terminated in the Yuan or terminated in the Sterling Pound, then we will lose out. And it is urgent business. It is one of the things that if I was in a position of authority in the African continent, I would urge that we move in jet like speed, and it need not be every African country. We start what can be called a coalition of the willing, those who are willing to start, they start, the doubting Thomas’s will board the train when they see it in motion.
Most East Africa countries and a quantum of North Africa nations, including West Africa, are intolerant of opposition and press freedom, while total abuse of power is replete. Why’s that so?
Without a doubt, perhaps the reason why in Africa we suffer is we remain prisoners of nomenclatures which are from outside of the continent. I ask people, when you talk of democracy, who defines democracy for you? Is it something that has been brought to you? Because in an African system, and I use the word good governance rather than democracy, what would good governance mean? It would mean that the people participate in electing their leaders. It would mean that people have the freedom to express themselves in a responsible manner. It means that we respect the law. It means that crusaders for good and right are given the opportunity to do so within the law. It means that we use every opportunity available to us to make governance as participatory as is possible, but because we inherited systems which are crafted from outside of the continent, where we are told that we must have something structured opposition, and that this opposition must resist this and that Then we find ourselves in waters in which we cannot swim. The answer, once again, is to rethink governance. But the one thing that I agree on is that people should be allowed to organize. People should be allowed to express themselves. People should be allowed to raise issues that are necessary for governance, and therefore, any government that does to the contrary is actually running away from fundamental human rights. And remember, and I agree with this, human rights are universal. Human rights are things that can not be given by any government. They are only recognized and protected. They are God-given. That is why they were called natural rights. But there is also a sense in which when we are enjoying our rights and exercising our freedoms, we must recognize that it is only as far as we do not harm others. That is why, in African societies, in which we have something called Ubuntu, in those who come from Southern Africa and even Eastern Ubuntu to mean you are because I am, in other words, my freedom should not be exercised in a manner that undermines yours and harms you. And if you do that, then you are punished in accordance with you, and you are not killed. You are not shot dead. You are punished in accordance with the law.
Here in Kenya, sixth of a dozen youths are still in detention for protesting against oppressive taxation, and there’s another incident of a deputy police chief who tortured a blogger to death. Is it save to say African is the architects of its own failures?
Not at all, in Kenya. We are in a crisis. We are in a crisis. The administration of President Ruto is becoming more and more intolerant. They may argue to the contrary, but we saw how the young people who are now known as the Gen Zs, who are dealt with on the during the 25th year, the the period leading up to the 25th day of June, the year 2024 we know how many young people lost their lives, and it is not lost on me, in fact, that the President did apologize, but many people thought that the matter of factly, that it was not deeply felt, but I think a little differently, that the very fact that he apologized is a good beginning. We can now build on that. And then recently, the arrest and torture of Albert Ojwang’ by police officers. We have seen the matter being ventilated in the Senate. I would myself want the person, the officer who was involved, to have resigned and to be dealt with in accordance with the law, and if he doesn’t resign, I hope that the President will dismiss the individual. You can not have a senior member of the police service perpetrating acts which lead to the death of a Kenyan. So we may shout all we want. We may have a constitution that guarantees right. We might have laws that guarantee right, but if individuals are picked from their home simply because they have tweeted and they are killed. It’s completely inexcusable.
African religion and tradition have been sufficiently decimated by imported religions. Do you think Christianised, Islamised, and Arabised African people can ever return to their roots?
Matters of religion and spirituality are very complex matters. But we must also remind ourselves that part of the colonial project was to use religion to subjugate and to subdue Africans. The Christianity, the Christian version that was midwife for us, and which we practice under different forms, is a colonial construct. The same with Islam. If you look at many of these religions in their classical form, they are innocent, but when they are misused by individuals, then they are used to bad end. But the tragedy of Africa is that in the process, we lost our spirituality and our connection to God, and I think it is now for us, even as we remain Christians. I do not begrudge those who are Christians. I claim I’m one, those who are Muslims. I don’t begrudge them, but my version of Christianity has given me such great freedom that I find merit in Islam. I find merit in Hinduism. I find merit in Buddhism because it has enabled me. I read all those holy books. I find merit in Yoruba spirituality. I find merit in Hebrew spirituality. And I don’t say this in an idle form, because I read, and when I read all these things, I discover that God is one and that those all these avenues, is an attempt by man to understand God, who cannot be understood because he is imminent and cannot be comprehended by our little minds.
Lastly, do you believe the struggles of African heroes’ past like your name sake Patrick Lumumba of Congo, Kwame Nkruma, Amilcar Cabral, the Great Zik of Africa, Jomoh Keyatta, Julius Nyere, Thomas Sankara, Nelson Mandela, Kenneth Kaunde, Leopold Senghor, Hailey Salessie and the rest will not be in vain?
No, no, no, many times. I think part of our problem, also as Africans, is that we judge ourselves very harshly. Look at Africans as a people who were enslaved for hundreds of years. Look at the African population that was taken from this continent and built America, built Europe, built the Caribbean, and then after the colonial project, another project was born out of Berlin in 1884 and 1885, the colonial project, you are once again subjugated on your land. And after that, when independence started coming. And I always remind people that when you talk about African independence, remember that Egypt became independent in 1922 and that Sudan became independent in 1956 but the most iconic independence was that of Ghana in 1957 because it was Sub Saharan Africa. And after that, the neocolonial project started kicking in, and every good African leaders were targeted. That is how, in 1961 Lumumba is gone 1963 Olympia is gone. Then they start removing others, Amilcar Cabral, Ahmed Ben Bella, Nkrumah and others. And we go down to South Africa until 1994 the apartheid regime as well, and they are killing people. They are killing Biko, they are killing Tirongopos. They are killing Solomon Mahlangu. They are killing others. But we remain resilient. So that when you mention those grades, Nkuruma, Nyerere, Sengo, Amilcar, you mentioned Samora Machel, Eduardo Mondlane, Chris Hani, Nelson Mandela, Sambioma, Toivo ya toibo, Kaunda and and others and Lumumba, we are saying that they laid a foundation. And I think it is Nyerere who said it in 1997 in Accra, when he was the chief guest on the occasion of the celebration of 40 years of Ghana’s independence, said my generation did their part. We struggled and we regained political independence, which is also under threat. It is your duty the next generation to carry the torch forward. Nations are not judged after 62 years or 67 years. Particularly, Africa is very diverse. Even when we talk about Africa, remember that we were divided into 54 nations, and we are struggling to reunite again in diversity. So I’m sure they know that it is a struggle. And lately, I’ve been quoting quite often the famous statement of our African American sister Maya Angelou, who said we must endure defeat, but we must never be defeated. And I think that is the clarion call.
