In the late 1980s, the Kanu dictatorship gathered a league of praise singers whose job was to exalt the president. The late Bishop Henry Okullu labeled them court poets and masters of platitude. The praise singers ranged from illiterate uncouth brigands to learned fellows.
One of the latter even used to quote William Shakespeare, at one time declaring at a function in which Moi was present: “ Behold, a Daniel has come to judgment!”
Sometimes the praise singers took on the role of court jesters. At rallies, especially those in which Mr Moi was in attendance, they took to the stage and made all manner of ridiculous statements, some of which seemed to indicate deep psychosis.
For instance, they would claim that those agitating for democracy wanted to overthrow the government armed with spears. They insinuated that women activists were moral and sexual deviants.
No matter how learned the court poets were, they would never engage the arguments proffered by opponents of the regime. So they would lie: “ Mr President, the majority of Kenyans are happy with your government; it’s only some misguided few who are led by the devil”. They misrepresented the arguments: “These foreign stooges just want to sow seeds of discord”.
They tried to reframe the debate in tribal terms: “These agitators think that their tribe is superior”. Nothing needed to relate to reality or have a moral or logical argument. To listen to their verbal diarrhea, even from the safety of one’s living room, one’s morality and dignity as a human being were soiled. But they were rewarded handsomely. Within a short period of time, they amassed fabulous wealth.
What was fearful, though, was when they would beat the drums of war. Their language would be uncouth and violent: “ If you are real men, try this or that. Silence is not cowardice. Do not try us. Our tribe is not in Kenya by invitation”. They, including the president, warned that many parties would lead to ethnic violence. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the 1992 elections , hundreds were slaughtered in the Rift Valley and other places.
I repeat this history of praise singers and their dark vision because we are again hearing the same lies, the same misrepresentation, the same insults, the same threats from praise singers and court jesters of the Kenya Kwanza regime.
It is almost as if the 2010 constitution never happened. If one did not know better, one would think that we are still in the Kanu era.
The new breed of court poets calls youthful critics of the regime undisciplined and spoilt. They claim, without blinking , that these critics are abducting, torturing and disappearing themselves in order to gain sympathy. Some praise singers are framing the debate in tribal terms.
What is scary is that some of the court poets have started beating war drums. Are we about to witness other self-fulfilling prophesies in 2027?
Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political commentator
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