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CULTURE
Hustler Vs Dynasty narrative is dance of the moth to the flame
The fragile Kenyan state teetering dangerously on the precipice of instability as the dangerous hustler ideology takes root cheered on by people with no clue of what awaits them
October 16, 2020
By
Mark Bichachi
https://viewpoints.co.ke/hustler-vs-dynasty-narrative-is-dance-of-the-moth-to-the-flame/#
The hustler vs dynasty narrative may seem compelling to the masses, particularly those who consider themselves poor, but it is the sure dance of the moth to the flame, its end clear. There is nothing new; from Napoleon to Lenin, to Stalin, to Mao, and to Chavez, the politics of the elite vs the people has started and ended in the same way.
From antiquity to the feudalism of the middle ages, the French believed that it was those with inherited titles who were responsible for their misery. Indeed, the king had failed them as had their parliament. The French revolted and killed the aristocracy, in glee, and then watched as their new leaders became the new elite.
In Leninist and Stalinist Russia, the taking over of state also meant the death of millions of free thinkers, the repression of individual rights hidden in the facade of the exit of elite rule. As the people of Russia starved and their children begged for potatoes, Stalin lived in a palatial home, attended by servants and supplied with the trinkets of opulence.
Mao’s experiment from 1949 had a similar effect leaving between 40-65 million dead. This death toll is worse than Hitler’s. Children who dared to steal had their hands tied and thrown into rivers, the noses cut off or buried alive by their parents. The same people who had clapped as landlords were evicted from lands and killed were now under the repressors heel. Dying by their millions.
Blaming the ills of a nation on a few which is what the hustler vs dynasty narrative is based on is a common phenomenon whose outcome is almost always grief, for the haves, followed by even greater grief for the deluded have-nots. The first step of the repressive regime that takes over with much promise is always intolerance.
Kenyans saw a snippet of the future scenario in full display a few days ago when Uasin Gishu politician, Bundotich Zedekiah Kiprop, popularly known as Buzeki, was roughed up by a crowd for defying Dr. Ruto in the rift. Such intolerance is the tell-tale sign of things to come.
The roughing up of Buzeki for expressing a contrary view is ominous sign of things to come. Buzeki had no idea what awaited him for speaking freely in a country that has a constitution that guarantees freedom of expression and in area whose leaders have been criticizing the state bitterly for trying to curb incitement and hate speech. But as he soon realized, opposing Dr William Ruto is considered evil, and not holding a legitimate point of view. His ascension to power, deserved or not, must be without hindrance because like a prince he believes the seat of power is his and anyone who defies him is labeled the deep state, the system and a dynasty sympathizer. Such people are met with abuse and threats on social media from the hustler nation.
What is ironic and oblivious to those who feel comforted by being referred to as hustlers is that the person who tells them they are hustlers, and has arrogated himself the role and title of lead hustler, seats comfortably in the halls of power, holding sway in the executive (where he has appointed half of the cabinet), legislature and, seemingly of late, in the judicial arms of government. His machinations in senate were clear when the Kenya Moja group stonewalled, filibustered and otherwise opposed the revenue formula that sought to distribute the national funds more equitably. Unlike Stalin, Lenin, Mao or Napoleon before them Ruto is not an outsider to power. He is elite through and through whether the parameter under consideration is level of education, suavity or amount of riches. Which makes him all the more dangerous, for if a wolf can convince the sheep that he is one of them, danger is right there in the paddock.
Dr. Ruto’s ruse is simple. To use the masses to gain power at any cost. His actions and those of his minders speak to me of a dystopia Kenya. One in which the haves shall be destroyed by the have-nots.
The haves are many. In fact, they are the majority in Kenyan since, according the world bank, only 36 percent of Kenyans are poor. Which means that the majority 64 percent are dynasty. The number of the poor in absolute terms in Kenya can be argued to be lower, given the nomadic nature of some of our people. A nomad with 100 head of cattle or camels may spend less than a dollar a day but he is not poor. He too is elite, and the hustlers will want to redistribute his wealth. This is not a joke; in revolutions of the kind that we are going to have in this country, the have-nots will not have the luxury of doing DNA to ascertain the stock of dynasty. A member of the dynasty will be anyone with anything you don’t have, even if it is a beautiful wife.
That said, one must wonder where the hustler wheelbarrows will carry us. For the logical step of populist leaders before him was always clear; to uproot land owners from land and to install the hustler in his stead. The revolution doesn’t end there. The hustler will then be told to occupy factories of the elite who have “oppressed” them. The next stage is to depose the Bishops, and fill the ranks of civil service, the police and army with hustlers, for these institutions too are full of elite. In Nyamira this week, Dr Ruto drove this point home when said that rank and file police are hustlers and their commanders are dynasties. This, my friends, is how doom is spelt.
Don’t believe me? When the Bolsheviks took over Russia they didn’t just get rid of the leaders of what they thought was a system but instead overnight took over all of Russia’s infrastructure and removed many a landlord, a civil servant or industrialist from their positions. The hustlers of the time ululated and clapped and cheered the revolution with glee, unaware of the deaths, beatings and hunger that was to be their portion from 1917 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90’s. The revolution left millions of dead, many from the hustler ranks. Talk about a revolution eating its own young.
Nearer home, Amin’s “revolution” in Uganda took a similar direction. In the movie, the Rise and Fall of Idd Amin,Kenyan actor Joseph Olita, who played Amin, is in one scene sawn walking the streets with an entourage of army men and hustlers, distributing shops formerly owned by rich Ugandan Asians whom Amin had forcibly deported to the four corners of the earth. “Who wants that shop?,” he asks. A voice from among the throngs says, “I want it!” And Amin responds without even looking at the speaker, “You can have it!” And thus began the ruination of what used to be described as the “Pearl of Africa.” Uganda has never recovered.
As I see the formation of the galloping spread of the hustler ideology as wheelbarrows gets distributed, my stomach is in knots. Not because I have, although I will definitely be listed with haves, but because this is not the way for have-nots to have. As the effects of corruption in Kenya, Nigeria and other corrupts states show, wealth generated by taking what belongs to others never translates to hard work and prosperity.
The person to whom a nduthi guy is a dynasty, doesn’t know how to ride. When the nduthi rider is sent away in the night of the rise of the hustler, the recipient of that bike will not necessarily be as industrious or as useful to the community.
This experiment was once done in Zimbabwe so we don’t have to repeat it here unless it is argued that we cannot learn from the mistakes of others. Mugabe’s fight was with the white man. That imperial beast in Europe who had stolen vast farmlands and left his kin to farm Zimbabwe. Mugabe kicked them out. His quarrel was with the elite, but the reality to the people was to occupy the land next to them.
Whereas the hustlers imagined they would prosper in such a move, they instead faced food shortages that Mugabe blamed on the West and jailed, maimed and killed anyone who dared express a different opinion. The truth is that the land became idle and Zimbabweans started importing food. The white Zimbabweans are now being invited back to their farms. These are the scenes of debauchery of Mugabe’s cronies who imagined that ownership was equal to production.
Soon after the exit of the white man, Mugabe turned his oppression to the people. He removed their freedoms and chopped off the limbs of dissenters willy-nilly. It is to such a dystopia that the hustler ideology will leads us. I shudder for my people and I shudder even more for the hustler nation. For they know not that they breed the hand that will squeeze life out of them
VIEWPOINTS KECULTURE
Hustler Vs Dynasty narrative is dance of the moth to the flame
The fragile Kenyan state teetering dangerously on the precipice of instability as the dangerous hustler ideology takes root cheered on by people with no clue of what awaits them
October 16, 2020
By
Mark Bichachi
https://viewpoints.co.ke/hustler-vs-dynasty-narrative-is-dance-of-the-moth-to-the-flame/#
The hustler vs dynasty narrative may seem compelling to the masses, particularly those who consider themselves poor, but it is the sure dance of the moth to the flame, its end clear. There is nothing new; from Napoleon to Lenin, to Stalin, to Mao, and to Chavez, the politics of the elite vs the people has started and ended in the same way.
From antiquity to the feudalism of the middle ages, the French believed that it was those with inherited titles who were responsible for their misery. Indeed, the king had failed them as had their parliament. The French revolted and killed the aristocracy, in glee, and then watched as their new leaders became the new elite.
In Leninist and Stalinist Russia, the taking over of state also meant the death of millions of free thinkers, the repression of individual rights hidden in the facade of the exit of elite rule. As the people of Russia starved and their children begged for potatoes, Stalin lived in a palatial home, attended by servants and supplied with the trinkets of opulence.
Mao’s experiment from 1949 had a similar effect leaving between 40-65 million dead. This death toll is worse than Hitler’s. Children who dared to steal had their hands tied and thrown into rivers, the noses cut off or buried alive by their parents. The same people who had clapped as landlords were evicted from lands and killed were now under the repressors heel. Dying by their millions.
Blaming the ills of a nation on a few which is what the hustler vs dynasty narrative is based on is a common phenomenon whose outcome is almost always grief, for the haves, followed by even greater grief for the deluded have-nots. The first step of the repressive regime that takes over with much promise is always intolerance.
Kenyans saw a snippet of the future scenario in full display a few days ago when Uasin Gishu politician, Bundotich Zedekiah Kiprop, popularly known as Buzeki, was roughed up by a crowd for defying Dr. Ruto in the rift. Such intolerance is the tell-tale sign of things to come.
The roughing up of Buzeki for expressing a contrary view is ominous sign of things to come. Buzeki had no idea what awaited him for speaking freely in a country that has a constitution that guarantees freedom of expression and in area whose leaders have been criticizing the state bitterly for trying to curb incitement and hate speech. But as he soon realized, opposing Dr William Ruto is considered evil, and not holding a legitimate point of view. His ascension to power, deserved or not, must be without hindrance because like a prince he believes the seat of power is his and anyone who defies him is labeled the deep state, the system and a dynasty sympathizer. Such people are met with abuse and threats on social media from the hustler nation.
What is ironic and oblivious to those who feel comforted by being referred to as hustlers is that the person who tells them they are hustlers, and has arrogated himself the role and title of lead hustler, seats comfortably in the halls of power, holding sway in the executive (where he has appointed half of the cabinet), legislature and, seemingly of late, in the judicial arms of government. His machinations in senate were clear when the Kenya Moja group stonewalled, filibustered and otherwise opposed the revenue formula that sought to distribute the national funds more equitably. Unlike Stalin, Lenin, Mao or Napoleon before them Ruto is not an outsider to power. He is elite through and through whether the parameter under consideration is level of education, suavity or amount of riches. Which makes him all the more dangerous, for if a wolf can convince the sheep that he is one of them, danger is right there in the paddock.
Dr. Ruto’s ruse is simple. To use the masses to gain power at any cost. His actions and those of his minders speak to me of a dystopia Kenya. One in which the haves shall be destroyed by the have-nots.
The haves are many. In fact, they are the majority in Kenyan since, according the world bank, only 36 percent of Kenyans are poor. Which means that the majority 64 percent are dynasty. The number of the poor in absolute terms in Kenya can be argued to be lower, given the nomadic nature of some of our people. A nomad with 100 head of cattle or camels may spend less than a dollar a day but he is not poor. He too is elite, and the hustlers will want to redistribute his wealth. This is not a joke; in revolutions of the kind that we are going to have in this country, the have-nots will not have the luxury of doing DNA to ascertain the stock of dynasty. A member of the dynasty will be anyone with anything you don’t have, even if it is a beautiful wife.
That said, one must wonder where the hustler wheelbarrows will carry us. For the logical step of populist leaders before him was always clear; to uproot land owners from land and to install the hustler in his stead. The revolution doesn’t end there. The hustler will then be told to occupy factories of the elite who have “oppressed” them. The next stage is to depose the Bishops, and fill the ranks of civil service, the police and army with hustlers, for these institutions too are full of elite. In Nyamira this week, Dr Ruto drove this point home when said that rank and file police are hustlers and their commanders are dynasties. This, my friends, is how doom is spelt.
Don’t believe me? When the Bolsheviks took over Russia they didn’t just get rid of the leaders of what they thought was a system but instead overnight took over all of Russia’s infrastructure and removed many a landlord, a civil servant or industrialist from their positions. The hustlers of the time ululated and clapped and cheered the revolution with glee, unaware of the deaths, beatings and hunger that was to be their portion from 1917 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90’s. The revolution left millions of dead, many from the hustler ranks. Talk about a revolution eating its own young.
Nearer home, Amin’s “revolution” in Uganda took a similar direction. In the movie, the Rise and Fall of Idd Amin,Kenyan actor Joseph Olita, who played Amin, is in one scene sawn walking the streets with an entourage of army men and hustlers, distributing shops formerly owned by rich Ugandan Asians whom Amin had forcibly deported to the four corners of the earth. “Who wants that shop?,” he asks. A voice from among the throngs says, “I want it!” And Amin responds without even looking at the speaker, “You can have it!” And thus began the ruination of what used to be described as the “Pearl of Africa.” Uganda has never recovered.
As I see the formation of the galloping spread of the hustler ideology as wheelbarrows gets distributed, my stomach is in knots. Not because I have, although I will definitely be listed with haves, but because this is not the way for have-nots to have. As the effects of corruption in Kenya, Nigeria and other corrupts states show, wealth generated by taking what belongs to others never translates to hard work and prosperity.
The person to whom a nduthi guy is a dynasty, doesn’t know how to ride. When the nduthi rider is sent away in the night of the rise of the hustler, the recipient of that bike will not necessarily be as industrious or as useful to the community.
This experiment was once done in Zimbabwe so we don’t have to repeat it here unless it is argued that we cannot learn from the mistakes of others. Mugabe’s fight was with the white man. That imperial beast in Europe who had stolen vast farmlands and left his kin to farm Zimbabwe. Mugabe kicked them out. His quarrel was with the elite, but the reality to the people was to occupy the land next to them.
Whereas the hustlers imagined they would prosper in such a move, they instead faced food shortages that Mugabe blamed on the West and jailed, maimed and killed anyone who dared express a different opinion. The truth is that the land became idle and Zimbabweans started importing food. The white Zimbabweans are now being invited back to their farms. These are the scenes of debauchery of Mugabe’s cronies who imagined that ownership was equal to production.
Soon after the exit of the white man, Mugabe turned his oppression to the people. He removed their freedoms and chopped off the limbs of dissenters willy-nilly. It is to such a dystopia that the hustler ideology will leads us. I shudder for my people and I shudder even more for the hustler nation. For they know not that they breed the hand that will squeeze life out of them
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