Michael,
1. Could you please tell me of a huge piece of land owned by the Odingas, seems like I’m ignorant to that fact. My understanding is that Odinga fell out with Kenyatta mostly on the Land issue. I would really want to know how the Odingas participated in the stealing of land. Please Mwangi enlighten me, I’m really in the dark on this one.
2. How did the Wabeberu get the land in Kenya? Through unjust treaties and laws. That is why people rose to fight the colonialists. Just because they left does not mean that the issue of contention was solved. Land was the issue of contention. Remember the book “Not Yet Uhuru”. It speaks volumes of a stolen independence. Independence was never a racial issue, it was a justice issue. Just because the British transfered leadership from a white imperialist to a black imperialist does not mean that Independence was attained. The fight for Independence was a fight against unjust laws to pave way for justice and equality. St Thomas Aquinas explained eloquently the difference between just laws and unjust laws, he said “Any law that uplifts human personality is just and any law that degrades human personality is unjust”. Martin Luther King went further to use those words to justify why in their fight for civil rights they chose to follow some laws and disobey others. King said that one has not just a legal responsibility but a moral one to follow just laws at the same time pointing to the fact that one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws arguing that an unjust law is no law at all.
Below is a link that speaks volumes, it may shed light on some facts that we tend to sweep under the carpet. Personally, I doubt if the Oginga Odinga grabbed land but if proven otherwise then I will lose respect for Oginga Odinga. A the same we should have very little respect for the leaders who grabbed land and call them out. Mwangi, please let us know of any land that Oginga Odinga grabbed.
http://http://www.bluegecko.org/kenya/tribes/kikuyu/maumau.htm
Posted on behalf of Eric by Jaluo Press. For Round 1, see http://blog.jaluo.com/?p=120