Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga during a press briefing in Nairobi on June 5, 2024.
Spiro Theodore Agnew, one of only two American vice presidents to resign from the office, famously called members of the press the “nattering nabobs of negativism.” In the case of Kenya, that phrase might as well be used to describe a loud and insufferable minority of the population who revel in the misery of others, and who, because of their miserable lives, are prone to meanness.
Social media, the Church, certain regional demographics, the Fourth Estate, and the political class are awash with such losers. I prefer to describe them more aptly as Kenya’s useful idiots. These characters are “useful fools” prone to manipulation and propaganda and who unwittingly advance or execute the sinister designs of others.
The phrase “useful idiot” is attributed to Soviet guru Vladimir Lenin, although its origin is disputed. But the term was commonly used during the Cold War to describe simpletons, especially outside the Soviet bloc, who were susceptible to communist propaganda and psychological manipulation.
Today, the term may describe any person who easily – and without critical interrogation – succumbs to irrational hysteria, demagogic exuberance, or conspiracy theories to carry out the nefarious agenda of others without knowing, or interrogating, its rationale. In the age of social media, such simpletons are legion. They are easily mobilised to hate others, support anti-democratic projects, or even carry out mass atrocities because of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or political opinion. They live in a fact-free universe.
Kenya’s most celebrated democrat
In Kenya, we have many useful idiots. But today, I identify only three types. The first are those who suffer from a disease called Railaphobia. This is the irrational political and ethnic hatred by a certain demographic of Kenya’s most celebrated democrat. Raila Odinga is the one person most responsible for the collapse of the draconian Kanu party state. He’s the father of the 2010 Constitution. He’s been the moving spirit of Kenya’s democratic experiment.
He was among the first Kenyans to graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering, specifically materials science and production technology, which he did at Magdeburg University in Leipzig, Germany. In the 1970s, Mr Odinga was only one of three Black African lecturers at the University of Nairobi teaching in this complex field.
What’s more, Mr Odinga established from scratch the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs). Before then, Kenya didn’t have a standards certification institution. We know he served as Kenya’s Prime Minister among other lofty state offices, and is the founder of ODM, the party which is Kenya’s engine of democracy. He was detained for almost a decade because of his leadership for democratic ideals, the rule of law, and functional institutions.
He’s a towering pan-Africanist and global statesmen. He’s on a first-name basis with many African heads of state and leaders. On the merits, because of his intellectual heft, political acumen, credentials, experience, and charisma, no other candidate for the Chairperson of the African Union Commission comes even close.
Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians
You don’t have to be Mr Odinga’s fan to appreciate his vast knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing Africa, and about his solutions for a prosperous continent. Listen to him, and you will be convinced that he knows every blade of grass in Africa.
Yet there’s a small negative cabal of Kenyans in the press and the fringes of the population who seem to wish Mr Odinga ill in his quest for the AUC post. I don’t begrudge anyone who opposes Mr Odinga on principle. That’s democratic dissent. But bilious, ethnic, and irrational hatred are the product of feeble minds. Mr Odinga’s win will be a game-changer for Africa. It will solidify Kenya’s standing among the community of nations in Africa and on the global stage.
The second type of the useful idiot comprises of those Kenyans who are in love with Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President of the United States. I am completely gobsmacked that Black Africans could be in love with a racist bigot who believes that African and black states are “s***holes,” as he’s publicly said. He believes that Black Africans, Asians, and Latinos “poison the blood of America.” He would rather cleanse America of those who are not White.
Here’s a man who clings to the Bible but can’t quote a single stanza in it. In fact, he was once exposed holding the Bible upside down purporting to be reading it. This is the person Kenya’s useful idiots – and there are very many on this one, perhaps the majority of Kenyans – rooting for him over VP Kamala Harris, an enlightened, humane, and brilliant Black woman of Asian descent.
The third, and final, type of Kenya’s useful idiot supports Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza and Russia’s illegal, savage, and unconscionable invasion of Ukraine. On Gaza, Israel is committing genocide under the guise of going after Hamas. Kenya’s school system and public discourse have failed to educate our people to separate fact from fiction. That’s why we have useful idiots.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. @makaumutua.
