Skip to main content

THE PLAY INHERITANCE AS AN ALLEGORY OF THE CURRENT REGIME IN KENYA

Inheritance is a play by Kenyan playwright David Mulwa. Set in the former kingdom of Kutula-now a republic, the play looks at post-independence trials wrought by greedy leaders and cunning foreign investors. 

This play, derides countries like Kenya which are besieged by greedy leaders and unwitting citizens.  

Since independence, Kenya and many African countries found themselves beleaguered by a lot of demands. As Kenyan first president said, Kenya was facing three major setbacks: ignorance, poverty and disease. 

Being a pioneer leader in Kenya, Kenyatta was tasked to fight the three forces. In order to do this, he needed help. Help came easily in the form of foreign aid and expat community to train the young turks in the country on how to make the country socio-economically progressive.  

Instead of the promised nirvana, African development turned into economic exploitation by the west and foreign aid was milked into foreign banks as corruption became the system of governance.  

Even though the world monetary authorities observed the worsening conditions in Kenya, their interests were elsewhere. With threats like economic sanctions and tough talks about austerity measures, they continued supporting the leadership's ravenous lifestyles to the disadvantage of the poor. 

Currently, by standards of development, Kenya can be considered as a developed country with paved roads and vibrant city life. However, hidden within this development, is a country tied to cinder blocks of foreign debt. As a matter of fact, the debt continues piling on because allegedly, a country with massive lush lands cannot produce enough food for its citizens! 

Therefore,  what little the government gets goes into servicing foreign debt and importing food. This has led to massive job losses in the country, reduced earnings by families and disinterest in agriculture because it's cheaper to import than to produce products locally. 

One of the reasons why the cost of production is skyrocketing in Kenya is, the country having borrowed heavily, is hugely indebted to foreign lenders. Therefore, there is no way the country can impose huge import tarriffs to those it owes. Tarrifs are determined by the debtors. Secondly, due to massive corruption, local importers would rather bribe customs officers than pay import taxes. Finally, since the country needs to pay foreign loans, it needs to over tax local businesses to get revenue. 

The above coupled by poor governance ergo economic policies have put a burden in resolving the independence problems mentioned by founding fathers. 

Therefore, the citizenry are still ignorant especially in leadership education. That is why every election year they choose incompetent leaders because they vote along tribal lines or dish out sympathy votes. When there is a malpractice in the voting process, the masses are voiceless and the media a tool to rewrite history to fit the perfect narrative of god-chosen leaders.  

Therefore, David Mulwa's Inheritance play comes off as an allegory of the current regime. Coincidentally, the play is being examined in Kenya at a time when the current president is the son of the first president. In the play, Lacuna Kasoo is the son of the last King Kutula XV. Besides, the government of Kenya is reeling under a financial crisis as does the republic of Kutula and Lacuna Kasoo. There is also rampant corruption in the current and an increase in police brutality.

 Currently, it is hard to stage peaceful demonstrations  against the government. It is either that the demonstration will turn chaotic or few people will turn out due to fears brought about by threats from the government forces. In Kutula, there are fears as well. Activists like Romanus Bengo are detained and there families threatened. The government issues executive orders to be followed without opposition e.g. evacuation of people to create space for foreign investment.  In Kenya, activist are also intimidated it is one of the reasons as to why Miguna Miguna is in exile. Apart from threats, there are unexplained mysterious disappearance of people and accidents. Furthermore, government's directives like presidential appointments, which are supposed to be vetted by parliament pass without opposition. Moreover, constructions like the Standard Gauge railway and by-passes disregard the existing land and environmental policies without any opposition. 

On matters  foreign debt, although the country insists that Kenya still has a breathing space, fears are that the loans may overwhelm the economy as they did in Kutula. Currently, foreign debt is heading to 4 trillion kenya shillings from a low of  855 billion shillings in 2013. Kutula's figures as read by Robert Rollerstone are dizzying as well. 

Finally, going by the trends on social media and the hushed opinion of Kenyan citizenry, one can see that people  are tired of the current leadeship. In Twitter, the hashtag calling for resignation of those in power and the harsh criticism against the presidency made the State House pull down the president's Twitter account. Just like in Kutula the people are tired and can't wait to rid the country of such obstinate and incompetent leadership. Hope if it gets to that, it will be as bloodless as was with the end of the reign of Lacuna Kasoo and his powerful men ie councillors Chipande and Malipoa.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

POSITIVE ASPECTS OF NASILIAN CULTURE IN BLOSSOMS OF THE SAVANNAH

SOME ASPECTS OF CULTURE ARE BENEFICIAL AND OUGHT TO BE MAINTAINED. USING EXAMPLES FROM THE NOVEL, BLOSSOMS OF THE SAVANNAH, WRITE A COMPOSITION TO ILLUSTRATE THE TRUTH OF THE STATEMENT Culture defines our identity and social relationships within a certain setup. Sometimes, some cultural aspects come off as bad while others can be looked at as good. However, culture only becomes bad when compared to another that seems superior. Many African communities found themselves at crossroads when the ‘superior’ European culture was thrown down their gullets. Nevertheless, many African cultures have grown into what they are today while some have retained what can be perceived as negative cultural practices. In the book Blossoms of the Savannah, H.R Kulet presents a boiling pot of cultural confusion within the Maa community specifically the people of Nasila. As we can see, some of the Nasilian cultural practices can be beneficial to the wellbeing of society and, therefore, should be maintaine

NEGATIVE CULTURAL PRACTICES AMONG THE PEOPLE OF NASILA IN BLOSSOMS OF THE SAVANNAH

The book Blossoms of the Savannah explores both the positive and negative cultural practices. H. R Kulet describes intimately those cultural practices he believes are best and on the other hand, lets us in on some of the cultural practices he believe were injurious. Interestingly, the negative cultural practices are aimed at women. The most poignant cultural practice that negatively affects women is Female genital mutilation. Although according to Parmuat, the practice was started by women to resist the evil Ilarinkoi, it continued to cause wanton pain and torture on women. Taiyo and Resian are determined to fight it. Resian manages to evade the brutal practice however Taiyo barely makes it having been forcibly cut. FGM is a global menace affecting millions of women in Africa and Asia. Although its benefits are only anthropological, its effects are very damning and could lead to death.  Second among the negative Nasilian culture is early marriage. Resian still has goals to fu

THE THEME OF INHERITANCE IN THE PLAY INHERITANCE BY DAVID MULWA

Inheritance refers to what is left by the deceased to the family in material wealth or sometimes power. However, the word could have diverse meanings when applied to works of literature. In this respect, David Mulwa looks at inheritance in various ways. The play revolves around a three decades old Kutula under its new leadership. Having achieved independence from colonial masters, Kutula is now governed by Lacuna Kasoo-the son of pre-independence King Kutula XV. Lacuna ascended to power after the death of his father. Although the King has adopted Princess Sangoi as his successor, he dies mysteriously thus handing the power to the greedy, self-centred Lacuna. As it were, Lacuna conspired with the colonial masters to assassinate his father King Kutula XV. Having assumed power with the help of colonial masters, Lacuna runs the government under the influence of Kutula’s former imperialists. He receives hefty loans aimed at ‘developing’ the country. However, the loans are meant to make Kutu