CYPRIAN NYAKUNDI…..How Maliciousness Has Become The New Definition Of Kenya’s Online Activism.

Back then,back in the days when Kenyan activists were actual agitators who literally camped in the streets and bore the ruthless brunt of the KANU Government,activism was a calling,a vocation,a duty,and to some extent,even a form of selfless service to God and to mankind.

The likes of Martin Shikuku,James Orengo,Timothy Njoya and Wangari Maathai were mostly driven by one thing ; the wanton excesses of the KANU regime,the rot in Governance,the autocracy of the then-President,the runway corruption and shameless plunder and annexation of public property and the startling disregard for the rule of law and democracy.

Rarely were they driven by the desire to outshine the other guy,the selfish need to emerge the loudest guy in the streets or the hope of bagging fat delay and pocketing huge monies from progressive foreign NGOs. Theirs was a passionate movement,a purpose – driven agitation that was informed by their ideals and beliefs and seldom by their greed and notoriety.

And after much persistence,incarcerations,brutal beatings,random assassinations and wicked Government schemes against their lives,their actions actually bore fruits.

Some would go on to win coveted global awards like the Nobel Peace Prize Award. And some would go on to usher in an age of Freedom of expression,usher in an age of a freer democracy and a vibrant,fearless opposition.

Wangari would relentlessly camp at the Karura Forest and also at the Uhuru Park grounds to ensure that no illegal activities,sanctioned by a rotten administration,would be allowed there.

Armed with nothing but a little team of feisty women and like-minded individuals,nothing but a resolute spirit and a deep conviction,Wangari and her cabal would shake the Government to its core and restore what she set out to protect.

Eminent activist Wangari Maathai facing off with hired goons at the Karura Forest.

No land was stolen,no skyscrapers were erected on public space and no part of a forest was cleared to make way for some sleazy commercial mercenaries.

But the activist of today has moved from the streets to the Internet.

He’s not driven by a desire to lead from the front and actually make things happen,but by the desire to be the most notorious blogger this side of town,the desire to have the hottest expose on a rotten Government and the desire to shine brightest,not for Country but for self.

The new age activist has changed from a vessel of truth and social sanity to a nuisance ; a pestilent loudmouth and a feral being whose mission is NOT to sanitize society but to settle cheap scores for publicity’s sake.

The activist of today is less interested in the results of his activism and more interested in being an irritation,in being a constant pain in the ass,in having the focus shift to him and not to the social ills he claims to be outing and in being the center of the drama and not the purveyor of the story.

We don’t have Koigi Wamweres anymore. Or Charles Rubias. Just a bunch of disgruntled twenty-something year olds who probably dropped out of college and for lack of a better thing to keep them relevant,they chose to ride on the scandals of the rich and powerful to appear like they’re better or like they matter.

They couldn’t be further from the truth.

Granted,social media has made activism much easier. Nowadays,it’s easier to smell a Scandal than it was in the 90’s. Careers are going down by the sole power of Twitter and scandals are getting much exposure and scrutiny through the sheer power of the social media.

But also,in it’s wake,career activists have propped up. Young men and women whose greatest achievement and contribution to the nation is sleaze,heresy,baseless propaganda,insults,intrusion into the private lives of the rich and powerful and the use of unprintable adjectives when addressing their foes.

Nyakundi,for instance,would certainly love to be viewed as the latter day Mohandas Ghandi – a man fighting for social justice,putting an evil government on it’s toes and leading the people to a land of freedom and accountability.

But what Nyakundi really is is an asshole. An incessant nuisance who trades insults like a sub-educated Somali pirate and who revels in gloating at his enemies,making enemies,commenting about the bedroom affairs of adults,calling people gay and philanderers,trashing their marriages and speculating on their bedroom fetishes.

His whole world is a messy,childish spectacle cleverly woven to look like a man fighting for truth and justice while in essence he’s just a little sad individual intent on casting trouble for the sake of trouble,annoying the rich and mighty, alarming the nation and pandering baseless gossip passing it off as the Gospel truth.

And we don’t have a shortage of these fellows.

They revel in the limelight. They want to be taken to jail to shore up their activism credibility. They’re not breaking scandals and exposing the rot in our public service because they’re called to do so or feel a strong obligation to do so- but because they’re in a wicked rat race to outdo themselves,endanger their lives further (for no reason) and be the Baddest in the game.

NGO dollars,of course,also are very much in the whole mix.

To the new age activist,with an inflated Twitter account and a ghostly Facebook page,activism has ceased to be a duty to mankind and a calling for the weak. It’s now quickly becoming any assholes playground and the dirtier you can get,the bolder you can be,the bigger the insults you can use to harangue the public figures,the better for you.

What Nyakundi and his camarilla of clueless,selfish knaves need to understand is that,lives were lost in the struggle for freedom and restoration of democracy in Kenya. Blood was shed and people actually went to jail,got excommunicated,ended up in detention cells,braced the brutality of the Nyayo Torture Chambers and even fled the country for the truth.

Without calling anyone stupid. Or silly. Or c**ksucker or gay or  m***erfu*ker or whatever.

You don’t need to be abusive,nasty,annoying,excessive,bitter,angry and straight up foul-mouthed to tell the public that Hon. So and so had stolen this and that piece of land.

The new age activist is way too combative,too abusive,too crude,too full of himself,too rude,too annoying, too much of a nuisance and too conceited to bring about any social change. Or to be taken seriously.

We’ll never win the war… If we were going to allow these self-obsessed social media antagonists fight for us.