Of the big names synonymous with the struggle for the Second Liberation, none stands out like Wafula Buke’s. With a distinguished record of having spent a whole generation in the struggle, Buke has never contested a political seat and there are no indications he is about to any time soon. In fact, the former University of Nairobi student leader is probably the only one among his peers who is stuck in the past, his revolutionary instincts still intact.
He still believes in the struggle, long after most of his colleagues “accepted”, embraced the adversary and moved on. “Elections neither impress nor inspire me,” the 52-year-old rebel says dismissively. “Anybody can occupy an elective seat, but there are other more difficult responsibilities where there is nobody and only few are willing to take the risk.”
Buke describes himself as a “crisis leader” who, throughout his life, has routinely been dispatched to deal with high-risk situations, “because I have the character to deal with such situations”. He cites a few examples – when the University of Nairobi student leadership was saddled with students loyal to the Kanu establishment during his time, he stepped forward because there was a crisis.
When it became clear that it would be difficult to remove Daniel arap Moi from power through democratic means, he opted for a difficult, highrisk path: He crossed the border with Uganda, where people he describes as “Museveni men” trained him in guerrilla tactics in the hope he would take power in a violent way. He defied resistance from pro-government forces to plant the seed of the Orange party in Bungoma County at a time when it was particularly hazardous to take up the challenge. The first Orange meeting he organized, in Posta Grounds, Bungoma town, was violently disrupted by people close to Moses Wetang’ula and Wafula Wamunyinyi.
At a different stage in his life, as a political prisoner, he went on a sixday hunger strike demanding to be provided with books of the prisoners’ choice to read as a way of killing time. He prevailed. Wafula is concerned about the entrenched culture of “eating”. The cause of the eating, he observes, is because the reform lineage has never captured power in Kenya. “2017 will be the defining moment for the reform movement, because it will be the last opportunity for its last-born, Raila Odinga, to throw the dice. We lose out and it will be over.” He is reluctant to publish his book on the reform movement because, for now, it remains a catalogue of failure.
IN FIVE MINUTES
Political scientist who became a rights activist
1963: Born in Sirisia, Bungoma
1985: admitted to the University of Nairobi to read Political Science and Philosophy. He was arrested in 1987 and jailed for promoting subversive activities. He is later expelled from university.
1991: Released from prison.
1992: launched the Kenya national Union of Students. Arrested at the launch and detained for 49 days.
1995: Buke is among those arrested and detained for 45 days during crackdown on FERA.
2009: Founder member the National Victims and Survivors Network. He is elected chairman.
QUOTES
2010: “The Commission has fulfilled its part of our MoU earlier this year to engage victims in its work as part of the reparation programme and to restore the dignity of the victims and empower them. Our engagement with the Commission is motivated by a realisation that this process of seeking the truth about the past is critical if our country is to realise the beckoning dream of a new political dispensation” – Buke in response to the decision by the TJRC to engage the services of victims of torture in its work.
2014: “We cannot allow a vacuum in ODM. I have been his deputy and it therefore follows that in his absence I take over. I have the blessing of party leader Raila Odinga. You call him right now you will be surprised by what he will tell you. He is fully aware” – when he announced himself as the party’s acting executive director after the sacking of Magerer Lang’at.
2015: “National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi should apologise to Kenyans on behalf of Parliament for past historical legislative crimes. Parliament played a crucial role in passing repressive laws that were used to punish critics of past regimes” – commenting on President Uhuru Kenyatta’s 2015 State of the Union address in which he offered an apology for historical injustices.