Yesterday, we hosted the final installment of our teach-in series “Beyond the Bill.” After the June 25 uprisings last year, many Kenyans were radicalized, they began seeing the state for what it is, they started seeing the contradictions. We wanted to capture that momentum and, through political education, help people make sense of the shape of power that guides what has been happening in the country—from “how countries should think about debt” to the history of Mwakenya, to Pan-Africanism in the DRC, and much more. Every month for the last year, we invited people to help us understand these connected struggles, and we’re grateful to everyone who took part and, of course, everyone who listened and shared!
In two of our sessions, we spoke to Sudanese comrades Rabab Elnaiem, Husam Mahjoub, and Gussai Sheikheldin. The edited transcripts of these conversations, we put together and published in a booklet called “Revolution Neither Starts Nor Ends.” Our ultimate goal is to distribute these as free pamphlets for reading in social justice centres and other political organizing spaces throughout Nairobi (and maybe throughout the country)! However, in order to fund a big print run, we are selling bound copies of this book at 800 KES. Please buy some copies and help us raise money to print hundreds more to give away! You can find them at Cheche Bookshop. Some of you who have already sent money can pick up your copies there anytime.
Police violence is one of the oldest stories of Nairobi. Although many are shocked by the open violence unleashed by the Ruto and Sakaja administrations on the streets of Nairobi — goons given permission to wreak havoc and uniformed officers executing people in broad daylight — brutality is always how informal settlements have been governed. For this reason, people’s movements in the ghetto have long been the front-line fighters of the war against police violence, documenting and following up on cases long after media fanfare fades. What are the lessons that can be drawn from their work? How can others stand in solidarity with these movements? How is the fight against police violence actually a fight for a bigger kind of freedom?
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