Introduction
Who is the subaltern? Can he/she speak? Gayatri Spivak, in her essay; ‘Can the subaltern speak?’ highlights how sati, a traditional Indian ritual of widow burning, is used by two groups of oppressive forces to justify their actions. The British colonialist abolished it as an ‘inhuman’ ritual and the widows viewed them as ‘saviour’ who had ended an injustice; despite using it as a tool to justify colonialism. The Indian nationalist, representing the traditional dominant chauvinistic males, used it to justify their desire of keeping a golden past, which they believed the widows’ liked. Caught between the two forces, the widow, because her position of sexualised otherness, is in a quieted and aporetic space of desolation.
Spivak, just as is Marx in his writing ‘The Eighteenth Brumaire,’shows the subaltern as a social construct that is structurally excluded from decision edifices which they can only enter into by identifying themselves using structures that have already been earmarked for them. The subaltern, as described by Antonio Gramsci in his writing ‘The prison notebooks (1929-1935)’ are those ‘of inferior rank’ or the working class who are subjected to the ‘hegemony’ of the ruling class. The subaltern writings evoke two aspects of representation: political representation as in ‘speaking for’and theatrical representation as of ‘placing there’ both of which are inadequate and incomplete. In cases where the subalterns speak, they cannot be heard despite the speech act comprising both speaking and hearing.
Convincingly, Spivak’s work is significant in contemporary society in different ways. It reveals insight into critical power dynamics that manifest both explicitly and implicitly and also shows the multiple lenses through which inequality happens. In this essay, I will explore the concept of power and evaluate how different group power dynamics and state politics have played in Kenya’s struggle of tackling the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), herein referred to as coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Throughout the struggle, I will show how the subaltern, who takes different forms in this essay, brawls to find a voice to speak and be heard.
Source:LEVENBERG, L. 2011. On Agamben’s Concept of Sovereignty
Inequality in Kenya
Kenya has a total population of 47.6 million and is the leading economy in Central and Eastern Africa, but brim with social, economic and political inequalities. The social aspect of the inequality entails the difference in people’s physical well-being and access to livelihood opportunities such as wealth and education such as: 0.1% of the population owning more wealth than the bottom 99.9% and the wealthiest 10% earning averagely 23 times than the bottom 10%,nearly one million school-going children being out of school, and a quarter of the population lack health access and the poorer have worst health than the wealthiest. On the other hand, political inequality often described as either vertical (involving people) or horizontal (of groups and regions) differences, determines access to public resources and power. Such inequalities have played out in Kenya’ struggle with COVID-19, and they have shown the actual state of crony-capitalism involving political exclusion, elite dominating the public and state policy, and historical grievances to the subalterns.
COVID-19 and Power Dynamics, and the Role of Subalterns
From the onset, it is crucial first to understand that the state uses power for control and dominion but also for transformation and emancipation. Power may be visible or not, and its influence could be more or less forthright based on the circumstance under which it is exercised. It is the role of the states and governments, especially in times of epidemics and pandemics, to guarantee stability and peace based on the ‘power conferred’ on them by the people ‘voluntarily’. It is imperative to view power, especially during the emergence of COVID-19, its spread, and the counterreactions from the state and other different bodies, through the collective responsibility and relations between different people than from static view. The first case of COVID-19 was reported in Kenya on March 12, 2020, and it is as tempting just as it is provoking to describe the scenes that followed as an ‘epic’ battle between ‘them’ and ‘us’. Reactions from policymakers have been pell-mell and have revealed a battle of science, politics, and power.
From ‘The Theory of Social and Economic Organization,’ Max Weber postulate that political power comes from charismatic authority, traditional authority, and rational-legal authority. In Kenya, the charismatic authority has been the cabinet secretary for health, Mutai Kagwe, who from the onset of COVID-19, has kept Kenyans briefed on the state of the virus through his ‘influential’ but well-calculated speeches. On the other hand, the traditional and rational-legal authority: the president, made a raft of measures to combat COVID-19 such as: tax relief measures, economic measures, monetary measures, and social measures that would curb the spread of the virus.
The tax relief measures included not taxing Kenyans earning less than KES 24,000 (USD 227.7) a month, reducing income tax from 30% to 25%, and reducing VAT from 16% to 14%. The economic measures included appropriating KES 10 billion (USD 94.9 million) to the orphans and vulnerable populations, providing additional KES 1 billion (USD 9.4 million) for hiring extra healthcare workers, salary reduction of the president and other top public servants by 20%, and allowing top civil servant above 50 years old to work from home. Also, monetary measures included reducing both the central bank rate and the cash reserves ratio by 1%.
However, amidst the excitement and relief, none of the measures took place immediately as the most important contents on tax required approval from parliament, that was on recession and could not convene for dangers of contracting COVID-19. It took the voice of the subalterns: Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) and the media to pile pressure on the Parliament and Senate to work on modalities of convening and discussing the tax law amendment bill. The two used used their ‘power as thought control’ where they influenced the Parliament and the Senate to find solutions to the challenges and convene amidst the social and legal hurdles. However, such powers on the hands of the subalterns sometimes could get out of hand mainly where it is used for cyberbullying as shown in the Kenyan cyberbullying report, where KOT have previously been described as bullies.
When the bill was being debated in the Parliament, it became more of ‘a 97-page tone of deletion after deletion and insert after insert’. The Parliamentarians argued that the measures and clauses in the bill had been stealthily inserted to serve the interest of ‘the opportunist funding of lobby groups … and the loudest voices in government and those connected to them’ that wanted to gain from the laws more than the subalterns it was meant. Such authoritative bodies are synonymous in the policymaking process, often referred to as the insider and outsider groups that government machinery consults. Moreover, they have been described as having an only incentive of profit-making and pushing their agendas or maintaining the status quo at the expense of the subalterns. In this case, most Parliamentarians, acting on behalf of the public poor, navigated the criticisms and lobbied for dropping some taxes on essential items that majority of the Kenyans use.
The other measures that the President announced was a partial lockdown where public gathering was barred, schools were closed, and inbound and outbound flights were banned. The flights’ ban had been the last addition to the list of measures following an uproar from the public, activists, and even a high court petition following a Chinese plane that had been allowed to land in Kenya having 239 onboard, and who, unlike passengers from other airlines, were allowed to quarantine at their homes and not in isolation centres. The subalterns spoke so loudly, and the president heard their voices. For instance, one activist wrote on Twitter: “Does Uhuru [the president] love this country? Because if he did, no Chinese flight would be allowed to land in Kenya as long as the coronavirus remains a threat. Our health system cannot handle a coronavirus outbreak”. In fact, a Kenyan Judge, Justice James Makau, sitting in the High Court, upon delivering a ruling cancelling further flights from China indicated that: “upon perusal of all petitions and prayers sought, I find that unless a conservatory order is issued, Kenyans will be exposed to the deadly disease”. It was a classic example of ‘power as decision making’ which focuses on influencing policy by acts of individuals and groups and the issue of the flights’ cancellation found itself in the President’s agenda. As have been argued before, different societal groups: weak and strong, can ‘penetrate’ and exert power in the political system and influence the decisions of the decision-makers for the public good.
To further slowdown the spread of the virus, the President took a bold step to impose a dusk-to-dawn curfew countrywide with a complete lockdown of four counties, Nairobi, Kwale, Mombasa, and Kilifi, that were already showing worrying trends. The cases along the Coast may have been linked to a senior elected government official with power trappings, who upon arrival from a ‘mission’ abroad, had refused to quarantine himself for 14 days like everyone else was required to do to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to the community level. Instead, the leader traversed the counties meeting with the electorate and inspecting completion of ‘projects’, more so in what Machiavelli describes as the process of acquiring, retaining, and expanding political power. However, the Ministry of Health officials, acting to protect the subalterns, tracked his movements and raised the alarm forcing his arrest and quarantine at his expense in a government facility. At the end of his treatment, the courts acting to protect the subalterns charged him with ‘wilfully and unlawfully, without taking any precaution, exposing the public, while suffering from an infectious disease, namely COVID-19’.
However, the most disheartening action that came with the dusk-to-dawn curfew was the acts of the police that indignified the populace. While the curfew, it could be argued, slowed the spread of the virus, there was generally non-compliance to the order by the elites who continued with political manoeuvring, and it worsened the existing inequality. In his book ‘Animal Farm: A Fairy Story,’ George Orwell gives an analogy of a pig, who after succeeding in a rebellion in the farm, starts to look like a human in his ways of walking, binging alcohol, and wearing clothes. The act, he says, leads to the famous seven commandments being abridged to just a single phrase: ‘all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’. Such words are profound, and despite the book describing John Stalin, the dictator during the Russian revolution of 1917, it portrayed the power of the untouchable political class whose actions subjects the subalterns to risk, as was in Kenya.
On the first day of curfew, the Kenyan police were on the streets, more so in areas that have traditionally had both been politically and economically excluded from power. They meted violence on Kenyans who were returning home from work even before the start of the curfew. While police force and violence have been used as a powerful tool on the indigenous and less fortunate population in a curfew, in this case, it obscured the rights of citizens. For instance, in Mombasa, the police rounded everyone who was walking back home and made them lie on the ground, one over the other like ‘sacks of potatoes’, with or without masks.
The act had eroded all the social capital that was needed to combat the virus and probably ended up spreading the virus more than it would have if the people were allowed to walk home peacefully amidst the economic and transport challenges. By the end of the first day of curfew, the country had recorded six deaths; even more than deaths from the virus itself.
A 13-year-old boy succumbed after being ‘accidentally’ shot from the balcony of their home. Again, it took the actions of the civil society, KOT, and the media to bring the injustices on the subalterns to the attention of the leadership and the police service chief acted and ordered a tactical change. The president offered a public apology to the citizens. Power is socially constructed and in this case, subalterns in areas that have had previous political injustices continued to suffer. In some more privileged area of the country, the police used ‘soft power’ of persuasion rather coercion; and it revealed the indignation of some citizens.
The curfew, social distancing rules, and the working from home orders, made families take a break from the busy hustles of life and be together. Parents learnt to home school children and even guided households. However, the orders came with a perverse incentive, where lowly paid workers in the informal settlements and slums, who live from hand to mouth are unable to feed their families. ‘Social distance is a privilege few can afford,’ and women and children bear the biggest brunt. Gender-based violence, especially among the populace in the informal settlements, have been on the rise which could potentially be due to depression from the inability to provide for families. One case that was highlighted in the media by neighbours was of a widowed mother of eight children who had to boil stones as a way of convincing the children that food was on the way coming. In such acts against the subalterns, the citizens can use community empowerment plans and create power through uplifting each other and attain ‘politics of shared differences’.
Amidst all the struggles, a unique voice for the subaltern has emerged from the researchers, who have used ‘the academic privileges of publication and platform to amplify the voices’ by ‘appealing for practical social justice in the COVID-19’ response. It is a way of using ‘soft power’ of persuasion to capture the attention of the policymakers. While it could be argued that such acts by the few scholars influence the policy agendas, it would be naïve to say that the process is linear.
Getting policies in the agenda requires actors’ to shapes actions, and the outcomes only become favourable if there is a ‘window of opportunity’ to get the issues on the political space. Still, the act of writing by the researchers is clear evidence that social science can be used to raise the voices of those marginalised and the subalterns.
Conclusion
The subalterns can actually be heard if different groups with a plurality of interests in the society are reconciled. In times of hardships such as during epidemics, the voices of the subalterns can be raised from multiple teams who work towards a common goal of achieving dignity and respecting human rights. By taking participatory approaches to a problem by finding a practical solution, it is possible through a reflexive process to empower the powerless and change the normative power beliefs and dynamics.
Boniface Oyugi teaches statistics at the School of Nursing Sciences and Health Systems at the School of Public Health, University of Nairobi; Email: (boyugi@uonbi.ac.ke). He is also a PhD Commonwealth Scholar at the Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Kent.
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@Madara Ogot University of Nairobi.
Can the Subalterns Speak? A Reflection from Kenya’s Struggle of Tackling COVID-19
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