Novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who, despite all statements to the contrary, is ever present in the minds of Kenyans, recently had serious charges levelled against him: That he helped found Mungiki.
The court was Egerton University's FASS Theatre Two. The stage was in fact set for an entirely different event. Under the stewardship of Prof Emilia Ilieva, Chair of the Department of Literature, students and staff co-hosted End of Black History Month celebrations with the theme, 'Black Americans: B(r)others in Diaspora?' It was a most moving forum, greatly benefiting from the inter-disciplinary approach that informed the scholarly part of it.
The deviation came in when one Maurice Onyango presented a paper entitled, 'The Harlem Renaissance: Points of Departure'.
The fourth year Literature student was comparing the Negritude Movement with the Harlem Renaissance, and seeking to delineate the changes the two brought to art, especially literature.
It was while articulating some of the artistic and ideological repercussions that he noted a similarity between the narcissistic racial stance adopted by the representatives of these movements and Ngugi's glorification of the Agikuyu culture, and in effect said that Ngugi was indeed responsible for the creation of the extremist Mungiki sect, through his works.
A real battle of wits ensued, in which Onyango, the prosecutor, faced what turned out to be a deeply fragmented jury.
It is true that Ngugi started making exclusive use of the Gikuyu language in his fictional writings.
It is not in dispute that he celebrated Gikuyu customs and traditions, and at times offered nostalgic descriptions of pure Gikuyu practices unspoiled by Eurocentric values.
He indeed does, in The River Between, write rather glowingly in favour of women circumcision (now strategically defined as Female Genital Mutilation by fervent gender activists).
He also vows spiritual allegiance to Gikuyu and Mumbi and Ngai of Kirinyaga, in all his early works. But does that, as some insinuated, actually commit him as a contributor to the creation of Mungiki, who profess a return to traditional Gikuyuism and whose activities many disdain but few stand up to?
Some obvious distortions should be pointed out immediately. Any true adherent to the cultural norms of the Agikuyu, and any worthwhile authority on these, would tell us that they do not provide for the slaughtering of human beings, as has been alleged of the Mungiki. Certainly, Ngugi makes no reference to such norms, let alone propagate them.
Besides, those who have really read Ngugi, are well aware of his high sense of discrimination in judgement. Is there anyone who has exposed more unsparingly the politically opportunistic abuse of such cultural practices as oath-taking, than he does in Petals of Blood?
Furthermore, do we seriously think that the Mungiki members have read a page of Ngugi? I bet some of them cannot even coherently converse in their mother tongue!
These thoughts aside, the court case at Egerton called for a revision of two fundamental questions: The role of the writer in society and the effect of works of literature in our daily lives.
The jury in Egerton did not pronounce a verdict that day. The trial continues.