The Politics Of A Changing Society, Mumias

Abstract

This is a study of a peasant society, Wanga,

that has undergone a subtle process of transformation over the last few years due to the establishment of :a sugar industry in its midst.

The thesis, however, begins from the premise that

to understand the change process that Wanga society

is 'undergoing at the moment, a historical perspective

is l"lecessary.

Thus, a£ter providing the theoretical framework tblrough which the Wanga society is analysed; Chapter one moves on to describe the pre-colonial Wanga Society by tracing the changes it was undergoing which cwminated in the formation of the Wanga Kingdom. The fact that Wanga had evolved into a Kingdom is iQdicative of the stage of class development in that society at that particular time. '~s process of the development of two classes in Wanga.,

i.e. the rulers and the ruled, was given a boost by the arrival of coastal traders whose arrival, and the resultant need for trade, provided the Wanga ruling c1an *~th more reason to device more ways of extracting

'mare surplus from the mass of the cultiv,tors.

~is then was the situation that the British colonialists found when they arrived in Western Kenya. The interaction between the British and the Wanga rulIng clan forms the subject matter of chapter two. IAi'tial1y, Nabongo Numia, the ruler of \'Janga,was very supportive of the British expansionist campaigns in 'Western Kenya as he was convinced tha;;the British were helping him to expand his kingdom.

Nonetheless, as soon as the British had solidified their rule in that part of the Colony, they systematically started down-grading

the importance of Mumia and his family.

That was the beginning of the decline of the Wanga political hegemony. On the economic front, attempts to turn Wanga into a cotton growing area failed and thereafter wanga began to.be a supplier of labour to other sectors of the colonial economy. Side by side with the decline of Wanga was the emergence of other centres of power in western Kenya, which arose in the first instance because they were doing better economically. It was this state of lack of development even within

the colonial framework that prevailed in Wanga until the end of the first decade of the post-independence era.

Ten years ago, the Kenya Government decided that a sugar industry be established in Wanga. Chapters three and four examine the suger industry in Kenya in general and the initial impact of the Mumias sugar

industry on the local area respectively.

The study notes that inspite of the infusion of capital into the Wanga society, pre-capitalist ideologies still predominate, principally because the organization of capital in this particular instance lays stress on ti';Jhctentralised management which militates against the development of rural capitalism based on the economic activities of the peasants.

The study concludes by pointing out that in

the long cun, unless emphasis is shifted to the

middle peasants by giving them greater chance to make economic decisions, and to accumulate, no social force will come forth to significantly alter the

clan-based politics in Wanga.