Joint Statement of the Revolutionary Socialist League (Kenya) and the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency, 29 March 2020, https://redflagkenya.wordpress.com/ and www.thecommunists.net

It is with profound shock and outrage that the people of the world in general and Kenya in particular observe the conduct of security forces in enforcing a curfew upon the people of Kenya. The horrific manner in which the people crossing the Likoni Ferry channel in Mombasa, Kenya, were handled calls for the strongest condemnation by all the people of the world.

At the Likoni Ferry in Mombasa, police officers brutally assaulted thousands of passengers in the name of maintaining order.

It is important to note that the people crossing the channel in Likoni are not tourists but workers; members of the toiling masses on the move to make a living on a day to day basis. Having no other way to make a living but to sell their labour power at the market for wages, the people are forced to cross the channel into the industrial area of Mombasa.

Enforcing a curfew upon the people as a way of curbing a disease outbreak is itself questionable. It is unconstitutional, even to bourgeois standards of governance.

By enforcing this curfew, the government of Kenya expresses a gross lack of understanding in dealing with this pandemic.

The ensuing chaos in the attempts to contain the spread of the Corona virus is a product of the government's own inefficiencies, and this must not be burdened upon the people. The Revolutionary Socialist League and the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency call for a people centered approach in dealing with the pandemic. A more efficient way of dealing with the pandemic would be the establishment of people's committees to carry out sensitisation efforts and lead attempts to curb the spread of the Corona virus in our communities.

Most importantly, we laud all healthcare workers on the frontline in dealing with the pandemic.

Finally, we point out the obscenity that the rich imperialist states are now mobilizing emergency aid packages of literally trillions of US-Dollars to support their capitalist economies. At the same time, they robbed Africa, refused for years to cancel Africa’s debts or to support its struggle against dangerous diseases like Ebola or HIV/AIDS (which are not less dangerous for the people than COVID-19)! We call the international workers and popular organizations to launch a global campaign around the demands “Cancel Africa’s Debt NOW!” and “To fight the pandemic: immediate financial and medical aid for Africa by the rich states!”

Furthermore, we extend our solidarity to the labouring masses around the world that are facing now a global counter-revolutionary offensive of the ruling classes. Instead of free mass testing and expanding health care programs against the pandemic, the rulers utilize the COVID-19 crisis as a pretext for massive austerity programs and attacks on fundamental democratic rights! We oppose the global state of emergency, mass lockdowns and the suppression of the right to demonstrate and to assemble!

We call for an international coordination of progressive and socialist forces to build resistance against this global counter-revolutionary offensive!

Forward to socialism!