Mwea Irrigation Scheme in Kenya

Did the Religious Institutions Abandon their Members During and Before the Mwea Rice Farmers’ Revolt of 1998?

Abstract

History embraces the story of the Supreme Being, humanity, and the Universe. Human history is a silent realm that encompasses creation, fall, concupiscence, and the need for the prophetic voice towards human redemption. This article seeks to examine the Mwea Irrigation Scheme and explore the oppressive situation that was experienced by its rice farmers; and eventually assess the need for prophetic voice as the critical pillar and/or the key tool that ought to have stood as the weapon of addressing the vice. To this end, this article will methodologically draw from the history of Mwea Irrigation Scheme, unfold the origin and growth, the oppression of the rice farmers, and the need for the prophetic voice as the aforesaid tool of empowerment, as it seeks to build on a Kenyan version of liberation and/or political theology. Strictly therefore, the problem that this article wrestles with is the unearthing of the above-mentioned oppression of the Mwea rice farmers and the need for redemptive prophetic voice that is geared towards the ultimate goal, the liberation of the socio-economically oppressed rice farmers. Arguably, working out a liberation theology that addresses the Mwea case compares well with the Asian theologies such as the Burakumin theology for the marginalised and minority peoples of Asia whose reflection from the prophetic role of religion gives solace to their plight. It also compares with the Waterbuffalo theology, as propounded by Kosuko Koyama. In Waterbuffalo theology, a Japanese theologian, Kosuko Koyama, attempts to translate the Christian faith into the Asian tradition in Thailand, a phenomenon where farmers spend substantial amount of time in their respective rice fields without any substantial and/or decent returns. Apart from a theo-historical design, the methodology in this presentation includes: interview schedules, literature review of relevant and existing literature, and the reliance on the modus operandi that is well captured by the biblical Prophet Amos.