As the 2022 national elections approach, our party is receiving questions from the public about why we changed our name from the Social Democratic Party of Kenya (SDP) to the Communist Party of Kenya (CPK). In this edition of Itikadi, we publish the speech by the Chairperson of CPK that answers this important question.

THE CHAIRPERSON’S SPEECH ON THE THIRD NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF KENYA (SDP) TRANSFORMED INTO COMMUNIST PARTY OF KENYA (CPK), AT RIVERSIDE, NAIROBI, DECEMBER 5, 2019

Revolutionary greetings to all delegates gathered here!

Happy New Year!

Today we have made the historical decision of changing the name of our party from Social Democratic Party of Kenya (SDP) to Communist Party of Kenya (CPK). This is a significant decision with great implications not only to our party but also to Kenya and the East African Community. No communist party has ever been registered in Kenya and the East African Community apart from South Sudan.

Yet, many more important reasons made us decide to abandon the name SDP and opt for the name CPK. These include the following;

We are registered as a communist party except that for historical reasons based on the origin of the party we retained the name Social Democratic Party of Kenya (SDP). The documents of SDP: the manifesto, constitution, charter, code of conduct, msimamo wa SDP, and the official statements put on the website of SDP all show that we are committed to socialism and communism and are far away from social democratic reactionary ideas and politics. In fact, in our international associations, comrades from all over the world that we often interacted with have always wondered about the contradictions of the name of our party and clear ideological commitment to socialism. So today we end this contradiction by calling our party its true name that explains our actual ideology, vision, and commitment: Communist Party of Kenya (CPK). 

We are ready to enter the battle of ideas in Kenya and the world as CPK. Let the capitalists, imperialists, opportunists, and oppresses of all sorts who day and night seeking to maintain the reactionary order of exploitation of person by person tremble: CPK has been born today and is here to stay!

The name social democracy is used by reformers and opportunists to confuse the working class and the oppressed people, distort and water down their struggle for true liberation and freedom. Social democratic parties in the world have long abandoned communism and are part and parcel of neoliberalism, neocolonialism, and imperialism. In this way, they differ only in form but not in content to bourgeoisie political parties that advocate capitalism overtly all the time. Social democratic parties fight against communism that struggles to organize the working class and oppressed classes to destroy the capitalist system of exploitation and oppression of person by person. The Social democrats are for class conciliation while communists are for class struggle. Communists are committed to the struggle of overthrowing the capitalist system, annihilating it, and replacing it with the socialist system and ultimately communist system of true liberation, freedom, equality, justice, and peace on earth. 

By abandoning our past name SDP we are distinguishing our party from the many registered political parties in Kenya - including the ruling coalitions of JUBILEE and CORD led by hypocrites in power that, despite their commitment to maintaining the capitalist and imperialist system, still refer to themselves as social democratic parties. Knowing that capitalism is an evil and reactionary ideology and system they choose not to identify with it openly but instead choose to hide behind social democracy while adhering to capitalism. We will not accept to be namesakes with reactionaries and their anti-people policies! 

We are the Communist Party of Kenya because we want to destroy the neocolonial capitalist system that makes a few families and individuals control the largest portion of the land and wealth of our country while the majority languish in poverty and underdevelopment. From now onwards by name, by politics, by ideology, by actions, and by our name CPK we shall distinguish ourselves and struggles from the parties of reaction and reforms. Let our friends and foes in Kenya and the world understand us as such: CPK. Let those who are scared of communism tremble wherever they are! In the meantime, CPK calls upon workers, peasants and all the oppressed people of Kenya and the World to unite against capitalism and imperialism as they have nothing to lose but their chains.

Today, we have changed our name to CPK to declare that we are ready to face the great challenge of struggling and working towards becoming communists and a communist party. For we must beware that we do not become communists and a communist party merely by declaring that we are today registered as CPK in this National Congress. Declaring ourselves CPK means coming out of this Conference committed to the task of working to make us as individuals and party communists. This is not an easy task but we have committed ourselves to it today, but also starting from yesterday. In the course of building the new party, which is unique in our country and region, a lot will be demanded from the leadership of CPK and its members. We must fulfill definite tasks to start being communists and CPK.

What then are some of the tasks of making ourselves and the party communist? It means among other things: (a) Studying as an individual and in groups  the ideological documents of CPK; (b) Studying the communist ideology as an individual and in groups and applying it  to our struggles in Kenya and in the world today; (c) Being committed to CPK in theory and practice including paying membership dues regularly, material support to the party where possible and making sacrifices for the party when required; (d) recruiting new members to the party; (e) belonging to party study circles, cells, branches and organizations and establishing party cells, branches and organizations; (f) attending party meetings without fail on time; (g) carrying out party tasks faithfully, diligently and promptly; (h) being active in mass organizations in work places, villages and wherever people gather and educating them about the party and socialism through personal examples; (i) always identifying with the oppressed and just and progressive struggles in Kenya, Africa and the world; (j) making individual initiatives of building the party and disseminating communist ideas; (k) fighting against superstitious ideas and trying to understand the universe, life and nature in the universe; (m) remembering that a human being is an independent, conscious, creative social being; (n) identifying progressive struggles in the world and providing them with material and moral support.

Communists build the communist party and the communist party builds communists. Therefore, all members of CPK must be leaders in their units, cells branches, and all party organs. Those members who grow in leadership in the lower organs of the party will be identified and promoted to higher organs. Those in higher organs who fail or refuse to grow will be demoted to lower organs.

Key decisions of the party will be made through the method of democratic centralism. This means that higher organs will identify or gather issues and convey them to the lower organs for debate or discussion. After thorough discussions or debates, the lower organs will forward their views to the higher organs. After receiving and considering the views from the lower organs, the highest organ of the party will make its decision and forward it to the lower organs not for debate or discussion but implementation. This will be the party democracy of CPK.

Long live CPK!

Long live socialism and communism!

National Chairperson of CPK