THE STATE SECURITY APPARATUS AND POLITICAL REPRESSION IN NGUGI WA THIONG’O’S PETALS OF BLOOD AND DEVIL ON THE CROSS

Abstract

This article examines Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s perception and delineation of the state security apparatus in Petals of blood and Devil on the cross. It explores how the agents of state security, who are supposed to be neutral in the discharge of their legal duties, serve as tools used by members of the ruling class to silence political opposition in postcolonial Kenya, in order to maintain class domination. It maintains that the characters who represent the state security apparatus in independent Kenya are agents of the oppressors’ class and thus serve as anti-revolutionary agents. The study, however, recommends that the agents of state security should be re-oriented to their real duties via periodic, organised seminars. In all, it concludes that the state security apparatuses in Wa Thiong’o’s Petals of blood and Devil on the cross serve as instruments of political repression.Â