Speech by Booker N. Omole, General Secretary, Communist Party Marxist Kenya (CPMK)
Delivered at the Conference on “Imam Khomeini and Democracy” – 31 May 2025, Parklands Plaza, Nairobi
Distinguished guests, comrades, brothers and sisters,
I bring you warm and militant greetings from the Communist Party Marxist Kenya. It is both a great honour and a political responsibility to speak at this important conference themed around “Religious Democracy in the Viewpoint of Imam Khomeini and Ayatullah Khamenei.”
We thank our hosts, and we welcome the esteemed guests from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Your presence in Kenya is a symbol of solidarity, and your struggle remains a beacon of resistance for many across the Global South.
Convergence in the Struggle Against Imperialism
Today, I do not come to speak about the ideological differences between Marxism and religion. Instead, I stand before you to speak of something more urgent and far more powerful: our shared resistance against imperialism, our defence of national dignity, and our collective struggle for self-determination.
In Imam Khomeini, we see a figure who led a nation to throw off the yoke of Western-backed dictatorship and challenge the global order imposed by the United States and its allies. In that act of revolutionary courage, Marxists the world over could recognise a familiar rhythm, a people rising against tyranny, demanding sovereignty, and refusing to bow before imperial capital.
The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was not only a national event; it was a continental tremor, felt from Latin America to Africa, from Palestine to Southeast Asia. It reminded us that no matter the ideological foundation, any movement that breaks the chains of imperial domination is a movement that contributes to the global liberation of oppressed peoples.
Religious Democracy as a Form of Cultural Sovereignty
The concept of “religious democracy” as articulated by Imam Khomeini and developed further by Ayatollah Khamenei must be understood not in abstract theological terms, but in its material historical context. It is a political response to Western cultural hegemony, a refusal to accept the idea that democracy must be defined only by liberal capitalist terms and dictated by Washington or Brussels.
In Africa, too, we have long wrestled with the contradiction between imported institutions and our own social and historical realities. Iran’s insistence on constructing a political system that reflects its own cultural and spiritual history is not a contradiction of democracy, but a revolutionary assertion of self-determination.
For us who have fought tirelessly for people’s democracy rooted in the masses, we can appreciate this effort as part of a broader resistance to neoliberal universalism, which seeks to erase all alternative visions of political order and social justice.
Iran at the Frontlines of Resistance
Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran stands firm as a frontline state against the unrelenting aggression of U.S. imperialism, economic sanctions, psychological warfare, military threats, and attempts at political destabilisation. Iran’s steadfast support for the cause of Palestine, its solidarity with oppressed peoples, and its refusal to be a client state make it a symbol of resistance that we in Africa must recognise and engage.
Whether it is the question of Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, or Iraq, Iran has stood for the principle that no people should be occupied, colonised, or humiliated. That is a principle which finds complete resonance with our own struggle here in Africa, where foreign militaries occupy our soil, multinational corporations loot our resources, and comprador elites betray our sovereignty for petty gain.
The African Dimension: A Shared Path of Liberation
Kenya, like much of Africa, remains trapped in the clutches of neocolonial domination, foreign debt, extractivism, militarisation, and cultural alienation. The imperialist hand that seeks to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran is the same hand that holds our continent in a suffocating grip.
That is why it is not enough to express solidarity, we must build it. We must learn from one another’s experiences, and construct an internationalist alliance of oppressed nations and peoples. Just as Iran has faced embargoes, sabotage, and isolation, so too have African nations faced destabilisation when they have dared to chart independent paths.
In this context, we call for a convergence of anti-imperialist forces: Marxist, Islamic, nationalist, and progressive, who may differ in form but share a common enemy and a common hope.
Towards a United Front Against Imperialism
Comrades and friends, an African proverb tells us: “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.” Let us be those webs, across nations, across traditions, across worldviews. For the lion before us is great: the lion of imperialism, capitalism, and neocolonialism. But we are many. And we are rising.
Let this conference be not just a commemoration of a historical figure, but the beginning of deeper dialogue and principled collaboration between our movements and peoples. The Communist Party Marxist Kenya stands ready for such engagement, and we salute all those who continue to defy empire in the name of justice and liberation.
Long live anti-imperialist solidarity!
Long live the spirit of international resistance!
Victory to the oppressed peoples of the world!