Kenya Reborn- A new Constitutional Dispensation!

I used to say while in the University that I was among the top ten last victims of the oppressive Moi/Kanu- era regime of 1978 to 2002. At around early November 2002, as president Moi set off for his coastal tour of meet the people and campaign for his erstwhile political protige', Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, a few University of Nairobi student led by a friend of mine called Mutiga Gitobu and I left for Mombasa ostensibly to oppose Mr. Moi's choice of successor. While in Mombasa we rode on the University bus as it criss-crossed the busy morning streets of the coastal town. Our heads our danggled out as we bellowed out with passion, ''Rainbow! Rainbow! Rainbow!'' It might have begun as a chorus for two people but soon it picked up momentum and the entire of Mombasa city reveberated with shockwaves reckotchetting from Mnazi Moja to Mwembe Tayari.
Soon the then dreaded Coast political lion, Mr. Sharif Nasir roared into action accompanied by a contigent of General Service Unit police demanding to be told what Luos were doing in Mombasa (according to Sharif Nassir all opponents of Moi were Luos). He shouted at us wondering whether we had confused Mombasa for Kisumu! But we were determined to pass the message, that time had finally come for the country to shell off the dirty-stinking rag that had characterised our body-politiq. We refused to be told that Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta had an answer to the sweltering morass of political quargmire and eons of socio-economic dormancy that our country had been drifted into. And so we shouted, ''Rainbow! Rainbow! Rainbow!, Comrades power! Comrades power!'' And the onlookers were quite responsive, they roared back with enchanting enthusiasm, ''Rainbow! Power!''
It was at this juncture that Mr. Nassir ordered the Police to swing into action. They rolled back their sleeves and the resultant impact was immediately registered on our bodies. They began kicking and throwing. Crashing of the University Bus window vanes, shooting in the air and throwing tear gas at us. We ran helter skelter, some pissing and sipping like never before! There were about sixty or so students in the bus. The driver thought very fast that if he drove off at cutthroat speed he could save us from the hitherto beasts who had now surrounded us from all angles. The bus whizzed through the open space like a bullet shot from an M.16 machine gun.
In no much time we were blocked by the Police officers of Rabai Police Station. An immediate interrogation began and two people were identified as Ring Leaders, Mutiga Gitobu and Benson Maisori, myself! We whisked away to the station for further interrogation where we were released after six hours. Probaly our day was saved by the fact the period was a campaign season and so any move to incacerate us would have triggered hue, cry and jitters across the political divides.
Why I have decided to give this story is not because I like talking about it, but because of the fact that Kenyans tomorrow (4th August, 2010) are headed for a referendum meant to usher in a new Constitutional dispensation. Whereas there is every omen in and around the country that points to the fact that the country will adopt a new constitution after attempting the same unsuccessfully for the last 20 years, it is incumbent upon us who have something to say of our history to imortalize what we knew of the woeful current constitution adopted at the Lancaster House Conference in 1963. The main reason I have given this highlight of my encounter with President Moi's most loyal leutenant, Hon. Sharrif Nassir, Minister of State for Internal Security then, is because I wanted to remind Kenyans that Nassir was able to harrass us as he did not because he was very powerful but because of a rogue constitution that granted him such raw power to intrude and infrige on our freedom of expression. What we were doing was simply exercising our right to a free political consciousness and the very least and freedom of association as well as freedom of movement, at best! But we were treated to police brutality instead. It was after this incidence that I sought to dig deep into Kenya's post indepence History. And it was a mess!
In short, Kenya, Malasya, South Korea and Singapore were at par with each other economically in 1963. But down the line in 2010, the former is a beggar while the latter three are in the league of first class economies of the world. From Political assassination of political icons like Pio Gama Pinto 1965, Tom Mboya 1969, JM Kariuki 1975, Robert Ouko 1989 to Bishop Alexander Muge to complete tattaring up of the economy presided over by the Moi/Kanu regime. The mega economic scandals of the 1990s spearheaded by the Goldenberg Luminaries such Kamlesh Patni, Wilfred Koinange, James Kanyotu among others brought down to its knees, Kenya's budding economy. These scandals were peppered up by the most recent scandals epitomised by the Anglo Leasing scandals which saw almost 10 Billion shilling make their way into indivivual people's pockets! Goldenberg scandal could very easily rank among the biggest economic scandals of the 20th century globally!
The reign of terror overseen by the Moi regime culminated in the conversion of Nyayo House basement rooms into torture chambers where political opponents who held divergent opinion were dragged into unceremoniously and subjected to what might not even be admissible in hell as dignified punishment. I have ever had a session with one of the torture victims, Mr. Paddy Onyango, who narrated to us what it was like to be thrown into torture chambers. We all shed tears then! I still shed tears everytime I recall what My. Onyango told us. I might not be perfect so as to judge other men, but I think there certain things that when committed against a fellow man, then God will have to intervene on the day of judgement. It was horrible! All this was in the name of demanding for a new constitution.
Then came the year 2005 when Kenyans were invited to vote for a new constitution. It was rejected at the referendum. Moi then joined the victors of the day to celebrate victory. Today we are faced once again with a plebisite at a time the country is still healing from the 2007 Post Election Violence that saw the killing of over 1300 Kenyans and the displacement of over 600,000 other Kenyans rendering them internally displaced persons (IDPs). Allow me to observe that for once this country has closest to getting a new constitution. Apart fro a few Church leaders who my friend Dr. Timothy Njoya described as bastards who learnt their theolgy in the streets of Nairobi and who are now opposing the proposed constitution claiming it is biased in favour of Islam and that it gives room for abortionists, the country is the truest ever mood of getting a new Constitution tomorrow.
And so this is a call unto all Kenyans. We are lucky to have witnessed the making of history in this era. We must wake up tomorrow in the morning and usher in a new era that we shall be proud of. An era of jubilation for generations to come. To me these are the days of James Monroe, he of the American Constitution! These are the days Martin Luther King, he of the civil rights movement. These are the days of Jesus Christ, he of the days of setting free the oppressed, feeding the hungry and establishing God's Kingdom here on earth. And as the American heroes of American War of Independence declared, ''We hold these truths to be self evidence that all men are born equal and continue to be so in the eyes of their creator. And that at birth all men are endorwed with certain innalienable rights among which is the right to life, libert and the freedom to pursue happiness!'' Kenyans! Now is the time for us to rise to the occasion and answer the clarion call of duty. We have a duty to this nation. A duty to deliver a consitution that shall serve posterity. So that when they ask 100 years from today, who was responsible for this beautiful order of our governance? our children shall be answered with no iota of doubt, 'It was the great generation led by President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The year of our Lord 2010, the exact date being 4th Of August.
Viva Kenya!

The provincial Administration and the infamous tag!
I have been out of this blog for quite sometime and i think for a good reason. That might be explained in future. Yesterday I read in a section of the local dailies about a debate which has always evoked emotions whenever it is mentioned- the provincial administration.
The article by one Jackson Mwalulu could not go unchallenged. To quote him he said in many parts of Kenya, District Commissioners and District Officers remain a cog of the executive wheel of impunity! They harass the villager and .....they are seen as demi gods! We need to set the records here clean. Mwalulu is still living in the shadow of yester years with several of the things he mentioned having made sense ten years ago but never at all in the present administration. Today a DC or a D.O sits in an office where the public are able to view them while in office. The villagers he talked of are now so empowered that they demand services from these administrators. Today a DC has to humbly welcome clients who are cleared from a very welcoming customer service care desk who inquires the nature of your problem then directs you to the relevant person to see at the D.O's or D.C's office. Furthermore currently most D.C's and D.O's are very highly learned fellows with several of them holding Masters Degrees from reputable institutions. So the big man mentality has long disappeared. Professionalism and indeed the signing of performance contracts have ensured that Provincial Administrators are at best servants of the people. The government of Kenya has introduced what is popularly known as the Results Based Management and the Rapid Results Initiative which have rejuvinated the civil service like never before. Moreover suggestion boxes at the D.C's and D.O's offices suggest the opposite of what was peddled by Mwalulu.
On the proposed draft constitution, the COE could never have done better than to direct a restructuring of the Provincial Administration to accord with the devolved governments. What is obvious in Kenya is that the role of the Provincial Administration cannot be gain said especially in Kenya where courts are almost barren. The Chiefs and their Assistants are the practical judges in this country. From sorting out family disputes, land disputes, drugs and substance abuse control and illegal immigrant problems to monitoring of population growth rates and all manner of things. The Chief is essentially the government in the locations. I dare say, had it not been for the Provincial Administration, several things in Kenya could not be imagined where they could be today!
What Mwalulu needs is not to revise his old notes concerning Provincial Administration but to carry a field study of the reality on the ground!

Why I do not support the Political Responsibilty Concept!

A few days ago I had an argument with some fellows in town on the ongoing debate on whether or not Ministers whose juniors have been implicated in the now cancerous disease of corruption should resign or not. They were breathing fire and splitting the air with such sharp venomous words as they described the Ministers and Permanent Secretaries as being magnificently useless in their work and called for their sacking with no further ado. For me it was the best chance to air what I consider to be so dear to my heart and hence my argument.
As a reader of the Bible I will tell that the only thing that differentiates all Biblical prophets from Jeremiah was his ability to prophesy that in the end of days no son shall carry the sins of their fathers neither will a father be judged by the sins committed by his son. To me this was the foundation stone of what mutated into the concept of human rights today. Jesus Christ who I personally admire warned that in the day judgment every man will stand on his own before God and answer according to their actions.
Let me give you an interesting story of my local sub chief. A few days ago he was caught defecating in his neighbour's maize farm! The owner of the farm raised the alarm and you can imagine how many people rushed to the scene. The local NEMA office then united with some local detractors of the sub chief in demanding that the officer resigns for his unbecoming behaviour. A few days later the story died. But what has been bothering me since then has been this incessant calls for people to resign because their juniors have messed up. In this case the top most or the big fish as they called should resign because of the maize and FPE scandals. This is despite the fact that the so called big fish had nothing to do with the said scandals.
My humble submission is that the concept of Institutional or Political responsibility is a flawed one. If it were to hold water then it would mean George W. Bush was meant to resign after the 11/9/2001 bombing of the NewYork Twin Towers. It would also mean that if the failed bombing of the Boeing 777 from Detroit to Chicago (not sure of the destination) last Christmas had succeeded then Americans would have expected President Obama to resign. It would equally mean that President Kibaki should have resigned after the Mathira massacre on 21/04/2009. Or that President Kibaki whose office is in charge of the Police should resign because some rogue police officers have been collecting 100 shillings from the matatus on the roads. Or that the P.M Raila Odinga should resign now that Caroli Omondi decided to breach the Public Procurement Procedure.
Let me say the following. That each and every individual should be accountable to their actions. We all agree that Corruption is a social crime just as is anti social behaviours such as defecating in the open. How do we expect the President of a country to resign because a police officer was caught soliciting for a 50 shillings bribe? You may think this case is different from the Maize and FPE scandals but to me they are simply the same. Every institution has a structure. And the structures are such that different officers have different roles to play. There are rules that regulate their behaviour as they carry out their duties. The law is equally clear on what should be done in case an officer engages in unbecoming behaviour. In this case their is no law requiring the ministers or their permanent secretaries to resign or be sacked if their officers have been implicated in corruption. It is purely an issue of morality. And if it is morality then the best people to be pressured to resigned are the ones whose names have been mentioned and not their seniors. In this FPE I do not see what wrong Ongeri and Karega have committed. They should not resign. Even the P.M should not resign over the maize scam. If they resign then I need someone to put pressure on Saitoti to resign because of what his sub chief did in the neighbour's farm!

Why Kurians must return a strong No Vote!

When we were growing up in the villages of Nyamtiro and Nyaroha in the 1990s I used to think there is only one tribe in Kenya and that the tribe was Luo, Abakuria having been intruders. I remember vividly that when I reported to Nyaroha Primary School in class one in January 1991, one of the songs I was asked to sing was entitled ''Sondo Ulondo, maganga ma kawade'' or something similar to that. I also remember that at one particular moment the school choir performed for the then Nyanza Provincial Commissioner, Mr. Joseph Kaguthi in Dholuo language. Several are the times we were forced to perform Ramogi dance either at official functions or during Drama and Music Festivals.
The reason I am giving these accounts is not because I am good in remembering past things but it is because together these acts bordered on decimation of the Kuria culture. We were told that speaking in Kiswahili was bad in school, speaking in Dholuo was worse but speaking in Kuria was the worst thing and it carried a punishment of not only being given five strong strokes of the cane and uprooting of a tree stump but also it led to immediate suspension from school. Out of the nine teachers we had in our school there were only two Kisiis the rest being Luos.
Outside Nyaroha Primary a lot was happening. People used to travel from Ntimaru to Homa Bay, a distance of about 200 kilometres in order to huggle, negotiate and plead for an Identity Card (national I.D). If your son or daughter happened to be arrested the nearest police cell was in Homabay and most people never made it to see what became of their relatives after their arrest. But I think most Kurians will agree with me that the worst crime committed against us was the psychological alienation that the Luos perpetrated against Kurians. We were told in class that a Kuria child could solve certain mathematical problems! That in fact no Kuria child was expected to pass KCPE and go to a National School. Several of the teachers in whose hands we went through told us that Kurians were naturally cattle rustlers and bhang smokers! These made several bright people I know drop out of school in class four or class seven. Today I meet them and they all rue the missed opportunities. But they have the Luo teachers to blame.
The reason I am talking these things out is not because I am a tribalist but it is because I a bitter man and I know Kurians are. Why not when we suffered from 1963 to 1993 without our own District. When men like the late Hon. Benjamin C. Maisori Itumbo led delegation after delegation to State House imploring upon Daniel Arap Moi to grant Kuria District status it was not for fun. They knew what they were doing. The District Focus For Rural Development Policy meant that if you had a District you stood to benefit directly from the National government. Today the devolution policy being adopted has been proposed to end at the County. We are once again being asked to go back to the HomaBay County! What a circus!
The proposed Draft Constitution has recognized 47 Counties Kuria being out. The reasons given by the PSC in Naivasha were among others the viability of these Counties. One wonders what it is that HomaBay and Migori would do without Kuria. Kuria is known world wide for production of Tobacco, Coffee, quality cattle products and Maize. The Isibania Boarder generates income to the government that is commensurate to the total revenue collected from fish and sugarcane farming. combined. We have some of the best fantastic climates patterns under the solar system! Kehancha Municipal Council generates revenue equivalent to Migori, Uriri and HomaBay combined. We may not be superior culturally but it is my strongest belief that ours is one of the most conserved cultures in Kenya today. When Iritungu dancers perform at national ceremonies the country goes wild! And with a population of more than 400,000 people now no one must take Kuria for a ride. What we must support is the creation of a second Constituency just as the bigger Kuria District was divided into two. We have come of age. We must demand that should Homabay be named a County the Kehancha must be the Headquarters failing which Kurians will wake up on the voting day in their hundreds of thousands to vote No. We are considering lobbying further than that. Should all our plans fail then we will take a more radical stance against the government of Kenya and people who do not wish Kurians the best.
This is the message Kuria Youth Forum for Democracy (KYFD) will be going out with to meet the electorate.

The war in Somalia

KENYA SHOULD SUPPORT WHOEVER WILL CREATE A STABLE, PROSPEROUS SOMALIA

By Kang’ethe Mungai

No matter which way political events unfolding in neighboring Somalia go, the result is likely to affect us in Kenya in profound ways. If peace, stability and economic prosperity are finally achieved in Somalia, Sudan, Northern Uganda and the Congo DRC, it will be a big shot in the arm for our economy because vast opportunities for commerce will open up.

We therefore need to follow the events closely, not only in terms of intelligence gathering but also public information and awareness raising through the media so that we can strategically position ourselves and influence government policy towards directions that will bear sustainable benefits Kenya in the long run.

Almost all the reports we get in our daily press on events taking place in Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and other countries in our region are from Reuters, Associated Press, CNN, BBC, VOA and other foreign news agencies. This raises the question why our mainstream media houses with the requisite resources cannot not have enough correspondents in these countries to give us the news from a Kenyan perspective. News from neighboring countries in our East Africa, Great Lakes or the Horn of Africa region is of great interest to Kenyans because many of us do business in the area, have relatives and friends there or have one other connection to the area. By these areas being so near us, what happens there is likely to affect us. There would therefore be no justification for giving Somali news the same treatment as news from Sri Lanka.

News of events taking place in Somalia, Uganda, the Sudan or Congo is important because if the crises in these areas are resolved, Kenya stands to gain more than any other country in the region, especially in terms of commerce and enhanced security. Kenya is a regional economic powerhouse. The reconstruction in these countries will rely heavily on Kenyan industry and when stability and economic development finally come, the countries would be lucrative markets for Kenyan consumer and other goods.

A little patriotic thinking will show the need to give Kenyans accurate information on what is happening in the region in their daily press to enable them prepare in good time so that we do not miss the opportunities that might open up in these areas as peace and stability return. CNN and other western media houses are giving the current Middle East crisis around the clock coverage chiefly because the events taking place there are likely to affect world petroleum supplies and prices with profound effects on the western industrialized societies that heavily depend on the Middle East for much of their energy supplies.

I radically disagree with views expressed by one senior writer in a local daily late last month in one of the first attempts by the Kenya media to interpret events taking place in Somalia. The writer said that if the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) takes over Somalia, then it means that Kenya will be more prone to terrorist attacks.

The writer did not mention the potential benefits to Kenya if stability and economic prosperity came back to Somalia. The ICU is the only entity at present with the military, political and organizational capability to pacify and restore a modicum of stability in the country if there is no interference from foreign countries. The writer that suggested even if elections were held and the ICU was voted into office, we should stop the ICU from ruling Somalia, by military means if necessary. These dangerous suggestions are out of fashion in a modern, free democratic world where our first duty as humanity is to ensure that freedom rings everywhere and that all people are able to choose the government they deem best for themselves without interference from anywhere.

The reality is that the ICU in Somalia, the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Hamas in Palestine or the Hezbollah in Lebanon are not the problem in these areas. They are only the symptoms of a problem. In fact all these organizations are created as an attempt by the affected people to solve the problem. The duty of all who would like to see global peace prevail is to identify the real problem and formulate sustainable solutions.

When we talk about Kenya being vulnerable to international terrorism, we should remember that indigenous Kenyan interests have not been targets of international terrorist attacks. If indigenous Kenyan interests like our parliament, ministry headquarters or the office of the president were targets, we all know how easy it would be to attack them. It is the heavily guarded US and Israeli interests in Kenya that have been the main targets of such attacks. We have suffered as collateral damage, as Paul Muite puts it, for merely being their hosts. The groups who target the US and Israel have a bone to pick with the policies of these two countries in the Middle East and other places on the globe. Kenya itself has had to wage a spirited campaign to resist the US policy of arm-twisting us in its efforts at sabotaging the International Criminal Court. Unfortunately, Kenyans are mostly shown only one side of the coin because our predominantly western news sources give us the western perspective that portrays those fighting the west as unreasoning, cold-blooded savages.

A good example of policy that gives rise to so-called terrorist organizations is the current war in Lebanon that has resulted in deaths and untold suffering to hundreds of Lebanese and Israeli civilians as well as of people from other nations. The war broke out when Hezbollah killed eight Israeli soldiers and abducted two on July 12, 2006. Israel responded to a military action from Hezbollah by killing hundreds of Lebanese civilians and destroying the infrastructure in large parts of south Lebanon in what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said makes Israel guilty of war crimes. The mistaken Israeli policy (supported by the US) of heavy indiscriminate bombing that has created a humanitarian nightmare in south Lebanon has strengthened and not weakened or destroyed Hezbollah as intended.

It is important for Kenya to place itself in the forefront of those nations trying to use the United Nations to encourage dialogue across the board and to make the US and Israel change their policies in the Middle East to give peace a chance. This is the sustainable way to stop terrorism. Terrorism is a response of the aggrieved weak to oppression by a militarily superior power. Nobody just wakes up one day and decides to risk life and hurt others by being a terrorist.

It is dangerous and reckless to suggest that Kenya should intervene by use of force, if necessary, to stop Islamic radicals from taking power in Somalia. This prescription flies in the face of Kenya’s national interests and traditionally decent diplomatic role in the region and in the world. We must not see reality through American, Israeli or anyone else’s geopolitical lenses. The Americans and allied powers have their policies in the Middle East guided by a desire to control the region’s vast oilfields to safeguard energy supplies for their industry. In Kenya, we certainly have different priorities, chief among which are regional stability ad economic prosperity.

As a neighboring country, our primary interest in Somalia should be the attainment of peace, stable government, prosperity and the Somali people’s capacity to be in charge of their own affairs as a sovereign state. The sprawling lawless, stateless wilderness that the country is today is of no benefit to Kenya. Somalia is today much more of a terrorists’ paradise than if any type of government was firmly in control there. When there is a government fully in charge, you can always open up negotiations through diplomatic channels to advance the mutual interests of the two neighboring states and the region. But you cannot negotiate with bands of armed bandits where nobody is in general control and only the machine gun rules pockets of clan chieftainships.

Like a gaping, festering wound on Kenya’s belly side, the lawless jungle that Somalia has been in the last 15 years is one of the single greatest threats to the security of our nation. Absence of central government there has made it a paradise for all manner of lawless elements who have easily closed our long, sparsely populated and largely unguarded border to bring in and sell illicit arms to criminals in Kenya. It is estimated that there are 50,000 illegal arms in Kenya today. The arms are used to rape, rob, maim and kill daily. There is hardly an adult person in Nairobi, for instance, who does not know of a relative or friend who was hurt, robbed, raped or murdered by criminals using these illegal arms. Even as I write this on August 9, 2006, I have just buried a nephew shot dead by carjackers in Kabete.

Kenya has so far played a positive role in fostering peace in the region. We have refrained from interfering in the internal affairs of other nations. This has made us a respected member of the international community. We stand to gain immensely from a stable, prosperous Eastern Africa through regional cooperation and making the area more secure to improve the quality of life by controlling the illegitimate proliferation of small arms and light weapons. These are the principal considerations that should guide our foreign policy on Somalia and the rest of the region.

For our own good as a country, we need to resist being a satellite of American, Israeli or anyone else’s geopolitical interests except where such interests coincide with our own. We should at all times avoid the unnecessary sacrifice of putting Kenya on the firing line by making ourselves legitimate military targets of those fighting America and other powers they have a bone to pick with. The main reason for doing so is that we are weak and highly vulnerable. We do not have the financial, skilled human or technological resources that America, Israel, Britain or Russia have to protect ourselves.

Kang’ethe Mungai

Consultant

Human Rights and Governance

P O Box 5399-00100

Nairobi