Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Kenya Reborn- A new Constitutional Dispensation!
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!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
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!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Why I do not support the Political Responsibilty Concept!
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!
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.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The war in Somalia
By Kang’ethe Mungai
No matter which way political events unfolding in neighboring
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
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,
News of events taking place in
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
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
The writer did not mention the potential benefits to
The reality is that the ICU in
When we talk about
A good example of policy that gives rise to so-called terrorist organizations is the current war in
It is important for
It is dangerous and reckless to suggest that
As a neighboring country, our primary interest in
Like a gaping, festering wound on
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
Kang’ethe Mungai
Consultant
Human Rights and Governance
P O Box 5399-00100
Sunday, December 20, 2009
This morning I read in a section of the media that the nonsense called KKK alliance is schemed to ultimately end up into K. How stupid?
I will tell you why this is nonsensical and why it is doomed to fail. Around 1884 after the Berlin Conference that among other things called for effective occupation of the colonies in Africa, the French colonialists in West Africa embarked on a policy called Assimilation ostensibly to unite all black people with the civilized white race with the stated intention of having the black benefit from the civilization of the white man! The policy of assimilation failed miserably and to date it is the same hang overs that the French government suffers from every time there is political instability in its former colonies. The French government always intervenes militarily with the desperate hope of telling the world that they are still in charge and that the former colonies are still part of the French.
Kenya as a country is faced with the mountainous challenge of tribalism and tribal politics. The solution is well known. Around the 1950s and immediately after independence, a few greedy political characters told Kenyans that there was need to unite the Gikuyus, embus and Merus and that through this other Kenyans would be united! This was the onset of GEMA and you and me are aware of what this union called GEMA cost this country. Other unions splinterd up such as KAMATUSA and MAA groups etc. We have always told our leaders that they are the people who exacerbate the problem before us by insisting like Mutahi Ngunyi that we cannot run away from tribalism. And now there are a few leaders who have told Kenyans that the solutions to our tribalism is to unite a few tribes against the rest then ultimately win over the other tribes who shall be left out in the first plan. That our leaders are seeking to unite kambas, kikuyus and kalenjins is selfish, useless and ultimate demonstration of hopelessness in our leaders. I have always argued that if these people were that serious then they should plan to include the Kurians and Karamojong in their KKK nonsense if they are to Kenyans. Why because if it is a matter of K then Kurians, Kisiis and Karamajongs are also qualified to join! But no one among these leaders has ever talked of this. What is so good in the former KKK that is not in the latter KKK?
I wish to inform the KKK proponents that if the French men failed to assimilate the black men and women of West Africa, then Ruto, Uhuru and Kalonzo cannot assimilate the Luos, Luhyas, Kisiis, Merus, Embus, Kurians, Mijikenda, Asians, the Whites, Masai, Boranas, Samburus, Pokots among others. We do not wish to and will never regret why we were born in these tribes. I want to state categorically that even if I were to die now and resurrect and I would choose to resurrect as a Kuria! We are sick and tired of being told that if Kalenjins and Kikuyus are not going to unite then there will be war in 2012! This is useless thinking and I wish to inform the Ruto cabal that even if there were war or not, you cannot pretend to unite tribes by setting tribes against tribe. Do not try to reap from the spoils of a war that was your own creation.
You see I have not even talked of Mau which is what these characters have been telling us is the reason they are opposed to the Prime Minister but which we now know is a vague excuse which has not stood the test of time.
In short, KKK is not news to us it was here before the proponents were born. You cannot win over the rest of Kenyans by uniting a few tribes because if anything it is the same ideology that informed the schemers of GEMA, KAMATUSA, MAA, LUME etc. All these serve to balkanize the country tribally to date!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Beggars in the streets are no less prostitutes!
It was not the first time I was coming across such a scene. This is common place in our city. But what made me write this article is the fact that for the first time I forbade myself from thinking with my emotions and began thinking with my head. I usually give such people any coin I have in the pockets. But yesterday I paused and asked myself this critical question. 'If these people are sick and suffering this much, why can't they go and camp at the gates of Kenyatta National Hospital and cry out so that the government doctors there can attend to them?' For those of you who are doctors you will agree with me that there is no doctor in the world who would see such a patient and fail to treat them even if that person did not have money to foot the medical bill.
This incidence made me think deep and I finally came to a conclusion that the reason why those people sit at those city corners is not really because they want to be assisted to get medical attention but because they are trading their sickness for money! To them getting better means sliding into the agony of having to lose their income. It is the wounds that give them income! Then I proceeded to think of the twilight girls of Koinange street, Museum Hills, Arngwings Kodhek Road and Westlands. I immediately drew a connection between the two categories of these human beings. The common denominator that I could find was that both the beggar who uses his/her wounded body organs to earn a living by drawing sympathy coins from the passersby and the prostitute who earns a living by exposing her lithe, tender and voluptuous thighs to ignite insatiable lust and draw coins thereof from gullible passersby could not be any different! In all occasions, both the prostitute and the beggar are not interested in getting better, that is get healed for the beggar with a wound and the emotional and physical satisfaction that comes with sexual engagement for a prostitute. The more they get their money the more they want to stay there forever. In both occasions both the prostitute and the beggar use their catchment areas as shops or workplaces from where they earn a daily income. The only difference is that whereas the beggar opens their shop in the morning at around 6.00am, the prostitute opens their shop from around 10.00pm. Of course both of them retreat to their caves every time they know their respective customer may not be available.
Someone once told me that prostitutes really do not want to have sex every time you see them in the streets. They are there because of the addiction and the allure for money. So even when having sex with one never mind about their sexual satisfaction. Just think of your own satisfaction because for them they are in business not in love. The same case will apply to the beggars with exposed wounds. They will never thank you for taking them to hospital. They will only be happy to get the money from you. So the same way you treat a prostitute should be the same way you treat a beggar if you must help any of them.
What do you say?