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!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
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!
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!
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!
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 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
The KKK nonsense is not a new ideology in Kenya!
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!
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!
Yesterday I was passing near Holy Family Basilica in the city centre and I saw a man with a huge, swollen, wet, exposed and by all standards blood-chilling wound on the lower end of his right leg that reminded the public of a rotten red ripe tomato tumbled over! The site of the wound and the watery eyes of the man nursing the wound sent chilly quivers among the passersby who after quick darted glances would like the speed of a ratel whiz a fore as though to say, 'Ghosh!' God save us!
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?
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?
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Is Jesus God?
Have you ever met somebody with such personal magnetism that he/she is always the center of attention? Possibly his/her personality or intelligence---but something about him/her is enigmatic. Well, that’s the way it was two thousand years ago with Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ greatness was obvious to all those who saw and heard him. But, whereas most great people simply fade into history books, Jesus of Nazareth is still the focus of numerous books and media controversy. And much of that controversy revolves around the radical claims Jesus made about himself.
As an unheralded carpenter from an obscure Galilean village in Israel, Jesus made claims that, if true, have profound implications on our lives. According to Jesus, you and I are special, part of a grand cosmic scheme, with him as the center of it all. This and other claims like it stunned everyone who heard them uttered.
It was primarily Jesus’ outrageous claims that caused him to be viewed as a crackpot by both the Roman authorities and the Jewish hierarchy. Although he was an outsider with no credentials or political powerbase, within three years, Jesus changed the world for the next 20 centuries. Other moral and religious leaders have left an impact---but nothing like that unknown carpenter from Nazareth.
What was it about Jesus Christ that made the difference? Was he merely a great man, or something more?
These questions get to the heart of who Jesus really was. Some believe he was merely a great moral teacher; others believe he was simply the leader of the world’s greatest religion. But many believe something far more. Christians believe that God has actually visited us in human form. And they believe the evidence backs that up. So who is the real Jesus? Let’s take a closer look.
As we take a deeper look at the world’s most controversial person, we begin by asking: could Jesus have been merely a great moral teacher?
Great Moral Teacher?
Almost all scholars acknowledge that Jesus was a great moral teacher. In fact, his brilliant insight into human morality is an accomplishment recognized even by those of other religions. In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Jewish scholar Joseph Klausner wrote, “It is universally admitted … that Christ taught the purest and sublimest ethics … which throws the moral precepts and maxims of the wisest men of antiquity far into the shade.”1
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount has been called the most superlative teaching of human ethics ever uttered by an individual. In fact, much of what we know today as “equal rights” actually is the result of Jesus’ teaching. Historian Will Durant said of Jesus that “he lived and struggled unremittingly for ‘equal rights’; in modern times he would have been sent to Siberia. ‘He that is greatest among you, let him be your servant’—this is the inversion of all political wisdom, of all sanity.”2
Some have tried to separate Jesus’ teaching on ethics from his claims about himself, believing that he was simply a great man who taught lofty moral principles. This was the approach of one of America’s Founding Fathers.
President Thomas Jefferson, ever the enlightened rationalist, sat down in the White House with two identical copies of the New Testament, a straight-edge razor, and a sheaf of octavo-size paper. Over the course of a few nights, he made quick work of cutting and pasting his own Bible, a slim volume he called “The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth.” After slicing away every passage that suggested Jesus’ divine nature, Jefferson had a Jesus who was no more and no less than a good, ethical guide.3
Ironically, Jefferson’s memorable words in the Declaration of Independence were rooted in Jesus’ teaching that each person is of immense and equal importance to God, regardless of sex, race, or social status. The famous document sets forth, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …”
But the question Jefferson never addressed is: how could Jesus have been a great moral leader if he lied about being God? So perhaps he wasn’t really moral after all, but his motive was to begin a great religion. Let’s see if that explains Jesus’ greatness.
Great Religious Leader?
Did Jesus deserve the title of “great religious leader”? Surprisingly, Jesus never claimed to be a religious leader. He never got into religious politics or pushed an ambitious agenda, and he ministered almost entirely outside the established religious framework.
When one compares Jesus with the other great religious leaders, a remarkable distinction emerges. Ravi Zacharias, who grew up in a Hindu culture, has studied world religions and observed a fundamental distinction between other religious founders and Jesus Christ.
"Whatever we may make of their claims, one reality is inescapable. They are teachers who point to their teaching or show some particular way. In all of these, there emerges an instruction, a way of living. It is not Zoroaster to whom you turn; it is Zoroaster to whom you listen. It is not Buddha who delivers you; it is his Noble Truths that instruct you. It is not Mohammad who transforms you; it is the beauty of the Koran that woos you. By contrast, Jesus did not only teach or expound His message. He was identical with His message."4
The truth of Zacharias’s point is underscored by the number of times in the Gospels that Jesus’ teaching message was simply “Come to me” or “Follow me” or “Obey me.” Also, Jesus made it clear that his primary mission was to forgive sins, something only God could do.
No other major religious leader ever claimed the power to forgive sins. But that is not the only claim Jesus made that separated him from the others. In The World’s Great Religions, Huston Smith observed, “Only two people ever astounded their contemporaries so much that the question they evoked was not ‘Who is he?’ but ‘What is he?’ They were Jesus and Buddha. The answers these two gave were exactly the opposite. Buddha said unequivocally that he was a mere man, not a god—almost as if he foresaw later attempts to worship him. Jesus, on the other hand, claimed … to be divine.”5
Did Jesus Claim to be God?
Clearly, from the earliest years of the church, Jesus was called Lord and regarded by most Christians as God. Yet his divinity was a doctrine that was subjected to great debate . So the question—and it is the question—is this: Did Jesus really claim to be God (the Creator), or was his divinity something invented or assumed by the New Testament authors?
Some scholars believe Jesus was such a powerful teacher and compelling personality that his disciples just assumed he was God. Or maybe they just wanted to think he was God. John Dominic Crossan and the Jesus Seminar (a fringe group skeptical of scholars with presuppositions against miracles) are among those who believe Jesus was deified in error.
Although books like The Da Vinci Code argue that Jesus’ divinity was a later doctrine of the church, evidence shows otherwise. Most Christians who accept the gospels as reliable insist that Jesus did claim deity. And that belief can be traced all the way back to Jesus’ immediate followers.
But there are those who accept Jesus as a great teacher, but are unwilling to call him God. As a deist, Thomas Jefferson had no problem accepting Jesus’ teachings on morals and ethics while denying his deity.6 But as we’ve said, and will explore further, if Jesus was not who he claimed to be, then we must examine some other alternatives, none of which would make him a great moral teacher.
Even a superficial reading of the Gospels reveals that Jesus claimed to be someone more than a prophet like Moses or Daniel. But it is the nature of those claims that concern us. Two questions are worthy of attention.
- Did Jesus actually claim to be God?
- When he said “God,” did Jesus really mean he was the Creator of the universe spoken of in the Hebrew Bible?
To address these questions, let's consider Jesus’ words in Matthew 28:18: “I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth.” What does it mean that Jesus has been “given” authority?
Prior to Jesus taking on human form, we are told that he eternally coexisted with his Father, and as God he had all authority. But Philippians 2:6-11 tells us that even though Jesus had existed in the form of God, he “stripped himself” of God’s powers to be born a human being. Yet the same passage tells us that after his resurrection Jesus was restored to his former glory, and someday “every knee will bow to him as Lord.”
So, what did Jesus mean when he claimed to have complete authority in heaven and on earth? Authority” was a well-understood term in Roman-occupied Israel. At that time, Caesar was the supreme authority in the entire Roman world. His edict could instantly launch legions for war, condemn or exonerate criminals, and establish laws and rules of government. In fact, Caesar’s authority was such that he himself claimed divinity.
So, at the very least Jesus was claiming authority on a par with Caesar himself. But He didn’t just say he had more authority than the Jewish leaders or Roman rulers; Jesus was claiming to be the supreme authority in the universe. To those he spoke to, it meant that he was God. Not a god—but the God. Both their words and actions testify to the fact that they truly believed Jesus is God.
Did Jesus Claim to be the Creator?
But is it possible that Jesus was just reflecting God’s authority and was not stating that he was the actual Creator? At first glance that seems plausible. Yet Jesus’ claim to have all authority seems to make sense only if he is the Creator of the universe. The word “all” encompasses everything–including creation itself.
As we look deeper into Jesus’ own words, a pattern seems to emerge. Jesus made radical assertions about himself that, if true, unmistakably point to his deity. Here is a partial list of such statements as recorded by eyewitness accounts.
- “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25)
- “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12)
- “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30)
- “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 22:13).”
- “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)
- “I am the only way to the Father [God].” (John 14:6)
- “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” (John 14:9)Once again, we must go back to context. In the Hebrew Scriptures, when Moses asked God his name at the burning bush, God answered, “I AM.” He was telling Moses that He is the only Creator, eternal and transcendent of time.
Since the time of Moses, no practicing Jew would ever refer to himself or anyone else by “I AM.” As a result, Jesus’ “I AM” claims infuriated the Jewish leaders. One time, for example, some leaders explained to Jesus why they were trying to kill him: “Because you, a mere man, have made yourself God” (John 10:33).
But the point here is not simply that such a phrase fumed the religious leaders. The point is that they knew exactly what he was saying—he was claiming to be God, the Creator of the universe. It is only this claim that would have brought the accusation of blasphemy. To read into the text that Jesus claimed to be God is clearly warranted, not simply by his words, but also by their reaction to those words.
What Kind of God?
The idea that we are all part of God, and that within us is the seed of divinity, is simply not a possible meaning for Jesus’ words and actions. Such thoughts are revisionist, foreign to his teaching, foreign to his stated beliefs, and foreign to his disciples’ understanding of his teaching.
Jesus taught that he is God in the way the Jews understood God and the way the Hebrew Scriptures portrayed God, not in the way the New Age movement understands God. Neither Jesus nor his audience had been weaned on Star Wars, and so when they spoke of God, they were not speaking of cosmic forces. It’s simply bad history to redefine what Jesus meant by the concept of God.
But if Jesus wasn’t God, are we still okay by calling him a great moral teacher? C. S. Lewis argued, “I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say.”7
In his quest for truth, Lewis knew that he could not have it both ways with the identity of Jesus. Either Jesus was who he claimed to be—God in the flesh—or his claims were false. And if they were false, Jesus could not be a great moral teacher. He would either be lying intentionally or he would be a lunatic with a God complex.
Was Jesus a Liar?
One of the best-known and most influential political works of all time was written by Niccolò Machiavelli in 1532. In his classic, The Prince, Machiavelli exalts power, success, image, and efficiency above loyalty, faith, and honesty. According to Machiavelli, lying is okay if it accomplishes a political end.
Could Jesus Christ have built his entire ministry upon a lie just to gain power, fame, or success? In fact, the Jewish opponents of Jesus were constantly trying to expose him as a fraud and liar. They would barrage him with questions in attempts to trip him up and make him contradict himself. Yet Jesus responded with remarkable consistency.
The question we must deal with is, what could possibly motivate Jesus to live his entire life as a lie? He taught that God was opposed to lying and hypocrisy, so he wouldn’t have been doing it to please his Father. He certainly didn’t lie for his followers’ benefit. (All but one were martyred.) And so we are left with only two other reasonable explanations, each of which is problematic.
Benefit
Many people have lied for personal gain. In fact, the motivation of most lies is some perceived benefit to oneself. What could Jesus have hoped to gain from lying about his identity? Power would be the most obvious answer. If people believed he was God, he would have tremendous power. (That is why many ancient leaders, such as the Caesars, claimed divine origin.)
The rub with this explanation is that Jesus shunned all attempts to move him in the direction of seated power, instead chastising those who abused such power and lived their lives pursuing it. He also chose to reach out to the outcasts (prostitutes and lepers), those without power, creating a network of people whose influence was less than zero. In a way that could only be described as bizarre, all that Jesus did and said moved diametrically in the other direction from power.
It would seem that if power was Jesus’ motivation, he would have avoided the cross at all costs. Yet, on several occasions, he told his disciples that the cross was his destiny and mission. How would dying on a Roman cross bring one power?
Death, of course, brings all things into proper focus. And while many martyrs have died for a cause they believed in, few have been willing to die for a known lie. Certainly all hopes for Jesus’ own personal gain would have ended on the cross. Yet, to his last breath, he would not relinquish his claim of being the unique Son of God. Jesus used the terms “Son of Man” and “Son of God” to identify his dual nature as both man and God (See “Did Jesus Claim to be God?”).
A Legacy
So if Jesus was above lying for personal benefit, perhaps his radical claims were falsified in order to leave a legacy. But the prospect of being beaten to a pulp and nailed to a cross would quickly dampen the enthusiasm of most would-be superstars.
Here is another haunting fact. If Jesus were to have simply dropped the claim of being God’s Son, he never would have been condemned. It was his claim to be God and his unwillingness to recant of it that got him crucified.
If enhancing his credibility and historical reputation was what motivated Jesus to lie, one must explain how a carpenter from a poor Judean village could ever anticipate the events that would catapult his name to worldwide prominence. How would he know his message would survive? Jesus’ disciples had fled and Peter had denied him. Not exactly the formula for launching a religious legacy.
Do historians believe Jesus lied? Scholars have scrutinized Jesus’ words and life to see if there is any evidence of a defect in his moral character. In fact, even the most ardent skeptics are stunned by Jesus’ moral and ethical purity. One of those was skeptic and antagonist John Stuart Mill (1806–73), the philosopher. Mill wrote of Jesus,
"About the life and sayings of Jesus there is a stamp of personal originality combined with profundity of insight in the very first rank of men of sublime genius of whom our species can boast. When this pre-eminent genius is combined with the qualities of probably the greatest moral reformer and martyr to that mission who ever existed on earth, religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice in pitching upon this man as the ideal representative and guide for humanity.8"
According to historian Philip Schaff, there is no evidence, either in church history or in secular history, that Jesus lied about anything. Schaff argued, “How, in the name of logic, common sense, and experience, could a deceitful, selfish, depraved man have invented, and consistently maintained from the beginning to end, the purest and noblest character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality?”9
To go with the option of liar seems to swim upstream against everything Jesus taught, lived, and died for. To most scholars, it just doesn’t make sense. Yet, to deny Jesus’ claims, one must come up with some explanation. And if Jesus’ claims are not true, and he wasn’t lying, the only option remaining is that he must have been self-deceived.
Was Jesus a Lunatic?
Albert Schweitzer, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1952 for his humanitarian efforts, had his own views about Jesus. Schweitzer concluded that insanity was behind Jesus’ claim to be God. In other words, Jesus was wrong about his claims but didn’t intentionally lie. According to this theory, Jesus was deluded into actually believing he was the Messiah.
C. S. Lewis considered this option carefully. Lewis deduced the insanity of Jesus’ claims—if they are not true. He said that someone who claimed to be God would not be a great moral teacher. “He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell.”10
Even those most skeptical of Christianity rarely question Jesus’ sanity. Social reformer William Channing (1780–1842), admittedly not a Christian, made the following observation about Jesus: “The charge of an extravagant, self-deluding enthusiasm is the last to be fastened on Jesus. Where can we find traces of it in history? Do we detect them in the calm authority of His precepts?”11
Although his own life was filled with immorality and personal skepticism, the renowned French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) acknowledged Jesus’ superior character and presence of mind. “When Plato describes his imaginary righteous man, loaded with all the punishments of guilt, yet meriting the highest rewards of virtue, he describes exactly the character of Christ. … What presence of mind. … Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a philosopher, the life and death of Jesus Christ are those of a God.”12
Schaff posed the question we must ask ourselves: “Is such an intellect—thoroughly healthy and vigorous, always ready and always self-possessed—liable to a radical and most serious delusion concerning his own character and mission?”13
So, was Jesus a liar or a lunatic, or was he the Son of God? Could Jefferson have been right by labeling Jesus “only a good moral teacher” while denying him deity? Interestingly, the audience who heard Jesus—both believers and enemies—never regarded him as a mere moral teacher. Jesus produced three primary effects in the people who met him: hatred, terror, or adoration.
And today, 2,000 years later, Jesus is still the most polarizing person in our world. Yet it is not his morals, ethics, or legacy that enflames passions. The message Jesus brought to the world was that God made us for a purpose–and that purpose is wrapped up in His Son.
The claims of Jesus Christ force us to choose. As Lewis stated, we cannot put Jesus in the category of being just a great religious leader or good moral teacher. This former Oxford professor and skeptic challenges us to make up our own minds about Jesus:
"You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."14
In Mere Christianity, Lewis explains why he concluded that Jesus Christ is exactly who he claimed to be. His careful examination of the life and words of Jesus led this great literary genius to renounce his former atheism and become a committed Christian.
ENDNOTES
© 2007 B&L Publications. This article is a supplement to Y-Jesus magazine by Bright Media Foundatio
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
The irony of science and The reversed wisdom!
There was a time I posted an article on the NYC and YPK google network arguing that modernity had desperately failed us and hence my article sought to suggest that we were better off leading our African traditional way of life than struggling with modernity. I said this because looking back then I could not imagine why for example with the scientific revolution in the agrarian and food production industries millions of people the world over were still dying from hunger pangs. I could not imagine why with the establishment of highly sophisticated governance structures and democratic institutions almost in all parts of the world, corruption and abuse of office and power had intensified and made things worse than ever before. How for example with the improvement of justice instruments both at the local levels in various countries and the international justice system given impetus by the institutionalization of the Rome Statute which established the International Criminal Court (ICC), impunity has intensified four fold! Why, if democracy was working across the world would mankind all over the world be talking of secession in Timor, in Sudan, in West Sahara, in Chad, Taiwan, Niger Delta, the Amazon, Spain, Somalia and now Kenya?
In my most recent article on impunity I asked myself why with the formation of the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC), corruption had intensified more than ever before. Why with the formation of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) actions of gross violation of human rights had gained momentum and the situation in the Kibaki/Raila era seemed to be worse than the Kenyatta and Moi regimes! Why for example with the increased levels of education with tens of thousands of Kenyans graduating from colleges and Universities every year, the levels of unemployment are skyrocketing, abject poverty conquering new spheres, social insecurity extensifying and intensifying and generally with improved education comes a general feeling of hopelessness. And here I will give you an example. I attended an interview with B.A.T (K) immediately I left the University for a temporary job which was paying about kshs.20,000 per month. Out of the more than 200 people who did the interview, about 15 of us were graduates. They wanted 35 people for the job. I was given the shock of my life when the company manager told us after the written and oral interview that the first elimination formula was to have all university graduates out! What appeared to be a joke came to pass. I asked myself several questions on this issue and to date I have never found the reason why someone would eliminate me from an interview because of having superior qualifications. This must be the theory of reversed wisdom at best which reminds me of the true argument that our society is known to reward vices and punish virtues.
A few days ago, I had a discussion with my boss in office and the topic was on insecurity. I asked her these same questions. You see! I always wonder why for every success in modernism, Kenyans as well as millions of men, women and children the world over are pushed miles deeper into the abyss of despondence and the quagmire of mire. Everytime there is a scientific breakthrough poor people must brace themselves for the worst. So the question is, should we then strive to achieve modernism at its best? I remember one scholar named James Bakerman said religion is thriving on the ignorance of science! I will confess that I have been a follower of this scholar for sometime but now I think it is time to ask myself this crucial question. What then would the world be like if science were to rule supreme? Is it not better then that science should not be given a chance to rule supreme?
In the discussion we had with my boss, I asked her why Mungiki had better structures than our government in terms of collecting intelligence, collecting and submitting taxes, delivering justice and why essentially people feared Mungiki more than the government. I informed her that I was involved in a research on insecurity and one of the interviewees said, if summoned by Mungiki and the High Court at the same time, he would run to Mungiki first before thinking of the High Court! I told her that in Kuria where I come from, it is Sungu Sungu (otherwise called chati) which ended the cases of insecurity between 1998 to 2003. Our modern government had been defeated hands down!
My argument is that for us to solve pertinent issues which we grapple with daily such as hunger, insecurity, joblessness and poverty we must engage a reverse gear or at best stop our vehicle to modernity and ask ourselves whether we are headed for the right direction. We must ask ourselves who it is that modern scientific discoveries and order of governance is benefiting. Is it to our interest that more people should suffer with hunger with the discovery of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)? Or intensified secessionist movements with the intensification of democratic institutions? Or gross violation of human rights with the establishment of human rights institutions all over the world? Or worsening of insecurity with the modern explosion in the science of intelligence service through scientific revolution? I submit that the world is better off in its traditional set up than it is now in the so called modernity!
In my most recent article on impunity I asked myself why with the formation of the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC), corruption had intensified more than ever before. Why with the formation of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) actions of gross violation of human rights had gained momentum and the situation in the Kibaki/Raila era seemed to be worse than the Kenyatta and Moi regimes! Why for example with the increased levels of education with tens of thousands of Kenyans graduating from colleges and Universities every year, the levels of unemployment are skyrocketing, abject poverty conquering new spheres, social insecurity extensifying and intensifying and generally with improved education comes a general feeling of hopelessness. And here I will give you an example. I attended an interview with B.A.T (K) immediately I left the University for a temporary job which was paying about kshs.20,000 per month. Out of the more than 200 people who did the interview, about 15 of us were graduates. They wanted 35 people for the job. I was given the shock of my life when the company manager told us after the written and oral interview that the first elimination formula was to have all university graduates out! What appeared to be a joke came to pass. I asked myself several questions on this issue and to date I have never found the reason why someone would eliminate me from an interview because of having superior qualifications. This must be the theory of reversed wisdom at best which reminds me of the true argument that our society is known to reward vices and punish virtues.
A few days ago, I had a discussion with my boss in office and the topic was on insecurity. I asked her these same questions. You see! I always wonder why for every success in modernism, Kenyans as well as millions of men, women and children the world over are pushed miles deeper into the abyss of despondence and the quagmire of mire. Everytime there is a scientific breakthrough poor people must brace themselves for the worst. So the question is, should we then strive to achieve modernism at its best? I remember one scholar named James Bakerman said religion is thriving on the ignorance of science! I will confess that I have been a follower of this scholar for sometime but now I think it is time to ask myself this crucial question. What then would the world be like if science were to rule supreme? Is it not better then that science should not be given a chance to rule supreme?
In the discussion we had with my boss, I asked her why Mungiki had better structures than our government in terms of collecting intelligence, collecting and submitting taxes, delivering justice and why essentially people feared Mungiki more than the government. I informed her that I was involved in a research on insecurity and one of the interviewees said, if summoned by Mungiki and the High Court at the same time, he would run to Mungiki first before thinking of the High Court! I told her that in Kuria where I come from, it is Sungu Sungu (otherwise called chati) which ended the cases of insecurity between 1998 to 2003. Our modern government had been defeated hands down!
My argument is that for us to solve pertinent issues which we grapple with daily such as hunger, insecurity, joblessness and poverty we must engage a reverse gear or at best stop our vehicle to modernity and ask ourselves whether we are headed for the right direction. We must ask ourselves who it is that modern scientific discoveries and order of governance is benefiting. Is it to our interest that more people should suffer with hunger with the discovery of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)? Or intensified secessionist movements with the intensification of democratic institutions? Or gross violation of human rights with the establishment of human rights institutions all over the world? Or worsening of insecurity with the modern explosion in the science of intelligence service through scientific revolution? I submit that the world is better off in its traditional set up than it is now in the so called modernity!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Institutionalization of Impunity- Who is fooling who?
I was a one of the discussants at the concluded National Youth Forum which was held at the KICC on Tuesday, 17th November, 2009. To be specific, I was given time to respond to the topic on impunity. You and me are pretty aware that matters of impunity cannot be discussed in the five minutes I was allocated. In fact, to be honest I did not tell the gathering what I had set out to. After all what can a man say when there is a lady standing behind him gesturing vigorously that time is moving very fast?
I do not really know what comes to your mind anytime you hear this term impunity. But let me take you through what I know.
When I was still in the University for my undergraduate studies, one of the first year students who was campaigning to be Gender Affairs Secretary of SONU approached me and asked me what impunity meant. I quickly told her that it meant disrespect to the rule of law. That was all I knew. And I think this is the tragedy of our intellectualism. We lift book definitions and struggle to apply them haphazardly without caring to investigate the true meaning of what we read. I say so because a few days ago I came to discover that there is more to impunity than I had always thought.
Let us take this example. A few months ago, the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission- TJRC was instituted to undertake what the Kenyan Government said was righting of generational wrongs committed against certain individuals, groups of individuals and certain communities. The Commission is headed by Mr. Bethwel Kiplagat. Most Kenyans are of course aware that there exists in this country a commission called Kenya National Commission on Human Rights-KNCHR and another one called the Kenya Anti- Corruption Commission- KACC, the National Gender Commission, the Public Service Commission-PSC which a friend of mine recently told me she had never known it ever existed! I almost laughed but I immediately remembered that it was not a laughing matter. It reminded me of the interview I once attended at that Commission-PSC and was treated to three questions which I will never forget in my life. But that is a story for another day.
The reason why I am talking of commissions in Kenya is not because I know them better than any other person but it is because these Commissions are the monumental demonstration of how far the afferent of impunity can go. Whereas in matters corruption for example, the KACC is a masterpiece example of how not to deal with corrupt human-beings, the failure to establish a local tribunal to try the 2007 Post Election Violence masterminds is the hallmark of shame and blatant declaration that impunity is ruling supreme and calling shots in Kenya. The existence of the KNCHR is a reminder to Kenyans and the world at large that it is impossible to protect and promote human rights in Kenya. Yet the KNCHR is founded on the vision of making Kenya a human rights State! The existence of the PSC is a stark reminder to Kenyans that distribution of the national cake in terms jobs will never be equal and that whether or not you like it certain people from certain regions will always get plumier jobs than others. The existence of the Kenya Revenue Authority-KRA is a bitter tale of the story of animal farm where much as the freedom creed of the kingdom animalia read like all animals are equal, some animals were, nevertheless, more equal than others! We like it or not, the tax regime in Kenya will always be skewed and tilted to the advantage of some sacred cows. This argument should of course tell you whose interest the TJRC serves.
My argument is founded on the feeling that the political leaders have become like the proverbial house mouse that bites the finger of a sleeping man and blows off the pain with its own breath! Take an example of the KNCHR. The greatest violator of human rights is the government, yet the same government has instituted a commission that apparently is to advice the same government on issues of human rights violations. It is sickening to know that the government in establishing such a commission is only involving itself in a Public Relations exercise to hoodwink the common citizenry that their human rights are protected. It hurts to know that the government in establishing the KACC is only interested in watching over petty bourgeois lest they should join and compete with the petro-dollar and comprador bourgeois by accumulation of capital beyond certain levels; of course by corrupt means. Otherwise, the Petro-Dollars and Compradors will never be netted. That is why it is easier for the KACC officers to arrest a D.O than arrest Kamlesh Patni! It is easier to arrest a Primary school teacher in Naivasha soliciting for a bribe than arrest Faulician Kabuga collecting rent from his Kilimani mansions. It is the reason why after both of them were convicted of man-slaughter, one Corporal Maoche was sentenced to ten years in prison while T.G Cholmondely was sentenced to eight months in prison! Of course you know the eight months were never fully served.
The other example which I cannot fail to mention is that of political parties as institutions. You know I have always wondered how it is that a member of parliament elected on one political party declares support for a rival political party and continues to remain in parliament! It is even funnier that a politician will lose an election on say ODM today in the morning and in the afternoon they join PNU and tomorrow they participate in the latter's elections! No one can by any stretch of struggle convince me that this is not impunity! It is impunity because after being sponsored by your political party to parliament, it remains your cardinal role to ensure that the values and principles for which your party stood are respected and accomplished. So, desertion of your political party is not only political conmanship but also thievery of resources and an abuse to the intellect of the very people who trusted you with power.
To end my long speech, let me submit here that impunity as a social malady is propagated by the very institutions that purport to check the vice. The politicians deliberately put in place such institutions to act not only as gimmicks against certain vices but also as cash cows for their cronies to draw huge sums of money in astronomical salaries! Everytime a Commission is established to guard against any vice, it is a demonstration by the State of worse things to come. That is why I have always argued alongside Mahatma Gandhi that true citizens have the responsibility of not only obeying the law of their land but also disobeying any law, rule or order not founded on the moral fabrics of society. My biggest question today is, 'why should certain institutions exist?' Whose interest do they serve? The answer is simple. They exist to protect impunity and those that are of service to this shameful social malady! I say so because all the institutions established by the government will never be given enough powers to live fully and truly to their mandate. If the the powers are given then funding will always be limited so that the functions are always crippled.
So, may be from now onwards, you should view impunity not just as the disrespect to the rule of law but more importantly, the institutionalization of the abuse of law by creating institutions that collate to defeat investigative efforts against the demise of certain vices which perpetuate the flexed muscles of social mal aire by seeking baptism of the body and sprouting of their spiritual connectivity to the the legalities of societal body politic!
I do not really know what comes to your mind anytime you hear this term impunity. But let me take you through what I know.
When I was still in the University for my undergraduate studies, one of the first year students who was campaigning to be Gender Affairs Secretary of SONU approached me and asked me what impunity meant. I quickly told her that it meant disrespect to the rule of law. That was all I knew. And I think this is the tragedy of our intellectualism. We lift book definitions and struggle to apply them haphazardly without caring to investigate the true meaning of what we read. I say so because a few days ago I came to discover that there is more to impunity than I had always thought.
Let us take this example. A few months ago, the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission- TJRC was instituted to undertake what the Kenyan Government said was righting of generational wrongs committed against certain individuals, groups of individuals and certain communities. The Commission is headed by Mr. Bethwel Kiplagat. Most Kenyans are of course aware that there exists in this country a commission called Kenya National Commission on Human Rights-KNCHR and another one called the Kenya Anti- Corruption Commission- KACC, the National Gender Commission, the Public Service Commission-PSC which a friend of mine recently told me she had never known it ever existed! I almost laughed but I immediately remembered that it was not a laughing matter. It reminded me of the interview I once attended at that Commission-PSC and was treated to three questions which I will never forget in my life. But that is a story for another day.
The reason why I am talking of commissions in Kenya is not because I know them better than any other person but it is because these Commissions are the monumental demonstration of how far the afferent of impunity can go. Whereas in matters corruption for example, the KACC is a masterpiece example of how not to deal with corrupt human-beings, the failure to establish a local tribunal to try the 2007 Post Election Violence masterminds is the hallmark of shame and blatant declaration that impunity is ruling supreme and calling shots in Kenya. The existence of the KNCHR is a reminder to Kenyans and the world at large that it is impossible to protect and promote human rights in Kenya. Yet the KNCHR is founded on the vision of making Kenya a human rights State! The existence of the PSC is a stark reminder to Kenyans that distribution of the national cake in terms jobs will never be equal and that whether or not you like it certain people from certain regions will always get plumier jobs than others. The existence of the Kenya Revenue Authority-KRA is a bitter tale of the story of animal farm where much as the freedom creed of the kingdom animalia read like all animals are equal, some animals were, nevertheless, more equal than others! We like it or not, the tax regime in Kenya will always be skewed and tilted to the advantage of some sacred cows. This argument should of course tell you whose interest the TJRC serves.
My argument is founded on the feeling that the political leaders have become like the proverbial house mouse that bites the finger of a sleeping man and blows off the pain with its own breath! Take an example of the KNCHR. The greatest violator of human rights is the government, yet the same government has instituted a commission that apparently is to advice the same government on issues of human rights violations. It is sickening to know that the government in establishing such a commission is only involving itself in a Public Relations exercise to hoodwink the common citizenry that their human rights are protected. It hurts to know that the government in establishing the KACC is only interested in watching over petty bourgeois lest they should join and compete with the petro-dollar and comprador bourgeois by accumulation of capital beyond certain levels; of course by corrupt means. Otherwise, the Petro-Dollars and Compradors will never be netted. That is why it is easier for the KACC officers to arrest a D.O than arrest Kamlesh Patni! It is easier to arrest a Primary school teacher in Naivasha soliciting for a bribe than arrest Faulician Kabuga collecting rent from his Kilimani mansions. It is the reason why after both of them were convicted of man-slaughter, one Corporal Maoche was sentenced to ten years in prison while T.G Cholmondely was sentenced to eight months in prison! Of course you know the eight months were never fully served.
The other example which I cannot fail to mention is that of political parties as institutions. You know I have always wondered how it is that a member of parliament elected on one political party declares support for a rival political party and continues to remain in parliament! It is even funnier that a politician will lose an election on say ODM today in the morning and in the afternoon they join PNU and tomorrow they participate in the latter's elections! No one can by any stretch of struggle convince me that this is not impunity! It is impunity because after being sponsored by your political party to parliament, it remains your cardinal role to ensure that the values and principles for which your party stood are respected and accomplished. So, desertion of your political party is not only political conmanship but also thievery of resources and an abuse to the intellect of the very people who trusted you with power.
To end my long speech, let me submit here that impunity as a social malady is propagated by the very institutions that purport to check the vice. The politicians deliberately put in place such institutions to act not only as gimmicks against certain vices but also as cash cows for their cronies to draw huge sums of money in astronomical salaries! Everytime a Commission is established to guard against any vice, it is a demonstration by the State of worse things to come. That is why I have always argued alongside Mahatma Gandhi that true citizens have the responsibility of not only obeying the law of their land but also disobeying any law, rule or order not founded on the moral fabrics of society. My biggest question today is, 'why should certain institutions exist?' Whose interest do they serve? The answer is simple. They exist to protect impunity and those that are of service to this shameful social malady! I say so because all the institutions established by the government will never be given enough powers to live fully and truly to their mandate. If the the powers are given then funding will always be limited so that the functions are always crippled.
So, may be from now onwards, you should view impunity not just as the disrespect to the rule of law but more importantly, the institutionalization of the abuse of law by creating institutions that collate to defeat investigative efforts against the demise of certain vices which perpetuate the flexed muscles of social mal aire by seeking baptism of the body and sprouting of their spiritual connectivity to the the legalities of societal body politic!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
What I think of the Concluded National Youth Forum
For those of us who have read Chinua Achebe's Things fall apart, you will agree with that Ibo's saying that if you see a tod hopping in broad daylight then behind it there must be a snake chasing after it. A few days before the National Youth Forum descended on Nairobi swearing under their breath to teach the current political class a lesson they will never forget, I had submitted here that whatever they were going to discuss was in vain. I said it would be in vain not because I am a pessimist but because, already I could correctly guess what it is that the forum would say. I knew that the forum would begin by introductions of those in attendance, ostensibly to prove to the world that the forum was not only national but that it also comprised of people who were respected leaders from wherever they came from. Then the programme would be read and prayers said. Then various speakers would be invited to speak on various topics and of course as if cut from the same piece of cloth they would repeatedly curse the current political leaders, shout at the top of their voices how those leaders have failed young people and then proceed to vow that come the next elections young people were going to vote them out and bring to power leaders who were credible, accountable, corruption free, morally upright and leaders who cared about the plight of young people. After the declarations the young people would then be led into adopting resolutions arrived at and warned that this time round the resolutions were not going to be left gathering dust on shelves of NGOs offices. Above all young people would be asked never to be violent because violence is the worst enemy! After the meeting people would be reimbursed their transport expenses to go back to their homes as they hope to be called again. Of course that will be the end of the story. The next time there is such a meeting another group of ''leaders'' will be called to attend and make the same declarations.
How true these predictions came to pass! That is why I could very easily understand the frustrations that people led by Sande Oyolo had before resolving to disrupting the forum. But what shocked me most was when the members of the diplomatic coup arrived led by non other than Michael Rannenberger, a man I admire for his courage against the hostile politicians of our country. Of course I am aware that the reason the ambassador is normally bitter with the coalition government is not because he really cares for Kenyans but because the coalition government has decided to play hard ball against USA investment interests such as the Oil drilling in Isiolo.
The entrance of the US ambassador elicited excitement which quickly reminded me that the interests of the people I was representing were at risk. Of course several young people who asked the ambassadors questions did so out of an innocent mind not really knowing what was at stake. They thought that the ambassadors were really interested in helping solve the problems of young people in Kenya. Some even attempted to ''inform'' the ambassadors what problems the young people were going through! Little did they know that those ambassadors know those problems more than we even know. They know that they are part and parcel of the problem. In fact one person who to me asked a critical question was the gentleman from Mandera who told the British High Commissioner, Rob Maclare to his face that the problems being faced in Mandera were a creation of the British colonialists. I felt like jumping up! Those are the kind of young men we need in this country. If we get about ten of them then we can begin talking of liberation.
It is my humble submission that young people did not achieve anything worth talking of. I remember us endorsing some resolutions such as that ''from now onwards young people shall participate actively in politics at all levels!'' At some point I even told the man who was seated next to me that we did not have to spend all our time and money just to come and make such an obvious declaration. After all, this is something we have always shouted around. But my greatest interesting moment was when one of the conveners (who seemed to understand why we were there) asked the US ambassador whether the US was going to assist young people in rolling down to the villages to take to the people the same message that had been arrived at while in this forum. I quickly asked myself what type of assistance the young people required in order to go to Nyamtiro village where I come from to tell my people that it was important to participate in politics or constitutional matters. I asked myself why they had never asked me to assist them but the anxious and serious look on their faces told me that the assistance that they were talking about was different. Of course the ambassador agreed to ''assist'' and I saw the sigh of relief on their faces. It was accompanied by a round of applauding claps.
Back to my argument. We must begin to ask ourselves whether this is really what we need. We must ask ourselves whether the change we seek is the same for all of us. We must ask ourselves whether the motives in the song of change we have joined is the same and whether those motives are inspired by the sincere need to liberate us from the our captivity. We must ask ourselves whether we are all faced by the same enemy and whether the methodology we talk of in our bid to confront the enemy is agreeable and workable across the board.
Our country is faced with serious challenges that must be confronted now or we shall all sink. Boardroom forums that continue to enrich a few people are constructing sliding terrains for our country. As I have always said, we need sincere diagnosis of the malady that threatens to sink us. When we do this we shall then be able to identify correctly the therapeutic and prophylactic measures that shall pull us from drifting into the sweltering morass of political quagmire and eons of socio-economic ''Mal aire''!
How true these predictions came to pass! That is why I could very easily understand the frustrations that people led by Sande Oyolo had before resolving to disrupting the forum. But what shocked me most was when the members of the diplomatic coup arrived led by non other than Michael Rannenberger, a man I admire for his courage against the hostile politicians of our country. Of course I am aware that the reason the ambassador is normally bitter with the coalition government is not because he really cares for Kenyans but because the coalition government has decided to play hard ball against USA investment interests such as the Oil drilling in Isiolo.
The entrance of the US ambassador elicited excitement which quickly reminded me that the interests of the people I was representing were at risk. Of course several young people who asked the ambassadors questions did so out of an innocent mind not really knowing what was at stake. They thought that the ambassadors were really interested in helping solve the problems of young people in Kenya. Some even attempted to ''inform'' the ambassadors what problems the young people were going through! Little did they know that those ambassadors know those problems more than we even know. They know that they are part and parcel of the problem. In fact one person who to me asked a critical question was the gentleman from Mandera who told the British High Commissioner, Rob Maclare to his face that the problems being faced in Mandera were a creation of the British colonialists. I felt like jumping up! Those are the kind of young men we need in this country. If we get about ten of them then we can begin talking of liberation.
It is my humble submission that young people did not achieve anything worth talking of. I remember us endorsing some resolutions such as that ''from now onwards young people shall participate actively in politics at all levels!'' At some point I even told the man who was seated next to me that we did not have to spend all our time and money just to come and make such an obvious declaration. After all, this is something we have always shouted around. But my greatest interesting moment was when one of the conveners (who seemed to understand why we were there) asked the US ambassador whether the US was going to assist young people in rolling down to the villages to take to the people the same message that had been arrived at while in this forum. I quickly asked myself what type of assistance the young people required in order to go to Nyamtiro village where I come from to tell my people that it was important to participate in politics or constitutional matters. I asked myself why they had never asked me to assist them but the anxious and serious look on their faces told me that the assistance that they were talking about was different. Of course the ambassador agreed to ''assist'' and I saw the sigh of relief on their faces. It was accompanied by a round of applauding claps.
Back to my argument. We must begin to ask ourselves whether this is really what we need. We must ask ourselves whether the change we seek is the same for all of us. We must ask ourselves whether the motives in the song of change we have joined is the same and whether those motives are inspired by the sincere need to liberate us from the our captivity. We must ask ourselves whether we are all faced by the same enemy and whether the methodology we talk of in our bid to confront the enemy is agreeable and workable across the board.
Our country is faced with serious challenges that must be confronted now or we shall all sink. Boardroom forums that continue to enrich a few people are constructing sliding terrains for our country. As I have always said, we need sincere diagnosis of the malady that threatens to sink us. When we do this we shall then be able to identify correctly the therapeutic and prophylactic measures that shall pull us from drifting into the sweltering morass of political quagmire and eons of socio-economic ''Mal aire''!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The forthcoming NYC/Youth Agenda- Why we may not achieve much!
On Tuesday, 17th November, 2009 more than 600 young people from across the country will be congregating in Nairobi for the national youth convention meeting. The conference will be hosted by the Youth Agenda, NYC among other stakeholders. Reliable information has it that among the subjects that will be discussed will be issues of empowerment of young people, political leadership and ethnicity, Corruption and Impunity.
I think what is most important to note is not that young people will be meeting to deliberate on the best ways of tackling these vices that have continued to hang on us like a dark nimbus cloud. The important thing to me is that it will not be the first time the youth are meeting for such a mission. From as early as 1997, young people have been holding conferences and workshops in Nairobi and other parts of the country and beautiful resolutions have always come out of these initiatives. The questions that we must ask ourselves are about why several of these resolutions have never been implemented.
Last night I received a call from someone who said he knew me and that he had visited my website and read a few articles about the place of violence in the struggle against bad governance, impunity, corruption and statelessness. He said he had read with a lot of nostalgia claiming that the articles reminded him of the old heroic stories told to him by his old grandfather about the Mau Mau war. I will not tell you more.
The reason I am bringing this debate to this level is because we find ourselves in an awkward situation. When I was a second year student at the University my Political Economy Professor told us that the tragedy of Africa is not in the fact that it is a poor continent but in the fact that it is trapped for ever in the international capitalistic markets as an underdog under the working science of dependency. Under dependency, countries are not only underdeveloped but also have their citizens psychologically alienated due to ages of subjugation and subservience. Psychological alienation is a phenomenon where certain people feel that them they were born to be poor and servants of others and believe that under no circumstance can they be better than their rulers. That is what the white man managed to do against the black man during colonialism.
When we breakdown this theory to Kenya, I honestly believe that that is the condition we have found ourselves in. The leaders have treated us with no respect, they have robbed from us everything that we once owned, they have deliberately and unnecessarily lengthened the period young people are supposed to be in school and gone ahead to deny them jobs, they have robbed us of our precious land, they have thrown food to dogs even after knowing more than 10 million Kenyans are dying of hunger pangs. They have bought Cessna air crafts amidst the worst drought in decades. They have literally impoverished the nation and its people and reduced to beggars at their mercy. What this has done to us is the same thing the colonialists did to Africans in those days. Telling us that when our M.P has eaten, we all have eaten. That when one or two ministers are about to be arrested and taken to the Hague then Kenya as a country will fall. That the people who died after the 2007 PEV were not so many to constitute the urgency to set up a special tribunal to try the suspected crafters of the vice. When graduates spend about twenty years looking for a Degree, they tell us the Degree nowadays is not enough, you need a Masters Degree. And of course they take their children to other systems of education in other countries and before we know it the children are back and are made Permanent Secretaries and us who went to Kenyan Universities and took Degrees are asked to be Chiefs and Sub Chiefs. These are the things that have psychologically alienated us from the processes of development in our country. The lives we lead are degrading and inhuman. Life without clean and safe water, life without security, life without a decent meal even for a whole day, life where even university graduates cannot afford lunch. That is the kind of life we now lead. And that is the kind of life we must ask ourselves whether we want to say no to or whether we wish to continue leading it. It is not surprising to find some of us saying they do not see any problem with such kind of life. I will not be surprised because that is exactly what psychological alienation does to intelligent people. Tell them that even under the worst of all conditions do not rebel against the establishments of society because after all this world is not our home!
I have said and I will repeat. The reason why Kenyans have been treated to agonies of corruption, impunity and bad governance is not because they have not been complaining about the issues but because in fact they have complained for too long a time without any form of acting. Kenyans are too obedient to the law. Kenyans are too good a citizenry to question certain excesses against them. Kenyans are too humble a people to demand certain bare minimums from their leaders. Kenyans are too fearful to query certain government directives even when such directives touch on their survival. No! Let me put it this way Kenyans love their lives so much that they cannot risk police buttons on the streets demanding for the trial of PEV suspects.
And so as we wait for the NYC/ Youth Agenda conference in Nairobi on Tuesday, we must ask ourselves what we really need as young people. We must interrogate the methodologies that we have used before and ask ourselves why they have been failing. We always shout that there must be no violence but time has come for us to ask the question, ''Why not if it can deliver?'' Even though I am a human rightists I still strongly believe that there is a price to pay. Violence has never been as bad as we are told. When the Israelites were under Theocracy God himself sanctioned violence against anyone who disobeyed his commandments and especially against the people who were opposed to his chosen people of Israel. Violence has worked in America, in Britain, in France, in India and Pakistan, in South Africa and in deed in colonial Kenya. Let us remember that Mahtma Gandhi called on all Indians not only to be patriotic to their cultures and morals of their societies but also to be responsible enough as to disobey any laws that were repressive and those that did not boarder on the moral fabrics of the Indian traditions. It is time we considered the radical measures of violently disobeying unequal and unfair repressive tax regimes. Unequal representation in the governance processes and blatant practices that perpetuate the afferent of impunity.
I end by observing religiously that if we do not take drastic measures above and outside workshops and conferences ours shall remain frosty noises of frogs that will never scare cows away from a water pool!
I think what is most important to note is not that young people will be meeting to deliberate on the best ways of tackling these vices that have continued to hang on us like a dark nimbus cloud. The important thing to me is that it will not be the first time the youth are meeting for such a mission. From as early as 1997, young people have been holding conferences and workshops in Nairobi and other parts of the country and beautiful resolutions have always come out of these initiatives. The questions that we must ask ourselves are about why several of these resolutions have never been implemented.
Last night I received a call from someone who said he knew me and that he had visited my website and read a few articles about the place of violence in the struggle against bad governance, impunity, corruption and statelessness. He said he had read with a lot of nostalgia claiming that the articles reminded him of the old heroic stories told to him by his old grandfather about the Mau Mau war. I will not tell you more.
The reason I am bringing this debate to this level is because we find ourselves in an awkward situation. When I was a second year student at the University my Political Economy Professor told us that the tragedy of Africa is not in the fact that it is a poor continent but in the fact that it is trapped for ever in the international capitalistic markets as an underdog under the working science of dependency. Under dependency, countries are not only underdeveloped but also have their citizens psychologically alienated due to ages of subjugation and subservience. Psychological alienation is a phenomenon where certain people feel that them they were born to be poor and servants of others and believe that under no circumstance can they be better than their rulers. That is what the white man managed to do against the black man during colonialism.
When we breakdown this theory to Kenya, I honestly believe that that is the condition we have found ourselves in. The leaders have treated us with no respect, they have robbed from us everything that we once owned, they have deliberately and unnecessarily lengthened the period young people are supposed to be in school and gone ahead to deny them jobs, they have robbed us of our precious land, they have thrown food to dogs even after knowing more than 10 million Kenyans are dying of hunger pangs. They have bought Cessna air crafts amidst the worst drought in decades. They have literally impoverished the nation and its people and reduced to beggars at their mercy. What this has done to us is the same thing the colonialists did to Africans in those days. Telling us that when our M.P has eaten, we all have eaten. That when one or two ministers are about to be arrested and taken to the Hague then Kenya as a country will fall. That the people who died after the 2007 PEV were not so many to constitute the urgency to set up a special tribunal to try the suspected crafters of the vice. When graduates spend about twenty years looking for a Degree, they tell us the Degree nowadays is not enough, you need a Masters Degree. And of course they take their children to other systems of education in other countries and before we know it the children are back and are made Permanent Secretaries and us who went to Kenyan Universities and took Degrees are asked to be Chiefs and Sub Chiefs. These are the things that have psychologically alienated us from the processes of development in our country. The lives we lead are degrading and inhuman. Life without clean and safe water, life without security, life without a decent meal even for a whole day, life where even university graduates cannot afford lunch. That is the kind of life we now lead. And that is the kind of life we must ask ourselves whether we want to say no to or whether we wish to continue leading it. It is not surprising to find some of us saying they do not see any problem with such kind of life. I will not be surprised because that is exactly what psychological alienation does to intelligent people. Tell them that even under the worst of all conditions do not rebel against the establishments of society because after all this world is not our home!
I have said and I will repeat. The reason why Kenyans have been treated to agonies of corruption, impunity and bad governance is not because they have not been complaining about the issues but because in fact they have complained for too long a time without any form of acting. Kenyans are too obedient to the law. Kenyans are too good a citizenry to question certain excesses against them. Kenyans are too humble a people to demand certain bare minimums from their leaders. Kenyans are too fearful to query certain government directives even when such directives touch on their survival. No! Let me put it this way Kenyans love their lives so much that they cannot risk police buttons on the streets demanding for the trial of PEV suspects.
And so as we wait for the NYC/ Youth Agenda conference in Nairobi on Tuesday, we must ask ourselves what we really need as young people. We must interrogate the methodologies that we have used before and ask ourselves why they have been failing. We always shout that there must be no violence but time has come for us to ask the question, ''Why not if it can deliver?'' Even though I am a human rightists I still strongly believe that there is a price to pay. Violence has never been as bad as we are told. When the Israelites were under Theocracy God himself sanctioned violence against anyone who disobeyed his commandments and especially against the people who were opposed to his chosen people of Israel. Violence has worked in America, in Britain, in France, in India and Pakistan, in South Africa and in deed in colonial Kenya. Let us remember that Mahtma Gandhi called on all Indians not only to be patriotic to their cultures and morals of their societies but also to be responsible enough as to disobey any laws that were repressive and those that did not boarder on the moral fabrics of the Indian traditions. It is time we considered the radical measures of violently disobeying unequal and unfair repressive tax regimes. Unequal representation in the governance processes and blatant practices that perpetuate the afferent of impunity.
I end by observing religiously that if we do not take drastic measures above and outside workshops and conferences ours shall remain frosty noises of frogs that will never scare cows away from a water pool!
Monday, November 9, 2009
WE MUST NEVER FEAR WAR!
Last week I was involved in a training for human rights of the people living with HIV/AIDS. As the training progressed the question on the male circumcision and its scientificity in curbing the widespread of the virus arose. Then there was a spirited argument on whether or no to adopt it. At the end of the debate I thought the trainer had managed to convince her listeners.
But what shocked me was what the trainer told us of how the research on male circumcision was carried out. She said that in South Africa a group 40 young men were asked to take part in the research. The young men were divided into two groups with one group accepting to be circumcised while the other group was left uncircumcised. These men were given instructions and clearly of the impending consequences should they accept to participate. They were then released to indulge in sex with whoever they met. One of the instructions was that the participants should not use condoms! And after these young men returned after six months the results were shocking. Only about 40% percent of the circumcised men tested positive while
those who were uncircumcised, 100% tested positive!
After thinking for a while I was very furious and naturally demanded from the trainer to tell us why such a risky affair had to be carried out on human beings. This prompted a plethora of disapproval questions with various human rightists calling for an end to such an immoral adventure. But the trainer maintained her stand arguing that the young men had been informed of the consequences and that they consented to the research.
But the storm was over and dust settled I came to think of the article I did here sometimes last on why I support war. I thought there was a serious moral lesson to be connected to this act by these brave South African young men. This is what I thought. The world is at war with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the same has been declared a national disaster in almost all countries around the world. It is said about 40 million people around the world are living with HIV/AIDS. which means that the world and especially sub Saharan Africa is yet to win the war. Not that Africa has not been serious in the fight against the pandemic but because in fact people around the world are not willing to pay the price. The price for me is not just about the ABCs sex but stepping up scientific research which will be serious enough to tame the disease. What these young men did was an act of bravery and humanity will never forget them. For me these are the true heroes of the 21st Century. For what more can one give to humanity than to give up for sacrifice ones life in order that generations to come may benefit. I remembered the Biblical verse that says there was silence in heaven when God asked who among us shall go for us. Then Jesus said, ''Here I am Father! send me so that mankind can be redeemed!''
Reactions to the article ''Why I support War'' were predictive before hand. I said then and today I repeat, there will never be any meaningful development or change we so desire unless people go to war. Of course you will ask me as you did, who is that you want us to fight against? Well, my answer is simple. If you do not know who we are up against then you better step out of the debate on change.
History as we said serves not just to embellish our thoughts with sweet or horrible memories of the past but in fact to remind us that we cannot reinvent the wheel. The way has been prepared for us. I gave examples of the USA, Europe and Asia on how war was used to usher in the change they now enjoy and some of us said the circumstances have changed! Some challenged to provide a theory that informed my thinking. What a cheap way of escaping our true call! These are the same questions that we seek to defeat. People who go to war do so knowing that they have a reason to fight for themselves, for their families and for their unborn children. Imagine what the world would be like today if Socrates, Jesus, Shaka Zulu, Dedan Kimathi among others laboured in boardrooms providing theories that informed their resolve to challenge the Authorities that lorded it on mankind of their days! Well to be straight forward with the theorists, conflict in society is inevitable and is functional to the extent that after every conflict, armed or otherwise society will always develop new mechanisms of accommodation (Bernard Chester, 1984- Book available in the reserve section JKML University of Nairobi). That is if you have forgotten your understanding of Karl Marx on what the result will be like when the hoi poloi take up arms to confront the bourgeois in an armed struggle. By the way Mao Tse Tung was a student of Karl Marx. We do not need reminding where China is today. But I do not wish to belabor my emphasis on what I already took 9 years learning. By now I have already an informed opinion on what our country requires for true change- war!
So my argument again today is that workshops that spend millions of donor money talking about how our country requires change through peaceful means are just a waste of time, resources and dare I say such kind of workshops will always remain whining avenues for those who do not understand the realities and to civil societies and NGOs the workshops will remain cash cows where they milk huge monies for their salaries and allowances. And I repeat, the reason CSOs and NGOs will never embrace true solutions such as I am proposing is because by so doing they will be sealing the very source which pays them. If Kenya were to be a human rights state today then there will be no need of the thousands of NGOs we have today!
And so back to my argument, for us to achieve the change we desire we must be like the 40 young men in South Africa. They gave humanity what we will never forget. And for us in Kenya we should never fear to go to war if that is what it takes to bring change in our country. After all it will not be the first time it is happening. The Americans have gone to serious war three times, Europe more we can count, Asia the same and Africa and especially Kenya must never fear war. As I said, in 2008 we came very close to it but the process aborted thanks to NGOs, CSOs and the so called international Community. By the way when you hear several people saying let Kenyans solve their own problems on their own, by extension they are saying even if it is war we must be left to fight until we sit down and agree! The difference is that they have not articulated their call in a formal manner as I do.
As I finish, I call upon those who challenged some of us who believe in this call. We do not fear to play any role that we may be called upon to. You can count on us. And for those who preferred calling me on my mobile number to declare support, yes I agree with you. The debate on non violence is useless, it will never work. If it works, where is justice for the victims of 2007 PEV?
But what shocked me was what the trainer told us of how the research on male circumcision was carried out. She said that in South Africa a group 40 young men were asked to take part in the research. The young men were divided into two groups with one group accepting to be circumcised while the other group was left uncircumcised. These men were given instructions and clearly of the impending consequences should they accept to participate. They were then released to indulge in sex with whoever they met. One of the instructions was that the participants should not use condoms! And after these young men returned after six months the results were shocking. Only about 40% percent of the circumcised men tested positive while
those who were uncircumcised, 100% tested positive!
After thinking for a while I was very furious and naturally demanded from the trainer to tell us why such a risky affair had to be carried out on human beings. This prompted a plethora of disapproval questions with various human rightists calling for an end to such an immoral adventure. But the trainer maintained her stand arguing that the young men had been informed of the consequences and that they consented to the research.
But the storm was over and dust settled I came to think of the article I did here sometimes last on why I support war. I thought there was a serious moral lesson to be connected to this act by these brave South African young men. This is what I thought. The world is at war with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the same has been declared a national disaster in almost all countries around the world. It is said about 40 million people around the world are living with HIV/AIDS. which means that the world and especially sub Saharan Africa is yet to win the war. Not that Africa has not been serious in the fight against the pandemic but because in fact people around the world are not willing to pay the price. The price for me is not just about the ABCs sex but stepping up scientific research which will be serious enough to tame the disease. What these young men did was an act of bravery and humanity will never forget them. For me these are the true heroes of the 21st Century. For what more can one give to humanity than to give up for sacrifice ones life in order that generations to come may benefit. I remembered the Biblical verse that says there was silence in heaven when God asked who among us shall go for us. Then Jesus said, ''Here I am Father! send me so that mankind can be redeemed!''
Reactions to the article ''Why I support War'' were predictive before hand. I said then and today I repeat, there will never be any meaningful development or change we so desire unless people go to war. Of course you will ask me as you did, who is that you want us to fight against? Well, my answer is simple. If you do not know who we are up against then you better step out of the debate on change.
History as we said serves not just to embellish our thoughts with sweet or horrible memories of the past but in fact to remind us that we cannot reinvent the wheel. The way has been prepared for us. I gave examples of the USA, Europe and Asia on how war was used to usher in the change they now enjoy and some of us said the circumstances have changed! Some challenged to provide a theory that informed my thinking. What a cheap way of escaping our true call! These are the same questions that we seek to defeat. People who go to war do so knowing that they have a reason to fight for themselves, for their families and for their unborn children. Imagine what the world would be like today if Socrates, Jesus, Shaka Zulu, Dedan Kimathi among others laboured in boardrooms providing theories that informed their resolve to challenge the Authorities that lorded it on mankind of their days! Well to be straight forward with the theorists, conflict in society is inevitable and is functional to the extent that after every conflict, armed or otherwise society will always develop new mechanisms of accommodation (Bernard Chester, 1984- Book available in the reserve section JKML University of Nairobi). That is if you have forgotten your understanding of Karl Marx on what the result will be like when the hoi poloi take up arms to confront the bourgeois in an armed struggle. By the way Mao Tse Tung was a student of Karl Marx. We do not need reminding where China is today. But I do not wish to belabor my emphasis on what I already took 9 years learning. By now I have already an informed opinion on what our country requires for true change- war!
So my argument again today is that workshops that spend millions of donor money talking about how our country requires change through peaceful means are just a waste of time, resources and dare I say such kind of workshops will always remain whining avenues for those who do not understand the realities and to civil societies and NGOs the workshops will remain cash cows where they milk huge monies for their salaries and allowances. And I repeat, the reason CSOs and NGOs will never embrace true solutions such as I am proposing is because by so doing they will be sealing the very source which pays them. If Kenya were to be a human rights state today then there will be no need of the thousands of NGOs we have today!
And so back to my argument, for us to achieve the change we desire we must be like the 40 young men in South Africa. They gave humanity what we will never forget. And for us in Kenya we should never fear to go to war if that is what it takes to bring change in our country. After all it will not be the first time it is happening. The Americans have gone to serious war three times, Europe more we can count, Asia the same and Africa and especially Kenya must never fear war. As I said, in 2008 we came very close to it but the process aborted thanks to NGOs, CSOs and the so called international Community. By the way when you hear several people saying let Kenyans solve their own problems on their own, by extension they are saying even if it is war we must be left to fight until we sit down and agree! The difference is that they have not articulated their call in a formal manner as I do.
As I finish, I call upon those who challenged some of us who believe in this call. We do not fear to play any role that we may be called upon to. You can count on us. And for those who preferred calling me on my mobile number to declare support, yes I agree with you. The debate on non violence is useless, it will never work. If it works, where is justice for the victims of 2007 PEV?
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