Tuesday, August 15, 2006

7 Things That Will Happen To Kenya If Kibaki Is Re-elected

Most Kenyans are like the proverbial Ostrich that when faced with a rapidly approaching forest fire, prefers to bury its' head in the sand and hope that the fire will just go away.

The rapidly approaching "fire" is the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki for a second term. Kenyans are well able to stop this happening, especially the young people of Kenya who just need to unite and speak in one voice.

There are even those Kenyans who feel that a Kibaki re-election may not be such a bad thing after all. The feel that the economy has recovered and is growing at unprecedented levels and Kanu is out of power.

The facts on the ground are a little different. One thing in particular that Kenyans have failed to see to see, or feel the effects of, is the so-called economic growth. I tend to agree with the economist's view that I feel is very close to the truth that points in a different direction for the answers to the current so-called strength of the Kenyan economy. It is believed that Kenyans who are now scattered all over the world have been sending money back home for investment and upkeep at unprecedented levels which has kept the Kenyan shilling very strong and cushioned the economy against current adverse effects like that of rising world oil prices. Apart from that the economic miracle of the Kibaki government is a mirage at best and a bad tasteless joke at worse.

Whatever your opinion may be, here is what Kenyans should expect from a Mwai Kibaki Re-election victory in 2007;

i) Disaster And Civil Unrest On A Massive Scale: Continuation of the current policies that ignore the plight of the majority of ordinary Kenyans especially in the area of job creation (the position of the Kibaki administration: Interest rates are low and banks are now eager to lend, why don't the penniless get working, go to the nearest bank and borrow money to start a business?). This administration believes that the Constituency Development Fund is enough to cater for the millions of Kenyans now living below the poverty line. This is a terrible mistake because this is a time bomb that will surely go off. We have already seen some tiny explosions in terms of rising levels of crime that are overwhelming the better equipped and much larger police force we have today. This big time bomb is bound to go off within a year of President Kibaki's re-election. Only a brand new administration headed by a new younger generation of Kenyans, preferably non-golf playing individuals, have any hope of seeing and addressing this priority with the urgency it deserves. It would also help if at least a few influential faces in such a new administration have used a pit latrine recently.

ii) More Commissions Of Inquiry: If you thought Moi had overused commissions of inquiry, then President Kibaki has taken them to new heights. He is now spending taxpayers money to constitute commissions of inquiry to probe members of his own immediate family. Something that can be sorted out in a 10-minute family meeting one lazy Sunday afternoon long before even the public gets wind of it, now takes up public funds and the valuable time of public officers. How else would one view the Artur's saga?

For the uninformed, commissions of inquiry are never meant to get to the bottom of anything. The idea is to be seen to be doing something while time passes so that people forget about the thorny issue at hand. Name one commission of inquiry in Kenya that has produced results to date.

Expect many more commissions of inquiry in a second Kibaki administration and no real solid action.

iii) Dozing off during cabinet meetings. The President will be 76 next year. By the time he completes his second term he will be 81 years old. Surely, let reason prevail as you answer this question. Is this the right age to deal with the problems facing the world today, let alone the problems facing most Kenyans that need radical new ideas to tackle?

The Vice President is the President's age-mate and then there is defense minister Njenga Karume. Those who are familiar with folks this age, please answer the following question; What are the odds of this cabinet staying awake and alert through a 30 minute cabinet meeting (no cabinet meeting is that short)?

iv) More Youth Funds Special funds are usually set up to help people who can otherwise not help themselves. Refugees, widows orphans etc. When a fund is set up to help the people who should be the most active in the economy of a country, then you know that there is something very wrong. In a second Kibaki administration expect the same policies that make Kenyans refugees and less fortunate in their own country so that more youth funds will be constituted to be administered by the same politicians who are experienced in handling funds like in the Goldenberg saga and Anglo Leasing affair.

v) Meanwhile Current Crop of youth leaders are growing old By the time the next elections come in 2012, Kenyans born at independence in 1963 will be approaching 50, 5 years away from the usual retirement age of 55. Is that the right time to hand over leadership to them? Mwai Kibaki joined the cabinet when he was 28 years old. He wants to leave when he is 81. Somebody help me make sense out of this.

vi) More Anglo Leasings And More Goldenbergs The financial scandals never end. There are those Kenyans who believe that because they are being exposed, somehow they will stop. Did you hear about the recent scandal where Cabinet Minister Njenga Karume sold land that he could not previously sell to the government. This administration says there is nothing wrong and everything was above board. Expect many more deals between senior influential cabinet ministers and the government that are "transparent and above board".

vii) We Will always do things the way they were done in the 60s So you are excited about the information age and what modern technology is capable of? And maybe you see it being put to good use to improve the lot of Kenyans? Forget it. Have you tried to talk to a person over 60 years of age recently? They see things very differently, the way they have always been since the swinging 60s. But Osama Bin Laden didn't exist then and neither were automatic weapons so easy to acquire for use in a crime. A second Kibaki term will be quite similar to this first one, a field day for wazee hukumbuka buffs, disaster for the nation.

If you are reading this and you still intend to play Ostrich or believe that there is nothing wrong with a second Kibaki term, then I have only one last thing left to say to you…

Will the last person leaving Kenya remember to switch off the lights…

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Find out what you can do to change things in Kenya in 2007

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Do You Want To Know The Identity Of The People Who Killed Mboya and JM Kariuki?

8 comments:

  1. i am a youth and regular reader f your blog. but i get the feeling that you are a little to obssesed about youth. youth is no panacea.a youth with no or bad ideas is worse than an old man with no ideas - at at least and old man is likely to die soon. a young man with bad ideas - i sthe reason that castro has ruled cuba for 50 yrs, moi ruled kenya for some 20 something yrs, and nyerere tanzania, 20 something mobutu for almost 30 and omar bong for i dont know how many - they were all youths when they came to power.

    so while i am a youth i dont buy into
    youthisms. i wnat to hear new ideas. in kenya we need mbekis and mandelas

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  2. Thanks God you are entitled to your own opinion. But i have noticed Luos like you think only yourselves can lead this country whereas it is known that your province 65% live below poverty levels. What is it that you think you can do for this great nation without doing it in your constituency?
    It is an open secret that at least the economy has grown to a certain extent. And i won't leave if Kibaki is reelected unless other factors facilitated the move but i would if Raila was.

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  3. My dear, if you read this blog enough you would know that I am NOT A LUO. You would also know that my parents hail from different tribes and that I am in fact your in-law and very happily married to one of your distant sisters (aren't all the daghters of Mumbi related?)

    In short I have no tribe. My tribe is Kenyan damu.

    Thank you for your opinion. I will consult widely and I would advice you to do the same and then lets compare notes again next week.

    Thank you for reading this blog and please keep reading. By the way I don't want to be President, I want a better country, if not for me, for my children. That cannot happen when we sit here in the States and pretend that Kenyans are not going hungry. Or if bread is the problem, maybe we should give them cakes...

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  4. You want to tell me that the NSIS is reading this blog? You want to tell me that it is a threat to the security of the state? You can't be serious!!

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  5. Hi Chris
    Given the fact that i am a regular reader of this blog, i know you are not a luo routing for luos, and that you are not obsessed about youth (just thought i should say that)
    you have always plainly stated that you are promoting kenya and the ideas of young kenyans in leadership

    I just wanted to say i would vote again for the current president (not the current administration though) again IF i believed he was committed to great reforms and IF he surrounded himself with a different ilk and cadre of people committed to great reforms

    Although i am currently living away from home, my family is back home and i know economic growth is there, but it is without trust and integrity and committment to reform-factors i feel if present would enhance greatly economic growth, leading to it being felt at the grassroots and all other levels of society

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  6. @Shiroh - Nowhere in the entry does Chris promote a Luo over any other tribe! He promotes MERIT...

    Did I just hear a GASP! As the liar, thief & murderer moi would ask, "Ati hii MERIT ni kitu gani? Yaani, watu wanataka kazi bila kujua kabila?"

    I post my comment as anon coz I bet the NSIS does monitor the blogs... If government snakes can raid Standard, who am I a mere blogger?

    Kibz had a chance to do much better! kibz government backed anglo-fleecing instead of shutting it down! What the f*** does "the scandal that never was mean"?

    Why were the arturs protected even when Interpol warned NSIS about the thugs?
    Why were there no CCTVs at the airport?
    Why did arturs get airport passes - apparently most senior employees knew of the arturs' powers!
    Why were the arturs coddled even AFTER the press announcement in the VIP lounge?

    This is NOT about a kikuyu prez BUT about a COMPETENT president!

    @anon #1 has a point... a young prez can be as destructive as a mzee... I'd rather have a mzee like Warren Buffett than a young one like Ruto! I think we should offer citizenship to Warren Buffett & make him prez! He runs a firm LARGER than Kenya's economy with a cabinet staff of 13 people from a modest office building in Omaha! Neo-colonialism may not be a bad thing if it keeps the belly full, citizens alive & healthy!

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  7. I can't help but agree with you about Warren Buffet.

    Is it not the democratic and human right of ordinary Kenyans to seek good management elsewhere when it is not available locally? In soccer many African countries go for foreign coaches who inevitably do a better job. Maybe it is time we found a way of contracting a foreign manager who may be better placed to deliver. So far the record of the colonialists in devlopment in Kenya is yet to be equalled. sad but true.

    Food for thought, huh?

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  8. I think ur just mad. I have no idea why Kibaki has pissed you off so much but I think ur kinda similar to the proverbial ostrich in that u dont belive in giving credit where credit is due. Without Kibaki, there would be no economic growth(5.8%) and in case u didnt know prosperity starts with having a good economy. There would be no improved infrastructure and highly open democratic space. Im not saying there is anything wrong with a second term but I think he deserves one based on just that. Plus all those other dudes seem to care about is sharing cabinet posts, but thats not surprising coz thats thats all theyve ever been after since day 1...

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