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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Our Immoral Kenyan MPs Are At It Again

This time its' much worse than Koinange Street

Our politicians in Kenya are really ahead of the world in all the wrong things. The latest controversy where Ministerial perks have been dramatically increased and MPs (whatever excuse they are using) also "want something" is nothing short of immoral when you consider the hardships and great difficulties that Kenyans are currently going through.

To this blogger there is really no difference in both sides of the house as Kenyans will find out if they make the mistake of shifting their votes to the other side of the floor hoping for genuine change to come from the nice rhetoric we are being treated to.

It is amazing what short memories Kenyan voters have when it was just the other day, early in the Narc administration when several top Narc officials including cabinet ministers were caught literally with their pants down in the notorious red light district that is Koinange street at night. (Is it any wonder that some are suspecting Gomorah-like hail and brimstone in the jinx of deaths, accidents and bad luck that has dogged this parliament and which started before they had even sat down for business?)

For the uninformed the sort of girls you would pick up on Koinange street in Nairobi at night are mostly under the legal age for sex – with consent or not. In other words it is a serious criminal offence to have sex with this poverty-stricken youngsters (whose equally-young mail siblings are usually out at about the same time carjacking and shooting innocent motorists dead).

One would be tempted to ask what the MPs are going to do with all the extra tax-payers money that they are eager to line their pockets with.

This bloggers answer: Members will of course patriotically pump it back into the economy via Koinange street.

Anybody who has illusions that the spending habits of most MPs will allow them to save the cash for the upcoming general elections should have their heads examined.

You will excuse my getting very upset and being on an extremely short fuse when discussing the conduct of members of the august house. Many readers of this blog have never been inside a cardboard house in the Mathare slums. Nor used the toilet facilities in the slums (nothing more than a polythene paperbag of your choice which you then hurl into the garbage heap nearby and thus increase the pollution which your nose can no longer detect if you've lived there for a couple of months).

Many readers of this blog also do not know what it feels like to go hungry and become so desperate because you have a family to feed and you have no idea where the next meal is going to come from.

In this kind of environment it is not only immoral but criminal for a cabinet minister to take home a million Kenya shillings. Fellow Kenyans prepare your voting cards and let’s vote in a new generation of Kenyans for better or for worse because things can surely not be left to continue the way they are.

Read the full disgusting details.

Tanzania's President Kikwete Has A Problem With Kenyans Living In His Country

In all the rhetoric we are being treated to about the proposed East African political federation a significant fact has stayed out of the news pages. And that is the fact that one partner, is very apprehensive about opening up her borders to the free movement of East Africans. That member is Tanzania.

Kenya and Uganda will open up their borders to free movement tomorrow, if given half a chance, but Tanzania is holding back everybody. And not without reason. Apart from the fact that it is easier for a Kenyan to obtain a work permit in the United States than it is for them to do so in Tanzania, there are recent developments that are of grave concern to the young government of President Jakaya Kikwete.

Since the beginning of this year Tanzania has been hit by a spate of violent crimes that is unprecedented in it's history and has included a number of high profile bank robberies. The authorities there and the press in general are not in doubt as to where the masterminds of these gruesome crimes come from (the mostly Swahili press keeps on using the phrase "criminal elements from a neighboring country").

It is now clear that as the war on crime in Kenya has intensified and as individuals and organizations have reacted by tightening security, those who live on crime are feeling the heat. And already there is evidence that many of them have gone regional (some hardened wanted criminals were recently arrested in Mozambique). It is quite likely that the source of heightened criminal activity in Tanzania is indeed Kenya.

The issue of crime is so worrying to the Tanzanian government that this blogger has reliably been informed that some Somali's were recently denied entry into Tanzania through the Namanga border. Immigration officials on the ground indicated that the new policy was to bar entry to persons of Somali origin. Everybody knows that these are the nice folks who engage in selling automatic weapons from a certain well known estate in Nairobi. But then not all Somalis are gunrunners just like not all Arabs are suicide bombers.

Genuine businesspersons and citizens of the three East African countries looking to benefit from the new East African initiative will obviously suffer the consequences of these new developments. Although criminals do not require work permits to operate and neither do they usually cross the border at designated border crossings, there is little doubt that free movement of the peoples of East Africa will be delayed for some time to come because of these recent developments.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

What’s All This Secrecy About Raphael Tuju’s Health?



Hon Raphael Tuju, Kenyan Foreign Minister

I stand to be corrected, but I thought that when a country’s foreign minister is admitted to any hospital, let alone a foreign one, this is supossed to be very big news. It does not matter if they are suffering from the common cold or something a lot more serious. More so at this time when there seems to be some strange jinx for accidents, bad luck and death that has hit the current government since it came into power.

But editors in the print media in Kenya seem to disagree with my view. They have given a total news black out to Raphael Tuju’s health-related problems in Australia. The Nation carried only a few lines that left readers in more suspense and asking more questions. So what’s going on?

It appears that Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju was admitted in a Sidney Hospital suffering from a "swollen leg" after a long flight from Nairobi to Sidney. These kind of inflight symptoms are not to be taken lightly as some fatalities have been reported in the past.

Luckily it seems the minister is out of any danger because he was discharged yesterday (after being admitted on Monday).

This blogger is busy trying to get some more information from the media in Australia.

John Githongo's American Tour And More About Kenyans Being Their Own Worst Enemies

Here is the comment that I received yesterday republished in full.


Whispering Inn said...

Wait a minute now, those are some pretty hefty, and if unsabstantiated, careless and wild, allegations that you've made there.

What is with all this penchant for conspiratorial mumbo jumbo that Kenyans seem so adept at wallowing in?

"Who's behind this?"
"Why is he doing that?"
"What's where, which, when and by whom?!"

Petty, petty, petty!

Githongo IS not running for president, either in 2007 or anytime soon.

This, I heard him say, in person, 2 weeks ago in DC, and in an interview with National Public Radio.

Perhaps we are so used to mediocrity and moronic leadership that when we get one brilliant incorruptible guy, we immediately start a witchhunt for ulterior motives and wildly speculate about conspiracies.

The man wanted to do his job well, did it for as long as he could - amid unimaginable barriers thrown his way by the powers that be - and now he's talking about the ills and effects of State-sanctioned corruption in Africa.

Nothing wrong with that.

But Kenyans, in their warped thinking, have let their innate obsession with petty imaginations cloud their judgement and cannot, therefore, understand that Githongo is doing what he's doing so that Kenyans/Africans can be saved from the yoke of bad governance!

It's one thing, and infact it's understandable, when the Murungarus and other corrupt folks question and discredit Githongo in an attempt to save their behinds.

But it's ATROCIOUS when ordinary Kenyans cannot see when they're being helped, and eagerly jump in the mudslinging bandwagon to attack someone who was almost killed for their sake!

Are Kenyans their own worst enemies? You bet!
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My Reply:

Dear Patriotic Fellow Kenyan (anybody who regularly reads an obscure blog on Kenya is a Kenyan in my book irrespective of their nationality of origin)

I agree with you that we Kenyans are often our own worst enemies. In fact I agree not 100% but 1000%

However in the game of politics I am yet to be convinced that such a thing as a free hand out exists. I'm probably too skeptical and probably even wrong in this particular case but foreign powers have caused too much havoc on the continent of Africa for me to totally ignore the historical facts of the last 100 years and those of the last 100 days.

Let time be the judge.

The Day Karl Max Was Expelled From Kanu

Are Kenyans Their Own Worst Enemies?
…. You bet!!

Yesterday I received a very angry response to my Tuesday blog on former ethics PS John Githongo. I have decided to republish it in full in my next post, see below (many people sometimes miss comments) because although I disagree with the main gist of the comment, there is a particular characteristic that the writer accuses Kenyans of that is 1000% true.

But before we delve into that, some points on a lighter note first.

It is in order for me to explain why I have no problem with people who do not agree with me. Admittedly this is very strange behavior in Kenya. (odd when we are fighting for more democratic space. I guess in Kenya democracy means freedom to agree. Imagine debates in Parliament where everybody is nodding their heads in strong agreement even as some of them nod off to sleep. This was Kanu's big vision. (Moi says it is the African way of doing things and that was how he came up with the nightmarish queue-voting system of the late 80's).

The right Kenyan thing for me to have done when I received the comment, would have been to castigate the writer as an unpatriotic Kenyan serving the same interests of the foreign masters I was talking about. An enemy of development, and of the good people of Kenya. …And all that rubbish. Or maybe I should have called for his expulsion from all political parties in Kenya including the ODM.

A Kenyan politician at the height of Kanuism, in the 1980s having heard of the alleged increased Karl Marx influence at the University of Nairobi made a strange call. He called for the immediate expulsion of the said Karl Max from the University of Nairobi and from Kanu (there was no other political party in those days so the politician was sure that anybody as politically active as Mr Karl Max was, had to be a member of Kanu.)

My point is that the current crop of politicians still have "old Kanu blood" running through their veins and they therefore cannot absorb new ideas and democracy is a pretty new idea to them. That's all the more reason why we need a generational change in our politics.

This point was brought home to me rather vividly shortly after the 2002 general elections. My 65 year old father who had cheered the Narc victory with me frowned on any opposition the government was receiving. Coming from a man who's level of education and understanding is higher than that of most Kenyans, you begin to get a picture of what I am talking about here. A lot of other things we disagreed on made on thing very clear.

In the Kanu days we agreed on everything which was that Kanu had to go as soon as possible. Now that the common enemy was gone, the generation gap became very clear. Whatever the outcome of the coming general elections, this is going to be the major issue and since Kenyans can often be their own worst enemies, the possibility is that some voters may refuse to shift from the old-tired-tried-tested-and-failed-miserably crop of current politicians. These guys are currently a big embarrassment to the people of Kenya. Let's start debating these issues early before the wise old foxes start working people's emotions and tribal demons.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Githongo Follows In The Foot-Steps Of Thomas Joseph Mboya

So what's Githongo doing in the States now? He's all over the place making appearances and giving interviews to the press.

What does that sound to you?

Of course it is a well-orchestrated PR campaign designed to build up a case against the corrupt Kenyan government and to build up the image of Githongo in the key American media. The whole idea is to get the full attention of the American public so that Washington pays more attention.

Two disturbing questions come to mind.

Who is behind all this?

And what is their intention?

All this points to one of the saddest things about Kenyan political heroes. So far they have hardly been homegrown. The path that Githongo is following is very similar to that another Kenyan political hero took in the 1950s (about 50 years ago). I am of course referring to Tom Mboya who received massive support from the Americans and was rumored to have been a CIA agent.

And in what looks like a very carefully orchestrated PR campaign, Githongo denied once again that he had plans of standing for President in next year's general elections.

This blogger is deeply ashamed and disturbed that this blog's favorite candidate for the presidency is being financed by some shadowy guys in the background.

The Futility Of Clamping Down On The Media

The Standard group has a lot to thank the Kibaki administration for. Thanks to the police raid, circulation is up and everybody is paying a lot more attention to this newspaper whose fortunes had greatly dwindled at the time of the mid night raid.

While it is still not clear whether the national security issues that were at stake when the decision to raid Kenya's oldest media group was taken, there is no doubt that the media group is much better off because of the raid.

Will politicians never learn about the futility of clamping down on the media?

Why President Kibaki Must have Known About Standard Raid

During a recent visit to the United States, former ethics PS, John Githongo, stated the obvious when he said that he thought President Kibaki was made aware in advance of the raid on the Standard group (Standard newspapers and KTN).

The Kibaki administration itself announced this when they insisted that the raid on the Standard group was an issue of national security. The question is who handles national security? In every country in the world it is the highest authority in the land and this is mainly due to the sensitivity of the issues at hand.

Government officials could have of course been telling a lie (white or otherwise) when they gave Kenyans this national security story which many have found difficult to believe. However it is the view of this blogger that nothing else makes sense and there is a very high probability that this is the truth behind the whole Standard raid saga. This means that the buck stops at one place and one place alone and that’s at a certain address along State House Road, Nairobi where the highest authority in the land resides.

Listen to the Githongo Radio Interview

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Late Extra: Greatest Safari Rally Driver Is Dead

Shekhar Mehta Dies In The UK

One of the most famous rally drivers Kenya ever produced and the man who did more than anybody else to make Datsun (now Nissan) vehicles popular in East Africa by winning the grueling Safari Rally in them succumbed to an undisclosed illness on Wednesday 12th April 2006. He was 61.

Mehta was previously a Ugandan who migrated from that country to flee Idi Amin’s reign of terror in the early 70s.

Read full story here.

Terrified Mourners Change Their Mind About Flying To Marsabit

Flying is still the safest mode of transport and in Kenya it cannot be compared to road travel which is just too risky (if a head-on collision does not get you, some trigger happy highway robbers will).

Try telling that to some Kenyans who had lined up at Wilson Airport ready to be flown to Marsabit for the funeral services of those killed in the plane crush. When these guys had that planes there were having trouble landing because of bad weather, they changed their mind about going.

"Give my seat to a journalist," many MPs were heard saying. Is this an indication of the fondness these guys have for members of the press?

Read the full story and decide for yourself.

Tragic Plane Crash That Has Suddenly Changed The Political Mood In Kenya

Gone are the hot presidential politics involving Kalonzo Musyoka and company… at least for quite a while.

Kenyan politicians have done what they need to do without having to wait for a tragedy to happen – they have been united in grief for a common cause.

Agwambo even shook President Kibaki’s hand with a lot of respect (see photograph here. Just scroll down a little).

Mercifully Kenyans can have a week or two of peace as we think of the ultimate sacrifice the fallen heroes of Kenya gave for the sake of peace in Marsabit. Let’s hope the warring clans and factions will sit up and pay attention and stop their stupid, senseless feuds.

Full story

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Late Extra: Marsabit Plane Tragedy, Six MPs Killed

9th Parliament Now Has Record For Number Of Deaths Of Sitting MPs…

…But Why?

As I was posting today's commentary, news was still trickling in about details for the burial of six members of parliament who lost their lives in the Marsabit plane crash.

The MPs were on a mission to reconcile warring local factions.

Those killed in the crash were assistant ministers Mirugi Kariuki and Titus Ngoyoni; Dr Bonaya Godana who was deputy Leader of the Official Opposition, MPs Guracha Galgalo and Abdi Sasura and regional Assembly member Abdullahi Adan.

The 9th parliament now holds the record for the highest deaths of sitting MPs which started very shortly after the elections with a Plane crash in Busia which killed a cabinet minister. It has been followed by scores of other deaths including that of a sitting Vice president, for the first time in the history of the nation. This was the death of Michael Kijana Wamalwa at a London hospital.

The superstitious ones will say it is because this is probably the parliament that has disappointed the electorate the most after such high hopes when they started off in January 2003.

The latest tragedy has had one very positive result, and that is to unite all Members of Parliament in grief. We can now have a little peace as it will take quite some time for them to start going for each other’s jugular again.

Meanwhile Parliament has been adjourned until all MPs who lost their lives are buried.

READ FULL DETAILS ON MARSABIT PLANE TRAGEDY

Moody Awori: Foreign Powers Want To Bring Down This Government

..."That would be nice and long overdue, Kenyans reply"

Embattled Vice President Moody Awori recently brought up the issue of foreign powers bent on bringing down the Kibaki administration.

To many Kenyans this will now already be a tired topic, the kind that solicits yawns. And not without reason. There is a simple fact that the current administration has never been able to grasp. And that is, no foreign power can have any influence if majority of the people are happy with their government.

If it is indeed true that foreign powers are trying to influence the political situation in Kenya, then they have only been able to get a foothold because of the current government's gross incompetence. In fact as has often been proved before, the ordinary Kenyan now worse off than they were during the darkest hours of Kanu rule does not really care where their help comes from. What matters most to them is that they find a solution to some of their current pressing problems and one way of doing this is by being able to influence change and voting out a government that has been a terrible nightmare.

The Kenyan voter feels very much like the girl who gave in to the tall handsome stranger because she believed him when he said he loved her and would marry her. Several months down the road, it becomes clear that the stranger was lying, not only is he not interested in marriage, but he's also not prepared to pay for the upkeep of the love child.

Sadly the Narc government will be best remembered for a string of unbroken promises and Anglo Leasing. All the other achievements that have been made will be overshadowed by the feelings of the majority of Kenyans about a government that has been remote and insensitive to their suffering.

The saddest thing about this whole affair is that Moody Awori is right and there is plenty of evidence of foreign influence which should alarm Kenyans. But who cares? Kenyans have plenty to occupy their minds at the moment and some of them are even thinking about the Armenian so-called mercenaries (the Artur brothers) and are wondering to themselves, "Whose complaining about foreigners now?"

Most Kenyans can hardly wait to deal with these jokers at the ballot box and if foreign influence can help bring those elections sooner rather than later, so be it.

Opinion Polls Are Dangerous Things, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka

Yet another Steadman and Associates opinion poll indicates that Kalonzo Musyoka is the most popular presidential candidate in Kenya at the moment.

The most surprising thing is that Mr Musyoka has behaved like a political novice throughout this Steadmann opinion polls affair and has greatly reduced his chances of being the next occupant of State House.

One of the most important rules about politics anywhere in the world is that you do not let your opponents guess your next move. Moi mastered this technique and survived as President of Kenya through 24 mostly turbulent years.

The most dangerous thing that Mr Musyoka has done is declare his interest and even more dangerous is the poll which clearly indicates the person to be beaten. When the other contenders for the Presidency start working on poor Mr Musyoka, it will not be long before they leave his entire presidential bid in tatters. He has forgotten too quickly that one of the reasons why Mwai Kibaki is sitting in State House today is because the announcement of the single opposition presidential candidate was delayed for the longest period possible. All the time Kanu were sure that the opposition were not capable of agreeing on a single candidate for the Presidency.

By the time Raila was saying Kibaki tosha at Uhuru Park, it was too late in the game for Kanu to device an effective strategy to counter candidate Kibaki.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Will President Kibaki Hand Over Power Peacefully?

When former Nation columnist Mutahi Ngunyi boldly said in one of his columns 2 years ago, that he did not think that President Kibaki was capable of handing over power peacefully in the event of losing elections, many people wrote Ngunyi off as an alarmist.

Now after recent disturbing developments, including the raid on the Standard newspapers and KTN media houses, it is clear that this is no longer such a far-fetched suggestion.

Ironically Mr Ngunyi is now working for the Kibaki administration.

What is probably even more disturbing are the powerful forces working around the President. These are the same forces that cancelled a scheduled meeting between Raila Odinga and President Kibaki after the two met at Safari Park Hotel and mutually agreed on such a meeting.

This meeting would have been for the better of Kenya and those who cancelled it had their individual needs (which hinge on President Kibaki remaining in power) at the topmost on their minds.

Despite some well-laid plans, a defeat for the President is almost certain bearing in mind recent opinion polls. So what happens if the president and his men refuse to hand over power peacefully? What would be the consequences especially when you consider the fact that the wounds created by the referendum of last November are to heal?
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(See election 2007 predictions)

Who Paid Kibaki’s London Hospital Bills?

That is the question being asked by Kenyans even as blundering government spokesman Afred Mutua tried to hood wink the press that the money was paid from the generous health scheme parliamentarians enjoy, knowing full well that it would be difficult for this to be confirmed by the nosy newsmen.

He had of course overlooked the fact that simple mental deduction can quite often rule out certain possibilities. In this case the President was technically not an MP at the time he went to London for treatment as parliament had already been adjourned to make way for the campaign period.

This lie by the government has drawn even more attention to this issue because it is now clear that this administration is very determined to keep that piece of information secret. This leads us to one conclusion and one conclusion only. That the characters who cleared the hospital bills are most probably not the sort that the President would like to be associated with - especially now.

In future Kenyans should make up their minds as to what their views are on a Presidential candidate that accepts such gifts.
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(See election 2007 predictions)

Fred Gumo’s Bid For The Presidency

The last few days has seen a flurry of announcements by several politicians declaring their interest in the presidency. This is probably a pointer as to just how crowded the field will be this time.

But more than anything else these announcements are a big joke and an attempt to abuse the intelligence of Kenyans. Maybe President Moi was right when he said that Kanu will rule for the next 100 years. All the major announcements for the Presidency are Kanu members pasta and present. Not to mention that the current government is very much in the hands of Kanu veterans past and present.

But probably the most hilarious announcement was that of Westlands MP Fred Gumo. The antics of this burly MP who is also a well-known bully are familiar to most Kenyans. It is amazing, the sort of things Fred Gumo has gotten away with. From slapping returning officers who made the mistake of announcing him as the loser in an election to slapping bar tenders at seedy bars whose only crime was to present a bill for payment.

This is the sort of man who wants to be president of Kenya.

This is yet another clear example of why Kenyan voters should just vote out the whole lot of these jokers.
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(See election 2007 predictions)