During the launch this afternoon of ODM-Kenya presidential hopeful Raila Odinga's vision, he at one juncture acknowledged prominent persons who were in attendance at the by-invitation-only function at the Plenary Hall, Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), Nairobi.
He even referred to Sally Kosgei as "his sister." A former secretary to the cabinet in President Moi's last administration, Ms Kosgei has a pending corruption-related case in court.
This remark by Raila draws attention to the huge number of highly corrupt former Kanu people within ODM-Kenya, many of them having firmly entrenched themselves in the party's high command.
Picture a situation where Raila wins the presidency and has to start dealing with corruption, will he be able to go after the corrupt people within ODM whom he has promised to share power with? Raila vowed this afternoon during the launch of his very organized and well-articulated vision that he would "fight the false god called corruption" with all his strength and the "power of his office", if given the opportunity.
Many of us remember that President Kibaki gave a similar solemn promise in the run up to the 2002 general elections and many Kenyans believed him. Sadly we now know different, not only has the fight against corruption been one of the most difficult things for the Kibaki administration to do, but the massive looting called Anglo Leasing happened during his watch too.
In my view Raila's fight against corruption has failed before it even starts by virtue of the company he keeps in ODM-Kenya. And yet fighting corruption has to be our number one priority over the next 5 years.
Over the next few weeks we will analyze the ideas in Raila's spectacular and extremely expensive vision launch in more detail with emphasis on the "ideas" rather than the candidate as per our brand new editorial policy in this blog.
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Sally Kosgei should be in jail today not for being head of civil service in danny's government but for engaging in corruption. The same should be said about Hon Raila and a bunch of many other prominent politicians in kenya.
ReplyDeleteOnly one, two or at most three of our big league politicians are without blame. Everybody else ni mwizi regardless of how colourful their vision launch is. Hiyo pesa ni ya wakenya and they stole it when they served in the cabinet.
If these are the kind of people we are calling leaders, from Raila "Molasses Plant Glabber" to Sally "NSSF Crippler" Kosgey to Henry "Kenya-Re Bankrupter" Kosgey to William "Tribal Clashes" Ntimama that we Kenyans are calling "leaders", then Kenya is headed to the doghouse!!!. Lord have Mercy!!!
ReplyDeleteWe saw it coming, didn't we? Everybody is clamouring to gain our attention with the so-called vision as if we have been sightless all these years. Once bitten numerously shy and Raila is fooling nobody except himself.
ReplyDeleteOne is judged by the company he keeps and Raila has done fatal damage to his image by associating with people desperately in need of sanitization. His hands are already solied and deep in the murk of things unclean and the grandiose launch was nothing but a showbiz.
That said, where to from here? We seem to be having a full house of sly chaps parading themselves as our saviours. We are hanging precariously in the cliffs of political nirvana and the false prophets are busy clothing themselves as saints. The players remain the same albeit different shades with different colours.
We must unmask them for what they are lest we throw our motherland to the dogs. But shall we? Your gues is as good as mine. Our loyalty to these scoundrels overrides all the pretentions to objectivity that we might be harbouring. God save Kenya.
Chris - I fail to understand you at times. Your anonymous preferred presidential candidate suddenly withdraws from the 2007 race to state house and then you promise to publish some of his bright ideas he had for Kenya!
ReplyDeleteYour above post is in contrast with your promise of change of editorial policy of "This blog will remain neutral and from now on will only support ideas rather than candidates".
Despite all the solid proposals by Raila during the launch of his vision, its unfortunate as it is a disgrace that you only choose to highlight that he was a gentleman enough to call Sally Kosgei my sister! What is so wrong about Sally Kosgei endorsing a Raila presidency? If the court case you claim she has is before a judge or magistrate and the court has yet to pass a guilty judgement, why choose to criticize Raila for calling her a sister, whether innocent of corruption or not? I was hoping you would give us a well thought out analysis of this very important political event.
Chris, my view is that because you have been bombarded by critics who call this a Raila blog, you are slowly but surely bending backwards in an attempt to please anti-Raila e-forces. How unfortunate.
I'd request you to please give credit where it is due. Highlight topical issues which will elicit positive debate in this blog that help take the country Kenya forward. Let the judiciary enjoy its constitutional freedom and let you members of the fourth estate disseminate information in an impartial manner.
I might not vote for Raila but Kibaki will never ever get my vote.
ReplyDeleteWhat has turnede me against the man more than the naked lies.Is TRBALISM!!!!!!!
Tribalism has transformed into what it has never been in the last 4 and a half years......ever.
I fear if he is elected for another term it will only be a matter of time before we have ethnic clashes.
Two things that are bleeding this country to death:TRIBALISM and CORRUPTION.
And those are the two things the Kibaki Gvt survives by.
I think you should have a separate blog for Kibaki supporters..............Tell them how good Kibaki is and how their lives are getting better.
ReplyDeleteAnd leave this one for concrete facts.
Facts, what facts in kumekucha. Yours is an openly biased "analysis" of the feeling on the ground.
ReplyDeleteYou guys think u are dealing with some jungus who have never set foot in kenya. We were born, bred,and schooled in kenya. i can tell u that even though I am not in the coountry currently, I visit Machackos my place of birth once evry two months and so no amount of propaganda is gonna make me view things differently.
Peopple will always come with beauriful "ideas". U can call them vision, bridges or anything u want but I have one message for them..."Rock bottom is always deeper than u thought". Crowd pulling is one thing and getting votes another one. Raila can ask Charity Ngilu to shed light on that. She pulled far much bigger crowds than raila will ever but the translation of these idle masses to votes not only proved beyond her reach but it was such an embarassment that she made herself a king maker.
The clock is still ticking and we are waiting for those "Ideas" to be brought on the table for discussion. It is nothing new, the same old dumb crap we have always known.
Mulwaa,
ReplyDeleteI can bet all my money that you believe only, Kalonzo can beat Kibaki from what your "ground" visits tell you!
Kalonzo cannot beat Kibaki. Nobody in kenya can beat Kibaki if elections were held today. Of course i prefer Kalonzo to Kibaki but where i come from people think with their brains. They will vote for him knowing he will be badly bruised by kibaki after the inescapable break up in odm.
ReplyDeleteI would also prefer the likes of Ojiambo and the zombie called Musalia.
My friend anonymous i understand the disease people from ya place suffer from perfectly well and i will excuse ya stupid and blind optmism. Both Kalonzo and ya demi god will be loosing anyway so let us not spend forever arguing aboput this.
Mulwaa, people who think with their brains dont talk rubbish like you do!
ReplyDeleteOrder, order please. I never knew that Chris has contracted psychologists and sociologist who can mind read. People here go ballistic with opinions which are just that, opinions.
ReplyDeleteCome on guys it must not be personal and why berate others and even brand them stupid? I don't think anybody deserves that unfortunate tag. I hope I am wrong but I fear I am right this demi god branding has lost its spark and taste, try something refreshing because it has been over flogged.
Thank you Taabu. Its very backward to call people names just because they hold different opinions.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'd rather be called a "zombie" and support a "demi-god" rather than support a witchcraft practicing pretender who is a well known Moi puppet.
In any case, very soon all these candidates will be on the field, and at the end of the day, we shall see who will be the last man standing.
So Mr Agwambo has finally launched his so called vision. It looked more like a manifesto to me. It certainly was no vision. A vision declares ways and means, not high sounding wishful thinking. Raila`s was more a wish list than a vision.
ReplyDeleteA man who drives His expensive Hummer through poor neighbours hoods, being cheered on by folks who wish they had a 10/= to get on a boda-boda bicycle beggars belief ...
HIS VISION: He says He will build INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS in Wajir, ISIOLO, N LAMU etc;
MY QUESTION:
1. what is the ECONOMIC N SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE of building the above airports vis a vis his unexplained economic objective?
2. Where is the dough coming from given his lack of a "track record in pioneering such grand projects? why should we believe n trust that He is capable of achieving those goals in that financial context?
3.For 40 years Kenya's middle n lower classes have never had as much hope for the future of their children as they do now, given the economic achievements of the Kibaki government and which everyone agrees has done a good job in that aspect n things can only get better! Given the untrustworthiness of Kenyan politicians since independence, and who always make the most SEDUCTIVE PROMISES when they need votes, like "Italian playboys....
Why should Kenyans take a gamble n trust Raila n not stay with Kibaki, who is the first leader in a very long time whose work you can see?
4. Raila's most powerful argument for leadership is that he has suffered a lot 4 Kenyans by being detained the most in the fight 4 justice. HOWEVER, IS THAT REALLY TRUE?
CONSIDER this.
The first time he was detained was 4 ochestrating an amateurish and incompetent coup attempt in 1982, n which he has CONFESSED to having taken part in.
HE HAS NEVER APOLOGISED to the thousands of families of those who died then!
HE HAS NEVER APOLOGISED to the hundreds of young Airforce men who lost their jobs if they did not lose their lives!
He has NEVER APOLOGISED to the families of the hundreds of young Luo men who just happened to be the unfortunate pawns in a misguided quest for power at any cost!
WHEN HE WAS CONSEQUENTLY CHARGED WITH TREASON AND DETAINED, it was the first time anybody had ever heard of Raila Odinga. NOT AS A FREEDOM FIGHTER, NOT AS A FIGHTER FOR JUSTICE, BUT AS A TRAITOR FOR TRYING TO OVERTHROW A LEGIMATE GOVT VIOLENTLY, AND TRAITORS ARE HANGED!! Where then is the much vaunted pedigree as a fighter for justice prior to that unfortunate blot on Kenyan history as described above? where is the Gandhi or Mandela comparison he and his fanatical supporters love to chuck at his detractors at this point in his "illustrious career"?!! Come on y'all, tell it to the world!
A short time thereafter, he is again detained for 4 months for allegedly being part of some revolutionary organisation. It is a fact that this was merely to spite his father.
In 1990 he is again detained with K. Matiba n Charles Rubia. Again
it is his father being punished for daring to trying to form a Political opposition against a then ruthless tyrant called Moi with the latter two. His father is the one who was negotiating with Matiba, everyone knows that!! Raila has no shame then taking the credit from his father yet his father is the one who was being punished through seeing his beloved son suffer. Talk about being double faced.
5. Again, as Raila claims to speak for the poor, what "visionary leadership" has he demonstrated in Kibera, his constituency? Has he significantly helped change the lives of a significant number of those poor slum dwellers irreversibly as he claims he will do for Kenyans? In other words, has he demonstrated leadership?!I highly doubt that he has and anyone who claims otherwise is a liar. Why then, should we trust him with the leadership of the larger constituency, the Kenyan Nation?!!
The argument should therefore never be about whether Raila is suitable to be President. That is infact his constitutional right like any other Kenyan. The question is why he seems to think that he deserves to be so more than anybody else! He is just another Kenyan politician whose monumental ego also happens to eclipse anybody elses, including the current President. That is not political acumen but loudmouthed obnoxiousness, and it will not get him anywhere.
Ultimately, the question is this: in your heart of hearts, whom between Raila and Kibaki would you trust to take care of your childrens future? Whom do you think is less likely to take careless and reckless risks that could endanger you and your childs future? Answer honestly!
Story by PAUL MWANGI
ReplyDeletePublication Date: 2007/05/09
President Kibaki’s team of campaigners must have been holding their collective breath with trepidation when Lang’ata MP Raila Odinga’s team assembled to launch his vision last Sunday. The greatest worry must have been that Mr Odinga would launch a vision that would make everyone look like they never went to school.
When the function started, it looked like he might do just that. The pomp was unrivalled. The speeches were equally impressive. The Rev Timothy Njoya set the mood of what was literally an enthronement.
Many of Mr Odinga’s competitors in ODM must have regretted their presence at the ceremony as they had to stand and chant after the Rev Njoya “So be it” as he prayed for Raila’s presidency.
But when the climax came, it aborted because Mr Odinga ended up putting the best case so far why President Kibaki should be voted for a second term.
Firstly, we watched something we have not seen in a long time sycophancy. It was unsettling to see a man drowned in so much praise before the entire nation, and incessantly told how good he has been for us.
For a man applying for a job to be our servant, the ceremony lacked the humility that should go with such a noble intention. I did not see a servant applying for a job, but an emperor in the making.
When Mr Odinga opened his speech, he begun by recounting where we are coming from. That was fine, but that is not the next step for Kenya.
Yes, we have suffered, lost opportunities, and been repressed, but we can’t undo the nation and start it anew. No regime will bring back Pio Gama Pinto, T J Mboya or JM from the dead. They are now good lessons of what we must avoid. They are not our starting point.
He then read a list of things-to-do that sounded like it had been authored by Dr Alfred Mutua.
In a majority of respects, his vision did sound like President Kibaki’s achievements.
IT WAS RIGHT OFF THAT SMALL book Dr Mutua has been distributing. It was roads, hospitals, health, education, expansion of airports, etc. There was nothing so radically different as would have justified him to say that he can deliver Vision 2030 some 10 years earlier.
I compared the suggestions to those of Mr Kalonzo Musyoka’s, and I thought the latter had been more daring.
It was when Mr Odinga departed from the well-written speech that his political character came out. In an off-the-cuff remark, he expressed his admiration for the revered German Chancellor, Otto von Bismark. In short, he told us that Bismark’s is the model he would use to usher us into the Second World.
Now, Bismark achieved an almost impossible feat. He created Germany from several independent empires and developed it into one of Europe’s most powerful countries. But the road was not that rosy, and it was done at a very high cost to Germans and other Europeans.
From the very beginning, Bismark made it very clear that he had no time for democracy. “The great question of the day will not be decided by speeches and resolutions of the majorities but by blood and iron,” he had declared. He waged three wars in eight years, oppressed Catholics, socialists and liberals, and eventually became so unpopular that Kaiser Wilhelm II fired him in 1890.
It is believed that Bismark’s dictatorial domestic policies laid the foundation for the Nazi regime five decades later. He was aptly nicknamed the “Iron Chancellor” for his autocratic method of ruling.
If that is the way Mr Odinga will usher us into the Second World 10 years earlier than when Mr Kibaki has promised, I elect to take my time getting there.
Bismark was possibly good for Germany in the 19th century. But his example cannot be the guiding light of a president wanting to lead us as a democratic nation in the 21st century.
And to crown it all, the ceremony was closed by Raila’s supporters singing that despicable anthem of Kenya’s years of tyranny, “Tawala Kenya Tawala”.
Mr Mwangi is a Nairobi lawyer
Hello there Crabs,
ReplyDeleteIn wanting to build airports and highways linking wajir, lamu and moyale, Raila is aiming at opening up what used to be called the NFD (Nothern Frontier District) that has suffered untold discrimination and remained economically marginalised from the rest of the country since colonial days. One only needs to visit Ethipia / kenya border to see the difference between the two countries. South Sudan is opening up. Ethiopia is landlocked, therefore the potential is certainly there.
The masterminds of the 1982 coup attempt are well known and some of them have been tried, found guilty and hanged. I dont remeber Raila being a member of the defunct KAF. Dictatorship has to be fought in all ways. You cannot tell me you have forgotten how much the KANU regime dealt with dissent in the 1980s? Even the mau mau committed unimaginable atrocities against fellow africans during the uprising in 1950s, and more recently the ANC had to resort to armed struggle as a way of fighting apartheid.
Matiba, in my opinion, is nowhere compared to 2nd liberation heros like Odinga, Anyona, Orengo or Shikuku. That is something I disagree with entirely. Matiba only joined the liberation struggle in late 1989 after a serious disagreement with Moi on how the Kiharu KANU sub branch elections were held (Kalonzo was presiding officer). And by the way, are you trying to justify detention without trial - just because one has the guts to challenge dictatorship or choose a different political destiny/ Remember that when others were suffering detention without trial akina Kalonzo, Kibaki and co. were busy enjoying kanu's fruits and drinking nyayo's milk.
If you knew the history of Kibera, the sufferings of the people there and what it means to be a resident of kibera, you wouldnt be asking what Raila has done for the residents. Have you asked yourself why they vote for him, last three general elections, including one by-election? Maybe those folks you refer to as boda boda riders have seen something worthwhile in him?
Talking of honesty, Of course, I can never trust Kibaki again. Just looking at his current over bloated cabinet, it is full of people we never voted for in 2002. In other words, he is leading a fraudulent government and I cannot entrust my future (let alone that of my kids') with him.
Anonymous, I dont think it is wise to copy and paste articles from the Daily Nation as we know perfectly well which master the editors at the Nationare serving. Besides, if we really wanted to read the nation, it is available on-line and along the streets of Nairobi and Kampala. Spare us please!
No I won't spare, you, please! Not when you push Standards opinion down my throat like you do.I know their take on issues as well as you know Nation's.
ReplyDeleteI've always cosnidered Kumekucha as a forum for free expression of ideas, and I feel that if some are shut out, its my duty to bring them to the light of day.And he deletes some so....its by his choice that my pasted items are here.
You all need to be open to other points of view as well.I feel you are always very defensive when presented with a different opinion, and go beyond defensive to outright aggressive and isnulting.This is not how to win people over, please!-just so I malizia like you.
Anon, you are free to propagate your ideas to whosoever you wish to. The nation, just as the standard, is free to publish articles in favour of whichever political party its editors subsicribe to. Difference is; Nation is a business that is owned by a foreigner and the standard is owned by Kenyans.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea behind this blog, I believe, is to offer a fresh approach to topical issues by giving readers the forum to publish alternative views. But when you cut and paste published opinion from another open source (nation) while you personally do not add any value to it by way of review or otherwise - how then do you call that your opinion? That is breach of intellectual property and only serves the purpose of saturating this blog.
Chris' job here is only to maintain rules of decorum. No insults and please and no vulgar language.Why do some Kibaki / Kalonzo supporters find it difficult to debate soberly?
Over the years and watching keenly what what Hon. Raila 'Agwambo' Odinga stand for, I have a feeling that he's the most suitable and undisputed Leader Kenyan can ever have right now. He has been on every attempts you can ever think of to make Kenya a better Home for all Kenyans across the board. President Kibaki trully is just a Pretender and Lier to say the least so to get the Presidency. Well, this time around he has nothing really to tell Kenyans; "everything that has a Start Ends", His Presidency is now coming to an End.
ReplyDeleteNo room for Moi and Kibaki's kind of Politics which is now absolete.
Hon. Raila Agwambo Odinga our Next President- No doubt about that.
Patrick