Finance Minister Amos Kimunya dropped a bombshell at the JKIA airport yesterday on his return from London.
He says that the Nairobi stock exchange has had a major downturn just at the prospect of an ODM government and that all gains made so far will be lost if Kenyans dare to vote in an ODM government.
He implied that businessmen are generally piing on themselves imagining Raila Odinga as President.
He went on to add that if ODM came to power the effect on the public would be massive unemployment as major investors are bound to pull out en masse.
Wiow!!!
Where does this guy live? The unemployment situation in Kenya can not get any worse than it is now, so what massive unemployment is the Minister (who known for his shifty eyes) talking about?
Now this was a very serious statement coming from a whole Finance Minister in the government of the republic of Kenya.
To start with the Mr Kimunya is trying to make a propaganda attack that is carefully aimed “under the belt” at the PNU’s main challenger look like an official statement. Never mind that numerous entrepreneurs can’t wait to see the end of the Kibaki administration.
The Electoral Commission should prevail on Bwana Kimunya to apologize to ODM for such a lousy remark.
But the funniest side of it all is that the statement will have virtually zero effect on most of the electorate. The people of Kenya are fed up and want change and many of them as so down and out that they do not feel at all threatened by Mr Kimunya’s threats.
Is Mukhisa Kituyi about to defect to ODM?
Chris, let me play junior e-cop for just a second and openly chide you for implying that there are more than a few entreprenuers who want to see the end of Kibaki's administration-who are these entreprenuers? and why would they want such a thing?surely they of all people are aware the economy is growing and already we're recording 7%GDP(Gonga Dudu Polepole) for the first half of this year. that is not a contemptible thing. The empty stomachs that are politically motivating the majority of kenyan voters to the opposition cannot be trusted because textbooks tell us that voters are wooed for their votes with alot of presents the economy being one such present.what makes anyone think once we're tossed to the other side of an opposition Government entreprenuers will be more comfortable with all smiles? wishful thinking i tell you, we need to stop being seduced by all these different political delusions across the divide.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, i blame us voters for being politically senseless animals expecting either ODM or PANU to live in private upto the statements they make in public
Open your mouths and prepare to taste coloured water disguised as wine-rain drops
This is yet another reckless and irresponsible statement from the so called Kibaki blue boy. Kimunya is insinuating that only the Kibakis of this world can turn wheels at the NSE! What hogwash.
ReplyDeleteIf there is anyone wanted out of power by the business community, it is the Kibaki regime. The informal businesses in Kenya (eg. jua kali, exhibition, mama mboga, mitumba dealers, etc) are never captured in Kimunya's budget. But they control a significant part of our economy and constitute a majority of the voters. Insider trading at NSE is the problem that Kimunya wants to apportion to ODM. It just wont work.
PS - Vikii, how was Uhuru Park? Did attend that rally? I hope you didnt have to ride in one of those hundreds of yellow line Ukambani buses I saw at parked as far away as All Saints Cathedral?
Dishonesty is the word that describes most contributors in this blog. People say things they dont believe and despise things they know are true.
ReplyDeleteIt is common knowledge even to Raila himself that a Raila presidency will hurt the Stock Exchange. The harm may be temporal but the truth of the matter is that all investors are risk-averse and nobody would want to throw their stocks in the Indian Ocean. They will all be adopting a "wait and see attitude" for the first two/three years of such a presidency. If Chris understood a thing about honesty, he would have commented on Raila Odinga's ridiculous outburst that drug money fuels the trading at the NSE. In my opinion, someone who wants to be president of a country like Kenya must have both the uprightness and the maturity to acknowledge that against facts there are no arguments.
The economic growth is something that really irks those in the failures' camp. Elementary economics tells us that effective collection of revenue (taxes) by the government and prudent and sound management of the same has a direct positive impact on job creation. When someone says that the employment rate is at its lowest under Mwai Kibaki when tax collection has almost trippled over the last four years or so and when corruption has reduced (let us not argue about it please) is at the very best a fallacy. Some of the stuff Chris and followers write here can be found next to Sidney Sheldon at the fiction shelf. Very imaginative indeed.
I support Amos Kimunya on this, not because he has shifty eyes but because he said the truth and nothing but the truth. It is Raila Odinga who owes Kenyans an apology for deriding their hard work that resulted in the vibrant Nairobi Stock Echange. What he has ever since done is to keep saying he never said it when it was captured on camera. That apology is long overdue Mr. Raila.
Whatever happened to Kioko? To use his words, the uncut boys are so busy fishing for votes and real fish et al..they dont even understand the NSE. To them, only drugs can make money.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it. How does Raila make money? His lifestyle cannot be sustained by the sala at parliament and losses at Spectre..
And these are the same people who wish to run our treasury and central bank?!!! God help us!!
Kimunya is only following in the footsteps of his boss Kibaki who upon being coronated in 2003 used the occassion of his second public address to the nation as its Head to sharply tell us we must become a working nation. what an insult to all Kenyans in all far-flung parts parts of the further reaches of the country. you mean to tell me we were not working until you came along to cajole us into doing so?how did he not think that we survived while toiling and slaving under Moi's 24 rule? To make matters worse, the president has resided over one parliament that will go down in history as being on a never-ending mission to ever-increase their pay, perks and benefits. If that is what entreprenuers are fearing they will loose the instance there is a change of Government then even vision 2030 cannot save the business community of this country from forever average performances of increasing wealth on paper and not on hand
ReplyDeleteon the other hand, ODM are not going to perform any better because the same drug money Raila Odinga claimed fuels the NSE is what he says he wants to import back into the country to fuel the ridiculous proposals his team have made on the economy and infrastructure.
fellow Kenyans, taste the coloured water in the name of milk&honey
Any new government makes investors (and even the general population) adopt a wait and see attitude. ODM wont be the first one. As much as we want to draw comparisions between Kibaki's 'sound economic management' and Moi's 'disaster', are we using the same economic calculations as was used when Moi was making the disaster?
ReplyDeleteFor instance, pure cocaine worth 6.4billion was captured in Kenya during Kibakis reign. It was packed in one sealed container, later presumably destroyed at KEMRI.
14 other similar containers were confirmed to have transitted through Kenya = 14 x 6.4b = 89.6b, Kenya shilingi. Thats only one of them Vikii. Where are these guys taking all this money? Due deligence is not a prerequisite for any investor at the stock market. In other words, government cannot really tell us in no uncertain terms where investors at NSE get they money from. (Luke, how do you manage to make advance judgment on ODM). Who is the beneficiary of the bhang plantations around the Mt. Kenya forest area? How about the miraa farms in nyambene? Or the massive glue shipments of glue that young street families beg all day for? Young lives are being ruined in Kenya. These are all untaxed and very lucrative banned drugs trade. Nani ndiye chief wa hawa jamaa wote?
Luke, in a very genuinely honest and innocent quest for knowledge, I am posing a question to you. Isnt it the responsibility of leaders (The president in this case)to motivate the governed? I find your attack on Kibaki's working nation call completely unwarranted. Why then do we pay him? Leaders the world over have always called upon their subjects to shun divisity, to work hard and to do stuff they have always done. Unless someone wants to prescribe a new job description for the president, that was not a crime. it was not a misdeed either.
ReplyDeletePhil, what is your argument here? My defence of Kibaki's economic management was a correction to an open lie like many others before it that Kenya now has the highest unemployment rate achievable. I am not surprised that you passionately subscribe to Chrisism but I will not shy away from calling for a little bit of honesty from you guys. You will make more sense to me if you give me Kibaki's real weaknesses and Raila's real strengths. When you choose to dwell on 'imaginaries' then I will tell you that i am not fooled.
About political rallies at Uhuru park, phil, i am not a medic, I dont treat shock. Iam trained in an entirely different field.
And Luke the principle of separation of powers calls for independent and distinct operation of the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. Each of these should function free from undue pressures from the other two. If Mwai kibaki is nowadays "presiding over parliament", he is doing someone elses job.
ReplyDeletePhil I hope you are alive to the metarphor that you can sometimes inadvertently sharpen a knife only to end up kissing its blades. Speaking of bhang famrs in Mt. Kenya, do you know the tribulations of one David Makali (yes him who headed ODM communication office during referendim) in the hands of some goons hired by one ODM MP in Nairobi? Just food for thought ama ni selective memory for superlative expediency?
ReplyDeleteOnto matters of the day
ReplyDeleteChris tell me from ur "intelligence on the ground"
Were those PNU supporters intertwined with ODM-K supporters yesterday?
If those where all ODM-K supporters then... Wow!Congratulations to Kalonzo.But I think all Nairobians know that sumthing was amiss
Vikii, i appreciate your unquenchable thirst and sincere quest for knowledge to educate yourself and better your status in life inspite of our obvious differences in political ideology i.e. you being a ODM K man and me being politically non-partisan Let me assure you i am all for being spurred on to greater achievements by my leaders, in whatever arena of life-social, religious or political. however, i must justify my attack on Kibaki's working nation call as not being motivated by a lack of understanding of his job description but more a wrong diagnosis and equally wrong prescription on either his part or the part of his handlers on what they thought ailed the 40+ year old nation he inherited the dawn of January 1st 2003
ReplyDeleteKenyans had been working-and working very hard-toiling and slaving under both a single and then later a multi-party era trying to grapple and come to terms with an economy leaking at a rate faster than you could say "Goldenberg" or "YK92". neither were we working quietly and unobtrusively, but many of us were dedicated, hard working and devoted to feeding our families on less than Ksh76($1 at the time) a day.
In his inaugural address that December of 2002, the President hit the nail squarely on the head when he rightly diagnosed the cantankerous cancer that was eating our society inside out and rotting the greatness of Kenya "corruption shall now cease to be a way of life". That to me Vikii should have been the President's crystal clear clarion call. not "get down to work"-what do you mean to tell me by saying that?what have been doing all along then? long before we were singing "i am unbwogable" majority of us were singing "KANU ya jenga nchi" we were working but the problem was the money or power we should rightly have gotten for our work was siphoned off somewhere along the way by our leadership's obsession with corruption
Vikii, if the president did not reside over parliament, why would bills assented to by the national assembly have to pass through him for final approval or rejection or is that merely a ceremonial procedure with no meaning? more than twice over he had the power to reject perk, salary and wage benefits whether approved by a tribunal established pre NARC or not
simply put-he's the captain, the buck stops with him. does the tail wag the dog or is the dog at the mercy of an arbitrary tail that fully controls the wag?
Word of advice to my dear Kenyans; if in the near future, you succumb to the pangs of the very rare rich sweet honey that can only be found in Kitui and the outskirts of Machakos, please do not risk driving to that part of the country when Reverend Kalonzo Musyoka is holding a Holy Crusade at Uhuru Park like last Sunday. You will be very disappointed because all the bee-keepers, shopkeepers, practically all the residents of Kambaland will have traveled to Nairobi.
ReplyDeleteI saw this article somewhere. Its an interesting read....
ReplyDeleteThe Man who would Be King
Kenyans have watched with increasing consternation as Raila Odinga's popularity has surged in the opinion polls, riding on a wave of crowd-pleasing nothingness and incendiary rhetoric.
That the ODM candidate is a superior class of politician, one with his finger right on the pulse of public opinion is unquestionable, but even his most ardent supporters must have their minds dizzy with the extremity of his vacillation and his capacity for wowing crowds with a steady stream of bile and comedy. It is important that a politician win elections but the question must be asked, what is it all for? Is it simply a pursuit for glory? What is the intended consequence of ascension to State House. And for the voting public, what are the consequences of the realization that he almost never means what he says?
raila_edited.jpg
ODM's Raila Odinga
Nowhere in the constancy of rhetoric is there a genuine hint of a well-thought out raft of proposals, or indeed even of the embryonic rumor of an economic policy. But so hungry are the people, and so far removed from the feast at the table that their eyes are transfixed on the messenger and the boom of his voice. Their fickle attentions mesmerized and misdirected to their disadvantage, hearing only what they want to hear and seeing only what they want to see.
Over a steady fifteen years, carried along in no small part by our political immaturity and desire for ruthless, exploitative leadership, Raila has succeeded in creating for himself a brand as the enigmatic whitewasher, the man who can make black white and white, black. In the time since, he has arrogated to himself the name of Messiah, and with the consequent fanatical support, crafted an ability to resurrect the political fortunes of many an ugly politician, and with just as much ease to cast as a demon yesterday's angel. The avenger's sword has visited many a Kenyan politicians' throats, most recently that of Kalonzo Musyoka. A short time before that, it was William Ruto on who the war was waged. With stiff reminders that those with court cases would not be allowed to run for president, and that Sally and Henry Kosgei would be taken up to replace him if he did not comply. Now that he has, those court cases are really nothing but a distant memory.
At the last election, it was Raila's present running mate Musalia Mudavadi who was strung up on charges as the dark force behind Goldenberg, the largest fraud in Kenya's history. Now, however it is Prof. George Saitoti who must take the blame for those crimes as Musalia is made whiter than the snow. President Moi was also propped up in power by the NDP and Raila's energies, not just in the support given against James Orengo's vote of no confidence, but also in the steady buttressing that was supplied to KANU measures in that parliament and in the constitutional efforts of the turn of the century.
musalia.jpg
From demon to angel
The less transported among Raila's supporters try to hide their discomfort by euphemizing his irresolution, or more frankly his deceitful nature, labeling these 'tactical political moves', strategies aimed at reaching political goals. But even they must be wearied by having to constantly explain his capricious nature, a task that is not made any easier by the ODM's pretensions to the status of 'reform party.'
Our memories as Kenyans are not the longest, a fact made clearest by the euphoric wave that saw Moi's former Vice President acclaimed as a reformer in 2002, against the better wisdom of such reformists as James Orengo. And that is the big lesson for Kenyans today.
Five years ago, a few weeks before the famous Tosha cry, Raila Odinga was in the media proclaiming the iniquity and unsuitability for national leadership of the NAK coalition. At that time, the LDP, Raila's party had been promoting Prof. George Saitoti as its candidate for the presidency. So it was that some Kenyans were surprised to see him championing Othaya MP Mwai Kibaki, the NAK (DP) candidate as the best possible one, only a few weeks later.
But those who knew the then LDP leader were not at all surprised, especially as the long-time Lang'ata MP has shown pedigree for just such caprice. Only three years earlier, he had through a key-ally Otieno Kajwang, brought to parliament a motion of no confidence against then Vice President Prof. Saitoti citing his involvement in the Goldenberg scandal. This attempt was thwarted only as the GEMA vote in parliament came to the defence of its brother. Still, it did not escape notice that the NDP crowd were even that early on, working with State House to clear the path to the Moi succession, a path in which Saitoti's position as heir-apparent was an obstacle. Raila and the NDP crowd were zealous in their campaigns against Saitoti, vigorously taking the vanguard against an MP from the party they were conducting a 'cooperation' with. This was the true reason why NDP joined with KANU, and not some altruistic mission into the belly of the beast. In whatever way the old wizard Moi did it, Raila was under the impression that Moi would hand over to him. Here is their plan from Christmas Day 2000. Or as Raila would better explain it, Moi has the girl we are courting .
moi2001.jpg
once a friend and partner
By early 2002, the anti-Saitoti campaign was taken further, when in the Machiavellian coup at Kasarani, Raila and NDP turned the knife in the professor's back, in the process showing off their democratic credentials. But later that year, in a bizarre turn-around following the realization that Moi had no intention of handing the country over to Raila, Saitoti was magically transformed into an angel of light. That sunny Kajiado day, so long gone from the collective memory must still nag at Raila's present beau, former Vice President Musalia Mudavadi, for it was then that he was announced as the chief villain behind Goldenberg.
When the Kroll Report was released recently, it was used as a weapon to bash the government about with, even as only two years ago, with much of that report public knowledge, Raila had castigated the Kibaki government for not leaving former President Moi alone. As late as last week, the indefatigable Lang'ata MP was brandishing his role in protecting Moi against the seizure of his Kabarnet Gardens home, a property that was State property until its appropriation by Moi. Louis Otieno tries to be diplomatic with him in this video here , asking questions about consistency and whether, 'it is Raila that decides who is innocent and who is guilty?' Raila even goes so far as to claim that William Ole Ntimama has never been accused of involvement in any scandal.
It is now the norm that on every issue, rather than provide leadership, the ODM candidate will simply pander to the basest instincts of the crowd he is addressing. His fanatical supporters are carried away by this and see his wavering but constantly extreme sentiments as alloyed to those of the 'common man'. For the rest of the electorate however, it is important that we wake up to the tragedy we are walking into. Kenyans it is true are a bitter people, having for so long been let down by their government, but for a leader of such national importance to play with their emotions in the way Raila does is dangerous populism, especially as it is never backed with well-thought out solutions or structures. Remember the proposal to bring the Olympics to Kenya? Or to have the economy grow at a 20% clip per year? Remember the allegation that the Nairobi Stock Exchange was growing on the back of drug money ?
The Late Michael Wamalwa
Worryingly also, the ODM leader displays an extremely violent streak, which cannot but be a harbinger of mayhem for Kenya. During his time in KANU, when the Muungano wa Mageuzi of James Orengo and Anyang' Nyong'o among others was agitating for a Wanjiku-led constitutional reform programme, the Lang'ata MP issued what could not have been more explicit orders for a violent disruption of a rally to be held in Kisumu. Remember that these were people merely agitating for reform, the true forces of Kenya's second liberation and not a collection of KANU youth-wingers. To attack the likes of Ooki Ombaka shows that for the NDP- Raila allied groups, there is no conscience in their politics. All that matters is compliance, and obeisance to the Dear Leader.
Yes, this is what Raila gets up to when he is in power. Whether enjoying explicit power in government or implicit power in Nyanza province, the ODM leader does not give an inch, and is not shy about blessing violence. The episodes involving Nazlin Umar in Kisumu are still fresh in the memory, but what of other victims of his intolerance of dissent. Does anyone now remember Edwin Ogonda Osir; does anyone remember Lawrence Akinyi Oile or the violence that imposed Shakeel Shabir as the Mayor of Kisumu? If not then let this report from the Daily Nation of November 2000 serve as a reminder. Last of all spare a thought for the Finance Minister Amos Kimunya, who was at the sharp end of the Lang'ata MP's ire. When the two found themselves sitting on Kibaki's front-bench, Raila subjected Kimunya to a quick sharp jab on the rib with his elbow . The danger here of course is that politicians of other parties and persuasions begin to look weak or irresolute in the eyes of the electorate, and are therefore likely to employ similar tactics whenever they can.
Amos Kimunya
Even when the violence is not physical, it is passionate and just as persuasive. The message as always is quite clear, it is either my way or the highway, and there is no room for dissent. That SDP chairman James Orengo and former Rangwe MP Shem Ochuodho have now complied shows just how coercive the violence may be. In the first days of the new millennium, the two MPs were attacked by a mob so vicious that John Githongo in this report here says the aim appeared to be the murder of the two MPs .
So it is that we find ourselves facing an election with Raila Odinga on the ballot, and in the lead in all opinion polls. How he has got there is no mystery, and to the sins above, I would add the vicious anti-Kikuyu strain in his campaigns. What we find in Raila is a politician who has mastered more than anything a peerless ability to whip up the crowds. But no man has a leash on the consequences that such actions can bring out, especially not when he has shown as stark an intolerance for dissent as has the ODM leader. The consequences of a Raila presidency may well be starker than the polarisation we have suffered under Kibaki's presidency. For a reformist, the ODM leader has very few ideas on how he would rebuild the country, even as his history shows a higher probability that his election to State House will lead to a falling apart of the country.
This is not mere scare-mongering. The one constant strain we can distil from his career of the last 15 years is a clear and uncompromising intolerance. Massive pressure and intimidation are brought to bear on anyone who shows the slightest doubt. William Ruto and even Musalia Mudavadi (who for a brief moment told us of ODM's dictator) have all been brought into line. But some will still try to resist the domination.
No single political pact Raila Odinga has ever been involved in has survived longer than a couple of years. This is the case whether the pact is with a completely different party (for example Moi or Kibaki) or with colleagues who share the same goals as he does (for example the late Kijana Wamalwa, Orengo or Mageuzi). That Raila Odinga has shown himself incapable of change, and an implacable foe of peace demands that we do not vote for him.
Kimunya is right, the drug barons are taking their money back to their mother land.
ReplyDeleteKen thanks for that LONG PIECE. It could well make a fascinating chapter. Whoever wrote it is a good student of catague. Kenyan politicians are scoundrels per excellence and what you say of one is true of all the rest. Not to insinuate that the article is wrong, but it loses credibility in its bias to one side. An objective take would also list the untruths from the side you appear to paint white as snow. In all the article sounds more like a EULOGY to ....(ujijazie)
ReplyDeleteI am back. I am sure there are many bloggers who miss my postings. Together we shall defend our country and our President without fear of being stoned by toothless and primitive lakeside idiots. Kioko. BC, Canada.
ReplyDeleteKioko BC,
ReplyDeleteYour country must be Mt Kenya and yes you will soon have your presedent very near you at Othaya!