Why some Kalenjin politicians are now fleeing UDA. Shocking | Kenya news

Monday, November 29, 2010

Reforms in Kenya: Is it time to negotiate with murderers and masters of impunity?

With recent political happenings in mind, many leading political analysts believe that there is now the very real danger of reforms in Kenya being derailed and the beautiful new Kenyan constitution ending up still-born after all. This is a view that yours truly also holds. Alert Kenyans are wary of reforms being choked even at this eleventh hour by the political class and those who stand to lose the most with a new order of things. Our local press has captured the mood perfectly by creating screaming headlines and alarmed TV news reports every time there is a tiny little obstacle to progress in the implementation of the new constitution within the set timetable.
Precedents are not the preserve of lawyers and courtrooms only and so I went out and looked for the most similar recent situation to that of Kenya and the one that is naturally nearest home. I quickly zeroed in on South Africa and how the evil apartheid system was finally defeated. Many of the phenomenal changes that have taken place in that country are today taken for granted. Little regard is given to the insurmountable hurdles that had to be scaled before a new South Africa could be born. But what surprised me even more were the secret talks that took place behind the scenes initiated by some far-sighted white folks from the business community who could clearly see that the country was disintegrating rapidly. Read details about that HERE.

In this case I was lucky enough to come across a movie detailing the whole secret talks and the key role they played in the whole process, called Endgame. See details about the movie here
The thing about watching a movie about a research subject is that you get drawn into all the very real emotions of the situation and this brings about a much deeper understanding than relying only on reading material.

For instance radicals on both sides of the divide went to great lengths to frustrate and even sabotage the peace talks. These extremists on both sides felt terribly betrayed that there should be any talks at all.

Can Kenyans learn something from Nelson Mandela’s South Africa? Can the masses negotiate with the evil political class who must survive the reforms that we have already instigated at all costs? Will this save lives and help Kenya get to where she is going much quicker?

As far fetched as this may seem at first sight let us dare to delve deeper and start throwing in some names of the kind of people who should have representation on the table for such negotiations. Mwai Kibaki and family, The Moi family, Nicholas Biwott, The Kenyatta family, Njoroge Mungai (former powerful cabinet minister and aide of President Kenyatta credited with being behind the most major political assassinations executed during Kenyatta’s watch), surviving members of the Kiambu Mafia that surrounded President Kenyatta. Perhaps we should also add families of those who were so brutally assassinated mostly under the guise of national security? Families of dead Kenyans like Tom Mboya. JM Kariuki, Pio Gama Pinto, Robert Ouko etc.

When you really think about it, we are worse off than the South Africans were because at some point we will need to get tribal representatives and dive into some serious tribal talks. The idea will be to reach that place where we can start forgiving each other for past sins whilst speaking out openly about the things that antagonize us most about some of our Kenyan communities. For instance the sheer arrogance of members of the house of Mumbi in the Kikuyunization of everything wherever in the world they settle. And worse still, the habit of speaking their vernacular in the presence of others who do not understand the language. Interestingly we will need to tell our Luo brothers that they too have the habit of speaking Dholuo in public in the presence of other precious Kenyans who do not understand their dialect. This is provocative in a unified multi-tribal nation like Kenya. We will also tell them that we do not appreciate their carrying stones inside briefcases to soccer matches and political meetings. WE will also not fail to have a word with our Kalenjin brethren to protest their ruthlessness in their violent ways and their love for war mongering against the rest of us who are their very brothers and sisters and fellow Kenyans at that.

And after the heated exchanges and “short-circuits” that are to be expected as folks lose their tempers at this initial session, we shall take a lunch break for everybody to enjoy the wide array of delicious traditional foods and then return to a session where participants will list the things they appreciate most about each other. I would start with the industrious almost natural entrepreneurial ability of our Kikuyu brothers and sisters which has helped Kenya make great strides in commerce and trade. We will then wholeheartedly thank out Luo brethren for endowing the motherland with some of the best medical doctors on the continent (I know at least one world-class one who is a world authority in his field based in the US, but I am sure there are many other world class doctors who hail from this Kenyan community). With tears of patriotic joy in our eyes we shall thank our Kalenjin comrades for bringing such glory to Kenya for long and middle distance races to the extent where there is now talk that the Kenyan race (3,000 metres steeplechase) soon being discontinued because there is little point in holding an international competition where the contest for the top honours is exclusively between compatriots of a single country with the rest of the competitors being reduced to mere spectators. There is of course a lot more to appreciate fro many other Kenyan communities.

During the secret talks that led to the defeat of apartheid, the Afrikaans (who invented apartheid in the first place) were utterly taken aback by the reconciliatory nature of the long suffering ANC even with all the injustices committed against them over the years. The ANC were also shocked that the Afrikaans had through the long years braced themselves for the day of retribution from those they killed and maimed for so many years. They saw this as inevitable and did not expect mercy when that day came. In the same way when we Kenyans sit down with each other for some serious talk, we will be amazed at how easy it will be to be endeared to tribes that we may think very negatively of at the moment.

I dare add that we cannot fail to find lovable things about the murderers and selfish land grabbers who are stinking rich today and have the blood of many Kenyans on their hands.

Kenya belongs to all of us and even as we burn with anger and thirst for revenge for past evils committed, it may be more realistic to negotiate with the very evil forces fighting against change. We need to understand the position of these thieves and murderers better so that we can fully ensure that what happened will never happen again.

This may be a very bitter pill to swallow but what if it is the only way Kenya can be saved?

See older explosive Kumekucha post: Political assassinations in Kenya TJ

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24 comments:

  1. Chris:

    I like your conciliatory tone and deep sense of hope and love for our motherland as we usher in a new constitutional dispensation. Kenya is now a country reborn and we are almost in the festive season, so such an article is refreshing and highly welcome!

    However, the thieves, crooks, murderers and looters will have to confess their crimes first before we can even think about forgiving them. For example, Kibaki should be candid and explain to me why I'm now paying a dubious En-Ren loan taken when he was a finance minister in the 70's. Maybe even be kind and tell us why he was quickly sworn in at night while Kenya burned.

    Moi should tell us all who really killed Ouko, Muge, Fr Kaiser etc. Who pulled the trigger, when and whey? The Kenyattas should be open and show us the amount of land they collectively own, rumoured to be the size of Nyanza and Central combined and even tell us exactly how that land was acquired.

    People like Kimunya should come clean and explain how on earth he has become one of the richest men in Kenya in just a short time.

    Gen Ruto should tell us who printed those fake notes when he was a founding member of YK 92 and what he really knows about 2007 genocide.

    Raila should explain why he wants homosexuals "jailed and punished" yet he knows this is a coded message for vigilante groups to round up and lynch gays.

    Kinuthia Saitoti should explain what he knows about Goldenberg and the murderous Kwekwe squad since he's the minister for internal security. Who killed Oscar Foundation guys and why?

    To cut a long boring story, many Kenyans like me would like to forgive and forget. But what are we forgiving? Let's have the facts first on the table. And for the evil wrongdoers to be forgiven, they must show remorse and donate some substantial donations to Kenyans!

    Maybe a freshly constituted TJRC would work like a wonder pill.

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  2. Chris my brodaa,
    first of all congratulations on having a social life that involves watching movies, this is very encouraging and keep it up please we are living in a new world and there is much to learn from these cinematographic pictures

    Like you i also was alive in the VOK era when the station opened and closed with national anthem and you stood to attention in your house out of fear of CID with powerful binoculars from Nyayo House

    In those days movies that only came after the 10pm watershed were KANU censored and the only exciting programmes came between 7pm and 10 pm after the cartoons that came at 5:30pm including "Kinimacho magic show" one of my favourite detective shows "Herr Derrick" came at 8pm that man was a true investigator and worth watching with german subtitles

    but please answer me this question Chris:-why is the mainstream media always on permanent campaign mode? even if they are "just reporting the news" can't they do so with sobriety? ama sensationalism and panic in headlines is what sells?

    anyway, the bitter pill to swallow is that we got rid of katiba ya zamani now we have to do the same with wanasiasa wa zamani. new wine cannot be put in old wine bottles.

    remember before this blog became the high flying popular family wide read blog that it is now the saying was only brand new thinking and brand new leadership can change Kenya?you were on the right track then bro! hii mambo ya "if i don't say it who will" its like Taabu na MU yake kila saa

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  3. @Chris,
    Sasa nani KABURU Kenya hii? Long short but doable lest ...... If only we faced matters squarely and stopped living national lies!

    PS: Luka 0 - 7 Beba, UTADO?

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  4. Chris,

    You state in in your article:

    "the industrious almost natural entrepreneurial ability of our Kikuyu brothers and sisters which has helped Kenya make great strides in commerce and trade."

    That is absolute hogwash.

    In a vast majority of their so called "enterprising activities," you will find that FRAUD, DECEPTION and THEFT are heavily involved. They call this being "smart" - absolute bullshit!!

    It is only after they have amassed enough cash via FRAUD, DECEPTION and THEFT that they will try to "clean up their act" by engaging in businesses that appear to be decent and clean. A prime example is Chris Kirubi (remember him from the Chepkube coffee smuggling of the 1970's and almost bringing down KENATCO due to mismangament - read looting). There are many other numerous examples I could give but time does not allow.

    Again, if they are so good at business, ask yourself how come other countries whose economies were much smaller than Kenya's started overtaking us in the late 1960,s and the 1970's when this community was in power and virtually controlled every sector of the economy. Something is clearly wrong about them (it is their FRAUDULENT, DECEPTIVE and THIEVING ways)

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  5. Chris,

    Another example of this FRAUD, DECEPTION and THEFT is to be found in today's Nation newspaper:

    Kenyans are repaying loans for a company that collapsed when President Kibaki was Finance Minister in the 1970s. The payments began in 2003 when he became President, even though there had been litigation over the deal.

    Here is the link to the article: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Scandal%20unravels%2030%20years%20after%20dubious%20deal%20/-/1056/1062224/-/4vu28rz/-/index.html

    I had used the example of Chris Kirubi in my earlier comment at 5:03 AM and before the day is even over, this STINK BOMB of Mr Mwai "pumbavu" Kibaki comes up... and interestingly in the Nation newspaper, the only paper that this community seems to believe in.

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  6. Well said anon 6.11. This group need to bring back what they fraudulently vandalised from the government before the MO1 error. The Kales as well did the same during the Nyayo days. Without remorse and sincerity from these two groups who have ruled since independence, it will be a tall order to get all the Kenyan populace being comfortable with another from a different ethnic identity. That is why cabinet ministers are staffing their ministries with members of their tribe whom they trust wont work to sabotage their ministries.Let them offer us (40 plus you what) a handshake with a free hand not a clenched fist.

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  7. Mandela's story is an extraordinary one and an inspiration for humanity: from barefoot herd boy to world leader; from freedom fighter to revered statesman; from prisoner to president.

    And from victim to victor over the apartheid system.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Chris:

    Kudos to you. I just hope you are not pulling off one of your tongue-in-cheek posts. I wouldn't want to be caught flat footed or blindsided.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    IMHO, every ethnicty in Kenya has had its own version(s) of Ali Baba and the 40 - 'Kitchen Cabinet/Kiambu-Mafia' - Thieves at one point or another over the last five decades or more.

    That's why it's has always been easy for some communities to scapegoat the usual suspects and known culprits - kabila adui - without realizing the magnitude and the velocious effects of the bite within, (kikulacho ki nguoni mwako) has devastated their respective ethnicities and regional communities.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Kaburus - Boers - were the personification of all things evil in the Southern African region at one point and time.

    So are the Kikuyu of Kenya, who have been demonized and vilified for everything that has gone wrong in all things political, commercial, academic and ethnic under the Kenyan skies.

    However, when all evil things are considered, there is one element that is always forgotten or conveniently ignored by the "outsiders, one-time-victims, selective-observers, marginalized people, and the 'other communities'."

    Which is, evil is always in their midst, it has always been there, it will always be there, and it permeates every race, colour, enthnicity, sub-tribes, clans, families and regions.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    EVIL = Poverty, Ignorance, Diseases, Greed, Underdevelopment, Environmental Degradation and 'Perpetual Victimhood'.

    I will return to it later on.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    The following is a question that has always bothered me for quite some time:

    But, where did apartheid come from? How could a minority suppress the vast majority of South Africans simply because their skin colour wans't White?

    With the same token, many have always wondered where did negative ethnicity - tribalism - come from?

    How could one ethnic group - Kikuyu - or seven ethnicties - Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin, Kamba, Meru, Embu - dominate and even suppress the vast majority of other Kenya's 32 plus tribes simply because of their language and regional locations?

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    So, I would like to known - before the end of the year 2020 or 2030 - why we keep on addressing the same old same old symptoms without dealing with the real causes, dry human bones at the source of where our drinking water comes from?

    Muru wa Gacii

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  8. @Gacii,
    Thanks for the sermon, BUT NO THANKS you are preaching to a choir. Two wrong never made a right and security in numbers is cheap defense and rationale for EVIL. Leta ingine, will you?

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  9. hi, how's everyone right here? I'm a newcomer to this kind of discussion board. Wish to obtain new friends and discover some thing here.

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  10. What would it cost us if we were willing to sacrifice - or at least surbordinate - everything else for one goal of conceiving, birthing and nurturing of one new nation, one people living in a democratic and civil society governed by law and order, under the new constitution?

    And, if I may ask, why should Kenyans - from all walks of life - allow themselves to continue being held hostage by murderers and masters of impunity in this day and age?

    It's the current toothless and clawless judicial system that should be granted independence as well as unlimited powers to deal with well known murderers and masters of impunity, rather than waste the nation's resources and future on fruitless negotiations.

    Muru wa Gacii

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  11. Mwarang'ethe, where are you?

    Kindly tell us more on the leaks from wikileaks and the effects. I think a lot of what you have been saying of the pretenders in US of A we can see them coming.

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  12. Mwarang'ethe

    Do add abbreviated links to the wikileaks info and all the best with your exams

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  13. Molasses from Kisumu11/30/10, 2:09 AM

    Why is the Prime Minister calling for the arrest of gays when he know all too well majority of Shogas in Kenya are Jaluo?

    This man is going to lose his biggest ambition come 2012.

    Kisumu is the gay capital of Africa,I mean this man is playing political suicide! He might as well kiss goodbye his ambition of ever becoming the president of republic of Kenya.

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  14. anon 9:45 and 11.05,

    Let me be the first to throw accolades to Mwarangethe. He needs to be thanked where he has left us. It's now upon us to join hands and see how we can change our country through some of his theories and facts. I didn't agree with him in everything but there are things which he made me understand well.

    From the trend of things in Kenya soon we'll have a government whose main duty will be to collect tax and a governement that will always be happy when cost of goods and services rise as this mean they will have more tax.

    As we sit reading and writing in this blog the government is busy privatising government monopolies the latest being KPLC. Let us be happy now but know that in less than 5 years we'll be forced to use solar to power our PCs. This is because once KPLC has been privatised then the next thing will be to increase profit which means increasing cost of power consumption.

    Transport sector will continue being expensive because Kenya Railways will soon be a completely private company and they'll use Matatu fare as basis for theirs. So that when Matatu charges 120 they'll charge like 80, yet they can make profit by charging 20. This is what NOCK is doing so that regulating fuel price has become a pipe dream.

    What makes things worse is that privatisation of these government entities does not go to the hands of Kenyans but to the hands of few people who are already rich, in other words Kenya will soon be owned by few people.

    Maybe Mwarangethe will tell us more but again I say kudos to him, if not then we shouldn't complain about fast rising cost of living.

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  15. Utter Nonsense Chris.

    Even God could not negotiate with the Devil for a peaceful co-existence. The Devil was chased out of heaven and already stands condemned through all eternity, pending the terrible and awful Day of Judment.

    Now you are asking Kenyans to negotiate with evildoers! It can't work - the only message thieves and murderous understand is punishment.

    Without punishment and justice for the victims, Kenya will never be transformed.

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  16. Anon 11:09 PM

    Wikileaks are real cowards, skunks and self-serving weasels.

    I can't wait to see how long they will stay in the "leaking business" if they get the real guts to release all the information they have in their possession on private corporate accounts, offshore accounts for private US, Canadian, British, Russian, Australian, Israeli, Arab, Iranian, Eyptian, Libyan, Syrian, Lebanese, Chinese, Indian, Colombian, Mexican, and African citizens.

    So easy and fashionable for Wikileaks to go after very safe targets like huge institutions and organizations (elephants, rhinos, hippos and cape buffalos).

    Let them try releasing hidden financial, personal, social, business information on private or individual citizens (anacondas, spitting cobras, black mambas, puff adders, gaboon viper, boar constrictors, cottonmouths, rattle snakes, copperheads, caymans, alligator, crocodiles, other nocturnal reptiles and the hammerhead sharks) and institutions such as the Swiss Banks, and let the whole world see how quick they will get bitten out of business, or how long it will take before the venom sets in their leaking systems.

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  17. This was a nice article to read, thank you for sharing it.

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  18. Medicine for the poor.

    We should separate religious dogma and governance. Turn the other cheek should be left at the pulpit. For Kenya to move forward we have to seriously think and act correctly. Its only in Africa were you hear sentiments about forgiving thieves , robbers and murderers , - were will we stop maybe forgive the rapists too. In other societies there is no daylight between crime and punishment. That’s the right way to approach this menace. Its clear cut and everybody understands the score. We should embrace this for the sake of our children and the coming generation. If our fathers had done this we would not be in the mess we are in today.


    Whenever we act we have to act in a way that holds the test of time. We have forgiven many in the past and the list of people asking forgiveness is getting longer by the day. The latest trend is to get “converted “as if that will wash away the trail of pain and ruin that has been left behind. The mass media has turned this into a spectacle instead of calling by its true name.

    Speaking for myself the only way out of the cancer of impunity theft, murder etc for political or personal gain is prosecution, restitution and incarceration - there is no other different method that will stand the test of time.

    We Kenyans have to start making the hard decisions because nobody else will. Forgiving a national thief is a crime by itself. Think of the thousands who have died because someone emptied the treasury of the funds that would have provided medicine to simple curable diseases for example – how would you quantify that loss and how would you even start to measure the magnitude of that act. A single million shillings can make a major difference to a lot of people’s lives. Thousands of brilliant kids who would have moved the country forward have been denied education – a chance to attain their potential because some goons and underground connections have repeatedly turned education ministry budget into thier personal checking accounts for example - the list goes on and on and on.

    Somebody here is always fond of saying " amekula mbuzi ya nani " that’s the kind of thinking that justifies theft and belittles the damage and effect of such act. The cost of these shenanagins are incalculable and the effect devastating – we have almost lost a whole – the squalor you see in Kenya considering the money changing hands is a phenomenon that you have to see to believe , if you tabulate the damage done both at an individual level and at the national level by these acts a normal sane person would ask you lets assume we forgive them what is the guarantee that their networks will vanish ?

    Its time to clean up and embrace the adage - in every action there is a reaction – its a simple natural law that has stood the test of time. Who will organize a national convention of forgiveness to operationalize this act ? and if its not unanimous why should one site walk scotch free while some on the other side still remain aggrieved. every action has to have a consequence and the only fair and above board way to do it that will act as a deterrent is to make sure perpetrators or whatever are serve time like all the other hoodlums as there is no difference.

    We have been held hostage for a long time by fear and the dangling of ethnic violence as the threat. I dare say to you there is no worst thing as inaction. Forgiveness at this stage is an act of cowardice. Maybe you think Hon Imanyara should forgive the drug dons and if not where do we draw the line?

    My line is justice has be done. What is yours ?

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  19. @Anon 6.05pm

    He he ha ha haaa! Hammer head sharks thats a good one. I will back you on that one a real hammer head shark (Rothschilds family finances).

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  20. WikiLeaks - dossier on Kenya.

    Ati "we are surprised and shocked by these revelations."

    Why should anyone be surprised, shocked, angered and even amused by what's cabled or said by the big boys about Kenya's darkside?

    As if the general public didn't know the obvious political and economic decay that has been going on for decades?

    Why should any citizen of Kenya be shocked or surprised to find out what has always been said about Kenya's government, economy, poor standard of living, corrupt political mindset, ethnic-in-fighting, greedy members of parliament, and a passive general population that never stands up for its rights whenever it matters most?

    Surprised? Shocked? Angered? Relieved? Unconcerned? I don't think so!

    What's new? Or what are the so called "shocking and surprising revelations" that were uttered by the mouth that has always fed Kenya for the last five decades?

    Welcome to the world of firm handshakes, plastic smiles, straight talk, eye contact when dealing with people.

    And a slap behind the head or kick in the butt when you are not present in exclusive circles.

    I know that now you know what goes on behind the scenes. Develop a thick skin and smile the next time show up for a meeting of any kind with them.

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  21. @Anon 6:05 PM
    Beware of what you ask for you might get it @WikiLeaks.

    ... Over 3 billion US Dollars stashed abroad by the former President Moi and his closest associates.

    The figures in the report sum to billions of U.S. Dollars - comparable in magnitude to the looting of infamous kleptocrats such as Mobutu (Zaire), Marcos (Philippines), Abacha (Nigeria), Suharto (Indonesia) and Fujimori (Peru).

    ... in May 2004 the Kibaki government itself suffered a credibility blow when several of the President's closest advisors were implicated in a 777 million US Dollar corruption scandal known as the Anglo Leasing scandal.

    ... Moi and his associates are experiencing a resurgence in political clout
    .

    One of Moi's closest associate owns a 10,000 hectare ranch in Australia.

    When all is said and done, the political and tribal representatives of the majority of Kenya's poors have no other alternative but to "negotiate with murderers and masters of impunity."

    Seems as if Kumekucha was up to something but didn't want to divulge more than some could handle.

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  22. ODm is scared of wikileaks muhaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaha waahaaaaaaaaa

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  23. Awesome post. Really enjoyed reading your blog posts.

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  24. It’s onerous to find educated folks on this topic, however you sound like you realize what you’re talking about! Thanks

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