Parliamentary vote will be complicated over ODM’s Yes-No-No-Yes Stance on Tobiko
Let us stand back for a minute and look at what is happening in historical context. And I am talking about very recent history.
Lest you forget we are in the nation of Kenya where impunity has reigned for a very long time. Just a few short months ago, the president was the sole appointing authority for virtually each and every public office of significance. And where he did not appoint the old constitution said that all civil servants served “at his pleasure.” More recently as the reforms ship gained influence the president still had the power to make appointments and if you had any complaints you were free to go tell it to the birds. Nothing would change. Just to give you an example. President Daniel arap Moi in 1999 appointed the then DPP Bernard Chunga to be chief justice. The appointment left the legal fraternity numb with shock. That appointment was akin to appointing a student school prefect to the post of headmaster of a large national school. But there was nothing anybody could do about that (except complain to the birds). Chunga remained the chief justice until the Narc government took over in 2003 and despite the security of tenure the office enjoys the Kibaki administration found a way to replace him pronto.
Now fast-forward to 2011. A man aiming to be DPP under the new constitution has just gone through a very rigorous vetting process. And at the end of it, the public is screaming with a loud voice that the process was not rigorous enough. Wow!!! Don’t you love the fresh new air sweeping across our beloved land?
But there is more. Where ever one Keriako Tobiko is right now he has deep regrets. His desire for the DPP post has badly damaged his public image. Two weeks ago few people cared who he was. Now in the minds of Kenyans it does not matter whether the allegations leveled against him are true or not, people have already made up their minds that he is guilty and that his appointment must NOT be allowed to go through. I put it to you that the man would have been better off had he not shown any interest for the DPP’s position. I love this!!! The new constitution actually works. There is a critical lesson here for anybody who seeks public office in the new Kenya. Mambo bado.
As I stated here earlier, Tobiko was a careful and thoughtful appointment crafted by those who own Kenya to protect themselves and the evil they have done in the past. After all the man has already done an excellent job of protecting the interests of these guys. Now don’t be so naïve as to leave out names from ODM from this list. Evils of the past know no political party boundaries I assure you.
Now that the plot has been uncovered by the people of Kenya these people are running scared. Very scared. For sure they are unlikely to sleep too well tonight knowing that there will be fireworks tomorrow (Tuesday 14th June) in parliament.
But don’t pop the champagne yet because it is difficult to predict what exactly will happen in the still very corrupt August house where money een in this day and age changes hands to influence key bills.
The biggest worry Kenyans should have is ODM’s precarious position over the Tobiko issue. The party is fighting a desperate battle to get a foothold in the vast influential Rift Valley for its’ presidential candidate Raila Odinga. The PM performed marvelously well in this province in those 2007 elections that he won but he has since lost enormous ground after falling out with one William Ruto. Now nothing short of full support and backing for Tobiko will appease the Maasai community and give him a fighting chance of getting their votes in 2012.
It is very sad that political leaders in the Maasai community and elsewhere have reduced the whole complex plot that is the Tobiko appointment into a simple tribal issue where they are alleging that those against him getting the DPP post are those who believe that Maasai’s (even those well educated) are not fit for such high end offices. Imagine that nonsense!!
The whole issue of parliament and Tobiko is further complicated by the fact that PNU are also looking to gain windfall political capital from the situation by looking good in contrast to ODM’s “lack of support (or lukewarm support at best) for the Maasai”. What this means is that if the issue is put to the vote chances are high that Tobiko will win overwhelmingly easily collecting votes from both sides of the house.
The only dim ray of hope is if the bid to stop debate and the vote so that more time will be given for Tobiko to be investigated succeeds. However skeptics are also wary of that scenario pointing to the fact that Mr Tobiko is an extremely sharp legal mind and must have been very careful to ensure that he left no evidence behind anytime he may have gotten naughty.
Interesting times indeed folks. Very interesting.
Presidential candidates and witchdoctors
Can someone pass the popcorn please.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, we are busy watching:
They Live, a 1988 Classic Movie:
http://is.gd/3a9VXj
Chris
ReplyDeleteThey say it takes a whole village to raise a child.What they forget to tell you is the village is depending on the child to become an adult so it can in turn elevate the status of the villagers.
In other words don't block the child from becoming DPP otherwise you consign the village to a fate worse than death-political oblivion
Having been caught on the wrong foot over this matter, the ODM party of "change and reform" is now making the right noises. Unfortunately, these noises are contrived--playing to the gallery as usual. Tobiko will sail through--ODM will not risk alienating the Maasai vote given their current uncertainty with the Kalenjins. The political calculation is plain to see, so Midiwo should stop screaming like a banshee (we can see through that) and just let it ride.
ReplyDeleteOther issues aside, what has T.I.B.S. in the nature of Keriako Tobiko done for the Maasai community since he graduated from Cambridge with his "smart degree"?
ReplyDeleteHow many projects has Keriako Tobiko initiated or rather completed in Maasai land?
And what are they in terms of building rural access roads, primary schools, secondary schools, colleges, normadic mobile clinics, hospitals, veterinary hospitals for the herds of cattle that happen to be the pride and joy of the Maasai people, digging of boreholes in Maasai land, provision of clean drinking water, cattle breeders, herd health specialities, feeders, and milkers to help care for the millions of cattles owned by the Maasai people?
So far, I don't see anything tribal about questioning Kerisko Tobiko's suitability as the next DPP, including his past deeds, political connections, his intergrity and character.
The issue of screaming tribal persecution, tribal alienation to high heavens, and playing the tribal card whenever an individual from a particular ethnicity is put on the spot or questioned with regard to critical national matters that have nothing to do with his or her ethnicity background, needs to be nipped in the bud.
What's the point of supporting or having an ethnic figure head in a high profile position when the community ends up being short changed in the process?
Case in point, what has Amos Wako done for his village, let alone community at large?
How will he want ot be remembered, especially the type of epitaph that will be inscribed on his tombstone when the time comes?
'Best known for deliberately blocking political reforms'.
What notable contributions if any has Amos Wako made with regard to the LSK, the faculty of law at the UoN, in the fight against corruption, and law and order in Kenya from the 1980s uptil 2011?
Keriako Tobiko's nomination must not be allowed to sail through parliament, otherwise, the judicial system will continue to deteriorate and decay because of one bad apple at helm.
Unfortunately, MPs can not be trusted nor relied upon to put the country first and above their short term political ambitions.
Anything still goes when it to comes parliamentary business in Kenya, and any group of people who afraid of the day when the hen start coming home to roost, will do anything to pick compromised individuals to protect their interests.
I just don't understand why JSC let this guy pass through yet it's members like the much dreaded Ahmednasir who are now screaming blue murder.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who has read the recent book by former legislator Joe Khamisi won't be surprised if this much compromised parliament waves the much tainted Tobiko through.
Of course there will be a few objections from the likes of Karua, Orengo and the recently converted Mutula Kilonzo. Already, the merchants of impunity have held enough night meetings and millions of shillings stuffed in brown envelops have exchanged hands.
This is quite common according to Joe Khamisi's book who also claims MPs offices in Continental House have been turned into filthy brothels similar to those cheap ones (but ever busy I hear they cost just 100 bob per hour before they knock and tell you mzee sasa toka!) that are found in River Rd (Reke Marie, Njougu-ini, New Nyanza etc).
I'm afraid that we are about to be stuck with this Tobiko guy for the next donkey years and guess who is pushing the hardest for him to pass through? Stand up Amos Wako- the embodiment of impunity in Kenya.
Mta do nini? Moi told you many years ago that Kenya ina wenyewe and you dared laugh at his silly "joke" yet the old man is the one who is now having the last laugh. Shauri zenu!
And what are they in terms of building rural access roads, primary schools, secondary schools, colleges, normadic mobile clinics, hospitals, veterinary hospitals for the herds of cattle that happen to be the pride and joy of the Maasai people, digging of boreholes in Maasai land, provision of clean drinking water, cattle breeders, herd health specialities, feeders, and milkers to help care for the millions of cattles owned by the Maasai people?
ReplyDeletexxx
What has prevented you from setting up milkers, feeders etc in Maasai land and make money while you do it?
This kind of thinking is the problem. If for instance, instead of Mwau investing his KES 50 bn. in the land of Nero Obama, or, instead of Gichuru owning land everywhere, these gentlemen, or, you, could have set a modern slaughter house in the Maasai land.
With such a slaughter house, the Maasai will get HIGHER prices for their cows.
With INCREASED EARNING CAPACITY, the Maasai, who are not stupid, would:
- dig their OWN boreholes,
- buy their OWN feeders, milkers,
- set up their OWN health facilities etc etc.
And, since they would have the PURCHASING POWER (this is all we lack), they will afford these stuff even if provided by profit oriented organisation.
That is the right approach and not this socialistic nonsense of asking Tobiko to build dams and boreholes for his own people.
Let us face it. Only free enterprise can spur competition and zeal and zest of OWNERSHIP can arouse the PRODUCTIVENESS and INVENTIVENESS of men.
As always you keep missing or misunderstanding whatever views expressed on Kumekucha, and end up overshooting with your usual self-style warped economic theories and commentary.
ReplyDeleteGet it in your greying or balding head for once, the issue is that there are communities, call them tribes if will, that will play the tribal card or shout tribal persecution when time comes for one of their own to be turned down for a senior position in government, held responsible, cautioned, demonated, fired as in sacked, arrested, prosecuted or imprisoned for whatever legitimate reasons.
Yet these are the very unsavory characters or political charlatans who have contributed nothing, zero, nada, zilch, bila, to their respective communities in the last four or five decades.
Symbolic representation is all that matters to some of these ethnic communities above all else.
That's one of reasons why Keriako Tobiko's contributions to his respective community are being called into question.
Further, he was a nobody, a non entity who was never on the public's radar or national pavilion whatsoever until his name came up for nomination alongside the rotten baggage attached to his name, which dates all the way back to the dark era of tyrannical government under one political despotic dinosaur, Daniel arap Moi.
Why would any community in their right mind waste their valuable energies and time on shedding tears for a prodigal son who has abandoned them since the day he set foot in high school?
Unlike other well liked personalities from similar nomadic communities such as Joseph Lekuton, who are well known for helping their communities help themselves and rise from the depths of marginalization.
No one is asking Keriako Tobiko to embrace your so called economic panchrest for everything under the African skies.
As for the "socialistic nonsence" or whatever, how about you, Mr. wannabe Africa's Albert Einstein of Economics, compare your abysmal village record to that of Joseph Lekuton's Boma Fund, Nomadic Kenyan Children Education Fund, et al.
While at it, don't forget to listen to some popular popcorn songs laced with saturated economic oils from the 1970s.
Enough said, Kerioka Tobiko is UNFIT for the job of DPP. I can't figure out why this particular nominee reminds me of Peter Clemenza?
ReplyDelete