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Sunday, January 30, 2011

New CJ, AG: A Replay of Defunct ECK for 2012

The law is an ass so they say and nobody knows how to breathe life into that timeless cliche that President Kibaki. If you thought the unilateral re-appointment of Kivuitu's ECK team just before the disputed 2007 polls amounted to a cause-effect relationship then wait till you see through the SMART thinking behind appointing the new CJ and AG. Legal pretenders will discredit the new constitution oblivious of the naked fact that accountable governance is all about upholding the SPIRIT and not the letter of the law.

Predictably the nay Sayers will read all the RETROGRESSIVE conspiracy theories in President Kibaki's latest bold judicial appointments.To set the record straight, the nominated Chief Justice Visram and Attorney General Githu Migai are more than qualified. These are accomplished lawyers with 6 degrees to spare between just the two of them. What is more, their advanced degrees are homegrown (UoN) giving them the capacity to competently domesticate complicated legal issues.

The REAL radical surgery here we come. With Muthaura's lawyer guarding the legal gates, ICC is dead in the water. Ambassador Francis Muthaura would be a fool not to position a trusted, tried and tested lawyer at the helm given the impending ICC 'manifest nonsense'. What is more, Githu is an accredited lawyer to the ICC. That is a superlative move which is poised to leave the boisterous Luis Moreo-Ocampo wiping his bloodied nose. After all the both referral and deferral sound the same except for the first letter ONLY.

Next, the in-coming powerful director of prosecution is one NO-NONSENSE Kioko Kilukumi. The abrasive lawyer has seen it all handling high profile cases that other legal neophytes would dare not tough with a 10-feet pole. Just the other day he stood firm for the beleaguered Hon William Ruto and boy, don't you love the 10 voluble and brave pounder (Kilukumi)? Those with less impaired memory must remember Kioko's educated pitch while trashing Kibaki bashers from Netherlands some years back. He stuck his neck for the boss and what a sweet payback/check for the learned mind?

And finally with a masterstroke that will leave his detractors sprawled kissing dust, Kibaki has proposed the sharp mind of William Kirwa (MBA, MA) as the controller of budget. Those who have been criticizing the President for being aloof must be frying in their own fat of shame. Here iss the deal, while both Kioko and Kirwa constitute the double, the missing K need no physical lettering, MTADO?

Checkmate
Those who have been burdened with the phantom mindset of co-principals need to have their heads examined lest they continue with their unhelpful hallucination. The buck must stop with somebody and President Kibaki has called the pretenders bluff.

ODM's goose is chased, defeathered, cooked and digested. Rift Valley MPs have been given the sacred card to checkmate ODM and the PM. With their bread generously buttered, they must be rubbing their hands in glee to emphatically register their political score.

President Kibaki is never known to promise what he cannot deliver. And after his latest forays in Eldoret, the warriors have been smothered and the owls rattled. NA BADO. Hague Express kitu gani?

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Now Kenya Exports Shuttle Diplomacy to Africa

That Kenya always scores a first in the Africa continent is given. Barely a week after VP Kalonzo's shuttle diplomacy to secure Africa support in pulling out of ICC, troubled Cote d'Ivore has launched charm offensive to legitimize the DULY ELECTED President Laurent Gbagbo.

Forget about all that cheap game of semantic on referral and deferral. We are sovereign and if not conquering the world with toxic tribalism, we are expanding the sphere of intellectual fraud. Even Gbagbo knows the wide rift between our leaders and what a better way to exploit the same to advance his brand of democracy.

Toothless AU can scream till her voice turns hoarse but Gbagbo knows where to seek similar and useful support. Kenya and Zimbabwe are automatic stops. Here we had a mediator who was set by AU to fix him after deriding the same AU as ineffective. That was an apt case study of helping make a sturdy noose for your own round neck.

Our very own Samuel Kivuitu's electoral manual has proved such a continental bestseller. All that heat about AU position had no trace of light. AU must must have been mad to imagine that any CREDIBLE leader would negotiate himself out of power. And lest they forget, Gbagbo is in very good company. The noise makers can willfully buy a one-way ticket to refurbished hell.

It is a pity nobody is listening to Gbagbo's explanation about electoral irregularities during the disputed presidential elections in his country. Here is a leader, just like our own Kibaki, who crying to be heard after refusing to play dirty. Only such unrivaled democrats can allow massive electoral fraud by the opposition without unleashing state power on them.

Shuttlemaster
We have been there. Sending special advisers to African capitals is an old trick. You only need to remind yourself of Kenya's own charm offensive after the 2007 polls to secure continental acceptance. Gbagbo is right, the Independent Electoral Commission only gives provisional results. We must learn to respect institutions and accept that Ivory Coast's constitutional court has the sole mandate of declaring the poll winner.

Only Ivorians voted and the so-called international community must shut up and leave them alone. The President-Pretend Allassane Ouattara must accept the verdict of the electorate and stop causing more suffering. True, Kenya may have been saved from stewing in her own blood but the international resources are limited.

Gbagbo has rejected mediator Raila and is in order to send and emissary to the ultimate boss/CEO. The truth is Raila had no mandate of his own but to deliver the poisoned chalice of negotiating Gbagbo's safe exit. Now that the noose has snapped and with the AU summit looming, Gbagbo's masterstroke has pitted PNU against ODM which will buy him the much-needed political space. NA BADO.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Esther Arunga Latest News: Now She Calls Church A Cult...

Esther Arunga Timberlake is back with a bang! And she is not just with her good-looking American accent husband but also has a two week bouncing baby boy called Sinclair Timberlake. A marriage certificate she showed to the press recently proves that she was married to Timberlake on 9th February 2010 and the two were joined together by the controversial Pastor Hellon of the Finger of God church.

But what is really amazing is that this time she is apologetic. She apologizes to Kenyans for belonging to the Finger of God church and being in all the drama that ensued as a result. She even calls the church she was a member of and defended so vigorously on National TV, a cult and she and her husband warn Kenyans to stay away from it because “it is a brothel” and “the things that go on in that church are shocking..”

And Esther even has an excuse for her behaviour. She says that she was under a spell from the dominating pastor Hellon who even wanted to be given the authority to name her child. It is not clear how Esther broke out of the alleged spell she was under.

Phew!!! What a turn around!! And once again Esther’s statement to the press leaves more questions than answered. For instance when did the Timberlake’s realize that the Finger of God church was in fact a brothel? Was it while they were there and allegedly under a spell? Or was it after they left? Also unclear is the fate of the woman who Mr Timberlake lived with for 11 years before he met and married Esther.

The Esther Arunga story held the nation spell bound for months on end last year. Many Kenyans asked themselves how such a bright talent destined for higher things in broadcast journalism would suddenly abandon her career and join a controversial church. More so because the multi-talented Esther was also a qualified lawyer.

Kenyans will already have forgotten the interesting way in which this whole soap-opera high drama first broke. The powerful Radio Africa outfit just wrote and talked about it and never quit until it became a national issue. Radio Africa is that outfit owned by a Ghanian that runs the notorious FM stations called Kiss and Classic. They also publish a daily newspaper called The Star which is where a nice lady reporter called Grace Kerongo first broke the story.

The approach taken by the chaps at Radio Africa was that they were concerned for “a friend and colleague” who had ended up in some cult. Now this is preposterous because if somebody who is your true friend goes AWOL, you don’t make her the subject of discussion on a popular breakfast show. You look for your cell phone call them and set up a lunch date or whatever. As it is none of Esther’s so-called friends and colleagues did that. Poor Esther, with friends like that she would be much better off in a pit and surrounded by the most dangerous snakes in Kenya. Methinks the chaps at Radio Africa were just doing their job in the current vicious war by the Kenyan media to grab the attention of the increasingly bored, distracted and better informed Kenyan audience who are a tad harder to con into some profitable media promotion.

But why did Ms Kerongo think that the Esther Arunga story was important and why did her editors agree? Let me start with the editors. From circulation figures most media managers already know that stories about Kenyan celebrities sell newspapers like crazy. Especially if it is a scandal of sorts and that is why Kerongo dug out all the gory details she could find (more on that in a second). Kerongo thought that this was a big story because Esther was a celeb who had resigned from her high-profile job at KTN as a news anchor to “go live with some pastor.” And this happened shortly after she had broken off her engagement to her finacee, Wilson Malaba in favour of (now the juicy gossip really begins) Quincy Timberlake Wambita Zuma who the press told us was already her lover. Timberlake is a Kenyan with an American accent and that is why hilariously it was at first reported that he was in the illegally according to the CID. But even at the time the cops were trying to get him deported, there were then unconfirmed reports that Timberlake's dad was infact a Kenyan of Luo origin.

And the soap got even juicer. The reason why Arunga broke off with her fiancĂ©e is because he reportedly made passes at 2 female members of the Finger of God church. Keep in mind the latest accusations from the Timberlake’s that this place is “a brothel.” And to make matters worse Mr Malaba had earlier used a log book of “one of Esthers’ cars” to get a loan from some loan shark. Meanwhile there were strong rumours that Esther was already pregnant from her new finacee.

At the time, she strongly denied those rumours which have now turned out to be true after all. Timberlake who is said to have changed his name several times over the years was already “married” (actually had lived with a woman for 11 years) and the union had produced two children.

Believe it or not, this “amazing” soap then swiftly moved from petty romance and office politics to national politics because Esther’s pastor Joseph Hellon suddenly declared that he would run for the presidency of the republic of Kenya in 2012 and Esther Arunga would be his running mate. Wow!!! Hellon now seems to have lost his running mate, if he still intends to stand.

Everything was going just fine for Joseph Hellon’s presidential campaign (can you imagine instant national attention and recognition for a man who had only previously been known to a very small clique of Kenyans as an amazing saxophone player inclined to Jazz) until the CID came calling and arrested Hellon, Esther and Timberlake. But fascinatingly Esther never made it to court and only Hellon and Timberlake were charged and then released on bail because the charge sheet was defective. It turns out that the fellows at CID did not do their due diligence and the Finger of God is in fact registered and yet the main charge against Hellon and Timberlake was belonging to an unregistered and dangerous organization. An interesting aside here is that I will never understand the law. Doesn’t freedom of worship allow you to worship who you want?

And so the amazing soap made in Kenya called Esther Arunga is still on. What will happen next? Who knows? Besides isn’t that what keeps otherwise intelligent and sane women glued to their TV sets like nothing else matters in this life?

PNU's top secret secret weapon: They don't want you to know about this just yet

What does Esther Arunga have to do with White Masais?

I live in Tanzania and do business in Nairobi and Mombasa

Make money easily using this brand new Kenyan site

PNU’s Surprise Presidential Candidate and Secret Weapon?

The other Explosive post by Sam Okello earlier today: Kenya's last chance

It is the season for think tanks


Okay guys what shall we tell the people?

Answer: Deny everything and throw a few names in; to confuse them even more and in a few days it will have blown over.

This is the typical discussion you will hear around any politician and their handlers virtually anywhere in the world. To Kenyanize this you probably need to throw in a few insults, a little bribery here and there and plenty of impunnity.
So the government has denied that it is trying to influence other African countries for a mass withdrawal from the Rome statute that created the ICC. Mere words from Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and others because the facts speak different.

Eldoret North William Ruto’s political henchmen and allies are all speaking the same language. They are denying that there is no political alliance in the works between the Kalenjin, Kikuyu and Kamba. Again the facts say different. Indeed some of this fellows denying actually announced the birth of such an alliance just a few months ago. Now the same chaps say it never existed.

Respected political analysts claim that President Kibaki will anoint PM Raila Odinga for the presidency as part of an elaborate deal involving Raila’s support (under the radar of course) of some important PNU priorities like dealing the ICC a blow it can never recover from. The facts speak different because the president’s think tank are spending considerable time grooming a surprise candidate whose name I will reveal later in this post.

Although the last presidential anointed, Uhuru Kenyatta did not win the presidency it is important to note that he was a political rookie who came in second with millions of votes. In other words support from the president almost automatically makes one a serious contender. Jomo Kenyatta did not anoint Daniel Moi as his successor. But by refusing to support the change the constitution group he implied his support for Moi, more so bearing in mind his rapidly deteriorating health. See details in my book Dark secrets of the Kenyan Presidency. (Book available for free HERE).

The trouble is that the general elections are only 18 months away and politicians are trying to get a steady footing, at the very least, ahead of those landmark elections. Yes incase you didn’t know, as per the new constitution the next general elections are due in August 2012. We are rapidly approaching the end of January 2011.

Folks this is the season for think tanks. Indeed yours truly has been consulted by numerous individuals in recent weeks (who just want to know my opinion) but I know they are reporting back to. I like playing Moi and appearing to be totally in the dark as to what is going on when I am talking to some of these fellows. Many times it helps a lot in gathering information. It works better than trying to look like a well informed intelligent analyst who already knows too much. I know a number of journalists who just can’t resist the urge to show how intelligent and well informed they are when interviewing news sources.

Never under-estimate the power of think tanks. The PNU one has naturally been trying to envisage what the scenario prior to the next general elections will look like. They seem to believe that Kenyan voters will be looking for a very clean man to be their next president. Somebody untainted by any previous scandal and yet somebody they can trust to give the nation a brand new start. I agree wholeheartedly with these analysis, indeed I started alluding to this scenario even before the 2007 general elections just take the time to read my posts at the time.

The president’s handlers have gone ahead and prepared a candidate for the anticipated times. One who will carry the day for PNU and her allies. That candidate is Reverend Mutava Musyimi. Don’t even think about laughing. Instead read this fascinating analysis on why this strategy looks like a sure winner. Personally one of the few arguments I have against it is the man’s age. Musyimi is 59. As I said last week, I agree with William Ruto that the next President of Kenya will be under 50 years of age and that one you can take to the bank.

What I can say, having closely followed many presidential campaigns, is that the race is decided in the last few weeks to the election. When the boys have been separated from the men and the race has been narrowed down to two probables. Many factors come into play to determine who this last two are. Usually plenty of unexpected things tend to happen and this is why it is impossible to predict at this juncture who the next president of Kenya will be.

This is that season again folks. Don’t listen to what they are saying. Instead carefully observe their body language and read between the lines of their statement while keeping a very close eye on the facts. And always remember that what they didn’t say is much more important than what they said.

Read this March 2007 predictive post I wrote; Will Mutava Musyimi contest the presidency?

Money making secrets: I live in Tanzania but do business in Mombasa and Nairobi

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

This Is Our Last Chance To Get It Right

I have watched with increasing alarm the unfolding events in Kenya. On just about every front, we seem to be hurtling toward a destination no one can define with clarity right now. If ours was a stable, mature democracy, I wouldn't be too worried. I would look my two boys in the eye and tell them that at the end of this brouhaha, there will emerge a leader who will be sworn in as President in 2012. But can anyone count on such an outcome today? Therein lies my discomfort.

As this new year begins, it is time for those who love this nation and wish to see her prosper to act and say words that will enhance unity rather than act and say words that will foster hate and division. What we must all realize, as thought-leaders in the spheres God has put us in, is that we sit at the apex of a triangle whose base is made of millions of illiterate and poor Kenyans. What they are yearning for from us is hope and a sense that a better tomorrow is within reach. When what they see from us is the kind of schemes that seem to have taken center-stage in the political arena today, who can blame them for fearing that the stage is being set for intrigue and a possible repeat of the mischief in 2007?

One of the most powerful pronouncements of the Lord in the Holy Scriptures is found in the book of Genesis 1:28-31. In that text, the Lord says He gave mankind dominion over this world. You may read the four verses in the quietness of your office or home. The message is clear. God wanted man to take care of what He had created. That included animals, fish, birds and fellow man. It is crucial that those who aspire to lead this nation understand that theology of leadership. There is no way people who seek to lead this nation can want to do so by coming up with something as dreadfully divisive as the KKK Alliance. Where is God's voice in that? And there is no way a man who has failed to take a firm position on crucial national matters can now present himself as a leader; how will he lead? Like a sunflower?

Fellow Kenyans, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have led this nation thus far. It will be said many years to come that they tried their best...gave us better roads and set this nation on a path to expanding democratic space. It is now our time to move the ball toward the opponent's goal-post. Our opponent remains ignorance, poverty and disease. But now there is a new one. Godlessness. Could it be that our lack of seeking God's wisdom is what may lead this nation to danger again?

The time for Christians to be on our knees to seek intervention for Kenya is now. We have to plead with God to intervene as Ocampo swoops in, as alliances form, as the campaigns begin, and as voting will take place in 2012. It is my opinion that this is our chance to once and for all defeat the forces that want Kenya to permanently remain beholden to a form of politics and leadership fashioned out of tribal arithmetic and selfishness. Ideology and a sense of purpose should be the new forces that shape political discourse in this nation.

So from our airwaves to newspapers, and from our pulpits to political events, and from out funerals to weddings, let each of us tone down our rhetoric. We can discuss Raila in Nyeri without name-calling. We can disagree with Ruto in Kisumu without hurling insults at him. And we can wonder about Uhuru's intentions without seeing him as an evil man. Democracy and civility demand that we respect each other's opinions, and like my good friend Chris would always remind us, be willing to die defending their right to hold such opinions.

Where do I go wrong, my friends?

Blessings is what I wish on each of you this year and let's pray for one another!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Open Letter To Philip Ochieng Sunday Nation Columnist

See the Kumekucha-money making tips exclusive: I live in Tanzania but do business in Nairobi and Mombasa


Dear Mr. Philip Ochieng,
First of all I wish to take this opportunity to thank you for your controversial yet thought provoking article titled "our people have lost their sense of heroism" which appeared in yesterday's Sunday Nation; indeed my response to you is based on that opinion piece, and through this open letter which I am sure will reach your attention courtesy of this blog which is fairly familiar in political circles, I wish to draw your attention to one or two issues you raised which i have a healthily different opinion contrary to your own

Your perspective that the only form of politics known by "your people" is empty hero-worship and this is the reason why they are among Kenya's most underdeveloped regions did not go a long way in fully addressing the link between community development,historical events occuring shortly after independence, as well as present day events, all of which have had the impact of collectively sinking Kenyans as a whole into deeper poverty. It is on this basis that you should have questioned the value of "your people's" education in contributing to their development regionally

I understand that your OP/ED was not intended to be textbook cause and effect in analysing the current status quo of your ethnic group; however, because it left alot to be desired, forgive me for going ahead and stating the following obvious observations in relation to it, which I am no doubt sure you are well familar with-

1) Kenyans survived 40 plus years of bad governance that affected the whole country negatively, and against the will of all its individual communities that make up the country.During this time all ethnic groups are guilty of sitting back in their homes and expecting their MP to "bring development" to their region.

2) During this same period of time the same ethnic groups are guilty of endlessly complaining about poor governance and corruption yet refusing to change voting patterns and allowing the same clowns back to parliament every 5 years.

These are just some of the common characteristics which which guiltily bind each and every single Kenyan together, regardless of ethnic background, and in my opinion your assessment of your people was rather symptomatic and stereotypical instead of being helpful in truly identifying the root cause of all our collective problems as a people which have left many innocent Kenyans suffering for the sins of our leaders since independence.

I am happy to note that since yesterday many Kenyans from all walks of life, and in different corners of the globe far and wide have responded passionately to your article, and I will leave them as well as others who might not have had a chance to read it, to make up their minds about whether your well written commentary is true or not.

In conclusion sir, let me thank you for your many excellent pieces faithfully written for the Sunday nation over the years which are no doubt one of the many highlights of that newspaper which many Kenyans look forward to reading every weekend. However it is important that in future anyone seeking to address issues such as the ones you brought up does so in a well balanced manner and takes into consideration that Kenya and all her people are at a delicate time in history where the truth needs to be heard now more than ever before. Afterall, it is what will set us free

signed
A regular Sunday Nation Op/Ed reader

I live in Tanzania but do business in Nairobi and Mombasa

Kumekucha exclusive money-making special report

How technology has revolutionized money-making in Africa

A personal experience as told to Coach Lusweti (guest writer)
There is no topic that interests me more than the topic of making money and narrowing it down even further there is no specific subject in the process of making money that jazzes me more than the use of widely available technology. And I am not talking hi-tech here. I just mean simple technology like the cell phone, email and stuff like that.

Why does this interest me so much? Because I believe there are huge opportunities to make tons of cash from business for those who make use of technology to do things that were previously impossible to do. This article explains all that in very simple language and I actually give you practical experiences from my very own life.

I started out in the very low tech basic traditional business of printing. I used to make some very good cash printing letter heads, business cards etc for various clients large and small. Then computers came and turned the whole industry upside down. The computer made the office paperless and thus in need of much less stationary. Clients who required 500o letterheads now tool 500 for the whole year and just communicated using email and even sms messages. To make matters worse computers and cell phones invaded the market at about the same time that easy accessible loans came so almost everybody who got a loan in Nairobi bought a printing press. The result was that we ended up having too many printing machines around at a time when the market for printing jobs was shrinking rapidly. To cut a long story short I got into serious financial problems and I was auctioned and lost all my furniture and electronics in the house and everything in the office (including ironically a computer I hadn’t even finished paying for)..

Then one day an old friend organized for me to get a pretty lucrative printing job from a client in South Sudan. He client sent me the artwork from Juba as an attachment to an email. And then he wired me the cash via Western Union. When I was done with the job I took it to Wilson Airport where it was flown out. I ended up with some pretty good money that gave me a little respite from the considerable financial pressure I was going through at the time. I sat down and reviewed the role of technology in enabling me to serve a client who was so far away without leaving Nairobi. I asked myself questions like “Could I get more clients in South Sudan while I was in Nairobi? That way I would not be bogged down by the crowded and yet shrinking market for offset printing in Nairobi.

My mind quickly zeroed in on technology as a tool to help me make money in an increasingly hostile business environment. I have never looked back since.

To cut to the chase I ended up getting a very good job in Dar-es-salaam Tanzania where I am currently based. When I went there for the first time I was naĂŻve and I thought I would hit that under-developed market with all kinds of products and services and become a millionaire overnight. But alas, it was never to be. I was quickly brought back to reality when even my Tanzanian employers ran into serious problems trying to get me a work permit to work in that country.

To be honest I lost quite a bit of money trusting locals to act as my front as I tried all kinds of businesses which failed one after the other. My wife got really upset about my continued “investments” into cash draining failures and pointed out that the cash I had lost would have been enough to buy a big prime plot in Athi River or Kitengela. It really angered me when she said this. Especially because it was true.

Then it dawned on me that I did not need to struggle in the Tanzanian market which I didn’t know very well when I could use technology to do business in Kenya while I was still employed in Tanzania. It was not smooth sailing to what I have today but finally I got to setup something that works like a charm.

I have two businesses that do extremely well. I sell cars in Nairobi and Mombasa as a middleman. I advertise my cars using the noticeboards at Sarit Centre in Nairobi and another one at Nakumatt in Mombasa. I do my colour poster for the cars on my PC at home and then I used to print out the posters and physically send them via Akamba bus from Dar all the way to Nairobi and Mombasa where they would be picked up and put up at the respective notice boards for me to start receiving enquiries. The whole exercise would cost me about 4,000 bob. But these days technology has made it even easier and much cheaper. I use a blog site called pata kwa soo where I hire somebody in Nairobi and another in Mombasa to receive my posters as a pdf attachment in their email. They then print them out and put them up at Sarit Centre and Nakumatt Nyali respectively. I pay them only Kshs 100 shillings each for this simple errand. I do this through the site which means that they don’t get paid until they have accomplished the task successfully. I usually send them the cash via Mpesa to the innovatively simple site. I use this guy in Dar who travels with buses every other day to Mombasa and back and I give him the cash in Tanzania shillings and he deposits Mpesa in Kenya shillings and sends the cash to the recipient when he is in Kenya. To confirm that the work is done, I simply call a friend in Westlands and ask him to go for lunch at Sarit Centre and check if they see my poster. I do a similar thing with the Mombasa poster. I could easily use the same site to hire somebody else at 100 bob to go and check and confirm that the posters have been out up, but I guess I want to save 100. The cell phone advertised is my personal one (which works in Tanzania) When clients call I tell them as much as I can about the car and then direct them where to view it. I work with about 3 different major car importers in Mombasa. When they buy the car the sellers simply deposit the funds in my KCB (Kenya Commercial Bank account) and I can then access the funds via an ATM in Dar-es-salaam. Whenever my contacts get new cars in Mombasa they post them to their websites and I simply download them from there and create my sales poster. Simple but it works.

I still have my very well paying job and at the same time my side business brings in an average of Kshs 500, 000 every month.

You get the drift? Now you know why I am so interested in discussing technology and how to use it to make money through a small simple business. Remember that you can do virtually any kind of business as the absentee owner because technology now enables you “to be there” without actually physically being there.

Sit down today and try and figure out how to use technology to make money.

Friday, January 14, 2011

The next cabinet minister you will see in handcuffs is...

Revive your wet "seemingly dead" cell phone or make new all your scratched CDs DVDs all by yourself

While it is true that nothing really great can be accomplished without teamwork, it is amazing the difference that a single person can make. Kenyans now know this after the change of guard at the KACC, Kenya's anti-corruption body. Suddenly, with the same laws (because the new constitution is yet to be fully implemented) the anti-corruption watch-dog has teeth that are biting deep and causing many politicians sleepless nights.
Two days ago the man at the helm of this suddenly dreaded body PLO Lumumba called a press conference and announced that they were at an advanced stage of prosecuting the next big fish. A cabinet minister no less. And this time it will be for mis-using CDF (Constituency Development Fund). Lumumba revealed that somebody had come forward with evidence that they felt was compelling.

Calling press conferences to announce these kind of things is in itself a very clever strategy because it will be easier for the press and public to know if the prosecution is stopped. By the way this is a very likely happening because information made available to this blogger indicates that there are many politicians looking to make deals with the executive to be protected from Lumumba and his boys. Naturally some of these guys are bound to make offers that the executive cannot refuse.

So who is this minister? That is the big question on the minds of Kenyans. I have tried to do plenty of digging with my sources but nobody seems to have an idea. Seems that these guys who presented the evidence were very careful because carelessness would easily cause them to lose their lives because going to jail is not a joke.

However I do have plenty of information on the ministers in government who are corrupt including one notorious one who is said to continue carrying home briefcases full of cash everyday from the office. Regular readers of this column know why information on ODM ministers is so readily available while there is hardly anything on PNU affiliated cabinet members. If you read an earlier post you will know that it is because tax payers funds have been used extensively to investigate ODM ministers and naturally this cash briefcase carrying minister is from ODM.

Sources indicate that the next minister in court will be from PNU. This will help Lumumba and his boys paint a picture of being fair in targeting both sides of the political divide. However other sources insist that once again that minister will be from the ODM side. I have no way of telling who is right so we shall have to wait and see what happens there. However if the next arrest will be from the ODM side chances are very high that it will be a certain rather careless fellow called Otieno Kajwang. Read about the trouble ODM went into to save this unpopular MP in 2007. In life there are people who are usually meticulous and very careful in what they do so that it is very difficult to pin them down. Retired President Moi comes to mind. John Michuki (who has done countless deals over the years) is yet another. Mr Kajwang has however bee overly careless since his days as a lawyer where his license to practice was literally taken away because of some client money that developed feet and disappeared into the undergrowth.

Folks, all in all, things are about to get very ugly and I will explain exactly why and how in my next explosive post sometime this coming weekend.

Hot tips to help you make more money in 2011: See also Mpesa's brilliant entrepreneurial ideas and Mwarangethe's factory in Kenya in the comments area.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

How To Fund The Ocampo 6 in 2011

Revive your wet "seemingly dead" cell phone or make new all your scratched CDs DVDs

Noble causes are many, and even the best ones come and go leaving no trace behind except the feeling of snugness on the inside for having contributed to such a clear cut and straightforward demonstration of human will.

The campaigns are here with us, and indeed have started in earnest and are well underway on how to raise some extra cash to fund the trial of the Ocampo 6. Never mind that the implementation of some key reform programmes under the new Constitution may be delayed due to a shortage of money; there is always a surplus when the right people's lives are at stake for without key irreplaceable people to govern it what is a country?

These are rather hard times(see yesterday's blogpost) and the Ocampo 6 list of suspects already face the cold contempt of the public in daring them to touch public taxes to raise this aid money yet the internally displaced persons are still living in make shift homes 4 years after, and the average working mwananichi is already burdened with overtax. Therefore some inspiration is required on how to fund the list of suspects:


1)CDF
The soft underbelly of the NARC government was never intended to be used to serve partisan interests but instead was strictly earmarked to provide equal oppportunities for all constituencies to construction of roads, markets and schools; however its also true that the only specificic measurement of its effectiveness is how well it cushions Wanjiku from suffering, and MPs and other constitutional office holders also fall into that bracket. Rather than letting the chips fall where they may, let each county use their resources compassionately to determine the outcome of the fate of their leading stakeholders last passage of rites (read MP)


2)Wealthy local businessmen
Campaign funds can be financed through local sources such as shrewd businessmen who can see in which direction the wind is blowing and supply cash to the trial of the list of suspects in hopes of obtaining favours from them through their counties in the form of lucrative government contracts to provide services to such regions whose MPs are busy appearing in court and galantly fighting false accusations of crimes against humanity. This will in no doubt improve the suspects image in leaps and bounds and further boost their post prison presidential bids in a grand way


3)Political party sponsors
Every political party in Kenya has its backers, and sometimes they have even been foreigners. These sponsors know how the bread of political parties is buttered, and using their political skills and past experience can pour their bottomless funds into the trial of the Ocampo 6. The favour will be returned by having their name etched in the halls of government which they can then use to open doors for them in future to gain government backing for awards of tenders


4)The Church
These include the church network which has a well known reputation for sponsoring community projects that benefit the country and this is no exception. Kenyans are a religiously church going people, and clearly the church in Kenya has bottomless bags of money as seen from the recent constitution referendum, they can successfully fund causes they believe in to be just


Withdrawing from the Hague will not stop the ICC process, and tackling the bull by the horns and head on is the only way to ease panic among the political class. no matter public opinion everyone deserves a fair trial before being found guilty in the eyes of the one and only law, and funding the Ocampo 6 will give them a chance to go down fighting. God bless Kenya

How to earn extra cash in 2011

Kumekucha readers are used to hardball politics but I thought it would be useful to take a brief break today and in these rather hard times share a few money-making tips and spread some inspiration all round especially to those who had a rough 2010… more so cash wise.

Nothing wrong with this I suppose because after all we do carry business articles in Kumekucha occasionally… So here goes

1) Set aside some thinking time: George Orwell’s scary book 1984 is coming to life before the very eyes of those who have read it carefully. We are robots these days controlled by our cell phones and computers. When is the last time you had some quality thinking time? Switch off your cell phone and switch off the computer for 15 minutes and do same careful thinking about YOU and YOUR LIFE. Where are you? Where do you want to go? Are you really serious about earning some extra cash in 2011? You better be (don’t just forget the minute you finish reading this post).

2) The cash is in the problems: There is plenty of information on the web on how to turn the skills you currently have into hard cash. But when you try something it just doesn’t seem to work. Here is the big secret that will make all the difference in 2011. THE MONEY IS IN OPPORTUNITITIES. What that simply means is that your skills have to find opportunities. Quit trying to use your skills to create opportunities because it won’t work. It used to work but it doesn’t work anymore in this changed world of today. Simple example. You have book keeping skills and so you place a classified ad in the newspapers and online seeking part-time book keeping gigs. Nothing happens. Now why not take a completely different approach and look for the problems people are facing out there that will use your book keeping skills? Another word for problems incase you didn’t know is “money making opportunities”. Busy small business people are having problems filing their tax returns so your classified ad should address that instead of just saying book keeping skills. This will work very well especially as the deadline approaches. Another example; I know many small time entrepreneurs in Nairobi who have a serious problem finding the right PC software to do their accounts Quickbooks for instance allows you to do this with zero staff (but you will need a consultant to help you set it up properly and to translate them into something acceptable to the KRA (Kenya Revenue Authority. Don’t tell me you are a book-keeper without computer skills? There are endless book-keeping related problems that you can address. And this applies to everybody. SEEK YE FIRST THE PROBLEMS (OPPORTUNITIES).

3) Making money away from your computer is getting increasingly difficult. Try selling door to door and the decision-makers are all glued to their PCs and will give you 5 mins of half-listening to get back to their computers. So why not talk to them online? Go door to door getting email addresses of the bosses and then craft a good email letter addressing their individual problems directly and showing them how your services can solve them and you are sure to have a winner and make more money in 2011. Use Facebook to keep them on your mind and show them some interesting stuff that can help solve their problems (sometimes totally unrelated to your services). That is how they will remember you.

4) One idea can still change everything. I have seen this happen way too many times over the years. Some down and out guy stumbles on a single idea and it changes their lives forever. The lesson you must not forget in 2011 is that when an idea fails you, don’t take it personally. Try the next one with as much enthusiasm. It is just a matter of time and you will hit the jackpot.

5) Find a way to use the web. In the West they have plenty of wonderful websites that can do all sorts of stuff for free. Heard of Ebay? Tens of thousands of Americans earn a very good living on the site. But don’t worry we in Africa are catching up gradually. You can check out this site where people have advertised odd jobs they can do for only 100 bob. There are two ways you can make serious money from this right away. You can use cheap service providers (at no risk, they are paid only when the work has been delivered and you are satisfied with the quality) as your staff to run a very major side business even as you remain employed. The second way is if you are idle and have not reached that level yet, you can package your skill into a useful gig you can easily get done quickly (because of your immense skill in this area) and sell it for a hundred bob a pop. It must be something you can a thousand units of virtually in your sleep if you want to make Kshs 100,000 just like that. The magic here is that you are able to advertise your gigs for FREE and receive your payments via Mpesa once the job is done. Have you realized how time consuming chasing for payments is most of the time? So by eliminating that from the equation some switched on Kenyans are already making tens of thousands of shillings every month even as slower ones complain that 100 bob is too little for them.

6) DO SOMETHING: And that last rather sarcastic remark in 5 above brings us to the most important point in this article. If you don’t do this, nothing else matters. You can have the best ideas and best websites but you will fail if you do nothing. DO SOMETHING. This is not the time to analyze and strategize, you have already done too much of that in the past. Just get going doing something RIGHT AWAY, however little and build up from that.

When the great Google Inc. started the founders were not earning even a hundred bob for their revolutionary new search engine. They were earning zero!! Zilch!!! Yes and they operated for well over a year earning ZERO while fine-tuning their search engine and business trying to figure out a way to get paid for it. Today Google is a multi-billion dollar company. So why not start in the same way? Or even start with the 100 bob above and see what happens. Good luck to you. May 2011 be your most prosperous year yet and remember to tell me what happens, I am intersted.

Don't worry Kumekucha is still a hard politics blog (see current political post) : Is Raila Evil?

Monday, January 10, 2011

Is Raila Odinga evil or a man whose hands are tied?

You can be sure that decades from now when political scientists and historians sit down to analyze this period in Kenyan history they will all agree it was a very critical time in our history. But another more interesting point can quickly be brought forward. And this one has to do with the executive and the damage that it is causing.

There was a time when those crafting our constitution had thought of diluting the powers of the presidency by introducing a Prime Minister. This was an ideal, almost magical way to bringing impunity to an abrupt end. The writing should be on the wall for them now. It just doesn’t work. Guys we have a classic case of a Prime Minister and a president combining extremely well to sustain the evil of impunity in the executive.
Shocked Kenyan have watched in disbelief as some of their previously most trusted legislators have gone to the extent of threatening to shut down KACA and putting a stop to the war against corruption that has now reached previously unknown heights. Na bado (as my good friend Tabuu would say).

Whatever ODM hawks want to say this is NOT the Raila Odinga I voted for (along with so many other Kenyans) in December 2007. Surely this is not the man who pledged zero tolerance to corruption. What does the office of the executive do to Kenyans? Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki were all good men before they became president. Even Raila was a better man before he became Prime Minister and a member of the evil executive arm of government.

Still it has been interesting how several politicians have carefully avoided criticizing the PM directly and instead talked about ODM MPs misleading the captain. Including one Francis Atwoli who has presidential ambitions. What hogwash. Where does the buck stop? With ODM MPs? Please!!!

Fellow Kenyans the two principals have been working together very closely, just as we had hoped when they were going through a rocky patch at the beginning of their marriage of convenience. But sadly this time they are working together for our good but for their very own personal interests. They are doing exactly what the previous executive has been doing since indipendence as documented so well in my controversial book Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency. Indeed it seems the security of the state is now the political survival and well being of the Member for Othaya and the member for Langata.

A case in point is all this well choreographed hypocritical noise being made about Henry Kosgey’s being charged in court (albeit the first sitting cabinet minister in the history of the republic of Kenya to be charged in court). The noise is being made by ODM MPs while clearly the charges have presented the perfect opportunity for the man not to make it to the Hague for more serious charges of crimes against humanity. Instead he will conveniently be bogged down in an unending court case back home.

But let me be the quick to admit that there is a level of unfairness here that most Kenyans may not be aware of. In the early days of the grand coalition government, the main task assigned to the NSIS was to investigate corrupt ODM ministers while ignoring PNU ministers. That was unfair. And although few will admit it, the tip that led to the current charges against Kosgey came from the intelligence community. So in that sense there was unfairness.

However things have balanced themselves out somewhat because other cases have been instigated by the press and pressure from the people. Like the one against former foreign minister Moses Wetangula and the sale of the land for the Kenyan embassy in Japan. Wetangula is from the PNU side of government and talk is rife that the Minister might make a court appearance soon. Still other sources assure me that the folks involved in that Japan saga “are too high up” meaning that they are too close to the president and therefore successful prosecution will be impossible and the case will go the same way the Kimunya sale of Grand Regency scandal went. That means absolutely nowhere.

Having said all that it is also true that there is no way impunity will be fought by trying to carefully balance things along party lines. Graft is graft and has no tribe or political party.

Clearly it would seem that what KACA and it’s chief PLO Lumumba have achieved in recent times has sent panic waves through the corridors of power. This has caused people to dig up skeletons from PLO’s closet (and there are plenty from the days he was rolling in bed with Kanu and the impunity of President Daniel arap Moi as he struggled to establish himself as a lawyer). Nobody wants to know that this is the new Lumumba now seeking to leave a legacy for himself in a very different political environment.

Meanwhile the executive with all it’s power is unraveling a carefully crafted plan that will neatly deny Kenyans their promise in a new implemented constitution while playing the same old games that have landed us into the very serious trouble we are already in as a nation.

Githongo and Ghai's initiative to rescue Kenya from Impunity


Mombasa cars @
Kshs 490,000 ONLY? Amazing car deals at Kumekucha's Car Market.

Press Release: Kenya Yetu• Katiba Yetu • Maisha Yetu Campaign

Press Release

Conveners: Yash Pal Ghai, John Githongo, George Kegoro and Davinder Lamba

Those of us gathered here are Kenyan citizens from different ethnic, religious,
racial, regional, gender, professional and generational backgrounds. We are
all convinced that Kenya is ripe to realise the promise of the new Constitution.

Having assessed the situation in our beloved country we are, like most Kenyans, dismayed by a range of issues that persist: a national tragedy of successive waves of IDPs; the persistence of impunity and corruption; the entrenchment of a culture of drug dealing with the connivance of top leaders; the deliberate manipulation of our ethnic diversity by some leaders creating for a society that is divided dangerously along ethnic and increasingly religious lines - the list is depressingly long. We express our alarm too at the deepening structural economic inequalities in our society, creating a gigantic class of youthful-have-nothings ruled by a tiny self-preserving elite making every effort to keep everything. These are among a host of other pressing injustices in Kenya.

To this end, we pledge ourselves and call upon all other Kenyans to take responsibility for the new Constitution, resist all attempts at undermining the new Constitution, and speak up and organise against the impunity, injustice and corruption that is perpetrated in Counties and localities across this great land. The time has come to say, “Enough is enough!” and to take Kenya back.

So we say: Kenya Yetu• Katiba Yetu • Maisha Yetu – Kenya belongs to all of us!

This campaign will be followed up by a series of specific actions across Kenya beginning with meetings, rallies, Country gatherings all over the country and culminating in a People’s Convention later this year.

CALL TO ACTION

To this end we are assembled today to seize the moment; to comprise a movement of likeminded – Kenyans committed to ending impunity and ushering a spirit of Constitutionalism in Kenya. We pledge to work together to defend the Constitution; to fight corruption; to promote reconciliation among our diversity of peoples. We pledge to vigorously oppose - by every constitutional means available - those who would undermine the Constitution. We similarly pledge to directly resist those who steal from us; those who actively work to ruin the future of our youth; we pledge to oppose those who stand before us as leaders but are, in reality, agents of confusion, division and destruction!

We are willing to work together with all those who are genuinely committed to reform, including those in government and parliament. But we also recognise that there are many vested interests in government, parliament, and business who are opposed to reform. Their network is extensive and their capacity to sabotage the Constitution is formidable. They will oppose the transformation with their enormous resources, including brutal violence. So we call upon those in these sectors to stand up to be counted. We challenge those who have not traditionally been involved in reform processes, such as the business community and the police service, to join with other Kenyans in this initiative.

In the immediate:

1. We call upon the People of Kenya to take on the responsibility of facilitating the full realisation of the Constitution which we gave ourselves: by respecting it, by insisting on our own rights and those of others, and holding those in positions of power and responsibility to account on the oaths they have sworn to fully respect and carry forward this constitution and its values.

2. We call on the entire Government to give the implementation of the Constitution the utmost priority, developing the necessary laws, institutions and processes

3. We call upon the Government to take seriously its constitutional
obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the people,
including freedom of expression, the right to education, to housing
and the right to food.

4. We call on the President and Prime Minister to work together towards marshalling their followers behind the Constitution and desist from contradictory and confusing statements that cause the public to doubt their commitment to the Constitution and the overall reform process in Kenya

5. If the President and Prime Minister persist in undermining the Constitution by, for example, working to pull us out of the Rome Statute this early after promulgation, then we call on them to cease trying to fool Kenyans and set in motion the process of holding new elections so Kenyans can make decisions with regard to their leadership sooner rather than later.

6. We call on the President and Prime Minister to immediately remove from public office all those named as suspects by competent authorities, be they local or international. To be thus named undermines their legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness and that of the Kenyan government itself.

7. We call upon the Speaker and Members of the National Assembly to speedily fulfil their responsibilities for the implementation of the Constitution

8. We welcome the Independent Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution and the Independent Commission on Revenue Allocation and look forward to the timely and proper constitution of all the other remaining commissions. We note that several other existing commissions need to brought into line with the new Constitution. We remind all the Commissioners of the sacred oath they have taken, and urge them to be judicious in their use of time and all other resources entrusted to them in ensuring the full implementation of the constitution.

9. We call upon all the above authorities to perform their responsibilities and tasks for the fulfilment of the Constitution, after consultation with and the participation of the people, as the Constitution itself requires, and in the spirit of the sovereignty of the people as acknowledged in the Constitution. In the pursuit of this objective, we pledge our full co-operation.

Thank-you and God Bless Kenya...

CONTACT

Yash Pal Ghai - yashpal.ghai@gmail.com

John Githongo – info@inukakenya.com

Twitter:
twitter.com/kenyaniyetu #katibayetu

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/kenyaniyetukatibayetu

e-mail:
info@nisisikenya.com


STATEMENT ON THE PRESENT POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SITUATION IN KENYA

EVER SINCE INDEPENDENCE in 1963, Kenyans have lived under regimes that have exploited and oppressed them. The vast majority of our people have become poorer, and many are living in greater misery than was unimaginable when we became independent. On the other hand, a handful of Kenyans have become fabulously rich, most of them through corruption, stealing of state resources, and bribes from those to whom state favours were extended. Since the corrupt included presidents, ministers, and civil servants, they were protected from prosecutions. In this way there developed the culture of impunity that has caused and continues to cause great damage to our society and economy. On the strength of these ill gotten gains, some families have established dynastic politics, promoting candidates who have done little to deserve public office. There is a clear causal link between the affluence of the few and the misery of the many.

Few politicians have shown any vision about our country. What Kenya needed at independence was a leader with the vision of a Mandela who would weave its different tribes and communities into a nation committed to the unity and development of the country, and welfare of all Kenyans. Instead the politicians promoted and played upon ethnic affiliations, stirring up ethnic loyalties on the one hand and ethnic animosities on the other. They claim to be protectors of their tribes, which would suffer great hardships if their tribal politicians were not elected. But their principal interest has been to grab state power, for only through the abuse of state power can they accumulate wealth. They also use ethnicity to protect themselves from criminal sanctions, by pleading that criminal charges against them are an attack on their tribe. Electoral politics have become largely about ethnic alliances, ever shifting because there is no commitment to values and policies, merely calculations of winning office. Unfortunately some people are all too ready, no doubt fuelled by bribes, to defend their ethnic “leaders” against well founded allegations of corruption or violence. Consequently the country has become deeply divided along tribes and regions, vulnerable to periodic bouts of ethnic looting, displacements and killings, under the sponsorship of politicians.

Thus politics have become the preferred route to wealth, requiring little effort, untroubled by their conscience. If honest politicians get into parliament or the government, they are quickly infected by this culture of greed. Few ministers or parliamentarians care about people’s welfare. This is why political alliances can change quickly and why it makes no difference which politician or which party wins elections. Politicians, united by common objectives of reaping the rewards of politics, form a political class which will do their best to sabotage values of the new Constitution, especially integrity. This is obvious from the way in which they are closing ranks against the ICC but care little about the victims of the violence they engineered.

The moral decay in public life perpetrated by the political class is obvious: cheating in elections, packing commissions with political party nominees, willing to use extreme violence, and engaging with and protecting drug barons and other criminals, regardless of harm to communities or threats to national security. State officials fix and pollute the institutions for truth and justice. The police and local authorities connive with crooks to evict the poor and powerless, the Constitution ineffective against the onslaught of bulldozers. The establishment protects criminals and thugs who serve it. For the youth who are the 78% of Kenyans – unemployment has almost been criminalised. At the same time, parliamentarians are said to cast their votes at the direction of the biggest bidder; thus has the Bunge become a sordid market, corrupting democracy.

On the other hand, people pursuing social goals inconvenient to the establishment, are arrested when they criticise land grabbing or victimisation of IDPs, or seek to participate in public affairs in accordance with the Constitution. They are arrested, detained for, sometimes, long periods, occasionally charged with offences for which the police are unable to provide any evidence, or often released without any charge—but only after having suffered, with their families, great inconvenience, discomfort and anxiety: clearly a message to reformers. Ministers, bureaucrats and their patrons thrive on these illegalities: impunity for friends and jail for proponents of justice and reform.

In short, our country has become a volatile, divided, violent and corrupt place, where poverty defines the deprivations and insecurity of the majority of the people. There is justifiably lack of trust in state institutions and leaders. They have plundered our national wealth; given our natural resources, including land, essentially for private profit, to outsiders, without public disclosure; cut down our forests, some turned into charcoal shipped off to the Middle East, some for agriculture, both for private profit, while our environment degrades, and people starve; transferred astronomical sums of public money to corrupt “business” men for the export of fictitious gold and diamonds Kenya does not produce; bought military aircraft and other security equipment at exorbitant prices.

Our presidents, previously men of limited means, became billionaires within months of assuming office. The same rush of unexplained wealth seems true of most of ministers, prime ministers and their aides. Illegal appropriations of vast tracts of land, some of which are uncultivated, while millions are without access to land and the disparities of wealth, and thus the life styles among the people, are so enormous that they seem to belong to different worlds and cultures. Half of Nairobi’s population lives in slums in appalling conditions which denies them the most basic rights of dignity and survival, while a few families lead a life of great affluence. Some public schools operate without the most basic facilities while billions of shillings, mostly donations from abroad, are stolen by teachers and ministry staff, and the minister in charge refuses to take any responsibility. The obsession with ethnicity and our poverty deny the fundamental premise of social solidarity and national unity.

We are a nation adrift, squandering the great potential among our people, especially our youthful majority; ironically at the moment when people have voted overwhelming for a new Constitution which has given hope to many.

Constitution beckons to a new future

The Constitution enjoyed this degree of support because it rejected the style of politics that has dominated us since independence. It places at the centre of state and society integrity, democracy, human rights and social justice. One of its main objectives is to ensure to all a life in dignity, meeting the basic needs of even the most deprived. It aims at an inclusive and vibrant democracy, through wide participation of the people in public affairs, honest leadership, and full accountability for the conduct of the government. It seeks to transcend tribal politics and to unite us in our commitment to new Constitutional values, including patriotism, embracing a broader Kenyan identity of which we can be proud of. The Constitution promises us much, and sets out the institutional framework for achieving the national values.

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga have in the president’s speech on promulgation day described the new Constitution as “an embodiment of our best hopes, aspiration, ideals and values for a peaceful and more prosperous nation”. They predict that the Constitution “will fundamentally transform our nation politically, economically and socially” and lead to “productive and dignified lives”. They drew attention to “the new ways of conducting public affairs”, saying, “This Constitution’s leadership code and values makes it clear that people who will present themselves for public or state offices will have to be individuals of integrity, willing to be held accountable by the people and the institutions and laws of our country....The leaders must guarantee that the Bill of Rights is enforced...”. They urged us to complete the journey of “our transformation” by “seizing the moment with courage because the birth of the Second Republic holds great promise for the Kenyan people”.

Seize the moment

While the people long for the new dawn of integrity and social justice, they feel powerless in the face of the ever present corruption, land grabbing, and divisive ethnicity, mostly with the support of the administration and the police. They long for integrity among public offices and justice from judges, as they see that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor, and no justice for themselves. There is widespread discontent with the present establishment. People feel that they have been betrayed on the new Constitution and notice that the goals of the Constitution are daily being violated, sidelined, crassly and blatantly, while politicians continue to invoke ethnicity, imperilling peace and harmony among the people. In all this the politicians seem unconcerned about the public reaction.

The people realise that the Constitution promises them much, but some do not feel empowered by it. But many others do sense that it is through their own agency, in co-operation with others, that the promise will be realised. So increasingly people are organising themselves into groups (professionals, women, youth, religious groups, numerous grassroots organisations) searching for a new social and political order. Focussed on the youth, we intend to work together with them and others searching for change to fulfil the agenda of the Constitution. In order to achieve our objectives, for ourselves and future generations, we will facilitate partnerships for pursuit of Constitutional goals, promote co-operation across ethnic divides, etc. use possibilities for people for participation, decision making; engage with the rural and urban poor; encourage awareness among people of the Constitution and their rights. In the absence of effective and stable political parties, social movements have the potential to influence political policies and developments. This is what we intend to do.

Thank-you and God Bless Kenya....

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Kenya Must Go to the Dogs First to Rise Again

By Two KK Bloggers

The recent political past has left MV Kenya tottering precariously in the doldrums. Last year ended with Ocampo's hanging a milestone collectively on 6 necks. And just before synthesis what 2011 portents, we seismic political waves are already threatening to shred any trace of hitherto calm. These developments have left political tongues wagging and the bloggers here have not been left behind. Here are two divergent takes from two our bloggers. Enjoy

1: Red Flag
Make no mistake, Kenya has surely gone to the dogs. Look, everybody wants a pound of flesh of hapless Kenyans, drug traffickers in the highest echelons of security and governance, those not dealing in drugs to destroy future generations are busy plundering the country and extorting the meagre resources we have from us, gangsters running amok doing whatever they want with help from the police and guns sometimes hired from the police, if they are not police themselves, highest paid MPs in the world, droughts looming and at the risk of raining on bloggers’ party (read stirring hornet’s nest), Somalis buying up the country with questionable sources of money, borders wide open for as little as KES 500, drug addicts mugging in once peaceful coastal towns, HIV/Aids, treatable and preventable diseases like malaria etc etc. The picture is not very alluring.

Meanwhile idiots are busy with "my tribe, your tribe". KENYA IS GOING TO HELL IF IT IS NOT THERE ALREADY! Of what use is my tribe and your tribe important when we will are all living a hell on earth. You might have made it and are relatively rich, you are still living in hell, having to lock yourself behind high walls, driving through poverty and squalor, not knowing when you will be shot dead by gangsters or extortionist police, when a matatu which has just paid a bribe will ram into you and end your life or maim you.

Come on people, we are in this together, of whatever tribe or social class. This country lacks leadership, lacks moral values. Pastors drive sparkling SUVs and Kenyans are told to close their eyes and pray while being dispossessed of their meagre resources by the men of god. Politicians are either engaged in drug trafficking, car-jacking or high level corruption despite being paid one of the highest salaries in the world in one of the poorest countries in the world.

Why can't we open our eyes? Are we a masochist nation? We are suffering or will suffer pretty soon, and we are busy with personalities just because they are from our tribes. Aliyeiba abebe mzigo wake, ANY KENYAN POLITICIAN OUT OF ACTION IS A BLESSING FOR KENYANS, whatever their tribe might be.

It is about time we wake up from our slumber. All right-thinking Kenyans should see what is happening. The situation in which our country finds itself is very dangerous indeed. It will explode pretty soon. We have to avoid it at all costs. You do need to be a neurologist to identify the real enemies taking a ride on our collective backs. Forget all the heat and barbs directed at US envoy Ranneberger who is only earning his pay. His dossier on drugs would have sent a chill down our spine but this is Kenya where the drug barons know our mouths are ready for hire. And we never disappoint. Just look at how busy we are with INDIVIDUALS which every tribe thinks will deliver them to the Promised Land. Well, NO ONE WILL. Those whom we foolishly protect are nothing but equal opportunity thieves who hate all Kenyans and Kenya in equal measure. Simply put, they are out to destroy all of us and our kids.

Kenyan foreign debt has increased more than five-fold since 2002. Who will pay it back? Your kids and mine for generations to come, regardless of our tribes. What do we have to show for it? Drug addicted zombies and hundreds of ministers and other officials being driven around from one corruption deal to another.

When a drug addict mugs you he will not ask for your tribe, when a police officer robs you he will not ask for your tribe first, neither will the angel of death ask for your tribe when a substandard matatu crashes minutes after paying a bribe.

Bottom line is, we are in this together, we had better wake up and unite and isolate our real enemies. This country needs us as a matter of urgency, otherwise PEV will soon sound like a distant sweet dream to come.

2: Rite of passage
On the flip side you need superlative skills to successfully preach to a choir. Crying for Kenya amounts to wasted tears, please reserve the precious liquids for a worthwhile personal cause, joy or sorrow, whatever the case may be. What you see as national decadence are the compulsory birth pangs a country must experience in the process of growing. Kenya, the country will outlive you and the current four generations of Kenyans by the time the year 2080 comes knocking.

Save us your cries and better get advised that we are not in that mess together. The wailers are on their own. This is Africa where anything and everything goes.
Why not let the country go to the wild dogs and jungle power brokers for a change? The match towards equilibrium will see frustrated hyenas frothing and waiting in the fringes of society ready to take advantage of every morsel of mess and the boundless opportunities caused by vicious canines and their handlers.
The hyenas will snatch everything in sight leaving behind very little for the opportunistic jackals and vultures to scavenge on.

I can't wait for another wild seasonal political cycle with new players, new takers, new herds for the hunt and intense brawls in the same old country.

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Will other cabinet ministers follow Kosgey to court? | Henry Kosgey Kalenjin politics

Something major has changed in Kenya in recent times. Yesterday the newspapers were splashed with photographs of a cabinet minister (Henry Kosgei who was the minister for Industrialization until he resigned on Tuesday shortly before his arrest) being escorted into court, something unprecedented in Kenya.
Al Kosgey?

The truth is that impunity is still alive and well and putting up a hell of a fight. And that fight could still go either way. However having said that, it is also true that this previous champion who would go through fights untouched is now receiving significant body blows.

The thing which stood out the most for me from the events of Tuesday was that journalists and eye witnesses concur that Henry Kosgey looked pretty shaken when he emerged from his session with KACA investigators before being whisked off to court where he was charged later in the afternoon. There is no denying the fact that this extremely rich man who financed a major chunk of the ODM campaign in the last elections has been very badly shaken.

Cabinet ministers have good reason to be very frightened just now. Especially when they take the time to carefully analyze the strategy used to nail Henry Kosgey. It is reminiscent of how the American government finally nailed organized crime king pin Al Capone in 1931. The notorious criminal was caught completely unawares when he was charged with tax evasion (and tax on illegally acquired income at that). Capone who was famously known for battering a colleague to death with a baseball bat—whom he accused of betrayal but never produced the evidence—during a meeting was a vicious and extremely powerful criminal who had put virtually all major officials in Chicago in his payroll of bribes. Read his amazing tale HERE

Kosgey is probably one of the most corrupt cabinet ministers ever and is credited with single-handedly bringing the once prosperous government-owned Kenya National Assurance to it’s knees stripping it of not only cash but prized assets, leaving in his wake a mere shell of a company that quickly folded. Thousands of Kenyans lost a livelihood in the process and Kosegy got away with it. Not to mention the fourth All Africa games where the same man is said to have pocketed huge sums given in sponsorship for the event and left the government holding all the bills. If Kosgey is found guilty of the charges of abuse of office then it will be like a serial killer found guilty of stealing a chicken.

Although the Kibaki government has been notoriously corrupt, under former president Moi excessive corruption that led to the collapse of public institutions was rampant. Read my book Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency to little known incidents that were happening behind the scenes as his henchmen raped and plundered the Kenyan economy like there was no tomorrow. You can get the book free HERE.

It seems that the new KACA boss PLO Lumumba may be a fan of Al Capone movies or so it seems because he has borrowed heavily from this American strategy of the 1930s. Capone and impunity in cabinet and high office in Kenya have many similarities including the fact that it is extremely difficult to obtain any evidence that can stand up in a court of law against the evil that has been committed for decades. And yet it is widely known that many cabinet ministers are to this day way too corrupt (according to the Wikileaks cables American intelligence is convinced that virtually ALL in cabinet are corrupt, a view shared by this blogger).

Lumumba’s new legal strategy is very different from that of his predecessor and coupled with the intense international pressure for KACA to graduate from prosecuting traffic policemen caught taking Kshs 50 to the really big fish, it seems that we will be seeing a number of other political heavy weights in court in the months to come.

But what is going to be even more interesting to watch are the political repercussions of this heightened fight against impunity. A friend from the Rift Valley told me yesterday that the PM is finished in the Rift Valley after Kosgey’s appearance in court on Tuesday. And the same friend repeated something that I have heard for a long time now. That a certain ODM cabinet Minister is swiftly amassing a war chest at a sensitive ministry of government that touches on Internal security. This individual could well be the next person who is photographed next to a policeman making an appearance in court. Or perhaps what he knows is a threat to the security of the state. Well, Kumekucha is doing a little more digging and you can expect an explosive post here in the next few days.

Impunity: word of the moment

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Monday, January 03, 2011

Gitobu Imanyara: The long suffering man who could be king

Gitobu Imanyara was our first runner up to the person of the year 2010 and once again this seemingly unlucky Kenyan politicial giant was denied the accolades after making some very commendable contributions in the year 2010. Is the guy jinxed or what?
Gitobu Imanyara as a school prefect in Nairobi School in 1973

Looking at the career of Mr Imanyara one cannot help but feel that he surely deserves much more than what life has handed to him so far. Let’s compare him to two very lucky Kenyan politicians who have played it safe contributed very little and reached the top. Namely Mwai Kibaki and Kalonzo Musyoka.

When Gitobu was getting in and out of police detention Mwai Kibaki was enjoying life as usual, flashing the one finger KANU salute. Indeed Mwai Kibaki has never seen what the inside of a police cell looks like. All his political career he has been the overcautious politician who would agonize for months when they reached the edge of a political cliff with nowhere else to turn except to jump down into the water below. A case in point was after the controversial 1988 infamous queue-voting general elections.
Gitobu Imanyara for President
An aside here to detail that amazing political occurrence is well worth it.

Bored handlers of president Moi itching for a challenge after having shot down everything that could move as far as a threat to the Moi presidency (real or imagined) was concerned turned their attention to the then cowardly and extremely harmless Vice President. They decided to rig him out of his Othaya parliamentary seat and everything was in place for the shock announcement that some obscure politician called Muriuki or something like that had defeated Kibaki in the 1988 parliamentary elections. But when Othaya constituents heard of the scheme most men (and some women) went home and fetched their pangas to come and hear the announcement of the election results. The DC sensed serious trouble and hurriedly called Nairobi for direction. In the end Mwai Kibaki was announced victor and his opponent needed heavy police protection to hurriedly get the hell out of town. Still when Moi announced his new cabinet a few days later the Vice President was a man called Prof Josphat Karanja and Kibaki was relegated to a mere Minister for Health. Still he did nothing and sat on the uncomfortable fence until Christmas day 1991 (the very last minute because elections were due in 1992) when he announced his defection from Kanu to a new political party that he had just formed with others called DP (Democratic Party of Kenya). That’s Kibaki for you.

Kalonzo Musyoka is not any different and was at the heart of Kanu mama na baba as Imanyara struggled to stay alive. Musyoka is now the Vice President while Imanyara is not even in the cabinet.

It seems Kenyan politics has always favoured the cowardly and the compromisers (read details in my landmark book Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency. You can now get your copy for FREE HERE.)

And Gitobu Imanyara’s troubles seem to be far from over even when Kenya has gained so much democratic space thanks mainly to Imanyara’s personal sacrifices and endless suffering in police cells and torture chambers. What comes to mind right away is the recent incident where he was slapped by first lady Lucy Kibaki in State House.

This is the fascinating East African Standard report on the issue (the account was from Imanyara himself);

Imanyara said he had cut short a trip to South Africa to attend the meeting (at State House Nairobi), also graced by Vice-President, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, and Internal Security minister, Prof George Saitoti.

Imanyara said after going through the security checks at State House, they were ushered into a conference room.

After taking a seat and introducing himself to the President, the MP said, State House Comptroller, Mr Hyslop Ipu, came in and whispered to him that he should leave the room.

“I thought this was quite rude for a junior officer to come where the President was and ask me to leave the room,” said a visibly angry Imanyara.

Shortly afterwards, Imanyara recounted, the Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Mr Francis Muthaura, came to ask whether they could talk outside.

“At this time, I could hear loud screams of a female shouting all kinds of words. I did not know who it was,” said Imanyara.

The Imenti Central legislator said as he was talking to Muthaura, the First Lady burst into the scene screaming: “This is the man that took the First Lady to the courts. Nobody comes to State House without my permission!”

Imanyara said she went on: “You are a friend of the Luos. Foolish Merus voted for you.”

At this juncture, said Imanyara, the First Lady came forward and started throwing punches at him, which he ducked.

“Nobody takes the First Lady to court. Nobody gets away with it,” Imanyara quoted her as saying.

He said Mrs Kibaki vowed that he would not get any Government appointments as long as she was at State House.

And on allegations that he was punched, Imanyara said: “The First Lady is too short and no punch touched me, neither did I return any.”

Imanyara said security at the corridors of State House stood by and watched as the whole episode unfolded.

The MP said at some point, he was asked to leave State House and he obliged.

Speaking at the Serena Hotel, Nairobi, Imanyara lashed out at the First Lady for trying to create an impression that State House was her property.

“At this rate, we don’t know who is in charge at State House. Kibaki needs to remove the First Lady from State House,” said Imanyara.

So who is Gitobu Imanyara?

After Imanyara spent more than two years in Maximum Security Prison on charges associated with his work as a human rights lawyer, he founded the Nairobi Law Monthly in 1987. It was not supportive of Daniel arap Moi's one party policy and Imanyara was arrested for not registering the magazine.

He was again arrested 1n 1990 after writing a special issue entitled "The Historic Debate: Law, Democracy, and Multi-Party Politics in Kenya." At one point he was held in a prison psychiatric ward, though he re-released the issue following his own release. Receiving the International Editor of the Year by the World Press Review while in prison, he was called "the boldest voice for a free press in a country whose intolerant government does not hesitate to shut down publications and where most journalists practice self censorship."

Imanyara was arrested for a third time in April 1991 after police confiscated that moneth’s issue of the Nairobi Law Monthly. The offending information was about the formation of an opposition political party. It is instructive that he went on to become the founding secretary general of the Forum for the Restoration of Demoracy, FORD KENYA, 1990-2002. This was the first opposition party to be registered in Kenya for many decades.

While in custody, Imanyara developed a brain tumour. Luckily it was successfully treated. Kenyan aid money went down significantly after that arrest, and the U.S. State Department called it "another denial of freedom of expression in Kenya." Imanyara was awarded the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award later that year, but due to authorities not allowing him to leave the country for it, Liberal International President Otto Lambsdorff brought it personally to Nairobi in early 1992.

At the Kenyan general elections in December 1997, he won a regional landslide victory and was elected MP for Central Imenti Constituency. He continued to publish his magazine, which was renamed the Africa Law Review.

Posted at the Nairobi School website www.oldcambrians.com. Imanyara is an alumni of the elitist boy’s boarding school in Nairobi:
# House Prefect, Scott House 1972
# Head of Scott and School Prefect 1973
# University of Nairobi 1974-1977, LL.B
# Kenya School of Law 1978
# Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, from 1979
# Member of Parliament 1997-2002
# Founding Secretary General, Forum for the Restoration of Demoracy, FORD KENYA, 1990-2002
# Founding Publisher and Editor in Chief, The Nairobi Law Monthly
# Internatinal Board Member, Article 19, The International Centre Against Censorship, London, 1990-2000
# International Adisory Editorial Board Member, Human Rights Quaterly,USA
# Chairman,The Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace,[Kenya,Uganda,Tanzania,Rwanda,Burundi,Zambia, Zanzibar] 1997-2002
# World Press Review's Internatinal Editor of the Year, 1990, New York
# World Association's Golden Pen of Freedom Laureate, Paris 1991
# Harvard University's Nieman Fellow's Louis m. Lyons Award Laureate, 1991, USA
# Liberal International's Prize of Freedom Laureate 1991, Switzerland
# Human Rights Award 1991 International Human Rights Law Group, Washington
# Internatinal Biographic Centre, Cambridge, UK's 2000 Outstanding Scholars of the 20th Century, 2000

Kumekucha salutes you Gitobu Imanyara. Our position is that you could make an excellent presidential candidate for 2012.

See also:

Gitobu Imanyara's brother died because of a piece of meat
My encounter with Lucy Kibaki
Book gives clues on Lucy Kibaki's condition
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