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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Taylor Shaved 50 Years, Ocampo4 Next Clients

Jailing Charles Taylor's for 50 years must surely have sent chills up the spines of the Ocampo4. Not that they are guilty but their heads must be have gone into spins permuting what ugly prospects waits them.

Muting the hitherto pompous BUTCHER of Liberia must have left the local untouchables seeing red. But again ICC had set the bar when Uhuru discovered he was equal to Joshua Sang before Ekatherina.

Of Mungiki and blood diamonds

Taylor has been found guilty for arming Sierra Leone rebels in return for blood diamonds. In addition he was found responsible for aiding and abetting some of the most heinous crimes in human history.

With Mungiki back in full swing decapitating heads, Uhuru and Muthaura must be saying some very moving silent prayers. The monster is back eating its offspring.

After Lubanga, the Ocampo4 takes center stage at The Hague. The movie is not only a thriller but 'iBelieve' a box office. This is The Hague Express. Stay tuned.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Political Prostitution, Urinating on Voters' Grave

The season of political laundering is here and the heat gets a notch higher with every passing day. And the gullible Kenyan electorate is enjoying the movie with its varied adaptations.

It is that time in our electoral cycle when a name is more than just a cluster of letters to simply spell an identity. No, your name must equate to an ethnic group and you earn both friends and foes in equal measure depending on your political horse.

The biggest casualty in this madness is rule of law. The way MPs and our leaders are tramping on the so-called new constitution can only leave one wondering if the new document was worth the paper and ink used to author it.

It appears in Kenya we make laws with the sole purpose to break it. Or to be more precise the law is made for the ordinary folks while the high and might can trash it at will no consequence. Just look at the rate of party hoping. In the space of a month, an MP will have pledged allegiance to as many as four to five parties.

What is more, they have the cheek to even contemplate amending the laws to legalize party prostitution. The fact that serial defections have been a characteristic of our political system since 1992 is a cheap argument.

Milk on Professor's whiskers.

Until all Kenyans become subjects of same law, we are collectively living the national lie dreaming of delusional progress. But not when we end up comparing and supporting who authored the most lucrative scandal against Kenyan.

Just as one would want to reprimand Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto to walk the talk of civilized leadership, the likes of Prof Anyang Nyong'o must be held to account for the sickening smell of corruption at NHIF.

We gain nothing either as a nation or individuals by identifying and supporting our tribal chieftains. No scandal is a small scandal. It is not amateurish to be caught with droplets of NHIF milk on your whiskers.

Until we make corruption very expensive and embrace honesty (no doublespeak), Kenya will continue sinking deeper in abyss knowing very well we have what it takes to our country shine.

Kenyans remain toxically political because almost every facet of their lives life is impacted by actions and inactions made by political leaders. We can only free ourselves of these leeches by demanding the very best of our leaders. But can we? Please keep your answer and there is no prize for guessing.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Uhuru's Blockbuster 'iBelieve' Inspires Status Quo

The Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta launched his much-awaited party The National Alliance (TNA) anchored on the theme of 'iBelieve'. To his credit belief is a virtue and a very valuable ingredient in search of success. But there also begins the mischief and lack of imagination.

Belief without rebooting the mindset to embrace change is an exercise in semantic laundering. You know, TNA may as well stand for Total Non-Action or This is Not Applicable or worse still Trial Ndiyo Anaenda (Tuko Na A........).

Uhuru may have succeeded in the heavy lifting by dispensing with both Moi and Kibaki baggage but his simplistic theme of belief smacks of Moi’s mantra of all heat no light - creating an impression of motion without any trace of real movement (remember MKAE IVYO IVYO?). Status quo has never been better packaged.

True, loaded message is often delivered in simple terms albeit without being simplistic. But just like a fool who reduces love to a piece of metal fixed to the finger, it is obtusely simplistic to tell Kenyans that you wear a wrist band with the national flag colours at all times as a constant reminder of your love and commitment to your country. That was thoughtless symbolism at its best.

Surely talk is cheap when actions speak loudly otherwise. Jomo Junior sounded more like his late father regurgitating the same old vile trinity of poverty, disease and ignorance. And we are in 2012. What a shameless contradiction for a preface on belief while thoughtlessly extolling the privilege of carrying the country into the future. But at least Uhuru was brave enough to inadvertently add to his dad’s core twin vices as stitched in toxic tribalism and criminal corruption.

Simplistic belief

Reading his speech, one cannot fail to see Uhuru’s irony in preaching about the wealth of our nation’s history while the same lips twist and conveniently fail to warn of the perils of neglecting lessons from the very (dark) past. The speaker must have been comfortable preaching sandwiched between his dad's meusoleum, Uhuru Highway/Park and Mama Ngina Road.

The colonialist was fought primarily for grabbing our land and Uhuru would have led by example and from infront by addressing and offloading the massive acreage his family inherited from his father.

Here we have Uhuru shamelessly talking about past injustices and land issues when his family owns almost 20% of Coast's prime land. And his audience? The multitude landless in all part of the country who have agreed to be collectively fooled.

But I guess asking the basics out of Kenyan politicians is akin to preaching to a choir. No wonder Uhuru wrapped himself in youthful gab pontificating to his listening landless youth that the answers for a better tomorrow lie with them. That was a smart but thinly-veiled laugh at the collective Kenyan youth's grave.

And patented hypocrisy flowed when the gullible youth and audience were asked to leave the unaddressed past behind them and fly forward on the wings of (delusional) transformational change.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Kibaki Legacy: Ethnic Hegemony, Toxic Tribalism

By Pheroze Nowrojee

Though President Kibaki states that he will not endorse any individual’s candidacy, he is in fact endorsing the candidacy of one ethnic group to the presidency. His endorsement of one ethnic group’s candidacy is an endorsement against other ethnic groups. This is an imminent danger to national cohesion. The newspapers are debating what the Kibaki legacy will be. Some posit an infrastructure of roads, others an increased freedom in society. The facts however give the impression that the only legacy that Kibaki wants now to ensure is a succession by the same ethnic group.

Kibaki’s refusal to order a correction of these matters is not a sign of his lack of leadership. To the contrary, it is a sign of his leadership – of these preferences. He is not sitting on the fence. He is squarely on the side of the preferred ethnic outcome. Events to this end take place under his silence.

In furtherance of this, Kibaki is trying an old and obvious trick : the Statute Miscellaneous Amendments Act. This is an Act of Parliament within which it makes amendments to many other Acts of Parliament. It has such a bland name and has so little publicity, that unless one goes through its contents with a tooth comb, one would not know that within it, quietly, many laws are being amended removing constitutional and hard won checks on Presidential or Ministerial powers.

This latest such bill is the Statute Law Miscellaneous Amendments Bill, 2012, which following the bad tradition has slipped in a bad amendment. It is that once their terms are up, (which will be soon), President Kibaki will be able to reappoint the chiefs of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission unilaterally, without Parliament vetting the reappointments or appointments. Since the Commission will control hate speech during the election campaign and can bring criminal cases against violators of the law, this amendment will obviously assist those who will campaign for the ethnic outcome preferred by the President.

Such a process is exactly what Kibaki used two months before the 2007 elections. That year, he unilaterally appointed and re-appointed all his own choices as Election Commissioners in the Election Commission of Kenya (ECK) under Samuel Kivuitu, and refused to allow the political parties to nominate them as previously done. The result of Kibaki’s insistence on his own choices was the disastrous Election of 2007 and the Post- Election Violence which brought Kenya to its lowest point ever.

Now again in 2012, Kibaki and the new elite around him do not care about the nation’s safety, but only about the result they want again - that the same ethnic group is declared winner of the election. Therefore they want the National Cohesion Commission not to prosecute any hate speech from their preferred ethnic group and its candidate, but instead to curb its opponents by prosecutions. For that they need their own appointments, not Parliament’s. Hence the amendment. The amendment must be opposed. Kenya does not want a repeat of a failed-state election or PEV, 2007-8 style.

This time the elite around Kibaki is divided. This is because his actions continuously assist a candidate from only one part of that one ethnic group. Hence the complaints that he prefers a southern candidate and forgets the fact that, “the Kiambu fighters entered the Aberdares several months after our people from Fort Hall and Nyeri had already established themselves there.”(Mau Mau From Within Karari Njama & Donald L. Barnett (1966, 274)

By this amendment only months before the elections, Kibaki is admitting publicly that there is a group that intends to violate the hate speech prohibitions in the National Cohesion Act, and needs immunity to achieve the preferred outcome. Therefore the independence and impartiality of the Cohesion Commission has to be removed before the elections. It also makes clear such a compliant Commission will be used against the opponents of the preferred outcome.

A legacy is what an ancestor leaves to his descendants. Who does Kibaki consider as his descendants? Just now it appears these descendants are only some of the people of Kenya. If he genuinely believes that his descendants should be all the people of Kenya, then he must move away from this ethnic succession. Such a legacy has the dangerously close potential to break the nation, as in 2008. Kibaki must return to and inhabit the centre of Kenya instead of Central Kenya. He must not ride the matatu we once used to see, that said, “Centralising the nation.”

Friday, May 11, 2012

Kenyans Must Learn From History Before They Cast Their Vote

By two Kumekucha Anonymous commentators
What more could be said on this subject? We have been shown - by time and time again - what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and why we should do it for the express purpose of enabling ourselves (the majority) to have a better nation in which we can at least be proud of and above all enjoy living in it for a change.

Chris, one thing is for sure, it does not matter who wins the presidency, because we, the people, will still end up on the losing end, as well as find ourselves on the wrong side of the equation after the 2013 general election.
That is unless fundamental changes are made and implemented in all branches of government, the private sector, including all regions of the country.

Otherwise, we, the people, and the fifty year old nation will get another so-called new president (bus driver with moderate driving skills) but remain stuck with one of the world's most dilapidated buses, with the same old myriad of mechanical problems, same old makanga ('marks'), same old untrustworthy mechanics, same old rough and rowdy passengers.

And left with no alternative but swallow our collective pride and accept - as usual - to be driven on the same old unpaved roads that can't handle floods brought about by the seasonal torrential rains.

Well, Musalia Mudavadi may seem to be the lesser of the other four evils (contenders), but corruption incorporated and tribal extremism unlimited will not just evaporate in a matter of weeks and months unless majority of the known godfathers and culprits are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and forced to forfeit their ill-gotten wealth from way back when.

We, the people, have divorced ourselves from history on numerous occasions in the name of collective amnesia, and that's one of the reasons why we've continued to pay a very hefty price, fifty years after independence.

Will someone out there challenge Kenyans from all walks of life to defy the cultural norms - sickening tribal extremism - that compel us never to look beyond our myopic ethnic prism during the much dreaded season of our so-called democratic general election?

Our cultures often insist that we continually strive to support our anointed tribal chiefs during peaceful times, and stand behind our tribal warlords in any type of battle and war, while not informing us that the traditional circling of ethnic wagons for whatever reasons known to us can be a never ending-abyss of discontentment and disillusionment within those very communities.

So far, Kenya has been in desperate need of political leaders cable of 'providing' nurture, safety, healing, development, and vision, and not experts in tribal finger-pointing and sabre rattling before and during election season.

Those of us who survived the post election violence, or were very lucky enough to have not been affected in any way, shape or fashion during the deadly mayhem of '07/'08, should never forget the obvious, that anything can go wrong, and what can go wrong will go wrong if we don't change our national psyche, retrogressive ethnic psyches as well as warped (devilish) personal political interests.

As a matter of fact, the next president, including all of the elected officials and government will not be able to help most of us - you and me - deal with any misfortunes in life that are bound to head our way (God forbid) between May of 2013 and May 2018.

Such as personal economic collapse, divorce, devastating illness, death (within our immediate families and respective communities), usual insecurity, displacement, vehicular maiming, and a myriad of related complications that come with aging etc.

Hence, just because some of us already believe that we are on the right side of history - whatever that means after fifty years of political decadence and ethnic strife that are bound to continue after 2013 - does not give us the right to hate, abuse, despise and look down on our political opponents with malice and hubris.

I will be one of the first people to go off on a limb by saying that there are no guarantees in the coming general elections, and as mater of fact, things are not what they seem to be.

The presidency will not be won on silver platter due to the fact that the dynamics in the country have changed a lot and will continue to change beyond our wildest imaginations.

All things taken into account, may the best candidates win the general elections, and may the most qualified presidential candidate with a national appeal end up being elected by the majority of Kenyans.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

President Musalia Mudavadi?


We never learn from history do we?

The truth is that revolutionaries and popular candidates never get elected president of Kenya. But compromise candidates do.

Let’s take a brief trip back in time shall we..

Oh boy there Kumekucha goes again with his boring history lessons, I can hear you sigh and fart in your comfortable chair in some nicely air conditioned office far away from the reality on the ground.

But I insist because it is impossible to see the road ahead clearly without understanding exactly where we are coming from.

In 1963 it was not popular nationalist Tom Mboya who was elected the first president of Kenya. Nor was it the radical Jaramogi Oginga Odinga whom western powers were not comfortable with because of his close links with Moscow. It was moderate scape goat Jomo Kenyatta who had been bust preaching reconciliation with the colonial government having given up on the hope for independence any time soon. The old man found it hilarious that the likes of a young man called Tom Mboya were chanting Uhuru sasa!!!

In 1978 it was not President Kenyatta’s nephew Mr Fix it, Njoroge Mungai who ascended to the presidency nor was it radical nationalist and former vice president Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. It was in fact a clumsy heavy Kalenjin-accent moderate whom nobody respected called Daniel arap Moi.

In 2002 it was not revolutionary popular Kenneth Matiba (the true people’s president) who took over as president nor was it the faithful long-serving vice president of the Moi era George Saitoti. Nor was it the man who had been on permanent campaign mode for many years, Raila Odinga. It was the moderate Mwai Kibaki.

The way things stand now Musalia Mudavadi looks like he is the one. He has all the right characteristics going for him. He is the ideal moderate candidate and the clever but corrupt people backing him have read the situation very cleverly and positioned him as such. Indeed if the elections were held today he would win by a landslide and there would be no need for a run off.

And that is where the problem is. The elections are a long way off and yet a mere week is a very long time in politics. Just as well because if Musalia Mudavadi were to win the presidency the political class in Kenya will have won yet again and the people will have lost... yet again. It is really as simple as that.

I have been very busy in recent days trying to measure the true impact of Mudavadi’s recent moves on the ground and I can report that I saw the kind of excitement that I have not seen in a long time. Even the Kamba who have generally snubbed Raila Odinga are uncharacteristically excited about a Mudavadi candidature. It seems that in Kenyan politics it pays to be quite and humble fence-seater and never step on anybody’s toes (just like Mwai Kibaki was before he ascended to the presidency).

I have just released the most explosive raw notes I have penned in a very long times. Get free samples of past raw notes at rawnotes@listwire.com

NHIF: Scandals Galore as Elections Approach

The latest smell of scandal at NHIF cannot be divorced from the forthcoming general elections. History is replete with mega scandals minted to finance elections. The Ministry of Medical services cannot woodwink us to believe in spending 700m in two phantom health institutions. It follows a very familiar script akin to exporting non-existent gold and selling air using tax payers money.

Introducing the usual ODM-PNU wars does not whitewash. The NHIF board drama captured it all. Meanwhile the loser remains the very Kenyan tax payer who will unwittingly end up supporting and electing one of their own after being taken the cleaners by the very fraudsters.

We are not poor because of lack of great policies. Far from it, our main problem lies in the fact that we formulate very good ideas with the singular objective of cannibalizing them. Fleecing taxpayers of their health insurance of amounts to dancing on their collective graves. Conscience my foot!

What is more, just the other day it was revealed more than 200m was smartly misplaced in the budget estimates. It didn't matter that the line ministries did not ask for the money neither were they aware. This is Kenya we are talking about where COMPUTER ERRORS crop up handy when caught with hands firmly in the national till.

Add that to Kimunya's latest attempt to populate KPA board with the right DNA and you need not look far at the naivety of fueling Mombasa Republican Council's crusade to secede.

The adage you get the leaders you deserve has never been more accurate. The scoundrels we do call our leaders were not elected by aliens.

The season of accelerated fraud is here with us folks. And it will only get nasty and more intense as we close in on the election date. Brace yourselves for all shades of political posturing. NA BADO