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

Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Speaker Justin Muturi's Bigoted Ethnic Slurs Point to Rotten Kenyan Leadership


In commonwealth countries, parliamentary speakers play a crucial role. In order to ensure the orderly flow of business, the national assembly observes parliamentary rules, procedures and traditions, both written and unwritten.

It is the Speaker's duty to interpret these rules IMPARTIALLY , to remain NEUTRAL in government and opposition debates, to maintain ORDER, and to DEFEND the rights and privileges of Members, including the right to FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

In order to preserve the trust of the House, the Speaker's must uphold the sanctity of the national assembly; and his actions and utterances must be impartial.

Consequently, the Speaker never participates in debate nor allow the use unparliamentary language on the floor of the house. The Speaker may only vote in case of a tie during division. The speaker works to balance the right of the Government to transact business in an orderly manner and the right of all Members to be heard in debate.

It all seems civil and clear cut until you happen to tune to Kenya parliamentary live debates! Yup. The curse that is the Jubilee tyranny of numbers.

Kenyans do not seem to be shocked to have received news reports of Speaker Justin Muturi shouting down Kibra Member of Parliament Hon. Kenneth Okoth during live parliamentary debate yesterday: "This is not Kibera!" As if to assert the Speaker’s unfortunate comment, the Majority Leader Hon Aden Duale finished it off by yelling "it is not Kibera and we are not selling fish!"

Welcome to the land of Jubilee dominated parliament, where the insanity of ethnic innuendos, insults and tribal imputations are in abundance! Mind you, it is not the first time Speaker has used these offensive words in parliament while supressing the rights of the Honourable Member of Kibra. He has made it a habit. Instead of leading parliamentary debate towards legislating ways to help citizens improve their lives and attain better levels of development; Speaker Muturi is leading parliament to lowering its own prestige in the eyes of the public and propagating anti-Luo garbage. Instead of enforcing rules, Speaker violates them! Can Kenyans expect quality legislation?

The implication here is that parliament is not Kibera slums (where the honourable member was born and bred, and represents in parliament). The speaker’s derogatory remarks are aimed straight at Kibra voters where he assumes the majority of residents are from the Luo ethnic community whose common delicacy is fish, and according to Duale where parliament is not a fish market. Reminds us of Amos Kimunya of the past.

The Speaker not only violated parliamentary custom and standing orders, but also unwittingly let out an extremely dangerous inflammatory statement on the floor of the house which was only made worse by the majority leader. These are the silly stereotypes against poor communities more often promoted in political circles that majority Luos inhabiting Kibera slums are generally idle/lazy, drunk/drugged, diseased/unhealthy and violent/criminal slum-dwellers. Nothing could be further from the truth. All communities of Kenya live in Kibera and all communities of Kenya do sell and eat fish. So much for ignorance and silly stereotyping!

On a personal level, knowing who Hon. Kenneth Okoth is even before he became MP, this is a young man who has achieved a lot and given back so much to his community. It will be impossible for either Muturi or Dualle to achieve half of what the MP has attained.

In developed democracies, Speaker Muturi’s utterances are enough reason to demand a resignation. But in Kenya, he will be defended by people who wont see anything wrong with his reckless talk. They would tell you Muturi is doing a great job leading an institution promoting a common national heritage!

But WHAT IF it was Raila who shouted at Ngunjiri, “this is not Majengo (Nyeri slums), and Ababu sums it “and we don’t treat jigger infestations here!”? Jibu hiyo…




10 comments:

  1. Add the media bill (which will be signed into law with very minimal changes) and Moi's 80s will start looking like kids' play.

    They should go ahead and create a Tawala Kenya song for JUBILEE while they are at it.

    Tawara Kenya Tawara
    JUBIREE wanatawara vyema etc.

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  2. Justin Muturi stands as a huge impendiment in this constitutional implementation stage since parliament is a key player

    Instead Kenyans are seeing intimidation of media and civil society through draconian legislation. Moreover, reversal of katiba gains are the order of the day.

    The other arm of government only exists by name and is in reality a branch of the executive, Nassir Grand Mulah dictating everything to the Chief Justice.

    Next it will be the people themselves. Blogs like this will be severely censored, China will look like childs play.
    KANU is back? You can bet on that!

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  3. Thanks for this informative post Phil.

    Am reliably informed that it was in the JUBILEE manifesto to tame both the press and the civil society (there is another pending bill on NGOs).

    This current speaker is a disgrace to parliament and the country as a whole and would not EVEN qualify to be chairman of a cattle dip committee in the village.

    We need to abandon our partisan, myopic party positions and defend the motherland from this clearly dangerous and retrogressive path we are now taking.

    Chris Kumekucha

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  4. Chris

    The sad thing is that this story was never going to be publicized by the mainstream media despite their representatives recording the speaker's attack from the press gallery. They already feel extremely intimidated by Uhuru's media law which he is yet to assent to but which he uses as a psychological weapon against terrified journalists who cannot afford Kshs. 1million fine!

    This thing has not even started, and I hope you are making contingency plans for this blog going by the emerging Jubilee dictatorship. Moi's KANU will be seen as angelic era.

    Mambo baado!

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  5. There is no question nor doubt in the minds of ordinary Kenyans that political characters who misuse or abuse power will one day end up facing the very same fate that befell the likes of Mwenje, Chotara, Nassir, Kimani, Mungai (Ngoroko-man), Oyugi, et al.

    Characters like the chauvinist in question tend to believe that they and they alone are not only above the law but they are also the children of the gods, and the gods are merciful to them alone.

    Therefore, resignation due to abuse of power, misuse of office or conduct unbecoming those in position of influence is such an alien term within so many Kenyan public corridors power and privileged circles of influence.

    That is one of the many sad reasons as to why a certain caliber men and women like youe know hwo do not have any respect for the constitution, law and order, let alone the patriotic honour for the country in 2013.

    Well, there may not be an immediate catastrophic downfall of people like the despotic company of goons in question, however a day will soon come when their deep seated scent of bigotry, chauvinism and appetite for impunity are no longer prominent within parliament, high places in government, wealthy business circles and throughout the country.

    Some of us may not live long to recount the catastrophic downfall of people like the gangs of chauvinistic politicians in power, however, it will definitely be recounted through the eyes of many patriotic Kenyans who will have lived through it and survived to tell their tales.

    Meanwhile, if the diehard supporters of political characters, chauvinists and goons in question want the country to be driven into destruction, then that is and will be their choice.

    Turning the parliament into a confirmed pig stay and the country into a real 'Animal Farm' type of nation would be the worst kind of catastrophic fate for the entire country.

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  6. He seems to have been very over qualified to become the speaker of the disgusting house, given his known background and blemished track record that still speaks volumes dating back to the 80s, 90s and 2000s.

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  7. What can be worse than a person to pontificate without due diligence while at the same time wearing a sheep skin?

    Why not just substitute the dead sheep's hide skin with a leopard's, lion's, or cheetah's head skin? Or even with a crown of bald eagle's warrior like feathers?

    Mmmmm! A dead sheep's skin as head gear of self-imposed authority that only enables a select few to continually load it over the rest of the citizenry?

    Is there any wonder this days that the more things have changed the more they have remained the same for all the worst intents and purposes fifty years after independence?

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  8. Apparently i what context did the Speaker and Hon Duale shut down Hon Kenneth Okoth what was the debate all about and why did they have to shut him down as someone once said I may not agree with what you are saying but I will defend to death you right of saying It .

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  9. Choices have consequences. We can only deceive ourselves that we are honorable. Which normal person is reckless with his destiny like ourselves.

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  10. this is embarassing can one compare a jigger infested feet and hands suffers n a fish monger? hon muturi n duale u ar forgetting u are serving kenyans. its shame to see your speech full of insults let the two leaders change their style of leadership or else just RESIGN if you see you cant leave the insulting speech live on TV we are one and united kenyans why do you give divided kenya let them be reminded of our last verse of kenyan national anthem.

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