The New African Leader

Guest post by Sam Okello

This past week has been like no other in the recent past. For the first time since the wave of nationalism that swept African leaders to power across the continent, the world witnessed the emergence of a new, super intelligent, deeply pragmatic and sincerely hopeful leadership in Africa. By visiting Washington D.C. and displaying the best of African pride and wisdom, Prime Minister Raila Odinga told the global community that the continent was turning a page. Africa is moving forward with dignity and hope. The era of begging for handouts is over. The era of hard work, partnerships and reciprocal trade agreements is in.

Those of us who support Prime Minister Raila Odinga have been accused of doing so blindly. Worse still, we've been labeled tribalists who seek to see a Luo presidency in our lifetime in Kenya. Bull. It's easy for those who are loath to the visionary leadership of the Prime Minister to twist what we say and spin it into something more parochial and foolish. But how do such people argue with the charisma of a man who came to Washington and declared that what we need today is not give-outs, but investment? How do they argue with the diplomacy of a man who respected President Kibaki even as he reminded the world that the truly elected President of Kenya had not yet been inaugurated? And how do they argue with the sense he left in official Washington...that the new African leader was emerging?

But while the Hon Odinga was projecting the new face of Africa to the world, in Zimbabwe we were witnessing the brutality of discredited and myopic leadership. Robert Mugabe was going around the nation unleashing terror on his own people, maiming women and children, killing fathers and brothers, literally raping the economy. Isn't there just one bullet someone can lock in his head to end this misery for our people in Zim? How long will his madness be allowed to go on? And then there is Thabo Mbeki. The man has gone from a respected world leader to an idiot. Remember his position on AIDS? And did you know that he is the reason Mugabe feels he can get away with impunity? Is it any wonder the South Africans went with Jacob Zuma as his replacement? Hhmm!

While all that was going on, Kalonzo Musyoka was back in Ukambani asking Kenyans to stop debating amnesty. You see, to people like Kalonzo, this is a debate. To him this is a matter of who wins an argument. What this traitor needs to be told is that we are not debating. We are calling on the government to release the freedom fighters locked up in our jailhouses. The boys who fought the police and Kibaki's thuggish forces fought for the nation. They are not criminals. They are freedom fighters. It's because of them that we have a government of national unity. To continually keep them in jail is unethical. So, once again, for the sake of putting the final block on the reconciliation house we've been building, let the boys go. Let the sons and daughters of Nyanza, the Rift Valley, Western, Central, Coast, Eastern, Nairobi and the NEP go. Let our people go. The alternative, as you'll soon find out, will be a deal-breaker.

Be reminded, once again, that the chief culprits in the election debacle are: Mwai Kibaki, Samuel Kivuitu, John Michuki, Gen Ali and others. Their crimes are listed in my earlier posts.

That said, let's thank God that Kenya is blessed to have one of the new breed of African leaders in our own country. With leaders like William Ruto, Musalia Mudavadi, Najib Balala, Joe Nyagah and the indomitable Madam Charity Ngilu, Kenya is marching to a better place.

The golden age in Kenya is at hand!

For Love of Country,

Sam O. Okello

Seeking Amnesty and Justice for the Dead

The mystery of missing youths who were arrested following post election violence is promising to drag Kenyan politics to its dark immediate past. Those shouting justice and due process of the law are busy butchering the same principles by not charging these youths in court. More than six months and no mention of these cases in TRAVESTY of the same flawed justice they mouth.

Make no mistake. This is no amnesty call for murderous, arsonists and rapists who must be promptly charged. But the paradox crops in when the same police force that arrested these youths claim to be unaware of their whereabouts. This unfortunate announcement by one RAMBO MOVIE LOVER for police spokesman Eric Kiraithe is a recipe for heightened political temperatures. The implicit implication is too grim to contemplate. I hope I am wrong but I fear otherwise that this joker is cleverly confirming the nasty rumour doing the rounds that the youths were OFFICIALLY extra-judicially executed.

Game of numbers
The amnesty debate is one issue that will either make or break this so-called government of grand coalition. One wonders why one side is so sensitive to the word do much so that when mentioned even in a funeral the village tantrum speedily replaces any sober etiquette befitting such an occasion. Major Ali has no two ways about this grave matter. He has to account for every head his force arrested. The unrepresentative indication that 103 case files, involving 137 suspects, are being handled in various Rift Valley towns, mainly Nakuru and Eldoret, 77 suspects have been charged in Nyanza, 98 in Nairobi, 50 in Western Province and 63 in Mombasa can’t wash.

The government’s tally of 300 is a laughable attempt to TOP-DOWN at best and playing a game of numbers with peoples' lives at worst. It leaves you wondering whether Kibaki was doing a Mugabe in arrears. All attempts by his cronies to peddle the lie of courts will surely backfire when it is eventually proved that the missing youths were brutally dispatched to their maker without the benefit/right of a trial. That will mark the beginning of another round mayhem. All the government’s talk about reconciliation and reconstruction are not sustainable because they are simply DISHONEST. Saying otherwise is to soothe egos with pretense. Only the bitter pill and illusive HONESTY can successfully diffuse the ticking time bomb.