It is interesting how my comments on the economy seem to get such wide readership and heavy traffic via search engines. (Even the presidents’ advisors are hurriedly trying to implement some ideas suggested in my blog in the recent past – it could be just a mere coincidence).
I say this because in my journalism days everybody knew that boring economics does not sell and hardly ever gets read. But I guess times are changing.
In a recent report by The Economic Intelligence Unit Limited (EIU), they estimate remittances from Kenyans abroad to be somewhere in the region of Shs 50 billion. Past Central Bank of Kenya projections show that tourism generates about 48 billion.
Interestingly we have to thank the man we all fought so hard to remove from power, former President Moi for this. He made life in Kenya hell but at the same time rapidly expanded university education. The result is that today, Kenya probably has one of the highest expatriate community of any African country (yes, competing neck to neck with Nigeria and even white South Africa)
But the main comment I wanted to make was on this issue of most Kenyans being worse off now than when Moi was leaving power.
My view is that the generation of leaders in government now does not have the imagination or the political will required to implement creative economic policies that will enable the majority of Kenyans to participate in the economy. For instance they promised 500,000 jobs a year without understanding or caring about the fundamentals required to achieve such a number. It would have to be heavily dependant on small and micro business and entrepreneurs. It also must include the de-centralizing of things from crowded Nairobi. We need to develop our other cities and towns. Parliament in Kisumu, government head offices in Nakuru and the man State House in Mombasa, DOD headquarters in Garissa. Instead this government spent a lot of time trying to revive old factories and luring foreign investors. These are good things and they worked very well in the 70s but their impact in 2006 will be minimal at best. The correct approach now is to get a rapidly growing domestic economy going, and the investors will soon start beating down the doors to be let in. That is exactly what happened in China.
That is why I have always said that Kenya needs a new younger generation of leaders to carry her to the next level.
==============
Join in the raging debate here at Kumekucha over this thorny Luo-Kikuyu relationship issue
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========================
See also the 2 Problem Tribes in Kenyan politics
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Saturday, October 14, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Improved Kenyan Economy? What Improved Economy? Here's Why The Government Can Not Claim Credit
There is a lie that you are about to start hearing a lot of, now that the President's campaign has gone into overdrive, so let us clear a few things here and now.
It is now clear that one of the major campaign strategies of President Kibaki's re-election campaign will be the dramatically improved performance of the economy. Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has just won re-election in a closely contested campaign that was heavily pegged on the improved Zambian economy.
Let me just add here that it is time Kenyans refused to be intimidated into silence during debates an discussions on the economy. As economists vomit their per capita, GDP, GNP etc figures, there is nothing wrong with non-economists talking about the unfulfilled election pledge by Kibaki's campaign team of achieving 500,000 new jobs a year. There is also nothing wrong with ordinary folks asking the simple question; if the economy is doing so well, then how come most Kenyans are doing so badly?
To understand what has been happening to the Kenyan economy, it is important to go back to the year 2002. In the run up to the elections, there was a lot of anxiety and very few people believed that it was possible for there to be a peaceful transition of the opposition won the election. Many big businesses were busy getting money out of the economy to reduce their exposure should anything go wrong.
After the victory of Narc, there was lots of hope and renewed confidence in the stability of Kenya. But nobody quite expected what followed. There was actually such heavy investment into the economy from Kenyans working abroad. The money just kep pouring in hard currency, to finance mainly construction projects.
Funds from money laundering also poured into the Nairobi stock exchange and other investment instruments (no wonder the government is dragging its' feet passing any anti-money laundering laws). This coupled with other traditional strong performers like tourism all combined to strengthen the Kenyan shilling to such an extent that some exporters, most notably the horticultural industry and sections of the tourism industry started feeling the heat of a strong Kenyan shilling.
Well, you can't win them all, what resulted were massive layoffs in the horticultural industry and there is now clear evidence that many big players have started looking at the possibilities of relocating some of their operations to other neighboring countries, most notably, Ethiopia.
But the real benefits of a strong shilling were fully appreciated when oil prices hit the roof and yet there was minimal negative impact on the Kenyan economy.
To date the shilling has continued to defy all predictions of it's ever weakening substantially.
The real heroes of the Kenyan economy are not the government or some brilliant economist President. If anything, the government has done everything to get in the way. Political squabbling and continued corruption in high places have hurt the country and kept away major investors.
The real heroes of the Kenyan economy are ordinary Kenyans who when the opportunities have dwindled at home have ventured into foreign countries all over the continent and beyond. In fact foreign exchange inflows from Kenyans abroad are now widely believed to be the number one forex earner. Those who have remained at home have turned to Saccos and raised money, which they have re-invested in all sorts of businesses and projects across the country to keep food on the table for their families. Ordinary Kenyans have done this against a backdrop of deteriorating security and rapidly rising crime. Gallant Kenyans have also achieved so much despite government policies that are insensitive and actually against the small business – the biggest creator of jobs in the world.
Well done Kenyans. You have proved that you don't need handouts. All you need is a government that creates a genuinely enabling environment and then you can make your own opportunities.
Kenyans are like ace Arsenal striker Thiery Henry, all they need "to score" I half a chance.
Quick Question:
How is it possible that the government was unable to finance Charity Ngilu's sweepimg healthcare reforms, about a year ago but are now able to finance free healthcare for millions?
Answer: It is the coming general elections, stupid.
==============
Join in the raging debate here at Kumekucha over this thorny Luo-Kikuyu relationship issue
(Please scroll down to the bottom of the page (and click on the "Post A Comment" button) to post your comment.)
========================
See also the 2 Problem Tribes in Kenyan politics
Software That Will Make You Millions From Adsense And Blogger
It is now clear that one of the major campaign strategies of President Kibaki's re-election campaign will be the dramatically improved performance of the economy. Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has just won re-election in a closely contested campaign that was heavily pegged on the improved Zambian economy.
Let me just add here that it is time Kenyans refused to be intimidated into silence during debates an discussions on the economy. As economists vomit their per capita, GDP, GNP etc figures, there is nothing wrong with non-economists talking about the unfulfilled election pledge by Kibaki's campaign team of achieving 500,000 new jobs a year. There is also nothing wrong with ordinary folks asking the simple question; if the economy is doing so well, then how come most Kenyans are doing so badly?
To understand what has been happening to the Kenyan economy, it is important to go back to the year 2002. In the run up to the elections, there was a lot of anxiety and very few people believed that it was possible for there to be a peaceful transition of the opposition won the election. Many big businesses were busy getting money out of the economy to reduce their exposure should anything go wrong.
After the victory of Narc, there was lots of hope and renewed confidence in the stability of Kenya. But nobody quite expected what followed. There was actually such heavy investment into the economy from Kenyans working abroad. The money just kep pouring in hard currency, to finance mainly construction projects.
Funds from money laundering also poured into the Nairobi stock exchange and other investment instruments (no wonder the government is dragging its' feet passing any anti-money laundering laws). This coupled with other traditional strong performers like tourism all combined to strengthen the Kenyan shilling to such an extent that some exporters, most notably the horticultural industry and sections of the tourism industry started feeling the heat of a strong Kenyan shilling.
Well, you can't win them all, what resulted were massive layoffs in the horticultural industry and there is now clear evidence that many big players have started looking at the possibilities of relocating some of their operations to other neighboring countries, most notably, Ethiopia.
But the real benefits of a strong shilling were fully appreciated when oil prices hit the roof and yet there was minimal negative impact on the Kenyan economy.
To date the shilling has continued to defy all predictions of it's ever weakening substantially.
The real heroes of the Kenyan economy are not the government or some brilliant economist President. If anything, the government has done everything to get in the way. Political squabbling and continued corruption in high places have hurt the country and kept away major investors.
The real heroes of the Kenyan economy are ordinary Kenyans who when the opportunities have dwindled at home have ventured into foreign countries all over the continent and beyond. In fact foreign exchange inflows from Kenyans abroad are now widely believed to be the number one forex earner. Those who have remained at home have turned to Saccos and raised money, which they have re-invested in all sorts of businesses and projects across the country to keep food on the table for their families. Ordinary Kenyans have done this against a backdrop of deteriorating security and rapidly rising crime. Gallant Kenyans have also achieved so much despite government policies that are insensitive and actually against the small business – the biggest creator of jobs in the world.
Well done Kenyans. You have proved that you don't need handouts. All you need is a government that creates a genuinely enabling environment and then you can make your own opportunities.
Kenyans are like ace Arsenal striker Thiery Henry, all they need "to score" I half a chance.
Quick Question:
How is it possible that the government was unable to finance Charity Ngilu's sweepimg healthcare reforms, about a year ago but are now able to finance free healthcare for millions?
Answer: It is the coming general elections, stupid.
==============
Join in the raging debate here at Kumekucha over this thorny Luo-Kikuyu relationship issue
(Please scroll down to the bottom of the page (and click on the "Post A Comment" button) to post your comment.)
========================
See also the 2 Problem Tribes in Kenyan politics
Software That Will Make You Millions From Adsense And Blogger
The Most Famous Kikuyu-Luo Tale Of Romance: SM Otieno lawyer and Wambui and why Kikuyu lasses continue to fall for Luos
Love, they say, is blind. But it seems in Kenya it is only partially blind. I say partially-blind because certain tribes will rarely fall in love with particular tribes.
However in the 50s (the decade that tribalism was probably at its' lowest ebb ever in Kenya. Because Luos were getting elected to parliament in Nairobi by an enthusiastic Kikuyu electorate and Luo men were falling head over heels in love with Kikuyu women.)
Raila said that this was unjustified in a statement issued that was accompanied by a video of a small boy who was seen shot in the leg.
Read revealing Ruto article on this blog
-----
However in the 50s (the decade that tribalism was probably at its' lowest ebb ever in Kenya. Because Luos were getting elected to parliament in Nairobi by an enthusiastic Kikuyu electorate and Luo men were falling head over heels in love with Kikuyu women.)
And that was the decade when the most famous and yet unlikely Luo-Kikuyu marital union was consumated. A tough freedom fighter and strikingly beautiful daughter of Mumbi called Wambui met, and got swept off her feet by, a brilliant criminal lawyer from Luo Nyanza called S.M. Otieno.
Now, everybody I asked why they thought the prejudicial hatred between Luos and Kikuyus existed, said it had a lot to do with the fact that Luos did not circumcise. According to me this is nonsense and more evidence that this hatred has been fanned by a lot of propaganda and falsehoods.
Because if we were to believe this widely held view, then Wambui would never have become Mrs Wambui Otieno (she has recently remarried a much younger fellow called Mbugua in a marriage recorded by the media at the AG's chambers in 2003 that hit the headlines across the continent). All young Kikuyu ladies from Wambui's days were circumcised. And virtually all DhoLuo men from Mr Otieno's days were NOT circumcised. But the sparks still flew between these two Kenyans. And Mrs Wambui Otieno is just the sort of tough cookie that would have told off any jeering fellow Kikuyu with the words like; "it is non of your business and if you try anything I will show you that at least one of us is cut."
By the time the Otieno's marriage ended in the late 80s with the tragic death of Mr Otieno who by then had distinguished himself as probably one of the finest Kenyan criminals lawyers to ever walk the corridors of the high court, the couple had been married for over 3 decades. But sadly the end was far from being a happy one. Mr Otieno's Umira Kager clan from Nyalgunga, Luo Nyanza insisted on burying Otieno in his ancestral home following all traditions to the letter, including the dreaded Tero Buru. Tough former freedom fighter Wambui Otieno, said "over my dead body." She pointed out quite clearly that her sweetheart had indicated to her that he wanted to be buried at their Upper Matasia home (near Ngong). What followed was the mother of all legal tussles. Sad that Mr Otino must have helped write many wills in his time but never wrote one for himself which would have averted all the heartbreak and suffering for his wife, Wambui.
In my opinion, this court battle further divided Luos and Kikuyus and must have been used as a stern warning to many young people hit by cupids arrow (flying from the wrong direction so to speak) for many years.
I can still imagine those stern parents saying to those poor love-struck youngsters; "Do you want us to go to court when one of you dies?"
Wambui won the sympathy of many Kenyans across tribal lines but lost the court battle and her right to bury her own husband.
I dare add that I believe that many Luos took the opportunity presented by this case “to get back at the Kikuyu.” In other words, those who have always promoted this hatred (on both sides) are constantly spoiling for a fight and looking for every opportunity to further their evil cause.
Wambui and Mbugua at their wedding reception.
To many Kenyans, Wambui Otieno embodies the dilemma Africans face between the old African ways and the modern Western lifestyle that is rapidly becoming the dominant culture across Africa. Wambui caused a public scandal this week by marrying a stonemason 42 years her junior in a short civil ceremony in the Attorney General’s office. ‘Love is what matters. Love is blind,’ she said, ‘women should be liberated so that they can marry men younger than them.’
Wambui is a descendant of the great Chief Waiyaki, patriarch of an important Kikuyu clan, whose descendants included Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta as well as cabinet minsters, high court judges and leading industrialists. Wambui was one of the only women to join the Mau Mau rebellion against the British in the 1950’s and later became a Nairobi politician and vocal activist for women’s rights.
By the time she married her first husband, SM Otieno, Wambui already had three children by two fathers. Both families opposed Wambui’s wedding to SM because marrying outside one’s tribe was highly unusual at that time. For a Kikuyu to marry SM, a member of the Luo tribe, was like ‘mixing oil and water’ as her uncle later testified. SM’s clan opposed the marriage because marrying a Kikuyu woman with three children born out of wedlock was nothing short of a scandal.
The Kikuyu despise the Luo as kihii, uncircumcised fish-eaters, while the Luo see the Kikuyu as arrogant and greedy westernised Africans who have abandoned their cultural traditions. Wambui did not care that her family did not see her uncircumcised husband as a ‘real’ man and she refused the traditional dowry between families saying ‘ I am not going to be married under any bride price because you know women then become property of the clan. I am worth more than a few goats.’ The couple took advantage of a 1931 statute, the African Christian Marriage Act ‘making it clear they were not bound by tribal customs’ as Wambui’s lawyer later described it in court. They had married for love.
By the time SM passed away from hypertension in 1986, the couple had fifteen children. According to Luo tradition, when a man dies, his relatives inherit his possessions. Since the Luo consider a wife and children as possessions, a deceased man’s brother inherits his wife. But the immediate problem was not the fact that Wambui was now deemed the potential wife of SM’s brother but the more pressing problem of where to bury SM’s body. This issue became one of the most hotly contested debates in Kenya’s legal and social history and brought about a clash of opinion between African traditionalists and modernists that has risen to the surface again seventeen years later with Wambui’s new marriage to Steven Mbugua, who was seven years old when SM died.
SM did not leave a will because he knew as a lawyer that wills have been overturned in Kenyan courts in favour of clans claiming a relative’s body. He relied instead on the evidence of 15 of his children, his wife, friends, neighbours, lawyers, journalists and leading members of society who he instructed specifically that he wished to be buried at his farm in Upper Matasia near Nairobi. He expressly forbade his wife and children to allow his other relatives to bury him in his ancestral village Nyalgunga in Siaya district some 300 kilometres away from his house, saying that to do so would be ‘to throw me away’.
Upon his death, Wambui ordered a grave to be dug on the farm only to discover that SM’s relatives had taken out a court injunction barring her from doing so. Wambui and the Umira Kager clan went to court and within three weeks, the court decided that SM was ‘a metropolitan and a cosmopolitan….it is hard to envisage such a person as subject to African customary law and in particular the customs of a rural community,’ overturning the injunction. The clan appealed immediately.
The Court of Appeal over-ruled the lower court’s verdict, arguing that despite SM’s education, marriage, professional success and verbal instructions, it was wrong to assume that ‘the deceased had thereby lost his tribal identity and could not be governed by customary laws, traditions and culture.’ A full trial was ordered.
According to testimony in court, recently deceased Luo are a bridge between the living and the ancestors. The ‘living dead’ therefore have a direct influence on day-to-day matters. Great importance is attached to burial rites. A cast of characters gave evidence on behalf of the clan including witchdoctors and the gravedigger who had buried SM’s father, who testified from his hospital bed. SM’s brother told the court that unless he was allowed to bury his brother in the prescribed way, SM’s ghost would ‘sabotage his life’ and ‘make his clansmen spit on him.’ The Professor of Philosophy from Nairobi University testified that an improper burial meant that ‘your children or your livestock may die and if you sire children they may be born without legs.’
Wambui’s lawyers presented evidence from many well-known members of society who confirmed SM’s wish to be buried at his farm and his distaste for traditional custom. The judges conceded that there was no doubt that SM had expressed a desire to be buried on the outskirts of the city hundreds of miles from his ancestral home. What was at stake was not his wishes but the importance of the old ways against the new, whether customary laws of the village and tribe could take precedence over the laws of the Kenyan nation and constitution and most importantly, which of them should govern the social institutions of marriage, birth and death.
Thousands of Luo men surrounded the high court each day and newspapers reported the trial verbatim. Newspapers with headlines like ‘Luos have no homes in Nairobi’ and ‘We’ll be haunted if we don’t bury him’ sold out by mid-morning. The case was the talk of Africa.
On February 13th 1987, six months after SM’s death, the court decided that SM was to be buried by the clan in his ancestral village against his own wishes and those of his wife and children. The Appeal Court Judge said that Wambui ‘chose to be married to a man who was not of her tribe. She knew she was marrying a Luo. She cannot now complain that the Luo are uncivilized…they did not force her to be married into their clan…times will come when circumstances dictate that Luo customs with regard to burial be abandoned. Change is inevitable but must be gradual.’
The clan mobbed the city mortuary where SM’s body remained under police guard and carried the corpse on the back of a truck to SM’s ancestral home in Siaya district for the funeral which was attended by three cabinet ministers and thousands of Luo tribespeople. African tradition had won on the day, a decision praised throughout Kenya at the time. Wambui and her family including SM’s children chose to boycott the funeral deliberately breaking the taboo that dictates that Luo children should visit their father’s grave to lay a cross as a final part of the burial ceremony.
Wambui’s new marriage has reignited the debate about the degree to which African traditions and customs are important in modern life. SM’s clan have objected to Wambui’s ‘sham and repugnant marriage’ saying, ‘Wambui is still married to SM Otieno’ and reiterated calls for her to go to Siaya to be inherited by SM’s relatives. ‘Even if Wambui died today, the Umira Kager clan will ensure she is buried at Nyalgunga, next to SM Otieno's grave.’
Cabinet Ministers have described Wambui's marriage as ‘a golden opportunity’ for Kenyans of all walks of life to consider the meaning of the institution of marriage as the country moves towards a new constitution. ‘I don't think there would be so much fuss if an old man married a much younger lady, ’ said Wangari Maathai, head of the Culture Committee at the conference on Kenya’s new constitution.
Home Affairs minister Moody Awori said: ‘Love has no boundaries’ but added quickly that the two consenting adults must be of opposite sexes. The opposition secretary for Labour, Ms Orie Rogo-Manduli differed, describing the wedding as ‘an isolated case of Kenyans in mid-winter madness. Women must continue to play their role as role models and be cradle rockers and not cradle robbers.’
Wambui’s story brings together many elements of the African dilemma; the old traditions versus modern living, a British legal system dealing with an African cultural case, tribalism versus an individual’s rights in a democracy, traditional beliefs versus modern science, women’s rights in a chauvinist society and the role of a wife, the family, the clan and the tribe in modern African society. It also raises fundamental and sensitive questions about identity and what it really means to be African.
Kenyans of all persuasions debate the Wambui case in an effort to find meaning and significance in a society where the ancient and the modern have difficulty in coexisting. Urbanisation, westernisation and modernisation have not bought prosperity and harmony but sowed the seeds of discord.
Eminent African scholar Colin Turnbull commented on this ‘disconnect’ for Africans by saying ‘there is a void in the life of the African…. to go forward is to abandon the past where the roots of his being have their nourishment; to go backward is to cut himself off from the future, for there is no doubt about where the future lies…there is no bridge and this is the source of his terrible loneliness’.
In a final twist, Wambui’s new mother in law Florence Nyambura announced after Wambui’s wedding that her son had another fiancée called Mugure, who he was scheduled to marry next month as a second wife. This development came as a surprise to the Wambui the modern politician and women’s rights activist. Then events took a rapid turn for the worse when her new husband’s family announced that Wambui’s mother in law had taken ill and died quite mysteriously.
Kenyans remain divided into modern and traditional camps on who is to blame for the tragic death. Some blame the press for harassing her and others blame the Umira Kager clan who they believe cursed Mbugua for marrying Wambui, ‘their wife’. Either way, Wambui remains a heroine for women in Kenya and a flag-bearer for modernist Africans in the 21st century.
Because if we were to believe this widely held view, then Wambui would never have become Mrs Wambui Otieno (she has recently remarried a much younger fellow called Mbugua in a marriage recorded by the media at the AG's chambers in 2003 that hit the headlines across the continent). All young Kikuyu ladies from Wambui's days were circumcised. And virtually all DhoLuo men from Mr Otieno's days were NOT circumcised. But the sparks still flew between these two Kenyans. And Mrs Wambui Otieno is just the sort of tough cookie that would have told off any jeering fellow Kikuyu with the words like; "it is non of your business and if you try anything I will show you that at least one of us is cut."
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---
The Kikuyu circumcised their women (until very recently) to reduce their sexual drive and desire. It was a way of ensuring that their women did not wander away from the marital bed. Which just goes to show you that Kikuyu men have never really been the romantic types, historically (it is said they are always busy thinking about money-making ideas and schemes). Wambui seems to have known realized this and she therefore chose well, because men from the DhoLuo tribe are known to be extremely romantic and know how to treat a lady.By the time the Otieno's marriage ended in the late 80s with the tragic death of Mr Otieno who by then had distinguished himself as probably one of the finest Kenyan criminals lawyers to ever walk the corridors of the high court, the couple had been married for over 3 decades. But sadly the end was far from being a happy one. Mr Otieno's Umira Kager clan from Nyalgunga, Luo Nyanza insisted on burying Otieno in his ancestral home following all traditions to the letter, including the dreaded Tero Buru. Tough former freedom fighter Wambui Otieno, said "over my dead body." She pointed out quite clearly that her sweetheart had indicated to her that he wanted to be buried at their Upper Matasia home (near Ngong). What followed was the mother of all legal tussles. Sad that Mr Otino must have helped write many wills in his time but never wrote one for himself which would have averted all the heartbreak and suffering for his wife, Wambui.
In my opinion, this court battle further divided Luos and Kikuyus and must have been used as a stern warning to many young people hit by cupids arrow (flying from the wrong direction so to speak) for many years.
I can still imagine those stern parents saying to those poor love-struck youngsters; "Do you want us to go to court when one of you dies?"
Wambui won the sympathy of many Kenyans across tribal lines but lost the court battle and her right to bury her own husband.
I dare add that I believe that many Luos took the opportunity presented by this case “to get back at the Kikuyu.” In other words, those who have always promoted this hatred (on both sides) are constantly spoiling for a fight and looking for every opportunity to further their evil cause.
Wambui and Mbugua at their wedding reception.
To many Kenyans, Wambui Otieno embodies the dilemma Africans face between the old African ways and the modern Western lifestyle that is rapidly becoming the dominant culture across Africa. Wambui caused a public scandal this week by marrying a stonemason 42 years her junior in a short civil ceremony in the Attorney General’s office. ‘Love is what matters. Love is blind,’ she said, ‘women should be liberated so that they can marry men younger than them.’
Wambui is a descendant of the great Chief Waiyaki, patriarch of an important Kikuyu clan, whose descendants included Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta as well as cabinet minsters, high court judges and leading industrialists. Wambui was one of the only women to join the Mau Mau rebellion against the British in the 1950’s and later became a Nairobi politician and vocal activist for women’s rights.
By the time she married her first husband, SM Otieno, Wambui already had three children by two fathers. Both families opposed Wambui’s wedding to SM because marrying outside one’s tribe was highly unusual at that time. For a Kikuyu to marry SM, a member of the Luo tribe, was like ‘mixing oil and water’ as her uncle later testified. SM’s clan opposed the marriage because marrying a Kikuyu woman with three children born out of wedlock was nothing short of a scandal.
The Kikuyu despise the Luo as kihii, uncircumcised fish-eaters, while the Luo see the Kikuyu as arrogant and greedy westernised Africans who have abandoned their cultural traditions. Wambui did not care that her family did not see her uncircumcised husband as a ‘real’ man and she refused the traditional dowry between families saying ‘ I am not going to be married under any bride price because you know women then become property of the clan. I am worth more than a few goats.’ The couple took advantage of a 1931 statute, the African Christian Marriage Act ‘making it clear they were not bound by tribal customs’ as Wambui’s lawyer later described it in court. They had married for love.
By the time SM passed away from hypertension in 1986, the couple had fifteen children. According to Luo tradition, when a man dies, his relatives inherit his possessions. Since the Luo consider a wife and children as possessions, a deceased man’s brother inherits his wife. But the immediate problem was not the fact that Wambui was now deemed the potential wife of SM’s brother but the more pressing problem of where to bury SM’s body. This issue became one of the most hotly contested debates in Kenya’s legal and social history and brought about a clash of opinion between African traditionalists and modernists that has risen to the surface again seventeen years later with Wambui’s new marriage to Steven Mbugua, who was seven years old when SM died.
SM did not leave a will because he knew as a lawyer that wills have been overturned in Kenyan courts in favour of clans claiming a relative’s body. He relied instead on the evidence of 15 of his children, his wife, friends, neighbours, lawyers, journalists and leading members of society who he instructed specifically that he wished to be buried at his farm in Upper Matasia near Nairobi. He expressly forbade his wife and children to allow his other relatives to bury him in his ancestral village Nyalgunga in Siaya district some 300 kilometres away from his house, saying that to do so would be ‘to throw me away’.
Upon his death, Wambui ordered a grave to be dug on the farm only to discover that SM’s relatives had taken out a court injunction barring her from doing so. Wambui and the Umira Kager clan went to court and within three weeks, the court decided that SM was ‘a metropolitan and a cosmopolitan….it is hard to envisage such a person as subject to African customary law and in particular the customs of a rural community,’ overturning the injunction. The clan appealed immediately.
The Court of Appeal over-ruled the lower court’s verdict, arguing that despite SM’s education, marriage, professional success and verbal instructions, it was wrong to assume that ‘the deceased had thereby lost his tribal identity and could not be governed by customary laws, traditions and culture.’ A full trial was ordered.
According to testimony in court, recently deceased Luo are a bridge between the living and the ancestors. The ‘living dead’ therefore have a direct influence on day-to-day matters. Great importance is attached to burial rites. A cast of characters gave evidence on behalf of the clan including witchdoctors and the gravedigger who had buried SM’s father, who testified from his hospital bed. SM’s brother told the court that unless he was allowed to bury his brother in the prescribed way, SM’s ghost would ‘sabotage his life’ and ‘make his clansmen spit on him.’ The Professor of Philosophy from Nairobi University testified that an improper burial meant that ‘your children or your livestock may die and if you sire children they may be born without legs.’
Wambui’s lawyers presented evidence from many well-known members of society who confirmed SM’s wish to be buried at his farm and his distaste for traditional custom. The judges conceded that there was no doubt that SM had expressed a desire to be buried on the outskirts of the city hundreds of miles from his ancestral home. What was at stake was not his wishes but the importance of the old ways against the new, whether customary laws of the village and tribe could take precedence over the laws of the Kenyan nation and constitution and most importantly, which of them should govern the social institutions of marriage, birth and death.
Thousands of Luo men surrounded the high court each day and newspapers reported the trial verbatim. Newspapers with headlines like ‘Luos have no homes in Nairobi’ and ‘We’ll be haunted if we don’t bury him’ sold out by mid-morning. The case was the talk of Africa.
On February 13th 1987, six months after SM’s death, the court decided that SM was to be buried by the clan in his ancestral village against his own wishes and those of his wife and children. The Appeal Court Judge said that Wambui ‘chose to be married to a man who was not of her tribe. She knew she was marrying a Luo. She cannot now complain that the Luo are uncivilized…they did not force her to be married into their clan…times will come when circumstances dictate that Luo customs with regard to burial be abandoned. Change is inevitable but must be gradual.’
The clan mobbed the city mortuary where SM’s body remained under police guard and carried the corpse on the back of a truck to SM’s ancestral home in Siaya district for the funeral which was attended by three cabinet ministers and thousands of Luo tribespeople. African tradition had won on the day, a decision praised throughout Kenya at the time. Wambui and her family including SM’s children chose to boycott the funeral deliberately breaking the taboo that dictates that Luo children should visit their father’s grave to lay a cross as a final part of the burial ceremony.
Wambui’s new marriage has reignited the debate about the degree to which African traditions and customs are important in modern life. SM’s clan have objected to Wambui’s ‘sham and repugnant marriage’ saying, ‘Wambui is still married to SM Otieno’ and reiterated calls for her to go to Siaya to be inherited by SM’s relatives. ‘Even if Wambui died today, the Umira Kager clan will ensure she is buried at Nyalgunga, next to SM Otieno's grave.’
Cabinet Ministers have described Wambui's marriage as ‘a golden opportunity’ for Kenyans of all walks of life to consider the meaning of the institution of marriage as the country moves towards a new constitution. ‘I don't think there would be so much fuss if an old man married a much younger lady, ’ said Wangari Maathai, head of the Culture Committee at the conference on Kenya’s new constitution.
Home Affairs minister Moody Awori said: ‘Love has no boundaries’ but added quickly that the two consenting adults must be of opposite sexes. The opposition secretary for Labour, Ms Orie Rogo-Manduli differed, describing the wedding as ‘an isolated case of Kenyans in mid-winter madness. Women must continue to play their role as role models and be cradle rockers and not cradle robbers.’
Wambui’s story brings together many elements of the African dilemma; the old traditions versus modern living, a British legal system dealing with an African cultural case, tribalism versus an individual’s rights in a democracy, traditional beliefs versus modern science, women’s rights in a chauvinist society and the role of a wife, the family, the clan and the tribe in modern African society. It also raises fundamental and sensitive questions about identity and what it really means to be African.
Kenyans of all persuasions debate the Wambui case in an effort to find meaning and significance in a society where the ancient and the modern have difficulty in coexisting. Urbanisation, westernisation and modernisation have not bought prosperity and harmony but sowed the seeds of discord.
Eminent African scholar Colin Turnbull commented on this ‘disconnect’ for Africans by saying ‘there is a void in the life of the African…. to go forward is to abandon the past where the roots of his being have their nourishment; to go backward is to cut himself off from the future, for there is no doubt about where the future lies…there is no bridge and this is the source of his terrible loneliness’.
In a final twist, Wambui’s new mother in law Florence Nyambura announced after Wambui’s wedding that her son had another fiancée called Mugure, who he was scheduled to marry next month as a second wife. This development came as a surprise to the Wambui the modern politician and women’s rights activist. Then events took a rapid turn for the worse when her new husband’s family announced that Wambui’s mother in law had taken ill and died quite mysteriously.
Kenyans remain divided into modern and traditional camps on who is to blame for the tragic death. Some blame the press for harassing her and others blame the Umira Kager clan who they believe cursed Mbugua for marrying Wambui, ‘their wife’. Either way, Wambui remains a heroine for women in Kenya and a flag-bearer for modernist Africans in the 21st century.
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I dug this out of the Kumekucha archives
How could she…?? That girl was yours, or so you thought. How could she fall for a player and a man who is NOT nice to women like that guy I can't stand?? What happened?
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Judy (not her real name) is still serving time but is optimistic that one day she will be free. Her son who saved her life is now about 7 years old.
(From Kumekucha archives. First published WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2008. This story-part of it- hit newspaper headlines in Kenya that year.) Forward this true story and share widely if you have a sister, daughter or some woman you care about who may fall in love tomorrow and throw caution to the wind with dire consequences.
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Babu Owino in court at the Milimani law courts cracks a very funny joke that has Gaucho in stitches.
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Analysis of Day 1 and Day 2 of the protest against high cost of living reveals a Ruto UDA secret that will blow your mind and explains why the two days are so different.
But where is Raila Odinga? Some insights including a story from the past is more than revealing.
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Addressing a press conference in parliament buildings a few minutes ago in a presser that is still ongoing as I write this, Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi while commenting on Raila Odinga's whereabouts said that they are the face of "Baba" Read article
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Maandamano 19th July 2023 Day 1 of 3: Protesters engage police in running battles in Mathare during Azimio demonstrations.
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On day 1 of the 3 day maandamano led by Azimio and Raila Odinga, protests are witnessed in over 15 counties country-wide. Even as Ruto's Kenya Kwanza response predictably remains the same despite clear indications that they are not doing any good to the cause of the Ruto presidency and regime.
But where was Raila Odinga, even as he gave instructions for the protests to end at 5pm and resume on day 2 in the morning? Was it a case of the arrest of Raila that failed to happen?
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Raila Odinga, the leader of Azimio, has denounced the use of live ammunition during the anti-government protests on Wednesday 19th July 2023.
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Is the end of the Ruto presidency and his administration, just around the corner?
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The following information was first released on the Kumekucha Chris YouTube channel in early 2016. It makes for super fascinating reading because of what has ended up happening 6 years later.
Ruto secretly purchased POA from his colleague in Jubilee Raphael Tuju and changed its name to Party for Development and Reforms (PDR) and then later changed it to UDA. Was all this to mask the origin of this party? Did he see the future before it happened?
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self made millionaire business ideas
Very revealing make money secrets from real life situations that unfolded. This Brian Tracy and Kumekucha Chris nuggets of information are nothing short of game-changing.
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Ruto had a plan and a burning desire to be president. That much is clear. He launched a crusade (in his mind) to achieve his ultimate goal, long before he actually vied. Read article
Ruto withdraws the security of key opposition leaders, including governors and MPs.
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MAANDAMANO TOMORROW IN MT KENYA - FEARLESS KARUA DARES RUTO & GACHAGUA.
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“We don’t give a damn about state security,” Governor Ochilo Ayacko, Suna West MP Peter Masara say after their securities were withdrawn.
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The shifty body language of Kenya Kwanza legislators when asked about their recent meeting at State house Nairobi and what was discussed is a total giveaway.
But what is that we t down that they are not willing to reveal. A surprising but hardly unexpected answer to that question in this Kumekucha video.
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Update 23/07/2021; Ruto purchased POA and changed its name to Party for Development and Reforms (PDR) and then more recently changed it to UDA. Was all this to mask the origin of this party?
Impeccable sources say that DP Ruto has purchased a political party. What does this mean? What is he up to? More so now when a powerful wing of the Jubilee party from the Mount Kenya region is resisting his preparations for 2022. What will happen next?
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Firstborn children have many challenges that most are completely unware of. Especially challenges that have to do with stuff that may not be clear to most.
It is therefore not uncommon for firstborns to give up in life or live a very frustrated life. But this can be avoided if one starts to understand the possible spiritual causes of their problems.
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The very first video posted on the Kumekucha Chris channel in 2013. It contrasts a typical humble Kenyan home with 20 registered voters and the neighbouring house with a satellite dish that only has one registered voter. Will help anybody understand some of the dynamics amongst Kenyan voters in any election.
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The real hidden strategy of William Ruto and the Kenya Kwanza regime is beginning to show clearly. It is visible in speeches and tweets by Ruto allies.
It suggests that we are not too far from the last option that President Ruto will have. Even though it is whispered that insiders have already been pushing him in that direction for a number of weeks now.
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What is Ruto's real plan to stop Raila? Raila supporters fear that it is a terrible evil plan.
Read; Champion boxer Raphael Shigali was shot dead by Jogoo Rd Police station cop during Azimio protests
Just yesterday: Oparanya recounts how rowdy youths damaged his car during demonstrations in Busia
The strange episode has re-ignited the long-running argument over whether the dead may speak to the living and the applicability of "their messages" to those they may have talked to.
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Charles Njonjo And Daniel Arap Moi State House Drama: Difficult to believe but there was a day that Moi had to be persuaded by Charles Njonjo to accept the presidency of the republic of Kenya. Chris Kumekucha narrates from chapter three of his own best-selling eBook DARK SECRETS OF THE KENYAN PRESIDENCY. Some amazing facts that will enable you to understand Kenyan politics much better.
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Deep political analysts have confessed that they are puzzled at the self-destruct tendencies of the Kenya Kwanza government. The latest is the controversial Finance Bill 2023. However there is a very long list of examples from the week that William Ruto was sworn in as president. A revelation that will shock most in this Kumekucha Chris video that tells us the country called Kenya is in deeper trouble than we all thought.
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It's critical to be ready in case a gunshot wound emergency arises near you. This is of course much more important with the current situation in Kenya. And remember most of the victims in the country so far have been people who were not even participating in demonstrations. Also a gunshot wound that receives early medical attention frequently doesn't become fatal.
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A celebrated boxing champion is among Kenyans who lost their lives during the anti-government protests on Wednesday 12th July 2023.
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The corporate empire of billionaire David Langat was driven into uncharted terrain this week when auctioneers forced the sale of his Mombasa office buildings and Nandi tea estate in order to pay a local bank more than Sh2.1 billion in back debt.
Read; Has David Langat fallen out with close buddy William Ruto?
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In controversial utterances in public, President William Ruto has accused his former boss Uhuru Kenyatta of instigating protests against his rule.
Does Ruto really know what he is saying and doing? Especially after he stole elections from Raila in August 2022? He says in this video Raila has failed to get elected 6 times but Ruto has not confessed that out of those 6 in 3 instances he played a key role in rigging out Raila and denying him his rightful victory.
Does Ruto know that Vitu kwa ground are very different from this illusion he is trapped in?. Let time tell...
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Even as former Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya was released this evening, after his lawyer recorded a statement, Kenyans are still reeling in shock as they try to digest the jolting revelations from Eugene Wamalwa on what Ruto and UDA are really up to against Raila, Azimio and the people of Kenya.
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Former Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, according to Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party Leader Raila Odinga, has been arrested by police. He was later released.
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Most leading analysts including Pro. Herman Manyora seem to agree that the government of William Ruto is on the losing end of the Maandamano duel with Azimio and Raila Odinga. It is as clear as day.
Police brutality and the unprovoked attack on peaceful demonstrators seems to have attracted the wrong kind of attention (for Ruto) from the international community.
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So Ruto police had sharp-shooters in place...
Peter Munya: "We came here to engage citizens on the hardships they are going through and it is our rights as leaders to do so. That's what we came to do but police as usual mobilized to come and disrupt and to visit violence on us and you have sees every stop we made... teargas is being thrown. From Makutano where we started...
And it was needless because there was no violence. Citizens were responding because they are all facing the same problems everybody in the country is facing.
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Why was the Azimio rally scheduled to take place at the Kamukunji Grounds in Nairobi yesterday 12th July 2023 abruptly canceled by Raila Odinga, the head of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya alliance? What was the real reason? Is it true that it was something terrifying? This Lee Makwiny video offers a few clues.
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There are key aspects of the Kenyan presidency that cannot be ignored and when they are not given the attention they deserve will always result in serious political instability. This is the same mistake a past president with great potential, Mwai Kibaki, made. But now once again in 2023 the tell-tale signs of 2005 are clearly visible
In this Kumekucha video we go deep into this most fascinating and often ignored issue in Kenya politics.
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Over 600 individuals were detained and arrested at various police stations in Nairobi on Wednesday during anti-government demonstrations. Over ten people were shot and killed by police across the nation, and dozens more were hurt during the clashes that erupted on 12th July 2023.
The 12th July maandamano country-wide will go down in the history of Kenya for special attention in any analysis of what happens going forward. And apart from the many bad things that happened, historians in future will also record it as a turning point for the nation called Kenya. One that the Kenya Kwanza government and the UDA strongman William Ruto are yet to see.
Rich Kenyans like Ibrahim Ambwere can be described as clean non-politician Kenyan Multi billionaire. That is something very rare in the country. His is the amazing and highly inspirational story of an orphan boy who started off sweeping the premises of a mason's premises when he was only 10 years old and ended up so rich that the government of Kenya in the 1980s felt threatened by his wealth. He has no prominent presence in Nairobi and lives a frugal lifestyle similar to that of the richest man in the world, Warren Buffet. This is the amazing story full of life lessons from the least known Kenyan multi-billionaire.
Patrick Shaw Untold Story: The inside story of the legendary Nairobi super cop Patrick Shaw. A biographical detailed documentary of the man starting with his early days and arrival in Kenya during the Mau Mau and emergency years to his deep involvement in Kenyan politics in the 1980s. In the end it is brutal Kenyan politics that killed him. He should have just stuck to being an extra-ordinarily good cop.
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Pamela Mboya now deceased, Tom Mboya’s widow wrote to Kofi Annan in 2008 as he was mediating peace in Kenya. Part of the letter read; “The assassination of my husband, like others after him, is a matter that has remained shrouded in mystery and speculation, and which has been avoided by successive regimes in this country...”
Later she promised to drop the bombshell in an interview but later changed her mind. This is most probably what she was so hesitant to reveal.
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This is Uhuru's future from a man who has NEVER gotten it wrong (2013 prediction)
...Then in the midst of all these uncertainties an arrogant Briton came into the country for prayers and started making predictions and prophecies on the country's political future. Few Kenyans had ever heard of the London based preacher. But he spoke with such authority that some Kenyans even got annoyed.
Then he predicted Uhuru Kenyatta's future and I did not like it one bit.... This is Uhuru's future from a man who has NEVER gotten it wrong (2013 prediction)
On the shadow of the 12th July maandamano country-wide, UDA insiders are putting on a brave face and yet in the background are terribly worried about Azimio's looming check-mate move. A legal coup linked to the 10Million signatures taking advantage of a unique constitution that in their view gives too much power to the people.
Crazy BUT true reading;
The saying "the dead don't tell tales" has come to haunt police and a Kakamega town when the body of a lady who had been missing for more than a week was found after its location was revealed in a dream.
Police are unsure of whether to treat the person to whom the revelation was made as a whistle-blower or a suspect as the villagers speculate that the dream may be a testament to the deceased's desire for a proper funeral and her determination to see her killers brought to justice.
Read article: Kakamega Dead woman's ghost comes back to point at killers and tell family where her body is hidden
Watch related videos;
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Captivating read in the Sunday Nation this morning in the Weekly Review section on Tom Mboya. Confirms information available on this channel over 5 years ago on who killed Mboya and why. 
Our series on Mboya: It was more than an assassination even gives you the name of the man who pulled the trigger and later died a miserable man full of regrets in Kenya (NOT Nahashon Njenga).
Victims of saba saba, some of them in serious condition.
See also;
The Tom Osinde story is more than disturbing, even as a key clue emerges that points to the usual suspects of unsolved puzzles in Kenya.
And even as this is unravelling Irene Cherop Masit former IEBC commissioner in the "Cherera four" flees the country. This Masit move points to something else that Kenyans need to pay attention to.
What has controversial CS Trade Moses Kuria been up to behind the scenes? What impact do his actions have on Kenyan politics? This Kumekucha video digs up a can of worms that you will not believe.
There is also a fascinating link Moses Kuria has to the very puzzling Kiambu gubernatorial elections last August. Indeed Kiambu voters are still pretty puzzled about the results to this day. We dig deeper to come out with some astonishing answers to that mystery.
Despite the William Ruto regime being in denial, mounting evidence indicates that this is a government that has already been well and truly cornered. Even as Kenyans brace themselves for the Wednesday 12th July Maandamanos country-wide, it is very clear where all this is headed and how it will end.
This revealing Kumekucha video exposes the naked truth that many have ignored, even as interior CS Kithure Kindiki changes tune late in the day.
For instance, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Kenya have consistently noted that Kenyan authorities have not done enough to hold police officers and their commanders accountable for killings and attacks on protestors and other persons.
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A most shocking story from Cyrus Jirongo who claims he was there and witnessed everything.
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