Every Monday in Nairobi, large crowds of people are seen scrambling at the news stands in the afternoon to catch a glimpse of the latest edition of the citizen weekly newspaper, which not only provides juicy gossip about the ruling elite but also covers scandals rocking the Kibaki administration.
The weekly has gained popularity over the past year as it covers stories that the mainstream media cannot touch including the philandering lifestyles of the high and mighty who have in more than one occasion been caught in the city's red light district picking prostitutes most of whom are minors.
Behind the controversial publication that has been raided by police even in the Kibaki era is one Thomas Alwaka who was formerly an editor with a party owned newspaper, the Kenya Times. His able assistant is Willy Kimanzi who does the editorial and has his own column in the publication, which is said to have a circulation of over 20,000 copies weekly.
On several occasions, police have raided the offices in Nairobi looking for Mr Alwaka but in most cases, the slippery editor has not been found and has the probity of rushing to his lawyer who escorts him to the police stations or the law court to seek orders to have the police stop harassing him.
Unfortunately, on the dark side, the publication has on several occasions been used as a weapon to settle scores among the ruling elite who pass on real and imagined stories about their rivals accompanied with cash tokens to the publishers and this has dealt a big blow to the credibility of the newspaper.
In some instances, the employees of the newspaper have been accused of blackmail and soliciting for cash not to print damaging dossiers about certain prominent people but all these are mere allegations as non of them are yet to be taken to court with such accusations.
Surprisingly, both Alwaka and his deputy harbor political ambitions with the former said to be gunning for a parliamentary seat in western province, namely Emuhaya while Kimanzi aspires to be a civic leader in Kibera in Nairobi which is the slum area in Langata constituency represented by presidential hopeful Raila Odinga.
The duo have rubbed shoulders with the high and the mighty in the course of their work and it is really not surprising that they have decided to plunge into the murky world of politics where anything goes. Not to mention the fact that Kenyan politicians are among the best paid in the world, enough cash incentive to attract most Kenyans.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Kibaki Is Waiting For ODM Split, To Call Early Elections
According to the Kenyan constitution, the president has the power to dissolve parliament and call for general elections whenever he feels like it. Many feel that President Kibaki is bound to use this as his weapon to catch the opposition unawares and guarantee himself re-election amid mounting pressure from Kenyans to kick him out of office.
The popular belief among the political class is that Kibaki is waiting for ODM Kenya to complete their presidential nominations which he expects will ultimately cause a major split in their ranks. This will favor Narc Kenya, which will openly accept the ODM losers and even offer them ministerial positions in the next government all in a desperate bid to ensure that Kibaki is re-elected.
It is also common belief that the government has its spies in ODM who are feeding the Kibaki administration with all the intended moves of the opposition to the effect that those in power can anticipate decisions taken by the opposition before they are even made public which is a big advantage when it comes to waging a propaganda war.
Majority of Kenyans are not against Kibaki for his policies or his leadership skills but for the simple reason that he has allowed tribalism to rear its ugly head in his administration and the fact that he has so many elderly grandpas managing key sectors of government yet majority of those who voted for him are the youth.
President Kibaki is known for not being decisive but his advisors and handlers are known to be overzealous and forthright to the extend that they often arm-twist their proposals through to take vital decisions which in most occasions are not popular with majority of Kenyans who feel that the president is being held hostage by his increasingly influential kitchen cabinet which consists of men above 70 years with extremely selfish interests.
Prior to the 2002 elections Kibaki is on record as saying that he would only rule for one term and begged the leading lights of NARC to allow him be the presidential candidate on the understanding that he would not seek re-election after completing his first term. All this was also in the memorandum of understanding that has long been trashed in the dustbin by Kibaki.
Plenty of water has flowed under the bridge ever since Kibaki took over and besides kicking out of government those who propelled him to power, he has reneged on several unwritten agreements he made with other members of the ruling coalition which has caused a lot of discontent among most Kenyans.
His most recent move that has incensed the opposition is the recent appointment of electoral commissioners which Kibaki went ahead and appointed without consulting the other political parties as per agreements made during the inter party parliamentary group meetings in president Moi's era.
This move was taken very badly by the opposition who now accuse Kibaki of rigging the general elections in advance by selecting his cronies to head the all-important commission that supervises elections.
To make matters worse, Kibaki has chosen to remain silent over the issue and has left it to his foot soldiers to justify the appointments to the chagrin of the political parties and civil societies who have vowed to vote him out for his betrayal.
The country's leading weekly newspaper, the Sunday Nation has also predicted that the polls could be held earlier than expected while others say the recent moves by the Kibaki administration is to cause anxiety and panic among the opposition ranks and prompt them to make hasty decisions with devastating results so as to ensure Kibaki returns to State House amid confusion among those opposed to his lackluster leadership that has been plagued by scandals and self-created crisis’s.
Despite all the tricks that Kibaki and his henchmen are using, it still will not be easy for Kibaki to be re-elected as his government is getting more unpopular by the day as his cabinet ministers who are notorious for political blunders continue to soil the governments name through irresponsible rhetoric and bad behaviour in public not to mention the astronomical salaries and allowances they draw from public coffers in a country where about 70% of the people live below the poverty line.
The popular belief among the political class is that Kibaki is waiting for ODM Kenya to complete their presidential nominations which he expects will ultimately cause a major split in their ranks. This will favor Narc Kenya, which will openly accept the ODM losers and even offer them ministerial positions in the next government all in a desperate bid to ensure that Kibaki is re-elected.
It is also common belief that the government has its spies in ODM who are feeding the Kibaki administration with all the intended moves of the opposition to the effect that those in power can anticipate decisions taken by the opposition before they are even made public which is a big advantage when it comes to waging a propaganda war.
Majority of Kenyans are not against Kibaki for his policies or his leadership skills but for the simple reason that he has allowed tribalism to rear its ugly head in his administration and the fact that he has so many elderly grandpas managing key sectors of government yet majority of those who voted for him are the youth.
President Kibaki is known for not being decisive but his advisors and handlers are known to be overzealous and forthright to the extend that they often arm-twist their proposals through to take vital decisions which in most occasions are not popular with majority of Kenyans who feel that the president is being held hostage by his increasingly influential kitchen cabinet which consists of men above 70 years with extremely selfish interests.
Prior to the 2002 elections Kibaki is on record as saying that he would only rule for one term and begged the leading lights of NARC to allow him be the presidential candidate on the understanding that he would not seek re-election after completing his first term. All this was also in the memorandum of understanding that has long been trashed in the dustbin by Kibaki.
Plenty of water has flowed under the bridge ever since Kibaki took over and besides kicking out of government those who propelled him to power, he has reneged on several unwritten agreements he made with other members of the ruling coalition which has caused a lot of discontent among most Kenyans.
His most recent move that has incensed the opposition is the recent appointment of electoral commissioners which Kibaki went ahead and appointed without consulting the other political parties as per agreements made during the inter party parliamentary group meetings in president Moi's era.
This move was taken very badly by the opposition who now accuse Kibaki of rigging the general elections in advance by selecting his cronies to head the all-important commission that supervises elections.
To make matters worse, Kibaki has chosen to remain silent over the issue and has left it to his foot soldiers to justify the appointments to the chagrin of the political parties and civil societies who have vowed to vote him out for his betrayal.
The country's leading weekly newspaper, the Sunday Nation has also predicted that the polls could be held earlier than expected while others say the recent moves by the Kibaki administration is to cause anxiety and panic among the opposition ranks and prompt them to make hasty decisions with devastating results so as to ensure Kibaki returns to State House amid confusion among those opposed to his lackluster leadership that has been plagued by scandals and self-created crisis’s.
Despite all the tricks that Kibaki and his henchmen are using, it still will not be easy for Kibaki to be re-elected as his government is getting more unpopular by the day as his cabinet ministers who are notorious for political blunders continue to soil the governments name through irresponsible rhetoric and bad behaviour in public not to mention the astronomical salaries and allowances they draw from public coffers in a country where about 70% of the people live below the poverty line.
How Will President Kibaki Finance His Re-election?
Since taking over the country in 2002 Kibaki has managed to increase his litany of rich friends all the while throwing caution to the wind and associating with fabulously wealthy individuals, some of them with dubious reputations.
Among those in the list of the super rich Kenyans that Kibaki has seen it wise to befriend is non other than the billionaire Juja MP William Kabogo who's brother has been accused on running a controversial import-export company that has been linked to drug trafficking and even murder.
The company is owned by Kabogo who is known for his lavish lifestyle including going out for lunch in Masai country with his personal helicopter and boasting that he is so wealthy that he cannot loose his parliamentary seat due to the development that he has accomplished in his constituency.
During the referendum last year in November, Kabogo came out very strongly in support of the Kibaki camp that was vouching for the new constitution and managed to ensure that the majority of Juja constituents voted for the constitution which was not surprising as majority of the constituents consists of the Kikuyu community, the presidents’ tribes mates.
Kabogo has also supported government motions in parliament all along and has not hidden the fact that he is a good friend and supporter of the Kibaki government in spite of belonging to the obscure Sisi Kwa Sisi party which has only two MPs in parliament, the other being Kangundo legislator Moffat Maitha.
It is interesting to note that the two legislators opted for the obscure party after they lost in the NARC nominations with both claiming that they were rigged out hence their defection to the brief case party who's officials are not even known by Kenyans.
It is common knowledge that Kabogo has no choice but to support the government as his business interests stand to suffer immensely if he does not co-operate with those in power. His company has been linked with drug trafficking at the port of Mombasa amongst numerous other shady deals.
His brother was arraigned in court last year for the murder of a senior police officer who was investigating the disappearance of containers At the Mombasa port and drug trafficking syndicates in Mombasa. The case is yet to be concluded.
Kabogo has also been held and interrogated by police on some occasions but has been released unconditionally mainly due to lack of evidence to support prosecution and it is also known that he is a close friend and associate of Joseph Kiragu, the man linked to the shs 6 billion cocaine impounded in Nairobi last year.
Kiragu is still holed up in the Nertherlands where he fled and the government is trying to have him extradited back to Kenya to face trafficking charges but that is another story altogether.
Kabogo is a brother in-law to John Harun Mwau another controversial figure also linked to drug trafficking with the latter having made a fruitless attempts to venture into politics in 2002 loosing the Kilome parliamentary seat.
The Juja MP is among the fabulously rich individuals who will most likely contribute generously to the Kibaki re-election campaign in a bid to ensure that his business does not suffer in the event of Kibaki loosing the presidency.
However, the million-dollar question is whether Kibaki is aware of the nature of business his so called business friends do and again if he approves of the sack loads of money that will come his way in form of campaign funds without asking too many questions, like where it came from.
Among those in the list of the super rich Kenyans that Kibaki has seen it wise to befriend is non other than the billionaire Juja MP William Kabogo who's brother has been accused on running a controversial import-export company that has been linked to drug trafficking and even murder.
The company is owned by Kabogo who is known for his lavish lifestyle including going out for lunch in Masai country with his personal helicopter and boasting that he is so wealthy that he cannot loose his parliamentary seat due to the development that he has accomplished in his constituency.
During the referendum last year in November, Kabogo came out very strongly in support of the Kibaki camp that was vouching for the new constitution and managed to ensure that the majority of Juja constituents voted for the constitution which was not surprising as majority of the constituents consists of the Kikuyu community, the presidents’ tribes mates.
Kabogo has also supported government motions in parliament all along and has not hidden the fact that he is a good friend and supporter of the Kibaki government in spite of belonging to the obscure Sisi Kwa Sisi party which has only two MPs in parliament, the other being Kangundo legislator Moffat Maitha.
It is interesting to note that the two legislators opted for the obscure party after they lost in the NARC nominations with both claiming that they were rigged out hence their defection to the brief case party who's officials are not even known by Kenyans.
It is common knowledge that Kabogo has no choice but to support the government as his business interests stand to suffer immensely if he does not co-operate with those in power. His company has been linked with drug trafficking at the port of Mombasa amongst numerous other shady deals.
His brother was arraigned in court last year for the murder of a senior police officer who was investigating the disappearance of containers At the Mombasa port and drug trafficking syndicates in Mombasa. The case is yet to be concluded.
Kabogo has also been held and interrogated by police on some occasions but has been released unconditionally mainly due to lack of evidence to support prosecution and it is also known that he is a close friend and associate of Joseph Kiragu, the man linked to the shs 6 billion cocaine impounded in Nairobi last year.
Kiragu is still holed up in the Nertherlands where he fled and the government is trying to have him extradited back to Kenya to face trafficking charges but that is another story altogether.
Kabogo is a brother in-law to John Harun Mwau another controversial figure also linked to drug trafficking with the latter having made a fruitless attempts to venture into politics in 2002 loosing the Kilome parliamentary seat.
The Juja MP is among the fabulously rich individuals who will most likely contribute generously to the Kibaki re-election campaign in a bid to ensure that his business does not suffer in the event of Kibaki loosing the presidency.
However, the million-dollar question is whether Kibaki is aware of the nature of business his so called business friends do and again if he approves of the sack loads of money that will come his way in form of campaign funds without asking too many questions, like where it came from.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)