Mysterious Bank Robbery At Habib Bank Mombasa

Two days ago, armed gangsters walked into a bank in Mombasa and made away with about Shs 35 million in a mysterious robbery where it is yet to be established at what point exactly the money was stolen.

Some bank officials claim that the money was on transit and was stolen as it reached the bank while others say it was already in the bank and had never moved prior to the well-hatched robbery.

It is common sense that one cannot pull off a bank robbery without help from the inside and police are still pursuing leads and have arrested one of the guards on duty during the fateful raid.

Another inexplicable incident is the fact that the cctv cameras were not on when the robbery occurred and it is also yet to be established who switched them off or disabled them moments prior to the heist.

It could also be possible that not a single cent was stolen on that day and what could have happened is that an employee colluding with gangsters could have hidden the money inside the bank only for his accomplices to collect it the following day. This happened last year in a bank heist in Eldoret.

The amount said to have been stolen is also yet to be verified and TV footage showed managers of the Habib bank holding their heads in grief and bewilderment, as they could not explain how the money vanished.

One version says two well-dressed men entered the bank through the back door prior to the close of business while a third used the front door. They were allowed in by unsuspecting security guards.

One remains wondering why bank robberies still occur in Kenya where armed policemen guard these premises during opening hours and only leave after all monies have been secured. It is also highly likely that these gangsters are not only colluding with bank employees but also with the police. A pointer to this possibility is the flustered nature in which the police have acted over this particular robbery, issuing several statements to the press. In one of them the police claim that they even summoned bank managers at Habib to a meeting at the police station and expressed their concern over the lax security arrangements at the bank. Especially in view of the fact that they had received a tip-off of an impending bank robbery in Mombasa about a week or two before the heist actually took place.

Finally, one cannot help but wonder if this 35 million loot has gone into some politician's campaign war chest for the forthcoming general elections.

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General Elections 2007: Can Anybody Be President Of Kenya?

The trend we have seen recently of non-politicians announcing their interest in the presidency is a sure sign that the field is going to be pretty crowded this time round. And it seems that most of the numbers will be made up of non-politicians and "nobodies."

Already it is clear that this has been received with lot of anger in most quarters. One reader left a comment in this blog saying; has the presidency now become for anybody?

I found that a rather strange statement but in a way it is not surprising because Kenyans have been convinced that the presidency is only for a few. Persons who stand for the presidency are supposed to be political giants, preferably very rich people. Anybody else who stands, it seems, will cause plenty of anger and who-do-they-think-they-are animosity from the public.

Kenyans will need to make up their minds about this issue because everybody agrees that we badly need a change of direction in the leadership of the country. This will obviously not come from the current political class who have blackmailed the country for too long now. It can only come from a new generation of leaders who have never been in politics before but who have the will to bring about the genuine change Kenyans want.

After the Watergate scandal of the early 70s that saw the resignation of President Richard Nixon, Americans voted in an outsider in President Jimmy Carter, a strong Baptist who confessed that he was a born again Christian. The message was clear, the nation was tired of dirty politics and the public badly wanted a clean up.

In Kenya, the nation is slowly being suffocated to death by corruption and we need a new beginning. To achieve that, we need to understand that only an outsider can have a fighting chance of getting the job done.

Can Kenya rise to be the sort of country where anybody can rise to be president irrespective of their tribe or family background as long as they can add value and bring badly required integrity to the office?

Over to you the Kenyan voters.

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General Elections 2007: Should Church Leaders Go Into Politics?

The recent announcements by two leading evangelists in the country of their intentions to run for political office in 2007 has raised serious concerns amongst many Kenyans. More so the announcement this week by Pastor Pius Muiru that he would run for the presidency.

Apparently Muiru's bid has hit a snag as yesterday members of the RAK (Republican Alliance Of Kenya) party which he intends to stand with, while admitting that the evangelist had been in discussions with their chairman said that the party had not yet made a decision on whom to field as their presidential candidate. They said Pastor Pius Muiru's announcement concerning the presidency was therefore premature.

It is clear that most Kenyans are not comfortable with the clergy standing for political office. Outside their faithfuls and congregations, it seems that most leading men and women of God do not have much support. In fact they seem to be viewed with plenty of suspicion. Matters have not been made any easier by the fact that some of these men and women of God are very wealthy. Nothing wrong with that in my book. Kenyans seem stuck to the view that servants of God must be poor humble meek beggars who have to keep their mouths shut and retreat to pray without uttering a single word, even in the wake of government sponsored atrocities against the people. That is exactly what former President Moi's view was (and still is) and it seems to have sunk in deep into the psyche of ordinary Kenyans. Nothing can be further from the truth because this does not portray the God they represent. While there are those called intercessors who are supposed to pray and hardly do any talking, church leaders have a moral obligation in society to speak on behalf of the voiceless. So far this has only been partially successful. So rather than judge them in advance, is it not a good idea to have a few of them in mainstream politics to try and change things?

Amazingly we are barely 3 weeks into the year when the mother of all general elections will be held in Kenya and already so much has happened. What kind of year is this one going to be?!!

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