Truth about Saitoti could bring Kibaki government down-MPs

I usually receive more than my fare share of hate mail. A very memorable recent one was from the enraged “young spouse” of a corrupt politician who is sure that her adorable man is NOT corrupt. She wondered how sick a mind Kumekucha was “cooking all these ridiculous stories.” She then went on to use some very colourful language not befitting a lady to describe me and my ancestors.

Then a few days ago I received the following email;

Helo there

if you are using this tragic incident to make money then you are a fool, while Kenya is mourning you are out with such malicious/unpresided theories for your own benefit, i have been giving you a chance for you to fill my inbox with this ill-intended stories, please don't send me such stories.

NONSENSE

Okay I am not good at blowing my own trumpet but I recently commissioned somebody to sift through the over 3,000 posts in Kumekucha and draw up some statistics on how many times we have made correct predictions or broken stories that come to the surface days, weeks and even many months later. They have not finished the exercise but so far the figures stand at a staggering 95%. I have been vindicated 9.5 out of 10 times. I think the percentage will reduce by the time they are done, but not by much.

We said here in Kumekucha from Day one (moments after the accident) that the Saitoti crash was NOT an accident. Many readers jeered, other were plain angry at the very “ludicrous” suggesting. Who would want to kill Saitoti?

Here is what was said in parliament yesterday. Read carefully between the lines and draw your own intelligent conclusions;

-       Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo, Kilgoris MP Gideon Konchella, Narok South MP Nkoidila Ole Lankas and Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo insisted that they were in contact with the families of Prof Saitoti and their lawyer Fred Ngatia who told them that they were not happy with the direction the investigations were taking.

-       Narok South MP Nkoidila Ole Lankas  said that the scene of the crash was interfered with by unknown people in a bid to hide evidence.

-       MPs accused the government of frustrating foreign investigators by refusing to facilitate their enquiries. Consequently, the experts returned to South Africa on Wednesday night because of frustrations by the Ministry of Transport.

-       The MPs also questioned why the government decided to upgrade the investigation into a commission of inquiry even before investigations had come up with a preliminary report on the cause of the crash.

-       Nominated MP Rachael Shebesh (ODM) said she had a dossier linking the “traffickers in government” to the death of the two ministers. She added; “This is a very sensitive issue that touches on the death of our colleagues and Parliament is only used as a scapegoat when the actual traffickers are in government.”

-       Ms Shebesh got even more sensational with her remarks when she added; “We want this information to come out only in the safety of a select committee, we have not even said a third of what we know about the deaths of our two colleagues, what we have can shut down this government.”

-       Gichugu MP and presidential aspirant Martha Karua then asked the Speaker to give Ms Shebesh security and protection while the investigations are going on.

Today I have only one thing to say. The government has used commissions of inquiries for decades to reassure the public that they had nothing to hide. However from the history of these expensive exercises that waste taxpayers funds, they always end up proving the very opposite. If you were waiting for any conclusive evidence to prove that the government is hiding something over the Saitoti crash, then this is certainly it.

So now that nobody is still doubting that Saitoti was in fact murdered, the question crops up; who killed Saitoti and why? If you have read my raw notes then you already have some of the startling answers to that question.

Degree Necessary, not Sufficient for Leadership

The debate has grown legs of its own and Kenyans are livid with both consternation and rage. Should an MP be a university graduate? That is the big question.

A degree may be a necessary but not suffcient qualification for leadership. True, there is more to education than just being learned. You see a degree can be either a blessing for an enriched grey matter as well as a curse for a selfish, closed or sadistic mind.

Granted formal education is not to acquire mere papers, it is being trained to think, to provide a cognitive sheen to the basic affective and psychomotor skiils. But therein lies the paradox as evident from the many degree holders in the present Parliament which, unfortunately, is inversely proportional to the qualifty of both their debates and leadership.

So we have been told more than 80% of the present MPs have rendered themselves jobless by passing the Bill pegging their candidature on degree qualification.

Critics of the Bill have given examples of great leaders who where school dropouts like the late British wartime Premier Winston Churchill and even Microsoft owner Bill Gates himself. While they may consider that comparison clever, it is no brainer comparing oranges and apples.

One can also drop the ERROR that was Moi to advance the need for higher educational qualification for leadership. But on the flipside an inquisitive mind will also not fail to mention the ruin caused by one Dr Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

Maina Njenga

Give it to Amos Kimunya. The Minister for Transport is not only a brilliant accountant but a smart politician to boot. He knew when to hit hardest where it hurts and matters most. With one genius stroke he delivered to Uhuru Kenyatta the greatest of political favours none of the UK's cheerleaders would manage with their turbo charged mandibles.

You see the degree qualification would effortlessly condemn the ex-Mungiki leader Maina Njenga to political Siberia. What a genius?

So while the voluble Chepalungu MP would want to elevate Parliament constituted by graduates to a senior common room of dons, passing the Bill without scrutiny exposed the MPs soft intellectual underbelly. The MPigs dread the fangs of the ghost they failed to exorcize.

The naked and bitter truth is that Bills are written in English and so do most technical deliberations in Parliamentary committees. While populism can afford the likes of Sonko to get away with Sheng, you don't need to hazard any guess on the values such characters add to Parliamentary debates. I guess their contributions may be most useful in the catering committee.

Even Raila's criticism while hiding under vouching for the youth smacks of cheap populism. True, most university students graduate when they are past the age of 22. But what would make somebody barely out of his teens seek an elective post instead of work hard to shape both his career and future? It must be the height of naivity to regard Parliament as a dependable and exclusive employment bureau.

The present degree debate exposes the rot that engulfs the Kenya's fabric. People look at leadership as means to an end (read grab public wealth) and not as service to voters. The rich and functionally illiterate leaders also suffer from the mortal fear of the schooled. It must be very quite easy leading a functionally illiterate populace.