NATIONAL CALL: To Action by the YOUTH of Kenya

The Start of the Nne Nne Revolution

Kenya Youth League, a young class of leaders that seeks to unify the youth of Kenya to capture State power and transform Kenya from a dysfunctional post-colonial state into a vibrant modern democratic republic under civilian rule of law;

1. Sets out with a promise that in due time the weights we carry as a nation should be lifted from the shoulders of all Kenyans regardless of tribe, race or origin and that all should have an equal chance as citizens of this country.

2. Recognizes that all self defining bodies of men are equal one to another, if they but choose to insist on that point.

3. Convinced that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of the proper ends of government, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government.

4. Alive to the fact that a name, a phrase, a standard has meaning only when associated with the consideration that gave birth to the nomenclature and that the right of Revolution implies an insistence upon the supremacy of reason in human affairs

Do call upon all ALL Kenyans who want REAL change to gather at

· KICC, next to Mzee Kenyatta’s Statue- Nairobi

· Kenyatta Sports Ground, Kisumu

· The roundabout of Nkrumah road and Moi Avenue, next to the post office in Mombasa

· The junction opposite Municipal offices leading to Golf Hotel, in Kakamega

· The junction of traffic lights next to the post office on Kenyatta Avenue in Nakuru

· The junction next to Kenya Commercial Bank - Embu

· Nyeri- Nairobi Bus stop-Nyeri

· Nandi Gardens-Eldoret

· Taifa Park, Garissa

· Outside the District Commissioners office-Machakos.

· Posta Grounds-Bungoma

· The Junction adjacent to Barclays Bank Kisii-Kisii

· The Nairobi Mombasa Highway Junction going to Mwatate- Voi

· The lorry park next to the bridge-Narok

· The junction at Makutano on your way to Maua – Meru

· Next to The Total Station-Kajiado

· and in all available spaces next to government administrative offices in the various 47 county headquarters

from 10am on 4^th April 2011(Nne Nne), To tell this coalition government that we have had enough of it.

Nothing has come of the National Accord:

a) Youth Unemployment is worse than before they came to power.

b) IDPs four years later on are still homeless living in Tents, relying on food rations and being rained on.

c) Only two bills of the 40 needed to operationalize the constitution have been passed.

d) Post Election Violence perpetrators have not been tried whilst both sides of the coalition government engages in all manner ping pong brandishing the tribal card.

e) The cost of living has gone up; fuel prices, food, transportation and no one in government looks bothered.

f) The politicians continue to treat our institutions with contempt full of impunity

Ours is to tell them that we have had it and they must wind up immediately and go! And that we shall not leave the various squares until the coalition is wound up.

Kenya Youth League wishes to set out the following rules for the Protests:

* We shall be disciplined. Discipline is paramount.

* There shall be no use or return of verbal or physical violence towards any person. The objective of the protest is to change government by popular will not by coup or by force. The protests therefore will be peaceful and non-violent, no arms, no defense, no destruction of property.

* We shall effect arrests on anyone who carries arms or engages in the destruction of property.

* We shall not loot since Protests do not lead to thuggery, it dethrones thugs.

* We shall not carry or use alcohol or illegal drugs.

* We shall not place ourselves in obvious danger and we shall try to ensure the safety of all people in and around the action squares.

* We shall be responsible for the cleanliness of the places we occupy.

It is our Prayer that the Almighty God will in due time give us a new breed of National leaders who are committed to ridding us of Poverty, ignorance and disease as hoped by our founding Fathers. God bless Kenya.

Haki, Undugu, Uhuru na Ustawi

Wako to Ocampo, The Hague Process Starts 2090

It's about time Kenya's longest serving AG waded into the facade about naming and prosecuting the so called "perpetrators" and "masterminds" of the post election violence;

New constitution or not Kenya still needs and has its chief legal custodian. And the lawyer knows what he's talking about-his office has successfully prosecuted hundreds of cases over the past decade as mandated by the constitution. The American-visa banned double draft constitution producing accused AG has never had any reason to resign or be fired from his job. He has firmly stood on his principles and convictions doing his job and days like today prove just why

WHERE ARE THE FACTS?

In politics, perception is everything and ICC and Waki are in danger of playing politics with this country's future. Unless they are ready to present and debate facts then they are guilty of irresponsible behaviour by believing distorted facts and lies told using credible witnesses like Rono and Wekesa who were manipulated as sources to bandy around names of so called masterminds and perpetrators of post election violence.

The truth is Kenyans love rumours akin to chinese whispers where errors typically accumulate in what the last person repeats as the original whispered sentence. repeat a lie often enough and it sounds like the truth!Was every effort really made to ensure that the information supporting the adverse mentions by both the Waki report and KNHRC report fully investigated to ensure they were not rumours conjectures and hearsay? If the ICC cannot be sure that the evidence they gathered via part of the Waki report was enough to name any witnesses for prosecution then let them save Kenyans from a lot of grief.

Too often Kenyans are wrongly accused by armchair commentators as being weak and unable to stand up and fight for their rights. Nothing could be further from the truth. Kenyans are simply choking from the swamp of corruption. Its not true that the middle class are too busy filling their bellies with Nyama Choma and alcohol to stand up and take back your country. Many are devout and religious and pray thrice weekly including conducting prayers on this very blog for Chris (see here)

Therefore the government has a right to protect its citizens against allegations such as those about to be put forth about high ranking individuals inside it masterminding bloodbaths of its own citizens. PEV is not a simple open and shut case and its prosecution will be confusing to the legally untrained mind!

The AG is therefore right in reminding ICC that even Waki said its possible his report may fall short of the proof required to meet the threshold of international crimes against humanity. All the KNHRC and Waki report have done is provide a basis and a good starting point for further investigations. Let the ICC prosecutor tread on legal matters slowly while enjoying our game parks and adopting more Cheetahs

Kenya's Slimy Mess!

Kenya is the only country in the world whose people care so much about ethnicity that it is seen as one of the qualifications during electioneering. It is indeed strange to see politicians who attended the most prestigious universities in the world retreating to their tribal cocoons to preach tribal hatred and politics of disharmony in order to win sympathy votes from their ethnic communities. But if the leaders are bad, then the people are worse! For, why do we take whatever balderdash that comes out of politicians’ foul mouths as the gospel truth? And by the way, who elects the leaders?

We don’t need rocket science to know that ethnicity and graft are twin problems that have prevented Kenya from achieving progress. We all know the problem but we prefer sitting back and complaining about bad governance while in fact we happen to be the very architects of the problems bedeviling our country. We must wake up from our deep slumber and stand up for our rights. We need to understand that politicians play the tribal card to their advantage. Their object is to keep the citizenry busy fighting over petty issues as they (politicians) milk the public coffers dry!

People who believe that people from certain parts of our republic can not lead just because, in their stupid opinion, they ‘belong to the wrong tribe’(kabila adui) are simply not worth living in this modern world. I assert this because I strongly believe that ‘belonging to tribe X or tribe Y is nothing but a biological accident!’ I also call attention to the fact that a person’s character and not the language he speaks is what matters most. For that reason, the question of one’s tribe is irrelevant not only in matters political but in everything.

Fellow country men and women, it is an open secret that ethnicity will take us nowhere and the sooner we stop it the sooner our country will start achieving progress. The choice is ours; the future of our country is in our hands. Away with tribalism!.

Will 10th Parliament Now Change MPs Work Ethic?

The official state re-opening of the 10th parliament was historic, not least because it featured for the first time in post-independent Kenya’s history a grand-coalition Government of president, vice-president and prime-minister(X2) not present during the 1^st session, and born out of necessity from the post election crisis that rocked the country during the early part of this year arising from last December’s sham of a general election.

Ordinarily, the opening of parliament following an adjournment is characterised by the traditional week long debate into the President's speech, marking the start of the house's official calendar of business for the year. However, as you well know the 10th parliament is no ordinary sitting and first on the immediate agenda of MPs is to agree on fast-tracking implementation of the new executive power-sharing deal by passing into law the crucial National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008, together with several other draft bills namely the constitutional Amendment, the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation, and Ethnic Commission Bills

Difficult tasks ahead?
Judging by their previous track record, it remains to be seen whether or not our MPs will pass these and other all-important bills to come in record time, or even whether they will miss the boat completely and allow themselves to become side-tracked by other pressing yet secondary issues which are sure to arise during these early stages as the house gets down to business.

Kenya’s parliament has a poor legislative track record in comparison to other African countries we compete against (e.g. Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria) and we Kenyans hungry for change and massive reforms may all be waiting a long time yet before any urgent & pressing bills are actually made into laws (e.g. one example is the bill seeking to grant Mombasa and Kisumu city status-anyone recall that?)

Remember that in the previous past their first port of call for newly-elected MPs has traditionally been to increase their salaries while consequently saying goodbye to the sight of the toes on their feet which inevitably fail to effectively compete against the rapid forward expansion of their middle abdomens in the course of their short stays at house of parliament.

In 2007, the 9^th parliament worked for a period of 27 weeks, and started with an agenda of 20 bills awaiting debate as part of business in the house. Throughout the whole of last year, their apathy during house debates was roundly condemned by the public at large, and more than once in the life of the 9th parliament business had to be interrupted due to a lack of quorum. In spite of this, amazingly they managed to pass 17 bills into law! including the monumental Njoki Ndungu Sexual Offences Bill in 2006. Compare that to 2005 where out of 25 bills that were presented to them for debate and enactment, concluded only seven, Just goes to show that when they want to, our politicians can actually do some work

In developed countries e.g. that “bastion of democracy” the USA, Britain etc, MPs tend to earn more but they also produce more, meaning they enact more laws through the high number of bills that they pass. However so far in Kenya, our members of parliament have enjoyed remuneration with little to show to justify for their pay by way of performance

How hard is your MP working? Like a donkey
It’s known that our MPs split their time between sittings in parliament, working in the constituencies that elected them (standing waist-deep in mud, soiling their hands with bribes bricks) and in addition as Government ministers working within their appointed portfolios. Not to mention various functions to conduct harambees, the occasional (cough) government sanctioned business trips abroad, and the rare (double cough) “pretty-boy” press conference appearances before media houses to address the public. But the days of deception conducted behind closed chambers while speaking in foreign tongues as the case has been is over; the past 45 years has simply amounted to a total defrauding of the Kenyan tax-payers’ money worth which unfortunately has gone to fund the hefty salaries and perks which our politicians and their significant others have grown accustomed to

Too long have Kenyans have suffered lightly the lot of clowns in charge of the destiny of our nation. Already the first chapter of Kenya’s history has been written and closed twice in blood, and none among the living can be said to have qualified for deserving a glowing tribute as very little positives can truthfully be said about them without sounding like a sycophant.

Its time for the people’s duly elected representatives to become a hard-working parliament,and I sincerely hope that they will have little time for sleeping before the TV cameras- they need to roll –up their sleeves and........wait for it............extend-yes extend.......both their sitting and opening hours, so that they can get more work done by debating and passing more bills into laws that will greatly enhance our independence and development.

All 210 MPs should be made to sign people perfomance contracts which set the bar on how high the need to jump if they are thinking of seeing the inside of parliament again come the next general election. we always like to say "wembe ni ule ule" lakini ule wembe tuna sema ni wembe gani? We been giving our MPs Gillete shaving blades to shave their faces with-indeed we've given them the best a man can get. Let us now give them machetes that are truly "wembes" which will not provide any sort of smooth shave unless they work for it

Coming soon: -dealing a deathblow to tribalism

We Need A New Constitution and Jobs

Turning the spotlight briefly away from the brokering of power-sharing deals taking place in the plush confines of Serena Hotel, (with many of you already naively hailing the tentative agreement to create a prime minster's post with executive powers as the breakthrough needed to unlock the current stalemate) i have been asking myself the question what is the ultimate national price we must pay to honour the memory of 1000 kenyan lives needlessly sacrificed in the past 10 weeks? The answers i come up with are the enactment of a new constitution and the creation of jobs

Chris threw down the gauntlet earlier on this week when suggesting that as Kenyans the time has come for us to focus by force on crafting the future we want for our children and i am taking up the challenge seriously to think out of the box about the kind of ideas we need our dishonourables to get focussed on the moment they reluctantly return from the paid holiday we have been sponsoring them on the past 2 months and reluctantly roll up their well-paid sleeves to lethargically get down to work

I consider the enactment of a new constitution even more urgent and important than the re-introduction of a prime m(ini)onster post-enough is enough do we really need another 12 months to re-debate replacing the current constitution? It has since transformed us into collective pawns for our respective tribal elites and that document should not be allowed to exist one minute longer-we all already know a new constitution is the only viable solution to firmly establishing a stable foundation that will avoid potential turbulent political times ahead in future why are we going to waste time re-inventing the wheel by wasting further time either debating the merits/demerits of a new constitution or God forbid amending the current old one? When parliament resumes next month the first task should be to pass the new constitution within the month

Kabla kazi iendelee na maisha iwe bora lazima kazi ianze for many of the millions of jobless youth now roaming the major highways interlinking different parts of the country, manning makeshift roadblocks and wearing the latest in machete fashion-looks to die for. Unemployment still currently stands high even in the face of recovering economic growth that has now taken a beating (i used to admire this growth even outside my window) and even between 2002-2005 it did not manage to create the more than 500,000 jobs we were promised 6 years ago to cater for an excess young unemployed population. It was once said that this is not a fish market-that being the case we need it to become one so that we can get jobs as fishermen, fishmongers, fish sellers, fish chefs, fish supervisors and fish managers-for you tribalists out there replace the word fish with your favourite ethnic staple and leave me in peace

We know there are no free lunch that is not what we want but as much as the driving force of a career comes from the individual, there are many jobs needing no creation but simply awaiting the ablebodies and this grand-coaliton government must direct jobless youth to kilometres of roads needing tarmacking, irrigation schemes in semi-arid areas, empowering to a greater extent the hawkers market-this should start taking place immediately parliament resumes next month no wasting time

I know PNU and ODM read this blog-feel free to copyright my ideas as your own no charge from me but for your sakes i dare you to go further than me in thinking outside the box and giving us the country we deserve and not the country you want

Sunday Doodles: Shun Laziness at the Workplace

As I was reading The Bible sometime this week my eyes fell on a verse that set my heart pumping hard. My lips went dry as I tried to ruminate over what I had just read.
The words in Proverbs 18:9 were very clear in my mind:

"He who is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys."
(Slack means not willing to work; lazy; not work well; slothful)

These are the very words in the verse that I read. (My aim is not to preach here but to give you insights of how we should conduct ourselves at the workplace to maximize what we have worked for so hard).

The words hit me like a thunderbolt. Why? Well, I have been guilty of being slack in my work sometimes. I know you have too. The writing on the wall is clear: if you are lazy or slothful then there is no difference between you and a person who destroys or wastes.

The more we 'encourage' ourselves to be slack and lazy by camouflaging this stark reality in well-meaning words and clichés such as 'relaxing', 'all work with no play makes Jack a dull boy', and 'entertainment' then we're distancing ourselves from the brass tacks of the game. Therefore, the first high wind that comes will destroy our ship. A ship that has, maybe, taken years of toil and moil to build.

People who are slack will generally find that they have so much time on their hands to do other things but the work they ought to plan for and do. They are time wasters. We must never forget that time is one of the most priceless things that all people possess in equal measure. What sets people apart is how they utilize the time they have.

How do you use your time? How do you use your working time? Do you steal time from your employer? (This gives laziness a 'legal' hold on us). Do you always give flimsy reasons for not achieving what is expected of you? If so, outline the reasons and try to find out why you give those reasons. You'll be surprised at how some of these reasons are puerile.
Our vision is clear in our minds. We want to achieve a higher high and sharpen our unique 'stocks-in-trade'. But we've got to set things in clear perspective before we think of anything else.

We should learn how to manage the time at our disposal and make sure that we measure work output against the backdrop of the time we've used to do it. This way we'll curb time wastage and be on our way to better workplace performance.

As a bottom-line, when work is a pleasure, life is a joy! When work is duty, life is slavery. (If you are reading this on stolen time, please get ways and means of compensating for the stolen time – I am serious!)

Wanna speak to Ritch? Drop him a line at thisEmail Address.