Midiwo's Dishonest Suggestion on More/Less MPs

By KK Blogger

Co-Government chief whip Jakoyo Midiwo is one politician known for his loose talk and character worshipping. But his suggestion against many MPs over the weekend made very interesting argument.

Midiwo knows the next generation of MPs will not be as powerful as the present one give the presence of senators and governors. But only politically selected few can fill these grand posts.

So was Midiwo simply being nostalgic about the impendining loss of political power or he was genuinely engaging in substantive national debate?

Well, there is no price for guessing. Politicians the world over are the most selfish species among us. Midiwo may be right to compare number of representatives in US and the population with ours but he connivently avoided comparing the pay. And there in lies the nauseating dishonesty in his suggestion.

Some would readily say because we are who we are and we have always remained who we were, without any intention of ever changing ourselves, communities and a once beautiful country - Kenya, I suppose - for the better or for the next seven generations.

Think about it for a second; 435 representatives and 100 senators serving (as opposed to being served, honoured, and worshipped by) 311 million people in country - United States of America - with a land mass of 3,718,710 square miles.

Versus the usual revenue guzzling payload of 349 MPigs (potential lords of impunity) and 67 senators [whose only mandate is to demand honour, adoration and daily worship at public rallies], for a population of very unfortunate 38 million impoverished Kenya confined on a land mass of 30.2 million km2 (11.7 million square miles).

And for what? Why the wastage as usual? So that the political elite may continue to eat together for another five to ten years in the ever willing company of political-cum-tribal lords, double-faced aid agencies, and cold hearted foreign economic hitmen and women?

Suffering Safaricon: Competitors Assault Customer Base as Share Price Tumble

Safaricon market dominance finally over as vicious tariff war begins

Last Week local GSM service provider ZAIN (former Celtel) launched a new tariff christened vuka, at the charge of 8/- per minute to any network. With that, Zain have at last effectively broken Safaricom’s long time strategy of locking in customers with high interconnect charges. They have also managed to woo a significant number of Safaricom loyalists to migrate to Zain. Last year Safaricom made a staggering Shs. 18billion in profits and it will be interesting to see how the latest development will affect the company’s bottom line.

Although Safaricom responded by introducing a new attractive off-peak rate, it still remains tricky for most because the off-peak rate applies past mid-night when most Kenyans have gone to bed. I do not know why the marketers at Safaricom want Kenyans to make calls at very un-Godly hours because the more the night wears on, the cheaper the Safaricom tariff becomes, but it goes back to kawaida tariff as soon as the day breaks! Even if Safaricon were to switch these rates to day time; the safaricon network is so bl**dy congested one cannot even check their balance!

Nonetheless, this week has seen many Kenyans effectively vuka from Safaricom to ZAIN, while the majority of business people have chosen to reserve their Safaricom lines strictly for receiving calls and texts. This has obviously resulted into a massive drop in airtime sales, although Safaricom are still receiving a significant part of their revenues through calls made from the lines of their competitors into Safaricom network.

It is being rumoured Safaricom are about to unleash a new lower tariff to counter ZAIN’s vuka tariff, but not far behind, Orange have also recently launched their GSM service with the cheapest in house call on one shilling to Orange numbers. Econet are also about to roll out their services. The target is an estimated 8 – 10 million new subscribers but the existing 14 million are also within sights for migration.

Another target for Zain is rumoured to Safaricom’s cash transfer and multi-million money minting machine; M-PESA. Zain and Postapay are already in advanced stages of negotiations for a partnership that will see postapay services available on Zain handsets. This will be a major challenge for Safaricom because as it so often happens, its micro-agents sometimes lack cash for paying out, which is a very frustrating experience for Kenyans in rural areas. Postapay on the other hand has existing and established infrastructure throughout Kenya’s post offices.

In the meantime, analysts have spent the whole week trying to figure out why Safaricom’s share price has stubbornly refused to rise beyond the Shs. 5/- IPO price and infact spiralled to an all time low of Shs. 4.05/- as of close of business last week. To add insult to injury, no one is in any particular rush to buy the low prices in anticipation of cashing-in when the price rises.

Although the Safaricom carries the baggage of shadowy shareholding like MOBITELEA and ALCAZAR CAPITAL, early predictions on the highly publicized IPO had indicated that the Shs. 5/- share price would stabilize at between Sh10 and Sh15. Other than the short period when the price traded at Shs. 8.15 in June, the predictions have not happened several months after the initial public share offer. Even worse, goal posts were moved midway when the share allocation rules were changed and those who did not get the shares they wanted are still waiting for millions of shillings in refunds.

The share price is largely static, averaging Shs. 5/-, and the latest downward spiral has raised very serious worries among investors and industry players. The worry is so much so that none other than the NSE’s Chairman has called for the suspension of the forthcoming Co-op bank IPO, which, just like the Safaricom IPO, is already attracting controversy and negative publicity following the acting Finance Minister’s move to protect the identity of some of the major shareholders! Blatant conflicts of interest and vested political interests are not helping the NSE either. Added to the disappointing performance of the share prices, all these factors are only but breeding more uncertainty and effectively discouraging investor participation at the Nairobi stock market.

Just before the IPO, this blogger had published a thread warning potential investors that the stock exchange is not a downtown casino.

Are we looking at the beginning of Suffericon’s obituary?

Businessweek: Price Cuts as Kenya’s Mobile Giants Compete

Ratio Magazine: News Analysis:KES1 Orange to Orange Calls ‘not a Price War’

Kenya and Nigeria in Diplomatic Standoff after ex-Assistant Minister Grabs Man’s Wife

Many readers have left varied comments regarding the secret sex lives of current and former members of parliament. As has been said here, anybody who digs a little deeper into the personal lives of Kenyan legislators will be shocked at what they will find. This is just a tip of the iceberg.

For the last one month, Hon Raphael Wanjala former MP for Budalangi and former Assistant Minister for Water & Irrigation (pictured) has found himself at the centre of a love triangle that is now threatening to lead to a nasty divorce case involving a 38 year-old Nigerian national and his 24 year-old Kenyan wife together with the couple’s property estimated to be valued over Kshs. 350 million. The flagship of the family business is the popular Deep West Resort off-Langata road where, these days, Wanjala spends most of his evenings together with his new lover.

What is strange about this steamy relationship is that the former assistant minister is already a polygamist with two wives. His rich Kenyan girlfriend, is only just twenty four and claims to have been married to the Nigerian for the last ten years during which time they got two children (Akinyi yawa?). The woman claims the Nigerian abandoned her with her two children and she met and fell in love with the former assistant minister during her husband’s absence.

The case has now turned into an embarrassing diplomatic row between Kenya and Nigeria with the local Nigerian Embassy set to deliver a protest letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula this morning to complain about the police harassment of their national and to demand assistance for their national to access his children and his vast property.

Wanjala was rejected by Budalangi voters in the last general elections. He was first elected into parliament in 1997 on a FORD-K ticket but his dismal parliamentary record shows he never brought forward any bill nor asked any question during the 10 years he was an MP. Wanjala was recently appointed by V-P Kalonzo Musyoka as part of an eight man committee to investigate the problems that precipitated a prison officers’ strike that crippled the department and caused a security scare for one week.

See Todays Nation: Diplomatic row over love gone sour

Hold off Kajwang: Power Brokers Plead With Kibaki

It is emerging that Kenya’s Ministry of State for Immigration & Registrations of Persons is earmarked for a split after ruffling sensitive feathers with deportation orders and smashing an international passport/visa printing syndicate.

The state ministry which falls under the Office of the Vice President & Minister for Home Affairs (Kalonzo Musyoka) was one of the ministries that was deeply involved in the Anglo-Leasing mega-scandal that threatened to bring down the government of President Mwai Kibaki. The same scandal resulted in John Githongo seeking political asylum in the UK while Finance Minister Daudi Mwiraria was forced to ‘step-aside’.

Following formation of the Grand Coalition Cabinet, one Hon Gerald Otieno Kajwang of ODM’s mapambano fame has found himself in charge of this ministry, well known for its corruption dens.

One of Kajwang’s first ministerial duties was to sign deportation papers for one Canobbio Pietro who claims to be a naturalized Kenyan after having lived in the country for the last 18 years. Canobbio, who Kajwang labeled an Italian fugitive, says he is a contractor with plenty of business interests in Malindi. He has since challenged the deportation in court winning a temporary reprieve allowing him to stay in Kenya up to early June.

Italians have a huge presence in Malindi and the town has been dubbed Italian Home Away From Home. Some of the Italian foreigners – who speak local languages fluently - even tried to venture into local politics during the last general election. Some have been accused of engaging in illegal businesses including child-sex tourism and hard drugs, but so far no one has been arraigned in court.

Secondly, even before the Canobbio’s case has been finalised, Kajwang’ was in the news again this week when he was reported to have declared a Mr Mohamed Sirat a prohibited immigrant, claiming that the Australian Embassy had confirmed to him that indeed Sirat was their citizen. It is not lost on political observers that Sirat is a member of the Vice President’s ODM-K party and has been challenging the election of Wajir South MP Abdirahman Ali Hassan. He is among some of the rich Somali businessmen coalescing in ODM-K and running 24 hour businesses in Eastleigh. One presidential candidate in last year's general election is on record having promised a 24 hour economy.

Biggest Scoop

Coming to the connection with Eastleigh, and in what is considered Kajwang’s biggest scoop so far, the immigration ministry busted an international passport and visa printing racket that was headquartered in Eastleigh (Nairobi) where, yet again, rich Somali businessmen are said to conduct illegal businesses including arms trade, human trafficking and modern day slavery. Western Embassies are said to have been shocked at the discovery of passport printing ring in Eastleigh right within the capital city 'without the knowledge of the NSIS'. The matter has far reaching implications because terrorist groups known to have cells in Kenya could easily have taken advantage of the Eastleigh immigration office to export terror merchants. The Al Qaida Comoran and Yemeni suspects who bombed the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1997 were found to be travelling on Kenyan passports!

Enter Kabuga!

More recently, it was widely reported in the local and international press, that a Kenyan court had ordered the freezing of property of one of the world’s most wanted Rwandan genocide suspects, Felicien Kabuga, who is known to travel in and out of Nairobi using several aliases including some on Kenyan diplomatic passports which Kajwang is reportedly said to have already cancelled and accordingly informed Interpol. Despite a US$5million bounty on his head, Kabuga is said to have escaped capture mostly due to his connections with power brokers within the Kenyan government. The ICC had issued an international arrest warrant for Kabuga in 1999. Rwandese Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said his country welcomed the court's decision but said Kenya should do more to arrest Mr Kabuga. The Kenya Police, under the Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, is the one to effect the arrest. I am not suggesting anything but both Saitoti and current President Kibaki were ex-President Moi’s vice presidents for many years including the time that the Rwandan genocide took place. Why should Kenya shelter a genocide suspect?

Kajwang Fighting Back

It is therefore coming as a great surprise to Honourable Otieno Kajwang that his ‘hard-working’ ministry has been earmarked for split with the immigration docket set to be moved back to the Home Affairs ministry headed by none other than Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka - another of ex-Presidents Moi former long serving Foreign Affairs minister, in whose time Kabuga and a host of other international fugitives like Abdulla Ocalan found safe haven in Kenya.

Sources informed this blogger that because the NARA peace accord prohibits President Kibaki from sacking or re-shuffling ministers without first obtaining consent from Prime Minister Raila Odinga, PNU/ODM-K insiders have advised the president to hive off sensitive departments from independent ODM ministers before they unearth what they called explosive dossier going back to the Moi and Kenyatta errors (no typo here).

As Kajwang discusses his tribulations with Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Kenyans will remember that portfolio balance nearly resulted into the collapse of the Annan peace talks and even when they agreed to form cabinet, ODM came out of the process seriously short-changed. It now seems like PNU/ODM-K are planning to engage in a portfolio shuffling game so as to frustrate the work of ODM in government.

It remains to be seen if Raila Odinga will allow this to happen. What is coming out however is that there are power barons in Kenya who dictate the government operations by remote control and whose connections run deep into the corridors of power.

Watch this space: The powerful individual(s) who have been uncomfortable with the stories published in Kumekucha will be soon exposed – with irrefutable proof!

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Interesting Goings-on In ODM

Yesterday an anonymous reader asked: “………Phil, I posed some questions to you and Chris, but you ignored me. Anyway, now Ruto is throwing the spanner in the works. Phil, what is going on in ODM????”

Well, well….here is an interesting piece from the The People on Sunday. It has so far not been denied by ODM Secretary General Anyang Nyongo, neither has the ODM Spokesman Salim Lone said anything. I do not want to be the one to speculate, but since we know powerful people within ODM (and PNU) read this blog religiously, there you are.

Isahakia Sabotaging Raila: The Man Odm Wants Out

Recent media reports (The People On Sunday May 4, 2008) about a fierce war by officers at the Premier’s office barely scratch the bottom of what is really at stake for Raila Odinga and ODM.

The man drawing discontent in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is Dr. Mohammed Isahakia, erstwhile head of the ODM Presidential Campaign Secretariat, former director of National Museums of Kenya and former Permanent Secretary (PS) whom Moi sacked severally under controversial circumstances and now the re-invented boss at the critical PM’s office.

He is the only PS in the history of civil service re-appointed to public office while still facing misuse of office allegations in court in addition to being past retirement age. He is such a persona that his support base (Muslims) and party (ODM) fraternity do not want him near any decision–making but the Prime Minister is weighed down with him.

He is also the “enemy within” that party bigwigs and strategists tag for spirited sabotage manoeuvres of the ODM electioneering campaigns, misuse of campaign funds, fiasco in cabinet portfolio balance in power-sharing negotiations and short-changing in public service appointments, but who has been planted on the PM as his closest minder.

Recent reports of infighting within the PM’s office and disquiet within ODM hierarchy is but a tip of the iceberg as the PM faces credibility questions from his own party. Members of the Pentagon, cabinet ministers and large pools of professional support groups cite lack of integrity by officers in his office. Prime Minister Raila Odinga is indeed in danger of squandering an image build over the years as a man after real change in governance.

Premier’s Office in Disarray

The recent squabble might seem to be between Dr. Isahakia and Raila’s close political aide, the Secretary of Administration at the PM’s office, Mr. Caroli Omondi; but the gulf runs much deeper. On the PM’s instruction, Mr. Omondi wrote to the Justice Aaron Ringera-headed KACC asking for a brief on the controversially alleged handover of Grand Regency Hotel by Kamlesh Patni, of the Goldenberg infamy. Mr. Omondi, a lawyer and ODM liaison officer at the on-going Serena Mediation talks signed off as the “Chief of Staff” for the PM.

Apparently upset that Raila had overlooked him in “protocol”, Dr. Isahakia is said to have appealed to newfound confidante - the Head of Civil Service Mr. Francis Muthaura - to put the record straight on the pecking order at the PM’s office. Motivating Isahakia was the desire to spite the PM amidst suspicion that the PM is already overwhelmed by appeals to cut him loose. In an offhand rude putdown to Raila and Omondi, Muthaura - in the now-famous insolent manner he has come to treat the PM - did not let his buddy down; he was least bothered with courtesies and official channels.

He contemptuously let fly through the media his disdain for Raila; Muthaura was categorical that no one will bother with a reply since government structures had no “chief of staff” and only Dr. Isahakia could author such requests. This is despite the letter downright stating that “I have been directed by the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister…” Insubordination is the strategy to Muthaura has chosen to let the PM know his place.

The relationship between Muthaura and Dr. Isahakia is intriguing and a source of great anxiety within ODM. In the heat of disagreements over portfolio balance, the two were used as point’s men by President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila respectively in heated correspondence, when one-on-one meetings failed. Dr. Isahakia was the errand boy for ODM on “portfolio balance” in meetings with Muthaura for PNU. It through these engagements that the two developed a conspiratorial working rapport.

The Saboteur

Back to ODM portfolio balance negotiations, a red flag was first raised when media leaks begun to portray ODM as constantly conceding on its “irreducible minimum” in portfolio balance. Sources say that “coincidences were too many” when approved “portfolio balance” presentations to PNU were concisely substituted with new ones once in the hands of Isahakia.

“It was baffling. For instance, the strategists would work on a document and fine tune it for presentation. But between Isahakia’s offices for the PM’s approval, the document would acquire different proposals. Of course the PM would assume that the changes were by the strategy team as it had been presented to him!” said a distraught official. He cited the leak that portrayed ODM ceding Foreign Affairs, Internal Security and Finance to PNU even before any discussion was held as a fake document that was traced back to an Isahakia sidekick at Pentagon House.

It was determined that Isahakia had been “turned” in espionage to ensure a favourable deal for PNU because he was “too compromised” by his past. In his mole role, Isahakia was/has strategically been placed to feed Raila with misinformation. Henceforth Isahakia would not meet alone with Muthaura. He would be shadowed by Mr. Caroli Omondi, Dalmas Otieno and Amukowa Anagwe.

However, Isahakia would pull a first one; he recruited Dalmas Otieno and Amukowa Anagwe into his confidence. At Sagana where ‘portfolio balance’ was agreed only Isahakia and Muthaura and the two principals were present. It is noteworthy that not even the highest decision-making organ – Pentagon - at ODM was aware of Sagana. Subsequently Isahakia would evade ‘his tails’ in meetings with his new-found villain Muthaura to fine tune the agreement and finalise appointments to cabinet and civil service that has became the source of fury in ODM.

“It is uncanny how Isahakia connived to meet alone with Muthaura and agree on PS allotments and then tell a tall story as already plotted by them to the PM”, said an ODM MP.

Plot to Fix Raila’s Reputation

In a much Isahakia’s positioning is a source of ire, diehard supporters of the PM fear that it is an insidious long-term PNU plot to politically fix Raila. To begin with among the presidential candidates, it only the Raila Odinga who presented himself as “Mr. Clean” and on behalf ODM promised to fight corruption. In the campaigns, Raila would scold opponents as representing “business as usual” in reference to their alleged corrupt backgrounds in public perception.

“It comes as shocking and alarming to supporters that the PM has within his office people with stained and dubious reputations”, said a professional from Nyanza.

Supporters are worried that apart from Isahakia himself, the latter in complicity with Muthaura is busy recruiting into PM’s office wheeler dealer Tony Gachoka as a Senior Assistant Secretary for protocol and a Major Idris who left the armed forces procurement department under a dubious cloud as a Deputy Secretary. This is being done without following laid down procedures indicating the length head of public service, Muthuara is prepared to prop up his friend and go to have PNU-friendly insiders around the PM.

Most of PM’s close confidants are lost for words that their interventions to have the PM cut loose Dr. Isahakia have hit a brick wall. Dr. Isahakia continues to call the shots even as he continues, according to ODM insiders, “to mislead the PM into PNU traps at every corner”. It is in this light that Raila is said to be quietly shifting political responsibilities to Mr. Omondi prompting Isahakia to wage insurgency in cohorts with Muthaura.

“We sincerely do not know where the Captain got this man and why”, said an irate ODM Pentagon member when asked about Isahakia’s recruitment as campaign head adding he found the PS “lazy, manipulative and inopportune”. “He confessed to me that he knew nothing about managing campaigns and proved it”, he said.

“I can tell you the man is incapable of writing a simple memo”, said a former minister whose sentiments were supported by a member of ODM strategy team who had to re-draft “juvenile” memos from Isahakia.

“We don’t know this man’

However, insiders told us that Dr. Isahakia as the ODM Presidential Campaign Secretariat head was part of the deal in the contentious and debilitating “Muslim MOU” authored by NAMLEF, the Muslims lobby group that was at the centre of the debate during that 2007 campaigns. In the course of the campaigns, however, it transpired Dr. Isahakia abandoned the Muslim agenda and became a material broker for vested interests in the party nominations, especially Muslim parliamentary constituencies. Furthermore, the source claimed, campaign funds released to the area never reached the intended beneficiaries. They cite a case of Ksh.1m meant for a coordinator who only received Ksh200, 000 from Dr. Isahakia.

“He is responsible for the fiasco that saw us loose ground in North Eastern to PNU as he substituted strategic parliamentary candidates with his cronies in the area for some consideration. Somehow, most of his recommended candidates lost to PNU”, said a party strategist from the region who sought anonymity.

As if these were not enough, the Muslim community feels short-changed in the recent PS appointment by ODM which led to a delegation that asked the PM to fire his PS. Sources in NAMLEF say that Dr. Isahakia colluded with PNU to ensure that names for ODM Muslim appointees to PS positions, like the those from other regions, were replaced by PNU appointees.

Players in the on-going saga who fear that there is a larger PNU plot to isolate the PM from his support bases point out that PNU is already using its manipulation of PS appointments to its advantage in ODM support areas. “I can tell you that other than one Secretary, none of those PSs with Muslim names are ODM supporters”, said an NAMLEF official.

The story is the same everywhere; Kanu is busy taunting ODM in Rift Valley since all PS appointees are its supporters to the chagrin of ODM Kalenjin professionals. In Western, ODM was even upstaged by ODM-K and Ford-Kenya where they got one PS each to none for ODM! In addition, Kibaki retained his previous appointees.

More recently, there are unconfirmed reports circulating among Muslims that ODM cabinet and PS positions were “bought” for as much as Ksh30 million and Ksh20, 000 respectively.

‘Dirty Hands’

The insinuation of dirtied hands at the PM’s office goes back to the campaigns. The issue of misappropriation of campaign funds is not new. At the height of the campaigns, the media cited conflict of interest in the award of tenders at Orange House, the party headquarters. To date, the party secretariat has not accounted for the millions that aspirants on the ODM ticket paid as nominations fees.

What did not attract media attention; however, were the goings-on at the Presidential Campaign Secretariat headquarters then based at Dr. Isahakia’s private office at Titan House near Yahya Centre. Information now sipping out reveals that despite public perception that ODM was a well-funded machine; the presidential campaign had to operate from hand-to-mouth most of December as cartels at the secretariat under Dr. Isahakia’s command siphoned off millions in procurement deals that nearly derailed the campaign.

“You had the ‘Isahakia boys’ inflate transport, publicity and security procurements while major needs were left bleeding for want of money. Their trick was to ensure that the logistics for members of Pentagon campaigns teams were well executed to blindside them from seeing the sabotage from within”, we were told by a regional coordinator from Rift Valley.

He said Isahakia dillydallied with the roll-out for recruitment and training programmes for presidential agents in an act that many saw as sabotage. At the intervention of the strategy team, this task was personally delegated to Mr. Omondi by the presidential candidate. It is no wonder campaign tuff wars have been extended to the PM’s office.

Fraudulent deals

Another case darkens the clouds over Isahakia are revelations about an internal opinion poll that cost Ksh6 million. A member of the media team based at Raila’s private offices at Raila Odinga Centre (ROC) House in the Upper Hill area of Nairobi revealed that Isahakia recruited a former Kanu insider and PS Dr. Jeremiah Ngeno and made him “head of technical services”.

Dr. Ngeno was meant to be answerable to the high powered strategy team based at Rainbow House in Kawangware but never shared any information with it, choosing instead to chain himself at Isahakia’s Titan office. It turned out that Dr. Ngeno never carried out any field work for the opinion poll. Instead, our source said, the couple (Isahakia and Dr. Ngeno) teamed up with Dr. Simbili current PS Planning ministry at the PM’s office, and used rehashed data from the national sampling agency from the ministry.

The strategy team that used to advice on itinerary was shut out when it demanded to see the protocol for the poll, samples of questionnaires and tabulations. After evading the team’s demands Dr. Ngeno would secretly present “polling results” to the ODM candidate which was used to map out his campaign itinerary in the final days of the campaign. This ensured that the campaign was diverted into investing resources and time in useless trips to regions that had little added value. The heightened poll results showed PNU winning and thus panicked ODM into frantic campaigns.

Too late it would be discovered that in fact Dr. Isahakia, Dr. Ngeno and Dr. Sambili actually used poll results earlier commissioned by PNU through the Ministry of Planning under Dr. Sambili’s direction to mislead the ODM campaign. All this time, just like it would happen during the post-election negotiations with Isahakia, that time the candidate would be presented with a fait accompli that Dr. Ngeno was an emissary of the strategy team.

“Sack this man’

“At one time, people just got fed-up and told the Captain to fire Isahakia if he expected a win”, said a volunteer who worked at Rainbow House in the ODM strategy team.

“However, to our dismay almost all senior staff at the secretariat were fired except Isahakia”, the volunteer said addicting that the PS’s management style by deception and double-dealing has served him well, and that “you do not get into a dog-fight with Isahakia and win”.

Today, Dr. Sambili having been retained as PS Ministry of Planning in the Premier’s Office is working closely with Dr. Ngeno on harmonising party manifestoes for the Grand Coalition Government.

A minister whom Isahakia have worked under in the public service says that “yeye ni mutu wa kukupotosha” (he misleads you) and then pretends to be the one solving the problem.

“Isahakia uses bad-mouthing to the boss as a potent weapon. He has succeeded in isolating the PM from his trusted teams”, said a former PS now an ODM MP referring to the dismissal of long-serving Raila aides during the campaign ostensibly due to financial misappropriation. It is said Isahakia has mastered the art of passing the buck to his subordinates. He would set people up by goading them into a deal and then rush to “report”.

In this way Isahakia is said to have managed to get rid of former Raila PA Dave Arunga, and Head of Campaign Finance and ODM party secretary general Tony Chege. This was after he had instigated fallout between Raila’s personal assistant Serah Elderkin on one hand and Raila’s daughter Rosemary Akinyi who was the deputy to Director of Communications Kibisu-Kabatesi on the other. The latter two had questioned the opaque use of publicity money.

The bad blood between Isahakia and the strategy team, many whose names were dropped from PS appointments must be seen in this context. To completely obliterate the team’s central role in advising the Premier, Isahakia is lobbying that it be deployed to the party as departmental directors. Indeed, a source confirms that there is a plot to close Pentagon House, which is an important symbol for ODM.

Indeed, the PM is now surrounded by gatekeepers who are Isahakia cohorts. Information indicates that Isahakia is currently up in arms against a new structure in the PM’s office that donors have agreed to support. That the recent snide accusations that foreigners are “babysitting” the PM by PNU are part of his counter attack strategy so as not to lose influence on the PM.

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Crisis Unmasks Moi the Pretending Professor

Last week’s political deal between Kibaki and Raila has left very sour taste in many Kenyan politicians hitherto revered as indomitable. Leading the pack of casualties is immediate former president Daniel arap Moi. The loud silence from the self-proclaimed professor of Kenyan politics since last Thursday is NO mere coincidence but prompted by embarrassing circumstances and developments within our borders.

Never underestimate the collective will of a nation determined to reclaim their national pride. That must be clear message Moi failed to grasp from the 2002 political debacle with his Uhuru project. If Toro ever entertained the thought that of being a political phoenix capable reincarnation from the ashes then Kenyans have proved him wrong by consigning him to political irrelevance.

It is hardly 2000 days since Moi left power and it must look like eternity to him. Moi’s hollow catch dictum that Kenya was an isle of peace in a sea of chaos have been debunked to Siberia. The violence following last years disputed polls have proved to Moi and his ilk that Kenyans are averagely ahead of their leaders who only derive utmost pleasure in primitive ethnicity.

Reverse baptism with fire
Uncle Dan must be ruing the day four African ex-presidents landed in Nairobi with their sleeves rolled ready to excavate peace for Kenya. By then the poor old man from Sacho had lost any trace of relevance given his active partisan and polarising role in that very election fiasco. Moi must be suffering reverse baptism with fire.

To engrave Moi’s political epitaph is golden letters all his three sons resounding kissed defeat at the very polls. What is more, the hitherto baba na mama independence party Kanu has been submerged in turbulent Kenyan politics. Moi unwittingly drove the last political nail on both himself and Kanu.

But predictably Moi being an astute persona of unrivalled denial won’t accept this unpleasant truth. He will soon find his lips shamelessly placing the blame elsewhere. He perfected the art of DECEPTION that outgrew him and is now consuming him live before our eyes in his sunset days.

Well, nature is not cruel but only fair by dishing fairly out what you invest in it. And Moism will go extinct in our political landscape soon. The present political arena is replete with his faithful students ready to take Moism without Moi to new heights.