Recent outbursts by Health minister Charity Kaluki Ngilu hitting out at the Kibaki government of which she is a part of have left many people puzzled.
Is she trying to quickly take advantage of the rapidly waning popularity of one Kalonzo Musyoka, her rival for supremacy in Ukambani for many years? Or is she the desperate woman with a flagging political career that most in the Kibaki regime are trying to paint her as.
Firstly there are a few little known facts about Charity Ngilu's real power in Ukambani. Many have suggested that in a popularity contest in Ukambani she would stand no chance against Kalonzo. This is not true. To start with she enjoys the unique advantage of holding formidable sway in both Kitui and Machakos. In the days before Kambaland was divided into many districts there were just two, Kitui and Machakos. At times there has been open rivalry between the two that has divided the Kamba community right down the middle. These old rivalries still crop up when political temperatures rise. Ngilu's huge advantage is that she holds sway on both sides of the divide. She is originally from Mbooni in Machakos but got married to a man from Kitui where her current political base is. The person who would really sweat it out (even if they were to ultimately win) in a political contest between the two would be Kalonzo because apart from her influence in Kitui and the environs, Ngilu is hugely popular in her native Machakos. With recent political developments many believe that Ngilu would easily win such a contest just now.
It is also no secret that Ngilu has used her Health portfolio to gain immense political capital. Some (including this blogger would say that she has abused her office). Ngilu's appointments at the ministry are notorious for being able to answer fluently to the popular greeting Mwi Aseo which means in Kamba, are you guys fine? In sharp contrast, Kalonzo has done nothing for the Akamba even as he aspires to be a national leader.
Many inexperienced analysts are saying that Ngilu has been inconsistent in her political stand. The truth is that you will rarely meet a shrewder politician. During the referendum, it was obvious that there was no political capital to be gained immediately from being on the Orange side. Besides retired president Moi was on that side and Ngilu still hates him with a passion. So Ngilu went Banana and supported Kibaki—with conditions. At the end of the day she got what she wanted.
Now that the elections are around the corner, Ngilu has to quickly re-invent herself. It is therefore not surprising that she has chosen to hit out at the government at every opportunity she gets as a way of endearing herself to the public so as to be perceived as a 'hero' for taking a shot at her employers.
In her latest salvo, Ngilu accused the government of being arrogant and aloof as well as reneging on the promises made in 2002, having thrown collective responsibility through the window, Ngilu added that the government has failed the people of Kenya. The exact sentiments of a large section of the ordinary folk in Kenya at the moment.
There is no doubting the fact that what Ngilu is going for this time round is not bargaining power, but the highest price of all. Namely the presidency of Kenya. She has no doubt been closely following developments at ODM-Kenya where tensions are most likely going to lead to the much-anticipated split. In all the chaos that is sure to follow, Ngilu is carefully positioning herself as the ideal possible compromise candidate.
Her critics and enemies will these days not fail to point out the damaging sex scandal that hit the attractive middle-aged politician late last year when she was reportedly caught in the back of her Mercedes vehicle in a compromising position with her alleged long time lover Tony Gachoka. The incident was at the Parklands sports club where the drunken couple was caught red handed by the clubs security guard whom Gachoka threatened to no avail as he reported the matter to club authorities who withdrew his membership.
A few months later in December, the minister's husband died in South Africa after a long battle with hypertension and diabetes that was aggravated by his bad drinking habits. Gachoka wore a white band on his left arm over his black suit during the funeral and was among the main organizers.
Soon after the funeral, Ngilu was secretly admitted at a private clinic near Nairobi hospital where she stayed for three days. Close confidants say she was suffering from depression and exhaustion. To her, the world was falling apart, they add. Since her trusted political friends in government had betrayed her, her husband was dead and the alternative media had extensively covered her sex scandal with the notorious city gigolo.
But those who know Ngilu insist that depression and exhaustion are not the sort of things you associate with the daring Ngilu who fought Kanu at a time when few men (including one Kalonzo Musyoka) had the balls to even whine. They also argue that what Ngilu does in her private time is not anybody's business just like nobody pokes their noses into what her male colleagues in the august house usually get up to, even when they are supposed to making up the quorum to discuss pressing national issues.
If Ngilu does make another stub at the presidency, then she will have the huge advantage of a previous similar experience in 1997, which will no doubt be a huge advantage. Sadly the biggest disadvantage will be the fact that Kenyan voters (just like their counterparts in America) may not be quite ready for a woman president just yet.
Urgent Personal Message To You From Kumekucha
Weekend special: Kenyan beauty complains to Kumekucha about her Kikuyu lovers.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Annonymous Nation Media Group Whistleblowers: The Real Reason Why Some Of You Are So Angry At Them
There have been complaints from some online quarters and utter disgust at what the anonymous Nation whistle blowers have done in exposing the alleged sex-for-promotions scandal in that well-known Kenyan company. Others have even gone as far as saying that it amounts to criminal blackmail.
Even more interesting are the suggestions by some that the aggrieved workers should have opted to seek legal redress in the courts instead.
There is no denying that this course of action is crude in many respects. Still it is very important that Kenyans understand the real reason behind this reaction from some quarters. This is because it illustrates perfectly what I will call the "big Kenyan divide." This is what I always think of as the huge, dark and widening hole that divides the two real "tribes" in Kenya today—most will call them classes.
On one side are the privileged financially comfortable Kenyans. These are the Kenyans whose first question is NEVER "how much will it cost?" Fascinatingly within this group are numerous naïve Kenyans who have hardly been exposed to the stark realities on the ground in their own country. They can never understand why youngsters will take to crime when there is so much opportunity in Kenya to make money legally (legally in their books includes giving bribes to get a huge tender from some NGO). To them people who sleep hungry and the have-nots in Kenya are just plain idiots. You will never convince them that the poor in Kenya are NOT fools.
On the other side of this rapidly widening chasm are the majority of Kenyans. Those who worry about everything (the truth is that many have given up and don't worry anymore). They worry about things as basic as where the next meal is going to come from. In contrast these are the people whose first anxious question is always; "how much will it cost." In this group you will also find those desperately trying to climb out of the bottomless pit called poverty and lack. Some will have been fortunate enough to have gotten a good job, but they will always worry about how long they will manage to keep it. These are the Kenyans who wake up at night sweating and with their hearts beating violently against their chest after a nightmare where the only thing that happened is that they lost their precious job.
My point is that you really need to be in this second group to know how limited the options really are in reality. Especially when somebody from the other class has aggrieved you.
I will give you a very simple example.
Somebody owes you money. So you do what many Kenyans have always done. You get some police contacts and bribe them to arrest the person and throw them into a police cell (where they will rub shoulders with Simon Matheri's countless reincarnations) until they can pay off your debt. And sure enough their relatives get together and raise the money, which by this time also includes the hefty bribe to the cops. So you easily get what is justice in your eyes. But woe unto you if the person who owes you money belongs to the other class? No cop is stupid enough to go and arrest somebody at Lavington and throw them into the police cells. That would be plain suicide. And incidentally the Lavington crowd is the group that is most notorious for not paying their bills. Poor people always make a huge effort to pay their bills, at least most of them.
Even if you find a cop stupid enough to accompany you to Lavington or Kileleshwa to arrest somebody over the 7,000 bob that they owe you, they are bound to hesitate because all cops know the law. And they also know that the first thing the well-heeled will always do in such cases is call their lawyer. The lawyer will ask for an arrest warrant, and the lawyer will also question the legality of just picking up somebody and throwing them into police cells and keeping them there for more than 48 hours without charging them. But if you insist on a charge, the one without a lawyer can always be charged with something like being in possession of bhang.
I have just proved that Kenyans are governed by two different sets of laws. There are laws for the Kubafus and then there are the laws for the well-heeled. But what is even more painful is the fact that most of those Kenyans living in those plush estates and whom cops do not want to mess around with, are actually criminals. Many of them are the ancestors of criminally corrupt Kenyans who made their money through corruption. Worse still some of these people are directly impossible for most of the poverty in the country today by fanning hyper inflation through Goldenberg-like or Anglo Leasing-like mega deals that put fortunes in their pockets but at the same time consigned millions of Kenyans to life-long poverty.
But I am getting carried away here. The point is that it is persons in this group who are really upset with the whistle blowers. It beats them why they did not go to court to seek legal redress. It hurts them that "the innocents" are involved. The innocents are the wives and the children of the alleged sex pests who end up reading the gory details of what their husbands and dads have been up to on the Internet. Conveniently they will NOT think of all the people who have been hurt losing their livelihoods because they were not in a position to drop their panties (some don't have them in the first place since they are men).
What the Nation whistle-blowers have done is crazy but what options did they really have? What the Mau Mau did in the 1950s was really crude, but what options did they have?
…Perhaps the Mau Mau should have simply filed a case in the high court seeking the return of their grabbed land from the colonialists. Maybe they didn't do it because they were not educated. They would have saved the country a lot of blood shed—Dedan Kimathi and company. Would they not have?
Urgent Personal Message To You From Kumekucha
Weekend special: Kenyan beauty complains to Kumekucha about her Kikuyu lovers.
Even more interesting are the suggestions by some that the aggrieved workers should have opted to seek legal redress in the courts instead.
There is no denying that this course of action is crude in many respects. Still it is very important that Kenyans understand the real reason behind this reaction from some quarters. This is because it illustrates perfectly what I will call the "big Kenyan divide." This is what I always think of as the huge, dark and widening hole that divides the two real "tribes" in Kenya today—most will call them classes.
On one side are the privileged financially comfortable Kenyans. These are the Kenyans whose first question is NEVER "how much will it cost?" Fascinatingly within this group are numerous naïve Kenyans who have hardly been exposed to the stark realities on the ground in their own country. They can never understand why youngsters will take to crime when there is so much opportunity in Kenya to make money legally (legally in their books includes giving bribes to get a huge tender from some NGO). To them people who sleep hungry and the have-nots in Kenya are just plain idiots. You will never convince them that the poor in Kenya are NOT fools.
On the other side of this rapidly widening chasm are the majority of Kenyans. Those who worry about everything (the truth is that many have given up and don't worry anymore). They worry about things as basic as where the next meal is going to come from. In contrast these are the people whose first anxious question is always; "how much will it cost." In this group you will also find those desperately trying to climb out of the bottomless pit called poverty and lack. Some will have been fortunate enough to have gotten a good job, but they will always worry about how long they will manage to keep it. These are the Kenyans who wake up at night sweating and with their hearts beating violently against their chest after a nightmare where the only thing that happened is that they lost their precious job.
My point is that you really need to be in this second group to know how limited the options really are in reality. Especially when somebody from the other class has aggrieved you.
I will give you a very simple example.
Somebody owes you money. So you do what many Kenyans have always done. You get some police contacts and bribe them to arrest the person and throw them into a police cell (where they will rub shoulders with Simon Matheri's countless reincarnations) until they can pay off your debt. And sure enough their relatives get together and raise the money, which by this time also includes the hefty bribe to the cops. So you easily get what is justice in your eyes. But woe unto you if the person who owes you money belongs to the other class? No cop is stupid enough to go and arrest somebody at Lavington and throw them into the police cells. That would be plain suicide. And incidentally the Lavington crowd is the group that is most notorious for not paying their bills. Poor people always make a huge effort to pay their bills, at least most of them.
Even if you find a cop stupid enough to accompany you to Lavington or Kileleshwa to arrest somebody over the 7,000 bob that they owe you, they are bound to hesitate because all cops know the law. And they also know that the first thing the well-heeled will always do in such cases is call their lawyer. The lawyer will ask for an arrest warrant, and the lawyer will also question the legality of just picking up somebody and throwing them into police cells and keeping them there for more than 48 hours without charging them. But if you insist on a charge, the one without a lawyer can always be charged with something like being in possession of bhang.
I have just proved that Kenyans are governed by two different sets of laws. There are laws for the Kubafus and then there are the laws for the well-heeled. But what is even more painful is the fact that most of those Kenyans living in those plush estates and whom cops do not want to mess around with, are actually criminals. Many of them are the ancestors of criminally corrupt Kenyans who made their money through corruption. Worse still some of these people are directly impossible for most of the poverty in the country today by fanning hyper inflation through Goldenberg-like or Anglo Leasing-like mega deals that put fortunes in their pockets but at the same time consigned millions of Kenyans to life-long poverty.
But I am getting carried away here. The point is that it is persons in this group who are really upset with the whistle blowers. It beats them why they did not go to court to seek legal redress. It hurts them that "the innocents" are involved. The innocents are the wives and the children of the alleged sex pests who end up reading the gory details of what their husbands and dads have been up to on the Internet. Conveniently they will NOT think of all the people who have been hurt losing their livelihoods because they were not in a position to drop their panties (some don't have them in the first place since they are men).
What the Nation whistle-blowers have done is crazy but what options did they really have? What the Mau Mau did in the 1950s was really crude, but what options did they have?
…Perhaps the Mau Mau should have simply filed a case in the high court seeking the return of their grabbed land from the colonialists. Maybe they didn't do it because they were not educated. They would have saved the country a lot of blood shed—Dedan Kimathi and company. Would they not have?
Urgent Personal Message To You From Kumekucha
Weekend special: Kenyan beauty complains to Kumekucha about her Kikuyu lovers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)