Press Release
Conveners: Yash Pal Ghai, John Githongo, George Kegoro and Davinder Lamba
Those of us gathered here are Kenyan citizens from different ethnic, religious,
racial, regional, gender, professional and generational backgrounds. We are
all convinced that Kenya is ripe to realise the promise of the new Constitution.
Having assessed the situation in our beloved country we are, like most Kenyans, dismayed by a range of issues that persist: a national tragedy of successive waves of IDPs; the persistence of impunity and corruption; the entrenchment of a culture of drug dealing with the connivance of top leaders; the deliberate manipulation of our ethnic diversity by some leaders creating for a society that is divided dangerously along ethnic and increasingly religious lines - the list is depressingly long. We express our alarm too at the deepening structural economic inequalities in our society, creating a gigantic class of youthful-have-nothings ruled by a tiny self-preserving elite making every effort to keep everything. These are among a host of other pressing injustices in Kenya.
To this end, we pledge ourselves and call upon all other Kenyans to take responsibility for the new Constitution, resist all attempts at undermining the new Constitution, and speak up and organise against the impunity, injustice and corruption that is perpetrated in Counties and localities across this great land. The time has come to say, “Enough is enough!” and to take Kenya back.
So we say: Kenya Yetu• Katiba Yetu • Maisha Yetu – Kenya belongs to all of us!
This campaign will be followed up by a series of specific actions across Kenya beginning with meetings, rallies, Country gatherings all over the country and culminating in a People’s Convention later this year.
CALL TO ACTION
To this end we are assembled today to seize the moment; to comprise a movement of likeminded – Kenyans committed to ending impunity and ushering a spirit of Constitutionalism in Kenya. We pledge to work together to defend the Constitution; to fight corruption; to promote reconciliation among our diversity of peoples. We pledge to vigorously oppose - by every constitutional means available - those who would undermine the Constitution. We similarly pledge to directly resist those who steal from us; those who actively work to ruin the future of our youth; we pledge to oppose those who stand before us as leaders but are, in reality, agents of confusion, division and destruction!
We are willing to work together with all those who are genuinely committed to reform, including those in government and parliament. But we also recognise that there are many vested interests in government, parliament, and business who are opposed to reform. Their network is extensive and their capacity to sabotage the Constitution is formidable. They will oppose the transformation with their enormous resources, including brutal violence. So we call upon those in these sectors to stand up to be counted. We challenge those who have not traditionally been involved in reform processes, such as the business community and the police service, to join with other Kenyans in this initiative.
In the immediate:
1. We call upon the People of Kenya to take on the responsibility of facilitating the full realisation of the Constitution which we gave ourselves: by respecting it, by insisting on our own rights and those of others, and holding those in positions of power and responsibility to account on the oaths they have sworn to fully respect and carry forward this constitution and its values.
2. We call on the entire Government to give the implementation of the Constitution the utmost priority, developing the necessary laws, institutions and processes
3. We call upon the Government to take seriously its constitutional
obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the people,
including freedom of expression, the right to education, to housing
and the right to food.
4. We call on the President and Prime Minister to work together towards marshalling their followers behind the Constitution and desist from contradictory and confusing statements that cause the public to doubt their commitment to the Constitution and the overall reform process in Kenya
5. If the President and Prime Minister persist in undermining the Constitution by, for example, working to pull us out of the Rome Statute this early after promulgation, then we call on them to cease trying to fool Kenyans and set in motion the process of holding new elections so Kenyans can make decisions with regard to their leadership sooner rather than later.
6. We call on the President and Prime Minister to immediately remove from public office all those named as suspects by competent authorities, be they local or international. To be thus named undermines their legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness and that of the Kenyan government itself.
7. We call upon the Speaker and Members of the National Assembly to speedily fulfil their responsibilities for the implementation of the Constitution
8. We welcome the Independent Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution and the Independent Commission on Revenue Allocation and look forward to the timely and proper constitution of all the other remaining commissions. We note that several other existing commissions need to brought into line with the new Constitution. We remind all the Commissioners of the sacred oath they have taken, and urge them to be judicious in their use of time and all other resources entrusted to them in ensuring the full implementation of the constitution.
9. We call upon all the above authorities to perform their responsibilities and tasks for the fulfilment of the Constitution, after consultation with and the participation of the people, as the Constitution itself requires, and in the spirit of the sovereignty of the people as acknowledged in the Constitution. In the pursuit of this objective, we pledge our full co-operation.
Thank-you and God Bless Kenya...
CONTACT
Yash Pal Ghai - yashpal.ghai@gmail.com
John Githongo – info@inukakenya.com
Twitter:
twitter.com/kenyaniyetu #katibayetu
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/kenyaniyetukatibayetu
e-mail:
info@nisisikenya.com
STATEMENT ON THE PRESENT POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SITUATION IN KENYA
EVER SINCE INDEPENDENCE in 1963, Kenyans have lived under regimes that have exploited and oppressed them. The vast majority of our people have become poorer, and many are living in greater misery than was unimaginable when we became independent. On the other hand, a handful of Kenyans have become fabulously rich, most of them through corruption, stealing of state resources, and bribes from those to whom state favours were extended. Since the corrupt included presidents, ministers, and civil servants, they were protected from prosecutions. In this way there developed the culture of impunity that has caused and continues to cause great damage to our society and economy. On the strength of these ill gotten gains, some families have established dynastic politics, promoting candidates who have done little to deserve public office. There is a clear causal link between the affluence of the few and the misery of the many.
Few politicians have shown any vision about our country. What Kenya needed at independence was a leader with the vision of a Mandela who would weave its different tribes and communities into a nation committed to the unity and development of the country, and welfare of all Kenyans. Instead the politicians promoted and played upon ethnic affiliations, stirring up ethnic loyalties on the one hand and ethnic animosities on the other. They claim to be protectors of their tribes, which would suffer great hardships if their tribal politicians were not elected. But their principal interest has been to grab state power, for only through the abuse of state power can they accumulate wealth. They also use ethnicity to protect themselves from criminal sanctions, by pleading that criminal charges against them are an attack on their tribe. Electoral politics have become largely about ethnic alliances, ever shifting because there is no commitment to values and policies, merely calculations of winning office. Unfortunately some people are all too ready, no doubt fuelled by bribes, to defend their ethnic “leaders” against well founded allegations of corruption or violence. Consequently the country has become deeply divided along tribes and regions, vulnerable to periodic bouts of ethnic looting, displacements and killings, under the sponsorship of politicians.
Thus politics have become the preferred route to wealth, requiring little effort, untroubled by their conscience. If honest politicians get into parliament or the government, they are quickly infected by this culture of greed. Few ministers or parliamentarians care about people’s welfare. This is why political alliances can change quickly and why it makes no difference which politician or which party wins elections. Politicians, united by common objectives of reaping the rewards of politics, form a political class which will do their best to sabotage values of the new Constitution, especially integrity. This is obvious from the way in which they are closing ranks against the ICC but care little about the victims of the violence they engineered.
The moral decay in public life perpetrated by the political class is obvious: cheating in elections, packing commissions with political party nominees, willing to use extreme violence, and engaging with and protecting drug barons and other criminals, regardless of harm to communities or threats to national security. State officials fix and pollute the institutions for truth and justice. The police and local authorities connive with crooks to evict the poor and powerless, the Constitution ineffective against the onslaught of bulldozers. The establishment protects criminals and thugs who serve it. For the youth who are the 78% of Kenyans – unemployment has almost been criminalised. At the same time, parliamentarians are said to cast their votes at the direction of the biggest bidder; thus has the Bunge become a sordid market, corrupting democracy.
On the other hand, people pursuing social goals inconvenient to the establishment, are arrested when they criticise land grabbing or victimisation of IDPs, or seek to participate in public affairs in accordance with the Constitution. They are arrested, detained for, sometimes, long periods, occasionally charged with offences for which the police are unable to provide any evidence, or often released without any charge—but only after having suffered, with their families, great inconvenience, discomfort and anxiety: clearly a message to reformers. Ministers, bureaucrats and their patrons thrive on these illegalities: impunity for friends and jail for proponents of justice and reform.
In short, our country has become a volatile, divided, violent and corrupt place, where poverty defines the deprivations and insecurity of the majority of the people. There is justifiably lack of trust in state institutions and leaders. They have plundered our national wealth; given our natural resources, including land, essentially for private profit, to outsiders, without public disclosure; cut down our forests, some turned into charcoal shipped off to the Middle East, some for agriculture, both for private profit, while our environment degrades, and people starve; transferred astronomical sums of public money to corrupt “business” men for the export of fictitious gold and diamonds Kenya does not produce; bought military aircraft and other security equipment at exorbitant prices.
Our presidents, previously men of limited means, became billionaires within months of assuming office. The same rush of unexplained wealth seems true of most of ministers, prime ministers and their aides. Illegal appropriations of vast tracts of land, some of which are uncultivated, while millions are without access to land and the disparities of wealth, and thus the life styles among the people, are so enormous that they seem to belong to different worlds and cultures. Half of Nairobi’s population lives in slums in appalling conditions which denies them the most basic rights of dignity and survival, while a few families lead a life of great affluence. Some public schools operate without the most basic facilities while billions of shillings, mostly donations from abroad, are stolen by teachers and ministry staff, and the minister in charge refuses to take any responsibility. The obsession with ethnicity and our poverty deny the fundamental premise of social solidarity and national unity.
We are a nation adrift, squandering the great potential among our people, especially our youthful majority; ironically at the moment when people have voted overwhelming for a new Constitution which has given hope to many.
Constitution beckons to a new future
The Constitution enjoyed this degree of support because it rejected the style of politics that has dominated us since independence. It places at the centre of state and society integrity, democracy, human rights and social justice. One of its main objectives is to ensure to all a life in dignity, meeting the basic needs of even the most deprived. It aims at an inclusive and vibrant democracy, through wide participation of the people in public affairs, honest leadership, and full accountability for the conduct of the government. It seeks to transcend tribal politics and to unite us in our commitment to new Constitutional values, including patriotism, embracing a broader Kenyan identity of which we can be proud of. The Constitution promises us much, and sets out the institutional framework for achieving the national values.
President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga have in the president’s speech on promulgation day described the new Constitution as “an embodiment of our best hopes, aspiration, ideals and values for a peaceful and more prosperous nation”. They predict that the Constitution “will fundamentally transform our nation politically, economically and socially” and lead to “productive and dignified lives”. They drew attention to “the new ways of conducting public affairs”, saying, “This Constitution’s leadership code and values makes it clear that people who will present themselves for public or state offices will have to be individuals of integrity, willing to be held accountable by the people and the institutions and laws of our country....The leaders must guarantee that the Bill of Rights is enforced...”. They urged us to complete the journey of “our transformation” by “seizing the moment with courage because the birth of the Second Republic holds great promise for the Kenyan people”.
Seize the moment
While the people long for the new dawn of integrity and social justice, they feel powerless in the face of the ever present corruption, land grabbing, and divisive ethnicity, mostly with the support of the administration and the police. They long for integrity among public offices and justice from judges, as they see that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor, and no justice for themselves. There is widespread discontent with the present establishment. People feel that they have been betrayed on the new Constitution and notice that the goals of the Constitution are daily being violated, sidelined, crassly and blatantly, while politicians continue to invoke ethnicity, imperilling peace and harmony among the people. In all this the politicians seem unconcerned about the public reaction.
The people realise that the Constitution promises them much, but some do not feel empowered by it. But many others do sense that it is through their own agency, in co-operation with others, that the promise will be realised. So increasingly people are organising themselves into groups (professionals, women, youth, religious groups, numerous grassroots organisations) searching for a new social and political order. Focussed on the youth, we intend to work together with them and others searching for change to fulfil the agenda of the Constitution. In order to achieve our objectives, for ourselves and future generations, we will facilitate partnerships for pursuit of Constitutional goals, promote co-operation across ethnic divides, etc. use possibilities for people for participation, decision making; engage with the rural and urban poor; encourage awareness among people of the Constitution and their rights. In the absence of effective and stable political parties, social movements have the potential to influence political policies and developments. This is what we intend to do.
Thank-you and God Bless Kenya....
Monday, January 10, 2011
Saturday, January 08, 2011
Kenya Must Go to the Dogs First to Rise Again
The recent political past has left MV Kenya tottering precariously in the doldrums. Last year ended with Ocampo's hanging a milestone collectively on 6 necks. And just before synthesis what 2011 portents, we seismic political waves are already threatening to shred any trace of hitherto calm. These developments have left political tongues wagging and the bloggers here have not been left behind. Here are two divergent takes from two our bloggers. Enjoy
1: Red Flag
Make no mistake, Kenya has surely gone to the dogs. Look, everybody wants a pound of flesh of hapless Kenyans, drug traffickers in the highest echelons of security and governance, those not dealing in drugs to destroy future generations are busy plundering the country and extorting the meagre resources we have from us, gangsters running amok doing whatever they want with help from the police and guns sometimes hired from the police, if they are not police themselves, highest paid MPs in the world, droughts looming and at the risk of raining on bloggers’ party (read stirring hornet’s nest), Somalis buying up the country with questionable sources of money, borders wide open for as little as KES 500, drug addicts mugging in once peaceful coastal towns, HIV/Aids, treatable and preventable diseases like malaria etc etc. The picture is not very alluring.
Meanwhile idiots are busy with "my tribe, your tribe". KENYA IS GOING TO HELL IF IT IS NOT THERE ALREADY! Of what use is my tribe and your tribe important when we will are all living a hell on earth. You might have made it and are relatively rich, you are still living in hell, having to lock yourself behind high walls, driving through poverty and squalor, not knowing when you will be shot dead by gangsters or extortionist police, when a matatu which has just paid a bribe will ram into you and end your life or maim you.
Come on people, we are in this together, of whatever tribe or social class. This country lacks leadership, lacks moral values. Pastors drive sparkling SUVs and Kenyans are told to close their eyes and pray while being dispossessed of their meagre resources by the men of god. Politicians are either engaged in drug trafficking, car-jacking or high level corruption despite being paid one of the highest salaries in the world in one of the poorest countries in the world.
Why can't we open our eyes? Are we a masochist nation? We are suffering or will suffer pretty soon, and we are busy with personalities just because they are from our tribes. Aliyeiba abebe mzigo wake, ANY KENYAN POLITICIAN OUT OF ACTION IS A BLESSING FOR KENYANS, whatever their tribe might be.
It is about time we wake up from our slumber. All right-thinking Kenyans should see what is happening. The situation in which our country finds itself is very dangerous indeed. It will explode pretty soon. We have to avoid it at all costs. You do need to be a neurologist to identify the real enemies taking a ride on our collective backs. Forget all the heat and barbs directed at US envoy Ranneberger who is only earning his pay. His dossier on drugs would have sent a chill down our spine but this is Kenya where the drug barons know our mouths are ready for hire. And we never disappoint. Just look at how busy we are with INDIVIDUALS which every tribe thinks will deliver them to the Promised Land. Well, NO ONE WILL. Those whom we foolishly protect are nothing but equal opportunity thieves who hate all Kenyans and Kenya in equal measure. Simply put, they are out to destroy all of us and our kids.
Kenyan foreign debt has increased more than five-fold since 2002. Who will pay it back? Your kids and mine for generations to come, regardless of our tribes. What do we have to show for it? Drug addicted zombies and hundreds of ministers and other officials being driven around from one corruption deal to another.
When a drug addict mugs you he will not ask for your tribe, when a police officer robs you he will not ask for your tribe first, neither will the angel of death ask for your tribe when a substandard matatu crashes minutes after paying a bribe.
Bottom line is, we are in this together, we had better wake up and unite and isolate our real enemies. This country needs us as a matter of urgency, otherwise PEV will soon sound like a distant sweet dream to come.
2: Rite of passage
On the flip side you need superlative skills to successfully preach to a choir. Crying for Kenya amounts to wasted tears, please reserve the precious liquids for a worthwhile personal cause, joy or sorrow, whatever the case may be. What you see as national decadence are the compulsory birth pangs a country must experience in the process of growing. Kenya, the country will outlive you and the current four generations of Kenyans by the time the year 2080 comes knocking.
Save us your cries and better get advised that we are not in that mess together. The wailers are on their own. This is Africa where anything and everything goes.
Why not let the country go to the wild dogs and jungle power brokers for a change? The match towards equilibrium will see frustrated hyenas frothing and waiting in the fringes of society ready to take advantage of every morsel of mess and the boundless opportunities caused by vicious canines and their handlers.
The hyenas will snatch everything in sight leaving behind very little for the opportunistic jackals and vultures to scavenge on.
I can't wait for another wild seasonal political cycle with new players, new takers, new herds for the hunt and intense brawls in the same old country.
Make no mistake, Kenya has surely gone to the dogs. Look, everybody wants a pound of flesh of hapless Kenyans, drug traffickers in the highest echelons of security and governance, those not dealing in drugs to destroy future generations are busy plundering the country and extorting the meagre resources we have from us, gangsters running amok doing whatever they want with help from the police and guns sometimes hired from the police, if they are not police themselves, highest paid MPs in the world, droughts looming and at the risk of raining on bloggers’ party (read stirring hornet’s nest), Somalis buying up the country with questionable sources of money, borders wide open for as little as KES 500, drug addicts mugging in once peaceful coastal towns, HIV/Aids, treatable and preventable diseases like malaria etc etc. The picture is not very alluring.
Meanwhile idiots are busy with "my tribe, your tribe". KENYA IS GOING TO HELL IF IT IS NOT THERE ALREADY! Of what use is my tribe and your tribe important when we will are all living a hell on earth. You might have made it and are relatively rich, you are still living in hell, having to lock yourself behind high walls, driving through poverty and squalor, not knowing when you will be shot dead by gangsters or extortionist police, when a matatu which has just paid a bribe will ram into you and end your life or maim you.
Come on people, we are in this together, of whatever tribe or social class. This country lacks leadership, lacks moral values. Pastors drive sparkling SUVs and Kenyans are told to close their eyes and pray while being dispossessed of their meagre resources by the men of god. Politicians are either engaged in drug trafficking, car-jacking or high level corruption despite being paid one of the highest salaries in the world in one of the poorest countries in the world.
Why can't we open our eyes? Are we a masochist nation? We are suffering or will suffer pretty soon, and we are busy with personalities just because they are from our tribes. Aliyeiba abebe mzigo wake, ANY KENYAN POLITICIAN OUT OF ACTION IS A BLESSING FOR KENYANS, whatever their tribe might be.
It is about time we wake up from our slumber. All right-thinking Kenyans should see what is happening. The situation in which our country finds itself is very dangerous indeed. It will explode pretty soon. We have to avoid it at all costs. You do need to be a neurologist to identify the real enemies taking a ride on our collective backs. Forget all the heat and barbs directed at US envoy Ranneberger who is only earning his pay. His dossier on drugs would have sent a chill down our spine but this is Kenya where the drug barons know our mouths are ready for hire. And we never disappoint. Just look at how busy we are with INDIVIDUALS which every tribe thinks will deliver them to the Promised Land. Well, NO ONE WILL. Those whom we foolishly protect are nothing but equal opportunity thieves who hate all Kenyans and Kenya in equal measure. Simply put, they are out to destroy all of us and our kids.
Kenyan foreign debt has increased more than five-fold since 2002. Who will pay it back? Your kids and mine for generations to come, regardless of our tribes. What do we have to show for it? Drug addicted zombies and hundreds of ministers and other officials being driven around from one corruption deal to another.
When a drug addict mugs you he will not ask for your tribe, when a police officer robs you he will not ask for your tribe first, neither will the angel of death ask for your tribe when a substandard matatu crashes minutes after paying a bribe.
Bottom line is, we are in this together, we had better wake up and unite and isolate our real enemies. This country needs us as a matter of urgency, otherwise PEV will soon sound like a distant sweet dream to come.
2: Rite of passage
On the flip side you need superlative skills to successfully preach to a choir. Crying for Kenya amounts to wasted tears, please reserve the precious liquids for a worthwhile personal cause, joy or sorrow, whatever the case may be. What you see as national decadence are the compulsory birth pangs a country must experience in the process of growing. Kenya, the country will outlive you and the current four generations of Kenyans by the time the year 2080 comes knocking.
Save us your cries and better get advised that we are not in that mess together. The wailers are on their own. This is Africa where anything and everything goes.
Why not let the country go to the wild dogs and jungle power brokers for a change? The match towards equilibrium will see frustrated hyenas frothing and waiting in the fringes of society ready to take advantage of every morsel of mess and the boundless opportunities caused by vicious canines and their handlers.
The hyenas will snatch everything in sight leaving behind very little for the opportunistic jackals and vultures to scavenge on.
I can't wait for another wild seasonal political cycle with new players, new takers, new herds for the hunt and intense brawls in the same old country.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Will other cabinet ministers follow Kosgey to court? | Henry Kosgey Kalenjin politics
Something major has changed in Kenya in recent times. Yesterday the newspapers were splashed with photographs of a cabinet minister (Henry Kosgei who was the minister for Industrialization until he resigned on Tuesday shortly before his arrest) being escorted into court, something unprecedented in Kenya.
Al Kosgey?
The truth is that impunity is still alive and well and putting up a hell of a fight. And that fight could still go either way. However having said that, it is also true that this previous champion who would go through fights untouched is now receiving significant body blows.
The thing which stood out the most for me from the events of Tuesday was that journalists and eye witnesses concur that Henry Kosgey looked pretty shaken when he emerged from his session with KACA investigators before being whisked off to court where he was charged later in the afternoon. There is no denying the fact that this extremely rich man who financed a major chunk of the ODM campaign in the last elections has been very badly shaken.
Cabinet ministers have good reason to be very frightened just now. Especially when they take the time to carefully analyze the strategy used to nail Henry Kosgey. It is reminiscent of how the American government finally nailed organized crime king pin Al Capone in 1931. The notorious criminal was caught completely unawares when he was charged with tax evasion (and tax on illegally acquired income at that). Capone who was famously known for battering a colleague to death with a baseball bat—whom he accused of betrayal but never produced the evidence—during a meeting was a vicious and extremely powerful criminal who had put virtually all major officials in Chicago in his payroll of bribes. Read his amazing tale HERE
Kosgey is probably one of the most corrupt cabinet ministers ever and is credited with single-handedly bringing the once prosperous government-owned Kenya National Assurance to it’s knees stripping it of not only cash but prized assets, leaving in his wake a mere shell of a company that quickly folded. Thousands of Kenyans lost a livelihood in the process and Kosegy got away with it. Not to mention the fourth All Africa games where the same man is said to have pocketed huge sums given in sponsorship for the event and left the government holding all the bills. If Kosgey is found guilty of the charges of abuse of office then it will be like a serial killer found guilty of stealing a chicken.
Although the Kibaki government has been notoriously corrupt, under former president Moi excessive corruption that led to the collapse of public institutions was rampant. Read my book Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency to little known incidents that were happening behind the scenes as his henchmen raped and plundered the Kenyan economy like there was no tomorrow. You can get the book free HERE.
It seems that the new KACA boss PLO Lumumba may be a fan of Al Capone movies or so it seems because he has borrowed heavily from this American strategy of the 1930s. Capone and impunity in cabinet and high office in Kenya have many similarities including the fact that it is extremely difficult to obtain any evidence that can stand up in a court of law against the evil that has been committed for decades. And yet it is widely known that many cabinet ministers are to this day way too corrupt (according to the Wikileaks cables American intelligence is convinced that virtually ALL in cabinet are corrupt, a view shared by this blogger).
Lumumba’s new legal strategy is very different from that of his predecessor and coupled with the intense international pressure for KACA to graduate from prosecuting traffic policemen caught taking Kshs 50 to the really big fish, it seems that we will be seeing a number of other political heavy weights in court in the months to come.
But what is going to be even more interesting to watch are the political repercussions of this heightened fight against impunity. A friend from the Rift Valley told me yesterday that the PM is finished in the Rift Valley after Kosgey’s appearance in court on Tuesday. And the same friend repeated something that I have heard for a long time now. That a certain ODM cabinet Minister is swiftly amassing a war chest at a sensitive ministry of government that touches on Internal security. This individual could well be the next person who is photographed next to a policeman making an appearance in court. Or perhaps what he knows is a threat to the security of the state. Well, Kumekucha is doing a little more digging and you can expect an explosive post here in the next few days.
Impunity: word of the moment
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Al Kosgey?The truth is that impunity is still alive and well and putting up a hell of a fight. And that fight could still go either way. However having said that, it is also true that this previous champion who would go through fights untouched is now receiving significant body blows.
The thing which stood out the most for me from the events of Tuesday was that journalists and eye witnesses concur that Henry Kosgey looked pretty shaken when he emerged from his session with KACA investigators before being whisked off to court where he was charged later in the afternoon. There is no denying the fact that this extremely rich man who financed a major chunk of the ODM campaign in the last elections has been very badly shaken.
Cabinet ministers have good reason to be very frightened just now. Especially when they take the time to carefully analyze the strategy used to nail Henry Kosgey. It is reminiscent of how the American government finally nailed organized crime king pin Al Capone in 1931. The notorious criminal was caught completely unawares when he was charged with tax evasion (and tax on illegally acquired income at that). Capone who was famously known for battering a colleague to death with a baseball bat—whom he accused of betrayal but never produced the evidence—during a meeting was a vicious and extremely powerful criminal who had put virtually all major officials in Chicago in his payroll of bribes. Read his amazing tale HERE
Kosgey is probably one of the most corrupt cabinet ministers ever and is credited with single-handedly bringing the once prosperous government-owned Kenya National Assurance to it’s knees stripping it of not only cash but prized assets, leaving in his wake a mere shell of a company that quickly folded. Thousands of Kenyans lost a livelihood in the process and Kosegy got away with it. Not to mention the fourth All Africa games where the same man is said to have pocketed huge sums given in sponsorship for the event and left the government holding all the bills. If Kosgey is found guilty of the charges of abuse of office then it will be like a serial killer found guilty of stealing a chicken.
Although the Kibaki government has been notoriously corrupt, under former president Moi excessive corruption that led to the collapse of public institutions was rampant. Read my book Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency to little known incidents that were happening behind the scenes as his henchmen raped and plundered the Kenyan economy like there was no tomorrow. You can get the book free HERE.
It seems that the new KACA boss PLO Lumumba may be a fan of Al Capone movies or so it seems because he has borrowed heavily from this American strategy of the 1930s. Capone and impunity in cabinet and high office in Kenya have many similarities including the fact that it is extremely difficult to obtain any evidence that can stand up in a court of law against the evil that has been committed for decades. And yet it is widely known that many cabinet ministers are to this day way too corrupt (according to the Wikileaks cables American intelligence is convinced that virtually ALL in cabinet are corrupt, a view shared by this blogger).
Lumumba’s new legal strategy is very different from that of his predecessor and coupled with the intense international pressure for KACA to graduate from prosecuting traffic policemen caught taking Kshs 50 to the really big fish, it seems that we will be seeing a number of other political heavy weights in court in the months to come.
But what is going to be even more interesting to watch are the political repercussions of this heightened fight against impunity. A friend from the Rift Valley told me yesterday that the PM is finished in the Rift Valley after Kosgey’s appearance in court on Tuesday. And the same friend repeated something that I have heard for a long time now. That a certain ODM cabinet Minister is swiftly amassing a war chest at a sensitive ministry of government that touches on Internal security. This individual could well be the next person who is photographed next to a policeman making an appearance in court. Or perhaps what he knows is a threat to the security of the state. Well, Kumekucha is doing a little more digging and you can expect an explosive post here in the next few days.
Impunity: word of the moment
Leading Nairobi online directory's unique advertising opportunity.
Mombasa cars @Kshs 490,000 ONLY? Amazing car deals at Kumekucha's Car Market.
Monday, January 03, 2011
Gitobu Imanyara: The long suffering man who could be king
Gitobu Imanyara was our first runner up to the person of the year 2010 and once again this seemingly unlucky Kenyan politicial giant was denied the accolades after making some very commendable contributions in the year 2010. Is the guy jinxed or what?
Gitobu Imanyara as a school prefect in Nairobi School in 1973
Looking at the career of Mr Imanyara one cannot help but feel that he surely deserves much more than what life has handed to him so far. Let’s compare him to two very lucky Kenyan politicians who have played it safe contributed very little and reached the top. Namely Mwai Kibaki and Kalonzo Musyoka.
When Gitobu was getting in and out of police detention Mwai Kibaki was enjoying life as usual, flashing the one finger KANU salute. Indeed Mwai Kibaki has never seen what the inside of a police cell looks like. All his political career he has been the overcautious politician who would agonize for months when they reached the edge of a political cliff with nowhere else to turn except to jump down into the water below. A case in point was after the controversial 1988 infamous queue-voting general elections.
Gitobu Imanyara for President
An aside here to detail that amazing political occurrence is well worth it.
Bored handlers of president Moi itching for a challenge after having shot down everything that could move as far as a threat to the Moi presidency (real or imagined) was concerned turned their attention to the then cowardly and extremely harmless Vice President. They decided to rig him out of his Othaya parliamentary seat and everything was in place for the shock announcement that some obscure politician called Muriuki or something like that had defeated Kibaki in the 1988 parliamentary elections. But when Othaya constituents heard of the scheme most men (and some women) went home and fetched their pangas to come and hear the announcement of the election results. The DC sensed serious trouble and hurriedly called Nairobi for direction. In the end Mwai Kibaki was announced victor and his opponent needed heavy police protection to hurriedly get the hell out of town. Still when Moi announced his new cabinet a few days later the Vice President was a man called Prof Josphat Karanja and Kibaki was relegated to a mere Minister for Health. Still he did nothing and sat on the uncomfortable fence until Christmas day 1991 (the very last minute because elections were due in 1992) when he announced his defection from Kanu to a new political party that he had just formed with others called DP (Democratic Party of Kenya). That’s Kibaki for you.
Kalonzo Musyoka is not any different and was at the heart of Kanu mama na baba as Imanyara struggled to stay alive. Musyoka is now the Vice President while Imanyara is not even in the cabinet.
It seems Kenyan politics has always favoured the cowardly and the compromisers (read details in my landmark book Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency. You can now get your copy for FREE HERE.)
And Gitobu Imanyara’s troubles seem to be far from over even when Kenya has gained so much democratic space thanks mainly to Imanyara’s personal sacrifices and endless suffering in police cells and torture chambers. What comes to mind right away is the recent incident where he was slapped by first lady Lucy Kibaki in State House.
This is the fascinating East African Standard report on the issue (the account was from Imanyara himself);
Imanyara said he had cut short a trip to South Africa to attend the meeting (at State House Nairobi), also graced by Vice-President, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, and Internal Security minister, Prof George Saitoti.
Imanyara said after going through the security checks at State House, they were ushered into a conference room.
After taking a seat and introducing himself to the President, the MP said, State House Comptroller, Mr Hyslop Ipu, came in and whispered to him that he should leave the room.
“I thought this was quite rude for a junior officer to come where the President was and ask me to leave the room,” said a visibly angry Imanyara.
Shortly afterwards, Imanyara recounted, the Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Mr Francis Muthaura, came to ask whether they could talk outside.
“At this time, I could hear loud screams of a female shouting all kinds of words. I did not know who it was,” said Imanyara.
The Imenti Central legislator said as he was talking to Muthaura, the First Lady burst into the scene screaming: “This is the man that took the First Lady to the courts. Nobody comes to State House without my permission!”
Imanyara said she went on: “You are a friend of the Luos. Foolish Merus voted for you.”
At this juncture, said Imanyara, the First Lady came forward and started throwing punches at him, which he ducked.
“Nobody takes the First Lady to court. Nobody gets away with it,” Imanyara quoted her as saying.
He said Mrs Kibaki vowed that he would not get any Government appointments as long as she was at State House.
And on allegations that he was punched, Imanyara said: “The First Lady is too short and no punch touched me, neither did I return any.”
Imanyara said security at the corridors of State House stood by and watched as the whole episode unfolded.
The MP said at some point, he was asked to leave State House and he obliged.
Speaking at the Serena Hotel, Nairobi, Imanyara lashed out at the First Lady for trying to create an impression that State House was her property.
“At this rate, we don’t know who is in charge at State House. Kibaki needs to remove the First Lady from State House,” said Imanyara.
So who is Gitobu Imanyara?
After Imanyara spent more than two years in Maximum Security Prison on charges associated with his work as a human rights lawyer, he founded the Nairobi Law Monthly in 1987. It was not supportive of Daniel arap Moi's one party policy and Imanyara was arrested for not registering the magazine.
He was again arrested 1n 1990 after writing a special issue entitled "The Historic Debate: Law, Democracy, and Multi-Party Politics in Kenya." At one point he was held in a prison psychiatric ward, though he re-released the issue following his own release. Receiving the International Editor of the Year by the World Press Review while in prison, he was called "the boldest voice for a free press in a country whose intolerant government does not hesitate to shut down publications and where most journalists practice self censorship."
Imanyara was arrested for a third time in April 1991 after police confiscated that moneth’s issue of the Nairobi Law Monthly. The offending information was about the formation of an opposition political party. It is instructive that he went on to become the founding secretary general of the Forum for the Restoration of Demoracy, FORD KENYA, 1990-2002. This was the first opposition party to be registered in Kenya for many decades.
While in custody, Imanyara developed a brain tumour. Luckily it was successfully treated. Kenyan aid money went down significantly after that arrest, and the U.S. State Department called it "another denial of freedom of expression in Kenya." Imanyara was awarded the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award later that year, but due to authorities not allowing him to leave the country for it, Liberal International President Otto Lambsdorff brought it personally to Nairobi in early 1992.
At the Kenyan general elections in December 1997, he won a regional landslide victory and was elected MP for Central Imenti Constituency. He continued to publish his magazine, which was renamed the Africa Law Review.
Posted at the Nairobi School website www.oldcambrians.com. Imanyara is an alumni of the elitist boy’s boarding school in Nairobi:
# House Prefect, Scott House 1972
# Head of Scott and School Prefect 1973
# University of Nairobi 1974-1977, LL.B
# Kenya School of Law 1978
# Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, from 1979
# Member of Parliament 1997-2002
# Founding Secretary General, Forum for the Restoration of Demoracy, FORD KENYA, 1990-2002
# Founding Publisher and Editor in Chief, The Nairobi Law Monthly
# Internatinal Board Member, Article 19, The International Centre Against Censorship, London, 1990-2000
# International Adisory Editorial Board Member, Human Rights Quaterly,USA
# Chairman,The Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace,[Kenya,Uganda,Tanzania,Rwanda,Burundi,Zambia, Zanzibar] 1997-2002
# World Press Review's Internatinal Editor of the Year, 1990, New York
# World Association's Golden Pen of Freedom Laureate, Paris 1991
# Harvard University's Nieman Fellow's Louis m. Lyons Award Laureate, 1991, USA
# Liberal International's Prize of Freedom Laureate 1991, Switzerland
# Human Rights Award 1991 International Human Rights Law Group, Washington
# Internatinal Biographic Centre, Cambridge, UK's 2000 Outstanding Scholars of the 20th Century, 2000
Kumekucha salutes you Gitobu Imanyara. Our position is that you could make an excellent presidential candidate for 2012.
See also:
Gitobu Imanyara's brother died because of a piece of meat
My encounter with Lucy Kibaki
Book gives clues on Lucy Kibaki's condition
Advertise for free in the Nairobi Online Business Directory
Gitobu Imanyara as a school prefect in Nairobi School in 1973Looking at the career of Mr Imanyara one cannot help but feel that he surely deserves much more than what life has handed to him so far. Let’s compare him to two very lucky Kenyan politicians who have played it safe contributed very little and reached the top. Namely Mwai Kibaki and Kalonzo Musyoka.
When Gitobu was getting in and out of police detention Mwai Kibaki was enjoying life as usual, flashing the one finger KANU salute. Indeed Mwai Kibaki has never seen what the inside of a police cell looks like. All his political career he has been the overcautious politician who would agonize for months when they reached the edge of a political cliff with nowhere else to turn except to jump down into the water below. A case in point was after the controversial 1988 infamous queue-voting general elections.
Gitobu Imanyara for PresidentBored handlers of president Moi itching for a challenge after having shot down everything that could move as far as a threat to the Moi presidency (real or imagined) was concerned turned their attention to the then cowardly and extremely harmless Vice President. They decided to rig him out of his Othaya parliamentary seat and everything was in place for the shock announcement that some obscure politician called Muriuki or something like that had defeated Kibaki in the 1988 parliamentary elections. But when Othaya constituents heard of the scheme most men (and some women) went home and fetched their pangas to come and hear the announcement of the election results. The DC sensed serious trouble and hurriedly called Nairobi for direction. In the end Mwai Kibaki was announced victor and his opponent needed heavy police protection to hurriedly get the hell out of town. Still when Moi announced his new cabinet a few days later the Vice President was a man called Prof Josphat Karanja and Kibaki was relegated to a mere Minister for Health. Still he did nothing and sat on the uncomfortable fence until Christmas day 1991 (the very last minute because elections were due in 1992) when he announced his defection from Kanu to a new political party that he had just formed with others called DP (Democratic Party of Kenya). That’s Kibaki for you.
Kalonzo Musyoka is not any different and was at the heart of Kanu mama na baba as Imanyara struggled to stay alive. Musyoka is now the Vice President while Imanyara is not even in the cabinet.
It seems Kenyan politics has always favoured the cowardly and the compromisers (read details in my landmark book Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency. You can now get your copy for FREE HERE.)
And Gitobu Imanyara’s troubles seem to be far from over even when Kenya has gained so much democratic space thanks mainly to Imanyara’s personal sacrifices and endless suffering in police cells and torture chambers. What comes to mind right away is the recent incident where he was slapped by first lady Lucy Kibaki in State House.
This is the fascinating East African Standard report on the issue (the account was from Imanyara himself);
Imanyara said he had cut short a trip to South Africa to attend the meeting (at State House Nairobi), also graced by Vice-President, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, and Internal Security minister, Prof George Saitoti.
Imanyara said after going through the security checks at State House, they were ushered into a conference room.
After taking a seat and introducing himself to the President, the MP said, State House Comptroller, Mr Hyslop Ipu, came in and whispered to him that he should leave the room.
“I thought this was quite rude for a junior officer to come where the President was and ask me to leave the room,” said a visibly angry Imanyara.
Shortly afterwards, Imanyara recounted, the Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Mr Francis Muthaura, came to ask whether they could talk outside.
“At this time, I could hear loud screams of a female shouting all kinds of words. I did not know who it was,” said Imanyara.
The Imenti Central legislator said as he was talking to Muthaura, the First Lady burst into the scene screaming: “This is the man that took the First Lady to the courts. Nobody comes to State House without my permission!”
Imanyara said she went on: “You are a friend of the Luos. Foolish Merus voted for you.”
At this juncture, said Imanyara, the First Lady came forward and started throwing punches at him, which he ducked.
“Nobody takes the First Lady to court. Nobody gets away with it,” Imanyara quoted her as saying.
He said Mrs Kibaki vowed that he would not get any Government appointments as long as she was at State House.
And on allegations that he was punched, Imanyara said: “The First Lady is too short and no punch touched me, neither did I return any.”
Imanyara said security at the corridors of State House stood by and watched as the whole episode unfolded.
The MP said at some point, he was asked to leave State House and he obliged.
Speaking at the Serena Hotel, Nairobi, Imanyara lashed out at the First Lady for trying to create an impression that State House was her property.
“At this rate, we don’t know who is in charge at State House. Kibaki needs to remove the First Lady from State House,” said Imanyara.
So who is Gitobu Imanyara?
After Imanyara spent more than two years in Maximum Security Prison on charges associated with his work as a human rights lawyer, he founded the Nairobi Law Monthly in 1987. It was not supportive of Daniel arap Moi's one party policy and Imanyara was arrested for not registering the magazine.
He was again arrested 1n 1990 after writing a special issue entitled "The Historic Debate: Law, Democracy, and Multi-Party Politics in Kenya." At one point he was held in a prison psychiatric ward, though he re-released the issue following his own release. Receiving the International Editor of the Year by the World Press Review while in prison, he was called "the boldest voice for a free press in a country whose intolerant government does not hesitate to shut down publications and where most journalists practice self censorship."
Imanyara was arrested for a third time in April 1991 after police confiscated that moneth’s issue of the Nairobi Law Monthly. The offending information was about the formation of an opposition political party. It is instructive that he went on to become the founding secretary general of the Forum for the Restoration of Demoracy, FORD KENYA, 1990-2002. This was the first opposition party to be registered in Kenya for many decades.
While in custody, Imanyara developed a brain tumour. Luckily it was successfully treated. Kenyan aid money went down significantly after that arrest, and the U.S. State Department called it "another denial of freedom of expression in Kenya." Imanyara was awarded the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award later that year, but due to authorities not allowing him to leave the country for it, Liberal International President Otto Lambsdorff brought it personally to Nairobi in early 1992.
At the Kenyan general elections in December 1997, he won a regional landslide victory and was elected MP for Central Imenti Constituency. He continued to publish his magazine, which was renamed the Africa Law Review.
Posted at the Nairobi School website www.oldcambrians.com. Imanyara is an alumni of the elitist boy’s boarding school in Nairobi:
# House Prefect, Scott House 1972
# Head of Scott and School Prefect 1973
# University of Nairobi 1974-1977, LL.B
# Kenya School of Law 1978
# Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, from 1979
# Member of Parliament 1997-2002
# Founding Secretary General, Forum for the Restoration of Demoracy, FORD KENYA, 1990-2002
# Founding Publisher and Editor in Chief, The Nairobi Law Monthly
# Internatinal Board Member, Article 19, The International Centre Against Censorship, London, 1990-2000
# International Adisory Editorial Board Member, Human Rights Quaterly,USA
# Chairman,The Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace,[Kenya,Uganda,Tanzania,Rwanda,Burundi,Zambia, Zanzibar] 1997-2002
# World Press Review's Internatinal Editor of the Year, 1990, New York
# World Association's Golden Pen of Freedom Laureate, Paris 1991
# Harvard University's Nieman Fellow's Louis m. Lyons Award Laureate, 1991, USA
# Liberal International's Prize of Freedom Laureate 1991, Switzerland
# Human Rights Award 1991 International Human Rights Law Group, Washington
# Internatinal Biographic Centre, Cambridge, UK's 2000 Outstanding Scholars of the 20th Century, 2000
Kumekucha salutes you Gitobu Imanyara. Our position is that you could make an excellent presidential candidate for 2012.
See also:
Gitobu Imanyara's brother died because of a piece of meat
My encounter with Lucy Kibaki
Book gives clues on Lucy Kibaki's condition
Advertise for free in the Nairobi Online Business Directory
5th Kumekucha Top Bloggers Awards 2011
Happy new year to you all. After burying the eventful 2010 and showering politicians with accolades, it is time to honour the people who keep this blog alive and kicking. The bloggers here provoke the political heat that very few can stand as evident in the numerous standpoints. So here we go with our 5th KK bloggers award for 2011.
Topping the table is one and only Mwarang'ethe with his fidelity to remind all and sundry about political OPIUM. Mwarang'ethe's educative sermons on matters wealth, land and tax are legendary on this blog. Give it to the man for his wisdom alloyed in history-tested Sumarian folklore. Woe unto the intellectual feather weights who dare challenge him for he has no qualms going bare knuckles ready with abbreviated web references to back his takes. He may be staying abroad but Bw Mwarang'ethe never hides his disdain at cheap WESTERN solutions. Just pop any matter (political, economic or legal even biblical) and Mwarang'ethe will match it shredding you into pieces in the process before taking a deserved mouthful of pop corns drowned in e-mursik. This blog wouldn't have been the same in 2010 without Mwarang'ethe's ready red flags always signaling doomsday lurking in the shadows.
Accolades to Mwarang'ethe is no justice without crowning Oracle who epitomizes insider information so tactfully delivered he often leaves his target biting the dust. Oracle is a whole package who consistently takes off the wind from the sails of intellectual pretenders. Besides checkmating bravado, he simply breathes fresh air into any dialogue here.
Next award goes to the ebullient Mpesa with his straight shooting posts. You don't have to like Mpesa for he takes no hostages in his numerous parodies against the political class. He never shies away from reminding the king of his nudity. And while at it no tribal warlord escapes his thorny barbs. No wonder his Martha Karua choice for KK person of the year 2010 eventually carried the day.
Blogger Philip gets the award for stabilizing posts. His back to the basics often rubs the e-high priests the wrong way. Philip's love of the basics is so refreshing he stitches the lips of all e-loud-mouths. And while at it he spares none of so-called political big guns no matter their ethnicity. Together with Philip, Muru wa Gacii and Bobby6Killer are the other sprinklers of barbs and banquets to those who deserve them. Thanks guys for reigning with sanity.
And who can forget one Luke for daring the BOSS never to pander to explicit posts lest he corrupts his FAMILY BLOG? Luke's posts seamlessly blends both humour and hard facts to perfection. Whipping everybody into shape is his forte and woe unto the tribal warlords for crossing the path of his sparkling white HORSE. His search for HORSELESS merits e-cop award in readines to head candidate Atwoli's PR team.
Speaking of FIDELITY and horses, you must give it to Phil for his consistency. He may not have been as active here as before but you only rule Phil out at your own political peril. And he never masks his horse whom he rides and backs with facts while always keeping it civil.
Last which could as well be first, a deserved award to Chris for his dare devil posts. Nothing is a taboo here to him whether it is the tribal myths or stereotypes you will find them here all spread out to hang. Chauvinists will rue the day they discovered this blog for Chris' posts leaves them livid with rage that also hooks them here in equal measure. If you have no woken up from stereotypical hangovers, well you are better advised KUMEKUCHA.
And finally the ultimate award goes to all the silent readers and critics of this political blog for their warmth and heat respectively. Your loyalty kept the blog going and without you, all the efforts would have been akin to a parent punishing an unresponsive kid. This pre-elecetion year promises to be a furnace and we hope the many 'anonymouses' will acquire handles that let them feature in 6th KBA of 2012. Happy new year and let us keep the heat on in service to our motherland.
Just whispered into Kumekucha Chris' ear: A certain contender for the presidency in 2012 has instructed his handlers to dig up all the dirt they can find on Martha Karua. KwaniKumekucha is how inflential? Because this happened shortly after we named her the person of the year 2010 and said we would be willing to support her bid for the highest office in the land. Of course the whole idea of digging up dirt on Karua is to totally derail the iron lady's presidential ambitions when push comes to shove. As most of you know, Martha is very very vulnerable especially where her personal life is concerened so she had better get prepared early. Folks get ready for high wire drama as the contenders and pretenders to the throne get bare knuckled in their fight for the presidency. All indications are that the campaign proper has already started.
Topping the table is one and only Mwarang'ethe with his fidelity to remind all and sundry about political OPIUM. Mwarang'ethe's educative sermons on matters wealth, land and tax are legendary on this blog. Give it to the man for his wisdom alloyed in history-tested Sumarian folklore. Woe unto the intellectual feather weights who dare challenge him for he has no qualms going bare knuckles ready with abbreviated web references to back his takes. He may be staying abroad but Bw Mwarang'ethe never hides his disdain at cheap WESTERN solutions. Just pop any matter (political, economic or legal even biblical) and Mwarang'ethe will match it shredding you into pieces in the process before taking a deserved mouthful of pop corns drowned in e-mursik. This blog wouldn't have been the same in 2010 without Mwarang'ethe's ready red flags always signaling doomsday lurking in the shadows.
Accolades to Mwarang'ethe is no justice without crowning Oracle who epitomizes insider information so tactfully delivered he often leaves his target biting the dust. Oracle is a whole package who consistently takes off the wind from the sails of intellectual pretenders. Besides checkmating bravado, he simply breathes fresh air into any dialogue here.
Next award goes to the ebullient Mpesa with his straight shooting posts. You don't have to like Mpesa for he takes no hostages in his numerous parodies against the political class. He never shies away from reminding the king of his nudity. And while at it no tribal warlord escapes his thorny barbs. No wonder his Martha Karua choice for KK person of the year 2010 eventually carried the day.
Blogger Philip gets the award for stabilizing posts. His back to the basics often rubs the e-high priests the wrong way. Philip's love of the basics is so refreshing he stitches the lips of all e-loud-mouths. And while at it he spares none of so-called political big guns no matter their ethnicity. Together with Philip, Muru wa Gacii and Bobby6Killer are the other sprinklers of barbs and banquets to those who deserve them. Thanks guys for reigning with sanity.
And who can forget one Luke for daring the BOSS never to pander to explicit posts lest he corrupts his FAMILY BLOG? Luke's posts seamlessly blends both humour and hard facts to perfection. Whipping everybody into shape is his forte and woe unto the tribal warlords for crossing the path of his sparkling white HORSE. His search for HORSELESS merits e-cop award in readines to head candidate Atwoli's PR team.
Speaking of FIDELITY and horses, you must give it to Phil for his consistency. He may not have been as active here as before but you only rule Phil out at your own political peril. And he never masks his horse whom he rides and backs with facts while always keeping it civil.
Last which could as well be first, a deserved award to Chris for his dare devil posts. Nothing is a taboo here to him whether it is the tribal myths or stereotypes you will find them here all spread out to hang. Chauvinists will rue the day they discovered this blog for Chris' posts leaves them livid with rage that also hooks them here in equal measure. If you have no woken up from stereotypical hangovers, well you are better advised KUMEKUCHA.
And finally the ultimate award goes to all the silent readers and critics of this political blog for their warmth and heat respectively. Your loyalty kept the blog going and without you, all the efforts would have been akin to a parent punishing an unresponsive kid. This pre-elecetion year promises to be a furnace and we hope the many 'anonymouses' will acquire handles that let them feature in 6th KBA of 2012. Happy new year and let us keep the heat on in service to our motherland.
Just whispered into Kumekucha Chris' ear: A certain contender for the presidency in 2012 has instructed his handlers to dig up all the dirt they can find on Martha Karua. KwaniKumekucha is how inflential? Because this happened shortly after we named her the person of the year 2010 and said we would be willing to support her bid for the highest office in the land. Of course the whole idea of digging up dirt on Karua is to totally derail the iron lady's presidential ambitions when push comes to shove. As most of you know, Martha is very very vulnerable especially where her personal life is concerened so she had better get prepared early. Folks get ready for high wire drama as the contenders and pretenders to the throne get bare knuckled in their fight for the presidency. All indications are that the campaign proper has already started.
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Thursday, December 30, 2010
Kumekucha Person of the Year 2010 Is...
Despite her involvement in the Kibaki electroral theft of 2007 (still we are talking about 2010 and NOT 2007 or 2008). The iron lady has bounced back and this year played a critical role politically that impacted the largest number of Kenyans positively. Karua’s gigantic achievements this year include her pivotal role in consensus building that saw the successful passing of the new constitution in parliament and then the successful campaign in the referendum that followed giving Kenyans what has eluded them for over two decades. Not to mention her position in many debates in the August house that has tended to reflect the will of the people.This is the presidential candidate that Kumekucha would be happy to support and vouch for in 2012. It is our official position that Kenyan voters should quit doing the same thing (electing men) and expecting different results and go for a woman president this time round. One of the things this could do is help diffuse the tribal emotions that have dogged our politics with such tragic results. It is my firm belief that Karua can duplicate in Kenya what the other Iron lady Margaret Thatcher did for Britain (I doubt whether the Brits will see such prosperity again).
She may not be very lovable and she is certainly not as sexy as Charity Ngilu but she can certainly get the job done and deliver results. She may just be the person to help us usher in the brand new Kenya we all so eagerly yearn for.
Despite her involvement in helping Kibaki achieve the evil of 2007 election fraud, she cannot be held fully responsible. The buck stops with the president himself and those close to him have to follow orders and do as instructed. We are not absolving her, she still stands accused for that terrible chapter in Kenyan history but sometimes the greatest achievers are those who have fallen and risen again or made terrible mistakes and still bounced back. Martha “comeback” Karua has surely transformed herself beautifully for the good of the Kenyan people.
First Runner Up: Gitobu Imanyara
Second runner up: Mohamed Abdikadir
I have included comments in red below next to some of the other nominations.
1. Martha Karua
2. Gitobu Imanyara.
3. COE (commitee of Experts)
4. PLO Lumumba (was in contention but it is still too early to start popping the Champaign.)
5. Mohamed Abdikadir (Led a team and indeed achieved a lot-that is why he ended up 3rd. But he cannot take the lion’s share of the credit just because he was in the limelight most.)
6. Manu Chandaria
7. Caroline Mutoko
The most evil 3 square kilometres of dirt in Kenya (the post everybody is talking about)
The Most Evil Address in Kenya
Quick quiz for you who believe you are experts on Kenya.Which is easily the most evil place in Kenya? So evil is this place that one can comfortably say that no other piece of dirt within the borders of Kenya has housed such a large collection of evil in the history of Kenya as this 3 square kilometer piece of land very close to the Nairobi CBD has. And it is not Kamiti Maximum Security prison. Still, countless injustices and cold blooded murders have been planned and monitored from within the compound of this evil wretched place. And the mischief did not even start recently, it started way back in 1907 shortly after this building was completed.
Answer: State House Nairobi. (formerly Government House). The official residence of the most evil office in Kenya.
If you read my landmark book, Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency you will quickly grasp what I am talking about and concur with what I am saying here.
This is the place where the Kiambu Mafia would drink late into the night scheming the assassination of real and perceived threats to the president. Goldenberg was hatched here. And so was Goldenberg. And lots of other evil as is detailed in my book, Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency. Discover what Moi's most guarded secret is.
But for the purposes of this post I will focus on the most recent evils committed that can be directly linked to this place. This address that politicians dream and scheme day and night to get to live in one day.
But first an interesting tit bit. This building was built to serve as the official residence of the Governor of British East Africa when Kenya was a British Colony. The governor would conduct his official functions at the old Provincial Commissioner’s office (now a national monument) next to Nyayo House and then retire to Government House for the day. However at independence President Jomo Kenyatta used it mainly as an office and meeting place and would mostly spend the night at his Gatundu home when he was in Nairobi (which was rare because he preferred State house Nakuru or Mombasa). President Moi was not very different and would retire to his Kabaret Gardens home from State house at the end of the day. But Kibaki is totally different. He lives in State house Nairobi and rarely ever ventures out of the place. Those who believe in evil places influencing the character and decisions of a person will be quick to point out that the blood bath under President Kibaki has been unprecedented. But a post on superstition is not for this blog so we shall stick to the politics and the facts.
The events that followed shortly after Mwai Kibaki ascended into the presidency and started exercising the functions of this extremely powerful office in 2003 are revealing. You will remember that the Kibaki administration looked very shaky at the beginning. So shaky that various politicians and even this blog started predicting that it would not last until 2007 when the next elections were due. It was around this time that handlers of President Kibaki started sending out feelers to retired President Moi. This was at a time when relationship between the two men was at it’s lowest. The bad blood was to change so dramatically that by the time the 2007 elections arrived Kenyans were talking about the Kibaki/Moi alliance. Admittedly whatever advice Moi gave to Kibaki dramatically stabilized the Kibaki administration so that it arrived at those elections fairly steady and capable of deling with all manner of threats. Sadly one of the things identified as a serious threat was a Raila Odinga presidency.
So what is this advice that Moi gave that was so critical to the stability of an administration? The answer will baffle most Kenyans. This blogger has evidence to suggest that an inner core of secret advisors/think tank with very close links to the NSIS was set up whose man task was to take care of the “security of the state.” In Kenya that simply means protecting the presidency from any would-be threats (real or imagined).
It is this inner core of secret advisors who first got wind of what special ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo was planning in his promise to the Kenyan people to deal with those most responsible for the post election troubles of 2007/2008. Predictably, the think tank set about exterminating this threat and this is what culminated in the shocking move that saw the passing of the anti-ICC bill in parliament. Indeed it was passed unanimously.
The executive has a long history of interfering with the legislature but some observers are sure that things have changed dramatically in recent years and that there is now very little if any influence from State house. That would be political naivety of the highest order. The truth is that in issues that really matter to the executive (like an appearance at the ICC after the president leaves office) State house plays it bear knuckled when it comes to having its’ way in the August house which has increasingly gained an image of independence in the eyes of Kenya. The truth is that only the methods have changed. In the old days it was threats and intimidation by the sheer power of the office of the president. These days the main currency is information, mostly information that would be detrimental to the lives of legislators if followed up on or made public. There are also plenty of political deals made taking full advantage of the current political troubles facing various legislators. It is a lot of hard work, but then the think tank are very well paid and they have no other work.
Kenyans should very seriously consider amending the yet to be implemented constitution so as to get rid of the office of the president.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Most popular Kumekucha articles on Facebook
Everybody is on Facebook these days and it has become a very important source of traffic for Kumekucha cutting edge political posts.
Below I have listed the top 10 most shared Kumekucha articles on Facebook.
Click on the articles you missed and ENJOY!!
1. You Missed This: The Nakumatt Supermarkets Money Laundering Mystery
2. You Missed This: Masai African Tribe Sexual Secrets: Sex Tourism And The Nude Tribe That Attracts Wh
3. You Missed This: Open email letter to Ocampo: Kenyans want you to go straight for these 3
4. You Missed This: This evil man called Moi
5. You Missed This: A Page From The Waki Report: Should These People Be Given Amnesty?
6. You Missed This: Joshua Kulei: Little formal education but extremely street smart
7. You Missed This: Orgasmic Statehouse Calculations
8. You Missed This: Has Raila made this deal with Kibaki?
9. You Missed This: Three Down, Now KACC Steps on Live Wire
10. You Missed This: Cabinet ministers and their famous girlfriends
Christmas shocker Extended by PUBLIC DEMAND!!!!!!
Somebody sent me an angry email calling me fake for offering such a gift when I know everybody is away from their office computers for the Christmas holidays. I have therefore decided to extend this offer for a very limited time only. Please tell all your freinds about it.
My free special gift to all of you this festive season is the FULL digital version of my best-selling book Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency. It is the whole entire book, not a single page has been left out. It is in pdf format. It is what my clients have been paying Kshs 1,350 for. Just send a blank email NOW to
kumekuchaspecialoffers@gmail.com
Do it now, the offer is still ONLY for a very limited time.
Below I have listed the top 10 most shared Kumekucha articles on Facebook.
Click on the articles you missed and ENJOY!!
1. You Missed This: The Nakumatt Supermarkets Money Laundering Mystery
2. You Missed This: Masai African Tribe Sexual Secrets: Sex Tourism And The Nude Tribe That Attracts Wh
3. You Missed This: Open email letter to Ocampo: Kenyans want you to go straight for these 3
4. You Missed This: This evil man called Moi
5. You Missed This: A Page From The Waki Report: Should These People Be Given Amnesty?
6. You Missed This: Joshua Kulei: Little formal education but extremely street smart
7. You Missed This: Orgasmic Statehouse Calculations
8. You Missed This: Has Raila made this deal with Kibaki?
9. You Missed This: Three Down, Now KACC Steps on Live Wire
10. You Missed This: Cabinet ministers and their famous girlfriends
Christmas shocker Extended by PUBLIC DEMAND!!!!!!
Somebody sent me an angry email calling me fake for offering such a gift when I know everybody is away from their office computers for the Christmas holidays. I have therefore decided to extend this offer for a very limited time only. Please tell all your freinds about it.
My free special gift to all of you this festive season is the FULL digital version of my best-selling book Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency. It is the whole entire book, not a single page has been left out. It is in pdf format. It is what my clients have been paying Kshs 1,350 for. Just send a blank email NOW to
kumekuchaspecialoffers@gmail.com
Do it now, the offer is still ONLY for a very limited time.
Tale of Two Principals: Kenya's Poisoned Export
Different countries same political game and crisis. Cote d'Ivoire is slowly but surely coasting to bloodbath. The electoral commission of Ivory Coast must have competently read our own ECK's script except the judicial appeal court there went a step further knowing which side of their bread was buttered and by who. It is a battle of the titans pitting two already SWORN-IN presidents, the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo (what a name, from Pungoma?) and ex-IMF chief Alassane Ouattara.
Double standards galore from the international community when it comes to Africa's never-ending political crises. Where is Annan and his troope of Imminent persons to save Cote d'Ivoire from self-destruction? These clowns appeared in Kenya in a flash while for almost two months the world watches as (DULY ELECTED) Gbagbo overturns Alassane Ouattara's victory. This will definitely be godsend cannon fodder for the deluded e-high priests who often wax lyrical and intellectual about doomsday and neo-colonialism. Well, let the REAL intellectuals cannibalize the latest standoff to spin yarns and revise alien theories on sovereignty and imperialism.
Ivory Coast's election standoff is is compounded further by AU's obtuse goof in appointing Kenya's PM Raila Odinga to mediate on the same. What a feat for AU to recognize Kenya's dubious electoral exploits and dutifully help export that fraud to Ivory Coast? AU's latest move amounts to either an apt exercise in continental mischief or a jaundiced set-a-thief-to-catch-a-thief mission (read use a victim to sooth the pains of another victim).
Predictably the incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo will see AU's move as belittling him by sending a non-head of state (read peer, BIG MAN) to talk him out of power. Make no mistake, the local mouthful idea of co-principals is only known in Kenya.
The parallel between Ivory Coast and Kenya ends at the fact that the DEFEATED Gbagbo was hastily sworn in after losing the elections to Ouattara. With the army and judiciary at his beck and call, the so-called international community must revise their strategy to deal with a SITTING head of state. Bottom line, this is Africa and even the toothless AU knows its noise will not amounts to nothing but hot air.
Just like patriotic Kenyans prefix all their pronouncements with SOVEREIGNTY, Gbagbo has demanded the ex-colonial power France and the 10,000 strong UN peacekeeping force protecting Ouattara's government to leave. He can as well add, GO EAST. His Excellency Gbagbo must be laughing his head off at ECOWAS' threat of so-called legitimate force. Only in Africa do we have unique problems and mint ORIGINAL solutions. We haven't seen anything yet from Gbagbo and his lieutenants. And they are in very good company.
The plot thicken given that Raila already muddied the waters early this month by demanding Gbagbo to vacate office. It appears the PM has more space to stomach and top-up the wrath he invited from Robert Mugabe sometimes back. But just like Kenya, Ivory Coast has its owners and Ouattara is better reminded that he is an alien clinging to the coat tails of the international community to subvert the will of the people.
Well, let wild and exotic conspiracy theories begin in earnest. Bring them on!
Double standards galore from the international community when it comes to Africa's never-ending political crises. Where is Annan and his troope of Imminent persons to save Cote d'Ivoire from self-destruction? These clowns appeared in Kenya in a flash while for almost two months the world watches as (DULY ELECTED) Gbagbo overturns Alassane Ouattara's victory. This will definitely be godsend cannon fodder for the deluded e-high priests who often wax lyrical and intellectual about doomsday and neo-colonialism. Well, let the REAL intellectuals cannibalize the latest standoff to spin yarns and revise alien theories on sovereignty and imperialism.
Ivory Coast's election standoff is is compounded further by AU's obtuse goof in appointing Kenya's PM Raila Odinga to mediate on the same. What a feat for AU to recognize Kenya's dubious electoral exploits and dutifully help export that fraud to Ivory Coast? AU's latest move amounts to either an apt exercise in continental mischief or a jaundiced set-a-thief-to-catch-a-thief mission (read use a victim to sooth the pains of another victim).
Predictably the incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo will see AU's move as belittling him by sending a non-head of state (read peer, BIG MAN) to talk him out of power. Make no mistake, the local mouthful idea of co-principals is only known in Kenya.
The parallel between Ivory Coast and Kenya ends at the fact that the DEFEATED Gbagbo was hastily sworn in after losing the elections to Ouattara. With the army and judiciary at his beck and call, the so-called international community must revise their strategy to deal with a SITTING head of state. Bottom line, this is Africa and even the toothless AU knows its noise will not amounts to nothing but hot air.
Just like patriotic Kenyans prefix all their pronouncements with SOVEREIGNTY, Gbagbo has demanded the ex-colonial power France and the 10,000 strong UN peacekeeping force protecting Ouattara's government to leave. He can as well add, GO EAST. His Excellency Gbagbo must be laughing his head off at ECOWAS' threat of so-called legitimate force. Only in Africa do we have unique problems and mint ORIGINAL solutions. We haven't seen anything yet from Gbagbo and his lieutenants. And they are in very good company.
The plot thicken given that Raila already muddied the waters early this month by demanding Gbagbo to vacate office. It appears the PM has more space to stomach and top-up the wrath he invited from Robert Mugabe sometimes back. But just like Kenya, Ivory Coast has its owners and Ouattara is better reminded that he is an alien clinging to the coat tails of the international community to subvert the will of the people.
Well, let wild and exotic conspiracy theories begin in earnest. Bring them on!
Friday, December 24, 2010
Impunity bounces back…
…and why the Kenyan parliament has committed mass suicide
Based on a true story: The teenage boy was a real expert on snakes. He had started handling the slippery slithery reptiles that put so much fear in most when he was a very young child. He would catch the harmless water ones on the side of the Ewaso Nyiro river near his home. But on this fateful day he was distracted by many things including the fact that the very next day he was set to leave for University. He would be away from this place he called home which he loved so much.
On his right hand he held a deadly slithering snake and on his left he struggled with a glove. Suddenly the slippery slithering thing slipped from his grasp and bit his hand sinking its’ fangs into his flesh and releasing the potent venom into his bloodstream before disappearing under the table. He was alone and by the time somebody else got to him he was unable to speak. His mother arrived and desperately tried to get the dieing boy to tell him where the antidote was (kept in the same room) that would quickly reverse the deadly effects of the snake bite. But it was all in vain. Did you know that if a person is injected with the wrong antidote it can easily kill them? To cut a long story short the boy died with the secret of the correct antidote to save his life stuck somewhere between his brain and tongue.
That rather sad scene from the movie I dreamed of Africa based on a true story in Kenya has stuck on my mind and refused to leave since the dramatic events of Wednesday in parliament. Actually it describes very accurately exactly what happened in the August house as impunity made a dramatic comeback shortly after many including yours truly had strated writing lengthy obituaries.
Let’s cut to the chase. Old man impunity has fought back dramatically and delivered a deadly bite on our right hand even when we though we had him. And he has taken advantage of diversionary tactics. It is no accident that the same day that parliament unanimously passed a bill urging the government to withdraw from the Rome statute, leader of government business professor George Saitoti read out a list of drug barons in parliament. Regular readers of Kumekucha have had that list for a very long time but not everybody reads Kumekucha and so it stunned the nation and effectively diverted a lot of attention away from the other thing that the MPs did and its’ legal implications. Actually it was the main thing they were after. In other words what thye had done was start a fire at Police headquarters to rob the Central bank.
The passing of the ICC motion effectively means that the Attorney-General Amos Wako must table a Bill in Parliament to repeal the International Crimes Act. He cannot ignore a resolution of the house and get away with it without facing the wrath of the legislators. Indeed it is unlikely that he will do so because although the bill was sponsored by a back bencher, Isaac Ruto Vice president Kalonzo Musyoka insisted that the bill was “government business” which means that Wako will quickly comply right on cue.
The passing of the bill also means that the executive (Kibaki and Raila) will have to write to the United nations and notify them of Kenya’s withdrawal.
What all this does is to send a very clear message to the International community that Kenya is not interested in fighting impunity. Hardly surprising when you know the history
Sorry folks it seems that Kenyans started writing the obituary for old man impunity too soon. But once again the fact that the headquarters of impunity is the executive has been underlined very clearly because what happened in parliament was carefully choreographed at State house long before it unfolded before the eyes of shocked Kenyans. Complete with the reading of the list of legislators who are drug king pins which was designed to get Kenyans attention away from the deadly snake bite that impunity delivered shortly after that. Now my earlier post about the whole Mwai Kibaki game plan to stay away from the Hague has been emphatically confirmed. Including the co-operation of PM Raila Odinga and his ODM party. See this earlier post.
If you have not read my landmark book Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency there is no better time to do so than now more so when I have a special offer today that allows you to get your hands on the gem of a book for free. See the bottom of this post and act quickly because I am pulling out the offer pretty soon as the numbers rapidly get overwhelming.
At first glance the whole move to withdraw Kenya from the ICC does not make legal sense. Mainly because of the following reasons;
I) Article 2(4) of the new Constitution gives the ICC authority to arrest the suspects under customary international law. And so Kenya is legally obligated to hand over the suspects even if they are no longer in the ICC.
II) The cases were filed while Kenya was under legally committed to obeying the Rome Statute and so it does not affect the Ocampo 6 and the inevitable.
III) In any case the withdrawal cannot take place earlier than 12 months after the request for withdrawal is received (more evidence that somebody is thinking of 2012 and thereafter)
However if you study the past impunity of the presidency in Kenya then you will quickly realize that the whole thing is part of a wider scheme to discredit the ICC and dilute it’s influence, especially in Africa. What will follow is a campaign in the African Union (AU) and elsewhere to the effect that Africa is sovereign and should be left to handle her own problems within the continent.
Whatever happens next it seems that President Kibaki will soon be another Al Bashir of Sudan, a fugitive with very limited travel options. More so when he leaves office in 2 years time. And so will the Ocampo 6 if formally indicted.
But the good news my fellow Kenyans is that the political class has just committed mass suicide. What they have done will unite Kenyan voters more than ever before against them in 2012. Just watch angry voters wipe the slate, that is the Kenyan political scene, clean. For better or for worse that is pretty exciting.
Christmas shocker!!!!!!
My free special gift to all of you this festive season is the FULL digital version of my best-selling book Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency. It is the whole entire book, not a single page has been left out. It is in pdf format. It is what my clients have been paying Kshs 1,350 for. Just send a blank email NOW to
kumekuchaspecialoffers@gmail.com
Do it now, the offer is ONLY for a very limited time.
Based on a true story: The teenage boy was a real expert on snakes. He had started handling the slippery slithery reptiles that put so much fear in most when he was a very young child. He would catch the harmless water ones on the side of the Ewaso Nyiro river near his home. But on this fateful day he was distracted by many things including the fact that the very next day he was set to leave for University. He would be away from this place he called home which he loved so much.
On his right hand he held a deadly slithering snake and on his left he struggled with a glove. Suddenly the slippery slithering thing slipped from his grasp and bit his hand sinking its’ fangs into his flesh and releasing the potent venom into his bloodstream before disappearing under the table. He was alone and by the time somebody else got to him he was unable to speak. His mother arrived and desperately tried to get the dieing boy to tell him where the antidote was (kept in the same room) that would quickly reverse the deadly effects of the snake bite. But it was all in vain. Did you know that if a person is injected with the wrong antidote it can easily kill them? To cut a long story short the boy died with the secret of the correct antidote to save his life stuck somewhere between his brain and tongue.That rather sad scene from the movie I dreamed of Africa based on a true story in Kenya has stuck on my mind and refused to leave since the dramatic events of Wednesday in parliament. Actually it describes very accurately exactly what happened in the August house as impunity made a dramatic comeback shortly after many including yours truly had strated writing lengthy obituaries.
Let’s cut to the chase. Old man impunity has fought back dramatically and delivered a deadly bite on our right hand even when we though we had him. And he has taken advantage of diversionary tactics. It is no accident that the same day that parliament unanimously passed a bill urging the government to withdraw from the Rome statute, leader of government business professor George Saitoti read out a list of drug barons in parliament. Regular readers of Kumekucha have had that list for a very long time but not everybody reads Kumekucha and so it stunned the nation and effectively diverted a lot of attention away from the other thing that the MPs did and its’ legal implications. Actually it was the main thing they were after. In other words what thye had done was start a fire at Police headquarters to rob the Central bank.
The passing of the ICC motion effectively means that the Attorney-General Amos Wako must table a Bill in Parliament to repeal the International Crimes Act. He cannot ignore a resolution of the house and get away with it without facing the wrath of the legislators. Indeed it is unlikely that he will do so because although the bill was sponsored by a back bencher, Isaac Ruto Vice president Kalonzo Musyoka insisted that the bill was “government business” which means that Wako will quickly comply right on cue.
The passing of the bill also means that the executive (Kibaki and Raila) will have to write to the United nations and notify them of Kenya’s withdrawal.
What all this does is to send a very clear message to the International community that Kenya is not interested in fighting impunity. Hardly surprising when you know the history
Sorry folks it seems that Kenyans started writing the obituary for old man impunity too soon. But once again the fact that the headquarters of impunity is the executive has been underlined very clearly because what happened in parliament was carefully choreographed at State house long before it unfolded before the eyes of shocked Kenyans. Complete with the reading of the list of legislators who are drug king pins which was designed to get Kenyans attention away from the deadly snake bite that impunity delivered shortly after that. Now my earlier post about the whole Mwai Kibaki game plan to stay away from the Hague has been emphatically confirmed. Including the co-operation of PM Raila Odinga and his ODM party. See this earlier post.
If you have not read my landmark book Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency there is no better time to do so than now more so when I have a special offer today that allows you to get your hands on the gem of a book for free. See the bottom of this post and act quickly because I am pulling out the offer pretty soon as the numbers rapidly get overwhelming.
At first glance the whole move to withdraw Kenya from the ICC does not make legal sense. Mainly because of the following reasons;
I) Article 2(4) of the new Constitution gives the ICC authority to arrest the suspects under customary international law. And so Kenya is legally obligated to hand over the suspects even if they are no longer in the ICC.
II) The cases were filed while Kenya was under legally committed to obeying the Rome Statute and so it does not affect the Ocampo 6 and the inevitable.
III) In any case the withdrawal cannot take place earlier than 12 months after the request for withdrawal is received (more evidence that somebody is thinking of 2012 and thereafter)
However if you study the past impunity of the presidency in Kenya then you will quickly realize that the whole thing is part of a wider scheme to discredit the ICC and dilute it’s influence, especially in Africa. What will follow is a campaign in the African Union (AU) and elsewhere to the effect that Africa is sovereign and should be left to handle her own problems within the continent.
Whatever happens next it seems that President Kibaki will soon be another Al Bashir of Sudan, a fugitive with very limited travel options. More so when he leaves office in 2 years time. And so will the Ocampo 6 if formally indicted.
But the good news my fellow Kenyans is that the political class has just committed mass suicide. What they have done will unite Kenyan voters more than ever before against them in 2012. Just watch angry voters wipe the slate, that is the Kenyan political scene, clean. For better or for worse that is pretty exciting.
Christmas shocker!!!!!!
My free special gift to all of you this festive season is the FULL digital version of my best-selling book Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency. It is the whole entire book, not a single page has been left out. It is in pdf format. It is what my clients have been paying Kshs 1,350 for. Just send a blank email NOW to
kumekuchaspecialoffers@gmail.com
Do it now, the offer is ONLY for a very limited time.
Of Drug Barons, Rogue Envoy and Poisoned ICC
Kudos to Juja MP William Kabogo for being smart enough and not naive to provoke an EXCUTIVE foul mood.
Only in Kenya do you find the title Honourable before the name of a drug baron. And the Kenyan voter love them while the Diaspora applaud the bling bling MPs as hard working. Woe unto you envious, lazy mortals for questioning the source of their wealth. Make no mistake, these monsters rule us from both sides of the political divide.
The Muslim clerics crying foul about drug abuse at the Coast finds themselves in a catch 22 with Joho and Punjani named as prime drug pushers. Mark you Ali Punjani donated a cool KES 6m cash and Joho 1m to President Kibaki during the Lamu fund raiser. That tells you alot about the dearth and/or abuse of intelligence and integrity among our leaders. These smart alecs know when to stealthily buy political insurance from the safest and most powerful covers.
Before we foam at the mouth shouting imperialism and neo-colonialism, we must accept that it was one ROGUE Michael Renneberger who belled these wild cats. It would be business as usual without the envoy's dossier. Meanwhile Kenyan youth would continue imbibing narcotics and transforming themselves into zombies as the drug barons laugh their way to the banks.
Exposing so-called honourable MPs as drug barons is the strongest proof of our rotten politics. Our hell-for-leather mentality manifested in blind worship for monetary success at whatever cost comes with very destructive consequences. But who cares when we envy Kabogo's and Mwau's choppers as they buy the voters' conscience with dirty money? I guess sharing comes in different forms and shapes.
The genesis of impunity is failure to hold people to account. And the tribal kings know Kenyans better. Just look at the chorus to withdraw Kenya from ICC to save just six out of 40m people - forget about the eyesore that is the IDPs. With the exported villagers aka Diaspora dusting up their local loyalties, the war on impunity was lost even before it all began.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo may have been a professor at Harvard but Kenya's political class will serve him his deadliest Waterloo. Remember we had a professor of realpolitik who never had a degree (tell it to the birds!). You don't have to be a neurologist to imagine Ruto's fraud case expedited and possibly (artificially) jailed locally and Ocampo is left chasing his own tail.
Poor Amigo Moreno is better advised that Kenya has its owners. And lest he forgets, Kenya is not Sudan or Liberia or Serbia. He hasn't seen the last of this thriller made and directed by real and true kings of impunity. Sovereignty my foot!
Only in Kenya do you find the title Honourable before the name of a drug baron. And the Kenyan voter love them while the Diaspora applaud the bling bling MPs as hard working. Woe unto you envious, lazy mortals for questioning the source of their wealth. Make no mistake, these monsters rule us from both sides of the political divide.
The Muslim clerics crying foul about drug abuse at the Coast finds themselves in a catch 22 with Joho and Punjani named as prime drug pushers. Mark you Ali Punjani donated a cool KES 6m cash and Joho 1m to President Kibaki during the Lamu fund raiser. That tells you alot about the dearth and/or abuse of intelligence and integrity among our leaders. These smart alecs know when to stealthily buy political insurance from the safest and most powerful covers.
Before we foam at the mouth shouting imperialism and neo-colonialism, we must accept that it was one ROGUE Michael Renneberger who belled these wild cats. It would be business as usual without the envoy's dossier. Meanwhile Kenyan youth would continue imbibing narcotics and transforming themselves into zombies as the drug barons laugh their way to the banks.
Exposing so-called honourable MPs as drug barons is the strongest proof of our rotten politics. Our hell-for-leather mentality manifested in blind worship for monetary success at whatever cost comes with very destructive consequences. But who cares when we envy Kabogo's and Mwau's choppers as they buy the voters' conscience with dirty money? I guess sharing comes in different forms and shapes.
The genesis of impunity is failure to hold people to account. And the tribal kings know Kenyans better. Just look at the chorus to withdraw Kenya from ICC to save just six out of 40m people - forget about the eyesore that is the IDPs. With the exported villagers aka Diaspora dusting up their local loyalties, the war on impunity was lost even before it all began.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo may have been a professor at Harvard but Kenya's political class will serve him his deadliest Waterloo. Remember we had a professor of realpolitik who never had a degree (tell it to the birds!). You don't have to be a neurologist to imagine Ruto's fraud case expedited and possibly (artificially) jailed locally and Ocampo is left chasing his own tail.
Poor Amigo Moreno is better advised that Kenya has its owners. And lest he forgets, Kenya is not Sudan or Liberia or Serbia. He hasn't seen the last of this thriller made and directed by real and true kings of impunity. Sovereignty my foot!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency
What those who have read it have to say about this landmark book from the controversial blogger known as Kumekucha Chris;
“I couldn’t put it down”
“It kept me up the whole night.”
“Hauntingly true about the real root of all political evil in Kenya.”
“Nobody can claim to understand Kenyan politics without reading, studying and analyzing this beautifully written book.”
“Hauntingly sad. The institution of the presidency must be abolished now.”
"Marvelous work by Kumekucha, the book suddenly came to an end, too soon for me and that is when I realized I had been up half the night reading it. Who is this Kumekucha Chris anyway? A seasoned journalist during the day and a mystery blogger at night... perhaps?"
At the back of the book
Dark secrets of the Kenyan Presidency explores the office of the presidency through some rarely-told (and some never-before-told) incidences surrounding this bigger than life office created by Jomo Kenyatta and the founders of the Kenyan nation. “This thing” they created grew and became an enormous un-tameable beast that has caused untold distress, suffering and death to Kenyans.
Kumekucha’s account is mostly angry and dissects this subject ruthlessly without fear or favour. The tone is very much that one of his blog which has received worldwide attention sometimes in praise and at other times in condemnation but is certainly a blog that cannot be ignored. The result here is a thought-provoking account that will forever change your views about this all powerful office which has the kind of powers under the constitution Kenyans have lived with for decades that would be the envy of any god.
The Kumekucha blog was launched in May 2005 by a blogger who only reveals his first name, Chris. The site continues to shape political opinion for many Kenyans locally and spread all over the world. This is the first in a series of books that will be published from information researched and written by the blogger known to his adoring readers and sharp critics alike as Chris Kumekucha.
Get sections of this book for FREE by sending an email now to; darksecrets@listwire.com (you will get an instant response).
Has Raila made this deal with Kibaki?
This is a rumour I have been repeatedly hearing for almost a year and a half now. However I have failed to verify the information and like many of the other tips I receive all the time, I have been ignoring it.
But now it seems that recent political developments are confirming it more and more by the day and I can’t help but revisit what I have been told and look at it next to recent happenings.
The information is that PM Raila Odinga has made a deal with Mwai Kibaki that he will support the fight to keep the latter away from any Hague prosecution (even after he leaves the presidency in 2012) and in return the president will mobilize the support of Central province to back Raila to the hilt for the presidency in 2012. That supposedly 2012 winning team will consist of Raila as President and Uhuru as his running mate and Vice president.
Let me first repeat what I have said here in this blog many times. Raila Odinga’s contributions to Kenya are considerable but he will never be president of Kenya. He is probably one of the best presidents Kenya will never have. Sadly he won the 2007 elections and should be serving as President right now. But alas his chance has passed. In the next general elections Kenyans will elect a fresh crop of people who have mostly never been in mainstream politics again, starting from the president. This determination to give the motherland a real fresh start with the new constitution is gathering momentum by the day and will be unstoppable by the time we go to the polls. But that is a story for another day and another controversial post. For now the most tell tale sign that there could have been a deal is the strange behaviour of ODN after Ocampo released his list.
An official statement from the ODM high command and parliamentary group shortly after the Ocampo 6 was named drowned in all the hype and noise” from PNU operatives. However the statement speaks volumes and explains why there seems to be a deafening silence from ODM members.
The carefully worded statement expressed solidarity with the Ocampo 6 including William Ruto who has fallen out badly with the party chairman in recent months. Individuals within the party who have always advocated for a Hague solution have been strangely quiet.
So as ODM and it’s leading lights changed their minds about the Hague being the best chance to strike a mortal blow on old man impunity?
Even stranger is the fact that despite the ODM MPs have failed to respond to thinly veiled attacks at the PM by PNU legislators who are saying that the whole Ocampo thing has been orchestrated by a presidential candidate who wants to clear away competitors for the high office ahead of the 2012 polls.
But some PNU supporters have confused the issue even further by claiming that William Ruto and Henry Kosgei’s defense will implicate Raila. Actually, insiders have revealed shocking details to this blogger of what exactly happened at the height of the post election skirmishes. Interestingly these insiders were close supporters of Ruto. From what they say, Raila did not play any role in the skirmishes. If anything he annoyed Kalenjins greatly by “being scared.”
I found the following two statements from some of those I spoke to fascinatingly revealing;
“When things got really hot, Raila was scared but Ruto was excited and wanted war.”
“Kenyans have forgotten that if it hadn’t been for Ruto’s bravery and that of the Kalenjin’s Kibaki’s election theft would have been allowed to stand and today ODM would be in the opposition and Raila would be a nobody. Instead Raila flys around the world on government money and gets his toilet paper paid for by the state while spitting on the faces of Kalenjins.
So what really happened in those dark days following the bedroom swearing in of Mwai Kibaki after a stolen presidential election?
According to information from the same insiders and those who were on the ground then, Ruto was swept along in the Kalenjin wave of the time and could do very little to resist. The community was fed up with the Kibaki presidency like most Kenyans but had also been deeply incited against the Kikuyu community by the ODM campaigns. Without doubt a Raila victory would have appeased the community somewhat (although evictions would still have take place but probably with much less blood being spilt). But when Kibaki stole the presidential elections it handed the community the perfect “excuse” to let loose their anger.” Even if Ruto had refused to swim with the wave (and being a politician battling for his political survival against political veterans with much deeper pockets like the Mois, this was highly unlikely) nothing much would have changed. And so the Eldoret North MP had to sing the tune of the mob and he rose to the occasion magnificently. There is no doubt that the bloody violence unleashed in the Rift Valley that continued to spread was what finally brought the stubborn Mwai Kibaki and his PNU diehards to their knees and onto the negotiation table.
Contrary to what many PNU supporters think, calling for mass action is NOT a crime against humanity. Neither is calling for civil disobedience. The PM and his high command are on record for doing both. Having said this, rather than the Ocampo prosecutions smoothing the way for a Raila presidency it has in fact complicated matters considerably. For all intents and purposes it will cause him to lose the whole of the Rift Valley and vast areas of Central province, (with or without Kibaki’s nod) two constituencies that any victorious presidential candidate cannot do without.
It is interesting to note that Uhuru Kenyatta’s first reaction to being named in the Ocampo 6 was that the whole thing was of no consequence. That is certainly not true. Just watch the damage being named on that list will do to all six politicians in the next 6 months. Of course Ruto will be elevated to the status of his famous namesake, Koitalel arap Samoei amongst the Kalenjin community, but that in itself will completely destroy any shred of a national image this so-called presidential candidate had. In other words he is finished politically irrespective of what verdict emerges from the Hague.
P.S. Francis Atwoli is without doubt a presidential candidate for 2012. A misplaced one at that. Plenty of proof for that but the latest is the careless statements he is now making calling the Ocampo 6 heroes (Mashujaa) in a cheap vain attempt to attract the Kalenjin and Kikuyu vote for his presidency. Even if he was a serious candidate I don’t want to elect a president who misuses the word Mashujaa so badly….
Affordable place to go for the Christmas holidays and get treated like a king
Fascinatingly interesting comment in the previous post:
Anonymous said...
some said that kumekucha is dead, yet so many articles in various kenyan newspapers and what have you are beginning to regurgitate posts and comments that have appeared on kumekucha in the last couple of months. mmmmmm. it's very difficult to fool the public all the time.
But now it seems that recent political developments are confirming it more and more by the day and I can’t help but revisit what I have been told and look at it next to recent happenings.The information is that PM Raila Odinga has made a deal with Mwai Kibaki that he will support the fight to keep the latter away from any Hague prosecution (even after he leaves the presidency in 2012) and in return the president will mobilize the support of Central province to back Raila to the hilt for the presidency in 2012. That supposedly 2012 winning team will consist of Raila as President and Uhuru as his running mate and Vice president.
Let me first repeat what I have said here in this blog many times. Raila Odinga’s contributions to Kenya are considerable but he will never be president of Kenya. He is probably one of the best presidents Kenya will never have. Sadly he won the 2007 elections and should be serving as President right now. But alas his chance has passed. In the next general elections Kenyans will elect a fresh crop of people who have mostly never been in mainstream politics again, starting from the president. This determination to give the motherland a real fresh start with the new constitution is gathering momentum by the day and will be unstoppable by the time we go to the polls. But that is a story for another day and another controversial post. For now the most tell tale sign that there could have been a deal is the strange behaviour of ODN after Ocampo released his list.
An official statement from the ODM high command and parliamentary group shortly after the Ocampo 6 was named drowned in all the hype and noise” from PNU operatives. However the statement speaks volumes and explains why there seems to be a deafening silence from ODM members.
The carefully worded statement expressed solidarity with the Ocampo 6 including William Ruto who has fallen out badly with the party chairman in recent months. Individuals within the party who have always advocated for a Hague solution have been strangely quiet.
So as ODM and it’s leading lights changed their minds about the Hague being the best chance to strike a mortal blow on old man impunity?
Even stranger is the fact that despite the ODM MPs have failed to respond to thinly veiled attacks at the PM by PNU legislators who are saying that the whole Ocampo thing has been orchestrated by a presidential candidate who wants to clear away competitors for the high office ahead of the 2012 polls.
But some PNU supporters have confused the issue even further by claiming that William Ruto and Henry Kosgei’s defense will implicate Raila. Actually, insiders have revealed shocking details to this blogger of what exactly happened at the height of the post election skirmishes. Interestingly these insiders were close supporters of Ruto. From what they say, Raila did not play any role in the skirmishes. If anything he annoyed Kalenjins greatly by “being scared.”
I found the following two statements from some of those I spoke to fascinatingly revealing;
“When things got really hot, Raila was scared but Ruto was excited and wanted war.”
“Kenyans have forgotten that if it hadn’t been for Ruto’s bravery and that of the Kalenjin’s Kibaki’s election theft would have been allowed to stand and today ODM would be in the opposition and Raila would be a nobody. Instead Raila flys around the world on government money and gets his toilet paper paid for by the state while spitting on the faces of Kalenjins.
So what really happened in those dark days following the bedroom swearing in of Mwai Kibaki after a stolen presidential election?
According to information from the same insiders and those who were on the ground then, Ruto was swept along in the Kalenjin wave of the time and could do very little to resist. The community was fed up with the Kibaki presidency like most Kenyans but had also been deeply incited against the Kikuyu community by the ODM campaigns. Without doubt a Raila victory would have appeased the community somewhat (although evictions would still have take place but probably with much less blood being spilt). But when Kibaki stole the presidential elections it handed the community the perfect “excuse” to let loose their anger.” Even if Ruto had refused to swim with the wave (and being a politician battling for his political survival against political veterans with much deeper pockets like the Mois, this was highly unlikely) nothing much would have changed. And so the Eldoret North MP had to sing the tune of the mob and he rose to the occasion magnificently. There is no doubt that the bloody violence unleashed in the Rift Valley that continued to spread was what finally brought the stubborn Mwai Kibaki and his PNU diehards to their knees and onto the negotiation table.
Contrary to what many PNU supporters think, calling for mass action is NOT a crime against humanity. Neither is calling for civil disobedience. The PM and his high command are on record for doing both. Having said this, rather than the Ocampo prosecutions smoothing the way for a Raila presidency it has in fact complicated matters considerably. For all intents and purposes it will cause him to lose the whole of the Rift Valley and vast areas of Central province, (with or without Kibaki’s nod) two constituencies that any victorious presidential candidate cannot do without.
It is interesting to note that Uhuru Kenyatta’s first reaction to being named in the Ocampo 6 was that the whole thing was of no consequence. That is certainly not true. Just watch the damage being named on that list will do to all six politicians in the next 6 months. Of course Ruto will be elevated to the status of his famous namesake, Koitalel arap Samoei amongst the Kalenjin community, but that in itself will completely destroy any shred of a national image this so-called presidential candidate had. In other words he is finished politically irrespective of what verdict emerges from the Hague.
P.S. Francis Atwoli is without doubt a presidential candidate for 2012. A misplaced one at that. Plenty of proof for that but the latest is the careless statements he is now making calling the Ocampo 6 heroes (Mashujaa) in a cheap vain attempt to attract the Kalenjin and Kikuyu vote for his presidency. Even if he was a serious candidate I don’t want to elect a president who misuses the word Mashujaa so badly….
Affordable place to go for the Christmas holidays and get treated like a king
Fascinatingly interesting comment in the previous post:
Anonymous said...
some said that kumekucha is dead, yet so many articles in various kenyan newspapers and what have you are beginning to regurgitate posts and comments that have appeared on kumekucha in the last couple of months. mmmmmm. it's very difficult to fool the public all the time.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Jomo Kenyatta Biography: Little Known Amazing Facts
Many available Jomo Kenyatta biography articles and book chapters omit some fascinating and yet embarrassing aspects concerning Kenya’s founding father. One of the amazing little known facts is that there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Jomo Kenyatta may have had a serious drinking problem in his early years.
This would partly explain why when he stopped drinking in 1920, he announced his decision before witnesses. Actually he was accused by the church of two “sinful” crimes, namely marrying without Church rites and drinking liquor. He pleaded guilty to both and solemnly promised to reform. He was further ordered to get married before a European magistrate. The strict church then finally accepted him back in 1923 (after about 3 years of carefully observing him) and in being accepted back at a ceremony Jomo promised to refrain from liquor for the rest of his life (a promise he did not keep).
It would appear that his life looked up considerably after he stopped taking alcohol. For instance he turned part of his Dagoretti home into a provision shop which he called Kinyata Store. Then in 1922 he went on to secure a job at Shs 250 per month (an absolute fortune in those days when a blanket cost less than 50 cents) as stores clerk and water meter reader with Nairobi Municipal Council where John Cook who was his protégé at the church was Water Superintendent. The colonials considered Kikuyus thieves and murderers in those days and this kind of profiling prevented many of them from getting jobs that required very trustworthy people like a stores clerk or meter reader. There is little doubt that the only reason Kenyatta got this opportunity was because of the influence of John Cook and his link with the church at Thogoto for a long time.
Kenyatta bought a motorbike and also built a house at Dagoretti in the same year (1922). He went on to start an active role in politics by becoming a member of the Kikuyu Central Association in the same year. Interestingly the meter-reading job exposed Kenyatta considerably and he met many Asians who would later be key allies and supporters including the owner of the printing press who went on to print his newspaper, Mwigwithania.
With this kind of background it is not surprising that in the speech I carried earlier in this chapter, he spoke out so strongly against the taking of alcohol.
So the question we must busy ourselves with answering now is how this meek old man of the church turn into the feared president everybody wants to remember? Young folks change all the time but Kenyatta was at least 68 years old when he became Kenya’s first prime Minister. How does such an old man change from what he has been all his life?
(excerpts from the amazing book; Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency. Scroll down to the bottom of this page and get this important book NOW for FREE. No Kidding).
This would partly explain why when he stopped drinking in 1920, he announced his decision before witnesses. Actually he was accused by the church of two “sinful” crimes, namely marrying without Church rites and drinking liquor. He pleaded guilty to both and solemnly promised to reform. He was further ordered to get married before a European magistrate. The strict church then finally accepted him back in 1923 (after about 3 years of carefully observing him) and in being accepted back at a ceremony Jomo promised to refrain from liquor for the rest of his life (a promise he did not keep).
It would appear that his life looked up considerably after he stopped taking alcohol. For instance he turned part of his Dagoretti home into a provision shop which he called Kinyata Store. Then in 1922 he went on to secure a job at Shs 250 per month (an absolute fortune in those days when a blanket cost less than 50 cents) as stores clerk and water meter reader with Nairobi Municipal Council where John Cook who was his protégé at the church was Water Superintendent. The colonials considered Kikuyus thieves and murderers in those days and this kind of profiling prevented many of them from getting jobs that required very trustworthy people like a stores clerk or meter reader. There is little doubt that the only reason Kenyatta got this opportunity was because of the influence of John Cook and his link with the church at Thogoto for a long time.
Kenyatta bought a motorbike and also built a house at Dagoretti in the same year (1922). He went on to start an active role in politics by becoming a member of the Kikuyu Central Association in the same year. Interestingly the meter-reading job exposed Kenyatta considerably and he met many Asians who would later be key allies and supporters including the owner of the printing press who went on to print his newspaper, Mwigwithania.
With this kind of background it is not surprising that in the speech I carried earlier in this chapter, he spoke out so strongly against the taking of alcohol.
So the question we must busy ourselves with answering now is how this meek old man of the church turn into the feared president everybody wants to remember? Young folks change all the time but Kenyatta was at least 68 years old when he became Kenya’s first prime Minister. How does such an old man change from what he has been all his life?
(excerpts from the amazing book; Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency. Scroll down to the bottom of this page and get this important book NOW for FREE. No Kidding).
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Saturday, December 18, 2010
SUCCESS: Thank you for ordering your free copy of Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency
SUCCESS: Thank you for ordering your free copy of Dark Secrets of the Kenyan Presidency
You will receive an email from me in a few minutes where you will have to validate email (just follow the simple instructions). This is to confirm that you really ordered the information from me.
YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RECEIVE YOUR BOOK WITHOUT FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THAT EMAIL THAT I AM SENDING YOU, SO PLEASE BE PATIENT AND WAIT FOR IT
If you do not receive it after a few minutes please check your email spam folder.
If you still have difficulties please feel free to write directly to me at kumekuchaspecialoffers@gmail.com. Make sure you describe the problem in as much detail as you possibly can.
You will receive an email from me in a few minutes where you will have to validate email (just follow the simple instructions). This is to confirm that you really ordered the information from me.
YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RECEIVE YOUR BOOK WITHOUT FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THAT EMAIL THAT I AM SENDING YOU, SO PLEASE BE PATIENT AND WAIT FOR IT
If you do not receive it after a few minutes please check your email spam folder.
If you still have difficulties please feel free to write directly to me at kumekuchaspecialoffers@gmail.com. Make sure you describe the problem in as much detail as you possibly can.
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