By Adongo Ogony
It looks like we are going to need a Commission of Inquiry into the Goldenberg Inquiry. Can you believe that? Welcome to the strange world of the Narc regime.
I don’t know what is more annoying. The Kibaki government appealing against the court order to get Moi to testify or the charade of LDP and Kanu politicians defending Moi and telling him to defy the order.
As soon as the court ruling was announced last week, the Attorney General, Amos Wako, the chief legal advisor to the president and the man charged with the duty of protecting us from thieves and other bad people moved to court to appeal against the court order. What does this mean? It means the very government, which is investigating the Goldenberg scam, does not want to talk to Moi, who is the second most important figure on the inquiry after Pattni. Go figure.
Actually the government can solve this easy. Since they don’t want to cross examine Moi, why not bring him to the inquiry and tell him to go home. That will satisfy the court order. The order does not specify what questions to ask him. Just ask him a few things, how his chicken and goats are doing in Kabarak and let the man walk. Then bring in Saitoti and ask him how his ostrich farm is coming along and tell him to go back to Jogoo House and run our schools. Why the hassle of going to court and wasting Wako’s precise time. The court is trying to marry two partners who don’t want to get married. Even in forced marriages, one party must be at least interested. The government does not want to question Moi and Moi doesn’t want to talk to them. End of story.
The LDP and Kanu are playing simple tribal politics for the Kalenjin vote and it is despicable. But the political picture is much more complicated than that.
I have a solution for this morass called Goldenberg. First Moi should be arrested and charged with grand theft of public funds. The Bosire commission has provided enough evidence for that. Whether he goes to give evidence at the inquiry or not doesn’t matter, in fact it is in his interest to do so.
Moi should be formally charged in a court of law based on public evidence that we all know. I was asking if we have a citizen’s arrest in Kenya so that a group of Kenyans should apprehend the former president and take him to court. The man should be defending himself in court of law not in public rallies.
If we cannot do that then stop fooling around spending probably billions of shillings chasing bad money with good money. Between Khaminwa and Kamau Kuria alone we must have spent hundreds of millions. The two were reportedly given 15 million each as a signing bonus in a secret deal with the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs. Remember the one they give professional athletes. Yap that is what we gave the two heavies to help us get our money back and they make a million each a month and they have been at it for what 24 months and counting and at the end of the day President Kibaki will get a report which, if the past is anything to go by, he will safely put under lock and do nothing.
I am sure very soon somebody or some group are going to go to court to file private charges against the ex-president if the government doesn’t want to deal with him.
Yes we can and should make a deal with Moi, but trying to pretend he did nothing wrong is insulting our collective memory as Kenyans. I for one see nothing to be gained by putting the ex president in prison. But please spare us the crap that we should respect the office of the president. My advice, yes respect the office while you are still holding it and we will respect you when you leave, but if you abuse and misuse the office don’t talk to us about respect.
Moi handed over power and that bought him a lot of political capital. Kenyans respect that and I have said many times in that regard he did a lot better than Kibaki and his crew who refused to give us a new constitution even after delegates at Bomas threw out their demands.
Let Moi return the cash and chota some land for the public good and then we can spare him the humiliation of spending his last years in Kamiti.
But that really is not the story. The real story is that the Goldenberg Inquiry is a farce. The Kibaki people realized they made a huge mistake right from the moment they started the Inquiry and have been going through the motions when they absolutely have no intention of holding anybody accountable. I mean Saitoti is one of the key suspects in the whole saga and yet he remains a key figure in Kibaki’s cabinet. He (Saitoti) bought his place their and is one of the money men for NAK, making him untouchable.
People should understand something about Kibaki and his government. For them appearance is more important than substance. They think as long as they make Kenyans believe that something is being done, it really doesn’t matter that nothing is actually being done.
The genesis of the fake Inquiry dates back right when Kibaki took power. Once the DP wing of Narc decided they were going to hoard power and screw everybody up, they realized they are going to need Kanu. At the same time the LDP upon realizing they had been conned by the DP tricksters started to get cozy with Kanu. In my assessment the split in Narc is the best gift our politicians gave Moi and Kanu and the rest is history.
Everything that is messed up in the country goes back to fallout between DP and LDP. That is why we cannot get a new constitution, it also the reason the Truth Justice and Reconciliation initiative is dead and buried. When this problem started most Kenyans dismissed and even ridiculed LDP’s complains about the MoU. Sadly that MoU will have a lot to do with the Kibaki legacy, which looks pretty, messed up right now. Everyone is chasing the Kanu vote, even in parliament and the one untouchable figure in Kanu is Moi, forget Uhuru and Biwott.
The other reality is that the Narc regime is just as corrupt as the Moi regime. After the Anglo Leasing saga and stalled Ndungu report we know now for sure that the war against corruption has died a natural death. The only thing happening is that a lot of people are making a lot of money pretending to be fighting corruption. The anti-corruption industry is in full bloom and the people well connected with the powers that be are swimming in the gravy train all the way to the bank. At the rate we are going we are going to need hundreds of inquiries to unmask the great Kenyan tragedy – the unmitigated theft of public resources by the mighty and the powerful.
Did your hear about a month ago Githongo saying the Anglo Leasing report is just about to be released. Expect the same announcement a few months from now. We have absolute jokers and reckless mercenaries running the affairs of the nation and it is not funny. But there is always the ballot box. It beats the courts any day.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
In Solidarity With Mirlande Demers...
Story by Onyango Oloo, Kenya Democracy Project & Host, DUNIA Show, CKUT 90.3 FM, Montreal
Mirlande Demers is 23 years old. She also has 8 years of international development work experience having been on placements and assignments in such diverse places like Indonesia, Brazil, Haiti and Senegal. From her early trips when she was still a teenager in high school to her last foray in West Africa as an independent and very organized youth coordinator of interns, Mirlande has always kept her eyes on the social justice prize of making a difference as a person acutely aware of Northern privileges and Southern marginalization that has been exacerbated by some of side- effects of globalization.
A woman of African descent, Mirlande was born in Haiti and later adopted by a white francophone couple in Quebec.
Ms.Demers is currently confined to a wheel chair. She suffers from chronic pain, anxiety attacks, insomnia and terrible flashbacks.
Her malaise arises out of a horrific ordeal when she was brutally gang raped in the Senegalese capital Dakar, as she was about to walk into her apartment following a full busy meeting filled day at her NGO office. She has been struggling not just physically and psychologically, but financially and materially as well.
At the time of her rape nightmare, she was the Youth Coordinator of a group of seven interns working under the auspices of an NGO based in Victoriaville, Quebec called Solidarité Nord-Sud des Bois-Francs. Shockingly, that organization offered very little support to Mirlande after the incident. She also hit a lot of brick walls weaving through the CSST bureaucracy (this is the Quebec agency that regulates occupational health and safety) finding herself having to convince officials that she could not have been raped if she was not WORKING for the NGO in question.
Some of the frustrations she has undergone have made her question to what extent are these hurdles linked to the colour of her skin.
The publicity click here and here as well as here surrounding her case has led to petitions currently underway by the National Anti-Racism Youth Network of Canada and
this letter of solidarity signed by high profile Quebec and Canadian civil society figures such as these.
Michèle Asselin, présidente
Fédération des femmes du Québec
Nicole Filion, présidente
Ligue des droits et des libertés du Québec
Michel Frenette, directeur général
Amnistie internationale, section canadienne francophone
Amir Khadir, porte-parole
Coalition des médecins pour la justice sociale
Gervais Lheureux, directeur général
SUCO
Monique Simard, présidente
Alternatives
Carole Tremblay, coordonnatrice
Regroupement québécois des centres d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel (CALACS)
On Sunday, November 28, 2004, Onyango Oloo, the producer and host of the weekly DUNIA show which airs Wednesday mornings on Montreal's CKUT 90.3 FM hooked up with Mirlande Demers for an interview.
Here is a link to that conversation .
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Kisauni: A Wake Up Call For NAK
Adongo Ogony
The NAK bullies are completely in disarray. The big mouth Mungatana has been abusing people and yapping about whipping the LDP in Kisauni when he promised they would hide in a Saddam hole when the fight begins. Guess who is digging himself a Saddam hole right now. The little twit is almost in tears pleading with the Narc big wigs not to clear Hassan Joho the LDP candidate who trounced the competition in Kisauni with more then 4,000 votes, with his closest rival, also LDP getting about 2,000 votes. Mungatana has threatened to defect if Joho is cleared to run on a Narc. I wonder which party is going to accept the irritant from Garsen.
The sad part is that Mungatana is now reduced to supporting another LDP candidate Mr. Mwamboza who came second in the race. Murungaru’s candidate of choice Mrs Alice Maitha was humiliated with 177 votes. Essentially the LDP took over 80% of the votes in Kisauni.
Is this important? You bet it is. The LDP is already very strong in Mombasa and in the coast province as a whole. NAK needed to show some life and some fighting spirit by at least making a strong showing. Instead they were whipped and blown off the radar. Now they have to leave with their tails between their legs. Looks good on them, doesn’t it? The big man in the coast Mr. Mwakwere has been a no show; he knows how much he is hated in Mombasa, particularly after the Iraq kidnapping fiasco when he made a complete fool of himself and embarrassed the country. At this rate NAK may have to cede the coast to the LDP and that is bad news for Kibaki and his folks.
The second reason this doesn’t look good for NAK is the level of defeat. The guys were trounced. It would appear the people of Kisauni gave NAK the Kanu treatment of 2002 where merely being associated with Kanu meant defeat. Nobody in Kisauni wanted to touch anything to do with NAK. That is not good for the big boys. If Kenyans begin to actively hate NAK as a party of arrogant power maniacs it can be a disaster for the party come 2007. The NAK people need to sit back and reflect on where they are going instead of just riding on Kibaki’s coattail and tagging a long as the party of the president.
Third the NAK house is in shambles. The DP crew in power is alienating everybody. They have Musikari Kombo by the neck and may lure him with a VP slot if Kibaki is still alive and strong enough to contest in 2007, but if Kibaki is unable to go, nobody will work with the DP and in fact their options for a presidential candidate will be reduced to zero. I mean who is going to vote for Kiraitu, Murungaru, Muite or Saitoti for the presidency. Saitoti may stand a chance (forget the Goldenberg charges, everybody is walking free) because he may bring in the old Moi network to help the DP but still without Kibaki the DP is dead. They have made sure of that themselves with their arrogance and lack of strategic thinking. Good riddance.
And then there is the war with Ngilu and the whole issue of the so-called Kamba vote. Ngilu won’t stick with DP if Kibaki is not in the picture. Already she is peeved with the humiliation the DP power barons brewed for her over the NSHIF bill.
All put together Kisauni is an indicator of what NAK/DP may face in many parts of the country come the next general election.
In terms of quality of candidates that is another story altogether. I don’t know Hassan Joho from Adam but we have been told he is a Mombasa tycoon. I don’t know if that is good or bad. I doubt he is any different from the other candidates, but heck my good friend Mwandawiro campaigned very hard for him and almost got smashed by thugs sent by their rivals. If there is one politician I trust in Kenya it is Mwandawiro.
By the way what is up with Maitha’s former bodyguard, Nyonga Wa Makemba, who was supposed to be Mungatana’s horse in the race. He is reported to have been arrested with a carload of crude weapons. What the heck are the crude weapons? Are these leftovers from the weapons used in tribal cleansing where his boss was implicated? That fella ought to spend some time in jail. Mungatana can visit him there. They deserve each other.
The other interesting aspect of this is the simple brilliance of the LDP strategy. They started badly with the usual chest-thumping saying they will get their own candidate. Then they realized it is in their favour to run an LDP candidate against anybody NAK could come up with and front a Narc candidate from the LDP. Now they have put NAK in a pickle. First they exposed NAK’s incredible unpopularity in the coast. Now if NAK buckles and go with their own candidate who will Murungaru expel from the Narc government? Mungatana? NAK’s other problem apart from the arrogance of power is that there is too much talk and too little thinking. That is always a recipe for disaster. The nation is watching and we are awake.
To my friends Mungatana and Murungaru; how about a generous dose of humble pie and some relaxation at the beaches. I am just trying to help and it is in good faith. To the LDP; don’t blow it now acting up. Work hard and win the seat and organize your party in every single constituency it is going to be a war of attrition come 2007. Kisauni ni kionjo tu.
The NAK bullies are completely in disarray. The big mouth Mungatana has been abusing people and yapping about whipping the LDP in Kisauni when he promised they would hide in a Saddam hole when the fight begins. Guess who is digging himself a Saddam hole right now. The little twit is almost in tears pleading with the Narc big wigs not to clear Hassan Joho the LDP candidate who trounced the competition in Kisauni with more then 4,000 votes, with his closest rival, also LDP getting about 2,000 votes. Mungatana has threatened to defect if Joho is cleared to run on a Narc. I wonder which party is going to accept the irritant from Garsen.
The sad part is that Mungatana is now reduced to supporting another LDP candidate Mr. Mwamboza who came second in the race. Murungaru’s candidate of choice Mrs Alice Maitha was humiliated with 177 votes. Essentially the LDP took over 80% of the votes in Kisauni.
Is this important? You bet it is. The LDP is already very strong in Mombasa and in the coast province as a whole. NAK needed to show some life and some fighting spirit by at least making a strong showing. Instead they were whipped and blown off the radar. Now they have to leave with their tails between their legs. Looks good on them, doesn’t it? The big man in the coast Mr. Mwakwere has been a no show; he knows how much he is hated in Mombasa, particularly after the Iraq kidnapping fiasco when he made a complete fool of himself and embarrassed the country. At this rate NAK may have to cede the coast to the LDP and that is bad news for Kibaki and his folks.
The second reason this doesn’t look good for NAK is the level of defeat. The guys were trounced. It would appear the people of Kisauni gave NAK the Kanu treatment of 2002 where merely being associated with Kanu meant defeat. Nobody in Kisauni wanted to touch anything to do with NAK. That is not good for the big boys. If Kenyans begin to actively hate NAK as a party of arrogant power maniacs it can be a disaster for the party come 2007. The NAK people need to sit back and reflect on where they are going instead of just riding on Kibaki’s coattail and tagging a long as the party of the president.
Third the NAK house is in shambles. The DP crew in power is alienating everybody. They have Musikari Kombo by the neck and may lure him with a VP slot if Kibaki is still alive and strong enough to contest in 2007, but if Kibaki is unable to go, nobody will work with the DP and in fact their options for a presidential candidate will be reduced to zero. I mean who is going to vote for Kiraitu, Murungaru, Muite or Saitoti for the presidency. Saitoti may stand a chance (forget the Goldenberg charges, everybody is walking free) because he may bring in the old Moi network to help the DP but still without Kibaki the DP is dead. They have made sure of that themselves with their arrogance and lack of strategic thinking. Good riddance.
And then there is the war with Ngilu and the whole issue of the so-called Kamba vote. Ngilu won’t stick with DP if Kibaki is not in the picture. Already she is peeved with the humiliation the DP power barons brewed for her over the NSHIF bill.
All put together Kisauni is an indicator of what NAK/DP may face in many parts of the country come the next general election.
In terms of quality of candidates that is another story altogether. I don’t know Hassan Joho from Adam but we have been told he is a Mombasa tycoon. I don’t know if that is good or bad. I doubt he is any different from the other candidates, but heck my good friend Mwandawiro campaigned very hard for him and almost got smashed by thugs sent by their rivals. If there is one politician I trust in Kenya it is Mwandawiro.
By the way what is up with Maitha’s former bodyguard, Nyonga Wa Makemba, who was supposed to be Mungatana’s horse in the race. He is reported to have been arrested with a carload of crude weapons. What the heck are the crude weapons? Are these leftovers from the weapons used in tribal cleansing where his boss was implicated? That fella ought to spend some time in jail. Mungatana can visit him there. They deserve each other.
The other interesting aspect of this is the simple brilliance of the LDP strategy. They started badly with the usual chest-thumping saying they will get their own candidate. Then they realized it is in their favour to run an LDP candidate against anybody NAK could come up with and front a Narc candidate from the LDP. Now they have put NAK in a pickle. First they exposed NAK’s incredible unpopularity in the coast. Now if NAK buckles and go with their own candidate who will Murungaru expel from the Narc government? Mungatana? NAK’s other problem apart from the arrogance of power is that there is too much talk and too little thinking. That is always a recipe for disaster. The nation is watching and we are awake.
To my friends Mungatana and Murungaru; how about a generous dose of humble pie and some relaxation at the beaches. I am just trying to help and it is in good faith. To the LDP; don’t blow it now acting up. Work hard and win the seat and organize your party in every single constituency it is going to be a war of attrition come 2007. Kisauni ni kionjo tu.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Is Raila Ready To Join Kibaki In Betraying Kenyans?
By Adongo Ogony
I don’t know if it is just me, but sometimes don’t people just feel like giving our MPs a good old whipping on the buttocks. You remember the type you got once in a while in those days when your dad/mum or the crazy teacher just couldn’t take any more stupidity from you. I am calling for mass flogging of our MPs at Uhuru Park. We will start with the PSC members who over the weekend schemed together to rob our country of the promise for a new democratic constitution. First on the flogging line will be Raila, followed by Muruingi then Ruto before we get to Njoki Ndungu. I don’t know what we will do with Nyachae. I would hate to ask an old man to remove their trousers and get a whipping, but it looks like we have no choice.
The reason I am bringing this whipping business with our MPs is that they lie to us today, we catch them, they retract and promise to do better then we turn around and they are lying again. I am talking about this obsession to make a constitution for Kibaki and now with Raila and his crew in tow. These guys keep telling us everyday that a constitution cannot be made for one man, in these case a bunch of aging politicians, then we catch them trying to sneak a quick one past us, they retreat and come up with the same old foolish plan. Enough.
Lets be clear about what happened in Naivasha at the PSC fiesta, which is reported to have cost Kenyan taxpayers a cool Kshs 10 million. Raila and his LDP people have agreed to shut up about supporting the Bomas Draft Constitution, betray Wanjiku and play ball with the big boys from State House. It is as simple as that.
The result is that the democratic people-driven constitutional process is effectively dead and buried. We have been hijacked in mid air by constitutional terrorists known as MPs. Where is George Bush when you need him? The entire decade of patriotic struggles for a new constitutional dispensation will come to nought or may be not if there is still some fight in Kenyans. This is a replica of the IPPG deal of 1997 when politicians, incidentally the same Kibaki/Raila combo, betrayed the campaign to usher in a new constitution before the elections. The politicians from all parties held their secret meetings and hatched up the fake and useless IPPG reform whose purpose was to sustain the constitutional status quo. What happened in Naivasha is the exact same thing except its implications are going to be much more profound.
The deal between the political parties is to take the Bomas Draft, mutilate it beyond recognition then come up with a bogus new constitution to sustain the system of presidential dictatorship and keep the one man rule going for the next twenty years or so until Kenyans get mad again and start another decade of constitutional wars. By then most of these folks will be dead and may be keeping Satan company in the bad house.
Finally the Kibaki people have struck a compromise with the Raila people with Kanu and the CKRC hanger-rounds cheering them on and we are being told the earth is flat once again and we should rejoice. Well these guys are in for a big surprise because Kenyans are going to see through their petty schemes and smoke them out faster than they ever imagined.
Their big promise to Kenyans now is that we will hold the 2007 elections under a new constitution. But they forgot to tell you two important things. One is that they don’t want the referendum held anytime soon because it might turn out to be a referendum on President Kibaki and his Narc team which has failed Kenyans in just about everything they promised to get elected including a new constitution in 100 days. So it is fine to float the vague promise of a new constitution by 2007. That is five years later than what the same politicians promised us in 2002. Why should we believe them now? The second thing they forgot to tell you is that with all the changes the MPs want to make to the Bomas Draft, Kenyans will end up with the same old constitution if not worse.
The dilemma the Kibaki boys have here is that they don’t want the referendum to be done in the middle of the Kibaki reign of confusion, particularly given the fact that Kibaki and his people told the CKRC one thing in 2000 while on the campaign trail and today say the exact opposite. There is fear that some cheeky fellas might develop a simple campaign of asking Kenyans, which Kibaki do they trust? The one of 2000 who wanted executive powers disbursed or the one of 2004 who wants all powers in his hands? At the same time they are terrified that come 2007 and Kenyans do not have the constitution Kibaki and company promised them, we will be ready to toss the Kibaki crew right into the political dustbin for lying to us and trying to con us again five years later. They are going to try to dance around that for a while.
I have been warning Kenyans for some time that we cannot trust politicians to give us a new constitution. In fact the biggest problem we have in the country today is this illusion that some government or leader will give us a democratic constitution. The mere fact that we have something called the Bomas Draft shows us that we have only been able to make progress when we fought the leaders not when we followed them.
The trouble with the Naivasha schemers is that they don’t understand that we cannot grab the Bomas Draft and remove chunks here and there and still have a comprehensive leave alone a new constitution.
Lets take the case of the Senate. The MPs say they have to squash that proposal because it is too expensive to the Kenyan taxpayer. I wish the MPs could have thought about taxpayers when they hiked their pay and benefits to the obscene levels they are today. Nobody is going to take the greedy bunch in parliament seriously when they start talking about saving taxpayers money. We know there are other issues at play. I have an idea. Why not cut the MPs pay in half and use the other half to pay the senators. They will still get about Kshs 400,000.00 per month with benefits. How many of them can even get half that in the real job market?
On the Senate issue, I for one think we don’t need it but we must remember one of its major objectives was to promote equity in political representation specifically to have more women representatives, although judging by the mercenary behaviour of our more famous women MPs I am beginning to wonder whether the elite bunch of women often nominated by the politicians really represent the interests of the working and poor women of our country, but that is another story. The proposed Senate required a designated women representation, which was seen as the only way to bring more women into the fold. If we do away with the Senate we have to come with another mechanism to still achieve the objective of enhancing women representation in the single National Assembly. That means we have to go back and negotiate with the women groups and civil society who made these proposals and come up with something acceptable to them. It is not a matter of what Kivutha, Njoki or Nyachae wants. Then we have to figure what other roles the Senate was meant to play and work around it.
For example the Senate was also meant to be a counter-balance for the activities and decisions of the National Assembly. The way this works in a place like the US is that before Congress passes a bill, they have to figure out if the Senate will approve it and that becomes a tool to moderate what the Senate does. So when we remove the Senate we have to come up with how we will be able to moderate the decisions of the National Assembly, which, has in the past put our country and peoples at great risk. We have to proceed carefully and avoid the cut and paste madness that the constitutional thieves of the PSC want to drag us into.
The ordinary Kenyans must have confidence that this is their constitution, otherwise we leave these people with no alternative but to mobilize support to reject the Wabunge Draft constitution and as unpopular as parliamentarians are I would advice them to be very careful. If they turn this into a confrontation between parliament and the wananchi things might get very dramatic. This is the dilemma these politicians are getting themselves into. Just because Kiraitu is in agreement with Raila does not mean it is the end of the world and everybody else is going to shut up.
Then we have the two centres of power myth. If our MPs think the Bomas Draft will bring a problem of the so-called two centres of power, they cannot just lock themselves up in the hotels and manufacture half-baked solutions. The Kenyan people told you what they want. They want to disburse power not to concentrate it. If you have problems with the Bomas formulation for that disbursement of power come back to us and negotiate with us for a new format. We told you we are fed up with the era of the superman who is baba na mama. If you keep imposing the imperial presidency on Kenyans we will throw out your draft at the referendum. There is nothing Kenyans hate more than a one-man rule and if you are not convinced, try us.
The MPs are telling us they will use parliament to impeach the president if they are doing bad things. That is what Oloo Aringo said after the Naivasha feast. That is their check and balance so according to them, we should not worry about increasing the powers of the president including that of appointing and dismissing the bogus PM. Very convincing isn’t?
Just a few questions I want to I put to our MPs. What stopped you from passing a vote of no confidence in our past two leaders who did more than just bad things? You had the power to do so under the present constitution. Why couldn’t you do something? Because you are all impotent before the president whom the MPs worship for favours and for a little power themselves. Look the way everybody including the alleged tough LDP crew are bending backwards to accommodate Kibaki. How can we trust you to protect us from Kibaki when we can see you are desperate to give him his own constitution instead of giving Kenyans what they asked for which you supported before you came to power?
In the history of our country not once have our MPs risen to challenge the president even when presidents were committing mass crimes against Kenyans. Well occasionally they make tough sounding declarations in funerals but have their tails between the legs as soon as they are back in parliament. You have watched political assassinations and murder cutting short the lives of some of our most popular leaders and you did absolutely nothing, in fact some of you have been accused of being accomplishes.
You gave Kanu its one party without even a single dissenting voice. You watched as Goldenberg destroyed our economy and lined up for money from the masterminds. You were part and parcel of the murderous clashes. You turned away and said nothing when human rights activists were rotting in the torture chambers at Nyayo House, in Naivasha and elsewhere. You promised Kenyans a Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission probably more out of guilt than commitment and now you conspire with our former tormentors to get your “new” constitution. How dare you promise us protection from your king? Do you think we are that dumb?
Why should we trust that our MPs will this time around rise to the occasion when the president messes up and tuff him out. Are we going to import our MPs from another country or is it going to be the same old corrupt and selfish Kenyan MPs?
Let me say one more thing about the MPs proposed distribution of executive authority. You want a presidential system of government and you still want a parliament with a toothless PM who “coordinates” ministerial activities. Imagine this telephone conversation.
Prime Minister: “ Bwana Kamunda nimekuja kwako lakini si kupata, uko wapi”
Minister Kamunda: “ Bwana PM unafanya nini ofisini mwangu”
Prime Minister: “ Minister I am here to coordinate your work, didn’t you hear the president gave me the job to coordinate ministries”
Minister Kamunda: “ Wacha nikuambie Bwana Prime Minister, mimi ni full minister, na hi kazi nimepewa na President mwenyewe, sasa wewe ni nani uta coordinate kazi yangu”
Prime Minister: “Bwana Kamunda, please…….Listen Mr. Kamunda…”
Minister Kamunda: “Mimi nafanya inspection ya mabars na restaurants hapa Thika and I am telling you get out of my office right now and never come back without my permission”
Prime Minister: “Bwana Kamunda ……I can’t believe this. That fool has hanged up on me”
I am not trying to be funny, but I am imagining how our rude and crude cabinet ministers are going to be supervised by some useless PM appointed by the president. If I were the president I would give that job to my worst enemy. Then I would sit back with my trusted buddies at State House and watch as the bloated fool runs a round in cycles chasing the unruly and rowdy ministers. I mean these guys literally insult each other daily. They call each other names like “dogs” or “madmen” and dare each other for wrestling matches and now we want one of them to supervise the others. Please spare us the joke.
The only power the PM needs to control cabinet and give direction to government operations is for the PM to have the authority to nominate or appoint the cabinet. That is why Bomas delegates shared those responsibilities between the PM and the President. It was not a matter of creating a job for Raila so that if he is willing to take a lesser job then all should be fine. We are thinking about the future when there will be no Kibaki and no Raila. Without the authority to appoint or nominate the cabinet we do not need the PM’s office. The Secretary to the Cabinet already coordinates the ministerial functions, so lets stop playing mind games with Kenyans.
I think Kenyans really need to determine if we need a presidential system and put in place all the various checks and balances to ensure that even if the devil himself were to sneak into that office and become our president, our country will still be democratic. Cooking things on the run particularly with respect to executive authority is extremely dangerous. Neither the parliamentary nor the presidential system is inherently good or bad, it is how they are designed that makes the difference and the trickery of the PSC which is supposed to be endorsed by the MPs will give us the worst of both worlds. It is a horror story in the making.
The other one where the PSC formula portends disaster is on devolution. The big guns are dead set against the regions designed by Bomas, which were to be the regional centres of power replacing the archaic provincial power structures. The week before the parliamentarians had indicated they will retain the provincial administration, but perhaps realizing how terribly unpopular the idea was the Naivasha fraudsters decided they will do away with the provincial administration but also do away with the proposed regional centres of power. They decided they will come up with something called counties ranging between thirty and forty. What these otherwise smart people cannot see in their mad rush to give Mzee his thing is that this amounts to creating a terrible power vacuum.
The regional heads according to Bomas Draft were to be elected and would coordinate issues of resource allocation, good governance, economic development and regional budgets as well as issues of security with the central government. When we remove the regions, we cannot just come up with fictitious counties to replace them without risking a completely unworkable power structure or absolute control and dictatorship from State House. These things were well thought and any attempts to redefine them must be equally well thought out and collectively agreed upon. You cannot do this kind of stuff between nyama choma and rounds of tusker and wine in resorts. I mean how can we explain the fact that the PSC thinks it is too expensive to run 7-8 regions but a lot cheaper to run 30-40 counties. What the heck were they smoking in Naivasha for goodness sake?
Once you build a house the way Kenyans worked to produce the Draft, people cannot come and just cut one corner here and another corner there and say there you have your house. The damn thing is going to collapse. Whatever we chop off we must replace with something to sustain the integrity and strength of the structure.
Then there are a few technical things that I don’t think our biggies at Niavasha bothered to figure out.
First the MPs are facing the 65% dilemma in the consensus Bill that Kibaki is sending back to parliament. Ruto and company told us they made a deal with Muruingi and co to demand a 65% MPs approval for the MPs to amend the Bomas Draft and basically create their own. My suspicion is that Kiraitu got assurances from Raila and co that they will whip their LDP followers to support the amendments and therefore there should be no worry about getting 65% approval. The plan with the 65% requirement is to con the public into accepting the deal under the lie that it would be very hard to change the draft. How can it be hard when all the MPs are singing from the same songbook?
The trouble here is we know the NAK team want a 50% approval because they do not trust the LDP types. NAK has invented tons of excuses and legalistic propaganda to support their claim that the 65% requirement is illegal. Now what happens when the amendment bill goes to parliament and Muruingi and co trick the Raila squad and get their desired 50% requirement instead of the promised 65% approval. Does Raila storm out of parliament screaming betrayal? And then what happens to the Raila/Muruingi constitutional alliance? Could this be the beginning of another round of a constitutional MoU scorned?
Secondly the Koigis, Njokis and Kibwanas have made it clear it is illegal to place the 65% requirement on any bill except for a constitutional amendment bill. By the way this argument is total rubbish simply because changing the Bomas Draft is the equivalent of amending the constitution of Kenya since the Bomas Draft is meant to replace our existing constitution. The argument that the Bomas Draft is not yet a constitution and does not need 65% approval is completely irrelevant. Parliament is engaging in actually writing a constitutional draft (illegal under our laws) whenever they touch the Bomas Draft. How do you write a constitutional draft and say you are not changing the constitution. Obviously this is not a bill about how to import sabuni into the country. But my point is how do the Koigis and others reconcile with the PSC deal. Isn’t this bill being brought back to parliament precisely because of this alleged illegality? How does parliament legalize the illegal? That is what I would like to know.
Third, what happens if enough MPs gather the courage and patriotism to reject the irritating demand for all executive authorities to be confined in the hands of the president? Is Muruingi going to jump out of his chair and lead another walkout from parliament or does he swallow his pride and say wajumbe have spoken? Do we then start a new round of consensus?
Isn’t it very presumptuous for the PSC and a few power brokers to pre-determine what the MPs have to accept and what they cannot touch? Why for example do we still need to take the matter to parliament if there is a pre-ordained deal they simply have to rubber stamp the same way they did the constitutional amendment in 1982 to make Kenyan a one party state by law. What happens if other MPs identify other areas of the constitution they want to be changed, say the Kadhi’s court? Is there going to be another bill restricting MPs to discuss only the parts of the constitution identified as contentious by the PSC? If there is no such law what is to prevent the MPs from venturing into each and every area of the draft? Basic decency? Please don’t kill us with laughter.
Finally what happens if after all the hard work, the endless and expensive retreats we are able to get the courts to basically endorse Ringera’s ruling which told us it is only the sovereign people of Kenya who can draft and change their constitution.
There is no doubt that as soon as parliament starts mutilating the Bomas Draft, lawsuits will be filed to test the legality of the exercise. And if our courts are to be consistent and credible there is a very likely chance Ringera’s ruling will be validated and parliament will be holding an illegal draft. Then what?
I suggest we do the following. Lets move the constitutional battle to 2007. Let Kenyans decide what changes they want to make to the Bomas Draft, let us come up with a collective and representative body to deal with this even if it is a Bomas IV which accommodates some of the concerns of those who had problems with it. Whatever we do let us discuss the draft in a fixed time frame agree on changes and lets take it to the referendum in 2007.
The practical thing to do is to have both the General Elections and the referendum at the same time. We should get away from the fiction that a certain government will give us a new constitution. History has proved every government will design a constitution for its own good. Kenyatta designed his own constitution, Moi designed his own constitution and none of them was good for the country. Now we are witnessing the horror a government we elected on the promise of ushering a new constitution engage in exactly the same practice where leaders want a constitution that suits their individual political interests.
My proposal is to have Kenyans choose their constitution and choose their leaders at the same time so that our leaders will not have to give us a constitution but govern by the constitution we have chosen. In the meantime Kibaki and Narc has just about two years to try to do at least a few of the things they promised us like the 500,000 jobs per year, reviving the economy, fighting corruption, giving us back our stolen land. I don’t want to insult torture survivors and other victims of state repression by even suggesting the possibility of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission. That too is going for 2007.
The writer is a human rights activist.
I don’t know if it is just me, but sometimes don’t people just feel like giving our MPs a good old whipping on the buttocks. You remember the type you got once in a while in those days when your dad/mum or the crazy teacher just couldn’t take any more stupidity from you. I am calling for mass flogging of our MPs at Uhuru Park. We will start with the PSC members who over the weekend schemed together to rob our country of the promise for a new democratic constitution. First on the flogging line will be Raila, followed by Muruingi then Ruto before we get to Njoki Ndungu. I don’t know what we will do with Nyachae. I would hate to ask an old man to remove their trousers and get a whipping, but it looks like we have no choice.
The reason I am bringing this whipping business with our MPs is that they lie to us today, we catch them, they retract and promise to do better then we turn around and they are lying again. I am talking about this obsession to make a constitution for Kibaki and now with Raila and his crew in tow. These guys keep telling us everyday that a constitution cannot be made for one man, in these case a bunch of aging politicians, then we catch them trying to sneak a quick one past us, they retreat and come up with the same old foolish plan. Enough.
Lets be clear about what happened in Naivasha at the PSC fiesta, which is reported to have cost Kenyan taxpayers a cool Kshs 10 million. Raila and his LDP people have agreed to shut up about supporting the Bomas Draft Constitution, betray Wanjiku and play ball with the big boys from State House. It is as simple as that.
The result is that the democratic people-driven constitutional process is effectively dead and buried. We have been hijacked in mid air by constitutional terrorists known as MPs. Where is George Bush when you need him? The entire decade of patriotic struggles for a new constitutional dispensation will come to nought or may be not if there is still some fight in Kenyans. This is a replica of the IPPG deal of 1997 when politicians, incidentally the same Kibaki/Raila combo, betrayed the campaign to usher in a new constitution before the elections. The politicians from all parties held their secret meetings and hatched up the fake and useless IPPG reform whose purpose was to sustain the constitutional status quo. What happened in Naivasha is the exact same thing except its implications are going to be much more profound.
The deal between the political parties is to take the Bomas Draft, mutilate it beyond recognition then come up with a bogus new constitution to sustain the system of presidential dictatorship and keep the one man rule going for the next twenty years or so until Kenyans get mad again and start another decade of constitutional wars. By then most of these folks will be dead and may be keeping Satan company in the bad house.
Finally the Kibaki people have struck a compromise with the Raila people with Kanu and the CKRC hanger-rounds cheering them on and we are being told the earth is flat once again and we should rejoice. Well these guys are in for a big surprise because Kenyans are going to see through their petty schemes and smoke them out faster than they ever imagined.
Their big promise to Kenyans now is that we will hold the 2007 elections under a new constitution. But they forgot to tell you two important things. One is that they don’t want the referendum held anytime soon because it might turn out to be a referendum on President Kibaki and his Narc team which has failed Kenyans in just about everything they promised to get elected including a new constitution in 100 days. So it is fine to float the vague promise of a new constitution by 2007. That is five years later than what the same politicians promised us in 2002. Why should we believe them now? The second thing they forgot to tell you is that with all the changes the MPs want to make to the Bomas Draft, Kenyans will end up with the same old constitution if not worse.
The dilemma the Kibaki boys have here is that they don’t want the referendum to be done in the middle of the Kibaki reign of confusion, particularly given the fact that Kibaki and his people told the CKRC one thing in 2000 while on the campaign trail and today say the exact opposite. There is fear that some cheeky fellas might develop a simple campaign of asking Kenyans, which Kibaki do they trust? The one of 2000 who wanted executive powers disbursed or the one of 2004 who wants all powers in his hands? At the same time they are terrified that come 2007 and Kenyans do not have the constitution Kibaki and company promised them, we will be ready to toss the Kibaki crew right into the political dustbin for lying to us and trying to con us again five years later. They are going to try to dance around that for a while.
I have been warning Kenyans for some time that we cannot trust politicians to give us a new constitution. In fact the biggest problem we have in the country today is this illusion that some government or leader will give us a democratic constitution. The mere fact that we have something called the Bomas Draft shows us that we have only been able to make progress when we fought the leaders not when we followed them.
The trouble with the Naivasha schemers is that they don’t understand that we cannot grab the Bomas Draft and remove chunks here and there and still have a comprehensive leave alone a new constitution.
Lets take the case of the Senate. The MPs say they have to squash that proposal because it is too expensive to the Kenyan taxpayer. I wish the MPs could have thought about taxpayers when they hiked their pay and benefits to the obscene levels they are today. Nobody is going to take the greedy bunch in parliament seriously when they start talking about saving taxpayers money. We know there are other issues at play. I have an idea. Why not cut the MPs pay in half and use the other half to pay the senators. They will still get about Kshs 400,000.00 per month with benefits. How many of them can even get half that in the real job market?
On the Senate issue, I for one think we don’t need it but we must remember one of its major objectives was to promote equity in political representation specifically to have more women representatives, although judging by the mercenary behaviour of our more famous women MPs I am beginning to wonder whether the elite bunch of women often nominated by the politicians really represent the interests of the working and poor women of our country, but that is another story. The proposed Senate required a designated women representation, which was seen as the only way to bring more women into the fold. If we do away with the Senate we have to come with another mechanism to still achieve the objective of enhancing women representation in the single National Assembly. That means we have to go back and negotiate with the women groups and civil society who made these proposals and come up with something acceptable to them. It is not a matter of what Kivutha, Njoki or Nyachae wants. Then we have to figure what other roles the Senate was meant to play and work around it.
For example the Senate was also meant to be a counter-balance for the activities and decisions of the National Assembly. The way this works in a place like the US is that before Congress passes a bill, they have to figure out if the Senate will approve it and that becomes a tool to moderate what the Senate does. So when we remove the Senate we have to come up with how we will be able to moderate the decisions of the National Assembly, which, has in the past put our country and peoples at great risk. We have to proceed carefully and avoid the cut and paste madness that the constitutional thieves of the PSC want to drag us into.
The ordinary Kenyans must have confidence that this is their constitution, otherwise we leave these people with no alternative but to mobilize support to reject the Wabunge Draft constitution and as unpopular as parliamentarians are I would advice them to be very careful. If they turn this into a confrontation between parliament and the wananchi things might get very dramatic. This is the dilemma these politicians are getting themselves into. Just because Kiraitu is in agreement with Raila does not mean it is the end of the world and everybody else is going to shut up.
Then we have the two centres of power myth. If our MPs think the Bomas Draft will bring a problem of the so-called two centres of power, they cannot just lock themselves up in the hotels and manufacture half-baked solutions. The Kenyan people told you what they want. They want to disburse power not to concentrate it. If you have problems with the Bomas formulation for that disbursement of power come back to us and negotiate with us for a new format. We told you we are fed up with the era of the superman who is baba na mama. If you keep imposing the imperial presidency on Kenyans we will throw out your draft at the referendum. There is nothing Kenyans hate more than a one-man rule and if you are not convinced, try us.
The MPs are telling us they will use parliament to impeach the president if they are doing bad things. That is what Oloo Aringo said after the Naivasha feast. That is their check and balance so according to them, we should not worry about increasing the powers of the president including that of appointing and dismissing the bogus PM. Very convincing isn’t?
Just a few questions I want to I put to our MPs. What stopped you from passing a vote of no confidence in our past two leaders who did more than just bad things? You had the power to do so under the present constitution. Why couldn’t you do something? Because you are all impotent before the president whom the MPs worship for favours and for a little power themselves. Look the way everybody including the alleged tough LDP crew are bending backwards to accommodate Kibaki. How can we trust you to protect us from Kibaki when we can see you are desperate to give him his own constitution instead of giving Kenyans what they asked for which you supported before you came to power?
In the history of our country not once have our MPs risen to challenge the president even when presidents were committing mass crimes against Kenyans. Well occasionally they make tough sounding declarations in funerals but have their tails between the legs as soon as they are back in parliament. You have watched political assassinations and murder cutting short the lives of some of our most popular leaders and you did absolutely nothing, in fact some of you have been accused of being accomplishes.
You gave Kanu its one party without even a single dissenting voice. You watched as Goldenberg destroyed our economy and lined up for money from the masterminds. You were part and parcel of the murderous clashes. You turned away and said nothing when human rights activists were rotting in the torture chambers at Nyayo House, in Naivasha and elsewhere. You promised Kenyans a Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission probably more out of guilt than commitment and now you conspire with our former tormentors to get your “new” constitution. How dare you promise us protection from your king? Do you think we are that dumb?
Why should we trust that our MPs will this time around rise to the occasion when the president messes up and tuff him out. Are we going to import our MPs from another country or is it going to be the same old corrupt and selfish Kenyan MPs?
Let me say one more thing about the MPs proposed distribution of executive authority. You want a presidential system of government and you still want a parliament with a toothless PM who “coordinates” ministerial activities. Imagine this telephone conversation.
Prime Minister: “ Bwana Kamunda nimekuja kwako lakini si kupata, uko wapi”
Minister Kamunda: “ Bwana PM unafanya nini ofisini mwangu”
Prime Minister: “ Minister I am here to coordinate your work, didn’t you hear the president gave me the job to coordinate ministries”
Minister Kamunda: “ Wacha nikuambie Bwana Prime Minister, mimi ni full minister, na hi kazi nimepewa na President mwenyewe, sasa wewe ni nani uta coordinate kazi yangu”
Prime Minister: “Bwana Kamunda, please…….Listen Mr. Kamunda…”
Minister Kamunda: “Mimi nafanya inspection ya mabars na restaurants hapa Thika and I am telling you get out of my office right now and never come back without my permission”
Prime Minister: “Bwana Kamunda ……I can’t believe this. That fool has hanged up on me”
I am not trying to be funny, but I am imagining how our rude and crude cabinet ministers are going to be supervised by some useless PM appointed by the president. If I were the president I would give that job to my worst enemy. Then I would sit back with my trusted buddies at State House and watch as the bloated fool runs a round in cycles chasing the unruly and rowdy ministers. I mean these guys literally insult each other daily. They call each other names like “dogs” or “madmen” and dare each other for wrestling matches and now we want one of them to supervise the others. Please spare us the joke.
The only power the PM needs to control cabinet and give direction to government operations is for the PM to have the authority to nominate or appoint the cabinet. That is why Bomas delegates shared those responsibilities between the PM and the President. It was not a matter of creating a job for Raila so that if he is willing to take a lesser job then all should be fine. We are thinking about the future when there will be no Kibaki and no Raila. Without the authority to appoint or nominate the cabinet we do not need the PM’s office. The Secretary to the Cabinet already coordinates the ministerial functions, so lets stop playing mind games with Kenyans.
I think Kenyans really need to determine if we need a presidential system and put in place all the various checks and balances to ensure that even if the devil himself were to sneak into that office and become our president, our country will still be democratic. Cooking things on the run particularly with respect to executive authority is extremely dangerous. Neither the parliamentary nor the presidential system is inherently good or bad, it is how they are designed that makes the difference and the trickery of the PSC which is supposed to be endorsed by the MPs will give us the worst of both worlds. It is a horror story in the making.
The other one where the PSC formula portends disaster is on devolution. The big guns are dead set against the regions designed by Bomas, which were to be the regional centres of power replacing the archaic provincial power structures. The week before the parliamentarians had indicated they will retain the provincial administration, but perhaps realizing how terribly unpopular the idea was the Naivasha fraudsters decided they will do away with the provincial administration but also do away with the proposed regional centres of power. They decided they will come up with something called counties ranging between thirty and forty. What these otherwise smart people cannot see in their mad rush to give Mzee his thing is that this amounts to creating a terrible power vacuum.
The regional heads according to Bomas Draft were to be elected and would coordinate issues of resource allocation, good governance, economic development and regional budgets as well as issues of security with the central government. When we remove the regions, we cannot just come up with fictitious counties to replace them without risking a completely unworkable power structure or absolute control and dictatorship from State House. These things were well thought and any attempts to redefine them must be equally well thought out and collectively agreed upon. You cannot do this kind of stuff between nyama choma and rounds of tusker and wine in resorts. I mean how can we explain the fact that the PSC thinks it is too expensive to run 7-8 regions but a lot cheaper to run 30-40 counties. What the heck were they smoking in Naivasha for goodness sake?
Once you build a house the way Kenyans worked to produce the Draft, people cannot come and just cut one corner here and another corner there and say there you have your house. The damn thing is going to collapse. Whatever we chop off we must replace with something to sustain the integrity and strength of the structure.
Then there are a few technical things that I don’t think our biggies at Niavasha bothered to figure out.
First the MPs are facing the 65% dilemma in the consensus Bill that Kibaki is sending back to parliament. Ruto and company told us they made a deal with Muruingi and co to demand a 65% MPs approval for the MPs to amend the Bomas Draft and basically create their own. My suspicion is that Kiraitu got assurances from Raila and co that they will whip their LDP followers to support the amendments and therefore there should be no worry about getting 65% approval. The plan with the 65% requirement is to con the public into accepting the deal under the lie that it would be very hard to change the draft. How can it be hard when all the MPs are singing from the same songbook?
The trouble here is we know the NAK team want a 50% approval because they do not trust the LDP types. NAK has invented tons of excuses and legalistic propaganda to support their claim that the 65% requirement is illegal. Now what happens when the amendment bill goes to parliament and Muruingi and co trick the Raila squad and get their desired 50% requirement instead of the promised 65% approval. Does Raila storm out of parliament screaming betrayal? And then what happens to the Raila/Muruingi constitutional alliance? Could this be the beginning of another round of a constitutional MoU scorned?
Secondly the Koigis, Njokis and Kibwanas have made it clear it is illegal to place the 65% requirement on any bill except for a constitutional amendment bill. By the way this argument is total rubbish simply because changing the Bomas Draft is the equivalent of amending the constitution of Kenya since the Bomas Draft is meant to replace our existing constitution. The argument that the Bomas Draft is not yet a constitution and does not need 65% approval is completely irrelevant. Parliament is engaging in actually writing a constitutional draft (illegal under our laws) whenever they touch the Bomas Draft. How do you write a constitutional draft and say you are not changing the constitution. Obviously this is not a bill about how to import sabuni into the country. But my point is how do the Koigis and others reconcile with the PSC deal. Isn’t this bill being brought back to parliament precisely because of this alleged illegality? How does parliament legalize the illegal? That is what I would like to know.
Third, what happens if enough MPs gather the courage and patriotism to reject the irritating demand for all executive authorities to be confined in the hands of the president? Is Muruingi going to jump out of his chair and lead another walkout from parliament or does he swallow his pride and say wajumbe have spoken? Do we then start a new round of consensus?
Isn’t it very presumptuous for the PSC and a few power brokers to pre-determine what the MPs have to accept and what they cannot touch? Why for example do we still need to take the matter to parliament if there is a pre-ordained deal they simply have to rubber stamp the same way they did the constitutional amendment in 1982 to make Kenyan a one party state by law. What happens if other MPs identify other areas of the constitution they want to be changed, say the Kadhi’s court? Is there going to be another bill restricting MPs to discuss only the parts of the constitution identified as contentious by the PSC? If there is no such law what is to prevent the MPs from venturing into each and every area of the draft? Basic decency? Please don’t kill us with laughter.
Finally what happens if after all the hard work, the endless and expensive retreats we are able to get the courts to basically endorse Ringera’s ruling which told us it is only the sovereign people of Kenya who can draft and change their constitution.
There is no doubt that as soon as parliament starts mutilating the Bomas Draft, lawsuits will be filed to test the legality of the exercise. And if our courts are to be consistent and credible there is a very likely chance Ringera’s ruling will be validated and parliament will be holding an illegal draft. Then what?
I suggest we do the following. Lets move the constitutional battle to 2007. Let Kenyans decide what changes they want to make to the Bomas Draft, let us come up with a collective and representative body to deal with this even if it is a Bomas IV which accommodates some of the concerns of those who had problems with it. Whatever we do let us discuss the draft in a fixed time frame agree on changes and lets take it to the referendum in 2007.
The practical thing to do is to have both the General Elections and the referendum at the same time. We should get away from the fiction that a certain government will give us a new constitution. History has proved every government will design a constitution for its own good. Kenyatta designed his own constitution, Moi designed his own constitution and none of them was good for the country. Now we are witnessing the horror a government we elected on the promise of ushering a new constitution engage in exactly the same practice where leaders want a constitution that suits their individual political interests.
My proposal is to have Kenyans choose their constitution and choose their leaders at the same time so that our leaders will not have to give us a constitution but govern by the constitution we have chosen. In the meantime Kibaki and Narc has just about two years to try to do at least a few of the things they promised us like the 500,000 jobs per year, reviving the economy, fighting corruption, giving us back our stolen land. I don’t want to insult torture survivors and other victims of state repression by even suggesting the possibility of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission. That too is going for 2007.
The writer is a human rights activist.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Supporters of the Goldenberg Thieves Migrate Online
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN to the November 10, 2004 edition of the DUNIA Show:Special Coverage on US Election documenting widespread reports of voter suppression, electronic mishaps, collusion of mainstream outlets like CNN in modifiying exit polls; a commentary on Yasser Arafat's upcoming demise; music by Brazilian maestro and poet Caetano Veloso; Senegalese griot Baaba Maal; Angolan-Congolese legend Sam Mangwana; Guinean guitar virtuoso Alpha Yaya Diallo; energetic Burundi singer Jean-Christophe Matata; a live interview from Vienna, Austria with Ava from Radio Orange, the largest Free Radio in the German speaking world....
Moi Era Sycophants Work in Tandem in Bid to Block Munyakei Petition
An Expose by Onyango Oloo, Secretary, Kenya Democracy Project
Recently two Kenyan workers-an unemployed former banking clerk and a police constable were feted at a special event where they were among the proud recipients of Transparency International’s 2004 Integrity Awards.
Constable Naftali Lagat and David Munyakei were singled out from the shortlist of 8 finalists from around the world for their stellar performance as courageous whistle-blowers who, by refusing to be bribed, cowed or coopted, blew the lid off the notorious Goldenberg scandal-Kenya’s massive sleazy scam which holds the dubious distinction of being the biggest corruption affair to ever make it to the Kenyan public domain- rivaled only be the still simmering Anglo Fleecing scam. The 2004 Integrity Awards have garnered headlines featuring the Ufisadi Busting Duo far beyond Kenya’s borders. I was surprised to see it making the front pages of a DIAMONDS publication and lately the same news has been used by foreign donors to spur the Kibaki regime on to keep up the tempo on grappling with endemic corruption as can be seen in this recent IPS dispatch by Joyce Mulama.
It has been estimated that Kenya may have lost up to $US 600 million because of the Goldeberg scam that featured such luminaries as former President Daniel arap Moi, current Education Minister Prof. George Saitoti and a veritable list of who is who in Kenya’s elite circles. The wily businessman at the centre of it all-Kamlesh “Call Me Paul” Pattni-has fingered powerful politicians from ALL of the mainstream Kenyan political parties. Kenyan observers in Nairobi and abroad widely believe that there was a conscious attempt to suppress some alleged videotaped proof of the wily Pattni paying off all these politicians who straddled KANU, DP, FORD-Kenya, NDP etc and therefore essentially implicated the ENTIRE top cream of Kenya’s powerful political elite in these shady pay off shenanigans. It is a matter of conjecture whether these videos if they exist will ever see the light of day. Earlier in the year, I wrote to John Githongo, Kenya’s anti-corruption czar pleading with him to level with the Kenyan public. I was greeted with a very thunderous silence and I am still waiting to download a reply to my original email.
What is less well known in Kenyan circles is the exact magnitude of the salting away of money to overseas bank accounts. Late last year the Financial Times of London reported that the figure could be well in excess of one billion US dollars:
At least $1bn of illegal gains made by former and serving politicians and civil servants in Kenya has been uncovered in a secret international investigation over the past six months, according to Kenyan anti-corruption officials.
The assets identified include shares in two London hotels and funds generated partly through foreign exchange transactions at leading international banks.
John Githongo, Kenya's permanent secretary for governance and ethics, who has co-ordinated the investigation, told the Financial Times his department was in a position to initiate procedures towards freezing some of the assets.
One series of transfers under investigation involves $13m moved to accounts at Citibank and Union Bancaire Prive in Switzerland and Equatorial Bank in London, according to investigators. Citibank and Union Bancaire Prive have been named in investigations into the laundering of public money by General Sani Abacha, the former Nigerian dictator. Neither bank could provide immediate comment on Monday night.
That report turned out to be prematurely and rashly optimistic about the possibility of the NARC government going after the real masterminds of Goldenberg as opposed to fall guys like Pattni and Somaia (easy targets because they could be used by indigenous Kenyan RACISTS as the ever present “Indian” scapegoats). I say it is premature because at around the same time the Financial Times was breaking this story, another British media outlet, the Guardian was quoting John Githongo as declaring that:
"I agree that a lot of evil things happened under his leadership, but a deliberate choice, which we are willing to defend, has been made not to target President Moi," John Githongo, the permanent secretary for governance and ethics, told the BBC.
The exoneration will spare Mr Moi from answering for the excesses of the kleptocracy that emerged under his 24-year rule.
In a series of interviews with the western media, Mr Githongo said that the former president's gracious concession of defeat following the elections made him a role model for African democracy.
"We regard the former president as a special democratic case for Kenya, and therefore for Africa, and he will not be subject to the kind of scrutiny given to others," he said.
Given the foot dragging around the Anglo Fleecing Scandal which recently saw current Finance Minister David Mwiraria’s name officially expunged from a list indicting the key players behind that scam, many Kenyan anti-corruption crusaders and social justice activists are not overly eager in putting any serious wagers that the present bunch in power will really do anything tangible and concrete beyond mere empty platitudes in combating grand corruption in the east African nation.
Clearly all the signs at the top indicate that the Goldenberg Inquiry itself has been nothing but a cash cow for NAK connected lawyers like Gibson Kamau Kuria, John Khaminwa and Paul Muite and its findings may very well be used as a political bargaining chip by Kibaki’s back room boys to whip Moi’s back room boys like Biwott and Ruto into line so that they can further sideline LDP linchpin Raila Odinga and his acolytes.
In the meantime, one of the two men who started it all, David Munyakei, has been wallowing in abject poverty for the LAST TEN YEARS since the Central Bank of Kenya unceremoniously fired him for his whistle-blowing.
His plight brings into sharp relief the macabre visage of the present fat cats in power.
Some prominent lawyers like Gibson Kamau Kuria(a long time partner of NAK heavyweight, Justice minister Kiraitu Murungi) has LITERALLY gotten FATTER since NARC ascended to power
and even as Kuria HIMSELF is dogged by allegations of nepotism linking his own brother in law to a plum posting in the Grand Regency Hotel,
one of the prime properties of Goldenberg enfant terrible Kamlesh Pattni.
Even for a hard boiled egg such as myself, I was actually shocked and mystified that the Central Bank of Kenya had persisted in the outrage of essentially starving David Munyakei to a slow and painful death at the edges of poverty even as politicians, careerists, lawyers and media houses made a huge killing off the largesse of the firestorm touched off by Lagat and Munyakei in 1994.
How, I asked myself, could the Ringeras, Kurias, Githongos,Khaminwas and Bosires sleep soundly pocketing hundreds of thousands of Kenyan taxpayers’ money every month as part of the Goldenberg circus when the humble Maasai man who started it all had to go around scrounging for his next meal?
It looked to me as if NARC had torn off a couple of pages from George Orwell’s wicked satire, Animal Farm, which fits the African neo-colonial context to a tee even though it was initially designed for cold war purposes in a chilly post war Europe:
That is why it was a no-brainer when I received a group email from a very well placed individual within the Kenyan civil society sector(a much respected anti-corruption crusader) based in Nairobi asking us to circulate a petition abroad calling for the reinstatement of David Munyakei at the Central Bank of Kenya.
Within less than an hour an online petition for David Munyakei was up and shortly after that I had distributed that link to more than half a dozen Kenyan discussion forums and to hundreds of individuals and organizations within Kenya itself.
From a slow start, the petition campaign started picking up steam. Based on experience doing similar actions, I knew that once the momentum builds up people are so fired up that frequently matters rapidly transcend the actual petition itself. So there was a lot to look forward to.
Certainly nothing suggested that the Munyakei petition would follow a different trajectory.
But that was because I had not fully factored in the deranged and petty minded elements who lurk anonymously in the shadows of www.rcbowen.com. If there is one place where all Kenyan vipers, rattlesnakes, cobras and mambas in human form slither and coil, it is this forum that is populated by a very broad range of Kenyans from politically progressive, big hearted and sincere human beings to the lowest forms of life, rivaling veritable amoebae in their simpleton structures. I have survived many a bruising slug fest in that cesspool and its cemetery is littered with the digital corpses of former trash talking chumps, champing at the bit, vying with other faceless flamers for the bragging rights of flinging the most putrid, self-produced fecal matter on my frequent digital interventions. I have come to live with the fact that I will always be accosted by an eccentric cornucopia of undiagnosed, delusional and paranoid schizophrenics, rabid Luophobes, strung out anti-Communists and ass licking house niggas crowing how Bush is THEIR PRESIDENT even though they could be easily find themselves reprising the tragic role of the late Amadau Diallo at the hands of racist American cops who have no idea that these Green Card holding aliens actually have a Republican Party life membership in their back pockets. In that forum, since I am not one of those cheek turning Christians, I kick reactionary butts from here to next week fairly regularly enjoying the spectacle of these toads scampering for the safety of anonymity as soon as I make my appearance in their raucous ranks. For their part, they crackle, bustle and hustle with glee whenever they ambush me. Thanks to them, they have unleashed a bizarre cult obsession with all things connected with my name. There is LITERALLY a posting EVERY THIRTY MINUTES with my name in the subject line, I kid you not dear reader, with the chief miscreant being a thoroughly demented twentysomething Kenyan living in the United States of America.
Even though I knew that this forum is infested with kooks and bigots, nutbars and wingnuts, I was not exactly prepared for the reception these fellows reserved for the David Munyakei petition.
The daily howls against yours truly I can handle. It amuses me to observe, for the umpteenth time, the Pavlovian saliva that trickles from the mangy oral orifices of these canines in human form. I am immune to their daily cat calls and their constant yelps for attention as they once more “Respond to Oloo with a Small Question”.
Still I had innocently assumed that when it came to a matter of life and death affecting one of the authentic heroes of the Kenyan social justice movement like David Munyakei, that even these overgrown chokoras would curb their twisted enthusiasm for needless sadism and relentless buffoonery.
Was I ever wrong!
On Tuesday, I discovered that these individuals would not let anything stand in the way of their hatred for their nemesis, the scribe pounding out these lines in the wee hours of Wednesday morning…
Here is a selection from the cacophony of braying donkeys on this forum:
Let us start with the online Kenyan ambassador of the Castro hating Miami Mafia:
Oloo,
You can continue to accuse me of being this other person whom you have fought in the past but that, as usual, is a product of your wild imagination.
I repeat: I will NEVER support you as long as you maintain your usual hypocrisy.
You have praised Castro here as if he was Mother Theresa.
Yet you have never said a word about his many victims who Amnesty Internation and Human Rights Watch have documented.
Then you come here and order us to sign a petition and expect us to jump up and obey you.
You cannot say that you support Munyakei while you remain silent about the people who are right now suffering in imprisonment under Castro's orders, including environmentalists.
Some of us care about consistency and morality.
And you call yourself a "social justice activist"?
You should be ashamed of yourself!
Please, do Munyakei a favour. Pull your discredited name from his cause NOW!
To some one else expressing their hatred :
RE: Please Sign This Petition for David Munyakei
From: _ - Tue, Nov 09, 8:48 AM
Oh goodness. Already acting like a goody two shoes. I really HATE YOU!
Here is another adoring fan:
From: _ - _ Tue, Nov 09, 10:41 AM
OLOO YOU SHOULD CIRCULATE IT TO YOUR FRIENDS!! SEND IT TO THE GUYS ON YOUR EMAIL INBOX. RCB IS A PUBLIC FORUM OF PEOPLE WHO HATE YOU!!
And the following message from a well-known high profile founder member of the KCA who REGULARLY HIDES HIS NAME whenever he wants to attack me in this forum:
Re:David Munyakei
From: _ - _ Tue, Nov 09, 10:26 AM
Having Onyango Oloo (the most hated man on kenyan forums) circulate this petition was a bad idea. I recall one time Jimmy Gathu and Al Kags had a radio call-in-show from kenyans abroad. They read everyone else's email but Onyango Oloos. There was a reason why.
The David Munyakei cause is a worthy one but its been diluted by having Onyango Oloo circulate the petition.
Organizers of this petition ought to have Onyango Oloo recuse hiumself from the cause if they want it to succeed.
Kenyans online know that Onyango Oloo is a self seeker and they see this cause as another of Oloos publicity seeking stunts.
Vile as all this trash talking was, it was by no means the WORST.
There was more venom, more bile, more pure unadulterated UJINGA still waiting around the corner.
What sparked the next step was the fact that the signatures were still coming despite TWO BIZARRE attempts to come up with two rival petitions: one to commit Onyango Oloo to a mental asylum as INSANE, believe it or not and the other one to have me arrested as the ever elusive ‘McGill Mugger” I kid you not. From this den of made in Kenya knaves nothing is too outlandish I tell you.
Desperation quickly became the modus operandi of the online supporters of the Goldenberg Crooks.
Over the last few days several decent Kenyans from the same forum had logged on to petition.com and appended their names or online handles to the growing David Munyakei petition. My plan was to let it run a couple more days and then submit all the collected signatures in an updated email to the one I had already sent to the Dr. Andrew Mullei, the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya.
So what did I see when I checked the petition for new signatures?
More signatures.
But more fake signatures, with some of these mean-spirited low lifes cloning the names of my son, his mother and my fiancé with some very crude, obscene and sexist references appended.
Soon these pornographic pranks mushroomed into an all out attempt to take over the list and discredit not only the message and messenger, but the man at the centre of it all.
Perhaps at this point it may suffice to simply reproduce those comments:
85.FAKE NAME AMAZING how oloo chooses his causes. Now that Munyekei has WON an Integrity Award, Oloo is on the forefront championing his cause. For the past 10 years when Munyakei was "eating dust" Oloo was comfortable in Canada, living off the fat of the Dominion of Canada! With TI's Integrity award, Onyango is suddenly a spokesman of the oppressed! Champion of the poor! WHAT MAGNITUDE OF HYPOCRISY IS THIS! PLEASE STOP INSULTING Munyakei by using his name for a Petition only intended to BLOAT YOU EGO - and ABUSE his poverty for your RESUME on Social Acitivism. WHAT A NASTY HUMAN BEING THIS ONYANGO OLOO IS!
82.FAKE NAME JUSTICE FOR David Munyakei is JUSTICE FOR ALL - JAIL THE MAN NOW for stealing sensitive confidential documents at the treasury! DOWN WITH THIEVES IN OUR MIDST!!!
81.FAKE NAME David Munyakei does not deserve to be reinstated!! He stole sensitive material, and cannot be trusted in a postion that requires UTMOST Fidelity!
80.FAKE NAME KENYA JUA KALI PROJECT We support David Munyakei going to JAIL! He stole sensitive documents from the Treasury and should be tried in a court of law for the theft!
79.FAKE NAME "David Munyakei" I DO NOT WANT MY OLD JOB BACK! I STOLE AND GOT FIRED. I DESERVED THE SACK! LET IT REST!
77.FAKE NAME wachana na hiyo fitina oloo! manyeki naweza pata kazi jua kali. mbona yeye hapana lima shamba. siasa mbaya - maisha mbaya!
76.FAKE NAME David Munyakei should have been jailed for theft from Employer!
75.FAKE NAME Onyango Oloo nyamo ther sundu Njeri!!!
74.FAKE NAME Kenya Economic Development Project Such Petty Petitions should be treated with the contempt they Deserve. BEFORE SIGNING THIS PETITION, please read the stroy in the EAStandard's Big Issue. DO NOT BE FOOLED with a candy coated rewritten story!!
73.FAKE NAME Haki na Ukweli HOAX PETITION!!!! DO NOT BE FOOLED!!!
72.FAKE NAME Coalition for the Just Government of Kenya This petition has no factual basis, and is lifted off of an uncorroborated story in the "Big Issue" Magazine of the EastAfrican Standard Newspaper. This petition FRIVOLOUS and makes a mockery of serious petitions for "Just Government of Kenya". Kenyans of goodwill are advised to shun such silly pranks by aimless Kenyans abroad, out to cause mischief and belittle serious ACTIVISM for social justice.
71.FAKE NAME Commision for Justice and Truth- Nairobi Kenya This petition has no basis, and is not based on any solid facts. This FRIVOLOUS petition is based on a sensation and researched story in a local daily. The facts have not been corroborated, and yet rewritten, by KDP as a heroic epic. SHUN such baseless petitions, and endorse Petitions that are meaningful in national development. KCJT supports petitions against NEPOTISM, and CORRUPTION in government, INSTITUTIONALISED TERROR, CRIMES AGAINST MINOR AND MINORITIES etc. SHAME ON KDP for engendering baseless crusade with the intent of self agrandisement of the Chairperson.
69.FAKE NAME SHONDE KABISA!!! UWONGO MTUPU HUU!! DAVUD MUNYAKEI WAS FIRED FOR STEALING FROM CBK!- if you read the story in the EASTANDARD, you would know the man was fired for STEALING CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS! Further more he was not the whistleblower in the scandal! He is playing heroics, hoping that history has covered his sins. NO WAY TO REHIRING THIEVING CIVIL SERVANTS!! READ THE EASTANDARD EXPOSE BEFORE BLINDLY SIGNING THIS PETITION!!!
68.FAKE NAME David Munyakei was not the whistle blower as sensationalized by the Eastandard's Big Issue. David Munyakei was fired for stealing and leaking confidential documents from the Treasury. David Munyakei would a risk to security if hire back in the treasury after betraying his oath of office and codes governing his job. David Munyakei deserved to be fired, period!
67.FAKE NAME It is impressive how you have run wild with the EASTANDARD's Big Issue coverage of Daivid Munyakei's story and made it to look like your own crusade. It is amazing how all these years you have been oblivious of his suffering, and suddenly you are the champion for his cause! It would be realistic to request compensation for illegal termination, and not reinstatement. Keep up the good KNEE JERK REACTIVISM WORK!
66.FAKE NAME Oloo rescued me from my marriage to a white man, before i ran away with a jamican man. ONLY Oloo can save David Munyakei 's job. sign the petition for Oloo's Ego!
65.FAKE NAME Oloo rescued me prostitution on Koinange street. Oloo anatomba kama mahabusi - wega bio! pea manyekei kazi yake ili oloo arudi nyumbani tuzidi kutombana!
64.FAKE NAME Oroo arinipea kaswende, rakini nimemsamehea yeye. kwa hibyo samehea davidi manyeki oroo
As I write these lines(12:54 am, Montreal time)some slight sanity has resumed because I spy a couple of rcb regulars posting genuine messages supporting the objectives of the petition to reinstate David Munyakei.
For me, this brief foray into online insanity has revealed the sordid underbelly of the cowardly representatives of the right wing Kenya petit-bourgeoisie overseas(especially the breed of vermin vegetating within the confines of the United Snakes). Some of these people have openly boasted that on August 1, 1982 they helped to shoot innocent civilians as the Kenya Army brutally suppressed the abortive Air Force coup attempt("my gun never stopped firing" was the unforgetable boast from 2002) while others have mused loudly how they regret that Moi did not hang the likes of Onyango Oloo. I will pass over in silence the sordid comments they peppered that forum with a couple of months ago when Njeeri wa Ngugi was savagely assaulted sexually.
Their tactics tell me that they have learned their lessons well from their Republican mentors who as we saw in the just concluded American elections would not hesitate to employ the most despicable smear and fear mongering tactics to tar their opponents.
On the bright side, this eleventh hour attempt to block the Munyakei petition underscores the rearguard battles these cyberidiots are reduced to. They dare not show either of their two faces, nor will they have the backbones to display their real names as they seek to shuffle from personal accountability by resorting to nameless heckling.
The number of people who are signing the petition is growing.
And there is no doubt whatsoever, that David Munyakei is on the brink of breaking into a really big smile.
For now, therefore, I say:
It is PEACE
And I am out of here. I will spend the next few hours cobbling the pieces of the upcoming DUNIA Show.
Make sure you tune in because we will be providing pointers to back up the emerging consensus that George W Bush and his Disgusting Republicans STOLE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AGAIN.
Onyango Oloo
Montreal
Moi Era Sycophants Work in Tandem in Bid to Block Munyakei Petition
An Expose by Onyango Oloo, Secretary, Kenya Democracy Project
Recently two Kenyan workers-an unemployed former banking clerk and a police constable were feted at a special event where they were among the proud recipients of Transparency International’s 2004 Integrity Awards.
Constable Naftali Lagat and David Munyakei were singled out from the shortlist of 8 finalists from around the world for their stellar performance as courageous whistle-blowers who, by refusing to be bribed, cowed or coopted, blew the lid off the notorious Goldenberg scandal-Kenya’s massive sleazy scam which holds the dubious distinction of being the biggest corruption affair to ever make it to the Kenyan public domain- rivaled only be the still simmering Anglo Fleecing scam. The 2004 Integrity Awards have garnered headlines featuring the Ufisadi Busting Duo far beyond Kenya’s borders. I was surprised to see it making the front pages of a DIAMONDS publication and lately the same news has been used by foreign donors to spur the Kibaki regime on to keep up the tempo on grappling with endemic corruption as can be seen in this recent IPS dispatch by Joyce Mulama.
It has been estimated that Kenya may have lost up to $US 600 million because of the Goldeberg scam that featured such luminaries as former President Daniel arap Moi, current Education Minister Prof. George Saitoti and a veritable list of who is who in Kenya’s elite circles. The wily businessman at the centre of it all-Kamlesh “Call Me Paul” Pattni-has fingered powerful politicians from ALL of the mainstream Kenyan political parties. Kenyan observers in Nairobi and abroad widely believe that there was a conscious attempt to suppress some alleged videotaped proof of the wily Pattni paying off all these politicians who straddled KANU, DP, FORD-Kenya, NDP etc and therefore essentially implicated the ENTIRE top cream of Kenya’s powerful political elite in these shady pay off shenanigans. It is a matter of conjecture whether these videos if they exist will ever see the light of day. Earlier in the year, I wrote to John Githongo, Kenya’s anti-corruption czar pleading with him to level with the Kenyan public. I was greeted with a very thunderous silence and I am still waiting to download a reply to my original email.
What is less well known in Kenyan circles is the exact magnitude of the salting away of money to overseas bank accounts. Late last year the Financial Times of London reported that the figure could be well in excess of one billion US dollars:
At least $1bn of illegal gains made by former and serving politicians and civil servants in Kenya has been uncovered in a secret international investigation over the past six months, according to Kenyan anti-corruption officials.
The assets identified include shares in two London hotels and funds generated partly through foreign exchange transactions at leading international banks.
John Githongo, Kenya's permanent secretary for governance and ethics, who has co-ordinated the investigation, told the Financial Times his department was in a position to initiate procedures towards freezing some of the assets.
One series of transfers under investigation involves $13m moved to accounts at Citibank and Union Bancaire Prive in Switzerland and Equatorial Bank in London, according to investigators. Citibank and Union Bancaire Prive have been named in investigations into the laundering of public money by General Sani Abacha, the former Nigerian dictator. Neither bank could provide immediate comment on Monday night.
That report turned out to be prematurely and rashly optimistic about the possibility of the NARC government going after the real masterminds of Goldenberg as opposed to fall guys like Pattni and Somaia (easy targets because they could be used by indigenous Kenyan RACISTS as the ever present “Indian” scapegoats). I say it is premature because at around the same time the Financial Times was breaking this story, another British media outlet, the Guardian was quoting John Githongo as declaring that:
"I agree that a lot of evil things happened under his leadership, but a deliberate choice, which we are willing to defend, has been made not to target President Moi," John Githongo, the permanent secretary for governance and ethics, told the BBC.
The exoneration will spare Mr Moi from answering for the excesses of the kleptocracy that emerged under his 24-year rule.
In a series of interviews with the western media, Mr Githongo said that the former president's gracious concession of defeat following the elections made him a role model for African democracy.
"We regard the former president as a special democratic case for Kenya, and therefore for Africa, and he will not be subject to the kind of scrutiny given to others," he said.
Given the foot dragging around the Anglo Fleecing Scandal which recently saw current Finance Minister David Mwiraria’s name officially expunged from a list indicting the key players behind that scam, many Kenyan anti-corruption crusaders and social justice activists are not overly eager in putting any serious wagers that the present bunch in power will really do anything tangible and concrete beyond mere empty platitudes in combating grand corruption in the east African nation.
Clearly all the signs at the top indicate that the Goldenberg Inquiry itself has been nothing but a cash cow for NAK connected lawyers like Gibson Kamau Kuria, John Khaminwa and Paul Muite and its findings may very well be used as a political bargaining chip by Kibaki’s back room boys to whip Moi’s back room boys like Biwott and Ruto into line so that they can further sideline LDP linchpin Raila Odinga and his acolytes.
In the meantime, one of the two men who started it all, David Munyakei, has been wallowing in abject poverty for the LAST TEN YEARS since the Central Bank of Kenya unceremoniously fired him for his whistle-blowing.
His plight brings into sharp relief the macabre visage of the present fat cats in power.
Some prominent lawyers like Gibson Kamau Kuria(a long time partner of NAK heavyweight, Justice minister Kiraitu Murungi) has LITERALLY gotten FATTER since NARC ascended to power
and even as Kuria HIMSELF is dogged by allegations of nepotism linking his own brother in law to a plum posting in the Grand Regency Hotel,
one of the prime properties of Goldenberg enfant terrible Kamlesh Pattni.
Even for a hard boiled egg such as myself, I was actually shocked and mystified that the Central Bank of Kenya had persisted in the outrage of essentially starving David Munyakei to a slow and painful death at the edges of poverty even as politicians, careerists, lawyers and media houses made a huge killing off the largesse of the firestorm touched off by Lagat and Munyakei in 1994.
How, I asked myself, could the Ringeras, Kurias, Githongos,Khaminwas and Bosires sleep soundly pocketing hundreds of thousands of Kenyan taxpayers’ money every month as part of the Goldenberg circus when the humble Maasai man who started it all had to go around scrounging for his next meal?
It looked to me as if NARC had torn off a couple of pages from George Orwell’s wicked satire, Animal Farm, which fits the African neo-colonial context to a tee even though it was initially designed for cold war purposes in a chilly post war Europe:
That is why it was a no-brainer when I received a group email from a very well placed individual within the Kenyan civil society sector(a much respected anti-corruption crusader) based in Nairobi asking us to circulate a petition abroad calling for the reinstatement of David Munyakei at the Central Bank of Kenya.
Within less than an hour an online petition for David Munyakei was up and shortly after that I had distributed that link to more than half a dozen Kenyan discussion forums and to hundreds of individuals and organizations within Kenya itself.
From a slow start, the petition campaign started picking up steam. Based on experience doing similar actions, I knew that once the momentum builds up people are so fired up that frequently matters rapidly transcend the actual petition itself. So there was a lot to look forward to.
Certainly nothing suggested that the Munyakei petition would follow a different trajectory.
But that was because I had not fully factored in the deranged and petty minded elements who lurk anonymously in the shadows of www.rcbowen.com. If there is one place where all Kenyan vipers, rattlesnakes, cobras and mambas in human form slither and coil, it is this forum that is populated by a very broad range of Kenyans from politically progressive, big hearted and sincere human beings to the lowest forms of life, rivaling veritable amoebae in their simpleton structures. I have survived many a bruising slug fest in that cesspool and its cemetery is littered with the digital corpses of former trash talking chumps, champing at the bit, vying with other faceless flamers for the bragging rights of flinging the most putrid, self-produced fecal matter on my frequent digital interventions. I have come to live with the fact that I will always be accosted by an eccentric cornucopia of undiagnosed, delusional and paranoid schizophrenics, rabid Luophobes, strung out anti-Communists and ass licking house niggas crowing how Bush is THEIR PRESIDENT even though they could be easily find themselves reprising the tragic role of the late Amadau Diallo at the hands of racist American cops who have no idea that these Green Card holding aliens actually have a Republican Party life membership in their back pockets. In that forum, since I am not one of those cheek turning Christians, I kick reactionary butts from here to next week fairly regularly enjoying the spectacle of these toads scampering for the safety of anonymity as soon as I make my appearance in their raucous ranks. For their part, they crackle, bustle and hustle with glee whenever they ambush me. Thanks to them, they have unleashed a bizarre cult obsession with all things connected with my name. There is LITERALLY a posting EVERY THIRTY MINUTES with my name in the subject line, I kid you not dear reader, with the chief miscreant being a thoroughly demented twentysomething Kenyan living in the United States of America.
Even though I knew that this forum is infested with kooks and bigots, nutbars and wingnuts, I was not exactly prepared for the reception these fellows reserved for the David Munyakei petition.
The daily howls against yours truly I can handle. It amuses me to observe, for the umpteenth time, the Pavlovian saliva that trickles from the mangy oral orifices of these canines in human form. I am immune to their daily cat calls and their constant yelps for attention as they once more “Respond to Oloo with a Small Question”.
Still I had innocently assumed that when it came to a matter of life and death affecting one of the authentic heroes of the Kenyan social justice movement like David Munyakei, that even these overgrown chokoras would curb their twisted enthusiasm for needless sadism and relentless buffoonery.
Was I ever wrong!
On Tuesday, I discovered that these individuals would not let anything stand in the way of their hatred for their nemesis, the scribe pounding out these lines in the wee hours of Wednesday morning…
Here is a selection from the cacophony of braying donkeys on this forum:
Let us start with the online Kenyan ambassador of the Castro hating Miami Mafia:
Oloo,
You can continue to accuse me of being this other person whom you have fought in the past but that, as usual, is a product of your wild imagination.
I repeat: I will NEVER support you as long as you maintain your usual hypocrisy.
You have praised Castro here as if he was Mother Theresa.
Yet you have never said a word about his many victims who Amnesty Internation and Human Rights Watch have documented.
Then you come here and order us to sign a petition and expect us to jump up and obey you.
You cannot say that you support Munyakei while you remain silent about the people who are right now suffering in imprisonment under Castro's orders, including environmentalists.
Some of us care about consistency and morality.
And you call yourself a "social justice activist"?
You should be ashamed of yourself!
Please, do Munyakei a favour. Pull your discredited name from his cause NOW!
To some one else expressing their hatred :
RE: Please Sign This Petition for David Munyakei
From: _ - Tue, Nov 09, 8:48 AM
Oh goodness. Already acting like a goody two shoes. I really HATE YOU!
Here is another adoring fan:
From: _ - _ Tue, Nov 09, 10:41 AM
OLOO YOU SHOULD CIRCULATE IT TO YOUR FRIENDS!! SEND IT TO THE GUYS ON YOUR EMAIL INBOX. RCB IS A PUBLIC FORUM OF PEOPLE WHO HATE YOU!!
And the following message from a well-known high profile founder member of the KCA who REGULARLY HIDES HIS NAME whenever he wants to attack me in this forum:
Re:David Munyakei
From: _ - _ Tue, Nov 09, 10:26 AM
Having Onyango Oloo (the most hated man on kenyan forums) circulate this petition was a bad idea. I recall one time Jimmy Gathu and Al Kags had a radio call-in-show from kenyans abroad. They read everyone else's email but Onyango Oloos. There was a reason why.
The David Munyakei cause is a worthy one but its been diluted by having Onyango Oloo circulate the petition.
Organizers of this petition ought to have Onyango Oloo recuse hiumself from the cause if they want it to succeed.
Kenyans online know that Onyango Oloo is a self seeker and they see this cause as another of Oloos publicity seeking stunts.
Vile as all this trash talking was, it was by no means the WORST.
There was more venom, more bile, more pure unadulterated UJINGA still waiting around the corner.
What sparked the next step was the fact that the signatures were still coming despite TWO BIZARRE attempts to come up with two rival petitions: one to commit Onyango Oloo to a mental asylum as INSANE, believe it or not and the other one to have me arrested as the ever elusive ‘McGill Mugger” I kid you not. From this den of made in Kenya knaves nothing is too outlandish I tell you.
Desperation quickly became the modus operandi of the online supporters of the Goldenberg Crooks.
Over the last few days several decent Kenyans from the same forum had logged on to petition.com and appended their names or online handles to the growing David Munyakei petition. My plan was to let it run a couple more days and then submit all the collected signatures in an updated email to the one I had already sent to the Dr. Andrew Mullei, the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya.
So what did I see when I checked the petition for new signatures?
More signatures.
But more fake signatures, with some of these mean-spirited low lifes cloning the names of my son, his mother and my fiancé with some very crude, obscene and sexist references appended.
Soon these pornographic pranks mushroomed into an all out attempt to take over the list and discredit not only the message and messenger, but the man at the centre of it all.
Perhaps at this point it may suffice to simply reproduce those comments:
85.FAKE NAME AMAZING how oloo chooses his causes. Now that Munyekei has WON an Integrity Award, Oloo is on the forefront championing his cause. For the past 10 years when Munyakei was "eating dust" Oloo was comfortable in Canada, living off the fat of the Dominion of Canada! With TI's Integrity award, Onyango is suddenly a spokesman of the oppressed! Champion of the poor! WHAT MAGNITUDE OF HYPOCRISY IS THIS! PLEASE STOP INSULTING Munyakei by using his name for a Petition only intended to BLOAT YOU EGO - and ABUSE his poverty for your RESUME on Social Acitivism. WHAT A NASTY HUMAN BEING THIS ONYANGO OLOO IS!
82.FAKE NAME JUSTICE FOR David Munyakei is JUSTICE FOR ALL - JAIL THE MAN NOW for stealing sensitive confidential documents at the treasury! DOWN WITH THIEVES IN OUR MIDST!!!
81.FAKE NAME David Munyakei does not deserve to be reinstated!! He stole sensitive material, and cannot be trusted in a postion that requires UTMOST Fidelity!
80.FAKE NAME KENYA JUA KALI PROJECT We support David Munyakei going to JAIL! He stole sensitive documents from the Treasury and should be tried in a court of law for the theft!
79.FAKE NAME "David Munyakei" I DO NOT WANT MY OLD JOB BACK! I STOLE AND GOT FIRED. I DESERVED THE SACK! LET IT REST!
77.FAKE NAME wachana na hiyo fitina oloo! manyeki naweza pata kazi jua kali. mbona yeye hapana lima shamba. siasa mbaya - maisha mbaya!
76.FAKE NAME David Munyakei should have been jailed for theft from Employer!
75.FAKE NAME Onyango Oloo nyamo ther sundu Njeri!!!
74.FAKE NAME Kenya Economic Development Project Such Petty Petitions should be treated with the contempt they Deserve. BEFORE SIGNING THIS PETITION, please read the stroy in the EAStandard's Big Issue. DO NOT BE FOOLED with a candy coated rewritten story!!
73.FAKE NAME Haki na Ukweli HOAX PETITION!!!! DO NOT BE FOOLED!!!
72.FAKE NAME Coalition for the Just Government of Kenya This petition has no factual basis, and is lifted off of an uncorroborated story in the "Big Issue" Magazine of the EastAfrican Standard Newspaper. This petition FRIVOLOUS and makes a mockery of serious petitions for "Just Government of Kenya". Kenyans of goodwill are advised to shun such silly pranks by aimless Kenyans abroad, out to cause mischief and belittle serious ACTIVISM for social justice.
71.FAKE NAME Commision for Justice and Truth- Nairobi Kenya This petition has no basis, and is not based on any solid facts. This FRIVOLOUS petition is based on a sensation and researched story in a local daily. The facts have not been corroborated, and yet rewritten, by KDP as a heroic epic. SHUN such baseless petitions, and endorse Petitions that are meaningful in national development. KCJT supports petitions against NEPOTISM, and CORRUPTION in government, INSTITUTIONALISED TERROR, CRIMES AGAINST MINOR AND MINORITIES etc. SHAME ON KDP for engendering baseless crusade with the intent of self agrandisement of the Chairperson.
69.FAKE NAME SHONDE KABISA!!! UWONGO MTUPU HUU!! DAVUD MUNYAKEI WAS FIRED FOR STEALING FROM CBK!- if you read the story in the EASTANDARD, you would know the man was fired for STEALING CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS! Further more he was not the whistleblower in the scandal! He is playing heroics, hoping that history has covered his sins. NO WAY TO REHIRING THIEVING CIVIL SERVANTS!! READ THE EASTANDARD EXPOSE BEFORE BLINDLY SIGNING THIS PETITION!!!
68.FAKE NAME David Munyakei was not the whistle blower as sensationalized by the Eastandard's Big Issue. David Munyakei was fired for stealing and leaking confidential documents from the Treasury. David Munyakei would a risk to security if hire back in the treasury after betraying his oath of office and codes governing his job. David Munyakei deserved to be fired, period!
67.FAKE NAME It is impressive how you have run wild with the EASTANDARD's Big Issue coverage of Daivid Munyakei's story and made it to look like your own crusade. It is amazing how all these years you have been oblivious of his suffering, and suddenly you are the champion for his cause! It would be realistic to request compensation for illegal termination, and not reinstatement. Keep up the good KNEE JERK REACTIVISM WORK!
66.FAKE NAME Oloo rescued me from my marriage to a white man, before i ran away with a jamican man. ONLY Oloo can save David Munyakei 's job. sign the petition for Oloo's Ego!
65.FAKE NAME Oloo rescued me prostitution on Koinange street. Oloo anatomba kama mahabusi - wega bio! pea manyekei kazi yake ili oloo arudi nyumbani tuzidi kutombana!
64.FAKE NAME Oroo arinipea kaswende, rakini nimemsamehea yeye. kwa hibyo samehea davidi manyeki oroo
As I write these lines(12:54 am, Montreal time)some slight sanity has resumed because I spy a couple of rcb regulars posting genuine messages supporting the objectives of the petition to reinstate David Munyakei.
For me, this brief foray into online insanity has revealed the sordid underbelly of the cowardly representatives of the right wing Kenya petit-bourgeoisie overseas(especially the breed of vermin vegetating within the confines of the United Snakes). Some of these people have openly boasted that on August 1, 1982 they helped to shoot innocent civilians as the Kenya Army brutally suppressed the abortive Air Force coup attempt("my gun never stopped firing" was the unforgetable boast from 2002) while others have mused loudly how they regret that Moi did not hang the likes of Onyango Oloo. I will pass over in silence the sordid comments they peppered that forum with a couple of months ago when Njeeri wa Ngugi was savagely assaulted sexually.
Their tactics tell me that they have learned their lessons well from their Republican mentors who as we saw in the just concluded American elections would not hesitate to employ the most despicable smear and fear mongering tactics to tar their opponents.
On the bright side, this eleventh hour attempt to block the Munyakei petition underscores the rearguard battles these cyberidiots are reduced to. They dare not show either of their two faces, nor will they have the backbones to display their real names as they seek to shuffle from personal accountability by resorting to nameless heckling.
The number of people who are signing the petition is growing.
And there is no doubt whatsoever, that David Munyakei is on the brink of breaking into a really big smile.
For now, therefore, I say:
It is PEACE
And I am out of here. I will spend the next few hours cobbling the pieces of the upcoming DUNIA Show.
Make sure you tune in because we will be providing pointers to back up the emerging consensus that George W Bush and his Disgusting Republicans STOLE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AGAIN.
Onyango Oloo
Montreal
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Bush Will Make The World Even More Dangerous
Onyango Oloo Denounces Bush's Era of Terror and Error
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE November 3, 2004 DUNIA SPECIAL ON THE US ELECTIONS
1.0. Oloo Forced To Eat Crow
I am sitting at my dinner table right now,Eating Crow.
Dear Reader I have a CONFESSION to make to you before I continue:
My One and Only Beloved Born Again Christian Fiancé is a DIE HARD Bush SUPPORTER.
That is exactly Right(in ALL senses of the word):
Yes, the soon to be Mrs. Njeri Oloo is delirious with joy that Dubya won.
I am sure you think I am pulling your leg.
You think that I am just kidding don’t you?
Not at all.
On Wednesday afternoon, I called Kenya and I spoke to my wangu wa moyoni, the only sabuni of my roho, my mshikaji; someone who if I had been Kobe Bryant, I would have called “my backbone”(in which case I would have had to rename my own original spine to something as pedantic and pedestrian as “mgongo wangu”).
We of course, spoke about other, more personal things, but this is
an excerpt from an interview I did with her and one of her relatives
(yes she knew about it and fully consented to the recording) where she gives her reaction to the news coming out of the United States of America.
Closer to Quebec, a Caribbean friend of mine who lives in the neighbouring province of Ontario found it necessary to call long distance for the express purpose of depositing the following
message on my voicemail.
And on one Kenyan online discussion forum, the President of The Worldwide Oloo Fan Club spent the last fourteen hours posting a message EVERY TEN MINUTES demanding that I come online to “concede defeat” as if Onyango Oloo was the other independent candidate alongside Ralph Nader aiming to become the next President of the United States!!
2.0. 100,000 Innocent Iraqi Civilians Are Still Dead
There was no
regime change.
Instead, the World’s Most Famous Idiot is back in power
Four years ago he was a thief who was crowned surreptiously by some creepy Supreme Court Justices.
This time around, he apparently won it fair and square.
Or did he?
Keep reading.
But Bush can partly thank those wonderful new electronic voting machines from Diebold.
This company has a lot of connections with the Republicans as you can see from this expose and this link as well. Chris Blackwell, the African-American Secretary of State for Ohio who we all saw at the height of that see-saw on election night, is also mixed up with this somehow.
If you go to this link you can read a report of what a non-partisan group monitoring the November 2 contest found out by the voting machines.
Ironically, Dubya won the Presidential election by the exact margin that I had predicted KERRY would win it by- 51% to 48% a comfortable spread with millions of votes to spare.
In addition his Republicans tightened their grip on the Senate and will now extend their dominance of Congress to twelve years.
Bush had a lot of heroes and heroines to thank for his reelection.
Here are a select few:
Here is what George Bush had to say in accepting victory.
The Kerrycrats are meanwhile, completely stunned, reeling with shock, licking their painful wounds, possibly weeping profusely undercover in assorted bathrooms across the United States of America even as progressives around the world ponder the ramifications of this seismic shock.
Here is a link to a special broadcast from Democracy Now! covering the Kerry concession.
How did this happen?
A paper in the Philippines offered this assessment.
The following quote captures it for me:
Novak's pronouncement echoed a basic strategy of the Republicans, specifically Karl Rove, main tactical plotter for Bush: to get white, conservative, evangelical Protestants who for one reason or another didn't go out to vote for Bush in 2000, to get out and vote in 2004. Rove calculated that Bush missed out on around four million votes from this group in 2000. Republicans moved heaven and earth to get this sector out while reaching out to other sectors, including Latinos (who seem to have significantly gone over to Bush in Florida, in large part it is said, because of his brother's handling of things after the many hurricanes that struck the state).
The Democrats gambled on several things. The first was to get out the vote for traditionally strong Democratic groups such as African-Americans and the elderly (they seem to have failed to hold their numbers with both). Second was to get out the youth, an effort in which celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Moby and many others pitched in (this apparently failed, too). Third was to bring out many first-time voters in key states such as Pennsylvania (where it worked tremendously), Ohio and Florida (where some Democrats and their sympathizers say it failed or was frustrated by Republican legal stratagems such as filing cases and questioning voters).
The above assessment is echoed in the following CBS analysis.
It was interesting to read the gut reaction of the
money markets in Europe.
Perhaps that jittery response can be partly explained by a news item like this one.
Kerry’s defeat is not only being celebrated by the rightwing nutbars of the world.
Some prominent leftwing commentators have not wasted any tears or mercy on the hapless Kerry campaign.
For example, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair the editors of Counterpunch came out yesterday with this scathing dismemberment of the Democratic Presidential campaign.
There is no getting around the basic Morning After reality that Kerry, Edwards and the Democrats were trounced handily.
Or so it appears.
Greg Palast wrote an interesting article which was posted on his blog the day before the election. In it he details how up to a MILLION Democratic votes was lost. Greg is well known for exposing the electoral atrocity which saw thousands of African-Americans robbed of their votes in Florida in 2000. If what he is saying has any credence, then one is not that impressed with the Bush margin of victory; in fact, one the contrary, one has a renewed sense of nausea at the speed by which rich White men in the Democratic Party who court the Black vote discard the rights of the very same Democratic party faithful so quickly.
We saw Al Gore do the same thing four years ago and yesterday, we witnessed how quickly the Kerry-Edwards “We Will Count Every Vote and Make Every Vote Count” rushed to capitulate to the Bush electoral conquistadors.
Here is a link to the Greg Palast article.
You can read more about this by clicking here and checking out this pre-election from the Havana-based Granma.
3.0. Obama Is WRONG About This "One America" Claptrap
Even though I am sorely tempted to tell Americans that they are now zooming on the Highway to Hell, I think that life in America and the world is a lot more nuanced than that.
We have to look way beyond the GOP smirking, yodeling, chortling and the chest thumping and the Grits fainting spells and wailing marathons.
It is crucial that we transcend the demonization and personalization of Dubya the Dummy in the White House. He is an easy target with his unsophisticated evil designs that are laid out in the open for all to see. The long term agenda of the project of the New American Century is publicly posted on their website and one should not be surprised to see the litany of US imperialist military forays around the world continue in the last leg of the Bush Dictatorship. The Australian journalist and documentary film maker John Pilger recently asked if there is going to be a US war against the WORLD after the just concluded elections. And US based corporations like vultures HAVE ALREADY DESCENDED in Darfur.
No wonder Wall Street was quick in welcoming the Bush victory.
Defense stocks simply surged.
One of the most prominent of these military stocks is Lockheed Martin.
And you should know that Boeing makes “smart bombs”, not just 747s.
Have you ever heard of United Technologies?
How about Raytheon?
We all know about Dick Cheney’s Halliburton.
And speaking of Dick, this unauthorized biography that was recently aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation suggests that Cheney is THE REAL AMERICAN President.
Behind the façade of the Bush presidency lies a shadowy corporation known as the Carlyle Group.
The CEOs of the companies that regularly make the Ten Worst Corporations List are rubbing their overfed fingers with glee.
In alliance with these corporations is the powerful Christian Religious Right movement as well as a dizzying network of Neo-Conservative organizations.
Arrayed against the above elitist, superrich, military-industrial complex corporate forces are millions of Americans comprising the majority of the people who came out to vote, not for John Kerry, but against the political direction that George W Bush and the Republicans are driving their society.
I am talking about democratic minded American workers who are not infected too much with racism; I am talking about militant American women worried about the threat to their hard won historic gains; I am talking about radical American youth who have protested globalization and the war of occupation against the Iraqi people; I am talking of the African-Americans who have overwhelmingly continued to repudiate the Republicans despite high profile appointments like Rice and Powell; I am talking of communities of colour and Indigenous people as well; I am talking of thousands of communists, socialists, anti-imperialists; I am talking of singers, musicians, artists, writers, film makers, actors and other cultural workers who HAVE NOT followed in the footsteps of the Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, John Wayne, the Terminator, Kurt Russell, Britney Spears, Canibus or Bruce Willis; I am talking of professional athletes who have not endorsed George Bush the way Karl Malone and Jack Nicklaus recently did.
With all due respect to that half-Kenyan senator, Barrack Obama, there is more than one America, as the fractious election clearly revealed.
And these two, or three or four Americas are locked in mortal combat.
4.0. Deepening of Ideological Cleavages in American Society
The mainstream media has been blithely blathering that Bush received a decisive mandate to push through with his Far Right agenda in the United States and around the world.
That is simply not true.
How can you claim that you have a mandate when almost HALF OF THE COUNTRY came out to vote AGAINST YOUR POLICIES?
How can you claim a mandate when you used all the fear mongering tactics and bogeymen in your arsenal-Satan, Black people, Muslims, gays, women who abort, terrorists etc to scare the simple minded IVORY evangelical fold to line up behind you?
Getting an electoral majority does not necessarily mean that one is progressive. Hitler WAS ELECTED as a VERY POPULAR Chancellor in 1933 before he became a Fuhrer (Dubya’s grandfather by the way, had some financial links with the Nazis).
Many of the social justice activists who mobilized across the United States to bring out the vote against Bush and the Republicans are already thinking of their next moves. Some are calling for massive anti-war rallies. Others are calling for a variety of grass roots initiatives.
Most want to build on the momentum of the last two years of anti-Bush mobilization.
That is why those people who are crowing triumphant should pace out their multiple orgasms.
The tremendous and massive mobilizations by people like Howard Dean, Russell Simons, P.Diddy and other mainstream American figures will only bolster preexisting left leaning mobilizations by forces such as Move On.Org and many of the anti-globalization movements in that country.
The snow white faces of American evangelical crusaders may have kept W in the White House for another four years but will not stop the sea of humanity that is very eager to transcend the constricted centrist confines of the right leaning Democratic party.
As Kenyans we can relate.
If the Kenyan opposition HAD NOT LOST to Moi in 1992 and 1997, they would NOT have mobilized as effectively as they did in 2002.
Kerry and Edwards’ loss may prove ultimately to the best thing to have happened in a long time to the emergent American mass democratic movement.
Maybe the crushing victory by Bush and his cronies ought to be a wake up call to all democratic minded Americans that electoral contests in and of themselves ARE NOT pathways to sustainable alternatives; at best they provide a terrain of/for struggle where progressive social forces can struggle to expand as well deepen the democratic spaces in that particular milieu.
Many of the people who ended up voting for Nader or staying at home have argued persuasively that they would not dignify the twin headed corporate two party monster by voting for either Kerry or Bush.
While they have an undeniable point, I will only respond to them from within the framework of Marxists who have examined and reexamined, over the years, the ultra-leftist obsession with boycotting events and initiatives that some others feel is just a waste of time.
As a Marxist, my take off point is that you first look at where the masses, especially the most advanced section are at when it comes to things like participating or boycotting the election. You then build your short term and long term strategy in working with this progressive section to realize, through concrete struggle the limitations of mainstream contestations for power and start exploring other more militant and revolutionary alternatives.
I happen to believe that showing up to vote is part of a series of progressive fight back actions that extend to protests, rallies, demonstrations, strikes, letter writing campaigns, internet activism and so on.
Progressive forces start digging their own politcal graves when they fall into one of those EITHER/OR conundrums when the real conjunction should be AND; WITH etc. The vast majority of people who voted for Kerry were not exactly unaware of the senator’s patrician background and his decades of hobnobbing with the Washington elite. That is why the same things that motivated them to vote-affirmative action, reproductive rights, pay equity, the environment, the rights of people with disabilities you name it- will still keep them going on, only this time with renewed anger and perhaps a more long term strategic vision that is more inclusive of people at the margins.
5.0. What Bush III Means to Kenya, Africa and the Rest of the World
In terms of impact overseas those who reelected Bush are telling Palestinians in the Occupied Territories that their lives do not matter because Uncle Sam will always be there to shore up Ariel Sharon and other Israeli hawks; the Bush victory is a message to the Iraqi civilians who are dying in droves because of Dubya’s misplaced machismo that there will be more of the same; it is a message to all reproductive rights advocates and HIV/AIDS educators around the world that Bush will continue to block funds to family planning clinics and preach abstinence and other simplistic, simple minded and plain wrong so called "moral solutions" to the complicated AIDS pandemic; I have already seen within the Kenyan context that over at the NATION Forum homophobes are screaming with joy screaming that Bush’s victory means it is OK for Kenyans to hate gays and compare them to monkeys; in short the only people who are celebrating Bush’s victories around the world are Neo-Conservatives and Religious Fundamentalists.
In fact, it would appear that in a moment of candour, our very own vice president Moody Awori expressed himself honestly expressing fears of a second Bush term having negative consequences around the world. From this thread in the Mashada forum, it seems that the neo-colonial Kibaki-NAK regime anxious not to annoy its US master went into overdrive to erase that unfortunate “outburst” from Moody Awori.
Americans can expect to be hated more around the world.
The Iraqi national resistance movement will be spurred on by the Bush victory because they know(and judging by the hawkish pronouncements of the hordes of self-proclaimed “security consultants” on CNN) that the US government with their Iraqi puppets are about to launch a genocidal blitzkrieg on Falluja and that Bush will want to crush the resistance to run away from the hard questions which came up again and again- from the lies about the WMDs to the discovery of that lost arms cache to an exclusive posted this week in the Counterpoint website by an Afghan American who has documents proving that the American government was offered Osama Bin Ladin by the Taliban several times between 1999 and 2002 and simply refused to take up the offer.
I will not be surprised if the United States invades Somalia on a dubious mission to ostensibly look for Al Qaeda terrorists but in reality establish a geopolitical military beach head in the Horn of Africa.
And guess who will be Uncle Sam’s closest pals in East Africa?
Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda and Rwanda.
In other words, as a direct result of the Bush victory, expect East and Central Africa to be MORE UNSTABLE.
he second Bush administration will help to drastically and dramatically transform the brand of Islam practiced in East Africa from the tolerant, cosmopolitan and relatively politically progressive variety that some of us can bear witness to coexisting with in places like Mombasa and Dar es Salaam to an increasingly fundamentalist Wahabbi, Iranian conservative variant with a lot of consequences for women, for people from other faith communities and especially for secular civil society. In a bizarre development, the second Bush administration will then point to this alien mutation of Islam in Kenya for instance as an excuse to infest our country with their racist Muslim hating FBI and CIA agents.
It is up to the Kenyan government to decide whether they are going to have the political backbone to chart an independent foreign policy that is predicated on the principles of good neighbourliness, peace, non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states and African unity or continue with the cowardly trend of selling out Kenyan national interests to the lowest imperialist bidder.
Kenyan progressives cannot pretend that the second Bush era of terror and error is NOT already upon us. As it is, so many Kenyan social justice activists who work for US supported NGOsin Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret and elsewhere are scared shitless when it comes to denouncing Uncle Sam’s attack on civil liberties around the world.
My question to them is this:
What is more important:
A few tens of thousands of Yankee dollars or a long term commitment to democratic and progressive principles?
To sum up:
Bush won, but he is still the world's most famous idiot; those 100,000 Iraqi civilians who lost their lives as a result of his lies and racist policies are still dead; those American youth in uniform who lost their limbs because of his regime change madness are still crippled and those tens of thousands of Americans who lost their jobs because of Bush’s disastrous domestic policies are still unemployed…
Long Live the progressive and democratic minded American People!
Fight Bush, the Neo-Conservatives, the Religious Right and US led Imperialism!
Oppose all Racist Wars of Recolonization!
Zinduka! Pambana!
Onyango Oloo
Montreal
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE November 3, 2004 DUNIA SPECIAL ON THE US ELECTIONS
1.0. Oloo Forced To Eat Crow
I am sitting at my dinner table right now,Eating Crow.
Dear Reader I have a CONFESSION to make to you before I continue:
My One and Only Beloved Born Again Christian Fiancé is a DIE HARD Bush SUPPORTER.
That is exactly Right(in ALL senses of the word):
Yes, the soon to be Mrs. Njeri Oloo is delirious with joy that Dubya won.
I am sure you think I am pulling your leg.
You think that I am just kidding don’t you?
Not at all.
On Wednesday afternoon, I called Kenya and I spoke to my wangu wa moyoni, the only sabuni of my roho, my mshikaji; someone who if I had been Kobe Bryant, I would have called “my backbone”(in which case I would have had to rename my own original spine to something as pedantic and pedestrian as “mgongo wangu”).
We of course, spoke about other, more personal things, but this is
an excerpt from an interview I did with her and one of her relatives
(yes she knew about it and fully consented to the recording) where she gives her reaction to the news coming out of the United States of America.
Closer to Quebec, a Caribbean friend of mine who lives in the neighbouring province of Ontario found it necessary to call long distance for the express purpose of depositing the following
message on my voicemail.
And on one Kenyan online discussion forum, the President of The Worldwide Oloo Fan Club spent the last fourteen hours posting a message EVERY TEN MINUTES demanding that I come online to “concede defeat” as if Onyango Oloo was the other independent candidate alongside Ralph Nader aiming to become the next President of the United States!!
2.0. 100,000 Innocent Iraqi Civilians Are Still Dead
There was no
regime change.
Instead, the World’s Most Famous Idiot is back in power
Four years ago he was a thief who was crowned surreptiously by some creepy Supreme Court Justices.
This time around, he apparently won it fair and square.
Or did he?
Keep reading.
But Bush can partly thank those wonderful new electronic voting machines from Diebold.
This company has a lot of connections with the Republicans as you can see from this expose and this link as well. Chris Blackwell, the African-American Secretary of State for Ohio who we all saw at the height of that see-saw on election night, is also mixed up with this somehow.
If you go to this link you can read a report of what a non-partisan group monitoring the November 2 contest found out by the voting machines.
Ironically, Dubya won the Presidential election by the exact margin that I had predicted KERRY would win it by- 51% to 48% a comfortable spread with millions of votes to spare.
In addition his Republicans tightened their grip on the Senate and will now extend their dominance of Congress to twelve years.
Bush had a lot of heroes and heroines to thank for his reelection.
Here are a select few:
Here is what George Bush had to say in accepting victory.
The Kerrycrats are meanwhile, completely stunned, reeling with shock, licking their painful wounds, possibly weeping profusely undercover in assorted bathrooms across the United States of America even as progressives around the world ponder the ramifications of this seismic shock.
Here is a link to a special broadcast from Democracy Now! covering the Kerry concession.
How did this happen?
A paper in the Philippines offered this assessment.
The following quote captures it for me:
Novak's pronouncement echoed a basic strategy of the Republicans, specifically Karl Rove, main tactical plotter for Bush: to get white, conservative, evangelical Protestants who for one reason or another didn't go out to vote for Bush in 2000, to get out and vote in 2004. Rove calculated that Bush missed out on around four million votes from this group in 2000. Republicans moved heaven and earth to get this sector out while reaching out to other sectors, including Latinos (who seem to have significantly gone over to Bush in Florida, in large part it is said, because of his brother's handling of things after the many hurricanes that struck the state).
The Democrats gambled on several things. The first was to get out the vote for traditionally strong Democratic groups such as African-Americans and the elderly (they seem to have failed to hold their numbers with both). Second was to get out the youth, an effort in which celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Moby and many others pitched in (this apparently failed, too). Third was to bring out many first-time voters in key states such as Pennsylvania (where it worked tremendously), Ohio and Florida (where some Democrats and their sympathizers say it failed or was frustrated by Republican legal stratagems such as filing cases and questioning voters).
The above assessment is echoed in the following CBS analysis.
It was interesting to read the gut reaction of the
money markets in Europe.
Perhaps that jittery response can be partly explained by a news item like this one.
Kerry’s defeat is not only being celebrated by the rightwing nutbars of the world.
Some prominent leftwing commentators have not wasted any tears or mercy on the hapless Kerry campaign.
For example, Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair the editors of Counterpunch came out yesterday with this scathing dismemberment of the Democratic Presidential campaign.
There is no getting around the basic Morning After reality that Kerry, Edwards and the Democrats were trounced handily.
Or so it appears.
Greg Palast wrote an interesting article which was posted on his blog the day before the election. In it he details how up to a MILLION Democratic votes was lost. Greg is well known for exposing the electoral atrocity which saw thousands of African-Americans robbed of their votes in Florida in 2000. If what he is saying has any credence, then one is not that impressed with the Bush margin of victory; in fact, one the contrary, one has a renewed sense of nausea at the speed by which rich White men in the Democratic Party who court the Black vote discard the rights of the very same Democratic party faithful so quickly.
We saw Al Gore do the same thing four years ago and yesterday, we witnessed how quickly the Kerry-Edwards “We Will Count Every Vote and Make Every Vote Count” rushed to capitulate to the Bush electoral conquistadors.
Here is a link to the Greg Palast article.
You can read more about this by clicking here and checking out this pre-election from the Havana-based Granma.
3.0. Obama Is WRONG About This "One America" Claptrap
Even though I am sorely tempted to tell Americans that they are now zooming on the Highway to Hell, I think that life in America and the world is a lot more nuanced than that.
We have to look way beyond the GOP smirking, yodeling, chortling and the chest thumping and the Grits fainting spells and wailing marathons.
It is crucial that we transcend the demonization and personalization of Dubya the Dummy in the White House. He is an easy target with his unsophisticated evil designs that are laid out in the open for all to see. The long term agenda of the project of the New American Century is publicly posted on their website and one should not be surprised to see the litany of US imperialist military forays around the world continue in the last leg of the Bush Dictatorship. The Australian journalist and documentary film maker John Pilger recently asked if there is going to be a US war against the WORLD after the just concluded elections. And US based corporations like vultures HAVE ALREADY DESCENDED in Darfur.
No wonder Wall Street was quick in welcoming the Bush victory.
Defense stocks simply surged.
One of the most prominent of these military stocks is Lockheed Martin.
And you should know that Boeing makes “smart bombs”, not just 747s.
Have you ever heard of United Technologies?
How about Raytheon?
We all know about Dick Cheney’s Halliburton.
And speaking of Dick, this unauthorized biography that was recently aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation suggests that Cheney is THE REAL AMERICAN President.
Behind the façade of the Bush presidency lies a shadowy corporation known as the Carlyle Group.
The CEOs of the companies that regularly make the Ten Worst Corporations List are rubbing their overfed fingers with glee.
In alliance with these corporations is the powerful Christian Religious Right movement as well as a dizzying network of Neo-Conservative organizations.
Arrayed against the above elitist, superrich, military-industrial complex corporate forces are millions of Americans comprising the majority of the people who came out to vote, not for John Kerry, but against the political direction that George W Bush and the Republicans are driving their society.
I am talking about democratic minded American workers who are not infected too much with racism; I am talking about militant American women worried about the threat to their hard won historic gains; I am talking about radical American youth who have protested globalization and the war of occupation against the Iraqi people; I am talking of the African-Americans who have overwhelmingly continued to repudiate the Republicans despite high profile appointments like Rice and Powell; I am talking of communities of colour and Indigenous people as well; I am talking of thousands of communists, socialists, anti-imperialists; I am talking of singers, musicians, artists, writers, film makers, actors and other cultural workers who HAVE NOT followed in the footsteps of the Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, John Wayne, the Terminator, Kurt Russell, Britney Spears, Canibus or Bruce Willis; I am talking of professional athletes who have not endorsed George Bush the way Karl Malone and Jack Nicklaus recently did.
With all due respect to that half-Kenyan senator, Barrack Obama, there is more than one America, as the fractious election clearly revealed.
And these two, or three or four Americas are locked in mortal combat.
4.0. Deepening of Ideological Cleavages in American Society
The mainstream media has been blithely blathering that Bush received a decisive mandate to push through with his Far Right agenda in the United States and around the world.
That is simply not true.
How can you claim that you have a mandate when almost HALF OF THE COUNTRY came out to vote AGAINST YOUR POLICIES?
How can you claim a mandate when you used all the fear mongering tactics and bogeymen in your arsenal-Satan, Black people, Muslims, gays, women who abort, terrorists etc to scare the simple minded IVORY evangelical fold to line up behind you?
Getting an electoral majority does not necessarily mean that one is progressive. Hitler WAS ELECTED as a VERY POPULAR Chancellor in 1933 before he became a Fuhrer (Dubya’s grandfather by the way, had some financial links with the Nazis).
Many of the social justice activists who mobilized across the United States to bring out the vote against Bush and the Republicans are already thinking of their next moves. Some are calling for massive anti-war rallies. Others are calling for a variety of grass roots initiatives.
Most want to build on the momentum of the last two years of anti-Bush mobilization.
That is why those people who are crowing triumphant should pace out their multiple orgasms.
The tremendous and massive mobilizations by people like Howard Dean, Russell Simons, P.Diddy and other mainstream American figures will only bolster preexisting left leaning mobilizations by forces such as Move On.Org and many of the anti-globalization movements in that country.
The snow white faces of American evangelical crusaders may have kept W in the White House for another four years but will not stop the sea of humanity that is very eager to transcend the constricted centrist confines of the right leaning Democratic party.
As Kenyans we can relate.
If the Kenyan opposition HAD NOT LOST to Moi in 1992 and 1997, they would NOT have mobilized as effectively as they did in 2002.
Kerry and Edwards’ loss may prove ultimately to the best thing to have happened in a long time to the emergent American mass democratic movement.
Maybe the crushing victory by Bush and his cronies ought to be a wake up call to all democratic minded Americans that electoral contests in and of themselves ARE NOT pathways to sustainable alternatives; at best they provide a terrain of/for struggle where progressive social forces can struggle to expand as well deepen the democratic spaces in that particular milieu.
Many of the people who ended up voting for Nader or staying at home have argued persuasively that they would not dignify the twin headed corporate two party monster by voting for either Kerry or Bush.
While they have an undeniable point, I will only respond to them from within the framework of Marxists who have examined and reexamined, over the years, the ultra-leftist obsession with boycotting events and initiatives that some others feel is just a waste of time.
As a Marxist, my take off point is that you first look at where the masses, especially the most advanced section are at when it comes to things like participating or boycotting the election. You then build your short term and long term strategy in working with this progressive section to realize, through concrete struggle the limitations of mainstream contestations for power and start exploring other more militant and revolutionary alternatives.
I happen to believe that showing up to vote is part of a series of progressive fight back actions that extend to protests, rallies, demonstrations, strikes, letter writing campaigns, internet activism and so on.
Progressive forces start digging their own politcal graves when they fall into one of those EITHER/OR conundrums when the real conjunction should be AND; WITH etc. The vast majority of people who voted for Kerry were not exactly unaware of the senator’s patrician background and his decades of hobnobbing with the Washington elite. That is why the same things that motivated them to vote-affirmative action, reproductive rights, pay equity, the environment, the rights of people with disabilities you name it- will still keep them going on, only this time with renewed anger and perhaps a more long term strategic vision that is more inclusive of people at the margins.
5.0. What Bush III Means to Kenya, Africa and the Rest of the World
In terms of impact overseas those who reelected Bush are telling Palestinians in the Occupied Territories that their lives do not matter because Uncle Sam will always be there to shore up Ariel Sharon and other Israeli hawks; the Bush victory is a message to the Iraqi civilians who are dying in droves because of Dubya’s misplaced machismo that there will be more of the same; it is a message to all reproductive rights advocates and HIV/AIDS educators around the world that Bush will continue to block funds to family planning clinics and preach abstinence and other simplistic, simple minded and plain wrong so called "moral solutions" to the complicated AIDS pandemic; I have already seen within the Kenyan context that over at the NATION Forum homophobes are screaming with joy screaming that Bush’s victory means it is OK for Kenyans to hate gays and compare them to monkeys; in short the only people who are celebrating Bush’s victories around the world are Neo-Conservatives and Religious Fundamentalists.
In fact, it would appear that in a moment of candour, our very own vice president Moody Awori expressed himself honestly expressing fears of a second Bush term having negative consequences around the world. From this thread in the Mashada forum, it seems that the neo-colonial Kibaki-NAK regime anxious not to annoy its US master went into overdrive to erase that unfortunate “outburst” from Moody Awori.
Americans can expect to be hated more around the world.
The Iraqi national resistance movement will be spurred on by the Bush victory because they know(and judging by the hawkish pronouncements of the hordes of self-proclaimed “security consultants” on CNN) that the US government with their Iraqi puppets are about to launch a genocidal blitzkrieg on Falluja and that Bush will want to crush the resistance to run away from the hard questions which came up again and again- from the lies about the WMDs to the discovery of that lost arms cache to an exclusive posted this week in the Counterpoint website by an Afghan American who has documents proving that the American government was offered Osama Bin Ladin by the Taliban several times between 1999 and 2002 and simply refused to take up the offer.
I will not be surprised if the United States invades Somalia on a dubious mission to ostensibly look for Al Qaeda terrorists but in reality establish a geopolitical military beach head in the Horn of Africa.
And guess who will be Uncle Sam’s closest pals in East Africa?
Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda and Rwanda.
In other words, as a direct result of the Bush victory, expect East and Central Africa to be MORE UNSTABLE.
he second Bush administration will help to drastically and dramatically transform the brand of Islam practiced in East Africa from the tolerant, cosmopolitan and relatively politically progressive variety that some of us can bear witness to coexisting with in places like Mombasa and Dar es Salaam to an increasingly fundamentalist Wahabbi, Iranian conservative variant with a lot of consequences for women, for people from other faith communities and especially for secular civil society. In a bizarre development, the second Bush administration will then point to this alien mutation of Islam in Kenya for instance as an excuse to infest our country with their racist Muslim hating FBI and CIA agents.
It is up to the Kenyan government to decide whether they are going to have the political backbone to chart an independent foreign policy that is predicated on the principles of good neighbourliness, peace, non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states and African unity or continue with the cowardly trend of selling out Kenyan national interests to the lowest imperialist bidder.
Kenyan progressives cannot pretend that the second Bush era of terror and error is NOT already upon us. As it is, so many Kenyan social justice activists who work for US supported NGOsin Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret and elsewhere are scared shitless when it comes to denouncing Uncle Sam’s attack on civil liberties around the world.
My question to them is this:
What is more important:
A few tens of thousands of Yankee dollars or a long term commitment to democratic and progressive principles?
To sum up:
Bush won, but he is still the world's most famous idiot; those 100,000 Iraqi civilians who lost their lives as a result of his lies and racist policies are still dead; those American youth in uniform who lost their limbs because of his regime change madness are still crippled and those tens of thousands of Americans who lost their jobs because of Bush’s disastrous domestic policies are still unemployed…
Long Live the progressive and democratic minded American People!
Fight Bush, the Neo-Conservatives, the Religious Right and US led Imperialism!
Oppose all Racist Wars of Recolonization!
Zinduka! Pambana!
Onyango Oloo
Montreal
Monday, November 01, 2004
Kibaki's Neo-Colonial Madness
Onyango Oloo Looks at Kibaki's Cynical Attempt to Cover Up The Rich-Poor Divide in Kenya
1.0. Respect Is Due To This Fighter Against Neo-Colonial Oppression in Africa
Fela Anikulapo Kuti is still alive even though he died in 1997:
Fela Kuti is remembered not just for his outrageous showmanship and inimitable courage in opposing neo-colonialism and the Nigerian military dictatorship. He is also remembered as a fierce Pan Africanist. Of course, we are not going to perpetuate a Fela personality cult or engage in 21st century Afrocentric hagiography. Fela the gifted musician and trenchant social critic had deep flaws precisely because he was human like the rest of us. Everyone knows about his very well publicized foibles and frailties.
Two of the best assessments of Fela’s legacy appeared in the journal of the SACP, the African Communist and the London Observer respectively. In the latter piece you can see how Fela famously snubbed an overture from Paul McCartney to do a joint recording and receive a boost in international exposure.
Most of Fela’s compositions were political in one form or another- apart from being very loooooooooooooooooooooooooonnggg….not unlike some Kenyan digital essays some people have come across on certain blogs.
One of his classics is "ITT" in which he is denouncing the multinational that he rechristened “International Thief Thief”. It is significant that Fela Kuti started opposing
Olusegun Obasanjo when he was still a military dictator and
Chief Moshood Abiola before he had been transformed via his death into a multiparty saint.
Take a listen to “International Thief Thief” by clicking here.
Another song which needs no explanation is "Colonial Mentality" that you can hear here.
Femi Kuti has followed in his father’s footsteps while emerging as a new global superstar in his own right. If you have ever been present at any of Femi’s non-stop high energy concerts where he sings, plays and dances for almost one and a half hours straight without a break then you know what I am talking about
Fela Anikulapo Kuti used to sing in Nigerian pidgin, which is sometimes difficult to decipher. Thankfully, one of his thousands of aficionados has created site where you can get an English translation of those lyrics. Click here to begin your Fela Awareness Course.
2.0. President Mwai Kibaki Solidifies His Neo-Colonial Credentials
Lahaula!
Nastaajabishwa!
Siamini!
Can you believe this?
The President of Kenya has just appointed a former British minister who sits on the board of a multinational corporation to be part of a team to look at social and economic inequality in Kenya.
Let me run that by you again, in case you fainted from shock and disbelief the first time around:
Bwana Emilio Mwai Kibaki, Chairman of the DP faction that dominates the fractious NARC ruling clique in Kenya has decided to embarrass ALL KENYANS by kowtowing to our former colonial UK masters by hand-picking Baroness Lynda Chalker to be part of a team infested with millionaires, cronies, tribal side kicks and sycophantic careerists; an elitist, bureaucrat heavy, top down team that will ostensibly examine why there is social and economic inequality in Kenya.
Still don’t believe me?
Well doubting reader, Read this for yourself OK?
See what I am talking about?
Here is the relevant quote:
Called the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), the new team features people with impeccable credentials. From his Cabinet, President Kibaki has chosen rising stars like Prof Anyang' Nyong'o (Planning and National Development), Mr Mukhisa Kituyi (Trade) and Mr Kipruto Kirwa (Agriculture). Also to be represented on the NESC are such dependables as Education's Prof George Saitoti, Mrs. Charity Ngilu, the Health minister, and - with a view to job creation - Labour minister Newton Kulundu. Their permanent secretaries will provide continuity by serving with them. And adding financial clout are Finance minister David Mwiraria and the governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Mr Andrew Mullei. In an interesting first, President Kibaki reached out to international expertise, which included Baroness Lynda Chalker of Wallasey, a director of the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods transnational Unilever and an expert on Third Word development, having served the British Conservative government as a minister in charge of Overseas Development, specialising in African affairs. From Malaysia is Prof Lee Yee-Cheong, vice president and a senior fellow of the country's Academy of Sciences. Since 1980, he has served with the National Electricity Board Malaysia, primarily involved in power system protection, computer control of the power grid and pioneering the use of computers in power system planning. He is currently the President of World Federation of Engineering Organisations and co-chairman of the UN's Millennium Project Task Force on Science, Technology and Innovation. From an increasingly assertive private sector, the President tapped Mr Ayisi Makatiani, founder of panAfrican internet start-up Africa Online, the youthful Barclays Bank managing director Adan Mohamed, investment finance expert Mr Lutaf Kassam, chairman of Investment Promotion Services, and former PS Stanley Murage. In a widely representative team, there was also the presence of icons of Kenyan enterprise like Mr Manu Chandaria, former Nairobi Stock Exchange chairman Jimnah Mbaru and horticultural exporter Homegrown's Dicky Evans plus officials from professional bodies like Ms Rose Ogega (Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya) and Dr Stephen Ochiel (Kenya Medical Association).In an apparent appreciation of the importance role of science in turning around the economy, names like that of renowned researchers Dr Calestous Juma and Dr Romano Kiome of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute also feature prominently on the team. Also in the list is US-based Sunday Nation columnist Mwende Mwinzi and Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni, who was part of former President Moi's own dream team in 2000, then as PS for transport and communications. The NESC, to be housed in the Office of the President, will be in office for three years during which it will be expected to help turn around an economy that has been in decline for a better part of the last decade and has shown no signs of a take-off.
The Daily Nation, known as one of the most faithful poodles of the ruling NAK faction was of course quick to endorse the team as having “impeccable credentials.”
Impeccable credentials my foot!
This is what I think of the so called NESC:
It is dead in the water even before meeting for the first time.
Why?
Simply because of the GLARING OMISSISSION OF THE ACTUAL PEOPLE WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE.
How can you have a National Economic and Social Council without INCLUDING A SINGLE SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST?
This is just ridiculous.
It is also deeply insulting.
Especially to the tax payers who will eventually foot the bill.
Apart from the outrage of picking Baroness Chalker to prove to British High Commissioner Edward Clay that Kenyans can still toss the salad for their former colonial oppressors (google for “tossing the salad” if you do not know what it means) it is simply an insult to Kenyans that such an elitist outfit that is stacked with millionaires, careerists, opportunists and social climbers can deliver the goods.
It is a slap in the face to include someone like
David Mwiraria who was IMPLICATED in the Anglo Leasing scandal.
It is mystifying to see what added value the GOVERNOR of the Central Bank of Kenya can bring to a body charged with a social equality mandate.
And Manu Chandaria??!!
What is he doing there?
As Mutahi Ngunyi correctly pointed out in Sunday Nation column, this is all Trickle Down Junk Thinking. I mean, even the die hard Reaganites dare not mouth the inanities of Reagonomics anymore.
A key feature of the so called National Economic and Social Council, which is also a dead give away is the factional background of the ministers handpicked to be part of the committee. They all come from the increasingly selfish and power mongering NAK faction.
Even a casual observer can see through this transparent cash grab, this monstrous white elephant, this complete waste of time:
It is Kibaki’s response to the fall out from the leakage of the Ndungu Report that exposed him, Moi and other fat cats as getting richer at the expense of the majority of Kenyans. It is an attempt to divert attention from the land grabbing, the disgusting grand corruption WITHIN NARC, the scuttling of the Goldenberg Inquiry and of course the inability of the NARC regime to institute a Truth and Justice Commission.
Kenyans have been waiting for eighteen months for two things:
A democratic constitution and a Truth and Justice Commission.
Why is it that Kibaki can jump start overnight, the so called NESC while pussyfooting around forever on the passage of a new democratic constitution?
Why is it that the families of the Karimi Nduthus of this world plus all those Nyayo House survivors have to continue waiting for justice even as Kibaki picks Kenyans and foreigners WHO HAVE NEVER DONE ANYTHING IN THEIR ENTIRE LIVES TO WORK FOR EQUALITY IN KENYA?
It is such a shame and such a resounding slap across the face.
We are told that this NESC was established barely a day after a damning report on social and economic inequality in Kenya. Those who have not seen the actual report can access it Here.
A couple of days after that report was unleashed, I saw a news item in the Kenya Times where Kibaki’s deputy Moody Awori, was castigating NGOs for “undermining” the government, an eerie echo of the Moi dictatorship that Moody was part of not too long ago.
Some of us have argued that the reverse is true:
Many Kenyan civil society organizations have abandoned their independent vigilant watch dog role status to integrate themselves firmly into the Kibaki regime.
That is why I would be curious to know which NGOs the Vice President was referring to.
3.0. What Should Progressive Kenyans Do About Kibaki’s Latest Ujinga?
In a sense, Mwai Kibaki will continue urinating on the heads of the millions of Kenyans who voted his regime to power until Kenyans organize themselves effectively to give him and his government a very well deserved kick in the seat of their collective pants.
Kibaki has surveyed the scene and has seen the Kenyan progressive camp in almost complete disarray. His LDP adversaries DO NOT CONSULT outside their partisan ranks and they seem to be too consumed with scheming for state power in 2007 to worry too much about building an effective national democratic movement that will rejuvenate and galvanize the popular base among the wananchi and rekindle that UNBWOGABLE Spirit. Many Kenyan human rights organizations seem to have surrendered to the overseas funders, capitulated to the NAK faction and made a conscious attempt to isolate themselves from the consistent Kenyan social justice fighters within their ranks. For instance, how many civil society organizations have come out to protest the arrest of the RPP 10? How many have come out swinging against the so called NESC?
There are many rays of hope nevertheless.
One of these rays is an event being organized in late November by the Kenya Debt Relief Network and other components and allies of the Kenya Social Forum. This occasion will provide a platform as well as an outlet for Kenyan progressives and patriots to meet and I am pretty sure that the so called NESC will be on the agenda.
Even though the upcoming KCA Homecoming and AGM scheduled to be held in Kenya for the first time is strictly a WACHA SIASA Affair, I would urge all Kenyan social justice activists to attend this gathering and inject that very siasa into this coming together of Kenyans abroad and Kenyans at home. We will make arrangements to have one of our representatives participate in the public debates and you can bet your last Otonglo that we will tear viciously into the so called NESC-if we are not banned or censored from participating that is. You never know…
Overall, I would say that expecting the Kibaki regime to deliver on its pre-election pledges and chart a path towards social and economic equality in Kenya is a bit like asking a man to breast feed a brand new infant.
It just won’t happen.
Onyango Oloo
Montreal
PS: As I was getting ready to upload this message, I saw a newsflash at the Nation web site informing me that a National Commission on Gender and Development has been formed with a man, Peterlis Ojwang Nyatuga heading it. The jokes keep coming…
1.0. Respect Is Due To This Fighter Against Neo-Colonial Oppression in Africa
Fela Anikulapo Kuti is still alive even though he died in 1997:
Fela Kuti is remembered not just for his outrageous showmanship and inimitable courage in opposing neo-colonialism and the Nigerian military dictatorship. He is also remembered as a fierce Pan Africanist. Of course, we are not going to perpetuate a Fela personality cult or engage in 21st century Afrocentric hagiography. Fela the gifted musician and trenchant social critic had deep flaws precisely because he was human like the rest of us. Everyone knows about his very well publicized foibles and frailties.
Two of the best assessments of Fela’s legacy appeared in the journal of the SACP, the African Communist and the London Observer respectively. In the latter piece you can see how Fela famously snubbed an overture from Paul McCartney to do a joint recording and receive a boost in international exposure.
Most of Fela’s compositions were political in one form or another- apart from being very loooooooooooooooooooooooooonnggg….not unlike some Kenyan digital essays some people have come across on certain blogs.
One of his classics is "ITT" in which he is denouncing the multinational that he rechristened “International Thief Thief”. It is significant that Fela Kuti started opposing
Olusegun Obasanjo when he was still a military dictator and
Chief Moshood Abiola before he had been transformed via his death into a multiparty saint.
Take a listen to “International Thief Thief” by clicking here.
Another song which needs no explanation is "Colonial Mentality" that you can hear here.
Femi Kuti has followed in his father’s footsteps while emerging as a new global superstar in his own right. If you have ever been present at any of Femi’s non-stop high energy concerts where he sings, plays and dances for almost one and a half hours straight without a break then you know what I am talking about
Fela Anikulapo Kuti used to sing in Nigerian pidgin, which is sometimes difficult to decipher. Thankfully, one of his thousands of aficionados has created site where you can get an English translation of those lyrics. Click here to begin your Fela Awareness Course.
2.0. President Mwai Kibaki Solidifies His Neo-Colonial Credentials
Lahaula!
Nastaajabishwa!
Siamini!
Can you believe this?
The President of Kenya has just appointed a former British minister who sits on the board of a multinational corporation to be part of a team to look at social and economic inequality in Kenya.
Let me run that by you again, in case you fainted from shock and disbelief the first time around:
Bwana Emilio Mwai Kibaki, Chairman of the DP faction that dominates the fractious NARC ruling clique in Kenya has decided to embarrass ALL KENYANS by kowtowing to our former colonial UK masters by hand-picking Baroness Lynda Chalker to be part of a team infested with millionaires, cronies, tribal side kicks and sycophantic careerists; an elitist, bureaucrat heavy, top down team that will ostensibly examine why there is social and economic inequality in Kenya.
Still don’t believe me?
Well doubting reader, Read this for yourself OK?
See what I am talking about?
Here is the relevant quote:
Called the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), the new team features people with impeccable credentials. From his Cabinet, President Kibaki has chosen rising stars like Prof Anyang' Nyong'o (Planning and National Development), Mr Mukhisa Kituyi (Trade) and Mr Kipruto Kirwa (Agriculture). Also to be represented on the NESC are such dependables as Education's Prof George Saitoti, Mrs. Charity Ngilu, the Health minister, and - with a view to job creation - Labour minister Newton Kulundu. Their permanent secretaries will provide continuity by serving with them. And adding financial clout are Finance minister David Mwiraria and the governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Mr Andrew Mullei. In an interesting first, President Kibaki reached out to international expertise, which included Baroness Lynda Chalker of Wallasey, a director of the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods transnational Unilever and an expert on Third Word development, having served the British Conservative government as a minister in charge of Overseas Development, specialising in African affairs. From Malaysia is Prof Lee Yee-Cheong, vice president and a senior fellow of the country's Academy of Sciences. Since 1980, he has served with the National Electricity Board Malaysia, primarily involved in power system protection, computer control of the power grid and pioneering the use of computers in power system planning. He is currently the President of World Federation of Engineering Organisations and co-chairman of the UN's Millennium Project Task Force on Science, Technology and Innovation. From an increasingly assertive private sector, the President tapped Mr Ayisi Makatiani, founder of panAfrican internet start-up Africa Online, the youthful Barclays Bank managing director Adan Mohamed, investment finance expert Mr Lutaf Kassam, chairman of Investment Promotion Services, and former PS Stanley Murage. In a widely representative team, there was also the presence of icons of Kenyan enterprise like Mr Manu Chandaria, former Nairobi Stock Exchange chairman Jimnah Mbaru and horticultural exporter Homegrown's Dicky Evans plus officials from professional bodies like Ms Rose Ogega (Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya) and Dr Stephen Ochiel (Kenya Medical Association).In an apparent appreciation of the importance role of science in turning around the economy, names like that of renowned researchers Dr Calestous Juma and Dr Romano Kiome of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute also feature prominently on the team. Also in the list is US-based Sunday Nation columnist Mwende Mwinzi and Kenya Airways CEO Titus Naikuni, who was part of former President Moi's own dream team in 2000, then as PS for transport and communications. The NESC, to be housed in the Office of the President, will be in office for three years during which it will be expected to help turn around an economy that has been in decline for a better part of the last decade and has shown no signs of a take-off.
The Daily Nation, known as one of the most faithful poodles of the ruling NAK faction was of course quick to endorse the team as having “impeccable credentials.”
Impeccable credentials my foot!
This is what I think of the so called NESC:
It is dead in the water even before meeting for the first time.
Why?
Simply because of the GLARING OMISSISSION OF THE ACTUAL PEOPLE WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE.
How can you have a National Economic and Social Council without INCLUDING A SINGLE SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST?
This is just ridiculous.
It is also deeply insulting.
Especially to the tax payers who will eventually foot the bill.
Apart from the outrage of picking Baroness Chalker to prove to British High Commissioner Edward Clay that Kenyans can still toss the salad for their former colonial oppressors (google for “tossing the salad” if you do not know what it means) it is simply an insult to Kenyans that such an elitist outfit that is stacked with millionaires, careerists, opportunists and social climbers can deliver the goods.
It is a slap in the face to include someone like
David Mwiraria who was IMPLICATED in the Anglo Leasing scandal.
It is mystifying to see what added value the GOVERNOR of the Central Bank of Kenya can bring to a body charged with a social equality mandate.
And Manu Chandaria??!!
What is he doing there?
As Mutahi Ngunyi correctly pointed out in Sunday Nation column, this is all Trickle Down Junk Thinking. I mean, even the die hard Reaganites dare not mouth the inanities of Reagonomics anymore.
A key feature of the so called National Economic and Social Council, which is also a dead give away is the factional background of the ministers handpicked to be part of the committee. They all come from the increasingly selfish and power mongering NAK faction.
Even a casual observer can see through this transparent cash grab, this monstrous white elephant, this complete waste of time:
It is Kibaki’s response to the fall out from the leakage of the Ndungu Report that exposed him, Moi and other fat cats as getting richer at the expense of the majority of Kenyans. It is an attempt to divert attention from the land grabbing, the disgusting grand corruption WITHIN NARC, the scuttling of the Goldenberg Inquiry and of course the inability of the NARC regime to institute a Truth and Justice Commission.
Kenyans have been waiting for eighteen months for two things:
A democratic constitution and a Truth and Justice Commission.
Why is it that Kibaki can jump start overnight, the so called NESC while pussyfooting around forever on the passage of a new democratic constitution?
Why is it that the families of the Karimi Nduthus of this world plus all those Nyayo House survivors have to continue waiting for justice even as Kibaki picks Kenyans and foreigners WHO HAVE NEVER DONE ANYTHING IN THEIR ENTIRE LIVES TO WORK FOR EQUALITY IN KENYA?
It is such a shame and such a resounding slap across the face.
We are told that this NESC was established barely a day after a damning report on social and economic inequality in Kenya. Those who have not seen the actual report can access it Here.
A couple of days after that report was unleashed, I saw a news item in the Kenya Times where Kibaki’s deputy Moody Awori, was castigating NGOs for “undermining” the government, an eerie echo of the Moi dictatorship that Moody was part of not too long ago.
Some of us have argued that the reverse is true:
Many Kenyan civil society organizations have abandoned their independent vigilant watch dog role status to integrate themselves firmly into the Kibaki regime.
That is why I would be curious to know which NGOs the Vice President was referring to.
3.0. What Should Progressive Kenyans Do About Kibaki’s Latest Ujinga?
In a sense, Mwai Kibaki will continue urinating on the heads of the millions of Kenyans who voted his regime to power until Kenyans organize themselves effectively to give him and his government a very well deserved kick in the seat of their collective pants.
Kibaki has surveyed the scene and has seen the Kenyan progressive camp in almost complete disarray. His LDP adversaries DO NOT CONSULT outside their partisan ranks and they seem to be too consumed with scheming for state power in 2007 to worry too much about building an effective national democratic movement that will rejuvenate and galvanize the popular base among the wananchi and rekindle that UNBWOGABLE Spirit. Many Kenyan human rights organizations seem to have surrendered to the overseas funders, capitulated to the NAK faction and made a conscious attempt to isolate themselves from the consistent Kenyan social justice fighters within their ranks. For instance, how many civil society organizations have come out to protest the arrest of the RPP 10? How many have come out swinging against the so called NESC?
There are many rays of hope nevertheless.
One of these rays is an event being organized in late November by the Kenya Debt Relief Network and other components and allies of the Kenya Social Forum. This occasion will provide a platform as well as an outlet for Kenyan progressives and patriots to meet and I am pretty sure that the so called NESC will be on the agenda.
Even though the upcoming KCA Homecoming and AGM scheduled to be held in Kenya for the first time is strictly a WACHA SIASA Affair, I would urge all Kenyan social justice activists to attend this gathering and inject that very siasa into this coming together of Kenyans abroad and Kenyans at home. We will make arrangements to have one of our representatives participate in the public debates and you can bet your last Otonglo that we will tear viciously into the so called NESC-if we are not banned or censored from participating that is. You never know…
Overall, I would say that expecting the Kibaki regime to deliver on its pre-election pledges and chart a path towards social and economic equality in Kenya is a bit like asking a man to breast feed a brand new infant.
It just won’t happen.
Onyango Oloo
Montreal
PS: As I was getting ready to upload this message, I saw a newsflash at the Nation web site informing me that a National Commission on Gender and Development has been formed with a man, Peterlis Ojwang Nyatuga heading it. The jokes keep coming…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
