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
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