We'll Still Push On

The biggest failure to our maturity as a nation has been the failure by the intelligentsia, the civil society and the so-called Young Turks to interrogate and hold accountable the successive regimes since independence. While the ‘leaders’ have proclaimed all over and from mountain tops that they will eradicate poverty, ignorance and disease; that they will provide ‘the second liberation’ then ‘the third liberation’, the common mwananchi has been left be-dazzled by the sound-bytes and the sloganeering. Unsubstantiated facts without much substance because no-one ever asks ‘how’, 'how much'.

Those in the know mumble under their breaths but do not dare put the politicians and the technocrats in government on the carpet to explain themselves- this has been either because they are themselves holding vested interests or are beneficiaries from the powers that be and have themselves therefore, been used as functionaries and apologists of the regimes.

The eradication of poverty and ignorance were stillbirths at the get-go when the powers that be realized that ignorant masses were easier to govern and plunder. Diseases have had an equal footing with progress- and sometimes prevailing over the latter due to the rampant corruption that has bedeviled these regimes. Diseases that had been eradicated like Polio, TB and such vermin like lice, jiggers, and bedbugs have made a comeback with a vengeance.

 The missing functions of demanding substantiation and explanations on how goals, aims and promises- even public policy will be attained have failed to insert appropriate ratchet mechanisms to hold the leaders accountable. Formulating the national budget and scrutinizing it has been left for the politicians who understand very little or are simply uninterested in the functions therein. This has ensured the five-year periodical circuses we’ve participated in all along- our elections. The high and mighty come down from the clouds, raise dust among us with their SUVs and choppers, give some hand-outs here and there, promise to provide free education to everyone, enough food for all, upgrade all roads and electrify every homestead, make rains, create rivers and running water so the women stop travelling miles to fetch water, but they don’t disclose how they will attain those goals without adversely affecting the day-to-day livelihood of the beneficiaries. They then take off to dine and wine together in the clouds leaving us fighting and killing each other.

The first liberation was supposed to return all the land the colonialists had expropriated to themselves but most of the said land ended up not with the original owners, those that had been displaced by the white colonialists but with a clique of new-look ‘colonialists’. The would-be liberators had turned into ‘willing buyer-willing takers’ of land. The same old colonial education system- which had been designed to keep the lesser mortals ignorant was maintained to ensure the same and, in abject poverty, disease haunts the masses till the present. The leaders can, of course, afford to seek medical attention abroad.

The second liberation was mainly a clamour for the expansion of the democratic space and tolerance of divergent political views after decades of oppressive single political party politics. Personal loyalty to the powers that be had become the yardstick or gauge to measure one’s survival in mainstream politics. Some would-be aspirants drummed up support from the Civil Society and the Western foreign missions to press for the liberalization of political views. The masses were caught in the lights and enthralled by the audacity of the newly sprung political players. Individuals who would dare shout in broad daylight what everyone feared to even contemplate in their own thoughts for fear of the government ‘reading ones mind’ The sudden impotence of the previous omnipotent and omniscient seemed simply incredible. Many of these were simply politicians seeking their own political space on the high table where the national cake is eaten. Civic education was thrown out through the window and so the masses were left exactly where they had been- ignorant. Registration of political parties was liberalized and that was the end of ‘the second liberation’. Political tolerance still eludes us and this can be seen in the recent party nominations that gave birth to thousands of “Independent’ candidates for the soon to held polls, Independents who are by no means independent but power hungry ‘have-beens’, individuals simply trying to hold on to something they had developed a liking for. By and large except for some fluke scenarios, personal loyalty to party bigwigs, read flag-bearers, is still a unit of measure in our politics. The masses are still mostly in the dark as to the workings of state. The government and the not-so-able opposition still treats public information as some medication, to be released in small doses, if any and or for political mileage. The cost to public policy has sky-rocketed with the excessive borrowing by the government and the impossible public wage bill. No one feels the need to explain to the masses the actual cost of the promises they give on the campaign platforms, the masses are on the same vein not well informed on the actual cost or burden, of gross national corruption which has reached uncharted heights.

The intelligentsia are a factor who, like wonders, will only increase and need to break their silence when government and opposition are not disclosing information or venture into the excesses. Young Turks almost all the time end up being assimilated in the political class getting themselves even murkier than the old guard. The civil society need to embark and keep at civic education which is the only liberating method which will truly bring the final liberation- to the mwananchi.

The Rains Still Beat Us

When our freedom fighters decided to take up the struggle against the white colonisers, their motive(s) were clear, the means clearly set out and the principle players, most of them peasant volunteers led by individuals, some of who had had military experience in either of the earlier two world wars. They demanded freedoms, repatriation of the displaced back to their lands and the general return of all the land allocated to the foreign settler community , the ratchet in this arrangement- use of forceful means to attain these ends.

This small group of combatants launched the fight with the knowledge that the majority of citizens were on their side. Convinced that they had the backing both in spirit and in deed, of the non-combatant citizenry and the simple knowledge and belief that their cause was just. It gave them the impossible morale to take up what little arms and crude weapons they had against the might of the British empire's forces. They believed that the God they prayed to, the one who sat on the "mountain with whiteness" was on their side.

The partial to whole scale betrayal of the aspirations of the masses was in the works and some in the organised leadership of the Africans sought to take advantage of the unfolding situations. Jomo Kenyatta- despite not having been born in a traditional African 'royalty' family and others took advantage of having had some 'education' read civilisation, and started shunning the violence used as the ultimate tool by the freedom fighters and edging their influence close to the centre of power. They encouraged the masses to acquire education so that they would be able to 'inherit the government' though the quality of education imparted was only rudimentary- just enough to enable the peasants understand the commands from the masters who were gradually turning up in black complexion. The result of this approach was the "still-born independence" where the masses did not get back what lands their sons and daughters had died in the forests fighting for, they could not aspire to the heights of governance because they had not been 'civilised' enough to 'inherit the government'.

Fast forward to the late '80s into early '90s and the winds of wider democratisation have swept eastern Europe and are being felt in Africa. Kenya has a despot who has such friends like Nicholae Ceausescu, a Romanian dictator, for strategic advisor, and the masses are pouring onto the streets of the major cities demanding greater freedoms and opening up of democratic space. Kenyans are being subjected to a state security machinery akin to one going by the name of  SRB- 'State Research Bureau' employed by Idi Amin Dada of neighbouring Uganda. They had to look over their shoulder before "thinking"  anything anti-Nyayo (the governing philosophy of the day)- and they still found themselves being apprehended for such thoughts and 'disappeared' into the Nyayo dungeons. Many did not re-emerge from these alive and their kin did not- could not do or say anything about it.

Despite these dark events, the civil society and the clergy- encouraged and supported by some foreign diplomatic missions like one Smith Hempstone, put up the pressure unrelentingly and the government had to give but before this happened, the old "partial to whole scale betrayal of the aspirations of the masses" turned whole cycle and it happened again. Most in government realised their days in positions of influence were ending thanks to the multi-party form of governance movement and they quickly shed off their 'nyayo-ist' cloaks and donned the new multi-party ones. Taking advantage of the inter-ethnic animosity/suspicions and paranoia that had been planted and nurtured to full maturity by the "nyayo error", they turned to their ethnic conclaves and "shed the light" that some communities intended to dominate others. Many of those leading the clamour for democratisation were also swept under these machinations and they dropped (or fumbled) the ball. The majority of the masses did not get the necessary and effective civic education to erase the centuries of master/slave syndrome that has been plaguing them. The education to enlighten them as to the workings of state, the balancing of 'Citizens, state, power, control' equation. The political class knows this endemic ignorance and uses it to perpetuate its grip or strangle-hold on the masses who are left gasping for any hand-outs, nay, crumbs that may fall from the high table and be forever grateful for them.

The new millennium brought the pseudo-realisation that what ails us most is the constitutional arrangement we had. The truth that if all citizens are treated the same by the constitution of that day then most of our problems would be resolved -was swept under the rug (again by the political class, by either deliberate mis-education of the masses or omission thereof) The clamour for a new constitution was accelerated and there was a lot of feigned sympathy/empathy with and mention of "Wanjiku" to make it look like no-one was being ignored, that this was actually a citizen driven agenda. Wanjiku was not appropriately 'brought up to speed' to equip her with the cognisance of constitution making. Some of the proponents and opponents of the draft constitution- spokes in the wheel of our betrayal-  did the usual theatrics or gymnastics of shedding and donning opposing cloaks and a constitution was ratified in 2010 with the full knowledge that it had some defects but with the understanding that it would be fine-tuned in situ. We mostly forgot that a wheel with spokes and some little effort keeps turning. The wheel turned another cycle and another 'partial to whole scale betrayal of the aspirations of the masses' happened. Any talk of constitutional amendment(s) was equated to treason- anti government. Whatever clause one felt needed amending notwithstanding.
Today, all arms of governance- executive, legislature, the judiciary and the citizenry itself are seemly impotent thanks to the monstrosity of the new constitution. Do we contract a benevolent dictator, suspend the constitution, reset to the default settings and start afresh?
Our so-called founding fathers came up with the clarion call of eradication of poverty, ignorance and disease. They came up with very little or ineffective ways and means to achieve these goals and infact on closer analysis it would seem as if their approach effectively worsened the situation. The majority of the people are still struggling with these ills today.

There seems a generalised resignation by the masses to the notion that there are no better choices. This leads us to board un-roadworthy vehicles at the risk of our own harm, rent unsuitable habitations, drink poisons in the name of alcohol, hang onto helicopters in the name of protest, elect criminals into the august houses and then sit back crying, " Mungu saidia, Serikali saidia!..Jameni naomba serikali iingilie...!"
While not exonerating the authorities for the dire situation the majority of the citizens find themselves in, I would in the same breath blame the masses for the predicament we find ourselves in. Yes, the political class strives- and has succeeded, so far, to perpetuate the slave/master arrangement but the masses are not blameless. We seriously need to figure out how to make our institutions accountable to the people, the executive, the legislature, the civil society, the clergy- our houses of worship have been turned into business enterprises, and now the judiciary, they have all failed us. We desperately need a reset button to set us back to our default settings. We need a new dawn.

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The crowds that turned out at Afraha stadium and the Uhuru park on Madaraka day both went back home with the same take. Their leaders, the same. Your guess is as good as mine.

Divided We Stand, United We Fall?...

The talk about disintegration is not far fetched. We have seen that it is very easy to get to that unfortunate ending. We were literally on that threshold in 2008 and we were lucky to have attracted the eyes of the international community who on the other hand did not do the fence sitting act they had done with Rwanda in '94. We retreated, and here we are now.

We cannot be talking about dismembering Kenya as a solution to the problems facing us. I would understand the opinion one may hold, that Kenya could end up dismembered- because that is a possibility if we do not self diagnose appropriately, but I would argue to high heavens and hell below against considering that as a solution
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The President stood on the floor, the other day and beseeched Kenyans to remember and embrace the spirit of the founding fathers/mothers in the covenant they prescribed at independence. I found myself contemplating that spirit and couldn't help thinking that the real nationalistic covenant is unwritten. That it is the spirit (within us) that tells us that it is wrong to loot the national coffers while masses are dying in abject poverty. The written covenant however, states that we need to have evidence to call out thieves and looters, lets us celebrate our thieves and looters- and that might be the one handed to us by the said fathers, the one that continue to plague us to date.

 "People cannot talk of ethnic inclusion in governments composed by ethnic leaders who believe they are in power thanks to ethnic support and that leaders from other communities are not fit to be president. Negative ethnicity has transformed communities into ethnic kingdoms and their leaders into ethnic kings who convince their people to fear other groups."- Koigi Wa Wamwere, Daily Nation, Friday 04/01/2016, Pg 18.

Our devolution model could serve to enlighten our people that it's not the other communities who impoverish us, that even our own do us harm. What explains the mis-management of our county affairs by our own? Born and raised in our neighbourhoods? Our own kin and kith? Explain how a County governor can purchase a bunch of wheelbarrows at ridiculously exorbitant prices while poor children in his fiefdom are dying of hunger or lacking education due to poverty, patients are dying in the local hospitals due to lack of medical equipment. Wouldn't this translate to national looting/mismanagement if the same are elected into national offices?

Corruption has entangled our way of life- social/cultural/legal framework like that thorny vine climbing your favorite fruit tree. It has even sent its deadly tendrils into the legislature. To enjoy the fruits we will be forced to uproot the whole bush and re-plant the tree. The trick is to get the whole nation pulling together to uproot this evil vine. We have so much been polarised that our national flag now has over forty two colours instead of the basic three. We look at the evils bedeviling us through the prisms of ethnicity, social status and where one would like to be on the "eating queue" that we come up with a vague distorted image of the problem(s). Thus we fail- over and over again at the task of ridding ourselves of what ails us. Blowing whistles- most probably just because we are not 'eating',  is just a sideshow performance. An exercise in futility.

El Adde Incident

We are a nation at war and to complicate matters, we are at war, not with another hostile nation but with a militant group, a rag-tag guerilla outfit fighting its own government either for inclusion in governance or for total control with the intention of creating a Caliphate regime-the real, specific aim of their struggle has not been clearly articulated. They also claim to be fighting all enemies of Islam.

Be that as it may, our soldiers are an occupation force in Somalia and without delving into the 'right' or 'wrong' of this situation, they are combatants in enemy territory and their core business of the day is attacking and being attacked. They are not on a holiday camp and casualties, with all due respect to the victims (and my deepest condolences to the bereaved families) are an inevitability of war. These casualties are expected from both sides and ought not surprise anyone.

It is in this light that I find all the hullabaloo about the Kenyan soldiers killed and injured in Somalia, recently,  the clamor from politicians calling for commission of inquiry, for immediate government disclosure as to what went wrong, why the deaths happened-hypocritical and hoodwinking the masses as to the real issues. It is my opinion that if any probe is warranted, this should be a military one to examine the failure(s) or otherwise of their strategy; to discipline or award personnel both responsible for the omissions or commissions of error and the gallant heroes living or post humous, this incident should be an appendage to the KDF's war manual

For now, for the rest of us, ours is only to debate whether we really need an occupation force in Somalia-autonomous or under the umbrella of AMISOM or some other multi-nation force or we pull out our forces altogether and leave the duty of nation making to others.
When a military or law enforcement installation or any civilian institution, in Kenya, is attacked by either criminals or combatants from outside Kenya, that to me is the prompt, the clarion call that should get us clamouring even for the resignation of government. This to me is the uttermost show of ineptitude at securing the state by a government-the core business of any government.

Jicho Pevu

Parliamentary committees are, in my opinion, quasi judicial in their business and ought to hold themselves in the seriousness and professionalism this demands.
The PAC committee questioning the devolution CS should have had a real statement of misappropriations, itemizing specific details of mis-deed and these should have been provided to the media (the media too should have requested for these if not voluntarily supplied)

The interviewers should have exhaustively delved into each and every item of concern and insisted on clear answers from all concerned-the CS and /or her ministry's PS either as individuals or as guilty parties.

Hearing a member of the PAC stating "…they said she has a flat screen TV costing so much money,.." and not having anything to substantiate this claim-e.g. showing a picture of the item in the CS's office-is tantamount to conspiring to misguide the course of justice. They should have had pictures of the said items that had been over-priced, copies of the auditors' statements, etc.
Holding the committee session without such is like a prosecutor taking a case before a judge leaving all evidence at home thereby causing a mis-trial. Remember the 'he says she says' scenario? The investigators did not even take a picture of the alleged piano in the office?

I take issue with the fact that nobody is mentioning any name to attach to the monstrous crime that has been committed. Who is the Principal Secretary in that ministry? No one seems courageous enough to name them, not the CS herself, not the PAC committee legislators, we are not even sure who is the boss of who in the ministries! Who does the accounting officer in a ministry answer to or do they operate ministries as personal fiefdoms? If a cabinet secretary cannot oversee the financial accounting of their ministry then what are they there for?

The media is wondering why Kenyans are not in the streets en mass protesting the ills the government is perpetrating. How can they be angry if they don't know what is really happening? The happenings of government are like a private members' club and the public is only fed-by the media- pieces of half truths-outbursts resulting from disagreements on who is eating what, what is there to be eaten and who is being starved. When the protagonists are all satisfied and happy, we never know there is a country being plundered. That is why today's opposition was yesterday's government and it might be the reverse come 2017.

Every news bulletin today has a piece about fraud and misappropriation of public funds- yet the same media propagating these are not keen enough to collect, collate, collaborate and present credible evidence for the layman in the village who does not understand the technical jargon or lingual acrobatics, the common mwananchi is lost in the semantics/syntax and is left to judge by whoever shouts loudest or meanest, among the accusers/accused.
One media house actually quoted a competitor's online edition regarding a circular from the President which was published in December 2014. They asked their viewers to google it!
Woe betides you in Suguta valley,  if you've ever wanted to know the truth. so watched the TV news.

Kenya. In The Cold Season

Recently I was privileged to have had the opportunity to visit my motherland end of June and stayed there till end of August. It was a somewhat sweet/fearful experience especially after recent events related to insecurity. I was quite apprehensive as the day to land there drew near and as we approached Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from the Ngong hills, I couldn't help but notice the vast expanses of well lit residential estates and streets in areas that would have been covered in darkness a few years ago. The land surrounding the airport has been swallowed up by homes and all sorts of buildings which unfortunately brought to mind the 'cancer' of land grabbing and impunity as I wondered if the airport land had been infringed upon like that of the small sister airport of Wilson,  but all that was swallowed up by the blissful feeling of happiness as I stepped out of the customs area at JKIA and was surrounded by family members who had arrived to welcome me home. There's no words to exactly describe the feeling of 'home sweet home'-Not Shakespeare, not Ngugi wa Thiong'o, not even Philip Ochieng can capture that feeling in words.

As always, I had a harsh reminder that east or west, none is like home by some traits that will always cling to us like the common catchweed bedstraw, the one that always brushes against your clothing as you pass by and hikes a ride un-invited. The smell of engine exhaust fills the air, I was pretty sure had it not been night I would have seen the dust and the foul smelling exhaust, but the curtain of darkness took care of that. On the highway out of the airport, I was again reminded that this is home by the drivers who never keep to their lanes and never use their flashers to indicate intention to cut right in front of you onto your lane. My experiences away from home soon disappeared and I started living at home again-driving on the left side of the road, using my right hand to indicate direction of travel and the left hand to turn on the windscreen wipers.

Two or so years after the general elections and two or so years before the next, one cannot help but notice the general ease Kenyans are with each other and tangible too is the confidence the common mwananchi is going about doing their thing. It is a feeling that one wishes is more extended and un-interrupted by the so called democratic practice of electioneering that we undergo every five years. Everyone I had the privilege of interacting with; from the mLuhya at Kawangware who made my furniture, the jaLuo mechanic at Roaster's who fixed my car ball joints every time they went loose, the mKamba artisan who would fix my leaking roof, the mKikuyu/Maasai goat seller at Limuru who knew (even before I told them) the goat I needed for ngoima. 

The game wardens in the Mara who wanted to know if I had paid to have the animals look at me, the police manning the million road blocks I crossed as I travelled; all had this debonair way of interaction that reminded me how wonderful it is to be in Kenya.

During this stay, I had to-because of the latent politician in me- figure out a score sheet on which to judge the jubilee government which I have all along held in my cross-hairs. I have never been an UhuRuto apologist or sympathizer nor have I ever been a bosom buddy of the CORD outfit. I had the first hand opportunity to see the changed face or phase-if you may, of rural the electrification program. This has stretched out to thereto un-imaginable areas, word on the ground is that having no money is no reason for not getting a domestic connection! This scored high on the score-card. I renewed my driver's licence at a cyber cafe in Nairobi without having to go to the dreaded Times Tower where I did my last renewal. The Huduma centers; the mobile clinics being distributed by the first lady, the roadsides in the rural areas without bushes, the sanitized informal settlements in Nairobi, Kisumu and hopefully other urban centers following soon. While I was in Kenya, an Obama visit, a Global Entrepreneurship Summit, a First Ladies' (African) summit happened in Nairobi and there is talk of a Papal visit and WTO summit coming soon (to a theatre near you?)

For all these, I could easily give the Jubilee government credit for aiding and abetting. For some things to happen, there has to be a conducive environment and the government of the day has a paramount role to play in this. The Jubilee outfit does not need a propagandist to narrate all these-yet they are behaving as if ignorant or are they just plain modest?

eCitizen, ejijiPay and KRA internet portals are another godsend for government services. Utility companies and service providers have eased payments by employing the M-Pesa facility.

The Nairobi county government (and probably other counties) is still in the snail-pace when it comes to revenue collection. One has to apply to be entered in a rates/rent payers' roll (at a fee of course), then they create an invoice which the applicant then picks up at a later (much later!) date to pay land rates or rent. 

As I drove from home back to the airport on my way back, I took the wrong turn twice on the Thika highway which I wholly blame the authorities charged with putting up signs on the roads. Signs should be advance information for visiting travelers but I found that it's not the case at home. They assume one knows where one is and that one knows where the next turn leads to. Driving at night can be treacherous due to the poor state of roads-potholes polka dot the surfaces, no pilot marking on the tarmac and one is never really sure where the road edge is especially on being blinded by oncoming vehicles' full beams. I was held up in stand-still traffic jams twice and I could see the window for boarding the plane slowly closing shut. It was as if I was being sent a subtle message by the Oracle---You are home! Where are you in a hurry to?

Let The Man Speak

As we ready ourselves to welcome guest number one for the Republic of Kenya, the president of the United States, there's all sorts of feelings being expressed in the media and in the (mtaani), street fora mainly to do with what he's expected to talk about.
Other concerns are to do with where he's going to visit, who he's going to meet etc. It is very obvious that Kenyans have not had such degree of interest on a state guest and it is obvious the feelings they have towards their 'prodigal son', Mr Obama.

Mr Obama is definitely the highest level opinion shaper we have had in the recent past and it goes without saying his opinion on any issue would be scrutinized with a microscope and some in the policy making positions might be tempted to treat his opinion(s) as sacrosanct, such polarizing issues like LGBT rights is bound to prick sensitive nerves and the heat therein is already being felt judging from the demonstrations being held in opposition/support of imagined preferences expected of the POTUS.

We, as a nation have suddenly forgotten that we have more pressing issues that Mr Obama would be better off addressing, issues that he might deliberately ignore or forget, issues that might be masked or blanketed out by the non-issues we are raising;
- What role is the US planning on taking as innocent Kenyans face the wrath of US' enemies in its proxy wars fighting against Islamic extremists?
- As poor people globally continue suffering from the extremes of the weather, caused by global warming, is the US-a major contributor to the causes of weather changes, doing enough to cushion the marginalized populations?
- Does the US acknowledge its role as a co-conspirator in global corruption? A major cause of the prevalent abject poverty among the most vulnerable populations?
- As he pushes for the finalization of the TPP-TransPacific trade Partnership, does he agree that Africa would benefit from an AGOA that is more tilted towards giving African production more advantage than US consumption?

Whatever Mr Obama believes as far as LGBT rights are concerned are his personal opinion and should remain as such. We already know his position from past proclamations and we should not be flustered by repetitions of such views. We know our own convictions and all we need to do is be alert  and vigilant that our institutions don't get swayed by foreign ideologies while formulating policy or the law.
Entrenched in our constitution is the freedom of speech and expression and these freedoms ought to be afforded to all-the POTUS included.