Hear Ye All Kenyans of Goodwill

As the sand dunes that are Kenyan political elites continue to shift and surf the desert landscape that the Kenyan political scene is,- merging here, separating there, changing shapes, sizes and directions, we, the citizens ought to shake ourselves from the reverie of yesteryear's promise of a new dawn after the promulgation of the new Constitution.
This is my bugle blast Kenyans, 'Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war…' Our land has been plundered and sacked by these gentry now arranging and re-arranging themselves for the next round of looting. It's time we put our feet firmly on our beloved motherland and weeded out the vampires. We need to separate the few good men and women from the 'honourable' chaff and hand them the mantle of national leadership.
Let us all united disregard our ethnic backgrounds and gauge each and every aspirant per their individual 'pluses and minuses'-Thieves from our own backyards rob us the same as they rob our distant neighbours.
The Constitution gave us the hope of a new beginning and it is the time we put it to test. Let us not forget what our politicians have been doing all along. They have created, crafted and perfected the art of national plunder never before seen; The grabbing of land originally meant for repatriation to the colonial IDPs in the 60s thru the 70s, grabbing of public land throughout the the three administrations, ethnic cleansing by the 'nyayo error', goldenberg and 'anglo fleecing' rip-offs, parliamentary blackmail and extortions in the form of refusing to pay taxes while raising their own pay packages, and many others which have been given publicity blackouts.
Any politician who has touched even a hair of the marginalized (and that is all of us) by- being involved in corrupt deals, or being tainted by the last three administrations' malfeasance should be ejected and lined up for due legal scrutiny.
Let us all united shout from the roof tops and mountain tops that impunity, even by our own sons and daughters has no place in the new Kenya.

....And the beat goes on!

Looking at the ongoing saga of Syokimau and other affected areas where Kenyans are systematically being rendered homeless, It is difficult to not say, 'you thought you were safe, now it's your turn!'
This is so because after nearly five years now, other Kenyans of slightly different pedigree have been living under tents and other makeshift structures after they were rendered homeless by political thugs now sitting in Parliament through their agents and hired hooligans.

Our national psyche and conscience has been so numbed to feel pity and pain for such actions that no one really remembers that we still have IDPs, squatters, people in the sprawling slums living in inhuman conditions-who need 'a final solution', as far as land for permanent settlement and shelter is concerned. We should never forget that there are children, the aged and invalids in those camps and all these, through no fault of their own like acquiring illegal land, have been made homeless by our own intolerance and individual/communal greed.

While we question the honesty of such institutions as the Airport Authority who watched as a modern housing estate was constructed 'on their land' only to suddenly wake up as if from a stupor and commence demolitions, We need to remember that such actions/behaviours have in the past resulted in the calamities that we have witnessed like the recent fire in Sinai, the not so distant past fire in Athi River, the deadly train accidents in Kibera….etc. In all these incidents, land reserved for public utility corporations has been encroached on by unscrupulous settlers with the full knowledge of the corporations and no action taken until the gross loss of life after the accidents. Then our political consciousness makes pilgrimages to the sites to mourn and promise government assistance. They also shed a crocodilian tear or two in the process, hoping that it will be remembered come next voting season.

How come no one ever gets to be prosecuted for all these wrong doings or is there no relevant jurisprudence or statute infringed in all these activities? If the acquisition of the land in Syokimau was illegal, whoever received monies for the transfers surely needs to be put on the stand? Whoever produced the fake title deeds surely needs to state how they were obtained? Whoever was responsible for enforcing the airpot authority boundaries ought to state what was happening when the houses were being constructed! How come our air force base in Nairobi was swamped in by illegal constructions-what happened to national security for heaven's sake? Many heads need to be rolling.

In the spirit of the new constitution, let us put to test our resolve to rope in runaway corruption and impunity. Let us follow our laws to the letter and spirit and in so doing extract the cancer of corruption from our system for ever.

Poleni sana Sinai, Athi River, Kibera et al.

Disasters come packaged like the links in a chain. Starting with the base link which is the causative factor for subsequent events (links), they follow each other-not necessarily sequentially -like dominoes till the final one hits you. Why do we 'die so repeatedly' from fuel spillage, especially in these days of universal information? Why do we gravitate towards mass annihilation like a moth to a flame?

The problem, when one suffers the ultimate from a calamity, it is often too late to learn and the ones left behind usually dismiss it as bad luck on your part. The powers that be will at times label disasters as 'Acts of God' while the lesser mortals will at times declare them 'acts of witch craft' and 'curses of evil'. Religious leaders will sometime label them as 'God's judgement of the evil humans' and /or 'signs of the times'.  The fortunate survivors will live on to repeat the same mistakes on a future date and for them too, the bell will toll. ad infinitum.

Solutions for these recurrent problems revolve around addressing abject poverty, civic education, enforcement of laid down regulations, building and habitation codes, effective investigations as to who the responsibility falls under for ensuring safe functioning of systems and disciplining all who may be found in fault. Why do we encroach, live and do commerce on road reserves, railway reserves, pipeline reserves, game reserves and no one is able to stop us? The cancer of corruption which results in breeding impunity, nepotism and favouritism, will haunt us till we look at it in the face and call it as such. Question is; will we live to that day or are we going to self-destruct before it?

My sympathies are with all the victims and those left behind. May we learn something from those events to help us live more safely and appreciate the dangers surrounding us. and let us see who will be held responsible for these events.

Serikali is not Sirikali.

The AG, the learned Mr Amos Wako is the longest serving government legal advisor we have had in Kenya. It is hinted that he knows nearly everywhere all the skeletons are hidden by the two most recent regimes. He might even have been the consultant-in-chief when the skeletons were being made
He has been indoctrinated in the art of secrecy. He might even be the chief architect of the art itself thereby advising such dictators like Moi to always keep 'a secret weapon' with which to rout any formidable foe- real or imagined, at elections. We are lucky enough to have witnessed this in the days of SabaSaba and the FORD movement. The greatest and most formidable mass movement since the clamor to oust the British colonialists and their hatchet-men in the 50's and 60's was instantaneously rendered obsolete with one tea session at the State House where it is said Ugali was also included in the menu!
Due to a stroke of fate or national misfortune, it is this same Wako that we are forced to rely on to transcend the deep dark divide between the old constitutional order and the new one. He is the bridge to see us through. And we are all very afraid. VERY AFRAID!
Come clean, honourable AG. That constitution you are trying to 'secretly doctor' was concocted by Kenyans in the open. That is exactly how we want it to be implemented!

Wake up and live....

What The Boss is seeing since June 3rd are ordinary Kenyans going about their daily lives ( and they are not weird ). I have been seeing them all my life and they haven't been of any particular threat to me. What he is afraid of is his own models of phantoms or the guilt of sins past committed, and his only refuge is to come out clean and face his accusers in broad daylight. Only the truth will set him free.
........
As Marley sang,
Life is one big road with lots of signs...
As we move along the ruts,.....not to complicate our minds
....to be free from hate, deceit and jelousy...
........

A luta continua.....

The battle lines for Africa's ultimate liberation seems to be getting clearer as we progress.
It is now clear that corruption, impunity and irresponsible, unaccountable regimes headed by  lame-duck leaders are our common enemy. Our politics have been dominated by criminals and compounded by greed and blind power struggles.
Most of African populations are held up at bottle-necks created by politicians seeking to entrench and enrich themselves with total disregard of the woes facing the masses. The only time the masses' needs are in the politicians' agenda is when the elections are near, and even then, the needs met are meagre, short term and only fulfilling immediate desires; beer for the men-folk, one kilogram packages of sugar for the women-folk and or a large denomination currency note. The more real problems are listed as development plans to be implemented if the politicians get the votes. These will be as vague as possible to make sure no one is able to question the implementation progress or lack thereof. They will shout about how they will " bring electricity and water to the villages…, the schools will be improved…, the roads will be upgraded,…"
Finally to get the voters out in their droves, the politicians will pull the age-old trick of accusing past regimes headed by 'other' tribes of all the underdevelopment in their region. They will however forget to mention that they were in Parliament when these regimes were in power and that they have nothing in record to indicate that their efforts to represent their voters were frustrated-of course because the Hansard is not accessible by the ordinary mwananchi.(Parliamentarians are known to go through their terms without ever contributing anything in The house except the conversion of oxygen into carbon dioxide.) They will call on their supporters to vote 'as a block' and these is normally translated as a green light to frustrate opposition as necessary-unfortunately including violence.
To the issue at hand, fight against corruption and impunity.
Why is it that someone who is associated with prosecutorial debacles related to serving parliamentarians is nominated and approved for the post of chief prosecutor by the said parliament-is this a sign of things to come, that none of the sitting parliamentarians suspected of crimes both local and international-and we have many!-will prosecuted?Aren't we, by this actions, entrenching impunity into our new constitution?
Why don't our parliamentarians see the urgency to clear the DPP nominee of all accusations facing him before approving his nomination?
Because of political expediency and feelings of need for leniency/protection, parliamentarians are now aligned along those in need of a blind eyed prosecutor supporting Ole Tobiko and those with no fears of prosecution opposing his nomination.  The president and prime minister either by design or by accident are held at ransom. And our new dawn will be muddied by this act.  So again, this is a false start.The struggle for our liberation continues. Let there be no more blood spilling-innocent blood.

Tusisahau kamwe...

When Kenyans are reminded that they have a short memory like one of the four-legged natives of the Kenyan game reserves-which is both good and bad, they feel hurt.
When they are misguided by their politicians to kill each other and destroy property, they somehow don't feel the hurt-that is until the international community goes..' Oh my God!! How could they?'

Since the time the white man schemed and executed his plan to perpetuate his dominion in Kenya by pitting one tribe against the other, we have never been able to shed this spell of animosity and mutual mistrust among ourselves.  This has mostly been the effects of bad politics. We have never really shed the white man's politics. Our founding fathers saw the harm colonial politics could rain on a nation and came up with an alternative approach dubbed African socialism-but this remained a dream on paper. They had the good will to approach politics with the African attitude of brotherhood and community burden sharing, simply put, being mindful of ones neighbours' welfare.

Somewhere down the line, our leaders betrayed their own cause and and deviated their noble path and took up short cuts to enrich themselves and entrench their grip on power. The noble goals of eradication of poverty, disease and ignorance were thrown by the roadside and forgotten. The ignorant 'mwananchi wa kawaida' was left dazzled by the slogans, chanting and fanfare blaring from the political arena. His case was sealed. He was forgotten.

That is, until just the other day when a people driven attempt to change the way politics is played was promulgated. The mwananchi wa kawaida finally shook the dust off, cleaned himself up and got ready to march on towards the old goals of zero poverty, zero disease and zero ignorance-or so he believed, but then again the politicians might have set other goals! The under-currents in the public service and political scenes seem to indicate that it's the same old song only with a different tune. This is the reason that most of those interested in the new political seats of governors and senators are former or current politicians. The powerful seats in the judiciary have attracted old players in the tainted system. The nominee for the director of public prosecutions is a shining example of a system not willing to let go of the reins of power by hook or crook-even laden with an impeccable record of commissions and omissions, the gentleman is not self conscientious enough to withdraw and reflect on his own past record. One cannot be found wanting by so many scales and come out clean- Lazima iko kitu.

My call is to the mwananchi wa kawaida to not forget the past betrayals. To look at those calling for support with a sober mind and gauge each according to their past deeds and mis-deeds, both committed directly or by proxy. Listen and take note of what they are promising and hold them accountable-the current constitution allows for recalls if one fails midterm. The mwananchi wa kawaida needs to keep in mind that the power really rests on himself and not the politician. The time to be conned and treaded on by the politicians is gone. This is the new dawn of the Kenya we always wanted-and no one should be allowed to hijack it from us. Let us always remember.