As eccentric as the builder, this castle stands testimony to man's heights of peculiarity.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Please, first things first.
In the ongoing tussle between the citizens of Kenya and the government which is trying to raise its revenue while the mwananchi is trying to survive, the two positions are totally understandable. Government needs to raise funds to cater for services, but then again, it needs to be frugal in its expenditure. It would be in order to point out some pertinent issues that need not be obliterated by the dust that is bound to be raised by all the busybodies who are clamoring to be seen to represent the cornered mwananchi. I'm holding my breath to see how the Jubilee coalition in the National Assembly is going to help check the government and the complementary maneuvers from the CORD coalition.
When the politicians promise wananchi 'goodies' during electioneering periods, they are cheered on and no one goes the next step to question how the 'goodies' will be paid for or whether they are 'freebies'. The last electioneering period offered us a very appropriate forum to interrogate the candidates and their policies, unfortunately most of us were fixated by the very idea of being able to question the aspirants and lost sight of the intended objective. We dwelt too much on the hype of the moments during the debates and gave little or no attention to the core issues at hand-income versus expenditure in our national and county budgets.
The Jubilee coalition had promised laptop computers to all children entering Std One once elected and most of us cheered them for this but did not question them how they were going to fund this project. We even lost sight of the fact that the said children were mostly starving or on the verge of starvation. They are studying under trees for lack of classrooms and are poorly sheltered at home. Surely, had we been a little sober in our deliberations with our leaders, we would have sought to feed, cloth and shelter these kids before giving them the laptops. We would have learnt that the Jubilee two did not have a concrete strategy for funding their policies without increasing the taxation base and this does not in anyway imply that their CORD opponents had anything better or credible to offer.
During the debates, everything was painted rosy red, honey yellow, and all the other colours of the competing coalitions. The resulting kaleidoscopic display dazzled and hypnotized most of us into the euphoria of voting without thinking. Now, we are all bitter that the first order of business by the newly elected leaders was to raise the national and county wage bills without disclosing where or how the funds will be obtained. We are witnessing a near-dysfunctional nation due to supremacy turf wars between the National Assembly and the Senate, get-rich-quick leaders bent only to lining their pockets before the next elections, and inoperable county governments due to direction-less county executives and representatives.
While the mwananchi is being forced to dig deeper into pockets that are already empty, just to feed and cloth, we see blatant extravagance by both national and county governments; spending nonsensical figures to pamper retired leaders with freebies while we are paying hefty retirement packages, the fuel guzzlers of yesteryears are back on our roads ferrying the leaders, We need to tax all items of luxury fullest, including the unnecessarily expensive vehicles used by our politicians before even considering taxing the basic necessities like maize meal, rice, 'mafuta taa', farm inputs, etc
And could someone please correct the spelling on the Deputy President's podium..
When the politicians promise wananchi 'goodies' during electioneering periods, they are cheered on and no one goes the next step to question how the 'goodies' will be paid for or whether they are 'freebies'. The last electioneering period offered us a very appropriate forum to interrogate the candidates and their policies, unfortunately most of us were fixated by the very idea of being able to question the aspirants and lost sight of the intended objective. We dwelt too much on the hype of the moments during the debates and gave little or no attention to the core issues at hand-income versus expenditure in our national and county budgets.
The Jubilee coalition had promised laptop computers to all children entering Std One once elected and most of us cheered them for this but did not question them how they were going to fund this project. We even lost sight of the fact that the said children were mostly starving or on the verge of starvation. They are studying under trees for lack of classrooms and are poorly sheltered at home. Surely, had we been a little sober in our deliberations with our leaders, we would have sought to feed, cloth and shelter these kids before giving them the laptops. We would have learnt that the Jubilee two did not have a concrete strategy for funding their policies without increasing the taxation base and this does not in anyway imply that their CORD opponents had anything better or credible to offer.
During the debates, everything was painted rosy red, honey yellow, and all the other colours of the competing coalitions. The resulting kaleidoscopic display dazzled and hypnotized most of us into the euphoria of voting without thinking. Now, we are all bitter that the first order of business by the newly elected leaders was to raise the national and county wage bills without disclosing where or how the funds will be obtained. We are witnessing a near-dysfunctional nation due to supremacy turf wars between the National Assembly and the Senate, get-rich-quick leaders bent only to lining their pockets before the next elections, and inoperable county governments due to direction-less county executives and representatives.
While the mwananchi is being forced to dig deeper into pockets that are already empty, just to feed and cloth, we see blatant extravagance by both national and county governments; spending nonsensical figures to pamper retired leaders with freebies while we are paying hefty retirement packages, the fuel guzzlers of yesteryears are back on our roads ferrying the leaders, We need to tax all items of luxury fullest, including the unnecessarily expensive vehicles used by our politicians before even considering taxing the basic necessities like maize meal, rice, 'mafuta taa', farm inputs, etc
And could someone please correct the spelling on the Deputy President's podium..
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Let's All Be Vigilant
Ours is an affiliation of convenience-By this I mean our nationhood. Our state-hood. When the partition of the African continent was carried out by the European powers, they did not care who was separated with whom and who was bunched with whom, as long as the lines put the necessary resources on their sphere of influence, traditional enemies were bundled together while cousins were separated by a simple line later on referred to as the international border. The large, expansive Cushite peoples were split into Somalis in Somalia and Somalis in Kenya, Somalis in Ethiopia, etc. The Teso were split into the two nations later on known as Kenya and Uganda. Mt Kilimanjaro was offered as a gift to a Germanic monarchy by the British one and by so doing, the Wa Chaga and other peoples like the Wa Pare were split into two foreigners with their Kenyan counterparts.
We have always had our ethnic identities since time immemorial and we will always do. There is nothing we can do about this and the soonest we learn to appreciate the benefits-and there are many that come with it,- the better. Diversity has been embraced positively all over the world and fruits are visible to all who care to see. It has also, unfortunately, been abused in nearly equal measure and again, the bitter fruits can be seen all over the globe. Our biggest enemy is negative ethnicity. Negative ethnicity feeds and breeds on itself. It forces peoples into a rut, a vicious cycle that is very hard to get out. It promises benefits and at the same time denies benefits and the victims are put in a perpetual carrot-in front-of-donkey situation. It creates lords and serfs. It is immoral.
Sadly part of the reasons- and they really are not reasons but excuses-for ethnic reasoning which leads to negative ethnicity is the endemic corruption that we have all perpetuated. We have become immune to the pangs of corruption as long as it is being practiced by 'our brothers' or 'our people'. As long as 'it is our turn to eat', then it is not corruption. We even use corruption to try and keep 'others' out of power and when others effectively lock us out of power we start shouting that they are the most corrupt. We only see corruption when practiced by 'others' and we brand them and their ethnic group en masse, as corrupt.
This rut that we all have been driven into becomes most obvious every five years when we hold our general elections. Our systems have been set up such that one has to be nominated in ones local region to run for any seat. If one misses the support of the local community, then it's an uphill task to get nominated therefore one starts by convincing the local masses who are usually ignorant of national issues that their chance of ever getting the 'fruits of governance' is by electing him/her. Usually the targeted population is the most marginalised and under-informed, usually living in abject poverty and misery. These are the gullible citizens who form the grassroots support base. These are the fodder that fuel the fires of 'euphoria' that the politicians rely on to get elected, the same troops that may be used to create a voting block by eliminating any opposition by either ethnic cleansing, or simply intimidation of voters or competitors. This sadly leads to our general elections looking like an ethnic census and methinks they will for a long time to come. What we need to do is to use what structures we have in our constitution to neutralize any negative effect this may bring about by instilling the philosophy of winner-not-take-all after our elections. Our elections should not be zero-sum affair between ethnic groups. We already have some entrenched in the constitution and we ought to give them a sober evaluation and re-evaluation while crafting other useful ones, working on our constitution to serve the majority of citizens rather than the small political class.
It may be true today that the government is more 'of all peoples, by all peoples and for all peoples' than has ever been in our history of self governance. It is not perfect as has been brought to light by the acts of the 11th parliament, some commissions of the reformed judiciary, and to some extent too by some acts of the executive-both national and county. Some might be wished away as 'teething' problems but some are fundamental flaws-unforeseen, I hope, and need to be dealt with with the urgency of now. We should not sit back and let entrench a corrupted contract of governance. The masses need to be educated and re-educated on ways and needs to engage government everyday of the five years and not merely to sit back in complicity waiting for the next general election. All those that voted for the government and those that did not are together in affiliation of chance. It is our shared responsibility to check our agencies of governance because in the final analysis, when all the dust has settled, it is them against us. It is their turn to eat and it is still our turn to be eaten. Sote tukae macho.
We have always had our ethnic identities since time immemorial and we will always do. There is nothing we can do about this and the soonest we learn to appreciate the benefits-and there are many that come with it,- the better. Diversity has been embraced positively all over the world and fruits are visible to all who care to see. It has also, unfortunately, been abused in nearly equal measure and again, the bitter fruits can be seen all over the globe. Our biggest enemy is negative ethnicity. Negative ethnicity feeds and breeds on itself. It forces peoples into a rut, a vicious cycle that is very hard to get out. It promises benefits and at the same time denies benefits and the victims are put in a perpetual carrot-in front-of-donkey situation. It creates lords and serfs. It is immoral.
Sadly part of the reasons- and they really are not reasons but excuses-for ethnic reasoning which leads to negative ethnicity is the endemic corruption that we have all perpetuated. We have become immune to the pangs of corruption as long as it is being practiced by 'our brothers' or 'our people'. As long as 'it is our turn to eat', then it is not corruption. We even use corruption to try and keep 'others' out of power and when others effectively lock us out of power we start shouting that they are the most corrupt. We only see corruption when practiced by 'others' and we brand them and their ethnic group en masse, as corrupt.
This rut that we all have been driven into becomes most obvious every five years when we hold our general elections. Our systems have been set up such that one has to be nominated in ones local region to run for any seat. If one misses the support of the local community, then it's an uphill task to get nominated therefore one starts by convincing the local masses who are usually ignorant of national issues that their chance of ever getting the 'fruits of governance' is by electing him/her. Usually the targeted population is the most marginalised and under-informed, usually living in abject poverty and misery. These are the gullible citizens who form the grassroots support base. These are the fodder that fuel the fires of 'euphoria' that the politicians rely on to get elected, the same troops that may be used to create a voting block by eliminating any opposition by either ethnic cleansing, or simply intimidation of voters or competitors. This sadly leads to our general elections looking like an ethnic census and methinks they will for a long time to come. What we need to do is to use what structures we have in our constitution to neutralize any negative effect this may bring about by instilling the philosophy of winner-not-take-all after our elections. Our elections should not be zero-sum affair between ethnic groups. We already have some entrenched in the constitution and we ought to give them a sober evaluation and re-evaluation while crafting other useful ones, working on our constitution to serve the majority of citizens rather than the small political class.
It may be true today that the government is more 'of all peoples, by all peoples and for all peoples' than has ever been in our history of self governance. It is not perfect as has been brought to light by the acts of the 11th parliament, some commissions of the reformed judiciary, and to some extent too by some acts of the executive-both national and county. Some might be wished away as 'teething' problems but some are fundamental flaws-unforeseen, I hope, and need to be dealt with with the urgency of now. We should not sit back and let entrench a corrupted contract of governance. The masses need to be educated and re-educated on ways and needs to engage government everyday of the five years and not merely to sit back in complicity waiting for the next general election. All those that voted for the government and those that did not are together in affiliation of chance. It is our shared responsibility to check our agencies of governance because in the final analysis, when all the dust has settled, it is them against us. It is their turn to eat and it is still our turn to be eaten. Sote tukae macho.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Why The Senators?
The line being spun by the Senators is that by ignoring, or for that matter contemplating abolishing the senate, is tantamount to killing devolution at birth, those grand masters of Kenyan politics of greed and selfishness are simply playing on the ordinary mwananchi's ignorance of the new constitutional order.
They will not point out that devolution is demanded by the constitution and is not pegged on an individual's (read the current president) whims and desires. In fact the current regime is held accountable by the constitution to implement all the laid down clauses, chapters and schedules and this will be the yardstick that will be used come the next elections-which I suspect the current principles will be expected to run.
Truth be told, and this is my opinion, I feel the senate was an unnecessary addition to the peoples' representatives, I feel we are over-represented and then taking the fact that our representatives don't seem to be 'adding value' to our lives, I would agree with the abolitionists. Let's do away with the Senate and also let's streamline the rules of engagement between the National assembly and the citizens.
The spirit of the constitution was that if the people were dissatisfied by the conduct of an elected member they could recall them by simply having a given number of voters sign a petition and forward it to the speaker. That spirit was rubbished by our not-so-worthy parliamentarians, most of whom who are now hiding in the Senate and the citizen was left the looser.
The same ease with which the politicians can get nominated and elected into office, the same ease should be the procedure to get them out of office- especially since such a need would be precipitated by acts or omissions bordering on criminality.
They will not point out that devolution is demanded by the constitution and is not pegged on an individual's (read the current president) whims and desires. In fact the current regime is held accountable by the constitution to implement all the laid down clauses, chapters and schedules and this will be the yardstick that will be used come the next elections-which I suspect the current principles will be expected to run.
Truth be told, and this is my opinion, I feel the senate was an unnecessary addition to the peoples' representatives, I feel we are over-represented and then taking the fact that our representatives don't seem to be 'adding value' to our lives, I would agree with the abolitionists. Let's do away with the Senate and also let's streamline the rules of engagement between the National assembly and the citizens.
The spirit of the constitution was that if the people were dissatisfied by the conduct of an elected member they could recall them by simply having a given number of voters sign a petition and forward it to the speaker. That spirit was rubbished by our not-so-worthy parliamentarians, most of whom who are now hiding in the Senate and the citizen was left the looser.
The same ease with which the politicians can get nominated and elected into office, the same ease should be the procedure to get them out of office- especially since such a need would be precipitated by acts or omissions bordering on criminality.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
First Things First...
My feelings on government (UhuRuto) promises have featured elsewhere on this forum before- even before the 'Jubilant government' had landed the job officially . I have strictly no problem with the said promises but my feelings are that we as a nation need to deliberate and come into some form of consensus on our priorities.
Job creation is certainly a good objective because it is a backbone for affordable livelihood for most Kenyans living in abject poverty. Security, both national and civil is another goal that we need not loose sight of. Kenyans are hard working and it waters down their aspirations if they create fear among themselves simply by working hard to alleviate their circumstances. We do not want a situation where people are forced to migrate from certain regions simply because they are targets of marauding gangs who target well-to-do citizens, be it in the Northern, North eastern, Coast, Kiambu, Bungoma, Kisumu or Baragoi. We all need to feel safe wherever we are, whatever we are doing or whatever our standing in society.
With attainment of adequate job levels- and we need to make sure that jobs created fit all strata of society- citizens will be able to afford basic livelihoods. There should not be the consequent mass migration by a cowed population to apparently secure regions like urban centers. Let us feel safe to live and work in all regions.
When most of these (goals) and others that Kenyans definitely will come up with are attained, our school children will be studying in proper classrooms equipped with basic amenities and facilities of learning, roofs probably fitted with functional solar panels and bore-holes (or artesian wells) supplying clean running water. Trees and rocks will be subjects of study not shelter and furniture in the schools. Well-fed and dressed children will be playing on well maintained and manicured fields in the schools, chasing and kicking real soccer balls not 'sodom apple' fruits between two rocks on a dusty, stony field. Then, and only then will they be nearly ready for a laptop apiece.
One wild card agenda I would like to throw out there for consideration- because I am a thinking Kenyan like most of us- is that instead of the direction we are taking towards nuclear energy (a certain American president could not differentiate it from 'new killer' energy), and that was before Fukushima Daiichi, how about working on either acquiring an eye in space that would maintain surveillance on our region round the clock so that we can see stuff, like cattle rustlers herding thousands of livestock across large expanses of terrain, scores of marauding gangs ransacking villages, swarms of locusts, among other national disasters that we seem so helpless at 'seeing'. We could either lease one of those up there or we could launch one of our own- Now this may be a far-fetched idea but it is my submission that we have not fully exploited the available sources of energy in the region to warrant venturing into nuclear energy.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Waiting To Exhale
The nation is literally waiting to exhale.
For all those Kenyans who voted either way because of fear of domination by the other parties (or ethnic communities), shame on you. For all those who voted for the winners, let's hope they will be haunted by images of you on the queues, like refugees, heavy laden with your hopes and dreams wrapped in the jubilee banners, let us hope that they will not tell the difference between you and your fellow refugees-because thank God, all refugees look alike.
These 'new' leaders will be walking into offices crammed with lots of junk in the closets. There are myriads of skeletons lurking behind closed doors in those offices. Some of these skeletons were stashed away by regimes that these leaders participated in, others were thrown in before they were born Our prayer is that the government of the people will prevail and no more skeletons will be made. That these old skeletons will be pulled out and circumstances surrounding their existence addressed to finality. The landless peasants, the displaced IDPs, the impoverished masses need a hope for tomorrow. The marginalised communities in the far-flung corners of our beautiful country still seek inclusion in all matters of nationhood. They are tired of being foreigners in their own country. For those that did not vote for you- and they are legion, we ask that you try to prove their fears ill placed. They had their own reasons for not trusting you and the onus is now upon you to prove them wrong. Corruption was given a passing mention in the campaigns, just like an afterthought, and it is our humble submission that it bears a very heavy responsibility in the situation we find ourselves in. We would like this addressed towards creating an open, clean and transparent form of government.
These new leaders all rode on the tide of the new constitution and unfortunately some seeds of doubt were scattered that some people did not have the plan to implement it. We pray that these seeds do not gain root. It is our hope that having passed this en mass, it is ours and all we ask of you is to respect and implement it. Any portions of the contract that you do not like, please ask us about any changes but do not at any moment conspire behind closed doors and boardrooms to alter it. Let no one creep into the constitutional bodies we formulated with the aim of subverting or privatising our aspirations.
About the promises you made during the campaigns, we know you may not be able to keep all but we only ask for your indulgence to keep us informed of any failures and hardships you encounter. We are a knowledgeable masses and are quite aware that priorities are dynamic, they may change from day to day-just as we might suggest that you feed the children before giving them laptops, and of course guaranteeing security to all- parents and children!.Just remember that we hold these promises against you and we will always ask you what you are doing about them. Just as we are waiting to exhale, we are watching you. Do not let us down.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Peace because of ICC?
Justice and peace are indeed complementary. True. Is it injustice for individuals to plunder their nations and stash the loot in Geneva and other Western capitals while their citizenry suffer in abject poverty? ICC, USA and other demigods, are these not crimes against humanity too?
Millions of poverty stricken masses the world over are dying and perishing because an individual or a number of them emptied their national coffers and banked it all in private accounts in Europe and other Western capitals, others have actually invested in these foreign nations with these foreign governments paying a blind eye to it.
Selective application of justice and paying lip service as shown by the West only makes their enemies more vibrant and incensed. The US does not hold any moral high ground to either advice or comment on activities of the ICC and the ICC, its staffers or officials has no business litigating or commenting on cases pending in court, to the media. I could be wrong but this is sub judice.
'...They say what we know is just what they teach us,.....that we are so ignorant and...whenever they want they can reach us through political strategy...' These words by Marley should provoke our conscience and remind us that we should strive to shape our own destiny.
Millions of poverty stricken masses the world over are dying and perishing because an individual or a number of them emptied their national coffers and banked it all in private accounts in Europe and other Western capitals, others have actually invested in these foreign nations with these foreign governments paying a blind eye to it.
Selective application of justice and paying lip service as shown by the West only makes their enemies more vibrant and incensed. The US does not hold any moral high ground to either advice or comment on activities of the ICC and the ICC, its staffers or officials has no business litigating or commenting on cases pending in court, to the media. I could be wrong but this is sub judice.
'...They say what we know is just what they teach us,.....that we are so ignorant and...whenever they want they can reach us through political strategy...' These words by Marley should provoke our conscience and remind us that we should strive to shape our own destiny.
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