Parting Shots, 2013

New dawn for Kenya happened this year and with it came new expectations or are we still striving to achieve that has been elusive these past fifty years?
The youngest heads of state, in our history, were elected just as the nation was unwrapping a new constitutional dispensation and with the double offering, the nation started with a heightened sense of optimism. In the past fifty years we have shown disdain and mistrust of our electoral processes and the last one we held was no different. It left nearly half the population feeling that all was not well and I guess that is the way with all competitive scenarios where a winner and loser have to be declared. None the less, we have to work hard and improve some simple systems that let us down- like electronic data transmission. This in a region that prides itself of being the in the vanguard of mobile transactions in the whole world.
When we first raised the national flag fifty years ago we aimed at eradicating poverty, disease and ignorance. As soon as the flag started flapping in the winds of hope, jubilation and expectation, we lapsed back into complacency and learnt to live with these three yokes round our necks. Fifty years down the line, we are still treading on the wine-press with them and other serious ones added onto our necks. We have added, among others; corruption, ethnic mistrust, social imbalance, and generalized ineptitude in affairs of state. This time around our huddles are higher and too close together- we have a different constitutional format with new aspects to be implemented, tested, evaluated, modified, implemented again and so on. The room for error and failure is wide and expansive but the spirit of benevolence which is encompassed by the whole nation militates and mitigates for success. Let us all ride this wave optimism for the sake of us, Kenya.

Needed are whistle blowers and mandatory reporters to keep the powers that be on their toes. The likes of Assange of the wikileaks fame, the gentleman of ‘Transparency International’ of the “Our Turn To Eat” fame, have always come under criticism which most of the times have been wrong. Millions of innocent people have suffered through the years because of unethical, questionable and many times criminal activities by people in power and others placed in positions of public service. Like these whistle-blowers, we need to be bold and balanced and call out our own who go astray. We need to acknowledge that we are the very people who elect the corrupt politicians, we are the the ones who suffer when the politicians only focus on their own selfish needs in parliament- like inflating the government wage bill or meddling with devolution of resources. We have broken our own record (money value) of national intrigues for three administrations in only nine months of Jubilee reign. We need us (whistle blowers) more than ever.

There is need to de-link the day-to-day running of state affairs from the politics of the day. Politicians are contract personnel, contracted only for a period while state administration is an on-going, operation that stops at nothing, be it elections or high water. National development is part of administration and not a politician's project. Contracts entered into for developmental projects ought to be independent of the political powers that be, they ought to be guided by the supreme law of the land and not the whims of some politician who could be as temporary as an electoral period. It is simply disgusting to read of power plays within the administrative corridors between big companies fighting to position themselves for lucrative projects that may have already been assigned to other companies that get sidelined when we change our elected politicians.

A look at the Kenya Railways, failed to manage its business,at a time when it had a near monopoly in the freight haulage sector, as much as this may have been the doing of a different quasi-criminal cartel in a different political outfit, fact remains that this corporation has been abused once and the sudden 're-animation' of a de-facto 'transportation ghost', resurfacing to dip its bonny fingers into the public coffers for a grab of several hundred billions of shillings is simply stinky. A derelict cash-cow that has been re-invented to provide a conduit for more asset-stripping?

So, how come the outfit that ran on generational change, youth recognition and ‘kubadilisha namna ya uongozi’ platform cannot find new blood to fill the state parastatals’ chief officers? They started with hiccups at the get-go when they recycled some die-hard politicians into the supposedly technocratic government ministries and nine months down the line, they are fetching them from retirement. The world over, politicians have the unwritten code of conduct of rewarding loyalty with all sorts of freebies and mostly it’s positions of influence that is dished out. This however doesn’t make it right and it is my humble submission that if they had to do this, then they should have employed some sort ‘sophistication’. We are witnessing a lot of ‘analog-ness’ in a supposedly ‘digital’ outfit. I put it that the group that most needs to be rewarded is the rank and file voter and the only way to reward them is being- or being seen to be- sensitive to their wishes. However difficult it is to please the masses, don’t ignore the wisdom of the masses. Wanjiku and Otonglo just need to be assured that they are being listened to.

The media has been put on the pedestal and found wanting. Though they rank high in the public list of trusted entities, they are still very wanting. They still churn out half investigative and speculative news leaving the consumer to do their own analysis- in these categories, omit ‘Jicho Pevu’ and a few others. Anchors and reporters never seek opinion from ‘experts’ or ‘analysts’ from specific fields but instead fall for the loudest or most ‘outlandish’ by-stander or spectator around for a description of the events, the ignorance of the interviewee notwithstanding. One recently explained how a bus collided with a truck, he had the details up to the point where he had the ‘verbal’ chalk outline of the vehicles involved - ‘lori ikapinduka ikachora saba’…This accident had occurred at an isolated section of the highway and in the dead of the night. And why don’t they read the items in a soft naturally flowing tone, without necessarily having to emphasize a syllable or a word here and there? We would still believe them?

The clergy? Well, these were mostly missing in action.

As we discussed and promulgated the present constitution, the feeling was right and the spirits were high. Kenyans had finally taken the opportunity to own their own destiny. They had finally triumphed in the second liberation. This year ends however, with dark clouds hanging above us, strong hurricane winds blowing in our direction and streaks of lightning lighting the fearful skies. Signs of a people just about to be overrun by phantoms they have created themselves. We are so helpless against our own politicians that they have no motivation whatsoever to consider our plight. We have to grab Kenya back from them. We need to steer our nation in our direction of choosing. We should be holding the steering wheel or the rudder of this vessel Kenya.

Salvage Army?...National Shame.

So what was in the paper-bags? If anyone has evidence that the bags contained looted goods, they should present it to the parliamentary committee or the nearest police station for further investigation....

Is this a reflection of our national image? This is simply how badly we have fallen! Those were not our galant soldiers? So many questions un-answered! So much explaining yet to be done. We bleed more from these than from the wounds inflicted by the four or so wayward boys who held up Westgate mall. Tusijindanganye!

Who's To Blame?

Reading Kenya's pleas to the rest of the world to join her in the war against terrorism, one would be tempted to think that the war has just begun and that Kenya is the frontline. This statement has a part which is true and one which is erroneous.
Kenya is smarting from the recent attack in Westlands and was rudely reminded about the 1998 attack in Nairobi. This recent episode has particularly reflected quite badly against Kenya's reaction to acts of terror; the security agencies have come out as a bunch of blundering, fumbling and inefficient outfits, quick to ignore intelligence on criminal activity only to rush to the site of an attack and mess up the clues and evidence. After the attack in Westlands, unsubstantiated reports indicate that at least one of the attackers walked out of the mall among the rescued civilians and walked away despite the warnings from one of the survivors who saw the terrorist change his clothes to mingle with the victims.

Without being deliberately sub judice- there is a parliamentary inquiry on the recent attack going on- information in the public domain indicate that information as credible as from a Senator had been passed on to the relevant agencies regarding the attack long before it happened. What they did about it, we might never know.
In the recent past, criminal activities in Kenya, both in the rural and urban areas have taken a metamorphosis that ought to have woken the security agencies to the dangers and the face of the terrorist. Ordinary Kenyans now know the look of a grenade, they know the sound of one exploding, high powered guns, improvised explosive devices, widespread attacks on crowds without theft of property-these have become the calling card of the terrorist today. The police have witnessed this metamorphosis but have remained rooted in the past methods of crime detection and fighting, the immigration department have gone on their duties without regard to the dangers they pose the whole country. It is an open secret that foreigners (especially those with questionable backgrounds) find it easier to acquire identity documents (birth certificates, IDs or passports) than indigenous Kenyans. Our ports of entry and departure have primarily been charged with stopping Kenyans from venturing out of Kenya and welcoming all and sundry (criminal or otherwise, legal or illegal) into and out of Kenya. Criminals find Kenya a very suitable hub to connect to their destinations. Others find it convenient to transform themselves into Kenyans then move on to other countries.

Attacks in the public places, in churches and on police stations had increased but the security agencies did not seem to notice any difference. They did not change their tact and kept on the age-old pleas for the public to surrender any arms they could be harboring. They offered and kept extending amnesty periods. They refused to acknowledge that the animal they had been hunting had changed and that they were now the prey. Pronouncements from militant groups especially after operation 'Linda Nchi' did not seem to be related to the proliferation of military style grenade attacks carried out haphazardly all over the country.

When the rest of the world was fighting the war against terrorism, Kenya slept. Now, that slumber has catapulted us to the frontline of that war and we are asking the world to fight with us! We need to stay awake, work hard to catch up with the rest of the world in this war. We need to change our national psyche and start being proud of our nationality, to guard and jealously protect it. We need to develop and nurture national accountability-relevant agencies need to have relevant information in their domains. The government needs to streamline all databases for smooth information flow, correlation of such information as ID card, passport and electors registries, PIN  cards, registries of persons, motor vehicles, companies, etc just to name a few could so easily be synchronized especially due to the advanced information technology available today. Just a casual monitoring of such databases could deter acts harmful to our national security, but there is a catch here: these databases have to be there, and be accurate. This is why all players have to be accountable. The citizen needs to be registered, ID card obtained, property legally registered, residence known, etc. None of us needs to relax and it is noteworthy to remark that organization of this information could help steer national development. We keep re-tarmacking and rehabilitating old narrow roads and call them highways, instead of widening them and adding more lanes or restructuring them into dual carriage ways in synchrony with the increase in heavy large vehicle traffic on our roads-and then we go about passing blame after killer traffic accidents.

A bribe at the local registrar of persons office affords a terrorist an ID card and the said criminal sets up shop in your neighbourhood because the land-lord did not verify the source of cash that was offered for long-term lease without a bargain, and the house next door becomes a bomb or munitions factory. Your brother leases or sells a vehicle to terrorists unknowingly because they are able to pay for it dearly without a bargain. Without being patronising or seeming to praise things American, one cannot show up at a bank in the US with large amounts of cash to deposit without raising questions from the bank as to the source of the cash. Accountability is very vital to national security, and it starts from the individual all the way to government. As we go about looking for who blame for our failures, it would be prudent to look in the mirror and throw what blame is due to the person looking at you. The security agencies failed, yes, but the essence of their failure could be traced back to ourselves. When the president demands that the world ought to join Kenya, we need to realize that the world we are asking to join us has been awake and fighting terrorism all along, as we dozed off on the job. We played a role in frustrating their efforts by our slumber, we nurtured terrorism by our corruption, government ineptitude and official criminal impunity. We need to go to confession and seek our penance, then join the rest of the world.

Kenyans In The Diaspora

The present regime in Kenya might not be the one to streamline the contribution of the Kenyans in diaspora and the regime's appointee to deal with this issue is, in my opinion, not the right person for this purpose.
First off, the Kenya government is approaching the diaspora issue in a knee-jerk manner of response. They have done very little ground work to get their facts straight. They have no clue whatsoever as to who the kenyans in the diaspora are, where they are, and what they need. The government's pre-assumed conclusion is that there is a group of Kenyans, a large one at that, a group with no idea of what is happening in Kenya,  with lots of money to spare and they would like to send it to Kenya.

So they have appointed a propagandist and a social media romantic,-according to his twitter handle,  Director Digital,New Media & Diaspora. Executive Office of the President-'to deliver the Digital Promise & Connect Kenyans to the Presidency!' and  coordinate the affairs of the diaspora? One is forced to wonder just what happened to Duncan Ndirangu, Public Communications Officer-Social Media Manager at the Office of Public Communications/Government Spokesperson?

Did the powers that be request and receive a policy statement from the appointee showing his grasp of the task at hand and was this appointment competitive?
Matters diaspora, like the coffee industry or tourism constitute a very potent sector of the national economy to be relegated to a politician or a government apologist.  It is still very fresh in the memory of Kenyans abroad that they had been promised to take part in the last elections. It turned out too late in the hour that the government had no idea or clue as to the magnitude of the task. They did not know where and how many Kenyans were located at any given point.

At this time the Jubilee regime ought to be laying a firm foundation to tap the resources represented by the diaspora. The same way they have planned the framework of the government ministries and appointed so-called technocrats to head them, the diaspora fits to be a ministry if not a major department in one of the ministries (probably one dealing with economic planning) This is not the time to fumble with national policy. This is time to set up the systems that may very well determine the success of Vision 2030. It is my humble submission the the diaspora is a major player towards this end.

We and Them

Capitalism as a form of economic development or lifestyle and economic domination of the majority by a minority is on the downward trend. Recent upheavals in global economy especially affecting the highly cut-throat super economies of Europe and the Americas is a sign of underlying malaise that will eventually bring the system crashing down.

This is so because the stop-gap repairs applied to 'heal' the economies never, and are not addressing the real ailment(s) and the leaders/technocrats either have no will to rectify a sickened situation or simply have no political impetus to do so. In fact, the short term measures being bandied around as cure are simply further exasperating the situation by fatally bruising the majority poor populations. The austerity measures laid out in Europe, the half hearted stimulus packages in the US, watered down by governance gridlock only goes as far as alienating the political elite from the masses.  The majority being left to wallow in abject poverty, debt and unemployment and the few who are employed have to work two or more jobs to make ends meet-resulting in dysfunctional families. The 'Occupy' movement, the empowered 'Tea Party movement,' the rise of cult-like militias all over the country and the general feeling of powerlessness and mass paranoia are a result of this impasse.

The world over, especially in the capitalist democracies, strange crime patterns in the scale not previously known is a common occurrence today. The decay, compounded by under-funding of social structures starting at the family level is contributing to dysfunctional societies. The poor individual in the ghetto has nowhere to go for refuge. The poor are getting poorer as the rich are getting richer, in the developing countries and the same holds true in the developed ones. In Kibra, Nairobi, Kenya; in Dharavi, Mumbai, India; in the favelas in Brasilia to the Highland Park (HP) in Detroit, USA. The poor are being pushed to the fringe of humanity, to the edge, into a tight corner , and it is just a matter of time the pressure will build up, and when the explosion goes off, capitalism as we currently know it will be gone. As the saying goes; fluids have a way to find their own level.

The current displeasure with, and apparent shift from, the West by developing nations in Africa as indicated by the rift between Senegal and France or Kenya and Britain/The US in favor of China and Russia in the case of the latter while the Senegalese are open for any 'non-Francosphere' player may seem like a slap in the face on capitalism but that is simply not a panacea for the ills of mass marginalisation of the poor in the world. The moneyed elite will form new cartels to fleece their nations and impoverished masses with multinationals from the new trading partners - case in point is the apparent rise in illicit ivory trafficking that seems to be unstoppable since the Chinese got involved in infrastructure rehabilitation in Kenya. There is some positive aspects in these moves, especially when one considers the facts that; The Senegalese could only get bottled water, processed milk among other basic necessities from France! So one can only guess as to the scope of deprivation the country's poor face. Nigeria, a major crude oil producer in the powerful league known as OPEC, is a major exporter of crude oil but also a major importer of processed petroleum products! The Congo-Namibia-Niger (as a region) is a primary source of diamonds among other rare products like uranium but here lives some of the most deprived populations in the world.

The loop-sided game of grabbing from the earth's resources is just about to reach maximum saturation. The 99% are waking up from a reverie of hundreds of years. The waking up is taking various diverse forms but they are waking up. The Tiananmen Square uprising, theTwitter Revolution in the Persian gulf, the Occupy movement, the Arab Spring, the 'liberation struggles' happening in Africa, the Cochabamba water war in Argentina, struggles that have rocked Bolivia, the Amazonian natives' struggles against loggers and non-native farmers - though all seem to be still-births at best, the implication is clear. It is them against us. It is the slow stirring of a powerful, sleeping giant. The rumbling and spewing of steam by a powerful volcano about to erupt.

To Amend Or Not To Amend....That's The Question.

A national constitution-or any constitution for that matter-is not meant to be a static contract but a dynamic one that evolves with time and circumstances. The only hustle is that to effect evolution to constitutions, all the parties, or the majority, must concur with the changes-and herein lies the hard task; lobbying and persuading this majority to agree. In our situation as Kenyans, there is the added trick that once a suitable population is persuaded to go along with constitutional amendments, the legislators have to come in and deliberate on them. Our legislators have made a mark and proven time and again on how they go about deliberations on national issues. Issues that do not touch on their personal finances.

The current clamor to amend the constitution as it now stands, spearheaded by the CORD politicians may be misinterpreted by the opposing side but it may have in itself, good merit. It is a statement that our constitution is not rigid. It may be ill-timed (and I stand to be corrected) but it most certainly has merit. I, for one felt that the clause(s) that touch on methods and timing to recall sitting legislators either in County, Senate or National assemblies should be amended. This was even before the politicians had displayed their insensitivity to Kenyans' feelings in the houses. Before they treated us to the drama of selfish maneuvers to enrich themselves and to position themselves in their perceived order of power, all while the ordinary citizen was crawling under the burdens of abject poverty and insecurity. I felt pinched enough to call for an amendment before giving the constitution time to prove itself fit or unfit to guarantee good governance.

The CORD politicians may be rushing the gun to call for their referendum and/or amendment-especially when their targeted clauses are those that deal with power and positions of power, the sound-bytes being emphasised too give a strong message of 'former powerful, now stripped of power', 'fearing political oblivion'.Theirs may be interpreted to be 'seeking a short cut to power', seeking to 'get back to power by back-door', scheming to 'keep the government side-tracked and distracted' so that they can accuse the said government of non-performance. The gridlock that manifested in the early days of the 11th parliament was truly saddening to the sober observer. The only issue the legislators were able to compromise-actually to agree on-was their salaries and allowances! It is my honest submission that anything should be tried before being rejected, and going by my earlier stated feeling of frustration with the recall clause, I would be inclined to sympathize and empathize with those calling for amending the constitution. My only prayer is that we approach this with sobriety and clear minds, the same way we went about the initial referendum culminating in the constitutional writing. Let us not loose sight of the fact that some opponents of this constitution finally ended up supporting it and are now deemed as benefitting unfairly. Some proponents lost in the last election and are now smarting from the apparent rejection by the electorate. None of this is static, our politics is highly fluid and the dynamics may change radically before the next polls. At this time we may not know who (or what) will generate the next euphoria.

Could we as a nation cultivate the ideals of entrenching constitutional structures and the general respect of the law? So much of our energies is wasted on personality cults, personal vendetta, parochial scrambling and activism that at the end of the day, the sum total of our struggles is who ate how much and how could we eat more than them the next time. We are now accusing the government of reneging on devolution yet we know very well that devolution is demanded by the constitution and so the law enforces it, but because shouting that the government is unfaithful scores more political points we chose it instead of preparing the legal way to push it or simply giving it time to see what they are planning. Some of the counties have not come up with credible budgets to warrant funds disbursal. Why do we want tax payers' money poured into bottomless pits without accountability? These counties without funds may be serviced by the central government until they are accountable enough to take care of their own business-No services ought to be denied of the people just because their county governments are limping. Could we as a nation disengage the gear of campaigns and engage that of nation-building. Our national heritage is still being plundered by crooks- animals killed by poachers, scrap-metal dealers cannibalising any structures put up , our law enforcement officers are still being hunted down by thugs, our sick still unattended in the hospitals and at home unable to go to hospital, we still have thousands in IDP camps and others in informal settlements, our youth still unemployed are still over-indulging in illicit liquor and drugs. We need to hit the pause button in our politics and pay more attention on more pressing issues of the day.

101_0242

101_0242 a video by kahura on Flickr.

As eccentric as the builder, this castle stands testimony to man's heights of peculiarity.