One simply can't help but to marvel at Kenyan politicians. Their hard-wired line of response, maybe according to government issued manual 'Government Replies for Dummies', to any issue is 'deny first, ponder over the allegation, if it's the whole truth then claim that it is an attempt by your political enemies to finish you politically. If they persist, state that your tribe is being attacked, and that the tribe will fight by all means. And the options go on till somewhere down the line, the 'manual' advices the concerned to concede there is a problem but state that investigations are in progress to bring the culprits to book, and that once caught they will face the full force of the law. And then cross your fingers praying that everything will go away.
scene 1, act 1;
Minister in charge of Security-''No we are not habouring drugs barons in.........'
.......
scene 1, act 2;
Minister in charge of Security-' No there are no Kenyan mercenaries in Lybia......'
.......
If this honourable professor does not know what is happening within Kenyan borders, how credible is he when commenting on happenings in a distant country? Can he vouch for all Kenyans who reside in foreign countries as far as their innocence is concerned?
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The Way Forward...
So President Kibaki has beat a retreat as far as his nominations to the four high offices are concerned. That is rightful and fitting. Now all he needs to do to regain his momentum for a final legacy before he leaves office is to shed his already soiled exoskeleton and show off his 'clean' inner self.
As long as his actions are deemed to be fueled and guided by the 'unholy trinity' of the 'KKK' alliance, he is misguided as far as the majority of right thinking Kenyans are concerned and he will never gain their trust and confidence. This triad is largely seen as mischievous, power-hungry, scheming, and only interested in halting varying legal proceedings against them as individuals-be they corruption, abuse of office on the home front or the ICC driven charges of crimes against humanity.
Conventional wisdom dictates that one is innocent until proven guilty, but when one actively and persistently postpones or frustrates the efforts to be proven innocent, or to be tried, then doubts are cast as to their innocence and what is implied is a self proclamation of a guilty verdict. Fraternise too much time with the guilty and their guilt rubs on you.
President Kibaki, being both a de-facto and de-jure, national unifying figure, and one who once promised zero tolerance of corruption in his administration, should try and spend his administration's twilight moments forging unity in all the ethnic communities and calling out corruption from the grand coalition he is fostering, one of the best ways to go about these tasks is to do just what he did by reneging his infamous nominations and being seen to be doing this in consultation with the PM, not his handlers, apologists and sycophants.
History will judge him very severely despite all the gains and strides he has afforded the ‘mwananchi wa kawaida’, democracy and economic infrastructure have truly thrived under him in scales unforeseen in a long time. History dictates that he pins these up the Notice Board and rightfully claim his task in our national progress.
As long as his actions are deemed to be fueled and guided by the 'unholy trinity' of the 'KKK' alliance, he is misguided as far as the majority of right thinking Kenyans are concerned and he will never gain their trust and confidence. This triad is largely seen as mischievous, power-hungry, scheming, and only interested in halting varying legal proceedings against them as individuals-be they corruption, abuse of office on the home front or the ICC driven charges of crimes against humanity.
Conventional wisdom dictates that one is innocent until proven guilty, but when one actively and persistently postpones or frustrates the efforts to be proven innocent, or to be tried, then doubts are cast as to their innocence and what is implied is a self proclamation of a guilty verdict. Fraternise too much time with the guilty and their guilt rubs on you.
President Kibaki, being both a de-facto and de-jure, national unifying figure, and one who once promised zero tolerance of corruption in his administration, should try and spend his administration's twilight moments forging unity in all the ethnic communities and calling out corruption from the grand coalition he is fostering, one of the best ways to go about these tasks is to do just what he did by reneging his infamous nominations and being seen to be doing this in consultation with the PM, not his handlers, apologists and sycophants.
History will judge him very severely despite all the gains and strides he has afforded the ‘mwananchi wa kawaida’, democracy and economic infrastructure have truly thrived under him in scales unforeseen in a long time. History dictates that he pins these up the Notice Board and rightfully claim his task in our national progress.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
To Hague or not to Hague....That's the Question.
"In my actions as your President, I have at all times acted in accordance with the Constitution and the Laws of Kenya.... However, our primary duty is to ensure we are guided by the Constitution and ordinary law as enacted so as to ensure the smooth and predictable running of our country."-President Kibaki.
This is the crux of President Kibaki's mitigation in his displeasure with the ruling by the Speaker of the National Assembly. He goes on to say that only the judiciary could interpret the Constitution. Already, one learned judge has cast doubts on the nomination process and ruled that there's a case to be heard on monday and that it is illegal for any individual or any state organ to approve any of the nominated individuals for now.
-------
It is not enough to simply follow the dictates of the constitution. Justice ought to be seen to be done. The back drop against which these nominations were carried out blurred the clear intentions the President had-if at all he had any, and it is this 'blot' in the picture that the unheard voice-(which seems to be wailing in the distant background but appropriately propagated by the general opposition to the nominations) is shouting about.
Conventional opinion is that the President needed some facts to present to the AU in Addis to prove that Kenya was ready to tackle its own legal problems as far as trying indigenous 'criminals against humanity' is concerned. The mistake he made, prior to the nominations, he had publicly paraded himself without batting an eyelid with the very people suspected of the said crimes and public statements, by two of the principle six, made in his presence were attributed to be his guiding principle when he pored over the nominations.
No one could therefore not jump into the conclusion that the fate of the 'Ocampo Six' was the driving force behind the hurriedly done 'consultations'- if at all they happened, and me believe they did not. The implication he gave the exercise was that machinery was in place to investigate, arrest, try and sentence the suspects of the 2008 PEV . Had he been wiser, he would have avoided the fraternising he so gleefully enjoyed with the likes of Ruto and Uhuru until after the nominations. One of those nominated, the DPP nominee, was/is still representing Ruto in another criminal proceeding! The President completely forgot that 'judges,- or his nominees, like Caesar's wife, should be above suspicion!'
How could he provide the Ocampo Six's wishes; their own prosecutor and their own judge? Which leads me to ponder as I have in the past in this forum, 'just where does the government stand in the 'Ocampo Six vs the victims of PEV'? Does the government really have any 'locus standi' in these proceedings? If yes, then it could fit in as a co-defendant- because there was a 'de facto' government when all these atrocities were carried out. Therefore the government's hand should not be seen to interfere with what the ICC deemed as crimes against humanity. The government abdicated its role when it treated the atrocities as a non-issue until Luis Moreno Ocampo rode into town.
So, Mr President, get your act together and huddle with your Prime Minister and both of you get us a team- clean and spotless, to investigate and prosecute the rest of the PEV suspects. Just let the ICC handle 'the principle six'.
This is the crux of President Kibaki's mitigation in his displeasure with the ruling by the Speaker of the National Assembly. He goes on to say that only the judiciary could interpret the Constitution. Already, one learned judge has cast doubts on the nomination process and ruled that there's a case to be heard on monday and that it is illegal for any individual or any state organ to approve any of the nominated individuals for now.
-------
It is not enough to simply follow the dictates of the constitution. Justice ought to be seen to be done. The back drop against which these nominations were carried out blurred the clear intentions the President had-if at all he had any, and it is this 'blot' in the picture that the unheard voice-(which seems to be wailing in the distant background but appropriately propagated by the general opposition to the nominations) is shouting about.
Conventional opinion is that the President needed some facts to present to the AU in Addis to prove that Kenya was ready to tackle its own legal problems as far as trying indigenous 'criminals against humanity' is concerned. The mistake he made, prior to the nominations, he had publicly paraded himself without batting an eyelid with the very people suspected of the said crimes and public statements, by two of the principle six, made in his presence were attributed to be his guiding principle when he pored over the nominations.
No one could therefore not jump into the conclusion that the fate of the 'Ocampo Six' was the driving force behind the hurriedly done 'consultations'- if at all they happened, and me believe they did not. The implication he gave the exercise was that machinery was in place to investigate, arrest, try and sentence the suspects of the 2008 PEV . Had he been wiser, he would have avoided the fraternising he so gleefully enjoyed with the likes of Ruto and Uhuru until after the nominations. One of those nominated, the DPP nominee, was/is still representing Ruto in another criminal proceeding! The President completely forgot that 'judges,- or his nominees, like Caesar's wife, should be above suspicion!'
How could he provide the Ocampo Six's wishes; their own prosecutor and their own judge? Which leads me to ponder as I have in the past in this forum, 'just where does the government stand in the 'Ocampo Six vs the victims of PEV'? Does the government really have any 'locus standi' in these proceedings? If yes, then it could fit in as a co-defendant- because there was a 'de facto' government when all these atrocities were carried out. Therefore the government's hand should not be seen to interfere with what the ICC deemed as crimes against humanity. The government abdicated its role when it treated the atrocities as a non-issue until Luis Moreno Ocampo rode into town.
So, Mr President, get your act together and huddle with your Prime Minister and both of you get us a team- clean and spotless, to investigate and prosecute the rest of the PEV suspects. Just let the ICC handle 'the principle six'.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Who's still fooling who?
comme ci comme ca: Who's still fooling who?: "One of the many reasons Kenya has not demonstrated maturity and responsibility widely accepted to be trusted to try criminals against humani..."
Who's still fooling who?
One of the many reasons Kenya has not demonstrated maturity and responsibility widely accepted to be trusted to try criminals against humanity is that our leaders behave like disjointed warring cartels.
They all seem to regard the constitution as a personal statement to back them individually and as long as there's a clause that can be mis-interpreted, it will be; and wait to see the reaction of 'the other side'.
This time around, the move by the President to 'unilaterally' nominate officials who the constitution clearly dictates ought to be nominated in consultation with the PM, is taking the game too high up. Recent events do not mitigate for the President, specifically his apparent 'love affair' with the axis comprising the two embattled ministers in the grand coalition-those two in Ocampo's cross-hairs and his Vice President. The unholy trinity hatched under the moniker 'the KKK' alliance.
Could these (and others routing for domestic trials of the ICC suspects) have been in the kitchen cabinet that replaced names in the original nominees' list? Implying that the nominated officials are sympathetic to their cause? And so, an attempt to defeat justice?
President Kibaki, and all in power today, for that matter-should be wiser considering that events happening in our corner of the world indicate that 'leaders' cannot mislead all the people all the time. Civilians' uprising is a very real reality where the populations feel downtrodden with extravagant impunity. There is not much snow in Afrika - especially in the Sahara North Afrika, but these events have the capability of snow-balling across borders, exactly the same way sand dunes migrate. Leaders be warned.
They all seem to regard the constitution as a personal statement to back them individually and as long as there's a clause that can be mis-interpreted, it will be; and wait to see the reaction of 'the other side'.
This time around, the move by the President to 'unilaterally' nominate officials who the constitution clearly dictates ought to be nominated in consultation with the PM, is taking the game too high up. Recent events do not mitigate for the President, specifically his apparent 'love affair' with the axis comprising the two embattled ministers in the grand coalition-those two in Ocampo's cross-hairs and his Vice President. The unholy trinity hatched under the moniker 'the KKK' alliance.
Could these (and others routing for domestic trials of the ICC suspects) have been in the kitchen cabinet that replaced names in the original nominees' list? Implying that the nominated officials are sympathetic to their cause? And so, an attempt to defeat justice?
President Kibaki, and all in power today, for that matter-should be wiser considering that events happening in our corner of the world indicate that 'leaders' cannot mislead all the people all the time. Civilians' uprising is a very real reality where the populations feel downtrodden with extravagant impunity. There is not much snow in Afrika - especially in the Sahara North Afrika, but these events have the capability of snow-balling across borders, exactly the same way sand dunes migrate. Leaders be warned.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Wake Up, Kenyans.
2012 is now in the radar screen in Kenya! The drums are rolling, and the people are being mobilised to head to the fields to ward off the elements of distraction who threaten the communities' harvests!
Those who live along the wild life reserves are looking out for animals that invade the farms and destroy the crops while in the political scene, 'the leaders' are drawing imaginary boundaries and marking off territories with a view to identify who their 'allies ' are and therefore know who their 'enemies' are. The stage is being set for another round of PEV?
GOD Forbid, NO!!!
All these alignments and re-alignments, shuffling and re-shuffling by the political class, using 'uncivil' language is bound to mislead gullible Kenyans into getting into 'fight or fight' mode. This is the last thing we need as a nation, especially before we have gotten to a closure of our last internal 'civil war'. We haven't finished sorting the good, the bad and the ugly in our Grand Coalition. I wish all Kenyans would take the wisdom of UB40's song "Who you fighting for?" and think twice before they take up any arms against each other.
".......
You do the shooting - they do the looting
You do the killing - they do the drilling
You do the dying - they do the lying
All the way to the Bank
You can hear them crying.......
.....Sell the arms, suppress the truth
Create the fear, invent the proof
Wave the flag - don't tell the youth
Who they are fighting for
.........."- UB40
While the politicians are traversing the countryside hyping up support for their political ambitions, CDF funds; millions of shillings earmarked for raising the standards of living for millions of Kenyans lie idle in the Central Bank unclaimed, thousands of innocent Kenyans are still in the cold in IDP camps, and others are living in abject poverty and squalor in our slums. The MPs are just too busy to concentrate on what they were voted into parliament for.
At this point in time, there are politicians who are calling for a generational change in leadership. They are not telling Kenyans what the young generation of leaders will do differently from their fathers or grandfathers. They are not mentioning that some of the ills that beleaguer our nation; corruption, impunity, nepotism have become so entrenched in our psyche that they are hereditary. To quote the UB40 again..." the sins of the fathers.."
may be passed on to the sons. Started by the white colonialists handing over power to black colonialists at the dawn of our independence.
In the early 1990s Kenyans were crying about the Moi dictatorship and the rallying call was 'Moi Must Go', 'yote yawezekana bila Moi!' We lost sight of the fact that without Moi there could be 'Moi-ism' and so we pushed Moi out but retained 'Moi-ism'. Because of this, 'yote hayakuwezekana!'
What we need in Kenya is not only generational change in leadership.We need a reset to our national mindset. We need genuine national civic enlightenment. Citizens need to be educated on the consequences of their individual and communal decisions on the national level. This time around, we have a Constitution that seems well poised to facilitate the actualisation of our national dreams. We should not lose this momentum and spirit.
Those who live along the wild life reserves are looking out for animals that invade the farms and destroy the crops while in the political scene, 'the leaders' are drawing imaginary boundaries and marking off territories with a view to identify who their 'allies ' are and therefore know who their 'enemies' are. The stage is being set for another round of PEV?
GOD Forbid, NO!!!
All these alignments and re-alignments, shuffling and re-shuffling by the political class, using 'uncivil' language is bound to mislead gullible Kenyans into getting into 'fight or fight' mode. This is the last thing we need as a nation, especially before we have gotten to a closure of our last internal 'civil war'. We haven't finished sorting the good, the bad and the ugly in our Grand Coalition. I wish all Kenyans would take the wisdom of UB40's song "Who you fighting for?" and think twice before they take up any arms against each other.
".......
You do the shooting - they do the looting
You do the killing - they do the drilling
You do the dying - they do the lying
All the way to the Bank
You can hear them crying.......
.....Sell the arms, suppress the truth
Create the fear, invent the proof
Wave the flag - don't tell the youth
Who they are fighting for
.........."- UB40
While the politicians are traversing the countryside hyping up support for their political ambitions, CDF funds; millions of shillings earmarked for raising the standards of living for millions of Kenyans lie idle in the Central Bank unclaimed, thousands of innocent Kenyans are still in the cold in IDP camps, and others are living in abject poverty and squalor in our slums. The MPs are just too busy to concentrate on what they were voted into parliament for.
At this point in time, there are politicians who are calling for a generational change in leadership. They are not telling Kenyans what the young generation of leaders will do differently from their fathers or grandfathers. They are not mentioning that some of the ills that beleaguer our nation; corruption, impunity, nepotism have become so entrenched in our psyche that they are hereditary. To quote the UB40 again..." the sins of the fathers.."
may be passed on to the sons. Started by the white colonialists handing over power to black colonialists at the dawn of our independence.
In the early 1990s Kenyans were crying about the Moi dictatorship and the rallying call was 'Moi Must Go', 'yote yawezekana bila Moi!' We lost sight of the fact that without Moi there could be 'Moi-ism' and so we pushed Moi out but retained 'Moi-ism'. Because of this, 'yote hayakuwezekana!'
What we need in Kenya is not only generational change in leadership.We need a reset to our national mindset. We need genuine national civic enlightenment. Citizens need to be educated on the consequences of their individual and communal decisions on the national level. This time around, we have a Constitution that seems well poised to facilitate the actualisation of our national dreams. We should not lose this momentum and spirit.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Siasa mbaya, maisha mbaya....?
This whole KACA/ODM/ICC/KKK circus and the national debate is displaying what I want to call hoodwinking but then again, I'm not sure it's not an attempt by our leaders to lead Kenyans on a wild goose chase or an attempt by them to draw a red herring in our search for culprits in national corruption, the next batch of parliamentarians and the new county leaders as prescribed by the new constitution.
The two principals in the Ocampo 6 have gravitated together with the current Vice President and are upbeat at convincing Kenyans that between them is the best option for president come the year 2012.
My biggest worry is that the ODM camp came up with the rebuttal for the accusations leveled at their leader and none of them mentioned the fact that those accusing the PM of misdeeds (real or imagined), some of those now gravitating towards each other in the UDM all have a common factor in their political lives; they have been accused of one or multiple misdeeds committed while in public office and none has been cleared by a court of law. Maybe this was because the leader of those issuing the rebuttal has a skeleton or two in his own closet? Skeletons which are supposed to be in a cemetery? A cemetery that never was?
Most of our politicians have lost credibility. Very few of them can be trusted. The very main reason that Kenyans overwhelmingly voted to re-write our political dispensation, our constitution- the hope that we will rid ourselves of these corruption ridden parliamentarians and bring in a new leadership with servitude.
Leaders who are selfless, leaders who are first and foremost servants of the people.
The press, especially the main-stream press should not be dragged into this game of hoodwinking and should be steadfast in putting in the spotlight (or limelight)the various issues that our politicians would like swept under the carpet because our new political mindset is one of issues and not personalities, ethnic regionalism, or who can shout the loudest. The politics of mud-slinging your opponent so that you look clean yourself despite the sins you have committed is in our past.
The two principals in the Ocampo 6 have gravitated together with the current Vice President and are upbeat at convincing Kenyans that between them is the best option for president come the year 2012.
My biggest worry is that the ODM camp came up with the rebuttal for the accusations leveled at their leader and none of them mentioned the fact that those accusing the PM of misdeeds (real or imagined), some of those now gravitating towards each other in the UDM all have a common factor in their political lives; they have been accused of one or multiple misdeeds committed while in public office and none has been cleared by a court of law. Maybe this was because the leader of those issuing the rebuttal has a skeleton or two in his own closet? Skeletons which are supposed to be in a cemetery? A cemetery that never was?
Most of our politicians have lost credibility. Very few of them can be trusted. The very main reason that Kenyans overwhelmingly voted to re-write our political dispensation, our constitution- the hope that we will rid ourselves of these corruption ridden parliamentarians and bring in a new leadership with servitude.
Leaders who are selfless, leaders who are first and foremost servants of the people.
The press, especially the main-stream press should not be dragged into this game of hoodwinking and should be steadfast in putting in the spotlight (or limelight)the various issues that our politicians would like swept under the carpet because our new political mindset is one of issues and not personalities, ethnic regionalism, or who can shout the loudest. The politics of mud-slinging your opponent so that you look clean yourself despite the sins you have committed is in our past.
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