May We Dwell In Unity....

Read online comments about the IDP situation in Kenya, by Kenyans and it is like a window into the psyche of a mad evil being. Kenyans have been turned into an uncontrollable mass of hate, prejudiced and stereotyping lot- all because the government has chosen, either by design or mere incompetence, to ‘not be government’.

The Kenya government seems to be in control of nothing. The judiciary is sleeping, the Executive is on some kind of vacation, and the legislature?- well we all know what the legislature is busy doing. In the mean time, poor ordinary Kenyans are lonely, cold and hungry. They have become so deprived that they have lost all sense of ‘human-ness’ let alone the patriotism reminisced by Ngugi wa Thiong’o recently. Ordinary Kenyans are now grabbing at each other’s throats desperately fighting for basic survival while the politicians are busy pouring ethnic vitriol into the wounds of inter-ethnic suspicions.

The law seems very helpless. It seems like there is no law in Kenya at all except if you are a government minister and you misplace your laptop- then the whole police force will be mobilized to torture all those that may have some information about it. And the laptop will be recovered. The same police force cannot find drugs traffickers who traffic in the hundreds of tonnes. They cannot be trusted to ensure security for Kenyans as they go about their lives. They cannot apprehend the perpetrators of inter-ethnic hatred or the warmongers amongst us who, with tongue in cheek, stoke age-old fires sparked by abject poverty and deprivation. But then again, maybe they need a command to do all these, from whoever commanded them to search and retrieve the DPM’s laptop, and probably that command has not been issued. Selective justice.

The government is still in the slumber of the old Constitutional order. This is the age of zero impunity. The government has no business poring over the map of Kenya looking for land to resettle people who were bonfide landowners prior to 2008 and did not lawfully transfer these parcels to their current occupiers! The government’s job is to facilitate the safe return to these lands and to sort out the landless ones with the vast public land in its control. Regional or ethnic statements to the effect that people from certain regions may not be settled in other regions are simply a contravention of the Constitution and should be treated as such- infringement of the law. Entertaining such sentiments is encouraging impunity.

It is my submission that had the government acted like the government it was supposed to be; we would not have fallen so deep into the pit we find ourselves in now. We would not have so many issues to grapple with now- basic issues like food and shelter! In a nutshell, the government has been a total betrayal of the aspirations of ‘mwananchi wa kawaida’. The reason why we need to go back to the drawing boards and find selfless individuals who can be trusted to guide our nation to reap the fruits of our labour now and not 2030, or those other future dates. Our prayer to the government is ‘….give us this day our daily livelihood, and don’t forgive our trespasses…for we will not forgive yours..’

hypocrisy at its best

....Interesting to note that the government of Kenya has acquired one million hectares for wildlife conservation in three regions that have fought tooth and nail to frustrate the same government's intention to acquire thousands of hectares to resettle displaced Kenyans.
This says alot about Kenyans or their government (politicians).

Lest We Forget...

The Ocampo 6 obeyed the summonses, presented themselves before the judges and identified themselves for the mentioning of their cases. They probably enjoyed the scenery in Europe, enjoyed their vast wealth, be it ill-gained or otherwise, others may have spent the misappropriated taxpayer shillings in whichever needs they deemed necessary and they are now jetting back into the country. Pundits have been processing the intricate details raised during the proceedings in The Hague and pondering the different likely outcomes, scenarios and implications.

Strangely, Kenyan style, we manage to focus our national lens away from the real issue and instead get set to discuss peripheral issues, non-issues and innuendoes.  We, as Kenyans refuse to contemplate the charges facing these gentlemen and to ask ourselves how we got there in the first place.

The charges listed among others; murder, rape, persecution (all in large scale) and the victims are people we knew. They are people we are living with and some of us are still struggling with the results of these heinous acts.

In every Kenyan’s lips should be the statement “ Never again! ” But the prevailing mood is that we are ready for part two of it all. What with politicians planning and scheming plots to marginalise and lock out opponents in the forthcoming elections.

The unmentioned effect of the actions by the politicians are; feelings of disenfranchisement by the communities whose leaders are locked out and we all know what could happen if communities feel an election has been blatantly stolen. Those in the Ocampo 6 know this scenario all too well, yet…..

The government which has been burning midnight oil trying to convince the international community that it can handle its own legal issues seems, yet another time, to be in a spell. It seems to be paralysed and incapable of lifting a stick to stop the warmongers and anarchists. No one in government seems to realize that the sole reason two of its agents are among the Ocampo 6 is the fact that there was a government in power when the PEV was raging, but the government either did nothing, did the right thing the wrong way, or did the wrong thing the wrong way.

So the return of the Hague suspects is cause for celebration and thanksgiving, for some. To others it is a statement that God is with the communities, to some it is a signal to shift gears in the putsch for the elimination of other communities’ voting power. The whole country’s attention seems transfixed on these parochial issues and all seem to have forgotten why or how we got here in the first place.

No one seems to have the solution for our chronic land ownership problems that mostly gets exacerbated by general elections. No one is pondering the pressing problem of resettling the IDPs still in the ‘refugee camps’- all attempts to resolve their problems seem half-hearted and self defeating: why is the government hell bent to purchase land to resettle people who owned land in the first place? Why not resettle them on their original land? Is the application of the law on land ownership partisan? Why do some communities get to decide who can own land in certain parts of the country?- This is impunity and it’s what sent those six to the Hague, let’s not forget that.

'Government Replies for Dummies', Second Edition.

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?

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.

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.
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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'.

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..."