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.

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..

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.

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.