POLITICAL COURTSHIP THAT DOESNT SERVE THE NATION

Dear Kenyans,
I applaud any measure to bring peace and normalcy to beautiful Kenya. I welcome the two principals working hard to navigate the delicate balancing act that would be required to make this happen.

I am ashamed though, as to the price tag of reaching a political settlement. We now have the biggest, bloated, wasteful cabinet since independence!(yes each minister will drive around in $100,000 mercedes benz). Clearly this cabinet was designed more for ethnic balancing than any other useful purpose. Other than the two principals(President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila), we probably needed twenty key ministries at the maximum.

We didnt and got 40+a retinue of useless assistants per ministry.... despite the growing chorus from Kenyans, and inspite of the tremendous challenges the 600,000 plus IDP's face in our country.


A day of pride, strikes me again as onother day of political, and institutional rape of the people.

I am reminded that it could be worse, were any political solution not found. True!!!

I also know better. Most people will die not sensationally(hollywood style on CNN, that midwifed this unjust settlement), but a more , slow, silent death occassioned by the continuing travesty of onother game of musical chairs.

To those true poor patriots, my continued prayers......to those who will survive, dont vote next time...

TRIVIALISING HIS BEDAZZLING'S TRIUMPH

Well, you heard it from me. Raila Odinga, Prime Minister designate, in Republic of Kenya, is soaking in his new found power and dazzling display of the same to boot.

Watch the new PM ride out in style.

No problem with Raila following the general protocols of getting police outriders, a convoy and state security, that befits his position.This brings me to a more important point. Why do our leaders and civil servants drive in $100,000 limousines? What have they achieved to earn this priviledge? did they put a Kenyan on the moon?only moral vacuity can explain this display of arrogance and self imbibed culture of importance.

Our society has allowed our leaders to be rulers and the people(the seat of power) to be servants. When our so called cabal of thieves do not even know how to cover their rapacity and graft in any finery, how can they expect that the holoi- polloi will not covet them?. What will prevent politics to be hijacked as yet onother quick way to be a zillionaire? democracy loses in this process and we risk being a society that feeds into a non existent importance of political leaders.

Raila truly earned his new found power position. Heck, let me explain it, in sarcastic way from R's(Raila)own response to a question on Senator Obama, who is from the Luo ethnic community, and hails from same region as Raila. The joke in Kenya after the flawed 2007 elections has followed on Obama's own successses in US, and it is said that a 'Luo' will be President of the United States before being president of Kenya.

Raila Odinga's answer to this fallacy? “We beat them to it,” Mr. Odinga said, “I just wasn’t sworn in.”

True, i believe like majority of Kenyans, that Raila won the 2007 elections. Lets' put that behind us and start helping those who died, or were maimed for the travesty of having politicians ride around in limousines.

THANK YOU KOFI ANNAN

Kofi Annan has finally brokered a patiently negotiated power sharing agreement.Thank you Kofi, for statemanship, patience and love for justice and peace. Kenya and Africa salutes you!

The agreement is copied here verbatim.

"Preamble:
The crisis triggered by the 2007 disputed presidential elections has brought to the surface deep-seated and long-standing divisions within Kenyan society. If left unaddressed, these divisions threaten the very existence of Kenya as a unified country. The Kenyan people are now looking to their leaders to ensure that their country will not be lost.Given the current situation, neither side can realistically govern the country without the other. There must be real power-sharing to move the country forward and begin the healing and reconciliation process.With this agreement, we are stepping forwarding together, as political leaders, to overcome the current crisis and to set the country on a new path. As partners in a coalition government, we commit ourselves to work together in good faith as true partners, through constant consultation and willingness to compromise. This agreement is designed to create an environment conducive to such a partnership and to build mutual trust and confidence. It is not about creating positions that reward individuals. It seeks to enable Kenya's political leaders to look beyond partisan considerations with a view to promoting the greater interests of the nation as a whole. It provides the means to implement a coherent and far-reaching reform agenda, to address the fundamental root causes of recurrent conflict, and to create a better, more secure, more prosperous Kenya for all.

To resolve the political crisis, and in the spirit of coalition and partnership, we have agreed to enact the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008, whose provisions have been agreed upon in their entirety by the parties hereto and a draft copy thereof is appended hereto.

Its key points are:
There will be a Prime Minister of the Government of Kenya, with authority to coordinate and supervise the execution of the functions and affairs of the Government of Kenya. The Prime Minister will be an elected member of the National Assembly and the parliamentary leader of the largest party in the National Assembly, or of a coalition, if the largest party does not command a majority.

Each member of the coalition shall nominate one person from the National Assembly to be appointed a Deputy Prime Minister. The Cabinet will consist of the President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister, the two Deputy Prime Ministers and the other Ministers. The removal of any Minister of the coalition will be subject to consultation and concurrence in writing by the leaders.The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers can only be removed if the National Assembly passes a motion of no confidence with a majority vote. The composition of the coalition government will at all times take into account the principle of portfolio balance and will reflect their relative parliamentary strength. The coalition will be dissolved if the Tenth Parliament is dissolved; or if the parties agree in writing; or if one coalition partner withdraws from the coalition.The National Accord and Reconciliation Act shall be entrenched in the Constitution.

Having agreed on the critical issues above, we will now take this process to Parliament. It will be convened at the earliest moment to enact these agreements. This will be in the form of an Act of Parliament and the necessary amendment to the Constitution.

We believe by these steps we can together in the spirit of partnership bring peace and prosperity back to the people of Kenya who so richly deserve it.

Agreed this date 28 February 2008
Hon. Raila Odinga
Orange Democratic Movement

HE. President Mwai Kibaki
Government/Party of National Unity

Witnessed By:
H.E. Kofi A. Annan
Chairman of the Panel of Eminent African Personalities

H.E. President Jakaya Kikwete
President of the United Republic of Tanzania
and Chairman of the African Union"

NOW THE GOOD NEWS

A few days ago i posted this horrifying picture of a mother shot infront of her child.

I received emails from concerned readers about the fate of the child. i am happy to report that this child is indeed well and living with relatives.

Thanks to Reuters Journalist George Phillipas, the child Brian Solomon Ingozi Mungai has been tracked down and is alive and well!!!. Master Brian is living with his relatives in Wakamwa Magumo village, about 45 km (27 miles) west of Nairobi. He is Fourteen-months-old and is the son of Jeremiah.The child escaped unhurt when his mother Grace, a Luyha, was shot dead by a police officer's 'stray bullet'during post-election violence following the flawed elections in Kenya.

I hope and pray Brian grows up to find justice for his mother and to live in a better world than the one that robbed him of his mother. Indeed that single picture of his mother's unfortunate death became to symbolise a sad hopeless moment for our beautiful country. Brian and his family continue to receive our prayers and support, as they should.

Across Kenya, uneasy calm has returned to the hot spots. The government has unveiled free secondary school for all students starting this year. This together with the much praised universal free primary education, will be financed entirely by Kenyan taxpayers. I support every effort made in our education system, which has made Kenyans one of the most prosperous, and educated citizens anywhere in Africa.

On the political front, a power sharing deal is set to be announced in the next 48hrs by Kofi Annan and his mediation team. I applaud the courage taken by both sides to have Kenya's interest triumph over political interest.

lets get back to work fellow Kenyans and lets not forget those who are still displaced. They should have the right to return, and the support to rebuild their shattered lives.

Peace....

PEACE, THEN JUSTICE....

HELL, has been visited on hundreds of poor defenseless Kenyans in the last month. Hooligans, hired militias and thugs from the major tribes(Kikuyu, Kalenjin and Luo) have been tearing, maiming and killing each other, and the fabric of the nation has been drenched and soaked in blood of innocent Kenyans:-Children, Women and Men.

What is so tragic is that this happens in the most stable of countries in Africa, a country that has traditionally comforted and received millions of victims of violence. The leader of Rwanda, which suffered a genocide in 1994, today gave advice to the so called cabal of power hungry scoundrels, masquerading as Kenyan 'leaders'.

"Intervention by the military may be the only way to halt Kenya's escalating ethnic bloodshed". Kagame further added "This is a case of emergency where certain things have to be done very quickly to stop the killings that are going on. There's no time to go into niceties and debates when the killings are taking place,".

Offcourse Kenyan leaders and our middle class wouldnot take his advice seriously. After all, in their myopic world view, 1000 dead in a country of 37 million is hardly a big thing.

WRONG!!!
Perhaps its time, my fellow Kenyans, that we start unmasking the deep inherent biases and resentment that may reside within the citizenry, and explore what sort of politics we should embrace. One of the sad things about multiparty democracy in Africa is the degree to which political parties play the 'ethnic' card and polarize the country into groups while riding on a false crest of 'ethnic' hate filled euphoria, misguided as populism. Its unconsciable for our politicians to reactivate and fight for instrument of statecraft by resurrecting centuries old 'ethnic prejudices'.

YET WE ALLOW THEM
The poor lose again, at the game they are not part of. Maybe they need to stop paying attention to divisive politics. May be they need to watch this video of their so called 'leaders' smiling and sipping tea over their dead, maimed and displaced bodies.

May be, Kenya at crossroads will be lesson on how we should conduct our politics. May be peace doesn't mean absence of war and violence. What was supposed to be an outcry on the stolen election has degenerated into a psycopathic mob driven opportunistic war pitying three major ethnic groups, and is now threatening to simmer into other smaller tribes as well. The brutal suppression of peaceful protest by the Kenyan police, is denying people an outlet for their anger, and some are taking it out on any perceived supporters of the current illegitimate regime.

That is still no excuse!!!.

If Kibaki claims to be the President, and thus controls the instruments of power, PLEASE do all that is constituionally allowable, even if it means deploying the Army out of the barracks and let them take care of thugs killing and maiming Kenyans.

I Will keep hoping and praying that justice and peace prevails in my Motherland. I will also continue to post pictures and videos of outrage and sheer inhumanity directed at the most defenseless, by the most inhuman, horrible psychopaths. I will preserve the legacy of the faceless, nameless, victims of this Kenyan hell, and pray this will SHAME the comfortable Kenyan middle class to take action. NOW

I will leave you with this image. SHOCKING BEYOND BELIEF, A MOTHER KILLED INFRONT OF HER CHILD.

Chew on that.

DONT FAN THE WAR, TURNCOAT LEGISLATORS

Kenyan Members of Parliament, are one of the highest paid in the world(take home annual pay of upto $156,000 US Dollars, with even more tax free perks, and a generous one term pension). Yet, i find it immoral, that our members of Parliament continue to enjoy these perks, while majority of their constituents are without jobs, have been uprooted from their homes, and their lives turned upside down. What was supposed to be a protest against a stolen presidential election, has degenerated into a free for all bloodletting, fanned and aided by rhetorical warmongering from both sides. I have often posited that peace doesnt translate into the abscence of war or violence. That, our uneasy calm could be concealing injustices and prejudices, both historical and tribal, which could, like a powder keg, be easily ignited. Remember Rwanda? 1,000,000 dead in 100 days!!!!

Remember the Battle of Solferino with 40,000+ dead or casualties of war in 9 hrs?

I have a message for both the opposition Orange Democratic Movement and the Government party....

Nobody should ever have it both ways.

These 'leaders' continue to enjoy their immoral perks from our taxes while encouraging the citizens of Kenya to continue going down the path of of intransigence, ethnic violence and darkness. This should never wash. I wish to quote a statement by Bishop T.D Jakes on the ongoing crisis in Kenya, that could best describe this moral hypocrisy of our leaders.

"What we need is what was exhibited by the two women who came to Solomon both saying that they were the mothers of a baby. Their dispute was ended because Solomon wisely knew that when he decided to split the baby no real mother would allow it. As he had suspected, one woman gave her rights up for the welfare of the baby. I am not suggesting that rights be lost but i am saying that people who really love Kenya must work together towards their future and regain control of one of Africa's greatest resources, the Kenyan people, for whom i have too much love to see them split by tribalism or politics gone awry!

Our 'leaders' forget theirs could be the case of the boiling frog syndrome. Mercifully, warlords often die by the bullet. For war is raw and takes on a deranged bloodthirsty path of its own. It does not even respect those who fan it. Like my next example....

Enter one.... Alfred Mutua(Kenya Government Spokesperson), variously described as a communication logjam — a cul de sac, Kenya's own Paul Joseph Goebbels or comparable more recently to Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi's comical and absurd information minister under Sadam's regime.

This man has the toughest job in Kenya right now. To spin the unspinnable. He has tried to dress our naked emperor into golden robes woven in lies and fantasy concoted by his rich imagination.


Lets stop the lies and the hypocrisy. Kenya is slowly sliding into hopelessness and anarchy. This is sad, for a country that has traditionally comforted millions of victims of war and violence. Our leaders are doing a great disservice to our nation.

Its time to end the politics of brinkmanship.

My fellow citizens should not lose their future on fixing a mess their 'leaders' are unable or unwilling to fix.

End this nonsense. Peace and then Justice should be our collective goal as a nation

Its time we reclaimed Kenya!

BARACK OBAMA URGES END TO VIOLENCE IN KENYA

Senator Barack Obama, seen here with Raila Odinga, the winner in Kenya's rigged elections, during his last visit to Kenya.

Senator Barack Obama has added his voice and urged an end to violent blood letting in Kenya following the rigged elections. Obama's father is from Kenya and the continuing violence has affected him personally.
Excerpts:
" I have been deeply troubled by the recent events in Kenya. The ongoing political impasse and the tragic violence pose an urgent and dangerous threat to Kenyans, Kenyan democracy, and stability and economic development in a vital region.

Urgent action must be taken to prevent a further deterioration of the situation and to help resolve the current political crisis.

The Kenyan people have a proud historical commitment to establishing and sustaining multi-party democracy. I have personally been touched by this generous, democratic spirit through my ties to my own family, and during my travels to Kenya — most recently as a US Senator in 2006. This thirst for democracy was on display in Kenya’s recent election, when Kenyans turned out to vote in record numbers, and in a peaceful way."



Read the rest of Senator Obama's letter here