LEADERS, END POVERTY BEFORE IT ENDS US.

Re adjusted 

In order to develop, Africans have to think

Story by KOIGI WA WAMWERE

Fifty years ago, Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah told Africa: “Seek ye political kingdom and all else shall be added unto you.” Independence came but Africans remain the most ignorant and poorest in the world. What happened?First, European and American powers built a basis for our unending poverty by subverting our independence at birth through the elimination of our best leaders, leaving in power only those who would safeguard their economic interests. To perpetuate our economic subjugation, we inherited a colonial education that was designed to keep us uneducated, psychologically inferior, forever subservient to the white man and poor. Without incorporating revolutionary principles of development in our education system, it has become more a generator of poverty than of progress.

Emasculated by unchallenged biblical myths and colonial history that Africans are inferior, belong to Ham’s cursed race, poverty leads to heaven and that the poor will always be with us, many Africans now take their poverty as natural and a fate they cannot fight.

Endemic corruption and the resultant poverty are Africa’s real burden. Corruption has turned African leaders into enemies of development that will never self-prosecute to end the vice. By robbing them, African leaders have consigned their countries into perpetual poverty.

Ordinary Africans are like people who have been wet for too long to care. They have been poor for too long to fear their worst enemy. So in Africa, poverty reigns supreme and unchallenged even by its primary victims. Poverty outwits Africa because to it, development is not a journey that needs a road map. We seek development unguided by a road map and national values and get lost.

To develop Africans need focused leaders. But we lack visionary ones because we don’t value them. As the saying goes, when the lead sheep limps, the herd does not reach the pastures, but we don’t listen. Poverty and development, however, both start and end with leadership.

Trap of poverty

If Africa is poor because African leaders rob it, it is twice as poor because, since colonialism, foreigners have robbed it more. As long as foreigners – in whatever name – own African wealth and take it abroad, the continent will not escape the trap of poverty.

Africans don’t come to power to develop their countries, but enrich to themselves. To reverse the trend, Africans must first develop their countries and themselves later. When African leaders go to work not to develop their countries but to enrich themselves, the continent will always remain poor. Poverty rules Africa because growth is unshared. When most Africans do not share the national income, their poverty condemns the whole continent. Unshared wealth is not development. It is a cause of poverty. When one of us is poor, all of us are.

Poverty dogs Africa also because elections fail to replace bad with good leaders and a system that breeds poverty with one that develops our economies.

Donor countries will never offer a gift of development to us, yet we look up to them. After giving Africans brains to think, even God will not come down to fight poverty for us. Only we can develop ourselves. Other people develop because they and their leaders think hard.

If others have been to the moon and back and we have yet to make a bicycle, we are not thinking hard enough and shall not develop. If developed peoples use 20 per cent of their brain power, Africans must surely use less than 1 per cent.

All our people must think and not leave the thinking to a few leaders. Yet after disabling their minds, hunger does not allow the poor majority of Africans to think. Worst, when the poor try to think, it is about leaders’ problems, not their own. Rather than think, they prefer entertainment. With our minds disabled, it matters not that Africa is richest in natural resources; we are poorer than countries that are less endowed but think more.

Unfortunately, Africans don’t just think less, they don’t work as hard as other people. If people are judged by the output of their work, Africans don’t do a tenth of other people’s work. While other countries develop 24 hours a day, African leaders who shape their countries’ destiny work less than six.

As all developed countries have done, African countries must seriously embrace mathematics, science and technology. If they don’t, they will never develop industrially. Africans must have more scientists than anyone else.

Right now, our most popular belief is in development through information and communication technology. But we must do more than learn how to use computers. To develop, we must learn to make cars, guns and computers that we use. There is no short-cut to real development.

To develop, we must save ourselves from the folly of hating one another on ethnic grounds, or we shall remain locked in civil wars and genocides that have destroyed many African countries. Because it lures us into our own death, we must reject negative ethnicity or never develop.

Without patriotism, Africans will never develop either. Of all peoples, only Africans think they can be unpatriotic and develop at the same time.

Loyalty to donors

Equally, only they sneer at their patriots until others crown them as heroes. We must learn from history. Only patriots develop their countries. We embrace poverty when we substitute patriotism with loyalty to donor countries.

Like other nations, Africans must seek development through their own native, not foreign, languages. There is proof that if Americans, Europeans, Chinese and all other peoples developed through their mother tongues, we too must. Seeking to develop through foreign languages that we don’t know too well only makes it extra-difficult.

We are poorer, not richer, without African languages. Already Africa is burning. Brother is killing brother on account of poverty, desperation, ethnic hate and disregard for law. We must end poverty before poverty ends us.

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Mr Wamwere is  a candidate for Subukia and Information assistant minister.

VOTERS, BALL IN YOUR COURT SAY KIBAKI

The ball is in your court, Kibaki tells voters

Published on December 17, 2007, 12:00 am

By Standard Team

President Kibaki concluded a whirlwind tour of North-Eastern Province and declared that the destiny of the country now lay in the hands of voters.

The Head of State addressed two public rallies in Ijara and Garissa on Sunday where he dished out goodies, including the creation of two more divisions in Ijara and a promise to rescind a ban on land allocation affecting the region.

Kibaki urged voters to shun his critics and instead cast their votes for development conscious leaders.

Addressing a huge crowd at Garissa Stadium, he asked residents not to be swayed by propaganda peddled by the Opposition, saying it did not have the interest of the country.

“Do not be duped by those spreading cheap propaganda. The important work for us is to educate our children and develop our country,” he told the ecstatic crowd, which at one point broke through the security cordon and surged to the dais.

Kibaki, who returned to the region for the second time in less than two weeks, said he was confident that he would be re-elected on December 27.

He reiterated that the Government would roll out free secondary education to boost the transition in the wake of high enrollment following the free primary education programme.

The President caused laughter when he told parents to direct money that they would have used to pay fees to improve housing and living standards of their children.

Kibaki hit out at the opposition, accusing them of using religion and tribalism to divide people and divert attention from his administration’s achievements in the past five years.

The Government, he said, had increased the youth fund to Sh3 billion, up from Sh1 billion, and asked residents to seek funds to improve their welfare.

Cabinet ministers, Prof Kivutha Kibwana (Lands) and Mr Muhammud Abdi (Regional Development) and Kanu Chairman, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, accompanied Kibaki.

More promises

 

At Garisssa, the thorny issue of the alleged harassment of Muslims by the State emerged in the predominantly Muslim region.

Uhuru defended the Kibaki regime from the accusation, saying Kibaki had appointed the biggest number of ministers in the Cabinet since independence.

The former Gatundu South MP tore into the opposition, saying they engaged in sideshows and propaganda to discredit the President.

Kibwana said the Government could not be accused of victimising Muslims because Kibaki had rejected pressure to enact the anti-terrorism Bill.

Earlier, the President met leaders from the region at separate meetings in Balah Guest Hall in Ijara and at the Provincial Commissioner’s residence in Garissa.

In Garissa, the leaders presented the Head of State with a memorandum in which they asked him to lift a ban imposed on land allocation in 1999 to boost investment.

The leaders said the ban had promoted squatting because residents could not get title deeds.

Further, the leaders sought for the review of the provincial boundary with regard to the three kilometre strip from River Tana to change the situation where the provincial and district headquarters were in another province.

They also wanted the Garissa electrification programme upgraded to the national grid. The President said the ministries concerned would look into the issues.

The Head of State appealed to pastoral communities in northern Kenya to stop cultural practices that discriminated against girls on education.

The President urged the youth and women to borrow from the funds the Government has set aside and invest in business.

In Ijara, Kibaki created two more divisions — Qotiley and Ruqa — and a location, Gumarey — in the district. He said the creation of extra administrative areas would take Government services closer to the people.

The President also opened the Masalani-Tana River bridge which has been under construction since 1992.

The bridge, the President noted, would open up landlocked Ijara District to Coast Province.

Kibaki also opened the Coast Development Authority office in Ijara.

 

– Reports by Alex Ndegwa, Adow Jubat and Abdisalan Ahmed

KENYANS IN SWEDEN DEMONSTRATE

Kenyans stage demo over plot to deport diplomat

Published on December 17, 2007, 12:00 am

By Standard Team

Kenyans living in Sweden held a demonstration to protest an alleged deportation attempt of an embassy official.

They waved placards outside the Kenyan embassy on Stockholm Birger Jarlsgatan 37, on Jamhuri Day to stop the repatriation, which they termed inhuman.

The ailing official has been fighting attempts to repatriate him for the last one month, The Standard learnt.

Mr Raphael Cheruiyot, 40, a career diplomat, suffers from myasthenia gravis, a disease that attacks the muscles and paralyses its victim.

Protesters outside the Kenyan embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. Picture by Correspondent

Kenyans residing in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries took to the streets of Stockholm in the protest led by a Ms Ruth Bundotich, Mr Tarus, Mr Nahashon Mbugua, Mr Clay Onyango and Ms Caroline Kosgei.The embassy is also accredited to the Kingdom of Denmark, the Republic of Finland, Iceland and the Kingdom of Norway.

They said deporting Cheruiyot would be inhuman because he needs specialised treatment, which can only be found abroad. A story posted on jamii.wordpress.com website alleged a plot “to pluck Cheruiyot” from Karolinska Hospital’s Rheumatology Care Unit on November 29 and put him on a Nairobi-bound plane at Arlanda Airport.

The report says Cheruiyot, a third secretary at the embassy, has been fighting a long-drawn-out battle with the embassy and the Government since his hospitalisation in April. Apparently, the report says, the Government got a doctor from Kenya to go and authorise the discharge of the officer from the hospital.

“Swedish authorities had refused to release the patient if he could not be accompanied by a doctor and had we not protested, he would have been put on a plane home on November 29,” Ms Bundotich said in an interview with The Standard.

A physician, Dr Patrick Juma, told The Standard the disease is genetic and can be controlled by immune modulators, which reverse the attack of the muscles by anti-bodies.

Cheruiyot’s family— his wife and a boy, 10, have been thrown out of the embassy house. The boy has since dropped out of school.

His mother, Mrs Esther Cheruiyot, who travelled to Sweden to be with her son spoke of the pain of seeing her first-born sick and bed-ridden.

She said on telephone from Stockholm, “I have left it all to God, my son lives in perpetual pain.”

But Mrs Purity Muhindi, the Kenyan ambassador, has denied that the embassy wanted to deport Cheruiyot.

“Cheruiyot’s tour had ended and as is with all civil servants they are recalled home for redeployment,” said Muhindi in a telephone interview. Cheruiyot has been in Sweden for five years.

“I have no authority and capacity to deport anyone, all of us are the employees of the Government. Nothing secretive, nothing unprocedural was done. He had to vacate his residence to give way for his replacement.”

Muhindi says by that time, Cheruiyot had been taken ill and admitted to hospital and his travelling back home was delayed.

The Foreign Affairs office in Nairobi has denied that there was a plan to evacuate Cheruiyot. Ms Hellen Gichuhi the Head of Press and Publicity said Cheruiyot was recovering at his residence. Gichuhi said the Government was aware of the case but said there were no plans for evacuation. “The issue has been misreported … the information we have is that the man is not in the ICU as has been indicated but is recuperating at home,” Gichuhi said. “He is at home and he is unwell but he is not going to be deported … the issue has been blown out of proportion.”

Muhindi said the Government last month decided to evacuate Cheruiyot, but with authority from the Swedish doctors “who said he could recuperate at home”.

“But the true situation is that Nairobi took over the issue from the time his tour ended,” she said. She confirmed that the Government had sent a doctor from Nairobi. It was not clear why the Government wanted to evacuate the official.

Bundotich said Cheruiyot’s illness had been diagnosed and the doctors had just put him on medication when the planned deportation was to be carried out.

He has sought asylum on medical grounds.

ITS A FIGHT BETWEEN THE RICH AND POOR KENYANS

NEWS EXTRA

Election will be a battle between rich and poor Story by MILDRED NGESA Publication Date: 12/17/2007

My tribe has to win the elections in the coming two weeks.  It is either my tribe wins or we are doomed. There are only two tribes in Kenya. And I know ethnic slurs; loyalties and differences are simmering hot right now. But nobody can deny the fact that this wonderful country of 33 million people has only two tribes – the tribe of the rich and the tribe of the poor.  When they talk of 42 tribes strewn across eight provinces, they lie. When they point out the superiority of one tribe against another, they lie even more. What they do not say, is that the only distinction between the two existing tribes in this country lies in their pockets — it lies in the number of loaves of bread one family can afford compared to another. Painful truth It a painful truth that is increasingly confronting me every time I walk into the supermarket. I look at the shopping list and shopping items in my trolley and the money in my wallet and things just do not seem to add up. There was a time they used to. A time when that same amount in my wallet and the same items in my trolley matched very well. Now things are not so rosy. I have even stopped feeling embarrassed at the counter as I ask the cashier to kindly exclude some of the items that I had already put in the trolley because my budget has run short.  Only last year, three packets of milk and a loaf of bread were worth only Sh100. Today the same amount can only fetch two packets and one loaf, what has happened? And whatever happened to “unga ya ngano”? Do people still make chapos?  These days, a packet of wheat flour coasts Sh120. That was the price of two packets two years ago! Not to mention cooking gas that goes diminishing in the cylinders every now and then, or the frequent increments in fuel prices that have rendered our jalopies redundant.  Everything is getting swallowed in the frenzy of campaign madness and the hoodwinks of the festive season. Still, when the current standard of living is scrutinised in retrospect, the one tribe that is suffering and is bound to suffer even more is that of the majority who now have abandoned “luxuries” like bread and tea with milk simply because these have become too expensive. On the other hand, the tribe of the rich seems to be basking in wealth. Lately I have been tongue-tied by the rising number of fuel guzzlers and other vehicles of class plying down roads like Dennis Pritt, James Gichuru, Argwings Kodhek, Waiyaki Way and Rhapta roads in Nairobi. My knowledge of contemporary car makes is as scanty as that of nuclear gases, but I know I have seen more than one Porche, Hummer, Lexus, Tuareg VW, BMW X5 and countless Chryslers cruising down those suburbs designated for the tribe of the rich. These vehicles do not cost a million shilling. They are worth so much more. But where is all the money coming from? It seems like the tribe of the rich has recently been bitten by the flamboyance bug.  The wealth and the glitter is all out there in the streets, yet some people have to scratch their heads as they agonise over how they are going to stretch Sh500 to cover their family expenses for the rest of the week. The gap between the two tribes has widened even further. Where the tribe of the poor thought they would cover ground to bridge the space between them and the tribe of the rich, even more zeroes have been added at the end of what the tribe of the rich are worth, making this attempt even more elusive. Ever heard of the tribe of the rich grumbling about the price of kerosene and bread? Think about it. It is the tribe of the poor who are killing each other in the name of campaigns so as to propel one of the rich to the top. And when that happens, we all know the drill — we shall not see or hear of them until five years have elapsed.  By then, the man from the tribe of the rich will have added several other obscenely expensive toys to his collection of automobiles while you and I in our ever-growing tribe of the poor will still be at the corner of the street lamenting why we cannot afford a kilo of sugar.  Do you now understand why the tribe of the poor has to win on December 27?

LUCY IS NOT WAMBUI THEREFORE SHE FIGHTS

Lucy Kibaki was set up!

Published on December 14, 2007, 12:00 am

That master of ceremonies deserved the slap he got and worse. How in the world do you insult the First Lady in public and hope for no reaction? How can the MC not know that Lucy is not Wambui?

Technically, all guests to State House are social guests of the First Lady. The rules of social decorum, common sense, heshima, ‘u-Africa’ or whatever dictate that you cannot insult your host. One must wonder: Was the MC paid to antagonise the First Lady?

NATION COMPLAINS TO MEDIA COUNCIL

Nation asks for redress over assault

Published on December 14, 2007, 12:00 am

By Standard Reporters

The Nation Media Group has lodged a complaint with the Media Council over harassment of its photographer at a presidential function.

And the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) on Thursday demanded an explanation from State House over what it described as “gross violation of freedom and independence of the media”.

“The media takes a grave view of this complaint because such action amounts to gross violation of the freedom and independence of the media,” MCK chairman, Mr Wachira Waruru, said in reference to the scuffle in which Mrs Kibaki slapped the master of ceremonies.

An Office of the President functionary, Mr Francis Musyimi, who introduced her as Mama Lucy Wambui, apparently incensed Mrs Kibaki.

Immediately after the incident, Musyimi was whisked away by security agents and his role assumed by Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Mr Francis Muthaura.

The scuffle had been recorded on camera by Nation photojournalist, Mr Robert Gichira, who was quickly summoned into a secluded room where security agents forced him to erase all the digital pictures he had taken.

The MCK has now given State House 14 days to give an explanation over the incident, although it did not specify what action it would take if there was no response from the Office of the President.

The incident at State House is a reminder of another last year when the First Lady stormed the Nation Media Centre and slapped KTN’s TV cameraman, Mr Derrick Otieno, as she protested against negative coverage of herself and her family.

Meanwhile, the Maendeleo Ya Wanaume Organisation has also criticised the First Lady over the incident.

The organisation warned that the incident could cost the President dearly through votes in the forthcoming General Election.

The organisation’s national chairman, Mr Nderitu Njoka, said the rights of the official had been violated.

Speaking to journalists in Naivasha, Njoka who was flanked by some of the organisation’s members, termed the incident as unfortunate.

Njoka said the organisation would be seeking legal redress against Mrs Kibaki over the matter, adding that nobody was above the law.

“The incident was sad and I am sure that the victim and his family have been affected psychologically by it,” he said.

“Any human being is prone to error and the First Lady should have used a better way to address the issue,” he said.

Njoka claimed the incident had tainted the President’s image, who many Kenyans considered peace loving.

Lucy should control temper

Elsewhere, Mrs Ida Odinga and Mrs Najah Balala have appealed to the First Lady to control her temper.

The two, who were addressing a news conference at Malindi Airport, noted with concern that it was not the first time the First Lady had engaged in such behaviour.

“As a mother, she should control her temper. We are the role models of young leaders and for that reason, we can only apologise to the offended civil servants,” said Ida.

They beseeched Lucy to lead by example, be a role model to other mothers and asked her to display only qualities befitting her title and high office.

While acknowledging the slip may have offended her, the two said she overreacted and did not show the kind of leadership expected of someone of her status. Ida called on Coast women to come out, vote and make an informed choice.

 

ODM’S POLITICIANS IMPLICATED IN CORRUPTION

Why ODM cannot walk the talk on fighting corruption

Published on December 13, 2007, 12:00 am

By Dr Peter Kagwanja

The ODM manifesto promises to provide Kenyans with an “accountable leadership and an ethical governance agenda”. But some of its leaders are tainted by decades of involvement in corruption. The manifesto shows a monumental gap between the party’s promise and capacity to deliver.

More critically, the document exposes the nerve to smoother issues of integrity. The integrity gap in the ODM manifesto is even more egregious in the slipshod pledge to give Kenya a new Constitution within six months “to ensure executive accountability, equity and devolution of power”. ODM, like other parties, has its share of leaders implicated in high-profile corruption.

The manifesto seems designed to re-brand its leaders as anti-corruption paragons, enabling them to gatecrash into the national moral high ground. Some of the axial players in ODM are in their fourth reincarnation — from Kanu to Liberal Democratic Party, which secured them a new lease of life in the National Rainbow Coalition, as part of the team that promised zero-tolerance to corruption.

The ODM manifesto is rewriting history. It whitewashes the party leadership and repackages them as anti-corruption knights. The party is turning corruption into an electoral endgame; closing its mind to the old adage that those living in glasshouses should not throw stones.

It fi nds itself in this conceptual mire for simply missing one crucial point: Corruption pervades the entire population. The ODM manifesto is tall as a vote-catching document, but short on strategy. Its architects seem not to come to grips with the national context of corruption, a sine qua non (prerequisite) for a watertight anti-graft strategy. The manifesto tees off by trashing the offi ce of ‘corruption czar’.

Yet ODM has always feted Mr John Githongo, the former Permanent Secretary for Ethics and Governance, now crowned as “anti-corruption czar” for whistle blowing. It is this office, which nabbed new entrants into the mega-corruption game.

The party promises to rationalise the expensive tenure of the Anti-Corruption Commission. I am afraid this appears like a sharpening of the axes to bring down Justice Aaron Ringera and his team.

The ODM pledges to establish a Truth and Restitution Commission to bring closure to past corruption crimes. But it is not clear how it intends to proceed on asset recovery, amnesty and restitution.

Does the ODM plan to resort to presidential fiat in recovery? The manifesto undertakes to work with the UN and the World Bank under the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative. How does ODM plan to execute this in regard to its own?

The party pledges to review public procurement laws and procedures to make them transparent and corruption-free. The Government has already reviewed procurement laws and procedures in the civil bureaucracy. ODM promises to implement the Public Offi cer Ethics Act and transparency, but isn’t the party not acknowledging that these instruments have been implemented?

Again, rather than focus on the missing links in the system, the ODM sets out on a fl ower-catching rendezvous.

The writer is based in Pretoria, South Africa

KALONZO WILL NOT STEP DOWN FOR KIBAKI

I won’t step down for Kibaki, says Kalonzo

Published on December 12, 2007, 12:00 am

By Mutinda Mwanzia and Paul Mutua

ODM-Kenya presidential candidate, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, addresses a campaign rally in Machakos, on Tuesday.

The ODM-Kenya presidential candidate has dismissed reports that he has struck a deal with PNU to quit the race in favour of President Kibaki.

Mr Kalonzo Musyoka described the reports as “rubbish and cheap” propaganda from his ODM rivals aimed at discrediting him.

He urged his supporters to ignore the rumours, adding that he would not let them down.

Speaking at various rallies when he campaigned for ODM-Kenya candidates in Ukambani on Tuesday, Kalonzo said ODM was behind the circulation of mobile phone messages that he had been bought with Sh10 billion to abandon the presidential race on December 27.

The SMS, which The Standard had access to, said: “Tension was high in ODM-Kenya as Kalonzo Musyoka had agreed to cross to PNU five days to the voting day in return for appointment as President Kibaki’s Vice-President.”

But Kalonzo told a rally at the Kitui Municipal Stadium: “Please ignore the SMSes. They are aimed at causing confusion and portraying me as lacking in commitment. I’m firmly in the race. My journey to State House is anointed.”

He said his conscience was clear and added that Kenyans would determine his bid for the top seat on the election day.

Kalonzo criticised Kibaki for snubbing a presidential debate that was to be hosted by KTN and BBC.

“Kenyans have missed a wonderful opportunity to scrutinise their leaders,” said Kalonzo.

He said he was ready for the live presidential debate to sell his policies and those of his party.

“The live presidential debate enables the electorate, who are our bosses, to put us on our toes by challenging leaders to explain what they have to offer,” he said.

Kalonzo concluded his four-day campaign tour of the region by appealing to voters to give him troops by electing candidates nominated by ODM-Kenya.

Commenting on the now controversial ‘three-piece’ voting pattern, Kalonzo said: “To be a strong general, I need enough MPs to push through government motions and Bills in Parliament.”

He also promised that if he won the election, his government would formulate a comprehensive special needs education policy to cater for neglected children with disabilities under the free education programme.

This would enable them to access basic education and vocational training, he said.

The ODM-Kenya candidate also pledged to revitalise agriculture if elected.

He reiterated that his government would introduce a 24-hour working economy to create more jobs for the youth and implement free education from nursery to the secondary school level.

Kalonzo accused the Government of taking the Kamba for a ride by reneging on a pledge to tarmac the Kitui-Mutomo-Kibwezi road in 2002.

“If elected, my Government will tarmac this road within two years to link up the port of Mombasa and neighbouring Ethiopia,” he said.

He said President Kibaki had failed to give the construction of the 200-km road priority and claimed that many feeder roads in Central Province had been repaired. Kalonzo said successive governments had marginalised the Kamba people.

“The late Paul Ngei and Mrs Charity Ngilu began the journey for the community to take a stand on the top seat. Now it is my turn,” said Kalonzo, who used a helicopter to crisscross the constituencies.

Kalonzo said the killings in Kuresoi and Mt Elgon were testimony that the Government had failed to guarantee Kenyans security, adding that it was immoral for PNU operatives to use State resources to campaign for Kibaki, who, he said, had polarised Kenyans along tribal lines.

“Kenyans should not trust Kibaki with another term. He should start packing his bags at State House,” said Kalonzo.

He said he was the most trusted presidential candida

Training Day 27 Dec 2007. OUR COMMON DESTINY

ITS INDEPENDENCE DAY AND NO ONE TO DEPEND ON WHEN IT COMES TO OUR COMMON DESTINY.

During this time of celebrating independence day which happens to be general election time you shall hear many niceties from all

types of candidates.

But what we need to remember is that our tribe is the tribe of the impoverished wananchi. The impoverished majority!

It is clear that we are the backbone of the development in this country.

We are the ones who do all the donkey work in coffee farms, tea, sisal, sugarcane and flower farms among others. We sell the products they import from China and Japan to a few of ourselves and the most costly they import for to themselves. We consume and rarely export finished products since we are just a market for the rest of the conspiring world huge economies. Well, our leaders enjoy imported goods and feel proud about that. How else do you tell they have made it in life without such symbols of prestige?

We take care of the richman’s cattle, goats, chicken and other animals. We carry building blocks, sand and timber in their constructions of sky high buildings. We build the infamous Nyayo house, prisons, Statehouse, police stations. We planted forests they dump the bodies off our slain youth.  We construct the roads where the shiny Prados race at speeds of light.

We of course enjoy being their drivers, often never leaving the vehicles until cocks crow. How we manage to drive to our destinations with hunger and sleep can be only be possible through the mercy of the gods. As we drive they sit snoring in the back seats often wondering why it has taken so long to get there? There by questioning our driving abilities. This earns us the Pumbavu ridicule.  In any case we get there mostly without getting involved in  fatal accidents.

We often drive their cars with empty stomachs since we are always on standby as they enjoy their meals in big hotels and golf clubs. Where they socialise is difficult to find a kiosk to buy oneself a soda and a mandazi the only junk we can afford to keep our blood flowing until we get back to our sharks to either change cloths or just have a quick nap.

In their homes we take care of their aggressive children who cant speak their parents mother languages but English. We wake up early and sleep late night as we make sure they are happy with our less appreciated house work. Maids often cry alone wondering where the ladies of the house got the idea they were not women enough to get themselves men who can provide as they. Often it  gets hard for the maids as the husbands’ eyes start seeing them as replacements since the maids take care of these rich men in the house in everything minus one without questions. The maids eat their cold meals in kitchens and alone since they are not supposed to share a dining table with the family although the family enjoys food prepared by the maid. Strange things happen in these homes.

We guard their their mansions and homes surrounded by  sky high high  walls. Mbwa kali is our only partner at night.  We often sleep  hungry  but  the  dongs  get  their  daily  meals  and  a  pat  on  their  backs.

Our children get jobs that their children refuse to do such as police work.  We are the real tax payers who make sure that the rich stay reach and their white color boys and girls in the civil service high class job group earn a nice pay in order to keep the rest of us under constant silence. Our sweat pays the president, Ministers, MPs and the army sitting in barracks ready to put their tanks and Fighter jets in use to protect us from ourselves. Yet  independence we have never had a naughty neighbor throwing bombs to us.

The sitting army buys food and other nicities at very low prices since they are the men and women to please at any cost to keep them silent. We make sure no one touches them or questions the activities going on inside those barracks. We are told not to question them since that would mean breaking security of the nation. Well, the jobless army of the unemployed youth  does not  worry  the power barons in  this country since they are helpless, hungry but angry they are.

In fact leaders such as presidents need not worry even after one falls from power since we the wananchi are breaking our backs daily to make sure they will get a huge amount of pension once out of power. We cant even get near them because our tax money will get them ten bodyguards to guard them from us.  This is a way to guarantee that their children will continue to enjoy money the leaders got through looting state coffers while serving us. We even are ready to allow their children to replace their dads as presidents and MPs. We allow them to colonize our constituencies for decades.

No matter what we the wananchi do to remain good boys and girls- in fact also old guys and ladies too- all we hear from those haves is that we are poor because we are either lazy or choosy  when it comes to finding work.

What makes us strange beings is the fact that come elections we talk,  fight and even kill ourselves to make sure our own devils continue bedeviling us again. Then wonder of wonders sit back and accuse the devils for being devils. How comes that they are so few and we are so many but seem very helpless?

45 years after independence and there we are still unable to direct our own destiny and struggle for our own wellbeing. We fight the rich class wars for them as they sit in Muthaiga, Karen and elsewhere no go zone for the havenots. To make it easier for us to see how powerless we are we are not less than 33 million poor families. The rest are less than a million their hand boys  included.

Well, this time it looks we are even ready to say our last prayers as we are being asked to say in other words. We are being told that Moi, Mudavadi, Ruto and a colony of other corrupt fellows have seen the light and heard a still voice asking them to come and rescue the poor.

It amazes me when I see a game of death. How can a lamb trust a lion to be its protector? How can this be? Can the wananchi reading this mail please tell some of us how safe we are with the current politicians from both ODMs and PNU?

This game has gone on too long and its time we the wananchi tell ourselves the truth. The truth that even after electing our man to state house we shall remain pawns in some peoples’ political games. Are we ready to handle the truth? The truth that we have lied to ourselves and have been lied to for too long that all is ok or it will be fine to allow our destiny lie in the hands of political lions and hyena.

I hear a confession here and there. I hear vows that  we  shall stand up and elect those who care about our fate no matter what tribe they belong to or location they come from. Yes I hear you asking where to run to. You are welcome to join CCM and use it as a vehicle for true wananchi liberation. That is why we formed CCM. For you and us. Let this year 2007 December 27 election day be the day of training how to reject  bad leadership.

By Dick Kamau

CCM Secretary General

RAILA’S AND KIBAKI’S CAMPS OF STATE LOOTERS, AND THEIR SKY HIGH HYPOCRACY

COMMENTARY

Why patriots have reason to give up on good leadership Story by MAYAKA GEKARA Publication Date: 12/11/2007

FOR PATRIOTS COMMITTED TO the transformation of their country into a modern, corruption-free democracy that provides equal opportunity for all and safeguards civil liberties, the election is already lost.  They are hanging from wings of desperation because the current platoon of political leaders seeking the throne, and those on it, seem unlikely to drive the country in that direction.  Corruption, poverty, HIV and Aids, illiteracy, tribalism, insecurity, unemployment and poor infrastructure have become the face of the country. Patriotic men and women feel that President Kibaki, ODM presidential candidate Raila Odinga, and Mr Kalonzo Musyoka of ODM-Kenya cannot provide a political solution to these challenges. For instance, it is disheartening that the Kibaki campaign is mute on corruption though it is a major concern. In fact, the fight against graft is just a footnote in Mr Kibaki’s 10 pledges to Kenyans. BUT THIS IS NOT A SURPRISE FOR a government that fattened the Anglo-Leasing warthog, sought to protect plunderers mentioned in the Kroll Report, and lionised the drivers of the Goldernberg scam. Such is the horrifying hypocrisy that shapes our politics. How did we sink so low?  Instead of re-energising the country to take a new path, President Kibaki regrouped old men of the typewriter era to run a country that aims to become a middle-income economy in a few years.  Some of these old timers have incited youth to violence without action from seemingly complicit law enforcers. Even youthful leaders who joined his team have changed into irritating cheerleaders. International criminals dubbed Artur Brothers lorded it over us in broad daylight, and before we could wipe the spit on our faces, we were told Kazi Iendelee. Don’t we deserve even a shred of credible explanation? And woe betide those who cannot see the blue lining in Orange gear. Mr Odinga, who has been accusing the Kibaki administration of corruption, is much too quiet on the “new messiahs” in the Orange caravan who played a part in the fall of institutions due to looting during the Nyayo tyranny.  A critical examination shows that a chunk of the ODM stalwarts comprise politicians and technocrats who propped up the Moi dictatorship.  To use his rather distasteful allegory of the bird and the snake, the mob around him is the very offensive reptiles that Kenyans sought to eject in 2002. The Kalonzo team is also carved out of the same timber. To borrow Mr Maoka Maore’s words, the forest has changed but the monkeys remain the same. How can the same people promise to take us to the Promised Land? Mr Kibaki, Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka have graciously sub-divided the skunk of corruption and each has already swallowed his portion.  Is there any redemption out of the maze? No. We can only make do with the lesser evil. The last time I checked, 8.7 million adults in the country were classified as illiterate. And Electoral Commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu has indicated that the youth will determine who presides over our affairs after the polls. Voter education should target these two groups. But who is best placed to do this? The media is my natural bet. Today, the Press is the primary source of information regarding the election. Of course, there are questions on whether it has proved intellectual enough in interrogating and providing leadership on critical issues. To me, it has terribly failed to raise the bar.  INSTEAD OF TAKING PLUNDERERS down a peg or two, it has glorified and sanitised them. Instead of examining the practicability of various proposed developed programmes by presidential candidates, it has taken the easier but dangerous role as a conveyor belt of raw political trivia and hate speeches. Its poor handling of the majimbo debate is a case in point.  Lastly, all of us should take responsibility for the kind of leadership we elect. As citizens, we must see through leaders who are exploiting us or taking us down dangerous paths.  If we are lazy, self-indulgent and gullible; if we willingly follow corrupt leaders; if we allow our heritage of freedom to decay; if we fail to monitor the public process, then we shall get what we deserve — the worst. Mr Mayaka is a sub-editor with the Nation. Write to the author

UKOSEFU WA UTU BAINA YA WANANSIASA KENYA

 BARUA HII NI MARUDIO. TANGU IANDIKWE MAMBO YAZIDI KUCHAFUKA

Barua imeandikwa na Dick Kamau

17.07.07

Kila asubuhi niamkapo nasikitika kuyaona mambo yakichafuka hapa nchini. Mwaka wa 2002 Dec 27 mwenyewe nilidhani kwamba sisi wakenya tumeukataa ukabila na kilichobaki nikuinjenga nchi kwa misingi ya kidemokrasia na maendeleo kama majirani wetu wengine hapa Afrika Mashariki.

Lakushangaza nikuona kwamba wengi wao viongozi wanasiasa hawajali umoja wa taifa letu mbali haja yao ni kuchukua nguvu za dola – state power- hata kama njia wanazotumia na kupanga kuzitumia, sana sana, zitaleta vurugu nchini kote.

Ni mshangao kuona na kujua kwamba matamshi makali ya kuchochea ukabila yanaenezwa kupitia vyombo vya habari zenye kumilikiwa na tabaka la Matajiri wasioijali nchi hii na watu wake maskini ambao ni asilimia 99 ya nchi.

Kwangu magazeti ya Kenya haina tofauti kubwa na yale ya Rwanda, pindi tu kabla ya mauaji ya kihalaiki -genocide.

Kila siku magazeti karibu yote, huvuka mpaka kwa kuchochea chuki na mgawanyiko wa kikabila kupitia makala maalum, barua za wasomaji na hotuba za waeneza chuki ya kikabila. Haya yafanyika bila kufunga jicho kwa minajili ya kuwapigia debe wanasiasa wa makabila fulani ili kuuchukua uongozi wa nchi kijanja na kuwateka nyara maskini mara ya tatu.

Hawa ni baina ya wale ambao kwao ni lazima kuunyakua oungozi sasa kwasababu hawana mda wamezeeka na ikiwa hawapati uongozi sasa uzee utawazidi na kuwa wakongwe akilini mwao. Miaka yao duniani imeanza kupiga taa nyekundu.

Ilikujisikia na kuonyesha kila maskini kwamba wao wanaume kabisa kabla ya kuuacha ulimwengu lazima ndoto zao za kuwa marais, mawaziri na wabunge zitimie bila kujali kama baada ya vurugu mwishowe watakuwepo wananchi wanyonge wakuwasifu na kuwaomba misaada ya CDF na marupurupu ya Kericho(6000). Wamezoea kuabudiwa na maskini hoi.

Nchini Kenya matajiri wezi wenye nguvu, wamejifanya kama kwamba wao ni mungu wa maskini. Maskini wengi wakubali kwamba tajiri akichafua hewa, hewa hiyo mbaya bado nitamu kwa maskini. Huu ni utumwa wa akili! Hewa chafu ni hewa chafu! Haijalishi katokea kwanani binadamu!

Bila aibu tabaka tawala linalindana,  kama tulivyoona viongozi wa Narc wakilinda ufisadi wakupindukia uliofanyika nyakati za utawala wa Kanu na unaoendelezwa sasa na baadhi ya wanasiasa wa Narc Kenya. Ukweli wa mambo ni kama kwamba Kanu bado yakalia ikulu!

Nchi yetu imetoka mstarini wa nchi zenye amani duniani na inakoelekea ni kutumbukia baharini yenye mamba. Tendo hilo litazua uchungu mwingi usio kifani kwa maskini.

Wengine wetu maskini walioonewa twasikika tukisema kwamba Mungu hatakubali mauaji kama ya Rwanda – genocide- yatokee Kenya. Sijui kama wewe mmoja wetu.

Matamshi hayo twayatamka, na wakati huo huo maneno hayajatoka kinywani, polisi waua vijana wetu zaidi ya 100. Wengi wao kisiri, kwa mda wa wiki mbili na kudai ati hawa ni wachukiwa wa Mungiki.

Nchini Rwanda majeshi ya Habyarimana mwaka wa 1994 iliwaita wachukiwa wa RPA/RPF ‘Mende au miti mirefu’! Radio na magazeti ziliwahimiza wahutu kuwapondaponda Mende (watusi) na kuikata miti mirefu (watusi).

Humu Kenya, Waziri Michuku asema watu wajitayarishe na mazishi ya kila siku nakuapa kuwamaliza wachukiwa wa Mungiki na wengineo.

Kila wiki, polisi wa Nairobi zaidi ya elfu 4 washindana nani kaua wachukiwa wengi ili wapewe madaraka. Kule Rwanda askari waliahidiwa mashamba na mali ya watusi. Kenya pia makabila fulani yaahidiwa kumiliki mashamba ya babu zao baada ya Kibaki. Wanasiasa wapigia debe serekali ya majimbo wamesikika wakiapa kwamba wakiitawala nchi mwaka ujao hayo mashamba hata yawe madogo aje, yatanyakuliwa kule Rift Valley na Pwani toka mikononi mwa kabila koloni na fisadi na kupewa makabila miliki yaliyo kalia mashamba hayo kabla ya muzungu kuikoloni Kenya. Ukabila na chuki kiasi hiki ni dhibitisho la ukosefu wa utu baina ya wanasiasa wakatili.

Upande mwingine Serekali ya polisi ili kuonyesha nguvu yaamuru hata mazishi ya wachukiwa wa Mungiki yafanywe bila maombi. Kama ilivyofanyika Rwanda, humu Kenya pia jamii na marafiki wa waliouwawa na polisi sasa hawana haki ya kuwaombea kaka na wazazi wao ili mola aziweke roho zao mahali pema kutungojea sisi - twaja muda si muda!

Jamani, serekali hii usisahau inadai kuna uhuru wakuabudu, kutembelea na kuishi popote utakapo nchini! Uhuru huo umetwaliwa na polisi na baadhi ya wanasiasa wasio ruhusu wenzao kufanya mikutano sehemu fulani za upinzani nchini ikiwemo Nairobi.

Ni wazi kwamba maiti zingine hufichwa na polisi hazipatikani hata baada ya kuzibeba kwa magari ya siri ya polisi. Kusema ukweli polisi wana waua vijana wetu baada ya kuwakamata na kuwachukua vichakani na kuwapiga risasi nyingi. Kwa serekali hii Mungiki lazima wafe wote.

Si ajabu kabla ya uchaguzi ujao vijana wa kikuyu watamalizwa ikiwa umoja wa mataifa hautachukua hatua ya kuiadhibu serekali na kumshitaki Michuki kotini la dunia!

Lakini, ole wangu, wanaokaa kwenye umoja wa mataifa ndio hao hao wanaomsifu waziri Michuki akiwaua Mingiki na kumkashifu akizivamia nyumba za magazeti! Hawa pia ndio wale wale mwishowe watarudi nyuma na kumwita Waziri Michuki katili asiyestahili kuwa waziri. Hao dio walimyima Hon Murungaru Kibali cha kutembelea Ulaya. Kwasababu yakibiashara.

Ajabu kubwa ni kwa waumini wote maskini. Bado Mungu yuko tu na haya yatendeka! Huenda maobi yetu hayafiki popote? Mungu wa maskini yupi? Wamatajiri fisadi nani? Bila vitendo kuhakikisha mambo yaenda sawa inavyohitajika ili kuishi maisha ya kibinadamu na yenye haki sawa, maombi hayafai.

Mambo yameenda mrama! Maombi pia yafanywa kikabila na kisiasa Kenya. Na pesa je kwa mhubiri kama wewe wataka Mungu akubariki uwe kiongozi aliyemchagua Mungu? Wahubiri je kwanini wasiwe marais na wabunge?

Si mola amewabariki kwa hali na mali watumishi wake hapa duniani, mbona wasiwe wenye mamlaka juu ya wafuasi wao nchini pia? Si Mungu aliwateua kuwatumikia watu wake? Kwanini wahubiri wawe na mali bila nguvu za dola? Wajiuliza wao.

Mbona sasa mambo tofauti? Si Uhai wa mtu moja ni sawa na ule wa kila mtu yeyote yule? Uhai wa muchukiwa wa Mungiki si ni sawa na ule wamakundi kama Taliban, Sungu sungu na wezi wa mali ya uma kama wale wa Angloleasing, Goldenberg na wezi wanyakuzi wa mashamba makubwa?

Hao wezi matajiri sio tishio la usalama wa nchi? Naomba kujua usalama wanani huharibiwa na maskini? Sio usalama wa tajiri?

Uhai ni uhai na haustahili kuadhiriwa na polisi au mtu mwingine yeyote yule bila hukumu ya haki na ya kisheria kutolewa na mahakama kuu ya nchi.

Wafu hawasemi yaliyotendeka kabla ya kuuawa! Polisi pekee na wauaji wengine hubaki wenye neno ambalo halina wakulikanusha. Polisi wamekua majaji na wawekaji kamba shingoni mwa wachukiwa.

Haileweki hawa wachukiwa huwa wachukiwa na nani mwingine isipokuwa polisi? Ilikudhibitisha mtu ni mchukiwa kawaida yeye hukamatwa na kuhojiwa pakiwa na paredi ya kutambua nani mhusika wa jambo lililotokea. Afisa wa Polisi hawezi akawa yeye ndiye pekee atakaye mtambua mhalifu bila kuwepo na mshahidi wa nje.

Paredi haifanywi kwa wachukiwa wa Mungiki! Tayari huwa wafu!

Waziri Michuki hana haki ya kuwaamru polisi kuwaua wakenya ovyo wengi wao bila hatia, na wenye hatia bila kupewa nafasi ya kujibu mashtaka wanayofanyiwa na dola! Wezi wahali yajuu ndio pia viongozi na pia ndio hutoa amri kuwaua wachukiwa wadogo.

Ni unafki mwingi kuwasikia wanzungu toka ulaya na Marekani wakiwasifu polisi Kenya ati wanafanya nzuri kuwaua Mungiki na wachukiwa wengine bila kuwafikisha mahakamani!

Kwa vyovyote vile hakuna nchi ulaya itakubali polisi wawe wakiwaua wananchi wake ovyo kama wanyama. Lakini mauaji ya wachukiwa yakifanyika Kenya pongezi zatolewa na wamerika na wazungi wa jumuiya ya ulaya.

Mpaka lini wakenya maskini tulale fofo nakupoteza haki zetu ya kuishi bila kuuawa na polisi na wahalifu? Je, wanasiasa wengi wamenyamaza kwa vile sio kabila lao lamatajiri linapigwa risasi usiku na mchana?

Asilimia 99 ya shinda za nchi yetu zilianzilishwa na wanasiasa ambao kunyakua nguvu za dola ndilo lengo lao. Nguvu za dola kwao ni njia pana ya kupora mali ya uma na kufanya wananchi walio wengi wawe kama watumwa nchini mwao. Wakenya wenzangu shida haijui ukabila na imo kwetu jamii nzima ya wakenya maskini popote tulipo. Nchi hii matajiri na wanasiasa wakiuasha moto kwa kuchochea chuki za kikabila utawachoma wao pia.

Kuendelea kuwaunga mkono na kuwaweka madarakani mabweyenye wafisadi, wenye kueneza uchochezi wa kikabila, ni kama tunajiuliza sisi wenyewe kuzisema sala zetu za mwisho! Wengine baina ya wanaotaka urais nchi hii hawalijui lingine ila kuipora nchi uchi bila kujali aishie wapi maskini. Uwakapo moto wa chuki za kikabila Kenya hawa wataondoka pamoja na familia zao kuishi kwingine nje ya nchi. Watarudi kuwatawala na kuwalalia kama kawaida wale wananchi wanyonge watakaobahatika kukiepuka kifo halaiki!

Kabila letu ni la Maskini! Nikabila la Kibera, Korogocho, Lodwar, Muhuroni, Mandera, wajir, Tana River, mpeketoni, Kamirithu, Manjego Mombasa, Voi, Wundanyi, Kano, Kuria, Kahumbini, Kosovo,Bondo, Kaspul, Kitui, Marlal, Kapenguria,Kajiado, Tigania, Othaya, Kinangop, Giakorino Naivasha, DCK Naivasha, Molo, Olenguruone, Koru, Elgon, Busia, Mathare, Kwamurogi Nakuru, Kiamaiko Nairobi, Thika, Gatundu, Misri Limuru na hapo ulipo au alipo nduguyo maskini!.

Kwa malipo duni, sisi ndio wenye kuzifanya kazi za kuvunja mgongo mashambani ya kahawa, chai, makonge, miwa, mashambani ya maua na chakula. Ni sisi wenye kuzifuga kuku, ngombe na mbuzi wenye nyama tamu.

Sisi ndio wenye kubeba mawe na kakoto kwenye majengo makubwa na manyumba manene ya matajiri. Ni sisi tulinjenga Nyayo House na tukaijenga Ikulu inayoshidaniwa.Tulijenga Jela ya Kamiti, Langata, Kondele na zinginezo.

Ni sisi wenye kuzinjenga barabara zinazopitiwa na magari mazuri ya matajiri. Ni sisi madereva wao. Ni sisi wenye kuzinjenga kuta ndefu zizungukazo makaazi ya matajiri. Mbwa wao wanene na wakali twawapa chakula. Twawaandalia chakula matajiri hotelini na nyumbani mwao huku tukiwalea watoto wao wachanga wanaotupenda nakutuona marafiki. Ni sisi walimu wao wakwanza. Nyumbani waishimo matajiri twaamka mapema na kulala usiku wamanane wakisha lala matajiri wetu. Usiku na mchama twayalinda makazi yao matajiri.

Ni watoto wetu wenye kuajiriwa kazi kama za polisi wanaotuua. Ni sisi tunoatoa kodi kubwa kila siku tununuapo sukari, unga, mafuta taa, dawa na nguo ili kuwapa mishahara na marupurupu polisi, marais, mawawaziri, wabunge na viongozi wote. Kodi twailipia ili waishi maisha mazuri wakati wanatutumikia. Na baada ya kustafu, wasipate shida ya matumizi na raha. Yote haya twatimiza na isitoshe viongozi wasema sisi wazembe na hatutaki kufanya kazi twataka zabure!

Yaani sisi wanjenga nchi twadharauliwa. Ajabu ni sisi wenye kupiga kura kuwapa uwezo wanansiasa kutupora na kutudharau. Yote haya hayawezekani bila sisi kushiriki. Ajabu ni kwamba baada ya kazi zote ngumu sisi twabaki maskini walalahoi. Nambari yetu walalahoi ni zaidi ya milioni 27!

Kwa mfano kabila nyanyasa zaidi linamakao kama yale ya Muthaiga, Harligham, Milimani,Langata,Yahya center na kwingineko kama Widsor Lavington na penginepo unapajua hata wewe. Hawa na familia zao wanamiliki kila aina ya biashara kubwa, majengo manene, mashamba makubwa na nguvu za dola.

Watoto wao ni wakubwa jeshini, wizarani na mabalozini. Watoto wao ni wenye kuzisimamia biashara zao kubwa na ndogo. Baada ya vifo za wazazi wao, hawa kawaida hushindania kumiliki nafasi walioacha wazazi wao. Wingine wao sasa hivi wataka kuwa marais ati kwasababu baba zao walishakua marais, mamakamu wa rais, mawaziri, wabunge na matajiri.

Kwakifupi, nikama kwamba maskini kenya hazai kiongozi! Maskini hawana kiwanda cha kisasa cha kuwazaa viongozi! Miaka 43 tangu uhuru upatikane mitambo ya kiwanda chao maskini cha juakali huzalisha tu watumwa wakuwafanyia kazi matajiri fisadi na viongozi walafi.

Kabila hili ni Kabila ndogo fisadi la Matajiri! Mawaziri wengi na baadhi ya wabunge wa mbunge la sasa wamo kwenye kundi hili. Moi pamoja na mafisadi waliokuwa serekalini yake wote pia wako kwenye kundi hili la kabila la Matajiri fisadi.

Pale waishipo matajiri hamna Mungiki, hamna Taliban, hamna sungu sungu au kundi jipya linalo beba Nyundo machoni mwa polisi. Kama abebavyo kisu na rungu Maasai bila kuchukiwa kuwa na nia au mpango wakufanya uhalifu akitumia hizo visu na rungu, kundi la kubeba nyundo halipigwi risasi kwa kubeba silaha hatari. Haki si kwa wote.

Wachukiwa wahalifu au maskuota hawapo waishimo hawa matajiri. Bila shaka kwao matajiri Kenya ni nchi nzuri yenye amani na maendeleo makubwa. Wasema hawa; wale wasio na macho na wazembe ndio hawayaoni maendeleo makubwa yaliyofanyika tangu uhuru upatikane, na hasa tangu Moi aondoke ikulu.

Tusiziseme sala zetu za mwisho! Waziseme wao mafisadi wakati maskini atakapochukua uongozi!

Kuna njia. Maskini wataepuka njanga la umaskini na kuuliwa uvyo na polisi wakitambua kwamba nijukumu lao wenyewe kujitafutia usalama wakudumu kupitia uchaguzi ujao kwa kuwachagua maskini wenzao uongozini wa nchi!

Diposa kikaundwa chama cha mwananchi – ccm, ili kiwe ngazi ya maskini ya kupaa kwenye uongozi wa nchi. CCM ni mbwa wa maskini kwenda mawindoni ya utawala, kwa niamba yao wenyewe na watoto wao.

NJooni tushirikiane ili tuepuke yajayo maovu. Tumeamua Kuishi!

Toa maoni yako kwa mwandishi wa barua hii.

Katibu mkuu wa CCM 

dickkamau@gmail.com

STOP PLAYING DIRTY SAYS PRESIDENT KIBAKI

NEWS

Kibaki urges peace in campaigns Story by NATION Team Publication Date: 12/10/2007

President Kibaki has asked parliamentary and civic candidates to stop playing dirty and instead promote peace and unity during campaigns. The President also expressed confidence in winning the elections, promising to fulfil all  electoral pledges he had made.  He also appealed to Kenyans to shun violence, with 18 days to go to the December 27 General Election. Avoid mudslinging Candidates should conduct their campaigns with maturity and avoid mudslinging, to guard against creating animosity among the people, said the Head of State. “I don’t see why people should incite others into violence during this time,” he said moments after attending a church service at the House of Grace church in Lang’ata, Nairobi.  This is the second time that the President is visiting the area in as many days.  And he warned Kenyans against promoting hatred, saying it would plunge the country into chaos.  Kuresoi and Mt Elgon areas in the Rift Valley province have been the hardest hit with by the violence. In Kuresoi, at least 16 people have been killed. President Kibaki appealed to religious leaders to take a leading role in preaching against violence in the country.  Elsewhere, affiliate parties in the Party of National Unity (PNU) from three Central Province constituencies held a joint rally at the weekend to drum up support for President Kibaki’s re-election. However, only 16 candidates out of 40 attended the rally meant unite them and consolidate their support for President Kibaki.    Speaking at Ihura stadium in Murang’a North, Constitutional Affairs assistant minister Danson Mungatana trashed promises given to Kenyans by ODM presidential candidate Raila Odinga.  Mr Mungatana said President Kibaki would win the December 27 elections by more than 68 per cent of votes cast if all registered voters turned up on polling day.  He dismissed the recent opinion polls saying they did not reflect the true picture.  Separately, PNU Sunday pledged to turn around jua kali (informal) into a vibrant sector. In a statement, the PNU secretariat said that President Kibaki’s Government has committed itself to making the sector into “incubators of micro-enterprises and in time graduate to bigger business”.  Million stalls PNU Deputy Press Secretary Dismas Mokua said the party would roll out the Million Stalls and Sheds Programme by building hawkers’ markets, jua kali parks and small business parks in every city, town and municipality.  “We want to help transform the jua kali sector into a vibrant small business sector, and we have the policies to do this,” he added. “A PNU Government will strengthen the Youth Enterprise Fund to Sh5 billion, giving our youth even more funds to develop their businesses,” said Mr Mokua. Reported by Dave Opiyo, Waikwa Maina and Sam Kiplagat

Three-piece voting not the way to go

LETTERS

Three-piece voting not the way to go Publication Date: 12/10/2007

The appeal by Mr Maina Kiai, the chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, against the three-piece voting system, was timely. Time has come for the electorate to realise that the problems that dog this country are as a result of the failure in leadership. The capacity to challenge and set a personal example, which are the hallmarks of true leadership, are badly lacking. With the Ninth Parliament, our politicians manifested vicious, incompetent and corrupt tendencies. With the General Election on December 27, time has come for us to take a hard and sentimental look at the crucial question of leadership and power.  We need to bear in our mind that we shall never experience real progress without proper leadership.  We get the leadership that we deserve and with our vote, power is in our hands to shape our destiny. Let us elect leaders who have passed the test of leadership. MUKUHA MUCHERE, Runyenjes, Embu.

THOUSANDS OF KENYANS ABROAD, are a working class living in bad neighbourhoods.

COMMENTARY Are the stars in the eyes of Kenyans abroad waning Story by RASNA WARAH Publication Date: 12/10/2007 ON A FLIGHT BACK FROM London last week, I found myself surrounded by Kenya’s newest tribe, variously known as The Kenyan Diaspora, Kenyans In The Diaspora, or simply The Diaspora. Most were young, with spouses and small children with British accents in tow.  You could tell they were first generation immigrants by the look of hunger and accomplishment etched on their faces. (You know, the one that says “I made it, but I need to make more.”)  Most carried huge suitcases, no doubt filled with presents for people “back home” as they call it. The expressions on their faces suggested they were happy to leave the bitter cold winter of Britain and their even colder hosts, even if it was just for a few days.  Kenyans expect a lot from their Diaspora. One, we expect them to send regular remittances to the motherland. Two, we expect them to acquire foreign nationalities so that they can become eligible to sponsor relatives who want to join them.  Three, we expect them to lead the finest of lives, with posh cars, big houses and the latest gadgets. And last, but not least, we do not expect them to come back home for good.  And the Diaspora has not disappointed. It is estimated that Kenyans living abroad remit approximately $600 million to Kenya each year.  According to a recent Africa Recruit Survey, remittances are mainly used to support and subsidise family members left behind, to invest in property or businesses, or to build a retirement home. The financial clout of members of this group is so significant that every aspiring presidential candidate has attempted to woo them.  Unlike many other immigrant communities who forget their countries of origin as soon as they arrive on foreign soil, Kenyans in the Diaspora do everything they can not to forget where they came from. I am told nyama choma (roast meat) and Tusker parties are held regularly in Diaspora strongholds such as Atlanta and Boston. In Britain, Kikuyu is becoming as commonplace as Cockney. Apparently, you can take the Kenyan out of Kenya but you can’t take Kenya out of the Kenyan. It is not clear how many acquire foreign passports or how many come back once they leave. We also don’t hear much about those who fell by the wayside or failed in their careers. Do some of them become “one of the hundreds of Africans who come to America with stars in their eyes which get progressively dimmer in the years and years of scrubbing toilets and washing dishes”, as the US-based Andia Kisia, Kenya’s unsung literary heroine, put it? DO OTHERS NEVER COME BACK home because they are too embarrassed to admit to their families that they have, in fact, not made it, and are leading working class lives in bad neighbourhoods?  Life in Britain or the United States is not as easy as we would like to believe, and has become even harder for people of colour since 9/11. In societies that are extremely colour-conscious, the arrival of a black- or brown-skinned person in the workplace or in the neighbourhood is not exactly welcomed. Even those who manage to cross the colour line and make it as successful professionals are constantly reminded in subtle and not-so-subtle ways of what they are not – white.  Because these societies tend to be individualistic, capitalistic and consumeristic, Kenyans living abroad find their lives revolving around work, with little time for social or cultural activities. Kenyans living in London, for instance, will hardly ever visit the world-famous West End to see a musical or visit family or friends on weekends.  To keep up the appearance of a good life, most are heavily in debt, paying off car loans and mortgages that they can barely afford. Many lead lonely, empty lives. But few will get onto the next plane to come home because the hopes of an entire village or an extended family are pinned on them. Many Kenyans also dread coming home because their relatives here expect them to distribute wads of bank-notes to them upon arrival. Many Kenyans are not aware of the high cost of living in Western countries and don’t realise that some of our brothers and sisters out there skip a meal or do two or three jobs just to get by. As a result, many suffer from depression or from a permanent state of apathy. But as their numbers grow, and as more become aware of the fact that the quality of one’s life is more important than the amount of wealth one can accumulate, I will not be surprised if many Kenyans in the Diaspora plan to come back home for good. Unfortunately, many may realise that once you leave home, you can never really come back home again. Ms. Warah is currently an editor with the UN. The views expressed here are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. Write to the author

UK, KEEP OFF KENYA AFFAIRS, SAYS KARUA

Keep off Kenyan affairs, Karua tells Britain

Published on December 10, 2007, 12:00 am

By Munene Kamau

Justice minister Martha Karua has told the British House of Lords to keep off Kenya’s internal affairs.

She told the Lords to concentrate on what she described as the UK’s own “grand corruption scandals and other rot”.

Karua said the British government should treat Kenya as a sovereign state capable of managing its own affairs.

“They are our friends but we want to remind them we are not their colony nor do we depend on them for survival,” Karua said.

She said it was ironical that the House of Lords could take time to debate Kenya while ignoring those that relate to Britain.

Addressing a rally at Ithareini market in Gichugu constituency on Sunday, the minister told the British to debate the corruption scandals in their own country relating to arms deals in various countries.

The minister was reacting to last week’s criticism of the Government by Britain’s House of Lords on how it was handling corruption.

The House spent one hour last week to debate Kenyan issues, including the infamous Anglo Leasing and the Goldenberg scandals.

But in a scathing response, Karua said the House of Lords “has better things to debate, including corruption within their Government and other rots” instead of discussing Kenyan affairs.

The former Gichugu legislator said the fight against corruption in Kenya could not be judged on the number of cases in court or the number of people in jail for corruption related offences.

“You must look at issues holistically before passing judgment on the performance of our government in its war against corruption,” the minister said.

She said President Kibaki’s opponents busy criticising the Government over corruption were themselves suspects of the same vice.

“Just have a look at the front line up of our key competitors and what you see is a parade of suspects with court cases or those with investigations going on. What moral authority do they have to point fingers at others or lecture Kenyans on anti-corruption and good governance?” she asked.

She said President Kibaki, unlike his opponents, had no corruption link and was thus the only candidate capable of eradicating corruption.

Karua asked Kenyans to judge Kibaki by his development record.

A No-Go Zone for Campaigners

Kenya: A No-Go Zone for Campaigners

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The Nation (Nairobi)

9 December 2007
Posted to the web 9 December 2007

Bernard Kwalia And Luke Kapchanga
Nairobi

Three people, including an expectant woman, were shot dead in the troubled Mt Elgon District on Friday by people believed to be members of the newly formed Moorland Forces (MF). The three were killed at the controversial Chebyuk Settlement Scheme in Cheptoror village of Kopsiro Division.

More that 10 people armed with guns invaded the village at 1 p.m. and killed Masai Simotwo, 33, her mother Trophinah Simotwo, 61, and Judith Naliaka, 32, who were harvesting maize in their farm.The incident heightened tension between two clans fighting over the scheme. The area police boss Mr Clement Gatogo confirmed the deaths.

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Whereas other candidates criss-cross their constituencies in search of votes ahead of the December 27 polling day, those of Mt Elgon enjoy no such thing. Clashes have raged over the past one year, killing over 200 people and prompting the State to restrict movements in the area to between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. The government has also banned political rallies in the constituency, slowing down campaigns. The curfew was imposed in August to curb night killings. The clashes have displaced more than 60,000 residents who have sought refuge in neighbouring districts while others have crossed to Uganda.

Many primary and secondary schools were closed for the whole year. There are fears that almost half of the 57,578 registered voters have moved out of the constituency, which means voter turnout will be very low. Recently, eight parliamentary candidates held a meeting with the District Commissioner, Mr Muhamed Biriki, and asked to be accorded security. Currently, only outgoing MP Mr John Serut appears to be campaigning freely since, as an assistant minister, he is accorded security by the government. The Planning assistant minister, who is seeking re-election through PNU, is usually heavily guarded.

Mr Harry Kimutai of ODM Kenya says the curfew should be lifted to enable the candidates campaign freely. At one time he expressed fear for his life after receiving threatening text messages.

Kanu candidate Mr Henry Ndiema says the curfew has not served any purpose as it has not curbed violence. Mr Ndiema said the security operation conducted by more than 600 police officers, which began almost a year ago, has been targeted at innocent people.

A Kaddu candidate, Mr Sammy Chemwey, early last month had his house burnt down by arsonists. Mr Chemwey accused some of his opponents of being behind the arson attack to intimidate him.

“What legacy are we going to leave for our children and the community?” he asked. Campaign meetings for the constituency are now held in hotels in Kitale, Kimilili, Bungoma and Webuye towns.

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Mr Fred Kapondi, the ODM candidate who is in remand and is billed as a favourite, is said to be pulling strings from behind bars. His campaign team is intact and many youths in the area are behind him. Mr Peter Mudoko, a resident of Kopsiro, expressed concern that lack of transport would keep away potential voters. People who fled the area, he noted, feared going back — even on polling day — due to insecurity. Mr Mudoko also said some people had lost both the identity and voter’s cards as they fled the area. Others were destroyed when houses were set on fire. He proposed that mobile polling centres be set up to give a chance to those displaced to take part in the elections.

Political leaders accuse the security personnel of fanning the violence. Most of the aspirants accuse the government of lack of seriousness in seeking a solution to the insecurity. On the other hand, some of those seeking to unseat Mr Serut accuse police of harassing and intimidating people from areas where opponents enjoy support.

The harassment is allegedly a scheme to force supporters of the opponents to flee and fail to vote. But Mr Serut dismissed the claims. He recently told his opponents that armed criminals in the area would be flushed out of their hideouts. It is believed the militiamen behind killings in the area disappear into forests during the day and return at night. The cat-and-mouse games between police and the militiamen have raised fear that has driven the residents into hiding.

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SUCH LEADERS ARE A DANGER TO STABILITY

Discovering the mind of Somali dictator through his own words  

By Abdulkadir Mohamed
Saturday, December 01, 2007

 

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented” – Elie Wiesel, novelist, political activist, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor.

 

Following is an attempt to literally, though very difficult, translate of a very un-presidential, undiplomatic, chaotic, blatant and controversial speech  that the warlord-turned-president of the Transitional Federal government of Somalia, Abdullahi Yusuf(TFG, which the Guardian  Editorials called neither transitional, nor federal, nor government) delivered on November 20, 2007 to conclude a long seminar held for some officials in the ministry of planning in the provincial town of Baidao, the temporary seat of the Transitional Federal Parliament of Somalia.

 

It is a very controversial speech that is already creating uproar and a lot of discussion among Somalis everywhere. It is full of paradoxical proclamations. It has compulsion, rebuttals and nastiness. The sinister speech is full of incitement, hate-mongering and name calling. It contains some wicked schemes and outlandish instructions to his meek subordinates and warlord cohorts. It has mutinous and discharging pitch that is hard to make sense of.

 

To some, this speech maybe a shocker but many Somalis know this dreadful drivel is warlord Yusuf’s unadulterated signature speech. He is not known to be eloquent talker. Instead, he is known to be remorseless straight shooter, a clownish jester, full of scoffs, ridicule and ungainly tirade. The goading style and derisive tone of the speech bears witness to the dictatorial proclivity of Colonel Yusuf. After all, he is a callous warlord and military maniac who has been fighting some 30 years to one day become the ultimate ruler of Somalia .

 

Can this speech tolerated, ignored and played down as sign of the desperation and ineffectiveness of the transitional government? Or is it opportune now to expose its evilness before it is too late?

 

The appalling speech is alarming because of the hate-mongering and the war incitement it decrees. Many are worried of warlord yusuf’s wicked plot to usurp power through “cleansing and genocidal” means. He wants to take economic, political and social power, from the hands of what he calls (Wadaadadda) or religious establishment, from the hands of the civil society and private citizens in Somalia who have been struggling to rebuild Somalia and pacify it despite of the many hurdles they had to overcome such as the same warlord-ism and banditry Yusuf and his clique present.

 

There are many people who believe the sinister speech is Meles Zenawi’s evil prescription of how to keep Somalia weak and under his control and the Somali warlord president is just reiterating that wicked strategy. Yusuf and many in the Somali warlord government are dutiful puppets of Ethiopia and will do Addis Ababa bidding without any hesitations.

 

The warlord-turned-president wants all to be under his control: schools and universities, clinics and hospitals, mosques and markets. The Ethiopian occupiers are making easy for him and other Somali puppets to get their evil wishes by destroying many of these social infrastructures by killing, arresting, torturing and expelling many of the brave Somali teachers and doctors who decided to remain in Somalia to help their people. Thanks to all of that Ethiopian repression and destruction in Mogadishu , Yusuf and his warlord buddies can now wickedly hallucinate how to dominate all of these social services.

 

Another disturbing aspect of the speech is the president’s passionate contempt for the United Nations and the International Community. His ingratitude and defiance is beyond belief. Either his deteriorating senility or his feral despotism is blinding him of the maxim” don’t bite the hand that feeds you”. Warlord Yusuf fails to appreciate that it’s the International community, United Nations and the United States that are legitimizing his warlord government and decriminalizing such criminal entity to deathly detriment of the Somalia people. The man goes berserk and gets so incensed every time the UN staff or world diplomats in Nairobi talk to him about humanitarian relief, human rights issues, and freedom of the press. Democracy, free press and human rights are not in the warlord dictionary. These are alien concept to them. Can a leopard ever change his spots? To the eyes of many Somalis, Yusuf is a dictator, a warlord, and above all a very vengeful clannish hatemonger.

 

The United Nations humanitarian and relief agencies’ main concern and priority are to reach the millions of displaced people who are suffering because of the unremitting war, violence, famine, hunger and diseases that are going on in Somalia thanks to the Ethiopian occupation. Food and relief is non-issue for the warlord president unless it is not his warlord enterprise that is responsible for its rationing and delivery. Food is security and powerful tool to conquer and rule over the starving and poor people in Somalia .

 

This is a man who is the leader of nation full of turmoil and tragedy where millions of his people are dying of starvation and are being massacred and displaced. So instead of working with and being grateful to those who are trying to help and save his people, he is taunting them, verbally abusing them, calling them names and vowing to obstruct all their relief efforts. What a travesty! The warlord president is not even bit worried of the Internally Displaced millions suffering in Afgoye and Mogadishu outskirts. They are not his people and he never mentions them. According to him, they are insurgents and terrorists who must be wiped out and cleansed of Mogadishu . Anyone who comes to their support is part of the insurgency or terrorist sympathizers and that is why he is equating UN relief agencies with “insurgents”.

 

The warlord president assures his cohorts that a cleansing operation to displace millions more and destroy the capital is underway. He envisions the day his warlord enterprise would spread the carnage and misery to all over the county thanks to the Ethiopian tanks and probably US bankrolling and tacit support.

Mass murder, mass displacement and war crimes are being committed in the name of combating terrorism, while in reality it is poor innocent and starving Somali mothers, children, elderly women and men, who are being terrorized and became the target of indiscriminate bombardments of the occupying troops of Ethiopia and the undisciplined warlord militias. More than one million residents of Mogadishu are internally displaced people and are now refugees living in makeshift settlements in miserable conditions. Children are starving and dying because of lack of food and drinking water. There is no relief or help to save these people as the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) led by sadistic warlords have setup many illegal roadblocks to prevent relief to reach the displaced and now swearing to obstruct United Nations and World Food Program

The United Nations declared the humanitarian tragedy in Somalia to be the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa, surpassing even that of Darfur in its horror and hopelessness . Somalis in the Diaspora who keep in touch with their families and relatives in Somalia are continuously receiving very distressing and precarious news, especially from Mogadishu , the Capital. The warlords and the Ethiopian occupiers are stepping up their “cleansing” military operations. And now the warlord enterprise and the Ethiopian hegemony are scheming to do whatever it takes to shut down the money wiring services and telecommunication companies that are still functioning in chaotic Somalia . Why? It is because of the Money wiring services (Hawala) that the Somalis in the Diaspora send money to their families and relatives still in Somalia . It is the telephone companies the Somalis keep in touch with their families.

The root causes of this suffering are many but the US administration; because of its shortsighted foreign policies has direct contribution to some of the immediate causes of this humanitarian crisis.  Callous Somali warlords are bilking on the blind support and indifference of the so-called “civilized” western world. The world watched as millions of Tutsi-Rwandans were massacred by butchery inspired by hatemongering warlords. The same can be said of Somali hatemongering warlords such as the deputy defence minister of the TFG, Salad Ali Jeelle , the Mogadishu mayor, warlord Mohamed dheere , and the president-turned warlord of Somalia, who all boldly went public with their genocidal ethnic cleansing and warmongering campaigns. These men belong to the International Criminal Courts and have to be persecuted. Their militias and the occupying Ethiopian troops are committing war crimes tantamount to “ethnic cleansing” and genocide. If ethnic cleansing is the killing of non-combatants, the rape of women, the forcible displacement of civilians, the destruction and removal of all civilian infrastructures such as schools, hospitals and houses of worships in order to expel segments of the population for the purpose of hastening military surrender , then the tragic humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia now definitely qualifies as one.

I thought to share with you the sinister speech of Somali warlord and to translate it from Somali to English despite my limited authority of the linguistic provincial vernacular of Yusuf. This is my take on it. It is a warning. I want those in the US administration who support this warlord and others (who are probably complicit of crimes against humanity) to at least get a glimpse of the mind of monster, a Somali mini-Hitler whose only promise is doom and destruction.

 

Here is the speech.

 

I am very  happy to take part this morning this ceremony to close the services you doing in Baidao for 40 days but as I have been told by the minister that it could probably take you to (another) 50 days (to finish). When the permanent secretaries were being brought from Mogadishu to here in Baidao, I was present in Mogadishu, so, if you were here before me, you stayed here for long, because I came to Baidao on October 8th, if I am not wrong, October 8th, and today the date is November 20th, So I was here for 40 days and more and you came here before me. I don’t count how many days you were here before me, you were here before me right? 40, 50, or 60 days, put it that way, you were here and you worked, you are tired, and what you did earlier, you didn’t present to us, so I can’t comment on that. If you had given us some copies (in advance), (we) would have read and would have studied (the copies), I would have said … improve it here or there. I am commending you of this beautiful book laying here but only god knows what is (written) inside. Whatever it is, if after three years we still lagging behind, and god knows what situation we were in … that now we labored a book (like a pregnant woman), first of all, it is all praises are due to god.

 

But, as I think, the book is papers, people’s ideas are written and if the ideas of the people are written in a book and the people who own these ideas are not working on them, then responsible people are needed to implement these (ideas). The writing of the planning (is easy), as I think, the harder and more important is how to implement these (ideas).

 

To implement these (ideas in the book), first of all, if you expect the United Nations and International Community and other people will help us, I don’t have such expectations, if I speak to you truthfully, I don’t believe that others would do what we don’t do.

 

Past days I traveled to Nairobi;  The other day…you know, Baidao, in the parliament, came those who call themselves the International Community, what happened there (in the parliament) and what the parliament did, those of us present, we all know. But I don’t know if the permanent secretaries were present or not. Boo are said to each other if you are protesting in a parliament. Boo! Boo were said to the men (of the International Community)…that is if you were aware.  And these two gentlemen sitting in my sides …have skinned them out (disparaged the International Community delegation in Nairobi) Because of the problems we have and god knows (how many)… they only came to us to talk to us about…the food that they say World Food Programme (WFP) delivers (to Somalia) …how it (the food) could be delivered to the (displaced) people. With all the problems we have! They talked to us that only issue! (Food delivery), did they talk to us about other issues? (Questioning) … (Their only concern was)…. Something must be done about the humanitarian assistance, so food could be delivered to (displaced) people … (their complaint was) … there are road blocks; a man  (WFP chief in Somalia) delivering (food) has been arrested (by the government) and this is it …(their complaint) a radio has been closed  and… it is like …they talked about these things (only). The problems we have, as insecurity ….they didn’t talk about it! The disintegration that happened to the Somali people, that the Courts (Islamic Courts Union) have a share of it, they didn’t talk about it!  Politics, they didn’t talk about it! The insecurity that exists (in Somalia) …they didn’t talk about it!…I mean the difficult program that are required from us during the transition that less than two years is left, how they could assist us with it…they didn’t talk about it!…how to pacify the country and later how to develop and re-construct and what you have ….and how to do these …they didn’t talk to us! Only they talked about the food of WFP!

 

In the 17 years the World Food Programme (WFP) was in Somalia , I don’t know where they delivered any food to. Never have I eaten any of their food. I swear to god, I have never seen where it (WFP food) distributed. Whatever they deliver to ( Somalia ) …  I don’t know what they are! First of all, what do they deliver? Do they bring sugar?  Do they bring rice? Do they bring dates?  Do they bring sorghum?  Do they bring maize?  Do they bring anything else? What do they bring then?  Who knows? Do they bring beans? …they bring maize!  Maize and cooking oil…there are different cooking oil types ….what kind do they deliver … White Cooking Oil … is it (the cooking oil) the one you cook food with?  It is not the one you add to food (as condiment).  They (International Community/UN/WFP delegation) talked to us about these (unimportant) things ….and they don’t talk about other things and they are not bringing anything else … they just sit in Nairobi !

 

If you want the truth, the past 17 years except the three years of this government (were in existence), these men (united Nation’s agencies, collectively) were the de-facto government and I am not lying. The three years we are claiming to be a government … the real (Somali) government that is seated in Nairobi … is them (UN). The government that they saying to recognize; that is this government (TFG), then they should recognize and deal with it and give their aid to (through the TFG) and thus (TFG) should deliver (aid) and they must move to Somalia (from Nairobi) and reside here (instead) and then should help us and they should help us for real …that is not clear to them.

 

Now if they would have sit with you (here), that book you have written, as I think…you wouldn’t have written! … That is if they were here …no! As I think. That day, I said in front of the parliament (to the UN) , I am not here to confuse you and I am an elderly man, and I am a responsible man, when we meet in a talks , I will tell you my thinking… something like that, I said to them.

 

When I went to Nairobi , for medical check-up, they came to my hotel as a horde, they were the same people but increased (in numbers), the same man is leading them, but they were joined by others. They brought with them other ambassadors from Europe and they just continued (their complaints) from there: there are road blocks in the streets!  we can’t deliver (food) to Afgoye!…we can’t deliver to Merka….and the road between Mogadishu and Baidao (forget it) …I swear to god…or .other places in Somalia…they never talked to me (about) …maybe that is the only places (Afgoye and Merka) they want to deliver food to and the rest of Somalia…they will not deliver to…isn’t that what it looks like?

 

I talked to them calmly and I said to them: Are you going to talk to me other than WFP food and they all got silent … and if you are not going to talk to me of other things …you have no interest (concern) for Somalia and when you are bringing these food, I know your interest… I swear to god , Somalis don’t eat the food you deliver and the poor people you talk about …(food) would not be delivered to them …instead the NGOs you administer and you, yourselves…the same WFP and those in their offices … who are Somalis … that you have positioned in the Somalia cities …because you refused to came( to Somalia) …those (Somalis) will line up truck loads (of food) and start their loud engines and then only one or two truckloads are delivered to the people …the rest would be taken back and then sold it in the Mogadishu market …that is what I said to them…or the Merka market…you have made (lot of ) money and that is what you eat(live on) …so don’t accuse (use) Somalis… you are excused! …that is what I said to them.

 

Thus, if you don’t do either of two (options) don’t expect us to work together… with the government. Do you recognize the TFG that exist (in power) Yes or No?  …contraband (food) that you are sneaking with and that no one knows when you bring in…and my ministries are not aware of, and the police and the army is not aware of it, Secret Security Forces are not aware of it …and that you are sneaking with and you doll it up and would be sold (in the markets)… what do we know? (Of such food)… that is what I said to them. Yes or No…we recognize (your government) and if you don’t make that a fact  … and you don’t directly work with it and you don’t distribute what (food) you are delivering through it … us something that is a contraband (we don’t want). Do you recognize the government …yes? Then there is no de-facto government residing in Nairobi no more! From now on …move to Somalia and reside in …let us work together in Somalia …the problem in Somalia is not food or what is causing the starvation. (It is) the lack of security… it is the unemployment …it is the suffering that is there ….come and work with us for real and if you refuse that and don’t do it …we don’t recognize you! …and you don’t recognize us …and the food… deliver it to wherever you may want! ….and if you want …sell (the food) in the market! …if you could deliver it to the poor …So it be! But we will not work with you! …why we should work with you? you don’t inform us when you are bringing the food …and where (what route) you will be taking to…or the place you will deliver to it …and what is your purpose (of food distribution) … we have no clue!

 

So this morning we are all here; if you believe the United Nations will implement plans with us …that is not the case.  And I am saying the government (of Ghedi) failed! …so as we build (form) another new government; let us not sign any deal with these men (UN). Didn’t I say that to you? This morning, in here; didn’t I make it clear?  You (addressing some parliamentarian or cabinet minister in the meeting) have prepared an agreement … (No says one man in the audience) … so isn’t it the previous one? … (Not even) One agreement we wouldn’t enter (with the UN) on the condition they recognize this government and move to Somalia !

 

One thing I know I have worked in Puntland for so many years and became its head…Puntland is not like this agricultural land. In this farming land, whenever the rains start, and the farmers want to farm …they (UN) bring the food so that (farmers) don’t work in their farms and farm. And in Puntland, the food they (WFP) deliver… they would sell it in the market…do you understand?

 

If you don’t defend yourself from the men (and fight against UN/WFP staff) and if this government defends itself (from the UN/WFP) ….the men of the NGOs who prepared these things; that have names! …if you don’t fight them…and Somali people don’t oppose them and say to them…either you help us or leave us alone and you don’t say that….you will never be out of trouble ….so tell people the truth and defend yourself from them (UN/WFP)!

 

The food that they are selling in the market and they are in agreement (with the selling) …and everyone they appoint to office … is one that works with the insurgency ….and those who work the anarchy are them!  The other days; a man (WFP head in Somalia ) has been arrested as you know. Why was he arrested? He misdirects the WFP food to the mosques where the insurgents pray …that is where he took the food … talk about it! Yes!  we told them … the ones (mosques) we worship to the infidels(UN/WFP)  and we said… we as the real Muslims, real Somalis , who hold to the real religion, who are the majority,  the mosques we pray, no food is delivered to!… that is what I said to them. The insurgent mosques (food) are brought to and the insurgents take the food and make money …they then fight with us…you don’t want Somalia to stabilize then… that is what I said to them(UN/WFP).

 

Thus, they (UN?WFP) either would be transferred and leave or some (new UN staff) who will work and will come …or … God be my witness … aren’t I here and them  in Nairobi ? I will NEVER talk to them! …if you going to talk to them …you Aliyow! (Acting PM) …you and the other ministers and the prime minister….and if you deal with the men (UN/WFP staff) like before…I don’t know …when the year comes to end … what is left (of their budget/earmarks) and how to solicit (hustle for) that (remaining budget) … that is up to you… I am not part of it!

 

This country belongs to us, we are its people, we have problems and we don’t have any economy, and we don’t have tools to work with, but if we strive and think, we can do something…that we can do without these men (WFP/UN). Let us teach that to ourselves.

 

The donors I went to them the other day, the European donors were present, the other night I was talking to them in Nairobi … (I said) if you give something to the men (UN/WFP), you have given it to them and we (TFG) have nothing to do with them… that is what I said to them (donors).  And If you are giving (money) to us …let us agree on a policy and give (the money) directly to the Somali people through their government …that is what I said to them… oh you donors!  Or when you hand it (money) to Leroche  or you give it to the … one with the long goiter (derisive) … that is the American …what was (his name) …the cursed one … Cooper ? …and Waleed and you give it to them; God is with you …that is what I said …we have no business in it.

 

I can’t say nothing about the book now, I will be reading a copy of it … then after I read, I will be able to say something about it but the reality is what is written and practically how to work is two different things. The writing that is the most beautiful and the best plans… if you do that but how to implement goes wrong, nothing will work. And you won’t be able to implement anything if you don’t fight twenty things that are wrong that our government, in the last three years, has been doing (as a culture) and if we don’t stop it and we don’t fight it, nothing would be implemented.

 

Now, are we concealing things from each other? Isn’t it only us (who are present)?  Are there any foreigners present here? Aren’t three years and more… wasn’t this government in existence? If you don’t have tariff to collect taxes, so listen now! … and you threw out the one the parliament decreed… and tonight you don’t have clue to anything (tools) to collect taxes, and you don’t have any budget, and of the taxes you will collect and how much investment is needed (to collect taxes), you have no clue, and you don’t have a government bank to work with, and god knows, I have these (tools) but you (parliamentarians and ministers) don’t have it. (we got it … some of the audience will shout back) and what comes in (from tax collections) we don’t know where they end up, and we don’t know where all donations end up, and let us not lie to each other, the corruption (in Somalia) the whole world knows about, how would you be able to implement any plan and where will you get money to implement things?

 

If you don’t fight (corruption) and the man who steals one shilling is not brought in front of the law, and isn’t persecuted on what he deserves on, and we don’t fear the law, and we don’t fear of the government and the nation, and we don’t heed on the common interest of the people, nothing will work for you.

 

There I am not talking about economy, I am not an economist, all of us, I think our (education) is just hearsay or so…what you graduated on Aliyoow (acting PM)?  What university you graduated from? (He answers: I graduated from University and I studied agricultural economy)…OK then… so many of you sitting there, each one of you studied something, or specialized on something, and it is possible you never worked in your specialization, so it is all theory, so I will read this book and what is in it (contents) will work on. Investment should be solicited and if you we don’t get outside aid … in the situation we are in now, we can invest the little we would collect from the taxes, we should save it.

 

A government that doesn’t have offices, and doesn’t have building they reside, and is in hotels, are we listening to each other? Is there a ministry that has its own offices ready? And some, instead of having their homes renovated, instead, they are being rented for (to work and live) Jirdeh Hussein (Somali businessman) houses! And they are pleased with that!

 

Here are my office and here are my five offices, so renovate them with rent money and we will be residing there …you couldn’t say that! Oh men, let us listen to each other, and not lie to the people, there is a war going on there ( in the capital, Mogadishu), so to go to offices, to reside in homes, we are afraid of, so hotels became our preferences, out of fear. We only die once, I swear to god,  there is no one who will die twice, so go to your offices and houses, and save what(money) you got, plan tariff and budgets, and you establish banks, and fight with the HAWALAS! (Money Wiring Services).

 

As long as there are Hawalas, our banks will not be implemented, am I lying? The hard currency that comes in, if they go to the Hawalas, where will our bank get (money)?  Other than what the government took as taxes? Where else would it get (money)?  No! Isn’t the bank (central) has to govern all banks? Control the money? Control the hard currency? Became government reserve? And it handles the economy? Control all, isn’t it so?  Something we missed the last three years, so the two years that is left, we will see what you do! If you step in the implementation of this plan and we will give you an excuse and say these men were really sitting here for 50 days (to plan), then we will say they have contributed to something.  Or if good books are written, but you lack the implementation, then we will say, what that has been studied, don’t exist, so may God bring out other group since we couldn’t do anything? Isn’t it (right) we say that?

 

So the government (of Ghedi) failed, a new government will be built, the new government that will be formed, would it take the same path as the previous one or would it take a new roadmap? So let me ask you, what road should it take? You tell us, aren’t you the permanent secretariat? (They all say YES!) The ministers have failed, other ministers will come, but you will be permanent and you are required to continue the administration, and if a man, whose minister is on corruption, covers (it), and then you will know, you and God and your minister will know!

 

These things need to be worked on, you just sat here, have you conducted any survey? Have you paid visit to the whole country? Or from now, you will be doing it? If you don’t go to every district, to every region and you don’t find out all the problems, or at least don’t find out the names (of the problem) …and you don’t be familiar with everywhere, it is all theory, what you write is not official then.

 

The other thing, who administers our education (system), is our education system administered by the religious men (Islamic Courts) or the ministries? Are you saying the ministry administers it? What curriculum is taught in schools? Whose is it? Duale? (Maybe, TFG Minister of Education)

 

Quran schools, primary and elementary schools, secondary schools, universities are all under Al-Islah, Al-Itihad, Al-so and so, what you have, and the ministry (of education)

 

The religious men have all the mosques, they have the education and social affairs, they own the health, they own the commerce, they own the telecommunication, they own Hawalas (the money wiring services)…nothing is in our hands… so how to deal with the religious establishment, we should discuss, are the religious establishment the government of the country?  Or are we the government? Have you ever thought how we could takeover all of these wealth out of the hands of these religious men? (The audience shouts back YES!) Have you added that to the plan? (Yes, shouts back the crowd)  Ok then, I am a man and I will give you a hand …these men are our enemies, do you hear me?  Let us fight the men!  These men are what they are because of all they got all the wealth of the country, either education, religion, or a mosque, or Hawala or the economy or telecommunication or commerce  what you have, are in their hands, let us force that out their hands, and that is if you want Somalia to become Somalia.

 

Then if I said all of that, that is the end of my talk. I thank you a lot and I congratulate you and I will read the plan, but what is needed is to send intellectuals and people with knowledge to the country and we further investigate what is needed in everywhere, and the most imperative trouble we have is the infrastructure, we don’t have highways, we don’t have ports, if I belong to God, we don’t have roads to travel, we don’t have airports, we don’t have …what is its name …if all of these are not built, if the infrastructure is not built, first of all, can we work on the economy? (Audience shouts NO!) … then you need to think on that…whatever that could be done in our ability, should be worked on , it will finally come along.

 

The key of all of these is stability of the country, and as you said it is all true, then there is a plan going now and there are operations going on, we will cleanse Mogadishu soon, then the Shebelle regions will follow, and the rest of the country will be taken over!  Anyone who throws one bullet, will be dealt harshly, so be aware of it, then when we stabilize the security, then is it possible that you won’t be able to continue the administration?

 

So I am being expected to go somewhere, so if you are willing to sit here all day, keep on sitting, and the hall is ready for you and if you have other engagements, it is up to you! Whenever the parliament is not in session, you all come to the big tree in my office, I don’t know, doesn’t the city have other trees to sit on its shade?

 

Abdulkadir Mohamed

A

PNU AND CCM CANDIDATES IN A FIGHT IN EMBAKASI,

No ebb in PNU parties’ rivalry Story by SUNDAY NATION Reporter Publication Date: 12/9/2007 The fights among Party of National Unity affiliate parties have intensified after President Kibaki announced that all candidates  who supported him should be treated equally. Although the appeal by the President to shun the three-piece voting method dispelled fears the candidates of the PNU affiliates had expressed, it has brought both problems and gains in the three-month- old coalition. The candidates were complaining of being left out of the presidential campaigns and being denied campaign funds and materials such as T-shirts, caps and posters.  This, they argued, would have worked against them since their challengers in PNU had the upper hand. What has emerged is that the rivalry is hurting the President’s campaign in some areas while in others, the contest is being perceived as a blessing. Early this week, a rally that President Kibaki attended in Kimilili town was disrupted by a group of Ford Kenya youths who booed Trade and Industry minister Dr Mukhisa Kituyi. The President had to step in to pour oil into the troubled waters. Dr Kituyi who is defending his Kimilili parliamentary seat on a PNU ticket, is facing strong challenge from Ford Kenya’s  David Eseli, who is being supported by party chairman Mr Musikari Kombo. The PNU war is obviously to the benefit of ODM and ODM Kenya. Labour minister Dr Newton Kulundu is furious that a Cabinet colleague in Western Province is sponsoring violence and spoiling PNU’s chances of winning the polls.  Dr Kulundu, also a supporter of President Kibaki, is defending his seat on a PNU ticket.  But he says the minister has sponsored candidates to vie against the PNU nominees as he wants to become the political king in the region.  “He has fielded a candidate to fight me and he has gone to the extent of destabilising my campaigns,” says Dr Kulundu who is defending his Lurambi parliamentary seat. Ford-K, a strong party in the region, has fielded several candidates to compete with those on the PNU ticket.  New Ford Kenya, another party with roots in the region, has done the same  In Nakuru Town, a cosmopolitan constituency, four PNU candidates seen as frontrunners are poised to split the votes. And this will boost their ODM counterpart, Pastor Mike Brawan. The same situation applies to other cosmopolitan constituencies in Nairobi where almost all losers in the PNU primaries sought the tickets of affiliate parties. For instance, Kasarani and Makadara teem with candidates of parties supporting President Kibaki’s re-election bid.  Incidents of violence have been witnessed in the past two weeks among candidates of the parties supporting the President. In Embakasi, several people were seriously injured last weekend when supporters of PNU candidate John Ndirangu and those of his rival, Mr David Mwenje, clashed. Mr Mwenje’s supporters had confronted the rival group at the Mukuru kwa Reuben slum where Mr Ndirangu had taken his campaign. They fought for about 30 minutes, and the injured had broken legs and head cuts. Several vehicles were also damaged in the fracas.