COALITIONS HAVE FAILED IN AFRICA BEFORE

Story by JOHN HARBESON Publication Date: 3/30/2008

Kenyans should know that the country’s friends around the world are anxious to see if the power-sharing agreement negotiated between PNU and ODM will result in the resumption of peace. President Kibaki (right) shakes hands with ODM Raila Odinga at Harambee House in Nairobi after they signed a power-sharing agreement. Photo/ FILE One hopes that the friendship and political collaboration Mr Mwai Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga shared a just five years ago will be rekindled as a foundation for making the peace deal work. Sadly, however, the history of African independence is littered with examples in which pragmatic power-sharing agreements were forged but fell apart. Many of the pacts were set up at the urging of the departing British colonial rulers. There was power-sharing initially in Zimbabwe between the rival nationalist armies of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, the NCNC-NPC coalition in Nigeria joining the mutually antagonistic Ibo and Hausa-Fulani parties, the granting of independence to Zanzibar on the basis of rule by the Sultan who lacked majority support  and the joining of the Buganda’s Kabaka Yekka party with Milton Obote’s Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC)  even though their antithetical agendas had not been compromised. None of these agreements lasted very long and were preludes to instability, with the possible exception of the Zimbabwe case. Among the most important reasons for the failed power-sharing agreements was that they created governing regimes without addressing a central underlying issue. What was to be the basis of the state within which these governing regimes were to rule? What were to be the fundamental rules of the political game on the basis of which all parties would be able to live together under one political roof. Indeed, there were very few opportunities in any of the newly independent countries for leaders and citizens to think together about how they wanted to design their new states, how they would choose to redesign the colonial governance apparatus the leaders of the nationalist movements inherited in order to give expression to their own ideas of what states should look like. This is one reason why some have referred to the wave of democratisation in post-Cold War Africa as the continent’s  second independence.   National conferences in Benin and Mali,  UN-sponsored roundtables in Malawi, intensive negotiations on basic rules of the game for post-independence polities in Namibia and Mozambique, and a post-apartheid state in South Africa. The post-Cold War era has been the first opportunity for African leaders and citizens to really consider what states they wish to live together in.   Where these negotiations preceded the first multi-party elections after the end of authoritarian rule, the results have generally been better. From this perspective, Kenya’s struggles to fashion a new constitution in the post-Cold War era may have resulted in part from the fact that it did not follow this sequence, a point that some prominent civil friends of mine in lobby groups in Kenya have themselves made to me. But now it appears to me that the problem of restructuring the Kenyan state, in the form of a revised constitution, has become even more difficult than it was in the debate over the Bomas constitution and the alternative design, which Kenyans defeated in a subsequent referendum. Now it seems to me as though it may be all but impossible to refashion a new constitution without dealing more directly with land issues than they seemed to be in the earlier debate. That realisation seems to me, in turn, to raise directly and openly for the first time the fundamental issue of the disposition of what a distinguished student of African politics terms the African colonial state. Crawford Young’s hypothesis has been that colonial patterns of governance in many African countries have in fact been perpetuated well into the independence era. Only now, he suggests, has the fact that the concept of a colonial state  become an oxymoron visible and apparent to one and all.   In  the case of Kenya,  land issues were at the heart of the Lancaster House conference in London that prepared the way for independence. Convinced that economic stability must be maintained at all costs to secure post-independence Kenyan political stability, the British, with World Bank assistance, financed land transfers that enabled the African landless and unemployed to claim chunks that Jomo Kenyatta’s Kenya Africa Union claimed had been stolen by European settlers. The settlers wanted the land transfer, and the Kenyatta government urged a rapid implementation before independence as well. Another stipulation concerning land, also deemed essential to post-independence stability was that there be a free market for land purchases throughout much of the country, based on the extension of land consolidation and registration initiated under the Swynnerton Plan before independence. John Locke argued that the basis of a liberal democracy was the protection of life liberty and property (land).  And so it was in Kenya. But were these Lancaster House agreements the foundation of a Kenyan African state, or did  they, in retrospect, represent a consolidation of a colonial state as an independence foundation? The agreements of 45 years ago have seem to have exacerbated, possibly even in part caused, the violence and instability that followed the recent elections. That possibility would seem to raise the stakes dramatically on constitutional negotiations yet to take place as part of the present power-sharing agreement. But to refashion the Kenyan state through a new constitution, how can these land issues not be revisited? Can people who have been forced out of the land they may have occupied since independence return to it even if to do so will be to reopen old wounds? What new resettlement programme would be fair to all parties and thus be the foundation of a new Kenyan state in the era of Africa’s second independence? John Harbeson is a professor of political science at City University New York

Nothing costs more than a cheap politician!

  

Posted by maasaiwarrior on August 11th, 2007

Nothing costs more than a cheap politician!
The funny thing about political  jokes is that many a times they are elected once and again. In many cases, you would hear many Kenyans  commenting that they prefer the devil they know than the angel they haven’t met.
In many occasions, our traditions and culture dictates  us to vote for people from our own tribes and in some times, within our own clans.
”Our people”
Some politicians are elected just because they belong to a certain society and not because they had the qualities and qualifications required to bring any development in the society.
They own the title ”our leader” People get blinded by our own prejudice against others that we end up voting for our own death.

Who is ”our  people? And who is NOT?”
How is it possible for a group of people to continue voting for a passive lazy politician who never comes home with any fruits?
Who is ”our  people? And who is NOT?”  Kenyans are our people and always will be.
It would be worth if we re establish our identity as Kenya. Our identity is deep rooted in the background history of Kenya. Some pathetic tribal and sometimes clan boundaries are exploited by selfish politicians for their ill fated motives. This wolves are out to ruin our lives and the lives of our children and of the generation to come. We must all participate in stopping them.
Chap politicians are dangerous to our societies survival and for the environment at large.
The most nasty think about these “political JOKES is that they play their jokes with innocent citizens purporting to be agents of change. The intensify propositions for goof things  in better time to come. All this false promises leads to empty ends.
A few moths before election,, these  Political Jokes-we call them (PJs) discover that they need to connect to the society- the one who is normally referred to as the man in the street. Pjs cannot succeed without full support from the Man in the street. He is the one with the voting power and the Pjs are well aware of it.

Vote wise this time
Avoid to be intimidated by Pjs
Do not sell your voting card to Pjs
Do not accept campaign hand outs comprising of Miraa/khart, alcohol or any other cheap hand outs
Do not vote for the devil you know for the angel you don’t know might deliver you from hell
Avoid voting for people but good ideology/ good ideas that seem to favor common man. Good ideas shall always stay but unfortunately people don’t
Be careful when comparing tribes against another, identify Kenyans by regions.

Identify reasons why you must vote for a particular party or candidate
What ideology/ideas and political points does she or he has?
How will your life be affected by your vote?
Belief that your vote is worth everything and counts. Your voice can make a difference!
Be a responsible voter read well the information provided before you vote, take your time and ask yourself why you are voting.
The most paramount right you have as a voter is your voting right a
Remember gender sensitivity importance!

The new world
The new world has a lot to give. Much has been reaped from it that the nature is changing without direction. We must take control. This world is a loan to us to take care of it for our kids and generations to come and not for us to break it down,

Changing society
The knowledge of what happens when a society goes through transition period is very important for us to acquire. It is our obligation to invite change with all our openness and intelligence in order to gradually integrate with it.
With integrity, trust knowledge and well working government, Kenya can be turned back from what it was to be before all this chaos arose
By the Chairman CCM KS
Saidimu Ole Ngais

Dick Praises Osewe

28-07-07Stockholm.

 

Step up pressure for the liberation of the poor Wananchi.

 

 

Dear Kenyans, as you launch CCM Sweden Branch to day here in Bagarmossen Stockholm, I would like to remind you what you might have forgotten; that the downtrodden wananchi are going through a very difficult time back at home.

 

The Ordinary wananchi are going through a difficult time due to the cheap political game between Narc and the mainstream opposition parties. As a result the nation is becoming increasingly sick.

 

The Mwananchi, upset about what is happening, have become more politically withdrawn, as politicians dangerously gamble with their lives. Their withdrawal is evidenced by the low turnout during any by-election that have taken place as from 2004 up to now.

 

However, not all Kenyans are keeping silent as wananchi fundamental rights are threatened. There are a few brave Kenyans whose voices sound like whispers in the wilderness of Kenyan politics. They always protest against political oppression and violations of citizens’ rights by the government of president Kibaki. They rightly protest the ongoing tribalisation of Kenyan politics propagated by politicians in both opposition and government.

 

The reality is evident, just as the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga once said: ‘Not yet Uhuru’. I believe he meant the freedom the mwananchi was fighting for during the war of liberation was never realized for the poor but only for the Home guards some of whom are in Kibaki’s government harassing Wananchi.

 

The agenda of some aged politicians in government and some in opposition is to break the spirit of struggle so that the wananchi see things only through their lenses.

 

During the struggle for democracy or the second liberation some patriotic Kenyans had to struggle in courts of law for their freedom when they were hauled in on political charges. They were very familiar with the rough road of Kenya’s partial political justice.

 

Today, history is repeating itself and the Kenyan youth who feel let down by the old generation in power today are often harassed and mostly killed by the Kenyan ’sometimes’ lawless brutal policemen.

 

To the police if a youth has not committed a crime he clearly threatens to do so. Some in the police force have forgotten that they are servants of the people and instead have become executioners.

 

Some may say when we CCM accuse government security forces and politicians we are looking for trouble but we aren’t. We are not out to enrich ourselves as individuals either. If one wanted to become rich one would only establish relations with some people in government today or those from the Goldenberg era.

 

Freedom with its fruits of economic and political justice for the poor and downtrodden wananchi is what keeps CCM in place. We believe in what we do and have the courage to go an extra mile when need arise. We long for a free and democratic society and a nation whose economy will be in the hands of our own people.

 

It is for this reason that CCM opposes the formation of tribal alliances. It does not matter to us whether the alliances are based on the small or large ethnic groups.

 

It is a pity that instead of rallying behind Kenyans determined to change the society for the better, the wananchi get easily moved by false promises from leaders who bribe and later abandon them on achieving what they set out to do for themselves.

 

Kenya requires reasonable constitutional change to get out of a situation where the president wields too much powers at the expense of just and democratic governance. It is because of the immense powers of the president that it has not been possible to bring about any minimum reforms as demanded by the opposition to allow a balance in the political setup.

 

There is need to avert national suicide. If the leaders in government and those in the mainstream parties cannot see the signs that all is not well, they must be living on a far away planet.

 

It makes me sad to see the main opposition have run out of ideas and abandoned the struggle for justice for the poor at this critical hour. And on the other hand most of them if not all are pre-occupied with the sole ambition of running for the presidency come elections.

 

Some of them have always been part of the problem. Those who today associate with those who have been obstacles to democracy in Kenya in the past and now seem as if they never knew or have forgotten why the ordinary wananchi in 1991-92 went to the streets to demand changes. It was not about which tribe had how many votes or which group’s turn it was to be president. Whether large or small, all of Kenyans’ ethnic groups must have an equal chance.

 

Instead of tribalising the elections we should be talking about who can unite the whole nation for the twin common objective – justice and democracy.

 

It is very clear in my mind that these politicians vying for presidency would like to inherit the presidency with all its current powers. What they forget is that the incumbent will use the same powers to stop them in their tracks.

 

Instead of dreaming about going to state house they should be out there working for the good of the whole nation.

 

These opposition leaders, like the Kanu ones, have let down Kenyans who had expected them to bring about politics of liberation for the poor wananchi. They are increasingly becoming part of the problem and not part of the solution.

 

To save our nation from total collapse there is need for concerted efforts to ensure that the wananchi are not taken for another political ride that keeps them going around in political circles.

 

It is CCM’s opinion that unless the poor wananchi selflessly come out strongly in demanding the right to chart their future this nation will be doomed. The rest of the world’s poor is doing just that. They create their own parties as their own vehicles to justice and democracy. They are not afraid to take on the president or any other oppressors in the elite and rich mainstream opposition parties. They have realized there is power in unity of purpose.

 

This is why they come out in thousands to demonstrate in their rallies day in day out. The democratic world is watching these gallant poor peoples out for liberty and constitutional freedom.

 

I remember during our struggle for asylum here in Sweden, some of us who managed did so because they never gave up. At that time giving up was not an option. But still, there were Kenyans who despite themselves not having had asylum, did campaigns for others to get that right. When I look back, I see a person like Okoth Osewe, a good example of a selfless person who did everything to help Kenyans not only escape deportations but also get a chance to get to know more about socialist political ideology through discussions. We have a shortage of such active and selfless personalities in Kenya.

 

It is my hope that you in CCM will as well keep up your hopes high that one day, not long, we shall see the light of day, and the poor of our country will have reason to happily want to see the next day come.

 

By joining the socialist CCM one gets a chance to do something for the wellbeing of our betrayed nation. In CCM we are ALL ONE.

 

It is my hope that you remain united here and work for the wellbeing of fellow Kenyans back at home as well as of those living abroad.

 

And when time comes and you feel you are ready to join us in the main arena of politics, just pack your bags and come home. One thing you must be sure of is that when you arrive to join Kenyan politics, there will be no flowers or bands of music to welcome you. Be prepared that all you will be offered is opposition by not too friendly aged politicians.

 

You will have to fight your own battles yourself and be a hero to yourself. Your survival will be helped by remembering that its you who took the decision to pack your bags and join the uncertain Kenyan politics. Remembering why you returned there will be your only way through.  Just don’t give up.

 

In any case CCM, your party, shall be waiting and will take you seriously. You are welcome.

 

A note from CCM Secretary General.

DICK KAMAU

dickkamau@gmail.com

 

SOCIALISM WORKS

Socialism works; why are we so fixated on capitalism? Story by O.H.J OSWAGO Publication Date: 2007/07/18COMMENTARY. Daily Nation

EVO MORALES (BOLIVIA), Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Daniel Ortega ((Nicaragua), and Fidel Castro (Cuba): Do they represent no more than opposition to American hegemony in the hemisphere or a resurgence of socialism as a model for human development? Traditionally, the United States has suppressed, using all means, benign and evil, any and all cases of experimentation with political models besides its own in this hemisphere. It has not been a mere quest for political hegemony. It has been to obliterate and forestall what Noam Chomsky calls “demonstration effect” — to inhibit the creation of a successful and contrarian econo-political model in this region.What we are witnessing in Latin America is not disconnected from events elsewhere in the world, as regards the health and vigour of socialist ideology.Take Asia. Since 1979, the world’s fastest and consistent GDP expansion has been China’s. Vietnam has posted comparable and equally consistent performance. All are led by communist parties. From 1991, India, once hobbled for decades by what became known pejoratively as the Hindu rate of growth (3.2 per cent GDP which was barely ahead of the population growth), has witnessed phenomenal growth. But India’s Congress Party and long-time ruler did not abjure Pandit Nehru’s socialism. Russia has consistently posted 5 per cent GDP annual growth, a 40 per cent growth in five years, $30 billion FDI to the non-oil sector, and, for good measure, $221 billion listed in London stock. Some of the most successful Chinese companies are cited in Fortune 500, but they remain firmly State-controlled. Some are now listed in Western capital markets with vast investments in, of all places, private equity! In fact, the world’s most successful investor, Warren Buffet, actively invests in some Chinese State-controlled entities! The Berlin Wall collapsed in 1991. In the West, this was celebrated, as marking the formal global death of socialism and its various variants. Did we prematurely bury socialism? And, what filled the vacuum? It is said that Reaganomics as inspired by Milton Friedman, did. Reagan’s ideological successors, the neo-cons, later conjured up something called “compassionate conservatism”, a real oxymoron, if ever there was one. And the evidence is uninspiring. True, the global economy has witnessed unprecedented performance since the 1990s. But it is the contribution of socialist management which has been more phenomenal. WHAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE impressive performance and attraction, of socialist managed economies? It is said that they have integrated capitalist thinking within their socialist model and that the credit is owed to this capitalist orientation. Fine. But earlier, we were told that the fatal fault with Marxist-socialism was its rigidity and incapacity to be transplanted in certain environments, and that it is essentially undemocratic. Well, Morales, Chavez and Vladmir Putin were democratically elected and we have witnessed peaceful and regular leadership changes in the Chinese Communist Party hierarchy. It was also said that the public corporation is the sole engine of capitalist success and that the State is incapable to run successful world class enterprises. There are, today, hugely successful Chinese companies which are State-owned. The lesson seem to be that first, socialism is resilient and adaptable. Secondly, capitalist globalisation is least capable of addressing the most pressing needs of humanity as listed in the UNDP human development indexes, and is susceptible to inequity and inequality. Third, in looking for relevant and sustainable models for economic development, we should eschew theoretical/ideological fundamentalism. Socialism is not faultless. But it has now demonstrated wealth-generation capacity. And, above all, a sense of equitable distribution of its proceeds. The lesson for Africa from all that is this: Africa needs to develop greater self-confidence and self-belief and capacity to choose a social model that is relevant to its reality. This task precedes futile efforts at renaming the OAU and the puerile search for a continental government. If large parts of Asia, and, increasing portions of Latin America, are finding value in remodelled socialism, why are we so intimidated? We are too fixated on one paradigm. Are there no alternative models for social organisation and development (other than capitalist globalisation) most suitable to our unique circumstances? China is currently Africa’s largest investor and trading partner and has pledged to double trade with Africa to $100 billion by 2010, dwarfing the US and Europe. Western critics ascribe China’s Africa interest as driven by resource extraction needs and dalliance with illiberal regimes. Compare this with the long history of Western brutality, rapacious exploitation, bondage – including slavery – colonialism, (plus apartheid), globalisation, aid-dependent penury and moral righteousness! Africa must draw the correct lessons from current history and responsibly choose the means to belong to a respectable 21st century status! Major Oswago is a lawyer and management consultant.

Who is telling the truth? ”Kenya Police as blood-thirsty as mungiki itself”.

By Standard Team.

12.07.07

Hurried funerals without ceremony under instructions from the administration are the new kind of burials in Nyakahura village, Murang’a North District.
Since seven suspected members of the proscribed mungiki sect were shot dead in an oathing ceremony recently, villagers have followed that script during their funerals.

Relatives of a slain Mungiki suspect, Stanely Kimani Kariuki, at his burial at Nyakahuro village in Kangema on Tuesday.
As human rights groups mounted pressure against the police force’s apparent shoot-on-sight policy against mungiki suspects, The Standard traversed villages in Murang’a’s Kangema Division and found parents mourning.

Bernard Kariuki Muragu’s family buried him hastily and without ceremony. No prayers were said and no eulogy was read, just scoops of soil hitting the coffin. Family sources said instructions to bury the body in a hurried ceremony had been communicated to them by the Provincial Administration.

Government does not want long ceremonies. The family was left to come to terms with accusations their son was a member of the underworld criminal gang. “When you have a grown-up son, you can’t control his movements,” said his uncle, Cyrus Wachira. “He was known to be a good man, but you can’t make judgements.” With those few remarks, the funeral was over. A speaker at the funeral, Mr Joseph Maina, said the Government did not want long ceremonies for those who had been killed.

“We all know what happened, so let’s remain calm. When we move to the grave, do not panic,” he told the small crowd that was briefly allowed to view the body before it was laid in a grave dug in a banana grove.

Police claim the 25 young men they shot dead in Murang’a last week were diehard members of the criminal gang.
But their families say their sons were innocent men who had attended a football March that Sunday, July 1, when officers killed them in cold blood.

Who is telling the truth?

The affected families have refused to believe that the young men had joined the murderous gang, and are accusing the police of being “as blood-thirsty as mungiki itself”.

The case against the police is being reinforced by the fact that initially, senior officers said they had killed seven men they found at an oath-taking ceremony in Gaite village.

But 18 more bodies later turned up in three mortuaries across Central Province, where police had transported them under the cover of darkness. Family members believe that by trying to conceal the deaths, police knew they had broken the law and were lying to save their own skins.

Victim left home to watch a football match.

“We are women because we bear children,” cried Ms Nancy Wanjiku, the mother of Charles Mwangi, 19, who was shot dead alongside his five friends from Nyakahura village.

“Children should not be killed like animals. Someone will have to pay for their lives,” Wanjiku on Wednesday. Mwangi, who was jobless, had left home to watch a football match in Ihiga. When news spread that police had killed mungiki suspects, she searched for her son’s body all over the province.

She found it on Thursday – four days later – at Kerugoya District Hospital Mortuary, naked and covered in mud, not that of a man who had been watching a football match. The family of another young man killed, Mr Robert Muiruri, said they had received information he was seen in a police vehicle on Sunday evening.

Muiruri, 26, told a friend that he had been arrested and was being taken to a police station in Nairobi. He was never seen alive again.
Police claimed to have killed seven people.

After agonising over his whereabouts for three days, his bullet-riddled body was found in Keruguya.

“They were taken from here when still alive. We do not know at what stage police killed them,” said Muiruri’s brother, Mr Reuben Kaniaru.

His mother, Esther Mugechi, added: “They wasted the lives of such young people.” Muiruri was a cobbler who also repaired ciondo (baskets) in the village. Muiruri and Mwangi were buried on Wednesday. The funerals of two other young men from the village – Bernard Kariuki Muragu, 23, and Stanley Kimani Kariuki, 30 – were held on Tuesday.

After the Sunday evening killings, a senior official in the Central provincial administration called journalists to request coverage, saying police had shot dead seven people found taking oaths in Gaite village.

Seven more bodies turned up at mortuary. Reporters found only seven bullet-riddled bodies outside a rusty, tin-roofed house.

But as the week progressed, seven more bodies of young men from the same locality turned up the local county council mortuary, six at the provincial hospital in Nyeri and five in Kerugoya.

Mortuary attendants and hospital officials told The Standard the bodies were moved to the facilities by police – again, under the cover of darkness.

Asked whose bodies they were, the Central Provincial Police Officer said he did not know where they had come from. He said he was only aware of the shooting of 12 people.

comments from MaasaiWarrior

Posted by MaasaiWarrior on June 11th, 2007

You said: Waao what a fantastic idea!! female poor Children in Kenya refuse to go to school almost one week every month because of lack of a sanitary pad!!! believe it or not but many children do not even afford a pant leave alone a sanitary pad!! Imagine a person coming up with an idea that provides poor girls with a simple sanitary pad? and probably a pair of underwears? This is the naked reality in our society right now. Thank you so much MRS. Nduta Koigi!! You have made us even hear in Sweden soo much proud and moved!! I personaly pray that you will keep up the spirit and continue with the sanitary pads program because if you take care of our children they will grow to take care of you when you get old. When they can go to school and learn, then we will all have a promising future as Kenyans. Hongera once again. Ole Ngais Jeff Sweden. www.maasaiwarrior.wordpress.com

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Comments from Secretary General

Posted by Dick Kamau on June 11th, 2007

What a wonderful country this could be if we all think and act for our poor who cannot even aford a pad each month? Thanks Mrs Nduta Koigi you have proved that there is someone out there who cares for our daughters. Men, where are you and what the hell are you doing out there? We surely need more positive women in our politics to have meaningful programs for our children. CCM is proud of you Nduta.By Dick Kamau.Secretary General Chama Cha Mwananchi -www. chamachamwananchi.wordpress.comPosted in comments | No Comments »