Diversity challenges Kenya's social fabric: Kenyans flood social media with negative ethnicity whilst praying all day!

 

Kenyatta presented as prince from above
how voters create dictators 

The people pray. They elevate their princes but put down their women. They sing praises to one but stink on other ethnic groups. Is democracy party to non-reason?

Justice Albie Sachs gave a keynote address in the 39th ALA Congress, 2013 which I was happy and lucky to attend in Charleston South Carolina. This is an important Association of African Literature meeting and many scholars and writers make all the necessary efforts to attend it. including saving all year round. 

In his wonderful keynote address Jugde Albie as he said he likes people calling him, talked about his life and commitment to justice. He talked about soft vengeance a topic of reconciliation that goes beyond legal fixes and deep into the heart. It was marvellous to hear him. Many people from different cultures and backgrounds were moved to hear him. He stirs deep into the conscience for those who are wronged and how to overcome the hurt with compassion as well as make the person gently see what they did to another as he did to the man who planted a bomb that left him with one hand.

And I keep asking myself, where is this softness in my country Kenya when it comes to our relations as people of diverse ethnicity? Why is religion seeming to fail to introduce this? It is a question I asked Judge Albie. He has worked in Kenya in recent months. He is from South Africa. 

He has worked in Kenya with cleaning up the judiciary. Somehow after his keynote address the first question asked pointed to African democracies and the problems face them now, seeing gains made recently being lost. The clawing  back of these successes is due to political greed. 

I had my own question which was not about negative ethnicity but about religion and the role it can play when manipulated to blind a people rather than enlighten them to their own liberation. For we are a people in need of creating god to worship and to take a little more opium of the unsettled if not the poor. We are happy to create our idols and are already cultivating dictators because we suffer if we do not depend on our own esteem and that of our neighbour. Look where we can take an elected person pictorially and know that he is being called the chosen Prince.

Kenyans from one region have already canonised their president!

About democracy in Africa Judge Albie was very optimistic. He credited the people of Kenya for instance in sticking together even when some people wanted to cause a hatred along religious lines and for this he mentioned Islam and Christianity. The people reject this division in practice. He said. He explained more things and told of how Kenya has made great progress in the direction of having a new constitution since 2010. He remarked that South Africans thought they took long to usher in a new constitution in six years but that he was amazed at Kenya's close to 20 years of struggling to do the same and finally getting there. The whole exercise was for reform purposes. But on March 4th Kenya became the first country to vote in indictees of the ICC to the highest offices in the country.

Judge Albie answered the question on religion in a very fine manner. He emphasised the love and respect we ought to have for each others' consciences. I guess that is the way of a great judge and of a magnanimous mind. He said we should try out best not to fight over the god issues for then it gets very complex. We did not go into the tribal matters for thus they have to be named having become so naked in Kenya. And these relate too to religion in history for missionaries of some churches only preached as directed by government only to certain peoples. Kenya was born on a very racially divided bed. Ethnicity was stoked by the British too and  the 1884 conference did partition Africa against the grain of the population so that you have Bantu people and the Nilotes and others spread in different nations, but this is not the entire problem. Actually diversity should be a plus when managed, but this is not what religious people nor politicians do with it. However, having noted that there was a time in the 70s and 80s when it was not our immediate problem one worries why when it has gone up it has also meant the increase of insecurity. And yes, the fights are not along religious lines but then why does religion fail to glue such prayerful people. For indeed Judge Albie said of all a nations he knew well, Kenya was the most prayerful. What do prayers mean in a country where practically everyone is lined up with their own? How deep is the soul? But to that later.

Judge Albie is happy with the clean up of the Kenyan Judiciary and spoke about how the people of Kenya are delighted with the Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga and have much hope in him. This has been largely true. Even though some people have not liked the CJ. Maybe some people who did not like him before the 30th of March when he delivered a ruling that held that Kenya's election of 2013 was free and fair and that the two elect were elected fairly now love him more. Maybe some who loved him feel lost. He was their beacon of hope. And they felt that the election was stolen from the reformer and given to the status quo. Perhaps others have not changed knowing that with six judges in the Bench and the win having to come from 4:2, the thing is not a one man game. The judgement was unanimous. Some people point out that Constitution 2010 gives too short a time for the filing and the study of a proper case of this nature. Others say 7 judges would be best. In any case, the details of the judgement were not read and after the country had waited in heightening and then absolute anxiety for a week, the judgment came in three minutes.

There was rejoicing for those who were happy with their team. The others went into shock. Some violence occurred at night. Most places in Kenya are under heavy security detail for fear of violence. It is not new to us we had it in 2007 and in other elections. Some people responded to this situation by immediately saying that they would never vote again. One tweet showed someone burning up their identity card. There is still a sense of disbelief for those who expected a different ruling but Supreme Court locuta causa finita. Finita? Well, this remains to be seen.

Everything is heavy, but I have children! 

We had foreseen the filing of a petition no matter which side won because the margin was going to be narrow. However in the final results there were glaring mistakes. The international observers had spoken before but who could have foreseen the sharing of an IPS of the Independent Electoral and Borders Commission, IEBC, with Kencall a private company in which one of the contesters apparently has shares? Was everything put into place to monitor this election? And the list of complaints and evidence long. The court case was televised live and could be watched from any part of the world by Kenyans and they did so even though they could not vote from the diaspora again because the IEBC said that was beyond its scope.

If facebook could bleed

There would have been rivers that would have reached all links in the world. Kenyans vented their anger on social media using the tool much less for what people in Cairo used it for in the Arab Spring. They turned against one another identifying their man of their ethnic group as some untouchable and spewing vitriol on the other camp. There were two camps and two main ethnic groups had themselves confounded on social media because each had a main man. The Kikuyu and the Luo. Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga respectively.

 Social media was laden with hate speech. It bore messages on the elections but also with very intrusive and base language. Reactions, hopes and dilemmas were everywhere. What was certain is you could tell who is going to praise which of the two strong candidates just by knowing from which region a name can be placed. Things got vicious and almost war like on facebook. But some people said just as well the war was on facebook and not with crude weapons on the ground. But these forgot that on social media it is a certain class that sits to it all day. On the ground indeed some crude weapons did surface in Malindi and most tourists caught an early flight.

Kenyans were deeply angered by some of their own, as identified by names and hear let's call a spade a spade and say that Kikuyus who openly supported Raila Odinga had it quite rough. There is one who has posted death threats as he was seen to be a traitor. All this is a repeat of 2007. Why such deep hatred and why such forced strong love for a community? And yet these two candidates did get a few votes from enemy territory, but mainly from their own in the local diasporas there.

It has been gradual but very real now. Politics has helped gate Kenyans within their ethnic territories and this with fear. I think that even the voting pattern was influenced by the same. Look at the people who voted in Central part of the country and who teamed up mainly with the Rift Valley. The Kalenjin and the Kikuyu fought the worst in the 2007 violence. Now they have voted together. It is clear that they want to protect those whom they see to have protected them in 2007. But how was that protection? Was it legal?

 It is also clear then that they were voting so as to shield themselves from the woes of insecurity which they have been facing daily for instance in the face of Mungiki, a militia group mainly to be found in Central Province. They have felt that the elect two, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto will know how to protect them as they did in 2007. That they will also know how to keep those youth who belong to these militia group down. It is protect me, I protect you from the ICC and we live happily ever after. Of course this team also had the backing of the incumbent and the State machinery. Have we voted to shield impunity?

If Raila Odinga garnered less votes, if that is proven, fine. But there is doubt and this problem is not going away. The country's Intelligence had better concentrate on what can give Kenya justice instead of hounding down bloggers. Raila has told the BBC that he has only accepted to honour his earlier word but that he is looking for away out. His supporters and indeed many people in the country are feeling his humiliation. Why? Well he was thoroughly demonised, his main pillars attacked and rendered almost helpless when it came to the race to State House. There is more intrigue about the candidate to win having to win and only win.

I have heard for myself what kind of names people call Raila Odinga in some places and so ugly was the situation that it was the only time in my life that I felt like never visiting a certain village even though I informed them that they were wrong. There is everything wrong with building such huge enmity. I have heard his name dragged into a Muslim pact and this by Christians. I have been given a letter out of a drawer by a priest of the Catholic church to see how compromised Raila Odinga is with the Muslims. I saw the letter and immediately almost burst out laughing and worried for our priest. The letter was pure propaganda and that was in 2008. But had done enough damage already. I have heard that he caused all the evils that happened in an election year.  So what about all this?

My main concern is for Kenya. No matter how much we pray, behind the scenes we are full of intrigues. Religious differences are exploited for power. Religion is used as a power base. I saw this in Rwanda. Much compromising. Ethnicity is ruling at all levels and again we saw this in Rwanda 1994. When all these things mix with politics to fade out reason, in a world full of wonderful diversity, suddenly, the stars fade. But just maybe we swing and swing until the Constitution begins to flower and we get our balance! But on the other hand, where power is involved, poetic thinking can fail. It is something to be afraid of that two persons that two strong communities see as their power have this chasm of hating communities between them.

What does this poison- letter sound like now?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BDfp8iyCQAAW5V-.jpg:large


When this letter was received and the Kenyan Chief Justice had a Press Conference on it, many people decided it was a fake letter coming as it did just before the disputed General Election.

I have seen Mungiki leaflets before. I have seen fake election promise letters or literature to denigrate individuals before. I would not put this letter away and decide it was all fake. For one, nobody should imagine that the writers have to be illiterate people who cannot have a good command of the English language. No. The content is to the point.

It should be noted how against America, the E.U and UK it is. Against human rights activists and people who are outspoken. It is true that it was posted after the case was said could only be handled by the Supreme Court of Kenya and was therefore thrown out.

I still read it with interest as its emphasis was power for Kenyatta no matter what and this is the basis of the challenge to be heard by the Supreme Court next week.

Kenyan election results contested in court but winners say Vox Populi Vox Dei

After a long Five days from the March 4 -9th 2013, Kenyans have listened to the results of the presidential vote they cast. Muigai Kenyatta Jr. has been pronounced the new President. The figures went to 50.7 the simple required majority having been 50.1 and a win in more than 25 of the 47 constituencies.

There is celebration, more in the two regions where he and he who was his running mate -William Ruto- comes from. After receiving the certificates of victory, the two and their main supporters headed for the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. Names of some who won constituency elections had their names called out. Unfortunately starting with an area that contained names from one region where Kenyatta Jr comes from. The procedure was stopped since there were too many names, just when they got reached the Rift Valley names. 

International Criminal Court

Both Kenyatta Jr and William Ruto face charges in the International Criminal Court, ICC, for having organized the violence that occurred in Kenya in 2007. 

Ruto´s words were mainly small talk on phone numbers and the nicknames he used for his friend UK, Uhuru Kenyatta, on his phone. He referred to prayers that have been said for him and their success. He said Vox Populi Vox Dei and told the people that God has been on his side as his wife got out of bed often at midnight to beseech God to save the lawyer turned politician from his being indicted by the ICC and for victory in the elections. 

This election, the duo repeated often was their race against the ICC. Raila Odinga has called his Press Conference: Democracy on Trial in Kenya. 

Kenyatta Jr has promised to uphold security after talking about the police and sending his condolences to those who were butchered on the first day of the election. He thanked the local media and pointed ut a difference with the international media. He thanked his main opponent Raila Odinga calling him elder brother and asking him to accept the results.

However, before he spoke, Raila Odinga had a press conference in which he outlined the flaws observed in the elections. He called for peace. His party CORD has filed a case in the Supreme Court. He told the press that if the court rules he failed, he will concede defeat but the questions he raises are vital. He responded readily to questions from the press. 

William Ruto mentioned Raila Odinga having said in German, Vox Populi Vox Dei, which for certain is Latin.
There is a sense of despondency among those who wanted a leader who has often expressed a passion for reform in the country. Those who wanted to have the completion of cases against humanity first completed before they were presented themselves for election. But the party says God has spoken through the people. The percentage margin between their win and the second place is said to be narrow as CORD rejects the tally and says enormous evidence is availed to them.

Kenyatta Jr did not mention the ICC but it appears hopes that the respect he calls for the sovereignty of Kenya includes this. The two have said that if summoned by the ICC, they will serve the country via Skype but it appears they will like Bashir completely ignore this process.

Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga

Threats on the life of the Chief Justice of Kenya

The Chief Justice of Kenya and the Supreme Court has much work ahead. And this is the Chief Justice that received a contested letter -in terms of its authenticity - threatening his life, that of other judges and ambassadors if the ruling that Kenyatta Jr and William Ruto would be barred from this election based on the 6th Chapter of Constitution 2010, which outlines issues of integrity. 

William Ruto has a court case regarding the grabbing of 100 ha of land from a farmer, land that was supposed to be for Internally Displaced People. Kenyans have said that this vote is one for impunity but  right now no media says that as we admire the first families on stage on TV and see their wives for the first time as people whose status has changed. 

A surprising remark on fb came from a seasoned columnist who stated that The Chief Jusice Dr. Willy Mutunga will be hounded out of office by the end of 2013. So we wait. We wait to see.

God and the Catholic faith 

Kenyatta Jr is a Roman Catholic as is his mother and most of the family. It was indeed said by some simple people up country that Kenyatta Jr is the chosen one of God. Even if Kenyatta  referred to help in campaigning at the University of Nairobi, his first speech was held at the Catholic University because it was the desire of his Jubilee party.

Western Media irks Kenyans in Election March 2013

Vigilant Kenya votes Justice and Peace

Kenya for peace 2013!

Many people did not sleep the night of 3rd March 2013. All over the world citizens who could not travel teamed up for peace messages on social media. There was a moving flood of energy and many messages of peace. Many were clear on who they were voting. Some knew why others did not. There was a lot of emphasis on that we vote from conscience and shun tribal groupings. Politicians use ethnicity to amass votes.

Kenya! Voting for peace in Afrika!

It is true that we have all been extremely apprehensive about the Kenyan Election happening just now. People are in queues voting. Old women were there very early. Old men too. Our grandmothers are ready to queue however long it takes. ttp://elections.nation.co.ke/news/-/1631868/1710562/-/osje07z/-/index.htmlPeople in Kenya have woken up for justice and peace, not bloodshed. We had enough of it in 2007.

Whereas it is also true four policemen on duty have been killed by gangsters in Mombasa and a stampede elsewhere in Kakamega has led to hospitalisation, by and large tweets are full of information on a peaceful process from all over the country. Kenyans do believe in prayer.

Kenyans have objected to reports in Western media that were not in our local media. These include The Financial Times Katrina Mason article which declared that one frontrunner is not going to accept defeat and will prefer violence. The writer refers to the Prime Minister until now Raila Odinga. In a massive last campaign meeting attended by over 100 000 people and watched live by Kenyans all over the world, Raila Amollo Odinga refuted those claims. He constantly referred to an ill hand in that. Some of us indeed were surprised too by this information. I am non-violent and would not support anyone for violence. I have not hidden my support for Raila Odinga who does not, by the way, come from my region. The implications of the article border on the worst case scenario and ruin chances for Odinga. His main opponent used it against him on the last rally in Nairobi.

It was CNN however that broke a story with what Kenyans called out of Hollywood scenes if only our movies would be something in Hollywood. There were armies armed and in the forests and ready to kill for justice. That report was castigated by Kenyans all over the country. In many ways this is a match between the West and our local media. A pity that in such a delicate moment some international media houses would run footage on violence that seem to suggest the country will flare up in violence. We know such coverage can lead to preemptive work if indeed there is such planning. We know some Kenyans have been re arming themselves. We know others have already died. We know we need all eyes on Kenya. We appreciate all that. But many Kenyans feel and have expressed it strongly on social media that what is bróadcast must resonate with what is on the ground and what is possible.

We are a developing democracy trying so hard to get where the Rule of Law prevails. We are not ashamed that we have had to have 90 000 security personnel out to guard our election because we need that protection. Many people do not take it lightly that for five years politicians are elected only to forget them and earn themselves so much money. Many feel that for them it is a matter of life and death who gets into the presidency because they will not live forever waiting for someone who if they lead the country to growth will also make certain that all have access to wealth and opportunities.


The New Constitution is where to look to now. Kenya is tried and tested but will overcome. Somalia is our neighbour. Many other countries depend on Kenya. The whole region goes down if Kenya is unstable. We have to win this one for Afrika and the world. So we want a Western media which also carries our hopes. I come from there and I do not speak of our ugliness forgetting our beauty. What has happened in the media now has made all media in the world expect violence. Of course we know the stakes are high but please do not help us to stoke the fire! The balance is delicate! We are balancing on a taut line. We are still balancing! Tell that to the world! We do not want to miss this step, Now!

All attention should now shift towards out judiciary as soon as this election is over and it will be. The reason? This is what we fear most. The Chief Justice of Kenya and the President of the Supreme Court Dr. Willy Mutunga has been under threat for some time now. He has said the Judiciary is ready for any contest of the vote. The judiciary failed Kenya last election in 2007.

He has not been spared of ridicule by many who think the election may not go their way. This is the space to watch. His life is important for all Kenyans. We continue here on a post about the judiciary in the next post.

Police Brutality and crime in South Africa

          

Dear South Africa

Lucky Dube shot dead near Jburg in 2007

Greetings from the rest of Afrika!                                                             

After my greetings many as the sands of our shores and calm like the palm trees of our lands, I ask you how Mandela fares. Only recently we joined you in prayer because he was unwell. Then like he came out of hospital and we were delighted. I tell you that we here sang songs and wrote poems for we too love Madiba. Please give him my greetings. I also ask you to give him a good time in doing your best in all spheres.

Our greetings used to be longer than that in Afrika years back when the Ubuntu spirit was fully alive. It is not dead. I write this because I fully believe that a person is a person through other persons. I am because you are. This is the only authority I have in daring to write to you also from a troubled African country. Let me go straight to the issue even if in my land they say that information is not given out without preparation. I hasten then like an ostrich that sees fire consume grass in a savannah fast and knows that she has to save her legs and those of her children. I come with grief to join you again.

I write with pain to say we cannot allow ourselves to sleep. We cannot live in violence. I write to you with much anguish in my heart, dear South Africa.  I am disturbed. And believe me, to hit this keyboard at this time of the night is not what I was planning until I sat in front of my TV to catch my breath. Instead my tea went cold on my lap. There is too much violence in the land. Police brutality and criminal action. How long will the land I read about in A Walk in The Night by Alex La Guma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Walk_in_the_Night persist there at home? Have you checked our statistics on deaths in the country. You might be surprised to note they rival war -torn regions.

I do not want to digress and tell you more stories. The reality- not story- of how your police beat and dragged Mido Macia, a 27- year- old- taxi driver from Mozambique while tied to a police vehicle is harrowing. I am devasted. This is the reason that although I would like to sleep I cannot until I write to you.

 I know there are more problems in South Afrika. Only recently, I read you a poem in different venues on the deaths of 34 miners at Marikana.  But how do I sleep tonight when I saw that police tied this taxi driver to a van and drove him on the street to Davidson Police Station? My head is bent in absolute pain and sorrow. I weep.

This is something I last heard of in Kenya during colonial times. Yes, a British DO would tie Afrikans to a moving vehicle and then drive fast and kill them. But now, South Afrika, we have killed Mido Macia in a horrific way. He has died with injuries on his head and the rest of his body. Is our continent going to work to take away the nightmare of violence? We already have too much with the violence of poverty, Aids, ethnic conflicts, rape, terror, hunger and environmental destruction. Afrika must put its best foot out. Your land is not poor.

For Mido Macia, South Afrikans are out singing those songs they sang against apartheid again and its oppression. The ordinary people are holding hands to ask for justice. Your people, children, women and men are crying tonight. I thank them because they have not grown indifferent to violence. Why have the police become so used to brutality? They people are asking why. But is this enough? On the internet over 3 000 stories are showing in searches since only three hours ago. The death of Mido Macia is unacceptable! We feel aggrieved as humanity.We do.

We have not forgotten that 34 were killed by police in August 2012. http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/01/18/f-evans-south-africa-miners.html

News of killings in South Africa and this not only by police, have become common place. When I visited your country recently, Jub- Jub a famous musician was convicted in court for having driven over some school students. He was drunk driving. He was amused and laughing when this happened. At the dock, arrogance transpired. Perhaps there the light note betrayed an attitude that it is easy to get away with it. I do remember the distraught parents of the children who were killed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19961306

We all miss Lucky Dube. He too was murdered near Johannesburg. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19961306

 I say all these things we have to improve. We have to look at one another in the eye and ask how we want to live. Is your country going to go down in history as forever the home of violence?  The Oscar Pistorious case went. It was fast and furious. We expect the same speedy action for this taxi driver. See how the case of Pistorious’ brother who also run over a woman has taken long in court?

Rapper Jub-Jub run over school children on a drunk driving spree

The policemen that have murdered Mido Macia cannot be entrusted with public security again. You must sack them and tell the world that you have done so! As well as that, reform your police with help from outside. Perhaps there is nothing left to save in them after the days of apartheid. I see how brutal Kenyan police are too.

I dare propose that due to the history of apartheid, your country is one of those that must have a brand new police force. I am not only asking why Mido Macia died like this. Here is a practical suggestion. You will need to decide whether your country should be hostile to other Afrikans, since Mido Macia was from Mozambique or if your country will face itself and see that it needs almost a semi peace - keeping police force from an entirely different country. Such arrangements can be made with international police until your people have gone through the transition they so badly need.

I saw the South African president in Norway with the Queen not so long ago. You looked very happy to be visiting Norway although you did not have as huge an entourage as you normally have at home. I urge you to reach out to some countries and ask about this possibility. I am not saying that local police should all lose their jobs, No. I am saying that they need urgent intervention and training from a totally different land. I am saying that your police force needs to take refresher courses outside home. Maybe we have closed ourselves in for too long to our detriment. I am sure there are some African countries with whom you can discuss this possibility. Radical problems call for radical measures. I may be wrong on the solution but your people will tell you. What I am sure I am not wrong about is that your people should not be always relegated to the streets singing and asking only why. Take action! Accord us the dignity Africa deserves.

I wish you well. Send my greetings to Mandela. Change things so that he can smile.

Yours sincerely

Philo Ikonya
Violence is not food, we cannot live on it- PI

Kenya: Abuse of Constitution 2010, ethnic killings, hate speech, rigging, political polygamy, machetes and a General Election

Find Jadili Africa images and discussions on Fb. This is a JA photo.

The 2010 Constitution of Kenya is the only foundation that this nation can stand on to achieve justice and peace. But if one is listening to Kenya keenly of late, if one is interested in this nation and is reading recent reports on the up coming election, there are some things that sound quite disturbing.  It is horrifying to read about machetes selling out in a supermarket in Nakuru. Voting time and machetes means violence. To read of machetes in 2013, to hear of people dying in Tana and now in Kuria District for quite sometime sends shivers down the backs of those who know how easy it is to unleash violence and how difficult it is to hold anyone to account. To get justice for deaths, rapes of hundreds of women. This is where we were in December 2007 minutes after the announcement of Kibaki as the winner of the election of 2007. The result is that some poor people are still languishing in camps. They are the Internally Displaced People of Kenya.  They lost their homes, their land as well as faith and hope in living within certain areas of their country. The courts were rejected in 2007 and seen as incapable of poll disputes. We do to want this to ever happen again. It is a terrible thing that the Kenyan law was not able to resolve the poll dispute but was quite capable of swearing in people into new office. Kofi Annan (UN) and other leaders helped us to come up with a plan which included the completion of the 2010 Constitution. It is this constitution we are already abusing and led by the highest powers in the land. We are in danger of passing it on as a document we can mutilate for our own good just because it came into force during out time. We have to be reminded that both the Constitution and Kenya are for posterity!

Women lose when the constitution is desecrated

There is a saddening confirmation of the fact that Kenya may not after all believe in her own constitution. To begin with, President Kibaki who prides himself as the one who nurtured the birth of this constitution has broken the law regularly and been taken to court sometimes with no effect. What is wrong with that is after Kenyans have said they have given unto themselves a new constitution to help govern them, the breaking of the law by the president, who is outgoing in the next two weeks, cements the impunity which the land has been fighting for so long. Impunity has been enjoyed by the politically powerful, the rich and the connected all the time. The ordinary person, Wanjiku, as she is called in Kenya, is always the one who pays the price. You could be saying the same of your country but Kenya promised to adhere to certain rules and set for herself high goals after seeing how easy it is to come to genocide in 2007 after a General Election.


President Kibaki at one time appointed 47 heads of Counties, first by doing so unilaterally and secondly without taking into consideration the constitution that says that no public body or committee shall be constituted by more than two-thirds of any either gender. He had appointed only one gender. The patriarchal one. Today I read that he has not finished his business in setting up a Land Commission. Land is one of the main issues that led to the violence that hit us in 2007. Why is Kenya playing poker with the devil? I would we played any other team, but not this, that in Kenya always explodes beyond  the power of legion!  The Commission for Implementation of the Constitution, led by C. Nyachae and Peter Wanyande, Commissioners, accuse Mr Kibaki of "ignoring court orders and failing to list members of the National Land Commission, by 11 Feb 2013.

I thought that the current president Mwai Kibaki would spend his last days writing and signing things on time... and like Saint John writing and speaking words that urge Kenyans to love one another and to obey the law. 

Instead I have seen the President and his family spending time disowning a woman whom they seem to know quite well.  When Kibaki was running for presidential elections in 2002, Mary Wambui was very powerful in his campaigns. The media, all of the media in Kenya, called her Narc Activist. She was splashed every where with colour and splendour. She was given an escort to boot and had bodyguards looking after her until things went wrong. The late Njenga Karume told us that they had taken dowry for Kibaki to marry Mary Wambui and that as far as he was concerned, it was strange that she was denied without the elders being told. Was this another breakage of traditional and modern law? Now it turns out that the media is filled with information on how the Kibaki family have tried to see to it that Mary Wambui does not become their next MP by taking away her recognition in public and her almost her votes in a nomination. I do not know Mary Wambui more than other Kenyans do.

We all know that she has been queried for many things and I declare I do not know or support her workings but that like all other people, except the Kibaki family, once she got nominated and showed interest in politics, we are bound to wait for the results of the voters. We cannot take the law into our hands and stop her from campaigning. If someone wants to sue her for something else that is different. If she has wronged the Kibaki´s they should come out clear and go to court. By trying to sideline her, they have made her the underdog and the people of Othaya have vowed to vote her into Parliament. Now then, what is it that the family of Kibaki so fear her for? Now if there is something they know, once again it has been left to Wanjiku even if it is detrimental to her. Strange indeed.

But not stranger than that people are buying machetes to protect themselves or to kill in the next election. I do hope this is unconfirmed because the elections are quite inflamed. They have everything in them including an element of fundamentalism I was faced with just the other day. For even with change in the Catholic church in the sense of the resignation of Benedict the XVI, people seem bent to twist things their way. A person I know very well and who belongs to groups that are swayed by sycophancy at the spiritual level have been made to believe that Uhuru Kenyatta is the chosen one of Mary and Mother of Christ. Now this is a very worrying symptom. Why religion in the mix?

Uhuru Kenyatta who probably has the support of the current president since the Central Province votes for its own MEN, is indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Full stop. That is where the conversation between the Mary follower and I ended. We can part there no matter what the heavens say, until a court which is also ours as within the 2010 Constitution rules otherwise. I have been a contender in Kenya and the people do tend to go back to Moses when elections come, the holy seas of Galilea, the holy See and even the prophets Jeremiah, Hoseah and all the others. Including John the Baptist and his type of baptism. Have you not seen politicians getting baptism of immersion before cameras? You cannot convince any of them in a debate that certain authority does not come or may not come from above. Authority that allows for the killing of others? That allows for unfairness?  I get very concerned that we are so quick too with ethnic hatred. What is driving Kenya to such high levels of incomprehension, to the place where I noted we are in 2007 when all reason seemed to be vanishing right before our eyes? Shall we the ordinary people, Wanjiku, refuse to be used for violence?

Why has Chapter 6 on Integrity, 2010 Constitution been inapplicable to the quest for the presidency by presidential candidates who are indicted by the International Criminal Court? Do we have or do we not have a Constitution that clearly says what type of persons can lead Kenya?

And one strong contender for the presidency, Raila Odinga (CORD) says that the election has been already rigged against him. Some journalists have written on that. I just do not like the way that it matches what happened in 2007. For even then, Raila said a similar move to name the Commissioners of the Electoral Commission then, was rigging and no one listened to that. Today he is saying that the Intelligence and the Military have been set up against him and that the two are divided by politics. God help us all. This is playing poker with the one and only, playing poker with the devil. .. again. All institutions of this level will stand up and say: No! We cannot be used! Well. I just wish so much that all these institutions were not headed by people from Central Province. The degree of tribalism which we were at in 2007 up to now, leaves all of us tarnished. I remember an Administration police, the ones who Waki recommended they be disbanded but stayed telling me that before they went out to 'work' in the violence of 2007 and during their 'work' they feared most their own colleagues if they were from a different ethnic group. The madness had penetrated all the ranks. All people can continue lauding Kibaki`s leadership but please let me record my opinion. It remains as in Honestly Kibaki, a letter I wrote sometime back. I feel let down. There cannot be any reason or excuse for having members of the same ethnic group which is the president´s leading in all these institutions. Children are pointing out that this is wrong.

There have been voices of reason of course in Kenyan political aspirants for top office, but they are in the fourth places without the Fourth Estate. I think some of them failed to come out as strong contenders because they underestimated what it takes to be connected to the whole of Kenya. To lead in presidential presence, not even campaign, one has to be like the ones sees noticed most now, visible and audible in all medias almost every day. One has to use a lot of time and money. You cannot step out of your public service office and expect immediate election, you will only be laying ground for a future election. Those who are noticeable now have been at it for years. And they have poured a lot of money into flights, ads and ... were often talking about being unfairly indicted. Some, like Uhuru, own media houses where it matters, a fact that in itself can point to the man as the only candidate in an area. In the rest of the media, they buy so much space and time that the editorial is easily compromised by the advertising department.

And new media? Social media has changed something but not everything at what I call the koroboi level. Koroboi in Kiswahili is a little lamp made of a simple empty tin of say coffee, or cocoa and a wick. It is used with as little paraffin as possible to light up the hut before going to sleep. Added to the inconstant flames of the cooking fire between three stones, there is light that bothers rather than helps the eyes. We have to remember there is a crowd of easily manipulable people still at this level.

In political polygamy women do badly. They are the losers. I never saw those words used together before but what Kenyan leaders are calling alliances are just quick polygamous set ups to win their way to State House. Some people will be divorced or just left on the side and neglected... actually polygamy hardly divorces, it just leaves you there to rot. Sometimes it cheats you that there is a marriage. Some people are saying that is just what has happened between Raila Odinga and his second in command. Raila Odinga knows about these polygamous unions as old politics, in which someone is courted and then thrown into trouble. At the same time, women vying for political seats and those who were in the 10th Parliament have been hit hard by many issues. In a House dominated by men there can be no balance. We saw them run quickly home to base, to the ethnic group if they had ventured further. Will it be safer at home? Could they not have been the ones who say enough is enough when it comes to tribal voting or is that too much of a burden on them? But then again they are the political majority, who will put Kenya in order if they follow the rules of political party manipulation?

The women who were in the 10th Parliament are difficult to trace of late. It appears that they have been struck and scattered. Sometimes, the hard awakening hits. Political party organising that is not according to the law again hurls women into the vortex and when men too are thrown against every ethical thing where do the children go? The things people have complained about the women: Ditching their parties to get into more popular ones, dining with the powerful, not supporting their own and the list is endless are all horrible signs of how hard the situation of women is in the country. More than ever, Kenya need the 2010 Constitution afire and working.

In the meantime, the court of appeal ruled to hold in abeyance the two thirds gender rule for now and to implement it later. So the 2010 Constitution is still not alive completely. And when this happened, there were a few whimpers. The women were too engaged in trying to be elected again. They are going through the same mud that we know well. Bishop Wanjiru could not run for Nairobi Governor. She said she had a degree, a requirement, but it turned out to be one that was not accredited to Kenya education. She goes on leading her church in the city of Nairobi. She will vie on another ticket. People have changed parties to get the positions and bought some political parties and people too. This is Kenya before the elections, what will Kenya be after the elections? The country is gripped with election fever and euphoria and that is hard to tell but the 4th draws closer.

Which way Kenya 2013 and beyond?

A month from today, 4^th March 2013, what will Kenyans celebrate in a costly General Election that will be just have concluded?

One- if we perhaps get the right figures announced after the hard lessons unlearned from the election of 2007 gone awry – we shall celebrate that at least technology can reduce vicious human tendencies to steal power. The failure of technology here could  mean total darkness for on it our democracy hangs.

We shall be using an electronic system of voting for the first time, something that I remember insisting on after seeing how votes were not counted and how a document of the time called Form A 16 was not returned as the law required. I had some Forms 16 A found discarded by polling agents.  We hope for the best. Perhaps it will be the first time in history that every tally will be correct.

But many people failed to register as voters in 2013 due to mistrust of politicians. Many still feel wounded by the killings of 1 133 persons that followed the 2007 General Election and the sudden being turned into IDPs overnight, for another 600 000 Kenyans. Many women were raped and tension became explosive between different ethnic groups. Kenya, some of us said would never be the same again. We had let greed for power reach levels which left the message that anything can be done to get power. Rape. Kill. Steal. Burn.

So unlike the national inauguration of Mwai Kibaki in 2002 when Moism was defeated and all celebrated, the swearing in of Kibaki in 2007 was a dusk affair. Present there some politicians who had defended his take as winner of the election to the hilt. These include politicians that again Kenyans have showed they will never trust for that betrayal. Whatever they have tried to do or get into as office has been rejected by Kenyans for they feel that they did not stand with them at the nation´s hour of trial. 

But that seems to apply more keenly to a former Minister of Justice, a woman, who now gets 1% support in presidential polls. Strange this remains the case even as a large vote is commanded by Uhuru Kenyatta who supported the Kibaki win and who is along with William Ruto and others summoned, no, indicated, a word not so light in law am reminded, by the International Criminal Court for the violence that ensued in 2007.

At that time Ruto was working with Raila Odinga in the Orange Democratic Movement. What makes these get support but not the other is perhaps based on personality and charisma. The two since they are summoned by ICC have kept on declaring their stand. The woman candidate did not take this as a matter of importance after so many people kept on saying that she needed to clear her name. She has been a legislator for many years and she helped draft the Political Parties Bill and many others in Kenya.

It is very clear that we did not follow the Political Parties Bill when it came to the nominations during the primaries. We modified it to suit our own poor tendencies to hop into a new party when defeated in one´s own party. What are political parties in Kenya at the time? In truth, they have never really been serious. People leave them and those with power buy them like clothes in order to have a platform.

The National Alliance (TNA) now contesting the elections was bought not so long ago from a politician to another and re-launched as a vehicle for Uhuru Kenyatta to clinch power. But we are looking at what and why we will celebrate post 4^th March 2013. How we shall feel and react after the election.

This might be the first step in taking elections to the level where the votes will always be counted right but much remains to be proven. Why and how have some people been judged with regard to the violence of 2007 by Kenyans since they are offered red carpet reception wherever they go? What explains the voters behavior in sticking to them? They say only two things. Money and the ethnic block size in their support. Fame and history might also be in the mix. But to be president in Kenya, one will need a simple majority of all votes cast in the country as well as a majority in half of the 47 newly Counties. So, it appears if we can say who is president on the 4^th of March, we shall have truly overcome many obstacles. That might be a great celebration. Those who represent the Counties and Constituencies will be seen in the light of the president they supported. Different peoples of Kenya will watch carefully to see who of their children get rewarded with senior positions. Many will fight to get national jobs. Favours will be returned. Sometimes qualifications will be shunted aside to repay campaign monies and they say this is so in many a land.

Two. Judging from comments I read in the media both traditional and social, most people will be glad that at last the season of electioneering is over. "It has been too much!" We say.

There are many people already wishing that voting had been over and done with. The Constitution which was adopted in August 2010 stipulates that General Elections be held on the 14^th day of August every five years.  August was named because many people found elections in December when they used to be held interfered too much with end -of- year celebrations. December holidays were rendered into grueling and tiresome days during election campaigns. Candidates have always been in terms with the idea that campaigns begin immediately after an election but not so the people. The result is that many say Kenya is over politicised. Other matters need attention. But so far I have not seen anyone asking for any ministerial public accounting, balance sheets and statements. It is assumed that the Permanent Secretaries will be there in another form and shape and will find out why nurses, lecturers, public transport operators, doctors and so many others went on strike in recent times.

 Kenyans are weary of the money and energy expended in elections. That it is not repaid in service is nothing new.  Many are fed up of the greedy politicians that always make it back due to bribery of the voters with a little money here and there. So third maybe Kenya celebrates the rejection of some former legislators, some of which they had buried symbolically before the election, but some of them will be back for quite some years. No smiles. 

Fourth and very important: There will be some who will be celebrating the win of especially their presidential candidate the closest to getting into State House being Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta. And just as these will be celebrating, the losing team will be smarting but I hope not fighting over the results as in December 2007, for this time nobody can say that Kenya does not have a competent -even if threatened- Judiciary system to resolve any differences that might arise.  Article 87 Electoral Disputes in our constitution promises that petitions can be filed 28 days after the election except in the presidential case of presidents when a petition is filed within seven days. We have a judiciary worth celebration.

 Why would we be saying the Judiciary is not up to the task when so many have argued that we could even try the suspects who have been summoned by the International Criminal Court in our own courts since we are up to the mark? It begins to get dark here.

 Kenya will apparently be a very happy country to live in because the winners in this race might also be the very people that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is interested in trying. This will mean seeing a head of state who has claimed that he is so clean proven so before the whole wide world.

Uhuru Kenyatta who in his Jubilee team with running mate William Ruto have been implicated in the violence that rocked Kenya in 2007 after the last General Election we held. The Constitution of Kenya 2010, Chapter 6 on Integrity was cited as reason why Uhuru and Ruto should not have vied for the presidency but it was superseded by their own reasoning and that of the Eugene Wamalwa, Minister for Justice, who unlike his predecessor Mutula Kilonzo, declared the two fit to run for office and in fact belonged to their team for the presidency too. We need they say to have youthful leadership in Kenya. Wamalwa, Kenyatta and Ruto are seen as youth. They are in their 50 Jubilee decade.

Uhuru and Ruto, also referred to as Uhuruto have always declared they are innocent and do not need trial first to prove their innocence. They set out to work to contest for the highest office saying that if the ICC summoned them after the election, they could run the country via the internet. They belong to the Jubilee Alliance.

If their team wins versus the CORD whose presidential candidate is Raila Odinga, then there will be a mood of  victory clearly tinged with the honest realization that a legal process of no simple nature awaits them. Many have said that they are using Kenya as shield since if elected they can always ask how  so -if they are so likeable and electable- could they also be so criminal as to have made Kenyans chop one another with machetes. The ICC has its evidence. Everything will be pegged on their professional and uninfluenced work. If declared innocent, Kenyans will have only lost, so they say a little concentration on running the country. Kenyans will be celebrating again, the power of the internet. Wow! The first country to be governed online will be Kenya. She has firsts you know too, in marathon running. And an old motto that said Yote yawezekana bila Nyayo ...All is possible without Nyayo, the nickname of Moi who insisted that Kenyatta Jomne had done such a sterling job in leading Kenya that all we needed was to follow his nyayo footsteps. He so believed this that he turned Kenyatta Uhuru, the son of Jomo into a politicians whose little footsteps were worth enlarging into those of a president. Uhuru had Moi´s support for presidency in 2002 but he flopped. Now he apprently does not have it for Moi sees it this time as tribalism, but the job is done. Uhuru believes Kenya cannot do without him at the helm.

We will be lucky to get a Kenya that grows no matter who of the two : Raila or Uhuru win. For that will depend so much on how the losers submit themselves to the winner and work hard to knit a nation split by the votes into one. For growth as we saw with Kibaki is not only about the economy but about Kenyans remaining united. But as of now, the signs for that are non –existent.

Many times the words exchanged between the two teams -Jubilee and Cord- have not been words that make Kenyans proud to be one nation. What will happen after one side wins? And to complicate matters more there might be no clear winner and then there will be a run off and as polls show this will be between Odinga and Uhuruto.

Will the people of Kenya really then rest from electioneering? It has been almost three years of tight racing. If the Odinga side wins, then will there be less action towards having Uhuru Kenyatta and Ruto tried at home in Kenya?

There are a number of people writing to say that Kenya Election 2013 is a cursed vote. Damn it if you go this way and damn it if you go the other. But does Kenya deserve this kind of situation in her 50^th year after independence and if not why are we here?

When Kofi Annan and the team of Eminent persons helped Kenya come together in 2007, there was an agreement that the coalition government of Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki would implement an accord which included Agenda 4. This work was slow. If it had been done we would not be in that where the majority speakers of one language and of one region seem to be wooed almost to a man as they say and this time to a woman to vote in their tribal king again. 

I think that many Kenyans have realized that one of the great things to celebrate on 4^th March 2013 is that President Mwai Kibaki, third president of Kenya from 2002 – 2013 will have left office. He spoke at length in the last national celebrations about his great achievement in giving the people of Kenya a constitution in 2010.

But we know that it is the people of Kenya who fought for this constitution. We also know that he had favored in the referendum of 2005 a document - Bomas Draft- which was voted out by the people, leaving his government embarrassed. He then proceeded to plant the biggest roots of tribalism Kenya has had since colonial times.

Mwai Kibaki sacked Raila Odinga, Mutula Kilonzo, Kalonzo Musyoka and others who opposed the Draft Constitution from their ministerial positions. The leadership of Kibaki failed Kenya in 2005 for we did not need him trumpeting his take on the constitution and having Awori, the late Michuki, the late Njenga Karume in a Mount Kenya block that was opposed by ODM as his team. He was not president of Central Kenya but of Kenya. He did not need a kitchen cabinet from his own area. He did not need to fear the views of the late Wangari Maathai (and others from Central Kenya who opposed him) because she could traverse borders in thought but he shunned her and her ideas.

 We did not need the sacking of a whole lot of ministers from mainly all communities except Central Kenya because Kibaki had already reneged on the Memorandum of Understanding which was seen as swindling Raila   and his supporters who again would end up seeming to be mainly from Nyanza and therefore as Central Province versus the rest of the country. This is how vicious tribalism ended up being the worst enemy of Kenya today.

And this bridge had been crossed when Raila Odinga campaigned for Kibaki in 2002 and said Kibaki Tosha! Kibaki is capable! Such trust has never been shown to other ethnic groups by Central Kenya leaders of old. The so called younger ones should have been our bet. But no. Uhuru Kenyatta perpetuates this old dichotomy between the people of Nyanza and those of Central Province.

Bringing the two communities together would have been one of the greatest legacies he could have given to Kenya. The same applies to Raila. But as far as we know, none of the two are even campaigning in the so called other´s block. We are entrenched in tribal voting. We have been unable to close the chasm the British left between the Gikuyu and the Luo in 1963, a divide that one Harry Thuku of Kenya in 1922, had bridged as he tried to get the Kikuyu Association to work with the Kavirondo Association of Nyanza but was stopped in his tracks by colonial masters. Beyond 2013, Kenya will need to open up to leadership that defies Kenya´s historical track.