tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58664531155669082842024-03-13T19:25:18.817-07:00 Barefoot & Boldly KenyanBoldVoice Kenya in search of justice. Afrika: Mothers freedom.
Kenya: Leadership vs Politics. Free Expression. VoteNightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-7962181834139977022017-08-13T16:00:00.000-07:002017-08-13T23:23:45.166-07:002017, Kenya post- election deadlock is old; who did not see it coming did not want to, and the child is dead<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VRi6RUCkUo">Mathare Math in voice...for Raila Odinga</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> His mouth is open with fear. The palms of his hands with fingers open. This is a flag of fear. The child in the photo below is bleeding. He only raises his hand to protect him from the baton of a uniformed officer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Most are distressed by events in Kenya, after the 2017 elections and release of presidential results. Tension heightened and there is history of such situations resulting in endless violence. We need many voices to call out action for reason in unison. We are still hurting from 2007 and even before. Why then do we lose focus?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2eRNmGEHZxA/WZDWouMVYGI/AAAAAAAAGiw/LWH_LGI4NL4K3BD0jiVB2c10RtnU3VodwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG-20170812-WA0028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="540" height="212" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2eRNmGEHZxA/WZDWouMVYGI/AAAAAAAAGiw/LWH_LGI4NL4K3BD0jiVB2c10RtnU3VodwCEwYBhgL/s320/IMG-20170812-WA0028.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">United in grief, for the deaths and brutal attacks by police after the presidential election result pro Kenyatta was announced, the people of Mathare and Kibera that is the greater part of Nairobi statistically, are inconsolable. They experienced brutal force on the night that the presidential election results were declared and they blame the local media for not covering their pain. They suffered in dark. Literally.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Part of Mathare was out of electricity as bullets rang through the night. That must be very scary not just for children but for all. We must all raise our concerns and ask that issues be addressed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The law of Kenya provides for that no ballots are destroyed after an election. Judging from the depth of the sense of betrayal, we must focus on options that can bring us back to normality.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Those who were told they lost are undivided in their disappointment and certainty that their president, president of the poor, Raila Odinga had the victory and that the server of the Election Commission was hacked. No serious IT professionals, who are neutral have been asked to look into this matter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Where as both sides in support of Uhuru and Raila - knew about the possibility of losing votes- nobody expected to lose even one child to bullets. Not that many had not imagined the worst. Politics has been played with a negative ethnicity card for many years now. We have failed in honesty at many levels. Credibility in election processes is lost.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Greed, corruption and a hunger for power that never halts, talking cheaply against other ethnic groups and arrogance of whole populations once their own is in power, especially those who hold public office. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The tussle for winning the vote is a big one. The talk about fighting all corruption comes after winning by any means possible and while that is not always peculiar to one side, the team that runs state machinery can do it to a deadly success. Fear of violence is therefore always lurking around elections. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Insecure, some parents started taking children from schools and away to the countryside weeks before the elections. But those could afford it. People who live in what we call slums, normally do not have such luxury. They stay through thick and thin. They are united in hope for change. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">They stay put, they have the historical almost forgotten issues not lurking in the background but staring at them in the foreground.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">An unacceptable trait: Kenya does not answer causes of the deaths of people who are critical and adamant to see change. Different governments have not moved on that and they are couched in a people that forget what hurts the neighbor easily. We say it quite clearly that before we look at such issues of the neighbor, we must be fed first, we must have cooked our own posho. </span><span style="font-size: large;">So that we can sell our dead? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Beat this. I read that we even had disgusting ads this year, 2017, that made fun of the people who died in post -election violence of 2008.</span><a href="http://www.wandianjoya.com/blog/kenya-elections-2017-a-massive-fraud-by-the-genius-of-evil-with-international-participation" style="font-size: x-large;">The ad would show them sitting up in... and more on International raw server</a><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Most certainly, justice and truth do not embrace here.</span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2eRNmGEHZxA/WZDWouMVYGI/AAAAAAAAGis/pZVG8wg5RYgqAmqWwYlc7FuCZHBn0RuBgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG-20170812-WA0028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="540" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2eRNmGEHZxA/WZDWouMVYGI/AAAAAAAAGis/pZVG8wg5RYgqAmqWwYlc7FuCZHBn0RuBgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG-20170812-WA0028.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The displaced 600 000. Other silent figures of previous elections, struggle to keep things together to the next election, to sell calves to take children to university. The internally displaced did not begin in 2007. That was seen from the outside. Inside out, many suffered for years, displaced too by desperate want. They have nothing to lose and would face a hail of bullets and blood will flow. The Government Of Kenya must stop shooting its own people and allow demonstrations for self expression.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Did we think it would all go away quietly and leave everyone on sweet dreams mattresses? Regional injustice in Africa is lethal, anywhere else people try to address it early for history has shown it is time bomb.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">You cannot speak much from the 'outside', if you have never worked in an organisation in Kenya, and found that the staff was riven down the middle on a tribal basis. Then you learned some things you wished you never knew. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then you knew how tribalism eats its way through development and is a big resource waster, both human and material. You do not know how in the past, scholarships are cast into bins because there is nobody from "Our tribe" to take it and that is all. Not a care for the nation's tomorrow. Not a worry for the welfare of the whole country.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">The making of minions</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Joy is broken and grief as well. In between only some voices of hope. This is violence against one ethnic group. Which one? The one that is not in power of course? But we have world history to learn from </span><span style="font-size: large;">and surely we have not forgotten Rwanda, 1994 and never should.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is hard to watch the poor family of this little girl who was shot on the balcony as a family member takes out her little dress from a bucket..</span><span style="font-size: large;">And we should not have to if they could trust the police with the evidence. Instead, they complain of receiving a call from a policeman who does not tell them exactly what he wants. Mr Orengo sorted that out. It should be the police doing that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And that cannot but remind one that there must be fear too that the case of Msando, the IEBC, IT expert who was assassinated will also be in dragging in the aftermath. His family had already complained before the elections that there was much lethargy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The father of Moraa points at the bullet hole at the back of her dress.</span><span style="font-size: large;">Were children to die in election 2017, in order to frighten parents into submission? How crass is that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Outside the house and in the whole of Mathare, it is now history. A mammoth crowd could drown any celebration by election winners anywhere. But bad things keep escaping the eye of the local press which is on the other hand, also getting its arms curbed either by loss of equipment or from police interference.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Something has to change. Fear will fill the air and fear is not a good component for anything. It is dark.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Could wisdom have saved us from this?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>After a blog post in which I expressed the fact that no matter what kind of constitution we have, as individuals we must try to see how to heal the rifts between the two main ethnic blocks, the Luo and the Kikuyu, it seemed I made no sense. But ethnic hatred exploded on social media. It never stopped spewing since the last election of 2013. But can one advise some people to keep off seeking for power? It seems not. Many called it naive to look into what one man's election might mean to an entire ethnic group in years to come. But numbers seemed to speak several languages leaving us split into two. IT in electronic voting may have succeeded but doubts cast in 2017 were not addressed. But going back to background wisdom...</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>How could a rich business person not vie on and on, despite his ethnic group having led thrice since independence, with only one other president, Moi, having come from then, what the Kikuyu, saw a small ethnic group? </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>We have not forgotten how the Kikuyu supremacists then referred to Moi's government. It was a passing cloud, the government of a young fledgling, man. He was lucky not to be called a boy. He, unlike Raila comes from the Kalenjin group where initiation of men is similar to that of the Kikuyu. It seems easier to tolerate then. The measure must be just to be Kenyan for voting and otherwise just human, always human.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>When we take our reason right back to defining ourselves by numbers, customs, power and tongue, there, clearly, constitutions, numbers do not, cannot heal us because the rifts and killings were caused by the same. Numbers, customs, power and tongues. Wisdom must come in. Risks must be taken so that other groups in their elected leader can see their weaknesses and strengths.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>In a flash, Uhuru Kenyatta's presidency has been that of Moi and KANU, which Moi said would rule for the next 100 years.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Back to Nairobi in this moment. Any time there is chaos in Mathare in Nairobi, and Kibera, if only just one of them, Nairobi does not function. It cannot. The two townships outnumber the rest of Nairobi, being bigger and more powerful in if not votes, voice. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The residents of this area bear the brunt of it when police go out shooting and that for them is often. Many an evening young men have been done away with just like that. At such times the rich areas of Nairobi, the safer areas, do not stop to ask. They do not shed a tear and if visitors come to Nairobi, the poor are ordered back to the slums. You see clean flags and gardens as is to be expected. No red carpets in Mathare and Kibera. Only bloodsheds</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>They said, if one asked often that human rights activists who know nothing about defending the nation were the real problem in Kenya. Human rights must be upheld and that they are complex</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>especially when they are also economic rights on the verge of breakage daily in an environment where what should be security is a permanent risk. Few leaders can stand up in Mathare and Kibera and speak the way Raila does. But he is an old hand at it.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There was a new born child named after Raila Odinga years back, because he was born when Raila Odinga jetted back into the Kenyan airport and was driven straight to a burning and troubled Mathare.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But a little girl is dead. She was shot from the back when playing on a balcony soon after the presidential results were announced. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Raila, lost to the incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta, for the second time, the last being in 2013. But he had already 'lost' in 2007 to Kibaki whom Raila supported on his way up, only to be swindled on something they called The Memorandum of Understanding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And today, this child</span><span style="font-size: large;">, is only represented by a distraught family, phone calls to Muthaiga police Station. Her bullet ridden little dress and her slippers are in a plastic bucket. W</span><span style="font-size: large;">e are shocked by a reality that escapes figures, words and history and that is all the time passed on in ways none can understand. Genocide is not about big numbers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Flash back to a museum in Rwanda. I read the words of a little child just before the genocide recently. He said, just before he died. "UNAMIR will come to our rescue." He wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. Perhaps that bullet that killed Moraa in Mathare just snatched from us, a future president. We are always thinking only 'we' can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">UNAMIR did not go to their rescue, Koffi Annan did not make it. The church that had impacted the country did not seem to have seen it coming and got deeply involved in the negative side of things. Of course many were innocent too but who would have expected even one nun or priest to be so blind to the evil of ethnic division. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So that the determination that Kenya should succeed as a nation is always on paper and in business heads that do the math way beyond their own family businesses in years to come.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This point as well as historical injuries, which are blatant when it comes again to wrongs of the Luo and the Kikuyu so called dynasties. Old Kenyatta and Raila's father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is reality that has found no heart where a society is all about material gains and greed is under every carpet and above it. The head wallows in darkness while still trying to prove that everything will be fine, if we just follow the rules, the constitution. Uphold it with the limbs of the people intact. Not with museums of the dead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My hope has always been that at some stage someone will understand that having a majority vote from certain blocks of the country will not mean managing to unite this beautiful country especially when, the one trying to do so, has not managed to know where the barefoot of the poor pinches. Here we cannot talk about the shoe pinching because very often the foot is bare.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Even before 2017, unrest in Mathare could paralyze Nairobi, but now the child is dead. Unrest in Mathare will be. Many young people have been shot dead in Mathare for years, and nobody </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">accounts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Moraa was just playing on the balcony. Other people thought they were just working out an election, announcing results and listening to observers. For half an hour, imagine you are Moraa, all in silence. Nine and lying in the morgue. Save this nation. Look critically at the grievances of those aggrieved. They cannot be dismissed with an angry gesture and gunfire.</span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-52143565370882019622015-12-01T10:35:00.000-08:002015-12-03T04:12:15.163-08:00So strong a spirit, Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye (MOM), Kenyan poet and novelist, leaves the sound of her typewriter ringing in my ear<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tSSSg5PJq0Q/Vl3Rmw6eyII/AAAAAAAAGYg/hVBSgLB05RE/s1600/Marj.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tSSSg5PJq0Q/Vl3Rmw6eyII/AAAAAAAAGYg/hVBSgLB05RE/s1600/Marj.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, author, 1928- this morning, 1.12.2015</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya and Afrika have lost, today, a great hero of our times, a silent and contemplative novelist and poet of immense value to the world. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, MOM. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Her typewriter still rings the ´return´ push in my ear because I saw her determination to build us, to help everywhere. I saw her type. She was humble enough to write letters to me after I left Kenya. She added a four liner by hand, to give the ever loved human touch. A gem. I want to pay tribute to her immediately, even as later, I shall write better on her life and help in Kenya. She was known as Mother or Gem (pronounced soft g not as in get) of Min Gem, the place where her late husband Oludhe Macgoye came from. Her rural home. She mainly lived in Nairobi.<br />In 1954, Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye lived in Pumwani, Eastlands. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The UK, she was bornon October 21st, 1928 in Southampton, is a land Marjorie left and just lived. She is/was always just our dear MOM, as she used to sign up on some documents. In 1963 the family visited Marjorie´s father in England (Marjorie´s mother died soon after she came to Kenya) using a small unexpected legacy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There were no ethnic origin or other issues with her. In other words, don´t even begin to think of difference with the locals. Simply put, just a life... almost hidden in some ways, and boldly written out in other forms, and that is what shakes one. Out of that ´silence´, so much streams, giving life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In 1960, she married Daniel Oludhe Macgoye and a few years after their marriage, Daniel was posted to the Alupe Leprosarium on the Ungandan/Kenyan border. This was more to do with unusual people, she told me in an interview.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">MOM</span><span style="font-size: large;"> was familiar with not being seen as right, not fitting, for these kind of marriages were not accepted. MOM is a strong spirit and she never dropped her gaze on social matters. She recorded the history of Kenya and lived it, in its many languages and transitions of power. One can read that in all her poems in Song of <i>Nyarloka </i>and Other poems. She, for most of us, ceased to be the one from a foreign land or from abroad, once one read her works. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">She nurtured in them her spiritual growth for a society she wished justice, cohesion and strength especially for the poor. She watched the Union Jack go down on December 12th 1963 and she lived and worked in Shauri Moyo, Huruma and other east Nairobi zones that are alive in her works. Her own life became a challenge for the society of her times. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">How could people from different continents make a home? Especially this one and that one... black and white issues. But she lived happily also in Tanzania for a few years. It was in 1971 when she left Kisumu with the children and went to Dar es Salaam. There she helped re-organize the university bookshop. Shen enjoyed the challenging job in Tanzania. In 1975, the family re-united in Nairobi as Daniel was still working in Kisumu. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">MOM was the organiser of readings with Jonathan Kariara, Okot P´bitek and sometimes Taban Lo Liyong at the SJ Moore bookshop which was then on Government Road. I could tell she loved those days. She enjoyed the memories of sharing readings and I got the impression I could feel the warmth of this group from the distant past. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But I touched her grief when she spoke about Johnathan Kariara´s last days in hospital. It was there so often. She was a strong sorrowful and hopeful mother. She visited Jonathan Kariara in hospital and chatted. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Marjorie was close to those who suffer, a thing not to be taken for granted from what I have seen with artists. She wrote for many who were assassinated and her poem for Archbishop Luwum is outstanding. Bishop Janani Luwum, 1922 - 1977, was killed in Uganda during the reign of Idi Amin. The Anglican church considers him a martyr. He was arrested on February 16th and he died shortly after.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Reading her poem in memory of Okot p´Bitek, Omera from the anthology <i>Boundless Voices </i>one gets to the core of this compassionate closeness which I wish for her now from us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Her tone pierces like a sword. How Marjorie´s soul enters </span><span style="font-size: large;">into his tragedy is sacred, the poem a shrine of love, reverence and hope. It is a portrait in color and so visual:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Omera</span><br />
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So they have got you down at last, Omera<br />
unmanned, incombatant, silenced, constrained,<br />
bound in the noisy dark where small things burrow<br />
and leaves that once waved high proudly moulder<br />
......<br />
So may the night be fierce for you with stars<br />
blazing, with prowlers beautified in power<br />
.............<br />
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Where homesteads crumbled, let again the pumpkin<br />
take root and bind the soil, speaking beasts, singers<br />
and sinuous dancers share all secrets with you --<br />
tell how we, in the shadowy city, loved you.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">She loved her typewriter and writing was a passionate vocation for her. She banged on it long after computers came, and with joy. Failing sight hardly deterred her. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">She was concerned with the new abandon of letters and documents everywhere... She warned me about writing all my thesis on the new word processors at that time because the risk of losing information that way was greater. Her position next to the window which a few meters below gave way to the market and facing some family pictures particularly one with her husband said a lot about her. It was always great to find her there. She answered all my questions and offered me to take and read ... as well as drink or eat something whenever we visited. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And she was practical, offered opportunities she heard about selflessly. She introduced me to friends of hers with great pride. I shall miss her for she was in my life at a time when many could not even begin to understand my journey. She gave me a book I still read, The Great Loneliness. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">She was, for most of us, the first and only originally European person who spoke fluent Dholuo and had no problems relating at many levels. She also mastered Kiswahili. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What do I mean? People traveling from far and passing through Nairobi stopped by. No complaints. Marjorie went to her kitchen and brought out something. I so miss our teas... made in her kitchen, watching the kettle boil and she not one to expect to be waited upon and so eager to serve, one had to beat her at her own game and she was fast!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Young and poor people felt her alike. She stood for Kenya with her great poem "A Freedom Song", which has made Atieno´s unhappy plight awaken consciences. Atieno yo...! Atieno is a domestic worker for relations who mistreat her a terribly pervasive situation we know well in Kenya and other parts of the world. And yet the song is a deep song of the plight of the poor and Kenya and those who lord it over the Miriams of this world. The woman to whom she dedicates a poem, For Miriam....hard, cracked knuckles, and voices often muted, muffled...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />When I had a few days in Kenya last year I made sure I visited CũcũMarjorie as my son and so many call her. We read to her the translation of A Freedom Song which Helmuth A. Niederle had made and published in Podium a copy of which she had received. She was nodding happily. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then she remarked how so many people in Kenya, tell her how great her poem is and YET, she said, some of them did not stop mistreating Atienos! I quoted the German version here. I studied her and will always reflect on her works and thoughts. I know her vision can ´build´people, a region and inculcate changing ways or perceptions. Marjorie´s life should teach Kenyans to overcome tribalism among other things and that... even better than Pope Francis who visited Kenya a few days ago. Kenya does not lack, it fails to harness. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.frauensolidaritaet.org/images/doku/fs_130_ikonya.pdf">http://www.frauensolidaritaet.org/images/doku/fs_130_ikonya.pdf</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">MOM was never one to bow out or pretend to see rosy pictures. IF there was anybody I wanted to see smiling about the social situation in Kenya it was her. I did not want her to hear that we had huge ethnic differences and tensions, even abuses. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">She was very happy to see me and actually, not knowing when I would see her again, I asked her to bless us, and she obliged. She knew what I meant. </span><span style="font-size: large;">She touched our foreheads and blessed my future before I left. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> MOM saw defends Atieno and makes all reflect and hate abuse ... Atieno sleeps on a sack, wakes up early and washes dishes, plucks the chicken, is left in charge of family and suffers incest and dies of post partum bleeding... <i>Atieno yo</i>, the sorrowful call and refrain became like a national anthem to some of us.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Author Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye was firstly an intellectual, a hard working woman in love with writing but also, in a discreet way, loving God the Creator very much, and confessing her faith in the Anglican community. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">She is/was a precious mother and grandmother. She did not like to see children left alone even for a few days by their parents. I remember how clearly she expressed herself on that, with details. She knew what justice and truth mean, and she did not waver in pointing that out. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We shall miss Marjorie for so many reasons. I enjoyed her works, especially the earlier ones, when I wrote the first masters research on her in the University of Nairobi: <i>Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye and the quest for Freedom: A Study of </i>Coming to Birth<i>, </i>Song of Nyarloka and Other Poems. But far beyond her works was her conscientious self. She lived by the moral tenets she pointed out to others.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I was lucky to see her and spend time with her so often and as often as I wanted, I could pass by her house, like many others and share a word or two. As long as she was at home, Marjorie would always open the door with a smile. It did not matter that the appointment was sudden or one was just checking on her. She even told me how to tell if she was at home from far. What to look out for.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Min Gem, Mother of Gem, as they called her in Nyanza was just that. I would like to call her Min Kenya mainly because all the signs are there and she is more. I say that as I remember how she once called me to write about a poor sickly man who had fought for freedom in Mau Mau and who was living in a squalid shack and collecting garbage to make a coin and how she fed him. She was full of compassion. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I wrote the article but Marjorie knows that it was not published because the editor said that the newspapers did not want to carry stories like that one and the emphasis was on a certain ethnic group, from which the editor, JM, then also came from. We worried together about this self censorship. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But more important was how the people who sold in kiosks around Nyayo Market rushed to open the gate for one, once one mentioned CũcũMarjorie. Truly they loved her and would slide the lock easily and safely for visitors whenever there was no one to open the gate to the block of flats</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">where she lived. People who do not know Nairobi may fail to read the big sign there... </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">MOM was never one to fear them or think of being attacked. Why would she? She was just one more. She told me so. Just ask them for Mama George, she told me on my first visit, and they will let you in. Or, she said, and I still have the notes I scribbled on a review she had made on my writing just ask them where is Mzungu... she did not understand that as offensive.</span></div>
Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-29721322681614302322015-04-08T07:13:00.004-07:002015-04-08T14:01:57.612-07:00Garissa, A Thousand Times Good Night and 41 Million Times am more than sorry, Dear Mama Kenya, Wangari Maathai<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KDw3ciEHFdA/VSVwpsBuBtI/AAAAAAAAGLw/yOkrTSEBzrQ/s1600/Wangari%2Band%2Btree%2B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KDw3ciEHFdA/VSVwpsBuBtI/AAAAAAAAGLw/yOkrTSEBzrQ/s1600/Wangari%2Band%2Btree%2B.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wangari Maathai Born 1st April, died 25 Sept<br />
2011.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear Mama Kenya:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Wangari Maathai</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">I missed the celebration of your birthday on 1st April because the children were at home. It was hectic.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> I always want to tell you how we are getting on. How Kenya is doing. I don't know how to let you go, maybe. The world hasn't. Peru has immortalised you in a statue. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">They say we glorify you but who forgets a mother so brave? But we have bad news so very often. This is not yet the nation you dreamt of in your own ways. I wonder what you would have made of it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am sorry is not enough. For you come from a land of beauty and hope. A land not afraid to win, not afraid to lose. A land that knows that in Kiswahili. <i>Asiye kubali kushindwa si mshindani</i>... the one who does not accept defeat is not a winner. But we cannot lose human life silently.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">We are brave people. This is who we are before we are twisted to think that winning means only money taken as fast as possible out of public coffers. Unaccountability. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, even among the people otherwise the ones in power would care more about their image. Something we need to put right. So that we can hold them in check. They need to remember your determined yet smiling objection to some things. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am sorry that 142 students and other people in service died shot by Al Shabaab in Kenya. 148 is the total. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Most Kenyans, we shall believe all of them, are extremely saddened by this and they worry too about Nigeria, Syria, Yemen and Iran... and other hot spots. Not so long ago some of these students said to us: I am Charlie Hebdo! They wanted solidarity against terror in the world. They asked the Kenyan government to protect them before in a protest last year in November. Instead they were arrested as usual.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now who are they? What can we be for them and their relatives? Mine is to share thoughts before taking my canoe of letters and sailing. These students have changed my life forever. So has a film I will not forget. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The film is 'A Thousand Times Good Night', made with the support of the Swedish Film Institute and all the media in Norway. It comes to my mind often. Three reasons. One is that it wants to wake up a world asleep with regard to the atrocities happening daily. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The producer is Norwegian, Eirik Poppe. He is a war reporter. This film visits war zones and at the end of it, Becca, Juliet Binoche will visit Dadaab Refugee camp with her daughter and again, just escape death by less than a whisker with her already traumatised daughter. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya has lost too many people who had great dreams of a united country. Messages from these students showed the same desire. Even those written during a terror attack. Our security and government says that they worked fast but many say no. How could journalists arrive there before the the security from Nairobi? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Many bodies are yet to be identified. Nobody is asking or answering why so many students fled the attack, so that earlier reports indicating a missing 533 persons is no longer a topic. I know even if they say you were not always perfect in all things, this you would be asking.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The horror has been to find out that the mastermind was a brilliant young Nairobi University lawyer. We have to wake up. He was not planting trees of any kind. Not of hope, not green ones... and yet he was answering questions well in his law class. Our waking up includes understanding that some young people will go for radicalisation. Young people from rich backgrounds. Young people from poor backgrounds. While the world fought visible poverty did it lose sight of cultural poverty? What stories do those radicalised people read? Have love poems and long stories with songs ended in Somalia?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenyan leaders have recommended the immediate closure of Dadaab Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya. A long list of possible offenders has been released. They are 86. It is a list of what people call 'Muslim' names and businesses. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Mama, Am watching A Thousand Times Good Night again as I blog. The mother in the film, Becca has just come home After recovery from being in almost bombed to smithereens... In a suicide bomb attack.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"You are...and nice warm and smelly..." </span><span style="font-size: large;">The youngest has just chanted hugging her Mum who joins her as if in </span><span style="font-size: large;">a duet. Becca role is played by Juliet Binoche. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Becca knows now that Steph cried when they saw her in hospital on the Internet. This reminds me of how we used to be angry when you were arrested. This taught most of us to keep speaking out for justice. When I last met you in Oslo in June 2009, you opened a big meeting. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I</span><span style="font-size: large;"> was sitting at the back not sure I would ever make it to talk to you. I was not hopeful until Caroline Marcomick came to me and asked me, 'Philo, would you like some few words with Wangari? I can ask her daughter Wanjira to arrange that you meet her.' I agreed hesitantly seeing how many people surrounded her. I was surprised that Caroline did that. I made it, was almost the last one to chat with you before you left. I asked you if you would join us in a vigil for Aung San Syu Kii where we would discuss freedom in Nairobi. Your were scheduled to be in Australia and you could not make it. You thought it was a lovely idea. Syu Kii was still under house arrest and her 62nd birthday was on the way.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">How hard it can be for women, but you inspire us still, all of you! Right now Aung San Syu Kii is not heard much in Burma which is having a hard time. I am sure she does some things that do not reach the media. I am imagining at least she suffers for the Ruhingya Muslims even if she cannot speak out that much. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I learnt from experience. I had almost condemned your silence some time back because of this hard struggle that was never ending. I thought you needed to tell Kibaki off for taking things easy and for treating you badly. I wanted you to be the Minister of Environment not the Deputy of Kivutha Kibwana in those days. Then I read your book one Easter. A Woman Unbowed. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I remember I read it in the silence of a house by lake Naivasha recovering from what it had taken to get involved with an a poet and actor who felt so abandoned in her last days fighting cancer at Kenyatta Hospital. That large and lonely place. Another poet offered me a place to hide for it had been quite tough, her final journey in which I found myself like in many things just by chance. Wambui Wa Murima. I shall write about her here another day. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I cried reading your book. I read it and then slowly in silent reverence, I decided that you owed us nothing more because you had done your best. I never imagined cancer would also come for you, it often does for activists. They inhale the hurts. We are all vulnerable.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I know a friend of mine always complained that you should have told the UN that they too built up in Karura forest. I do not know the sequence here. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I hope someone will look at that and correct it if he is wrong. It is good for posterity. I remember how you one day came home and the house was strewn with papers and your husband had left you. In the film I am now listening to Becca talking with her husband. Trying to see what she should stop to do for the sake of her children.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Her husband wants her in bed. Traditionally I should not tell you that, but let us talk as friends and for the sake of other women in power today in Kenya and elsewhere. Balancing family, leadership and activism is hard. Somebody suffers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Becca explains that she has been in an explosion. He knows that and I wonder what he is thinking as we say at home. I now realise that what he does not know is WHY she insists on going to war zones, to hear, according to him, shots, gives her life. Gun shots. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Like some said that you chose to have your hair pulled off by police because you were being too much standing up to a dictator....But Becca, she had dangerously 'wanted to tell the story' and seeing how suicide bombers prepared themselves making their bed of death is not enough to deter her.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">But in her family, things are falling apart. He loved her because of her passion, she says. But he cannot stand her passion for people that suffer now.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The little girl tells it in full innocence..." and Daddy is sleeping on the sofa these days..." Maybe some day you will watch the film and think of Kenya and other places. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is the conflict of if Becca just enjoys publicity but she knows she does not. She knows she wants to move the world to act. She tries to focus on her family only. She tells the newspaper editor who is expecting her great work that she has quit. But how could she when she is making it to the highest levels. People want to own her in Ireland, in other countries. ..But seeing it makes no sense to her to abandon her passion and career, she forges on, remaining true to herself. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Her husband and daughter recoil from her telling her she stinks death. Let me stop there because no deaths are pictures. All pictures of deaths from terror have been seen before they could be put on film.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Garissa University College is the last terror attack in Kenya since the blast in Westgate Nairobi, the bombing of the USA embassy in 1998. But there are a myriad of other small ones that go without much notice just like there are huge numbers of deaths in Iran, Syria and </span><span style="font-size: large;">Yemen that also somehow fall off the edge of our concerns. Your words remind me to do something small each time. In the end, it is powers, and numbers. And numbers and big things are won with little chips day by day... We have new homework. Words we cannot understand or fathom, like radicalisation in the way we have come to know it. How do we say them to our children in mother tongue? You know we should not leave everything to schools?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So why am I writing this thousands of miles from home in Kenya which I left after the third peaceful arrest in 2009? Arrests for peaceful calls for freedom of speech and - yes,</span><span style="font-size: large;"> being very critical - as somebody has recorded in a thesis, of all the governments that have existed in Kenya: Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki and now Uhuru Kenyatta?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am writing this because you believed that you inherited the world from its children. Us. So many thank you for your work on environment and how you linked it with democracy. I am writing this because you opened our paths. I am writing this because I want to tell it and I am free.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am writing whilst reflecting on Becca's conviction in the film, that her camera meant something. That somebody else might see her pictures and fall out of the sickness of indifference. That she could perhaps shake the world. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The producer spoke at the premier of the film in Norway at the Gimle Kino. I was there. He said he was always depressed by how normal life seemed in Western cities when he came back from war torn areas. So complacent.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And everyone I met or knew spoke of how you were not indifferent. I now see a wonderful statue of you in Peru, a different kind of beauty of you in stone. By doing that, they have said something for all people of dark skins. What a South-South thing! It consoled me as in these days, news of black people in other parts of the world are about killings. Especially of black boys. Micheal Slager today, eight shots in the back...I know what you would say, and Micheal Brown yesterday.. so many in between. So to find a positive mind is unique. This should not be so.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I was also so delighted to receive words form a young man in Nairobi who calls himself Njoroge Filosofa. He wrote about Garissa killings of the 148.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"Our children at Garissa were holding a pen. Terrorists a gun. Justice never die. Pen is mightier than a gun. </span>AL SHABAAB YOU ARE JUST WASTING YOUR TIME IN SPIRITUAL IGNORANCE."<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I also write this to you this because of what happened in Paris, Charlie Hebdo too... It is no longer necessary to go too far to find areas of warring strife. Ukraine in Europe is afire and sad. The call of this film should be heard everywhere now... That we stop being afraid of the stink of death and ask why instead of people who just want to tell the story are going to such zones... people who WANT to join IS and others are leaving comfortable ranks of society and setting off through Turkey and other places.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Have we failed to define "heroism' that they should look for it in something like that? Have we feared too much in front of our children unlike Becca that they are eager to show us the opposite? That they are not afraid of believing in something? Have we failed you Wangari?<br /><br />And the other reason why I write is because of the idea of not living a split life. I hear that Juliette Binoche could take many other roles if she wished but that she chooses, prefers to act in films that make a meaning to her life and that of others. She will dance ballet in Angelin Preljocaj's Polina, 2015. Great. In every stroke their can be meaning in perfection. What is the use of the revolution, the changes if we cannot dance? That is a question I love to ask myself.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We discussed it in a seminar called Defending the Defenders. People need breaks, activists burn out. Aung San needs our understanding. </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YqorDp1w3oE/VSWCmjr0CRI/AAAAAAAAGMA/vuxQvNdvXiA/s1600/Binoche.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YqorDp1w3oE/VSWCmjr0CRI/AAAAAAAAGMA/vuxQvNdvXiA/s1600/Binoche.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When they call you beautiful let it be from the heart<br />
Juliette Binoche inspires...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A Thousand Times Good Night shows one that eye, not just in camera, but that human eye at the beginning of the film. Everything we do... is in our eyes. If we choose violence. That is what our souls might embrace eternally in the eye of time without end. I say that as we wait for Dark Matter secrets to get unravelled... hah!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I want to tell your story. You radicalise in the roots of a tree. After all radical comes from radice, roots. You do it in another way...for unending action for good, no matter the accidents that may result. And losses. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As for you, out there in what you think is the peaceful world, pour your cup of coffee... let it jerk and pour on your white tablecloth as you open the headlines if you do. Ask yourself... why is it that the Internet radicalisers are so much more effective than our power to get people to stand up for something that does not destroy? Ask Wangari, read about her. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Tell your children everywhere. And sing to them stories of hope. A thousand times good night to you and to all who left the world in a hostile way in Garissa. Wangari, A Thousand Times, Rest in Peace! </span><span style="font-size: large;">From many of us, among 41 million Kenyans.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-35951851911361544652015-04-04T15:04:00.000-07:002015-04-05T02:15:53.153-07:00Garissa, Kenya: the troubled terrain that reminds us of corrupted power denying truth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We all want an easier life. We played April Fools and forgot that terrorists love to attack during holidays when everyone is looking to the next drink. These attacks are predictable.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s32S2tZQpTI/VSBZwS8PUOI/AAAAAAAAGKU/NN0MpnvXnh8/s1600/Terror%2Bnotice%2BWahome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s32S2tZQpTI/VSBZwS8PUOI/AAAAAAAAGKU/NN0MpnvXnh8/s1600/Terror%2Bnotice%2BWahome.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The circular dated March 25, the attack on April 2, 2015</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">I mourn but we point out hard truths. I mourn that way. Terrorists do not mourn. We mourn. They celebrate deaths - and if true all of them are convinced, a certain rewarding of their horror - in a questionable life after. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They have that kind of power and want you to close your eyes because of deaths. No don't. Open them wider. This is not where they want you, staring back. So do that.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The initial figure of deaths at the hands of gunmen in Garissa reveals 147 people dead. That includes two gate guards, the attackers too and a couple of service men. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Some of the people present said were it not for the police they would have wanted to burn the remains of the killed attackers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">One can understand their anger but the road we travel does not allow for that kind of vengeance. Give others who like to wish deaths away, time to face it, stare at death. That is what innocent relatives and friends have to do this Easter. Terrorists </span><span style="font-size: large;">with such thoughts come to bloom in senseless killings. Let me say from the onset, I heard and saw this attitude towards killings in other militias all over the world, and in Kenya specifically. Killing is fulfilled as if it is a vocation, a call to follow in one's life.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Don't try to erase it. Face it. Terrorists blow themselves up, it is said one did in the attack but not documented for in death, they too are cowards. Are we facing it or hiding other things in this?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They are dead, these killers, some insisted, no problem, burn them. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But radicalisation that led to this started there... There is enough fundamentalism also among Christians, and quite some stoking of it from the USA fundamentalist preachers and many of them praising power to get there.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Or ''Lord! Do it again!'', one wrote on Facebook, "Send back those plagues and wipe them clean ... like the ones you sent to Egypt, Lord!" In that thinking the thieves at the cross, Judas and betrayal, the washing of feet have disappeared, of Muslim if there are any religious feet, or any feet, for today is not yesterday. The Gospel is alien. Terror. As if this in itself is not a plague enough and as if the rain will fail where there is radicalism. It will rain for all. So take out a clean sickle. Cut the fences around us.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The less we tolerate the search for justice in the Kenya nation the more distant we are from non-violence. Every abuse should be met with truth and justice. No one should take the law into their own hands. Not the president of the nation, not the people. There was a time many lives were lost in Nairobi going down with 'mob justice' as it was called which was simply injustice. Getting used to taking lives is not a cure. Blaming others but moving away from our own failures will not lead to growth. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I note that Uhuru Kenyatta is not able to cope with the whole picture, roots, branches and the birds that fly from nests and those that perch. Denying a historical fact for instance... that the North of Kenya and that means mainly Muslims have not been victimised since colonial times. <a href="http://goo.gl/l8pmiO">http://goo.gl/l8pmiO</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This kind of apologetics for sins of history is what I thought may never help Kenya. Especially when followed by <i>Ei and/</i>or <i>Mea culpas </i>without substance. His background does not allow him to admit certain obvious facts. Are we to close our eyes to history? Why does he say such things at this time? Many people have found them lose talk. We don't need that. Not now, not before, not ever.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sadly as deaths shock us, touch the world, some people are served by a blind spot that occurs for past evils committed. Retaliation no, but consistent answers yes. </span><span style="font-size: large;">As long as we can say it is you, radicalised Imams, as Uhuru Kenyatta has said, everything else might fall out of perspective. We too have radicalised Kenyans in our homes through our politics. It is not all about and only radicalisation in 'rogue mosques, homes and Imams'.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/President-Kenyatta-declares-3-days-of-mourning/-/1056/2676120/-/atb8xgz/-/index.html">http://www.nation.co.ke/news/President-Kenyatta-declares-3-days-of-mourning/-/1056/2676120/-/atb8xgz/-/index.html</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">No. Sorry. Deaths should jolt us into recalling our failures to prevent them and of our often casual approach to their occurring in extra-judicial ways. There is much to be examined in Kenya. And lethargy in matters of life and death must be shunned. Matters of justice.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UvH6QQc7wvA/VSDvgTlmsBI/AAAAAAAAGKk/FR9RMCC6T5U/s1600/Hague%2Bis%2Bnot%2Byour%2BMum's.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UvH6QQc7wvA/VSDvgTlmsBI/AAAAAAAAGKk/FR9RMCC6T5U/s1600/Hague%2Bis%2Bnot%2Byour%2BMum's.jpg" height="193" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lose talk about The Hague and a well orchestrated campaign<br />
against justice. Everything is funny until now?</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Two weeks ago, a plain circular was on the Internet, on Facebook to be precise. I came across it as I plowed through the newsfeed. I spent time scrutinising it and wondering. Actually felt derailed from what I was reading before. This. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Detailed. Shabaab were aiming at attacking soon. The impending attack was most likely going to be on an institute of higher learning, a university. This notice then was on the University of Nairobi.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This circular warning on an impending attack was posted at the University of Nairobi and at the United States International University, USIU, but not at Garissa. This is first place that should have come to mind upon recieving such Intelligence. The media too did not cover it and it was only discussed after the Garissa attack. Discussed? Maybe more disowned by some.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I thought about the horror that could hit Kenya when I read it. We have seen terror attacks increase dramatically. The undying spirit of destruction always hiding in divisions and now this they try to say is between two religions in Kenya. An Al Shabaab lie that the Pope might buy. No religions are at loggerheads in Kenya. Islam is growing fastest everywhere. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They all grow at a different rate, wax and wane, and everybody who wants to know can find out which one is growing where and how fast. Christianity is not growing in fast in Garissa at the University which was attacked. In all places Christians meet for prayers and they as a gathering are as vulnerable to attack as any other.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In my view these are smokescreens which leave people in more tension than ever. I hope that Kenya and other populations will not begin something Europe is doing in some areas. Standing up against a confession of faith, a faith that is misused like all have been, by criminals. Europe should know that. I mean the part of Europe that is ganging up against Islam. It is not logical. And in terror nothing is ever reason based. Is not the better strategy to hold onto reason which might face off with terrorist's way of thinking.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I somehow imagined that everyone would be seeing this information on all campuses and taking the necessary precautions. By everyone, I did not think of the police, or other security agents. I thought they must have known this for it to be moving around and taken the necessary precautions. It turns out that even if police and the Armed forces swiftly moved in to the defence of the university, they had to be called in. Police had to ask for a reinforcement.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But Garissa is not alien to terror. Just three days to the attack two persons at Durdur Hotel in Garissa County. They were shot dead in a hotel. Nobody, police declared came forward to ask for their bodies. A photo is published of the wives of one of the ones who were killed. <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Mystery-killings-Garissa-Town-demand-answers/-/1107872/2669422/-/ibd862/-/index.html">http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Mystery-killings-Garissa-Town-demand-answers/-/1107872/2669422/-/ibd862/-/index.html</a> A two-year-old in her hands, she looks frustrated and tortured. Where is her husband?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"</span><span style="color: grey; font-family: Georgia, 'ITC Century W01 Light'; font-size: 17px; line-height: 25px;">On Thursday, two people are said to have been shot dead in hotel and their bodies carried away by the killers. Another two were abducted and taken to an unknown destination."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Only a few years ago, I worked on empowerment workshops in Garissa. I spoke to men and women. </span><span style="font-size: large;">I noted it was becoming easier to travel there by bus. Garissa was not as far as some people thought. It was so close to Garissa Lodge in Eastleigh. There was a bustling economy, Islamic banking. Businesses were flourishing. I was received with deep respect and nobody ever questioned my teachings or dress code. I was so at home there that somebody suggested I should buy a herd of cattle and learn how to farm. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What I noticed as I travelled in a private car back once and stopped saw how the group in the car stopped for peaceful prayers in Mosques was the discrimination of the Somali of Kenya. For indeed the police would lean into the car and ask everyone except me for an identity card. The people would run into the bushes with them to pay something, I bet, to continue traveling. It hurt and we spoke about it. It was definitely leading a community to the edge. And this years after independence in 1963. Years after colonial times when the British decided on the Northern Frontier District which was kept tethered with hunger and lack of opportunities. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Noticeable too was the longing of the people to show similarities rather than differences. I remember how the car occupants pointed out how related we all were. Religion did not come into the conversation. They begged me for the time for a short break and I agreed. I was even welcomed into a Mosque. Then there were hopes that the road to Wajir would be fully tarmacked. <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeracorrespondent/2013/11/revisiting-kenya-forgotten-pogroms-2013111110145776543.html">http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeracorrespondent/2013/11/revisiting-kenya-forgotten-pogroms-2013111110145776543.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">That there would be greater growth and peace. Then I walked in Garissa without fear. Then I found a church open to all. And nobody was looking around in fear. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">During one of my many visits an Imam who was coming to give our group a lecture on just how Female Genital Mutilation is not based on the Quran died in a car accident just before he entered the town. </span><span style="font-size: large;">I saw how Raila arrived there in a few minutes after being notified of the Imam's death. Well he had to be buried in hours. That is the tradition. Raila as ODM, was there in a chopper to bid him farewell. The people gathered in his meeting were very congenial with him. He was still known as an atheist then. I heard nothing about religions. I heard something else, they wondered where Uhuru Kenyatta was not with them. True that did not happen and this is the past of PNU.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In 2013, however, I saw a journalist working for an international channel about Garissa and Wajir.... He reported about his home town in tears. Did Uhuru Kenyatta miss this or did he think it was another prank by the international community do bad mouth Kenya? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Radicalisation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is no mystery here. Radicalisation cannot be excused but it has to be understood as some form of going away from a reality too hard to bear. So I will not mourn for the 147 without in part pointing at truths. For they will never know, or may never have known that another Garissa is possible, was possible and will be possible. My mourning is to point out that radicalisation is not in Mosques only. Why, we have had militias and people of discontent all the time in a Kenya where resources are stolen all the way to the votes!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Radicalisation is fitting too for local militias some of these politicians worked with before, something so denied now. They feared not death and they killed. They helped to encourage terror in Kenya. To show Al Shabaab indeed what one does when they are deprived of power or what one should do to get to the top. Kill. Avoid justice. Shed crocodile tears and as fast as possible, get the whole nation saying, it is time to unite and to forget past errors. Forgetting past errors includes making every part of Kenya, Kenya. This is practical. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">Answers ?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Get visitors of value. Obama is coming. Omar al Bashir was in Nairobi too in 2010 to enthrone the new Constitution. He was already an indictee of the ICC. He still is. Does it matter? All the flags will flap power in the wind. I will never accept that people implicated in a crime against humanity have any moral authority to mourn with us, to fly flags at half - mast and to cry with a nation they long ago betrayed. I still say a better time would have come if you had waited and gone through this process to its logical end. When moral authority is lost nothing works. Now, everyday I hear power was a must, it was for the protection of this or the other, of these people versus others, and all those things, alien to national cohesion. Corruption was protected?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I once posted on Facebook that no bomb, not the 1998 on the American Embassy which claimed about 200 persons and this attack which is the worst since then with 147 killed and many missing, surpass the 1 333 Kenyans who died in days when Kenya experienced pose election violence that gripped Kenya in 2007/2008. Violence. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This violence has escaped justice. It seems that those charged or accused were always innocent. Even when the Prosecutor of the Hague says that she was not able to secure some crucial information from Uhuru Kenyatta, she seems to be saying there was none. So Kenya is spruced up. The people at the top are happy. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Money has been offered to the victims affected by the violence. Ten billion Kenya Shillings. An apology has been issued. Those who were mentioned repeatedly in this case, including Uhuru Kenyatta are so innocent that they have no idea of who then could be witnesses of this case. The justice minister who called this a crime against humanity died in unexplained circumstances.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The thing is our tears of yesterday are suppose to dry fast. No, they join the river Tana's, all the way to the Indian Ocean. This is the best mourning for current deaths at Garissa. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> At the time of the violence Kenya visited on herself, many of us said that we will never manage to hold up our decency again. That we had shown our neighbours how easily we break one another for power. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Since then in January, February and March, many lives have been lost, so many. This Garissa April loss is not a wake-up call. We should never have slept. The whole saga of the disappearance and finding of, as well as confusion of the body of man called Yebei, no matter what side he was on was so bizzare. Human rights activists such as Ken Wafula are intimidated. Our country... did somebody plan the disappearance of the look alike of Yebei... for weeks there were two families claiming the same man. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yebei was never suppose to be found. <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Yebei-ICC-witness-Ken-Wafula/-/1056/2639202/-/m7q73k/-/index.html">http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Yebei-ICC-witness-Ken-Wafula/-/1056/2639202/-/m7q73k/-/index.html</a> And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Forgive me, families and friends, but understand me please, the mourning of a government that allows killings refuses to hit me where it should. I mourn recalling all like this. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What happened to George Saitoti? He was the minister of Internal Security who died along with Ojode, an MP and all the crew of a chopper a day after he had warned Kenyan politicians not to run to militias again in order to upset the country and win an election in 2013.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">He may have had other faults. But why was he scared to sleep in Room 213 in the hotel in Mombasa just before this accident? Is it true that he was treading on the toes of politically correct drug dealers? </span><span style="font-size: large;">This type of corruption that dares work with militias to gain power is not going to strengthen Kenya against terror. The USA will not. Kenya has to cut and make its own...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But again the 'saviour' will come from the West... which Uhuru Kenyatta blasted several times particularly on justice and the Hague court.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I know Obama is praising Kenyans for "resilience"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> and "decency' but honestly, Obama, we are the ones who have opened our country to cheap ways. We are not new to radicalisation. We also have internal militias who kill and killed without Obama or Uhuru raising a voice on the matter. At this stage we are not going to be helped by platitudes. We have to be left alone to choose our attitudes and to change. We know we can. </span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-40880142579079258432015-03-15T00:03:00.003-07:002015-03-15T00:23:02.224-07:00The real Kenyan marathon versus a nation of electoral self- destruction, Reflections on Pio Gama Pinto, the stone that builder refused, as Gitu of Mau Mau and others pass on the baton<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bZaqm9kjImw/VQUv_D2HzdI/AAAAAAAAGEY/coKyb7bUgpc/s1600/Pio%2BGama%2Bpic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bZaqm9kjImw/VQUv_D2HzdI/AAAAAAAAGEY/coKyb7bUgpc/s1600/Pio%2BGama%2Bpic.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young Kenyans commemorate J.M. Kariuki and Pio Gama Pinto in 2014 and call out for justice. These are people with sense and who sacrifice to speak out often on empty stomachs. Why would anybody hound them down and silence them? Why would the National Intelligence not hear their own quest in this? </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, where I have lived and voted , even tried to position for a voice in politics, a thing I now would not do, elections whether big or small divide deeply. General Elections have come with a trail of deaths and displacements of persons in big and small numbers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The push for power rocks the ground so much that a by-election for instance in Maasai land in Kenya this week has the country on tenterhooks. When you read the details of how a former leader in the area was wooed to government and appointed then you see clearly why sharp divisions arise. Look at this photo and see the spirit that takes over and how a slight misstep could lead to much more. <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/Uhuru-Kenyatta-Raila-Odinga-Kajiado-Central-Election/-/1064/2653934/-/8e0wow/-/index.html">http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/Uhuru-Kenyatta-Raila-Odinga-Kajiado-Central-Election/-/1064/2653934/-/8e0wow/-/index.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Politics is interesting and not to be wished away. Perhaps some systems need to be thoroughly questioned and examined with regard to where they left Africa and whom they benefit. The interests colonial powers had in the region did not go away because flags changed. But </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya's election of 2007/2008 was one that left many deaths, rapes, environmental destruction and deep rifts between different people on the course of justice. In my life it left some red ink in my pen. I always wrote before. During the actual violence I was not able to write save for a few articles like this one.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The 11th Parliament did not allow for the trial of suspects locally. Later on especially visible in the election of 2013, many active civil society people went into politics. Their voices are missing at another level. The level of the struggle for justice for all and the cohesion of the nation since running it in cantons of different ethnic groups is not productive and the borders were made by those who had other interests from Europe. But there is something special about Kenya's desire to be one in the hearts of many of its lovers and fighters for justice and that did not begin the other day. It is the very root of the formation of Kenya. Dedan Kimaathi spoke about it and he was seen as a terrorist by the colonial powers as were all Mau Mau. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Mau Mau fighters are still alive in Kenya. They have stayed in the spirit of many who died for freedom to always tell the story of what it means to be free. It does not mean to win an election, to have an election or even to lose one. It means to love and stay awake and vigilant with an undivided spirit. Gitu wa Kehengeri in a video below tells of his times in Mau Mau and the birth of a Kenya that is not yet here. Not yet. And this is important for the world and for Afrika.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And as for those historians and experts of all sorts who say some Mau Mau fighters such as Kahengeri were not determined because they were from Kiambu and not Nyeri, let them stop that. This is something some historians, would defend. I have heard one 'historian' because he lived this history on the side of the Coloniser say it to me. I know it is justified by others. But I have met with Mau Mau fighters in Kiambu and Muran'ga. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My father was among the Kiambu ones and they without fear pointed out people who got into power who were homeguards or betrayers from Kiambu. There are and history had better make that clear Mau Mau fighters in Kiambu. People who fought for the country and with all ethnic groups in mind without betraying. The division of Nyeri vs Kiambu fighters suited the coloniser. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It still does suit the governments that were put in place. It does not suit the government today. What those who believe in freedom say is that Kenya was not freed for the benefit of one class or one group of peoples but for all. They embrace the freedom that lasts beyond death. The freedom Kimaathi, Pinto, J.M. Kariuki and Tom Mboya believed in and which made those in power feel threatened. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If interested contrast what Dr. Willy Mutunga says in 2015 Pinto commemoration video posted below and what Muthoni Kamau says about the young and the love of a nation united, that is the struggle, the middle class and many are absent. They are either too taken by the opium of the poor to see that even then, there are obligations to face up to or left to fend on their own. And this in a country where Human Rights Defenders have been treated to a kind of inquisition. The huge question remains on my mind.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Why is it that the voices of those who ask the right but painful questions must be silenced? Why? Why do innocent people who love good have to be the ones who carry the burden of suspicion and worse still deaths and disappearances. If this question remains alive and stings so shall we as nation. But if it is hidden then shall we indeed stink. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A bid by some MPs, including Martha Karua, then minister for Justice and many others to do so, was defeated at Parliament. The legislators then opted for the Hague. Don't be vague many said, go to the Hague. That was heard in Kenya so frequently. Time has passed and Kenyans have had strong voices at AU and at the UN and around the world in a strong way, wanting to make the Hague vague, or actually disappear it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The fact that Kenya did not like Ivory Coast face its failures and look for justice at home has been a weight that Kenyans cannot pride themselves in having lifted. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Simone Bagbo of Ivory Coast was sentenced for 20 years for her involvement in violence in the country's 2010 election. Laurent Bagbo, former president awaits his case and judgement at the ICC. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I have not read of efforts by Ivory Coast to leave the Rome Statute as Kenya has tried to influence African nations to. Actually, the Ivory Coast did not join Kenya on the latest efforts in Addis Ababa for that and other nations did not follow the path Kenya had wanted. But Kenyans are good.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenyans are good at self-introspection but almost always after it is too late. There are questions there that the Kenyan system of justice should ask itself for years, and not only them but also the two arms of government. The Executive and the Legislature. Why are there so many vacuums with regard to answers on injustices that hit the headlines? Matters regarding assassinations are particularly outstanding. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the first quarter of the month, there are Kenyans who remember and ask questions on when justice will be served for Pio Gama Pinto, J.M Kariuki, Robert Ouko and Dedan Kimaathi. This is March 2015 and a wonderful documentary was launched dealing with these questions at length. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItaB0M67FCo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItaB0M67FCo</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Writing this, I was searching for the link above, when I found another documentary for March 2014 for the same commemoration. This is Kenya's real marathon. I was very surprised. I did not see it for a year... hm! Those who know will know why the hm! And this is an important one... for me. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmGr-oqd4wI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmGr-oqd4wI</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> It is easy for some to imagine when traveling Kenya whether mentally or physically that Kenyans will fail the marathon of national cohesion and stop running. No, there are Kenyans whose spirit does not die. They keep running the real marathon, in their sleep, in their writings and dreams and so often have they done it without any trainers beside them or even on their feet. Barefoot. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They have run but also into the muck have they been flung and there, they have swam. Staying there so long and having their faces covered as if in burial will not stop them from again walking the streets barefoot. The paths of the villages welcome them.</span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-70175684213291535842015-01-18T05:01:00.003-08:002015-01-18T05:37:50.509-08:00Damned be The Traitor of His Motherland! Oliver Frljc #Naked without a leaf on foreskin#KenyainDenial! my take<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBQxFOYZevI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBQxFOYZevI</a> Producer Oliver Friljc</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">The world said Povertyend2015? World without end....</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">And I asked: Why are you so afraid of the nakedness of Truth?</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">Pity answered: I Hate The Truth. It is about us. All of us.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">When in a country, region, a people hate one another, are xenophobic,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">because of being overpowered by power, they need to know one thing. It never ends. It is about resources but you end up tied with acrimony, calling one another names, completely engaged in the wrong game. Weapons come out. Machetes, guns, knives but first always the tongues. A non-forgiving game. Nobody survives a broken nation to succeed. In the end, the betrayer is betrayed and all are eaten up. There is no safety in evil. Only in confronting it. This is drama like I never saw it before.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">Never again will I see human beings as they against us, pushed a little we all become what you cannot even name. It does not matter that they are. Take care! Chunga maisha. Once you kill one, yours is on the line. The dry wood above laughs at the one in the fire... Ciitara cithekaga ciiriko!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">The setting is historical and ahistorical in a sense. Croats and Serbians. Yogoslavia... Balkans. For they had killed and killed in the Balkans. Killed in words and shed blood. Ethnicism had taken over. Still the scars. And now... on stage this was drama for reconciliation or total severance from your ideas. Disconcerting in order to concert. It rammed in you the message. Betray today for your people, all yours will be betrayed tomorrow. Killed. Stop it! Still your senses. See yourself naked and cry. See your own genitals mutilated and stop. Sober up. How did a part of Nairobi come to be named Kosovo? or Nahau... Kosofo...Mpesa. Poverty is not about lack of money, also in the settlements there is money. It is about how ideas are organised to oppress or liberate. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhrvwA3vYT8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhrvwA3vYT8</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;"> Invited to the Mladinsko Theatre in Lubljana, nothing could have prepared my mind for what was coming. It was </span></span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">a morning special show for writers from various countries under the ICORN programme. I was happy to attend the annual meeting again. I enjoyed my train ride to Lubljana via Vienna. I posted a photo of the rails to Fb. But the drama post on my mind remains. Drama that refuses to be unfelt by the amnesia poured in the world. The answer you will hear more often now when you point out issues is that weak and defeated 'it happens everyhere..' and a shrug of shoulders like your country is nowhere.</span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">So then, on a seemingly happy morning we sat outside in a lovely garden. Celebs, unknown, just people as others joined and people tend to gather naturally without class and roots and differences, until power decides no. In works of writers, this is how it should be. We will gather - even if only heaven knows how. We had breakfast and were cautioned that the play was strong. On needed to be braced oneself up for it. We were busy chatting to cross bridges of isolation. We heard that Theatre travels to many parts of the world but that in some people are unable to watch it because there are scenes so powerful, they fled the halls. In reality there is no line between cast and audience. You do not know how it happens. I stayed. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">Still I thought it could not be worse than what made over half a million Internally Displaced Persons flee in Kenya and why 1 333 maybe more died. Why millions in Syria, Iraq and Iran leave their homes. Why I feel that no part of the world is that safe and that material wealth is meeting a pure lack of values and critical thinking where it is to be found. Did you know you must leave your comfort zone in yourself, that hedge that a poetry character called Wacũ, in some poetry posts I made is always cutting, the place where you do not care for values and where you abuse, kill and punish in private before you are out in public? Dialogue. Search. Sheha rugiri rwaku. Cut that hedge and speak to it truth in your Mother Tongue. Languages are not meant for division.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">Still we writers sat and heard and looked at books around us displayed in the garden outside the Theatre. We went to the door of the theater and got earplugs. I do not thinking about surgeons, the way we were getting prepared had a streak of something of an operation atmosphere, some sterilisation of equipment? Wires looked like stethoscopes. Internal sounds? Auscultation? Breathing? Hearbeats to check? Who was to think beyond that. Why? We got cushions. Some of us thought these people really care for writers. Cushions sometimes precede terrible repercussions!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">We got settled in our seats and sweet music began. It was now clear to me. We in the world are steeped, most of us, in incredible hig doses of anaesthesia. Ears are blocked by power. We dance to the same news day in day out. We do not hear. We have earplugs on most of the time listening to music. The more the world is troubled, the more my neighbor, the more I shield myself and talk to myself on public transport, especially in Europe and America?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">Gunfire, Explosions and people cry</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">And long before our layers of thoughts, poetic inspiration, vanities could peel off, long before we fell out of the philosophical tea before still cobwebs in the mind, the gunfire exploded, so loud and even smelt so real, the first writer left the theatre. He comes from Somalia. It smelt real he said later. And he cried. Others are crying too. Somalia borders Kenya. I stayed on. But those 'shot' dead in the audience and on stage were still alive. They stood up. They came back on stage. One by one standing in a slight crescent curve to the inner stage, they stood in silence.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">They started with the eldest. A man in his 60s, I think. Next was the youngest. Also woman. They tell me this is typical of drama here but I know its effect is meant to be atypical. Each part of his clothing he took off as if it was a holy garment. All clothes were taken off. In utter silence. Naked he stood there. Like Jesus on the cross? Kenyans would have even had the chance to check on Foreskin! But No! Before you condemn nakedness. By itself it never harmed anyone. More writers left. They felt their religion was injured. But had we not come to watch a play? The drama had a soul-peeling effect. And the cathartic effect leaves you ready to see yourself but you have only just began.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">Roles are reversed. Your clothes were also being taken off in the realm of your imagination. Your soul. Were you ready to see it? How often have you called another name for their color, tongue or religion. Anyway you did not have to have called names... just felt that they were 'the other'? You could sweat with all your pores, sweat blood but the cast was not over on stage. The Agony in the Garden? The Place of Skulls, Rwanda? It included you. Swept you right in and not in the way you are used to it...</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">Some were already weeping in the audience. I was one. The light is suddenly turned on you, a pistol ... fire! Why are you there weeping? you hear. A man in the audience is the focus now. He cannot move. He hears how he raped a woman. How he removed her clothes.. how you .. how you... how you... How he... He is shot again and naked words of the four letter words are the compliments to those who had gone to the Theater to cry. You ff....ing fools! Someone else leaves from the audience. It is best to be alone. Conscience is disturbed and disturbing.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">"And you... you C....t! Why are you crying? It is always easier to be on the side of the ones who weep... like around the cross they stood weeping... and you hear again...and now you are no longer a part of a 'holy' crowd.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">"You? Where were you when they were slaughtered.. " Now you think they know your name and your address. They are relentless. Some more people walk out. The details on how many actors and authors committed suicide after being in that theatre acting were enough were they not? Is there any acting to be done in a country that kills and kills and hosts the virus of greed and tribalism without reserve. The viruses for which none must wear a mask?</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 13.9636354446411px;">When a country, a people hate one another because of being overpowered by power, they need to know one thing. It never ends. It is about resources but you end up tied with acrimony, calling one another names, completely engaged in the wrong game. A non-forgiving game. Nobody survives a broken nation to succeed. In the end, the betrayer is betrayed and all are eaten up. There is no safety in evil. Only in confronting it. This is drama like I never saw it before. </span></span></div>
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-2220141865923657002015-01-04T15:12:00.001-08:002015-01-04T15:12:26.658-08:00Floating on River Yala, Body mutilated was that of Jebei Meshack an ICC witness in the Kenyan case<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">The news that an ICC witness has been found dead, his body mutilated on River Yala in Eldoret County is cause for alarm. But that reminds one that there are those who were never noticed in their disappearance and their bodies will never be found. Besides, this is a taboo and fearful topic all the time in Kenya and more so these days. But let us keep focus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Jebey Meshack went to take his child for treatment. He left the dispensary to buy something and never returned. He was missing for five days. His family reported the case to casual police reception. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A text message reached his mother in his Mother Tongue. He said he was well and with Bensouda's people in Uganda. Bensouda is the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at the Hague in the Netherlands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now there is an immediate reaction from people who seem to know more and these include saying that he was on the side of the Government. This is reported in the mainstream media. We are not looking for sides. We are looking at a fact. Those who know say that he was not a protected witness but he was one, no doubt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Others have fast responded on social media suggesting that this has been done by the ICC or asking if it was not so. Who are they?<br />Human rights activists already so shredded and disliked are afraid. </span></div>
Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-20974269901901079672015-01-04T15:00:00.002-08:002015-01-04T15:02:21.064-08:00Contradictions of the making of Security Bill in a very insecure House... where Members clothes were torn..<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">In a nutshell, </span><span style="font-size: large;">the word "contradiction" has been common in 2014 Kenyan articles written here in this blog. There is fear of commenting on issues since bloggers have had it rough. Welcome Kenya to 2015. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Kenyans online were seriously interested in a blogger Wadi who has been jailed for two years. Even before I could reach his posts, I had heard that people were waiting for them as if they were a feast. So the law got him, apparently in Uganda and as people were busy with Christmas and New Year, he was charged. It was fast and furious. He was sentenced on the second day of the year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It turns out that he pleaded guilty to insulting the president and threatening him. Some say he does not exist as such but then there he was in court. A student at the University, 25 -years -old. After a few minutes with the cops he was begging for forgiveness. Many Kenyans felt he could have hardly been tried justly but there it was. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Being charged with not praising the president has reminded Kenyans of the Moi era. Torture, deaths, arrests, disappearances, ethnic cleansing for those who did not know how to shut their mouths. There is fear. People keep saying Moi is back in power. The nanogenerian sits at home and speaks out on national issues from time to time on public platforms, a sign that perhaps in private he dedicates quite some time to the governing of Kenya. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">He did prop his candidate Uhuru Kenyatta the current president and supported him in 2002 and onwards. In Kenyan ways, this means the Kalenjins and the Kikuyu plus the ethnic groups who voted his candidate in 2013 are working 'together'. Word has it however, that the Deputy President WS Ruto has not met Moi since he was elected.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The three arms of government... Some distance there is between the Executive and the Judiciary but that is only in some ways. As in for example, the Security Amendment Bill has been stopped by the High Court before the ink of the president's signature could dry on it. Some have hope now that perhaps rulings will reflect the people. Raila Odinga and ODM took the credit for going to court agains this Bill. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The rushed making of this Bill was supposed to be a sign that the current government is working hard on insecurity. However, its propensity in undermining human rights and gains protected by the Constitution of 2010 has led to its being stopped by the High Court even after the President passed it the day after it was voted in a shameful session. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Clothes were torn off a member, another one lost a finger and MP Millie Mabona was almost undressed in Bunge, Parliament. The demonstrations against stripping women in Nairobi streets with the excuse that they dress skimpily not withstanding, the deed was done in the House of Parliament. And an MP involved talked brazenly about her underwear! </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Bill which included the clause against this same act, since it was an amalgamation of amendments for security issues was defeating its own purpose in the first place.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But the worst part of it is that it was also clawing back on freedom of expression. And the open door to the police to allow for journalists to investigate on issues considered too dangerous because of terrorism. And that in a nutshell is complex. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Very complicated because as the whole world knows C.I.A has been on the spot for not only using torture methods on renditioned suspects but working with other countries such as Kenya to arrest suspects. </span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-69710751427752825752014-12-10T12:16:00.000-08:002014-12-10T13:46:45.854-08:00Power over truth,denial, Kenya looks like a mini Zim and dim in 2014: Moi is happy with Uhuru Kenyatta and thinks Constitution 2010 is poor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Power over truth? The Security Act has been cited in Kenya's history many times to keep voices of dissent silent. This was typical of Moi's rule. The Chief's Act was one of the most notorious pieces of legislation reformed in Constitution 2010. Vigilance is a must.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I last heard the Security Act invoked by the late Michuki John, then the minister for national security at the height of the killings that happened in 2007/2008. At the time post poll violence went unchecked by the national security organs and as history now tells us, security, call it insecurity, was for a time in the hands of a militia group/s. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">These were mandated to defend persons of certain ethnic descent against people of another ethnicity, all of them Kenyans, as if there was no police force. Let us say that was not done by anybody we know today. That is power. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I do not think from then Kenya has acknowledged mistakes and reached a level where people can have once again real hope in national security organs particularly the police. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For many young persons were shot from the back with their hands up as they surrendered but every such report was rejected and all pointed fingers at human rights advocates accusing them of complicity with the West, whatever that means. Putin speak.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">National security has been abused in many countries to mean curbing the freedom of the people and this is even easier when the anti-terror laws plead for space, saying this is the only way out, the only way to protect the nation. Are the people protected when national security is tightened in this manner on an already threatened society? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya has been involved in renditioning suspects of terror to be tortured in the USA and at home too, there is a complete lack of understanding on that human rights must be protected. There are killings that Phillip Alston reported about when he was a Chief UN investigator. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/CIA-Torture-US-Senate-Report-Kenya-Somalia/-/1056/2551848/-/mffje3z/-/index.html">http://www.nation.co.ke/news/CIA-Torture-US-Senate-Report-Kenya-Somalia/-/1056/2551848/-/mffje3z/-/index.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Can Kenya argue it has national security to tighten right now? Can the president who has already declared that citizens have security in their own hands now sign into law amendments of the constitution that allow for police to storm in check, arrest and invade private space in the name of security?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya's role in helping CIA to arrest and deliver those suspected of terror is already documented. The attendant extrajudicial killings are on record too. Was that a guarantee for national security? Are we not the easiest ones to hit when terrorists begin to move?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What is worse is that it is no longer possible to say that terror attacks in Kenya have not taken a religious dimension. People are asked to recite verses and identify themselves with one religion for safety although in some cases those who thought they were safe still died, especially at Westgate Nairobi. In Mandera, however, it was clear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Terror must be forestalled without abusing human rights. We cannot become terror to fight terror. If we do, we shall not recognize it. We are not giving up on the rule of law and indeed this is the only way we can hope to overcome. Nobody is underestimating the losses many have incurred and Kenya has borne the brunt of being the country that many would like to use to hit at terror in Eastern Africa. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What happens to Kenya almost every month now, is a clear indication of that. She is a base to reckon with but is she a force that can protect her own or even make them believe that she is out to work for the common good? All too often victims of injustice have lost. It is hard to convince people when power loses moral authority. Some follow and sing the right tune but many others simply cannot. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">December 12 is a special day in Kenya. We won our freedom from the British and that day since 1963 has been a special highlight. This year there have been interesting events in Kenya just before this day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Tonight some Kenyans are celebrating, some Kenyans more than ever since on the 5th of Dec 2014, Uhuru Kenyatta's ICC case was dropped by the International Criminal Court. Even though it was often argued that this was Kenyatta's case as an individual and not president of Kenya, we all know that at the same time he argued that the case was getting in his way as president of Kenya especially with regard to fighting terrorism and protecting Kenya. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">However, all Kenyans are worried and this particularly insecurity in the country. The recent killings of 36 quarry workers in Mandera and before that of 28 on a bus from Mandera near the Somali border have shaken every corner of the country and beyond.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Not that there has not been other deaths but this comes after Kenya declared it had killed as many as 100 al Shabaab who claim the Mandera massacres. Since Kenya rounded up all the Somalis in Eastleigh and sent many back to Mogadishu, security and peace was supposed to have improved. But how shall we get there if we are threatening our own freedoms? How with extrajudicial killings?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">How if we are so quick to rebuttal any points made by others about our security among many this one from Al Jazeera? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Al-Jazeera-exposes-police-death-squads/-/1056/2549412/-/dcc4lkz/-/index.html">http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Al-Jazeera-exposes-police-death-squads/-/1056/2549412/-/dcc4lkz/-/index.html</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why is a part of Kenya so happy to keep saying everyone is wrong except those who say that the problems we face can only be curbed by decreasing our freedoms and penalising reform? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why is the buttressing of impunity supposed to bring us all relief? We cannot shoot to kill without evidence, eliminate so many and celebrate. Inherent contradictions are now gaping wounds. </span><span style="font-size: large;">One hears not about this from anyone near power. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So today Kenyans are worried that Freedom of Expression and all that pertains to the Bill of Rights which is incorporated in the nation's constitution are in danger. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">However others invest their faith, like Moi only in a man, not in institutions such as the constitution, one man who is the president. Look at how we deal with power even as some in power feign surprise at what Mugabe is doing in Zim with not only total lack of grace, pun intended, but also the assumption that the people will always be under his command. Like KANU of Kenya is said will rule for 100 years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In Kenya, a new bill to trim rights enshrined in our Constitution has been gazetted in Dec 2014, and this was done fast and only after discussion in one county in the country. This will curb Press Freedom and allow for National Intelligence police to record, document, tap phones, and all that they wish so much so that it boils down to their being allowed to check any "thing" anywhere. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The director of Kenya Chapter of the International Commission of Jurists, George Kegoro said that this cannot be the right direction. </span><span style="font-size: large;">But those involved say this is how to get more security and fight terror. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya's Constitution 2010, is under threat. After all just recently none other than Moi, the former president declared that this constitution only came about because of "civil society". Moi</span><span style="font-size: large;"> came out to support Uhuru Kenyatta who has said that the security of Kenyans depends on each individual and not on state machinery.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">He was speaking at the Moi University which celebrated its 30th anniversary. Moi said in answer to civil society pointing out that the government has to take charge of ship out that "They are the same people who crafted the Constitution which is causing problems, particularly insecurity, in the country". </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">They got what they wanted, Moi feels, now we are in trouble because they go it. Moi said he is right and the story was broadcast countrywide. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Power over truth does not work anywhere and it will not work in Kenya. Recognition of what is the truth is the sun that must rise besides or along with the one that brings tourists to Kenya. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Someone has opened the floodgates and all the mean giants have come out beating their chests in glee. Also crawling out invisibly are many slimy, dark things that sadly connect with misuse of power at so many levels. Corruption levels have left many wild animals dead. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Some Chinese nationals have been arraigned in court for coming in as tourists and setting up an internet intercepting center right in the middle of Nairobi. </span><span style="font-size: large;">At that time one might wonder if their 'straying' into the country was due to the fact that police or National Intelligence were not allowed to search persons. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The truth is that other people did this in 1998 and then we had a bomb that took the lives of over 200 people, at the American Embassy. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The truth is that in 2013 at Westgate, Nairobi, those who attacked had also come into the country quite freely. It is not about not searching Kenyans in their homes or those already there, it is about so many loopholes at the right level. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And just to say it, whenever Kenyan authorities have wanted to, they have tapped phones and not only searched houses but also shot and killed persons suspected right in front of their families and in the city, and many Kenyans have clapped thinking this way they are defended or at least been cheated so. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What the bill is seeking is to do this with the full backing of the law so that these people called human rights activists and others who bother Kenyans so much might just keep silent. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What is wrong in Kenya today is to say it, to keep saying it. Apparently this stops development of you know who and surely, it must be the reason why the entire world has not achieved the MDGS achieving zero tolerance for illiteracy and women empowerment, mother and child mortality so that people can keep quiet! </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">ICC </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A man on TV asked for his identity not to be revealed. His dark silhouette faced a dark horizon. No bird sang. No sound. Only his sorrow filled voice was heard saying. </span><span style="font-size: large;">"They say there is no evidence. We ... know... the big names... but who are we?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This man needs to be reminded that there is no case at ICC for Uhuru Kenyatta, yes. That is his and our horizon dark and without a name. Nobody is guilty. The president is great he wants everyone declared free including his deputy before this court and a journalist Mr. Sang. Prayers are about to do it, he says. I have written before that I never heard of prayers for the victims or any concern. In fact the two words at the dropping of the case were#Vindicated#Excited and running to wife. What about those who cannot run.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I thought being in top office means you become all your people? Was it not time to say now I am free and my main concern is to make sure that we reach the bottom of this so that we can all be free? So that those who died and victims can be receive justice?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The case is dropped, many are happy. Prayers have worked is the reason given. But how wonderful it would be if all the information the ICC had wanted was given by the Government of Kenya. How perfect if there had been no deaths, disappearances and intimidation of witnesses. God is kind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And not only real witnesses but also those perceived to be. Particularly so, if one happened to have been born in the area where Uhuru Kenyatta commands all the people, read numbers in his support. It became the common thing to have people suspect and punish those they thought were connected with any information on this case. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Rumor mills were free and reaching families and friends. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Every level of relationship in the land has been affected. Did other people have to be the ones who paid such a high price when they never killed or were involved in anything? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Many have said these are founded by those whom should stop sycophancy pretending that they are protecting their prince, a word more and more in use in Kenya referring to the president.</span><span style="font-size: large;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Power over truth? No. It will not work because although power may ignore truth for some time, it cannot go further than just keep denying because truth demands that one says what is and not only keep denying. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We would all have wanted to hear the points put out to our satisfaction to know for ourselves and with clarity who is who in this and what went so horribly wrong in Kenya in 2007/2008 even when we know the roots of deep ethnic strife and cleansing were entrenched in Moi's ways and days.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But Kenyans will pray and shame all devils like those who speak out on human rights. In the meantime the churches, of all types have joined hands with the new laws. They pray and celebrate with the government of the day for the progress achieved so far especially for the victims of injustice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is power over truth. I never heard that power set anybody free. It did not Jesus himself. Mujuru Joyce says she worked with Mugabe for years in the same party. She is now accused of planning an assassination and with America... that West. </span></div>
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-79109048870766916412014-11-22T18:00:00.005-08:002014-11-22T18:02:30.830-08:00Pain as tall as Kenya's giraffe: Don't cross, not even if you are a zebra!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D_aA1PCiahg/VHEyniHZxJI/AAAAAAAAF4c/OlJ5LxvVDCM/s1600/Giraffe%2BCentre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D_aA1PCiahg/VHEyniHZxJI/AAAAAAAAF4c/OlJ5LxvVDCM/s1600/Giraffe%2BCentre.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We have to conserve our wildlife, to save Kenya, Photo by P Ikonya</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The story broke last month. Kenya Defence Forces were accused of having business dealings with Al Shabaab. How can Kenya cross that line?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We cannot afford to doublespeak about so many things. To do strange business both as citizens or leaders...but for the Forces to be in this is to say or to force one to say this is a real failed state! But many do not want to hear that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This morning </span><span style="font-size: large;">28 persons were killed near Mandera Kenya and they join the list of very many others who have suffered untold agony in attacks. Among those who died were 17 teachers. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Al Shabaab has claimed this morning's attack. It was gruesome. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">People were divided into those who are Somali and those who are not. Those who could answer a few Koran based questions survived. The others were sprayed with bullets from different types of guns. Survivors in full trauma recall details that would make anyone shudder.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">You are not this, so I kill you. You are not my religion, so I kill you? You are not able to speak my language so I kill you? This cannot be. It certainly is not a command of any God and therefore, let us stop using teachings of Islam to try and cover our shame and nakedness. This is complex but it must simply stop. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Of late, Kenya has been talking tough to the world about her goodness. To the UN, to the UK about tourism and other matters. Many have recently commended Kenya. She deserves to be heard of course. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We have to first save these animals for their own sake, not just for tourism. To save our country. Tourism is secondary to that. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya wants tourists to keep coming and for that there has been a flurry of activities including last week's great effort to get travel bans lifted from Kenya by the UK. And Kenya won. Huge conferences on Tourism are scheduled. So it would seem that we are doing well. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">And terror is everywhere anyway? But certain things are so telling on Kenya's compromised situations. It goes back to the same departure from basics that cannot be contravened if we want security and growth. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">No matter how much they hit us, let them not find us killing both wildlife and people, divided and lacking in so many ways. Greed and corruption growing. Money from poached wildlife, charcoal sales finding its way to help Shabaab militia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya cannot afford to play the politics of greed and compromise. Everything that makes us weak must be thrown out now as in the way things are tossed out to save a vessel threatened by a storm.<br /><br />This not only for politicians but for all of us. No Fund can help us, no money will redeem us. We have to go back to our own drawing table. Right from homes to counties to the whole country. For every time corruption grows wildly we are all more insecure. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The story about Kenyan military officers involving themselves in business with Al Shabaab is frightening. The reality of what is happening to the elephants and other wildlife appalling. It gets worse.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mAHlfTXrC7Q/VHE8UlZGHmI/AAAAAAAAF4s/tPINsVYex0Y/s1600/Giraffe%2BHawi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mAHlfTXrC7Q/VHE8UlZGHmI/AAAAAAAAF4s/tPINsVYex0Y/s1600/Giraffe%2BHawi.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How crass can this be! Giraffe remains from Northern Kenya<br />
photos of Rabia Haawa</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I cannot sleep tonight without sharing what Hawi Odingo via Rabia Haawa posted on Fb today. Who will stop who in Kenya? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Who will be secure? Forces dealings with Al Shabaab?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Look to the left. Look to the right. And don't cross. It is Kenya. Soon the zebras will be crossed regardless of zebra crossings!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fEYGjTIvt9w/VHE-v1z-k7I/AAAAAAAAF44/T4GaGx48br0/s1600/Zebra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fEYGjTIvt9w/VHE-v1z-k7I/AAAAAAAAF44/T4GaGx48br0/s1600/Zebra.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Temple: Open skies and Zebras on a Sunday morning Pic by Philo Ikonya</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On an early ride through the Nairobi National Park, I felt like I was in a temple. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is difficult to watch wildlife and not feel as if someone, bigger than all, an artist, has not been there planning and placing things in a beautiful way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">How can we save ourselves from being endangered by endangering animals? It does not work! Did I say endangering? Annihilating!</span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-56444545101570377782014-11-18T14:03:00.001-08:002014-11-21T09:28:07.869-08:00Contradictions 3 : Kenyan women should wear military gear, not minis and other choice things, love from Nairobi's Hell's angels<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wVZFo1Hd3AI/VGu5fJBmE3I/AAAAAAAAF20/rmWnnU99k5I/s1600/Uhuru%2Bin%2BMiligear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wVZFo1Hd3AI/VGu5fJBmE3I/AAAAAAAAF20/rmWnnU99k5I/s1600/Uhuru%2Bin%2BMiligear.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Well dressed women camouflage in Kenya. <br />
Source Nairobi news in Photos... here... http://goo.gl/M0jwSk</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fundamentalism in more ways than one. Some men, some Matatu touts, in Kenya have become the Chief Inspectors Commanding Women Wear! CICWW...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Demonstrations are in order. However, we have to remember that women have been stripped naked in rural Kenya, including girls</span><span style="font-size: large;"> in trousers were stripped. This mainly happened between 2001-2009. The women in these areas obeyed the 'rules' and some even moved from certain areas to be safe.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Stripping was done often by some people who said they were Mungiki militia. They called for women and all to return to some traditional practices including what they call circumcision. They effected this from time to time on old women. For this to happen, a woman has to be stripped naked and her genitals cut.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, stripping women is not new. Stripping them of short clothes, tight trousers or miniskirts is not new but recent, 2014, stripping of women in mini skirts in the city has caused a furore. Are we reaching the roots of it all?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Maybe the strippers have been hotter in the last few weeks because a man who argues that men are so oppressed in Kenya formed an organisation called The Development of Men, <i>Maendeleo ya Wanawake</i> and has been hard at work. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">He parodies Maendeleo ya Wanawake, that had a strong name in working for women until politics destroyed it over the years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The leader of Maendeleo ya Wanaume last week called a sex boycott by men because, he said, women are too violent and are beating up men at home. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">His NGOs copies activities of women organisations so that he can get the ear of donors and he does. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He does not speak about the quality, the lack of it, of fatherhood in Kenya. All is well. He speaks about women as the unbearable breed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">He said, that men should </span><span style="font-size: large;">not touch women as they are so vile. In fact, he added, they should wave at them in the air... the greetings of the air, <i>ciariera!</i> they are called in his Mother Tongue and never shake hands with them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Now men are not just touching women. They thrash them to death at times. And other odd things happen. Like being asked why they wear what they wear. They never heard anything like I wear what I want. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I do not like to talk about Kenyan police. Let me forget a certain chapter for it includes me and my friends and remember someone else...</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> A woman Police Officer</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A woman police officer was summoned for wearing a tight skirt. She was supported by Kenyans who stood with her. She nearly lost her job however, and even now some people would like to whisper into her ear that "Security should not be this tight". That was a kind of a bad joke that ensued in the situation. She was on duty when people from State House were visiting her area and her skirt was splashed in the media instead of the clothes of the dignitaries. She got invited to a media show and she stood her ground. She won.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Still I know many, who would tell her to prefer to wear trousers and to hide her curves. It is not so long ago that women in Kenya moved around their world, with short slit skirts. Traditional. And some with practically nothing. We had no men running to dress them up. Granted things have changed. I mean in Kenyan style, not that missionaries have come and done their thing, no, I mean that many preachers have come and stolen both the women and their songs and clothes in God's name. Some thieves come all the way from America to do that. Fundamentalism is burning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But to show how tight security should be in Kenya, I saw these pictures. <a href="http://goo.gl/KmmZGu">http://goo.gl/KmmZGu</a> Then I heard the Commander In Chief, CIC, say when some army persons were killed in Kapedo, very sad as they were calling for help for 36 hours, that it is as if some people want to say there is no Government in Kenya.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wVZFo1Hd3AI/VGu5fJBmE3I/AAAAAAAAF20/rmWnnU99k5I/s1600/Uhuru%2Bin%2BMiligear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wVZFo1Hd3AI/VGu5fJBmE3I/AAAAAAAAF20/rmWnnU99k5I/s1600/Uhuru%2Bin%2BMiligear.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pic from Nairobi news in Photos... here... http://goo.gl/M0jwSk</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When the CIC put on army gear, the donning of the gear sparked a debate. Why and why and why? Finally like with all things, such as the results of the election and the authority to be in office, this died down. Calmly. The gear discussion I mean. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">November 2014</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The General Elections of 2013 and of 2007 are undying and keep appearing like certain snakes that are visiting a man in Kisumu, in his house. He ought to be happy but he is scared thinking they are ghosts. He needs help from the Kenya Wildlife Services but instead he is calling a pastor in old rosaries and some strange clothes ( No one is checking too much it is not a woman) to exorcise his house of ghosts. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Women know what to do with their bodies. Our mothers stripped for power in Nairobi, The Mothers of Freedom Corner. Now the men rip women's clothes to teach them how to dress! This is unacceptable! </span><span style="font-size: x-large;">#MyBodyMyChoice!</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The act of stripping a woman naked because she is wearing a short skirt is unfortunately not new in Kenya. It is illegal, however. Length and width are all she needs to be a good woman. Not to tempt like a snake. Everybody goes to school in Kenya, it is a rule. Many students suffer finding clothes to wear for school. It is a fact. </span><span style="font-size: large;">It may be easier now but it has not always been. Do we have to shove clothes issues on women and not to be proactive on so man other issues?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And why is the Big Bad Wolf so scared? It is not fear. It is a show of power! Power that breaks bones on its way to more power. There are still many bare- breasted women who are not disturbed by anyone where they live in their rural zones. But it is not about breasts or zones. A 93 year-old woman was raped in Nyeri this week. And this is not the only case. Babies have been raped too.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> It seems that some men in Nairobi are missing women who are clad in </span><i style="font-size: x-large;">bui bui</i><span style="font-size: large;"> or </span><i style="font-size: x-large;">hijabs </i><span style="font-size: large;">and are beginning to make a point. I do not know why they have not started at the coast. Maybe there women's dress code is adhered to. Just wondering. Whose dress code?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It goes like that apparently. One man looks, sees, tells another or the other and his 'friends' decide that she is showing what they do not like it, she is helpless. A militia mind makes rules. Touts and Mungiki were never far away. Now, then, is it all touts who are stripping women in Nairobi?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">HER. Men can and do decide to strip her of her clothes in public. They can jeer at her, beat her up to. </span><span style="font-size: large;">But you see men who do this are angels. Hell's angels in Nairobi. Their work is ridiculous. The assumption is that men have no muscles. You can never, ever see them in tight trousers, shorts or even shirtless. And why should you bother? They are sure impunity is on their side, even if they are arrested. Sixty seven of them were rounded up but what will happen to them? Still another woman was stripped as Nairobi women demonstrated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> MEN in any clothes: They are invisible and that is why no woman ever, ever speaks about their clothes, how they show off their chests. Women have no such eyes as to see such or respond in any way. Women are seen as objects and to prove it is not hard. Women have to cover up their curves all the time. Also in the homes older women ask younger ones not to wear short clothes and that includes anything that shows that a woman is attractive. It is not good for men.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You see, that is why women need those <i>kangas</i> around their waists to make them pass of as meek and humble and well covered. And it has nothing to do with breasts and neckline. This many women going around Nairobi have pretty good exposure in the sense of a good low necklines. Nobody puts their finger or throws too many eyes there.<br /><br />We do not name our lower regions. It is the legs and the back and the waist that cannot be visible and should never, ever show because as one man put it, his children should not show him their legs, their underwear. All the area around the waist and behind is so terrible. It is like an intruding venomous snake. You see women are supposed to be trimmed in such areas and made as invisible as possible, if necessary and often they are cut there so as to learn.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Snake that sees woman</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Tonight there is a man renting a room in a hotel in Kisumu. He is sleeping there alone, not with all his family. Not with his wife. He says his wife sees snakes, she calls him, they are killed by the public. She is at home with the snakes and neighbours. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He is in a hotel room until the creatures go away. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He says he has called for prayers because his house needs to be exorcised. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Very fortunately, his wife has not been beaten up by him yet. A neighbor has. This neighbor claimed that the snakes will not cease coming into the house. The owner of the house, the man of course, beat him up. How does he know where the snakes are coming from, he demanded to know? Violence will solve all your psychological seems to be a well selling ad in Kenya. So might the clothes you wear.</span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-81464853714050356772014-07-11T16:08:00.001-07:002014-07-12T04:14:12.692-07:00Kenya at the brink: Could the killings in Lamu & Msa turn into the hot rod that breaks the nation's back? Will you cry genocide after?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In Moi years, 1978 - 2002, and specifically in 1990, Paul Muite, a lawyer and formerly an elected politician used to say that one day, if Kenya continued to brook dictatorship, she would become like Somalia. The people said that was too far fetched. They laughed. That was then. Tonight we cry.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Today many agree that the current government is like Moi's and are not surprised it does not bend its ear easily to those who are not wearing electoral platform shoes and that is a choice Jubilee has made.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Its supporters cheer them on saying that this is right and fitting because they won the presidency (seen as one tribe) by a slim margin against those who wish to dialogue with them now (read the other tribes). But the dialogue issues for most Kenyans and not just the memorandum writing ones include a serious list of loss of life. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here we cannot jeer and cheer, but some of us are losing our souls and openly rejoicing in social media at the extinction of our 'enemies'. This hatred may not make faces bleed on Facebook but it stinks of the horrible ugly possibilities of humans against humans.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The deaths of over 70 people in Mpeketoni, Kenya, Lamu County have not been resolved. The president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta said - despite Shabaab owning up for the attack- this was the work of his political opponents, sadly you have to read here, the other tribes. But Shabaab do not claim terror where they are not involved. We are jolly well stoking our own fires.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In 2013 as Kenya voted the country was clearly ethnically divided, now we are hacked in deaths and burials and aspirations. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Police are mentioned in the same breath as militia groups. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Even our fear of the country breaking down does not seem to galvanize us into a national force for we cannot identify, due to the way we have carried out our politics, anything with a semblance to a common enemy. We feed and are our own enemy. We have shown Shabaab a way in via corruption and naive divisions. Lacked leadership in holding the nation as one. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But was there really a chance for that after 2007 if those who went into power were already seen to have taken sides with their own, used tribal appeal to do whatever they did for the sake of power? Have we been naive? Did we fail the test of values and integrity so badly? Voices of wisdom were heard as those of condemnation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Whoever said we needed anyone but elected people? The rest have no right to speak to power. Not that anyone has no flaws. Raila Odinga has them of course. He was not elected, we said and he accepted that. But he continues to have, like all of us, despite the existence of a senate and parliament, an eye, a voice and a keen following. Those in power like to remind him he has none of these things. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Kenya needs external help to recognize herself. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">None of this is new. We have been here before. We shed blood. Not even our own Nobel Peace Laureate could be heard for everyone who spoke was told they were speaking for a tribe So we are diagnosed already as people highly challenged by a common human ailment, the inability to hear themselves or see themeslves in their neighbors. </span><a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Uhuru-refuses-Raila-conditions-for-talks/-/1056/2381026/-/kuy8i5/-/index.html" style="font-size: x-large;">http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Uhuru-refuses-Raila-conditions-for-talks/-/1056/2381026/-/kuy8i5/-/index.html</a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Killings in Kenya have not abated and more attacks have taken place in Pandanguo, also in the area. <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/guns-fresh-Lamu-attack/-/1107872/2380714/-/xeld52/-/index.html">http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/guns-fresh-Lamu-attack/-/1107872/2380714/-/xeld52/-/index.html</a> But these are the visible. Witnesses to the ICC and other people disappeared silently. Because of the visible massacres of Mpeketoni, arrests of politicians have been made, but police in the area are still under attack from someone and the civilians live in terrible fear. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Just recently a study on the analysis of militia groups in Kenya was released by Mutahi Ngunyi and Dr. Katumanga in a well documented research. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/There%20are%20militia%20groups%20stalking%20Kenya%20as%20we%20tell%20each%20other%20to%20keep%20quiet%20and%20not%20cover%20events%20in%20the%20media%20shortsightedly%20believing%20that%20our%20own%20criticism%20is%20a%20greater%20cause%20of%20crime%20than%20the%20reality%20of%20criminals,%20corrupt%20police%20and%20organised%20militias?%20Here%20https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eqqWPNxVAc">There are militia groups stalking Kenya as we tell each other - and government bids us- keep quiet and not cover events in the media shortsightedly believing that our own criticism is a greater cause of crime than the reality of criminals, corrupt police and organised militias? Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eqqWPNxVAc</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">One would have thought this should have been connected with what the international media said it feared in March 2013 election time. All these gangs have not grown organically just in the last few months. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is said they were involved even in killings in 2007. The forme head of Mungiki Maina Njenga had an attempt on his life in May this year and he linked it to his possible or imagined role in the International Criminal Court. He said only an angel of God saved him from death. He got some consolation from Raila Odinga and the CORD team who are calling for dialogue. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes Fr. Dolan spoke at a Christian burial but tonight it is our duty to ask why so many people of Muslim faith, their leaders and business men are dying in the name of terror. This priest who also writes said that his heart is heavy with burials day after day. <a href="http://mobile.nation.co.ke/blogs/It-is-time-to-pull-back-from-the-brink-/-/1949942/2372476/-/format/xhtml/-/w8lnlcz/-/index.html">http://mobile.nation.co.ke/blogs/It-is-time-to-pull-back-from-the-brink-/-/1949942/2372476/-/format/xhtml/-/w8lnlcz/-/index.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Many things are amiss and if we must go through this then let us at least know what reasons we can cite. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We mourn to no end the shooting of Shahid Butt, business man and owner of Coast Modern Bus company. His death will shake Mombasa. Judging from the many concerns online tonight, his shooting is another reason to ask if the area will stabilise soon. <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/mombasa/Shahid-Butt-shot-dead/-/1954178/2381158/-/yp039cz/-/index.html">http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/mombasa/Shahid-Butt-shot-dead/-/1954178/2381158/-/yp039cz/-/index.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He had been accused of being a terrorist and we are non-violent, completely against terror, not confessing the same faiths but Kenyans in pain. Many people have been calling for reason and dialogue because of the high level of insecurity in Kenya. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Leaders of different backgrounds but outstanding among them Raila Odinga have been saying repeatedly that the country cannot continue as it is. Media personalities have also expressed the down spiralling of Kenya's governance. I listened to a caller to a TV talk Show shakingly say she smelt genocide. This word and Rwanda as well as tribalism have never been so repeated in Kenya's history. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And we ask, if you can see our government has lost reason and is not humbling itself to find out what is happening to the people of Kenya, are you waiting until we can cover a genocide in the media?<br /><br />The international media expected bloodshed during the elections of 2013, some of them even found groups of people in training. Al Jezeera told us as much. Why will they not bring out such information early enough if it was hidden away for a clean election? I am now convinced that their fears were not baseless and that they could still connect the dots and save us from further bloodshed.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Today a Kenyan vessel has been seized 65 kilometers from Mogadishu and aboard it some Kenyans. The news of the shooting of Sahid Butt filtered in as Kenyans were listening to the news on the above.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There are questions. He is not the first prominent businessman to die in Mombasa Kenya recently. Senior Muslim clerics have also been killed. Someone dies monthly. No explanations are given.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> If he was supporting Shabaab, has Shabaab shot him dead? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Since the president has said the killings at Lamu and this extends to Mombasa are not carried out by Shabaab but by Opposition politicians does this mean that rivalry in both business and power has hit a pitch that shows the country does not matter any more? Since the Mombasa Republican Council have been unhappy and would not like to be part of Kenya, what does all this imply?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Shabaab owned up for killings in Mombasa and said they were doing this because Muslims are being ill treated by the Kenyan government. If that is so, where do these killings of the prominent leave the poor and less protected? Can they sleep tonight or tomorrow night? There is runaway insecurity. Some describe Lamu as a war torn zone. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Even those who defend the government vehemently have today dissented quite clearly with the President who posted on his FB page earlier his dinner in Kakamega with Muslims for IFTAR. The people asked him to sort out Lamu first before dining with the Muslims during their dinner of the fast time of Ramadhan. But that was done and photos are splashed in social media.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What is important is to know Kenyans are hard put to understand or to see the end of this insecurity and settle to work and rest. What if, God forbid, something more should happen? There is far too much rhetoric and demonizing of opponents for peace to prevail. We have to remember that killings, accidents can trigger genocides and civil wars. it is not consolation to remember how that happened in Rwanda and to witness what is going on in Palestine and Israel today.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I can only compare the mood in Kenya now to that before the violence of 2007. As early as June 2007 before Kenya experienced post election violence at the end of that year, the people were already disturbed. Some kept on saying all would be well until they saw fire.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> A nation haunted by many issues of injustice shakes. A nation seeking answers of many who have died in caused deaths that were never explained takes steps backwards often. And many will say that this is just a nation in transition and everything is normal.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I beg to differ. Kenya is badly shaken. The Jubilee government may be trying to do what it promised to do after its election but that is visible mainly to its voters and to those who keep insisting that all is well. There is a long list of disturbing issues. All of them are seeking for answers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If all these challenges were to a government that has full moral authority perhaps one could continue just insisting that nothing is wrong and like Mollie in Animal Farm just working head down. But Uhuru Kenyatta's government has been weak from its foundation because it's two main people, he and his deputy have been cited for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Their election in the circumstances was met with great euphoria at home by a vote that was mainly aligned ethnically, and referred to one analyst as the tyranny of numbers. It was a vote in defence of their own people and a vote for the same people's protection, a vote that will most likely always be stalked by fear. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Has someone learned or have some groups including Shabaab learnt just how weak we are when our fault lines are magnified like the Rift Valley? If so what can we do without dialogue? How will the letter of the law help us if we refuse to listen to the panting breath of the others? Are we already divided at every level possible? And if we are, which seems the case, is the world out there so divided that we cannot hear their voices? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Were they so cheated at African Union and at the UN that the only security that mattered was that of the president of Kenya and his immunity to the ICC because he was going to protect us from terror. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">With all that has happened to the Somalis of Kenya, the invasion of Somalia by Kenya on her own and later he joining of AMISOM to attack Shabaab in Somalia, the rounding up of Somalis sending them away from Nairobi, to Mogadishu show reasons for terror seem to be increasing daily, not decreasing. That is what the only militia group that speaks back and to which we do not listen - Shabaab, is saying. That we do not care for Muslims. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I know they have to find reasons to attack but we could be found standing cleaner and more focused if they have no reasons to trade with us or people to point such as the killed clerics and businessmen. But of course, we are a nation and we have to show everyone that we do not back down! We kill. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Not that wildlife is spared either. Ivory poaching is running wild. Shabaab is said to be involved too. Cheap sugar is imported and dumped into the Kenyan market, Shabaab is involved too. <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Shabaab-illicit-sugar-trade/-/1056/2380716/-/wdp5ttz/-/index.html">http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Shabaab-illicit-sugar-trade/-/1056/2380716/-/wdp5ttz/-/index.html</a>And the National Intelligence Service says it has no idea who does that. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Everyone needs help in times of crisis, Kenya is in a crisis. Said in a childlike way, you come to see the elephants and wildlife, send word now to us. Send us healing. Don't send elders such as Desmond Tutu when it is too late for words! And certainly for tears.</span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-66022841743121660492014-07-01T13:34:00.004-07:002014-07-02T00:41:16.078-07:00Kenya, Signs of Contradiction 2, No dialogue and 'The elephant will reach the top of the house!"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hQdmwP2Ob88/U7Ma_L5LC_I/AAAAAAAAFpk/3wgMEUhPQSY/s1600/Richard+Moller+Satao.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hQdmwP2Ob88/U7Ma_L5LC_I/AAAAAAAAFpk/3wgMEUhPQSY/s1600/Richard+Moller+Satao.jpg" height="248" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of Satao, the biggest elephant in the world. Courtesy of Richard Moller in Tasvo.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">It has been tough in Kenya. What is going to unite us? Our origins in terms of tongues misguide us or are blamed, therefore we re-invent </span><i style="font-size: x-large;">ethnicism</i><span style="font-size: large;"> - as my friend likes calling it - to no end. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The elephant will reach the top of the house is a proverb apparently from Cameroon. I like to think that we must make way for others and let all reach where they want to go. Nature included.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Religion -ties that bind- has been used to divide us further. Class wars are big and the winners seem to be the rich all the time. Children are dismayed and have learned to fear. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Famine in the North has not taught us to prepare for it as it comes every five years. Who can stand the images of the hunger broken ribs we see in the media when we are allowed to? Yet we pray in national breakfasts which are quite hefty every year. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Social Media is playing a dynamic role and sometimes I would rather the anger is expressed there, than machetes in homes, but again even in such a space, we cannot find a cool library to share our thoughts or have some fun. Life continues to be more of strife whilst striving to breath fresher air. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">One would think our animals could tell us better stories as they did in traditional times but not even that. The level of poaching in Kenya, especially of the elephant is out of hand. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the first instant I am not forgetting the deaths of Kenya's wisest and same track using elephant. This means this elephant, 46, guided scientists to resolve the human-wildlife conflict on use of space.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This is not a blessing to a nation that has lost so much wildlife, not a good omen to the world. Not especially when poaching is also being linked to terror actions in the Kenya by Shabaab. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tORvxhYdUaU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tORvxhYdUaU</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">For one thing is clear, nobody can manage to poach animals in Kenya without a string of connections that help one get away with the tusks or other things such as monkey skins. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">An old man once boasted about his exploits from Zaire many years ago. He travelled there for monkey skins. The weak link which everybody knows in Kenya is the police that can be bribed. There are enough roadblocks but those do not stop trafficking of such goods, humans or road accidents.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">We have lost many elephants. We are losing ourselves. The din in the nation is at the rooftops. The people are still torn along ethnic and class divisions, political and the Catholic church has joined in by deciding to ask those who are requesting dialogue with Kenyatta to keep quiet and let him rule the nation peacefully. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">On June 14th another elephant was killed. Satao was mourned by all. Sleep was lost by many. Paula Kahumbu wrote. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/africa-wild/2014/jun/13/kenyas-biggest-elephant-killed-by-poachers">http://www.theguardian.com/environment/africa-wild/2014/jun/13/kenyas-biggest-elephant-killed-by-poachers</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is a Proverb that goes "An elephant is never unable to carry its own tusks". I wish our politicians would play their roles as mandated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">We all know elephants have a lasting memory. I wish we could get some of it. All these things connect. I think we shall be trying to lie if we whisper that this situation is apolitical. For we know that many more elephants died on the eve of the Kenyan elections. Someone knows how to turn ivory into money fast. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Kenyan poet Stephen Derwent Partington and many are mourning in hunger for justice and yes, compassion and anger. And we keep singing for the elephants and for this nation and the world. Here is Stephen's poem for Satao and for P. Kahumbu who lost her sleep along with many others when Satao died. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">For‘Satao, 2014’ For Paula Kahumbu </span><br />
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<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Cowards, let us sing in dead Elmolo</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>how the elephants have died.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>We thank the cavemen, that they drew them,</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>that zoologists described them,</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>for the photos of them herding</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>which the tourists left behind,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>for who would ever, fools, believe us?</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">Teeth from heaven to the ground!?</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>I stretch my arm out like a trunk</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>to palm the graveyard of its cranium;</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>it’s how, I hear, they mourned.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The brain within worked tools and language.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>I have none: a useless pen</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>(it’s only good for drafting elegies)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>and even then, no words.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>We once had tuskers. Tell the birds!</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">How do you sift all this from politics?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Two big political voices in the country approach things in the way of two that fight. Yet I believe that the more powerful one is the more important ears are. In this noise, space is created for poachers, but not only poachers, also terrorists. Kenyans are losing. The saying is that "When two elephants fight, the grass suffers". But we do not even have two elephants we loved and they never fought, but they died. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The grass was suffering before and after. Are our stories going to succeed in keeping us safe from bloodshed? If you follow Kenya, this has been on the rise and the last is events have been at Mpeketoni Lamu where over 60 people were gunned down in cold blood. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The perpetrators of this crime have not yet been identified. There has been a sad blame game based on previous disagreements. We are forced to wait to see the end of this. It may not be peaceful.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Many people are mixed up of late. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Some of them say that if we only stopped speaking politics things would be cooler but I do not know anybody who can balance nature and this nation the way Satao did. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There are not two big elephants fighting. No-one is bigger than a country we might say. n the spirit of the Kenyan Constitution every person elected to power is supposed to work with regard for the needs of the nation and to show interest in listening to what others say. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Lest someone says I am inventing because I did not think that the call to dialogue from Raila Odinga would lead to the tug-of-war.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chapter 6 on Integrity Chapter 73 binds all public officers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Droid Sans', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 16px;">7</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">3. (1) Authority assigned to a State officer—</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(a) is a public trust to be exercised in a manner that—</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(i) is consistent with the purposes and objects of this Constitution;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(ii) demonstrates respect for the people;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(iii) brings honour to the nation and dignity to the office; and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(iv) promotes public confidence in the integrity of the office; and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(b) vests in the State officer the responsibility to serve the people, rather than the power to rule them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(2) The guiding principles of leadership and integrity include—<br />(a) selection on the basis of personal integrity, competence and suitability, or election in free and fair elections;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(b) objectivity and impartiality in decision making, and in ensuring that decisions are not influenced by nepotism, favouritism, other improper motives or corrupt practices;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(c) selfless service based solely on the public interest, demonstrated by—<br />(i) honesty in the execution of public duties; and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(ii) the declaration of any personal interest that may conflict with public duties;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(d) accountability to the public for decisions and actions; and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(e) discipline and commitment in service to the people.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya aimed high. This is a land that says it cannot stand violence of such things as rallies and dialogues as Raila Odinga and his team called are calling for. He has been told that he is wrong and does not belong. You see just now the president has reminded him that he should wait for the election contest of 2017. The country is calm and peaceful and he is confused, they say. So mixed up that he ferries people around the country to listen to him in huge rallies. Rally is dead. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya loves peace and what you saw in 2007, if you noticed was not violence, just love for justice. In the meantime a newspaper The Star reports that machetes are selling pretty well and the reporter is wary of the fact that this happened also in 2007 before the onset of post poll violence.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Some people who are active commentators on Social Media, usually helping a healthy discussion keep going are weary. Long before them some Kenyans began to post that it is better to write about God and such things and to avoid politics. They were tired of the rhetoric they said. Grant them their choice.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> But then what is so deadly in Kenya? When is making some noise the only thing one can do? It is when things are happening so fast and the rim of reason seems to have cracked and fallen into a hot volcano. Such are the times we have built up since for three months. About other statistics you may want that are or seem to be more balanced and to your taste you can find in all government books and in many other sites. He is my story from my viscera. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Irony in safety</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya wants to sell itself as a safe country, developing rapidly especially by selling Euro bonds. The economy is safe. There is no need for travel advisories, in fact many Kenyans are suggesting to Britain and America to issue those to their own unsafe countries where gun men often snip lives of kids in schools and all those other horrors.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If you asked a little more you would hear that the warning should be against the European and other developed countries not because of such things as the Lampedusa happenings where often many Africans die in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe but because in Europe there gay people are not listed for death every now and then.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Europe should be written off for its failed morals and poor ways with regard to religion. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As for Kenya, the resources in the country including the finding of oil in formally neglected parts of the country such as Turkana in the North and Lamu at the coast is just the icing on the cake on the future of a country whose golden dawn was on the 4th of March 2013 when Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto got the mandate from the people both through the vote and to clear the air also from the High Court. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There are people for whom absolutely nothing is wrong with Kenya. Only on May 31st they say did some nuisance begin because of one man who returned from abroad with an agenda to introduce an old man called Dialogue whom he said had died.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The elected politicians he wanted to speak to, in the main the president and his deputy keep on telling him that the old man is not dead. About the elephants there is no argument because even poets have sang.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What they want to hear is that all is well and there is no need for this thing called revival and revival rallies for the rising of this old man called Dialogue who now also reveals that he has a wife who also died called Rally. He has met thousands of people in many rallies to call out the name Rally to see if she lives. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Bishops of the Catholic Church who profess a lot of faith in ecumenical dialogue, life and life after are not in favor of such a dialogue. Ecumenism is only good for the church. It is a sacred word. In politics people should listen, they seem to say, to one person because this is Kenya. They stand has often been questioned.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Only one Fr. Ambrose Tonui Kimutai <a href="http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000126442/Kenya-priest-differs-with-church-s-stand-on-rallies">http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000126442/Kenya-priest-differs-with-church-s-stand-on-rallies</a> has told them that he will stick out for Old Mr Dialogue as part of the Decalogue. He says they are acting out of turn because as it is, the Bishops are not meant to take sides on this. Many answer him to congratulate but others say that he should know he has bosses. Still more divisions. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Swiss ambassador to Kenya, Jacques Pitteloud and one of the authors of a recently launched book Wings of Kenya, the subject being birds of Kenya <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201406301457.html">http://allafrica.com/stories/201406301457.html</a>, has done what I never see happening in Europe or anywhere else. He has taken sides too. He contradicts himself between this <a href="http://goo.gl/4Izrru">http://goo.gl/4Izrru</a> and this <a href="http://goo.gl/6Us5qz">http://goo.gl/6Us5qz</a> or despite the dangers that are real and explosive, anybody who has followed the onset of the call for dialogue knows that it has been exacerbated by the deaf ear that has been given by those in power today. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenyans have not failed to let him note that money is stashed in Swiss banks often from all the wrong investors. </span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-49891047079324813612014-06-18T05:19:00.003-07:002014-06-19T03:55:20.756-07:00'Fast 2014, Kenya On Trial and the buck stops with Uhuru Kenyatta who must listen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">'Fast 2014, Kenya On Trial</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hx2ueeTZGX8/U6GDBUh3Y2I/AAAAAAAAFo4/zRR6NXyC7Ds/s1600/Gandhi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hx2ueeTZGX8/U6GDBUh3Y2I/AAAAAAAAFo4/zRR6NXyC7Ds/s1600/Gandhi.jpg" height="253" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Accepted: <i>"A leader does not listen to rumors"</i> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Ghana</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Questioned: "<b>If a leader limps all the others limp"</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya</span><br />
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This is written as a response to so much that Kenyans are sharing on Facebook. It is part of a series that was sparked by a the National Sumptuous Breakfast Prayer Meeting, 2014 at a time when one felt that a fast was better off in Kenya. Therefore the 'Fast 2014. Two proverbs are quoted.<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If a leader is limping do I have to limp? Must I limp? Never. If a politician, let us call them their real name as leaders are too sacred and few, should I limp? Never! Things have changed. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">These are not the days that Tabu Ley with others, danced with a limp to imitate and please dictator Mobotu Sese Seko of Zaire. Some people are still fostering this limping mentality. The family must vote for them, the clan, the mbari and so on. No room for dissent. In Kenya, electing and siding with the president born in one's home areas is taken for granted. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">People are shocked when one who lives near power refuses a job offer or speaks freely and yet...times changed. These are not the days of inventing a limp to fit into power, it is power that should limp like us after they have shot at us, killed and raped the women, taken babies out of wombs. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Remember Kenya in 1997. Pregnant women were shot in case they gave birth to a baby boy. Nothing is new but we want to treat it like it is new. Even then, it was still power perpetuating itself in an evil way. We cannot keep on inviting the same nightmares. We have to find reason. Having to look up to the elders and those elected, usually men is an old trick to keep people from asking basic life questions. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am not going to be afraid of insight. I am not going to be afraid of finding out what drives us to where we are. A place where reason grows so thin. I know some are afraid of words, poetry. I am not going to be afraid of my pen or mouth. I will use them wisely, like the vote. Memory. I will remember. Elephants have died. The best we have. Our Kenyan national memory is vital. Some only want to pray.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They told me to pray that four men speak. They told me to pray harder. I told them i do not have to say what I do before God but to human beings I owe human language which we share beyond ethnicity. I shall not limp.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When Kenyans in 2007 killed others inside a church, threw them back into a raging fire, children and mothers, men, both the killers and the killed had known about prayer before. Churches had been silent as if already burned to ashes before. Their leaders limped, the people followed. They killed. Yes, pray. But know that reason and action wait and plain language which tells us where we are. Sing all the songs you know. Write all the poems. The Bible and the Koran are full of them too. Speak out. Spit out why we are not able to follow even traditional wisdom.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Critical thinking is a must. Expression too. These go together and the other person's point of view need not kill mine, much less make me lift up a weapon of destruction. Freedom of Expression is normally the first target of a leadership that will not work well. It shows disdain for the other when you do not allow expression. This is one thing I have sworn to defend. It is actually part of the right to living which follows the right to life. For if you have no words with which to borrow water to drink in the desert you will not live for long. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Things as I see them. Look the coming of A New Constitution 2010, A Parliament, A Senate, new laws, more women meant the invitation to more people DIALOGUE. It could never have meant that if a president wins an election these things do not count. That they do not come to being. That human beings lose their tongues and their holy nature of humans, speaking out, not following like mute mules. Even donkeys speak to time and shake their burdens. Now many a times, issues in Kenya have been so hard for us that we are the ones who shoulder this burden.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> I have to be clear and say that Uhuru Kenyatta has not understood the spirit of our Constitution 2010. That he has acted out of order many times. And now, the nation is asking him to listen. He instead is listening only to Raila Odinga's voice. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But Kenyans started to complain about insecurity and many other ills and to state that Uhuru and his Jubilee team were not performing for the good of the nation. That election pledges were just that. It is not Raila Odinga's fault. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He has a following. He accepted defeat but was still doing his homework of finding out what happened to his votes. Recently, his party intimated that they had found out what happened, but they did not release that report. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He went on a two month visit to the U.S.A and in his absence it seems, and his untoward treatment by the ambassador of Kenya in the U.S.A, Jean Kamau, his image morphed once again into the one who can make demands on Uhuru's government even if he is not in Parliament or in the Senate.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It appears that Uhuru is still at the competitive stage of the politics of the legitimacy of his election. Perhaps the ICC, the fact that he and his Deputy Ruto have to answer for several counts of accusations of crimes against humanity takes all the energy off the attention of how to lead Kenya.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Most people have in a sense gone beyond -even his own die hard supporters except those who are willing to limp along and that includes elders of his ethnic group who see Kenya as Kenyatta - the realisation that he must show results to one Kenya. Uhuru Kenyatta should have known that by now. Should have known that Raila represents a big voice and is worth listening to for the cohesion of the nation. There are far too many issues bedeviling Kenya for Uhuru and others to act as if Kenya is their home affair. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What was the need for instance of showing that it costs too much for Uhuru to show deference to another seasoned politician? Is power going to crumble if one eats humble pie? Gestures are important. And we go to the simple negative early signals. The ostentation of power. The public show of this is ours, once we are elected, not yours any more, once you lose. Almost back to kindergarten issues. Raila Odinga yes can be reminded he is an ordinary citizen in many ways but humiliation is not one of the ways.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If Uhuru had met Raila Odinga upon his return from the U.S.A in May 31 2014, for after all, the Kenyan embassy there had shunned him, the high political fever we have now in Kenya would be more constructive. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And earlier? If Uhuru had insisted that Raila be accorded due respect and yes, accepted that he is a seasoned politician worth meeting at an airport instead of immediately allowing his new regime to taunt him at Kenyan airports the gesture would have been read positively. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But did he do that, allow him to be taunted? Yes, because he should have put things in order by showing that he was not going to tolerate this kind of thing so soon after the elections. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Is this important? Such small things? Yes because Kibaki's regime had played the same tricks and this reads not a game between politicians like Berlusconi 'playing cuckoo' with Bill Clinton and Putin in corridors of G8 meetings but as an insult to all Raila's supporters who judging by the close call of the result of the election and the many times Raila led in opinion polls are not only from his ethnic group but from the Kenyan nation.</span><span style="font-size: large;">Things began to break into non-dialogue a long time ago. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Substantially because of the affront on Freedom of Expression, worries even on bloggers, free expression on ICC and other matters, not long after March 2013, people began to point out that old was creeping back and that Moi seemed not to be so far away from us after all. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Appointments made by Uhuru leant on one one side of the divide, at it is being called now on Fb, the Great Tribal Divide... reminds of the Great Rift Valley. It is no longer a divide we must not pretend does not exist. The ethnic one. Gender too was not being taken into account often times. The Constitution was clearly not sacred after all. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now if I was disappointed to see Kibaki inviting his friends first and fast to State House in 2003, making at once an ethnic kitchen cabinet, how much more in a man of the uhuru generation. There was no space being created for new imaginings. Even if we have to live with reality good leadership creates space to breathe and dream of happy possibilities, opportunities for everyone.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> The opposite left many with space only for old narratives. These kind of actions and the reaction of fear and intimidation to the suppression of Freedom of Expression left little positive for us to savor. Polygamy would be reinforced by Uhuru's signature later. Defeat was felt. This is an important issue. It was even seen as betrayal by some, thus adding to a sense of despondency. No new dynamics were operating. Corruption and the poaching of wildlife, insecurity were on the rise. Much of what was left for our focus was that history, that Uhuru Kenyatta was and is Moi's project and there is much history and story there.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> It does not matter that some who elected Uhuru were still in a cloud of worship, hero worship, the rest said what they felt. Remember Uhuru Kenyatta's roadside announcements on secondary school charges on roads ...so reminiscent of Moi. These were already criticized also in Central Province. Something was stillborn even if Uhuru and Ruto seemed to surge forward energetically many were going back to a place we left.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Such stories such as the rulership of Kenya would never go past River Chania which could have been dead and buried resurrected in all fervor. It was his father who said that. Uhuru Kenyatta was not moving from this kind of background. He became Jomo in leadership. And of course, in the peoples' eyes, Raila Odinga was becoming his father, who was not Jomo Kenyatta's friend in power, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. He who 'allowed' Jomo Kenyatta to become Kenya's first Prime Minister in a way. We wanted to move away from this kind of political contest between giants but the leaders seem to gain more from it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Kikuyu Luo dichotomy was facing the nation again, the election had not made it good but now we were refining and defining ourselves ethnically even more clearly. Uhuru Kenyatta could have acted to heal this divide, in many many ways. It takes only a little imagination. Even if he would not have succeeded we would have now different facts to put on the table. We do not. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the meantime, the ICC was complaining about complete witness intimidation and tampering. Maina Kiai spoke out about threats. This was already clear before. This kind of ruler means much fear for Kikuyu who would speak out. The fact that others did not surface does not mean they do not exist.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Those in Central Province who had in the first place not voted Uhuru Kenyatta were seen as betrayers. People who speak out even worse. There were numbers and tags and some people were eliminated. If you mentioned the ICC you became an enemy with one stroke. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now in June 2014, beginning and insisting on that speaking out is inciting people is to take many for fools. There has been so much going on that was worse and most inciting. Not 'insighting'! This means we were already having a censored and scary dialogue. In a way the people do not need permission from anyone to have a dialogue. When they ask for it, it is Uhuru Kenyatta's exclusion of his hearing in it that they are pointing out. They are already having it. Uhuru Kenyatta confirmed his kind of dialogue was still going on, no one had stopped it. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He said that it is only Raila Odinga who had refused to join in. But before Raila came back in full gear and expressed his hopes and fears to the many Kenyans who turned out to meet him at Uhuru Park. Nobody bayed for blood. There was peace at Uhuru Park, so much so that the festivity of Madaraka Day on June 1 at Nyayo Stadium reflected on Uhuru Park only in the off-the-cuff remarks. This is one problem for me. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">That another politician who no matter what else he has done wrong and whose history borders on that of Independent Kenya's tussle with inequality in representation is treated so casually by Uhuru Kenyatta. He has to show that he understands the history and the feelings the British and his father witnessed and created between ethnic groups. And more... but I remember well that the Uhuru Kenyatta did not talk to Raila Odinga who was not present. He said:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Minute 24:57 of this video clip.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://trendingnewsroom.com/channel/ntv/3421/kenyaat51-president-uhuru-kenyatta-s-madaraka-day-speech">http://trendingnewsroom.com/channel/ntv/3421/kenyaat51-president-uhuru-kenyatta-s-madaraka-day-speech</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Na mimi sina shaka kufaulu tutafaulu. Nikimalizia na sikua nataka kusema haya lakini wacha tu niseme... eeeh, ehmm, kuna wakenya ambao walikua wakisema.. na.. nikafurahia... kidogo...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"I have no doubt that succeed we must. While winding up, and I did not want to say this but let me say it...hm..ehmm.. There are some Kenyans who were saying yesterday...." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">One would be happier with the tone he uses with business people than with the one he used in the last part of his address to the nation on Madaraka Day. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaBNIE9iYxM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaBNIE9iYxM</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">His first business partners are the people of Kenya, not a class. And of course, not telling people which are the matters they should speak about because Uhuru Kenyatta has to listen more than he thinks. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Uhuru Kenyatta is constantly defining the content of the dialogue the people want. He is not listening. This taunting tone is unacceptable. Even so with the business class, the chips came down. Minute 3.21 is not what one expects from a national leader of a torn nation and I will not limp after it but it sounds like limping..."IEBC did what they ... DID.. You went to COURT..."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Some people are saying..." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This is so dismissive, cursory and actually in the circumstances insulting. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Some people thought it was so positive and open armed embrace. One only needs to read and to know the mood and take on some serious matters in history. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Make what you will of that yourself. But the president of Kenya must not treat peoples' needs as rumors. The president is still saying that it is not Shabaab that attacked Mpeketoni but Raila Odinga and his supporters. The Intelligence had issued a warning before but it was ignored. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenyans are faced with the most awkward of situations, tragic. Who is playing who and for what reason? It is not to be forgotten that some feel all terror actions are to be used as a shield against answering to the ICC or presenting himself to the Hague for a probe on crimes against humanity. But we are here at the crossroads now and people have died.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We still have to ask, seeing the state of the nation now, the fears Kenyans have felt when Mpeketoni was attacked, The Somalis of Kenya and of Somalia who have been victims, the deaths in Bungoma not so long ago, the many attacks on Kenyans and the non-stop constant insecurity that makes sleep impossible for many, many a nights.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We are divided into the class of those who can sleep well and those who sleep waking in death. We have to ask ourselves ourselves not what went wrong, we know it. We have to ask ourselves what to do. People are taking positions to go into violence. We have to ask ourselves what to do because this is not the answer, so obviously not. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, maybe looking at our past which stares into our eyes again as a present we still need to go back further. There is a grandstanding as if a winner- take-all dialogue is all what the General Election of 2013 gave us in Kenya. Winning then with the slim margins and all, Supreme Courts and all that you know, cases and a lot of apprehension should have led one to do things in a conciliatory manner, to remember that even if elected, these leaders and Kenya with them were walking a very tight rope. Instead we heard speeches that sounded like we have just discovered the meaning of dictatorship.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> Winner-take-all was part of the old constitution and does not only apply to votes. We needed to have a president who spoke like he knew his power is limited. This was not so. If we revisit some of our election promises we read more on our toying with justice and the rule of law.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Uhuru Kenyatta dropped his Skype beseeching methods. He had promised to present himself for justice before the International Criminal Court. But instead we spent more tax payers money and galavanted as Kalonzo Musyoka had done before for Kibaki to all lands to ask them to help us run away from trial as we had no time. I must say Ruto presented himself dutifully even as the Rift Valley began to warn him that he was getting used. Our tearing apart began long ago. They stood together, Ruto and Uhuru but the people were expressing other fears. Fear that Ruto would be left standing guilty at the ICC.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Uhuru Kenyatta remarkably became the one who holds us in peace in East Africa. That meant that it was best for him to be with us all the time and not travel to the ICC because if he was away from home we would be attacked by terrorists. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Westgate happened all the same and it was not Raila Odinga who did that was it now? And at this point we could not write everything but there was a pertinent question on my mind. If you become all in East Africa and are protected even from trials or mention of them in our villages because someone will die, people will die. When you become the one the West must have at home are you not pointing a target for Shabaab to hit? Silence on that one.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">At this moment, Raila Odinga is blamed for Mpeketoni. And when I take another look, I will talk about my experience with Raila Odinga being sculpted into the the one we must fear. Being demonized. The ambassador of Kenya to the USA the other day ignored his presence in the U.S.A. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then came to the call#BabawhileYouwereAway. They focused on Raila to listen to all their woes. They said we paid billions for Anglo Leasing under Uhuru Kenyatta... These are matters we must dialogue about. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Uhuru Kenyatta needs to listen. We are not stopping ourselves at the verge of the breakdown of a country we love. We have to... it is a duty of conscience on all of us. </span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-91370994670996044722014-04-12T05:32:00.000-07:002014-04-12T06:02:41.260-07:00Kenya: Signs of contradiction : Song...A glance at the last three months of 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> My Land is Kenya</span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGV3M9IYgSc" style="font-size: x-large;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGV3M9IYgSc</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Save the lions and the elephants too! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Save the elephants we must but as people say in one Kenyan language, things can also be 'elephant'. It means things can get thick.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And when things are like that there there is no peace and not even my darling Elephants and all wildlife can rest peacefully. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Who is naive enough to expect poaching to end as long as there is ingrained corruption and appointments are made not on merit but on other considerations such as: political party support and ethnic background? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A few officers will be arrested, have been arrested reports the BBC before the local media can. Good. There were tweets to this and that led to the pressure. Three are gone. A network remains.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Sorry, Hush My Darling will not work but Mbube... will..<i>. I can relate to the word Kuteta... complain... Listen how the urgency of Africa comes in woman's voice " Aaaaiyaaahiii wi Mbube Mamaaaa! Hiiii! You are a lion Mama!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G85hfwX2dVk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G85hfwX2dVk</a></i> . </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Another version: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7QLj-9Iy_k">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7QLj-9Iy_k</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Poaching continues to be a main problem for Kenya that relies heavily on Tourism and remains rather indifferent to a diaspora that is closely competing with this sector for generation of revenue in Kenya. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I was having a chat Sophia Onasisisana who has a ready camera to film The Mara last week. She wants to make the visit of her life but she is afraid of Kenya. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I was trying to encourage her as her embassy has told her that her trip is not just risky but dangerous. I taught her some survival tricks one of which is never to forget the music she loves. I do not forget Kenya's music and I know it will generate many positive things. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I could not deny that theft was higher in Nairobi at the end of last year even if my friend Wairis keeps on reminding me that Nai is not Jo'burg. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">My friend Ona, as I call her asked me what </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Karibuni Kenya</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> means. I answered her that it means "Welcome to Kenya". She was not done. She asked me, 'What does </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Umekaribishwa</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> mean?' I answered that it means "You are welcome.. d". Passive tense.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Let me explain by the way that I had to tell her that as she knows her name means Wisdom, and we have a version of it in Kiswahili, inherited mainly from people often identified with Muslim faith: Sofya or Sofia but also Christian, Sophie. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I added that her full name Onasisisana means "view us deeply" in Kiswahili but it also reminded me of Onassis rich family, once so famous. She said to forget the rich part but that on vision if it is included in 'seeing' we could go far. I had to explain the complication of language for vision is maono meaning what is sighted, but still it has to do with eyes. So she is stil with me as Ona, meaning, see.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I bet the Kenyan intelligence will be looking out for her in their files one of these days. She wants to retrace a story she cannot forget. Some Kenyans would say immediately after hearing that... <i>Utakiona.. You will see it. </i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The story of Julie. Let us call her Julia now. Keep in touch about her trip or trips if she remains bold enough. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But upon reading this someone has also told me already..<i> Utaona cha mtema kuni! </i>This means that I will see what the woodcutter saw. The one who cut the branch he was sitting on! I won't add Lol! That is not funny!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We went back to her trip.. nor Safari discussion. She wants to start it with words. I have promised her that she will see lions and elephants, I am not really sure at all. Last time I was in Nairobi National Park in February the wardens run to tell us where to see a lion. But I saw it. One mother and cub. Not at all impressed by the fanfare. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Ona already knew another song, Jambo Bwana, and she told what <i>hakuna matata</i> means. She learnt it from the movie Lion King. It means there are no problems or things to fuss about. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">She had a few hiccups...Jambo, Jambo <i>Bwana</i>! Ooops! I had to tell her that she is not a <i>bwana l</i>iterally man and lord. She wanted an equivalent for woman and I was not too sure of Mama. I hear it abused often enough not Bwana. Bwana is for the people who like polygamy too and for tourists and masterful people of money whether polygamous or not. It is even for Jesus, but anyway... the song.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The song goes on to praise Kenya, a country of sunshine. Just like the song Karibuni Kenya...Nairobi is known as the "green city in the sun". </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">This is a very touristy song. The conversations I started recently on solar energy fainted quite fast in the sun.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But Jambo Bwana is on You Tube. You can listen to it on internet from the Safari Band and other singers. We went on to discuss Kibera but before long insecurity in the whole country came up. Kibera is not a national Park, by the way. It a place hard to describe. If you call it a shanty, Kenyans will ask you if you are still in the seventies, if you say a 'slum', some will look at you and say that could be as offensive as the word 'tribe' not even tribalism. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">We tried to go hightech like organizations such as German...GTZ and say Informal Settlements as they called Mathare when they tried to upgrade it in the 1990s onwards and before they gave up. Perhaps they decided to work through other smaller organizations. I will ask the office some day. Upgrading goes steps forward and then several backward. Something about land ownership? House ownership? Someone will tell us in a comment below perhaps.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ona and I talked about most of the news in the months of January, February and March 2014. It was a trimestral of celebration for some in addition to Kenya@50, it is said that the Jubilee Government achievements are remarkable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">End of year 2013 had come with the celebration of the fact that Kenyans in the diaspora, who were not facilitated to vote unless they were in Uganda, Rwanda or Burundi or Tanzania, are almost earning the country the same revenue as tourism is. Tourism, tea and coffee are Kenyans highest income earners. Hot on the heels of the earnings from the diaspora has come an Equity Bank offer for transfers from Kenyans abroad. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">There an arm of welcome extended to the diaspora now. In the USA, Kenyans have been issued with Identification Cards. This means that they can vote. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In February 2014 and even now, The Kenyan Constitution 2010, is still described as brand new especially for women issues.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> The </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Karibu</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> goes to tourists and women. They are new to everything. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Transport</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">All that relates to transport is key our growth not only in products but also national optimism and ambition. The stemming of corruption. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I introduced Ona to a new song! </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Good Old EAR$H. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">She was delighted.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwmb6WtyEUQ">Oh, good Old EAR and H! While the train would rock and roll swing and sway we would sing along with what they had to say...</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I know this was colonially aligned but no matter, it does point at where we could be. We had fun singing this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And they said:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Yes we can, yes, we can, yes we can, can, can, can! Oh the good old EAR&H would get me there right on time... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Kenya has neglected railway travel for too long and the price has been bad roads that are impossible to maintain due to attrition by heavy load vehicles going to the entire region, many car and bus accidents and a retardation of growth for many small businesses. Why would anyone not want this to be put right without any hitches? Why would a contract to build railways become contentious? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ona had a point here. She said "Do not worry, your president is the president of the Eastern African region now!"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Contract</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A contract given to a Chinese company to re-build the Kenya Railways, repair and extend the railway sparked much controversy in Kenya in 2013. Procurement procedures on which many good Kenyans spent hours to refine a few years ago had been breached. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It was clear that there was no open tendering and the company had been chosen without competition. Completely irregular. Many steps back from where Kenya was going to avoid strange deals that have lead to huge corruption such as Goldenberg and Anglo leasing, words that our children pronounce in some primary schools. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I was now teaching Ona names that have village renditions. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Kamlesi Batii for Kamlesh Pattni who was associated with Kodenba... for Goldenberg is one version I know.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But now Kamlesh Pattni is holy. He is Brother Paul for he like Saul came tumbling off the high horse. He returned with humility and founded a church that many gullible Kenyans follow and which used to have airtime on National TV on Sundays. What matters is not the ethic, it is money. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And if one of the whistleblowers on the above cases had enough money to run a programme on corruption the media house might in time say it has little space as it has so many other church adds. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Welcome to Kenya. And Anglo leasing and Goldenberg did cause losses of lives documented and undocumented almost everything does.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Ona wants to know what is dangerous to talk about today so that she can steer clear of controversy. I told her we shall talk about steering clear another day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Nowadays the anathema letters are three: ICC. All those who speak about this as the home of justice especially if they have any clout imagined or real are in for trouble. So much so that an activist called a press conference to say he was not a witness in this case. If such a person can do that, what does it really mean to the rest of the Kenyans who are witnesses or who are seen to know anything about the ICC? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">People who bumped into and have a photo with Fatou Bensouda even before she became the Prosecutor also have reasons to be cautious. Kwani? as they ask in Kenya, was not Ocampo himself and Bensouda in Kenya sometime back? Are Kenyans expected to leave a city if she is passing by and if she wants to address issues of justice in Afrika to run away?</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d9UIMg8tsBI/U0kg_LfzO4I/AAAAAAAAFig/FG2VGK3mnow/s1600/Kenya+candle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d9UIMg8tsBI/U0kg_LfzO4I/AAAAAAAAFig/FG2VGK3mnow/s1600/Kenya+candle.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We ear not to be herded we are Kenyans</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In Kenya Human Rights Defenders are under threat and that is no secret. On Fb where much time is spent by Kenyans 'venting' as we say on different issues is rife with such reports. And can we believe them? Of course we can. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Al Amin Kimathi is the latest to cry out that he is in danger. There are many who are unheard. He does so knowing fully well that as a human rights activist he has always engaged the law against terror for its weaknesses. He has questioned illegal renditions of Somalis from Somalia to destinations for torture because of terrorism. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fxhfk0B88Uc/U0kw4pjStuI/AAAAAAAAFis/gQnxV1To5-E/s1600/KimathiPic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fxhfk0B88Uc/U0kw4pjStuI/AAAAAAAAFis/gQnxV1To5-E/s1600/KimathiPic.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There are Kenyans who will never stop to ask for justice. Justice for JM Kariuki and Pio Gama Pinto is the last thing I heard Al Amin Kimathi (In a white kanzu) and Muthoni Kamau discuss. And indeed why are there so many unanswered deaths in Kenya? Julie Ward too... whom Ona wants to trace!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Somalis have now been thrown out of Little Mogadishu, Eastleigh and Mombasa in Kenya. In Nairobi, they were first detained at Kasarani Stadium. Over 3000 humans: Children, women and men were in the same place and initially without the support of lawyers, UNHCR, friends or relatives. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Al Amin Kimaathi raised alarm on concentration camp like treatment of these Somalis. The network which included Shailja Patel, TheWanjiku Revolution, Philo Ikonya and many colleagues in solidarity with what is right, grew. The following is Al Amin Kimaathi's recent tweet confirming that police in Kenya want him dead. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">And there are pleas directly to the police boss IG Kimaiyo not to allow that Kimaathi is executed and his death blamed on support for terror. Kimathi is a human rights activist and works across board with many activists on a range of issues. He was once arrested on trumped up charges and imprisoned in Kampala for a year. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Should our lives depend on direct pleas to the police boss and to the President of the Republic in a country that has enshrined the Bill of Human Rights for years? <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d9UIMg8tsBI/U0kg_LfzO4I/AAAAAAAAFig/FG2VGK3mnow/s1600/Kenya+candle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d9UIMg8tsBI/U0kg_LfzO4I/AAAAAAAAFig/FG2VGK3mnow/s1600/Kenya+candle.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eternal vigilance is the price we have to pay</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d9UIMg8tsBI/U0kg_LfzO4I/AAAAAAAAFig/FG2VGK3mnow/s1600/Kenya+candle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d9UIMg8tsBI/U0kg_LfzO4I/AAAAAAAAFig/FG2VGK3mnow/s1600/Kenya+candle.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span>9:48 PM - 9 Apr 2014</span>
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" data-feedback-key="stream_status_453982782897655809" data-has-parent-tweet="true" data-is-reply-to="true" data-item-id="453982782897655809" data-mentions="alaminkimathi PoliceKE" data-name="Ahmednasir Abdullahi" data-retweet-id="454500510830444544" data-retweeter="alaminkimathi" data-screen-name="ahmednasirlaw" data-tweet-id="453982782897655809" data-user-id="401579858" data-you-block="false" data-you-follow="true" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; cursor: pointer; min-height: 51px; padding: 9px 12px; position: relative;">
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<span>7:12 PM - 9 Apr 2014</span>
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" data-feedback-key="stream_status_453943503866040322" data-item-id="453943503866040322" data-mentions="PoliceKE" data-name="Al-Amin Kimathi" data-screen-name="alaminkimathi" data-tweet-id="453943503866040322" data-user-id="470042842" data-you-block="false" data-you-follow="true" style="background-color: #f5f8fa; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-left-radius: 6px; border-top-right-radius: 6px; cursor: pointer; min-height: 54px; padding: 9px 12px 12px; position: relative;">
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<a class="account-group js-account-group js-action-profile js-user-profile-link js-nav" data-user-id="470042842" href="https://twitter.com/alaminkimathi" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #999999; text-decoration: none;"><strong class="fullname js-action-profile-name show-popup-with-id" style="color: #292f33;">Al-Amin Kimathi</strong> <span class="username js-action-profile-name" style="color: #8899a6; direction: ltr; font-size: 13px; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="color: #b1bbc3;">@</span>alaminkimathi</span> </a><small class="time" style="color: #bbbbbb; font-size: 13px;"> <a class="tweet-timestamp js-permalink js-nav js-tooltip" href="https://twitter.com/alaminkimathi/status/453943503866040322" style="background-color: transparent; color: #8899a6; text-decoration: none;" title="7:12 PM - 9 Apr 2014"><span class="_timestamp js-short-timestamp " data-long-form="true" data-time-ms="1397063539000" data-time="1397063539">Apr 9</span></a></small></div>
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I can now confirm receiving warnings from colleagues that some elements within <a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/PoliceKE" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0084b4; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #66b5d2;">@</span>PoliceKE</a> have disclosed to them that am "next to be killed"</div>
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<span>9:48 PM - 9 Apr 2014</span>
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" data-feedback-key="stream_status_453982782897655809" data-has-parent-tweet="true" data-is-reply-to="true" data-item-id="453982782897655809" data-mentions="alaminkimathi PoliceKE" data-name="Ahmednasir Abdullahi" data-retweet-id="454500510830444544" data-retweeter="alaminkimathi" data-screen-name="ahmednasirlaw" data-tweet-id="453982782897655809" data-user-id="401579858" data-you-block="false" data-you-follow="true" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; cursor: pointer; min-height: 51px; padding: 9px 12px; position: relative;">
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<a class="account-group js-account-group js-action-profile js-user-profile-link js-nav" data-user-id="401579858" href="https://twitter.com/ahmednasirlaw" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #999999; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" class="avatar js-action-profile-avatar" src="https://abs.twimg.com/sticky/default_profile_images/default_profile_1_bigger.png" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; border: 0px; float: left; height: 48px; margin-left: -58px; margin-top: 3px; width: 48px;" /><strong class="fullname js-action-profile-name show-popup-with-id" style="color: #292f33;">Ahmednasir Abdullahi</strong> <span class="username js-action-profile-name" style="color: #8899a6; direction: ltr; font-size: 13px; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="color: #b1bbc3;">@</span>ahmednasirlaw</span> </a><small class="time" style="color: #bbbbbb; font-size: 13px;"> <a class="tweet-timestamp js-permalink js-nav js-tooltip" data-original-title="9:48 PM - 9 Apr 2014" href="https://twitter.com/ahmednasirlaw/status/453982782897655809" style="background-color: transparent; color: #8899a6; text-decoration: none;"><span class="_timestamp js-short-timestamp " data-long-form="true" data-time-ms="1397072904000" data-time="1397072904">Apr 9</span></a></small></div>
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<a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/alaminkimathi" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0084b4; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #66b5d2;">@</span>alaminkimathi</a> <a class="twitter-atreply pretty-link" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/PoliceKE" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0084b4; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #66b5d2;">@</span>PoliceKE</a> I make a personal and passionate plea to IG Kamiyo not to kill Al Amin.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Why does the Government feel threatened by Free Expression? Is the media really free in Kenya? Why is there so much fear about what is said and done in a country whose president said he would be so free with the citizens and in fact would turn up at the ICC if required and with his Deputy rule the country via Skype? This was a public announcement during the Jubilee team campaigns. Transparency is redefined.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Is it true that one episode of a TV program could not be aired because it went contrary to his taste? Of course sitting with a host of uninvited guests called the Intelligence is common whenever some people should want to chat at a restaurant. And yet, these are people with open agendas and who say what they do not like. In the meantime insecurity caused by real crooks is at a runaway level.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto tell us that they are on track. Even the laptops to every primary school child that were a campaign promise in 2013 Deputy Ruto said only yesterday are on the way. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">There was a comment and question on social media regarding why these are going to cost 300$ each if they are being purchased for 100$. The answer was that there are some taxes that bring us to that figure at delivery. Someone else wondered if the Government adds taxes to its own purchases. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Procurement systems are clear and are one of the things we could say that was put in place even before the year 2012. Nonetheless the first tender for these laptops had to be cancelled not so long ago because the tender had been given to an Indian company that could not deliver. The rules are laid down and the children are waiting. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Teachers' Strike</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ona heard about the teachers strike last year in June and again the threat in January this year. What happens there? We had to agree that teachers strike in many countries and yes, Kenya is young. However, why is it that in past decades </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Students in public schools have it rough but the ones who can afford private education carry on boarding buses to go to school daily and with good food and pocket money. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Indeed some of them are so well off that they are the target of drug dealers. But for now let us stick to the question.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Kenyans love to achieve. Athletes know that. There are many fine persons of great achievements in Kenya. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Lupita Nyong'o who has won an Oscar for her role in the film<i> Twelve Years A Slave</i>. The joy that exploded in Kenya was tangible with this win. Black beauties were out to assert themselves. There are many Kenyan number ones that are celebrated. </span><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But the Nairobi Stock Exchange is not so excited about the sales of Black Tea, Kenya's best in the world, and coffee.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Ona will still come because she loves tea and she wants to learn the song Pole Musa...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg2_pxNRB7o&list=PL7BA25BFA6805264C">You got to love this.. Daudi Kabaka!</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Sukuma, sukuma, sukuma</i>... Musa<i> nimevumilia sana</i>. The persona is a woman totally oppressed by Musa in a marriage gone wrong. I wrote <i>Kenya, Will You Marry Me!</i> and so I am really interested in marriage. The marriage of Change.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I sometimes sing Kenya n<i>imevumilia sana.</i>..No mystery. It means something like not just push, which is <i>sukuma.</i>..literally but can also mean push yourself.. to the next level. We shall talk.</span></div>
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-82087593718728357742014-01-31T12:54:00.003-08:002014-01-31T13:00:37.469-08:00The Trouble with Turkana 2014 seen through Achebe's ' The Trouble with Nigeria' <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">When will the people of Turkana say goodbye to famine forever?</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Why is it that Kenya would tether them to world relief all these years? Is not Turkana tired of being the face of pain in our country? What do the leaders of Kenya learn from Turkana's frequent famines. So frequent that somebody started a Facebook Page? Here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.180451438689335.42790.138550856212727&type=3">https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.180451438689335.42790.138550856212727&type=3</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A newspaper article in November last year showed that the US Development Foundation and the Kenya Commercial Bank boosted food security in Turkana with millions of shillings.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/KCB-boosts-food-security-in-Turkana/-/539550/2114394/-/ncm7bsz/-/index.html">http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/KCB-boosts-food-security-in-Turkana/-/539550/2114394/-/ncm7bsz/-/index.html</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What has the government done in this regard for Turkana?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Devolution as envisaged in Kenya's new law is urgent in Kenya and more so in Turkana and all marginalised areas of Kenya. And so it is written in Kenya's August 2010 Constitution Article 174 that devolution objects are among others to: (e) protect and promote the interests and rights of minorities and marginalised communities;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(f) to promote social and economic development and the provision of proximate, easily accessible services throughout Kenya...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There are some other good sounding things such as the ensurance of "Equitable sharing of national and local resources throughout Kenya"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is famine in 2014 in Turkana County of Kenya. Turkana listed 23 between Kiambu (22) and West Pokot (24)in the First Schedule on Counties in the Constitution 2010 still belongs to the part of Kenya so marginalised that the citizens there often sent greetings to the rest of Kenyans therefore indicating that they were hardly part of Kenya. While Kiambu indicators show a good tackling of poverty - I know not everyone there is rich- Turkana has still one of the highest levels of poverty at district level. You can see that here:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.opendata.go.ke/Poverty/Poverty-Rate-by-District/i5bp-z9aq">https://www.opendata.go.ke/Poverty/Poverty-Rate-by-District/i5bp-z9aq</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> It is only that oil and later vast amounts of water reserves have been found in some parts of the dry area. We hope that development will not be as oil to water in life but that the two resources will be harnessed for the local people for this will contribute to justice in Kenya.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The trouble with Turkana and food security is not new. But it is extremely sad that a predictable famine has not been managed by Kenya for so long and that the government does not find a way of putting this situation behind the people of Turkana. One may well fear.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">That this may get worse each time instead of improving because Turkana is now a coveted part of Kenya. The trouble with Turkana if Kenya does not stand by the county and cause fast changes for the empowerment of the citizens of Kenya who live there, may become very much the same as the Trouble with Nigeria as so well narrated by Chinua Achebe in his essay. For county governments must work </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000096718&story_title=we-have-lost-hope-in-tullow-oil-turkana-residents-say">https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000096718&story_title=we-have-lost-hope-in-tullow-oil-turkana-residents-say</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I believe that the African Union needs a patron badly and this must be Achebe who has left in his writings simple but very concrete ideas on the leadership of Afrika. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Achebe's ideas put into practice may and could bring dignity upon us. Why is Turkana starving today? Only last year we were told that aquifers containing water that could be useful for about 70 years were found so that the county is not only rich in oil but also has a water resovoir beneath it. Of course leadership is key here otherwise the blessings of Turkana will continue to be a curse.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We have seen this before and it is almost predictable that after every five years there will be a food shortage in Turkana where a water shortage is permanent. The two things go together. For even when some areas in what was called by the British the Northern Eastern Frontier and up to 2010 in Kenya North Eastern Province can be wet and productive, Turkana area is on the whole dry.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was sad to hear a KTN Kenya journalist ask how come Turkana people can starve whilst their neighbouring County Uasin Gishu and others are food sufficient. Well, famine does not happen in Turkana because there is no food in Kenya. The famine in Turkana points at one thing. Deep poverty for the majority of people who cannot and do not have food to store for the hard years. This is unforgivable in a country such as Kenya where food can be so easily grown even in these dry areas.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The grandmothers and girls that we mainly see in the news eating wild berries after which some of whom have died are not individuals we can say even got what the majority of us in Kenya have reaped in the last 50 years of independence in terms of education. Turkana is Kenya's least formally educated county. The professionals who come from the area receive little support to transform their home area or even lead in Kenya.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Turkana area is one of those that require emergency affirmative support so that the roots of development can begin to go down. It is not possible to suddenly compare the area to Uasin Gishu or Kiambu or Mombasa. This wold be unfair.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The journalist asking the question why food is so near yet the people starve needs to consider the infrastructure of Turkana. How often buses and other vehicles leave Eldoret and Kitale towards Turkana and how many get there. I have heard of a place where those lucky few who are able to shop make the rest of the way on a donkey. Where it becomes difficult to even travel with one packet of unga. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So many will clap that oil has been found in Turkana but this will only spell doom for the local people if the management of the county is not immediately supported with great integrity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I return to Achebe and apply this to Turkana and indeed to Kenya as a country.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"For the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-8110379635078155182014-01-26T07:10:00.003-08:002014-01-30T02:58:56.479-08:00The politics of circumcision: power and abuse in Kenya<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XA6MSLQExV8/UuUjs2vsLXI/AAAAAAAAFco/KrV1mlo__98/s1600/Crisscross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XA6MSLQExV8/UuUjs2vsLXI/AAAAAAAAFco/KrV1mlo__98/s1600/Crisscross.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I will do the little that I can" Wangari Maathai<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Those who see Kenya from afar say this is an interesting country. So do those within. Kenya is amazing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But when I ask those form afar why, they tell me that it is because Kenyans get so involved in the nation's life. And what a blessing. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya aiming to save herself digitally right from the township areas to the classrooms can move any heart. Kenya, often on the lips of many for here is a country you cannot ignore. How then can Kenya overlook women in so many ways? Are we losing it? If we agree we have come this far it is because of our mothers, anyone questioning that knows that they are wrong.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Are women losing the battle to macho ways also in appointments? Are the appointing authorities still escaping their legal obligations to make sure that no public institution shall be managed by more than two thirds of one gender? Is the recognition that this is a clause that requires vigilance uppermost in the minds of those who have power? It appears not.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There are many Kenyans on Facebook crying and saying that they hate politics. This is a comment not infrequently from women. They want to serve God and they see this role as differing completely from the one those who go into politics obtain.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They do not even want to discuss these things, those dirty things, because they are tired of them, they say. They have not reaped the benefits of their citizenship which entitles them to involvement and engagement in the Constitution of 2010 because of the politicking that goes on in the Country. </span><span style="font-size: large;">They are tired of hearing too about women leaders who are corrupt and immoral. Will they still be tired when their learn never to speak out? Out of shame and fear? Will they miss some lessons already given by our mothers at Freedom Corner?</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D0BZUk3VFIY/UuUkldQb56I/AAAAAAAAFcw/sudo_faBOrI/s1600/Odhiambo+mouth+closed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D0BZUk3VFIY/UuUkldQb56I/AAAAAAAAFcw/sudo_faBOrI/s1600/Odhiambo+mouth+closed.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Odhiambo: genitals and tongue pulled by police </td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But in the echelons of power, Kenyans are already preparing for the 2017 General Election. This is already making the headlines.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This means by the way to expect to be reminded again and again of who among the men is not circumcised and why. This is important in politics as they are today in Kenya. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You might find it hard to understand if you do not come from there or if from there if you do not listen hard enough. This is the first wedge used to effect politics of ethnic groups. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Uuuu I cannot be ruled by a <i>kihii, Nie ndingiathwo ni kihii!"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Kihii is the name of an irresponsible boy who is rough and cannot be tamed. How can you entrust yourselves to a man who... and even if he says he is cut. They not mean only the physical circumcision. It is a kind of acceptance. It is a rejection note. A reason illogically picked from some traditions to lie to the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the end, the man to lead must be accepted by most of the so called mature people in the land, the voices of reason. And not to say there are none, but when it comes to networking in politics one is left to wonder. Do they care these voices who touch every node in the rural networks about the meaning of a vote? Freedom? power, woman? Everything gets reduced to illogical bare muscle: a tug of war. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I begin 2014 on this note because Kenya's underbelly hides so much of what goes on with sexuality but occasionally and angling like a spitting reptile revealing power abusing power if it is not tamed. I change to the cause of women and their representation. Before Kenya got the 2010 Constitution some doubted that stating women should belong in power positions was not contentious. Now they see it is clear for all to see. Women have a long way to go despite the law, to get all their gains. When men in power are speaking in derogatory terms, they call women <i>kihii</i>, uncircumcised boy. Boy, not girl. </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QdwDqS1i_50/UuUCxHrtfMI/AAAAAAAAFb8/P85Fk7CFF6U/s1600/Rachels+slaps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QdwDqS1i_50/UuUCxHrtfMI/AAAAAAAAFb8/P85Fk7CFF6U/s1600/Rachels+slaps.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Art work from Facebook shared on Facebook courtesy of NP</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> If there is anything we have learned in Kenya, it is how important women are in the power equation. We may want to dismiss them but they can and do make their difference. And so, they too are rejected as are those seen as 'others' who would like power. The words of the fight are usually aimed at women. But so are fists. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I may not agree with the thoughts and policies of some people regardless of their gender but it beggars the imagination that a man would lift his hand and slap a woman. It does not matter who that woman is to me but in this case, no matter the muck on the road to power, the woman is none other than the elected Women Representative of Nairobi: Hon. Rachel Shebesh. So that every woman in Nairobi and is slapped in her slap.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The matter takes a stranger twist when it is clear that he who slaps is the Governor of Nairobi County, Governor Evans Kidero, so there go the governed! And then there is a circus of who did what and when, a court case and as evident on Fb discussions people are are angry and confused. And the long talk about reconciliation as a nation when cracks at the very top and between men and women are so evident. The youth, the poor youth without means took to other ways long before. But women.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Suddenly there is a familiar mould of the nature of the Woman Representative since time began. When I look at it carefully it goes back to many strong women I know in history. <i>Evish</i>. D' Eve lish.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"She tempted me, she slapped me, she pulled my... She gave me the fruit." To the cacophony love affairs are added and you see, they are always a woman's cunning way. I may be wrong on her own specifics here but this is not debatable. Her weaknesses were turned into the sin of all women in the whole world at all times. Basically prostituted as in spread all over the place.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Oh yes women, they the untamed, unfaithful and always in the wrong people would say. And some people are now so tired of this story and the lesson it has left is lack of trust in women. The question that begs an answer is soon vanishing as many have.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">That a man shall be defined as a man because he does not flinch in pain is a widespread notion. Yesterday I heard it said of young men on the island of Tonga. But is not having a heart and wisdom the epitome of power?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In political parlance in Kenya, one will never cease to hear the use of the words 'circumcised' and 'uncircumcised' I pray that these be the last generations that use language in such a base manner especially in public but I know my prayers are already dashed. For the youth too are scandalised and will go the same way.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was late last year when the Kiambu Senator Kabogo, referred in public, and I love what we say in public for it always reveals whom we are in private, as a an uncircumcised boy, <i>kihii.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Here we</i> are in the intricacies of macho thinking when a woman who is in power is reduced to a thing, an object of ridicule. It does not matter that this reference was made to one Alice a woman leader in his area. It eventually applies to all women. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Actually, the Governor is on record now saying no single woman can go into leadership. I do not want to remind him who Michel Bachelet, the former and again re-elected President of Chile is, because he has known many formidable single women of his area and knows that he is afraid. Perhaps also afraid of Maria the Mother of Jesus, for we all know who Joseph her husband is. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He has seen strong women in Kenya. Martha Karua and others have frightened him. Njoki Ndungú. Let the Kenyan media not even call him Neanderthal man. Oh, that man was better. Who is this?<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf7YIB4NOU4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf7YIB4NOU4</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>But where are the people? </b>They are the power that must stand up with their single mothers who have all too often given all they have and carried not only their families but even the nation on their backs! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I ask this question with deep concern. Away in exile, some people called me back home in 2013 for political office. I had in the past expressed interest in local and national politics before 2009, when I left. None of those calling me said, "Come and be the Governor of Kiambu or Nairobi or wherever…" No, they were quick to tell me to go and be a Woman Representative. Mhhm. I have nothing against Women Reps.. but too many people have the idea that a woman cannot be a governor? A president.. and down the line they get the kind of people they elect for office in general. This is worse than what a particular senator might say. Just where is people power? Why should we spend our time listening to the above in a nation where many are starving every five years and no one plans ahead?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>2014 </b>Jan: <a href="http://goo.gl/4FIsna">http://goo.gl/4FIsna</a></span><br />
2014 : <a href="http://goo.gl/eRFhi2">http://goo.gl/eRFhi2</a><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">2009</span></b> April: <a href="http://goo.gl/FdCicO">http://goo.gl/FdCicO</a><br />
<a href="http://goo.gl/zLJzmT">http://goo.gl/zLJzmT</a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This blog is against the circumcision of women in the world. It holds that a woman is endangered by cutting her. This blog is aware that this is done in many parts of the world including in modern cities by those held in the grip of certain beliefs in the practice. This means that to be called 'Uncircumcised as a form of verbal abuse is irrelevant and almost a compliment were it not that for some hearers it means that the person so abused should be held in low esteem.' </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The blogger was also abused verbally that because of her boldness and voice she is an 'uncircumcised boy'. She reacted in a poem:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Freedom bells, they ring in our bodies,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>We are proudly not getting down </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>to be cut</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Did you think I would stammer when you call me Kihii</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>uncircumcised male?<br />Call me again, more times,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>you killed so many of our young sons,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>this name is my compliment.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>In their hidden dead bodies,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>still freedom bells, I say, ring,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>through us." </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Out of Prison- Love Songs (Aus dem Gefängnis Liebesgasänge) Löcker, Austria and E-book@P.Ikonya in English:<a href="http://www.amazon.de/Out-Prison-Songs-Philo-Ikonya-ebook/dp/B006VXIZMK">http://www.amazon.de/Out-Prison-Songs-Philo-Ikonya-ebook/dp/B006VXIZMK</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is still more to women woes and power over her body. I know that at school we talked about Western Kenya, where Liz comes from, with regard to a forced marriage custom which included the abduction of a girl going to, for example, fetch water and the making of her into a wife immediately, through rape of course for often she did not even know it was going to happen. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> But the elders knew it. But the religious and local leaders knew it. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The examination of the balance of power is prerogative in the growth of a nation and a wise leader would be eager to call things by their names and stand up for the sovereignty of women without which we are not dignified as a nation.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p6Rf4M-FiS4/UuUgijU4dJI/AAAAAAAAFcc/yQce0jejwG4/s1600/Fatherhood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p6Rf4M-FiS4/UuUgijU4dJI/AAAAAAAAFcc/yQce0jejwG4/s1600/Fatherhood.jpg" height="320" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The role of Mother's is often not in question</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Fatherhood: Every man has a nation</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Patriot? Not unless you can acknowledge .. just begin by that… and feed all your children Oh, Kenyan man. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">With regard to fatherhood as in may places, Kenya stands accused. The responsibilities of fathers in families is often by remote control. And then they denigrate single mothers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Many say that if the children go wrong it is the mother to blame because she is always with them. There is a strong need to balance what is required of fathers in families in terms of: time, contribution to tasks and economic input. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For there are many homes that lean on women on their own. But single mothers cannot and should never take the responsibility for the children alone. Neither can single fathers. It just does not work. There must be social structures that help resolve the burdens of good upbringing and constant thinking on how this is to be managed. This is political.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Martha Karua, a Kenyan politician used to speak about the day that women shall be paid for working at home. It is time also to speak for the many millions of women who are slaves in our own homes, working only to often be abused by the men in the family.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So the women who are saying they will not talk politics had better begin right at home, for family is a political set up. It is there that all must discuss politics or should.</span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-5571244651042847172013-12-06T00:49:00.001-08:002013-12-08T13:26:39.004-08:00Dear Mandela <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">12th January 2010</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dear Nelson Mandela,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am writing to you to firstly thank you for having worked so hard for freedom. I always feel that I have you to hold up in many places when much of what comes from our different countries is not very good. I am a Kenyan recently moved to Oslo as a guest writer under ICORN ( International Cities of Refuge Network). I am a human rights activist and writer.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I grew up and went to school in the Rift Valley and not in Central Province where I was born in Kiambu and somehow, my identity in terms of pronunciation of words in my mother language was modified by exposure. Now I speak my mother spoken Gikuyu, English, Kiswahili, Spanish, a little Italian and French and now am learning Norsk. I studied Linguistics and I understand Latin as a root language. I long very much to learn Lingala and also Maasai and once am comfortable with Norsk these are the languages I want to learn this year.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you again. When I, sometimes like today read about Mau Mau in Kenya and remember the stories my father used to tell us about his time in Manyani camp, I miss my father very much. He died in 1991 at a time when I had not analysed things enough for me to thank him for his part in the struggle which seems he passed on to me in a special way with his actions and words.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So, in this letter, I want to thank more than one hero through you. I thank my father, and so many people I have met who fought for freedom. I thank many women who suffered untold things and whose sufferings when told even by a third party leaves one shattered. I have been reading Britain’s Gulag ( the end of brutal empire in Kenya) by Caroline Elkins recently. I thank also the children of Mau Mau times. So brutally were many of them treated, dying on mothers’ back sick and without any form of relief.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The other day I watched Amandla. I thought so much about Vusifyile Mini, Thandi Modise ( the woman who got a baby in prison just before she killed herself), the children of Soweto, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and your letter to him outside prison..and the workers especially the free on Thursday nannies.. and I thought you too and this is partly why I have written. I thought about the long struggles of African people to be free. I thought how Kenya has never found the remains of Kimathi Wa Wachiuri and reburied them with dignity like South Africans did with Mini’s. I thank them for that. And I thank those who wove the struggle with song and brought it to us in Amandla. Thank you for song in the struggle South Africa. For perhaps only in her song and literature can Africa show its true brilliance to the world.. before it overtakes in other fields such as technology and on discovering the cure for many disease still incurable, Aids included.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I have been reading the memoirs of Ahmed Kathrada and see so many people of Asian origin in Africa struggle to help us weave like Gandhi did, a cloth of perhaps cobwebs which as the Ethiopians say, can tie down the marauding lions which I sometimes see as those leaders who refuse to behave like good lions..<span style="font-style: italic;"> simba</span> and guard our homes..our countries. I therefore want with this background and a little more to ask you three questions. But before that, a little more.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When I arrived in Olso, I have been here only two months and one week, I hardly used to dream. Not even about my Mother whose last embrace as she sat on a couch in my flat which I was soon to vacate lingered on me like the 'physical' memory a mother has of the clinging of a child whom she had to abandon at a tender age to go to work or to a trip, did I dream. I still remember that feeling of something is missing from my chest, what one feels after putting a baby down particularly we in Africa who are so used to carrying babies strapped on our backs. But I did not dream of her. Instead, I regularly, when I remembered my dreams, they were of police attacking me or us in demonstrations. I do not think I dreamt out of fear as am very courageous and was often talking ot them to see why it was wrong to torture people or not to allow us to demosntrate and that it was a pity they went against us with such roughness when we were fighting for principles which if they disappear on a society- when no one is vigilant- irreparable damage is done, damage which haunts a society for generations as you well know.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, I had one more dream in those early days and I recorded it as I used to record my police nightmares. It was a dream which only had one word in my Mother tongue and you are the one who said it. The word is, ‘huranira’, which I would translate as ‘struggle for me’ although the root of the word, hura, mens beat..which also includes struggle as in many languages of the earth. This dream was short but so clear, I sent it to a friend. And it is this dream and the history of my mother language that has made me write to you. But still before my questions, let me share with you a little more.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I would like to write a happy letter to you. The kind of letter which you would celebrate, a letter which would leave you smiling and not recalling the pains you have had nor the pains of Africa. I always see in a bracket that a time of greater happiness for Africa was knocking at our doors when you were in prison and that we failed to seize it and keep it intact, for you and for our children, so that when you came out prison our celebrations would last. I refer to the time one breathed deeply hearing Nyerere speak, the time of Nkurumah, the time of Pan Africanism with all the names in it from Blyden to Marley and in between all those powerful people like Lumumba Patrice, Sankara, Seko Toure and our American and Latin American brothers and so on.. Azikiwe Nnamdi.. and so many others.. and yourself.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Today we also have voices we can glory in; the elders of Africa: Mandela, Koffi Annan, Graca Machel, Wangari Maathai, Desmond Tutu, Ellen Jonson and others I may not know and perhaps of some in the list we may not all agree.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now, my three questions. Africa has disconnected itself from its ancestors as a continent.. what do we do when it is so obvious for instance that Kenya prefers to forget persons like Kimathi wa Wachiuri, Me katilili wa Menza, Somoei Arap Koitalel and then rush in to call for help when things go wrong because we have destroyed the silent place in every leader/politician that must be distilled to know that Africa cannot play around longer with issues of justice and freedom? Why should there be Africans in exile now, after your own imprisonment and the exile of many others in the past? Why so many refugees even? Why should Somali children be happy to fall and play in the snow.. if they cannot return home too to play in their little rivers and sunshine? I would not mind if they could play in both countries. Doesn't the blood of famous children such as the children of Soweto and other martyrs such as Biko and Chris Hani suffice?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Africa is so blessed. So full of resources, so full of human love.. ubuntu. .but what prevents us from spreading the power of liberation that vibrated with song from south to north and east to west?Who rules the world Mandela? Who makes DRC such a pittance to look at when it is so rich? Who makes Somalia fail when for 15 years she resisted the British attacks at Darvenish?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My other question how will we save our languages of ancestry if they are spoken by people who refuse to use even traditional democracy to help integrate us all? Why should we, women be proud of my ethnic group that first of all does not count on me and then when there is trouble am suddenly thrown into its brackets to be blamed for being this or that tribe and sometimes even killed? Yet,if I forego my mother language and links with culture, does that mean that my ancestors will abandon me? Who will help us make clear that ancestors like Shaka Zulu fought for justice for the people they belonged to as they knew them then but now will fight for all of Africa. Who is helping us define our identity in the struggle? Who can unite Africa?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Do we agree that our languages are weapons of war when they conserve so much wisdom in their proverbs? Who is stealing us?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now, then, the last question refers to your message in the dream. Are you looking for young Africans, the other generation like Obama’s that is not showing up with enough strength in my country, to go and meet leadership at the grassroots and generate hope for a world in trouble? Are you truly saying to me and to many others, huranira.. struggle for me? I hope so. Your brave words encouraging new leadership even if few are badly needed and will always be remembered.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I urge you to stay with us Mandela. Do not go. The night and the day are both as long as the evening shadow, the sun has refused to stand still at midday so that we can show the brilliance of Africa with her skirt spread out proudly yet decently carrying her children on all her sides.. making strides. Do not go and if you must, as we all must, tell Dennis Brutus to make a team up there or down there with the ancestors because still the struggle is long. Still it has not started. Stay with us, Mandela, do not go the going of the gone. Stay in our dreams. Let me hold on to mine. And work to teach the children that all of you did not labour in vain. This then, is my message to you. I must give it in tears and in pain, but I am a word, a story and I was born to tell.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">With all my affection and with my wounds open sincerely, to heal Africa, if you bless me now, because after, I may stagger with doubts. I ask for that blessing now, father of our people.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Your daughter,</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Philo Ikonya</span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-84681812282209715182013-11-30T01:51:00.000-08:002013-11-30T13:48:30.182-08:00Why is Kenya so afraid of reforms and so shy of change despite her new 2010Constitution?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xj_nzp5kngI/UpjiYCUN_yI/AAAAAAAAA5k/brimauEYz5o/s1600/Mutunga+Chief+Justice.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xj_nzp5kngI/UpjiYCUN_yI/AAAAAAAAA5k/brimauEYz5o/s200/Mutunga+Chief+Justice.jpeg" width="131" /></a></div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QoNvi-ZI5fA/UpmwMzghZ4I/AAAAAAAAA54/YlUkrOrYUKw/s1600/justice-balance-symbol-10868991.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QoNvi-ZI5fA/UpmwMzghZ4I/AAAAAAAAA54/YlUkrOrYUKw/s200/justice-balance-symbol-10868991.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">While the Kenya Executive seems to dither and blinker sometimes getting blinded by the complexities of change, it is quite clear to many who have been engaged with steps of growth in the country that the Kenyan Judiciary should NOT be at this time at same level as the Executive or the Legislature. It should be independent. Standing proudly head and shoulders above the fray- higher than the snow on Mt Kenya- to give this nation of diversity balance. To set the example of the management of such gifted resource both human and environmental.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But the Kenyan Judiciary stands tried. Kenya is afraid to take change head on. And yes, even as they say change comes slowly and that it respects cultures and traditions we have not done what we have overnight. The implementation of the Constitution cannot remain too painful to be done in a country where we cut people easily, win marathons and where we pull our act together fast after terror attacks. When we write in the Constitution that we have accepted change and given it to ourselves as a nation, we need to believe it. To task ourselves, to challenge ourselves and to account for our hopes and struggles.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I know why reading today, of November 2013, what Justice Willy Mutunga said at the launch on a book on election petitions in Kenya made me shudder and wonder. There is nothing wrong with books. </span><span style="font-size: large;">I understand that the times- 2013 in particular- have been rough and tough for the CJ and for Kenya in many ways. But our 50 years of celebration of Kenya's independence should count for change too. It is not books and laws that are lacking. It is integrity.Our focus to achieve and not just for ourselves. Slaying the dragon of greed and corruption. All have had to fight their way there, Kenya must do so now.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I hoped and still do that because of our multiple challenges and the fact that in 50 years we cannot boast about being even Cub Tigers as the Philippines and Indonesia can in spite of massive poverty, nor come close to the Four Asian Tigers or Dragons in terms of development we could still say that our New Mother of All Laws the 2010 Constitution has a spirit that can bind us together. That we can invest and allow others to because of security in this attractive land. That all tenders or building infrastructure will be competitive and well researched. That we can stop once and for all dangerous driving which many and that depends on a willing people and keep HIV/Aids in check. The list is long regarding education and health services, salaries and reforms in the police force. The rule of law.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In about 50 years, Europe put herself together after the Second World War. Norway was a poor country in 1969 and the country has been built on proper management of the finding of oil, tax system and on immigration to the US by the poverty ridden people who built their country from heavy toil and investing back home until we have what stands today. Fifty years is important a period in individual lives as in nations. Challenges have been turned into opportunities elsewhere why do we wallow in ours? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I wanted to hear certain hope in law from the Chief Justice of Kenya but I hear the opposite. Why? Many died to ensure an independent Judiciary especially since Kenya now has a bigger governance arrangement and small commissions appointed by politicians, dissolved by them can become a law unto themselves and help the return of dictatorship as the President can make decisions that leaves Kenya unprotected. For Kenya is neither the years that have passed nor the persons in power today. Kenya is. I wanted that deep change and this we must get. We cannot justify otherwise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">When the struggle for a new Constitution was at its febril levels in the 90s, one of the reasons for the demand, in fact the main bone of contention was the reduction of presidential powers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">As I write the Judicial Service Comission, the party that should have stood together to oversee the strengthening of the Judiciary has been sent home by the President. I watched lawyer Elisha Ongoya interviewed on KTN tell how precarious that is. And not only that, how embarrassing for the judiciary. And it does not stop there, there is an activist who has gone to court to show reason why the Chief Justice should be sacked. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I would take this lightly were it not that all falls into a plan which one heard about at the time of the election of March 2013. I mean then, certain people who read hope in the CJ were seen as making a terrible mistake. Yet our hopes were banked on the fact that this is a CJ who told us that Kenya's new Constitution of 2010 would protect everyone from the simplest hut to State House. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And moreover, many feel he knows injustice in his own skin. He experienced detention in Moi years, oppression. Many feel betrayed but that is not the reason why it is said he has to leave his job. The Executive did feared his stand on other issues but he rules with six other judges not alone. That he has a strong human rights track record which no one can contest. What is happening or what happened? But besides laying hopes on individuals, many times theyquote other countries in cases that have vexed Kenya. Do they also rely on small bodied to judge electoral petitions or only theirConstitutions? What is the CJ of Kenya saying and not saying?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And indeed during the court case to judge the presidential election petition election of 2013 we were told about the precedents of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Here are the details of that petition and the ruling which was gazetted in Kenya . <a href="http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116963/supreme-court-judgment-presidential-petition">http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116963/supreme-court-judgment-presidential-petition</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Answering to many queries on the fact that the election petition was time barred for the petitioner, the Chief Justice said he was impartial and that the case was easy to decide since the other side did not have good evidence. So this should be over. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Still in my chest is faith that when such issues come up and they are bound to return, we shall have an independent judiciary to deal with the matter. But not so the Chief Justice. He speaks of how the court should not be the place for such petition. And I wonder then why we fought for a strong mother of all laws, a constitution that leaves us all dry under a national umbrella of laws that can stand all storms. Why does the Chief Justice, CJ, now speak of a smaller body when what we wanted was the big body? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And this at a time when with regard to media law, the Executive, has formed such a small body of their own accord which all have said will, together with a media bill of 2013 sit on Freedom of Expression? President Uhuru Kenyatta made his amendments but no, they have not taken off the yoke of abuse of law from the Bill and for the fifty years of Kenya's freedom journalists are planning yet another demonstration to object to his amendments that do not make that law better. We have a Constitution but we are skirting it and running away clad in old clothing of I do not know what type?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For the CJ also went on to lament that Kenya is deeply divided on different ground and the list went: Ethnic, tribe, clan, religion, class, culture and race. And again from him we expect to hear that the rule of law is here in Constitution 2010 to be that balm that crosses these ridges and rifts of division by first and foremost protecting such things as land distribution, resources such as oil and equal sharing of wealth in a good tax system at least trying to imitate the Four Tigers, the various Commission Reports such as the Ndung'u Report and that of the Truth and Justice Commission (for what it is worth). Instead we hear lamentations all around and again wonder why we are shy to marry the law of change with all the pain it might take because it is better that way than in any other style.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya suffered in 2007 when such a petition was not made by Raila Odinga because he did not trust the courts. Now am on this </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">not because of a time warp but since the Chief Justice two day ago explained again that he could not have pleased everyone. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Did he really say that "The courts cannot satisfy everyone in an election dispute?" The Supreme Court, I thought was not meant to please anyone but to stand b. It was supposed to serve justice. He was referring to the judgement that his court announced in March that Jubilee had won the Kenyan General Election.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Again, that was only natural and is the norm anywhere to expect that the three arms of government: The legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary are separated for the good fo the people. It was actually more than a sigh of relief considering that it is before the law where we should be equal and Kenya is in the news many times for the need of equality before the law since impunity is nursed by the rich and powerful who also happen to become the main political players. So we did end up in the Supreme Court after the Election of 2013 and whereas many took the ruling for what it was, it did not fail to be examined over and over again and it still stands on trial in the eyes of many. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">At 50 years of independence, in Kenyan we are still at the point where memories of what it took to get the first Constitution and Self-governance in 1963 from the British are fresh in every sense of the word. Some Kenyans can still sniff the smell of the paper the law was written on, the feeling in the air, the touch of Kenyan people without the ugly differentiation of ethnic brand, even if the roots of identity as belonging for the sake of benefitting those one was close to were thrust in both colonial and and first three presidencies Kenya has had.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For every year on the Madaraka Day, which is celebrated on 1st June, people have gathered at our Freedom Park and other spaces in the country and sang and recalled our history. On Jamhuri Day on December 12th when finally independence came, the same is done. Dancing to the same happy song of independence, celebrating. Flying past the President and his guests in style, armies marching past and a couple of times also citizens daring to make a point.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I recall how many were arrested in the Jamhuri Day of 2008, for reminding MPs as the President gave his speech that all had to pay taxes. I distributed with others thousands of T-Shirts with the logo "No Taxes for MPs, No Taxes for us, utado?" The arrests is a long and different story but that Day the message reached the top. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Five decades are over. The foundations of justice, are still wanting. Many have worked for equality before the law. It took long to get the August 2010 Constitution. We have to read in earnest and practice what we laid out in Chapter 6 of the 2010 Constitution. Integrity. We have to admit that without integrity in leadership we cannot prosper. It is still basic. The Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary must all be independent and free before the country can celebrate years of independence. The people must be free to say that and still be regarded as the most important whole where as these powers remain parts. </span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-26187092327240359832013-11-07T22:54:00.001-08:002013-11-07T23:07:01.433-08:00Who watches the Watchers? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Why Kenya cannot kiss a free Press<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Watch this but be prepared... </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://tvthek.orf.at/programs/5298609-Weltjournal--/episodes/7057587-WELTjournal--%20%20WELTjournal%20+%20tvthek.orf">http://tvthek.orf.at/programs/5298609-Weltjournal--/episodes/7057587-WELTjournal-- WELTjournal + tvthek.orf</a></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Yo1KEordu6A/UnyFJ_0UTOI/AAAAAAAAA3c/RPj0Y-MCy6Y/s1600/But+we+have+to+ask+questions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Yo1KEordu6A/UnyFJ_0UTOI/AAAAAAAAA3c/RPj0Y-MCy6Y/s400/But+we+have+to+ask+questions.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When the Westgate attack happened in Kenya, the media was censored </td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Have you watched this ORF link? You can blame whom you will for the tragic Westgate attack, a huge blot on Kenya's security but what I call the Eastgate is in that clip above. And for this, we have only ourselves to blame. Media silence too. Meanwhile in the mix is the worst thing that could be happening to Kenya now. A media Bill that is tailored to gag journalists. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To return Kenya to the terrible days in which people were tortured for imagining the death of a president, for speaking... for being dissident, killed. Media freedom and killings are closely related for who wants to speak or show them when there is fear? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The timing of a media gagging Freedom of Expression in Kenya has helped us to see where this country is. In a bad place. It is not the time to argue about media irresponsibility. That has its place. Has had mechanisms. This is not surely where our problem is and we should know it right from the State House to the smallest hamlet as Chief Justice Dr. Mutunga says when he speaks of justice. I know the Kenyan Judiciary is also in the dragnet. This is not a good time. It is not time for our wedding of Kenya, not even for kissing welcome change. The negotiations are tough.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The content of the Media Bill in question is untenable. It is not a matter of courting controversy, it is betrayal. Kenyans have fought for and need a free press especially now.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It does not matter how much some MPs such as one I saw try to put journalists on the carpet about every line of the Bill. The Committee for the Implementation of the Constitution led by Charles Nyachae has spoken about the unconstitutionality of this Bill. It is illogical.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But Kenyan MPs are still in 2013, defending an unconstitutional Bill. They are the only ones arguing it is constitutional. Further, it appears that this Bill might be passed by Eastern African countries. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In Kenya it is now on the President's table. Many are talking about the return of the Mois days in Kenya with one journalist writing that we might as well take the key and re-open the Nyayo torture chambers. But when you see the ORF documentary above, when I see it, I ask if the torture chambers were ever closed and where indeed the media has been at times? But the Bill.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If the President signs it, it becomes law. But this unlawful act in itself would give a chosen group power to oversee the media but that body is bound to sit on media. If the President does not sign it, it still is a poor omen. I can see how authors, bloggers and all will be hounded down. Made to pay fines in the millions. Imprisoned. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Books? Bookshops already feared in 2008 to stock It is our Turn to Eat, by Michela Wrong. But publishing chances have increased the world over and distribution of books is not dependent on governments any longer. Sometimes I smile in my tears. Not even the news is.. wake up and smell the coffee! Snowden and Wikileaks did not teach you?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Media should be more alive to the end of mainstream control itself too and welcome it. In Kenya, media has censored itself before. It has been silent when it should have queried some things more specifically. Was fear with us all the time or is it political calculations for our own benefit? We need openness. Whispers?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We do not need those in Kenya now. There is an outrage but it could be stilled by a nod in one direction and a signature written or not written. Already, if you ask me, for policemen such as the ones I have seen above, the nod is given. Outspokenness is banned. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Media must run. Government must learn. It is behind the times for there are Internet outlets and so many other media one cannot silence in the world. Why not kiss democracy? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The mainstream media cannot stand proud. In a country divided into almost two blocks of power, it was too easy to see which candidate each media endorsed and that was not because of advertisements. Then came a huge Breakfast which almost all media shared with the new president. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Is this not part of the reason why media should be so under government in Kenya. This sends out all the wrong signals but is it not past the time for signals. The signs of the times came earlier. Why do we doubt we were meant to fear even before? But fear takes us nowhere. You do not need to be afraid of truth. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And this is why Kenya did not need a baggage ridden top, a presidency that is questionable on the rule of law. But I heard the President say that even those who advised him not to run for the presidency as he is indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) are his enemies. Was all advice about assessing integrity for leadership which is also part of the Kenyan Constitution 2010, Chapter 6 to be termed evil? Now he is the president. Impunity is still not tolerable. We have to follow the rule of law. We are not where we should be in this. We cannot cheapen a Constitution made with so much pain and struggle. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When I look at this video specifically, I have strong reactions. I wrote about GPO Oulo and Oscar. I saw them at work very soon before they died and that was not so far from where I was. It is not something I can wish away. It was meant to scare and disturb human rights activists completely. Shake them into silence, leave their families trembling and it did. Left everyone casting stones on those who are outspoken. But can we go on like this forever? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya, the things we try to forget and sweep under the trees or make them part of our manure. Yes you want silence so that you can develop in peace but I think it should be the other way round. You need voices and noise so that you can begin to see. I speak to you now...on my reactions to the video above.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Oh yes, you can keep saying that we do not need activists. Do all against them. You remind me of Chesterton's The Donkey... "when fishes flew and forests walked and figs grew upon thorns... Starve, scourge deride me... in this case there are no secrets kept. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Why all these words? Are these victims able to speak? Watch the faces of the women closely when their children are killed. And then they speak of fear. Then some say, but it is not possible to keep the pain. Who answers for this? How many reports do you hide? Why have you made those who ask enemies did you not want to know the truth? These people who died.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They will haunt you still...in thousands, do you hear? Is this not the way it happened in Nazi times? It happens like this and slowly you are cooperating, endorsing in silence.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You don't even need words to understand</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">these shocking things always around us</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the very, very, ugly and disturbing face of impunity in Kenya and </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the stories media did not take up before, will they do something now that the guns are trained not only on media but also on NGOs ( Russian style?) </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">First they came for so many and we did not speak because we did not believe it? And when we spoke we were inconsistent, shrugged our shoulders and tried to forget. We shall not. Who killed journalist Francis Nyaruri in 2009? Where is his story? Who silenced his family?</span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-30759599100551219292013-10-11T17:35:00.003-07:002013-10-12T01:45:36.334-07:00Kibaki and Gaddafi's retrogressive legacy in the African Union but the ICC Kenyan case continues<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bishop Desmond Tutu has a million signatures against pulling out<br />
of the ICC but the political class does not care</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bLvSYOiYpMM/UliTWIyZBEI/AAAAAAAAAzE/DlLVgorSfX8/s1600/Bishop+Muge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bLvSYOiYpMM/UliTWIyZBEI/AAAAAAAAAzE/DlLVgorSfX8/s200/Bishop+Muge.jpg" width="155" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bishop Kipsang Muge: Military man turned cleric with a call for justice. Like many unaccounted for Kenyans, he died for opposing oppression and misrule</span><span style="font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.dacb.org/stories/kenya/muge_kipsang.html"> http://www.dacb.org/stories/kenya/muge_kipsang.html </a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The poor and downtrodden of Afrika are not there when diplomacy shuttles are made on their behalf by people appointed by politicians. </span><span style="font-size: large;">They read bad signs such as the death of so many Dafuris. </span>Dafur<span style="font-size: large;">. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dafur.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Dafur</span><span style="font-size: large;">. Frrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But what are they to do? Some of them did questioned why Omar al Bashir of Sudan was in Kenya to celebrate a new Constitution in 2010 as he had a warrant of arrest. Why he was free in Kenya, a signatory to the Rome Statute? Who really cares about such things at the top. Believes them? They signed for convenience even then. When it goes against power, you can withdraw. And shout that this is against Africans since all the dead are white bones. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Some people raised questions still. Even walked away from high tables when Bashir visited. But they did not hold the invitation cards. The feast was on. You can get rid of noisy people like Bishop Alexander Muge like a fly and life continues. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Voices of reason are intolerable. This is Africa. The one that is blaming the West left right and centre for all woes including hauling our own presidents to the Hague. Busy regional hub airports can close for the arrival of chosen guests. Even military ones for wedding guests. Ask Zuma. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Hundreds of civil society organisations in Afrika want to claim victory for Human Rights on the continent but many politicians stand in the way. They are big. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Today, many human rights groups are opposed to all African countries pulling out of the International Criminal Court. But they are not the ones who pay for trips to Addis in Ethiopia for Extraordinary meetings. The big ones will cook, serve and eat and maybe something will remain for the poor to eat. Human rights? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The turning away from the ICC would make sense if the continent were stronger on human rights issues and was apt in mechanisms. If the Africa's Human And People's Rights Court were strengthened. This getting away from ICC and going to our own weak courts so interfered with by the Big Five ( the animals are innocent) is something Mwai Kibaki started to talk about because of the Kenyan cases before the International Criminal Court. The proposed turning away from the ICC is not hinged on justice. It is based on evasion of justice and the cry that DUE PROCESS cannot be part of a ruling president's life. But he went to the elections aware of that. Was Africa and not used as a protective shield?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Is this a blessing in disguise for the future of Africa? Will there be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a new form of resistance birthed by this? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has a signature campaign which is about to hit the one million mark but the African Union has voted in favour of pulling out of the Rome Statute which founded the ICC because they say Africans are the only ones who are presented to this court and found guilty. Tutu asks a strong question: Who will prevent another genocide?</span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">A history of justice delayed and denied</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But does Kenya deliver on justice? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Does Kenya? In Kenya today it is not only victims of the 2007 violence that have not seen justice but many people who were outspoken and were killed: Pio Gama Pinto, Tom Joseph Mboya, J M Kariuki, Bishop Kipsang Alexander Muge, Journalist Julie Ward, Masinde Muliro, Karimi Nduthu, Fr. Kaiser, Many missionaries, the list is endless. There are also many disappeared young people. So the Kenyan Parliament had recourse to the ICC so that justice could be delivered. At that time the slogan was: <i>Don't be vague go to Hague.</i> Rhyme and reason at play.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Even more: The Kenyan Constitution recognises that the ICC is a Kenyan court. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto cases before the ICC are not affected by this withdrawal</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya's foreign Minister Amina Mohamed kept double speak going but everyone knew that Kenya was the main reason why many African nations were going to pull out of the ICC or at least pass the resolution to. Foreign Affairs office in Kenya was candid if contradictory. "Which other Head of State is sued in office?" Amina asked. And now there is great jubilation. They are happy. It has passed, this resolution voted by countries that were not even members to the treaty like Sudan. Next is to ask for a deferal for Kenyan cases.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Kibaki former president of Kenya is delighted. </span><span style="font-size: large;">When Mwai Kibaki was president, he made big efforts to get African states to see that Kenya could not afford this ICC case. He made trips himself regarding this. Earlier the shuttle diplomacy in which Kalonzo Musyoka went round Africa meeting heads of state to ask them to reject this case was spoken about by all. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The late Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has won too. He had promised to see to it that this strategy worked for Afrika against this Western court thing. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Well you see we have everything we need. The naysayers know we have: Sharia Law, The African Human and People's Rights Court and each their own laws. We are fine. In case we have some disputes that would lead us to needing to persecute for crimes against humanity our own governments will help us to sue them for their excesses. They will sue themselves.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There are developed courts in the Middle East that handle international problems. They are improving and growing. We can do without the West and all its empty promises, its empty pomps. We are as safe as can be because there are no problems we cannot handle whilst fighting terror with reason. There is no need to be afraid. USA has not signed the Rome Statute...rather signed and unsigned. Russia too and China! Hurrah we are super and big on human rights. We can make it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But this since this passing of the resolution does not mean the case of Uhuru Kenyatta (President), William Ruto (Vice- President) and Sang, a journalist brought before the ICC are ended, they will go on and ask for these cases to be deferred. You see there is no such a thing as justice delayed. And never, ever denied. They would like to defer the cases for good reasons. To serve their country in their respective offices to which they were elected. But the crimes they said earlier had nothing to do with the elections. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The president in all integrity told the people that he and his Deputy if elected would present themselves before the ICC and follow due process. It was as good as a campaign promise. It is forgotten. A president is too busy to be away for such small matters. He was not summoned as a President, now he is one. What's the bother? Kenya needs protection as in its position without the President at home there is a risk to international peace. Did you not see the recent terror attack? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Everyone knows that Kenya is the island of peace and justice that protects all neighbouring countries from crumbling. It protects Somalia and that is why Somalia is such a peaceful land. Kenya vanquishes Al Shabaab. That is why terror attacks cannot happen with a sitting president at home. Even Obama and Gordon Brown know that. They saw terror at Westgate happen in Nairobi. People died. The President needs to be in the country full time for his full time job in protection of The human and people's rights of Africa. </span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-80529238552294838102013-09-12T06:39:00.001-07:002013-09-12T08:10:15.851-07:00Kenya a rich but 'potholed' nation cries freedom; Justice hides in a new Constitution? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BrmEJ1k_q30/UjG8GA9sDVI/AAAAAAAAAww/lujT6L7TGVg/s1600/Wangari+swearing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="284" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BrmEJ1k_q30/UjG8GA9sDVI/AAAAAAAAAww/lujT6L7TGVg/s320/Wangari+swearing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The late Wangari Maathai. She is sworn in to power but promises to be a hummingbird... </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If we could borrow a little from the big minds we have, young and old. Dead and alive. If we could, despite our weaknesses take what we know seriously, search for the rebirth of a nation, if only we could.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Hear and listen. Act. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But we spend most of our time working for positions. Trying to see if one group can lord it over the other.When we are caught in the wrong or suspected, we have tried to argue that this happens to us because we are Africans, I refer now to a recent statement of the African Union regarding the International Criminal Court. Seriously? What will the teens say?</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Unable to stop and ask where it all goes wrong we grumble and sulk. We have have a wealth of leaders and words never lack.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Here is what is reported of Wangari Maathai in 2009 speaking at a meeting of the African Development Bank in Tunis:</span><br />
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"<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.5625px; text-align: start;">She called on Africans to be critical of themselves as a means of making progress in the areas of natural resource management, sustainable development and poverty reduction. She blamed the continent’s perennial poverty on the mismanagement of the continent’s natural resources, adding that good governance was the missing piece in the continent’s development paradigm. She called for responsible and accountable leadership on the continent, underscoring that poverty could not be overcome across the continent if basic notions such as equity, justice and peace were not taken seriously."</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.5625px; text-align: start;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We refuse to listen to our ancestors more often than our teenagers disobey us. But we all the time speak of the bad ways of the teens. We refuse to accept that we must acknowledge and leave our own prisons. Unchain ourselves where we take ourselves even longer than Mandela at Robben Island. Where we will belong for life in chains unless we learn: </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"But what most amazed me about him(Frank Lebentlele, Mandela's zoology teacher) was his marriage to a Xhosa girl from Umtata. Marriages between tribes were then extremely unusual. Until then, I had never known anyone who had married outside his tribe. We had been taught that such unions were taboo. But seeing Frank and his wife began to undermine my parochialism and loosen the hold of the tribalism that still imprisoned me. I began to sense my identity as an African, not just a Thembu or even a Xhosa. But this was still a nascent feeling.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">" <i>Long Walk to Freedom. </i>Nelson Mandela.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Back to Kenya</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">General Election time in Kenya we fly over a potholed country, those of us with the means. The rest of us walk for justice to be served. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Many ride cars and buses, no doubt. The Kenyan railway could be more efficacious. But we were talking about elections. We vote. We kill. We killed in 2007. Displacement and killings go far back at election times only we did not do it so openly as it was in 2007/2008. </span><span style="font-size: large;">We do not always kill for votes but if words were bullets Facebook would be bullet riddled. The Election. Purple fingers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And then for a time we live in a cloud of disbelief. This is Kenya. We start election campaigns all over again, almost the day after the election. This is because we believe that with the right people the country can be steered forward. We hope in political leaders like many people in the world do. But do we scrutinise their qualities enough?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We do not spend too much time checking how we and they fit in the law. Examining how we are doing. Nowadays those who search such things are not so popular. They are spoiling the feast. MPs have been called Mpigs for the high salaries they take home but they keep claiming they need this money for people turn to them all day long with needs. Pigs were brought outside Parliament and blood poured there to drive this point home. But we are far from having a country of a political group that is not a class of those who have. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The media is already reporting that the next election is almost on..</span><br />
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KipKoech Tanui wrote in the Standard<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">"Now the point we are making is; however crude the timing is, the next succession battle has started.</span></div>
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This is typical of we Kenyans really, but the question we should be asking is if we are ready for the next divisive referendum under the same IEBC cast, and with TON (tyranny of numbers) intact? What about the cost? I would have told you about the other issue probably at play but it is too hot…and has to do with what will soon happen at The Hague.</div>
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<em>The writer is the Managing Editor The Counties Weekly.</em><br />
<em><br /></em><em><a href="http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000091256&story_title=someone-poking-uhuru-kenyatta-william-ruto-soft-belly&pageNo=3">http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000091256&story_title=someone-poking-uhuru-kenyatta-william-ruto-soft-belly&pageNo=3</a></em></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What about certain values that we give as evidence of where we want to be? Values that say about us that we and our ancestors knew how to govern ourselves... such values? They are enshrined in the Constitution 2010.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Leadership and Integrity: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Article 73....</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">....</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(b) Objectivity and impartiality in decision making, and ensuring that decisions are not influenced by nepotism, favouritism, other improper motives or corrupt practices;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(c) Selfless service based solely on public interest, demonstrated by--</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(i) Honesty in execution of public duties; and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(ii) the declaration of any personal interest that may conflict with public duties....</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">and so many other wonderful things. In the above alone can we start to show paths that lead to better management of diversity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Preceding this chapter is Chapter Five on land: This is an explosive topic regarding ownership of how much and by who. The work is carved out for Parliament. We are told that Parliament shall enact legislation "To prescribe minimum and maximum land holding acreages in respect to private land."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Unless we take this chapter in the Constitution of Kenya and forge it into deeds, we shall not achieve justice. Land matters will continue to tear us apart. They will be fired by a forced perception of ourselves as beneficiaries of this and that because we come from a specific ethnic group. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">While it is natural to belong to one, there is everything wrong in making it the first fact that has to be known about us and the key to opportunities. The failure to understand that we cannot be well off if the other is oppressed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Like the Sixth Commandment - for those of you who know it- Leadership and Integrity is the 6th Chapter of Kenya's new Constitution. Now if I may extrapolate, this Constitution was not given from above as Moses was given the tablet of the Law. We gave it to ourselves. We should not violate it so often. We threw out the first one - save some ribs- mutilated hundreds of times in forms of amendment to suit the powers that were. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was one written in Lancaster House, Britain. It was often called the independence constitution. Why, when we received independence, we also went up the mountain and raised a flag there. Mount Kenya. But Kenyans opened it, read it, tried to live with it. The law courts run, lawyers made their money. Poor people suffered. I remember one example.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I will never forget a man in tatters who arrived in a land office having slept somewhere for days on the way to Nairobi to try and catch the thief who had taken his land. He did not know Nairobi well. He found a relative who lived in the far outskirts of the city. He walked again from that house to the city every day for months. Initially, he thought that just getting to be shown Sheria House, the House of Law was enough. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">When he found his way to a lawyer, he thought he had finally struck it right. T</span><span style="font-size: large;">he person behind the counter told him to run home for a few more papers. That was it. He came and went for months. And now I was looking at his worn out face, shoes and clothes in a complaint office at Sheria House. This is just one of millions of cases of the unreachable law and justice and the case is much the same today. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">If we look at how we are treating Chapter Six on Integrity and many other aspects of this constitution, we can say we are just facing the book of the law, the mother or all laws - our Constitution.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was in 1991 when almost "All with one accord" to quote the national anthem... "Let all with one accord/ in common bond united/ build this our nation together/ and the glory of Kenya..." when the people agreed to start the struggle for reforms, the overhaul of the old constitution in some cases. In fact we got a new document. The difference was that this time the people gave to themselves, their nation and generations to come on August 27th 2010. And a national anthem many are proud of was played and is played again and again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">That was the 1963 Lancaster Constitution made in London with the Crown and a few Kenyans who were quite bold was gone. Details can be found elsewhere. The dust settled to a new election which was moved from August 2012 according to the New Constitution to 4th March 2013 for reasons of unpreparedness under the new law. Elections and Constitution were at hand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There was much to celebrate even when the spirit of the Constitution seemed challenged. The spirit of change was nor part of President Mwai Kibaki's style and a new constitution was foisted upon him by the times. Commitment to human rights tears. The first time I read about Kenya pulling out of the Rome Statute, the idea was reported as this president's. Reform was not his way but the times swayed them in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For indeed Kenya, a signatory to the Rome Statute, the basis of the International Criminal Court invited for the occasion of the celebration of the constitution an indictee, The President of Sudan for the last 25 years, Omar al Bashir born in 1944. He, an army brigadier, who went to power in a "bloodless" military coup in 1989. Some diplomats left the celebrations. Kenyans raised questions. In 2012, the President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, forwent an AU meeting in her country rather than have this president among her guests. I digress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Great change had been written into Kenya. A small tip. The Constitution 2010, had taken away what Pres. Moi used to call "his secret weapon". The Date. The date of a new election was his to determine. It is now boldly written into this Constitution that:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"A general election ... will be held on the second Tuesday in August every fifth year."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fast forward to a nation that wants to be allowed to be what it is: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">At once a loveable place, a part of the world any human being would love to live in. A place where flourishing water has even been found under a suffering and dry part of the Northern country -called the Northern Frontier by the Brits- water enough to last us 70 years, a dream come true. <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Huge+water+reserve+discovered+in+Turkana/-/1107872/1988678/-/qqod1p/-/index.html%20%20Found%20in%20Kenya:%20Oil%20and%20many%20minerals.%20Resources%20we%20are%20full%20of.">http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Huge+water+reserve+discovered+in+Turkana/-/1107872/1988678/-/qqod1p/-/index.html Found in Kenya: Oil and many minerals. Resources we are full of.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It does not matter what some say, but this find does remind me of Wangari Maathai (</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">R.I.P, (25.9.2011) </span><span style="font-size: large;">the tireless environmental activist, </span><span style="font-size: large;"> and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2004), not only because she planted trees and urged all to do so but also because she believed in this planets capacity to regenerate itself with a little help from us. She was committed at heart and had a vision of the fact that small little things matter in all departments.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And this is a resource in itself. It would do us much good to reflect that we can all take something positive to fill the rifts between people in our country. To move more towards those who are always the majority at the baseline. Those who are marginalised under a constitution that promises so much to them. Fearlessness of Devolution, something the current government elected on 2013 is trying to fight. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Kenya can be led to ruins or taken so high that people will be searching for the alps in its deserts and diversified landscape for once it was called -The Switzerland of Afrika. It is political agendas that are holding Kenya back. These become a barrier when power must remain within certain circles. Ethnic enclaves determine who has power. Things other than merit are used to get to the top. And with this kind of game, breathing and working in between elections is hard.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Kenyans are held in a spell of politicking from one election to the next. So that one wonders who is working tirelessly just on the job without thinking about the next election. We have many people in office and they are paid well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is a nation that needs integrity for healing. We are so divided along political lines and ethnicity is in there alive and kicking. This is a situation that only suits those who need numbers to retain power. Beyond the vote, other aspects of democracy: The Bill of rights and other freedoms can be toyed with. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Currently, the President and his Deputy are standing trial at the International Criminal Court, ICC, for crimes against humanity. Crimes which some have tried to argue should not be politicised. That is to close eyes to the origin of the problem. The origin of this kind of species was a power struggle at election time. To say that Kenyans should try and not be political about the case is like saying you have just shaken hands with Snow Black and Seven Angels on a village path. We wait to see what we learn then about leadership and integrity. Kenya's Parliament and Senate have passed a law to withdraw from the Rome Statute. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Maybe we should climb Mount Kenya again and plant the tree of justice, and acknowledge that the mountain faces the people?</span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-88435711578612747212013-07-01T14:14:00.001-07:002015-01-14T07:34:46.660-08:00Prayers for the accused, no prayers for the victims...Mutula Kilonzo had advised Uhuru Kenyatta and William S Ruto not to run for office but now we have them in office<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">"If you become president and you are accused of crimes against humanity...." </span>Said the late Mutula Kilonzo (R.I.P. 27.4.2012)</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0FytE7hKao">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0FytE7hKao</a></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VkYSt6hE_qo/UdHmqmxMGVI/AAAAAAAAAro/YqPQ1AlF860/s400/Mutula.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VkYSt6hE_qo/UdHmqmxMGVI/AAAAAAAAAro/YqPQ1AlF860/s320/Mutula.jpg" height="160" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i style="line-height: 1.5em;">And he did fear for his life...</i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><i> * An update 12 January 2015 </i></span></div>
<a href="http://goo.gl/rrTBeQ">http://goo.gl/rrTBeQ</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">The General Election in Kenya took place on March 4th 2013. But Kenya is still at the election moment in July 2013. One only has to read Social Media or hear people say: "Nothing is really happening since we have the ICC thing to get on with. But is that where Kenyans should be? There has been a hue and cry on salaries of MPs but is that where the country is really pinched? The politicians push their way around about money.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">Three months after the election, the 100 significant days to judge any new team, and there is a pile of things that are not moving as fast as some expected. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">What should take priority? Have we ever taken teachers and schools seriously? In the last elections a promise for a free laptop for every young student was made. Considerations about electronic dumping on Kenya were disregarded. As the world moves to smaller gadgets, there are big size laptops to get rid of. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">Some schools do not have a roof over them. There are still pupils learning under trees. There are pupils who already have laptops because they come from middle class families. There were many other things not considered. How do politicians see the needs of Kenyan people? Why did we take so long to resettle 500 000 Internally Displaced People <a href="http://www.knchr-idp.org/">http://www.knchr-idp.org/</a></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 36px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times New Roman, Times, serif; font-size: large;">since the violence of 2007 which we agreed to sort out at the Hague's ICC?</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 36px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times New Roman, Times, serif; font-size: large;">Why are those who lost life and limb so forgotten now in 2013 when those accused seem to want to shun the process rather than follow up their election pledge that they would cooperate with the ICc and rule Kenya on Skype? For indeed that is what Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto who are among those accused told the Kenyans as they campaigned. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">I am reminded of he days President Moi would give chewing gum to students whose schools he passed by. There are a number of things to be said about chewing gum. Perhaps not it is that chewing gum generation should be asking more questions, but maybe they are still chewing gum. Political actions have impact for years over people. Small things, big things, decisions made unwisely. Some election promises carried us away easily like chewing gum? Where shall we all deposit it when the sugar is done?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">Kenyan teachers are on strike again. Students are at home, anxious. </span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 36px;">It is laptops that have now become like lollipops or is it the teachers' salaries? </span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;"> is a crucial time of the year for schools in Kenya. It is not holiday time. It is not summer, if anything it is close to the hard work days of the coldest season. Leaders are busy addressing Obama who is not visiting Kenya on his words of acceptance of gay people.</span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;"> Moralising him here and there and reminding him of his traditions. Of course we have no such people here, we are Africans. Gay did you say? Traditionally you know, here we do not have a word for such people. Even in Uganda they do not exist... and I mean it. Africa is clean. And praying we go Lord our souls!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">On many things w</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">e are still taking sides depending not on the objective picture but on what we think should make our political divide happy. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">We are hopelessly divided. We are ethnically inimical. At least the people who are talking on the streets and on social media are revealing much hopelessness. But even these thoughts of the blogger and the </span><span style="line-height: 36px;">desperation</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> of others would be boxed in as reactions of not wanting to support someone politically and many Kenyans will say to them "Move on!" These have become the two most common words after the contested election as Raila Odinga went to court on the results and the Supreme Court of Kenya ruled that Kenyatta had won the election and he was sworn in as President whilst Ruto became the Deputy President. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But Kenya cannot so easily "Move on". We have to develop a deeper memory and today am taking it back to the Minister of Justice then, Mutula Kilonzo who ended up dead on 27th of April in mysterious circumstances. We have not yet heard of the result of the post mortem and we wait for it as we review his thoughts on the ICC when he was minister of justice. For he had spoken. We shall accept what the experts and family agree was the cause of his death but we refuse to forget his words. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">Mutula sat with four of us often at Crossfire with a radio broadcaster whom I hear some people tried to blame for his death. We told each other truths. I have a duty to remember him. And to thank him for having asked why there are so many prayers for the accused and not for the victims as you hear in that video above. For indeed if this woman in the photo below is a survivor... what should we be talking about? How will healing come? Why does our sleep come so easily? All I hear is ICC this and that. Prayer here and there. And a house worth refurbishing with 100 million is seen in the papers <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1899432/-/w2o47nz/-/index.html">http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1899432/-/w2o47nz/-/index.html</a>(for William Ruto) and another to be built with over 700 millon shillings for Kibaki <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Intrigues-over-Sh700m-Kibaki-office-deepen/-/1056/1899390/-/ylvp2v/-/index.html">http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Intrigues-over-Sh700m-Kibaki-office-deepen/-/1056/1899390/-/ylvp2v/-/index.html</a>.. being built before the ICC court case is through. One being built for an ex president and the other for the other for the Deputy President, someone whom the court has ordered to pay to an IDP some 5 million for his grabbed land, stolen by the same politician? No. Our priorities are rotten. It took us forever to settle the IDPs and in the end just </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">covered up some of them before the elections. They did not receive justice and it seems all victims are headed to the same.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Mutula was right. The advice remains that it would have been much better for Kenya not to have people who have to clear their names before the courts elected for leadership. But they were and if you keep on saying it like me, you are told,</span><span style="font-size: large;">"Move on!" But this is nothing. For there are those who were moved on!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><b>Extra-judicial killings</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">I remember scared people especially mothers worried about their sons. I remember them wondering if they will be killed either by police or by a militia gang that was said to be killing people and organising for change. And in the middle of all this, those who understood why this was happening were seen as enemies. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">I recall a woman coming to us on a street in Nairobi, and she asked me if as human rights activists we defended people who had joined Mungiki from being killed. I told her we defended humans but not evil deeds. She said that was good but that we should agree that some people be killed if they are guilty. I told her there was a court of justice for that and it followed due process. And I knew many of those young men would never see a process such as that. Many were eliminated by police and that means many innocent people too were killed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">Still I froze when I read in the Africa Report that "Muite estimates that death squads set up by hte Kenya police killed as many as 10 000 Mungiki members between 2005 and 2009." Paul Muite is a lawyer who has represented the Mungiki or some said to be, for many years. So where is integrity a voice asks if we do not hear about such figures from those who are in power but only denial. Those who are moving on. Dying because as Muite quoted in the Africa Report June 2013 puts it. A reality we all know. It is not a secret. He says.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">"Mungiki is not simply a law and order issue. It is a socio-economic issue. Everybody knows that Kenya is one of the most unequal countries of the world. I have never supported Mungiki's excesses but let us not just treat symptoms, let us appreciate the disease." </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">And I hear a voice ask too '... and where were you when so many people were dying?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">We were there, I was there and I spoke out but it was never enough. At that time many said do not bring such politics to the churches or to us. Do your protest thing such as wearing those sacks. Mourn alone. Some voices continued but were castigated often as those hungry human rights activists who shame everyone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;"> Oscar and GPO Oulo were assassinated for giving legal support to victims on March 5th 2009. Their assassination was meant to send fear to human rights defenders and it did. Many of us had experienced police brutality. Now it is no better in Kenya 2013. There is fear to speak out. To oppose. Civil society as known in Kenya before is a pale shadow. Yes, there was a protest of pigs and blood outside Parliament by Occupy Parliament led by Boniface Mwangi but the focus was on MPs salaries. Fear leads many not to focus on the issues of the day and stand together as a national voice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">"Activists say this climate of fear among civil society has increased sharply since the new government took over in April,</span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">" writes Tom Maliti in The Africa Report. Witnesses to the ICC have been intimidated. The Prosecutor says many were bribed. Mutula Kilonzo was so right. It is not practical to expect people to board the same plane home or bus after testifying against their won presidents. Was the election of the two out of fear too? Intimidation of witnesses is done by people who are unknown. It was written about before.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">William Ruto at St. Gabriel's Catholic Church, Nakuru Maili kumi</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">The Catholic Church cardinal Njue spoke against Obama and homosequals. Where is his word on many other issues facing Kenya today? A priest told me how ethnically and politically divided the Catholic bishops of Kenya are and were a few years ago. Have they healed these rifts? Why are we looking so far to Americas policies? If there are homosexuals in Kenya and I hear they are everywhere, are we supposed to be checking what they do in bed and denying them their economic rights? Who is answering about what we do in our beds?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">And we are listening and spending time in churches as Christians with all this blaming Obama for laws in his country and the ICC for looking for hunting down Africans for its corridors. We are off to the African Union to beg them to stand against ICC and before that it was to Gaddafi to ask for help Kenya and get the rest of the AU to support the accused without asking where are the victims. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">This is about gross injustice. It is about us not facing ourselves. Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto must allow due process. So many words do not make sense. Replay Mutula Kilonzo. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Obamas-snub-within-his-rights-says-Ruto/-/1064/1899862/-/tfyi55/-/index.html" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em;">http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Obamas-snub-within-his-rights-says-Ruto/-/1064/1899862/-/tfyi55/-/index.html</a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">William Ruto:</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">No one should have any worry about Kenya’s stand as a God-fearing nation. President Obama is a powerful man but we trust in God as it is written in the Bible that cursed is the man who puts trust in another man." William Ruto, Deputy President Kenya, Daily Nation July 1 2013</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Voice and Vote:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Kenyans are worried about you. About the government today and how it came to power. Many things are written in the Bible about integrity, about justice. About lawyers, about people who are killed about being honest and now... </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">William Ruto:</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">“America has made tremendous contribution to Kenya’s well-being and we are very grateful and as a government we are ready to receive any help from America that will improve the lives of our people,” he said at St Gabriel’s Catholic Church at Maili Kumi in Bahati constituency.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Voice and Vote</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We must help ourselves first before we can stretch out our hands for help. We can improve our own lives by facing the truth...</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Kenya’s sovereignty</strong></div>
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Mr Ruto urged foreign governments to respect Kenya’s sovereignty. “But for these other things we hear it is none of our business as it goes against our customs and traditions,” he said, referring to President Obama’s call for African countries to respect the rights of gay people.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Voice and Vote</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">You can say that to Obama but Vote and Voice has this to say. We do not quote our customs and traditions here. Customs and traditions we broke many times. In 2007 during PEV people were killed. Women were raped and they got HIV/Aids and no justice. Children were thrown back into a burning church after trying to climb out through windows.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">We will always stand for people. Like those ones who died in Post Poll Violence (2007-2008) and all who have disappeared without caring what they think or do. We shall not play Nazis who distinguished now the Jews, now the homosexuals and sent them to gas chambers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">Even in USA and Europe there are still people wondering if gay people are people. Just like people asked the Pope in the Catholic church if it was alright to baptise people with a dark skin. Did they have souls? And on this not all have moved on either! We read history and the Bible too. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">There are certain limits we do not surpass here. We are not the Creator. We feed all our children equal food. We shall respect all people. Gay people are people because they are people. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 36px;">*Update was on the news of 12.01.2015 and on IDPS.</span></span></div>
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-50532366686117512272013-03-31T16:32:00.002-07:002015-01-22T01:54:25.572-08:00Diversity challenges Kenya's social fabric: Kenyans flood Social Media with negative ethnicity whilst praying all day!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PW0ol-2mAdg/UVjE2MH4J7I/AAAAAAAAAlY/Re2zjOVINDU/s1600/The+crown+prince+shared+by+Gikuyu+na+Uturika+wakio+Jimmy+Ruhiu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PW0ol-2mAdg/UVjE2MH4J7I/AAAAAAAAAlY/Re2zjOVINDU/s200/The+crown+prince+shared+by+Gikuyu+na+Uturika+wakio+Jimmy+Ruhiu.jpg" height="200" width="174" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kenyatta presented as prince from above<br />
how voters create dictators </td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">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?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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 this judge with one hand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He has worked in Kenya in recent months. He is from South Africa. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PW0ol-2mAdg/UVjE2MH4J7I/AAAAAAAAAlU/6mB9cLuM_mU/s1600/The+crown+prince+shared+by+Gikuyu+na+Uturika+wakio+Jimmy+Ruhiu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PW0ol-2mAdg/UVjE2MH4J7I/AAAAAAAAAlU/6mB9cLuM_mU/s320/The+crown+prince+shared+by+Gikuyu+na+Uturika+wakio+Jimmy+Ruhiu.jpg" height="320" width="279" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kenyans from one region have already canonised their president!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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 <i>locuta causa finita</i>. Finita? Well, this remains to be seen.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9uk2A5WabWk/UVjGqSlet8I/AAAAAAAAAlc/M9jW_uQX8uI/s1600/Bike+Mama+and+child+and+Mama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9uk2A5WabWk/UVjGqSlet8I/AAAAAAAAAlc/M9jW_uQX8uI/s400/Bike+Mama+and+child+and+Mama.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everything is heavy, but I have children! </td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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If facebook could bleed</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> 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?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5866453115566908284.post-87390122879775099582013-03-12T12:49:00.004-07:002013-09-12T08:10:42.730-07:00What does this poison- letter sound like now?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 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.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
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Nightbridhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00906220651341854612noreply@blogger.com0