The June helicopter crash that kiled Saitoti and Ojode, ministers

There are problems... pic by PIK (2012)

http://www.nation.co.k/News/Saitoti+crash+copter+had+11+parts+missing+/-/1056/1490992/-/upl6p3z/-/index.html

Why fly anyone on a chopper that is missing anything and why fly two ministers and their bodyguards in a chopper that has indicated trouble with red lights for a long time? Well the chopper crashed and everyone died. Do we need to read any crime novels?

Money lay scattered all around in the debris. The minsters were on a journey to a church where pastors or priests or both were waiting for money from politicians to build this or that church or to make repairs. It is election time in Kenya. It is not only the poor people who take handouts for a loaf of bread or tea or mandazi muffin, it is also the priests and nuns and schools and so many others so that they can build their nation quickly before election funds dry out.


How could it happen that we were so careless with security of the security keeper of Kenya? Kenay has in 2012 lost far too many people, 1 300 lives in road accidents. Just last week some tourists perished at the Mara Airstrip. Why were they taking a flight? They were probably mainly flying in a small craft because the Narok Maai Mahiu road is a pit, I imagine. It has been years since this road has not been repaired and unless there is another reason that goes beyond all reasons it seems just incredible that matters are this way for after all, Kenya depends on tourism in a large way for her economy to thrive.

This road must be repaired. It has taken almost two decades in a catastrophic shape. Why is it that things can go so out of order? How is it that it does not become a main concern and people are sacked for sleeping on the job? Why are some other roads high priority but not this one very important road? Why are we not learning?

In a recent hearing on what caused this June 10 2012 accident that took the minister of internal security and the deputy minister for internal security, I was horrified to read yesterday in our Kenyan media that one man had raised concern over the aircraft and that he had been told it was fine. Well, I am not here speculating what happened as a Commission of enqiry under the Justice Kalpana of Kenya is doing its work but am blogging on lesson for Kenya. I say that this chopper is like Kenya and if we do not take care we shall damage many generations to come for they will not see the light of leadership in us. I know it is professionals who failed although why they failed so much to protect the one who was seen to be the protector of the nation and the assistant in that job it is hard to fathom but politicians are failing and will fail even more if we do not take stock of many things.

I read on the same day the Kenya Hansard of June 12 2012. If you google it you will find it for the Kenyan Hansard is on the internet. You will find the condolences and speeches given by most members of Parliament in the Kenyan Parliament. They are quite at ease and all of them telling us something about the members who died that they value. I have to first say that with regard to Honorouble Ojode who managed a fund that Parliamentarians get loans from the chorus was how he gave them loans in a record 20 - 30 minutes. This was repeated often by member after member. It is a good thing that Members were grateful but once again it was all about money and getting money. Hon. Ojode played his role well and many were fond of him. His nickname Sirkali was known to all. We got to know that Saitoti used to call him Ole Turkan in jest and so on. Members were fighting to get a chance to talk. After some time, it did seem like the time could have been spent better but we have to understand that the Members like the rest of Kenyans were under shock.

But this is my real concern. Some members did repeat that the last meeting they had with the two was in the Mombasa Peace Conference. I wanted to hear more about this Conference also way past the death of the two. Instead we are seeing Mombasa not so peaceful. It is interesting that the Minister for Internal Security then was emphasising and is reported to have said that it matttered much that the way to the next election be a peaceful one. Hey, he was not saying the election only. He was saying the way to, meaning all the time we have between now and the election. This is what has disappeared out of the MPs discourse far too fast. This is what also the main Kenyan opinion shapers and here I would like to mention the churches because they do play a major role which I am critical in of in many ways because it can be better, much better have not played up enough. We have not heard this message in meetings with DCs and Chiefs in the villages. Hardly.

The most significant thing for all of us is that this Hansard reports in the words of the office of the Vice President and Minister for Home Affairs that Hon. Saitoti said to Members of Parliament: "....Any of us associating with criminal gangs in this country in the hope that come the next election they will help you to become the next leader, senator or governor, I think you are clearly not acting in the best interest of this nation."

We cannot happy with all the above. Carelessness at work. Lack of leadership. But we have to try and look into the future and give it our best shot.  Just then imagine that that chopper is Kenya itself. Let us all be alert about what is not working well now before the next election. We must. Let us take warning from the words on working with violent people to get votes. This will take us back for many years, too many. Let us examine our country now so that we can fly it high! 

Deadly roots of violence in Kenya and ways out of it

 
It is not time to take things lightly in Afrika, in Kenya or anywhere. We are all reaping the bitter fruits of having with us people who feel they have nothing to lose if there is violence and others who want to hold onto non- reformist ways all the time. I focus mainly on Kenya but the voice of Veronique from Mali on BBC explaining why she works with militias will always ring in my mind. For one, she sounds so innocent as she says why she is in the militia group that is supported by Al Queda in a report on August 28 2012. "I am here for the love of our country. I want to help our brodas, modas and sisters in the north..." She and her colleagues say they do not care if they die because their blood has already been shed in that of their sisters and mothers have died before. This is clearly radical and fundamentalist but here we are. This is what is beleaguering nations already fraught with challenges of many types. That is and was very much the language of some militia groups in Kenya and they were not working with Al Queda.
 Are we unable to read the signs of the times for Kenya?

 http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Raila+Kibaki+accused+of+power+tricks/-/1064/1462768/-/l4670jz/-/index.html

Temperatures are high in Kenya. Mombasa is not at peace for the second day running. My skin creeps when I see scenes in Mombasa that so remind me of the violence of Dec 2007. That is not all. Last week Tana River area was hit by hard violence. Kenya has a General Election coming up in March 2013. Unfortunately, Elections normally mean more violence. I think we need to be prudent and brace ourselves for tougher times. There has been too much tension in different parts of Kenya for a number of socio-politico reasons. The onset of peace and a peaceful election will depend on if we as ordinary Kenyans, we as politicians, we as leaders at different levels and including in the family will be ready and willing to renounce violence. To shame it in all its forms.

To refuse to take bribes and not to joke about taking money from politicians. They steal our dignity.  You see, we must say not to violence even when we are genuinely angry and have many reasons to be so. A gift of humor is a good thing to have but it seems to me that the times we are going through hardly give us space for a laugh. Those who have a big voice in the media must act as in times of an emergency because we saw that Kenya can burn. Those who have a voice should help the ordinary people detangle taking money from politicians and politics. They should lead Kenyans in no tribal politics. But will they? I found this article saddening but then our president Kibaki was never a reformist. http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Kibakis+money+talk+leaves+peace+meet+in+stitches/-/1064/1488552/-/a5tqvi/-/index.html
He has tried to pass a few things against the law, such as the nomination of county bosses and also the nomination of the Commission that should reform police in Kenya.

It has become normal to hear reports of violence. What with the recent grenades thrown in Nairobi and Garissa as Al Shabaab hit back for Kenya's incursion into Somalia to finish this terror groups? Things are getting thick. Every now and then you can expect headlines of death caused by political differences. I wonder about our country. The bell keeps ringing in me that the last extreme violence was in the year 2007 after an election in which Kibaki the president disagreed with Raila Odinga, the Prime Minister today on a vote tally. Today the relationship between the two leaders in a government of coalition for the sake of peace is far from reconciliatory.
 
So often is the worry about violence on our minds that some leaders keep saying that there will be a peaceful election in 2013, and yet from a distance, one gets the view that they are praying for the aversion of what they can already see. I too wish no one will shed blood because of the General Election in March 2013, but we have to say that blood is already being shed. If there will be no machetes out during the General Election, we shall all be glad but because there is so much violence now, we have to acknowledge that violence is becoming part of our culture. Here are some reported incidents of violence.

On 22nd August 52 people were killed in revenge for land disagreement. These were 31 women, 6 men and the rest were youth and children. Now this is horrendous. http://reliefweb.int/report/kenya/52-killed-tana-clashes What does the killing of women, so many of them and children tell you about the situation? It tells me that there is deep planning and anger. Planning to find the unprotected women on their own and kill them.Revenge and anger over resources.

In August, a man was going on tour with his book which has political content and in three places, Nakuru, Kisumu and Mombasa he was met with crude violence. He had to be rescued by police. The book he sells has been at the centre of much attention. It purports to whistle blow about corruption in Kenya and to particularly address his former employer who sacked him without due procedure. The author has said he vowed to "spill the beans" I am not discussing content and names but it is alarming that so many people were of the view that there was nothing wrong with beating up the writer when he stood up to speak, because he is going against a politician that they like. It was impossible to get some people to see that violating the law and taking it into own hands is wrong and physical violence out of place when it comes to differences in  opinions.  Baying for someone's blood has become common and right. Some people even asked us, human rights activists not to defend freedom of expression in this case and to join in and shout, "destroy him! destroy him!" They are still angry that we have not. You can see it on facebook.

Then on 27th August Sheikh Abdou Rogo was assassinated in Mombasa. Violence broke out immediately. It is still going on. It has taken a religious angle. Sheikh is said to be listed by the USA and the UN as a terrorist. Saying that his killing shocked me drew the wrath of some. That he was 'target' I wrote, meant to them that blame was being apportioned to a specific party, the government. What was obviously said is that if out of four people in a car he is the only one who was eliminated, then of course he was targetted. It looks like we have come to a point where reasoning is out of question. One is expected to cheer ho and ha and off we go and beat and kill. This does not augur well for us. The violence has not abated in Mombasa for a long time. It has actually got to this: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Policeman+dies+in+Kisauni+grenade+attack/-/1064/1488860/-/r7mamo/-/index.html

At the beginning of August, precisely on August 2 2012, a little girl and friend of mine who suffers cerebral palsy was raped. Her mother found the rapist in the house. Her limbs are broken. She took up the case with the local chief. It should have been the police. The Chief set the man free. The law against rape/defilement of minors can go to a life sentence. But here again, violence sits on like a mountain on the weak.


In 2007 December we in Kenya and the world at large were shocked by the deaths of 1 333 persons and the displacement of 500 000 others. Most of us agree that we would not like to see a similar pattern. Most people thinking about violence in Kenya since 2007 and before, as far back as 1992, think violence linked to elections.

I see of late is that even as Kofi Annan urges that reforms be implemented so that the next General Election in march 2013 be peaceful, even as the world donors give 3.2 billion dollars and the EU urges that the elections be peaceful, even as some politicians keep on saying all is well and will be well, the dark truth is that the violence is already in place. Violence has not abated in Kenya in a long time it is the Election we are waiting for and not all our hopes are pegged on it.  The implementation of the new constitution is a challenge but the judiciary with the leadership of Chief Justice Mutunga is looking up. At least one arm of government is reforming but your guess is a as good as mine, some are out to see that the Chief Justice does not succeeed. It is all in recently headlines. So, with a sigh we have to say that in Kenya, the bullets are always in place but not the ballots. Look at the problems facing the Independent Electoral Commission. We have to try and stop this violence and revere the judiciary before the Election. We must remember it was the missing arm when there was a fight over votes and the killings started. The country needs peace for progress to happen and for the judiciary to deepen its work. We shall lack that peace if some like the group of conservatives working in Central province and in the country do not realise that this time we must all be our sisters and brothers keepers and that means ditching politicians from our own ethnic communities if they are violent or unjust. Taking hate speech to court. Monitoring our local language as euphemisms are used to communicate hatred for other ethnic groups and being bold enough to say, stop it! Criticising ourselves without fear and letting opinions be hear.  We need peace so as to carry on digging into our culture to see how we can uproot that which is leading us on a collision course all the time. We need peace for us to see how politicians create situations for us to go against ourselves and refuse to, and stand together even when we do not speak the same languages.

Inequality in a country, a big rift between those who have and those who do not have is a deadly foundation for any nation. Not to be able to enjoy or explore neither eduction nor life because one comes from a background of disadvantage and challenges is a blight on generations to come. Education, health and work are all supposed to be available to all the citizens of a nation in equal measure. It is true that there has to be competition and that a welfare society can also produce individuals who look like they are indifferent to everything, but this is better than a violent nation. A nation steeped in cut throat competition where it is only the rich who enjoy security, education, health and every kind of amenity.

It is quite clear that people begin to see differences more markedly when the economy is poor and when to get a loaf of bread takes to much energy that by the time it is in the hand, one's nerves are breaking with pain. I look at Kenya keenly and I see that violence can be said to be increasingly visible not only when people are killed but also when people begin to stop sleeping thinking of what they will eat on the next day. No one is excusing rape but the law is not followed when people are so hungry. I have seen an older woman with disability raped and when I went to visit her parents to see how I could help them, they were peaceful and offered me a place to sit and they talked. Aferwards I heard that they took money from the Chief to whom the case was reported again and not the police instead of justice. There are many cases like this that go unreported.

It is when resources are poorly managed and the rich who also often happen to be the politicians grab everything for those who think like them and those who support with them which includes their families most of the times.Greed is a main cause. Simple greed. J M Kariuki, assassinated in Kenya on March 2 1975, died because of constantly saying that if Kenyatta and his cronies kept on grabbing land the way they were doing, we would be exactly where we are now. Poor people will be so many and they will see enemies in one another because they lack what to eat. I see that more than ever now, our language which includes most of the times tribe matters more than ever. That people are so divided along tribal lines because this is how resources are shared that actually the lines are clearly drawn for battle. And there is more to it. The lack of acknowledging of the International Criminal Court's process which has named Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, politicians; Francis Muthaura and Joshua Sang a radio journalist as suspects. Uhuru Kenyatta still insists that he is the country's next president. And it is not only him who thinks so. He has the support of many in Kenya and most notably, of the rich ruling class.

For the love of Syria where women are giving wombs for tombs

Singing in every land

It will never be a strange land

When it is someone’s home it is mine too

You wonder where I come from this rhythmic dynamo

With drums beyond calling mourning no one fails to rise

How can we sleep when our land is fire?

Syria is not thousands of miles from home

In our palms we can see her map

In our lives her shape too

How shall it be possible that we are not dying in her?

I would my alarm wake me every hour of night

Women are giving their wombs for tombs.

I saw the same arrows hit my homeland once

Sitting on our own maps, home became exile

When a land is not free and is death trodden

Beyond the rivers of Babylon must strong song be heard.

You sing a song how you can for every home is a strange land

when violence is every padlock and every key broken

I will sing it with and without tuneful drums

In music I will dream beyond sand dunes

of horror

I will ask myself what my thoughts can do

I will answer to my own question with something I know

I have known too our nation held by a thread of life

Cobwebs of thoughtful prayer remained our all

I felt the winds dry our tears and saw dust turn into bread

When energies focus the world will makes itself anew

Who holds the Olympic of peace?

Maybe is not maybe in this unreasonable horror

Annan is not sleeping and us too make vigil

The hour of pain is shared by the chosen few

Easy to count on five fingers continents

We are going to rent the skies with our thoughts

It does not matter that no one cheers, this is not a match.

It must rain reason in Syria now, not tomorrow

Graves and broken bones also deserve peace

Justice must be written on every ruin of blood so sad

And we tell As sad on a sad day the truth

That the moon still rises and stalks the sun

No land remains parted the seas bind one and all

No land bleeds alone, blood oozes into the sea

The underworld is sighing and darkness maybe is dying

Who will return a happy dawn to Syria and Afghanistan?

My alarm clock brings no salaams

It rings Ssss for Syria and A for Afghanistan

These seas of violence must peace kiss

How for the mothers, children and even men

Can violence be sliced like daily bread?

I have seen Syria bleeding endlessly

We have voiced and called to the deaf

We sent our force of justice silently

News of relentless fighting has not ceased

Does power always equal the same?

I have set my clock to alarm me every hour

So that I remember my safety is not for granted

So that I jog our memory to the present

Sounds of bullet fire and screams and deaths

Can news be something else for a change?

Sad as Assad who nods not for the moment

Assenting to the people would have been easier

Assessing the day with clock wise move from Tunisia

They fear that we never learn what no one knows

Is knowing so unknown in faiths confessing knowledge?

Norway's identity is strong and positive

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3510819464127735890#editor/target=post;postID=1320372979014971724

Service? Hva?

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3510819464127735890#editor/target=post;postID=33398770998

We do not ask who assassinated Tom Mboya ... 5th July 1969

Tom Mboya 

We no longer ask who assassinated  Joseph Thomas Mboya, on July 5 1969 and Josiah Kariuki Mwangi, on 2 March 1975. We know. We must now acknowledge these deaths as the Government of Kenya. 

The Government of the day must rise and serve justice, and tell the people…how to make sense of their history and nation. An apology is not enough. We have elected governments that have continued to operate as if these were not matters of urgency.

Writers and intellectuals have been relentless in this cause. Politicians have given up. The last voice I heard on Robert Ouko was James Orengo's and then it petered out. We cannot leave everything to a Truth Justice and Reconciliation Committee that has been dwarfed by controversy.  We have great hope in the Judiciary today. If only reforms will be real after the new constitution. We  have hope in committed people. Dr. Willy Mutunga, Kenya's Chief Justice is one of those who might make a big difference to Kenya's capacity to know herself as a nation, to believe in herself. And the citizens of course. 

We know our responsibility in communicating culture, history and peace. Tom Mboya, J.M Kariuki, Robert Ouko and Gama Pinto, no matter their weaknesses, are personalities that represented so much for Kenya that many people have died as a result of the deaths of these voices.

Chief Justice of Kenya, Dr. Willy Mutunga

We have to learn from history. Nations are still apologizing for the deportation of the Jews. Jens Stoltenberg the Prime Minister of Norway did so this year, January 2012. Recognition of such inhumanity, horror is important. It is vital.   

Joseph Thomas Mboya was assassinated on Saturday of July 5^th 1969 in Nairobi Kenya at about 11am. The city of Nairobi and the entire country was plunged into darkness. We were paralysed. I was in Kiambu and shock spread everywhere so tangibly that children could touch it. We only asked the adults in hushed tones… “What is it?” As we crowded round radios.. Later a song was released. Tom Mboya, ndiye baba yetu… Afirika twasitikika!.... “Tom Mboya is our father and we in Afrika are distraught!” 

It was a dark day beyond every border. It was terrible in Nyanza and Kisumu the capital. At his ceremony there was a stampede. My aunt told me that Mama Ngina’s shoes came off there.  In Kisumu people were later shot day when Kenyatta visited Kisumu to  open what was called the Russian hospital. Poet Macgoye was there. Sh wrote a poem about the children who were killed.

The darkness continues since Mboya’s death. No justice was served.  Writers and human rights activists continue to speak out and to ask questions.

This is Tom, the man Kenya lost.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0B60s5NiJw

Writers

David Goldsworthy wrote: Tom Mboya, the man Kenya wanted to forget. There are other books.

Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye has written about Mboya in her fiction. In Coming to Birth. Mboya was a brilliant leader.

In her fiction, Macgoye describes Tom Mboya after one of his meetings in Kenya. She writes,

"Martin was present at that Adult Education rally at Bahati where Tom finished his speech, debonair and controlled as ever and then rushed into the meeting which had been organised to exclude him."

On reading we see that the author captured Tom in a lively manner, Tom's image in action, this might have vivified this work tremendously. After all, Mboya's life had  marked effect on the major characters, Paulina and Martin. This minister was Martin's hero and when he died Martin's life was deeply influenced. It is then that Martin, and the author questioned the real meaning of freedom.

There is so much pain. There are no words. The characters speak…in sorrow…

Martin says in Dholuo.., "wawuok mondi" let us go… "woud min, nyathiwa" which means `child of my mother'. Macgoye further describes the situation in her poetry.

She wrote this poem For Tom only partly quoted here.

There's danger.

                            The grass is trampled.

                            Only vultures overhead

                            swoop, rend and darken.

                            All sheep is down,

                            The buffalo is down,

                            The elephant fallen,

                            Lion torn and unmanned.

                            ......................

                            Lie low for safety

                            The highest is gone.

"The hunters go unchecked; we see

                  Nothing to salvage from their prey. 

                  The carcase snatched from jackals,

                  lay encased, the spirit wandered free".

In a second poem,("For Tom another mode)", Macgoye asks     perti­nent questions about the death of Tom which led to so much distress in the land. She asks a question for freedom, for "the hunters go unchecked" after they have taken away the freedom to live, think and act from a leader who promised to be extremely helpful to the poor who needed him most and to the nation.

                   "Who calls him rich in worldly things? 

                  We knew him rich in peasant tongue, 

                   Thought in each language newly sprung

                   and courtesy, the grace of kings."

“In 1965, Pio Gama Pinto, formerly an activist for independence in 1950, was assassinated for political reasons. When in 1975, Josiah M. Kariuki, Member of Parliament disappeared and his dismembered body was found in Ngong Hills, the people of Kenya were deeply shocked. Macgoye, narrates in Coming to Birth how the people never stopped to miss their elected but killed leaders.  They mourned and commemorated them. The impact of J.M's death was strong: "J.M. burst upon the scene as a martyr and a paroxysm of grief ran through the city. The skies were leaden that April and it grew colder and colder." And pop music makers of the day, Kamaru and others did not fear so ask Kenyatta in songs in his mother tongue which they spoke what happened to Kariuki. The song went... People of our mother since Kariuki has died... and he has not stolen or killed anybody He has died for being good... and you ask yourself what you will die for... a song I heard and which moves me still. "Andu a maitu tondu Kariuki ni akua.. na tikuiya kana kuragana.. tundo arakua arakwire wega wake.eee na inyui mwiyuragiee mugakua kiii_ oiii oiii ooiii ye.. J M Kariuki mwendwo ni iri...." Kenyatta banned the song.

JM Kariuki

 

A bomb blast at a Nairobi bus station in 1975 preceded J.M. Kariuki's death. Some ordinary Kenyans were killed in that mysterious incident. Macgoye shows the negative impact of these mysterious deaths of leaders on the people and on the country as a whole. In so doing, Macgoye is questioning the fact that some individual's political careers and therefore freedom, were so thwarted. “ (Philo Ikonya MA thesis)

Charles Mugane Njonjo  is testifying today, 5^th July 2012,  in the Kirima case in Nairobi was interviewed by Citizen TV and a series run in 2008 &2009 on the assassination of JM Kariuki on March 1975. It is still about questions, not answers but it gets very close. Leaves it in Government. Now we want acknowledgement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Njonjo

Charles Mugane Njonjo

Former legislator, Martin Shikuku who is unwell today told me in 2008 and that is also recorded in the Hansard (Kenya Parliament official documentation) how he spoke to JM Kariuki when Mboya was killed urging him to support him when he asked the question in Kenyatta’s Bunge. Everyone was a afraid. JM Kariuki was Kenyatta’s secretary. Shikuku asked the question in Kenyatta’s  Parliament, Who killed Tom Mboya? He was supported by Deputy Speaker, Seroney. J.M. Kariuki did not manage. Martin and Seroney were detained. But a five years and a few months later, J.M. Kariuki was assassinated too. Now Shikuku still went to Parliament and still asks from his sick bed am sure….”Who killed Joseph Thomas Mboya? Who killed Josiah Mwangi Kariuki? he asks because it is good when governments acknowledge their big errors even if time has passed. Norway only apoligized to the Jews this year. We ask. But we know even when we ask. We know. It is better that you, governments of today, come clean and speak to us. There is something about healing in agreeing on what happened if we are one! These issues have never been focused on in a way that can unite us and now we are often torn and in tribal shreds. Some of the politicians today were still in Parliament then, many have died without telling us what they knew or felt, registering their grief beyond tribal and family cocoons bar talk. 


We do not need whispers anymore. We need crystal clear voices of justice on what went wrong, symbolic ceremonies, justice for the families, shrines and museums where we make reparation for their bodies so violently taken, all of them...all the heroes of Kenya recognized and their role, and more books and poems. Songs. Songs in all languages of Kenya but songs of unity in our struggles. Songs for heroes. Not songs of the hatred that injustice has borne among us and tribalism, the child of political machinations. We need hope in the likes of Shikuku, Seroney, Kariuki and Mboya who spoke the mother tongue of justice without worrying about clans and ethnicity. All these and more love protests, so that history is forever alive!

Robert Ouko, left Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jimmy Carter and  Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi on the last tour they  made A few weeks after their return, Robert Ouko was assassinated. 

 

Eh Mungu nguvu yetu!

Stop threats to the life of Gacheke Gachihi, a reformer in Kenya

Stop threatening reformers!

With Women of Bunge la Mwananchi and Dr. Willy Mutunga in Huruma 2009

Most of the suffering and war I see today in the world is about power. That is why I will always be happy when people resist power that is about only power. A number of organisation including Bunge La Mwananchi that Gacheke Gachihi has worked with were started to resist injustice and to reconize it in its many presentations. They speak out.
http://www.google.no/url?

When I see that little boy with swollen eyes lying on the ground in Syria and saying 'this is what the government did to me', then I remember that as a poet I have said elsewhere that all governments are beastly. They are worse than the ogres of yore. Then I remember that too many people take things lightly when power is abused, until it is too late. Governments can eat their own and pretend that nothing happened. You do not have to look too deep to see that, even when countries are not at war, the people suffer.  You will know it was too wrong to be silent when it is too late. There are people who are always actively questioning things even when they are not in the limelight. Look at these Kenyan resisters: http://fahamu.org/fellowship/images/Portraitbook.pdf

There are many potholes on the way to a stable environment of human rights in Kenya. It is time Kenya reformed and followed the rule of law yet we seem to be afraid.  Negative ethnicity is directly forbidden by our constitution of August 2010. 

Last week Gacheke posted on a the Kenyans for Peace Through Justice regarding songs carrying hate messages. They are full of spite for all other presidential candidates for the next General Election in Kenya except the man who comes form their area and speaks their tongue. The songs are in praise of Uhuru Kenyatta who is seen to represent all the Gikuyu. A sad state of affairs. The Kenya National Cohesion Committee is trying to deal with it, but the words cannot be arrested, they have already been sown all around. It is alleged that John De Matthew, Kamande wa Kioi and Njoroge 

http://www.ghafla.co.ke/news/alternative-music/item/2535-kikuyu-musician-kamande-wa-kioi-charged-in-court  are paid to sing these songs. They are then broadcast in the Gikuyu radios in the country. This means they are singing songs telling people of the Agikuyu to vote for their own child, Uhuru Kenyatta. This means that they are particularly against Raila Odinga who for them represents the face of Nyanza. But memories of how corruption and power was used to fuel high level hatred between ethnic groups are very present. Gacheke has fought all such negative things for long. He has reasons to be concerned about this situation all the time. 

Death threats

There are many voices that are not wanted. Gacheke is one of them. Ngunjiri Wambugu who runs an organisation for change was recently on radio dicussing his views in Gikuyu when the owner of the radio, Uhuru Kenyatta, rang him during the program to ask him 11 questions. That is not a sign of a free press. It is about money and power. But back to today, Gacheke sent me and many people an sms telling us that a police woman told him that the days of his life are numbered. 

“Dear friends at 1pm i received call from Huruma Officer Commanding the Station (OCS ??+254722883236) that my days are numbered, this is a direct threat to my life..tomorrow at 9am I will go to huruma police station to record statement I need your support, Regards, Gacheke”

When I received this message I hastened to my Timeline on Fb to see what else I had missed while discussing literary matters with a friend on the message page. I posted my reaction of both shock and distaste and copied the number on to the message. Social media means openness. Days of darkness are gone. And there is power in sharing no matter what they say about Julius Assange and wikileaks.

I then called the number of the police officer because the phone number of a public officer is for the service of the people. I thought the most important thing was that the officer had to know that we were all aware of what was going on. Exposure of a threat like this in Kenya helps.

I was not smiling as the joy of celebrating Mario Ballotelli’s goals had lived in me and had just been stolen from me, nipped at the bud! Why, I remembered a young man at Huruma where Gacheke lives, was shot dead by police as he went towards his home after playing football one evening. I remembered how people told me he was just one in a long list of young people who had been killed like that. I remembered too that we should not be silent because the threat to the rights of one is a threat to all.

I want to record here that after the first unanswered call, my  call was returned.  It was a woman’s voice and she told me immediately that she recognized my voice. She said her name was … Ringera and that she had come across me in the course of her duty. Later she explained that she was the Deputy OCS in Muthaiga when the Central Intelligence  Department arrested 9 of us in a case that was dismissed after 4 years and called “The Republican of Kenya vs Philo Ikonya and nine others.”

I have been out of Kenya for two and a half years after arrests and harassment and was quite surprised. But for her it was very easy, she told me where she first saw me.  I asked her what was going on. She said it was so bad that she could not discuss it before sending me a text. I asked her to tell me as I was sure later she would be too busy to answer phones but she said she could only text it as it was horrible and then I could judge for myself. I really expected a bombshell. She told me she was aware of the situation, had spoken to Gacheke, but if I could please wait and she would text me a message in which I would see how terrible things are and then I could call her back.

The message is one that Gacheke had circulated earlier.

“Dear comrades we invite you to sunday protest at Huruma police station at 9am, against corruption, illegal detentions…in the station and high level crime in Huruma Mathare..Regards Gacheke”

The message simple and to the point does not break any law. But this message was being treated as criminal. I called back. I did tell her all this is on facebook and for her part she said she had received very many calls about this and that her telephone rang all the time. " I have even been called by some people called by ... she named ..raia..." I heard raia,..  which means citizens and there is an organisation that is caleld Uraia.  She was happy to speak and said she would answer all her calls as she is in the service of all. She said that police in Kenya no longer shot people dead, but I know a different story. I said to her that what she had confrimed to have said to Gacheke is not acceptable, such words coming from her are very dangerous and she said that these days Kenyan police do not kill people. But we all know a different story. She also said that if she wanted to kill him she would not warn him. She said he is not well behaved. She had many points of objection and reasons for her action but NOTHING can justify threatening anyobody with DEATH or any other harm and in their training, police are taught that. What is service for all? 

She complained about Gacheke. She indicated that somebody is giving her information on what Gacheke is doing or planning to do. She says she will not change and has never changed.

Gacheke is known to be a quiet and effective worker. He hardly exchanges hard words with anybody. He rarely even writes as long a message as the one he wrote on the singers and their antagonising Gikuyu songs. It was clear that he did so because he is deeply concerned about ethnicity and the complicity of politicians to divide the people. I say this because Ringera, who reminded me of herself in Muthaiga and who emphasised that she cannot change. "I am still the same one you saw there... ". made reference to Gacheke's case being a political affair twice. I fear that Gacheke will be framed for one thing or the other and will be arrested. Not so long ago, for the first time in his life in Huruma where he has always lived, he was robbed of his documents.