Kibaki and Gaddafi's retrogressive legacy in the African Union but the ICC Kenyan case continues

Bishop Desmond Tutu has a million signatures against pulling out
of the ICC but the political class does not care

Bishop Kipsang Muge: Military man turned cleric with a call for justice. Like many unaccounted for Kenyans, he died for opposing oppression and misrule  http://www.dacb.org/stories/kenya/muge_kipsang.html

The poor and downtrodden of Afrika are not there when diplomacy shuttles are made on their behalf by people appointed by politicians. They read bad signs such as the death of so many Dafuris. Dafur. Dafur. Dafur. Frrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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? 

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?
Is this a blessing in disguise for the future of Africa? Will there be
a new form of resistance birthed by this? 

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?
A history of justice delayed and denied

But does Kenya deliver on justice? 

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: Don't be vague go to Hague. Rhyme and reason at play.
Even more: The Kenyan Constitution recognises that the ICC is a Kenyan court. 

Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto cases before the ICC are not affected by this withdrawal

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.

Kibaki former president of Kenya is delighted. 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. 

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. 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.

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.

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. 

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? 

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. 

Kenya a rich but 'potholed' nation cries freedom; Justice hides in a new Constitution?

The late Wangari Maathai. She is sworn in to power but promises to be a hummingbird... 

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.
Hear and listen. Act. 

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? 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. Here is what is reported of Wangari Maathai in 2009 speaking at a meeting of the African Development Bank in Tunis:

"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." 

Nelson Mandela

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: 

"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.
" Long Walk to Freedom. Nelson Mandela.

Back to Kenya

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. 

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.  We do not always kill for votes but if words were bullets Facebook would be bullet riddled. The Election. Purple fingers. 

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?

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.  The media is already reporting that the next election is almost on..

KipKoech Tanui wrote in the Standard

"Now the point we are making is; however crude the timing is, the next succession battle has started.

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.

The writer is the Managing Editor The Counties Weekly.

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000091256&story_title=someone-poking-uhuru-kenyatta-william-ruto-soft-belly&pageNo=3

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.

Leadership and Integrity: 
Article 73....
....
(b) Objectivity and impartiality in decision making, and ensuring that decisions are not influenced by nepotism, favouritism, other improper motives or corrupt practices;
(c) Selfless service based solely on public interest, demonstrated by--
(i) Honesty in execution of public duties; and
(ii) the declaration of any personal interest that may conflict with public duties....

and so many other wonderful things. In the above alone can we start to show paths that lead to better management of diversity. 

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."


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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

When he found his way to a lawyer, he thought he had finally struck it right. The 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. 

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.

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.

"Seen as a dinosaur during the struggle for a new order,  the Independence Constitution, sagging even more countless mendments to suit power at different times was replaced. In being replaced it ceased to exist."

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.

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.

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.

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:

"A general election ... will be held on the second Tuesday in August every fifth year."

Fast forward to a nation that wants to be allowed to be what it is: 
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. 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.

It does not matter what some say, but this find does remind me of Wangari Maathai (R.I.P, (25.9.2011) the tireless environmental activist,  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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 
Maybe we should climb Mount Kenya again and plant the tree of justice, and acknowledge that the mountain faces the people?

Prayers 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

"If you become president and you are accused of crimes against humanity...." Said the late Mutula Kilonzo (R.I.P. 27.4.2012)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0FytE7hKao

And he did fear for his life...

 * An update 12 January 2015 

http://goo.gl/rrTBeQ

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.

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. 

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. 

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  http://www.knchr-idp.org/since the violence of 2007 which we agreed to sort out at the Hague's ICC?

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. 

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?

Kenyan teachers are on strike again. Students are at home, anxious. It is laptops that have now become like lollipops or is it the teachers' salaries?  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. 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!

On many things we are still taking sides depending not on the objective picture but on what we think should make our political divide happy.  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 desperation 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. 

http://goo.gl/nFHEjV

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. 

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 http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1899432/-/w2o47nz/-/index.html(for William Ruto)  and another to be built with over 700 millon shillings for Kibaki http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Intrigues-over-Sh700m-Kibaki-office-deepen/-/1056/1899390/-/ylvp2v/-/index.html.. 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 covered up some of them before the elections. They did not receive justice and it seems all victims are headed to the same.

 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,"Move on!" But this is nothing. For there are those who were moved on!

Extra-judicial killings

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. 

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. 

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.

"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."  And I hear a voice ask too '... and where were you when so many people were dying?

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.

 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.

"Activists say this climate of fear among civil society has increased sharply since the new government took over in April," 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.

William Ruto at St. Gabriel's Catholic Church, Nakuru Maili kumi

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?

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.  

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. 

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Obamas-snub-within-his-rights-says-Ruto/-/1064/1899862/-/tfyi55/-/index.html

William Ruto:

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

Voice and Vote:

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... 

William Ruto:

“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.

Voice and Vote

We must help ourselves first before we can stretch out our hands for help. We can improve our own lives by facing the truth...

Kenya’s sovereignty

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.

Voice and Vote

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.

 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. 

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. 

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. 
*Update was on the news of 12.01.2015 and on IDPS.

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

 

Kenyatta presented as prince from above
how voters create dictators 

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

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

In his wonderful keynote address Jugde Albie as he said he likes people calling him, talked about his life and commitment to justice. He talked about soft vengeance a topic of reconciliation that goes beyond legal fixes and deep into the heart. 

It was marvellous to hear him. Many people from different cultures and backgrounds were moved to hear him. He stirs deep into the conscience for those who are wronged and how to overcome the hurt with compassion as well as make the person gently see what they did to another as he did to the man who planted a bomb that left this judge with one hand.

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

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

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

Kenyans from one region have already canonised their president!

About democracy in Africa Judge Albie was very optimistic. He credited the people of Kenya for instance in sticking together even when some people wanted to cause a hatred along religious lines and for this he mentioned Islam and Christianity. The people reject this division in practice. He said. He explained more things and told of how Kenya has made great progress in the direction of having a new constitution since 2010. 

He remarked that South Africans thought they took long to usher in a new constitution in six years but that he was amazed at Kenya's close to 20 years of struggling to do the same and finally getting there. The whole exercise was for reform purposes. But on March 4th Kenya became the first country to vote in indictees of the ICC to the highest offices in the country.

Judge Albie answered the question on religion in a very fine manner. He emphasised the love and respect we ought to have for each others' consciences. I guess that is the way of a great judge and of a magnanimous mind. 

He said we should try out best not to fight over the god issues for then it gets very complex. We did not go into the tribal matters for thus they have to be named having become so naked in Kenya. And these relate too to religion in history for missionaries of some churches only preached as directed by government only to certain peoples. 

Kenya was born on a very racially divided bed. Ethnicity was stoked by the British too and  the 1884 conference did partition Africa against the grain of the population so that you have Bantu people and the Nilotes and others spread in different nations, but this is not the entire problem. Actually diversity should be a plus when managed, but this is not what religious people nor politicians do with it. 

However, having noted that there was a time in the 70s and 80s when it was not our immediate problem one worries why when it has gone up it has also meant the increase of insecurity. And yes, the fights are not along religious lines but then why does religion fail to glue such prayerful people. For indeed Judge Albie said of all a nations he knew well, Kenya was the most prayerful. What do prayers mean in a country where practically everyone is lined up with their own? How deep is the soul? But to that later.

Judge Albie is happy with the clean up of the Kenyan Judiciary and spoke about how the people of Kenya are delighted with the Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga and have much hope in him. This has been largely true. Even though some people have not liked the CJ. 

Maybe some people who did not like him before the 30th of March when he delivered a ruling that held that Kenya's election of 2013 was free and fair and that the two elect were elected fairly now love him more. Maybe some who loved him feel lost. He was their beacon of hope. And they felt that the election was stolen from the reformer and given to the status quo. Perhaps others have not changed knowing that with six judges in the Bench and the win having to come from 4:2, the thing is not a one man game. The judgement was unanimous. 

Some people point out that Constitution 2010 gives too short a time for the filing and the study of a proper case of this nature. Others say 7 judges would be best. In any case, the details of the judgement were not read and after the country had waited in heightening and then absolute anxiety for a week, the judgment came in three minutes.

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

Everything is heavy, but I have children! 

We had foreseen the filing of a petition no matter which side won because the margin was going to be narrow. However in the final results there were glaring mistakes. 

The international observers had spoken before but who could have foreseen the sharing of an IPS of the Independent Electoral and Borders Commission, IEBC, with Kencall a private company in which one of the contesters apparently has shares? 

Was everything put into place to monitor this election? And the list of complaints and evidence long. The court case was televised live and could be watched from any part of the world by Kenyans and they did so even though they could not vote from the diaspora again because the IEBC said that was beyond its scope.

If facebook could bleed

There would have been rivers that would have reached all links in the world. Kenyans vented their anger on Social Media using the tool much less for what people in Cairo used it for in the Arab Spring. 

They turned against one another identifying their man of their ethnic group as some untouchable and spewing vitriol on the other camp. There were two camps and two main ethnic groups had themselves confounded on Social Media because each had a main man. The Kikuyu and the Luo. Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga respectively.

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

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

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

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

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

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

My main concern is for Kenya. No matter how much we pray, behind the scenes we are full of intrigues. Religious differences are exploited for power. Religion is used as a power base. I saw this in Rwanda. Much compromising. Ethnicity is ruling at all levels and again we saw this in Rwanda 1994. When all these things mix with politics to fade out reason, in a world full of wonderful diversity, suddenly, the stars fade. 

But just maybe we swing and swing until the Constitution begins to flower and we get our balance! But on the other hand, where power is involved, poetic thinking can fail. It is something to be afraid of that two persons, that two strong communities see as their power, have this chasm of hating communities between them.

What does this poison- letter sound like now?

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


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

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

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

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

Western Media irks Kenyans in Election March 2013

Vigilant Kenya votes Justice and Peace

Kenya for peace 2013!

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

Kenya! Voting for peace in Afrika!

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Police Brutality and crime in South Africa

          

Dear South Africa

Lucky Dube shot dead near Jburg in 2007

Greetings from the rest of Afrika!                                                             

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yours sincerely

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