The real Kenyan marathon versus a nation of electoral self- destruction, Reflections on Pio Gama Pinto, the stone that builder refused, as Gitu of Mau Mau and others pass on the baton

Young Kenyans commemorate J.M. Kariuki and Pio Gama Pinto in 2014 and call out for justice. These are people with sense and who sacrifice to speak out often on empty stomachs. Why would anybody hound them down and silence them? Why would the National Intelligence not hear their own quest in this? 

Well, where I have lived and voted , even tried to position for a voice in politics, a thing I now would not do, elections whether big or small divide deeply. General Elections have come with a trail of deaths and displacements of persons in big and small numbers. 

The push for power rocks the ground so much that a by-election for instance in Maasai land in Kenya this week has the country on tenterhooks. When you read the details of how a former leader in the area was wooed to government and appointed then you see clearly why sharp divisions arise. Look at this photo and see the spirit that takes over and how a slight misstep could lead to much more. http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/Uhuru-Kenyatta-Raila-Odinga-Kajiado-Central-Election/-/1064/2653934/-/8e0wow/-/index.html

Politics is interesting and not to be wished away. Perhaps some systems need to be thoroughly questioned and examined with regard to where they left Africa and whom they benefit. The interests colonial powers had in the region did not go away because flags changed. But 

Kenya's election of 2007/2008 was one that left many deaths, rapes, environmental destruction and deep rifts between different people on the course of justice. In my life it left some red ink in my pen. I always wrote before. During the actual violence I was not able to write save for a few articles like this one.

The 11th Parliament did not allow for the trial of suspects locally. Later on especially visible in the election of 2013, many active civil society people went into politics. Their voices are missing at another level. The level of the struggle for justice for all and the cohesion of the nation since running it in cantons of different ethnic groups is not productive and the borders were made by those who had other interests from Europe. But there is something special about Kenya's desire to be one in the hearts of many of its lovers and fighters for justice and that did not begin the other day. It is the very root of the formation of Kenya. Dedan Kimaathi spoke about it and he was seen as a terrorist by the colonial powers as were all Mau Mau. 

Mau Mau fighters are still alive in Kenya. They have stayed in the spirit of many who died for freedom to always tell the story of what it means to be free. It does not mean to win an election, to have an election or even to lose one. It means to love and stay awake and vigilant with an undivided spirit. Gitu wa Kehengeri in a video below tells of his times in Mau Mau and the birth of a Kenya that is not yet here. Not yet. And this is important for the world and for Afrika.

And as for those historians and experts of all sorts who say some Mau Mau fighters such as Kahengeri were not determined because they were from Kiambu and not Nyeri, let them stop that. This is something some historians, would defend. I have heard one 'historian' because he lived this history on the side of the Coloniser say it to me. I know it is justified by others. But I have met with Mau Mau fighters in Kiambu and Muran'ga. 

My father was among the Kiambu ones and they without fear pointed out people who got into power who were homeguards or betrayers from Kiambu. There are and history had better make that clear Mau Mau fighters in Kiambu. People who fought for the country and with all ethnic groups in mind without betraying. The division of Nyeri vs Kiambu fighters suited the coloniser. 

It still does suit the governments that were put in place. It does not suit the government today. What those who believe in freedom say is that Kenya was not freed for the benefit of one class or one group of peoples but for all. They embrace the freedom that lasts beyond death. The freedom Kimaathi, Pinto, J.M. Kariuki and Tom Mboya believed in and which made those in power feel threatened. 

If interested contrast what Dr. Willy Mutunga says in 2015 Pinto commemoration video posted below and what Muthoni Kamau says about the young and the love of a nation united, that is the struggle, the middle class and many are absent. They are either too taken by the opium of the poor to see that even then, there are obligations to face up to or left to fend on their own. And this in a country where Human Rights Defenders have been treated to a kind of inquisition. The huge question remains on my mind.

Why is it that the voices of those who ask the right but painful questions must be silenced? Why? Why do innocent people who love good have to be the ones who carry the burden of suspicion and worse still deaths and disappearances. If this question remains alive and stings so shall we as nation. But if it is hidden then shall we indeed stink. 

A bid by some MPs, including Martha Karua, then minister for Justice and many others to do so, was defeated at Parliament. The legislators then opted for the Hague. Don't be vague many said, go to the Hague. That was heard in Kenya so frequently. Time has passed and Kenyans have had strong voices at AU and at the UN and around the world in a strong way, wanting to make the Hague vague, or actually disappear it.

The fact that Kenya did not like Ivory Coast face its failures and look for justice at home has been a weight that Kenyans cannot pride themselves in having lifted. 

Simone Bagbo of Ivory Coast was sentenced for 20 years for her involvement in violence in the country's 2010 election.  Laurent Bagbo, former president awaits his case and judgement at the ICC. 

I have not read of efforts by Ivory Coast to leave the Rome Statute as Kenya has tried to influence African nations to. Actually, the Ivory Coast did not join Kenya on the latest efforts in Addis Ababa for that and other nations did not follow the path Kenya had wanted. But Kenyans are good.

Kenyans are good at self-introspection but almost always after it is too late. There are questions there that the Kenyan system of justice should ask itself for years, and not only them but also the two arms of government. The Executive and the Legislature. Why are there so many vacuums with regard to answers on injustices that hit the headlines? Matters regarding assassinations are particularly outstanding. 

In the first quarter of the month, there are Kenyans who remember and ask questions on when justice will be served for Pio Gama Pinto, J.M Kariuki, Robert Ouko and Dedan Kimaathi. This is March 2015 and a wonderful documentary was launched dealing with these questions at length. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItaB0M67FCo


Writing this, I was searching for the link above, when I found another documentary for March 2014 for the same commemoration. This is Kenya's real marathon.  I was very surprised. I did not see it for a year... hm! Those who know will know why the hm! And this is an important one... for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmGr-oqd4wI 

 It is easy for some to imagine when traveling Kenya whether mentally or physically that Kenyans will fail the marathon of national cohesion and stop running. No, there are Kenyans whose spirit does not die. They keep running the real marathon, in their sleep, in their writings and dreams and so often have they done it without any trainers beside them or even on their feet. Barefoot. 

They have run but also into the muck have they been flung and there, they have swam. Staying there so long and having their faces covered as if in burial will not stop them from again walking the streets barefoot. The paths of the villages welcome them.

Damned be The Traitor of His Motherland! Oliver Frljc #Naked without a leaf on foreskin#KenyainDenial! my take

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBQxFOYZevI Producer Oliver Friljc

The world said Povertyend2015? World without end....

And I asked: Why are you so afraid of the nakedness of Truth?
Pity answered: I Hate The Truth. It is about us. All of us.

When in a country, region, a people hate one another, are xenophobic,
because of being overpowered by power, they need to know one thing. It never ends. It is about resources but you end up tied with acrimony, calling one another names, completely engaged in the wrong game. Weapons come out. Machetes, guns, knives but first always the tongues. A non-forgiving game. Nobody survives a broken nation to succeed. In the end, the betrayer is betrayed and all are eaten up. There is no safety in evil. Only in confronting it. This is drama like I never saw it before.

Never again will I see human beings as they against us, pushed a little we all become what you cannot even name. It does not matter that they are. Take care! Chunga maisha. Once you kill one, yours is on the line. The dry wood above laughs at the one in the fire... Ciitara cithekaga ciiriko!

The setting is historical and ahistorical in a sense. Croats and Serbians. Yogoslavia... Balkans. For they had killed and killed in the Balkans. Killed in words and shed blood. Ethnicism had taken over. Still the scars. And now... on stage this was drama for reconciliation or total severance from your ideas. Disconcerting in order to concert.  It rammed in you the message. Betray today for your people, all yours will be betrayed tomorrow. Killed. Stop it! Still your senses. See yourself naked and cry. See your own genitals mutilated and stop. Sober up. How did a part of Nairobi come to be named Kosovo? or Nahau... Kosofo...Mpesa. Poverty is not about lack of money, also in the settlements there is money. It is about how ideas are organised to oppress or liberate. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhrvwA3vYT8

 Invited to the Mladinsko Theatre in Lubljana, nothing could have prepared my mind for what was coming. It was a morning special show for writers from various countries under the ICORN programme. I was happy to attend the annual meeting again. I enjoyed my train ride to Lubljana via Vienna. I posted a photo of the rails to Fb. But the drama post on my mind remains. Drama that refuses to be unfelt by the  amnesia poured in the world. The answer you will hear more often now when you point out issues is that weak and defeated 'it happens everyhere..' and a shrug of shoulders like your country is nowhere.

So then, on a seemingly happy morning we sat outside in a lovely garden. Celebs, unknown, just people as others joined and people tend to gather naturally without class and roots and differences, until power decides no. In works of writers, this is how it should be. We will gather - even if only heaven knows how. We had breakfast and were cautioned that the play was strong. On needed to be braced oneself up for it. We were busy chatting to cross bridges of isolation. We heard that Theatre travels to many parts of the world but that in some people are unable to watch it because there are scenes so powerful, they fled the halls. In reality there is no line between cast and audience. You do not know how it happens. I stayed. 

Still I thought it could not be worse than what made over half a million Internally Displaced Persons flee in Kenya and why 1 333 maybe more died. Why millions in Syria, Iraq and Iran leave their homes. Why I feel that no part of the world is that safe and that material wealth is meeting a pure lack of values and critical thinking where it is to be found. Did you know you must leave your comfort zone in yourself, that hedge that a poetry character called Wacũ, in some poetry posts I made is always cutting, the place where you do not care for values and where you abuse, kill and punish in private before you are out in public? Dialogue. Search. Sheha rugiri rwaku. Cut that hedge and speak to it truth in your Mother Tongue. Languages are not meant for division.

Still we writers sat and heard and looked at books around us displayed in the garden outside the Theatre. We went to the door of the theater and got earplugs. I do not thinking about surgeons, the way we were getting prepared had a streak of something of an operation atmosphere, some sterilisation of equipment? Wires looked like stethoscopes. Internal sounds? Auscultation? Breathing? Hearbeats to check? Who was to think beyond that. Why? We got cushions. Some of us thought these people really care for writers. Cushions sometimes precede terrible repercussions!

We got settled in our seats and sweet music began. It was now clear to me. We in the world are steeped, most of us, in incredible hig doses of anaesthesia. Ears are blocked by power. We dance to the same news day in day out. We do not hear. We have earplugs on most of the time listening to music. The more the world is troubled, the more my neighbor, the more I shield myself and talk to myself on public transport, especially in Europe and America?

Gunfire, Explosions and people cry

And long before our layers of thoughts, poetic inspiration, vanities could peel off, long before we fell out of the philosophical tea before still cobwebs in the mind, the gunfire exploded, so loud and even smelt so real, the first writer left the theatre. He comes from Somalia. It smelt real he said later. And he cried. Others are crying too. Somalia borders Kenya. I stayed on. But those 'shot' dead in the audience and on stage were still alive. They stood up. They came back on stage. One by one standing in a slight crescent curve to the inner stage, they stood in silence.

They started with the eldest. A man in his 60s, I think. Next was the youngest. Also woman. They tell me this is typical of drama here but I know its effect is meant to be atypical. Each part of his clothing he took off as if it was a holy garment. All clothes were taken off. In utter silence. Naked he stood there. Like Jesus on the cross? Kenyans would have even had the chance to check on Foreskin! But No! Before you condemn nakedness. By itself it never harmed anyone. More writers left. They felt their religion was injured. But had we not come to watch a play? The drama had a soul-peeling effect. And the cathartic effect leaves you ready to see yourself but you have only just began.

Roles are reversed. Your clothes were also being taken off in the realm of your imagination. Your soul. Were you ready to see it? How often have you called another name for their color, tongue or religion. Anyway you did not have to have called names... just felt that they were 'the other'? You could sweat with all your pores, sweat blood but the cast was not over on stage. The Agony in the Garden? The Place of Skulls, Rwanda? It included you. Swept you right in and not in the way you are used to it...

Some were already  weeping in the audience. I was one. The light is suddenly turned on you, a pistol ... fire! Why are you there weeping? you hear. A man in the audience is the focus now. He cannot move. He hears how he raped a woman. How he removed her clothes.. how you .. how you... how you... How he... He is shot again and naked words of the four letter words are the compliments to those who had gone to the Theater to cry. You ff....ing fools! Someone else leaves from the audience. It is best to be alone. Conscience is disturbed and disturbing.

"And you... you C....t! Why are you crying? It is always easier to be on the side of the ones who weep... like around the cross they stood weeping... and you hear again...and now you are no longer a part of a 'holy' crowd.

"You? Where were you when they were slaughtered.. " Now you think they know your name and your address. They are relentless. Some more people walk out. The details on how many actors and authors committed suicide after being in that theatre acting were enough were they not? Is there any acting to be done in a country that kills and kills and hosts the virus of greed and tribalism without reserve. The viruses for which none must wear a mask?

When a country, a people hate one another because of being overpowered by power, they need to know one thing. It never ends. It is about resources but you end up tied with acrimony, calling one another names, completely engaged in the wrong game. A non-forgiving game. Nobody survives a broken nation to succeed. In the end, the betrayer is betrayed and all are eaten up. There is no safety in evil. Only in confronting it. This is drama like I never saw it before. 

Floating on River Yala, Body mutilated was that of Jebei Meshack an ICC witness in the Kenyan case

The news that an ICC witness has been found dead, his body mutilated on River Yala in Eldoret County is cause for alarm. But that reminds one that there are those who were never noticed in their disappearance and their bodies will never be found. Besides, this is a taboo and fearful topic all the time in Kenya and more so these days. But let us keep focus.

Jebey Meshack went to take his child for treatment. He left the dispensary to buy something and never returned. He was missing for five days. His family reported the case to casual police reception. 

A text message reached his mother in his Mother Tongue. He said he was well and with Bensouda's people in Uganda. Bensouda is the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at the Hague in the Netherlands.

Now there is an immediate reaction from people who seem to know more and these include saying that he was on the side of the Government. This is reported in the mainstream media. We are not looking for sides. We are looking at a fact. Those who know say that he was not a protected witness but he was one, no doubt.

Others have fast responded on social media suggesting that this has been done by the ICC or asking if it was not so. Who are they?
Human rights activists already so shredded and disliked are afraid. 

Contradictions of the making of Security Bill in a very insecure House... where Members clothes were torn..

In a nutshell, the word "contradiction" has been common in 2014 Kenyan articles written here in this blog. There is fear of commenting on issues since bloggers have had it rough. Welcome Kenya to 2015. 

Kenyans online were seriously interested in a blogger Wadi who has been jailed for two years. Even before I could reach his posts, I had heard that people were waiting for them as if they were a feast. So the law got him, apparently in Uganda and as people were busy with Christmas and New Year, he was charged. It was fast and furious. He was sentenced on the second day of the year.

It turns out that he pleaded guilty to insulting the president and threatening him. Some say he does not exist as such but then there he was in court. A student at the University, 25 -years -old. After a few minutes with the cops he was begging for forgiveness. Many Kenyans felt he could have hardly been tried justly but there it was. 

Being charged with not praising the president has reminded Kenyans of the Moi era. Torture, deaths, arrests, disappearances, ethnic cleansing for those who did not know how to shut their mouths. There is fear. People keep saying Moi is back in power. The nanogenerian sits at home and speaks out on national issues from time to time on public platforms, a sign that perhaps in private he dedicates quite some time to the governing of Kenya. 

He did prop his candidate Uhuru Kenyatta the current president and supported him in 2002 and onwards. In Kenyan ways, this means the Kalenjins and the Kikuyu plus the ethnic groups who voted his candidate in 2013 are working 'together'. Word has it however, that the Deputy President WS Ruto has not met Moi since he was elected.

The three arms of government... Some distance there is between the Executive and the Judiciary but that is only in some ways. As in for example, the Security Amendment Bill has been stopped by the High Court before the ink of the president's signature could dry on it. Some have hope now that perhaps rulings will reflect the people. Raila Odinga and ODM took the credit for going to court agains this Bill. 


The rushed making of this Bill was supposed to be a sign that the current government is working hard on insecurity. However, its propensity in undermining human rights and gains protected by the Constitution of 2010 has led to its being stopped by the High Court even after the President passed it the day after it was voted in a shameful session. 

Clothes were torn off a member, another one lost a finger and MP Millie Mabona was almost undressed in Bunge, Parliament. The demonstrations against stripping women in Nairobi streets with the excuse that they dress skimpily not withstanding, the deed was done in the House of Parliament. And an MP involved talked brazenly about her underwear! 

The Bill which included the clause against this same act, since it was an amalgamation of amendments for security issues was defeating its own purpose in the first place.
But the worst part of it is that it was also clawing back on freedom of expression. And the open door to the police to allow for journalists to investigate on issues considered too dangerous because of terrorism. And that in a nutshell is complex. 

Very complicated because as the whole world knows C.I.A has been on the spot for not only using torture methods on renditioned suspects but working with other countries such as Kenya to arrest suspects. 

Power over truth,denial, Kenya looks like a mini Zim and dim in 2014: Moi is happy with Uhuru Kenyatta and thinks Constitution 2010 is poor

Power over truth? The Security Act has been cited in Kenya's history many times to keep voices of dissent silent. This was typical of Moi's rule. The Chief's Act was one of the most notorious pieces of legislation reformed in Constitution 2010. Vigilance is a must.

I last heard the Security Act invoked by the late Michuki John, then the minister for national security at the height of the killings that happened in 2007/2008. At the time post poll violence went unchecked by the national security organs and as history now tells us, security, call it insecurity, was for a time in the hands of a militia group/s. 

These were mandated to defend persons of certain ethnic descent against people of another ethnicity, all of them Kenyans, as if there was no police force. Let us say that was not done by anybody we know today. That is power. 

I do not think from then Kenya has acknowledged mistakes and reached a level where people can have once again real hope in national security organs particularly the police. 

For many young persons were shot from the back with their hands up as they surrendered but every such report was rejected and all pointed fingers at human rights advocates accusing them of complicity with the West, whatever that means. Putin speak.

National security has been abused in many countries to mean curbing the freedom of the people and this is even easier when the anti-terror laws plead for space, saying this is the only way out, the only way to protect the nation. Are the people protected when national security is tightened in this manner on an already threatened society? 

Kenya has been involved in renditioning suspects of terror to be tortured in the USA and at home too, there is a complete lack of understanding on that human rights must be protected. There are killings that Phillip Alston reported about when he was a Chief UN investigator. 

http://www.nation.co.ke/news/CIA-Torture-US-Senate-Report-Kenya-Somalia/-/1056/2551848/-/mffje3z/-/index.html

Can Kenya argue it has national security to tighten right now? Can the president who has already declared that citizens have security in their own hands now sign into law amendments of the constitution that allow for police to storm in check, arrest and invade private space in the name of security?

Kenya's role in helping CIA to arrest and deliver those suspected of terror is already documented. The attendant extrajudicial killings are on record too. Was that a guarantee for national security? Are we not the easiest ones to hit when terrorists begin to move?

What is worse is that it is no longer possible to say that terror attacks in Kenya have not taken a religious dimension. People are asked to recite verses and identify themselves with one religion for safety although in some cases those who thought they were safe still died, especially at Westgate Nairobi. In Mandera, however, it was clear.

Terror must be forestalled without abusing human rights. We cannot become terror to fight terror. If we do, we shall not recognize it. We are not giving up on the rule of law and indeed this is the only way we can hope to overcome. Nobody is underestimating the losses many have incurred and Kenya has borne the brunt of being the country that many would like to use to hit at terror in Eastern Africa. 

What happens to Kenya almost every month now, is a clear indication of that. She is a base to reckon with but is she a force that can protect her own or even make them believe that she is out to work for the common good? All too often victims of injustice have lost. It is hard to convince people when power loses moral authority. Some follow and sing the right tune but many others simply cannot. 

December 12 is a special day in Kenya. We won our freedom from the British and that day since 1963 has been a special highlight. This year there have been interesting events in Kenya just before this day.

Tonight some Kenyans are celebrating, some Kenyans more than ever since on the 5th of Dec 2014, Uhuru Kenyatta's ICC case was dropped by the International Criminal Court. Even though it was often argued that this was Kenyatta's case as an individual and not president of Kenya, we all know that at the same time he argued that the case was getting in his way as president of Kenya especially with regard to fighting terrorism and protecting Kenya. 

However, all Kenyans are worried and this particularly insecurity in the country. The recent killings of 36 quarry workers in Mandera and before that of 28 on a bus from Mandera near the Somali border have shaken every corner of the country and beyond.

Not that there has not been other deaths but this comes after Kenya declared it had killed as many as 100 al Shabaab who claim the Mandera massacres. Since Kenya rounded up all the Somalis in Eastleigh and sent many back to Mogadishu, security and peace was supposed to have improved. But how shall we get there if we are threatening our own freedoms? How with extrajudicial killings?

How if we are so quick to rebuttal any points made by others about our security among many this one from Al Jazeera? 
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Al-Jazeera-exposes-police-death-squads/-/1056/2549412/-/dcc4lkz/-/index.html

Why is a part of Kenya so happy to keep saying everyone is wrong except those who say that the problems we face can only be curbed by decreasing our freedoms and penalising reform? 

Why is the buttressing of impunity supposed to bring us all relief? We cannot shoot to kill without evidence, eliminate so many and celebrate. Inherent contradictions are now gaping wounds. One hears not about this from anyone near power. 

So today Kenyans are worried that Freedom of Expression and all that pertains to the Bill of Rights which is incorporated in the nation's constitution are in danger. 

However others invest their faith, like Moi only in a man, not in institutions such as the constitution, one man who is the president. Look at how we deal with power even as some in power feign surprise at what Mugabe is doing in Zim with not only total lack of grace, pun intended, but also the assumption that the people will always be under his command. Like KANU of Kenya is said will rule for 100 years.

In Kenya, a new bill to trim rights enshrined in our Constitution has been gazetted in Dec 2014, and this was done fast and only after discussion in one county in the country. This will curb Press Freedom and allow for National Intelligence police to record, document, tap phones, and all that they wish so much so that it boils down to their being allowed to check any "thing" anywhere. 

The director of Kenya Chapter of the International Commission of Jurists, George Kegoro said that this cannot be the right direction. But those involved say this is how to get more security and fight terror. 

Kenya's Constitution 2010, is under threat. After all just recently none other than Moi, the former president declared that this constitution only came about because of "civil society". Moi came out to support Uhuru Kenyatta who has said that the security of Kenyans depends on each individual and not on state machinery.

He was speaking at the Moi University which celebrated its 30th anniversary. Moi said in answer to civil society pointing out that the government has to take charge of ship out that "They are the same people who crafted the Constitution which is causing problems, particularly insecurity, in the country". 

They got what they wanted,  Moi feels, now we are in trouble because they go it.  Moi said he is right and the story was broadcast  countrywide.  

Power over truth does not work anywhere and it will not work in Kenya. Recognition of what is the truth is the sun that must rise besides or along with the one that brings tourists to Kenya. 

Someone has opened the floodgates and all the mean giants have come out beating their chests in glee. Also crawling out invisibly are many slimy, dark things that sadly connect with misuse of power at so many levels. Corruption levels have left many wild animals dead. 

Some Chinese nationals have been arraigned in court for coming in as tourists and setting up an internet intercepting center right in the middle of Nairobi. At that time one might wonder if their 'straying' into the country was due to the fact that police or National Intelligence were not allowed to search persons. 

The truth is that other people did this in 1998 and then we had a bomb that took the lives of over 200 people, at the American Embassy. The truth is that in 2013 at Westgate, Nairobi, those who attacked had also come into the country quite freely. It is not about not searching Kenyans in their homes or those already  there, it is about so many loopholes at the right level. 

And just to say it, whenever Kenyan authorities have wanted to, they have tapped phones and not only searched houses but also shot and killed persons suspected right in front of their families and in the city, and many Kenyans have clapped thinking this way they are defended or at least been cheated so. 

What the bill is seeking is to do this with the full backing of the law so that these people called human rights activists and others who bother Kenyans so much might just keep silent. 

What is wrong in Kenya today is to say it, to keep saying it. Apparently this stops development of you know who and surely, it must be the reason why the entire world has not achieved the MDGS achieving zero tolerance for illiteracy and women empowerment, mother and child mortality so that people can keep quiet! 

ICC 

A man on TV asked for his identity not to be revealed. His dark silhouette faced a dark horizon. No bird sang. No sound. Only his sorrow filled voice was heard saying.  "They say there is no evidence. We ... know... the big names... but who are we?"

This man needs to be reminded that there is no case at ICC for Uhuru Kenyatta, yes. That is his and our horizon dark and without a name. Nobody is guilty. The president is great he wants everyone declared free including his deputy before this court and a journalist Mr. Sang. Prayers are about to do it, he says. I have written before that I never heard of prayers for the victims or any concern. In fact the two words at the dropping of the case were#Vindicated#Excited and running to wife. What about those who cannot run.

I thought being in top office means you become all your people? Was it not time to say now I am free and my main concern is to make sure that we reach the bottom of this so that we can all be free? So that those who died and victims can be receive justice?

The case is dropped, many are happy. Prayers have worked is the reason given. But how wonderful it would be if all the information the ICC had wanted was given by the Government of Kenya. How perfect if there had been no deaths, disappearances and intimidation of witnesses. God is kind.

And not only real witnesses but also those perceived to be. Particularly so, if one happened to have been born in the area where Uhuru Kenyatta commands all the people, read numbers in his support. It became the common thing to have people suspect and punish those they thought were connected with any information on this case. 

Rumor mills were free and reaching families and friends. 

Every level of relationship in the land has been affected. Did other people have to be the ones who paid such a high price when they never killed or were involved in anything? 

Many have said these are founded by those whom should stop sycophancy pretending that they are protecting their prince, a word more and more in use in Kenya referring to the president..

Power over truth? No. It will not work because although power may ignore truth for some time, it cannot go further than just keep denying because truth demands that one says what is and not only keep denying. 

We would all have wanted to hear the points put out to our satisfaction to know for ourselves and with clarity who is who in this and what went so horribly wrong in Kenya in 2007/2008 even when we know the roots of deep ethnic strife and cleansing were entrenched in Moi's ways and days.

But Kenyans will pray and shame all devils like those who speak out on human rights. In the meantime the churches, of all types have joined hands with the new laws. They pray and celebrate with the government of the day for the progress achieved so far especially for the victims of injustice. 

This is power over truth. I never heard that power set anybody free. It did not Jesus himself. Mujuru Joyce says she worked with Mugabe for years in the same party. She is now accused of planning an assassination and with America... that West. 

. 

Pain as tall as Kenya's giraffe: Don't cross, not even if you are a zebra!

We have to conserve our wildlife, to save Kenya, Photo by P Ikonya

The story broke last month. Kenya Defence Forces were accused of having business dealings with Al Shabaab. How can Kenya cross that line?

We cannot afford to doublespeak about so many things. To do strange business both as citizens or leaders...but for the Forces to be in this is to say or to force one to say this is a real failed state! But many do not want to hear that.


This morning 28 persons were killed near Mandera Kenya and they join the list of very many others who have suffered untold agony in attacks.  Among those who died were 17 teachers. Al Shabaab has claimed this morning's attack. It was gruesome. 

People were divided into those who are Somali and those who are not. Those who could answer a few Koran based questions survived. The others were sprayed with bullets from different types of guns. Survivors in full trauma recall details that would make anyone shudder.

You are not this, so I kill you. You are not my religion, so I kill you? You are not able to speak my language so I kill you? This cannot be. It certainly is not a command of any God and therefore, let us stop using teachings of Islam to try and cover our shame and nakedness. This is complex but it must simply stop. 

Of late, Kenya has been talking tough to the world about her goodness. To the UN, to the UK about tourism and other matters. Many have recently commended Kenya. She deserves to be heard of course. 

We have to first save these animals for their own sake, not just for tourism. To save our country. Tourism is secondary to that. 

Kenya wants tourists to keep coming and for that there has been a flurry of activities including last week's great effort to get travel bans lifted from Kenya by the UK. And Kenya won. Huge conferences on Tourism are scheduled. So it would seem that we are doing well. 

And terror is everywhere anyway? But certain things are so telling on Kenya's compromised situations. It goes back to the same departure from basics that cannot be contravened if we want security and growth. 

No matter how much they hit us, let them not find us killing both wildlife and people, divided and lacking in so many ways. Greed and corruption growing. Money from poached wildlife, charcoal sales finding its way to help Shabaab militia.

Kenya cannot afford to play the politics of greed and compromise. Everything that makes us weak must be thrown out now as in the way things are tossed out to save a vessel threatened by a storm.

This not only for politicians but for all of us. No Fund can help us, no money will redeem us. We have to go back to our own drawing table. Right from homes to counties to the whole country. For every time corruption grows wildly we are all more insecure. 

The story about Kenyan military officers involving themselves in business with Al Shabaab is frightening. The reality of what is happening to the elephants and other wildlife appalling. It gets worse.

How crass can this be! Giraffe remains from Northern Kenya
photos of Rabia Haawa

I cannot sleep tonight without sharing what Hawi Odingo via Rabia Haawa posted on Fb today. Who will stop who in Kenya? 
Who will be secure? Forces dealings with Al Shabaab?

 Look to the left. Look to the right. And don't cross. It is Kenya. Soon the zebras will be crossed regardless of zebra crossings!

Temple: Open skies and Zebras on a Sunday morning Pic by Philo Ikonya

On an early ride through the Nairobi National Park, I felt like I was in a temple. 

It is difficult to watch wildlife and not feel as if someone, bigger than all, an artist, has not been there planning and placing things in a beautiful way.

How can we save ourselves from being endangered by endangering animals? It does not work! Did I say endangering? Annihilating!

Contradictions 3 : Kenyan women should wear military gear, not minis and other choice things, love from Nairobi's Hell's angels

Well dressed women camouflage in Kenya.
Source Nairobi news in Photos... here... http://goo.gl/M0jwSk

Fundamentalism in more ways than one. Some men, some Matatu touts, in Kenya have become the Chief Inspectors Commanding Women Wear! CICWW...

Demonstrations are in order. However, we have to remember that women have been stripped naked in rural Kenya, including girls in trousers were stripped. This mainly happened between 2001-2009. The women in these areas obeyed the 'rules'  and some even moved from certain areas to be safe.

Stripping was done often by some people who said they were Mungiki militia. They called for women and all to return to some traditional practices including what they call circumcision. They effected this from time to time on old women. For this to happen, a woman has to be stripped naked and her genitals cut.

So, stripping women is not new. Stripping them of short clothes, tight trousers or miniskirts is not new but recent, 2014, stripping of women in mini skirts in the city has caused a furore. Are we reaching the roots of it all?

Maybe the strippers have been hotter in the last few weeks because a man who argues that men are so oppressed in Kenya formed an organisation called The Development of Men, Maendeleo ya Wanawake and has been hard at work. 

He parodies Maendeleo ya Wanawake, that had a strong name in working for women until politics destroyed it over the years.
The leader of Maendeleo ya Wanaume last week called a sex boycott by men because, he said, women are too violent and are beating up men at home. 

His NGOs copies activities of women organisations so that he can get the ear of donors and he does. He does not speak about the quality, the lack of it, of fatherhood in Kenya. All is well. He speaks about women as the unbearable breed.

He said, that men should not touch women as they are so vile. In fact, he added, they should wave at them in the air... the greetings of the air, ciariera! they are called in his Mother Tongue and never shake hands with them.

 Now men are not just touching women. They thrash them to death at times. And other odd things happen. Like being asked why they wear what they wear. They never heard anything like I wear what I want. 

I do not like to talk about Kenyan police. Let me forget a certain chapter for it includes me and my friends and remember someone else...

 A woman Police Officer

A woman police officer was summoned for wearing a tight skirt. She was supported by Kenyans who stood with her. She nearly lost her job however, and even now some people would like to whisper into her ear that "Security should not be this tight". That was a kind of a bad joke that ensued in the situation. She was on duty when people from State House were visiting her area and her skirt was splashed in the media instead of the clothes of the dignitaries. She got invited to a media show and she stood her ground. She won.

Still I know many, who would tell her to prefer to wear trousers and to hide her curves. It is not so long ago that women in Kenya moved around their world, with short slit skirts. Traditional. And some with practically nothing. We had no men running to dress them up. Granted things have changed. I mean in Kenyan style, not that missionaries have come and done their thing, no, I mean that many preachers have come and stolen both the women and their songs and clothes in God's name. Some thieves come all the way from America to do that. Fundamentalism is burning.

But to show how tight security should be in Kenya, I saw these pictures. http://goo.gl/KmmZGu Then I heard the Commander In Chief, CIC, say when some army persons were killed in Kapedo, very sad as they were calling for help for 36 hours, that it is as if some people want to say there is no Government in Kenya.

Pic from Nairobi news in Photos... here... http://goo.gl/M0jwSk

When the CIC put on army gear, the donning of the gear sparked a debate. Why and why and why? Finally like with all things, such as the results of the election and the authority to be in office, this died down. Calmly. The gear discussion I mean. 
                   
November 2014

The General Elections of 2013 and of 2007 are undying and keep appearing like certain snakes that are visiting a man in Kisumu, in his house. He ought to be happy but he is scared thinking they are ghosts. He needs help from the Kenya Wildlife Services but instead he is calling a pastor in old rosaries and some strange clothes ( No one is checking too much it is not a woman) to exorcise his house of ghosts. 

Women know what to do with their bodies. Our mothers stripped for power in Nairobi, The Mothers of Freedom Corner. Now the men rip women's clothes to teach them how to dress! This is unacceptable! #MyBodyMyChoice! 

The act of stripping a woman naked because she is wearing a short skirt is unfortunately not new in Kenya. It is illegal, however. Length and width are all she needs to be a good woman. Not to tempt like a snake. Everybody goes to school in Kenya, it is a rule. Many students suffer finding clothes to wear for school. It is a fact. It may be easier now but it has not always been. Do we have to shove clothes issues on women and not to be proactive on so man other issues?

And why is the Big Bad Wolf so scared? It is not fear. It is a show of power! Power that breaks bones on its way to more power. There are still many bare- breasted women who are not disturbed by anyone where they live in their rural zones. But it is not about breasts or zones. A 93 year-old woman was raped in Nyeri this week. And this is not the only case. Babies have been raped too.

 It seems that some men in Nairobi are missing women who are clad in bui bui or hijabs and are beginning to make a point. I do not know why they have not started at the coast. Maybe there women's dress code is adhered to. Just wondering. Whose dress code?

It goes like that apparently. One man looks, sees, tells another or the other and his 'friends' decide that she is showing what they do not like it, she is helpless. A militia mind makes rules. Touts and Mungiki were never far away. Now, then, is it all touts who are stripping women in Nairobi?

HER. Men can and do decide to strip her of her clothes in public. They can jeer at her, beat her up to. But you see men who do this are angels. Hell's angels in Nairobi. Their work is ridiculous. The assumption is that men have no muscles. You can never, ever see them in tight trousers, shorts or even shirtless. And why should you bother? They are sure impunity is on their side, even if they are arrested. Sixty seven of them were rounded up but what will happen to them? Still another woman was stripped as Nairobi women demonstrated.

 MEN in any clothes: They are invisible and that is why no woman ever, ever speaks about their clothes, how they show off their chests. Women have no such eyes as to see such or respond in any way. Women are seen as objects and to prove it is not hard. Women have to cover up their curves all the time. Also in the homes older women ask younger ones not to wear short clothes and that includes anything that shows that a woman is attractive. It is not good for men.

You see, that is why women need those kangas around their waists to make them pass of as meek and humble and well covered. And it has nothing to do with breasts and neckline. This many women going around Nairobi have pretty good exposure in the sense of a good low necklines. Nobody puts their finger or throws too many eyes there.

We do not name our lower regions. It is the legs and the back and the waist that cannot be visible and should never, ever show because as one man put it, his children should not show him their legs, their underwear. All the area around the waist and behind is so terrible. It is like an intruding venomous snake. You see women are supposed to be trimmed in such areas and made as invisible as possible, if necessary and often they are cut there so as to learn.


Snake that sees woman

Tonight there is a man renting a room in a hotel in Kisumu. He is sleeping there alone, not with all his family. Not with his wife. He says his wife sees snakes, she calls him, they are killed by the public. She is at home with the snakes and neighbours. 
He is in a hotel room until the creatures go away. 
He says he has called for prayers because his house needs to be exorcised. 

Very fortunately, his wife has not been beaten up by him yet. A neighbor has. This neighbor claimed that the snakes will not cease coming into the house. The owner of the house, the man of course, beat him up. How does he know where the snakes are coming from, he demanded to know? Violence will solve all your psychological seems to be a well selling ad in Kenya. So might the clothes you wear.