THE KENYA PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE 2013 – OVERTIME
“If you have grabbed someone’s land, please return back to the owner and ask God for forgiveness. It is the best way to maintain peace,” Alliance for Real Change Presidential Candidate Mohammed Abduba Dida speaking at the charade that was the National and Reconciliation Prayers convened by Prophet Dr. David Owuor, at Uhuru Park, Nairobi.
Kenya’s second and final presidential debate to be moderated by KTN’s Joe Ageyo and Citizen TV’s Uduak Amimo takes place today at the Brookhouse School. Among the topics to be tackled are the economy, resources and resource management and foreign policy. But Land is bound to take up the lion’s share of the debate if recent pronouncements are anything to go by. Uhuru had threatened to boycott this debate on the pretext that Linus Kaikai was too hard on him but lenient on other candidates who also have logs in their eyes, but that was a lie, he may be developing cold feet as he may not be able to address the land question while his hands are soiled with the same. Raila Odinga has put Uhuru on his defence on account of the latter’s claims that he can fairly arbitrate on the explosive land question in Kenya. Uhuru strategy appears to have been jolted when his cousin Public Health Minister Beth Mugo, herself a large landowner in a fit of excitement cheated that the Kenyatta family is already “donating” part of its “legally” acquired Gicheha Farm in Taita Taveta to the locals. It is not lost to the Mijikenda that such promises in the past have amounted to nothing but disappointment and thus this new information is being received with pinch of salt – or contempt if you like. Raila on his part appears to enjoy overwhelming support from the residents of the coastal region some who mistakenly believe that he will do justice to them after having had to endure injustice under the colonial, Kenyatta, Moi, Kibaki and Kibaki-Raila administrations.
This comedy of errors reminds me of my childhood. One day in November, 1997 Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi came in his Volkswagen Combi replesendent with its two flags, the national flag and the presidential standard to Dagoretti to campaign for Hon. Chris Kariuki Kamuyu at Ndurarua Grounds (when we were kids, we just liked seeing the president plus everyone agrees that this support was responsible for the loss of KK to Beth Mugo, Moi was toxic). He cheated us that he only had Karbanet Gardens as his property in Nairobi (claimed he was given by Kenyatta) and his salary was just enough to cover basic essentials at a time when he was knee-deep bringing the country to its knees. KANU thrived on lies and deception, evil thrived, children were forced to learn and recite the Nyayo loyalty pledge which I later found out was fake, a ruse like the KANU people. So while the people were fed with lies, public land and utilities were shared out among the party honchos and their progenies. The same people are the ones we are hoping will get us out of the muck they created.
Without mincing words, it is the plain but sad truth that the Kenyatta family owns more land that it needs at the expense of those who sincerely and genuinely deserve it. The defence that is always fronted that it was acquired through legal means fails the basic test, the test of integrity. Being legal does not amount to being right, just or fair. It was legal during Adolf Hitler’s time in office to use Jews as Guinea Pigs, but it was not right, it was legal for white men to own slaves in America not long ago, but it was not right, it was legal in 1957 for the British to execute Dedan Kimathi, but it was not right, there are very many legal events in history which were legal but not right. In a nutshell, Kenyatta’s family land holdings were legally acquired, but not rightly or justly. It was at the cost of dispossessing some that Kenyatta possessed, it was by displacement that Kenyatta occupied. Seriously it does not require Mwenda Makathimo to know that the Kenyatta family owes those whose lands were forcefully taken an apology and restitution.
So while the wealthiest people in the world from Richard Branson, Warren Buffet, Marc Zuckerbag, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg are busy trying to offload the amount of money (most of it legally acquired and earned through sheer sweat and intelligence) they have through charity and philanthropy, Kenyatta’s family is still intent on amassing more and holding on to land which can be best utilised by those poor squatters whose forefathers were buried on way back before Jomo Kenyatta was even born. And Uhuru still expects to win votes from these disenfranchised coastarians? Uhuru cannot shy away from the fact that his father’s legacy was the genesis of the land troubles at the Coast. It is evil that in the age where people are living in dire straits, fighting over small pieces of land for subsistence farming, Kenyatta’s family prizes it landholding and lives in opulence. Uhuru’s mother has been taken to court by a Nakuru farmer who alleges that his land was forcefully taken away from him by Kenyatta.
What can we do? Nothing much. Even the National Land Commission which was appointed is likely to be the tail that is wagged by the dog, not the dog that wags the tail. The sons and daughters of those who created these problems are still very much entrenched in the system and they cannot right the wrongs as they will expose their flanks; it will take more than just good laws to right the wrongs. It will take Kikuyus, Luos, Turkanas, Pokots, Pokomos, Kisiis, Rendilles, Njemps and all other Kenyans who have to crawl on their knees while the Railas, Uhurus, Rutos, Karua, Kalonzos, Muites, Mudavadis ride their top of the range cars on their backs. It will take the unity of purpose based on an idea of justice and truth for us to see change, not voting for tribal kingpins. No common Kikuyu can access Uhuru, no common Luo can access Raila, they are all struggling trying to put food on their tables, so please, do not antagonize and ostracize any of them based on what a tribal Kingpin does or says. Your neigbhours irrespective of their tribal affiliations are humans like you, with the ability to feel both joy and sadness. I have been thinking and have come to a conclusion, none of the contenders or politicians is a punda (donkey), they are all farasis (horses,) and most of us the voters are pundas. We work, they get paid.
In conclusion, I know that there is no difference of ideology between Raila and Uhuru, and so whichever way the vote goes, debate wise or poll wise, the current state of affairs will not change. The war of all against all will continue, the push for a better future will continue to be a push and what has been will continue to be. The Ndung’u Land Report was shelved without any action being taken because those who were to action it were implicated in the gross scandals documented. It is a scratch my back I scratch your back system, Uhuru sorts Raila, Raila sorts Uhuru with the commodity being the poor hapless and landless squatters and voters. Take your pick!
KENYAN PRESIDENTIAL VOTES WILL BE STOLEN!
Those are not my words, but Raila Amolo Odinga‘s, the epitome of chastity and honesty has made a detour from his presidential campaigns after he found out that plans are afoot to rig elections. And as a man who is both virtuous and a true patriot, he has decided to tell all and sundry about it not the relevant bodies since they are compromised. The only problem is that he is addressing his scoop to the wrong people, we the mass. Raila is a man who has told us that he brought us the progressive new constitution (which is the next great thing after sliced bread) and we should therefore have trust in the credible institutions that it has created or enhanced. Among these bodies is the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) headed by non other than the much-loved and respected Ahmed Isaak Hassan who Raila himself has consistently said that he has faith in. I will not include the institution headed by Dr. Willy Mutunga i.e. the judiciary because it is a bandia (fake) institution according to Jakom. Among the two leading contenders, one gentleman I know who will not take anything short of victory is Raila Odinga. This is because this is a do or die affair; he has given all he had to be the president of the republic of Kenya, and he knows that this is his time therefore he cannot bring himself to accept the fact that he an ace, could lose to a novice like his former muthoniwa, Uhuru Kenyatta.
Raila has raised what could amount to a credible but ill-informed red flag about rigging but they are directed at the wrong forum. I lack the words to express my consternation why an international respected person like Jakom can be engaging in cheap fights with suspects like Uhuru and Ruto. These are not people who should be giving Agwambo sleepless nights, it should be a walk in the park for him, not the uphill task that it is appearing to be. While his opponents are have the pariah status who only get essential contacts with the rest of the civilized world, he is the king respected and feted everywhere he goes, while his opponents are land grabbers and drunkards moving from koti hii, to koti hii, he is as white as snow, while his opponents are devilish capitalists, he is a social democrat concerned with the welfare of the people of Kenya and wealth distribution, while the suspects are only concerned about amassing wealth, he is busy sharing out the little riches that he has like Mahatma Gandhi. These are some of the reasons why I am befuddled that Raila cannot knock out these characters instead of going the full 12 round bout. If the presidential race was a chess game, Raila would be playing the white pieces while Uhuru would be playing the black pieces, and instead of Raila checkmating Uhuru, he would be busy strategizing for a stalemate.
We must all speak out against vote rigging whenever and wherever it happens. In 1992, Kenneth Stanley Njindo Matiba “Kenbrew” routed Moi in the presidential contest, but Moi rigged himself in Matiba was foolish enough to head to the courts where the hyenas were presiding over the trial of the sheep, he got fried, licked his wounds, went to the Vatican to visit the pope and burnt his voter’s card then retired to oblivion in South Coast. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni ( through the competent legal advice of Eugene Ludovic Wamalwa) has been rigging elections each time they are held and ordering for the battering of Kizza Besigye if he dares raise his head to protest, Comrade Dr. Robert Gabriel Mugabe and his agents have always rigged elections and later on reconfigured the face of Morgan Tsvangirai. In 2007, most of us agreed that Kibaki had lost to Raila, but we know who the president (the one with only one dear wife) is whether it was a rigged election or not, we paid heavily for Samuel Kivuitu’s indecisiveness. Prior to the elections, Anyang’ Nyong’o’ had revealed that he had actionable information that Kibaki was planning to rig elections, we do not know what stategise his party put in place to avoid the rigging but nevertheless Kibaki did his thing. I also sincerely sympathized with Raila and asked myself questions like who created Kibaki? Who nurtured Kivuitu? Did mother Karua have parents or human relatives? Was Amos Kimunya a robot, an alien or a human being? But all these were rhetorical questions, with no answers.
But why I ask, is Raila the co-principal, assisted with the third small co-principal (Kalonzo) crying wolf? Isn’t he the big kahuna kilokilo and real Baba Yao, nyahunyo ya Nyayo? Isn’t he leading in all the opinion polls, from Ipsos Synovate to Infotrack Harris? Unless his people on the ground have had their ears inhabited with grasshoppers by keeping them on the ground for long without moving, the truth is that the reason why Uhuru is fast catching up with him is the money issue. The suspects are employing all manner of tricks in the bag on their “grand march to State House”. So while CORD is busy reciting the constitution, promising change once it gets into government (which it is already in), the suspects are keeping their eyes on the goal, maximizing and utilizing all manner of campaign stratagems some legal, some not so legal including the use of some of its shady characters like William Kabogo why can’t Raila make use of his shady friend the human butcherer Old Nick’s Mungiki’s Maina Njenga? While CORD coalition is coming up with innovative ways of preventing vote fraud, Jubilee coalition is busy hunting and “buying” votes. Raila should counter all this maneuvers instead of bemoaning and planning how best to act after the electoral fraud.
Raila should not seek public sympathy, but votes. In Robert Green’s 48 Laws of Power, there is a Law No. 45 that reads “Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once.” This is a mirror of Raila. For while he is fond of using the word change, he does not change or reform. I ask, why was he seeking the hand of William Ruto the land grabber masquerading as a hustler if he believes in change? Why is he moving hand in hand with Kalonzo Musyoka and Mutula Kilonzo KANU’s poster boys who only discovered democracy after the fall of Moi as James Orengo once intimated? There is no man better versed in elections in Kenya than Raila, no experienced hand in the race than Raila a man whose tentacles reach far and wide. So let him use his influences to seal the loopholes that can be used to deny him his rightful victory, not address the media and allege manipulations. And to those who may use “rigging” as a pretext to cause mayhem, be warned that you have been put on notice, US president Barack Obama has asked you to rely on courts, not street battles, his Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson a former ambassador to Kenya is already on record as having put Kenya on the chopping block should their choice(s) not fit into the larger scheme of things. The United Nations Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng, has made it loud and clear that the government must ensure the safety of the citizens must be guaranteed by the government through preventing violence and international military intervention will be an option should the situation get out of hand. This is not 2008 where warlords had a field day. The lens of the whole world is trained on us now. So Raila and Uhuru, whoever loses, must follow the example of former Zambian president Rupiah Banda and concede defeat as a gentleman. Please do not be a sore loser in the words of Chess grandmaster Susan Polgar, win with class but lose with dignity!
THE KENYA PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE 2013 – ROUND ONE.
11th February, 2013 has booked its place in history as the day when Kenya’s first ever presidential debate took place. On stage were the six men and the two boys, Raila Amolo Odinga, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi, Peter Kenneth, Martha Wangari Karua, James Ole Kiyiapi, Paul Kabugi Muite and last but not least Mohammed Abduba Dida. Despite my initial reservations as to whether we could manage to pull off a successful debate, I have nothing but effusive praise for the organizers and the moderators Linus Kaikai and Julie Gichuru. Not even the surprise announcement by Pope Benedict XVI that he would be resigning would steal the thunder from the debate. Tuning in to BBC’s Newshour programme at 2000 Hrs GMT, it was clear that we were in the cross-hairs of the world. In America, the trend and practice is to hold the debate between those who have the clout, here, even the pundas had to come to race with the horses.
Overall, none of the candidates impressed me to a level whereby I can change my mind to vote for any of them. That aside, I do not think that any of the candidates managed to set out his or her agenda for this country and its people for the next five years, too much time was spent on blaming and defending. There was no clear line of thought and plan of action from any of the candidates on defence, national security and insecurity, corruption, healthcare and education and educational infrastructure. All we heard were hackneyed promises some which are unsustainable. The message to Kenyans was, we will not work for you, and do not risk trusting us. I have in my short life been able to watch several presidential debates, the first one in 2008 between Senators Barack Obama, the second in 2010 featuring Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and David Cameron. Last year, I took time to listen to Radio France International to hear Nicholas Sarkozy debate Francois Hollande. Yesterday’s event was a question and answer session, not debate per se. Compared with what happened yesterday, we are still light years behind as far as “debating” goes. The candidates carried themselves with decorum, a manner that is so unlike Kenyan politicians. But their key uniting trait stood out like a sore thumb, the incorrigible lying ability.
Uhuru came out of the debate as not just an insincere leader, bur person. Uhuru has never, does not and will never work for the national good of this country; he cares about himself, his family and his businesses. The Hague ICC’s albatross around his neck was not as a result of Raila or his buddies, it was planned and executed by Uhuru and his allies so for him to blame Raila was just conduct unbecoming. Just like his fellow musketeers, instead of being factual and dealing with the questions directed at them, they skirted around the questions and went on a lying path. Uhuru Kenyatta knows that he never curtailed the use of fuel guzzlers by state officials, yet he unashamedly stands before the whole world to proclaim the same. Every person who lives in Nairobi and walks these streets knows that even as he was lying at Brookhouse School, Karen, right in that compound, some GK and blue plated fuel guzzlers were parked. His ICC woes aside, a lying president is the last thing we need to get out of the muck we are in. On tribalism, Uhuru is a tribalist per excellence. As much as I repsct Hon. Beth Wambui Mugo, I do not think that Uhuru had any other basis for forwarding her name for nomination as a senator except the fact that they are cousins.
Jakom was the big boss of the day, upende usipende (perennially termed the frontrunner by most people) as usual made much use of selective memory fused with sprinklings of outright lies. Too bad they would not let him spice up the show with his Kiswahili anecdotes and proverbs. Raila has already shown that he can build bridges, forgive past wrongs and move on by working with past foes that turning them into lethal forces. He buried the hatchet with dictator Moi who had him spend several stints in detention( sincerely speaking, If I had been , he has worked wit Kibaki despite the post 2002 MOU and subsequent dropping from the government he helped elect and form, he is currently working with Kenya’s best known traitor and watermelon Kalonzo Musyoka who bolted with ODM-K’s certificate in 2007 and later rushed into a mpango wa kando affair with Kibaki in 2008 when Raila and Kenyans were demanding justice and peace in the country. But when it comes to the common people needs, Raila always washes his hands and leaves them at their own devices. On the ability of Uhuru to govern Kenya via Skype, I concur with him fully. His thoughts on healthcare were evidently contrary to the thoughts of Kenyan workers, employers and taxpayers. We do not want to pump any more money into the government healthcare scheme because it does nothing apart from paying salaries of fat cats. He is the government but whining about the “big boys,” by the mere fact that he is the coordinator and supervisor of all ministries and ministers with the power to hire and fire, the buck stops at his Shell & BP House on Harambee Avenue. On tribalism, Raila is not a tribalist but keen enforcer of nepotism, his key appointments revolve around his family and relatives and not the Luo community at all, in this respect he escapes the tribalist tag.
On the issue of parties and party ideologies, I do not understand what was so hard with Raila accepting that he has moved through several parties. It is common knowledge and didn’t stand to lose any vote by being truthful. In 1996, he defected from Ford Kenya after the Thika fiasco and resigned from parliament, formed National Development Party (Tinga Tinga), got re-elected in the ensuing by-election to Parliament and used the same party to vie for the presidency in 1997 where he emerged a strong third. On March 18th 2001, he led NDP to merger with Moi’s KANU to form new Kanu where he was anointed its secretary general, appointed the minster for energy and his key lieutenants including Dr. Adhu Awiti appointed to key positions in government.
In 2002, I was in Uhuru Park when Prof. Larry Gumbe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP – whose colours I vividly remember because the banner was raised were blue and yellow) was turned over to Jakom, after the 2005 referendum, (where the no team captained by Raila carried the day) it has been said that it was Najib Balala who floated the idea of turning the winning team’s movement into a party. It later transpired that Orange Democratic Movement had already been registered at the Registrar General’s Office. Orange Democratic Movement Kenya Orange Democratic Movement Kenya was formed; among its key luminaries were Jakom, Watermelon, Balala, Mudavadi, Joe Nyagah, Uhuru, Ruto and few other nondescript bootlickers. When Kalonzo the spoiler took off with ODM-K, Nairobi Lawyer Mugambi Imanyara came to the rescue and handed Jakom the certificate for Orange Democratic Movement. This is indeed the current party he is still leading. For him to lie that he just changed names of the parties indicated that he is not a social democrat he claims to be but just another Machiavellian politician.
KURA KWA ESTHER PASSARIS.
The position of the women’s representative in the national assembly is anchored in the Kenyan constitution by dint of Article 97 (b) which states that “forty-seven women, each elected by the registered voters of the counties, each county constituting a single member constituency;”. This article concerns the membership of the National Assembly. It follows therefore that a women’s representative is no less than any other member of parliament elected to represent a constituency as far as the scope of powers, privileges and duties are concerned. The framers of the “renaissance” constitution and the people of Kenya, who overwhelmingly voted for the constitution on 4th August, 2010 were seeking to bridge the gender gap between the two genders and not to restrict the ability of the feminine gender, to emancipate women from electoral and representative subjugation.
Having more women in parliament will also help push the agenda of the vulnerable girl child in parliament and enactment of key policy decisions. Some progress has been made towards women empowerment, but a lot still needs to be done. We have seen what a strictly patriarchal hegemony society like that obtaining in Saudi Arabia ( where most crimes are punishable by death mostly through beheading, in 2012 alone, 79 people were beheaded) is capable of doing (like the outrageous and vile case reported but unconfirmed) recent letting off the hook of cleric Fayan Al-Ghamdi who raped and tortured his five-year-old girl to death and all he got was a slap on the wrist, he was allowed to walk free by a judge upon payment of a blood money to her mother who he divorced but kept custody of the vulnerable girl. Had there been women represented in the making of laws, such a heinous act would have been punished with a punishment fitting the crime.
The National Assembly represents all the people of Kenya, not just women, it is therefore imperative for voters to discard the notion that a women’s representative in the national assembly will only be holding brief for women’s affairs, but rather this is a person who will be making laws which will bind the whole country. All eligible voters are allowed to vote for a women’s representative and not just women alone. Women have the world over since the days of Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama, Cardis Collins in Illinois, Angela Merkel of Germany, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina and Bernadine Rose Senanayake of Sri Lanka shown their mettle for leadership articulating issues of all people, not just their fellow women. The Kenyan constitution has now put women in the driving seat and guaranteed a place at the national table for our mothers and sisters and is upon us to make the wise and right choice as to who we elect. Let us not just elect as a going concern, but as serious business. We must thoroughly interrogate the candidates and their agenda. Those who have already served in the national assembly are measured on a high bar; they must give account of their actions in parliament and their contribution to national legislation.
Having said that, the ball is now in our court. Our destiny and future is not in the hands of fate, but it lies within us. We have to play our roles as responsible citizens of this country to sensitize the voters about the importance of voting for a capable, honest, courageous and time tested individual who has a passion for the betterment of the people and the citizens of this country as a women’s representative. This must be a person with innovative and business ideas which can transform the lives of Kenyans of all cadres, not just the middle class and upper income bracket. We must still keep hope alive by seizing every moment that is thrown our way. The last five years have represented doom and gloom from our legislature, but we must not give up, all is not lost and we have that opportunity to redeem the stature of our national assembly. We have overcome the 10th parliament.
I have already made up my mind on who to elect to the national assembly to represent my constituency Dagoretti South i.e Dennis Kariuki Waweru a man whose background is business having been a director at Faida Securities a stock brokerage firm. It is a fact that employment is not the panacea of all the problems bedeviling our people because not all those who graduate from educational institutions will get employed; some must employ others or own and manage their businesses. To this end, we must therefore elect people who have already walked the talk where we can transact a quid pro quo with our votes.
For the position of the women’s representative for Nairobi County, I have unequivocally without any fear of contradiction already settled for Esther Passaris popularly known as Mama Taa (vying on Peter Kenneth’s Kenya National Congress Party) to carry the torch. My decision is guided by the fact that she has consistently shown that it does not always take the state to create employment, but a conducive environment by virtue of incentives like tax breaks and loosening the choke of bureaucracy for citizens to create wealth, employ others and pay their fair share of taxes. Since her days at Sharper Images to Adopt-A-Light, she has always been an employer of all classes of people. As much as it was business, at least she never chose the option of stacking away her monies in some Swiss, Jersey, or Cayman Island bank accounts but took a risk to invest in Kenya and in Kenyans. Her covenant is with the Kenyan people, not banks per se.
So good people, as Esther would say, let us not be filled with fear of what we cannot accomplish, but have faith in what we can accomplish when God is on our side. Volunteer, bring your friends, colleagues and neighbours on board the caravan, spread the word and let the message send Mama Taa to parliament, who knows, with her business background, she may just turn out to be history making as Hon. Eng. Muriuki Karue of the Constituency Development Fund or Hon. Njoki Ndung’u famously of the Sexual Offences Act. And currently a Supreme Court of Kenya judge.
KENYA’S LAND QUESTION VERSUS RAILA AND UHURU RHETORIC.
“There are three things that are never satisfied,……the grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.” Proverbs 30:15, 16.
Please add the peculiar Kenyan politician who does not get satisfied with spewing lies to the above list.
I will pull no punches, majority of us Kenyans are a gullible lot, we trust a lot (we even trust those reptilian politicians), we hope too much (this time he will deliver), we do not like history, we like our own and finally, we are easily distracted. We are currently in the spring of hope, but we are headed unknowingly right into the abyss of the winter of despair – disappointment. The politicians are dispensing and ingesting nonsense Take for example the emotive land debate kicked off by Moses Masika Wetangula. He boldly told all those who cared to listen that Uhuru had no moral or legal authority, capacity, and didn’t deserve to lead Kenya to seek the presidency because he was using proceeds from his stolen land to campaign and bribe voters. Uhuru through his surrogates shot back, terming Wetangula’s assertion as hate speech. Land is a hot button topic across the whole world.
The Kenyatta’s landholding has for a long time been Kenya’s best kept secrets. We have accepted that because the former president was a “wise, organized and endowed with keen business acumen”, he bought all the land that he bequeathed his offspring, heirs and assigns. Those who disagree and put the size of the land to be similar to Nyanza province have always asked the Kenyatta family through Mama Ngina Kenyatta and her son Uhuru to come clean and settle this question once and for all. They have tried coming up with all manner of explanations as to how to the family came to posses vast swathes of land in the midst of squatters, but none which conclusively answers the question.
During the launch of Jubilee Coalition’s manifesto at the Moi International Sports Center Kasarani, Uhuru tried his hand at being an expert or rather a professor of land law. He was exercising his right of reply. He tried but he didn’t perform to what the country expected him to know about land in Kenya. His poor showing and skirting around the issue didn’t even help his cause. What he was describing is what we learnt in primary school, what we expected is what we would have heard the late law don Dr. Hastings Okoth-Ogendo Opinya Winston speak. I suggest that whoever is near Uhuru makes available Professor’s seminal paper, The last colonial question; an essay in the pathology of land administration systems in Africa. If he finds it unpalatable, he will even have to bring YouTube down because of what the likes of Simeon Nyachae and Stanley Githunguri had to say about how land was allocated while he was still an infant. The names of Jackson “Harvester” Angaine aka King of the Ameru former lands and settlement minister, Mr James Maina Wanjigi, former Director of Settlements and Land and Settlement former permanent secretary Peter Shiyukah will only bring out the lies being perpetuated in defence of how Kenyatta’s land was acquired.
It is a fact that nobody is allowed to question how Kenyatta acquired those islands of land across Kenya. In the year 2000 or thereabout, former Nyeri town legislator Wanyiri Kihoro called Kenyatta a land grabber not a land owner. He had touched raw nerves. Reaction was swift and threatening. Since then, silence has become the new normal. It thus comes as surprise to us that this question would pop up from the very people who have been hobnobbing with Uhuru and his family. Is the timing a matter of good faith or plain mischief? The timing is telling and suspect. Why now? Wetangula has been an errand boy for Kibaki and the outgoing establishment. He was one of Kibaki’s point men during the Serena Peace Talks alongside lands minister James Orengo. Let be known by all Kenyans that Kenyatta’s land will not be touched by the CORD administration. Perhaps if it was Jakom some redress would have been sought. At least for him, he occasionally has the courage and audacity to put his money where his mouth is. If CORD is serious about addressing the land question, let it employ the services of their lands minster James Aggrey Orengo to release the names of large land owners for Kenyans to decide on their own instead of using the mouth of Wetangula.
We are currently in a situation which demands attention, Mpesa, the mobile money transfer system which has been at the forefront of improving and changing lives of Kenyans has just seen its fees spiked up courtesy of Uhuru’s blue eyed boy Njeru Githae, nurses have been on strike for like eternity under the very nose of Jakom’s hatchet man Prof. Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o. All this are not getting attention but the shutting down of frequencies belonging to Royal Media Services has been noticed by the politicians. Let these politicians know that we are suffering under their yoke, and we do not want to be distracted by their petty personal differences. Let all those young Kikuyu young men who may be tempted that Raila will go after Kenyatta’s land put their fears to rest. These are birds of a feather, they fly together. To my Kalenjin, Luo, Luhya, Mijikenda, Pokomo and any other community which seeks redress to historical land injustices, put not your trust in Raila, or CORD or any other collusion, because they will do nothing to march their lofty rhetoric.
Live in peace with your brother as though Raila or Uhuru never existed, help and protect your neighbours because they are more important to you than either of the two politicians. They called each other names in 2007 but come 2008, they were hugging and cheering each other for a fight well fought, at our expense. They are stretching their imaginations by trying to outdo each other fooling us. All those promises being made are lies. How can CORD promise quality and affordable healthcare when it is a foregone conclusion that Anyang’ Nyongo will be in the next government even if the sky falls? And please tell me, isn’t it the height of utopia by Jubilee putting the cart before the horse by promising a laptop computer for all class one pupils when we do not even have enough teachers and chalks? How does a child run before crawling? Or was he only referring to kids in Banda, Brookhouse, Peponi, Braeburn and International School of Kenya? Good people, wake up! Do not have any legitimate expectation. The only African president who has kept her promise is Joyce Hilda Banda of Malawi. Do not expect any of our politicians to keep their promise unless you are reffering to former Makadara legislator and bling boy Gidion Mbuvi Sonko, love him or hate him, he has despite his sideshows served the people of Makadara.
p/s. I would to know where I can get drugs to treat my stomach. It churns and I always feel as though my intestines are being pulled when I see or hear Kalonzo talking of reform, renewal and transformation! Pure katikati yao doublespeak.
UHURUMWINYI 