Kenya's mid-life crisis - part 1 a

Mid-life is a term commonly predicated on life expectancy. All those popular sayings like "life begins at forty" etc were used in the 70s and 80's to signal a mid-life. People then hoped to, and indeed did, live to 80yrs. One could grow up, learn, work, retire and continue living.

I must say that this is a pipe dream for us. For beginners, life expectancy is at 47yrs. If one does not die from a road accident, you are killed by your neighbour, or you suffer AIDS, or you die from pollution, or from taxation, or die -out in the sun - of hunger.

But again let us consider that people are really starting life rather early. In my community, a man would not be allowed to drink alcohol untill after "his wife was carried". The "carrying ceremony" as used to celebrate the initiation of ones children. Today, ten year olds are established drinkards!


So what midlife am I talking about

Today, as i write this about Kenya having a mid-life crisis, I am thinking like a 70's person. I want to be stuck there not to run away but to embody the kind of hope and promise this country had for itself. Another reason i want to do this is to ensure that i do not get distrated from the subject at hand.

Can a country have a mid-life?

I want to answer this question in an insufficient way. Kenya is a country because of the colonial element (boundaries) and because of its people, Kenyans. We, and i say this in the most pedestrian of ways, were colonised for just over 67years. And the last 22 years of that colonial occupation were some of the worst: the whiteman had gone mad and the people had got tired.

After that, we started a new phase of hope against hope as, just like the missinaries who had educated them, our leaders stole all our land and property as we knealt in prayer to thank God for delivery from the white devils. And so black devils visited us, and where the white devil had been ashamed, they were blunt.

And we are still at it. That is mid-life for me, a suspension in time and space, movement in a cage, being beaten with blunt objects so that even when you feel pain, you look whole...midlife!


This is a continuing thought.

Kenya's mid-life crisis - part 1

There was drama on Friday 12th Dec 08 when the following happened:

1. The police announced that wearing a black Tshirt was criminal
2. The Police went on an arresting spree, but indeed the presidential guards went on a threaten-tokill-and-try-to-castrate spree
3. The prime minister was shouted down by crowds that six months ago he used to electrify (indeed he sounded like a stuck gramophone record saying "can we...can we...can we..."
4. The president called people to arms " If some mad people want to fight, let them go on, we are ready"
5. The president and his entourage walked out when the national anthem was still being sung!

Can a country be more annoying to lead that one forgets simple things like protocol and patriotism?

That is the fury of a people betrayed by their leaders. And we have just started.

xxxxx

Fredrick Odhiambo is still in hospital guarded by Presidential guards who are taking two hour turns....something very sinister here!

xxxxxxxx

Mwalimu Mati and Jane were released this afternoon. But before their release, there was quite a bit of tear gas lobbed at civil society actors who were protesting outside.


The struggle in Kenya must go on. The good thing about this struggle is that it does not need leaders or mobilisers. The betrayal by raila and kibaki on issues related to agenda 4, the folly of MPs not paying taxes, their passing of the Media Muzzling Bill 2008, the high cost of unga and kerosene has moblised for the struggle and created its leaders.

Go Kenya go!

.........nb.........

In part 2 of this series, we will examine how Kenya came to where we are, this was just a recap of recent events.

Updates on Jamuhuri day

Our Jamuhuri is gone!

What with people demanding the taxation of MPs, the reduction of prices for fuel and its products, and zerorating of essential commodities (Unga!)...etc... arrested!

Mwalimu Mati of Mars Group, Caroline Mutoko of Kiss 100, other Kiss 100 presenters, civil society actors and wananchi thrown into lorries and....


Mati and the Kiss 100 people and about twenty others are in Langata police station...we are not sure where the rest are now, though Birundu and Nyongesa tell me they are being distributed in police stations all over Nairobi and its environs...(i suppose they will be charged with anything the police like, and especially robbery with violence)

...and we hope the frustsrated button happy police men do not break skulls or that stray bullets do not find targets in the stomachs of the angry and hungry.

Question: Who gave the orders?

Kibaki/Raila/Police: The police have a duty to protect citizens and ensure peace

Truth: MPs through the two chiefs (Raila and Kibaki) because they do not want the media bill to be questioned or their pay to be deducted, or their peace as they fatten on their ill gotten wealth and as they plan to rob us the more.

Question: Why were they arrested anyway?

Police/Kibaki/Raila: For causing or intending to cause a breach of the peace pursuant of section...

Truth: So that the liars, theives and dishonest lot of our political class and the beneficiaries of the collission (oops!) government can complete Act One of their performance of a true and unrepentant adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Remember, the "gods make proud those whom they plan to destroy" or if you like "we fatten bullocks ahead of their slaughter"


There are not enough police stations, not enough prisons, not enough guns in this country to contain the anger of a people betrayed by their leadership!

Aluta Continua.

Boycott news

Wakenya Mpo?

In Kenya today, there was a boycott on fuel and its products as was called by the National Civil Society Congress. All Kenyans were called upon to walk to work if they must be on duty, all private sector players asked to let their employees be at home or not penalise them for not going to work, all fuel run industries to desist from operating, and all public service vehicles to park in protest over the high prices of fuel.

I just got here to do this blog, having walked over ten kilometers. And the three groups of people I talked to on my way were rather interesting. Most said they heard of it in media but since they had to go to work anyway, and the civil society or the media does not pay their keep, it was none of their business. Some laughed at my call for us to walk and the rest wished me luck with a few asking me how much i was being paid to walk.

So what is a boycott?

The etymology of the word boycott has its origins in Ireland: See the short passage below from Wikipedia;

"The word boycott entered the English language during the Irish "Land War" and is derived from the name of Captain Charles Boycott, the estate agent of an absentee landlord, the Earl Erne, in County Mayo, Ireland, who was subject to social ostracism organized by the Irish Land League in 1880. In September that year protesting tenants demanded from Boycott a substantial reduction in their rents. He not only refused but also evicted them from the land. Charles Stewart Parnell, in his Ennis Speech proposed that, rather than resorting to violence, everyone in the locality should refuse to deal with him. Despite the short-term economic hardship to those undertaking this action, Boycott soon found himself isolated—his workers stopped work in the fields and stables, as well as the house. Local businessmen stopped trading with him, and the local postman refused to deliver mail.

The concerted action taken against him meant that Boycott was unable to hire anyone to harvest the crops in his charge. Eventually 50 Orangemen from Cavan and Monaghan volunteered to harvest his crops. They were escorted to and from Claremorris by one thousand policemen and soldiers—this despite the fact that Boycott's complete social ostracism meant that he was actually in no danger of being harmed. Moreover, this protection ended up costing far more than the harvest was worth. After the harvest, the "boycott" was successfully continued. Within weeks Boycott's name was everywhere. It was used by The Times in November 1880 as a term for organized isolation. According to an account in the book “The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland” by Michael Davitt, the term was coined by Fr. John O'Malley of County Mayo to "signify ostracism applied to a landlord or agent like Boycott". The Times first reported on November 20, 1880: “The people of New Pallas have resolved to 'boycott' them and refused to supply them with food or drink.” The Daily News wrote on December 13, 1880: “Already the stoutest-hearted are yielding on every side to the dread of being 'Boycotted'.” By January of the following year, the word was being used figuratively"

(source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott)

Today a boycott is generally used to refer to "a form of consumer activism involving the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of protest, usually of political reasons"

Several people walked to work, some stayed at home, but the majority of Kenyans are trudging on with their daily chores, uninterested in this and totally refusing to link this noble action to their high taxation, to the fact that they have lesser resources, to the fact that many more youths will not be going to school, the fact that they pay - daily- a higher fare to and from work, to the fact that the price of unga is high and to the fact that most of them may not afford festivities in the coming Christian festive season.

This is perhaps the greatest tragedy of our times: the inability or rather refusal by all of us to see the connection between issues.

But the cause is not lost, not with the kind of energy I saw in the Huruma sports grounds yesterday with the various communities and over 74 groups performing in celebration of their traditional foods and their culture and congregating to light candles to celebrate the 60th anniversarry of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They petitioned the government on such issues as unga housing environment among others and supported the Kriegler and Waki Commissions' recommendations.

The highlight of the day was when a police officer, who had been sent to find out about the meeting was forced to join the group in lighting the Amnesty International trademark candle!

May this land prosper, and may we mobilise and mobilise, for the time will come when we will all beleive in the interconnectivity of things/happenings and we shall all boycott our leadership and its machinations of the armed forces and the multi- and trans-national robbery agenda!

12/12/08: May the Unga revolution go on in all public spaces!

Them: Haraaaambeeeee!

Us: Unga!

The Waki Recommendations Furore

Good people,

There is no single thing that has caused as much consternation in recent days as the recommendations by the Waki Commission...essentially that for Kenya to end impunity, we must establish a tribunal to investigate and try those that are responsible for the chaos witnessed earlier this year in Kenya.

After the much publicised distorted, empty and dishonest charade by politicians led by Ruto, the Agriculture Minister, there seemed to be a rebate when the same people sought to shift positions and declare willingness to submit themselves to the tribunal if there were implicated.

But, and this comes at a time when i attended and listened to deliberations on the same at a forum convened by Dunia Moja, we may be in for the greatest deception of our times. One panelist, Ababu Namwamba, reiterated what he has said before: that Waki's way was not the only way. And on being asked about the much touted bill on the local tribunal, he said that since it was not published, it was pointless to discuss it. Legal smart...

And so, we should ask ourselves the following questions:

1. Has parliament ever published a bill that we have found not to have flaws? No. And since they are pressed for time (oh misery!), they will do a TJRC on it (they passed the tjrc bill in one afternoon and its the worst in recent times) Then they will shout from the roof tops that they were progressive. Meaning? We will have a tribunal law so flawed that the AG, Smily Wako, will enter nolle proseque every so often, take over the cases and terminate them. It will be a roller coaster charade choreographed by his eminence the President.

2. Is there any noted reformer who has the resources to ensure that the bill and tribunal is protected? No. Meaning, presidential clemency may be used for the, well, convicted people and the constitution ammended to ensure these people can hold public office.

3. Is the president and the prime minister ready for a collapse of the coalition government? No. Meaning? They will do all they can to ensure that we have impunity ingrained in the discourse of political hegemony to protect their interests and those of their people.

4. Will we have a new constitution within the 12 months after the National Accord? No. Why? we are six months away and the bill passed by parliament has not been signed into law since section 47 must be repealed first. Meaning? We are in for another round of promises, and several other rounds because REALLY a new constitution will mean that we go to the elections...an none of the aforementioned leaders, complete with the non-tax paying MPs is ready to go seek fresh amndate.

FACTS

1. The Waki report has far reaching recommendations on institutional reforms and is not about an envelope.
2. Like has happened elsewhere, the ICC may refuse to take over the process even when a local tribunal fails
3. The Kenyan political class will endeavour to create a fatally flawed law establishing the local tribunal
4. The Kenyan political class is afraid of the Hague option
5. The local tribunal as envisaged by Waki, for it to be effective, much entrenched in the constitution, its supremacy over the AG an any other court established, its independence guaranteed, and its resources secured.
6. Vigilance is the only weapon the Kenyan people have.
7. The Unga revolution is here!

Unga!

The pangs of njaa are not things anyone wants to joke about...

Ask Raila, complete with the briefing he had got from councillors and other informal feelers on the ground as well as the official security channels, when he finally decided to go to Kibera, he was shocked on the podium...his magic could not work against the simplicity of Unga!

The magic of a man and woman pushed to the wall by suffering, suffering the loss of a livelihood, of frienship, of loved ones; the pain of emptiness; the mere arrogance of disease and want, this magic is unstoppable.

As we celebrate the fruition of true rebellion against leadership so empty and parochial it pains, we should as a country rethink all political engagements. The future of Kenya should not be hinged on politics, but on Unga!


We face starvation as a nation, we are going to witness the failure of the long rains (most parts are dry, food is withering in the lowlands and in other areas, there has been no germination of whatever was planted). We indeed are sitting ducks for "so many hungers" ... as politicians fight over the Mau as if all land was theirs, and as we watch the Abadare and Mt Kenya regions being butchered by loggers.

Unga will cost more.

Forget the 52/72 nonesense. and I call it nonesense because apart from being impractical, it is based on the thinking of a people devoid of common sense - politicians - who cant even see sense in paying taxes!

Unga means sustenance, it is not a meal.

And this is the question we must deal with. Sustenance.

Imported yellow maize and the grain basket being empty is unable to ensure that Kenyans get sustenance. For me the things that must be done include:

• Expansion of the arable land under irrigation: e.g. get water, if need be from the Indian Ocean, and irrigate the whole of Lower Eastern and North Eastern. Plant vegetables and fruits
• Effectively manage rain water: harvest all the flood waters that wreck havoc on citizens and store it well for use later
• Ensure there is peace in Rift Valley
• All idle land owned by greedy and unproductive fellows be repossessed and put under use, if with a notice of six months to do the same, they only file petitions in court
• Get markets for Produce that is not being consumed here...let the youth earn good money for farming... this will stem the to-town maniacy
• All political rallies and national holidays be turned to farming and tree planting days...come on, we need someone to inspire the people of Kenya to some positive thinking

This way, we shall be able to ensure that we have enough produce to run our country, to enable us lower prices of essential commodities...

But come to think of it, is there need for having plenty in this country when we have an insatiable lot of leaders? They, like the yiimu/irimu/amanani/the OGRE, will gobble everything away!

Somebody tell me why we have a government that can not, will not, has refused to zero rate taxes on essential items, but they have money to buy Mercedes Benzes for crashing!

xxxx

And on another note, we need to move the capital and administrative apparatus from Nairobi to Isiolo or some such place.