We refuse to be blackmailed and derailed by Raila Odinga

Once again, we have become victims of a cowardly attack that resulted in many deaths and injuries.

My thoughts and prayers are with all those who lost loved ones or who lie in pain with injuries from this attack. We are in this together.

I thank the security officers who put their lives on the line for the sake of our country. I also salute the many ordinary Kenyans and visitors who refused to bullied and picked up their arms to save compatriots and fellow human beings at the Westgate shopping mall.

ACTS OF PATRIOTISM

We noticed these rare acts of courage, patriotism and love. We don’t take them for granted.

These attacks were aimed at ordinary, hardworking Kenyans out to enjoy what the nation they work so hard to build has to offer on a weekend.

The terrorists targeted Nairobians of all races, all colours, all religion and all ages.

They targeted black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, the young and the old.

Yet the objective was to divide us by religion and race and to dictate to us what we can and what we cannot do.

So the terrorists are telling us that they spared Muslims and slaughtered non-Muslims.

We must reject this cheap lie. We have seen our Muslim compatriots burying their dead from this attack.

The terrorists want to separate us from our friends abroad. So they are repeating how among the attackers were recruits from US, UK, Canada, among other Western nations.

Yet we know that these nations also lost citizens in this attack and their security and intelligence agencies are currently helping us get to the bottom of this crime.

The terrorists are telling us they are Al-Shabaab with recruits from Somalia who want us to withdraw our troops from that country.

What a lie! We have seen Kenyans of Somali origin also burying their dead from the Westgate attack. We also know Al-Shabaab is rejected even within Somalia where people are enjoying peace since the gang was routed out of key towns.

We equally saw Kenyans of Somali ethnic origin volunteer and take the war to the terrorists to rescue fellow human beings at the Westgate Mall.
Let us call the attackers of Westgate by their name: terrorists.

They are people who have lost all sense of humanity and for whom words like brother, sister, dear country and fellow citizen no longer exist.
Nairobi is the biggest and most cosmopolitan city in East and Central Africa. Citizens of nearly every nation on earth are found in Nairobi.

Those who attack us do it not because they want to hurt members of any particular faith, race or nationality. They do it to attack the human race in its rainbow formation at one go. That is what they did at Westgate.

Our response must be to stand together with the injured, the bereaved and the community of nations that believe in freedom, even as we seek answers to the many questions that Kenyans will rightly be asking.

BETTER RESPONSE TO THREATS

Even as we stand together, we must demand a more serious, more convincing and a better-coordinated response to the security lapses that have become part of life in Kenya.

As we engage terrorists abroad, we must see clear indications that we have taken steps to detect and deter attacks that terrorists plot against us.

I know many such planned attacks have been nipped in the bud but we must up our game and our people must be convinced that we are doing all that we can. Today, a number of citizens think so much remains to be done.

I can’t blame them. For much of this year, attacks have become the order of the day in places like Moyale, Garissa, Lodwar, Samburu, Turkana and Nairobi, among others.

Security has deteriorated in places like Bungoma, Busia, Tana River, Mwingi, Kitui and Kuria.

Many attacks in Northern Kenya seem to be the work of sleeper terror cells out to test our preparedness and resolve.

Even where the attacks may not be by terrorists, their frequent occurrences paint a picture of a lawless nation. That is the platform on which terrorists act best. We must dismantle that platform.

We need to prevent these attacks and to deal with those plotting them in a manner that clearly shows we know what they are trying and what is at stake.

It is my hope that in the coming days, as a reward to our citizens for their patriotism, the government will publish a review of its intelligence and security on this attack.

DEVASTATING BLOW

Of course, we expect the government to leave out material that would prejudice the work of our agencies.

As a nation, we have taken a devastating blow.

But I also feel very proud to be a Kenyan at this moment because it is clear that our spirit is not broken, our focus not dimmed.

We have refused to allow the terrorists to derail the flow of life in our country and we have refused to turn against each other as they hoped.

Our airports, our roads and our port are operating at full capacity. Soon, Westgate itself will be up and running.

We refuse to be blackmailed and derailed.

Our soldiers must continue the good work in Somalia where they have made life more bearable, particularly for girls, women, children and the youth.

Thanks to our soldiers, schools, colleges and universities have reopened in Mogadishu and the youth are once again able to pursue education and build a secure future, while new-born children are being vaccinated against preventable diseases and girls are able to go to school. We shall remain the force for good.

As a nation, we are ready as ever to receive friends from abroad with the open arms and genuine smiles that we are known for.

Terrorists shall never change who we are.

Raila Odinga is a former Prime Minister of Kenya. 

We refuse to be blackmailed and derailed by Raila Odinga

How Jubilee leaders are playing into Raila's hands by Makau Mutua

All isn’t well in the house that the son of Jomo built. The Jubilee regime – now in its fourth month – is in full panic. The “digital” regime is turning out to be truly “analogue”. Gone is the euphoria of the early days. No more jacket-less and rolled-up sleeves at State House conferences. The “new-look” Cabinet of “technocrats” is invisible.
The regime has lunged from crisis to crisis. This seems to be our “winter of discontent”. Which begs the question – why hasn’t Jubilee hit the ground running? Methinks I know why. Jubilee has too many “bogeymen” and “soft underbellies”. There’s a crisis of confidence within the inner sanctum. It won’t get any easier with The Hague trials looming.
Let me tell you why Jubilee is choking. First, you can’t effectively govern if you see “dire threats” and bogeymen everywhere. Most of these threats are either imagined, or “unforced errors”. Let’s focus on Jubilee’s most important bogeyman – former PM Raila Odinga.
Mr Odinga has become a nightmare for Jubilee. But – and you can take this to the bank – this is none of Mr Odinga’s doing. It’s Jubilee that’s turned Mr Odinga into a “bugaboo”.
Rather than focus on its programmes, Jubilee has chosen to lavish Mr Odinga with unwanted attention. Instead of burying Mr Odinga – after “beating” him in the March 4 elections – Jubilee has inexplicably decided to resuscitate him. It’s the most bone-headed thing I’ve ever seen.
Mr Odinga was either going to retire, or focus on re-building Cord in readiness for 2017. He appears to have chosen the latter. It would have been in Jubilee’s self-interest to let Mr Odinga expend his legendary energies on Cord.
But no – Mr Kenyatta’s party has chosen to detract Mr Odinga from Cord. It’s done so very crudely – by poking Mr Odinga in the eye every chance it gets. You can’t humiliate a lion of Mr Odinga’s international stature and get away with it.
Who can forget the mean-spirited slights – denying Mr Odinga access to VIP lounges, demanding that he “retires” from politics to enjoy benefits of a former PM, withdrawing bodyguards and ordering that he returns “official” vehicles?
I wonder who is advising Mr Kenyatta. A new government has no time to waste chasing after its “vanquished” opponents. But the government has spent the last two weeks imagining that Mr Odinga’s former campaign manager, Mr Eliud Owalo, is planning a Kenyan “Arab Spring”.
I laughed so hard I almost cracked a rib. Why make such wild and baseless claims? It’s what we call the theatre of the absurd.
It was a flashback to Kanu regimes of yore – like former AG Charles Njonjo warning that it was “treason” to “imagine” the death of the President. Or the Moi regime accusing me and fellow University of Nairobi leaders of being paid by the Soviets in 1981 to overthrow the government.
The Kenyatta regime keeps on making the same mistake time and again. At the Kisii funeral of school children who perished in a tragic accident, Jubilee leaders were shouted down and forced to abandon their speeches. The surging crowd demanded that Mr Odinga addresses them.
The former PM didn’t disappoint – he delivered a stinging critique of Mr Kenyatta’s fledgling government. The crowd ate up every word. It was a good thing Mr Kenyatta skipped the event. That’s the role of the opposition in a democracy.
But that’s not the way Jubilee mandarins saw it. They accused Mr Odinga of orchestrating their humiliation. Once again, they played into Mr Odinga’s hands. They are fuelling him free of charge.
Jubilee has made other tragic blunders. Take the debacle over the Makueni Senate seat left vacant by Senator Mutula Kilonzo’s death. Jubilee spent inordinate energy to block lawyer Kethi Kilonzo from succeeding her dad. This was unseemly, petty, and heartless. As if that wasn’t enough, Jubilee sought to block Ms Kilonzo’s brother – lawyer Mutula Kilonzo Jr – from running. How these mean-spirited tactics endear Jubilee to the people of Makueni beats me.
But Jubilee was bent on alienating Makueni voters with self-inflicted wounds. This isn’t how you win friends and influence enemies.
This is no way for Jubilee to expand from its traditional strongholds among the Kikuyu and Kalenjin. Has Jubilee ever heard of soft power?
No single Jubilee programme has gotten off the ground. Its most touted programme – the primary school laptops – is teetering on the brink of collapse. It’s ill-thought, and seems to be a boondoggle for vulture capitalists. Why would kids be given laptops when they have no desks, or computer-literate teachers? This is a populist project that can only end in tears.
Other crises have sucked oxygen out of the regime. It was the legislators who set the ball rolling by raiding the public purse. Kenya has the second highest paid legislators after Nigeria. Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto failed to stop MPs from fleecing the public. Quite frankly, it was the teachers – not MPs – who deserved a pay raise.
It’s clear the Jubilee regime doesn’t have traction. The big elephant in the room is what’s going to happen once The Hague trials start in September. I expect that the International Criminal Court will reverse itself and require that Mr Ruto be present for every session of the trial.
He will be out of the country for large amounts of time. So will Mr Kenyatta when his trial begins in November. My point is that the government won’t have adequate time to get its programmes on track once the ICC trials start. There’s reason for Jubilee to panic.
Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC. Twitter @makaumutua.

How Jubilee leaders are playing into Raila's hands by Makau Mutua

In the hot seat:CORD Leader Raila Odinga

What next for Raila

What do Kenyans owe former Premier Raila by Makau Mutua

I don’t know about you, but I am disgusted by a matter of no small consequence. That’s the degrading abuse President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government is meting out to Cord leader Raila Odinga. It’s unbecoming. No — it’s actually primitive.
Equally alarming is the lack of public outcry. Would Kenyans be as meek if the “victims” were former presidents Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki?
Methinks not. Which begs the question — what do Kenyans owe Mr Odinga? What does any country owe its freedom fighters? Why would Kenyans worship distant anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, but allow the Jubilee administration to spit on Mr Odinga, their local liberator?
Don’t argue — Mr Odinga is the closest thing in Kenya to the incomparable “Madiba”.
The snubs and petty assaults by state functionaries on Mr Odinga look innocuous, but they are huge. Let’s sample a few. He’s denied access to VIP lounges at JKIA. And then forced to line up and wait for his baggage at the “hoi polloi” conveyor belt upon arrival from trips abroad. His security detail and guards are withdrawn.
He’s denied pension benefits and VIP perks unless he “retires” from politics. Let’s call a spade what it is — because it’s not a spoon. The State is trying to rub the man’s nose in the dirt. It’s “gratuitous violence,” and a naked assault on the man’s dignity. The question is why? What’s to be gained? Who’s giving these demeaning commands?
I don’t really care for many in the Jubilee crowd who demonise anything Mr Odinga does. Those bloviators and hissing mobs aren’t my concern. I’d like to know what Mr Kenyatta’s role — and DP William Ruto — has been in this sad saga. Is it State policy to humiliate Mr Odinga by “murdering” his spirit? If not, why hasn’t Mr Kenyatta publicly addressed it, and openly reprimanded — if not fired — the complicit factotums?
His silence can only mean one thing — acquiescence, or direct involvement. It seems clear Jubilee ideologues are nervous about Mr Odinga, and have advised he be cut off at the knees. There’s paranoia Mr Odinga is “regrouping” to launch a counter-attack on the fledgling Jubilee administration.
I am convinced that when history is written, it will show that Mr Odinga was the most reformist politician in Kenya’s first 50 years. This is simply an objective fact. Do I think Mr Odinga has been, or is, perfect? Not by any stretch of the imagination.
He’s made many mistakes, some of them serious. But on balance, no other Kenyan politician — alive or dead — can hold the reformist candle to him.
He’s suffered gravely in the vineyards of struggle. He was brutally detained for almost a decade for fighting for democratic change. But he bounced back every time to fight again. Even when he was wronged — as was apparent in the 2007 polls — he put the nation first.
Kenyans know the sacrifices Mr Odinga has made. It’s unarguable Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto are direct beneficiaries of the democratic space Mr Odinga helped create, and which they’ve exploited to attain power.
In John 4:38, the holy book says “I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour”. That aptly describes Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto — the duo sits atop a state shaped largely by the yeoman work of Mr Odinga.
Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto have never broken any sweat struggling for reform. That’s why it’s maddening their regime is bent on burying the man who laid the golden egg.
I know most Kenyans see politics from the prism of the tribe. That’s why they can’t see straight. But if they could don national lenses, they’d see that Mr Odinga has no peer in politics. He towers over a field of dwarfs. It’s true he wasn’t always the statesman he is today. I was critical of him when he seemed to be more “Luo” than “Kenyan”.
But that’s a problem he’s long transcended. I was critical when I thought he made certain deals that were either unprincipled, or driven by short-term political gains. And I was critical when he seemed to bargain away certain reformist agendas. But he’s overcome these hurdles. He’s a rare true nationalist among senior leaders.
Let’s put “Railamania” and “Railaphobia” aside and candidly assess the man they call Jakom, or Agwambo. He has the progressive left politics of his famous dad, the late doyen of opposition politics, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. He has the fire of the “people’s millionaire,” the martyred late Nyandarua North MP JM Kariuki. He has the vision of KPU ideologue — and martyr — the late Pio Gama Pinto.
He rekindles the nationalist embers lit by Mau Mau supremo Dedan Kimathi and Nandi chief Koitalel arap Samoei. He has the moral courage of MeKatilili wa Menza, the Giriama anti-colonialist heroine. OK — I won’t fault him for not possessing the clairvoyance of Syokimau, the Kamba priestess who foresaw colonialism. That’s what I call iconic.
So, what do Kenyans owe Mr Odinga? I would suggest that first all regime slights and juvenile taunts of Mr Odinga be stopped pronto. That’s Mr Kenyatta’s duty — the buck stops at his desk. He and Mr Ruto should stop running scared of Mr Odinga. I know Kenyan history well enough to know that successive governments haven’t celebrated reformers.
They’ve been more apt to kill, detain, torture, and persecute democracy champions. This must change — starting now. Kenyans — and the government — owe Mr Odinga respect and reverence, not small-minded, mean, inexplicable assaults.
Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC. Twitter @makaumutua.

What do Kenyans owe former Premier Raila

JSO interview Raila Amolo Odinga

Part two

Raila:Jubilee won't force me to quit politics

At a hotel in Ivory Coast’s largest city Abidjan 10 days ago, former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa bounded across the lobby to greet Cord leader Raila Odinga.
Mr Mkapa is well known for his bubbly, jovial demeanour but this time he had a concerned look on his face.
“Raila,” he said. “Ni jambo gani hii nasoma kwa magazeti ati wewe huwezi tumia VIP (lounge) JKIA? (What is this I hear that you cannot use the VIP lounge at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi?).”
“It is true,” Mr Odinga said. “You and (Frederick) Sumaye (former Prime Minister of Tanzania) can use the VIP lounge in Kenya but I cannot.”
Mr Odinga told that story with a chuckle in an interview with the Sunday Nation on Friday.
But he was making a more serious point. The ODM party leader has in the recent past become the target of what appears to be a campaign of intimidation and bullying by elements within the government, including the withdrawal of most security personnel assigned to him and the vehicles they used.
One of the country’s most senior political figures now travels around without a police escort and his personal security detail has been cut down to the bare minimum. He and his family were also notoriously subjected to humiliation when they were barred from using the VIP lounges at the airport three weeks ago while on trips to Kisumu and a second time before Mr Odinga travelled to the US.
The disputes Mr Odinga has engaged in with the authorities and the repeated security breaches at his offices have raised questions about the maturity of the nation’s democratic culture.
In stable democracies on the continent such as Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, Mauritius and Tanzania, former presidents, vice- presidents and prime ministers are offered state security and reasonable levels of compensation after leaving office.
Mr Odinga said the Jubilee administration should borrow a leaf from those countries although he was at pains not to blame the treatment to which he has been subjected directly to either President Kenyatta or Deputy President William Ruto.
“I am ordinarily not the complaining type,” Mr Odinga said. “I recognise that there is another government in power and they are entitled to their attitudes. But I think we should be a civilised country that respects its citizens. Everybody has rights: children, the sick, the disabled, the infirm, the aged, everybody. At every stage of life people should be treated with respect. It’s a culture we should institutionalise.”
The Cord leader pointed to the almost total withdrawal of the security personnel assigned to him to illustrate his point.
“In my home (in Karen) there is only one person. When he is asleep, I have nobody there. The guards assigned to my home are not provided with transport. That leaves the question whether they are supposed to carry guns in a matatu. I was a Prime Minister who was an equal partner with the President.
That’s why I had 20 ministers and Kibaki had 20 ministers. They say I’m not entitled to anything. I am not a VIP. Look what they do for the others. Nyayo (former President Moi) is given six cars. Kibaki has 25 guards. He has been given a budget of Sh250 million for an office. What about me? Don’t I have things to do? I have not been paid even a single cent in pension since I left office. Yet I served as an MP for 20 years, as a minister and prime minister. How am I supposed to survive for the rest of my life?”
Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia declined to comment and asked that all inquiries be directed to Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo. When Mr Kimaiyo was reached, he said he was in meetings and could not discuss the issue.
Key leaders in government, including House Majority Leader Aden Duale, have demanded that Mr Odinga retires from politics before he can receive any retirement benefits but the former PM dismissed this out of hand.
“I am not their subject. I can’t be ordered around by the spokesmen of people. They never brought me into politics and they can’t force me to retire. I will not be held to ransom because of benefits.
It’s a carrot they are dangling before me but they should be more civilised. I have a mission in politics and it is to serve the people. Only they can tell me to retire and not some government functionaries.”
The former PM said the notion that his security cannot be catered for because a retirement benefits Act had not been passed rang hollow because top officials in government enjoyed wide discretionary powers and could make those arrangements without the need for a special law.
He advised the government to concentrate on the task of delivering on the promises they had made to Kenyans and to spend less time attempting to humiliate opposition leaders.
“I don’t want to speculate on the reasons behind this. Maybe it’s insecurity or some kind of phobia which I cannot explain. As you can see, I have tried to be very quiet and very uncontroversial. I’ve avoided issues which could bring me into conflict with this system. I thought it’s necessary to give them space to implement their programmes. Then they can be judged by what they have been able to deliver.”
On speculation that some within government have been pushing him to retire so that they can inherit his political base, Mr Odinga said that his best advice to anyone seeking to win over the ODM base would be to deliver on their pledges to Kenyans rather than trying to force Cord leaders to exit the scene.
“Whoever is doing this is trying to break my spirit. They are spoiling for a fight. I don’t know who is doing it. I can’t accuse the President or Deputy President. I don’t think they would stoop so low. I would want to think they are above that because even I and Kibaki used to have our differences but we would find a way to manage them.”
The former Prime Minister, who with President Kibaki was one of the principals in charge of the grand coalition government formed in February 2008 to bring to an end the unrest which followed the 2007 elections, offered his assessment of Mr Kenyatta’s first three months in office.
“We formed a Cabinet within two days of taking office and swore them in and started work. This government is still a work in progress. I would have done things differently. Time is of the essence. 100 days on we still don’t have strategic plans for the ministries to know what they need to do. Within two weeks I and Kibaki had laid down the plans for the government.
We were a coalition and the first thing we did was to form a taskforce to harmonise our manifestoes. Shortly thereafter we held a workshop at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies and told each ministry what we wanted and they hit the ground running. Some of the leaders of this government were in the Cabinet and I wish they learned from it because they are digital and we were analogue.”
Mr Odinga said he would continue to work to strengthen the Opposition and ODM, which he said needed to be consolidated and re-energised.
The former PM said the last election showed that the nation’s reform process was not complete and criticised the electoral commission and the Supreme Court for the way they handled the election.
He also said the country needed to re-examine the role the National Intelligence Service plays in the electoral process, arguing that the agency played an active part in blocking Cord’s path to power.
Mr Odinga said he remains optimistic about Kenya’s future and made the case that the grand coalition had laid the grounds for the country’s economic take-off with their large-scale investments in infrastructure, special economic zones and the Lamu port project and added that Kenya was a “plane taxiing. It just needs the right pilot to fly and time will tell if the current leaders will press the right buttons”.
On the question of his security and benefits, Mr Odinga concluded with a trademark proverb.
“When Mkapa asked me about this, I told him the story of the tortoise. Somebody met a tortoise on a path and decided to punish it. He picked it up and threw it into a river. He didn’t know that the river was the tortoises’ second home. The tortoise was very happy. It began to swim and enjoy its new environment. They say I am not a VIP and have thrown me to the public. They don’t know that’s where I am happiest.

Raila :Jubilee won't force me to quit politics by Murithi Mutiga

Raila Odinga blocked from VIP lounges

Related articles

 Raila Odinga barred from accessing airport VIP lounge

JKIA locks out Raila out of VIP room

Update: the Kenya Ports Authority now denys that Raila was barred from the VIP lounge kAA by Lydia Matata 



Update related article: It was thoughtless to frustrate Raila at Airport lounge by Philip Ochieng

I shudder at the thought that a future regime may eject Jaduong’ Mwai Kibaki or Jaduong’ Moody Awori from our VIP facilities merely because they no longer hold high state offices.
The Luo honorific jaduong’ is highly illustrative of my point. The adjective duong’ refers primarily to physical size and chronological age – the two things into which we all grow after birth.
But chronological age also confers knowledge, memory, wisdom and, in many cases, power, authority and respect.
In tradition, I think, this is true of all African communities – indeed, of all human peoples at the gentile level of socio-economic formation. I am told that the Kikuyu word munene and the Kiswahili word mkubwa have the same semantic career and social significance.
What’s more, unless he commits a sacrilegious act, a man who acquired such a title of power, authority and respect retained that title even after he left office (including through death).
That is why human societies raise monuments to their warriors, liberators, magi of knowledge and technique and other heroes of yore.
That is why we, in Kenya, have mounted statues to commemorate Dedan Kimathi, Jomo Kenyatta and Tom Mboya and should mount them for our other heroes and heroines of the struggle to defeat British imperialism in Kenya.
By the same token, whenever a person is in authority – notwithstanding his body size and chronological age – all gentile communities traditionally bowed in front of him as munene, mkubwa, jaduong’, ruoth, omwami, suchlike.
That is why – although Uhuru Kenyatta is spindly in body and more than two decades my junior – I have no problem recognising him as Jaduong’ Maduong’ (“paramount chief”).
Although I have frequently criticised his activities, I have no problem thinking of him as my elder brother – in social status – and thus giving him every due that I owe him as such. On the other hand, against the resources we fritter away in useless “projects”, privileged treatment of individuals who have vitally served this country in all fields costs virtually nothing.
This mutual service respect – from the younger generation to the older and from the older to the younger – was what Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto themselves promised this country when they campaigned on the platform of youth taking over from Mr Kibaki’s gerontocrats.
It was thus that Mwalimu Julius Nyerere introduced the expressive Zanaki word ng’atuka into Kiswahili.
Kung’atuka is to progressively retire from active leadership in favour of more energetic blood and more idealistic brain. Those who ng’atuka continue to serve vital roles through avuncular sanction, through caution, through tuition.
That is why the generation which takes over cannot afford to treat its immediate predecessors as ignominiously as we have just treated our former Prime Minister.
A wise management group cannot subject its Kalonzos, Musalias and their opposite numbers in other walks of life to the embarrassment Mr Odinga suffered this last week. If the urge is merely to wreak revenge upon your election rivals, then it is astonishingly thoughtless and childish.
First, you succeed merely in undermining the same government in the international public’s eyes.
Secondly, you are playing the pro-Odinga-Musyoka communities against the government. By mistreating their perceived leader(s), you are making them feel that Uhuru Kenyatta is not their President. You are suggesting to them to withdraw their cooperation and support.
Uhuru Kenyatta’s government also requires the entire world’s goodwill. But this week we received headlines the world over which depict our MPs as Maneaters of Tsavo and our State House as bent on wreaking revenge upon its election rivals.
That kind of headline can only undermine the very government you think you are helping by your juvenile behaviour. That is why Uhuru needs to punish those responsible for this juvenile disorder.
ochiengotani@gmail.com



Update related article: Treating Raila Odinga so shoddily is unworthy of a reasonable government by Macharia Gaitho

It is now official. If Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia, Portia Simpson-Miller of Jamaica, David Cameron of Britain, Manmohan Singh of India, or Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel paid us a visit, the government would deny them the use of the presidential pavilion and the top VIP lounge at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The official Kenya Government position is that a Prime Minister is a second-rate leader who can never be accorded the privileges befitting a president.
Therefore as merely a former prime minster, Mr Raila Odinga cannot enjoy the same access to the VIP sanctums granted his co-principal in the defunct Grand Coalition government, retired President Mwai Kibaki; or the other ex-president, Daniel arap Moi.
That was the gist of the government stand delivered in Parliament last Thursday by ever-garrulous Majority Leader Aden Duale in response to the brouhaha over the former Prime Minister suddenly being shut out of government VIP lounges at Kenyan airports.
Mr Duale took the House through the various VIP facilities at the airports and made it clear that a prime minister, or a former prime minister, in the officially-recognised hierarchy, ranks nowhere near the President, Deputy President or retired presidents.
From Mr Duale’s argument, the operative rank is ‘president’ and therefore no mere minister, even if ranked as prime, should dream of accessing the top VIP facilities.
The argument advanced by Mr Duale would be laughable, but for the fact that he was not demonstrating his own ever-vacuous reasoning, but the official view of the government.
What the government forgot is that the title prime minister is not exclusive to Mr Odinga, but to many leaders from around the world, who will sooner or later be paying official visits to Kenya.
The Majority Leader was actually echoing, with suitable embellishment, a letter written last month by the Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia warning airport officials against allowing unauthorised persons to use VIP lounges.
Mr Kimemia did not have to mention Mr Odinga by name, but that he appended a list of ranks of ‘authorised’ VIP’s, who included the former presidents but not the former prime minister, was enough evidence who was targeted.
Airport officials, under threat of summary dismissal, got the message and acted on the letter.
Now, this rally should be no big deal under any circumstances. If President Kenyatta’s minions insist on infantile displays of power, it might have been better for Mr Odinga to stand above the useless din and ignore them.
Mr Odinga’s aides need not have gone to histrionics reminiscent of the nusu mkeka affair.
However, there is an important principle at play. The VIP lounge affair reminds us that Kenya’s government policy is sometimes being driven by an amazingly petty and vindictive mindset.
Leaders at any level deserve a modicum of respect even if one disagrees with them.
That is why, when President Kibaki took power in 2003, he had no problem assenting to President Moi’s retirement benefits, and privileges such as security and staff. He even allowed him to remain in the government house he had used since his days as Vice-President.
In retirement now, President Kibaki too enjoys all the perks due to him.
Granted that Mr Odinga is not retired yet, but there is still no reason to hound him and humiliate him. The elements who so fiercely opposed his status as President Kibaki’s co-principal on the coalition government are clearly intent on keeping him in his place even after that shot-gun marriage served out its term. Treating a vanquished election rival so is primitive behaviour unbecoming of modern democracy.
One must wonder why backward elements in the Uhuru Kenyatta regime hate Mr Odinga with such venom. Or is there something they instinctively fear in having him still around as an opposition leader?
After the disputed electoral victory and the Supreme Court decision, they were all over with their new ‘accept and move on’ creed. But it is clear now they are the ones refusing to accept and move on.
mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com

Raila slams AU criticism of the ICC

Raila wants TRJC report debated implemented

Strong words from JM Kariuki's daughter.



Update related articles We can't just accept TJRC report-Raila by Laban Wanambisi

Will the Truth Justice and Reconciliation team's explosive report heal wounds by Oscar Obonyo

Supreme court judges are ashamed of their judgement Raila Odinga interview with Roy Gachuhi

Roy:Of Kenya’s major political figures, you are the only one who established a political base in Nairobi and took spectacular risks with it first when you resigned from your Ford Kenya parliamentary seat to run on an NDP ticket and then in 2007 when you ran for the presidency, exposing yourself to the possibility of possible presidential success on one hand and parliamentary failure on the other. Yet you have never quite been able to shrug off the tribal chieftain tag. Explain.

Raila: You see, politics has a lot of propaganda. Sometimes, propaganda is stronger than the truth, than the reality. There is no politician in Kenya who is more urbane than myself. One, as you know, I grew up in Kisumu, which is a town, and also in Nairobi here. I went abroad and then settled in Nairobi in 1970, and I have been living in Nairobi all these years barring the years when I was in detention. And I chose to play my politics from here.

There was a lot of pressure on me to go and run in Kisumu when my father was running in Bondo and I said ‘no’, I will make my base Nairobi. This is where I live, and this is where I know the people.

And I also wanted to work with the poor people (of Lang’ata). I said, I know these people and these people trust me and this is a multi-ethnic constituency. It has helped me to understand other communities in Kenya.

See, in the past people have come with the assumptions that Kikuyus will not vote for me in Lang’ata; they have always been shocked and surprised. In 1997, I ran for the Presidency, and you will see there is a difference between my presidential votes and my parliamentary votes by over 6,000. I got more parliamentary votes than Presidential. Why? The 6,000 are the Kikuyus who voted for me as a Member of Parliament but voted for Kibaki as President.

(Laughs loudly)

Sometimes they talk of rents, and say, ‘Oh, people are not paying rent’. You see, in a place like Kibera, it is fairly cosmopolitan.

The problems are faced by all the poor people who live there – the Kikuyu, the Luo, the Luhya, the Kamba, Nubians – are all speaking the same language. So, when I speak, I speak on their behalf. I cannot champion the interests of any one group. Their problems are common.

I have chosen to represent Kenya rather than go back to a safe rural constituency because I don’t want to fragment Kenya and I wanted it to be a catalyst to unite the people. That’s why I have been saying that I am the bridge between the past and the future.

Look at now, for example, these last elections. Look at how the votes were; I got votes from Nyanza, Western , the whole of Ukambani area, the whole Coast, Upper Eastern, the Maa community – they voted MPs elsewhere but presidential votes went to me – the Turkana, the Teso.

So you can see the difference, they have the parliamentary majority, but the presidential votes came to me. You look at my opponents, basically from their communities, from their base. And if you look at Western, there was a candidate running there.

But if you look at the kind of votes he managed to get compared to what I got … If you look as well at the votes I got in Central and Rift Valley, where Jubilee got the majority, you’ll see that I am the only person who had the complete geographical spread of the votes across the country.

Q:Jubilee supporters were apprehensive that the Mutunga Court, as it came to be called, would be biased against them, given the Chief Justice’s sentiments towards you as he has expressed them in the past. But the court returned a unanimous verdict against your petition. There was no dissent. Now, every person who knows him will honestly say Dr Mutunga is incorruptible. So he was convinced about your loss. Have you lost a friend?

A: His conscience will disturb him. Ordinarily, it would not be a unanimous verdict. Each and every judge should write their verdict giving their reasons for it. For example, at The Hague, you had one dissenting judge and he recorded why he was dissenting; those two who were of another opinion, also wrote their judgment.

This is the most important case that the Supreme Court has handled since it was formed, maybe the most important in another five years to come. Some of them will be retiring at that time.

They should have at least had the courtesy to record the judgment individually – each person says because of ABCD, I dismiss, because of ABCD, I dismiss, not just to come there and say, we agree ABCD, yes! ABCD, we agree, yes! Yes! Yes! Then say that we are going to give a detailed judgment in two weeks’ time. Then when the two weeks come you are not ready on a Saturday, Monday, you are not ready and on Tuesday when people are assembled in court and you have invited them, they are expecting that you are coming to read a judgment and this was something that was so important for the country. Only for them to come and say “we are signing”. So obviously, it was something that they are ashamed of, or afraid of their own judgment. Now they are even correcting certain areas.

To me, it was a shame and I’ve said that people make mistakes; we say mistakes are human but I don’t know what went wrong, but I’ve mentioned earlier that stakes were too high, that blackmail could not be ruled out, apart from other methods of persuasion (laughs loud and long).

Q:As election returns have shown, millions of people believe that you are both qualified and deserving to be President. In the face of a third failure to achieve your objective, some are now talking about your being constrained by a primordial obstacle, that it hasn’t got with how much you try or how sincere you are. It’s simply unattainable. Address this issue of destiny, faith and philosophy.

A: I have never been superstitious. When it reaches the angle of fate (starts laughing and almost doubles over with mirth) no, no, these are the beliefs of people who are basically superstitious, people who believe in supernatural powers to do ABCD (still laughing). I am a scientist and I believe in a scientific world outlook, I believe that nothing happens just because it has happened or is preordained to happen; I believe that something only happens when there are efforts to make it happen.

I also don’t believe there is anything impossible in this world. I believe that things are possible. But I also want to say that it must not necessarily be Raila; like now, I am not even saying that I am going to run again because that is too far-fetched now. We have just come from an election. I am always willing to support somebody else.

The last time we went for a nomination and if I had lost I would have supported somebody else. I came up with Kibaki Tosha and people thought that I had committed political suicide. Many told me that Luos could not vote for Kikuyus, but I said, ‘I’ll show you.’ And I convinced them.

More Luos than Kikuyus voted for Kibaki. In fact, James Orengo was a presidential candidate at that time and Kibaki got more votes than Orengo in Ugenya. It doesn’t always have to be Raila, I can support another candidate.

Q:Your physical energy is legendary. You have always been here, there and everywhere at the same time. How do you feel now? Excuse my phrase, how much gas do you have left in the tank?

A: (Laughs loud and long, rocking in his chair)  Oh, oh! The spirit of the people, that’s what keeps me going. It is the spirit of the people that buoys me, it is this spirit that drives me. I am a servant of the people. I am propelled by the people’s spirit.

When the people say, let’s do this, I get the courage to move on; it is just not the physical energy, or the material energy. You see, I faced very great odds in this election. We were running against a team that was materially very well endowed (again laughs loud and long). It was like the battle of David and Goliath. But all the time I get the courage to move on because of the people.

Q:Your son, Fidel. Do you envisage a political role for him and what form could that role take?

A: You see I do not propose to prescribe a career for my children. My father did not bring me into politics. I came into politics by choice. It is Fidel’s grandfather, Jaramogi, who gave him that name.

Right now he is a businessman and he will find his level. If in future he wants to be in politics, even my other children, they are free. They want privacy, but all the time the media wants to pry into their lives. (Laughs).

You see, they have been saying, or there have been allegations, that I have put my relatives in government and so on. Which relative of mine is working in government? There have been a lot of unfounded allegations. It’s only my sister Dr Wenwa, who is a Counsellor in America, in LA. And I was not even consulted when she was being appointed. She was a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi, and any Kenyan is free to express an interest in a job.

She was interviewed and found to be suitable and so she was given that appointment. I think she initially wanted a job at UNESCO but they took her to LA. But she is also a Kenyan. If you are in government, does it mean that now it is a crime for any of your relatives to be employed anywhere else in government? You don’t call that nepotism.

Q:Finally, do you think you would be President were it not for the ICC?

A: (Laughs throughout the answer). Your guess is as good as mine. Arh! ICC, to these people, ICC was a matter of life and death. You know, everything had to be done to ensure that they have this shield. This is like the shield – the Presidency and the Deputy Presidency; for them, it is a shield. That is the bottom line. That is where we are. (Keeps on laughing).

Quotes from Supreme court judges are ashamed of their judgement

Open letter to Raila Odinga don't accept errand boy job by Makau Mutua

This was an article that  I missed  last week with all that was going on and agree  with the Professor.

Quotes from the article below.

No one wants to be described as an “ex so-and-so”. It’s like being called an “ex-husband” or an “ex-wife”. It’s got a bad ring to it.

That’s why I won’t call you an “ex-Prime Minister”. You are much larger than the positions you’ve held. If truth be told, your identity transcends any single state office in Kenya.

Today I want to address some unsettling rumours. They are two-pronged, but amount to the same darn thing

This is their gist – that you should “quit politics” and become an international “errand boy” for the Kenyan state. I’ve heard many cockamamie plots, but none trumps this doozy. You can’t – and shouldn’t – quit politics. This is why.

First, consider the source of the dastardly concoction. It’s been mooted by your opponents who are dying to bury you politically. Ask yourself this question – why are your political assassins so eager to knock you out of the ring?

The answer is staring you in the face – they know that for more than two decades you’ve been the centre of gravity of Kenya’s political left. They believe they can kill the left if they dispatch you from politics.

The Kanu nomenkatura that won the March 4 elections would then triumph completely and rule – as former President Daniel arap Moi “prophesied” – for another 100 years.

They believe you have no heir apparent in Kenya’s progressive politics.

Think about it. Ever since independence in 1964, the Kenyan state has been in the grasp of a rightist, conservative political elite. Your own father – the late opposition doyen Jaramogi Oginga Odinga – was for long the symbol of the left.

But we all know what happened: the rightist faction under Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and later President Moi “neutralised” him.

He was persecuted and haunted into oblivion. You inherited his mantle, and have become a worthy “Jaramogist” yourself.

But, and this is the failure of the left, there isn’t an obvious Jaramogist to take over from you. That’s why you must stay in the field of battle – for now. The choice of whether, and when, to abandon politics isn’t yours.

Second, Cord is going to splinter into inchoate pieces if you abandon ship. The party – such as Kenyan parties are wont to be – revolves around you. Cord elected officials will head for the exits as soon as you dump it.

No one in the party – not in the Legislature or the county governors – has the wherewithal to lead the Kenyan left.

Leaving Cord will be tantamount to throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Remember Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” taken from the poem “The Second Coming” by W. B Yates. Your departure would be a betrayal. To paraphrase the poem, the “centre won’t hold because mere anarchy will be unleashed upon the world”. This is your historical burden.

You might be the best president Kenya never had. We don’t know how your life’s story will end, or unfold from here going forward. I know you’ve been in the trenches for long.

You’ve got up every time they have knocked you down. You aren’t perfect as you – and we – know only too well. You have stumbled several times.

Progressive instincts

But I am most impressed by your progressive instincts. You led the country in getting rid of Kanu, and you played an outsize role in giving us the new Constitution.

But you’ve been thwarted in your journey to State House every time. Perhaps you are destined to be John the Baptist. If so, find and nurture Kenya’s next “political Jesus”.

Third, I’ve heard that the Jubilee government wants you to be a “Kofi Annan”. That’s hogwash. For one, the Kenyatta regime doesn’t have the international legitimacy to confer on you such a hallowed status.

Mr Annan wasn’t appointed as a “statesman” by any government. He’s an international elder because, as UN Secretary-General, he was widely admired and respected.

There are only a handful of former political greats – like Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama – who occupy such lofty perches.

How would you acquire such a status as an appointee of a head of state who is indicted for crimes against humanity? This is a poisoned chalice from which you shouldn’t drink. It’s a fool’s errand – an “appointment” to “nowhere”.

Fourth, don’t cut the legs from under yourself. I know the traumatic events of March 4 – with the finality of the Supreme Court decision on the election petition – weigh heavily on you. That’s true for all men and women of conscience. Your future isn’t like instant coffee – take the time to map it out. Life, as you know, isn’t a sprint, but a marathon.

What’s up today could be down tomorrow. That’s the single most important enduring lesson of history. The Book of Mathew in 20:16 says that “so the first will be last, and the last will be first”. The struggle for the freedom of the downtrodden hasn’t been in vain. That’s why you must hang in there.

Finally, don’t listen to those who want to read your “political eulogy”. Some people even say that you can’t run for President in five years because you are too old. That’s also baloney. Mr Kibaki was 71 when he was first elected to State House in 2002.

He was re-elected for a final five-year term at 76 and retired this year at 81. You should plan on running in 2017. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – who is about your age – is touted as the leading nominee for the Democratic Party in 2016.

Damn the question of age.

Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC. Twitter @makaumutua.

Open letter to Raila Odinga don't accept errand boy job by Makau Mutua

Raila asks government to provide enough security on Kenya-Tanzanian border

This security situation needs to get sorted, with all that is happening in Mandera, and now this.



Bungoma senator Moses Wetangula threatened

Exit poll points to a tie between Uhuru and Raila

Harvard Don discusses Kenya exit poll report

The Unenviable fate of the Luo in a nutshell by John Githongo, what more is there to add?

An Arab friend once told me in reference to the perpetual struggle with Israel that, “We shall fight until the last Egyptian!” Egypt remains the most populous Arab country and most central to the politics of the Middle East in many ways…
 WAITING FOR ODINGA
 I remember showing up for a ‘change-the-constitution’ rally in the mid-1990s at Uhuru Park only to find it had not started. I ended up hanging around with a pack of local and international journalists under a tree waiting for things to start. The police had already shown up in force.
 There were the beginnings of a crowd albeit dispersed into small groups chatting. The question everyone was asking was whether and when Raila Odinga would show up. If he failed too then it was implicit the event would not lift off. For it was Raila who galvanised the crowds; it was he who showed up with throngs of young mainly Luo men willing to be on the frontline once the tear gas started being lobbed about.
 Only Kenneth Matiba was able to mobilise youth (mainly Gikuyu for his part) in a similar way that got under the skin of the Moi administration. In those days, these loyal troops were essential to any self-respecting attempt at a demonstration.
Once they showed up and ‘Tinga’ or Matiba arrived ,the show was on the road. It meant the journalists would have something to report and nice action-packed photographs and stories about Kenyans’ struggle for a new katiba would be beamed across the planet.
 Since the 1960s when Raila’s father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga fell out with then President Kenyatta, the political competition between these two families and their respective supporters (especially those from their tribes) formed the beating heart of the most tectonic political contest that has rocked Kenya’s politics. Odinga, who recently accepted defeat in the just concluded polls to Uhuru Kenyatta, was the controversial centre of gravity of Kenyan politics. He made the bold moves that shaped much of opposition politics.
 The controversy was also partly fed by an instinctive political restlessness, razor-sharp intuition and, among other things, his alleged role in the attempted coup of 1982 that saw him returned to detention and from which he emerged eventually as the most detained politician in Kenyan history. He decamped from Ford and formed the NDP.
He then took the NDP into a cooperation agreement with Kanu (then the mortal enemy of all ‘reformers’ and oppositionists) causing howls of outrage that reverberated across the country for months. In 2002, as the first Project Uhuru was rolled out by the then retiring Moi, it was Odinga’s “Kibaki tosha!" endorsement while dumping Kanu that united the opposition and routed the ruling party after 24 years. Again, it was effective because it was an accepted political fact that Odinga brought with him a solid Luo voting bloc. It also helped that at that moment, Kibaki was not seen so much as a Gikuyu candidate but the leader of a coalition that could crush Kanu.
 This article is not an ode to Odinga. He is a man of many flaws and strengths alike that shall doubtlessly be dissected in detail over the coming months.
Rather, I have been speaking to friends in past weeks and as the results of the elections sink in and narrative of ‘we must forget and move on’ is rolled relentlessly out, the place of the Luo in our tribalised politics remains the subject of particular fascination to me.
 Though the nuances are many, it is clear that when one looks back at the past five decades, the highly politicised Luo community (Kenya’s fourth largest), and its leaders, have come to occupy a disproportionate space in our political story; punching way above their tribal numeric weight or commercial strength.
As a result their politicians have been unevenly assassinated, detained, jailed and harassed since the mid 1960s. Luo academics too have borne the brunt of state efforts to manage what Kenyans think politically.
In every sphere of life, the post-colonial State in Kenya has been perceived to apply an aggressive political and economic containment strategy with regard to that community’s leadership.
Ironically, Barack Hussein Obama Snr, father of the current American President, suffered his greatest trauma as a result of this. He never really recovered.
 THE LUO AS THE INFANTRY OF KENYA’S DEMOCRACY
 For in our politics tribe trumps everything else. Our patronage-based political economy gives us a big man who carries his tribe around in his pocket as a voting bloc that allows him to negotiate with other tribal kingpins for a place at the table.
For a long time it has held our political imagination hostage and it often carries the aspirations of a community plus the promise of patronage, security and access to justice.
It is politically incorrect to admit: there is a powerful perception, fostering a deep collective resentment and sense of victimhood among the Luo, because they have been at the forefront of Kenya’s most important democratic struggles since independence regardless of opinions regarding their leader - hostile or otherwise. There is therefore the feeling among their elite especially that they as a community have served as the infantry in the struggle for the freedoms Kenya now enjoys. The reward for this has too often been seen as denigration, mistrust, betrayal and violence (both soft and hard) meted out against their leaders for 50 years.
 Thus the narrative: if you are struggling for freedoms, send out the Luo grunts ready to face the state, they’ll be outspoken and courageous in battle but the ‘victory’ has always been ‘stolen’ from them.
The stereotypical counter argument is that their leaders, Raila Odinga in particular, is not a safe pair of hands in which to place the nation’s fate.
His supporters are too noisy, too violent, too reckless, given to bombast and an abhorrence of pragmatism. It was perhaps thus that media stations rushed their top journalists to Kisumu during primaries that preceded the election, the election itself and then after the Supreme Court ruling.
I’m not trying to romanticise anything here. Indeed, there is no guarantee that the Luo elite would not have behaved exactly as Kibaki’s Mt Kenya mafia had the ascended to power.
 THE COLLATERAL LUO
 When the Supreme Court released its judgement with regard to the disputed March 4 election at the end of last month, skirmishes between the police and Mr Odinga’s disappointed and disbelieving supporters broke out.
What has struck me is that killing young Luo men has become normalised now. This is much in the same way we always expect steady violence in Northern Kenya.
Like the IDPs languishing in IDP camps within our own country, it is almost as if these citizens are no longer Kenyan. A similar fate befell many young Gikuyu men accused of belonging to Mungiki in 2007. There is a pattern here. It was best articulated by leading young Kisumu lawyer, Issac Okero when giving evidence to the Waki Commission in August 2008:
 “There is a perception that where there is need to contain demonstrations, the use of lethal force is an option that rapidly comes to fore and that is very very worrying and speaking as a resident of Kisumu, my own experience is that in the 16 years that I have been here, every occasion on which there has been demonstrations particularly in the election years, there has been the deployment of live rounds which has resulted in the deaths of residents of Kisumu and that is a very, very unfortunate statistic."
 A colleague who recently returned from the Western part of Kenya was emphatic that the ‘peace’ that’s holding thus far is fragile. In several areas, he told me, Gikuyu traders are facing a silent boycott.
This is apparently being reciprocated in parts of Central Province and Nairobi. “Many people here don’t yet believe Uhuru is President. They are dazed like a football player suffering a concussion”, another colleague explained, “and the issue is not only that their candidate
Odinga lost the election its that they believe the poll was stolen ‘by the Gikuyu’ once again. So everywhere you hear people saying there no reason to vote ever again as the process will be rigged and no one has confidence in the Supreme Court any more.”
 As head of state, Uhuru faces a daunting nation building and reconciliation exercise. He won’t be able to securitize this existential disconnect across the entire nation bang it over the head and kill it.
And if he is wise he’ll have to start among the Luo and be prepared to work extremely hard at it for the fury there is unmitigated. He demonstrated this political wit by attending a funeral there last weekend. No piddling committee will resolve things though, leadership is the key in a situation where half the electorate doubt or outright reject his legitimacy and their worst stereotypes about Gikuyus have seemingly been borne out by the facts.
 There is a Coastal saying, “Corner a cat, start to beat it and it can even kill you.” We need to face up to the fact that in many respects, Kenya is a country at war with itself.
This is not yet with machetes but with words and deeds too often added to by a crass triumphalism on the part of some Jubilee supporters who don’t seem to realize that those they mock have ran out of institutional problem solving options as far as political disputes go.
 However, I believe that currently, devolution and counties gives many people hope. In typical contradictory Kenyan fashion, devolution is supported not only because it promises people in the countryside their ‘turn to eat’, it is also viewed as a tool to ‘put the Gikuyus in their place’.

The unenviable fate of the Luo by John Githongo

I don't think I could add to this at all. I think John Githongo, has written a comprehensive piece,  and am sure that John Githongo will get a lot of abuse for writing this, in the usual fashion. Accusations that he is paid by the West, as he does not sing from the same hymn sheet, as his critics.

Court of Law ,Court of Justice or Injustice

State to issue plan on Raila security

Reading the article State to issue plan on Raila security by Cyrus Ombati, I was surprised to read that Raila and Kalonzo had 80 guards between them. However, given the insecurity in Kenya,  these 80 guards were allocated for a reason.

Some argue that Raila and Kalonzo are now civilians and are no longer in need of security. I disagree given the nature of the positions they held, and the associated risks. If security detail is to be reduced, it should be consistent,  all previous leaders in the same postion, should get the same treatment.

Moody Awori has security in Nairobi, and Busia(a precedent has been set here), as does Moi and Kibaki.

Why should Raila and Kalonzo be any different, as they were in government.

We can argue that it is taxpayers money, and our money needs to go elsewhere.

Fair enough, the powers that be need to be consistent, in the decisions they make, or it is discrimination, plain and simple.


Quotes from the article below

The Government is today expected to issue a circular on the management of security seconded to former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka.
Head of Public Service Francis Kimemia is set to issue guidelines on how the armed men will operate and the resources they are supposed to have.

Apparently, Raila and Kalonzo had discussed the issue of their security when they met President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto. It was then that it was agreed the two should retain a good number of security for their safety and hence the expected circular.
Coalition for Reforms and Democracy ( CORD) Senators and MPs raised concerns over the withdrawal of the two leaders’ security detail and demanded an explanation, terming it an attempt to humiliate the former leaders.

Update related article: Raila's security request rejected

Quotes below

The Jubilee government has turned down Raila Odinga's request that he should get a security detail of up to 20 police officers.
Deputy President William Ruto communicated the decision to the former Prime Minister last week when the two met privately at Ruto's Karen house.
During the meeting, Raila reportedly reminded Ruto that Jubilee had promised that it would increase his personal security along with former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.
Raila and Kalonzo were assigned close to 100 police officers during the last government but they were withdrawn, along with their government vehicles, shortly after President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in on April 9.
 A few police officers continued guarding them but without clear guidelines.  
Raila and Kalonzo met Uhuru and Ruto at State House on April 13 to express concern over their security and government promised to issue a directive.
Head of Public Service Francis Kimemia was expected to issue guidelines on how many men and resources their security details would have.  
However there has been no communication from the government since then. According to sources, this prompted Raila to meet Ruto again to request an enhanced security detail of up to 20 police officers working in shifts.
Ruto, according to insiders, said 20 officers was too high but said that Jubilee government would honor the VIP status of Raila and Kalonzo with no further elaboration.
There is no law clearly providing for how a former PM and VP should be treated. Both Raila and Kalonzo missed out when President Kibaki rejected the Retirement Benefits (Deputy President and Designated State Officers) Bill 2013 in January.
Kibaki rejected the Bill because of the huge retirement packages that MPs had awarded themselves just before the end of the last Parliament.
Retired Presidents Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki are both well catered for under the Presidential Retirements Benefits Act.  
The Act gives a retired president 12 security officers- six for his own personal security and six others to guard his Nairobi and rural homes.  
In the April meeting with Uhuru and Ruto, it was suggested that the two Cord leaders be each accorded 12 police officers like Moi and Kibaki.  
Insiders within Jubilee said that Raila and Kalonzo would first have to quit active politics before they can enjoy such benefits.
“Even before the enactment of a law, this can easily be done through a circular by the head of public service. But what we know is that such retirement benefits cannot be extended  to  a person one who is still active in politics,” said a source at the Office of the President yesterday.
The Presidential Retirements Benefits Act provides that that a former president will lose all his benefits if he engages in active politics.
The bill rejected by Kibaki provided that “an entitled person shall not hold office in any political party at any time.” Raila and Kalonzo have indicated that they will continue leading the opposition from outside Parliament.  Raila is still the ODM leader while Kalonzo continue to serve as the leader of Wiper Party.
The Bill had also provided that a person entitled to retirement benefits “may be requested by the Government to perform specific official functions and shall be paid a reasonable allowance in respect of such official functions.” On Sunday, Raila stated that he is not ready to take up any job assigned to him by President Uhuru.

RIP David Okuta

I was waiting to see what would happen as I had received several texts last night  from people hoping that no stones would be thrown at Uhuru Kenyatta. He flew in with a military helicopter, accompanied by GSU, well prepared. First Luo funeral I have heard of with a GSU presence.

"President Uhuru arrived at the ceremony at 11.30am in a military chopper. Raila arrived much later.

There is heavy presence of security officers that include General Service
Unit (GSU).

The officers screened mourners at the entrance of the institution, while armed GSU officers were stationed on both sides a 200 metres feeder road to the school, from Ahero-Kericho Road."

Quotes from Uhuru,Raila at Okuta's burial by Mangoa Mosota

I wonder whether there is any way of politicians not talking politics at funerals.

Same thing at my grandmothers funeral, the local MP came and gave one long political speech. I was not amused.Same story at my father's funeral, where you would have thought you were on the campaign trail.

Has this always been the case?

I can understand that David Okuta fought for teachers, and his work must continue,but were the political speeches necessary?

People were there to mourn,and to pay tribute to David Okuta or to hear political speeches?

Wonder whether they got to sample some Omena, Obambla, and Kamongo before they left.

What was interesting were the Freudian slips below

His Excellency the President of Kenya, Honourable Raila Odinga,” Belvina said as she acknowledged the dignitaries attending her husband’s burial among who was President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Belvina however quickly apologised on realising her mistake, saying “sorry for that mishap.”

But when it was his turn to address the mourners, Odinga made light of the moment.
“I’ve seen people having difficulties addressing me as retired, former… I am available, I’ve just moved on. So don’t have difficulties addressing me, I am Raila Amolo Odinga.”
President Kenyatta himself at one point erroneously referred to Odinga as the ‘Prime Minister’ saying: “We need one another, and as the Prime Minister said, it is not a situation of us versus them, the government versus the unions. It is us together sitting, and working in the same direction with the realisation that we share a common destiny and we need to be able to work together.”

Quotes from Don't fret simply call me Raila by Olive Burrows

Rest in Peace David Okuta

Related article: Uhuru heads for Okuta's burial in Nyando

Raila Odinga says stop saying sorry

I heard that lots of people were going round to Raila's house to say Pole, after the results were announced. His response was that they should not be mourning, as noone has died. Damn right!

Here is a quote from Raila that I got from the Standard

“Do not tell me sorry for what happened, I do not wish to hear this. When a cooking stick breaks, do you stop preparing your meal? Certainly not! And that is why we want to state that we have enough work to do,” said Raila.

Relevant article: Raila declines Uhuru's job offer and vows to soldier on

An excerpt below

“We all know what happened, but we want to say that is over, we did not want to bring bloodshed again and that is why we are looking ahead,” he said.  Wetangula warned against picking political rejects from Western for Cabinet slots saying this would not resonate with people’s wishes. He accused some leaders from Western of angling for appointments into the Cabinet saying they were selfish and had sold out the community. "

I am no fan of Martha Karua, but have to agree with the point she makes on this video.


Update: Relevant article An ode to a fallen general by Peter Wanyoni

An excerpt below

In recent times, young politicians and some Kenyans crawling on social  media barely out of their napkins have taken Raila’s defeat in the recent elections as an opportunity to hurl insults at him.
They conveniently forget that the very structures over which they lord, the very country that they now bestride with noisy tweets and Facebook posts and many of the freedoms they enjoy, would never have been possible without the sacrifice of Raila Odinga and his contemporaries.
DEMOCRACY
These men and women endured years behind bars, banged up in detention without trial, to birth the openness and the democracy that we now take for granted, and in whose free air the new political class now hold forth with their salt-in-the-wound rubbing. In so doing, they come to resemble Chinua Achebe’s unwise little bird eneke-nti-oba, who so far forgot himself after a heavy meal that he challenged his personal god to a fight.
Raila is a yardstick against which to measure the performances of our new crop of politicians. He made mistakes — like everyone else  — but his virtues far outweighed these. It is this very standard against which we will now judge the fortitude, the fitness-for-purpose, of our new leaders. 
They have not begun on a good footing, letting their followers humiliate Raila in ways that are decidedly un-African.

Like Achebe said, those who mock Raila should remember that he whose palm nuts have been cracked for them by benevolent spirits, should not forget to be humble.
Thank the man for his selflessness and service, and let him be.

Uhuru and Ruto host Raila and Kilonzo

  Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka held talks with President  Uhuru Kenyatta , and his deputy William Ruto. I think it is important that we have a healthy,strong, opposition. Looks like they are all sharing some joke,



unlike this photo



Salim Lone has said that Raila Odinga will be focusing on building a national movement.

Like Onyango Oloo, I found the supreme court ruling a slap in the face.

I wait to see the the poll petiton verdict on Tuesday. I don't see how it will help anybody,as the ruling was made, end of.

Update: Relevant article Uhuru offers Raila special envoy post 

Update two: Relevant articles attorney General misled Supreme court on doctrine of invalidation of elections by James Gondi.

An excerpt from that article

It is not in dispute that there were violations of electoral laws by the IEBC. The petitioners applied legitimate audio visual means to demonstrate these illegalities and further adduced incontrovertible evidence to demonstrate this fact. The court appears to have ignored this evidence and chartered the easier path towards the net effect of these violations of electoral law on the actual outcome of the elections.
Perhaps the court subconsciously took into account the socio-political effects of an invalidation of an election result and chose the more conservative path as advanced by the AG. Indeed, the law does not exist in a vacuum and the court may have been persuaded to apply the more conservative case law which says that even after establishing flagrant violations of the law, the petitioners must show that without these violations, a considerably different result would have emerged from the electoral process.
The doctrine of substantial effect on the result even though outdated and controverted may have been a safer way out for the court given the socio political and economic dynamics at play. After all, many in Kenya, especially the middle class and business community had taken the position that the country must move forward notwithstanding their dissatisfaction with the electoral process.
In addition to the desire to move on with life and business, despite the injustices by the electoral management body, the tension between peace and justice came into play behind the scenes. It was feared by the political establishment that an invalidation of the result would have led to widespread violence. Given that the courts operate in society, they may have been swayed towards this narrative and chose to abandon the established violation of law standard and adopt the inferior doctrine of substantial effect on results as part of a political calculation to avoid perceived violence and the detrimental economic effects of invalidation of the election results.
The effect of the electoral malpractices and upholding the result leaves the country balkanised along ethnic lines depending on their desired outcome and taking into account the gross irregularities. One half of the country feels disenfranchised and that their right to vote has been infringed by legitimising the failure of the election management body to abide by its laws and regulations.
The other half of the country is ecstatic about its coalition ascending to power despite flagrant breaches of the law. The result is that electoral malpractice, irregularity and illegality have been legitimised and any party to future electoral contests will have to either be complicit in the violation of election laws or become the victim of such violation. The disenfranchisement of voters is also an outcome which may lead the populace to significantly diminish its participation in future electoral processes.
More significantly, confidence in electoral justice has diminished while apathy and ambivalence has begun to take root. The gains made after 2007 through the partial implementation of new electoral laws and regulations suggested by the Kriegler report are on the verge of being lost. The courts and the electoral management body will have an uphill task in motivating public participation in elections and dispute resolution. The court had a duty to restore the integrity of elections which the electoral management body has distorted.
The writer is a Program Advisor at the Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) which challenged the outcome of the March 4 presidential election.

Update three Relevant article: Details of Uhuru Raila State house meet

Some quotes from the article below

Speaking in Khwisero constituency on Saturday during the burial of Mama Ellena Andayi, mother to area lawmaker Benjamin Andola, Raila told supporters he had warned Uhuru and Ruto against buying members of his team to their side. ?
“I met with the two and we discussed how we shall operate. I cautioned them against buying my team and instead I told them to work on one side and we work on the other. We have to have two teams – one the opposition and their side,” he affirmed.
Speaking after State House meeting, Raila also divulged that he had turned down an offer by Jubilee Government to serve as special envoy asserting that he had a lot of work to do. Instead, Raila said he would strengthen his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party and CORD.

courtesy call
In its statement to the Press, the PPS referred to the meeting as “a courtesy call” by Raila and Kalonzo to President Kenyatta and his Deputy Ruto.
“During the meeting, the CORD leaders conveyed their message of goodwill to the President and his deputy saying they wished them well in running the country,” read the statement. ? In contrast, the statement from Raila’s aide was more specific about the “real issues” discussed.
Raila and Kalonzo raised concerned about the quest by Jubilee to take control of House committees and thereby denying the minority party a critical role in key committees such as Accounts and Investments.

“President Kenyatta and Deputy President Ruto pledged that the Jubilee Coalition, which commands majority in both Houses, is committed to ensuring the existence of a strong opposition party, as a necessary tool for democratisation and to ensure steady check on Government,” said the statement from Raila.
And following the gesture by Uhuru and Ruto to include some members of Raila’s CORD team in Government, the former PM and VP are said to have presented a case for tribal and regional balance in Cabinet and other senior Government appointments.    
Similar sentiments were made by former Attorney General Amos Wako, who asked President Kenyatta, a day before he was sworn-in to office, to absorb members of other communities –including those who did not vote for him – in senior Government positions.
Separately, a source allied to Jubilee Coalition and privy to the State House meeting, confided that Raila and Kalonzo also raised concerns over their personal security.

“Although promising to look into the matter and push for their case, President Kenyatta advised that the security demand was solely under the prerogative of another independent official – the Inspector General of Police,” says our source.
It was agreed, however, that this demand would be addressed anyway, considering that a precedent had been set as the Ninth Vice-President, Moody Awori, was enjoying a 24-hour security presence at his Nairobi and Gulamwoyo homes in Busia County.

And while appreciating the good gesture by the top political leaders to reach out to one another, Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo reads politics in On Saturday’s State House meeting.
According to the two-term MP, Uhuru and Ruto have been in politics fairly long enough and can therefore not underestimate Raila’s political might and shrewdness.
“They want to get close because they realise they cannot wish away a man who got over 5.3 million votes.
The country is virtually split into two and it will be politically dangerous if such a huge proportion of Kenyans were to become skeptical of Uhuru’s leadership,” he said.
However, Senator of Machakos County, Johnston Muthama hopes that Uhuru and Ruto are genuine about their overtures.