Ruto case won't be in Kenya or Tanzania

African court rules out trying Ruto by Lucas Barasa

JSO interview Raila Amolo Odinga

Part two

JSO Boniface Mwangi interview

Part two



Maximum respect Boniface, wish we had more people like you in Kenya.

Raila Odinga blocked from VIP lounges

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 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

Kenya President's office censored report on high level land grabbing-commissioners

Why am I not surprised



Kenya President's office censored report on high level land grabbing by Katy Migiro

article below

NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Three foreign members of a commission looking into historical injustices in Kenya have said the president’s office censored a report to exclude references to irregular land seizures.
The commissioners said the Office of the President put pressure on the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) to delete paragraphs from its May report in which witnesses testified that Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta irregularly gave out public land to his family, friends and ethnic group. Current President Uhuru Kenyatta is the son of the country’s founding leader.
“We could not in good conscience agree to the removal of these voices, particularly when such removal was so clearly motivated by political pressure from high government officials,” commissioners Ron Slye of the United States, Berhanu Dinka of Ethiopia and Gertrude Chawatama of Zambia said in a statement published on Sunday.
As a result of this pressure, changes were made irregularly to the approved and signed report, which was published on May 21, after the end of the commission’s operational period, the foreign commissioners said. The dissenting commissioners’ opinion was also excluded, contrary to agreed procedure that it should be printed with the main report.
“The political pressure that was brought to bear ostensibly to protect the reputation of the first President will probably have the opposite effect of tarnishing that legacy,” the statement added.
The commissioners said they do not know whether the current president was aware of the actions of officials in his office.
The TJRC report detailed political assassinations, human rights violations, corruption and other historical abuses in Kenya between independence in 1963 and 2008, when the commission was set up following post-election violence that killed 1,200 people.
LEAKED TO STATE HOUSE
Land was one of the drivers of conflict during 2007/08 and of other conflicts that Kenya has experienced since 1963.
The commissioners said a copy of the chapter on land from its report “appears to have been leaked to individuals with ties to State House [the president’s official residence]” while the document was waiting to be printed.
The Office of the President then insisted on being given an advance copy of the entire report so that President Uhuru Kenyatta could familiarise himself with its contents before officially receiving it.
Soon after, several Kenyan commissioners began arguing for major revisions to the land chapter.
“A number of Commissioners, including at least one of the international Commissioners, received phone calls from a senior official in the Office of the President suggesting various changes to the land chapter,” the statement said.
The deleted material mainly details allegations of land grabbing by Jomo Kenyatta.
For example, one paragraph says Kenyatta gave his son a wedding gift in 1976 of “a large tract of government land which was, apparently, acquired without official approval and without compliance with legal procedures”.
Another paragraph says Kenyatta “unlawfully alienated to himself 250 acres” of trust land on the coast that was supposed to be held by the government in trust for the people.
“Irregularly, President Kenyatta took all of Tiwi and Diani trust lands at the expense of local people who immediately became ‘squatters’ on the land and were subsequently evicted, rendering them landless and poor,” it said.
Tiwi and Diani are prime holiday destinations on Kenya’s coast where international hotels line the beachfront. This land currently sells at 15 million Kenyan shillings ($176,000) per acre, the report said.
Also deleted was a warning that such land disputes “should be carefully addressed to avert the possibility of more secessionist movements” – referring to the Mombasa Republic Council on the coast, which wants independence from Kenya.
Campaigners have cast doubt on any action being taken in response to the alleged censorship of the report, given that President Kenyatta’s father is named as one of the main culprits in the irregular land seizures.

Related article: Missing paragraph in the TJRC report on the land question

Raila slams AU criticism of the ICC

Jubilee government living large

Living it up as expected.

JSO Maina Kiai interview

Part 1

Peaceful protest is a human right, and part of our constitution.



Part 2

Mambo ni yale yale



John challenges Maina saying that activism is a livelihood doomed to failure. Maina Kiai puts him right by saying that activism is not about livelihood for him, but about belief. Activism has changed the world. If it were not for activism, things would not have changed in Tunisia,Egypt or South Africa. Activism is not just taking to the streets. It is about writing,research,investigation, voter empowerment, civic education. We would not have a new constitution without activism.

 We can't forget or dismiss activism.

If activists like Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, did not take to the streets, where would Black America be today.

If the late Wangari Maathai was not an activist, would any changes have been made to the Green belt movement in Kenya?

Did they see this as their livelihood?

Related article: Diplomatic diversions

Mutula Kilonzo finally laid to rest at Mbooni

Mutula's grandson, Keithi's son,Master Mumo Kilonzo what a lovely, brave boy