Monday, 31 March 2008
Saturday, 29 March 2008
Commentary (by Barrack Muluka) - Why it is vital for Kibaki to see things as they are
Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143984012&cid=4&PHPSESSID=27bfb1c30ca56d69977e1dfb0b694c4d
Published on March 29, 2008, 12:00 am
By barrack muluka
President Kibaki is a lonely man, living on a lonely island. It was Joseph Kamotho who once lamented about the cold and loneliness at the top. Kamotho was then a very powerful politician. He called the shots in the monolith that was Kanu. He dissolved this Kanu branch today and appointed acting officials tomorrow. He called for branch elections almost everywhere everyday. He was the kind of man Kanu politicians wanted to be on the right side of. Yet Kamotho felt cold and lonely from his own confession.
Prof Chinua Achebe confirms that it is possible to be cold, alone and lonely at the top; where African leaders sit.
For he has written in The Trouble with Nigeria: "One of the penalties of exalted power is loneliness. Harnessed to the trappings of protocol and blockaded by a buffer of grinning courtiers and sycophants, even a good and intelligent leader will gradually begin to forget what the real world looks like." Achebe concludes that on account of the deceptive human wall around them, "Many Presidents, especially Third Word Presidents, do not live in their country."
That is to say that many African presidents live in wonderland. They lost touch with reality a long, long time ago. Like in Nigeria, what does the Kenyan president see whenever he sets out to see things for himself? He sees "highways temporarily cleared of lunatic drivers by even more lunatic presidential escorts, hitherto impassable tracts freshly graded and even watered to keep down the dust, buildings dripping of fresh paint, well-fed obsequious welcoming parties, garlands of colourful crÍpe paper hung round the neck by women leaders and troupes of "cultural dancers" and many other such scenes of contented citizenry."
In a nutshell, the fellows the African boss surrounds himself with mislead him on just about everything, in the interest of their personal greed. Even literature such as this, they make sure he does not read. That way, the big man gets the shock of his life when, say, he loses badly in a referendum as President Kibaki did in November 2005. The big man cannot understand when simmering emotions come to a blood letting boil like they recently did in the country. For the picture he has of the country is light years from the reality.
In history, we have read of leaders who refused to be fooled by guided tours of their own country. These were men and women who achieved rare leadership through making honest effort to know the country and its people. They sought to place their finger on the pulse of the nation.
Haroun Al Rashid of Baghdad in the eighth century was reputed to disguise himself and to sneak into the streets to see the life of his subjects in its reality. He listened to their talk and knew their thoughts and feelings.
Addressing restlessness
To paraphrase Achebe, "Kibaki should return home, read the papers and from time to time talk to Kenyans outside the circle of presidential aides and other loyalists and other fly-by-night self seekers." Then he will begin to understand why the country has recently burnt and why it could still burn again, before his very own eyes. He would get to know just how desperate and restless the youth has got and why.
He would know how it is up to him to lead in addressing their restlessness. Beyond this, he would know that millions of Kenyans are getting edgy about his political prevarication, equivocation and procrastination.
The Kenyan president would get to know that people are asking loudly whether he places any premium on his word. He would know that there are those who think that his words vaporise into nothing the very moment they leave his lips. He would understand that he badly needs to reassure Kenyans that they can count on him to keep his word. For as the reigning dreamer of dreams, have I not come across enough citizens who are puzzled by the impasse in the naming of a lean and mean coalition Cabinet?
I have come across enough people who are saying, "The President made a public promise on equal power sharing with ODM. If now the President is seen to be having a change of heart on a promise he made in public, in broad daylight, how shall we trust him on the things he does away from the glare of the public?" But even more significantly, President Kibaki should know that there is a precarious bristling impatience out here. Caprice and wrong political cleverness cannot drive the Government anymore. That age is simply gone.
But again one expects that there is such a thing as an official national intelligence network. Don’t they tell the President the truth? Don’t they tell him that reform, justice, equity and merit are the engines that must run Government beginning from now? Two years ago, President Kibaki declared at a public gathering that he does not read newspapers. That is why I am not surprised that he did not see the post-election mess coming.
Well, someone would do well to tell him to start reading newspapers, listening to radio and talking to Kenyans, away from the sycophants. He will save himself and this country a lot of attrition.
-The writer (Publishers.okwaromuluka@yahoo.com) is a publishing editor and media consultant with Mvule Africa
Published on March 29, 2008, 12:00 am
By barrack muluka
President Kibaki is a lonely man, living on a lonely island. It was Joseph Kamotho who once lamented about the cold and loneliness at the top. Kamotho was then a very powerful politician. He called the shots in the monolith that was Kanu. He dissolved this Kanu branch today and appointed acting officials tomorrow. He called for branch elections almost everywhere everyday. He was the kind of man Kanu politicians wanted to be on the right side of. Yet Kamotho felt cold and lonely from his own confession.
Prof Chinua Achebe confirms that it is possible to be cold, alone and lonely at the top; where African leaders sit.
For he has written in The Trouble with Nigeria: "One of the penalties of exalted power is loneliness. Harnessed to the trappings of protocol and blockaded by a buffer of grinning courtiers and sycophants, even a good and intelligent leader will gradually begin to forget what the real world looks like." Achebe concludes that on account of the deceptive human wall around them, "Many Presidents, especially Third Word Presidents, do not live in their country."
That is to say that many African presidents live in wonderland. They lost touch with reality a long, long time ago. Like in Nigeria, what does the Kenyan president see whenever he sets out to see things for himself? He sees "highways temporarily cleared of lunatic drivers by even more lunatic presidential escorts, hitherto impassable tracts freshly graded and even watered to keep down the dust, buildings dripping of fresh paint, well-fed obsequious welcoming parties, garlands of colourful crÍpe paper hung round the neck by women leaders and troupes of "cultural dancers" and many other such scenes of contented citizenry."
In a nutshell, the fellows the African boss surrounds himself with mislead him on just about everything, in the interest of their personal greed. Even literature such as this, they make sure he does not read. That way, the big man gets the shock of his life when, say, he loses badly in a referendum as President Kibaki did in November 2005. The big man cannot understand when simmering emotions come to a blood letting boil like they recently did in the country. For the picture he has of the country is light years from the reality.
In history, we have read of leaders who refused to be fooled by guided tours of their own country. These were men and women who achieved rare leadership through making honest effort to know the country and its people. They sought to place their finger on the pulse of the nation.
Haroun Al Rashid of Baghdad in the eighth century was reputed to disguise himself and to sneak into the streets to see the life of his subjects in its reality. He listened to their talk and knew their thoughts and feelings.
Addressing restlessness
To paraphrase Achebe, "Kibaki should return home, read the papers and from time to time talk to Kenyans outside the circle of presidential aides and other loyalists and other fly-by-night self seekers." Then he will begin to understand why the country has recently burnt and why it could still burn again, before his very own eyes. He would get to know just how desperate and restless the youth has got and why.
He would know how it is up to him to lead in addressing their restlessness. Beyond this, he would know that millions of Kenyans are getting edgy about his political prevarication, equivocation and procrastination.
The Kenyan president would get to know that people are asking loudly whether he places any premium on his word. He would know that there are those who think that his words vaporise into nothing the very moment they leave his lips. He would understand that he badly needs to reassure Kenyans that they can count on him to keep his word. For as the reigning dreamer of dreams, have I not come across enough citizens who are puzzled by the impasse in the naming of a lean and mean coalition Cabinet?
I have come across enough people who are saying, "The President made a public promise on equal power sharing with ODM. If now the President is seen to be having a change of heart on a promise he made in public, in broad daylight, how shall we trust him on the things he does away from the glare of the public?" But even more significantly, President Kibaki should know that there is a precarious bristling impatience out here. Caprice and wrong political cleverness cannot drive the Government anymore. That age is simply gone.
But again one expects that there is such a thing as an official national intelligence network. Don’t they tell the President the truth? Don’t they tell him that reform, justice, equity and merit are the engines that must run Government beginning from now? Two years ago, President Kibaki declared at a public gathering that he does not read newspapers. That is why I am not surprised that he did not see the post-election mess coming.
Well, someone would do well to tell him to start reading newspapers, listening to radio and talking to Kenyans, away from the sycophants. He will save himself and this country a lot of attrition.
-The writer (Publishers.okwaromuluka@yahoo.com) is a publishing editor and media consultant with Mvule Africa
Friday, 28 March 2008
Thursday, 27 March 2008
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Monday, 24 March 2008
Commentary (by Rasna Warah) - Why Zimbabwe mustn’t be allowed to go the Kenya way
Ref: http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=25&newsid=119682
Story by RASNA WARAH
Publication Date: 3/24/2008
MANY KENYANS, INCLUDING myself, are shocked to learn that their country is now considered a role model by many Zimbabweans who have been seriously contemplating “doing a Kenya” if the results of the elections this weekend are not to their liking.
I suppose given the state of their economy, and the fact that the country has been ruled by the last of Africa’s Big Men for close to three decades, Zimbabweans are beginning to believe that the only way fundamental changes can be brought about in their country is by breaking into the kind of violence that Kenyans experienced in the weeks following what many believe to be rigged elections.
One argument put to me recently was that a country has to go through violent conflict in order to emerge as a better nation.
Shortly after the violence broke out in many parts of Kenya, I attended a meeting in Dar es Salaam where participants seriously debated whether what was happening in Kenya was a necessary prelude to fundamental reforms needed in society.
At one point, a stunned delegate from Rwanda was even asked whether the genocide in Rwanda had been worth it as it had paved the way for a more democratic and open society that was based on progressive, egalitarian laws.
He responded by saying that the price Rwanda had paid for its peace and democracy was too high, not just in terms of the cost of reconstruction, but because it was written in the blood of hundreds of thousands of his country’s men, women and children.
It is very tempting to believe that had it not been for the violence that engulfed Kenya in the last two months, the two leaders, Mr Raila Odinga and President Kibaki, might never have agreed to form a coalition government dedicated to bringing about much-needed reforms and constitutional changes.
But was it the fact that more than 1,200 people were killed and some 350,000 were internally displaced that melted their hearts, or was it international pressure from Western governments and the international community that forced them to reach a compromise?
Many believe it is the latter. Kenya is strategically important to Western governments for many reasons.
A crisis in Kenya has the potential to spill over to the entire Eastern Africa region and the Horn, as the port of Mombasa serves as a crucial transport link for neighbouring countries and is a strategic gateway to the troubled Middle East.
Moreover, the United States considers Kenya as a useful ally in its war against terror, especially because the country borders Somalia and Sudan, two countries that have been a thorn in the flesh of the US government for more than a decade.
ZIMBABWE, ON THE OTHER HAND, is landlocked, has no significant ally among the world’s most powerful nations, has no oil or other minerals that are of critical importance to the Western world, and is on the brink of economic collapse.
A violent civil war may stir Britain, South Africa or the African Union into action, but it will barely elicit a yawn from the United States or the European Union.
But even if, by some miracle, the world did unite to liberate a strife-torn Zimbabwe, the price the country will have paid will be so great, it will take years to recover.
In Kenya, two months of violence not only cost lives, but hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue, property and jobs.
It is estimated that the first week of violence alone cost the country US$1 billion. Tourism, one of the biggest income-earners, dropped dramatically as tourists cancelled bookings or left the country in droves.
Inflation soared as vital road links were cut off, making it difficult for farmers to reach their markets. Seven land-locked neighbouring countries that relied on Kenya’s transport networks for imports suffered severe shortages.
But the real cost of the crisis was borne by the people of Kenya, who are still reeling from the impact of the violence.
Reports indicate that the incidence of rape tripled in the months of January and February, with a majority of victims being under the age of 18.
Lawlessness in various parts of the country, including Nairobi, spawned ethnically-based militia groups who killed or forcibly evicted people from their homes and neighbourhoods. Some of these groups are still operating in parts of the country.
Almost every Kenyan was directly or indirectly affected by the violence. As a nation we are traumatised and it will take us a long time to trust again.
If that is the price of democracy, then it is a price many Kenyans are not ever willing to pay again. Zimbabweans going to the polls this Saturday should take note.
Ms Warah is an editor with the UN. The views expressed here are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations.(grasp@nbi.ispkenya.com)
Story by RASNA WARAH
Publication Date: 3/24/2008
MANY KENYANS, INCLUDING myself, are shocked to learn that their country is now considered a role model by many Zimbabweans who have been seriously contemplating “doing a Kenya” if the results of the elections this weekend are not to their liking.
I suppose given the state of their economy, and the fact that the country has been ruled by the last of Africa’s Big Men for close to three decades, Zimbabweans are beginning to believe that the only way fundamental changes can be brought about in their country is by breaking into the kind of violence that Kenyans experienced in the weeks following what many believe to be rigged elections.
One argument put to me recently was that a country has to go through violent conflict in order to emerge as a better nation.
Shortly after the violence broke out in many parts of Kenya, I attended a meeting in Dar es Salaam where participants seriously debated whether what was happening in Kenya was a necessary prelude to fundamental reforms needed in society.
At one point, a stunned delegate from Rwanda was even asked whether the genocide in Rwanda had been worth it as it had paved the way for a more democratic and open society that was based on progressive, egalitarian laws.
He responded by saying that the price Rwanda had paid for its peace and democracy was too high, not just in terms of the cost of reconstruction, but because it was written in the blood of hundreds of thousands of his country’s men, women and children.
It is very tempting to believe that had it not been for the violence that engulfed Kenya in the last two months, the two leaders, Mr Raila Odinga and President Kibaki, might never have agreed to form a coalition government dedicated to bringing about much-needed reforms and constitutional changes.
But was it the fact that more than 1,200 people were killed and some 350,000 were internally displaced that melted their hearts, or was it international pressure from Western governments and the international community that forced them to reach a compromise?
Many believe it is the latter. Kenya is strategically important to Western governments for many reasons.
A crisis in Kenya has the potential to spill over to the entire Eastern Africa region and the Horn, as the port of Mombasa serves as a crucial transport link for neighbouring countries and is a strategic gateway to the troubled Middle East.
Moreover, the United States considers Kenya as a useful ally in its war against terror, especially because the country borders Somalia and Sudan, two countries that have been a thorn in the flesh of the US government for more than a decade.
ZIMBABWE, ON THE OTHER HAND, is landlocked, has no significant ally among the world’s most powerful nations, has no oil or other minerals that are of critical importance to the Western world, and is on the brink of economic collapse.
A violent civil war may stir Britain, South Africa or the African Union into action, but it will barely elicit a yawn from the United States or the European Union.
But even if, by some miracle, the world did unite to liberate a strife-torn Zimbabwe, the price the country will have paid will be so great, it will take years to recover.
In Kenya, two months of violence not only cost lives, but hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue, property and jobs.
It is estimated that the first week of violence alone cost the country US$1 billion. Tourism, one of the biggest income-earners, dropped dramatically as tourists cancelled bookings or left the country in droves.
Inflation soared as vital road links were cut off, making it difficult for farmers to reach their markets. Seven land-locked neighbouring countries that relied on Kenya’s transport networks for imports suffered severe shortages.
But the real cost of the crisis was borne by the people of Kenya, who are still reeling from the impact of the violence.
Reports indicate that the incidence of rape tripled in the months of January and February, with a majority of victims being under the age of 18.
Lawlessness in various parts of the country, including Nairobi, spawned ethnically-based militia groups who killed or forcibly evicted people from their homes and neighbourhoods. Some of these groups are still operating in parts of the country.
Almost every Kenyan was directly or indirectly affected by the violence. As a nation we are traumatised and it will take us a long time to trust again.
If that is the price of democracy, then it is a price many Kenyans are not ever willing to pay again. Zimbabweans going to the polls this Saturday should take note.
Ms Warah is an editor with the UN. The views expressed here are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations.(grasp@nbi.ispkenya.com)
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Commentary (by Ken Ouko) - Rich symbolism spices political talk
Ref: http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=119625
Story by KEN OUKO
Publication Date: 3/23/2008
Something is happening to our politicians. Early sociologists who subscribed to the Doctrine of Spinoza, where individuals regularly change their self-existence, would say of Kenya today that our politicians have suddenly become strident adherents of Spinozism!
What has happened to this breed that we love to loathe yet we mandate every so often to take care of our business?
Suddenly, our politicians are practising an art of speech and behaviour where what they say or do is not meant to be interpreted on the simplistic basis of linguistic empiricism but from the perspective of rich symbolism. The question on everyone’s lips is: why now?
Have our politicians suddenly re-discovered themselves in the spirit of a new beginning or are they just sugar coating their speeches and actions so as not to attract negativism at this moment of history?
In sociological terms, humans resort to the use of symbolism either because they lack the forum to verbalise their intention or because the message they intend to pass is better symbolised than mouthed. There is no better way, for example, that Raila Odinga would have sent his message about the pecking order in the new Kenya than to graciously nudge VP Kalonzo Musyoka out of the seat next to the President in Parliament. After that symbolic spectacle, the VP appeared like an eavesdropper into the conversation between the two heavyweights.
We must not forget that earlier on in Parliament, VP Musyoka had similarly invested in symbolism when he casually informed all who cared to know that he was privy to information that the President would soon be arriving in Parliament.
Assuming that most MPs already knew President Kibaki would make a showing in Parliament, Mr Musyoka would have made his speech and taken his seat but used the opportunity of live media coverage to reveal to the rest of Kenyans that he was ‘‘with it’’ because, soon after, the President strode in.
A week ago, nothing was more symbolic than the lunches between Raila Odinga and the duo of Martha Karua and Amos Kimunya. It was an open secret that the two ministers were perhaps Mr Odinga’s meanest critics and, to share his company over a meal, was not so much about hunger but about a symbolic realignment of the political kind.
Suave gentleman
Mr Kimunya, in particular and ever the suave gentleman, was literally dripping with symbolism when he made it sound like he had sought Mr Odinga’s ‘‘permission’’ to delve into the Safaricom IPO. What cheek!
In reference to Ms Martha Karua, has anyone noticed that she is intelligently playing the gender card to its hilt? Many Kenyans will have noticed that Ms Karua is not only smiling more, but that her smile is beyond the smiley-face kind. She is suddenly spreading the facial-illuminator type of smile and, Lord, isn’t it infectious!
Symbolism took a rather curious turn when Mr Odinga recently hosted Mr Jimmy Kibaki. This was more than an ordinary bonding session. That Mr Odinga brought along his own son, Fidel, thickened the mystery of symbolism. Politically, a meeting with the President’s son is not of obvious value to a man lately in firm control of his destiny and hence the eyebrows about this particular meet.
Mirth and humour
But we can trust that Mr Odinga, ever the advocate of symbolism (remember his football commentaries at political rallies?), must have had good reason to indulge President Kibaki’s first-born son.
The President himself has not been left behind in this vogue of Kenyan politics. His tongue-in-cheek remarks (on the floor of Parliament no less) that we should entrust Mr James Orengo with the constitution and he (Orengo) will deliver it in a few weeks was so rich in mirth and humour that its connotative symbolism escaped many.
All President Kibaki was doing was to indicate his new-found trust of ‘‘the other side’’ and his renewed resolve to get the constitutional agenda off his table and into his legacy.
Sociologists point out that the use of symbolism is largely positive in conveying intent and aspiration.
Symbolism improves interaction. It makes it easier to make meaning of what would, otherwise, not be easily stated.
Prof George Saitoti, however, revealed that sometimes, symbolism may be used to dispense with negative energies.
The ferocity with which the good professor made his presentation on the floor of the House may intelligently be interpreted to mean that he is a man ill at ease with the emergent dispensation that brings on board some fellows he considers less than honourable.
Spirit of novelty
Saitoti’s could also be likened to the domestic tantrums we all throw at those times of crisis when we feel either left out of the ensuing resolution proceedings or we are simply overwhelmed with negative energy accruing from disdain with the status quo.
In a nutshell dear Kenyans, our country is at a historically rich intersection. Our prayer as a people should be that the present crop of politicians will carry the spirit of novelty beyond their all-too-familiar threshold of self-interest and help rebuild this great nation.
As I have stated before, not all conflict is bad.
May be the post-election crisis was thrust upon us by Mr Fate and Mrs Destiny so as to re-direct our path towards a better Kenya.
The writer is a lecturer at the University of Nairobi
Story by KEN OUKO
Publication Date: 3/23/2008
Something is happening to our politicians. Early sociologists who subscribed to the Doctrine of Spinoza, where individuals regularly change their self-existence, would say of Kenya today that our politicians have suddenly become strident adherents of Spinozism!
What has happened to this breed that we love to loathe yet we mandate every so often to take care of our business?
Suddenly, our politicians are practising an art of speech and behaviour where what they say or do is not meant to be interpreted on the simplistic basis of linguistic empiricism but from the perspective of rich symbolism. The question on everyone’s lips is: why now?
Have our politicians suddenly re-discovered themselves in the spirit of a new beginning or are they just sugar coating their speeches and actions so as not to attract negativism at this moment of history?
In sociological terms, humans resort to the use of symbolism either because they lack the forum to verbalise their intention or because the message they intend to pass is better symbolised than mouthed. There is no better way, for example, that Raila Odinga would have sent his message about the pecking order in the new Kenya than to graciously nudge VP Kalonzo Musyoka out of the seat next to the President in Parliament. After that symbolic spectacle, the VP appeared like an eavesdropper into the conversation between the two heavyweights.
We must not forget that earlier on in Parliament, VP Musyoka had similarly invested in symbolism when he casually informed all who cared to know that he was privy to information that the President would soon be arriving in Parliament.
Assuming that most MPs already knew President Kibaki would make a showing in Parliament, Mr Musyoka would have made his speech and taken his seat but used the opportunity of live media coverage to reveal to the rest of Kenyans that he was ‘‘with it’’ because, soon after, the President strode in.
A week ago, nothing was more symbolic than the lunches between Raila Odinga and the duo of Martha Karua and Amos Kimunya. It was an open secret that the two ministers were perhaps Mr Odinga’s meanest critics and, to share his company over a meal, was not so much about hunger but about a symbolic realignment of the political kind.
Suave gentleman
Mr Kimunya, in particular and ever the suave gentleman, was literally dripping with symbolism when he made it sound like he had sought Mr Odinga’s ‘‘permission’’ to delve into the Safaricom IPO. What cheek!
In reference to Ms Martha Karua, has anyone noticed that she is intelligently playing the gender card to its hilt? Many Kenyans will have noticed that Ms Karua is not only smiling more, but that her smile is beyond the smiley-face kind. She is suddenly spreading the facial-illuminator type of smile and, Lord, isn’t it infectious!
Symbolism took a rather curious turn when Mr Odinga recently hosted Mr Jimmy Kibaki. This was more than an ordinary bonding session. That Mr Odinga brought along his own son, Fidel, thickened the mystery of symbolism. Politically, a meeting with the President’s son is not of obvious value to a man lately in firm control of his destiny and hence the eyebrows about this particular meet.
Mirth and humour
But we can trust that Mr Odinga, ever the advocate of symbolism (remember his football commentaries at political rallies?), must have had good reason to indulge President Kibaki’s first-born son.
The President himself has not been left behind in this vogue of Kenyan politics. His tongue-in-cheek remarks (on the floor of Parliament no less) that we should entrust Mr James Orengo with the constitution and he (Orengo) will deliver it in a few weeks was so rich in mirth and humour that its connotative symbolism escaped many.
All President Kibaki was doing was to indicate his new-found trust of ‘‘the other side’’ and his renewed resolve to get the constitutional agenda off his table and into his legacy.
Sociologists point out that the use of symbolism is largely positive in conveying intent and aspiration.
Symbolism improves interaction. It makes it easier to make meaning of what would, otherwise, not be easily stated.
Prof George Saitoti, however, revealed that sometimes, symbolism may be used to dispense with negative energies.
The ferocity with which the good professor made his presentation on the floor of the House may intelligently be interpreted to mean that he is a man ill at ease with the emergent dispensation that brings on board some fellows he considers less than honourable.
Spirit of novelty
Saitoti’s could also be likened to the domestic tantrums we all throw at those times of crisis when we feel either left out of the ensuing resolution proceedings or we are simply overwhelmed with negative energy accruing from disdain with the status quo.
In a nutshell dear Kenyans, our country is at a historically rich intersection. Our prayer as a people should be that the present crop of politicians will carry the spirit of novelty beyond their all-too-familiar threshold of self-interest and help rebuild this great nation.
As I have stated before, not all conflict is bad.
May be the post-election crisis was thrust upon us by Mr Fate and Mrs Destiny so as to re-direct our path towards a better Kenya.
The writer is a lecturer at the University of Nairobi
Commentary (by Owino Opondo) - President’s speech writers need new tricks
Ref: http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=119604
Story by OWINO OPONDO
Publication Date: 3/23/2008
A speech writer is one who is retained to prepare speeches that will be delivered by another person.
The writer is charged with the duty of packaging thoughts into fine presentations made to different audiences: public rallies, annual general meetings, weddings, parliaments, product launches ...
Professional speech writers often have a broad understanding of subjects, enabling them to simplify what would otherwise have been complex socio-econo-political and policy issues. Here, again, the level of education, expertise, experience and expectations of the audience decide the language use, tone and flow of a speech.
Ideally, the speech writer must go yonder and conduct in-depth research into the broad framework of points or messages that whoever has retained him or her wants to cover in the speech.
In a number of cases, witty and pithy speech writers include quotes from other living and dead leaders and authors whose wisdom resonated with their times and audiences.
Then, if time allows the prepared speech is given to whoever is to deliver it to make a mock presentation, together with bracketed indicators on gestures and tone variation in a session called “dry running.”
Here, the speaker will be reminded to pause should his audience respond to a line in his speech with applause. It lets the message sink.
It is a pity that, unlike elsewhere in the world, most colleges and universities offering communication studies in Kenya don’t emphasise on speech writing as a core subject.
To confirm how real this problem is, one only needs to listen to speeches by President Kibaki, Cabinet ministers and top company executives. Many times, they are long, dull and boring tales loaded with statistics to a point of almost throwing fatty sheaths of mystique around them.
It is now a settled argument that most speeches delivered by the Head of State and business leaders in this country are double-spaced products of monologue that do not respond to the aspirations of the audience at hand.
Indeed, journalists who covered former President Daniel Moi knew that the story hardly came from the prepared speeches. We knew his headline-capturing story usually came from off-the-cuff speeches, often delivered in Kiswahili.
In many ways, President Mwai Kibaki has kept this tradition. It is a universal proof that speeches which are seen for the first time by those delivering them on the podium share one nasty notoriety: They chain speakers to a strange mindset, forcing them to be plastic about delivery, gesture and tone, leaving in their wake bored audiences.
Perhaps a more poignant vindication of my position happened in Parliament last Tuesday when President Kibaki contributed to debate on power sharing in his capacity as the MP for Othaya.
Standing by the Dispatch Box, he exhibited a unique degree of ease, alertness to issues at hand, and intellectual flamboyance only associated with him before he was first elected to State House in 2002. He was the first sitting President in post-independence Kenya to contribute to debate in the House.
That feat aside, President Kibaki debated the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2008 with the astuteness of a statesman.
He chose not to enter the sanctum of complicated and high-sounding legal and so-called-jurisprudential arguments MPs with lawyering background had confined the debate. Instead, President Kibaki added life and relevance to the debate by using simple examples and analogies.
He expressed his personal joy that the country had come from the jaws of self-destruction it visited on itself following the announcement of the disputed presidential polls results last December.
Then he reminded the House that the long and winding two decades Kenya had haggled over constitutional review without success was largely caused by personal egos and selfishness on the part of the political elite.
In his view, Kenyans knew whatever needed to be changed in the Constitution, and proposed that Ugenya MP James Orengo or a select team of a few of our educated countrymen could as well finish the work within three weeks!
Only one coming from planet Mars would question the common argument that land was at the heart of the post-election violence that led to the killing of 1,000 and displacement of 35,000 others.
In all parts of the country where communities rose up against each other, the underlying cause was land. It did not matter that those who were given marching orders had bought the plots where they farmed and lived. Legal tenancy and purchase were given a wide berth. The law of the jungle took over, resulting in the mess of spontaneous landlessness.
In his contribution in Parliament, the President poured cold water on Kenyans’ fixation with land, and summed up the inanity of it, thus: “Let us stop these primitive thoughts about land. Yes, you own the land that your father has left to you, but he does not own the world.”
I knew his messages were instantly and warmly received by all the MPs present in the House from the pitch and longevity of foot-thumping and applause.
One who watched the President’s contribution from the floor of Parliament - which was also broadcast live by national and private TV stations - would agree with me that the man was up to the occasion and proved that he has his fingers on Kenya’s collective public heartbeat.
His themes were cogent and timely; delivered when the country was looking up to Parliament to steer the country out of the post-election mess and communal friction.
The President’s speech writers should learn a number of lessons from that event. One, that the Head of State is also a Kenyan and would like to inspire the country during troubled times such as we were in. His prepared speeches should, therefore, bear a human face, with anecdotes to tickle his audiences.
Secondly, never again should the President’s speech be loaded with unnecessary facts and figures sounding as if the Head of State were in a court of law to defend his leadership performance.
In short, President Kibaki’s speech writers must urgently overhaul their world view to resonate with the country. Or they risk being fired.
Owino Opondo is Nation’s Parliamentary Editor.
Story by OWINO OPONDO
Publication Date: 3/23/2008
A speech writer is one who is retained to prepare speeches that will be delivered by another person.
The writer is charged with the duty of packaging thoughts into fine presentations made to different audiences: public rallies, annual general meetings, weddings, parliaments, product launches ...
Professional speech writers often have a broad understanding of subjects, enabling them to simplify what would otherwise have been complex socio-econo-political and policy issues. Here, again, the level of education, expertise, experience and expectations of the audience decide the language use, tone and flow of a speech.
Ideally, the speech writer must go yonder and conduct in-depth research into the broad framework of points or messages that whoever has retained him or her wants to cover in the speech.
In a number of cases, witty and pithy speech writers include quotes from other living and dead leaders and authors whose wisdom resonated with their times and audiences.
Then, if time allows the prepared speech is given to whoever is to deliver it to make a mock presentation, together with bracketed indicators on gestures and tone variation in a session called “dry running.”
Here, the speaker will be reminded to pause should his audience respond to a line in his speech with applause. It lets the message sink.
It is a pity that, unlike elsewhere in the world, most colleges and universities offering communication studies in Kenya don’t emphasise on speech writing as a core subject.
To confirm how real this problem is, one only needs to listen to speeches by President Kibaki, Cabinet ministers and top company executives. Many times, they are long, dull and boring tales loaded with statistics to a point of almost throwing fatty sheaths of mystique around them.
It is now a settled argument that most speeches delivered by the Head of State and business leaders in this country are double-spaced products of monologue that do not respond to the aspirations of the audience at hand.
Indeed, journalists who covered former President Daniel Moi knew that the story hardly came from the prepared speeches. We knew his headline-capturing story usually came from off-the-cuff speeches, often delivered in Kiswahili.
In many ways, President Mwai Kibaki has kept this tradition. It is a universal proof that speeches which are seen for the first time by those delivering them on the podium share one nasty notoriety: They chain speakers to a strange mindset, forcing them to be plastic about delivery, gesture and tone, leaving in their wake bored audiences.
Perhaps a more poignant vindication of my position happened in Parliament last Tuesday when President Kibaki contributed to debate on power sharing in his capacity as the MP for Othaya.
Standing by the Dispatch Box, he exhibited a unique degree of ease, alertness to issues at hand, and intellectual flamboyance only associated with him before he was first elected to State House in 2002. He was the first sitting President in post-independence Kenya to contribute to debate in the House.
That feat aside, President Kibaki debated the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2008 with the astuteness of a statesman.
He chose not to enter the sanctum of complicated and high-sounding legal and so-called-jurisprudential arguments MPs with lawyering background had confined the debate. Instead, President Kibaki added life and relevance to the debate by using simple examples and analogies.
He expressed his personal joy that the country had come from the jaws of self-destruction it visited on itself following the announcement of the disputed presidential polls results last December.
Then he reminded the House that the long and winding two decades Kenya had haggled over constitutional review without success was largely caused by personal egos and selfishness on the part of the political elite.
In his view, Kenyans knew whatever needed to be changed in the Constitution, and proposed that Ugenya MP James Orengo or a select team of a few of our educated countrymen could as well finish the work within three weeks!
Only one coming from planet Mars would question the common argument that land was at the heart of the post-election violence that led to the killing of 1,000 and displacement of 35,000 others.
In all parts of the country where communities rose up against each other, the underlying cause was land. It did not matter that those who were given marching orders had bought the plots where they farmed and lived. Legal tenancy and purchase were given a wide berth. The law of the jungle took over, resulting in the mess of spontaneous landlessness.
In his contribution in Parliament, the President poured cold water on Kenyans’ fixation with land, and summed up the inanity of it, thus: “Let us stop these primitive thoughts about land. Yes, you own the land that your father has left to you, but he does not own the world.”
I knew his messages were instantly and warmly received by all the MPs present in the House from the pitch and longevity of foot-thumping and applause.
One who watched the President’s contribution from the floor of Parliament - which was also broadcast live by national and private TV stations - would agree with me that the man was up to the occasion and proved that he has his fingers on Kenya’s collective public heartbeat.
His themes were cogent and timely; delivered when the country was looking up to Parliament to steer the country out of the post-election mess and communal friction.
The President’s speech writers should learn a number of lessons from that event. One, that the Head of State is also a Kenyan and would like to inspire the country during troubled times such as we were in. His prepared speeches should, therefore, bear a human face, with anecdotes to tickle his audiences.
Secondly, never again should the President’s speech be loaded with unnecessary facts and figures sounding as if the Head of State were in a court of law to defend his leadership performance.
In short, President Kibaki’s speech writers must urgently overhaul their world view to resonate with the country. Or they risk being fired.
Owino Opondo is Nation’s Parliamentary Editor.
Commentary (by Makau Mutua) - Understanding the peace ceremony
Ref: http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=119605
Story by MAKAU MUTUA
Publication Date: 3/23/2008
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. One particular recent historic photograph will make you appreciate the full import of that statement.
It is the famous portrait, forever seared into our minds, of President Mwai Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga appending their signatures to the power-sharing pact on February 28 at Harambee House to end two months of diabolical violence.
That picture says many things, but it is the pose struck by the two key protagonists and the three men standing behind them that symbolises how far down Kenya has fallen, and how steep the climb back up is likely to be. Let us decipher the multiple meanings of that picture without any sentimentality.
The picture is a paradox, an alchemy of hope and despair. On the one hand, the picture represents a rebirth of the country from the ruins of catastrophe. It is a pictorial acknowledgement that President Kibaki and Mr Odinga had decided to pull back from the seduction of a fatal duel, and turned away from the precipice.
On the other hand, the picture conjures up images of submission to a higher, external authority, an instrumentality outside the State. Behind President Kibaki and Mr Odinga stood three men – the symbols of extra-territorial authority over the Kenyan sovereign.
The three men – Mr Kofi Annan, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, and Mr Benjamin Mkapa, his immediate predecessor – symbolised Kenya’s lost glory.
The three men stood in a straight line behind Mr Odinga and President Kibaki, both of whom were sitting down. Mr Mkapa and President Kikwete stood on either side of Mr Annan, who was in the middle. In the picture, Mr Annan stands straight, his chin up, like Alexander the Great.
His position in the middle and his commanding posture suggest a generalship of the field. It is clear that he – and not President Kikwete or Mr Mkapa – is in charge of the proceedings. But President Kikwete and Mr Mkapa are not insignificant – they are clearly Mr Annan’s chief lieutenants because they complete the circle of the guardians of the pact.
Significantly, no single Kenyan was a member of this guardians’ council.
Apart from Mr Odinga and President Kibaki, the only other Kenyans of note in the picture are Mr James Orengo, who was Mr Odinga’s key legal adviser, and Attorney General Amos Wako, President Kibaki’s and the PNU government’s chief legal counsel.
It was Mr Wako and Mr Orengo who had ascertained that the power-sharing pact had been transformed into a legally binding document. But their presence at the signing ceremony was largely symbolic – to show the principals on which page to sign and to formally assure them that the document was legal, binding, and fair. This is part of what lawyers do.
But in this role, both Mr Orengo and Mr Wako were important appendages to the larger text of the ceremony, and added solemnity to the somber and historic occasion. But it is the presence of President Kikwete and Mr Mkapa that is most intriguing.
For decades, Kenyans have regarded Tanzania as a slow controlled society. Not many Kenyans take Tanzania seriously as a regional competitor. But this mistaken stereotype is a terrible miscalculation about the character of Tanzania as a state, and its people as a nation.
I know because I lived in exile there from 1981-84 as a student at the University of Dar es Salaam. While Kenyans have spent the last 45 years since independence solidifying their ethnic identities, Tanzanians have been engaged in the most serious project of nation building this side of the Sahara.
Tanzania is one of only several African countries that have been able to cohere as a nation, thanks to the yeoman work and pan-Africanist leadership of the late Julius Nyerere, one of Africa’s greatest statesmen.
That is why President Kikwete’s and Mr Mkapa’s presence at the signing ceremony was no accident. There is no other country in Africa whose leaders would have had more credibility to supervise Kenya’s peace deal.
Tanzanians have created the most solid state and society in Africa. Just look at its leaders, and where they have come from. President Nyerere came from a small group in Butiama, near Lake Victoria. His successor, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, was a Zanzibari.
Mr Mkapa, his successor, came from Mtwara in the southern tip, an impoverished area. President Kikwete is a Zaramo from Bagamoyo, formerly a slave trading area. This is a rich diversity of leadership that Kenyans can only dream about.
Tanzanians have such a high national consciousness that the word tribe is not part of their national nomenclature. I lived there for four years and never once was I asked to identify my tribe. The only rite of passage was fluent Kiswahili.
I never once heard Tanzanians link their leaders to tribes, or talk about the tribe in politics. Political interests were never organised by regions, and tribal barons did not exist. This stands in marked contrast to Kenya where tribal affiliation is the starting point for any political calculations.
That is why Kenya is in danger of becoming a completely failed state if it does not figure out a way to build a national identity out of its 42 groups.
Is it not ironic that a country Kenyans had come to take for granted provided two of the three anchors for the signing ceremony? Is it not a paradox that Kenya – which had spent years brokering peace in Somalia and Sudan – was now itself the subject of mercy and supervision by Tanzania, its more resilient southern neighbour?
How did Kenya end up here with two of its most senior leaders seated in front of three outsiders with their heads bowed down signing a peace pact to avoid genocide? Neither President Kibaki’s facial expression, nor Mr Odinga’s, seems happy.
They seem forlorn, as though they are signing a death warrant. Ironically, it is that warrant – under Mr Annan’s resolute generalship – that has for now saved Kenya from collapse. That picture is worth a thousand words.
Makau Mutua is Interim Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and Chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
Story by MAKAU MUTUA
Publication Date: 3/23/2008
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. One particular recent historic photograph will make you appreciate the full import of that statement.
It is the famous portrait, forever seared into our minds, of President Mwai Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga appending their signatures to the power-sharing pact on February 28 at Harambee House to end two months of diabolical violence.
That picture says many things, but it is the pose struck by the two key protagonists and the three men standing behind them that symbolises how far down Kenya has fallen, and how steep the climb back up is likely to be. Let us decipher the multiple meanings of that picture without any sentimentality.
The picture is a paradox, an alchemy of hope and despair. On the one hand, the picture represents a rebirth of the country from the ruins of catastrophe. It is a pictorial acknowledgement that President Kibaki and Mr Odinga had decided to pull back from the seduction of a fatal duel, and turned away from the precipice.
On the other hand, the picture conjures up images of submission to a higher, external authority, an instrumentality outside the State. Behind President Kibaki and Mr Odinga stood three men – the symbols of extra-territorial authority over the Kenyan sovereign.
The three men – Mr Kofi Annan, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, and Mr Benjamin Mkapa, his immediate predecessor – symbolised Kenya’s lost glory.
The three men stood in a straight line behind Mr Odinga and President Kibaki, both of whom were sitting down. Mr Mkapa and President Kikwete stood on either side of Mr Annan, who was in the middle. In the picture, Mr Annan stands straight, his chin up, like Alexander the Great.
His position in the middle and his commanding posture suggest a generalship of the field. It is clear that he – and not President Kikwete or Mr Mkapa – is in charge of the proceedings. But President Kikwete and Mr Mkapa are not insignificant – they are clearly Mr Annan’s chief lieutenants because they complete the circle of the guardians of the pact.
Significantly, no single Kenyan was a member of this guardians’ council.
Apart from Mr Odinga and President Kibaki, the only other Kenyans of note in the picture are Mr James Orengo, who was Mr Odinga’s key legal adviser, and Attorney General Amos Wako, President Kibaki’s and the PNU government’s chief legal counsel.
It was Mr Wako and Mr Orengo who had ascertained that the power-sharing pact had been transformed into a legally binding document. But their presence at the signing ceremony was largely symbolic – to show the principals on which page to sign and to formally assure them that the document was legal, binding, and fair. This is part of what lawyers do.
But in this role, both Mr Orengo and Mr Wako were important appendages to the larger text of the ceremony, and added solemnity to the somber and historic occasion. But it is the presence of President Kikwete and Mr Mkapa that is most intriguing.
For decades, Kenyans have regarded Tanzania as a slow controlled society. Not many Kenyans take Tanzania seriously as a regional competitor. But this mistaken stereotype is a terrible miscalculation about the character of Tanzania as a state, and its people as a nation.
I know because I lived in exile there from 1981-84 as a student at the University of Dar es Salaam. While Kenyans have spent the last 45 years since independence solidifying their ethnic identities, Tanzanians have been engaged in the most serious project of nation building this side of the Sahara.
Tanzania is one of only several African countries that have been able to cohere as a nation, thanks to the yeoman work and pan-Africanist leadership of the late Julius Nyerere, one of Africa’s greatest statesmen.
That is why President Kikwete’s and Mr Mkapa’s presence at the signing ceremony was no accident. There is no other country in Africa whose leaders would have had more credibility to supervise Kenya’s peace deal.
Tanzanians have created the most solid state and society in Africa. Just look at its leaders, and where they have come from. President Nyerere came from a small group in Butiama, near Lake Victoria. His successor, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, was a Zanzibari.
Mr Mkapa, his successor, came from Mtwara in the southern tip, an impoverished area. President Kikwete is a Zaramo from Bagamoyo, formerly a slave trading area. This is a rich diversity of leadership that Kenyans can only dream about.
Tanzanians have such a high national consciousness that the word tribe is not part of their national nomenclature. I lived there for four years and never once was I asked to identify my tribe. The only rite of passage was fluent Kiswahili.
I never once heard Tanzanians link their leaders to tribes, or talk about the tribe in politics. Political interests were never organised by regions, and tribal barons did not exist. This stands in marked contrast to Kenya where tribal affiliation is the starting point for any political calculations.
That is why Kenya is in danger of becoming a completely failed state if it does not figure out a way to build a national identity out of its 42 groups.
Is it not ironic that a country Kenyans had come to take for granted provided two of the three anchors for the signing ceremony? Is it not a paradox that Kenya – which had spent years brokering peace in Somalia and Sudan – was now itself the subject of mercy and supervision by Tanzania, its more resilient southern neighbour?
How did Kenya end up here with two of its most senior leaders seated in front of three outsiders with their heads bowed down signing a peace pact to avoid genocide? Neither President Kibaki’s facial expression, nor Mr Odinga’s, seems happy.
They seem forlorn, as though they are signing a death warrant. Ironically, it is that warrant – under Mr Annan’s resolute generalship – that has for now saved Kenya from collapse. That picture is worth a thousand words.
Makau Mutua is Interim Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and Chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
Commentary (by Mugumo Munene) - Death knell tolls for all-powerful presidency
Ref:http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=119645
Story by MUGUMO MUNENE
Publication Date: 3/23/2008
Mzee Jomo Kenyatta built it, Daniel arap Moi fortified it and Mwai Kibaki is living it. But the all-powerful presidency that controls the lives of Kenyans from the cradle to the grave is headed for the grave in the current wave of reforms expected to last for the next year.
The first signs came from Parliament this week where the constitution was amended to create the positions of prime minister and deputy prime ministers and where key political players – President Kibaki and Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga – promised a new constitution in the next one year.
It was the first time in the country’s history that a sitting president participated in debate in Parliament, a move which was almost unthinkable just a few years ago.
This week’s constitutional amendments partially redefined the structure of government and portrayed a nation in the mood for reforms when Parliament sealed the power-sharing deal between President Kibaki and Mr Odinga.
In the aborted search for a new constitution before November 2005, Kenyans who made submissions to the now-defunct Constitution of Kenya Review Commission spoke passionately about the presidency and appeared to resent an institution they described as all-powerful, imperial, dictatorial and authoritarian. They spoke of their wish to have the powers checked or redistributed to other institutions of government.
The larger-than-life presidency has occupied the lives of Kenyans from news bulletins to the face of currency notes and coins to the names of public institutions and to the making and, literally, unmaking of civil servants, who the courts determined in the 1980s, serve at the pleasure of the President.
Constitutional expert Githu Muigai now predicts that Kenya’s imperial presidency is doomed.
“Kenya has gone full circle from an authoritarian, autocratic and unaccountable (colonial) governor to an imperial, all knowing, all powerful and unaccountable president. The mechanism of public accountability across all spheres of national life are at best moribund and in many cases non-existent,” Prof Muigai said.
“Whereas it is difficult to say what the constitutional and political changes will be necessary, we can say with quite some degree of confidence what will not be necessary: the imperial presidency.”
Kenya’s first attorney-general, Mr Charles Njonjo, the man who moved some of the constitutional amendments that empowered the presidency more, is now of the opinion that the office should be more democratic and less powerful.
“It should not be powerful. It should not have dictatorial powers,” Mr Njonjo told the Sunday Nation this week. “Decisions should be made by the Cabinet.”
The former AG and one-time Minister for Constitutional Affairs said that the re-introduction of the office of prime minister has come too late in the day and should have been established in 1968, when the then Nyeri MP Theuri Kiboi brought a Bill to Parliament seeking the same.
The Bill was shot down even as Mr Kiboi, in defeat, warned that resisting the introduction of a PM’s post would push the country to the brink in future, a prediction that appears to have come true this year.
“It’s a pity that it didn’t happen. It should have been passed,” Mr Njonjo said. “There were a lot of partisan interests and people were thinking about who was going to occupy the office.”
Former constitutional review commission secretary P.L.O. Lumumba said Kenyans should be decisive about what governance structures they want.
“We created a demigod of a presidency that went from the bedrooms to the dining rooms to everywhere,” said Dr Lumumba.
“At some point, Kenyans thought that the president was infallible,” Dr Lumumba said. “What Kenyans said they wanted was an accountable, impeachable president who is subject to parliamentary oversight and judicial check.”
“What has happened now, the passage of the National National Accord and Reconciliation Act is a fire-fighting solution; a stop-gap measure,” he said. “The amendments have given us thinking time. We need a comprehensive review of the constitution and I hope that Kenyans will make a clear choice.”
The envisaged constitutional reform is expected to redefine the presidency, which was strengthened almost beyond reason through serial constitutional amendments passed between 1964 and 1997 and indications are a future presidency with reduced powers.
In the coming days, for instance, the President will appoint a Cabinet of historic proportions where half the members will come from the party that contested the elections with him just months ago. He will do so in consultation with the PM-designate, which is a historic first in the country.
Presidents Kenyatta and Moi made their appointments without any formal consultations. Usually, they made unilateral decisions, which were at times informed by their respective kitchen cabinets or the Intelligence network.
It was the same prerogative that President Kibaki used to sidestep the MoU that created Narc, swept Kanu out of power and ushered him into State House in 2002. Some observers now say that the discarded MoU subsequently created a political crisis for the President and gradually eroded his popularity in his first term.
The powers of the presidency have for the past 40 years been abused or used arrogantly or without regard to popular opinion even when it mattered the most.
The latest round of attacks on presidential powers came ahead of last year’s General Election, when President Kibaki unilaterally appointed nine electoral commissioners a month to the elections and at a time when leaders in the competing political camps had strongly expressed fears of rigging.
The critics had wanted parliamentary parties to nominate candidates to the commission to create a critical measure of confidence in the body that runs elections.
The appointments were seen to have been made in bad faith given that President Kibaki ignored the precedent set in 1997 when the then President Moi consulted with parliamentary political parties before making appointments to ECK even though the law does not require it.
For the most part though, Mr Moi had a field day exercising presidential powers in a way that was dramatic and at times bordering on the absurd. He would even hire and fire public officials in what came to be referred to as roadside declarations.
Following the 1997 elections, for instance, Mr Moi named his Cabinet but did not fill the vice-presidency. For the next 14 months, the country was without a vice- president. He reappointed Prof George Saitoti during at stop-over at roadside kiosks in Kinungi, Limuru, and did it in a fashion that shocked many. He said: Kama itaongeza sufuria za ugali wacha Saitoti aendelee. (If it increases the pots of maize meal, let Saitoti continue.)
President Kenyatta before him had treated Kenyans to a string of similar pronouncements and absurdities. He engineered the 15th amendment to the constitution, giving the president powers to pardon a person guilty of election offences.
The move to amend the constitution was touched off by the situation of the President’s former cell mate and friend Paul Ngei, who was found guilty of an offence that was to consign him to political oblivion. After the amendment sailed through, President Kenyatta promptly pardoned his friend.
In his years in office, Mr Kenyatta was regarded with awe and viewed as larger-than-life. Mr Moi after him perfected the image. The two men would never entertain political dissent. President Kibaki’s decision on public appointments has equally attracted fury and resentment from critics.
Key appointments have especially attracted sharp criticism of the powers vested in the president, which before 1997 included the power to detain without trial and unilaterally declaring a state of emergency. The criticism of presidential powers has over the years become one of the key planks of the clamour for constitutional reforms that started in the late 1980s.
It had not always been this way. Before December 12, 1964, executive power was shared between the governor general and the premier. The position changed drastically on the same day that Kenya became a Republic and when the powers of the governor general, then the Head of State on delegation from the Queen of England, and those of the prime minister were rolled into one and vested in the presidency.
The Kenyatta government sponsored more Bills after 1964, which demolished regional governments and increasingly strengthened the presidency.
“They created a presidency that was almost a power unto itself; all powerful, all knowing and omnipresent,” Prof Muigai said. “Parliament dwindled in significance and the Judiciary timidly kept its distance from ‘political matters’, refusing to be involved in any attempt to control the executive.”
Story by MUGUMO MUNENE
Publication Date: 3/23/2008
Mzee Jomo Kenyatta built it, Daniel arap Moi fortified it and Mwai Kibaki is living it. But the all-powerful presidency that controls the lives of Kenyans from the cradle to the grave is headed for the grave in the current wave of reforms expected to last for the next year.
The first signs came from Parliament this week where the constitution was amended to create the positions of prime minister and deputy prime ministers and where key political players – President Kibaki and Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga – promised a new constitution in the next one year.
It was the first time in the country’s history that a sitting president participated in debate in Parliament, a move which was almost unthinkable just a few years ago.
This week’s constitutional amendments partially redefined the structure of government and portrayed a nation in the mood for reforms when Parliament sealed the power-sharing deal between President Kibaki and Mr Odinga.
In the aborted search for a new constitution before November 2005, Kenyans who made submissions to the now-defunct Constitution of Kenya Review Commission spoke passionately about the presidency and appeared to resent an institution they described as all-powerful, imperial, dictatorial and authoritarian. They spoke of their wish to have the powers checked or redistributed to other institutions of government.
The larger-than-life presidency has occupied the lives of Kenyans from news bulletins to the face of currency notes and coins to the names of public institutions and to the making and, literally, unmaking of civil servants, who the courts determined in the 1980s, serve at the pleasure of the President.
Constitutional expert Githu Muigai now predicts that Kenya’s imperial presidency is doomed.
“Kenya has gone full circle from an authoritarian, autocratic and unaccountable (colonial) governor to an imperial, all knowing, all powerful and unaccountable president. The mechanism of public accountability across all spheres of national life are at best moribund and in many cases non-existent,” Prof Muigai said.
“Whereas it is difficult to say what the constitutional and political changes will be necessary, we can say with quite some degree of confidence what will not be necessary: the imperial presidency.”
Kenya’s first attorney-general, Mr Charles Njonjo, the man who moved some of the constitutional amendments that empowered the presidency more, is now of the opinion that the office should be more democratic and less powerful.
“It should not be powerful. It should not have dictatorial powers,” Mr Njonjo told the Sunday Nation this week. “Decisions should be made by the Cabinet.”
The former AG and one-time Minister for Constitutional Affairs said that the re-introduction of the office of prime minister has come too late in the day and should have been established in 1968, when the then Nyeri MP Theuri Kiboi brought a Bill to Parliament seeking the same.
The Bill was shot down even as Mr Kiboi, in defeat, warned that resisting the introduction of a PM’s post would push the country to the brink in future, a prediction that appears to have come true this year.
“It’s a pity that it didn’t happen. It should have been passed,” Mr Njonjo said. “There were a lot of partisan interests and people were thinking about who was going to occupy the office.”
Former constitutional review commission secretary P.L.O. Lumumba said Kenyans should be decisive about what governance structures they want.
“We created a demigod of a presidency that went from the bedrooms to the dining rooms to everywhere,” said Dr Lumumba.
“At some point, Kenyans thought that the president was infallible,” Dr Lumumba said. “What Kenyans said they wanted was an accountable, impeachable president who is subject to parliamentary oversight and judicial check.”
“What has happened now, the passage of the National National Accord and Reconciliation Act is a fire-fighting solution; a stop-gap measure,” he said. “The amendments have given us thinking time. We need a comprehensive review of the constitution and I hope that Kenyans will make a clear choice.”
The envisaged constitutional reform is expected to redefine the presidency, which was strengthened almost beyond reason through serial constitutional amendments passed between 1964 and 1997 and indications are a future presidency with reduced powers.
In the coming days, for instance, the President will appoint a Cabinet of historic proportions where half the members will come from the party that contested the elections with him just months ago. He will do so in consultation with the PM-designate, which is a historic first in the country.
Presidents Kenyatta and Moi made their appointments without any formal consultations. Usually, they made unilateral decisions, which were at times informed by their respective kitchen cabinets or the Intelligence network.
It was the same prerogative that President Kibaki used to sidestep the MoU that created Narc, swept Kanu out of power and ushered him into State House in 2002. Some observers now say that the discarded MoU subsequently created a political crisis for the President and gradually eroded his popularity in his first term.
The powers of the presidency have for the past 40 years been abused or used arrogantly or without regard to popular opinion even when it mattered the most.
The latest round of attacks on presidential powers came ahead of last year’s General Election, when President Kibaki unilaterally appointed nine electoral commissioners a month to the elections and at a time when leaders in the competing political camps had strongly expressed fears of rigging.
The critics had wanted parliamentary parties to nominate candidates to the commission to create a critical measure of confidence in the body that runs elections.
The appointments were seen to have been made in bad faith given that President Kibaki ignored the precedent set in 1997 when the then President Moi consulted with parliamentary political parties before making appointments to ECK even though the law does not require it.
For the most part though, Mr Moi had a field day exercising presidential powers in a way that was dramatic and at times bordering on the absurd. He would even hire and fire public officials in what came to be referred to as roadside declarations.
Following the 1997 elections, for instance, Mr Moi named his Cabinet but did not fill the vice-presidency. For the next 14 months, the country was without a vice- president. He reappointed Prof George Saitoti during at stop-over at roadside kiosks in Kinungi, Limuru, and did it in a fashion that shocked many. He said: Kama itaongeza sufuria za ugali wacha Saitoti aendelee. (If it increases the pots of maize meal, let Saitoti continue.)
President Kenyatta before him had treated Kenyans to a string of similar pronouncements and absurdities. He engineered the 15th amendment to the constitution, giving the president powers to pardon a person guilty of election offences.
The move to amend the constitution was touched off by the situation of the President’s former cell mate and friend Paul Ngei, who was found guilty of an offence that was to consign him to political oblivion. After the amendment sailed through, President Kenyatta promptly pardoned his friend.
In his years in office, Mr Kenyatta was regarded with awe and viewed as larger-than-life. Mr Moi after him perfected the image. The two men would never entertain political dissent. President Kibaki’s decision on public appointments has equally attracted fury and resentment from critics.
Key appointments have especially attracted sharp criticism of the powers vested in the president, which before 1997 included the power to detain without trial and unilaterally declaring a state of emergency. The criticism of presidential powers has over the years become one of the key planks of the clamour for constitutional reforms that started in the late 1980s.
It had not always been this way. Before December 12, 1964, executive power was shared between the governor general and the premier. The position changed drastically on the same day that Kenya became a Republic and when the powers of the governor general, then the Head of State on delegation from the Queen of England, and those of the prime minister were rolled into one and vested in the presidency.
The Kenyatta government sponsored more Bills after 1964, which demolished regional governments and increasingly strengthened the presidency.
“They created a presidency that was almost a power unto itself; all powerful, all knowing and omnipresent,” Prof Muigai said. “Parliament dwindled in significance and the Judiciary timidly kept its distance from ‘political matters’, refusing to be involved in any attempt to control the executive.”
Commentary (by Ali Mazrui) - English’s successes have also resulted in its setbacks
Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143983699&cid=190
Published on March 23, 2008, 12:00 am
By Ali mazrui
The struggle against apartheid was a Pan-Africanising experience, creating a sense of solidarity among black people in Africa and worldwide.
Pan-Africanism often flourished, paradoxically, through the unifying force of European languages.
Figures like W E B DuBois and Marcus Garvey would never have become founding fathers of trans-Atlantic Pan-Africanism without the mediation of the English language. Aime Cesaire and Leopold Senghor would not have become founding fathers of Negritude movement without the French language.
Racism and apartheid in South Africa helped to consolidate the solidarity.
But a new contradiction emerged with the end of political apartheid. Governance in South Africa itself was more Africanised almost by definition as Mr Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress assumed control. But across the African continent, the end of political apartheid was an experience in dis-Pan-Africanisation. A major stimulus of solidarity was diffused. Pan-Africanism was wounded by its own success.
And yet narrower forms of African nationalism, less dependent on European languages, began to assert themselves. Ethnic nationalism among black South Africans and elsewhere became a new manifest destiny. What are the implications of this shift for European languages like English?
With the end of political apartheid in South Africa, the English language has clearly gained. Although South Africa has declared eleven official languages (theoretically reducing English to one-eleventh of the official status), in reality the new policy demotes Afrikaans, the historic rival to English in South Africa.
Before the 1990s, English was officially the co-equal of Afrikaans. But the end of political apartheid has raised the question of whether Afrikaans should be treated in the same camp as the nine indigenous languages. Should Afrikaans be treated as just another ‘vernacular’? Distribution of language resources for the media for education is at stake.
The end of political apartheid in South Africa represents triumph of a particular kind of African nationalism: The struggle against overt racial oppression and cultural denial. Paradoxically, this struggle (but not its triumph) sometimes enhanced the status of the English language among the oppressed. English became not just a language of oppression but also, by a strange destiny, a language of liberation. This was true not just in Africa but also in other parts of the British Empire.
While on balance the English language has been truly triumphant as a world language, there is a tendency to overlook its setbacks within the grand picture. What has English been up against? Sometimes its successes have resulted in its own setbacks.
Although French has been a bigger loser than English since World War II, there are other areas where English has also received setbacks.
Firstly, there have been the post-colonial indigenisation policies. Some former colonies of Britain have attempted to reduce the role of English in their societies. Originally the Indian Constitution envisaged replacing English completely with Hindi as the official and national language. This ambition was not realised partly because of objections from Southern India.
Promoting local institutions
Tanzania has pursued policies of increased Swahilisation deliberately at the expense of English in education, the media and politics. South Africa, after apartheid, is experimenting with a policy of eleven official languages. What do they mean as official languages? South Africans are grappling with that problem.
Hong Kong is a special case where the use of English is declining since the country ceased to be a British colony. English is also declining in spite of Hong Kong’s expanding role as one of the major financial markets of Asia, if not the world. Among the main reasons for the decline of English is Hong Kong’s incorporation into the People’s Republic of China since 1997. People are now learning the second Chinese language (Cantonese vs Mandarin).
Then there are the post-colonial or post-revolutionary policies of Islamisation or Arabisation.
These policies sometime result in the reduced role of the imperial language and the promotion of the Arabic language (or Persian) sometime. This is what has been happening in the Sudan since the 1990s as the Arabic language has been promoted as the medium of instruction at almost all levels of education, including most departments at universities. Previously English was the main medium of instruction at the University of Khartoum.
In post-Shah Iran, English has lost some ground against the increased use of Persian (Farsi) and Arabic in the reformed educational syllabi within the post-revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran. However, in international relations, Iran has used English more than any other language in a bid to influence political and diplomatic trends in Africa. Iran has resorted to English language more than any other language when attempting to reach fellow Muslim militants. In Islam, Arabic is the chosen language of God; but in the politics of the 20th century, English is the chosen secular language of global diplomacy.
Another setback for English is the rise of the numerate culture (culture of numbers), as the aftermath of the colonial experience.
As people communicate in fewer words and greater numbers, English and other literate languages pay part of the price. The debate about Ebonics (Black English) is a case in point in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Sierra Leone. While West Africa has evolved its own dialect and pidgin of English, East and Southern Africa have not.
East and Southern Africa’s closer approximation to Standard English has been influenced by stronger presence of white settlers. More recent colonisation of Eastern Africa (covering only Jomo Kenyatta’s lifetime) and the more dynamic indigenous cultures of West Africa have imposed their own personality on English in a manner as yet underdeveloped in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Published on March 23, 2008, 12:00 am
By Ali mazrui
The struggle against apartheid was a Pan-Africanising experience, creating a sense of solidarity among black people in Africa and worldwide.
Pan-Africanism often flourished, paradoxically, through the unifying force of European languages.
Figures like W E B DuBois and Marcus Garvey would never have become founding fathers of trans-Atlantic Pan-Africanism without the mediation of the English language. Aime Cesaire and Leopold Senghor would not have become founding fathers of Negritude movement without the French language.
Racism and apartheid in South Africa helped to consolidate the solidarity.
But a new contradiction emerged with the end of political apartheid. Governance in South Africa itself was more Africanised almost by definition as Mr Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress assumed control. But across the African continent, the end of political apartheid was an experience in dis-Pan-Africanisation. A major stimulus of solidarity was diffused. Pan-Africanism was wounded by its own success.
And yet narrower forms of African nationalism, less dependent on European languages, began to assert themselves. Ethnic nationalism among black South Africans and elsewhere became a new manifest destiny. What are the implications of this shift for European languages like English?
With the end of political apartheid in South Africa, the English language has clearly gained. Although South Africa has declared eleven official languages (theoretically reducing English to one-eleventh of the official status), in reality the new policy demotes Afrikaans, the historic rival to English in South Africa.
Before the 1990s, English was officially the co-equal of Afrikaans. But the end of political apartheid has raised the question of whether Afrikaans should be treated in the same camp as the nine indigenous languages. Should Afrikaans be treated as just another ‘vernacular’? Distribution of language resources for the media for education is at stake.
The end of political apartheid in South Africa represents triumph of a particular kind of African nationalism: The struggle against overt racial oppression and cultural denial. Paradoxically, this struggle (but not its triumph) sometimes enhanced the status of the English language among the oppressed. English became not just a language of oppression but also, by a strange destiny, a language of liberation. This was true not just in Africa but also in other parts of the British Empire.
While on balance the English language has been truly triumphant as a world language, there is a tendency to overlook its setbacks within the grand picture. What has English been up against? Sometimes its successes have resulted in its own setbacks.
Although French has been a bigger loser than English since World War II, there are other areas where English has also received setbacks.
Firstly, there have been the post-colonial indigenisation policies. Some former colonies of Britain have attempted to reduce the role of English in their societies. Originally the Indian Constitution envisaged replacing English completely with Hindi as the official and national language. This ambition was not realised partly because of objections from Southern India.
Promoting local institutions
Tanzania has pursued policies of increased Swahilisation deliberately at the expense of English in education, the media and politics. South Africa, after apartheid, is experimenting with a policy of eleven official languages. What do they mean as official languages? South Africans are grappling with that problem.
Hong Kong is a special case where the use of English is declining since the country ceased to be a British colony. English is also declining in spite of Hong Kong’s expanding role as one of the major financial markets of Asia, if not the world. Among the main reasons for the decline of English is Hong Kong’s incorporation into the People’s Republic of China since 1997. People are now learning the second Chinese language (Cantonese vs Mandarin).
Then there are the post-colonial or post-revolutionary policies of Islamisation or Arabisation.
These policies sometime result in the reduced role of the imperial language and the promotion of the Arabic language (or Persian) sometime. This is what has been happening in the Sudan since the 1990s as the Arabic language has been promoted as the medium of instruction at almost all levels of education, including most departments at universities. Previously English was the main medium of instruction at the University of Khartoum.
In post-Shah Iran, English has lost some ground against the increased use of Persian (Farsi) and Arabic in the reformed educational syllabi within the post-revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran. However, in international relations, Iran has used English more than any other language in a bid to influence political and diplomatic trends in Africa. Iran has resorted to English language more than any other language when attempting to reach fellow Muslim militants. In Islam, Arabic is the chosen language of God; but in the politics of the 20th century, English is the chosen secular language of global diplomacy.
Another setback for English is the rise of the numerate culture (culture of numbers), as the aftermath of the colonial experience.
As people communicate in fewer words and greater numbers, English and other literate languages pay part of the price. The debate about Ebonics (Black English) is a case in point in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Sierra Leone. While West Africa has evolved its own dialect and pidgin of English, East and Southern Africa have not.
East and Southern Africa’s closer approximation to Standard English has been influenced by stronger presence of white settlers. More recent colonisation of Eastern Africa (covering only Jomo Kenyatta’s lifetime) and the more dynamic indigenous cultures of West Africa have imposed their own personality on English in a manner as yet underdeveloped in Eastern and Southern Africa.
News story (by Athman Amran) - Narcotics: A raw nerve that no one dares touch
Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143983723&cid=4
Published on March 23, 2008, 12:00 am
By Athman Amran
When investigating the multi-billion shilling narcotics business in Coast Province, one is met with authorities’ conspiracy of silence.
There is a lot of suspicion and fear as some people warn that the probe is a dangerous affair.
Kenya is an important transit route for Southwest Asian hashish and heroin dealers. Europe is the primary market and North America the secondary destination.
Eastern Africa representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Mr Carsten Hyttel, once remarked that South American traffickers had moved into Kenya.
This was after the tightening of law enforcement in Spain, which was once a main transit point for cocaine headed to Europe.
When The Sunday Standard was investigating the suspected routes and methods used to smuggle hard drugs into the country, the Coast Provincial Criminal Investigation Officer, Mr Bernard Mate, expressed suspicion and mistrust.
We were questioned about what we had learnt from our investigations.
We met hostility at the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA), which registers private speedboats.
A senior KMA officer, who declined to give his name, threatened to call the police after we inquired about speedboats and their link in drugs trafficking.
But another officer said the authority did not know how many speedboats were in the country.
"We are doing some baseline survey and after compiling the data, we will post it on our website," the officer said.
Such records could help in tracing the owners of boats involved in illicit trade.
Private speedboats, some of them luxurious, dot almost the entire coastline — from South Coast, the Mombasa Island, Mtwapa, Kilifi, Malindi all the way to Lamu.
Private speedboats face trade competition from private jetties.
It is suspected that the porous small seaports — from Vanga on the Kenya-Tanzania border in South Coast to Lamu in the North— are used to not only smuggle hard drugs but also some counterfeit goods and guns.
Speedboats have been in this trade for a while.
Slain drug baron, Ibrahim Akasha, used a speedboat in the trade. The Government later confiscated the vessel.
A speedboat was also used in the Sh6.4 billion-drug haul, part of which was located at a Malindi villa in December 14, 2004.
Some of the suspected entry points are Bodo, Kinondo — where a major drug consignment was discovered in 1997 — Shimoni and Majoreni.
The Mombasa Old Port on Mombasa Island, Mtwapa Creek, and areas bordering some North Coast hotels, especially where access to the beach is difficult for fishermen and police, are also entry points.
Others are in Kanamai area, Kikambala, Bofa, Tezo and Kilifi beach, Watamu, Malindi, Ngomeni, Mambrui and along the beaches of some islands in Lamu.
Entry points
The Sunday Standard visited some of the suspected entry points and talked to the locals, especially fishermen.
At Ngomeni, villagers say there are some days when there is a flurry of activity at night involving speedboats and some huge sea vessels.
When there is such activity, some lorries are always on standby while the owners of the consignments arrive in big expensive cars to ensure everything goes on smoothly.
When we visited one of the suspected notorious entry points of smuggled goods and drugs at daytime, it was quiet and deserted. We only found a few fishermen and some young boys who were swimming.
"Some big ships usually anchor in the high seas. Small boats are used to reach them," a Ngomeni resident said.
But no one is sure what kind of activity goes on between the owners of the big vessels in the high seas and the small speedboats.
Ordinary fishing boats are used in the smuggling business sometimes, it is alleged.
At such sea points, it is suspected that speedboats are used to bring in drugs for local use or those on transit. Crafty drug barons also use roads to bring in narcotics.
According to a former drug dealer, who sought anonymity, the road from Likoni Ferry to the Kenya-Tanzania border is frequently used to transport drugs from Dar-es-Salaam to Mombasa.
"The drugs are mostly from Pakistan and are offloaded through Dar-es-Salaam port or other routes," he says.
They mostly use matatus, although private top-of-the-range cars, which are rarely stopped and checked on roadblocks, sometimes come in handy.
When matatus are used, the former drug baron says, the dealers collude with some police officers.
A spy is usually sent to find out the officers manning roadblocks, just in case "unfriendly" officers happen to be on the scene. The person sent ahead usually strikes deals with wayward officers and ensures safe passage of the vehicle carrying the drugs.
The traffickers use mobile phones to get in touch with their contacts at roadblocks or some police officers to ensure safe passage of the drugs.
"The mobile phone has helped a lot in the drug trafficking business," he reveals.
The tricks
Drugs transported by road transport, especially hashish, are usually in small quantity, another former drug trafficker says.
He adds: "The narcotics haul in high seas is usually in large quantities."
He alleges that large quantities of hard drugs still find their way into the country since there are few anti-narcotics police in Mombasa.
The Government, he claims, is incapable of patrolling the long stretch of shore from Kwale to Lamu.
Also used to bring in the hard drugs, especially at border points, are bicycles and tuktuks (Three-wheeled taxis).
There are many ways of carrying drugs when transported by road.
They can be carried in spare tyres, thermos flasks, three-piece suits, buibuis, shoes and even private parts or through ingestion.
"Women are increasingly being used as couriers of hard drugs. It is not easy for them to be nabbed," the former drug dealer says.
Drugs from Mombasa find their way to Lamu via the Mokowe jetty, he claims.
The drugs are placed in some boats, which head to Matondoni point of Lamu Island instead of Lamu jetty.
The drugs are then loaded onto donkeys and moved into the island for storage in a safe place. Such safe places are distribution points to youths through special couriers (peddlers).
The Moi International Airport, in Mombasa, has also been used as an entry point for drugs despite tight police checks.
According to the International Narcotics Board, some traffickers use small planes.
In Malindi and Lamu, where many youths are hooked to heroin, the former drug dealer cautions against accepting free black or sweet coffee.
"After about three cups of the coffee on three consecutive days, a person can easily get addicted and become one of the customers of some merciless drug dealers," he warns.
Sources allege that some senior people in Government work with local and international drugs cartels.
Drug trafficking is big business.
Those in it, it is alleged, drive around in expensive cars.
Like Akasha, they always have some "honest" businesses that act as fronts.
Envious lifestyle
The mansions they live in — some right on the beachfronts — are stupendous fortresses and their lifestyle, a source of envy.
It is alleged that Akasha used to give some police officers monthly "hand outs".
When Akasha’s drugs were impounded, it is said that some senior government officials had to make regular trips abroad to meet the Colombian owner for negotiations.
Akasha, notorious drug dealer, confidently swaggered in the town of Mombasa and his private speedboat was always openly and proudly displayed.
Had it not been for a deal gone sour between those involved in the hashish haul netted in 1999, the drug consignment could never have been discovered. The consignment had already found its way to Akasha’s Nyali house hideout.
Akasha was suspected to be close to some high-ranking Government officials and he may never have gotten into trouble.
Some Coast residents want the Government to investigate some tycoons who have mansions along beachfronts and who have built high walls to block access to the beach.
Fierce dogs and harsh security guards man their properties.
This is despite the beaches being public utilities.
residents suspect that some foreigners from Italy, Switzerland and other European countries could be using their mansions and private villas to hide drugs and commit other illegal activities.
Published on March 23, 2008, 12:00 am
By Athman Amran
When investigating the multi-billion shilling narcotics business in Coast Province, one is met with authorities’ conspiracy of silence.
There is a lot of suspicion and fear as some people warn that the probe is a dangerous affair.
Kenya is an important transit route for Southwest Asian hashish and heroin dealers. Europe is the primary market and North America the secondary destination.
Eastern Africa representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Mr Carsten Hyttel, once remarked that South American traffickers had moved into Kenya.
This was after the tightening of law enforcement in Spain, which was once a main transit point for cocaine headed to Europe.
When The Sunday Standard was investigating the suspected routes and methods used to smuggle hard drugs into the country, the Coast Provincial Criminal Investigation Officer, Mr Bernard Mate, expressed suspicion and mistrust.
We were questioned about what we had learnt from our investigations.
We met hostility at the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA), which registers private speedboats.
A senior KMA officer, who declined to give his name, threatened to call the police after we inquired about speedboats and their link in drugs trafficking.
But another officer said the authority did not know how many speedboats were in the country.
"We are doing some baseline survey and after compiling the data, we will post it on our website," the officer said.
Such records could help in tracing the owners of boats involved in illicit trade.
Private speedboats, some of them luxurious, dot almost the entire coastline — from South Coast, the Mombasa Island, Mtwapa, Kilifi, Malindi all the way to Lamu.
Private speedboats face trade competition from private jetties.
It is suspected that the porous small seaports — from Vanga on the Kenya-Tanzania border in South Coast to Lamu in the North— are used to not only smuggle hard drugs but also some counterfeit goods and guns.
Speedboats have been in this trade for a while.
Slain drug baron, Ibrahim Akasha, used a speedboat in the trade. The Government later confiscated the vessel.
A speedboat was also used in the Sh6.4 billion-drug haul, part of which was located at a Malindi villa in December 14, 2004.
Some of the suspected entry points are Bodo, Kinondo — where a major drug consignment was discovered in 1997 — Shimoni and Majoreni.
The Mombasa Old Port on Mombasa Island, Mtwapa Creek, and areas bordering some North Coast hotels, especially where access to the beach is difficult for fishermen and police, are also entry points.
Others are in Kanamai area, Kikambala, Bofa, Tezo and Kilifi beach, Watamu, Malindi, Ngomeni, Mambrui and along the beaches of some islands in Lamu.
Entry points
The Sunday Standard visited some of the suspected entry points and talked to the locals, especially fishermen.
At Ngomeni, villagers say there are some days when there is a flurry of activity at night involving speedboats and some huge sea vessels.
When there is such activity, some lorries are always on standby while the owners of the consignments arrive in big expensive cars to ensure everything goes on smoothly.
When we visited one of the suspected notorious entry points of smuggled goods and drugs at daytime, it was quiet and deserted. We only found a few fishermen and some young boys who were swimming.
"Some big ships usually anchor in the high seas. Small boats are used to reach them," a Ngomeni resident said.
But no one is sure what kind of activity goes on between the owners of the big vessels in the high seas and the small speedboats.
Ordinary fishing boats are used in the smuggling business sometimes, it is alleged.
At such sea points, it is suspected that speedboats are used to bring in drugs for local use or those on transit. Crafty drug barons also use roads to bring in narcotics.
According to a former drug dealer, who sought anonymity, the road from Likoni Ferry to the Kenya-Tanzania border is frequently used to transport drugs from Dar-es-Salaam to Mombasa.
"The drugs are mostly from Pakistan and are offloaded through Dar-es-Salaam port or other routes," he says.
They mostly use matatus, although private top-of-the-range cars, which are rarely stopped and checked on roadblocks, sometimes come in handy.
When matatus are used, the former drug baron says, the dealers collude with some police officers.
A spy is usually sent to find out the officers manning roadblocks, just in case "unfriendly" officers happen to be on the scene. The person sent ahead usually strikes deals with wayward officers and ensures safe passage of the vehicle carrying the drugs.
The traffickers use mobile phones to get in touch with their contacts at roadblocks or some police officers to ensure safe passage of the drugs.
"The mobile phone has helped a lot in the drug trafficking business," he reveals.
The tricks
Drugs transported by road transport, especially hashish, are usually in small quantity, another former drug trafficker says.
He adds: "The narcotics haul in high seas is usually in large quantities."
He alleges that large quantities of hard drugs still find their way into the country since there are few anti-narcotics police in Mombasa.
The Government, he claims, is incapable of patrolling the long stretch of shore from Kwale to Lamu.
Also used to bring in the hard drugs, especially at border points, are bicycles and tuktuks (Three-wheeled taxis).
There are many ways of carrying drugs when transported by road.
They can be carried in spare tyres, thermos flasks, three-piece suits, buibuis, shoes and even private parts or through ingestion.
"Women are increasingly being used as couriers of hard drugs. It is not easy for them to be nabbed," the former drug dealer says.
Drugs from Mombasa find their way to Lamu via the Mokowe jetty, he claims.
The drugs are placed in some boats, which head to Matondoni point of Lamu Island instead of Lamu jetty.
The drugs are then loaded onto donkeys and moved into the island for storage in a safe place. Such safe places are distribution points to youths through special couriers (peddlers).
The Moi International Airport, in Mombasa, has also been used as an entry point for drugs despite tight police checks.
According to the International Narcotics Board, some traffickers use small planes.
In Malindi and Lamu, where many youths are hooked to heroin, the former drug dealer cautions against accepting free black or sweet coffee.
"After about three cups of the coffee on three consecutive days, a person can easily get addicted and become one of the customers of some merciless drug dealers," he warns.
Sources allege that some senior people in Government work with local and international drugs cartels.
Drug trafficking is big business.
Those in it, it is alleged, drive around in expensive cars.
Like Akasha, they always have some "honest" businesses that act as fronts.
Envious lifestyle
The mansions they live in — some right on the beachfronts — are stupendous fortresses and their lifestyle, a source of envy.
It is alleged that Akasha used to give some police officers monthly "hand outs".
When Akasha’s drugs were impounded, it is said that some senior government officials had to make regular trips abroad to meet the Colombian owner for negotiations.
Akasha, notorious drug dealer, confidently swaggered in the town of Mombasa and his private speedboat was always openly and proudly displayed.
Had it not been for a deal gone sour between those involved in the hashish haul netted in 1999, the drug consignment could never have been discovered. The consignment had already found its way to Akasha’s Nyali house hideout.
Akasha was suspected to be close to some high-ranking Government officials and he may never have gotten into trouble.
Some Coast residents want the Government to investigate some tycoons who have mansions along beachfronts and who have built high walls to block access to the beach.
Fierce dogs and harsh security guards man their properties.
This is despite the beaches being public utilities.
residents suspect that some foreigners from Italy, Switzerland and other European countries could be using their mansions and private villas to hide drugs and commit other illegal activities.
News story (by Dennis Onyango) - Stalemate over Cabinet positions in Kenya
Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143983721&cid=4
Published on March 23, 2008, 12:00 am
By Dennis Onyango
President Kibaki and Prime minister-designate Mr Raila Odinga meet on Tuesday as a silent war rages in the backstage between key figures in the two main blocs.
Because of delay in achieving the 50-50 power sharing deal and portfolio balance, in line with the national accord, attention is turning to the lead mediator Dr Kofi Annan. The former UN secretary-general might have to come back to preside over the implementation of Agenda Three, which tackled sharing of Government positions.
So entrenched are the two sides as to who will get what portfolio, that save for direct intervention of the principals, the next crucial face may not achieve much soon.
Despite display of rediscovered ‘friendship’ and a working arrangement between the partners of the Grand Coalition Government, a silent struggle is going on between the Orange Democratic Movement and the Party of National Unity.
The haggling for choice ministries, especially those with a higher profile and seen as strategic, could not only delay the naming of the Cabinet but give way to a highly bloated one.
Behind the scenes, the statement by Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Mr Francis Muthaura, who dismissed sharing of civil service positions, is still being fought.
Some ODM leaders now say Annan should be recalled to oversee the implementation of Agenda Three, which entails portfolio balance. Sources within the national dialogue team reveal Dr Annan anticipated problems in sharing out of Government positions and promised to return.
"He left with the understanding that Agenda Three, portfolio balance, was going to be problematic and he would be willing to come back. There is evidence that he is needed," the source said.
"Portfolio balancing was part of the negotiations and it is part of what Kibaki and Raila signed. It was not just to accommodate MPs and ministers into the Cabinet. US Secretary of State Dr Condelezza Rice talked of real power sharing, and that cannot be about the Cabinet," an ODM official familiar with the ongoing negotiations said.
The Sunday Standard established that even the sharing of Cabinet slots is becoming tricky. Some leaders have called on Raila and Kibaki to directly discuss the issue themselves and keep civil servants, including Muthaura and Cabinet ministers, out of the talks.
Sabotage
Alternatively, they want the negotiating team to concede that it is stuck at Agenda Three and write to Annan to come back.
"Civil servants are trying to protect their positions and they are sabotaging this process. When Annan left, he did not say he was closing the chapter. In fact, he said he anticipated resistance over Agenda Three. He expected that he would return and help with portfolio balancing. He should be asked to return and do it," the source said.
Sources told Sunday Standard that at least twice, an ODM delegation to Muthaura with the party’s version of portfolio balancing has come back empty-handed.
The Head of Civil Service told one ODM delegation, that included party chairman Mr Henry Kosgey and the secretary-general Prof Anyang Nyong’o, that PNU is likely to keep all its current ministries, and some of the few left, along with those to be created.
One of the ministries Mr Muthaura is said to be proposing is Fisheries, which will be hived off Livestock to create two ministries, to then be handed to ODM.
He is also said to have told an ODM delegation that the Ministry of Roads and Public Works would be split into two, with Public Works going to ODM and Roads remaining with PNU.
The developments have incensed some party officials, including some at the peace talks. They now want Annan to return to the country and take over the process again, unless Kibaki and Raila step in and shove Muthaura aside.
"If the two principals, Raila and Kibaki, are finding it hard to discuss portfolio balance, let Annan return. There is no way we are going to be asked to negotiate with people whose positions we want to take. Somebody is playing games," a source said.
As a way of ending the crisis, the US and the rest of international community called for "a governance arrangement that will allow real power-sharing ... a grand coalition so that Kenya can be governed."
The US told the Kenyan government that "real power-sharing" with the main opposition party was the best way to put the country back on track after the disputed December election.
Now, the partners are stuck on the interpretation of "real power sharing" and sections of the Government are pushing for an expanded Cabinet of up to 41 members.
That would allow PNU to keep what it already has and even take more of the remaining slots, as well as create space for ODM too.
Mr Muthaura is said to have suggested the creation of ministries of Industrialisation, Fisheries and Livestock, on top of existing ones, for ODM.
Also said to be getting involved in the talks are Cabinet ministers Prof George Saitoti and Mr Amos Kimunya, who have lately held discussions with Nyong’o and Kosgey over portfolio balance. Some find the involvement of Cabinet ministers in the process counter-productive, given that some have their positions targeted.
A section of the leaders want the portfolio balancing to be discussed by the dialogue team that meets at Serena, unless President Kibaki and Raila are ready to take it up themselves. "I see our team almost celebrating when we have nothing to celebrate," a top ODM member said.
During the negotiations, an expert from Germany took the parties through the ways to share government, which would leave both sides happy.
German minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, Mr Gernot Erler, briefed members of the Kofi Annan-led mediation talks on how the coalition works.
Under grand coalition, Mr Erler said, the party with a majority in Parliament takes key positions like prime minister and Speaker of National Assembly.
In Germany, he said, there were also deputy prime minister’s and vice-speaker’s positions occupied by the second strongest party.
Other positions including key ministries are shared proportionally but only the two strongest parties form a grand coalition. "The most important thing is to have a system where you can balance at all levels. One party should not dominate," he said.
His country, he added, had a special committee whose members include the Chancellor, leaders of parties and a spokesman of Parliament. The team addresses any problem that arises and advises the government.
The proposals
Picking up from the expert, ODM last week developed a proposal to be taken to the President on what the party would consider fair.
ODM agreed the Cabinet should not exceed 34 members. But the Government is said to be pushing for a minimum of 39 and a maximum of 41.
A team of experts engaged by the party recommended that it should ask for ministries of Planning, Agriculture, Local Government, Health, Trade, Energy, Transport and Youth and Sports.
The team also asked ODM to seek the Ministry of Lands.
That would leave PNU with Internal Security, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Education, Public Works, Home Affairs and Information.
The ODM technical team is also pushing for a Ministry of Northern Kenya, Reconstruction and Special Programmes.
The party’s team says its proposal for portfolio balance is based on the understanding that security ministries remain an integral part of the Office of the President as requested by PNU.
The only security docket ODM is laying claim to is Immigration and Registration of Persons. It also thinks it should take Public Service, arguing that just as Defence and Foreign Affairs are in the domain of the OP, Public Service falls within the powers of the PM who will be co-ordinating and supervising Government affairs.
In ministries ODM has listed under Service, it agrees that PNU should take a bigger chunk, including Housing, Culture, Gender and Heritage.
In return, the party’s team of experts proposes that it be given the Attorney-General’s position in addition to Health, Youth, Special Programmes and Reconstruction.
The proposals are yet to be taken to the President.
Although Mr Muthaura indicated that civil service positions were not up for sharing, some leaders fear that if the issue is not tackled, even resettlement of victims of violence would be difficult.
But some ODM leaders say the sharing of civil service and parastatal positions is not a priority, as they will fall in place once the new Cabinet is constituted. "There is no need of discussing sharing of the civil service. Once the new government is formed, the various ministers will sort out many of the managing directors and permanent secretaries. If you think you can’t work with a PS or an MD, it is not too much to ask that he be replaced," a senior ODM official said.
"Some of our officials have been asked to meet Mr Kimunya and Prof Saitoti over portfolio balancing. Now the seat Kimunya has is the one we want as ODM. How do you go to somebody and tell him we are here to discuss how to share your seat? This thing should be discussed by our principals, Raila and Kibaki," a senior ODM official said.
Twice last week, a meeting between the two failed to take off and was finally fixed for Tuesday. There is expectation that Raila could be formally named PM and be sworn in this week. But some in his party want the swearing in postponed until all the positions are negotiated and agreed on.
Published on March 23, 2008, 12:00 am
By Dennis Onyango
President Kibaki and Prime minister-designate Mr Raila Odinga meet on Tuesday as a silent war rages in the backstage between key figures in the two main blocs.
Because of delay in achieving the 50-50 power sharing deal and portfolio balance, in line with the national accord, attention is turning to the lead mediator Dr Kofi Annan. The former UN secretary-general might have to come back to preside over the implementation of Agenda Three, which tackled sharing of Government positions.
So entrenched are the two sides as to who will get what portfolio, that save for direct intervention of the principals, the next crucial face may not achieve much soon.
Despite display of rediscovered ‘friendship’ and a working arrangement between the partners of the Grand Coalition Government, a silent struggle is going on between the Orange Democratic Movement and the Party of National Unity.
The haggling for choice ministries, especially those with a higher profile and seen as strategic, could not only delay the naming of the Cabinet but give way to a highly bloated one.
Behind the scenes, the statement by Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Mr Francis Muthaura, who dismissed sharing of civil service positions, is still being fought.
Some ODM leaders now say Annan should be recalled to oversee the implementation of Agenda Three, which entails portfolio balance. Sources within the national dialogue team reveal Dr Annan anticipated problems in sharing out of Government positions and promised to return.
"He left with the understanding that Agenda Three, portfolio balance, was going to be problematic and he would be willing to come back. There is evidence that he is needed," the source said.
"Portfolio balancing was part of the negotiations and it is part of what Kibaki and Raila signed. It was not just to accommodate MPs and ministers into the Cabinet. US Secretary of State Dr Condelezza Rice talked of real power sharing, and that cannot be about the Cabinet," an ODM official familiar with the ongoing negotiations said.
The Sunday Standard established that even the sharing of Cabinet slots is becoming tricky. Some leaders have called on Raila and Kibaki to directly discuss the issue themselves and keep civil servants, including Muthaura and Cabinet ministers, out of the talks.
Sabotage
Alternatively, they want the negotiating team to concede that it is stuck at Agenda Three and write to Annan to come back.
"Civil servants are trying to protect their positions and they are sabotaging this process. When Annan left, he did not say he was closing the chapter. In fact, he said he anticipated resistance over Agenda Three. He expected that he would return and help with portfolio balancing. He should be asked to return and do it," the source said.
Sources told Sunday Standard that at least twice, an ODM delegation to Muthaura with the party’s version of portfolio balancing has come back empty-handed.
The Head of Civil Service told one ODM delegation, that included party chairman Mr Henry Kosgey and the secretary-general Prof Anyang Nyong’o, that PNU is likely to keep all its current ministries, and some of the few left, along with those to be created.
One of the ministries Mr Muthaura is said to be proposing is Fisheries, which will be hived off Livestock to create two ministries, to then be handed to ODM.
He is also said to have told an ODM delegation that the Ministry of Roads and Public Works would be split into two, with Public Works going to ODM and Roads remaining with PNU.
The developments have incensed some party officials, including some at the peace talks. They now want Annan to return to the country and take over the process again, unless Kibaki and Raila step in and shove Muthaura aside.
"If the two principals, Raila and Kibaki, are finding it hard to discuss portfolio balance, let Annan return. There is no way we are going to be asked to negotiate with people whose positions we want to take. Somebody is playing games," a source said.
As a way of ending the crisis, the US and the rest of international community called for "a governance arrangement that will allow real power-sharing ... a grand coalition so that Kenya can be governed."
The US told the Kenyan government that "real power-sharing" with the main opposition party was the best way to put the country back on track after the disputed December election.
Now, the partners are stuck on the interpretation of "real power sharing" and sections of the Government are pushing for an expanded Cabinet of up to 41 members.
That would allow PNU to keep what it already has and even take more of the remaining slots, as well as create space for ODM too.
Mr Muthaura is said to have suggested the creation of ministries of Industrialisation, Fisheries and Livestock, on top of existing ones, for ODM.
Also said to be getting involved in the talks are Cabinet ministers Prof George Saitoti and Mr Amos Kimunya, who have lately held discussions with Nyong’o and Kosgey over portfolio balance. Some find the involvement of Cabinet ministers in the process counter-productive, given that some have their positions targeted.
A section of the leaders want the portfolio balancing to be discussed by the dialogue team that meets at Serena, unless President Kibaki and Raila are ready to take it up themselves. "I see our team almost celebrating when we have nothing to celebrate," a top ODM member said.
During the negotiations, an expert from Germany took the parties through the ways to share government, which would leave both sides happy.
German minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, Mr Gernot Erler, briefed members of the Kofi Annan-led mediation talks on how the coalition works.
Under grand coalition, Mr Erler said, the party with a majority in Parliament takes key positions like prime minister and Speaker of National Assembly.
In Germany, he said, there were also deputy prime minister’s and vice-speaker’s positions occupied by the second strongest party.
Other positions including key ministries are shared proportionally but only the two strongest parties form a grand coalition. "The most important thing is to have a system where you can balance at all levels. One party should not dominate," he said.
His country, he added, had a special committee whose members include the Chancellor, leaders of parties and a spokesman of Parliament. The team addresses any problem that arises and advises the government.
The proposals
Picking up from the expert, ODM last week developed a proposal to be taken to the President on what the party would consider fair.
ODM agreed the Cabinet should not exceed 34 members. But the Government is said to be pushing for a minimum of 39 and a maximum of 41.
A team of experts engaged by the party recommended that it should ask for ministries of Planning, Agriculture, Local Government, Health, Trade, Energy, Transport and Youth and Sports.
The team also asked ODM to seek the Ministry of Lands.
That would leave PNU with Internal Security, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Education, Public Works, Home Affairs and Information.
The ODM technical team is also pushing for a Ministry of Northern Kenya, Reconstruction and Special Programmes.
The party’s team says its proposal for portfolio balance is based on the understanding that security ministries remain an integral part of the Office of the President as requested by PNU.
The only security docket ODM is laying claim to is Immigration and Registration of Persons. It also thinks it should take Public Service, arguing that just as Defence and Foreign Affairs are in the domain of the OP, Public Service falls within the powers of the PM who will be co-ordinating and supervising Government affairs.
In ministries ODM has listed under Service, it agrees that PNU should take a bigger chunk, including Housing, Culture, Gender and Heritage.
In return, the party’s team of experts proposes that it be given the Attorney-General’s position in addition to Health, Youth, Special Programmes and Reconstruction.
The proposals are yet to be taken to the President.
Although Mr Muthaura indicated that civil service positions were not up for sharing, some leaders fear that if the issue is not tackled, even resettlement of victims of violence would be difficult.
But some ODM leaders say the sharing of civil service and parastatal positions is not a priority, as they will fall in place once the new Cabinet is constituted. "There is no need of discussing sharing of the civil service. Once the new government is formed, the various ministers will sort out many of the managing directors and permanent secretaries. If you think you can’t work with a PS or an MD, it is not too much to ask that he be replaced," a senior ODM official said.
"Some of our officials have been asked to meet Mr Kimunya and Prof Saitoti over portfolio balancing. Now the seat Kimunya has is the one we want as ODM. How do you go to somebody and tell him we are here to discuss how to share your seat? This thing should be discussed by our principals, Raila and Kibaki," a senior ODM official said.
Twice last week, a meeting between the two failed to take off and was finally fixed for Tuesday. There is expectation that Raila could be formally named PM and be sworn in this week. But some in his party want the swearing in postponed until all the positions are negotiated and agreed on.
Saturday, 22 March 2008
Commentary (by Barrack Muluka) - Grass wallows in agony as elephants dance
Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143983635&cid=190
Published on March 22, 2008, 12:00 am
By Barrack Muluka
The serpent hisses where sweet birds sing. And the grass suffers with bitterness, regardless of whether elephants fight, or make love.
But Prof Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o thinks otherwise. Speaking in Parliament this week, the ODM Secretary-General took issue with this column’s expression of mistrust, two weeks ago, of erotic elephants. The Kisumu Rural MP thinks "the grass suffers without bitterness" when elephants do their love dance in the jungle. In such circumstances, "the elephants produce sweet music," he says.
It was Jomo Kenyatta who, upon being released from colonial detention, told his jailers that he had suffered without bitterness. He was even ready to forgive them, although he would not forget what they had done to him.
But there is no such thing as "suffering without bitterness". Suffering and sweetness are counter-indicated. They are forever mutually exclusive.
The matter of elephants at war and in love is a different cup of tea, altogether. If you are in doubt, ask the people of Nairobi’s Eastlands.
Together with the matatu operators, who serve that part of the city, they will tell you a different story. They will tell you that before the political elephants began their romance and honeymoon on golf courses, Uhuru Kenyatta could never have tear-gassed them and got away with it, the way he did this week, without a whimper from the political opposition. The Opposition would have been all over the place reminding him that he had never walked from one end of Nairobi’s Kenyatta Avenue to the other. They would have told him that he had never seen the inside of a matatu all his life, or paid for car parking. He did not, therefore, qualify to pretend to manage the public transport system in the city.
They would have accused Uhuru of exiling the children of lesser gods from the city centre so the children of privilege could enjoy the space alone. Then they would have told President Kibaki a few things of his own — like how he has never slept hungry from the day he left Othaya for Makerere in the 1950s. Now he was looking on as Uhuru messed up the poor and hungry. Together with assorted abracadabra, they would have threatened to storm Uhuru’s office, the Attorney-General’s chambers and, of course, State House.
Abandoned the masses
Nobody delights in the kind of political clatter Kenya has been accustomed to over the past 15 years. But, all too often, we bury the baby together with the afterbirth. For the grass that is internal refugees (euphemistically referred to as internally displaced persons — IDPs) is today suffering in domestic refugee camps. Nobody is speaking for this grass. Some other grass is wallowing in agony in Uganda. The President, the Prime Minister designate and sundry bigwigs have asked all the displaced grass to go back home. But nobody is asking, which home? I have taken time off these past few days to visit the entire Rift Valley, Western and Nyanza provinces. I can confirm that those asking the grass to go back home do not know what they are talking about. What we did to the grass is hard to believe. There are simply no homes to go back to. Just where do you begin?
But of course the romantic elephants are still sorting out questions of who will sit in which eating position at the combined dinning table. They stroll on golf courses, canvassing for high office. CVs are polished up and pushed about in exclusive hotels. The fellows who burnt each other’s houses were only cannon fodder. Now they are spent gunfire and empty cartridges. They must remain in IDP camps, even as the heavy rain season sets in, in earnest.
Youth unemployment, pathetic roads, insecurity, deep ethnic suspicions and resentment among ordinary citizens — all these and more continue to bite. Meanwhile money changes hands both in ODM and PNU. Hunters of fortune buy strategic positions on the new gravy train. They are buoyed on with the confidence that this time round, they will be dealing with a neutered Parliament, as in the good old Kanu days.
Yes, the serpent hisses where sweet birds sing. Indeed, we have brought down the fever. But we have not cured the mortal ailment behind the fever. If the canvassing elephants should beguile themselves with the belief that all that the common grass ever wanted was just to see how jumbos make love, the romance makers will be coming in for a most rude awakening. As the reigning dreamer of dreams, I can promise you that the next time the grass catches fire, the winds of pent-up resentment shall transport it from the slums of Kibera and Korogocho. They shall lift it to the elite and salubrious suburbia. As Wole Soyinka would say in the play The Lion and the Jewel, take care my masters; they will scorch you in the end. Suburbia shall burn with everybody else. That is unless the focus shifts to the ordinary Kenyan, today.
okwaromuluka@yahoo.com
Published on March 22, 2008, 12:00 am
By Barrack Muluka
The serpent hisses where sweet birds sing. And the grass suffers with bitterness, regardless of whether elephants fight, or make love.
But Prof Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o thinks otherwise. Speaking in Parliament this week, the ODM Secretary-General took issue with this column’s expression of mistrust, two weeks ago, of erotic elephants. The Kisumu Rural MP thinks "the grass suffers without bitterness" when elephants do their love dance in the jungle. In such circumstances, "the elephants produce sweet music," he says.
It was Jomo Kenyatta who, upon being released from colonial detention, told his jailers that he had suffered without bitterness. He was even ready to forgive them, although he would not forget what they had done to him.
But there is no such thing as "suffering without bitterness". Suffering and sweetness are counter-indicated. They are forever mutually exclusive.
The matter of elephants at war and in love is a different cup of tea, altogether. If you are in doubt, ask the people of Nairobi’s Eastlands.
Together with the matatu operators, who serve that part of the city, they will tell you a different story. They will tell you that before the political elephants began their romance and honeymoon on golf courses, Uhuru Kenyatta could never have tear-gassed them and got away with it, the way he did this week, without a whimper from the political opposition. The Opposition would have been all over the place reminding him that he had never walked from one end of Nairobi’s Kenyatta Avenue to the other. They would have told him that he had never seen the inside of a matatu all his life, or paid for car parking. He did not, therefore, qualify to pretend to manage the public transport system in the city.
They would have accused Uhuru of exiling the children of lesser gods from the city centre so the children of privilege could enjoy the space alone. Then they would have told President Kibaki a few things of his own — like how he has never slept hungry from the day he left Othaya for Makerere in the 1950s. Now he was looking on as Uhuru messed up the poor and hungry. Together with assorted abracadabra, they would have threatened to storm Uhuru’s office, the Attorney-General’s chambers and, of course, State House.
Abandoned the masses
Nobody delights in the kind of political clatter Kenya has been accustomed to over the past 15 years. But, all too often, we bury the baby together with the afterbirth. For the grass that is internal refugees (euphemistically referred to as internally displaced persons — IDPs) is today suffering in domestic refugee camps. Nobody is speaking for this grass. Some other grass is wallowing in agony in Uganda. The President, the Prime Minister designate and sundry bigwigs have asked all the displaced grass to go back home. But nobody is asking, which home? I have taken time off these past few days to visit the entire Rift Valley, Western and Nyanza provinces. I can confirm that those asking the grass to go back home do not know what they are talking about. What we did to the grass is hard to believe. There are simply no homes to go back to. Just where do you begin?
But of course the romantic elephants are still sorting out questions of who will sit in which eating position at the combined dinning table. They stroll on golf courses, canvassing for high office. CVs are polished up and pushed about in exclusive hotels. The fellows who burnt each other’s houses were only cannon fodder. Now they are spent gunfire and empty cartridges. They must remain in IDP camps, even as the heavy rain season sets in, in earnest.
Youth unemployment, pathetic roads, insecurity, deep ethnic suspicions and resentment among ordinary citizens — all these and more continue to bite. Meanwhile money changes hands both in ODM and PNU. Hunters of fortune buy strategic positions on the new gravy train. They are buoyed on with the confidence that this time round, they will be dealing with a neutered Parliament, as in the good old Kanu days.
Yes, the serpent hisses where sweet birds sing. Indeed, we have brought down the fever. But we have not cured the mortal ailment behind the fever. If the canvassing elephants should beguile themselves with the belief that all that the common grass ever wanted was just to see how jumbos make love, the romance makers will be coming in for a most rude awakening. As the reigning dreamer of dreams, I can promise you that the next time the grass catches fire, the winds of pent-up resentment shall transport it from the slums of Kibera and Korogocho. They shall lift it to the elite and salubrious suburbia. As Wole Soyinka would say in the play The Lion and the Jewel, take care my masters; they will scorch you in the end. Suburbia shall burn with everybody else. That is unless the focus shifts to the ordinary Kenyan, today.
okwaromuluka@yahoo.com
Friday, 21 March 2008
News story (by Standard team) - Aged civil servants to be targeted in purge
Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143983616&cid=4&PHPSESSID=9c16874072797dda26f5fe4015118eb2
Published on March 21, 2008, 12:00 am
By Standard Team
Top civil servants over 55 years are in the crosshairs after they were earmarked for axing under the new power-sharing pact, The Standard can report.
On Thursday, plans to retire all ‘grey-haired’ permanent secretaries, parastatal heads and other senior civil servants were being finalised to give way for youthful faces. The purge is expected any time now, but not before the announcement of the new Cabinet that is expected early next week.
The Standard has reliably learnt that to fulfil the real power-sharing agreement, ODM had presented their demands to President Kibaki that a good chunk of public jobs should be set aside for heads hunted by the party.
The Head of State jetted back from Kampala, Uganda, on Thursday and wasted no time in assenting to National Accord and Reconciliation Bill, 2008, which was passed by Parliament on Tuesday evening.
The Act now gives effect to the agreement on the principles of partnership of the Coalition Government. It is also expected to foster national reconciliation apart from leading to the establishment of the offices of Prime Minister and two deputies.
The Standard has learnt that positions to be left vacant by the old guard would be taken up by technocrats recommended by both ODM and PNU, or promoted among the public service ranks.
Top Government and ODM sources said the retrenchment and replacement programme was in the spirit of ‘real’ power-sharing, and would be carried out despite Civil Service head Francis Muthaura’s recent ‘clarification’ to the contrary.
It now looks like Muthaura had gotten the wrong signal and could actually be among those earmarked for axing.
Reports of the impending purge caused anxiety among top public service officers.
Cabinet list expected
President Kibaki and Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga are expected to hold a meeting on Friday at Harambee House to, among others, deliberate on the face of the new Government.
"Among the issues they will discuss is portfolio balance and the names that would go into the shared Cabinet," said an ODM Pentagon source.
Government sources said Muthaura let the cat out of the bag when he controversially dismissed such a programme two weeks ago, but all signs are that a plan is afoot to share at least some top civil service jobs.
In his clarification, Muthaura had sought to explain the Government pecking order which, according to him, placed the Vice-President’s office above that of the Prime Minister.
Experts in government believe that in the new dispensation, the Head of the Public Service — who is also Secretary to the Cabinet — would work directly under the Prime Minister.
Apart from Muthaura himself, other top public service managers who above the retirement age are permanent secretaries Prof Karega Mutahi, 65 (Education), Mr Patrick Nyoike, 60 (Energy) and Mr Gerishon Ikiara, 57 (Transport).
Others are KRA Commissioner-General Michael Waweru, Kenya Airports Authority Managing Director George Muhoho and Kenya Civil Aviation Director General Chris Kutto.
Also in this category are Kenya Tourist Board Managing Director Ochieng Ong’ong’a, Kenya Pipeline boss George Okungu, KenGen MD Eddy Njoroge and Internal Security PS Cyrus Gituai, among others.
Several ambassadors and High Commissioners have also attained the retirement age.
Speculation remained high on whether President Kibaki would name the new Cabinet during the Easter weekend, even as State House sources insisted it would be unveiled on Tuesday.
ODM is already said to have finalised its list of 17 would-be Cabinet ministers, which Raila would discuss with Kibaki Friday. Both sides are also understood to have lined up names for public jobs.
But a source close to Pentagon said ODM, just like PNU, had professionals who needed jobs.
Among other things, the civil service purge will attempt to strike an ethnic and regional balance while leading to the employment of more people into the service.
Last year, the Government formed a taskforce to look into allegations of tribalism into top public appointments.
The inter-ministerial taskforce on staffing distribution was to carry out a situational analysis on the distribution of staff and make recommendations on the action to be taken.
The issue of "grey-haired" PSs was first raised in Parliament two years ago when then Minister for Public Service, Mr Moses Akaranga, found it hard convincing members on the need to retain the elderly PSs.
While admitting that the officers had attained the mandatory retirement age, Akaranga said their appointment was the prerogative of the President, in accordance with the Constitution.
The debate in the House was followed in quick succession by a proposal by Finance PS Joseph Kinyua, who in 2007 said the retirement age for civil servants could be raised from 55 to 60 years beginning this year.
"Actuarial experts have advised the Government to raise the civil servants’ and teachers’ retirement age to 60. We expect to bring this proposal to Parliament in next year’s Budget," said Kinyua.
However, the proposal elicited opposition when it was first mooted by Muthaura. MPs said acceding to the move was a sure key to locking out young, educated people from employment.
But Muthaura then argued that it would save the Government money on pension payments, saying the 55-year age limit was unsustainable.
PM office
Meanwhile, the Government is considering an additional building to host the Office of the Prime Minister.
Muthaura chaired a meeting yesterday seeking to identify the ideal location of the office.
Sources said the Government had proposed that the office be located at Marshall’s House.
The plan would be to have the Government buy the building from the Central Bank Deposit Pension Scheme.
The building currently hosts the Anti-banking fraud team of the Central Bank and reportedly has adequate office space and ample parking.
Other options mooted earlier included Harambee House and the Foreign Affairs and Treasury buildings.
However, the team tackling the matter is yet to settle on one.
ODM Secretary-General Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o said the party was aware that the Government was busy planning for the PM’s office.
Published on March 21, 2008, 12:00 am
By Standard Team
Top civil servants over 55 years are in the crosshairs after they were earmarked for axing under the new power-sharing pact, The Standard can report.
On Thursday, plans to retire all ‘grey-haired’ permanent secretaries, parastatal heads and other senior civil servants were being finalised to give way for youthful faces. The purge is expected any time now, but not before the announcement of the new Cabinet that is expected early next week.
The Standard has reliably learnt that to fulfil the real power-sharing agreement, ODM had presented their demands to President Kibaki that a good chunk of public jobs should be set aside for heads hunted by the party.
The Head of State jetted back from Kampala, Uganda, on Thursday and wasted no time in assenting to National Accord and Reconciliation Bill, 2008, which was passed by Parliament on Tuesday evening.
The Act now gives effect to the agreement on the principles of partnership of the Coalition Government. It is also expected to foster national reconciliation apart from leading to the establishment of the offices of Prime Minister and two deputies.
The Standard has learnt that positions to be left vacant by the old guard would be taken up by technocrats recommended by both ODM and PNU, or promoted among the public service ranks.
Top Government and ODM sources said the retrenchment and replacement programme was in the spirit of ‘real’ power-sharing, and would be carried out despite Civil Service head Francis Muthaura’s recent ‘clarification’ to the contrary.
It now looks like Muthaura had gotten the wrong signal and could actually be among those earmarked for axing.
Reports of the impending purge caused anxiety among top public service officers.
Cabinet list expected
President Kibaki and Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga are expected to hold a meeting on Friday at Harambee House to, among others, deliberate on the face of the new Government.
"Among the issues they will discuss is portfolio balance and the names that would go into the shared Cabinet," said an ODM Pentagon source.
Government sources said Muthaura let the cat out of the bag when he controversially dismissed such a programme two weeks ago, but all signs are that a plan is afoot to share at least some top civil service jobs.
In his clarification, Muthaura had sought to explain the Government pecking order which, according to him, placed the Vice-President’s office above that of the Prime Minister.
Experts in government believe that in the new dispensation, the Head of the Public Service — who is also Secretary to the Cabinet — would work directly under the Prime Minister.
Apart from Muthaura himself, other top public service managers who above the retirement age are permanent secretaries Prof Karega Mutahi, 65 (Education), Mr Patrick Nyoike, 60 (Energy) and Mr Gerishon Ikiara, 57 (Transport).
Others are KRA Commissioner-General Michael Waweru, Kenya Airports Authority Managing Director George Muhoho and Kenya Civil Aviation Director General Chris Kutto.
Also in this category are Kenya Tourist Board Managing Director Ochieng Ong’ong’a, Kenya Pipeline boss George Okungu, KenGen MD Eddy Njoroge and Internal Security PS Cyrus Gituai, among others.
Several ambassadors and High Commissioners have also attained the retirement age.
Speculation remained high on whether President Kibaki would name the new Cabinet during the Easter weekend, even as State House sources insisted it would be unveiled on Tuesday.
ODM is already said to have finalised its list of 17 would-be Cabinet ministers, which Raila would discuss with Kibaki Friday. Both sides are also understood to have lined up names for public jobs.
But a source close to Pentagon said ODM, just like PNU, had professionals who needed jobs.
Among other things, the civil service purge will attempt to strike an ethnic and regional balance while leading to the employment of more people into the service.
Last year, the Government formed a taskforce to look into allegations of tribalism into top public appointments.
The inter-ministerial taskforce on staffing distribution was to carry out a situational analysis on the distribution of staff and make recommendations on the action to be taken.
The issue of "grey-haired" PSs was first raised in Parliament two years ago when then Minister for Public Service, Mr Moses Akaranga, found it hard convincing members on the need to retain the elderly PSs.
While admitting that the officers had attained the mandatory retirement age, Akaranga said their appointment was the prerogative of the President, in accordance with the Constitution.
The debate in the House was followed in quick succession by a proposal by Finance PS Joseph Kinyua, who in 2007 said the retirement age for civil servants could be raised from 55 to 60 years beginning this year.
"Actuarial experts have advised the Government to raise the civil servants’ and teachers’ retirement age to 60. We expect to bring this proposal to Parliament in next year’s Budget," said Kinyua.
However, the proposal elicited opposition when it was first mooted by Muthaura. MPs said acceding to the move was a sure key to locking out young, educated people from employment.
But Muthaura then argued that it would save the Government money on pension payments, saying the 55-year age limit was unsustainable.
PM office
Meanwhile, the Government is considering an additional building to host the Office of the Prime Minister.
Muthaura chaired a meeting yesterday seeking to identify the ideal location of the office.
Sources said the Government had proposed that the office be located at Marshall’s House.
The plan would be to have the Government buy the building from the Central Bank Deposit Pension Scheme.
The building currently hosts the Anti-banking fraud team of the Central Bank and reportedly has adequate office space and ample parking.
Other options mooted earlier included Harambee House and the Foreign Affairs and Treasury buildings.
However, the team tackling the matter is yet to settle on one.
ODM Secretary-General Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o said the party was aware that the Government was busy planning for the PM’s office.
Thursday, 20 March 2008
News story (By Dave Opiyo) - South African judge to lead polls inquiry arrives
Ref: http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=119427
Story by DAVE OPIYO
Publication Date: 3/20/2008
The man expected to lead a public inquiry into last year’s General Election has arrived into the country.
Retired South African judge Johann Kriegler at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi shortly after he arrived in Kenya yesterday. Photo/ MICHAEL MUTE
The arrival of retired South African judge Johann Kriegler on Wednesday sets the stage for the audit of all aspects of the disputed poll.
Members of the Independent Review Commission are expected to be sworn in on Thursday by chief justice Evan Gicheru. Others members are Tanzania’s Lady Justice Imani Daud Aboud and Argentine Horacio Boneo, both of whom were expected last evening.
Also members
Prof Marangu M’Marete, Mr Francis Angila Away and Ms Catherine Muyeka Mumma are also members.
According to mediation talks co-chair Oluyemi Adeniji, the election scrutiny team is expected to conduct public hearings at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre. But the exact date was yet to be set.
The review commission was scheduled to start hearings on February 15, but delayed because not all members had arrived. “We’ll announce the date the public inquiry will begin,” said Mr Adeniji in an interview with the media.
The review team is expected to present its report to the Kofi Annan team within three to six months.
Mr Adeniji, who returned on Sunday from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said the mediation talks would resume on Thursday after a two-day break.
He had gone to Ethiopia to brief the African Union on the talks. The AU initiated, and is sponsoring the National Dialogue and Reconciliation. Many issues were yet to be discussed by the negotiators.
According to Mr Adeniji, the panel of negotiators is yet to discuss land matters, unemployment and a new constitution.
But the negotiators had agreed on the membership of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission and the mini-commission to investigate the post election violence.
Both commissions, he said, would comprise local and international experts. He did not reveal the names of those to sit on the Truth Commission.
However, he disclosed that the team to investigate the violence would be made up of international experts, with only one being a Kenyan. “We’re still awaiting the constitution of the grand coalition government before we move forward,” said Mr Adeniji.
At least 1,000 people were killed and 350,000 others displaced in the violence that broke out immediately the disputed presidential tally was announced. It declared President Kibaki winner.
Resume today
And with the possibility of the three commissions working simultaneously, Mr Adeniji hinted at the likelihood of the other commissions working outside Nairobi.
“The city will be congested with inquiries. We’re looking into the possibility of allowing some commissions to operate outside Nairobi,” he said.
And with the mediation talks set to resume, Mr Adeniji disputed claims that there was a slowing down in the momentum of talks following the signing of the agreement by President Kibaki and Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga.
MPs on Tuesday amended the Constitution to create the post of Prime Minister and two deputies.
Story by DAVE OPIYO
Publication Date: 3/20/2008
The man expected to lead a public inquiry into last year’s General Election has arrived into the country.
Retired South African judge Johann Kriegler at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi shortly after he arrived in Kenya yesterday. Photo/ MICHAEL MUTE
The arrival of retired South African judge Johann Kriegler on Wednesday sets the stage for the audit of all aspects of the disputed poll.
Members of the Independent Review Commission are expected to be sworn in on Thursday by chief justice Evan Gicheru. Others members are Tanzania’s Lady Justice Imani Daud Aboud and Argentine Horacio Boneo, both of whom were expected last evening.
Also members
Prof Marangu M’Marete, Mr Francis Angila Away and Ms Catherine Muyeka Mumma are also members.
According to mediation talks co-chair Oluyemi Adeniji, the election scrutiny team is expected to conduct public hearings at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre. But the exact date was yet to be set.
The review commission was scheduled to start hearings on February 15, but delayed because not all members had arrived. “We’ll announce the date the public inquiry will begin,” said Mr Adeniji in an interview with the media.
The review team is expected to present its report to the Kofi Annan team within three to six months.
Mr Adeniji, who returned on Sunday from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said the mediation talks would resume on Thursday after a two-day break.
He had gone to Ethiopia to brief the African Union on the talks. The AU initiated, and is sponsoring the National Dialogue and Reconciliation. Many issues were yet to be discussed by the negotiators.
According to Mr Adeniji, the panel of negotiators is yet to discuss land matters, unemployment and a new constitution.
But the negotiators had agreed on the membership of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission and the mini-commission to investigate the post election violence.
Both commissions, he said, would comprise local and international experts. He did not reveal the names of those to sit on the Truth Commission.
However, he disclosed that the team to investigate the violence would be made up of international experts, with only one being a Kenyan. “We’re still awaiting the constitution of the grand coalition government before we move forward,” said Mr Adeniji.
At least 1,000 people were killed and 350,000 others displaced in the violence that broke out immediately the disputed presidential tally was announced. It declared President Kibaki winner.
Resume today
And with the possibility of the three commissions working simultaneously, Mr Adeniji hinted at the likelihood of the other commissions working outside Nairobi.
“The city will be congested with inquiries. We’re looking into the possibility of allowing some commissions to operate outside Nairobi,” he said.
And with the mediation talks set to resume, Mr Adeniji disputed claims that there was a slowing down in the momentum of talks following the signing of the agreement by President Kibaki and Prime Minister-designate Raila Odinga.
MPs on Tuesday amended the Constitution to create the post of Prime Minister and two deputies.
News story (by Brian Adero) - Firm doubles load capacity to Uganda
Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143983575&cid=4
Published on March 20, 2008, 12:00 am
By Brian Adero
The Kenya-Uganda Railways concessionaire, Rift Valley Railways (RVR), has more than doubled its capacity to ferry transit cargo to Uganda.
"It’s true, RVR has been working round the clock to ensure all transit cargo to Uganda is speedily hauled across the country and we are happy that the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is responding positively to our increased efficiency," RVR Managing Director, Mr Roy Puffett, said yesterday.
"As a transport solutions provider, we appreciate the co-operation by URA which will enhance our capacity for the benefit of our customers."
Puffet said the performance was a reflection of RVR’s strategy that has already started paying dividends.
However, RVR’s increased efficiencies seem to have caught Uganda Customs officials’ off-guard.
Media reports in Kampala indicate that an all-time high cargo backlog has hit the URA officials at the Malaba border in Kenya.
It is understood that the officials at the Malaba One Stop Clearing Station are struggling to keep pace with RVR’s daily frequencies, which have been described, as ‘historic’.
In a statement, Puffett said in the past three weeks, more than 60 trains had passed through the Malaba border town to Uganda, representing more than 200 per cent growth.
He said RVR was operating a double schedule train service from Mombasa to Uganda daily.
Published on March 20, 2008, 12:00 am
By Brian Adero
The Kenya-Uganda Railways concessionaire, Rift Valley Railways (RVR), has more than doubled its capacity to ferry transit cargo to Uganda.
"It’s true, RVR has been working round the clock to ensure all transit cargo to Uganda is speedily hauled across the country and we are happy that the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is responding positively to our increased efficiency," RVR Managing Director, Mr Roy Puffett, said yesterday.
"As a transport solutions provider, we appreciate the co-operation by URA which will enhance our capacity for the benefit of our customers."
Puffet said the performance was a reflection of RVR’s strategy that has already started paying dividends.
However, RVR’s increased efficiencies seem to have caught Uganda Customs officials’ off-guard.
Media reports in Kampala indicate that an all-time high cargo backlog has hit the URA officials at the Malaba border in Kenya.
It is understood that the officials at the Malaba One Stop Clearing Station are struggling to keep pace with RVR’s daily frequencies, which have been described, as ‘historic’.
In a statement, Puffett said in the past three weeks, more than 60 trains had passed through the Malaba border town to Uganda, representing more than 200 per cent growth.
He said RVR was operating a double schedule train service from Mombasa to Uganda daily.
News story (by Standard team) - Puzzle over Cabinet posts
Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143983570&cid=4
Published on March 20, 2008, 12:00 am
By Standard Team
The final pieces of the power-sharing jigsaw started falling into place with the gazettement of the requisite law to create the Office of Prime Minister and two deputies.
But in the background of intense lobbying and behind-the-scenes manoeuvring by key players over the new Grand Coalition, two puzzles remained to be tackled: What ministries would go to PNU and which ones to newfound partner ODM; and who would be the new office holders.
Already, ODM leader Raila Odinga is the presumed Prime Minister but his two deputies remain unknown, though Mr Musalia Mudavadi is widely tipped to occupy one of them.
While ODM-Kenya leader Kalonzo Musyoka is the current Vice-President, a position he may continue to hold, the rest of the Cabinet positions — whose number is yet to be determined but is believed to be 34 — are up for grabs, following Parliament’s enactment of the power sharing deal on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, a special issue of the Kenya Gazette dated March 18 and which formally entrenches the PM power structure into the Constitution also made it clear that only Parliament can terminate the tenure of a sitting PM or that of his deputies.
On Wednesday, there was an expectant mood among Kenyans and the international community as they continued to keenly watch how President Kibaki and the Prime Minister-designate would reconstitute the new government.
It transpired that the new Cabinet could not be named on Wednesday, despite the lightning speed with which the Accord Bills sailed through Parliament on Tuesday after which they were promptly assented to and gazetted.
President Kibaki, who on Monday said he would name the new Cabinet in a few days, was in Uganda on official visit.
It is understood that he would not complete the task until after the Easter weekend — reportedly not later than Tuesday — leaving room for more lobbying, scheming and plotting by both sides of the political divide.
Retired South African judge, Justice Johann Cristiaan Kriegler, talks to journalists upon his arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, on Wednesday. He will chair the committee that will investigate last year’s elections. Picture: Robert Gicheru
Raila, who held a morning meeting with his key lieutenants at Pentagon House, is understood to have finalised the list of 17 names from the party that the President is expected to incorporate into the Cabinet.
Sources said the 17 slots were distributed based on regional representation and a delicate power balancing act. The party has MPs in all provinces except Central Province.
The proposed names were made available to The Standard but it was understood the final approval would be subject to a discussion between the two principals — President Kibaki and Raila.
PNU — which already has 17 ministers in a half-Cabinet that consists of allies ODM-K and Kanu — continued to soak in pressure from its MPs seeking to be included in Government, even as Assistant ministers.
Another vicious war was being played out between two opposing camps over the second Deputy Prime Minister position reserved for PNU. Kanu has been pushing for its chairman, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, while Narc-Kenya has been lobbying for Justice minister, Ms Martha Karua.
Sources in Government indicated that Kibaki could reconstitute the Cabinet afresh rather than just adding the ODM’s list. This would mean a major reshuffle that would finely mix the ODM and PNU MPs in slots to be shared on a 50-50 basis. The same case would apply to assistant minister positions.
Lean government
This would also allow Kibaki to bring in more Cabinet ministers from ODM-K and Kanu, and possibly drop at least two ministers, according to a top PNU source who sought anonymity.
Sources said ODM, the party with majority members in Parliament, also appeared to favour such a scenario.
And following the drawing of the ODM list of 17, it is increasingly becoming clear that the Cabinet may have no fewer than 34 ministers.
On Wednesday, the civil society expressed displeasure at the expected "bloated government structure".
The civil society, which is pushing for a lean Government, asked President Kibaki not to bow to pressure to reward individuals seeking Cabinet portfolio.
On Wednesday, Chief Mediator Oluyemi Adeniji said the eyes of the international community were riveted on the final steps of the power-sharing process.
Adeniji, who spoke at the Serena Hotel, said: "Kenyans should celebrate the passing of the crucial Bills. The process is almost complete but the announcement of the coalition government will be the clincher."
ODM sources said the party line-up had Rift Valley Province staking a claim to five Cabinet slots, given its vast nature and the fact that it does not occupy any of the top two positions of the Prime Minister or their deputy. The province also delivered the largest single vote block for the party.
Nyanza is expected to have three slots, same as Western Province while the Coast and Eastern regions would get two slots apiece.
"Whereas it is not possible to please everybody, this is the only possible way to share out the positions. But we know there will be a lot of discontent that will have to be dealt with," said the source.
ODM also have the position of Speaker of the National Assembly — held by Mr Kenneth Marende — and that of his deputy, occupied by Lagdera MP Farah Maalim.
On Wednesday, sources said a PNU list — in which slots are shared out between PNU, ODM-Kenya and Kanu — had also been finalised.
The sources said both President Kibaki and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka had already agreed on how they would share out their seats.
More lobbying in PNU was reported from the larger Meru districts whose MPs have written to President Kibaki asking for two more Cabinet slots.
The area already has a Cabinet post held by Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi.
Speaking to The Standard on Tuesday after a Parliamentary Group meeting of the government coalition, Kiraitu said the Meru bloc provided a large vote for the President.
"We are asking that our support be recognised by giving us three seats,’’ Kiraitu said.
Meanwhile, the search for a physical office for the Prime Minister was top on the Government agenda ahead of the naming of the new Cabinet.
ODM was said to have tabled a proposal on the location of the PM’s office, which would be considered alongside four other locations that include Harambee House, the Treasury Building and the Foreign Affairs Building.
Contacted by The Standard on Wednesday, ODM Secretary-General Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, said he was not part of a team of eight said to be spearheading the search for the PM’s office location.
However, sources said that a team of ODM members, led by Chairman Henry Kosgey, and the PNU side led by, the Head of Public Service, Mr Francis Muthaura, were making progress.
— Stories by Martin Mutua, Ayub Savula and Joseph Murimi
Published on March 20, 2008, 12:00 am
By Standard Team
The final pieces of the power-sharing jigsaw started falling into place with the gazettement of the requisite law to create the Office of Prime Minister and two deputies.
But in the background of intense lobbying and behind-the-scenes manoeuvring by key players over the new Grand Coalition, two puzzles remained to be tackled: What ministries would go to PNU and which ones to newfound partner ODM; and who would be the new office holders.
Already, ODM leader Raila Odinga is the presumed Prime Minister but his two deputies remain unknown, though Mr Musalia Mudavadi is widely tipped to occupy one of them.
While ODM-Kenya leader Kalonzo Musyoka is the current Vice-President, a position he may continue to hold, the rest of the Cabinet positions — whose number is yet to be determined but is believed to be 34 — are up for grabs, following Parliament’s enactment of the power sharing deal on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, a special issue of the Kenya Gazette dated March 18 and which formally entrenches the PM power structure into the Constitution also made it clear that only Parliament can terminate the tenure of a sitting PM or that of his deputies.
On Wednesday, there was an expectant mood among Kenyans and the international community as they continued to keenly watch how President Kibaki and the Prime Minister-designate would reconstitute the new government.
It transpired that the new Cabinet could not be named on Wednesday, despite the lightning speed with which the Accord Bills sailed through Parliament on Tuesday after which they were promptly assented to and gazetted.
President Kibaki, who on Monday said he would name the new Cabinet in a few days, was in Uganda on official visit.
It is understood that he would not complete the task until after the Easter weekend — reportedly not later than Tuesday — leaving room for more lobbying, scheming and plotting by both sides of the political divide.
Retired South African judge, Justice Johann Cristiaan Kriegler, talks to journalists upon his arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, on Wednesday. He will chair the committee that will investigate last year’s elections. Picture: Robert Gicheru
Raila, who held a morning meeting with his key lieutenants at Pentagon House, is understood to have finalised the list of 17 names from the party that the President is expected to incorporate into the Cabinet.
Sources said the 17 slots were distributed based on regional representation and a delicate power balancing act. The party has MPs in all provinces except Central Province.
The proposed names were made available to The Standard but it was understood the final approval would be subject to a discussion between the two principals — President Kibaki and Raila.
PNU — which already has 17 ministers in a half-Cabinet that consists of allies ODM-K and Kanu — continued to soak in pressure from its MPs seeking to be included in Government, even as Assistant ministers.
Another vicious war was being played out between two opposing camps over the second Deputy Prime Minister position reserved for PNU. Kanu has been pushing for its chairman, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, while Narc-Kenya has been lobbying for Justice minister, Ms Martha Karua.
Sources in Government indicated that Kibaki could reconstitute the Cabinet afresh rather than just adding the ODM’s list. This would mean a major reshuffle that would finely mix the ODM and PNU MPs in slots to be shared on a 50-50 basis. The same case would apply to assistant minister positions.
Lean government
This would also allow Kibaki to bring in more Cabinet ministers from ODM-K and Kanu, and possibly drop at least two ministers, according to a top PNU source who sought anonymity.
Sources said ODM, the party with majority members in Parliament, also appeared to favour such a scenario.
And following the drawing of the ODM list of 17, it is increasingly becoming clear that the Cabinet may have no fewer than 34 ministers.
On Wednesday, the civil society expressed displeasure at the expected "bloated government structure".
The civil society, which is pushing for a lean Government, asked President Kibaki not to bow to pressure to reward individuals seeking Cabinet portfolio.
On Wednesday, Chief Mediator Oluyemi Adeniji said the eyes of the international community were riveted on the final steps of the power-sharing process.
Adeniji, who spoke at the Serena Hotel, said: "Kenyans should celebrate the passing of the crucial Bills. The process is almost complete but the announcement of the coalition government will be the clincher."
ODM sources said the party line-up had Rift Valley Province staking a claim to five Cabinet slots, given its vast nature and the fact that it does not occupy any of the top two positions of the Prime Minister or their deputy. The province also delivered the largest single vote block for the party.
Nyanza is expected to have three slots, same as Western Province while the Coast and Eastern regions would get two slots apiece.
"Whereas it is not possible to please everybody, this is the only possible way to share out the positions. But we know there will be a lot of discontent that will have to be dealt with," said the source.
ODM also have the position of Speaker of the National Assembly — held by Mr Kenneth Marende — and that of his deputy, occupied by Lagdera MP Farah Maalim.
On Wednesday, sources said a PNU list — in which slots are shared out between PNU, ODM-Kenya and Kanu — had also been finalised.
The sources said both President Kibaki and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka had already agreed on how they would share out their seats.
More lobbying in PNU was reported from the larger Meru districts whose MPs have written to President Kibaki asking for two more Cabinet slots.
The area already has a Cabinet post held by Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi.
Speaking to The Standard on Tuesday after a Parliamentary Group meeting of the government coalition, Kiraitu said the Meru bloc provided a large vote for the President.
"We are asking that our support be recognised by giving us three seats,’’ Kiraitu said.
Meanwhile, the search for a physical office for the Prime Minister was top on the Government agenda ahead of the naming of the new Cabinet.
ODM was said to have tabled a proposal on the location of the PM’s office, which would be considered alongside four other locations that include Harambee House, the Treasury Building and the Foreign Affairs Building.
Contacted by The Standard on Wednesday, ODM Secretary-General Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, said he was not part of a team of eight said to be spearheading the search for the PM’s office location.
However, sources said that a team of ODM members, led by Chairman Henry Kosgey, and the PNU side led by, the Head of Public Service, Mr Francis Muthaura, were making progress.
— Stories by Martin Mutua, Ayub Savula and Joseph Murimi
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