New Red Herrings from the Banana Plantation?

[Onyango Oloo]

From: "nmatunda" <matunda@...>
Date: Sun Oct 2, 2005 9:39 pm
Subject: Fwd: Re: Convince me that this is about THE CONSTITUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

--- In [e-mail], "nmatunda" <matunda@h...> wrote:

Papa F.,

The fight for reforms ended at campaign kickoff!

I have been talking to people on the ground, although my intent wasn't to collect statistics. The campaigns are heated and so called western powers are part of the muddle. It is a pity that our politicians, some of who have in the past fought against neocolonialism, continue to
solicit and obtain support from some major powers.

The facts:

Major western powers (USA, Great Britain, Germany, etc.) are against the Wako Draft; in fact, it is possible that they are against reforms all the same! As much as they have paid lip service to reforms, it appears that they prefer Kenya to remain as it has always been where they exert undue influence over state matters.

A good example is the exclusive security and military contacts that the British have enjoyed since independence. It is said that part of the reason Murungaru is in trouble with the British is because he pushed for competition in tenders for military and police vehicles.

The police now use Toyota Land Cruisers, in place of Land Rovers that have been the mainstay of security forces since independence! (It is not to say allegations against Murungaru are not founded; it is simply that the British might have overlooked the said allegantion if they had won the said tenders!)

Ditto for the Americans and West Germany who see the Kibaki government as leaning to East Asia, especially China. Western powers are not happy with the recent visit to China by the president. With that visit a number of agreements were reached that may see China become a key player in the country's science, technology, transportation and even the military!

There are more reasons that the same powers detest the Kibaki administration, including the streamlining of the financial services sector. With government's reduced borrowing, a lot of money has been freed for lending, forced a fall in interest rates and causing a dilemma for the banking sector, which is dominated by foreigh banks!
The British, especially, are not happy that their banks' business may not be as secure as in the past!

There is more. The country's economy is seeing a turnaround with the last economic growth figures pegged at ~5% pa; what is more is that the government has improved it tax collection (the numbers floated are: a jump in tax revenue collection from Kshs240 billion to Kshs320+
billion) to a degree where in the future the country may not need to seek foreign borrowing for budgetary support. Colonial powers see a potential breaking of tenterhooks that allow them to control the destiny of the country! (Of course economic development is one; the impact of constituency development funds is phenomenal and a tool of empowerment that now cannot be controlled via bribing a fellow or so back in Nairobi!)

The said Western powers are hoping (and could be actively be pushing) for the failure of the referendum! That way, the country status quo remains, even if for a while and in a state where they can continue to exercise their neocolonial exploitation of the country.

The YES campaign has made allegations that these powers are funding the Orange campaign. Indeed, the key players in the Orange camp made a beeline to the US embassy once the referendum was announced. It is
said that these campaigners have now become more discrete in their dealings with these Western powers. Nonetheless, they are in sync in the intention to defeat Kibaki, any which how!

So you see, this is not about referendum any more.

Personally, I never supported Kibaki even when he was in opposition. I thought he lacked charisma, was not a gifted political operator and came out as a competent technocrat than a leader. Since coming to power, and despite his ill-health, the president has ceded substantial
independence to his ministers (something Moi had taken away from cabinet members), allowed the introduction of grassroots reforms (e.g. the CDFs), funded education (including bursaries for each constituency), laid foundations for economic growth (some of which we
see through low interest rates, a rising stock exchange index, etc.) and brought a degree (I wish he could do more) of transparency on government spending and contracts (recall the recent publication of ministries returning money to the treasury!) and more.

I also think that once someone is elected to office, we have a responsibility to give the person a chance to implement their programs and then come elections we judge them by either re-electing them or defeating them in preference of someone else promising a better program.

It will be A HUGE MISTAKE to defeat Kibaki and posssibly stall the progress whose foundations have been laid. It is worse to do so with the support of neocolonial powers in complicit with some of our most ardent anti-neocolonialists!

Matunda Nyanchama
--- End forwarded message ---

[Onyango Oloo]

From: "Onyango Oloo" <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 2:20 am
Subject: To the New Anti-Imperialists On the Block

I find it ironic that people who have long berated and persistently sneered at socialists on these very forums are today the ardent champions taking up cudgels against the "imperialist powers" and denouncing "neo-colonialism".

Some of us have been saying since forever that the United States, the UK, Germany, Japan, Canada, Italy and all those capitalist countries are largely driven by their ideological and geo-political agendas when it comes to dealing with states like Kenya.

So why the sudden "revelations"?

Nothing has changed folks.

And incidentally, the regime of Mwai Kibaki- and specifically the NAK faction of that regime remains a right wing clique that pursues neo-conservative politics and implements neo-liberal economic policies. Any attempts to portray Mwai Kibaki as the Fidel Castro of East Africa or Njenga Karume as the Chairman Mao of Kenya are just laughable.

Let us stop with these crude Moi-era scare tactics of a "Beberu Plot" to destablize a "progressive African government". That frankly, is a load of elephant manure.

The KANU- LDP team is NOT trying to "overthrow" the Kenyan government- if anything, the tribal minded NAK faction long ago usurped the power entrusted to a coalition with a nation- wide democratic mandate and illegally poached opportunists like Nyachae, Kones and Karume from the opposition benches. The Wako Draft is their latest strategem to consolidate this coup de tat from within which has been creeping from at least as way back as the time Kijana Wamalwa died.

What is happening is that the Yes team is running on an empty tank and that is why it is desperatedly resorting to these ludicrous scenarios of a destablization plot from within and from without.

The fact of the matter is that the NAK faction and its associated Yes Campaign has lost credibility not just with the Kenyan people who helped to catapult it, together with LDP to power in 2002, but also the very imperialist backers who are now scared stiff that the undemocratic tendencies and corrupt practices of these venal kleptomaniacal slothocrats will tilt the country further and further to a radical political dispensation.

What the Western powers are doing is cutting their losses and trying to write off their bad investement in the thoroughly unstable and unpopular faction that is trying to impose tribal supremacy that I am shocked to see some people DEFEND openly on these forums.

The Kenyan people are mature; they are also politically intelligent.

If we want to have an honest debate about neocolonialism and imperialism in Kenya let us do so with due diligence to our country's history, its class structure, power dynamics and the ideological orientation of the clique in power and its apologists online.

Why is it that the very people who keep castigating these Western powers are totally tongue tied about the tribal hate speech of the Michukis who are assuring the Agikuyu to sleep soundly because "their" President Kibaki and "their" minister Karume is taking care of business?

Why no condemnation of the made in Kenya Interhamwe FM stations talking of "nyamu cia ruguru"?

Why no denunciations of the arbitrary arrests of the David Ochamis and Onyango Omollos?

Why the silence on the fascist KANU era incommunicado kidnapping of Mwenje and Ndolo?

Until one talks about these repressive and undemocratic tendencies, one is simply NOT CREDIBLE shoring up mythical "imperialist" plots to bring down the Kibaki regime- one of the most right wing and West friendly governments in Africa.

Today I am amused to see dyed in the wool anti-communists embrace Red China as the "new ally" of the Kibaki regime- not recognizing that China has an even more cynical and amoral foreign policy posture in relation to Kenya- guided largely by their hunger and yearning for new energy sources.

Dr. Chris Murungaru is a disgraced Kenyan politician who has been linked to half a dozen scandals- including allegations of drug dealing. To witness this unsavoury politician being shored up as a proto-Steve Biko like figure is simply surreal.

And on whose backs has this miraculous and invisible growth rate in Kenya been achieved?

How many of the 500,000 jobs a year have been created? How many Kenyans have been lifted from underneath the poverty line?

How have the conditions of Kenyan women improved in concrete material, social, economic and political terms?

How about the youth?

Why are Kenyan professionals still leaving Kenya in droves if the economy is so bouyant?

Why are millions of Kenyan facing starvation?

Why is the Kenyan government appealing for billions in emergency donor assistance to stave of the devastating effects of drought and famine?

What has been the economic costs of collapsing infrastructure, rising crime and insecurity in the urban areas?

How have the lives of the millions of Kenyans living with HIV and AIDS improved with all those billions of dollars pumped into government coffers?

Some of us can see through the thin veneer of the threadbare propaganda blankets of the NAK faction.

This talk of a destablization campaign from within and without is a RED HERRING to obscure the fact that the Yes team has LOST THE BATTLE of the minds, the battle in the arena of public opinion and are dreading the rout that is sure to follow during the November 21st Referendum exercise.

It is not only disingenous but actually sickening to see proponents of the Wako Draft- a veritable power grab that wants to impose an imperial presidency on the Kenyan people as painting their adversaries as drunk with dreams of power. Yet these very people are the ones who shot down the notion of the executive prime minister on the grounds that they want power to be concentrated only in a single pair of hands- an imperial, NAK friendly presidency who guarantees that political power will never venture beyond Mount Kenya.

With all due respect, I plead with the Yes ideologues to stop these transparent mind games.

Let us stick to the referendum campaign- a referendum that we must remind the Yes team that they IMPOSED on a very reluctant Kenyan electorate, but a referendum nevertheless where they no longer control the political agenda.

It is be expected that the Nyachaes, the Michukis,the Ndiles, the Mungatanas and the Karumes will dream up coup plots at raucous Banana rallies. After all, these are just the 2005 reincarnations of the Kariuki Chotaras, Oloo Aringos and Oloitiptips of yesteryear.

Let me just say that I expect more from pundits and observers who know better and can transcend this crude fear mongering which is futile because the wananchi are too sophisticated to buy such BUNK.

Onyango Oloo
Toronto

[Onyango Oloo]

From: "Onyango Oloo" <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 3:20 am
Subject: On Sino-Yankee Relations

As we speak, George Bush is bankrolling his bloody carnage in Iraq thanks in large part to East Asian economic power houses like China.

See the following:

www.energybulletin.net/6956.html

Many American corporations RELY on Chinese cheap labour to turn a profit.

What I am saying is that the relationship between China and the United States is far more nuanced than some of us may want to let on...

Onyango Oloo
Toronto

[donworry]

Just a quick question: In following the ups and downs of the referendum campaigning there seems little doubt on the ground that The Oranges seem to have the edge. My Q? is What happens after the vote? Having rejected this draft will the GK offer us the Bomas one or where do we go from here?

[Onyango Oloo]

From: "nmatunda" <matunda@...>
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 9:41 am
Subject: Re: To the New Anti-Imperialists On the Block

Oloo,

Don't you find it ironic that you are in bed with the CIA-orchestrated campaign under the Orange revolution? Isn't it funny that you, of all the people, find yourself and make common cause with the Rutos of the world, of Moi era dictatorship! But I am not surprised because politics has a way of bringing together strange bed fellows! It is also funny that so called fight against neocolonialism has made rubbish of people's past politics!

The stagnation in the country is mainly because a faction of NARC, whose sole focus remains grabbing power; this faction cannot settle to deliver goods to the Kenyan people. These people, many in cabinet, peddle the Wanjiku song to disguise their naked ambition to run the
country, even through the back door! And because the referendum draft makes it impossible to win power through the backdoor, they go bonkers!

Just think about what they have done since 2002: the election ends and instead of people getting down to deliver the 500,000 jobs a year, the war for power starts! When do these people have time to work at all?

And by the way the results area clear: what with the return to the treasury of moneys allocated for spending; which money cannot be spent for the sake of Wanjiku because people are criss-crossing the country perpetually campaigning as if the election were not over yet! In the
interim, Wanjiku has no roads, hospitals, schools are run down, is being killed by criminals, etc. (The little that has been done is despite the distractions from power hungry self-seekers; not because of them!)

Job creation happens in a climate of economic growth - access to affordable capital is a basis of job creation! If one expected a decree that government and all parastatals employ more Kenyans, then one is dreaming. The government's role is to facilitate a climate that
would allow for investment, ease of movement of
goods/services/people/security/etc. and hence a vibrant economy! That is the reaslity.

By the way China is communist only by name; communism in that country died with Chairman Mao, a man I admire for persistence, inspiration and leadership but not for his economics! China today is the fastest growing capitalist nation in the world, followed by India. So it is hoghwash to claim that leaning east is consorting with socialists!

There is no doubt that there is plenty of corruption in the country. And I can tell you right now that there are very few people that are clean, perhaps the likes of you and I who can only play the political game from afar. The Orange Movement revolutionaries are in the thick of it as anyone esle. I would challenge those who claim to be clean to
"cast the first stone". There is a story told of one such luminary being arrested with trunks of money at a Kenyan border, a card that his opponents play when the pendulum of campaign swings far enough! Indeed, it is the reason they cannot fight Murungaru on charges of corruption because they know they swim in the same murk!

One thing though I must point out: this current crop of politicians will take Kenya nowhere. And they can claim all they want about Wanjiku but it is all rubbish! And many Kenyans need to know this and focus on how best to deliver themselves. And one way to deliver themselves is to start challenging the leaders on real-life issues: schools, disease, poverty, employment, etc. Those are the bread and butter issues that are key; and I will tell you that as Kenyans well-being improves, materially and otherwise, some of the issues we are debating today will become irrelevant.

In my view this is why this referendum needs to end soon! A YES win will allow Kenyans to start building on some of the changes that have been instituted: low interest rates, Wanjiku-run constituency funds and bursaries, Wanjiku-run schools/cooperatives, and more.

Matunda Nyanchama

[Onyango Oloo]

From: Otieno Mbare <ombare@...>
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 11:03 am
Subject: Re: [africa-oped] Re: To the New Anti-Imperialists

Nd. Matunda Nyanchama,

Although time has become a major obstacle for me, I have, at times tried to follow the arguments for and against the Wako Draft. Infact, I was not about to indulge myself in this discourse after my earlier warning about this Wako Draft but I read your peace which made to say just a few words before I get to other important matters. Since the inception of this list, I have considered you one of the best debaters and, this goes a far back as early 1990's. You have been quite consitent but I have realised some inconsistencies which have made me wonder why you have to change your style this late in the day. I may
not agree totally with the "NO" side especially when they turn what should have been civic education to an election campaign for 2007. But believe or not, the "YES" have had enough time to tell Kenyans why they think Kenyans should support yes but have failed to date.

What we have been treated to are just complaints without addressing the issues the "NO" group have pin pointed in the Wako Draft. There has been explosion of writing in the daily newspapers highlighting and specifically pointing out the "grey areas" in the Wako Draft; even some of you who have been supporting from a far have not bothered to help the "YES" to lay out their case for Kenyans to make informed judgement on the draft. Kenya has changed and people are no longer listening to leaders peddling propaganda that "some people want to acquire power
through the back door...oh, foreigners are funding this or that group".

I think Kenyans are now too much clever for such kind of propaganda. That's why it pained me so much to see you make so much effort to absolve a group that have completely lost touch with Kenyan reality.

The reality on the ground, my friend, Kenyans are rejecting the Wako Draft not because they hate the president, but because it does not represent the views and cultural ettequettes of the people of Kenya.

The people of Kenya cannot afford to pass a defective, faulty draft just because we had spent too much money on it. It will be cheaper for the country to make it right in the first place than correct it later!

I may be the only person who has found the "YES" proponents appealing.

Why can't they make their case for Kenyans �

When they were at St. Teresas, nothing of importance came out of that meeting. It is just name calling and giving ultimatums. The "NO" proponents have so far argued their cases quite well in the court of public opinion. It is therefore incumbent on the "NO" proponents to really articulate to the public the best things in the draft and what they intend to do with the "poison" in the draft.

Ni hayo tu!


Otieno Mbare

[Onyango Oloo]

From: "Matunda Nyanchama" <matunda@...>
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 11:24 am
Subject: Re: [africa-oped] Re: To the New Anti-Imperialists

Ndugu Mbare,

I just made one point - that if we need to slug it let's do it as Kenyans, being honest with each other rather than aligning ourselves with neocolonial interests. I presented a case where foreign powers are interfering, of course to protect their interests. These things are real and need to be factored in the decision Wanjiku makes on November 21st. And that is NOT propaganda.

On making the case, civic education has recently started; based on this education, and I hope no one attempts to disrupt the process as has happened in the past, Wanjiku will vote. And we have close to 50 days to go! As I said in another forum, political outcomes turn on pinheads and the winners may not be the guys who are off their marks first! We know about political waves and the tide can turn and confound even the most optimistic creatures- a day is a lifetime in politics.

The issue under discussion, if I may remind you, was exactly the point you make: that this campaign has lost focus! And that the outcomes will be more about politics than the merits or demerits of the referendum draft! You have seen it in disrupted rallies, banning journalists from some places, etc. And of course the famous beeline to the American Embassy seeking Uncle Sam's blessing in the referendum fight.

If this were a fair game focused on reforms, we would have town halls, debates and counter debates across the country where NO and YES proponents get pitted against each other to inform Wanjiku of merits/demerits of the
draft. Today, we see feel-good rallies in which declarations are made, generalizations are thrown and a lot of murk passed around.

But again, this can be understood: that we are a developing nation, with an evolving democratic culture and that the leadership will often hijack Wanjiku's cause as they have done in the past and as they are doing presently.

Ndugu yangu, the political arena is substantially more complicated than whether the referendum draft is good for Kenya or not! I happen to think that it is largely good for the country compared with what we have! and even
Bomas!

Wanjuku needs to be aware of all angles - the merits/demerits of the draft and associated politics - and factor them into the equation as she prepares to pass judgement on November 21st - that is 49 days from today.

unedited.

Matunda Nyanchama

[Onyango Oloo]

From: "Onyango Oloo" <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 11:43 am
Subject: Matunda: Did You Rediscover Neo-Colonialism Over the Weekend?

You have to do way better than that, Matunda.

Fortunately I am a fairly prolific writer on these forums and my CONSISTENT views on George Bush, world monopoly capitalism, imperialism and the neocolonial ruling clique are all in the public domain.


Let me just give a few links to my stated views on this subject:

jukwaa.proboards58.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1127760309

demokrasia-kenya.blogspot.com/2004/10/time-for-progressive-kenyans-to-have.html

demokrasia-kenya.blogspot.com/2005/05/tusikate-tamaa-wakenya.html

demokrasia-kenya.blogspot.com/2005/04/to-capture-peoples-power-ignore-2007.html

demokrasia-kenya.blogspot.com/2005/05/message-to-kenyan-middle-strata.html

You see Matunda, unlike YOU, I did not find out that there was a US imperialism agenda over this last weekend, after the series of massive Orange rallies from Mombasa to Kakamega. I did not "discover" that neo-colonialism existed in our country after midnight last night, nor did I uncover the true class backgrounds of the Kibakis, Kiraitus, Railas, Uhurus and Kalonzos at nine o'clock this morning.

Instead of distorting my views, do the PRINCIPLED thing as a debater with integrity by acknowledging that Onyango Oloo has been among those Kenyans who INFUSE WITH EVERY POSTING an anti-imperialist perspective on Kenyan politics. Like I said earlier Matunda, I find it bizarre to see YOU, of all people, suddenly becoming a fire-breathing "revolutionary" now that the Yes team of Kibaki, Kiraitu, Awori, Nyachae, Tuju, Ngilu, Karume, Kombo and other sellout are staring at imminent defeat in the upcoming referendum.

Matunda do you remember how some of you sarcastically dismissed some of us as NARC court poets in 2002 and early 2003 when some of you were busy campaigning for Nyachae and the Moi-KANU project? Some of our memories are still very vivid- indeed, we could dredge up articles to back up our claims.

Are you really serious that you can convince ANYONE that Onyango Oloo is today in bed with the CIA, George Bush and US led imperialism or are you getting a tad delusional, Matunda?

Surely you jest, surely you jest. You cannot be serious.

Matunda, unlike some people on this forum, I do not change my ideological views on the strength of the ebb and flow of a referendum campaign.

In two months, I can safely predict Matunda, some people who are today screaming at the top of their lungs about an "imperialist plot to bring down Kibaki" will be back to kissing the derriere of Uncle Sam, supporting the draconian retrenchment of civil servants, justifying the domination of the Kenyan economy by the forces of world monopoly capitalism and propping up the same kind of neocolonial arrangements that they seem to be so horrified about this morning.

And you know what Matunda?

Some of us will still be talking about the nefarious nature of imperialism.

We will still be denouncing all these comprador and petit-bourgeois politicians in the mainstream Kenyan formations.

You see Matunda, members of the Kenyan Left have their own independent agenda and it is merely amusing to see pro-imperialist apologists label us as CIA fellow travelers. Beyond the name-calling and the labeling there is the concrete reality. Let us compare our actual politics offline, away from these forums.

Some of us are not posting things here because we hope to be part of any present or future structures of the Kenyan government.

We are not looking for public appointments or even running for parliament.

If we had wanted to play the sycophantic game Matunda, we are not exactly unfamiliar with some of the major mainstream players within the major political factions at home.

It would have been far easier for some of us to rush home and become paid propagandists for this or that politician. Instead as the record clearly shows, we have remained consistently critical and independent of all of these factions.

The ethnic slur of Oloo being the "Chief LDP Whip" a charge posted on RC Bowen ly by some Africa-Oped regulars who are too yellow banana bellied to criticize us openly in their real names- remains just that, another manifestation of deranged Luophobia that imagines that every person whose name begins with an “O”- well, almost everybody, you know what I mean- is somehow programmed to sing the tunes of one Raila Amolo Odinga.

To those people I repeat- please wallow in your own paranoid fixations.

In regards to our present positions regarding the Kenyan constitutional review process, let me state that some of us have been saying the same things for almost two and a half years now- long before some people on these forums rediscovered their "anti-imperialist" credentials.

Here are some samples from the year 2003:

www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_mesg&forum=22&topic_id=18634&mesg_id=18634&listing_type=search

www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_mesg&forum=22&topic_id=25589&mesg_id=25589&listing_type=search

www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_mesg&forum=22&topic_id=25166&mesg_id=25166&listing_type=search

www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_mesg&forum=22&topic_id=25098&mesg_id=25098&listing_type=search

The economic stagnation in Kenya today has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that the NAK faction that you Matunda support, did everything to thwart the constitutional basis for a real impetus to a major economic recovery.

It has everything to do with the fact that fat cats like David Mwiraria, Kimunya, Ndwiga have been getting waivers when they should not be; it has everything to do with the fat that Kibaki has stacked the government with his cronies and recycled deadwood like Karume and Nyachae; it has everything to do with the fact that this "anti-imperialist" government of Kibaki has been among the most slavish in implementing neo-liberal policies like massive retrenchments, suppression of wages and repression against worker's rights.

Tell me something Matunda: because you are a professional with a background in telecommunications- why did the Kenyan government grant the third mobile licence to ECONET a shady outfit led by a known corporate hoodlum bypassing bids like the KTIG one put together by some of your own former KCA colleagues, like your former deputy Justus Wanga and your former KCA executive co-members Lucy Kimani and John Maina?

If you want us to discuss the reasons for the malaise afflicting the Kenyan economy please bring it on- rather than appending half-truths as a handmaiden for the red herring you are placing on this referendum debate.

I consider it as a fluttering and rather flattering White Flag of surrender when I see Yes apologists like yourself erect new goal posts and try and rush to introduce a new soccer game at the Nyayo stadium when their side is losing 7 to 1 in a sizzling one sided match at Kasarani.

In a sense, I can only offer my mkono wa tanzia, my condolences, because I realize that residents of the Banana Plantation are already in mourning because they have just come back from the mortuary where their Yes Campaign lies in frigid rigor mortis- done in by its own self-inflicted wounds and finally vanquished by the mass mobilization of the Kenyan wananchi who are saying NO to the Wako Draft very loudly.

Matunda, let me end where I began.

In the early 1990s here in Canada- and you were here so you know what I am talking about- the hated system of apartheid generated a broad movement of anti-apartheid foes which ranged from Brian Mulroney and his Tories to Pan-Africanists and members of the Communist Party of Canada.

Were these nationalists and revolutionaries in bed with the neo-cons of Mulroney's party? Of course not.

These disparate and discrete, usually contending ideological forces were united by the global consensus that apartheid was a crime against humanity.

Likewise in Kenya today, the Rutos on the right and the Oloos on the left are currently united by a multi-ethnic, cross-ideological NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONSENSUS that the Wako Draft is an illegitimate forgery and con trick against the Kenyan people and must be stopped.

Matunda, I sincerely expect to meet you at the next demonstration against the US led war of invasion against Iraq and I hope you stay on when Njoki Njoroge Njehu of 50 Years is Enough comes to town to denounce the policies of the IMF and the World Bank.

Onyango Oloo
Toronto

[Onyango Oloo]

From: Otieno Mbare <ombare@...>
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 12:14 pm
Subject: Re: [africa-oped] Re: To the New Anti-Imperialists On the Block

Quoting Matunda Nyanchama <matunda@...>:
I just made one point - that if we need to slug it let's do it as Kenyans, being honest with each other rather than aligning ourselves with neocolonial interests. I presented a case where foreign powers are interfering, of course to protect their interests. These things are real and need to
be factored in the decision Wanjiku makes on November 21st. And that is NOT propaganda.

....other stuff deleted......

Nd. Matunda,

Allow me to respond only on your first paragraph. I know time may not be on our side since we have different engagements in our stations.

However, I belive, when people sit down to reason with one another, many are likely to see reason and dialogue for a better society. Africa has been doomed because everyone tries to outdo each other in shouting whose end result is chaos. I want to take you on your own words that if we want to do it, let's do it without leaning on outside help. In my earlier postings, I have said as much. One thing we must remember, this thing did not start last month, these people have formed a very "special habit" of running to the envoys whenever there is a problem. You wonder how they can manage to govern a country when they don't have even a clue how they can sort out minor problems in the government. The other day, I was almost crying when I heard Kamanda claiming that now it's their turn to go and meet with the envoys because LDP/KANU have already had their meetings with them. Nd. Nyanchama, here I cannot apportion blame but suffice to say that they still behave like school prefects who have to report to the teachers on duty or their headmaster.

Nonetheless, your assertion that the "NO" team are being funded is well-coached propaganda by the "YES" team. Infact, I had had a lot of respect for Kibaki until the day Wako presented the draft to him and immediatelly set the tempo high with his open declaration that he will campaign for "YES". You have to remember that Kibaki had not read the draft. Even as we argue, he is telling people to read and vote "YES" yet he has not read those 287 pages.

That's when I said something has gone wrong. I supported Kibaki because I knew he stood above others in terms of experience and I considered him a sober person among other things. But I am today disappointed just like majority of Kenyans in the country. When the LDP brigade were incensed with the way he made his cabinet appointment, it was I first rushed to the media houses to calm the LDP warning that it is a mistake to start complaining too early even before the cabinet was sworn in. For some time, I thought I should not bother myself so much with what politicians are doing, but then, I asked, who will then talk for the poor and the oppressed if all of us are quiet and the field is left for the nyang'aus who have perfected the art of political manipulation. I can see we agree on many fronts, however, my plea to you as an old soldier, read this thing again and you will realise it is a recipe for chaos and destruction of our beloved country! But if they insist that this is the best we can get, then, let's just divide the country peacefully afterall even the
Soviet Union, one of the largest country in the world did disintergrate and today the people in the smaller republics are developing much faster and soon catching up Western European countries.


Dr. Otieno Mbare, M.Sc.(Econ), D.Sc.(B.Adm)
�bo Akademi University
Institute for Advance Management Systems Research
Lemmink�inengatan 14
Office location: Kulturhuset, Fabriksgatan 7A 1
Tel. [phone] (Off) [phone]
www.abo.fi/~ombare or iamsr.abo.fi
Email: Otieno.Mbare@..., awachtin@...
20520 �BO
Finland


"Assertion is not argument; to contradict the statement of an opponent is not proof that you are correct."

-- Samuel Johnson (English lexicographer, critic, and poet, 1709-1784

[Onyango Oloo]

From: nyabuto mangerere <Mangerere1@...>
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 9:21 am
Subject: Re: [africa-oped] Fwd: Re: Convince me that this is about THE CONSTITUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Namwamba,

I have always thought about it and this is very disappointing, but I knew it was gonna happen when we take various interests into account. So long as we don't gain the wisdom and know what keeps us behind, this saying will always apply as " when the elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers".

Likewise "when the SAME elephants make love it is again the grass that still suffers. The grass has the responsibility of protecting itself against trickle down tribal economics and developing a different strategy or continue suffering. We all have to know what we want and make sure we want the right thing. I know a good number are aware of this, but continue living by their stomachs by corruption through ethnic arithmetic.

I will post again that famous article of "BADO SISI NI WATUMWA".

Ubarikiwe sana mogaka Namwamba.

LATER.

Nyabuto

[Onyango Oloo]

From: "nmatunda" <matunda@...>
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 12:32 pm
Subject: Re: Matunda: Thank You For That Gracious Concession!

Oloo,

Kindly take your own advice; and yes, I have said this much: if Wanjiku, based on informed choice, votes NO, that is fine; it should also be fine if she votes YES.

Here is something I picked from Mbare's message footer:


"Assertion is not argument; to contradict the statement of an opponent is not proof that you are correct."

-- Samuel Johnson (English lexicographer, critic, and poet, 1709-1784)

Matunda Nyanchama

--- In [e-mail], "Onyango Oloo"
<oloo_wa_canada@y...> wrote:

Vitriol, Matunda, vitriol?

I am sure you are familiar with the Kiswahili saying which goes, "Nyani Haoni..."

You, Matunda have placed a red herring in the ongoing debate on the referendum by injecting NON- EXISTENT coup plots, and scary Imperialist take overs that I would like to see you backing up with some credible empirical evidence that can be independently verified by a third party.

You Matunda have gone on an orgy of name calling; making all kinds of outlandish allegations and you now complain about "vitriol"

Well,your postings are still intact on this page so I need not say anything further.

The Kenyan people will ultimately decide whether the Wako Draft becomes our new constitution or not. Unlike you, Matunda, I actually believe that the much despised Wanjiku has a functioning brain of her own.

Onyango Oloo
Toronto

[Onyango Oloo]

From: "Onyango Oloo" <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 12:41 pm
Subject: Re: Matunda: Ah, The Famous Last Word...

If I said anything further on this particular ping pong with you Matunda, I would be merely repeating myself.

That quotation from Mbare's posting does not apply. Re-read my own rejoinder to you. My case is argued quite closely with references to lots of facts. Matunda, the posting is right there. Just take another look at it OK.

But perhaps you may wanna calm down FIRST.

Onyango Oloo
Toronto

[Onyango Oloo]

"jobwapili" <jobwapili@...>
Date: Mon Oct 3, 2005 1:27 pm
[Subject: [kca_main] Re: Convince me that this is about THE CONSTITUTION!!!!!!!!!!!... jobwapili


I agree with Papa F's initial assessment of western province with regard to the referendum poll. It is currently leaning NO, and chances of reversal are not promising. The notion about Kombo or Awori determining the fate of the western vote is quite unfounded.

As my buddy Prof. Avedi currently in Kenya reported, the YES team has resulted to hand-outs & goodies for survival in this referendum thing (...the Masai Mara reserve policy reversal, Mau forest evictees relocation plans, etc) and that Kombo is finding it difficult in Western to sell the wako draft.

There is now a distinct disconnect between some Western Province leadership (MP's, Ministers & VP)and the electorate for numerous reasons I'll not delve into.

Besides, there's distinct sub-regional & sub-ethnic diversity in opinion in Western Province, whereby for example Bunyore, Vihiga, Busia, & Mumias views may sharply contrast views from Bungoma, Trans-Nzoia and parts of Kakamega.

Western province may also be "watching" keenly at the rest of the nation's response to the Wako draft.

Soita Shitanda,referred to by Barack Muluka as "to the Toiletanda" recently urged Kombo to treat this referendum issue cautiously when he accurately read the prevailing "NO" mood in his very constituency of Malava.

I agree that the huge turnouts at NO rallies doesn't necessarily translate into NO votes, but I will be cheating myself, if I ignore the fact that it reflects an eagerness & anticipation to listen to the NO point of view. The more the NO message (what Yes proponents call NO 'lies') sinks, the more NO votes are being manufactured.

While the NO team is criss crossing the nation with a clear NO message, often punching holes at the wako draft and promoting the Bomas draft, the YES teams response has been more reactionary and rather diversionary personal jabs at Raila, Moi,Kivuitu,... Envoys, et al.

Worse still, the YES team has resulted to apparently desperate state orchestrated tactics like, the arrest of Mwenje & Ndolo -within Court premises- upon their receipt of bail, & simplistic propaganda assertions like Norman Nyaga trying to plant imaginary conflicts within LDP leadership between Musalia & Kalonzo.

The YES team is yet to present a "sellable" strong message they stick to, but keeps responding to the NO points often labelling them lies.

The danger in this is, if there happens to be some several truths in the NO message, which is actually the case, then the credibility of the YES message dies.

At the big Kakamega NO rally for example, few select but convenient exerpts from the Wako draft were pointed by the team and compared to the Bomas draft. The listeners were then left to choose for themselves and not wait for their MP's to do that for them.

Interesting for example was the issue of tenant evictions or home demolitions without court orders... An issue so rampant in the poor sections of the town where landlords often lock out defaulting tenants, destroy or hold their property etc etc.

Bomas draft, under Bill of Rights / Housing sections.....
Chapter 5 section 59 (1)provides that....No person may be evicted from their home, or have their home demolished without an order of court made after considering all the relevant circumstances.

Section 59 (3) further states......Parliament may not enact any law that permits or authorizes arbitrary eviction.

On the contrary, Wako draft under Chapter 6, section 63, has silently deleted these two specific clauses above,... yet retaining all other clauses in the housing section. As reported, William Ruto of the NO camp stated to the charged crowd "this is the kind of mutilation of the Bomas draft we are talking about, Wanjiku will be left at the mercy of Landlords"

The listeners, many of whom have been previously subjected to unceremonious, inhumane and embarasing evictions or home demolitions without court orders,..responded very positively to the message.

They were further "informed" that the government's refusal to avail them copies of the Bomas draft for side-by-side comparison was aimed at veiling the "many beautiful provisions in Bomas draft" away from them.

On the issue of devolution, the crowd was charged with the prospect of having the region being able to manage it's own resources with considerable degree of autonomy, away from Nairobi's central government, "if the Bomas draft was implemented in its original form".

Further "MUTILATIONS" of the bomas draft were highlighted to them in other chapters ; executive, Judicial service, Bill of rights (human rights case filing), amendment of constitution ......etc etc.

This reflected in my view, organized,sensitive,and objective campaigning by the NO team. Their soundbites full of strong message to the electorate is so far superior to the highly personalized rhetoric by the YES team .

Finally the big political power question was asked to the Kakamega crowd by Nambale MP, Okemo. Okemo asked Luhya's to choose between having a "bad" constitution,a "bad" life ("Katiba Mbaya, Maisha Mbaya")& a lameduck VP for them, on one hand,.... or a good constitution, a good life and a good position for them on the other.....needless to say the crowd reaction was ecstatic.

The masive turnout and the positive reception may not have been accidental as some analysts dismiss, but may be a reflection of a prevalent mood engrossing the province, even with the constitution issue kept aside.

Conspicuously absent were local FORD-K MP's, now stranded in ambivalence, as to whether to follow their electorate or follow the FORD-K leadership.


peace.

Job.

[Onyango Oloo]

The so-called Orange-backed Western government plot against NAK

From: Bunduki - Mon, Oct 03, 7:46 PM

Ati I am opposed to the stinking WAKO-Kibaki-Nyachae draft because Western powers have somehow managed to burrow into my brain and are switching it on and off with a remote control, twisting it this way and that way to serve their interests in Kenya.

Ati that is why I am opposing the draft. Ati I am not opposed to the draft as an informed African adult, ati it is because of the bazungu; at they have told me to oppose the draft.

Ati while I am sitting here nonchalantly drinking uji and githeri minding my own business ... kumbe the bazungu ndiyo huyo ... they are sneaking something into my brain to control me like their robot.

Ati that is why I am opposing the draft. Ati I would not have seen the massive imperial powers reserved for the presidency in the Wako draft on my own.

Ati I would not have demanded justice for the family of the murdered Prof. Odhiambo Mbai if the bazungu left me on my own.

Ati I would not have demanded prosecution of Anglo-Leasing neanderthal perptrators without the Western powers getting into the scheme of things.

Ati I would not have cried when Margret Gachara was given amnesty after stealing millions of shillings meant for medicines for AIDS sufferers.

Ati I would not have felt offended if Kibaki called my mother "pumbavu;" ati I need the bazungu to turn on my indignation!

Ati I would not have wondered at the delay to enact a new constitution within a hundred days as NARC had prmoised during campaigns without wazungus twitching my mind thiher and thither.

Ati I would not have noticed the new MEGA GEMA MEGA corruption in this government without ati Western powers controlling my mind.

Ati I would not have noticed and complained about terrible, terrible levels of tribalism in this NARC administration ati without wazungu.

Ati I would not have demanded justice for all Kenyans without tribal discrimination!

You know what, my friend, I hope they give you a job or give a nod in your direction to permit you to contest a seat in parliament in 2007 as a reward for the poor, openly obvious hatchet-man sychophantic job you are doing abroad trying to defend the indefensible and sanitize a corrupt, greedy, tribal gerontocratic system. I hope that after trying to deflect attention with the Western-plot bogeyman, you will not be left hangin dry to nurse your tattered reputation.

I am Bunduki. I have spoken!