Post by adongo12345 on Nov 23, 2005 22:16:39 GMT 3
By Adongo Ogony
The first casualty of the failed Kibaki Katiba is in. The president dissolved the cabinet one day after loosing the referendum that he tried in so many ways to win. I personally said a long time ago that the political landscape in Kenya would change drastically after Kenyans reject the Wako Draft constitution. I think the dissolution of the cabinet is just the beginning.
Kibaki is still the duly elected president of the Republic of Kenya. He still has the despised Moi constitution to work with and can still do a lot of damage to the country and to his political opponents. The good news is that a new political force has emerged in the nation. The ODM crashed the Yes team with all their money, government resources, presidential “gifts” and the dirty campaign demonizing Raila and his colleagues in the No camp.
In the next two weeks as the president cobbles together another makeshift “Government of National Unity” those who defeated his constitutional project will also be meeting, strategizing on what to do and they know they have the support of the majority of Kenyans. President Kibaki knows that as well. He knows Kenyans have just rejected the constitution he personally appealed and even bribed them to accept. He knows Kenyans did not just elect him to be the president of Kenya. They elected him with a specific mandate to fulfill based on the promises he made to get elected. He has let us down badly and we are waiting to see if he realizes where we stand with him today.
More significantly, the Kibaki government which was elected as Narc and later metamorphosed into something nobody knows has only two more years to go and the final year will probably be consumed with the usual crazy campaigns. For all practical purposes, the Kibaki regime is over. The sensible thing would have been for the president to dissolve parliament and let Kenyans elect a new government with a clear mandate. But that won’t happen.
Kibaki like any other leader is gasping for some kind of positive legacy. So far he is likely to be remembered for all the bad things like dragging the country back to tribal chauvinism through a cabal of power mongers at State House, bringing back tribal delegations to seek state favours, abandoning the team that helped to get him elected and the worst of all trying to smuggle an absurd and dictatorial constitution on Kenyans through the back door and being rebuffed by the wananchi. Those are pretty awful things to be attached to the name of a man who has been head of state for only three years and from whom so much was expected.
So what can Kibaki actually redeem from his disgraced government and sagging political fortunes?
There are two schools of thought in relation to what Kibaki’s new cabinet will look like. We know that behind the scenes there is already a frenzy of activity going on to formulate the new cabinet. One shudders to imagine that it is still the same fumblers and chauvinists who hijacked the government Kenyans elected on Dec 27, 2002 that are advising Mzee and putting together a new cabinet. Who knows what the political shadows like the Joe Wanjuis, the Nat Kangethes, the Njoroges and the Lucy Kibakis, not to be confused with the famous Narc activist from Othaya, are doing behind the scenes. We will soon find out.
By the way does anybody know where Kiraitu Murungi is? We have heard he is roaming around with all the trappings of his office even after the collective sack. Is he still at State House cooking more mischief for the nation? That too we will find out. Very soon.
Anyhow one school of thought is that the president is going to take this opportunity to pretend to be rising above the squabbling teams in his cabinet one led by Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka and the other led by Kiraitu Murungi and lately John Michuki.
According to this school of thought the president would punish both groups by dropping at least some from each team. This way Kibaki would then turn to Kenyans and say you see I have removed both sides of the divide and now I have a united team. The trouble here is that Kibaki has been very much part and parcel of the squabbling. In fact a case can be made that people like Kiraitu Murungi have been doing what the president wanted them to do and not the other way round.
In my opinion it would just be simple trickery for the president after joining the mud-wrestling contest in his cabinet to now come up and say he wants to be the referee of the mud-wrestlers. He is one of them. If the president is genuine he should be the first to take responsibility for the reckless in fighting in his own cabinet.
The other trouble with punishing both sides “equally” is that this battle has been taken to the people of Kenya by way of a referendum vote, the first in the history of independent Kenya. One side won the other side lost badly. These two sides of cabinet squablers, to the extent that they impact on national politics are obviously NOT equals any more in terms of public credibility.
Besides "the equal punishment" cure from Kibaki would simply push the LDP out of the coalition, after its leaders are demoted in the newly concocted government to simply cross the floor and strengthen the ODM which has already made it clear they have their eyes on Kibaki’s seat of power. It is a gift Kibaki will hardly give the opposition, particularly now after his poached team of kina Njenga Karume, Simeon Nyachae and others have not only been ineffective but some like Nyachae are facing political oblivion precisely for joining the Kibaki team. Even the Ford-K allies of the DP has been shaken to its roots with mass rebellion from their ranks who think their leadership is blindly taking instructions from the tribal cabal that controls the corridors of power in Kibaki’s State House. Someone like Moses Wetangula must have finally found out that the people who opposed the Wako Draft in Busia were not the Luo mechanic “boys” from Kisumu like he thought. What a revelation that must have been for him.
Anyhow the bigger problem for Kibaki is how to go about firing people who just marshaled 60% of the public vote against his own project? Wouldn’t he be seen as thumbing his nose at Kenyans? The bottom line is that the ground is really shaky after the referendum tsunami and the situation is infinitely more complex than it was prior to the referendum.
The other school of thought on the next moves of President Kibaki is that the president is going to take the opportunity to extend an olive branch to Raila and his team after the humiliating defeat and ask them to work together. This is what I said about that scenario some seven weeks ago in an article entitled “Wako Has Killed The Spirit of Devolution”
www.timesnews.co.ke/13oct05/insight/ins3.html
“A piece of advice for President Kibaki. I know you have been bombarded with requests, almost orders to fire the likes of Raila, Musyoka, Najib Balala, Ochilo Ayacko, Anyang’ Nyong’o and now we have Jebii Kilimo and God knows who is coming tomorrow. This must be a tough decision, considering it is coming from those who claim to be your protectors, God knows from what.
Now here are the options. You will lose the referendum that is almost a foregone conclusion now. What next? Yes, you have to fire some of your ministers. In fact you should dissolve the cabinet soon after the referendum results. That is the minimum.
The question is: Will you fire those who shall have dragged the country into a failed referendum and have been rejected by the people of Kenya or will you fire those who have stood firm with the Kenyan people as the referendum poll results are going to reveal? That really is the question you have to wrestle with Mr. President. My sense is you might need to hang on the coat tails of the winners at the referendum to get a little room to govern the country as opposed to sinking deeper with the losers. It is your call but you might want to start considering your options right now. The status quo cannot hold after the referendum”
Well, the hour we were talking about then is now with us. So will Kibaki embrace the likes of Raila, Kalonzo, Nyong’o, Balala na wengine and insulate himself from the loosing crew who must be hiding their collective heads in shame after all those lies about how all Kenyans were behind the Wako mongrel? According to this school of thought Kibaki could kill two birds with one stone as they say.
One is let Kenyans know that he has heard them and will not demote the leaders the masses have embraced. The other objective would be start planting seeds for discord within ODM. Once the LDP starts getting cozy with State House and even begin to replace some of the despised faces of the Kibaki regime, there will be an inevitable pull away by Kanu to strategize on their own after gaining a lot of credibility with Kenyan voters with their vigorous campaign against the Wako Draft. The tricky part here will be if Kibaki also brings in the Kanu leadership of the ODM like William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta to his cabinet. Cynical people would say, the president should do just that to ensure the popularity of these people disappears very fast. It seems as soon as people get close to State House the loose the trust of Kenyans very rapidly.
Whatever Kibaki does a few things must be dealt with pronto.
1. Kibaki created 47 districts that is more than a 50% increase in a matter of weeks. It is an unprecedented and out rightly reckless move for the country. Even the wakolonis were more merciful to the public purse that must run these entities. Whatever cabinet Kibaki appoints must tackle this matter without fear or favour. Determine what is reasonable, set in motion a process of how the district functions will be financed and when they will come into play. Parliament should also immediately enact legislation to seal whatever hole(s) exists that allows the president to dish out districts like candy to his visitors. Something is awfully wrong with the system. It has to be fixed before we end up with 200 districts depending on who occupies State House.
2. Any moneys stolen from the Treasury to finance the referendum outside the official costs of running the failed CKRC civic education and the ECK activities should be brought to light. I urge our MPs to dig in every corner and tell the public if we have been robbed and by who and let us figure out what to do with the culprits. We need a thorough audit of all key ministries and institutions involved with the referendum particularly the ones where there are obvious suspicions. Specifically we need an audit of the Office of the President, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, the Central Bank of Kenya, the Government Printers and others. This audit should be necessitated through parliament. Don’t wait for Justice Ringera and his anti-corruption outfit. They seem to be much better at sucking money from Kenyans than producing any tangible results. Parliament must wake up to its responsibilities of cleaning up the mess we saw during the referendum campaign. This was another Goldenberg scum right in front of our eyes. We must address it. Let Kibaki deal with his cabinet while parliament takes it responsibilities. I hope the MPs are not going to disappear from parliament now that we are done with the referendum. Everybody needs to get back to work.
3. Kibaki should never forget that the same Kenyans who rejected his Wako Draft, many years ago rejected the present constitution. President Kibaki cannot take refuge under the Moi constitution with the excuse that Kenyans have rejected the Wako Draft and there is nothing he can do about it. We need a clear commitment from the entire political leadership of the nation towards the completion of a genuinely people driven constitution. I am eagerly waiting to hear what the ODM leadership has in store for Kenyans in terms of completing our constitutional journey. From President Kibaki we need clear assurance that he will no longer place roadblocks on the path to a people driven constitution. Kibaki’s people stormed out of Bomas after the delegates rejected their demands. They lost the vote there and run back to State House to start a new process which the people have now rejected. Nobody can storm out of the verdict of the people.
4. The war on Raila that has consumed the DP/NAK faction for the last three years has to stop. We have been told all the terrible things about Raila and Kenyans don’t seem to give a d**n. Let the DP/NAK team find something else to do. The pathological hatred for Raila by members of the ruling clique is not helping anybody. The hate campaign against the man is getting tiresome. Give it a rest. Koigi Wa Wamwere are you listening? And Paul Mite? The anti Raila brigade should be dismantled and assigned other duties. Surely there must be something out there they can do. At least Koigi has gone into a self-declared 30 day mourning period after the tsunami. Good for him. Just don't drag everybody into the funeral, Ndugu Koigi.
www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=32654
5. We need to know if Kibaki has completely given up on the so-called war against corruption. This new cabinet must show resolve to really confront corruption and stop the games. Kenyans are tired of rhetoric with no results. We are paying Justice Ringers 2 million a month and he seems to spend more time fighting the politicians who denounce corruption than producing tangible results.
6. Finally Mzee has to accept the obvious fact that his vision for Kenya has been trashed by the mighty wananchi. Time to go. Take your time, get a few things straightened out and go peacefully and enjoy your retirement. Kenyans are a magnanimous people they will embrace you if you leave without too much matata. Look how they today treat the same Moi they literally booed out of town during your swearing in ceremony. He is a celebrity everywhere in the land.
7. Last, but not least, please Mr. President reject the tribal clothing your friends have covered you with. You are not a Kikuyu president. Embrace the nation and reject the little minded tribalists around you. To do that you must free yourself from their grip on you and your government. The tribal mask you are wearing is a big part of your problem. Take it off.
Let me say a few words to the ODM team. Number one the people of Kenya have placed a huge responsibility in your hands. Don’t pull a Narc fiasco on us by starting to tear each other up in pursuit of power. The initiative to jump start the constitutional review process is now in your hands. It is no longer a government project. The people of Kenya have trusted you with that specific task.
Number two the referendum has proved to one and all that the voice of the masses is indeed the voice of GOD. Nobody in Kenya can bulldoze things on the Wananchi. We proved it to Moi and now to Mwai Kibaki. Kenyans showed they are no longer willing to be prisoners of tribal chieftains. Work as a team and be loyal to the mandate Kenyans have given you. At least do the following:
1. Cool down on any plans on Kibaki’s seat. Let the man pull his bag of tricks. My sense is that Kenyans are willing to take a pause and see if President Kibaki learned any lessons from his defeat at the referendum. If he didn’t and continues with the status quo and even gets more belligerent then let’s take this battle to the polls and Kenyans will rally behind you. Don’t come up half baked and rushed up plans about vote of no confidence or anything like that, but if Kibaki refuses to deal with the new reality then let’s play ball.
2. Elect the ODM Summit which is representative of all the Kenyan communities and let the Summit coordinate the activities of the ODM. The old thinking is that as soon as the ODM leadership starts jostling for positions they will start fighting and the coalition will collapse. I think it is time a new more mature national leadership emerged to show us that collective leadership, which Kenyans have embraced is actually workable even with the sometimes vaulting ambitions of politicians. The ball is in your court.
2. Expand the team you have selected to jump start the discussion on the constitution review process to include at least women within your own ranks. The ODM is notorious with being male dominated. Bring in Jebii Kilimo, Dr. Julia Ojiambo and others. Also we need the likes of James Orengo, Pheroze Nowrojee, Wanyiri Kihoro and other people with expertise and democratic credentials to be visible and active in this new group. No more closed circuit activity, Kenyans are sick of that. No miracles behind closed doors. We must first agree on the process, then the rest will fall place. Consult with the civil society groups, religious organizations, other political formations and the public in general to find out how we can go about setting up a Constituent Assembly to iron out the problems with the Bomas Draft and move the constitutional agenda forward without any delay.
3. The LDP wing of the ODM is going to be under intense pressure to abandon their ODM partners with a promise of joining the inner sanctums of power within the Kibaki regime and for some goodies here and there. This will be an effort to resurrect the devastated MKM squad. My advice to you is do so at your own peril. Leave those guys alone in the ICU where the Kenyans voters put them. There is a reason they are there.
4. Immediately embark on a campaign to reach out to members of the Gikuyu/Meru communities who voted overwhelmingly for the Wako Draft. They are Kenyans and they too exercised their rights like any other Kenyan. Just ignore the chauvinist leaders, you will be shocked how well the people will receive you and your message.
5. Insist on a parliamentry comittee to investigate election violence and brutalities that led to nine known people killed by law enforcement agents. These families need answers and we also need to ensure that this kind of stuff never happens. Wananchi showed the leaders on Monday Nov. 21 2005 how peaceful they are when left alone. Let's hold those who breached the safety of Kenyans and killed some accountable and let's compensate the affected families. We must stop the culture of impunity when it comes to the rights and lives of ordinary Kenyans. The ODM should never forget the people who were killed fighting for the course 3.5 million Kenyans embraced on Nov 21, 2005.
My best case scenario is that the politicians get off their high chairs, talk to each without the phony marriages of convenience and get the people involved in finishing the constitutional process and then we can have Raila and Kiraitu campaigning together for a new democratic constitution. Not the Naivasha crap again, please.
One last thing. I hope Kibaki and the politicians do not try playing tricks on Kenyans by telling us it is now time to turn to development and forget about the constitution. Kibaki already hinted a move in that direction. Anybody who still thinks you can isolate development from the constitution should have a chat with Raphael Tuju. I am sure some of the Rarieda voters probably visited his reportedly fabulous mobile clinic before proceeding to register a No vote. The constitution is about development. The Narc government was specifically elected to usher in a new constitution which they promised to deliver in 100 days. Three years later they cannot simply abscond from this key issue for Kenyans and say now they want to build roads. Give us our roads and our constitution or get moving. Enough already.
The writer is a human rights activist.
The first casualty of the failed Kibaki Katiba is in. The president dissolved the cabinet one day after loosing the referendum that he tried in so many ways to win. I personally said a long time ago that the political landscape in Kenya would change drastically after Kenyans reject the Wako Draft constitution. I think the dissolution of the cabinet is just the beginning.
Kibaki is still the duly elected president of the Republic of Kenya. He still has the despised Moi constitution to work with and can still do a lot of damage to the country and to his political opponents. The good news is that a new political force has emerged in the nation. The ODM crashed the Yes team with all their money, government resources, presidential “gifts” and the dirty campaign demonizing Raila and his colleagues in the No camp.
In the next two weeks as the president cobbles together another makeshift “Government of National Unity” those who defeated his constitutional project will also be meeting, strategizing on what to do and they know they have the support of the majority of Kenyans. President Kibaki knows that as well. He knows Kenyans have just rejected the constitution he personally appealed and even bribed them to accept. He knows Kenyans did not just elect him to be the president of Kenya. They elected him with a specific mandate to fulfill based on the promises he made to get elected. He has let us down badly and we are waiting to see if he realizes where we stand with him today.
More significantly, the Kibaki government which was elected as Narc and later metamorphosed into something nobody knows has only two more years to go and the final year will probably be consumed with the usual crazy campaigns. For all practical purposes, the Kibaki regime is over. The sensible thing would have been for the president to dissolve parliament and let Kenyans elect a new government with a clear mandate. But that won’t happen.
Kibaki like any other leader is gasping for some kind of positive legacy. So far he is likely to be remembered for all the bad things like dragging the country back to tribal chauvinism through a cabal of power mongers at State House, bringing back tribal delegations to seek state favours, abandoning the team that helped to get him elected and the worst of all trying to smuggle an absurd and dictatorial constitution on Kenyans through the back door and being rebuffed by the wananchi. Those are pretty awful things to be attached to the name of a man who has been head of state for only three years and from whom so much was expected.
So what can Kibaki actually redeem from his disgraced government and sagging political fortunes?
There are two schools of thought in relation to what Kibaki’s new cabinet will look like. We know that behind the scenes there is already a frenzy of activity going on to formulate the new cabinet. One shudders to imagine that it is still the same fumblers and chauvinists who hijacked the government Kenyans elected on Dec 27, 2002 that are advising Mzee and putting together a new cabinet. Who knows what the political shadows like the Joe Wanjuis, the Nat Kangethes, the Njoroges and the Lucy Kibakis, not to be confused with the famous Narc activist from Othaya, are doing behind the scenes. We will soon find out.
By the way does anybody know where Kiraitu Murungi is? We have heard he is roaming around with all the trappings of his office even after the collective sack. Is he still at State House cooking more mischief for the nation? That too we will find out. Very soon.
Anyhow one school of thought is that the president is going to take this opportunity to pretend to be rising above the squabbling teams in his cabinet one led by Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka and the other led by Kiraitu Murungi and lately John Michuki.
According to this school of thought the president would punish both groups by dropping at least some from each team. This way Kibaki would then turn to Kenyans and say you see I have removed both sides of the divide and now I have a united team. The trouble here is that Kibaki has been very much part and parcel of the squabbling. In fact a case can be made that people like Kiraitu Murungi have been doing what the president wanted them to do and not the other way round.
In my opinion it would just be simple trickery for the president after joining the mud-wrestling contest in his cabinet to now come up and say he wants to be the referee of the mud-wrestlers. He is one of them. If the president is genuine he should be the first to take responsibility for the reckless in fighting in his own cabinet.
The other trouble with punishing both sides “equally” is that this battle has been taken to the people of Kenya by way of a referendum vote, the first in the history of independent Kenya. One side won the other side lost badly. These two sides of cabinet squablers, to the extent that they impact on national politics are obviously NOT equals any more in terms of public credibility.
Besides "the equal punishment" cure from Kibaki would simply push the LDP out of the coalition, after its leaders are demoted in the newly concocted government to simply cross the floor and strengthen the ODM which has already made it clear they have their eyes on Kibaki’s seat of power. It is a gift Kibaki will hardly give the opposition, particularly now after his poached team of kina Njenga Karume, Simeon Nyachae and others have not only been ineffective but some like Nyachae are facing political oblivion precisely for joining the Kibaki team. Even the Ford-K allies of the DP has been shaken to its roots with mass rebellion from their ranks who think their leadership is blindly taking instructions from the tribal cabal that controls the corridors of power in Kibaki’s State House. Someone like Moses Wetangula must have finally found out that the people who opposed the Wako Draft in Busia were not the Luo mechanic “boys” from Kisumu like he thought. What a revelation that must have been for him.
Anyhow the bigger problem for Kibaki is how to go about firing people who just marshaled 60% of the public vote against his own project? Wouldn’t he be seen as thumbing his nose at Kenyans? The bottom line is that the ground is really shaky after the referendum tsunami and the situation is infinitely more complex than it was prior to the referendum.
The other school of thought on the next moves of President Kibaki is that the president is going to take the opportunity to extend an olive branch to Raila and his team after the humiliating defeat and ask them to work together. This is what I said about that scenario some seven weeks ago in an article entitled “Wako Has Killed The Spirit of Devolution”
www.timesnews.co.ke/13oct05/insight/ins3.html
“A piece of advice for President Kibaki. I know you have been bombarded with requests, almost orders to fire the likes of Raila, Musyoka, Najib Balala, Ochilo Ayacko, Anyang’ Nyong’o and now we have Jebii Kilimo and God knows who is coming tomorrow. This must be a tough decision, considering it is coming from those who claim to be your protectors, God knows from what.
Now here are the options. You will lose the referendum that is almost a foregone conclusion now. What next? Yes, you have to fire some of your ministers. In fact you should dissolve the cabinet soon after the referendum results. That is the minimum.
The question is: Will you fire those who shall have dragged the country into a failed referendum and have been rejected by the people of Kenya or will you fire those who have stood firm with the Kenyan people as the referendum poll results are going to reveal? That really is the question you have to wrestle with Mr. President. My sense is you might need to hang on the coat tails of the winners at the referendum to get a little room to govern the country as opposed to sinking deeper with the losers. It is your call but you might want to start considering your options right now. The status quo cannot hold after the referendum”
Well, the hour we were talking about then is now with us. So will Kibaki embrace the likes of Raila, Kalonzo, Nyong’o, Balala na wengine and insulate himself from the loosing crew who must be hiding their collective heads in shame after all those lies about how all Kenyans were behind the Wako mongrel? According to this school of thought Kibaki could kill two birds with one stone as they say.
One is let Kenyans know that he has heard them and will not demote the leaders the masses have embraced. The other objective would be start planting seeds for discord within ODM. Once the LDP starts getting cozy with State House and even begin to replace some of the despised faces of the Kibaki regime, there will be an inevitable pull away by Kanu to strategize on their own after gaining a lot of credibility with Kenyan voters with their vigorous campaign against the Wako Draft. The tricky part here will be if Kibaki also brings in the Kanu leadership of the ODM like William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta to his cabinet. Cynical people would say, the president should do just that to ensure the popularity of these people disappears very fast. It seems as soon as people get close to State House the loose the trust of Kenyans very rapidly.
Whatever Kibaki does a few things must be dealt with pronto.
1. Kibaki created 47 districts that is more than a 50% increase in a matter of weeks. It is an unprecedented and out rightly reckless move for the country. Even the wakolonis were more merciful to the public purse that must run these entities. Whatever cabinet Kibaki appoints must tackle this matter without fear or favour. Determine what is reasonable, set in motion a process of how the district functions will be financed and when they will come into play. Parliament should also immediately enact legislation to seal whatever hole(s) exists that allows the president to dish out districts like candy to his visitors. Something is awfully wrong with the system. It has to be fixed before we end up with 200 districts depending on who occupies State House.
2. Any moneys stolen from the Treasury to finance the referendum outside the official costs of running the failed CKRC civic education and the ECK activities should be brought to light. I urge our MPs to dig in every corner and tell the public if we have been robbed and by who and let us figure out what to do with the culprits. We need a thorough audit of all key ministries and institutions involved with the referendum particularly the ones where there are obvious suspicions. Specifically we need an audit of the Office of the President, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, the Central Bank of Kenya, the Government Printers and others. This audit should be necessitated through parliament. Don’t wait for Justice Ringera and his anti-corruption outfit. They seem to be much better at sucking money from Kenyans than producing any tangible results. Parliament must wake up to its responsibilities of cleaning up the mess we saw during the referendum campaign. This was another Goldenberg scum right in front of our eyes. We must address it. Let Kibaki deal with his cabinet while parliament takes it responsibilities. I hope the MPs are not going to disappear from parliament now that we are done with the referendum. Everybody needs to get back to work.
3. Kibaki should never forget that the same Kenyans who rejected his Wako Draft, many years ago rejected the present constitution. President Kibaki cannot take refuge under the Moi constitution with the excuse that Kenyans have rejected the Wako Draft and there is nothing he can do about it. We need a clear commitment from the entire political leadership of the nation towards the completion of a genuinely people driven constitution. I am eagerly waiting to hear what the ODM leadership has in store for Kenyans in terms of completing our constitutional journey. From President Kibaki we need clear assurance that he will no longer place roadblocks on the path to a people driven constitution. Kibaki’s people stormed out of Bomas after the delegates rejected their demands. They lost the vote there and run back to State House to start a new process which the people have now rejected. Nobody can storm out of the verdict of the people.
4. The war on Raila that has consumed the DP/NAK faction for the last three years has to stop. We have been told all the terrible things about Raila and Kenyans don’t seem to give a d**n. Let the DP/NAK team find something else to do. The pathological hatred for Raila by members of the ruling clique is not helping anybody. The hate campaign against the man is getting tiresome. Give it a rest. Koigi Wa Wamwere are you listening? And Paul Mite? The anti Raila brigade should be dismantled and assigned other duties. Surely there must be something out there they can do. At least Koigi has gone into a self-declared 30 day mourning period after the tsunami. Good for him. Just don't drag everybody into the funeral, Ndugu Koigi.
www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=32654
5. We need to know if Kibaki has completely given up on the so-called war against corruption. This new cabinet must show resolve to really confront corruption and stop the games. Kenyans are tired of rhetoric with no results. We are paying Justice Ringers 2 million a month and he seems to spend more time fighting the politicians who denounce corruption than producing tangible results.
6. Finally Mzee has to accept the obvious fact that his vision for Kenya has been trashed by the mighty wananchi. Time to go. Take your time, get a few things straightened out and go peacefully and enjoy your retirement. Kenyans are a magnanimous people they will embrace you if you leave without too much matata. Look how they today treat the same Moi they literally booed out of town during your swearing in ceremony. He is a celebrity everywhere in the land.
7. Last, but not least, please Mr. President reject the tribal clothing your friends have covered you with. You are not a Kikuyu president. Embrace the nation and reject the little minded tribalists around you. To do that you must free yourself from their grip on you and your government. The tribal mask you are wearing is a big part of your problem. Take it off.
Let me say a few words to the ODM team. Number one the people of Kenya have placed a huge responsibility in your hands. Don’t pull a Narc fiasco on us by starting to tear each other up in pursuit of power. The initiative to jump start the constitutional review process is now in your hands. It is no longer a government project. The people of Kenya have trusted you with that specific task.
Number two the referendum has proved to one and all that the voice of the masses is indeed the voice of GOD. Nobody in Kenya can bulldoze things on the Wananchi. We proved it to Moi and now to Mwai Kibaki. Kenyans showed they are no longer willing to be prisoners of tribal chieftains. Work as a team and be loyal to the mandate Kenyans have given you. At least do the following:
1. Cool down on any plans on Kibaki’s seat. Let the man pull his bag of tricks. My sense is that Kenyans are willing to take a pause and see if President Kibaki learned any lessons from his defeat at the referendum. If he didn’t and continues with the status quo and even gets more belligerent then let’s take this battle to the polls and Kenyans will rally behind you. Don’t come up half baked and rushed up plans about vote of no confidence or anything like that, but if Kibaki refuses to deal with the new reality then let’s play ball.
2. Elect the ODM Summit which is representative of all the Kenyan communities and let the Summit coordinate the activities of the ODM. The old thinking is that as soon as the ODM leadership starts jostling for positions they will start fighting and the coalition will collapse. I think it is time a new more mature national leadership emerged to show us that collective leadership, which Kenyans have embraced is actually workable even with the sometimes vaulting ambitions of politicians. The ball is in your court.
2. Expand the team you have selected to jump start the discussion on the constitution review process to include at least women within your own ranks. The ODM is notorious with being male dominated. Bring in Jebii Kilimo, Dr. Julia Ojiambo and others. Also we need the likes of James Orengo, Pheroze Nowrojee, Wanyiri Kihoro and other people with expertise and democratic credentials to be visible and active in this new group. No more closed circuit activity, Kenyans are sick of that. No miracles behind closed doors. We must first agree on the process, then the rest will fall place. Consult with the civil society groups, religious organizations, other political formations and the public in general to find out how we can go about setting up a Constituent Assembly to iron out the problems with the Bomas Draft and move the constitutional agenda forward without any delay.
3. The LDP wing of the ODM is going to be under intense pressure to abandon their ODM partners with a promise of joining the inner sanctums of power within the Kibaki regime and for some goodies here and there. This will be an effort to resurrect the devastated MKM squad. My advice to you is do so at your own peril. Leave those guys alone in the ICU where the Kenyans voters put them. There is a reason they are there.
4. Immediately embark on a campaign to reach out to members of the Gikuyu/Meru communities who voted overwhelmingly for the Wako Draft. They are Kenyans and they too exercised their rights like any other Kenyan. Just ignore the chauvinist leaders, you will be shocked how well the people will receive you and your message.
5. Insist on a parliamentry comittee to investigate election violence and brutalities that led to nine known people killed by law enforcement agents. These families need answers and we also need to ensure that this kind of stuff never happens. Wananchi showed the leaders on Monday Nov. 21 2005 how peaceful they are when left alone. Let's hold those who breached the safety of Kenyans and killed some accountable and let's compensate the affected families. We must stop the culture of impunity when it comes to the rights and lives of ordinary Kenyans. The ODM should never forget the people who were killed fighting for the course 3.5 million Kenyans embraced on Nov 21, 2005.
My best case scenario is that the politicians get off their high chairs, talk to each without the phony marriages of convenience and get the people involved in finishing the constitutional process and then we can have Raila and Kiraitu campaigning together for a new democratic constitution. Not the Naivasha crap again, please.
One last thing. I hope Kibaki and the politicians do not try playing tricks on Kenyans by telling us it is now time to turn to development and forget about the constitution. Kibaki already hinted a move in that direction. Anybody who still thinks you can isolate development from the constitution should have a chat with Raphael Tuju. I am sure some of the Rarieda voters probably visited his reportedly fabulous mobile clinic before proceeding to register a No vote. The constitution is about development. The Narc government was specifically elected to usher in a new constitution which they promised to deliver in 100 days. Three years later they cannot simply abscond from this key issue for Kenyans and say now they want to build roads. Give us our roads and our constitution or get moving. Enough already.
The writer is a human rights activist.
