UoN Student demo: So far no incidents

[gacau]

The students are on the streets and the police are not provoking them to any incidences so far. The streets are busy with the chanting, singing and dancing students who are wearing T-shirts provided by the Mwalimu-Mati led Mars Group. Raila had assured them of his full support and looks like Mutua has not opened his foul mouth to contradict him.

Updates: www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/543944/-/u33pld/-/index.html

[adongo23456]

Very good. The cops have their tails where it belongs. Right between their bloody legs and I mean that literally. This is the kionjo part. Citizens have a right to demand changes in their country without making any contact with bullets or rungus from cops. It took some guts and some leadership to get here. We need more of the same.

[kamalet]

Unfortunately after a rather peaceful exercise, the juveniles in university have started looting from shops and harrassing motorists on University way leading to a confrontation with the police after a stand-off.

I am sure the police will be saying "we told you so"!!.

Perhaps one day Kenyans will show greater maturity when expressing themselves, otherwise too much democracy as Moi would say seems to be a burden on them!!

[mzee]

Its unfortunate if they have resorted to looting. Of course all the fingers of blame will be pointed towards one Raila Odinga even if he did not order them loot. I hope that the police is vigilant enough to stop the looting, this is where their work comes in , ie keeping order. Having said that I think that we need more of the same freedom to express ourselves in Kenya.

[phil]

Kamale,

The important thing is it was a LAWFUL demo. Some citizens
It is very difficult to tell who is a student and who is a thug.

As it turns out, it has been largely peaceful save for skirmishes at the nakumatt lifestyle.

As usual, overzealous police are blocking roads, deploying anti-riot police and others on horse-back, actions that only end up escalating tension. Otherwise lobbying teargas to innocent business people also disrupts business. The skirmishes are more because of police than the university students.

[adongo23456]

Mzee

I wouldn't trust anything the cops say. Of course demonstrations can get out of hand that is why they have marshals to control the crowds. At the end of the day this will be a peaceful demonstration may be with a few skirmishes here and there, except for people like our friend up there who probably has never been to a single demonstration all his life. Hakuna shida.

[Onyango Oloo]

Adongo et al:

I was on the same streets just about forty five minutes ago. I joined the demo around parliament and it was a sea of students- thousands of them, as opposed to the "hundreds" I read about on the news alert sent to my mobile inbox by one of the two main media houses here in Kenya.

Quite a few of them were donning the now familiar

Otpor T-shirts made and distributed by the Mwalimu Mati-led Partnership for Change.

They were quite disciplined I must say.

Many were chanting slogans; some were singing songs; others were hurling abuse- at Commissioner Ali, the First Family; the cops in general etc.

There were almost as many women as there were young men- from all ethnic backgrounds, religions and nationalities.

Generally, this was a STUDENT demo with most of the "usual civil society suspects" conspiciously absent-with the major exception of Gacheke, Ojiayo, Odipo, Keli and the other Bunge la Mwananchi comrades who were right on the frontlines with their banner. I matched with them for a while before joining another part of the protest.

You see I had this triple role as activist/blogger/political editor all wrapped in one, trying to capture it all.

On the sidewalks, a curious public stood by, watching-amazed that this time around there were NO STREET BATTLES and ongoing skirmishes with the cops.

Just outside City Hall there a jittery moment as some students spontaneously started stopping buses and other vehicles. Equally on the spur of the moment I dashed over to one of the many marshals who were guiding the procession, introduced myself as a social justice activist and engaged him on the need to avoid distractions, putting it to him that they certainly did not want the next day's headlines to focus on the harassment of motorists. He quickly grasped my point and persuaded his colleagues to abandon those pranks.

As the huge demo snaked its way down the street in front of City Hall, the streets were filled with the heavy roar of students chanting " We are not thieves! We are not thieves!" as they made a big show of letting motorists pass and avoided trashing the wares of the news vendors.

But just before that the comrades from Bunge la Mwananchi were belting out a freshly minted protest song in Police Commissioner Ali's dishonour- exhorting the Almighty to tell Kenyans who on earth created the Major General.

Fast forward. We were now on Kenyatta Avenue where the students continued with their peaceful with policemen on horse back leading the way- a startling development in Kenya, making me reminisce about past protests in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal where generally speaking the cops were there to ensure that your political action took place peacefully and without any unlawful disruptions.

I trailed away from the demonstration at the junction of Kenyatta Avenue and Kimathi Street a couple of metres from the Stanley Hotel- the procession was going up Kimathi street.

I was to later learn that it soon converged at the Great Court on the main campus of the University of Nairobi.

It is simply NOT true, as Kamale on this Jukwaa forum is alleging that the students started looting on University Way. I was speaking to one of my activist friends who was at the Great Court with all the speeches going on. How could this have happened if there was a stand off with the cops on University Way before they got back to campus?

What IS TRUE is that students are currently barricading the roundabout around St. Paul.

What are the main lessons from this landmark protest in Nairobi?

1. Demonstrations by students, workers, civil society groups, squatters and others are likely to remain orderly and peaceful if not faced by the unwarranted intimidation and physical confrontation by the police.

2.Reformers and progressives within the state- and here Prime Minister Raila Odinga played a seminal role- can change the dynamics of citizen action by anchoring these activities within the constitution- even the present flawed Kenyan constitution guarantees the right to freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. In other words, the potential exists for a symbiotic connection between the progressive scetions of the state and the broader civil society.

3. There is a need for joint action among the aggrieved. Like I said, this was clearly a STUDENT protest- with all its youthful enthusiasm, militant declamations- as well as some obvious weaknesses- especially the lack of specific, targeted political messages in the form of well organized chants and songs. The flip side of this was the relative ABSENCE of civil society activists and their mobilizing experience.

4. There is a need for organizers to have a coherent media strategy that includes designated spokespeople.

5. International solidarity will be key to the success of future campaigns,

Let me pen off here.

Here are some links to some mainstream news wire coverage of the same event:

af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE52908F20090310?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0




13:40 East African Standard Time
Onyango Oloo
Nairobi, Kenya

[mzee]

Mar 10, 2009 13:38:49 GMT 3 adongo23456 said:

Mzee

I wouldn't trust anything the cops say. Of course demonstrations can get out of hand that is why they have marshals to control the crowds. At the end of the day this will be a peaceful demonstration may be with a few skirmishes here and there, except for people like our friend up there who probably has never been to a single demonstration all his life. Hakuna shida.

Kweli Adongo,
Now our police comrade Kamale has given us a completely different version from OO. You surely cant trust an afande. The afande only saw looting an mayhem, while if we have to believe OO none of that occured.

[einstein]

Mar 10, 2009 13:20:58 GMT 3 kamalet said:

Unfortunately after a rather peaceful exercise, the juveniles in university have started looting from shops and harrassing motorists on University way leading to a confrontation with the police after a stand-off.

I am sure the police will be saying "we told you so"!!.

Perhaps one day Kenyans will show greater maturity when expressing themselves, otherwise too much democracy as Moi would say seems to be a burden on them!!

Kamale,

Enough! Stop lying Mr!! We want to be a free society!!! We will keep demonstrating till the Lord comes back! Please leave us alone!!! Feel free to do what you fuacking wanna do!!

[adongo23456]

Thanks Oloo for the update. That was very timely and right from the battlefield. I think we need to look into some of the issues you raised in terms of next moves.

[phil]

Reuters reports:

Protests, riots shake Kenyan capital

Shots heard, looting breaks out at Kenya protest

[Onyango Oloo]

L. Muthoni Wanyeki
to KPTJ



Dear all.

It's not clear what's going on...but there's chaos downtown. The turtles are everywhere. Stand-off at the university. Raila's reassurance to the students apparently meant nothing...Ali's giving him a big f...k you.

muthoni.
--
L. Muthoni Wanyeki
Executive Director
Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
P O Box 41079
Nairobi 00100
Kenya
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
URL: www.khrc.or.ke

[adongo23456]

Mar 10, 2009 14:28:48 GMT 3 Onyango Oloo said:

L. Muthoni Wanyeki
to KPTJ



Dear all.

It's not clear what's going on...but there's chaos downtown. The turtles are everywhere. Stand-off at the university. Raila's reassurance to the students apparently meant nothing...Ali's giving him a big f...k you.

muthoni.
--
L. Muthoni Wanyeki
Executive Director
Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
P O Box 41079
Nairobi 00100
Kenya
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
URL: www.khrc.or.ke

Oloo

This is frightening message from KHRC. What the heck is going on?

adongo

[Onyango Oloo]

Adongo:


I am online in a cafe right in the middle of downtown Nairobi and over here everything is calm and I cannot detect any commotion. I will go outside in a moment to find out. Mind you that message from Muthoni was posted about an hour ago and as you know their offices are at Valley Arcade so it depends on where she was.

However here is something chilling- a letter from some university of Narobi students sent to activist Okiya Omtatah earlier today:

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: John
To: Okiya Omtatah <[e-mail]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 3:09:35 AM
Subject: We are not Mungiki!

Okoiti, we have never met, but please let the world know the following before we are executed:

Mr. Oguta, the Security Officer at the University of Nairobi, who snatched a flashdisk from Charles Odera (3rd Year Law) belonging to Mr. Ojijo (4th Year Law) on Friday afternoon, has called and given Mr. Nengo (a recently graduated Law student UoN) an ultimatum to hand over the computer harddisk belonging to Mr. Ojijo because "Watu wakubwa wanaitaka".

Mr. Ojijo and five other students are in hidding fearing for their lives because they edited the raw materials on extrajudicial killings that Oscar Foundation presented to the UN. By doing this they are among the few living people who know exactly what is going on. They know even that material that was too sensitive to contain in the report that was handed over, and which could only be handed over to the proposed Truth Justice and Recociliation Commission or similar. So they have reason to fear for their lives, especially after the mother of one of them was visited in her home in Western Kenya by two unknown people on Friday morning asking after him since his phone had been off since the assassinations. Our innocent friends are in hiding with their phones off and fearing for their lives. A death threat coming from 0752646845 has been sent to all of them.

We are students at the UoN who have started an above board political movement called The Liberators. We want to demand new political leadership and a different political culture in the country. We plan to register it with the authorities. Among the many organisations we had approached for support to help get the movement off the ground was the Oscar Foundation (where the late Oscar and GPO worked). They responded enthiusiastically. The two thought our idea was good and agreed to support us. As we interacted, and as part of raising money for the movement, Oscar Foundation gave part-time work to some of us. That's how some of us ended up working on the sensitive dossier.

Oscar Foundation was to sponsor a retreat in Limuru last Saturday but the two leaders were killed on Thursday before the event. Killing them outside the UoN has its very chilling symbolism for us.

At the Limuru retreat we were to plan to fan out from UoN to other universities and colleges around the country to create a national platform of students to demand political accountability. We feel 2012 will be too late and will belong to the same muggers of the nation who occupy both sides of the political divide if no people's movements arises now to demand change in the way our politicians are ruining the country.

Interestingly, on Friday after the double murders, the VC, Prof. G. O. Magoha summoned some of our leaders and accused us of recruiting students to join Mungiki, and threatened us with expulsion. This is as outrageous as anything can be. We just want to see an accountable political culture in this country that has no room for Mungiki, rogue politicians, or any thugs for that matter.

Oscar had recently told some of us that he was planning to leave Oscar Foundation to GPO and move on to other things. Since he was Kikuyu and had easily been branded a Mungiki, he thought that leaving the foundation to GPO who did not come from Central Province would make it difficult for the authorities to frame the organisation a Mungiki front. Oscar was convinced that with him out of the picture the Mungiki tug would not hold, and the Oscar Foundation would go about its work without police harrassment.

Truth be told, Oscar was not Mungiki. He was not and always talked against them whenever it came up during our discussions. He juat wanted proper mechanism for identifying Mungiki to be put in place by the State, so that Mungiki does not become an excuse for killing others, be they oponents, rivals, etc. He also wanted then heard before they were condemned so that a solution could be found after the intelligence is perused. Oscar's biggest fear was that the likes of Mungiki and Sabaot Land Defence Force would grow in strength by recruiting millions of desperate youth, join forces, and take over power if politicians let he country go to the dogs the way they are doing, as the people urged them on or watched on the sidelines.

The very fact that we are running for cover from State security structures should tell you how far down the ladder of civilisation this country has been brought by our rogue politicians. Is it any wonder that they and not us are the ones who hire the services of Mungiki and other gangs around the country to push thier wicked political agenda that bodes ill for this country? Who then is MUNGIKI?

[phil]

Chaos has broken out, mostly at the campus. Students have chased away all members of the press, saying they do not need further coverage.

UoN students are also accused of having looted bookshop, Bookfirst situated at Nakumatt lifestyle currently a no-go zone.

Uhuru Highway blocked. Students are said to have commandered trucks/trailers and used them to block Uhuru Highway.

[adongo23456]

This is what the Standard says.

www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144008523&cid=418&

I am sure this is a developing story. Who knows where it will end!

[adongo23456]

Oloo

That is a chilling message from the student leaders to Okiya. I think part of the strategy should be to make public all incriminating data about the police killings and state terrorism. Even the other interviews with cop killers who confessed should be made public. You and me have gone through these things. Sometimes it is safer to let the world know what is up so that when the witnesses are eliminated people know why. That is one safety mechanism the folks on the ground should explore. But I am not there so I will leave that to those on the ground.

But it seems even the Daily Nation story is changing by the minute. First they said there were hundreds of student demonstrators, now the number has grown to 3,000 by their own numbers. Then they said the students had hijacked five trucks, now they have changed the story.

www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/544052/-/u347v9/-/index.html

Bottom line, this was a peaceful demonstration with some expected skirmishes. The issue is where to go from here. The burial of the fallen comrades are going to be tense and possibly explosive. A lot of work has to be done there and from the posts from phil, a lot is being done already.

The key here is that the PM has to keep his very pivotal support for the progressives in our society who abhor state terrorism, who fight for human rights for all and who are committed to reforms within the police forces, the electoral process and a new constitution for the republic. Let the others seek and get fake coronations for the presidency from cheer leaders. That is irrelevant nonsense at this time. This is the time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

It is time to go to the next level. All are welcome. The masses are for something new and it is not the GCG. Is it any wonder that all the reactionaries, even those within the ODM now think the GCG is the best thing thing since sliced bread. The question is what took them so long? It is when their constituents confront them about a new constitution that they will come running back to reality. We will meet them there. No problem.

adongo

[mzee]

Adongo,
I think that the Nation in juggling with numbers to make the story be "sweet". Yaani, when thing were going on well they reduced the number to a few hundreds. As soon as stuff looked to be getting out of controll the number suddenly jumped to 3000. Bottom line, they want the PM who supported the demonstration to look bad. The number 300 suggests that he cannot pull any crowd and 3000 means that he can pull a large crowd of mobsters. But wait untill Kilonzo, Kalonzo and the like get into the mix.

[mzee]

OO,
That mail to Okoiti is really chilling. The students are right to fear our murderous police. But who will protect them? The commander in chief as we all know has abdicated his duties and is snoring loudly at the SH. I dont think we will ever have such an indecisive leader like the king of othaya in our life time. Thats why Moi was saying that one day kenyans will be asking him to come back to power. Kumbe he knew what stuff Kibaki is made of. Bure kabisa

[enigma]

Mar 10, 2009 14:43:44 GMT 3 Onyango Oloo said:

Adongo:


I am online in a cafe right in the middle of downtown Nairobi and over here everything is calm and I cannot detect any commotion. I will go outside in a moment to find out. Mind you that message from Muthoni was posted about an hour ago and as you know their offices are at Valley Arcade so it depends on where she was.

However here is something chilling- a letter from some university of Narobi students sent to activist Okiya Omtatah earlier today:

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: John
To: Okiya Omtatah <[e-mail]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 3:09:35 AM
Subject: We are not Mungiki!

Okoiti, we have never met, but please let the world know the following before we are executed:

Mr. Oguta, the Security Officer at the University of Nairobi, who snatched a flashdisk from Charles Odera (3rd Year Law) belonging to Mr. Ojijo (4th Year Law) on Friday afternoon, has called and given Mr. Nengo (a recently graduated Law student UoN) an ultimatum to hand over the computer harddisk belonging to Mr. Ojijo because "Watu wakubwa wanaitaka".

Mr. Ojijo and five other students are in hidding fearing for their lives because they edited the raw materials on extrajudicial killings that Oscar Foundation presented to the UN. By doing this they are among the few living people who know exactly what is going on. They know even that material that was too sensitive to contain in the report that was handed over, and which could only be handed over to the proposed Truth Justice and Recociliation Commission or similar. So they have reason to fear for their lives, especially after the mother of one of them was visited in her home in Western Kenya by two unknown people on Friday morning asking after him since his phone had been off since the assassinations. Our innocent friends are in hiding with their phones off and fearing for their lives. A death threat coming from 0752646845 has been sent to all of them.

We are students at the UoN who have started an above board political movement called The Liberators. We want to demand new political leadership and a different political culture in the country. We plan to register it with the authorities. Among the many organisations we had approached for support to help get the movement off the ground was the Oscar Foundation (where the late Oscar and GPO worked). They responded enthiusiastically. The two thought our idea was good and agreed to support us. As we interacted, and as part of raising money for the movement, Oscar Foundation gave part-time work to some of us. That's how some of us ended up working on the sensitive dossier.

Oscar Foundation was to sponsor a retreat in Limuru last Saturday but the two leaders were killed on Thursday before the event. Killing them outside the UoN has its very chilling symbolism for us.

At the Limuru retreat we were to plan to fan out from UoN to other universities and colleges around the country to create a national platform of students to demand political accountability. We feel 2012 will be too late and will belong to the same muggers of the nation who occupy both sides of the political divide if no people's movements arises now to demand change in the way our politicians are ruining the country.

Interestingly, on Friday after the double murders, the VC, Prof. G. O. Magoha summoned some of our leaders and accused us of recruiting students to join Mungiki, and threatened us with expulsion. This is as outrageous as anything can be. We just want to see an accountable political culture in this country that has no room for Mungiki, rogue politicians, or any thugs for that matter.

Oscar had recently told some of us that he was planning to leave Oscar Foundation to GPO and move on to other things. Since he was Kikuyu and had easily been branded a Mungiki, he thought that leaving the foundation to GPO who did not come from Central Province would make it difficult for the authorities to frame the organisation a Mungiki front. Oscar was convinced that with him out of the picture the Mungiki tug would not hold, and the Oscar Foundation would go about its work without police harrassment.

Truth be told, Oscar was not Mungiki. He was not and always talked against them whenever it came up during our discussions. He juat wanted proper mechanism for identifying Mungiki to be put in place by the State, so that Mungiki does not become an excuse for killing others, be they oponents, rivals, etc. He also wanted then heard before they were condemned so that a solution could be found after the intelligence is perused. Oscar's biggest fear was that the likes of Mungiki and Sabaot Land Defence Force would grow in strength by recruiting millions of desperate youth, join forces, and take over power if politicians let he country go to the dogs the way they are doing, as the people urged them on or watched on the sidelines.

The very fact that we are running for cover from State security structures should tell you how far down the ladder of civilisation this country has been brought by our rogue politicians. Is it any wonder that they and not us are the ones who hire the services of Mungiki and other gangs around the country to push thier wicked political agenda that bodes ill for this country? Who then is MUNGIKI?

Why dont we all phone and SMS the goon on phone number 0752646845 saying that we know what he's upto and tell him to keep off. Let us intimidate him. I will send the first one now.

[job]

I've been following this and very interested in knowing whether the demo spiralled out of control or not.

That is very important.

My former Surgery lecturer and now UON VC - Prof. George Magoha, made a very important statement expressing his fear that 'outsiders would hijack the demo' while in essence still allowing it to proceed just as the police did. You have to read between the lines to understand where he was coming from.

Even police implants (cleverly labelled Mungiki) can create few isolated ugly scenes (looting, vandalism etc to suggest anarchist trends)....to justify future police reluctance to permit genuine protests...and to send fear down the spines of the business and donor fraternity.

I would have loved that students merge with human rights fraternity representing the Oscar foundation duo, and civilians representing victim families....with veteran human rights activists watching for and discouraging signs of intrusion or distractions.

There is a very serious battle for the minds and souls of Kenyans being viciously slugged between the police and the Human Rights fraternity.

At the very core of this is the media.

Media is helping the Police win this war - to hoodwink the public that: the atrocious gang called Mungiki are responsible for many of the heinous things that police themselves have been lately stage-managing, including murder of innocent civilians and the recent Matatu strike; police are doing a good job to protect Kenyans from the murderous Mungiki; some NGOs like the OSCAR FOUNDATION are linked to the 'dreaded' Mungiki; human rights activists are not interested in highlighting the violated rights of Mungiki victims but only keen in politicising a few collateral activist deaths; many youth groups including the UON student leadership have ties with Mungiki; some leaders in government (like the Prime Minister) have taken sides with the pro-Mungiki forces.

THAT IS THE MEDIA PORTRAYAL OF THINGS AS CURRENT.

The media, through selective coverage, is shaping the tangent this message is taking.

How the media reports the rest of this UON demo for instance- eg reporting presence of just few isolated incidents of violence and rampage; contrasted to reporting that the demo itself turned violent....

It matters a lot, given that the PM had already set himself up by giving the - protestors, families of assassinated activists and student, and the human rights fraternity - audience and solidarity.

The media can in essence report a story along the lines that "as usual, UON students can never be trusted with a peaceful demo, police knew it but nevertheless gave them freedom and tried to safeguard the rest of civilians and properties due to Raila's insitence,...and as expected...there was looting, vandalism etc etc'.........PORTRAYING the subtle message - the PM is indeed a supporter of anarchism.

So lets wait for the headlines and news reports breaking in the next couple of hours.

They will give you a hint at what the media is trying to project. I already suspect where the stories will lean towards.

Just this Saturday - NTV (Nation TV) aired a MUNGIKI DOCUMENTARY at prime time 7PM, local Kenya Time, (viewed by most Kenyans with TV access) which depicted heart-rending real life tales of families, bussinesspeople and victims who have suffered in the hands of Mungiki mainly across CENTRAL PROVINCE.

Truly horrendous tales of torment, suffering, ritualistic killings, decapitation of body parts, children rendered orphans, women rendered widows, mothers left childless, businessmen rendered paupers, townships and rural trade closed due to extortion and insecurity, all across the ridges of Muranga, hills of Nyeri, and areas closer to Nairobi including Kiambu.

It is no doubt this was a coordinated exercise to rally the hearts and minds of Central Province natives to understand the need to SUPPORT THE POLICE in their 'war against Mungiki'.

It is a relentless battle the politicians in PNU, the POLICE and sections of the media are investing heavily in. I'M AFRAID IT IS PAYING OFF. THEY ARE WINNING THIS PUBLIC RELATIONS WAR.


IT IS TIME THE OTHER SIDE GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD AND EXPOSE THIS DECEPTION.

POLICE & PNU LEADERSHIP HAVE CAREFULLY MASKED (& WHEN EXPOSED - JUSTIFIED) THEIR EXTRAJUDICIAL ASSASSINATION OPERATIONS. Many of their followers believe this is a justified war.

In other words, to most of these people, a few collateral deaths like that of the OSCAR FOUNDATION duo, and the POLICE CONFESSION GUY (KIRINYA), or a student witness to murders...may be unfortunate but acceptable....and passed as collateral cost of police duty to 'protect' against Mungiki.

Like I said before - the media is playing a great deal in this general social battle. THE DAILY NATION especially.

Poverty, landlessness, unemployment and youth desperation in CENTRAL PROVINCE is being suppressed by sophisticated, media savvy, yet ruthless/brutal police guns and bullets...in the name of security (protecting the general public and their properties).

Police themselves stage manage acts that they blame on Mungiki, then they respond with lethal force.

Police themselves stage manage MATATU STIKES which they then blame on MUNGIKI, to turn public anger on 'Mungiki'.

POLICE stage manage and apportion Mungiki ties to NGOs like OSCAR & even the KNHRC, then they start EXECUTING the activists....silently they suspect the public will side with them.

I'm afraid the POLICE are winning this PUBLIC RELATIONS EXERCISE.

I'm afraid CENTRAL PROVINCE is being successfully rallied on the side of the police.

I'm afraid the extrajudicial assassinations are being excused by many.

I'm afraid in certain quarters, the PM is on the losing side of this public relations exercise - even earning the tags, anarchy supporter, and Mungiki sympathiser.


While this UON demo was originally meant to be a student affair, civil society in general had to be interested in seeing it goes on peacefully, and in very organized fashion.

What kind of support did they offer? Was it concerted, organized and united?

I'm very grateful Onyango Oloo and other seasoned human rights defenders were there, I'm glateful for Mwalimu Mati's logistical input, I'm thankful for the Wanyeki group (KHRC), the Bunge la Wananchi gp and Kiai group, BUT SURELY wasn't there need for better organization and unity in concert. Was this a lost opportunity? Wasn't this bigger than just the UON (who lost one student),...where were the rest of HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT FOOTSOLDIERS (representing the Oscar Foundation duo)...and the rest of wananchi representing victim families of extrajudicial police executions?

The human rights group are more seasoned and could have helped do what OLOO was trying to do to try shield this from distractions and implanted hijackers bent on portraying anarchist or violent/destructionist tendencies.

[politicalmaniac]

Man this could be a seminal event, a tipping point, where the divide and rule tribal tactics get over taken by demands for jsutice and fair play. According to OO the student body was diverse and of all backgrounds. This is very telling. Since the paradigm of 'tribal electoral alliances' refuses to completely die in the minds of jomo jnr and Ruto, this development may well percolate to the masses and wenye nchi will focus on a common enemy - the grand looters and power hungry cabal that is made up of a few oligarchs trading on their tribal bases.
In 2007 R formulated a potent coalition whose unifying force was a
'common interests ideology' that unified a diverse tribal amalgamation. I think this may be realized sooner rather than later, when folks realize that kina ruto and jomo jnr are just using them, but R is for everyone.

[Onyango Oloo]

You raise valid points.

Let us put it all in context though.

Starting with the media.

It has to be said that it is no longer a monolith.

Quite a few of the local correspondents of the mainstream news agencies are Kenyan or have very overt affinity for pro-democracy causes- I can cite Tom Maliti of Associated Press; Mwachiro of BBC and some of the guys from Reuters.

Apart from the Nation, the other dailies have not been so bad in the coverage of these events. The Nairobi Star particularly has proved very sympathetic- with that sympathy emanating from the top ownership levels. The folks at the Standard have been generally good. All of these papers have carried opinion pieces by people like Muthoni, Mati over many of the issues that is making Kenyans revisit the streets of struggle. I am the Political Editor of the Sunday Express and I often do the editorials and the leader article on this weekly publication which is distributed all over Kenya. Radio and Television is not totally biased- K24 carried a lengthy interview with Oscar just before he was killed. GPO was also featured on television.

Which is not to say that there is not validity in what Job was saying. Quite the contrary.

When it comes to unity between students and the civil society actors, again let us remember that the key civil society figures who cashed in on their personal and close ties with Raila Odinga made a point of inviting the students to the meeting where they expressed their fears of expulsion and victimization- and we saw the Prime Minister leap to their defence during the press meeting.

Still the frosty relationship that has existed between the students and civil society is only just thawing. Student politics is not it used to be in the 1970s and 1980s. These days the leadership echoes the changes within the mainstream contestations in ODM, PNU, ODM-K and other nationally dominant parties. There is a lot of rebuilding to be done in terms of injured relationships.

Thirdly, the agents provocateurs will always be among us. So we treat them as an occupational hazard.

[Onyango Oloo]

See below:

Kawive to kptj-communica., Maria, Beatrice, Eusebius, Umande, Atuti, Niels, bidii, Africog, Susan, Abdul, kombati, marije.balt



Dear Colleagues

There was a meeting held this morning at the CRECO offices to further discuss the actions of the CS fraternity on the assassinations of Oscar Foundation director (Kingara Kamau) and programme officer (GPO Oulu). The following were agreed upon


1. The CS needs to support the demonstration planned today by the students. We were informed by one of the student leaders that even with the assurance by the PM and the ok from the police and the Minister concerned, the student leaders had got threatening sms messages and called from concealed numbers. Paddy Onyango ( the founder Secretary General of SONU) was tasked to follow up, inform and moblise the sector a on the demonstration.
2. The post mortem for the assassinated colleagues was to happen today. Sam Muhochi and Susan of Youth Agenda were following up on these and would inform us of the progress
3. Morris Odhiambo had been tasked with developing a communiqué on CS response. It was agreed that he would benefit from and thus incorporate issues raised in the document shared with the PM yesterday. He was asked to share this as widely as possible.
4. McOdingo/Emanuel Denis/Susan will brief the membership on the progress in funeral arrangements for GPO
5. Beatrice Kamau was tasked to share with the CS fraternity the outcome of the meeting at YMA on Wednesday (11th March) and also brief us on the arrangements so far for the funeral of Kamau
6. Birundu reported that he had had a discussion with Mwalimu Mati of Mars Group who had agreed to publish a special edition of the PFC magazine
7. It was agreed that Paddy, Kawive, Kepta fundraise for the continued engagement on this matter from OSIEA, Uraia and Akiba Uhaki respectively. It was further agreed that any member/organisation that could provide funds for the initiative was welcome to do so.
8. Members present agreed that the protection of HRD needs to be extended to other people and to organisations since most organisations were experiencing phone and email problems. There was need identified for CSO training on counter surveillance and personal safety management. Jedida, Muhochi, KNCHR and KHRC were tasked to make efforts towards ensuring this happens.

Members also agreed that further meetings on this matter needs to be held in the Oscar Foundation offices. But the meeting was informed that there was little space in the office and therefore this was dropped.

We agreed that we will have another meeting as soon as possible to get reports and review the actions.

Regards,


Kawive, Wambua
Chief Executive Officer
CONSTITUTION AND REFORM EDUCATION CONSORTIUM (CRECO)
Off Ngong Road, Between Motorlink Motors and 947 Ngong Road
P.O. Box 2231- 00200 GPO, NAIROBI
Tel/Fax: [phone]
Wireless: 020 3590735
Mobile: [phone]
Email: [e-mail], [e-mail] Website: www.crecokenya.org

CRECO: Promoting Constitutionalism, Democratic Governance and Institutional Development

[einstein]

Student Power = People Power!! Bravo to the students! Keep the fire burning!!