Post by miguna on Feb 22, 2006 0:16:42 GMT 3
Wednesday February 22, 2006
Mutua’s new PR stunt for Kibaki insults Nyayo victims
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By Oduor Ongwen
Last week, the print media carried two full page advertisements titled "Thank You" The first one had two colour pictures: one of a person supposedly under torture at Nyayo House subtitled "before" and another of a young woman purportedly enjoying the democratic space that obtains "now."
The adverts, sponsored by Alfred Mutua’s Office of Public Communications, are no doubt an attempt at relations and propaganda in view of the siege the Government is under arising from revelations of how deeply senior members of the Kibaki administration have sunk into the filth of graft.
Needless to say, these adverts are insensitive, misguided and insulting — particularly to "graduates" of Nyayo House.
"Today you can speak your mind, write your thoughts, express yourself freely. Anywhere, anytime," declares the offending ad. This is partly true. It is largely false. There is no gainsaying the fact that more Kenyans are now commenting boldly on more public issues. It is also true that the Kenyan media has become less guarded in seeking, probing, exposing and commenting on many a public issue, including impropriety in the corridors of power.
Conversely, it is true also that school children have been shot in cold blood by police officers under the command of their fathers. It is also cruelly true that heavy truncheons and water canons have been used against Kenyans attempting to speak their minds and express their thoughts.
I have no problem with a government suffering from self-afflicted maladies such as Kibaki’s resorting to public relations, the fact that such resources could be used better elsewhere notwithstanding. But as a person that suffered the pain of Nyayo House, I don’t take kindly to the kind of insult Mutua and his team are hurling at us, the victims. This Government should know, if it doesn’t, that we are wounds that are still bleeding — not scars — torture.
Mutua may have been too young to appreciate the on-goings when death and torture were at their zenith at the Nyayo basement cells and on the 24th floor. However, if he were an intellectual he wants us to believe he is, a casual reading of the political history of this country would have told him that by virtue of being the Vice President in the mid-1980s, it was none other than Mwai Kibaki that chaired the National Security Committee.
And it is that committee that presided over the Nyayo House atrocities.
I believe the Office of Public Communications is aware that an assistant minister in Kibaki’s government was one of the torture chiefs at Nyayo House. Was he punished? No, Kibaki rewarded him with a ministerial post in the "reformist" administration. Two other members of the torture squad have been promoted by this administration and are now directors in the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS).
James Opiyo, the man who headed the torture team is enjoying his retirement and is a common figure at Ranen, near Rongo. Has anybody in this Government even politely questioned him about those atrocities? How can this Government brag about Nyayo House when Munyui Kahuha is dying in Banana Hill from the effects of the torture, with no resources to seek medical attention? Ailee Sayeikwa has lost his manhood and is turning deaf as the torturers enjoy generous medical schemes funded by our taxes.
Either everyone in the Office of Public Communications is ignorant or they are dishonest. Hear this: "we should commend President Mwai Kibaki for providing us with Democratic Space..."
When did Mwai Kibaki ever play even a peripheral role in fighting for the opening of the democratic space? Have we forgotten the sad joke of cutting a mugumo tree using razor blade simply because Kibaki is now Head of State?
This window of democracy was opened by the Kenyan masses led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Tirop Kitur, Maina wa Kinyatti, Raila Odinga, Kiraitu Murungi, Karimi Nduthu, James Orengo, Koigi wa Wamwere, Mwandawiro Mghanga, Odenda Lumumba, Ng’ang’a Thiong’o, Wangari Maathai, Kenneth Matiba, Martin Shikuku, Henry Okullu, Alexander Muge, Edward Oyugi, Timothy Njoya and George Anyona among a galaxy of other patriots – not by Kibaki, who recently even attempted to reverse these gains through a draconian proposed Constitution.
Whenever Kenyans have taken this Government to task for betraying their dream and stealing their revolution, they have been chided as being ungrateful. Kenyans are told the Narc Government brought them justice, liberty, prosperity and dignity. Our leaders and shadowy business people like those behind Anglo Leasing and Goldenberg have reaped prosperity, while the majority of Kenyans have reaped death. They rejoice, we mourn. We can today adopt the lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people of Israel.
"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes! We wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For they had carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."
Above the joy and celebration of the looters and the favoured, I hear the mournful wail of millions of Kenyans, whose chains, weighty and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more excruciating by the euphoric shouts and carousing that reach them. If I forget, if I fail to remember those bleeding children of sorrow today, "may my right hand forget her cunning and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."
Mutua’s new PR stunt for Kibaki insults Nyayo victims
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Oduor Ongwen
Last week, the print media carried two full page advertisements titled "Thank You" The first one had two colour pictures: one of a person supposedly under torture at Nyayo House subtitled "before" and another of a young woman purportedly enjoying the democratic space that obtains "now."
The adverts, sponsored by Alfred Mutua’s Office of Public Communications, are no doubt an attempt at relations and propaganda in view of the siege the Government is under arising from revelations of how deeply senior members of the Kibaki administration have sunk into the filth of graft.
Needless to say, these adverts are insensitive, misguided and insulting — particularly to "graduates" of Nyayo House.
"Today you can speak your mind, write your thoughts, express yourself freely. Anywhere, anytime," declares the offending ad. This is partly true. It is largely false. There is no gainsaying the fact that more Kenyans are now commenting boldly on more public issues. It is also true that the Kenyan media has become less guarded in seeking, probing, exposing and commenting on many a public issue, including impropriety in the corridors of power.
Conversely, it is true also that school children have been shot in cold blood by police officers under the command of their fathers. It is also cruelly true that heavy truncheons and water canons have been used against Kenyans attempting to speak their minds and express their thoughts.
I have no problem with a government suffering from self-afflicted maladies such as Kibaki’s resorting to public relations, the fact that such resources could be used better elsewhere notwithstanding. But as a person that suffered the pain of Nyayo House, I don’t take kindly to the kind of insult Mutua and his team are hurling at us, the victims. This Government should know, if it doesn’t, that we are wounds that are still bleeding — not scars — torture.
Mutua may have been too young to appreciate the on-goings when death and torture were at their zenith at the Nyayo basement cells and on the 24th floor. However, if he were an intellectual he wants us to believe he is, a casual reading of the political history of this country would have told him that by virtue of being the Vice President in the mid-1980s, it was none other than Mwai Kibaki that chaired the National Security Committee.
And it is that committee that presided over the Nyayo House atrocities.
I believe the Office of Public Communications is aware that an assistant minister in Kibaki’s government was one of the torture chiefs at Nyayo House. Was he punished? No, Kibaki rewarded him with a ministerial post in the "reformist" administration. Two other members of the torture squad have been promoted by this administration and are now directors in the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS).
James Opiyo, the man who headed the torture team is enjoying his retirement and is a common figure at Ranen, near Rongo. Has anybody in this Government even politely questioned him about those atrocities? How can this Government brag about Nyayo House when Munyui Kahuha is dying in Banana Hill from the effects of the torture, with no resources to seek medical attention? Ailee Sayeikwa has lost his manhood and is turning deaf as the torturers enjoy generous medical schemes funded by our taxes.
Either everyone in the Office of Public Communications is ignorant or they are dishonest. Hear this: "we should commend President Mwai Kibaki for providing us with Democratic Space..."
When did Mwai Kibaki ever play even a peripheral role in fighting for the opening of the democratic space? Have we forgotten the sad joke of cutting a mugumo tree using razor blade simply because Kibaki is now Head of State?
This window of democracy was opened by the Kenyan masses led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Tirop Kitur, Maina wa Kinyatti, Raila Odinga, Kiraitu Murungi, Karimi Nduthu, James Orengo, Koigi wa Wamwere, Mwandawiro Mghanga, Odenda Lumumba, Ng’ang’a Thiong’o, Wangari Maathai, Kenneth Matiba, Martin Shikuku, Henry Okullu, Alexander Muge, Edward Oyugi, Timothy Njoya and George Anyona among a galaxy of other patriots – not by Kibaki, who recently even attempted to reverse these gains through a draconian proposed Constitution.
Whenever Kenyans have taken this Government to task for betraying their dream and stealing their revolution, they have been chided as being ungrateful. Kenyans are told the Narc Government brought them justice, liberty, prosperity and dignity. Our leaders and shadowy business people like those behind Anglo Leasing and Goldenberg have reaped prosperity, while the majority of Kenyans have reaped death. They rejoice, we mourn. We can today adopt the lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people of Israel.
"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes! We wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For they had carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."
Above the joy and celebration of the looters and the favoured, I hear the mournful wail of millions of Kenyans, whose chains, weighty and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more excruciating by the euphoric shouts and carousing that reach them. If I forget, if I fail to remember those bleeding children of sorrow today, "may my right hand forget her cunning and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."