Post by Onyango Oloo on May 29, 2006 18:40:58 GMT 3
Accentuating the Dee in El Dee Pee...
Digital Quips from Onyango Oloo in the Kenyan Capital
Grazing through the 29th dailies an hour before official work commencement this morning, I eye-balled the following:
In Karachuonyo, youth believed to be supporters of an MP stormed the branch elections at Adiedo market and unleashed terror on voters. But their opponents ganged up and fought back, catching Adhu Awiti in the ensuing melee. The elderly MP was lifted shoulder high before being thrown to the ground amid a hail of blows and kicks. An aide, identified only as Ben, had to fire several times in the air to scare away angry party members venting their anger on the MP. The elections in Rachuonyo were going on despite a court order issued by Kisumu High Court judge Justice Mohammed Warsame the stopping exercise.
Coverage in the print media of the just concluded LDP grass roots elections has brought out the endemic electoral violence that has punctuated almost every poll contest in this country for the last forty three years.
Underneath the bloodied surface of post-election jitters simmers a gargantuan vuta ni kuvute pitting sleaze sullied, over pampered incumbents on the one hand and deep pocketed upstarts and/or avenging runners up from previous outings on the other hand. As Kenyans all too wearily know, local face offs that often lead to battered faces and broken limbs are but a microcosm of the smouldering desperado mud-wrestling for political power among petit bourgeois business persons, professionals, state bureaucrats, religious entrepreneurs hoping to be future assistant ministers, ministers or presidents in waiting...
The violence prone LDP polls are not unique. We remember the Njiru/Njuno fisticuffs from the seventies.The infamous punch up between the now Born Again Mwenje and the Ever Pugnacious K'Ajwang' is the stuff of contemporary parliamentary legend. Given the male dominated nature of Kenyan mainstream politics, it is little wonder then, to see grown men, some great grandfathers act like the teen age boys they once were, anxious to "take it outside" to prove yet another testesrone charged point…
After vehemently denouncing these acts of political thuggery, content free chicanery and electioneering banditry I want to move on, but not without making an abbreviated sardonic comment about those two MPS carrying those two black carry on bags stuffed with a million shillings each this last weekend:
Gor Sunguh should thank his lucky stars that it was another million shilling toting fellow MP who mistook and took his bag as opposed to a regular, undernourished Kenyan overworked and underpaid Biro pushing, karatasi arranging civil serving office kuli who would no doubt have found 1,000,000 uses for the MPs' pocket change in those almost doomed campaign bound bags. One wonders how many of Sunguh’s wads of cash helped to stir up or fuel any conflagrations in Kenya"s lakeside city over these last few days. In fact it is safe to assume from today that every time you see your local MP hauling a gunia that it contains no less than a million good ones, making same said omuchumbe a prime candidate for a spontaneous classic ng’eta session…
A week or so ago I observed in this very JUKWAA space:
I should have added “peaceful” before “democratic, transparent, free and fair”.
Clearly, simply on the strength of what we are seeing so far, many, many elements in the LDP, like all other mainstream Kenyan parties still need some lessons in political sporstpersonship, democratic tolerance and respect for one’s political opponents. I mean, what kind of petulant puerile behaviour is this which propels a brand new loser to walk down the hall or down the street to convene a fresh "uchaguzi" within moments of being vanquished by one’s rivals? When the voter still needs a shot of the local potent brew nick named "Sapphire" in order to make up his or her mind then you know that we are not out of the proverbial woods yet.
If there is something positive that has come out of the weekend grass roots fracas, then it is definitely the healthy dose of cold water splashed across the shocked faces of Najib Balala, Otieno K’Ajwang’ Mutinda Mutiso, Orwa Ojodeh and other sitting MPs. Perhaps this time around, there really was nobody around to protect them from their own unpopularity at the grass roots level as opposed to the national rostrum where one can cut a superstar figure while being a reviled insect in the village.
Over and above all that is the need for the Liberal Democratic Party to start accentuating the Dee in El Dee Pee.
Whether one is fighting for far reaching revolutionary changes or struggling to stay afloat in the most pedestrian ward campaign there is a need to respect and maintain consistent democratic practice.
One of the tenets of democracy is to respect the wananchi who elected you. The other tenet is to be like an intelligent sportsperson who yields to an opponent who has walloped you openly and squarely. The other one is to refrain from bribery and cajolery to stay afloat politically.
Millions of Kenyans see the LDP as a potential ruling party come next year. But these same millions of Kenyans expect a ruling party that is MORE, not less democratic than the present slothful cabal; they expect a ruling formation that is MORE not less accountable than the current thieves in office; they expect a government with a MORE, not less consistent social justice agenda. In short, these millions of Kenyans hanker for a more PROGRESSIVE regime.
If one were to judge the LDP by the way some of its leading lights conducted themselves during the weekend polls, then one has a genuine reason to shudder in utter, undisguised and horrified trepidation as they project into the coming months of omukhundu khu mundu, toe to toe, head to head partisan confrontations on the mainstream political landscape.
That is why I suggest to the assembled Brains Trust at LDP and by extension ODM Headquarters to start taking furious notes about how to solidify, deepen and widen a democratic culture within and across their burgeoning ranks.
To me a very unmistakable message from the very restive electorate is the following ujumbe to the wasi wasi inflicted and conflicted wajumbe:
Chungeni enyi wajumbe. Mambo bado. Mambo podi.
Onyango Oloo
Nairobi, Kenya
Digital Quips from Onyango Oloo in the Kenyan Capital
Grazing through the 29th dailies an hour before official work commencement this morning, I eye-balled the following:
In Karachuonyo, youth believed to be supporters of an MP stormed the branch elections at Adiedo market and unleashed terror on voters. But their opponents ganged up and fought back, catching Adhu Awiti in the ensuing melee. The elderly MP was lifted shoulder high before being thrown to the ground amid a hail of blows and kicks. An aide, identified only as Ben, had to fire several times in the air to scare away angry party members venting their anger on the MP. The elections in Rachuonyo were going on despite a court order issued by Kisumu High Court judge Justice Mohammed Warsame the stopping exercise.
Coverage in the print media of the just concluded LDP grass roots elections has brought out the endemic electoral violence that has punctuated almost every poll contest in this country for the last forty three years.
Underneath the bloodied surface of post-election jitters simmers a gargantuan vuta ni kuvute pitting sleaze sullied, over pampered incumbents on the one hand and deep pocketed upstarts and/or avenging runners up from previous outings on the other hand. As Kenyans all too wearily know, local face offs that often lead to battered faces and broken limbs are but a microcosm of the smouldering desperado mud-wrestling for political power among petit bourgeois business persons, professionals, state bureaucrats, religious entrepreneurs hoping to be future assistant ministers, ministers or presidents in waiting...
The violence prone LDP polls are not unique. We remember the Njiru/Njuno fisticuffs from the seventies.The infamous punch up between the now Born Again Mwenje and the Ever Pugnacious K'Ajwang' is the stuff of contemporary parliamentary legend. Given the male dominated nature of Kenyan mainstream politics, it is little wonder then, to see grown men, some great grandfathers act like the teen age boys they once were, anxious to "take it outside" to prove yet another testesrone charged point…
After vehemently denouncing these acts of political thuggery, content free chicanery and electioneering banditry I want to move on, but not without making an abbreviated sardonic comment about those two MPS carrying those two black carry on bags stuffed with a million shillings each this last weekend:
Gor Sunguh should thank his lucky stars that it was another million shilling toting fellow MP who mistook and took his bag as opposed to a regular, undernourished Kenyan overworked and underpaid Biro pushing, karatasi arranging civil serving office kuli who would no doubt have found 1,000,000 uses for the MPs' pocket change in those almost doomed campaign bound bags. One wonders how many of Sunguh’s wads of cash helped to stir up or fuel any conflagrations in Kenya"s lakeside city over these last few days. In fact it is safe to assume from today that every time you see your local MP hauling a gunia that it contains no less than a million good ones, making same said omuchumbe a prime candidate for a spontaneous classic ng’eta session…
A week or so ago I observed in this very JUKWAA space:
In my opinion the gravest headache facing Raila, LDP and by extension the ODM lies elsewhere:
In ensuring that the grass roots elections and subsequent nominations for parliamentary and presidential contests are democratic, transparent, free and fair. Across Kenya there is MASSIVE DISCONTENT with the sitting MPs who may want to go back to parliament. This time around, Raila must ensure that people like Gor Sunguh, Jakoyo Midiwo, or even Raila’s older sibling Dr. Oburu Oginga’s fate is determined by actual voters rather than the power barons at LDP headquarters. No one in the LDP can afford the backlash that will flare up if another George Onyango Oloo in Kisumu East or an Owiti "Malo Malo" perceives that they have been "rigged out" once again.
In ensuring that the grass roots elections and subsequent nominations for parliamentary and presidential contests are democratic, transparent, free and fair. Across Kenya there is MASSIVE DISCONTENT with the sitting MPs who may want to go back to parliament. This time around, Raila must ensure that people like Gor Sunguh, Jakoyo Midiwo, or even Raila’s older sibling Dr. Oburu Oginga’s fate is determined by actual voters rather than the power barons at LDP headquarters. No one in the LDP can afford the backlash that will flare up if another George Onyango Oloo in Kisumu East or an Owiti "Malo Malo" perceives that they have been "rigged out" once again.
I should have added “peaceful” before “democratic, transparent, free and fair”.
Clearly, simply on the strength of what we are seeing so far, many, many elements in the LDP, like all other mainstream Kenyan parties still need some lessons in political sporstpersonship, democratic tolerance and respect for one’s political opponents. I mean, what kind of petulant puerile behaviour is this which propels a brand new loser to walk down the hall or down the street to convene a fresh "uchaguzi" within moments of being vanquished by one’s rivals? When the voter still needs a shot of the local potent brew nick named "Sapphire" in order to make up his or her mind then you know that we are not out of the proverbial woods yet.
If there is something positive that has come out of the weekend grass roots fracas, then it is definitely the healthy dose of cold water splashed across the shocked faces of Najib Balala, Otieno K’Ajwang’ Mutinda Mutiso, Orwa Ojodeh and other sitting MPs. Perhaps this time around, there really was nobody around to protect them from their own unpopularity at the grass roots level as opposed to the national rostrum where one can cut a superstar figure while being a reviled insect in the village.
Over and above all that is the need for the Liberal Democratic Party to start accentuating the Dee in El Dee Pee.
Whether one is fighting for far reaching revolutionary changes or struggling to stay afloat in the most pedestrian ward campaign there is a need to respect and maintain consistent democratic practice.
One of the tenets of democracy is to respect the wananchi who elected you. The other tenet is to be like an intelligent sportsperson who yields to an opponent who has walloped you openly and squarely. The other one is to refrain from bribery and cajolery to stay afloat politically.
Millions of Kenyans see the LDP as a potential ruling party come next year. But these same millions of Kenyans expect a ruling party that is MORE, not less democratic than the present slothful cabal; they expect a ruling formation that is MORE not less accountable than the current thieves in office; they expect a government with a MORE, not less consistent social justice agenda. In short, these millions of Kenyans hanker for a more PROGRESSIVE regime.
If one were to judge the LDP by the way some of its leading lights conducted themselves during the weekend polls, then one has a genuine reason to shudder in utter, undisguised and horrified trepidation as they project into the coming months of omukhundu khu mundu, toe to toe, head to head partisan confrontations on the mainstream political landscape.
That is why I suggest to the assembled Brains Trust at LDP and by extension ODM Headquarters to start taking furious notes about how to solidify, deepen and widen a democratic culture within and across their burgeoning ranks.
To me a very unmistakable message from the very restive electorate is the following ujumbe to the wasi wasi inflicted and conflicted wajumbe:
Chungeni enyi wajumbe. Mambo bado. Mambo podi.
Onyango Oloo
Nairobi, Kenya
