Post by adongo12345 on Jun 12, 2006 21:28:36 GMT 3
By Adongo Ogony
Someone should tell former president Moi that the country has moved on from his rule and it is time for him to do the same. For the last three of so years the former president managed to keep a fairly dignified aura around him and Kenyans really seemed to like that but now the old man is on a tear lecturing Kenyans once again about which political party or coalition they should support and which one they should discard.
With due respect to the former president I would want to suggest to him that it is really none of his business which party Kenyans and Kalenjins for that matter would want to support. I don’t think that Moi owns the Kalenjins.
I find it rather strange that Moi is preaching against tribalism while seemingly trying to herd the Kalenjin community away from groups like ODM ati because ODM has divided the country and has a tribal agenda. This is total rubbish and we should tell Moi as much.
At any rate Moi should be the last person to preach to us about tribalism after guiding our country through the ugly ethnic cleansing pogroms of the 1990’s. Some of the victims of the Moi era tribal clashes are still living in church compounds and make shift refugee camps. May be he should help resettling some of these folks as a goodwill gesture.
Of course Moi like any other Kenyan has the freedom and the right to express himself, something he denied many Kenyans for decades, but he sure has no right to preach tribal hatred and vendetta against the ODM like he has been doing everywhere he goes lately.
The latest incident of Moi bashing the ODM was quite curious to say the least. While addressing a congregation at the Reformed Church of East Africa in Eldoret, the former president is reported to have commended President Kibaki for discarding his MoU with his partners the LDP that helped Narc to win the 2002 General Elections and ironically beat Moi and Uhuru Kenyatta at the polls
"The President swore an oath to serve all Kenyans and to protect the Constitution and not to serve certain individuals in accordance with the MoU. Once you become president, you have nothing to do with MoUs with individuals." Moi told his listeners also urging them to listen to Nicholas Biwott and Henry Kosgey, two of his key operatives during his reign.
This is the kind of mentality that ruined the Moi regime. The idea that a president is some kind of God who doesn’t need to work with his/her colleagues to solve problems and even iron out differences was bad for Moi and it has been disastrous for Kibaki. The one thing our big guns haven’t learnt is that the reason we floored Kanu is because Kenyans stopped worshipping presidents and other people who think they can order us around.
Kibaki too lost the referendum precisely for the same reason. Kibaki’s people thought once the president says something and start bribing people with money and district allocations and all that stuff everybody was going to shut up and do what they are told. It didn’t work out.
The simple message from Kenyans to the Mois and Kibakis is that the era of “Fuata Nyayo” is history. Let them get on with the program and move the country forward instead of dragging us back to the era of following whatever the big man says.
What is Moi going to do if the Kalenjins refuse to follow his orders? William Ruto is already giving him a headache right in his backyard, something unimaginable a few years ago.
We welcome Moi in the political arena, but this is a whole different cup of tea, my good friend. Now you will have to engage with the vinyangarikas like Adongo Ogony who could be safely stored elsewhere at the height of the Nyayo era. Welcome to the brave new Kenya.
Lets get back to the issue at hand. According to Moi the ODM was formed primarily to fight the Wako Constitution at the referendum and now that they have finished that mission, they have no reason to exist..
Does Moi know that Kenyans have not yet achieved the constitution they have been fighting for? How do we sit back and say we won the referendum now everything is okay?
We know Moi likes the old constitution with minor amendments here and there. That is what he has championed for decades, so let’s give Moi credit for being consistent. It should surprise us that former President Moi seems to be very happy with the present constitution. Why shouldn’t he be, it is largely his creation. The truth though is that Kenyans hate that old constitution and want something different. That is our right and we don’t need Moi’s permission to fight for a people driven democratic constitution. So please, Mzee give us a break just like we have given you.
President Moi’s refusal to let Kenyans have a new constitution is one big reason the nation lost confidence in him. Moi dismantled the Bomas Conference before the elections and together with Uhuru they told Kenyans they would not accept a people driven constitutional process.
In fact the name “Wanjiku” referring to the constitutional process getting impetus from the people of Kenya, was coined after Moi derisively referred to regular Kenyans ‘Wanjiku” as being too ignorant to produce a constitution. I am sure he still thinks the same and that is fine with me but for goodness sakes he should stop his hate propaganda against the ODM by alleging that the group has no agenda.
We still want the constitution and the ODM is a big part of that process. We don’t need Moi to set the agenda for the ODM, neither do we require Moi’s approval for the existence of the ODM or any other political group. This is not 1982. Kenyans have moved from the “ignorant Wanjiku” to the “Wapumbavus” of the referendum campaign, but guess what, we are still in the drivers seat and all the old wise men are licking their wounds somewhere, seemingly very angry with us. We will soldier on without fear.
If Moi wants to hung out with Kibaki, fine. The two have worked together for decades and Kibaki was his deputy for many years and fought like nails to keep him in power when things were getting tough. In fact it was Kibaki at the height of the struggles for multi-party democracy in Kenya who promised Moi that anybody trying to end one party state was like a person trying to cut the mugumo tree with a razor blade. That must have been very reassuring to the beleaguered president.
Personally I have no problem Moi working with Kibaki or even Moi sticking to the myth that Kanu is still capable of winning the next General Elections with Uhuru and people like Biwott and Kosgey at the helm. He told them the same in 2002 and they got dusted and if kina Uhuru want to believe the same nonsense that is their problem.
Word on the streets is that Moi is hoping to help Kibaki win if the old man can get it going in 2007 with the hope that Uhuru will be a slum dunk to win it in 2012 with Gideon Moi as his deputy. Also some are hoping if Kibaki is too paralyzed politically or too tired to give it a go in 2007 then Uhuru can jump in and with the lucrative “Kikuyu Votes” and Kalenjin support he might just win the big seat. This kind of stuff sounds like dangerous hallucinations to me, but people are entitled to their dreams however bizarre.
Now, my view in terms of the next General Elections are probably quite different from what Moi or even the ODM thinks.
We are going to need meaningful coalitions before the elections not after the way people like Dalmas Otieno of Kanu has suggested. You need the coalition to win the elections not after you have lost them. I am not too sure that the same families and dynasties that have dominated our politics for the last four decades are going to be the ones to set the nation free from the vicious grip of the DP which hijacked Narc and has now metamorphosed into some animal called Narc Kenya.
Is the ODM relevant in the present Kenya politics? Of course it is, but I think the move by a party like the LDP to hold elections, which were fairly successful all across the country was probably the most positive development in the political landscape in the last little while. The mere fact that Kenyans from just about every community were very eager to be part of the party should be very encouraging for the LDP.
It is never easy to popularize political parties across the country leave alone hold elections that attract any significant interest. Ask Raphael Tuju the leader of Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), who has apparently ditched his one-man party and is now with the Narc Kenya.We all know the crisis in Ford Kenya. Meanwhile Ford people has to deal with the exit of Simeon Nyachae who has already indicated he is retiring from politics.
That leaves us with the newly minted Narc Kenya. The party was supposed to take the country by storm as the new kid in the block. So far it seems it is more of a whimper than a storm. Narc Kenya as everybody knows is reincarnation of the DP party is going nowhere. They have a lot of problems to deal with. After the DP destroyed Narc I doubt Kenyans are going to be duped by another DP outfit trying to smuggle the Narc name into their sordid project. But there are more urgent problems for Narc Kenya to deal with.
Number one, Kibaki cannot make up his mind whether to publicly support them or not. My guess is that it is embarrassing for the president to officially walk out of the dead party/coalition Narc that sponsored his presidency and join another Narc. This is technically illegal but don’t wait on the impotent parliament to do anything about it. The wananchi are going to speak to them loud and clear come the next General Elections.
The biggest test for the Narc Kenya is going to be the forthcoming by-elections. The numbers are not important. Five MP’s are not going to change what the Narc Kenya government can or cannot do in parliament but there are other complications that could be disastrous.
Narc Kenya is determined to field candidates in all the five vacant constituencies. Given that this is supposed to be the party of future, don’t laugh please, they have no choice but to live up to that promise. In the meantime Moi wants the seats particularly the ones in NE province to be preserved for his Uhuru wing of Kanu. Uhuru himself is desperate to win these seats and show he is a force at least in NE province. What to do now?
Should the Uhuru Kanu and Narc Kenya alliance be put in motion now for these seats or will that expose Uhuru as a completely spineless closeted Kibaki operative in the wings.
How do you do that when the Kibaki regime is in so much problems and carrying so much baggage that even the Kibaki sycophants in parliament have invented a fictitious party to distance themselves from the Narc regime?
How does Uhuru plunge into the mud of Narc (Narc Kenya) without completely loosing credibility? This is the immediate dilemma for the Moi/Kibaki alliance. How to rope Uhuru in with Moi’s help without covering him all over with the endless Narc scandals. Right now the Kibaki regime is caught up in the ugly Artur brothers saga.
We have thugs and criminals storming through our International Airport, assaulting law enforcement people and when the police finally raid their house they find among others Kenyan passports issued to these foreigners, ID cards appointing the crooks as Assistant Police Commissioners, Kenya police gear including the jackets, caps and hoods, several types of guns and ammunition an high security airport access cards.
In fact there is evidence to suggest that the Artur brothers were members of the team wearing the same gear as those found in their house, who invaded Standard Newspaper and KTN stations committing arson and armed robbery in the process. Now what does our good government do after this scary development? They rush the crooks through the airport and deport them without even the pretence of due process.
Where is in the world can we have this kind of madness. If anybody committed a crime here in Canada, and I am not talking something as serious as what we have seen with these guys (who could very well be international terrorists and mercenaries on hire), they would be arrested charged in a court of law, jailed if there is enough evidence and deported upon completing their sentence.
You don’t commit a crime in one country and walk away free to sit in posh hotels in Dubai. That is unheard of. That is what the Kibaki government has done. Even a village idiot can see these crooks were shipped out to protect the other crooks who got them into the country and the others issuing them all those ID’s, passports and government vehicles.
Who wants to get mixed up with a government that seemingly protects and is concerned with the welfare of foreign criminals more than the safety of its own citizens?
This is what Uhuru and Moi have to jump into. And they have do it in the thick of battle for the vacant seats when Uhuru is trying to assert himself as an independent leader capable of even running the country one day.
Lets see of the self proclaimed Professor of Politics can solve this one. Worse still if they screw up, the LDP and its allies could very easily win those very seats. It seems Narc Kenya is settled on the widows and other blood relatives of the deceased MP’s to win the seats. This is fine, but it could back fire should the communities begin to feel like people are trying to build dynasties to keep the money in the selected families.
I particularly like Mary Nguyoni but the idea of every MP’s widow, brother and son vying for the seats could really back fire badly and it would have nothing to do with these poor families who have already suffered the loss of family members but more to do with ruthless politicians trying to manipulate community sorrow and concern for political mileage. Lets wait and see.
The writer is a human rights activist.
