Nyani, Kweli, Haoni KUNDULE!!

[Onyango Oloo]

Political Commentary

by Onyango Oloo in Nairobi

Sipping a glass of freshly blended avocado/pineapple/mango/guava juice at my breakfast table this morning, I shook my head in utter bewilderment as I scanned the screaming headlines in today’s dailies.

Before proceeding further with that surreal narrative featuring macabre outbursts from a fear-mongering pack of Kibaki-cheering political ogres, let me pause in homage to three people-one South African and two Kenyans.

First, let us all help


Comrade Madiba blow out the eighty-eight candles adorning his birthday cake today. No more needs to be said.

Second, let each of us extend a mkono wa tanzia to the parents and relatives of little Alan Kariuki the seven year-old primary school pupil who was mauled and eaten by a pack of twenty dogs after slipping out of his grandmother’s house to dash to school- even though he had been advised to stay home because he was unwell. His death is truly a cruel testimony of an arbitrary abbreviation of an optimistic and forwarding looking young life.

Third, let us all stand and salute


David Sadera Munyakei an authentic Kenyan shujaa-mzalendo who had the courage to blow the whistle on the gargantuan Goldenberg corruption scandal. The fact that he died in penury yesterday underscores the fact that like the Dedan Kimathis & Makhan Singhs of yesteryear, he too would have to wait for a radically different Kenyan society for his statue to be erected at the Freedom Corner in Uhuru Park for his courageous role in standing up against the cabinet arrogant robbers that has fleeced Kenyan taxpayers for over four decades now. It is ironic that his former boss Mr. Mullei who ignored an international petition calling for the reinstatement of former Central Bank of Kenya clerk Munyakei is today in the dock, not only facing corruption charges, but also because apparently for reprising the whistle-blower role first made famous by the just departed...

Let me now comment on the cacophonous barks from a chorus of sycophantic NARC-Kenya attack hounds howling for the incarceration of the nemesis before whom they quake and tremble in terror from sun up to sundown and throughout the night hours.

That nemesis is of course none other than Raila Amolo Odinga .

The Swahili people who are indigenous to the Eastern African coast have an intriguing proverb involving a monkey. The saying goes:

Nyani haoni kundule which roughly translated is rendered in English as:

"The monkey cannot see its ass (bottom)".

Apparently, the saying refers to a particular type of simian which has a scarlet behind. It is said that this monkey will laugh and laugh and laugh at a fellow monkey, pointing out in hilarity at the colour of its co-simian’s buttocks- totally oblivious to the fact that it too, has a kistobe or a madiaba of a similar hue.

Apart from the literal translation, the saying nyani haoni kundule refers to those people who are quick to flash the finger of blame at others forgetting the four fingers pointing backwards at them. For the Christians in my virtual online audience, the closet rendition is evoked by the admonition by Jesus about seeing what in someone else’s eye while overlooking an even bigger blemish in one's own.

Nyani, kweli, haoni KUNDULE!!

I mean, for crying out loud, Daniel arap Moi has the AUDACITY to open his BIG BAKULI???! Is this the same dictator under whose watch hundreds of Kenyans were tortured? Is this the same guy who looked the other way as his loyalist foreign minister was murdered in cold blood? Is this the same blood-thirsty war lord who oversaw the notorious politically motivated ethnic slaughter of the nineties? Is this pin-striped gangster named as one of the chief suspects of Goldenberg?

And Cyrus JIRONGO - he of the YK92 season of infamy, so notorious that his name became a by word for shady financial handouts?? He too dares to show his two faces?! Just check this out:

Before the 1992 multiparty elections, KANU organized its youth wing as the ‘security organ’ for the party. Elite members of the wing constituted Youth for KANU (YK ‘92). YK ‘92 and Operation Moi Win (OMW) became the main organs of KANU campaigns. With the backing of the provincial administration, they conducted
campaigns in the opposition strongholds and fenced off the opposition from KANU strongholds. The leader of the YK ’92 Cyrus Jirongo, a young businessman, assumed a very important role in the party – even to the extent that senior ministers could be seen outside his office queuing for campaign money and support. People even named the new five hundred shilling note ‘Jirongo’, since it was introduced at the height of the campaigns. Through YK ‘92 the youth leaders accumulated considerable wealth. YK ‘92 and OMW were disbanded immediately after the elections. In addition, the government sequestered Jirongo’s firms and private property. Some of the senior KANU politicians had clearly become worried about the central political position thathe and his associates had occupied...

SOURCE:
www.africastudies.gu.se/elections_africa.pdf


Et tu


Koigi wa Wamwere?? , you who was arrested and charged with trying to overthrow the Kenyan government; you who met with the same Raila Odinga in Tanzania before one of your top clandestine lieutenants buckled and ratted not just on Agwambo but other patriotic comrades in Nakuru whose secure underground covers were blown because of your amateurish operating methods in 1988? Remember your former associate whose last name begins with M who is now a "successful businessman” here in Nairobi? Ndugu Koigi, shame on you! Let your own words from your own mouth mock and condemn you in the excerpt that follows:

…I remember the day I was captured. It was July 1990. I noticed some people at the table, especially one woman who definitely looked Kenyan, looking at me. (Eastern Ugandans and the Eastern Kenyans have a complexion that is slightly different; Ugandans are darker.) Anyway, not a local person. I asked the innkeeper if Kenyans came there and I was told they did, so I decided to go back into the room. Later that night about five people, all masked, captured me. I never knew who they were. They kidnapped me from Uganda and brought me to Kenya. They first put me in prison, then went around to arrest my friends. My brothers were arrested, and we all were charged with treason. One thing I didn’t understand was why they didn’t kill me. I was put in the basement police cells and woke up in a sea of water. I was naked and had been sitting in it all night. I stayed in that water for about one month. About a foot of water goes into the basement cell. They could freeze that water, make it so cold that you froze and shivered uncontrollably, and then make it so hot you felt like suffocating. The changes in temperature gave me a lot of pain. Of course they didn’t give me food. I was only given something to drink when I was under interrogation. I spent a month alone in isolation. I was interrogated during the day. They threatened to throw me off the roof. It was very scary.

I was brought before this panel at one point and one of the men stood up and said, "Now you know we have you in our hands," and I just said, "Yes." He said, "Do you accept that we are stronger than you?" I said, "Yes, but only to the extent that you have the police, the army, and all this. But my ideas are stronger than yours. What I am fighting for is greater than what you are trying to protect, so I don’t accept you as my master." He said, "Look, I’ll give you a deal. I am stretching out my hand to you; if you shake my hand you can go home. If you can’t beat them, join them. That is what we are offering you. Shake my hand and you can go home with all your friends that are here." He put his hand forward and I said, "No." He said, "In that case you have to die." So I was blindfolded and handcuffed and returned to the cell. He said, "In a few days you will be taken to court and charged with treason."

Why didn’t I shake his hand? Because of my conviction that if I tried to make peace with these people it would be like making peace with the devil. Life is a permanent struggle between good and evil. In this struggle there isn’t room for neutrality. I couldn’t possibly see myself crossing the floor to the other side. I could never be at peace with myself. I would rather die.

My mother went around the country trying to find a lawyer to defend me and only Shamala would do it. It was very, very brave of him to agree; and eventually we were released.

But that Friday they did exactly what was predicted: they arrested me for the robbery on the police station, a complete frame-up…But at this point, I had been in prison for two and a half years for treason, detained with charges, but without trial. They had me on death row and it was pretty clear that they were going to find us guilty. This was a classic mistrial. We could not give evidence in court. We could not cross-examine. Our lawyers were not allowed to give summing up arguments. This magistrate was behaving like somebody gone mad—although I sympathized with him because he exhibited a lot of sadness, as though he was being forced to do something he did not want to do. His children, his wife, and even his brother came to see me in the cells. It was a strange thing. Finally this magistrate decided to hand down the death sentence. But just then dictator Moi grew cold feet.

You see, I have always felt that there was always some coordination between Moi and military dictator Abacha of Nigeria in their determination to hold onto power and their joint defiance of world opinion against them. But Abacha was always the leader and when world pressure against him in the wake of his execution of the prominent Nigerian writer Ken Sera Wiwa led to sanctions and suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth, Moi, the weaker of the two, no longer had the guts to proceed with our executions. And so we got a jail sentence instead of a death sentence. So in a way, like Christ, the condemnation and death of many in Nigeria led to our own redemption.

And for goodness sake, DR. CHRIS MURUNGARU???!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is there a need to say more about the scandal prone and graft tainted Kieni MP?

Here is a memo to the NARC-Kenya attack dogs:

Raila Amolo Odinga has already been arrested and charged with TREASON. Go to the newspaper archives and re-read those yellowing headlines. The arrest and charges happened way back in 1982, days after the attempted coup. He kept appearing court for several months, with his co-accused. Potential witnesses were also behind bars at the time. The issues were still fresh. Former President Moi was hardly in a conciliatory and forgiving mood at the time.

So why was Raila not tried and convicted in a court of law?

Simply because even back then, there was NO EVIDENCE to convict and hang him! Plain and simple. That is why the then Chief Justice advised the Kenyan government to DROP THE CHARGES. Of course the egg-faced KANU regime could not stand the humiliation of setting Raila Odinga free so they decided to violate his human rights by flinging him into detention without trial.


Some of you folks in the


Kibaki Cheer Leaders Squad need to go for a thorough psychiatric evaluation because you are simply INSANE. I think you have gone bonkers, in other words you are complete wagoroki because the LAST THING you all should be doing is VOLUNTEERING as 24/7 promoters of the new biography of Lang’ata MP. Thanks to you, the book is probably going to be sold out before the end of the week. Incidentally before that happens, why don’t you rush to the bookstores yourself and grab yourself a copy and go ahead and READ IT before resuming your yapping, yakking, yodeling, yabbering and yammering?

And talking of coups and attempted coups, when is Mwai Kibaki and the current government of national disunity going to be rounded up and charged for conspiring to successfully bring down the popularly elected National Rainbow Coalition government brought to power largely through the efforts of the same said Raila Odinga? Some of us sniffed a whiff of the dastardly NAK Mafia coup plot way back in the year 2003:

Even that toothless goat who lost the case in the high court last week knows that the current clamour for Agwambo’s arrest is a not so bright attempt to shift the limelight away from the misdeeds of the shady European mercenaries and gangsters who were busy stuffing guns in the shocked faces of Customs officials- when they were not supervising midnight raids on media houses and boinking the alleged daughters of certain African heads of state. The same mbuzi kibogoyo is also aware that this salacious, scintillating media verbiage is an attempt to purchase embattled Internal Security minister John “Kimendeero” Michuki some desperately sought breathing space.

If the Kenyan government is interested in restorative justice, they should do the following:

1.Set up, at long last, a Truth and Justice Commission.
2.Arrest and try Moody Awori, Chris Murungaru, Kiraitu Murungi, Daudi Mwiraria and all those implicated in the Anglo-Leasing Scandal.
3.Arrest and charge Daniel arap Moi for his role in the Goldenberg Scandal.
4.Arrest and charge Nicholas Biwott for the murder of Robert Ouko.
5.Arrest and charge Julius Sunkuli with rape.
6.Arrest and charge that killer of Dr. Crispin Odhiambo Mbai who fled to Tanzania three years ago.
7.Arrest and charge all those implicated in drug dealing and money laundering- even if they happen to be present and former cabinet ministers in the Kibaki regime.
8.Arrest and charge John Michuki for ordering the illegal raid on the Standard and coddling the so called "Armenian brothers".

Is the Kibaki led government of national disunity up to the task?

Incidentally, once upon a time one of the "most dangerous terrorists" according to the government of his country at the time was none other than Nelson Mandela.

Onyango Oloo
Nairobi, Kenya

[kamalet]

Mr. Oloo,

Do you think twisting a story and diverting attention from the Raila "I was involved in the coup planning" fiasco is the right thing to do?

The story in the media today was about Raila and not about Murungaru or all those brown teethed politicians in NARC-Kenya. So why dont you try and respond to the issue instead of diverting us to matters which have been flogged by the sheep behaving sycophants in LDP who cannot see Raila do wrong? I can only hope you have not joined that bandwagon and would deal with this mistake by Raila in a more objective manner. I also hope you are not part of the damage control troops that have been unleashed to ask us to read the book and also look at "the logs in our eyes" by not diverting attention from the current scandals and looking to tarnish the good name of Raila!

Raila can still be prosecuted if he dares repeat the same allegations in his own story due in November. At the moment, he could still be taken in for misprision of treason, i.e. knowing about the plot and not reporting the same to competent authorities!

I have written in another forum about this. Personally I do not care about the criminal nature of the allegations but the political fallout arising from this saga.

We all know that there were many people that died following the events of August 1. I do have my own recollection of the day as a woman standing barely 4 feet from me fell to a bullet in Ngara on that fateful morning. So it is nothing to brag about that you knew about the plot and even helped facilitate the same!!!

If infact Raila was involved, then we should sincerely question whether he would be right person to lead this country. What he and his clique attempted to do was overthrow a constitutional government - however bad or dictatorial the regime was. How sure are Kenyans that the same man can respect the same consitution that governs Kenyans? Remember that the constitution he was to overthrow is still the same one that has him as a member of parliament and will probably be the one he would be sworn to protect in the UNLIKELY event he became Kenya's president.

At his book launch, he claimed that he would make Kenya a first world country - which is all bery good. But would he like to be judged according to the standards of the same world he aspires to take us?

Finally, and I think this is important. Should he become president of Kenya, how would he treat any treachery? Would he treat it as casually as he is treating this matter? Remember a sword cuts both ways!

So let us not divert attention to what others have done - let us deal with the owner of the story - Raila!

[Onyango Oloo]

Kamale:

Greetings.

We are yet to meet over that long promised and long cherished beer you know.

Let me start at the end of your posting.

With all due respect, the story is NOT Raila's as you allege. We are talking about a biography of a Kenyan politician written by a Nigerian- who also cites other publications.

Did you actually open the front cover of the book and read beyond page one?

I doubt it.

Because if you had bothered to read the book you would have come across a passage which clearly states that Raila neither confirmed nor denied the coup allegations.

Secondly, somebody like President Kibaki has been privy to the police case against the Lang'ata MP from 1982 when the Othaya MP was a senior member of President Moi's regime. Kibaki may have even spent hours poring over the particular file. Certainly he was not unaware that Raila Odinga was languishing in Kamiti. So why did he join hands with Agwambo in 2002 to form the National Rainbow Coalition? Why did he appoint Raila to his cabinet in 2003? Can you share your thoughts on this Kamale?

The sheer HYPOCRISY of some people just boggles my mind.

What exactly is NEW about the coup plot allegations in relation to Raila? These same stories were regurgitated a couple of years ago when one of the local dailies ( the Standard I believe) drew from Waore Dianga's book to bombard Kenyans with the same sensationalist allegations.

Incidentally, Kenyan still rely on one main method selecting their presidents- they actually go to the polling booths every five years to vote in their choice. From what you are imputing above, Raila is not likely to get more than six votes countrywide. So why are you huffing and puffing with so much gusto.

Let me remind you that JUKWAA guidelines do not encourage ethnic stereotyping. Why are you talking of "brown teethed Kikuyus"? Some of my cousins have teeth the colour of deep red ochre.

By the way Kamale, unlike some JUKWAA contributors who will remain nameless for now, Onyango Oloo has never needed to be commissioned, or paid to post a frank opinion piece on this forum.

Onyango Oloo
Nairobi, Kenya

[adongo12345]

Oloo
That was pretty good.

I am probably going to put up a piece on this drama for KT. I had the misfortune of meeting Raila the second day of his arrest while I was being held at Kilimani police station. That was the first time we had a serious political discussion. I had met Raila before at the campus when he attended a lecture by Koigi who back then had at least some basic common sense.

The reason he was brought to Kilimani was to be identified by a dude who used to work for the guy who used to be the dean of the Faculty of Engineering ( I forget his name Prof. Otieno?) and who was accused of being Raila's partner in crime. The story was that Raila and his buddy who was one hell of an Engineer had set up a communication centre at the guys home and this dude had seen him there.

There was a bunch of us at Kilimani and the little guy was stupid enough to tell people he was there to ID Raila and he nearly got skinned by the people even ordinary criminals. Anyhow that is another story. The real story of that coup has not been told and the idiots yapping about Raila actually have nothing to tell Kenyans. They were supposed to be campaigning for their candidate in nakuru and spent the whole day promoting the already gigantic image of one Raila Amolo Odinga. Raila truly owns these morons.

Still I can't believe the sheer stupidity of these Kenyan MP's. I guess if Kimathi was alive today they would want him arrested and hanged for leading the war against the wabeberus which of course also led to the death of many people.

It is nauseating to hear people like Kamale try spinning this into how it shows Raila cannot be president. What a load of crap. If Raila had the guts to stand up to Moi even at the point of risking his life when cowards like Kibaki were busy licking Moi's behind how can that be a weakness.

I don't know if Raila planned the coup or not but I know Raila was involved in many other projects which included plans for armed resistance to the Moi dictatorship. He should proudly wear that badge of honour because without those efforts the little political dwarfs now calling for his arrest would still be singing Moi baba na mama.

This ujinga of chasing Raila's ghost night and day has not taken Kibaki anywhere for the four years he has been in office. The Kibaki attack dogs even here online have been on Raila's case since Kibaki came into office and what good has it done them?

They cried all day to have been removed from the cabinet, now he is not there and still they can't open their mouths without Raila this and Raila that.

There was a time when Raila's involvement in the 1982 coup could have been politically damaging to him, now it just proves his guts and fearlessness. Those are not bad qualities. Our politicians apart from being very greedy are for the most part cowards. They like the beaten path and will follow even a dog if it promises them something.

I can't wait for August 1, revisit of the coup attempt. I am afraid some nutty politicians may try digging the graves of those who died just to show us how bad Raila is.

Good Luck.

Adongo.

By the way one very impressive thing for me when I met Raila at Kilimani Police Station was how upbeat and encouraging he was. He was adamant we need to fight for political space in the country. He was aware of what we had done at the campus to mobilize against the one party law that Moi had imposed on Kenyans. He basically told us a free country is something worth giving one's life for if it came to that. Those were very dangerous times and it was incredibly inspiring to know we were going to war with people of Raila's calibre and optimism. I am proud of the guy.

[politicalmaniac]

O.O, & A.O,

Well written rebuttals.

Of course the Bak-nistas dont know what they are getting into by baying for R's blood. They are playing right into his game plan.

I have chewed on this issue the last few days and stewed it over with non other than two FORD-K MPs who had written R's political obituary, following the books release. I asked them to re-think their opinion after looking at the story from R's perspective as per MY analysis. They are now not so sure the book is a bad thing!

R is not a fool to hang himself.
He is playing a high stake, high reward, high risk game here, something that only he has the genetic, physical and mental fortitude to do. He is a man, as A.O put in his last paragraph, ready to lay down his LIFE for the cause!. He has nothing to LOOSE! I believe this absolutely!

Notice that the Biography is written by a third party and also DOESNT clearly say what R actually did as far as the coup attempt is concerned. I will venture to say that this political biography is test ballon as to how he will present the coup attempt in HIS own book. I will bet NOT much light will be shed to CLEARLY detail what exactly went on that fateful day in August.

In the larger scheme of things, this drip, drip release of R's biographical books is a well calculated attempt at keeping his profile high. Wonderful tactic if you ask me. He wants what GWB the 1st called the "Big-Mo" to be behind him as he seeks the presidency. That aura of invincibility is what he want to create. And my gosh, he looks to be doing it. Do you sense the panick in the actions and voices of the Bak-nistas? i do!

My bet is that once R's political life is over we MAY have a clearer understanding of what went on. So dont hold your breath!

My take on this issue is that its a calculated move aimed at engaging the public's mind (which it certainly is!) while butressing his credentials as a reformer at ANY cost.

If we for a moment, peer down a scope and imagine that R is actually arrested what do we see?. What are the likely emerging scenarios? I venture to state that the political circus would be a political PR night mare for this GOVT, which time and time again, has proven too inept to handle even minor hiccups adequately.

I would speculate that this event would play right into R's hands.
Imagine R's defense team (high powered team of commonwealth Laywers with Orengo leading it) calling for Moi to testify, for Kiraitu, Imanyara, Koigi, G. Kamu kuria etc to testify some in R's defense!. You think these folks would want to do it? Esp Moi? You think Moi wants us to remember how BAD his presidency was and how RUTHLESS it was? The ghosts of NYAYO HSE torture chambers, NYATI HSE, of the TRIBAL clashes would be brought up I can assure you!. Who would benefit from this? NOT R?

This would raise R's profile immeasurably. We know he THRIVES in those kind of uncertain unpredictable scenarios! We may even see a Yeltsin moment or a Yuschenko moment emerge. Think the Bak-nistas want to go down this alley? I dont think so

The coup story, though seemingly high risk, shoot my own foot narrative, is a win-win for R. With it, R has clearly commandeered and hogged the media, the conciousness and souls of the electorate. He has created a large gulf of stature and gravitas, between him and his now seemingly puny rivals.

He is creating an aura of invincibilty, something money cant instantly buy and takes for ever to ceate!.

As GWB the 1st said, R is building the "Big-Mo".
He wants the winds of change blowing at his back, as it propels his presidential aspirations forward.

[politicalmaniac]

O.O
Koigi's NEW SPIN?
www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=25&newsid=77504

Arrest Raila? Why not the whole lot of us?

Story by KOIGI WA WAMWERE
Publication Date: 07/19/2006
I was shocked to hear Narc-Kenya MPs calling for the arrest of Mr Raila Odinga for his participation in the 1982 coup attempt, whose primary objective was to overthrow the Moi-Kanu dictatorship.

Equally, I am shocked at the way the Nation and the Standard have used the biography on Mr Odinga to campaign for him, as if Kenya has no other biographies or autobiographies. Clearly, our mainstream media have sacrificed other books equally good and useful upon the altar of ethnic bias.

From the word go, let me say that though I had nothing to do with the 1982 coup attempt, I am one of those whom Moi detained for it. But though I was not connected with it, I believe coup-plotters had a right to try and overthrow Moi's government.

Subsequently, Raila cannot be arrested and charged with treason for his alleged participation. If anything, those enjoying the second liberation should thank people like Raila who fought for them so that they can enjoy freedom today.

One-party absolute despotism

Do people have a right to overthrow dictatorship? Listen to the American Declaration of Independence that informed and inspired us during our fight against dictatorship in Kenya: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organising its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness...."

Clearly, by 1982, the Moi-Kanu government had become a one-party absolute despotism, with a long train of abuses and usurpation of Kenyans' rights.

Like the Americans, Kenyans had, therefore, a right, indeed a duty, to overthrow it by whatever means necessary. And you cannot disown the right to topple dictatorship when threats of prosecution come knocking at the door.

We must all remember that in 1982, a thoroughly intimidated Parliament passed section 2(A) of the Constitution, making Kenya a de jure one-party State. When this section made a peaceful change of government impossible, and a coup inevitable. It was just a matter of time.

When people call for Raila's arrest, it is because they are wrongly equating today's democratic government that would not interfere with the launching of Raila's book, with Moi's dictatorship.

The peaceful means people use to change a democratic government cannot be used to change a dictatorship. Though I had nothing to do with the coup attempt, the Government detained me, knowing the truth, merely because I was critical of dictatorship.

By all means, a government like this deserved to be overthrown. With all due respect, those calling for Raila's arrest must have forgotten what Moi's government was like - a terrible dictatorship. They are people of short memories whose judgment of their history cannot be right.

Those calling for Raila to be charged with treason are equating President Kibaki's government with the dictatorship of Moi. They are wrong. Equally wrong is their argument that a government is a government and none should be overthrown with violence.

Some governments are democracies while others are ruthless dictatorships. Dictatorships deserve to be overthrown with violence because they cannot be changed otherwise. But not so democratic governments. To think otherwise is cowardice.

Had governments been equally shielded from violence, colonialism and apartheid would still be with us in Africa today. Those who are calling for Raila's arrest are people who did or would have done nothing to challenge any of Africa's dictators - Moi, Idi Amin, Botha, Bokassa or Abacha.

Today, they condemn those who fought, but only in order to assuage their own guilty consciences. People are asking: Between Moi, the perpetrator of dictatorship, and Raila, who was jailed by Moi for opposing repression, who should go to jail?

Without hesitation, I would say Moi. Many of us also opposed Moi's dictatorship for killing our heroes, terrorising us, perpetrating ethnic clashes, detaining us, exiling us, destroying the economy with corruption, and turning Kenya into one big prison in which three persons could not gather without a chief's permission.

Vulnerable to the dogs of war

Perpetrating dictatorship is a crime against humanity for which Moi ought to be tried. Opposing dictatorship is doing honour to humanity for which second liberators should be acknowledged and hailed.

As for the people the army killed when stopping the coup attempt or in its aftermath, who between Raila and Moi should take the blame? Again, I will say, Moi. He forced Kenyans to take up arms against him and then used his army to kill thousands.

By the way, after my arrest on August 5, 1982, police took me to the City Mortuary and showed me hundreds of people whose deaths they blamed on me! Must I also apologise? If Raila will be arrested for plotting against Moi's dictatorship, so should we all who fought for the second liberation.

Finally, it has been most unfair for the media to paint Raila as the only hero of the coup attempt and the second liberation and then back-pedal when things get hot, making him vulnerable to the dogs of war.

It is an insult to so many patriots who died, suffered jail, detention and torture that Kenya may be democratic and free today.

Mr Wamwere is an Assistant minister for Information and Communication.

[politicalmaniac]

Koigi should have stopped at his thesis of R's defense.

But launching into media bashing is foolish.
They (Bak-nistas) wanted the print and electronic media not to give the masses info of the launch?

See, this just lends credence to my hypothesis.
All this hullabloo was a creation of R!
To reel in free press coverage to build up his indefatigable, invincible political aura!

[dubois]

The vicious attack on Koigi, by Oloo, was uncalled for especially based on unsubstantiated media reports. Koigi has clearly explained his position on those calling for Raila's arrest. I think Oloo is biased simply because Koigi is supporting Kibaki's government.

[KOLONEL BRISK]

Koigi has spoken and He has said so much that very few people in the goverment would have the courage to say and suggest. Though i may not agree with entirely what certain politicians do but i am impressed when they can overlook some comforts and clearly state their stand on issues like this. We owe a debt of gratitude to the men and women who have fought and died to uphold our democracy and protect our constitutional rights. Let us not glorify the enemy within as we shamelessly discard the very people who enabled us to have the freedom we exercise today. Though i was still in diapers but i remember a time when it was treason to think or imagine the death of the Kenyan president. How many of us would still be alive if this law was upheld. Back home we are reminded of death everytime a loved one dies and yet our president was expected to live milele. I give a kudo to Koigi for his stand."

[Onyango Oloo]

dubois said:

The vicious attack on Koigi, by Oloo, was uncalled for especially based on unsubstantiated media reports. Koigi has clearly explained his position on those calling for Raila's arrest. I think Oloo is biased simply because Koigi is supporting Kibaki's government.

Dubois:

The following is in response to yours above.

First of all, here is a link to a media report linking Koigi to the calls for Raila's arrest:

www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143955436

Secondly, please do not make assumptions. You do not know anything about the depth of Onyango Oloo's personal ties with Koigi wa Wamwere. For your information, I have operated politically MORE with Koigi than I have with Raila. We have both shared experiences (and there are people reading this who will independently verify this) that were quite precarious. I can afford to be HONEST and CRITICAL to Koigi because believe it or not, I still consider him a friend and (somewhat errant) comrade. I do not expect you to grasp this fully because I doubt if you have been initiated in the boiling cauldrons of anti-imperialist, anti-neocolonial underground struggles against our local dictators.

Thirdly, my critique of Koigi wa Wamwere is certainly not novel. You will recall- as a long time member of the Mashada forum- that way back in August 2003 I posted the following essay on Koigi(it is the next post after this one.....

CONTINUED>>>>>>>>>>>

[Onyango Oloo]

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST:


Forum name Politics
Topic subject Response to Koigi wa Wamwere
Topic URL www.mashada.com/forums/index.php?az=show_topic&forum=22&topic_id=25504&mesg_id=25504
25504, Response to Koigi wa Wamwere
Posted by Onyango Oloo, Sun Aug-17-03 06:04 AM



Written on August 17th, 2003 between 5:30 and 8:04 am

Response from Onyango Oloo to Three Public Statements by Koigi wa Wamwere:

Ndugu Koigi:

It is about five thirty on a Sunday morning here in Montreal. Just got off a six and a half hour bus ride from Toronto, where I have been caught up in the aftermath of the blackout which must have affected you as it did millions of people in southern Ontario and the north eastern sections of the United States.

First of all, salama lakini? If memory serves me correctly, the last time we met in person was on December 20, 1996 when, quite coincidentally, we happened to be flying on the same Lufthansa flight out of Nairobi. You were in on a Business Class compartment heading to Norway for treatment after months of national and international protests had forced the Moi regime to release you; I was traveling Economy class on my way back to Toronto after burying my father; It was at the airport lounge in Frankfurt that we spent at least an hour catching up on conversations left unfinished ever since our last face to face in Dar es Salaam in the late eighties and intermittent transatlantic phone calls between North America and Scandinavia throughout the nineties. It is nice to see you back in parliament representing the constituents you were plucked from in August 1982 to be unceremoniously detained without trial….

I am pressing fingers to keyboard (just updating the old "putting pen to paper" expression) to respond to the three theses or statements that have been forwarded to the KCA main discussion list for us to comment on. I will get to those in a second.

But first a brief complaint. As you know by now, those of us who have shared the trials and tribulations of underground and exile life have learned to be candid and straight up with one another. The frank honesty of comrades is a hundred times more refreshing than the hypocritical politeness of sworn enemies who hide behind euphemisms because they do not want to sound rude.

So, let me ask you this:

How come, Ndugu Koigi, you did not return EVEN A SINGLE MESSAGE that I left you? I called your house and spoke to a young man there who told me you were out of town; prior to that, I had sent you an email that I had copied to the compatriot who had first connected us and then I believe I followed up with another phone call after you came back to New York before writing another email pointing out that I had been completely unsuccessful in my bid to get in touch with you. As you know, Ndugu Koigi, I was not calling you just to shoot the breeze; I was trying to get a hold of you so that we could do an interview for the DUNIA show that I produce and co-host here in Montreal and I had wanted to talk to you about a whole range of issues- including, but not restricted to the ones you raise for discussion on this KCA forum. Quite frankly Ndugu, a comrade and a compatriot deserves a better response than your non-response- you could have sent me a one line email telling me sorry OIoo, but I am too busy to do this, maybe some other time.

I had myself assumed that you had actually gone back to Kenya and therefore did not think I should pester you any further to communicate with the Kenyan public overseas.

That is why I am somewhat perplexed to discover that you are not only still in New York, but further, that you are actually quite ready to engage this same public on some of the controversial issues that would have formed part of our radio conversation.

Having said that let me now proceed to the three issues you raise. Briefly you are saying that one, there will be “a national suicide at Bomas unless certain things are put right”; you are stating that “Raila’s insatiable ambition for power is Kenya’s greatest danger” and finally you express the viewpoint that it is the “LDP and Raila who are betraying Kibaki” not the other way round.

It may be useful to examine each statement on its own merits.

Let us begin with the first one. To give everyone a chance of participating in this exchange, let me quote you verbatim:

“ National Suicide at Bomas

You may laugh or call it panic but I have a premonition. There will be national suicide at Bomas unless certain things are put right.

For those who will call me "a voice in the wilderness" or "a prophet of doom", my reply is simple. Sikio la kufa halisikii dawa - a dying ear will not hear medicine and asiyesikia la mkuu mwisho huvunjika guu - one who will not listen to warnings ends up breaking a leg.

The closer we get to Bomas, the more I smell doom and catastrophe.

To begin with the media, especially the print media - The Nation, The Standard, The Kenya Times, The People and the so-called gutter press - are all highly polarized and biased for and against some. Instead of facilitating an open debate among all delegates, they will print the views of those they like and muzzle those they don't like. They will broadcast the opinions they share and kill those they disagree with. In so doing, they will block debate, exclude compromise and exacerbate tensions. Worse, though they are adept at criticizing others, they consider themselves above criticism.

When the leader limps, the flock does not reach the pastures, so says a Gikuyu proverb. At Bomas Chairman Ghai limps and leads the National Constitutional Conference as a patriarch would his household. Instead of serving interests of the nation, he runs the National Constitutional Conference to enhance his curriculum vitae by squeezing the writing of Kenya's new constitution into his global-constitution writing program. As a Kenyan who will have to live with the new constitution forever, I am totally opposed to a chairman who puts his need to be in Afghanistan by October to write their new constitution before our right to have a well thought out and thoroughly debated constitution. Unless Chairman Ghai is able to be in Kenya for as long as it takes to have a properly written constitution, he should resign and leave the chair of the conference to any other Kenyan who can be with us until we finish thoroughly debating, amending and writing the new constitution. With Ghai as chair of the NCC, we shall not have the constitution Kenya deserves.

I will say it again. I know of no delegates in history who wrote a constitution but had less than five minutes to talk about it. It is a joke - indeed a tragedy that delegates are going to Bomas merely to rubber stamp the draft constitution. What a waste of precious time, money and hope!

As we go to Bomas, this Parliament has let Kenya down just as badly as it did in 1982 when it made Kenya a one-party state. History will never forgive it. It failed to give the new constitution legality and legitimacy by entrenching the writing of it in the constitution. It refused to guarantee a national referendum on the new constitution and it refused to redress under representation at the conference. And so we go to the Bomas with the KANU-supporting so called small and marginalized communities and areas over represented to impose their agenda on the new constitution and the previously opposition-supporting larger communities under represented to defend their interests. Instead of going to Bomas as Kenyans, we go to Bomas as ethnic armies not to protect our collective interests but vanquish our ethnic enemies.

We are going to Bomas with the LDP faction of Narc agreed to combine their troops with the majority KANU delegates to make Raila executive prime minister in exchange of a promise not to investigate and punish past corruption and human rights violations by KANU operatives. Given the majority alliance of LDP (former NDP) and KANU delegates, I foresee the burial of NARC, democracy and one Kenya at Bomas.

As creatures of gerrymandered under representation, many delegates are going to the Bomas not to defend democracy and equitable representation but to bury them. As conscious soldiers of our ethnic armies, we march to the constitutional battlefield not to die for national unity and one Kenya but to bury them. As beneficiaries and victims of negative ethnicity, many delegates march to the Bomas not to kill negative ethnicity but to bury nationalism. Without national agreement that negative ethnicity is our enemy number one and must not be our guiding light, we shall write a constitution that will not preserve the sanctity of Kenya but tear it into pieces. Unless we reject negative ethnicity before we go to Bomas, we could finish writing the new constitution and be at each other's throat the following day.

Should we march to Bomas as sheep to their slaughter or stop and think before we cross the Rubicon?

Hon. Koigi wa Wamwere, MP/13 August 2003, New York.”


This as indicated above is a statement you issued mid last week from NYC. Ndugu KWW, why do you smell doom and catastrophe? To your credit, you give your reasons. The first one is interesting. You say:” To begin with the media, especially the print media - The Nation, The Standard, The Kenya Times, The People and the so-called gutter press - are all highly polarized and biased for and against some. Views of those they like and muzzle those they don't like. They will broadcast the opinions they share and kill those they disagree with. In so doing, they will block debate, exclude compromise and exacerbate tensions. Worse, though they are adept at criticizing others, they consider themselves above criticism…. “

Ndugu Koigi, is this true?

For instance, you know very well that you and I have not been in private communication for a long time. Yet I am very much aware of your many views on the constitution.

How did I get that information?

From other private sources?

No, Ndugu Mbunge. I got this information, as did millions of Kenyans, from the media, from the Nation, the Standard, the Kenya Times, the People, the KBC, KTN and other sources on the internet. Far from muzzling the views of “those they don’t like”, Ndugu Koigi, the Kenyan print and electronic media have bent over backwards to cover all sections of the Kenyan political spectrum. The reason why so many of us Kenyans abroad can respond instantaneously to breaking stories back at home is that the press in Kenya has been discharging its responsibilities in an admirable manner and going further, in op-eds, commentaries and editorials to express a range of view points which are often clashing.

To give you just two examples.

The press covered in detail such matters like David Mwiraria’s revelation of the plan to convert the DP into a NARC political party, Kiraitu and Kirwa’s statements tagging the LDP as the enemy within as well reactions from the likes of Kajwang’, Kamotho, Karisa and Kituyi. Perhaps Ndugu, you are referring to the fact that unlike the Moi era, the Kenya press these days does not toe any party lines, and is certainly not a mouthpiece of the government of the day.

You then launch an attack on Prof. Ghai. You ask for his resignation, suggesting that he has other priorities apart from the constitution. A non- Kenyan could easily jump to the conclusion, based on how you portray the professor, that Yash Ghai is not a Kenyan, and should cede his chairperson’s responsibility to any other Kenyan. You do not flat out come out and declare that Ghai is not a Kenyan, like Moi did, merely months ago, but you certainly imply that there are other Kenyans more deserving and likely to be more dedicated. Quite frankly, I find this outburst disturbing because of its thinly veiled racist connotations, given the fact that Prof. Ghai is a Kenyan citizen, born, I believe in Kenya with a South Asian heritage. Far from lambasting the CCKRC Chair, I think you should join with other Kenyans to commend this KENYAN constitutional expert who could have chosen, as many other Kenyan (indeed very BLACK) academics, Prof. Ghai could have chosen to remain in Hong Kong or whichever overseas lucrative post teaching and earning mega bucks while we searched for “any other Kenyan” to be chair. Instead, this patriotic son of the soil decided to put Kenya ahead of his professional career, risk public approbation as well as thinly disguised racist innuendos to join with the rest of his compatriots in developing a new democratic constitution for Kenya.

I will not quibble with the matters you raise about the role of the parliament in the writing of the constitution because I do not have the facts at my disposal to comment intelligently and honestly about it. But it is interesting to note Ndugu Koigi, that only a few months ago, you comrade, were among those thousands outside parliament who are now seen by wabunge like you to be posing a threat to that very constitution making process. It was not too long ago, when we were all demanding a people-driven constitutional approach that some of the same people who are talking about the supremacy of parliament wanted to ensure that the wananchi’s extra parliamentary voices be heard. Interesting to observe, the twists and turns and the gyrating role reversals in Kenyan politics. You know very well that I do not support KANU under which we have all suffered. But the fact of the matter is that the constitutional conference is a NATIONAL conference that has to provide a forum for ALL political parties. Recall the process in South Africa. Even the most rabid right-winger and overt racist gave their views about the New South Africa.

You continue to say:

"We are going to Bomas with the LDP faction of Narc agreed to combine their troops with the majority KANU delegates to make Raila executive prime minister in exchange of a promise not to investigate and punish past corruption and human rights violations by KANU operatives. Given the majority alliance of LDP (former NDP) and KANU delegates, I foresee the burial of NARC, democracy and one Kenya at Bomas."

This is a very incendiary statement.

Can you please share with us where this has been stated?

Is it in the public domain, or are you in possession of a secret memo that you are about to unleash the way you guys (I am talking about the hey days of the so called 7 bearded sisters- yourself, Orengo, Mwachofi, Sifuna etc)used to explosive dossiers to expose a political opponent. Unless you are talking of something else, I think you are willfully distorting the LDP position. As I recall it, the LDP has called for the creation of an executive prime Ministership. Raila and the rest of the LDP have SPECIFICALLY GONE OUT OF THEIR WAY to DELINK the PM position from any individual. Why I am talking of you willfully distorting this question has to do with the fact that you are consciously mixing up the controversy over the agreed upon positions in the power sharing pact between NAK and the LDP and the latter’s constitutional proposals. But I will come back to that Raila factor shortly, since, as we shall soon see, you are OBSESSED, Ndugu Koigi wa Wamwere, with the personality of Raila Odinga.

In some respects, the following is what I found most disturbing of all your comments on Bomas of Kenya II:

"As creatures of gerrymandered under representation, many delegates are going to the Bomas not to defend democracy and equitable representation but to bury them. As conscious soldiers of our ethnic armies, we march to the constitutional battlefield not to die for national unity and one Kenya but to bury them. As beneficiaries and victims of negative ethnicity, many delegates march to the Bomas not to kill negative ethnicity but to bury nationalism."

Ndugu Koigi, where are the FACTS to support this VERY SWEEPING GENERALIZATION?

Do you have that little respect for the thousands of delegates convening at Bomas of Kenya to assume that they simply could not be driven by DEMOCRATIC and PATRIOTIC sentiments, to FOR EXAMPLE, adamantly oppose the VERY OPEN GIKUYU ETHNIC agenda that is openly associated with some Kenyan members of parliament?

Ndugu Koigi, I am disappointed that after all these years when Kenyans from around the country stood by you as Moi tried to railroad you to the death chamber, that after all these years you exhibit such open contempt in the patriotic potential of thousands of Kenyans simply because they come from regions in the country that you feel are opposed to the policies and stances of certain other politicians, who presumably practice “positive ethnicity”. Simply shocked is how I would sum up my sentiments about this section of the first statement.

CONTINUED>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Onyango Oloo]

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST....



Here is your second statement, again word for word, in the interests of fairness and transparency:


Raila's Insatiable Ambition For Power: Kenya's Greatest Danger

I am not surprised that KANU's David Sudi will be calling for Honorable Mungatana and me to be excluded from the National Constitutional Conference at Bomas of Kenya. I have always maintained that when KANU and NDP or Moi and Raila were in charge of saying who would and who would not go to the Bomas, most worthy Kenyan patriots - Reverend Timothy Njoya, David Lamba, Gibson Kamau Kuria, Professors Micere Mugo, Ali Mazrui, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Shadrack Gutto, James Orengo, Njehu Gathangu, Edward Oyugi, Washington Okumu and others - were left out, making the constitutional review process less than what it could be. Why were these great Kenyan minds left out? They were feared by those who do not particularly care that Kenya has the best possible constitution and always put personal before national interests. But they were not the only ones to be excluded from Bomas. Nairobi's 3 million and Nakuru’s 1.5 million were excluded when they were allowed only 3 delegates same as Ijara with a mere 18,000 people.

And why were certain regions, districts and communities underrepresented at the National Constitutional Conference? Their only crime is was they had greater numbers and opposed KANU, Moi, Honorable Sudi and NDP. I dare say there are more Kenyans not represented in the Bomas than represented.

But what is the crime for my intended exclusion? I have dared ask for the review process to be entrenched in the constitution. I have asked for the underrepresented areas to be given more delegates at Bomas. I have asked for delegates to be given more time at the Bomas and not used by Chairman Ghai to rubber stamp the draft constitution. I have asked for a national referendum on the draft constitution. I have asked for Chairman Ghai to stop giving us a rushed, shoddy and dangerous constitution merely because he has other constitutions to write in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have dared call undemocratic the creation of a non-elected executive prime minister that will be more powerful than the elected president and creating the office for one individual, Raila Odinga. As I continue to make these demands, I would like to add that if these shortcomings are not addressed, our new constitution will not be legitimate, democratic and above legal challenges.

For seeking inclusion however, characteristic to KANU dictatorship, Sudi has answered us with the threat of exclusion. Were KANU in power, Sudi would have called for our detention. And characteristic of a guilty mind, Raila has asked Mungatana and me to shut up our mouths because we were not privy to the negotiations between NAK and LDP and the resultant memorandums of understanding. In dismissing us however, Raila seeks to silence 30 million Kenyans who too were not privy to the negotiations between NAK and LDP. But for not being privy to the negotiations, are Kenyans expected to surrender the country and its leadership to the 8 persons of the NAK and LDP negotiations merely because at that particular moment in history they led us against Moi? Again I dare say never. The country is greater than the NARC summit.

I dare say too that Raila's insatiable political ambition is today the greatest danger to Kenya's stability, democratic rule, development and struggle against corruption.

By pursuing a relentless struggle for power well after elections - whose results even Moi, Uhuru and KANU accepted - Raila continues to ensure that the country is not politically and economically stable or even peaceful for development. Indeed he seems to tell Kenya, unless you concede the highest office to me, you will never know peace. Raila calls his unending pursuit of power democratic. Democracy must however also mean that those who lose elections allow those who win a chance to succeed or fail on their own. It is high time Kenyans asked Raila and LDP to accept the results of last year's elections and the presidency of Mwai Kibaki. I have never denied that Raila and LDP helped Mwai Kibaki to win elections. But so did all of us who have been given nothing by Kibaki other than the freedom to be and speak our minds. I doubt it is sound logic to argue that because Raila and LDP helped Kibaki win the bride, Raila should now share conjugal rights with Kibaki.

By going back to cooperating with Moi and KANU, Raila is forming an alliance with a defeated but not dead dictatorship to get power. In so doing, he threatens all the democratic changes, freedoms and rights that we have fought for and attained so far. Worse, should Raila give KANU another chance to power by destroying NARC from within, the same way he destroyed KANU and Ford Kenya from within, Kenyans will never forgive him. That Raila should think KANU and Moi, the same people that he betrayed last year have forgotten and will help him become executive prime minister is an incredible pipe dream.

Notwithstanding, by asking Moi and KANU to support his bid for an executive premiership, more powerful than the president in return for an end to the government crusade against KANU corruption and investigations into the Goldenberg scandal, Euro Bank scandal and the stashing of 650 billion Kenyan shillings into banks abroad, Raila is announcing his wish to end the war against corruption and sabotage government's efforts to see the economy recover. After all those who condone yesterday's corruption have no moral authority to condemn and fight today's corruption.

By asking LDP parliamentary troops to vote against the resettlement of victims of ethnic clashes - allegedly because he does not like the motion's mover, Koigi wa Wamwere but in reality because he did not want to offend Moi and other KANU perpetrators of ethnic clashes who occupy the victims' land and whose support he now seeks - Raila has said no to the nationalist principle of one people one Kenya. Raila's logic is indeed strange. Because it is Koigi asking for 600 thousand clash victims to be resettled, Raila thinks he is right to say no to their land because he hates Koigi! To Raila it is better that clash victims remain refugees in their own country forever rather than have Koigi get credit for their resettlement.

By accepting Ruto's crusade to unite the Luo, the Luhya and the Kalenjin communities against the Gikuyu people, primarily in support of his executive premiership, Raila has said yes to the promotion and use of negative ethnicity or tribalism to acquire political power. But how far are Raila and Ruto willing to push the ethnic card to capture the executive premiership and end the so-called Gikuyu domination? Let us hope they are not willing to unleash ethnic clashes or genocide to get power.

In related utterances Raila claims Kenya needs and must have the office of the office of a prime minister. What is it that a prime minister will do that a president whose powers have been clipped, his vice-president whose powers have been increased and an effective cabinet cannot do? Only the existence of such a function will justify the creation of a prime minister to me.

Finally, Raila accuses me of having run into exile and of not belonging to his league. Grudgingly let me remind Raila that he too ran into exile in Norway, being in exile does not mean that one has stopped to fight for freedom and that though he is a minister, politically I am his senior. I started fighting for change earlier than him in 1973 and while he spent 8 years in prison fighting for freedom - which I greatly admired - I was in prison for 13 years, 5 years longer than him fighting for change and democracy not just against Moi, a Kalenjin president but also against Jomo Kenyatta, a Gikuyu president whom I could have supported right or wrong if I was the Gikuyu chauvinist he claims that I am.

Koigi wa Wamwere, MP
Subukia Constituency.
Delivered at College Park of the Nazarene, Washington DC,
On August 10 2003 in a meeting with Kenyans together with
Hon. Alicen Chelaite, Asst. Minister for Gender, Sports, Culture & Social Services and
Tom Amolo, Deputy Ambassador, Kenya Embassy, Washington DC.

It is interesting to witness the fall out between you and Raila Odinga, comrade Koigi.

Do you remember way back in 1987 and 1988 when both of you headed certain Kenyan progressive organizations that I will not mention by name because they were both underground at the time?

Remember that Onyango Oloo and his comrades belonged to a third group?

Do you remember the number of close calls that all three organizations got in their brush with the KANU dictatorship?

One of the people close to you was railroaded to prison; one of my comrades was shot dead in Nyayo house after he overpowered a guard and attempted to escape; Raila not too long after earned himself another stint in the coolers. We all worked very closely then, and I know that you and Raila met more than once to map out joint strategies on how to kick out the one party dictatorship. I am saying this because I find it embarrassing to hear both of you try to outdo each other for the title of the Kenyan who has been imprisoned the longest and fought the hardest against the KANU dictatorship. This is somewhat disappointing coming from both of you.

You probably know comrade Raila more than I do, but what I can say is that in all of my interaction with him I have always found him to be a person who always wants to work with other people, build alliances, reaching out across ethnic divides. He is not the Luo tribalist that he is often made out to be by people who really should know better. Remember Ndugu Koigi when you talk about people who have worked hand in glove with Moi and KANU, please open your eyes and look around the NAK faction at the KANU veterans and longtime backroom players. Right now, as we speak, Ndugu, there are OPEN DALLIANCES between KANU, SAFINA and NAK within Central Province against the LDP. Why are we not talking about that? Do you think that these Central Province shenanigans are tribal or not?

Ndugu Koigi, why do you so arrogantly dismiss the Memorandum of Understanding between NAK and the LDP? After all, comrade, it is this document that FORMS THE BASIS of the formation of NARC- the present government of the republic of Kenya. There was a meeting last October that came up with a power sharing arrangement between the two coalition partners. Failure for all parties to adhere to simple agreements because of political expediency and opportunism is not something we should commend, but rather condemn.

Where is this so called "insatiable ambition for power" by Raila Odinga?

Is it the fact that he dropped out of the Presidential race to support Kibaki instead?

Ndugu Koigi, in 1997, you also ran for Presidency and defied all calls from the Gikuyu community to step down so that you would not split the Gikuyu vote and thus inadvertently help KANU. Did you exhibit an insatiable quest for power or were you just exercising your democratic right as a Kenyan to seek ANY elective office including the highest in the land? Did anyone accuse you of being a KANU agent? I do not recall.

I do agree with you that it was WRONG for the LDP to unite with KANU to oppose a motion simply because Koigi had raised it. That leaves the LDP open to charges of personalizing or even tribalizing parliamentary debates.

So Ruto is leading Raila to unite the Luos, the Luhyias and the Kalenjins against the Gikuyus?

Is that really so, Ndugu Koigi?

Do all Luos think and act alike?

Are Luhyias the entire same political stripe?

Do all Kalenjins dance to the tune of the same drummer?

How about members of the Agikuyu community?

We all know that there are tens of thousands of Kalenjins who cast their vote for the then opposition- a fact reflected in the presence of people like Kilimo, Kirwa, Chelaite and others in the current NARC administration. During the last elections in Nyanza, there were representatives who ran for each and every political party on the ballot. Within the cabinet, it would be hard to make the argument that Raila and Anyang Nyongo are ideological twins simply because they are both Luos. The last time I checked, Mudavadi was Moi’s deputy, and still a Luhyia. Jirongo too, has not changed either his politics or his ethnic background. And remember, we had at least TWO Gikuyu presidential hopefuls.

Therefore, Ndugu Koigi, it is simply tribal baloney to suggest that millions of Kenyans will be controlled by two individuals (Ruto and Raila) to fight the Gikuyus. So, Ndugu, it has become a question of finishing the Gikuyus? What happened to standing up for Kenyans?

On the question of the Prime Minstership, I think that both you and Raila have the right to ADVANCE, PROMOTE and CANVASS for your respective viewpoints without either of you being accused of nefarious motives. And like I said, I remember that Raila has repeatedly urged Kenyans to delink the PM from any personality.

Below is your third public statement that I want to react to as well.

LDP & Raila Are Betraying Kibaki, Not Him Them

Finally the cabinet committee has rejected the ridiculous idea of an executive prime minister and recommended an administrative prime minister, appointed by the president, whom he can fire, working under him and third in rank from the vice-president. They have also rightly recommended that parties that come together under NARC dissolve themselves by December.

It is a big step forward and concession to the Memorandum of Understanding. Raila and LDP are however not happy and will not until they get the government and the presidency through NARC.

Let us remember, LDP did not bolt from KANU because they had become less ambitious for the presidency and the government. They joined NARC because, having failed to come to power through KANU, they hoped to do so through NARC and the executive premiership.

When the cabinet committee concedes an administrative premiership, Raila and LDP see this as a slap on the face. They were not looking for an administrative premiership that is specifically not conceded to them. They were looking for an executive premiership that is conceded to them and no other Kenyan.

When the cabinet committee asks for the dissolution of LDP and other parties that come under NARC, Raila, Kamotho and others in LDP who are still fighting for power see it as another slap on the face. It is their instrument of arm-twisting the president, NARC government and party into conceding to them the power they feel they must have. Asking Raila to give up LDP now before he has the power is asking him to give up the ladder he needs to get to the pinnacle of power.

In a way the Swahili proverb is right. Fahari wawili hawakai zizi moja. Two bulls will not coexist in the same pen - unless one is castrated. Right now neither Raila nor Kibaki is impotent and they will not coexist in the same pen. Either Kibaki will open the pen for Raila and exit or Raila will force his way into the pen, castrate Kibaki to stay in the same pen, throw him out if he resists emasculation or burn down the pen - NARC.

KANU and LDP say, Raila must come into the pen and Kibaki must be castrated to stay in the pen or be thrown out. The cabinet committee refuses to say whether Raila is welcome into the pen or not. Instead they said whoever goes into the pen as prime minister will be impotent vis a vis the president.

Raila and LDP have rejected the cabinet position because they believe the idea of a not so powerful prime minister is meant to cheat them of power they deserve. In addition, powerful or not they screamed betrayal because the position was not recommended exclusively for them.

Having been recommended, should the administrative premiership now be given to Raila? I will say not. Ngoma iturikagio ni guthinjirwo. Appeasing spirits only makes them demand more. President Kibaki is on the horns of a dilemma. If Raila is not given this administrative premiership, he will cry betrayal. If he is given, he will claim he has been cheated. So what should Kibaki and Kenya do?

For many years, Moi kept a certain beautiful woman by force. He raped, beat and made her work for him. For her beauty, Kibaki, Raila and many other Kenyans longed, fought and went into prison for her rescue. To save her from Moi, her children promised to support the rescue effort if her suitors united behind one who would marry her after rescue. In 2002, Raila agreed to support the woman's marriage to Kibaki. For that support, contrary to the rules of marriage and without informing the wife and the children, LDP and Raila forced Kibaki to sign a Memorandum of Understanding where he agreed to let Raila share his wife with him - indeed have more of the wife than him. Kibaki, Raila and millions of the woman's children then united and rescued the woman from Moi. To the joy of her children, after rescue, Kibaki married the beautiful woman. In gratitude, Kibaki made Raila and others who signed the Memorandum of Understanding key sons and daughter of his household. Many others who had heroically fought and gone to jail for the woman were shut out of the household. Raila is however not interested. He wants to be the only thing that Kibaki promised him - a joint husband of his wife. Who now is betraying whom? Raila is betraying Kibaki.

Koigi wa Wamwere, MP.
15 August 2003.
New York.

Ndugu Koigi, that cabinet committee was an ad hoc structure created out of an emergency to deal with a looming crisis. It was on this basis that I supported its creation. However, it has absolutely no binding directive powers whatsoever over either the structure of NARC or the creation of the PM’s position in whatever form.

By its very nature, the cabinet committee is an unelected, non-democratic structure that had an advisory role with regards to the cabinet.

NARC can only be dissolved only when its constituent parties resolve jointly to wind it up. The cabinet committee can suggest for a merger or even dissolution of the parties making up NARC. Should NARC delegates at their congress, convention, or whatever it is, decide to change the nature of the organization then that is something else.

The question of the PM will be decided by the constitutional conference openly shortly at the Bomas of Kenya. Therefore it is premature, and even foolhardy to start making prescriptions on future government structures and positions.

Ndugu Koigi- what is with the sexist parables about bulls being castrated and women being "kept"?

That aside, why are political differences between the LDP and NAK are being deliberately TRANSFORMED into a tug of war between Raila and Kibaki? Clearly, other people, including Kamotho, Ntimama and MPs from Ukambani and North Eastern province have also come out talk of being left in the power- sharing pact between the LDP and NAK?

By invoking the specter of a threat against Kibaki, people like you, Ndugu Koigi are playing right into the middle of the tribal agendas of reactionary elements.

Ndugu Koigi, the real betrayal in Kenya today is the way a small clique that is trying to shut out million of Kenyans from the democratic process.

There are other comments, but I will wait…

Onyango Oloo
Montreal, Sunday, August 17, 2003
8:04 am

[roughrider]

As a Kenyan Christian, I draw a lot of inspiration from the Bible. It is a book that contains great revolutionaries who opposed dictatorships. John the Baptist and Jesus Christ are two good examples. In fact Jesus was crucified for trying to overthrow dictatorial regimes and liberating the people… he was charged with sedition.

Is this is the crime that we want to crucify Raila Odinga for?

There is no difference between the crowd that is baying for Raila’s blood and the one that demanded the crucifixion of Jesus and freedom for the thief and rapist, Barabbas. And yes, we too have a thief and rapist in our midst that for many years subjected Kenyans to terror – yet he goes scot-free and dines with the high and mighty.

Prophets are never recognized at home. Instead there are vilified and attacked.

I have once or twice – in the darkest moments of oppression in Kenya – contemplated, imagined and built scenarios around the violent and non-violent removal of dictatorial leadership. If Raila is to face such charges then I, with good conscience must join him on that dock as co accused.

[dubois]

Oloo,

Your main topic was the condemnation of those calling for Raila's arrest. You wrongly included Koigi, through unreliable media reports, and you should at least acknowledge that he probably never called for Raila's arrest. Now that Koigi has clearly expressed his opinion, stop dragging other irrelevant issues to this topic.

[mossad]

I like the tuesday's nations article written by Macharia Gaitho where he asks' the pple bating for Raila's blood to play it cool. Infact, he says they should also write their own biographies and let kenyans learn what they are all about.
I just wonder what Mongatana and Ndile will write about. It might be a comic series which is to read by Monkeys basking on the tallest trees in the land.

Mossad.

[Onyango Oloo]

OO has lost his marbles he is taking this Raila worship too far if he thinks that Raila is somehow above the law. Let us not forget the horror that coups have visited on Africa Liberia and Somali are two current examples. Kenyans are lucky that Raila's ethnic based coup did not succeed. Raila's coup would have followed the Idi Amin, Samuel Doe, Bokassa model massacres of the former Presidents tribe and then indiscriminate murder and wanton destruction of society.

Comparing Raila to Mandela is an insult to Mandela and Africa. Raila and the coup plotters should be compared to others of their ilk tribal powerseekers and despots like Samuel Doe, Idi Amin Dada and Jean-Bedel Bokassa.