RAILA ODINGA IN CANADA, OCTOBER 28TH, 2006

[miguna]

PRESS RELEASE…FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 28th, 2006

RAILA ODINGA

IN CANADA
SATURDAY, 28 OCTOBER 2006, 6-11pm

@university OF TORONTO (ST. GEORGE CAMPUS)

Reichman Family Lecture Room # 1050
Earth Sciences Centre, 5 Bancroft Avenue, Toronto
(Take Spadina Street/Street Car or St. George Street)[/b]Map: www.osm.utoronto.ca/map/

KENYANS IN CANADA ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (Organizing Committee) cordially invites you to an evening of political engagement and discourse with one of Kenya’s foremost political leaders, Raila Amolo Odinga, on Saturday October 28th, 2008, starting at 6 pm sharp.

Raila has declared his candidature in the presidential elections scheduled for 2007. He is expected to contest on an ODM-Kenya’s ticket.

He will be touring Canada in order to meet with Kenyans, Canadian leaders and media in order to consult, hold discussions and exchange views on vital issues affecting Kenyans in particular, and Africans in general - issues of governance, democratization process, constitutional reforms, economic renewal, corruption, HIV/Aids pandemic and both regional and continental integration initiatives.

He will also explain his electoral platform and ideas of arresting the downward spiral that has engulfed Kenya for the past twenty or more years.

Raila offers the following explanation for entering the race for the presidency of the Republic of Kenya in 2007 at

"I have constantly pleaded your case in the running of this nation, not in the weak tones of a frail coward asking alms, but in a strong voice of a team leader of a mighty multitude, demanding the rights to which free men and women across this nation are entitled.

Like most of you, I was born in a country town and heard of great freedom fighters like Harry Thuku, Koitalel arap Samoei and Chief Lenana. I was privileged to fall under the tutelage of Independence heroes like Jomo Kenyatta, Bildad Kaggia, Achieng Oneko, Kungu Karumba, Tom Mboya, Paul Ngei and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.I experienced the second Liberation struggle alongside Kenneth Matiba, Charles Rubia, George Anyona, George Nthenge, James Orengo, Masinde Muliro, Martin Shikuku and many others. We were with you in the aborted birth of the Third Republic, and now we are together moving towards the completion of this otherwise most extended (unnecessarily) journey.

I have learned from the wisest and walked with the bravest. I have had the fortune of being part of great teams. Fearless and visionary soldiers have fallen by the wayside and it is now my turn to step to the frontline and carry the battle forward, for my fellow Kenyans, there are many battles ahead, some inherent like the fight against poverty, illiteracy, disease and bad governance; others emerging, like corruption and inequality.

There is much to be said about the value of hard work and honesty. It was articulated by great Pan Africanists like Kwame Nkrumah, Abdel Nasser and Patrice Lumumba, who engineered the need for unity to remove Africans from the yoke of colonialism. From these nationalists, I learnt that the poverty problem in Africa is due to inequities in power relations. Fellow citizens of this great nation, the fight against poverty will only be won when power is taken back to the people, and this is the course for which I offer myself.

It is against this background that I see making opportunity the birthright of every Kenyan. It is the very reason why I have declared my candidature for the Presidency of the Republic of Kenya. I believe in a Kenya whose enormous resources enhance our social, economic, political development and level our social stratification as a nation.

As organized Kenyan citizenry and creators of national wealth, both at home and in the Diaspora, we are conscious partners in the well being of our nation. We are determined to guarantee security in our borders, cities and homes to enable us enjoy a decent standard of living. As such, we have the right to self-affirmation in order to safeguard against orchestrated doctrines of segregation that pit Kenyan against each other.

We stand at the precipice of fate that threatens us with a failed nation. It would be easier to shrink from the challenges that face us, look safely to the mediocrity of the past and be lulled by good intentions and high rhetoric of the current governors who prefer that path. I reject that course together with those who support it. I cannot do otherwise.

It's time Kenya started moving towards greatness it so much deserve. Achieving that greatness demands of us new invention, innovation, imagination and decisiveness of purpose.

I am asking each of you to be core participants in this new drive to make a difference in our national governance. We can no longer accept blatant plunder of our natural resources by those who seek to loot unabated.

As I declare my interest in the leadership of our great nation, I call upon its great sons, daughters, men and women to rise with courage and hope to this new beginning. Let us all be strong and of good courage without fear.

We need to free ourselves from the vices of poor governance, corruption, inefficiency in the public sector, nepotism and favouritism, unfair distribution of national resources, misuse of public funds and disrespect for human rights. Until the time when an aroused public opinion demands that bad leadership and patronage be banished from our midst, accountability and transparency will remain a dream. Until our cooperation and mutuality of efforts with the industrial world improve, and the energy of our people in agricultural production in the rural areas is harnessed, our country will continue to lapse into needless misery, and reel in poverty.

Finally, let it be known to my fellow Kenyans that those men and women who have offered their lives for the sake of this country know that patriotism is not daunted by the fear of anything, but is motivated by the valuable love they have for their nation. I stand to be counted with those who seek liberty and freedom for all Kenyans; I cannot do otherwise. Support and walk with me in the stride to Kenya’s Presidency 2007.”

The Organizing Committee invites you to share your reflections, thoughts, opinions, laughter and questions with the charismatic, progressive and indefatigable Pan-Africanist, Raila Amolo Odinga.

Tickets for the event are $50.00 in advance. $65.00 at the door. Tickets will be sold-out soon.

Refreshments, food and music will be available.

Call the following numbers for your tickets:

416-723-9988 /416-788-1997 /416-512-7999 / 519-993-6199

Organizing Committee members are: Waikwa Wanyoike, Leonard Wandili, Wambui Gaitho, Sam Kutondo, Ben Ondoro, Wangari Odeny and Miguna Miguna.

The Organizing Committee’s Media contact:
Miguna Miguna [phone]
___________________________________30_________________________

[dubois]

I wonder who is paying for his trip this time. I was shocked to learn (and i am not making this up) that Raila did not spend even a dime of his wealth to visit Australia. Some two nitwits in Australia took up a huge loan to finance his and Ida's first class flight, $400 per night hotel room, chauffeur driven limo and other expenses. In fact Sammy Weya, the alego MP, was so impressed by the two generous fellas that he couldn't help but ask everyone what these guys did for a living. They were all shocked to later learn that the guys were average civil servants with a huge debt. The funny thing is that these guys are counting on Raila to become president so they can get a payback(in terms of government posts).

Finally, I was disgusted when the Raila hosts (some of them are my friends) in Melbourne supplied everyone at the entrance with small envelopes to donate kitu kidogo for mheshimiwa's expensive stay. Kenyan folks in the diaspora are struggling despite being in developed countries. Raila should not encourage this beggar like behavior in his functions if he is to maintain integrity. Besides he is far much wealthier than most folks in the diaspora and if anyone is to give something, he should be the one to contribute to the Kenyan communities Abroad. So Miguna, I hope you take this information in its true spirit or you might be left out of pocket.

(Most Kenyans living in Melbourne will confirm this story)

[politicalmaniac]

Dubois
All you have to do is keep quiet, stuff your ears, and close your eyes.
Why did you bother to turn up to the R function? wait for your hommie kickback1 to go whereever and you can go and stand rapt in attention.

Pili Pili usiyo ila ina kuwashia nini?
The unqualified fella (whose only qualification was that he was a GEMAN) who hosted the sloth in DC was made a deputy something or the other in the Kenyan Embassy in DC before he was 'reassigned'!

[KOLONEL BRISK]

Dubois,
You lost me the moment you refered to this two gentlemen as "NITWITS". I have had the priviledge to attend meetings organised by village elders back home in Kenya. They were very constructive, ideas were floated, issues were critically analised and solutions were given in the hope that these would translate in some form of Maendeleo. The term village politics was used in regards to jurisdiction. At the national level you would expect better argument. In a forum like this i expect a well informed discussion or an honest desire for knowledge of the same. Like every other politician Raila may have his shortcomings, be it financial or name it. But this is overshadowed by his strong points. Lets be sober brother and ask him and the other presidential contenders, what their vision for Kenya is and how are they gonna realise it?

[dubois]

Politicalmania,

We live in a democratic society and nobody is immune to criticism. And by the way why do you have to bring in Kibaki? I thought Agwambo was in a different class. About me keeping off Raila's function, i wont even go there........


Kolonel Brisk,

You completely missed the point, I refered to the two gentlemen as nitwits because they are supposed to do better. They are well educated, have decent jobs and it is therefore sad that such individuals are still misused by politicians. I think they are on the same level as village goons (for example Mungiki or Kamjesh) who are hired by politicians to cause mayhem. Kenyans simply have to stop this culture of buying and being bought if we are to hold politicians responsible. What these two fellows did was corrupt, what Raila did was decietful or probably corrupt. Does Raila intend to pay them back if he becomes president? I dont think so and I have to say it again; the two fellas are brainless. I just hope you, Kolonel, are not one of them.

[abdulmote]

I wonder how Raila is meant to lead a pack heavily contaminated with thieves, and at the same time be able to present it to the people as a potentially 'clean government in waiting', without using any lies whatsoever!

Nothing short of a revolution will ever set our mother Kenya genuinely free.

[politicalmaniac]

Dubois
I was just telling you to mind your own damn business!
Why do you care if those fellas took loans to finance his trip?
Some folks DO CARE ABOUT THE DIRECTION our beloved country is taking and will SACRIFICE their puny assets (even their liberty - ask OO, AO, Miguna) to help move it to a more egalitarian, meritrocratic one. Dubois, if you dont know, WE ARE FED UP! Change, even at a personal level requires some measures of sacrifice. Thats why YOU MOVED AWAY from Kenya in the first place. Is that not a sacrifice?

Your selfishness is not new or astounding. Its more of the same MKM bull droppings which runs alongs the thesis of lets eat (for ourselves) why rock the boat.

Abdul,
kickback1 is OVERSEEING a vast network of day time thieves, and even bandits, like snake charmers kimmeendeero michuki!
So your question is moot and should be directed to your president. Ask him how he does it!

[mzeiya]

Lets not forget it was Parera who footed Mwai Kibaki's bill when he was hospitalised in 2002 after the traffic accident. Only for him to emerge as one of the key players of the Anglo-Leasing type scandals that characterized Murungaru's tenure at OP.

[miguna]

About Raila Odinga and his platform

Raila Odinga has dedicated his life to public service, first as a university lecturer, then in establishing the Kenya Bureau of Standards, always as a civil rights activist, and finally as a member of parliament.

Raila became MP for the cosmopolitan constituency of Langata, Nairobi, in the general election of December 29, 1992, and retained his seat in subsequent general elections in 1997 and 2002. The first nine years were spent in opposition, first in Ford-Kenya and then in the National Democratic Party, but in 2001, Raila was appointed minister for energy in the Kanu government. Later, as member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he was part of the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) that won the 2002 general election and broke Kanu’s stranglehold on power since Independence in 1963. Raila was thereafter appointed minister for roads, public works, and housing. He was replaced in the cabinet at the end of 2005, after his opposition to doctored constitutional reforms led to a referendum victory against the government.

During his four years as a cabinet minister, Raila effected extensive reforms in the ministries he served. But he is perhaps better known for his persistent and dedicated opposition to all that is corrupt, to decisions made on the basis of ethnicity, and to the accumulation of wealth by a few at the expense of the many. His opposition to successive governments that have looted his beloved Kenya has led him into three periods of detention without trial. He was detained for a total of eight years, six of them spent in solitary confinement. No matter the personal cost, Raila shuns any option that involves compromising his own or the nation’s integrity.

As the MP for a constituency that houses a large number of Nairobi’s urban poor, Raila has initiated several poverty-alleviation and education projects, including Kibera slum upgrading and the Raila Education Centre. His aim is to ensure good quality of life and education for all.
Raila is a loving family man and he and his wife Ida have four children. They are Fidel, who is a business executive, Rosemary, who is an IT consultant and has been married to Amos Akatsa for two years, Raila Jnr, who is a banker, and Winnie, who is in Form IV at school in Nairobi.

Raila Amolo Odinga was born in Nyanza Province on January 7, 1945, at Maseno Church Missionary Society Hospital, the second son of Kenya’s first vice-president, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, and his wife Mary. Raila graduated from Otto von Guericke Technical University, Magdeburg, Germany, in 1970, with a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering, following which he returned to Kenya to take care of the Odinga family after his father’s detention without trial in 1969. Raila was an assistant lecturer at the University of Nairobi before joining the nascent Kenya Bureau of Standards and being asked to oversee its establishment. He had already established his family business, which manufactures liquid petroleum gas cylinders.

The increasing repression by the state in succeeding years led to Raila’s wider political participation against the evils he has seen desecrate his land. Today, Raila continues to work for the third liberation of Kenya – liberation from the corruption and ethnic favouritism that has bedevilled the nation’s social and economic progress for more than 40 years.
====================
Raila Odinga on Raila (excerpts from Raila Odinga: An Enigma in Kenyan Politics)
They say that a human being is a product of the environment and in that regard I am no different. My parents were two very strong personalities who struggled to give us the best upbringing under difficult circumstances. A lot has been written about my father including his own autobiography Not Yet Uhuru.

As a child, I had excellent relationship with him and only once did he severely punish me because I defied an order to join others in picking cotton. Although less has been written about my mother, she was the most formative figure on my youth. She was generous, tough, friendly and hardworking person who was an excellent wife to my father and a mother to thousands of children in Kenya…

My formative years were spent in Kaloleni Estate in Kisumu where my father had relocated to start a business having resigned from a teaching profession. Dad was also involved in the freedom struggle in those days and I remember the lengthy political discussions that used to take place in our residence. I was inducted to politics right at infancy. Jaramogi was a loving father who taught us many things about life and who was ready and prepared to discuss all kinds of sensitive issues with his children…

I developed a passion for reading and debate. My political awareness and activity became more focused during my stay at the Herder Institute in Leipzig and later at the University in Magdeburg, Germany. In Leipzig, my companions included students from Africa, Asia and Latin America; while in Magdeburg, I lived with German students. My wide reading covered Fanon, Lenin, Marx, Nkrumah, Rodney, Mao, Dubois, Garvey as well as Liberal Western thinkers like Galbraith and Adam Smith and it shaped my intellectual and political outlook. Imperialism was the enemy number one and international solidarity of progressive forces was the answer to imperialist expansion. We believed that collective ownership of means of production was the only way to ensure equitable distribution of wealth, poverty reduction and faster socio-economic development.

Those days, at the height of the cold war, with Vietnam War at its peak, we talked of scientific world outlook. Many changes have since taken place and I have also revised my political outlook. I have witnessed inefficiencies associated with public ownership and management and the ability of entrepreneurship to create wealth. I now believe strongly in the private sector as the engine for faster economic development. But I still strongly believe in the humaneness of our traditional African societies and the need to borrow from the experience of our forbearers to transform our country. I hold the simple but profound notion that individuals thrive and prosper only when they are supported by strong and active communities…

The post independent developments in Africa have been disappointing. Over the last forty years, the desire to retain political power took the centre stage as the African ruling classes specialized in political repression and the settling of political disagreements in violent and destructive ways. All this has adversely affected possibilities and opportunities for development in Africa. Wars, internal conflicts, internally displaced persons, people imprisoned without trials, coups d’etat, lack of respect for the sanctity of human life, etc., have all been enemies of progress in Africa. The bloody feuds do not only include the conflicts where guns are drawn and territories fought over. They also include the blood-letting fights for political power using ethnic, religious and territorial chauvinism and divide people in order to rule them, with no agenda for positive and constructive social transformation, but with the single aim of being in power at all costs to the African people.

Kwame Nkrumah observed in Africa Must Unite that without a serious commitment to a people-centred development process and collective self-reliance (that he believed socialism was all about), and without political unity at the continental level, neo-colonialism would continue to balkanize and under-develop Africa, and poverty would be perpetuated. I was an ardent student of Nkrumah, and must concede that apart from the discredited public ownership of the means of production, some of his ideas are still valid today.

In Kenya, our long walk is not yet ended but the destination remains the same: modern, democratic, prosperous and developed new nation. To achieve the objective, it is necessary to take cognizance of special circumstances in our society which sometimes might dictate change of strategy or application of new tactics. Sometimes it becomes necessary to make tactical retreat by forming strategic alliances like NDP/KANU cooperation, partnership and then merger in order to surmount ethnic barriers, facilitate constitution review and expand territory.
The elections of 1992/97 revealed both the deep commitment of ordinary Kenyans to the electoral process and their fundamental cynicism about the government’s willingness to conduct free and fair elections. The sudden establishment of multi-party democracy had been a panic reaction by the regime to the abrupt cessation of rapid disbursement of aid from the west; it was not based upon a fundamental desire for or understanding of multi-party politics on the part of either the government or the people. It most certainly was not a serious response by the government to the deep-seated anger and dissatisfaction among the masses with political events since 1982 coup attempt.

Many ethnic chauvinists saw multi-party politics primarily as a means to seize control of the state and the funding it controlled, while President Moi and his ethnic elite group were determined to defend their gains. The introduction of multi-party politics, unfortunately because of opportunism, divided Kenyans into rival, ethnically based political parties. It was in response to this situation that we decided in 1998 to introduce politics of cooperation.
Although I have been criticized for changing political parties, I have maintained that at no time have we compromised our principles. In this regard, I have learnt from Sir Winston Churchill who was forced by circumstances to change parties. In 1923, he announced ‘I am what I have always been – a Tory Democrat. Force of circumstances has compelled me to serve with another party.’ [The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill, compiled by Dominique Enright]

Not long before Churchill crossed the floor to join the Liberal Party, he remarked of his (then) fellow conservatives: “They are a class of right honourable gentlemen – all good, all honest men – who are ready to make great sacrifices for their opinions but they have no opinions. They are ready to die for the truth, if only they knew what the truth was”.

While in an exchange in the House of Commons in 1926 when Churchill was Chancellor of the Exchequer, his Labour predecessor Phillip Snowden accused him of switching positions on his budget. Churchill pointed out that there was nothing wrong with change if it was in the right direction to which Snowden countered: “The honourable gentleman is an authority on that”. Churchill retorted happily: “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often”
There is no doubt in my mind that every change we have made has advanced the cause of our mission. I can say without fear of contradiction, that the tactical manouvres and compromises we have made have been dictated purely by the difficult historical circumstances and not mere opportunism.

As we pause for breath and consult the map, our challenge is to find the common path ahead. And we must always ensure that the compass is pointing at the destination…

I believe that we all owe a duty to each other as well as to ourselves, for human life is a network of social relations. We have to understand that in order to enhance our national unity, to collaborate with each other, and to forge creative partnerships for mutual benefit. We have to believe in this philosophy to avoid destructive competition that can only lead to greed and deception…the two vile characteristics that have seen our nation sick in despair and hopelessness.

It is for this reason that I am committed to building strong communities as cornerstone of our national unity. For I have a vision of a country where everyone recognize that true national unity is the only option that can create an environment for meaningful development. I have a vision of a nation where every citizen has the dignity and the right to lawfully pursue those ends that will sustain individual and group aspirations and happiness. I envision a free-market economy where citizens can freely and willingly own and dispose of their properties and services, an economy in which both the public and private sectors work min tandem for the benefit of all citizens.

In our view, participatory democracy should be entrenched as the only option for political participation. A small friendlier but efficient government, that is accountable, transparent and dependable, is our aim. We believe in devolution that will empower the people to meaningfully participate in the decision making process at the grassroots level. Parliament needs to be transformed in such a way to make its working practices simpler; give it more powers to investigate malpractices in government and by public officials, and to make it more responsive to the special needs of women, children, disabled and minorities.

The most realistic and efficient way of realizing the desired economic integration remains political. An East African Federation was the dream of the founding fathers of our respective countries. It remains a viable, attainable goal. Likewise, the spirit of Pan-Africanism that inspired Kwame Nkrumah, Mwalimu Nyerere, Sekou Toure, Jomo Kenyatta, Oginga Odinga, Nelson Mandela and Abdel Nasser still throngs and inspires millions of Africans, from Senegal to Madagascar. We must rekindle the Pan-African Unity, not just of governments as is now the case, but of the Africans…

Above all, we are internationalist. I believe in the need for international co-operation, and the desire for the integration of the human race. The most pertinent approach to internationalism at the moment lies in the promotion and propagation of Science and Technology for the emancipation of mankind from scarcity, from poverty, ignorance and disease, from ecological and environmental degradation, from cultural and gender biases…We must not only think of North to South or South to South transfers: the crucial word is exchange. Technological and economic assistance has in the past been tied up with geopolitics….

In this world of cyberspace, Africans must be seen to be active participants in the quest for Science and Technology as a means of emancipation.
=================================
That is Raila’s platform. Prepare your questions.

[kamalet]

The man is visiting canada to talk about himself....... surely a link to his "overrated" website can do rather than this overt campaigning!

[politicalmaniac]

Kamale B.T.W.
Kulei IS NOT A RAILA BACKER FINANCIALLY
Lets correct that errata you peddled somewhere in this forum.
Kulei according to media reports is an emmissary between MO1 and your president.
I would tend believe that assertion before I accept your rather fantastic allegations.

[kamalet]

Pmaniac,

You are entitled to believe what you will. I gave you the little example of the grounding of Kulei and the whistle blowing by Lokorio that they are trying to understand how a vehicle they had asked Kulei to buy for Moi ended up being registered in Ruto's name. Take it a little further on the suit by KTMT that Ruto and a company Kulei is known to have an interest in were stripping the assets of the Kanu's rag.

My source was credible.....but you do not have to believe it!!!