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Post by njambaa on Feb 23, 2012 23:19:45 GMT 3
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Post by njambaa on Feb 23, 2012 23:31:37 GMT 3
Nobody, yes nobody will ever fill his shoes....but am happy he is born in me .rip papa
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Post by foresight on Feb 24, 2012 3:10:14 GMT 3
"Have you ever tried to juggle a raw LIVER in your hands?" that was politics for Hon Michuki... RIP.
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Post by nok on Feb 24, 2012 18:08:18 GMT 3
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Post by adongo23456 on Feb 24, 2012 19:27:31 GMT 3
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2012 20:37:30 GMT 3
Macharia Gaitho On Michuki www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Michuki+upheld+and+broke+law+equally/-/440808/1332964/-/v7xg1v/-/index.htmlPerhabs the most honest look at Michuki's rather treacherous life is the one below. Honest and straight to the point. History it seems will judge Michuki very harshly when all the mourning, hypocritical and delusional hero worship are buried with him in his grave. This is a very powerful piece. AdongoThis is a great piece alright and Praise to JACOB AGWA who put it down. That was a life of treachery that Michuki led and now his nieces and nephews want the whole country to reinvent him in the ways they wish to caste him for us. We the Kenyans have our own understanding of our history and who has played what roles in that history! The forces in the country in which Michuki was a hard working member, will have to understand the days of walking all over Kenyans are done.
Why was he killing Kikuyu youth again? Did it have anything to do with the PEV? How is it that there are Kikuyu politicians telling people of their ethnicity that they should close ranks on other Kenyans to elect Uhuru ati wao? Was Michuki not a Kikuyu when he was ordering the torture and murder of thousands of their children?
I'm putting the article up.
Let us mourn Michuki with the truth Environment Minister John Michuki, 80, died on February 21, 2012.
Posted Friday, February 24, 2012 | By JACOB AGWA John Michuki was a tough man on a power trip who had no qualms ordering a heavy clampdown of the Mungiki. This was just a carry-on of his unfinished business with Mau Mau fighters.
If he was a strong, admirable and honourable man, he should have championed reforms in the police force. But he was too weak and old, and reforms take time, debating, thinking and change. So he chose a short cut. Violence is always quick and short. You just strike out at the offending entity. No need to think or consider.
Thinking and listening is too hard. Note that little infant who has been given long nails can scratch too. That does not make the baby powerful even if he scratches the nose of a tiger. Do not confuse the tool with the wielder. A fool with a tool is still a fool.
His tenor, even when imposing the Michuki-rules, was characterised by authoritarian tendencies that brooked no dialogue. No discussions. Apparently, all reason would surrender to the passion of the chosen course of action. But he was not always surrendering his reasons to his passions.
Upon close inspection, we see many of those close to him benefiting inordinately from that same course of action that was supposed to benefit Kenyans.
When one is willing to burn a carpet to kill a flea as we saw in the raid on the Standard Group, that is a lunatic, not a leader. What the government did was not proportionate to the alleged threat and was an assault on media freedom, proprietary rights and a violation of Kenyan sovereignty.
Road carnage remains a national problem. He focused on seat-belts and speed governors and pursued them with gusto. A holistic solution was required. But he was tired to contemplate such complex things like comprehensive reforms. He believed things are more important than people or ideas. So he settled on two things: seat-belts and speed-governors.
This is someone who, as a collaborator, succeeded in a system that conspired to keep people (Mau Mau fighters) out. As such, it fostered upon him an insulated, exclusionary mindset that was justified by the huge wealth he accumulated and the categorical teat of power that he suckled in the rarefied sty of power that he snuggled in in successive governments.
That is why he could not stand the thought of a Raila Odinga presidency because he saw it as a threat to the Kikuyu oligarchy - the only community he knew and embraced. He saw the hungry, dispossessed, uprooted, tobacco-sniffing, barefooted, wild-eyed, uneducated offspring of the Mau Mau (Mungiki kids) as more flies to be swatted. So he ordered for police squads to be formed to do the swatting.
Eliminating these lost kids was easier than reforming the police force or gathering evidence and making cases that could withstand trial. That is what reformists and law-abiding people do. He chose the wrong path.
During his watch many Mungiki were wiped out. Systematically, their sad, bleary-eyed, delusional lives ended by bullets. Some of these misguided kids could have become inventors and leaders. Some of them were forced to join Mungiki after they were confronted with headless torsos of people they knew.
Some did not even know they were Mungiki; they were just told to come to Nairobi because jobs were waiting. Michuki did not care. As far as he was concerned, the d**e cracked on these kids ages ago when their forefathers chose to walk into the forest to wage a war against the white man.
When we look back at Michuki’s formative years, we find several gaps. We find that he dropped out of school at a time when white men were rewarding Africans with food and sweets to go to school. We find that he did not join the resistance against the invading white man but instead chose to sell principle for comfort and became a collaborator. He came to own huge tracts of land as his tribesmen were rendered homeless.
When you look behind a successful man, you find years of sacrifice, struggle and hard work. You do not find comfort, shortcuts and paved paths as we find in the case of Michuki. Ultimately, he was a product of his time.
He emerged from the cave of a colonial system bedecked with rewards from the colonial master and was unable to shake off the mindset that got him swaddled in the comforts of power so early in his life.
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Post by jakaswanga on Feb 24, 2012 21:47:42 GMT 3
If then we honour such a man! Officially with full honours as per protocol! what does it say of our country??
The official narrative on the death of Michuki, will be a measure of how far we are removed from our history. The flag at half mast, the nation in official mourning of a man who made reputation executing the freedom fighters who made possible the hanging of that national flag --substituting the Union Jack!
Other nations have national days saluting the sacrifice of those individuals who paid the ultimate price that their countries be free, free from foreign domination or internal repression. In Kenya, we will officially salute those who fought against independence, and helped maintain a regime of internal opression, corruption and murder.
There is a fight for the soul of our nation: which values do we wish to cherish and bepart to the new generations? I hope the resolution does not go the old fashioned way!
History teachers explaining to young Kenyans why we mourn Michuki next week. What a job!
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Post by adongo23456 on Feb 24, 2012 21:59:02 GMT 3
Kathure,
I was just talking to a former Kenyan policeman who left the force in 2007 and now lives here in Toronto. He is from Michuki's "tribe" so to speak and he had very harsh words for the man.
One thing he told me is that when Michuki made the decision to wipe out Mungiki or anybody deemed to be Mungiki, they did not just shoot them in the head as is well documented. Michuki had designed the terminology of "take them above" or something like that. It meant let them go to heaven or hell wherever. That was after he publicly promised people to expect funerals.
One method the Kwe Kwe used was a homemade gullotine to imitate Mungiki killings. The cops carried bicycle wires designed to chop off heads. It required two to operate. The entangled wires were fixed with handles so they would wrap it around the necks of their victims and one cop would pull in one direction and the other in the opposite direction. Within minutes the head would be decapitated.
Apparently the cops could not carry pangas so they came up with their own decipitation technique. Add decapitation wires to the Michuki legacy along with the seat belts and speed governors.
But what a powerful piece this Agwa fellow wrote and in such few words captured what many of us know as facts and some are so uncomfortable to admit, leave alone to say. We are not a nation of hypocrites but hypocricy (and tribalism ofo course) is the official religion of the ruling class in Kenya and people tend to emulate their leaders.
But history will put Michuki and others like him where they belong. Right in the dustbin. A trecherous man who murdered a Gikuyu folk for a living right from a very ripe age later becomes one of the most toxic Kikuyu chauvinists under Kibaki worshipped by fellow chauvinists. That is part of the sickness of our nation. We fear the truth and seek comfort in the familiar and trodden path. It can't last forever. Powerful message from Jacob Agwa.
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Post by tnk on Feb 24, 2012 22:21:58 GMT 3
Kathure,I was just talking to a former Kenyan policeman who left the force in 2007 and now lives here in Toronto. He is from Michuki's "tribe" so to speak and he had very harsh words for the man. One thing he told me is that when Michuki made the decision to wipe out Mungiki or anybody deemed to be Mungiki, they did not just shoot them in the head as is well documented. Michuki had designed the terminology of "take them above" or something like that. It meant let them go to heaven or hell wherever. That was after he publicly promised people to expect funerals. One method the Kwe Kwe used was a homemade gullotine to imitate Mungiki killings. The cops carried bicycle wires designed to chop off heads. It required two to operate. The entangled wires were fixed with handles so they would wrap it around the necks of their victims and one cop would pull in one direction and the other in the opposite direction. Within minutes the head would be decapitated. Apparently the cops could not carry pangas so they came up with their own decipitation technique. Add decapitation wires to the Michuki legacy along with the seat belts and speed governors. But what a powerful piece this Agwa fellow wrote and in such few words captured what many of us know as facts and some are so uncomfortable to admit, leave alone to say. We are not a nation of hypocrites but hypocricy (and tribalism ofo course) is the official religion of the ruling class in Kenya and people tend to emulate their leaders. But history will put Michuki and others like him where they belong. Right in the dustbin. A trecherous man who murdered a Gikuyu folk for a living right from a very ripe age later becomes one of the most toxic Kikuyu chauvinists under Kibaki worshipped by fellow chauvinists. That is part of the sickness of our nation. We fear the truth and seek comfort in the familiar and trodden path. It can't last forever. Powerful message from Jacob Agwa. wow how horrid i guess thats the michuki connection to that business and that wheel strapped around the neck makes the whole business aptly fit the pun " the michuki tie" dont get caught in one
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Post by akinyi2005 on Feb 24, 2012 22:27:51 GMT 3
According to Wikipedia,
A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honor heads of state or other important people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements of military tradition. Generally, state funerals are held in order to involve the general public in a national day of mourning after the family of the deceased gives consent. A state funeral will often generate mass publicity from both national and global media outlets.
IMO, michuki doesn't deserve a state funeral period.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2012 22:32:16 GMT 3
Kenyans are something else, you never cease to amaze. Watch this video and tell me otherwise.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2012 22:48:25 GMT 3
I've posted this video on this forum before, but here it is again. It is relevant now as we mourn two fallen political and economic elites, who lived a life of opulence whilst Kenyans became hungrier than ever before. These two got to live out their entire lives out to ripe old age, unlike the man this video is about. A national Hero J.M Kariuki
sorry to those compatriots who can't understand kikuyu. Mank had translated on another thread.
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Post by johnmaina on Feb 25, 2012 14:43:36 GMT 3
Jacob's article I must say is the best thing i have read on NMG this year, since the paper became pro establishment and anti-ICC to the extent of giving column space to a suspected facilitator of crimes against humanity. As for Muchuki, he was nothing but a thug and I believe Jacob's article capture this so well, its not unafrican as some think to call a spade a spade.
If you read Caroline Elkin’s Imperial Reckoning, the sections that touch on John Michuki’s role in Mau Mau counter-insurgency, makes our later day thugs kina uhuru/ruto saints.
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Post by destiny on Feb 25, 2012 15:51:06 GMT 3
Jacob Agwa controversial article and his penmanship in general resembles that of Koigi Wa Wamwere's. Mmmmmmmh!
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Post by nowayhaha on Feb 25, 2012 16:57:56 GMT 3
Jacob Agwa controversial article and his penmanship in general resembles that of Koigi Wa Wamwere's. Mmmmmmmh! Also noticed Agwa is more of a wester African name .
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Post by reporter911 on Feb 25, 2012 18:34:10 GMT 3
Jacob Agwa controversial article and his penmanship in general resembles that of Koigi Wa Wamwere's. Mmmmmmmh! Also noticed Agwa is more of a wester African name . nowayhaha you should try to educate or learn more about your neighbours and other tribes e.t.c if you did you would not pen "Agwa" as a west Africa name.. this name is found in Western & Nyanza provinces just because it doesn't sound the norm like "Maina, Otiena, Njenga, Wafula, Kamau, Okoth which are easily identified by tribe.. that "Agwa" is not a name by certain tribes in Kenya. Like I said try learning about other tribes then you won't embarrass yourself on here penning a Kenyan's birthright name as west African.. In any case all over Africa, people share the same names, there are Kamau's Otieno's, wafula's named from other tribes & clans in other parts of Africa.. does that mean they are Kenyans? it is all about the history of Migration.. www.standardmedia.co.ke/images/friday/nh090109_01.jpg/img]Mama Sarah Obama with Ms Olivia Agwa, (right) the proprietor of Kensphoto Imaging in Kisumu where she took passport pictures, Thursday. She is scheduled to attend US President-elect, Barrack Obama�s swearing ceremony on January 20. [PHOTO: JAMES KEYI /STANDARD]
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Post by einstein on Feb 25, 2012 23:17:24 GMT 3
Job 27:13 - 23 (NIV): Fate of the Wicked / Ruthless ManHere is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty: - However many his children, their fate is the sword; his offspring will never have enough to eat.
- The plague will bury those who survive him, and their widows will not weep for them.
- Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay, what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver.
- The house he builds is like a moth's cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman.
- He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.
- Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night.
- The east wind carries him off, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.
- It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power.
- It claps its hands in derision and hisses him out of his place.
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Post by adongo23456 on Feb 25, 2012 23:36:27 GMT 3
Folks,
I must say I have been amazed by how this thread "grew" after the article from Jacob Agwa which we lifted from the Daily Nation was posted here yesterday. It is as stunning as anything I have seen in Jukwaa. It tells me there are people out there who respect the truth and good thinking. It makes me fill very proud of Jukwaa. Of course we always have the regular mundane stuff. That is fine with me but this was very refreshing. And then there is the Oloo interview with KPFA 94.1 FM posted here which I will talk about later.
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Post by Fahari on Feb 25, 2012 23:38:01 GMT 3
This is a very powerful piece. AdongoThis is a great piece alright and Praise to JACOB AGWA who put it down. That was a life of treachery that Michuki led and now his nieces and nephews want the whole country to reinvent him in the ways they wish to caste him for us. We the Kenyans have our own understanding of our history and who has played what roles in that history! The forces in the country in which Michuki was a hard working member, will have to understand the days of walking all over Kenyans are done.
Why was he killing Kikuyu youth again? Did it have anything to do with the PEV? How is it that there are Kikuyu politicians telling people of their ethnicity that they should close ranks on other Kenyans to elect Uhuru ati wao? Was Michuki not a Kikuyu when he was ordering the torture and murder of thousands of their children?
I'm putting the article up.
Let us mourn Michuki with the truth Environment Minister John Michuki, 80, died on February 21, 2012.
Posted Friday, February 24, 2012 | By JACOB AGWA John Michuki was a tough man on a power trip who had no qualms ordering a heavy clampdown of the Mungiki. This was just a carry-on of his unfinished business with Mau Mau fighters.
There is a contrary opinion from a person we could call an authority click here Calestous Juma a professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School. What were Agwa’s credentials?? Agwas article is errant nonsense especially when he attempts to link the mungiki to the mau mau, the latter must be turning in their graves. The Mau Mau were fighting for liberty it was a selfless act and death was a certainty while the mungiki are petty criminals who kill, plunder and rape for selfish gain and the victims are poor peasants and petty traders. I take great exception for those who have never had to live under the yoke of mungiki extortion and brutality calling Michuki a mass murderer while conveniently ignoring the mass murders committed by the mungiki.It would have been prudent for him to get the victims of mungiki tell their side of the story before penning of his article. Agwa’s attitude and some on this forum is akin to condemning the killing of a serial rapist while totally ignoring the impact of the rapist actions on the life of his victims. The mungiki literally and figuratively raped entire communities in central province.There is the well known extortion racket where fees were demanded based on profession or production but the worst I heard, were the harrowing tales of men being ordered to go home and tell their wives to cook and “prepare to receive guests to night”, and the poor men had no choice but to obey. When these communities took matters into their own hands, as happened in the Kirinyaga killings, the NGO types came out guns blazing against “extra judicial killings” just as they were against Michuki /police action yet they were dead silent when the mungiki was wreaking havoc on these communities. Michuki acted in the best interests of victims and that trumps everything else period.
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Post by adongo23456 on Feb 26, 2012 0:06:03 GMT 3
This is a very powerful piece. AdongoThis is a great piece alright and Praise to JACOB AGWA who put it down. That was a life of treachery that Michuki led and now his nieces and nephews want the whole country to reinvent him in the ways they wish to caste him for us. We the Kenyans have our own understanding of our history and who has played what roles in that history! The forces in the country in which Michuki was a hard working member, will have to understand the days of walking all over Kenyans are done.
Why was he killing Kikuyu youth again? Did it have anything to do with the PEV? How is it that there are Kikuyu politicians telling people of their ethnicity that they should close ranks on other Kenyans to elect Uhuru ati wao? Was Michuki not a Kikuyu when he was ordering the torture and murder of thousands of their children?
I'm putting the article up.
Let us mourn Michuki with the truth Environment Minister John Michuki, 80, died on February 21, 2012.
Posted Friday, February 24, 2012 | By JACOB AGWA John Michuki was a tough man on a power trip who had no qualms ordering a heavy clampdown of the Mungiki. This was just a carry-on of his unfinished business with Mau Mau fighters.
There is a contrary opinion from a person we could call an authority click here Calestous Juma a professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School. What were Agwa’s credentials?? Agwas article is errant nonsense especially when he attempts to link the mungiki to the mau mau, the latter must be turning in their graves. The Mau Mau were fighting for liberty it was a selfless act and death was a certainty while the mungiki are petty criminals who kill, plunder and rape for selfish gain and the victims are poor peasants and petty traders. I take great exception for those who have never had to live under the yoke of mungiki extortion and brutality calling Michuki a mass murderer while conveniently ignoring the mass murders committed by the mungiki.It would have been prudent for him to get the victims of mungiki tell their side of the story before penning of his article. Agwa’s attitude and some on this forum is akin to condemning the killing of a serial rapist while totally ignoring the impact of the rapist actions on the life of his victims. The mungiki literally and figuratively raped entire communities in central province.There is the well known extortion racket where fees were demanded based on profession or production but the worst I heard, were the harrowing tales of men being ordered to go home and tell their wives to cook and “prepare to receive guests to night”, and the poor men had no choice but to obey. When these communities took matters into their own hands, as happened in the Kirinyaga killings, the NGO types came out guns blazing against “extra judicial killings” just as they were against Michuki /police action yet they were dead silent when the mungiki was wreaking havoc on these communities. Michuki acted in the best interests of victims and that trumps everything else period. FahariYou have every right to critique Mr. Agwa's piece on Michuki. What you cannot do is have a free ride on the piece by Prof. Juma who was not responding at all to Agwa's article. You will have to bring your own arguments if there is any. I have tremendous respect for Prof. Juma on his day job as a development expert (he is second to none, in my opinion), but he is dead wrong about "Mr. Implementation" of Kenyan government policy in the case of Mr. Michuki. Here are two reasons why I disagree with Prof. Juma in as much I respect his body of work. 1. If indeed it was government policy to streamline the matatu business and ensure safety of passengers, something which should be a right to all Kenyans (safety), what is the state of the same today? Why do we still have anarchy and chaos in public transit and endless and avoidable deaths everyday? What exactly is the government policy on public transit if there is any? Prof. Juma never mentioned any and we need him to clarify that. 2. Is Prof. Juma saying that extrajudicial killings of people suspected to be Mungiki was good official policy of the Kenyan government? May be he is right that it was indeed a government policy but surely where else in the world can any sane person declare that exterminating people without due process, on whims and with brutal force is the mark of civilisation (or implemetation) and something to be worshipped and encouraged? If that is the case, Prof. Juma, why do we need a police force? Why do we need the courts of justice in Kenya? Why don't we all just become "Mr. Implementation", hire militias and thugs, by guns and just kill whoever we feel is doing something wrong? Is that the kind of stuff Prof. Juma and co are teaching at Havard? I hope not. In terms of your argument about Mungiki having nothing to do with Mau Mau and the claim that Mau Mau killed veterans would be turning in their graves at the comparison, I have two things to point out to you. 1. Can you deny that many of those Mau Mau militants died at the hands of one, John Njoroge Michuki, who earned the name Kimendeero for his ruthless dealing with the Mau Mau militants as an agent and a collaborator with the colonial forces in crashing the Mau Mau? Are you aware that Michuki was a specialist in crashing the genitals of Mau Mau militants? What do you think those Mau Mau militants are doing in their graves at the very thought of John Njoroge Michuki? I suspect they are waiting for him for a mass welcome party to declare their great thanks!2. Does it occur to you that Michuki dealt with the Mungiki and anyone even remotely associated with them the same way he dealt with the Mau Mau militants? Crash them, kill them and ask questions later. If that is not insane I don't know what is. Isn't that the sad legacy of the neocolonial government in Kenya today? 3. What makes you think that Agwa does not know the pain and suffering from Mungiki attackers, afterall he described them very well? How do you reach that conclusion?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2012 0:23:05 GMT 3
There is a contrary opinion from a person we could call an authority click here Calestous Juma a professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School. What were Agwa’s credentials?? Agwas article is errant nonsense especially when he attempts to link the mungiki to the mau mau, the latter must be turning in their graves. The Mau Mau were fighting for liberty it was a selfless act and death was a certainty while the mungiki are petty criminals who kill, plunder and rape for selfish gain and the victims are poor peasants and petty traders. I take great exception for those who have never had to live under the yoke of mungiki extortion and brutality calling Michuki a mass murderer while conveniently ignoring the mass murders committed by the mungiki.It would have been prudent for him to get the victims of mungiki tell their side of the story before penning of his article. Agwa’s attitude and some on this forum is akin to condemning the killing of a serial rapist while totally ignoring the impact of the rapist actions on the life of his victims. The mungiki literally and figuratively raped entire communities in central province.There is the well known extortion racket where fees were demanded based on profession or production but the worst I heard, were the harrowing tales of men being ordered to go home and tell their wives to cook and “prepare to receive guests to night”, and the poor men had no choice but to obey. When these communities took matters into their own hands, as happened in the Kirinyaga killings, the NGO types came out guns blazing against “extra judicial killings” just as they were against Michuki /police action yet they were dead silent when the mungiki was wreaking havoc on these communities. Michuki acted in the best interests of victims and that trumps everything else period. FahariYou have every right to critique Mr. Agwa's piece on Michuki. What you cannot do is have a free ride on the piece by Prof. Juma who was not responding at all to Agwa's article. You will have to bring your own arguments if there is any. I have tremendous respect for Prof. Juma on his day job, but he is dead wrong about "Mr. Implementation" of government policy. I have two reasons why I disagree with Prof. Juma. Here they are. 1. If indeed it was government policy to streamline the matatu business and ensure safety of passengers, something which should be a right to all Kenyans, what is the state of the same today? Why do we still have anarchy and chaos in public transit and endless and avoidable deaths everyday? What exactly is the government policy on public transit if there is any. Prof. Juma never mentioned any. 2. Is Prof. Juma saying that extrajudicial killing of people suspected to be Mungiki was official government policy? May be he is right on that but surely where else in the world can any sane person declare that exterminating people without due process, on whims and with brutal force is the mark of civilisation (or implemetation) and something to be worhipped and encouraged. If that is the case why do we need a police force? Why do we need courts of justice? Why don't we all just become "Mr. Implementation", hire militias and thugs, by guns and just kill whoever we feel is doing something wrong? Is that the kind of stuff Prof. Juma and co are teaching at Havard? I hope not. In terms of your argument about Mungiki having nothing to do with Mau Mau and the claim that Mau Mau killed veterans would be turning in their graves at the comparison, I have two things to point out to you. 1. Can you deny that many of those killed Mau Mau militants died at the hands of one, John Njoroge Michuki who earned the name Kimendeero for his ruthless dealing with the Mau Mau militants as an agent and a collaborator with the colonial forces in crashing the Mau Mau? Are you aware that Michuki was a specialist in crashing the genitals of Mau Mau militants? What do you think those Mau Mau militants are doing in their graves at the very thought of John Njoroge Michuki? I suspect they are waiting for him for a mass welcome party to declare their great thanks! 2. Does it occur to you that Michuki dealt with the Mungiki and anyone even remotely associated with them the same way he dealt with the Mau Mau militants. Crash them, kill them and ask questions later. If that is not insane I don't know what is. 3. What makes you think that Agwa does not know the pain and suffering from Mungiki attackers, afterall he described them very well? How do you reach that conclusion? FahariMungiki exists because of policies and actions of the ruling elites of our country. Poverty is what has driven the youth into criminality. Michuki was finishing off the children and grand children of the mau mau veterans. Continuing where he left off with their grandmothers and grandfathers during the armed struggle for Kenya's liberation. That is one of the points that Agwa was making in his article. Why take such exception to that? Agwa need not present his academic credentials for his views to be valid. We don't all have to teach or attend at Harvard for our positions to be valid. I'm not knocking academic achievements, but you could be a Harvard graduate and still be dumber than dumb. One who comes to mind right away is George WBush. .
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Post by jakaswanga on Feb 26, 2012 1:03:41 GMT 3
[ There is a contrary opinion from a person we could call an authority click here Calestous Juma a professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School. What were Agwa’s credentials?? Agwas article is errant nonsense especially when he attempts to link the mungiki to the mau mau, the latter must be turning in their graves. The Mau Mau were fighting for liberty it was a selfless act and death was a certainty while the mungiki are petty criminals who kill, plunder and rape for selfish gain and the victims are poor peasants and petty traders. I take great exception for those who have never had to live under the yoke of mungiki extortion and brutality calling Michuki a mass murderer while conveniently ignoring the mass murders committed by the mungiki.It would have been prudent for him to get the victims of mungiki tell their side of the story before penning of his article. Agwa’s attitude and some on this forum is akin to condemning the killing of a serial rapist while totally ignoring the impact of the rapist actions on the life of his victims. The mungiki literally and figuratively raped entire communities in central province.There is the well known extortion racket where fees were demanded based on profession or production but the worst I heard, were the harrowing tales of men being ordered to go home and tell their wives to cook and “prepare to receive guests to night”, and the poor men had no choice but to obey. When these communities took matters into their own hands, as happened in the Kirinyaga killings, the NGO types came out guns blazing against “extra judicial killings” just as they were against Michuki /police action yet they were dead silent when the mungiki was wreaking havoc on these communities. Michuki acted in the best interests of victims and that trumps everything else period.Yo, Professor Calistous Juma, I am afraid one, Calestous Juma, is the latest Kenyan born professor to catch --to recall Kamalet's typology of his fellow correspondent at an earlier thread-- foot in mouth and go down with it. Michuki's career is one of the longest in civil service in Kenya. It needs ordering into time scales for evaluation. Juma does not even attempt a historical overview, to review how Michuki --his heroic implementer, acted at every crucial and historical moment in the 5 or more decades of Kenyan history he was in public life. And these have been indeed an eventful half a century. Calestous merely concentrates on his sunset years. This failure to segment and separately dissect the periods, so as to arrive at a comprehensive picture of the man Michuki, is a neglect unworthy of a scholar. [And if this matter is not his speciality, then he should not have used the title professor in such an article. For it raises the erroneos impression he is an authority!] Let me rub it even deeper unto this blurb-writing professor. Adolf Eichman, a Nazi captain and later General, was called the ultimate implementor. A logistician, a legendary organiser and stickler to discipline, he was recognized and made transport secretary. And boy did he not perform! He made sure no train carrying Jews ever delayed for even a minute on its route to the extermination camps! Even in the mids of allied bombardment, Eichman's trains ran. Railways were repaired commando style, and the ovens of Dachau and Auschwitz and the rest spewed smoke unto the air. The Shoa.This master implementer of policy is also faulted for barbarism, evil personality, an architect of human extermination. An evil genius. I expect a professor to be aware of how to 'historically evaluate' such a significant character in the history of Kenya as Michuki. Just like elsewhere other scholars do. [with Adolf Eichmann for instance] The brains of Professor Juma, parochially singing the praise songs of the greatest thug in the history Kenya's civil service, thus joins the [ash heap] or morgue, where lies the brains professors Ndung'u [CBK] Githu [AG] Saitoti [??] and the rest of the sub standard creatures of the Kibaki era!
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Post by b6k on Feb 26, 2012 8:41:12 GMT 3
I'm not knocking academic achievements, but you could be a Harvard graduate and still be dumber than dumb. One who comes to mind right away is George WBush. . Dubyah was a Yale man not a Harvard one. Kenya isn't the only country where power, money, & influence can assure you a bit of privilege when it comes to admissions. Kiraitu Murungi passed through Harvard but it didn't seem to polish him up much so your credential knocking is somewhat valid.
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Post by nowayhaha on Feb 26, 2012 12:07:31 GMT 3
www.nation.co.ke/News/Michuki+taught+me+the+need+for+consensus/-/1056/1334582/-/ql60oz/-/index.htmlDespite our differences, Michuki taught me the need for consensus By SALIM LONE Last month, an ambassador concerned about the imminent danger to a wildlife species sought I disagreeistance in seeking urgent help from Prime Minister Raila Odinga. I proposed going directly to Environment minister John Michuki instead, as that would get the quickest results. The ambassador was delighted with my suggestion and praised Mr Michuki’s superlative effectiveness. My instinctive recourse to Mr Michuki reflected the long distance I had travelled in my views of one of the most powerful Cabinet ministers from Central Kenya – and of my views on how to bring about change in our country. As a young adult slowly discovering the colonial history that our schools never taught, Mr Michuki had emerged as one of those Kenyans I wanted nothing to do with. That opinion was further cemented when I learned more about Mau Mau’s struggles and Murang’a politics from close friends Maina wa Kinyatti and the late Wang’ondu wa Kariuki, who supported J.J. Kamotho’s insurgent challenge against Mr Michuki and the repressive order they thought he represented. Children were playmates So later, when my children and Mr Michuki’s became friends at St Mary’s School and I would sometimes drop them at the minister’s well-guarded Ridgeways home, and even after the minister’s lovely daughter Ann married my close media colleague Mutahi Kagwe, I still did not try getting to know Mr Michuki. Share This Story Share His subsequent outstanding achievements as a minister could not negate from me his hardline role in the Standard raid, the Artur brothers saga and the extrajudicial killings of Mungiki suspects. There was also his astonishing but very candid proclamation in 2003 that the push for reforms had been meant to derail former president Moi, but with President Mwai Kibaki in power, there was no need to pursue change. My view of Mr Michuki changed dramatically in 2009, when we were both part of Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s delegation to the UN General Assembly in New York. I had pleasant exchanges with the minister once I became Mr Odinga’s spokesman in 2007, but in New York we were grouped together and ended up having a number of interesting conversations. It was an eye-opener. He was aware of my own history of fighting the system he represented so effectively, and I was very much a junior colleague to boot, but there was not a hint of disdain or lack of interest in hearing my opinions. But what amazed me was that I agreed with him on a number of crucial things, the most important of which was the need to talk honestly about what one believed in if we were to progress as a nation. I actually became very fond of him, and sought him out at any event we attended. I realised that despite his ideology, Mr Michuki was a Grand Old Man with his own dignity. He also possessed invaluable knowledge of a period of our liberation struggle that few on his side of the colonial divide have articulated. I once told him that his memoirs, along with Mr Charles Njonjo’s, would be eagerly sought in Kenya as both had kept their silence as witnesses and commanding actors in the making of our history. He responded with his inimitable mischievous glint which was totally non-committal, hovering between cynicism, disdain and approval! Is it possible he did have a manuscript in the works? John Michuki played a significant role in my view of how national progress must be constructed. Despite my strong views, I am by nature a consensus-seeker. As ODM spokesman for the constitutional referendum campaign in 2005, I got to know many of those who are no longer in the Raila-led ODM - Musyoka Kalonzo, Uhuru Kenyatta, Mutula Kilonzo, Najib Balala and William Ruto, to mention a few. From being able to talk honestly with someone as distant from my life-long convictions as Mr Michuki, I am convinced that uncompromising crusaders for people’s rights and the rule of law must combine their zeal for justice with a strategy for negotiation and principled compromise in order to achieve results. The definition of potential reformers must also be made more elastic in order to include more in the reform net to more effectively exclude those committed to restricting wealth and power to a smaller elite. The way to such a conviction is more easily made when we recognise that however divergent our political views, we are all human and need to live together as Kenyans. We must never allow the political to trump the human. Share This Story Share Despite its many weaknesses, this cooperation is an invaluable contribution that our coalition government has made to making Kenya a less divided nation, reducing tensions while empowering centrist rather than extremist policies. That is how our Constitution came to be passed. Mr Michuki was a strategist in creating deep national divisions before independence and through his role in establishing Kikuyu pre-eminence under Kenyatta. His presence and power in Cabinet was proof of how little Central Kenya leadership had changed structurally since Kenyatta’s time. But Michuki was also a brilliant business pioneer who played a historic role in wresting economic control from non-citizens. The legacy he leaves must be centred around the constant need for intense dialogue among all the powerful forces in Kenya. The writer is a former spokesman at the PM’s office
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Post by kamalet on Feb 26, 2012 12:26:43 GMT 3
Everytime I hear people talk about "extrajudicial killings" of the mungiki under the alleged hand of Michuki, I stop and wonder why these people wail louder than the bereaved.
I am yet to hear the people of Murang'a complain about extrajudicial killings. But I hear some activists shout louder than the mothers and fathers of the dead in Muranga or in Nairobi. The violence, extortion brought upon the gikuyu people by Mungiki makes it understandable the noise about the killed thugs is muted. No once can claim that the parents of the dead thugs have been silenced by the system.
All I know is that through the heavy crackdown, the mungiki menace was tamed though not eliminated. Mungiki has been sufficiently discussed in these forums so no reason to repeat these.
I look at the other achievements of Michuki and that is streamlining the matatu industry under his tenure. Adongo questions the failure of this government initiative, but refuses to recognise the way things work in Kenya - the enforcement process needs to be sustained until it is entrenched. This never came to be thanks to none other than Murungaru who led to the transfer of Michuki to OOP.
Michuki's tenure at Environment can be fully remembered for his dedicated effort to clean up Nairobi river and the proof does exist. I am aware that one of his disappointments was the failure to secure Mau Forest water towers and that is thanks to politicking than anything else. Many Kenyans know where to point when it comes to the Mau saga and sadly our Mr Task Force has done zilch in the last 4 years of the saga.
I do not think that Michuki did all the good acts to atone for his past - it was just anothr job he had and took - I believe all he wanted was to make Kenya a better place and for that I am grateful!
I wish I could say the same for some of our politicians today who may not have been employees of the colonial powers!
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