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Post by Onyango Oloo on Apr 4, 2013 15:35:32 GMT 3
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Post by mugabe on Apr 4, 2013 16:45:37 GMT 3
OO
A very interesting post. I am particularly fascinated by the topic of devolution having worked for the CKRC in the run-up to the 2005 referendum and interacted closely with a leading expert on the issue Commissioner Mutakha Kangu. I agree fully that the issue of devolution is seen through the prism of tribe. Those in power are not keen on devolution as much as those outside it. Karl Marx observed that history repeats itself twice, the first time as a tragedy the second time as a farce. I fear that once again devolution which is geared towards fair sharing of resources will be jettisoned as it was at independence and replaced by it is our turn to eat by the few in power. This is the issue of tribalism we knew this people would not implement the constitution but we voted for them anyway. What mattered was saying to hell with 'raira' more than the future of the country.
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Post by podp on Apr 4, 2013 17:44:04 GMT 3
probably this is not the best headline when one reads the contents. why do I say so?
The National and County Question or simply The National Question would have done as devolution is not only a Jubilee affair however much they may be current pretenders to the throne.
in practically every devolution experience, this contradiction haunts the process. at times, it leads to vacillations in devolution, as in Pakistan and Uganda; in others, this limits the level of devolution, as in China. while many countries, such as the United States, started with a set of states and then built a central government through a federal system, Kenya starts from a highly centralized system, then seeks to build up the local level. this form of devolution therefore relies on a contradiction because the center must willingly give up power to the local level.
and therein should lie the hypothesis question of your digital essay, if you are to permit me to critic it.
now if you equate central with what we knew as Mt. Kenya Mafia and much earlies as Kiambu Mafia then you can justify Jubilee and the National Question.
let me assume central is same as National and that the devolved units are the 47 Counties, so that we have The National and County Question. my take then would borrow heavily from the report done by World Bank and Australian government titled DEVOLUTION WITHOUT DISRUPTION Pathways to a successful new Kenya.
in it we note that in the 1990s the push for devolution started in earnest when it was clear that multiparty democracy was not yielding desired changes. The most notable were the Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF) created through the LATF Act No 8 of 1998; the Road Maintenance Levy Fund, (RMLF) created through the Kenya Roads Act, 2007; the Rural Electrification Fund, created through the Energy Act of 2006; and, the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), created through the CDF Act of 2003. Despite these piecemeal efforts to address inequality in resource distribution, political tensions remained high and continued to fuel demands for more local autonomy.
the coalition government that came to being after the 2007 election was finally able to present a new constitutional draft, which was approved in 2010, with devolution at its core, as well as numerous checks and balances in the national government. this Constitution was approved by 67 percent of voters in a referendum, and officially promulgated on 27 August 2010. the Constitution establishes forty-seven county governments, which are based on the districts established by the Provinces and Districts Act of 1992. the guarantee of 15 percent of national revenues to be transferred to county governments on a purely unconditional basis, and the assignment of such major state functions in the areas of health and agriculture to county governments, go far beyond the historical precedent.
take for instance the Urban Areas and Cities Act. the current system of local authorities ceased to exist, and only urban areas with over 250,000 inhabitants will have corporate bodies to manage urban services. only five urban areas currently meet this threshold. in other urban areas with less than 250,000 residents, the executive responsibilities of local authorities will pass to County governments, although a town committee will be advising it. in both cases, County governments will be responsible for financing urban service delivery. effectively, the Urban Areas and Cities Act recentralizes urban service delivery for most urban areas; from local authorities to County governments. how are we to deal with such contradictions?
returning to the other possible hypothesis i.e. Jubilee and the National Question then one could start by reminding the Jubilants who were red carding the current Constitution and the watermelons that devolution featured prominently in voters’ decision to support the new Constitution, and this support will play a key role in the roll out of the county governments.
from the above one can say Governor Ruto meant Central as in Mt. Kenya/Kiambu Mafia is one government and the remaining 47 Counties are the other governments.
different interpretations of Schedule 4 of the Constitution lead to vastly different functions for County governments, with huge cost implications. while legislation will clarify some of these ambiguities, the process of devolution will show that other ambiguities remain. many officials, in this context of ambiguity, will seek to protect their authority (partly out of genuine concern for service delivery continuity and quality), and conflicts could arise in the process between these officials and others who feel that their constitutionally mandated responsibilities (and associated funding) are being denied.
for instance, the new Constitution does not directly address the problematic role of Provincial Administration vis-a-vis the new County governments, and instead, Article 17 stipulates that the national government has five years to restructure it “to accord with and respect the system of devolved government established under this Constitution.” the The National Government Co-ordination Act, 2013 cleverly (and one can add mischievously) sneaked in County Commissioners, their deputies and allows the Office of the President to add (load) more administrators to the County governments.
County governments lack a clear interest group which may represent them vis-a-vis other competing interests. in most decentralization processes, the decentralization process is to a local government that has been functioning previously; as such, the local governments have an established political and administrative leadership, who is eager to receive resources and responsibilities. Kenya is a quite unique case, in that there are few local actors who represent such a direct local interest. herein lies the exclamation of Governor Ruto that PS Karega was lording over them yet he is a tool of the National executive. if one stretches Central to mean Mt. Kenya/Kiambu Mafia then PS Karega represents the 48th Central government after the 47 County governments.
the political elite actually exploit the fact of Kenyan different ethnic identities to forward their political agendas and hence Governor Ruto can easily continue from where RAO left with the 41 against 1 in 2007.
it would be nice to know which hypothesis you intend so that ambiguity is reduced in this times of double speak.
taking The National and County Question or simply The National Question then the clear goal we can discuss is Equity which is a core objective of the new Constitution and devolution is seen as the main vehicle to achieve equalization.
however when you have Jubilee and the National Question clearly Equity is not important as Capital requires a pool or reserve of cheap labor. equalization cannot be its aim as it is the very antithesis of capital.
when clearer it would be easier to know where to aim at and build on or demolish, but ....
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Apr 4, 2013 20:40:47 GMT 3
Mugabe and PODP:
Thank you very much for your interventions.
I very much enjoyed reading them.
On the issue of the title of the essay, this is what I have to say:
Jubilee is effectively the coalition in power.
Yes, we have one government with two levels-the national and the county ones.
But on both counts, Jubilee is dominant: they won the Presidency; they dominate the National Assembly and the Senate and have secured control of many County governments.
The March 4 elections were supposed to usher in a new constitutional dispensation.
Jubilee is saddled with the political, historical, administrative and bureaucratic task of implementing not just the structures, but imbue these with the spirit of the 2010 Constitution.
Will they be up to the task, is one of the questions I am posing in the essay.
As regards the terms " National Question", Marxists use it in a peculiarly unique ideological way as I have endeavoured to put across in my piece using historical examples. Many of the issues grouped under devolution touch on the National Question.
If I were to explain myself further, I would be on my way to completing another digital.
And I do not think that is prudent.
One of my friends likes to say that IF you have to "explain" why a particular joke is "funny" then it has already failed to meet and pass the "laugh" test.
Onyango Oloo
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Apr 4, 2013 20:54:38 GMT 3
The Twitter Multiplier Effect in Action:
Onyango Oloo,
Your Tweet was retweeted! @onyangooloo Jubilee and the National Question:jukwaa.proboards.com/index.cgi?boar… 12:57 PM - 04 Apr 13
Retweeted by Chinta Musundi @kenya_politico To 4785 followers.
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Apr 4, 2013 21:37:23 GMT 3
From the blog-
Gacheke Gachihi said...
Great Comrade Oloo, the digital will be continued in my struggle to clarify the national question.
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Post by podp on Apr 4, 2013 23:42:33 GMT 3
Mugabe and PODP:
Jubilee is effectively the coalition in power. Yes we have one government with two levels-the national and the county ones. But on both counts, Jubilee is dominant: they won the Presidency; they dominate the National Assembly and the Senate and have secured control of many County governments. The March 4 elections were supposed to usher in a new constitutional dispensation. Jubilee is saddled with the political, historical, administrative and bureaucratic task of implementing not just the structures, but imbue them with the spirit of the 2010 Constitution. Will they be up to the task, is one of the questions I am posing in the essay.
Onyango Oloofrom your elaboration the hypothesis is.... The first steps by the Jubilee Coalition in their quest to assume power have confirmed our worst fears, that Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto are two politicians who lack nationalism and are out to build a government of two communities. www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000080516&story_title=Kenya-Election-of-Senate-and-Parliament-speakers-has-cast-Jubilee-in-bad-lightthe Economic Report for Africa 2013, with the theme Making the Most of Africa’s Commodities: Industrializing for Growth, Jobs and Economic Transformation is the best starting point on the above 1st red high lights key challenge, for Kenya and indeed Africa is how we can pursue more effective policies to accelerate and sustain high growth and make that growth more inclusive and equitable. African countries must use this global interest as springboard to achieving broad structural transformation based on the needs and priorities of Africans. in East Africa, growth slipped to 5.6 per cent in 2012 from 6.3 per cent in 2011, although most countries performed well in 2012, marking a recovery in agriculture, vibrant domestic demand and expansion in services. Kenya’s growth rose to 4.8 per cent in 2012 from 4.4 per cent, aided by robust domestic demand, strong services, increased government expenditure and sound monetary policies. so, how can Kenya in particular and Africa in general avoid marginalizing itself from the world economy and achieve inclusive economic growth? one can, argues that one answer lies in effective industrial policies and commodity-based industrialization, strengthening industrial linkages to the commodity sector. beyond improving its trade and finance, Kenya in particular and Africa in general needs to provide job opportunities to a large and growing young population. these should be decent jobs, which it can achieve by enhancing productivity and competitiveness, strengthening domestic demand, diversifying into higher value added tradable goods and services, strengthening social capabilities, reforming labour market institutions and transforming social protection. both national and county governments will succeed by having industrial policies designed for unskilled labour–intensive sectors, such as light manufacturing, what we call jua kali. this is supported by arguments that resource-processing industries are generally capital or skills intensive, or both. it has been estimated that manufacturing industries employ on average 26 per cent more labour per unit of output than resource-based manufacturing. resource processing would therefore require two factors of production fairly scarce in most county governments—capital and skilled labour. this would be a great opportunity to cash on national government set up public universities and accompanying diploma and certificate colleges. for example in 2010, the world’s largest exporter of tea was Kenya, which ranked third in global tea production (10 per cent). it remains confined to exporting bulk tea and adds little value through, for example, packaging, blending, manufacturing ready-to-drink beverages or niche marketing, unlike Sri Lanka we can learn from India and hence have county and national government doing what India did. after independence, India extended its control over tea production and marketing by relocating tea auction centres to the country and partly shifting plantation ownership to Indian companies. Tata Tea started as a joint venture with a British plantation, but was later under total control of the Tata Group. after investing in tea production, the company soon moved into packaging and instant tea manufacturing. Tata consolidated its presence in the domestic market and exported to ex-communist countries and regional markets, as well as expanding production into Sri Lanka. for the 2nd red high light the Transition Authority (TA) chairman, one Wamwangi is a walking disaster in waiting. the TA has been established under the Transition to Devolved Government (TTDG) Act, to facilitate and coordinate the transition. to do this effectively, the TA needs to be properly resourced to carry out its functions. funds need to be provided immediately for them to set up internal operations, including staff and infrastructure. staff will be needed at the national level as well as in the counties, where tasks such as taking stock of assets and liabilities will be intensive. the Transition Authority will also need power and authority to compel national ministries to follow its directives with regards to function assignment. but the one man show of Wamwangi does dot reflect the above. the fact that TA Chairman could issue a directive and the Government spokesman rubbishes it shows you where power is TA's window of opportunity for a thorough and transparent function assignment process to start closed; the added constraint being that Parliament will be dissolved 60 days before the elections. given the short time frame, and in order to be effective, the TA should use the resources and work through institutions such as the Commission for Revenue Allocation, Kenya Institute of for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) and the now dissolved Task Force on Devolved Government (TFDG), but from what hears and sees the TA chairman is a one man show not ready to trust anyone from outside Gema communities. Kenya’s devolution follows international practice when it comes to the intergovernmental division of responsibilities. the functions assigned to the national level relate mainly to policy and standard setting, and the provision of public goods such as national security and macroeconomic policy. on the other hand, county level functions are mainly focused on policy implementation and local service delivery such as primary health care, urban service delivery, trade licensing and crop husbandry. what happens when misunderstandings occur as we witnessed PORK talking of unitary government while Governor Ruto sees 48 governments, with central being one and 47 counties being the other? one way to resolve these outstanding questions is through a well-structured, inclusive process of assigning functions according to a common set of principles. a process of clarifying function assignments has two dimensions: (i) the analytical process of unbundling functions to their constituent components (activities); and, (ii) the principles or criteria that guide decisions about where to allocate activities when the Constitution is not clear about which level of government is responsible. the consultative process through which these decisions are made is also important hence it is not helping when central government guys (Ag Githu tries to rephrase PORKS statement; Wamwangi rushes to Githae to have Treasury release funds to the Governors; Cheserem of CRA protests that county governments should have been allocated 30 billion and not the 9 billion PS Kinyua has released). devolution will succeed or fail through service delivery. international best practice shows that successful devolution requires a framework outlining a well defined and consultative process for formulating and defining functions. if how outgoing PORK addressed the Governors yesterday is the way the ICC indicted PORK will address them your guess is as good as mine as concerns how devolution will succeed or fail through service delivery. the Transition Authority will also need power and authority to compel national ministries to follow its directives with regards to function assignment. although the TTDG Act section 8(1) indicates that the TA will have “all powers necessary for the proper performance of its functions”, this does not necessarily give it the teeth it needs. from what we have seen so far is Wamwangi the one man show and chairman of TA able to bite?
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Apr 5, 2013 6:38:01 GMT 3
PODP:
You have deepened the discussion to another dimension.
I think all of us would truly profit by reading and re-reading your nuggets of wisdom above.
Very much appreciated.
Onyango Oloo
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Apr 5, 2013 7:38:47 GMT 3
Refresh and reload. The essay has been cleaned up and updated.
OO
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Post by jakaswanga on Apr 5, 2013 19:47:53 GMT 3
PODP:You have deepened the discussion to another dimension. I think all of us would truly profit by reading and re-reading your nuggets of wisdom above. Very much appreciated. Onyango Oloo I will leave Podp for the moment. I asked a friend of mine for a second reading. Unfortunately his head spun off the rails too, so looks like I will stop my habitual weekend binge spree, that with clear head I nib at Podp's nuggets to reasonable metabolic results of the mind. But on an earlier note: Understanding the historical evolution of the Kenyan state into a centralised monster remains a key clue to her destiny. At one time the KANU state even banned by law, the gathering of 5 or more people in the republic, while the average family dinner was statistically an 8 seater. This was a pathological level of central control, an obsession that needed a clear political explanation. There was thus need for total control of the population, to control their minds to have only sanctioned thoughts, and the rulers were fomenting in pathological paranoia, in which they were forced to criminalise normal family life! Yes indeed, sedition would be the talk on the family table! So why all these? A government, essentially being the custodian of an economic order, these kind of repression is what the ideological mandarins thought necessary to ensure the continuity of the economic order they practiced. And truly they were bankrupt of ideas. But what economic order was that forcing them into this madness? Primitive accumulation. Capitalist primitive accumulation I would say. For the select breed in control of the state, and those orbiting in their constellation. I thus see Devolution as an attempt to deconstruct this trend. To diffuse the tensions antagonisms that would lead to the explosion of the centralised, monopolist monster. Devolution is essentially a safety valve. It buys time. That does not necessarily mean with the people as beneficiaries. It could simply mean the intra-class warfare within the comprador bourgeoisie, often pitting factions of tribal coalitions in desperate formations, continues by other means in other settings, but the class perpetuates itself. Having gained a new lease of life by decentralising the tensions. That is devolution as a gimmick to hoodwink those expropriated without relief, those lower ranks without the possibility of a class upgrade [--the opportunity to be upward mobile and join the nyapara looting class]. There is therefore, I think a double bottom to the current contradiction between the county governors and the central state. 1. The inter-class war-fare we have talked about, and which Oloo highlighted in his digital. 2.The dynamic of democratisation to include hitherto marginalised sectors. In number 2, democratisation is not so much defined as freedom in the sense of voting, but more in the sense of a chance to set priorities in ones locality, and oversee them. The people taking their fate into own hands as it were. This, of course is a possibility where the whole petit bourgeoisie class will instinctively gang against, until a third force emerges, and forces them to acknowledge it as a way out of the class stalemate and national impasse.The national impasse which already has seen the dilution of the promulgated constitution by treacherous bills agreed by the GCG cabinet; the impasse which has already seen the Supreme court become part of the fray and no longer aloft as a credible arbiter to all sides; the impasse which reveals that even a body like the IEBC charged with elections, is inadequate as an organisational form given the contradictions of the country: a raft as an organisational institute to sail a dam, is okay, but to sail the high seas, it is inadequate and doomed. ---Isack and his IEBC cohorts are crew of a raft atop the angry and turbulent politics of Kenya, trying to tame the storms by witchcraft! Lost before they left the shore. I consider the dysfunctional relationship between Raila and Kibaki in the GCG too, as a symptom emanating from the i nadequacy of the apparatus forged to navigate the radical situation. The radical situation of violent political conflict, issuing from real grievance on the ground. The GCG as an instrument of resolution, a hopelessly weak response. It is with this --thesis of inadequate institutional structures and organisationaly inferior coping mechanisms-- that leads me to think of the Uhuruto union as inherently unstable.As Oloo now points out, they have lurched into their first crisis. I ask What conflict resolution modality will they unveil?That will be the eye opener. Of their ideological caliber. Kibaki can afford impunity: nonsense and pumbavu, he dismisses the dissenters. But he is going home, and wont be dealing with the real fall-outs. With Raila waiting for a chance to be mischievous to boot.
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Post by podp on Apr 5, 2013 22:32:29 GMT 3
So why all these?
A government, essentially being the custodian of an economic order, these kind of repression is what the ideological mandarins thought necessary to ensure the continuity of the economic order they practiced. And truly they were bankrupt of ideas.
But what economic order was that forcing them into this madness? Primitive accumulation. Capitalist primitive accumulation I would say. For the select breed in control of the state, and those orbiting in their constellation.
I thus see Devolution as an attempt to deconstruct this trend. To diffuse the tensions antagonisms that would lead to the explosion of the centralised, monopolist monster. Devolution is essentially a safety valve. It buys time.
That does not necessarily mean with the people as beneficiaries. It could simply mean the intra-class warfare within the comprador bourgeoisie, often pitting factions of tribal coalitions in desperate formations, continues by other means in other settings, but the class perpetuates itself. Having gained a new lease of life by decentralising the tensions.
That is devolution as a gimmick to hoodwink those expropriated without relief, those lower ranks without the possibility of a class upgrade[/i] [-- the opportunity to be upward mobile and join the nyapara looting class]. There is therefore, I think a double bottom to the current contradiction between the county governors and the central state. 1. The inter-class war-fare we have talked about, and which Oloo highlighted in his digital. 2.The dynamic of democratisation to include hitherto marginalised sectors. I consider the dysfunctional relationship between Raila and Kibaki in the GCG too, as a symptom emanating from the i nadequacy of the apparatus forged to navigate the radical situation. The radical situation of violent political conflict, issuing from real grievance on the ground. The GCG as an instrument of resolution, a hopelessly weak response. [/quote] it's a strategic mistake to flatten the politics of all other actors into a single exploitative neoliberalism, that, at most 'talks left, walks right' as we have seen with our ‘reformers ‘(RAO-Ka Loser axis). let me use Patrick Bond, known in radical circles as a political economist, and has written "Looting Africa" to summarize how global capital and its comprador elites within Africa have systematically plundered and ruined the continent before and after independence. in Looting Africa, Patrick Bond basically updates Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. unlike Rodney’s ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’, Bond’s ‘Looting Africa: The Economics of Exploitation ‘ in a nutshell says capitalism in most African countries has witnessed the emergence of excessively powerful ruling elites with incomes derived from financial-parasitical accumulation. initially it appears Rodney and Bond shows how the EU loots Africa. the European Commission admitted that 70% of the EU's aid-for-trade programme was `support for the private sector'. the EU imposes trade liberalization and privatization, stripping Africa of what little industry it has. trade liberalization has cost sub-Saharan Africa $272 billion since 1986, because local producers now sell less than they did before trade was liberalized. in 2005, the G8 wrote off about 1% of Third world debt, $40 billion. third world debt, $580 billion in 1980, had soared to $2.4 trillion in 2002. since 1980, the Third World's working classes have paid $4.6 trillion - the equivalent of 50 Marshall Plans - to the First World's capitalists. Bond is somewhat vacillating and vague about possible solutions though, fixing some hope on radical NGOs and World Social Forums, but without explaining anything much in detail. it is also a pity that immigration from Africa to elsewhere, in particular Europe, is not addressed in the book. labor migration is a key resource loss. 20,000 skilled workers leave Africa every year. Bond shows that the remittances sent home do not compensate for the loss of the skilled labor. yet he then writes, "The progressive position on migration has always been to maintain support for the `globalization of people' (while opposing the `globalization of capital') and in the process to oppose border controls and arduous immigration restrictions." this position is self-contradictory, both supporting and opposing `globalization', i.e. capitalism. further, the evidence shows that unlimited migration weakens the working classes in the countries that lose the skilled labor and in the countries that receive it. combine this with the massive theft of African production by local dictators and foreign multinationals, the extreme monoculture production of many African nations, and the unfair trade practices in agriculture on the part of Western nations (in particular the EU), and you have a recipe for disaster. China's recent involvement in Africa is portrayed no more sympathetically. China cuts deals with exploitative rulers and uses Chinese workers on projects like oil refineries. Bond also emphasizes the collaboration of African elites in the neoliberal plunder--South Africa economically exploits its neighbors, while NEPAD locks Africa into neoliberalism. what is Bond's solution? he approvingly cites a vast array of NGOs, charities, campaigns, initiatives, solidarity groups, web resources, networks, forums and projects - which are splinter groups of activists, all single-issue, all tunnel-vision. these are a mirror image of the ruling class's institutions - IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization, G8 Summits and World Summits (18 between 2001 and 2005). the ultra-left, like the ruling class, focuses on internationalism, turning away from the hard work of developing class struggles for national sovereignty and progress. so one of the reasons we need to stop looking at RAO and ilk for a way out is because www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/The-Left-in-Kenyan-politics-not-only-lost-polls/-/440808/1739554/-/item/1/-/w2uue4/-/index.html‘The Left in Kenya no longer opposes the neo-colonial state, it is part of the neo-colonial state; the Kenyan Left does not fight imperialism and exploitation of poor nations, it is part of the comprador and works to facilitate that exploitation; the Kenyan Left no longer questions neo-liberalism and what traditional Leftists would regard as the instruments of international subjugation such as the IMF, WTO, the World Bank, the ICC and so on, they are instruments of these institutions; the Kenyan Left is not fighting to lead the people to freedom but rather deeper into the dark embrace of imperial slavery; the Kenyan Left has new heroes and they are not Mao Tse-tung or Thomas Sankara, it is Johnnie Carson, or the French ambassador or the British and Dutch ambassador and Western journalists with more prejudice than genuine understanding of Africa. The Left has learnt all the bad manners of the old establishment: Primitive accumulation, electoral dishonesty, nepotism and moral ambivalence, intellectual debauchery and brutality. The Left didn’t just lose an election; it lost its reason to exist.’ so back to the topic Jubilee and the National Question. how does one reconcile one's future with ICC indicted PORK to be and his deputy PORK also an indictee? please do not take us back to RAO as at most 'talks left, walks right'
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Apr 6, 2013 20:08:00 GMT 3
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Post by jakaswanga on Aug 24, 2014 11:59:59 GMT 3
REFERENDUM: WILLIAM RUTO WORKS SOME MAGIC, BUT THERE IS ANOTHER RUTTOFirst, a disclaimer: I am not entirely sure this post passes in this thread, but i reckon here is where the CLEAVAGES between the national and the regional as it would tend to plague in Chupilee with respect to financial devolution was first hinted at. So I will shoot. Jubilee's Uhuruto was visibly shaken when their own horde of governors came up with a referendum idea of their own, and a national momentum gathered to unite it with other one of CORD championed by the bogeyman Raila Odinga, to which the likes of Peter Kenneth and Martha Karua had hooked rides. In panic, it was amazing to see the desperate empty-headedness of the Jubilee think-tanks in action. One of the loony ideas they came up with to neutralise Raila was to insert a would-be specific RAILA AGE-CAP CLAUSE. And it was publicly announced too --yawa! It eventually sunk into the minds of even the sheepy-est of these sleeping creeps we call Mpigs, that a referendum wholly bent toward BLOCKING RAILA was as good as a public admission that the elections were rigged in 2013 too to block a Raila presidency. And this was a quixotic toying with a political bomb not yet wholly diffused in the national psyche. Jubilee strategists had to go back to their boardrooms. And do more expensive thinking than drinking. Obviously their Governors had to be persuaded to abandon the referendum bandwagon. His Royal Highness the Muthamaki himself was hauled out. And when you use your biggest gun to persuade your own troops, you are problems, some will recognise. ''O your Highness, the Tyrant of Numbers, we have a problem sir!'' pleaded the Luo :Dpin-up boy Onyango Oloo. He is brainy alright, but his historical role sometimes makes him more of a toy: a deer tolerated in a cannibal's den. A series of know-your-place meetings were quickly arranged. Succumbing to pressure from President. Thinking of the President as a powerful man …. and keeper of their fortunes … Some were quick on the take, others had reluctant souls. More about that later. But in the beginning, not everybody in Jubilee was on board the drop the referendum chorus. This obvious TNA/URP split was too glaring a canyon. It could not be let exist. William Ruto with characteristic vigour, did his all behind the scenes to have the URP fellas suck up to TNA. And the results are evident, most of the URP governors are now reluctantly denouncing the referendum. The chairman of the caucus of governors, Isaac Rutto, a URP heavyweight who is behind the referendum, looks isolated now in the internal politics of the said party and region. But may be his safety valve is that he is a man on the ground, and the grassroots may be singing a different tune from the one dictated from far-off Nairobi with her court intrigues. www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/?articleID=2000132223&story_title=More-governors-reject-push-for-referendum A Ruto versus Rutto it becomes, unless the one with two Ts throws in the towel too! continued shortly.
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Post by jakaswanga on Aug 24, 2014 13:13:43 GMT 3
continued --but may be better suited for Jukwaa watch Uhuru KenyattaFirst we had the NDP [new democratic party] candidate Kiare Kamere abdicating from the Gatundu south constituency race. He, Kamere, did not want to embarrass the President who comes from this constituency. As far excuses go in political practice, this is one of the lowest points. There is always the other honourable side too, which can be summarised like this: let the people O_odecide. Between denying the people of that constituency their right to choice, and embarrassing the president, the healthier alternative is self-explanatory. –-Self explanatory, if you are engaged in a rational environment, where they do not rig elections for instance. Kenyan politics may not be the place to search for such a head-using option. We are a young nation, of tender structures, like weak heads may be. The problem now for Uhuru Kenyatta, is that this ''embarassment'' could be interpreted as having been the inevitable defeat of the TNA candidate, the hate-monger Kamau Kuria. Without this act of ''induced'' magnanimity from Kamere, Uhuru's party would loose his former seat in his birth turf. (May be as a fall-out from the ODM-like nomination process.) So, what were the terms of the abdication? The buy-off premium that saved the prezzo's face? Strong arm tactics? Guaranteed chicanery like we already saw at the TNA nominational phase? We will get to know in due course ... like the other time on how the Mpig who sponsored the motion to impeach Anne Waiguru dissappeared (to South Africa?) on the eve of moving the vote! --Genya! Meanwhile we can muse the tyranny of numbers is that tenuous even closer to home. It remains a dangerous premise to base any solid policy. It needs an invisible hand behind the scenes to prop it up. AND THAT INVISIBLE HAND has been kept busy, you know, like a fire brigade in a burning city. Like in the rush to quit the referendum horse. www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000132453/why-tna-governors-abandoned-push-for-national-referendum?articleID=2000132453&story_title=why-tna-governors-abandoned-push-for-national-referendum&pageNo=2 Threatened to make life difficult? We call that intimidation, leading to a mind change under duress. It is the kind of thing that makes a sworn statement be invalid in court. But to call a spade a spade that you have to think a bit about what you see! Performing those two tasks is not easy, so let us go with the official version of events. Mellowed like your lover in your willing arms, highly agreeable to the next course of events, our respective governors during this meeting. Tetu Mpig Ndung'u Gethenji is tired of sideshows. He serves the truth cold: ' they had dropped the push since they had to be in line with the party leader President Uhuru Kenyatta,” Kabogo of Kiambu needs a sugar coat. He searched souls first. Take a look. That is my man, Kabogo. My soul too occasionally gets lost –looking too long at the curves of other peoples wives for instance, before a search of souls brings me home, like the dog on a leash I am. Since I wear that ring of bondage, which demands fidelity. Some will know how much of a struggle it is keeping such vows of loyalty. Kabogo of Kiambu is not alone. But he should be ware to be a doubting Thomas in a Muthamaki court even if the heart can be acknowledgebabley, humanly weak. No autonomy of souls in power games. His earlier voracious dalliance with the referendum movement led to panic in his home party. The result was that we had a flurry of panicky activities behind the scenes, to have ALL the Jubilee affiliated governors boycott the referendum. There was already the ugly risk earlier, when the first boycott wave counted only TNA governors, meaning URP fellas were still on the referendum. Thanx to the Samoei, that now appears sorted.
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Post by jakaswanga on Sept 24, 2014 23:05:47 GMT 3
EVERYBODY AND THE NATIONAL QUESTIONIn my opinion, all these wears and tears we are witnessing on the surface as intra-, extra-, and interparty bickering, can be filed under the national question, as in the forensic digital by Onyango Oloo. But it is not just jubilee wrestling with the national question, it is a general crisis of politics Kenya. Here is an example of an ugly ripple from Nandi county, the heartland of the Deputy President's URP.www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/URP-ODM-Nandi-Nakuru-Violence-Anyang-Nyongo/-/1064/2463226/-/rq29c7/-/index.html There is strife within URP at home; and there is in Nakuru a concerted attempt by the governor Mbugua to ban the other referendum. There are two referenda in the offing actually. One under the organisation of the opposition party CORD, the other, dubbed pesa mashinani, is being pushed by the caucus of governors. But there is not consensus within any group. Even in the President's TNA, the silence is an uneasy calm. NB: In this pesa mashinani and the ODM one, I will notice LAND is not centre stage. Money is. But I have no doubt when circumstances conspire to merge the land controversy to the money controversy, the forces ignited will be more dynamic and ebullient. But to day I wanted to delve a bit into a recent suggestion by prof. Anyang' Nyong'o, the acting SG of the opposition party ODM. He proposed a rotating presidency for Kenya. (The presidency, that sounds like another cross-party national question!) Here is Nyong'o: www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000135616/adopt-rotational-presidency-and-limit-prospects-of-conflict-in-kenya?articleID=2000135616&story_title=adopt-rotational-presidency-and-limit-prospects-of-conflict-in-kenya&pageNo=2 We could say this is Anyang' Nyong'o on the national question, sub topic state office of the presidency. I think the underlying assumption of Nyong'o here, is the maintenance of the presidency as a powerful instrument of patronage, a bastion of accumulation. That is, patron at whose auspices massive graft is indulged and largesse dispensed to the advantage of his constituency [eg ethnic coterie], coalitional hangers-on and sycophants. Rotation then would strive to solve the fierce competition which can be summarised as the mentality of ''it is our turn to eat''. (This being the overriding voter motivation, aka ethnicism). The protocol of rotation then strives to make sure everybody ( ) gets his turn at looting the treasury. But before the pre-programmed wheel of fortune stops by, your region maintains a discipline quiet in the queue. I find this an amusing proposition. Nyong'o says his take is the Mexican one he saw during the long one-party rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party of Mexico. Personally I would rather a total demystification of the presidency. A stripping. That is the reduction of its influence, cutting it down to size. This means a proliferation of independent merit institutions which out rule presidential appointments –-patronage, clientelism and rewarding of cronies. Some will remember the days when Universities were headed by a Vice Chancellor, why? Because the title chancellor was reserved for the President of the republic! (that is simply for the mystique, to inflate the rating of the office of President. Modernity would dictate the presidency have no business whatsoever being the chancellor! –-what for in god's fwaking name! Oops! Our universities are still headed on the spot by VICE chancellors! –-children of daddy Prezzo!) And think about the title His Excellency. Does it not ring a joke, calling any African Mpig honourable, and president excellent. (Take a look at how their excellencies are handling the Ebola crisis in West Africa!) AN OLD TALE, LIKE OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES. This business now called Mashinani versus the central government –-as an aspect of devolution, is an echo of Majimboism. The same fundamental contradiction re-appearing in a new guise. But cut through the facial mask, reveal the old harlot. Arap Moi, if I remember correctly, was not always KANU. He started off as KADU. And what was KADU ideology? One myth was, it was a colonial orchestration to throw a spanner in the wheels of the popular KANU. Her psychological constituency was the paranoia of the smaller tribes, that unless they banded together and sought a looser, much more federal Kenya, the bigger tribes would swamp them and, forever, they would be under the Gikuyu-Luo axis of hegemony. The Scottish governor scaremongered people like Ronald Ngala with a prospective voucher of the presidency of Kenya for the next half a century. It went: Kenyatta, 10 yrs. Odinga, 10 yrs. Kiano, 10 years Mboya, 10 yrs Mboya hands over to another Kikuyu, the Kikuyu runs his decade and passes the button back to a Luo! AD-INFINITUM!Totally awful nonsense of course, but in 1963 KANU was a bastion of Gikuyu and Luo super political talents. It made some lesser ethnic groups very nervous. But wonder of wonder, it would be KANU which would get most nervous eventually, and gun for the ONE PARTY STATE. In a flash of insight, it became clear to the new power constellation within KANU, that if the multi-party system endured, next election Majimboism would win. My father when I engaged him as I often did, told me what he remembered. It was a quote from a man named Wasonga Sijeyo from the Gem of Siaya. The drive toward one-partysm looked stupid to Sijeyo. He said in dholuo: ''Koro iriwo ondiegi gi rombe e abila achiel. Donge biro hadhre ndi! to ot olor kuma ji ditonyie onge. Gini biro thung'o ng'uechji kaka od ang'ech! Thoo, Ooyo!!'' –--Hyenas and sheep are all being herded into one pen/kraal. Predators will run amok in an enclosure without an escape route. This thing will suffocate us, like jails do! Nay, away with it!'' That was Sijeyo's visionary denunciation of the drive toward the UNITY of the one-party state in 1963 or so. So when hardly two years later Jaramogi had had enough of the joint kraal of predators and prey and was launching KPU, Sijeyo would be one of the first out, though he would annoy Jaramogi tremendously with a sneer. ''ndalo ma ne ikwerou ni Kenya ohewo chama achiel, to loch-nanga mar Jalup Rais nodino wiu. Tinde oteng' lwetu mogo, ng'wech uduogo e multiparty kendo -Jowa!''–--''When you were being told one party is too narrow for Kenya, the fat oil of the vice presidency soiled your vision. Now you lost the butter on the bread, you are back to multiparty! –-World of little wonders!'' Okay, when people like Nyong'o were negotiating entry into the GCG, they would not listen to the refuseniks to APPOINTMENTS. Now they have lost fat, they want rotations. Though actually the once muted idea that a Kikuyu could not replace Kibaki, had embedded within it, the notion of rotational presidency, albeit limited. NB: Apart from Nyong'os example of Mexico, I remember Yugoslavia too, after Tito, adopted a rotational presidency. This to neutralise the permanent majority of the Serbo-Croats. The others like Slovenes, Albanians (Kosovorians), Montenigros, and Bosnian Muslims, were permanently in fear of eternal domination by the big brothers. These tensions, mismanaged by incompetent upstarts, tore the union to bits. A good lesson for those who want to learn. Nyong'o's message is therefore more of a symptom than a solution. A symptom that the presidency –-even under the new constitution, has not been ripped of its mystique, is still mythical and holding sway with impunity over the electorate. The old imperial presidency is proving more resilient that was thought. Perhaps the resiliency, like Bonapartism, is based on objective material conditions –-like the level of social differentiations due to labour activity still being relatively primitive!? The state of the art constitution was a statement of intent for Kenya. A dream for later. Like the constitution of the young USA stated all men are born equal before the law and God, but it would be a slave-holding society for the next 200 years. No, nothing wrong with the constitution, just that it is far ahead of its time. May be one or two fierce civil wars to go before it is taken seriously! Or some hot rod to set Kenya on a turbo dash forwards, a short-cut formula. No easy options.
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Post by jakaswanga on Jan 5, 2016 22:43:56 GMT 3
When Onyango Oloo wrote this, I am proud to remember I told myself that is a story to tab. And tab I did. I could not find a tabloid angle, and that scared me. Worse was that Mwai Kibaki was being obviously stupid. I have a habit of scaring when obviously clever men become obviously stupid in public, and I couldn't find any evidence Kibaki was drunk when he disparagedKibaki then went on to declare Kenya a UNITARY STATE, devolution mavi ya kuku! (The IMF-dictated financial bill which confined Governors to mere appendages of the Super Devolution Ministry then cemented that ahistoric arrogance) Onyango Oloo went for it. Now we have MASHINANANI DEVELOPMENT PARTY OF KENYA, SPEARHEADED BY NON OTHER THAN ISAAC RUTTO. ---The other Rutto who was the first chair of the caucus of governors. There is of course also Mandeleo ChapChap too headed by Alfred Mutua. Mutua is a chameleon, but he was caught in a rare moment of clarity as Oloo quoted in this piece. it would appear these pertinent issues remained pertinent. The cleavage solidified into a gorge. RIFT VALLEYPARTYB SONU TANU,KERICHO JAN.3RDCAPTIONEmurua Dikirr member of the national assembly Johana Ngeno and Bomet governor Isaac Ruto during a consultative meeting at Exortic Hotel in the outskirts of Kericho town in Kericho County on Saturday. The two leaders who included some 60 former councilors agreed to sell policies of the newly formed Mashinani Development Party of Kenya(MDP)Picture by SONU TANU.END Another Alfred called Keter (Nandi Mpig) recently had an interesting take on the new party to be formed after the dissolution of URP and TNA.
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Post by jakaswanga on Mar 29, 2016 20:35:52 GMT 3
AS THE NATION DISSOLVES AWAY UNDER JUBILEE'S WATCH, KENYANS PONDER THE OPTIONS WITH HUMOUR!I have spent a humorous day today on the email circuit. David Ndii with his LET US DIVORCE song seems to have thrown red meat into a pond of pyranhas. While the mentally irrelevant are calling for his arrest and dismissal from the Agha Khan business paper, the rest of social media Kenya are having a field day letting their imaginations fly. And what a sense of humour. My Gikuyu attorney pulled a fast one on me with glee. 'We are going Switzerland', he proudly wrote to me. 'I am in the constitutional writing team. Specially for you, I am inserting a clause allowing Lake people married to Gema women to apply for citizenship upfront. I am thinking as soon as we, the most industrious segment of the Kenyan population, separate and get busy building Switzerland in Mount Kenya, Museveni will extend his border all the way to Kericho and Kissii. Luoland will be some irrelevant minority inside Greater Uganda. Perhaps you lake people want to negotiate a military alliance with powerful Mount Kenya republic? As a man who has diligently taken care of your interests for long, I want to personally save you the fate of Uganda citizenship. Being a Ugandan is worse than being a 2nd class Kenyan citizen! At the same time, the line of refugees camping outside Mount Kenya Switzerland will be longer than those yearning to enter the Eurozone from Turker, and the early bird catches the worm. We will build a wall to ward unwanteds off --like Israel does, the USA at the Mexico border, and the two Koreas. We will call it the Great Wall of Mount Kenya, to keep off barbarians who used to be the other Kenyans!'NB: Equity Bank, like Swiss Banks, is, purely business, opening a special section for Luo governors to hide their loot!' I responded. '' That is excellent of you to think kindly of me. But over here at Kavirondo, we are going Singapore. Of course after wiping off the mafia organisation called ODM. We have already dispatched a top envoy to the USA, and we are sure Brother Obama will have a cold frown to keep Museveni in his hole, and curb his territorial expansionist drift. A task force is working on a plan to have Bondo Technical University become the MIT of Africa and Maseno the Yale. We are moving from exporting fish and cheap labour to exporting brainy and quality labour. That is our niche to be, lakeside here at the Singaporean Kavirondo republic!''In the afternoon a correspondent asked. What are you guys gonna do with us Nairobians? The warlike Maasais have suddenly developed a memory! They say Nairobi is theirs! Maa-territory! Answered another: there wil be enough Gikuyus -ethnic cleansed--- returning from the Rift Valley, Coast and beyond, and their numbers will be high and their tempers lost enough to force the warlike Maasais to accept Nairobi as United Nations International territory! Otherwise of course everybody else in Nairobi will unite to solve the Maasai warlikeness with genocide against them. Nairobi becoming a city state.' NB: 140M and 4 years on, a commission has not returned the verdict on the Kenya Uganda border around Migingo. That kind of lazy work ethic is history. When a people are going Switzerland and another going Singapore, and Turkana going Kuwait, you do not work like that no more. And come to think of it, I do not think even Patrick Njoroge at CBK with his leaky Fraud Units, let alone Waiguru with oily fingers for light duties, would find a job in Switzerland Mount Kenya, unless they are thoroughly retooled. Things like (ex CBK's) Nyagah and Njuguna Ndung'u, who thinks they can even be clerks in a 'Swiss' bank? And the likes of Carey Orege, Kidero or George Mboya? Anybody who knows Singapore rising will know they would be executed for incompetence. No place for vermin. Yes, David Ndii should be hanged! . Tom Mshindi the Agha-Khan dog can now bite him and prove himself a mental corpse. He opened a pandora's box! And here we are. What a sense of humour we Kenyans have! They say the Turkana have decided it is better their oil move through Uganda to Tanzania, than straight-line to Lamu! Risk calculations advise that move! Woi woi!
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Post by jakaswanga on Mar 30, 2016 19:17:45 GMT 3
DAVID NDII CALLS OUR BLUFF, THE END OF THE AFFAIR?
THE 2016 STATE OF THE UNION BY THE PRESIDENT.
Tomorrow will be a possible Ides of March for the republic. The nominal president of the republic, Kamwana Muthamaki Uhuru wa Kenyatta, where the nicknames are either of fondness or derision, depending on whether one is a detractor or admirer, is scheduled to give a state of the MARRIAGE address.
Nominal head of state I said, because the way corruption has ran rampant makes me believe there is a head of the cartel more powerful than the official most powerful man in the land. Shadowy Keyser Soze I call the real power, the one pulling strings in Kenya.
So what is it with the Ides of March -the date of transition?
The problem is one word: Ndii. Dr. Pandoras David Ndii.
This man has opened a Pandora's box and unleashed an issue which has shot itself to the top of the national agenda: DIVORCE. Is the Unitary state of Kenya a waste of time? Basing his thesis on the historian Ogot, this public intellectual with his slingshot has become a nightrunner destroying the sleepy peace of the republic.
Long ago this would be treason. To publicly imagine if not call for the dissolution of Kenya. But times have moved. A referendum is thinkable on the subject. Those like me who suffer from colonial dependency and therefore, using pragmatism as an alibi, wish to maintain the Berlin artificialities of Africa for the moment, need must argue their case in public. Our hero Uhuru Kenyatta can not therefore, tomorrow, be the proverbial ostrich with its head out of sight, nor can he act out the blind man unaware of the elephant in the room. The mad man of the market has already pointed to the nakedness of the emperor and the crowd, enlivened, can't help commentating the royal d.ick head.
If, nevertheless, His Excellency does opt tomorrow for keeping up stupid appearances, his deafening silence will just show how scared witless he is. He is already a dynast making even a bigger mess of things than his father did, and, as we have seen, lacking the repressive infrastructure of the old despot, he has no option but to make a public case against the divorce propagated by doctor Pandora.
Why should not this mess he presides over be disbanded, so as to give room for flowers ala Switzerland (Mount Kenya) and Singapore (Kavirondo Lake region) to bloom? Muigai can not afford to ignore this grave matter.
Ndii has bust our bubble. Folks are spooked. They need unitary reassurance. Others are emboldened, devolution must go its full logic to wholesale federalism, and finally break-up referendum. There is a vision too, perhaps better put as a budding suspicion, that the current bone-stripping looting of the Kenyan state is the work of separatist Mount Kenya strategists, to finance the start of their Switzerland of the tropics. When finally the others will have their eyes open, this Switzerland would have cleaned out the joint Nairobi treasury, and left Kenya an empty shell. A carcass of bones only.
If Kenyatta ignores the implications of this sentiment or fear, then he should not be surprised after tomorrow to find a country effectively drifting under his feet. There may just be no fools left for a grand old April fool's day.
Our ides of March.
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Post by jakaswanga on Mar 31, 2016 19:03:26 GMT 3
here is Peter Kenneth responding to David Ndii on 31-03-2016. But I am still scared. Peter Kenneth has not stated in no uncertain terms, that the idea of a mount Kenya republic going it alone and becoming as prosperous as hardy and thrifty Switzerland is immaterial fantasy, and madness! If free visas were available for relocation, how many Kenyans would remain behind? (there was a time 67 million Nigerians applied for relocation to the UK!)
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Post by jakaswanga on Mar 31, 2016 19:10:52 GMT 3
Uhuru Kenyatta takes the bull by the horn, defends the so-called abusive marriage.
THE KENYA COVENANT IS ETERNAL!
HERE IS THE FIRST SECTION WHICH, READING BETWEEN THE LINES, DEALT WITH THE TALK OF DIVORCE AS A SOLUTION TO OUR MARITAL PROBLEMS. a union made in heaven then, an eternal covenant!
i dont scare easy, but there is a venom which Ndii has unearthed in certain quarters which makes me think there is palpable insecurity.
Migingo island for one is outside this covenant.
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Post by jakaswanga on Apr 1, 2016 21:03:19 GMT 3
ON BELIEVING THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK ARE HERE FOR YOUR OWN GOODIn his state of the marriage address, the nominal husband of Kenya was jubilated and waxed lyrical about the certificates of health awarded the Kenyan economy by leading, reputed world bodies who know. Why do I say nominal husband? I do, because in political science, there is a narrative of Africa, which proposes the current socio-political praxis in Africa, is Africa under foreign domination. A neo colony. This explains the ease with which foreign powers can move on an African leader like Muamar Khadafi, and have him sodomised to death on the stake by mercenaries. Economically speaking, Central Banks in Africa, flying the flag of an independence from African presidents like we saw Njuguna Ndung'u defy Mwai Kibaki and Raila, are recogniseD as nothing more than lower functional, card-carrying departments of the two international Bretton Woods structures. The memoirs of former (African) ministers of finances or banking dissenters who have dealt with the IMF are an insightful read on this subject. But our own Jukwaa too is a scorch-earth enlightened eye, at least when Proprietor Onyango Oloo is not distracted by other worldly stuff like mapouka b()()ties. Here below is a citation from an Oloo primed digital which, if one did a lot of homework around it, the description of Uhuru Kenyatta a nominal president is a bull's eye hit. If Kenya is an eternal covenant, taking prisoners is no option. demokrasia-kenya.blogspot.nl/2013/04/jubilee-and-national-question-in-kenya.html 2016: Uhuru is now president (since 2013) and is relying on the same IMF passmarks to buttress his success story. NB: Some will know Christin Lagarde of IMF wouldn't be allowed even a single comment, let alone a policy decision, at the Swiss treasury. And what does the wolf, Gang Schaeuble, the finance minister of Germany think of her? -- if she knew sh!t about economics and state finance then she and Nicolas Sarkozy would have modernised the French economy when she was finance-econs minister, and France wouldn't have become a basket case draining Germany!So when David Ndii and like-minded Gikuyus joke about Mount Kenya going Swiss, the depths are beyond the likes of Lagarde and her, in Uhuruto vocabulary and mental state, reputable world body! Yap, the Son of Jomo has some growing up room. So we say baby kenyatta. Of course the IMF can sometimes be right --like the famous anecdote about a defect clock being right at least once a day, so I do not mind stretching it a bit and declaring their current bill of health toward Kenya, a bonus. Here is the jubilant baby Kenyatta:There! I want to know if Dr. Patrick CBK Njoroge was consulted in the rendition of this epic! Unlike my sisters Millie Odhiambo, Gladys Wanga and a host of lunatics from my native county, I pay a hawk's eye detail to presidential speeches, regardless. Of course my Mpigish relatives are traumatised by our powerlessness to do anything about Migingo, ma en kuesi minwa, ma ng'a matek onyono. (annexed by a rogue from the neighbouring village of Barbaria!) I always pay attention to the diary power keeps. From of old. Always a pimped-up some. Power keeps a diary. A state of the Union is an important entry into that diary. Ordinarily, it is like the writings on a pylon, propagandising the prosperity achieved under a pharao. It is a narrative of his/her greatness kept for posterity. A narrative written by hired scripts and sycophants in his court. A spindoctor's concoction or sell. But it can not be all lies of course, there have to be grains of truth, otherwise the pillar would be an erection of ridicule. A phantom erection. Kenya's real crisis, is that we are all aware of the real potential, and these achievements narrated are self explanatory in our minds. Ndii's mercurial dismissal of Kenya, is based on the thinking that Mount Kenya can be faster Switzerland while Kenya, staring at vision 2030, becomes a Chinese debt colony may be. Here is J aindi Kisero in a nervous twitch. --And this story about debts, missing in the hieroglyphics column denoting the year 2016 under the infant Pharao Kenyatta II, is why I ask if The Money Seer and Counter Patrick Njoroge, was debriefed first. DEBT. I want to talk about debt. At length. Theft does not worry me too much. After Ouru wins his second term and is freed from the congenital suicidal pact with William Singh, he can very well choose the opportunity to have under lock and key at Kamiti, the likes of Singh and Dr. Evans. And throw the key deep away in the Indian ocean, just as Ester Murugi, the former Special programmes minister in the GCG, suggested recently. NB: Ester Murugi achieved international notoriety when, end January 2012, she threatened to mobilise all Kenyan women to walk naked days on end if the Ocampo-ICC had the audacity to detain the then president in waiting, Uhuru Kenyatta. Now she wants top hyenas locked up forever. And I am saying William Ruto or Evans Kidero, take your pick, is one such hyena. But the son of Jomo must live today to fight tomorrow, no? Otherwise his pillar of rule will be empty, for he would be a royal husband with a phantom erection fumbling on a night the wife has taken viagra, her visions and horizons enlarged. For that is what David Ndii has done, toyed with the erogenous zones of a reckless woman, with some history of frustration. Hurry up Uhuru! The slums are teeming with restive youth. Idle, they are overflowing the growth rates the World Bank calls World records. 7% is below average. 12% is minimum acceptable. Some friends you have. Excellency. DEBT&THEFT.
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Post by jakaswanga on Apr 4, 2016 19:48:08 GMT 3
Balkanisation SLOW MOTION!I thought Times seem to have stood still for others. Like professor K agwanja. Here he is, totally spooked by David Ndii, he is gone hysterics! I am a Unionist, but the way fellow unionists are defending the 'cruel marriage' does not reassure me.Ndii is treasonable!? some thoughts must not be thought in this Kenya, a bananaland with 40m population with a GDP of (rebated) $52bn in 2016! That is zero productivity to begin with! We need chinese to build calverts for us! because we give the job to an engineering company like our own KIRINYAGA works, and they take 12 years to build 3 calverts costing ksh. 300M! On a serious side, an issue touched on by a sensible Makau Mutua in the standard, none of of unionist patriots seem to see the CONSTELLATION OF NEW VOLUNTARY ECONOMIC ASSOCIATIONS as an answer to the claimed unviability of mini-states because they would fly in the face of the wisdom of the economics of scale.WHAT IS SEKEB!? later! I thought None is more spooked than Kagwanja! here is a clue to SEKEB! SEKEB! Nb: Kagwanja disparages Jaramogi Odinga and Bildad Kaggia –-as non Kenyan nationalist and patriots. Kagwanja! You switched your mind off!? Remember Jaramogi and George Anyona, when they were the lone voices against KANU-Moi!Professor, please stop soiling the good name of historians. This way economists like my brother in law Mank will ever grin in superiority over historians! Kagwanja this is intellectual suicide in public. Please read even a page of Not yet Uhuru first! Ndii spooks us this bad!? There is a good reason to stay together. I take it from Chekoslovakia splitting: 0=00. Now we are one big zero, and we want to go to 41 zeros! Unless we get a kind of leadership that goes places, you know what I mean. Not the ones where top bureaucrats are winners of prices like Njuguna Ndung'u and Anne Waiguru!
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Post by jakaswanga on Apr 5, 2016 19:53:46 GMT 3
THOSE FOR A REFRENDUM ON DIVORCE STAND UP AND BE COUNTED!
There are several reasons I have not lost my temper with David Ndii, despite my being a Unionist. I will pick two things which make me insecure.
All those who have come up hotly against the evil doctor -Kagwanja declares him a Nihilist and a grandmaster in conjuring the obscene and grotesque; Uhuru Kenyatta declared Kenya an eternal covenant (Pan-Africanism my foot, he seems to suggest!); Koigi Wamwere, Peter Kenneth, Rev Musyimi, they all rabidly rose in various degrees of hot temper to declare the marriage everlast and Ndii a bogeyman. However, Wycliff Muga, Onyango-Obbo and Makau Mutua brought a moment of relief with some contemplative stuff.
Yet everybody has avoided this question.
The question which unsettles me no small way. ---The new constitution allows for referenda, but who can assure me that, should the question be put to a referendum, the Kenyan population and citizenry at large would vote with me, to continue keeping appearances of bliss in the cruel and abusive marriage?
It is all very well for his Excellency Muigai to call this marriage an eternal covenant, but dare we ask the people what they really think and would vote for?
Second point that unsettles me: OPINION POLLS.
One can always argue about their accuracy and objectivity, or their pre-rigging by one or other party. It happens everywhere these days -the Scottish referendum the BBC kept on getting wrong; the Sanders and Trump leads before wins which major papers in the USA just can't predict nor publish. Nevertheless, opinion polls have become a modern language in public debate. They cannot be avoided, interpretation must be a faculty.
But now, what goes? Outside TV spot checks by SMS, heavy weight Kenyan pollsters have decided to ignore the hottest potato in politics today. -How hot? Watch pundit Kagwanja declare that Ndii and his ilk That is a heavy duty accusation, a hysterical lung, Ndii dropped a bomb in a crowded mall. Still, the common man could and should be asked for an opinion. The last poll said Kenyans considered corruption a greater threat to the nation than terrorism from Somalia.
I have a hollow feeling in my belly, that the majority of Kenyans could just turn out to be indifferent about Kenya falling apart or not (don't know, have no opinion, don't care!). It is the elite with everything to loose, or colonially dependent, who may really want to stay in the abusive marriage at all costs. Because they are on top. It feels very different on top. The abused mass below may just opt out to try their luck elsewhere. Even well-catered for wives sometimes elope in search of a mirage romanticism
This is what unnerves me. We do not dare ask the public --in a referendum for instance! I think we fear.
Eternal covenant, but we are not sure we can beat Ndii's divorce call in a referendum. It is broke, let us fix it before it becomes a write-off junk.
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Post by mwalimumkuu on Apr 9, 2016 18:43:24 GMT 3
David Ndii Vs Nationalist Covenant
I have contemplated starting a new thread on this, but on a second thought, believed that, it could perfectly fit here, from a different angle.
I have resisted giving David Ndii's thoughts much attention because I have often found them to be a little too emotional and reflective of the frustrations of a section of political elite with little regard to nationhood. After Uhuru Kenyatta's STON address, which as always elevated the discourse and sharply contrasted Ndii's arguments, the good doctor has again put pen to paper (here). This time, a little more sober than before. The truth is, however, as a people, our call is far much higher than what Ndii and his paymasters challenge us to every week. Our problems and challenges whether at village level, or local church, should be located in the larger global context and not the tribe of our chief and village elder.
Whereas tribe has sold big in Kenya in the past, I think we have moved on to a larger pedestal. Of course there are a few who are yet to see this. My take has always been that, something happened in 2013 that the Kenya's political left is yet to fully comprehend. We slayed the tribal narrative in that election, and all we await is it's burial in 2017. To me therefore, just as Uhuru Kenyatta above, Ndii's views and those who subscribe to such, are like the early morning wails on the burial day, very common in my motherland; they are normally energy-supping and breathtaking, but the last of such. The originators and promoters of the tribal narrative are fading away from the face of Kenya, 2017 will put them to rest and the Nationalist Covenant will firmly take its rightful place. I am not worried.
~~ Mwalimumkuu @nyumbakubwa ~~
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Post by podp on Apr 10, 2016 4:33:13 GMT 3
David Ndii Vs Nationalist Covenant
I have contemplated starting a new thread on this, but on a second thought, believed that, it could perfectly fit here, from a different angle.
I have resisted giving David Ndii's thoughts much attention because I have often found them to be a little too emotional and reflective of the frustrations of a section of political elite with little regard to nationhood. After Uhuru Kenyatta's STON address, which as always elevated the discourse and sharply contrasted Ndii's arguments, the good doctor has again put pen to paper (here). This time, a little more sober than before. The truth is, however, as a people, our call is far much higher than what Ndii and his paymasters challenge us to every week. Our problems and challenges whether at village level, or local church, should be located in the larger global context and not the tribe of our chief and village elder.
Whereas tribe has sold big in Kenya in the past, I think we have moved on to a larger pedestal. Of course there are a few who are yet to see this. My take has always been that, something happened in 2013 that the Kenya's political left is yet to fully comprehend. We slayed the tribal narrative in that election, and all we await is it's burial in 2017. To me therefore, just as Uhuru Kenyatta above, Ndii's views and those who subscribe to such, are like the early morning wails on the burial day, very common in my motherland; they are normally energy-supping and breathtaking, but the last of such. The originators and promoters of the tribal narrative are fading away from the face of Kenya, 2017 will put them to rest and the Nationalist Covenant will firmly take its rightful place. I am not worried.
~~ Mwalimumkuu @nyumbakubwa ~~ decided to return to class on devolution and majimbo versus nationalism and federalism just to get is correct on the above two red high lights reason we have the Constitution of 2010 primarily was to dilute the effects of a unitary state by introducing devolution which has kind of created 48 states, one national and 47 counties. much as we may wish to claim we have a nationalist covenant we need to first define it. since both Uhuru and Ruto have no history of producing intellectual discourse as none has any writings that can be attributed to them it is a bit of a tall order to rely on them defining what nationalist covenant is. on the 1st red high light all it takes to dismantle it is to quote Muluka. "President Kenyatta presides over an ethnic duopoly. Even if all the political parties in Kenya were to be dissolved and replaced with only one party, this alone would not create national unity. The face of the Public Service is disturbingly duopolistic. If the President does not dismantle this duopoly and replace it with the face of Kenya, his national unity proclamations remain a pipe dream and a formation of empty words." Read more at: www.standardmedia.co.ke/sports/article/2000195393/uhuru-must-stop-making-excuses-and-tackle-graftthis sickly way of tackling the ethnic question flies to the reality of what is happening everyday even to fields where it does not make sense as this current story narrates. "Muthee’s appointment slightly over a week ago kicked a storm within athletics fraternity with demands that a CEO for the global event should come from within athletics ranks. His appointment followed the suspension of former AK CEO, Isaac Mwangi, by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Ethics Committee over doping-related cases. “Riadha House (AK headquarters) is currently sagging under the weight of major scandals that the Government opted for Muthee to assure the general public that the event is in safe hands and that the Government is keen to stage the event successfully,” said a highly-placed source, who could not be identified because he is not authorised to speak for the Ministry." Read more at: www.standardmedia.co.ke/sports/article/2000197735/clean-up-house-first-debate-rages-over-ceo-s-appointmentsince both UhuRuto are adept at talking one thing and doing the exact opposite it is clear that the 2nd red highlight is neither here nor there. off course both are not originators but inheritors of entrenched ethnicity. both learned at the feet of Mo1 who clearly stated he was following Jomo's nays when he took over in 1878 when Jomo peacefully dies in his sleep. and many things that happened in Mo1's time are slowly and surely creeping back. the Machiavellianism of talking nice things like nationalist convent while packing important national offices with ethnic bigots is the order of the day practiced by both UhuRuto. Machiavellianism - the political doctrine of Machiavelli: any means (however unscrupulous) can be used by a ruler in order to create and maintain his autocratic government www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/Machiavellianismwill continue being at play come 2017 when we go to polls. all Jubilee spin doctors are busy preparing Kenyans for a supposed bloodbath if any dares to refuse the continuity of UhuRuto duopoly. so when it comes to dealing with IEBC instead of being quick to arrest the bloggers unlike the bank directors of say Imperial, NBK and now Chase bank we get UhuRuto talking that the IEBC is an independent constitutional office and if anyone has beef with it all one has to do is go to Parliament get endorsement of a Tribunal to investigate IEBC and voila UhuRuto will take the necessary corrective action. 6 or 5 years ago this article appeared in Star newspaper. "Phobias are considered to be pesky little bothers. But as irrational as they may be, most phobias are not without a root cause. Something, however small, must have happened to trigger the fear. Now, there is one popular phobia in Kenya called Kikuyu phobia." allafrica.com/stories/201109020161.htmlso now that we have a duopoly inform of UhuRuto pair to them could nationalist convention mean adding a 3rd, 4th or even 5th ethnic community to that? listening to the hypothesis of Mutahi Nguni we can see the evolving narrative. when the latter talked of tyranny of numbers was he in a way preparing us to the 'fact' that a computer program could sift say Kikuyu names and give those votes to Uluru and the same way give Luo names to RAO ensuring 'tyranny'. so now the hypothesis on how not return to 2007/2008 the bigger picture being painted is that we can reconcile if we accept corruption is an institution so we should only contain it and stop kidding ourselves that we can do without it. so back to the headline and listening to the Jubilee consultant above Ndii is elevated to a status of a political engineer following prisoner of contract. flipping that on UhuRuto one can see they are also trying to take us the the nationalist definition. "Nationalism makes one to think only of one’s country’s virtues and not its deficiencies. Nationalism can also make one contemptuous of the virtues of other nations." Read more: Difference Between Nationalism and Patriotism | Difference Between | Nationalism vs Patriotism www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-nationalism-and-patriotism/#ixzz45PX0h4Tdso that explains why UhuRuto can only trust and rely on their ethnic enclaves for appointments in the national (read ethnicity) government. so when one thinks of the nationalist aka UhuRuto style it is nice to read George Orwell who said "Indifference to Reality. All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts.....The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them....Every nationalist is haunted by the belief that the past can be altered. He spends part of his time in a fantasy world in which things happen as they should....Indifference to objective truth is encouraged by the sealing-off of one part of the world from another, which makes it harder and harder to discover what is actually happening. There can often be a genuine doubt about the most enormous events. " orwell.ru/library/essays/nationalism/english/e_natin conclusion UhuRuto fit being called nationalist in the definition of Charles "Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first." Read more at: www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/charlesdeg111702.htmlUhuRuto hate everyone who is not a Kikuyu for Uhuru and a Kalenjin for Ruto. as good Christians one may turn the other cheek. as good Muslims it is an eye for an eye. let them, UhuRuto, try another one. but yes they are nationalists who fit what Charles said "hate for people other than your own comes first." yes let them try another one.
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