Oloo is NOT Surprised at the Mpeketoni Tragedy

[Onyango Oloo]

demokrasia-kenya.blogspot.com/2014/06/oloo-not-surprised-by-mpeketoni-tragedy.html

[kamalet]

So Lake Kenyatta is to (or partly to) blame for the Mpeketoni tragedy? Oloo, I see very little or no relationship with the two!

I highly doubt that Al shabaab who are blamed for the attack have any special issue with kikuyu settlers of Lamu!

[Onyango Oloo]

Kamale:

Thanks for your prompt feedback.

Onyango Oloo

[Onyango Oloo]

For those who read it before, please press reload/refresh because I have updated it, including my take on the content free blatherings of Ole Lenku in his mockery of a media briefing. I have also included some pictures which I must warn beforehand may a bit disturbing.

OO

[jakaswanga]

Double O Yo!

I have just had a first, fast read. I am kind of rushing to catch the Germany - Portugal football match, so it could be something I genuinely missed, or in my haste overlooked --in which case I will apologise later.

It is like this: This is an Al-Shabaab attack. Al-Shabaab does not do Kenyan INTERNAL stuff like land and other historical justices. Your article is not a foreign policy investigation vis Somalia, ---I put Al-Shabaab under foreign policy repercussions. From the way you parade your non-surprise, one could have the (logical inclination) suspicion that you are developing a thesis which explains this Mpeketoni atrocity as an INTERNAL DYNAMIC!? A premise likely to dismiss AL-Shabaab's claim of responsibility (which I have just seen in a twitter feed).

Do you get my problem?

[jakaswanga]

Somewhere on this SabaSaba thread jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/9068/countdown-sabasaba-confirms-nationwide-rallies I insist Uhuru Kenyatta is being set up by the many minions acting as pawns for dark forces in his regime with an agenda far from the President's interests. And he should be warned, and be saved from them.

In deed the innuendo of internal secretary Ole Lenku was read plane by Kenyans. He linked Raila Odinga to the attack! Oloo that is not laughable! This is the minister for the interior under whose auspices the police and Gichangi's outfit operates. And Raila is the leader of the opposition. And Al-Shabaab is a listed terrorist organisation, locally and internationally.
Either Ole Lenku is a complete moron with no idea nor sense of what he implies, or he is under siege and forced to intimate this. ---Whichever the case Uhuru Kenyatta as President has to move in here. Unless he believes this is to his interest.

I am seeing on social media, even opponents of Raila think Ole Lenku is better off running chique hotels where tourists come to indulge their paedophilic preferences on Kenyan child prostitutes. That is where he excelled I gather.

[kamalet]

Having read a bit more on the attack it would appear this was an attack on the people of Lake Kenyatta. I may owe Oloo an apology

[Onyango Oloo]

Jakaswanga:

I hope you have finished watching that ruthless German demolition of Cristiano Ronaldo and his Lusophone team-mates. As I have one eye-ball glued to the Nigeria-Iran duel on my living room telly, let me use my index finger to comment thus:

You have to remember that what drives Al-Shabaab is NOT nationalism, but RELIGION.

Listen to what Daveed Gartenstein-Ross who directs the Center for Terrorism Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies has to say:

Al-Shabaab represents a further step toward a global jihadist vision. Like the Islamic Union and Islamic Courts, it believes that religious governance is the solution to Somalia's ills. When addressing a rally in the southern city of Marka, Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, an Al-Shabaab spokesman, emphasized the importance of complying with Islamic law.[50] In an effort to show that Shari'a was equitable, Robow stated that "punishment would be meted out to anyone," including mujahideen, citing a mujahid executed in Waajid as an example.[51]

One important document explaining Al-Shabaab's outlook was written by the American mujahid Abu Mansoor al-Amriki. He gained notoriety in the U.S. when he appeared in a sophisticated Al-Shabaab video dated April 2, 2009, "that employs hip-hop and looks more like an extreme version of 'Survivor.'"[52]

In January 2008, Amriki wrote a document entitled "A Message to the Mujaahideen in Particular and Muslims in General" that rapidly made its way around the jihadist web. In it, he reiterated the need to establish Shari'a, citing as exemplars Sayyid Qutb, the leading theoretician of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Abu A'la Maududi, founder of the Islamist Jama'at-i Islami in India and Pakistan, both of whom "refused to accept entering into the kaafir [infidel] governments as a solution."[53] He specified commitment to Islamic law as a means of distinguishing Al-Shabaab from the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia. Amriki explained that Al-Shabaab had boycotted the Asmara conference because it refused to work with the non-Muslim Eritrean state.[54] He argued that cooperation with "infidels" would corrupt the jihad because Eritrea would open "the door of politics in order for them to forget armed resistance," leaving "members of the Courts in the lands of the Kuffaar, underneath their control, sitting in the road of politics which leads to the loss and defeat they were running from."[55] Indeed, Amriki's screed underscores the gradations from the IU to the ICU and finally to Al-Shabaab. His criticisms of the Islamic Courts emphasize Al-Shabaab's global jihadist perspective. He touts Al-Shabaab's pan-Islamism in opposition to the ICU's clan-backed politics, saying that "the Courts used to judge over each individual tribe," whereas "Al-Shabaab were made up of many different tribes."[56]

Though a non-Somali like Amriki may overlook the continuing importance of clan politics even within Al-Shabaab, other Al-Shabaab leaders have said that the group wants to undermine the country's clan structure. When Robow addressed the Marka rally, Kataaib reported that he "declared that from now on it is prohibited to say that so-and-so clan cannot control over there, or so-and-so clan cannot govern so-and-so region. He made it clear that this land belongs to Allah and anyone who imposes the Islamic law in it can govern it."[57]

Amriki also attacked the Islamic Courts for having "a goal limited to the boundaries placed by the Taghoot " while "the Shabaab had a global goal including the establishment of the Islaamic [sic] Khilaafah [caliphate] in all parts of the world." [58] While this criticism is not entirely accurate ("Greater Somalia" was not strictly limited by colonial borders), Amriki showed that key Al-Shabaab leaders now saw their efforts as part of a global struggle.

Read more at:

www.meforum.org/2486/somalia-al-shabaab-strategic-challenge

Get more nuggets from this recent piece by a US military analyst:

www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/issues/Winter_2013/Book%20Reviews/Hansen_AlShabaab.pdf

As far as Kenya goes, we have our own home grown Islamist groups like Al Hijra who have opportunistic alliances with Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab while pursuing their own distinct grievances against the Kenyan state.

Read more about Al Hijra from this link:

www.trackingterrorism.org/group/muslim-youth-center-al-hijra-kenya

It is not inconceivable that some of the angry young Muslims in places like Lamu may seek out Al Shabaab because of their presumed fire power.

Some more reading for you:

www.africapi.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Risk-to-Stability-in-Pre-Election-Kenya-Conference-Working-Paper.pdf

Pay attention to this particular excerpt from Parselelo ole Kantai, one of Kenya's most intelligent investigative journalists:

Soon after Friday prayers in Isiolo town, a Kenyan Somali who claims he was recruited and trained by the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) between April 2010 and March 2011 tells his story: "I was approached by clan elders and convinced to enlist in the training programme."

Assured that he would be paid $1,000, he joined some 1,200 recruits at a training camp in Laresoro in April 2010. Located a few kilometres from Archer's Post near Isiolo, the camp is in the vicinity of the British Army Training Unit in Kenya.

The year-long training programme included courses in paramilitary operations, field craft, camouflage and intelligence. The recruits formed 11 companies.

"Our mission was to fight Al-Shabaab in Somalia.We were told this at the beginning. My fellow recruits were mostly Garre Somalis from Mandera – they numbered about 800 – but there were also Borana recruits and even some Kikuyus," he explains.

It appears that the mission went wrong from the start. The assurances of a "big salary" proved to be fiction.

Recruits received a monthly stipend of between KSh2,000 and KSh4,000, and the pay was infrequent.

Consequently, many recruits deserted. Many of the Garre Somali deserters formed a militia calling itself the Garre Republican Guard, he says.

"They took all of us without instilling any sense of patriotism. Many recruits were reluctant to fight their Somali compatriots. And clan allegiances meant that there was lack of coordination," he recalls.

That helped Al-Shabaab operatives to infiltrate the force. In Isiolo, a bespectacled middle-aged man among the recruits was exposed as an Al-Shabaab agent who had been communicating training strategies for months with his colleagues in Somalia.

The recruit says he suspects there were many other Al-Shabaab agents in the force because few background checks were conducted.

In mid-2011, the recruits made their first and only foray into Somalia through the border town of El Wak. They were ambushed by Al-Shabaab fighters and at least 50 of them were killed.

Just two weeks before the KDF's invasion of Somalia in October 2011, then prime minister Raila Odinga told The Africa Report that the government could not account for at least 400 ethnic Somali counter-insurgents.

This, he explained, was going to force Kenya into a military invasion. The KDF did not respond to a series of questions regarding the fate of the counter-insurgents.

Read the entire article:

www.theafricareport.com/News-Analysis/what-pushed-kenya-into-somalia.html

[abdulmote]

This Ole lenku fellow is so juvenile, incompetent and dangerous, Uhuru should get rid of him as soon as possible, before his actions sets this country on fire that should not have been!

[jakaswanga]

Jun 16, 2014 20:18:42 GMT 3 kamalet said:

Having read a bit more on the attack it would appear this was an attack on the people of Lake Kenyatta. I may owe Oloo an apology

Cryptic Kamalet! you can be such a master of the stiff upper lip! Loosen up a bit man! which bee do you now have under your bonnet!?

[jakaswanga]

This is getting dangerous Oloo! I am like a hyena pursuing two parties at different villages! I have a laptop on my lap, typing blind as I watch Nigeria vs iran! --This is oil versus Oil, a commentator is saying! he will be in trouble in the morning papers!

But this angle you beseech me to remember opens a can of worms. Historical grievances adopted by a competent religious ideologues in the absence of secular leadership, is no walk over. I am thinking of Hezbollah, Hamas. Competent leaderships confining secular alternatives to irrelevance!

But let me go through the homework you gave.

[Onyango Oloo]

And as you all adjust those serene thinking caps, here is some LIGHT COMIC RELIEF from Nipate:

nipate.com/oloo-is-not-surprised-by-the-mpeketoni-tragedy-t41874.html

[kamalet]

Jun 16, 2014 22:20:34 GMT 3 abdulmote said:

This Ole lenku fellow is so juvenile, incompetent and dangerous, Uhuru should get rid of him as soon as possible, before his actions sets this country on fire that should not have been!

Is this because he suggests a political link? www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-171303/i-do-not-fear-arrest-says-cord-leader-raila-odinga

have a look at this article and in the Mombasa picture, bottom right - second guy. Remember that face from Masjid mosque?

[Onyango Oloo]

Kamale:

I know you are a Nairobi resident. I am not sure if you are in Kenya as we speak.

But this is what someone I met around Psys (the former Hooters close to Simmers and 680 around City Hall) was telling me about 25 minutes ago when I asked him what was his take on the SECOND attack in Lamu County last night:

"Both of these are Jubilee operations I am now convinced. Ole Lenku goes to Mpeketoni and then there is another outrage? It just does not make sense! The government is looking for a ruse to arrest Raila!"

Do you find that remotely credible?

I personally don't.

But you never know.

Here is a piece by George Morara in Kenya Today. Now I know TWO George Moraras both human rights activists. But they have both told me several times that are literally dozens of males named after the late politician who first carried that name:

www.kenya-today.com/opinion/national-dialogue-terrorism-kenya

In both instances, Al Shabaab has come out officially to CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY.

For someone to believe either the Kamale/Ole Lenku version or the the Jubilee-is-to-Blame conspiracy theory, then we must give it to Al Shabaab for INFILTRATING BOTH CORD AND JUBILEE, since for either story to be plausible, there must be a bi-partisan partnership of terror between Al Shabaab and the government and the opposition in organizing the Lamu attacks. First, they carry out a mission with/on behalf of CORD and then a day later, to even things out, they decide to do the government a huge favour by partnering with Jubilee.

If we care at all for the victims and survivors of Mpeketoni, we should stop insulting their intelligence.

Here are two links to the second attack:

www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27882084

www.standardmedia.co.ke/thecounties/article/2000125045/eight-killed-in-fresh-attacks-in-poromoko-near-mpeketoni

Onyango Oloo

[Onyango Oloo]

Incidentally, a credible source tells me that the GSU have been deployed to areas like Mathare and Kibera.

Anybody out there to confirm this?

OO

[OtishOtish]

Extraordinary. It is not unusual for people to blame "foreign terrorists" for home-grown nastiness. But it is certainly unusual for terrorists to claim responsibility for heinous attacks only to have have a leader (president) tell them that they are lying and that the nastiness is home-grown.

And then we have the curious Mr. Ole Lenku:

www.nation.co.ke/news/15-killed-in-fresh-Mpeketoni-attack/-/1056/2351236/-/n9dijqz/-/index.html

'Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku initially said the attackers destroyed Safaricom communication equipment before they undertook the new killings.

He said by paralysing communication, the attackers are sophisticated and seemed to know what they were doing.

"This is an elaborate war," he said.'

But then it turns out that the "war" might not be so elaborate:

"However, Mr Lenku later clarified that the Safaricom outage in Mpeketoni as caused by power failure and inaccessibility of alternative fuel following the attack."

Amidst this exploding-lightbulb-bomb confusion, the president assures the country that the government had prior "intelligence" about the attacks.  Even with all that "intelligence", we had this during the first attack:

'Inspector General David Kimaiyo stated that they were yet to be furnished with details of the situation but confirmed the attack.

“We do not have full information on the incident and we are still trying to reach our officers at the moment,” he told the Nation in a phone interview.'

www.nation.co.ke/news/Explosion-and-gunfire-in-Mpeketoni-police-battle-attackers/-/1056/2349852/-/tlhbjt/-/index.html

 

What's more, this second attack comes after people had been told that:

"On Monday, contingents of regular and Administration Police with the support of the paramilitary General Service Unit, were dispatched to comb forests in the area in the hunt for the killers."

www.nation.co.ke/news/Mpeketoni-Lamu-Attack-Terrorism-Coast/-/1056/2351072/-/6jhh64/-/index.html

[Onyango Oloo]

A blog piece by Harry Misiko, copy editor with the Nation Media Group in the Washington Post:

www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/06/17/how-kenya-made-itself-vulnerable-to-terror/

[bkichwa]

Jun 17, 2014 16:46:06 GMT 3 Onyango Oloo said:

Incidentally, a credible source tells me that the GSU have been deployed to areas like Mathare and Kibera.

Anybody out there to confirm this?

OO

Yes, I heard this on the 3pm radio news bulletin. These have been explained as the other "hot spot" areas where security intelligence indicates similar Mpeketoni-type attack plans have been laid and are to be implemented. The GSU reinforcements are therefore preemptive actions given this intelligence at hand.

[jakaswanga]

Jun 17, 2014 17:10:03 GMT 3 OtishOtish said:

Extraordinary. It is not unusual for people to blame "foreign terrorists" for home-grown nastiness. But it is certainly unusual for terrorists to claim responsibility for heinous attacks only to have have a leader (president) tell them that they are lying and that the nastiness is home-grown.

And then we have the curious Mr. Ole Lenku:

www.nation.co.ke/news/15-killed-in-fresh-Mpeketoni-attack/-/1056/2351236/-/n9dijqz/-/index.html

www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/watch/2000079938/-president-uhuru-kenyatta-full-speech-on-mpeketoni-attack

www.nation.co.ke/news/Uhuru---Political-groups-to-blame-for-Mpeketoni-killings/-/1056/2351554/-/jvmp24/-/index.html

AAAh Wakubwa! Kamalet and Oloo,

At long last the cat is out of the bag! You guys were kind of speaking in tongues. Uhuru Kenyatta too, is speaking in tongues! (I have since found other Kenyans who called the spade a spade .. like these quoted by the BBC ..

But there are long-standing political and ethnic divisions in Mpeketoni, and the president has blamed "local political networks" for the deaths. Local ethnic Somalis or Oromos may have targeted members of the president's Kikuyu community and tried to divert the blame by waving al-Shabab flags.
Some locals see the Kikuyus as interlopers, who have become rich after the government gave them land. These are the same feelings which lay behind the deadly ethnic violence which swept the nation after the disputed 2007 elections.

And here is the president too scared to face it on,and call it Gikuyu ethnic cleansing!:

The attack in Lamu was a well-planned, orchestrated and politically motivated violence against a particular Kenyan community with the aim of profiling them and evicting them for politicial reasons …
… local poltical networks were involved in the planning and execution …

NB: Guys how would I do if I used the same phrase to describe the recent security pogrom [USALAMA NYUMBANI was it?]which targeted SOMALIS and turned into one great extortion racket by the police! hE hE! Would I not sound like Aden Duale speaking in Somali at Eastleigh the other day when he threatened to ditch Jubilee!

Further the president is punishing the low level officers who were negligent on the scene! They had prior intelligence and failed to lay a trap? Or an attack of this nature would have demanded a more robust force than a regular police work? –something heavier, like an anti-terrorist crack unit? (punishing traffic cops more used to extolling bribes from drunken motorists for failing to fight off the superior fire of a well-planned military attack, looks shady scapegoat office politics to me! Where were the re-enforcements? or the alternative power supply to Safaricom call center in case of a blackout --which ended up happening !!

My hunch tells me the Mpeketoni attack is a jig-saw of a thousand pieces still up there in the air. But there is no doubt that the planner has a chilling understanding of Kenyan politics.
1. The timing is also extraordinary in the run to SabaSaba. It also means, that the KDF forces in Somalia, recognise nobody in Nairobi is thinking about Somalia and its fwacking turmoil. There are bigger priorities in Nairobi. Somali is far, far away, out of sight, out of mind ---when is the last time you saw a report in parliament which looked like acknowledging we are at war in Somalia, and war is serious business?)

2. We have seen killings in Baragoi, and we have seen killings in Tana, and there are schools closed in Baringo or some other place like that as we speak as ethnic mayhem goes unabated. But the president never came out like this! The heat! The wild generalisations! The threats! The warnings! It is like a man on a made mission ---worked over or pimped up by some savvy PR guru!

This is like like his 9/11 moment which Westgate Mall was not!
Uhuru talks like a man walking us toward a state of emergency. That would be the day, would a duo of ICC indictees who in the mind of half the country were rigged into power, steam roll over the constitution to rule Kenya by State of Emergency! Behold --Lord! as they clamp down on the opposition and rule for 20 years of uninterrupted Hosanna Hosanna!?

Well, if the security chiefs forced the president to pay anglo-leasing the other day; did not bother to warn his family off Westgate the other year; have continued to shroud their tenders in opacity despite Uhuruto’s public tears, I do not see why they would not make a quandary of of the CIC if it suits them best.

War on terror abroad/across, war on terror at home! Who wants to question defence/security budgets under such nation-threatening times?

And how many useless presidency’s have been made by wars? Very tempting to manufacture one …. There is even a Hollywood movie about one such!

The crisis deepens, the plot thickens!

Jun 17, 2014 17:47:31 GMT 3 bkichwa said:

Jun 17, 2014 16:46:06 GMT 3 Onyango Oloo said:

Incidentally, a credible source tells me that the GSU have been deployed to areas like Mathare and Kibera.

Anybody out there to confirm this?

OO

Yes, I heard this on the 3pm radio news bulletin. These have been explained as the other "hot spot" areas where security intelligence indicates similar Mpeketoni-type attack plans have been laid and are to be implemented. The GSU reinforcements are therefore preemptive actions given this intelligence at hand.

[abdulmote]

This is not looking good:

www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Mpeketoni-attack-opposition-kikuyu-/-/440808/2352388/-/sm6r1wz/-/index.html

Our government seems to be getting into a panic mode. Nay, our president seems to be getting into a panic mode. This is not good. I pray for an immediate intervention. I don't know who from or by, but intervention must come in to our rescue. Our nation's peace is under threat once again. When the leadership panics, anarchy may find the dreaded opportunity to thrive. I just hope and pray cool heads prevail.

[b6k]

Jun 16, 2014 19:22:52 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

It is like this: This is an Al-Shabaab attack. Al-Shabaab does not do Kenyan INTERNAL stuff like land and other historical justices. Your article is not a foreign policy investigation vis Somalia, ---I put Al-Shabaab under foreign policy repercussions. From the way you parade your non-surprise, one could have the (logical inclination) suspicion that you are developing a thesis which explains this Mpeketoni atrocity as an INTERNAL DYNAMIC!? A premise likely to dismiss AL-Shabaab's claim of responsibility (which I have just seen in a twitter feed).

Do you get my problem?

If the problem is political does that mean it's purely local? Couldn't there be a possibility of local political interests converging with regional (geo-political) gripes given that at least one people did have tenure both locally & regionally, so to speak? Import/impose the "Lake Kenyatta" implants & add religion into the mix, as OO has ably done, and what do you have? I'm a getting outta here...

[OtishOtish]

Jun 17, 2014 22:41:48 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

2. We have seen killings in Baragoi, and we have seen killings in Tana, and there are schools closed in Baringo or some other place like that as we speak as ethnic mayhem goes unabated. But the president never came out like this! The heat! The wild generalisations! The threats! The warnings! It is like a man on a made mission ---worked over or pimped up by some savvy PR guru!
....
And how many useless presidency’s have been made by wars? Very tempting to manufacture one …. There is even a Hollywood movie about one such!

Exactly. Uhuru's words---rarely do actions follow the words, but this could be different---make little sense only if one considers him President of Kenya. But the fellow got to where he is largely because (a) at "home" he was seen as a Great Hero, having saved his Our People at a "critical time", and (b) he realized that he and Ruto would have to hang together or hang separately, as one might say. (Ruto too is a Great Hero to his Our People: "finally! a Real Samoei with a final solution to the problem of our stolen land!")

(a) has helped greatly in his battle with the ICC:

* NIS, NSAC, etc. have been very shy with information about him but, for a while anyway, were quite liberal with anything to do with Ruto. And I would not be surprised if the NIS has been "helpful" in locating witnesses and assisting with sorting them out, with cash or bullets. We certainly know that NIS folks have been thrown out of meetings between victims and their representatives and that this has been reported to the court.    

* The attorney-general's office has especially worked hard on his behalf. Oga Chief-Oh noted this while kicking him in the nuts. It was a subtle point that may have been missed by many: in a footnote, he stated that although Prof. Mortician had been granted status as a "friend of the court", it would be better to describe him as an "intervener". (In the rest of his opinion, he uses the latter term, in contrast with his colleagues, who use the former.)

There is also the fact that lately even some Uhuruto supporters have stated doubts about how the pair is going about some things.

A "bigger picture" view?

If one takes a look from the angle of cold power, Uhuru's actions actually make sense:

* Any support he might have lost from some of his Our People is readily regained if circumstances require that they be "saved" again. (Doubts about the Saviour must be shelved until the crisis is over, and that could take ....)

* Past the ICC issue, Ruto is actually dispensable. The power of presidential incumbency in Africa is such that there are no doubt others who are ready to step in for their share of the eating.

* Regardless of ideas about the new constitution, Uhuru can in fact manage 10 years and more simply by relying on "core strengths" (which include the "right people" in the "right places"; if you want nusu mkate, go bake your own loaf).

* Some deterioration in the state of affairs, especially in security, actually "helps" him. If tough measures and some cracking of heads are required, they will be easy (or easier) to justify.  (In such matters, it is important to ensure that members of the General Service Unit---some service!---are already "in place".)

* Any hope that the judiciary might help must be tempered with reality. Digital emasculation will be a bit more subtle that the Love-Peace-and-Unity type: accuse the judiciary of helping terrorism, and it will take note and "do the right thing". (This of course requires some "terrorism", whence the "intelligence" but no corresponding "action". But it must be "directed terrorism". Tana River, Baragoi, Baringo ... won't do. No Our People to be saved in those places.)

* Etc.

Yes, Our People are no more than cannon fodder in this Great Game, but cannon fodder is not called cannon fodder for nothing. And what better than willing cannon fodder: Our Man, come hell or high water.

Some of the signs of what is to come (if it does come) are already there and in a very Nyayoistic way:

* People are told that they cannot hold meetings in certain regions.

* People are arrested for "illegal assembly". (The number of people in the "assembly" is less than what one might have at a good dinner.)

* Leaflets arrive, telling people that they must leave within a certain period.

Yogi Berra wasn't the smoothest with words, but he got to the point:

"It's like déjà vu all over again!"

Moi was never in danger of being called the Biggest Brain On The Block, but he had the sort of low-level animal cunning that helps a petty criminal survive on the streets, where an "educated brain" would come to grief. And on his watch, many did come to grief, except for those who sucked his .... [forgot what I wanted to write there].   Well, the Teacher (later upgraded to Professor) had some students, and one of them is now a Head Boy who has not forgotten his lessons.  In a car, it would be wise to put on one's seatbelt.