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Post by mank on Nov 24, 2019 2:01:10 GMT 3
i have something to say to Babu Owino and his likes: The fleas and ticks that suckle blood without insulting their host are way more honourable than you. You are not at all honourable, actually. You are an irritating parasite. The least those who were privileged to launch their private lives on the account of the commoner can do is to pay back to the commoner. Then if they are conscious people, they go even further, to make it more possible for other nobodies to be somebodies. But here you are, Babu Owino, arguing that it was yours before you were anybody. I pray for your overstanding. Meanwhile, I wonder what your people saw in your filthy being, that they endowed their representation upon you.
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Post by mank on Aug 11, 2019 21:23:16 GMT 3
I am pleased to have had the time today, to read the rich reflections on OO's life. By the testimony of many who have shared, the man lived a full life in half the time.
I remember sitting and chatting with OO at a Nairobi restaurant in 2011. It was a calm and splendid communion that till the deflating news of his demise, I always wished would repeat. Now only through the words of others, others with whom he shared his good life, does it. He was a good man!
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Post by mank on Jun 17, 2019 19:09:41 GMT 3
I was reading about the Ebola scare that was unfolding in Kericho when I stumbled upon the news of OO's passing on. It is sad and sorrowful. May his Soul rest in eternal goodness.
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Post by mank on Nov 5, 2018 1:16:07 GMT 3
Pole bw. OO. i hope SA has been generously nice, just as it was with your hospital experience. best wishes in, health and all.
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Post by mank on Apr 11, 2018 8:08:35 GMT 3
In my view, what Miguna is experiencing is not just. Yet it did not come looking for him. He went looking for it in a very unsubtle style. One should not plot to reduce another to "absolutely nothing", and count on the other one to act all legally clean in response. What I am saying simply, what Miguna has been subjected to is not outright legal, yet Miguna is not an innocent victim. There are elaborate requirements for Kenyans who acquired foreign citizenship prior to the promulgation of the current constitution to update their domestic citizenship. What is the consequence of not making such updates if one continues to claim the rights of Kenyan citizenship? When you are one person who is being addressed by such requirements but who has not cared, yet you unnecessarily plot to embarrass and even dehumanize someone to whom the machinery to exploit the legal uncertainty of what should happen to those not in compliance is in hand, what do you expect? Jambo ManK Quick question: "If you were having a running tummy and you were standing next to a toilet but take the decision to soil your pants instead.....what should I call you?!" Sijambo bana, The crapper, I guess.
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Post by mank on Apr 8, 2018 18:34:19 GMT 3
In my view, what Miguna is experiencing is not just. Yet it did not come looking for him. He went looking for it in a very unsubtle style.
One should not plot to reduce another to "absolutely nothing", and count on the other one to act all legally clean in response. What I am saying simply, what Miguna has been subjected to is not outright legal, yet Miguna is not an innocent victim.
There are elaborate requirements for Kenyans who acquired foreign citizenship prior to the promulgation of the current constitution to update their domestic citizenship. What is the consequence of not making such updates if one continues to claim the rights of Kenyan citizenship? When you are one person who is being addressed by such requirements but who has not cared, yet you unnecessarily plot to embarrass and even dehumanize someone to whom the machinery to exploit the legal uncertainty of what should happen to those not in compliance is in hand, what do you expect?
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Post by mank on Mar 26, 2018 0:27:12 GMT 3
Indeed, a tram network for Nairobi is an overdue project. But in a country where failure to account for billions of shillings of public funds is casual and routine, Kenyans must mind the fantastic allure of nicely functioning trams while the pockets that lose their funds are not sewn. Sonko must start his tram projects with a demonstrable system of accountability.
For a start, I would like to hear that as far as tram planning and construction go, Sonko and his government will be doing only what they are good at; hardly anything. That means delegation by contract. In addition, the tram investment agenda should be packaged in a way that it attracts support from interested parties rather than antagonizing them. Toward that end, the metro government can be assured of fierce battles with the matatu industry unless it can win the power houses of that industry over into supporting the project.
Fortunately, there are opportunities for bringing together all that is needed for a credible public transportation project like the tram. Pray the city government can accept its part of the deal, which is to do just about nothing. It should contract out the project to a professional project planning and construction company.
The project should be funded with private investments, preferably structured according to the standards of publicly traded companies. This part of the planning must be done with great care. The goal should be to make the deal to the investor just sweet enough to attract the attention of the matatu capitalist. Then, just as for publicly traded companies, the project must be ran by professionals who are directly answerable to investors through periodic business reports and meetings.
On the matter of meetings, why do government meetings take place at tourist resorts? Are there no conference rooms at City Hall, or KICC? If Sonko is serious about efficiency in public work, this is an obvious priority area.
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Post by mank on Mar 19, 2018 7:45:29 GMT 3
Who knew? I who speaks for him who is silent Would get this chance! I got a request to the son of Jomo ... no, not a request ... its a word from them who went before us. Open your big eyes ... man is ready to spell it message ... lets build a monument for Mwariama (he who speaks truth) in Nairobi, Meru town, Nyeiri (Ruring'u in particular), and more predominantly in the Meru National Park (Meru County, take this up) and Mt. Kenya! www.flickr.com/photos/maumauhistory/7642691628/in/photostream/Nuhwahn remember
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Post by mank on Feb 10, 2018 22:38:50 GMT 3
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS WITH GENERALS LIKE KHALANGWA, OBEDIENT LIKE SMOOTH MACHINES! This is when I love Generals. For a bureaucrat with a different training and work experience, I would spit with contempt at such mindlessness. Why? I would expect them to be have been informed, by dictates of the general efficiencies of their high office, that by the time Matiang'i is issuing these orders to deport, Miguna was already incommunicado, and the biggest news in town! and the obsession of many a department of state! You know, the way you expect even the laziest Kenyan history students to be aware, as you handle Migingo, that Uganda is one of Kenya's neighbours, near Ethiopia and Somalia! But I have heard of Mwai Kibaki's confrontations with Kenyan generals, so I know what I am talking about. Khalangwa, even reading Miguna was born in Nyando, faced with Matiang'is orders, wouldn't have bothered to fathom the significance of the geographical location of Nyando. A critical look at orders from above is not his job brief! In the words of a famous poem: his is to obey and neither ask why nor how! That is what the army does to people, if they are to rise and rise along the ranks, goodbye critical thinking. The institute just kills the independence of their minds. You saw it with Nkaissery, now you see it with Khalangwa. They will obey any order. Mobutu Sese Seko used to abuse this propensity to obedience to the realms of absurdity. He would order them alternatively to present their wives to him in various degrees of undress! Yes Sir! At your service! They all saluted smartly! Mwai Kibaki to Julius Karangi: 'Your name is Omollo Kotieno!' Major General Karangi: 'Yes Sir!'The contours of some vile remark begin to creak the Othaya genius's features. But special advisor or defence minister Njenga Karume is faster to diffuse the situation! Lets be happy the Kenya army breeds thoroughly obedient cogs like Khalangwa and Karangi! When, on the flip side, they will be ordered to arrest Ouru, Ruto and Matiang'i for rigging elections, they will equally do so without question! Generals with independent minds will bring the world of coup de tats upon you! And I can assure you politics is too complex to be run by men from the barracks! Let sleeping dogs lie! Amigo Jakaswanga, there are many truths of this world, and here you present a select few. In my view you left out the truth that is most relevant in Muguna Miguna's misfortune (I am not sure suicide passes for misfortune, but that's the word I have). Miguna Miguna picked the wrong fight, and his chosen opponent did not have to struggle in selecting his counter punch; Miguna Miguna should have seen the hand that would perfect the knockout, in which event he would have shelved his drama. But No! His eagerness to look big wouldn't let him see things as he ought, but as he wished. Miguna Miguna framed himself perfected for a knock out in a bout that was not even scheduled. No one even bought tickets. Miguna Miguna gathered free-viewing fans and brought them to boxing event in which he was a fighter, and in which he wanted Matiangi for an opponent. Somehow he believed he would KO Matiangi just with hot words. He exhaled fire with every word (the man has a way with words) and his for-free viewership was intrigued just as he had planned. Then it was Matiangi's turn, and now Miguna Miguna lays prostrate. I would be laughing at myself if I were the comic that is Miguna in this matter, and i think it is unfair of you to help in narratives that make this anything but the comedy that it is.
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Post by mank on Feb 10, 2018 1:37:29 GMT 3
There is a clip of Miguna Miguna flamboyantly denigrating Matiangi to trigger the events that have had him forcefully ejected to Canada. He exclaimed in an organized public address that Matiangi was "nothing, absolutely nothing", and dared the man to come and arrest him. Beside looking childish and unbecoming of a person who claims to be more responsible than the subject of his insults, it also raises questions about Miguna Miguna's mastery of the constitution of Kenya and related acts of parliament, and hence his real interest in the issues of the country. I would be surprised to find another dual citizen who would not have realized that Matiangi would have a way of expressing his substance to counter the personal insult.
The facts of the matter disagree with the label of Miguna Miguna's treatment as a "fascist onslaught". This is just a personal punch in the chin for reckless slander. Worse, there is no evidence that Matiangi was looking for Miguna Miguna before the insults. The man took a gamble to claim personal importance at the expense of another man, and got the opposite of what he wished for.
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Post by mank on Feb 3, 2018 4:24:37 GMT 3
Mank:Thank you for your feedback, which was rather cynical, I must confess. But at least out of the over one thousand people who looked at the piece, you bothered to interact by putting your thoughts on paper. Sincerely, Onyango Oloo It's my pleasure, OO, and I appreciate your words. Indeed, I have a very cynical take of Raila's contemporary tactics. It is difficult to make the case of a reform initiative around them. These tactics could have been justified during the Moi era when cordial disagreement was totally unwelcome.
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Post by mank on Feb 2, 2018 8:01:37 GMT 3
Raila has shown that he has lots of socio-political capital, at least significant to threaten failure of Uhuru's government. But it would be naive to think that such socio-political muscle means Raila would enjoy much loyalty as a president elect of himself (by coup). As he has socio-political muscle, so does Uhuru and others of Uhuru's political alignment. Therefore an overthrowal of government by Raila would just be the beginning of a succession of government overthrowals. There would be no government left to govern.
What Raila is operating is not opposition politics. To put it mildly, it is destructive politics. Unfortunately he is doing it in even a self-destructive way. What is he doing, lining himself up with the likes of Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi and Wetangula in skin-risking against a sitting government? What other day did any of them stand on the other side of government across a rift with the people? Sorry, the man has lost his marbles!
And when you remove these wannabe revolutionaries from his battalion, who is left? Miguna Miguna? oomf! Perhaps he could elevate a person like the lawyer Otiende. That one seems to have promise that he will say tomorrow what he is saying today, and that it is reasoned and not just jungle dume talk like all the rest in between the Kalonzos and him.
I hope though, Raila realizes that it cannot be noble for anyone to die with the country. Dying for the country is a virtue, but pulling the country to one's death bed has no glory.
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Post by mank on Dec 4, 2017 4:55:51 GMT 3
FIRST AN INTERLUDE, TO PUT THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE A: ALWAYS A DO OR DIE FOR THE MUMBI COMPRADOR..... Mbiyu and Jomo thus prepared for the forest heroes, the kind of reception Clytemnestra had for Agamemnon, King of Men. On the tyrants triumphant return from the sack of Troy ---never mind that he had Cassandra in tow as a spoil, and she was prophetically gifted, dread woe was to be his lot. Jukwaaists like Amigo Mank, who I have reason to suspect may hail from the environs wherefrom some of the legendary Mau Mau commanders are household names, can care to deal us in on what happened to many of the Rastafarians. I remember one only shaved off his rastas during Kibaki's presidency, but I forget the occasion! Some of us of course did time reading Maina (Wa Kinyatti), Ngugi (WaThiong'o) and a variety of other deeper pathologists of the Nyumba Unity mask, and there is that gently poke, Independence became a carcass for hounds. Koinange would train his dog Jomo into a savage hound. And like an Orwellian Squealer, he would organise a killer-crew of hounds. A string of secret murders and military operations ---to finish forever and flush out the rejectionists followed, but the Mau Mau memory still lingered on, becoming threatening enough to burst surface with the show-case crucifixion of JM Kariuki of Nyandarua.JM's killing wasn't just assassination. It was gory torture. It was mutilation and degradation. It was bestial. --Why!? Why not just a clean hit and be done!? Why the demented pathology!? Of course there is a Gikuyu rap song which goes I know how, who, where and why they killed JM! But you wont hear it on Kameme, Inooro or any other pop channel! Jomo Kenyatta, top hound on the carcass, it must be conceded, didn't spare his backyard the full glory of his black heart. It isn't just Uncut folk like Tom Mboya he cut down, No, he didn't flinch from tearing his own cubs. A lot of Gikuyu pop-singers these days have only half-minds. On their Nyumba history, they suffer a memory loss on the size of the Kenya cash debt. Without that memory loss, the Kamwana myth wouldn't pick. Of course the critical sounds are there, but they are marginalised, they are like an underground scene, hush-hush like the stuff of sedition ---which in deed they are. They are the sharp pins which can deflate a balloon. The only way the Gikuyu comprador can continue holding on, the only way the can continue keeping a lid on the boiling Gikuyu riff-raff, peddling the deliverance myth of Kamwana, is by continued control of state power.This is literal insurance. Don't know whether Chubukati fathomed this truth. Last time around, it took the firm hand of John Michuki in a colonial-like murderous campaign, to contain the situation. The Gikuyu riff-raff, say sub-altern proletariat, organised in desperate wings of the Mungiki, became such a physical menace to the well-to-do, that something drastic had to be done. The cold-blooded campaign of extra-judicial killings which the merciless John unleashed on Mungiki, young Gikuyu males in the main, is on record for the uncataracted. Wacha wewe! Gikuyu cultural records I am talking. For the Kenya national archives is like ethe mind of a Korsakov patient: incoherent, inconsistent, lapsy and a near pathological liar. This is how it comes that tomorrow, at the swearing in at Kasarani, our official archives will celebrate the result of a free and fair democratic exercise. A whole two successful elections in one month! Duly elected Muigai, just like the duly elected Emilio of yonder.We all haven't all lost our minds though. We just enjoy farce, even tragi-farce. Tomorrow will be one huge one. --Yes, something is wrong, there is another ceremony planned at Jacaranda grounds. --weeping and wailing for the dead! It may still be one country, one house, but our hearts and minds no longer travel together it seems, we are just keeping appearances of living together, flying one flag. But bad marriages can last very long if couples do something right! --Like admit they are out of options than to stick together and fight to death! Amigo Jakaswanga, I will miss you when your people secede from ours. By that time, if it really comes, your people will have invented new divisions across which to fight. Among ours too, old divisions will have rejuvenated, or at least we shall have questioned the thesis of overlooking our divisions for peace and unity's sake, and we shall be fighting like hell. Perhaps then splinters of yours and mine may want to get together and reinvent a nation, but despair is no compelling foundation for a nation. I say No! All considered, therefore, I bet we are all better off today, even if the president is a Kenyatta! You "... have reason to suspect [ that Man K] may hail from the environs wherefrom some of the legendary Mau Mau commanders are household names...", but I will disappoint you to confirm that very few of my hommies are aware of the national status of the Mau Mau locals that now mostly inhabit unmarked graves! They may mention a native name of a commander here and there, but they are hardly invested in the subject to wonder why that name seems to be lost in the air! To that end, Kenyatta snr's government succeeded in wiping out the Mau Mau legends from Kenya's story! You might disagree, because we now mention "Mau Mau" with a fascinating monotony. But who exactly are we talking about, when we mention a faceless Mau Mau? To that too, you might counter that we often mention names. Yes, like Dedan Kimathi, we never ceased to mention, ever since the man was downed by the bullet of a ngaati. It was not so much for the man that there were such mentions, but for the purpose of a choreographed extinction of the Mau Mau. The Brittons wanted the world to believe that the Mau Mau died with the execution of Kimathi. Interestingly, Kenyatta liked that version of the story, and even while he took pleasure in pretending to be Mau Mau, and even had state-level correspondence with the leadership of Mau Mau during the planning of his release and onset of independence, he did not wish for these rugged warriors to have their fair share of history. And the nation at large followed his wish! Tell me, why is the Mau Mau leader who is featured with several politicians in Hilary Ng'weno's "The Making of a Nation" the only person for whom no narrative is given in the documentary? And how do we reconcile the failure of the documentary to talk about this individual with the title of the documentary, the fact that this individual was just coming from the forest with his army at the time of the picture, and the fact that he was also one of the four who led armies into the forest to begin with? What is honest about the documentary after such historical mischief? The Rastafarians of Kenya's freedom struggle were edited out in life as in history. AS a child I saw some of them struggling to comprehend the cruelty with which we disappointed their expectation for gratitude. The same man that is featured without identity in Hilary Ngw'eno's deceptive documentary was hurled into Kamiti prison within a year of the featured picture. His locks were mutilated by "Utumishi Kwa Wote" officers enroute Kamiti. In Kamiti he was broken in every way a man can be broken: body and spirit. Meanwhile others were murdered (General Baimungi), while others were left to the mercy of inevitable depression and poverty. The complex ones, like JM Kariuki, had to be solved in likewise complex ways! Kenyatta knew these people personally, and he could have saved any of them, and their stories, if he so chose, and for this reason, while I have no proof, I believe everything that happened was his wish! Anyway, amigo, now tell me about these new generals, starting with Dr. Ndii! Who is he? He is termed an economist, and I know he even holds a gargantuan economist's office, but I see nothing of an economist in his political philosophy. Even his statistical models cause me heart burns.
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Post by mank on Nov 25, 2017 7:33:35 GMT 3
A Digital Essay by Onyango Oloo...Just like the Kenya Land and Freedom Army caused a national, regional and international stir when Kimathi,Muthoni, Bamuinge and their comrades launched their glorious Mau Mau War for National Independence, let this generation of Kenyans be remembered for what they are doing to take the cause of African freedom forward. ... Hi friend OO, Just a quick correction. Munthoni and Baimungi became part, and triumphant leaders of the Mau Mau rebellion in their jurisdictions, but they did not launch the rebellion. Something inside me so strong, makes me so indebted to the Mau Mau fighters that, that I feel complicent in the inhumane editing of their noble and martyr stories if I do not correct errors such as yours when I come across them. You would correctly say Itote, Kimathi, Mathenge and Mwariama, or any of those four if you wish to cast some to "and others." To cast any of those into "and others" while including those who joined later, I think is tantamount to editing history. Needless to say, the distinction I am making here is very narrow, but all that crucial. Otherwise there were many Mau Mau leaders who did not launch the rebellion, but were great anyway, including the two I feel you misspresent here. I think fair recognition of any of them needs to be as accurate as possible, and that is the correction touch I am making to your presentation.
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Post by mank on Nov 1, 2017 8:00:55 GMT 3
I always felt the other side of the coin should have been asked: what if Raila refuses to concede defeat?
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Post by mank on Oct 26, 2017 9:25:04 GMT 3
That's pretty much my thought, as I have said elsewhere on this board. But I also struggle to figure Judge Maraga's mind. Is he really confident that the case of incomprehensibility of the Aug 8th presidential vote was made in court, reporting malpractice allegations notwithstanding, or that any other election would stand valid if viewed through the eye (lazy eye) of his Sept 1 bench? Don't these questions matter? Ever thought of a football injustice like handling a ball in the penalty box, red carding the offending player and denying the opponents a penalty?? That referee would be stoned in a Gor Vs AFC football game. Is this what Kenyans should do to Maraga for a similar act? ... I think this is what you should have said: ref yellow-cards the offending player, and calls upon the faulted player to a penalty kick, but the latter refuses to kick, arguing that the fact that a fault was called is evidence that the game is rigged. Then he, the presumably faulted player, goes off the field and calls on all who can listen, to disown the game.
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Post by mank on Oct 18, 2017 23:31:16 GMT 3
The resignation by Dr Akombe will be downplayed by Jubilee Party/ Government honchos as inconsequential, her statements and press interviews shows how ill prepared the IEBC is towards the upcoming elections. it is obvious that Uhuru’s coronation slated for Oct 26th will lack legitimacy. I wonder why they are playing Russian Roulette with lives of Kenyans. I am sure that the Lords of Wealth as they would like to be saluted will lose big time should Murphy’s law take hold of events post elections . . . . time will tell…. .. I don't understand the charge you are making against Jubilee, Kasiaya. Not that I am a representative or even a member, but I ask as a Kenyan who is interested in truth and intensely disturbed by the direction of the country's politics. What is Russian Roulette in this context, and what should Jubilee do in the circumstances?
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Post by mank on Oct 15, 2017 20:00:46 GMT 3
Well let me disappoint you and denounce the man from my "backyard". There's a reason why elections are rarely annulled and it has little to do with supporting status quo. The Pandora's box that annulments entail are simply not worth the hassle. Even first world nations like the United States balk at the mere thought of overturning an election as Al Gore found out to his dismay and Hillary Clinton is regretting today once the Russian hacking connection was found out to be fact and not fiction. My fellow village elder from the hills of Gusii will bear the brunt of the responsibility for that "historic" ruling as the president of the court. All the wasted funds to conduct two elections will in future not be blamed on our hapless IEBC but on the Maraga Court for deciding to throw caution to the wind and practice judicial activism in its worst form. Millions of Kenyans will have to queue...again...on October 26th so that we can participate in an election which even the petitioner to the Supreme Court isn't even interested in taking part in! How fair and just is that? No, oyonka Omwenga, Justice Maraga will not be remembered for the historic ruling but for the costs in treasure and lost opportunity he has ensured the entire nation will have to endure. The only thing we look forward to is not so much his legacy but his retirement in 2018... That's pretty much my thought, as I have said elsewhere on this board. But I also struggle to figure Judge Maraga's mind. Is he really confident that the case of incomprehensibility of the Aug 8th presidential vote was made in court, reporting malpractice allegations notwithstanding, or that any other election would stand valid if viewed through the eye (lazy eye) of his Sept 1 bench? Don't these questions matter?
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Post by mank on Sept 27, 2017 17:24:16 GMT 3
Opening of servers is not a matter of infringng on independence, but acertaining that the servers did exactly what they were expected to do. That is why we have audits. The auditor general can summon the SC to produce all receipts say of travel expenses of it's staff. Do you want to tell me SC should not comply because it will infringe on its independence. I think the definition of independence of institutions is not premised on absolutness of authority, but on the discharge of their duties as mandated by the law or laws governining them. From time to time, that independence must be verified and seen to be working or still relevant. Production of receipts and invoices sound routine audit procedures. Similarly printouts of any form from the servers is fair deal. Demanding access to the server sounds like an intent to corrupt the server. Gaining control of servers can compromise independence of work if the non IEBc people would gain such access have the capacity to input anything into the work of IEBc. Auditing authority doesn't entail absolute right over everything including the vehicles of deriving a result. An audit of the type we here discuss entails scrutiny over data inputs, report outputs, and perhaps accompanying conversations. All these could be captured in extracts from the server and should not call for ceding control of the server. The second point on printers is premised on common sense. What you feed a printer in terms of what it should print, is what you will get from it. They do not have a mind of their own. So if the contract stated that all ballot papers must have certain security features, they will have, even small mom and pop print shops can gurantee that with 100% certainity. The technology has been with us for 50+ years. Maybe you should try pass an offical document without a letter head, then you will get the point. Security features can be so unique as to pinpoint the exact place, time, batch, machine, operator and many other marks you would need to verify that a certain form came from that and that printer. It is done every single day, check your cell-phone or chicken legs you buy at major suprmarkets etc. Those can be traced to the exact chicken farm and batch of chickens that were slaughtered. You didn't add anything on what I had said on this point. A printer prints what it is given, and that was my explanation to Podp as to why some printouts from the same printer may lack a water mark. You however fell short of noticing my point on assessment of the significance of the lack of the watermark on some printouts... It is of no consequence as far as tallying is concerned, as long as opponents in the elections are signature witnesses of the tally on whatever paper the tally may be presented. By the way, given that the presumed thieves at IEBc are not any less aware of the significance of a watermark than you, why would they not have used watermarked forms to cheat? Why would they have used forms without watermarks instead? Last I have is the question of recount. Would you vouch for a recount of an outcome that has all the inputs unverifiable? As a citizen, my conscious would not allow me. You can talk all day about "only some" were missing, or "the amount is small to affect outcome". I will tell you to go and sing that to the mathematicians or staticians. I am an ordinary citizen and I want to be sure that me and my opponents forms were handled in a way that is indsiputable to both of us. I can assure you that there will always be some level of irregularities in any national election here on earth. What must be ensured is that there is no systemic corrupting irregularity, and hence the specialties you are asking me to go sing to (I am not a good singer) have a role to play in assessing and showing the significance of any irregularities in a dispute process. I was clear I wasn't being dismissive of irregularities in using "some", rather I was highlighting the shallowness of interest in discovering the extent of irregularity. The common voter is not the idiot you are trying to caricature - While statistics and math may not be his/her specialization, he or she is not devoid of the capacity to assess reasonable explanation of phenomena, of course except they may pretend when the implications of reason don't align with their selfish interests. A recount is perhaps not the right term for what is needed in the situation. What's needed is a review of the forms that were signed at the poling stations. Certainly, if representatives of contesting parties signed on the same tally form, there is no need for a recount. Where representatives didn't sign, then other options emerge, including repeat voting for those stations only.
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Post by mank on Sept 27, 2017 1:37:43 GMT 3
I am not yet halfway, reading every script of the Judges, both concurring majority and dissenting opinion! nb: there is no alternative to essay writing! performing written marathons is quite a different competence, as I experienced, listening to some, like Lady Justice Mwilu! Was also keen on full judgement and gave students tutorial telling them is Njoki could write 400 pages in 21 days surely they can provide 10 highlights from both concurring and dissenting opinions. After they submitted the assignment the following merged. Among the technical issues six matters that were similar are:- 1. A whopping 11,000 polling stations did not have G3 network. Hence who in their right minds would switch off GPS and satellite phones? 2. Security features of forms 34 A not present yet the printer was one! Who in this age would photocopy or forge such forms and why 3. IEBC disobeying SCOK to give access to the servers. What makes them have contempt of court with such impunity? 4. KIEMS devices, especially how the IEBC portal, API, servers etc. were connected assuming the Polling Officers who were meant to key in data both where G3 network and where not available move to where the network was available, gives room for culpability. Are any investigation due? 5. IEBC ICT Director's affidavit said where no G3 network, POs were instructed to go to constituency headquarters or move to areas network is available. Culpability investigations can also be done here! Why disable GPS and satellite phones? 6. Technical Committee (ETAC) better known as Kiraitu-Orengo joint select committee which had Jubilee and NASA experts was disbanded by the high court for being unconstitutional. SCOK only noted this but neither concurring nor dissenting pronounced themselves on the matter! 7. 8. 9. 10. The SCOK Technical Experts. Mmmmmh There is only one irregularity that stands out in all this elections fiasco. That is the shortchanging of the electorate without good course. The rest, Podp, are mere allegations that those with the authority to validate as fact and consequential remain uninterested to validate. I wonder why. In my view, the first goal of any institution of democracy in this situation should be to safeguard the expression of the electorate, if it can be decoded. Proof of misconduct in the election is necessary, but it makes absolutely no sense that mere suspicion of misconduct is sufficient reason to turn a blind eye to the fact that wananchi voted, and that a repeat is not costless. I am unaware of the details of how things went in the elections, but the above bullets don't rise up to trivial manifestations of irregularity to anyone willing to acknowledge earthly realities. I will make my comments against the first 4 bullets (I am not clear about the rest): #1: Supply of technology is not uniform. I know many places in US where G3 network is unavailable, or too undependable. GPS and satellite phones are also technologies, and their mere unavailability at a time of need is not necessarily a manifestation of electoral malpractice. #2: A water mark is not printer DNA. Whether a water mark will be on all printouts depends on whether the operator sends the same water-marked version of the document to the printer, for every copy printed. So you can say a watermark is a DNA of a particular version of a document. Moreover, absence of a water mark doesn't mean anything if the form is signed by representatives of the opposing parties as a representation of the tally done before them. I understand that some were not signed. SOME. No one has cared to enumerate the possible weight of this SOME. I am unaware of any public discussion of why some were not signed. If this debate was genuinely about improving the electoral process, that's the kind of topic that would be at the top of the discussion. Whether the announced result was the right one would be a secondary objective, i.e., to determine whether when all the alleged irregularities are assessed, the call was valid. #3: I don't know what the laws says, but I think the SC should have no right to call for server access. Where does independence of the IEBC remain then, if another institution will have unabated access to its work? The SC has ways of showing that IEBC announced an incorrect result, if that is the case. It can inquire into the workings of the server, of course, but it should not at any time have control over the server, in my opinion. So, unless we are talking of read-only access in this case, I am glad IEBC did not comply. Whether it should comply in future, should be tabled in a bill by legislators of good faith, if any. Why would anyone be sure that a person sitting at the court was not keen on changing the contents of the server upon being granted access? #4: Are any investigation due? I reiterate that question, but not with respect to this bullet alone, but every one of them. I am now of the impression that all at play have secrets that would not be appealing to the voter, if disclosed. That is why no one wants to dig into the truth of votes. Not NASA, not Jubilee, not Supreme court. Anyone who is in this truly for democracy's interest would be saying, "lets recount the votes even while we have to abide by the SC's order."
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Post by mank on Sept 26, 2017 1:03:44 GMT 3
Try and explain why the curve was not perfect, i.e., why it has any randomness at all, and the actual steps needed to construct it. I think someone constructing such a line for purposes of generating results would have figured that more obvious randomness was necessary to sell it.
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Post by mank on Sept 24, 2017 8:33:50 GMT 3
That one is a misdirected letter. It should have been written to the Supreme Court of Kenya. Uhuru has no power to decide the what ifs for the country. He can run his campaign. Just like Raila.
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Post by mank on Sept 24, 2017 8:27:56 GMT 3
Mr Uhuru, Sir,
and all else,
without apology.
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Post by mank on Sept 23, 2017 23:42:50 GMT 3
Hypothesis in "real" science is either true or null. For the fitment to be null, IEBC, should have copied what mPesa does. Give the supporting evidence i.e. Forms 34a, b to z within the shortest time possible and definitely less than a day i.e. 24 hours after end of voting. Therefore if each polling point had between 1 and 700 voters just start counting 1 to 700 and see if you take an hour. Then assuming each polling station had 24 polling points i.e. A to Z assume after assembling all the results of the polling points simple arithmetic of the 24 polling points took 2 hours. The sum arrived at is then transmitted to the constituency polling center at the speed of light i.e. Assuming it took the time the sun's rays travel from the sun to the earth, give the transmission 8 or so minutes. Then the constituency sits on the results from the polling centre for an hour to re confirm from other sources e.g. Secondary ones like news media people, secret police, agents of the protagonists, etc. Then the constituency relays its form 34 b to z onwards to Chi Robber and Cheb Liar. So the two i.e. Robber and Liar take half a day fidgeting between themselves and their sponsors, say PORK and RAO. They sleep for 6 hours simultaneously and wake up fresh. That is 1+2+1+12+6=20 hours. So as long as Chi Robber and Cheb Liar are unable to utilize technology to do the arithmetic for them it beats logic why they did not announce the winner and looser within 24 hours of the polls closing down. So it must be true they were doing what late Kivuitu told us returning officers did in 2007. Cooking results while the formula y=mx+c fed our screens expecting we would be psychologically as in 2013 when Uhuruto led from start to finish. Podp, you really cannot test an hypothesis with another hypothesis (or prove a speculation with further speculation). Elsewhere I see my prayers are being answered (about continuing to expose the laziness of the court in taking questionable assertions as fact without the due scrutiny). See this excerpt: Source: www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/opinion-shows-Njoki-Ndungu-s-ability-to-pen-thriller-/440808-4108238-4sm9ic/index.html
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Post by mank on Sept 23, 2017 23:04:52 GMT 3
Podp, but still this is an argument that reported data might be corrupted (no one knows for sure, but like you stated, it is an allegation). The court asserted that neither voter registration nor voting was tainted. So what argument is advanced that ballots would not be used to check this argument?
If the data was so deliberately corrupted, then that makes for individual criminal cases. I suppose such cases cannot be prosecuted without recounting the ballots or reviewing forms 34, unless there is authentic evidence of data cook room activity. How interesting then, that we could recount or revisit the forms in such cases, yet at this stage a whole election is being rerun on believe that the data was corrupted.
I am not informed of how IEBC is constituted, but I agree with you that at this time it is important that neutrality be assured. It will be a challenge to reconstitute the commission within the time, but if that is the only means to assure neutrality, then there should be no way out of it.
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