Re-Entering Kenyan Air Space...

[Onyango Oloo]

The SECOND Digital Essay from Nairobi by Onyango Oloo

Part One


The last eight days- meaning the last day of October and the first seven days of November have been very eye-opening days indeed.

At least for me.

I arrived at JKIA on Sunday, October 30th, 2005 at around 9:30 pm aboard British Airways flight #065.

As we disembarking, the very first words that the cheerful airport workers lobbed at me after the Karibu Kenya platitudes had to do with bananas and oranges. Later on, as I was chatting with a taxi driver I encountered the first of the many organic working class pundits who was weighing in comfortably about who was the likely winner of the November 21st referendum. The friends who came to pick me up gave me the breaking news of the carnage in Kisumu, expressing their dismay about why 3,000 police askaris and 600 GSU troops were considered necessary to protect 40 Yes supporters at the infamous Tuju rally.

I spent my first night in Kenya at a fairly modest, but quite efficiently run and sparkling clean motel in one of the Nairobi neighbourhoods. It is here that I saw yet another dimension of the fractious referendum campaign. Wherever I encounter Kenyans, I prefer to speak Kiswahili even when addressed in English. As I chatted with the motel staff, a lid was lifted on some very strongly held opinions. Because of the way my Kiswahili is accented the workers at the motel must have assumed that I was what some people call a "Coasterian" from "America." This gave them the licence to offer me a free lesson in Kenyan social anthropology. When I asked, innocently, what had happened in Kisumu earlier that day I was met with a spontaneous torrent of ethnicized rage and tribal finger pointing:

"Ni kabila moja tu, ndiyo wanaleta nyoko nyoko kila saa. Ni Wajaluo wenye kuleta fujo kila mara."

They expounded on this theme by going back to the 1982 coup plot and waxed poetic about Raila and his thirst for power and the Luos and their insatiable penchant for mayhem. What the serikali to do, they asked me rhetorically.

Soon after this I paused to purchase a couple of Safaricom cards to make my first two phone calls.

The initial one was to my Mombasa based mshikaji and we chatted happily, albeit too briefly in Kiswahili. It was when I called my only surviving brother and started jazzing and short waving in Jeng that I saw, from the corner of my eyes, a gaggle of jaws dropping and shocked and embarrassed eyeballs popping.

As soon as I got off the phone and confirmed their worst fears by filling out my name there was a bit of scrambling to take back the ethnic slurs and tribal innuendoes. Surprisingly, I was not even angry or saddened at these blinkered visions. Instead I silently sent my kudos to the Made in Kenya Goebbels and other propaganda spin meisters who had convinced these and other in laws from the slopes that there was indeed an actual “enemy tribe” in Kenya with the corollary “chosen people”.

How many times had these sincere, friendly, earnest fellow Kenyans been bombarded with the vile filth spreading fear and dread about the mysterious and menacing nyamu cia ruguru? How many exclusive conversations in Gikuyu had planted indelible impressions in uncounted minds about the “wasaliti” who wanted to bring down Kibaki’s regime from within? How many of the daughters of Gikuyu na Mumbi and its affiliated Mount Kenya cousin communities were prepared to wield Interhamwesque crude weapons of ethnic slaughter to “defend” the Nyoomba?

I had read about the Leon Mugeseras of Rwanda and the Serbian hate mongers of the Balkans; was familiar with George Wallace’s stance in defence of the segregationist status quo in the American Deep South; was all too familiar with Afrikaner laager mentality and the faith based reductionisms in sectarian torn Northern Ireland and the South Asian sub-continent; knew only too well about the dehumanizing depictions of Black Sudanese by their equally dark skinned “Arab” antagonists- somehow, none of this had quite prepared me for the raw immediacy of blind tribal hatred.

Having lived in Canada for close to 18 years I experienced every day racism in the subways, the streets, the bistros, the restos, the pizzerias, the depanneurs, the bureaus and on the autobus due to the fact that my African nose, my African lips, my African hair, my African skin, my African accent ID’d me as the ethnic other to the “pure laine” of Quebec or the real Canadians of English Canada. For this reason, I am totally unsurprised at the burning inferno of inner city immigrant and community of colour indignation in France at decades of marginalization, eons of discrimination, years of sub humanization that has kindled, what, as of this writing on November 8, 2005, appears to defy all police and state control social fire fighting finesse and expertise.

What a harsh slap across the face to be embraced by such unabashed tribal hate within two hours of my arrival back in my pays natal.

[Onyango Oloo]

Part Two:

Over the last six or seven years or so, it has become something of a personal trademark to churn out at least two digital essays a week- sometimes even more with the occasional silent fortnights that prove the exception to that prolific rule.

While it is true that the VERY FIRST THING I did on the morning of Monday, October 31st- as soon as I could haul my derriere to an open cyber café was to compose an incendiary digital essay lambasting the Kibaki-NAK regime for its heinous act of state terrorism which left 4 people, including a 13 year old schoolboy dead- by and large, I have opted to take a back seat and observe the political drama unfolding in various theatres of the absurd across the country.

Perhaps at this point, it will suffice if I just shared snippets from various Kenyan newspapers. Implicitly, my chosen excerpts are embedded with my own editorial take- in other words, the very act of zooming in on this passage from this publication rather than that one or this story rather than any other one contains my own value judgments.

Here follows a truly diverse and seemingly random sample:

I was at a security meeting where they were arranging these things. The Provincial Criminal Information Officer told our people that they should not use live ammunition…my son was carrying schoolbooks and was in uniform. He was only 13. He was tired and hungry and was rushing home. I do not know why they fired at him.”- Police Inspector Kennedy Limera Omutere, father of the late Paul Limera who was shot in the back by Kenyan police as he ran away from the terror of the Kenyan state. Excerpt from a page one story in The Standard of Monday, October 31, 2005.

….The court was adjourned for 45 minutes after lawyer John Olago claimed most of the suspects suffered gunshot wounds and were tortured in police custody. He said the suspects had been denied medication since their arrest on Saturday. Those released included Kisumu Polytechnic deputy principal, Charles Akatch, three lecturers and seven students. Olago, Gilbert Oguso, Stephen K’Opot and Francis Mochama appeared for the suspects. K’Opot interjected before the lecturers and polytechnic students took a plea, saying the charge sheet was invalid as the students were arrested from examination rooms. –Standard, Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Registered voters in Nyandarua District risk being deleted from the voters’ register if they do not support the controversial Wako Draft in the forthcoming referendum, Lands Minister Amos Kimunya has warned. He said at a Banana rally in Kipipiri grounds over the weekend that the leadership in Nyandarua will use a parallel list of all registered voters, identify and mobilize them to the polling stations. For those who will not vote, they will be punished and may be kicked out of the district, he threatened. - Kenya Times, November 1, 2005, page 4.

Police said yesterday that they had summoned Khalwale, a key figure in the Yes campaign in Kakamega district for interrogation over eight machetes recovered from the shell of his burnt Toyota Prado following skirmishes with Orange supporters. Kakamega deputy police boss Patrick Safari told the press that Khalwale was expected at the police station any time to make a statement regarding the presence of the weapons in his vehicle. And the Western provincial criminal investigation boss Daniel Chesimet has ordered police to arrest Khalwale’s three bodyguards who allegedly attacked and injured a young Jua Kali mechanic during the incident. The procession was broken up along Sudi Road by hostile No supporters retaliating against the attack on the mechanic Simon Shimanyula- from the People Daily

…Fr. Wamugunda is the same person who lambasted the former President for being against a new constitution. He is credited with delivering sermons in favour of a people-driven constitution, yet he is now supporting one that has been born out of political machinations and power play. I advise the priest to shut up and watch us play our part in shaping our future, or alternatively, go tell the church to take a stand…. Isaac Kiplagat, in a letter to the editor, Daily Nation, page 10, Saturday, November 5, 2005.

Three of the four people killed during the recent violence in Kisumu were shot while fleeing, a post-mortem report has revealed. The report was read to mourners at Moi Stadium in Kisumu by Dr. David Olima. It indicates that Vincent Otieno, aged 15, was shot in the back with high caliber bullets. Otieno was a Standard Seven pupil at Ogango Primary School. George Ogada was shot at point blank range in the shoulder. The bullet tore his left lung and ruptured the spine. It was retrieved from the stomach and handed over to the police for ballistic examination. Hillary Ochieng’, a rehabilitated street boy, was shot twice in the leg at close range. He bled to death. - Standard, front page story, Monday, November 7, 2005.

The ill-fated Kisumu Yes rally which directly led to the death of four people was held on “orders from above” and against the better judgment of security apparatus on the ground…Testifying before the Electoral Commission of Kenya…the Kisumu Officer Commanding Police Division Stanley Kimanzi alluded to pressure from the Office of the President to have the rally proceed even as it became all too apparent that it was ill advised…- Kenya Times, front page story, Tuesday, November 8, 2005.

A minister yesterday warned that the Kikuyu community will not stand by and watch the Orange luminaries bring down the Kibaki government. Robinson Njeru Githae, the justice and constitutional affairs assistant minister accused the Orange luminaries of seeking to bring down the government through the referendum vote and warned that their schemes will be crushed mercilessly. “Mzee Jomo Kenyatta ruled this country for 15 years and Moi for 24 years. Why are Kenyans tired of Kibaki after only two years?” Githae posed…he warned his kinsmen that they risk losing the national referendum to the Orange camp if they fail to turn up in large numbers to pass the new constitution on November 21. He lamented that during the last general election, only 58 percent of the total Kikuyu voter population cast their vote compared to 98 percent of the Luo voter population.

- The People Daily, column 6, page 18, Monday, November 7, 2005.

A fundraiser organized by Royal Media Services yesterday turned into a forum for bashing other media houses in the country. Speakers among them assistant minister Njeru Githae and Royal Media owner S.K. Macharia, said all media houses should declare their stand in the ongoing referendum debate. “We are happy with Citizen and its sister radio stations because of the total support it has given the Yes team”, said Githae. He then challenged other stations “like KTN, Nation and their print media” to declare their interest publicly “instead of claiming to be neutral.”…At the meeting Inooro deejays led the crowd in chants of “Kura ni Yes!” and “Inooro ni Yes!”- Standard, Monday November 7, 2005, page 5.

The government yesterday issued a sack notice to the country’s foremost Islamic spiritual leader Chief Kadhi Kassim Hamad Ahamad, for calling on Muslims to reject the proposed new constitution. Foreign Affairs minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere warned the Chief Kadhi that he would definitely be sacked over his call if he failed to resign on his own volition. An angry Mwakwere said it was a sign of disrespect for the president and the nation’s Muslim community for the cleric to call for the rejection of the proposed new constitution even when it catered for their interests. - Front-page story, People Daily, Monday, November 7, 2005.

As if besmirching the reputations of their rivals will help increase the number of votes at the referendum, the warring sides have now resorted to bankrolling sleaze newspapers to assassinate characters of leading luminaries. The trick is to open up cupboards and lay bare embarrassing skeletons both past and present….According to sources with close links to one of the main powers behind the no holds barred smear campaign, the idea is to shame so many of their rivals to the extent that they hibernate in their homes and offices rather than attend political rallies. Interestingly, the smear tactic seems to emanate from the Banana side…our investigations have established that the papers are linked to the highest office in the land, State House. The papers, Guardian and the Spyman we learnt, are products of the Yes secretariat that has employed the services of veteran media personalities led by a former top editor of Kenya Times newspaper. The former KT editor we learnt, was chosen because of his vast experience in propaganda, having been the man behind the notorious KANU Briefs that aimed at tainting the opposition politicians in the 1992 and 1997 elections. Another person in the team is a well-read former revise editor in both the Nation and Standard newspapers. The two are said to be on a weekly allowance of Shs. 200,000. The printing costs of the paper in a week are Sh 150,000. As a matter of fact, we learnt, the papers were originally supposed to be given free of charge but it was later decided that they be sold reportedly because dishing them out for free would have betrayed the intentions behind them. Apart from the flawless language and spell-binding flow of these publications, another aspect of the paper that is raising eyebrows among their readers is the fact that the content in the papers is the kind that mostly falls in the possession of state secret agents. The papers’ main financier, we established is business tycoon Nat Kang’ethe who is a senior “chef” in the Kibaki kitchen cabinet. Also in the ‘boardroom’ of the papers is Starehe constituency MP Maina Kamanda. The newspapers are giving a new definition to the term Yellow Journalism, we also got to know, will be sustained until the 2007 elections. A budget of Shs 150 million has reportedly been put in place. The money for this venture and other related schemes will come from state parastatals and the Kenya Pipeline Company is said to have already coughed Shs. 500 million towards the Banana campaign kitty.

Weekly Citizen, 7th-13th November, 2005, p.2

Local government minister Musikari Kombo conceded yesterday that his quest for the presidency is doomed, thanks to Luhya disunity. A bitter Kombo wondered loudly why his Luhya kinsmen are enthusiastically flocking to Orange campaign rallies to be addressed by… Raila Odinga and other Orange luminaries instead of listening to him. “I have said I want to be president. But I can’t because you are preoccupied na kunikata kata miguu...I am bitter that you reject my advice and instead wait for Raila to tell you what he wants...

People Daily, front page story, Tuesday, November 08, 2005

[Onyango Oloo]

Part Three:

By now, most of the people reading these lines have hashed and rehashed and triple hashed the recent report on poverty in Kenya. Today is not the day to delve into it in any kind of detail. I question a lot of the assumptions which went into the study, from the yardstick for measuring poverty to the appellation “rich” versus “poor” provinces, constituencies and so forth. One of the most glaring howlers is the threshold of poverty being placed at something at something less than 2,000 shillings a month. This not only excludes millions of very poor Kenyans who of course earn more than 2,000 shillings but with hardly anything to survive on- but more importantly fails to locate the source of poverty- it is not lack of education (we all know of the post-graduate watchmen) or female headed households (an outlandish sexist insult); it has everything to do with the historically determined relations between the exploiters and the exploited. I would have been interested in seeing a deep discussion about the connection between land ownership and economic security, or to be even more germane- the nexus between state patronage and upward social mobility. I am glad that Paul Muite was quick to correct the canard about Kabete being the “richest” community in the country by pointing out the squalor and homelessness that obtains in his constituency. Unfortunately for the Yes camp the very listing of the “richest” and the “poorest” only served to underline fears that some regions of Kenya are more concerned about consolidating their perceived privileges rather than ushering in a new democratic dispensation.

The other thing which has amused me about the Kibaki presidency is its unprecedented open door policy to outside visitors. Folks I am planning to lead the newly formed Association of Kenyan Marxist Ahoi to State House where we will DEMAND the creation of a brand new Kenyan district called Karleninstrad. Is this the same haughty and stuffy head of state that used to spend twelve hours in bed browsing PG Wodehouse while the country went to nguis? Is this the same head of state who refused to go and condole the survivors of the North Horr massacre? One of the standard peeves of the DP that Kibaki heads was that former President Daniel arap Moi was a master of cheap, crude and blatant pork barrel politics and that thanks to his gerrymandering, the Bomas delegates list was skewed. Yet today everybody and their cat are copping a district of their own if they ask nicely.

I find it bizarre to read of Chirau Ali Mwakwere’s threats to sack the Chief Kadhi because he has refused the rotten bananas from the Yes camp. When was the last time the government threatened to “sack” the Reverend Timothy Njoya for speaking his mind?

What is even more macabre is a story I also came across of one of the Akamba MPs surreptiously abusing a public rally to administer a traditional Kamba oath to unsuspecting rural Kenyans in Mwala recently. This almost trumps Kimunya’s threats in Nyandarua to “punish” any voter who does not support the Banana crowd.

Speaking of the surreal, am I the only veteran of the Kenyan 1980s/1990s underground movements who is totally flabbergasted by Koigi wa Wamwere’s trenchant and increasingly tribally tinged attacks on Agwambo Tinga Tinga? It is in the public domain that Koigi was arrested not once, but twice and charged with trying to overthrow the Kenyan government. I wrote an open letter to Koigi on August 17, 2003 alluding to some of these things and will say no more, except remind the Subukia MP and one time “comrade” that nyani kweli haoni kundule.

[Onyango Oloo]

Part Four:

It appeared as if the last week has been some kind of blood-curdling festival of state terrorism in the East, Central and Southern African region- not leaving out the repression in Ivory Coast ordered by the Kibaki clone of that neighbourhood, Laurent Gbagbo. I saw images and text of police brutality in Ethiopia, in Zanzibar, in Zimbabwe and of course in our Kenya while noting in passing the organized state response in France.

Many observers believe that the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party has for the third time, robbed the opposition CUF of an outright victory and once again wants to justify its repression using the most dubious ways. In Ethiopia, which was supposed to be a haven of democracy in sharp contrast to Somalia in the east. Sudan in the west and Kenya to the south is these days trying its best to ape the worst excesses of Moi and Mobutu.

It is startling to realize that the ruling elites in Kenya, Zanzibar, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and elsewhere think that they can ride roughshod over their respective wananchi for ever. Most of them are in for a rude shock.

************


One of the most refreshing signs of a vibrant democratic culture, despite, or maybe even because of the increasing political intolerance of the powers that be in Kenya is the way Kenyans are so open about all matters political.

I will provide one sample to back up my claim.

Listen to this acappella, spontaneous composition by William Masha, a casual Giriama labourer I met over the weekend at a place called Marereni which is about 40 kilometres north of Malindi. He sings in his native KiGiriama decrying the fact that those delegates who went to Bomas cobbled together a document in English that was largely inaccessible to millions of Kenyans like Masha:

216.17.145.92/uploads/2005/11/masha.mp3

[Onyango Oloo]

Part Six:

I have been in Kenya for one week and what I have observed is making more and more confident that the essays I have been writing in Canada are definitely on the right track.
For instance, I can empathize with the pitiful desperation of the Yes camp even as I recoil in horror from their amateurish abuse of state terror. If I was in the Yes camp and I knew that SINA MIGUU WALA MIKONO in terms of substantial arguments, concrete support and projected poll numbers, I too would panic and start threatening the Chief Kadhi with the gunia; I too would hire some mercenary mainstream journalists to ghost write sleazy garbage about prominent Orange personalities accusing them of among other things- dying their beards in hair salons, having homosexual trysts, humping the house help and boinking women they are not married to. About two and a half weeks ago I alluded to this penchant for borrowing American style smear campaign tactics into the 2005 referendum campaign. If at all it is true what the Weekly Citizen wrote that 150 million shillings is being siphoned off from tax payers to bankroll these rags that the Tanzanians call Magazeti ya Udaku, then that is truly a waste. Part of the reason why it will be totally ineffective is that Kenya is NOT the United States. In our country you simply cannot shame a politician from public office by playing the morality card. Our Catholic President is an open bigamist and his second wife, “NARC activist” Wambui is openly campaigning for her husband in an insane rivalry with that pugnacious First Lady who is STILL walking around scot free months after slapping a journalist on live television. One of the cabinet ministers is known to pick up teenage changudoa. Another cabinet minister cannot visit the UK, continental Europe, the USA and Canada because of a travel ban because of allegations of corruption; the minister of education is one of the chief suspects in the Goldenberg case; the government’s Chief Whip was mentioned as the possible mastermind behind the political assassination of Dr. Crispin Odhiambo Mbai; the country’s Internal Security Minister is remembered by Mau Mau veterans as a notorious police torturer; another cabinet minister who is married is notorious for screwing another high profile MP who is one of the loudest voices in the Yes Camp. Not too long ago, Mwai Kibaki seriously considered inviting to his cabinet a certain KANU linchpin who has been named in the Ouko murder and the politically motivated clashes…one can go on and on. The point is that none of the tainted reputations of the above named Yes politicians has made even consider stepping aside from public office. Compared to the documented facts about some of the characters in the Yes camp, the bar room gossip that had made its way into the scandal sheets stands out as extremely juvenile. No one is buying the empty coup talk. People like Robinson Njeru Githae are absolute embarrassments to their own cause appealing directly for TRIBAL SOLIDARITY forgetting that their public and official portfolios directs them to serve ALL KENYANS without fear or favour- including those pesky Luos. I was amusingly shocked at Githae’s outstanding revelation that the voter turn out among the Luos was “98%”!!!

Anywayz.

The long and short of it is that Mwai Kibaki, Moody Awori, Kiraitu Murungi, John Michuki, Musikari Kombo, Charity Ngilu, Morris Dzoro, Amos Kimunya, Raphael Tuju, Mukhisa Kituyi (who looked absolutely PATHETIC in his recent television stand off against the suave and articulate James Orengo) - the whole lot of the Yes Team and their rotting Bananas are going down to ignoble defeat. The world is watching. Though they may be tempted to try the brazen electoral theft that we witnessed in the Zanzibar elections, they are well advised to underline, with all due respect to our Unguja siblings that Kenya is NOT Zanzibar.

I want to end by answering Robinson Githae who was wailing in wonderment why Kenyans are tired of Kibaki after only two years:

Mheshimiwa Waziri Msaidizi:

Daniel arap Moi was the last depot Kenyans will ever have. When Kenyans embarked on their quest for democracy with the victory of NARC in 2002, they were not planning to twiddle their thumbs as a tribal cabal of famished petit-bourgeois parvenu schemers scrambled to unravel that democratic breakthrough. The folks who are plotting fascist mayhem in the political kitchens of the powers that be should remember this little hadithi:

Once upon a time there lived a certain dictator who hated flowers. Every time the flowers blossomed, he ordered his goons to cut off every last one of them. But every single time, new flowers sprouted to take the place of the old.

Onyango Oloo
Nairobi, Kenya

[job]

Oloo,

What a wonderful series of revelations! What a vivid account of the situation on ground....Please keep this update rolling.

A piece of advice if you may,.....next time you meet another ethnic chauvinist spewing the lyrics "ni kabila moja tu ndiyo wanaleta nyoko nyoko kila saa", kindly acknowledge that,.... since it's actually true in a sense.

Let them realize that the only 'kabila" in Kenya agitating for a people driven "katiba" (Bomas), is the poor, oppressed, robbed, misgoverned and reform-hungry tribe. That "kabila", bringing "nyoko nyoko" consists of Masai, Kalenjin, Kikuyu, Luhya, Kamba, Luo, Kisii, .............and the rest of Kenya's 42 communities.

None should be selected for massacre, as the perpetrators will soon learn after the referendum, that "malipo ni hapa hapa duniani"

You may also wanna add to the answer to Robinson Githae, that..... it is the same "kabila" that has refused to take any crap of; dictatorship, Anglo Fleecing, tribalism, civilian massacres, or hegemonic domination plans (Wako draft) by "nyooba" shielding aristocrats lightly,........and that is precisely why they are tired of Kibaki after just two years.

Please find a way that he can also know that Kenyans are tired of him (Githae)too, alongside his boss Kiraitu, Murungaru and the bunch of sycophants running around them. They need to prepare to pack and go home, like Moi did.

Be careful not to be "Ouko-ed" at some remote "got", you never know with these desperate folks.

Enjoy the stay.

Job.

[adongo12345]

Very interesting bulletin;

I can almost feel the country and its peoples. I liked the Giriama singer. Of all the things I miss about Kenya, I miss Coast Province the most. That is where I had my first and last full time job in my country, for two years. It was magnificent.

My sense is that the worst is yet to come. Kibaki and his folks are desperate. I mean Kibaki is openly and blatantly dishing out national assets and resources of our country as if they were his own property.

Last week we had the Halloween here in Canada. I had to stand at the door with candies every time kids, including my son who did about three rounds, came to ask for "Trick Or Treat"

The real "Trick or Treat" is happening at State House. Kibaki is standing at the door with candies:, a district here and there, title deeds for people whose land was robbed in the first place, a university campus to be considered later, an airport(I guess to deliver politicians), a road here and there and all the nonsense that made Kenyans completely fed up with Moi.

I am bewildered that when the KNCHR, whose leadership and membership mean a lot to me and to other human rights activists issued its list of those they intend to prosecute for abuse of office and use of public resources to prop up partisan interests on the constitutional referendum campaign, the name Emilio Mwai Kibaki, President and Head of State of the Republic of Kenya was not there. I know he is above the law as head of state, but is he also above the law as a leader of a political party and individual member of the same be it NAK,DP, Narc etc, to actually defraud the nation to finance a political project however noble the cause? I don't think so.

Nowhere did we hear about the activities of the media proclaimed "Narc Activist" Mary Wambui, God knows what she was doing before "Narc" came to power. Certainly she was NOT traveling with taxpayer and state provided security services, tons and gunias of food aid, medical supplies and cash for those who would promise to be Banana voters. Surely there must be a limit to the wacky politics of imperial presidency, exercised even by remote relatives and/or partners of the elites in power. National resources should never be usurped as personal property of those in power and their associates. That is the definition of corruption in high places.

We hear the Treasury has been cleaned? The cops and GSU and other DoD types didn't get pay in time. Of course rumours are flying left and right.

One thing we know: Someone is stealing big from the Kenyan taxpayer and the future generations who will pay the loans being robbed today to finance the Wako fallacy. And that someone would hate and in fact is scared to loose on the referendum. not with so many questions to answer later. This is why I say the worst is coming. I think Kenyans are ready for it.

Political forces that underestimate the historical significance of the triumph of the Kenyan people over Moi and his Kanu dictatorship, do so at their own expense and for good measure as the nation will soon testify at the the referendum.

A conclusive defeat over the Moi/Kanu hegemony in Dec 2002 was the greatest thing to happen to our country since the early 1960's, when the nation rallied around the nationalists like Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga to raise the flag of independence.

Personally I think it is too late for the Ye Sirs to rob the nation with a stolen victory. The numbers don't look good for them. Nobody from the moon is coming to vote in Kenya, lets get that straightened out.

On a serious note, Oloo we really need that district. The old man is at the Coast this weekend, do you think you could organize enough dancers, some "retired" politicians and Chiefs of course and get us something? Please get back to us on that one.

Adongo Ogony

[kamalet]

admin said:

I want to end by answering Robinson Githae who was wailing in wonderment why Kenyans are tired of Kibaki after only two years:

Mheshimiwa Waziri Msaidizi:

Daniel arap Moi was the last depot Kenyans will ever have. When Kenyans embarked on their quest for democracy with the victory of NARC in 2002, they were not planning to twiddle their thumbs as a tribal cabal of famished petit-bourgeois parvenu schemers scrambled to unravel that democratic breakthrough. The folks who are plotting fascist mayhem in the political kitchens of the powers that be should remember this little hadithi:

Once upon a time there lived a certain dictator who hated flowers. Every time the flowers blossomed, he ordered his goons to cut off every last one of them. But every single time, new flowers sprouted to take the place of the old.

Onyango Oloo
Nairobi, Kenya

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Oloo,

Welcome to Nairobi and hopefully the weather will be kinder than Montreal. The timing of your visit will hopefully confirm what some of us have lived with....!

On that response to Githae and your suggestion that the Kibaki regime being a bunch of scheming tribalist. I honestly do not think any group that comes after Kibaki whether now, in 2007 or even in 2012 will change. There will always be schemers and the tribal factor will be an important ingredient! I am not sure why anybody thought that this would be any different with the present regime - a coalition of kikuyus and bukusus!

[aeichener]

There is a difference between
- "tribal identity" (in the sense of positive ethnicity and awareness of one's own - often mixed - heritage),
- tribal factor,
- and tribalism.

I do not think that the last-named hydra can be easily discounted by hinting to the former two; in fact, one may wonder if tribalism today be not worse and more divisive than let's say in 1950.

And incidentally, usually the worst tribalists are pretty weak when it comes to real, deep knowledge of their own heritage and tradition, at least that has been my experience when dealing with them; one may even wonder whether the present vile and aggressive tribalism is in reality just a surrogate for a lack of genuine, rooted tribal identity.
If you are sure of yourself (positive ethnicity), you don't have to put down and berate others (negative ethnicity).

Alexander

PS: I only now see that this has been my hundredth posting. Quite a good and fitting content for this, as happenstance would have it .