Ahmed Issack Hassan Response to the Petition

[kamalet]

Ignorance is surely bliss.

I like the way people have gone for the simple response by Issack Hassan and are probably celebrating the poor response.

Is it too difficult to read the role of Isaack in the petition and the response he is supposed to make as a respondent? Why would he want to take over the role of the first respondent which is the commission and which bearing the brunt of the guesswork and hypothesis in the name of a petition?

[tatyen]

Podp, thank you for your incisive analysis. it is much appreciated. However i disagree with you on one point. The reason why i blame Kibaki, is that he refused to engage in politics, remained aloof and disengaged and as a result of that was unable to master the political authority to set the development agenda for the country and get us away from the constant campaign mode that kenya has been in for the last decade. He is the first president to the best of my knowledge to abandon the ruling party on the eve of an election to create a special purpose vehicle whose sole aim was to capture power. Mwai Kibaki did not help NARC become a force to reckon with, he simply dropped it by the wayside when it was convenient and formed PNU, which again was dropped by the wayside to make way for Uhuru's TNA. If kibaki had been a better political animal, he would have been able to hold NARC together as a mass movement which it already was, he would have been able to exercise inclusivity and fairness in the formation of his cabinet by respecting the agreements he had signed with his coalition partners. Imagine where kenya would be today had we built on the cohesive spirit of 2002, had we avoided the constant political bickering that finally culminated in the violence of 2007. Others have done it, when Nelson Mandela took over after the apartheid government, he did not stuff the cabinet with his cronies - he saw the bigger picture, understood that his was a singular opportunity to lay the foundation for a united and cohesive society, and he tried his best. I simply cant say the same for kibaki. Over to you.

[kamalet]

The constitution does not recognise any provinces and it only recognises counties. Uhuru had 32 counties backing him with more than 25% so for all intents and purposes he met the national spread threshold.

As for two tribes ganging up against smaller tribes, if my recollection serves me right, three large tribes ganged up against the smaller tribes in 2002 and in 2007 the planned 41vs 1 nearly sneaked through. So yes the Pokomo may not be president of Kenya but they need to try and that is why I applaud Dida from a minority community putting his hat in the ring!

[podp]

Mar 22, 2013 23:28:38 GMT 3 tatyen said:

Podp, thank you for your incisive analysis. it is much appreciated. However i disagree with you on one point. The reason why i blame Kibaki, is that he refused to engage in politics, remained aloof and disengaged and as a result of that was unable to master the political authority to set the development agenda for the country and get us away from the constant campaign mode that kenya has been in for the last decade. He is the first president to the best of my knowledge to abandon the ruling party on the eve of an election to create a special purpose vehicle whose sole aim was to capture power. Mwai Kibaki did not help NARC become a force to reckon with, he simply dropped it by the wayside when it was convenient and formed PNU, which again was dropped by the wayside to make way for Uhuru's TNA. If kibaki had been a better political animal, he would have been able to hold NARC together as a mass movement which it already was, he would have been able to exercise inclusivity and fairness in the formation of his cabinet by respecting the agreements he had signed with his coalition partners. Imagine where kenya would be today had we built on the cohesive spirit of 2002, had we avoided the constant political bickering that finally culminated in the violence of 2007. Others have done it, when Nelson Mandela took over after the apartheid government, he did not stuff the cabinet with his cronies - he saw the bigger picture, understood that his was a singular opportunity to lay the foundation for a united and cohesive society, and he tried his best. I simply cant say the same for kibaki. Over to you.

1st red high light

It should be obvious from reading you that hypocrisy and delusion are disappearing. That is refreshing in the new millennia. In the past we had hypocrisy and delusion as badges of honor.

In the 80s ‘The Africans’ by David Lamb a book that claims it does not assess the leadership qualities, aims, or achievements of individual African heads of state or attempt to evaluate their objectives and policies for development, was a banned book. However, when one reads it covers some of Africa's "big men" bad and good like Mobutu, Bokassa, Moi, Nyerere, et al. Uganda's Idi Amin gets an entire chapter and reading you it looks like if you had a chance you would give Kibaki an entire chapter. He tries to make us understand how leader after leader chose the pathway of dictatorship and bankrupt economies while preaching freedom and self-determination. So when one listens to PORK elect UhuRuto and the petitioner RAO this double speak comes out as the mark the beast.

The 90s witnessed ‘Africa Betrayed’ by George Ayitteh. It is a powerful attack on the dictators who have ruined an entire continent. Ayittey writes devastatingly on the horrors of black neo-colonialism, arguing that it is naive for commentators to blame Africa's misery on external factors: African leaders have betrayed both the just aspirations of their countrymen and Africa's indigenous political systems, which in no way endorse tyranny. When we look at our Constitution and what Ayittey proposed i.e. decentralized, democratic government based on indigenous principles to counter tribalism, one may not need to blame Kibaki for the past but rather to decide what to do with the Constitution we now have. Rather than demonize the West who have helped Africa by promoting freedom of expression we need to author our own intellectual, political and economic reforms.

In a follow up book, ‘Africa in Chaos’ he describes the undermining of basic political and economic institutions. He places much of the blame for the outcomes on African leaders themselves and what he calls their "vampire states." He asserts that African leaders have ignored the strengths of indigenous systems while spouting meaningless rhetoric and resisting meaningful change.

Is our Constitution and Vision 20130 a meaningful change away from the Special Purpose Vehicles (from Narc to PNU to Jubilee)? Can we focus on the failure and corruption of political, business, bureaucratic, and police leadership and still maintain we are in the dark or there is some light at the end of the tunnel?

2nd red high light

Vision 2030 aim of 10% economic growth would be rivaling that of Ghana (14%) two years ago. The oil blocks (Turkana etc.) for example would have been above board. So too are projects like LAPSSET. We can redeem all that if we avoid what Kiai describes today

'And there is the familiar trooping to pledge loyalty to the King even before he is crowned, with all manner of smaller parties begging to be brought into governing fold so that they too can eat. This is touted as encouraging “unity” but as we discovered these past five years, lack of opposition only fosters corruption, sleaze and more decay.

The worst is the brazen violation of our Constitution and international human rights law with the supposed banning of public meetings and protests by functionaries and bureaucrats who claim to be impartial but act more like party hawks for the dominant group.'

www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/It-may-be-digitalised-generation-but-the-script-is-a-blast/-/440808/1727892/-/snheyvz/-/index.html

and Muluka encourages us not to live in denial

'Sooner or later, we shall have a new Government. If this new government does not address the cause of the bottled up anger, the monster will find its own current. It will find its own outlet; just like the Egyptian anger and that of Libya and Syria has done these past two years. It began in the social media, as a response to defective social order. It snowballed. It spilled into the streets. And the rest is history. Our leaders live in denial if they think we are immune to such happenings.'

www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000079948&story_title=Columns:%20Raila,%20Uhuru%20%20must%20stop%20empty%20pleas%20%20for%20peace,%20address%20bottled%20up%20anger

[tatyen]

Podp, I am very impressed by your analysis. You have hit the nail on the head. However, looking at kenya today, it remains to be seen whether an Uhuru government will foster and protect the new constitution or otherwise set about mutilating it as has been the case over the last year or so. We can only hope for the best.

[kamalet]

Mar 24, 2013 8:08:31 GMT 3 tatyen said:

Podp, I am very impressed by your analysis. You have hit the nail on the head. However, looking at kenya today, it remains to be seen whether an Uhuru government will foster and protect the new constitution or otherwise set about mutilating it as has been the case over the last year or so. We can only hope for the best.

I would not worry about mutilation of the constitution! It has not changed a bit since it was promulgated and current parliament has single party with enough numbers to mutilate it. The constitution is safe in the hands of the people of Kenya.

[tatyen]

Kamalet,

I hold the view that Uhuru is yet untested as a leader. His CV is so short that one can not predict with any certainty as to how he will conduct himself as president. If he prevails in the court petition, i am willing to give him the opportunity to prove his mettle and then we will judge him by his actions. Who knows, he may yet turn out to be the best president kenya has ever had, or maybe not - only time will tell!

[jakaswanga]

Mar 24, 2013 22:01:29 GMT 3 tatyen said:

Kamalet,

I hold the view that Uhuru is yet untested as a leader. His CV is so short that one can not predict with any certainty as to how he will conduct himself as president. If he prevails in the court petition, i am willing to give him the opportunity to prove his mettle and then we will judge him by his actions. Who knows, he may yet turn out to be the best president Kenya has ever had, or maybe not - only time will tell!

tatchumbe yo

Whoever the PORK, what you must never forget is your civil duty of always questioning power, demanding accountability, tolerating no corruption. Demanding value for every cent of tax paid, and being cold-blooded in punishing incompetence, laxity and cronyism.

then are you a model citizen, patriotic to the core!

[tatyen]

Jakaswanga,

Omin, I agree with you in totality! However it appears at this early stage that there is a concerted attempt to roll back the hard won liberties of the last two decades in kenya. The recent attempt by the government to intimidate sections of the international media, and the illegal move by the commissioner of police to curb kenyans freedom of assembly as enshrined in the constitution, not to mention the attempt by the jubilee coalition to procure an absolute majority in both houses of parliament point to a worrying trend. It would seem that there are forces that are hell bent on taking kenya back to the era of sycophancy, where your patriotism was measured by how loudly you sang the party tune, and where dissenters from the party script were branded puppets working in the interests of foreign governments.
I fear that this is Kenya's make or break moment and that if we do not get it right this time, the country will be so far gone and the culture of corruption, nepotism and mediocrity so entrenched that it will be hard to bring the country from the depths of the abyss.