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Post by Onyango Oloo on Feb 5, 2018 15:04:14 GMT 3
A Digital Essay by Onyango Oloo
This is my third attempt at writing,editing and posting this digital essay. Given my decades of doing this kind of thing, one would assume that at least I would have my act together by now. Well, all I can sue quite ruefully is that the dreaded Murphy's Law has decided to pay Onyango Oloo an unwelcome visit. This is the "law" which states that if something can go wrong then it will-and I should add at the worst possible moment.
Since yesterday, tears have been streaming through my once chubby, now almost sixty year old face here in the Indian Ocean coastal city of Durban in the south eastern tip of the African continent. What brings the river of salt in my body is news from far off in East Africa where I learnt through social media of a savage, brutal fascist attack on one of my best friends whose palatial home in the leafy suburb of Runda was suddenly rudely assaulted by thugs wearing police uniform. The goons in their criminal audacity, attacked the residence, made a forcible entrance to the home which they gleefully ransacked before abducting Miguna Miguna, the well known and outspoken lawyer and democratic activist in Kenya.
The goons under the pay of the illegal Uhuru led Jubilee regime then proceeded to drive my friend to a number of police stations before depositing him in Kiambu County even though he resides in the neighbouring Nairobi County.
But that was not the end of the nightmare. When Miguna's friends, including his lawyer, finally traced him to Lari, the cops denied access. My friend grapples with asthma, which I know as I am also afflicted can be quite dangerous to your health in case of a sudden attack. This is what precisely happened to Miguna who suffered a challenge. His lawyer, who is also an asthmatic, had brought along a puffer which the police refused to accept. Ironically was not even supposed to be suffering in the dingy, filthy police cell in the first place because a court had ordered his immediate release. But the hoodlums calling themselves the police service had opted to ignore this legal instruction from the judiciary-one of the three arms of government.
The other arm- the Executive led by Election Thief Uhuru Kenyatta and notorious land grabber William Ruto were serving their second term after their 2013 and 2017 elecion theft in which during their controversial swearing in, had solemnly pledged to defend the 2010 Constitution, one of the most progressive in the entire world which was popularly endorsed and promulgated by Kenyans approximately eight years ago.
That Katiba-to give it its Kiswahili name has a Bill of Rights which protects fundamental rights and freedoms. It is worth noting that the man under arrest, Miguna Miguna, was one of the authors of that seminal document.
Miguna and Onyango Oloo are virtual contemporaries with only a few years separating our birthdays. Apart from our common origins in western Kenya, which is usually the first thing that that tribal obsessed Kenyans notice, we have a lot in common. We are both radical activists. We both attended the University of Nairobi although I was a few years ahead before I was imprisoned for sedition. We both left Kenya the same year 1987 and ended up in Tanzania-although Miguna and his expelled U o N student comrades relocated briefly to Swaziland before being welcomed as government assisted refugees in Canada. Onyango Oloo, together with two of his colleagues Justice Maurice Adongo Ogony and the late Githirwa Muhoro were welcomed to Toronto by Miguna, Anampiu, Obanda and others who had arrived a few months earlier.
We quickly became close friends, living in the same metropolis of Toronto. Miguna had resumed his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto and soon moved on to study to be a barrister and solicitor at the Osgoode Law School located at York University in the northern part of the city. Upon graduation Miguna represented refugee claimants and people dealing with difficult immigration cases from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, the Caribbean and South Asia. Onyango Oloo assisted by recommended a few clients to Miguna.
When the retired Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga arrived in Canada to pursue his doctorate degree in law, a small group of us made a progressive knot of Kenyan activists. With the formation of a pressure group opposing the Moi-KANU dictatorship and agitating for reforms, Miguna and Willy were elected to the helm of the group while Onyango Oloo, Adongo Ogony, Omondi Obanda, Kathure Kebaara, Wangari Muriuki and Atieno Odenyo were among its most dedicated foot soldiers.
After spending almost twenty years in Canada, Onyango Oloo was head hunted to come back to Nairobi and head the Kenyan Social Forum as the National Coordinator. This happened in October 2005 and he relocated to Kenya to be the chief executive officer heading KSF which was headlining the East African Organizing Committee along with colleagues from Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Somalia were very busy planning to welcome international guests from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East and Europe to come to Kasarani and attend the January 2007 edition of the World Social Forum which was taking place in Africa for the very first time.
Miguna also followed a few years later when none other than Raila Odinga himself personally went to Toronto to recruit him as a member of his upcoming Presidential bid.
We soon reconnected and quickly became two of the most well read and prolific contributors to Jukwaa, a popular online forum that Onyango Oloo founded in August 2005 and administers to date.
When Miguna Miguna fell out with his boss, then Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Onyango Oloo remained very close to the outspoken lawyer. Oloo acted as the MC when Miguna was launching his first book, the controversial Peeling Back the Mask and even its follow up, Kidneys for the King.
Kenyans can no doubt recall the altercations we had with die hard Raila supporters in the course of our book tour in Kisumu, Nakuru and Mombasa.
Dear reader can you now understand the flood of tears streaming down my face in Durban?
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Post by jakaswanga on Feb 6, 2018 7:06:56 GMT 3
MIGUNA MIGUNA, THINKING OF IKEMAFUNA
So Kenya can't leave with him? He forced Raila do denounce him mad. But the disagreement was of substance, and today it is Raila who has gone over to Miguna's point. Better late than never.
Today, Miguna has forced Uhuru Kenyatta, through the attack dogs Koome and Matiang'i, to disappear him around police cells in Kikuyuland. The heroes have had to sh!t on the constitution to do this; they have had to bestow contempt upon the court, and, worse, take us back to the days of harbeas corpus. That was when a detainee feared dead, the court summoned the authorities to produce the 'person in body', in visibility before the court. Miguna is said to have suffered a athsmatic attack and denied medical attention. All his basic rights nullified.
The intent to cut Miguna down, as in finish him off by death, is discernible. Why does power have no place for this man in the republic, except the corner of damnation?
A cultural take is best for me to fathom this issue of exorcism. This is why I talk of Ikemefuna. Achebe treats his officially sanctioned murder, by his adopted father Okonkwo, in his famous Things Fall Apart, with delicate depth. This was a boy Okonkwo admired and had wished for a true son. But the oracles decree otherwise. ---Why, is a central issue. But why again, must Okonkwo, the foster father, be the one to cut him down?
A Nestor called Obierika ponders ceaseless this question.
The narrative is dangerous, deep cutting. Okonkwo is a man of action. He was afraid of being thought weak. Achebe unravels a complex interplay of factors, which point to the eventual doom not just of this man of action, but the whole socio-economic infrastructure within which he is shaped and operates.
It is universally agreed, Miguna's only weapons are his head/brain and mouth/tongue. And then he joins them with the weapon of courage. In land where mediocrity is worshipped, there is no place for such a man.
Die, Miguna Die! Did you mock Fred Matiang'i, and he is afraid of being thought weak? that he now trashes the constitution and contempts the courts?
He is a man of action aint he!? and he got reputation to keep!? Locked to the past, unabled to come to terms with an emerging modernity. Matiang'i is a tough man defending a dead world. A museum piece. 2018 no medical attention by order from above!?
Boko running the police!? As insidious a mediocrity as you can get! Alternative explanation: pure evil.
But then, he was always unctuously pious in Church!
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Feb 6, 2018 11:13:14 GMT 3
Ndugu Jakaswanga:
Thank you for the feedback.
As a matter of fact, it is just a few weeks ago I was re-reading Chinua Achebe's classic and he was truly a doyen of African literature.
Sincerely,
Onyango Oloo
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Feb 6, 2018 11:32:56 GMT 3
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Post by cheshirecat on Feb 6, 2018 12:08:21 GMT 3
A Digital Essay by Onyango OlooThis is my third attempt at writing,editing and posting this digital essay. Given my decades of doing this kind of thing, one would assume that at least I would have my act together by now. Well, all I can sue quite ruefully is that the dreaded Murphy's Law has decided to pay Onyango Oloo an unwelcome visit. This is the "law" which states that if something can go wrong then it will-and I should add at the worst possible moment. Since yesterday, tears have been streaming through my once chubby, now almost sixty year old face here in the Indian Ocean coastal city of Durban in the south eastern tip of the African continent. What brings the river of salt in my body is news from far off in East Africa where I learnt through social media of a savage, brutal fascist attack on one of my best friends whose palatial home in the leafy suburb of Runda was suddenly rudely assaulted by thugs wearing police uniform. The goons in their criminal audacity, attacked the residence, made a forcible entrance to the home which they gleefully ransacked before abducting Miguna Miguna, the well known and outspoken lawyer and democratic activist in Kenya. The goons under the pay of the illegal Uhuru led Jubilee regime then proceeded to drive my friend to a number of police stations before depositing him in Kiambu County even though he resides in the neighbouring Nairobi County. But that was not the end of the nightmare. When Miguna's friends, including his lawyer, finally traced him to Lari, the cops denied access. My friend grapples with asthma, which I know as I am also afflicted can be quite dangerous to your health in case of a sudden attack. This is what precisely happened to Miguna who suffered a challenge. His lawyer, who is also an asthmatic, had brought along a puffer which the police refused to accept. Ironically was not even supposed to be suffering in the dingy, filthy police cell in the first place because a court had ordered his immediate release. But the hoodlums calling themselves the police service had opted to ignore this legal instruction from the judiciary-one of the three arms of government. The other arm- the Executive led by Election Thief Uhuru Kenyatta and notorious land grabber William Ruto were serving their second term after their 2013 and 2017 elecion theft in which during their controversial swearing in, had solemnly pledged to defend the 2010 Constitution, one of the most progressive in the entire world which was popularly endorsed and promulgated by Kenyans approximately eight years ago. That Katiba-to give it its Kiswahili name has a Bill of Rights which protects fundamental rights and freedoms. It is worth noting that the man under arrest, Miguna Miguna, was one of the authors of that seminal document. Miguna and Onyango Oloo are virtual contemporaries with only a few years separating our birthdays. Apart from our common origins in western Kenya, which is usually the first thing that that tribal obsessed Kenyans notice, we have a lot in common. We are both radical activists. We both attended the University of Nairobi although I was a few years ahead before I was imprisoned for sedition. We both left Kenya the same year 1987 and ended up in Tanzania-although Miguna and his expelled U o N student comrades relocated briefly to Swaziland before being welcomed as government assisted refugees in Canada. Onyango Oloo, together with two of his colleagues Justice Maurice Adongo Ogony and the late Githirwa Muhoro were welcomed to Toronto by Miguna, Anampiu, Obanda and others who had arrived a few months earlier. We quickly became close friends, living in the same metropolis of Toronto. Miguna had resumed his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto and soon moved on to study to be a barrister and solicitor at the Osgoode Law School located at York University in the northern part of the city. Upon graduation Miguna represented refugee claimants and people dealing with difficult immigration cases from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, the Caribbean and South Asia. Onyango Oloo assisted by recommended a few clients to Miguna. When the retired Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga arrived in Canada to pursue his doctorate degree in law, a small group of us made a progressive knot of Kenyan activists. With the formation of a pressure group opposing the Moi-KANU dictatorship and agitating for reforms, Miguna and Willy were elected to the helm of the group while Onyango Oloo, Adongo Ogony, Omondi Obanda, Kathure Kebaara, Wangari Muriuki and Atieno Odenyo were among its most dedicated foot soldiers.After spending almost twenty years in Canada, Onyango Oloo was head hunted to come back to Nairobi and head the Kenyan Social Forum as the National Coordinator. This happened in October 2005 and he relocated to Kenya to be the chief executive officer heading KSF which was headlining the East African Organizing Committee along with colleagues from Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Somalia were very busy planning to welcome international guests from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East and Europe to come to Kasarani and attend the January 2007 edition of the World Social Forum which was taking place in Africa for the very first time. Miguna also followed a few years later when none other than Raila Odinga himself personally went to Toronto to recruit him as a member of his upcoming Presidential bid. We soon reconnected and quickly became two of the most well read and prolific contributors to Jukwaa, a popular online forum that Onyango Oloo founded in August 2005 and administers to date. When Miguna Miguna fell out with his boss, then Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Onyango Oloo remained very close to the outspoken lawyer. Oloo acted as the MC when Miguna was launching his first book, the controversial Peeling Back the Mask and even its follow up, Kidneys for the King. Kenyans can no doubt recall the altercations we had with die hard Raila supporters in the course of our book tour in Kisumu, Nakuru and Mombasa.Dear reader can you now understand the flood of tears streaming down my face in Durban? I think a more insightful question would be. Why Miguna? There were three men standing next to Raila when he took the oath. The cops took Kajwang and let him go shortly thereafter. They didn't even bother with Orengo. Why is Miguna being singled out for special treatment? And what is this 'special treatment' doing to Miguna's profile in Luo Nyanza? Who stands to benefit from a resurgent Miguna in Luo Nyanza re; Raila succession? Interesting days we live in. Someone is being very very clever
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Feb 6, 2018 16:05:53 GMT 3
Thanks, ever smiling feline. You raise some questions which makes one ponder in thought.
OO
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Post by jakaswanga on Feb 6, 2018 21:10:39 GMT 3
THE PARALLEL STATE IS UNEARTHED, BOKO ASHAMED So, how do we interpret five days INCOMMUNICADO in police cells, in present day Kenya!? And then produced by police to make a plea, in a court far-away from where the legal jurisdiction was process due? I want to consider three top administrative brains, Boko hot. 1. Githu Muigai, the attorney general and once an ace professor at law 2. Keriako Tobiko, great learned counsel and outgoing director of state prosecutions 3. Dr Fred Matiang'i, former faculty dean and ministry of education, now the new Joseph Nkaissery. Then benched Judge reasoned thus: 5-days incommunicado, apart from the disregard of a court order to release which amounts to contempt of a legally competent court, constitutes a gross and fundamental violation of the suspect's rights as ENSHRINED in the constitution of Kenya under section
..! etc etc Enshrined in the constitution of Kenya! --HOLY!? Divine covenant!? Howbeit I want to logically think, in fact take it for granted, that the above trio -- the AG, the DPP and cabinet secretary for interior, given their stations at learning, apart from official oaths to protect the constitution, would be aware of the fundamental rights of any suspect, say of Miguna Miguna too, as guaranteed by the said Kenyan constitution --promulgated with much pomp in 2010! So, as a cultural academic exercise in entertainment, how do I explain the apparent amnesia, black out or mental relapse discernible in in the well-educated trio of Matiang'i, Tobiko and Githu!? Whencefrom, this absence of mind which was the loophole which precipitated such a blatant and gross violation of the fundamental rights of the suspect Miguna, aka NRM General? This is why I pull legs by saying BOKO, and someone else more cheeky might respond: HARAM! --That is, an incident where Western Education is a load of sh!t! May be Professor Githu Muigai wouldn't know what the Kenyan constitution enshrines of doesn't. Just because he does not give a dam-n as they say! Matiang'i? no time to bother to know. Too busy with young puszy for instance. But I suspect the reality is simpler. Much more brutal men are running the show, and Githu, Tobiko and the rest of Boko are just flower girls. If they open their mouths about the constitution, they get chilling, dismissive looks which mocks why they don't bother ever to threaten to resign, were it that they thought the point they are making were really that important to the health of the land and the judiciary! Keriako Tobiko just accepted to join Matiang'i in cabinet, how on earth is he going to make a point of principle about stuff enshrined in the constitution!? In other words, the MIGUNA EPISODE rubs it in our faces: the book-men who know law up there are use-pawns in a game, dogs on a leash. Imagine the prosecutor, a Mr. Mutuku I think, when, among other protocol stuff, asked directly by the Judge, fumbled and had to eventually agree he didn't know! Only later did he hear, in Nairobi, that Miguna was in Kajiado! The Judge in Nairobi laughed! And they all laughed! Even the defence lawyers laughed! -But as they waited, a letter or SMS came from Keriako Tobiko, stating the appearance HAD ALREADY TAKEN place in a Kajiado court! But under what competences and circumstances was the jurisdiction transferred from the Nairobi court to the Kajiado court!?Keriako Tobiko hadn't had the time to do any thinking on that. Again the learned friends found occasion to laugh ... At Kajiado, the court was even less prepared. The Judge, as per protocol, wanted the suspect to take a plea. --He was surprised the suspect had been incommunicado for five days, had had no access to a lawyer nor etc etc, and worse, was expected in a Nairobi court the same time abouts! He!? he looked at the prosecution, a bit confused! The prosecution shrugged, don't asked me buddy, I don't know what is going on here! Just like you! And so the ball went back to a Kenyan who could allow himself to think during a crisis. But the police are taking their orders from a parallel channel. And that parallel channel overrules the courts rulings. That is the big story. In other words, the lawlessness of the state is now clear and open, and henceforth, when the phrase law and order is used, its universality will lie it its open hypocrisy; its application the leisure or discretion of the deeper state. Miguna Miguna has removed this classical truth from the shadows and thrust it right in the center of Kenya in broad daylight. Now we have to deal with it. And I see Judge Kimaru has decided thinking is a very good way to start dealing with it. It brings humorous relief to an otherwise sordid episode.
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Post by kamalet on Feb 6, 2018 23:44:54 GMT 3
Joshua Miguna Miguna thumped his chest challenging Matiang'i and Boinett to arrest him. He did not fear a thing and had been there before under Moi. So the bluff was called and Miguna was arrested last friday on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued by a magistrate's court in Nairobi.
After a run around several police stations since his arrest, he was arraigned in a Kajiado court. In the meantime lawyers trouped to Luka Kimaru's court to seek his release yesterday and the judge (perhaps for the media glare) ordered that Joshua be brought before him at 2 p.m. yesterday...and he waited and waited. He pushed the orders to 0900 this morning...and waited. The judge was angry he had been slighted, but still did not get the hint that nobody was going to listen to him. Of course everyone is shouting about the flagrant violation of the constitution by those failing to obey court orders. In the ideal situation, court order ought and should be obeyed by all. But then is it okay to disobey a court order in what someone alleged was public interest?
One thing that is clear is that the executive is on an all out war on the NASA brigade and in the process using what it believes is the law to support their actions and at every turn a pliant judiciary seems to scuttle every action by the executive. So it seems there is a silent decision to ignore the courts to the extent possible without being too offensive. <<BREAKING>> I now hear that Miguna has been deported to Canada this evening!! This obviously means that tomorrow morning, some cheeky lawyer from the AG or DPP office will say on behalf of the IG and DCI that they can comply with the order as "another department" of government deported him the previous night and he is no longer in the jurisdiction of the court.
But what should we do as a country and as Kenyans in this time of our lives. If we walk back to what brings us to the situation we are in it is easy to pick when the rain started beating Kenya. Unfortunately it all starts in the courts we now blame for bad orders or insist are being disobeyed. So did the SCOK ruling of November trigger the problem we are facing today? I would actually say the August one is what triggered it all when the court made a spurious declaration on how elections are won and lost. Every other action by the NASA leadership has been to go against the rulings of SCOK and the courts have been shy to call them out. The executive on the other hand feels aggrieved by the behaviour of the courts and in particular the events of 30th January which I feel were not lawful as they purported to create a second centre of power not envisaged in the constitution. So when these two competing interests and views clash, there will be casualties and poor Miguna (even with a serious lack of good judgement) finds himself in the position of the proverbial glass!
My view!
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Post by kamalet on Feb 6, 2018 23:48:07 GMT 3
THE PARALLEL STATE IS UNEARTHED, BOKO ASHAMED So, how do we interpret five days INCOMMUNICADO in police cells, in present day Kenya!? And then produced by police to make a plea, in a court far-away from where the legal jurisdiction was process due? I want to consider three top administrative brains, Boko hot. 1. Githu Muigai, the attorney general and once an ace professor at law 2. Keriako Tobiko, great learned counsel and outgoing director of state prosecutions 3. Dr Fred Matiang'i, former faculty dean and ministry of education, now the new Joseph Nkaissery. Then benched Judge reasoned thus: 5-days incommunicado, apart from the disregard of a court order to release which amounts to contempt of a legally competent court, constitutes a gross and fundamental violation of the suspect's rights as ENSHRINED in the constitution of Kenya under section
..! etc etc Enshrined in the constitution of Kenya! --HOLY!? Divine covenant!? Howbeit I want to logically think, in fact take it for granted, that the above trio -- the AG, the DPP and cabinet secretary for interior, given their stations at learning, apart from official oaths to protect the constitution, would be aware of the fundamental rights of any suspect, say of Miguna Miguna too, as guaranteed by the said Kenyan constitution --promulgated with much pomp in 2010! So, as a cultural academic exercise in entertainment, how do I explain the apparent amnesia, black out or mental relapse discernible in in the well-educated trio of Matiang'i, Tobiko and Githu!? Whencefrom, this absence of mind which was the loophole which precipitated such a blatant and gross violation of the fundamental rights of the suspect Miguna, aka NRM General? This is why I pull legs by saying BOKO, and someone else more cheeky might respond: HARAM! --That is, an incident where Western Education is a load of sh!t! May be Professor Githu Muigai wouldn't know what the Kenyan constitution enshrines of doesn't. Just because he does not give a dam-n as they say! Matiang'i? no time to bother to know. Too busy with young puszy for instance. But I suspect the reality is simpler. Much more brutal men are running the show, and Githu, Tobiko and the rest of Boko are just flower girls. If they open their mouths about the constitution, they get chilling, dismissive looks which mocks why they don't bother ever to threaten to resign, were it that they thought the point they are making were really that important to the health of the land and the judiciary! Keriako Tobiko just accepted to join Matiang'i in cabinet, how on earth is he going to make a point of principle about stuff enshrined in the constitution!? In other words, the MIGUNA EPISODE rubs it in our faces: the book-men who know law up there are use-pawns in a game, dogs on a leash. Imagine the prosecutor, a Mr. Mutuku I think, when, among other protocol stuff, asked directly by the Judge, fumbled and had to eventually agree he didn't know! Only later did he hear, in Nairobi, that Miguna was in Kajiado! The Judge in Nairobi laughed! And they all laughed! Even the defence lawyers laughed! -But as they waited, a letter or SMS came from Keriako Tobiko, stating the appearance HAD ALREADY TAKEN place in a Kajiado court! But under what competences and circumstances was the jurisdiction transferred from the Nairobi court to the Kajiado court!?Keriako Tobiko hadn't had the time to do any thinking on that. Again the learned friends found occasion to laugh ... At Kajiado, the court was even less prepared. The Judge, as per protocol, wanted the suspect to take a plea. --He was surprised the suspect had been incommunicado for five days, had had no access to a lawyer nor etc etc, and worse, was expected in a Nairobi court the same time abouts! He!? he looked at the prosecution, a bit confused! The prosecution shrugged, don't asked me buddy, I don't know what is going on here! Just like you! And so the ball went back to a Kenyan who could allow himself to think during a crisis. But the police are taking their orders from a parallel channel. And that parallel channel overrules the courts rulings. That is the big story. In other words, the lawlessness of the state is now clear and open, and henceforth, when the phrase law and order is used, its universality will lie it its open hypocrisy; its application the leisure or discretion of the deeper state. Miguna Miguna has removed this classical truth from the shadows and thrust it right in the center of Kenya in broad daylight. Now we have to deal with it. And I see Judge Kimaru has decided thinking is a very good way to start dealing with it. It brings humorous relief to an otherwise sordid episode. Just a correction....Tobiko resigned his position as DPP quite sometime back...
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Post by jakaswanga on Feb 7, 2018 21:59:58 GMT 3
The GOD MATIANG'I CONFERS AND OR NULLIFIES CITIZENSHIP AT HIS LEISURE!
So this is what Miguna can do to people, just by being himself! -Kenyan-born Luopean deported to whiteman's, native-American land! Instead of to Nyando in Luoland Kavirondo republic!
He has forced a puffing Fred Matiang'i to declare him a non-citizen of Kenya! (Or did Freddo fail his geography flat! Nyando is not in Canada, it is in the peoples republic, neigbouring Nyamira county in Kissii I say Fred!!)
That the man with the same name twice ran for Nairobi governor only yesterday, and satisfied all the conditions, one of which is
Kenyan citizenship and eligibility go vote, are no longer comprehensible facts in the thinking of Freddo, if in deed he still thinks at all!
Who says the thing we see as Matiang'i is not a zombie or a dummy!?
You see Miguna's charge sheet in Kajiado, details to his citizenship! He wasn't charged as a Canadian mind you. That fact too is beyond Matiang'i. But the court could have been misinformed of course, and lowly clerks can be a dissapointment when it comes to accuracy!
How about the due process of deporting an unwanted foreign national!? Yaani having his day in court as it were!?
Nothing doing there. The Akasha brothers were scheduled to have their day in court, but the next thing they knew was that a DEA plane was whisking them off Kenya'a airpace. That Nkaissery precedent has come in handy for Nkaissery II, aka Freddo.
I think this is what we mean by power corrupts. A man, or choir-boy, is so powerful it gets to his head, and he feels he can walk on water like the famous the son of God. He feels insulated and ungoverned by the laws which govern others, others he now considers lesser, may be fit to die even in horrid cells, denied medical attention! And at his whim and leisure too, lies your status, Kenyan or not, human or animal!
The god Matiang'i! The deity Freddo! His name fills the heavens with dread, and the earth with songs of praise!
But the god Matiang'i has arrived a bit late on the scene. Polytheist deities are mere entertainment these days, folklore. Then there is this crucial aspect in which he is yesterday's man, which need must be underscored. There are countries where authoritarianism goes hand in hand with economic boom. In Kenya it does not. One important reason is that, systematic governmental corruption and stupidity as is the rule in Kenya, do not generate the necessary growth rate competent of silencing dissent by buying out the population by realising their economic ambitions ---you know those Asian tigers statistics as they rose?!! The other equally important Achilles heel is geography, the one called ethnography.
The major arteries are too easy to cut off in the event of ethnic squabbles, immediately balkanising the country --yea, Maasais' easily block the Mai-Mahiu-Narok-Bomet, if something sends them mad. The Kalenjin block the Eldoret border route, Kikuyus cut off Nairobi from Nakuru, and everybody going West, especially Luos, is dead. Luos block the Busia Ug and Migori Tz routes routes, while The Kipsigis close off Kericho. Coastals will block traffic on the Nairobi Mombasa, and nobody should think Kambas are a walkover just because Kalonzo is the coward of the country.
Now that Turkana is Blackgoldland, aka oily, they too now have a very big voice in what they can block! Pipeline politics!
(I saw the Jubilee government seized of greed again, aiming to poach more oil dividends from Turkana, leaving the natives boney and dry as usual.
These ...balkan templates .. are the kind of things which drove Kagame and Museveni to the Tz route. They watch stupid Kenyan leaders and think, that SGR thing, when Maasais are angry, it will be no more. Tracks uprooted. If the Kalenjin are angry, the same, the Luo, the same, the Shabaab religious cousins in Mombasa, the same! One day of chaos in Kenya and all your goods on the 1000km stretch are gone forever!
I don't see people like Matiang'i factoring this nervousness of our neighbours, as they flaunt their Rambo-style antics: no man, no law, no judge can stop him! Freddo, he is a law unto himself. But Holy Moly, a lot of people who want to invest in the long term, must calculate real risks! And then Kenya looks explosive. Explosive enough to change ones mind about committing to long railways and long pipelines!
Now it is Khalangwa or some other such general at immigration whose turn it is to ignore the High court! --How did Miguna get into your custody from the courts!?
asked Judge Luka.
The General will shrug. 'No idea. The guys who deported Miguna do not answer to me. You know that sir. Like they ignored your court, they ignore my office! --unataka nido!? Na wewe utado!?'
That should wipe off that nonchalant, superior grin from Judge Kimaru's face! Reality told plain and military straight: your court is as irrelevant as my office! We are in the same boat buddy!
Ghenya!
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Post by jakaswanga on Feb 7, 2018 22:22:52 GMT 3
]Just a correction....Tobiko resigned his position as DPP quite sometime back... That is news to me! But enlighten me on the details of his successor, or if Tobiko just dropped everything the moment cabinet called, and he never heard of interim arrangements, nor taking care of loose-ends, wherefore there a vacuum large enough for the credibility of the prosecution to dissappear into!
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Feb 8, 2018 11:37:20 GMT 3
Kamale:
If I said that I was shocked at your cavalier endorsement of what has happened to Miguna I would be lying through my teeth.
Onyango Oloo
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Post by kamalet on Feb 8, 2018 18:15:32 GMT 3
]Just a correction....Tobiko resigned his position as DPP quite sometime back... That is news to me! But enlighten me on the details of his successor, or if Tobiko just dropped everything the moment cabinet called, and he never heard of interim arrangements, nor taking care of loose-ends, wherefore there a vacuum large enough for the credibility of the prosecution to dissappear into! When Uhuru announced the first 3 names of joining his cabinet and those he was retaining, he also announced that he had accepted the resignation of Tobiko as DPP when he also nominated him as a minister. But what needs looking at is the timing of that resignation and how the government has boldly taken on its opposition leaders with "impunity" without the dear of release orders by the DPP. Miguna is one such victim of the vacuum in the DPP office!!
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Post by kamalet on Feb 8, 2018 18:28:31 GMT 3
Kamale:If I said that I was shocked at your cavalier endorsement of what has happened to Miguna I would be lying through my teeth. Onyango Oloo Oloo You know we have come from far and I have had the occasion of sharing a cup of coffee with Miguna. Miguna dared the minister to arrest him and he was arrested. Miguna became a "threat to the regime" and something had to be done. Unfortunately, if you want to fight the government, just make sure you have no skeletons in your cabinet. So the govt kept quiet at the corruption in immigration during the Kajwang' regime where pakistanis and and illegals that became terrorists were paying left right and center to buy Kenyan citizenship. Miguna is unfortunately the beneficiary of that corruption where he was "re-naturalised" as a Kenyan citizen illegally when he had ceased being a Kenyan citizen once he became a Canadian citizen under the old constitution. That is the skeleton I am talking about! The government just saw an opportunity to intimidate the opposition leaders and this deportation seems to fit into the agenda. Now you may want to condemn that, but sadly Miguna brought it on himself. Sympathetic? No.
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Post by jakaswanga on Feb 10, 2018 0:04:30 GMT 3
Kamale:If I said that I was shocked at your cavalier endorsement of what has happened to Miguna I would be lying through my teeth. Onyango Oloo Onyango Oloo yo, Have you lost your sense of soft humour!? Yaye, comrade Omera, Osiepa, Jayadha, Omin, Anywola, Jadhoot! mesuspects I fathom where Kamalet's provocative and cynical import is seeping from, otherwise than his reactionary core! What made me write this that long ago? Those are the people now again singing Miguna's praises? However deserved their well-meaning about-turns, I understand some, like Kamalet, grinning with contempt with these earlier versions of Matiang'i's! But it will be said that you, Onyango Jubilee Oloo, is made of sterner stuff. You stood by Miguna both on principle and on content where you thought so! and faced the physical wrath of Luo paid howling goons! You don't know it Oloo, but it was a formidable feat of character! It made me decide to stick to Jukwaa religiously and upp my game, even as Kamalet nursed badly cracked ribs from merriment at the caliphate people! I read Miguna well those days and thought, this is a good mind for us all. But Jukwaa is the only place I am finding a trenchant Luo, the red rogue Onyango Oloo (Jajubilee!), defending the weed Njugunah Njugunah!But like the seer AbdulMote who first flagged Miguna's crisis as adviser to the then PM Agwambo, I see trouble coming at home if Miguna stays true to his mental calling! And I am excited enough in anticipatory glee, to write a missive to the self-styled General! But that will be a Luo Pivot I promise. Then am I less lazy upstairs these days! You see I am an Odinga caliphate man! I am game!
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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 cheshirecat on Feb 10, 2018 11:16:10 GMT 3
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Post by kamalet on Mar 27, 2018 8:54:46 GMT 3
A short while ago, I told someone that if you have diarrhea, it is okay to sh!t in your pants.....but it would be very stupid to do so when standing next to an unoccupied toilet.
MM came back to Kenya on his Canadian passport and strictly following the law, (and as he had not applied for an e-visa) was asked to apply for a 'visa on arrival' where he would have received an entry visa (tourist) for 6 months. For a sensible person, that would have been the easy thing to do - go and piss inside the tent rather than outside it. In the period he would have put the constitution to the test by re-applying for his Kenyan citizenship and regularising all the problems he is facing.
But then MM is either naive or foolish. He decided to make a spectacle of himself by declining to undergo this simple process and in the process broke many civil aviation laws that would be used to prosecute him (the swearing saga had no legal basis!)and which allows for the authorities to file even more charges that would include the crimes of his cancelled passport.
I actually imagine that the Cabinet Administrative Secretary of Harambee House (yes that HandShake guy) going to the Airport was perhaps to either talk some sense to MM or in the alternative ensure he goes back from where he came from. But I am willing to err on the side of caution and believe that it was to talk sense to MM for when he left the airport, he did not seem a happy man! MM who says he is a lawyer got bad legal advice from an octogenarian legal activist (Khaminwa) and a misguided 30-something year old lawyer who thinks he would be president of LSK. As for JAB, he was there for selfish political reasons and nothing to do with MM.
MM seems beyond redemption and the world around him is not helping. OO will not believe this, but it actually saddens me!!
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Post by Daktari wa makazi on Mar 27, 2018 20:05:55 GMT 3
At least Miguna is fighting for his inalienable rights, unlike Johnstone Kenyatta who begged the colonial powers to let him in.
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Post by jakaswanga on Mar 27, 2018 22:07:16 GMT 3
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Post by OtishOtish on Mar 28, 2018 4:01:20 GMT 3
A country degenerates into a mess, gets to the "enough is enough" point, sets out to make changes on the basis of what has come so far, onward and upward, bright new future, ... and then, after the passage of just a few years, seems hell-bent on recreating the same mess! Amazing.
A look at history shows that countries which find themselves in a mess did not suddenly get there; it always happens "small small". The collapse of law and order starts with some seemingly small things, and it then goes down from there. People wake up one day and say, "what the fwack! how did we end up here?". Answer: small small.
What is truly astonishing about the reactions in this case is that so many see it as just a matter of dealing with an "obnoxious" individual who supposedly "got what he was asking for". It is a more significant matter than that. The implications go far beyond the individual known as Miguna Miguna. Senior government officials, evidently with the "blessings" of those in power, have shown that they are prepared to defy the judiciary, and they have realized that there is no penalty for doing so. That is extremely dangerous. It behooves all Kenyans to think of the long-term implications of all that. Where will it finally end? People are jumping up and down with excitement at the idea of Miguna Miguna getting sorted out, as they see it, without considering the implications of having a rogue government bent on emasculating the judiciary.
After a lengthy struggle, Kenya supposedly entered a new phase: new constitution, a different approach to the judiciary, etc. We are now seeing a gradual return to the old state of things. That does not bode well for the future. If the country is to truly change, then one of the chief starting points is a serious commitment to law and order, and this need to be driven from the top. Until then, Kenya will remain a country that regularly begs for food while people carry on with all sort of major criminality (containers as clinics, public money hauled away in gunias, etc.). But that's not even the half of it, in terms of what might happen in the future. What happens when the citizens decide they have had enough?
I grew up in Kenya during KANU Time. KANU was supposedly going to last forever. Control of the legislature, corruption of the civil service, emasculation of the judiciary ... KANU was full of Total Men, and they were determined to show that chickens never grow teeth (as we say in my neck of the woods). People were told to lie low like envelopes. Etc., etc., etc. We all know how that story went. But here we are today, setting off for a repeat on that same path. "We are in power, and we will do as we please". Have Kenyans learned any real lessons from their history? Are Africans inherently "learning-proof", always creating and re-creating the same messes with "international community, urgent! come quickly and help!" at the ready? And "small-small" is how it always starts.
Kenyans have always had this idea that they are "different" and can never "go the African way". And then came the 2007-2008 PEV, when things could have actually gone the African Way, had it not been for the intervention of outsiders from places where there is a bit more respect for the law. We are now far down a well-trodden path: theft like there's no tomorrow, rapidly diminishing respect for the law, the arrogance and abuse of raw power ... Africa as usual. And it always ends in blood and tears that apparently cannot be imagined by those riding on the "good times".
Anyways ... good luck to all of you down there! Of course, I always support the "Beloved Homeland", but I'm glad I live in country where the government (a major donor to starving Kenyans) would never defy the judiciary in the manner that is happening in Kenya. And that's not because the government here is full of weak-kneed men, or because those in power don't quite know how to use their power. It's because history has forcefully driven certain lessons into heads. (Donald Trump might rail against judicial decisions in the USA, but neither his government would even think of going against them. Whence the yellow maize in tough times.) Perhaps Kenya too will get there one day. Maybe in Vision 2030 3020? On the SGR? With the riders well fed from Galana? Anything is possible, I suppose.
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Post by kamalet on Mar 29, 2018 19:27:41 GMT 3
A country degenerates into a mess, gets to the "enough is enough" point, sets out to make changes on the basis of what has come so far, onward and upward, bright new future, ... and then, after the passage of just a few years, seems hell-bent on recreating the same mess! Amazing. A look at history shows that countries which find themselves in a mess did not suddenly get there; it always happens "small small". The collapse of law and order starts with some seemingly small things, and it then goes down from there. People wake up one day and say, "what the fwack! how did we end up here?". Answer: small small. What is truly astonishing about the reactions in this case is that so many see it as just a matter of dealing with an "obnoxious" individual who supposedly "got what he was asking for". It is a more significant matter than that. The implications go far beyond the individual known as Miguna Miguna. Senior government officials, evidently with the "blessings" of those in power, have shown that they are prepared to defy the judiciary, and they have realized that there is no penalty for doing so. That is extremely dangerous. It behooves all Kenyans to think of the long-term implications of all that. Where will it finally end? People are jumping up and down with excitement at the idea of Miguna Miguna getting sorted out, as they see it, without considering the implications of having a rogue government bent on emasculating the judiciary. After a lengthy struggle, Kenya supposedly entered a new phase: new constitution, a different approach to the judiciary, etc. We are now seeing a gradual return to the old state of things. That does not bode well for the future. If the country is to truly change, then one of the chief starting points is a serious commitment to law and order, and this need to be driven from the top. Until then, Kenya will remain a country that regularly begs for food while people carry on with all sort of major criminality (containers as clinics, public money hauled away in gunias, etc.). But that's not even the half of it, in terms of what might happen in the future. What happens when the citizens decide they have had enough? I grew up in Kenya during KANU Time. KANU was supposedly going to last forever. Control of the legislature, corruption of the civil service, emasculation of the judiciary ... KANU was full of Total Men, and they were determined to show that chickens never grow teeth (as we say in my neck of the woods). People were told to lie low like envelopes. Etc., etc., etc. We all know how that story went. But here we are today, setting off for a repeat on that same path. "We are in power, and we will do as we please". Have Kenyans learned any real lessons from their history? Are Africans inherently "learning-proof", always creating and re-creating the same messes with " international community, urgent! come quickly and help!" at the ready? And "small-small" is how it always starts. Kenyans have always had this idea that they are "different" and can never "go the African way". And then came the 2007-2008 PEV, when things could have actually gone the African Way, had it not been for the intervention of outsiders from places where there is a bit more respect for the law. We are now far down a well-trodden path: theft like there's no tomorrow, rapidly diminishing respect for the law, the arrogance and abuse of raw power ... Africa as usual. And it always ends in blood and tears that apparently cannot be imagined by those riding on the "good times". Anyways ... good luck to all of you down there! Of course, I always support the "Beloved Homeland", but I'm glad I live in country where the government (a major donor to starving Kenyans) would never defy the judiciary in the manner that is happening in Kenya. And that's not because the government here is full of weak-kneed men, or because those in power don't quite know how to use their power. It's because history has forcefully driven certain lessons into heads. (Donald Trump might rail against judicial decisions in the USA, but neither his government would even think of going against them. Whence the yellow maize in tough times.) Perhaps Kenya too will get there one day. Maybe in Vision 2030 3020? On the SGR? With the riders well fed from Galana? Anything is possible, I suppose. Long time Otish..!!! Many years ago as youngsters, we stumbled upon a tablet called Valium and someone told us that it gives you a high. Many boys took to enjoying the pill for the high it gave them. Obviuosly this drug was something the boys should never have taken, and the way it was used was wrong. But it was a prescription drug not very well stored as it was apparently easy to access. Now if you had been found with out 9 tablets in an envelope inscribed 1x3tds, no questions would have been asked as no one would ask you for a prescription and you need not produce one when asked. Now this Miguna story fits this narrative. The disobeying government officials had some law backing them and they would have claimed that obeying the order without explaining their difficulty they would have broken the law. But orders were given that Miguna be produced in court, but they could claim that the orders as given did not abrogate the law. Unfortunately the good judge would not give them a hearing until his order was obeyed - and perhaps driven by emotion rather than good judgement decided there was contempt and that he would convict. My difficulty with this entire saga is that as you said ceased being about Miguna but a clear confrontation between the judiciary and the executive with the latter clearly determined to have its way.The problem I see is that when orders that are difficult to enforce are made and in particular from a judge perceived to bat for the opposition including allegations of relationship with one of the politicians, once a party decides to disobey, then it weakens the judiciary as contempt would increase. It therefore calls for sensible orders that take into account the expected continued respect of the judiciary. Making an order for a CS and the IG to appear in person before you in 3 hours is really not clever as the officials in the executive do not sit in their offices awaiting such orders! Everyone saw they had an event they were attending and expecting they would abandon that to come to court is expecting too much!! They were represented in court by the AG just like Miguna was by a battery of lawyers in his absence. The AG would have been allowed to make his case and applications/explanations and the good judge would have made an informed ruling like orders for Miguna to be facilitated with a visa once he completed the necessary documentation and then he be presented to court. Everyone would have been a winner - now Miguna is out there in Dubai, the govt officials have a small fine to content with and everyone lost! Miguna has a very slim chance of coming back soon and the CS and IG will continue riding rough shod on other Kenyans without a worry! If only we can work with quick wins!!
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Post by jakaswanga on Mar 29, 2018 22:39:54 GMT 3
UHURUTO'S MEDICAL HIT ON MIGUNA
His heart shines- with the promised thirty pieces of silver! His syringe reflects- a dim glint from the overhead light His facial mask, indulges a contorted smile: Doctor Mengel upon a Jew; His lab sanctioned by The State.
Violent goons mob the General in his cell Rogue medics jump in, to pump him full Their poison an overdose of hate, primed to kill.
We arrived at the world of Out-laws, Kenya Where states that stray suffocate in their rot -Would, Obama the Luo had closed Guantanamo Bay!
Like a colossus species of the same name twice Bigger than life the Gen marches to his death The liberation struggle, primes one more martyr The African battlefield will be bloody as usual. xxxxxxxxxx General Doctor Miguna Miguna! Initiated unto the pantheon of legends of the Land.
(Poem from a series called NAIROBI's Foul Breath).
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Post by abdulmote on Mar 29, 2018 23:56:22 GMT 3
My respects to all you who expressed sensible opinions under this topic. It may appear that Kenyans have never been more divided, with some left equally confused. Our nation is tearing themselves apart, sadly.
To the point: I have been very saddened by the recent series of challenging events. It all started well before the August presidential elections. The printing of the ballot papers and the mistrust that followed.
Then came the questions and suspicions which followed Maraga's 1st historical ruling, nullifyin Uhuruto's victory. The IEBC's behaviour that followed did not help either & so Raila boycotted the October elections.
The whole episode appeared chaotic, right from the start. I struggle to lay blame squarely to just one single party, although I had some sympathy for Raila upto this point.
Then followed the 2nd Maraga's ruling, under very difficult environment. It's outcome did not help Raila and what followed is history.
I struggled with Raila's refusal of accepting Uhuruto's win, which had been upheld by the constitutionally appointed Supreme Court, irrespective of the preceding flaws, which may have stained its freedom to be just.
Raila could not have refused to accept that judgement, without questioning the Constitution itself, yet continue to rely on its dictates at the same time. I found that approach hypocritical and simptomatic of a body confused. The January 30th Miguna administered oath having sworn Raila as the People's President.
Too much drama, if you ask me. Seeking to satisfy undefined 'populist' direction, can also be indicative of selfish behaviour.
But what followed was clearly not right nor just either, on the part of the government.
The whole drama in the way Miguna was intially arrested, his property being damaged using some explosives and the cat and mouse games between the government and the Judiciary, smacked of authoriterian behaviour, which removes any legitimacy the same might have enjoyed till then.
The lates Miguna' debacle is somethingelse though. I am inclined to agree with what Kamale has observed in that regard.
Overall, I don't like Miguna's attitude and his attempts in playing with the true change seeking Kenyans, for the love of their motherland.
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Post by OtishOtish on Mar 30, 2018 5:30:04 GMT 3
Hi Kamale! Now this Miguna story fits this narrative. The disobeying government officials had some law backing them and they would have claimed that obeying the order without explaining their difficulty they would have broken the law. But orders were given that Miguna be produced in court, but they could claim that the orders as given did not abrogate the law. Unfortunately the good judge would not give them a hearing until his order was obeyed - and perhaps driven by emotion rather than good judgement decided there was contempt and that he would convict. You lost me there. First, I do not understand the "abrogate the law". I thought it was the judiciary that makes determinations on what the law is and what it means. Second, as I understand it there were several orders already in place at the time Miguna was chucked out the first time and with some additional orders thereafter. Were those successfully challenged? Third, in countries that function properly it is generally understood that, unless there is a "stay", a court order is to be obeyed even while challenges are contemplated. A big example--it has been in the news for a while, so most will know of it---is that of Donald Trump and his travel bans etc: by all means challenge; but, until the challenge successful, the court order is to be obeyed. Where I live, judges at the higher levels are sometimes perceived to be biased toward the political administration that appointed them---generally in a "left vs right" manner on certain types of issues. But nobody would ever dream of disobeying a court order on the basis of such perceptions. As to allegations of relationships with certain politicians, the proper thing to do would be to make a case in court: provide the evidence and ask that the judge recuse himself or herself or be taken off the case. What is especially dangerous is the idea that people should obey only those court orders that they deem sensible and ignore all others. One of the big lessons that we still need to learn on "The Beloved Continent" is a fundamental respect for law and order. To my mind, a total lack of respect for the judiciary can be justified in very few cases, and " we are important and busy people" or " we will show him that we are real men" do not represent such cases. (A standard example of example of an exception is in an all-too-familiar African case: the judiciary has been "captured" by the executive, which then uses it to visit all sorts of abuses upon the populace.) This is all very interesting, but what does it have to do with the fact that there were court orders (a) before Miguna was deported, (b) while he was in Canada, and (c) while he was being held at JKIA? "Event they were attending", eh? A huge problem in places like Kenya is how people in power are viewed and how they view themselves: " these (we) are big, important people; they (we) cannot be ordered by the court, just like that; etc.". Perhaps one day---in 100 years at this rate---Africa will get beyond the idea of the "really big and important man". Anyways ... I'm afraid I'll have to disappear again. I've already seen Kenya go through such a phase. I thought lessons had been learned, and I am astonished to see it again in my lifetime. On the "positive" side, at least we know the "playbook" and can proceed or prepare accordingly: corruption will continue full-steam-ahead; the judiciary will be emasculated; the legislature will be no more than a toy for the executive; etc., etc., etc. At some point the wananchi (in, say, 10 years or so) will decide that they have had enough of taking it in the rear end, and they will demand changes. Rewind to 1980 and then fast-forward. Good luck!
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