To Reduce Road Accidents, We Need To rein in Carelessness.

Last Thursday, the country woke up to shocking news of the gruesome road accident in Narok that left 41 people dead, and many others sustaining permanent injuries.

The President himself gave his condolences, and the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Roads and Transport, Engineer Kamau, went to Narok to personally inspect the scene of the accident, and to console the survivors at the hospital. The same C.S later declared a ban on night travels by the long distance public buses as one of the solutions to the road carnages.

The government has in the past come up with different ways of curbing the road deaths; from introducing the alco-blow, use of speed guns on some highways, increasing the number of police checks on the roads, to media campaigns on road safety....

But when it is all said and done, we will all need to deal with the main problem: Carelessness on the roads.

A view on some of the major roads

During the just ended elections campaign period, I traveled quite a lot along the Major roads and below are some of the general trends that I saw with vehicles that were  travelling to/from:

Central Kenya region;- Careless driving by personal car drivers and Miraa Pickups

Nyanza region;- Careless driving by PSV buses travelling along Mai Mahiu road, with the main culprits being buses from Kisii.

Coast region;- Careless driving by PSV buses& heavy trucks.

Mai Mahiu-Narok road

There were occasions when we would be moving by night from Kisumu at those not-so-interesting speeds of 140kmph/150kmph using some Prados (whose stability makes one feel like they are moving at 110/120kmph on a smaller car).. and then out of nowhere, a Nyamira express bus would swish past you and disappear in to the horizon, meaning that they could be doing anything between 160kmph and 170kmph! anyone who has ever used those long distance buses knows very well that there is usually a sense of lack of stability even at 80kmph, especially when overtaking, or passing over an uneven section of the road. I wouldn't refer to such driving as over-speeding,it is instead just speeding carelessly.

What is interesting is that some of my friends who use these buses are usually very happy about this carelessness. They will tell you that “Siku hizi kuenda Kisii ni 4 hours tu!” or “Siku hizi tunakulanga breakfast na familia asubuhi, sio kama kitambo.” Another friend of mine wondered why I would travel using the Easy Coach buses from kisumu to Nairobi, instead of using the very fast (meaning no speed govenor)and smaller Shuttles.

Highway to Mombasa

While this careless-speeding will make you cross your fingers while in a bus to Homa Bay, what will make you hold tightly onto your seat in buses travelling to Mombasa is how they overtake. In fact, when travelling to Mombasa by bus, I always prefer travelling at night when there are a few heavy trucks, hence less overtaking. You will find a bus that is travelling at 80kmph, trying to overtake a tanker that is moving at 70kmph, while there is an oncoming SUV possibly moving at 100kmph.

Now, me being the type that does not easily fall asleep while travelling, the only choice i am usually left with is stepping on some imaginary breaks whenever such ‘overtakings’ occur(which is quite often)

The other careless thing that these Mombasa bus drivers do is what I can call “communal overtaking.” This usually happens when there are say three slow trucks closely trailing each other, and about four buses behind them, then the driver in the leading bus sees the opportunity to overtake and goes for it, then the rest of the buses blindly follow suit. It is usually not so bad if you are in the first bus, but your hair will definitely stand if you are in the third or fourth bus.

Vehicles to central Kenya

When it comes to vehicles going to/from Central Kenya, it is not the PSV Matatus but some private car drivers and Miraa vehicles that will send you to an early grave.

These roads have very many private cars especially from Friday to Sunday, all of them in some hurry to go wherever. When driving to/from those sides, you will find yourself flashing your headlights many times, just to remind/warn an oncoming overtaking car that you are also on the road. In many occasions, you will be forced to slow down to avoid a head on collision. There are also situations where there are persons overtaking from opposite sides at the same time, again forcing you to slow down to avoid a bad accident, and also so that the fellow can just go where they want.

Some of the drivers on those roads seem to over-estimate the acceleration power of their fielders and Primeos.

There are also these old lorries ferrying food stuff, charcoal, timber etc. where just like the heavy trucks on the Mombasa highway, you’ll find them creating long queues of vehicles behind them, each moving in a zigzag motion, peeping to see whether they can shoot forward and overtake the slow moving lorry (especially headed to Nairobi) which is usually a difficult process given the number of vehicles on the opposite side. Some Macho drivers will nevertheless overtake, and dangerously force themselves in front of you to evade an oncoming vehicle.

Then there are the Miraa pickups. They are always brand new, well maintained Toyota Hiluxes, with a huge Miraa load at the back, and two spare tyres. The speed and recklessness of these pickups makes that of the Kisii buses look like some joke. They will overtake dangerously, and if there is an oncoming vehicle, then it will be up to that oncoming vehicle to get out of the road, or slow down completely so as to allow the Miraa Pickup time to overtake. The Miraa Pickups drivers are the ones who will actually flash their headlights at you, to warn you that they are overtaking, not the other way round. I hear that the drivers  walk around with some huge “petty cash” so that when they hit you, they just give you the money to sort your repairs as they go on with their journey.

Even the police do not bother to stop them, they just won’t stop.

Interestingly, the public transport vehicles on these roads are much disciplined. Most of the vehicles move at maximum speed of 80kmph, and the few that have tampered with the speed governors rarely do over 100kmph. If it takes two and a half hours from Nairobi to Karatina, you will most likely take two and a half hours,or slightly more, not less. The drivers never seem to be in any hurry. The passengers are also very vigilant (especially the women) and they will complain and warn the driver to drive carefully whenever he makes any mistake (since the Matatus are smaller, it is easier to complain directly to the driver). They will also start complaining and verbally expressing their shock if another motorist drives dangerously. You will normally get into these Matatus and everybody sits quietly, minding their own. But if any motorist drives badly, or if they go past an accident scene, then everybody will begin talking to everyone, and they can sometimes stay on the topic of accidents/careless driving for over 30 minutes.

But Maybe the reason as to the why PSVs on these routes are more sober is because they used to be the complete opposite some years ago. When we were younger, my brother and I would always be on the lookout for Matatu accidents every time we traveled upcountry for the holidays. We would never miss two or three fatal ones. In fact, as Alfred Mutua once joked, back then, before commencing a journey, some street pastor would turn up just after all the passengers are fully seated, and make a prayer that believers refer to as “journey mercies” and get some small collections for his prayers.

Superstition.

Just as some people believe that if they pray they will arrive safely, others believe in other forms of superstition.

Just yesterday, I was seated in a 4W Matatu, and the topic of Narok accident came up. Everyone was agreeing that those accidents are not “normal”, and it is the owners of those buses who are “giving sacrifices to the devil” so as to increase their wealth. It was alleged that the politicians also are sacrificing their people after winning the elections, as a sign of gratitude to the devil. Statements like “the season for offering sacrifices has arrived” were repeated. Apparently, the season begins in August, peaking and ending in December. All my counter-arguments fell onto deaf ears.

The problem with such superstition is that the drivers will continue to be reckless, and the passengers will just pray that God saves them from being sacrificed.

There is also the philosophy that “kama siku yako imefika, hata undeshe polepole aje utakufa tu.”

There was a time when my good friend Booker Ngesa complained that a Matatu which we were in was being driven badly and instead of the driver listening and driving carefully, he stopped the vehicle in the middle of nowhere and insisted that we get off the Matatu since we had brought “Swara”(bad omen) into the Matatu by complaining. The other passengers supported the Matatu crew through agreeing that we were bringing bad omen and others through their silence. Of course, we had to calm down (though a fist fight did later occur between the Matatu crew members and ourselves immediately we arrived where we were going…)

Sleeping,Madharau and stray dogs

Then there are some long distance drivers who sleep on the wheel. These drivers claim that they know the road so well, that they can actually close their eyes intermittently along some stretches. There is a time we were going to Kisumu on a Friday, not knowing that it is difficult to get buses to Kisumu on Fridays. We found all buses booked, and we were advised to wait for the buses that travel from Mombasa to Kisumu and chance on getting some space. Just as they said, one of the buses arrived but it only had two spaces left, yet we were four of us. We were then told that two would get their seats, and the remaining two would lie on a mattress that is reserved for the Makanga near the driver, only if we assured the bus crew that these two wouldn't sleep, and that they would do the makanga’s job, which is to “pigisha dereva mastori ndio asilale!”

Then there are other drivers who assume that motorcycles and bicycles do not have the right to use the road, and they will just hoot at them, zoom close to them in high speed, or just knock them off and drive away. (I think that before people get their driver’s license, people should first be made to ride a bicycle along one of the major highways, and maybe the experience will help them follow the law and respect cyclists once they get to drive their vehicles.)

There are also some dog (and occasionally donkey) owners who let their animals lose near the highways. Motorists will either hit them and continue with their journey; hit them and lose control therefore an accident; or they try to evade knocking these animals down, and instead they themselves end up dead in some ditch.

Some solutions.

• Regulation of long distance buses/Matatus-The idea of having speed governors on long distance buses should be thoroughly followed. There should be a limit on the number of trips a driver can make in a day, and also a limit on the number of trips a bus can make in 24 hours (if the minimum time that a bus moving at 80kmph can take from point A to point B is 10 hours, then the bus can make a maximum of two trips only). Self regulation should be encouraged, though there should be government inspectors who follow up on these matters. If these two limits are broken, then it is the bus owners who should be held responsible.
• Have surveillance cameras where possible(like they do in Sudan), and mobile police (I heard that they will now be riding in Subarus) replacing the useless road blocks.
• Have proper lighting and signage on our roads. The government should also care to paint the roads so that they can be clear at night. The marks should include road reflectors on the yellow line.
• Introduce a hotline specifically for reporting those who are driving carelessly. (so that those mobile police may follow up where possible)
• Increase the upper speed limit on the highways (except for PSVs), and also introduce lower speed limit on these highways (to deal will those trucks that move at 40kmph on the highways)
• Combine Insurance renewal with vehicle inspection.
• The government should have a serious campaign against careless driving (the same way they’ve done against careless sex in relation to HIV spread)
• And finally find ways of getting rid of those stray dogs (and Donkeys)………I hear that there was a time when town councils would poison those stray dogs?

That Tummy

The Tummy.

Clear it in two weeks! So they claim.

I do not like how it looks, she and he says.

I work the gym but it never disappears, she complains.

Some men love the hips,

Others ogle the behind,

Most will say it’s the face,

Yet for others, it’s her chest.

I do agree with all them.

But listen to me and dare look,

There is so much to admire,

In that tummy.

So intriguing it is,

More so with the double bump

Or when it’s almost a 360

And yes, when it flows down and up.

For when she lies there

It just disappears

And you are saved from seeing

The ribs and their cage

The best part though,

Is when it is all done,

Laying there, fantasizing your common future.

Where else to lay your arms,

Other than on that intriguing tummy?

Benedict Wachira

12 June 2013

10:00pm

Nairobi Demonstrations; A few Basics To Know

Now that the ‘Occupy Parliament reloaded’ is a day away, I have been thinking about the past Nairobi demonstrations that I have attended, which are quite a few.

I happened to miss out on the last ‘Occupy Parliament’ demo, and it looks like I missed quite some action.

For some reason, Nairobians just do not attend demonstrations, even when the issues being addressed affect most of them in a very personal way, for instance the demonstrations against high food prices and high fuel prices. They prefer complaining about it, blame the cartels, the politicians and the government and so on, but they never come out to express their frustrations when called upon to do so. Maybe a study should be conducted to explain why this happens, but below are some of the more known reasons:

·         “Facilitation”

Many Nairobians will support the idea, and then ask for a fee to attend the demo, this fee is usually referred to as ‘facilitation’:-  Which is a phenomenon that the NGOs-CSOs- Popularised especially in the low income areas and is now an almost permanent trend(The name ‘facilitation’ came up because every time some NGO would organize a community meeting to address real issues affecting the community, you’d hear at the end of the meeting the organizers going like “…We do not pay people to attend our forums, since these forums are for your own benefit as a community. But we will give you some facilitation because we know that you left your affairs today, and you need to eat at the end of the day”.) In fact, these days if you do not intend to give “facilitation” in these forums, you have to be very clear about it right from the beginning, otherwise you might land yourself in very big problems thereafter.

The same phenomenon was exported to demonstrations, hence one of the explanations to the usually low turnout even when the issues being addressed are pertinent to the masses.

(ION//if you ever thought that these NGOs do this by default and not by design, then it will be important that you read James Petras’ NGOs in Latin America)

·         The idea that others will attend

Then there is this idea especially among the middle-class that they can hype the demo on twitter and facebook, and then because of the hype, other people will attend.

They find it easier to seek leave from office to attend trivial matters, but never a demo. That is why you will have 3, 000 people attending the demo on facebook, then 200 attending the actual demo.

·         Fear of Police violence

This is a bit understandable; Pictures such as those of Reverend Timothy Njoya being clobbered by state machinery during some demo back in the 90’s tend to instill some fear into potential participants. Others fear the teargas, water cannons….

Still, a research needs to be done, so that the solutions can be found. From my experience, the average number of demonstrators in a small demo is usually between 20 and 40 people. The average number in a big demo is usually between 300 and 400 people. The smallest demo I have participated in had 5 participants while the biggest and the most successful that I ever attended was the one that was organized by Kenyan Muslims 4 years ago, after the atrocious Israeli bombardments in Gaza that left close to 1000 Palestinians dead. The demo attracted several thousands.

Post-Moi demonstrations

The first years of the Mwai Kibaki regime did not see a lot of street action, I think there was one by journalists against a “media censure bill,” and two by University students. This was until Okoiti Omtatah came into the scene with a series of demos, and I credit him with differentiating between getting a police permit for demonstrations, and notifying the police of the intention to hold a demo (he once even pinned a notification on Central police station’s OCS’s door after the guy kept on hiding so as not to approve the demos)

In this era, it became rare for police to beat up protesters like they used to do in the 90’s…..just some tear gas here and here, water cannons, illegal arrests…… and things got even better with the promulgation of the current constitution in 2010.

Article 37 gives Kenyans the right to peaceably and armed to assemble, demonstrate, picket and to present petitions to public authorities. This means that one can demonstrate at any time, without notifying anybody. Unfortunately, some people still insist on notifying the police even when they do not need police protection in those demonstrations.

Things to know

The fact that Kenyans have this right, and that ‘it belongs to them and is not granted by the state’, then it will be important that they exercise it whenever necessary. From the few experiences that I have had, these are some of the things that one should know as they attend a demo:

You should eat well before the demo

This especially applies to demos that are scheduled to begin early. Eating some Ugali and sukuma wiki before the demo is important due to the unpredictability of Nairobi demos. You never know when they will end. You may have the intention to present a petition to Parliament by noon, but then you find it being received at 4pm in the evening. The problem is that all the chanting and the singing tends to make you hungry, and the bigger problem is that it will not be in order if you leave before the intention of the demo is fulfilled.

Do not take fluids

One is usually tempted to drink a lot of water with the reasoning that the sun might burn too much. The problem comes when you need to take a leak…….i am yet to discover where the Parliament, High Court or Office of the President’s toilets are!

Make sure that you can sing the National Anthem

There are a few songs that are sung in demonstrations, most of them from the NCEC and RPP days. It is understandable when you can’t sing along to those, but it is extremely embarrassing when you cannot sing the National anthem. And here I don’t mean singing the first verse like we do in the stadiums, no, I mean all the three verses. Rarely will a demo start off without the national anthem…and it is usually re-sung severally during the demo.

I hope that Juliani’s Utawala chorus will in the future be included in the list of these demo songs.

Carry a jacket or some warm clothing

This is obvious. Reason is that the weatherman in Kenya is usually wrong.

The second reason which my friend Mulialia Okumu, who is a veteran in the Post-Moi era demonstrations jokingly shared with me once is that, should you end up in a police cell, the warm clothing comes in very handy.

Handling violent policemen

Though this is rare in peaceful protests these days, there are some policemen who still have the animalistic Moi era mentality, who tend to violently disrupt peaceful protests.

Just before the teargas and the batons, a senior policeman will approach the demonstrators and give them the orders to disperse, after which he gives orders to the anti-riot squad to charge.

The demonstrators will always refuse to disperse, and three scenarios always occur:

1.       The demonstrators will hold hands and stand their ground. The police will charge at them but there is nothing that they will do. They will just threaten the people with the batons or push them away using their shields. If any of them lands the baton on you, hold his hand firmly and tell him that you have a right to demonstrate and he has no right to beat you. This ‘rights’ thing always works magic.

This is the best scenario, but it needs quite some courage.

2.       The second scenario is when the demonstrators run away either out of fear or because of the teargas and the sound of rubber bullets being shot in the air. The best scenario as stated above is to stay put and in solidarity stand your ground, but when everyone else is running away, then run away also. If you don’t, you will be beaten up. I have seen it happen many times, but the one that I have never forgotten is when my friend Gacheke Gachihi, another veteran, continued sitting at Harambee Avenue even after everyone else had run away. They almost broke his leg.

3.       The third scenario is that some people will run away, some will stand their ground. The right thing to do here is to be part of those that stand their ground.

In case in the teargas confusion, you get cornered by one or two policemen, never kneel down (I have seen many people do this, I think it comes about automatically, where you lift your hands and kneel, begging for mercy.) These policemen go for the easiest and most vulnerable situations. I remember during that huge anti-Israel demo, the police had laid an ambush near Pan-Afrique hotel, but before I explain how I was beaten up, I’ll first describe this demo;

As I had indicated, it is the biggest and best organized demo that I have ever attended. I think it was Al-Amin Kimathi who addressed us first after the Muslims came from their prayers, then a young man took over the mic of the PA system(not a megaphone)with one hand, and held a shoe with the other (just like the Iraqi who threw shoes at Bush)and began the chants. The chants were the most passionate that I have ever experienced. He would lead in chants like “down down Israil” and we would respond the same……”down down bush”…..”Takbir---Allahu Akbar”….”la ilaha ilalah”…and so on and so forth. Others were distributing pamphlets and placards and off we left for the Israeli embassy. The women were militant, the men were energetic.

We then found GSU trucks having blocked the road at the traffic lights just before Pan-Afrique, we sat down and continued with the chants as more demonstrators arrived. We then stood up and demanded that we be allowed to go through. After some push and shove, one of the trucks opened up the way, and thinking that we were now victorious, we excitedly ran through, only to find that more trucks had barricaded the road a few meters ahead on the other side. As we were demanding for the second barricade to be opened, the one behind us was closed again (I think they had gotten enough people within the two barricades) and that is when all hell broke loose. Teargas and batons with nowhere to run. I tried running in all directions but the ambush was well prepared. Some three policemen descended on me and I made the mistake of going down and pleading thinking that they would have some sympathy, none came through. Just when I began to think that they might kill me, woman came running and stumbled down not far from me. two of the policemen that were on me decided to shift their attention to her, and that is when I found an opening and ran towards the NSSF building where like others, I stepped on the sharp pointed metallic fence and jumped onto the other side, a process that left both soles of my new shoes pierced. There still were tens of policemen on the other side of the road that leads to community, who just threatened us but did not act on us. It was decided that we go back to the mosque and re-organise, but I found myself going back to my campus room, still holding on to my placard (pictured below)

End The Occupation!

I didn’t share the ordeal with anyone, until a year-mate of mine who had attended the demo after their prayers told me of how he was beaten, and since he was very light-skinned, the marks were still there, and we laughed a lot as we exchanged our experiences……….apparently, he did not see the opening on the NSSF side, so his story was much different…

The only flaw in that demo was that the organizers (or maybe it was the media?) had packaged the protest as a Muslim demo, rather than an all-Kenyan demo against the Murder, occupation and apartheid being perpetrated by the Israeli fascist regime.

Going back to violent policemen, there are two occasions when they came with dogs. Not running away is again, the solution.

But people should not fear, the beatings and dogs are rare these days, especially in this constitutional dispensation, that is why I was shocked to watch on TV some policemen beating up a protester (Joseph Kimani) like a sack of maize. That is why we must rein in or better still, do away with this incompetent I.G of police Mr.Kimaiyo or he will take us back to the Moi days.

In related news, i was also happy to read in today’s newspaper that Justice Mumbi Ngugi had ruled that Policemen should also take personal responsibility when it comes to matters of them using violence illegally. She deserves a Nobel award.

For the organizers

There are some things that organizers need also to do.

Reconnaissance visits- The organizers need to make reconnaissance visits to the route and venue of action, so that they can take the best positions. I remember we had once planned to raise the food prices issue directly to the president during a Madaraka day celebrations at Nyayo stadium. Unfortunately, we sat at a non-strategic place, and what we did not know was that the gates are usually closed such that one cannot move from one area to the other.

Taking control- At times some demonstrators can get excited and begin to harass other people, or even come up with ideas that may not be useful for the demo. The organizers need to deal firmly with such.

Agent provocateurs- These are the most dangerous people, and most difficult to deal with. They pretend to be with you but they are actually state agents. Their characteristics include; Charging at the Police for no reason, changing the agenda/program of the demo in a manner that belittles the cause, they become unnecessarily violent, and may even begin to throw stones at the peaceful demo, in case of arrests, they are taken to different locations away from the rest, and so on. There is one perennial demonstrator that I believe is an agent provocateur. The best way to deal with such is to set the people against them.

Gathering point- My brother Emmanuel noted that in the Nairobi demos that we participated in, we never had gathering points in case of forced dispersal. It is important to have a re-gathering point, just in case.

Legal contacts- Should there be arrests, there is always need for legal intervention. Since demonstrating is a constitutional right, these days the police might arrest you and leave you free outside the police station, but should they take you in, a lawyer will come in handy. Paul Muite has always assisted demonstrators-Pro bono.

Back up batteries- There is nothing as disappointing as having to send someone to the supermarket to buy some Megaphone batteries because the ones that you were using have run out of power.

One of the best demo organizers that I have seen in action, and probably the best there is, is CD Otieno. Ever since he became the President of bunge la Wananchi Movement, he has led uncountable demonstrations in the city, and he continues to learn from the failures and successes of each manifestation.

But all in all, Kenyans need to understand the role of demonstrations, so as to appreciate them, and conduct them responsibly.

Benedict Wachira

10^th June 2013

4:06am

Of campus politicians and National politics

After several months off my blog, I have decided to re-engage it with a piece, which was supposed to be titled “Of Campus politics and National Politicians,” but I changed it to “Of campus politicians and National Politics.”

A good number of the people who have shaped Main stream politics in Kenya are those who were also part of University student leadership back in their days. From the ‘greats’ like James Orengo, Mwandawiro Mghanga, Wafula Buke, Kabando wa Kabando, Oduor Ong’wen among others who in their days opposed the KANU dictatorship, to the likes of Isaac Ruto who supported (and were supported) by the dictatorship then….…to the younger entrants led by the likes of Omar Hassan who have been on the progressive side.

But perhaps a more interesting development is shaping itself, quietly, as if ushering a new epoch in the mainstream politics of this country. What I would call my university generation is now playing a mainstream role in the National Politics barely five years after graduating.

Unlike in the recent past where former student politicians became Personal Assistants of ordinary politicians, or when they became youth wingers in Political Parties where they did not have any major say;

This time round, a few of these around-thirty-and-below are now playing non-periphery roles in the Kenya’s mainstream politics. Not that their intentions are necessarily good, but, they are still there.

I know that there could be more out there (especially from the other institutions), but I thought I’d highlight a few of them, those whom I had some interactions with in Campus, how my interactions with them back were then, and what they are doing now.

.(This is more of a journalistic piece, with a short conclusion that foresees bringing out and sharpening contradictions in Kenya’s political sphere)

Lydia Mathia-

A performing poet, Mathia had worked with the Youth Agenda for some time, before she was later unveiled at Uhuru Kenyatta’s TNA Party launch at KICC, as the Secretary for Gender. She was my year-mate at the UoN, where she began her politics at the Hall representative level, latter vying unsuccessfully for the position of Vice Chair SONU. She finally vied for and became the Secretary General of Women Students Welfare Association (WOSWA)

In the ups and downs of fate, she was nominated by TNA for the Senate, her name appearing in the top five positions on TNA’s list, meaning that she was quite sure that she would be part of the next Senate. This was not to be. The IEBC strangely(and illicitly) decided to nominate and gazette other people whose names were lower in the list.

Dann Mwangi

We had heard about each other when we were both in our freshman year: -

He had heard about a first year who had declared intentions of vying for SONU chair, later changing to Secretary Health, and eventually being disqualified by the then overseer of the elections, Professor Peter Wanyande (an action that ended up violently and with some arrests.)

I had heard about this student who had led his fellow first year students in a demonstration outside the Vice chancellor’s office, demanding for a congress position for law students staying in Lower Kabete Campus, which had been scrapped by those overseeing the elections (leading such a demo was extremely courageous, given that the Vice Chancellor, Prof. George Magoha, was a feared man)………of course, the VC never gave them a hearing, he just sent an employee who told the students to go back to their college and even offered them a bus, failure to which they would all be expelled from the university. They complied.

We would meet for the first time the following year, when he was vying for Secretary legal affairs and I for the OS position. The elections were badly rigged, and most of the winners, including myself were rigged out. Dann Mwangi earned our respect for fighting alongside us against the injustice in a fight that brought about a lot of tension in the university; this was in spite of him having won the Legal Affairs seat.

He would later vie and clinch the SONU chair’s seat, where he led one of the biggest students’ Demonstrations in recent history, against the assassinations of Oulu GPO and Oscar King’ara.

His political opinion pieces frequently appear on the major National Newspapers, and he is slowly becoming heavy weight in the Political commentary circle,,,even though his commentaries during the campaign period became clearly pro-Uhuru.

Aol Paul

Aol was a very bright law student and the sharpest student leader that I interacted with during my campus days. His understanding of legal processes, still while in campus was deep, and he knew how to present his opinion in a powerful manner. He also served as a legal affairs Secretary, and I interacted with him more during a review process for the SONU constitution (where surprisingly, the VC himself had asked that I be included in the process, despite myself not holding any official political position and despite our opinions having clashed severally in the past)

He now works with Evans Kidero, the Governor of Nairobi, where he holds the gate-pass to the access of the Nairobi Governor. He worked as Kidero’s Personal Assistant, and later led the Evans Kidero’s Campaign team as the team’s Secretary, where they emerged victorious in the murky, tribal and expensive Nairobi Governor politics.

He also managed to pull in James ‘Woodboy’ Mwangi-who served with him in the same SONU as the Secretary Sports and Entertainment- into Kidero’s team. Woodboy was in charge of Youth and Sports in the Campaign team, and he also did most of the design works for Kidero’s Campaigns. The name Woodboy stuck when we were in first year and he had vied for the main campus’ wooden Prefabs halls. During his campaigns, he had promised to organize an inter-prefabs football tournament, and i got to know him better when I helped him organize the tournament, a period when he would first publicly express his interests in the field of Sports.

Nixon Korir

Nixon Korir was two years behind me in college, where he pursued a degree in Law. He later became the Secretary General of SONU, where I briefly worked with him and his Chair-David Osiany when we were demanding for the reinstatement of Kenyatta University student leaders who had been expelled for protesting and organizing demos against their Varsity administration. He is now the Executive-Director of the United Republican Party (URP). He vied for Lang’ata parliamentary position, but he was not successful.

 His influence within the Party was seen when Lang’ata constituency was initially zoned-off for URP within the Jubilee coalition in a move that would have almost confirmed his winning of the seat. The idea was later abandoned.

The fact that he was not nominated into parliament probably signals a top government posting in the Uhuru-Ruto government.

Martha Wangari

Martha was two years ahead of me, and my first interaction with her was on a wrong footing. She was vying for the Vice Chairperson SONU position, and I supported her opponent from Kikuyu campus, despite the fact that she and I came from same campus, Chiromo. She went ahead to win the elections, which meant that she would automatically become a commissioner in the next elections (a very absurd rule it was!), an election where I became a candidate. I knew I was in trouble when I learnt that she still remembered my not supporting her, given that I had fallen off with most of the would be commissioners, and more so given the fact that I had witnessed brazen rigging by the commissioners in the previous elections (where I was an agent for

Adhiambo Adhiambo-Secretary General and Joseph Adinda-Secretary Sports----both of whom cut off their contact with me immediately they won. Typical Kenyan politicians!), but we would later find some truce.

From that year when she won the position, beating other male opponents, the seat of Vice Chair-Academic Affairs has been held by female students ever since. In fact, some future students would come to believe that the seat was constitutionally reserved for women.

She is now a Nominated Senator, and her weight was became evident when she was nominated for the only senate seat awarded to her Party, the United Democratic Front (UDF), where she holds the position of UDF Party Treasurer.

Dr. Boniface Chitayi

Dr. Chitayi is one of the few people whose politics I’ve always considered progressive among the crop of student leaders of my generation; I have respected his politics a great deal. Though he served in a SONU characterized by kick backs, tribalism and corruption, I was never aware of him engaging in such.

He may not be the greatest orator, but when it comes to organizing people, coming up with ideas and implementing them, creating and maintaining networks, taking bold stands, and obeying the rule of democratic centralism in an organization, he is one of the best.

Despite being a Luhya, which meant fewer numbers in the highly tribal campus politics, Chitayi had always won with landslide margins from the time he vied to be a Campus representative to when he vied for Secretary Health position in SONU. Even though he never won in his last try when he vied against Dann Mwangi for the Chairman’s position, he still retained a lot of respect especially among the medic students. During the campaigns, I would on a few occasions meet him in his SR room where we would discuss the future of student politics (all student leaders and highly political students used to stay in these SR&QR rooms; I had always turned down offers for those rooms since I felt that they were too big and too lonely) and even though I had boycotted the elections following our call of No Reforms No Elections, I towards the end asked those who still insisted on voting that they’d rather vote for Boniface Chitayi for the chairmanship of the Union. I knew that he was genuine.

Chitayi’s organizational skills would be seen two years later, when he, together with other Medics formed the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), a militant and parallel doctors’ Union which is credited with inspiring young workers from other sectors to either be active in Union politics, form Unions where there were none, or form parallel but genuine Unions to fight for their rights.

Under Chitayi’s leadership, the Union’s first major campaign was not just to demand for a pay rise, but also for radical improvement of government health facilities throughout the country, and the progressive realization of the African Union’s Abuja Declaration on Health. The Union would later organize one of the most successful doctors’ strikes in the country, which ended with the government coming up with a paper on how it would improve its health facilities, and the young doctors winning a 100% pay rise, the highest awarded to any Union in Kenya’s recent History, but that was after being conned, threatened and cajoled by ironically, the then Minister Professor Anyang’ Nyong’o, a former Marxist who now claims to be a Social Democrat (was in fact a former Secretary General of the Social Democratic Party!)

With this first experience, the Union would continue to successfully keep the Government on its toes, threatening further strikes and at times making good their threats.

But Chitayi’s role as the Secretary General of the Union would come to an end, after he was approached by TNA party to come up with a health policy that would be included in the party’s manifesto, and was unveiled as TNA Party’s Secretary for Health, indicating that, should TNA win, then he would be made the Cabinet Secretary for health. The social media was awash with demands for his resignation on one side and congratulatory messages on the other, with those demonizing the move seeming to have taken the day.

In as much as I personally didn’t agree at all with the Party that he had chosen, I totally disagreed with those who bayed for his blood for openly participating in politics (which was their main reason). I would have preferred that the debate revolved around which Party the Union should support, rather than the COTU-style stand where Trade Unions and Unionists do not participate in mainstream politics, and just leaving their members to vote for whomever, irrespective of their policies on Workers, working conditions etc.

In order to avoid further internal conflicts within the Union, Chitayi chose to step aside as the Secretary General of the Union.

In as much as KMPDU’s Chairperson and Treasurer are both excellent speakers, I still felt that the young Union had lost the best Secretary General who could organize and lead the Union especially at their formative stage, though I understand that he still served in its National Executive Council as a member.

It will be interesting to see how TNA will treat him now that they are forming the government.

Johnson Sakaja

Campus politics is pretty expensive. One has to chuck posters, move between the seven campuses….and it is at that point that aspiring student leaders organize along their tribes so as to fundraise amongst their tribes men, and also so as to ensure that each tribe(or a combination of tribes) produces one candidate so as to beat the other candidates from other tribes. The worst culprits were the Kikuyu and the Luo. Classical tribalism.

But in Chiromo campus, things were organized along the same idea, but in a different way. Aspirants from the campus would meet, so as to produce a single candidate for any of the executive positions, so as to beat candidates from other campuses, and also so as to trade empty positions with aspirants from other campuses in exchange for their support. An equivalent for regionalism.

So I remember attending the first Chiromo meeting, where I first met Sakaja, who was introduced to the meeting as a “…person with big connections out there, who, once we agreed on a line up, would mobilize enough funds for the final lineup..” He was vying to become the first Module two representative, which was a newly created executive position. I never got to see the funds, leave alone the “enough funds,” but he went ahead and won, and just like Dann Mwangi, he also showed a lot of solidarity with those who had been rigged out in those elections.

We then encountered each other was during the 2007 Kibaki campaigns where we were on opposing sides.

Two years later, I would meet his name in the list of individuals who had connived with the registrar of Political Parties to illegally impose themselves as leaders of the Social Democratic Party. They were led by Kibaki men who included Mutahi Kagwe, Njeru Ndwiga and Mutua Katuku. His name was appearing alongside the three in the National Executive Committee.

Of course, they had invaded the wrong Party with ‘tough-skinned, clear-headed Communists’………and they eventually had to run, run very fast.

It seems like they all ran in different directions, with Kagwe running to Ngilu’s NARC, Katuku to WDM-K, and him coming out as the Chairman of Uhuru’s TNA.

As we neared the elections, I knew that ODM Party, which was the biggest and the most popular Party would face their toughest race, given that the young sharp Sakaja (now with Uhuru’s Billions at his disposal) was going ahead and including young people in the top leadership of their campaign team, while ODM’s Henry Kosgei and his team preferred working with the likes of Franklin Bett, with the young maintained mostly in the rank and file positions.

It was incredible watching the two Right Wing Parties (and later coalitions), with budgets running into Billions, the capitalist media fully behind them and the tribal and regional mathematics carefully calculated, fighting for Wanjiku’s votes. It seemed like the CORD coalition team was caught flat foot, as if thinking that they were campaign against President Kibaki (whose 07’ campaign team was lousy and heavily bureaucratic). While ODM chose to re-use propaganda and lies from the past about prophecies and such, Jubilee’s propaganda and lies attacked everything, not even sparing the PM’s wife. While CORD was majoring on Citizen TV and radio stations, Jubilee was not only using its newly bought Mediamax outlets, but had a much stronger multi facetted presence on the internet and Social media. It wasn’t until later when CORD created the youthful CORD-effect team, that their propaganda and lies began equaling that of Jubilee, finally and ineffectively surpassing that of the Jubilee team after the elections (during the petition.)

Sakaja is now a nominated Member of the National Assembly, though many had thought he’d be given a cabinet Secretary position------an indication that Uhuru Kenyatta doesn’t want to lose him as the Chairperson of TNA, probably saving him for some future fight.

Booker Ngesa

I met Booker Ngesa in my second year, but began working with him more closely in my final year after forming the Liberator movement, which included Oscar King’ara and Oulu GPO, who were both assassinated after Alfred Mutua, the then government spokesman had claimed something to the effect that Oscar’s organisation (Oscar foundation) was a conduit for Mungiki’s external funding. We had formed the movement to help the masses access information, educate themselves from the information, and liberate themselves with the information. After the killings, the movement came to an end, after some of the leaders sought refuge outside the country, leaving only Booker and myself.

Our last activity with the movement was when we were called in to assist the Kenyatta University Student leaders who had been suspended after their twin protests and riots against the Professor Olive Mugenda administration. We facilitated their meeting with other student leaders, and also progressives whose contacts they had, Bonny Khalwale was of greatest assistance, but it was Mwandawiro Mghanga who would impact on Booker the most.

After working with the students and Mwandawiro Mghanga, we joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) where Mwandawiro was the Chairperson. The coincidence here was that we had always wanted to join the SDP, a Party that was financially weak, but with a rich history and considered In the political circles as the only ideological Party. Joining it came with some prestige, but we didn’t know how to go about it……..then we unexpectedly met the Chairperson!

Booker (I have done a lot alongside him, so I now edit myself off) became a member of the Young Social Democrats (SDP’s youth league), where he began cultivating his revolutionary growth, later rising to become the Young Social Democrats’ National Secretary. This was at a time when there were a lot of Party struggles in the top leadership. The wrangles would later escalate to a point where there were two parallel leaderships of the Party. One was led by Mwandawiro and was considered ideological with a history of action, the other led by Mutahi Kagwe and was considered as illegal and had a huge financial muscle with the backing of the state.

Booker supported the legitimate Mwandawiro faction, and he played a critical role in the long arbitration processes, which finally ended at the courts, where the Young Social Democrats defended the Party, representing themselves (couldn’t afford lawyers) while the other side was represented with two well established and experienced lawyers. The other side lost the case. The Registrar of political Parties still refused to abide by the court ruling, and demonstrations followed…..and the demonstrations worked.

Booker was a few months later elected by the National Congress into the Central Committee of the Party as the Organising Secretary of the Party, where he immediately and successfully embarked in the difficult and expensive process of making the Party comply with the election act 2011, whose main intention was to reduce the number of Parties from forty seven to less than five.(the intentions of the law didn’t work, since the number of parties initially went down, but many new parties were later created as the elections neared)

The Party would later field Booker to vie in Gem, Siaya County, where he was to vie against Raila Odinga’s first cousin, Jakoyo Midiwo. Many people thought that Booker would lose badly, since Siaya was an ODM zone, Jakoyo was Raila’s handiman, and SDP did not later join CORD coalition.

Before Booker’s entry in the race, Jakoyo was so sure of his re-election due to lack of competition, that he was constantly interfering with the Senatorial and Gubernatorial politics of Siaya county. Jakoyo would later be forced to confine himself in Gem constituency, after meeting real and stiff opposition from the young Booker Ngesa.

Jakoyo, a politician known for his foul mouth towards women, and better known for employing violence in his campaigns (his campaign t-shirts were printed “Otada x3”, loosely translating to War x3), would meet Booker on the ground, and after clashing severally-Booker would earn the name “Baby Nyahunyo”-one that disciplines but doesn’t injure!

 The Gem campaigns were just too dirty and bloody. With cars being smashed, houses being burnt, pangas being used and gun shots ringing in the air.

It was so clear that Booker was going to win, and I even argued with my good friend and President of Bunge la Mwananchi, comrade CD Otieno, when he told me that Raila Odinga would go to the region two days to the elections and the politics would change overnight.

I never doubted Raila’s influence in the region, especially Siaya, what I doubted him going to Siaya in the last days of the campaigns. I was wrong.

Whereas Booker’s strategy had taken care of Raila’s earlier visits, nobody in his campaign team had anticipated that Raila would go to campaign for Jakoyo and Cornel Rasanga in Gem on the second last day of his campaigns. Three days later Booker would call me and tell me that we had lost by about five thousand votes to Jakoyo. William Oduol also lost to Rasanga.

I feel that those behind Raila’s campaigns were either extremely poor in strategy, or they were so overconfident, that they saw it wise for Raila to spend the last campaign days in Kisumu and Siaya (before coming to Nairobi’s final rally), rather than in Kisii and Narok(then going to Nairobi). I believe that if he had campaigned in the 50-50 zones, then there would have been a clear runoff, without trying to sneak it in through their “Shocking evidence” in the Supreme Court.

It will be interesting to see how the future politics in Kenya will be shaped, with almost all of those appearing above being consciously or unconsciously right wing, versus a whole lot of others from the same generation and slightly below, consciously studying Marx, Lenin, Che, Mao and Kwame Nkurmah, while silently and slowly coming out of their study circles ready for revolutionary practice, inspired by Samora Machel, Fidel Castro, Thomas Sankara and hugo Chavez.

Benedict Wachira

3^rd April 2013

12:33am

We Are Watching You

We were not there when you enslaved our forefathers
We were not there when you showed us your brutality through colonization
We were not there when you forcefully stole our resources

We know what you did to Kimathi, Kwame, Lumumba,Modibo, Barka, Samora, Sankara, Hani and all those who opposed your interests on our continent
But that was in the past

Today we were born, we have grown and we are watching you
We are watching you as you continue plundering the Congo
We are watching you as you steal our minerals through force when corruption fails
We are watching you as you put up your AFRICOM bases in Djibouti, and your Lilly-pads all over
We are watching you as you dump nuclear waste on Somali coast, and as you support their terrorists from behind the scenes
We are watching you as you suppress our economies every time they threaten your hegemony
We are watching you as you continue to corrupt and to compromise the leaders that your system imposes on us
We are watching you as you succeed in brainwashing some of us with your powerful global media

We were painfully watching you, as you negated the rule of law in Ivory Coast, through the gun
We were painfully watching you, as you murdered our Brother leader, through the gun
We were painfully watching you, as you attempted your failed coup against Zimbabwe’s economy

Today, your killing instincts are leading you into CAR, in the guise of following some Kony fellow
Today, your killing instincts are taking you into Mali, in the guise of restoring ‘democracy’
Today maybe, Niger, Nigeria or Algeria will be where you will sent your religious crap heads and divisive empty heads

But what you may not know is that
Today we were born, we have grown and we are watching you

The Sankaras are in their thousands
The Kimathis are in their thousands
The Kwames are in their thousands
The Samoras are in their thousands
The Hanis are in their thousands
The Gaddafis are in their hundreds of thousands

Maybe you cannot see us
Because the only avenues we have are the demonstrations, the blogs and the never aired press conferences
Continue thinking that we are asleep, or that we are some ‘lazy intellectual African scums’
Yes, we are few in numbers, but what we lack in numbers, we compliment with our energy and zeal

Our forefathers foresaw this age
An age where you would view us as some backward people
An age when some of us would view us as a lesser people
That was why they left for us the magnificent Pyramids all along the Nile
Pyramids that you once claimed were built by you, Pyramids that you today claim were not built by humans
That is why they left for us the Great Zimbabwe
So developed they were, that you once claimed that the builders came from elsewhere
That is why the left for us the complicated underground structures all over
Structures that make a child’s play of your subways and skyscrapers
That is why they left for us the arts and cultures
With rhythms that you cannot understand

All these are a reminder, So that when we see them, we may hold our heads up high, we may be proud of what we achieved, and we may remind ourselves that we need to regain our lost glory, and bring humanity back into the world

Just like the phoenix, our continent is burning, and the heat is preparing us, preparing us to rise
Just like the lion, we will soon roar, and we will care for nothing, but our freedom and dignity

We have studied your ways
You use your military superiority to rule on us
You take advantage of our goodness to splash your wrath on us

You may not hear our voices, neither do we care
We are organizing
We have learnt from our past
But most importantly
We are learning from your past and present

And when we rise
And when the fire starts to burn
You will realize that the generation has arrived
And we shall not forgive, we shall have no mercy, we shall keep our Utu aside
We shall use your methods to instill humanity into you
The same fate will meet your local stooges and puppets
For we have seen that love can’t work for you

And we shall end all this
Once and for all
Because we are tired of watching you

Benedict Wachira
1st April 2012
9:36pm

Heroes, Population, Al Shabaab, Inflation, Elections, IMF, ICC, IDPs and my frustrations

At times, analyzing how things in Kenya function can be frustrating, at other times, doing something about it is even more frustrating. To pick just a few;

IDPs

It is now four years since thousands of innocent people were killed, raped, maimed, and displaced from their homes, for the crime of voting for the ‘wrong’ presidential candidate (belonging to the ‘wrong’ tribe, to be more exact)

Four years later, we still have Internally Displaced People living in tented camps. Four years later, we have culprits, some of whom are well known to the victims walking free as if nothing ever happened. Some of the victims’ homes are still occupied (the homes which were not burnt to the ground), and some of the victims’ properties are still in the hands of the killers.

Internally Displaced People's Camps

So everyone is focusing on the ‘Ocampo Six’ and no talk is made of the culprits who implemented the actual crimes. We have government officials running around politicizing the IDPs issue, with billions of shillings going into maintenance (not so good food, some medicine here and there) of these IDPs instead of dealing with the issue once and for all….(some of these IDPs used to produce tons of food on their farms, yet they are now forced to live as beggars of food)

What frustrates me is that politics (or plain stupidity) is preventing these government people from solving this non-complex issue.

It is a right for any Kenyan to own property and to live anywhere they want. It is the duty of the government to protect all Kenyans anywhere in Kenya.

So here we have these government ministers very busy looking for land to settle these IDPS, yet that is not the solution.

I believe that those living in the IDP camps can still remember where their farms and houses are.

Solution

1.       Ensure that there is enough security in the regions that these IDPs came from and assure them of their security.

2.       Take them back to their houses for those whose houses are still there. Give reconstruction money to those whose houses were burnt, while giving them alternative accommodation as they rebuild their houses.

3.       Give them some little start up money, for businesses or farming.

4.       Conduct justice, then reconciliation campaigns in these regions.

5.       For those who had homes but fear going back, for whatever reason, they should just be compensated in cash: Valuate their property, and give them the money so that they can go to wherever they want, after which the government should then take over the  ownership of the property.

6.       Flat compensation should then be given to those who didn’t own permanent property but still lost what they owned.

This would be simpler than the government giving them 50K today, buying land (from Njenga Karume) tomorrow or Uhuru Kenyatta promising to resettle them in Taita Taveta (the land that his father stole from Kenyans.)

>>>One thing that the IDP issue has clearly shown is the class nature of our politics. If our politics was just tribal, then Kibaki would have used that tribalism and dealt conclusively with the IDP issue<<<

I.C.C

I consider The International Criminal Court as a tool of Imperialism, and that is what it is.  That is why it has majored its activities in Africa, the continent with abundance of resources, greedy and cowardly leaders and the continent that is very weak militarily (oh how I wish Gaddafi would have developed those W.M.Ds-Weapons of Maximum Defense)

Every time the face of Moreno Ocampo or his utterances-(which just like Arap Sang,,,I strain to comprehend) appear, it will always be about some African rebel, some African President, some African.… and the qualification for this African criminal is that he must first be an enemy of the U.S, France or Britain. That is why a warrant of arrest will be given to El Bashir and not to Kagame, to Gaddafi (and his family) and not to Ben Ali/Mubarak (and their families), to Gbagbo and not to Ouattara, to the leaders of LRA rebels and not to leaders of NTC rebels etc.

People have always asked why, even after what has gone down in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are no cases or warrants of arrest for Bush and Blair.(….some wonder why there is no warrant of arrest for Mugabe…..for the crime of NOT allowing 7,000 white farmers to own 85% of all land in Zimbabwe…)

The above comparisons are just for clearing up the imperialist nature of the ICC, i.e, even if it arrested Bush, Blair, Kagame and the rest, that wouldn’t make it good. Europeans can have their own court if they so wish, and as Africans we can strengthen our own courts and the African Court of Justice.

Luis Moreno Ocampo with PM Raila Odinga and President Kibaki

Back to Kenya now. Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto have been going round blaming Raila for their woes at the ICC. They do not have the slightest shame while they blatantly lie to Kenyans, and this is where the frustrations continue.

Some Kenyans have bought this clear lie yet they witnessed the truth themselves. Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki went to parliament twice, asking parliament to pass a law to create a local tribunal to deal with the Post Elections Violence, and Uhuru and Ruto lead parliamentarians in shooting down the bills. Even Kofi Anan came in person and pleaded with these people but they couldn’t listen. They thought that Ocampo would have picked Raila and Kibaki instead (who are the ones that bear the greatest responsibility, in real sense)

Now, here we have Uhuru and Ruto wanting to be presidents of this country, yet they were not bright enough to see the ICC for what it is! Very frustrating in deed. I wish that that court can arrest them (and the MPs who support the ICC) so that they may probably become brighter while serving their sentences in those Hague jails.

Elections Date

We passed our new constitution last year. Our constitution clearly states that the elections will be held on the 2^nd Tuesday of August, after every five years. We then have our new attorney general, PROFFESSOR Githu Muigai claiming that there is an issue of interpretation of this section of the constitution! The same is repeated by other experts and our MPs!!

It is clear that those in power today are unhappy that the new constitution denies them some four extra months of hefty salaries and influence. It was frustrating when Isaac Hassan during the final grilling for his IEBC job bowed to the PSC on elections and claimed that the elections could not be held in August.

Those people who settled on August did so for logical reasons:

1.       First, there are usually too many activities in December, and Kenyans wanted a break,

2.       secondly, many regions in Kenya experience heavy rains thus interfering with the election process

3.       and lastly, August is a school holiday month, and so the classrooms can easily be used as polling stations.

In my opinion (an opinion which strangely enough, these law makers cannot see) the elections date should actually be split, so that we can have two elections dates in the month of August, or else we should just prepare for another PEV.

Imagine a situation where a single individual votes for six or seven different individuals on one single day. Imagine further how long it will take to count these votes….isn’t this a recipe for disaster? where a candidate can easily claim that the reason as to why the results are delaying is because they are being stolen? The same argument (of delays) was used to incite people in 2007.

Also imagine a situation where an old Mzee in Nyeri is given a ballot paper for the Presidential, Senator, Governor, Parliamentary, County Representative and Women’s representative and is required to vote for one person in each. The situation will be worsened since we expect to have more candidates now that we shall have independents. This will be chaotic not just for the old, but even for the young and literate Kenyans.

Given that votes are always counted beginning with the smallest representative units, I foresee a situation where the presidential results shall be announced late, a situation which will be unconstitutional, and which will be a good breeding ground for incitement.

P.E.V

I hate to sound like a prophet of doom, but if things remain as they are, then we should expect some more post elections violence come 2012. Some of the reasons I have stated above: First, the election results will delay, giving good ground for incitement due to the anxiety created. Secondly, those who participated in the PEV of 2007 are still walking free, and they probably view themselves as heroes of some sorts.

In 1992, there was a bloody pre-election violence in the Rift Valley, which was organised by Moi and his KANU dictatorship so as to secure a win in the region. The same thing happened in 1997, and in 2002(though in a smaller scale.)In 2007, there was pre-election tension, which was created by Kikuyu-bashing by the ODM guys, and further propagated by the PNU guys so as to polarize all the Kikuyu votes to their side.

Some people claim that the violence was spontaneous, but for many regions, that was not true. I remember immediately after the elections results were announced, some youths (mostly Kikuyu) in our neighborhood went to a neighbor’s house, who was also a Kikuyu and a staunch Raila supporter, and started laughing at him while celebrating their victory: Then he asked them one question “Now that Kibaki has been declared the winner, what do you think will happen to Kikuyus in Kibera and Eldoret?” and the seemingly obvious answer was given, “Some Kikuyus will be killed in those regions” and then a debate in the lines of “but Kibaki will not allow killings in those regions, he will protect his voters…” ensued. This was within minutes of announcement of the elections results, and this was an analysis done by very ordinary Kenyans. The analysis was not based on prediction of spontaneity, but from the kind of campaigns that took place prior to the elections.

Panga Wielding Youth During the PEV

The victims of PEV expected protection from the government, especially then that they perceived the government as being on their side, unlike in the previous election years, but that was not the case. Four years later, many of them are still living in the camps.

There is now a feeling of hopelessness among these people. Some of those who went back have made plans to relocate from the violence areas until after the elections process is over. Others, especially the youth, have decided that they will no longer wait for the government, and that they will take matters into their own hands-Rather than dying as victims, they will die fighting-since either way, the likelihood of dying is pretty high. The danger is that they may launch preemptive attacks and this will create a situation worse than what was there in 2007.

I made a visit to Likoni at the coast sometime in July, and I met a group of women, who seemed organised, as if they were coming from a church meeting. What I later learnt was shocking. These women were women from ‘Bara’(highlands), and they were coming from a strategy meeting so that they may counter any elections violence that might occur in 2012. I also learnt (from Matatu talk) that they had resolved that they would prepare themselves and they would no longer become innocent victims like in the previous years. In the preparations, they would replace their wooden doors with metallic ones, they would send their school children to live with their relatives outside coast during the August holidays, and that each house would arm itself with a Panga, a Spear or arrows………..and these were women!

Again, if things remain as they are, the 2012 will be a close call between Raila on one side, and the G7 outfit on the other side. Raila on his own, even without the likes of Ruto and Balala is still a heavyweight. It is highly unlikely that any of them will garner the (50+1) % required, and the ground for violence will thus be prepared, especially now that precedent has shown that violence will ensure that all the strong candidates form a government, irrespective of what the constitution says.

Inflation

The cost of living in Kenya has been increasing steadily since the PNU-ODM coalition government came to power. Some say that it is because the PNU-ODM guys each want a piece of the ‘National Cake.’ Back in 2008, Nairobians protested against the food price increases, and after some time, the government duped the people by bringing in two types of Unga. Expensive Unga for ‘rich’ Kenyans and Cheap Unga for slum dwellers. After a month or so, the cheap Unga disappeared.

The price of Energy, Transport and Food has continued to rise. The government even created a board to regulate the fuel prices, but this board only regulates the prices upwards-even when the international oil prices go down.

Demonstrations were called for mid this year, and frustratingly, very few Kenyans attended these demos. (I have met people who blame us for not pursuing on with the demonstrations, yet these never attended a single demo for the several days that we camped outside the president’s and prime minister’s office!)

When one wonders how poor Nairobians manage to survive through these hard times, say for a household that earns sh6000 a month, money that should cater for transport, rent, food, bills etc, one realizes that we are living in very dangerous times.

I.M.F

This inflation has seen the shilling weaken badly against the dollar, and the government has decided to save the situation by borrowing from the International Monetary Fund. This might be the most frustrating thing that that the ministry of finance has done in the 9 years that Kibaki has been in power.

It is obvious that the IMF loan will be escorted with conditions. The government will be asked to retrench it workers, privatize its national assets, and to open up the economy to investors without any checks. Then the economy will continue to shrink, and life will get harder.

Al Shabaab

Very little information is available about Al Shabaab. They have been branded by the Kenyan media as Somalia’s Mungiki, whose intentions are to cause terror to the people of Somalia, while the international media ranks them together with Al Qaeda.

Reports from Kenya say that they have been responsible for the kidnapping of some white fellows, killing Kenyan police and members of the Kenya Army in the last three years.

Info on Wikipedia states that one of the achievements of Al Shabaab has been to bring about food security in the regions that they operate in.

They have also been collecting ransom on ships that use the Somalia waters without paying (which is not necessarily a bad thing since the U.S, French and other naval ships charge protections fees on other ships crossing through these waters……..and why should ships take advantage of these waters anyway?)

When the Union of Islamic Courts took over almost all of Somalia some four years ago, I viewed it as a very positive step-finally the people of Somalia were getting organised under one entity which seemed to get lots of support from the ordinary people. When the Ethiopian forces, with the direct and overt support of the U.S invaded Somalia so as to kick out the UIC and strengthen the ITFG, I was saddened. this is because the ITFG, after being form in Kenya, had failed to get the support of the people of Somalia, and it even had to set up base in Baidoa rather than Mogadishu.

The Ethiopian forces showed their tactical might and managed to push the UIC to small regions of Afmardow and Kismayu, which was a surprising thing since we expected them to get serious beatings from the Somalis in Somalia. Through this, the TFG was able to set base in Mogadishu, but it still didn’t have the support of the people.

The Ethiopians managed to push the UIC away, but it could not occupy Somalia for long, and after a few years, they had to leave…and no sooner had they left than the UIC reconquered most regions in Somalia, and eventually managed to take over the structures of the TFG where some of its leaders became leaders of the TFG, and its chairman, Sharif Ahmed became the head of TFG, and current president of Somalia….hence the current government is not the former imported government, but a more legitimate one.

But before he(Sharif Ahmed) knew it, the new government was facing fierce opposition from a familiar source-the Al Shabaab-Which was once UICs youth wing.

Al Shabaab(Standing)-UIC(Seated)

We have seen women from coast province going on demonstrations complaining that certain mosques were being used as recruiting grounds for Al Shabaab, where their sons are promised a good monthly pay as they fight alongside the militia in Somalia.

When the Minister for internal security made the announcement of the Army going into Somalia, I first viewed it as an invasion of Somalia, which was not acceptable at all. Ahmed Sharif then came out a day later and stated the Somalia had welcomed Kenya’s intervention to deal with the Al Shabaab, which I then viewed it as an intervention, which in this case is acceptable…….then Sharif said that Kenya was not welcomed…..then he later said that it was welcomed……then it was not…… a very shifty President I must say-but his Prime Minister came and said that the Somalia government is fully behind the joint operation to weed out Al Shabaab.

Some Kenyans claim that the Kenya Army will be defeated just because it (the Kenya Army) is a Conventional force fighting against an asymmetrical militia. But that is never the case, if it were, then there would be no need for armies in the world. An unconventional army can only defeat a symmetrical army if the former has the support of the people. In my opinion, Al Shabaab might not be having the support of Somalian people, otherwise it would not have to recruit from Kenya, and it would not have to force people into their ranks-People would either volunteer to join in, or they would just give other forms of support. The Army will need to help build the TFG structures in the zones that they have succeeded, so as to ensure no vacuum is left behind.

But woe unto our army if the Al Shabaab has the support of the masses! Body bags and more body bags are what we shall receive till they leave Somalia.
>>>>One thing that is surely disturbing me is the fact that the French and the Americans want to be involved alongside the Kenyan Forces. The involvement of these murderous states kills any good intentions(if any) that might be in this whole intervention. The U.S assassination drones have been pounding Somalia for many months now, and they do so arbitrarily. The other day, they killed over 50 Somalian civilians, including children. We also saw the indiscriminate bombing of a Somalian coastal town by a French naval ship.The do their bombing without coordinating with the Somali government, and without any intelligence from the ground---Can't they just Keep off?!<<<<

Heroes

It is hence too early to say whether the Kenyan Soldiers are heroes or not, with time, we shall get more information about the Al Shabaab, and the motivation behind the intervention.

It is never good to give heroehood or vallainship before getting the whole picture, and that is what the Kenya government did on 20^th October, Mashujaa day. The government, both PNU and ODM sides were quiet when Muammar Gaddafi, the African Shujaa was murdered by a coalition of over 20 countries. On the same day, they unveiled a statue of Tom Mboya, right in the middle of the City, and declared him our “national hero.”

It is no doubt that Mboya was a brilliant orator and a smart politician-But that doesn’t make him a hero. It must be remembered that as European Colonialism was dwindling in Africa (thanks to the struggles of our real heroes), US imperialism was on the rise, and Tom Mboya was its representative in Kenya. It must also be remembered that while the likes of Makhan Singh, Bildad Kaggia, Chege Kabacia and many others heroes had suffered a lot while building the trade unions movement in Kenya and in the region, Tom Mboya fought their efforts, and the efforts of the Workers, and killed the true Workers’ movement-And his bad fruits are still seen today in the scarecrow called COTU.

What is frustrating is that they have placed his statue right in the middle of the city, where hundreds of thousands of people pass trough daily. It would have been better if they had hidden him at Tom Mboya Social hall in Buruburu.

Kenya has true heroes. Kibaki could have given us a statue of the many women heroes that we’ve had. The statue of Mekatilili Wa Menza would be a good replacement (The statue has to be replaced-once we take over the state) for the current joke. They could have erected a statue of Field Marshal Muthoni (still alive), who was the only woman to take the highest military rank in the MauMau, and one of the very few female officers in the Anti-Colonial guerillas of the 50s. It would be a great honor to her, to the hundreds of thousands of women who participated in the freedom struggles, and to the many who are still continuing with the fight.

If I were to choose between Tom Mboya and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, I would choose Jaramogi a million times more. Jaramogi never left the struggle, he never surrendered, even in his old age.

Oginga Odinga

Of course, most of his students like James Orengo, Raila Odinga and many others have failed terribly, but his mantle shines on still.

Population

With the world population hitting 7 billion the other day, we surely need more heroes to fight for the environment that we are living in. we need people who will stand up against the capitalistic greed that disrespects and destroys the environment for profits.

As ecologist Barry Commoner once said, "Pollution begins not in the family bedroom, but in the corporate boardroom."

It is expected that some “activists” will rise against the rise in population, and they will mostly pitch tent in Africa, under the guise that Africans are too many, they procreate a lot, and that our resources are little. Throughout this year, there has been a huge campaign against couples having children, as private companies advertise pills in the name of “family planning.”

What we must understand is that African is one of the most under populated continents in the world. Africa is the second largest continent, yet we only contribute 1 billion people to the 7 billion on earth. China alone contributes around 1.5 billion, while India contributes over 1 billion souls. It is well known that India, China, U.S.A, Europe, and several other countries COMBINED are LESS in size as compared to Africa. It is also a fact that Africa is an extremely rich continent in terms of resources; from Sunshine to Rain, from Oil to Forests, From Fish to Herbs…..the only resource that we desperately lack is a huge human resource-people. Where there are no people, there is usually no development.(http://mamluks.blogspot.com/2010/05/emancipate-yourselves-from-mental.html)

Of course we remember that one of the strategies that the colonialists used when they began invading  Africa was to de-populate the black man through diseases, actual killings etc. they did the same when they were conquering America, now they will try the same by using the “We are too many in the world today” card.

If anyone feels that there are too many people in the world, let them pitch tent elsewhere, and not in our under populated Africa.

Genocidaire Paul Kagame

>>>>Rwanda President Paul Kagame has already taken the “too many people” excuse too far. It is reported that in Rwanda, a law was passed early this year, which legalised the castration of poor Rwandese people. Kagame believes that the population of Rwanda is too high, and the only way to deal with the situation is to castrate between 700, 000 and 1 million poor people, because it is the poor people who give birth to many children. Castration is permanent. He prefers to castrate them and leave them in poverty, rather than to remove them from the poverty.

What worsens the situation is that most poor people in Rwanda are Hutu and it is the government which decides who is to be castrated—So what this guy is really doing is genocide on another front. The fellow who was the minister of health in Rwanda during the tabling and passing of this bill is now the current Secretary General for the East African Community, Mr.Richard Sezibera. Could they be testing a new depopulation technique for Africa? Sad! <<<<

Benedict Wachira

3^rd November 2011

23:31pm

Mujahid Muammar Gaddafi Last formal Speech

In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful...

For 40 years, or was it longer, I can't remember, I did all I could to give people houses, hospitals, schools, and when they were hungry, I gave them food. I even made Benghazi into farmland from the desert, I stood up to attacks from that cowboy Ronald Reagan, when he killed my adopted orphaned daughter, he was trying to kill me, instead he killed that poor innocent child. Then I helped my brothers and sisters from Africa with money for the African Union.

I did all I could to help people Understand the concept of real democracy, where people's committees ran our country. But that was never enough, as some told me, even people who had 10 room homes, new suits and furniture, were never satisfied, as selfish as they were they wanted more. They told Americans and other visitors, that they needed "democracy" and "freedom" never realizing it was a cut throat system, where the biggest dog eats the rest, but they were enchanted with those words, never realizing that in America, there was no free medicine, no free hospitals, no free housing, no free education and no free food, except when people had to beg or go to long lines to get soup.

No, no matter what I did, it was never enough for some, but for others, they knew I was the son of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the only true Arab and Muslim leader we've had since Salah-al-Deen, when he claimed the Suez Canal for his people, as I claimed Libya, for my people, it was his footsteps I tried to follow, to keep my people free from colonial domination - from thieves who would steal from us.

Now, I am under attack by the biggest force in military history, my little African son, Obama wants to kill me, to take away the freedom of our country, to take away our free housing, our free medicine, our free education, our free food, and replace it with American style thievery, called "capitalism" ,but all of us in the Third World know what that means, it means corporations run the countries, run the world, and the people suffer.

So, there is no alternative for me, I must make my stand, and if Allah wishes, I shall die by following His path, the path that has made our country rich with farmland, with food and health, and even allowed us to help our African and Arab brothers and sisters.

I do not wish to die, but if it comes to that, to save this land, my people, all the thousands who are all my children, then so be it.

Let this testament be my voice to the world, that I stood up to crusader attacks of NATO, stood up to cruelty, stoop up to betrayal, stood up to the West and its colonialist ambitions, and that I stood with my African brothers, my true Arab and Muslim brothers, as a beacon of light.

When others were building castles, I lived in a modest house, and in a tent. I never forgot my youth in Sirte, I did not spend our national treasury foolishly, and like Salah-al-Deen, our great Muslim leader, who rescued Jerusalem for Islam, I took little for myself...

In the West, some have called me "mad", "crazy", but they know the truth yet continue to lie, they know that our land is independent and free, not in the colonial grip, that my vision, my path, is, and has been clear and for my people and that I will fight to my last breath to keep us free, may Allah almighty help us to remain faithful and free.

-- Mu'ummar Qaddafi.

Africa Must Unite