MIGUNA MIGUNA IS RIGHT, RAILA SHOULD RISE TO THE OCASSION AND TAKE POWER

What assurance does Cord have that Uhuru’s Jubilee won’t play monkey tricks to remain in power just like what Kibaki’s PNU did in 2007? How come Raila Odinga, the liberator who has fought for the country in decades hasn’t learnt the tricks of taking power to liberate the Kenyan people after he was robbed victory in 2007?

The guy was in power with Kibaki and would not even use his intelligence to decipher the plans Kibaki had with Uhuru and Ruto in the 2013 election contest. You can’t be the best player in a soccer match and fail to score a single goal! For a man who has fought for liberation in decades, and with a deeper interest to entrench best leadership practices in the country, how come Raila would not take advantage as Kibaki's co-principal in the grand coalition government to win and actually take power?

Democracy is an expensive tool. The likes of Shikuku, Anyona, Jaramogi etc went to their graves fighting for liberation but they never achieved much. That is why sometimes following democratic channels in a crooked system like ours can be costly politically. Raila may end up leaving the scene without getting a chance to showcase his yearnings for the nation of Kenya and this will be too sad indeed.

Truly, did Raila Odinga learn any lesson from 2017 election fiasco, to let novices- Uhuru and Ruto to take power and ruin the country?
As we stride towards 2017, does Raila Odinga, Wetangula and Kalonzo Musyoka of Cord have a solid strategy to SNATCH power from Uhuru and Ruto? Just like Miguna says, winning is one thing and taking power is another. This is a solid reality in our system whether you like or not.

I’m sure there are no contingency plans for 2017… Raila Odinga as Prime Minister and Kalonzo Musyoka as Vice President in the Nusu Mkate government were so complacent in the 2013 contest. They slept on the job while the tricky and moneyed Ruto of the YK92 fame and Uhuru Kenyatta; backed by his predecessor, Mwai Kibaki played smart cards to take power.

Leaving the country on the hands of the 2 dubious men for another 5 years from 2017 will be a risky venture for the country. After all, the two dudes are smart and Cord MUST wake up before it’s too late.

Diaspora voting mechanisms should accommodate all Kenyans abroad

Joseph Lister Nyaringo's perspectives on how external voting will increase political participation and thereby contribute to political accountability for democratic development in Kenya....

Kenya’s Diaspora is huge. From those living in Uganda to those in Sydney, Monaco China, Qatar, Russia, South Sudan and Brazil. The fixation by media and the Kenyan government to Kenyans living only in the USA is not only wrong but also one-sided.

The more than 3 million Kenyans living abroad do not only come from the USA but from other parts of the world where they have spread their businesses wings, investments and expertise which is an advantage to the country.

That is why recent announcement by the government to zone 6 voting centres in the USA where majority of Kenyans live does not make sense. Any democratic government worth its weight in salt should focus to ensure that the highest percentage of Kenyans living abroad is given a chance to exercise their universal suffrage.

Exercising one’s democratic right in an election means that every vote must count. The government should not focus on big numbers a lot but ensure that even in countries where you will only find less than 20 Kenyans living there must be given a chance to vote.

After all, how will a Kenyan living in Alaska travel to Washington DC to vote? How about those living in Asia, Europe and South America; leave alone those living in Uganda and who may not have a chance to travel to Kenya during voting day? 

Remember, not all Kenyans will have the privilege to travel home during the electioneering period to cast their votes but all can be made possible by the IEBC because the body has the capacity to do so. 
If millions of Kenyans shillings were lost on fake BVR kits for the 2013 polls, why not start early since elections are 3 year away?

First of all, the best mode to accommodate voters living abroad is through e-voting since we live in the information age. To make this happen, the government through Dr Fred Matiangi, who is the Cabinet Secretary for ICT together with IEBC’s Issack Hassan, need to work mechanisms to ensure that Diaspora can vote electronically in 2017.

Focusing on 6 voting zones in the US; will only attract a poor voter turnout but will not cater for the democratic interests of other Kenyans scattered all over the globe. We even wonder how the government came up with the establishment of the 6 voting zones in the USA. We hope it’s not the work of the some dubious registered Diaspora organization purporting to speak on behalf of Kenyans living abroad!

Since the supreme law of the land allows Diaspora voting, the same should be applied to all citizens across the board irrespective of where they live. This is the surest way to avoid disenfranchising them on an important matter like the right to vote.

By the way, when did Ambassador Robinson Githae quit his diplomatic duties to join the IEBC? Note that it’s his office in Washington DC which announced the formation of 6 voting zones in the US.

If the IEBC wasn’t involved in these latest arrangements since it’s the only body mandated by the constitution to coordinate all matters related to elections in the country, then Githae’s announcement totally unconstitutional.

Who knows this is a conduit to pre-rig the 2017 polls using a diplomat who also doubles as a senior government civil servant serving as ambassador?

On voting rights for Kenyans living abroad, many developing democracies like Angola, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Ecuador and Iran have made it possible for their nationals residing abroad to vote.

Why not Kenya when we are actually a head in many fronts compared to the said countries?
It must be remembered that a well managed external voting despite accounting for a relatively low percentage of overall turnouts can have a considerable impact on election results. This is the true essence of democracy where every vote and every voice must count to define the leadership destiny of a country. 

IEBC should start an early head count of Kenyans living abroad and then map out proper online voting systems.

Kenyans living abroad are tired of being sanitized about the huge remittances they make to boost the exchequer. They need tangible mechanisms put in place to address their social and political interests in the land of their heritage.

Statistically, in the year 2014, diaspora remittance was Kshs. 122 billion. It’s projected that this will increase to Kshs. 245 billion in the year 2015. This isn’t mean business to the national economy from the Diaspora. And indeed, it should stir the current government to enact laws which caters for the interests of Kenyans living abroad.

Why not even the creation of a 48th County in the Country, a senatorial seat or even a constituency? Kenyans abroad need a say; a big say in the management of Kenya’s affairs. Currently, the Diaspora affairs are managed under a mere Directorate under Dr. Amina Mohamed’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This directorate has been accused of mismanagement of diaspora affairs and most recent during the just concluded Easter Conference. A full-fledged Ministry will be a step in the right direction to address Diaspora challenges in a more coordinated manner.

Finally, entrenching mechanisms for external voting will increase political participation and thereby contribute to political accountability for democratic development in Kenya. It’s also part of citizens’ rights in the quest for best leadership practices in a country where they derive their identity and national origin.

The buck stops at the Ministry of Education on certificates of doom

The recent expose dubbed Certificate of doom by NTV

was a commendable piece. That is why we need to encourage members of the fourth estate to keep unraveling the truths on academic fraud and impropriety in Kenya. The truth must be told if we truly care about building and nurturing a society with academic competency and respect through integrity.

Now that the cat is out of the bag on academic fraud, the Ministry of education, Kenya national examination council (KNEC) and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) must be put on the spotlight because they are bodies tasked to ensure quality education and effective testing procedures for all learners in the country.

First of all, does the Ministry of Education conduct thorough vetting of all tertiary institutions to ensure that they conform to learning standards like: presence of qualified instructors, upholding entry grades of students based on the courses they take, the institutions’ affiliations to examination testing bodies at home and abroad and the suitability of the learning environments?

It’s pathetic that many public and private learning institutions in Kenya have lost their credibility either because of being commercialized, lack of integrity during registration, learning and testing or operating in an environment not equipped with the right facilities.

With modern technology, to start a proprietary institution, you only require two rooms, five desk top computers and a receptionist to open a computer college on Tom Mboya Street. Many parents from upcountry who are unfamiliar with what goes on in our urban centres are often duped to enroll their children in such fake institutions.

These fake institutions can be found in Nairobi and other Kenyan small towns like Kisii, Embu, Voi, Eldoret etc. They lack operating credentials from the Ministry of Education and perhaps the only validation they have is a license from the municipalities in which they operate.

With these mushrooming of malpractices in professional and career development, we cannot blame the operators who want to make quick bucks or the end user students but the Ministry of Education which is tasked with regulating the standard of learning and testing in the country.

The recent revelation by Dennis Okari of NTV about malpractices in the education sector puts the efficiency of the Ministry of education, KNEC and KICD on the line. The malpractices captured in Nairobi Aviation College may be affecting hundreds of institutions in the country.

In the academic World, higher learning institutions like the University of Nairobi enjoys the powers of setting up curriculum stands and study modules for students through the department of higher education. However, tertiary institutions must operate under strict curriculum disciplines provided by the Ministry of Education.

In the NTV expose, I was shocked to see Nairobi Aviation College granting a diploma certificate in aeronautical engineering. I just wondered which examining body that provided the final testing for the award of such diploma, which was on the college’s logo.

Besides, I just wonder how a Company like Kenya Airways can hire an Aerospace technician diploma holder from an institution with no capacity to train or even test their students in such sensitive course. It’s only a desperate employer who will accept a diploma certificate bearing a tertiary College logo on it transcripts. It can also be noted that, tertiary institutions often offer internal courses like basic computer literacy, computer repair, communication, math tutoring etc whose certificates are often printed in the institution’s logos and this is acceptable, but not high calibre courses like aeronautical engineering.

Just like the Kenya Bureau of standards (KBS) and Pharmacy and Poisons Board (KPPB) which ensures the quality, potency, and validity of  goods, chemicals and medicines manufactured or imported into the Country, the Ministry of Education should ensure that, knowledge imparted into Kenyans’ brains is up to standard  and can conform to competency in  human capital in the labour market.  

To avoid cheating through impersonation, KNEC, which is the umbrella testing body in the Country together with other bodies like KASNEB needs to ensure that the exams are proctored with the strictness it deserves. Since the institutions registered by the Ministry of Education offering KNEC and KASNEB exams are known, it’s their responsibility to safeguard integrity during testing.

It must be remembered that foreign testing bodies like The Institute of Commercial Management (ICM), City and Guilds International (CGI), Association of Business executives (ABE) etc, rely on KNEC to ensure that integrity is maintained during testing. There are many Kenyan students who study the curriculum of the said Colleges locally.

Just like in government, corruption has permeated in the education field. The old trend where children of the rich excelled academically is now reciprocal. When children from poor families are toiling and moiling to acquire college education, those from rich families register and attend few classes and in less than 48 months, they are in the arena marching in academic gowns ready to be awarded with degrees and diplomas. Your guess is as good as mine on how they compromised their way up due to their financial muscles. The end result is total incompetency in the job market.

I’m not against the mushrooming of proprietary and tertiary institutions because they benefit students who do not qualify to join national universities to achieve professional careers. My problem with these institutions is their failure to follow standard practices to ensure quality in their trainings.  

Academic integrity is the first impression on how an individual is likely to behave in their professional life. A student who participates in plagiarism or cheating is likely to carry the same trend to the job market. A lecturer who rewards a student because of money or sexual favours is as worse as a physician who knowingly gives wrong medication to his patients. Such lecturers destroy not only the student but all individuals who will seek the services of the student in professional life.

We must remember that, a well educated society will lead to accelerated socio economic development, a boost in efficiency, effective service delivery in the public and private sectors.

One common reality is that, even with increased number of Universities and  tertiary colleges in Kenya, challenges in the education sector continue to spiral since we transitioned from the 7-4-2-3 to 8-4-4 system  of education in 1985. It therefore prudent if the education policy makers re-looked at the need to review our education system in order to make it conform to the challenges of the modern century.

TO PRESIDENT UHURU: FOREIGN INTERVENTION HAS HELPED AFRICA IN MANY WAYS...

President Uhuru of Kenyan needs to stop brainwashing us since; 99% of Africa needs the rest of the World and secondly, the Continent does not have the capacity to address its myriad challenges without external support or interference. In fact, the President is being hypocritical and economical with the truth when he says that Africa is capable of sorting its own mess.

I therefore challenge Uhuru and his henchmen to tell us what policy plan he has formulated to reflect his passion for a self-dependent Africa since he took the baton of leadership two years ago. Apart from beating war drums and castigating the ICC where he was indicted for genocide and his case later withdrawn, this does not make Uhuru a qualified Pan-Africanist. 

We need action; we need ideas from Uhuru which reflects his commitment to spur Africa in these: social, political, manpower and economic spectrums. In a nutshell can Uhuru clarify the following as I base my argument during Kenya’s worst nightmare in 07/08?

1.      Why did he and his deputy William Ruto fail to cobble a local tribunal in Kenya to try PEV suspects but wanted the ICC route which is an International court outside of Africa?

2.      Why did our country fail to quell the escalation of violence if Uhuru believes that Africa; and Kenya for that matter has the capacity to tackle internal feuds without external intervention? Can he further tell Kenyans what role he played to ensure that the violence was quelled in a timely version without involving Ghana’s President John Kufuor, former UN Secretary General Koffi Annan,  former US Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Jendayi Frazer, who are all foreigners from Ghana and USA respectively?  

      In fact, the efforts of the said paved the way for a cease fire which created the grand coalition government of which Uhuru, was a beneficiary-Deputy Prime Minister of Kenya. Uhuru was NEVER in the picture during the Serena talks. Who knows he was behind the scenes to ensure that Kenya smouldered more if the recent the recent dossier by Bensouda is something to go by. Don’t forget, Uhuru did state later that all he did during the PEV "was helping his people" not Kenyans, not Africans... 

3.      Can Uhuru tell us what he did as an extremely rich man to ease the pain of the internally displaced persons in 07/08? We all saw that people in IDP camps were fed, watered and clothed by WFP, UNHCR, UNICEF, RED CROSS, CARE, USAID, UNDP, world vision etc? These are all International relief agencies funded by the global community; mostly the Western and not Africa.

4.      Why hasn’t Uhuru compensated and resettled all Kenyans displaced during the PEV now that he enjoys the trappings of power as head of State? 

CORD SHOULD STRATEGIZE FOR VICTORY IN 2017 INSTEAD OF DIALOGUE WITH JUBILEE…

The opposition Cord’s quest for dialogue with the Jubilee government is double-speak and a show that all may not be well in the OKOA Kenya Movement. Why WASTE time for dialogue with Jubilee instead of trying to show Kenyans why your coalition is a better option in terms of governance and better leadership practices?

After the demise of Fidel Odinga, Cord has rekindled the dialogue debate. For me, I don’t see how the coalition can push for dialogue with the government and a referendum at the same time. Cord should not burn the candle at both ends- pursue the OKOA referendum and dialogue with the government at the same time.

 The ruling Jubilee coalition of Uhuru Kenyatta has thawed its hard-line stand on dialogue and Cord needs to be careful. This is because, positive overtures from ruling coalitions can be like dangling a bait and needs to be handled with a pinch of salt.

In order to remain afloat and relevant towards 2017, Cord must make decisions which are in tandem with the aspirations of winning the 2017 elections and for me, dialogue with the ruling coalition is not one of them. Between dialogue and the OKOA Kenya Movement, the latter is likely to provide the opposition with more clout as opposed to the former.

We are tired of inconsistency and double-speak from our political leaders. Kenyans want to see a robust official opposition which checks the Jubilee government’s excesses day and night. This should be Cord’s cardinal goal for now. Pestering the government for dialogue is not only causing confusion amongst Kenyans but also myopic and a waste of time.

When the government turned down Cord’s clamour for dialogue last year, they reverted to pursue a referendum through the OKOA Kenya movement and we therefore expected them to stick to it consistently up to the finish line. It’s my hope that the latest pursuit for dialogue after the dead of former Prime Minister Raila Odingas son, Fidel, is not a reflection of a crumbling movement.

This time for the three Cord Principals- Kalonzo Musyoka, Raila Odinga and Moses Wetangula, to choose what is to the BEST interest of the coalition and the nation as a whole. As the official opposition, what they choose MUST reflect their passion to capture power in 2017 so that they can get the opportunity to showcase their yearnings for the nation.  A viable political opposition should capitalize on the failures of the government in power to build confidence within the populace for victory when elections are held.

 Cord also needs to remember that even with the many challenges bedeviling Jubilee-insecurity, nepotism, corruption etc, the ruling coalition still enjoys incumbency and defeating it requires concrete and water-tight strategies.  

I don’t see how trying to help a government in power with your BEST ideas while in the opposition, can help sell your agenda and propel you to victory by defeating the same government in an election.

Therefore, Cord’s insistence for dialogue with the ruling Jubilee is similar to sharing vital secrets with an adversary at the battle front. The dialogue quest should be disbanded completely so that Cord can embark on building a strong base for the 2017 polls.  

 In business, when your competitor makes inferior products, you don’t need to advise them but rather to watch as they crumble and eventually dominate the market base. This is what Cord should do. Secondly, the coalition needs to press for the disbandment and reconstitution of the IEBC to ensure that there is a level playing field for the 2017 elections. Already, there is clear evidence that top officials of the body were involved in corrupt malpractices.

The New KANU Monopoly( 1980-85)

By Ndung'u Wainaina

The proscription of ethnic welfare societies did little to reassure Daniel arap Moi that his grasp on the country's highest office was assured. State House had not necessarily undercut the power of GEMA or the Luo Union in his view. The leaders of these societies could salvage the financial resources they had accumulated and seek to advance their interests in other ways, he argued. His mind turned increasingly to fear of underground opposition, rooted, he believed, in the university system but fomented by the former leaders of the welfare unions.

In fact, significant political organization on a scale that could have led to the president's ouster and replacement by a government acceptable to a majority of Kenyans was extremely difficult at this time. Ability to organize sustained backing for cross-regional initiatives was now sharply circumscribed in two ways. First, the presence of multiple factions exacerbated the problem of defections for coalition-builders. 

Disaffected members of Parliament and local leaders constantly shifted their allegiances to the leader who promised the greatest advantages at any particular moment. Because no one faction chief could offer the prospect of long-term benefits in return for support, opportunism began to run rampant, increasing the negotiating costs associated with promotion of a national platform. Second, restrictions on political space made it very difficult for local and national leaders to assemble. 

Because the government controlled the registration of societies, it could simply disapprove the papers submitted by an opposition party and refuse to grant the necessary certification, as had happened in the case of the KPU in 1966–69.[27] Only a coalition with a very strong parliamentary base could forcibly have brought the State House's refusal to register a party to the floor of Parliament for discussion.

Notwithstanding these bars to the effective organization of an opposition, the president appeared increasingly fearful of dissidence in any form. During the period before and after the measures to eliminate welfare societies, he continually cautioned Kenyans to beware of disgruntled elements and warned that traitors would receive ruthless treatment.[28] Moi employed three tactics to try to secure his grip on power. First, he tried to expand the scope of restrictions on political activity. For example, he requested that Parliament contemplate limits on press freedom as a way to deny potential opposition leaders an audience. The minister for information and broadcasting announced that Kenya could no longer afford a free press. 

"As a young developing country, we cannot afford the luxury of permissive reporting practised by the developed countries. We must therefore use our mass media systems for nation-building and in uplifting the standard of living of our people."[29] The years 1980 and 1981 witnessed implementation of a number of other measures aimed at safeguarding presidential power, including closure of the university, harassment of foreign journalists, seizure of lecturers' passports, warnings of "crackdowns," and a call for the reopening of detention camps.

Expenditure on police services, especially in rural areas, expanded greatly. Beginning in 1978 and 1979, the approved budget allocations for the Office of the President, which in Kenya at this time had responsibility for the police forces, shot up.[30] Disaggregated by type of expenditure, the budget appears to have increased most rapidly in the category of personal emoluments for the police, Criminal Investigation Department, and Government Services Unit staff, and in the category of GSU transport (the latter a possible indication of increased activity, as well as of increased numbers of personnel, although it is not known whether purchases of trucks and other transport may have been to replace aging equipment). Because the rates of growth in personal emoluments exceeded the rates of growth in numbers of personnel, it can be assumed that in addition to enhancing the capability of the police, Moi was seeking to increase their fidelity to him by purchasing their loyalty. By 1985, the budget of the Office of the President was greater than that of any other ministry or government function, with estimates totaling K£74,932,700.[31]

Simultaneously with the increase in security budgets, evidence of more government surveillance emerged. An unfortunate consequence of strategies that emphasize restriction of political activity and factionalizing opposition in order to maintain stability is the politicization of information. Information "costs" more and becomes something to be bargained and traded because of its scarcity and importance in decision making.
Moi's second tactic was to render illegal any attempt to constitute an opposition to KANU. In June 1982, two months after a statement by the Luo MP George Anyona that he and Oginga Odinga planned to found a new political party, the Office of the President proposed that Kenya be declared a single-party state. Anyona had said that the time was ripe for creation of a second political party, an assertion for which KANU expelled him from its ranks. In May, with Oginga Odinga, he established the Kenya African Socialist Alliance (KASA).[32]

By himself, Odinga did not command sufficient power to warrant such a strong and politically costly reaction on Moi's part. A GEMA-Luo combination, however, could conceivably have rallied sufficient support to force the issue of party registration to the floor of Parliament and Moi's decision most likely reflected an assessment by the president that a party involving Odinga would also involve either the GEMA machine, now underground but not defunct, or the new Rift Valley populists. A Luo-Rift coalition would have wielded less parliamentary power than a GEMA combination but might have elicited substantial popular support during a period when economic difficulties had stirred general unease.

The constitutional amendment to make Kenya a de jure single-party system moved quickly through the legislature, with little overt objection from the honorable members. The difficulty of organizing a parliamentary opposition did not indicate general support for the president's proposal, however. MP Koigi wa Wamwere complained that at a KANU parliamentary group meeting, MPs were threatened with detention without trial if they did not go along with the proposal.[33]

A little more than a month later, Kenyan political life was disrupted by a shadowy coup attempt that startled the country's allies, who had always considered the nation a stable point in an otherwise turbulent continent. The exact character of the "August Disturbances," as they were euphemistically known, has never been clarified and is likely to remain indecipherable. Members of the air force, a youthful and highly educated segment of the military, allegedly combined with university students and disaffected members of the Luo community to dislodge the Moi government. After eleven days of skirmishing in the capital, the rebel group met defeat at the hands of Government Services Unit (GSU) elite forces. The slowness of the army to respond to calls for assistance has led some observers to speculate that the uprising was really two or even three coup attempts launched from different quarters and gone awry. The demands of the coup plotters were never clear, although opposition to the move to a single-party system was widely believed to have been one of the motives.

The Office of the President embarked on a series of moves to try to curtail underground associations. The arrest of a large number of Luo, including Odinga's son, Raila Omolo Odinga, for participation in the August Disturbances, and the detention of the Rift Valley populist and Nakuru North MP Koigi wa Wamwere followed the collapse of the resistance. Surveillance of the university expanded and resulted in periodic questioning and detention of lecturers. The police Special Branch stepped up its monitoring of foreign press organizations and aid agencies, at one point closing the Associated Press offices after AP placed on the wire a story describing food shortages in Meru. The Ford Foundation representative came under fire when a report on the events of 1982 he had prepared for the foundation's New York office was intercepted and passed to the internal security agencies.

State House also moved to limit even more severely the political space available to members of Parliament. One senior minister initiated an inquiry into the funding received by radical MPs for harambee meetings. Next came an end to parliamentary privilege, the provision that enabled members to obtain information from the executive, and on which ability to hold the government responsible for the actions of its officers depended. Finally, on June 4, Parliament voted to reinstate the detention laws, suspended between 1978 and 1982.

Thus, the failure of members of Parliament and extra-parliamentary leaders to resist imposition of restrictions earlier had triggered a poorly planned and coordinated attempt to restore room for political opposition in Kenya. The failure stemmed largely from the difficulty of assembling stable bases of support in a single-party-dominant system with a high degree of fragmentation and from the limitations placed on politicians' ability to use exchange of private harambee funds to secure one another's support. Over the next three years, resistance to further assumption of party functions by the Office of the President would become more and more challenging. The move to a party-state was almost assured.

Ndung'u Wainaina, is ‎ED at International Center for Policy and Conflict

President Obama Delivers Remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative

Has the UN lived up to its Mission?

Has the UN lived up to its mission especially now that global leaders mostly from poor countries are congregating in New York, where they will make sweeping recommendations which sound good to an intelligent mind but are NEVER implemented? So far, has the UN achieved anything in maintaining global peace and security? How about health and environmental protection? How about checking human rights violations?

On peace and security, bombs are raining in Damascus Syria today, the Israel and Palestinian crisis has been in perpetuity at the Middle East, memories of the Rwandan genocide of 1994 left indelible memories to the entire human race, two Kenyan leaders are facing genocide charges at the ICC etc.

On health, West Africa is being wiped out by Ebola; leave alone the world’s struggle find a cure for the HIV pandemic for the last three decades since the incurable syndrome surfaced in the world.

On environmental protection, Kenya is the global headquarters of the United Nation Environment Program (UNEP) and Centre for Human Settlement; Habitat, but we still continue to experience environmental degradation- Karua Forest has been undergoing grabbing, the Mau conservation plan started about 7 years ago is still at limbo. Nairobi River is falling back to the old stench after the late Minister John Michuki did a wonderful job to clean it.

Don’t forget, our own President, Uhuru Kenyatta, who is currently in New York, authorized the destruction of a ship by exploding it in our Ocean. Did UNEP; housed in our State capitol Nairobi, question why Uhuru did what he did and even address the environmental implications of the sunken ship to aquatic and human lives?

Why can’t UNEP make Kenya a model for environmental protection, since we house them? It doesn’t make sense when you find an environmentalist from Paris living in Nairobi earning 5 million a month with allowances and doing totally nothing to protect the environment. We need results from the global body and not the glamour and the title which comes with it.

This is a huge intellectual debate with diplomatic connotations, power controls and memberships and funding. However, the common denominator remains, the UN hasn’t done enough since it was founded over six decades ago.

SCIENTISTS WHO DON’T BELIEVE IN GOD NEEDS TO REMEMBER THESE…

Scientists who invalidate the existence of God merely because of his invincible nature but validate the existence of atoms aren’t fair to themselves and even to those who believe in God.

If a scientist who doesn’t believe in God, and his existence can validate the existence of an atom; something which cannot be seen by a human eye or even a simple microscope, and even validate elements which catalyze chemical reactions in laboratories, why would the same scientist you fail to acknowledge the workings of God, and his existence despite his invincible nature?

Scientists see beautiful humans, animals, gorgeous landscapes, waters, the work of god-given knowledge and wisdom-innovation, technology, modern medicine, amazing discoveries in science, engineering and space explorations etc Can’t the same scientists decipher the fact that all these didn’t just happen out of the blue, but through the divine power of the Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent God?

Kibaki failed to mend ethnic rivalry between Kikuyus and Luos after victory in 2002

Truth be told, former President Mwai Kibaki, had the best opportunity to mend the tattered relationship between Luos and Kikuyus, which begun after independence during the late Jaramogi and Jomo Kenyatta.  

Instead, Kibaki, stirred more hate by failing to honour the MOU associated with the Rainbow coalition which brought together almost all key political players in the country to dislodge Kanu from power in 2002.

Don’t forget, its Raila Odinga, a Luo, who stood at Uhuru Park and openly endorsed Kibaki as the torch bearer of the Narc coalition with a belief that there will be a genuine power sharing deal after victory. Instead, Kibaki who was sworn in on a wheel chair not only trashed the MOU but also parted ways with Raila Odinga, at the infant stage of the Narc government.

 In 2007 elections, Kibaki ruptured Luo wounds further by openly stealing the Presidency from Raila Odinga.

Last year, Uhuru Kenyatta, another Kikuyu, controversially became President, which many believe; he never attained the required threshold to be declared victorious. This further angered the Luos who look back and count betrayal after betrayal from the Kikuyu Presidency. They saw victory snatched from Raila for the second time from a Kikuyu candidate.

Kenya’s history is very vivid. Jaramogi stood with Kenyatta up to the last minute but ended up being betrayed. Tom Mboya was killed purportedly by the Kenyatta regime since.

It’s therefore prudent not to look at the Luo versus Kikuyu political rivalry on the face value. Let current political leaders try to mend the fences and restore trust between the two communities.

Call it Luo hooliganism from but don’t forget to tell us why! To me, it all about historical mistrusts and injustices and nothing else.

Our top leaders continues to plant hate through inequality and negative ethnicity- tribalism and nepotism and blame it on wanjiku or Anyango who are always quicker to express their frustrations especially what happened in Migori during a Presidential function. These are solid truths people don’t want to talk about but rather to demonize Luos as stone throwers.

It’s the leaders who have the capacity to heal the nation by bringing all communities to the dinner table through equity, equality, justice, fairness etc. 

Failure to do so, Kenya will continue to sink in disunity and hate amongst communities. What the Luos did in Migori is just the beginning. Soon you will see it from:Turkanas, Samburus, Kalenjins, Kisiis, Somalis, Mikikendas etc if they feel they are not getting a fair deal in their own land.