THIS IS SHAMEFUL!

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olitics is a dirty game, laden with mud-slinging and all manner of gutter, so goes the popular belief that dominates politics in the third-world; where democracy is relatively a new concept. Kenyan politics live up to every word of this belief!

This is what best fits the heckling, fists and threats that Miguna Miguna met at the Coast over the week-end as he marketed his book, Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya. The contents of this explosive book have rubbed many shoulders across the political divide the wrong way. Case in point was when his effigy was burnt in his hometown of Ahero.

Many especially, Raila’s ardent supporters and fanatics alike see it as an apparent revenge on the prime minister. They have consequently launched scathing attacks on Miguna and his promotion tours of Kisumu and Mombasa were a proof of this. Rowdy youths marred Miguna’s peaceful forum. These guys were literally baying for his blood, all because they cannot stomach Miguna’s courageous expression of his freedom to expression and opinion. But in an unprecedented show of intent, Miguna has demonstrated courage and unrivalled desire to pursue his cause. The man has literally stayed put.

It is imperative to note that Miguna’s actions are not a violation of any law stipulation. The Canadian-trained lawyer and former advisor to the Prime minister is simply exercising his right and freedoms as enshrined in the new law; that we all swore to uphold in our endeavor to make Kenya a better land.

It is therefore outrageous and in complete violation of the law that these goons stormed the Castle Royal Hotel in Mombasa, cutting short Miguna’s forum, causing him to flee. This is the same treatment that the former advisor received at Raila’s backyard in Kisumu. It was shameful to see an Mp leading residents in Ahero to burn Miguna’s effigy alongside a coffin and proceed to pour the ashes into river Nyando. They do not augur so well for the Prime minister and his chances of succeeding President Kibaki, next year.

Their accusations on Miguna that he is being disrespectful to the PM do not and cannot hold water, not at least in a rational world where civilization has already taken root. Miguna is rightfully exercising his democratic rights and these goons should be brought to book.

These actions are bound to do more harm than good too Raila’s chances of winning next year’s presidential poll. Those who have spoken in support of these rude fanatics should know better. The prime minister should also come clean publicly and condemn these goons. Failure to do so may create the impression that the rowdy anti- Miguna youths are causing mayhem at the behest of the prime minister. The fists, attacks and threats that land on Miguna will be used by other presidential aspirants to bring down the Prime minister.

We may find him to be annoying, brash and arrogant and all manner of awful adjectives to describe him. However we have no choice except to let Miguna exercise this freedom to expression and opinion. Whoever feels aggrieved by this publication should seek redress before a court of law. Any action outside this, especially threats, intimidation and even physical assaults are a violation of the law. Those unleashing them on Miguna should be prosecuted in accordance with the law.

It is plain disgusting just how some Kenyans can result to uncouth and barbaric acts just because they feel that their favorite politician is being targeted. We must grow up, otherwise how are we going to prove that we learnt from the 07-08 post-poll violence?

This is not the spirit of the new constitution, it a push in the opposite direction!

LET’S TONE DOWN OUR EXPECTATIONS!

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t is now official that our long suffering Harambee Stars is set to get a world-class coach. Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Sports minister, Paul Otuoma are set to grace the unveiling of Henri Michel, the new Stars coach.

The whole country has almost gone hysterical about it. To many, Henri Michel is the much-needed messiah to the Kenyan soccer that has literally seen the worst. The French-man may have unrivalled feathers to his cap, but as a nation that has suffered heartbreaks and anguish due to an under-performing national team, let us tone down our expectations. It will be prudent not to expect too much.

Frenchman Henri Michel, a reputed tactician has enjoyed great success at the game’s pinnacle. As a player and coach, he led the Les Bleus, France’s national team, to third place in Mexico 1986 and became a household name in Morocco, after guiding the Atlas Lions to France 1998 World Cup. He went on to steer the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia to the 2002 World Cup in Japan/ Korea and was Ivory Coast’s coach during the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

However, bearing in mind that football administration has been deplorable, laden with corruption and all manner of ills, it will be wise not to expect too much from the new Stars tactician. There are no proper structures to develop and nature talent in readiness for national duty.

The Kenyan premier league had to form its own independent body in 2003, Kenya Premier League, KPL. This was after the then Kenya Football Federation, KFF almost threw the game to the dogs. Despite the newly elected Football Kenya Federation, FKF, there is no respite in sight for Kenyan soccer. Power games have almost washed away the hope that that had engulfed the Kenyan football fraternity.

Only the Late Reinhardt Fabisch had a successful tenure at the helm of the national team, besides renowned German Bernard Zgoll in the 80s. Apart from the two, foreigners Bernard Lama of France and German Antoine Hey had short, trouble-laden tenures. They consequently left acrimoniously. These were all precipitated by unfulfilled promises by the football administrators.

These incidents should have taught us not to over- blow with optimism with regard to Michel’s appointment. We should trend carefully and give the Frenchman the necessary support to produce the desired results. But we ought to ask ourselves if there are any long-term measures to get Kenyan soccer on track. Henri Michel’s appointment and success if any will only be short-term, the long walk awaits us.

Good people and football- loving Kenyans, great expectations may make us frustrated and bitter if the football does not change for the better under Monsieur Le Bon!

AUGUST, THE KENYAN CURSE

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assacre at dawn’, screamed the headline in Thursday’s Daily Nation. Such was the gravity of the Tana Delta bloodbath that it overshadowed the passing on of multi-party crusader, Martin Shikuku.

We are still reeling from a week that turned out to be agonizing to the entire country. Three major events had spoiled the tranquility and calmness of an otherwise terror-free week! Terror because it has turned out to wreck havoc in the country’s capital or somewhere else in the country, often with devastating and chilling repercussions.

 A single day robbed us of renowned multi-party democracy champion and the self-proclaimed ‘People’s Watchman’ of Kenyan politics had passed on at Texas Cancer Centre in Nairobi. Sad indeed that a man who weathered fierce storms against the Moi regime, had succumbed to the cruelty of death. Prominent and tens of other Kenyans were dead in a day. One of the darkest days in our county!

Josephine Michuki, the public shy widow to the late Environment minister and Kangema legislator, John Michuki had died earlier on the same day that Shikuku passed on.  It is a day that the entire nation bore the brunt of a gory bloodbath in Tana River County, in which scores of civilians were massacred. Disputes pastoralists and farmers had degenerated into deadly clashes. Less than 72 hours later, about eight angels were burned to death in a dormitory fire in Asumbi Girls Boarding Primary school. This incident rekindles memories of the 2002 gruesome Kyanguli inferno where about 60 students were burned to death.

The death of the country’s founding father, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta on August 22 1978 in Mombasa, apparently marked the beginning of this black month in the country’s history. Barely four years after his predecessor, former president Moi took over, a botched attempt to overthrow his government left in its wake, deaths of hundreds of soldiers and innocent civilians. Hezekiah Ochuka, a Senior Private in the air force wing of the Kenyan Defense forces and leader of the botched attempt, had rule for six hours before fleeing to Tanzania. He was later extradited back to the country, tried and found guilty and consequently hanged in 1987.

Terror reared its ugly face in the country on August 7, 1998, when hundreds were killed in bombings in the American Embassies in Nairobi. A calm Friday mid-morning was suddenly interrupted by the explosions that shook the entire city, resulting in pandemonium never again witnessed in the country. Five years later, the country was robbed of her Vice- president, the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa who died on the 23^rd day in the month of August, at the Royal Free Hospital. He had lost a battle with kidney complications. The Vice- president in the post Moi era had sadly not lived to enjoy  the wave of optimism and renewed energy that the newly elected NARC government, under President Mwai kibaki had brought to the country.

Four aircrafts crashed on Kenyan soil this month. Three Russian-made Ugandan military helicopters came tumbling down in the dense Mount Kenya forest. At least eight soldiers were killed. Agonizingly, two weeks later, a commercial aircraft crashed in Mara with tourists aboard. The road carnage is on the upswing. The list of tragedies is just too much and unbearable. We must do something.

These ugly incidents best describe what the month of August has been heel-bent on causing tears and agony to our country. Disasters have plagued us since the death of the country’s founding father. 34 years down the line, the August curse is still ailing us, leaving anguish, agony and distaste in its wake.

But do we blame the gods for such tragedies in this month or is it that Kenyans are architects of their own misery? Nature and the fallible hand of the human race share this blame. We can work on the latter genesis and make sure that it does not forever return to haunt us. However, ‘natural deaths’ that have robbed us of nationalists like the August 14 deaths of Masinde Muliro and Bishop Alexander Muge, in 90 and 92 respectively, call for divine intervention! Let us appease the gods and let them spare us their wrath! At this rate and sad trend, this month will one day wipe out the Kenyan population!

Thankfully, we are only days from saying Au Revoir to the Kenyan August curse!

THE POLITICAL ANIMAL FARM

    The dice is cast. From all indications, it is clear that Deputy Chief Justice, DCJ, Nancy Baraza’s goose has been cooked and an exit from her post is imminent. The president is unlikely to disapprove the Justice Augustino Ramadhani led- commission’s recommendation to relieve her of her duties as the country’s DCJ. Times are fast changing and upholding the law is the most inevitable of tasks. Let us face it. Even before the commission appointed by the president to investigate the Village Market saga, pitting the now beleaguered Nancy Baraza against a modest security guard,  Rebecca Kerubo, the whole nation was baying for Baraza’s blood! The mob justice was unleashing its fury on the very person who is charged with the job of fighting it and strengthening the rule of law.

    Supreme Court judge, Justice Mohammed Ibrahim, Court of Appeal Judge, Roselyn Nambuye, fell short of the integrity requirements for these offices. Appellate judges, Samuel Bosire, Riaga Omollo and Emmanuel O’kubasu were also declared unfit. Such is the enormity of the integrity hurdle under the new law. Renowned judges like Justice Samuel Bosire, Justice Nyamu and others have all failed by the wayside. Many others are awaiting the fate of appeals that they have launched. The same axe has felled Nancy Baraza

These are some of the far reaching implications that Chapter Six of the Constitution on leadership and integrity, has caused. Integrity is the latest in-thing in leadership and it is bound to cut-short the dreams of many. Every aspiring holder of a public office, from the Judiciary, the police and the political class must pass this latest exam in town! But it is in the political arena whereby double standards are coming into play. 

     Legislators in the August house are vetting candidates for public offices and laying their private lives bare, with endless and probing cross-examinations and interviews. However, the same legislators are not ready to face the same, going by the mutilations that the Leadership and Integrity Bill has been subjected to.

The cabinet last week deleted sections of this Bill, which seeks to set standards for those seeking elective posts. Amendments that greatly weaken the Bill were adopted. Top of these changes is the thrashing out of the requirement that those seeking elective posts be vetted. Clauses that require all aspirants and other state officers to declare their wealth, income, assets and liabilities before they are allowed to occupy these offices have also been chopped off. Double standards cannot get any better than this. We have Parliamentary committees that have vigorously vetted men and women of integrity, asked them embarrassing questions such as their sexual orientation, yet the same politicians are not willing to be grilled the same way.

   This Bill is apparently spelling Armageddon to our political class who are still living in the yesteryears that best describe disregard for the rule of law. We may have voted in the new law, but its implementation path has been treacherous. Old habits die hard and our politicians have been suffocated by decades of the disregard for the rule of law, and these spirited efforts against these demands on integrity were always bound to arise.

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    These events have rekindled memories of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.  In this allegorical work, seven commandments governed the animals and the most important rule was that all animals were equal. When Old Major, the old bear on the Manor Farm dies, two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon take over but sadly manipulate the rules to suit their desires. Napoleon and his charges chase Snowball away and they took over the reins. Rules are consequently bent to the advantage of the ruling class. For example, No animal shall sleep in bed is changed to No animal shall sleep in bed with sheets, after the pigs are discovered sleeping in the old farmhouse. No animal shall drink alcohol is changed to No animal shall drink alcohol to excess, after they discover the farmer’s whiskey. The double standards that have characterized the execution of this Bill are reminiscent of Orwell’s work.

    The Integrity Bill has been chopped off of the moral and ethical benchmarks for aspirants, much to the convenience of a political class that is apparently allergic to integrity and moral values. It is an open secret that our politics need a massive clean-up. This is what the Leadership and Integrity Bill was meant to do, until this tragic turn of events! It will be politically correct to say that the political class championed for a law that they knew so little about. It is now dawning on them that it is not all that bed of roses as they had initially thought.

   With this latest show of disregard to the seemingly new and daunting demands of the new law, even the corrupt may still vie for high office.

Just another case of the Animal Farm playing out in the Kenyan political arena!

THE KENYAN DEBACLE AT THE LONDON GAMES

In a scenario that could best describe Kenya’s woeful performance at the just ended London Olympics, the much touted favorites lost out in the final stages of the men’s marathon.

Uganda’s 23-year old Stephen Kiprotich, burst past Defending London marathon champion Wilson Kipsang’ and the world marathon champion Abel Kirui at the 38-kilometre mark. This confirmed that the Late Samuel Wanjiru’s gold at the 2008 Games was destined for neighboring Uganda. The only consolation is that if Kiprotich’s name is anything to go by, then he must be tracing hi roots to some place within the Pokots. A Kenyan had won the gold, but taken it to another country. Uganda’s only second gold in the history of the Olympic Games, but so sad that it had to come at the expense of the much-fancied Kenyan world-beaters. Names and personalities count for nothing at these championships.

Kenya could not replicate Beijing’s sterling performance of 6 Gold, 4 Silver and 4 Bronze, instead we collected a paltry 2 Gold, 4 Silver and 5 bronze. In Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Act 2, Scene 9, the Prince of Arragon was disappointed in his failed attempt to win Portia’s hand in marriage. He summed his frustration by saying, `` with one fool’s head I came to woo, but I go away with two’’, loosely translated to, I came here with a fool’s head on my shoulders, and now am leaving with two. This is what best describes our miserable campaign at the London Games. As a nation, we were full of expectations that our stars would eclipse the Beijing performance. This belief was further strengthened by their sterling performance in the Diamond League, African Championships and World championships that had preceded this year’s games. How wrong that hypothesis turned out to be? It turned out to smack us in the face, leaving us with mud that has to wait till Rio 2016 in the next Olympics games, to wash away.

Team captain, David Rudisha led by example and won the Gold in a scintillating fashion, breaking the world record in the process. Hats off to this undisputed king of the two-lap race who has now broken his own record an incredible three times, within a span of two years! Our charismatic Ezekiel Kemboi assured us of the traditionally Kenyan gold medal in the 3,000m steeplechase, despite Frenchman preventing a 1-2-3 finish. Julius Yego, lost out in the final of the men’s javelin. However, he was the only African to go that far, besides setting a national record with a throw of 81.81 metres. These are some of the few moments that lit up Kenya’s otherwise poor outing at the games.

Athletics Kenya must now open up their eyes to this bitter reality and put the house in order before Brazil 2016 find us unprepared. Reports of divisions within the athletic camp and also between the National Olympics Committee (NOC-K) and Athletics Kenya (AK) should not be wished away. The same squabbles have taken down the Kenyan cricket that is now struggling to rebuild. Football is apparently beyond repair due to the same.

It is unbearable when the very game that makes us proud as Kenyans, suddenly and somehow inexplicably turns out to unleash anguish and agony. The public disagreements between athletic icon Kipchoge Keino and Coach Julius Kirwa will not grant us the respite that we desperately need now. We need a full investigation on the London sham. Answers must be given as to why kings of the track could underperform so miserably. Kenya, is renowned for her numerous commissions of inquiry that apparently, bear no fruits. Perhaps President Kibaki should appoint a commission to look into this!

It’s only in order that we celebrate Usain Bolt for his exploits in the men’s sprints. He sealed his place among the legends of the Olympics. Defending all the titles he won in Beijing was no mean achievement. No other sprinter has ever matched this!