THE WEEK THAT WAS….

A unique yet historic event unfolded this week. The stage was Thika road and residents of Githurai held demonstrations for days demanding the release of a police officer! A surprise to many! Constable Titus Musila alias Katitu, is the people’s protector that residents have demanded to be released from the Industrial Remand Prison in Nairobi. According to the residents, Katitu had helped drastically reduce crime in Githurai 45, Kimbo and Zimmerman. Yet the police constable has been held in remand, on charges of killing a man in 2013, and is also being investigated by the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) over the killing of a key suspect in the same case. Now, the police authorities are investigating the case and the courts will give their judgment. We should leave it to them, but let us talk about this unique demonstration and what as Kenyans we should learn from Katitu’s predicament turned affection from the citizens of Githurai and neighboring areas.

When the residents en masse; businessmen, matatu crews and all, joined hands in  barricading Thika road to demand the police constable be released, it simply showed how much the law enforcer had protected Kenyans that he swore and took an oath of allegiance at his graduation,  to serve. It is hard for a police officer to draw such affection and love from the public, unless he truly serves their cause and thus touched their hearts. For Katitu, he must have been the people’s servant to the extent that they had to blockade the road just to see him back and protect them from the thugs and other tormentors who are happy breaking the law. To the law breakers in that area, he is their ghost yet to the people, he is their invaluable savior! 

Second, Kenyans sent a message that after all, there are those who truly value the men and women in the disciplined forces, especially those who serve them right. To them, Constable Katitu fits that bill. But a lesson to many of our Human Rights activitists, where are you when our police were butchered in the valley of death; Baragoi? Where are you when our police officers were blown apart by an explosive in a car that they had impounded on terrorism links some months ago near Pangani? Wher were they when the police officers were trapped to their death by the terrorist suspects in that car, and ended up paying with their dear lives while saving innocent Kenyans? Do you really give a hoot when our police men and women are killed by rogue thugs and terrorists while on duty? Have you deliberately closed your eye to the plight of our police officers, only to shout atop rooftops when Kenyans are killed under unclear circumstances by the same police?

As Kenyans go about their daily activities, let us learn to appreciate our police men and women as our fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters. Let us feel that human part that is as vulnerable as ours and learn to appreciate and laud them where credit is due, not castigating them every second of our lives!

To all rogue police, please you are hurting the great women and men in the police force. You taint the hard work and the human cause that they diligently serve. Reform from your rogue ways and help enhance the good cause that your fellow police officers so much work for. 

dailynationnewsdesk.co.ke, standardnewsmedia.co.ke. kemu.co.keRemember that as Constable Musila’s scenario has shown, Kenyans have faith in the good work that you do to them! And we all should remember that in Kenya, members of the public defending a police officer is rare, almost unheard of until Constable Musila aka Katitu came into the picture!

Enjoy the week ahead and let us tone down on the politics and put our hands to work!

Religious mesmerization or genuine preachers?

Gospel has gone full cycle and is now a lucrative money minting career! Early in the mornings, late into the night, on radio and on the television stations, pastors are reaching out to Kenyans, supposedly with the good news! They perform miracles at a fee, from poor and desperate Kenyans in the name of being the much sought bridge between humanity and God! As the congregations sink deeper into poverty, get loans and sell their property in order to get the money for these Panda Mbegu initiatives, the preachers blossom in riches. They live in leafy suburbs, drive fuel-guzzlers and dress in flashy clothes! It is no surprise that most of these pastors live and float in a sea of riches, in the leafy suburbs of Kenya, while most of their devoted congregation fights to survive in the Mathares and Kiberas of this country!

They perform miracles at a rate that would turn Jesus Christ green with envy, and mesmerize Kenyans into believing that they can forget all their troubles at the click of a prayer! The deal is simple; pay some money and the prayers to solve your problems are offered! Do I remember anywhere in the Holy Scriptures whereby Jesus Christ told Peter and brigade to be charging some fees in exchange for prayers? I do not think so, but in Kenya it is happening! The pastors come in all manner of fancy and business friendly names and in order to create the customer friendly business, give all manner of fancy names to their churches! Yes, preaching in Kenya has seen some jump into riches, while condemning others to poverty and fantasies that have ruined lives.

Almost every corner you turn into, the poster announcing a miracle-laden church or pastor meets your eyes! The rules of commercial advertising are key and that is why eye catching names must be used in order to woo Kenyans! It is now a norm to find a church sandwiched in between entertainment joints or sitting on the next floor after a bar, in a storey building! In our buses too, pastors all the only passengers allowed to stand all the way and deliver the good news!

At Jevanjee Gardens, Kencom Bus Stage, around the Tom Mboya statute next to the Kenya National Archives and City Square, next to Uchumi Supermarket along Aga Khan Walk  among other places where Kenyans wind up time or take breaks from their demanding jobs en masse, you will never fail to see a purported pastor, Bible in the hand and screaming at the top of his or her voice for Kenyans to change their ungodly ways or face Armageddon when the day of atonement comes!

But just like any other career now, is it not evident that it is about making money and not shepherding God’s sheep? Why is it that in the buses and at bus stations, the same pastors stretch out their hands and ask for offerings?  In the many church halls that spring out in every corner of the country, the M-Pesa numbers to give money dominates our screens? Worse still in some churches, woe unto you if you dare give out coins as your offerings! To these pastors, theirs is a God of big money and notes are exactly what is needed from the worshipper! They have defied the adage that to give is a matter of the heart, and not how deep your pocket is!

Do you remember the blind man whose sight was restored by Jesus Christ in Bethsaida? Did Jesus blow his trumpet on his miracle working prowess or better still, charge the afflicted some money or payment for healing people of their afflictions or raising the dead? No, He did not. Sadly most of the pastors in Kenya are blowing this very trumpet that disregards the gift of humility, and for miracles to work at your work-place or home or wherever you need it, then you must pay! Remember, the miracle babies that turned out to be human trafficking? 

The unfortunate thing is that Kenyans and pastors join in this religious mesmerization and the antics fill our ears, eyes and minds as the Gospel that the Son of Man preached while on earth is turned into the Gospel of prosperity! We engage in a game of religion whose playing level is not the same; pastors play it from a point of advantage as the Kenyans from the point of disadvantage join in the fray! Who will save them from the frustrations and hell that some of these charlatans in the name of pastors put them through? Economic drain, mental manipulation, domestic wrangles and other ills spring from these religious frolics. Have most of these churches sprang up as economic entities that do not even remit their dues to the taxman? Has gospel been turned into a money minting venture?

However in all this, we have great pastors who are living the very example that Jesus taught us to follow! Those who have not made a career out of frustrating Kenyans from the religious perspective!

Take your time and soberly examine it, and see if it fits genuine gospel or outright religious mesmerization. Maybe, we are justifying the philosopher who once said that religion is the opium of the masses!

THE GHOSTS OF LOCAL FOOTBALL!

A decade now, and still counting. It has been a lengthy 10 years since Harambee Stars last graced the African Nations Cup in, Tunis Tunisia. All qualifying campaigns have ended in disappointment and acrimony. With each disastrous attempt to qualify for the continental championship, either the playing unit gets roasted or the technical bench is sent packing. However, the administrators of the game at Football Kenya Federation (FKF), formerly Kenya Football Federation (KFF), remain unmoved and untouched. They are the untouchables who cannot take responsibility for the slow death that our football is dying! FKF does not run football, it has ruined football!

For all the suffering that local football lovers have endured for a decade and perhaps will have to put up with for the next few years, can our football administrators deem it morally fit to step down and usher in new ideas to run Kenyan football? Will Sammy Nyamweya continue to comfortably go on sacking the entire technical benches of Harambee Stars from the comfort of his armchairs whenever the national team flatters to deceive on the continental scene? What happened to the moral conscience that whenever a leader can resign from office and let new people to take over the helm? The administration of Kenyan football is at best wanting. 

For instance, the frustrations and squabbles at the then Kenya Football Federation area key reason  why the clubs came together in 2004 to form an independent body to run the local championship in the form of Kenya Premier League (KPL). The premier league has greatly flourished and even wooed in sponsors in the form of giant global broadcaster, Supersport and giant beer manufacturer, East African Breweries (EABL). Premier league clubs have thus been able to pay their players decently besides seeing the local talent being beamed live to the entire world whenever in action. This is the result of the decent running of affairs that KPL has been able to do.

Is it hard to replicate the same at the Football Kenya Federation? When will the same old faces that have so miserably failed step aside and let fresh minds run the national office? Maybe new brains and especially retired players in the shape of Musa Otieno, legends such as Mohamoud Abbas, Oscar Kadenge or Tobias Ocholla among others can bring back able management and administration of the game. But if I remember how former national Vice chairman, Sammy Sholei and Nairobi branch chairman, Dan Shikanda and Hussein Terry were bundled out of office, then we might have to wait longer. Remember that this was at a time that elections in the national football body had brought a ray of hope and a wind of change had started to blow. However, it was never to be and the three had to go.

However for the interests of a nation and her love for football, we should borrow a leaf from our counterparts in Europe and other parts of the world, whereby elected leaders choose to resign from office and usher in new heads to bring fresh ideas into the management of football, thus ensuring football success. If Nyamweya and co cannot leave office, then they should shape up, embrace modern administration and management of our national team, just as KP has done to the clubs.

Does it take the fact that in the last 10 years, Harambee Stars have won the regional CECAFA title once, that we have not played in the African Nations Cup for a decade now or the embarrassing elimination by Lesotho from the pre-qualifiers for Morocco 2015, to know that our national team running, management and structure needs a re-think?

We all know that you can never do things the same way, expecting different or better results!

THE POLITICS OF REFERENDUM!

We love politics! And if we do not, then most of our politicians do! The political air is frenzy with calls for a referendum, and being the nation that has a thing for politics, we are all talking referendum! The Opposition coalition, Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD) has already hit the road to collect the 5 million signatures that will bring the referendum push closer to fruition. CORD has branded its push as the Okoa Kenya! Two other factions have already mooted their referendum calls; Members of County Assemblies have their Huduma Mashinani while the governors have fronted the Pesa Mashinani call! Now, these are three faction have all fronted very emotive calls for referendum! Let us not rubbish away this referendum talk, but let us also rationally examine it with clear minds not clouded by the love for cheap politics.

CORD have tabled insecurity, disbandment and a fresh composition of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), tribalism and nepotism in the civil service and an increase of the money to the counties among others as the reasons for their referendum push. The governors under the Governor’s Council have stood their ground that they need to push for more funds to their county governments’ kit while the MCA’s have dubbed theirs the Huduma Mashinani initiative, revolving around the money issue; that without financial backing, devolution is a doomed initiative. But do they really mean it, already knowing that the JUBILEE government has supported devolution? Do they need increased funding in order to plunder it more and fill their tummies and purses? Are they honest and want to use these funds to improve the services to the ordinary Kenyans, who so much need these resources? Am not a pessimist who doubts devolution, No. Devolution is possible and Machakos County is already showing the way, but calls for increased funding must be rationally examined and interrogated, with clear minds free from the political emotions!

On the other side, yes as nation we are faced with the insecurity nightmare, both from within and without our borders, government appointments have always been inclined on the tribal and ethnic agenda throughout successive regimes, our counties need more money in order to deliver the much needed services to all Kenyans and devolution needs to be vigorously supported by the central government, headed by His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta.

But are we too examining those who are pushing for the referendum? Are we just ignorantly giving in to their talk without being rational and reflective in our minds? Let us not forget that during the Grand Coalition government of which all the three CORD luminaries were in top offices; Prime Minister, a vice president and the minister for Foreign Affairs, tribalism, corruption and other ills dominated the air. They are not unique problems that have come with the JUBILEE government, but have been perpetuated throughout the successive regimes, except for insecurity that has plummeted to levels not witnessed before. Again, my crystal ball tells me that had CORD been the ruling coalition now instead of JUBILEE, much of these issues could not be as pronounced as they are now! 

In the ensuing political heat for a referendum by CORD, governors then came together to push for an increment of funds to their government kitties.  But have they been accountable to the last coin as they should have been? No, they have not. We all know how much money was wasted as the governors went on a spending spree, to acquire fuel-guzzlers, build state of the art offices and luxuriant residential mansions and put their MCA’s on overseas trips, under the guise of learning expeditions on how to move the wheels of devolution! Yet, when the Bonny Khalwale-led County Public Accounts and Investment in The Senate invited them to account for their spending by their County governments and iron out some matters to do with the expenditure, several refused to come.  Days later, they coalesced and in a way of hitting back at the Senate, our governors hid behind a veil for more money to their governments and are all singing a referendum tune! But how moral is it, how fair is it that you ask for more money to your purse, yet when you are summoned to account, you plainly refuse and as a typical politician, you go gaga that some people are after devolution, with their swords ready to kill it? Our MCA’s joined the mix and we all know that they have been fighting for car grants and the hilarious compensation to their spouses due to the damages of loneliness among other personal and selfish demands. We have devolved the big man syndrome, corruption, nepotism, ethnicity, misappropriation of funds and other ills to our counties!

Truth be told, we have issues that are facing our nation and our devolution agenda. However, it is unfortunate to see the reality that CORD, Governors and Members of County Assemblies have all hijacked these issues and are fronting their personal and selfish interests and sadly rallying the long suffering Kenyans to the battle-front. Some are fighting political oblivion and staying relevant as the 2017 General elections edge closer, while others are fronting personal and selfish interests. Remember that as much as we cannot say, some people have seen the new opportunities to plunder and enrich themselves courtesy of the funds in the counties. In this referendum talk, CORD, Governors and MCA’s stand to reap big, but Kenyans will gain little if any. Cheap politics have always slowed the development agenda for this nation, and sadly we are poor students of history!

In the meanwhile, let us all come together, forget political and ethnic afflictions for a minute and rationally reason and debate on how to sole the nightmares facing our nation and devolution too. Let us make good use of the constitution that we voted in and promulgated on August 27^th 2010.