January 22, 2005

OPINION

LESSONS THAT AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS HAVE TO LEARN FROM AMERICA WHEN IT COMES TO PUBLIC APPOINTMENTS

Kenyans who watched CNN's Inside Africa program last Sunday evening must have been a happy lot. I was happy too because a group of young Kenyans did us proud. Inside Africa cameras caught them articulating their views on HIV and Aids to none other than Collin Powell, the outgoing Secretary of State of the United States of America. Listening to their eloquence through my satellite radio, I was convinced that in the youth of this country, there is potential for world-class leadership if only they were given a real chance to realize their capabilities. And Powell seemed to be thoroughly impressed by them.

Which brings me to my next point. In the dying days of Powell's role as America's international diplomat, he has been a frequent visitor to Nairobi, not because terrorists have bombed us. He has seized every opportunity to be here whenever there was a major break through in the peace negotiations among warring parties in the DRC, Sudan and Somalia.

Now that his time is up at the White House, another African- American in the name of Dr. Condoleezza Rice is poised to replace him. And had it not been for the in-depth probing and tough talking of the democratic senators at her confirmation hearing, she would have assumed office soon after George Bush's inauguration.

Whether Dame Condoleezza Rice will be more useful and more sympathetic to the land of her ancestors is not the subject of this discussion. If anything, she has been described as being too close to George Bush for comfort and Europeanist in training and ideology.

Dr. Condoleezza Rice's confirmation hearing came a few weeks after that of one Gonzales who was also nominated by Bush for the office of Attorney General. The two hearings, if one watched them live as I did, had one thing in common. The senators sitting around the table, Democrats and Republicans projected a sense of purpose and decorum. They were civil and respectful but tough. They asked sensible questions, turned the professional and career records of the candidates upside down, all in an attempt to confirm that these candidates were suitable for the positions they were vying for.

For Gonzales the sticky point was that as legal advisor to President George Bush, he had advised that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to Afghanistan and Iraqi detainees because terrorists were not considered prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. In the opinion of some Senators, this could have been the reason there were tortures and mistreatment of detainees in Iraqi prisons and other detention camps by American soldiers. And there was evidence that the man was caught with his pants down for having given the President wrong advice.

As for Condoleezza Rice, her problem arose as a result of being George Bush's National Security Advisor at a time when Americans invaded Iraq in pursuit of Weapons of Mass Destruction when in fact there were no such weapons. But tough Condi was not about to be put down. She eloquently told the Senate Hearing Committee that invading Iraq had more reasons going for it other than Weapons of Mass Destruction. In her opinion, Saddam was a dangerous tyrant who had used weapons of mass destruction on his fellow citizens, had invaded Kuwait, launched scud missiles against Israel and had strong ambitions to revive his nuclear programs after the Gulf War had destroyed his facilities and installations.

Watching Condoleezza Rice's performance at her confirmation hearing, one was left with the feeling that she was a perfect combination of brain and beauty, a basic prerequisite in American politics. Equally important, she displayed a vast understanding of international issues and was pretty focused on international democratization and liberty for all around the globe.

She let it be known that it was the duty of Americans to make it possible for every individual anywhere in the world to "do business in the city square," an American way of saying that human beings have a right to transact business anywhere freely without intimidation and harassment within the law.

As much as she would focus her attention in the fight against terrorism globally, she was determined to find a lasting solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict through dialogue rather than monologue with world leaders.

Equally important for her would be closer working with the United Nations agencies, NATO and other important international institutions. She made it be known that she would drive an American international policy with substance and her closeness to Bush would most likely make her more effective on the international arena. It was not lost on observers that she had very little to say on Africa beyond remembering that the US was dealing with terrorist situations in Kenya and Somalia.

Having listened to Dr. Rice ahead of the Bush inauguration, one was left with this eerie feeling that her utterances at her confirmation hearings were too similar to George Bush's speech to be mere coincidence! Did Bush and Rice discuss their foreign policy and write the President's speech together?

Having said that, what lesson do we learn from this process for our governments in Africa? The most obvious lesson to learn from this system is the transparency that accompanies public appointments. What the American system is telling us is that there is nothing really wrong with appointing relatives and friends to critical public offices. Just appoint them if they are experienced, qualified and can pass the litmus test of the Senate Confirmation Hearings.

There is one fundamental thing that these hearings do to people who offer themselves for appointments. It lays their lives bare. As the Senate Committee prepares for these hearings, the media are given the leeway to dig up every possible dirt in your life from childhood to the present, whether you were abused as a child, grew up in a broken family, smoked marijuana at one point, your academic records, which schools and universities you attended, your academic performance, your marital status, whether you are a serial lover, adulterous or have been alcoholic at one point. Other issues that may come up are whether you served in the military or dodged drafting when you should have served in the armed forces. Every thing is laid bare including whether you have been caught speeding or driving under the influence of alcohol.

In other words, this process is not for weak at heart or the faint-hearted. A few nominees have been known to bolt out at the last minute on realizing that their dark past would come to light with devastating consequences for their families.

In a nutshell, what the Americans are saying is that they don't have to have angels appointed to critical public offices that have a lot of responsibility and massive impact on the lives of Americans. But, one thing is for sure, such positions are not meant for obvious and known crooks, drug dealers, pirates, scoundrels, thieves and moral decadents. A measure of decency is a requirement. Secondly, other than decency, merit is mandatory.

Yes, our leaders in Africa must stop the habit of appointing relatives and friends in positions of responsibility without probe and clearance from our respected public institutions. These people must convince our societies that they deserve such high positions, even if they are relatives and friends of the man in power.

The only dilemma for Africa is that we in most cases elect scoundrels and known thieves in to political leadership in the first place. Once we have done that we have in a way confirmed to them that their character is just fine with us. The next thing we know is that our public service systems are bloated with birds of a kind

Can the African electorate stop bad leadership in its tracks before it is too late?

Jerry Okungu
Director
ACEMEPA - The African Center for Media and Political Analysis
Nairobi, Kenya

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January 21, 2005

OPINION

THE CONSEQUENCES OF A RETURN TO MULTI-PARTY POLITICS IN UGANDA

In late last year when I visited Uganda on a similar mission, I wrote an article, which was published in the local dailies in Kenya and Uganda. In that article I argued against the revival of federalism in Uganda as was advocated by the current crop of Baganda political leadership. That article earned me the wrath of a section of Ugandans in the Diaspora, more so those Ugandans who were not happy with NRM's rule in the last two decades.

At the risk of facing a similar hostility, I feel it is my duty to discuss the salient issues facing Uganda today as the country prepares for the first multiparty elections in 20 years.

The challenges that will confront them in 2006 will more or less be the same challenges that neighboring Tanzanians and Kenyans faced in 1900 and 1992 respectively.

One other reason that compels me to write this article is the interest that I, as an East Africa have in a peaceful transition in Uganda politics. As citizens of this region, we are going through a meaningful and methodical process of integrating out three countries by the year 2013.

For us to succeed, our political systems have to be harmonized. The African Socialism of Nyerere, Obotte's Common Man's Charter and Kenyatta's Capitalism ruined our Community in the 1970s. We don't want to go that route again with discordant political systems yet pretend to be working towards regional political and economic integration. This is why Uganda's 2006 multi party elections must succeed for all of us in the region.

Under the National Resistance Movement, Ugandans have known relative peace and reconstruction after the destructive and violent period when Idi Amin and Milton Obotte ruled the country between 1971 and 1985. The only reason they have known relative peace despite the unending rebellion in the North is because the rest of Uganda was devoid of party politics. Like in Kenya between 1969 and 1992 or in Tanzania between 1967 and 1990, Uganda enjoyed the luxury of a one-party political monopoly.

In the Kenyatta and Moi eras, soon after absorbing the only opposition party KADU in 1964 and proscribing rebellious Jaramogi Oginga Odinga's Kenya Peoples Union in 1969, the ruling party Kanu held sway over the land. This meant that any person who wanted to participate in active politics whether at the local or national level had the only recourse, to join the ruling party Kanu. Because of this scenario there were no parties formed along ethnic lines like we have in Kenya today

In Tanzania, after the Tanganyika African National Union merged with Afro Shirazi Party of Zanzibar to form Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) that effectively established the political union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar to be later known as Tanzania under Julius Nyerere, the CCM's grip on power was unshakable.

Nyerere went beyond the call of duty as the founding father of the nation. He built a strong foundation for a united nation and gave a multiplicity of tribes in Tanzania one language that they speak to this day. In East Africa today, Tanzania is the only country where tribalism is scorned. In Kenya and Uganda ethnicity is a cherished political enclave, revered as a fertile breeding ground for future tribal chiefs masquerading as national leaders.

In 1991, at the height of the clamor for political pluralism, Kenya's former president warned that although we were agitating for multi-partism, the same multi-partism would usher in tribal politics of unmanageable proportions. He maintained that parties would be formed along tribal lines that would dangerously undermine the unity and peace that Kenyans had known for three decades.

We didn't believe him then. And even if we did, we didn't care one bit because we were simply tired of Moi, Kanu and their excesses in power. Today, all major parties in Kenya; Democratic Party, Ford Kenya, Ford Asili, National Party of Kenya, Liberal Democratic Party and even Kanu are seen and touted as tribal political parties.

As Ugandans gear up for the first meaningful multi-party general elections next year, they must be prepared to follow the path that Kenya followed if the political events in their country is anything to go by. Like Kenyans, they are a fractured nation to be polite.

In the words of one Conservative Party member in my workshop in Kampala recently, he had the courage to tell me to my face that Uganda was not a nation but a country. This gentleman had the honesty to acknowledge that Uganda was as divided as ever along tribal lines and that parties being formed now for next years' elections would fall in the same pattern. And to vindicate him, my Ugandan colleague and fellow facilitator at the same workshop challenged their party's national outlook when 100% of the men and women sitting in front of us were all from the same ethnic community.

Which takes me my next point.

As we struggle to build institutions of democracy and good governance in our three different states in the region, what do we do with our ethnic allegiances in Kenya and Uganda? Do we continue to pretend that we are tribe-less when in fact we live and breathe our ethnicity day in day out? Why don't we come to terms with our condition and accept the inevitable that we are a multiplicity of cultures and are in reality nation-states within a state?

If we did this we would be more honest with our selves and consciously build on the ideology of unity in diversity that our ethnic condition has availed to us.

Let us face it; we are no French, Italian, German or the English who have some semblance of homogeneity through a common language and culture. The closest we have of the French and the Italians in our region are our socially advanced brothers next door in Tanzania who set out to build a united state at the dawn of independence and succeeded.

The concept of unity in diversity has worked for and served the United States of America and Canada very well. In these two great nations, one is never ashamed of her or his ethnic origin. They are free to say they are African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Irish-Americans and Americans of Hungarian or German origins. This honest statement of fact has never let them down. Recent examples can be given of Arnold schwarzenegger, a Hungarian who migrated to the United States at the age of 15 but now Governor of California, the largest and most affluent state in the United States. Recently, Barrack Obama, an American of Kenyan origin was elected one of the fewest Black Senators to the US Senate after exploiting his Kenyan humble origin to its fullest. He wanted to prove to the Americans that America was really a land of opportunities for every race on earth.

Yes, Ugandans will go to the polls next year in a liberalized political environment under a very interesting scenario. It is so typical of Kenya that it doesn't even look funny.

If the elections are held in June 2006 as proposed, then the parties being formed and registered now have about 18 months to set up their structures, organize election machinery and raise funds. Like in Kenya in 1991, most of the political parties, save for the old Uganda Peoples' Congress, Forum for Democratic Change and the ruling National Resistance Movement have no offices to operate from.

In reality therefore, most parties being formed in Uganda will find a very hostile and bumpy playing ground where the moneyed and well-structured bigger parties will have a field day.

But even with the Forum for Democratic Change and the Uganda Peoples Congress, the real test will be how to match the endless resources and machinery of the incumbent.

The plot may thicken if President Museveni, commonly referred to as M7, decides to run for the third term despite the requirements of the present constitution. If he does run as a sitting President, he will disorganize and maul the rest of the parties one by one because he has the most visible brand image, a formidable grassroots network, the means and the where-with-all to do it.

Some of us will remember how in 1992 and 1997, Moi won two consecutive elections as a sitting president. And how did he do it? He legally used state resources to campaign for his party because he combined his campaign trips to the nation's provinces with his state duties as head of state and nobody could legally fault him for that. More importantly, he held the instruments of power and authority, therefore, wherever he went, he was the biggest news of the day.

A divided and fractured opposition, led by Jaramogi Odinga, Kenneth Matiba and Mwai Kibaki, no matter how popular, had no chance in a million as individual parties to defeat Kanu. It took ten years of multi-partism for Kanu to lose its grip on power, and only after the opposition came to its senses by accident, and united their numerical strength against Kanu.

As Ugandans go to the polls next year, is there a chance they will learn a lesson or two from their neighbors who have gone through the same process in the last fifteen years?

They have Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia to learn from. These are the neighbors that have managed the transition from a one party system to multi political pluralism through the ballot.


Jerry Okungu
Director
ACEMEPA - The African Center for Media and Political Analysis
Nairobi, Kenya

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January 24, 2005

OPINION

A PASTORAL LETTER TO THE KENYA COMMUNITY LIVING ABROAD

Dear Kenya Community Abroad,

In late December last year, I wrote an article in the Standard Newspaper arguing that you had no business lecturing us what to do with our condition back home because you were not best placed to tell us what to do with our politics, our poverty and even our corruption.

I am most pleased that most of you read the article, circulated it, responded to it, sometimes emotionally and negatively, other times logically and positively. Whichever way you read and understood the article, I sincerely thank you all for having found time to contribute to the debate.

One other thing though, the article did exactly what it was intended to do: provoke discussion on this issue of Kenyans living abroad who have the ability to repatriate billions of US Dollars back home every year.

Of the 987 mails I received directly, I have selected to respond to those worth responding to. Some of these well-argued articles also found their way into the local dailies back home. They were responses from Mr. Al Kags, an official of Kenya Community Abroad, my long time friend John Mulla from Washington DC, Michael Mundia Kamau, Liz Nganga and Mr. Onyango Obbo of the Nation Media Group.

As your letters came pouring in, via almost every known discussion forum on the Internet, I was on holiday in North America even though a few of you thought I was in Nairobi.

Having read all your letters and articles, and having had one on one discussions with many of you in North America and Europe, I have realized, sadly but not surprisingly that the culture of intolerance that we forever accused the Kanu regime of, had been domesticated in our way of life as Kenyans, irrespective of where we live, our level of education not withstanding.

When I read some of the insults, others extremely personal, I remembered the 1980s when Moi introduced in the Kenyan politics what was called the Kanu Disciplinary Committee, headed by the late Okiki Amayo. What that committee did to voices of reason and dissent within Kanu left a permanent scar on the individuals targeted. Some political careers and businesses were ruined forever.

I also recalled in those heady days of political repression when free speech as a basic human right was alien to Kenya. Those were the days one Hon Kuria Kanyingi and Hon Mwenje led an onslaught on the late Josephat Karanja, then Vice President of Kenya on the basis of True-lies manufactured at the Kanu headquarters, simply because some one did not like Karanja as Vice President.

After fighting for so many years to regain our freedom of speech, why are we Kenyans so prone to remind ourselves of the dark days that we would like to forget? Why are we so intolerant of divergent views? Why do we yearn for praises and accolades that sometimes we don't deserve?

For starters, I make no apologies for every word I used in my article. If anything, the Standard Newspaper changed the headline and cut out a lot of detail. Never the less, the main thrust of the article and spirit remained intact.

Soon after the attacks came pouring in from self-styled experts on the Kenyan situation, I went to the Kenya Community website and was amused to find that the well publicized home coming AGM in Nairobi had been postponed due to logistical reasons. One of the glaring reasons you gave for the postponement was that arrangements at home had dragged on with confirmation from Kenyan authorities taking too long to materialize. Deep down in the cancellation note was buried a reference to some donor that had failed to honor the pledge to sponsor that homecoming!

I thought that was rather strange for two reasons: one, because the meeting, according to press reports, had taken place at Safari Park Hotel and, secondly, why would Kenyans living abroad, who send so much money home, look for a sponsor to foot the bill for their coming home?

In my categorization of Kenyans living abroad, I must confess I was not exhaustive. There are other groups that I did not talk about and I received so many calls from individuals asking me where they belonged.

For this inconclusiveness, I apologize to those Kenyans that have joined the ranks of the international Civil Service who live and work abroad, serving Kenya as diplomats or were recruited from home by United Nations Agencies, the World Bank, World Food Program, World Health Organization and a host of other private sector organizations.

Then there are a number of Kenyans who in the recent past have applied for US residency and have since transferred their skills and training to North America and are surely making their careers out there

For a start, let me state that there is nothing absolutely wrong with Kenyans working and living abroad. It is a choice that one who has an opportunity has to make.

For many years, Kenyans were accused of being too complacent and loved their home too much. Kenyans never wanted to go and live abroad. Therefore this development is welcome. It falls in the same pattern with what the West African States like Senegal, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria have always done. Senegal for instance depends on human resource export for its economy back home.

Now that there are so many types of Kenyans living abroad, which category has a stronger membership in this body called Kenya Community Abroad? Are they the busy academics like Ali Mazrui, Ngugi Wathiongo or the international civil servants like Dr. Khama Rogo and Dr. Orinda?

For your information, Dr. Khama Rogo built a whole hospital and brought electricity to his village in Gem before he relocated to Washington DC to work for the World Bank. For the years that Hon Raphael Tuju lived in Washington DC, he quietly brought development to Rarieda and built his business in Nairobi without meddling in local politics

I will tell you that this type cannot find time to join a pressure group whose activities cannot be quantified as Michael Mundia Kamau puts it. A member of the Kenya Community Abroad based in Germany, Mickie Ojijo has confirmed as much.

Personally I have my relatives and friends living abroad in Europe, America, Canada, Asia, South East Asia and all. Every time this discussion about the Kenya Community Abroad crops up, they tell me they are not members. On asking them to tell me why they are not members, they are quick to remind me that they have no time for such.

Perhaps the idea of a Kenya Community Abroad is noble but the approach to recruitment and issues back home has not been well thought out. I know at one time, during the Bomas Constitutional Conference, a memorandum was received from this organization pitching for dual citizenship. Now you can only ask for dual citizenship from Kenya if you are not a Kenyan. Another time they suggested that they should have a special seat in parliament to represent their interests! And I say there is nothing wrong with that but please justify it.

If every time you wake up, you remind us that things have not changed, that our politics is bad, that the economy is not working, that we live with 6000 rats in our city and that we are still very corrupt, then why don't you pack up your bags and come home to fix things? Why criticize from a distance?

If you want to help Kenya, please by all means do so but spare us the moral high ground and stop lecturing us on how to run our systems back home. This is where we live and we hold no other passport of another foreign country.

Now I have it on authority that most of you who subscribe to Kenya Community Abroad are not Kenyans. A lot more of you are permanent residents who loathe relocating to Kenya because Kenya is very insecure and that street boys will steal your mobile phones! This, not withstanding the fact that every Tom, Dick and Kamau own a mobile phone, from Mama Mboga to Wanjiku and a Mathree Driver!

You relinquished your Kenya citizenships long time ago. Some of you cannot come home for reasons you very well know about. A lot of you have too much time on your hands, surfing the Internet and spending countless hours gossiping and rumor mongering.

I was amused to find that in attacking me, some of you went through all known search engines and attributed everything about any Okungu on the Internet to be linked to me. That was cheap. Those of you who did so were way off the mark and missed my point.

If you want to argue with me in the future on this subject or any other topic for that matter, please give facts on logic the way Al Kags, John Mulla, Michel Mundia, Liz Nganga and Onyango Obbo did.

If you are intellectually challenged, shut up.

Jerry Okungu
Director
ACEMEPA - The African Center for Media and Political Analysis
Nairobi, Kenya
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January 20, 2005
Kampala, Uganda.

OPINION

WHAT SHOULD AFRICA EXPECT FROM GW BUSH'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION?

As the world waited with baited breath what George Bush's new agenda would be in the next four years, the American media was awash with speculations regarding what GW Bush would or would not do for fellow Americans and the rest of humanity.

The other day an American journalist with Voice of America called me to solicit my thoughts on what Africa should expect from G W Bush during his second term in office as the leader of the most powerful nation on earth.

What immediately came to my mind was the fact that the question itself was not right. It was too general to elicit meaningful response. I thought so because I immediately surfed the African continent and soon realized how diverse, balkanized and generally different Africa was from coast to coast, and to expect a general expectation from an American president was neither possible nor feasible.

Of the 53 states dotting the African continent, each one of them has a unique and special relationship with United States of America, the more reason the US has posted its ambassadors in all the key states it considers strategic for its economic and political interests.

Between 2000 and 2004 when two Americans presidents have visited the continent in the recent past, the choice of which state to visit in Africa has been as controversial as it has been telling. A mere inclusion into the itinerary, even if it has been for a few hours, has boosted the clout of that country, that such and such a country is more favored by the most powerful nation on earth than its neighbours. And true to expectations, such countries have ended up receiving more dollars for all manner of social programs than their neighbours.

In the recent past, such beneficiaries have been Uganda and the DRC in the East and Central Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal in the West Coast and South Africa and Mozambique in the South.

For the Arab North, Egypt has been an almost permanent beneficiary in the tune of three billion dollars annually since it signed a peace accord with Israel over two decades ago.

Extracts from numerous debates on American networks and leading publications have been very good pointers to the direction the new Administration policies would go.

Critics of the Bush administration are quick to point out that nothing substantial will change. The democrats opine that there is a very high likelihood that George Bush's past mistakes, especially with regard to the war in Iraq may go unacknowledged. That there is a strong probability that G W Bush will continue with his arrogance and scorn of world opinion on matters of international interest such as the war in Iraq and the Kyoto protocol.

War on terrorism will continue unabated with a possible invasion of Iran very early in the new administration unless it allows the Americans unlimited access to its nuclear facilities. This theory was given more credence when former Republican Secretary of State, James Baker conceded to Larry King on CNN that if America had to stop nuclear proliferations, then it had every right to start spying on Iranian nuclear installations now.

According to Hersh Seymour of the New Yorker newspaper, war on terror and the desire to control nuclear proliferations will necessitate American troops opening new combat frontiers not only in Iran but also in Syria and North Korea, the states America sees as rogue states and supporters of international terrorism

There is a chance the new administration will be heavily involved in the Middle East crisis now that Bush has hailed the democratic election of the new Palestinian leader.

Chances are that Bush will form a strong alliance with Ariel Sharon of Israel because the White House sees Sharon as a strong ally in the fight against terrorism.

Americans expect President George W Bush's speech to be that of a strong political agenda, not just rhetoric. As the President prepared his speech, he must have had to find the balance between domestic agenda and international obligations.

On the domestic front, Americans expected him to deal with the explosive National Social security issue, homeland security and the sagging economy that has resulted in loss of millions of jobs.

Listening to the incoming Secretary of State, Condoleza Rice during her confirmation Senate hearings, one got the feeling that there was no defined agenda, neither was there any meaningful economic policy focus on Africa. Africa, more specifically Kenya and Somalia only came in as she discussed terrorist bombings in the region and how the US was going to empower those regions in the fight against terrorism.

What even compounds America's focus on Africa is the tragic undersea earth quake that rocked several countries in the South East Asia, the Indian sub continent and parts of the East Coast of Africa killing nearly 250,000 people.

As it is, the Tsunami tragedy has got America and the rest of the developed world focusing on rehabilitating the most affected countries like Indonesia, Sirilanka and neighboring island states.

Fears are that, under the circumstances, Africa's perennial problems like debt relief, famine disasters and general economic assistance to the continent may not be priority issues for the new administration.

But what are the real issues affecting Africa that America should deal with? There many problems worsening Africa's economies, some of which have their origins in American politics back in the USA.

Whenever American embassies and installations in Nairobi, Casablanca, Cairo or Dar es salaam are bombed by international terrorists, angered by America's support for Israel or Iraqi invasion, the sequence of events is almost predictable. The State Department would issue travel advisory notes telling Americans and other European tourisms that destinations like Nairobi were dangerous spots resulting in the death of the tourism industry, loss of revenue and disastrous economic consequences for such nations.

America's wars in the Middle East such as the ongoing Iraqi invasion have direct impact on African states that rely on Arab oil to sustain their economies. Whenever such a war is on, crude oil production levels slump while prices shoot up beyond the means of struggling African states.

Right now Africa's problems are legion other than the usual non performing economies. The debt burden, the scourge of the Aids epidemic, ravages of malaria and other tropical diseases, annual floods and draughts that kill millions of people every year and the general inability to better manage disasters and the environment are some of the issues Africa would like to see America coming to their aid on.

Whether the new Bush administration will spare time and focus its attention meaningfully on African issues remains to be seen.

Jerry Okungu
Director
ACEMEPA - The African Center for Media and Political Analysis
Nairobi, Kenya
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January 20, 2005
Kampala, Uganda.

OPINION

THE BUSH INAUGURAL SPEECH THAT ADDRESSED THE WORLD MORE THAN IT FOCUSED ON DOMESTIC AMERICAN ISSUES.

Finally the deed was done. And the act was performed with pomp, dignity and lavishness that can only be found in America. Watching G W Bush's second inauguration ceremony on television thousands of miles away, one would have been easily excused for recalling the well-choreographed funeral of the late Ronald Reagan last year in his Simi Valley, California. Only that GW Bush's ceremony lacked the solemnity, the tears and a galaxy of international states men and women that graced Ronny's final moments.

One more thing, the Reagan funeral was devoid of boycotts, street protesters, anxiety and a politically loaded speech that dominated G W Bush's second inauguration.

In August 2004, when I wrote a piece on the Republican Convention and suggested that the drum beats of war had been sounded by the Republican leading lights gathered at Madison Square in New York, a few Republican friends I know thought I was being too alarmist.

This time around, President Bush himself laid it on the line for all dictators, tyrants and terrorist sympathizers to see and hear from the horse's mouth. America would go to war to any corner of the globe in the name of freedom and liberty for all mankind.

The Bush that spoke on Capitol Hill last Thursday was a different Bush of four years ago. This one was more internationally focused, less concerned with domestic issues and seemed to focus his attention on freedoms and liberties of all oppressed people around the world

The speech was tacit and devoid of humor or niceties. It seemed to specifically address nations that America considers repressive and undemocratic. One could easily detect that Bush was addressing Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Egypt, Syria, Cuba, China and a host of other nations that either support international terrorism or practice authoritarian forms of government

Back home in Africa, one could easily see Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe fitting the bill of dictators and tyrants Bush was talking about.

He was emphatic that the force of human freedom would defeat the intentions of pretentious tyrants who cherish mortal threats of terror.

He made it abundantly clear that he, like most honorable Americans was acutely aware that American freedom depended on freedoms and liberties of other nations around the world, a pointer to the fact that if there were tyrants in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Cuba and other kingdoms in the Middle East, they became good breeding grounds for anti-American terrorists.

In his own words, he stated that he was a strong believer in the American tradition that no man had the right to be master over the other and no individual deserved to be a slave. That individual rights, liberties and freedoms were sacrosanct as they were given by God.

He promised to seek and support the growth of democratic movements around the world. Looked at another way, Bush was in fact saying that should one country be seen to be tyrannical and suppressive to its citizens, America in future under Bush, would not hesitate to intervene materially and militarily as it has done in Afghanistan and Iraq of late.

On domestic issues, he mentioned in passing that his administration would provide higher standards of education in schools, promote home and business ownership, encourage retirement savings, free Americans from want and fear and condemned racial bigotry in America.

What did Bush not talk about?
Whereas he mentioned freedom and liberty thirty-six times in his speech, there was no single mention of Iraq or Iran. Also left out were critical domestic agenda like the sagging economy, loss of millions of jobs, illegal immigrants, gay marriages and abortion issues.

Conspicuously missing also were his thawed relationships with America's traditional allies like Germany, France and a host of other NATO allies that differed with him over the invasion of Iraq

Africa and its perennial problems were completely ignored but he made it clear that those tyrants that may grudgingly concede some form of democratic reforms would in future find no sympathetic year in Washington for the next four years.

Millions of illegal immigrants in America who expected a reprieve from Bush as he has stated in the past by formalizing their residency status in the United States also heard no word from the President on his pledge.

Other side shows that reminded us in Kenya of the booing of President Moi during the handover ceremony two years ago, was the booing of John Kerry, Bush's opponent in the last elections when he arrived, a pointer that some levels of pettiness are not unique to African societies alone.

On another note, one democratic senator was reported to have stayed home to watch The Titanic, the movie at home rather than attend the ceremony! Was this a case of sour grapes?

On a brighter note, Senator Barrack Obama, that American of Kenyan origin was there in full view of the entire audience and seemed to have attracted television cameras in more or less equal measure with Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

As for what Bush and Condoleezza Rice will do for Africa, we can only wait and see.

Jerry Okungu

Contact Jerry Okungu
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January, 11 2005

Jerry Okungu's article titled "Kenya's spoilt exiles have nothing to give this country" in "The Standard" of 5th January 2005 ( Standard Archives ), was a candid and frank effort to address a subject that has been ignored for too long, and Jerry needs to be commended for this very brave move.

In a nutshell, Jerry stated that the huge Kenyan Community Abroad has and is not making any tangible contribution to the development of this country, a view that must be held to be true, in the absence of much to suggest otherwise.

The overall position of the entire Kenyan Community Abroad, needs thorough reviewing, overhauling and transformation, to immediately halt the monumental wastage in personnel, funds and resources. Other than a website( kenyansabroad.org ), KCA does not have any meaningful programs running either abroad or at home.

KCA was founded in March 1997 according to their website, but there is nothing to suggest that they have filed returns with the Kenyan Registrar of Societies for the past seven years, returns that would be invaluable in reevaluating the Gross National Product (GNP).

The failure by the KCA to compile and file authentic and credible Reports of their audited accounts and activities over the past seven years, makes nonsense of their claims that they have made immense contributions to Kenya's development. The KCA has not shied away from attacking purported exploitation of Kenyans by giant Multi-National Corporations operating in Kenya.

Whatever ills that the purportedly exploiting Multi-National Corporations stand accused of, they continue to make annual returns in conformity with the law. Other than making heavy contributions to the Kenya Revenue Authority in the form of a wide array of taxes, Multi-National Corporations continue to publish their annual audited accounts in leading Kenyan publications by way of full page paid advertisements, unlike the KCA which forever continues to freeload on complimentary slots in the same publications.

Sylvester Kitua in a January 10th 2005 rejoinder titled "Okungu knows little about the role of Kenyans living abroad" ( Read Article ), claims that that the entire African Diaspora annually remits back home an amount of US $ 80 billion.

Mr. Kitua does not quote the source of his figure, but even if one were to assume that only a minute fraction of this figure, say 0.1 %, is the Kenyan remittance, then this would mean that Kenya receives an annual amount of US $ 8 million (640 million Kenya Shillings), from the Diaspora, which is an outrageous misrepresentation. These kinds of funds would comfortably enable the KCA maintain a fully staffed and running National Office in Nairobi, fully staffed and running branches in each of the eight provinces of Kenya, and fully staffed and running sub-branches in each of the 70 districts of Kenya.

Additionally, Al Kags in a January 8th 2005 response titled "Kenyans living abroad are doing a lot for their country" ( Standard Archives ), claims that the number of Kenyans abroad numbers 1.8 million. Al Kags like Sylvester Kitua above, does not quote the source of his figures, but even if one were to assume that only a tenth of the 1.8 million Kenyans abroad are active members of KCA, paying an annual modest membership fee of US $ 20, then this translates to an annual revenue for KCA of US $ 3, 600, 000 (288 million Kenya Shillings), from membership subscriptions alone.

These kind of funds would comfortably enable the KCA maintain fully staffed and running Chapters in North America, Europe, Southern Africa, the East and Central Africa region outside Kenya, and Australia, where the bulk of the Kenya Community Abroad is situated. With these structures in place at home and abroad, the KCA should have been able to hold numerous awareness campaigns, workshops, seminars and road-shows over the past seven years, both at home and abroad. These assemblies would have succeeded by now in entrenching a much clearer understanding on living, studying and working abroad, amongst Kenyans back home.

The provincial and district KCA offices at home in particular, would have been invaluable and instrumental in coordinating and organizing relocation of numerous Kenyans to different parts of the world, to study, work or trade. KCA at large, would have succeeded in spearheading a massive socio-economic movement in Kenya through ideology, akin to the Robert Mugabe led Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the Yoweri Museveni led National Resistance Movement (NRM), the Paul Kagame led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the Oliver Tambo led African National Congress (ANC), and the John Garang led Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM), all of which staged successful movements from outside their respective countries. Jerry Okungu is therefore fully justified in dismissing the Kenya Community Abroad.

KCA is just as bad as the current and previous Kenya governments that it continues to attack, Kenya governments that facilitated it’s very existence. Rather than build a vibrant Kenya Community Abroad, reports that continue to filter back home are of disjointedness and desperation. Five years ago, alarming pornographic images purported to be those of Kenyans in the United States, circulated extensively on the internet. Some of the images displayed nude individuals brandishing the Kenyan flag. The one known source of the pornographic images( Waone Warembo ), even mentions pornographic video tapes involving Kenyans.

Unconfirmed reports on a host of Kenyan websites manned from the Diaspora, suggested that the participants in the said pornographic video tapes, communicated in both Kiswahili and "Sheng". Further unconfirmed reports from the same said websites, also alleged that pornographic activities by Kenyans was also rife in Canada. The KCA has not made any indication whatsoever that it is investigating these claims and arranging to render assistance and remedy where necessary.

It is misplaced and unjustified in the extreme to make a blanket condemnation of all Kenyans abroad. A sizable number of Kenyans abroad are making useful contributions to themselves and those back hope. The policy of allocating huge funds and resources to settle huge numbers of Kenyans abroad for one reason or another ought to be however reviewed, if it is not bearing results. The huge funds and resources used to relocate Kenyans abroad, had rather be re-directed to the rehabilitation, funding, improvement and support of individuals and structures back home.

Michael Mundia Kamau
Nairobi

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THE PARADOX OF THE KENYA COMMUNITY ABROAD: ARE THEY KENYANS LIVING ABROAD OR ARE THEY FOREIGNERS OF KENYAN ORIGIN?

Lately I have been following some interesting events that have been taking place in Kenya which have a direct impact on Kenyans like Senator Barrack Obama of Illinois, USA and a host of other foreigners who claim to be Kenyans and living in foreign lands across the globe, notably in Western Europe and North America.

The other day there was an important summit in Nairobi that was purportedly organized by a group in foreign lands known as Kenya Community Abroad in conjunction with the Kenya government. This summit, which was eventually opened by the Vice President of Kenya, Hon. Moody Awori, was apparently organized by the Ministry of Planning and National development. As high profile as the great gathering was, this most important event that was convened by, among others, our respected scholar, Ali Mazrui, all the way from New York, never got any meaningful pre publicity or open invitation so that our prodigal sons and daughters from the Diaspora could meaningfully engage their distant cousins back home on the all important subject of brain drain.

I am reliably informed that the organizers, those foot soldier functionaries of the Ministry of Planning and National Development wanted to avoid involving locals as much as possible because some chapas were involved! When one of the organizers was confronted at a local pub afterwards to explain why he declined to invite home grown intellectuals, academicians and entrepreneurs that had braved poverty, political torture, intimidation and dehumanizing Kanu regime over the years without the option of bolting out into economic exile like their cousins who were now gathering in Nairobi and being feted by the Narc government, the official hurriedly swallowed his last beer and vanished from the scene.

For starters, let me state some common facts about the so-called Kenya Community Abroad. This group was formed with all the good intentions any group of people, having alienated themselves from their roots would do for no other purpose except to satisfy their guilt, nostalgia and sentimentalism. And there are good grounds to argue this point.

Right now there are three types of Kenyans living abroad. The first group consists of those who left Kenya between 1960s and 1990s with all the good intentions of going abroad for further studies.

This group went to foreign lands at the expense of their poor parents and villagers who sacrificed every thing, chickens, goats and all to raise enough money to buy them tickets and initial tuition fees to go and study in various colleges in Australia, Canada, India, Germany, Russia, South Africa, United Kingdom, and United States among other destinations.

But as they landed in these hostile and foreign lands, culture shock and economic hardships both at home and in their new countries of abode made life extremely difficult for them. A number dropped out of college due to lack of fees, others opted to look for odd jobs to survive. As years turned into decades, with no papers or savings to talk of, their chances of returning home empty handed to face poor villagers back home became more and more remote. In the end, as they grappled with their new status as illegal immigrants and faced with possible repatriation to their homes, a number decided to look for partners of convenience to marry in order to legitimize their continued stay in their new countries. Marriage to foreigners demanded further concessions. Some of them would denounce their Kenyan citizenships to take up European and American naturalization citizenships.

Now, in all fairness to this group that left our shores at the tender age of 18, 19, 20 or 21 and are now in their 40s, 50s and 60s, how would we expect them to come and fit in the culture of turbulent and jobless Kenya? If anything, Kenya today is more foreign to them than their adopted countries. These are the people who have had more than a share of their marriages, have grown up families and in quite a number of cases are grand mothers and fathers. In my opinion this group has nothing to offer Kenya and neither does Kenya have anything to give them. The best option to deal with this group is to treat them as our distant relatives while at the same time we allow them to live in peace in their new found lands. They stopped being Kenyans along time ago.

The second group consists of those Kenyans who, having been educated locally and abroad at the tax payer's expense, found it difficult to realize their lifetime dreams of creating wealth and living better lives. They looked at the Kenyan economy, salary structures in the civil service and private sector. They compared their earnings with those of their counterparts in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Geneva and Germany. They found that the society back home had shortchanged them for their long sacrifices in the education system.

They bolted to look for greener pastures in these foreign lands and sooner, rather than later, relocated their entire families to the first world.

In my opinion, this lot belongs to the category of economic refugees that left the country voluntarily when Kenya needed them most. In their own words, they had to choose between country and cash. They chose cash. Among this group, a number have retired in their countries of adoption and have no intention of coming back home because their young families that left Kenya thirty or forty years ago now know no other home except New York, Geneva, London, Gaberone, Cape Town or Toronto.

The only reason some of them can come like they did recently or like when Ngugi wa Thiongo and Njeri returned home is when some one other than themselves is ready to bring them home for endless seminars to come and pontificate about their vast knowledge and contacts around the world.

And they return simply because some one is footing their first class ticket, a five star accommodation and a possible irresistible daily allowance in dollars that meets their newly acquired international seminar and conference circuits.

The last group consists of those Kenyans who fled political persecution, intimidation, discrimination and general frustration. These are the people one must accord the prestigious title of "political exiles" because circumstances forced them to flee their mother country and seek refuge elsewhere. But there is something curiously interesting about this group. When they fled, they didn’t move to neighboring Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Burundi or Rwanda. They chose New York, London, Bonn, Stockholm, Toronto, Oslo and Washington. And the reason was simple. These were the cities with economic and political clout to help them re-assert themselves so that their activism and continued support funds from their new masters of change in Africa could continue to flow. And this, they have done with a certain amount of success not for the rest of Kenyans but for themselves and their immediate families.

And as the struggle for reforms gained momentum back home, they remained conspicuously indifferent to the struggle for liberation claiming rightly or wrongly that the regime still targeted them for persecution. Ten years after the first multiparty elections and with Moi and Kanu, their most preferred persecutors out of power, some of them are still to find reason to relocate to Kenya.

Let us face it, the Mazruis and the Ngugis of this world have been out of this country for more than three decades. If they were in their thirties when they left Kenya, now they are in their sixties. If they were in their forties, now they are in their seventies. Some of their students like Prof. Chris Wanjala have retired. Very soon, the Ngugis and Mazruis of this world will be asked to hang their boots by their new masters due to old age. The law of natural attrition is also not on their side. How then, under the circumstances can we look up to them to influence the world on our behalf and help change our condition when in their prime, thirty years ago they never did it?

With due respect to the good intentions of the brainpower that gathered in Nairobi recently, with due respect to the founders of Kenya Community Abroad, there is not much that you can do to help Kenya as Kenyans because you are not Kenyans. But we are ready to welcome you home as our distant cousins, foreigners on our shores and benefactors to our poor villages just like any missionary white American from Nebraska, Alaska, Maine and Buffalo Bills in Colorado would. Welcome home!

The writer is executive director of Infotrack, marketing and media consultants, Kenya. Discuss this article in Club Afrika Forums and/or comment below.

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POLITICAL WISHES THAT KENYANS MUST MAKE FOR THE COMING YEAR.

Normally I am never really good at picking up handouts dished out at conferences and workshops. I have not been able to do this because I always feel that after having listened to presentations, there is nothing really new I may learn for the detailed, sometimes irrelevant detail I may not find useful.

However, this time, while in Nairobi there was a folder I inadvertently collected without knowing or checking what was inside. When I did check it nine days later, I found one document that has since enriched my life and changed my way of looking at society beyond my own imagination

Reading this document through and through, I found myself thinking about our country Kenya, its political leadership and its politics. I realized how badly off we were in terms of quality leadership that can move this country beyond where we are today.

This document is a collection of quotable quotes from world leaders past and present.

It also extensively quotes and paraphrases a substantial amount of material that has been researched and collected by many UN agencies, international integrity and leadership development agencies in North America, Asia and Europe.

It is basically a summary of five values from a collection of writings entitled Leading Beyond Borders that every leader worth his salt in society has to master.

These five values under discussion in this 15-page handout are: Bridging, Dialogue, Integrity, Learning and Synergy

In this article I will only confine myself to the value of integrity in leadership.

In their opening statement when discussing Integrity, the authors quote two philosophers named Mac dePree in his book, Leadership is An Art and Ken Wilber, the author of No Boundaries. While Max dePree says that “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality", Ken Wilber tells us that, “ As an individual draws up the boundaries of his soul, he establishes at the same time the battles of his soul".

In the context of the Kenyan situation, it would appear that a wish for integrity among the political leadership in the coming year would be quite in order as this is one area where we find leadership most wanting.

In order to create leaders who value and prefer personal and national integrity, they must give priority to openness with one another. In giving priority to openness they will take responsibility not only to define the reality of their place in our political spectrum but to also understand the reality of the circumstances of our present society.

Beyond that, they will need to examine their inner souls- the bedrock of their desires and personal ambitions, determine the limits and opportunities available to them and prepare to balance the various conflicting interests paused by the unique circumstances that leadership has thrashed on their shoulders.

And what do our authors say in this great handout? They assert that, “ if we want short term safety, we build a wall between us and them. But if we want long term security, we create webs that connect us". And they give specific instances where nations that have attempted to erect walls as a form of security or even individuals who have erected walls around their homes in cities have always lived in fear of intruders and invaders. They cite the Berlin Wall that never stopped Communist insurgents and Western spies from infiltrating Cold war era opponents. The Israel I attempt to erect a wall between them and Palestinians living along the Gaza strip never gave them the security they desired. Instead, more suicide bombers have continued to blow up innocent Israelis inside Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and any other city inside Israel.

Like in Israel, the divided Germany and any individual that erects a wall around his home, walls will always place us in constant fear of being attacked by our enemies. As we continue to live in fear, we isolate our selves from our neighbours and communities because we are forever preoccupied with imminent danger. Yet, like in the barricaded Israel, apartheid South Africa or the Wall of Berlin, how many such barricaded homes in our city suburbs in Karen, Muthaiga and Lavington have been infiltrated by our enemies, who have robbed us, raped our daughters, mothers and wives and sometimes stolen and murdered us in cold blood?

Which brings me to another observation I have always marveled at in big cities in North America and Europe. In such cities, the really affluent homes are built in open space, literally fenceless and all one sees are endless well attended lawns and flowerbeds, yet even neighbors do not intrude into one another's privacy. They are at peace with one another and their environment. The good thing about this openness or open plan neighborhood is that if there is a disaster like an attack, a fire outbreak or an emergency that needs external assistance, access to the home is easy and fast.

During the Cold War, when Europe was divided between Communist East and Capitalist West, there was suspicion everywhere. Nuclear missiles from Moscow pointed at London, Paris, Rome and Washington while the Pentagon arsenals ominously pointed at Moscow, Havana and any other perceived communist threat to the civilized world. However, since the Berlin Wall came down more than a decade ago, and with Communism gone, Europe's unification has spread peace, stability and trust between former sworn enemies. Now they don't have to spy on one another.

A free Europe where there has been unlimited access to either country has cemented trust among former warring neighbors. This openness or connectivity can enable all of us as nations, communities or individuals to live safely and sanely in a globalized yet turbulent world.

What is the import of my argument on local politics? In Kenya today we have politicians who would like to build walls around their homes, constituencies, districts and even provinces. It is not uncommon to hear them announce to public rallies on roof tops that such and such a place is a Kanu, LDP, Ford Kenya, Ford Asili, DP, NAK or NARC zone.

Our leaders have not only balkanized and barricaded us, they have also gone ahead to put up fences and gates to lock us away fro the rest of Kenya.

As they continue to build walls around us, they shut us away from any other information other than the one they give us, to convince us that out there, in Nyanza, Western, Kisii, Central, Machakos, Meru, Mombasa and Rift Valley are our enemies, the real enemies determined to fish us economically and politically and if they had their way, they would eliminate us from the face of the earth!

In the end, this brand of political balkanization has bred mistrust, fear and hatred of unprecedented proportions. No wonder, whenever we have a little election even for a councilor, we turn polling booths into pitched battle grounds where once in awhile blood must flow and life must be lost!

Therefore as Kenyans during this season of forgiveness, we must wish that in Nyanza, the southerners like Dalmas Otieno, Owigo Olang and Tom Obondo should rethink this culture of us and them and reach out to Kajwang, Ojode, Okundi and Adhu so that peace, trust and integrity can return to our land.

If Orengo, Bishop Ondiek, Grace Ogot, Jakoyo Midiwo, Joe Donde can do the same, we shall sure say we are getting somewhere with the divisive Nyanza politics.

If Charity Ngilu, Kalonzo Musyoka, Kiema Kilonzo and David Musila can do the same for Ukambana, it will be one great step to national integrity.

If Karume, Uhuru, Biwott, Okemo, Kombo, Mudavadi, Joe Khamisi, Ali Makwere, Najib Balala and Mayor Taib can also see the light this season, then we can truly hope that the same spirit will flow through the veins of Simeon Nyachae, Omigo Magara, Kipkalias Kones and Orier Rogo Manduli.

This country needs healing, it needs its walls brought down, it need its many gates opened and more importantly it needs our leaders to redefine their individual realities and the boundaries of their hearts' desires so that we can all move together again.

The writer is executive director of Infotrack, marketing and media consultants, Kenya. Discuss this article in Club Afrika Forums and/or comment below.

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AS KENYANS CONTINUE TO WALLOW IN THE MIASMA OF POLITICAL INEPTITUDE, WILL OUR SPIRITUAL TRIBAL LEADERS EMERGE AS THE CONSCIENCE OF THIS NATION?

Luo Paramount Chief, otherwise known as Ker hit the nail on the head. Like millions of Kenyans he had had enough of divisive ethnic politics that has been the bane of social animosity and stagnation in this great country. He asked Raila and Kombo to be mindful of the welfare of Luhyas and Luos, the two communities that have coexisted, intermarried, shared culture, language, borders and trade for many generations. He implored them to unite rather than divide the two communities along hazy political lines.

This appeal is not only timely but also long overdue. More importantly it is an appeal, which should be given the national impetus to extend to all political leaders from every tribe in this country so that they may realize the perilous situation in which extreme partisan politics has placed Kenya.

Competitive politics, also known as multi party democracy has placed Kenya squarely where Moi had warned them it would. In his prophetic style, Moi predicted the return of divisive politics with the return of multiparty democracy. At that time we were too obsessed with Moi's disastrous autocratic regime that we didn't care whether he made sense or not. All we wanted was an end to monolithic KANU politics and Moi out of power.

Having gone through three multiparty elections since 1992, it is now an accepted fact that tribal politics has settled in and taken center stage. As we talk now, even a semblance of a coalition government that was ravaged by political vandalization into a government of national unity is a mere conglomoration of tribal political chiefs. Leading cabinet posts are shared among tribal political kingpins along with their leading supporters from their own communities, performance, suitability and competence not withstanding.

The culture of we and they politics is in control of our political landscape. As communities, we have barricaded ourselves into our little corners and found it safer to fence off others as outsiders who should never dare enter into our space. Our space is our special preserve only for our own tribes men. That is why Ford Kenya's Musikari Kombo must continue to see Raila as an enemy that cannot be trusted. That is why Kivutha Kibwana and Mungatana must slaughter a bull to celebrate the defeat of LDP- Raila's party in Kisauni. That is why perceived enemies of Karisa Maitha while he was alive had to be barred from attending his funeral. It is this political territorial fencing that prepared the bloody battles that protagonists had to contend with in Kisauni by- elections and the Kisumu West by –elections before it.

The sad part of this theatre of the absurd is that the leading lights of our political spectrum that this society looks up to and hopes to choose for the top leadership in the future are the worst perpetrators of this negativity. In broad daylight they preach one message. At nightfall it is a different message, more deadly. This doublespeak is the author of suspicion, mistrust, backstabbing and a series of betrayals that today dot our political landscape.

Our politicians have broken countless promises they made to each other, to the electorate and to any other constituency they might have promised anything. On the national level, the 500,000 jobs a year they promised, security for all, food security, poverty alleviation, a new constitution and zero tolerance on corruption have all been broken. At the personal level, equal distribution of cabinet and public service jobs, collective governance through an MoU and the Summit consultative leadership have all been dumped in favor of excessive centralized executive power.

The sheer number of consensus meetings on the constitution, whose outcomes have hurriedly hit the newspaper headlines only to come a cropper after subsequent backroom conniving and back stabbings have revealed endless naked betrayals in our midst.

In this kind of society such as ours, a few good, honest men and women are hard to come buy. When suspicion abounds, one never knows when the next snake is planted in his bedroom. We walk in fear. And as we make one step forward, we must continue to look behind our backs lest some enemy larking in the dark plunges a knife behind our backs. Ours is a tougher life than the life of inner city gangs in America's ghettos or Nairobi's Eastlands slums.

Yes, we beat Kanu at the 2002 General Elections only because several parties, fifteen of them combined to form a pre- election coalition. That coalition was nothing like we know coalition governments in civilized societies. It was an accident, a chance in a lifetime that may never be repeated again in our lifetime. It had nothing to do with the marriage of ideological beliefs. It had everything to do with tribal chiefs counting their ethnic votes they commanded and coming to the table to share the loot that we normally call the national cake.

At the end of the day each tribe clapped with glee that at last one of their own was at the high table eating and hopefully the crumbs would fall his or her way as the high table relished in rare wines, exotic spirits from far away lands and spare ribs of a tender kind.

Yes, as Kenyans continue to wallow in this miasma of political thuggery, tribal spiritual leaders like that great Ker of Luoland must come out of their cocoons in Ukambani, Luhyaland, Embu, Meru, Kikuyu, Masaailand, Girirama, Mijikenda, Taita, Pokomo, Turgen, Dorobo, Pokot and all the other tribes of Kenya and put sense and sanity back to our land. Left to the politicians, we shall as sure as sunrise, be heading for a bloody civil war in 2007. We cannot afford the balkanization of this country along ethnic lines as Musikari Kombo would want us believe.

On another note, how can such a strong party like LDP goof so many times in such a short time? Has something suddenly gone wrong with the party leadership? How could a party of that high visibility lose so many civic seats to its chief rivals including NARC and KANU?

But even more stunning and intriguing was the Vihiga fiasco where LDP's leading light, Musalia Mudavadi lost a chance of a lifetime to endear himself to his people just at a time when he was struggling to make a come back in politics. How could he let die a noble spirit of the Maragoli community that was the brainchild of his late father? How could he have debased such a unique cultural event that had carved a niche for itself in the national calendar simply because he had lost some parliamentary seat to another villager? If he thought his move was calculated to embarrass his political opponent, he was way off the mark. Those villagers, those ordinary peasants who had always looked forward for years to be entertained and feted once a year by the organizers of the festival will for ever remember Musalia's vindictiveness, not Akaranga's or Ligale's poverty or meanness. Some visions are too dear to be messed up in the quagmire of village politics.

And did I hear something to the effect that Hon Joe Khamisi never really supported nor campaigned for loser Joho in the Kisauni parliamentary by- elections? That Khamisi publicly or privately pressurized for LDP to back Mwaboza because Mwaboza was more popular on the ground? If that was the case, then LDP has a lot of soul searching to do and they had better do it fast.

In the last one month, LDP has created more enemies than they needed to create. At this rate there may be a need for a fresh look at the secretariat, the composition of its current think tank and strategic advisors to the top leadership. Either they have been asleep or have been busy misadvising or deliberately misleading the party leadership.

Time to crack the whip and effect drastic changes is now.

The writer is executive director of Infotrack, marketing and media consultants, Kenya. Discuss this article in Club Afrika Forums and/or comment below.

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DEATH SQUADS IN POLICE UNIFORM - A GLOBAL PHENOMENON THAT ONLY HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM AND CIVIL RIGHTS AWARENESS CAN ELIMINATE.

I read with horror, thousands of miles away about the grisly murder that rocked my birthplace in Awasi town the other day. The murder of young Atito, in a most senseless manner by thugs in Police uniform defied common logic and conspicuously brought out the animal in all of us.

I may not have known the young man personally but the mere fact that this senseless murder took place right in my village and without provocation, right inside his home and at night, reminded me of the several unexplained murders that have rocked the cities of Nairobi, Johannesburg, London, New York, and Sao Paolo in recent history.

What made this murder most foul and gruesome was that it took place in a remote dusty town that hardly boasts the sophistication and crime levels of cities found in South America, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. It also made another point- that none among us is safe anywhere, should the assassins decide to come after our lives. In other words it could have been me, you or any body else in Kapenguria, Kimilili, Kinangop, Koibatek, Maragua, Malindi, Migori, Suna, Suba, Longisa, Lumbwa, Londiani or Gatundu village.

Which brings me to my next point about the men in blue the world over and their penchant for brutality against the very people they are trained to protect.

The racist brutal beating of one black man called Rodney King in the city of Los Angeles by white policemen and subsequent acquittal of the same police officers by a white jury sent the city of Los Angeles in flames by an enraged black community. The damage that the riots caused to the city and the racial scar it left in the memory of the people of Los Angeles over ten years ago still lingers to this day.

During the South African trying periods of apartheid era, police brutality and deaths of black Sowetans including the massacre of school children in the 1976 riots was a way of life.

In South America, police have been known to shoot street children as a way of cleaning the streets of unwanted urchins.

Back home in Kenya, so often, from the days of the Starehe Boys police reserve,
Officer Shaw, many people, including university students have been gunned down and later branded car jackers and dangerous robbers. In most cases, after such senseless fatal shootings, the police have been allowed to conduct investigations in to their own killings.

At one point a minority race in Kenya almost singe handedly dominated what was known as the police reservists division. This community went on a shooting spree and killed hundreds of Kenyans in cold blood under the guise that they were fighting crime. No inquest was ever instituted to investigate these so-called crime busters' activities.

The murder of Atito raises many questions; some of which it is possible have been asked but for which answers may never come now or in the future. Yes it is possible that the men in uniform who went to Atito's home could have been real thugs in uniform and armed with guns. Yes, it is also true that Kenyan police have in the recent past been accused of hiring out their uniforms and guns in return for a share of the loot from known criminals. At times, the very police have formed terror gangs, some times in cahoots with local criminals that know and understand the local terrain. Yes, anything and everything is possible with the current police force we have in Kenya. Therefore the murder of Atito is the responsibility of the police force in Nyando, whichever way one would like to look at it. The thugs that gunned him down in cold blood could have come from Ahero, Awasi, Boya, Chemelil, Miwani or Muhoroni police stations, or an assortment of all of the above.

The few years that Awasi has had a Police Station; there was relative peace only because the then OCPD in Nyando, Chief Inspector Opiyo was an honest and a professional man. He never tolerated laxity, ineptitude, negligence or conflict of interest among his officers. He supervised the stations and police posts in his jurisdiction.

As soon as he left, police officers started indulging in matatu business, wholesale business- selling cement and timber, constructing warehouses, running beer halls and, rumor has it, that some of them even set up joint chang'aa breweries with local entrepreneurs!

Therefore, the killing of young Atito could possibly have been an act of revenge arising from business rivalry or a business deal gone sour.

When Paul Olando was the District Commissioner in Awasi and Opiyo was his OCPD, such police indiscipline, brutality and open involvement in business and criminal activities was unheard of. Because to do so would mean that they would not manage the matatu menace in the district and neither could they control illicit brewing, disorder and petty crimes, as they would be part of the syndicate.

Since Olando and Opiyo left the scene, the people of Awasi claim to have been left at the mercy of the law enforcement agency. It has been extortion, intimidation and gun-law galore.

If the Awasi killing has any lessons for the rest of the country, it is that this government has shortchanged us on the sanctity of human life. It has shortchanged us on a working justice system. It has shortchanged us on equality before the law!

How long shall Kenyans continue to die shameless deaths at the hands of paid public servants yet be unable do anything about it?

How can rampant corruption and brutality continue unabated so soon after police salaries were hiked at the expense of starving millions of jobless Kenyans, not to mention the hiring of General Ali from the military ostensibly to reform and instill discipline in this discredited force?

The point the Awasi residents' riots made was that this brutality needs rapid and forceful response. Yes the police may have the guns and the law behind them but then the courage of a community determined to change its condition can cause positive change in the entire nation.

It may be recalled that at the height of land clashes of the early 1990s, then believed to have been instigated by the Kanu regime at the time, the belligerents from the Rift Valley that invaded farms owned by the Luo Community in Muhoroni, Songhor, Fort Tenan and Koru sugar belt lived to regret when in broad day light, the warriors of Awasi invaded villages bordering Nyando District inside Rift Valley and punished the invaders most severely. After that retaliation, there was never another land clashes incident anywhere in Nyanza.

For those forces of evil that may want top disturb the peace and tranquility at Awasi, it is wise to remember that the residents of this region have lived with the enemy and fought running battles for four hundred years since the time of their local biblical equivalent of Samson of the city of Jericho, Lwanda Magere.

These people are hardened soldiers that find it difficult to run away from a battle no matter how powerful the enemy may be. They never shy away from dying like heroes in the battlefield for a just cause they believe in. The more reason the law enforcement agencies based in the district must act swiftly with fairness to bring the perpetrators of this last evil deed to book.

The effort to bring about understanding between the residents and the provincial administration has to be spearheaded by a proactive and visionary political leadership both at the local level and at the parliamentary level. Any lack of sensible political leadership as is apparent now can only worsen the situation. And that leadership must accelerate the building of strategic roads like the Katito Awasi by- pass, effective and accountable use of local taxation and efforts to attract investors in the town so that job opportunities can be availed to a growing number of youth in the district.

This leadership has to be provided on the ground, not from Nairobi or Kisumu. This leadership must be devoid of petty clannism or village mentality. We are all one district and each constituency must complement the other. This is the kind of leadership we would want to see MPs Peter Odoyo, Opon Nyamunga and Ayiecho Olweny provide for the people of Nyando.

The writer is executive director of Infotrack, marketing and media consultants, Kenya. Discuss this article in Club Afrika Forums and/or comment below.

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NOW THAT THE BRUISES AND WOUNDS OF THE KISAUNI BY-ELECTIONS HAVE BEGUN TO HEAL, IT IS TIME FEUDING FORCES WITHIN THE NARC COALITION CAME TO THEIR SENSES AND LEARN A LESSON FROM THE FALLOUT.

My late father used to tell me right from my childhood that one's mother would always be one's mother. That no matter how ragged, aged, ugly or deformed one’s mother was, she was still their mother.

Years later, I came to learn the import of his message. That in life, some conditions were irreversible and the earlier we accepted to live with them in our entire lives the better it was for us.

In mid October 2004, when one day I got really worked up against the unending squabbles in NARC over the Kisauni by- elections, I wrote an angry article warning NARC that the coalition would surely lose the by-election if it didn't put its act together. I gave reasons why they would lose, based on why they won the seat in 2002 in the first place.

I think a number of leading NARC officials read my article. Whereas many Kenyans responded to the article via numerous emails worldwide, there was deafening silence from the very people I had addressed in the article. In a way I understood their reaction to the article. May be I was too blunt for their liking. It hammered home so much that they didn't want to be reminded of. Perhaps they chose the easier option; to live a lie that all was well and that like in Kisumu, North Eastern, Naivasha and Narok or Kitale by-elections, they would weather the storm and reclaim the seat.

In mid November 2004, I was in Mombasa for a series of media and political party workshops. During that one week, I had an opportunity to mingle in down town joints and exchange ideas with the people of the Coast. What I gathered was not flattering and certainly would be disaster for the warring coalition partners. The tragedy of the unfolding drama was that the protagonists were so engrossed in their egoistical wonderland of political supremacy that they were virtually incapable of coming down to earth to listen to the voices of reason among the masses that they claimed to be fighting for.

For starters, the warring parties had failed to take cognition of the damage the two-year long quarrels in NARC had caused them. They failed to realize how the many feuds and battles they had fought among themselves over the new constitution, the failed MOU, the failed Summit and the many failed reconciliation and consensus retreats over this and that had devastatingly taken its toll on the dysfunctional coalition.

To make matters worse, the coalition had introduced new phenomena on the political scene never before seen in the days of Kenyatta and Moi. For forty years, Kenyans had been schooled believe in the art of collective responsibility by the cabinet. Cabinet ministers in Kenya had never been seen to quarrel, insult and hurl abuses at their colleagues in village barazas. Now, in Kibaki's rein, that was the rule rather than the exception.

This development had eroded the public confidence and respect that the Kenyan public could ever have had on their elite political leadership. Coupled with rampant corruption in Parliament, within political parties and ministerial scandals that kept on popping up from time to time, not to mention perceived biased public recruitment in the public service, NARC went to Kisauni a very tattered political outfit.

In the end, the drama and political pomp that preceded the by- election was merely a theatrical entertainment for the people of Mombasa. They turned up in large numbers at those LDP and NARC rallies, not to listen to the political rhetoric and make crucial decisions on their next Kisauni member of Parliament, but rather, to enjoy and witness live, the political theatrics and buffoonery that had dominated the Kenyan political scene for the past two years. In their mind of minds, the people of Kisauni had decided soon after Maitha had died, that they would go to the polls and elect a person of their choice to replace their fallen hero. To them the decision on who to elect was a local issue and they needed no advice from political tourists from Nairobi, Nyanza, Eastern or Rift Valley to tell them what to do or who to elect.

This is the reason major political parties that tend to be controlled by big tribes from outside the Coast faired badly. NARC, DP, LDP, Ford Kenya, Ford People, NAK and KANU, all met their waterloo at Kisauni on that fateful day on December 16, 2004. It was a reminder of the onslaught that Moi and KANU suffered at Kipipiri in the late 1990s at the hands of DP in Laikipia District in a similar by-election.

If Mungatana, Kuvutha Kibwana and Dzoro thought it necessary to jump ship and rally behind an independent candidate to vie for the seat after the flawed nomination process by big parties, it was not because they were political geniuses.

The victory that they so relished after the fact had nothing to do with their brilliance. It had everything to do with survival- self-survival.

Theirs can be compared to sailors in a sinking ship. When a ship is about to sink, it is those who first notice water seeping at the seams that normally raise the alarm. If their cries are not heeded by the captain and others, they may very well look for the earliest opportunity to grab the nearest lifeboat, rafter or any life saving device or even jump off the ship and swim ashore!

Kibwana, Mungatana, Dzoro and others never founded NARC, NAK, LDP or any of the big parties that carried them to parliament in 2002. They were foot soldiers walking along the road to Damascus who saw a bus coming and stopped to ask for a lift.

Luckily for them the bus was headed for Damascus and they eventually found themselves safely in the city. Once there, one had to give them good reasons why they would continue hanging around a bus with burst tyres, broken windows and a heating engine.

On the flip side, the humiliation suffered by LDP was of their own making. The law of natural justice expects that while two people are still married, there are house rules that for protocol purposes still need to apply. One such rule is that the house and all things in it shall continue to be jointly owned and used by mutual agreement. And that rules themselves shall be drawn after negotiated deliberations. That no one party shall unilaterally draw rules that will bind the other party.

In the case of LDP, it was pointless fielding its own known candidate and later masquerade him as a NARC candidate. The damage that the nomination process had done initially sealed the fate of whoever would emerge as the winner, should that winner be an LDP fronted candidate.

The perceived image of LDP is its own albatross around its neck. As much as the LDP Chairman and Secretary General are Musila and Kamotho respectively, both coming from outside Nyanza, the fact is that we have too many loose tongues in the form of Luo MPs who have made it their business to meddle and comment on every LDP issue. This primitive behavior is making the life of LDP leadership very difficult unnecessarily. If these busy bodies could just shut up for awhile, I am sure there are level headed party leaders than can give the party some respectability and clout on the political spectrum.

For example, was it wise to import political minions from Nyanza and Nairobi, most of them Luos, to go and camp in Kisauni when there were high profile and capable political heavy weights like Balala, Jo Khamisi and others to take care of campaigns on the ground?

What was the basis of those who did not even attend Maitha's funeral going to Mombasa to campaign for his successor?

So many uncalled for blunders were made in Kisauni that could have been avoided with all the attendant embarrassment that it brought on all stake holders.

I hope NARC learnt a lesson or two from this self-inflicted pain.

The writer is executive director of Infotrack, marketing and media consultants, Kenya. Discuss this article in Club Afrika Forums and/or comment below.

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