Salary increase an insult to taxpayers

Daily Nation Editorial
Publication Date: 09/12/2006

Parliament shocked everybody on Thursday, when it awarded President Kibaki a massive salary rise and only put on hold proposals to give higher allowances to the Vice-President, Cabinet ministers, assistant ministers, House Speaker and MPs.

It was surprising that the members could think of anything so obnoxious as increasing their earnings when everybody else in the public sector is being asked to tighten their belts and when thousands of Kenyans go hungry.

A number of things were baffling about this whole thing. First, the President has not asked for any pay rise, so one wonders what motivated the award. Two, the Head of State is sufficiently cushioned financially as all his needs are taken care of by the taxpayers such that he really does not need any big pay.

As for the VP, ministers and MPs, the mere thought that they can award themselves further allowances is not only annoying but amounts to spiting the taxpayers. Here are members of a Parliament that has performed ridiculously poor in the past four years, yet it has a ravenous hunger for money.

How can they think of giving themselves such obscene allowances when the rank and file of workers are languishing in poverty? Take the case of the university lecturers, who just called off their month-long strike over poor pay last week.

All along, they have been told that the State has no additional cash to give then a pay boost. Where then did it get the money for this increase? Where is the fairness and how can the State convince anyone that it cares for all its workers?

The ministers and MPs have got so many new packages in the past three years that one is alarmed at their appetite for money. Yet, there is no commensurate service they offer their voters.

This is a national outrage, which is why Kenyans must demand for a system that locks out MPs from the task of determining their own salaries.

Better believe it, there are no foes in politics

COMMENTARY
Story by LUCY ORIANG'
Publication Date: 08/12/2006

BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID. When the political waters become so murky that you have former President Daniel arap Moi and Nicholas Biwott making a comeback into respected society, it is time to take a deep breath and make some hard decisions.

When these unlikely democrats begin to dictate the political tempo, there can be only one way to go – back to the drawing board and into the trenches.

Who would have thought, on December 29, 2002, that the regime we dispatched into the political wilderness would be influencing the direction we take a year to the next poll?

In the name of those who died for the second liberation, and those who suffered the kind of torture that would break the spirit of mere mortals, this needs to be said: Only a very desperate leadership would find it necessary to call back into duty a battalion of people who so thoroughly corrupted democracy in Kenya that we ended up a basket-case in the eyes of the international community.

Only a people who are self-seekers hungry for power – to quote a tiresome refrain that is usually used in reference to people opposing President Kibaki and his so-called government of national unity – can find it in their hearts to contemplate giving even an inch to a discredited cabal that did all it could to bring this country to its knees.

If Kenya is back on track today, it is only because there was a collective, albeit unspoken, decision that nothing would be gained by rehashing the past.

But we did make clear that we wanted a clean break with a less than glorious past.
Yet here we are today, bending the rules – on pain of losing whatever reputation we had – to beef up the Kibaki Government's arsenal ahead of a poll that is bound to be bitter and dirty.

That is a tactic which is, at once, cheap and costly.

The first because the current crop of leaders should have grown up enough by now to stand on their own feet and not need a prop from a man they called names.

The second because – and this I believe with all my being – Kenyans have proved once before that you can push them only so far and, having enjoyed that power, will not be taken for granted ever again.

Even more important, you cannot proclaim that you are proud to be Kenyan and return to the political platform a set of people who detained and systematically ruined people for the great sin of having a mind of their own. And through the back door, too!

IT IS DURING THE MOI REGIME that land clashes – some would call them ethnic cleansing – became the ultimate solution to political dissent. Corruption was the by-word for any economic or political advantage. And now we are cutting deals with this same man?

We spoke in whispers in our homes, lest we be thrown into torture chambers. Someone who worked at the Central Bank, I seem to recall, was even arrested over comments made in a letter to a relative in the US.

Yet we found the strength of will to legitimately throw out a regime that represented the worst that independent Kenya had to offer.

I received hundreds of emails from friends all over the world congratulating us for showing Africa that it was possible to get rid of a despotic regime without resorting to the gun.

Barely four years later, we have Mr Moi having high tea at State House and Mr Biwott the friendly leader of the official opposition. Suddenly we are bedevilled by coups and temper tantrums in just about any political party worth the name – and especially those that are not inclined to toe the Kibaki line.

To be fair, they were just falling back on a tried and tested formula. After all, the man Moi detained three times – Raila Odinga – had no qualms getting into bed with him during the National Development Party days, and also under the umbrella of the Orange Democratic Movement for purposes of last year's referendum.

And now he is in the same camp as the Duke of Kabeteshire, Mr Charles Njonjo. And with the Kanu rebels, the notorious Mr Tony Gachoka and former Head of the Civil Service Sally Kosgei.

I get a headache just trying to figure out the next unlikely member of ODM-Kenya, and who will be vowing undying loyalty to Narc-without-boundaries.

There is a saying that everything that goes up must come down. But we Kenyans, ever contrary, must add our own twist to everything. Here, whatever goes down must come up – especially in politics.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time we stared the truth in the eye and asked ourselves this one question: Where did we lose the plot?

Fallacies of tribe divide and enslave our people

Commentary
From The Standard,
By Koigi wa Wamwere

Today, Kenyans from different communities are suspicious of, hate and fight one another more than ever before.

Because it is easier to hate, we have forgotten that it is better to love. But hate is very costly to the hated, the hater and the country. Apart from the ease of doing it, why do we hate one another? It is because of fallacies about other communities and we that fuel mutual hatred.

Negative ethnicity is created by ethnic elites who propagate fallacies that make our minds and hearts sick with tribalism. People protect their interests not as individuals, economic classes or Kenyans, but as ethnic communities in exclusion of others.

Communities should not think and their ethnic chiefs do it for them. Interests of ethnic chiefs and the elite are superior to those of their communities. If you go to Nyeri, Kisumu or Kabarnet and ask people what their problems are, they will not raise their own, but the power and protection of President Kibaki, Mr Raila Odinga and former President Moi.

We elect the President, MPs and councillors not to represent and speak for us in Government, Parliament and councils, but to enthrone our ethnic chief. After electing him, MPs and councillors speak for him and people are left without a voice.

Like bees that live for their queen, they live, not for themselves but their ethnic chiefs.

If you criticise, challenge or compete with a tribal chief from your community, you are labelled a traitor. If you do it from without, you are an enemy and must be dealt with. However able a person from another community is, he must never be our President.

Because of our different languages, hair texture, shades of colour, cultural practices and even traditional food, some feel better, superior to and more deserving than others. Others hate themselves in the belief that they are worse and inferior. Though all of us are somewhat tainted, we believe we are innocent and only others are guilty of tribalism.

Someone from another community is never right, but we are. When they speak, you do not listen. As people in the West used black people Jews as scapegoats for a long time, a person from another community is always the witch among us. If we lack something, he is responsible and to blame. To survive, we must rob our witches and find a final solution to them.

Our community will survive best not by loving and sharing with others, but hating, robbing and killing others with whom we must never unite or share.

As the rest of the world forms blocks of economic, political and military survival, tribal chiefs tell us that our future lies in the eventual fragmentation into ethnic states, majimbos or small ponds where ethnic chiefs can reign supreme.

If a leader from our community becomes or is President, we will all be rich or become so. Conveniently, we forget that though we have had a Kalenjin and two Kikuyu Presidents, most Kalenjin and Kikuyu people are poor.

We refuse to see that if presidents eat with the elite of other communities that help them govern, they do not eat with their people and the latter remain poor before and after their man’s rule. We believe the rule of our tribal chief is the best because it will usher us into eating. We forget that the exclusion of most Kenyans is ultimately suicidal when our turn is over.

If a leader from our community is or becomes President, we think we, too, are President or shall be. We talk of a Kikuyu, Kalenjin or Luo President, but the leaders have names — Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki. There will never be a President Luo, President Kikuyu, President Luhya, President Kalenjin or President Kamba.

Because two Kikuyus and one Kalenjin have been presidents, the fallacy is that every Kikuyu and Kalenjin is rich and people in other communities are poor. Conversely, if a President comes from other communities, they will automatically become rich.

To boost the fallacy, we refuse to see the rich in our own communities and only see the rich in others. When leaders from our communities become presidents, it is to make us rich, not serve all Kenyans or make their families rich. We refuse to interrogate ourselves and ask why families of presidents are rich, but 99 per cent of their communities and constituencies are poor.

Despite the assassination of JM Kariukis, Bishop Muges and betrayal of Mau Mau, we believe a President from our community can never hurt us.

Equally, we believe presidents from other communities will enslave and kill us. We thus follow bad ethnic leaders blindly and sing all the way to our grave and reject good leaders from other communities.

When we hate ourselves, we apologise for our ethnicity and instead of fighting for equality take refuge in the back seats of leadership.

Although ethnic elites know these are dangerous fallacies, they propagate them because they are politically profitable. By instilling fear of the devil in their people, they enslave and make them follow them to their slaughter. Tribalism is the elite’s greatest political capital.

For ordinary people, the village is their world and whatever reigns there rules them. Enslaved by ignorance and the tyranny of the so-called communal survival, they follow tribal chiefs to their own perdition. They have no idea that elites fan ethnic wind to fly their own kites, not the people’s.

The writer is the Assistant Minister for Information and Communication

What crimes politicians commit in thy name!

COMMENTARY
Story by CABRAL PINTO
Publication Date: 12/7/2006

IN HIS BOOK, Rogue Ambassador: An African Memoir, Smith Hempstone, who died recently, tells us that he contributed to the campaign of George Bush, Snr, for the US presidency in 1988 and requested that he be appointed ambassador to Kenya should Bush win. He got his job.

In some of the disclosures about the Anglo Leasing scandal, one Pereira is alleged to have paid presidential candidate Mwai Kibaki’s medical bills in London. Kamlesh Pattni gave the Jaramogi Odinga's Ford Kenya campaign Sh2 million according to Jaramogi’s own admission. Jaramogi died in 1994.

In the aftermath of Dr Wanjiru Kihoro’s death, it was disclosed, by her husband, that she was able to raise Sh16 million towards the Narc campaign in 2002.

There were people who helped Narc in other ways, besides raising funds. Scholars wrote blueprints. The international community also gave a hand. We have since heard allegations of foreign funds being channelled to Narc’s campaigns through friendly NGOs. Nobody knows how much the politicians raised in their many trips abroad, an exercise that is now being repeated.

WHAT WERE THESE INDIVIDUALS and organisations lobbying for? Was it just a political commitment that made them do whatever it took to help the party come to power? Were they lobbying for general, specific or personal interests?

No study has addressed these critical questions. We must learn our lessons and change.

Kenyans must be reminded of these stories because the struggle for political power in 2007 is furiously with us. Is this not the time to find out who are the real movers and shakers of this struggle? Are the monitors of free and fair elections ready to do their work and ensure the polls are not rigged in favour of anonymous stakeholders?

Are the human rights and social justice organisations that campaign against corruption ready to do their work and show which corrupt networks are at work to capture, enslave and own willing politicians?

Are our think-tanks at university, NGOs and consulting firms ready to tell us what the think-tanks of the status quo are really thinking? How can we talk about alternative leadership if this critical work is not being done?

When will we become serious and show Kenyans clearly and convincingly that the two political parties now vying for office, namely, Narc-Kenya and ODM-Kenya, are not simply errand girls and boys of vested interests, both national and international?

The truth is that the corrupt networks are already investing in the political fortunes of the prospective presidential candidates. The rich Kenyan grapevine tells of who is funding who and whose helicopters are at the beck and call of which politicians.

Evidence abounds on what the prospective presidential candidates are promising key stakeholders. Rumour has it that one has already promised his financier a speedy enactment of the Suppression of Terrorism Bill!

With proper inquiry, investigative journalism, and monitoring the activities of the prospective candidates, we can make the real evidence available to Kenyans before the 2007 elections.

Those Kenyans who constantly say that electoral politics is dirty are themselves guilty of intellectual laziness. We can make Kenya’s politics clean. We can keep dirty politicians and their backers out of Kenya’s politics. It is only when we can do so that we can talk of alternative leadership.

Poor Wanjiku! How many crimes are committed in thy name!

Nobody becomes president in Kenya without responding to the vested interests of political power-brokers inside and outside the country. When we talk of the status quo, that is precisely what and who we mean: Powerful political brokers. We do not seem to pay attention to these people at all.

Our media is not interested in taking up investigative issues. Political campaigns become campaigns that have nothing to do with the fundamental issues facing the country. The cult of personality is prevalent and you see the key players in the front pages each day of the campaign period. Before we know it, there is a new occupant at State House, and nobody cares how she or he got there.

It is time Kenyans thought seriously about what kind of leaders they need, and what values the leaders stand for. Let Kenyans seriously interrogate the political manifestos that politicians churn out during campaigns. Let us monitor and document who supports these politicians and for what reasons.

Mr Pinto is a Kenyan political scientist.

Politicians the problem, but electors not innocent

Commentary
The Standard
By John Mwazemba

James Ostrowski, a lawyer at Buffalo, New York, made a frightful, but accurate statement, identifying the main problem that haunts voters. He wrote caustically: "If you gave a politician truth serum (to flow like blood in his veins) and asked him what he did for a living, he would quote Tolstoy: ‘I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me and assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all possible means — except by getting off his back.’

"If you gave truth serum to those who vote for the liars and asked them why they do, they would quote Frederic Bastiat who described government as ‘that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else’. "

Columnists have constantly bashed politicians for lying to voters. We expect them to lie, especially when campaigning for office. And they have not disappointed us. They faithfully lie as if they just graduated from "Lie School" where they took an oath to uphold half-truths and, of course, whole untruths.

Ostrowski further says: "Politics is the art of determining how organised force is to be used in society. Force is essentially a negative thing. It destroys things and prevents things from happening."

What about voters? In every democracy, the people elect politicians. And that is the scary part.
Why do we cry and curse, but still vote for the same politicians back to power? Politicians use lies as a tool — sometimes the only tool they have. And as Abraham Maslow said: "When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." Someone else further said: "When all you can see are nails, every tool becomes a hammer."

Though politicians are constantly lie, voters are also to blame for electing them. At my rural home, election campaigns are ridiculously hilarious. The MP and his opponents sound like people who have a few wires disconnected in their heads or loose screws. They go to great length to avoid answering questions or addressing the people’s concerns.

Voters must examine themselves. Could they be the problem? Yes we are, though not the only problem. Though I have never been one, being a politician is not easy. I have listened to Cuban President Fidel Castro make non-stop radio speeches and cling to power. When he stumbled from a dais at a graduation ceremony and broke his leg, a US official broke his ribs with laughter saying: "We’ve been looking forward to Castro’s fall for years, but this isn’t what we had in mind."

That is politics — people laugh at you when you break a leg. It is hard to be a politician whether in the developed or developing world. American politics is not easier, better or different. President George Bush is facing the greatest threat of his legacy — public opinion.

In an article in the Washington Post, Op-ed columnist Robert Samuelson makes astounding observations: "Towering over Presidents, public opinion stands out, in the US, as the great source of power, the master of servants who tremble before it."

He goes on: "We could blame the prospect of a divided government or bipartisan leadership vacuum; both might promote paralysis. But the deeper cause is public opinion. Our politicians are slaves to public opinion. Superficially, this should be reassuring. Democracy is working because public attitudes remain the dominant influence — not big money or special interests as many believe.

"But it is not reassuring. The trouble is that public opinion is often ignorant, confused and contradictory; the policies it produces are often ignorant, confused and contradictory — which means they are ineffective."

Samuelton gives facts. The Pew Research Centre says: "In 2003, 67 per cent of Americans thought that Bush’s invasion of Iraq was the right decision. Only 26 per cent thought it wrong. Now views are split — 43 per cent ‘right’ and 47 per cent ‘wrong.’ Samuelton’s message is that voters are sometimes to blame for vacillation and contradiction. Sometimes we don’t even know what we want or what kind of leaders we are looking for.

In Kenya, we have had politicians subjected to corruption investigation. Instead of letting the law take its course, voters have cried foul that their leaders are targeted because they come from this or that community. And many have taken such public opinion and ethnic walls as "shields" whenever asked to be accountable.

When they say: "I’m being persecuted because I come from this and that community", we go to their defence — marching in the streets holding banners and cursing. Then to prove those who were "witch-hunting" wrong, and to show our solidarity, we vote corrupt leaders back to power.

There are leaders we considered corrupt a few years ago, but now they are the angels we look up to for redemption. Most politicians in power are generally the ones who have been in power or sons and daughters of those who were in power in the past. The political elite has familiar faces. It is no wonder familiar problems have persisted for years. Things also remain the same, election after election. In a surprising way, with a few exceptions, we elect the same people.

We seem to have resigned to fate and take everything lying down, including politicians’ lies. We know better, but we don’t want to change things. We actually conspire with people to lie to us and then elect them to represent us. We expect the Government to sort out the mess and help us, but have we not played a part in creating it?

We believe that all problems can be solved and blame Government for not accomplishing the impossible. We won’t acknowledge choices, contradictions and unpalatable truths. Throwing the bums out is a venerable tradition, but what if we are the ultimate bums?"

PRESIDENT KIBAKI'S SPEECH TO THE NATION ON HIS INAUGURATION AS KENYA'S 3RD PRESIDENT, 30/12/2002

I feel extremely happy to address you today. I am overwhelmed by your love. I am emboldened by your support and enthusiasm. I am thrilled by your sense of dedication and commitment to this country. You have renewed my hope and strengthened my belief in the greatness of this country. Now, all of us, both young and old, men and women, Kenyans of every ethnic group, race or creed, have embarked on a journey to a promising future with unshakeable determination and faith in God and in ourselves.

I would like, on behalf of myself, my family and the entire leadership and supporters of the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc), to express my sincere appreciation of all Kenyans for giving me the mandate to preside over the affairs of this great country for the next five years.

I am greatly honoured for the confidence you have extended to me and I promise not to let you down. You have asked me to be your chief servant and I accept it with humility and gratitude. I would like to congratulate all our elected Parliamentary and civic leaders who will also be servants of the people.

The National Rainbow Coalition represents the future of Kenya politics. Narc is the hope of this country. Our phenomenal success in so short a time is proof that working together in unity, we can move Kenya forward. Look around you, see what a gorgeous constellation of stars we are, just look at this dazzling mosaic of people of various ethnic backgrounds, race, creed, sex, age, experience, and social status. Never in the history of this country have its leaders come together and worked so hard together as on indivisible entity with one vision. It is the love of Kenya that has brought us together. We chose to let go our individual differences and personal ambitions in order to save this nation.

Some prophets of doom have predicted a vicious in-fighting in following this victory. I want to assure you that they will be disappointed. When a group of people come together over an idea or because of a shared vision, such a group can never fail or disintegrate. NARC will never die as long as the original vision endures. It will grow stronger and coalesce into a single party that will become a beacon of hope not only to Kenyans but to the rest of Africa.

This is a critical moment in the history of our country. The task ahead is enormous, the expectations are high, the challenges are intimidating. But I know that with your support and co-operation, we shall turn all our problems into opportunities.

You have asked me to lead this nation out of the present wilderness and malaise onto the promised land. And I shall. I shall offer a responsive, transparent and innovative leadership. I am willing to put everything I have got into this job because I regard it as a sacred duty.

I offer our competitors a hand of friendship. We have been through a long and sometimes bitter electioneering campaign. Now, the elections are over, there should be no bitterness. Let us all unite in forgiveness, reconciliation, and hard work to rebuild Kenya. Nation building requires joint efforts of all Kenyans. Let us work for our common destiny; and advance our common aspiration to bequeath a better country to our children.

I salute the efforts of the gallant freedom fighters and builders of modern Kenya. I salute my worthy predecessors for their contribution to this nation. The mistakes people have made in the past should not distract us from confronting the enormous challenges ahead.

One would have preferred to overlook some of the all too obvious human errors and forge ahead, but it would be unfair to Kenyans not to raise questions about certain deliberate actions or policies of the past that continue to have grave consequences on the present. We are, however, not going to engage in witch-hunting. Our task will be to advance Kenya’s interests and ensure they are well served.

We want to bring back the culture of due process, accountability and transparency in public office. The era of "anything goes" is gone forever. Government will no longer be run on the whims of individuals. The era of roadside policy declarations is gone. My government’s decisions will be guided by teamwork and consultations.

The authority of Parliament and the independence of the judiciary will be restored and enhanced as part of the democratic process and culture that we have undertaken to bring to foster.

Fellow Kenyans, I am inheriting a country which has been badly ravaged by years of misrule and ineptitude. There has been a wide disconnect between the people and the Government, between people’s aspirants and the government’s attitude toward them.

I believe that government exists to serve the people and not the people to serve the government. I believe that govern- ment exists to chart a common path and create an enabling environment for its citizens and residents to fulfil themselves in life. Government is not supposed to be a burden on the people, it is not supposed to intrude on every aspect of life and it is not supposed to mount roadblocks in every direction we turn to in life. The true purpose of government is to make laws and policies for the general good of the people, maintain law and order, provide social services that can enhance quality of life, defend the country against internal and external aggression and generally ensure that peace and stability prevails.

These will be the aims and objectives of the Government under my leadership. My Government will provide the creative potential of the Kenyan people. My government will adhere to the principles and practice of the rule of law in a modern society. My government will conserve national environment, develop Kenya’s resources and protect national heritage.

Corruption will now cease to be a way of life in Kenya and I call upon all those members of my government and public officers accustomed to corrupt practice to know and clearly understand that there will be no sacred cows under my government.

The economy, which you all know has been under-performing since the last decade, is going to be my priority. There is deepening poverty in the country. Millions of our people have no jobs. School enrolment has been declining. In fact the education sector, like all other sectors, is steadily deteriorating. Millions of our people do not have access to basic and affordable health services. Our roads and other infrastructures are dilapidated. Most of our institutions are falling and basic social services are crumbling. There is growing insecurity in our cities and towns. The list is endless.

My government will embark on policies geared to economic reconstruction, employment, creation and immediate rehabilitation of the collapsed infrastructure. We shall restructure public institutions to match them with demands of modernising society. A new Development Plan will be produced soon in order to give _expression to the promises we made in our Election Manifesto. Provision of free primary education for all our children will be immediate goal. Other areas to receive our immediate attention include:

· Provision of greater access to affordable healthcare, Reform in the delivery of social services.

· Refocus on agriculture and tourism as growth drivers of the economy.

· Privatisation non-performing public enterprises in a transparent manner and

· Improvement of security through the restraining, re-equipping and re-orientation of the
security and armed forces of our country.

My government will work closely with the private sector and with our external partners to fulfil these promises. We need the support and understanding of the international community to succeed in the task we have embarked on to recreate our beloved country.

On our part, my government will use tax revenues transparently, effectively and efficiently. We shall streamline procurement procedures and close all loopholes that have in the past led to massive wastage of national public resources.

My government will continue to play a leading role in East Africa, Africa and the world. It will support and facilitate all positive efforts to resolve the conflicts in Somalia, Sudan, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other trouble spots in Africa. Kenya continues to bear a heavy burden of these regional conflicts with hundreds of thousands of refugees in our land. As a country which has suffered two devastating terrorist attacks, we shall work closely with others to root out causes of terrorism in the world. We desire to live in a peaceful world, united by a common sense of purpose in pursuit of a safe common future.

Once again, I call on all Kenyans to work with my government to realise the enormous potential of this country. We invite all those who have been hounded out of our shores by repressive policies of our predecessors to come back home and join us in nation-building. Kenya needs to genius of its citizens wherever they are. It is time for healing, and we need every hand on deck.

I was woken up this morning by rays of sunlight, which had bathed my room in such brilliance that it felt completely new. I began to notice things around me in great details. It was as if the room had been given a facelift. I looked out of the window and, behold a cloudless sky. The trees danced lazily enjoying the early morning breeze. I looked far into the horizon and the beauty of what I saw around me stirred my soul. It was as if I was standing atop Mount Kenya surveying the landscape. I said to myself "Oh, what a beautiful country!"

Indeed, we are so blessed, so endowed. Poverty, scepticism and despondency are not supposed to be our lot. Ours is a land of unparalleled beauty and promise. It is a land of laughter and hope.

My fellow Kenyans, I will strive to lead you to create a country you can be proud of again. Let us join hands and remain united for the sake of our country. That way Kenya will be a happy place for all of us. That is my dream.

God bless you all. God bless Kenya.

Thank you

New constitution is not feasible before next poll

Commentary
By The public watchdog
The Standard

Kenyans must now face the hard reality that it will not be possible to have a new constitution before the next General Election.

The temperatures in the undulating political sea are rising as all sides in the political divides seek to make capital of every emerging opportunity. From the wisdom of hindsight, we certainly know that one year before an election, the other side views any proposal from any political divide suspiciously.

It is for this reason that as a people, we must not entrust the writing of a new constitution on any of the competing interests or politicians because they cannot serve the interests of the public. They can only serve their own.

While ordinarily vested interests are not strange in a matter such as constitution-making, they must be managed and the challenges are much more in an increasingly polarised political environment like ours. The hard truth that must be said — even at the expense of stepping very sensitive toes — is that a new constitution is no longer feasible before the next General Election by December, next year

The sooner all sides in the political divide admit and internalise this, the more resources are saved and the sooner Kenyans brace themselves for an election without changes to the Constitution. It is also needless to state that any political capital arising from a new constitution appears highly unlikely for any of the competing interests.

Consequently, the Public Watchdog revisits this issue and raises the following issues: Firstly, while politicians are elected to represent the interests of the people in the positions of leadership, most of the time their individual and personal preservation overrides any other interests.

It is predictable, even in the emerging political alignments and realignments, that the individuals’ political survival informs their position on matters that ordinarily should be guided by wider public interests. In this regard, if there is one predictable thing about our politicians, it is their unpredictability in their actions and inactions.

Indeed, it is sad that as a people, we have very few principled politicians on whom the country can rely to provide selfless leadership today or tomorrow. We have, however, created a self-centred breed of politicians which at best is characterised by shortsightedness and egocentrism.

The few principled politicians who emerge have over the years taken to extreme conservativeness and posturing that have led to self-destruction in the hands of electoral capitalism or lack of endurance due to sustained authoritarianism.

Secondly, the conflicting objectives of the handlers of constitution-making are largely to blame for the sustained delay in the completion of the exercise. The desire of those in Government is to produce a constitution that enables them to sustain positions of power, hopefully to the disadvantage of those in the opposition.

In the same spirit, those in the opposition are seeking the creation of a constitution that caters for a suitable power-sharing arrangement to help them wrestle power from those in Government.

But the people’s desire is for a constitution that ensures an accountable system of Government at all times and guarantees national stability, protects human rights and property and security to all. It is obvious that the wider public interests rest with the people and they must, therefore, remain at the centre of any constitutional making process. This position must remain so notwithstanding the fact that the people’s elected representatives are expected to provide leadership.

Thirdly, the inherent conflicting interests of all parties at play in the constitutional making process are to blame for the failure of the country to agree on laws that cater for the interests of all. And for this, the desire for a new constitution has, therefore, remained elusive for the past two decades.

It is instructive that the Narc administration, which was elected on the promise of facilitating a new constitution, among other promises, in the first 100 days of coming to power, is still making an effort one year to the next election. The hard truth about this rests on an indisputable fact: That power corrupts, and absolute power replaces the modest trait of any politician with pomposity.

It is, therefore, needless to state that many of the leading architects in the Kibaki Government were very vocal against the Moi regime while in the opposition for not facilitating a new constitution, among many other things.But today, they are at the forefront of slowing down the progress.

It is also spooky that many of those who served under the previous regime have also changed course and are either the defenders of the regime or its most outspoken critics. As previously stated, this is how unprincipled some of our politicians are when fortunes change.

Fourthly, it is now apparent that for Kenyans to get a new constitution, the process must not only be free of vested interests, but it must also not be linked to the next election or any election for that matter.

Further, it is important that such a process must be led by people who have demonstrated independence and freedom of any vested groups. There shall always be political alignment or realignment before or after an election, but Kenya shall remain.

This, of course, assumes that we can find selfless individuals in an environment that is becoming increasingly volatile or adopt an attitude of trust and wait to verify.

It is needless to state that a legal framework is necessary to guarantee and free the constitutional process from meddling by any quarter. The choice facing the Government — or any Government for that matter — is not to insist on delivering a flawed constitution or just any constitution.

It is the creation of a process that enables the people to agree on a constitutional model that satisfies wider public aspirations, guarantees national stability and has a workable governance structure that continues to thrive on the basis of the will of the people.

Kenyans must also find a lasting solution to this process that has become elusive even after the change of a regime. In this regard, constitution making cannot be pegged on promises politicians made before an election as evidence so far suggests that we are all gullible to changing priorities and fortunes.

Finally, freedom of association must be guaranteed to prevent rising political temperatures that could give justification to unwarranted violence.

This is a matter of great public interests!

Reform setback deplorable

Daily Nation Editorial
Publication Date: 18/11/2006

Yet another attempt to re-start the constitution review process has collapsed. Perhaps it should have been clear from the very beginning that as long as the parties involved were not coming to the table with clean hearts and open hands, there would be no progress.

The overriding principle once the talks were convened two months should have been the desire of all involved to engage in a spirit of give-and-take. All parties should have been motivated by the desire to work together and examine what can be achieved in the national interest. But, once again, selfish partisan considerations prevailed, and one group walked away.

Despite the brave front being displayed by those who remained, it must be as clear as daylight the talks are dead unless those who quit can be persuaded to come back. Any attempt by the Government to bring to Parliament any constitution amendment proposals will be a waste of time because it will never raise the requisite numbers.

And neither will the other side manage anything in that regard because it does not have the numbers either.

What is most disappointing is that false hopes were raised when the latest talks were convened under the inter-party committee that eventually became known as the Multi-Sectoral Review Forum. It was assumed that all had learnt big lessons from the previous failures to write a new constitution, particularly the outcome of the referendum.

Kenyans must have been elated that at last their leader - both government and opposition - were finally seeing sense and putting aside the fight to retain power and the pursuit of power to cooperate for the common good. These illusions were rudely shattered when the talks collapsed on Thursday.

We are approaching an election year, and it seems that unless there is divine intervention, we will be going to the polls under the same constitution all agree is in urgent need of a revamp.

We have to accept now that it will be almost impossible to have a new constitution. But with goodwill from both sides, we can at least agree on minimal changes to ensure a fairer playing ground.

The rich control half of Kenya’s wealth – report

BY ALEX NDEGWA
The Standard,
Saturday, November 18, 2006.

The rich control almost a half of the country’s wealth while the poorest Kenyans own less than one per cent of the national income, says a new report.

It says the 10 per cent richest households control 42 per cent of the national income with 10 per cent of the poorest households controlling less than one per cent.

This shows that Kenya is among the most unequal societies, concludes the report on the National Conference on Equity and Growth.

The report, prepared by three international agencies, points out glaring disparities in the distributiona of resources in health and education across regions, with Central having an edge. Life expectancy is lowest in Mombasa and highest in Meru.

It observes that the ratio of a doctor to the population is six times lower in North Eastern than in Central.

There is one doctor for every 20,000 people in Central Province compared to one for every 120,000 people in North Eastern Province.

It notes that the immunisation coverage in Nyanza is at 38 per cent as compared to that of 79 per cent in Central Province. The region inevitably records a low child mortality rate.

According to the report, Mombasa has the lowest life expectancy rate of 33 years as compared to Meru, whose life expectancy is 68 years.

On education, it says stagnation in infrastructure development despite growing population and improved enrolment occasioned by free primary education is stretching available facilities.

The country’s 17,000 primary schools translate into 70-odd students per class/teacher, observes the report, which is well above the recommended 40 students per teacher.

It also cites disparity in elective politics with women being discriminated.

The report is prepared by the Society for International Development-East Africa, ActionAid International-Kenya, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the African Woman and Child Feature Service.

It, however, notes that the strong economic growth the country has registered recently — 5.8 per cent growth posted last year which is a first in 15 years — is a good point of departure for the pursuit of growth and equity.

The culture of intransigence and impunity is in full gear

Commentary
By Barrack Muluka
The Standard,
Saturday, November 18, 2006.

Everybody is back, and everything is back. Prof George Saitoti is back as the boss in Jogoo House and as a prime role model for our children. Kiraitu Murungi is back at the Ministry of Energy as another role model.

Even the Armenian Artur Margaryan is said to be back. I should not be surprised to see Margaryan signing autographs for our primary school kids in the streets of Nairobi. The culture of intransigence and impunity is in full gear. Our people say that if you should find your father running naked with a wooden torch of fire in the thick of the night, you do not tell the world that your father is a night runner. But there are limits even to the application of our sage philosophy.

There can be no gainsaying that President Kibaki has achieved some good things during his first four years. We have heard about economic growth and we have seen something about free primary school education and a little of Constituency Development Fund. All that is good and the man in the House on the Hill deserves a pat on the back. He deserves a pat on the back, too, for a semblance of sheen in the Nairobi city centre. Then there are the trees they have been planning all over the place, along Uhuru Highway, Chiromo Road and Waiyaki Way, to say nothing of the street lighting. I pray there is no scandal behind all this.

And that is about as far as it goes. But I am not so sure about this economic growth thing. I have written many times about why I think we are being taken for a ride and why — even if they are not taking us for a ride — it does not matter, anyway. I shall rest that there, for now. But everything else is not right and President Kibaki must take the flak.

The one thing that we need not remind the President is that he is our first democratically elected President. Ahead of him, Presidents Kenyatta and Moi had perfected the skills of mystifying themselves, frightening all of us stiff and pretending that we had elected them unopposed. Even when Moi subjected himself to competition in 1992 and 1997, we were not exactly persuaded that the elections had not been stolen, in his favour.

Then come the year 2002 and Kenyans overwhelmingly vote for Kibaki as president. Mr President, you have disappointed Kenyans. When you were reading from an angry script at Uhuru Park during your swearing in, many Kenyans resonated with you. You threw away diplomatic etiquette and pretence to call Moi names to his face and in front of visiting dignitaries. You caused President Museveni of Uganda to point out that you were going over the top, humiliating Moi. You made Moi to go to Kabarak without eating your food at State House, or showing you which keys opened which room in the big house. And Sally wept.

But Kenyans did not mind. For, they were tired of informal government. They wanted a new Constitution, Constitutionalism and the rule of Law. You promised them all this. But not only that, you promised that a new Constitution would be here within 100 days. You said the culture of roadside proclamations and the tradition of impunity were over. You said there would be zero tolerance to corruption. You even went on to proclaim that there would be no sacred cows in your Government. So what happened, Sir?

We are investigating Saitoti and Kiraitu and you bring them back to Government with awful impunity. Mr President, are you so insensitive to public outrage?

Nobody knows for sure that these two gentlemen stole anything from public coffers. But what about perceptions and sensibilities, Mzee Mheshimiwa? The public has unfinished business with these gentlemen. To the extent and to the extent the Government is the Government of the people and not the personal property of the President, you have no business, Mr President, bringing them back to Government, until the Court of Public Opinion is ready to give them a clean bill of health and a new lease of political life.

But maybe, Mr President, you really do not care much for public opinion? The public can rave mad about things like corruption and the Constitution for all you care? They can go jump into the lake, with all this talk about insecurity and about the rule of law? You really do not give a damn? Have you not given away land title deeds even when there was a Court order barring you from doing that? You demonstrated that the Law means nothing to you. But by so doing, you set a bad precedence — you and your ministers.

When the President and his Cabinet do not respect the Law, then the nation obtains in the context of institutionalised anarchy. For, anarchy is simply steeping life in impunity. When Kenyans reject a certain political party and without varying the Constitution the President goes on to appoint ministers and their assistants from that party as you have done, Mr President, the President demonstrates that he holds the electorate and the Law in utter contempt.

It is now crystal clear that Mzee Kibaki was just vaporising when he made that irate inaugural address at Uhuru Park in December 2002. In the proper order of time, that address must go down in history as sheer mockery to the people of Kenya.

The nation must for its part be all the wiser for this. Kenyans will learn to mistrust those whose words vaporise the moment they leave their lips. Kenyans know, for example, Mr President, that you are the owner of these Narc-Kenya activities.

Mr President, another November 21, last year, awaits you and Narc-Kenya.

Vision 2030 can succeed if predatory ways change

Commentary, The Standard
By Imre Loefler
08-11-2006

The authors of the plan promising Kenya the status of the Asian Tiger countries by 2030 has talent in gauging the soul of society.

For amid virtuous and heady ideas on justice and human rights, piety and charity and respectfulness, greed and gullibility are at the core. The Government realises that the people have little understanding of economics. So those who struggle to survive on $1 (Sh72) a day are vulnerable when promised that income will increase to $15 (Sh1,080) in 25 years. The State expects voters to recognise the skill and determination of the rulers and favour them with their vote.

The irony is that Kenya could become a tiger — it could have become one a long time ago, but did not. This is because post-colonial governments have fritted resources away and concentrated the wealth of the nation in the hands of the elite.

The reasons Kenyans are not richer are not difficult to find: Corruption, incompetence, outdated bureaucratic practices, lack of incentives to investors and environmental destruction, among many other ills.

Are the painters of the 2030 Vision going to part with this post-colonial heritage? Does the Government have a plan to change the pattern of income distribution? Comparing development statistics, it is obvious that countries that fail to control accumulation of wealth in the hands of a small group of plutocrats do not "develop".

The promised 10 per cent annual economic growth would not help Kenyans if the boom ended up in the hands of the ruling class. The "dual development" that has characterised the post-colonial era would continue. Skyscrapers, elevated motorways, underground transport, fantastic airports, five-star hotels, casinos, holiday resorts, first-class schools and medical care can co-exist side by side with poverty, slums, famine, disease, criminality and insecurity.

Countries where such conditions persist do not "develop": Development indices such as good nutrition, shelter, health and education remain low.

In Kenya, income distribution is extremely skewed. Half of the country’s wealth is owned by five per cent of the population, perhaps less. The Asian Tigers — Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong — which the painters of Vision 2030 refer to have less extreme income distribution and are less corrupt.

However, the phenomenon of dual development is not limited to poor countries. After the Industrial Revolution, the excesses of primitive capitalism threatened the development of industrial countries, hence the emergence of Karl Marx, Mussolini, Lenin, Franco, Hitler, Mao and dozens of dictators.

Eventually, the welfare State emerged, amalgamating the ideologies of liberal capitalism and social responsibility. Today, the most successful States pursue hybrid politics.

But dual development can mar emerging economies as well and it would be wrong for Kenya to imitate the South East Asian countries in every respect.

What is to be learned from them and South Africa, Mexico and Brazil is deregulation, especially in the provision of incentives and improvement of education. The painters of the pie in the sky did not disclose details on how they want Kenya to metamorphose from one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world with a primitive, slash and barn capitalist system and most extravagant plutocracy into a leaping tiger, an emerging economy.

We want to read detailed plans. Dreams and diversionary promises aside, there is no indication that the country is heading that way: Recent events in the energy, sugar and coffee sectors do not bode well and the Government’s appetite to meddle, prescribe and proscribe seems to be growing.

The propaganda of the 5.8 per cent economic growth (even if the figure is correct) does not take into account the population increase. The claim that it has come forth due to leaders’ tireless efforts is nauseous, considering that they have, since they gained power, increased their personal wealth by a much larger percentage, some perhaps by more than 100 per cent.

One good sign that there is a will to depart from the ways of the past would be to commission a forensic audit of the process of wealth accumulation among the 100 richest families. The report would make interesting reading.

In many countries, the historical source of wealth can be traced to looters, robber barons, pirates and all manner of illegal operators.

However, as a rule, the second and third generations of the predatory elite change their ways, not so much in the quest for respectability, but because they cannot, in the long run, secure their acquisitions without the protection of the law. If this would begin to happen, prospects for the great leap would be better. The control of income distribution lies at the heart of poverty alleviation.

In politics, we must never forget our leaders' history

STEPHEN M. NDEGWA, Nairobi.
Publication Date: 06/11/2006

As political alignments shape up in readiness for the 2007 elections, some fundamental facts of our political history must not be lost to the public.

The post-2002 period marked the beginning of coalition politics in Kenya, but one key characteristic that never seems to die from our political culture is betrayal.

Jaramogi Odinga cried of betrayal after independence when Mzee Kenyatta and his kitchen Cabinet deviated from the main vision of independence – to deliver Kenyans from poverty disease and ignorance – and concentrated on amassing wealth for themselves and their families.
Our history is awash with such heartbreaking experiences, from the betrayal of Mau Mau fighters to the breaking of the pre-election MoUs by President Kibaki.

Such betrayals have always come at those times when the whole nation was united to defeat the enemies of development (colonialism and tribalism respectively) and restore sanity and prosperity.

In the current set-up, the country is focusing on eliminating tribalists and corrupt leaders but that vision faces imminent betrayal judging from the political activities of the moment.

A good example is the re-emergence of Charles Mugane Njonjo and Daniel arap Moi who are now trying to influence our political direction.

I recognise that they, too, have a right to hold and express personal opinions as well as to participate in political activities, but the same individuals were the architects of tribal politics, corruption, dictatorship, and poor governance that made sure we remained poor despite the enormous growth potential that existed.

Mr Njonjo, for instance, crafted detention without trial laws and dealt ruthlessly with opponents like Jaramogi. This eventually created mistrust and hatred between the Kikuyu and Luo communities or the Kikuyu and the rest of Kenyans.

Veteran journalist Philip Ochieng has documented accounts of how Njonjo used State power to manipulate the justice system, sabotaged Mr Kibaki when he was Vice-President, including "buying" editors to write falsehoods against the VP.

Currently, Mr Njonjo and his class of politicians are claiming they have "since seen the light" and want the unity of all Kenyans. They are attempting to bring together the Kikuyu and Luo elders "in order to solve the existing differences."

The unity of the two tribes would be good but that of the whole nation would be best. In any case, Kenyans must not rely on such people to forge unity on their behalf. These people have, in the past, let the country down and they must step aside so that the current generation can build bridges and learn to live together.

Trade minister Mukhisa Kituyi has been quoted as saying that leaders must be judged on their record and not merely by their words which, most often, are not genuine.

The people must trace the aspirants’ history, orientation and participation in national affairs. Such is the practice in the developed world. The media must play a major role in highlighting the history of our would-be redeemers.

Kenyans, let us vote in good people, not parties

FRANCIS KAHIRU, Nairobi.
Publication Date: 06/11/2006

The elections euphoria is quickly catching up with us. The tragedy, though, is that the euphoria revolves around parties, not individuals.

To help us appreciate the significance of my opinion, let's remember the circus through which politicians have taken us since 2002 when we elected them into Parliament.

Since then, all their debates have focused on ways of addressing their own concerns as individuals, not for the country. Immediately they got into the House, their first business was to increase their own salaries and allowances.

Recently, Finance minister Amos Kimunya proposed to tax their allowances. We are all aware of the response. They rejected the proposal.

It has been a nightmare for the Speaker to have enough MPs to form a quorum for debate in Parliament. Debates on important Bills have gone on without quorum.

Last week, a meeting called to discuss the draft national land policy attracted only a handful of MPs. Where were the others? No one knows, only that they were not where they were supposed to be. Certainly not where we pay them to be. This is extremely disturbing.

The prosecution of perpetrators of corruption in our land has been slow. One thing is clear: Many of the current crop of politicians, some of whom are seeking the highest office in the land, have been adversely mentioned in condoning corruption. We should do away with such persons.

My advice to fellow Kenyans is this. Shun political parties; let us elect individuals.

With the two major parties up and about wooing voters, I now get excited at the entrance of new parties like Agano. I am yet to learn its philosophy but for now, I am enthusiastic.

We need new blood. We need persons who are not tainted, persons who will purge corruption without fear or favour.

Lock out tainted politicians from elections

Commentary
By Stephen Karanja
The Standard.

Corruption is endemic in Kenya. The sluggish fight against it shows how difficult it is to kill the monster rampaging our society.

It has also made it clear that entrusting the task of fighting corruption to a political elite is not the best option. A shift of paradigm — a radical and surgical war on corruption is required. In the new paradigm, fresh anti-corruption crusaders and focus are required.

The war on corruption has been lost because politicians are not clean. They shout loudest against it and point fingers at others. But should suspects of Anglo Leasing, Goldenberg, land grabbing and other scams lecture the public on corruption? Can they stand on a high moral ground and tell us to listen to them?

People should take over the anti-corruption crusade. It is they who can kill the monster politicians have perpetuated for decades. Ninety-nine per cent of Kenyans are not corrupt. Only one per cent of the population perpetuates the vice.

If the majority takes up the anti-corruption crusade, the war will surely be won. This is why leaders who are not tainted should lead the war — politicians, NGOs church, women and youth leaders and civil servants, police officers and judges with clean hands.

Change of focus is also crucial. In the past, the corrupt elite has shaped the focus. But in the new front, the focus should shift to the corrupt before it moves to other sectors in society. Justice Minister Ms Martha Karua has already changed this by shining the spotlight on the corrupt.

As such, we need efforts of more daring and youthful leaders to champion the crusade. It is time politicians stood to be counted and to separate the corrupt from the clean.

Voters should reject the corrupt and lock them out of Parliament and public office. Next year’s election is a golden opportunity to eradicate corruption once and for all. Voters should be made to understand that the poll is an anti-corruption election and tainted civic, parliamentary and presidential aspirants should be scrutinised and those found wanting locked out of public office.

To help differentiate the corrupt from the uncorrupt, more lists of shame should be made public. But they must not be arbitrary — rather they should be based on evidence of commission or omission, but need not be conclusive as is required in a court of law.

The anti-corruption war is a moral, political and social one and it cannot wait for the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, the Attorney-General or the courts to investigate, prosecute and convict. If this must happen, the war against corruption will never be won.

The anti-corruption crusade is about perception and the electorate should apply the perception principle in next year’s election and dispose of leaders in Government or the Opposition who do not measure up.

The perception principle was used when leaders called for the resignation and sacking of suspected corrupt Government officials and ministers, including Mr Chris Murungaru, Mr Kiraitu Murungi, Prof George Saitoti and Mr David Mwiraria.

The principle requires that those mentioned and associated with corruption or those under whose charge the vice is alleged to have taken place to step aside for investigations to be carried out.

If the electorate applied the perception principle, most politicians would not contest civic, parliamentary and presidential seats next year. The country would be saved from the grip of tainted politicians and regain moral respect and integrity.

In the next election, the fight is not between Narc-Kenya and ODM-Kenya (corruption vs corruption) as the political elite tells all those who are ready to listen. It is between anti-corruption and corruption.

It is about eradicating the vice and starting with elective public office. The electorate will vote for corruption if it elects tainted leaders. But if it goes for those with clean hands, then it will have cast the ballot for anti-corruption.

In democracies, a mere allegation of corruption or impropriety is enough to cast doubt about a politician’s candidature. Kenyans must aspire for this and lock out from public office those corruption has tainted. The time for talk is over — it is time to act.

Don't allow crooks and liars in next Parliament

Commentaries
By Imre Loefler

Next year, Kenyans will elect the Tenth Parliament. They should not repeat the mistake of the Ninth House. Its composition is a testimony of poor judgment. There sit in the chamber — or are conspicuous by their absence from the chamber — many crooks and habitual liars who often behave in a despicable manner. Many are for sale — their party membership, their support and vote.

Only in one matter can this disagreeable assembly agree: Securing for themselves the most extraordinary perks that make them probably the world's best paid.

Bad legislative assemblies are nothing new in history. When Charles Dickens visited America in 1842, he was taken to Capitol Hill and saw both houses of Congress. He was alarmed and offended by the habit of the assembled men (there were no women) of chewing tobacco and spitting the brownish product on the floor and carpet.

Tobacco chewing apart, he was not impressed by the quality of people in the assemblies. He wrote: "By repelling worthy men from your legislative assemblies, it has bred a class of candidates for the suffrage, who, in their every act, disgrace your institutions and your people's choice."

To avoid this kind of situation and ensure that the Tenth Parliament is not populated by people who disgrace our institutions, voters should be conscious of a number of common mistakes they have made in the past. Supporting relatives and clan members, just because of the biological connection is a common misjudgment. It is based on two wrong beliefs. One is the perennial conviction that family is better than anyone else, and the two, if an uncle makes it to Parliament everyone in the family will have a job. One has only to remember what happened to the Kenya Wildlife Service and to police recruitment to see how such hopes come to a sorry end.

Be cautious with regard to rich men driving big cars, accompanied by bodyguards and concubines, and handing out wads of money. Do not admire ostentation. Ask yourself where the riches come from. In Kenya, most of the rich have not become so through honest toil and almost all are corrupt.

Do not admire "success" in terms of money and power, however acquired. Do not shy off only of the big criminals. Observe how people behave, test their trustworthiness in little things and remember Luke 16:10: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."

Do not elect a polygamist. Be wary of those who carry gifts and who make promises. Consider the probability of the fulfillment of the promises. A mere Member of Parliament might be able to have a health centre or school repaired, but he or she will not have enough influence to bring a tarmac road to the district.

There is ample evidence that only senior ministers have enough clout to distort development in favour of "their people".

Trouble is, the majority of voters only think of "pork barrels", as the Americans say. They do not care for the country, distributive justice or the plight of others. They only think of their own advancement, the welfare of their family, village or district.

No wonder that the end products of such electoral decisions are parliamentarians who do not like the voters who put them into the assembly: They think of themselves first.

In the next election, voters will have a further difficulty: The membership of the candidates in any political party or grouping does not give any guidance, for the parties do not have programmes, do not differ in political philosophy and are indistinct from each other.

In the next poll, politicians will not offer ideas, all they have to offer is themselves — and they do this in very similar ways irrespective of their political group. They appear on the same football field, hire the same band, the same group of dancers, arrive in a speeding convoy, aeroplanes or a helicopter, wear a Texas hat, carry a stick, have rings on their fingers and shout, into badly tuned public address systems, more or less the same political "message".

The ladies and some of the more flamboyant men among the aspirants are clad in fantastic costumes and decorated with exuberant headgear — which they call African.

The programme is always the same: A bit of religion, a bit of African heritage, lots of development promises, but in the main is enemy bashing. There may be a little heckling and stone throwing and the same young men are available for hire to any party and candidate, and are only too glad to collect T-shirts in the process.

Voters should see these for what they are: Caricatures of democracy characteristic of our political environment. They can change it by being discerning and ready to improve their decision-making.

Beware the fraudsters now seeking your votes

The Standard, Commentary
October 12, 2006
By Okech Kendo

Vultures are hovering ominously and greedily again.

They are politicians and the would-be meal is the electorate, assumed to be vulnerable to deceit, citizens of limited memory.

Politicians speak balderdash loaded with self-interest, but the people are yet to hear all as the next phase of the struggle for power enters the conspiracy zone.

Scheming politicians need power to control Government machinery so that they can protect what they have amassed, largely through corruption.

Or how else would a person born to peasant parents have acquired thousands of acres of land in Nakuru, Laikipia, Nyahururu and beaches at the Coast?

They still want more, and more, while squatters hardly prepared to survive the ravages of want, toil for a pittance in the farms they have a right to own.

As politicians seek to widen the space between them and want, which is the lot of the many they rely on to climb the opportunity ladder, the people sink deeper into desperation. One hundred billionaires are lording it over millions of labouring citizens.

There are thousands of locations that do not have tarmac roads; villages where the nearest health facility is 100km away, where tapped water is a dream; classrooms are withered tree shades, where the only university graduate is the local DO, probably from another province.

The villages have no role models, no source of income except for the few who peddle chang'aa. Successive governments have undermined people's sources of income. Cotton, groundnuts, pyrethrum or sunflower sub-sectors are dead. But political liars tell us that the economy is booming.

There are a few teachers who buy newspapers once a month when they go for their miserly pay at the district headquarters, tens of kilometres away, or to charge old car batteries that run their black and white TV sets. They are a generation away from electricity.

Poverty is a threat to national security in ways that only the critical may appreciate, not opportunists in power or who want it. Consequently, there is no ambition, no aspiration and no dissent among the captives. They are fodder for political manipulation, goons for hire. Who is burning peasants' huts in Molo? Whose war are those hungry goons fighting and for what gain?

While many parts of Kenya would rather be kept that way — dependent, gullible and susceptible to electoral manipulation — there are others for whom modernity is a matter of course.

Yet those in power now, who promised equity, are still canvassing for the next General Election under the disguise of One Kenya, One Country, One people.

Why can't they make Kenyans feel the oneness now and enjoy the overdue sense of belonging? Don't we have enough police to ensure peasants are not harassed in Kuresoi?

Those who have power crave it to dominate. A number of people who entered Government and became part of the Executive only four years ago now behave as if they own the country. They even believe that they own the people. People who once talked of democracy are preoccupied with conspiracy to undermine change.

But only a few seem interested in the end value of power for the 32 million citizens who yearn for a better and people-driven leadership. Some are driven by an excruciating urge to revenge, and hope to step on wananchi while they amass wealth.

They are politicians who stand for nothing and would probably fall for nothing. Only a few of the politicians have the temerity to listen to the crying shame of the state of our development after more than 40 years of political independence.

"I promise 10 small and medium-size dams per constituency a year," they thunder during campaigns for electoral office. But after they bag the votes, where are the dams? Have you seen any in your village, four years later and a year to another election of new promises?

After about half a century of trying to run our own show with indigenous faces on the controls of State machinery, the economy is still begging for foreign help.

We are dealing with political leaders who believe in nothing and do not care about legacy. This country must move beyond this, and instead of being trapped in the past, it must look into the future with leaders who have a passion for public good.

The noisemakers have told the people that they do not want to be part of alliances aimed at acquiring and sharing power. Yet behind the declarations of assumed good intentions, there is unstated logic of political gambling.

The people know the presidential queue is getting crowded and only a few have a chance of going beyond mere presidential aspiration.

But only the very gullible are cheated by the public declarations of righteousness that belie spite for reason. There is nothing wrong with acquiring power, but this time the people must question the raison d'etre of the power struggles.

The people must ask: Power to do what, and for whom, when every time we elect people they end up loading their pockets and belching in our space?

The writer is The Standard Managing Editor, Quality and Production

Politics of rage can only smother national integrity

The Standard, Editorial.
Saturday, October 28, 2006.

To ask ‘Why do our leaders engage in politics of rage?’ citizens could be pardoned for responding: ‘What else can they do?’ The natural reaction of a people who have been betrayed by their leaders is despair and indifference, not reason. Yet despair will only chalk up more anger and frustration, which cannot get us through the politics of hate and recrimination smothering our country.

We need coherent answers. Answers that explain why the men and women we elected to positions of leadership have made a career in pursuing misguided policies simply out of spite.
To casually dismiss the circus playing out at the National Assembly over the nomination of MPs to the East African Parliament and the ever-present leadership vacuum that every so often stirs the basest of instincts in our leaders as acts of indulgent politicians may be reassuring, but it is false.

There is something stronger at work here than rivalry, incompetence and jealousy. Something that can move men and women sworn to protect the national good to rape it with impunity. The problem is bigger than just regime change. It is the Constitution and governance institutions.

Look at Kenya today. The promise of the second liberation has calcified into a belligerent nightmare. The Government is efficient in only one area: Rewarding sycophancy and strangling integrity. The Opposition is excelling in only coveting the presidency.

Where the country would think as one before, we have been balkanised into tribal groupings and compartmentalised further into ions that feed the hunger of the hungry cliques that lord it over the electorate. Is this how to run a country?

Revolutions, they say, don’t eat their children, but the Narc Revolution in 2002 has metamorphosed into a dragon that feeds on its minders and their children.

We think of dictators and warlords in Somalia and Sudan as rapacious, but our leaders in and out of Government are just as culpable.

The question is how a people who once yearned for good governance could reject it so dramatically. In the 1980s and 1990s, the talk was all about good leadership, now it turns out that good leadership takes more than just advocacy.

Research has shown that when the State or political parties fail to provide a sense of legitimacy, other organisations and despair fill the void.

There is a ready-made source of legitimacy in tribalism and nepotism. So it is not surprising that party leaders want their spouses, mistresses, kinsmen and protÈgÈs nominated to the East African Assembly in Arusha when the posts are supposed to be filled by the most competent among us.

This warped thinking is a direct consequence of the total failure of political institutions. Sadly, politicians have averted their eyes from this reality and would rather discuss the "2002 MoU" than examine the dysfunctions of their leadership.

But as Kenyans wallow in despair, a poisonous clique that reads from the same script with the devil is smothering the country.

Others are busy looking among the same herd for a better shepherd to lead us into prosperity. If Kenyans do not take it upon themselves to stop the country from falling prey to anachronistic medievalists, and devise a strategy to deal with this clique, nothing will save us.

We need a contingency plan that will not only restore our national integrity, but reform the political thinking and practice. Can the President lead the way?

A few wealthy people are lording it on the majority

By Barrack Muluka
The Standard, Commentary.
Saturday October 28, 2006.

About 90 per cent of public expenditure on salaries and allied benefits is paid to just about 500 people. Among these are 222 Members of Parliament and just fewer than 300 other assorted fat cats.

Mr Aaron Ringera of the Kenya Anti-Corruption commission, for example, is paid Sh2.5 million a month, basically for doing next to nothing. The edifice he presides over is at best a dynastic witch-hunting outfit. But more realistically, it is a veritable white elephant that should never have been.

In this ornate white elephant edifice are another five gentlemen who "work" with Ringera. They are paid Sh1.5 million each a month for oscillating between petty political witch hunting and doing nothing. The hunters of fortune at Kacc cost Kenyans a minimum of Sh10 million a month.

In another part of Kenya, the lowest paid public university lecturer has a consolidated salary of about Sh80,000 a month. This is basically to say that the top six people in Ringera’s office earn the salary of a crying 125 lecturers, yes, 100 and 25. But that is not all.

It is common knowledge that our indolent and absentee MPs are the most pampered fellows on a public payroll anywhere in the world. It is perhaps not worth mentioning that this frivolous and gay-loving lot fixes its own pay package. To attempt to unbundle the package here will be to overwhelm my reader with a sense of nausea.

It is behind this background that the ongoing university lecturers’ strike, as well as other clamour for better terms in the public sector, ought to be looked at.

The question must be asked, What kind of society have we created? Do we seem to have created a plutocratic state in which 500 people are holding 30 million others hostage? Is the whole nation at the mercy of 222 MPs and a couple of dozen senior public officers?

At any rate, the parallels between the society today and pre-revolutionary Europe must continue disturbing those who have read history.

Just like France before the 1789 – 1792 Revolution, Parliament has become the enemy of the people, where it should be the people’s watchdog. Ours is easily the only National Assembly in the world that can give Government a blank cheque to spend billions even without interrogating the intended expenditure, as they did this week.

While the rest of the nation is evolving into a landscape of stormy discontent, people’s elected representatives have become self-pampering mascots with a keen addiction to pleasure-seeking.

When Parliament gives Government blank cheques amid brewing labour storms, then such a Parliament can no longer be counted upon to ventilate public grief.

The Cabinet, on its part, behaves like proud and exclusive nobility. It should surprise nobody that a Minister who had nothing three years ago now boasts of a fleet of 70 (yes, 70) sleek limousines and assorted real property in all the prime places you can think of in the country.

The bigger tragedy is that university lecturers seek not to redeem the nation from the decay, but to join the exclusive club of the eating chiefs. We are a people whose leadership has lost interest in the welfare of the people as well as the people’s respect, and they really do not give a damn.

Where our intellectuals should be trying to redeem Kenyans from the den of lions, they are instead jostling for space on the lions’ dining table.

Who can speak for ordinary Kenyans when Parliament, the Judiciary, the top notch of the Executive and our literati all think only of their wallets?

Who will speak for Kenyans when the grotesquely paid are also the ones with the opportunity to steal in Anglo Leasing and Goldenberg style?

Worse still, these less than 500 people are immune to the law. They can play about with Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing and ring circles around you for 16 years and beyond.

But if you thought that was the entire expanse of the tragedy, you are mistaken. For, we ordinary Kenyans are a big part of the problem.

We cannot believe it when our prophets tell us that the daily war of words between Narc-Kenya and ODM-Kenya is an exclusive members ’club dispute. ODM-Kenya and Narc-Kenya are identical twin brothers.

They are fighting over who has the right to loot Kenya and who hasn’t. They are bogus and fraudulent political outfits, whose members do not want to hear about their history.
They do not even pretend to speak for Kenya. The name of their game is power and personal wealth.

Kenya needs a new deal. Kenya needs fresh gallant men and women who can speak for her. We have no place for avaricious parliamentarians who cannot recognise a national powder keg, even when they sit on one. Nor do we have a place for university dons who crave to eat from the table of privilege amid debilitating poverty.

Kenyans should not be deceived. We are firmly in the grip of the eating chiefs.

The barking chiefs in Narc-Kenya and ODM-Kenya are eating you, alive.

They are able to gravitate across the country making all manner of political noise because you have placed food on their table; you have given them a home and security. You are educating their children in exclusive schools, and God knows what else you haven’t done for them!

University lecturers, a selfish and privileged lot in their own right, now want better sitting and eating space on the table of privilege, when they should be carrying the rest of the nation with them in the search for better things. Nobody cares about you. And so, as the Akamba say, "barking you will be eaten". That is unless you can stand up for your rights and ask for a new deal from your leaders today, now.

Even minister in the Sh100m puzzle could evade KACC

By Kipkoech Tanui

So after a Cabinet meeting chaired by President Kibaki, a minister has a date with anti-graft investigators?

Yes, Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, where investigations never end, tells us this minister, has amassed a Sh100 million fortune. There is nothing on his pay slip or other known sources, at least those picked by the Kacc surveillance radar, to suggest he can be worth that much in so short a time.

They will have looked at his pay slip and found it compares badly with Justice Aaron Ringera’s Sh2.5 million a month. If they are seasoned investigators whose files Attorney General Amos Wako cannot return to sender, they will have checked out if this VIP suspect has an offshore or local empire building loans.

So where does this take us? Either there are pickpockets in the Cabinet, or Ringera’s team is again handing us a red herring.

In the report Kenya Anti-Corruption Advisory Board chairman, our grand old man Mr Allan Ngugi, accuses Kenyans of having "sky-high" ambitions. It’s as if we can wait for Kacc’s date with Anglo Leasing "ghosts" in 2012. This is awful, coming after the season of shame lists and name-calling, the period the "suspects" played ping-pong with the wielders of the sword of justice, at public rallies.

One can just hope Ringera’s team isn’t doing what it knows best – playing to the public gallery, following the agenda the media set and common place talk. Because "suspicion" is not enough, the grand thieves are not known for "conspicuous consumption". They are smooth operators, hiding behind dummy companies and a network of trustee-run consortiums.

The report has its icing too: a court clerk worth over Sh100 million, but who could be earning Sh20,000 a month, is under investigation. Kacc is also on the trail of many others, including a fabulously rich former minister.

Allan says: "The commission has faced many challenges. Key among them is the existing sky-high public expectation that corruption should be eliminated at once. This expectation has coexisted side-by-side with the factual situation that the commission is a young institution, only set up three years ago…" That, Kacc for which we’ve given our sweat and blood, even as the northerners starve because we believe is a worthy investment in terms of future savings, is just but a toothless baby! Kacc needs culling because it never grows.

Again according Allan’s wisdom, the man who is supposed to appraise Ringera and demand results, the enemy of graft war is the Press: "While media attention and interest on matters under the mandate of the commission has been unstintingly high, there has been, in the opinion of the Advisory Board, a tendency towards disparaging the commission’s efforts rather than towards institution-building through constructive criticism.’’

The thinking is flawed, first Kacc isn’t immune to criticism, it is burning our money daily, and so like any paymaster, Kenyans expect results. The pressure on the media to execute its watchdog duties is as much as their demand on Kacc to hang one thief in public.

Again, it is like the media didn’t blow the cover on Anglo leasing-type cases, forcing resignations of ministers and even goading Ringera to begin talking about it.

What has Mzee Allan got to say of the fact that Kenyans today have for a Vice- President a man under whose nose the scandalous Anglo Leasing passport contracts blossomed? Do the media and citizens have the power to force him to step aside until he’s cleared?

It’s clear from his lamentations that the board too, is hamstrung, so it is not just Justice Ringera holding the wrong end of the stick.

In the opening pages, Ringera plays his favourite disc. "On the functions of the commission, it is worth mentioning that it is often forgotten, or overlooked that the commission has no powers to prosecute criminal offences whether corruption, economic crime or anything else…"

So when he pushes files to Wako, the national prosecutor, he finds "gaps" and the papers are back to Ringera, meanwhile time ticks. Are we missing something here? Sad thing you can’t fire any of them even if their contracts lack the lines "Life AG" and "Life Kacc director".

Like PLO Lumumba would argue, Allan and Aaron are chasing mosquitoes with a hammer. With Ngugi’s board, Kacc is but a giant standing on a mosquito’s feet. The circus is bound to continue, Kenyans will then be taught lessons, on patience by Ringera, even as the dragon he vowed he would slay, continues snorting and running amok.

The media will remain the punching bag, and the political exigencies of the time will reign supreme.

Now that ODM-Kenya is about to hit the road, after Ramadhan’s lull, you are bound to hear fresh declarations the war is on and there will be no sacred cows. But Ringera argues he’s an achiever - there are 190 corruption cases before courts today. Much as he dislikes it, the majority must be "small fishes" squirming in the frying pan as the high and mighty read the 450 demand notices he has sent, as they conceal their tracks. But even then court cases are nothing until they are determined, and what Kenyans want are statistics on convictions, not "cases on various stages of hearing.’’ They’ve heard that song for far too long. May be courts are slow, or the corrupt can buy the best lawyers in town, but surely a watertight investigation file is a conviction unto itself. Not many "big fishes" can wriggle out of its nets and fangs.

Ringera’s idea of war-plan: public sensitisation through sponsorship of agricultural shows, preaching missions to public servants and evangelic meetings in the villages! In the report he again declares: corruption is an international plague and affliction.

This race is indeed getting hilarious, when you think it has ended, it begins!

Reject MPs who can't deliver

By EVANS KIBET TUBEI, Nakuru.
Publication Date: 10/27/2006

Since the restoration of multiparty governance in the run-up to the 1991 elections, the country has been thrown into disarray by politicians. These are mostly people who do not care about the national interest, but are only keen on gaining power for their own selfish ends.

We do not need mere politicians, but leaders who will guide the nation towards achieving the goal of better improved living standards of all Kenyans. We want a leadership that will deliver reforms and much-needed solutions to problems facing us today.

With the entire world focused on meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), where will Kenya be when the designated time comes as most of our time is being consumed by political bickering and confusion?

For how long are we going to swallow empty promises and many words that add up to nothing? Kenyans are like sheep lost in the wilderness while the shepherds are indulging in the drink of selfish pursuits.

The politicians enjoy playing their dirty games at the expense of needy Kenyans. But instead of going for new people with fresh ideas, we have continued to recycle redundant politicians.
We know all their tactics so much that we can even tell how they are going to react under any given circumstance yet we continue to re-elect them. We even know that they are lying or playing with our minds but we still vote for them.

How many of our so-called leaders convene meetings in their respective constituencies to address issues affecting their people? Your answer is as good as mine, very few. We, the voters, must get serious about taking Kenya to the next level of prosperity and socio-economic and political maturity.

The clock is ticking away to the next General Election, with the MPs busy spreading propaganda to confuse the people as they have always done. Parties have merged to form coalitions which they claim will bring about the desired results. They appear to forget that we have been there and we have seen it all. It is the same old song and we truly know the results.

These are the same politicians who have led us into socio-economic ruin. We, the voters must stick to our guns until we achieve our goals.

Elections are coming and we should be ready to pass the verdict as we have gauged the MPs over the past four years. It is the voters' right to be served well by the MPs, hence the need to choose wisely.

These leaders can't bring change

Story by MAKAU MUTUA
Publication Date: 10/27/2006

If Martians landed on Kenya, they would be forgiven for thinking that we are a nation of lunatics. The reason is simple enough: how does a country of 30 million, largely honest and hardworking citizens, permit itself to be taken hostage by a few kleptocrats?
Of these, about a dozen seem to consume all the nation's oxygen. Kenyans must show their greatness and reject these plutocrats by anointing an alternative leadership - a real third force to take over the state in 2007.

I know that my compatriots are starved of world-class leadership. For the last four decades, Kenya has been an unforgiving graveyard for progressive, patriotic leaders. Instead, our political culture tends to produce a retarded political class.

Unfortunately, this political class has shown remarkable resiliency and capacity to reproduce itself, either through genealogy or sycophantic mentorship. Political barons who have looted the country survive on passing the mantle to their children or handpicked proteges.
Political parties

Like maggots, these cabals sit on every lever of power in Kenya. They sit astride all key sectors: the private, the State, political parties, Opposition, civil society, and even religious organisations. They are a cancer gone malignant. That is why our country is dying, one cell at a time. They have suffocated the political landscape that Kenyans believe that there is no room for an alternative leadership. Even the Press reports on these tribal barons as though they were our natural leaders.

Obviously, it is to the advantage of the political class to perpetuate the myth that leadership belongs to it by right, and that there are no viable - or even possible - alternatives. As a result, every time you turn on the TV, listen to the radio, or open the newspaper, the voices and faces of the same aforementioned cabals greet you. Their surnames have been seared into your brain.
I need not mention them because you know them only too well, and even have nightmares about them in your dreams. Their talking heads attacking each incessantly are a fixture of your daily life. Sometimes you wish you could move to another country just to get away from them.
What is painfully obvious to any observer is that all these mandarins are nothing but self-seekers. Political gluttony is their signature. The question for those who desire to free Kenya from the dreadful clutches of these men and women is how to convince the country that there others in this country who have a vision for leadership beyond the self? Even more important, how does the national political discourse change to focus on who those alternative political leaders might be? How do we as a country jumpstart a national conservation about a fundamental change in our leadership?

My view is that it all should start with the instruments of the mass media. Rather than subject the country to a drumbeat of non-news about the empty talking of the cabals, the media ought to participate in a national project that identifies and highlights the alternative leadership. Frankly, to do otherwise is irresponsible journalism. I strongly believe that it is only the media that can save Kenya from this crisis of leadership.

Inevitably, I know that I will asked to identify those whom I think would constitute the alternative leadership. For now, I only wish to indicate the sectors from which we should look for the alternative leadership, and what criteria we should use for identifying such leadership. Once these critical questions are asked and answered, then we can fill in the blanks. To do otherwise is to put the proverbial cart before the horse. In any case, we ought first to be concerned with principles, not personalities.

I know for sure that it would wrong to look for alternative leaders in either ODM or Narc Kenya. Those are the natural lairs of the cabals that Kenyans must foreswear from national leadership. A real third force must be post-ODM and post-Narc-K. Both are vehicles that seek to keep Kenyans poor, ignorant, and marginalised. Both are composed of Kanu-era and Narc betrayers and looters. We have seen what they have done to the country.

Second, we must look for principled men and women - individuals who have always stood for the vital principles that would lead our country to a renaissance. Consistency and commitment to the ideals of social justice, democracy, reform, human rights, gender equity, nationalism, and anti-chauvinism must guide our choices.

No one who practices or invokes the imagery of tribalism or racism can qualify. Importantly, no one who has been implicated in atrocities or looting of the public purse should offer their services. Only those with clean hands can be candidates for public office. I strongly believe that there is a ton of Kenyans who fit this profile.

Third, we need to look for new leaders in every sector. It is true that good people are generally reluctant to enter the rough and tumble of politics. But this is about our national salvation. That is why we need every clean hand on deck. I would be very interested in mining the private sector for political leadership.

Many folks in the business sector have done well by playing by the rules. We must pick the best among them and ask them to join the movement for political reform. Their skills in wealth creation and corporate responsibility are solely needed in a new reformist state. We must resist the temptation to demonise all business people as corrupt or unethical.

The civil society, the professions, the academy, and the Kenyan Diaspora are obvious recruitment grounds for alternative leaders. The unsung profiles and achievements of many Kenyans in these sectors are breath taking and would cleanse our politics for generations to come. This is the only way our national salvation can be achieved. We must embark on this project right away so that come 2007 Kenyans have an alternative slate of leaders. The media must lead us in this exercise. Time is running out. We must start now.

Empty politics is the bane of our nation

By Charles Gichari Njoroge

Our politicians, both in Government and in the Opposition, have made themselves a disgrace by politicking 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Why are they in a campaign mood all the time?
In the interests of all Kenyans, they should postpone political posturing and mudsling until mid 2007. They have an obligation to develop our people and deliver them from poverty and build national unity.

Every activity has its own time and this is not time for elections but to develop our people. There is no middle ground on this. The leadership required in Kenya is one that has the capacity, the vision and will to rally the people of this great nation to a common purpose and to inspire confidence and positive action for the good of all. It must show commitment to address poverty, disease and ignorance.

We spend too much time smelling corruption in every top Government position, while this is good in principle, it is inherently important we look at the opportunity cost of this general cataloging. Many decision makers in Kenya are procrastinating for fear of being labelled, rightly or wrongly, corrupt. Life saving procurements delay due to this fear.

The implementation of the Government projects could soon stall. The media and politicians spend too much time studying the past instead of generating solutions for today and the future. We have become a nation that cherishes the past, holds it with nostalgia but procrastinates and withdraws from confronting today and tomorrow.

While the ascendancy of Narc to power in 2002 was good, it has brought a negative reaction to authority. Ours has become a society where the politicians have taught us to suspect anyone with and in authority.

There is no sense of pride in our leadership. They are all plotting on each other and with each other and making the population pawns in their selfish power games. The challenge of our time is when we shall begin to reap the fruits of a leadership that thrives in action, is visionary, has concern for the common man, and has a total commitment to leaving this country better than they found it.

Another tragedy is captured well by the Nigerian sage who says "Poverty is like heat, you have to go through it for you to understand it". Most of our leaders were born in wealth and will die in wealth. Their utterances and actions do not resonate with the common person. Instead of being our messiahs to the land of plenty, they are mere pretenders. You have to have seen and lived poverty for you to have courage to confront it.

Kenya has few politicians who get into politics because of an inner call to discover something bigger than themselves. They see a mission to empower the population, a challenge to confront the community ills, a goal to take their people to the Promised Land and a movement that draws them to the arena of success. How many of our leaders are creatively finding solutions to the current difficulties we are facing today?

For the remaining days before the General Election, Kenya shall be in a campaign carnival like never before. The challenge to us all is: For how long shall we feast on sloganeering? How many of our politicians will forget their privileges and high salaries and remember their obligations to this nation? As they politic, they are still enjoying the common man’s generosity (security detail, six figure salary, fuel allowances etc), yet they lack the passion for service.

Having kept a keen watch of Kenyan politics, my humble submission is that the current crop of politicians will not lead this country to prosperity. This country is facing a dilemma, and in this quandary, men and women of honesty, purpose, and of strong morals and conscience are lacking. Ordinary men and women need to join politics and clean it once and for all before 2007 General Elections.

Another tragedy of this country is its short memory. Because of our unique talent of forgetting the past, we will one day enable the guilty to drag the innocent before the courts and charge them with crimes that they (the guilty) had committed in the past. The corrupt will be our angels and we shall glorify them.

Finally, why do our leaders seek solace in the cocoon of their tribes when they fail a nation and its people?