No taxation, No representation

Daily Nation

By MUTAHI NGUNYI

Posted Saturday, November 29 2008 at 15:12

This is a letter to the Members of Parliament. I will be blank and to the point. Good people, you are a disgrace to our nation.

No. You have actually become a curse to the poor. Beyond your bellies and the shiny cars you drive, you have no vision.

Now you have refused to pay tax. And to support your evil scheme, you have pimped two lies. One, that you are protected by the constitution. Big fat lie!

Even the judges, who argue protection, are wrong. Like the judges, you are misinterpreting the constitution to feed your greed.

Two, that you need the money to attend to funerals and other harambees at the constituency. Zero! With CDF, we do not need your cheap money. The constituency is being supported by our taxes, not your salaries.

IN FACT, I SUSPECT THAT YOU ARE stealing from the poor through CDF. My point? You have no point. Because of your greed, you have misread the mood of the nation.

And this is why I am attending the December 12 protest rally against you. All I need to know is the time, the place and the how!

I am inspired into civil disobedience by a 1968 book entitled Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire. According to this Brazilian thinker, “…freedom is acquired by struggle, not by gift”

And those afraid of struggle, must be seen as siding with the oppressor. I want to submit to you that you have become the ‘new oppressors’.

You came to us as liberators from the Moi order. We trusted you with the change agenda and the liberation programme. But instead of bringing change, you conspired to steal from us.

This is how you increased your salaries to unimaginable figures. And we allowed you to. Now we are tired. We have realised that silence is the tool of oppression.

There is one more thing: you continue to underestimate our resolve. And on this, you are downright deluded. I want to put it to you that Kenyans are the most alert lot in Africa.

In Nigeria the Generals stole an election, the people cowed in fear. In South Africa, the party ‘thugs’ staged a palace coup against Thabo Mbeki, the people stared in disbelief. They did nothing.

In Zimbabwe, President Mugabe stole an election in broad daylight; the people whined and complained. They did nothing.

In Kenya, president Kibaki got some judge to swear him in at night; the people said “No!” In sum, our threshold for political non-sense is very low.

If you are not with the people, you are with the enemy. And on the matter at hand, the people have said “No!” No taxation, no representation!

If you will not be taxed, you cannot represent us. The question however is: are you reading the anger? Can you feel the groundswell against you as people seethe in resentment? Given your greed, I doubt it!

I have two other reasons why I will attend the December 12 rally against you. In January this year, we were at the brink of civil war. Now that some of you are on the ‘Waki List’, you have threatened a repeat.

And on this one, you have missed the point again. You want to use our young people as a human shield to protect your evil deeds.

In the meantime, you have not even resettled the IDPs and have no intentions, it seems. I will be attending the December 12 rally therefore to serve notice on two accounts.

One, if you do not style up, the next ‘civil war’ will be between us, the people, and you. That the people have no glitch with each other. Our problem is you. Two, in the past, we thought you were the change makers.

Now we know we were wrong. We know that “…change is us”. The notice to you therefore is this: if you persist in your ways, change is coming.

It might not be the tsunami you talk about, but it will come in small instalments – little by little. After all, revolutions are made from small things.

In fact, the French revolution of 1789 was about ‘ugali’. And this brings me to the second reason why I will engage in civil disobedience come December 12.

Together with the food cartels, you have formed a class of ‘pigs’ similar to the one in George Orwell’s book The Animal Farm.

And your declaration to Kenyans is this: “…All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”. Your point? The class of ‘pigs’ has a right to enjoy Sh800,000 untaxed and to exploit the poor through food and petroleum cartels.

Like in this story, you are also telling us that the ‘government of pigs’ has a right to do anything it wishes. And this is why during one of the parties, the pigs sold a horse called Boxer for a crate of whisky.

I am therefore going to the December 12 rally to say “No way!” You will not use our children as a human shield from the ‘Waki process’.

SIMILARLY, YOU WILL NOT SELL the poor to the cartels for a box of whisky or whatever they give you. I am going to this rally to protest ‘economic impunity’.

Back to Paulo Freire’s book the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he tells us that Reality=the actual + the possible. This means that the reality we want as a country can be created through the possible.

But more fundamentally that the future is not something hidden in a corner: the future is something we build in the present.

And the present in now! This is, therefore, the time to stop the evil visited upon us by your lot.

Your constituents must stand up against you and be counted. My name is Mutahi Ngunyi, Citizen Number 4855678 and I want to be counted! Hon Kabando wa Kabando, I will be on your case if you refuse to pay tax!

Mutahi Ngunyi is a political scientist with The Consulting House, a policy and security think-tank for the Great Lakes region and West Africa.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: OUR SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON YOU!!

2008 is a year many of us will not forget quickly. It is a year that began with shocking violence; when Kenyans attacked other Kenyans. Kofi Annan came to Kenya and a deal was made between Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki to share power. Our constitution was changed quickly by Parliament to accommodate the National Accord which created the office of the Prime Minister along with several commissions of inquiry.

We have had many commissions before. We are weary of non-performing commissions. Many Kenyans think commissions are a waste of public funds that could go to better use. Others think commissions are a way for friends of politicians to get well-paid jobs and for lawyers to earn astronomical sums of money at the expense of the public. Many are cynical - after all, except for those reports that recommend the increase of salaries for the high and mighty like the Cockar Commission on Members of Parliaments’ Salaries, findings of Commissions are never implemented.

Considering the great loss of life, limb and property, Kenyans expect the commissions created by the National Accord to be different. We expect their recommendations to be implemented. Too many people lost their lives - at least 1,133 according to the Waki Report. Too many Kenyans were displaced, impoverished by arson, murder and the chaos we endured. Those displaced are counted in the hundreds of thousands. So, no politicians should play politics this time round. The cost of the botched election and the post-election violence was too much. National reconciliation is necessary and the Waki Report is our best and possibly last chance to make peace with each other and face the truth squarely - there are killers amongst us and they are enjoying impunity because of their high positions and connections in society. These people must be identified and placed before the law for judgement - now. If we squander the chance, the future will be more violent, history will judge us harshly.

The Independent Review Commission (Kriegler) was created to help us understand what went so wrong with our elections that we ended up slaughtering each other. It recommended that we need a total overhaul of our electoral laws, that the Electoral Commission of Kenya needs to be changed, and made a judicial finding that the elections in 2007 were so flawed that neither Kibaki nor Raila can claim a mandate based on a free and fair victory. To avoid mayhem in future elections, we need to act now and implement the Kriegler Commission’s recommendations.

Yet, our politicians have made garbage out of the Kriegler report. Both the PNU and the ODM, the principal antagonists, thump their chests and claim victory. In doing so, such politicians ignore the core essence of the Kriegler report; that our electoral laws are so flawed that we will fight and continue fighting every time there are elections. The truth is that the current electoral laws cannot deliver a free and fair election. Judge Kriegler may have his shortcomings in diplomacy but he is right; Kenya’s electoral laws need an immediate overhaul.

The Commission of Inquiry into the Post Election Violence (Waki) had the duty of finding out what and who was responsible for the post elections violence. The commission made a report and gave a list of those implicated as the organizers and financiers of the violence to the two principals; the President and the Prime Minister; and also to Kofi Annan, the Chair of the Panel of Eminent African Persons who brokered the National Accord which stopped the violence on February 28th 2008. Within days of the reports publication on October 15th 2008, Members of Parliament started holding rallies and night meetings to condemn the findings and recommendations in the Waki Report.

Do our dead children, raped mothers and burnt homes matter that little to the politicians in PNU and ODM? Thousands of families lost all their worldly belongings when they were uprooted from their homes. Kenyans of all ethnic origins were evicted from their homes. There are Kenyans of all ethnic origins in so called internally displaced persons’ camps surviving on the charity of the few well-wishers who have resources to spare. Does no politician care about our well being?

Politicians are rubbishing the Waki report. It is, in their opinion, hearsay and rumours. They insist that those amongst them who are possibly listed as perpetrators and financiers of post election violence are being treated unfairly, in breach of the constitutional right to be heard.

They are right, our laws require a hearing before condemnation, but who heard the thousands that were killed? When the police shot dead the youth, who heard them? When the Kiambaa church was burnt, who heard the victims who died in the conflagration that started because of political incitement? When 11 members of Mr Ndege’s family were burnt alive in Naivasha, who heard them? When demonstrators were shot and gunned down like hunted animals in the slums of Kisumu, Nairobi, Naivasha, Nakuru, Mombasa and Eldoret, who heard them? Yes, it is important that every person accused of committing crimes be given a fair trial. That does not, however, mean that we look the other way when the reports point fingers at our blood-soaked political class (and more worrying business leaders).There are other commissions that were formed by the National Accord. The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) that politicians are quick to mention was included. So was the National Ethnic and Race Relations Commission (NERC). The TJRC is supposed to address historical injustices from 1963 to 2007.

The NERC is intended to address tribal issues so that we can avoid violent encounters between tribes in the future. What hope do these have of ever being formed or of working if we trash the Kriegler and Waki commission reports?

We must remind the political class that it was our children that were killed, our wives, daughters and mothers that were raped, our homes that were burnt. We will forgive, but forgiveness is ours. No one, not even the President can forgive on our behalf. We remind the politicians also that our sons and husbands have gone missing. Until their safe return to our homes there shall be no amnesty for anyone. The same razor that shaved our youth shall shave our politicians. We remind the President and the Prime Minister that they broke ranks with their party MPs to make the deal we call the National Accord. We expect them to break ranks with their party MPs if that is what it takes to bring to book the accused. Both President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga were asking for an opportunity to lead Kenyans. We are asking them to show leadership at this time and to join the people of Kenya who are demanding that justice not only be done, but be seen to be done in our country.

As if Kenyans have not suffered enough at their hands, the Kenya Police and the military are increasingly reported to be abusing the human rights of innocent citizens in Mandera, Mt. Elgon, during the Post-Election period, against the Mungiki in 2007…We have no objections to reasonable measures taken to restore peace and security. We, however, object to insecurity, violence and abuse of human rights- regardless of who is causing it- and demand that claims of such abuses by state agents, whether police or military, be investigated and stern action taken against identified perpetrators. We demand that the ongoing military operation in Mandera that has put innocent Kenyans in concentration camps where beatings and other forms of torture are reported be halted with immediate effect, and action taken against any officers guilty of torturing Kenyans.

We demand that Members of the 10th Parliament respect all the provisions of the National Accord that gives the Grand Coalition Government its legality. Selective application of the provisions of the National Accord is not acceptable. The National Accord is the Law. It is a part of our Constitution. It must be implemented in full. The recommendations of the Independent Review Commission (Kriegler) and those of the Commission of Inquiry on Post Election Violence (Waki) must be fully implemented. Those implicated in the post election violence must be dealt with decisively, without fear or favour.

We demand that the Government cut its spending for the benefit of the poorest of the poor. For example, the Kshs 1.229 billion allocated to household and press services of the three top families would be better spent on buying relief food for the millions of Kenyans who cannot afford to buy food.

Reduction of the Recurrent Expenditure of Government and an increase in spending on the alleviation of the suffering of the poorest of the poor is an urgent national priority otherwise there will be reason to call the Grand Coalition a Grand Collusion against Kenyans.

The Grand Collusion: Things you should know: Since January 2008, the cost of food and basic items has quadrupled. The cost of maize floor- the staple food for most Kenyans- has now reached the Kshs. 100 mark. Kerosene which serves as fuel for poor Kenyans has more than doubled in cost. The cost of electricity has tripled. Soap, sugar, cooking oil, fresh produce have all risen beyond the capacity of the ordinary Kenyan household. Parents have to choose between sharing pitifully small and poorly cooked meals with their starving children. Millions of adult Kenyans are now surviving on only one small meal per day.Feeding the President, Prime Minister and Vice-President: The Grand Collusion Government takes every opportunity to remind us that the rising cost of living is a global problem. Granted, there is a problem with the rising cost of food and energy worldwide. But it is also true that in the 2008-2009 budget, the starving masses of Kenyans will pay a whopping Kshs. 1.229 billions for the household and press publicity needs of the families of the top three leaders- Kibaki, Raila, and Kalonzo. Those three leaders together with their wives and children and press crew will consume from the national budget approximately 16 million USD. This is unfair and intolerable because the amount of public funds spent on the three top households is greater than is allocated for building roads (Kshs 1.2 billion). It is greater than the amount of money allocated to the Youth Enterprise Fund & Empowerment Centres (Kshs 750 million).State House household and publicity costs alone will consume more money (Kshs. 888 million) than the amount allocated to Cooperative Development and Marketing (Kshs 882 million). The Vice President’s household gobbles up more money (Kshs. 231 million) than what is allocated to Northern Kenyan and Arid Lands where Kenyans, including those in Ukambani Vice President Kalonzo’s backyard who continue to starve to death (Kshs. 228 million). Together the Prime Minister and the Vice President will get more money for their households and publicity (Kshs. 342 million) than the budget of the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development which is expected to uplift the standards of living for millions of Nairobi residents, especially the poor slum-dwellers(Kshs. 260 million).

Put bluntly, Mwai & Lucy Kibaki, Raila & Ida Odinga, Kalonzo and Pauline Musyoka - 6 people- will consume more money (Kshs 1.229 billion) than the amount of money allocated for building the Business Process Outsourcing Park which is expected to employ 10,000 Kenyans (Kshs. 900 million). 6 people have been allocated more money for food and media than a facility that will employ 10,000 Kenyans! How can this be right?

The rising cost of living is a local problem: The Grand Coalition Government is spending money that could provide food for 340,000 Kenyans on only 6 people. That’s a very local problem! It involves poor mathematics, lack of morals, gluttony, selfishness, poor planning and abuse of office and public trust. There is nothing global about the difficulties we are facing. Our problem is local. We have allowede a situation where every month Kshs 100 million is spent on 6 people and their households - that;s right Kshs 34 million per day for household services and media for 6 people! Finding Kshs. 34 million per day to feed 6 people is not a global problem. Kshs. 34 million, even at the expensive cost of Kshs. 100, is enough to give a packet of maize flour to 340,000 families every day of a 365 day year. This is what a moral Government would do.

Factories are closing down because of the increased cost of electricity. “The government cannot assist, it is “a global problem”. The cost of fuel now stands at Kshs. 100 per litre. Ironically, the government keeps urging struggling Kenyans to take action against multi-national oil companies to demand a price reduction. The government conveniently forgets to tell Kenyans that for every Kshs. 100 spent on fuel, the government collects Kshs. 47 through different taxes. There is nothing global about the Kenya Revenue Authority collecting Kshs. 47 out of 100 from poor Kenyans, and giving it to the Government, less the KRA’s “commission (about 4% of tax), which spends this money on the privileged few who work for it rather than on development for the neediest! All that would be needed would be for the government to zero-rate fuel- even if just Kerosene which is used for cooking- to offer noticeable relief. At the current world prices Kerosene, when zero-rated, would cost less than Kshs. 25 per litre, while petrol would only cost Kshs. 45 per litre.There are many reports of Kenyans starving in Northern Kenya, in Eastern, Rift Valley, Coast and Central provinces. The government cannot assist, it is “a global problem”.

Poor pastoralists in Northern Kenya are watching their children and animals die because they cannot access water and pasture. Starvation results in tension between neighboring communities which have been reduced to a state of nature in which the strongest survive by forcibly taking control of viable pasture land and water resources. Instead of dealing with the root causes of resource conflicts, by providing the people with relief, the Grand Coalition Government is responding with unwarranted high-handedness and brutalizing its own citizens.

Thus we read credible media reports of entire villages being subjected to torture by security forces. Shocking reports of human rights abuses are in the public domain, compiled at public expense by respected bodies such as the Government’s own Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. Grassroot networks report also that people in these “security operation” areas are being rounded up in the wee hours of the morning and indiscriminately beaten and maimed by security forces. How is it tolerable that Jock Scott type operations are happening in Kenya in the year 2008, and particulalry in view of Agenda One of the National Accord?

The Kshs. 1.229 billion we are spending on the households and vanity of a few is enough to drill more than 2,450 boreholes in arid areas at a cost Kshs. 500,000 per borehole. If the military were mobilised to drill the boreholes instead of beating starving Kenyans, the amount may be enough to offer a permanent solution to the water and pasture problems that cause fights to erupt in the arid areas. Better off Kenyans, who do not live in the arid lands, have remained silent on these matters - but for how much longer will we be silent? Perhaps they will speak when their turn for abuse comes?

While insisting that it understands the difficulties facing Kenyans the government has allowed local authorities across Kenya to double the cost of vehicle parking fees in major towns. Effectively that translates to an increase in the cost of travel for all commuting Kenyans since the government offers no parking for public transport vehicles. An increase in daily parking fees will affect the poorest commuters most as travel fares increase. You will walk to work or to look for work. Announcing the increase Mudavadi, a Deputy Prime Minister in the Grand Coalition Government who no doubt has the best possible official transportation, said that the increase was made necessary by a need to raise local authority revenues and the fact that, in his opinion, Kenyans have a lot of money. Most local authorities have formed the habit of stealing all cash revenues and this is documented by the Ministry of Local Government. So how can it be government policy to ignore local authority corruption in allowing them to “hit” the commuters for more cash for their bottomless pit of councillors’ allowances and perks? Deputy Prime Minister Mudavadi needs to do some soul searching on this one, and consider the macro-economic effect of his casual statements of alleged facts.

There is grand corruption in the Grand Collusion Government - just read the papers. Public assets are being disposed off with wanton negligence, and sometimes in contempt of Parliament, and in breach of Kenyan privatization and disposal of public assets laws. Hotels worth billions are being sold for a song. Our railway services were given to a company which has never given a single cent to the Treasury. Why we ever required to partner with this failing investor is a mystery. Today, Kenya Railways generates paper profits, but when it ran the only railway we have (Mombasa to Kisumu with a few branch lines into central Kenya and rift valley) iot was a cash cow for politically correct looters who stole its workers’ pensions, sold its tracks for scrap, and grabbed its physical assets including prime land in urban areas. Since Independence 45 years ago the Railway Corporation sucked up billions of public funds and yet it never invested in adding a single inch of railway track - yet during the same period the Kenyan Government has borrowed and repaid international creditors over Kshs 11.5 billion! Transport empires were built as the railway ceased to transport human and other cargo. The losses reported at Kenya Railways were political. Politicians created the impression of losses so that they could pillage without sanction. Grand corruption meant that Kenya Railways which was generating billions each year was given away for free. Pensioners of the railway service have now been left fighting for pensions with poorer Kenyans who live in squalid Kenya Railways stables without decent water and sewer service. Meanwhile, the Grand Coalition Government promises action that is never taken.

In January 2008, the ODM leadership convinced thousands of Kenyans and the international community that the judicial system was so flawed that they could not file a petition to challenge the results of the presidential elections at the High Court in Kenya. On their instigation poor Kenyans took to mass action organizing sustained protests. Others took to violence against ordinary Kenyans for a myriad of reasons (both inducements and incitements). When asked to request the violent protestors to cease hostilities, the Prime Minister replied on several occasions that he could not ask Kenyans to stop the violent protests; they were only exercising their democratic rights - after all, the courts in Kenya couldn’t be trusted to settle the dispute.

We are concerned that 75 ODM Members of Parliament have resolved to unanimously reject the results of the Waki Commission which include a recommendation that those (politicians) suspected of masterminding the wanton carnage and destruction of property early this year be tried by a tribunal to be created in Kenya for that purpose or, failing that, to be tried at the International Criminal Court at the Hague. Reports were that the decision by the ODM MPs was unanimous which would suggest that, contrary to reports in the media to the contrary, the Prime Minister is included among the ODM politicians who seem to have found new confidence in the judicial system. If the judicial system in Kenya was too flawed for the ODM to file election petitions how, pray tell, is such a flawed system expected to offer justice in cases where the rich, powerful and mighty are accused of crimes against humanity? Have the ODM’s general membership even been consulted on this policy of disobedience to the National Accord?

In an attempt to catch up with the ODM brotherhood, PNU politicians hurriedly met to discuss the Waki report. They, too, found it wanting. Some in their ranks are rumoured to be included in the list of the financiers and organisers of the violence. Urgent action was needed to protect their own. A few months ago, gangs of PNU politicians ran helter skelter around the country insisting that the youths that were arrested for taking part in the violence should not be pardoned. During this year’s labour day speech, the President said that those asking for amnesty for the youth must be insane. When the PNU golden boys are on the chopping block, the President suddenly wants Kenyans to be more forgiving. Hogwash.

What can you do to change the tide?

Send/give this message to as many people as possible.

Demand the full implementation of the National Accord including the Kriegler and Waki commission reports

Participate in non-violent actions (prayers, processions, demonstrations,wear a white ribbon etc)
Communicate your discontent to your MP, political party, the President and the Prime Minister.
Read more to understand what the politicians are doing, and teach others.

The Partnership for Change is an initiative of the Kenya Network of Grassroots Organizations (KENGO) and the Mars Group Kenya.

Visit our websites for more information:
www.kengonetwork.org
www.marsgroupkenya.org
KENGO: a consortium of recognized active and registered development groups comprising of self-help groups, welfare groups, community based organizations, clubs, churches, trade unions, NGOs and social movements based and operating in Kenya. With more than 2,000 member organizations, KENGO is established in 7 provinces in Kenya, and in the places where the poorest of the poor are.

Mars Group Kenya: a leadership, governance, accountability and media watchdog organization. It is an Internet based organization that monitors and tracks all public institutions and offices. With over 1.6 terabytes of information on its websites, Mars Group Kenya documents and disseminates information for evidence-based-bottom-up-advocacy and support to civil society.

It has over 7,700 registered subscribers who include individuals in government, the private sector, civil society, media, academia and the international community.

POLITICIANS THE PROBLEM BUT KENYANS ARE ALSO TO BLAME

By : Charles Ombima: Eldoret, Kenya.
Email : charlesombima@gmail.com or charlesombima@yahoo.com
Website : charlesombima.blogspot.com

When we voted overwhelmingly for National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) in 2002, we thought we had finally liberated ourselves from the vices of endemic corruption, insecurity, tribalism and persistent poverty that brought this country to its knees in the past. The expectations were phenomenal, may be unrealistic because the irate inaugural speech during the swearing in at Uhuru Park persuaded Kenyans to believe that they had seen an end to years of misrule and ineptitude.

Pledges were made; and we were promised sweeping reforms as follows:

• A new Constitution within 100 days of ascending to power and accelerate reforms;

• Run a lean, professional and corruption-free government;

• Exercise zero-tolerance to corruption, right from the top;

• Attain annual economic growth rate of at least six per cent per annum;

• Provide free primary education for all children;

• Provide quality, affordable and accessible healthcare;

• Respect, uphold and protect civil liberties and press freedom;

• Maintain unfaltering fidelity to the rule of law, and protect integrity of the Constitution;

• Guarantee and ensure the security of every Kenyan;

• Exercise utmost fiscal discipline by reining in on extravagance;

• Nurture constitutional democracy as the central unifying public philosophy for the people of Kenya by promoting good governance;

• Ensure transitional justice by holding past perpetrators of injustices against the people of Kenya accountable for their actions;

• Construct 150,000 low-cost housing units per annum;

• Create 500,000 jobs per annum;

• Transform Kenya into a competitive environment for investment; and

• Ensure equitable and fair distribution of national resources.

We were also told that, “We had embarked on a journey to a promising future with unbwogable determination.” we monotonously resonated in song and dance, chanting, ‘yote yawezekana bila Moi’.

But no sooner had the celebratory dust began to settle than we started to experience a choking episode from the settling dust. What could have happened? I guess your answer is as good as mine: nobody seems to know and it is now clear the government has no real intention of nailing corruption. It is rather bent upon burying the evidence, perpetuating graft and the culture of impunity, which renders that maiden address a sheer mockery to the people of Kenya.

As we continue to regret bitterly about the mistakes of the 2002 general election, another electioneering time is just around the corner. Politicians are emerging from their hibernation, flocking towns and villages confusing the gullible electorate to secure their re-election. With over ten declared presidential candidates, politics is at boiling point!

Leaders are oscillating from one party to another looking for the highest bidder and in the course of all this; we are witnessing politics of rage between the incumbent government and the opposition. Their campaigns are characterized by disreputable personal attacks rather than issues affecting the majority of Kenyans; they engage in politics of slander, mudslinging and other irrelevant issues that could only help them win the elections. There is concern that the status quo of the Kenyan power politics will prevail, at least, for a while, and unless there is divine intervention, we are surely headed for a tragedy!

The promise of the second liberation has become a contentious nightmare. The Government seems to be efficient in rewarding sycophancy, subverting the opposition and strangling integrity. The Opposition is excelling in only coveting the presidency.

It was once said, that politics is quite a game where there are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends, only permanent interests. With corruption suspects straddling both sides of the political divide, it is clear Kenyans are not about to see an end to their predicament. We have been held to ransom by a network of tribal and corrupt leaders who use their wealth to dominate politics.

Most of the current and past leaders, to say the least, are direct beneficiaries of the grand corruption of the past years. They grew up in an era when grabbing everything in sight was the order of the day! The good and the loyal politicians were rewarded with goodies including public toilets and rubbish dumps. They are the same people who looted with impunity in the past but today are pretending to shout from roof tops having turned themselves into champions of our rights.

We are being treated to blatant pretense by politicians in our quest to find a new constitution ahead of this year’s general elections. The work of the constitutional review committee was one of the icons of hope for reforms. The review committee had clearly articulated goals and willingness to listen to ideas not often expressed by the Kenyan political class. The review team seemed to be on track to serve, at least, as a pillar of necessary reforms.

There was the constitution melee! Competing constitutions were brought forth for debate such as the Bomas draft, Wako draft, Kilifi draft, Naivasha accord among many others. The whole review process soon turned into a blame game! It all started with suspicion of how the Bomas delegates list was stacked; then followed the short-term expediencies by the political class and belatedly the irrational paranoia among the delegates. One side painted the other as hypocritical and tribal while the other accused opponents as insincere and power hungry lot et cetera.

The process was incurably and fatally flawed. The unprecedented referendum campaigns and the toxic rivalry between the Banana and Orange factions was enough testimony of how the politicians wanted to scuttle the process by all means. It was bound to fail! And the failure happened with the referendum of November last year.

Honestly speaking, the draft constitution that the Kenyans rejected was a far much better constitution than the current one; but it was rejected because people perceived some sort of abrasiveness in the manner which their voices and concerns were ignored.

Thus continues the campaign of deceit, anti-reform, hateful lies and propaganda! Our political class has now shifted their demands; one camp is pushing for minimum reforms while the other is pressing for comprehensive reforms. The only problem is that on both sides of the political divide lie reactionaries who have age-old anti-reform credentials.

The mistrust and suspicion that culminated in the defeat of the process has persistently dogged every attempt to jumpstart the constitutional review process. An effort to restart the constitutional process has yet again collapsed; the talks were rudely shattered on Thursday, 16th November 2006.

It was clear from the beginning that all parties involved – both government and opposition – did not come to the round table cross-party negotiations with clean hearts and open hands. Once again, selfish partisan considerations prevailed, and one group walked away.

What is most disappointing is that false hopes were raised when the latest talks were convened under inter-parties committee – that eventually became to be known as Multi-Sectoral Review Forum. The talk about minimum and comprehensive reforms gave the impression that we are making progress and assumed that all parties had learnt a big lesson from the previous failures to write a new constitution, particularly the outcome of the referendum.

But be it as it may, the elaborate controversy between the political elite involved in the constitution making is a ridiculous farce on the people of Kenya. This poisonous clique seems to read from the same script with the devil and is in agony to suffocate the Kenyans demands for a new constitution. It does not matter how much fault they want to find with one another and /or how much they want to blame one another – there is only one danger - we run the risk of losing the future!

We badly need constitutional reforms that will place institutions above individuals, and a dispensation, that provides checks and balances in our system of governance. For example, the presidency in this country has never been perceived as a national institution. It belongs to the ‘ruling community’ who arrogate themselves the right to determine how the national cake should be distributed. And indeed, history has it that they end up with most it!

As we wallow in despair, we seem to have a permanent political class whose only fear is loss of power and domination. They are in a state of convulsion and united in their cause against the divided majority of Kenyans. They are determined to remain in power just to protect their wealth using all means at their disposal. Some of them have been around for too long and this is probably the reason why attempts to free the country of corruption has met such a strong resistance.

Politics is also said to be regenerative and vegetative and it has a tendency of attracting its kind! The political class has shown remarkable ability and capacity to reproduce itself, either through successive generation of lineage or sycophantic mentorship. As things stands now, we are falling over ourselves looking among the same elite for a better shepherd to lead us into prosperity.

The end of our misgivings seems far from sight, given the Kenyans worrisome response to emerging political groupings. It is no wonder familiar problems have persisted for years. Things have also remained the same, election after election – and in a surprising way, with a few exceptions, we elect the same people. I don’t understand how we expect to achieve the changes we dream for by electing the same leaders time and again.

We know better, but we don’t want to change things! Our poor scrutiny of leader’s track records explains the buffoonery that is our political leadership. We employ selfish and lopsided parameters to pick leaders and that is why we have ended up with charlatans, torturers and looters in the management of sensitive institutions and public resources.

We are actually perfecting the culture of rejecting one group of leaders and replacing them with re-packaged leaders of the past years. Ask them what they would do for this country if they attain power and the answer will be twisted - out of any semblance with reality - Hawana mpango! Hawana plan, as the kids would say in sheng.

The capacity of Kenyans to express their anger on those things that really matter is simply non-existent. Most Kenyans are like the proverbial Ostrich who when faced with a forest fire prefers to bury its head in the sand hoping that the fire will just go away. We seem to have resigned to fate by imagining that the anti-progress and static leaders would just go away. We are firmly in their grip! We have given ourselves to be held hostage while we watch mournfully!

Regrettably, we are grappling with extreme levels of corruption, unemployment, landlessness, marginalization, tribalism and inequality among many other ills. We have offered politicians a chance to balkanize us into tribal groupings; we have also allowed ourselves to be robbed, oppressed and exploited. No wonder they can appoint their spouses, mistresses, kinsmen and protégés to rewarding jobs instead of the relatively well-educated and knowledgeable – the most competent among us.

The trouble is that the public opinion is often ignorant, confused and contradictory. We must stop crying and cursing! We are to blame for vacillation and contradiction. Sometimes we don’t even know what we want or the kind of leaders we are looking for. We need to examine ourselves and ask the question: are we part of the problem that has persistently haunted Kenya for years?

Recently, it was reported that Kamlesh Mansukh Pattni has launched a political party intended to be the ultimate saviour of Kenyans from their current misery. And just in case Kenyans have forgotten, the re-invented Pattni is the person who admitted that he created Goldenberg in order to catapult Kenya into the realm of middle-income countries.

In his own warped sense of values, he succeeded in creating a fair number of millionaires, but in the process, did much damage to this country. Recall the facts of this sordid tragedy? Kenya suffered a severe foreign currency shortage due to the suppression of financial support by our foreign masters. The long and short of it is that, the utter devastation caused by this scandal can only be comparable to a nuclear explosion hitting the entire country – and we are living with its collateral damage up to this day.

Far worse than those manifestations, the dreadful outcome is the severely dented national psyche that has pervaded the Kenyan society. What does one have to say of the fact that we have a Vice-president - a man under whose nose the scandalous Anglo-leasing passport contracts blossomed? Many other dignitaries have also been subjected to investigation in scams of some sort but have continued to sit pretty on their perch even if we shout ourselves silly for their removal.

Instead of letting the law take its course, they run to their communities seeking protection for their crimes. They pretentiously influence the community’s supportive solidarity to blow their opponents away. The community - with all the childlike innocence - circles to defend them and continually works to cover their tracks. They would shamelessly and arrogantly dismiss their pursuers as tribalistic and witch-hunters. Then to prove those who are witch-hunting wrong, the community would vote the corrupt leader back to power.

Our leaders have on the other hand taken such ethnic support as “shields” and have continued do things with impunity. They perpetuate corruption by treating it as a top secret with clandestine like intelligence operations. They also manipulate the economy and the justice system. They can trample on wananchi and get away with it using the systems they control - systems they have perfected in protecting and mystifying themselves to frighten us.

I beg to ask the question: do we have the capacity to compel this corrupt lot to step down to allow investigation into their deeds? May be not! Ask the good son of Kenya Mr. John Githongo who gallantly tried to expose the high-level corruption in the government. He collated his evidence diligently, documented it and presented it to his boss for direction only to be met with some loud silence.

While it remains an undisputable fact that government ministers signed contracts with non-existent companies worth some Ksh. 50 billion mostly for the supply of non-existent goods and services, a statement by the director of the Kenya Anti-corruption Authority exonerated two senior government officials and a former finance minister of any wrong-doing amid condemnation from a cross section of Kenyans.

And that is about as far as it went! We are back to business as usual; the business of despicable pettiness, corruption, patronage, tribalism, cronyism and politics of isolation.

We have unsuccessfully seen several commissions of inquiries being constituted in times of crisis to unearth the truths about Political murders, Land & Tribal clashes, Goldenberg Scandal, Anglo-Leasing scams, the questionable Artur brothers’ saga. Other scams such as charterhouse scam, Kenya Reinsurance scam and safaricom share holding mystery are yet to be resolved. Millions of shillings have been drawn from public coffers to pay persons appointed to carry out the investigations, but all this has gone to waste because the findings of those commissions have either never seen the light of the day or has been subjected to judicial review.

I believe with all my being that, commissions of inquiries are never meant to get to the bottom of anything. The idea is to be seen to be doing something while time passes so that people can forget about the thorny issue at hand. This is the reason why we have never been given any feedback on the findings of these investigations. We have been treated to the same old song that, “No stone shall be left unturned”, yet, “No stone has ever been turned!”

As of now, something has clearly gone a miss! Our country seems to be descending into a haven of criminals, lawlessness, and widespread fear. From land clashes in Mt. Elgon, Molo, Tana River, Mungiki, carjackings and kidnappings. It is becoming apparent that we are living in a state of fear.

The story of Mungiki gang that finds perverse pleasure in beheading and dismembering its victims has been gradual, but a deadly transformation. The sect was allowed to arm itself, operate cells across the country and more recently stake claim in businesses under the guise of ‘protection fee’

The sect faults some politicians in the former and the current governments over breach of agreement and their message is crystal clear: It is pay back time. This flirting with the Mungiki by our politicians is unforgivable and brings out the worst of what our leaders are capable of doing with the lives of the electorate.

Before colonialists arrived, different communities lived in designated areas. The pastoralists settled in areas where they could access water and grass for their livestock. People were displaced from their land and herded into the so called native trust lands.

When our post-colonial masters took over power, they made the problem worse by grabbing the same lands, ‘legally they say’, which they dispensed freely to political cronies who already owned land elsewhere. This has now boiled down to land fragmentation, disparities in land ownership, landlessness and increased conflicts. The landless and the pastoralists have been reduced to criminals to be kept away at all costs!

There has also been a deliberate effort in recent times to release positive economic growth figures. The propaganda of the 6.1 per cent economic growth (even if the figure is correct) does not take into account the population increase. Over 57 per cent of Kenyans are living in a vicious cycle of abject poverty – while a very small clique of about 10 per cent control over 42 per cent of the country’s wealth.

They claim that it has come forth due to leaders’ tireless efforts, considering that they have, since gaining power, increased their personal wealth by a much larger margin – some perhaps by more than 100 per cent. It is obvious that the 2030 vision of 10 percent annual economic growth would not help Kenyans if the boom will end up in the hands of the ruling class.

I have to take a swipe at our churches for taking a devious position on matters of national importance. They have forsaken the electorate; they have let Kenyans walk on their own in such delicate, dangerous and competitive politics. The church has a fundamental role to play in ensuring a favourable political destiny for the people of Kenya.

In the Old Testament Daniel, Amos and other men of God spoke on political and social matters in Israel, Judea and the surrounding nations. Both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ spoke on political concerns of their day. In both cases, God’s representatives spoke out against abuse of political power and also sought for just use of power.

The church needs to continue engaging the government on matters of justice, corruption, leadership policies and other matters of moral importance. The church has to observe that politics is a religious matter because it is a moral performance which is about the strengthening of values that determine how people govern themselves and /or exercise power given to them by the people.

We must realize that the fight against these injustices will only bear fruits if we elect good leaders. We want leaders who will inspire, foster collaboration, turn vision into action and make public commitments that could form the yardstick for evaluating their performance once in public office.

Kenyans are hard-pressed on every side but have a unique talent of forgetting the past. We must take a long hard look at the political landscape and become wise to save this country from sinking further into hopelessness. We must be careful in the way we choose our leaders by avoiding euphoria based declarations, politics of emotions and diversionary promises. And anyone who would claim the leadership of this land must understand that we have had enough of this insincere politics.

We desire for issue oriented politics, honour in the conduct of politics and a concrete plan of action that will lead us out of the morass of 43 years of corruption, tribalism and poverty. We should send greedy leaders packing and demand that anyone who aspires to become a leader in this land should tell us why we must elect them!

The past may be well beyond us, but the future is still in our power. We have another opportunity to change the destiny of this country. We need a contingency plan that will not only restore our national integrity, but reform the political thinking and practice. According to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who once said, and I quote, “we are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. We must move past indecision to action. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”

In a way, I am also agreeing with James Russell Lowell who eloquently stated:

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth and falsehood, for the good or evil side; some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or bright, and the choice goes by forever.

Just as war is too good to be left to soldiers, so is politics too important to be left to politicians. I believe this struggle is not in vain because the reward for our toil is not what we will get for it, but what we will become by it. Kenyans have proved once before that you can push them only so far and, should not be taken for granted ever again!

I will be launching a progressive people’s forum called SAUTI YA MKENYA with the motto ‘MKENYA AJIKOMBOE’ and I will be convening meetings in the near future to enlighten our fellow Kenyans more on this.

Remember the vision that you glorify in your mind, the ideal that you enthrone in your heart; this you will build your life by and this you will become. MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL!