Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
A fisherman is recuperating at the New Nyanza General Hospital, Kisumu after he was attacked by a ferocious crocodile while fishing in Lake Victoria.
The incident occurred at Omia Mwalo village in Central Asembo Location, Rarieda Constituency, Rarieda district within Bondo County.
Maurice Ouma Omire had gone fishing along the lake’s shoreline when the reptile struck and tried to drag him away deep into the lake. His colleague braved the attack and hit the crocodiles head repeatedly until the animal disentangled from the jaws of the animal. The victim sustained injuries - - a badly devoured and damaged leg. The cases of wild animals attacking and even killing residents along the shoreline of Lake Victoria are on alarming increase. On the neighboring Rusinga Island, there is a record of attack by Hippos reported of having killed five people within the last two years.
Experts say the Hippo have become more wild and ferocious following the disappearance of green pasture which they usually feeds on.
There have been numerous reports whereby Hippo have attacked domesticated animals and even killed cows along River Kuja, which is the natural boundary between Ndhiwa and Uriri constituency.
An Assistant minister for Internal Security Joshua Orwa Ojode, is amongst the victims. He had lost two cows killed by crocodile when his herds of cattle ware taken for watering in Kuja River. The river traverses the MP’s farm and it is only a kilometer from his Unga village home in East Kanyamwa/South Kabuoch location boundaries.
Coun, Adongo of East Asembo called upon the government and KWS officials to combat the area and to ensure that hippos and crocodiles are driven away. A clause in the Kenya Wildlife Services Act stipulates that any citizen attacked, injured or killed by wild animal is entitled for compensation But in another not related incident, two young boys who were early this month attacked and injured by crocodile in Mwingi district, will not be paid compensation, and the KWS official argued that the boys had stayed into a game reserved conservancy area.
The two boys aged, between 16 and six years old, were savagely attacked by a killer crocodile while watering their goats in a place called Ikome. The boys, two brothers had strayed into the crocodile infested Tana River two weeks ago. The newspaper have quoted the KWS officer in-charge of the Mwingi North district Mr Fredrick Owino said that the boys had broken the law by venturing deep into the game park, a restricted areas.
Owino who previously was in-charge of KWS station in Tseikuru said the attack happened in a restricted area thereby denying the victim of any compensation payment.
The government, he said, cannot pay compensation to people who encroached deep into the game reserves. He cited a man who in 2009 was killed by a Jumbo {Elephant} in the same area was never paid compensation.
“This is a clear case, that anyone who ventured into game animals infested areas and get injured or killed are considered as the offender and therefore deserves no compensation payment.
The two brothers were Mwangani Mtunga 15 and his younger brother Mutia. They miraculously escaped at the jaws of a ferocious killer crocodile and were hospitalized for two weeks. Their father had already lodged a letter seeking compensation for his school going sons. The incident occurred on April 9, 2011. Mutunga is a standard two pupils at Ikome Primary School, while his younger brother is attending a nearby nursery school.
Ends
From: WanYanhai
By Kate Krauss
Just before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, a group of young Chinese activists was evacuated to the United States for safety reasons. Chinese officials were harassing and detaining people they thought might embarrass them during the Olympics. Three of the activists flew to Philadelphia that summer and slept on mattresses on my dining room floor.
Ironically, they brought Olympic souvenir chopsticks as gifts. “We’re not against the Olympics; they are a great thing for China,” one of them said very seriously. “We’re against the oppression by the government.”
One of my guests in particular was especially excited about visiting America. Chang Kun, an AIDS activist and online organizer, was thrilled to see Philadelphia, try American food, meet American girls and exchange ideas with other activists.
Chang has a giant online following. He writes with exclamation points and pure outrage. His visit to the United States made a deep impression; he was moved by what he described as an atmosphere of freedom, tolerance and cultural exchange. When he returned home to Anhui province in eastern China, he established the AIBO Youth Center, a small community organization with a free library and free Internet access, a place where young people could learn about the wider world.
Recently, during a conference at the youth center, in front of scores of activists, thugs broke into the room where Chang was speaking, knocked him from the podium and beat him severely. Police did nothing to stop the assault, which left him hospitalized. He is slowly recovering.
I wish I could say I was surprised. But after working with Chinese activists for nine years, I recognize the government’s treatment of Chang Kun as routine. In fact, China deploys human rights abuses on a massive scale — beatings, torture and imprisonment of activists and critics, broad censorship of the news, and the increasingly effective blocking of independent channels of communication. These are not mistakes or areas for improvement; they are the fundamentals of the government’s power. Negotiating for small concessions on rights cannot change this equation.
In 2009 and 2010, in response to an uprising by Muslims facing harsh discrimination, the government cut off Internet access to the vast Xinjiang region for 10 months. Now it is slowly strangling the Internet for everyone in China, blocking access to Web sites it can’t control and intensifying online surveillance.
The human cost of this repression is steep. In recent months, Chinese security forces have detained scores of activists, reportedly tortured to death three Falun Gong members, publicly arrested the architect-activist Ai Weiwei (who, ironically, designed the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing), detained hundreds of Christian worshippers (while they prayed) and even broke up their Easter Sunday service.
The State Department, which is holding an annual human rights dialogue with China this week, recently released a report that describes “black jails” throughout China where activists, their families and others who oppose the government are punished. Many detainees are beaten and tortured.
Chinese leaders have been in power so long that we may forget that no one elected them. Their regime is no more legitimate than those of Libya or Yemen. If elections were held tomorrow, the leaders might all be swept away. But there are no elections on the horizon. For decades, the U.S. government has aided the regime by supporting China’s economic aspirations, including permanent normalized trade relations, which have allowed it to reap huge profits — enriching the Central Committee and the unelected elite.
Many observers believe that China is becoming an economic powerhouse that has no intention of becoming a democracy. In 20 years, China may be emboldened even further to violently repress its own people.
Given this record, at what point do we stop seeing China as a flawed but dynamic nation on the road to democracy and start seeing the Chinese government as a violent, destabilizing, and autocratic regime on the order of, say, Iran?
Where do we, the American people, draw the line?
We have to stop deluding ourselves. China is governed by a violently repressive regime. And the United States, through its economic policies, is helping it stay that way.
The writer is executive director of the AIDS Policy Project and has organized campaigns for the release of detained health rights activists in China.
By Our Reporter
The late journalist Alphayo Otieno will finally be buried on Saturday 7th May 2011 at Kalwande Village Karapul Sub Location in Siaya District.
According to the late Otieno's friend and journalist Agwanda Saye, the body will leave New Nyanza Provincial Hospital on 6th then the body will be viewed at his Upper Migosi Residence before the body heads to his rural the same day.
Agwanda added that there are tow burial committees in Kisumu with the late Otieno's processional colleagues meeting at Hilbrew Hotel situated at Jommo Kenyatta Grounds while his friends will be meeting at Ofafa Bar situated along Kisumu -Kakamega town.
"All those who were Alphayo's friends and colleagues should see where they would wish to go and make their contributions" Agwanda added.
Meanwhile condolences messages continues to stream in in regard to the late Otieno's death,Nairobi Businessman Tom Alwaka,Kisumu Advocate David Otieno Njer,East Africa Law Society of Kenya Vice President James Aggrey Mwamu,Kisumu businessm and Peter Opondo "Tausi",the proprietor of Vic Hotel and The VIC Hotel and Mon Ami Nirman Dabba have all condoled with the late Otieno's family that the family had lost a man worth not loosing.
Former Marie Stopes County Director Cyprian Otieno Awiti,Kisumu Town MP Shakeel Shabbir ,leading Kisumu Insurance Broker Robert Otuge Oruko and Unionists Ishmael Nooh Ooro and Francis Bushuru Wangara have also sent messages of condolences to the late Otieno's family.
Media Consultant Kwendo Opanga condoled the family that Otieno wasa happy chap who really enjoyed what he used to do.
"He would antagonize you and still come back to you remorsefully and he was determined in all that he used to do, he used to call me "Opash","Kwendo added.
Mr.Rafiq Dhanji the Director of JRS Security Services said that Otieno used to leave with his words while his Robinson Security Services Provider Jim Joe Chege said he had lost afriend.
The late also was a contributor to leading online publications i.e."Jaluo.Com","Majimbokenya" amongst others died after ailing while undergoing treatment at the Victoria Hospital where he died last Friday,he leaves behind two wives and five children.
ENDS
Forwarded by: Yona Maro
Esther Duflo grew up in France pitying Kolkata’s poor, based on what she had read in a comic book about Mother Teresa. Abhijit Banerjee grew up in Kolkata envying them: poor kids always had time to play and they routinely beat him at marbles. As economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both remain fascinated by poverty. In an engrossing new book they draw on some intrepid research and a store of personal anecdotes to illuminate the lives of the 865m people who, at the last count, live on less than $0.99 a day.
The two economists made their names (and remade their discipline) by championing randomised trials. These trials test anti-poverty remedies much as pharmaceutical firms test drugs. One group gets the remedy, another does not. The two groups are chosen at random, so the remedy should be the only systematic difference between them. If the first group does better, the benefit can be attributed to the project and not the many other factors that might otherwise obscure the result.
These trials proved immensely appealing. They promised to sift nuggets of truth from the slurry of received wisdom and wishful thinking that characterises much aid-talk. The hope was that once a trial proved the worth of a project or programme, governments and donors would back it and prescribe it more widely.
The approach has caught on. Another book, “More Than Good Intentions” by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel of Innovations for Poverty Action is also out this month. But the approach has also attracted criticism. These trials, the critics point out, show whether a drug or remedy works, but not how it works. Even in medicine, a randomised trial can only show whether the average patient benefits; not whether any individual patient will benefit. Human physiology differs from patient to patient, so does the physiology of poverty.
“Poor Economics” should appease some of their critics. It draws on a variety of evidence, not limiting itself to the results of randomised trials, as if they are the only route to truth. And the authors’ interest is not confined to “what works”, but also to how and why it works. Indeed, Ms Duflo and Mr Banerjee, perhaps more than some of their disciples, are able theorists as well as thoroughgoing empiricists.
They are fascinated by the way the poor think and make decisions. Poor people are not stupid, but they can be misinformed or overwhelmed by circumstance, struggling to do what even they recognise is in their best interests. The authors recount (with grudging admiration) how nurses in rural Rajasthan outwitted the two professors’ efforts to stop them skiving off work. They also describe how borrowers in south India exploited a contractual loophole to avoid taking out health insurance, which their microlender insisted they buy for their own good.
The poor, like anyone else, can also succumb to inertia, procrastination and self-sabotage. The authors discovered it was quite normal for poor women in the Indian city of Hyderabad to take out a microloan charging 24% interest only to deposit it in a savings account that paid 4%. This seems mad, except that the obligation to repay the loan ensured the women did not squander the money. Farmers in western Kenya miss out on the benefits of fertiliser because, by the time the planting season arrives they have often spent their earnings from the previous harvest. But farmers far-sighted enough to buy the fertiliser straight after the harvest, when they do have money, do not sell it, despite facing all the same demands on their resources. In other words, farmers cannot save the money to buy fertiliser, but they can save the physical fertiliser itself.
Poverty is often linked in the public mind with dependency. But, as the authors point out, the poor bear more responsibility for their lives than the rich, who coast along, enjoying chlorinated water, drawing a regular salary, paid directly into a bank account, perhaps with contributions to their pension and health care automatically deducted. The rich can indulge their weakness for cigarettes and alcohol without fear of financial ruin. The poor, in contrast, have to watch every cup of sugary tea. Mr Banerjee and Ms Duflo recommend a variety of nudges, props and subsidies that will make it as easy for poor people to make the right decisions as it is already for the rich.
If it is a mistake to equate poverty and dependency, it is equally mistaken to believe the poor will lift themselves up by their bootstraps. The book crosses swords with the business gurus and philanthropists who project their own enthusiasm for Promethean entrepreneurship onto the poor. Yes, the poor are more likely to run their own business than the rest of us. But that is because they have no other choice. When asked, most of them aspire to a government post or a factory job. Developing countries are not full of billions of budding entrepreneurs; they are full of billions of budding salary men.
The authors also dissent from the “melancholy view” held by some economists, who argue that bad politics will always trump good policy. Why bother figuring out the best way to spend a dollar on education, when $0.87 will be diverted into the pockets of officials? These economists argue that you can’t do anything in a country with bad institutions—and you can’t do much about these bad institutions either. You just have to wait for a revolution.
But Mr Banerjee and Ms Duflo advocate what they call a “quiet revolution”. They insist that things can be improved “at the margin”, which is an economist’s way of saying that things can get better, even if they are very bad. They also make the case that improved policies can contribute to better politics. Once constituents see that good policy making can make a difference to their lives, they raise their expectations, and demand more.
http://www.economist.com/node/18584122
By Tom Alila
The people of Kenya have followed the recent engagement between Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and an amorphous group that calls itself the Luo Nyanza professional and business caucus with much interest. Whereas inter-communal engagements are to be encouraged and should be the norm, this particular engagement in my view marks a new low point in the political development of this nation.
First of all it was a tacit admission on the part of the finance minister that there has been a deliberate effort to discriminate, stigmatize and exclude certain regions and communities in this country from enjoying the fruits of development. This was the “siasa mbaya maisha mbaya” developmental model bequeathed to the nation by the Kenyatta and Moi regimes. The finance minister, who is the crown prince of the old order, appears hell-bent on sustaining this anachronism. A cursory glance at the profile of staff and holders of plum positions in some of the key institutions under his docket, say KRA, Treasury and Central Bank will reveal he presides over the worst cases of tribal hegemony in public institutions in the whole country.
Indeed it is precisely in response to the exclusive, whimsical, personalized and tribalised abuse of political power by the executive to reward and punish communities, groups and regions that Kenyans decided to vote for a new constitutional order that would bury the ghost of “siasa mbaya maisha mbaya” once and for all. The new constitution lays out the principles and institutions that will guide the hitherto manipulated allocation of resources and economic investments. The thinking behind this was that no group or region would ever again be held hostage to the whims of individuals in seeking their rightful share of national resources and the needed investments in economic and physical infrastructure.
Secondly, engaging with anything with the prefix Luo, including political charlatans, would appear to be a belated attempt at fashioning some “nationalist” credentials for the finance minister. Kenyans view this feeble effort against a backdrop of his intolerant and chauvinistic rhetoric, as we have interacted with in the last few months. But such is the incredulity and poverty of thought in some of our leaders that they would want us believe they have undergone some metamorphosis overnight and embraced those who were the objects of their passionate hate only the other day. This is not say that it is an impossibility for a change of heart to take place. Did not Saul, that famous persecutor of Christians, become the famous Paul who is credited with the highest number of chapters in the bible? Such a change would be most welcome, but more objective indicators would be needed to demonstrate this. A good point to start would be to de-tribalise the financial sector, not for the sake of Luos only, but for the sake of all Kenyans.
Kenyans remember that here is a man who inherited a powerful and national KANU political benemoth, with more than 130 MPs from all provinces in 2002, bequeathed him by president Moi. He had squandered this massive political capital in a record five years. By the time he re-joined parliament in 2003, he had just over 60 MPs, losing more than half the MPs he inherited. By January 2008, he had only 10 MPs, and he had betrayed his partisan inclinations when he abandoned a national KANU party, and rode the dysfunctional GEMA tiger otherwise known as PNU. In the process he gained global infamy as the only official leader of the opposition not to contest national leadership against an incumbent. Lately, we understand that women are excluded ab initio from his politburo of GEMA “elders”, yet again betraying a deeply chauvinistic bent to his persona. The politics and development of exclusion seem therefore to come so naturally to him. Impatient with functional political institutions and the rule of law and constitutionalism, he continues to toy with some loose amalgam of political opportunists named G7 (7 provinces except Nyanza), whose sole raison d’etre is apparently to leave out the so called Luo-Nyanza from the national political and developmental calculus.
Most of the country’s business is done with our regional neighbours, and Kisumu has long merited to be developed into a regional transport and industrial/business hub, given its strategic location. This has not been prioritized. Instead what we have witnessed is the frenzied development of a 10-lane Nairobi-Thika superhighway that is not even the country’s economic artery…this distinction belongs to the Mombasa-Kisumu-Busia/Malaba highway. Similarly, the world’s second largest lake has no hotel comparable to hotels in the Ugandan and Tanzanian side of the lake. Instead, what would be considered as ponds by comparison, such as lakes Naivasha, Elementaita and Nakuru, host a plethora of world-class tourist hotels. The sugar/cotton sectors that do well in Nyanza/western provinces and irrigation schemes in this part of Kenya do not enjoy the clout and policy/financial support that is accorded say dairy, tea, maize, and coffee.
It may yet be asked therefore: What inclusive agenda for Kenyans has Uhuru ever pushed? It should be re-stated for the benefit of Uhuru and his ilk, that Nyanza (whether Luo or Kisii/Kuria), Central, Rift valley, North-eastern, Western, coast, eastern and Nairobi all deserve resources from the government. There is no need to resort to developmental blackmail and the principle of luo-exceptionalism.
The writer is KANU Chairman Ndhiwa
BY JEFF OTIENO
The long awaited tour of Nyanza Province by the Deputy Prime Minister who is also the Finance Minister, Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP, William Ruto has been hit by wrangles and could as well be called off.
During the recent luncheon in a Nairobi hotel which was hosted by Uhuru Kenyatta and a group of Luo professionals led by Freedom and Democracy Party Supremo Onyango Oloo, it was agreed that the tour be slated around Mid May.
But speaking to this writer on telephone, former Agriculture Minister William Ruto point man in Nyanza a Mr. Mbuta said the former Minister told him while in an overseas trip in Malaysia that he has not been informed of the event contrary to press reports.
“The former Minister is shocked to hear that and whoever is saying otherwise is mistaken,” Mbuta quipped.
Contacted for comment, Freedom and Democracy Party leader, Onyango Oloo thundered that plans to host the duo and over 120 MPs will go as planned irrespective of “attention seekers and paper tiger kind of antics.”
It has however emerged that before the historic tour of the region, a group of respected Luo elders and opinion shapers are scheduled to go to Gatundu Uhuru Kenyatta’s backyard to do a gigantic and intriguing task of reconciling Luos and Kikuyus before the next polls. “This bad blood and suspicion between us must be harmonized and I have done all the logistics to ensure the reconciliation agenda is achieved,” Oloo said in an interview.
Oloo added that all tangible economic benefits which has eluded the community for decades has been agreed upon between him and his allies emphasizing that his is politics with development devoid of rhetoric.
Keen political pundits led by Mumias Sugar Sales Executive, Peter Hongo who is also hopeful for Kisumu County Governor seat however told Oloo and his allies not to personalize their campaigns but instead popularize their party which is still a green horn.
“As a community we won’t allow divisive under tones to derail our quest a head of 2012,” Hongo said.
The main theme of the controversial tour is to preach peace and unity in the region and to fund raise for all women and youth groups. The two leaders will also hold a meeting with some stakeholders to identify key moribund economic outfits to be revived according to inside sources.
END
By Our Reporter in Kendu Bay {L.O.Omolo}.
AN aide to the Prime Minister Raila Odinga has come under scathing criticism in his home backyard of Karachuonyo constituency where he is being accused of having been an instrumental tool of destruction and divisive politics.
Dr Paul Adhu Awiti, the immediate former Karachuonyo MP who is currently working in the Office of the Prime Minister as a political adviser is being accused back home for being the architect of divisive and the existing disunity of ODM party officials and members in the area.
They want him to concentrate on his new job of advising the Prime Minister or else quit and come home to participate in open competitive politics instead of hiding at the PM's office in Nairobi while causing disunity back home.
Dr Awiti who had previously represented Karachuonyo constituency for close to 12 years before he lost the seat to the incumbent Eng.James K Rege in the 2007 general elections is said to be spending most of his valuable time criss crossing the vast and heavily populated electoral constituency in Rachuonyo North District addressing ODM party rallies.
His accusers alleged that during the now twice postponed party grass root elections, the former legislator who at one time served as the Minister for Planning during the brief KANU/LDP merger under the retired President Daniel Arap Moi had taken side with one function. He is doing all thee with the purpose of undermining the area MP, something which residents of the area view as being detrimental to the development of the area.
A group of party youths and leader who met this writer at Kendu-Bay made it categorically clear that the former MP should concentrate on his job and role as political adviser to the Prime Minister. He should leave the ODM party matters to the local leaders and concentrates on his new responsibility.
The group led by one Dan Ojijo sad the former MP should give the residents a break and a breathing space of time to concentrate on development work. He is operating as if the area is always under political siege and election mood. The former legislator, said Ojijo, “had served his two and half terms in Parliament, but left no sign of any tangible achievement in development.”
During his terms in Parliament, the former MP had taken refuge in Nairobi and was not bothered to work with the locals in promoting development. He was always absent from the constituency, but of late he has become visible addressing party rallies or funeral gatherings here and there.
Despite of having performed dismally during his time in Parliament, we have a lot of respect to the former legislator, and he should also reciprocate this good gesture and follow the suit of the likes of Madam Dr Phoebe Muga Asiyo who had also represented the constituency for over ten years but has since retired honorably from active politics. In comparison, Mrs Asiyo had left a mark of remarkable achievements in terms of development whereas Dr. Awiti has nothing to account for to his credit of having been achieved during his tenure of office.
The residents have smelt a rate and are reading the signs of mischievous for someone serving in the office of the Prime Minister being seen running up and down playing local politics. If his role as the adviser to the Prime Minister has no responsibility to carry with it, then he should come home. This is because his continuing participation actively in local political derby is painting the Prime Minister the wrong way in the eyes of the electorate,” said one civic leader who requested for his anonymity on fear of reprisal.
The group maintained that the elections are still far away, and all the stakeholders should give the sitting MP sufficient time to carry out the noble task of developing the constituency. The area should be free of combative kinds of politics.” they said.
The group said Karachuonyo needs all weather and passable feeder and access roads, especially those linking the Central and the West which is known as “ Kendu-Bay Pala Road. The people need fresh water for life, good infrastructure, electricity supplies and other easy means of communications and not the series of political rallies which are full of empty political slogans.
The residents say, the have had enough of political rhetorics of the past and want to concentrate on tangible development activities such as promoting the cash minting and lucrative cotton production in the areas, improved farming for food self sufficiency and security.
They commended the effort of the sitting MP and his development record, and particularly the way the local committee of CDF under his guidance has been disbursing the money for the targeted and budgeted projects, and would therefore not entertain anymore divisive politics.
All the residents of Karachuonyo constituency are staunch supporters of the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and the ODM party. There is no doubt about it and as such their loyalty should be direct and not through proxies. They would not tolerate anyone preaching negative politics in the area which is so retrogressive and detrimental to development of the region.
Ends
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
FARMERS and members of the general public in Nyanza Province are in a great panic as the result of the expected crops failure following non-arrival of the long rains in parts of the region.
This year’s rains arrived on time towards the end of March and in early April, but shortly disappeared after the farmers who had already cultivated their fields and ready for planting.
The scarcity of the rains has since sent the prices of food grains skyrocketing to levels unaffordable by local peasants. Two kilograms of un-grinded maize has jumped from 70/- to 120 in many parts of the region. This is considered the highest in a region where the capital of the ordinary people is rather low, forcing some families to go without food for a day or two.
If the rains fail to fall within the next two weeks, then close to 800 people would face a serious hunger and require famine relief food, something which is unusual in the culture of the people of Luo-Nyanza who believes in self-sufficiency in food for domestic consumption.
Experts say that if the rains don’t come within the next two weeks, the region could be plunged into a big famine within the next four months.
The worse hit area in the low laying locations along the shoreline of Lake Victoria which has yet to experience the downfall ever since the first week of April this year.
A survey carried out by this writer revealed that many parts of the region will go without food grains if there will be insufficient t rainfall up to the first week of May. A long rain in Nyanza usually arrives around the first week of April and continues until middle of June or at times extends up to the beginning of July.
The Areas which have experienced inadequacy of rainfalls this season include Lower Nyakach, Eastern, Central and Western Karachuoyo, Kochia, Gem, Central, and West Kanyada in Asego Division of Rangwe, All are within the Homa-Bay County.
Also affected are areas in Rarieda constituency, which are usual get the highest yields of food grains like Uyoma., Asembo. It is the same phenomenon in Kisumu west district, which covered Seme locations.
Other areas facing the looming famine include the two fishing island of Rusinga and Mfangano. The situation is likely to extend to the neighboring constituencies of Gwassi, Nyatike and even the lower part of Uriri.
Passengers travelling from Kisumu to Homa-Bay could easily spot maize crops burnt by humidity situation in the entire Rachuonyo North district stretching from Nyakwere to Oluch-Nyangweso along the Karachuonyo Rangwe borders.
The hunger situation is partly aggravated in that the region had crop failure last season. The government’s recently clamping down a total ban on Omena fishing worsening the situation from bad to worse. The ban will extend for three months from April to July, and the Fisheries Ministry says this will give Omena the smallest fish, but economically important to the rural folk sufficient time for breeding.
The ban has provoked harsh reactions from local politicians who felt it was undesirable, particularly at this time around when the areas affected are facing acute food shortage and want the government to rescind its decision.
The trio issued separate statements arguing that owing to the present pathetic situation of acute food grain shortage in the region the fishing of Omena and its sales should be allowed to continue for the sake of the survival of the residents.
The trio include the Karachuonyo MP Eng.James K Rege, Nyatike MP Edick Omondi Anyanga and the ODM party youth coordinator Hilary Ochieng’Alila.
In the upper areas of the greater Southern Nyanza, it has been raining, but sparsely in areas like Kasipul-Kabondo, Rangwe, Ndhiwa, Rongo, Uriri and Migori district. But the rains are also still inadequate for the new corps to flourish in the field.
Other leaders have appealed to the residents to plant the roots yielding crops such as sweet potatoes, cassavas etc for heir survivals. Clergymen have been conducting vigorous, but session of prayers in churches for the rains to come.
Ends
By Dickens Wasonga.
The government has put on notice all those who operate sub standard or illegal medical laboratories countrywide.
The minister for medical services Prof. Anyang Nyongo said the medical laboratory technologists and technicians board will conduct inspections throughout the country and will shut down laboratories which are not licensed to operate by the board and prosecute the owners.
He said quacks have put up all manner of shanties operating as medical labs where they con unsuspecting members of the public huge sums of money and the crackdown will catch up with them
Speaking at the KEMRI Campus in Kisumu the minister who led a high powered team of medical doctors from his ministry including the Director of Medical services Dr. Francis Kimani to inspect the recently accredited labs at the Kisian center said that even public hospitals and health centers whose labs are found to be wanting will not be spared during the crackdown that will begin next month.
The minister said quality of health care provision can not be obtained unless health facilities operate laboratories which conform to set standard that will ensure diseases are fast and accurately diagnosed before treatment is delivered.
Nyongo said many patients lose their lives because of wrong diagnosis of their medical conditions because the labs were either substandard or due to fake reagents used to carry out investigations and warned that the trend must be reversed urgently.
'' Quacks who stock ink and pose as though they are selling genuine lab reagents or other lab equipments through out the country have their days numbered. We must do a thorough clean up exercise to weed them out because of the danger they pose to the health of our citizens.'' said prof. Nyongo.
He also asked research institutions like KEMRI/CDC to adopt laboratories operated by public health facilities situated in remote areas to help improve their capacities in terms of infrastructure development.
Nyongo called upon the board to make sure the laboratory technicians and technologists together with pathologists work under one unit to for ease of coordination and supervision.
He also asked them to continuously further their education to be up to date with the modern trend in medicine.
The Director of medical services said there was great need to ensure accuracy of lab results adding that malaria which continue to kill millions of people especially amongst children below five years in sub Saharan Africa was the most misdiagnosed in most hospitals whether in private or public facilities.
He disclosed that 75 lab inspectors will be trained from May to in monitoring and supervise the activities of the medical labs countrywide.
The DMS said a total of 21 medical labs will also be accredited after they met the set standards of the World Health Organization.
'' Good laboratory systems and services are critical and we must strive to attain this goal'' said the DMS
The trainings which will be done by the government in partnership with the University of Maryland will contribute to strengthening laboratory services across the country and to better health care systems.
Those who graced the occasion included,the KEMRI Kisian director Dr. John Vulule, CDC division of Global HIV/AIDS director Dr. Nancy Knight,Provincial director of medical services Nyanza Dr. Ojwang Lusi and others.
ENDS.
From: Judy Miriga
Folks,
As you can read the email here below from a woman leader at CBO, Cllr Oriaro needs urgent security help. I do not want to speculate, but it seems State Funded Thugs are in actively in the loose to silence public from demanding their rights one more time.....the offensive of 2007/2008 is here and this is in tune with looming high level of campaign temperature in the country.
Additional attachments are indicators of things not going the way they should in the legal way, orthodox way of doing things with high security risks are at play........Are Kenyans being ripped off??? Are Kenyans professionals engaged in such deals???? Are the Local Community Leadership consulted???? .....Are the wishes and rights of the Public put into consideration ???....Are there illegalities in these deals ....???......Are these deals done under Legal provisions of the Majimbo Federal New Constitution...??? Is the New Constitution in effect ....???.......Why are politicians busy on campaign trail before the official enactment of the New Constitutional Legislation passed ???...
It is illegal and unconstitutional for the two Principles, Kibaki and PM Raila to engage in:-
1) Election campaigns without the implementation of the Majimbo Federal Government Policy document enacted in Parliament, it is unconstitutional and against ethical Legal Rule for the two principles under the New Reform Package Authority for which they swore to uphold in the Reform Accord Agenda of the Coalition government to engage in signing of Memorandum of Understanding for Business Investment without the New Policy documentation guidelines which is designed to protect interests of all stakeholders and according to public mandate Legal Requirement as is laid down provisionally at Referendum, and according to the spirit of Mutual Partnership engagement as laid down on Obama Administration Foreign Policy for Sub-Sahara for growth and prosperity in Mutual Development Millennium Agenda to alleviate poverty, and without discrimination, favor or marginalization.
2) that the two principles default in continued engagement of signing bilateral business agreement investments without consideration of the Reform Agenda Accord for Investment Guidelines that which protects environment and pollution, health protection from hazardous materials, and without Proper Official certification Authorization according to policy guidelines or Revenue Collection for Distribution and Community Welfare and development agenda according to the Majimbo Federal Guidelines.
These proves the Coalition Principles are incompetent, have failed their jurisdiction they swore to uphold, are guilty of consequences to have failed the public and their electorate who gave them a second chance to rule.......
This and many other lists of such carefree and Health Medical recklessness in e.g. HIV/AIDs within the Ministry of Health, Shuttling expenses overburdening the already financially malnourished citizens from irresponsibilities of unqualified leaders, whose such behaviors' cannot be tolerated anymore and will not help Kenya and Africa to move forward, but continue to stagnate deeper into poverty.
I totally believe, PM Raila from his actions, is fully compromised, a wheeler dealer, who cannot deliver services as public demands and cannot claim his popularity if he has failed the test of corruption and impunity. He has jointly compromised in the Bilateral MoUs that which stands to fail the people and the Nation miserably.
I believe therefore, that some politicians of both two parties are in an assault against the public mandate, they are trying avoid and delay New Constitution for Federal Government altogether, by use of threats to intimidate rights of the public, inject high cost of living to break the public strength and cause public to despair in order to down-play the New Constitution for their selfish gains.
The old way of life, Corruption and Impunity is their way of life, these leaders are used to selling the resource of the country for a peanut hand-out that benefit their short-time interest with those of unscrupulous business corporate investors, who they join special interest friendship, who were from the start, against the Referendum for the New Constitution in the first place......but were scheming for their business profits and interests.
We must all stand together to bring these leaders to face justice because the future of Africa is at stake.......they must pay for the damages they inflict on the Nation and the public, if not, we will have failed our children and grandchildren. The cost of poverty is too high..........
We do not look forward to these unscrupulous corporate business community to enslave people of Africa through China and India's invasion, and continue to exploit Africa's resources without proper policy guidelines in a shared value and cost, under mutual agreement that benefit all stakeholders.
If we sit back and let things fall apart, we have ourselves to blame. We must therefore stand together, with the rest of the world, to end this culture and be able to build a secure future destiny for our children and grand children. This will be the beginning of Global shared Love for Peace in Unity for common Purpose that benefit all in growth and prosperity.
I need all support necessary from World Leaders, UN, Sympathizers, Friends and foes, to support Women who are putting their lives on line, taking charge for the security of Kenya and Africa, for the sake of their children, family and Community.......and lastly to offer a lasting solution to gain peace in the world, by intervening to help with pressure with every support needed before their backs are broken and they get compromised, fearing for dear life. I hope we get an early intervention for Caretaker Interim Government, with other urgent help before things fall apart, as Kenya and Africa is losing balance very fast.........through China and India's special interest aggression. Looking forward to your early response.
Thank you all,
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
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From: hellen adhiambo
Subject: GUARANTEE US SECURITY FROM HARM
Hi Judy!
I am Hellen Olajo Ongere of CBO Oketha Gender Rights Counselling and Child Care, which is based in Ahero, Nyando District. Mine is simply to say thank you for having stayed in solidarity with comrade Cllr Oriaro, who it seem is now under persecution merely because of his stand to operate by people who wilfully gave him a representative mandate of leadership in Siaya County.Cllr Oriaro being a classic case a warrior against human evils in the very midst of the perpetrators evils, we confess needs planetary protection from all directions below the sun!We believe the voice of powerful women like you shall send the forces of State funded thuggery and human rights abuses in Siaya and the country as a whole down their pants.Sincerely yours
Sister Hellen O.Ongere
Kenya
Soaring Food, Fuel Prices Send People to the Streets
Mwaura Kimani 25 April 2011
Nairobi — Kenya is facing a storm over surging inflation and runaway food prices that have sparked protests in the country.
Indeed, last week the government said it had slashed taxes on petroleum products.
Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta announced a 20 per cent cut in excise tax on diesel and 30 per cent cut on kerosene.
The tax cuts were however dismissed by trade unionists and consumer organisations as a joke and being too little to be felt by households.
As of last week, pump prices had not been adjusted to reflect the new lower prices with Ministry of Energy officials saying they were awaiting action by the Kenya Revenue Authority which would give the effective date.
The Consumer Federation of Kenya said food prices had risen by at least 25 per cent in the past three months.
Despite the tax cuts on petroleum products, protests kicked off last week in Kenya's major towns, a signal the ordinary sacrifices that consumers have been forced to make since late 2010 have started translating into political discontent.
Protests over soaring prices have been witnessed in Uganda and Burkina Faso and political analysts were expecting dissent to sweep the entire East African region, sending shockwaves to the ruling class who have seen upheavals topple governments in North Africa.
Governments globally have been taking measures to address soaring food and fuel prices as well as unemployment by changing taxation regimes, introducing price controls and taking in more imports to boost supplies.
Kenya, for example, introduced price caps on fuel prices in December 2010 after complains that retailers were exploiting them.
Uganda and Kenya have been particularly hard hit by inflation since the onset of the global financial crisis, a situation that has been made worse by the weakening of local currencies against the dollar and other hard currencies.
A slew of problems face EAC households but none is as pressing as high food and fuel prices, which have hit millions of poor people.
MPs accused the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the body charged with regulating the energy sector and state-owned oil marketer the National Oil Corporation of failing to perform their roles effectively.
NOCK was blamed for high fuel prices in the country after it failed to deliver a consignment on time in March, increasing delivery costs after international oil prices rose while the ERC has been faulted for instituting price controls that have not had a positive impact on the lives of Kenyans.
NOCK managing director Summaya Athmani said the firm was seeking contracts with oil producing nations to cushion rising prices.
"We have been engaged in discussions with producing countries to get what we call government-to-government contracts," said Ms Athmani adding the company was looking to increase alternative sources of fuel including biodiesel from Brazil.
Double-digit rates
Inflation in Kenya and Uganda rebounded with a vengeance in March, edging near the double-digit mark on the back of high food and fuel prices.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said inflation climbed to 9.19 per cent in March -- the highest since the new method of calculating price changes was introduced in November 2009 -- and 2.65 percentage points higher than February's rate of 6.64 per cent.
Meanwhile, Uganda's year-on-year inflation rate jumped to double digits in March, driven by rising food costs.
Tanzania's consumer price inflation rose for the fifth consecutive month in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.
Year-on-year inflation rate rose to eight per cent in March from 7.5 per cent in February, lifted by higher food and fuel prices.
Rwanda's All Urban consumer price index rose for the fifth straight month to 4.11 percent year-on-year in March, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda said.
Bishop faults State efforts to curb impunity
By George Olwenya
A Catholic cleric has accused the Government of doing little or nothing to address impunity, land grabbing and being perpetrated by political leaders.
Archbishop Zacheus Okoth said it was regrettable that the vices continued to take root in watchful eye of the Government.
The prelate accused the top Government Officials of concentrating too much on the past and giving a blind eye to the vices, and called on the authorities to stem first of all tribal differences as a result of ethnic hatred and prejudices.
"Kenyans should stand up and say no to the culture of ethnicity, land grabbing, hate speech and impunity to make the country move forward," said the archbishop.
Destroyed by fire
Okoth, who was accompanied by Alego/Usonga MP Edwin Yinda and former Committee of Experts official, lawyer Otiende Amollo, made the remarks on Sunday during a fundraiser for the reconstruction of a Catholic convent at Mbaga in Siaya town, which was destroyed by fire last year.
He said people must change and build a new attitude to avoid hate speech and those who have acquired wealth illegally should surrender it back to the authorities.
"Why are we afraid to accept each other even if a few individuals have been condemned to The Hague," asked the archbishop.
Mr Yinda and Amollo warned that MPs stand to lose in the long run if they continued frustrating and slowing down the implementation of the New Constitution.
"The MPs are messing up themselves. Kenyans have the privilege to move to court and have the Parliament dissolved and a new one elected to implement the new Constitution," warned Yinda.
Wrong strategy
He said frustrating the Constitution was a wrong strategy by some MPs to undermine Prime Minister Raila Odinga. He described it as a waste of time because the premier still enjoyed majority support of Kenyans.
Amollo, who was among experts who drafted the new Constitution, said the document was drafted in such a way that nobody can stand on its way until it’s fully implemented.
"Even President Kibaki tried to go against it by making judicial appointments but he never succeeded because nobody can block its implementation," said Mr Amollo.
From: Faulu Suba
I salute the residents of Nyanza for the maturity they have carried themselves in the wake of political confusion in Kenya. Nyanza is an area which is cosmopolitan and its people have a reputation as a welcoming lot. It is one area in Kenya where anybody despite tribal background would easily settle without fear. This is worth commending and I believe God would enable the residents to continue with the hospitality.
However, of late, I have been utterly disturbed by what I see in the media especially from a commentator called Moses Kuria. I am told he is a spokesperson for PNU. I have known spokes persons to be people characterized by wisdom. They are people who through their speech and representations promote cohesion, peace and cement relationships.
Being spokesperson of a political party, Moses Kuria is free to air both his views and those of PNU. He is also free to compete with competitors in politics. However, when Moses kuria goes tribal and instead of analysing his competitor, he brings in the Luo, Luo Nyanza, i am left wondering what he is up to. There is no political party called luo or Luo Nyanza in the world. Creating one in Moses Kurias imagination and going ahead to talk about that imagined political party with arguments based on ignorance, evil thought and half truths ends up being tribal talk and undermines national cohesion.
When this Kuria peddles a theory that a professional can only succeed by having another fail, he promotes what is called EXCLUSIVE & DESTRUCTIVE EXCELLENCE which we know is the cause of murders and serious crimes in some parts of the country. This theory is evil and I wonder why Moses is peddling it to people he refers to as Luo Nyanza professionals. Why would professionals only excel when Raila falls?
Can't Raila excel in what he is good at and the other professionals also excel in the same thing or even other things. When all of us excel in both similar and different things, that is INCLUSIVE AND MUTUAL EXCELLENCE and this is what we need in Kenya.
The same Moses Kuria also talks of liberation of Luo Nyanza. Why is he not talking of liberating all Kenyans from the yoke of pverty, hunger, ignorance and disease? When Kenyans are suffering from hunger , is it only Nyanza that is hit? With the infaltion inflicting pains to all Kenyans at the moment, why would Moses Kuria insult Kenyans by insinuating that it is only Luo Nyanza that is suffering inflation.
All Kenyans including Moses Kuria need liberation and in as much as we are not yet there, so far we have found Raila to be a catalyst for that liberation. that is why many of us support Raila. Not because of his being Luo.
It is not long ago that Moi using the same Wako fulled Kenyans by arresting Oyugi and Biwott for Minister Ouko’s assassination only to release them for “”lack of evidence!”
ICC Wako is the person to watch for as it was in Ouko case he will indeed discharge the Ocampo six for ”lack of evidence!”
DR. ODIDA OKUTHE.
Folks,
Trumps accusations against President Obama holds no water, and have no pinch of truth in it, and these false personal attacks are not healthy in the long run. He should drop it and change cause......
I am concerned why he did not bring this type of accusation before Obama became the President. It is now too late, which can only cause division which is not good.
Two, I worry why such measures were not preferred on Bush or other former Presidential leaders
Three, to attach sitting president in this manner, is causing serious dent to the stability of this great Nation to the outside world.....and it becomes a laughing stock, when China is on our back, assertively trying to steal and transfer wealth from both Africa and America.....instead of focusing on the Assault by China, we are busy bringing ourselves down, so China has a blank check, running wild with it.
Four, if we supported past leaders to achieve, why do we not give President Obama full support and join with him to support building America together....? He can make it when we all give a helping hand.......each and everyone get engaged positively.......it can be done in Love.....for Unity......
Fifth, Trump is not only unfair to President Obama, but he is to the whole public and the Nation's stability, but we must stay on course and put destructive failing politics aside ......otherwise, we are loosing strategic focus to achieve......China is on Aggression to divide and bring America and Africa down, yet Africa is the backbone of the whole world's success........
Sixth, America will not find it easy to succeed without Africa and Africa will equally not succeed without America, but China is smarter than the two........they are running with the mantle.....while we are left squabbling........and destroying each other......
Seventh, one thing is true of Trump though, that Paul Ryan's Budget Proposal is a Wasteful Healthcare balloon that may harm the Elderly in a valueless non-sufficing Voucher plan, but increase wealth to the wealthy.
China bribe their way cheaply and gains 100 folds......they are not fair in their business deals to the rest of the world......
People, America holds the future to the world, we cannot afford it to be brought down by China, we must challenge and compete on higher levels and maintain our standing by being positive and staying focused......
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
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Trump: Obama wasn't qualified for Ivy League
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Beth Fouhy, Associated Press – Mon Apr 25, 5:27 pm ET
NEW YORK – Real estate mogul Donald Trump suggested in an interview Monday that President Barack Obama had been a poor student who did not deserve to be admitted to the Ivy League universities he attended. Trump, who is mulling a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, offered no proof for his claim but said he would continue to press the matter as he has the legitimacy of the president's birth certificate.
"I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?" Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records."
Obama graduated from Columbia University in New York in 1983 with a degree in political science after transferring from Occidental College in California. He went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude 1991 and was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
Obama's 2008 campaign did not release his college transcripts, and in his best-selling memoir, "Dreams From My Father," Obama indicated he hadn't always been an academic star. Trump told the AP that Obama's refusal to release his college grades were part of a pattern of concealing information about himself.
"I have friends who have smart sons with great marks, great boards, great everything and they can't get into Harvard," Trump said. "We don't know a thing about this guy. There are a lot of questions that are unanswered about our president."
Katie Hogan, a spokeswoman for Obama's re-election campaign, declined to comment.
Trump, a wealthy businessman and reality TV host, has risen to the top of many polls in part by his outspoken call for Obama to release his long form birth certificate. The state of Hawaii has released a certificate of live birth indicating Obama was born there on August 4, 1961, but that has not quelled critics who believe Obama was born outside the United States and is therefore not qualified to be president.
The so-called "birther" controversy has dominated the early stage of the 2012 GOP nominating contest, with Trump leading the charge.
"I have more people that are excited about the fact that I reinvigorated this whole issue," Trump said, adding "the last guy (Obama) wants to run against is Donald Trump."
Trump is scheduled to travel to the early primary states of New Hampshire and Nevada this week and said he will make a final decision about a presidential bid by June.
Also in the AP interview, Trump:
• Said Republicans had made a mistake by embracing a budget proposal crafted by Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryan that included deep cuts in Medicare. "The seniors are afraid. The plan Paul Ryan put forth has made the Democrats so happy," Trump said.
• Declined to disclose his net worth, saying he'll do so if he decides to run. "You'll see what it is, possibly, very likely, in the next 4 weeks. I don't want to say because I don't want to ruin the press conference," he said.
• Expressed surprise that the 2008 GOP nominee, John McCain, had suggested Trump's effort was a publicity stunt. "I congratulate him for getting the attention he's getting," McCain told NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.
Trump said he had been a big supporter of McCain. "I would find it hard to believe he would say anything bad because I raised a fantastic amount of money for him," Trump said.
THE KAMBA POLITICS EVER SINCE PRE-INDEPENDENCE DAYS IS THAT OF BETRAYAL, OPPORTUNISM AND CONFUSION.
Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
The modern political history in this country is painting the Kamba community negatively as a people whose politics has always been shrouded in numerous allegations of betrayal dishonest and opportunism.
Had the Vice President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka stood firm and steadfast in ODM and worked side by side, the party could have won the 2007 general elections with an overwhelming majority of seats in the National Assembly and in all the elective bodies such as municipalities and counties.
It was Kalonzo Musyoka’s that saw him ditching ODM that led to confusion and suspicion leading to the hotly disputed presidential polls result. Although the election was much thawed, but with Kalonzoi Musyoka working side by side with Raila Odinga things could have been different.
This kind of ego-centric and self-serving interest has denied, is what has denied this proud community the chance to produce a politician with the national outlook who could capture the hearts of Kenyan electorate across the country.
To examine the Kamba community recent past political history dating back to 1960s,especially at the time of the country’s attained hr political independence in 1963,the Kambas were politically divided into small patches, one that is behind Paul Joseph Ngei, the other one supporting the founding father of the nation Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, another group particularly those from Machakos region were firm in the pockets of the late Tom Mboya while those in Kitui were firm in the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga camp of radicals or loosely the so called leftists pursuing scientific socialism based on borrowed foreign political ideologies..
The attitudes of the Kamba politicians of the old days, were just similar in comparison to the self-centered policies currently being pursued by the Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.
In 1960, Paul Joseph Ngei {Kin-Kuu} wearing a black hut with inscription PG meaning prison graduate too the Kenyan nation with storm, He immediately earned the nick name Bwana Mashamba owing to his hard-line stance by demanding that all the white settlers in this country should immediately vacate their farms , pack and go even before independence.
Ngei had just been released from the colonial jail and detention camps in the remote Northern Kenya, therefore his claims to be a prison graduate was somehow justified. He became classified by the colonial administration as extremely radical politician, and was grouped and categorized with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga by the colonial intelligence unit of the Kenya police.
At the time KANU was led by another ex-detainee, but a teacher by profession but a moderate politician James Samuel Gichuru a Kikuyu from Kiambu, while Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was the party’s vice president and Tom Mboya also a Luo, but urbanized Nairobian was the party Secretary General and William Mbolu Malu a Kamba from Machakos was the KANU national Treasurer.
Kenyatta was release one year later in 1961.Ngei and Kenyatta together with Bildad Kaggia, Richard Achieng’Oneko, Kungu Karumba and Fred Kubai were the Famous Kapenguria Six accused of managing Mau Mau and were all sentenced to seven year hard labor. After the completion of their jail term which started in 1953, each was banished to a detention camp also in the northern region of Kenya as part of corporal punishment.
There were two major competing political parties, namely Kenya African Union {KANU} and the Kenya African Democratic Union {KADU}, which claims to have amalgamated minority communities. Kadu also had its affiliates like Mombasa African Democratic Union, Maasai United front and Kalenjin Political Alliance, while KANU had its smaller party affiliated to it such as Nairobi People Convention Party {NPCP}, Central Nyanza District Association {ADA},Nairobi African District Congress and South Nyanza District Political Association {SINDAPA}
The Mt Kenya region residents were not allowed under the emergency to form a party. The region groups the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru referred to as {KEM}.Political activities in this Mau Mau infested region was not allowed until late in 1960 when a countrywide African political party in the name of KANU was formed and registered.
Upon his release from detention camp, Ngei immediately identified himself with KANU and toured many parts of Kenya addressing mammoth of crowds, at time even shedding tear about the African land which had been forcefully grabbed by whites.
The late Kenyatta also came out of detention camp in Maralal, Samburu district and immediately identified himself with KANU, but emphasized the need for the two parties to form a united front so that they could expedite the achievement of Uhuru.
This was at the time when Kenya leaders were preparing themselves to travel to the second and final Lancaster house Round Table Constitution Conference in London, UK. Kenyatta had secured a seat in the colonial Legislative Council when the late Kariuki Njiri who a year earlier had won the Fort Hall {Murang’s} seat in the mini-general election of1961 voluntarily resigned paving the way for Kenyatta entry into the H8use. Ngei did not get a chance or anyone to vacate his or her set for him to enter Parliament and was very apprehensive about this.
Non-Legco members were not eligible to attend the London Constitutional Conference even as in observer status, but Ngei insisted that he must attend as pat of KANU delegation to the talks.
A wing of KANU led by Gichuru and Mboya was not comfortable with Ngei, though he forced his way to London. Upon his return, Ngei developed hostility incessantly attacking KANU leaders, Kenyatta included. And in the same year Kenyatta called for a delegate conference. The meeting was held at Kaloleni Hall, Nairobi and attended by close to 2400 representatives from district branches throughout Kenya.
On the first day, Ngei who by that time had teamed u Jaramogi Oginga Odinga launched scathing attack on Gichuru Mboya axis dismissing them as imperialist’s agents, and demanded that those who had not graduated from prison should be kicked out of KANU leadership so that those who had suffered imprisonment in the cause of liberation war should replace them.
ON kamba support of Ngei by the name Victor Kasimbih from Kitui insulted Kenyatta and dismissed him as too old to lead. Kasimbihi who seemed to be partly mentally deranged was thrown out of the halls window by muscled KANU youths with Kenyatta reaching his bakora {walking stick} and saying “Mwacheni akione cha mtema kuni.Thge matter, however, calmed down with Kenyatta defending Mboya to the hilt and no top KANU official lost his or her job demoted or dismissed.
This did not please Ngei who had declared himself he was going toi be the KANU SECRETARY-General. Therefore Ngei walked out of KANU and Kenyatta readily approved. He formed his own African People Party {APP} which was soon to become the third largest political party in the country.
Ngei claimed there was a “ Sungura Mjanja” loosely translated as the rascal hare!!. Mboya hit back the hardest by referring Ngei’s APP as Akamba Pickpockets Party . Kenyatta disowned Ngei wondering why he was jailed in Kapenguria whereas his role was theft of motor vehicles spare parts in Grogan Road in Nairobi {now Kirinyaga}. The exchange of insults by boh side went for the duration of the 1963 general election. App won only nine seats, two senate for kitui and Machakos and seven members in the National Assembly.
APP failed to attract the following from other communities outside Ukambani with exception of the late Elijah Omolo Agar a radical politician who had also come out of detention camp and temporarily disagree with Mboya and Oodinga. Agar served as the APP National Organizing Secretary, but on sensing that APP had no feature ditched it and return to KANU shortly before the 1963 general election and won became the first Karachuonyo MP, a seat which he won as an independent KANU candidate.
Kenyatta deliberately appointed Ngei’s arch-rival in Kamba political derby Eliud Ngala Mwenda to the post independence cabinet as the Minister for Labour, and Ngei after sensing that he was in the cold trooped back to KANU together with his seven MPs and two Senators and were welcomed by Kenyatta who immediately appointed him the chairman of the defunct Western Kenya Marketing Board based in Kisum
The hitherto vibrant Western Kenya Produce and marketing Board was immediately hit with the claims of massive financial scandals and theft of maize, which sent its general manager, J.P.Oyende, to prison and Ngei narrowly escaped Punishment by whisker in what many observers saw as due to Kenyatta’s personal intervention to save the skin of his fellow former prison colleagues at Lodwar..
Ngei was later welcomed back to the cabinet and serve as Ministries for Co-operative Development and Housing.
I have just summarized all these to justify my claims at the opening of this article that Kamba politics is always shrouded in betrayal opportunism and confusion. Ngei’s story is not far from what Kalono Musyoka has been conducting himself in Kenya politics.
Reading fro the borderline point of view the conduct of the Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, how he jumped the ship at the eleventh hours when the ODM, was heading for a landslide election victory, how he readily joined Kibaki during the dispute of the tallying of presidential votes in 2007, and how he has been involved in diplomatic shuttle in futile attempt to have the Ocampo Six cases at the ICC deferred by the UN for one year, one would rightly say the Kambas are still far away from producing a national leader with nationalistic command to the hearts of all Kenyans people.
What wikileaks had written about Kalonzo are not far from being the truth and nothing. Our Vice President seemed not to like the politics of consistency. Of late he has become the architect of sycophantic outbursts each time he opened his mouth. He therefore need to weigh his remarks in public rallies and newspaper statements
Ends
Sent by Gordon Teti
The Standard Published on 19/04/2011
By JOHN OYWA
A Kenyan born preacher living in Canada is among hundreds of candidates vying for seat in the country’s federal elections due next month.
Rev George Okoth Otura, a former youth leader in both Ford-Kenya and the defunct Liberal Democratic Party has been nominated by the Christian Heritage Party, which fielded candidates in all the 46 electoral districts — the equivalent of Kenya’s constituencies.
Otura, 48, is campaigning to capture the York West Electoral District in the city of Toronto.
Make History
York West is the heart of the multi-culture and racial diversity with close to 200 community’s residents and Otura seeks to use the multi-racial platform and young voters to make history.
"I not only want to make history as the first Kenyan to become an MP in the Canadian House of Commons but to prove that leaders is not about the colour of one’s skin," Otura told The Standard on phone from Toronto where he has been living ever since he left Kenyan in 2005.
Controversial character
A search at the Christian Heritage Party’s website conformed Otura has been nominated to contest the seat.
The Canada’s 41st federal election is slated for May 2 and will be the fourth in the past seven years with 308 seats to be contested in the House of Commons.
Otura has been a controversial character right from the time he signed up as member of volunteer security team for the late opposition leader he late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. He fled to Canada in 2005 claiming his life was in danger and later founded the Christian Democratic Movement-Kenya.
In 2007, Otura made news when he filed a case against Kenya at the International Criminal Court at The Hague over atrocities the successive Government had allegedly committed against Kenyans.
Never took off
The case never took off due to legal technicalities.
Yesterday, he said he was confident of winning the seat.
"I did a lot a lot of consultations and political calculations before entering the race. I have a lot of political campaign tactics which I learnt from the late Jaramogi," he said.
"I have promised the voters affordable housing, easy access to art and music, healthcare and better education."
Buoyed by the historic election of Barack Obama whose father was a Kenyan as the first Black American President, a number of Kenyans living overseas have been eyeing political leadership in those countries.
Writes Leo Odera Omolo.
The East African Community is currently suggesting a plan that will create equality in the distribution of integration benefits, opportunities and organs.
This is meant to stem tension created by recent jostling over the position and hosting of regional bodies that in the past led to deep disagreement among partner states.
Except for the position of the Secretary General who is deputized by four officials from each partner states and is rotational by an Act of the EAC Treaty, other position no clear representation criteria creating what in some corners has been perceived as unequal.
The region has commissioned a study on equity and distribution of benefits such as employment that is expected to be reviewed at the 22nd ordinary Council of ministers meeting slated for Arusha next week.
In addition, each partner state has been asked to identify five centers of excellence which will elevated to the status of EAC organs, and used to foster regional pursuits. Among those identified in Kenya are Starehe Boys Center, and the Maritime College.
The developments stem from realization that the East African Community has outgrown its original structure and now requiring for urgent review to reflect the current developments.
A recent press statement from the Arusha based EAC secretariat indicates that many citizens are not aware of the benefits of integration due to luck of documentation. Although the study is yet to be made public, top on the benefits distribution is rotating the succession of senior officials, on a limited term on that basis. This will widen the list of key posts that should be rotated among the five partner states other than of the Secretary General and is four deputies.”
The Council of Ministers, the policy making organ of the community, has resolved that the position of heads of institutions should be held by nationals of the partner states “strictly on rotation basis,” the statement said. The announcement has also been made with increasing signs that the partner states were jostling to have their nationals take charge of key posts in Arusha-based secretariat and in other programs derailing smooth operations.
The former Secretary General Ambassador Juma Voster Mwapachu before his departure from the community services last week when he was replaced by the Rwandan Health Minister Richard Sezibera had told the staff during various meetings that lack human resources department at the secretariat was to blame for the jostling, but even where the law is clear, certain developments lead to heated arguments.
A case in point is that of Mr Mwapachu who exited from the community service last week, and whose succession has been subjected to his profile exchange based on who between Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi succeed Mwapachu who stepped down last week.
Under the new guidelines, a partner state whose candidate is appointed head or deputy head of a community institutions shall not at the end of the contract period, be eligible to apply for the position.
Other reports emerging from Arusha says there I a stand off is looming at the EAC secretariat following the East African legislative Assembly MPs recent refusal to approve the USD 3.48 million meant to speed up negotiation for Economic Partnership Agreement{EPA with the European Union.
At the 23rd extraordinary meeting of the EAC’S Council of Minster’s meeting held in Kigali, Rwanda a fortnight ago, the Council was reported to have petition the East African Legislative Assembly {EALA} MPs to allow the use of the funds donated by the Swedish International Development Agency {SIDA} for the EPA talks.
The stand off has been simmering since last December when the community asked for the funds under supplementary budget, but the request was turned down on the ground that using donor money for the EPA talks would erode the bloc’s independence and lead to the region yielding to the demands of the EU.
Last Tuesday, a report was tabled before the house by the Council requesting EALA to reconsider its decision and unlock the funds to jumpstart the stalled talks.
EALA Speaker Abdulrahin Abdi confirmed the House had received the report and had requested time to study it and response and that it would be debated at the May session.
Part from the concerns the donor funds would weaken the region’s bargaining position. EALA has raised the questions about the benefits of the EPA, saying they would open the local markets import for international goods, killing off fragile local industries, especially in agriculture.
Speaker Abdi said the entire House supported the decision, and needs to be convinced that the EPAs will not leave the region’s economy under siege from cheap imports.
Ends
Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
Politics in Kenya has of late taken a new dimension near provocation and insult to other members of the society by those who have massed a lot of financial muscle through the ill-gotten wealth.
The last week’s luncheon at the posh Serena Hotel in Nairobi by a group of close to 100 so-called Luo professionals and businessmen speaks volumes, particularly the remarks attributed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance in reference to the scourge of abject poverty in Luo-Nyanza.
Uhuru knew pretty well the source and how of tribulation and woes as well as economic and political marginalization of the Luo community had come about. And that his late father Jomo Kenyatta was the architect of all the problems that had reduced this proud community to a bunch of beggars. And as such he has nothing tangible to offer to this particular community to regain its lost glory and he should shut up.
He is just shedding crocodile tears when he says that the myriad of economic and political problems facing the people of Nyanza region has come about as result of bad political leadership.
And he shamelessly did this when he addressed a forum of street vendor's masquerading as Luo leadr in Nairobi instead of coming to Nyanza and engaged the genuine comunity in a dialogue aimed at rescuing the community from further sinking and wallowing in abject poverty.
Apart from Hon Raphael Tuju, the former Foreign Affairs Minister, who is now a civil servant in the coalition government serving as the advicer to the president on media and cohesion matters, the rest of the so-called professionals caucus and businessmen in attendance at the luncheon were a bunch of political rejects and renegades. It was full of political hirelings and belly-begging lots with no support and backing back home in Luo-Nyanza.
This was a pure case of gross miscalculation and an underestimation of the intelligentsia of the Luos by the son of Jomo Kenyatta. And the outcome of such mischievous political engagement that should only be consigned to the political dustbins and treated with contempt it deserves.
In any case Mr Kenyatta, like anyone else, is free and most welcome in his desire to reach the Nyanza people for the purpose of canvassing and soliciting for support in his presidential ambition. He has a right to tour the region and talks to the electorate in the open air. But he seemed to have launched his campaign to win the Luos backing through the wrong footing by using political demagogues, some of them who could not even win a seat in a local primary school committee in their own villages.
Mr Kenyatta should realize that it pays to work with the community’s elected and recognized leader. He should not insult the Luo community by offering luncheon to a group of brief-case politicians and street dwellers of Nairobi. His mentor, the retired President Daniel Arap Moi, had squandered millions of shillings through using wrong strategies buying the support of Luo political rejects and miserably failed inn his concerted effort to reach the community by using unwanted political surrogates. And Kenyatta who worked closely with Moi ought to have known that this is an iron willed community, which is not an easy prey or political sellout.
The Luos, however, are peaceful and democratic minded people. They cherish the spirit love and co-existence of all Kenyans. It is a community which is not thriving vengeance and blood thirsty, but a democratic community that believes in justice for all.
Kenyatta’s new found political partner and presidential running-mate was the other day in Kisumu, though he arrived rather late in the evening, he was given an arousing welcome by a huge enthusiastic crowd which gathered at Kondele ground and also outside Moi’s Stadium in the heart of Kisumu City. Ruto can testify to this, though he has always persistently lost no chance without releasing his vitriol’s and polemics against the Luo political kingpin Raila Amolo Odinga.
The Luos did welcome Ruto in reciprocation of the tumultuous welcome that is always accorded to Raila by Ruto’s own Kalenjin people whenever “Agwambo” is tour of the Rift Valley. And this is the kind of new Kenya that we want.
I was glad that prior to Ruto;s much vaunted plan to visit the Lakeside City, Raila had made stopovers at the various spots in the City and told his fanatic and overzealous supporter to welcome and this was openly demonstrated that they were peaceful to all the prospective presidential candidates whenever they are on a tour of the region. This was pure act of political maturity and magnanimity, and the Kisumu youths followed his instructions to the letter and happily received Ruto and Eugine Wamalwa, though they were only in town briefly.
Kenyatta who holds a key ministerial docket, that of Finance in the coalition government, should have told his Luo friends what plans are a foot for the revival of the stalled government projects, the plans for the resuscitation of the all the closed won, but economically important manufacturing industries in Kisumu City and its environs.
The important large and medium sized industries in Kisumu, such as the multimillion Kicomi, Kenya Breweries, Kibos Industries and many others, closed down under the Moi regime. This spilled many youths to the streets as they become redundant and jobless, and since became the major source of insecurity in the whole of Nyanza region instead of veiled attack on Nyanza political leadership.
The Luo woes and tribulation started all the way back in 1962, immediately soon after the end of the second and the last Lancaster House Round Table constitutional conference in London that paved the way for the formation of the responsible government after the overwhelming KANU victory over KADU, in the pre-independence general election the following year in June 1963.
A cabal of Kiambu confidants and Kenyatta’s advisers moved in with snake’s speed and worked overnight burning their midnight oil to ensure that the hitherto neat close Luo-Kikuyu political alliance and working relations did not materialized anymore. It was purely for economic purpose, because a year later something unique emerged which was known as “Koinange Blueporint”.
The damning secret plan was not hatched by the late Mbiyu Koinange, then a key minister in the Kenyatta cabinet, but it was the covert work of the late Bruce Mackenzie and White Hall.They wanted to retain the British economic dominance of Kenya and came out with the “Koiange Blueprint, which was meant to ensure that all the major important means of production in this country remained in tight control of the Kikuyu elites in collaboration with British investors under the close watch of the White Hall. This is how the plan to frustrate and sideline the late Jaramnogi Oginga Odinga an his fellow Luo arch-rival the late Tom Mboya had come about.
The late Kenyatta held secret night meetings at his Gatundu home with Kukuyu elite during which plans were hatched how to make easy loans through banks controlled by Kikuyu to avail finances for Kikuyu businessmen and traders for funding their purchase of shares in most major productions. Means and this is how the Kukuyu accessed shareholding in big multinational companies such as BAT, Brooke Bond, and many others reducing the highly Luos and members of other Kenyan communities to mere workers while the Kukuyu partly with foreigners owned the industries including commercial banks.
Nearly all the Kikuyu merchants were accorded bank and ICDC loans. They included the charcoal sellers and kiosk traders who got unsecured loans which enabled them to purchase shares in big companies and acquire wealth for just this simple reason. Meaning the beginning of the economic strangulation and marginalization of the Luos and other non-Kikuyus.
Did all these secret schemes come about due to bad political leadership in Nyanza? Kenyatta sould have learned the political history of this country before he opened up his big mouth and threw the blames to innocent people. The same policy was later pursued to the letter by his father’s successor Daniel Moi. All these are in the history note books of Kenyan scholars and it won’t take long before this kind of information are blown off for the public consumption. Let Uhuru campaign in a clean note and tell the public what he intend to do for Kenyans and stop touching the old wounds.
Personally I have no grudge against the Kenyatta family as a whole and Uhuru in person, but my passionate advice to the Gatundu South MP is that h should not open the can of warm. He should be made to be aware that he is under scrutiny and close watchful eyes.
Uhuru should first of all, before he opens up against Luo leadership, think seriously about the reparation and compensation to the families of close to 40 Luos who was massacred by the trigger happy boys from Gatundu in Kisumu City in October 1969 and other hidden crimes against the community
We can all contribute immensely towards the preservation of unity of purpose and move our country forward if we all could be pursuing the constructive political engagement and not destructive politics of hatred and deceit.
Ends
from odhiambo okecth
Friends,
We must do a quick National Land Audit and determine who has been settled where since Independence.
We must then ask for fairness in the process of resettlement.
It is not in anyone interests that Kenyans are being declared IDPs yet we have vast pieces of lands held in private hands, land that was never acquired legally in the first place.
It is in our interest as Kenyans to address this problem once and for all. The "Government' seems to be hell bent on repeating history. When we fight as Kenyans, a few people in the "Government' benefit the more. They are hence keen not in settling the question of IDPs.
I bet we are smarter now and we can live to the dictates of the New Constitution in as far as the Land Question is concerned.
This is a time bomb that will destroy Kenya if not well handled, or if handled the way it is being handled now; where "Government' id hawking some Kenyans as IDPs.
Oto
from Taras W.
"President Obama ... grew up abroad, to be sure, but he spent most of his educational career right here in the United States, indoctrinated in the traditions of the progressives and the Frankfurt School [of Marxism]. Ironically enough, the biggest problem for America arises if President Obama was born here - because if he was, the problem of un-Americanism is now internal rather than external. Perhaps that is why so many Americans wonder about the birth certificate - they hope against hope that President Obama is a symptom of a foreign ill rather than a domestic one. ... We have an ideological problem in our midst, and no amount of digging in Kenya and Indonesia is going to solve a problem that now starts right here."
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/04/22/about-the-birth-certificate/
from Chuck Lipsig
Interesting article -- and I think ideology does give Obama a certain ... I don't want to call it either un-American or anti-American, because those have more specific meanings, then the raw words ... so say, non-Americanism, in that he does not buy into certain aspects of the American mythology (and, note, I do not use mythology to imply falseness here) that previous Presidents (even Clinton) have, as much as his relatively rags to riches story would be an example of one of the stories of said American mythology.
There is also another, less savory, reason that birtherism survives and that's the same reason why many opposed to Bush insisted that he did not truly win the Presidency in 2000 and, therefore, was not truly the President. That is, the office carries a certain amount of respect. For many people, even if one is seriously opposed to the President's politics, one respects the office. But if Obama is not truly the President, then one does not have to give respect for the office to the man in the office. Similarly, many Democrats were more willing to criticize Bush, while out of the country not (just) because of the philosophies discussed in the article, but, because, if he were not truly the President, then he was not due the respect of office.
Mind you, this likely will, if it hasn't already, have the effect of eroding respect for the office itself. The practice of not respecting the office holder for reasons that are considered legitimate may seep into being disrespect for the office, itself, regardless of one's belief in the legitimacy of the office-holder ... I leave it as an exercise for the individual, of whether that's necessarily a bad thing.
--
Chuck Lipsig -- Gainesville, FL -- chuck.lipsig@gmail.com
"When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -- C.S. Lewis
from MARTIN WOOSTER
Chuck, I think you're right that "birtherism" is a way of showing that Obama's election is somehow illegitimate and therefore he has no right to be President. It's the hardline right equivalent of the hanging chad.
I believe that Obama would be perfectly comfortable being a European social democrat. Or a Canadian Liberal. That doesn't mean he's a socialist because we don't have socialists in America (*koff* *koff* *koff*). But if Barack Obama Sr. had moved to Britain instead of the U.S. I could see Obama as housing or community development minister in a Labour cabinet.
Martin Morse Wooster.
Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo in Kitale Town.
The hostile reception accorded to a group of 255 families of the IDP who were on Tuesday this week transported from Nakuru and other areas and ferried in buses and lorries to Kwanza constituency in Trans-Nzoia County is a testimony that communal cohesion among Kenyan is still far away from being perfect.
In recent weeks, a group of Kenyan leaders calling themselves G7 have been criss-crossing the full length and widest the country claiming that they had succeeded in reconciling Kenyans of diverse tribal background, particularly those who had fought the now infamous land tribal clashes.
The group is lead by the Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, who is also the Finance Minister, the suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto. They duo have already declared themselves Presidential candidateS in 2012 and presidential running-mate in the next general elections
In their series of public rallies, particularly in the Rift Valley and in other parts of Kenya, the group made it clear that they are out to united all Kenyatta, and that the communities which were hitherto hostile to each other, particularly the Kikuyus and the Kalenjins had been reconciled.
Uhuru and Ruto in their public pronouncement have turned the heat on the Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga vilifying the latter as being the major source of disunity in the country.
Kenyatta and his new found political friend, however, did not point out any one single Kenyan killed by Odinga’s Luo supporters nor have they pointed out any group of IDP forcefully evicted of their legally acquired land and property in Luo-Nyanza.
The Luos despite having been marginalized and deliberately consigned to abject poverty by all the previous regimes in Kenyatta dating back to the dictatorial rule of the founding President Jomo Kenyatta who also happen to be the biology father of Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta.
On Tuesday this week, the government packed hundreds of IDP on thre big buses and several Lorries. These IDP were collected from various camps in various parts of Nakuru including Afraha Stadium,Lanet, Kipkures and Ogilgei. The close to 255 families traveled overnight in buses and trucks hired by the Ministry of Special Programmes.
The IDP groups headed westwards to Kitale in the Trans-Nzoia County where they were expected to bi given parcels of land for settlement. The land which previously belonged to Agricultural Development Corporation measuring 1,000 acres is located in Kwanza Constituency. They IDP were expected to start anew life after living in IDP tents ever since the 2008 post-election violence.
On the morning of the next day, they journey to a new promised land came to halt. All looked well with IDP people joyfully looking forward to have the new found land where they can call their own and their homes.
Upon arrival at the site of the Promised Land, the IDP people were greeted by a rowdy youths from within the area. The youth aggressively confronted the IDP and warned them not to set their foot on the firm and ordered them to go back to where they had come from. The youths were mainly from squatters and landless people in the area
The government had earlier promised each family would be given two acres farm and a quarter of an acre for building homesteads. Each family was given Kshs 10,000 compensation and further sums of Kshs 25,000 for putting new houses.
The aggressive looking youths were joined by huge crowd of people who menacingly threatened the newcomer by insisting that there are more landless people in Trans-Nzoia. They maintained that there were more squatters in the region than in any part of Kenya, who should have given priority in settlement than those from other regions. Some of the youth even resorted to war cries and songs.
The locals insisted that there were close 10,000 squatters in the region who were spilled over from the 1992, 1997 and 2007 tribal clashes.
The Chepchoina farm is part of the vast truck owned by Agricultural Development Corporation {ADC} ,which is a government parastatal in Kwanza constituency, Trans-Nzoia West district. It borders the cattle rustling prone Mt Elgon district where Sabaot Land Defense reined terror a few year ago.
The area is frequented by heavily armed and fierce Pokot warriors who come there and steal cattle. The Pokots come armed with AK 47 assault rifles, according to the area administrative chief Richard Kirui,
Civic leaders in the area said they were vehemently opposed to the government plan of settling outsiders in their region. The outspoken nominated Councilor Pius Arap Kauka said the government should consider the possibility of settling the landless locals. By bringing people all the way from Nakuru to Kwanza is an act of incitement. He said.
The MP for Kwanza, Dr Noah Wekesa, who is the government Minister for Forestry and Wildlife said he was vehemently opposed to the idea o sending IDP from other regions to his constituency, and would not allow that to happen.
The Answer to the million questions being asked by Kenyans is simple. If the hitherto hostile neighboring communities have since been reconciled and united as claimed by Kenyatta Ruto and Musyoka axis then why can’t the government send the IDP back to their own farms? Majority of the IDP are people who had their legally acquired land and even have their title deeds and other registration papers and land certificates. Why not assist them to get back to their own homes?
The majority of the IDP are members of the Kukuyus who were forced out of their farms by the Kalenjin warriors during the tribal land clashes. If Kenyatta and Ruto alliance is genuine and fruitful, then we expected the IDP to be back on their own farms and be resettled there peacefully.
May be the so called amorphous unity and political alliance is mainly to block Raila Odinga from accessing the presidency? If that is the case then it is bound to fail because Kenyans are very much awake and cannot be taken for granted. Kenyan is built of a much society which is highly enlightened on their democratic rights and as such may not easily succumb to naivety and politics of deceits.
Some of the dejected IDP told this writer that when they arrived the youth threatened to burn them alive should they set their foot on the Chepchoina farm. They said they were ready to start a long walk back to their camps located hundreds if kilometers away if the government buses and Lorries cannot ferry them back.
It is better to live peacefully in the tents instead of this kind of treatment. We are angry at being stranded by the roadside, like slaves and lost people, and not Kenyan citizens.
But the Regional Commissioner for the North Rift, William Wayanga, was today quoted by the STANDARD as saying that the IDP will have to be settled on the farm, and he warned local leaders not to sabotage the resettlement plan, difficult as it is, for the government.
Some youths were heard shouting at the top of their voices the Kenyatta family owns more than 20,000 hectare of land in the country from Taita / Taveta, Mombasa, Laikipia, Naromoru, Nanyuki and Thika. ”The family should surrender part of the land it had acquired erroneously to the landless Kenyans,”
The area MP Dr. Noah Wekesa faulted his cabinet colleague Esther Mirugi, the Minister for Special programme for not having consulted him before purchasing the land in question, But Ms Mirugi fired back saying there was no need consulting the MP when someone is buying the land in given area within his constituency, because the MP was not the gatekeeper at Endebess.
The stand off is likely to have negative effect of the political standing of Kenyatta and Ruto the proponent of unity of all Kenyan people, and yet the duo have spoken very little about the IDP people.
The incident has given the area MP Dr. Wekesa an instant fame, when he in solidarity with his electorate openly opposed the settlement of outside within the constituency. It has brought blames games between the two Ministers who are all members of the PNU side of the coalition, and exposed the government of operating without consultation between the Ministrie
Ends
