Category Archives: Leo Odera Omolo

KENYA: MIXED RECEPTION FOR THE IEBC TEAM THAT TOURED LUO-NYANZA TO COLLATE PUBLIC VIEWS ON NEW PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCIES AND COUNTY WARDS

Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

THE Interim Electoral and Boundaries Commission {IEBC} team that visited Luo-Nyanza last week and earlier this week had a mixed reception and near violence in some parts of the region.

The visit revealed that there existed in many parts of the region some kind of deeply rooted suspicion among the leaders, differences between sub-clans and clans and diverse community.

There have resurfaced numerous accusation and counter accusation of political marginalization of minority communities against the weak and smaller communities. Claims of gross interference by powerful politician interfering in the political activities of other regions he they are aliens.

The mission degenerated into a lot of controversies myriad problems and complaints surfaced about one prominent family, which has the grip hold and political clout, but misusing its influence by imposing unqualified leaders on population.

The presentation which shocked hundreds of residents of Ksumu City was that of the former cabinet Minister Matthews Onyango Midika, who advised the residents of Siaya an Southern Nyanza regions, that as investors, they are welcome to come and invest in Kisumu City and do business like anyone else, but they must desist from interfering in local politics. “These people had their own counties and therefore they should go there and do politics. We do not want outsiders to come here and impose certain leaders of their own choice on us”.

Midika’s sentiments were quickly viewed by the local political pundits and observers like as targeting members of the Odinga family, which had a grip hold both business and political clout over the Kisumu County residents. Though Midika refrained from names calling, the message was clear and well taken.

Another shocking presentation at Kisumu was that of Mrs Grace Akumu, a parliamentary aspirant in Nyakach, who revealed that the area has a population of 208,391 and yet the area is currently represented by only one MP. This is unfair and clear under representation. She demanded that Nyakach should sub-divided two more parliamentary constituencies one representing Nyakach, Lower region and Nyakach South.

Mrs Akumu also disclosed that there existed a serious boundary dispute between residents of Belgut and Nyakach people, although the demarcation of Sondu Market took place many years ago by decisions of the Provincial Administration in both Nyanza and Rift valley

They have flagrantly refused to implement what was agreed by both communities. Such delays had paved the way for Ahero and Muhoroni to be declared Town Councils leaving behind Sondu Market which is much larger in size and more qualified for upgrading with a lot of facilities. She also reported that another dispute existed between Nyakach and Nyando districts, which needs to be addressed the earliest.

There nearly were punching matches held when residents of Waware sub-location in Sakwa East location discovered that their sub-location has disappeared from the electoral maps altogether, with three other sub-locations in Kogelo. Kogelo and Waware forms what is called Sakwa east Location in Awendo district. But in the light of information recently published by the IEBC, Wawe sub-location which has been in existence since 1926 was merged with Kadera Kuoyo, Kanyasrega in the Sakwa North Location, while three sub-locations of Kogelo were regrouped together and merged with Sakwa South Location.

The residents have faulted and blamed two senior politicians who are aspiring for the various elective positions in the newly created Awendo district for having messed them up. Awendo district was hived out of Rongo by the defunct Andrew Ligale led commission which had created a new parliamentary constituency separated from Rongo. The politicians are blamed for having held a secret meeting in Nairobi where they had hatched plans to dismantle several sub-locations and County Wards for their own selfish interests. One such politician has of late became one of the many professional mourners appearing almost in every funeral gathering which he is always polluting with his outmoded political gimmicks.

Meanwhile residents of Awendo town and its environs have bitterly complained of the re-emergence of political thuggery and brawls in most public joins resulting in physical assaults being the daily recurrences. Hired political goons are causing havoc with innocent Wananchi going about with their daily routine businesses.

Unconfirmed report filtering in from Awendo says that one employee of the sonysugar company was reportedly assaulted last week following political argument and one supporter of a parliamentary aspirant. The same goon was reported to have assaulted a second victim last Friday with the two incidents sending the residents into panick about their safety. These marauding youths have scared the people from the surrounding farming villages away from accessing the town on fear of being provoked by half dozens of gent provocateurs who are said be on the rampage in the area while operating at the behest of their invisible masters, though the general elections are still many months away.

Meanwhile the resident of Kasipul-Kabondo have expressed their satisfaction and the creation of a new parliamentary constituency in the area, the communities involved have yet to settle and agree on the name of the new constituency. Other suggestions has been made that owing to the presence of a large population of Kasipul, from three major locations of Kokwanyo, Kojwach and Kakelo it would only be fair to all the inhabitants, if the new constituency should be called Kasipul -East and the old constituency should b renamed as either Oyugis, Wire or West Kasipul in order to satisfy the interests of the different communities living in it.

Another region which has of late appeared to be problematic and controversy ridden are the two constituencies in Suba region of Mbita and Gwassi. The majority of residents of Gwassi constituency want its named to be hanged back to Suba-South while that of Mita be changed to Suba North. Issues at stake included the fact that there are two warring communities living in Gwassi constituencies. These are the dominant Jo-Wagassi sub-clan and the Jo-Kakisingiri sub-clan which shared the constituency with the majority Jo-Wagassi group.

Two year ago the two community almost went into a full scale war over the place which should house the new administrative headquarters, arguing that which is located right in the middle of Gwassi was chosen to the chagrins of the Kakisingiri people who preferred Gingo Center arguing that there was enough land space which was bought by the government using millions of taxpayers money paid out in compensation previously paid out to the for land owners, who vacated Gingo. There is a full fledged hospital and the offices of the former County Council of Suba. However that issue cooled down and peace prevailed owing to political magnanimity of some political personalities and elites within the locality and those working in Nairobi including the two former Area MPs Zadock Syong’o and Felix Nyauchi.

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Is the trade in human body parts thriving in Kenya?

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Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

The time is ripe for the government to launch a full scale investigations with the view to establish the truth about the widely spread rumors that trade in human body parts has of late become a booming trade in some parts of Kenya.

The alarming reports, about missing persons had their dead bodies being discovered in the thickets by relatives with vital body parts missing, now gives credence that there existed cartels of unscrupulous racketeers involved in human body trades in Kenya.

Previously such incidents were simply dismissed as “ritual killings” or connected to religious fanaticism, but until recent years when the government in the neighboring Tanzania made it public that there existed in that country a cartel of people involved in human body parts, particularly of those people with albinism blood {Albinos} such reports were treated like hot-air phantom.

However, the latest reports of incidence of dead bodies being found with private parts now gives credence that the incidences of this magnitude do not involved vampire or the movies like Dracula’s, but the threat is real and increasingly becoming a real menace to the Kenyan society.

A couple of years, the Tanzanian government investigated the cases of Albinos who were being butchered for human body parts trade and prosecuted a number of culprits earning deterrent prison sentences or death sentences nobody here in Kenya or elsewhere could believes that such kid of business is thriving in this region of Africa. But Tanzania swung into action to protect the Albinos came late after close to 60 or more people with albinism blood have perished.

This followed hue and cries by the public, which forced some Albinos people in Tanzania to fled the country to seek security protection in Kenya and in other countries, Rwanda and Burundi followed suit by declaring publicly that Albinos were endangered species of human being. This action prompted Albinos in Kenya to sensitize their plight and sought for maximum security protection by the Kenyan government citing the Tanzanian incidences and saying that they safety in Kenya could not be assured.

A case in point is that of a Kenyan who had successfully lured a young Kenyan man with albinism into Tanzania with the promise of securing a lucrative job in the Tanzanian lakeside City of Mwanza only to be caught in a trap set by the Tanzanian police when the man was just about to sell the Albino man from Kitale in the Rift Valley for hundreds of thousands of shillings to a phantom pseudo witch doctor who later turned out to be a senior police officer. And the Kenya dealer earned many years of imprisonment in Tanzanian jail, and the would be the potential victim of the heinous trade returned home in Kenya and the would victim after escaping death by a whisker.

The ritual killings were previously reported to common in big Cities and towns like Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu and other smaller towns like Naivasha, Kiambu, Kericho, Eldoret, Kitale, Busia, but such incidences were aliens in most parts of rural areas In Western Kenya.

However, such incidents have of late became so common I regions like Nyamira, Kisii, Rongo,Migori,Namanga,Taveta and so rampant in rural locations in areas close to Kenya-Tanzania common borders pointing t the direction that witches and witchdoctors in neighboring Tanzania who had sent their agents out to hunt Albinos are still in booming trade.

The latest reported incident is that of a tax-driver in Kisii who was hired by smartly dressed men who wanted to be driven to some places. The taxi man was later reported missing for about four days, but decomposing body was later discovered by his relatives in a thicket in Migori about 100 kilometers away is pointing finders to the direction that such trade still thrives on. The man is said to have discovered minus his private parts as well as his eyes gorged out. And his vehicle also went missing.

This particular incident cannot be simply dismissed as the case of car-jacking, but a clear case that trading in human body parts is still thriving in some parts of Kenya. The racketeers in this trade are said to be working in cohort with mortuary attendance workers working in government hospitals and in some privately owned morgues.

These racketeers are said to target the bodies of both male and female and there was unconfirmed rumor of the body of a woman which was sent for preservation in one of the privately owned morgues. The next time when her relatives, mainly women went to the mortuary to have the body washed and properly dressed for its final journey home for burial, they were shocked to see some blood oozing out from the corpse’s private part and upon checking, the relatives got a shock of their life time when they discovered that her private part was missing and only the cotton goose were filled in its place.

According to sources in Migori and Awendo towns the matter was left to rest due to Luo traditional and cultural fear of bringing ‘possible bad omen and shame to the deceased family” if it was made public nor was there any report made to the police for their investigations

The cartel of racketeers involved in this kind of bloody-money trade are said to have posted their agents in most of hospitals mortuaries in the region, and the bodies of the road accident victims, especially those which are badly mutilated in grisly road mishaps are said to be the easiest and best prey for the racketeers because they usually takes the bodies home thinking that perhaps the private parts could have been smashed in the accident or interfered with during the post-mortem exercises, which are usually performed as legal mandatory by government pathologists on the road accident victim bodies and the bodies of those who died as murder victims.

The rumors says what Is facilitating this kind of business in some case, involved relatives ho buy expensive coffins, hand them to the mortuary attendances with instructions t have the bodes of their relatives and properly dressed for the burial. And it said some unpatriotic mortuary attendances are the ones who are working in collaboration with traders in human body parts.

Indeed it is now a common belief that some families might unknowingly been taking the bodies of their dead relatives home from hospital mortuaries for burial minus private parts after such corpses had already been safely placed inside the coffins and only glass windows showing the faces of the deceased left open for the mourners for viewing.

However, when the business of selling the human parts is declining and not flourishing well, the big money not forthcoming, these racketeers resort to unorthodox sending their agents to hunt for human beings like wild antelopes resulting in grisly murder of innocent Kenyans.

And like the money earned by drugs traffickers, the colossal of money raked from the sales of the human body trade could as well be used in financing national and regional elections during the impending general elections slated to be held later this year.

The money suspected to have been earned from this kind of trade or the money earned from drug trafficking, particularly bhang could have been perfectly used during the recently concluded, but controversy ridden ODM grass root elections, which turned to be life threatening in some parts of Luo-Nyanza.

It the duty of the Provincial Administration and police authorities to investigate thee issues to their logical conclusion, and save the sanctity of lives of many Kenyans who are dying and loosing their precious lives at the whims of these money maniacs.

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Kenya: President Kibaki is petitioned not to suspend the DCJ Nancy Baraza from her duties

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Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

ALTHOUGH I do not wish to underrate the works of the Judiciary Service Commission, which was recently hastily constituted by our Honorable Chief Justice Willy Mutunga to investigate the conduct of the Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza,I am of the opinion that the issue was grossly exaggerated and overblown out of proportion by interested parties.

The committee in its seemingly harsh verdict had recommended to President Mwai Kibaki that the DCJ be suspended from her duties within the next 14 days followed by the appointment of a tribunal to investigate the conduct of the DCJ for further disciplinary action.

If the Kenyan society is made of close to 80 per cent Christians who well versed in Christianity doctrines of forgiveness this should not have been the case. This is because the incident was a minor one and the DCJ has sincerely and genuinely tendered her apology to the young lady security guard Mrs Rebecca Kerubo Morara,who in turn has already expressed her willingness to forgive Baraza and not to pursue the matter any further then why can’t we Kenyan forgive DCJ and let the matter rest there?

Furthermore, this otherwise minor incident has already drawn in both political and tribal angles with some communities seeing the possibility having Baraza kicked out of that coveted office would pave the way for their own wives and daughters chances of moving up the ladder. This is not the very best way of good governance but tantamount to witch-hunting.

I may be a layman, and not widely versed with legal matters, but as a father I am making my personal and passionate appeal to President Mwai Kibaki to exercise his fatherly heart by ignoring the committee’s radical and sugar-coated request for Baraza’s suspension fro office. The DCJ should be spared and given a chance to continue with noble task of reform agenda within our hitherto rotten and corruption ridden judiciary system.

As parents we shall also talk to Baraza to usher in some elements of reform into her own temperamental attitude and reaction to issues in relations to her high office and also to avoid carrying her office with her to wherever she goes. She will need to humble herself to the society that she is serving so that she can earn respect in reciprocation. She should be mesmerized by her accession to the highest office in our judiciary system.

As parents, and one of those Kenyans who believes in gender equality I am very proud of the DCJ for being the first indignant Kenyan female to achieve the highest status within our judiciary system I an are which for many years remained the exclusively the preserve of the males. Nancy has been discharging her official duties diligently and with the seal that her high office requires therefore should not crucify her at the whims of the tribalists and sectionalist minded people might be secretly hatching the plot to replace her with their own, the Kenyan style of dong things the wrong way.

Given the prevailing insecurity situation countrywide and constant threats against law abiding Kenya citizens by terrorists group anyone could have reacted in the way and the manner the DCJ Baraza had reacted when she was about to cross the security checking table at the shop. May be the approach by the guards was not well coordinated making her to feel her personal safety was under threat. It is also imperative for the security providing firms to educate and enlightened their guards on how to approach their duties, especially when handling customer and the security checkpoints, I have personally came cross some of the security guards posted at the gates of most posh hotels in Kisumu City shoving the customers around in uncouth manners.

There are many contentious issues including the allegations drug trafficking by people suspect to be close to the corridor of power, mega financial scandals involving millions of lost taxpayers money, unresolved killing of innocent Kenyans and politically motivated assassinations of the most promising leaders, naked vandalizing of funds meant to improve the quality of our children’s education standards, massive corruption in lands offices countrywide as well as shameless corruption being practiced by traffic police on our highways with impunity.

These and many other are the issues which should be given top priority and adequately addressed instead our leaders and officials wasting valuable times on petty hullabaloos and fuss on minor issues like the one related to the DCJ Baraza.

Baraza is a true reformist and she should be allow to continue with her good work at the Supreme Court of Kenya.

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Tanzania: IFC is to inject USD 5 million towards the nickel exploration project in Northern Tanzania

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo

Reports emerging from Dar Es Salaam and Arusha says Tanzania will soon start exploiting its nickel deposits in Dutwa area in Northern part of the country, with the injection of USD 5 million IN TO PROJECT BY THE International Finance Corporation {IFC}.

The money will go towards concluding a feasibility study of the project. In turn IFC- the private sector arm of the World Bank Group – will take up a 10 per cent stake in African Eagle Resources, the mineral development firm behind it.

The study is scheduled for completion by the end of this year {2012}.The IFC has already signed an equity subscription agreement with African Eagle Resources, a UK incorporated company that discovered the nickel deposits in 2008.This will culminate in the issuing of 45,509,570 ordinary shares in the company to IFC.

In a statement issued late last week, the firm said, ”For every two new shares subscribed for, IFC will receive a warrant to purchase one further share at a price per share of 150 per cent of the placing price, exercisable for four years. Accordingly, on closing of the placing, IFC will hold 22,754,755 share purchase warrant.

The agreement also gives IFC a pre-emptive right to participate in any future equity or equity linked financings in order to allow it to maintain its 10 per cent ownership in the firm.

“Africa Eagle Resources has agreed publicly to disclose any material payments to the Tanzania government, as per IFC’s requirements,“ it added in the statement.

The ongoing feasibility study, which IFC has boosted and is slated for completion this year, is set to be used by the firm to secure financing for resource exploitation. Findings of an economic model that was developed through a study commissioned by the firm projected that up to USD 10.2 billion would be raked I its 26 years lifespan.

The head of mining at IFC, Tom Butler, said that the Dutw project has the potential to become “a major African nickel producer should the current feasibility study work continue to be successful.”

In the statement released Mr Butler said the IFC would help to implement environmental and social best practices for its mining activities.

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Kenya: The interim boundaries and electoral commission is to face tough question over the disappearance of the 50 year old Winam parliamentary constituency in Kisumu

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

The Interim Electoral and Boundaries Commission will face the toughest questions when it visited Kisumu to collect the public views of the realignment of new County Wards and Parliamentary constituencies.

Top on the agenda among the dozens of issues to be resolved is the question of the administrative and political representation at both parliamentary level of the residents of Kadibo Division, which for many years was part of the larger West Kano Location.

Administratively, the entire Kadibo Division is currently being falling under Kisumu district, while in political representation, the area I included in Nyando constituency causing a lot of inconveniences to he residents.

The political history of this region is the most intriguing. A whole Winam parliamentary constituency, which has been in existence ever since independence in 1963 was scrapped under a very suspicious and controversial circumstances in the 1980s under the Boundaries Review Commission headed by the former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs James Paul Nyamweya who was also first MP for Nyaribari constituency in Kisii.

The residents had staked their hopes that the Ligale led Boundary Commission which had created close to 80 new additional parliamentary constituencies would have taken a keen look into the issue and the historical background the matter, and perhaps revived or restored the lost Winam constituency, which had disappeared in controversial circumstance during he representation of the late Dr Robert John Ouko and the former Kisumu Rural MP Wilson Ndolo-Ayah, but the Ligale Commission failed to readjust and restore the lost Winam Constituency to the chagrins of the residents.

In1962, shortly before Kenya attained its political independence, the Colonial Office in London had appointed the high profile Boundaries Commission, which was headed by one Prof.Mackenzie. This was the Commission which created most of the current parliamentary electoral constituencies in Kenya. It crated Winam Constituency in Kisumu district. The constituency then covered the entire Kolwa Locations, Miwani and Kibos sugar cane farming Locations, Kajulu Location and a number of Peri-Urban areas of Kisumu Municipality such as Dunga, Pand-Pieri, Nyamasaria, and Manyatta.

In the first general elections, which ushered the independence and which a held in June 1963, the first Winam Constituency was the late Mr Otieno Oyoo {Rayier} who had a seat on a KANU ticket and became the first MP for the area. However, Otieno Oyoo perished in a grisly road accident which occurred when his car rolled several times while he was driving home from Kisumu Town in the late evening hours. The mishap occurred between Nyamasaria and his rural home in Kobura village near Rabuor on the main Kisumu-Ahero-Kericho highway shortly and within only two months after taking his parliamentary oath.

In the consequent by-election that followed, the former Market Mater at the Kisumu Jubilee Market

L.W.Oselu-Nyalick, a resident of Kolwa, was voted in on a KANU ticket as Oyoo replacement. Nyalick successfully defended his seat in 1969, but was later dethroned by the former General Secretary of the Kenya Civil Servant Union, Geoffrey Onyulo, from Kajulu in 1974. Nyalich bounced back and recaptured the seat in 1979. He had also served as an Assistant Minister for Local Government and at one time acted as the Mayor of Mombasa Municipality when its Council was dissolved by the government an replaced by a Commission.

The three decades old parliamentary constituency was suddenly and mysteriously scrapped when the boundaries of Kisumu Mincipality were expanded to ten miles radius during the reign of he late Robert John Ouko as the MP for Kisumu Town sparking off a series of protests by other MPs like Ojwang’ K’Ombudo {Nyakach} Peter Anyumba {Nyando} and Onyango Ayoki {Kisumu Rurak}. The three MPs were rounded up and briefly locked in at the various police stations. The three MPs were later released from the police custody without any criminal charges being preferred against them an that how the Winam Parliamentary constituency evaporated and disappeared from the Kenya map and political landscape and history without trace.

Ouko who was then a senior member of the cabinet in the Moi’s authoritatarian KANU regime was hell-bent to ensure that the resident of Kolwa location, who were his uncles were included in Kisumu Town Constituency by hook and crock for the purpose of securing the safety of his uncles votes. To perpetuate of his continued influence in the local political derby Ouko was the one who I blamed for having killed the Winam Constituency.

It has now placed the residents of Nyando and Kisumu Toown East constituencies in a political dilemma where the residents of the populous Kadibo Division are politically in Nyando but administratively being administered by Kisumu district.

According to the US based Orieno Wagah who is an aspirant for Nyando parliamentary contest the impending general election, the residents are experiencing a lot of difficulties, especially the youths looking for the new generation national identity cards and those who seeking government employment. They are being made to shuttle around between Awasi the Nyando district headquarters and Kisumu D.C’s offices without successes.

The situation was even made worse during the reign of Peter Otieno Raburu as the Nyanza P.C. Raburu himself is a resident of Kadibo Division but for unknown reasons he had engineered the transfer of the entire Kadibo Division from Nyando to Kisumu district and separated its residents politically from their kith and kin in Nyando district. This new arrangement has had serious political and administrative repercussions to the residents, especially in connections to the disbursement of the government devolving funds such as CDF, Road Maintenance and Bursary Funds.

Otieno Wagah has called upon the government to urgently move with speed to harmonize the burning issue and ensure that the current IEBC restore and revive the Winam constituency ad that the resident of Kadibo rejoin their fellow Kano people in Nyando both administratively and politically .And so did Ouko himself followed the suit!!

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KENYA: THE NEWLY FORMED UNITED REPUBLICAN PARTY IS A REPLICA OF THE DREADED KY92 OUTFIT AND FACES AN UPHILL TASK IN ITS EFFORT TO WIN THE HEARTS OF KENYANS.

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News Analysis by Leo Odera Omolo In Kericho Town.

The newly launched United Republican Party is nothing new, but a replica of the dreaded infamous KANU Y92 outfit which the retired President Daniel Arap Moi used to perpetuate falsified election victory during the first multi-party elections I 1992.

It has regrouped all the top of leadership of the defunct KANU Y92 which was
famed for having inflicted injuries to many Kenyans in its effort to restore the presidency of the retired President Daniel Arap Moi by way of hook and crocks means, which included the alleged dishing out of millions of fake currency notes to the voters and event torturing the perceived opponents of KANU regime either real or imagined.

The URP does not reflect to be a party with the national outlook, but a regional and tribal outfit whose leadership is perhaps armed with fictitious imagination that it could use the three million votes in the votes rich Rift Valley Province for power bargain after losing out to other parties during the impending general elections. And of course its failure could be inevitably projected in advance.

The URP has brought on board a highly respected individual personality, like the former Speaker of the National Assembly, Francis Ole Kaparo. It dumped the retired former KNUT National chairman and perennial parliamentary election loser in Buret constituency, Joseph Arap Chirchir, who it has used to destabilize the UDM in a vain attempt to gain a foothold in the party through the backdoor.

The URP might have succeeded temporarily in using and dumping Chirchir, but its entry as an acceptance in the vote’s rich Kipsigis region in the South Rift would be an uphill task, which would require a lot of political magnanimity and acumen.

Asked if the UDM would accept Chirchir back in its hierarchy, a top official of the party told this writer at the weekend that it is up to Chirchir to decide as to which party he would wish to join. He should either to remain an ordinary UDM member and forfeit his claims to the party leadership or move out and stay put in the URP. The choice is for him to decide.

Speaking to this writer by phone the UDM leader Lt. Gen {rtd} John Arap Koech dismissed as mischievous those claiming that without the support of the Eldoret North MP William Ruto the party is doomed to fail and would soon be on the verge of total collapse.

Koech reiterated that UDM, which is allied to the ODM, is here to stay and would soon launch its own programme of membership recruitment countrywide. The party has one MP in the tenth parliament in the name of Prof Hellen Simbili and elected civic leaders in several Urban, County and Town Councils throughout the country. It has been performing extremely well at the recent parliamentary by-elections until an attempt to grab its leadership was made by a group of disgruntled ODM rebel MPs. They had grand design to make the UDM their soft landing political party after breaking ranks with the ODM.

“This move by the MPs landed the otherwise vibrant UDM party into a series of legal tussles through courts and tribunals thereby temporarily interrupting and interfering with the party’s programmes and schedules. The intruders have finally seen the lights on the other side of the tunnel and moved to their newly found party and the UDM wished them well.” Said Koech.

A good number of political personalities among the Kipsigis elites insist that the Kalenjin MPs who are allied to William Ruto are thriving in politics of riding on the back of other people and as such are not leaders worth trusting. They are thriving on persistently calling the name of the Prime Minister Rala Odinga whenever they opened their venomous mouths and wherever they go. They lacked visionary kind of politics an the policy to sell to the voters apart from bashing the PM.in the hope of cutting Raila to size, and yet by doing so they are unknowingly making the PM a hero in this country.

Uncoordinated and recklessly designed attacks and unfair criticism of Mr Odinga, which some of the politicians are in the habit of using in this country to popularize themselves, is actually working in favor of the ODM leader, and those doubting this political scenario should wait and see the outcome of the next general election. This is because many Kenyans believe that Raila Odinga is the genuine and true reformist.

Agwambo is also being credited for having fought a long battle and won by making the Kenya citizens to realize the new and modernized Republican Constitution, whereas those who have since ganged up with the aims and objectives of thwarting his presidential bid have done nothing Kenyans.

So many political parties have sprung up in the recent years and months with short sighted leaders who thrives on gaining political mileage by way of incessant attacks on Raila Odinga for the cheap aims of whipping out tribal support, but according to a civic leader in Kericho County all the uncalled and unwarranted attacks by Raila’s critics appeared to have boomerang and worked in the opposite direction in his favor instead.

Councilor Nicholas Tum of Kericho Municipality says Raila is the darling of thousand of Kipsigis people who for many years were marginalized by their cousins from the North Rift who took the lion’s share during the long reign of the retired President Daniel Arap Moi. “The people of this region want to be right inside the next government and not in the periphery and the only short route to that dream is through Raila’s ODM party, and strictly not via any amorphous and unrealistic political alliances,” said Coun Tum.

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Kenya: Banning of political speeches at funeral gathering in Luo-Nyanza is most welcome by residents

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

The stern security measure of banning political speeches in funeral gatherings inside Luo-Nynza is most welcomed as a security precaution by the government to pre-empting in possible disaster in waiting.

Issue the ban, the Internal Security Assistant Minister Joshua Orwa Ojode warned that leaders who take politics to funeral places now risk being arrested on the sport.

The chairman of the Luo Council of Elders Ker Meshack Riaga Ogalo is among the community leaders who readily welcomed the government decision citing insecurity, especially during this year of the impending general elections. It is also in line with the Luo culture and traditional norm that the departed souls are given peaceful and solemn sending off.

The Assistant Minister was reaction came about following last Sunday incident in Oyugis in Rachuonyo South district where Immigration and Registration of Persons Minister Gerald Otieno Kajwang, Kasipul-Kabondo MPOyugi Maguwanga, the chairman of the ODM election board Eng.Phillip Okoth Okundi’, civic and ODM party leaders, Senate, Parliamentary and County Governorship aspirants were forced to scamper for their dear lives when they were caught in chaos and fighting melee that had erupted at a funeral.

The ugly incident which saw scores of youth sustaining serious injuries occurred during the burial of the immediate former Mayor of Oyugis Town, the late Coun Ogweno Ong’ondo.

The chaos erupted following the heated argument and disagreement over protocol between the area MP and ODM party boss prompting the youths allied to both side of the local political divide to swung into action during chairs and stones flew over the main dais causing bodily injuries to many mourners.

The residents and observers alike blamed the incident on the abrasive MP and also cited the arrival of many professional mourners who are to be roaming all over the villages appearing in almost every one single funeral after being hired to deliver slanderous speeches against the targeted victims, mainly aspirants for the various elective positions under the new constitutional dispensations. Others comes in their hundreds and thousands hoping to get handout cash from potential aspirants and for the purpose of feasting on free food provided to guests by the bereaved families.

“Let politicians be warned that we will arrest them and disrupt their speeches at funerals. Let them hold political rallies instead of using funerals to preach politics,” said the Minister, adding that Churches have been asked to take a leading role to ensure that politicians hijack funerals.”

The Anglican Church of Kenya Maseno West Bishop Joseph Wasonga welcomed the move, saying it was wise to respect the dead n the bereaved families.”We as a diocese had long banned politics at funerals, and we are happy that the government has followed the suit,” the Bishop said.

A near bloody confrontation occurred last Saturday following disagreement between the Luo Nomiya Church clergymen who had turned to perform the Christian burial rituals of the ODM politician Zachariah Omolo at Kokuro village, Sakwa Central, Awendo district within Migori County where one the local leaders who Is a suspect in another recent incident in Rongo where hired youths had been sent to disrupt a gathering of another group leading to the hacking to death more than five youths, is said to have issued instruction for the youths to be beat up the priest for refusing to allow political speeches.

But the churchmen stood their ground leading to a temporary disruption of the burial ceremony, which only resume several hours after the politician and their gangs of youth have cleared the funeral homestead.

The funeral gatherings are said to be attracting those aspiring for the various elective positions from far flung parts of the region, and professional mourners and hirelings.

One notorious professional mourner is said to have been seen making political speeches in funerals in far places like Mfangano, and Rusinga Islands and traversing the entire Homa-Bay region covering all the funeral homes in Karachuoyo Kasipul -Kabondo, Gwassi, Ndhiwa,Rangwe and Homa-Bay. The man is said to be an ex-civic leader who is politically bankrupt and could not even win a primary school committee in his own home turf. But he has been suffocating funeral goers everywhere with his political rhetorics.

Many residents of the region have welcomed the government statement on funerals in Nyanza which are becoming dangerous with high security risk. When fighting broke out, the sufferers are aged men and omen as ell as children and those who had lost their loved ones.

Across section of Luo leaders said the banning was the most appropriate action taken by the government imed at safeguarding the Wananchi who attend the funerals of their departed relatives. But who are of late been polarized by professional mourner and power brokers.

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Kenya: The late Dr. Ouko’s famed house girl Seline Were Ndalo is dead. She was aged 75 years

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo.

The famed house maid of the murdered former Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister the late Dr Robert John Ouko has died aged 75.

According to her brother Eliud Aum Ndalo, Seline who was formerly married to the former Assistant Chief of Kanyikela sub-location in the then West Konyango location in Ndhiwa district the late Wilson Ododa Oyaya.

Seline came to fame during the disbanded Dr Ouko’s Commission of inquiry following her testimony of having seen a white car parked at the main gate and having seen the late Minister being dragged towards the car by his assailants.

She died peacefully at her home near Oridi Primary School near Rapedhi SDA Mission after a long illness. She had no child of her own.

Her body has been taken to Kosano Health Centre near Ndhiwa Town for preservation while the burial arrangement and plans re in progress.

Seline Were Ndalo came to fame following the grisly murder of the late Dr.Ouko in Febrary 1990 at his home in Koru near Muhoroni. She was the last person believed to have spoken to Dr.Ouko shortly before the fateful midnight when unknown strangers stormed the home and took away the Minister whose partly charred body was later discovered at Got Alia six kilometer away from his home.

Seline gave the testimony during the disbanded Ouko Commission of Inquiry that she was awoken in the adjacent room where she had slept when she heard of the commotion coming from the direction of Dr. Ouko’s bed room. She piped her eyes through the window curtain and saw the Minister being dragged from the house to a waiting white car which was parked near the main gate.

Many people thought that Seline had more information, and knew much which she did not divulge to the public for her own safety and personal security. Most of the Ouko workers at the farm, and those who knew something about his disappearance and consequent death including security intelligence officers, a Permanent Secretary and the then Commissioner of Police have since perished and have gone to their graves with vital information about the murder which shocked the Kenya nation and dented the reputation of the then President of the republic of Kenya Daniel Arap Moi and his entire administration.

Seline is believed to have survived long enough because she had disappeared from the eyes of the public and went to lead a quiet life in her rural home in Ndhiwa never to be seen anywhere near Kisumu. She will go to her grave with vital information about the assassination of the late Dr Ouko the man she had served faithfully well for many years.

She was taken into the Ouko family to serve them after the death of her husband and the life was proved to be difficult for a child less woman in the village.

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KENYA: PRESSURE IS MOUNTING ON WILLIAM RUTO TO ABANDON BOTH G7 AND UDM AND REJOIN ODM OR HAVE HIS PARTY MERGED TO RAILA’S PARTY UNDER ANY KIND OF POLITICAL ALLIANCE.

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News Analysis By Kipsiele Arap Sugurut in Kericho Town.

Rumors and speculations making the round in this tea rich region says the pressure is mounting on the Eldoret North MP William Ruto and Kalenjin MPs allied to him to either abandon his UDM and the G7 alliance and rejoin the Orange Democratic Movement {ODM}.

The majority of the inhabitants of the two votes rich Counties of Kericho and Bomet are members of the most populous Kipsigis sub-tribe of the larger Kalenjin ethnic groups believes and maintains that their community interests would be best served by an DM government.

This particular community has been close to the government for the best of the 48 years ever since Kenya attained its political independence in 1963. At the independence, the community had rallied behind the defunct KADU party which was beaten hand down at the 1963 elections by the former ruling KANU party. But immediately soon after independence, KADU voluntarily dissolved itself and its leaders rejoined KANU and thereafter this community has all along been close to the government.

As far as the current politics of the South Rift region is concern it is pointing to the direction of the community which is heading to the cold due to inconsistencies of its leaders, especially the MPs representing the various constituencies located with the two counties.

This community, however, believes that by rejoining and strengthening of the ODM is the only sensible way which could assure the community of a place in the next government.

“We have been in the cold long enough and we now want to be part of the next government”, said a Kericho businessman Joseph Rono, adding “we do not see any possibility of the G7 or any other amorphous alliances beating the ODM at the next polls,”.

The evidence of the latest move and pressure on Ruto to soft his stance towards the Prime Minister could be mirrored on his reconciliatory public pronouncement, his last week surprise visit to Kisumu City,an area which is the bedrock of the ODM.

Ruto had told thousands of audience both at Nyahera, Kajulu and Kondele suburb that his political differences with the Prime Minister Raila Odinga were persona and as such should not be construed by anyone to fuel animosity between the Kalenjins and the Luos and that the two neighboring communities should continue living and working together harmoniously.. These remarks were well taken by local political pundits and observers as meaning that Ruto is ready and willing to reconsider his working relations with Raila Odinga afresh.

Pundits believe that Ruto seemed to have seen the light on the other side of the tunnel and is just about to make an abrupt about-turn towards the ODM. His name is still registered at the offices of the registrar of political parties as the deputy leader of the ODM.

The majority of Kipsigis people want Ruto back in ODM early enough for the preparation for the impending general election. Alternatively, they say, he should form an alliance with ODM instead of PNU and its allies. “Forming some alliances with politicians from the Mt Kenya region would not augur well for us, because of the expansionist attitudes of the people of that region”, said one civic leader there.

The civic leaders in Kericho have cited the recent move by some of the majority shareholders in the KETAPA to have the tea packing factory move from Kericho to Nairobi, an action which could have had adverse effect on the local community because hundreds of workers at the plant, which is located a few kilometer east of Kericho Town where many works from their rural home in the Kipsigis reserve land as an attempt to marginalize the community economically.

The former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta is among the majority shareholders in the plant, which was established in Keicho in the 1950 by the Brooke family that owns Brooke Bond Tea Company, which later sold it to the public in the 1970’s.

Originally KETEPA was the central tea packing plant handling made teas from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania until it was sold out to a private enterprise owned by shareholders in early 1970s. An attempt to dismantle the plant and move it to Nairobi was blocked by the Kipsigis people who insisted that they would be an alternative plant of the same nature to handle the tea from their region and would not allow their t to be transported all the way from Kericho to Nairobi for the purpose of packaging.

Other factors is that the Kipsigis people get along well with their neighbors, the Luos whose easy going lifestyle make them much more friendly. The Luos are known not to be interested in land grabbing or expansionists making them easy to handle. This particular community has never fought any land related tribal skirmishes and many Luo men and women works for the relatively wealthiest Kipsigis farmers an traders and are the one helping the Kipsigis to maintain their tea bushes scattered I the rural areas of Kericho and Bomet Counties,

A number of secret and behind the scene meeting have been held at the various parts of the South Rift region where issues such as long term political implications in connection with the community move to ditch the ODM were reportedly deliberated upon. At one such meetings and in the presence of Ruto, those in attendance had queried the rationale of ditching the ODM for UDM or other parties with speakers after speaker arguing that such a move would only weaken the community political bargaining power when it come the formation of the next government after the impending general elections.

Furthermore the Kipsigis believes that political hostilities between Raila and Ruto could hurt intra-tribal trades and cross border trades between the Kalenjins and the Luos which is booming all the year round. It has been reported that taking all these into considerations, even the most hardliner ant-ODM MPs in Kipsigis land such as the Chepalungu MP Isaac Ruto have toned down their vehement opposition to Raila and have been heard

But when Ruto and his parliamentary colleagues from the region comes hard on Raila Odinga, the Luo workers seemed to be nursing a feeling on insecurity and shy away from the manual jobs in the tea farm, something which hurts the local farmers economically.

The two communities have lived harmoniously fro the immemorial and sharing cross border trades at Sondu, Muhoroni, Fort-Tennan, Soliat ,Koru and Kapsorok border markets and towns.

Moreover, the Luos are the mainstay of labor force in all the large scale tea plantations and factories owned by foreign multinational tea companies in Kericho and Bomet Counties.

The Kipsigis people are said to have refused to buy the Ruto contention that it was the Prime Minister Raila Odinga who instigated his prosecution at the International Criminal Court of Justice at the Hague.

One civic leader came strong in defense of the Prime Minister by dismissing the claims as far fetched propaganda aimed at slandering the good name of Raila Odinga. The civic leader Councilor Nicholas Tum of the Keicho Municipality reminded the Kipsigis that it was Raila Odinga who made the frantic effort to have those suspect in the cases of post elections violence be tried locally at home. An attempt which was vehemently scuttled by Ruto and his group in preference to the ICC arguing that by trying such cases locally the victim would not be treated to a fair trial. The group even went as far a staging the spirited opposition to the motion sponsored in Parliament by the government to that effect, which the Ruto’s group voted against.

“Raila is not Luis Moreno Ocampo nor has got anything to do with ICC therefore anyone linking him to the ICC cases is underestimating the intelligence of the Kenyan people,”said Coun. Tum.

He further disclosed that the community has already prepared the most credible parliamentary aspirants ready to take on the pro-Ruto MPs across the two counties and in all other elective positions in the entire South Rift regions, and most of them he added, have started feeling insecure not sure whether they will retain their seats or not.

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EAC Ministers to discuss master plan for energy and power supply in the region

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo

INFORMATION emerging from the Arusha based secretariat of the East African Community says Energy Ministers across East Africa are set to meet by the end of this month to discuss a regional master plan, seek to end the bloc’s crippling power shortage

The EAC secretariat is reported to be in the process of finalizing details of the meeting which s expected to attract executives from regulating authorities and private sectors power producers.

They will discuss regional priorities in terms of power generation and transmission in line with EAC power master plan and agree on fund raising initiatives,

The forthcoming gathering is also expected to develop a framework that will enable regional governments an the private sector to invest in energy generation projects.

The East African region is battling power shortage which in 2011 plunged the block into darkness, slowing business growth and hurting household. The power cuts signaled one of East Africa’s perennial problems; the bloc has never had enough power in the first lace. In Kenya for example, only 48 per cent of urban and 4 per cent rural households are connected to the national grid.

In the neighboring Tanzania, 12-hour began in June, when a drop in water levels in Mtera Dam in Iringa region forced Tanzania Electric Supply Company to resort to load shedding. Industries reported shrinking their work day from two to a single shift, and some suspending production.

It has been reported that the EAC Council Ministers had directed the secretariat to fast-track the establishment of the EAC power pool by June 2012, to enable power sharing within the region.

The EAC earmarked several priority projects that are critical for ensuring interconnectivity and for enhancing power generation. For example,Singida-Arusha Nairobi 400KV inter connector is expected to be complete by 2014

The EAC Secretary General Dr Richard Sezibera, says the feasibility study and preparation of tender documents for 400KV transmission line through Singida, Arusha and Nairobi will cost USD 3 million. Bujagali 250MW project is currently under the construction and the project is expected to be commissioned in the course of this year The cost of thus particular project is estimated at USD116 million.

The 220KV transmission between Uganda and Rwanda funded by AfDB will cost USD 57 million, according to the EAC’s CEO

Another 220KV transmission between Burundi and Rwanda will cost USD 20 million and it is expected to be completed by2014.

The Rusumo Nyakanz i220KV, Rusumo-Kigai 220KV interconnection and Rsumo-Bujumbura 220Kv interconnection should be complete by 2015.

The 2,100MW Stiengiers hydro-power is expected to materialize in 2017,while Kiwira Coal Plant in Tanzania with a capacity to generate 200MW will become operational in 2014

Rwanda peat power production is projected to generate 400MW by 2013, while Burundi will commence a peat power plant with 200 MW by 2015.

Ayago hydro power with a capacity to generate 600MW by 2018 and Rusumo hydro-power will generate 90MW by2016.

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Kenya & USA: Col. Dr. K’obuoyo a Kenyan professor in the US and a surgeon with the US Air Force is to contest the top seat of the President of the Republic of Kenya

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Writes Leo odera Omolo I Kisumuy City.

A top Kenyan scholar who is living in the United States of America has declared his intention to contest the top most job on the Land come the next year polls.

Col. Prof. Rachilo Luo K’Obuoyo who is a top cardiologist and surgeon with the United States Air force said in a message to his writer that he is vehemently opposed to ll sort of malpractices and corruption which has been devilling Kenya for years.

Col.Prof.K’Obuoyo, however, did not disclosed any existing political party of his choice, but he promised that the would be herein Kenya early next year. He said he has consulted widely and he is likely to get the blessing of the two major Western powers namely the US and Great Britain.

K’Obuoyo said none of all those who have shown keen interests in contesting the presidency is capable of effecting the meaningful change and political reform. Most of those presidential aspirants have been part of bad political machinations and corruption and as such cannot genuinely and meaningful make any change.

Col Prof K’Obuoyo strongly condemned the current coalition government headed by President Mwai Kibaki and the Prime Minister Raila Odinga saying it has failed to deliver to the satisfaction of the electorate. He wanted all those who are involve in the current administration to go home and leave the field open for more energetic and dynamic youthful leaders to be in the forefront.

Col Pof.K’Obuoyo who had earlier announced that he would contest the election for the most powerful and lucrative position of Migori County governor, said he had changed his mind after conducting extensive consultation with his friends both in overseas and here at home who had wished him to go for the top most job {the presidency}.

He hail from Sori-Karungu in Nyatike constituency within Migori County. He said politicians I Kenya have been taking the country citizen for granted and have been running the country like their own fiefdom, but the time has come for these leaders with outmoded ideas to pack up and go.

He sad he was not happy with nearly all the existing political parties which are being run of sycophantic basis with no clear manifesto for proper economic empowerment of Kenyans. The parties, he added, lacked vision with which to improve the living standards of Kenyan, indeed, the leaders have been enriching themselves at the expense of the down trodden Kenyan poor. He strongly abhorred the use of hired political goons to intimidate their perceived opponents or any sort of acts of political thuggery, saying he would conduct gentleman’s campaign in his quest for the presidency of Kenya.’Prof.K’Obuoyois an associate professor of medicine at the Harvard University School of Medicine an Surgery at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has reached the military rank of a colonel n the United Air Force

view images, CPP550680.pdf, 948KB

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Kenya: Peace meeting between Kipsigis and Kisiis rubbished as William Ruto’s political gimmicks and presidential votes shunting

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Kisii Town.

The much highlighted last Monday peace and reconciliation meeting between the two warring communities of Kipsigis of the South Rift and the Kisiis of Nyanza Province was nothing but simple presidential votes hunting political gimmicks of the Eldoret North MP William Ruto.

A cross section of the Abagusii people interviewed here have faulted the leaders who participated at the so-called peace meeting held at Chebilat border town and reportedly attended by 17 MPs from the two communities.

They accused the participants for having made no mention about who were the aggressors and further more the hundred of Abagusii people who are still languishing in the Internally Displaced Persons {IDP} and living under a very squalid conditions.

The participant made no mention how the Abagusii people who lost millions of shillings in terms of the their torched dwelling homes, farms, properties and domesticated animals in areas like Kuresoi, Olenguruane,Molo,Burny Forest,Uasin Gishu,Trans-Mara, Trans-Nzoia and Kipkellion.

The leaders who took part in bogus and phantom meetings have also been faulted for not having mentioned the fate of the Abagusii people who were forced out of their legally acquired land and property in two previous tribal skirmishes launched by the Kalenjin warriors in 1992/1993, and also in 1996/1997.

The situation is even worsened by the participation of William Ruto, the Eldoret North MP and a man who is currently facing criminal charges at the International Criminal Court of Justice {ICC} at the Hague for his alleged offences of human right violation including forcing people out of their homes making the IDPs to live in a squalid conditions in make shift camps.

Ruto’s participation in the search for lasting peace between the two communities look like not genuine exercise, but pure case of political miscalculation and underestimation of the intelligence of the Abagusii people who have suffered the brunt of communal violence each time there is an elections ever sine 1990s.

One Kisii town resident who requested for his anonymity gave example of close to 200 people who have perished in he recent year as the result of cattle rustling between heavily armed Pokots, the Marakwets, the Tugens and Turkanas of the North Rift, an area which are located next door to William Ruto’s Uasin Gishu district home, but for which the MP has never made any attempt to reconcile the warring communities.

Ruto whose styles of political leadership is shrouded by mysteries and intrigues and miscalculation has made no effort to broker the peace between the warring communities of the North Rift region where he lives

Moreover cattle’s rustling between the Kipsigis and their neighbor is century’s old phenomenon ever since the day’s of the War of the Mogoren and Abbosi areas, these tribal wars pitting the two neighboring communities which inflicted permanent scars and enmities took place long before the arrival of the white men in this country.

The tribal skirmishes between the two communities had continued in earnest even long after the Colonial authorities had established their administration headquarters in Kisii and in Kericho towns in around 1906

The two administrative bridgeheads by the British expedition forces came at the time when the border between Kisiis and the Kipsigis was drawn around the hills near Mokomoni and Mosobeti in North Mugirango and also near Gesima in Kitutu East and around Nyamasibi in Nyaribari Masaba near Keroka.

The colonial authorities forced the Kipsigis people out of these areas and created space to accommodate the white settlers for large scale farming in dairy cattle and later tea and coffee bushes and renamed the area Sotik highlands.

But in 1962, the Colonial Office appointed a British Professor Mackenzie who headed a Boundary Commission in Kenya and whose Commission had come up with the finding that the areas in question belong t the bagusii people. This was due to lack of effective representation by the Kipsigis community. The area member of the Colonial Legislative Council was then the late Dr. taita Araap Toweett who was not bothered and did not appeared before this commissions, whereas theKisii leaders of those days led by the late John Kebaso, James Paul Nyamweya, Lawrence George Sagini, Johnson Keragori, Samson Nyambati, Johnson Nyandigisi and Washington Ondicho with the help of two powerful and influential chiefs Musa Nyandusi {Manwar wuod Ayacko} of Nyaribari and Zakiah Angwenyi {Ogoro}effectively represented Abagusii community in all the Mackenzie Commission’s public hearing meetings held in Kisii an Kericho towns.

Finally the Macknzie Commission handed the areas now called Borabu district in an area previously known as North Mugirango Location back to the Kisii and its rightful original owners, and when the white settlers stated moving out of their farms at the time of independence in 19673 the Abagusii with the help of colonial authorities moved into the area which were created as new settlement scheme covering KIjauri, Nyansiongo, Chebilat and on hilltops areas over looking the Sotik Highland tea estates and factories. And the contentious new boundaries were drawn fresh. It had pushed the Kipsigis miles away beyond Ndanai River and Sotik town. Then the industrious and mostly densely populate Kisii people moved into the new settlement scheme in their thousands. These are the historical crux of the truth about the continued hostilities between the Kipsigis and the Abagusii people and unless the proponent and advocate of the peace looked into these deeply rooted grievances and avoiding cheap populist political gimmicks like the ones spearheaded by the likes of Ruto the solution into the tribal hatred will be far from being brought to an end.

He hostilities between the Kisiis and the Kipsgis ceased only in he late 1920s after the Colonial authorities had appointed two chiefs in Bomet and Buret locations who had the mixed blood of Kisiis and Kipsigis. These were Sgt Kenduiywo Arap Balliach {Sotik / Bomet and Cheborge Arap Tengecha in Buret in an agriculturally rich area hitherto known as Location three while Sotik was known as Location Four. The two chief who were members of the Kapecherek sub-clans meaning people with the mixture blood of Kisiis / Kipsigis meaning the Kisiis who were assimilated and naturalized by the Kipsigis.

The two Chiefs ruled the region with an iron fists and brought cattle rustling and all form of hostilities between the two communities to an immediate end. And thereafter the two communities had lived together in peace and harmony, though were scattered reports of isolated and sporadic incidences of cattle rustling here and there, but not on full scale conflagration as it happened in 2007/2007.

This he added, I because the meager and sparsely of the votes in this particular region where the loss of human lives has been so enormous. But Ruto is cleverly and cunningly showing interests in the votes rich Kipsigis and Abagusii communities. This is purely a cheap and simple political gimmicks and part of Ruto wide scheme hatched mainly for the votes canvassing in this region. It is bound to fail no matter how he deployed the sugar-coated language unless the wronged Kisiis people are adequately compensated, given back their land and property seized by he Kalenjins in the rift Valley, he added.

It was, however, encouraging to note that MPs from across the political divide and inter party who lines participated in the deliberations, but it is also imperative to know that from the presence of Prof Sam K Ongeri, all other MPs like Richard Onyonka, Dr Julius Kones, Joyce Laboso, Monda, Isaac Ruto, and even William Ruto himself, are all of them too young and lacked the sufficient information an knowledge about the historical background of the deeply rooted Kisii-Kipsigis enmities.

These political novices need to carry out proper consultations and research before jumping cheaply onto William Rutoi’s votes catching bandwagon.

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Kenya: Peace and reconciliation initiative rubbished as Ruto’s presidential votes hunting gimmicks

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Commentary by Leo Odera Omolo In Kisii Town.

Across section of h Abagusii people interviewed here have faulted the leaders who participated at the so-called peace meeting held at Chebilat border town and reportedly attended by 17 MPs from the two communities.

The participant made no mention how the Abagusii people who lost millions of shillings in terms of the their torched dwelling homes, farms, properties and domesticated animals in areas like Kuresoi, Olenguruane,Molo, Burny Forest, Uasin Gishu, Trans-Mara, Trans-Nzoia and Kipkellion.

The leaders who took part in bogus and phantom meetings have also bee faulted for not having mentioned the fate of the Abagusii people who were forced out of their legally acquired land and property in two previous tribal skirmishes launched by the Kalenjin warriors in 1992/1993, and also in 1996/1997.

One Kisii town resident who requested for his anonymity gave example of close to 200 people who have perished in the recent year as the result of cattle rustling between heavily armed Pokots, the Marakwets, the Tugens and Turkanas of the North Rift, an area which are located next door to William Ruto’s Uasin Gishu district home, but for which the MP has never made any attempt to reconcile the warring communities.

The two administrative bridgeheads by the British expedition forces came at the time when the border between Kisiis and the Kipsigis was drawn around the hills near Mokomoni an Mosobeti in North Mugirango and also near Gesima in Kitutu East and around Nyamasibi in Nyaribari Masaba near Keroka.

But in 1962, the Colonial Office appointed a British Professor Mackenzie who heaed a Boundary Commission in Kenya and whose Commission had come up with the finding that the areas in question belong t the bagusii people. This was due to lack of effective representation by the Kipsigis community. Th area member of the ColonialLegislative Council was then the late Dr. taita Araap Toweett who was not bothered and did not appeared before this commissions, whereas the Kisii leaders of those days led by the late John Kebaso, James Paul Nyamweya, Lawrence George Sagini, Johnson Keragori, Samson Nyambati, Johnson Nyandigisi and Washington Ondicho with the help of two powerful and influential chiefs Musa Nyandusi{Manwar wuod Ayacko} of Nyaribari and Zakiah Angwenyi {Ogoro} effectively represented Abagusii community in all the Mackenzie Commission’s public hearing meetings.held in Kisii an Kericho towns.

The two Chiefs ruled the region with an iron fists and brought cattle rustling and all form of hostilities between the two communities to an immediate end. And thereafter the two communities had lived together in peace and harmony, though were scattered reports of isolated and sporadic incidences of cattle rustling her an there, but not on full scale conflagration as it happened in 2007/2007.

This he added, I because the meager and sparsely of the votes in this particular region where the loss of human lives has been so enormous. But Ruto is cleverly and cunningly showing interests in the votes rich Kipsigis and Abagusii communities. This is purely a cheap and simple political gimmicks and part o Ruto wide scheme hatched mainly for the votes canvassing in this region/ It is bound to fail no matter how he deployed the sugar-coated language unless the wronged Kisiis people are adequately compensated, given back their land and property seized by he Kalenjins in the rift Valley, he added.

It was, however, encouraging to note that MPs from across the political divide and inter party who lines participated in the deliberations, but it is also imperative to know that from the presence of Prof Sam K Ongeri all other MPs like Richard Onyonka,Dr Julius Kones,Joyce Laboso,Monda,Isaac Ruto and even William Ruto himself are all of them too young and lacked the sufficient information an knowledge about the historical background of the deeply rooted Kisii-Kipsigis enmities.

These political novices need to carry out proper consultations and research before jumping cheaply onto William Rutoi’s votes catching bandwagon.

Ends

Kenya should pull its forces out of Somalia and only protect its borders

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Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo.

It is now close to one month ever since the government and military bosses plus strategists made a big blunder and sent our young men and women to fight to perhaps end the menace of the Islamists terrorists members of the al-qaeda backed Al-Shabaab.

The decision was made in hasty way following the terrorists’ raids into Kenya’s coastal region of Lamu where the al-shababs had succeeded in kidnapping two tourists,

Off course I am not trying to play down the importance of tourist industry in this country and its significance contribution to the country’s economy. However such decision should have been taken long ago. But we waited for too long and only came out with half-hearted action when the lives of two eccentric old foreign families came under attack.

May be our government acted at the behest of a third party, which could be one foreign power, but our big men in Nairobi did not foresaw the enormous costs of such military incursion in an ungovernable neighboring territory, its costs in terms of man power and equipments, and see to it that such military operations does not augur well with our permanently ailing national economy cannot sustain military operation in a foreign land.

It has since degenerated into nightmarish, and what other military experts have since described as “Never Win War”, Kenya’s porous frontiers {borders} makes it nearly impossible for our forces to whip out the Al-Shabaab. Already there are signs that members of the Al-Shabaab who have been routed out of their hideout inside Somalia have sneaked back into Kenya and were not operating behind our military lines, planting land mines blasting our military vehicles and killing our policemen inside Kenya.

The Al-Shabaab outfit appeared to have infiltrated deep into Kenya territory perhaps with help and assistance of Kenyan community of Somalis origin living in the North East Province. Some members of Al-Shabaab could even be operating inside Kenya. And the war in Somalia is almost turning nasty and bloody urban guerrilla warfare.

It could have been wise for Kenyan military strategists to launch a massive security dragnet within our borders and ensure that no unidentified foreign infiltrators were allowed into the country and even keep our border close should the need be arise instead of sending our young men to go and fight a phantom war.

Given their ability to infiltrate, the Al-Shabaab could make our country bleed to death. So far our country has already suffered casualties in terms unspecified loss of men, military aircraft and very expensive equipment. It is a war without justified causes and we are not even sure of what our country is aiming at to achieve in this expensive exercise.

The militarily much mightier nation like the United States of America once dispatched a contingent f its military team to Somalia. But quickly pulled out after bloodbath in Mogadishu and left the country in huff. One may be left to wonder if a militarily dwarf country like Kenya could succeed where the American have failed. It is pipe dream t think so.

Kenya has nothing at stake in Somaia. The government should pull our dedicated and patriotic soldiers and only engaged them in massive border patrolling so that they can the terrorist at bay and stop them from infiltrating into our country.

We should learn good lessons from other African nations. Each an every year these countries meet at an annual forum of the African Union{AU} always made pledges to send their troops to be part of the peace-keeping force in Somalia, but none of the promises has ever been fulfilled.

Another issue which I should like to draw the attention of Kenyans about is the rapidly increasing influence of people of Somali origins in key positions decision making within the government and quasi-government organization such as parastatals, public commissions as well as in the military and security system. And yet these people re well known to be of questionable loyalties ever since they waged the bloody Shifta War of the early 1960s and thereafter independence in 1963.he government should think twice before placing the Somalis in position of trust in its system.

The fact that Al-Shabaab could sneak easily into Kenya and plant landmines and bombs in Somalis inhabited towns like Wajir,Garrisa, Lagdera and other places in the North East Province is a clear testimony.

The people of Somalis origins belonged to one tribe and speak the same language, but could not agree on the kin of government they want in their own country, making the Horn of Africa nation become ungovernable state. How do we trust people to be meaning well for Kenya and its people? The Somalis are people of short tempers that is why they butchering each other. Most o their wars re based on clannish disagreement based on petty and insignificant issues.

I have been carefully watching some of the arguments put up on various issues of national importance in this country and I can predict it with much accuracy that the likely wood of Somalis importing their culture of political insanity which is full of temperamental and lousiness agitations, we may not be far away from, joining the kind of political instability we are now witnessing in Somalia.

To crown it all, I say Kenya should free from the influence of Somalis at bay if it want to survive.

”Long Live Kenya”

Ends

KENYA: UGANDA MPS WANT THE CREATION OF EAC MONETARY UNION DELAYED UNTIL AFTER ALL FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES ARE CLEARED

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo

NEWS emerging from the Ugandan capital, Kampala says Uganda MPs have taken a firm stand and now want East African Community {EAC] partner states to halt the issue of monetary union until “tricky” fundamental issues in the EAC treaty are sorted out first.

The MPs noted that it was useless to fast track the issue of monetary union when the customs union and common market protocols that were passed still have loopholes.

“Some of the principles in the treaty are confusing. We should not rush the issue of monetary union yet other issues like movement of labour and capital are still questionable,” said Betty Ochan (Gulu).

Ochan highlighted contentious principles such as principles of variables, subsidiarity, asymmetry and sovereignty as confusing.

“There is a general lack of sensitization among MPs regarding integration issues. Before we rush things, we need to know where we are heading too,” said Ann Rose Okullu (Bukedea) the chairperson of the EAC Parliamentary Forum.

The group of over 20 MPs were meeting at a Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Initiative and Negotiation Institute (SEATINI) workshop on strengthening the role of MPs in regional integration held in Kampala on Thursday.

Akol said rushing to have a monetary union when some partner states still feared to lose out on their sovereignty is a sham. “How do we deal with issues of imbalanced economic development and land first?” she asked.

Lydia Wanyoto (EALA) said: “Authorities in the partner states have failed to implement the central customs unions that are in the treaty. The challenges are horrendous already due to entry of new states. These are the issues that must be resolved first.”

Jacqueline Amongin (Ngora) noted that when partner states such as Rwanda were still taking Ugandans entering Rwanda as spies, it is pointless to have a monetary union.

Milton Muwuma (Kigulu South) said issues of restricted entry of members of partner states into other states should be ironed out before monetary issues are thought off.

The SEATINI chairperson Prof. Ndebesa Mwambutsya said East African partner states should think and plan regionally and embark sorting issues that are delaying the fast tracking of the customs Union and common market.

Ndebesa said the EAC states should learn from the economic crisis hitting some EU countries before embarking on the monetary and political federation.

“Instead of forming the monetary union that has proved inefficient in the EU, the EAC states should first get grip of the customs union and common market that would provide a right direction on how to undertake other economic issues,” said Prof Ndebesa.

The structural problems that hit some EU countries caused the financial crisis; the imbalances which made some of them running massive trade surpluses like China, Germany, Japan and to a lesser extent the big oil exporters of Russia and Saudi Arabia and some running huge trade deficits like Greece and Italy.

The situation forced investors to remain on edge as eurozone governments struggle to raise funds and given signs that banks are refraining from lending, causing market liquidity to seize up.

The Commissioner Economic Affairs in the Ministry of East African Affairs, Rashid Kibowa said the East African Community Secretariat had launched a series of consultations in the Partner States on the establishment of the East African Monetary Union (EAMU).

“If the partner states don’t unite and harmonize issues, EAC is likely to miss fire,” said Kibowa.

Following the establishment of the EAC Customs Union in 2005, and the ongoing finalization of the negotiations of the establishment of the East African Common Market in January 2010, the next major stage in the East African integration process is the Monetary Union.

The EAC Heads of State have directed that the East African Monetary Union be in place by 2012.

The consultations on the monetary union targeted a broad spectrum of stakeholders such as the National Central Banks (NCBs); Ministries of Finance, EAC Affairs, Planning, Trade, Industry; Capital Markets Authorities; Bureaus of Statistics; Bankers Associations; Academia; Parliamentarians; the Private Sector and the Civil Society.

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Kenya: Ruto dream to fit into Moi’s shoes is being scuttled by the residents of the South Rift

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News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kericho Town.

IF the Eldoret North MP William Samoei Ruto’s pipe dream of stepping into the shoes of the retire President Daniel Arap Moi by anointing himself as the newly crowned political kingpin of the three million plus Kalenjin community is anything to go by the idea has tumbled down and has become cropper.

Ruto and his UDM party is facing myriads of problems and some of the serious hurdles to clear before he realizes his pipe dreams.

The MP and those allied to him are facing total rejection in some regions of the expansive rift Vally Province where the Kalenjins community forms 75 per cent of the total population, particularly the vote rich Kipsigis region in the South Rift.

This Kipsigis is a sub-tribe of the larger Kalenjn ethnic groups. It is the most populous single community which boost close to 1.5 million registered voters in the region and forms 55 per cent of the close to eleven sub-tribes of the entire Kalenjin groups. This when it is put into comparison with the votes from the other sub-tribes, particularly the Nandis which is rivaling the Kipsigis, and William Ruto’s own sub-tribe that can only manage to produce slightly over 600,00 votes In Nandi North,Nandi South, Uasin Gishu and Trans-Nzoia.

In the 2007 general elections, the Kipsigis votes clocked one million marks. The community voted for nine members of parliament in eight rural constituencies within the two counties of Kericho and Bomet.

It captured one extra parliamentary seat in diaspora, namely in Kuresoi, in Molo district which was won by the former powerful Internal Security and Provincial Administration Permanent Secretary Zakayo K.Cheruiyot.

The Kipisigis voters almost extended their gains into the nearby Trans-Mara district in Maasailand where the incumbent MP Brigadier {rtd} Gideon Konchellah nearly succumbed to a defeat by a Kipsigis aspirant.

The community members form close to 45 per cent of the voters in this particular constituency due to massive settlement by Kalenjin ever since 1961 and whose numbers are almost equaling that of the indignant Maasais.

Economically the Kipsigis people blessed and endowed with fertile and arable land with the sufficient annual rainfall are the richest compare to members of the other Kalenjin sub-tribes. The average earning of each family in Kipsigisl and has improved tremendously in the recent years and remained the highest due to money accrued from the sales of green tea leaves.

The leading money minting cash cops is grown in abundance by small-scale farmers in the regions which boost close to twelve green tea manufacturing plants owned by the Kenya Tea Development Authority {KTDA} Kapkatet, Mogogosyek,Chemamul.Litein,Tegat, Kapkoros.Toror,Girgaga,Kobel,Kapset Borok and Chelel There are two more, but privately owned tea factories on at Kab9anga.

There are four privately owned tea factories which include Kaisugu Tea Company, which is owned by the family of the retire President Daniel Arap Moi and Mau Forest Tea factory which is owned by Kasang’wan conglomerate company owned Kipsigis farmers and traders.

The community Iist also involved in massive milk production, producing a lot of English potatoes for sales in the nearby towns of Kisumu, Kisii, Migori, HomBay, Siaya,Mbota, Usenge, Keroka, Oyugis, Kendu-Bay, Ahero, Nakuru and Naivasha minting millions of shillings and other places and many other cash crops.

This community has a strong voting strength in other constituencies such as Rongai,Tinderet, Aldai,Narok North and Narok West as well as Nakuru Town and Naivasha constituencies. All its votes went into the basket of the Raila Odinga led Orange Democratic Movement {ODM}.

However, immediately and soon after disagreeing with Odinga over the Prime Minster’ handling of the Mau Forest eviction saga and the unrealistic claims that the Prime Minister was responsible for his impending criminal charges before the International Criminal Curt of Justice{ICC} at the Hague, William Ruto had launched full scale war of attrition against the ODM leader in a wrong footing assumption that these allegations would win the hearts of the Kalenjin people who had voted for the ODM party on a man t man in 2007 so that the community could ditch the ODM.

His plans and schemes worked well, but only temporarily. However, the political tides changed its course in the region immediately Ruto and his allies launched the plot of pushing out the former UDM chairman, the highly respected Kipsigis man for deputy SGS Let. Gen.{rtd} John Arap Koech

He made a gross miscalculation of trying to push Koech out of the UDM so that he could preserve the party and use it as a ladder for his future soft landing when his seemingly irreconcilable disagreement intensified. He had used the retired and perennial parliamentary election loser in Buret constituency and former National chairman of the Kenya National Union of Teachers {KNUT} Joseph Arap Chirchir and made hi the new chairman of UDM.

Ruto father mad another political blunder when he tried to short-change Chirchir by trying to bungling him out of the held of the UDM leadership in preference to the former National Assembly House Speaker Francis Ole Kaparo whom he thought could be more useful and help make a major inroad into the Maasai community in which he had been kept at bay by the ODM leaders headed by the Minister for ulture and National Heritage William Ole Ntimama +

Ruto single handed brought on board Ole Kaparo a respected Maasai leader after realizing that he could not penetrate the Maasailand due to the presence of the ageing William Ole Ntimama the MP for the Narok North constituency, who is the de-facto leader of the Maasai who had chosen to stuck with the ODM.

The Kipsigis people read malice in Ruto’s move and took a firm stand in rejecting his political machinations. Moreover, they are arguing that Ruto has never been mandated by the party NEC to make any changes in policy including the appointments at the UDM secretariat as he is considered as a friend of the party only and not its leader.

Another blow which has struck the Eldoret North MP below the belt is his recent unlawful move in cancelling the UDM elections held in Kericho Bomet in the presence of the de facto leader Joseph Chirchr after his supporters led by he MP were locked out of the election venue which were held at the posh Tea Hotel and conducted by the party’s deputy National Organising and Publicity Secretary Justice Kemei in the presence of the National Chairman Joseph Chirchir.

The National chairman of the UDM Chichir has since defiantly ordered for the reinstatement of those elected in Kericho County despite the cancellation of the elections by Ruto.

This move has put the Eldoret North MP in an awkward position in the party, a position which could only be resolved by grass root and national elections. Chirchir is working in cohort with the party’s Secretary General Martin Ole Kamwaro himself a Maasai.

The Kipsigis politician maintains that Ruto has no respect for their own elected leaders. He recently made a blunder when he told a public rally in he region that the Kipkellion MP who is the Energy Assistant Minister was never elected to parliament in a democratic manner and that the MP was the product of the massive rigging of the 2007 general elections.

These utterances have caused high degree of annoyance among the level mined Kipsigis leaders.They has vowed to ditch UDM and return to ODM en mess.

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Kenya: Rongo Residents call for a full scale inquiry into political killing of six people last Saturday

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Rongo Town.

RESIDENTS of Rongo and Awendo districts have called upon the government as a matter of uttermost urgency to institute a commission of inquiry to publicly inquire and establish the root cause of the last Saturday mayhem in the area which claimed the lives of several people and left more injured.

They appealed to the government to ensure that police officers serving in the region were neutral and not politically biased hen it one to handling volatile situation like the one which occurred at Kitere in North Kanyajuok sub-Location,Kamagambo South, Rongo district in Migori County.

They blamed the police for having helped the owners of the motor vehicles used by the attackers pull them out of the scene of the crime, before proper investigations were launched to established who had hired the vehicles which ferried the raiders to the scene of the crime.

The purpose of pulling the disabled vehicle out of the scene of the crime with the help and assistance of the police, they claimed was meant to conceal the crime.

Late in the afternoon of last Saturday a group of ODM leaders an members had converged into Kitere Center, a small shopping center located close to the Moi University Rongo Campus to deliberate and strategize how they would approach the campaigns for the area’s ODM sub-branch election scheduled for next month, and also to open and paint the party office with its colors.

The ODM elections which were held in the same sub-location two weeks ago were among those nullified by the party’s headquarter and a fresh repeat of the elections called for January 10, 2012.

As the group sat down in serious discussions and having refreshments of soft drinks, six vehicles comprising of two Nissan Matatus, two salon cars and two pick-up vans full of occupants pulled up at the venue of the meeting. At first the conveners of the meeting thought they were ODM members who had come to join them in the meeting.

But this was not the case. All of a sudden, the passengers merged out of these vehicles brandishing pangas, rungus, sticks and other crud weapon and ordered those conducting the meting to disperse at once or l they be dispersed forcefully. And the hell broke out as those in the meeting resisted and refused to obey the dispersing order arguing that the men were not policemen and as such were not mandate to disperse anybody.

Those at the meeting grabbed soda bottles and used them to defend themselves. They hit the attackers with the bottles. Some of the attackers hit the ground dropping their machetes {pangas} which their opponents picked up and used in hacking some of the to death. Three of the attackers were killed on the spot.

Outnumbers as the villagers joined in the fray some of the attackers took their heels and fled into the nearby sugar plantations, but were hotly pursued resulting in father deaths and injuries.

The people at the meeting raised the alarm and the villagers came to their rescue armed with all sorts of crude weapons and the mayhem broke loose. Sensing the dangers the attackers fled in all directions by foot leaving their vehicles behind. Chairs tables and public address system were destroyed.

It has been established that some of the youths ferried in the vehicles were hired from outside Rongo district. One of the victims who died in the blood birth was an ODM youth called Onjiko Asianje came all along from Gem Asumbi in Rangwe constituency a distance of about 20 kilometers away from the scene of the crime.

Tension remain high in the area with increased police presence patrolling areas around Kitere and its environs and also along the Rongo-Awendo Migori Highway even by Monday afternoon. Score of ODM leaders and supporters in Kitere area who became the instant suspects were rounded up and taken into police custody for questioning.

One of the leading contenders for the Rongo Parliamentary seat in the 2012 general elections Joseph Ong’ondo Ng’ani called upon the government and local politicians. He also accused the police in the area as being biased and siding with unnamed politician who is suspected to be responsible for the numerous acts of violence.

Ng’ani said the police should preformed their duties without bias or siding with one side of the warring groups as it has been established in the case of the last Saturday incident whereby the police arrested only local leaders they found at the scene, but did not bothered to investigate and trace the root cause of the violence.

Rongo is an area which is prone to political violence. In 2007 several people lost their lives during the hotly contested election campaign which pitted the immediate former MP for the area George Ochillo Ayacko and the incumbent Dalmas Otieno who is the Minister for Public Service.

The residents have appealed to the ODM leader the Prime Minister Raila Odinga to take a tough stance and ensure that any politician whether a cabinet Minister or not who is guilty of fuelling political violence be expelled and barred from contesting any public elective office during the forthcoming general elections.

The latest massacre of six people in Rongo with close to ten other sustaining serious wounds came about as the result of the much flawed ODM grass root elections in the area, which was evidently manipulated by the sitting MPs. Several people who are perceived to be eyeing for various elective positions in the impending general elections were deliberately locked out of the ODM elections. Others were branded traitors or being moles of PNU and G& alliance without an iota proof laid bearer against them.

Other stakeholders have appealed to the area MP Dalmas Otieno to come out clean and exonerate himself from the chaos being witnessed in Rongo. A couple of months ago ODM officials who had converged at a venue in Rongo town were violently dispersed by youths suspected to be the supports of Dalmas Otieno. One of them was beaten savagely and had to be hospitalized in a Kisii hospital for a couple of days. The beating took place in Rongo town in full view of the forces of law reinforcement, but the policemen did not take any actions.

The two Rongo political giants and arch-rivals Dalmas Otieno and his nemeses George Ochillo-Ayacko could not be reached for their immediate comments.

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EAC: Is the EAC heading for another collapse as Tanzania skipped its key meeting in the last couple of weeks?

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News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

THE events of the last two weeks are pointing to the direction that all are not well in the otherwise highly vibrant regional economic bloc that groups together five Eastern African nations.

The skipping of the important East African Community {EAC} by Tanzania in the last two weeks has sparked off speculations and fears about its commitments to the regional economic bloc.

Reports emerging from the Burundian capital, Bujumbura are painting a gloomy future of the EAC, which groups together Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi with potentiality and prospects of the newest African nation of Southern Sudan joining the EAC quite soon,

Tanzania’s absence forced the alteration of an important report prepared earlier by the Council of Ministers before its adoption by the Heads of State summit.

Though Dar’s representatives in the technical discussions and Council of Ministers meetings, it failed to attend the signing of a report fast-tracking the regional political federation that was presented to the Heads of State.

President Yoweri Museven of Uganda missed for the first time this major political forum of this magnitude, while President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, the next door has missed the three consecutive meetings of the EAC and all these are sending out the signals of discontent within the bloc.

The first EAC collapsed in 1971 following the bloody military coup staged by Idi Amin Dada against the civilian government headed by Dr.Apollo Milton Obote. This followed sharp ideological differences between Kenya’s founding President the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and President Julius Kambarage Nyerere and also the insistence by the Tanzanian leader that he could not sit on the same table with unelected ruler of Uganda.

The collapse was later followed by the daunting task f sub-division of the failed community’s assets which were shared by the three countries running into billion of dollars. The assets, included key government institutions such as the defunct East African Railways and Harbors, the East African Posts and Telecommunications, East African Airways just to mention a few leading to its thousands of workers being declared redundant/

Tanzania representatives were further conspicuously absent from the high profile seminar for Members of Parliaments from the five national assemblies and East African Legislative Assembly {EALA} that was attended by at least eight Speakers of parliament from the region and other regional blocs.

Zanzibar House of Representative Speaker Pandu Amein Kificho who had been invited as the Isles National Assembly representative arrived late for the function and stated his case by saying that the process of integration should be democratic and anchored in the quality of member states for political federation to succeed.

Tanzania also sent its Vice President Mohamed Mohamed Ghalib Bilal who represented President Jakaya Kikwete at the Heads of State Summit where President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, which is the next door was also absent. Rwanda sent its Prime Minister Pierre Damien Huburumurenyi the summit which witnessed the taking over of the EAC chair by President Mwai Kibaki o Kenya from President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi.

This was the first major international held in Burundi a country which I still struggling from persistent internal ethnic armed conflict.

During the conference Tanzania flatly rejec6tedthe experts report on” concerns, fears and challenges” facing the East African Community political federation, especially the inclusion of land, transformation of the EAC secretariat into a Commission with more biting teeth and a protocol on co-operation in security and defense matters.

Information emerging from impeccable sources have it that reluctance and unwillingness of Tanzania to be dragged into what it termed as “unnecessary wars perhaps was the main reason for Dar’s initially declined to sign a document recommending for the establishment of a joint regional defense protocol.

The same source further disclosed that Tanzania is worried by the history some of the East African Community member states have of being embroiled in conventional wars, even sometimes o the basis of their leaders’ personal differences.

It says that the feeling among Tanzanians was revealed by its Minister for the East African Community Affairs Samuel Sitta when he was recently quoted by the media as having remarked “Why should you help your neighbor when he is the aggressor?

The Minister said his country is against a section and clause in the protocol that requires partner states to assist each other when it at war.

The other reason was that Tanzania itself was involve in similar and arrangement with the Southern African Development Community {SADC},which could clash with the East African Community protocol.

A defense protocol would give legal teeth to regional co-operation in case one of the members is involved in a war with a non-EAC member because member countries would be obliged to assist.

Tanzania, however, finally signed the report last week after its complaints were addressed by the Heads of State Summit in Bujumbura.

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Kenya: Ojode tells the Luo to discard the politics of hero worshipping and patronage and elect only leaders who are focused to eradicate poverty

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo In MigoriTown.

POLITICS of hero worshipping and patronage at the elections time are some of the major obstacles retarding development and progress inside Luo-Nyanza.

This was sated at the weekend by the abrasive Ndhiwa MP Joshua Orwa Ojode who pointed out that the political patronage is denying the community the right to elect mature and credible leaders to the various elective positions.

He was speaking during a funds drive at Kadika in Wasweta East, Migori district where he helped raise over Kshs 2 million. The money would go towards the construction of Kadika SDA church.

Ojode who is also an Assistant Minister for the Internal Security echoed the feeling being nursed by many people that the region will continue to be lagging behind in competitive development unless the leaders rose above “political party worship”.

The MP said only people who were able to change the livelihood of the electorates should be elected to the position of MPs, Senate and local authority representatives in the next year’s polls.

He went on,” Many unfit people had been elected to the various offices in the past for merely being in the ‘correct party’ though most of the later turn to be the biggest liability than asset to the party and the electorate.”

The weekend utterances by the independent minded has since provoked sharp reaction from various quarters with most people agreeing with his sentiments terming them positive views, while ODM supporters and local leader who have been mooting for “Uniform Voting” in the region have described them as “Divisive”

The hard working Ndhiwa MP of late has been viewed as silent critic of the Luo political kingpin, Raila Amolo Odinga. This is so because for close to four years now Ojode has been conspicuously absent from the many functions presided over by the ODM leader.

The Assistant Minister recently told this writer during an exclusive interview that he is against Raila Odinga.” I am not war with ‘Agwambo’ except some idle talkers and busy bodies feel I am a threat to be I the local Luo succession politics.”

“These people view me as a potential successor to Raila in Nyanza politics due to my attractive of development in my home turf of Ndhiwa and also my contributions in the region’s development activities plus my young age.

The Assistant Minister scathingly criticized the management f the Awendo-based Sony Sugar Company”for seeking the service of the police to protect itself from competition with other millers over cane supplied.”This particular fir has been in business for close to 30 year and should now embrace in the industry.

“Sony Sugar should stop blaming others and complaining that the operation the new rival, the Sukari Industries limited, which is located in Ndhiwa district for cane ‘poaching’ by the new factory. Moreover another sugar mills has already commence its production I the neighboring Trans – Mara district- also a short distant from Awendo-based millers bringing the number of sugar mills in the region to three.

The Assistant Minister said he will not accept SONYSUGAR to misuse officers from his Ministry to fight unnecessary wars and this trend must stop.

“Under the liberalized sugar industry, farmers were now free to take their cane to a better paying factory and should never be held hostage in this age of liberalized market.”he added,

Ojode reaffirmed his support for the new factory saying that “because of this competition the sugar can farmers in the region can now reap the full benefits of their sweat.”

The Ndhiwa based Sukari Industries Limited a private owned enterprise is paying out Kshs 5,097/- per ton of delivered sugar, whereas only Sugar based at Awendo is now paying Kshs 4,500 the prices which was increased only last week from the previous Kshs 3,5oo per ton. But it is deducting further some of money t for transport and harvesting expenses, whereas the Ndhiwa based does everything including transport and harvesting costs without levy anything o a farmer. The increase I the price set by Sukari Industries Limited is 46 per cent, and many farmers are happy with them and wanted t switch their allegiance to the new firm.

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Kenya: Cow thief is beaten to death as he tried to sell the stolen animal to the slaughter house in Rong town leaving the town without beef for several days

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Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Rongo Town

An ugly incident occurred in Rongo Town on Tuesday this week in which a suspected cow thief was beaten to death by a mob of angry residents.

As the result of the ugly incident, a large number of meat traders from Nairobi who have invaded the town in recent months fled the area in disarray running for their own dear lives.

It all started at a village called Kasere Winyo, which is located on the main Rongo-Homa-Bay road about six kilometers from Rongo town. One farmer woke up on Sunday morning and found one of his cows missing. He raised the alarm and villagers joined hi in search for the missing animal with no trace.

On Monday night the same cattle rustlers went back to the village and stole another three animals. Meanwhile a resident of Rongo town who is living in a rented house had by Monday sold the cow which went missing last Sunday to the meat traders who are said to have been camping in Rongo town from Nairobi.

But the cow could not be slaughtered on Monday as there were too many animals waiting on the line to be slaughtered. The meat trader who had bought the cow advised the thief to take it back to his house and deliver it the next morning {Tuesday}, which he obliged.

The next morning the unsuspecting thief delivered the animal at the slaughter house early in the morning. One of the residents, who had been made aware about the missing of animals, using his mobile phone called the owner of the cow. By this time, the owner of the animal and other villagers were armed while searching for the three other missing animals. The group rushed to Rongo with their crude weapons ready for a bloody confrontation with the meat traders.

The meat traders and the owner of the slaughter house whose name was given as a Mr Migawo were roughed by he mob, forcing them to show the villager the rented house of the suspect. The suspect had apparently left his house very early in the morning not expecting any trouble, and he walked toward Missadhi on the main-Rongo-Migori Kisii road.

Members of the searching team visited the house and found three other missing animals tie inside a room. They sent for the suspected thief using motor bike taxis. They caught up with him and forced him onto one of the back by tying him to the rider who brought him back. At this time, the mob had already dismantled the house, removed the roof made of iron sheets, windows and doors and were bout to set the house alight, but it was raining heavily.

They frog matched the thief to the Rongo police station half a kilometers away and beat up senselessly. At this time, a huge crowd of onlooker had formed and members of the public joined the fray an the beating of the suspect intensified. They used all sort of crude weapons such as rungus, stones, walking sticks, spears and machetes. By then time the police arrived the man was already unconscious. He was rushed to Migori Hospital where he died.

It was later established than the suspect had moved to Rongo in the recent months and established himself as a cattle dealer, but was only using gents while visiting the surrounding villages by nightfall. Most of the cattle slaughtered at Rongo slaughter house were slaughtered during the darkness.

There has been upsurge of meat traders from Nairobi who transport beef and carcasses of the slaughtered animals all along from Rongo to Butcheries in Nairobi.

The exercises started in the neighboring Migori Town, but after numerous complaints by farmers who have lost their animals including the highly prized graded dairy cows, the police intervened in Migori sending the meat traders packing, but they immediately established contact with cattle thieves around Rongo who are reported to have been selling the stolen animals at throw away prices.

For the last two days Rongo has been without meat. All the butcheries remained closed and so was the privately owned slaughter house {Abattoir}.The government has placed the immediate embargo that anyone wishing to have his animal slaughtered in the town must bring the permit along with the animal which is duly signed by the Assistant Chief and the chief of the location certifying that the animals is his or hers.

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horrifying photo of a man suspected of be a cow thief being beaten up savagely in Rongo town, Migori County in Kenya.The man later died in Hospital after h was taken unconscious by the police who come to his rescue.

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Category Archives: Leo Odera Omolo

KENYA: MIXED RECEPTION FOR THE IEBC TEAM THAT TOURED LUO-NYANZA TO COLLATE PUBLIC VIEWS ON NEW PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCIES AND COUNTY WARDS

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KENYA: UGANDA MPS WANT THE CREATION OF EAC MONETARY UNION DELAYED UNTIL AFTER ALL FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES ARE CLEARED

Kenya: Ruto dream to fit into Moi’s shoes is being scuttled by the residents of the South Rift

Kenya: Rongo Residents call for a full scale inquiry into political killing of six people last Saturday

EAC: Is the EAC heading for another collapse as Tanzania skipped its key meeting in the last couple of weeks?

Kenya: Ojode tells the Luo to discard the politics of hero worshipping and patronage and elect only leaders who are focused to eradicate poverty

Kenya: Cow thief is beaten to death as he tried to sell the stolen animal to the slaughter house in Rong town leaving the town without beef for several days