Fellow Kenyans,

I hope you will excuse me for deviating from the present concerns of Kenya. May I put your mind on broader events?

We Africans we are used to being led by others. In fact, it is even worse now that some of our leaders are setting up African countries to be controlled or even ruled by non-Africans.

In the last fifty years Africa has had no course of it’s own, we have either been pro-west or pro-Soviet Union or, to be clear, sometimes pro our former colonists. An African man or woman has not up to today defined his or her own direction in life. Some of our elite used to think that by copying these superpowers we might end up passing some time in history and catch up with the development the west is now enjoying. I have seen and faced our development with a lot of attention, but up to now I am afraid to say that we have had very little success in developing Africa. Even our presidents’ home areas are much less developed than the west.

Most of our African leaders are not meeting our demands and our needs. They have turned away from our needs and are, in fact, only satisfying their own needs and those of either the west or China depending on who gives them support or maintains them in power.

These leaders have also made many of their poor tribesmen helplessly and intentionaly jobless in times of need. We constantly hear news from the media that so and so has discovered this and this in Africa, but the names of our African people, of our countrymen or women, are not listed in these achievements.

Now we hear very important news that “a Texas oil company has discovered 1,3 billion barrel worth of black gold (OIL) out of the Ghanaian coast and the black gold is just 4 km down the sea bed and covered by 3 km thick rock.” To tap that oil, the Ghanaian government needs advanced technology that Africa, up to today, does not have. So all of that oil will be drilled by the Texas oil company.

The west and China are now looking for oil in Kenya and almost all other African countries, but will this oil really benefit Africans or Africa?

Fellow countrymen and women, Africa is rich and full of natural resources but the average African man or woman or child is one of the poorest human beings in the world. Have we really defined our destination?

We see countries rise and fall, superpowers change positions, etc, but our continent is stuck almost where it was fifty years ago. We hear now that some kenyans have already forgotten where we were just last month, some have already started putting out disturbing papers in our parliament to make our MPs to deviate from the progress Kenyans need. In fact, they would like to see more Kenyans killed, more burned, more made orphans by police bullets.

Some have gone in public to say that those disturbing papers came from their offices. We have somebody called Wako with a big mouth and big glasses doing nothing about these disturbing leaflets. Kenyans keep on paying taxes to maintain people who do not want our country to move ahead and people are just silent. Is there a stupid syndrome in the AFRICAN HEAD or what ?

As Isaid earlier, in this age of information, knowledge is plentiful but wisdom is scare in Kenya. Wisdom means far more than simply knowing a lot. Or were we Kenyans who are demanding changes born far ahead of our time? Maybe we came into this continent called Africa too early. We should have been born may be fifty years later instead of being born with these hooligans now robbing our country of her riches and dignity. Some Africans who realised this had the opportunity to run away to find peace in other continents, but some are still starving and hoping for change to arrive in our country called Kenya.

Can we Kenyans grow up and stop this stupid tribalism and power-seeking idiots from jumping into leadership once and for all? Why should we constantly have leaders who do not have the interest of our people at heart? And when we do have somebody who wants to unite us, why do we end up constantly fighting against him?

We Kenyans should start thinking beyond Kibaki and a few of his tribesmen. A lot of Kenyans are very poor but Kenya is not poor at all. In fact, there are Kenyans living outside of the country in places that are naturally poorer than Kenya, but these people still keep on sending money to Kenya. These remittances are much more than the money being generated by a working man or woman in Kenya.

What does this tell us? I think it tells us that Kenyan wealth is not being managed correctly or that we have idiots as leaders. There are a lot of countries on earth where people and even government resources are coming only directly from tourism, and their people still live better than Kenyans. So what is wrong with us Kenyans?

Is a Kikuyu better than a Luo, or is a Kalenjin better than a Kisii or a Kikuyu? Everybody knows that those are very stupid questions to ask but are we mature enough to grow up beyond those questions? In fact, even the best countries that our fellow Kenyans admire and are running to for education or treatment are being led by people who are NOT CIRCUMCISED. So what is the big deal? Why have corrupt people as leaders and keep them there when Kenyans cannot get enough food or cannot have enough land to even build a small hut and cultivate?

My advice is simple: times of trouble can be useful. They can show you who you really are, what kind of character you have developed. In addition, they can help you grow stronger. People say that the trouble you face today is training you to be strong for more difficult situations that you will face in the future. So, fellow Kenyans, let us grow up and the tribalists whothink that they are the only ones who can give orders to shoot innocent people or burn people will not make it the next time they try to make the same mistake. Let us all give peace a chance this time and develop Kenya. Otherwise, we face the end. Those who have ears should listen. It is not a joke this time.

Paul Nyandoto

This is an excellent piece.

We need complete overhaul of that country.

We must and should learn from the Americans what they did in 1787; abolishing the prior colonial constitution and coming up with a new republic’s constitution suited for Americans.

Devolve,the power and we will be on our away to prosperity

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Kenya is ripe for a Constitutional Court
By Prof George Luchiri Wajackoyah
March 10 2008

At least Hon. Kibaki has done what he ought to havedone. However, I have a few suggestions. In order to achieve neutrality, I suggest that devolution of our political system should be tailored along the Indian, US and perhaps the South African systems. Kenya should be divided into nine or ten States each with an elected State governor complete with political autonomy similar to the Cantos in Switzerland. Foreign and national security should be left to the federal government with its seat in Eldoret a strategic city which will do well for the capital. Nairobi should remain the commercial capital, whereas, Mombasa and Kisumu the port cities. Nairobi is currently congested with a miniature of economic activities that favorsthe economic output of central and eastern regions. We should borrow a leaf from Nigeria and learn from its experiences with Abuja.

Kenya is ripe for a Constitutional Court. South African constitutional court has served as a neutrality to check the balance of power between parliamentary and state action as far as fundamental issues are concerned. The same thing occurs here in the United States where, the United States Supreme Court has often invalidated State actions that interfere with fundamental rights protected by the constitution. There are various examples that Kenya would borrow for guidance.

The Kenya Police Act needs an absolute overhaul. The Act allows the police to thematically and systematically abuse the very rights that they are mandated to protect. The police can stop, search and arrest anyone without probable cause. Here, this would violate the FOURTH AMENDMENT right which requires a search warrant that might be accompanied with probable cause unless exceptions apply. It would be prudent if we copied bits of the Indian Constitution and the sabbatical ruling of the Supreme Court of India. The Kasavinanda case as presided by Justice Bagwati eliminated locus standi(?). In that case, the Supreme Court overtook parliamentary role when it ruled that one need not to have an injury in order to sue. This ruling opened and widened the gap, giving rights to nonparties to sue on behalf of the injured, something that would not happen here in the United States. One can imagine how many wrongs imputed on Kenyans by state agents but for the stated reasons above, injuries continue to occur.

Kenya should have three tiers, metropolitan, rural, urban or city police. A diversity police college should supplement our traditional GSU and Kenya Police Colleges in Kiganjo. The Diversity Police College should be manned by a group of civilians where subjects such as law, psychology, philosophy and morality should be taught. This would weed out the Macho teachings of Kiganjo. I trained in Kiganjo twice and the instructions there were too colonizing with the Afande mentality. In the alternative, Kenya is ripe for a police university where police officers should be encouraged to pursue a degree in police work including intelligence. The Department of National Security Intelligence spends millions of shillings on training its personnel overseas. This process is flawed and rife with nepotism where a selected few and high ranking officers are given the privilege…….. (to be continued).

George Luchiri Wajackoyah is an adjunct professor of comparative constitutional and criminal law at American Heritage University in California.

Sent by Vincent.