From: Leo Odera Omolo
Date: Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 6:17 PM
Subject: Parliaent in Kenya should pass the law barring sons of ex-presidents from contesting the presidency
To: jaluo@jaluo.com, opinion@nairobistar.com, telegraphk@gmail.com, oped@nytimes.com, weeklyt@telegraph.co.uk, newsdesk@mg.co.za, news@newvision.co.ug, news@bbc.co.uk, editor@guardian.co.tz, setholoo@yahoo.com, weekly@guardian.co.uk, editor@observer.co.uk, sjacobs100@aol.com, mailbox@nation.co.ke, letter@standardmedia.co.ke
PARLIAMENT SHOULD PASS THE LAW THAT IS PROHIBITING THE SONS OF EX-DICTATORS FROM CONTESTING THE PRESIDENCY OF THIS COUNTRY.
Commentary By Leo Odera Omoloin Kisumu City.
KENYA’s parliament should introduce a controversial Bill that would automatically prohibiting the sons, of ex-presidents who are known to have ruled the country with an iron fist and were also involved in certain excess such as abuse of office, violation of human rights and atrocities against mankind, from contesting the presidency.
The same rule of law should apply the same to the families of those despotic ex-rulers who had presided over the murderer’s regime of the past in which some of the most illustrious sons and daughters of Kenya, politicians and highly prized academician and individual personalities lost their lives under mysterious circumstances which are yet to be resolved.
Similar law should also apply to the ex-presidents under whose regime the taxpayers in Kenya lost billions through corrupt practices thereby rendering to ruinous the nation’s economy.
The same law to be passed by parliament should declared those who have erroneously and unlawfully acquired thousands of hectares of land at the expenses of the landless Wananchi to surrender such land for distributions to the landless Kenyans, particularly the IDPs who lost their land and homes under the politically motivated tribal clashes of the recent past.
This in my view is the only sensible and reasonable means of ending impunity.
A clause clearly spelling the above issues should be inserted in the new constitution and I am sure it will bring discipline to the Kenyan society.
I am sure for certain that such draconian policy would keep at bay the masters of political deceits in this country.
As well know the late President Jomo Kenyatta was never involved in the Mau Mau uprising bush war that sent the colonialists and white settlers packing. Kenyatta had early in 1952 denounced the Mau Mau activities with other Kikuyu leaders like Anglican Bishop Obadia Kariuki, Ex-Senior Chief Njiri wa Karanja, Chief Nderi of Nyeri, Chief Waruhiu of Kiambu and Chief Josiah Njonjo of Kabete.
But due to lust for money a section of Kikuyu elite were set upon him by he colonialists who were hell-bent to see that Kenyatta and his close associates were sent to jail for long period of time.
But the poor Kenyatta was fixed when Rawson Mbugua Macharia turned up at the now infamous Kapenguria trial in 1953 and gave e\sworn evidence claiming that he had personally witnessed Kenyatta administering oath to the Mau Mau newly recruited cadres.
After the completion of his seven years prison sentence, Kenyatta was banished in the remote Maralal in Northern Kenya where he languished for a long time. He later rode on the back of the one hero and uncompromised freedom fighter in the name of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and another most illustrious and true nationalist with mobilization and organizational ability par excellence the late Tom Mboya to power and ultimately to State House.
Kenyatta was later to abandon these colleagues of his, and even sent as far as detaining Jaramogi,while Mboya was paid the highest price with his blood and was cosigned to early resting in the grave.
As soon as Kenyatta walked into State House, he quickly forgot the Mau Mau fighters and those who lost their lives in the struggle for independence, and was immediately surrounded by the sons of the colonial chiefs and former Home-Guards who had killed thousands of the Kikuyus.
He began hurling insults to the freedom fighters. What happened thereafter is history, which is a common knowledge to all sane person and level minded Kenyans in their true frame of mind. The former President took the largest slight of land made available by the British government which was meant for th3 compensation of the white settlers who had opted to leave the country at the time of independence in 1963.
This is how the family acquired the largest land in Taita/Taveta district, Laikipia, Ngata. Ruiru and in other farms, which are scattered all other parts of Kenya without spending even one cent from their own pocket. The same with beach plots at the coast whose acquisition become who is who the Kenyatta regime.
And now Kenyatta’s most favorite son Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta like his father is eyeing the State use, but in the same fashion like his father and very much aware that he cannot make to the State House on his own is trying his luck by way of ridding on the back of President Mwai Kibaki and MP William Ruto to the lesser extent the Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.
He had tried it once again when he rode on the back of the retired President Daniel Arap Moi in 2002, but his effort at the presidency was thwarted by the euphoria of Narc.
He had briefly occupied the office of the official leader of the Opposition in Parliament, but quickly abandoned it and even KANU a party that had sponsored him to parliament and joined President Kibaki’s PNU side soon after being made a cabinet Minister. What an opportunists this man?
And the only sensible way of Kenyans could become cohesive enough, even Gideon Moi, the favorite son of the retired President Daniel Arap Moi and any other of his sons should be kept at bay and strictly not allowed anywhere near the corridor of power.
For Kibaki it is still too early to pass any kangaroo judgment on him while he is still in the stewardship’s seat, but his record at the State House will be subjected to thorough examination by historians and experts after he vacated office in 2012.
Let those who fathers error red pay the heavy penalties for the sins of their parents. Kibaki’s only minor mistake is that he has allowed himself to be pushed around by joy-riders who did not win genuinely any elective seat in 2007, but have erroneously found themselves flying the national flags on their vehicles bonnets. There are also other advisers with vested interests and these are the one contributing to political instability which is bogging down the operations of the grand coalition government.
The use of ODM rebel MPs allied to the suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto, and allowing them to participate in the PNU parliamentary group meetings, and yet in the true sense of the law they are still members of the rival ODM is another case of recklessness on the part of His Excellency the President.
This is a case of miscalculation, underestimation of facts and misdirection which is retrogressive in my views.
The other area which if not corrected in time could color the history of President Kibaki with red paints is his continuing allowing certain individuals facing criminal cases in courts including those of the ICC at the Hague to continue sitting in the cabinet and discharging their duties as if nothing has happened is a big mistake..
Ends