I am amazed. For the first time PNU and their commentator have an outstanding proposal to move Kenyans forward. GOOD JOB Mr. Kibaki. The test is “Can you stand to it?”
This is an extract from yesterdays Standard:
Kibaki said that despite the challenges the country has faced recently, the broader Kenyan leadership should have the capacity and the will to arrive at a political settlement, which galvanizes the citizenry.
Should the deal be reached, it would herald a new Kenya, where Parliament, and not the President, as is the case now, will create ministries and assign them functions.
That could mean death to or even expansion of some of the existing ministries and creation of new ones.
This was ODM’s answer coming from their school of thought:
The Orange Democratic Movement wants all the issues agreed turned into law through a constitutional amendment.
ODM’s position was that gentlemen’s agreements like the Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group Package of 1997 and the Memorandum of Understanding of 2002, have failed to work because they had no legal force.
Therefore, Mr. Kibaki we will keep you in check, so that you don’t take Kenyans for a ride.
Thanks!
William P. Odhiambo Okello
ARE you still amazed?
COMMENTARY
All this talk about ‘ancestral land’ is sheer resentment
Story by MACHARIA GAITHO
Publication Date: 2/26/2008
I RECALL, FROM WAY BACK DURing the single-party era, a raucous debate in Parliament that came with those routine grouses about Kikuyu domination of many areas of the economy and the public sector.
A refreshing intervention came from an unlikely quarter — from one of those violently plain-spoken Rift Valley politicians always keen to wage battle for the Moi regime.
As far as he was concerned, it was a sterile debate. His contribution went something like this: “These people (the Kikuyu) are many. Even if you go to the jails, the slums, the mortuaries, they will be the majorityâ€. End of debate.
Down memory lane again. During the campaign for a multi-party system in the early 1990s, an increasingly agitated President Moi was on the offensive against Mombasa politician Salim Ahmed Bamahriz, one of the frontmen for the original Forum for the Restoration of Democracy.
The president suggested that Mr Bamahriz should hightail it to Yemen where his ancestors hailed from, only to meet with a devastating repartee.
“I will be happy to go back to Yemen,†Mr Bamahriz responded, “but only if I go back on the same plane with Mr Moi so he can drop off in Sudan where his ancestors came fromâ€. Game, set and match!
Why this recollection of relatively ancient vignettes? Because even as the talks aimed at resolving Kenyas’ post-election troubles focus firmly on power-sharing, there are deeper issues that go beyond a temporary political accommodation.
We are hearing a lot about matters such as historical injustices, inequalities in society, and the land question, with the issue of so-called ancestral lands cropping up all the time.
In the process, it is becoming quite clear that we are not talking about individuals who may have amassed more than their fair share of land and wealth, but about entire communities or ethnic groups seen to have done a bit too well for themselves at the expense of others.
It is the Kikuyu, of course, who are seen to have moved beyond their tiny Central Province to settle in large numbers in the Rift Valley and many other parts of the country.
The Kikuyu are also dominant, not just in numbers and in their presence across the country, but are also seen (excluding Asian and Europeans) as Kenya’s wealthiest group with a firm grip on commerce and industry, a solid presence in Government and the professions.
This has obviously brought about a deep resentment, accentuated in the last few years by President Kibaki’s election, which in time came to be seen, not just as the election of an individual, but as a Kikuyu return to political power to continue the domination from the Kenyatta era which was interrupted by the Moi administration.
PRESIDENT KIBAKI’S RE-ELECTION in a disputed poll was for many groups the final straw, and resentment that had simmered over the years exploded.
This may not come out very clearly in the talks mediated by Mr Kofi Annan, but it is obvious that one of the most sensitive issues on the table will, in effect, be how to ensure that one group never again comes to dominate the political and economic landscape by dint of its wealth, numbers and geographical spread.
This in any multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation is a legitimate quest. But the way in which it is being couched raises questions. This is because the debate is not about addressing inequalities or injustices, but simply about cutting a community down to size, as my friend William ole Ntimama unabashedly put it.
What is shaping up is the absurd situation where an individual who excels in a career, profession, business or other undertaking is demonised simply on account of where he hails from.
In many cases, the accusers have had privileged backgrounds, attended the same schools, had exactly the same opportunities to excel, yet are the first to point accusing fingers at their peers who turned out to be high-achievers.
Some of the accusers are influential personalities who secured for themselves communal lands in their regions, parcelled them out for sale, and are now at the forefront instigating violent eviction of so-called ‘outsiders’ so they can regain possession of the very same lands they took good money for. A serious national issue should really not be turned into theatre for vindictive politics.
After all, if we are to talk about every Kenyan going back to some ancestral homeland, then a look at our “Oâ€-Level history books will show how almost every Kenyan community supposedly migrated from somewhere else.
The forests of the Congo, the grasslands of southern Africa, the marshes of the Sudan and the deserts of the Middle East might not be too welcoming for many of us.
Common sense must also apply when we seek to redress some inequalities. It is all very well to create conditions for every Kenyan to develop his full potential, but that will not be achieved by chopping down individuals who excel or by promoting those who are clearly incapable.
Otherwise, come the Beijing Olympics later this year, we might have some people demanding an ethnic balance in our athletics team. Come to soccer and there could be those crying out for their ethnic quota in Harambee Stars. Hell, some might demand a proper ethnic balance in our jails, morgues and cemeteries.