Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:07:58 +0000 [04/28/2009 02:07:58 AM CDT]
From: charles otieno
Subject: RE: could he be our obama?

Olekina Ledama for 2012
www.ledama.com
The past has been the politics of divisiveness. The future is politics that favors common sense and respects diverse opinions.

The past has been the status quo that benefits the few. The future is a state that represents and works for all.

The past has been a deaf ear to our youth. The future is an open hand to welcome the youth into the political process.

As president of Kenya, I will work to improve the way of life for ALL Kenyans—through education; upgrading our infrastructure to bring fresh water to lands and villages that desperately need it; a sound energy policy; an economic policy that does not seek out handouts from beyond our borders but builds a productive, innovative Kenya from within.

The past is a different country. The future is Kenya.

Olekina

charlo

——————————–
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:48:46 -0700
From: warugi2005@ . . .
Subject: [YP_Ke] Re: Mungiki Menace

Thanks Ed,
I’ve been enlightened by the summary, but the question is what exactly does the Mungiki want, anything negeocible or just recognition?

I hope this matter can be solved peacefully while sitted not in the battle field.

Its terribly sad…..

Blessed day

Phylis Wanjiru

— On Wed, 4/22/09, ed moses wrote:

From: ed moses
Subject: Re: Mungiki Menace
Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 2:08 AM

Odhiambo, may not claim to know much ’bout them, but I feel in summary that this group is a faceless evolution of a group faced with identity crisis; with each phase being a product of many factors. I borrow this inference from some facts herebelow:Pls note the ideological evolution and the external under-currents that fan this evolution…..
* The gang consists mainly of youths from Kenya’s largest tribe, the Kikuyu, and began as a hardline offshoot of the Tent of the Living God, a religious sect that espoused a return to traditional tribal beliefs and a rejection of Western values.

* The word Mungiki means “multitude” in the Kikuyu language.

* The group at first advocated female circumcision and tobacco sniffing. It later adopted rituals like swearing oaths and wearing dreadlocks, like the Mau Mau rebels who fought the British colonial government before independence in 1963.

* Its size is unknown but it claims thousands of members, especially unemployed youths including some whose communities were destroyed in tribal clashes in the 1990s. It has adopted a politically militant tone, siding with the poor against rich elites it accuses of doing the bidding of former colonial masters.

* It has long run extortion rackets in the lucrative minibus taxi industry.

* Police say Mungiki is Kenya’s version of the mafia: involved in murder, extortion and racketeering, levying protection fees on the urban poor and supplying electricity and water illegally at a monopoly price. They say it commits kidnappings and hires out thugs as political muscle.

* Security experts say gang members swear an oath of secrecy not unlike the Italian mafia, and can leave the gang in only one way — by dying. Any betrayal is punishable by death.

* The group has links to politicians and powerful Kikuyu families and is suspected of colluding with crooked police officers in exchange for a cut of their extortion schemes.

etc etc

On 4/22/09, Odhiambo ????? wrote:

Hello YPs,

Have the chickens come home to roost?

Looking at what the Mungiki has done in Nyeri (or is it Karatina), I am tempted to say so, even as it also looks so sad. If someone asked me what Mungiki is, I’d go back and say they are the descendants of the former farm labourers for the mzungu farms (wherever they existed. I was/am not a history student!) who were later left landless. That’s the only thing I deciphered from the few articles I have read, due to my little interest in the grouping.
Now that things have taken a different dimension, I’d really love to know who the Mungiki are and what their real problem is. Of course, this should not be bundled together with their use as a terror tool by some politicians. If someone were to wake up today and say s/he wants to resolve the Mungiki complaint, what would that complaint be? Is it just land problem? Is it something else we don’t know? We’ve associated Mungiki with extortionist practices in Nairobi and Central province mostly, but we have not quite identified the problem they want to solve.
May I ask request our Kikuyu brothers/sisters who have good knowledge of the Mungiki factor to enlighten us on what it is and the factors around it and whether it can be addressed, and how?

Where it has gotten now, I really fear for what is coming next. The killing fields will spread far and wide in Central province, and perhaps in Nairobi if what has happened in Nyeri is anything to go by.

—
Best regards,
Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254733744121/+254722743223
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“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
— Mark Twain —