From: ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2012
The year 2012 has a lot of challenges. I left home yesterday for Nairobi at exactly 1:33pm in a private car-as I left my mother cried because she did not want me come back. I pleaded with her and promised I will come back very soon.
Although she is old and almost loosing memory she can recall that this year is yet another presidential and other elections. She still thinks that elections will be held in December as it has been a tradition-she tells me not to come home during that period because she does not want to see me risk going back to Nairobi as I did in 2008.
This is the year that the countdown to the fate of the Ocampo Six resumes. Head of the Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Mr Francis Muthaura, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, MPs William Ruto (Eldoret North) and Henry
Kosgey (Tinderet), Postmaster General and former police commissioner Major General Mohammed Hussein Ali and radio executive Joshua Sang are accused by ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of bearing the greatest responsibility for crimes committed during the 2008 post election violence.
Like my mother who now thinks that every election in Kenya must be chaotic, the fact for sure remains that once the charges have been confirmed against the six suspects and the Presidency of the court constitutes a Trial Chamber, the ruling against the six might gear some tensions, particularly this year that Kenyans are going to vote.
We cannot deny the fact that DPM Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto who are also running for the presidency have many followers who might use the event to create chaos. The six are expected to be in Hague for trial before January 21.
There are some Kenyans who believe that Kibaki and Raila should also appear before the ICC because they are the ones who caused the violence. While Kibaki should be charged for allowing State House to be the venue for the meeting in the run-up to the 2007 General Election where it is alleged that plans to kill some ethnic groups were planned, Raila according to some section of Kenyans should be charged because the disputed presidential election was sparked by his claim of poll rigging and the call for mass action.
At least 1,300 people were killed and more than 600,000 displaced in the violence, which is now the subject of the two cases on crimes against humanity. One fact is very clear that the war which was waged in the name of the two principals has come back to haunt them.
The fact that Eldoret North MP William Ruto, Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang are accused of plotting attacks against perceived PNU supporters in Rift Valley, This has been viewed by their supporters that they were fighting for Raila because his votes were stolen.
Kibaki is being accused because Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former police chief Hussein Ali are alleged to have organised retaliatory attacks against perceived ODM supporters in Naivasha and Nakuru towns on behalf of Kibaki.
The government of Kibaki and Raila has also been blamed for failing to fulfil its promises to resettle the IDPs, teachers’ salaries and allowances and end the corruption which continues to make the lives of ordinary Kenyan too expensive.
According to the UN Human Development Index 2001, poverty levels are rising in Kenya due to corruption and bad governance. The report ranks Kenya at position 143 of 187 countries. Kenya per capita income of $1,492 is lower than that of many countries.
In 2009 for example, when Kazi kwa Vijana was allocated Sh3.4 billion for this programme, and a further Sh6.6 billion previous year, much of it was spent on poorly designed, unsustainable short-term projects with little or no impact on the lives of the youth who constitute almost 30 percent of Kenya population.
This year alone, Kenyans will be forced to dig deeper into their pockets because the high cost of living continues to rise daily-many parents will not be able to take their children to school because school fees has gone up by almost 20 percent. It also means that parents in private schools will pay more.
The sad part is that out of the 10.96 million Kenyans recorded as employed only two million are employed in modern establishments both in the urban and rural areas. This constitutes only 18.2 percent of the working population with the rest in the informal sector.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org