From: People For Peace
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2012

As January 2012 comes to an end, we are looking at January 2005 that was a litmus paper test for President Mwai Kibaki. This was the month the Catholic Church described his visit to the famine-stricken regions of North Eastern Province as “too little, too late”.

The chairman of the church’s Kenya Episcopal Conference, Bishop Cornelius Korir said it was unfortunate that the President’s tour came only after lives had been lost. The worst hit was Garissa, Mandera, Wajir and Marsabit in North Eastern province.

Others were Mwingi in Eastern province; Laikipia in Central Kenya; Tana River, Kwale, Kilifi, Malindi, Lamu and Taita-Taveta districts in Coast province, Samburu and Turkana in the Rift Valley.

According to Bishop Korir it was not only a sin for somebody to die of hunger, it was also a criminal offence for the government to leave citizens to die of hunger. He noted that it was ironical that Kenyans were dying due to hunger, while some parts of the country had enough food which the government could buy to feed the dying.

The situation would have been saved had the government adhered to the warning by the UN World Food Programme that the number of people in need of food in Kenya was expected to rise to 2.5 million in the first half of 2006 because the October-December short rains which had failed in many eastern and northern districts.

This was the month that also saw Kiabki faced with many challenges in fighting against corruption, including the recovery of 850 million USdollars lost between 1990 and 1993 in the fictitious export of gold and diamonds by Goldenberg International by a company owned by Kamlesh Pattni.

Kibaki could not act given that along with Pattni, several key political figures had been implicated in the scam spanning the Moi government to Kibaki’s government. It was the month he could not also act because politicians close to him were mentioned in the the payments of equivalent of almost 90 million USdollars made to the Anglo Leasing and Finance company.

Finance Minister David Mwiraria and his National Security counterpart, Chris Murungaru who had been linked to the scam were dismissed from their respective ministries due to pressure from the opposition and donor agencies, but were not charged in court of law.

The other politician who could also not be tried was former powerful man in Moi’s government Mr. Nicholas Biwott who was one of the several ministers named in an inquiry into the suspected siphoning of $700m of government funds.

Mr Biwott was among several ministers close to the former president named in a parliamentary committee into corruption in 2000. The report said corrupt officials in the provincial administration had defrauded the government of some $700m between 1990 and 2000.

This was also the month that saw the government of Kibaki slowly losing proper direction. Kapenguria Member of Parliament Samuel Moroto spent several days in a police cell when Kibaki’s government refused to bail him out. He was to be moved from Kapenguria to Nakuru where Henry Nyaga was Resident Magistrate.

Moroto had been arrested because he warned of bloodshed if communities living in Pokot did not leave the land for the Pokots. Moroto had told ethnic communities settling on the community’s land to prepare for war any time. Moroto was elected on January 12, 2001 following the death of former fiery Cabinet Minister Francis Lotodo.

In Kanu heydays, especially in the periods just before the first multiparty elections in 1992, opposition party’s sympathisers (later) in Narc were harassed and at times arrested for flashing the two-finger salute.

This was also the month while People for Peace in Africa were conducting a workshop organized by St Mary’s Mukuru kwa Njenga Catholic Church the residents blamed the area Officer Commanding Station (OCS) for not taking any action when criminals were handed over to the police.

The residents told the workshop that as soon as the criminals were locked behind bars they were released on the very day. The reason for the release they said was because the police colluded with them. In some incidences they said police give them their uniforms and even guns. Previous year two girls were raped and killed.

Despite the fact that an estimated 60 per cent of the city’s population lives in slums, Mkuru Kwa Njenga is one of the slums that are not officially recognized, a policy that deprives the population of the normal governmental protections.

This condition has left the field open for misappropriation of land and has produced an unstable and highly volatile social situation. This explains why the government had not issued the title deed for the 7 hectares land owned by St Mary’s Catholic Church despite numerous attempts to acquire the deed.

These extremely dense slums are located in Nairobi’s industrial area, which attracts a large number of poor and destitute families and individuals who come to the city seeking employment.

The slum is faced by food security, lack of adequate housing, landlessness, unemployment, and sanitation. The only community health in Mkuru is run by the Medical Missionaries of Mary.

Out of about 2 million people residing in Embakasi Division, 150,000 reside in Mkuru Kwa Njenga slums. Embakasi Division has been identified as a high HIV/Aids prevalence area. The Nairobi industrial area where Mkuru is located continues to loose a large number of employees to the Aids pandemic.

January 2005 was the month which also saw the drama in an Eldoret hotel when members of the public caught a man red-handed with a school girl in lodging as they prepared to have sex.

The 16-year old Form Two girl was reported to have consented to sex after an elderly man had bought her some chapati (flat baked bread). The hotel guard saved the situation when he alerted members of the public of the incident after he saw the two enter the lodging at 1pm.

Members of the public stormed the lodging and apprehended the man who was just about to begin the shameful act before handing him over to the police. The man tried to give a bribery of Sh10, 000 to be set free but this was not his lucky day.

When the girl was asked by public why she consented to have sex with the man, she it was because she did her shopping bought her chicken and chapatti and promised she would continue assisting. Her parents could not assist her much because they were poor.

January 2005 was again the month when the report revealed that poverty in Kenya was steadily on the rise. The report revealed that for every shilling a poor Kenyan earns the richest get Sh56. The report further revealed that the gap between Kenya’s rich and poor was growing bigger by the day.

The report by the Society for International Development issued by Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, then minister for Planning and Development, while 10 per cent of the wealthiest Kenyans controls more than 42 per cent of incomes, the poor continue to be poorer, making Kenya among the top ten most unequal countries in the world and the fifth most unequal in Africa.

The poor in Kenya constitute a majority among the landless, people with disabilities, female headed households, households headed by people without formal education, pastoralists in drought prone districts, unskilled and semi-skilled casual labourers, Aids orphans, street families and children including beggars, subsistence farmers, urban slum dwellers, and unemployed youth.

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