From: Judy Miriga
Folks,
With this kind of political temperature rising into climax and as we know Kenya politics every election season, lives are in Danger and it gona get worse, if the situation is not arrested in time, it is on the verge of spiraling and spinning out of control.
It is prudent that Warsama proposal make some sense.
At this point, all death threats must be taken extremely very seriously and must be thoroughly investigated. At the end of the day, many ordinary Kenyans will be the target and many will die mysteriously and this must not be accepted.
Political temperature in Kenya is currently fluid and dangerous. The Police have begun to take sides serving interest of political power. The police actions will ignite the current soiled temperature and fire will consume all corners of the Country just like 2007/8 when Things Fall Apart in Kenya.
Another window to throw Kenya into Tribal and Civil war clashes must be shunned and the International Community and Leadership must step in to help the ICC Hague take speedy move to indict those who had committed the crimes.
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
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From: mohamed warsama
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 12:15 PM
Subject: ICC FIRST, THEN ELECTIONS
To avoid plunging Kenya into a post-election bloodbath over The Hague cases, I think the elections should be postponed at the presidential level only and the ICC be told to fast-track the Ocampo Four cases.
An interim government of eminent persons from all the 8 provinces should be formed to take over from the present Coalition Government.
It should remain in office for the duration of the ICC cases. These cases should be concluded within two years of this interim government taking over in March, 2013.
Otherwise we head into civil war which is sure to be ignited if Uhuru and Ruto are barred from contesting.
The elections for governors and ward representations can go on as planned.
Mohamed Warsama
‘Facing Mount Kenya’
By CYRUS OMBATI and PETER ORENGO
Sixty-four years ago, Kenya’s Founding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta wrote an anthropological book on the Kikuyu community and called it Facing Mount Kenya. He borrowed the title from the snow-capped mountain where the community believed Ngai – their god – rests and faced while praying.
On Wednesday, the title was on many lips and this had nothing to do with Old Jomo’s book, but a humiliating ordeal Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara claims he went through in the name of Jomo’s son, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta.
Uhuru, who denounced Imanyara’s claim, is seeking the seat his father held between 1964 and 1978, and is banking on Gema (Gikuyu, Embu and Meru communities) to give him a head start in the race to succeed President Kibaki. To this end he appeared in one Gema meeting in Limuru, last month, when he was ‘crowned’ Gema’s undisputed leader.
Mr Imanyara said his assailants pulled him out of his car at night, next to State House, where Uhuru is fighting to return to, and forced him to kneel on the tarmac.
“The men came out of a ‘stalled’ car and asked me if I was Imanyara. Upon answering in the affirmative, they told me to come out and kneel while facing Mt Kenya and repeat the words, “Uhuru tuko pamoja” (Uhuru I am with you) three times,” said Imanyara.
Breaking police cordon
The startling claim came as Prime Minister Raila Odinga was also again mentioned in alleged assassination plots linked to the Kibaki Succession. But as if in a dress rehearsal of the heady days ahead the General Election, police sealed off the venue of second ‘Gema’ meeting called in Limuru to denounce the one that crowned Uhuru.
The scene was filled with tear gas, as police battled riotous youth seeking to break their cordon and get in. There were violent scenes, too, reminiscent of what Kenyans witnessed during the clamour for a return of multipartism in the early 1990s, and the pro-reform rallies of 1997.
Tempers flared in Parliament earlier in the day, after Imanyara sensationally claimed four armed men threatened to kill him on Tuesday night. The MP explained they stopped him when he was driving home at about 11.30pm, before he got to his house along State House Crescent.
His account was blood curdling, too, as he claimed they vowed to chop off his head and deliver it to his wife and children if he attended two meetings, one in Limuru and another in Meru.
Alleged intimidation
“I was warned against attending the Limuru 2B meeting and a public meeting in Meru that Prime Minister Raila Odinga is scheduled to address,” the MP claimed.
Imanyara is set to host Raila in Meru on Saturday, and has vowed to proceed with the meeting despite the alleged intimidation.
The other notable voices from Mt Kenya region believed to be sympathetic to Raila’s cause, apart from Imanyara, are: former Kabete MP Paul Muite, retired Anglican Archbishop David Gitari, Kiambaa MP Stanley Githunguri, former Attorney General Charles Njonjo, and businessman Peter Kuguru, among others.
But on the opposite end are Central and upper Eastern Kenya MPs’ brigade that is usually seen with Uhuru in G7 rallies convened with Eldoret North MP William Ruto.
The Gatundu South MP has also attracted the support of Gema leaders, who have met twice in Limuru and resolved to support him for president.
At the same time a political caucus – Friends of Raila (Fora) – also claimed its officials received threats linked to PM’s planned trip to Meru.
Fora also said Imanyara was threatened moments after attending a meeting with them to prepare for the visit.
“In the threatening message, I was asked why I want to hold a rally in Meru and warned. These are acts of intimidation intended to scare ODM members, but they will not stop our plans,” said Fora secretary general Eliud Owalo.
Running battles
Police tear-gassed and fired in the air to disperse youthful supporters linked to former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga from attending the anti-Gema meeting in Limuru.
Led by Muite, the youth overran police roadblocks and engaged the anti-riot force in running battles along Limuru Road before they were repulsed.
Imanyara vowed he would not be intimidated into supporting another presidential aspirant, in reference to what he said was pressure to jump onto Uhuru wagon. But the DPM dismissed his statement and drew a parallel between it and Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo’s allegations that there is a plot to assassinate Raila.
“Don’t you find it peculiar that Midiwo at a funeral made allegations of assassination? Now Imanyara at a live television session in Parliament is making similar allegations,” posed Uhuru, through his spokesman, Munyori Buku.
Buku further said, “Now that Kenyans have laughed off Midiwo’s allegations, Imanyara has come on as the supporting cast.”
He claimed the allegations were coming from a “cabal of leaders who had lost direction”.
Mr Owalo claimed when he called the number of the person who threatened him, the owner insisted on meeting him. He said he had reported the matter to the police, and asked Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and the police to investigate the matter.
Imanyara told Parliament the threat against his life was linked to two meetings at a hotel in Nairobi, which some MPs attended.
“The meeting identified some leaders, including myself, as being stumbling blocks to some political agenda. But I’m willing to die defending the Constitution. I will not allow some MPs to force me to support certain individuals with presidential ambitions,” he vowed.
MPs’ worry
“I will not be cowed. I will not be stopped from implementing this Constitution. The Government must investigate this incident and state what measures it is taking to protect its citizens,” said Imanyara.
Internal Security and Provincial Administration Assistant Minister Orwa Ojode blamed MPs for not using of their security personnel.
Gichugu MP Martha Karua accused Ojode of taking the matter lightly. She wondered whether with this kind of attitude police would investigate the claims conclusively.
Police disperse Limuru meeting, cite security
A meeting called to counter the recent gatherings by the Gema and Kamatusa groups was on Wednesday broken up by police who used bullets and teargas to disperse some of the participants in Limuru.
Several others were injured in the confrontation that spread from the main Limuru Road to private farms in the area as the two groups engaged in running battles.
The meeting, dubbed Limuru 2B, was meant to counter earlier ones held by supporters of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto.
The organisers of the meeting, led by former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga, Paul Muite, Mpuri Aburi, retired bishop David Gitari and Mr Ngunjiri Wambugu had arrived at a hotel in the area ready for the event.
Police led by Central PPO John Mbijiwe had sealed the venue of the meeting and set up roadblocks.
The officers were informed the conveners of the meeting were at the Wida Hotel, few kilometres away before one senior officer was sent there to inform Njenga to leave Kiambu County because he was not wanted there.
This led to a confrontation between him and Muite who told the officer his orders were illegal and Njenga was free to visit any place in this country.
Muite and his group later addressed journalists.
Muite said some politicians are behind the purported cancellation of the meeting and urged police not to take illegal orders.
“We will sue these senior officers for violating the laws and demand that they pay the damages using their own money. Again, some politicians think they can make decisions and think for others,” said Muite.
Muite left the area condemning the acts and police dashed to back up their colleagues who had been overpowered at the roadblock.
By then, approximately 2,000 youths had overpowered the officers and were marching to the Jumuia Conference.
A confrontation ensued on the road with police firing to the air and throwing teargas canisters at them.
Escorted out
Last evening, Njenga blamed a politician for the drama saying the individual wants to impose ideologies on other Kenyans. He said he was escorted out of Wida Hotel by police cars and ordered not to go back.
The PPO said they had reports that some criminals planned to use the event to champion their ideas to the masses hence the cancellation.
“We have been informed even some Mungiki people will be there. That is like allowing a criminal gang to gather and map the way forward,” he said.
De La Rue row latest dent in integrity firewall
Published on 17/04/2012
Integrity is not something you can legislate. It’s not something akin to teaching a savage how to handle a knife, fork and spoon in the ways of the genteel. It is a very personal trait and comes from a combination of Nature and Nurture interventions. And on that platform of “meaningful change” and adherence to the principles of fair play and integrity, the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) Government came to power.
Sadly, an audit of the level of adherence to the positive attributes that took the election reveals a worrying descent back into the abyss.
No week seems complete without some or other scandal screaming from the non-Establishment newspapers, TV stations and social media. And the currency printer De La Rue falls in the same skein.
It all started in 2003 when Kenya invited officials of Central Banks from several African states to help develop an instrument to guide the international tendering for a new generation currency printing contract for use in the region and earn benefits of economies of scale.
The deal now reeks of improper motive, arm-twisting, underhand dealings, tender manipulation, suspect accounting and a longstanding relationship between State and an international firm that will never be the same again.
Once Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee gets to the bottom of the role of various players in this saga, the paper trail should lead to the Sh2.7 billion (maybe more) the taxpayer lost.
shades of truth
At the time the new Narc regime was cancelling the contract claiming it was suspiciously single-sourced by the former Kanu regime just before the 2002 elections, appeared to have been the right move then.
Problem is the negative vibes coming from the cancelled deal that was replaced with a pricier one.
Like we argued earlier, no number of court appearances, incarceration, preaching will add an ounce of integrity to a public officer if they do not wish to do what is right and in the public’s interest.
How many shades of truth exist in this billion-shilling deal that is still in contention 10 years on? Let the House Committee work this out. Urgently.