On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 4:08 PM, John Mulingwa Nzau wrote:

Hi guys today we had a very dissapointing day in Kamukunji over the lasdap issue.First of all the process does not have transparency and accountability in the way it is run and managed.YoDevelopmentu can imagine the role of the community in the whole process is presenting proposals and sometimes the proposals are manipulated after presentation to fit some greedy individual interests.The rest of the process is carried out by the council from tendering to the last detail the comm remains spectators. Every year we choose two reps per ward to represent the comm in city but even the elected reps know nothing about the process.So today in Kamukunji we have decided that no more rubberstamping of projects until we own the process so we chased away Lasdap representatives until they come with their seniors who will answer our queries properly and in detail change ina start from this point act from where u are plz

From: Beverline Ongaro
Sent: Tue, October 27, 2009 4:28:11 PM
Subject: Re: LASDAP SHORTCOMINGS

Hey,

That is great what you guys are doing. It is only through social auditing that we can ensure devolved funds are put to the earmarked use. Such lack of transparency and accountability by public officers is all the more why we need freedom to information law in place.

From: jeremiah kiwoi
Subject: ONE COMMUNITY , ONE VOTE
Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 7:37 AM

Great Kenyans,
In my wildest of dreams, and in the interest of National cohesion and integration, I am proposing that each community in this countrycounts for only one vote. The Luo will have one vote, Kikuyus, one vote, Ogieks one vote, Ndorobos one vote,Kalenjins one vote,Kurias one vote etc.This will end the talk of alliances that are simplistic in nature and only look out for those who bring the largest numbers to the tables that comprise of tribal chiefs. Thats the day the Ndorobo of this country will count and the Ogiek will be Kenyan. Can you picture Raila going to the deepest part of this country to meet the ndorobo for their one vote? Kalonzo dying for one vote from the Digos of this country? Uhuru crying for the Turkana vote and Saitoti sweatinmg blood to get the vote of the Orma? This will be limited to those seeking to be the bearers of the highest office of the land that we cherish.Now thats cohesion,thats integration,and hopefully, thats progress. This shall be the end of the KKK, KAMATUSA, Mt Kenya talk of block ( read tribal) votes and Councils of eders’ deals with the political elite. The only way to qualify for that one vote is to garner at least 51% of each communities vote. Thats when the forgotten communities of this country will begin to count,thats when we as a country will get to know who those reffered to as “others” in demography are and thats when unity will have purpose. These are my 10 cents thoughts,but they can transform Kenya from a country to a nation.

What are your thoughts forum members?

Best of thoughts as you ponder on the way forward.

On 10/28/09, Evans MACHERA wrote:

I find this a big challenge and good food for thought.

From: philip musembi
Subject: Re: ONE COMMUNITY , ONE VOTE
Date: Thursday, October 29, 2009, 5:18 AM

To add my thoughts i think what we need in Kenya is a DICTATOR i have arrived at this conclusion because i have discovered that in this country we dont have democrats but opportunist and tribal chiefs who use democratic talk to disguise their selfish and tribal interest with only one goal in their mind POWER.

One man One Vote is a principal of democracy period,democracy is a rule by majority i guess thats why in the bomas draft we have a 50+1 for the presidential elections the simple defination of democracy highlights the word PEOPLE,GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE this nonsense of One Kilometre One Vote is a misplaced argument Yes i know guys you will tell me what about the minorities do they have a right my honourable answer is YES we need to discuss how minority rights will be catered for a good example is special constituencies for the Dorobos,Ogieks etc.Simply put the majority should have the way and the minority should have a right to be heard.

To summarise i believe its high time for Kenyans to decide if we are Democrats,Socialist etc. or else we are playing with fire and we will get burned and become a failed state. WE CANNOT REINVENT THE WHEEL.

Philip Musembi

from: orina Nyamwamu
date Oct 29, 2009 1:37 AM
subject LET US GET SERIOUS ON REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE

When it comes to wild proposals, I see them on NYC. Are we serious in the proposals we are making or we are putting anything forward for the sake of it?

The boundaries commission should wait until the COE finalizes its work. We can not have the COE adopt what the Boundaries commission wants because it is the duty of COE to offer the basis for a system of the representation of the people.

The way forward is to maintain the current 210 constituencies as holding areas as Kenya goes for a Proportionate representative electoral system (PR). This is how the system shall work

a) Kenya SHALL BE SEEN as one huge electoral constituency

b) Each political party shall publish a list of vetted and competent Kenyans it wants Kenyans to elect to parliament as their MPs. Each of these people who shall be published by the Parties must be cleared by the KACC, the AG, and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights as Kenyans who have not been involved in Human rights violations, are not violent, have not been involved in corruption and economic crimes scandals or have not been involved in inciting ethnic tensions or have not been involved in spreading hate language.

c) Once each party lodges its Party list with the IEC, the IEC shall declare the date of the election

d) Kenyans shall vote for a political party through out the country. Ballot papers shall only have a political party symbol not individuals

e) Votes shall be counted and tallied at each of the nearly 27,000 polling stations and tallied nationally through an electronic system.

f) Each party’s votes shall be tallied and for every 35,000 votes a political Party receives it shall win a sit in the National assembly

g) Once each Party has known how many MPs it has, the party list shall be followed in the order the list was published and the IEC shall gazette all the duly elected MPs.

h) Looking at which party won the highest number of votes in a certain constituency, Political parties shall be asked to post an MP to that constituency provided no MP shall be posted to her/his original electoral constituency. For instance even if Safina garners the highest number of votes in Bomachoge constituency, Cyprian Nyamwamu SHALL NOT be posted to Bomachoge as the MP. Safina shall be required to post Cyprian Nyamwamu to say Mandera Central if Safina also garners the highest number of votes there. This is important for six reasons

§ Ukabila and clannism shall be brought to an end since the MP who shall serve that constituency shall be impartial and level headed but also seriously held to account and to exposed to thorough scrutiny so that s/he does not misuse the resources allocated to the constituency.

§ to end the violence that is associated with a man or woman fighting to be the MP of a certain constituency, since all politicians shall be struggling to ensure their party wins as many Kenyan votes as possible

§ The voice and power of women, professionals, pastoralists, minority communities, the youth and other disadvantaged groups shall count because it is only those parties that include these categories in the Party list. This is how to end violence, voter bribery

§ This system will make Kenyans realize that politicians do not own Kenya but instead it is Kenyans who have the responsibility to built and belong to democratic and serious political parties.

§ The current curse of certain families and tycoons controlling political parties and collecting bribes from individuals by selling tickets to these rich men and women shall come to an end.

§ The party lists shall be vetted and approved by the Party National Conventions with the assistance of the IEC upon receiving proposals and rationalized drafts from the Party NEC.

i) The balance of MPs over and above 210 shall be Members of Parliament without physical constituency but representing other national non regional constituencies such as the youth, women, workers, persons with Disabilities etc

j) The election of MPs, councilors and Chairpersons and Mayors of local government authority shall be held in August of the election year while the election of the President (if under a presidential system of government) shall be held in December of the election year.

k) Kenyans shall be encouraged to vote where they work and stay instead of registering and voting in their so called home constituencies because Kenya shall now be one large electoral constituency. This is important to ensure that urban areas get to elect MPs and councilors and mayors who are endorsed by the urban resident. We need to bring to an end the shameful system of imported ethnic voters from western Kenya, Central province, Nyanza and Ukambani currently in operation. We also need to end the current foolish system where urban dwellers run to their native villages to vote for MPs who never represent rural voters while the MPs who represent them in Nairobi are elected by imported voters.

l) In the case of a parliamentary system of government, the Prime Minister, being the leader of the Party with majority seats in Parliament (obviously the Party that won the highest number of votes and confidence from among Kenyans) must enjoy more than 50+1 percent of the MPs in parliament failure to which, that party shall be asked to form a coalition government to ensure that the legislative business of government is executed.

m) In the case of a presidential system of government, none of the MPs shall be a member of the cabinet. If the President appoints an MP to cabinet, such a Member of Parliament shall immediately resign and his or her replacement automatically picked from the Party list that was submitted to the IEC.

n) Under this system, there shall be no by-election. Once a vacancy occurs in Parliament, the Party in which the vacancy occurs shall automatically fill the vacancy from the Party list supplied to the IEC. This is important to avoid acrimonious and often wasteful by elections as we know them in Kenya today.

This is the system that shall serve both the current ethnic campaigners in central province as well as secure the interests of the dishonest politicians from the arid and semi arid regions. It is shameful that people who claim to be national leaders including ministers in the current illegitimate Grand coalition government can be involved in ethnic campaigns that divide the nation further instead of campaigning for more representative, more inclusive and simple system that shall promote national cohesion and diversity of representation in Parliament.

To restore democracy in Kenya, we have to fundamentally transform the system of representation. Ensuring that the interests of all Kenyans are represented is the more important than the system of government. Once Kenyan fixes its system of representation as proposed here above, all the other issues including the system of devolution, land and the system of government shall be ease to fix. We have to remember at all times that democracy is about representation of interests.

Cyprian Orina Nyamwamu
NCEC
P4C
Safina.