From: Ouko joachim omolo
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2012
Today is Saturday September 22, 2012, the day Honorable Martha Karua was born. It is also the day Mali achieved its independence from France. Born Martha Wangari Karua on September 22, 1957 in Kirinyaga District, Central Province of Kenya, Karua is Kenyan politician, Member of Parliament for Gichugu Constituency.
Nicknamed Iron Lady of Kenyan politics, Karua studied Law at the University of Nairobi from 1977 to 1980 and Kenya School of Law for the statutory post graduate law course from 1980- 1981. She began her career as District magistrate to a Senior Resident Magistrate-Makadara law courts from 1984-1985 and Kibera Law courts from 1985-1987 respectively.
She started a law firm Martha Karua & Co. Advocates in 1987 which she ran till 2002. In the early 1990s she was a member of a political movement that saw the reintroduction of multi-party politics in Kenya from the defiant authoritarian rule of a party KANU led by Kenya’s former dictator president Daniel arap Moi.
She later joined Kenneth Matiba’s FORD ASILI where she first vied for the Gichugu Parliamentary seat but lost to George Kareithi a former Head of Public Service. She regained the seat in 1992 in Democratic Party (DP) ticket through the support of Mwai Kibaki who was the head of the party by then.
Karua surprised Kenyans by resigning from her influential Justice, National cohesion and constitutional Affairs docket in a government she fought hard to see in leadership. She gave the reason for her resignation as the constant frustrations she received from her colleagues in government in an effort to entrench reforms.
She announced her presidential bid during a dinner hosted at the National Museums of Kenya, Louis Leakey Auditorium on the 27 of April 2011, vowing to push for reforms if elected president even though it still remains to be seen if she will rise up to her competitors and critics in government.
Karua who is also the Chairperson of NARC-Kenya says she will continue to use her campaign platforms to promote peaceful coexistence and nationhood amongst all Kenyans, insisting that action must be taken against all inciters and/or sponsors of violence whatever their station in life.
Some of her critics however, challenge her presidential bid, saying that until she explains to Kenyans why she stood up for rigged elections to keep her mentor in power, why she assisted Kibaki to be sworn in at night like a thief, and if she can acknowledge that her actions in 2007-2008 endangered Kenyans life’s and brought about the clashes where many innocent Kenyans lost their life’s she won’t make it to presidency.
Her critics say Martha should start by asking forgiveness from Kenyans first and foremost, while at the same time telling Kenyans the truth of what transpired during and after the 2007 elections, adding that quitting her ministerial position was not enough to change Kenyans Views about her.
Martha Karua was Kenya’s Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs. She was appointed to this post in April 2008 following the naming of a Grand Coalition Government in Kenya. She was elected on a Narc Kenya ticket in the 2007 General Elections to represent Gichugu Constituency.
The coalition is led by President Emilio Mwai Kibaki (PNU), Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga (ODM) and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka (ODM-K). These were the three top and antagonistic contenders for the presidency in the 2007 general elections.
Martha Karua first became a minister after the Narc came into power in 2003 when she was named the Minister for Water and Irrigation. She held this position until December 2005 when President Kibaki dissolved his entire cabinet following his defeat in the jinxed 2005 constitutional referendum when his ‘Yes’ banana side was defeated by the ‘No’ orange side spearheaded by Raila Odinga, the then minister for public works who had been brewing a rebellion within the NARC Government.
Karua appointed businessman Hussein Mohamed as the secretariat’s Chief Executive Officer for her campaign. Mr Mohamed was recently trounced in Federation of Kenya Football elections by Sam Nyamweya.
Speaking during the launch in Nairobion, the Narc-Kenya leader said she is running for president to defend the Constitution, which guarantees all Kenyans a life of dignity and equality, pleading to end impunity and fight corruption.
In 1998, Karua declined the position of Shadow Minister for Culture and Social Services which conflicted with her position of National Secretary for Constitutional Affairs (an elected office) that made her the official spokesperson on legal matters of the party. She opted to resign her position as the National Secretary.
In 2001, when the Constitutional Review Bill was laid before the House, the entire Opposition with the exception of Karua walked out of Parliament. The Bill had been rejected by the Opposition as well as Civil Society but Karua was of the view that as elected representatives, instead of walking out, it would be more prudent to remain in Parliament and put the objections on record.
In an interview with BBC’s HARDtalk in January 2008, Karua said, regarding the violent crisis that had developed over the election results, that while the government had anticipated that the ODM) of Raila Odinga might be “planning mayhem if they lost”, it was surprised by “the magnitude” of it, calling the violence “ethnic cleansing”.
Asked to clarify, Karua said that she was stating “categorically” that the ODM planned ethnic cleansing. Odinga subsequently called Karua’s accusation “outrageous”.
She was endorsed as the national chairperson of the NARC-Kenya political party on November 15, 2008. There was virtually no competitive election during the party’s national delegates’ convention at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi as all the officials including Ms Karua were being endorsed.
After her endorsement she immediately declared she would be gunning for the highest political seat in the Kenya’s 2012 elections.
At one time in her Kirinyaga District, Karua walked out on President Moi who was then addressing a crowd in the district stadium. She has been a leading crusader for the widening of democratic space and gender issues in Kenya.
She has been involved in championing women’s rights through public interest litigation, lobbying and advocacy for laws that enhance and protect women’s rights through her work with various women’s organizations, particularly the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Kenya) and the League of Kenya Women Voters.
In February 2009 during her time as Minister of Justice, she once had a heated argument with the Minister of Agriculture William Ruto at a cabinet meeting as the President sat quietly, watching the sparring ministers, according to the source at the meeting. The President did not say or do anything.
He just sat there quietly watching as the ministers took on each other. It was chaotic, hot and eruptive. The two ministers had been sparring in public over a period of three weeks, with Ms Karua demanding Mr Ruto’s resignation over a maize scandal. This gained her momentum and was referred to as “the only man” in the PNU Cabinet.
Although today also marks the day Mali achieved independence from France in 1960, this country in the West African state has been afflicted by several rebellions, insurrections, and coups. The Malian army’s overthrow of President Amadou Toumani Toure threatens to end two decades of democratic rule in the country.
The following is the timeline courtesy Aljazeera
1960: The Mali Federation (which included Senegal) gains independence from France. Mobido Keita, a socialist, becomes the country’s first president. Senegal left the Federation later that year.
1962-64: Nomadic Tuareg peoples in the north of Mali, dissatisfied with their position in the new state and wanting a state of their own, revolt in the First Tuareg Rebellion. The Malian government’s army is much better-equipped than the rebels, and after defeating them, force Tuareg areas under military administration. This stokes resentment in these regions, and causes many Tuareg to flee to neighbouring countries.
1968: A coup led by a young army lieutenant named Moussa Traore overthrows Mobido Keita’s regime. Traore forbids opposition political parties, and presides over the development of a police state.
1968-74: Mali suffers from a major drought, which devastates many Tuareg areas in the north.
1990-95: The Second Tuareg Rebellion begins in June 1990, as separatists in the north demand their own Tuareg state. Malian president Alpha Konare grants greater autonomy to the Tuareg-heavy Kidal region, causing the conflict to die down somewhat, but hostilities continue for several years more.
1991: Dissatisfaction with poor economic conditions and the Traore regime’s corruption help spur a pro-democracy protest movement. Following a government crackdown, in which dozens are killed or injured by government forces, a military coup removes Traore from office in the so-called “March Revolution”. The coup leader, lieutenant colonel Amadou Toumani Toure, leads Mali before stepping down when elections are held in 1992.
1992: The first democratic elections since before the Traore regime are held in Mali. Alpha Konare is elected president, and then re-elected in 1997.
2002: Amadou Toumani Toure, who led the 1991 coup overthrowing Traore, is elected president after winning 64 per cent of the vote.
2006: In June, Mali reaches a peace agreement with Tuareg rebels seeking greater autonomy for their northern desert
region.
2007: Toure wins 71 per cent of votes to guarantee a second five-year term as president. A Tuareg rebellion breaks out in Niger and Mali, concentrated in Niger’s northern Agadez region and Mali’s northeastern Kidal Region.
2008: Several Malian government troops and Tuareg fighters are killed when a rebel column attacks an army post near the Mauritanian border, despite a ceasefire between the two sides.
2009: Hundreds of rebels lay down their weapons in northern Mali in a sign that military pressure and Algerian mediation may be helping end the rebellion led by Tuareg nomads.
2011: After the end of the uprising in Libya, large numbers of Tuareg, who had fought for Muammar Gaddafi in the Libyan civil war, return to their home country, many heavily armed. The Tuareg rebellion is reignited in northern Mali, with the aim of establishing an independent Tuareg state called Azawad.
January 2012: Tuareg rebels exchange gunfire with Malian soldiers in a northern town.
February 2012: Mali are due hold its presidential election on time in April despite the rebellion in the north, Toure says.
March 2012: Mutinous Malian soldiers close the borders hours after declaring they seized power from the president in protest at the government’s failure to quell the rebellion in the north.
March 22: The newly formed National Committee for the Return of Democracy and the Restoration of the State (CNRDR) declares it has seized power. Malian soldiers say they have deposed Toure and suspended the constitution.
March 23: The African Union suspends Mali’s membership following the coup. Regional bloc ECOWAS follows suit a few days later and threatens to use sanctions dislodge the army leaders.
March 28: Toure, in his first public comments since he was ousted, tells French radio he is free and unharmed.
March 30 – April 1: Tuareg rebels enter key towns in the north of Mali after soldiers abandon positions. They seize regional capitals Kidal, Gao and then Timbuktu in a three-day offensive. The rebellion effectively controls the whole of the northern half of Mali.
April 2: ECOWAS imposes sanctions including a complete shutdown of borders to force the junta to step down from power.
April 6: Tuareg fighters who have captured the north of the country declare an independent state called Azawad, with the city of Gao as its capital.
ECOWAS and Mali’s military coup leaders agree to a deal under which the junta will hand over power to parliament speaker Diouncounda Traore, who will be sworn in as interim president with a mission to organise elections.
April 8: Mali’s President Amadou Toumani Toure hands in his official letter of resignation from one of the hiding places in the capital where he had been since the coup. This paves the way for the ECOWAS brokered deal to take effect.
April 12: Diouncounda Traore is sworn in as interim president. He says he will not hesitate to wage war against the rebels who have seized the northern parts of Mali, if they do not agree to peace talks. ECOWAS lifts sanctions against Mali and agrees to give amnesty to those involved in the coup.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Peaceful world is the greatest heritage
That this generation can give to the generations
To come- All of us have a role.