Guys,
This man so called Ruto has just become now a pain in the ass to almost all Kenyans who have been affected by the deforestation of the mau forest. The same Ruto was known for organising the ruthless KANU youths who used to walk around beating people during president Moi`s time. That crime he has not been charged of up to today. Now the Mau forest thing is still going on and he secretly went on Thursday to see the president and I hear he was promised 1 billion Kenyan shillings for the resettlement of Mau forest victims.
Can I just ask this question: Whose money is this 1 billion Kenyan shillings?. Is this tax-payers money or money president Moi stole and kept in Switzerland is now being brought back to Mau victims?.
The rich elements who pushed the ordinary Kenyans to the forest and occupying their land should meet this bill. There is no point of again taxing the whole Kenyan tax-payers with a bill of 1 billion to pay for people who in the first place broke the law, and have caused an environmental catastrophe.
What lesson are we Kenyans giving the criminals? That today, go and destroy this and that, and tomorrow you will be given 1 billion in compensation?. Are we really moving forward or just dwindling around?.
I do stand with the foreign diplomats who said no compensation should be given to criminals who are destroying the forest. By the way he, Moi, who started all those rubbish of giving land is still alive, when will this Moi answer or be responsible for his mistakes? Will we charge him only when he is dead or what?
Let Moi bring back the tax-payers money he stole and kept abroad to mend his mistakes. We still have the IDPs without homes, food etc and the government is having 1 billion for the Mau forest destroyers. Children education fund also lost and Kibaki is having money to promise Ruto, is this a joke or real life?
Ruto should also know that all his problems are not caused by the prime minister. He is now talking as if it is Raila who have caused the problem, while the whole problem was caused by a kalenjin who is, by the way still being called president Moi. When will Ruto open his brain to start saying the truth about Mau Forest and who caused the deforestration?
By the way, Raila never caused Mau forest settlements nor did he cause deforestation : so on this I see the prime minister’s name as being used as a scapegoat to deviate the problem from president Moi, who is the real criminal here. Ruto is now behaving as if Raila is guilty and Moi is a prophet, who saved the forest and the savior to the Mau dwellers. What type of politics we Kenyans are being subjected to?.
Is this what Uhuru Kenyatta or Ruto will do incase one of them become the next president?. If Masai’s did behave like these Mau Forest or Ruto type of people, in Kenyan today, there wouldn`t be any lion or elephant left for tourist to see. I do not think Ruto has that mind to imagine what life would be in Kenya, if all tribes were just going around destroying nature, as these mau people and president Moi did.
Paul Nyandoto
Folks,
This is the more reason why we must look at all these NYANGAU’s who have preying eyes of ACHUDHEs. They are ready to pounce on the poor like dead meat attacked by a revenging Hawk ready to tear their prey apart in a hurry and consume the thin layer flesh on the poor. What they will leave behind is bones…..stack bones people……
On the other hand, Uhuru’s & Company henchmen are spreading cooked roumers that the European are sponsoring Uhuru for Presidency that the ACHUDHE’s are in good books with the European Nations, that they will FORCE whoever takes the Presidency to have UHURU & RUTO as the ruler-mate. This is a BIG BULL………..The Propaganda of Yester-years, we will not buy. We have the right to design our own fashion and choose our fitting dressing style. If you want to look beautiful and attractive, you choose your wear. We have as individuals, democratic rights to choose for Progressive Leadership Quality that shall deliver to match all fittings…….
Anyone believing Uhuru/Ruto propaganda with extension to Moi, is short-sighted, with little brains, a propaganda as hard as a rock….. who will buy?? People, find a soft comfortable chair to sit on, incase you will be sitting for a while, but a hard rock is not environmentally friendly Climate to your bottom. Ask yourself why they had to part with Public Money to pay Shs. 129 Million (1.7 million Dolar) to a Public Relations Firm in the US to clean their bad tainted image mess abroad?…. if they are loved and are backed for leadership in Kenya by the West or any Business Community for that matter anywhere in Europe, why would they struggle to clean passed mess. Who want to associate themselves with known THIEVES who steal from their poor to join in their growing prosperous International Business. A Good name is as valuable as GOLD, ask yourself, why was Kenya’s Account closed in UK?, why did they get Travel Ban if their business community abroad cared for them that much?
The only price the Kenya Government will pay in order for President Obama and EU Community to agree to work with Kenya is for the coalition government to get its act together. Tackle Corruption and Impunity and implement the Kofi Annan recommended reforms with the Two Principles, PM Raila and Kibaki. Yes, all that Kibaki and Raila need to do is to prosecute Golden Berg, Anglo Leasing, Triton, Grand Regency, KTD, Maize and Treasury scoundrels and everything will be well for those whose image has spots.
If you hear any such like statement that the EU Community (including UK the British or the Americans are for UHURU’s Presidency, you are fooled), ask me and I will tell you that it is DUMMY. I will attach for you Facts Findings for your reference. And whoever is feeding you with such third class irrelevancy, ask them to buy you a cup of Tea, a healthy drink instead and get yourselves involved in other topics about your environment and Health Care.
Fasten your Seat Belts and get ready for a good reading………..Dont Miss Out This……
Cheers!,
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
Watch This………………
Kenya hires top US image firm
Kenya President Mwai Kibaki (centre) addresses journalists outside his Harambee House office. Prime Minister Raila Odinga (second left) and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka (right) look on. PHOTO/ PETERSON GITHAIGA
Kenya President Mwai Kibaki (centre) addresses journalists outside his Harambee House office. Prime Minister Raila Odinga (second left) and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka (right) look on. PHOTO/ PETERSON GITHAIGA
By KEVIN J KELLEY, NATION Correspondent, NEW YORKPosted Monday, August 17 2009 at 22:30
In Summary
* Fact sheets to be given to media, government and business executives
The Kenyan government has retained a top Washington public relations firm to improve its image in the United States at a reported cost of Sh129 million ($1.7 million) over the next two years.
Officials at CLS & Associates confirm that the Kenyan Government has been added to its list of high-powered clients.
But the lobbyists declined to comment further on the grounds that the campaign on behalf of the Grand Coalition had not yet been fully formulated.
Kenya’s ambassador to the United States Peter Ogego also said he had no comment on the CLS contract.
The Paris-based Indian Ocean newsletter reported recently that the deal with CLS was made jointly by the office of the President and the Kenyan embassy in Washington.
In the initial phase of its work, CLS has compiled a series of eight fact sheets on Kenya for distribution to the US media, government officials in Washington and American corporate executives.
These brief releases attempt to put a positive spin on Kenya’s efforts at national reconciliation, its fight against corruption and the country’s security ties to the United States.
This strategy appears designed to highlight considerations that are already at the forefront of the Obama administration’s relations with the Grand Coalition.
Terror threat
While sharply criticising aspects of the Kenyan Government’s performance, senior State Department officials have also been emphasising Kenya’s importance to the United States in containing the threat of terrorism from Somalia and from individuals linked to al Qaeda.
CLS’ clients include corporations such as Pfizer; elite educational institutions such as Harvard University; and half-a-dozen governments in Europe, South America and Africa.
In a fact sheet entitled “A Stable Government,” CLS says Kenya has made significant strides toward reconciliation and reform in the past year.
Monday, May 18, 2009
KENYA’S IMAGE IS MESSED HERE AT HOME NOT IN AMERICAN CAPITALS
at 12:27 PM ·
By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
May 15, 2009
So… the Kenya government is at it again, shopping for another PR firm in the US to whitewash its tainted image abroad!
It is the kind of decision that can only come from a desperate government that has lost direction altogether. It can never have come from a government with a functional Foreign Service department.
Mind you, we tried this trick in the early 1990s with another PR firm in Europe; Orr Associates, when Daniel arap Moi’s regime was under siege. We paid millions of shillings without anything to show for it.
It is the price we pay when we refuse to do the right things at home and expect foreigners to clean up our mess.
Foreign PR firms will obviously be attracted by easy money but will not deliver because Kenya’s problems do not hurt them as much as they hurt us. What I’m saying is that you cannot buy passion or patriotism with cash. Such feelings are homegrown.
Looked at another way; that will be the day when the British, French or American government would hire foreign firms to mend their public image with nations that hate and despise them most. With all the bombings that Allied Forces have reined on Iraq and Afghanistan, the West has never seen the need to hire foreign PR firms to do damage control on their behalf. They do it themselves through their Foreign Service departments who understand their issues best.
The reason we have a Foreign Service department is because we want to continually build, mend and improve our image among nations abroad. That is why in the USA alone, we have three functional offices in Washington, New York and Los Angeles. These stations have no other reason to exist except to take care of our vested interests there. These interests include political, trade, investment and cultural relations.
The Washington Embassy has the primary duty of representing Kenya at the heart of the most powerful nation on earth. Among its primary goals is to engage the American State Department on a daily basis on matters of particular interest to Kenya. And this task should be easier now that Barack Obama who has relations with Kenya is now President.
For those of us who travel to the US quite often; the truth is, many Americans do not care a hoot about Kenya, let alone knowing where it is on the world map. It is only now that they are beginning to pay a little attention since Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign put Kenya in focus.
Therefore if I were the Kenya Government, I would do it differently. I would not go for a foreign firm that may not in the first place understand the root cause of our bad image abroad. I would hire the one American who understands us intimately. I would hire President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle not only to clean Kenya’s image in America but also to the rest of the First World. And the beauty of it is that it will come for a song.
Consider this: The day the Kenya Government revealed that it was shopping for a PR firm to clean up its image in the United States, one man called Johnnie Carson was in town. He was on a mission on behalf of one President Barack Obama. With him was a personal message to President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. In that message President Obama expressed his displeasure at the way the two principals were running the coalition government especially in the department of urgent political reforms.
And it was not just a polite feel-good message. It was a subtle warning that unless they changed their ways and stopped wrangling over power; he would intervene in the best way only he knows.
Now, this is not the kind of president Kenya needs to hire a PR firm to impress. He already knows what ails Kenya and no amount of cheap publicity and paid press ads on CNN and Fox News will change his attitude.
The only price the Kenya Government will pay in order for President Obama to agree to work for Kenya is for the coalition government to get its act together, tackle graft and implement the Kofi Annan recommended reforms. Yes, all that Kibaki and Raila need to do is to prosecute Golden Berg, Anglo Leasing, Triton, Grand Regency, KTD, Maize and Treasury scoundrels and everything will be on course.
Yes, all the two principals need to do for Barack Obama and family to accept the job is to set up a local Tribunal and prosecute perpetrators of the 2007/2008 election violence that killed over a thousand innocent Kenyans.
If they do these little things, America’s First Family will accept the job at no cost to Kenyans. It is that simple.
jerryokungu@gmail.com
The only price the Kenya government will pay in order for President Obama to agree to work for Kenya is for the coalition government to get its act together, tackle graft and implement the Kofi Annan recommended reforms. Yes, all that Kibaki and Raila need to do is to prosecute Goldenberg, Anglo Leasing, Triton, Grand Regency, KTD, Maize and Treasury scoundrels and everything will be on course.
Yes, all the two principals need to do for Barack Obama and family to accept the job is to set up a local tribunal and prosecute perpetrators of the 2007/2008 election violence that killed over 1,000 innocent Kenyans. If they do these little things, America’s First Family will accept the job at no cost to Kenyans. It is that simple.
How Ruto joined the millionaire’s club
He was a struggling 30 year old. Then somebody took him to State House one afternoon in 1997. When he went home in the evening, he had eight prime plots worth over Shs 50 million. He has never looked back and is today worth hundreds of millions.
For presidential candidate William Samoei Ruto, the big break in the world of big money and mega deals must have come on Wednesday, December 3, 1997. This particular Wednesday must hold special significance to Ruto for it is the day he accomplished the hitherto impossible feat of getting himself allocated close to a dozen prime plots in Nairobi; all part of a single day’s work.
These plots were to become the financial launching pad for the ambitious but humbly-bred young man from Eldoret. Today, Ruto’s is a classic story of rags to riches. He may not be wealthy in the leagues of competitors such as Raila Odinga, Mwai Kibaki or Musalia Mudavadi but he is certainly not a poor man even when compared with the other lot of presidential candidates such as Kalonzo Musyoka, Najib Balala and Dr. Julia Ojiambo. Ruto is a man whose wealth could be in the region of a hundred million plus, quite a Herculean feat for someone who started life with nothing but a burning ambition to succeed ‘no matter what at whatever the cost’.
There are two particular people who played the crucial determining role in showing the then inexperienced Ruto which side was up and which was down in the world of mega-deals – former President Daniel arap Moi and former cabinet minister Cyrus Jirongo. He has never looked back.
Jirongo’s role in the education of Ruto started when the two teamed up in 1992 to create the infamous Kanu youth lobby group YK ’92. Jirongo, as chairman of the then high-powered and on one of the few outfits that were willing to publicly stick their necks out for Moi’s re-election, had unlimited access to President Moi and enjoyed a place of honour at the high table.
Ruto, on the other hand, was a junior official in the outfit with little money and no high-level contacts of the kind Jirongo could marshal with a few phone calls. But Ruto had something that Jirongo did not have. He had the patience, stealth, surreptitiousness and tenacity of a stalking leopard. Using Jirongo’s good rapport with President Moi, Ruto was bale to use the lobby group’s meetings with the president to worm his way to the head of state and to key state house operatives of the time, such as former presidential aide Joshua Kulei. While Jirongo was fast, abrasive, impatient and raring to go, behind Ruto’s deceptively innocent looking exterior was a sly and shrewd operator whose calculating ways expressed itself in his curious, one could even say devious, sense of humour. Ruto, for instance, chose rather interesting names for the companies he used to facilitate various land deals. Ruto’s main vehicle for land deals was Oseng Properties Limited. The name Oseng or osengeng is the Kalenjin for ‘these fools’. He had another firm that went by the name Orterter Enterprises Limited. Translated, orterter means ‘we must win’. Another of his operational firms went by the name Matiny Limited. In Kalenjin Matiny stands for ‘whatever the cost’.
These were some of the more creatively named companies that Ruto used to effectively climb the financial ladder. Soon after the 1992 general elections, the fast paced Jirongo had, who like the fabled Daedalus and Icarus of Greek mythology had flown too close to the sun, had his wings melting. Ruto, together with a few other more calculating members of YK ’92, quickly distanced themselves from the falling Jirongo and besides helping twist the political knife stuck in Jirongo’s backside; Ruto and co. swiftly used the Jirongo crisis in Kanu to get even closer to the powers that be. By so doing they inched as near to the ultimate dispenser of public goodies – President Moi – as they could. Significantly, today, Ruto hardly sees eye to eye with either of his mentors, Moi and Jirongo. In his determination to achieve an individual political identity and autonomy he has slowly sought new friends and considers politicians like the ODM supreme Raila Odinga, as more important to his political evolution.
Record plot allocations
It all started with the formation of a company that went by the name Oseng properties Limited early in 1997 where Ruto was listed as director and chairman of the company, with his business right hand man Paul K Chirchir acting as the company secretary.
Hardly had the registrar’s ink died on the company’s registration certificate than Oseng Properties Limited was in real business. The most active day for Oseng Properties was December 3rd 1997.
The day started with an application to president Moi by Oseng Properties fro allocation of a dozen or so prime commercial properties in the city’s plush suburbs and Ruto’s company’s given registration documents bearing the legend:
“Know all men by these presents that in consideration of the sum of shillings (relevant amount indicate) by way of stamp premium paid on or before the execution thereof, The president of the Republic of Kenya hereby grants unto Oseng Properties Limited all that piece of land situate in the City of Nairobi…..”
On that December day, Oseng Properties Limited and Orterter Enterprises were allocated at least eight plots whose total value was estimated to be in excess of Shs 50 million. Early the year that followed the companies were back in business. Two more plots were allocated on February 16 and another on two days later. On average Ruto’s companies paid the government between Shs 50,000 and Sh 280,000 for the plots as statutory dues.
The cash cow
It was these plots that he used a few days later to get millions of shillings from City Finance Bank Company and Ajay Shah’s collapsed trust Bank. Using some of these plots a s collateral, Ruto got some Kshs 50 million from City Finance bank on July 2nd 1998.
Then on November 24th 1998 , he had another plot charged to the same fiannce company for Shs 7.5 million. The same property was later discharged and subsequently charged to Kenya Commercial bank for a loan of Shs 9.75 million.
It is certainly with the monies he got from these land dealings that Ruto was able to set himself in the world of business, and hence the world of the privileged. Among his first business project was in the real estate initially with his erstwhile friend Cyrus Jirongo. Together they constructed a block of apartments in Ngong area sometimes in 1993 although Jirongo was the main financier for the project.
The value of the apartments, estimated to be worth at least Shs 50 million at the time, should have appreciated substantially by now and must be worth hundreds of millions. However, these apartments were later to lead to a bitter row between Ruto and Jirongo. It is not clear how the matter was ultimately settled but each party had accused the other of behaving dishonestly in the deal.
Years later Ruto would construct his own block of rental apartments along Jogoo road. The Jogoo Road apartments were estimated to be worth around Shs 50 million.
He was to diversify his line of business later and teaming up with some friends to set up an insurance company -AMACO- which did lucrative business during the last days of the Moi government. At the time Ruto had joined Moi’s inner core and had been elevated to a cabinet minister as he assisted Moi to promote project Uhuru where the former unsuccessfully tried t have Uhuru Kenyatta succeed him. Not many others of Ruto’s businesses are in the public domain, but the aspiring ODM presidential candidate has obviously den well for himself. He has moved from a relatively poor man ten years ago to the multi-millionaire he is today with a palatial home in Karen, another equally opulent home in his rural Eldoret suburbs plus rent apartments, farms and other asserts.
CCR-Kenya brings together organizations and individuals who believe that for Kenya to truly attain genuine democratic liberation, comprehensive constitutional reforms must be completed before the 2007 general elections. The coalition works to raise awareness to bring pressure on the ruling class to allow Kenyans to reform the constitution before another election. To read the CCR’-Kenyas Roadmap for Constitutional Reforms Before 2007 Elections, please click:
http://www.madaraka-kenya.org/
Roadmap for constitutional reform before 2007 elections.pdf
The struggle henceforth, is between “those who, satisfied with today, would make an effort to delay the future as much as possible, to put up obstacles against any substantive change, and those who, exploited today, aspire to a new reality.”Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Heart, (1997), (p53).
THE TRUTH ABOUT UNITED NATIONS WITH CORRUPTION
The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) is
the most comprehensive global legal framework for combating
corruption. It is a binding agreement ratified by 141 states on
standards and requirements for preventing, detecting,
investigating and sanctioning corruption. The adoption of an
effective review mechanism at the upcoming Conference of States
Parties is essential for the success of the UNCAC. The review
mechanism is a procedure by which the UN can check how
effectively countries are implementing the convention. Such a
mechanism has already been used successfully in the OECD Anti-
Bribery Convention.
Monday, 7 December 2009
African Leaders are saboteurs of development
By Lord Aikins Adusei
It is a waste of time to argue that there is anything remarkable or worth emulating about the brand of leadership that is seen in Africa. Throughout Africa not a single country has been able to deliver its people from poverty, malnutrition and diseases. Almost all countries in Africa South of the Sahara are facing deep poverty and that includes resource rich counties like Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Senegal, Gabon, Cameroon, Ghana, and even South Africa.
Everywhere in the world whenever the word Africa is mentioned four words come to mind: poverty, hunger, wars and diseases. Apart from Botswana where the leaders have relatively been able to use their resources to advance the development of their people, the rest of Africa is nothing but misery. Misery in sense that the average African is hardly able to live one-third of the comfort that a citizen of the global north (US, Canada and Europe) is able to enjoy in his/her lifetime. Apart from the corrupt politicians, dictators and their cronies who live in luxury, the rest of the population have to survive the harsh realities of the African economy on less than two dollars a day.
Why is black Africa so different? Any time the question of poverty is raised black African leaders are quick to point to colonialism and slavery. But it is a fact that the era in which everything is blamed on colonialism and slavery is past and gone. India, South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong were all colonised yet they have been able to shake themselves of what Dambisa Moyo terms the ‘four apocalypse of hunger, disease, war and poverty’.
A visit to rural parts of Ghana shows that very little has changed economically since independence more than 50 years ago. In spite of the availability of tractors and other advanced farming technologies that can be employed to increase productivity, farmers in Ghana still cultivate and harvest their crops with cutlasses and hoes, tools their forefathers used before they were colonised.
The situation in Niger, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Togo, Benin is not different from that of Ghana. The extreme poverty and deprivation in countries in the Horn of Africa region and Ethiopia in particular continue to baffle economists and development thinkers after so much aid money has been poured into that region to no avail as politicians divert aid money into their own private bank accounts.
Any major study about why Africa is so different from the rest of the world points to the kind of leadership that exists in Africa. The leaders in Africa love power and will do anything to get it: rigging elections, organizing thugs to cause mayhem and violence, refusing to step down when their term of office end. The likes are Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Mamadou Tandja of Niger and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe who employed violence and intimidation against members of opposition parties after loosing elections.
The leaders love to be worshiped and served as kings even though they claim to be servants of the people. They love to live in fine palaces, drive in convoys, attend state functions, deliver long speeches yet do not raise a finger to fight poverty and deprivation that are so common in their countries.
African politicians and traditional leaders and those in control of economic and political affairs are always interested in titles and the financial rewards that go with their office not the responsibilities attached to the office. Ghana’s current President is a Law Professor but he seems to have no clue on how to move his country forward. He is surrounded by others with academic titles similar to his but the ministries, departments and the sectors they head have not changed since they took office earlier this year.
Malawi’s president holds a doctorate degree but his country is no different from that of Togo, DRC or Gabon which are all being governed poorly by children of former dictators and thieves who took decades to mismanage their countries’ economies and resources. Nigeria’s current president has been titled “the first graduate president of Nigeria” but Nigeria with all its oil revenue and human resource is still deep in poverty, sometimes not even finding enough petrol to feed her economy despite being the biggest oil producer in Africa.
This contrasts the president of Brazil, Lula Da Silva who used to be a shoe shine boy and street vendor but is increasingly turning his country into an economic power house, thereby steering his country into economic independence and freedom . Where did Yar’ Dua leave his thinking cap when he became president or what did he graduated from? I want to know because I still wonder why they are not applying what they learnt in school to free their countries from the international disgrace and weakness that have come to be associated with the continent. A poor Cuban seeking to leave her communist country said she “would be prepared to go anywhere except Africa”. When asked why she said “how can I jump out of a frying pan into fire?”. Meaning she cannot leave a bad situation in Cuba and get into a worse one in Africa.
In a conversation with a female Professor in Stockholm, Sweden about the poverty situation in Africa she asked angrily “well the leadership in Gabon claim to have used the huge oil revenue for infrastructure investment but is that the reality on the ground?” She continued, “Democratic Republic of Congo is a mess, Angola, Congo and Equatorial Guinea are an eyesore and as for Nigeria well I reserve my comment”.
The monumental failures on the part of African leaders have given birth to the phrase ‘Africa South of the Sahara’ and the leaders seem to be happy with that phrase. Black African leaders have accepted the phrase with all the negative connotations it carries without reacting to challenge it. The phrase in its proper sense refers to a part of Africa which does not count in global politics; a toddler in everything important in the world, a backward part of the continent that continues to stand still while the rest of humanity is moving forward both technologically and scientifically. Africa whose people live in darkness despite 365 days of sunshine and availability of solar technology to convert the sunshine into solar energy.
It means Africa which is so poor in an economic, social and political sense – despite being rich in natural resources and hard working people: an Africa which is so poorly governed, whose leaders are corrupt and lack the capacity to plan and to initiate any programme of development on their own without being told to do so or helped by outsiders.
Africa where infrastructure decay is a norm, where rural life is nothing but a condemnation to abject poverty, hopelessness, misery and frustration.
Africa where ethnicity and tribalism are exploited by corrupt dictators and opportunists bringing a wave of negative tendencies of cronyism, nepotism, corruption and conflicts in its trail.
Africa where politicians are happy to exploit the ignorance and illiteracy that have enslaved and prevented its people from taking their rightful place in the world community of continents.
Africa that has not learned anything from its colonial experience and whose leaders continue to dance to the tune of Western and Chinese rhythm to their own peril; Africa which can be and is being recolonised by China and its rival competitors in Europe and North America through their multinational corporations. (Have you heard of Africom)?
Africa whose leaders can be bought by multinational corporations with some few thousand dollars and allow multinational corporations to plunder their resources without any accountability.
Africa which is both economically and politically fragmented, having no common foreign policy, and no economic, immigration and agricultural policies and whose leaders see no wisdom in unity and are without a mouth in world affairs.
Africa which is so militarily weak and technologically paralysed to defend itself against external forces, their ideologies, philosophies and cultural pollution.
Africa whose leadership are morally bankrupt to criticise one another.
Africa whose leaders have great ideas about how to rig and win elections, kill journalists, stifle press freedom, freedom of speech and association but have not the slightest idea as to how to fight chronic poverty.
Africa whose leaders prefer to steal from their countries and bank their loot in foreign countries instead of using the money to build roads, hospitals, railway tracks, irrigation facilities, schools, electricity, housing and other social and economic infrastructures for the development and benefit of their own people.
Africa where natural resources are a curse rather than a blessing.
Africa where an illiterate soldier with a gun in hand can easily become a president of a country tomorrow. Examples are Yahyah Jammeh of Gambia, Moussa Camara of Guinea, Gaddafi of Libya, Joseph Kabila of DRC, Mamadou Tandja of Niger, Museveni of Uganda, Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz of Mauritania, Al Bashir of Sudan,Francois Bozize of Central African Republic, Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, Valentine Strasser of Sierra Leone, Sergeant Doe of Liberia, and Kolingba and Jean-Bedel Bokasa of Central African Republic.
Egypt a purely desert country and a member of ‘Africa north of the Sahara’ recently sent food aid to Uganda, a country rich in minerals, soil, natural lakes, rivers but whose leaders see no wisdom in employing irrigation technology that could be used to increase food production to reduce hunger.
Africa which continues to beg for and depend on foreign aid despite sitting on huge natural wealth an act that defies any economic wisdom. Africa which continues to depend heavily on natural resource exploitation as the main economic activity without diversification despite the dangers of such economic approach to development.
Africa where women are treated as second class citizens, denied political representation and are coerced and used as sex objects and commodities by those in power.
Africa where child bearing is a matter of life and death, where pregnant mothers die of preventable causes of deaths; where so many children die before they reach the age of five; where child labour and child poverty are the norm, and where both rural and urban children grow without proper education, healthcare, food, shelter, clothing and without future or hope.
Africa where economic hardship put people on death roll and cut short young bright lives. Africa where there is no mortgage, safety net for the poor and the aged and where owning a house or a car can be as daunting as climbing Everest. That is the true meaning of ‘Africa South of the Sahara’ which the leaders have accepted without a fight.
Most of these leaders make an annual pilgrimage to London, Washington, Tokyo, Berlin, Beijing and see the infrastructures and the living standards of the people in these countries yet nothing pricks them to help their countries to do the same. When they are sick they are quick to take the next available plane to America, Europe or north Africa for treatment but forget to build the same hospitals and other institutions and infrastructures for the good of their countries. After blaming their monumental failures on colonialism and slavery they have now found a new scape goat: climate change and with it they can continue with their decades of inaction without having to lose anything.
Yoweri Museveni seems to be okay living in his palace enjoying almost three decades of his loot of Ugandan resources with his family and cronies. Obiang Nguema and his circle of friends live in their mansions surrounded by bodyguards yet the only 600, 000 people in his oil rich country live in 18th century conditions and likewise Sassou Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville and Dos Santos of Angola.
The black African leader will accept bribes from companies and interest groups to stop implementing policies, programmes and projects that could help alleviate poverty in his country. The failure of Omar Bongo of Gabon to make his country the Switzerland of Africa can largely be linked to the hundreds of millions of dollars he received as bribes from Elf which allowed the company to loot Gabon’s oil proceeds.
It is sad despite being the continent’s biggest oil exporter Nigeria does not have a well developed petro-chemical industry and has to import most of her oil products abroad. How come Cameroon is so poor when the country exports oil every day? How come Equatorial Guinea is so poor when it is the third biggest oil exporting nation in Africa?
How come Angola is mired in deep poverty when oil revenues bring the country billions of dollars annually? How come Nigerians live in 18th century environment when oil proceeds flow into the country every day? The answer is the leaders. They are corrupt, power hungry, arrogant, ignorant, illiterate and visionless buffoons, who can neither think out of the box or understand what it means to be president, prime minister, senator, MP, councillor, Assemblyman, or a chief and who prey on the ignorance and powerlessness of their people to stay in power while amassing wealth at the expense of their countries. Chief among them is Yahyah Jammeh a murderer, blood sucker, sometimes a president, sometimes HIV/AIDS healer who makes a mockery of himself and the seat of the presidency in The Gambia and who like the rest of his colleagues in Guinea, Guinea Bissau, CAR, Ethiopia, Burkina Fasso, Niger, Mauritania and Ivory Coast cannot devise plans to steer their countries out of economic predicament.
They are what Ghanaians call ‘Konongo kaya’ which literally means saboteurs who will not raise a finger to do anything to help their countries and yet will not allow others to do it. Saboteurs whose continuous stay in power is the cause of Africa’s woes and underdevelopment. If you happen to be in economic or business class and economic or development regions is discussed you will be surprised to know how Africa is bypassed several times even though it is strategically located at the centre of the globe. The discussion moves from North America to Europe to South East Asia then back to Latin America and to the Middle East without the mention of Africa. All these the leaders do not seem to worry about it. They are not bothered because they no know they are the cause, the saboteurs and enimies of Africa’s development.
Black African leaders must put on their thinking caps. It is very disheartening to see women, and children die of starvation in many parts of Africa. At least we know these leaders don’t care but at least they should give the people the chance they need to initiate their own development. I hope that some of the advice I have offered will be adhered to by the leaders so that Africa can also take her rightful position in the world community of nations.
Te hee hee. The chief tribalists have now convinced the leopard that he should herd their goats in return for a few heads of mbuta. Kweli Jaluo Jinga Jeuri !!
Now we a love fest between Mirugi(the goats) and Odhis (the leopard) – what rubbish! One wants the power to continue with Gema and the other is getting increasingly agitated that age has caught up – Kenyans will not tolerate any old men in power anymore in 2012. Its falsehood that is destined to fail – KEGUOYA CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE IN POWER, PERIOD !!