From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2013
My learned friend Ambrose Otieno Weda posted in his Facebbok Wall about the August calamities in Kenya that I need to share with you. Following the fire breakout at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) he wonders whether this fire is part of August darkness in the history of Kenya.
Jomo Kenyatta died on 22/8/78, the Coup was on 1/8/82, worst terror attack on 7/8/98, Bishop Muge died on 14/8/1992, Wamalwa Kijana died on 23/8/03 and Martin Shikuku died on 22/8/2012.
I need to add here that on the same day in August two years later – 14 August 1992, a prominent opposition leader Masinde Muliro died under mysterious circumstances. American Mill Hill Missionary priest, Fr John Anthony Kaiser also died in August 2000.
On August 27, 2004 Karisa Maitha dies and 22 august 2012 the wife of Michuki dies. On August 3, 2013 senior police officer Chief Inspector Zebedeo Maina, Kitui deputy CID boss gunned down in Kitui.
Maina was shot in the back on Saturday evening as he led a team of officers to rescue a five-and-a-half year old girl in Kitui town.
The girl had been kidnapped from Nairobi.
He was shot near a nightclub in Kitui town and later died in what authorities termed unclear circumstances. Witnesses told the press he was shot by men in a Peugeot station wagon car. It was claimed a woman pointed out Maina before he was shot.
Witnesses said the officer was shot in the back and the bullet tore through his stomach.
The men would later identify themselves as police officers at a nursing home, about 500 metres from the scene of shooting.
The four men, armed with rifles, reportedly asked nurses at Neema Hospital to “treat the suspect they had shot”. The nurses, however, insisted on identification and the men reportedly produced police badges. But as the injured officer was put on a drip, they took him away and he was pronounced dead on arrival at Kitui District Hospital.
The most dreadful moment for Kenya was 7 August 1998 when an innocent looking truck drove up to the then US embassy on Haile Selassie Avenue and stopped. Moments later a powerful bomb went off and with it the lives of over 200 people.
On 13 August 1997 Kenyans received the news of an attack on the police station in the coastal town of Likoni and the killing of a number of policemen sparking a period of mindless political and ethnic blood-letting that left many dead.
August 2000 Kenyans had to grapple with some of the worst railway and road accidents in its history that left a total of nearly 200 people dead. The railway line between Butere and Kisumu had been closed indefinitely as a result of the accident.
On August 12, 1997 the World Bank announced it was withholding the disbursement of $5b in structural adjustment credit to Kenya.
August 1 a small airplane belonging to AIM-Air crashes into a flat in Nairobi’s Highrise estate, while approaching the Wilson Airport, resulting in one fatality.
August 23 a bus and a truck collide near Gilgil, resulting in 16 deaths. August 24 long-distance buses and matatus are banned for entering the Nairobi CBD, in order to reduce traffic congestions.
This brings us to the big question as what is a curse. “Curse”may refer to a wish that harm or hurt will be inflicted by any supernatural powers. In many belief systems, the curse itself is considered to have some causative force in the result that calls for rituals or prayers to remove or break. If this is not done the curse will always befall you.
Deuteronomy 28:15-68 spells out why a curse comes about. It comes if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees. The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.
The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish if you do not repent.
This brings us yet to another big question as to why most calamities take place in August. My take here is that since calamities begun with Jomo Kenyatta, and because he died in August this month is set aside by God to remind Kenyans that the country needs repentance for evil deeds their leaders caused.
Jomo Kenyatta shed innocent blood of Pinto Gama, Tom Mboya and JM Kariuki. God is not only annoyed with people who shed innocent blood, he is also cursing them. That is why after Cain killed his brother Abel, God declared to Cain, “Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth” (Genesis 4:11-12).
Deut. 27:24 spells it out very clearly that even if you should never get caught, you and your descendents will be under a curse and will be hunted by others and be killed. This is because the Devil will never leave you and your descendents alone until you repent of your sins and break the curse on the family line. If you or you children sin in this manner later, the curse will return.
When Daniel Moi took over from Kenyatta his government continued with shedding innocent blood. First it begun with the death of Dr Robert Ouko and then the return to multi party politics prior to the 1992 General Elections where non-Kalenjins, particularly Kikuyu communities were killed in Rift Valley for not supporting KANU and Moi.
Huge chunks of the Rift Valley were declared KANU zones, in reference to Moi’s political party. Moi and his cronies went back to parliament unopposed. Among those who formed Youth for Kanu 1992 (YK92) that helped Moi capture the seat is Deputy President William Ruto.
It was not only the Kikuyu who were affected but large numbers of Luo, Luhya, Kamba and Kisii. Non-Kalenjin tribes in the Rift Valley were refered to as, “madoa doa,” meaning, “specks of dirt.” The Rift Valley is also home to the Pokot and Maasai tribes whose politicians were drawn into the Moi alliance, called KAMATUSA.
Consequently, Kikuyu, Luo and Luhya settlers were evicted from Pokot and Maasai areas especially around Narok, Enoosupukia and Kapenguria. As a result of the ethnic chaos, Moi won the 1992 elections with 36 percent of the vote.
Five years later, there were politically motivated ethnic clashes prior to and after the 1997 General Elections. This time, the flash points were not only the Rift Valley, but also the Coast.
Evidence was produced in the Akiwumi Commission of Inquiry implicating senior politicians in the Moi government and KANU party. An Asian farmer in Kwale District alleged that prior to the Likoni violence, his land was used to oath local youths but his reports to the police were ignored.
After Moi then came Mwai Kibaki with similar problem of shedding blood of innocent Kenyan beginning immediately with that of Dr Crispin Odhiambo Mbai. The killers attempted to destroy his legacy and the fruits of his labour.
Dr. Crispin Odhiambo Mbai was the architect of devolution. He made the most significant single contribution in explaining this concept to politicians, intellectuals and ordinary citizens alike.
After Kibaki here comes Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta. Together with his Deputy William Ruto they are accused of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and persecution during post-election violence in 2008.
Prosecution said Uhur met members of a outlawed criminal organization known as Mungiki at State House and Yaya shopping centre in Nairobi before and after the election in 2007 to arrange some of the retaliatory attacks.
Although he denied the accusation at a preliminary hearing at The Hague-based court last September, the big question is-when will Kenyan leaders stop innocent blood in Kenya? And will they accept the sins they have committed so as to repent?
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002