What surprises me that someone can steal your cows you corner him and the compromise is that you share the heard.

Even more intriquiging is that the thief wants to take the fat health animals and leave the emaciated to the real owner.

Let say this, Kenya will never be the same. It is simple, kenyans have not learned to live together yet kikuyus are the most vulnerable community in Kenya as we now now know.

The Way out for Kenyans is to lean to live together, appreciate one another and let Kikuyus concentrate on business without political prowess but with assured security of themselves and their businesess.

The solution to long-term, durable peace, based on justice and the establishment of a more equitable society, is in bringing about change — meaning, Kibaki has to leave. He does not represent the change that so many Kenyans ache for.

I am one angry Kenyan!

Kibaki should respect the will of the peaple,kenyans decided who wants to rule them,state house is not only for one tribe alone!its for all kenyans who have a will and ability to rule

He should allow for a re-run to save these country plunking into trouble

JR Alila

http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143981602&cid=4

http://politics.nationmedia.com/inner.asp?pcat=NEWS&cat=TOP&sid=1443

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=116296

This first argument is only one of the few in the litany of lies the ODM has rammed through a servile, biased media. The facts speak for themselves, Mwai Kibaki won 4 out of Kenya’s provinces and MPs running on pro-Kibaki platforms won more than 100 seats with victories in every single province. None of his rivals even came close to the same level of support. Kibaki also won a sizeable number of votes even in the provinces where he was overall second best, reaching the 25% mark in every province but Nyanza, where he still managed to poll 17% of the vote. The ODM candidate on the other hand posted a measly 2% and 5% in Central and Eastern provinces, and managed 25% in only six of the provinces.

‘But the bulk of the president’s votes were GEMA votes,’ comes the reply. Well, that may be true but the formulation GEMA itself makes into one what are properly a multitude of ethnicities. More importantly however, our democracy as currently fashioned makes no demands on the ethnicity of voters desiring merely that the victorious candidate have the approval of at least 25% from five provinces to underline his nationalist credentials. To reiterate, it is not communities, faiths or regions that vote. It is individuals.

This is no trivial point. The ODM has taken even before the election to making the case that their candidate was the People’s Candidate, Kenya’s candidate. That was all very well for that period when presentation and marketing were more important than truth; but in this the post-election period, the party and its supporters would do well to realise that by any estimation fully 4 million Kenyans declared their support for each of the two leading candidates. So it is that even now,as the party and its supporters persist in saying that the Kenyan people have been robbed, the Kenyan people are angry, they must remember that there are some Kenyans a substantial number, a majority even who actually voted for Kibaki – and who rejected the ODM.

For starters, it is most irresponsible, if typical of the ODM to neglect to take into account the votes of these 4 million, they are after all just GEMA, Gikuyu, Embu, Meru, Mbeere, Tharaka; you know those people, not Kenyans. This diligently crafted Us vs Them dichotomy explains why the ODM’s leaders have not yet seen fit to visit, or even declare peace with the communities that are being victimised by the outbreaks of violence- communities which in the pre-election campaigns they worked very hard to demonise. When it is not demonising them directly, the ODM and its agents continually seek to invite the GEMA to join Kenyans in voting ODM, proposing all the time that to vote differently is unKenyan.

This is part of the reason for the renewal in Kikuyu nationalism, a whole community has been forced to the wall by the invective of three years and two political campaigns. We stand in our millions -along with Kenyans of every ethnic persuasion in rejection of ethnic chauvinism- and declare to the ODM that we are adamant in our support for President Kibaki and that we too retain the inalienable right to the appellation, Kenyan. We respect that there are those, our brothers and sisters from across the country, with different political persuasions, but never in a million years would we think to pretend that those opinions made them less Kenyan than we are. If it is the sheer numbers in Central Kenya that intimidate the opposition into taking this position, also published as the 41 versus 1 strategy, then the ODM have to now get to their grassroots and urge a population boom. Anything else hurts all of us, and the victims of this hatred will not just be the Gikuyu. The economic and social effects of this policy of excluding one group from the whole will be profound, and as many in Western Kenya are finding, life without the other is not exactly a bed of roses.

The end of this hatred is especially urgent for ODM for, in light of the premeditated and barbaric ODM action in the Rift Valley and across the country, it is unlikely that too many Kenyans, even those who had previously aligned themselves with the party will be particularly drawn to it and its divisive politics any more. The consequences of all the strident screeching about Majimbo and the theory that the Gikuyu hogged all the country’s resources have finally manifested themselves.

Election irregularities

I find it most unfair to look merely at one set of election irregularities while turning a blind eye to the other. Such a predisposition is not only unhelpful, but declares a bias that precludes a just assessment of the elections. It is not unlinked to the over-arching theory of Gikuyu hegemony as it dictates that only one side in the election had the wherewithal to interfere with the vote.
The media and observers seem to have focused merely on crimes committed during the final vote tallying while ignoring the fact that there were several irregularities in ODM zones.
For starters, there was no free will in the vote in Nyanza. Long before the election begun, candidates who would have stood against the ODM nominees were compelled to stand down and those who resisted were demonised and accused of perfidy to the tribe. There were prior to the elections, outbreaks of violence against the disloyal, outbreaks which led to the displacement and non-participation of such persons. There are also credible reports that women and those from communities likely predisposed to vote different than the ODM were obstructed from exercising their voting rights by hooligans either inspired by or hired by the ODM. As the ODM candidate demanded at a campaign rally in Eldoret, ‘hatutaki madoadoa’.

Even worse, and as confirmed by KEDOF in their final vote report, agents representing parties allied to Mwai Kibaki and Kalonzo Musyoka were denied entry into vote counting and vote tallying centres, including most famously Nyayo Stadium where what had been widely billed a close race between Raila Odinga and Stanley Livondo was turned into a rout of suspiciously monumental proportions. This as Uhuru Kenyatta complained, came after Livondo and his group were locked out of the stadium.

Some have asked why the government did not then use the police to back up the blocked voters and insist that the opposition agents be allowed entry at these events. The truth is that the tense pre-election atmosphere did not allow for any use of force by the government, indeed any such moves would have been seen as persecution and would have cost the government votes at the election. Those asking this forget that there were already killings in Nyanza of police personnel prior to the election and that it is this state of violence that ensured that Kibaki and Kalonzo affiliated agents were wary of performing their duties there. Importantly also, any such interference would have undermined the independence of the ECK which was the organisation charged with the proper conduct of the elections. The instruments of legal and legitimate use of force are restricted to use in the protection of the polling station and its environs from the vagaries of the contestants and their agents.

Finally, it is most categorically not true that it is impossible to conduct a re-tally of the forms sent to Nairobi by the poll centres around the country. The agents of all the parties contesting the election carry with them copies of the results announced in these centres and should retain copies of the electoral forms. These can be availed for a national re-tallying, which as the Justice Minister Martha Karua told the BBC’s Hard Talk, the government is very willing to facilitate when ordered by a court of law. Karua herself was part of a group of politicians including George Nyamweya, James Orengo and Anyang’ Nyong’o who sat through the night of the 29th of December with ECK officials and went over the vote tallies from across the land. They subtracted the entire element of suspicious added on votes that the ODM had complained about and Kibaki’s total was adjusted accordingly.

When it was found that the vote still indicated a Kibaki victory, the ODM side sought the very next day to reverse their previous urge for the expeditious publication of the result (remember the ODM had on the 28th and 29th been putting pressure on Kivuitu to announce the victor) and instead began a campaign (Raila even stormed Kivuitu’s home at 0700) to have Kivuitu delay the announcement. Commentators seem to have forgotten that Musalia Mudavadi had already announced the election for the ODM or that there were riots in Kisumu that demanded the election result be announced. Now it seems we only focus on the pressure from the PNU and ODM-K, forgetting all the time the even greater pressure from the ODM the previous day.
As the leaked memo from World Bank country director Colin Bruce avers, the facts are clear. The ODM is only too aware that such a re-assessment would make clear that they lost the election, and are as a result wary of appealing to the courts for such a re-tallying. Mwai Kibaki is the legal, but also the legitimate president of Kenya, which fact will soon be proved in a court of law

Joanne: Jan 14, 2008
I think that all the chatter, and the finger pointing are tiresome and utterly irrelevant at this point- ask the hundreds who have needlessly lost their lives whether their final thoughts were ODM, OR PNU? I think the real issue is what is being played out by the people on the streets who are fed up with all the positing and idle chatter that has only added to inflame new hatreds, and fire up old hurts. Enough already. Enough with the he said, she said, they said, the should not have said..the country is unraveling with such speed, and whats the dosey monster tribalism beast is now out and ready to play.
Move towards healing- enough finger pointing. no ones hands are clean in this shameful display of greed and cowardice.

Why? They are the ones who are proping thieves. The other Kenyans have rejected the thieves by not electing them (Even the Kaleos rejected Biwott and Moi’s sons, The Kissis Nyachae, so the kyuks, if the wanted to, could have kicked out Murungi, Kibaki,Michuki, Kimunya). Does it really need brains to put 2 and 2 together? If the kikuyus do not believe in corruption and theft and bad governnace etc, why do you elect people who do so?

Of course, what this government does is sweet to them.

Any other explanation??

Secondly and most disturbing, is the wanton destruction of cities, Kisumu, siaya, migori, homabay, rachuonyo etc, Luos please control yourselves, have you seen any jorabuon destroying their schools, hospitals, rails etc?? do you know that given the current situation these things might not be reconstructed in a long time, you have destroyed our beautiful city shamelessly and yet it is where you get your daily bread from, do you want to wallow in poverty forever?? can somebody please talk to youths to stop any further destruction of schools, hospitals, bulidings rails etc, the people you should direct your anger at are the mungiki who are coming armed with propeller grenades to kill you and you will be busy destroying things which did not do anything wrong to you.

Lets u calm down, wabed uru piny wapar matek kendo wachan kaka wanyalo counter Mungiki, instead of wan’go sikunde, osibtende makonyowa wan nyikwa Ramogi, piny lich nono yawa!!

What is needed now is a UN peacekeeping force. Unlike Americans, Kenyans do not have “the right to bear arms.” Yet some tribes are better armed (illegally or, as some allege, “legally” through the Kibaki government) than are others.

This is obviously a very dangerous situation.

However, martial-law is not the solution. As we noted earlier, a military coup would almost certainly worsen not improve matters.

We advocate peace at jaluo.com, but believe in self-defense. That said, even those who claim self-defense must be tried in court. Justice must place a premium on human life. After all, what are people fighting for if not the right to lead the lives that they believe they should be able to live–the right to live in an equitable society.

THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS: IF THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT DEPLOY A PEACEKEEPING FORCE TO KENYA IMMEDIATELY, THEN KENYANS WILL BE FORCED TO DEFEND THEMSELVES. Every one of us would do the same if not for ourselves then certainly for our children were we in the shoes of someone who, through no action of their own, was targeted and lived daily in fear of imminent death.

The west has been far too slow and far too keen on pushing its power-sharing agenda.

Please see the contributions of one of our feature authors, b real, for more on the west’s “power-sharing” agenda at:

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2008/01/coup-in-kenya-p.html

The west, ESPECIALLY THE UNITED STATES, has yet to explain how it expects Kenyans to live with one another when all is said and done under such a power-sharing agreement.

We reiterate that had the west pressed for a new election when all of this began, then many, many Kenyan lives could have been saved. As it is, the west does not realize that the options that it thinks are on the table are not the options that many Kenyans have in mind. We read that there are mobs of 5,000 engaging in violence. This is an indication of how monumental this problem has become. Kenya is rapidly moving toward civil war and the possible secession of the six pro-Odinga provinces from the two pro-Kibaki provinces.

We should add that, at this point, secession may actually be the most humane resolution. It is fairly clear that certain groups can no longer fathom co-existing with certain other groups. Let us not wait until thousands have died before we admit the obvious. Secession could save lives.

Frankly, a re-run is beginning to look like a nicety. The west and PNU apparently have yet to grasp this reality.

If the west wants to keep Kenya intact, then we highly suggest that the UN deploy peacekeeping troops NOW as we and others suggested weeks ago…

If the conditions for democracy can be restored, then a new election might be possible. Nonetheless, whoever wins such an election will have to work very hard to heal the divides that have festered and erupted due to the inadequate action of the west and the international community.

Regards,
Jaluo Press

P.S. READERS: We will return to this topic of a new election and why we think that it is the best option for keeping Kenya not just peaceful, but also intact as a nation. Please stay posted and, above all, stay safe.

Gitahi was on NTV on Friday denying the obvious – that NMG and some of its top executives are linked to the genocide in the Rift Valley.

It is not about the Gikuyu as a whole but a few of them who believe deep in their minds and heart that only Agikuyu should rule Kenya. To understand, this group, you should read , Walking in Kenyatta Struggles by Duncan Ndegwa; The Kenyatta Succession by Kirimi and Ochieng’ and Making of a Nation- documentary by Hillary Ng’weno serialized in the nation late last year.

This same group airlifted a Mr. Alemu from Ethiopia as the long lost General Mathenge just to emphasise who the leaders of Kenya should be. However phony Alemu was, thier massage was crystal clear.

The landless Gikuyu were treated badly by these selfish Gikuyu leaders who vanished with hard earned cooperative cash from the landless to purchase Wazungu vacated land in Central province. Ndegwa refers to this in his book as “the gate keepers had become poachers”. He went further to acknowledge the reality of Julius Nyerere’s statement that Kenya was a man-eat-man society.

In Ol Kalau, while percelling Wazungu vacated ranches to the landless, Kenyatta curved a unit for himself for a hard day’s work- ” Ni ka Minoga” as Ndegwa puts it in Gikuyu. This was the beginning of leaders taking all while the landless remain squaters. Even though Kenyatta championed land grabing, he prevented the Gikuyu power handlers from succeeding him so as to give Kenya a national outlook. Ndegwa believed that ” strident Gikuyu nationalism, fronted for by the GEMA elite- might have been too much for other tribal interests in the country to beat”.

It is this group of the Gikuyu who made sure Kibaki won at whatever cost. this is well stated by Professor Barkan, who was a member of the election monitors representing the Washington based International Republican Institute (IRI)in Nakuru and Molo, who pointed to a “cynical element in calculations by hardliners within the ruling party during election aftermath and described their thinking that ‘ if you need to sacrifice members of the Gikuyu internal diaspora in the Riftvalley, the so be it.” To them their power is paramount.

Finally, I should refer you a commentary written by Mutahi Ngunyi in December 2003 in the Sunday Nation. In this article Mutahi stresses that a few in the Gikuyu community are convinced that presidency in the house of Mumbi is there to stay. He adviced the Gikuyu community that they should disown Gikuyu sharks in Kibaki govenment and bank with other communities. Mutahi goes further to warn the entire Gikuyu community that they will be blacklisted simply on account of a few people. His final submission was that the Gikuyu should not support Kibaki regime blindly!

Well, no one should be surprised that the Hoover institute would be less than encouraging of democracy in Kenya. It is, after all, a conservative think tank and, therefore, likely to put the interests of American hegemony above global democracy.

The Hoover Institute has Donald Rumsfeld as its visiting fellow and yet is talking about anti-corruption?!

Wasn’t Rummy, as we affectionately call him, forced to resign because he and his chum Bush led the US into a war based on HUNDREDS of false statements?

http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=53512&sid=6&fid=1

The Hoover Institute and American conservatives are part and parcel of the problem. Their “war on terror” is terrorizing Kenyans along with Iraqis and Afghanis. Everyone who does not benefit from US hegemony is a casualty.

NOTE TO WORLD: This is yet another example of US hypocrisy on the question of democracy.

Peace,
Annah

P.S. More on the Hoover Institute: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030414/biuso

What is the future of Kenya? A look at the younger generation in position of leadership could give a hint as to the answer to this question. This generation of leaders affiliated to the centre of power comprise of Karua Martha, Kenyatta Uhuru, Kianjuri Mwangi, Kilonzo Mutula, Kimunya Amos, Mungatana Dunstan, Musyoka Kalonzo and Mutua Alfred. Other than Ms. Karua, the rest never participated in anyway on the so called second liberation of Kenya even though they wallow in its short-lived gains. These leaders may be right in their belief on the election results, but their infallibility stance is devoid of any substance. Their hawkishness unfortunately, is comparable to that of Kariuki Chotara and Sharif Nassir of the Moi era.

The leaders do not believe in the rule of law but the rule by their law. For instance, in the just concluded elections, the ECK, the custodian of the elections, the non-partisan local and international observers admit that irregularities occurred that could have influenced the outcome of the presidential elections, but these leaders believe their person won fairly. Ms. Karua goes further to reason that there were irregularities on either side and since irregularities favoured their side, so be it. Morally and legally, the reasoning is wanting as wrongs add up to at least two.

What does this predict for the future of the country? Not good! These leaders have taken us to the pre-2003 era when democracy was defined as the government by the leaders, of the leaders and for the leaders. These leaders passively imbibed the misrule teachings of the Nyayo era that Kenyans wanted buried in the annals of history in December 2002. How do you expect such leaders who deny the obvious because it favours them, to fight corruption when it benefits them? How would such leaders allow the economic gains to trickle to wananchi when they (leaders) need it (economic gains) for self to consolidate power? Nevertheless, they intentionally disregard that consolidated power is normally known to suppress divergent views, while pent-off anger is usually a sequel to suppressed views. This can be very destructive to a fledgling state as Kenya.

Kenya as a state is the sum of all her many nations. Constitutional change to consider and empower all these nations within the state is the way forward. However, the younger leaders mentioned above prefer the blighted status quo. To them, opposition is not a relevant part of a functioning state but an enemy to be checked by a military force. The current upheavals are a manifestation of an inner turmoil which if left unchecked by a constitutional catharsis, the future of Kenya is bleak. These leaders do not see beyond sycophancy and cronyism. To achieve a wholesome statehood, Kenyans should ask not only for younger leaders, but rational and progressive leaders.

Okumu Kaluoch