Miguna's Side of the Story

A Note for My Friends

By Miguna Miguna

Nairobi, Friday August 5th, 2011

I am still alive.

I have been on a one month vacation which started on July 6th, 2010. The Prime Minister had granted my request for vacation in June.On July 9th, I accompanied the Prime Minister to Juba, South Sudan for their independence celebrations. I travelled to Canada on July 10th and brought back my two children studying there for their summer holidays on July 18th.

On Thursday July 21st, 2011, I published an article in the Nairobi Star newspaper. The article was titled IIEC Chair Isaack does not deserve all the plaudits. Like my articles I have authored, I made factual and logical arguments based on publicly available information. No one has refuted any of the factual assertions and issues in that article. The article was not about Isaack as such. It addressed issues of good governance, discrimination, corruption and nepotism at the IIEC. Those are important issues that cannot be trivialised. I stand by my story.

Sometime last week, I received an invitation for a two-day party strategy team retreat from the ODM Secretariat. The two-day retreat was scheduled for August 4th and 5th, 2011 at the Enashipai Resort and Spa in Naivasha. I arrived for the retreat at about 11 am on Thursday August 4th. We proceeded to a session after lunch.

At about 3:30 pm, I started noticing numerous calls and texts from various media houses. My phone was on vibration.

One text from a Star reporter attracted my attention. It asked:

“Can you confirm the suspension? What’s your response?”

Since I hadn’t received any information (no letter, text, email or telephone call) about the so-called suspension, I texted back:

“Suspension of whom?”

The answer came back:

“You!”

I further inquired from him who had told him about it and he responded that he was getting the ‘suspension letter’ in a few minutes and would get back to me. Within minutes, I started receiving calls from all kinds of people – media, friends, et cetera.

I then texted the PM’s spokesman Dennis Onyango, Sarah Elderkin, Prof. Edward Oyugi and Sylvester Kasuku to find out if they knew or if they had heard anything. They promptly replied that they knew nothing. Dennis told me that he was with the PM in Kisumu and that I should treat the story as rumours.

Apparently not, for within minutes Joshua Kawino passed me his phone with the Nation Media Group’s “breaking news”.

So, quite clearly, something had happened.

Later, one of my friends informed me that he had seen a similar “news flash” on Face Book but had ignored it as rumours.

By 4 pm, major TV, radio and electronic media were “officially” announcing my “indefinite suspension without pay.”

By 4:15 pm, my secretary sent me a short text message that my personal assistant, messenger and she had received letters of termination. No reasons were given. At or about 5 pm, the personal assistant sent another text message saying they had received a letter from Dr. Mohammed Isahakia addressed to me. It was marked “top secret” and the person who delivered it had instructed them not to open it.

By 6 pm, I had had enough and after a brief consultation with Prof. Oyugi, I decided to return back to Nairobi. As I was leaving, our house keeper called to inform me that the Administration Police at the gate had been “collected” and that there was nobody at the gate. As I scrambled to make my way back to Nairobi, I saw missed calls from two cabinet ministers close to me, an MP and another good friend. I knew things were elephant.

And I knew the script. An announcement is made by a major media house that a prominent person has been fired. “Reasons” and “justifications” are quickly concocted. The story catches fire. The prominent person’s career is in tatters. He goes into hiding and remains there, ashamed of the humiliation! Friends and relatives take cover. Enemies emerge, emboldened. Life goes on. It was obvious that the chain of events had been carefully choreographed.

As I drove back to Nairobi, another telephone call revealed that the “decision” to ‘suspend’ me had taken place that morning in Nairobi. Some people who were supposed to have been attending the Naivasha retreat were at that meeting. That explained why one of them failed to show up but gave two conflicting “stories” of his whereabouts. Two others arrived about four hours late and couldn’t maintain eye contact with me. They didn’t even greet me.

At the meeting, I understand that the ODM Chief Whip demanded that I be fired immediately. He doesn’t appear to have disclosed the reasons for this demand. A number of MPs present - I don’t know how many – supported him. But Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba and another un-named MP defended me strongly, arguing that someone like me is needed by both the PM and the party; that if we want to triumph in the struggle ahead, then “we cannot get rid of Miguna.”

As Ababu was arguing to the wind, the “story” had already been carefully leaked and planted in various reactionary media. And boy, were they having a field day!

On my way to Nairobi, I gave the media my brief response to the hilarious hullabaloo. I told them that I had not received any information – letter, email, text or telephone call about the suspension. I explained that I have been on vacation for nearly a month and that I was only that day gone to a party strategy retreat in Naivasha. I added that whatever might have been concocted as “reasons” for the suspension are baseless and unfounded, and that I shall neither be cowed nor will I waver. I then declined further comment until I received the letter.

I arrived home safely just before 7:00 pm and found my children outside.

"Daddy, why did the soldier leave? Daddy, are we going to have security? Daddy this, daddy that!"

"Shhhh...quiet. Everything will be all right" was my response.

I didn’t have an explanation. I couldn’t look at them. I could see the confusion in the children’s eyes. Nobody gave me advance notice or warning and I hadn’t prepared them. Now, I had no way of explaining anything.

The calls and text messages then started coming like torrents. My phone couldn’t cope and ‘died’. As I charged the phone, I responded to the most urgent ones; essentially repeating what I had told the media.

Later, I watched the 9:00 pm news and couldn’t believe the disinformation, slant and propaganda. What was very clear to me is that whatever had happened had been planned and calculated.

The only drawback for them is that they couldn’t conjure up coherent “stories”. The ones they were peddling weren’t persuasive.

Take the one about the IIEC. I don’t work for the commission. Nobody has presented credible evidence or set of facts linking me to anything unlawful, illegal or unethical at the commission. I author my opinions without any external assistance. I stand by the opinion I published on how the IIEC being mismanaged. Nobody has credibly and logically refuted or responded to anything in my article. Yet, rather than deal with the issues and facts in that article, my detractors have chosen to spread rumours, innuendos and propaganda.

The second myth they have conjured refers to “failure to sign local agreement forms despite several appeals”. These are forms forwarded to me by Isahakia more than one whole year after I had been hired. The forms sought to fundamentally change the terms of my employment. My remuneration, allowances and benefits were arbitrarily reduced by half.

I had written to Isahakia and the Head of Public Service, Francis Muthaura, that I couldn’t sign the forms unless and until they amended to reflect what I had been offered and I had agreed to.

The terms I had agreed to were identical to those of the advisor of President Mwai Kibaki on constitutional affairs, Kivutha Kibwana. I have never received a response to my letters demanding those amendments. Indeed, I have filed a case in court seeking compliance with the contract. The trial is scheduled in a few months.

Is this claim valid? Is it supposed to be the means somebody has devised as a response or “defence” to the legal action, which incidentally, the Attorney General has not responded to? I have now seen that Hon. Midiwo is claiming that I have no legal or constitutional right to sue for my interests. I am not sure where he gets that. But one thing is clear: Jakoyo’s comment was either actuated by malice or ignorance of the law, or both. More fundamentally, I don’t see how it is Jakoyo’s mandate to determine whether I keep or lose my job. And he does so through the media.

The other scandalous allegations about misrepresenting the PM’s Office; harassment, intimidation and use of abusive language are only added for colour. The purported letter presents no particulars.

There isn’t any indication who I subjected to any of these, where and when. Nothing. And of course, nobody accorded me the opportunity to respond to the illegitimate charges. I guess somebody thinks that all you need are allegations however unfounded and they will stick.

For me the issues of good governance, the rule of law and constitutionalism aren’t things I negotiate about. We either have a country governed by the rule of law or we continue with the culture of impunity. I have opted to be a soldier in the fight to end impunity.

That will never change.

Today in the morning after breakfast, my son went to the “gate house” and retrieved some papers from the roof, which I had no idea were there. And lo and behold, there is an unsigned letter by Francis Kimemia, Permanent Secretary, ministry of internal security and provincial administration dated 22 July 2009, inviting me for dinner at State House on 24th July, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. I never received the letter.

Then there is a copy of a nine-page document titled “The assassination plot against Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga and the prominent Kikuyus [sic] businessmen involved”. I’ve never seen that one too.

Then there are two copies each of unsigned confidential memoranda I had written to the PM on August 12th and 23rd, 2009, respectively; two copies of my article: “Reform the judiciary by transforming the law society and creating an independent judicial service council; not by removing tenure for judges dated August 23, 2009; and one copy of my article: “Raila has power to release arrested youth under power sharing accord”.

Clearly, the security that the state had stationed at my Nairobi home was doing more than “guarding” me.

I understand I have been suspended without pay. I don’t know the legal basis for that.

Let me conclude by saying the following: I don’t know the charges against me. I haven’t been given notice of the allegations. Neither have I been accorded an opportunity to respond to them. But I am completely disappointed that under the new constitution that I played a pivotal role in drafting and having ratified, I would be treated with such callous disregard to my legal and constitutional rights, including simple human decency.

The struggle for a democratic, equal and humane Kenya shall and must continue! I am going to stand upright up to the end!!


END

Read more: http://jukwaa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=5646#ixzz1UBnHVKp5

____________________________________________________________________________________
The Prime Minister is Naked; Who Will Tell Him?

When any leader is naked, there ought to be someone close with the guts to tell him/her. In a country where people with such guts are in short supply, the presence of Miguna Miguna in the team close to the PM Raila Odinga was a blessing. It is sad that because of his candid approach to issues of national importance, Miguna Miguna has been suspended. This represents a temporary triumph for impunity in Kenya.

I know there are those who will disagree with me. A number are already celebrating the suspension of Miguna Miguna. One cheerleader in ODM, Jakoyo Midiwo, was quick to note that the suspension was ‘long overdue.’ According to him, Miguna Miguna is guilty of suing the Attorney General of a government he serves in, of abusing fellow civil servant in the media, and of criticising the Speaker of the National Assembly in the media yet Miguna is himself junior to the Speaker in government structures. But if these be a valid reason, isn’t Midiwo himself guilty?

In fact, other than the fact that Miguna Miguna is junior to many of the people he has criticised, none of the reasons cited by Jakoyo Midiwo are illegal. Seniority in any bureaucracy is no insulation to public scrutiny and criticism. There is nothing that prevents Miguna from exercising his right to criticise public officers in their performance of duties. Worse, those who accuse him of writing articles that gave the PM a ‘bad name’ conveniently ignore the fact that all of Miguna’s columns end with the caveat that the views expressed are his own. Why everyone refuses to see this caveat is anyone’s guess.

It is reported that the letter suspending Miguna accused him of ‘gross misconduct.’ But in fact, the real reason behind this suspension is populist in every sense as it is less about Miguna’s alleged misconduct and more about shielding PM from the perception that he is seeking to influence the composition of the yet to be constituted IEBC. There is every reason for the PM to seek to distance himself from the debate around IIEC/IEBC. And perhaps, in the interest of the PM, Miguna Miguna should have been advised to treat this issue with greater care and caution.

Yet, when the interests of the PM clash with the interests of Kenyans, the interests of Kenyans must prevail. I assume that Miguna wrote the piece criticising the IIEC in this spirit. In that piece, published in the Star of July 21st 2011, he cited the Chair of IIEC for hogging the limelight and claiming all credit for the successes of the IIEC. He accused Mr. Isaack for ‘logical incoherent, confusion and uncertainty.’ Miguna further questioned Isaack’s performance at CKRC and the Kiruki Commission which he found wanting and patchy especially because Isaack often aligned with reactionary forces eager to protect the status quo.

It should be left to Kenyans to decide whether Isaack is incoherent, confused and uncertain. I think the views on this will be as varied as there are people who like or dislike Isaack. But on the charges of affiliating with reactionary forces, no one has presented any logical rebuttal, not even Mr. Isaack himself or the Communications and Corporate Affairs Manager at IIEC, Tabitha Mutemi. Of course, the IIEC Commissioners and Secretariat have come down strongly in support of their Chairman. This is fine except that their unity of purpose should not be geared towards guaranteeing an easy sail from IIEC to IEBC.

The piece in the Star of August 2nd 2011 that accused the IIEC of tribalism and nepotism raised fundamental question of integrity that have to be addressed. The standard and tiring response inviting the KACC to investigate will not do. In succumbing to populism, the PM office did not help in any way and has actually contributed to stifling the spirit of open national debate. This sideshow of suspending Miguna only goes to indicate that even the PM is not mature for serious discussion of important national issues; or if he is, then he is crowding himself with an undemocratic cheering squad. These are the issues the IIEC has to respond to:-

Is it true that ‘in the entire Rift Valley, all the three regional election coordinators (REC) are either Kipsigis or are related to the Commissioner from the same region?’

Is it true that ‘the REC for South Nyanza, a Kisii, has lived and still lives in Eldoret Town’, is a neighbour to the Commissioner from Nyanza, also a Kisii, and ‘the two are long-time family friends’?

Is it true that the Chairman of IIEC is ‘himself a relative of the REC for Garissa and many Constituency Election Coordinators’?

Is it true that the Commissioner for Rift Valley protected a CEC who misused Kshs. 400,000, money meant for paying clerks?

I have cited a few examples of allegations in the letter that accused the IIEC for tribalism, nepotism and corruption. There are other allegations in the letter that require a candid response. It does not matter to me that these letters are surfacing when the transition from IIEC to IEBC is starting. Indeed, there is no better time for these allegations to surface. If they are true, they should destroy the careers of officers who are responsible. This is what our new constitution anticipates.

As for the PM, he must know that he needs people with integrity around him. Court poets and cheerleaders like Midiwo will not do. The PM needs people with knowledge who will not only speak candidly to him but should be people who can stand the test of patriotism and who cannot be corrupted.


Godwin R. Murunga

Kenyatta University.

Read more: http://jukwaa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=5646#ixzz1UBvqXa45