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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Why the Centre Cannot Hold: The ‘Nyumba’, Raila and the House on the Hill



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Installation ceremony at mukurwe wa nya gathanga shrine: Karume, by seeking to wrest the position of Mt Kenya communities’ spokesman from Uhuru during the
younger man’s greatest hour of need and relevance, has demonstrated that there is a potent struggle at the top in Central Kenya for post-Kibaki political control.
Installation ceremony at mukurwe wa nya gathanga shrine: Karume, by seeking to wrest the position of Mt Kenya communities’ spokesman from Uhuru during the younger man’s greatest hour of need and relevance, has demonstrated that there is a potent struggle at the top in Central Kenya for post-Kibaki political control.

The unilateral investiture of James Njenga Karume as the Central Kenya communities’ spokesman and senior-most sage elder last weekend is the surest sign yet that it is no longer business as usual in the Mt. Kenya vote bloc, the nation’s largest and most cohesive in terms of insularity. The installation was attended by at least 5,000 elders and other people and its expenses were met by Karume himself, the billionaire underwriter of many another political initiative and campaign throughout Central Kenya over the years.
 Another signal was sent out by the University of Nairobi Vice Chancellor, Dr. Joe B. Wanjui, when he said that he had looked far and wide for the person most likely to succeed President Mwai Kibaki and actually take his legacy forward and had alighted on none other than Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
 Dr. Wanjui endorsed Raila at the latter’s own residence in Nairobi in a recent meeting also attended by Karume, Charles Njonjo, MP Stanley Munga Githunguri, Nation Media Group Chairman Wilfred D. Kiboro (who is also the Standard Chartered Bank Group Chairman), Royal Media Group Chairman SK Macharia, the PNU Chairman, Colonel (Rtd.) James Imbui, businessman/golfer James Koome, MP Mithika Linturi and others.

The Power Barons Take a Stand
 Karume, a former Kiambaa MP and one-time Defence Minister and Wanjui, a one-time CEO of multinational East Africa Industries (now Unilever Africa), have long been among President Mwai Kibaki’s staunchest election campaign financiers and advisers. They have been with him since at least his exit from the Daniel arap Moi regime on December 25, 1991, and the formation of the Democratic Party.
 Karume, most probably Kenya’s first African millionaire in any denomination, was one of founding President Jomo Kenyatta’s most ardent supporters and courtiers. Karume and Dr. Wanjui remain among the richest, most powerful and influential people in Kenya, separately consulted and confided in by other power players, foreign envoys and regional leaders.
 Dr. Wanjui endorsed the PM in the following fulsome terms: “I have been President Kibaki's supporter and friend for many years. I am still his friend and supporter. But after looking around and searching far and wide, the only person capable of consolidating the leadership and development Kibaki has established is Raila Odinga”.
 A recent measure of Karume’s enduring clout in Central Kenya and among Rift Valley Kikuyus is that despite not making it back to Parliament in 2007 and being in his 80s, after his eldest son Joseph Karume Njenga died in a road accident in September this year, his funeral was attended by the President, Prime Minister, Vice President and scores of other dignitaries from all sides of the political spectrum, all of whom spoke from the podium and praised both father and son and yet the son had never held public office nor even dabbled in politics.
 The power elite from all large ethnic communities and quite a few smaller ones were there to be seen to mourn with Karume, a pillar of Mt. Kenya politics and business and a leader of the Gema (Gikuyu, Embu, Meru and Mbeere) communities.

The return of Njenga Karume
 Another measure of Karume’s clout was provided by Raila himself at the height of the 2007-08 post-election violence (PEV) and soon after. At an international press conference on January 3, 2008, Raila accused Karume of financing the banned sect Mungiki in the PEV and of doing this at meetings attended by Uhuru Kenyatta at State House, Nairobi. Later, as Prime Minister, Raila went far out of his way to apologise to Karume over his allegations and to seek to absolve him of any such wrongdoing. But he has never extended the same retraction to Uhuru.
 Now that Karume has been invested leader and foremost elder of the entire Mt. Kenya region in a controversial ceremony at the Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga shrine in Murang’a, which symbolises the Agikuyu myth of origin, and has been thus elevated in opposition to Uhuru Muigai, son of Founding President Jomo Kenyatta, and Dr. Wanjui has joined the ranks of wealthy powerful Kikuyu elder statesmen who have declared they have no problem with a Raila Presidency, it is quite clear that things have fallen apart deep inside Mt. Kenya and the traditional centre cannot hold.
 That centre has revolved around the Presidential families of the Kenyattas and the Kibakis, around which all other factors in the Mountain circle like satellites.
 This is not the first time that a vast ethnic centre based around a Presidential family has failed to hold and the regional vote bloc voted with its feet in a direction not sanctioned by the patriarch(s) – it happened to the Daniel arap Moi hold on the Rift Valley at the 2007 General Election, in full view of the still-living patriarch, retired President Moi himself. Not only could Moi’s own children, including favourite son and heir Gideon, not get a word in edgewise to get themselves elected, but the fallout had the same figure at centre-stage – a Raila Odinga making a bid for State House.
 Dr. Wanjui joins founding Attorney General Charles Mugane Njonjo and Kiambaa MP Stanley Munga Githunguri in declaring that Raila is fit and ready to be the Fourth President of Kenya. Although he has yet to make a public pronouncement on the matter, Karume, by seeking to wrest the position of Mt. Kenya communities’ spokesman from Uhuru during the younger man’s greatest hour of need and relevance, has demonstrated that there is a potent struggle at the top in Central Kenya for post-Kibaki political control.

The Kenyattas Deserted
 Njonjo, Karume and Githunguri were among Jomo Kenyatta’s most loyal faithful retainers and enjoyed their greatest eminence during his watch. That they should now part ways with Uhuru in this fashion, while Kenyatta’s youngest widow, first First Lady Mama Ngina, the DPM’s mother, is still alive and has a voice in Mt. Kenyan affairs, bespeaks war in heaven.
 Alone among Kenyatta’s most faithful retainers, Njonjo has never subscribed to the idea that a Kikuyu should succeed a Kikuyu at State House, not even when Kenyatta was alive. Other power, politics and business elite operatives seem to be coming around to Njonjo’s view, a generation after Kenyatta’s demise. Karume, who led the brazen and tribally chauvinistic Change the Constitution movement in the mid-1970s when Kenyatta was clearly at the end of his tether and Moi, having been VP for a dozen years and therefore Principal Assistant to the President, was poised to step in, has never been known to support a non-Kikuyu for State House.
 It speaks volumes for great wealth that Karume not only survived the Presidential transition occasioned by Kenyatta’s death and Moi’s rise to State House but thrived and was always consulted by Moi throughout his 24-year-long Presidency. Any day now he should make his views explicitly known on the all-important tacit protocol question of whether a Kikuyu should succeed a Kikuyu at State House. All indications are that Karume has fundamentally revised his views and that this underpins his wish to lead the Central community from the front.
 Karume was, after all, the powerful and controlling leader of Gema in the flashpoint year of 1969 – the year of the Argwings Kodhek fatal road accident and the Tom Mboya assassination – when a wave of atavistic oath-taking rituals such as had not been witnessed since the early 1950s spread throughout the Mt. Kenya region to the accompaniment of the chilling, trance-like chant “Bendera ndikoima Nyumba ya Mumbi (the Flag will never leave the House of Mumbi)”.
 Githunguri, who was Executive Chairman of the National Bank of Kenya in Kenyatta’s final years, is Karume’s nemesis in Kiambaa and was initially an adversary of Moi’s, has seconded Njonjo’s support of Raila since at least 2005 and Kenya’s first national referendum, the Yes/No vote on the then Proposed New Constitution.
 Dr. Wanjui has been a Kibaki insider throughout the President’s two terms in office and his breaking ranks with his old friend’s closest advisers on the matter of Raila’s suitability to take the Kibaki legacy forward is indicative of a deep schism in the President’s innermost inner circles.

The Center Cannot Hold
 That the Mt. Kenya centre would not hold became apparent only recently, with the prospect of Uhuru’s crimes-against-humanity case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague proceeding to full trial and putting his political career into a tailspin for the foreseeable future looming larger by the day. When the three-judge bench of the ICC’s Pretrial Chamber II indicated that its decision on whether the cases of the so-called Ocampo Six would proceed to full trial would be announced on the same day, date and time, instead of a month apart for the first three accused and the second three, all signs were that a bleak near-future awaits Uhuru and his five co-accused.
 Wealthy and powerful individuals like Karume, Njonjo and Dr. Wanjui have their own feelers and pointers deep inside the media, security, diplomatic and other investigative communities, both local and international, and consult widely, deeply and constantly. Their separate no-confidence votes in Uhuru must be based on the sort of strategic considerations that saw them build their business empires, nurture and grow them through the vicissitudes of the three Presidential administrations. Karume became a wealthy man even before Independence, under the British, and has grown his wealth and clout in all-weather conditions, politically speaking, for longer than Uhuru has been alive. For instance, Karume was among the very first Kenyans, in the very early 1950s, to be allowed by the colonial authorities to operate bank accounts in institutions like Barclays and Standard Chartered.
 It was interesting that Karume felt constrained to deny that despite being crowned Mt. Kenya’s sage elder and national spokesman he had no interest in an elective political position. In recent years, Karume has not only acquired a wife who is half his age, he has also published an autobiography, From Charcoal to Gold, with the assistance of Mutu Gethoi of Embu County. Added to the feather-in-cap investiture as top elder, these accoutrements seem in the eyes of many to point to higher political ambitions for Karume. “I do not want to become the King of the Agikuyu but a leader because every community must be directed by one person,” Karume told the gathering of elders and locals at the shrine after his installation. Why he thinks that he ought to be the chosen one and why now are matters Karume left to speculation, but he promptly came under massive attack from Uhuru-compliant councils of Kikuyu elders, including an outfit that styles itself the Rift Valley Kikuyu Council of Elders, led by one Wachira Kamana.

Cracks in the Mountain
 With these cracks in the Mountain, the Central Kenya vote bloc, which has concentrated all its energies on Kibaki since 1997 when it comes to Presidential elections, is clearly up for grabs. It is the most cohesive vote bloc in the nation and the most inward-looking, never having expended its votes on a candidate outside the Nyumba ya Mumbi (the House of Mumbi) to send him to the House on the Hill (State House). That there has been an intimate connection between the Nyumba and the House is evidenced by Kenyatta’s 15-year stay and Kibaki’s 10 years, making it 25 years in all so far. All eyes are now on how the Kikuyu intend to use their vast electoral clout in the absence of a Kikuyu candidate who can attract at least two other major blocs.
 Can the Nyumba, or even just a significant proportion of it, finally find its way to handing the House on the Hill to Raila, as highly recommended by Dr. Wanjui, Njonjo and Githunguri and, any day now, Karume? Or are these men just dinosaurs from the dawn of Independence who have accumulated too much, have too much to lose and have no business seeking to tell a new generation of Mount Kenyans what’s good for them?
 In the final analysis, Dr. Wanjui, Njonjo, Githunguri and Karume have only four votes between them and not three more general elections (Njonjo, for one, will be 92 next year). However, if the Mt. Kenya vote bloc’s latest generations learn the smarts of the kind of cohesion that dispenses with insular behaviour, a cohesiveness already enjoyed by the Luo and the Kalenjin, who are on record, unlike the Kikuyu, as having voted cohesively but not selfishly, they could well discover a completely new clout and niche – that of swing-vote factor and kingmaker. And it could well be a clout that is useful for much longer and much wider purposes than the navel-gazing self-regard of the past.


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  • Cheka_Aliye_Kucheka1 3 hours ago
    Hehehe. Agwambomanic journalists at the Star are frustrated that their persistent Railer propaganda coupled with Ambitho & Odhiambo Nyanza Pollsters Inc (otherwise trading as InfoTrak Harris) Kisumu-heavy polls are not taking their man anywhere.

    Here is a newslfash Adama. Your man Railer and the Hyacinth Mafia that includes Medieval Meedeewow, Khanchwang, Caroline Omondee (hiyo ni jina ya mwanaume by the way), Is-a-hack-here, inFidel na kadhalika are engorging like there is no tomorrow because they know their days are numbered.

    Anyway, here is a dismantling of your Railer propaganda (sorry Luo Nyanza for this disappointment):


    ADAMA - "Karume and Dr. Wanjui remain among the richest, most powerful and influential people in Kenya, separately consulted and confided in by other power players, foreign envoys and regional leaders."

    FACT - Karume and Wanjui have absolutely zero influence in the Mt Kenya electorate today. Kibaki has never needed Karume or Wanjui. Maybe they will help Railer. Hehehe. Chukua yote!


    ADAMA - "The power elite from all large ethnic communities and quite a few smaller ones were there to be seen to mourn with Karume, a pillar of Mt. Kenya politics and business and a leader of the Gema (Gikuyu, Embu, Meru and Mbeere) communities."

    FACT - Karume has zero clout in Gema. He campaigned against Kibaki and backed Uhuru in 2002. Kibaki got 75% of the Gema vote in 2002. Karume's "leadership" could only deliver Gatundu South. Do you want to bet what Karume's leadership will deliver for Railer in 2012? Let me save you the trouble - no more than 10%.


    ADAMA - "At an international press conference on January 3, 2008, Raila accused Karume of financing the banned sect Mungiki in the PEV and of doing this at meetings attended by Uhuru Kenyatta at State House, Nairobi. Later, as Prime Minister, Raila went far out of his way to apologise to Karume over his allegations and to seek to absolve him of any such wrongdoing. But he has never extended the same retraction to Uhuru."

    FACT - That only exposes Railer as a thuggish opportunist who will call you a killer when it is convenient. Not too different from how he threw Rootoh under the bus once he heard "mission accomplished" from Coffee Unann.


    ADAMA - "it is quite clear that things have fallen apart deep inside Mt. Kenya and the traditional centre cannot hold."

    FACT - Dream on Luo Nyanza, dream on.


    ADAMA - "Dr. Wanjui joins founding Attorney General Charles Mugane Njonjo and Kiambaa MP Stanley Munga Githunguri in declaring that Raila is fit and ready to be the Fourth President of Kenya. "

    FACT - Njonjo was the architect of the infamous Section 2A that made Kenya a defacto single party state. Njonjo is despised in his own village - even Kibaki has been careful not to touch him with a 90-foot pole in 20 years. No surprises though - Njonjo joins former dictator Moi in his support for supreme democrat, the righteous Railer. Githunguri only won the seat in 2007 because he feigned support for Kibaki. He will be in the cold next year if he does not rescind his support for Railer - that is a 100% guarantee. But maybe he is hoping for an ODM nomination.


    ADAMA - "Although he has yet to make a public pronouncement on the matter, Karume, by seeking to wrest the position of Mt. Kenya communities’ spokesman from Uhuru during the younger man’s greatest hour of need and relevance, has demonstrated that there is a potent struggle at the top in Central Kenya for post-Kibaki political control."

    FACT - Hehehe. Karume cannot even command 5,000 votes in Kiambaa. I insist, Railer achukue yeye!


    ADAMA - "Any day now he should make his views explicitly known on the all-important tacit protocol question of whether a Kikuyu should succeed a Kikuyu at State House."

    FACT - Nobody cares about a Kikuyu succeeding Kibaki. The goal is ANYBODY (actually ANYTHING) but Railer.


    ADAMA - " Karume was, after all, the powerful and controlling leader of Gema in the flashpoint year of 1969"

    FACT - Hehehe. Amusing how Railermanics and Luos are so fascinated by "powerful and controlling leaders". It is something they have grown accustomed to for the 60 years the Odingers have been Kings of Kondele.


    ADAMA - " Wealthy and powerful individuals like Karume, Njonjo and Dr. Wanjui have their own feelers and pointers deep inside the media, security, diplomatic and other investigative communities, both local and international, and consult widely, deeply and constantly. Their separate no-confidence votes in Uhuru"

    FACT - Hehehe. Who cares about Uhuru? The goal is ANYBODY (actually ANYTHING) but Railer. Railer hapati hata na dawa.


    ADAMA - "All eyes are now on how the Kikuyu intend to use their vast electoral clout in the absence of a Kikuyu candidate who can attract at least two other major blocs."

    FACT - Hehehe. Sorry Adama and other Railermanics. The goal is ANYBODY (actually ANYTHING) but Railer. Railer hapati hata na dawa.


    ADAMA - "Can the Nyumba, or even just a significant proportion of it, finally find its way to handing the House on the Hill to Raila, as highly recommended by Dr. Wanjui, Njonjo and Githunguri and, any day now, Karume? "

    FACT - Hehehe. Even if Railer descended with the clouds of heaven and landed on Mt Kenya to Luo shouts of Hosanna in the highest, it ain't happening. Sorry.


    ADAMA - " a cohesiveness already enjoyed by the Luo and the Kalenjin, who are on record, unlike the Kikuyu, as having voted cohesively but not selfishly"

    FACT - The only angelic tribe is found in heaven. Everyone else is selfish.


    Indeed, this article only confirms what everybody outside Luo Nyanza (except Richard Murunga 'Omutsanis Kuria') has known for a while now - Know Railer Know Piss!

    Kicheko biggest.

    Next!
  • .

     There is none except Njonjo among these proponents of 'Raila Tosha'  who had been steadfast in advocating against the idiocy in holding on to the view, the Bandera should always remain in the House of Mumbi. Others have been die-hard Kikuyuists or say, chauvinists who considered Kikuyus the chosen people like Israelis think of themselves. In the case of Githuinguri and Karume, though they had deviated from the general collective political stand of the Kikuyu at times, reverted to the popular wishes to remain relevant in their own community.

    I must agree there's considerable substance in Adama's contention in that the political scene has changed, especially after Uhuru's unfortunate tryst with the ICC. Even if he and/or the other five manage to thwart Okambo's case for confirmation and subsequent trial, irrevocable harm would have been done. In addition, there is a possibility that the judges can require the prosecutor to collect more incriminating evidence if they think the one presented is not enough to take the lot to trial. In any case Uhuru will be either on trial or under prolonged investigation.

    Another impediment to Uhuru's claim to be flag bearer is the utter negligence he has shown to the IDPs still languishing in rotten refugee camps. If there is one Kikuyu leader who can settle them in his own land, it is Uhuru. It's common knowlege that the land mass and assets he is sitting on, bequeathed by his father were not legally acquired. He really owed this favour to his tribesmen.

    According to the ICC, it would not put any restrictions on Uhuru and others regarding contesting the elections. But the catch is the conditions in the constitution pertaining to integrity and ethical behaviour they will have to satisfy. Considering that the new justice dispensation is fairly free of political interference and patronage, there is little chance for the presidential aspirants among  the O-6 to be cleared.

    The Kikuyu kingmakers are then left with few options if they wish to front one of their own. Martha Karua is there, but she is considered too headstrong and outspoken who had shown her swinging back to Moi, and to Kibaki when he overlooked her in favour of Uhuru. Another aspect working against her is her humble peasant lineage that the Kikuyu elite including the president appear to abhor.The traditionally male dominated Kikuyu culture is another road block for her.

     Peter Kenneth, a perfect unselfish gentleman and the blue eyed boy of his constituents may not be being held in high esteem because he is still a lightweight, soft spoken, independent minded and of course  of mixed  parentage.

    That leaves them with Saitoti. Jokingly compared to an eel that can pass for a snake or a fish depending on the company it finds itself in, he cuts the figure of an elitist, impatient, overbearing aristocrat. He desists from speaking either Kikuyu or Maa in public, sticking to English or Kiswahili. If his intention is to don an aura of a nationalist and not a tribalist, it hasn't worked for him. Saitoti is most unlikely to be given the Bandera to bear.

    Kalonzo Musyoka is considered to be a neighbour and cousin. His qualifications are resilience, a chameleon like ability to adapt to the surroundings in no time, and bearing a well groomed sober demeanor. Underneath lies treachery, NPD, (Narcissistic Personality Disorder), and abject opportunism. He is a watermelon in every sense, green outside and red inside.  While being an Orange, he was surreptitiously consorting with Kibaki.  The Wiki-leaks exposure of the man pleading with Ranneburger to recommend to the US president to prevail upon Kibaki to opt out of election on health grounds completes his portrait and so is instructive for all, especially the Kikuyus.

    Raila can arguably claim a kind gesture in turn from the Kikuyus. The history of Kenya would be different if Oginga Odinga had fallen for the the colonialist's enticement to take over as the prime-minister while Kenyatta was still in prison. He considered it's not yet uhuru while Kenyatta remained incarcerated, and waited until he was released to work as his deputy. Kenyatta reciprocated in the most callous and ungrateful manner by jailing Odinga on trumped up charges.

    Later the Kibaki Tosha thunder that reverberated the length and breadth of Kenya effectively sealed the fate of KANU that strutted about as a colossus since independence. Unfortunately the MOU worked out (though unwritten) between Kibaki and Raila fell victim to machinations of the Kibaki kitchen cabinet.

    It seemed Raila had reached his tether's end. By leading the Orange movement against Kibaki's Banana outfit in the referendum war, he rendered a devastating blow to the Kibaki ego. Many recent developments in which he turned the tables on Kibaki strategies also show Raila has not forgotten the treatment he and his father received from the mount Kenya Mafia. The two however often make it as if there was a warm working relationship, but the embers covered in ash are not entirely extinguished. Nevertheless, the two presidents from the community have benefited more from the Odingas than they did from it.

    Despite all these, Raila stands a chance to get considerable number of votes, much more than 5% suggested by some observers, especially in a run off if it comes to that. The support of the Karume and group will add more impetus to that reality
  • omutsanis 1 hour ago
    off course sooner or later, the smarter people of central were bound to ask themselves one question:who is best suited not only to protect our wealth, but also guarantee our next generations' a future.

    mungiki will tell you that kenya is all about rape, stealing, conmanship and no hard work.and their kingi's best suited to guarantee them a haven in which they can create mayhem at will. that is not development, and i dont know of any sane investor in mt. kenya, who is convinced that the guy who cant balance the national books, is wanted by the ICC, dont know when has had enough whisky, is alleged to be the BOSS,bangs tables while insulting luos and thier mamas, is presidential.

    sober kenyans know that with the current rate internarriages, your future must lie beyond owning cheerleaders near a  mountain.

    every day i ask myself why not ruto, saitoti,kalonzo or uhuru??? and the answer always is a migraine. these are the jokers who designed the nyayo philosophy of "love" for money, "peace" for the rich and "unity' in looting. and in return,moi madeall of them billionaires, without managing or running a single factory or firm.

    as great people like ouko got offed, kalonzo stepped in as foreign affairs and shuttled the globe, defending the suicide theory. 15 year later, he is still on the wrong side of history, petitioning thugs like bashir and gadafi, to stop IDPs from getting justice!!!

    as for saitoti, he cant be man enough to sue someone he knows tried to kill him? stood there and clapped as moi told himhe aint presidential. martha karua at least walked out on moi than smile sheepishly and clap, saitoti style, as you get insulted.

    does anyone know what IT firm or factory/industry generates the billions ruto uses for his daily, non-stop chopper campaigns? even the richest of americans accept donations from wall street. the guy just does an ATM?

    Im told uhurus family runs lots of business, but any chance he is the CEO of anything, or they run the biz and he spends?

    i know wanjui dont care for raira, but is smart enough to see a train wreck coming, and get his kids out of harms way. and that train wreck is anything else except for raira.
  • mainakiai 18 hours ago
    karume is a deadbeat politically. but i know this is just mt kenya businessmen spreading their risks. the reality is raila is unlikely to get more than 5% of votes in gema country even if kibaki personally campaigns for him. we still remember what he said when our women and children were being burned in an eldoret church.
  • @mainakiai it doesnt matter as you the house of mumbi have never and will never vote for an outsider. The question is will kenyans elect another house of mumbi ???? the answer is obvious and abig NO. As you can see the emerging cracks in G7. Ruto will neva step down for Uhuru and even if he does, will the Kalenjin Nation follow him ?? Musyoka always portray himself as the seniormost in that G7 set up and so even him stepping down is a nmainakiai o-no-no.
  • Reminds me of a story that the then minister Kipngeno arap Ngeny told Moi that his choice for Uhuru for a successor almsot got a physical smack. Later Kipngeno was right, and Moi wrong.These 4 grey -haired seasoned leaders may have a valid point to put accross.
  • “I do not want to become the King of the Agikuyu but a leader because every community must be directed by one person,”  To me all that other English scripture does not carry any water apart from this. Karume according to Kikuyu very well knows there is a King and does not occupy his throne but stand by it. Karume is the King "COORO" blower (Kings' trumpet blower) and has not in any way said byee Uhuru. Now that Uhuru scores have gone up and the love by the majority voting youth, the forefathers are just whisking the flies away.!
  • scanfish 6 hours ago
    Whatever it is you are smoking, i would love to have some of it, otherwise you are talking from a different universe altogether from this one. The fact that you are so breathlessly excited by the laughable and comical 'coronation' of Karume can only elicit pity. Indeed, wealthy GEMA opportunists like Karume, Njonjo or Wanjui have never influenced how GEMA people vote. They are too far up there in rarefied air to even see, let alone communicate with, the hoi polloi who actually vote and make the difference.

    It is a big stretch to imagine that the architect of the insidious 41 against 1 campaign of GEMA demonisation in 2008 can get votes from the very people he mobilised other Kenyan communities against barely 4 years ago. We have not forgotten that, and the stone throwing mobs who attacked Tuju yesterday only go to remind us WHY WE SHOULD NOT TRUST AND VOTE FOR Raila. Has he even condemned that act to date? Maybe he approves?

    Unlike many other communities, the GEMA communities do not make political decisions based on the opaque and dictatorial whims of elders, but on consultations between politicians like MPs, Councillors and by extension the people, on what is is in the best political interest of the community. The anointment of Uhuru Kenyatta as the pre-eminent GEMA leader and Kibaki heir apparent was not arrived by chance, but is a process that has been in play since early 2008. Uhuru has been tested and found ideal and the decision has been made. There is nothing Karume and his gang can therefore do about it, least of all herding GEMA votes towards Raila. I just can't help laughing at that. It does not mean however, that single individuals from Central Kenya cannot vote for whomever they want including Raila, Kenneth, Karua or Muite; it just means they will be doing so against the tide, tsunami even.

    Again, read this very paper; just as we have constantly told you, the ICC spokesman has clarified that Uhuru cannot be stopped from running for political office EVEN IF the case against him is confirmed. THAT is from the horses mouth and you had better wrap your head around that and own it. Not even the law can stop him....there is no legislation yet in chapter 6 as it has yet to be enacted under schedule 5.

    Next?

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