MIGUNA Miguna's statement on RAILA, being harassed, ODM et al
Editor's Choice, Politics12:48
On February 14, 1989, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued afatwa(a death edict) against the celebrated British writer Salman Rushdie following the publication of Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses in 1988. The book became a centre of controversy worldwide, resulting in threats on the book, its author and on the author’s supporters. In its wake, some innocent people lost their lives, others suffered serious injuries and property worth millions of dollars was destroyed.
But Rushdie didn’t relent. Nor did the world abandon him in his quest to write freely and to exercise his freedom of thought, conscience, speech, expression and association.
Most publishers, writers, journalists, artists, musicians, international human rights organizations, writers’ groups, editors’ guilds, human rights defenders and world leaders were rightly united in their condemnation of the intolerance, the threats, the intimidations and violence against Rushdie, his works and against his freedom of thought and expression.
On Saturday, July 14, 2012, I launched my political memoirs,Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest For Justice In Kenyaat the Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi. The book is about my life, my political growth, the crystallization of my beliefs, ideology and philosophy and my experiences working as the senior adviser for coalition, constitutional and legal affairs for the Prime Minister of Kenya as well as being the joint secretary to the Permanent Committee on the Management of the Grand Coalition affairs.
Peeling Back The Masktraces my struggle against adversities and privations; the collective struggle and resistance of Kenyans against totalitarianism; the struggle for a new constitutional and democratic dispensation in Kenya; and exposes the pervasive culture of impunity, corruption, nepotism and abuse of public office within the grand coalition government.
However, rather than engage in reasoned debates on the issues addressed in my book, detractors and politicians who have built their careers on lies, hypocrisy and myths have resolved to violently attack me and the book. They have organized, sponsored and hired goons to disrupt my book tour events in Kisumu and Mombasa; events they were not invited to.
On Sunday August 25th, 2012, a group of hired hooligans forced their way into the Castle Royal Hotel in Mombasa and violently attacked me, disrupted my function, destroyed property and stole five books. They were openly and loudly chanting the name of the Prime Minister, Raila Amolo Odinga, and taunting and threatening to lynch me for not supporting him.
Two days before that – on Thursday August 23, 2012 – a group of hired goons, chanting the name of the Prime Minister, disrupted my book promotion event in Kisumu. Like in Mombasa, the paid thugs physically assaulted me while chanting the name of Raila Amolo Odinga and threatening to lynch me if I did not stop promoting my book. They claimed that I was the only one trying to prevent Mr. Odinga from becoming president in the forthcoming general elections. Mr. Odinga will never ascend to the presidency through intimidation, threats or violence. He can only do so by persuading Kenyans to vote for him based on his record, policies and intentions, all of which have been exposed as frauds!
The attacks were barbaric assaults on my fundamental freedom of thought, conscience, expression, association and movement. But even more chilling is that fact that the police watched helplessly as I was being attacked and took no steps to protect me, to prevent the physical assaults on me, and are yet to arrest and charge the goons who were captured by media cameras (and videos) committing these serious crimes. Why is Keriako Tobiko, the Director of Public Prosecutions, suddenly gone quiet? Where is Mzalendo Kibunjia, the chair of theNational Cohesion and Integration Commission?
To date, Raila Odinga has not condemned these primitive attacks on me; attacks that were perpetrated in his name. His silence implies that he condones these barbaric attacks. A purported statement condemning the attacks that was released by the ODM Secretary General, Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o, was promptly contradicted by another one released by the Raila Odinga Presidential Campaign Secretariat. Both statements attempted to blame me, the victim, for the violent attacks on me. Coming from the Prime Minister and so-called ‘leading presidential candidate,’ the message Mr. Odinga is sending through his campaign secretariat and Orange House is that no one has the right to disagree with him; that he is above the law.
Mr. Odinga’s obvious encouragement of attacks on his real or perceived opponents signal at all right thinking Kenyans of how intolerant and dictatorial he would be if he were to become president!
It is disappointing that the media tried to caricature the violent attacks on me and presented it as something to laugh at. They slanted the news of these two barbaric incidents and falsely projected them as an indication that ‘Kenyans did not like me or my book.’ The media has refused to expose the attacks as orchestrated by Raila Odinga and his goons for cheap political mileage. Instead, they have tried to mislead the public into believing that my function in Nakuru was also violently disrupted when the truth is that the three ODM officials who tried to heckle me there were muffled by the more than 2,000 peaceful Kenyans who attended and bought the book.
The successful events in Kericho (August 22nd in the afternoon), Karatina (August 27th), and in Nyeri (August 27th) and Murang’a (August 28th) towns were either completely ignored by the media or the images of the tens of thousands of people that welcomed me in these places were suppressed and censored. Why?
A cynical and false propaganda that I am being financed by Mr. Odinga’s political opponents and the NSIS is being peddled desperately without any basis whatsoever. Concocting stories, hurling abuse at me, threats, intimidation and attacks by hired goons will not deter me! The new Constitution was not meant for Mr. Odinga and his goons alone!
Why has Mr. Oding’a goons been able to disrupt my functions in broad day light and have physically assault me without eliciting condemnation from the Kenya Publishers Association, the media, human rights organizations (local and international), human rights defenders and writers’ groups?
Why is there a conspiracy of silence?
The attempt to silence me through humiliation, physical assault, concocted stories in the media and propaganda, are a brutal attack on my constitutional rights and they must not be tolerated. I challenge the media, human rights groups and our so-called human rights defenders to stand up and be counted or forever be consigned to spectators in the evolving culture of intolerance.
I will continue promoting my book and advocating for justice. The campaign against the culture and merchants of impunity will go on! Kenyans are awake!
I will be in Thika town on Sunday, September 2nd, 2012 from 10am at Lizziki Hall, Thika Arcade, First Floor. I will stop-over at Ruiru and Juja on my way to Thika.
Thank you.
MIGUNA MIGUNA
Nairobi, Kenya
August 31st, 2012
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment