Posted August 17, 2010 12:45 PM
Look at their eyes, nose and front head, dont you see the blood resemblace, will you also blame obama for being in the white house and hailing from Nyanza though born in the USA?
Showing posts with label From Nation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label From Nation. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
IN PICTURES: New Kenya envoy meets President Obama
Submitted by eddie59
Posted August 17, 2010 12:45 PM
Look at their eyes, nose and front head, dont you see the blood resemblace, will you also blame obama for being in the white house and hailing from Nyanza though born in the USA?
Posted August 17, 2010 12:45 PM
Look at their eyes, nose and front head, dont you see the blood resemblace, will you also blame obama for being in the white house and hailing from Nyanza though born in the USA?
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
EGO TOO HEALTHY
The huge ego of politicians, especially MPs, is simply legendary, as confirmed by Simiyu Barasa, who says he has always noted that whenever they sign the visitors’ books in schools or public offices, they often scrawl their signs across a whole blank page “so that their names can stand out from the rest”. He adds: “There is no good reason why they can’t sign in the spaces provided. Isn’t this symptomatic of their tendency to want to grab everything for themselves, including forests?”
Thursday, June 10, 2010
UHURU THE LAST BARON
(Uhuru receiving a prize from Kibaki in 1979)
And on Thursday he walked again into the annals of history as he delivered the first Sh1 trillion budget — the most ambitious yet — and possibly the last under the current Constitution and Kibaki wasn't there to cheer him up.
Mr Kenyatta will also be the last powerful Finance minister if the proposed Constitution passes on the August 4 referendum, since it whittles down Treasury powers and gives parliament an oversight role.
The proposed constitution also creates the office of the budget controller with the authority to supervise the implementation of budgets in national and county governments.
Unlike in 1979 when he was watched by his student peers at St Mary’s school as received the history prize, the minister gave a speech in a House that had five former Finance ministers — George Saitoti, Chris Obure, Chris Okemo, Musalia Mudavadi, and Amos Kimunya.
A man who emerged with an ‘O’ Level Division 1 with a distinction in English, Mr Kenyatta walked a tight rope this time round on the back of a simple supplementary budget error last year that almost cost him his position at the Treasury.
How the minister will finance the budget at a time the country is trying to speed up growth in a difficult environment and when the Kenya Revenue Authority is not meeting its targets is the Sh1 trillion question, given that he might not have much leeway with raising taxes.
He may have to rely much more on external funding to finance the government operations.
The Finance docket is crucial to Uhuru’s political career and last year he went down in history as the Finance minister who ended the “wabenzi” culture by putting a 1,800 cc cap on the type of vehicles allocated to Cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries and other senior officials.
Attempts by Mr Simeon Nyachae to seize the fuel guzzlers in 1998 soon foundered in a sea of political hostility.
But Mr Kenyatta managed to take away the vehicles, 99 of which were auctioned on Wednesday with Sh250 million expected in proceeds, suggesting enough political to walk the talk on the austerity gospel. But it hasn’t always been easy for Mr Kenyatta.
A rugby player in his school days, the minister has not had a smooth run at the Treasury and his austerity measures –including the purchase of Volkswagen Passats for Cabinet ministers in place of the bigger engines saw him subjected to interrogation by a parliamentary committee under a cloud of allegations of irregularity in the tendering.
But the once reluctant politician wriggled out and steadied his political balance, perhaps borrowing a leaf from the days he acted in the Comic Opera “The Mikado” as Father with Child in November 1977.
But he did not act on Thursday but did a delicate balancing act.
He had hoped to borrow Sh103 billion from donors — Sh68 billion in loans and Sh35 billion in grants— in last year’s Sh791 billion budget,
This did not materialise as Treasury only managed to get Sh25 billion from donors leaving the government to borrow Sh100 billion from the domestic market.
Unlike his predecessors, excess liquidity in the money market means Mr Kenyatta will not bear the burden of ensuring domestic borrowing does not suffocate the private sector by nudging interest rates upwards.
According to analysts, this has had more to do with sluggish demand for credit from the private sector, which the minister will seek to stimulate.
Stable interest rates at low levels, the dream of any finance minister, were last enjoyed by President Kibaki in the 1970s, helped by the Coffee boom and a controlled regime, that somewhat cushioned the economy from the oil crisis.
The others – apart from Mr Kimunya who left the donor funding component out during the 2008/9 fiscal year – had to heavily rely on reluctant donors to fill the deficit hole.
Mr Kenyatta gave his speech at a time when the economy is showing signs of recovery after experiencing a severe decline from 7.1 per cent in 2007 to 1.7 per cent in 2008 – hurt by the post-election violence and the effects of the global meltdown.
President Kibaki is determined to upgrade the Kazi kwa Vijana initiative into a longer term job creation vehicle and the minister is almost under no obligation to provide more for the devolved funds, including the women and youth funds.
While the minister might take credit for the jobs creation scheme, the idea was first floated by Tom Mboya in 1962 but was shot down in Parliament by the then finance minister, K.W. Mackenzie.
Mr Kenyatta allocated Sh105 million per constituency for infrastructure development last year.
The Amherst College (the class of 85) graduate also allocated Sh20 million to each constituency for construction and equipment of a health centre; Sh30 million for construction of a secondary school as a centre of excellence per constituency and Sh10 million for each constituency for the building of a fresh produce and wholesale markets.
He also allocated 2.5 million per constituency to construct jua kali sheds and a further Sh1 million for each constituency for youth employment.
The man who chose Amherst College since his cousin, Ngengi Muigai, had graduated from the same school in June 1969 will however have to ponder solutions to the red tape that meant only 56 per cent of the funds were disbursed.
The budget and the political progress of the minister, a former soccer and hockey representative at school, will be keenly followed at Amherst College where the class of 1981 produced two heads of state - Prince Albert of Monaco and former Salvadoran president Francisco Flores.
As Kenyans prepares to vote for a constitution whose tenet is devolved government, it is not lost on historians that it was his father, Jomo Kenyatta and Kibaki as Parliamentary secretary to the Treasury (1963-1965), who sabotaged regional governments that were the hallmark of the 1963 Constitution by choking their finances.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
thin line
Simple as it would seem to nab the culprit, it would take guts – real guts – which is not one of the things this government of ours is blessed with.
Aside from the frenzied and quite welcome distraction of building roads all the over the place, a firm and orderly management of government is something the leadership keeps running away from.
The spectacle of ministers who sit in the same Cabinet battling from opposite ends over a draft constitution the same Cabinet had okayed is quite something. It’s a thin line between freedom of expression and bedlam, between a tolerant and a weak leadership.
The Judiciary has now taken the cue and added its own mix into the broth. Frankly, it is a stretch how a ruling based on the Bomas draft, which died like a dodo in 2005, would carry relevance today.
Judicial “independence” is a slogan that oozes nicely from the mouth. Yet rulings that have no grounding in common sense and political realities are bound to kill the institution sooner or later, even if the feared clause to vet sitting judges gets sabotaged.
The same government, harassed to the hilt by the No-sayers, was seriously contemplating sharing the referendum campaign booty from the Treasury equally between the Reds and the Greens.
Until somebody somewhere saw the absurdity of it. Only in Kenya can a government, which has already spent billions on constitution-making, entertain the zany thought of throwing a couple of hundred millions more to characters who want to kill the same draft you want passed.
An inelegant compromise seems to have been reached where none of the camps will get official campaign money.
Only the Committee of Experts will receive allocations for civic education, a decision the Reds oppose since they now demand an “independent” body other than the CoE be created out of the blue for the civic task.
On second thought, maybe it was for the best that neither camp got taxpayer funding if it is true that members of the joint PNU-ODM Yes committee had been demanding that they get a fleet of Prados as part of their “facilitation”.
Talking of loot, the Lord’s warriors in the Red camp at some point also demanded “facilitation” from the Treasury. I would have imagined the Almighty can get His way without needing earthly assistance of the sort that is provided by the Consolidated Fund.
Their political bedfellows in the No camp, after first screaming that such appropriations would be illegal, then coyly sought the same. They must have reasoned that spreading the illegality evenly would make everything else above board.
For their part, the clergymen have come up with a heavy caveat. They will not allow the Yes side to spread their evil from church pulpits.
Fair enough. But if the government gets to shower its largesse equally on both camps, why don’t the Lord’s shepherds do the same with the tithes? After all, they have loudly vowed to use this money they harvest for their No campaign.
The last time I checked, their congregants are also taxpayers. And, by the way, the rumoured dollars from US evangelicals should be shared through the same equity principle.
I have noticed with considerable amusement that a cabinet minister the media has taken to describing as the leader of the Red camp has been attending rallies with a Bible piously clutched in his hand.
But when he stands up to speak, it is difficult to discern anything divine in his vehemence and the themes he rages about. Nor do you get to hear much from him about heavenly injunctions against kadhis’ courts or the nature of the foetus.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
WHO CHANGED THE DRAFT
The two words inserted illegally in the proposed constitution could have been inserted as films were being prepared at the government press in Nairobi.
Investigations by the Nation revealed that a line on a page was replaced with one containing the names “national security” onto the original works as films were taken in readiness for plate-making. The people who ordered the changes by junior officers were yet to be known.
Sources at Government Press said printing was initially stopped twice, which appears to have prepared the ground for the insertions.
The first printing of about 20,000 copies was stopped on the grounds that it had been done on white A4 size paper. Such printing is usually meant for official reports like those of commissions of inquiry.
The second printing of an estimated 20,000 copies was also stopped because it was printed on blue A4 size paper, which is meant for Bills and circulars.
It was argued that unlike the 2005 referendum document, which could have been returned to Parliament if it was approved, the current one would become law if passed on August 4. It was therefore to be printed in the current format on white A5 size paper.
Sources that cannot be named because of the sensitivity of the matter said the change was made in such a hurry that it was not taken back for proofreading as should have been the case.
They said the two words would ordinarily have both started with capital letters. But the insertion ended up with a capital letter only on the second word, reading “national Security”.
Defending his office over the insertions, Attorney General Amos Wako said: “If you look at the fonts used, it is very clear they were not edited. It could have been different.”
Usually, insiders said, bad copy would be marked at the Government Press so the client can correct it.
Once agreed on the change, the client makes the correction before signing against the alteration, then stamps against it. The time of the correction is also indicated.
In the case of the proposed constitution, there was no evidence that the changes were made.
The findings come as police chief Mathew Iteere is on Wednesday expected to receive a report detailing how two words were smuggled into the proposed new constitution.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo on Tuesday questioned why the police had not arrested the culprits.
“Why are they taking too long? Those people should have been arrested by now and prosecuted. They are criminals,” Mr Kilonzo told the Nation.
The Saturday Nation reported that the investigations could implicate three members of staff — one at the pre-press, the second at the computer department and a senior officer who authorised the changes.
The pre-press department is where camera-ready art-works are processed into films and plates before printing can be made.
It also includes computer work since the machine is used to output artworks from the soft copy, with the right print specifications.
Investigators would, however, still have a tough job identifying who ordered the staff at the Government Press to make the changes, since they did not do so on their own.
Usually, the Government Press is not authorised to make any changes to client documents.
Mr Wako said the final copy, which was in camera ready form — in vellum copy — was actually prepared by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel at the AG Chambers, Ms Margaret Nzioka, and is said not to have had the words “national security”.
Investigations by the Nation revealed that a line on a page was replaced with one containing the names “national security” onto the original works as films were taken in readiness for plate-making. The people who ordered the changes by junior officers were yet to be known.
Sources at Government Press said printing was initially stopped twice, which appears to have prepared the ground for the insertions.
The first printing of about 20,000 copies was stopped on the grounds that it had been done on white A4 size paper. Such printing is usually meant for official reports like those of commissions of inquiry.
The second printing of an estimated 20,000 copies was also stopped because it was printed on blue A4 size paper, which is meant for Bills and circulars.
It was argued that unlike the 2005 referendum document, which could have been returned to Parliament if it was approved, the current one would become law if passed on August 4. It was therefore to be printed in the current format on white A5 size paper.
Sources that cannot be named because of the sensitivity of the matter said the change was made in such a hurry that it was not taken back for proofreading as should have been the case.
They said the two words would ordinarily have both started with capital letters. But the insertion ended up with a capital letter only on the second word, reading “national Security”.
Defending his office over the insertions, Attorney General Amos Wako said: “If you look at the fonts used, it is very clear they were not edited. It could have been different.”
Usually, insiders said, bad copy would be marked at the Government Press so the client can correct it.
Once agreed on the change, the client makes the correction before signing against the alteration, then stamps against it. The time of the correction is also indicated.
In the case of the proposed constitution, there was no evidence that the changes were made.
The findings come as police chief Mathew Iteere is on Wednesday expected to receive a report detailing how two words were smuggled into the proposed new constitution.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo on Tuesday questioned why the police had not arrested the culprits.
“Why are they taking too long? Those people should have been arrested by now and prosecuted. They are criminals,” Mr Kilonzo told the Nation.
The Saturday Nation reported that the investigations could implicate three members of staff — one at the pre-press, the second at the computer department and a senior officer who authorised the changes.
The pre-press department is where camera-ready art-works are processed into films and plates before printing can be made.
It also includes computer work since the machine is used to output artworks from the soft copy, with the right print specifications.
Investigators would, however, still have a tough job identifying who ordered the staff at the Government Press to make the changes, since they did not do so on their own.
Usually, the Government Press is not authorised to make any changes to client documents.
Mr Wako said the final copy, which was in camera ready form — in vellum copy — was actually prepared by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel at the AG Chambers, Ms Margaret Nzioka, and is said not to have had the words “national security”.
Monday, May 17, 2010
RED AND GREE
The chairman of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission Issack Hassan on Monday threw the spanner in the works at a time when the country is braced for a do-or-die battle over the proposed law.
The point of a symbol is to "communicate without words". The choice of 'red colour' for the 'No' camp and the 'green colour' for the 'Yes' camp, negates this simple fact, raising allusions of a psychological bulldozing for the Proposed Constitution to sail through or be rejected come the August 4 referendum.
A quick desk research shows that ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ are colours that have many meanings attached to them.
Seeing Red
Designers will readily tell you that ‘Red’ sends extreme emotions: “Heat and fire, speed and zest, blood and excitement, competition and aggression, are all feelings and imagery evoked by the colour red,” notes one website, logosharx.com. Cupid is red! That’s the colour of love. Roses are red. Cute. Then comes the red carpet for the big shots and the red power tie for the society’s rich.
In China, it denotes prosperity, happiness and even good luck! With a green Christmas tree and red décor you have ‘something to smile about.’
On the flipside, the 'No' side could get a “red card” or they’d “see red” or just by voting 'No', a bad omen will be cast over this country come August 4. It’s all about danger, blood, warfare and violence. When the traffic light flashes “red”, it means “stop”, so really, the naysayers can argue, and legitimately so, that they are being stopped in their tracks.
“Studies show that red can have a physical effect, increasing the rate of respiration and raising blood pressure; red also is said to make people hungry (and angry),” notes cmykreative.com.
They went to their Uhuru Park rally adorned in 'red' and flashing 'red cards' to the Constitution. Don’t even start with “red light”? Now, that psychology couldn’t have escaped the IIEC. Or was it an oversight? Or are they marketing the 'No' side? Only they can tell us.
Green a Deal
When it comes to the 'Yes' camp, they were given “green”. Now that’s a deal. Green is the colour of life, the colour of renewal, the colour associated with a habitable environment. It seems like a continuation of the ‘Save the Mau’ campaign, which the whole country backed.
Cmykreative.com argues that green is a colour of “peace and ecology.” Its mental effect, according to the website, is “soothing, relaxing mentally as well as physically, helps alleviate depression, nervousness and anxiety, offers a sense of renewal, self-control and harmony.”
Logosharx.com agrees: “It is a kind, generous colour, which represents loyalty and intelligence. It is often a logical choice for financial sites, and represents fertility, healing and ecology in many cultures.”
It adds: “Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.”
So, the 'Yes' camp has been given the “greenlight” to take this country forward, because even at the traffic lights, 'green' means "go"!
But there’s a flipside to that. Green is the colour of envy, yeah, the “green-eyed monster” or inexperience as in “greenhorn”. Some shades of green show ambition and greed alongside oozing jealousy (dark green), and evoke feelings of cowardice or sickness (yellow-green) or even discord.
While Mr Hassan and his team may have gone for the easy option, it is not an accident that the obvious ramifications of their move were, perhaps, ignored.
It is difficult to assume that after seven days of ‘considering’ symbols, this is the best they could get. Is it because this is a government project and even though they feign independence, they are part and parcel of the coalition government, and by extension on a mission to ensure the proposed Constitution sails through?
Or are they all for the “red card” to the document?
The point of a symbol is to "communicate without words". The choice of 'red colour' for the 'No' camp and the 'green colour' for the 'Yes' camp, negates this simple fact, raising allusions of a psychological bulldozing for the Proposed Constitution to sail through or be rejected come the August 4 referendum.
A quick desk research shows that ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ are colours that have many meanings attached to them.
Seeing Red
Designers will readily tell you that ‘Red’ sends extreme emotions: “Heat and fire, speed and zest, blood and excitement, competition and aggression, are all feelings and imagery evoked by the colour red,” notes one website, logosharx.com. Cupid is red! That’s the colour of love. Roses are red. Cute. Then comes the red carpet for the big shots and the red power tie for the society’s rich.
In China, it denotes prosperity, happiness and even good luck! With a green Christmas tree and red décor you have ‘something to smile about.’
On the flipside, the 'No' side could get a “red card” or they’d “see red” or just by voting 'No', a bad omen will be cast over this country come August 4. It’s all about danger, blood, warfare and violence. When the traffic light flashes “red”, it means “stop”, so really, the naysayers can argue, and legitimately so, that they are being stopped in their tracks.
“Studies show that red can have a physical effect, increasing the rate of respiration and raising blood pressure; red also is said to make people hungry (and angry),” notes cmykreative.com.
They went to their Uhuru Park rally adorned in 'red' and flashing 'red cards' to the Constitution. Don’t even start with “red light”? Now, that psychology couldn’t have escaped the IIEC. Or was it an oversight? Or are they marketing the 'No' side? Only they can tell us.
Green a Deal
When it comes to the 'Yes' camp, they were given “green”. Now that’s a deal. Green is the colour of life, the colour of renewal, the colour associated with a habitable environment. It seems like a continuation of the ‘Save the Mau’ campaign, which the whole country backed.
Cmykreative.com argues that green is a colour of “peace and ecology.” Its mental effect, according to the website, is “soothing, relaxing mentally as well as physically, helps alleviate depression, nervousness and anxiety, offers a sense of renewal, self-control and harmony.”
Logosharx.com agrees: “It is a kind, generous colour, which represents loyalty and intelligence. It is often a logical choice for financial sites, and represents fertility, healing and ecology in many cultures.”
It adds: “Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.”
So, the 'Yes' camp has been given the “greenlight” to take this country forward, because even at the traffic lights, 'green' means "go"!
But there’s a flipside to that. Green is the colour of envy, yeah, the “green-eyed monster” or inexperience as in “greenhorn”. Some shades of green show ambition and greed alongside oozing jealousy (dark green), and evoke feelings of cowardice or sickness (yellow-green) or even discord.
While Mr Hassan and his team may have gone for the easy option, it is not an accident that the obvious ramifications of their move were, perhaps, ignored.
It is difficult to assume that after seven days of ‘considering’ symbols, this is the best they could get. Is it because this is a government project and even though they feign independence, they are part and parcel of the coalition government, and by extension on a mission to ensure the proposed Constitution sails through?
Or are they all for the “red card” to the document?
Friday, May 14, 2010
1 000 000 000 IN 10 YEARS
He may not be on your regular list of billionaires or even anywhere near such names as Bill Gates, Manu Chandaria or Chris Kirubi, but 35-year-old Kamal Budhabatti is high on the roll of your up-and-coming success icons.
With a rare determination and I-can-do-it zeal, the young man has managed to build a software company from scratch, in 10 short years, to a high flying brand.
With an annual revenue of more than Sh500 million the company, Craft Silicon, is now worth between Sh1.6 to Sh1.7 billion; and is still rising.
Going for an interview at the company’s Riverside Drive offices, we waited for about 10 minutes before this unassuming, medium-sized man with a boyish look emerged wearing a pair of simple black shoes, a faded black trouser and a Craft Silicon customised shirt — his daily office uniform.
He led us through an office hall with casually dressed employees in their late 20’s, sitting as close as they could to their computers. They did not seem to notice him and if they did, they did not show it.
His office too, betrayed nothing of it owner’s worth and instead sowed seeds of doubt in our minds: It was pretty ragged with simple but creaking seats for visitors and a desk full of papers, an old Business Daily newspaper, a Harvard Review publication, some ground nuts in a packet with a Sh10 price tag and an old IBM laptop.
Who really did own this company? was the question that quickly pricked my mind and came out of my lips.
Looking uncomfortable and unsure of how we might take his response, perhaps because most of the time he is not taken seriously even by his workers or colleagues high on the corporate ladder, he uttered only two words, “I do.”
Recently, Mr Budthabatti donated Sh9 million towards the just concluded Africa and Middle-East Microfinance Conference held at KICC, but never sat at the negotiation table.
“I send my employees who look mature and have the corporate glitz in them. This helps me avoid embarrassment every time when I am asked to send my boss to meetings,” he says.
Inspirational
But this demeanor does him an injustice — Mr Budthabatti’s story is nothing short of inspirational.
He is to software development what Macdonald Mariga is to local football, only that his business flourishes in an environment infinitely unattractive to the media and public glare, compared to the multi-billion football business.
Today, his firm is a global software company providing solutions across Africa, Asia, Europe and America, in different languages like English, French, Arabic and Spanish.
Bankers Realm developed in 2000 was the first software he developed. It helps retail banks deliver retail and corporate, as well as back office transaction processing, multi-channel delivery, card management and payments.
Other financial solutions the firm offers include a Sharia compliant Islamic banking, micro-finance banking BR Core microfinance solution (BRmfs) and Bankers Realm.Net, a new high-end version of Bankers Realm and runs on any standard browser.
Craft Silicon also offers payment solutions that include EFT Switch Solution that can be used by any core financial application, regardless of the database host, M-banking solutions and E-banking solutions.
It has permanent offices in New York, India, West Africa and Kenya. Its clientele include Equatorial Bank, Southern Credit Bank, Bank of India, Paramount Bank, First Bank of Nigeria and Afribank. Prime Bank, Equity Bank and Barclays Bank use some of its software.
Born in the West Coast of India, from the same state of the father of India, Mahatma Gandhi, in a small town of entrepreneurs known as Jamnagar, Mr Budhabatti was not a bright student and to avoid his demeaning trend of failing to beat the minimum grade, he sometimes stole a glance at what other students were filling in their score sheets.
His father, a newspaper vendor, could not afford to pay extra money for personal coaching for his ‘below-average’ son.
As he grew, he put more and more effort into his education and managed to join university for a Bachelor of Science in Physics degree.
His family had no royal status or godfathers in high places to secure him a job in a country polarised on social status. So when a friend told him of a data entry job opportunity in Kenya, the physicist jumped into the next flight.
His aim — to make money as fast as a tornado and swirl around the world gathering desire and pleasure.
But this was not as easy as he thought it would be. His job was simple yet difficult: to sit behind a computer in a small room with volumes of files and no air conditioning and key in data.
“There is nothing more boring than that,” he says.
In 2000, he was tipped by a friend that a certain bank required ‘clearing house” software.
“I sat down and developed software for the bank, since I had learnt programming from my university education,” he says.
This side job did not please his boss who fired him immediately for “using office hours to do his own work.”
His work permit was withdrawn and the young man found himself in a plane back to India. That was the worst day of his life.
He had spent sleepless nights trying to fill data and eke out a living, but nothing would compare with his childhood friends taunting him back at home for being a loser.
Ticket
However, he never left the airport once in India; he bought a ticket and found his way back to Kenya, vowing to pursue his dream no matter what.
The young man came face to face with the poverty that made him run away from his home country in the first place — no food, shelter or bus fare.
Having exhausted his last savings, Sh20,000, he became a master of odd jobs, taking one meal a day, trekking from Westlands to the City Centre and paying money to another tenant to house him.
With a borrowed computer, no phone and no money, he set down to creating software for financial institutions.
“I had to make use of the knowledge I had to make a living or I would have ended up starving and with nowhere to turn to,” he says. And so began his journey to success.
“And then the money from the bank I had made software for came through and paid pretty well. Soon, I sold the software to other financial institutions,” he recalls.
“There is a disregard for Kenyan firms by Kenyans,” he says. “It’s so much to overcome and something needs to be done about it.”
Craft Silicon only earns 15 per cent from the country and efforts to market itself in Kenya as a worthy competitor to big companies who import software to the country have not been fruitful.
The high flier remains skeptical of financial institutions that are slowly adapting to technology.
“They refuse to recognise the potential of technology deciding to remain in the old way of doing business. Some will discover when it is too late.”
Craft Silicon has done extremely well in the 10 years after it was started and ever since, its strategy has been clear — to be among the leading software companies in the world.
The company’s principle has always been to constantly innovate technological applications in the fast changing economic scenario, to keep it at the top of its game.
Mr Budhabatti, now a citizen, believes Kenya has a lot of potential and he wants to do everything to market the country as a business hub.
“I possessed nothing when I came to Kenya and I believe that I have a moral duty of giving back to this society,” he says.
Already he has a mobile computer lab for slum children. The six months old project is composed of a bus mounted with computers connected to the internet that rotates around Nairobi slums offering computer and basic information technology training for free.
“We have already trained 400 slum children and our current class has 500 of them,” the project manager, Mr Alex Chege says.
This is a pilot project but the company hopes to have bought 50 buses and equipped them with computers with each lab costing Sh6 million in the next two years.
Mr Budhabatti is not only a visionary but also an ambitious dreamer. He is confident in his beliefs, but does not come across as man with a high opinion of himself.
He plans to work for the next seven years without a proper vacation and then will retire and let his money work for him.
The only time he doesn’t think about his firm, he takes his wife and only child to Giraffe Centre and sometimes walks around Westlands, just to remember how he footed to fortune.
Very soon, he will be moving his firm’s offices to a Sh500 million office he has built on Waiyaki Way.
The new office, Craft Silicon Campus, boasts of wireless internet connectivity, swimming pools, basket court, gym, bars, and pool tables with a capacity for 600 people and will be open 24-hours.
“The need for some luxury in the working environment is to make work fun and appealing to my young work force,” he says distancing himself from such luxury, stating that his only luxury is a Range Rover sports car he drives.
engisesa@yahoo.com
With a rare determination and I-can-do-it zeal, the young man has managed to build a software company from scratch, in 10 short years, to a high flying brand.
With an annual revenue of more than Sh500 million the company, Craft Silicon, is now worth between Sh1.6 to Sh1.7 billion; and is still rising.
Going for an interview at the company’s Riverside Drive offices, we waited for about 10 minutes before this unassuming, medium-sized man with a boyish look emerged wearing a pair of simple black shoes, a faded black trouser and a Craft Silicon customised shirt — his daily office uniform.
He led us through an office hall with casually dressed employees in their late 20’s, sitting as close as they could to their computers. They did not seem to notice him and if they did, they did not show it.
His office too, betrayed nothing of it owner’s worth and instead sowed seeds of doubt in our minds: It was pretty ragged with simple but creaking seats for visitors and a desk full of papers, an old Business Daily newspaper, a Harvard Review publication, some ground nuts in a packet with a Sh10 price tag and an old IBM laptop.
Who really did own this company? was the question that quickly pricked my mind and came out of my lips.
Looking uncomfortable and unsure of how we might take his response, perhaps because most of the time he is not taken seriously even by his workers or colleagues high on the corporate ladder, he uttered only two words, “I do.”
Recently, Mr Budthabatti donated Sh9 million towards the just concluded Africa and Middle-East Microfinance Conference held at KICC, but never sat at the negotiation table.
“I send my employees who look mature and have the corporate glitz in them. This helps me avoid embarrassment every time when I am asked to send my boss to meetings,” he says.
Inspirational
But this demeanor does him an injustice — Mr Budthabatti’s story is nothing short of inspirational.
He is to software development what Macdonald Mariga is to local football, only that his business flourishes in an environment infinitely unattractive to the media and public glare, compared to the multi-billion football business.
Today, his firm is a global software company providing solutions across Africa, Asia, Europe and America, in different languages like English, French, Arabic and Spanish.
Bankers Realm developed in 2000 was the first software he developed. It helps retail banks deliver retail and corporate, as well as back office transaction processing, multi-channel delivery, card management and payments.
Other financial solutions the firm offers include a Sharia compliant Islamic banking, micro-finance banking BR Core microfinance solution (BRmfs) and Bankers Realm.Net, a new high-end version of Bankers Realm and runs on any standard browser.
Craft Silicon also offers payment solutions that include EFT Switch Solution that can be used by any core financial application, regardless of the database host, M-banking solutions and E-banking solutions.
It has permanent offices in New York, India, West Africa and Kenya. Its clientele include Equatorial Bank, Southern Credit Bank, Bank of India, Paramount Bank, First Bank of Nigeria and Afribank. Prime Bank, Equity Bank and Barclays Bank use some of its software.
Born in the West Coast of India, from the same state of the father of India, Mahatma Gandhi, in a small town of entrepreneurs known as Jamnagar, Mr Budhabatti was not a bright student and to avoid his demeaning trend of failing to beat the minimum grade, he sometimes stole a glance at what other students were filling in their score sheets.
His father, a newspaper vendor, could not afford to pay extra money for personal coaching for his ‘below-average’ son.
As he grew, he put more and more effort into his education and managed to join university for a Bachelor of Science in Physics degree.
His family had no royal status or godfathers in high places to secure him a job in a country polarised on social status. So when a friend told him of a data entry job opportunity in Kenya, the physicist jumped into the next flight.
His aim — to make money as fast as a tornado and swirl around the world gathering desire and pleasure.
But this was not as easy as he thought it would be. His job was simple yet difficult: to sit behind a computer in a small room with volumes of files and no air conditioning and key in data.
“There is nothing more boring than that,” he says.
In 2000, he was tipped by a friend that a certain bank required ‘clearing house” software.
“I sat down and developed software for the bank, since I had learnt programming from my university education,” he says.
This side job did not please his boss who fired him immediately for “using office hours to do his own work.”
His work permit was withdrawn and the young man found himself in a plane back to India. That was the worst day of his life.
He had spent sleepless nights trying to fill data and eke out a living, but nothing would compare with his childhood friends taunting him back at home for being a loser.
Ticket
However, he never left the airport once in India; he bought a ticket and found his way back to Kenya, vowing to pursue his dream no matter what.
The young man came face to face with the poverty that made him run away from his home country in the first place — no food, shelter or bus fare.
Having exhausted his last savings, Sh20,000, he became a master of odd jobs, taking one meal a day, trekking from Westlands to the City Centre and paying money to another tenant to house him.
With a borrowed computer, no phone and no money, he set down to creating software for financial institutions.
“I had to make use of the knowledge I had to make a living or I would have ended up starving and with nowhere to turn to,” he says. And so began his journey to success.
“And then the money from the bank I had made software for came through and paid pretty well. Soon, I sold the software to other financial institutions,” he recalls.
“There is a disregard for Kenyan firms by Kenyans,” he says. “It’s so much to overcome and something needs to be done about it.”
Craft Silicon only earns 15 per cent from the country and efforts to market itself in Kenya as a worthy competitor to big companies who import software to the country have not been fruitful.
The high flier remains skeptical of financial institutions that are slowly adapting to technology.
“They refuse to recognise the potential of technology deciding to remain in the old way of doing business. Some will discover when it is too late.”
Craft Silicon has done extremely well in the 10 years after it was started and ever since, its strategy has been clear — to be among the leading software companies in the world.
The company’s principle has always been to constantly innovate technological applications in the fast changing economic scenario, to keep it at the top of its game.
Mr Budhabatti, now a citizen, believes Kenya has a lot of potential and he wants to do everything to market the country as a business hub.
“I possessed nothing when I came to Kenya and I believe that I have a moral duty of giving back to this society,” he says.
Already he has a mobile computer lab for slum children. The six months old project is composed of a bus mounted with computers connected to the internet that rotates around Nairobi slums offering computer and basic information technology training for free.
“We have already trained 400 slum children and our current class has 500 of them,” the project manager, Mr Alex Chege says.
This is a pilot project but the company hopes to have bought 50 buses and equipped them with computers with each lab costing Sh6 million in the next two years.
Mr Budhabatti is not only a visionary but also an ambitious dreamer. He is confident in his beliefs, but does not come across as man with a high opinion of himself.
He plans to work for the next seven years without a proper vacation and then will retire and let his money work for him.
The only time he doesn’t think about his firm, he takes his wife and only child to Giraffe Centre and sometimes walks around Westlands, just to remember how he footed to fortune.
Very soon, he will be moving his firm’s offices to a Sh500 million office he has built on Waiyaki Way.
The new office, Craft Silicon Campus, boasts of wireless internet connectivity, swimming pools, basket court, gym, bars, and pool tables with a capacity for 600 people and will be open 24-hours.
“The need for some luxury in the working environment is to make work fun and appealing to my young work force,” he says distancing himself from such luxury, stating that his only luxury is a Range Rover sports car he drives.
engisesa@yahoo.com
Friday, May 7, 2010
'No' for Money
By LUCY ORIANG'
Some people have made a meal of the fact that an American group they have never heard of before intends to pour money into the ‘No’ campaign on account of abortion.
It is a misguided stand. There is no way I am saying no to tens of thousands of dollars as long as it is authentic cash. Indeed, if you were to hold a referendum today on what Kenyan women prefer — money or abortion — there would be no contest. So let the dollars rain.
There are no guarantees that we will not take the dough and run, but even life itself is a gamble. Let all roads lead to Uhuru Park on Saturday, if that is the only way to set off the avalanche of money from America. God knows we need it. We expect those who actually get to lay their hands on it not to be selfish. Tupendane!
At an entrance fee of simply the word ‘No’, this is not an opportunity to be dismissed lightly. You don’t even have to mean it. After all, it is not as if we are strangers to fraudulent elections. Money changes hands in virtually every poll we hold, even if it is just for the nursery school nutrition sub-committee.
It would be plain hypocritical for us to turn down good money, given the exchange rate against the US dollar. Not when religion has such a strong hold on our lives. The American right wing really has no reason to get jittery. At the rate at which we are praying, we will soon have one church per household.
Those of you who are mumbling beneath your breath about neo-colonialism have no leg to stand on either. Kenya is still a democracy and nothing in the proposed constitution will change that particular big picture. Many other groups have also done their own flashing of money — and we have accepted it without so much song and dance.
Arrive early at Uhuru Park. See if you can get a seat in close proximity to Bishop Mark Kariuki of the Deliverance Church of Kenya, which reportedly hosts the East African Centre for Law and Justice, the local affiliate of the stupendously rich American Center for Law and Justice.
According to Mr Jay Sekulow of the American group, this massive injection of money into Kenyan politics will help their Nairobi office convince us that the draft constitution will pave the way for abortion on demand. They are allowed to try, of course, especially now that the draft constitution has been officially launched and civic education is on the cards.
Just so you know, 35 out of 100 maternal deaths in Kenya can be put down to unsafe abortions and another 21,000 women end up in hospital for the same reason every year. The American group has, presumably, put these sinful ways out of business in the mother country.
There are some of us, of course, who will have the cheek to suggest that the good people at American Center for Law and Justice ought to have consulted widely before deciding where to put its money. The key to all of this is the women, sirs, not you or the grand churches that are coming up all over the place.
The abortion debate is one which no side can ever win. All the money in America and all the words in all the constitutions in the world will never resolve the matter, and it is pointless to peg Kenya’s destiny to something that is really between an individual and her Maker. Even nature itself is not perfect. There is such a thing as a miscarriage.
Had they conducted an opinion poll, our American friends might have found that a good chunk of Kenyan women would prefer that they throw the dollar at the myriad problems they and their daughters have to contend with, particularly poverty.
Those problems, including abortion, start with cultural regimes that put females down at virtually every stage of their lives. They include genital mutilation, son preference when it comes to education, and lack of access to tools of production such as land — not to mention moral judgment.
Kenyan women languish in large part in the lower echelons of business and rarely have access to loans and high-yielding investment opportunities. All too often, they are treated as workhorses and baby-making machines. I do not know even a single woman who is running amok in search of opportunities to get pregnant just so they can abort.
I do not know any either who have achieved pregnancy without any male input whatsoever. Yet there are never fallen men, just women. I do know many women, though, who are living in such desperate circumstances that they would give an arm and a leg to lay their hands on just a small fraction of those tens of thousands of dollars that are about to be unleashed in the war between ‘No’ and ‘Yes’.
It appears that Mr Sekulow and his boss, the televangelist Pat Robertson, have more money than they know what to do with. Send it to the poor women who live in inhuman conditions in Nairobi’s slums. Bishop Kariuki will never experience either pregnancy or abortion.
oriang.lucy@gmail.com
Some people have made a meal of the fact that an American group they have never heard of before intends to pour money into the ‘No’ campaign on account of abortion.
It is a misguided stand. There is no way I am saying no to tens of thousands of dollars as long as it is authentic cash. Indeed, if you were to hold a referendum today on what Kenyan women prefer — money or abortion — there would be no contest. So let the dollars rain.
There are no guarantees that we will not take the dough and run, but even life itself is a gamble. Let all roads lead to Uhuru Park on Saturday, if that is the only way to set off the avalanche of money from America. God knows we need it. We expect those who actually get to lay their hands on it not to be selfish. Tupendane!
At an entrance fee of simply the word ‘No’, this is not an opportunity to be dismissed lightly. You don’t even have to mean it. After all, it is not as if we are strangers to fraudulent elections. Money changes hands in virtually every poll we hold, even if it is just for the nursery school nutrition sub-committee.
It would be plain hypocritical for us to turn down good money, given the exchange rate against the US dollar. Not when religion has such a strong hold on our lives. The American right wing really has no reason to get jittery. At the rate at which we are praying, we will soon have one church per household.
Those of you who are mumbling beneath your breath about neo-colonialism have no leg to stand on either. Kenya is still a democracy and nothing in the proposed constitution will change that particular big picture. Many other groups have also done their own flashing of money — and we have accepted it without so much song and dance.
Arrive early at Uhuru Park. See if you can get a seat in close proximity to Bishop Mark Kariuki of the Deliverance Church of Kenya, which reportedly hosts the East African Centre for Law and Justice, the local affiliate of the stupendously rich American Center for Law and Justice.
According to Mr Jay Sekulow of the American group, this massive injection of money into Kenyan politics will help their Nairobi office convince us that the draft constitution will pave the way for abortion on demand. They are allowed to try, of course, especially now that the draft constitution has been officially launched and civic education is on the cards.
Just so you know, 35 out of 100 maternal deaths in Kenya can be put down to unsafe abortions and another 21,000 women end up in hospital for the same reason every year. The American group has, presumably, put these sinful ways out of business in the mother country.
There are some of us, of course, who will have the cheek to suggest that the good people at American Center for Law and Justice ought to have consulted widely before deciding where to put its money. The key to all of this is the women, sirs, not you or the grand churches that are coming up all over the place.
The abortion debate is one which no side can ever win. All the money in America and all the words in all the constitutions in the world will never resolve the matter, and it is pointless to peg Kenya’s destiny to something that is really between an individual and her Maker. Even nature itself is not perfect. There is such a thing as a miscarriage.
Had they conducted an opinion poll, our American friends might have found that a good chunk of Kenyan women would prefer that they throw the dollar at the myriad problems they and their daughters have to contend with, particularly poverty.
Those problems, including abortion, start with cultural regimes that put females down at virtually every stage of their lives. They include genital mutilation, son preference when it comes to education, and lack of access to tools of production such as land — not to mention moral judgment.
Kenyan women languish in large part in the lower echelons of business and rarely have access to loans and high-yielding investment opportunities. All too often, they are treated as workhorses and baby-making machines. I do not know even a single woman who is running amok in search of opportunities to get pregnant just so they can abort.
I do not know any either who have achieved pregnancy without any male input whatsoever. Yet there are never fallen men, just women. I do know many women, though, who are living in such desperate circumstances that they would give an arm and a leg to lay their hands on just a small fraction of those tens of thousands of dollars that are about to be unleashed in the war between ‘No’ and ‘Yes’.
It appears that Mr Sekulow and his boss, the televangelist Pat Robertson, have more money than they know what to do with. Send it to the poor women who live in inhuman conditions in Nairobi’s slums. Bishop Kariuki will never experience either pregnancy or abortion.
oriang.lucy@gmail.com
Sunday, May 2, 2010
RAILA TOSHA
President Mwai Kibaki will likely shock the political world when he declares his preferred presidential candidate for 2012. Most people believe that Mr Kibaki will back a PNU candidate — Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka or Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta.
But I think both gentlemen and PNU are in for a rude awakening. We can’t be sure what Mr Kibaki will do because he has never had to choose his successor. But we know the man is rarely a loyal political ally to his aides. Mr Kibaki is now concerned about his legacy. That’s why I think he will say “Raila Tosha” in 2012. I believe he is quietly anointing Prime Minister Raila Odinga to succeed him.
Let me extrapolate. Mr Kibaki is a man of few words. He keeps even those closest to him guessing about his true intentions. He has kept Mr Musyoka and Mr Kenyatta in political limbo. He is cryptic and opaque with them. They do not know where he stands.
Take his demotion of minister William Ruto, their key ally. Or Mr Kibaki’s comments at Mr Musyoka’s silver jubilee celebrations in Mwingi three weeks ago. He gave Mr Musyoka vague encouragement, but refused to endorse him. Mr Kibaki has been somewhat aloof from Mr Kenyatta because he figures that a Kikuyu will not sell in 2012.
These are bad signs for both Mr Musyoka and Mr Kenyatta. Loyalty is valued in some political circles, but not in Mr Kibaki’s. Kenya is littered with former Kibaki loyalists who now languish in political oblivion. Remember Matere Keriri, the former gatekeeper at State House who pissed off the First Lady only to be banished forever?
Mr Keriri had been a long-term associate of Mr Kibaki, but was gone never to return. Another casualty was Daudi Mwiraria who was brought to his knees by Anglo Leasing. He is now a faint memory in Kenya’s political roster. The same fate met Chris Murungaru, the pugnacious big fellow who was a heavy Kibaki lifter. Dr Murungaru, once a Kibaki confidante, is now politically “finished”.
This brings me to Mr Musyoka and Mr Kenyatta. Both men were instrumental in securing a second term for Mr Kibaki. Mr Musyoka campaigned against him, only to throw him a lifeline just when ODM was about to make the country ungovernable. If Mr Musyoka had joined forces with Mr Odinga as the country was burning, Mr Kibaki would have had to leave State House. That’s why Mr Musyoka expects Mr Kibaki to pay him back in 2012.
But if the fate of Martha Karua, the irrepressible Gichugu MP is anything to go by, Mr Musyoka should not hold his breath. No one fought harder — and with more guts — for Mr Kibaki against Mr Odinga than Ms Karua. But Mr Kibaki cut her off at the knees when she dared dream of succeeding him. There is a lesson there for Mr Musyoka.
I think legacy will have a lot to do with who Mr Kibaki will bless. The clues are in Mr Kibaki’s support for the draft constitution. The man has even thrown the Christian clergy, long his loyal supporters, overboard on the constitution. They might as well be damned because his legacy is more important than their No campaign.
Mr Kibaki wants to go down in history as the President who gave Kenya a democratic constitution after two decades of futility. This is where his interests and those of Mr Odinga converge. Mr Odinga, the other visible leader of the Yes campaign, will reap massive benefits if the new law passes.
Mr Kibaki knows this, and is obviously comfortable with it. It is not lost on him that Mr Musyoka and Mr Kenyatta have been fence-sitters and malingerers on the draft constitution. The two may not even know that they have already lost to Mr Odinga on the most important issue going to the 2012.
Some pundits have claimed that Mr Kibaki gave Mr Odinga the Mau issue as a poisoned chalice – to divide him from Mr Ruto and the Kalenjin. I respectfully disagree. Mr Kibaki calculated that Mr Ruto will have no legs come 2012 and that the so-called KKK Alliance will suffer an ignominious collapse.
By leading on Mau, Mr Odinga was seen by most Kenyans as putting Kenya above his own personal political survival. He became an “issues” politician, and not one driven purely by ethnic math. Mr Kibaki may also believe that the 2012 elections could the first non-tribal, issue-oriented election since independence.
Mr Kibaki would secure his legacy by supporting Mr Odinga, a Luo for president. He would be remembered as the Kikuyu who healed the rift between the Luo and the Kikuyu. In 2002, Mr Odinga famously said “Kibaki Tosha” and propelled the man from Othaya to State House.
I predict that Mr Kibaki will return the favour in 2012. My crystal ball tells me that in his twilight, Mr Kibaki, the intellectual will burnish his legacy by doing the unpredictable. This is how Papa Kibaki will buy his way into history.
But I think both gentlemen and PNU are in for a rude awakening. We can’t be sure what Mr Kibaki will do because he has never had to choose his successor. But we know the man is rarely a loyal political ally to his aides. Mr Kibaki is now concerned about his legacy. That’s why I think he will say “Raila Tosha” in 2012. I believe he is quietly anointing Prime Minister Raila Odinga to succeed him.
Let me extrapolate. Mr Kibaki is a man of few words. He keeps even those closest to him guessing about his true intentions. He has kept Mr Musyoka and Mr Kenyatta in political limbo. He is cryptic and opaque with them. They do not know where he stands.
Take his demotion of minister William Ruto, their key ally. Or Mr Kibaki’s comments at Mr Musyoka’s silver jubilee celebrations in Mwingi three weeks ago. He gave Mr Musyoka vague encouragement, but refused to endorse him. Mr Kibaki has been somewhat aloof from Mr Kenyatta because he figures that a Kikuyu will not sell in 2012.
These are bad signs for both Mr Musyoka and Mr Kenyatta. Loyalty is valued in some political circles, but not in Mr Kibaki’s. Kenya is littered with former Kibaki loyalists who now languish in political oblivion. Remember Matere Keriri, the former gatekeeper at State House who pissed off the First Lady only to be banished forever?
Mr Keriri had been a long-term associate of Mr Kibaki, but was gone never to return. Another casualty was Daudi Mwiraria who was brought to his knees by Anglo Leasing. He is now a faint memory in Kenya’s political roster. The same fate met Chris Murungaru, the pugnacious big fellow who was a heavy Kibaki lifter. Dr Murungaru, once a Kibaki confidante, is now politically “finished”.
This brings me to Mr Musyoka and Mr Kenyatta. Both men were instrumental in securing a second term for Mr Kibaki. Mr Musyoka campaigned against him, only to throw him a lifeline just when ODM was about to make the country ungovernable. If Mr Musyoka had joined forces with Mr Odinga as the country was burning, Mr Kibaki would have had to leave State House. That’s why Mr Musyoka expects Mr Kibaki to pay him back in 2012.
But if the fate of Martha Karua, the irrepressible Gichugu MP is anything to go by, Mr Musyoka should not hold his breath. No one fought harder — and with more guts — for Mr Kibaki against Mr Odinga than Ms Karua. But Mr Kibaki cut her off at the knees when she dared dream of succeeding him. There is a lesson there for Mr Musyoka.
I think legacy will have a lot to do with who Mr Kibaki will bless. The clues are in Mr Kibaki’s support for the draft constitution. The man has even thrown the Christian clergy, long his loyal supporters, overboard on the constitution. They might as well be damned because his legacy is more important than their No campaign.
Mr Kibaki wants to go down in history as the President who gave Kenya a democratic constitution after two decades of futility. This is where his interests and those of Mr Odinga converge. Mr Odinga, the other visible leader of the Yes campaign, will reap massive benefits if the new law passes.
Mr Kibaki knows this, and is obviously comfortable with it. It is not lost on him that Mr Musyoka and Mr Kenyatta have been fence-sitters and malingerers on the draft constitution. The two may not even know that they have already lost to Mr Odinga on the most important issue going to the 2012.
Some pundits have claimed that Mr Kibaki gave Mr Odinga the Mau issue as a poisoned chalice – to divide him from Mr Ruto and the Kalenjin. I respectfully disagree. Mr Kibaki calculated that Mr Ruto will have no legs come 2012 and that the so-called KKK Alliance will suffer an ignominious collapse.
By leading on Mau, Mr Odinga was seen by most Kenyans as putting Kenya above his own personal political survival. He became an “issues” politician, and not one driven purely by ethnic math. Mr Kibaki may also believe that the 2012 elections could the first non-tribal, issue-oriented election since independence.
Mr Kibaki would secure his legacy by supporting Mr Odinga, a Luo for president. He would be remembered as the Kikuyu who healed the rift between the Luo and the Kikuyu. In 2002, Mr Odinga famously said “Kibaki Tosha” and propelled the man from Othaya to State House.
I predict that Mr Kibaki will return the favour in 2012. My crystal ball tells me that in his twilight, Mr Kibaki, the intellectual will burnish his legacy by doing the unpredictable. This is how Papa Kibaki will buy his way into history.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
NEW ENVOYS
The closely-guarded list of 25 new ambassadors is no longer secret.
Saturday Nation can reveal the identities of the envoys whose appointments have been kept under wraps over the past two weeks.
The appointees have been undergoing training in Nairobi and Mombasa, where journalists have been kept away.
Mystery surrounded the appointment of the new envoys, who replace those recalled earlier this month, as reports emerged that they had not been cleared by the National Security Intelligence Service.
Vetting by the intelligence agency is mandatory before top government positions such as ambassadors and high commissioners are filled.
Among those appointed are Dr Josephine Ojiambo (deputy resident representative, New York), Mr Benson Ogutu (Tokyo), Ms Monica Juma (AU headquarters in Addis Ababa), Mr Ken Osinde (Berlin, Germany), Mr Kipyego Cheluget (Lusaka, Zambia), Mr Paul Kibiwott Kurgat (Moscow, Russia), Mr Mohamed Ali Saleh (Riyadh), Mr Galma Boru (Doha), Mr Rashid Ali (Tehran), Ms Josephine Gaita (Rome, Italy), Mr Peter Kirimi Kaberia (Brazil), Mr Elkanah Odembo (Washington DC, US), Mr Anthony Andanje (deputy resident representative, Geneva), Ms Josephine Awuor (Harare), Ms Jean Kimani (Great Lakes), Mr Dave Arunga (Cairo), Ms Salma Ahmed (Paris), Mr Samori Ang’wa Okwiya (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), Mr Bramwel Kisuya (Madrid), Lt Gen Augustino S.K. Njoroge (Tel Aviv), Mr Peter Gitau (Windhoek), Ms Makena Muchiri (Kigali), Mr James Ochami (Kinshasa), Mr Cleland Leshore (Juba, Southern Sudan) and Mr Anthony Muchiri (Tripoli).
Strict instructions
On Friday, Nation traced the envoys to Neptune Beach Hotel and Resort in Mombasa where they were moved from Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nairobi, but a manager there said that they had strict instructions not to allow journalists in.
Sources who talked to Saturday Nation on condition that they are not named said Foreign Affairs assistant minister Richard Onyonka was supposed to close the training course on Friday evening.
Contacted, Mr Onyonka said he was in Mombasa but would not divulge his mission.
Early this year, the government recalled 14 envoys and more than 100 junior staffers without giving reasons from Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Zambia and the United States among others.
Those recalled include Joseph Muchemi (UK), Dr Sospeter Machage (Russia), Mr Mutuma Kathurima (Germany), Mr Rateng Oginga Ogego (US) and Ms Ann Nyikuli (Italy). Others are Mr Mwakai Kikonde Sio (Spain) and Mr Lazarus Amayo (Zambia) in what Mr Onyonka described then as a normal.
“It’s a normal requirement after end of duty. The ministry has no problems with any of them,” Mr Onyonka was quoted.
The ambassadors and high commissioners who have been recalled are expected back by May 2 while the junior staff, who include education attaches and accountants are expected to return by June.
On Friday, Government spokesman Alfred Mutua, described reports of new ambassadors as rumours.
Saturday Nation can reveal the identities of the envoys whose appointments have been kept under wraps over the past two weeks.
The appointees have been undergoing training in Nairobi and Mombasa, where journalists have been kept away.
Mystery surrounded the appointment of the new envoys, who replace those recalled earlier this month, as reports emerged that they had not been cleared by the National Security Intelligence Service.
Vetting by the intelligence agency is mandatory before top government positions such as ambassadors and high commissioners are filled.
Among those appointed are Dr Josephine Ojiambo (deputy resident representative, New York), Mr Benson Ogutu (Tokyo), Ms Monica Juma (AU headquarters in Addis Ababa), Mr Ken Osinde (Berlin, Germany), Mr Kipyego Cheluget (Lusaka, Zambia), Mr Paul Kibiwott Kurgat (Moscow, Russia), Mr Mohamed Ali Saleh (Riyadh), Mr Galma Boru (Doha), Mr Rashid Ali (Tehran), Ms Josephine Gaita (Rome, Italy), Mr Peter Kirimi Kaberia (Brazil), Mr Elkanah Odembo (Washington DC, US), Mr Anthony Andanje (deputy resident representative, Geneva), Ms Josephine Awuor (Harare), Ms Jean Kimani (Great Lakes), Mr Dave Arunga (Cairo), Ms Salma Ahmed (Paris), Mr Samori Ang’wa Okwiya (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), Mr Bramwel Kisuya (Madrid), Lt Gen Augustino S.K. Njoroge (Tel Aviv), Mr Peter Gitau (Windhoek), Ms Makena Muchiri (Kigali), Mr James Ochami (Kinshasa), Mr Cleland Leshore (Juba, Southern Sudan) and Mr Anthony Muchiri (Tripoli).
Strict instructions
On Friday, Nation traced the envoys to Neptune Beach Hotel and Resort in Mombasa where they were moved from Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nairobi, but a manager there said that they had strict instructions not to allow journalists in.
Sources who talked to Saturday Nation on condition that they are not named said Foreign Affairs assistant minister Richard Onyonka was supposed to close the training course on Friday evening.
Contacted, Mr Onyonka said he was in Mombasa but would not divulge his mission.
Early this year, the government recalled 14 envoys and more than 100 junior staffers without giving reasons from Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Zambia and the United States among others.
Those recalled include Joseph Muchemi (UK), Dr Sospeter Machage (Russia), Mr Mutuma Kathurima (Germany), Mr Rateng Oginga Ogego (US) and Ms Ann Nyikuli (Italy). Others are Mr Mwakai Kikonde Sio (Spain) and Mr Lazarus Amayo (Zambia) in what Mr Onyonka described then as a normal.
“It’s a normal requirement after end of duty. The ministry has no problems with any of them,” Mr Onyonka was quoted.
The ambassadors and high commissioners who have been recalled are expected back by May 2 while the junior staff, who include education attaches and accountants are expected to return by June.
On Friday, Government spokesman Alfred Mutua, described reports of new ambassadors as rumours.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
4 MEMBERS
The Government has not yet assembled its four member team to represent it in the talks.
A top official at the Office of the President attached to the talks said the delay was because the Government is still picking its four representatives to the team.
The official, who requested not to be named because he is not allowed to speak on behalf of the government, explained that the delay arose after the religious leaders insisted that its negotiators would only deal with government officials and not technocrats.
This forced the Government side to reshuffle its initial team and start shopping around for government officials to sit in the team.
Sources close to the discussion revealed that there was also disquiet within government over remarks attributed to Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo, asking churches to support the proposed constitution at the referendum and propose amendments later.
“Some of his colleagues who had attended the meeting with the two principles were not very happy with what the minister said. They see this as the issue that has also made the churches to go out radically disowning that committee,” a source who could not be named because he is not the spokesman for the government said.
The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) General Secretary Canon Peter Karanja confirmed that religious leaders were yet to receive any communication from the government regarding when the team would meet.
“Yes, the Church met and we gave our names. The Government was expected to pick its team also. We have not received any communication that any meeting has been held ever,” Rev Karanja told Nation on telephone.
The eight member team, bringing together four representatives from the churches and the government, was formed after president Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Mr Musyoka held five hour talks with senior religious leaders with a view to persuading them not to push for the rejection of the draft constitution at the referendum.
The team of eight was expected to sift through what the church holds as contentious issues with a view to resolving them through amendments to the proposed constitution before it is subjected to the national referendum.
Christian leaders have vowed to campaign against the draft at the referendum to protest against clauses on abortion and Kadhi’s courts.
They have vowed to fight it because of its provisions on abortion and Kadhis’ Courts.
The Church objects to the section of Article 26 which empowers doctors to end a pregnancy only if it endangers the woman’s life or she needs emergency treatment. The section reads:
“Abortion is not permitted unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other law.”
Christian leaders are also opposed to the retention of kadhis’ courts in the proposed Constitution under Article 169 and 170, which limit their authority to disputes over personal status, marriage, divorce or inheritance, where all the parties are Muslims and agree to take the case to a Kadhi.
A top official at the Office of the President attached to the talks said the delay was because the Government is still picking its four representatives to the team.
The official, who requested not to be named because he is not allowed to speak on behalf of the government, explained that the delay arose after the religious leaders insisted that its negotiators would only deal with government officials and not technocrats.
This forced the Government side to reshuffle its initial team and start shopping around for government officials to sit in the team.
Sources close to the discussion revealed that there was also disquiet within government over remarks attributed to Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo, asking churches to support the proposed constitution at the referendum and propose amendments later.
“Some of his colleagues who had attended the meeting with the two principles were not very happy with what the minister said. They see this as the issue that has also made the churches to go out radically disowning that committee,” a source who could not be named because he is not the spokesman for the government said.
The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) General Secretary Canon Peter Karanja confirmed that religious leaders were yet to receive any communication from the government regarding when the team would meet.
“Yes, the Church met and we gave our names. The Government was expected to pick its team also. We have not received any communication that any meeting has been held ever,” Rev Karanja told Nation on telephone.
The eight member team, bringing together four representatives from the churches and the government, was formed after president Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Mr Musyoka held five hour talks with senior religious leaders with a view to persuading them not to push for the rejection of the draft constitution at the referendum.
The team of eight was expected to sift through what the church holds as contentious issues with a view to resolving them through amendments to the proposed constitution before it is subjected to the national referendum.
Christian leaders have vowed to campaign against the draft at the referendum to protest against clauses on abortion and Kadhi’s courts.
They have vowed to fight it because of its provisions on abortion and Kadhis’ Courts.
The Church objects to the section of Article 26 which empowers doctors to end a pregnancy only if it endangers the woman’s life or she needs emergency treatment. The section reads:
“Abortion is not permitted unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other law.”
Christian leaders are also opposed to the retention of kadhis’ courts in the proposed Constitution under Article 169 and 170, which limit their authority to disputes over personal status, marriage, divorce or inheritance, where all the parties are Muslims and agree to take the case to a Kadhi.
CATHOLICS NO CAMPAIGN
The Catholic Church Sunday launched the 'No' vote against the draft constitution by distributing copies of a five page statement from the Kenya Episcopal Conference to all its churches countrywide.
Several copies of the Pastoral letter dated 15th April, 2010 and signed by His Eminence John Cardinal Njue on behalf of the 25 Catholic Bishops were however received with hostility by some faithful in other parts of the country.
In one of the churches in Nyanza, the announcement by a priest that was presiding a Sunday service about the letter from the Catholic Secretariat on the draft was received by an unusual silence from the faithful.
Majority of the faithful who had been urged to read the letter that was pinned at a notice board just walked away soon after the church service.
“Our Bishops did not consult us before they rushed to the conclusion that we did not support the draft. As far as we are concerned, we support the draft”, said one faithful who did not want to be named.
Sources indicate that the priests were finding it very difficult to read the document before their faithful as demanded.
“It is extremely difficult to start reading the letter before my faithful when Kenyans have already made their decision on the draft”, said a local Priest.
Elsewhere, Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) Bishop of Southern Nyanza Diocese Rt. Rev. James Kenneth Ochiel said it was unfortunate that some of his fellow church leaders are yet to read the mood of Kenyans about the new constitution.
Bishop Ochiel reiterated that the Church shall have made a terrible mistake by reversing the gains it has made in the fight for reforms and democracy in the country by rejecting the draft constitution.
“The church has over the years fought for democracy and reforms and this is the time”, he said.
The Bishop who emphasized that he was speaking as a Kenyan and Individual and not an ACK Bishop said those agitating for more time to debate the contentious issues want to polarize the country further.
“Kenyans are charged and the more there is a delay in giving Kenyans a new constitutional dispensation, the more the country would be polarised”, said Bishop Ochiel.
He said there is nothing wrong with passing the draft at the referendum and them calling for parliamentary amendments.
“It is wrong to claim that Parliament may not be ready to look into the contentious issues after the passage of the draft“, said Bishop Ochiel.
Several copies of the Pastoral letter dated 15th April, 2010 and signed by His Eminence John Cardinal Njue on behalf of the 25 Catholic Bishops were however received with hostility by some faithful in other parts of the country.
In one of the churches in Nyanza, the announcement by a priest that was presiding a Sunday service about the letter from the Catholic Secretariat on the draft was received by an unusual silence from the faithful.
Majority of the faithful who had been urged to read the letter that was pinned at a notice board just walked away soon after the church service.
“Our Bishops did not consult us before they rushed to the conclusion that we did not support the draft. As far as we are concerned, we support the draft”, said one faithful who did not want to be named.
Sources indicate that the priests were finding it very difficult to read the document before their faithful as demanded.
“It is extremely difficult to start reading the letter before my faithful when Kenyans have already made their decision on the draft”, said a local Priest.
Elsewhere, Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) Bishop of Southern Nyanza Diocese Rt. Rev. James Kenneth Ochiel said it was unfortunate that some of his fellow church leaders are yet to read the mood of Kenyans about the new constitution.
Bishop Ochiel reiterated that the Church shall have made a terrible mistake by reversing the gains it has made in the fight for reforms and democracy in the country by rejecting the draft constitution.
“The church has over the years fought for democracy and reforms and this is the time”, he said.
The Bishop who emphasized that he was speaking as a Kenyan and Individual and not an ACK Bishop said those agitating for more time to debate the contentious issues want to polarize the country further.
“Kenyans are charged and the more there is a delay in giving Kenyans a new constitutional dispensation, the more the country would be polarised”, said Bishop Ochiel.
He said there is nothing wrong with passing the draft at the referendum and them calling for parliamentary amendments.
“It is wrong to claim that Parliament may not be ready to look into the contentious issues after the passage of the draft“, said Bishop Ochiel.
Monday, April 12, 2010
ODM/ONYONKA SAY YES
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) will now start a grassroots campaign for its Yes vote on the proposed draft constitution.
The party’s secretary-general, Prof Peter Anyang Nyong’o, instructed branch chairmen to mobilise their members to register as voters and to vote 'yes’ in the constitutional referendum.
In a letter to the officials, Prof Nyong’o said the party had adopted 'Yes’ as a policy and stand on the draft constitution, adding that the party would dispatch relevant documents and campaign materials to the branches for the campaign.
The materials, according to Prof Nyong’o, will contain the party’s “clear stand on the issues that are being questioned by those purporting to say 'No’.”
“Please arrange to provide your branch with information on the draft,” he said in the letter.
“In the meantime, we request you to ensure that members of your branch register as voters before the end of this month.”
Accompanied by other ODM officials at Orange House, Prof Nyong’o said that time was over for “boardroom negotiations” on the draft.
The process was in the hands of the people and it was upon politicians to “meet out there in the field” and campaign for or against the draft, he added.
But as Prof Nyong’o closed the door on negotiations, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is the party’s leader, was last week part of a government team, which met church leaders over the draft.
However, he said that Mr Odinga was free to meet the clergy as a member of the government.
“The government can always meet them. But as a party we want to meet them out there in the field,” he said.
He accused those opposing the draft because of clauses on abortion, devolution, kadhis' courts and land of lying and failing to read the document well.
He argued that the kadhis’ courts had been in the Constitution since independence and no non-Muslim had ever complained of being harmed.
And on land, he said the draft removes powers from the president and commissioner for lands and vests them in a National Land Commission, which would ensure that public land is not arbitrarily awarded to powerful people.
Church leaders have objected to provisions on abortion and the kadhis’ courts, while some politicians have rejected the draft mainly because of its provisions on devolution and land.
Separately, an Assistant minister said he would campaign for the draft constitution because of its provisions on devolution.
Speaking on the sidelines of a diplomats' workshop, Foreign Affairs Assistant minister Richard Onyonka said Kenyans had waited for a new constitution for long enough.
“If Kenyans will want some clauses changed, that will happen because a constitution belongs to the people,” he said as he sought to allay fears that amending the constitution once passed would be an uphill task.
The party’s secretary-general, Prof Peter Anyang Nyong’o, instructed branch chairmen to mobilise their members to register as voters and to vote 'yes’ in the constitutional referendum.
In a letter to the officials, Prof Nyong’o said the party had adopted 'Yes’ as a policy and stand on the draft constitution, adding that the party would dispatch relevant documents and campaign materials to the branches for the campaign.
The materials, according to Prof Nyong’o, will contain the party’s “clear stand on the issues that are being questioned by those purporting to say 'No’.”
“Please arrange to provide your branch with information on the draft,” he said in the letter.
“In the meantime, we request you to ensure that members of your branch register as voters before the end of this month.”
Accompanied by other ODM officials at Orange House, Prof Nyong’o said that time was over for “boardroom negotiations” on the draft.
The process was in the hands of the people and it was upon politicians to “meet out there in the field” and campaign for or against the draft, he added.
But as Prof Nyong’o closed the door on negotiations, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who is the party’s leader, was last week part of a government team, which met church leaders over the draft.
However, he said that Mr Odinga was free to meet the clergy as a member of the government.
“The government can always meet them. But as a party we want to meet them out there in the field,” he said.
He accused those opposing the draft because of clauses on abortion, devolution, kadhis' courts and land of lying and failing to read the document well.
He argued that the kadhis’ courts had been in the Constitution since independence and no non-Muslim had ever complained of being harmed.
And on land, he said the draft removes powers from the president and commissioner for lands and vests them in a National Land Commission, which would ensure that public land is not arbitrarily awarded to powerful people.
Church leaders have objected to provisions on abortion and the kadhis’ courts, while some politicians have rejected the draft mainly because of its provisions on devolution and land.
Separately, an Assistant minister said he would campaign for the draft constitution because of its provisions on devolution.
Speaking on the sidelines of a diplomats' workshop, Foreign Affairs Assistant minister Richard Onyonka said Kenyans had waited for a new constitution for long enough.
“If Kenyans will want some clauses changed, that will happen because a constitution belongs to the people,” he said as he sought to allay fears that amending the constitution once passed would be an uphill task.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
KALONZO'S MIRACLE
By MAKAU MUTUA
This is uncharted territory and anybody could be caught in its dragnet. If that happens, then Kalonzo Musyoka will be the next president.
There is an unspoken assumption that the International Criminal Court will not investigate – or indict – Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki. I do not have any inside information, but I would advise that such an assumption could be both legally and factually wrong.
Those who know anything about criminal investigations know enough to know that no one knows where the evidence will lead you.
Fair and thorough investigations could lead a prosecutor to any target, no matter how high or mighty. The indictment of President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan is enough evidence to dispel the notion that anyone is above ICC law.
Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC Prosecutor, had to proceed proprio motu – of his own volition – because Mr Odinga and Mr Kibaki failed to refer Kenya to him for investigations.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo visited Kenya hoping to bag a referral, but returned empty-handed because the two “principals” were politically queasy about sanctioning investigations against key coalition partners.
Perhaps they hoped that Mr Moreno-Ocampo would be discouraged and not act on his own. They were wrong, and now the chickens have come home to roost. The only question is how wide Mr Moreno-Ocampo will cast the net, and whether the two “principals” will be spared.
The ICC statute explicitly provides in Article 27 that no one shall be exempted from criminal responsibility from crimes against humanity and other egregious offences on account of their official capacity even as Head of State or Government. This means that President Kibaki could be a target.
Article 28 provides that military commanders and other superiors are criminally liable for acts of commission or omission. Thus a commander or superior shall be liable for crimes committed by forces or persons under his effective control, or as a result of the failure to exercise effective and proper control.
This is the case where the commander or superior knew, or should have known, that such crimes could be committed and failed to take steps to prevent them.
Let’s think about President Kibaki, and whether he could be culpable. What did President Kibaki know, and when did he know it? Is it true, as some media have reported, that the NSIS warned the government – and perhaps Mr Kibaki – that some elements within and outside government were planning violence and retaliatory attacks if the election results came out a certain way?
If so, what did President Kibaki and the government do to prevent, or disrupt such attacks? Were, in fact, some of those attacks planned by security forces?
If so, was President Kibaki aware of such plans? Did he take steps to thwart them? As the attacks unfolded, did President Kibaki use his authority and control of the military and security apparatus to stop them?
I raise these questions not because I know what President Kibaki knew or did, but to debunk the notion that the ICC would automatically look past him in its investigations.
There have been media reports that some of the attacks by non-state actors – such as Mungiki – against PNU opponents may have been planned with the knowledge of the government.
Was President Kibaki aware of such plans? If so, what did he do? These are not trivial questions. It is likely that a high ranking official indicted by Mr Moreno-Ocampo could implicate higher-ups in government.
That’s why, if I was Mr Kibaki, I would instruct my lawyers to look into any probability – or possibility – that I could be a target of investigation by the ICC.
Mr Odinga should not think that he is out of the woods either. Several reports, including the one by Mr Justice Philip Waki, have found that ODM supporters in the Rift Valley organised and carried out heinous attacks against PNU supporters.
Many observers seem to believe that there is strong evidence linking senior ODM officials to the attacks. The question for Mr Odinga is what he knew, when he knew it, and what he did. Was he briefed on the planning of the attacks? If so, what role did he play?
If not, did he order that the attacks be stopped once he knew of them? Would senior ODM officials from the Rift Valley implicate Mr Odinga in the attacks should the ICC indict them?
Some senior politicians on both sides – ODM and PNU – have argued that the attacks were carried out on behalf of Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga. It’s not clear whether such statements are an admission that the “principals” knew of the attacks, or somehow helped plan them.
Suffice it to note that under ICC law both the planners and the “principals” would be culpable for crimes against humanity. It is not a defence to say that one carried out the attacks on behalf of a superior, or under superior orders.
Under ICC law, orders to commit crimes against humanity are “manifestly unlawful”. Like Mr Kibaki, Mr Odinga should talk to his lawyers and prepare for any eventuality. The ICC is uncharted territory – anybody could be caught in its dragnet.
Makau Mutua is Dean and Suny Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and Chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
This is uncharted territory and anybody could be caught in its dragnet. If that happens, then Kalonzo Musyoka will be the next president.
There is an unspoken assumption that the International Criminal Court will not investigate – or indict – Prime Minister Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki. I do not have any inside information, but I would advise that such an assumption could be both legally and factually wrong.
Those who know anything about criminal investigations know enough to know that no one knows where the evidence will lead you.
Fair and thorough investigations could lead a prosecutor to any target, no matter how high or mighty. The indictment of President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan is enough evidence to dispel the notion that anyone is above ICC law.
Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC Prosecutor, had to proceed proprio motu – of his own volition – because Mr Odinga and Mr Kibaki failed to refer Kenya to him for investigations.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo visited Kenya hoping to bag a referral, but returned empty-handed because the two “principals” were politically queasy about sanctioning investigations against key coalition partners.
Perhaps they hoped that Mr Moreno-Ocampo would be discouraged and not act on his own. They were wrong, and now the chickens have come home to roost. The only question is how wide Mr Moreno-Ocampo will cast the net, and whether the two “principals” will be spared.
The ICC statute explicitly provides in Article 27 that no one shall be exempted from criminal responsibility from crimes against humanity and other egregious offences on account of their official capacity even as Head of State or Government. This means that President Kibaki could be a target.
Article 28 provides that military commanders and other superiors are criminally liable for acts of commission or omission. Thus a commander or superior shall be liable for crimes committed by forces or persons under his effective control, or as a result of the failure to exercise effective and proper control.
This is the case where the commander or superior knew, or should have known, that such crimes could be committed and failed to take steps to prevent them.
Let’s think about President Kibaki, and whether he could be culpable. What did President Kibaki know, and when did he know it? Is it true, as some media have reported, that the NSIS warned the government – and perhaps Mr Kibaki – that some elements within and outside government were planning violence and retaliatory attacks if the election results came out a certain way?
If so, what did President Kibaki and the government do to prevent, or disrupt such attacks? Were, in fact, some of those attacks planned by security forces?
If so, was President Kibaki aware of such plans? Did he take steps to thwart them? As the attacks unfolded, did President Kibaki use his authority and control of the military and security apparatus to stop them?
I raise these questions not because I know what President Kibaki knew or did, but to debunk the notion that the ICC would automatically look past him in its investigations.
There have been media reports that some of the attacks by non-state actors – such as Mungiki – against PNU opponents may have been planned with the knowledge of the government.
Was President Kibaki aware of such plans? If so, what did he do? These are not trivial questions. It is likely that a high ranking official indicted by Mr Moreno-Ocampo could implicate higher-ups in government.
That’s why, if I was Mr Kibaki, I would instruct my lawyers to look into any probability – or possibility – that I could be a target of investigation by the ICC.
Mr Odinga should not think that he is out of the woods either. Several reports, including the one by Mr Justice Philip Waki, have found that ODM supporters in the Rift Valley organised and carried out heinous attacks against PNU supporters.
Many observers seem to believe that there is strong evidence linking senior ODM officials to the attacks. The question for Mr Odinga is what he knew, when he knew it, and what he did. Was he briefed on the planning of the attacks? If so, what role did he play?
If not, did he order that the attacks be stopped once he knew of them? Would senior ODM officials from the Rift Valley implicate Mr Odinga in the attacks should the ICC indict them?
Some senior politicians on both sides – ODM and PNU – have argued that the attacks were carried out on behalf of Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga. It’s not clear whether such statements are an admission that the “principals” knew of the attacks, or somehow helped plan them.
Suffice it to note that under ICC law both the planners and the “principals” would be culpable for crimes against humanity. It is not a defence to say that one carried out the attacks on behalf of a superior, or under superior orders.
Under ICC law, orders to commit crimes against humanity are “manifestly unlawful”. Like Mr Kibaki, Mr Odinga should talk to his lawyers and prepare for any eventuality. The ICC is uncharted territory – anybody could be caught in its dragnet.
Makau Mutua is Dean and Suny Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and Chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
Friday, April 9, 2010
ARUNGA LATEST
By JOHN MUCHIRI and AMOS NGAIRA
When Esther Arunga faded off TV screens at the start of this year, Kenya went amok with a mixture of remorse and relief.
Remorse because she had styled herself as the Kenya’s screen queen, and relief because of the cloud of controversy she managed to stir on her way out.
The nation watched in disbelief as the beauty turned her back on her fiancé just weeks to their wedding, found comfort in the arms of another (rather controversial) man, got entangled in a web of accusations and counter-accusations over the (equally controversial) Finger of God Ministries, and, to crown it all, declared on national TV that she would vie for the country’s vice-presidency, aided through it all by her pastor, saxophonist Joseph Hellon (president) and Quincy Timberlake (prime minister).
Then everything went quiet … until last Tuesday evening, when the newly married Esther, her husband Quincy, her pastor and friend Hellon and his wife Vineyard walked into the Nation Centre — uninvited and unapologetic.
Accompanying the four were two ‘bodyguards’ and a woman by the name Idah Omondi, and all deposited their identity cards at the security desk. All, that is, except Quincy.
Then, after an interview with NTV, the two couples (Hellon and Vineyard, Quincy and Esther) sat down with ZuQka for an interview punctuated with giggles and winks and smoochies and — how shall we put this mildly — brazen love.
Romance has a way of bringing out the best — and worst — in people. As Esther sat there, her hand firmly in the grip of her husband (as if, in a way, he may bolt out of the room into the dark Nairobi night), she struck the poise of a meek wife, passive and subservient.
Next to her Hellon, in his characteristic style, waxed lyrical about their new political party, the Placenta Party, and the new philosophy that it will introduce into the country’s social fabric.
As the meeting progressed, it became clear that the four had come to Nation Centre to sell their new political gospel.
Hellon informed us that he had even scheduled a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in December this year, and that he meant business when he said he would be gunning for the presidency in 2012.
On her part, Esther steered clear of politics, but delved deep into her family life, and her new status as a legally married wife.
“I’d like to assure all that I’m legally married to Quincy Timberlake,” she said, and expressed her disappointment over the ‘intimidation’ her husband has been receiving ‘from the corridors of power’.
“I am happy that the government has acknowledged the citizenship of my husband,” she continued.
“We are now free to express ourselves without fear to Kenyans. This is my message, to anyone, any forces, that are still struggling to oppose our relationship: I’m officially Esther Timberlake, married to Quincy Timberlake, whom I first met in Australia where we were both studying law, although in different universities. We met through a social networking site ran by the Kenyans Living in Australia Association.”
On her union with Quincy, which has raised a lot of eyebrows, the charming Esther said: “This marriage is sweet and beautiful! I feel like I’m the most loved woman in the world!”
Well, the man who has swept her off her feet sat there, exuding that aura of haughtiness that has become his emblem over the years. His lips sparkling from the lip gloss he had just shared with his wife (sniggeringly and all), Quincy said he could not understand why people kept referring to him as ‘controversial’ or ‘mysterious’.
“I describe myself as ‘an anti-tidal wave’ and I deal with issues the buffalo way. My wife Esther stood her ground and defended me while I was in remand, but now it’s her time to take a back seat and I, as the head of the family, am ready to defend this family,” he said.
One of the reasons why he was in custody was because his nationality was in question.
“I have been cleared by the Immigration Department as a Kenyan citizen, registered under the Immigration Act of this country,” he said, adding that he comes from a village called Marera in the Rongo area of Migori District, Nyanza Province.
Quincy has his way with words but, during the interview, he left us with more questions than answers.
He said his real name is Quincy Zuma Wambiti, but declined to produce an identity card to confirm that, nor tell us when exactly he finished his high school studies in Migori.
“I’m not here to say which years I went to school, I’m here to give you my story,” he retorted.
But, speaking to ZuQka recently, rapper Darze of the Bilenge Musica Band said he only knew Quincy Timberlake as Dezato.
“Last year, he sought to join our band as a keyboard player, but since I wasn’t impressed by his work, I declined to recruit him,” Darze said.
To most Lingala music lovers, Quincy Timberlake is Congolese, not Kenyan.
Darze said the flamboyant man is fluent in Lingala, and speaks English with a deep American drawl. “Many of us actually never knew his real tribe or nationality,” he said.
Dancer and singer Kanda King has also confirmed having Quincy as a member of his African Rhythms Band between 2003 and 2004.
“I accommodated him at my residence at Savannah Estate, though all along I was never sure of his real identity,” Kanda said.
During his time with the African Rhythms Band, Quincy featured as both a keyboard player and singer and, after leaving, he joined Benga and Rhumba singer Igwe Prezda Bandason’s Patron Musica Band in the same capacity. “He often kept his identity secret,” Bandason told ZuQka.
Quincy has been a regular feature, either as an entertainer or patron, at most entertainment spots that feature Congolese music in the city, including Dream Village, Simmers Restaurant and Citizen Vibro, and here he has always been referred to as Congolese.
Musician and producer Longwa Disco said Quincy was among those in the front-line during a fund-raising dance for the late Lovy Longomba in the mid 1990s at then then Makuti Club Restaurant in Nairobi’s South B area. He is also said to have had stints with Aziz Abdi’s Benga Afrika Band.
On Tuesday, he said he has a degree from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa, where he studied Psychology.
Immediately after that, he went to the US and joined the Washington State University to study Endocrinology (a branch of physiology and medicine concerned with the endocrine glands and hormones).
Apparently (he won’t give us the exact years), this is the same time he also flew to Australia and joined the University of Newcastle, where he studied Law.
Esther told ZuQka that, in 1996 (when, according to various sources, Quincy was doing his rounds on the local Lingala scene), she was in Form Two at Kenya High School, Nairobi.
That means she finished high school in 1998, and was in Australia in the early years of the millennium, when Quincy, then going by the name Fizzle Dogg, was in the process of doing a song with the late rapper K-Rupt, produced by the Ogopa Deejays stable.
Does he remember K-Rupt?
“Yes, I met him in South Africa, where he was recording a number at Gallo Records,” he said.
“We didn’t record anything at Ogopa. Actually, the song we were to do was recorded in South Africa — in a private setting. Then K-Rupt brought the song to Kenya and took it to Herbal Records for mastering.”
But Emmanuel Banda, the Ogopa DJs Artistes Manager and Spokesman, differed.
“We had already signed K-Rupt before he died in November 2003. He was the one who brought Quincy (Fizzle Dogg) to our studios. In fact, he even recorded a song that he performed at the Tusker Safari Sevens that year. We even have footage of him wearing a white track suit, and the next time he performed was at The Carnivore,” said Banda.
“I can assure you that K-Rupt neither went to South Africa nor recorded with Gallo. The only deal that we were to seal with Gallo was a music distribution channel, but not any recordings,” added Banda.
It is rumoured that after Ogopa DJs, Quincy went to Kanda King, who housed him and even played the keyboard in his band.
“I don’t know who this Kanda King is. In fact, my brother Hellon told me that he has been saying that I knew him. I have sued him for defaming me,” said Quincy.
But Kanda said he was not aware of any suit against him, “but my dancers have been telling me that some people have been looking for me.
"The truth is, I housed him for almost two years. I have proof of him playing the keyboard in my band.”
And so the intrigues surrounding this man continue. It is hard to guess what will be thrown our way next time, but be sure to catch it here.
When Esther Arunga faded off TV screens at the start of this year, Kenya went amok with a mixture of remorse and relief.
Remorse because she had styled herself as the Kenya’s screen queen, and relief because of the cloud of controversy she managed to stir on her way out.
The nation watched in disbelief as the beauty turned her back on her fiancé just weeks to their wedding, found comfort in the arms of another (rather controversial) man, got entangled in a web of accusations and counter-accusations over the (equally controversial) Finger of God Ministries, and, to crown it all, declared on national TV that she would vie for the country’s vice-presidency, aided through it all by her pastor, saxophonist Joseph Hellon (president) and Quincy Timberlake (prime minister).
Then everything went quiet … until last Tuesday evening, when the newly married Esther, her husband Quincy, her pastor and friend Hellon and his wife Vineyard walked into the Nation Centre — uninvited and unapologetic.
Accompanying the four were two ‘bodyguards’ and a woman by the name Idah Omondi, and all deposited their identity cards at the security desk. All, that is, except Quincy.
Then, after an interview with NTV, the two couples (Hellon and Vineyard, Quincy and Esther) sat down with ZuQka for an interview punctuated with giggles and winks and smoochies and — how shall we put this mildly — brazen love.
Romance has a way of bringing out the best — and worst — in people. As Esther sat there, her hand firmly in the grip of her husband (as if, in a way, he may bolt out of the room into the dark Nairobi night), she struck the poise of a meek wife, passive and subservient.
Next to her Hellon, in his characteristic style, waxed lyrical about their new political party, the Placenta Party, and the new philosophy that it will introduce into the country’s social fabric.
As the meeting progressed, it became clear that the four had come to Nation Centre to sell their new political gospel.
Hellon informed us that he had even scheduled a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in December this year, and that he meant business when he said he would be gunning for the presidency in 2012.
On her part, Esther steered clear of politics, but delved deep into her family life, and her new status as a legally married wife.
“I’d like to assure all that I’m legally married to Quincy Timberlake,” she said, and expressed her disappointment over the ‘intimidation’ her husband has been receiving ‘from the corridors of power’.
“I am happy that the government has acknowledged the citizenship of my husband,” she continued.
“We are now free to express ourselves without fear to Kenyans. This is my message, to anyone, any forces, that are still struggling to oppose our relationship: I’m officially Esther Timberlake, married to Quincy Timberlake, whom I first met in Australia where we were both studying law, although in different universities. We met through a social networking site ran by the Kenyans Living in Australia Association.”
On her union with Quincy, which has raised a lot of eyebrows, the charming Esther said: “This marriage is sweet and beautiful! I feel like I’m the most loved woman in the world!”
Well, the man who has swept her off her feet sat there, exuding that aura of haughtiness that has become his emblem over the years. His lips sparkling from the lip gloss he had just shared with his wife (sniggeringly and all), Quincy said he could not understand why people kept referring to him as ‘controversial’ or ‘mysterious’.
“I describe myself as ‘an anti-tidal wave’ and I deal with issues the buffalo way. My wife Esther stood her ground and defended me while I was in remand, but now it’s her time to take a back seat and I, as the head of the family, am ready to defend this family,” he said.
One of the reasons why he was in custody was because his nationality was in question.
“I have been cleared by the Immigration Department as a Kenyan citizen, registered under the Immigration Act of this country,” he said, adding that he comes from a village called Marera in the Rongo area of Migori District, Nyanza Province.
Quincy has his way with words but, during the interview, he left us with more questions than answers.
He said his real name is Quincy Zuma Wambiti, but declined to produce an identity card to confirm that, nor tell us when exactly he finished his high school studies in Migori.
“I’m not here to say which years I went to school, I’m here to give you my story,” he retorted.
But, speaking to ZuQka recently, rapper Darze of the Bilenge Musica Band said he only knew Quincy Timberlake as Dezato.
“Last year, he sought to join our band as a keyboard player, but since I wasn’t impressed by his work, I declined to recruit him,” Darze said.
To most Lingala music lovers, Quincy Timberlake is Congolese, not Kenyan.
Darze said the flamboyant man is fluent in Lingala, and speaks English with a deep American drawl. “Many of us actually never knew his real tribe or nationality,” he said.
Dancer and singer Kanda King has also confirmed having Quincy as a member of his African Rhythms Band between 2003 and 2004.
“I accommodated him at my residence at Savannah Estate, though all along I was never sure of his real identity,” Kanda said.
During his time with the African Rhythms Band, Quincy featured as both a keyboard player and singer and, after leaving, he joined Benga and Rhumba singer Igwe Prezda Bandason’s Patron Musica Band in the same capacity. “He often kept his identity secret,” Bandason told ZuQka.
Quincy has been a regular feature, either as an entertainer or patron, at most entertainment spots that feature Congolese music in the city, including Dream Village, Simmers Restaurant and Citizen Vibro, and here he has always been referred to as Congolese.
Musician and producer Longwa Disco said Quincy was among those in the front-line during a fund-raising dance for the late Lovy Longomba in the mid 1990s at then then Makuti Club Restaurant in Nairobi’s South B area. He is also said to have had stints with Aziz Abdi’s Benga Afrika Band.
On Tuesday, he said he has a degree from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa, where he studied Psychology.
Immediately after that, he went to the US and joined the Washington State University to study Endocrinology (a branch of physiology and medicine concerned with the endocrine glands and hormones).
Apparently (he won’t give us the exact years), this is the same time he also flew to Australia and joined the University of Newcastle, where he studied Law.
Esther told ZuQka that, in 1996 (when, according to various sources, Quincy was doing his rounds on the local Lingala scene), she was in Form Two at Kenya High School, Nairobi.
That means she finished high school in 1998, and was in Australia in the early years of the millennium, when Quincy, then going by the name Fizzle Dogg, was in the process of doing a song with the late rapper K-Rupt, produced by the Ogopa Deejays stable.
Does he remember K-Rupt?
“Yes, I met him in South Africa, where he was recording a number at Gallo Records,” he said.
“We didn’t record anything at Ogopa. Actually, the song we were to do was recorded in South Africa — in a private setting. Then K-Rupt brought the song to Kenya and took it to Herbal Records for mastering.”
But Emmanuel Banda, the Ogopa DJs Artistes Manager and Spokesman, differed.
“We had already signed K-Rupt before he died in November 2003. He was the one who brought Quincy (Fizzle Dogg) to our studios. In fact, he even recorded a song that he performed at the Tusker Safari Sevens that year. We even have footage of him wearing a white track suit, and the next time he performed was at The Carnivore,” said Banda.
“I can assure you that K-Rupt neither went to South Africa nor recorded with Gallo. The only deal that we were to seal with Gallo was a music distribution channel, but not any recordings,” added Banda.
It is rumoured that after Ogopa DJs, Quincy went to Kanda King, who housed him and even played the keyboard in his band.
“I don’t know who this Kanda King is. In fact, my brother Hellon told me that he has been saying that I knew him. I have sued him for defaming me,” said Quincy.
But Kanda said he was not aware of any suit against him, “but my dancers have been telling me that some people have been looking for me.
"The truth is, I housed him for almost two years. I have proof of him playing the keyboard in my band.”
And so the intrigues surrounding this man continue. It is hard to guess what will be thrown our way next time, but be sure to catch it here.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
NYONG'O
At a time Kenyans are still grappling with the pain of the mass killings after the bitterly disputed 2007 Presidential election, and also struggling to find ways to dispense justice, an accusation of inciting ethnic hatred is the most scurrilous charge one could make against a leader.
And yet that is exactly what one Moses Kuria has been pandering lately.
Having failed to generate sufficient news coverage, he took out a full page ad in the Sunday Nation alleging the Prime Minister had tried in a recent Kass FM interview to turn the Kalenjin against other communities living in the Rift Valley.
Mr Kuria says in the ad that he was filled with “unimaginable fear” as he listened to the PM’s “dangerous” interview!
If anyone is fanning incitement among communities, it is Mr Kuria with the divisive but unsuccessful campaign he has launched.
INTERESTINGLY, HE HAS BEGUN HIS scurrilous crusade – whose not so hidden motive is to portray the ODM leader as an enemy of the people of Mt Kenya – just as the PM had undertaken two historic visits to that area.
The visits to these Meru and Murang’a were to familiarise the PM with the concrete aspirations of the people for peace, development and a better life, and to understand how the Government, and the PM, could help them in overcoming the obstacles they see standing in their way.
The visits were also designed to promote national cohesion and reconciliation.
Indeed, on the very day that Mr Kuria’s full page ad appeared, there were articles in the media highlighting the impact of these visits, and the appreciation the people.
Mr Kuria’s divisive campaign also comes at a time Kenyans are close to adopting a Constitution after a 20 year struggle. His is surely a desperate attempt to divert national attention from the key issue of reforms that ensure no community is ever again excluded.
A small minority of politicians have resorted to tribal incitement to prevent passage of the Constitution to protect ill-gotten wealth and power.
There are men and women of goodwill who have genuine reservations about some aspect of the Constitution, but there is a small cabal which opposes it to protect their privileges through protecting the status quo.
People do not want their parties to be divisive and to be ethnically partisan.
There is rightly great competition as political parties woo voters to their banner, but in a country as diverse as Kenya, with no community constituting a majority, only a political party seeking to provide sectarian leadership would want to exclude any community from its umbrella.
Kenyans know that ODM is not such a party. It is the country’s largest political entity, with more than twice as many MPs as its closest rival. Its political representation is dispersed more nationally.
That this is so is in part the result of the PM’s own long history of commitment to nationalist and indeed Pan African ideals.
In any event, as ODM leader, it would be suicidal for him to be inciting against any community. The same applies to him as MP for Langata, which is one of the most ethnically diverse constituencies in the nation and whose seat he won with strong support from all communities.
In his incitement accusation, Mr. Kuria does not quote a single sentence that the PM might have used to incite the Kalenjin, exposing his crude attempt to demonise the PM without cause.
He quotes only one word the PM used, “peremende” (sweets), claiming that when the PM said these were being offered to the Kalenjin by those they were fighting in the 2007 election, he was referring to ethnic fighting!
MR KURIA SEEMS TO HAVE FORGOTTEN that the 2007 election was “fought” between ODM and PNU, not between communities living in the Rift Valley.
It was that momentous election struggle that the PM was referring to in the interview, a struggle that ODM decisively won but in which all communities, including Mr Kuria’s, voted in large numbers for both parties.
As is now becoming clear in all parts of the country, the effect of the huge national reconciliation drive that we embarked upon two years ago is already being felt. Kenyans will not be so easily fooled by Mr Kuria’s kind of ethnic incitement.
Prof Nyong’o, the MP for Kisumu Rural, is also the secretary-general of the Orange Democratic Movement.
And yet that is exactly what one Moses Kuria has been pandering lately.
Having failed to generate sufficient news coverage, he took out a full page ad in the Sunday Nation alleging the Prime Minister had tried in a recent Kass FM interview to turn the Kalenjin against other communities living in the Rift Valley.
Mr Kuria says in the ad that he was filled with “unimaginable fear” as he listened to the PM’s “dangerous” interview!
If anyone is fanning incitement among communities, it is Mr Kuria with the divisive but unsuccessful campaign he has launched.
INTERESTINGLY, HE HAS BEGUN HIS scurrilous crusade – whose not so hidden motive is to portray the ODM leader as an enemy of the people of Mt Kenya – just as the PM had undertaken two historic visits to that area.
The visits to these Meru and Murang’a were to familiarise the PM with the concrete aspirations of the people for peace, development and a better life, and to understand how the Government, and the PM, could help them in overcoming the obstacles they see standing in their way.
The visits were also designed to promote national cohesion and reconciliation.
Indeed, on the very day that Mr Kuria’s full page ad appeared, there were articles in the media highlighting the impact of these visits, and the appreciation the people.
Mr Kuria’s divisive campaign also comes at a time Kenyans are close to adopting a Constitution after a 20 year struggle. His is surely a desperate attempt to divert national attention from the key issue of reforms that ensure no community is ever again excluded.
A small minority of politicians have resorted to tribal incitement to prevent passage of the Constitution to protect ill-gotten wealth and power.
There are men and women of goodwill who have genuine reservations about some aspect of the Constitution, but there is a small cabal which opposes it to protect their privileges through protecting the status quo.
People do not want their parties to be divisive and to be ethnically partisan.
There is rightly great competition as political parties woo voters to their banner, but in a country as diverse as Kenya, with no community constituting a majority, only a political party seeking to provide sectarian leadership would want to exclude any community from its umbrella.
Kenyans know that ODM is not such a party. It is the country’s largest political entity, with more than twice as many MPs as its closest rival. Its political representation is dispersed more nationally.
That this is so is in part the result of the PM’s own long history of commitment to nationalist and indeed Pan African ideals.
In any event, as ODM leader, it would be suicidal for him to be inciting against any community. The same applies to him as MP for Langata, which is one of the most ethnically diverse constituencies in the nation and whose seat he won with strong support from all communities.
In his incitement accusation, Mr. Kuria does not quote a single sentence that the PM might have used to incite the Kalenjin, exposing his crude attempt to demonise the PM without cause.
He quotes only one word the PM used, “peremende” (sweets), claiming that when the PM said these were being offered to the Kalenjin by those they were fighting in the 2007 election, he was referring to ethnic fighting!
MR KURIA SEEMS TO HAVE FORGOTTEN that the 2007 election was “fought” between ODM and PNU, not between communities living in the Rift Valley.
It was that momentous election struggle that the PM was referring to in the interview, a struggle that ODM decisively won but in which all communities, including Mr Kuria’s, voted in large numbers for both parties.
As is now becoming clear in all parts of the country, the effect of the huge national reconciliation drive that we embarked upon two years ago is already being felt. Kenyans will not be so easily fooled by Mr Kuria’s kind of ethnic incitement.
Prof Nyong’o, the MP for Kisumu Rural, is also the secretary-general of the Orange Democratic Movement.
RAO
By MAKAU MUTUA
Posted Saturday, April 3 2010 at 15:40
Every Kenyan knows that Prime Minister Raila Odinga is the centre of gravity of the country’s politics. He is at the top of the news every day. When he sneezes, his political opponents catch a cold.
If Mr Odinga goes left, his opponents head right. If he says that Mt Kenya is in Central Province, his detractors find a way to argue that the famous landscape is in Nyanza.
Mr Odinga possesses such dominant political mystique that he should, by now, have become president.
But yet the son of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, the doyen of Kenya’s opposition politics, remains an outsider looking in. Is it a family curse, or will Mr Odinga finally get to the mountain top in 2012?
No other senior political figure has laboured more tirelessly, or borne the brunt of state repression, more intensely than Mr Odinga.
The man has more than paid his dues in the quest for reform. Even so, the spoils of the state have time and again gone to lesser mortals who have played it safe.
In 1997 and 2007, Mr Odinga toiled valiantly in the vineyards of presidential elections only to come out empty.
But he believes that he was robbed in 2007. However, that is now water under the proverbial bridge. The question is whether Kenyans will recognise Mr Odinga’s character, sacrifice, and leadership acumen to hand him the keys to the State House in 2012.
My crystal ball tells me that Mr Odinga has a tough slog ahead. He is a prince — by virtue of his pedigree — but he is an outsider-insider.
He “should” belong to the cabal of the traditional ruling elite, but he doesn’t. His Achilles’ heel is his innate proclivity to reform the conservative Kenyan state and “spread the wealth’’.
The anchors of Kenya’s conservative ruling elite — the Kenyattas, the Mois, and the Kibakis, and their political and biological children — have sworn to keep him in the political wilderness.
The conservative heir apparents to the throne — Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Ministers William Ruto, Uhuru Kenyatta and George Saitoti — are determined to cut off Mr Odinga at the knees.
If you doubt me, just look at the kitchen sink approach of the PNU or PDM — take your pick! The conservative ruling cabal — which believes it “owns” the state — is throwing everything at Mr Odinga in the hope that something will stick.
It has even deployed political minnows and novices against him. That’s why Jimmy Kibaki, a prince not known for the alacrity of his political mind, feels compelled to launch attacks against Mr Odinga under the guise of Simama Kenya.
You can be sure that Mr Jimmy Kibaki will attempt to step into his father’s shoes in Othaya in 2012 to perpetuate the legacy of conservatism in Kenya.
The big question is whether Kenyans have seen through the charade of the ruling conservatives and are prepared to give an outsider a chance.
Mr Odinga is not a complete outsider. He is rather an insider-outsider. He is an insider by class and pedigree, but an outsider by political history and ideology.
He carries the “baggage” of political populism and the legacy of struggle for reform.
This is what makes him unpalatable to conservatives. The “filthy” rich believe that Mr Odinga will not safeguard their vested interests.
They are deathly scared of land reform, genuine investigations into human rights abuses and economic crimes. If I were Mr Odinga, I would be most concerned about the tribalisation of the 2012 elections.
Mr Odinga will have a nearly impossible task if the PDM folks manage to stick together under the KKK alliance. A solid tribal coalition of the Kikuyu, Kamba and Kalenjin would be difficult to beat.
Mr Odinga would then only have the Luo and the Luhya to rely on, and it is not clear he could count on the solid backing of the Luhya.
That’s why he must change the basis for the 2012 elections from “tribe” to “policies”. Mr Odinga will likely lose the election if he runs as the head of a tribal coalition.
He must run as the nominee of a “Kenyan” political party that is concerned with the welfare of Kenyans.
It remains to be seen whether the big egos of Mr Musyoka, Mr Kenyatta, Mr Ruto and Mr Saitoti can agree who among them will be the flag bearer.
Mr Kenyatta poses obvious risks because Kenyans may be unwilling to vote for a Kikuyu after Mr Kibaki. Mr Saitoti, who doubles as a Kikuyu-Maasai, would be intriguing, but is a dour campaigner and personality.
Mr Ruto, the most junior among this group, is the riskiest because of allegations linking him to the post-election violence and his polarising character.
Mr Musyoka may be their best bet, but he lacks political gravitas to go toe to toe with Mr Odinga.
Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC
Posted Saturday, April 3 2010 at 15:40
Every Kenyan knows that Prime Minister Raila Odinga is the centre of gravity of the country’s politics. He is at the top of the news every day. When he sneezes, his political opponents catch a cold.
If Mr Odinga goes left, his opponents head right. If he says that Mt Kenya is in Central Province, his detractors find a way to argue that the famous landscape is in Nyanza.
Mr Odinga possesses such dominant political mystique that he should, by now, have become president.
But yet the son of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, the doyen of Kenya’s opposition politics, remains an outsider looking in. Is it a family curse, or will Mr Odinga finally get to the mountain top in 2012?
No other senior political figure has laboured more tirelessly, or borne the brunt of state repression, more intensely than Mr Odinga.
The man has more than paid his dues in the quest for reform. Even so, the spoils of the state have time and again gone to lesser mortals who have played it safe.
In 1997 and 2007, Mr Odinga toiled valiantly in the vineyards of presidential elections only to come out empty.
But he believes that he was robbed in 2007. However, that is now water under the proverbial bridge. The question is whether Kenyans will recognise Mr Odinga’s character, sacrifice, and leadership acumen to hand him the keys to the State House in 2012.
My crystal ball tells me that Mr Odinga has a tough slog ahead. He is a prince — by virtue of his pedigree — but he is an outsider-insider.
He “should” belong to the cabal of the traditional ruling elite, but he doesn’t. His Achilles’ heel is his innate proclivity to reform the conservative Kenyan state and “spread the wealth’’.
The anchors of Kenya’s conservative ruling elite — the Kenyattas, the Mois, and the Kibakis, and their political and biological children — have sworn to keep him in the political wilderness.
The conservative heir apparents to the throne — Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Ministers William Ruto, Uhuru Kenyatta and George Saitoti — are determined to cut off Mr Odinga at the knees.
If you doubt me, just look at the kitchen sink approach of the PNU or PDM — take your pick! The conservative ruling cabal — which believes it “owns” the state — is throwing everything at Mr Odinga in the hope that something will stick.
It has even deployed political minnows and novices against him. That’s why Jimmy Kibaki, a prince not known for the alacrity of his political mind, feels compelled to launch attacks against Mr Odinga under the guise of Simama Kenya.
You can be sure that Mr Jimmy Kibaki will attempt to step into his father’s shoes in Othaya in 2012 to perpetuate the legacy of conservatism in Kenya.
The big question is whether Kenyans have seen through the charade of the ruling conservatives and are prepared to give an outsider a chance.
Mr Odinga is not a complete outsider. He is rather an insider-outsider. He is an insider by class and pedigree, but an outsider by political history and ideology.
He carries the “baggage” of political populism and the legacy of struggle for reform.
This is what makes him unpalatable to conservatives. The “filthy” rich believe that Mr Odinga will not safeguard their vested interests.
They are deathly scared of land reform, genuine investigations into human rights abuses and economic crimes. If I were Mr Odinga, I would be most concerned about the tribalisation of the 2012 elections.
Mr Odinga will have a nearly impossible task if the PDM folks manage to stick together under the KKK alliance. A solid tribal coalition of the Kikuyu, Kamba and Kalenjin would be difficult to beat.
Mr Odinga would then only have the Luo and the Luhya to rely on, and it is not clear he could count on the solid backing of the Luhya.
That’s why he must change the basis for the 2012 elections from “tribe” to “policies”. Mr Odinga will likely lose the election if he runs as the head of a tribal coalition.
He must run as the nominee of a “Kenyan” political party that is concerned with the welfare of Kenyans.
It remains to be seen whether the big egos of Mr Musyoka, Mr Kenyatta, Mr Ruto and Mr Saitoti can agree who among them will be the flag bearer.
Mr Kenyatta poses obvious risks because Kenyans may be unwilling to vote for a Kikuyu after Mr Kibaki. Mr Saitoti, who doubles as a Kikuyu-Maasai, would be intriguing, but is a dour campaigner and personality.
Mr Ruto, the most junior among this group, is the riskiest because of allegations linking him to the post-election violence and his polarising character.
Mr Musyoka may be their best bet, but he lacks political gravitas to go toe to toe with Mr Odinga.
Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC
Monday, March 29, 2010
TO AMEND OR NOT
Agriculture minister William Ruto and five other ODM MPs on Sunday vowed to oppose the draft constitution if some amendments are not effected. Roads minister Franklin Bett also said that Kenyans would vote against the draft constitution if regional governments are not included in it.
Kanu leaders also added their voice the debate by threatening to mobilise party supporters to reject the draft during referendum unless contentious issues are ironed out. Party Secretary General Nick Salat said clauses such as abortion, land and creation of new regions were among those that should be amended to reflect the wishes of majority.
The leaders spoke as MPs prepare to take their differences on the draft constitution to Parliament this week when they vote on the document. Parliamentary Select Committee on the law review vice-chairman Ababu Namwamba on Sunday said MPs would on Wednesday debate and vote on proposed amendments.
And on Thursday, the House will conclude debate and take the critical vote to either approve or reject the draft. Mr Namwamba said the House requires 65 per cent or 145 MPs to amend the draft and a simple majority to approve or reject it. By last week, more than 19 amendments on devolution, kadhis courts, abortion, land and the tenures of Chief Justice, Attorney General and Controller and Auditor General had been presented to the National Assembly Clerk.
On Sunday, reports said there were more than 50 proposed amendments. In Nyeri, 14 PNU legislators differed over the suggested changes.
Amend it
Led by assistant ministers Peter Kenneth and Kabando wa Kabando, the leaders failed to agree on whether Parliament should approve the draft as presented by the Committee of Experts or amend it. Mr Kenneth, the Planning and Vision 2030 assistant minister, urged his colleagues to pass the new constitution the way it is, saying there was room for amendments later.
Mr Kabando, the Youths and Sports assistant minister, said a new constitution would compel the government to settle the internally displaced. But Molo MP Joseph Kiuna said Parliament had mutilated the draft drawn by the CoE. The MPs were speaking at a funds drive at Gathinja Secondary School in Kiharu, Murang’a East District.
Energy minister Kiratu Murungi said PNU’s stand was that if MPs could not agree on the changes, the House should approve the document as it is. “We want to avoid the 2005 referendum scenario and speak with one voice,” he said. “It is not the time for oranges and bananas.”
And the Orthodox Church said it would reject the draft if the clause on abortion was not amended. Addressing a Palm Sunday service in Nairobi, Archbishop Makarios Tillyrides said ‘in the eyes of the Orthodox Church, abortion is outrageous’.
And in Kisii, Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula, assistant minister Richard Onyonka and Kitutu Masaba MP Walter Nyambati opposed the creation of regional governments, saying it would divide Kenyans on tribal lines.
Kanu leaders also added their voice the debate by threatening to mobilise party supporters to reject the draft during referendum unless contentious issues are ironed out. Party Secretary General Nick Salat said clauses such as abortion, land and creation of new regions were among those that should be amended to reflect the wishes of majority.
The leaders spoke as MPs prepare to take their differences on the draft constitution to Parliament this week when they vote on the document. Parliamentary Select Committee on the law review vice-chairman Ababu Namwamba on Sunday said MPs would on Wednesday debate and vote on proposed amendments.
And on Thursday, the House will conclude debate and take the critical vote to either approve or reject the draft. Mr Namwamba said the House requires 65 per cent or 145 MPs to amend the draft and a simple majority to approve or reject it. By last week, more than 19 amendments on devolution, kadhis courts, abortion, land and the tenures of Chief Justice, Attorney General and Controller and Auditor General had been presented to the National Assembly Clerk.
On Sunday, reports said there were more than 50 proposed amendments. In Nyeri, 14 PNU legislators differed over the suggested changes.
Amend it
Led by assistant ministers Peter Kenneth and Kabando wa Kabando, the leaders failed to agree on whether Parliament should approve the draft as presented by the Committee of Experts or amend it. Mr Kenneth, the Planning and Vision 2030 assistant minister, urged his colleagues to pass the new constitution the way it is, saying there was room for amendments later.
Mr Kabando, the Youths and Sports assistant minister, said a new constitution would compel the government to settle the internally displaced. But Molo MP Joseph Kiuna said Parliament had mutilated the draft drawn by the CoE. The MPs were speaking at a funds drive at Gathinja Secondary School in Kiharu, Murang’a East District.
Energy minister Kiratu Murungi said PNU’s stand was that if MPs could not agree on the changes, the House should approve the document as it is. “We want to avoid the 2005 referendum scenario and speak with one voice,” he said. “It is not the time for oranges and bananas.”
And the Orthodox Church said it would reject the draft if the clause on abortion was not amended. Addressing a Palm Sunday service in Nairobi, Archbishop Makarios Tillyrides said ‘in the eyes of the Orthodox Church, abortion is outrageous’.
And in Kisii, Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula, assistant minister Richard Onyonka and Kitutu Masaba MP Walter Nyambati opposed the creation of regional governments, saying it would divide Kenyans on tribal lines.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
CONSENSUS AT LAST
MPs on Friday removed counties from the draft constitution and instead agreed to divide the country into 25 regions that will serve as grassroots level governments. They also reduced the membership of the Senate from 67 to 60 as they moved closer to striking a deal on the contentious issues that have delayed debate on the draft.
The MPs, meeting at the Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA), further sought to fix the number of wards in each constituency to between three and five. These were among the highlights of the meeting of a 23-member sub-committee formed on Wednesday to help remove roadblocks to a new constitution.
National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende was said to have been instrumental in the formation the sub-committee which drew equal membership from the Party of National Unity, Orange Democratic Movement and the Parliamentary Reform Caucus group. The decision to create 25 regions was a departure from the proposal in the draft constitution, which suggested establishment of 47 counties as units of devolution.
The regions will each send two representatives to the Senate — one man and one woman. They will be joined by 10 representatives from minority communities such as the Ogiek. Women MPs at one time stormed out of the meeting room and were heard consulting loudly over their failure to get special seats.
In the first draft by the Committee of Experts, 16 seats had been set aside for women in addition to the elective ones. But this was removed by the PSC and the women MPs were pushing for their return. It appeared the MPs agreed on a powerful Senate, contrary to a push by some to dilute the Second House. They agreed that the Senate will play a key role in the impeachment of the President or the deputy President.
In what could bring a tussle over the control of devolved funds such as Constituency Development Fund (CDF), senators will also have legislative powers over the issues that affect regions, including money. Even though the Committee of Experts had insisted on a powerful Senate, MPs wanted to remove its legislative powers to avoid future role conflict.
The Rift Valley will have the highest Senate representation as it was divided into five regions, meaning it will have 10 senators. Eastern Province was split into four regions giving it eight senators while Nairobi will be represented by one senator. Western, Central, North Eastern, Nyanza and Coast provinces were each split into three regions and will be represented by six senators each.
The MPs, however, left the task of demarcating the constituencies and regions to the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission. However, sources said that it was agreed that one region should not have more than 10 constituencies. Those who spoke to the Saturday Nation added that the regions would ensure proper devolution of national resources.
They endorsed a 20 per cent tranche of the national revenues collected to be disbursed to the regions while 10 per cent should be granted to constituencies. Currently, under CDF, constituencies get 2.5 per cent of the total revenues. Some ODM MPs had questioned the choice of constituencies as levels of devolution.
They argued that the CDF framework could not handle such huge amounts of money and given the recent history it will defeat the purpose of devolving the resources. The two levels of devolution will also see some of the civic wards merged so that each constituency has a fixed number.
While some of those who spoke to the Saturday Nation said the total number would be seven wards per constituency, others said the number would be limited to five. At least three councillors from every constituency will be elected into the regional governments. Mount Elgon MP Fred Kapondi is said to have insisted that his constituency should not be placed in Western Province but in Rift Valley.
Amagoro’s Sospeter Ojaamong’ was also said to be against being enjoined in the regions with other constituencies in western Kenya. Kuria MP Wilfred Machage was also said to have demanded that Kuria needed a region of its own. The meeting ends on Monday and the MPs are expected to congregate at the Speaker’s kamukunji (meeting) on Tuesday morning to finalise consensus on sticky issues.
They will be joined by President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The MPs agreed to leave intact the National Accord even as the new constitution comes into effect 14 days after the referendum. PSC chairman Abdikadir Mohammed said all new offices proposed in the new law would have to wait until after 2012.
“Only those offices that are critical to the running of the country between now and 2012, like the Supreme Court, will be set up to handle disputed elections,” he said. Gwassi MP John Mbadi (ODM) echoed Mr Abdikadir’s sentiments, saying the National Accord was a product of the Serena talks and there was no need to quash it before the life of the coalition government ends.
The MPs, meeting at the Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA), further sought to fix the number of wards in each constituency to between three and five. These were among the highlights of the meeting of a 23-member sub-committee formed on Wednesday to help remove roadblocks to a new constitution.
National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende was said to have been instrumental in the formation the sub-committee which drew equal membership from the Party of National Unity, Orange Democratic Movement and the Parliamentary Reform Caucus group. The decision to create 25 regions was a departure from the proposal in the draft constitution, which suggested establishment of 47 counties as units of devolution.
The regions will each send two representatives to the Senate — one man and one woman. They will be joined by 10 representatives from minority communities such as the Ogiek. Women MPs at one time stormed out of the meeting room and were heard consulting loudly over their failure to get special seats.
In the first draft by the Committee of Experts, 16 seats had been set aside for women in addition to the elective ones. But this was removed by the PSC and the women MPs were pushing for their return. It appeared the MPs agreed on a powerful Senate, contrary to a push by some to dilute the Second House. They agreed that the Senate will play a key role in the impeachment of the President or the deputy President.
In what could bring a tussle over the control of devolved funds such as Constituency Development Fund (CDF), senators will also have legislative powers over the issues that affect regions, including money. Even though the Committee of Experts had insisted on a powerful Senate, MPs wanted to remove its legislative powers to avoid future role conflict.
The Rift Valley will have the highest Senate representation as it was divided into five regions, meaning it will have 10 senators. Eastern Province was split into four regions giving it eight senators while Nairobi will be represented by one senator. Western, Central, North Eastern, Nyanza and Coast provinces were each split into three regions and will be represented by six senators each.
The MPs, however, left the task of demarcating the constituencies and regions to the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission. However, sources said that it was agreed that one region should not have more than 10 constituencies. Those who spoke to the Saturday Nation added that the regions would ensure proper devolution of national resources.
They endorsed a 20 per cent tranche of the national revenues collected to be disbursed to the regions while 10 per cent should be granted to constituencies. Currently, under CDF, constituencies get 2.5 per cent of the total revenues. Some ODM MPs had questioned the choice of constituencies as levels of devolution.
They argued that the CDF framework could not handle such huge amounts of money and given the recent history it will defeat the purpose of devolving the resources. The two levels of devolution will also see some of the civic wards merged so that each constituency has a fixed number.
While some of those who spoke to the Saturday Nation said the total number would be seven wards per constituency, others said the number would be limited to five. At least three councillors from every constituency will be elected into the regional governments. Mount Elgon MP Fred Kapondi is said to have insisted that his constituency should not be placed in Western Province but in Rift Valley.
Amagoro’s Sospeter Ojaamong’ was also said to be against being enjoined in the regions with other constituencies in western Kenya. Kuria MP Wilfred Machage was also said to have demanded that Kuria needed a region of its own. The meeting ends on Monday and the MPs are expected to congregate at the Speaker’s kamukunji (meeting) on Tuesday morning to finalise consensus on sticky issues.
They will be joined by President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The MPs agreed to leave intact the National Accord even as the new constitution comes into effect 14 days after the referendum. PSC chairman Abdikadir Mohammed said all new offices proposed in the new law would have to wait until after 2012.
“Only those offices that are critical to the running of the country between now and 2012, like the Supreme Court, will be set up to handle disputed elections,” he said. Gwassi MP John Mbadi (ODM) echoed Mr Abdikadir’s sentiments, saying the National Accord was a product of the Serena talks and there was no need to quash it before the life of the coalition government ends.
Friday, February 26, 2010
WANJIRU DOWN BY 666
A vote recount for Starehe entered its second day on Thursday with the sitting Member of Parliament trailing by 666 votes.
Bishop Margaret Wanjiru had 328 votes against 994 garnered by Mr Maina Kamanda, her closest rival in the 2007 poll.
So far, only votes from City Primary School are being scrutinised. And, like on the first day, anomalies continued to emerge.
Two ballot papers bearing the name of one voter but belonging to different constituencies were found in one box. The papers were for Kamukunji and Starehe constituencies. More than 200 ballot boxes will be opened in the scrutiny. So far, only three have been opened.
The scrutiny of the votes was ordered after Mr Kamanda went to court to challenge Bishop Wanjiru’s win in the last parliamentary elections, citing irregularities.
On Wednesday, Mr Kamanda was in the lead with 407 votes while Bishop Wanjiru had 90. This puts the total votes recounted so far at 1,401 for Mr Kamanda and 418 for Bishop Wanjiru.
Mr Kamanda pleaded in his petition that the boxes be opened and votes recounted, saying the election was rigged through falsification of forms 16A.
The petitioner was a former Sports minister until he lost his parliamentary seat in the last elections.
Bishop Wanjiru, who is also Housing assistant minister and vied on an ODM ticket, beat PNU’s Mr Kamanda by 895 votes. The election, which led to violence that killed more than 1,000 people, was seen as the most contested. Out of the 39 petitions filed, some 25 have been dismissed on technicalities.
A recent ruling saw Transport minister Chirau Mwakwere lose his Matuga seat. Other pending petitions include Wajir South, where a scrutiny of votes has been ordered beginning March 1.
Bishop Margaret Wanjiru had 328 votes against 994 garnered by Mr Maina Kamanda, her closest rival in the 2007 poll.
So far, only votes from City Primary School are being scrutinised. And, like on the first day, anomalies continued to emerge.
Two ballot papers bearing the name of one voter but belonging to different constituencies were found in one box. The papers were for Kamukunji and Starehe constituencies. More than 200 ballot boxes will be opened in the scrutiny. So far, only three have been opened.
The scrutiny of the votes was ordered after Mr Kamanda went to court to challenge Bishop Wanjiru’s win in the last parliamentary elections, citing irregularities.
On Wednesday, Mr Kamanda was in the lead with 407 votes while Bishop Wanjiru had 90. This puts the total votes recounted so far at 1,401 for Mr Kamanda and 418 for Bishop Wanjiru.
Mr Kamanda pleaded in his petition that the boxes be opened and votes recounted, saying the election was rigged through falsification of forms 16A.
The petitioner was a former Sports minister until he lost his parliamentary seat in the last elections.
Bishop Wanjiru, who is also Housing assistant minister and vied on an ODM ticket, beat PNU’s Mr Kamanda by 895 votes. The election, which led to violence that killed more than 1,000 people, was seen as the most contested. Out of the 39 petitions filed, some 25 have been dismissed on technicalities.
A recent ruling saw Transport minister Chirau Mwakwere lose his Matuga seat. Other pending petitions include Wajir South, where a scrutiny of votes has been ordered beginning March 1.
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