Tag Archives: Politics

What is Your Part?

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What is your part?

Kenya needs you, What is your part?

I have to say I feel saddened by the events happening everyday in our country. Every single day is a tragedy, news is never good news. Someone was killed, people died of hunger, an innocent little girl was raped, a blast here and a blast where most Kenyans gather, most innocent Kenyans looking for a way to make ends meet in a scrambling economy, a life that has become a hand to mouth for most.

Most Kenyans feel let down by the same government that is supposed to protect them. When the government should have controlled fuel prices, they shot to the highest they have ever been. When the government was supposed to be killing Al Shabaab Militants, they invaded our businesses and killed our relatives and friends. I have to look back and ask why, why do we have to suffer so much when we have policies and laws that should be protecting us?

Kenyans go on record as being the most patient people in the universe. We also serve a short memory, it takes a new headline to forget the last one. Why do we still have goldenberg ministers in government and running for offices in the next government? Why do we recycle our trash without cleansing it? Why did we refund the Kazi kwa Vijana money to the world bank? Is it to say we had no need for it? Our youth are still jobless, why do we have increased crime? I would like to ask these questions to every individual. Why do we have Anglo-leasing ministers and MPs in power? Why have we made governance of Kenya a popularity show?

We have taught our young voters that the most popular politician is the best politician, regardless of their chance to change anything in government. We have used the words of politicians in their popularity wars as the gospel and continued to preach the same trash they keep preaching against each other. We have laughed when they make stupid jokes about each other, we watched them break up and make up in public and we remain their experimental crowds. Why do we agree to be used like this? When did democracy run from our country?

I feel saddened by the fact that we shall go back to elections and vote the same people. Worse, we shall watch some processes that we can get involved in go away because we were too busy to take part and we can only accept what is eventually presented to us. Please take this as a challenge, be part of the change. The positive change. Do not let things go wrong when you can change something. There is always something you can do. Open someone’s eyes. Tell them the truth about each politician. The truth that you know will help someone make a decision. Take up your position, run for a seat. Be part of the change.

Today I read a post from a friend on Facebook saying that she has decided not to vote – and I am sure there is a lot of us who have come to the same conclusion after looking at the situation we are in. That is not the solution though… we can’t stand back and watch others make decisions for us. Your one vote counts, it is your biggest chance to be part of the change.

Kenya went into flames because of selfish politicians back in 2008. The people who made us get into this phase of our history were enjoying armed security while Kenyans were either entangled in battle or fearing for the next minute. I remember it too well, too clearly. I had 6 kids in my house and no maid or any adult I could leave them with to go anywhere look for food. I could not leave them in the house and I could not go out with them, people were burning tires and beating others up. There was too much tension and that is a point in life we should never go back to.

God gave us a chance to sort our mess, we should never go back there. At the end of the day, we are Kenyans. Tribal divisions will hurt all of us, no one is safe. Politicians can all afford to fly their families out of the country and leave us in chaos. It is time to take charge, be the change.

While the grand-coalition government was born out of the peace initiative, Kenyans have had to fund an extremely expensive government that has had no opposition meaning a lot of imbalances in governance. We need a stable government and a stable opposition. We need a restoration of democracy in Kenya and we need enactment of the new constitution. Kenyans need to enjoy the new law.

So what is your part? You need to study leaders and their motives. You need to understand who has a chance to bring any change or press the rule of law in Kenya. We need to look at who has personal agendas and self-actualization goals. We need to look at their tracks, we need to stop voting in thieves over and over again. Kenyans are hard workers, we managed to get up on our feet after 2008, we can go to the highest points if only our taxes were properly managed. It is your choice, the future of Kenya depends on you.

Raila Odinga the World’s Highest Paid Politician?

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A recent report by Investopedia placed Raila Odinga as the 3rd highest paid politician in the world – earning more than the US president, UK prime minister and even funny enough, more than Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki. The same report went further to indicate that Raila earns 240 times more than the country’s GDP per person, making him the World’s highest paid politician on that ratio.

The graph below compares this data with other countries.

Now, I will take a different turn on this story. Raila wants to be president of this country. Through his businesses, he is already one of the richest people in the country. I would like to just look at a few possibilities here and I would love it if you walked with me through it.

How is it possible that he earns more than Kibaki?
We all know that Kibaki is the CEO and the commander in chief of Kenya. In a natural assumption, he should be earning higher than the prime minister who is either placed second or third on this ranking after or before the VP (a story for another day). Well, I have no official explanations but I will try and look at the scenarios that would result to this. The most likely explanation is the fact that the post of the PM was created under his negotiation, which means he negotiated his mandate, role in government and his salary and allowances. Remember the $427,886 (approximately Kshs. 42,788,600 – about 3.56m per month) is only his basic salary. Now let me rephrase that. While Kenyans were butchering each other in his support, he was behind closed doors with international standard security negotiating how for the next 5 years he will make 213,943,000 shillings from the dying Kenyan economy. If this were the scenario, I would say that is probably the most selfish, heartless and undeserving leadership this country would ever get.

Clearly, something is not right. We have people still living in tents, I do not even want to imagine their life during this rainy season. The people who lost their lives and those who were displaced suffered because ODM called for mass action to contest the disputed elections in 2007. They paid with their lives for Raila to be the prime minister and almost another election year, thousands of Kenyans are still living in IDP camps.

Raila, a known high spender, would have in my opinion fought for the IDPs resettlement if he was a genuine leader who cared about this country. This also includes other senior leaders in government. Kenya went down to the lowest it has been since the Maumau struggle and the best these politicians would give it is reconciliation.

The media seems to favor Raila too much and when these kind of reports are published, they do not make it to the local media since they will not be doing him any good. Just recently, Forbes published Uhuru Kenyatta as one of Africa’s richest billionaires and it actually made headlines.

Kenya is in serious need of leadership. I would say this coalition government has failed and one of the reasons why it has is because of lack of opposition. Everyone is in government. There is only opposition within with enough people trying to protect their own personal interests. Kenya needs a government and a working opposition like we had between 1997 and 2002. Kenyans deserve service delivery and selfless leaders who can make decisions based on the needs of the electorate and not their own selfish issues.

Lessons from Kamukunji

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A PNU joint campaign in Kamukunji last week

A PNU joint campaign in Kamukunji last week

Its been a while since I wrote anything on politics. Am a politician at heart and I love following the circus that is Kenya politics. Kamukunji was one hell of a race. All the heavy weights had someone they wanted to emerge the winner and eventually, they all made rounds and beat odds to make sure they visited each constituent, either directly or as a group.

Out of all the by-elections we have seen recently, I would say Kamukunji was the hottest of all races, mainly because its a Nairobi constituency and a raging supremacy battle between ODM and the PNU constituent parties. Each of the candidate was hopeful and vibrant with energy and promise for the voter. Then it got to the battle for 2012 and each camp was trying to out do the other. The PM Hon. Raila Odinga went ahead to declare the Kamukunji by-election a true reflection of 2012 and indeed, I would love to ask him to repeat that statement now.

Here are a few lessons I hope our politicians can learn from Kamukunji.

Its not about the party:
Well, we all know the nomination history. Yusuf Hassan was seeking nomination on ODM at a point and he lost to “Johny” before he decided to quit to the VPs ODM-Kenya party which is a member of the PNU coalition, which includes NARC-Kenya, Brian Weke’s party at in Kamukunji. Had Hassan decided to go it as an ODM-Kenya candidate, he probably still would have won, people were electing an MP and not a party.

United we stand, divided we fall:
We saw the VP Kalonzo Musyoka and the deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta lead the PNU delegation in campaigning for Hassan, a host of MPs also behind them and all preaching unity and demonstrating it. They sold Hassan as an experienced and focused leader and I guess they won the hearts of Kamunjians. ODM and its falling house was a major discussion at PNU campaigns and people bought what these united guys were selling. Again on this, Martha Karua faced a bad defeat coming a distant third and I would say had she stuck her party in PNU where it belongs, she would be celebrating with Hassan.

This is something to think about in 2012, no politician is going to make it alone. No party is strong enough to win an election on its own. So, these groupings and coalitions are the way to go. It will unite Kenyans from different backgrounds and each community will feel represented.

We have no supreme Kings in Kenya
Well, simply put, we are past the era where we thought things happen because someone said so. Kenyans are tired of being told who to vote for because of their associations. If ODM does not stop its old tactics of picking and nomination favorites of Raila Odinga, they will go down with the Budalangi floods. It is time to let democracy prevail in Kenya, not dictatorship.

Popularity and Leadership are two different things
If the race was a popularity test, “Johny” would have taken it. But the people of Kenya are now looking for realistic leaders who look like they can be trusted. Opinion polls and most of the media put ODM as the most popular party in the country, how come it has not reflected in most of the recent by-elections? Raila made a trip to Khalwale’s backyard to campaign for the ODM candidate. ODM fanatics see this as the final word, its failed badly in the last two by-elections. ODM has also made an assumption that Raila Odinga is the best candidate for presidency, without any nomination process or opinion of the members and other leaders. Where is democracy? Why is ODM still living in dictatorial times?

Its no longer about tribal politics
The maturity displayed by the people of Kamukunji was top notch. While Kamukunji is populated by people from all tribes, the top contenders were both from minority communities. I can bet anything that most of the people who voted for Hassan were only a small percentage from his community. Focus on development, working with the people and policies that benefit everyone inclusively.

Money can’t buy me love (Or votes)
Well, there was stories of people bribing voters and wooing them with money but at the end of the day, the voters went to the box alone, made their own decision and voted in their new MP. If we can focus on policies that our leaders propose, we would have better grounds to vote for them.

There is a lot more from this by-election that leaders should focus on. IIEC also did a commendable job and hopefully, efficiency is applied in the next election as we have seen in this. We love our country and we need peace and development. Vote wise next time.