Category: Opinion

Parading Of Injured Cops A Disastrous Propaganda

Following Monday’s IEBC protests that CORD staged countrywide, and that turned murderous with police accused of turning brutal against peaceful demonstrators. According to confirmed reports with grapevines having bigger numbers, a total of three people were shot dead by the police with scores hospitalized with serious injuries.

In what apparently seemed like an order from above, the officers dispersed the crowds using live bullets as opposed to teargas and water cannons that they’ve been using in the past protests leaving to the bloodbath.

In what would be read as a grave warning to the relentless opposition, the police applied ultimate force in containing the situation. The brutality got to the extreme that the silent foreign envoy and human rights lobby groups came out of their mansions to condemn the government for using force.

US ambassador, Goddec, led in calling for a quick solution condemning the brutal police force on citizens.
Despite video evidence showing protestors staging peaceful demos before the police disrupting with teargas and live bullets, the police insisted most of the protestors were violent forcing them to use live ammunition.

The cops being received by CS and Police IG at the Wilson Airport

In a bid to justify the killings in Nyanza, the police did what has now lived to become the biggest muff of the decade, decided to airlift ‘injured’ officers from Kisumu to Nairobi for specialized treatment.

Undoubtedly, the event was given maximum publicity with senior security officers from Permanent Secretary to Police IG being on standby at the Wilson airport to receive the injured police officers. All media houses were giving up to the second updates, government social media accounts giving up to microseconds update, the hashtag commandos were pushing the injured cops hashtags, shedding all tears in the world.

Meanwhile, photos from Kisumu Airport where the injured officers were to board their choppers, showed a different story, the officers seemed okay with bandages to their arms to signify slight injuries if there were any.

A journalist covering the event from Kisumu Airport pointed how comical it was to watch one officer who was limping to the chopper then suddenly remembered he had left his luggage behind, dashed off as fit as a fiddle before coming back limping.

The hawkeyed Kenyans on social media sensed foul play pointing out blunders. Most of the injured officers were seniors in the ranks, traditionally in violent situations; the senior officers wouldn’t take front lead exposing them to danger.

Nearly all of them were injured to the arms and specifically to the left, a coincidence that threw all eyebrows up the forehead. Officers who were pictured walking to the choppers by themselves in Kisumu on reaching Wilson now couldn’t walk by themselves, had to be helped and taken away in stretchers. All red flags.

Instead of taking the officers to the Forces Memorial where injured officers are treated or even Kenyatta Hospital the government’s facility, they were taken to a down small hospital in Nairobi West; some commentators even called it a brothel hospital whatever that is.

The thing here is, this was a misguided propaganda meant to gain public sympathy and justify the brutality and killings of the police an issue that was piling pressure on the state from local and foreign bodies.

However, this move that would also be read as a justification for police brutality on citizens shortly acted in the opposite by humiliating the police force which before the public should be seen as immortal and robust enough to protect them.

Now here we saw brutalized police who were now overpowered by civilians with rungus and stones yet the police had guns. The police in this move came out as overwhelmed by the demonstrating civilians. It would also expose the police for future assaults should any protest arise.

The desperate measure led to even a hopeless situation, and now we have a weak police force before the face of the world which isn’t the case. If the officers were indeed injured Jaramogi referral hospital in Kisumu or Eldoret, have the capacity to handle such. Using the police to score political points is misguided and ended up deflating the police muscles before the public eye. A deadpan propaganda gaffe.

June 4, 2016
The Die Is Cast For Isaack Hassan And His IEBC Team

Following prolonged and weekly anti-IEBC demos spearheaded by CORD, the coalition at last called off the protests that in the last phase turned tragic with more than five people fell by police bullets and scores injured in the countrywide demonstrations.

CORD leadership in retreating said they were giving the government side a window period to consider dialogue on the smooth transition of the electoral body. However in a quick rejoinder, legislators allied to the Jubilee party laughed off opposition’s demands saying parliament is the only deciding factor in the IEBC turmoil, this given their monopoly in parliament will provide them with a smooth sail.

Elsewhere, despite the deafening loud cries, the Isaak Hassan led commission has stood its ground vowing never to resign come Jesus or devil. In the latest pompous assertion, the IEBC chairperson said they would rather go to jail than quit; this was in line with the chicken gate scandal.

Like most of past public interest cases like that of former finance minister Kimunya who famously said he’d rather die than resign, to Waiguru, who rubbished off resignation calls, Isaack, and his team has adopted the familiar sound of standing firm despite public pressure.

Police going after a protestor during the anti IEBC demos

As history would have it, most of those who publicly defied the pressure did so just for a moment before the kitchen caught fire and they stormed out. The die is cast for Hassan and his team. However, much high and hard faced they might want the public to see.

As an electoral body, public trust and integrity are a significant factor in upholding its existence, and as things stand, IEBC doesn’t meet the threshold.

Demographically, half of the Kenya’s electorate figures given political factors that are CORD vs. Jubilee and rest who are pro-IEBC have lost trust in the electoral body. This in the spirit of public interest disqualifies the current IEBC as it is to oversee the incoming elections.

IEBC still have a corruption scandal, the chicken gate to deal with, while the corrupt counterparts I the UK are in jail surrounded by police, in Kenya the chicken gate fellows are also having police protection only that they’re inside their offices, free.

Translucently, IEBC is still under focus following the failures of the BVR kits during the last elections that was highly contested and recently according to sources, and the same tools loaned to Burundi where again the elections were allegedly marred with inconsistencies.

Adding up all these fundamental issues makes IEBC, not one of the best to go on with into the next elections. Integrity is critical and also given Kenya’s history with post-election violence blamed on skewed polling system, the country can’t afford to gamble with its existing or assumed peace.

Alternatively, away from the unending fiasco, the debate can be brought to rest with a political solution. We must agree as a constitutional body, and IEBC should only be removed within the constraints of law, but that won’t be possible given the political temperatures and legislative composition which will give one side an open upper hand.

Kenya must adopt a political solution rather than constitutional in ending the IEBC standoff.

An old lady trapped in the lethal smoke of teargas lobbied by the police during the demos in Nairobi

Synchronically, the opposition, CORD, have called off the weekly demos to give space for a dialogue a political path that should move towards untying the tight knot. Giving their demands, CORD proposed for Jubilee to nominate their choices to IEBC, and they will also do and bring in a neutral body, advising UN to oversee the incoming elections that the opposition have largely accused the government of plotting to rig. This system applied in South Africa during the post-apartheid period when Mandela came home from jail. Like a hen whose head has been cut off, Isaak Hassan and his team can jump up and down but it’s only moments before they go silent.

June 4, 2016
Opinion: The Gender Balance Debate Let Nature Take Course

Women can be as determined and ambitious and career driven as their male counterparts, but it is their different perspective on life that’s been the detriment to their success.

“I am a woman, a mother, and a wife.” Women will-will blubber in almost all conversations revolving around the debate for equality and gender balance.

This morning, compelled by the raging debate in parts of social media and our very own National Parliament, I “googled” what Gender Equality means:

“Gender equality, also known as sex equality, gender egalitarianism, sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the view that both men and women should receive equal treatment and not be discriminated against based on their gender.”

I again inferred from my good friends, GOOGLE, what they would mean by “equal”:

<- >Being the same in quantity, size, degree, or value.
<- >(Of people) having the same status, rights, or opportunities.
<- >Uniform in application or effect; without discrimination on any grounds.
<- >Evenly or relatively balanced.

Whether the 2/3 gender rule is legally binding for us as a people and a country whose Constitution in Article 27 (3) states that women and men have the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres I cannot tell.

Of course, the society we live in hasn’t demonstrated this.

Take for instance a case of a seven-year-old boy falling and he’s reprimanded not to shed a tear. Why? Because he’s male. That man is not supposed to cry! And they grow up believing so. A child (male) brought up with such a notion till adulthood will walk away from a marriage that makes him cry like he’s got onion on his face.

Such a child will cringe at the idea of sharing his pains with anyone, especially female, and would rather resort to drinking his ass off in a bar than entertain the notion of talking it out!

If only the society will change the very fabric it has used overtime to nurture the boy child, and create the same atmosphere as early as possible, we can dream of achieving this elusive gender balance.

Having the ability or resources to meet (a challenge).
It has gone without question that what a man can do a woman can do even better. Still University Placement for our women folk, here in Kenya and all over Africa, is pegged lower compared to the male fork. This happens with a backdrop of similar curricula, like teachers and similar examinations.

Our women must, then wake up and challenge this act of mistreatment against them since it authoritatively implies their weak gender. As Plato said, “If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.”

The “ladies first” fuss, as people get into queues is another balderdash that our women must first fight off. Let us be candid and openly compete; it is the only way! And women are better placed to deal with it.

The tag, in its entirety, clearly outlines woman’s inability to compete favourably in a competitive environment and if not checked would delineate them from whatever it is the rest of humanity is scavenging for.

Of a person or thing considered being the same as another in status or quality.
We got to treat each other as equals. If it comes to rent and family issues, we are to pretend that men are to be breadwinners? Seriously?

I was hoping that our women folk would demand as well to contribute equally to rent and everything else that appertains to bringing up a family.

I was praying that our mothers would break the ceilings and go into jobs traditionally left for the male folk.

I was hoping, beyond hope, that women would as well offer to pay the dowry for this gender balance issue.
Why?

Because humanity is carved the same way and men and women, have to balance.

I’ll be very honest with you: the cultural transformation that we are wading into is not easy. If it must be a success, it will require rigour and determination from both governments and those traditional barazas you ignore in the village.
To the proponents of gender balance, there are underlying issues that need to be addressed before this becomes a national debate.

We must go back to the very smallest unit of our lives, family, and have a very honest discussion about balancing the gender sheet off.

Myths such as boys are preferred to girls as families talk about children liking must be done away with. (Some my girlfriends prefer to give birth to males)

Mary Wollstonecraft said, “I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” It is in so doing that they will compete astutely for the scarce resources that the men hold dear, and we men will support them.

After meeting with Sheryl Sandberg (current Facebook COO), Cisco’s John Chambers admitted that he hadn’t quite “gotten it,” and communicated this admission widely to his employees. He said, “While I have always considered myself sensitive to and effective on gender issues in the workplace, my eyes were opened in new ways and I feel a renewed sense of urgency to make the progress we haven’t made in the last decade… while I believe I am relatively enlightened, I have not consistently walked the talk … What we have been doing hasn’t worked, and it is time to adjust.

“To call the woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then a woman is immeasurably man’s superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she, not greater courage? Without her, the man could not be. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with a woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?” Mahatma Gandhi

In a nutshell, to achieve the balance, we ought to dedicate more time to understanding our cultural, social and right now technological challenges than just writing pieces of legislation. We must rethink, as remotely as possible why God intended man to dominate woman!

May 3, 2016
What Next After Burning Of The Ivory

Kenya is set to set up ablaze the biggest stockpiles of ivory seized by the authorities. President Kenyatta is expected to lead to burning 105 tonnes o ivory estimated to worth about Sh.8 Billion the street value on the 30th of April at the Nairobi national park. According to conservation lobby groups reports,1,000 elephants were lost to poachers in 2014 alone and that every 15 minutes an elephant is killed globally. Last year, estimated 100 elephants died in Kenya and Africa about 33,000 elephants are killed every year.

Records from 1975, had put elephants population I n Kenya at 160,000 but the number has tragically reduced to 35,000 as of 2015 records. Africa at large has seen a 60 percent drop in elephant population over the last decade pressing all the alarm buttons. Kenya, which relies on tourism as its revenue background and wildlife including elephants making up to 70 per cent of the attraction, has all the reasons to be alarmed by the drastic decline of animals facing possible distinction thanks to the escalating poaching. Tourism generates an average annual revenue of Sh.300 billion to Kenya.

Coincidentally, President Uhuru won’t be the first president to put up the ivory up on fire as all his predecessors have done the same making the exercise look like more of a custom. In 1989, President Daniel Moi set on fire the first 12-tonne of ivory stockpile with a Sh.1.2bn street value, in 2009, President Mwai Kibaki set the second batch of 335 tusks on fire weighing about 5 tonnes. President Uhuru initially in 2015 had burned about 15 tonnes of the ivory. This year is the biggest stockpile in history ever to go up in flames.

First lady Margaret Kenyatta sets on fire the ivory at Nairobi National Park

Expectedly, many opponents of the burning strategy have come argued that the government would adopt other methods like selling off the cache and using returns to fund conservation instead of burning and putting everything into ‘waste’. However the president in his statement and in line with this year’s theme of worth more alive stamps that ivory is an illegal commodity and that the government can’t engage in illicit trade in the name of disposing of the tusks.

Burning of the tusks according to the Kenya Wildlife is meant to send a message to the poachers that the elephants are more worthy than their tusks and also to cut supply to the market by eliminating biggest pile in history from the market link. Question many should, therefore, ask themselves is what happens next after the stockpile is reduced to ashes and possibly cut off the customary burning year in and out.

Several interventions that should be correctly emphasised on includes

Harsh anti-poaching laws and antagonistic enforcement
Crime will thrive mostly where laws are loose and implementation is not the up-to task. International, ivory trade has been announced illegal but despite this universal declaration, the trade continues to thrive putting into blast the sissy law enforcements especially in Kenya.

Fatefully, Kenya has the toughest anti-poaching legislations that poaching now attracts a Sh.20Million penalty or life incarceration. Despite the stringent legislation, poachers and dealers continue to manoeuvre with the illegal trade. Several investigative reports including the 2013’s of KTN’s Denis Onsarigo,revealed how poachers are known but the larger racket enjoying state protection.

To break these links, honest investigations must be taken up upon and that those convoluted brought to book for the system to be seen as genuine in combating poaching. Failure to attack the matter at its roots will give the proponents a field day with the script that burning of ivory is a mere PR stunt while the real concerns are being swept under feet.

Effective control over movement of ivory
Evidently, Ivory doesn’t have wings that they can fly themselves out of the country to the market destination countries. These tusks are moved and sail through the borders under full authority watch. If we can seal all the loopholes, we can restrict the movement, put up a block around. Scrutinise the freight companies which are said to be proxies used in pushing the tusks out of the country.

Authority officers clearing containers without or knowingly the containers having ivory must be severely punished. This intervention will cut off a movement of the commodity. Cargo verifications were important to stop illegal product flow.

Collaboration with local communities and civic education
It has been found much of the poaching is often done by the locals surrounding the parks or at least they help a lot the poachers to perform their criminal acts, killing and making away with the tusks. Dealers are known to pay the poachers a small amount of money after the kill. Civic education to these community members on the benefits they stand getting on keeping the elephants alive than from the tusks will go a long way in eradicating the menace.

Most of the locals engage in the illegal trade out of ignorance not knowing they stand to get more benefits from tourism remits if the elephants and wildlife are kept alive than when they are killed and tusks sold. Instilling this important vector will give locals sense of ownership and urge to protect the wildlife. This intervention luckily has been in place in some communities and has seen some poachers rehabilitated and now working along game rangers to combat poachers.

If we failed to implicate the proposed and end things with burning ivory, we would have failed. The wildlife, Kenya’s heritage is facing extinction a big blow that would be to our economic health. The sustainable strategy must be put in implemented to ensure the security of animals. Use latest surveillance technologies on animals and weapons to fight off poachers and above all bring to books the known poaching cartel into books.

May 3, 2016
Kenya Is A Cruel Marriage, It’s Time We Talk Divorce

By DAVID NDII

A decade ago, Prof Bethuel Ogot, one of the country’s towering intellectuals, pronounced the “Kenya project” dead. Kenya has never been a more distant idea than it is now at the beginning of the 21st Century. Nationalism is dead, replaced by sub-nationalism. The tribe has eaten the nation. A few years ago, the country exploded into an orgy of political violence.

There may be some people who will be wondering why Prof Ogot is talking about Kenya in terms of projects and ideas. Is Kenya not a concrete reality, an internationally recognised sovereign state?

Although the notion of a nation as an idea is an old one, it is Benedict Anderson’s 1983 book Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism that offered the most cogent articulation of the concept, and in so doing shaped the contemporary study of nationalism.

In essence then, belonging to a nation is simply the sense of connectedness with people one does not know and is unlikely ever to meet. The intellectual problem of the study of nationalism is understanding why and how people develop or fail to develop this belonging. Of note, the fact that this connectedness is not necessarily unproblematic.

Horizontal comradeship

As Anderson puts it: “Regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings.”

The meaning of Prof Ogot’s pronouncement should now be clear. It is a failure of the imagination. The failure to develop and propagate a national narrative alluring enough to nurture a “deep, horizontal comradeship” beyond the tribe. The reasons for the failure of Kenyan nationalism is a subject for historians to ponder. When the history is written, four squandered opportunities will stand out.

The first was a decision by Jomo Kenyatta’s Kanu’s administration after independence that wealth was more important than people. Jomo Kenyatta himself metamorphosed from an erudite fiery nationalist to a parochial acquisitive tribalist.
The second opportunity came in 1992. The transition to multiparty politics afforded the Opposition leaders opportunity to set the country on a different political trajectory. Tribalism got the better of them.

The third one came a decade later in 2003 when the country elected Mwai Kibaki on a platform of inclusive politics. Kibaki tore up the political covenant, tribalised the government and went back to the post-independence doctrine of wealth above all else.

Kibaki’s administration

The fourth is between the enactment of the new Constitution in 2010 and the 2013 General Election. It is a period of contest between the political values espoused in the Constitution — democracy, rule of law, transparency and ethical leadership on the one hand, and tribalism and corruption of the past on the other. Tribalism and corruption triumphed.
We are now hurtling towards another election more ethnically polarised and angry than ever before. Our election arbiters, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the Supreme Court, are corrupted and discredited. As I have observed in this column before, all our multiparty elections with an incumbent president defending have been violent. If Uhuru Kenyatta is declared winner in another sham election, this country will burn.

Where we go, thereafter, is a matter of conjecture. What I do not see is another accept and move on — the tyranny of peace could only have been a one-shot game. Another mediated grand coalition is a remote possibility, but to what end? The last one was predicated on the enactment of a new Constitution — we have it, we don’t respect it.

It is a matter of record that the Coast has harboured separatist aspirations for a long time. The ongoing tribulations of governors Hassan Joho and Amason Kingi are only the latest additions to a long list of indignities visited upon the region and its leaders by the overbearing centre.

Nelson Marwa

In Nelson Marwa, President Kenyatta would seem to have found a commissar in the exact mould of Eliud Mahihu, his father’s nasty overbearing Coast supremo. Ngima yumaga mutu-ini (Ugali comes from flour).

The Coast has all the important building blocks of a successful nation — a common language, a long political history and cultural heritage, a deep sense of a shared identity as “watu wa pwani”, and grievance.

With its 500km coastline, an exclusive maritime economic zone five times its landmass, historical trade and cultural ties with the Arab peninsula and the wider Indian Ocean rim, and millions of people in its landlocked hinterland, the Coast nation will be starting off on a very strong economic footing.

The Somali part of the country never wanted to be part of it in the first place. From the brutal Shifta war, to the Wagalla Massacre to the latest round-up of Somali’s under the so-called Operation Linda Nchi, no part of the country has suffered for Kenyan nationalism like North-Eastern, and the Somali population in general.

And yet, the State continues to treat them as second-class citizens, and some of us now see every Somali as a potential terrorist. What does Somali Kenya have to lose? Nothing. What does it have to gain? Dignity.

The Luo Nation. From Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Ochieng’ Oneko, Tom Mboya, Argwings Kodhek, Robert Ouko and Raila Odinga— no other nation has sacrificed so much for so little in the name of Kenya project.

Discrimination of other tribes

It is perhaps fitting and inevitable that it is a Luo intellectual who pronounced the failure of the project. I think it is about time that the Luo Nation asked itself whether it is not time to cut its losses.

The Mt Kenya Nation. The ten counties that have constituted themselves as Central Kenya (Kiambu, Murang’a, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Embu, Nyandarua, Meru, Tharaka-Nithi, Laikipia and Nakuru) have about the same population (8.5 million) and land area (40,000 sq.km) as Switzerland. Switzerland, despite being landlocked and a non-member of the EU, is the most prosperous country in Europe.

There is an increasingly popular narrative in the region that it contributes a disproportionate share of revenue to the Exchequer and gets much less than its fair share.

It is the narrative underpinning Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria’s “Punda Amechoka” signature initiative. If that be the case, the region, I should say we, have the most to gain economically from autonomy.

The challenge for the Mt Nation is its large diaspora, particularly the land-owning ones in the Rift Valley and at the Coast.

But these are issues that the respective nations would be left to resolve bilaterally. It is not fair that all the nations should be dragged into wars or live under tyranny because of Kikuyu and Kalenjin nations land feuds.

The country still broke up — balkanised to be specific, into six successful ethnic nations (Serbia may yet yield one or two more). They could have broken up peacefully like the Soviet Union.
What are we waiting for, a genocide? Reke tumanwo (We’d better go our separate ways).

[email protected]

PROF DAVID NDII IS AN ECONOMIST AND PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL.

THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED BY THE DAILY NATION

March 26, 2016
Corruption in Kenya… and the president is always watching

The story of corruption in the post independent Kenya is a long one.

Ever since attaining her independence in 1963, Kenya has suffered from widespread corruption not only in the public but in the private sector too. The ominous part of it is that the scandals have in a way or the other touched on the Presidency. This has overtime degenerated into a monster-like culture of impunity where the elite have notably whizzed their way out of obvious corruption allegations scot-free! I look back and here’s what historians have;

Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, the corruption founder and grand land thief

Kenya has many problems but land is capital and has always been the Elephant in the room.

All this land problems in Kenya emanate from one man – Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s 1st President after independence.

See when the white Settlers came came in Kenya, indigenous Africans were displaced and their land converted to large commercial farms. The MAUMAU led pro independence war erupted forcing the Britons to hand over power to Kenyans. Jomo Kenyatta took advantage of the confusion and awarded himself the relinquished land.

Secret papers of the late Sir Michael Blundell, the white settler leader who acted as the liaison between Kenyatta and the British government indicate that Mr. Jomo Kenyatta backstabbed his fellow war comrades and signed secret pact with the British government not to interfere with the skewed land distribution at independence. The narrative is corroborated in the secret notes of Kenya’s second vice-president, the late Joseph Murumbi, deposited at the Kenya National Archives.

The land question haunts the country to this day, an entire generation after Jomo Kenyatta’s death. That was Kenya’s foundation – Land grabbing and corruption.

Moi the Golden-berg Kingpin

In 1978 Daniel Moi took over as Kenya’s second president. During Moi’s reign, corruption was honing. Notable enough was the 1990s Goldenberg scandal and subsequent cover-ups. The Goldenberg scandal is thought to have cost Kenya the equivalent of more than 10% of the country’s annual GDP. Half-hearted inquiries that began following pressure by foreign aid donors but they never amounted to anything substantial during Moi’s presidency.

Kibaki, the man who is thought to have rigged his way to the presidency

Kenya’s third President, Mwai Kibaki, was elected on an anti-corruption platform in 2002. During his two term regime, his regime suffered several corruption scandals, some at the heart of the presidency and earlier than imagined.

We all recall in 2007, when Kibaki was declared a victor in the presidential elections amidst unending allegations of electoral manipulation and bribery involving the election officials. What followed was a historic violent turmoil causing the deaths of more than 1000 people.

I will not go into other scandals that followed suit.

Uhuru Kenyatta – The president who even knows that Kenyans are corrupt

In 2013, another regime change was beckoning and another round of presidential elections were held. This time under a new constitutional dispensation. Relative peace was experienced but again, there were further allegations of vote- rigging. Notable enough are the allegations that the Supreme Court Judges accepted bribes to rule against Uhuru Kenyattas close rival, Raila Odinga in 2013 Presidential Petition.

More than a dozen corruption scandals have dogged Uhuru’s regime. All at the heart of the presidency.

“experienced in stealing and perpetuating other crimes”

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta seems to be fully aware of this shameful and damaging statistics. His recent public rebukes say it all; During an address in Israel while on a state visit, Mr. Kenyatta himself said that Kenyans are “experienced in stealing and perpetuating other crimes” in an address during a state visit to Israel. From the speech in Israel, many argued that the president’s speech was rhetoric, and the comments were seen as an attempt to encourage Kenyans to develop their country like Israel.

In a renewed attack, this time during a burial ceremony of former MP and Assistant Minister George Ndung’u Micigi in Muranga County, Mr. Kenyatta accused Kenyan leaders of going against the wishes of their people.

This are just two instances I have selected indicating that he knows the corruption levels in a country he is leading. The worrying bit is that Mr. Kenyatta is just talking about it hence concerns that even the president is not serious about tackling corruption.

So what can be done?

The president needs to realise that he has been doing a lot of mouth service. His first term is almost over and there is still no effort that convince anyone that he is ready to swipe against corruption!

The president needs to stop talking and instead let the actions speak for themselves. Everybody is tired of the empty talk. Somebody needs to take out the vultures devouring Kenya before it too late.

March 18, 2016
South Africa starts giving oral PrEP to HIV-negative sex workers – Its time Kenya did the same

Early March 2016, South Africa announced leading-edge interventions to address the high HIV infection rates among sex workers. The planned actions included; the provision of immediate antiretroviral treatment to all sex workers with HIV, and also to offer daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to HIV-negative sex workers so as to prevent them from acquiring the infection.

While designing the plan, South Africans encompassed the multi-faceted lives of sex workers tackling not only their health needs but also psycho social support, alcohol and substance abuse treatment, reducing violence and economic empowerment.

Kenya should be noting down the important lessons

Although Kenya has been providing both emergency antiretrovirals and post-exposure prophylaxis (Pep) treatment, which suppress the HIV virus if taken within 72 hours of infection, sex workers are often left out this HIV response due to criminalisation, stigma, discrimination and Violence. But how can pre-exposure prophylaxis be offered to a group the is already existing in Kenya illegally? (Sex work is illegal in Kenya).

1. Curbing stigma

Implementing PrEP will mean that implementing groups such as Ministry of Health first take the service to the sex workers and afterwards encourage the sex workers to seek psycho-social support, alcohol and substance abuse treatment and economic empowerment services offered countrywide.

The combination of HIV-related stigma and stigma associated with sex work prevents sex workers from seeking HIV testing, and sex workers are also less likely to receive treatment.

2. Strategic de-criminalisation of Sex work.

There is strong evidence that criminalisation of sex work (Sex work is illegal in Kenya) encourages behaviour associated with a high risk of HIV infections and other sexually transmitted infection. Additionally, where sex work is criminalised, violence against sex workers is often not reported or monitored, and legal protection is often not offered to victims of such violence. Additionally, health-service providers often neglect their duty to provide care when attending to sex workers.

HIV in Kenya

The first case of HIV in Kenya was detected in 1984 and by 2013, Kenya had the joint fourth-largest HIV epidemic in the world in terms of the number of people living with HIV. Roughly 58,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in the same year.

Multi-level Interventions were launched including the declaration by the then President that HIV was a National Disaster. Remarkable achievements came through but the fact is that HIV remains a major threat to public health not only in Kenya but globally. The latest available data and evidence shows a general decrease in the HIV infections. Additionally, too many people are becoming infected with HIV, too many people do not know that they have HIV, and too many people are dying from AIDS-related causes.

In a report by UNAIDS/Lancet, no African country reports a prevalence of HIV infection of less than 6% among sex workers. In comparison to the rest of the world, the median prevalence of HIV infection in sex workers in sub-Saharan Africa alone is 20·5% as compared with the global median of 3·9%.

Kenya ought to and home from South Africans.

If this is actually implemented fully, the sex workers an important but neglected population that has a very high risk of HIV will be reached. In the case of South Africa, a total of 70000 sex workers will be reached in a three year period.

Who has already applauded South Africas plan

The World Health Organization (WHO) has already welcomed South Africas plan.

“We applaud the South African Government for this bold plan and for offering early testing and treatment and PrEP to sex workers,” said Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of WHO’s HIV/AIDS Department.

“This plan is an important step to scaling up treatment towards ‘treat all’ and to reducing HIV transmission effectively and rapidly.” added Dr Gottfried Hirnschall.

South Africa has the highest number of HIV-positive people in the world, with an estimated 6.3 million people living with HIV. Sex work is estimated to account for as much as 20% of new HIV infections in the country. A recent Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveillance Survey showed extremely high HIV prevalence among sex workers, with as many as 70% of sex workers in Johannesburg living with HIV.

In September 2015, WHO recommended that PrEP be offered as an additional prevention choice for people at substantial risk of HIV. South Africa is recognized as the first country in Africa to translate this recommendation into national policy.

March 18, 2016
The International Women’s Day: Blame game masks gender parity in Kenya
The International Women’s Day was marked on 8^th March 2016 under a global theme that was to push for 50-50 gender parity.

Like the rest of the world, Kenya marked the day set aside to reflect on the gains and challenges that women face. Several events were held by different organisations and persons. Social media was awash with #IWD messages in a myriad of angles. Common to all these events was the fact that Kenya is not yet there and more importantly, we are doing nothing apart from a ping pong like blame game.

The statistics

Lets face it, Kenya is struggling to meet an even smaller quota envisaged under the two-thirds gender rule.

Amongst the “Executive tire” in which there are 57 publicly listed companies with 467 Directors, only 54 Directors are women. Widening the gap even more is the fact that of the 57 firms, 23 have no women Director(s) on their board.

On the political front, where the important decisions are made, Kenya has been an eyesore. The parliamentarian women falls below the constitutionally set threshold – both elected and nominated women in the National Assembly and Senate stands at 19% and 27 % respectively.

In the region, Kenya has been overtaken by “younger states” in the region such as South Sudan and Rwanda who have all achieved gender parity. Currently Rwanda is leading globally with about 64 percent of its members of Parliament being women. South Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda have all achieved the 30 percent threshold. This means that in their Parliaments, the not more than two thirds of the same gender rule is already in effect.

What we are doing – Blaming

So far playing the blame game is what we have been doing. It is also what we seem to plan to do in the near future! It’s literally a blaming contest
1. While commemorating the 2016 IWD at Serena Hotel, Female executives in Kenya hipped the blame on the ‘old-boys syndrome’ Business Daily Africa. These Execs said that the male dominated boards and public entities openly included women as a sign of tokenism totally disregarding laid down criteria of seeking competent women to fill in the positions.
2. You also recall AG Githu Muigai and The Constitution for the Implementation of the Commission (CIC) being stoned and accused of laxity in the drafting of the Third Gender Rule law. See Video.
3. The CIC also blamed and accused the Parliament’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee for usurping its mandate in the implementation of the two- third gender principle. All Africa.
4. Everybody blaming everybody in power for reluctance in implementation of gender equity.
5. Women blamed for waiting to be spoon fed with freebie affirmative action posts as women.
What we can do

The Constitution of Kenya 2010, has domesticated Kenya’s international commitments such as; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, The African Union Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, hence has to uphold these principles and pull up their socks to attain equitable gender representation not only in all spheres.

One way to go about it is to remember that blame game doesn’t count. Nobody has an actual problem with the constitutionally entranced gender balance rule. However, the bone of contention since promulgation of the Constitution is the matrix, logistics and formula in ensuring that each House of Parliament is constituted properly.

The blame is too much. First stop blaming and genuinely work towards the realization of the dream. 50-50 gender parity is the ultimate goal remember.
March 9, 2016
Kenya is too forgetful

Kenya the forgetful nation
There is no honest discussion about the state of things in Kenya today. A country that has not totally healed from 2007/08 post poll chaos has its institutions rotten. Corruption runs deep in every arm of the government, The Executive, The Judiciary and The Legislature. The head of the judiciary, CJ Willy Mutunga is expected to retire in June; The Deputy Chief Justice Kalpana Rawal’s fate hangs in the balance. She is embroiled in a retirement battle with the Judiciary Service Commission. One of the senior judges of the Supreme Court, Justice Philip Tunoi is facing graft allegations. Tunoi is accused of receiving a two million dollar bribe from Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero to rule in his favour in an election petition case that was filed by Kabete Mp, Clifford Ferdinand Waititu.

The allegations against Justice Tunoi stain the entire judiciary. It’s already in the mind of Kenyans that rulings in the Supreme Court, which is the highest court of the land, depend on the depth of an individual’s pocket. People are now calling for the disbandment of the court, Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) that is mandated to fight corruption is a toothless bulldog. Where will the nation turn for arbitration in case of a dispute? That is the million dollar question that everybody is turning a blind eye to.

Kenya with its memory of a mosquito is never proactive. It is still deeply divided along tribal lines, divisions that the politicians use to the best of their advantage. The country is headed to yet another election that will be strongly fought. The opposition have vowed to set up their tallying centre, what will happen in case of conflicting results? They have also vowed not to go to the court again in case the elections are rigged. Kenya has forgotten what happened when it never chose the court way after 2007 disputed election results.

Dr P.L.O Lumumba says that Kenya has always been in a campaign mood since 1992. That is very true and the president’s one month ‘development tour’ of the coast set the pitch to its all time high, eighteen months before the elections. The coming polls are going to be strongly fought and do or die indications are already evident from both sides of the political divides. Deputy President is on record saying that the ruling coalition must win Nairobi gubernatorial seat in the coming polls by hook or crook. These kinds of unpalatable verbal diarrhoea are common with the likes of Moses Kuria and former Nairobi Mayor, George Aladwa. Nothing can be done to them, they have the power and might to delay and deny justice.

The rain is beating this nation hard but it won’t mind when it began, it will only try to unite when it gets stormy. To unite or come to a table for unity talks require facilitators but who will when all the institutions are rotten? ICC was the last fire wall but unfortunately Kenya is the crafter of a proposal that may see Africa’s mass withdrawal from the Rome statute. When the nation was burning after disputed polls in 2007/8 The then AU chairman John Kufour who had come to mediate was treated as a mere tourist who had come to enjoy Kenyan tea, Former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa was turned away. Former UN Secretary General Koffi Annan who brokered the peace was later accused of baby seating the nation.

They say history repeats itself, who will come this time round? Religious leaders especially the church has been turned into political dens at the price of fundraisers. African Union is a busy body, one wonders what their priority is, a union of 54 nations that can’t send troops to Burundi just because Nkurunzinza has threatened to attack AU troops. Burundi has not known peace since May last year when President Pierre Nkurunzinza forced himself into a controversial third term. Hundreds die in that poor nation daily, leaders of the region are doing nothing.

Heads are deeply buried in sands, the electoral body; IEBC (Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission) is too broke to even carry out voter registration, its credibility is questionable with a section calling for its disbandment, the term of its commissioners expires two months after elections institutions should be fixed. Instead, this ‘democratic’ country with slimming media freedom is busy equipping its police with APCs (Armoured Police Cars).

It is preparing to deal with violence rather preventing it. Rogue politicians are on their roof tops shouting hate speech, making two or three court trips and then it is business as usual. Their case files are left catching dust at the court shelves, Kenyans with their roach memory forget and move on. This is that place where politics overshadow everything. A hotbed of a vibrant culture, accused politicians are never brought to book. Their cases are rushed before it tartars their integrity.

March 4, 2016
Taxi Wars

The investors in Kenyan Transport Industry will never allow sanity
There is a business war between traditional taxi drivers in Kenya and Uber. Uber which is a new entrant into the Kenyan market uses a mobile app which allows consumers with smart phones to submit trip request which is then routed to uber drivers who use their own cars. The model makes it possible for people to simply tap their phones and have a cab at their location in the minimum possible time. Founded in 2009 in San Francisco, America, uber is now present in over 58 countries across the world. It has proven to be to be an on demand transportation service which has brought a revolution in taxi industry globally.

In other countries the legality of uber has been challenged by governments and taxi organisations which claim that its use of drivers who are not licensed taxicabs is unsafe and illegal. United Kenya Taxi Organisation through its spokesman Ashford Mwangi accuses uber of driving 15,000 traditional taxi drivers out of the business. They offer cheaper rates, are readily available and common among the youth.

Drivers who asked the government officials to negotiate with them over uber’s entry into the market threatened to hold a mass protest if their call is not heeded. They also threatened to come up with their own version of uber to connect drivers in the country. From where I sit their grievances are more or less baseless. Competition in business should be healthy; you only need to know your competition and their market position. This feud has been characterised by attacks on uber drivers, their vehicles vandalised and ultimatum on government to drive them out of the market. These calls are criminal.

Interior Cabinet Secretary, Joseph Nkaiserry after meeting the drivers last Wednesday directed the ministry’s Principal Secretary, Karanja Kibicho to convene a meeting between the drivers and uber management before the stalemate escalates. He said the issues raised by the groups should be addressed and a lasting solution reached. The ministry had earlier vowed to insulate drivers threatened for embracing technology offered by uber.

The government of the day boasts itself of being digital and responsive to technological innovations. On the same breadth one can only expect a swift application of the law to what only amounts to a criminal case. The long meetings and negations are delaying justice, someone has been attacked and his car has been vandalised, why do you still negotiate with that person. Competition is the nature of any business. Both traditional taxi drivers and uber drivers are legally approved to do the business. “The police have launched investigations into the cause of and nature of attacks and those behind the attacks will face full wrath of the law,” interior ministry’s spokesman Mwenda Njoka said in a statement.

The transport industry in Kenya has for a long time been characterized by lawlessness. It has a poor reputation but the players are not concerned because they are only focussed on profit maximization. Fares rise and fall depending on the time and weather of the day, dangerous driving which poses serious death traps is almost the norm. The matatu section is a sham; Sacco’s have failed a big deal. The industry is still under goons and organised gangs who control routes.

This is due to poor enforcement of law. National Transport and Safety Authority for instance will not crack the whip on PSVs playing loud music; they have instead chosen to let the previous law allowing loud music and graffiti to stay. The famous Michuki laws are now things of the past. This industry will never change; politicians see it as one important voting bloc. Police are the most corrupt and senior policemen, politicians and civil servants are also investors in the industry. As the say goes, you can’t cut the hand that feeds you. These investors cannotq be expected to enforce loss that will drive of the business or deny them votes.

March 4, 2016
Women leadership in Kenyan politics is still void

The present women political representation in Kenya stands at 15 percent against Rwanda’s 56 percent, South Africa’s 42 percent, Tanzania’s 36 percent and Uganda’s 35 percent. This is an increase from 9.8 percent that was in the previous parliament. The increase is greatly attributed to the provision of the current constitution which was inaugurated in August 2010. The constitution recognizes women, youth, persons with disabilities and ethnic minorities as special groups deserving constitutional protection. It also reserved seats for the 47 women representatives.

Despite the affirmative action, women participation in the 2013 polls was low. No woman was elected as senator or governor. Women in National assembly are only has 5.5 percent of the 290 seats and of 1,450 ward representatives only 88 women (6 percent) were elected. This poor performance in politics is blamed on the country’s patriarchal culture and electoral system. Politics requires an enormous outlay of social capital and the process of political capital accumulation tilts in favour of men. This has rendered women sycophants of wealthy male politicians.

Charity Ngilu left a mark when she rose to the top of political heights as the first woman in Kenya to run for presidency in 1997 polls. Running against the then seating President Daniel Moi, Ngilu finished fourth. Former president Mwai Kibaki and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga were also in the race that Moi won. She was a trailblazer in the sub Saharan Africa and the entire continent that is known for its corrupt ‘Big Men’. Ngilu again announced in 2011 that she would run for the country’s top job in 2013 but her name was not the ballot. In what would have been her second stab at the presidency, her ambitions were flashed out in power brokering deals prior to the elections. She supported President Uhuru Kenyatta and later served in his administration as the Cabinet Secretary for Lands but was later kicked out on graft allegations.

There are many women in the current parliament but who stands out? All are sycophants to their political party chiefs. Some were caught up in euphoria and got to parliament like that; example is Nairobi Women representative, Rachel Shebesh who has made headlines not for her good work for the electorate but alleged affair with the Nairobi senator Gideon Mbuvi. Nominated senator Joy Gwendo is another woman leader in the middle of controversies, making headlines for failing alcoblow test and spending a night at Muthaiga police station. She has been at the centre of love a triangle where friends accused her of husband snatching.

The criteria for nominations need to be reviewed, some people get party nominations into parliament not for what they stand for but how close they are with party chiefs. Joy was found guilty of disrespecting the party that nominated her to parliament, The National Alliance (TNA). She was suspended for actively supporting the opposition but that suspension was later lifted after she brought in ‘tribal’ defence. I am a believer that the best losers and people who are positively popular with the electorate should be given the first priority in nominations.

The 2/3 gender debate is still on, women still want more representation but what are they doing with what they have so far? There is intense debate with a million questions surrounding the functions and mandates of women representatives. Many have expressed their dissatisfaction with women reps due to their perceived ineptness and complacency by some. They are more of a waste to taxpayer’s money. They are not any sufficiently eloquent and compelling in articulating the issues that got them the people’s vote. Women reps are Members of Parliament and they primarily should promote the interests of women and girl child within their counties.

The same affirmative action that saw the creation of positions of women representatives also recognises the rights of women as being equal in law to men, entitled to enjoy equal opportunities in political, social and economical spheres. It is the role of women reps to lobby and advocate for the rights, freedoms and interests of the women and girl child who are perceived as a ‘weaker sex’ to lift them to the standard where they should be at par with their male counter parts. We are yet to see a women rep who is actively doing this. Just like majority of their male counter parts, they are busy enriching themselves.

It’s a pity that after over fifty years of self governance we still lack any elected woman leader who stands for something like the late laureate prize winner, Wangari Maathai did. She was a stronger environmental and political activist. In women leadership today only the First Lady Margret Kenyatta is doing a commendable job, her ‘Beyond Zero Campaign’ is touching and changing lives across the nation. It’s improving maternal and child health outcomes in Kenya.

She organises First Lady Marathon annually to raise funds towards ‘Beyond Zero’ initiative. It is also working to accelerate the implementation of national plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children. As we urge for the number to rise from the current 15 percent, the elected women leaders must be seen doing something. Women organizations like Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (Women Development Organisation) should be revamped to champion the rights of women. The organisation is deep in slumber beds.

March 4, 2016
Why the voice of Africa’s informal economy should be heard
The informal economy in Africa is big business. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that its average size as a percentage of gross domestic product in sub-Saharan Africa is 41%. This ranges from under 30% in South Africa to 60% in Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

It is also a huge employer. It represents about three-quarters of non-agricultural employment, and about 72% of total employment in sub-Saharan Africa. About 93% of new jobs created in Africa during that 1990s were in the informal economy.

The International Labour Office defines the informal economy as:

All economic activities by workers or economic units that are – in law or practice – not covered or sufficiently covered by formal arrangements.

Today the informal economy appears to be as important as ever to Africa and its future development. But governments, and international organisations like the World Bank and ILO, do not like the informal economy. As a result international policy has veered from supportive to antagonistic.

At times opposition to the informal economy has been violent. One example is the notorious Operation Murambatsvina (“get rid of trash”) in Zimbabwe in 2005. At best it is directed at pulling the informal economy into the formal economy.

Antagonism is driven by a range of reasons. Informal firms do not pay tax. In addition, reports abound of child labour, low wages (especially for women) and low job security as well as high incidence of HIV.

Yet, as the Swedish International Development Co-operation points out, many governments are unaware of the contribution of the informal economy, particularly the high involvement of women.

The report also suggests that it is expanding and is here to stay. And a World Bank report points to a trend of people with higher levels of education entering the informal sector as a career of choice.

A glimpse of the future

Political economist Fantu Cheru asserts that:

… a closer look at the informal sector in Africa provides a glimpse of what could be achieved if Africa’s economies and financial policies were more attuned to the continent’s everyday realities.

He sees the informal economy as being community-based, representing:

… socio-political entities, with their own rules, forms of organisation and internal hierarchies, constituting a node of resistance and defiance against state domination.

The point is that practices more closely allied with collectivist communities may be far more appropriate than “modern” management methods. These methods are based on Western principles and neoliberal economic policies. They have largely been discredited as inappropriate to African communities.

But the informal economy is largely marginalised. It has a weak voice and is rarely listened to by policymakers in government or in international organisations. When policies are made they affect a large percentage of firms, entrepreneurs, employees and communities. But it is unlikely any have been consulted.

Issues that could be given more prominence in policymaking are access to capital and the provision of relevant training. More important is what the formal economy can learn from the informal economy as a model for economic development.

Indigenous practices in a globalised world

If communities that rely on economic activity in the informal sector are indeed the repositories for indigenous management, entrepreneurial and employment practices it is little wonder they are not listened to.

Indigenous refers to practices, knowledge and values that are related to, and grow out of, local and community circumstances. These often stand in contrast to international or global practices, knowledge and values produced by universities and international corporations.

The dominant discourse is that indigenous practices are outmoded, archaic and out of tune with modernity. Yet seeing indigenous practices and those in the informal economy as frozen in time is a mistake. Even the glib packaging in management consultancy circles of concepts like “ubuntu” presents a glorified perception of indigenous knowledge being static and timeless.

As Cheru has pointed out, the informal sector may represent a resistance, an alternative to the prevailing globalised view.

Even so, it exists in the globalised world. While constantly adapting, sometimes resisting, it is never apart from globalisation. Rather than eschewing modern technology, communications, the internet and social media, Africa has been embracing it. This is happening through:
- better cellular telecommunications;
- access to cheap smartphones; and
- initiatives, not without controversy, such as Facebook’s internet.org, providing free and wider internet access.
Hence, Facebook told us in June 2014 that:

… there are 100 million people coming to Facebook every month across the African continent, with over 80% on mobile.

This includes a majority of people living in the informal economy.

These developments are providing new tools to trade, to market products and to work. They may even be changing the nature of employment. With practices and organisations still rooted in local contexts and communities, identities are changing.

In addition, social media has the potential to change things by providing greater voice and potentially better representation.

Political leaders may have to start listening to entrepreneurs, managers and staff working in the informal economy to formulate more inclusive policies that may prove more relevant to Africa’s development.

By Terence Jackson, Professor of Cross-cultural Management, Middlesex University

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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February 18, 2016