economic boycott
written by Amina , January 20, 2008

First off, let me say that I am terribly disappointed in Bwana Salim Lone. I have always respected him.

Secondly, what is a democracy, when we "punish" someone for supporting another party. So what if Equity Bank funded PNU? Granted PNU rigged and all, but what does that have to do with the legitimate voters that they had?

Is not Equity Bank the best thing that happened to small business owners in Kenya (all over the country)? I think someone wrote about them in these very pages.

...
written by kemi , January 20, 2008

Why didnt ODM mps boycott parliament? Why is it the people who have to do the dirty job for them? Afterall Raila and co can afford going without pay for months. How do people stop going to work when they need to buy food and feed their family? And does ODM realize that by boycotting Brookside Dairy it is the dairy farmers in RV that will suffer? Does ODM realize that it is the average people who will have to pay more for milk as milk supply becomes scarce? And why should ODM ask people to boycott equity bank which lends at low rates when ODM mps took up their parliamentary seats thus guranteeing themselves cheap car and house loans? This is stupid. Indeed the general doesnt fight wars as he said. But this is a more plausible approach than violence.

Equity Bank
written by Amina , January 20, 2008

Found it!! Written by one Peter Ndiangui Equitable Banking

...
written by nelson , January 20, 2008

its okay to think of boycotting busineses..look at kibera for instance, they are desperate for basic food after they burnt their kiosks. now raila is telling them to boycott businesses belonging to kibaki's supporters..how will they know who voted for who? i imagine one goint to a school or hospital or indeed a shop and first asking who the owner voted for before buying or getting services...

Raila\'s big joke
written by Caroline , January 20, 2008

Great work Kenyaimagine.com

As much i sympathize with Raila and ODM, I think an economic boycott will not work and is a big joke - and here is why.

Most of the ODM supporters (the ones rioting and looting) can barely put food on their tables. Why on earth would they sentence themselves to death? For example if i work in Equity Bank as much i 'love' Raila i would note jeopardize my livelihood.

I am encouraged to see that sanity is slowly returning to Kenya. There a few ODM people who have sobered up and realized that they are hurting themselves in the name of fighting for justice. Most people in Kibera, Mathare and Eldoret know that as they fight, their 'leaders' will be expecting their fat cheques by Jan 25. They also know, after the running street battles and riots these same 'leaders' have medical insurance so they can drive to Aga Khan, Mater or Nairobi hospital for a check up incase they sprained a muscle. These same 'leaders' can afford to go for a massage or a spa treatment. The casualties of the riots return to empty shells they call home, have nothing to eat and have to queue at the Red Cross shelters for food.

There are also those who are in the 'Jua Kali' sector. Does it mean they will not do business with other people believed to be pro Kibaki? Raila should think about what he is telling his supporters.

Most middle class and elite ODM supporters are going about their businesses and you cannot see them shouting in the streets. These people are working with other pro Kibaki supporters.

By calling for an economic boycott, Raila is sentencing Kenya to death. Kenyans cannot afford to go on an economic boycott and go back to the dark days when we depended on donor funding. Raila's remarks are outrageous, a big joke and an insult to hard working Kenyans.

If he is so hurt, let him start by example and cancel all his business ties with pro-Kibaki supporters. He should set up a fund where all the 4 million plus voters who voted for him can draw an income at the end of the month since most of us wont be working. While he is at it, he should consider building ODM schools for our children, ODM roads, hospitals, transport facilities, banks, estates etc. This will bring all ODM supporters together and we can live happily ever after - and him as our loving president.

To sum it up, if i was Raila, i would turn to God. Fighting, shouting and complaining will not do anything. If he only humbled himself and learnt to forgive, he will be a happier man. Yes, he lost a great chance to be president of Kenya but that is life.

It is also a painful reality that Raila might never be president of Kenya. For the first time, he had the support of very many people (tribes), 5 years down the line things will change. After what Kenyans have seen and lost, they will not be voting for violent leaders and many perceive ODM as that - violent.

Perhaps Kalonzo was right, a miracle will happen. He might have a great shot at the house on the hill.

...
written by D , January 20, 2008

hmmmmm. An economic boycott. Yeah, I don't think this is realistic. Majority of kenyans are not the type of consumer where you pick.. it is more to what one can afford. For example, let's say a shop where the owner supports Kibaki sells the cheapest form of Unga? Are you telling someone to buy a more expensive one as protest. Whatever.

Also, to be effective, wouldn't this have to involve a large part of the country?

Third, nobody should be punished or targetted for how they voted. The beef is not with the voter. The fight should be with ECK and PNU.


Is this form of protest better than the banned rallies? Well, I did not like the fact that people were losing their lives and getting shot. But this idea is not that great either. Maybe they are waiting for the ban to be lifted then hit the streets again?

And why hasn't this been reported in other news outlets?

...
written by D , January 20, 2008

And Equity Bank? Should people close their accounts? Withdraw all their money?

Also, would such a call mean the aforementioned businesses may be targetted in other ways (e.g. arson, theft, intimidation of employees, etc).

Anything is better than people getting shot but it is just the Kenyan that suffers. What about people who work in these companies? There could be an ODM voter who is a clerk at Equity Bank.

The same way Kenyans are being asked to boycott certain businesses, the same way ODM should give up their salaries in Parliament as protest.. set an example for the people..

Candid
written by Isindu Mwangaza , January 20, 2008

Why didnt ODM mps boycott parliament? Why is it the people who have to do the dirty job for them? Afterall Raila and co can afford going without pay for months. How do people stop going to work when they need to buy food and feed their family? And does ODM realize that by boycotting Brookside Dairy it is the dairy farmers in RV that will suffer? Does ODM realize that it is the average people who will have to pay more for milk as milk supply becomes scarce? And why should ODM ask people to boycott equity bank which lends at low rates when ODM mps took up their parliamentary seats thus guranteeing themselves cheap car and house loans? This is stupid. Indeed the general doesnt fight wars as he said. But this is a more plausible approach than violence.

Candid indeed!

cartoon network
written by Timothy Wainaina , January 20, 2008

Kweli hawa watu wanashangaza ! Now we can also start boycotting Spectre Gas, in fact we can totally kill it by making very cheap gas cylinders.

Raila has survived all his career by beating his opponent into submission, think of the amazing success he has had with the likes of Orengo and Anyang' Nyong'o. Now he wants to try and fight with Equity Bank and City Hoppa and KBS? I suppose he is starting a new transport company? What of Dickson Mbugua and the Nairobi Matatus? No more Capital FM, no more chicken in Nairobi from Muguku Poultry, no more British American Insurance, no more electricity ( cables supplied by East Africa Cables).

Hell, I think Raila's Jesus thing really got to him, the man believes he has powers greater than he really does. What a terrible shame, what a waste.

Now good Kenyans, let us campaign to rid our democracy of Raila and Ruto. To the Hague with both of them.

Very good!
written by Linda , January 20, 2008

I am so proud of what Raila has done. He should've suggested that earlier. I am very optimistic economic boycot will work.

(Call for tribal violence deleted. Ed.)

Raila is a pathological hypocr
written by Baya Kobangoshe , January 20, 2008

Raila is evidently the driver of the violent protests, riots, arson, looting and murders that have been the epiproduct of his supporters have caused through post-poll protests. When he calls for the protests, his supporters respond as directed. When he calls for a hault, they stop without any exception in the violent bases across the country. Kisumu, Eldoret, Migori, Kakamega, Bungoma, Mombasa, Voi, and two places in Nairobi, i.e. Kibera and Mathare slums (Kariobangi to be precise). These protests are not just political but also blended with hooliganism and destruction. They are not even poverty focused at all, but they are very much ethnic specific. You have not heard of a Somali splitting open a Masaai's throat, but there is plenty of Luo boys running and hunting down Kikuyu, Kamba and Kisii communities of any age and chopping their heads with machetes (pangas). They are looting their homes and businesses structures before torching abd walking away. The Kalenjins are specializing in killing the Kikuyu and Kisii communities in the rural Rift Valley, and eldoret is the epicentre of the murders. William Ruto is Raila's point man here, and he commands the Kalenjin youth causing mayhem and anarchy in Eldoret area targeting these communities in a very well organized manner. These crimes are not sporadic at all, and they just do not happen, they are strategically executed with impunity. These crimes are no doubt tentamount to ethnic genocide. The resultant deaths are running into several hundreds, but who cares? ODM leadership has not taken a momment to console the affected families or send help to the displaced, even though they are the responsible of their situation.

The are for sure about one hundred protesters that have been killed by police, many of them died out of their bullet injuries, while a few were victims of normal riot hazards. These victims of police activity were out there in the streets and markets looting and torching homes that belong to Kikuyu, Kamba and Kisii communities. Their crime was simple and precise. They are suspected to have voted for Raila's key rival, President Kibaki. The kikuyu victims of these crimes are paying for no fault of their own making. They only happen to belong to President Kibaki's ethnic grouping. Of course that is the same reasoning that pro Raila followers susbcribe to. They are predominantly luo, and come rain or sun shine, they will be behind Raila, and do what he commands of them, any time. That's why they riots and protest only when he switches then on and stops when he switches them off. This is ethnic based captivity of a community. Unlike the luo, the kikuyu do not get directives from anyone, even though they sort of resonate with their own, and choose to support their own, especially when there is a threat. It is not true that police have been shooting to kill ODM supporters who are in peaceful protest. It is not true that protesting is an absolute right. When police ask people to disperse and the people do not heed to the call, they have no option but disperse the people using reasonable force. It's the reaction of these protesters that translate into riots. When the people choose to throw stones and othere physical objects at the police, the law provides for the police to defend themselves by use for reasonable force. You can imagine what the outcome would be if a police man faced with a mob of 50-100 stone throwing youth, what can he do, to disperse them. That is when he may tear gas the protesters and sometimes when they charge on him, he can use his gun in slef defense. All we know for sure is that no plice nab ever went into people's houses and without any provocation opened fire on them killing them instantly etc. I doubt the claim made by the new MP for Kasarani through Raila that her driver was shot by police as he left his house to go to work. Why only him? There must have been tens of other people going to work and they were never shot. Raila should stop dramatizing sad incidents like that one and many others for his selfish gain and political publicity abroad, where those powerful nations pumping funds to his party seem to know too little about they type of person an chatacter they call their friend. The British have an interest in securing and locking long term business contracts for their products, which President kibaki severed four to five years ago. The Americans have been yarning to take over the Nanyuki military base and President Kibaki's administration has rejected the request in exchange of militay hardware and cash aid. The Germans are behind the EC reactive measure of freezing budget support aid until the tand off between Kibki and Raila on the ground of a disputed election results. EC have had a hand at it as well, and thus was the genesis of ODM protests.

The eminent leaders of Africa that are expected to broker peace between Kibaki and Raila, have a dounting task before them. They will need to understand Raila very well to avoid being fooled for Raila is a pathological lier of out time.

...
written by Amir Ibrahim , January 20, 2008

If I was an ODM conspiracist I would have believed this magazine to be owned by the Spectre Foundation. How did this story break here before any other news service in Kenya? It is only now that Reuters even have it! Hongera, nyie.

...
written by aeichener , January 20, 2008

Hecatombs have been sacrificed to the Messiah from the Lake already.

Some people now question whether he might not rather be Baal.

So, I do not understand why people here complain about the apparent change in ODM's previous strategy of violence. Let them try to boycot; it is certainly a better way.

Alexander

Indeed let there be a boycott!
written by Kaburu , January 20, 2008

Let them go ahead and boycott, those ones that are unwise enough to do so. Their messiah has spoken, and its obvious that they will follow him, including to places like hunger and starvation and joblessness. Places that he will of course not dare to go himself. Thats what generals do, hang around the battle zone while the troops die. Once many of his troops are dead, he calls a retreat. Only this time around, there is no one else to retreat with. The troops will be half dead from hunger and starvation. The general can himself retreat to the safe haven of parliament, a certified job and good money to go with it.
As for the rest of us, we shall all be too happy to frequent the places they are boycotting.

...
written by Kamale , January 20, 2008

If only ODM had thought of this. It is the only way of bringing Kibaki and his cabal to its knees!

Better idea but...anti-kikuyu
written by magothe , January 20, 2008

Its a better idea than deliberately telling rudderless young men to go to kill and be killed.

However, the anti-Kikuyu theme that runs through Odinga's whole campaign from day one, i.e. 2005 referendum, will I hope be condemned by all right thinking Kenyans. Setting Kenyans against Kenyans at whatever level is not the way forward.

...
written by Adrenne , January 20, 2008

They did not boycott parliament because they cld not offer the SN and DSN post on a silver platter to PNU and affiliates, on the one hand.

On the other hand, they - politicians - are a selfish lot who only come together when it suits their best interests... in this case - the fat paychecks we toil hard over to ensure we remit our taxes.

On a more positive note, as an ODM supporter, I have the confidence that if they have good heads on their shoulders, they will control most of government bizness and develop this country - even from the backseat!

true election
written by Stephen Wanyama , January 20, 2008

This is a true test of strength now. If the ODM can pull this off, then even I will admit their primacy.Maybe the ODM people can list for us here the businesses they are planning to boycott?

(A bit of rant editing... Ed.)

Are there any pro-ODM businessmen? I mean even Raila's family was gifted their two businesses by the Head of State. (...)

More likely, the king has had another unfortunate bout of foot and mouth, and Salim Lone happens to be caught in the middle. :-)

If it was tit for tat
written by john mwenda , January 20, 2008

(Deleted. If you want to wage your own tribal war, feel free to take a panga and make it out with Raila, Ruto and their bodyguards, but please not here in KI. Thanks, Ed.)

...
written by Shiroh , January 20, 2008

That's hilarious.

...
written by Millycent , January 20, 2008

1. The elections are over, I lined to vote in the President, the MP and the Councilor, this I did peacefully. Why should I be violent now to put someone on a seat.

2. All the 3 people above are already on Payroll whether there are chaos or not. Why is my tax paying these guys who want me to lose my job (and my head) while running in the streets.

3. Our leaders are refusing to engage in dialogue, yet they want me to run in the streets and loose my daily pay

4. My neighbour, whether from what ethnic background is the brother & sister who we share lives, we celebrate the birth of our children, we brave the chilly nights having matanga when one of us dies, we help one another till our land, we borrow salt and fire from one another...etc,we share practically all aspects of our lives, then a politician who most of us have never seen face to face comes to tell me to take a panga and kill that neighbour, then he retreats to the comfort of his palacial house in the city and leave us for the dead. I will not bend that low!

5. Until our leaders lead by example and show their willingness for a peaceful solution, let them not drag us into chaos and violence which only leaves us the common Mwanachi, in more problems as if they have not created enough problems for us already.

MAY WE DWELL IN UNITY, PEACE & LIBERTY

From pangas to arrows
written by Wuod Aketch , January 21, 2008

The protests started off with stone throwing, then fire was used and matchettes followed. Now we are seeing killings using poisoned arrows i.e the violence is becoming more and more sophisticated. My next bet is that we'll soon start seeing Kalashnikovs.

Kibaki should take the negotiation with the ODM seriously. You can continue cheating yourselves that Raila is the problem. Raila has the mandat of the people, but Kibaki is an impostor. The whole world knows this. If Kibaki was the president he could have ordered Kenyans to return to work tomorrow. But this is impossible, he is as useless as a ... (I am not going to complete the phrase because lest the editor censure it). The house of commons has decided not to refer to Kibaki as president of Kenya.

A human catastrophe is in the making. The whole of Kenya is burning and we have more than 250k refugees without food and shelter.

...
written by Wangari , January 21, 2008

Are u sure? Kamale there bank's e.g Equity it doesn't have Kibaki's money but Kenyan's money that doesn't make any sense how can you boycott your own money, think that's rather stupid if u ask me,as for Brookside we need the proteins don't u think? that is very very impossible, boycotting our own needs.

Rivers of Milk - and Honey
written by Stephen Wanyama , January 21, 2008

There was a time when the British dairy Farmer chose to protest against the supermarkets. They were paying him too little. So they poured all their milk into the rivers. You see we cannot send our money to Brookside, and not to KCC (which we burned), all these evil enterprises the Burning Bush demands we boycott.
The people of Kisumu alas, have not the luxury of protesting at anything, being mostly a nation of consumers and conspicuous consumers at that.

(Oh please, don't invoke Thorstein Veblen for these little tribal jokes which we have so often heard, but which seem a bit stale now, that we must see what effects tribalism can have... Ed.)

Their KIMWA Grand is no more, and many of the supermarkets from which they bought their sukari, and mchele are now ashes and bent metal bars. With the economic times being so rough, they may just be forced to drown their sorrows in something Kuguru (nope that is one of the ones they must boycott), maybe sodas (nope, ICDCI and that impertinent Kirubi), remember he said that it would be stupid not to return Kibaki? Hmmmm, so what to drink? What to eat, no even that ugali flour is unclean, Swan Millers ( Nyachae) , what is this now, even these sweets ( Nyachae again), fuel for our cars, Kenol(Biwott). Cannot watch Citizen TV, cannot eat Kebansora Bread, cannot bank with Equity or Family, no more Kameme, no more, no more.

But the Jim-Jones-Messiah will drop us some manna., maybe.

...
written by Mungai Kamau , January 21, 2008

Raila is definitely running out of fresh ideas on how he can ascend to the seat of presidency.The call for economic sanctions is really shallow. Economics and Politics are two very different fields. He is oblivious to the fact that the new generation is now concerned more about making money than engaging in cheap politics.Kenya has turned into a land of opportunity for those who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get on with the economic activities.patriotism to our mother country is kicking in deeply. Even belief in ourselves as equal to all other races in the world and the shedding off low self esteem as a people due to clonialism is now a thing of the past. If I was to advise Raila he should try and get an image makeover to appear like a prince of peace and posperity and not the a feudal lord or aggressor that he now appears to be. Moreover he should try to speak to the rest 50% percent Kenyans who voted for the other two candidates and ask us what our opinion is regarding the election dispute.It is so demeaning to see members of parliament for ODM looking so intimidated by this one man called Raila.

...
written by Shiroh , January 21, 2008

Could they start moving from the rental houses. That would be the best place to start the boycott.

Kibaki kwisha
written by Wuod Aketch , January 21, 2008

It is time Kibaki stepped. The violence is spreading. Everyday brings its lot of horrors like below:

On the last of three days of protests, police said a man from President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe was shot with an arrow when he ran into a group of Maasai.

Maasai and Kikuyu had been fighting in the Narok area since Thursday with homes and shops burned and at least 23 wounded, the police said.

"The man bumped into a group of armed Maasais who shot him with a poison arrow," Narok area police chief Patrick Wambani told Reuters.

Kenya protest violence spreads to south

true courage
written by Timothy Wainaina , January 21, 2008

True courage is in doing what is right even when the excited rabble want to do something else. The hero of the past three weeks is the little woman in that video above who tells the ODM mob that we want to continue doing our work, we want to put food on our tables, we want to move on, we want none of Raila Ujinga, we want freedom to make our own destiny, leave alone those who are waiting for the government to come and rescue them.

We too have rights!!

Timothy: She was indeed the mythical Wanjiku. Ed.

...
written by a guest , January 21, 2008

These people are not sincere. When they call for mass action it means it should affect other peoples companies while people still work in theirs. True mass action should start with their companies. Why cheat others??? People are still working in their companies, they house helps as well as their gardeners should not go to work. Then that will be true mass action....

No business, we are Kenyan!
written by aeichener , January 21, 2008

Kenya has turned into a land of opportunity for those who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get on with the economic activities.

So where are they? All hiding under stones in the Cherengany Hills? I have never met ideas-filled, creative Kenyan entrepreneurs.

Your typical Kenyan biashara(wo)man rather sits apathetically on a high pile of his or her (metaphorical) goods resp. behind an office desk, stares blankly against the crumbling wall, and waits that a foreign buyer will come and woo and bribe him, so that he will eventually deign to sell something.

That is the typical attitude of Kenyan businesspeople (including many kenyanized Indians): not a gram of customer sense (see Sunny Bindra's new book published at Storymoja!), not a grain of inventiveness.

Trying to do business with Kenyans, regardless of which ethnic group, is an utterly hapless endeavour.

Alexander

keep up
written by Mwathi mugereki , January 21, 2008

Keep up guys for the good work work you are doing.

Enlighten the poor kenyans who follow Raila's words as the gospel truth.He has nothing to loose unlike his sycophants.

Should he call for new protests his followers should tell him to first call his sons and daughters to go on the streets and taste some little teargas.

These guys are only fighting for their own selfish interests.I mean tenancy to the house on the hill

Shame on Leaders
written by Evelyne , January 21, 2008

What has Equity Bank got to do with Kibaki. This is quite clear now that Raila is out to fight one community.Check again the companies that has been mentioned. So he is so jealous of the Kikuyus. Didn't they have the right of voting ? Who is fighting those people who were supporting him?This is clear why he is too bitter about Kibaki winning. So he was out to fight Kikuyus. If he won the elections this means that he could have neglected the regions that didn't vote for him. Let him know that he has lost so many marks now.Does he have any experience of a common man. Let him be advised he should then come up with a bank that will assist the very poor man and a dairy company that will sell milk to the common man at an avoidable price. WAKE UP MAN NOW LOOK FOR OTHER WAYS OF FIGHTING KIBAKI BUT NOT THE WAYS THAT WILL MAKE THE COMMON MAN SUFFER.

...
written by ndela , January 21, 2008

I second you on that @ kemi....if his a peoples president like he says he is,he should ask all the ODMers to quit parliament with no pay instead of taking advantage of poor people of kibera and the slums whom when you look at it are doing his dirty JOB!

Baffling economic agenda
written by observer , January 21, 2008

This is the latest of what has always baffled me about ODM economic theory and planning. I thought perhaps incorrectly, that Mr. Nyongo is the brains behind their economic agenda and polices. What I dont get is that he was trained at the University of Chicago which advocates the economic school of thought that people have rational preferences among outcomes that can be identified and associated with a value and, that individual maximize utility and firms maximize profits.

So why would the ODM come out with this bizarre scorched earth position that can not benefit the people whose political and economic interests they claim to represent. This on the hills of advocating the use the Gross National Happiness instead of the Gross National Product to measure economic success.

ODM boycott
written by Kimani , January 21, 2008

So the wise economists feel that by boycotting the businesses seemingly associated with Kibaki, that the strategy will work to cripple these businesses. How miscalculated because, many ODM supporters are employed by these businesses not on the basis of tribe but merit so how about if these fellows were to lose their jobs? Have we really accomplished anything. These guys need to go back to the drawing table. Companies like Citi Hoppa are not started overnight by inexperienced people lacking resources and entrepreneurial drive......

Equity Bank
written by Wuod Aketch , January 21, 2008

Tribalism deleted. Ed.

I am just remarking that Equity bank is a "Kikuyu" outfit as is shown by the list of the board of directors and Senior Management.

(...)

SUPPORT THE BOYCOTTS!
written by Sijui , January 21, 2008

I fully support the boycotts and as a middle class Kenyan with a lot to loose from the 'mayhem', I FULLY SUPPORT ECONOMIC SABOTAGE.

I find it sickening many of the comments on this thread that talk about the 'poor hurting economically'. Guess what folks, take your head out of your arse and wake up! The status quo is already impoverishment for millions of Kenyans so an economic sabotage will have negligible net effects on already miserable lives!
It is tantamount to telling Kenyans it is better to get f%^&$#@d in the arse by those who wield influence and control over you because hey! at least you get three square meals a day......than to f%^&$ck yourself on your own terms with the goal of wresting that influence and control for yourself! There comes a time when people have to forefeit their own comfort and self preservation IN ORDER to PROTECT and PRESERVE it for the future.

I agree that Kenyans should be discerning whom they target for boycotts, and I leave that up to their common sense and perceptions of whom are 'real' economic parasites and reliant on the status quo. Regardless, for someone who never supported ODM nor thought their political platform was worth more than the piece of paper it was written on.......they have turned out to be THE LESSER EVIL and the least reprehensible!

Chairman
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , January 21, 2008

I'm surprised by the anti-Raila tone in this thread. I know him well -- spoke to him today, in fact. He is not a bloodthristy man, nor even power-hungry, as many here allege. What he's trying to do is pull back from a no-win strategy that was causing a lot of bloodshed to something else. For this, he deserves applause, not condemnation.
--
As we understand (actually we quote your wife Maria's statement, written in the Net), you are an evangelical minister from New York who is Raila's spiritual counsellor, as well as one of his political advisors?
And you have stated that you use some of your income from patents to found Kenyan causes and to help Kenyan people?
And you are the same guy who is mentioned here, right?:
http://www.patenthawk.com/blog...mming.html
and here?
http://www.law.com/jsp/article...6004320259

Nice to see you amount us. Be welcome! :-) Eds.
--
At the same time, pressure must be maintained somehow, or no change will occur. It doesn't really matter if the boycott works or not -- it's a step in the right direction.

At the same time, I'm flabbergasted that posters here take the phony election results as gospel truth. I helped to build the independent ODM computer-based tally center, which received reports from its representatives at the polling places by SMS as they were announced there. The tallies that came to Nairobi were not the same.

The main location for rigging is Eastern Province. Even in the Referendum, which Orange won, about 300,000 phony Yes votes came in from there. That's because they only worked for a few hours to manufacture them, till around 1:00 a.m.

This time, they worked for two days, and manufactured about one milion votes, some of which were given to Kibaki, and others to Kalonzo, pursuant to the pre-election understanding those two had.

Raila won. Kibaki did not. ODM is trying to find some way in which the stolen-election status quo does not persist for the next five years. The Kibaki side is not being helpful. To offer Kalonzo (who I also know well), whose spurious candidacy actually created the opportunity to rig Kibaki in, as a mediator now is, from the ODM point of view, pretty silly.

The same thing happened after the Referendum, when Kibaki appointed Martha Karua as Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister. I know Martha, too, and actually like her (though she can and does lie with a straight face better than anyone else4 I've ever known). But her appointment was calculated to make sure no progress was made on the Constitution, and none was.

Raila is a reasonable man, and likes negotiated solutions. But what is the sound of one hand clapping?

By the way, the Kibaki regime illegally deported me in September. So I'm not in Kenya now, to continue to spend my own money to fund our two NGO's, www.CLIK.org and www.ResourceNetworkInternational. The software development business I had invested in is in deep trouble. I'm one of the best friends Kenya ever had, and still am, though I say it who shouldn't.

In order to get out of this mess, all of us need to get delivered from our stereotypes: 1) the greedy trickster Kikuyus; 2) Raila the revolutionary Luo tribalist. I'm praying for that result from Jerusalem, which is where we ended up after we got kicked out. We have no home in the U.S., where I was born, and as a Jewish Christian, I have Israeli citizenship as well. We decided to stay in Israel to be close to Kenya, and we look forward to coming back.

Peace!, or as we say here, Shalom!

re: re: baffled
written by Nyabs , January 21, 2008

A very interesting change of strategy by ODM and if I may say, a better one than calling people into the streets, where more lives are unnecessarily lost.

I however strongly doubt if it will work for the simple reason that companies owned by Kibaki do not have signposts outside the doors reading " Kibaki and Sons Limited". Even the Delamere company that raised the ire of Kenyans by the killings of a game warden and a trespasser weathered a period of public disapproval and are still in business.


For those who can identify the businesses of Kibaki and his allies and can boycott them, well and good. At least it is a form of protest that will not lead to risk to life and limb.

Am I the only one who thinks that the 3 days of protest were not a resounding success? It is interesting to note that Raila avoided the streets but "encouraging" that Lydia Ntimama was out there in Narok and got a dose of what the ordinary mwananchi gets when protesting for "haki yetu"- a whiff of tear gas and some injuries. Not that I am happy about it but it is heartening to see some tiny display of commitment on the part of Ntimama to the cause.

I leave you all to ponder the following article on the Time Magazine.

Democracy?
written by Maina , January 21, 2008

Targetting of businesses and individuals based on their political affiliation? How and why is it OK to punish anyone for supporting one or the other political party? Unless there is some proof that these businesses were somehow implicated in rigging the elections, this is totally unjustified. Financing a campaign is not a crime. If ODM is publicly stating that it is their policy to punish all that did not support and vote ODM, then that would be an indication that the violence against PNU supporters is sanctioned by ODM leadership.

re: Re: Democracy
written by Maina , January 21, 2008

You know, Maina, you'd have a good point IF:
The boycott call had been against all those who voted for Kibaki in the election.
But it wasn't. It was directed against the businesses of a small clique who perpetrated a massive fraud on the Kenyan people in the recent election.

Really? What part did the businesses play in perpetrating fraud? And does this mean that the owners of these businesses have been PROVEN to have been behind electoral malpractices. If there is evidence that these are the people behind it, then don't they, and the evidence belong in a court of Law? This is a slippery slope- following this logic, or lack off, ODM can name any business, or individual, and turn their mobs on them without providing a shred of proof or justification.

Is this boycott part of the OD
written by JM , January 21, 2008

During the campaign, Odinga came up with several ideas how it would develop Kenya in the first 100 days...well, in the first 20 days, he has ruined Kenya in unimaginable ways.

Sadly, the very people who supported Odinga are the ones who are paying the most.

I am not sparing Kibaki since we all saw how he handled the elections. He should be ashamed of himself.

That said, fellow Kenyans, please reject these violent politicians and let us vote them all out as soon as we can.

re: Re: Democracy
written by Maina , January 21, 2008

...The parallel to the violence is in the systematic targetting of those known, or thought to have supported Kibaki, but who had no role in manipulating election results... That said, at least ODM is now taking a non-violent tack

RE:Chairman
written by Maina , January 21, 2008

Mixing issues, Dr Medina. I'm saying that if the businesses, or the individuals behind them are the guilty parties in election fraud, then the evidence needs to be presented, and be clear before they are condemned, and punished in the court of public opinion.

The election dispute is between two political parties, this dispute should not be extended to private companies who's owners are associated with one or the other political party.

Your (LSK's) proposed solution to the election dispute I actually would agree with in principle.

Dr. Mitch Medina on Dr. Mitch
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , January 21, 2008

Dear Editors,

The articles aren't very flattering, but yeah, I'm the same guy. People don't like to pay money to inventors, even when most of it gets used for charitable purposes in Kenya.

By the way, the following quote from the law.com article has been overtaken by events.

"In August, Pechman dismissed the case on summary judgment, saying that Eon-Net failed to present enough evidence of patent infringement against Flagstar. Then, in October, Pechman granted Flagstar's motion for Rule 11 and ordered Zimmerman and his firm to pay Flagstar's legal fees, which, according to Baily, were more than $100,000. Pechman also required Eon-Net to notify all the other defendants it has accused of infringing its patent of her ruling. So far, of the 32 patent cases Eon-Net has filed, 24 have settled and eight are still pending. JetBlue's lawyers at Kenyon & Kenyon had no comment on Pechman's ruling; other companies that settled before the ruling did not return calls for comment."

Judge Pechman's ruling was overturned on appeal. The case was remanded to Washington. To our enormous surprise, Pechman recused herself, tacitly admitting the bias against us which we pointed out in our appeal brief, and the case is now before another judge. Melissa Bailly, who presents herself as some kind of legal genius in the article (she was its sole source) made serious misrepresentations to the Court about her client Flagstar's activities.

None of this is germane to the discussion about the Kenyan election, except in that it shows I'm pretty familiar with how the legal system works, having hung around the courts for the past 25 years. I've never lost a case, by the way.

For all that, I think that Mother Theresa of Calcutta was far more admirable than I.

...
written by manta ray , January 21, 2008

PNU Supporters should boycott ODM businesses too, starting with those that sell hard drugs.

On a more serious note, Raila should realise that his strategy of targeting Kibaki supporters and their businesses could backfire on him big time. In essence, Raila and his supporters businesses are now fair game. Consider this:

Does Raila not think that his supporters can't have their businesses targetted too? Does he not realise that those in Govt have a much more effective capacity to cripple him and his friends businesses by denial of licenses, permits, making the business environment difficult,etc?

Balala and his family, for example, are tea brokers and exporters in Mombasa, a business controlled by a cartel of Kibaki supporters. What is to stop Kibaki and his friends crippling a family lifeline?

Raila has ex-mercenaries as business partners in the molasses plant. What is to stop the Govt from extraditing these gangsters to places like Angola and Mozambique where they are accused of having committed atrocities in the past?

Some ODM supporters have on going contracts with Govt institutions. What will happen to them?

Raila should be careful what he wishes for, he will surely get it.

Your loss!!!
written by Most Perturbing , January 21, 2008

Dr. Mitch Medina:

(out of line criticism deleted)

Contrary to what you know, there is information that PNU officials were not allowed inside tallying stations in Nyanza and parts of Rift Valley. Therefore the count in Nyanza cannot be considered to be genuine. Further some ECK officials have confirmed that when the halls were closed off for talling, all unused ballot papers were updated with Raila votes in both Nyanza and Rift Valley. There is also record that in Rift Valley some polling stations had incidents were people were told to vote ODM officials or risk death.

If you do have evidence why not take it to court....Don't bury your head in the sand. (...)

If you say he is a reasonable man, why is he allowing the killings in Eldoret. The killings have been mandated through is camp of hooligans. he only goes to the mortuary to count how many luos have died with hundreds of thousands of Kikuyus are being killed in Rift Valley. Let me tell you one thing... not once has he made effort to stop the genocide nor stop the fight.

Again I stand to be corrected Raila is not the people's president!!! But a mere thug hungry for power.

who does Equity Serve?
written by pndiangui , January 21, 2008

Woud
Why not learn a little bit about the history of Equity Bank. From a humble beginning as a farmer's outfit back in 1985. Look at the shareholding structure of Equity and see that it is a bank started by the common man, a fact seen clearly from the services it intended to offer to its ownership structure. Then think of the Molasses plant. This is a company that would have uplifted many of Nyanza's common people if its shareholding was maintained as it was, plus if Raila's family transparently brought in better capitalists than the gun runners running it presently, with sharper expertise in running a Bio-fuels entity. Those very people from Luo-Nyanza community would now be controlling an empire that manufactures bio-fuels for consumption across Africa.
And even selling power to KenGen from franchised Ethanol manufacturing plants across all Sugar manufacturing entities in the country would have been very feasible.
But did any ordinary Luo-Nyanza person who had shares in the Molasses plant question the transfer of its ownership to the Messiah?
Even the recent frontier of the Messiahs investments to get a monoply in fish harvesting through a South African entiry would have gone through unquestioned by the Nyanza people.

That is exactly what makes the difference with community-based ventures like Equity , Family finance, Githunguri Dairies Co-op, Nyeri 4NK SACCO, Nyakinyua Investments etc etc . It is total accountability in the private sector for informed investors , not hypocritical accountability that drives commerce.

Central-Kenyans have gone through political entities that robbed them potential wealth but they seem to be learning. From the likes of land buying enities from white highlands, to farmers coops like KPCU and KCC. But from the success of Equity, Githunguri Dairies, 2 NK Sacco etc etc, I think some leadership is getting better. This is exactly what Luo-Nyanza people should be demanding from their purpoted Messiah to improve their quality of life.

...
written by pndiangui , January 21, 2008

Even the introduction of a competitor to spectre in the Gas business to the comesa region with tax rebates as an initial 'sweetner' would greatly hurt the margins of spectre. Monaco insurance brokers run by hon Ruto, if boycotted by current insurance consumers would be as well hurt. So Lets sober up, on this economic sabotage nonsense.

disgusted
written by observer , January 21, 2008

Jesus, can you people stop and listen to yourselves? Yani, we have now move shamelessly to economic apartheid now. I know Kenyans are notoriously irrational in most matter political but this surely is a new low.

re: Equity Bank
written by Wuod Aketch , January 21, 2008

Tribalism deleted. Ed.

(You still don't get it? Calls for an economic boycot of perceived "politically incorrect" enterprises are okay and licit (whether sensible or feasible, is another question).
But calls for boycot based on ethnic grouping - as you persist - will have no place here on KenyaImagine. Eds.)

I am just remarking that Equity bank is a "Kikuyu" outfit as is shown by the list of the board of directors and Senior Management.

Here is the link to the list (supporting my hypothesis) of the senior management - 99% are kikuyus :

...
written by pndiangui , January 21, 2008

Awoud

Equity was buiding society from Muranga and its first expansion was within central Kenya. The owners have been predominantly from this community until the other day when the got a bank license that expansion is taking it towards other areas. I really dont think that with the current expansion these directors will continue remaining the same albeit the fact that merit comes first.

salim lone boycott
written by joy , January 21, 2008

Can you imagine what would happen if in turn all the PNU and ODM-K friendly companies sacked anybody perceived to be sympathetic to ODM of Raila?

Is this not the majimbo we always said should not be propagated in Kenya?

N'way salim, think always think before you say a thing?

Point out FACTS
written by pndiangui , January 21, 2008

So Woud please point one by one of the flaws in Equity operating practices.
Go ahead and please relate with the prevailing banking laws in the country. So we can move away from perceived bad practices to the real practiced bad practices.

"Legality" in Kenya
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , January 21, 2008

To: Most perturbing

1) (not an issue anymore)

2) I am aware that there are allegations that there was rigging on the ODM side. I was treated to them by officials from the American Embassy with whom I had discussions before the U.S. changed its stance -- not that I was responsible. I am not C.I.A., as has been alleged in the past. I do think I now know who is.

As for the allegations themselves, I was not there. It is possible that they are true. What I know from the ODM tally center is that there was a pattern in both the Referendum and the election of phony pro-Kibaki votes from Eastern Province. In the Referendum, they were about 300,000. In the General Election, there were about 1 million, some allocated to Kibaki, and some to Kalonzo. Unlike the Referendum, the phony votes were enough to change the outcome in the General Election.

3) Raila cannot necessarily control what hooligans do in Eldoret. God Himself can't, or the atrocities would not have happened. As a Ph.D. in Theology, I would remind you that there is such a thing as human free will.

4) So I deserve to be in exile, huh? The Kenyan justice system is not famed for its objectivity, but it wasn't even used in my illegal deportation. Allow me to quote from a contemporaneously-written account of what happened.

"Shortly after the P.C.C., we were scheduled to come to the States for a brief vacation. Originally, it was supposed to include the Labor Day School [a Morris Cerullo event -- Morris was my main spiritual mentor -- but I'm no longer actively involved in his minstry], but because of Government interference, the P.C.C. ended up occurring at the same time. We also came to spend time on the houseboat on Lake Powell in Utah where I own a timeshare.

Anyway, as we passed Passport Check on the way out of Kenya, I found out that I (but not Maria) was on some kind of list of undesirables. I was pulled out of line, taken to the office of the Assistant Principal Immigration Officer and detained.

I repeatedly asked why I was being held, and as many times as I asked, the response was "You will be told," which I never was. Of course, the officers conducted all of their conversations in Swahili, which I still do not really understand. But, as is typical in Kenya, English words were mixed in, and I do have a limited Swahili vocabulary. As best as I can piece together, the Officers were of the opinion that I am from the C.I.A. (the more I deny this rumor, which has been around for a long time, the more it is believed).

It appears that a deportation order for me had already been prepared somewhere. However, the fax machine at the airport was broken, so I could not be served with it. [Subsequently, we found out from connections still in Kenya that it was written up in JUNE, but not served because they could not come up with a criminal or civil charge to fill in the appropriate blank.]

Fortunately, with the incompetence that characterizes the current Government, neither Maria's nor my cell phones were confiscated. When we loudly began to call the American Embassy and every Opposition official and lawyer we knew, the people who were holding us got scared and began to hold private conferences out of our earshot.

In the end, since we were leaving the country anyway, they decided to let us board the plane (some minutes after it was supposed to have departed) and fly away.

But the Officers made marks in my passport, which we were able to establish (through my Personal Assistant, after we were gone) that will prevent me from re-entering Kenya."

*******

Does this sound like due process of law to you? Is it any wonder that ODM doesn't want to commit its future and that of the nation to the Kenyan courts, which couldn't even manage to convict Kamlesh Pattni of anything in a dozen years?

Poltical problems should be solved politically. The election was certainly flawed, possibly on both sides. Therefore, there should be a new election, preferably under a new constitution, but certainly with a reconstituted E.C.K.

For a look at a new Constitutional Draft that was prepared by Civil Society (NOT ODM!) to make the minimum number of changes to take into account all of the post-Bomas debate on the Constitution. As President Kibaki said, don't criticize it until you've read it!

www.Kenya-Constitution.com

be not debile
written by Tim Norwood , January 21, 2008

Ms. Scientist,
You attempt to flee the nest but have not yet learned to fly.

(No insults please. We saw nice wing movements in the air. Ed.)

First of all, please explain what you mean when you say Kalonzo has no spine. Sounds like something straight out of the same old Kenyan cookbook of failure.

As Alexander opines, people like you are asking for a tyrant. Anyone who can even consider Raila Odinga to be anything but a danger to Kenya is a slave seeking a tyrant. Now this may seem like a harsh thing to say, but the man has never in his life stood for anything but himself. It is easy to skirt around the issue and say, oh, all our politicians are bad, we all know that. I suppose Alexander's point is that Raila is especially bad, a leader unto darkness and nothingness.

Kibaki may be indolent, he may be forgetful and so on, but he certainly does not have Raila's bloodthirsty ways. Only two Kenyan politicians could describe the mayhem in the country as reminiscent of clashes between Manchester United and Chelsea fans, only one Kenyan politician could say that it is not his duty to anaesthetize the people against rape, only one Kenyan politician is a scion of a family that has been gifted public property and yet excoriates others who have enjoyed the very same ill-gotten wealth, only one Kenyan politician can turn Muslims against their fellow Kenyans, and only one politician can run a three year campaign of hate against an ethnic community. He is still doing it by the looks of things,

As has been said on another thread, Raila is a special case of tyrant. And for you to put him in the same class as Kibaki, or Kalonzo shows that you are indeed one of those lost souls clinging on to him for salvation.

(Tim, please. Neither Kibaki nor Kalonzo are saints, and while Politicalscientist did assign all of them into the same Linnan political class (Gyps vulgaris), she did not sanctify Raila. Ed.)

tolle lege
written by Tim Norwood , January 21, 2008

I wonder who wields the editorial whip today, it does come on my old back a little hard,

(I was using a mild flogger, not the bullwhip (which latter, in order to hit precisely, needs far more practice and training than one regularly gets as editor here... a friend of mine used to practise in an empty parking deck, but was embarrassed to find out that she had overlooked the CCTV cameras :-D).
Seriously, we welcome direct argument and open dispute very much here, I was just pulling the reins a bit as to avoid an ad hominem (seu ad feminam) shift. Ed.)

Still, Ms Scientist is shifting, shifting. Kalonzo has distinguished himself by not involving himself in the eating feast of Kenyan politics. I still insist that to place him at the same level as the likes of Kibaki and Raila who are proper billionaire robber barons is unfair and prejudiced. Worst of all, to call him a coward when he is the only man in Kenya who has stood up to both the tyrant Moi and the tyrant Raila is downright dishonest.

There are many things the Mwingi MP is, a little smarter than Raila, a religious nut, an arrogant t**t, but he is not a coward, and to call him that does mark you out at least as an abashed acolyte of the temple of doom. Only those who have followed Raila and kissed his feet would make that statement.
-----------
Now in general, I do not take kindly to people who use words like change. I see such words as inanities muttered and shouted out more for effect than for meaning. They certainly have no place in intellectually discourse. Notice even Hillary Clinton is running on a change agenda( all those ODM tell-tale signs).

Now as to HIV and AIDS, this is the change we have seen these past five years.

Malaria? Again these past five years. Change, comes in mysterious ways.

P.S. I admit that many of us here subscribe to a rather extreme form of democracy, one predicated not on votes and such, but on delivery of substance. I suppose we are in the minority, but we recognise that in a country like Kenya, people's brains are never switched on at polling stations, if ever. Would it not be nice if only those with property and 360k a year could vote? Would that not be true democracy, rather than the rule of the mob?
Seriously, how did Raila bewitch so many people?

P.S. who are these excluded for the language they speak at home? What are they excluded from? Much of the ODM talk is campaign talk, it served its purpose then, but it really has little relation to reality.

ODM PROTESTS BACK ON
written by jacob , January 21, 2008

These guys are not very bright. Now they say the protests will resume next week thursday. I knew Raila did not have it in him to put the people's safety and needs before his own selfishness.

The geo-political context of w
written by interested spectator , January 21, 2008

Color Revolutions, Geopolitics and the Baku Pipeline
http://www.globalresearch.ca/i...cleId=518

A geopolitical pattern has become clear over the past months. One-by-one, with documented overt and covert Washington backing and financing, new US-friendly regimes have been put in place in former Soviet states which are in a strategic relation to possible pipeline routes from the Caspian Sea.

Ukraine is now more or less in the hands of a Washington-backed "democratic" regime under Viktor Yushchenko and his billionaire Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, known in Ukraine as the "gas princess" for the fortune she made as a government official, allegedly through her dubious dealings earlier with Ukraine Energy Minister Pavlo Lazarenko and Gazprom. [sounds like Railia and the Libians ... must be something to do with the colour orange]

The Yushchenko government's domestic credibility is reportedly beginning to fade as Ukrainian Orange Revolution euphoria gives way to economic realities.

The Orange Revolution, at least from the side of its US sponsors, had little to do with real democracy and far more
with military and oil geopolitics.

-----------------

Kibaki (and Moi to some extent) by and large kicked the IMF and World Bank out of Kenya and they want back in. Also Kibaki is aligned with the Chinese NOT the US.

Kenya is simply a new proxy front in the global economic war between the Chinese (Kibaki) & the US/EU/UK (Raila).

And the battle is MUCH more than just about resources and debt now ... it's also about control over food supplies and the Terminator Seed. Once it's in Kenya it will be easier to push across sub-saharan Africa as it's will be in South Africa soon ... read the following:

-----------------

Monsanto Buys

The geo-political context
written by interested spectator , January 21, 2008

Color Revolutions, Geopolitics and the Baku Pipeline

A geopolitical pattern has become clear over the past months. One-by-one, with documented overt and covert Washington backing and financing, new US-friendly regimes have been put in place in former Soviet states which are in a strategic relation to possible pipeline routes from the Caspian Sea.

Ukraine is now more or less in the hands of a Washington-backed "democratic" regime under Viktor Yushchenko and his billionaire Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, known in Ukraine as the "gas princess" for the fortune she made as a government official, allegedly through her dubious dealings earlier with Ukraine Energy Minister Pavlo Lazarenko and Gazprom. [sounds like Railia and the Libians ... must be something to do with the colour orange]

The Yushchenko government's domestic credibility is reportedly beginning to fade as Ukrainian Orange Revolution euphoria gives way to economic realities.

The Orange Revolution, at least from the side of its US sponsors, had little to do with real democracy and far more
with military and oil geopolitics.

-----------------

Kibaki (and Moi to some extent) by and large kicked the IMF and World Bank out and they want back in. Also Kibaki is aligned with the Chinese NOT the US.

Kenya is simply a new proxy front in the global economic war between the Chinese (Kibaki) & the US/EU/UK (Raila).

And the battle is MUCH more than just about resources and debt now ... it's also about control over food supplies and the Terminator Seed. Once it's in Kenya it will be easier to push across sub-saharan Africa as it's will be in South Africa soon ... read the following:

-----------------

Monsanto Buys 'Terminator' Seeds Company
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3082

The United States Government has been financing research on a genetic engineering technology which, when commercialized, will give its owners the power to control the food seed of entire nations or regions. The Government has been working quietly on this technology since 1983. Now, the little-known company that has been working in this genetic research with the Government's US Department of Agriculture-- Delta & Pine Land-- is about to become part of the world's largest supplier of patented genetically-modified seeds (GMO), Monsanto Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri.

There has been much hue and cry, correctly so, that this process, patented 'suicide' seeds, officially termed GURTs (Genetic Use Restriction Technologies), is a threat to poor farmers in developing countries like India or Brazil ... OR AFRICA ... , who traditionally save their own seeds for the next planting. In fact, GURTs, more popularly referred to as Terminator seeds for the brutal manner in which they kill off plant reproduction possibilities, is a threat to the food security as well of North America, Western Europe, Japan and anywhere Monsanto and its elite cartel of GMO agribusiness partners enters a market.

Terminator is the answer to the agribusiness dream of controlling world food production. No longer would they need to hire expensive detectives to spy on whether farmers were re-using Monsanto or other GMO patented seed. Terminator corn or soybeans or cotton seeds could be genetically modified to 'commit suicide' after one harvest season. That would automatically prevent farmers from saving and re-using the seed for the next harvest.

With Terminator patent rights, once a country such as Argentina or Brazil or Iraq or the USA or Canada opened its doors to the spread of GMO patented seeds among its farmers, their food security would be potentially hostage to a private multinational company, a company which, for whatever reasons, especially given its intimate ties to the US Government, might decide to use 'food as a weapon' to compel a US-friendly policy from that country or group of countries.

Sound far-fetched? Go back to what then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger did in countries like Allende's Chile to force a regime change to a 'US-friendly' Pinochet dictatorship by withholding USAID and private food exports to Chile. Kissinger dubbed it 'food as a weapon.' Terminator is merely the logical next step in food weapon technology.

The role of the US Government in backing and financing Delta & Pine Land's decades of Terminator research is even more revealing. As Kissinger said back in the 1970's, 'Control the oil and you can control entire Continents. Control food and you control people.'

-----------------

Displacing farmers: India Will Have 400 million Agricultural Refugees
Neoliberal Reforms Wreak Havoc
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6127

"[The] Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is an idea whose time has come," the Prime Minister said. Although supported by all political parties and characterized as an "official nationwide campaign to displace farmers", what is less known is the policy follows the prescription laid out by the World Bank as far back as 1995.

Dr. Ismail Serageldin, a former vice-president of the World Bank, forewarned of this and cited a World Bank report that estimated that some 400 million people will move from the rural to urban centres by 2015 -- agricultural refugees.

Already in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and even in the frontline agricultural state of Punjab, thousands of farmers have committed suicides -- reeling under mounting debt. Tens of thousands have been selling body organs, and the majority of those who survived the ordeal migrated to the urban centres.

--- and coming soon to an African counry near you

-----------------

"Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic
Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don't
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7529

"Seeds of Destruction, The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation" -- Part 1
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7716

"Seeds of Destruction, The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation" -- Part 2
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7735

-----------------

Markets=Famine
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=3883

... most countries in Europe and North America have supply management systems and plan for food security. Many African nations are under immense pressure to follow food policies that NO industrialized country follows.

In 1800 India's share of the world.s manufactured product was four times that of Britain. By 1900 India was almost totally under British control and the ration was 8-1 in England's favor. Moreover, according to a British statistician, who analyzed Indian food security measures in the two millennia prior to 1800, there was one major famine a century in India. Under British rule there was one every four years.

--- in the 80s and 90s the same thing happens via IMF and World Bank "structural reforms".

--- in the future it will happen via GMO foods.

-----------------

The Business of Hunger
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=8168

-----------------

African Debt, War and Imperialism are Linked -- Poverty in Africa: the Real Story


Africa received a total of $540 billion in loans, paid back $550 billion, and still retained a debt of $295 billion between 1970 and 2002.

-----------------

" ... the CIA had been running thousands of operations over the years... there have been about 3,000 major covert operations and over 10,000 minor operations... all designed to disrupt, destabilize, or modify the activities of other countries... they are all illegal and they all disrupt the normal functioning, often the democratic functioning, of other societies."

"... the CIA has overthrown functioning democracies in over 20 countries."

"... stirring up deadly ethnic and racial strife has been a standard technique."

" ... the United States [is] cast in the role of Praetorian Guard, protecting the interests of the global financial order ... "

-- John Stockwell, former CIA official, author of "In Search of Enemies" and "The Praetorian Guard"

-----------------

Blood Money Out Of Africa ... Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/politics/blood_sparkle.html

"Much of what you will hear today has not been widely reported in the public media. Powerful forces have fought to suppress these stories from entering the public domain.

"The West, and most notably the United States, has set in motion a policy of oppression, destabilization and tempered, not by moral principle, but by a ruthless desire to enrich itself on Africa's fabulous wealth. Western countries have incited rebellion against stable African governments by encouraging and even arming opposition parties and rebel groups to begin armed insurrection."

-----------------

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251

"My (John Perkins) real job was deal-making. It was giving loans to other countries, huge loans, much bigger than they could possibly repay. One of the conditions of the loan, [is] this country would have to give 90% of that loan back to a U.S. company to build the infrastructure.

"The poor people in those countries would be stuck ultimately with this amazing debt that they couldn't possibly repay. A country today like Ecuador owes over fifty percent of its national budget just to pay down its debt. So we make this big loan, most of it comes back to the United States, the country is left with the debt plus lots of interest, and they basically become our servants, our slaves."

"When [we] economic hit men fail in this scenario, the next step is what we call the jackals. Jackals are CIA sanctioned people that come in and try to foment a coup or revolution. If that doesn't work, they perform assassinations, or try to. If the economic hit men and the jackals fail, the next line of defence is [send in the army]."

How closely did you work with the World Bank?"Very, very closely with the World Bank. The World Bank provides most of the money that's used by economic hit men, it and the IMF."

-----------------

Darfurism, Uganda and the U.S. War in Africa
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7311

President Bush met with Uganda's President-for-life Yoweri Museveni in the White House on October 30, 2007. Meanwhile, a broad swath of Africa is engulfed in interrelated genocides and covert operations involving both the U.S. and Uganda, ...

Is Kenya at war? Sure looks like it. [Note that this was written on NOVEMBER 11 -- 2 months before the election crisis!!] Unreported anywhere are the massive petroleum concessions and exploration projects in Kenya.s remote Samburu and Turkana districts. (For $5000 apiece you can purchase reports like Petroleum Potential of Lake Turkana Area from international oil and gas consultants.) G.H.W. Bush's old Swedish pal Adolph Lundin and Lundin Petroleum signed an exploration contract for the Turkana region in June 2007.

-----------------

For more see www.globalresearch.ca Sub-Saharan Africa article archive ...

re: hello
written by Wuod Aketch , January 21, 2008

Are you so enamoured with Raila that you are celebrating destruction and vandalism just to get him in office? Everything is excusable, huh?

So here goes then? What should the authorities do but put animals like you down? You are actually celebrating the destruction of relief food? The destruction of the railway?

Animals like me? Yeah, we the down trodden people of Kenya are animals. We are trying to stone the thief at state house with long-range slings. Remember the David Vs Goliath story?

The European Union's Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, Louis Michel, met with Kibaki and asked him whether he realized that the situation was getting out of hand. Kibaki replied that he did.


There is no doubt, Kibaki stole the elections (The US, French, British, Tanzanians .. say so) read below:

The U.S. ambassador, citing many factors and underlying grievances,˻ compared Kenya's violence to the 1968 race riots in the United States.
At a town hall meeting Friday for Americans in Nairobi, Ambassador Michael Ranneberger said there was a lot of cheating on both sides˻ in Dec. 27 elections that pitted President Mwai Kibaki against opposition leader Raila Odinga.
The U.S. maintains there were allegations of rigging on both sides which were not properly investigated, and Ranneberger said either Odinga or Kibaki could have won by 120,000 votes because it was a close election and both sides are alleged to have rigged the election. But David Throup, an associate of the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a public conference call with Ranneberger, that Odinga won by 120,000 votes.

Beware ... Kofi is selling out
written by interested spectator , January 21, 2008

Ah yes, so nice of Kofi to want to come for coffee ... however beware ...

Kofi Anan has a second agenda -- he's coming to discuss GMO foods with Kibaki ... the quid-pro-quo that will be extracted from Kibaki for him to stay.

A key excerpt from the article mentioned above ...

"Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic

The Paragons of Truth have spo
written by interested spectator , January 21, 2008

There is no doubt, Kibaki stole the elections (The US, French, British, Tanzanians .. say so)

Ah yes, the paragons of truth. Of course they have spoken and the world must bow down in reverence and awe.

Why on earth would we believe the US or British, or the EU for that matter???

They are individually and collectively responsible for tens of millions of deaths around the world ... remember the "truth" they told us about Iraq??

They are the biggest liars on the planet when it comes to every other country but now you want to belive them??

Do you really think the US, EU, UK etc care 2 bits about some tiny 3rd world country's election so much they would station their top Africa person (Jendai Fraser) here indefinetly just because they care about democracy?? You over estimate your importance if you believe that.

I suggest you read some of the above articles to understand the bigger geopolitical picture of the situation vis a vis Kenya.

The U.S. maintains there were allegations of rigging on both sides which were not properly investigated, and Ranneberger said either Odinga or Kibaki could have won by 120,000 votes because it was a close election and both sides are alleged to have rigged the election. But David Throup, an associate of the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a public conference call with Ranneberger, that Odinga won by 120,000 votes.

So if the rigging claims were never "properly investigated" how do we know it was Odinga by 120,000 and not Kibaki by 200,000 once Odinga's rigging is ALSO removed? The US must be clairvoyant as they can tell the truth without investigating it -- amazing. And of course the US never spins the facts or lies, right?


Let us see what the EU said about this, but is NEVER mentioned in the media:

Business Daily, Januaruy 11, 2008 ...
World Bank boss under fire

While the memo is not the Banks position, "it put facts on the table that were not being reported -- namely, that there were irregularities on both sides," said Mr Bruce.

"The full text of the European Union (EU) Observation Mission report contains such facts but its press release did not. ... Similar facts about problems on both sides are contained in other reports like that of the Kenya Elections Domestic Observation Forum.

Nation, Jan 7, 2008 ...
Foreign media's harsh verdict of disputed election

EU ... "Mr Odinga' s supporters were not innocent either. There were serious irregularities in his home province of Nyanza and probably ballot stuffing on his behalf elsewhere."


Oh, so the EU knows Raila's people were ballot box stuffing. Well nice of them to forget to tell us all ... must have slipped their mind ... and then slipped their mind every other day since they announced.


And whats with this "PROBABLY" business??? PROBABLY??? I guess the weren't watching Odinga too carefuly, huh? Well they did admit they were not in every polling station and some had no observers in Nyanza -- but Raila is a true boy scout and would never take advantage of such a situation, right?

...
written by dalani , January 21, 2008

Western countries have incited rebellion against stable African governments by encouraging and even arming opposition parties and rebel groups to begin armed insurrection."

that might explain why ODM turned down an offer to form a coalition government..because ODM highest rankings may hypothetically be in the employ of foreign interests who see dissent and chaos as favorable to their own interests.

if so lets hope wisdom will prevail
There is a way out of that trap..Kibaki could order his police not to use force against any protests and see redemption by publicly calling for a coalition..
(...)
there is a goverment and administration of public good to consider.. regardless of whos' in government, schools need repairs, home rebuilt etc..

re: No business, we are Kenyan
written by dalani , January 21, 2008

Your typical Kenyan biashara(wo)man rather sits apathetically on a high pile of his or her (metaphorical) goods resp. behind an office desk, stares blankly against the crumbling wall, and waits that a foreign buyer will come and woo and bribe him, so that he will eventually deign to sell something.
.......
Trying to do business with Kenyans, regardless of which ethnic group, is an utterly hapless endeavour.

Alexander you are being sarcastic right? In case you are not, let me remind of Alfonce, and countless jua kali geniuses who can oput University graduated engineers to shame with the sheer inventiveness How many MIT engineers can fix a broken car axle in the bush with nothing more than sticks and scrap metal???

I think you were referring to a few fools who have been conned by greed and surrendered their brains in some pipe dream of bribery and see democracy as some lottery...

Economic boycott is better tha
written by cogni , January 21, 2008

ODM's idea of boycotting businesses owned by Kibaki supporters may not be the brightest but it is better than their first idea which involved ethnic violence aimed at Kikuyus and other tribes "guilty" of supporting Kibaki.

The plan appears to be well underway, a journalist travelling through luo Nyanza reported that matatus and other transport vehicles operating in the region must be decorated with Raila campaign posters in order to pass through illegal roadblocks mounted by odm supporters.

Soon all buisnesses in the region will have to pledge allegiance to Raila and display his pictures in order to operate. This seems to be the thrust of odm's to shift its tribalism campaign into the business arena.

As a plan I think the economic boycott will fail for the simple reason that the country is evenly divided. City Hoppa will find plenty of riders, equity will not be lacking for customers and neither will brookside. Those who will suffer will be odm supporters who must seek alternative transport, banking and milk suppliers.

ODM rigged more than you know
written by kobangoshe , January 21, 2008

Odm pushes forward restriction of kenyan politicians to travel. London, saturday 19th january, 2008.

There was a 'big debate' on kenya entitled important update: kenya's crisis on wednesday 16th january 2008 at portcullis house, next to the house of commons london organised jointly by royal african society, chaired by hugh bayley mp, chairman of african parliamentary group and bbc�s solomon mugera. The meeting generated great interest from europeans who conduct business in east africa and use kenya as their hub. Among these individuals were members of odm and one or two pnu members.

The meeting was also attended by long time friend of raila, lord steel of liberal democratic party. An odm representative from kenya miss gladwell otieno daughter of the late sm otieno and the famous wambui otieno asked the uk government to freeze the kenya government bank accounts, to freeze aid to kenya, to deport back government officials' families back to kenya as well as refuse them visas to come to the uk in order to force president kibaki to step down for raila and an election re-run.

The drama took a different turn at the end when iron lady mrs. Mark mabel voiced her opinion and explained to the shocked members that both sides rigged but odm rigged more than the government. She stated that odm was more organised in their rigging while in the government's side it was isolated cases by individuals who were acting on their own initiative without the knowledge of the government. Mrs mark told the house that they needed to be careful and sensitive on these delicate issues.

At this stage, one observer from the uk stood up and said that he was an observer in various places but he did not witness any rigging by the government. Another observer said he respected both raila and kibaki but he felt that kibaki had done credible job for kenya and should be allowed to continue to take kenya to another level. Another speaker said he loved kenya and he will retire there. After the meeting the listeners having heard both sides were contended that this matter should be left to kenyans to sort it out for themselves for the best possible outcome.

(full story and the actual quotes coming soon).

how come the western media only report of kenyan police brutality and they never report hundreds of common people dieing in rift valley - is this a fair reporting?

Ruto, Kosgey, wake up!!!
written by Tiri , January 21, 2008

(...) Stupid, dangerous demonstrations and now business boycotting? Who is to boycott who? I thought your lot was the downtrodden, poor, unemployed slum dwellers? Who are they going to hurt with their boycott?
(...)
Probably you should have your man Raila accept the deal Kibaki is offering him before Kibaki changes his mind.
(...)

(Edited.)

Lest we forget
written by Miharati , January 21, 2008

As the media focuses on sound bites and sounds of live gunfire, lets not forget the victims that have lost everything including hope.

As we condemn the police violence, the victims who never raised an arm in protest and were going on with their normal lives are now destitute. Let is not forget these victims. Here is a video of them.
Check

PS: I had posted this somewhere else but thought it would offer some perspective as we proceed with this discussion

...
written by a guest , January 21, 2008

Equity is listed at the Nairobi Stock Exchange and there is no way the personal actions of its CEO or Chairman in his private capacity should be misconstrued to be those official actions of the bank. Similarly Equity shareholders include international investors, ODM. PNU, ODM-K members etc etc...Finally Raila is cited in sections of the press as having praised Equity Bank...

"Equity Bank is everywhere helping the poor in the process of economic empowerment," Mr Odinga had been quoted as saying.

"It is foolhardy to tie it to an individual when we know shareholders include international bodies and countries like the United States."

http://allafrica.com/stories/200801200022.html

The Financial Times has already picked up the story and ODM is likely to shoot itself in the foot as a result of this ill advised statements by Salim Lone. Anyone in doubt of George Soro's power should research his role in the Asian financial crisis. Only this time around its not a government that is messing with his investments but a party by the name of ODM. Already the Republicans are onto Obama for his links to Raila with anti-Obama articles doing the rounds.
What follows next is anyones guess but I doubt Dick Morris will be able to help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...ial_crisis

Equity Bank is listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and Helios's investment in the group includes funds managed on behalf of Soros Fund Management, George Soros's hedge fund company, and CDC, an emerging markets investor owned by the UK government. Helios yesterday declined to comment.

Mr Mwangi said the bank's customers and retail shareholders represented a cross-section of Kenyan society. He pointed out that Equity's main investors were now foreigners and asked: "Which tribe are they?"

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0ff2...fd2ac.html

How rich is Raila
written by interested spectator , January 21, 2008

Ah yes the "People's President" -- you fight, while I look after biz.

The sudden ostentatious display of wealth by Raila Odinga has left many baffled. Unbeknown to the public, Raila is a fabulously wealthy man with a personal fortune estimated to be in excess of Kshs. 4 billion. Read how the man who wants to be Kenya's next president acquired his wealth which includes investments in the lucrative petroleum industry and in manufacturing.

How Raila acquired his billions.

Raila Odinga's big break came in 2001 soon after he led his party, NDP, into a merger with Kanu, the then ruling party. As Energy Minister in Moi's government he was introduced to the family of Sheikh Abdukeder AlBakari, one of the richest families in Saudi Arabia with interests in petroleum drilling, petroleum exploration and export in the Middle East, Asia, USA and Africa.

Through the Saudi contacts, Raila was initiated into the lucrative world of oil business and soon enough he had joined the league of gig independent oil importers via his firm Pan African Petroleum Limited.

Industry sources say that one of the things that helped Raila make a quick buck in the oil business was a concessionary petroleum deal he struck with the Al Bakri Group where he was not only incorporated as a silent partner in the local arm of Al Bakri International but was also supplied with petroleum products from Saudi Arabia at subsidized prices which his firm would sell in the market at normal prices. That way, Raila was able to deftly beat the competition in oil business by occasional price undercutting.

While still Energy Minister, Raila re-established and nurtured his links with the Libyan government of Colonel Muammar Gadaffi where again he not only did good business in oil importation but also got substantial material support during the 2002 general elections.

Besides supporting Raila's political causes, the Libyans also played a key role in stabilizing Raila in the oil business in a couple of ways. Industry sources say that between 2001 and 2002 when Raila served as Energy Minister, he received at least three consignments of petroleum products at very low prices which were later sold locally at market prices.

The overall turnover from the three Libyan consignments is reliably said to have been in the region of over half a billion shillings, a tidy sum of money in any language, enough to ensure that one crosses the Rubicon once and for all.

Raila's enviable international links

Reliable sources say that Libyans bankrolled the Narc campaign with some US$ 3 million (about Kshs 210 million), thanks to Raila's good contacts in the oil-rich land of Gadaffi. There is no doubt that if Raila becomes the ODM presidential candidate he can count on massive financial support from the Libyans once more.

Besides Libya, Raila enjoys good links with the South African government of Thabo Mbeki while in Nigeria he is known to have strong links with Olosegun Obasanjo, who was a close friend of Raila's late father Jaramogi.

That Libyans, South Africans and Nigerians had enough confidence in Raila to channel campaign funds through him although he himself was not a presidential in 2002 is an indication of how highly regarded he is in some international circles.

Evidently, he could certainly count on even more enthusiastic support from his international contacts should he become the ODM presidential candidate.

For Raila, the linkage between politics and business went much deeper than petroleum business. It is significant that the Odinga family business, Spectre International Ltd, acquired the then state-owned Kisumu Molasses Plant soon after Raila started politically cooperating with Moi.

Raila has consistently argued that the acquisition of the molasses plant was a pure business deal which had nothing to do with politics?, but his critics point out at the coincidence between the time his family acquired the parastatal and Raila's shift of political alliance. It is highly unlikely indeed one may even say impossible-that the Moi government would have sanctioned the Kisumu Molasses Plant deal at the time if Raila had not become an ally of Moi's.

Former commissioner of Lands Sammy Mwaita offered to sell the 240 acres on which the Kisumu Molasses Plant is built to Spectre International on January 11, 2001 at a price of Kshs 3.6 million at a time when Odinga started working closely with Moi. By June of the same year, Raila was appointed to the cabinet and made Energy Minister.

Significantly, Spectre International had applied for the same land in a letter of February 18, 1999 but the request had been rejected by the government at the time.

Titles were prepared in favour of Spectre International on February 3, 2002 for a 99-year lease backdated to September 1, 2001 and the Odinga family was ready to laugh all the way to the bank.

When the Odinga family started the process that led to the acquisition of the Kisumu Molasses Plant in 2001, Raila had already established good business contacts in South Africa. Energem Resources Incorporated, an international firm quoted at the Toronto Stock Exchange, had been looking for an investment opportunity in Kenya for a long time and the Kisumu Molasses Plant appeared just right.

Soon after taking over the plant from the government, Raila struck a lucrative deal with Energem whereby the Canadian firm bought 55 per cent of the Kisumu Molasses plant. Sources say that the Odinga family was paid over US$ 5 million (about Kshs 420 million) to relinquish the control of the molasses plant. The Odinga family had paid only Kshs 3.6 million for the property.

The Canadians also ploughed in millions of dollars to rehabilitate the plant and it is today one of the largest manufacturing concerns in the country employing hundreds of people and producing at least 60,000 litres of industrial ethanol for local consumption and export.

Ethanol from the Kisumu Molasses Plant is used as a fuel additive in east and Central Africa. Among other products coming out of the plant include yeast, carbon dioxide alcohol and related industrial products.

A valuation of the plant carried out three three years ago placed the Kisumu Molasses Plant at US$100 million (Kshs 7 billion). With the Odinga family owning 40 percent of the plant, putting the family's stake in the plant in the region of Kshs 7.8 billion. The remaining five per cent shares in the plant are owned by a development trust on behalf of the local community.

Besides Kenya where Energem is in partnership with Raila in the Kisumu molasses plant business, now renamed Kisumu ethanol Plant, other African countries where Energem's presence is significant include Sierra Leone, Sao Tome, Congo Brazaville, Angola. Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Chad and Central Africa republic.

Raila's wealth at a glance.

Company/Property
Estimated Worth

Spectre International Limited (the holding company for Kisumu Ethanol Plant)
Kshs 7 billion of which Odinga family owns 40 per cent whose value is approximately Kshs 2.8 billion

East African Spectre (the gas cylinder manufacturing plant founded by Raila's late father)
Kshs 500 million

Raila's family home in Karen Nairobi
Kshs 50 million

Runda House
Kshs 15 million

Pan African Petroleum Company (the firm through which the Odinga family imports and distributes petroleum products)
Has had a turnover in excess of Kshs 500 million.

hello
written by Tim Norwood , January 21, 2008

Are you so enamoured with Raila that you are celebrating destruction and vandalism just to get him in office? Everything is excusable, huh?

So here goes then? What should the authorities do but put animals like you down? You are actually celebrating the destruction of relief food? The destruction of the railway?

M7 added to the list
written by Wuod Aketch , January 21, 2008

ODM forgot to mention the name of Musuveni (M7) of Uganda in their boycott call.
The Kenyan citizens in Kibera have shown how M7 can be punished. Remember that M7 was the first African president to congratulate Kibaki and it is rumoured that his soldiers are creating mayhem in western Kenya. Some even say that the first massacre of Kenyans in Kisumu by the paramilitary was done with the help of soldiers from Uganda. (...)

On Thursday, after trapping a cargo train on the rail that runs through the core of Kibera, residents looted it of supplies before being repelled by police who fired teargas at them. Hours later they defiantly returned and flipped over several hundred metres of the track.

Standing beside the twisted rail on Friday morning, many vowed to continue destroying the line, which is part of the rail line connecting the Port of Mombasa to Kampala as well as to other lines branching to several parts of Kenya.

http://www.nationmedia.com/dai...sid=114918

re: From pangas to arrows
written by manta ray , January 21, 2008

Now we are seeing killings using poisoned arrows i.e the violence is becoming more and more sophisticated. My next bet is that we'll soon start seeing Kalashnikovs.

That will be the perfect excuse for Kibaki to take the gloves off, detain Raila, Ruto and the lot of pentagoons, probably declare martial law, and impose stability.

re: re: From pangas to arrows
written by Wuod Aketch , January 21, 2008

Now we are seeing killings using poisoned arrows i.e the violence is becoming more and more sophisticated. My next bet is that we'll soon start seeing Kalashnikovs.

That will be the perfect excuse for Kibaki to take the gloves off, detain Raila, Ruto and the lot of pentagoons, probably declare martial law, and impose stability.

I wish somebody was able to impose stability without anymore bloodshed. The situation on the ground is already cataclysmal (see the vdo above posted by Miharati) so there is no need to add more salt with your martial law. Does Kibaki really see the situation on the ground - outside Nairobi?
Martial law will mean an army general in state house. Is that what you want?
The European commissioner hinted that he had problems getting into contact with Kibaki - there is something fishy going on in state house.

Economy boycott
written by Wangari , January 21, 2008

Honestly, I think that would be unrealistic, as Kenyans need food and other basic things that unfortunately need money to buy.
Yesterday I saw the news and i was like Ngilu, Balala & Co. have bodyguards and 4x4 cars that when teargas is thrown at them they are shielded and dushed to there cars. But wait a minute: what about the other common Kenyans, who is there to shield them or where are they supposed to run to?
Please my fellow Kenyans take a minute and think the MP's will get their monthly salaries at the end of the month plus other unecessary allawonces but what about the people who work in town? Come the end of month they will be counting their losses, while else the ODM people will be seated in some fancy restaurant enjoying themselves. (...)

I think enough blood has been shed, I think someone ought tell that Salim guy to we are tired and we really really need our good old Kenya back.

(A bit shortened. Ed.)

who uses the products?
written by N Amwayi , January 21, 2008

This is real witchhunting. What happened to boycotting the Indians companies which we saw during KIbaki's 1 Million lunch?, Ace Communication (Tuju) etc products?

The people who use these products are the lower and upper middle class, most of whom are fence sitters (don't go to the streets, discuss politics in posh pubs and curse either ODM or PNU in heated "friendly" debates).

Majority of people in slums (who were the most during the protests,and worship Raila) walk to work, cant afford milk, dont have bank accounts! By the way, it's rare to find Brookside milk in most kiosks near the "poor" since the introduction of milk in polythene like packets (20 bob) compared to Brookside, KCC tetra parks (30 bob)

On another note, people tried burning the brookside factory in Eld... but the GSU and private guards were hired to condone off the area! My only wonder is who is the loser? It is the poor ELD farmer (who should be getting 20 per litre of milk delivered), the casual labourer etc... the top management will be relocated to other factories....

...
written by jacob , January 21, 2008

Is it not Kenyan business people that do business in Kenya and other parts of the world? Alexander, intelligence costs nothing. I will be glad to introduce you to businessmen/women in and outside Kenya.

...
written by Gemini , January 21, 2008

When I said that these people are not sincere is simple look at companies like East African Spectre, Molassess Company, Nyali investment etc. When they burnt the water Institute in Kisumu did they think that this water was to serve them or they thought it was to be pumped to Kisii and North Eastern?

Let's mature and realise that we will bw accountable to actions. A true democrat follows the law, those who follow the jungle law (= intimidation and malice) should know that we can not get the so-called justice if we dancing to the tunes of Western World. When Schroeder was defeated with by Angela Merkel in Germany did he call for mass action? (...)

Perplexed Kenyan
written by Perplexed Kenyan , January 21, 2008

This is most perturbing!!! Raila is truly lacking ideas at this rate which is good for the country. First and foremost he is not the peoples president as 50% of the population did not vote for him and others did vote for PNU|. Unless he is claiming that Kenya belongs to people who voted for ODM I think he should stop selling that kind of nonsense to the public. The situation created by Raila and his cohorts is really a sham in the light of what we have seen. There is an obvious agenda that has been set up which has resulted in the Western countries pushing the government to the wall. (...)

I would like to tell Raila and his cohorts, we are seeing through the propaganda he has created which has sailed through the media to discredit this country. Who gave you the mandate to decide who should live where? Does the killing in the Rift Valley justify the means to an end? If so, then you are no leader but a rebel trying to steal positions in leadership to lead our beautiful country. The goods words of our national anthem as you like to state read:

Re: Democracy
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , January 21, 2008

You know, Maina, you'd have a good point IF:

The boycott call had been against all those who voted for Kibaki in the election.

But it wasn't. It was directed against the businesses of a small clique who perpetrated a massive fraud on the Kenyan people in the recent election.

The switch in tactics proves that violence is NOT sanctioned by ODM leaders. That's why they're trying something other than mass action, which has spawned police riots and opportunistic looting by thugs. The boycott may or may not work, but it IS non-violent.

Re: ODM tactics and strategy
written by aeichener , January 21, 2008

The switch in tactics proves that violence is NOT sanctioned by ODM leaders.

Aha. According to this line of argument, the newest switch BACK in tactics (so-called "mass action" again) would thus prove that violence IS sanctioned by ODM leaders?

Hm yes, sounds plausible. But that was known before, wasn't it...

Alexander

re: re: Equity Bank
written by manta ray , January 21, 2008

So ODM is not that far from the truth, boycotting this bank will mainly hurt Kibaki's friends.

No it won't. Boycotting this Bank will hurt those ODM supporters who have accounts in the Bank if they withdraw. They will not get the same easy loan terms from other Banks. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!

On the other hand, Equity will continue expanding as never before. They are already planning to open branches in Uganda and Tanzania. Those will be millions of new customers.

Maybe Raila and his friends could open an ODM Bank with same mission statement and vision as Equity, then these Banks can compete.
Given the illustrious CVs of the looters in ODM, I doubt the longevity of any proposed ODM Bank.

...
written by john , January 21, 2008

I was beginning to wonder if there were any sane poeple left. FANTASTIC. for this ninakupigiaa DEBE. Editor, this should be an article.
We are tired we choose kenya.

(We kann and will gladly prepare articles out of good discussion contributions, but please make clearer to which text exactly you refer. Ed.)

...
written by politicalscientist , January 21, 2008

*Sigh* The Kenyan political system is not run by a ceremonial president and an executive prime minister, we elect an executive president. The word executive means to implement,to push through, to DO something. A president has to be seen to DO something and a hands off presidency is NOT AN OPTION when one is an executive president. It just isnt!!If he can't do the job then he should resign. A true leader leads by example, a true leader shines in times of crisis and allows others to shine in times of peace.

Our country is in crisis. Where is your leader?

Can I let you all in on a little secret? Its possible to dislike BOTH Raila and Kibaki. Both of them have dubious histories, both of them have manipulated Kenyans on the basis of tribe, and both of them have made some reprehensible choices during the lead up and follow up of the election process.

Does that mean I endorse Kalonzo? NO! NO! NO! The man has no spine, and he has no principles.

So who do I endorse? I endorse Kenya. And I am sick and tired of people choosing the lowest common denominator candidate rather than aspiring for more. We deserve more Kenyans! We work hard, we study hard and damn it we deserve more!! We deserve more than these hooligans and high calliblre looters, raiding the treasury every month in the name of salaries and allowances for sitting in parliament. We have the right to want better for ourselves and for our children. Is this all that being Kenyan is good for? Being a pawn in someone elses master plan?

Stop fixating on Odinga and Kibaki for a minute and maybe you will begin to realise that there are no angels there, no messiahs. Bloody hell, vigana tutagutuka lini?!!

Collateral damage
written by Wuod Aketch , January 21, 2008

Well said above daktari. I am also convinced that the Mount Kenya mafia should go. The only problem is that there has and will be a lot of collateral damage.
That Kenyans are massacring each other, that is not new on the blue planet. Look at what has been happening in Iraq since the American occupation - a lot of Iraqi civilians have died from kamikazes' bomb belts and bomb loaded lorries exploded in public places. The anger directed towards the occupant has turned around to become ethnic violence between the Shiite and the Sunnites.
Kenya is not very different.

re: be not debile
written by politicalscientist , January 21, 2008

Ms. Scientist,
You attempt to flee the nest but have not yet learned to fly.

First of all, please explain what you mean when you say Kalonzo has no spine. Sounds like something straight out of the same old Kenyan cookbook of failure.


As has been said on another thread, Raila is a special case of tyrant. And for you to put him in the same class as Kibaki, or Kalonzo shows that you are indeed one of those lost souls clinging on to him for salvation.

Ed. You are my new best friend. Call me and we'll throw a bash because you picked up on the detail that Tim missed. I refuse to sanctify any of these politicians, particularly in the blood of innocent Kenyans. Nor do I opine that any one of them is more "pure" than the other and hence in need of my support. Kenyans DIED for my vote, I refuse to squander it on men of such ill intention.

So greed is now less of a crime than "bloodthirsty" ways? What if that greed leads to the misspending millions of tax payers money that could be spent on improving the healthcare system of that country? And millions of Kenyans die from HIV, high infant mortality and other diseases that can be cured? (read Goldenberg and other scandals)What if that greed leads to the perpetual exclusion of people from accessing their rights and freedom for nothing more than the lannguage they speak at home?

And apparently people like me are asking for a tyrant? No Mr Norwood "people like me" want CHANGE. People like me have lived to see the benefits of democracy in other countries and we want a piece of that pie. Have you heard of the concept of an elite pact? In democracy studies we talk of a situation where the elite of a country co-opt the political process and wrangle among themselves for power with no regard for the little man. The barriers of entry to the political process are so high - money, connections, age- for the ordinary mwananchi that he or she has no hope of ever entering politics. And so the elite fight it out for their votes knowing full well that whatever wins, they go home with a big fat stinking pay check. Sound familiar?

And as for Musyoka's principles..Kalonzo Musyoka has been in parliament since 1985, and he was in the Kanu government that oversaw the fiasco that was the transition to multiparty democracy (read the Akiwumi report on tribal clashes). The man has never even breathed a word of criticism against former president Moi, nor his co ministers like Kibaki, and Biwott who have been implicated in many high level scandals. Was he not one of the members of parliament who have repeatedly voted to give themselves a pay rise even in the face of increasingly dire conditions, particularly for the urban poor that have no land to resort to? Principles are not things to allude to when things are good, they are things that you have all the time. They are a skin and not a sweater. And if a politician cannot stick to his principles in times of trials he is spineless and he is a coward. QED - quod era demonstratum, thus it is proven.

You must have assumed that I was referring to his decision to side with the PNU. Mr Norwood, credit me with a little more insight and intelligence.

...
written by politicalscientist , January 21, 2008

In this day and age, of intemarraige, globalisation and other stories, the only true vestiges of the tribe is the language that one may or may not speak at home, and their African name should they choose to use it. Sad for the anthropologists and ambigious for the rest of us.

The people excluded? The tens of thousands of students who don't get into the course of their choice because they are "pre-selected" at the gates through a combination of tribalism and corruption. The thousands of Kikuyu's who couldn't get jobs under Moi, and the thousands more non Kikuyu's who lost their jobs or were unceremoniously dumped from their jobs for no other reason than tribe under Kibaki(I know at least 4 personally). This isn't ODM talk, this is Kenya talk. Mate, what our country needs right now is less finger pointing and more reaching out to each other.

re: tolle lege
written by politicalscientist , January 21, 2008

Strong accusations Mr Norwood, strong accusations and unfounded at best. I am not pro Raila, I am pro democracy. And in my view the actions of Mr Kibaki have dealt a cruel blow to any aspirations towards that lofty ideal.

Still, Ms Scientist is shifting, shifting. Kalonzo has distinguished himself by not involving himself in the eating feast of Kenyan politics. I still insist that to place him at the same level as the likes of Kibaki and Raila who are proper billionaire robber barons is unfair and prejudiced. Worst of all, to call him a coward when he is the only man in Kenya who has stood up to both the tyrant Moi and the tyrant Raila is downright dishonest.

Selective amnesia perhaps Mr Norwood? When did Kalonzo criticise Moi's regime? I've lived in Kenya for 90% of my life and if memories served me correctly his criticism reared its head only after the old man indicated that he would no longer be involved in politics.

If I do Kalonzo an injustice by comparing him to Raila then you do Raila an injustice by comparing him to Moi. And while I could easily resort to a slinging match as to who warrants the title of cleanest politician in Kenya (an oxymoron in todays climate) I refuse to endorse any such race to the bottom. Because that's what all this amounts to, a race to find whose machinations and greed the people can tolerate the most.

There are many things the Mwingi MP is, a little smarter than Raila, a religious nut, an arrogant t**t, but he is not a coward, and to call him that does mark you out at least as an abashed acolyte of the temple of doom. Only those who have followed Raila and kissed his feet would make that statement.

Harsh words? Perhaps. Unwarranted? Without a doubt. I call them as I see them Mr Norwood, and a coward to me is someone who when given the chance to stand up for something they believe in does not take that chance. Kalonzo left Kibaki's government ostensibly on principle. Kibaki returned exactly the same faces to power that he had in his 2002 government with the exception of John Githongo and the ODM faction. And yet Kalonzo still went back to the government albeit as Vice President. Nothing changed in Kibaki's government so it seems to me that only the man who could have taken this chance to be the voice of reason and stand up to both Raila and Kibaki on principle opted for the easy way out. I bet that vice presidential car made the trip so much sweeter.

But listen, enough of this. You debate the principle of change as if it has no place in modern politics. Mr Norwood are you so disillusioned with Kenyan politics and so cynical to believe that there is no hope for the country? The tone in your response is that we are perhaps, not smart enough or not responsible enough to fully appreciate democatic ideals in full. it seems to me that you're insinuating that Kenyans lack that certain je ne sais quoi to fully appreciate the mechanisms of change as they have in Europe and other parts of the world. Doesn't that make you just as elitist as the political class and their ilk?

How did Raila bewitch so many people? Ha ha ha..you pay the man more credit than he deserves. Change, Mr Norwood, change bewitched the people. We've had enough and we wanted change and we thought that maybe this was our chance to get it. But now we see all the politicians in their true colours and it makes us desperate because they all seem more concerned with each other than with us.

Perhaps I'm a hopeless idealist. But don't you think Kenya needs a little bit of idealism right about now?

(I would call you a hopeful idealist. :-) Ed.)

re: Collateral damage
written by aeichener , January 21, 2008

Well said above daktari. I am also convinced that the Mount Kenya mafia should go. The only problem is that there has and will be a lot of collateral damage.

I should word it in a different way. I opine that the political class as a whole "should go" or rather be walked to the gallows (with some due exceptions). They have correctly been called vampites of the people. There is hardly any difference between the so-called Gema mafia (of which ordinary Agikuyu, Aembu, Ambeere, Ameru have benefitted very little), and the lakeside tribal lords wielding the whip over their impoverished vassals.

As to collateral damage, careful with the poisoned word. It is true that one can't make an omelette without breaking eggs (as your host country's language has put it proverbially), and it is correct that a truly revolutionary cleaning and cleansing might claim guilty and less guilty culprits, and even a few innocents in between, but Kenya has never had one so far. Rather, what we see here in Kenya today, is not "collateral damage", but the purposeful targetting and persecution of innocents on one side, and a mix of heavy-handed (Kisumu) and slothful (Eldoret, RV) police reaction on the other side.

If police - after tear gas and warnings - fires live bullets into a blood-baying armed mob, and the selfsame bullets go forth as is their nature, and hit some innocents hundreds if not thousands of metres in their shacks, then you could speak of "collateral damage".

That Kenyans are massacring each other, that is not new on the blue planet.

Very true. Political violence along tribal rift lines and tribal violence along political grievances (is there really any substantial difference between these intermingling two?) have always been present. But I refuse to take this as granted and to shrug my shoulders. I believe in the possibility of a better Kenya. Whether one can also believe in the possibility of better Kenyans, remains to be seen. :-(

Kipling. I only say Kipling. More valuable than ever.

Alexander

Chairman
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , January 21, 2008

Well, you along with most posters here thought that boycott was just as bad as mass action, and that it wouldn't work.
So ODM decided to give you more of what you apparently like, since you didn't appreciate the attempt to climb down gracefully.

According to you, ODM should go to crooked Kenyan courts, and wait years for a rigged outcome, to accompany the political crisis the Kibaki side created by rigging the election. Well, I don't think that's what's going to happen.

We could talk to Kalonzo, who Raila appropriately called a Judas. This would lead to:

1) Validating the stolen-election status quo, and Kalonzo's opportunistic behavior, which is what the entire Kibaki side wants;

2) The apportionment of some insignificant Cabinet posts to a few people from ODM, which:

a) ODM doesn't want; and
b) Would create a weak Government constantly at war with itself, like all of Kibaki's Governments;

3) Possibly the creation of a Prime Minister post for Raila, which
a) He was promised in 2002, and didn't get; and
b) Which he now has already, insofar as it is relevant, because ODM controls Parliament.

Or else, ODM could just supinely accept the rigged result of the election. You know, it might even do that, were not the whole rest of Kenya convinced that if we let the Mt. Kenya elite get away with it this time, we will NEVER get rid of them at the ballot box.

Some other poster here said "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it." Well, that cuts both ways.

Is Kenya Raila addicted?
written by Wuod Aketch , January 21, 2008

Many slogans countrywide have been saying "No Raila, No peace". I think these Kenyans are right. Imagine that Raila didn't exist, who would challenge the misdoings of those mount Kenya mafia, Kalonzo? No, his latest collaboration with Kibaki shows that, he also wants to rape Kenyans without anesthetic.
Raila is the rampart of Kenyans against the dictatorial regime that Kibaki and clique are trying to put in place.

re: Styles of Governing
written by aeichener , January 21, 2008

I have been remiss in answering this posting by PoliticalScientist in time, and thus my later criticism in another thread may have been read - ahem, "perceived" - as more annoying than it was intended (judging from her slightly peeved reaction). I am sorry about that, and I apologize.

*Sigh* The Kenyan political system is not run by a ceremonial president and an executive prime minister, we elect an executive president. The word executive means to implement,to push through, to DO something. A president has to be seen to DO something and a hands off presidency is NOT AN OPTION when one is an executive president. It just isnt!!If he can't do the job then he should resign.

Firstly, the juxtaposition of a ceremonial president and an executive president leads you too far here. An executive president simply means that one is not merely decorative (as e.g. notably the Swiss, but also to a slightly lesser degree, the Austrian and German presidents, then the Japanese emperor, and most European royalty with exception of the *very* executive Prince of Liechtenstein). It does not means that one must or even should govern everything oneself, and must constantly be in the papers in Moi'ish style. Indeed, an executive president is strongest when she only executes rarely, and otherwise acts through her ministers.

My disheartened notes about slaves bleating for a master (or, less evocative of Lars von Trier's fine "Manderlay" film: yearning for a tyrant, as Tim opines) was not written as an endorsement of Kibaki's indolence, and his persistent lack of swift reaction.

Rather, I wanted to underline that a lackluster president who leaves micro-management to his minister and (especially) permanent secretaries, and who does not constantly throw his personal spanner (or rungu) in the wheels, who is a sleep-inducing speaker and not a popular demagogue, and who does not interfere with the single departments, is much preferable to the classical African Bigman, be he called Idi Amin, Mobutu, or Bokassa. Unfortunately, Kenyans yearn for the bigman with all his glitzy glory and brutality; the Raila Messiah saga demonstrates that amply.

A true leader leads by example, a true leader shines in times of crisis and allows others to shine in times of peace.

Our country is in crisis. Where is your leader?

I agree that Kibaki's performance has been weak. He should have taken the initiative for supple conciliation, instead of waiting for ODM to submit.

Can I let you all in on a little secret? It's possible to dislike BOTH Raila and Kibaki. Both of them have dubious histories, both of them have manipulated Kenyans on the basis of tribe, and both of them have made some reprehensible choices during the lead up and follow up of the election process.

Not a secret, dear. :-) Some of us have stated the very same here for a long time, so you will find me in full agreement.
And so have done e.g. Binyavanga Wainaina and Lynne Muthoni Wanyeki.

So who do I endorse? I endorse Kenya. And I am sick and tired of people choosing the lowest common denominator candidate rather than aspiring for more. We deserve more Kenyans! We work hard, we study hard and damn it we deserve more!! We deserve more than these hooligans and high calibre looters,

Kenyans have a great future behind them.
I wish they would repossess it.

Is this all that being Kenyan is good for? Being a pawn in someone elses master plan?

That is how many politicians see it. It is notably obvious in ODM's present "mass action" violence, where the protesters are nothing but pawns whom ODM *hopes* to be clobbered and shot by police (so that the government will be increasingly disgraced and destabilized, to evoke the perception of brutality).

Stop fixating on Odinga and Kibaki for a minute and maybe you will begin to realise that there are no angels there, no messiahs.

Now what have I been saying *all* the time, again and again and again, mmmhhhmmm ?!

Warm regards, Alexander

Kaeni Ngumu
written by Thunder , January 21, 2008

It should have been clear for you that at the moment, the war that is going on is between the looters and the possible threat to their lot(Raila).
Unfortunately you can never win the war against money. It is every where in the world even united states.
This is a well organised group of individuals not just from mount kenya as most people seem to be putting it. They are the benefiaries of plunder that has been wintessed since 1963.
Have you ever asked yourself why during his time in opposition Kibaki never said anything negative against Moi. You can't cut the hand that fed you.
Moi had no specific fear in Kibaki but the group he teamed up with which he perceived was not to be trusted with the plunder they have stored abroad. He was particularly afraid that this guy raila whom he tried to ensnare like most of the other guyz but failed could easily be given slot of a powerful premier would go ahead and bring back the extorted money stored in overseas accounts. This was dangerous not just to him but a big click of people who participated in the plunder of the country. And once again these are from all parts of Kenya not just mt. Kenya as most people try to constantly put.
Moi being the smart guy that he is decided to use cronies like Njenga Karume to get to Kibaki and in this he succeeded. What was to follow was a regrouping of the power barons with moi in the background. These turned the now sickly Economist into a conformist to their will basing their control in joint businesses and interests.
When it became apparent just before 2007 elections that Raila was actually targeting repatriation of money stashed abroad, the forces regrouped and raila was to be stopped at all costs even if it meant use of military. We see all those people coming together Nyachae, Pattni, Moi, Biwott, Saitoti and the list continues.
This is to tell you that money is power and you can't fight over 1 trillion shillings and win.
These people were still in to empower themselves further through sale and purchase of key public corporations. Yes there was an economic growth but the increase in income desparities should be enough to show you that those who benefited from the growth are less than the 10% of the richest men in kenya.
Wage levels have remained deplorable save for the few cases of pay rise meant to hoodwink kenyans and Guise the state of affairs in the country.
The indians still exploit Kenyan worker with impunity simply because they are with the top class and have formed strong business ties with them.
What I am saying is that whatever Raila tries, he will not go through.
Constitution will never be changed because the rich have to continue protecting themselves.
Kalonzo has been chosen as the next project because of his malleability. He is under scrutiny and his behaviour is being monitored. If he passes the test, they will back him up. If not expect him to descend from that sit faster than he went up there. Watch this space the power barons will push him through to presidency in 2012. Kalonzo of course are great buddies with Moi and never expect that he is going to touch Mzees money or Kibaki's money from abroad.
This group is now insisting on smart people. People who mess up like mwiraria and Murungaru are shown the door. Michuki could have been shown the door but his involvement is deep and they can not do away with him. Now only smart people survive there.
NOTE:
Kibaki will neither step down nor accept a re-run but will be in office until 2012. The group cannot let him do that. He is a victim just like you and me being clobered in the streets by police and killed by neighbours we've borrowed salt from since childhood.
Constitution will not changed because powerful clique have to be protected and even Kalonzo who has been promising a change will never do it because his hands are tied and his survival will depend on whether he cooperates or not.
You know very well they bank on their tribal backing to push through their agenda. They have used their money influence and extensive propaganda to blinden the people. They use divide and rule policy famous from 1960s because when kenya is united their power will be no more.
Tell Raila he will not succeed. His father tried and failed so will he because dirty money can do anything to protect itself.
Fellows 'kaeni ngumu' we still have tough times ahead.

Is Kenya Raila addicted
written by tiri , January 21, 2008

'No Raila No peace' for the poor peaple. For they are the ones that will continue to suffer. Wonder if 'our' Raila was to work for us pro bono. Would he be such a willing candidate for the job? Would his posse be so willing to tag along???? THINK!!!

re: Kaeni Ngumu
written by a guest , January 21, 2008

(Over-quotation shortened. Ed.)

Lone touched a soft spot on announcing the ultimate sanctions.

When ODM spokesman Salem Lone announced last week that they would be targeting business concerns linked to the government hardliners, this moved quickly.

The ODM has listed businesses in the banking, dairy, tourism and transport sector to name but a few that will be targeted for countrywide boycotts, beginning this week.

In response, President Kibaki unexpectedly appointed a negotiating team lead by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, who came third in the race for the presidency, to try to quell the simmering temperatures.

"I think the new tactic announced by ODM has caused some shivers among the hardliners as it would hit where it hurts most," Mr Ndubi says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7199757.stm

Hmmm
written by a guest , January 21, 2008

Too Funnyyyyyyy
written by Tiri , January 22, 2008

Too cute. Too cute!!!

re: Chairman
written by james , March 20, 2008

I'm surprised by the anti-Raila tone in this thread. I know him well -- spoke to him today, in fact. He is not a bloodthristy man, nor even power-hungry, as many here allege. What he's trying to do is pull back from a no-win strategy that was causing a lot of bloodshed to something else. For this, he deserves applause, not condemnation.
--
As we understand (actually we quote your wife Maria's statement, written in the Net), you are an evangelical minister from New York who is Raila's spiritual counsellor, as well as one of his political advisors?
And you have stated that you use some of your income from patents to found Kenyan causes and to help Kenyan people?
And you are the same guy who is mentioned here, right?:
http://www.patenthawk.com/blog...mming.html
and here?
http://www.law.com/jsp/article...6004320259

Nice to see you amount us. Be welcome! :-) Eds.
--
At the same time, pressure must be maintained somehow, or no change will occur. It doesn't really matter if the boycott works or not -- it's a step in the right direction.

At the same time, I'm flabbergasted that posters here take the phony election results as gospel truth. I helped to build the independent ODM computer-based tally center, which received reports from its representatives at the polling places by SMS as they were announced there. The tallies that came to Nairobi were not the same.

The main location for rigging is Eastern Province. Even in the Referendum, which Orange won, about 300,000 phony Yes votes came in from there. That's because they only worked for a few hours to manufacture them, till around 1:00 a.m.

This time, they worked for two days, and manufactured about one milion votes, some of which were given to Kibaki, and others to Kalonzo, pursuant to the pre-election understanding those two had.

Raila won. Kibaki did not. ODM is trying to find some way in which the stolen-election status quo does not persist for the next five years. The Kibaki side is not being helpful. To offer Kalonzo (who I also know well), whose spurious candidacy actually created the opportunity to rig Kibaki in, as a mediator now is, from the ODM point of view, pretty silly.

The same thing happened after the Referendum, when Kibaki appointed Martha Karua as Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister. I know Martha, too, and actually like her (though she can and does lie with a straight face better than anyone else4 I've ever known). But her appointment was calculated to make sure no progress was made on the Constitution, and none was.

Raila is a reasonable man, and likes negotiated solutions. But what is the sound of one hand clapping?

By the way, the Kibaki regime illegally deported me in September. So I'm not in Kenya now, to continue to spend my own money to fund our two NGO's, www.CLIK.org and www.ResourceNetworkInternational. The software development business I had invested in is in deep trouble. I'm one of the best friends Kenya ever had, and still am, though I say it who shouldn't.

In order to get out of this mess, all of us need to get delivered from our stereotypes: 1) the greedy trickster Kikuyus; 2) Raila the revolutionary Luo tribalist. I'm praying for that result from Jerusalem, which is where we ended up after we got kicked out. We have no home in the U.S., where I was born, and as a Jewish Christian, I have Israeli citizenship as well. We decided to stay in Israel to be close to Kenya, and we look forward to coming back.

Peace!, or as we say here, Shalom!

Can see you know much about Kenya.Apart from using royalties to try to buy political goodwill what else do you really do.
All that story of donating computers and doing healthwork is a public relations exercise as you try to get political goodwill. On healthcare please tell us more on the research you are doing on aids patients in kericho what are you upto.

medina chairman
written by james , March 20, 2008

Apart from your expulsion for associating with Raila I think you should tell us more about the research you are conducting on aids patients in Kericho hoping to make money if that drug comes through.
About computers it is only to buy political goodwill so that your criminal acts can go unnoticed.
The issue of helping with healthcare does not really hold as you sell those drugs.
Kenya does not really need you as much as you need it.
You used to follow Kalonzo around pretending to be his spiritual advisor

re: re: Chairman
written by Kenyan , March 20, 2008

I'm surprised by the anti-Raila tone in this thread.... He is not a bloodthristy man, nor even power-hungry, as many here allege.]

Oh please! Since you are his spiritual adviser, I'm sure he tells you the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help him God, right? Since our beloved Raila is such a wonderful person, I wonder if he will sell his hummer and donate the proceeds to the poor in Kibera, now that he has a motorcade to match his ego.

Or maybe its not his heart but his judgement that's questionable. How else do you explain someone who will go to any lengths to make a whole country suffer so he can have a title and a position? Was this the only way to attain his status? How else do you explain his association with the likes of Ruto, Balala and The Standard? Good man indeed. No - we are not so deluded over here. We simply can't afford that luxury. BTW why is Ruto so quiet lately?

...
written by manta ray , March 21, 2008

Dr Medina wrote:

The last such interchange that Kalonzo and I had was when I reiterated my longstanding spiritual perception that it was not his time to be President, shortly before he departed from ODM. I also stated at that that I was not responsible for the consequences that would ensue if he would not humble himself until God exalted him (1 Peter 5:6).

You obviously have no clue how Kenyan politics works. Kenyan politics is first and foremost tribal, as much as you or i may disapprove, and that is the reality. Before you therefore make ill-informed conclusions about Kalonzo's political future, please note that he is precisely at the spot where he is poised to be Kibaki's successor. At the very least, he has just as much of a chance as Raila. Please also note that not many people will vote for Raila after he demonstrated his capacity for violence and unwillingness to "give anaesthetic while Kenyans were being raped", his words, not mine.
Kalonzo can count on the support of the GEMA communities in the next election. The Kamba and GEMA votes combined are 43% of registered voters. Are you sure Kalonzo will not get the required 8% from other communities to top up his tally and be declared the winner? You are making the same mistake ODM made in underestimating Kibaki's support from the GEMA communities. Kibaki simply needed to top up his backyard's votes with votes from other regions while making sure Raila got none from his region.

Considering the fact that Kalonzo's obsession with being President, President, President, now, now, now, created the situation in which the vote totals of Odinga and Kibaki were close enough that Kibaki could engage in self-help to steal the "victory", I would say that my warning to Kalonzo was prophetic, as I intended it to be.

So you are now a self appointed prophet? What is the difference between you and a witchdoctor who interprets and "reads" intestines?

It is particularly ironic that Musyoka ended up being Kibaki's Vice President -- the same position that was his for the acceptance had he chosen to stay with ODM. Had he stayed with the national party instead of creating a Kamba splinter group, he would pretty much be in line to be Odinga's successor, which was the role I believed that God had for him. Without involving the Almighty, it would have been age-appropriate in human terms.

It is now more or less certain that Kalonzo will never be President, unless Ukambani becomes an independent state. Is that an outcome that would be desired by James?

Is that now your prophecy or your hallucination? I have already explained how Kalonzo is actually in pole position to be the next President. All will be clear to you once you kick the ODM drug you are on from your system, and i suggest you check into rehab right away.

...
written by manta ray , March 21, 2008

Wow, Dr Medina! You have drunk so copiously from the cup of ODM propaganda that you now lustily belch its pong on all of us. Phew!
Before you go off half-cocked about a so called GEMA BANTU Master race, would you care to explain what the relentless demonisation of a whole community FOR THREE YEARS in the lead up to the election by your illustrious "nationalist" friend was all about? When he went gallivanting all over the country proclaiming that all of Kenya's problems would be solved once the Adui(enemy) community was vanquished and brought to heel, you agreed with him? Does that not remind you of a similar modus operandi by the persecutors who your ancestors eluded? When Hitler blamed the Jews for all of Germany's problems, what is different now when Raila does the same to Kikuyus? Or Kikuyus do not deserve the same sympathy as Jews? How can you be so blind to that?
What does the 41 against 1 strategy incubated and born in the ODM demon chambers mean to you?
You say of Kenya's politics that you "plead guilty to wishing, working and praying for it to work a little better", yet you wallow and swim with the ODM sharks who created and nurtured a tribally based monster that almost brought the country to civil war. Just what do you think holds the ODM together? What is it that brings tribal warlords and killers from the Moi era like Ruto, Kones, Kosgei and Ntimama to the same table with ideologues like Nyong'o? Shared democratic principles? Shared ideology? It will be interesting to hear your response to that. Your reference to Kikuyustan obviously shows that even Balala's allusion to Lesotho has you enthralled.

There are many Kenyans who will not allow Raila to stagnate Kenya in the quagmire of ethnic hate, and to check Raila and his hordes of killers, GEMA will make sure they will do whatever it takes to stop him, even if it means an alliance with Kalonzo, and if anyone is telling you that Kikuyus will not do so, then they don't know Kikuyus very well. Kikuyus consistently voted for Tom Mboya(a Luo) in two consecutive elections to put Raila's father in check, and they will do so again and vote for another to stop the son.
The end, after all, justifies the means.

Having struggled very hard to find the point of these exchanges, it becomes abundantly clear that nothing positive will come from this. Arguing against tribalism by arguing for tribalism makes one a tribalist - a scenario of the pot calling the kettle black. Take some time, gents, count to 100, and return to the respectful pursuit of truth. Eds.

not upon the order of thy goin
written by Daniel.Waweru , March 21, 2008

When exactly did the GEMA communities have an opportunity to vote for him? You say they did so consistently, but I cannot reconstruct when they would have had the opportunity.

(1) In 1957, 1961, and 1963. In 1961, he beat Munyua Waiyaki by 28,000 votes in Nairobi East -- a constituency of 40,000 voters, 27,000 of whom were Kikuyu.

(2) You have outstayed your welcome here.

Chairman
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , March 22, 2008

Thank you, Mr. Waweru, for the instruction on Tom Mboya. I really did seek the information. I asked some other questions, but nobody answered them.

(...)

Chairman
written by Dr, Mitch Medina , March 22, 2008

What does "away with you" mean? (...)

(It means that the writer wanted you to drop your droppings on another cyber meadow. Ed.)

(...)
If you simply would prefer me to ignore this blog, please bear in mind that I did so for around six weeks before somebody exhumed my old posts to flame them. I intended to stop posting again pretty soon anyway, because I have little time for people who have no time for open discussion.

(...)

Chairman
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , March 22, 2008

Dear Manta,

Thanks for your message! I hope that nobodys minds if we continue our dialogue in public. But you did say that you were interested in my response.

1) I have NEVER heard Raila demonize Kikuyus, even once, either in public or in private.

2) Do you think that your thoughts represent the thinking of the entire GEMA community?

I ask because although I get along well with those of its leaders that I know (...), I must confess that I never quite knew exactly what the community wanted.

Your remarks suggest that you folks simply don't want Raila, or perhaps anyone named Odinga. That's a view that's a lot more palatable to me than what I see as race hatred.

3) Your allusion to Tom Mboya is interesting. Obviously, I was not in Kenya during his time (...). Were you alive when Mboya was active?

Focusing on the historical Mboya rather than any current personality, I have two straight up questions, as I was originally trained as a historian (two of my early degrees). American history, though, not African.

I did however, take a number of African Studies courses that were not directly related to my major, and become something of an expert on the 18th Century Nigerian jihadi Usman dan Fodio. This occurred under the tutelage of a son of the founder of the American Nation of Islam who chose not to go into the family's religion business. (...)

But as I once told my attorney Mutula wa Kilonzo when he came at me with the strange theory that the Jews invented tribalism: I personally, as a Jew who embraced Christianity and an American who embraced Kenya, am in contention for the honor of being the most de-tribalized person in the world. In the Israeli home I acquired during my exile from Kenya, most, though not all, of my friends are Palestians.

Anyway, returning to Mboya:

a) When exactly did the GEMA communities have an opportunity to vote for him? You say they did so consistently, but I cannot reconstruct when they would have had the opportunity.

b) I am not disputing that Mboya was poltically aligned with Kenyatta much more than Jaramogi was -- though the elder Odinga was still his business partner. Who do you (or the GEMA community, if you know) think killed Tom Mboya?

4) I didn't know that Najibu had ever mentioned the idea of a GEMA Bantustan as a possible solution to Kenya's problems if the Kikuyus insist on being oil to the Luo water. He didn't get the idea from me -- nor did I get it from him. I identified it as a dis-preferred solution to the post-election crisis a couple of days into it, and said as much in an SMS to Peter Anyang' Nyong'o, which perhaps State Intelligence has kept, though I long since deleted mine. My prefered solution at the time was a recount.

Subsequently, I was advised by everybody (chiefly American Embassy personnel) that in their view, an honest recount was impossible, as too many original documents had been altered or trashed. (Despite this, Kikuyu Maina Kiai actually did one, and determined that Raila won).

(He hardly did. Ed.)

Anyway, since nobody liked the recount idea, my own preferred solution became an early new election under a new Constitution. I don't think this view will change, as the situation on the ground is no longer in flux.

5) I agree with your assertion that ODM is a mixed bag. (...) But I think it's correct to state that all of us value or pretend to value dialogue. I really would have liked not to be excluded from ODM's internal conversation by Mt. Kenya's deportation order -- quixotic in that my views are more congenial to its leaders' stated positions than some of my ODM colleagues.

5) During Bomas, Kiraitu Murungi (you should ask him about my role in that conference) once told P.L.O. Lumumba that Raila was "bad for the country". P.L.O. asked him to explain why. Kiraitu could not do so.

Since anti-Odinga-ism seems to be the centerpiece of your thinking -- and perhaps, GEMA's, according to yourself -- can you answer the question that Kiraitu could not? Why is Odinga, any Odinga, inherently bad for Kenya?

Looking forward to your responses, I remain

Faithfully yours,

Dr. Mitch Medina

(Lightly edited for conciseness and excision of mere vanity. Ed.)

Chairman
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , March 22, 2008

I'm even more surprised that someone on this thread remembers my comments from two months ago. It does sort of show that there are some irreconcilables out there, even now that a political resolution has been reached.

That resolution is not satisfactory in some respects, but I didn't want to speak in those terms before now. However, reading your comments, I won't be hesitant about speaking my full mind when the illegal deportation order against me is lifted, and I return to Kenya at a convenient time.

Respdonding a little to your basically non-serious allegations, I'm pretty sure that Raila doesn't really care much for the motorcade. It has been hard to communicate with him intimately, since every word we speak is being monitored by the State intelligence aparatus. All I can say is this: if I had the sense that Raila's head had been turned by the perks of power, I would rebuke him, as I do fairly frequently. If he persisted in those ways, at some point I'd reevaluate my support for him.

You see, the good thing about people who are financially independent like Raila and myself is that we don't need to kiss up to others for personal financial advantage. I certainly agree that pathological wealth accumulators will do anything to get more even when they have enough. I am not one of those people, having given away more than half of my income to charity every year since 1990. My experience of Raila is that he also is not pathological about either money or prestige.

As for your accusation that Raila put Kenya through hell to get a position, I think it's more accurate to say that Kibaki put people through hell by stealing the election so he could hold on to his.

re: medina chairman
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , March 22, 2008

Apart from your expulsion for associating with Raila I think you should tell us more about the research you are conducting on aids patients in Kericho hoping to make money if that drug comes through.
About computers it is only to buy political goodwill so that your criminal acts can go unnoticed.
The issue of helping with healthcare does not really hold as you sell those drugs.
Kenya does not really need you as much as you need it.
You used to follow Kalonzo around pretending to be his spiritual advisor

Chairman
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , March 22, 2008

Now this is truly interesting. James must have some connection with the Kenyan intelligence apparatus, because he is distorting information about me which is not in the public domain at all. I have some speculations about who is tipping him off, but I'll keep them to myself.

But set the record straight:

1) I am not conducting any AIDS research in Kericho. I've been deported, remember?

2) Insofar as I do have some connection with the people who are doing the AIDS research, I haven't made a penny off of it, and in fact have spent something between KSh 5 and 10 million (depending on how you reckon it) of my own money to get those people to the level that they now are.

3) It is true that I spent some quality time with Bro. Steve on an ongoing basis a view years ago. But I don't think that I was ever his spiritual advisor, because he never received anything I told him.

The last such interchange that Kalonzo and I had was when I reiterated my longstanding spiritual perception that it was not his time to be President, shortly before he departed from ODM. I also stated at that that I was not responsible for the consequences that would ensue if he would not humble himself until God exalted him (1 Peter 5:6).

Considering the fact that Kalonzo's obsession with being President, President, President, now, now, now, created the situation in which the vote totals of Odinga and Kibaki were close enough that Kibaki could engage in self-help to steal the "victory", I would say that my warning to Kalonzo was prophetic, as I intended it to be.

It is particularly ironic that Musyoka ended up being Kibaki's Vice President -- the same position that was his for the acceptance had he chosen to stay with ODM. Had he stayed with the national party instead of creating a Kamba splinter group, he would pretty much be in line to be Odinga's successor, which was the role I believed that God had for him. Without involving the Almighty, it would have been age-appropriate in human terms.

It is now more or less certain that Kalonzo will never be President, unless Ukambani becomes an independent state. Is that an outcome that would be desired by James?

Chairman
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , March 22, 2008

Dear Manta,
I must respectfully disagree that I have "no idea how Kenyan politics works", though I must plead guilty to wishing, working and praying for it to work a little better.

Of course I find your tribal analysis disgusting. Some of your comments suggest that you may find it disgusting as well. However, responding to your tribal analysis in its own terms:

Even if Kenya were to be condemned against the hopes of all of its well-wishers to live forever in the twilight or midnight of tribalism, the GEMA communities ain't gonna vote unanimously for no Kamba, 'cause he ain't one of theirs. The notion that feigned loyalty to Mwai Kibaki makes one somehow genetically Kikuyu is simply preposterous.

If tribe controls Kenyan politics, then clearly, somebody with purer bloodlines will throw his or her hat into the ring at some point to try to capitalize on the GEMA vote dowry. Mungiki would like it to be Uhuru, who is a better man than his popularity among the Kikuyu militia-in-training would suggest. Or if loyalty to Kibaki is the criterion for electability, how about Martha Karua?

And if neither of these worthies is found worthy, then surely the 43% of the GEMA communities can find someone within the core Bantu Master Race who is more acceptable than Cousin Kalonzo.

With respect, it is you and Bro. Steve who have failed to realistically evaluate his chances. Better luck next lifetime, if it were only true that you get more than one.

Faithfully,
Rev. Avram Yitzhak Makau Ochieng' ole Lemaiyan -- all tribal names with which I have been legitimately bestowed.

P.S. The GEMA communities will need a Kikuyustan of their own if they want to live according to naked tribalist precepts. No non-member of the Herrenvolk will voluntarily submit to such a regime.

(You obviously know VERY little about Kenyan ethno-politics. There is only one (1) group within Kenya who ideologically saw themselves as a Herrenvolk properly, and that were the Maasai (Samburu etc.). They got what they arrogance deserved, first by the rinderpest, and subsequently by the next set of colonisers, who had Martini-Henry rifles and Maxim machineguns at their disposition. Eds.)

My father and paternal grandmother eluded racist persecutors more efficient than the Mt. Kenya mafia, while all of my mother's people successfully ran away from the Czar. Even if the racism of the worst elements within the GEMA communities racism were somehow to impose itself upon Kenya (which will never happen), non-GEMA black Africans (especially Kalenjins!) are genetically equipped to be better runners than Jews.

But they will fight you instead.

(We have chosen not to edit content and text here. They speak for themselves. Eds.)

go away Mitch
written by Stephen Wanyama , March 22, 2008

Just go away, you are truly a hateful despicable human being, and no wonder considering who you are here to defend. Away with you really, away, or do you want to talk about something slightly less hateful?

free speech
written by Stephen Wanyama , March 22, 2008

Well, Mr Medina, Doctor, מֵצֵר, I think I'd like you to go away because you remind just how full of hatred you and the ODM are. Now with all your six degrees, do you not think this was a particularly stupid thing to say, one does hear ODMer say it all the time, but surely someone who has been outside Kenya longer than six months should not talk such nonsense,

Considering the fact that Kalonzo's obsession with being President, President, President, now, now, now, created the situation in which the vote totals of Odinga and Kibaki were close enough that Kibaki could engage in self-help to steal the "victory", I would say that my warning to Kalonzo was prophetic, as I intended it to be.

So Kalonzo should just have bowed to Raila's goodness like you did and the evil Kikuyu/ GEMA master race would have been vanquished?

Anyhow, having broached the idea of a Kikuyustan, it is clear that you are indeed an enemy of Kenya. It is nice though to have on record that you are the sort of person Raila, Balala, Nyong'o and company exchange hateful SMS with. Did you refuse to share IP rights to the Kikuyustan idea with Balala, hence forcing him to use 'Lesotho' instead? Oddly generous, eh? You have a good one, where you are, and keep sending that money to Kericho, bwana Avram Ochieng'.

I am sure when you are weaned off your hatred, we will all be happy to have you back right here, maybe you can even send us an article on AIDs in the Rift Valley, or the life and times of a necromancer, or livestock development or something, but kindly keep away from the hate messages, restrict that supply to Nyong'o's mobile phone.

Chairman
written by Dr, Mitch Medina , March 22, 2008

I said that a Bantustan was a dis-preferred option.

...
written by gichangi , March 22, 2008

Let us thank the good doctor in advance for his evidence that Raila won the election, you know from Kikuyu Maina Kiai's computations. Let's have it.

On the other hand, he also displays the deftness for foot in mouth that is a characteristic trait of the ODM. As an unguent, he may like the soothing qualities of this video may want to watch this video here where Martha Karua patently (please turn up your volume) asks for a national recount of the vote, I quote a re-tallying for all the 210 constituencies. In the background you can here the characteristic bullying and heckling of the ODM. Medina, were you there in spirit?

re: Chairman
written by manta ray , March 22, 2008

Dr. Mitch Medina wrote:

Dear Manta,
Thanks for your message! I hope that nobody's minds if we continue our dialogue in public. But you did say that you were interested in my response.

1) I have NEVER heard Raila demonize Kikuyus, even once, either in public or in private.

You are a barefaced liar. What Raila said is a matter of public record. Since he is your friend, why not ask him what he was alluding to with the adui(enemy) community remark, which he repeated every so often around the country for 3 years?

2) Do you think that your thoughts represent the thinking of the entire GEMA community?

To do so would be naive, arrogant and presumptuous. However, if you were ask me if i think that Kikuyus KNOW that Raila is an unrepentant bigot who rose to where he is now by copycatting Hitler, i would say absolutely yes.

I ask because although I get along well with those of its leaders that I know (...), I must confess that I never quite knew exactly what the community wanted.

Then why not ask them those questions?

Your remarks suggest that you folks simply don't want Raila, or perhaps anyone named Odinga. That's a view that's a lot more palatable to me than what I see as race hatred.

Right on the money, buddy. We DO NOT WANT RAILA. What leadership qualities has Raila ever demonstrated, even today? Can you pinpoint any, since you seem to think you know who you are dealing with? What has he ever achieved as a Luo OR constituency leader that he would want to lead the rest of Kenya? We would rather have dynamic Luos like Dalmas Otieno, Raphael Tuju, Edwin Yinda and best of all Prof. Washington Jalango Okumu as leaders for all Kenyans, not just as Luo leaders Kikuyus can get along with.
Incidentally, ask Raila why he didn't prefer Professor Okumu as the mediator in the recent talks. After all, Okumu did bring Mandela and De Klerk together in South Africa, a far more incendiary situation at the time.

Your allusion to Tom Mboya is interesting. Obviously, I was not in Kenya during his time (...). Were you alive when Mboya was active?

That is immaterial.

I did however, take a number of African Studies courses that were not directly related to my major, and become something of an expert on the 18th Century Nigerian jihadi Usman dan Fodio. This occurred under the tutelage of a son of the founder of the American Nation of Islam who chose not to go into the family's religion business.

Try to study the history of Shaka in 19th century Zululand, and see where ODM get their inspiration. The mfecane ODM and its Induna were about to unleash on Kenya would have put Shaka's impis to eternal shame.

Anyway, returning to Mboya:

a)When exactly did the GEMA communities have an opportunity to vote for him? You say they did so consistently, but I cannot reconstruct when they would have had the opportunity.

They voted for him in the current day Kamukunji constituency twice in a row, the first time in 1963 and again in 1968.

b)I am not disputing that Mboya was poltically aligned with Kenyatta much more than Jaramogi was -- though the elder Odinga was still his business partner. Who do you (or the GEMA community, if you know) think killed Tom Mboya?

Mboya was killed by Kikuyu extremists who felt that Kenyatta had gone soft and was grooming him to inherit his Presidency. That does not therefore translate to mean it was Kikuyus who assassinated him, but a clique of reactionary conservatives within the Govt.

4)I didn't know that Najibu had ever mentioned the idea of a GEMA Bantustan as a possible solution to Kenya's problems if the Kikuyus insist on being oil to the Luo water. He didn't get the idea from me -- nor did I get it from him. I identified it as a dis-preferred solution to the post-election crisis a couple of days into it, and said as much in an SMS to Peter Anyang' Nyong'o, which perhaps State Intelligence has kept, though I long since deleted mine. My prefered solution at the time was a recount.

Why don't you send Nyongo and Balala an sms and ask them what they meant, seeing as they were together at the time of the outrageous statement by the inarticulate Jihadi from Mombasa?

Subsequently, I was advised by everybody (chiefly American Embassy personnel) that in their view, an honest recount was impossible, as too many original documents had been altered or trashed. (Despite this, Kikuyu Maina Kiai actually did one, and determined that Raila won).

Maina is the same left wing closet ODMist and who denied that there was ethnic cleansing in the RV, despite Human Rights Watch evidence to the contrary.

Anyway, since nobody liked the recount idea, my own preferred solution became an early new election under a new Constitution. I don't think this view will change, as the situation on the ground is no longer in flux.

That is why a constitutional review to make utterances that invoke ethnic hatred punitive to deter the likes of Raila, Balala etc., is absolutely necessary.

5)I agree with your assertion that ODM is a mixed bag. (...) But I think it's correct to state that all of us value or pretend to value dialogue. I really would have liked not to be excluded from ODM's internal conversation by Mt. Kenya's deportation order -- quixotic in that my views are more congenial to its leaders' stated positions than some of my ODM colleagues.

ODM is not just a mixed bag, it is a congregation of Al-Qaedesque fundamentalists and fanatics with an agenda you really have no clue about, even as you hobnob with them.You are simply out of your depth in ODM and you do not know what kind of morons are the company you keep.

5)During Bomas, Kiraitu Murungi (you should ask him about my role in that conference) once told P.L.O. Lumumba that Raila was "bad for the country". P.L.O. asked him to explain why. Kiraitu could not do so.

Bomas should never have been in the first place, and i do not particularly care for Kiraitu's or PLO's opinions.

Since anti-Odinga-ism seems to be the centerpiece of your thinking -- and perhaps, GEMA's, according to yourself -- can you answer the question that Kiraitu could not? Why is Odinga, any Odinga, inherently bad for Kenya?

Simple. Read my reference to Prof. Okumu and others above. Furthermore, Raila has no agenda other than power for its own sake. If he truly wanted to demonstrate what a dynamic and visionary leader he was as he claims, he should have shown Kenyans what he has done for Kibera slum dwellers in his constituency in the last fifteen years he has been in parliament. What is his track-record thereof? One would imagine that it is much easier to transform the lives of poor slum dwellers than the lives of middle class Kenyans. Putting up about 10 boreholes in a large slum like Kibera with 100000litre water tanks each would have transformed the lives of those people irrevocably forever. Each borehole would have cost less than Kshs.5 million. Instead, Raila would rather buy satellite television adverts at Kshs.8million apiece during the last world cup to tell Africans in the rest of the continent that he would be running for Kenya's Presidency. Why did other Africans need to know that he was running for Kenya's Presidency? What, pray tell, was the exponential value in that, other than a display of mindless vanity?
Why does he want to lead middle class Kenyans, people who have struggled to get to where they are and do not need handouts, before he has shown what he can do for poor Kenyans? How is going to bring about CHANGE(his campaign message) to middle class Kenyans lives before he has demonstrated CHANGE he has brought to poor Kibera residents lives?

Chairman
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , March 22, 2008

Dear Manta,

It seems that you're the kind of person I can talk to, though we obviously don't agree on everything.

I am not lying when I said I never heard Raila demonize Kikuyus. I don't understand much Kiswahili, though I learned near-perfect Spanish in school when I was a kid and more able to assimilate new langauges. I haven't heard everything Raila ever said.

I didn't deliberately close my ears to anything. I read every word of Nation and Standard every day for some years. I never saw anything about "adui".

This is not to say it never happened. Had such an utterance occured in my presence or to my knowledge, I would not have been pleased and would have said so.

It's definitely not true that Raila has done nothing for Kibera. I've been there with him, and helped him to do some of it, in the heath care arena. I know that a lot of his personal resources are used to support ODM, just as a lot of mine were used to buy new computers for Kenyan schools. I don't know exactly what his income was or is, nor what percentage he used on what. (Obviously, I do know these things about myself.) I certainly didn't put a borehole in Kibera, though I helped to put a couple in Kajiado North -- Prof. Saitoti's constituency.

I read some continental history of Africa in the past few years, and was familiar with the name of Shaka before then. But I don't recall the details of what I read, as there were snippets on thousands of people. I'm involuntarily separated from my library. I just checked some online resources, and there's not enough there for me to fully understand the drift of your comparison.

More ignorance: I don't know Prof. Okumu, nor really what he stands for. But I do know Dalmas Otieno well. We both have a very healthy respect and affection for each other, share ideas freely, and agree on many things.

"That is why a constitutional review to make utterances that invoke ethnic hatred punitive to deter the likes of Raila, Balala etc., is absolutely necessary."

That's not the only thing that's needed in a new Constitution. But you and I entirely agree that there can be no real solution to the problems of Kenya without one.

Your comparison of Raila to Hitler amd ODM to al-Qaeda is way overdone - just as much or more a piece of hate speech as whatever you accuse Raila of saying that I didn't hear. No-one in al-Qaeda has or values my world view, and Hitler would not have consulted me.

Bomas was lawfully, if imperfectly constituted. I was more sympathetic to Kiraitu's positions than you may think, but he was a loyal lawyer who had an impossible client in Kibaki. It is not meaningful to speak of an attorney's positions apart from the client. Insofar as Kiraitu tried to reach out across the DP-LDP divide, Kibaki made it impossible.

PLO was a better leader of the Bomas conferences than Ghai was. But I was not entirely happy with the way he discharged his role -- a fact which he knows. I also recognize fully that Patrick was under impossible pressures. One flatters oneself that one might have done a little better (though obviously I was ineligible). But one also knows that one might actually not have done as well in such difficult circumstances had one actually been given the chance -- which God in His wisdom put WAY out of my reach -- and I know not to question His judgment.

I don't think Najib is a jihadi at all. It's interesting that he was with Peter when he talked about Lesotho. Sometimes, one's ideas get transmitted in unexpected ways, and sometimes they get garbled in transmission. I don't know. I'm involuntarily WAY out of position to gauge the nuances of such things right now.

MM: "I ask because although I get along well with those of its leaders that I know (...), I must confess that I never quite knew exactly what the community wanted."

Manta: "Then why not ask them those questions?"

I did, and I still am. The words I get in reply and the deeds I witness in practice do not agree. Therefore, my confusion.

"Mboya was killed by Kikuyu extremists who felt that Kenyatta had gone soft and was grooming him to inherit his Presidency. That does not therefore translate to mean it was Kikuyus who assassinated him, but a clique of reactionary conservatives within the Govt."

Thanks for this information.

"You are simply out of your depth in ODM and you do not know what kind of morons are the company you keep."

This kind of ad hominem stuff is neither helpful nor true. Though I say it who shouldn't, I'm a fairly bright guy who is not out of his depth ANYWHERE.

No, that's not correct. I'd be out of my depth at a conference of neurosurgeons, even though my wife is a doctor. I'm not a rocket scientist or nuclear physicist, though I'm familiar with most of the basics. I am a computer scientist and and inventor with 20 U.S. Patents. I'm still a fairly good study, even in my senescence. In the arena of Kenyan politics and Kenyan studies in general, I know a good deal more than most -- though of course, I don't know everything.

There are no morons at all in the ODM top leadership. Despite that, I don't like or trust some of them. Who exactly is in or out of my good books and to what extent (to the degree that it matters) varies somewhat from day to day, as is common in poltical endeavor. There are some people that I like almost every day, and some that I'm wary of absolutely every day. I assume that the foregoing cuts both ways. This is all quite normal.

Wow. It's way late here in the U.S., where I am currently spending a month or so for the first time in years. I think I answered most of your salient points. If there's more that you'd like me to speak to, or to instruct me in, please let me know.

Faithfully,

Dr. Mitch

Chairman
written by Dr. Mitch Medina , March 22, 2008

On that particular day, Martha and I agreed, though I was not in a position to see that video contemporaneously. It was not the first time we saw eye-to-eye, and probably won't be the last.

Almost everyone else thought that the results were too doctored already by the time the results were announced for a recount to be meaningful. This may well have been true.

If it is, Maina Kiai's recount was flawed, though not necessarily wrong in its assessment of the correct outcome.

My own view that Kibaki stole the election was based largely on my experience in the ODM tally center, which I helped to build at the time of the referendum. I knew first-hand that the votes from Eatern Province were tampered with in the Referendum. But it was not enough to affect the outcome.

I do not believe that over 80% of the people in many constitunecies in Eastern voted, though I do believe that more or less everyone who did vote voted for Kibaki and Kalonzo. The 300,000 phony votes from Eastern in the Referendum were enough to give Kibaki his plurality in the Election.

But there were more phony votes from Eastern in the election -- something on the order of 1/2 million.

Can I prove this? No. I'm not sorry that Martha's and my original idea of a recount was overtaken by events.

A early new clean election, under a new Constitution, will be a much better way of determining what Kenyans want, and may the best person be the most popular person, and may whoever it is be permitted to win.