Kenya is a maturing democracy by any standards but careless utterances by leaders in senior party positions put the rest of us in precarious situations.

Mr. Alex Gachiri and Mr. Festus Karanja became the latest additions to the statistics of politically inspired deaths. These two were recently killed in cold blood by a gang of well organized political hooligans in Kuresoi, Molo district. The district has had similar clashes in the past where women were raped, beaten and houses burnt. When is this going to end, and where is te political will to bring it to an end?

Peter the Hermit or common churl?

I recently watched KTN's election 2007 debate on federalism. The main speakers were the venerable Mutula Kilonzo of the ‘Punda wawili farasi mmoja fame' and the venerated Anyang Nyong'o of the ‘farasi wawili and Punda mmoja school of thought. What came out clearly was the lack of common courtesy by the professor. Brash and arrogant, he was driven at one point to ask Kilonzo, " what is wrong with your brain?".

This unfortunate incident led to me to question the long term prospects for Kenyan politics, especially as these two highly educated gentlemen are the more germane end of the political class, the very minds that are expected to work on ideas, tackling issues rather than spitting in each other's face. Needless to say the good professor, previously respected even in circles where Raila Odinga and the ODM found no support, has seen his currency dip after a couple of poor television appearances.

Further to the east, on the 12th of October this year, when a handful of PML-N protesters tried to conduct a peaceful demonstration in Lahore, the provincial capital of Pakistani Punjab, the local police saw fit to entertain them with batons, tear gas and invective. Media pictures show that the police drew no punches, slugging the women with as much vim as they did the male protesters. They dragged them by their hair, insulted their womanhood, kicked them in the backsides and threw them into police vans that took away. Every last protester was arrested after getting apportioned his share of indiscriminately applied lashings, kicks and jabs.

More recently, on the 18^th October, former Pakistani prime-minister, Mrs. Benazir Bhutto, returning to her home country after eight years of self- exile in Britain was received with rapture and cheers. The joy was short-lived, however, being as it was cut short by suicide bombers in the capital. Over 130 people lost their lives and an even larger number are seriously injured. The sad thing is that both Bhutto and the bombers seem taken by the country's increasing intolerance and lack of tact. Their forceful politics, going against the advice of several counselors who advised a more low-key entrance and tolerance for dissent, has caused tens od deaths and maimed hundreds for life.

As a Maasai Muslim from Kajiado, a predominantly Christian community, my political ambition has also sufferd much discrimination. The prevailing perception is that my candidacy is a means by which I will introduce and recruit the youth here to Islam, which idea shuts doors in my face and closes ears off to my message. It is probably on these ground more than any other that I will register a dismal performance at the election, with many ballots filled out in complete ignorance of my proposals, or rejecting my platform purely on discriminatory grounds.

The newspapers October 20th report that ODM presidential candidate Raila Odinga took the battle for Muslim votes to the President's door through an open letter that addresses the issue of Kenyan Muslims taken up by the government and ostensibly with the cooperation of the USA and Ethiopia incarcerated without recourse to due process in jails outside Kenya. It read in part"......we Kenyans must ask ourselves these questions: who is running Kenya? Is it you, or have you lost control to a vindictive, self-interested coterie of people around you?"

He went on to write"... the prisoners are reported to have been tortured and subjected to degrading and inhuman treatment under interrogation (something I have experienced myself). Will there be an end soon to the culture of political intolerance? Do we have any reason to believe that the ODM will facilitate this end? Will the PNU encourage this change?

Lectures to one's opponents are easily penned. The true test is what one does with his opponents, what language and tactis one employs.

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A moment of silence for Lucky Dube.