Are our universities being tribalised?
By ALI MAZRUI .
We are generating emotions and tensions in Kenya which before long may require a whole new vocabulary. Are we on the verge of producing a form of inter-ethnic distrust which may be called Kikuyuphobia? Have other Kenyans begun to identify a form of prejudice which may be called Luophobia.
A Kikuyuphobe is a person who is profoundly distrustful of the Kikuyu-a form of negativism which is partly based on a stereotype. The Kikuyu are seen as manipulative, exploitative and inclined towards ethnic nepotism and tribal favouritism. The Kikuyu are seen as brilliant in commercial aptitude and other economic skills, but often at the expense of other groups. Kenyans should be careful not to reduce whole communities into such negative stereotypes. Such prejudice tends to dehumanise the targeted groups.
Luophobia is a form of distrust and prejudice shared by rival ethnic groups. While supporters of Raila Odinga are often prone to Kikuyuphobia, ardent supporters of Mwai Kibaki often manifest forms of Luophobia.
In both directions Kenyans should distrust their stereotypes, seek to contain their particular versions of “pride and prejudice”, and seek to cultivate instead some kind of “sense and sensibility”. The English novelist, Jane Austen, is assuming a new form of political relevance in the unfolding drama of Kenya after the December elections of 2007.
What is likely to be the impact of both Kikuyuphobia and Luophobia on higher education in Kenya? While the Kikuyu as a group have been politically and economically triumphant almost nation wide, the Luo have been disproportionately triumphant in the academic domain and among public intellectuals.
While in creative literature the Kikuyu have led the way with Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Micere Mugo and others, the Luo of Kenya have led the way in the study of history, in the social and natural sciences and in the study of African philosophy. Some have argued that while the Kikuyu are brilliant economic entrepreneurs, the Luo of Kenya have had an edge in academic and intellectual performance. Nevertheless, Kenya’s first Nobel Prize Laureate for Peace is a Kikuyu.
But what is likely to be the impact of our post-election crisis on higher education in Kenya? Even before the December election there was already an ethnic presence in classrooms on Kenyan campus. While professional promotions in Kenyan universities were already affected by ethnicity before December 27, 2007, grades for students were still ethnic-neutral on the whole. But the threat of ethnicising exam grades has become real since the beginning of this year.
At the University of Dar es Salaam after the Arusha Declaration of 1967 students were very conscious of the ideological orientation of their lecturers but seldom conscious of the racial or ethnic affiliation of their instructors. When Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Micere Mugo were lecturers at the University of Nairobi, students were more conscious of the left-wing ideologies of such instructors than of their ethnic affiliation.
What we now fear on our campus is greater ethnic consciousness of each other rather than greater sensitivity to intellectual nuances. Universities are supposed to be arenas of universal values and intellectual fraternity. It would be a pity if our campuses deteriorated into beehives of tribalism.
The post-election violence has begun to trigger academic ethnic cleansing. Members of vulnerable ethnic groups in violence-prone university towns are now looking for jobs in ethnically more friendly campuses. When President Mwai Kibaki made me Chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, he was making a statement about the universality of knowledge. First, he himself stepped down from the chancellorship and thereby depoliticised the office. Secondly, he chose a Kenyan in the Diaspora to be Chancellor of a university at home thereby emphasising the links between Kenyans at home and Kenyans abroad. Thirdly, the President honored a Kenyan from a small minority Swahili group at the Coast--- instead of someone from the more powerful communities of Kenya.
President Kibaki also opened academic doors for me which had been closed during the era of Daniel arap Moi. Under Kibaki I could give lectures in Kenya after years of being ostracised by Kenyan universities. My television series The Africans: A Triple Heritage (BBC/PBS, 1986) could at last be shown on Kenyan television after years of being banned by the Moi regime. I could also freely write for Kenya newspapers regardless of whether my views pleased President Kibaki or not.
The five years of Kibaki’s administration (2002 to 2007) helped to maximise academic and intellectual freedom on Kenya campuses, though not without some degree of tribalism and corruption in some of our activities.
Then came the elections of December 2007. Are the doors of academic freedom beginning to close? Are Kenyan universities retreating from universalism? Is the fog of tribalism beginning to descend on our campuses? It is not too late yet. Just as we sometimes call upon a doctor to heal himself, let us call upon intellectuals and academics to liberate themselves. Let us help our country to lick its wounds, and heal the body politic.
Prof Mazrui is the Chancellor, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
AINAMOI MP, DAVID KIMUTAI TOO LAID TO REST
Ainamoi MP,David Kimutai Too, who was gunned down by a traffic police laid to rest on Saturday,09/02/2008.
ODM has reaffirmed its commitment to the ongoing mediation but declared it would go for nothing short of the presidency. Party leader, Mr Raila Odinga, led 43 MPs in stating they would not relent in efforts to capture the presidency, which was allegedly stolen from them.
Speaking during the burial of the slain former Ainamoi MP, David Kimutai Too, in Kericho District, on Saturday, the MPs reiterated their commitment to the mediation talks. They also said they would not betray the trust Kenyans have entrusted on them.
"We have accepted to talk with PNU but we assure our supporters we will not settle for a solution that betrays their cause," Raila said. He said ODM was aware that millions of Kenyans who voted for him and the party MPs would not accept to be short-changed by PNU in the talks.
Raila also urged Kenyans to give Mr Kofi Annan’s team a chance to resolve the political crisis.He added that Kibaki and other PNU leaders were resisting pressure to relinquish power which, he said, they acquired illegally.
If Kenyans managed to successfully fight the British Empire and freed the country from the colonial yoke, Kibaki and his foot soldiers will be defeated and when all is settled, this whole thing will look like a storm in a tea cup," he said.
Raila also said normalcy would not return unless justice was done, adding that mediation efforts should be based on peace and justice. "Too’s killing was not as a result of a love triangle as was bandied around by the police who were ill-bent on covering the fact that it was a political assassination. Too’s spilled blood will not be in vain as it will be the driving force in our quest for justice," he said.
Raila criticized the police commissioner, Major Gen Hussein Ali for going public on the love triangle angle before investigations were launched into the MP’s killing.
Too was gunned down by a traffic police officer in Eldoret a week ago.
Above: ODM leader, Mr Raila Odinga (left) and Eldoret North MP, Mr William Ruto pay their last respects to the slain Ainamoi MP, David Too. He was buried on Saturday at his home in Chepkoyo village, Kericho District.
ODM has reaffirmed its commitment to the ongoing mediation but declared it would go for nothing short of the presidency. Party leader, Mr Raila Odinga, led 43 MPs in stating they would not relent in efforts to capture the presidency, which was allegedly stolen from them.
Speaking during the burial of the slain former Ainamoi MP, David Kimutai Too, in Kericho District, on Saturday, the MPs reiterated their commitment to the mediation talks. They also said they would not betray the trust Kenyans have entrusted on them.
"We have accepted to talk with PNU but we assure our supporters we will not settle for a solution that betrays their cause," Raila said. He said ODM was aware that millions of Kenyans who voted for him and the party MPs would not accept to be short-changed by PNU in the talks.
Raila also urged Kenyans to give Mr Kofi Annan’s team a chance to resolve the political crisis.He added that Kibaki and other PNU leaders were resisting pressure to relinquish power which, he said, they acquired illegally.
If Kenyans managed to successfully fight the British Empire and freed the country from the colonial yoke, Kibaki and his foot soldiers will be defeated and when all is settled, this whole thing will look like a storm in a tea cup," he said.
Raila also said normalcy would not return unless justice was done, adding that mediation efforts should be based on peace and justice. "Too’s killing was not as a result of a love triangle as was bandied around by the police who were ill-bent on covering the fact that it was a political assassination. Too’s spilled blood will not be in vain as it will be the driving force in our quest for justice," he said.
Raila criticized the police commissioner, Major Gen Hussein Ali for going public on the love triangle angle before investigations were launched into the MP’s killing.
Too was gunned down by a traffic police officer in Eldoret a week ago.
Above: ODM leader, Mr Raila Odinga (left) and Eldoret North MP, Mr William Ruto pay their last respects to the slain Ainamoi MP, David Too. He was buried on Saturday at his home in Chepkoyo village, Kericho District.
Friday, February 8, 2008
WHO ARE THE KIKUYUS?
I decided to share this slate post...
Who Are the Kikuyu?And why do Kenya's other tribes resent them so much?
CENTRAL PROVINCE, Kenya—On the hillsides, tea is still being picked; in the valleys, women still weed rows of beans, feet stained ocher by the soil; and in downtown Nyeri, the (matatu)taxi vans still honk by custom. The only immediate hint that something is amiss is to be found on the veranda of the Outspan Hotel.
Despite boasting one of Africa's most stunning views—Mount Kenya stretches serenely on the far side of the plains—the Outspan is strangely quiet these days; most of its tourists have fled. If Kenya is ablaze, it's almost possible to miss that fact in Central Province. A few hours' drive west, machete-wielding youths blockade roads, shops have been looted, and refugee camps spring up like mushrooms. At first glance, the country's most serious crisis since independence has barely dented the banal routines of daily life. There's a reason for this. Central Province is the home of President Mwai Kibaki—his Othaya constituency lies just south of Nyeri.
While his Kikuyu kinsmen have been burned alive and lynched across the rest of Kenya, punished for his suspected rigging of the December elections, only a madman would dare lift a hand to a Kikuyu on his home turf.But that doesn't allay a crawling sense of unease. The relationship between the Kikuyu and the rest of Kenya has been warped, residents sense, possibly beyond repair. Nyeri's inhabitants are haunted by a more immediate fear. Most of the 300,000 people displaced in the violence are Kikuyus. Even as nervous Luos cluster for protection in local police stations, hundreds of Kikuyus are returning, demanding housing, work, and school places. "At the moment people are telling those displaced to stick where they are, because there is great land scarcity here," says Muthui Mwai, a Nyeri journalist. "No one wants them back."
Land scarcity is the leitmotif of the Kikuyu, the historic source of their anguish and the motivating force behind their success story. Accounting for around 22 percent of Kenya's population of 38 million, the Kikuyu's mark on the East African nation has been far greater than the figures imply, thanks to that driving hunger.
Who Are the Kikuyu?And why do Kenya's other tribes resent them so much?
CENTRAL PROVINCE, Kenya—On the hillsides, tea is still being picked; in the valleys, women still weed rows of beans, feet stained ocher by the soil; and in downtown Nyeri, the (matatu)taxi vans still honk by custom. The only immediate hint that something is amiss is to be found on the veranda of the Outspan Hotel.
Despite boasting one of Africa's most stunning views—Mount Kenya stretches serenely on the far side of the plains—the Outspan is strangely quiet these days; most of its tourists have fled. If Kenya is ablaze, it's almost possible to miss that fact in Central Province. A few hours' drive west, machete-wielding youths blockade roads, shops have been looted, and refugee camps spring up like mushrooms. At first glance, the country's most serious crisis since independence has barely dented the banal routines of daily life. There's a reason for this. Central Province is the home of President Mwai Kibaki—his Othaya constituency lies just south of Nyeri.
While his Kikuyu kinsmen have been burned alive and lynched across the rest of Kenya, punished for his suspected rigging of the December elections, only a madman would dare lift a hand to a Kikuyu on his home turf.But that doesn't allay a crawling sense of unease. The relationship between the Kikuyu and the rest of Kenya has been warped, residents sense, possibly beyond repair. Nyeri's inhabitants are haunted by a more immediate fear. Most of the 300,000 people displaced in the violence are Kikuyus. Even as nervous Luos cluster for protection in local police stations, hundreds of Kikuyus are returning, demanding housing, work, and school places. "At the moment people are telling those displaced to stick where they are, because there is great land scarcity here," says Muthui Mwai, a Nyeri journalist. "No one wants them back."
Land scarcity is the leitmotif of the Kikuyu, the historic source of their anguish and the motivating force behind their success story. Accounting for around 22 percent of Kenya's population of 38 million, the Kikuyu's mark on the East African nation has been far greater than the figures imply, thanks to that driving hunger.
Under Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, another kinsman, they streamed out of Central Province, settling in the Rift Valley and on the coast. Today, they dominate the economy. Kikuyus drive most of Kenya's and its taxis, run its newspapers, and constitute much of its civil service, their entrepreneurial reach extending from the glitziest of hotels to the remotest roadside(kiosk).
They also, joke Kikuyus, account for the biggest share of the country's criminals and prison inmates. They hail themselves as "the Jews of Kenya," envied and hated in equal measure for that entrepreneurial zeal. But there's a difference: Europe's Jews never combined economic influence with political power. The Kikuyu have done just that, providing two of Kenya's three presidents. And their current predicament can be traced to that double-fisted grip on the nation-state and the resentment it stirs among their compatriots.
The Kikuyu story, legend has it, begins on a ridge north of the town of Muranga, south of Nyeri, amid the misty valleys carved by Mount Kenya's melting snows. To the precolonial Kikuyu, Mount Kenya, known as Kirinyaga, was the seat of God, or Ngai. Ngai created Gikuyu—the first man—then pointed earthward. "Build your homestead where the fig trees grow," he said. Later, he sent Mumbi to join him, and the couple established the 10 clans that constitute "the house of Mumbi," as the Kikuyu are also known. You can actually visit this Kikuyu version of the Garden of Eden. Behind a sky-blue gate, painted with the words Mukurwe Wa Nyagathanga—the Tree of Gathanga—lie two mud huts, one for Gikuyu and one for Mumbi. The site looks toward Kirinyaga, but the mountain, famously elusive, is usually shrouded in cloud.
The compound may be an officially designated historical monument, but it looks semineglected. The skeleton of a half-built hotel, abandoned when a shady contractor disappeared with the funds—"This, too, is part of our culture," jokes a villager—drips water nearby. In my many trips there, I've never stumbled on another visitor. "It's not our way to look backward, only forward," explains my Kikuyu driver. The farming community that fanned out from this site had a special affinity with the soil. "There is a great desire in the heart of every Gikuyu man to own a piece of land on which he can build his home," Kenyatta wrote in Facing Mount Kenya. "A man or a woman who cannot say to his friends, come and eat, drink and enjoy the fruit of my labour, is not considered as a worthy member of the tribe."
It was this affinity that brought the Kikuyu into conflict with the British Empire. Initially, Britain's 19th-century explorers showed little interest in the area that would be designated "Kenya," training their eyes instead on the Buganda kingdom across Lake Victoria. Central Province's fertile valleys were simply the place to stock their caravans with fresh food before the long trip west.
But with time, Kenya itself became the draw. Most of the land that British settlers appropriated belonged to the nomadic Masai, not the Kikuyu, but it was the Kikuyu who led an armed insurrection, Mau Mau, in the 1950s. With their fast-growing population, the Kikuyu needed room to expand. The British had removed that possibility by farming the White Highlands. British Capt. Richard Meinertzhagen claimed to have seen what was coming. "They are the most intelligent of the African tribes that I have met; therefore they will be the most progressive under European guidance and will be the most susceptible to subversive activities," he wrote.
Mau Mau has left its scars, psychological if not physical. At least 150,000 Kikuyus passed through British detention camps, and more than 20,000 Mau Mau fighters died in combat. Central Province's residents can still point out the caves where the freedom fighters hid and sketch the location of the British prisons and scaffolds where they were executed—in Nyeri's case, on what is now the golf club's parking lot.
Seeking scapegoats in that turbulent past, many older inhabitants insist today's troubles are the work of a British government that has never forgiven the Kikuyu their revolt. Now the Brits are supposedly the hidden hand behind Luo leader Raila Odinga's opposition campaign. "This is not a war between Kenyans, it's a war imported from abroad," fumes Joseph Karimi, co-author of The Kenyatta Succession. "The British were not satisfied with the rule of the Kikuyu, so they brought in this war. They never actually left Kenya and they never intend to."
If the British won the fight against Mau Mau, the Kikuyu won the peace. When Britain pulled out in 1963, it was Kenyatta, once jailed as a Mau Mau leader, who became president, his community that took pole position. Forced proximity with the colonial administration and the proliferation of missionary schools in Central Province meant the Kikuyu were better educated than other Kenyans and best placed to benefit from independence. What's more, they enjoyed the president's patronage. "My people have the milk in the morning, your tribes the milk in the afternoon," Kenyatta told non-Kikuyu ministers who complained.The Kikuyu, outsiders feel, have been rubbing other communities' noses in their pre-eminence ever since. "We're obnoxious, we're thrusting, we're loud, and we're everywhere," acknowledges a Kikuyu banker friend. "Our problem is there aren't enough of us to dominate, yet we're too large to ignore. We are at once both obnoxious and indispensable."
Although Kenyatta's successor, Daniel arap Moi, systematically crushed Kikuyu aspirations while promoting his own Kalenjin, the community still thrived economically. Hence the conviction, voiced by snarl-toothed elders and fresh-faced undergraduates alike in Central Province, that only the Kikuyu—the community that stood up and defied the white invader—deserve to run the country.
I hear the familiar refrain in a hotel bar in Muranga, whose wall, significantly, is decorated with framed photographs of Kenyatta and Kibaki, but not of Moi. "If you did an experiment and took five Luos, five Luhyas, five Kambas, and five Kikuyus and gave them money to invest, you would see the result," boasts John Kiriamiti, who publishes a Muranga newspaper. "The Kikuyu would be far, far ahead." His business partner, Njoroge Gicheha, chimes in. "You cannot compare a fisherman in Nyanza who simply pulls a fish from the lake to a farmer who plants beans in Central Province and waits six months to harvest. The fact is, we work harder than other Kenyans."
It's this bumptious sense of entitlement that infuriates Kenya's 47 other tribes. But, with the exception of two bouts of ethnic cleansing in the 1990s, irritation was largely held in check under Moi, a topic of good-natured banter rather than abuse.
That changed with the 2002 elections that first put Kibaki in power. A consensus candidate backed by a broad tribal coalition, he swiftly reneged on promises of a new constitution devolving power to the regions. The pledge of a prime minister's post for Odinga, the man who probably won December's elections, was withdrawn. As the tribal coalition disintegrated, Kenyans noticed that key ministries were all held by members of what they dubbed "the Mount Kenya Mafia." Far from challenging Kenyatta's system of ethnic favoritism, Kibaki reinforced it.
While Western donors relished Kibaki's 6 percent to 7 percent growth rates, the mood on the ground was grim. The fact that Central Province's milk, tea, and coffee industries surged ahead while other regions remained marginalized did not go unnoticed.
Both sides helped whip low-level ethnic resentment into today's frenzied hatred.
Odinga raised the stakes by preaching majimboism. Majimboism means federalism, a system many might think well-suited to over-centralized Kenya. But to Odinga's supporters, it was a code word for something very specific: Kikuyus with plots or businesses in non-Kikuyu areas would be forced out and sent "home."
In Central Province, Kikuyu MPs seized on the majimboist threat to foster a siege mentality. Rumors of a project to slaughter 1 million Kikuyus circulated like wildfire. "The amount of fear-mongering [texts] and e-mails was stupendous," says Kwamchetsi Makokha, a columnist for the Nation newspaper. "It became a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you set the stage where a single community has isolated itself, what follows is a feeling of resentment by others, of 'what's so special about you?' "
There was nothing random about the violence that exploded with the announcement of a Kibaki win. Deciding that the Kikuyu intended to rule Kenya indefinitely, Luos in the Western town of Kisumu looted Kikuyu shops, while Kalenjin militias drove Kikuyus from Rift Valley farms, settling scores dating back to Kenyatta's 1970s settlement scheme.
A feared Kikuyu militia, the Mungiki, is now extracting vicious revenge. But as thugs demand ID cards at roadblocks and members of the "wrong" tribe watch homes go up in smoke, majimboism is being put into crude practice on the ground, decades of Kikuyu expansionism challenged and reversed.
Many analysts see the entrepreneurship that defines the Kikuyu experience as the only hope for peace. Holding such a huge stake in the Kenyan economy, the Kikuyu have more to lose from the spiraling anarchy than any other group.
In Nairobi, groups of young Kikuyu professionals are calling for a power-sharing deal between Kibaki and Odinga. But the only individuals capable of pushing Kibaki to cede ground at talks being mediated by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan are probably his Kikuyu businessmen buddies. While they are beginning to feel the pinch as their hotels empty and investment portfolios collapse, this elderly group remains hard-line in its instincts.
Here in Central Province, a region locked in belligerent denial and memories of its insurgent past, there is little talk of compromise and no criticism of Kibaki. Retreating ever further into the chauvinistic bunker, some argue that the Kikuyu should create a mini-state of their own. "We can form a government from the Mount Kenya area, the Luhya, and some Kalenjin," James Wanyaga, Nyeri's former mayor, told me. "We can forget about the Luos and put our security machinery into Rift Valley, just as your people did under colonialism. And we would get on very well."
On one thing, however, all agree: There must be no more Kikuyu presidencies. The price of Kikuyu hegemony has already proved greater than anyone wants to pay. "Come 2012, a Kikuyu candidate will stand no chance at all here," says Gichema. "We don't want to be any further isolated.
WE HOPE THAT...
WE HOPE THAT...
By guest...
We hope that Kenya will build itself from the tragedy that was the 27th December 2007 election.
We hope that our leaders will see the need to legislate a strong institutional framework that ensure that the same will never happen again.
We hope that the 'Kibaki Syndrome' that seems to affect all the leaders in the African continent shall be addressed so that the continent can create enabling environment for democracy, equity and justice to flourish.
We hope that the vultures and hyenas shall learn that the power belongs to the people, and that it is the people who should determine the winner of the election and not those who count and tally the votes.
We hope that the parots and fanatical sycophants shall learn the importance of principles and the value of patriotism.
We hope that the arrogant vultures and myopic power thieves shall learn that humility is the key for unity.
We hope that the Party of National Unity will come to sense and change it's name to fit int with its core objective, which seemed to have been to divide kenyans and to rule by the barrel of a gun and the force of the Mungiki.
We hope that our leaders shall learn the power of sacrifice and emulate Nelson Mandela and our own Agwambo Raila Arap Mibei Mwana Wa Nabongo IV, the peoples president.
Raila you are my president and you do not need to be the president of Kenya to be the true president of your supporters. We shall be behind you 100%. Lead the team and the country to new heights, where democracy, equity and justice shall rein.
By guest...
We hope that Kenya will build itself from the tragedy that was the 27th December 2007 election.
We hope that our leaders will see the need to legislate a strong institutional framework that ensure that the same will never happen again.
We hope that the 'Kibaki Syndrome' that seems to affect all the leaders in the African continent shall be addressed so that the continent can create enabling environment for democracy, equity and justice to flourish.
We hope that the vultures and hyenas shall learn that the power belongs to the people, and that it is the people who should determine the winner of the election and not those who count and tally the votes.
We hope that the parots and fanatical sycophants shall learn the importance of principles and the value of patriotism.
We hope that the arrogant vultures and myopic power thieves shall learn that humility is the key for unity.
We hope that the Party of National Unity will come to sense and change it's name to fit int with its core objective, which seemed to have been to divide kenyans and to rule by the barrel of a gun and the force of the Mungiki.
We hope that our leaders shall learn the power of sacrifice and emulate Nelson Mandela and our own Agwambo Raila Arap Mibei Mwana Wa Nabongo IV, the peoples president.
Raila you are my president and you do not need to be the president of Kenya to be the true president of your supporters. We shall be behind you 100%. Lead the team and the country to new heights, where democracy, equity and justice shall rein.
PANU SAYING NO TO RAMAPHOSA
Saying no to Mr. Ramaphosa has proved tricky for PANU.
While the PANU government thought it had won by refusing the skilled South African mediator, they found themselves losing.
They did not realise that Kenya needed Mr Ramaphosa more than he needed Kenya. Actually, Mr Ramaphosa did not need Kenya at all. At 55 years, he is a self-actualised, extremely wealthy politician- turned-businessman and a potential presidential candidate. He is also one of the most influential South Africans to date.
As chairman of the Shanduka Group, whose shares are valued at $66.87 million (about Sh45 billion), he has everything. He controls access to the banks and insurance companies and his political friends and media links are legion. He has interests in three of South Africa’s most influential newspapers —Sunday Times, Business Day and The Sowetan. Apart from trying to help Kenya out of its political crisis he spends his spare time with his doctor wife Tshepo in the fight against HIV and Aids. I believe he was genuine, and I find it difficult to believe that he would compromise his reputation for the sake of an individual politician in Kenya.
A former trade union leader and apartheid-era politician-cum-negotiator, Mr Ramaphosa had something to offer to Kenya. He is a specialist mediator in the field of political disputes and an expert dispute resolver. He is not new to gamesmanship and high-risk politics. Mr Ramaphosa practised, and understands, the politics of brinkmanship, which seems to characterize the Kenyan crisis. He also has a reputation for pushing to achieve the most advantageous outcome and bringing a sense of appreciation of the big picture, which is probably what Kenya needs right now.
BY SAYING NO TO HIM, PANU Government looked mean-minded. It even provoked bad blood with South Africa. Shortly after he returned home, Mr Ramaphosa’s government unleashed a scalding attack on Kenya. In fact, what the PANU government thought it had gained, it lost on the diplomatic front. South Africa has now become the first government in Africa to say publicly that it does not recognise President Kibaki.
Deputy Foreign minister Aziz Pahad said his government “rejected with the contempt it deserves” the claims by PNU that Ramaphosa could not be an honest broker. These sentiments were shared elsewhere. As US ambassador Michael Ranneberger said, it is unfortunate that Mr Ramaphosa was ejected from the talks, as “he is a good and effective negotiator”. However, the envoy observed correctly that “it is important that any mediator is acceptable to both parties for talks to succeed”.
While the PANU government thought it had won by refusing the skilled South African mediator, they found themselves losing.
They did not realise that Kenya needed Mr Ramaphosa more than he needed Kenya. Actually, Mr Ramaphosa did not need Kenya at all. At 55 years, he is a self-actualised, extremely wealthy politician- turned-businessman and a potential presidential candidate. He is also one of the most influential South Africans to date.
As chairman of the Shanduka Group, whose shares are valued at $66.87 million (about Sh45 billion), he has everything. He controls access to the banks and insurance companies and his political friends and media links are legion. He has interests in three of South Africa’s most influential newspapers —Sunday Times, Business Day and The Sowetan. Apart from trying to help Kenya out of its political crisis he spends his spare time with his doctor wife Tshepo in the fight against HIV and Aids. I believe he was genuine, and I find it difficult to believe that he would compromise his reputation for the sake of an individual politician in Kenya.
A former trade union leader and apartheid-era politician-cum-negotiator, Mr Ramaphosa had something to offer to Kenya. He is a specialist mediator in the field of political disputes and an expert dispute resolver. He is not new to gamesmanship and high-risk politics. Mr Ramaphosa practised, and understands, the politics of brinkmanship, which seems to characterize the Kenyan crisis. He also has a reputation for pushing to achieve the most advantageous outcome and bringing a sense of appreciation of the big picture, which is probably what Kenya needs right now.
BY SAYING NO TO HIM, PANU Government looked mean-minded. It even provoked bad blood with South Africa. Shortly after he returned home, Mr Ramaphosa’s government unleashed a scalding attack on Kenya. In fact, what the PANU government thought it had gained, it lost on the diplomatic front. South Africa has now become the first government in Africa to say publicly that it does not recognise President Kibaki.
Deputy Foreign minister Aziz Pahad said his government “rejected with the contempt it deserves” the claims by PNU that Ramaphosa could not be an honest broker. These sentiments were shared elsewhere. As US ambassador Michael Ranneberger said, it is unfortunate that Mr Ramaphosa was ejected from the talks, as “he is a good and effective negotiator”. However, the envoy observed correctly that “it is important that any mediator is acceptable to both parties for talks to succeed”.
A GOOD READ
Blind support for Kibaki and Raila our undoing.
By barrack muluka
I write what I like and I like what I write. I write from the deepest recesses of my soul. I have never considered that I should write to please President Kibaki or Mr Raila Odinga, or any of the rank and files of their unquestioning followers and assorted multitudes.I am, however, condemned to live in a society that has sold itself to the devil of greed, ethnicity and dishonesty. I do not consider it my primary duty, therefore, to write for any of those categories. Rather, I write foremost for future generations.
One day they will want to know the truth about the ugly things happening among us. They will seek trustworthy and fearless witness accounts. I seek to keep an honest annotated record for them. One of the best things my mother did was to send me to school. And she did not do this so that upon graduation I should enlist in the army of a bloodthirsty crowd. Let us face it, the country is burning and bleeding. It is awash with murder aforethought. Arsonists and allied anarchists and mass killers are everywhere.They are killing here and raping there. They loot, plunder and maim at will. The country is in a free fall, which it might never recover from. There is even suspicion of complicity by a genocidal fugitive from Rwanda. And am supposed to lend them my pen? That I should write through the selective prism of jaundiced eyes?
There are those who have sent me irritating little notes, laced with innuendo. They are disappointed that my writing is "bereft" of hostile partiality that should feed their violent ethnic passions and other wild appetites. Maybe they can be persuaded to be of good conduct and refrain. At any rate, like the man called Daniel, whom I read of in the Christian book, the God whom I serve can save me. He will rescue me from your cruel hand. And even if he should not, I shall not worship the latter-day golden images you have set up. I shall continue to write with robust candour. Meanwhile, our elected "mobus vulgus" are back in town, in ODM and in PNU. You see them in ill-fitting and mismatched attire. They crowd and jostle for photography at rushed press briefings. Fellows who yawn their way through party parliamentary group meetings are suddenly galvanised at the sight of cameras. We have condemned ourselves with uncritical characters for MPs. They process their thoughts in the small intestines. They add absolutely nothing to the national basket of ideas. Their role is to swell numbers. In truth, your average MP is just a statistic, for ODM and for PNU.
Buoyed on with this knowledge, party leaders mistake the whole country for a leashed bulldog under their mandate. Each time they do not agree with you they threaten to unleash the dog. Unquestioning minds I know about this exploitation of the mentality of the crowd. I first read about it in my ‘A’ Level literature class, 30 years ago. It has not changed. The commentator on the anarchy in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies wrote: "Foremost in Golding’s mind when describing mob behaviour was Nazi Germany. Jack (a character in Golding’s story) in many ways echoes (Adolph) Hitler. At first charismatic and seeming to offer easy solutions to difficult situations, both learnt to use the fury of the mob against their enemies. Hitler turned mobs against Communists, Jews, homosexuals and, indeed, many of his own followers to eliminate opponents and terrify everyone else.
Golding went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1983). For our part, we do not learn. Our so-called party leaders are in love with unquestioning minds. They would sooner impose upon us an ochlocracy, complete with the domination of reason by passion. Even in Parliament, they work best with easily movable automatons that only wait to be switched on. What of the contentious election results? I see nothing to argue about. For the elections were hopelessly flawed with fraud. From party nominations to December 27, fraudsters held sway.
Does the situation today reflect the will of the people? How can it when, in the first place, ODM and PNU imposed unpopular candidates on voters in their strongholds? Indeed how can it, when on December 27, ECK officials in PNU and ODM strongholds unashamedly marked and stuffed ballot papers in favour of their party of choice?
Nobody in ODM and in PNU is qualified to glibly talk about such lofty things as "truth and justice" without first seeking forgiveness.
Where do you get the moral high ground? Which justice did you give to those you rigged out of party nominations (I was there and know it)? You stole. You bribed voters and party big guns. You intimidated. The rules of the game were that simple. I do not doubt that the person best placed to steal the ultimate prize may well have run away with it. And why not? ODM and PNU played the card of fraudulence.
Now we need the wisdom of King Solomon. ODM and PNU now claim the baby. We do not know who is right. The solution is to kill the baby. Kibaki should disband the Kivuitu thing. He should dissolve Parliament and pave way for proper UN supervised elections, free from his hand and his crowd and free from Raila and his crowd.
The writer is a publishing editor and a media consultant with Mvule Africa Publishers.
By barrack muluka
I write what I like and I like what I write. I write from the deepest recesses of my soul. I have never considered that I should write to please President Kibaki or Mr Raila Odinga, or any of the rank and files of their unquestioning followers and assorted multitudes.I am, however, condemned to live in a society that has sold itself to the devil of greed, ethnicity and dishonesty. I do not consider it my primary duty, therefore, to write for any of those categories. Rather, I write foremost for future generations.
One day they will want to know the truth about the ugly things happening among us. They will seek trustworthy and fearless witness accounts. I seek to keep an honest annotated record for them. One of the best things my mother did was to send me to school. And she did not do this so that upon graduation I should enlist in the army of a bloodthirsty crowd. Let us face it, the country is burning and bleeding. It is awash with murder aforethought. Arsonists and allied anarchists and mass killers are everywhere.They are killing here and raping there. They loot, plunder and maim at will. The country is in a free fall, which it might never recover from. There is even suspicion of complicity by a genocidal fugitive from Rwanda. And am supposed to lend them my pen? That I should write through the selective prism of jaundiced eyes?
There are those who have sent me irritating little notes, laced with innuendo. They are disappointed that my writing is "bereft" of hostile partiality that should feed their violent ethnic passions and other wild appetites. Maybe they can be persuaded to be of good conduct and refrain. At any rate, like the man called Daniel, whom I read of in the Christian book, the God whom I serve can save me. He will rescue me from your cruel hand. And even if he should not, I shall not worship the latter-day golden images you have set up. I shall continue to write with robust candour. Meanwhile, our elected "mobus vulgus" are back in town, in ODM and in PNU. You see them in ill-fitting and mismatched attire. They crowd and jostle for photography at rushed press briefings. Fellows who yawn their way through party parliamentary group meetings are suddenly galvanised at the sight of cameras. We have condemned ourselves with uncritical characters for MPs. They process their thoughts in the small intestines. They add absolutely nothing to the national basket of ideas. Their role is to swell numbers. In truth, your average MP is just a statistic, for ODM and for PNU.
Buoyed on with this knowledge, party leaders mistake the whole country for a leashed bulldog under their mandate. Each time they do not agree with you they threaten to unleash the dog. Unquestioning minds I know about this exploitation of the mentality of the crowd. I first read about it in my ‘A’ Level literature class, 30 years ago. It has not changed. The commentator on the anarchy in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies wrote: "Foremost in Golding’s mind when describing mob behaviour was Nazi Germany. Jack (a character in Golding’s story) in many ways echoes (Adolph) Hitler. At first charismatic and seeming to offer easy solutions to difficult situations, both learnt to use the fury of the mob against their enemies. Hitler turned mobs against Communists, Jews, homosexuals and, indeed, many of his own followers to eliminate opponents and terrify everyone else.
Golding went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1983). For our part, we do not learn. Our so-called party leaders are in love with unquestioning minds. They would sooner impose upon us an ochlocracy, complete with the domination of reason by passion. Even in Parliament, they work best with easily movable automatons that only wait to be switched on. What of the contentious election results? I see nothing to argue about. For the elections were hopelessly flawed with fraud. From party nominations to December 27, fraudsters held sway.
Does the situation today reflect the will of the people? How can it when, in the first place, ODM and PNU imposed unpopular candidates on voters in their strongholds? Indeed how can it, when on December 27, ECK officials in PNU and ODM strongholds unashamedly marked and stuffed ballot papers in favour of their party of choice?
Nobody in ODM and in PNU is qualified to glibly talk about such lofty things as "truth and justice" without first seeking forgiveness.
Where do you get the moral high ground? Which justice did you give to those you rigged out of party nominations (I was there and know it)? You stole. You bribed voters and party big guns. You intimidated. The rules of the game were that simple. I do not doubt that the person best placed to steal the ultimate prize may well have run away with it. And why not? ODM and PNU played the card of fraudulence.
Now we need the wisdom of King Solomon. ODM and PNU now claim the baby. We do not know who is right. The solution is to kill the baby. Kibaki should disband the Kivuitu thing. He should dissolve Parliament and pave way for proper UN supervised elections, free from his hand and his crowd and free from Raila and his crowd.
The writer is a publishing editor and a media consultant with Mvule Africa Publishers.
HOPE FOR KENYA IN ANNAN'S MEDIATION TALKS
It is looking like there may be some hope in the ongoing mediation talks. Reports are emerging that some substantial progress are being made going by the news of this week. "We are making progress,'' Annan said.
"We are all agreed that a political settlement is needed, a political settlement is necessary, and we are now in the process of discussing the details, working out the terms of the settlement,'' he said. "So you will have to be a little patient.'' This is after Ruto had earlier suggested to reporters that there was already a breakthrough.
Annan told reporters that he hoped they would complete their work by early next week.
On Thursday, Raila retreated from earlier calls that Kibaki should step down. And suggested that ODM was willing to compromise for the sake of peace and for the welfare of the country.
"We are saying that we are willing to give and take. Initially our stand was that we won the elections, and Mr. Kibaki lost the elections, he should resign, and we should be sworn in, but we have said that we are not static on that point," Odinga told reporters.
Speaking at a prayer meeting in Nairobi earlier Friday, Kibaki said he was "encouraged'' by progress in talks and reiterated "my personal support and that of my entire government to this process."
"We are all agreed that a political settlement is needed, a political settlement is necessary, and we are now in the process of discussing the details, working out the terms of the settlement,'' he said. "So you will have to be a little patient.'' This is after Ruto had earlier suggested to reporters that there was already a breakthrough.
Annan told reporters that he hoped they would complete their work by early next week.
On Thursday, Raila retreated from earlier calls that Kibaki should step down. And suggested that ODM was willing to compromise for the sake of peace and for the welfare of the country.
"We are saying that we are willing to give and take. Initially our stand was that we won the elections, and Mr. Kibaki lost the elections, he should resign, and we should be sworn in, but we have said that we are not static on that point," Odinga told reporters.
Speaking at a prayer meeting in Nairobi earlier Friday, Kibaki said he was "encouraged'' by progress in talks and reiterated "my personal support and that of my entire government to this process."
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