Comments on: No Country for Old Hatreds

By: katch up

katch up — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:02:14 +0000

It is true Binyavanga that a crisis like the present in Kenya can be a stepping stone to the country we all dream of: Peaceful and prosperous. However, that depends on how the impasse is treated and not on assumptions that leaders can just sit and agree on something.

This would be not be beneficial to Kenyans but to those politicians that would enter an agreement. What we need is the truth that comes by exposing our political leaders as who they are.

You will agree with me that just like in a marriage, the first days of any political leadership in office are all bliss until later on. The opposition looks for mistakes, highlights them, comes to power, it is removed by another opposition and voila the cycle.

I think Wainaina you need to strike the nail flat on the head and say that in the last 40 years Kenya has had very ugly instances of disturbance of peace, death included. It has not been joy through out. What we see now is what I can call a painful boil than the rest that we have had all over.

Calling for a power sharing agreement is as dangerous as exposing anything inflammable to a flame. Entering such a pact in Kenya would mean that we render an Electoral Commission forever irrelevant in the future. It would be an admission that elections are undoable in Kenya, which means the country will henceforth be governed under pacts.

The truth about the December 27th general election need to be established clearly and all doubts erased. There must have been a winner and a loser and that is the line to pursue. This has nothing even to do with a new election since moods have changed and nothing will prevent a loser in the re-tally referring back and saying, ‘I had won in the first election and if you don’t hear me I’m going to do wonders.”

The problem in kenya is or will be aggravated by those assumptions submitting that this is only a simple puncture that we can patch up and go on. Never that way.

Who killed who? Who incited who? Who won? Who lost? Let Kenyans first know the facts and then shall the we extract an ultimate cure to our problems, ethinicity being numero uno.

Fantasy in issues like these incubates anarchy.

By: polarise

polarise — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:52:25 +0000

Over the last few days, I have realised what our country is worth. We have been sitting in our comfortable sitting rooms, grease-lipped with a steaming capuccino in one hand as we naively gnaw away at what the media houses graciously feed us with: pot-bellied executives shake to mergers, disgruntled politicians frog-march one another up and down five-star hotels’ foyers and many other efforts at ‘advancement’. The reality is that we are a sadly poor country and the so-called political class is seated with warming their hands for the next hand-shake. We need to do something for OUR good lest we be led to our doom. As Kenyans, we faithfully pay our taxes which are used to fund the incumbent’s re-election bid while people live in super-abject poverty.
Let no-one fool themselves that because s/he belongs to the same tribe as our ‘prominent’ politicians they will benefit. Ah-ah! As has been said elsewhere, there are only two tribes in Kenya: the rich and the poor. It’s just sad to see those of the same tribe killing each other while the ‘enemy’ wonders at his/her next acquisition!

By: Ronno

Ronno — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:46:02 +0000

So what happened to the fire-breathing, froth at the mouth democrats of yesteryear. I mean this was a STOLEN election. The way forward is for the man on the seat to STEP ASIDE and allow for an independent audit of the tally. The longer the hard stance the more bloodshed we will be seeing!

By: Manduku

Manduku — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:57:02 +0000

I wish to differ with you on the notion that Raila was to bring about the so called 2nd liberation. Let me put forth my argument.
In 1997, Raila vied for the top seat this time riding on the moribund National democratic Party (NDP). He came third garnering 665, 725 votes mostly from Luo Nyanza. This was 10.92 % of the total votes cast against Kibaki’s 1,895,527 million votes representing 31.09 % of votes cast. The then incumbent, Mr. Moi won with some 40.12 %, 2,445,801 votes http://africanelections.tripod .com/ke.html#1992_Presidential_Election. However, commenting immediately after the announcement of these results, Raila had this to tell BBC; ”Moi has rigged the process as he did in 1992, just that this time round he will not fool anybody,” Raila Odinga, the candidate for the National Development Party, told Reuters. ”We are prepared for him, and we are ready to take him head on.” (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407EFDC1331F932A05751C1A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2). Barely 4 years later in 2002, not only did Raila recognize Moi as the president elect, but he also brockered a power sharing deal clearly showing his readiness to compromise for selfish gains. He drove his NDP party into a merger with KANU in which he was named the KANU secretary general brining to an end the long and lustrous career of Kamotho, the hitherto secretary general. He was also rewarded with a Energy Ministry docket and was expecting to be the successor of the then retiring president. Consequently, NDP was dissolved. This was well covered by BBC and a photo of jubilant Raila giving a victors thumbs up can be clearly seen on the BBC news archives (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/ 1878321.stm). Into the steady embrace of Moi, where inveigled with the goodies of the patronage system, his party was soon supporting the Moi kleptocracy, saving it from votes of no confidence by first Ugenya MP James Orengo and then a second one brought by Kisumu Rural MP Anyang’ Nyong’o. So it is that not everything is as it seems. Raila only left KANU when he realized that he was not part of the former presidents succession plan. He was to join Kibaki, Wamalwa and Ngilu (all who had lost in 1997 presidential race) who had already formed a unified political coalition front, NAK to take on KANU. So when Raila calls Kalonzo a traitor for accepting a VP post, it leaves a lot to be desired on how politicians quickly forgets their own roles in similar scripts different casts. Surely, this man gets more credit than he deserves.