Antony Muraya Lauds Kesofo On “Kenya Unity Party” Initiative
After a long period of unity drought, there is finally a small cloud of hope- KESOFO’S DECEMBER 1 UNITY PARTY.
By “unity drought”, I do not mean to be ignorant of past repeated efforts by patriotic Kenyans to bring us, the Kenyan community here in Stockholm, together. Even though those dreams didn’t bear much fruit at the expected time, they have never died. Just as Olengais wrote, the spirit of familiarity (and I add tribalism, ego, pride, etc) might have just slowed down the mission.
But thank God! A new generation well loaded with vision is here. KESOFO.
This is the generation of dreamers and vision bearers. I call them water walkers. They dare do the “logically impossible”.
We all can’t ignore the fact that Kesofo’s Unity vision is coming at a time when we’ve had a dangerous storm of division mixed with deadly thunders of gossip and lightnings of rumours and propaganda. It’s been hard to tell white from black- ama kweli kikulacho ki ngouni mwako and rafiki yako ndio adui yako.
But no matter how long the night might be, dawn is always sure to come and after a drought comes rainfall. I can smell a mighty downpour of peace, love and unity within our community. I see a small cloud, the size of a man’s fist, just around the corner. It has formed itself in the heart of Kesofo.
It’ll sooner than later darken and cover the Kenya-Stockholm earth before bursting into an Oasis of love in an emotional and spiritual desert. I can almost see all of us drown in it. It’s a vision, maybe not so clear for every one of us to see through, but as I can see, it is pregnant with hope and life. Without a vision, the people perish.
Oh! how I wish that someone out there could help me up laud Kesofo. Let us appreciate them. It doesn’t have to be me or you, it just have to be someone. Let us stand and honour this bold step of faith. I believe that will encourage these love pursuers to fight to beat the odds like tribalism, egoism, hypocrisy, faked smiles and hugs, jealousy, hatred etc. Let us love and believe in them. They can make it- if only we, the audience, sing along. To them, I perceive, even the impossible is possible. This vision is well timed. Keep it up, Kesofo and please pursue your goals to the sweet end. May God bless and unite all of us.
KWA UMOJA, PAMOJA: KESOFO JENGENI UKUTA.
Muraya,
Destiny Talented Generation (K)
KSB COMMENT:
We agree that the “Unity Party” is a good idea. Conscious minds can always beat it in one heart. We hope that Wakenya will use it to reflect into the past, the present and the future.
Diaspora: Kenyan Ambassador To Irland Presents Credentials
On Tuesday this week, the Kenyan Ambassador to Ireland Catherine Muigai Mwangi presented her credentials to the Irish President, Mary McAleese. The Ambassador, who arrived in Ireland last week, later joined a number of other Kenyans for a luncheon in Dublin.
Speaking at the Embassy, the Ambassador thanked Kenyans living in Ireland for the warm welcome they have extended to the staff at the Embassy.
The Kenyan Embassy is in the process of preparing for the forthcoming Jamhuri Day celebrations to be held at a hotel in Dublin on Saturday 8th December 2007. A separate celebration for children of Kenyans is also being planned to be hosted by the Ambassador at her residence at a later date.
We will be publishing more details here as and when we recieve them. The Embassy contact details are as follows:
Embassy of the Republic of Kenya
11 Elgin Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland
Tel: +353 1 613 6380, Fax: + 353 1 668 5506
How Could Ambassador Purity Have Come To This?
Since she arrived quietly in Stockholm in August last year to take over from former Ambassador Mukiri Kinyanjui, KSB has never wasted any opportunity to criticize the Kenyan Ambassador to Scandinavia H.E Mrs Purity Muhindi for catastrophic mistakes, gigantic failures or acts of omissions in the process of her work at the Kenyan embassy. Reactionary KSB critics who have been hollering to the effect that KSB attacks on the Ambassador are superfluous have eventually taken their cue – thanks to the “Embassy engineered” botched attempt to kidnap a seriously sick diplomat from his hospital bed last Thursday so that he could be repatriated to Kenya together with members of his family.
Kenyans in Stockholm might have been used to the antiques of the Ambassador. But the very act of trying to drag a helpless patient from a hospital bed so that he could go and die in Kenya has left the Kenyan community in Stockholm totally stupefied.
When news swept across the city that the diplomat was scheduled to be kidnapped under the supervision of Madam Ambassador, horrified Kenyans who could not believe their ears hurriedly took leave from their work places to intervene, not just because the diplomat’s right to treatment was being violated by the Kenyan government but because the very act of kidnapping the ailing diplomat to Arlanda International Airport was Satanic to say the least. How could Ambassador Purity have come to this?
After making a reconciliatory speech at the Kenyatta day reception in Stockholm on 20th October, a keen observer could have expected compassion and love on the part of the Ambassador especially when dealing with a bed-ridden fellow diplomat suffering from a chronic and debilitating disease. The presence of the sick diplomat on a hospital bed called for extra sensitivity and tender loving care. The point is that the incorrigible action of the Ambassador after her Kenyatta day speech stands out as a perfect example of hypocrisy at the highest diplomatic level.
The action comes weeks after the Kenyan Human Rights Commission released a report showing that since June this year, the Kibaki dictatorship has murdered 500 Kenyans through its police force which is reported to have shot these Kenyans at the back of the head “execution style” before dumping their bodies at various mortuaries across the country. Now that a frail and weak diplomat was on his way to being kidnapped to be repatriated to Kenya to die, is there any difference between the Ambassador who heads the Kenyan embassy and Kibaki who heads the Kenyan government? If Madam Purity could pull this kind of surprise, what else can she do?
A HISTORY OF FAILURES AT THE EMBASSY
The kidnap scandal aside, repeated reports from the Embassy indicate that the Ambassador is dictatorial, authoritarian, tyrannical and commanding in the crudest of ways. She behaves like a little goddess at the Embassy and this could explain why she treats Kenyans in Stockholm like miscreants. The kidnap scandal has now proved that if, to the Ambassador, Wakenya in Stockholm are crooks, Embassy staff are worthless. You won’t believe this. At the Kenyatta day reception, the Ambassador did not introduce “Support staff” working at the Embassy even though they were present and expensively dressed. After introducing the “Diplomats” she moved on with the agenda leaving Wakenya to wonder whether the rest of the staff members were just pets licking tables at the Embassy.
When a group of Kenyan dignitaries came to Sweden during this summer, a top Narc Kenya official convinced them to meet Wakenya. When the Ambassador got wind that the officials had been booked by Narc Kenya Scandinavia, she hijacked them to her residence and warned them against meeting Wakenya arguing that Kenyans in Stockholm are alcoholics who will drink themselves flat then begin to ask them useless questions! Wakenya had gathered – complete with Nyama choma. When the Narc Kenya official called the dignitaries to find out where they were, they said that they were at the residence and that they were “not coming”.
That was after the Ambassador sacked a Kenyan who was working as a gardener at her residence to give the job to a Swedish company. She then refused to pay the Kenyan his wage of 10.000 kr although the Kenyan had worked at the residence of the late James Kiboi.
The ink had not even dried when Purity emerged with deep arrogance after ODM Scandinavia discovered that land at the residence had been grabbed then transferred to a neighbour under mysterious circumstances. As ODM-Scandinavia opened a campaign to try and recover the land, Ambassador Purity continued to swing at the Embassy as if nothing was happening. When the heat became too much, she secretly reinstated the fence of land that had been curved off as ODM-Scandinavia members opened Champaign. During the campaign, she called police to threaten the Kenyans but the cops were cool because the Kenyans were not violating any law.
Then Jamhuri day came around and guess what Her Excellency did! She hand picked Wakenya who were to attend the reception through a scandalous dispatch of invitation letters selectively, prompting ODM-Scandinavia to open a new struggle with her on grounds that all Kenyans have a right to attend Jamuhuri reception. In the end, Wakenya who had not been invited gate crashed at the function but she was helpless and could not stop them.
The history of Ambassador Purity at the Embassy reads like one failure after another. If she is not making a mistake, she is making an over sight. In Stockholm, a public weddings by any Kenyan couple is rare and when one comes up, Wakenya normally expects the Ambassador’s presence as long as the Boss is in Stockholm. When Pastor Beatrice had her wedding, Purity skipped it although she did make it to Muraya’s wedding this year – hurray! What she didn’t understand is that for many Wakenya, the act of an Ambassador skipping one wedding and attending another amounts to discrimination and that is how it works in Stockholm. Someone could have advised her to send a representative to deliver her apology then Wakenya could have assumed that she was busy.
BROKEN THE RECORD ON PASSPORT APPLICATION
A Kenya embassy official gets seriously sick and Ambassador Purity tries to drag her from his hospital bed to go and die in Kenya. Another diplomat actually dies in Oslo while on duty and his wife is quickly employed at the Embassy as “an attaché” (nothing personal). Now, if we may ask, is this discrimination, favouritism, nepotism or corruption?
Property belonging to the ailing diplomat has been packed in a container, the Embassy has stopped the diplomat’s child from going to school while the Ambassador mobilized a Doctor to travel by first class to help in the kidnap operation. When we say that Ambassador Purity should go, is this kind of call out of tune?
“Our Embassies and High Commissions should change the way they work. Don’t spend many years abroad being useless. If you feel you have nothing to do for this country then go and work elsewhere.” Those were President Kibaki’s words, not KSB’s.
For Purity, “Changing the way of work” in Sweden means taking over the work of Immigration police, violating International conventions about the Right to treatment and when the scandal explodes, you keep quiet. Ambassador Purity defies even her own Boss! This is the only point where we agree with Kibaki. That the likes of Ambassador Purity is “being useless” and she ought to find work elsewhere, away from Stockholm where Wakenya do not see her.
Just imagine, the cremation of the body of James wuod Maggero, a Kenyan citizen was done without the Ambassador making a single comment even as Kenyans protested from left, right and center. In Stockholm, Kenyans are routinely arrested and put into custody but for Purity, its always business as usual. By the way, did you hear about the controversy surrounding the selective invitations to Kenyatta day celebrations this year?
During her tenure, Purity broke the record when it comes to the time a new passport application takes – six months. The list endless. One good thing is that even the Ambassador’s known sycophants are unable to cope with her weaknesses. We welcome them in the “Attack Club” and hope that they will be productive in the struggle to ensure that once Kibaki goes, Ambassador Purity will be sent back to Kenya kupumzika because she has been weighed on the balance and found wanting.
In the meantime, the Ambassador should leave our diplomat alone to recuperate. That would be her best Christmas present to the diplomat who has served the government for 20 years and who needs some peace.
Okoth Osewe
ODM-S Statement On Attempted Kidnap Of Kenyan Diplomat
Since last Thursday, the Kenyan community inside and outside Sweden has been in a state of shock following a despicable decision by Ambassador Purity Muhindi to send Embassy staff to kidnap a seriously sick and bed ridden Kenyan diplomat from his hospital bed at Karolinska and deport him to Kenya.
The attempt failed after 15 Kenyans intervened to physically stop Embassy staff from loading the diplomat into a medical van destined for Arlanda airport. The patriotic Kenyans not only occupied the van but also called police before the deportation could be stopped. The matter is now on the hands of Swedish Immigration officials.
A part from the crude attempt by the Embassy staff to play the role of “Immigration police”, property belonging to the diplomat had been packed into a container ready to be shipped to Kenya, his children cut from attending school by the Embassy, a one way ticket bought for the family and a date set for the diplomat together with his family to be repatriated to Kenya.
The diplomat has served the Kenyan government for 20 years while he has been working at the Embassy for the last five years. The treatment he was being given by the failing Kibaki government represented by Ambassador Purity Muhindi was cruel to say the least.
The kidnap attempt of a terribly sick patient who has been one of her own employees at the Embassy to be repatriated to Kenya to die has exposed a vicious, inhumane and potentially murderous aspect of Purity’s character that has hitherto remained obscure from public view. In all fairness, Purity had the power to influence Nairobi to stop this callous act but she failed to do so.
The demonic move has widely been condemned by the Kenyan community in Stockholm who view it as evidence that the failure of Ambassador Purity Muhindi to touch base with Kenyans in Stockholm since her posting is based on an underlying and sinister attitude not just towards the Kenyan community but also Embassy staff she works with.
If the Ambassador could treat one of her own employees with such terrible antipathy, what can she do to other Kenyans if she had the power? Does this action explain why the Ambassador has been treating Kenyans like garbage since she was posted to Stockholm a year ago?
The Orange Democratic Movement – Scandinavia condemns the attempted kidnap of the Kenyan diplomat from hospital and calls upon the Embassy to stop all contacts with the diplomat because the botched attempt has demonstrated that the Embassy is not in a position to act in the interest of the diplomat.
Secondly, ODM calls for an investigation to establish the real circumstances behind the attempted kidnap of the diplomat because it was in total violation of both diplomatic etiquette and the Swedish law which bans diplomats from taking the law unto their own hands especially on questions dealing with repatriation of individuals back to their home countries.
In this case, Embassy staff was playing the role of the Swedish immigration police in an attempt to repatriate an ailing and bed ridden patient unfit to travel to Kenya under any circumstance.
“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”
As the eye of the Kenyan government in Sweden, Ambassador Purity cannot argue that the Embassy was acting out of a “government order” because it was the responsibility of the Ambassador to strongly advise the government based on the situation on the ground and to underline the fact that the question of repatriating the diplomat to Kenya should not be on the agenda.
What did the Ambassador do? She collaborated with government officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send Dr. Wanyika, a dermatologist, to Sweden as part of the operation to kidnap the diplomat from hospital. In our view, the role of Dr. Wanuika should have been to help evaluate the diplomat’s situation with a view to looking into how he could further be helped by the government, not assisting to dispatch him to the grave by repatriating him to Kenya where the Health care system has collpased as a result of corruption.
As if that was not enough, Ambassador Purity went ahead to arrogantly mobilize innocent Embassy staff (forced to take orders) to participate in the illegal action of trying to remove the diplomat from his bed before the situation turned ugly forcing the Swedish police to intervene. Shame on Ambassador Purity!
ODM believes that Ambassador Purity Muhindi has failed in her responsibilities and that this latest action is the last straw which should signal the Ambassador’s departure from the Embassy to prevent any future mistakes which could have unforeseen or fatal consequences in the future. If the diplomat had died on his way to Kenya, could the Ambassador have taken responsibility?
As a Party, ODM is in the process of making recommendations for the immediate recall of the Ambassador once the Party seizes power in Kenya and on this note, the Party would like to put the Ambassador on high alert that she has to go once her Boss President Mwai Kibaki goes in December.
ODM could have liked to defend the Ambassador to retain her position since she has only served for one year. However, she has shown that she is anti-Kenyan people during her short stay at the Embassy. We understand that there is a huge crisis at the Embassy because of divisions between the Ambassador and staff members on numerous issues including unpaid salaries and corruption. Ambassador Purity is a major destabilizing force at the Embassy while she is a source of constant headache to Kenyans here and this is why she needs to give way.
ODM appeals to Kenyans to help mobilize a campaign to ensure that the Ambassador is shown the door at the earliest time possible because her actions are incompatible with her role as the representative of the Kenyan government in Scandinavia while her every move has not been in the interest of Kenyans this region. “Enough is enough”. Kenyans have been asking “Why”. Now is the time to say “No”.
Mrs Hellen Opwapo
Chairlady, ODM Scandinavia
Ailing Diplomat: Kenyans In Finland Condemn Ambassador Purity
We are a group of Kenyans in Finland who have been following the story of a Kenyan diplomat who has been working at the Kenyan embassy in Stockholm and who is facing deportation to Kenya.
For a long time, the diplomat has been of great help to Kenyans living in Scandinavian countries. He has been one of the most reliable staff member at the Embassy in Sweden but the way the Kenyan government has been treating him since he fell sick a year ago is in bad taste.
The diplomat has been under treatment for a while at Karolinska Hospital until this week when he was given a 4 day’s notice to vacate his house, get out of hospital and get ready to travel back to Kenya by last Thursday 22nd November yet he is bed ridden.
There was a great intervention by a group of Kenyans in Stockholm which prompted the Swedish government to stop his repatriation to Kenya. Nevertheless, how long will the future of the diplomat and his family be uncertain? His family has been kicked out of their home to a cold winter. As Kenyans resident in Finland, our basic questions are as follows;
1. Why is the diplomat being taken back to Kenya yet the doctors in Sweden are managing his condition?
2. The diplomat’s health condition is bad and this should stop any action as far as the issue of deportation is concerned. How could the person arranging the diplomat’s deportation feel if he or she were in the diplomats situation? Si uwe na utu jameni !
3. How can a notice to vacate the house and travel to Kenya within a specific deadline be issued to a bed ridden patient whom Doctors have confirmed, is unfit to travel?
4. Does our government appreciate his many years of service while he was a diplomat? Is this the way to treat a diplomat whose tour of duty is over?
5. Where will the family reside while the patient is being managed, now that they have been given a notice to vacate the house and their property packed in a container ready for shipping to Kenya.
It is unjust, inhuman, barbaric and evil on the part of the government of Kenya to throw away a Kenyan patriot who volunteered his services and left his loved ones back home to make a better future for Kenya.
The Kenyan Embassy officials should know that the diplomat didn´t choose to get sick and that the action of trying to deport him to Kenya destroyed the image of Kenya Internationally, the same image they are trying to preserve.
As concerned Kenyans resident in Finland, we wish to voice our deep disappointment with H.E the Ambassador Mrs Purity Muhindi and all those who took part in the dirty conspiracy to deport the diplomat after taking a filthy decision against the health interests of a bed ridden patient who has served the Embassy diligently and with obedience for many years. It is shame shame shame!
Please, if you wouldn´t mind your Excellency, pack your belongings and your family and go back home since you are healthy to travel. You could have changed the first class air ticket reserved for the patient and take it yourself. Same applies to members of staff who in one way or another participated in this dirty conpspiracy.
Our sincere thanks goes to all those Kenyans in Sweden for their extraordinary courage to act as patriots to save the life of the ailing Embassy diplomat who has suffered terrible shock as a result of the Embassy action. May God have mercy on Him.
Edward Kipkoech on behalf of:
Kenyans in Finland
Ailing Embassy Official Narrowly Escapes Deportation To Kenya
A Kenya Embassy official who has been ailing for a long time escaped deportation to Kenya after a group of Embassy staff arrived at Karolinska hospital to try and take him home through Arlanda International airport.
The ailing official has been fighting a lengthy battle with the Kenyan embassy to prevent his deportation on grounds that he is too sick to travel to Kenya. According to sources, property belonging to the official have been packed into a container while members of his family (including his wife) have been put on stand by awaiting his kidnap from Karolinska hospital to Arlanda.
When a group of Kenyans heard about the official’s tribulations and that he was set to be kidnapped on Thursday November 22nd, a battalion of approximately 15 Kenyans went to the hospital to try and prevent the kidnap.
Punde si punde, the Embassy group also arrived at the hospital and packed their car nearby. When the staff members tried to get into action by communicating with the doctors to release the patient, the group of Kenyans intervened to inform the Doctors that it was wrong for the official to be deported to Kenya under the circumstances.
The Embassy had mobilized a woman Doctor from Kenya to oversee the whole operation because the Swedish authorities had refused to release the patient if he could not be accompanied to Kenya by a Doctor. A source told KSB that the Kenyan woman Doctor is a dermatologist who is not in a position to understand the condition of the ailing official who is not suffering from any skin disease. The Official has been in the ICU where he has been on a drip for months.
As arguments ensued, a van designed for transportation of patients which had been hired by the Embassy arrived at the hospital to transport the official to the airport. When the Kenyans were alerted about this development, the whole group rushed down stairs from the 6th floor (where the official is being treated) and occupied the van, making it impossible for the Official to be loaded into the van.
As tension rose, the Kenyan activists called police to try and resolve the conflict. The Embassy official has been bed-ridden and the argument put forward by the Kenyans was that the Official is unfit to travel, an argument which was also supported by the Swedish Doctors.
One of the Doctors advised that it was better for those concerned to put an appeal with the Immigration department so that the Official can be allowed to stay to complete his treatment. Police who came at the scene and looked at the case then decided to consult with the Immigration.
Within minutes, an official from the Immigration arrived to asses the situation. After preliminary investigations, the Immigration official resolved that the matter be left pending until Friday November 23rd when a decision will be taken as to what needs to be done. The ailing Official was therefore left to relax in his hospital bed pending a decision.
The drama unfolded on Thursday November 22nd. The Official has been sacked from his job despite his being unable to work as a result of his condition. He has also been replaced and the person deputizing his replacement is a Swedish national.
It is not clear why the Embassy is keen in having the Official deported to Kenya in such a brutal manner even if it means Embassy staff going to hospital to physically help in plucking him from his hospital bed to Arlanda airport.
It is also not known why he is being subjected to such inhuman and degrading treatment at a time when he is helpless and in terrible pain. Some of the Embassy officials who went to help kidnap him are the same colleagues he has been working with at the Embassy for a long time.
Okoth Osewe
Irresponsible Kenyan Men Undermining Fight Against Racism
I have been following the story about the HIV infected Kenyan who is currently facing trial for having raped his ex wife. Young Kenyan men are living very promiscuous life-styles and not protecting themselves or their partners and that is the reason why they get infected in the first place. What infuriates me is that instead of some people dealing with the problem (and it is a big problem), they begin to question the victims of these men.
In this latest case, if the woman could have been Kenyan, I think that the entire Kenyan-Swedish society could have been supporting her. So far, I haven’t seen anyone worrying about her or even caring if she was infected or not. It looks like nobody cares if she is Swedish, Kenyan black or white.
I ask: Why, for God’s sake, are we protecting these kind of men? These careless men are the ones who are creating the negative and stereotypical picture of Kenyan and other African men who are working so hard to better their image in Swedish society.
From what I read in Metro newspaper, the man confessed that he had unprotected sex with the woman so obviously, he is guilty of a crime. I don’t know if he raped her but what I don’t understand is how a woman in her right state of mind could have unprotected sex with a man if she knows that he is HIV positive.
Judging by the information Mr. Odede broadcast in the Internet about his friend, the guy doesn’t seem to be a nice person. The thing that we Kenyans should be talking about is: What can we do to STOP this? How can we stop the racism towards us in this society when this is the way some Kenyans are making us look in the media? In any case, why address or treat the woman’s skin colour as a big issue?
My mother is Swedish (white) and my dad is Kenyan (black) so there are good, loving, caring Swedish women raising their Kenyan sons and daughters just like Kenyan women do so what is the difference between them? None. We are all women, mothers, sisters, sons and daughters.
But for the sake of all of us, I think we should leave it to the Court to judge and try to start a more relevant discussion about what we can do to protect ourselves and our children from this growing and contagious virus.
Anna
Invitation To Kesofo’s December 1st Party
The Kenya Social Forum (Kesofo) will, on December 1st organize the ”Kenya Unity Party” at Norsborg Musikhuset from 19.00. The theme of the Party is “UNITY among Wakenya” thus the name of the Party. The date of the Party is important in two ways (see www.kesofo.org).
December 1st is the World Aids Day while it also marks the beginning of the end of the year. Kenyans are therefore encouraged to spread word about the Party among members of the community. The World Aids day is being observed at a time when statistics from the Swedish authorities indicate that 122 Kenyans are infected with the HIV virus.
On the Party organization, Kesofo is in touch with the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm because leaders of the organization believe that the Embassy is an important Institution which it needs to work with, not just as a partner but as a leading collaborator.
The Kenyan Ambassador to Scandinavia Her Excellency Mrs Purity Muhindi has been approached by Kesofo to attend the Party officially but unfortunately, she is booked elsewhere on December 1st. Despite her absence, the Embassy has confirmed that it will send a representative to the Party to stand for the Ambassador. This is positive.
The December 1st Party will be the second being organized by Kesofo at Norsborg Musikhuset, the inaugural Party having been organized last year when the organization hosted the Grand Nyama Choma Party. The bash was a big success.
Entrance at the Party will be 50 kr, food will be available and plenty of Kenyan music. Under 18s will not be admitted although the issue of catering for this age group in the area of entertainment will have to be looked into by the organization in the future.
Information about Kesofo will also be available at the Party although much of the organization’s working documents like the Constitution and the Program are already available through the organization’s web site.
Kesofo’s Chairperson Ms Susan Mukami welcomes Kenyans, friends of Kenya and Party lovers to attend the Party.
Kesofo Exceutive committee
View ODM Advert Banned In Kenyan Media
This ODM advert is currently “banned in Kenya”. Although it is a paid advert, The Nation TV and all Media have refused to air it. We are transmitting it at KSB in Solidarity with ODM.
Why Are Kikuyu Chauvinists So Much Afraid Of Raila Odinga?
You have heard it before. That Raila Odinga, the ODM Presidential candidate, cannot be trusted. Raila has changed too many political Parties. Raila dumped former President Moi in the wake of Uhuru Project in KANU. Raila dumped Kibaki after saying “Kibaki Tosha”. Raila dumped Kalonzo Musyoka’s ODM-Kenya “because Kalonzo was popular”.
You have heard it before. Raila cannot lead because he is not circumcised. Raila wants to divide Kenya with his Majimbo system. Raila wants to incite a religious war in Kenya. Raila organized the 1982 coup attempt to try and seize power through illegal means. Raila has signed a Memorandum of Overstanding with the Muslims and other exhausted anti-Raila clichés that have blunted the political sensibilities of disco critics aligned to the septuagenarian Presidential candidate Mwai Emilio Kibaki.
Judging from the fabrication of documentary evidence to undermine Raila Odinga, the dirty abuses of Raila by opponents at political platforms in Kenya, the multiple shell organizations being set up by Kikuyu chauvinists in the name of Kibaki and the cheap propaganda web sites erected to “campaign for Kibaki”, Kikuyu chauvinists who believe that Kenya belongs to Kikuyus must be suffering from constant constipation at the prospect of the day they might wake up to the reality of “His Excellency President Raila Amolo Odinga”.
The political braggadocio of chauvinistic Kikuyu converts who adhere to the Gospel according to “The House of Mumbi” is fuelled by a deeply-seated and atavistic belief that since Kikuyus are the majority ethnic group in Kenya and since it is mostly the blood of Kikuyus which was spilled during the colonial revolution in which Mau Mau was on the frontlines, Kenya must at all times be led by a Kikuyu President as other ethnic groups scramble for the Vice presidency and other crumbs below the table.
This old-style school of thought undermines the numerical superiority of 41 ethnic groups in Kenya while it whittles the role other ethnic groups played in the anti-colonial revolution. Instead, it seeks to elevate Kikuyu nationalism (thinly camouflaged as “analysis”) in political debates at the expense of rationalism needed for a sober understanding of the real problems facing Kenya as a Nation.
For these ethnic chauvinists, it does not matter that Kenya has had two Kikuyu Presidents with the incumbent Kibaki emerging as a fraudulent and unprincipled crook whose regime is wallowing in a pool of corruption as the President maintains a thieving Mafia cartel that is answerable to nobody but themselves. How else does one explain the antics of Lucy Kibaki, the First lady, before she was sedated recently to bring order to State House?
KIKUYU CHAUVINISTS SHOULD BEGIN PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENTS
For Kikuyu chauvinists afraid of Raila Odinga, Moi’s Presidency was a big mistake which was corrected by Kibaki’s Presidency. For more than a decade after he inherited power following Kenyatta’s death, Moi had to remain the President because there was no alternative under a one Party dictatorship. After political pluralism, the former despot used the State machine to divide the opposition and rig elections until the regime was brought to a point where it had to go and Raila played a big role.
By then, Kikuyu chauvinists trusted Raila because he said “Kibaki Tosha” and the general picture of State House in a post Moi situation fitted well with the “House of Mumbi” perspective. Now that Raila is increasingly being seen as “The President in waiting”, the picture is blurred thus the haranguing linked to “Raila cannot be trusted” orchestras.
Raila may have changed Parties but Kibaki has even abandoned parties like Democratic Party that stood by him in his quest for Presidency. Kibaki has abandoned Narc on whose back he rode to become President. Kibaki abandoned KANU that honoured him with the post of Vice president for ten years. The President’s new Party, PNU is so much in confusion that Kibaki has even failed to name his running mate so what are these chauvinists telling Wakenya?
For these Kikuyu braggadocios, the problem with a possible Raila Presidency is that an era will be born when any Kenyan can become President regardless of his or her ethnic group – cut or uncut. Raila’s presidency will check Kikuyu arrogance in the sphere of politics and destroy the myth that since Kikuyus are the majority ethnic group in Kenya, a Kikuyu will always be able to win an election at the Presidential level – Halelujah.
The defeat of Kibaki at the Referendum after he failed to deliver a new Constitution was just a pointer to defeats to come. Kikuyus voted as a block but lost the Referendum. Raila led the campaign under ODM and for Kikuyu chauvinists who have the capacity to think, the Kikuyu vote alone will not deliver the Presidency to Kibaki and so the votes needs to be combined with “scare tactics” which, in their small brains, might scare other communities to vote for Kibaki, a myopic strategy in deed.
Raila may or may not have led the coup but didn’t he pay with eight years in detention under solitary confinement before emerging from detention to forgive Moi who later cheated him before he destroyed the Uhuru Project by helping Kibaki to come to power? After Kibaki cheated on the MoU, should Raila have gone on retirement or should he have changed Professions to begin fishing Mbuta in Lake victoria? Raila might not be circumcised. But why not tell that to George Bush, Gordon Brown, Putin et al. By the way, has somebody checked if Chavez is circumcised so that I can be updated?
Anti-Raila Kikuyu chauvinists want Kenyans to believe that if Raila wins the Presidency, he will destroy the Kikuyu economically, revenge for the ill treatment and suffering he underwent under Kibaki, marginalize the Kikuyu community the way other groups have been marginalized by Moi and Kibaki, fill State House (and other Kikuyu dominated top government positions) with Luos, Luhyas, Kales and so fourth.
If you ask me, the masses of Kikuyu workers, peasants, students and millions of unemployed Kikuyu youth who form the bulk of Wakikuyu should have nothing to fear because they are like millions of poor Kenyans suffering across the country under Kibaki.
It is the Kikuyu ruling class and their friends in business who are afraid of Raila. The problem with Kikuyu chauvinists spreading malice against Raila today is that they have deliberately refused to differentiate between the corrupt elite draining Kenya on the one hand and the poor Kikuyu masses on the other, the same poverty-stricken class that has nothing common with Kibaki and whose members are living side by side with other ethnic groups in slums across Nairobi and other regions.
Kikuyu chauvinists trumpeting “Raila cannot be trusted” hymns should begin to make psychological adjustments because from the look of things, the country seem to be heading towards a Raila Odinga Presidency under an ODM government. The big question will be how to change Kenya and at the moment, Majimbo seem to be booming as an option.
Okoth Osewe
Bloggers Are Responsible For Blog Content
From time to time, KSB receives enquiries about what can and what cannot be published at the blog. To summarize the numerous questions, we wish to state that bloggers (especially if the blog content is more of a media than a personal diary) are under an obligation to follow the rules laid down for other media outlets.
We cannot publish anything simply because it has been mailed to us. Secondly, the fact that another blogger is repeatedly committing acts of libel or defamation does not mean that KSB should follow suite because the blogger could be doing so out of sheer ignorance.
If readers have been allowed to post defamatory or obscene content by a blogger, it doesn’t follow that KSB will automatically follow suite because the blogger might not have read or understood the “terms of service” of say the Institution housing the blog. In the case of wordpress.com owned by Automatic, the rules have been laid out clearly. The rules state in part:
“Your WordPress.com Account and Site: If you create a blog on the Website, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and blog, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the blog”.
“Responsibility of Contributors: If you operate a blog, comment on a blog, post material to the Website, post links on the Website, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available by means of the Website (any such material, “Content”), You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content. That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text, graphics, an audio file, or computer software.
“By making Content available, you represent and warrant that: the Content is not obscene, libelous or defamatory (more info on what that means), hateful or racially or ethnically objectionable, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party;…”
As you might be aware, we do not name names at the blog especially in situations where a person’s integrity might come into question. When we do so, you can be sure that we are in a position to defend such an action in a Court of law and this is why we are never worried about threats of legal action. This is why we are always in a hurry to correct factual errors brought to our attention.
KSB DOES NOT HAVE NAMES OF HIV POSITIVE KENYANS
When you read about a scandal at KSB, it is futile to call the blog asking for the identity of the person being referred to in the story because such revelations are illegal and could land as into legal problems. We have a responsibility for the content of the blog and that’s the way it’s going to be for a long time to come.
Lastly, KSB does not have the names of Kenyans infected with HIV Virus in Sweden and even if the impossible happened and we got access to the names, releasing them in any way could be completely out of the question.
The names of Mr. Antony Odera and Caroline Ayodo were released because they have themselves gone public through the Swedish print and electronic media since they want to utilize their conditions to sensitize others about HIV and Aids.
We have attended functions where Odera has delivered very informative lectures on the issue of being an HIV infected person especially on the question of stigmatization of HIV carriers. Unless other Kenyans affected are ready to go public, you can be sure that we do not know who they are.
The statistics were lifted from the Swedish authorities and it is unfortunate that we have to clarify this simple fact because some Kenyans believed that the next breaking news item is a list of the victims while others think that they can get the list privately – the list does not exist!
In Kenya, HIV is now treated by the public like malaria or any other tropical disease and the fuss about the statistics among Wakenya in Stockholm is unwarranted. The number of 122 could sound huge, given the tiny population of Kenyans in Sweden (about 5.000) but Ukweli wa Mambo is that those are the statistics.
We hope that this clarification will put to rest phone calls and enquiries through emails about the twin issues of “Publication at KSB” and the “HIV story”.
Okoth Osewe
KSB Is Doing A Good Job – Congratulations
Bwana Osewe, accept my sincere congratulations for the good work you are doing in Keeping Kenyans informed about the Kenyan scene in Stockholm. Me and some of my friends agreed that the “HIV Report” was very shocking and I think I need to test myself.
I am one of the big fans of KSB and I hope that you will continue with the good work. I really enjoy the humour after Kenyan parties and I am always looking forward to reading something at KSB after a bash.
You should open the comment section so that readers can comment. I really wanted to comment on a story where someone got stranded in Kenya after buying a ticket but I couldn’t. I wrote you an email about my bad experience in a similar situation but you didn’t publish it – why?
Kenyans who are cheating others in the name of business should be exposed – thanks to KSB. Although it is a blog, I think that KSB is a real media and the popularity of the blog is due to its serious content. It is like my “Daily Nation” and I have to check it all the time. Keep it up.
George
KSB COMMENT
George, thanks for your kind words. Your letter was not published because in the process of making your point, you used abusive, obscene and obnoxious language that is not allowed at KSB. You can differ without being indecent. Kenyans are not used to “The media” being around and it will take some time for civility to take root in the new situation. Good day.
122 Kenyans In Sweden Infected With HIV Virus
According to statistics from the Swedish Institute for the Prevention of Infectious Diseases, 122 Kenyans are infected with the HIV virus out of which 85 are women and 37 are men. Out of this number, a total of 10 Kenyans were infected with the virus last year. The Institute does not have an explanation as to why the number of Kenyan women carrying the virus is more than double when compared with their male counterparts.
The Statistics show that 3.900 Swedes are also infected with the virus. Although only ten Kenyans were infected with the virus last year, a total of 394 people contracted the virus in Sweden during the same period. 94 men contracted the virus through contact with other men, 194 through women-men contacts, 35 through intra-venous drug injections, 6 through mother to child during child birth while it is not understood how 62 others contracted the virus. There was no transmission through blood transfusion. The statistics show that majority of infections was through heterosexual contacts.
The number of people in Sweden newly infected with the virus last year increased by 2 as compared to 2005 which stands at 392. In 2004, the total number of new infections was 431.
Out of those infected, 86 were aged between 50-59 years, 64 between 25 and 29 years, 25 between 20 and 24 years while the number of teenagers (10-19) infected was 11. The statistics show that the latest high rate of infection in Sweden is among Wazee wa Kazi. It is believed that many elderly Swedish men who contracted the virus last year might have picked it up while on holiday abroad especially in Thailand where sex tourism abounds.
The statistics show that out of the 394 infections last year, 194 were infected before they arrived in Sweden, 99 were infected in Sweden, 48 were infected during trips abroad while it is not clear where 53 others were infected. When compared to 2005, the number of infections that happened in Sweden increased by 19 while those who were infected abroad during the same year also increased from 38 to 48.
The statistics come in the wake of court cases against two HIV positive Kenyans who have been accused by Swedish women of rape, infection with HIV virus and unprotected sexual intercourse. One Kenyan has since been found guilty and jailed for five years while another Kenyan will have his case mentioned on Friday 16th November.
Test results for the woman who has accused the Kenyan is still awaited. The Kenyan has denied having unprotected sex with the woman, arguing that he put on a condom but that the condom burst during coitus. He says that on another occasion, it is the woman who wanted unprotected sex even after he told her that she could be infected.
The Kenyan has also said that the woman who has brought him before the court is jealous after he fixed another woman nine months ago and could not therefore spend more time with her and their child. He has also said that all sexual contacts with the woman have been out of her own free will. The Kenyan says that the injuries which the woman claims were inflicted by him could have been inflicted in the process of her duties within the health care system. So far, two Kenyans – Mr. Antony Odera and Caroline Ayodo have gone public in Sweden with their HIV positive status. The rest – 120 Kenyans carrying the virus in Sweden – have refused to go public.
Okoth Osewe
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Commentary: Mr. Dick Morris Is Just A Spit In The Sea
In many parts of the world, election time is a time of memorandums, manifestoes, propaganda, exhibition and political competition emanating from all contestants seeking office. In the case of Kenya, there has been no shortage of the above although, in the last week, what appears to have captured the attention of opponents of ODM is the entry of Dick Morris, a white American election consultant, in Raila Odinga’s Presidential campaign team.
Just like President Kibaki and his allies like Nicholas Biwott, Professor George Saitoti, Njenga Karume, Simion Nyachae, John Michuki and other dirty political maniacs in Kibaki’s backyard, Raila’s Mark Morris is not totally clean and he has obviously had his share of scandals in the United States. George Bush had the scandal of starting the war in Iraq but he was re-elected President. Bill Clinton had his sucking Lawinsky scandal but he escaped impeachment. These are examples that are, in no way, meant to justify these dastard acts.
What is baffling is the ugly head of racism that has greeted the entry of Dick Morris in Raila’s Presidential campaign team. At some point, one detects the lack of understanding of the “politics of populism” and how it works in an environment like Kenya until situations of the Dick Morris type emerge to act as a paradigm.
Although Morries is a volunteer working for free, many critics have raised concerns as to why Raila “has hired” a white American to “head” his election campaign when there are many qualified Kenyans who could do the job. In Stockholm, armatures in the field of political commentary have averred that Dick Morris should leave Kenyans alone because Kenyans have a bigger “Dick” which can do the job.
Kenyans in Stockholm crying wolf are well aware that at the Kenyan embassy in Stockholm, white Swedish nationals are occupying sensitive positions, not because there are no Kenyans who can take up their jobs but because the Kibaki government has decided to retain them at the Embassy after they were hired by the former dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi. Dick Morris bashers have never raised a finger at these foreign and white Embassy staff who continue to swagger along Embassy corridors like neo-colonial conquistadors who are there to stay.
For example, Peter Lane, a white national, is the official translator at the Embassy and consequently, he acts as the link between the Embassy and the Kenyan government at the documentary level where the element of translation comes into play. If we suppose that Peter has links with the Swedish secret security apparatus (and this is just a supposition), then the Kenyan Embassy, which is the official representative of the Kenyan government, has no secrets. If you want to understand the major implication here, try telling the Americans to employ a Russian translator at the American Embassy in Stockholm. It is like having an American translator at the Iranian Embassy during this age of nuclear technology and weapons of mass destruction!
Apart from Peter Lane’s job as a translator, he could have access to a wide range of information including the internal workings of the Embassy in terms of finance, politics, trade and so fourth, information whose misuse cannot be quantified now. If, today, the Kenyan government enters into crisis with the swedish government, you can be sure that the swedes will be well informed. In condemning Dick Morris, are critics also suggesting that the likes of Peter Lane should not be working at the Embassy because they are white?
Dick Morris is not working for the Kenyan government and so far, there has been no MoU to suggest that once ODM seizes power, he will be one of the key players in government. His status is that of a volunteer so what is the hullabaloo all about?
Still on the Kenyan embassy, what about Mrs Ingrid Österberg-Gerdin, a white Swedish national who is the “Accounts assistant”? She deputizes Linnet Vitisia, the Financial attaché. When it comes to the field of accounting, Kenya is teething with talent so why can’t Kibaki hire one of our brilliant brains to take over Ingrid’s duties at the Kenyan embassy? If the question is about a white man or woman being unfit to run the affairs of Kenya simply because of their white skins, isn’t this racism? Should the services of Peter Lane and Ingrid be terminated because they are white?
MISSING THE WIDER AND BIGGER PICTURE
Obviously, there could be multiple explanations as to why white people continue to populate the Kenyan embassy as “supportive staff”. The difference between these white folks and their white counterpart, Dick Morris, is that Morris is not living on tax payer’s money since he is working for free so who is the better evil – Kibaki who has hired them or Raila who has accepted a volunteer?
The story could have ended there were it not for Lina Jonsson, another white Swede, blond haired(?) in charge of the Stockholm Office of the Kenya Tourist Board. She works under the auspices of the Kenyan embassy. The question is: Aren’t there Kenyans who are qualified enough to run this office or must we leave such a strategic office to be managed for us by a whitie?
Some people have advanced the view that white Swedes are needed at the Embassy because their Swedish is better than the natives of Kenya. But these are meatheads who have never come into contact with Kenyans who sing Swedish like Taraab music. When these Swedish-Kenyans are on the phone at the other end, you could think that its a Svenssson or another blondie so don’t even try that argument.
The Kenyan embassy is a small place. If we expand the surface area and extend the analysis to Kenya, the country’s whole economy has been on the hands of British and American imperialism since the days of Kenyatta, Moi and even Kibaki. Majority of companies at the Nairobi Stock Exchange have white CEOs. The biggest Newspaper in the country – The Daily Nation – is owned by Aga Khan, a foreigner of Indian extraction. In fact, the two leading banks in Kenya which controls our money – Standard and Barclays – are owned by white Europeans, leave alone the big companies used by Europe and America to repatriate profits from Kenya on a daily basis back to Europe.
Whether you are talking about the Coffee or tea industry, the pyrethrum or flower industry, the white man dictates the prices which keeps our farmers perpetually poor. They run companies dealing in these products. Even our Kenya Airways is white owned after it was privatized. A Kilo of raw coffee in Kenya costs a few shillings while here in Sweden, a cup goes for Ksh 170 and that is at cheap coffee houses. Its the white man, not the black farmer who enjoys the profits all along the way. If you don’t know this, then you need a ngoto.
Is Mr. Dick Morris worse than the likes of Cholmondeley, the white grandson of Lord Delemare who has shot dead two Kenyans at his so called ranch but who has never gone to prison? Have Kenyans forgotten that white highlands are still on the hands of white people more than 4 decades after independence?
What is Dick Morris (a volunteer) compared to Artur Margaryan and Artur Sargsayan, two white hard-core, drug dealing criminals allegedly from Armenia who were guests of the Kibaki government and who are credited for commanding the infamous raid on the Standard? As if that was not enough, one of the gangsters was sleeping with the President’s daughter Winnie and doing business with Winnie’s mother also known as the President’s other wife! Who is dirtier – Dick Moris or president Kibaki?
If they are not white or Asian, who controls the distribution networks in Kenya, the tourism industry, the Entertainment industry and other key aspects of the Kenyan economy?
Isitoshe, who forms the bulk of the so called foreign investors in Kenya – black or white? Mr. Dick Morris is just a spit in the sea and those attacking Raila on this petty issue are all missing the bigger and wider picture which can only come into view if you put on ideological lenses.
Okoth Osewe
November 19, 2007 Posted by makozewe | Commentary | Leave a Comment