New Attack On Clay And His Blog
As a passionate reader of KSB, I also felt that the purported “response” from Osewe to Clay Onyango regarding his upcoming book was outdated. In intellectual terms, this is fraud on the part of Clay and just confirms that he has no ethics. The article was archived at KSB on November 15, 2007 (http://kenyastockholm.com/2007/11/15/). Today (Nov. 20) Clay denies at his blogsite (Butdoisay) having received it from Osewe. But then he openly bloopers by answering commentator “Kanyunja” that it was from Osewe. I quote him: “Hi Kanyunja, this article was sent in by Osewe to butdoisay …” Readers, where is the truth?
Clay has been caught with his “pants down” and is now using lame excuses to dissociate himself from intellectual fraud. He defends himself by claiming that he has never fabricated an article about Osewe. Read his ‘personalized’ response at KSB insulting Jerome Msomi, who asked why he is provoking Osewe. Instead of answering why, he asks him: “Why dont [sic] you fight OMENAS that are stuck on your teeth? butdoisay….” This is his normal reply to people: too much brawn but no brains.
Besides the above, Clay’s biggest challenge remains on how he sources his information. If the claimed response was meant for the original story on Osewe’s book, why did he start a new thread and not just add it as a regular commentary? He should remember that: “A reporter is only as reliable as his or her sources.” As a blogger, he should have detected that it was fishy and meant to portray Osewe in bad light as a tribalist. Anyway, not all Kikuyu are chauvinists and some wise commentators have separated the wheat from the chaff in this story.
Clay lacks originality and reminds readers of the Norwegian-based chief of intellectual fraud, Sammy Korir, of the African Press International (API). There are all sorts of rumors flying around Stockholm, but the worst I have heard concerning Clay is that he did not manage more than Class Seven in Kenya; the old primary school education system. If this is true, then you can see how this reflects upon his thinking many years later. The lack of further education remains an impediment in his life.
Clay has never written any article analyzing social aspects in Kenya or Sweden. He is a vulture who scavenges around for stories and quickly cuts and pastes them at his mediocre blog called “Butdoisay.” He then often gives short comments below them ending with “butdoisay…” His process of disseminating information leaves a bad taste in the mouth of any reader. Many of his pasted stories reflect his thinking and possibly behavior, because they often focus on “below the belt” issues.
Another intellectual fraud by Clay is not respecting sources of information. He infrequently acknowledges that he has “lifted” information from a certain site and hardly gives the Internet link. This way, he wants to show he has researched and could even claim ownership of the story, because he co-signs: “Lifted from…, title by butdoisay.” There is nothing wrong even in the journalistic world to honor sources of information. In fact, it adds credence to the author.
Clay has no intellectual purview and his blog remains a place for cheap entertainment when one has nothing serious to read. He startles readers by his copycat tactics of dashing to KSB, picking an article, then adding a photo or two to make it “original” as if butdoisay owns it. He has now claimed that he does so to gauge the opinion of his readers. Where’s originality? Clay does not have to fill his blog daily with plagiarized material to prove journalistic prowess.
Legible materials at Clay’s blog are often from commentators, especially when attacking Osewe for his critical appraisals of the Kenya Embassy in Stockholm. Osewe’s consistent attacks are well-researched even if reported from his “field agents”, whom he normally acknowledges. When he calls the Kenya Embassy hangers-on “Bootlickers”, he explains why he deems them so. However, Butdoisay attackers only personalize matters by focusing on Osewe and not critically assessing his written stuff.
Current calls for unity at Butdoisay are not new. Clay is known for creating organizations and abandoning them after gaining personally, without accounting for the loss of public donations by faithful contributors. If a Kenyan is interested in starting a welfare organization, she/he should just recruit and register members as per the laid down Swedish laws, instead of blaming Osewe. Why bother with the status quo (i.e. old members of the Kenya-Stockholm community?). Just register an organization and move on because no Kenyan is prevented from doing so. After all, the former Ambassadors used to interact with many Kenyans even in the absence of a unifying Kenyan group. Not all Kenyans have ever been united under a single welfare banner, so it is a fallacy to claim that Ambassador Muhindi can only interact with Kenyans through a welfare group.
Osewe’s book has not even hit the book stores, yet some Butdoisay hangers-on have already charged on matters about it for which they have no inkling. Books are first read then criticized. But at Butdoisay, the author is put on the chopping board first for work that is not yet delivered. Why? Because of his personality and not for what he has written.
Osewe has written internationally acclaimed reports and remains clear on his ideological standpoint politically, both to his friends and foes. One article that Osewe wrote and got published in the critically acclaimed “New African” magazine concerned the brutal murder of the late Ivory Coast man, Gérard Gbeyo, in a small Swedish town called Klippan, in 1995. This is a serious magazine that attracts African academics that critically assess issues concerning Africa and the African Diaspora. Osewe has also written other articles, not just stories, which have been published in the editorial columns of Kenya’s mainstream newspapers.
Clay Onyango reminds me of the intellectual dwarf, Mulili, in the book called “Betrayal in the City” by renowned Kenyan playwright, Francis Imbuga. He provides comic relief in many of his typo-infested postings at Butdoisay. I cite two postings: One on Nov 3, 08: “2 Swedish twins try to commit suicide on Londons [sic] motorway”. 2 twins? Come on, even a primary school child in Kenya knows that twins represent a pair so there cannot be two twins. The title should have read: “Swedish twins try to commit suicide on a motorway in London.” Somebody even corrected him that there is nothing like 2 twins, unless they are more than the pair shown. He has no sense of apostrophes and other quotation marks because many times he does not use them. In this title he writes “Londons,” yet it should be London’s. In proper English there is nothing like Londons because there is only one London.
Second example: Clay recently cut and pasted an old photo of President-elect Obama sitting with one of his male relatives outside a grass thatched hut in Kogelo. The title read: “From a thatched hut to the White House,” yet the so-called White House photo was Capitol Hill’s. He was not aware until a commentator wrote this: “By the way the top picture is of Capitol Hill not White House.” Suddenly “Mulili” realized and changed it. However, he posted the original gaffe on Nov. 11, but did not know it was wrong until he was corrected on Nov. 12. There is nothing wrong with basic typos in publishing, but Clay’s blunders prove that there is something inherently wrong with his intellect because his vocabulary base is very shallow.
Clay thrives in character assassination and enjoys the growing blog traffic when he posts baseless and negative information about others. He was once questioned by an earlier Butdoisay commentator named Carol, after a post he had cut and pasted from a Klu Klux Klan website mudslinging then presidential candidate Obama. She saw no relevance in this, given that she expected Clay to portray a positive picture of Obama. He also cut and pasted quite a few articles from then African Press International owned by the infamous Korir, which portrayed Obama negatively. He only changed tact after seeing that Obama was going to win and today pretends to portray him positively.
Another example is Clay’s (also pasted) alleged API’s fraudulent phone interview with Mama Sarah Obama in Kogelo, or the pasting of the most stupid claim by API that it was awarded USD 500,000 to “strengthen” its online media work. Both were posted on Nov. 9 at Butdoisay. When API was shut down recently, Clay disowned it by posting a note on Nov. 17, exonerating himself from earlier “support” through cutting and pasting its ridiculous stories. He even wrote at Butdoisay that if he had been Korir’s fan, he would have been congratulating him. However, his note in Swahili after the claimed $500,000 API award, insinuated conviction in API’s stories. I cite him: “Butdoisay comment: Korir can the mcdonalds [sic] meal I offered you in Stockholm produce an income on my side? Kidogo tu……butdoisay.”
Butdoisay remains nothing but a farcical interlude in the Kenyan blogosphere.
Ni Mimi Caro na Nimesema
KSB NOTE:
Haya. They have started fighting again. This article has been edited a bit and expletives plus personal attacks have been removed to make it stick to the issues. KSB encourages open debate free from malice and character assassination. Contributors are advised not to use KSB to fight personal wars or to try and get even with their enemies. For ethical reasons, people adversely mentioned have a right of response.
Mr. Osewe, Why Is Clay Onyango Provoking You?
Mr. Okoth Osewe, mine is just a humble question. Although I am not a Luo, I am one Kenyan who finds your writing very interesting. One thing I would like to know is why Mr. Clay Onyango is provoking you without reason.
Clay has gone to KSB archive and lifted an old commentary you penned a year ago during election campaign (15th November 2007). The article questioned why Kikuyu chauvinists are afraid of Raila Odinga and it was written when in Kenya, a disease called “Railamania” had just erupted in Kenya.
With his “cut and paste” blog (because he lacks the power of analysis), he posted the old article at his blog in a way that suggested that it was you who just mailed it to him. This is because he did not indicate that the article was “lifted from KSB” and proceeded to impersonate you by making it look like you communicated and sent it to him as a “reaction”.
You have also sent me mail saying that you did not post the article. In the publishing world, this is unfair and could constitute a violation but that is not my point. In fact, the bait is so strong that if I had not read the article before, I could have been misled to think that it was fresh.
The rabid commentators at his blog appear to have swallowed the bait – that the article is fresh and has just been posted by you in response to Clay’s cutting and posting of information about your book on Tuesday.
In the lifted article, it was very clear that your reference to “Kikuyu chauvinists” who were afraid of Raila was a direct reference to “Kikuyu ruling class” and their supporters and not the masses of Kikuyu people. To quote the article, you wrote:
“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”.
This is a very clear class analysis of the situation at that time and someone needs to be very stupid to suggest that you are attacking Kikuyu masses as “chauvinists”. In fact, some Kikuyus even voted for Raila because they did not agree with Kikuyu ruling class led by Kibaki. Why is Clay promoting mad-slinging at his blog?
I think Clay is being malicious. To lift an old story purporting it to be your reaction to a recent posting and then allowing it to be taken out of context by rabid dogs starved of stories to chew deserves a comment and it is good that KSB is now open. I want to pull punches.
I am a University student studying sociology (Mastering if you like) and I first came into contact with your articles when a fellow Swedish student lifted an article from your KSDA website and used it as reference in class. I am not holding brief for you. I am just raising my voice against what I think is “intellectual dishonesty” although this may be a bit advanced because I may be reacting to postings by lumpens.
You have just written a book on a sensitive and difficult subject and I think that the best people like Clay could have done (if they are educated enough) is to wait and read this book then spew their critiques for evaluation instead of engaging in cheap manipulations at his “cut and paste” blog. Kenyans have been asking why members of the community in Stockholm cannot engage in anything productive and you have thrown a big challenge in the ring that does not deserve distortions and manipulations.
I know you are very bad news at defending yourself but Kenyans too should make their voices heard because Clay has destroyed many lives in Stockholm. I rarely comment on these blogs but may be, I need to begin because I am getting upset and I will decide soon whether to get into the boxing ring if this is what it will take to lift the level of debate.
Jerome Msomi
KSB NOTE:
If you have published a book, you have to be calm and expect both positive and negative comments, both constructive and reactionary criticism. From a literary vista, I find your intervention very intrepid. There is a difference between being “literate” and being “educated”. It is the educated elite that casts the literate masses under the welter of metaphorical verbiage thereby conjuring illusions into terrific realities. I welcome your educated comments hoping for further exploratory expositions at KSB Forum on topical issues.
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