Kenya Stockholm Blog

ODM-Scandinavia Supports Draft Constitution

The Scandinavia branch of the Orange Democratic Movement has supported the position of the mother Party regarding rebel Party MPs led by William Ruto. In a Statement released to KSB in Stockholm, the Party leadership, through its Chairlady Mrs Hellen Opwapo, said that ODM must take action against Ruto and company because their agenda is no longer geared towards promoting the interest of the Party.

“It is now very clear that Ruto and company are simply buying time before quitting ODM and any political shows they are staging at the moment is not in the interest of the Party”, said the statement.

The Party branch urged the mother Party to utilize available Party machinery to end the “Ruto menace”, saying that all political parties are guided by rules which, if not followed, should lead to disciplinary action.

ODM-Scandinavia’s leadership observed that a section of the rebel MPs are currently planning to take a different position on the Draft constitution ahead of the Referendum with the purpose of using opposition to the draft Constitution as propaganda to gain political mileage.

“As a Party, and after extensive consultations, ODM is united in its support for the draft Constitution and those taking a different line within the Party’s leadership should be regarded as saboteurs and not democratic forces seeking change”, said the statement.

ODM-Scandinavia also condemned the recent killings in Samburu by Administration Police and called on the government to disarm APs or disband the force because it is currently out of control.

“We cannot sit by and watch APs executing Kenyans almost on a daily basis without the Minister of Internal security Professor George Saitoti being made to account for the deaths. The Party’s leadership said that recent public executions by APs in Samburu and Nairobi where seven taxi drivers were shot dead is a reincarnation of executions witnessed by Kenyans during the days of dictator Daniel arap Moi. “This is unacceptable and those in command of APs should be made to account”, the Statement said.

The Party branch also castigated Kenyan MPs for engaging in bogus debate regarding the draft Constitution at a time when Kenyans are waiting to ratify the draft in a referendum. “After 20 years of searching for a new constitution, the MPs should know better that the delivery of a new Constitution is long overdue”, the statement said.

The Party branch regretted that once again, Kenyans in Diaspora will not be able to vote from abroad after their demands that voting from abroad be included in the constitution was ignored. The statement said that Kenyans in Diaspora should not give up on the question of voting from abroad and that they should continue to raise the issue and push for an amendment of the Constitution once it comes into effect.

The statement added that if Kenyans in Diaspora did not push for the inclusion of dual citizenship in the draft Constitution, their views could have been ignored and the provision for dual citizenship may not have been included in the current draft.

The statement urged Kenyans in Scandinavia to join the Party branch and help push for a collective political agenda from the point of view of Kenyans in Scandinavia.

Okoth Osewe

March 30, 2010 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | 1 Comment

Is Kenya-Stockholm’s Harambee Tendency Changing Form?

When a relative passes on...

Probably, the oldest tradition that has been binding members of the Kenya-Stockholm community is the harambee tradition, a communal collection of funds by friends in solidarity with a countryman especially during tragedy such as bereavement. In the past, once word went out that a member of the community was in difficulty and needed help, Kenyans descended with open wallets in support.

The most common situations that could trigger a harambee includes the demise of a close relative or the death of a Kenyan in Stockholm, prompting the need for the body to be transported to Kenya for burial in line with the Kenyan tradition. When you lose a brother, a sister, a mother or a father, sympathy among Wakenya is always almost spontaneous with streams of condolences pouring in as well wishers throng the residence of the bereaved to comfort the victim with kind words of encouragement and financial support. The situation is normally followed by the setting up of a “Funeral committee”, “bankrolling” to finance harambee activities and the actual fund raising being organized at a specific date.

If you have to travel home because you have lost a loved one, the psychology at home has it that you are coming with the necessary Kwachazz to help off-set the funeral expenses because relatives at home believe that here in the land of the white man, money flows like water in river Nile and what you have to do is just to scoop it!

A big mistake is that you have never bothered to explain that you break your back at MacD every day, 8 hours a day to make them pennies or do the rounds at Scandic Hotel washing at least 5,000 dishes everyday so that every month, you can make that trip to Western Union to wire them Kwachazz for your sister to go to school or to fix that leaking roof of your mother which has never been attended to because the government’s poverty reduction programs have failed to make an impact in your district.

During each and every holiday, you make things worse and raise expectations when, after saving some little cash to carter for your expenses when you go holidaying, you spend like you are a millionaire back in Stockholm or the son of King Gustav the 19th. You marvel your temporary acquaintances who flock around you to have their cut of the action by maintaining (continuously) a forest of beer bottles on the table at the most expensive restaurant known in town during your trade-mark social treats before you depart in a taxi. To be sure, the spending is normally synchronized with the number of days you are “in the country” and when you begin to smell Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, cash also begins to dry up.

When a relative kicks the bucket and you have to fly to the mother land to attend the funeral, you know that you have unrealistically “raised standards” and this means that when you arrive, you are under pressure to ensure that the same impact felt during holidays ought to be replicated when you are back mourning and this is where the Kenya-Stockholm pals could come in handy with their open wallets.

A Tit for tat game
The sudden death has happened at a “critical corner” of the month and you cannot even raise money for your air ticket. Although you have never seen the inside of a Stockholm church in recent times, you begin to pray to the almighty Jesus that your friends come to your rescue and Kenyans have always been responding well.

The difference now is that of late, the harambee magic has not been working as before, partly because of the global economic crisis, changing Kenya-Stockholm attitudes towards harambees and new inter-personal equations influenced over time by both events and circumstances.

At the level of global economic crisis, this is where you get rising standards of living in Sweden in the face of stagnant wages. A survey revealed that almost every Kenya-Stockholmer in permanent employment has taken out a bank loan that is digging a huge hole in the personal budget every month. Combined with other regular bills, many Kenyans (just like Swedes) are finding it difficult to have access to residual cash they can spend on every harambee that pops up.

Cash to sustain repeated trips to Vasa Temple is becoming limited and some Kenyans have actually disappeared from the Temple, opting to pray “in private” after purchasing the holy water from systembolaget. The language is “I am taking it izzi kwa keja” while it should be “I seh, I am just too broke to get out of my flat this week-end”.

During these difficult times, when you get an SMS about a harambee, you immediately cast the needy subject into your mental centrifuge to assess whether there is a necessity for you to chip in. You therefore begin to evaluate your personal relationship with the bereaved Kenyan to establish his/her status within your list of Kenya-Stockholm contacts.

The process is easy. At one time, you were faced with a similar situation when you needed help and you have a line up of friends who came to your rescue. You begin to “google” the name of the subject in the list and you discover that the chap never came close to your door-step during your hour of need. This leads you to a decision that you don’t have to disturb your wallenje because if the subject let you down at a moment of grief, it is time for him/her to bite the dust. Once you discover that you are under no obligation to visit the bankomat for the week end, you pick your phone and call a trusted friend. It’s time to “measure” the rhythms on the gossip wire.

“John Bosko has a harambee but me I am not going”, you open up, probably sipping holy water from the safety of your den. “There are too many harambees and nowadays I sample where to go”, you continue. Thank God because your friend understands your position. Your guess that you are sailing in the same boat as far as help is concerned was correct because John Bosko is in your friend’s “Black list”.

“There are people who enjoy others here in Stockholm and you are very right. I am also not going because when my brother died, John Bosko never came while he never even called to pass his condolences”, your friend blurts with a serious tone before you take over graciously.

“These days it’s a tit for tat game in Stockholm”, you try to strengthen the point. Instead of leaving it there, you open the propaganda tool box to find more damning excuses. “John Bosko huringa because he thinks he is better than other Kenyans. Wacha ajizike”, you cleverly change the frequency as your pal gets the tune and increases the volume.

“I have a List so give me a call”
The main problem is that one of your spies told you that John Bosko had been going around saying that you have become an alkizz. The truth is that you are drinking too much but you have chosen to remain locked in the denial chamber so when John Bosko spoke the truth, you took offence instead of trying to reduce your alcoholism. The difference is that your friend has a different kind of problem with John.

“Personally, I have made a decision that I am not going because after all, I don’t need him. He doesn’t pay my bills and besides, he bullshitted me at a Party in Sätra. Imagine, I was sitting with Pamela chatting and suddenly, he appeared from nowhere that he wanted to dance with her. The chick said that she didn’t feel like dancing and after he went away, he started telling Sam Pippo that I am interested in Pam”. The gossip-can begins to open up.

Another common excuse for not attending harambees is purely ethnic. If you have been rotating around the social circles, a process of ethnicization of harambees is slowly destroying this tradition. When a member of the Kikuyu community is faced with a harambee, you will hear Luos saying that “wacha wa Kikuyu wasaidie mutu yao” aka let the Kikuyu help their kith. What happens next is that you attend the harambee and you find that 90% of attendees are Kikuyu people. For the Luos, the excuse is that Kikuyus don’t attend Luo harambees so why bother? It does not take long before the tables turn and the cycle begins to repeat itself.

A Luo is faced with a harambee and it’s the turn of Wakikuyu to deliver that sweet revenge. It goes something like “Wacha Wajaluo wataenda kumsaidia”. Luos and Kikuyus are the largest ethnic groups in Kenya-Stockholm and following the post election violence, it’s been like Kikuyus are thieves who stole elections while for the Kikuyus, Luos are untrustworthy creatures who are perpetually power hungry with their Oginga Odinga and now, Raila Odinga conundrum. We are in Strockholm but the arguments that determine people’s associations are about political leadership in Kenya! A Kenyan is bereaved and you are like “Wakamba wajitete”, “Waluhya wachukue mamlaka”, “hiyo ni mambo ya Wakale” etc.

The good news is that there are Kenyans who have cut across the ethnic divide and show solidarity, not on the basis of ethnicity but on the basis of personal relationships and the uniqueness of the situation. These are the Martin Ngatias, the Hellen Opwapos, the Laban Mberis, the Dancun Munalas, the Grace Nyamburas, the Mark Gayas, the Clay Onyangos, the Catherine Maundus, the Lizz Onyangos, the Joseph Munenes and others whom you bump into at solidarity sessions regardless of the ethnic origin of the Kenyan in distress.

Obviously, attending every harambee is impossible because of obvious limitations but not doing so purely on ethnic grounds amounts to promoting ethnicity. While chasing away the fox, the hen must also be warned against wondering into the bush.

You don’t appear at any harambee and when you are in need, you expect Kenyans to come to your rescue. Honestly, this era appears to be gone for ever. The situation is so serious that when you are “never seen”, you might have “kujizika” when you pass-on because the “obligation” that a body has to be transported to Kenya for burial by Kenyans in Stockholm is becoming nostalgic.

We are in the era of “I don’t care”, “I have a list of friends”, “It doesn’t matter if I don’t attend” and “ameitisha harambee, atajizika juu haonekani”. Talk about it becoming radical because the general message here is that Wakenya lazima wajipange.

Since the beginning of the year, two Kenyans have been unable to travel home to bury their loved ones because people did not turn up for the harambees. Currently, a Kenyan is unable to travel home to bury his wife because “watu hawakuenda kwa harambee”. The body of another Kenyan is still in the morgue because “watu hawakuenda kwa harambee”. My case is rested because “I have a list” and if your name is missing, we need to talk and bolt up our friendship so give me a call otherwise don’t expect me. That is the modern Kenya-Stockholmer if you like.

Okoth Osewe

March 30, 2010 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | 22 Comments