Invitation to Sample Musician JanB’s New State of the Art Website
JanB: Dedicated to promoting Swahili language and Tanzanian tourism through music
Anbert Kiwia, who is better known in the music industry as JanB, is an emerging Tanzanian music artist whose every move indicate that he will soon be taking the Stockholm’s entertainment industry by storm. JanB is an upcoming Swahili rapper, pop singer and song writer whose ambition is to carry the Tanzanian flag across the globe and to promote both the Swahili language and Tanzanian tourism through music and entertainment. To achieve this objective, JanB has just set up a state of the art website which promises to register regular visitors keen on following JanB’s regular activities. The website is called janbonline.com.
JanB is not just a musician. He is also a professional Public Relations practitioner, a solo consultant and researcher on socio-economic issues. JanB has a B.A in Public Relations and Advertising from the University of Dar es Salam and a Msc in Sustainable Development from Uppsala University. Further, JanB in an independent model in the advertizing industry and is available for contracting by interested parties.
These are very impressive credentials which places JanB at a unique class in the highly competative entertainment industry. The musician is currently doing a music project with independent music producers in Stockholm. Under the circumstances, Janb’s fans and enthusiasts alike should have more to expect from his music career and social sustainability.
Briefly, JanBonline is a multipurpose and a sustainable online project which targets the music and entertainment industries. The project will be geared towards promoting JanB as a music artist with an international appeal and a development activist. Through the web site, the world will get to know who JanB is, the beauty of Tanzania together with the country’s unique music culture. While talking about Tanzanian music culture, genres such as Bongo Flava in hip hop, RnB, Takeu, Afro-pop, Zouk/Rhumba, Kwaito, among others, easily come to mind. Now, they will all be highlighted at JanBonline which will be sharing insights into these genres in both Swahili and English languages.
Needless to say, visitors will be treated to regular updates of latest news, events, stories and new songs through the web site. All Netizens are cordially welcomed to visit the site and sample content. To have a peep at what is in store, CLICK HERE
Okoth Osewe
Kenyan Musicians in Sweden Being Sought for Project in Kenya
Project by Swedes succeeded during first year of implementation
My name is Linn Snarset and I wish to make an appeal to Kenyan musicians in Sweden. In the work of Human Rights, specifically the right to food, our organization will have a training program for small-scale farmers in Western Kenya so that the farmers can be able to help themselves. The project is being implemented together with Gothenburg and Bohus UN districts and Lively Hood Foundation in Kenya.
Livelihood Foundation (which is a recognized NGO) and our organization support local people in Nyatoto. The training project targets efforts in areas where needs are greatest in Kenya. The training consists of various courses, agricultural techniques, water management, marketing, human rights, HIV/AIDS among others. Local expertise in both agriculture and rights-based areas are used, and the training gives small farmers new skills to assert their rights and improve their lives. A detailed explanation of the project together with reports and images from the project to date, are available at http://www.fngb.se and “Friends of Nyatoto” on Facebook.
The first project was implemented in 2011, and the main financier was ForumSyd/PAGE which also approved a continuation of the project in 2012. Forum Syd/SIDA feels that the project has shown great success in Nyatoto, hence the organizations have accepted an extension of the project into the second year.
Ourselves, Gothenburg and Bohus UN district needs to raise 50 000 SEK for the project during the second year. This is a lot of money and to fund raise, we need to organize an event of some kind. We are seeking a talented Kenyan musician/singer so that together, we organize some events to generate money for the project. We will be very glad if any interested musician could contact us for further discussion on the project. We can be reached using the contacts below.
Linn Snarset,
linn.snarset@gmail.com,
0761 693652
Magdalena Zeijlon,
magdalena.zeijlon@gmail.com,
0739 860052
Lena Johansson,
lejo9@tele2.se,
076 220 82 41
Thank you in advance for your support.
Gothenburg and Bohuslän UN District
Postgiro: 42 71 68-0
Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency: The Njenga Karume Entry…
Fat cats who kidnapped Kibaki’s Presidency
Karume: Belonged to Kenyatta's inner circle of land grabbers
There is one strange member of the Kibaki Mafia family who was a kind of Johnny come lately after Kibaki seized power but who fitted into the political program quite well — Njenga Karume. He was together with Kibaki in the Democratic Party, had been a long ally of the President while he is also a firm believer in the Kikuyu nationalism. Karume was part of the group that in the mid-70s, set up the Gikuyu, Embu, Meru Association (GEMA), a Kikuyu organization, whose agenda was to change the Kenyan Constitution to prevent the then Vice President Daniel arap Moi from ascending to power in the event of Kenyatta’s death.
Karume belonged to the Kenyatta inner circle, sat in several land-buying companies across Kenya especially in the Rift Valley soon after flag independence while he is known to have had interest in a stream of business concerns across the country. The move by Karume and company to prevent Moi from occupying State House in the event of Kenyatta’s death was thwarted by former Attorney General Charles Mugane Njonjo, who successfully defended the Constitution against arbitrary changes thereby derailing the plan by Karume and allies. Moi became President after Kenyatta died in his sleep in August 1978.
When he has a choice for President, he will, most likely, choose a Kikuyu. If two Kikuyus are standing, Karume will choose the one closer to home and this is the biggest mistake Karume made in the run up to the 2002 elections. He dumped Kibaki’s NARC Coalition and opted to support former Daniel arap Moi’s Party — KANU — which was staging Uhuru Kenyatta for President after the Raila- Moi fallout and Uhuru lost to Kibaki. Karume is a billionaire whose incredible collection of assets includes the Cianda Hotel in Nairobi’s Koinange Street, United Finance Ltd, Clayworks, Jacaranda Hotel in Westlands, Cianda Flowers, Tusker House, Landmark Hotel, Indian Ocean Beach Club, Highlands Hotel in Molo, Village Inn in Kiambu, Lake Elementaita Hotel and Kentmere Club.(138) He also owns Kacheroba Limited, Kivurini Farm, Kambala Farm, Lynton Farm and Katikati Farm among other concerns. He was not left behind in real estate and owns Forest Road flats, Cianda House and other housing estates.
Karume was one of the biggest beer distributors of Kenya Breweries Limited before he made a terrible business error. Through a local firm called Donyo Sabuk fronted by Karume, he became a 34 percent shareholder of Castle’s, a South African beer concern, thereby entangling KBL which, in turn, terminated a contract with Karume’s Kiambu General Transport Agency. The problem was that Castle’s was offering competition to KBL. Karume then sued KBL, claiming Ksh241 million for breach of contract but lost the suit (139). Castles beer closed down at a time when Donyo Sabuk was worth Ksh3.5 billion (140). Castles beer was later sold to Kenya Breweries thereby ending Karume’s ventures in the beer distribution industry.
At the time he ditched Kibaki, thinking that Uhuru would win election, his business must have been going down because after losing the beer distribution contract, real estate got a beating in the market while tourism was also down, a tendency that must have reduced his earnings considerably. The idea of joining Uhuru was another big political mistake although his uncertain political future was later secured after Kibaki rehabilitated him and made him Minister of Special Programmes. In August 2005, Karume’s Jacaranda Hotels Limited was at the centre of an investigation into the Kenya Tourism Development Corporation by the Inspectorate of State Corporations regarding “…allegations of widespread corruption in disbursement of loans and tribalism in staff recruitment among other claims (141).
Back to “Muthaiga group” in post 2002 Elections
Karume was one of the politicians who was named in the Ndungu Report on Land as having acquired vast pieces of land irregularly and after Kibaki took power, Karume could have suffered greatly if Kibaki followed up on his pledge to fight corruption and land grabbing because Karume was very vulnerable.
There is no single close ally of Kibaki not implicated in or having been linked to corruption scandals through reports and allegations of all descriptions and Karume was no exception. In December 2000, the late Molo MP, Kihika Kimani, accused Karume of having “embezzled millions of shillings” and that the Kiambaa MP had “enriched himself with public funds and at the same time purporting to be a leader of the Kikuyu” (142), claims that Karume dismissed.
To appreciate the level at which Kibaki was ready to go to entrench tribalism in his administration, the President allowed Karume to come back in government, from opposition, created the Ministry of Special Programmes in the Office of the President and handed it over to Karume on a golden platter. Okot p’Bitek wrote that “Birds of the same feathers flock to gather”. But that was just the beginning. After being welcomed into the government, Kibaki moved an “extra mile” by making a Cabinet reshuffle, which ended with Karume as the Defence Minister. This was despite the fact that Karume was a key member of the leading opposition in Parliament headed by Uhuru Kenyatta. There was no room for a coalition government in the Kenyan Constitution but to go around this hitch, Kibaki created a fake “Government of National Unity” under which Karume slowly crawled into government to become a Cabinet Minister.
In creating a leeway through which he could join his golf colleagues, the big point Kibaki made to the Kenyan public was that Karume was an important member of the Mafia and that although he had gaffed by supporting former Moi’s strategy in 2002, he could still be forgiven to join government because his services were needed by the Mount Kenya Mafia that had taken over power in Kenya. With the likes of Karume brought closer, job vacancies for members of the Mount Kenya Mafia were getting filled up at an alarming rate. Karume must have been so convinced that since Moi had the State machine, the Head of State could do anything to ensure that Uhuru won to become President of Kenya but Uhuru lost and Karume had to find his way back to Kibaki through some other ways.
Once back from cold opposition, Karume joined the Muthaiga group, which was pitted against the Hurlingham group for control of both Kibaki and State House. By the time elections came in December 2007, it was Karume’s Muthaiga group that had taken over control after the Anglo-Leasing monster ate away the Murungaru-Kiraitu-Lucy led Hurlingham group whose schemes are also highlighted in this book.
Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency:
Chapter Four (Excerpts): Fat Cats Who Kidnapped Kibaki’s Presidency (pgs 78-80)
Meet Michuki, The Colonial District Commissioner
Click to watch...
Miguna Miguna’s Anti-Raila Rantings: Unedited Interview with Citizen TV
PART ONE
PART TWO
The Kibaki Succession: Raila Odinga
Who Was John Michuki?
Michuki had a heart attack + multiple organ failure
He is also known as “The Rattle Snake.” His Kikuyu nickname, Kimeendero[89] means, “the one who crushes” and can, according to Raila Odinga,[90] be traced back to his days in the Colonial administration where he worked as a District Officer. Michuki acquired his “rattle-snake” nickname after police raided the offices of The East African Standard Newspaper, burnt copies of the paper that were destined for distribution, shut down KTN TV station and made away with computer hard disks among other equipment. The paper came under attack after it reported an alleged secret meeting between Kalonzo Musyoka, then an ODM-Kenya Presidential aspirant, and President Mwai Kibaki at State House Nairobi.[91] After Michuki admitted that the government was behind the commando style raid, he told Journalists that, “When you rattle a snake, you must be ready to be bitten by it.”[92] The Kiruki report about the Artur brothers who commanded the raid accused Michuki “…of supporting and condoning illegal activities of the Arturs. It recommends his prosecution and ban from holding public office.”[93] In the past, Michuki has had to deny charges that he was against the Mau Mau freedom fighters[94] during the anti-colonial war for liberation when he was employed to serve his British colonial masters.
Among the fat cats who surrounded Kibaki, Michuki was initially not a key policymaker but later Kibaki had reason to listen to him after he displayed unmatched ruthlessness in dealing with Matatu operators across the country.[95] Just like Kibaki, Michuki worked with Moi in KANU then moved to Ford-People following the dawn of the Multi-party era but when it became clear that Simon Nyachae’s Ford- People (which he was a member of ) was heading into a ditch, Michuki jumped ship and joined Kibaki in NAK. However, he remains an old buddy of Kibaki who did not come into contact with the President for the first time after he left Ford-People. Read more here.
John Michuki is Dead
John Michuki dead at 80
Posted Tuesday, February 21 2012 at 23:24
Environment Minister John Michuki is dead
The 80-year-old minister was admitted to the Aga Khan University Hospital on Sunday morning, only two days after arriving from the United Kingdom where he was undergoing treatment.
On Monday, Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua sent a statement to newsrooms in an apparent move to clear the air amid rumours and speculation in the social media about the minister’s health. In his brief, Dr Mutua said the Kangema MP “was undergoing medical procedures and is responding well to treatment.’’ In a press statement, President Kibaki said Michuki was a focused public servant, a determined businessman and issue-oriented politician.
“Michuki was a true family friend and a dependable ally,” said President Kibaki. Michuki was taken ill early Sunday and was rushed to the Aga Khan University Hospital where he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. He flew to the UK a few days before Christmas and had been there since. His last official function was the climate change conference in Durban from November 28 to December 9.
Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency: The Anatomy of the 2007 Election Rigging
The role of Kalonzo Musyoka in PNU’s election rigging strategy: Part 1
At first, Kalonzo's Presidential candidacy against Raila in ODM-K was seen as a propaganda ploy
I wish to argue that the key to understanding the genesis of election rigging in Kenya after the December 2007 polls depends on whether one can appreciate the role Kalonzo Musyoka, Uhuru Kenyatta and former dictator Daniel arap Moi may have played in the whole process after the Referendum because their deft machinations appear to have been completely hidden. By advancing this view, my starting point is that the rigging that took place at KICC was a last minute and desperate option that was largely unplanned, abrupt and that may have been employed with very little prior coordination. The crudity of the tactics (that included some returning officers disappearing from polling stations without reporting the results) was a result of massive failure of PNU’s central rigging strategy, which was based on the manipulation of the voter’s register, especially in PNU strongholds, in addition to stuffing extra ballots in ballot boxes, especially in Central Province, to prop up Kibaki’s votes.
In the process of the December 2007 elections, incidences involving the stuffing of extra ballot papers were reported and, in Kamukunji Constituency in Nairobi, this rigging method led to nullification of the results because it was too obvious. If extra ballot papers were actually intercepted and reported in newspapers and TV news channels on their way to the polling stations, it means that they existed and, by extension, it also means that this method of rigging was part of the PNU rigging plan, which might have failed. Secondly, if extra-marked ballot papers could be stuffed in ballot boxes at Kamukunji and Starehe Constituencies in Nairobi, which were non-PNU strongholds and in favour of PNU candidates, what exactly happened in Central Province where PNU had total control and where many observers were kept at a safe distance in many polling stations?
My theory is that PNU stuffed ballot boxes in their strongholds but this could not hand Kibaki victory thus a quick decision was made by the rigging clique to intervene at KICC as a last resort to prevent Raila Odinga from seizing power in Kenya. This behaviour, according to my theory, should explain the unspeakable crudity with which the rigging was done. Partly, this crudity contributed to open discovery of the rigging through live TV broadcasts and this open theft of the vote is also what might have angered thousands of Kenyans who took to the streets in protest because they saw elections being stolen before their very eyes by the Kikuyu ruling class, which had been defeated at the ballot box by a mass movement. Political actions by Kalonzo, Moi and Uhuru prior to elections appeared as normal developments in Kenya’s daily political life but, in reality, these developments could have been part of a well-planned election-rigging scheme that needs a deeper and more exploratory examination.
Kalonzo’s links with Moi and Uhuru Kenyatta in the conspiracy
Before the Referendum, Kalonzo, Uhuru and Moi were firmly behind ODM, which also built both Kalonzo and Uhuru politically to a level where they could begin to present themselves as Presidential candidates who could in fact give Raila Odinga a run for his money when it came to the post of President of Kenya. After the defeat of the Uhuru Project in December 2002 and before talk about the Referendum, Kalonzo Musyoka (who was pulled into NARC from KANU by Raila Odinga through LDP) was still a non-entity when it came to national politics. My assertion is that without the Referendum, which created ODM, Kalonzo could not have found the courage to present himself as a Presidential candidate in the December 2007 elections because he had no national political clout or mass appeal.
Likewise, Uhuru Kenyatta’s politics had collapsed after the defeat of the “Uhuru Project” that was sponsored by Moi and that saw Raila quit KANU to make the Kibaki Tosha declaration. Before the Referendum and following the humiliation of KANU at the December 2002 election when the Party lost power for the first time since 1963, Uhuru Kenyatta was on his way to political oblivion because KANU was basically dead. It is Uhuru’s entry into ODM that rejuvenated his political career and once again elevated his profile to a level where he could rise to present himself as a Presidential candidate.
The determining factor in the rise of Kalonzo’s national image during and after the Referendum and Uhuru’s political rebirth after the attenuation of KANU was Raila Odinga who alone had the capacity in ODM-Kenya to mobilize support on a national scale and convincingly pose a threat (as a Presidential candidate) to Kibaki’s Presidency at the December 2007 polls.
My view is that it is against this background that the opportunistic political designs of both Kalonzo and Uhuru in ODM-Kenya needs to be viewed. These two politicians knew that they had no chance against Raila on the question of ODM-Kenya’s Presidential candidate and my thesis is that the two were recruited to back PNU’s election scheme, not just because they were vulnerable but because they were both politically weak and available to be used in a dirty political game. Both Kalonzo and Uhuru had big ambitions. But these ambitions could not be supported with realities on the ground, which dictated that they needed much more time to grow up politically before they could mature to begin eying State House.
When he rejoined politics from retirement to begin his anti-ODM-Kenya, anti-Raila crusade after the Referendum, Moi was in a slightly different situation. In the first three years of NARC rule, Moi was largely a quiet man in retirement but after corruption scandals and charges of tribalism started haunting the Kibaki government, Moi began to surface slowly by making several political comments in the media. My view is that the re-entry of Moi into Kenyan politics from retirement was connected to the Kalonzo-Uhuru segment of the conspiracy to prevent Raila from rising to power. Both Kalonzo and Uhuru could not conspire with Kibaki alone because they had no strong links with the Kibaki camp. Moi had hatched the failed Uhuru Project while he is responsible for bringing Kalonzo up politically during his days in power. He was in a much better position to link both Kalonzo and Uhuru to Kibaki because he also had Kibaki’s ear. As a former President who had dealt with the kind of crisis that bedeviled Kibaki’s administration, I wish to argue that Moi formed part of the “Axis of Rigging” that constituted itself to sabotage ODM-Kenya’s bid for power and Raila’s bid for Presidency.
Because of the role Raila had played in Kalonzo’s political rise to stardom and because of Raila’s larger-than-life persona, Kalonzo was, naturally, inclined to breathe freely in a future power structure that excluded Raila Odinga in the pecking order. The same case applied to Uhuru Kenyatta who could not be himself in the presence of Raila Odinga because of the big betrayal that was brought by the Uhuru Project and the failure of the Project as a result of Raila’s political strategies. Moi hated Raila because of both the role Raila played in the defeat of the Uhuru Project and the loss of power by KANU after more than forty-four years in control. This loss was devastating to Moi because it disorientated the former dictator’s ambitions of controlling power through the back door in his retirement via the Uhuru Project, which, he thought, he had meticulously crafted to the last detail. According to my analysis, the entry of Moi in the anti-ODM-Kenya crusade was thus a calculated act that was, most likely, going to work in the future political interest of Kalonzo, Uhuru, Moi and Kibaki’s team that was garnering for a second chance at controlling instruments of power.
Presidential candidacy within ODM-Kenya ahead of 2007 Elections
When Kalonzo announced that he was also in the race for Presidency after the Referendum, the general belief among ODM-Kenya members and supporters alike was that both his candidacy and that of Uhuru were propaganda ploys that would eventually give way to a Raila’s candidacy in a final unity move to remove Kibaki from power. Raila was widely credited for having been responsible for Kibaki’s victory in December 2002 while he was seen to have been the reference figure during the struggle against the mutilated draft of the Bomas Constitution. Over the years, Raila had cultivated a national image in Kenya and these profiles put him much further ahead of his competitors.
However, when Kalonzo began to show signs that he was determined to take Raila head-on and on a serious note, anxiety began to build in ODM-Kenya. When I met Mr. William Atinga (a long-standing contact of Raila who was in Sweden to observe elections on behalf of ODM-Kenya at the time I met him in Stockholm in September 2004), he did admit that Kalonzo was becoming a problem in the fragile movement.
The real tension and suspicions began to take root in ODM-Kenya when Steadman opinion pollsters began to elevate Kalonzo in their dubious polls at the expense of Raila and at a time when even the man in the streets knew that there was no way that Kalonzo could have suddenly become more popular than Raila unless something was seriously wrong with the Steadman polls. There was no dramatic political events or scenarios that could explain the sudden rise of Kalonzo’s popularity in the Steadman polls while at the same time, it was Raila who appeared to have been in control of events in the run up to the Referendum as the opinion polls rolled through the conduits of Kikuyu-controlled media to put Kalonzo ahead of Raila as per Steadman opinion ploys. Instead of Kalonzo playing down the poll results, which were largely criticized by leading Kenyan commentators like Miguna Miguna, Onyango Oloo, Martin Ngatia, Oduor Ong’wen and others as inaccurate, unreliable and dubious, Kalonzo used the poll results to assert himself even further and to introduce complications that were destined to complicate Raila Odinga’s Presidential candidacy, especially on the complicated question of ODM-Kenya’s nomination of Presidential candidate. Suddenly, the method of ODM-Kenya’s nominations, which was expected to be resolved amicably within the Party, became a big issue that even threatened to split the Party. Was Kalonzo part of a ploy by the Kibaki team to undermine Raila’s candidacy or even scuttle it altogether using Steadman, or was his political demeanor at this point in time a matter of political principle?
Before Kalonzo’s acceptance and use of Steadman’s polls to bolster his reputation, it was very difficult to draw any conclusions as to whether Kalonzo had a “hidden agenda” in ODM-Kenya. In a short span, however, Kalonzo’s ego had been so much inflated by the polls that he began to adopt a nonchalant attitude towards the need for internal ODM-Kenya unity that was the key to defeating Kibaki. This is not to posit that Kalonzo had no right to present himself as ODM-Kenya’s Presidential candidate. Other candidates such as William Ruto, Musalia Mudavadi and Najib Balala did so up to the eleventh hour but their political positions and public utterances were not construed by ODM-Kenya supporters to mean that they were threatening the Party’s internal unity or trying to entangle it in any way.
Kalonzo as an opposition figure within ODM-Kenya
On the contrary, their candidacy was viewed as normal within the context of ODM-Kenya’s democratic process, which, nevertheless, had to accord all aspiring Presidential candidates the opportunity to pass through the Party’s set down machinery before they could carry the Party’s flag in the Presidential race. The problem with Kalonzo was that he was the only Presidential candidate who was becoming very antagonistic using the question of the method ODM-Kenya intended to use in nominating its candidate — voting by delegates or voting by acclamation.
The methodology of electing the Party’s Presidential candidate was a simple issue that could have been settled within internal structures of the Party and when Kalonzo converted it into a big issue that the media began to feed on endlessly at the expense of the Party’s unity, eyebrows began to rise as to the real intentions of Kalonzo. The point is that Kalonzo’s demeanor after the Referendum was threatening the unity of ODM-Kenya in the eyes of the supporters instead of giving hope of a final ODM-Kenya unity that could eventually sweep Kibaki and his Mount Kenya Mafia cartel from power.
Although elected on a popular platform for change and transformation, Kibaki’s government had come to represent corruption, tribalism, nepotism, theft of public funds, unfulfilled election promises, deteriorating living conditions, mass starvation of poor Kenyans, mass poverty, political arrogance, opportunism, wealth grabbing, nepotism, political deception, land grabbing, rule by the Mafia, cronyism, dependency on imperialism and other vices, which, in the eyes of millions of Kenyan voters, underlined the need for Kibaki’s ousting from power in December 2007. Under strenuous circumstances that called for an emergency political unity to get rid of Kibaki, any politician in ODM-Kenya who was trying to undermine unity within the Party was openly going against the wishes of the majority of Kenyans who supported ODM-Kenya in order to remove Kibaki and his allies from power. Apparently, Kalonzo did not understand this situation as he slowly transformed himself into an opposition figure within ODM-Kenya. PART TWO…
Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency
Chapter Thirteen (excerpts): The Anatomy of the 2007 Election Rigging
RELATED (Excerpts from Stolen Presidency)
- Who is William Ruto?
- Who is John “Kimendeero” Michuki?
- Who is Kalonzo Musyoka
- Who is Francis Muthaura?
- Who is Stanley Murage?
- Kenya: The myth of Peace in a Conflict Zone
- A Kikuyu Presidency in the Near Future Will be Difficult: Part 1
- A Kikuyu Presidency in the Near Future will be Difficult: Part 2
- Why Did Us Imperialism Congratulate Kibaki After Raila’s Presidency was Stolen? Part 1
- Why Did Us Imperialism Congratulate Kibaki After Raila’s Presidency was Stolen? Part 2
Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency: The Anatomy of the 2007 Election Rigging
The role of Kalonzo Musyoka in PNU’s election rigging strategy: Part 2
After ODM's take over by Raila, Kalonzo was written off as a major contender in the Presidential race
My hypothesis is that the reason why Kalonzo was proving to be problematic after the Referendum was that, at this point in time, he was already working with Kibaki’s team and every move he made was within the overall plan to defeat Raila’s ascendency to the Presidency with or without the rigging of elections. If a scientific barometer were to be constructed to measure Kalonzo’s popularity as a Presidential candidate after ODM-Kenya’s victory at the Referendum, such a barometer could be having fatal technical problems if it didn’t relegate Kalonzo to a second position in relation to Raila Odinga regardless of what the opinion polls were saying about the Presidential candidates.
It was obvious that Raila Odinga was the preferred candidate and Kenyans needed no expert to agree on this point. When I spoke to a Narc-Kenya hawk in Stockholm, who was involved with the “Kibaki Tena” Lobby group in Scandinavia that was dissolved after the stealing of Raila’s Presidency, he did admit several times that Raila was no comparison to Kalonzo even though he did not agree with Raila’s politics. The point is that even Raila’s opponents in PNU understood that the Kibaki-sponsored Steadman polls were not telling the truth about the level of popularity between Raila and Kalonzo. One Kenyan who took time out to expose the subterfuge in the Steadman polls was Miguna Miguna.
Before the Referendum (according to my analysis), Kalonzo was with Raila but after Kibaki was defeated, ODM-Kenya leaders were dealing with a totally different Kalonzo who might have struck deals of sorts with Kibaki and company to ensure that Raila did not become President of Kenya. In retrospect, I believe that Kalonzo is a politician whose artificial or Steadman-created popularity rose at a rate he could not deal with under the wings of ODM-Kenya and during the short period of uncertainty that followed this “rise to stardom,” he made serious political blunders that may have ruined his political career even though he was appointed Vice President by Kibaki.
Kalonzo’s strategy was to split ODM-Kenya as he kept LPK for emergency
It is curious that when The Standard was raided through the support of the Artur bandits that were in the country at the pleasure of the Kibaki government, information that became available through the Kenyan media indicated that the main reason why copies of The Standard were set ablaze was because The Standard had earlier carried a story about an alleged meeting between Kalonzo Musyoka and President Kibaki at State House. The meeting is alleged to have taken place at a time when Kalonzo was supposed to have been firmly in ODM-Kenya and concentrating to help the Party come to power regardless of who became the Presidential candidate. The truth behind the Kalonzo State House meeting never came to light but suspicions had been drawn. The emergency commando-like operation at The Standard should demonstrate the significance with which the Mount Kenya Mafia cartel attached to the alleged Kalonzo-Kibaki contacts at State House. If there is any connection that emerged between Kalonzo and the Mount Kenya Mafia to plot for election, it must have begun during the crisis linked to the Artur brothers.
In the run up to nominations of ODM-Kenya’s Presidential candidate, Kalonzo was constantly a thorn in the flesh. If PNU was using Kalonzo to disorientate ODM-Kenya as a tactic of returning to power, they nearly succeeded because it was the same Kalonzo who split the Party into two, four months before elections. I wish to advance the theory that the departure of Kalonzo from LDP to join the Labour Party of Kenya headed by Julia Ojiambo and his dramatic move to take over ODM-Kenya whose officials were his own henchmen was part of a wider plot to split ODM-Kenya just before elections in order to make it impossible for Raila Odinga to reconstitute his political base to present himself as a Presidential candidate sponsored by another Party. It must be remembered that Kalonzo’s serious and extraordinary move to split the Party over a leadership issue that could be sorted out internally was also unprovoked, abrupt, swift and well calculated.
The speed with which Kalonzo accepted to help Kibaki cling onto power by accepting to become Kibaki’s Vice President after the Septuagenarian rigged the election through ECK and the burning desire of Kalonzo that Presidential election results be released by Kivuitu even after it became obvious that elections had been rigged should probably give Kalonzo’s tactics away, not just as a major conspirator in the rigging of the election but also as a key traitor whose irresponsible actions led to the killing of more than 1,500 Kenyans, destruction of billions worth of property and the creation of more than 350,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IPDs).
In arguing that Kalonzo must have been involved in the rigging conspiracy, part of my evidence (however circumstantial) is that Kalonzo knew too well that the leadership of ODM-Kenya — the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer — were his men, i.e. people he could influence in any direction including taking over ODM-Kenya as a Party and this is exactly what he did. This is because whoever has a Party’s Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer in his or her pocket controls the Party. I wish to argue that Kalonzo’s strategy was first to take over the Party through his boys in ODM-Kenya’s leadership thereby creating a “leadership crisis” in the Party. His calculation must have been that the matter would be taken to court and, as part of the PNU scheme to block Raila from ascending to the Presidency, Kibaki would use his loyalists in the courts to ensure that the case dragged on until election time when Raila would be effectively Party-less.
It must be appreciated that after the split of ODM-Kenya, it is Kalonzo who was likely to get the node as the Party’s Presidential candidate because the leadership of ODM-Kenya were his people. Even though he never succeeded in rendering Raila Odinga partyless, he succeeded in emerging as ODM-Kenya’s Presidential candidate. If the matter went to court, making it impossible for ODM-Kenya to present a Presidential candidate, Kalonzo was safe because he had joined the Labour Party of Kenya and pocketed Julia Ojiambo who eventually became his running mate in ODM-Kenya when Raila and supporters worked on an alternative to skip taking the matter to court.
If the theory that Kalonzo was part of the PNU strategy were to be accepted, then Kalonzo delivered because he succeeded in splitting ODM-Kenya. What he excluded from the arithmetic is that he had no idea that Raila Odinga may have been working on a “Plan B,” which saw Raila and company take over the original ODM, a move that did not just surprise Kalonzo but that might have sent shockwaves across PNU ranks, especially the layer that might have been part of the Kalonzo scheme to split ODM-Kenya as part of the rigging plan.
Kibaki did not name his running mate in order for Kalonzo “to pass in the middle“
By taking over the original ODM, Raila solved two serious problems. He laid to rest the Kalonzo plan of rendering him Party-less four months before elections while the takeover also ensured that those who were behind Raila and who were increasingly getting irritated by Kalonzo’s theatrics could now rest because the takeover of the original ODM helped in getting rid of Kalonzo Musyoka permanently without protracted and bitter wars that supporters feared would compromise the Party’s ability to fight it out at elections and even defeat the thieving President Kibaki’s government and his gang of Mount Kenya Mafia. After the takeover of the original ODM by Raila and his generals, Kalonzo was basically written off as a major contender in the Presidential race and it is at this point that he began to talk about “miracles,” (323) which, nevertheless, never happened because he finished a distant third at the elections.
After elections were rigged, Kalonzo had to carry the stigma of a “traitor” who’s actions before and after elections were seen by millions of Kenyans as partly responsible for giving Kibaki the courage to install himself as President. Here it is significant to point out that MPs from Kalonzo’s ODM-K were part of the PNU block after Kibaki announced his illegal Cabinet while ODM-K MPs led by Kalonzo also voted on PNU’s side during the election of the Speaker of National Assembly which was won by MP Kenneth Marende of ODM. Without the support of ODM-K, PNU could have had even more serious credibility problems and under the circumstances, Kalonzo must take part of the blame because he is directly responsible for propping up PNU after the Party rigged elections through ECK.
My view is that Kalonzo’s actions were not accidental but the product of months of pre-meditation probably with the conniving of PNU. Kalonzo’s role in the whole rigging saga was to first try and offer “serious competition” to Raila Odinga within ODM-Kenya and he did get a lot of assistance from Steadman Opinion tricksters, a dubious body whose control was later traced back to Joe Wanjui, (324) Kibaki’s behind-the-scenes political wheeler-dealer. Kalonzo did pose as a credible Presidential candidate of ODM-Kenya before splitting the Party at the eleventh hour. If he had a deal with PNU to split ODM-Kenya and create chaos within the Party four months before elections, my take is that he was promised the position of Vice President and, according to this line of thought, this should explain why Kibaki refused to name his running mate despite the presence of numerous candidates around the PNU collection. The position of Vice President must have been preserved for Kalonzo and if Kibaki engaged the likes of Musikari Kombo or his Vice President Moody Awori as running mate, the move could have torpedoed the Kalonzo strategy of election rigging. During election campaigns, Raila Odinga did challenge Kibaki to name his running mate but he refused to do so — why?
In fact, it was the first time that a Kenyan Presidential candidate who was in office had faced the general elections without a running mate. Four months before elections, Kibaki had not identified the Party he was set to use in defending his seat and he kept both supporters and the whole nation guessing as different parties surfaced to seek his attention.
Millions of Kenyans could not understand why Kalonzo was insisting that the flawed results be announced when, as a Presidential candidate, he should have been concerned about any possible rigging of the ballot regardless of the number of votes he received. Just before Kalonzo split ODM-Kenya, he was in a position to hold any position in a future ODM-Kenya government, save for the Presidency, which Raila was rooting for. In fact, the post of Prime Minister could have been Kalonzo’s for the taking in an ODM-Kenya government because there was a time when ODM-Kenya leaders were so desperate for internal unity, which was increasingly being threatened by Kalonzo.
From the direction of events before and after elections, the plan to rig Kenyan elections by members of the Kikuyu ruling class must have began immediately after the Referendum. In presenting this position, it would be instructive to also examine the political posture of Uhuru Kenyatta whom, I believe, was also part and parcel of election rigging long before Election Day and the tallying of results at KICC.
Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency
Chapter Thirteen (excerpts): The Anatomy of the 2007 Election Rigging (pgs 231-240)
RELATED: (Excerpts from Stolen Presidency)
- Who is William Ruto?
- Who is John “Kimendeero” Michuki?
- Who is Kalonzo Musyoka
- Who is Francis Muthaura?
- Who is Stanley Murage?
- Kenya: The myth of Peace in a Conflict Zone
- A Kikuyu Presidency in the Near Future Will be Difficult: Part 1
- A Kikuyu Presidency in the Near Future will be Difficult: Part 2
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- Why Did Us Imperialism Congratulate Kibaki After Raila’s Presidency was Stolen? Part 2
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Rumours are spreading in the Internet that Environment Minister John Michuki has died. KSB is trying to investigate the rumours and will report to KS-Beers asap. Okoth Osewe.
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