The Ebook version of ”Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency: Consequences and the future of Kenya” has been launched in the Internet and is now ready for download. The release of the Ebook is part of a campaign to make the book more and readily available to readers across the world especially to the Kenyan audience which is a key target of the book.
In the recent past, there have been attempts by the Kenyan government to intimidate bookshops and other book distribution outlets to prevent them from stocking “controversial books”, a retrogressive tendency which has no place in today’s highly technological world where the Internet has taken over as a dominant media channel that defies control by both individuals and governments alike.
In a CNN broadcast, the Kenyan government was reported to have asserted that Michela Wrong’s book, “Its Our Turn to Eat” together with “other controversial books” will not be allowed to sell in Kenya. This, by any stretch of the imagination, was a callous attempt at overt State censorship, a draconian measure which, many Kenyans believe, belong to the past when both the Moi and Kenyatta dictatorships used to ban books on grounds that they were “seditious”.
The launching of the Raila Ebook should easily beat any attempts at censorship as the political struggle continues in Kenya. As compared to the hard copy, the Ebook is much more practical especially in this age of laptops and other electronic reading devices.
The Ebook comes with a free sample copy which should give the reader an inkling about the full version before purchase. Another advantage of the Ebook is that it comes with several features that facilitate easy navigation. Many Ebooks come in PDF formats and this makes it difficult for the reader to navigate effectively because the only option available is to click on the pages to either move forward or backwards.
In the Stolen Presidency Ebook, this problem has been eliminated because the book is stored in a user friendly environment where the reader has more than 3,500 links to click on during navigation. A reader seeking to check out a reference at the back of the book does not have to go through a series of clicks to get there. You simply click on the reference number on the text and you are immediately brought to the relevant reference page. From there, the reader can navigate back to the page under study and continue reading.
Navigation Details
Likewise, the reader will be able to jump between chapters by moving back and forth from the “content” page which is linked in all pages. There is also a search facility to enable the reader find a specific search entry on a page. By checking an entry in the control panel, the reader will be able to re-open the book from the last page navigated. The reader will not, therefore, have to remember or write down the last page navigated since the last reading.
There is no limitation as to the number of computers on which one can read the book and it will be possible to move from computer to computer by storing the Ebook in a storage device such as a USB gadget.
For purchase, the transaction has been simplified as much as possible. As soon as a purchase is made, the reader is re-directed to a download page while an automated email is also sent to the purchaser with log in details.
Once the download is complete, the purchaser can then run the Ebook after which a prompt pops up asking for activation. Using the log-in details sent via email, the purchaser should be able to open the Ebook by entering a user name and pass word to begin reading immediately. You do not have to log in every time on the same computer for another reading session. One log in is enough until you move to another computer or until you log off.
The Ebook has undergone an extensive test run and is expected to function without major technical hitches. The free sample copy comes with a “Tell a friend” button and this is important in helping the message of the Ebook to spread. The free version does not require any log-in and can be sampled immediately after download. The sample contains extra information about events surrounding the book following publication together with information on how to download the full copy. In case of difficulty, there is contact information for technical support. The processing of the Ebook has provided opportunity to settle known issues since the book’s publication.
Mapambano Distributors have exclusive distribution rights of the Ebook which comes at a reasonable price of US$ 17, a huge difference compared to the hard copy (you save US$ 35 from the Hard copy). To purchase the Ebook for immediate download or to download the free sample copy, visit the Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency Download Center.
Mapambano Online wishes all readers interested in the Ebook a smooth download and smooth navigation as the truth about Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency also spreads peacefully across the world and as the launch of the book in Kenya is eagerly awaited.
Okoth Osewe
About the Author
Way to go Bw.Osewe.That was really a good idea coz internet rules these days.Keep it up.
That is wonderful. How about creating a section in your blog so that we can post our reviews on the book. I’m sure there are other readers who are burning to write a review.
KSB: Keter, there is. The link is: http://kenyastockholm.com/2008/11/18/new-book-on-kenyas-december-2007-election-crisis/ and it has been there since day one when the announcement of the book’s publication was made. The link is entitled “Comment” and is just below the picture of the book’s cover on the main page. Looking forward for your review. Check out developments since the launch at the category section titled “Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency”.
I am a friend of Prime Minister Odinga and would like to make sure he can contact us when he is in the USA.
I worked in Kenya in the 70s and Mr Odinga was a great help to our community based training program at that time. OIC Kenya was located in the then COTU Bldg and we trained many young Kenyan entrepreneurers living in the Nairobi, Kenya area.
I am hoping I can one day meet or talk with Mr Odinga when he is visiting in the USA. Please make sure he receives this missive and thank you kindly.
Sylvia Simon Stanback
336-274-8080
Greensboro, NC USA
Your message has been sent to Mr. Odinga. Good luck!
“We are in a transition where the loser wants to take it unlike in the past where the winner used to take it all” strong words from Raila ……..I can never forget
I personally believe and trust in Raila Odinga’s leadership. In 2007 was his year to triumph over his perceived rival Kibaki who stole election by all means in full glare of kenyans across the country.
Hon. Raila Odinga will for once rule Kenya & we will vote him out if he too doesn’t deliver.Am not known to him but his reputation from the past history speaks volume and there is alot to be emulated from him; the political games have started but the leadership of this country cannot be undertaken by one community.
Come 2012; we will support Raila Odinga from the word Go to the bitter end. We are still nursing the stolen victory but our time to party, laugh & rejoice will come as Kenya will be left to true leaders.
Allan Kilakah Masavah
The prime minister has shown love to his country by accepting to share powers with the president.if not so still we always knows that you are in power just like any othe president and also come 2012 you will carry the flag to state house.i can see a big sunami which will bring change to our beloved kenya.
mzeemwingine (April 16th, 2011, 5:54 PM )
I am not an ardent fan of Raila but, who is Balala to talk about Raila? If you ran against Raila, how many votes would you garner outside your door step? Mr Balala, confine your cheap mnazi politics to pwani.
Abdallahjei. (April 16th, 2011, 5:51 PM ) via capital mobile
Balala, join the perpetrators of impunity plus the Hague suspects and blame your woes on Raila, how absurd! You lost direction long time ago and now it’s time to talk to the Birds! What Kenyans are seeing are two sides of the coin, the clean side, with Raila and others and the soiled and dirty side of looters of public coffers, barons, mafiosos, thugs and their sympathisers etc etc, that’s where you all belong in present day politics of the Republic of Kenya!
denmonya (April 16th, 2011, 5:29 PM )
Mr.Balala this is pure politics.Who knows you will also betray your colleagues in the so called’TUKO PAMOJA’.Last time you feared competition and bowwed down. Were you not a betrayer? Waswahili usema ngoma ya vijana haikeshi.Your journey will be trimmed by Ocampo if not one of you running away with the certificate of the party.”Best wishes”
Why cant Balala Tell Kenyans When will He abandon Muscat(Oman) Islamist Fanatism in Kenya? Why Cant Balala Go To Oman (Muscat) and demcratice the Oppresed Omanis by Sheicks?
balala should stop insulting our intelligence we know the furthest he can go he is still wearing a political napkin
CAGED BY AMBITION: WHY ODINGA’S PRESIDENCY MIGHT NOT OFFER MUCH
Posted on April 8, 2012 by LONE FELIX
“Raila appears as largely inconclusive, incapable of being an effective manager as you would expect the next Chief Executive to be. With mega and ambitious projects hitting the economy, you need a president who yes, is politically responsive, but equally has the organizational capacity to hold all the facets of the country in coordination. Odinga might be lacking this.”
A caption of a desperately irate Odinga has done multiple circulations on the internet. The man was literally crying when he saw the presidency snatched from his jaws. He has been chastised by his opponents, but only they that do not know the cost of an ambition would fail to excuse his tears. Losing a presidency, no, being snatched off a presidency would touch the core of a man, excusably; it would bring anyone to tears.
Raila Amolo Odinga is a name that both foe and friend concede to its magnanimity. You would call him an Enigma, indeed the man has been a mystery. Emerging, into prominence as a pro reform democrat, accepting to be caged six times in the struggle for political pluralism,
and later, as if to show that he was the figurative TINGA, leaving a trail of destruction as he ascended into becoming Kenya’s most influential politician.
I doubt whether Kenya shall ever get a man both adored and hated in the same measure. A man you will hate to admit that he is influential. Whose statements shake the core of the Kenyan politics?
But in all these, how true has Odinga’s quest been to the tenets he proclaims to hold? Has the intricate of politics sapped the passion of reform in this man to let him become a mere agent of convenience? Would Raila today, accept to be detained for Democracy?
After the annihilation of FORD-K, Raila moved out to form NDP on whose ticket he contended for the Presidency in 1997. The 1997 was the first election where the KANU absolutism was largely diluted. The then President, MOI knew for his to survive, he would have to merge with the opposition in a way.
Of all persons, Moi sought the company of Odinga. A man he had wanted to sap life out of him, but the strangest of all things, Odinga accepted, and NDP merged with KANU to give the government a lifeline in parliament. Raila became the Secretary General of the cockerel party and a minister of Energy then. The opposition felt betrayed, Moi felt relieved, Raila felt strategic.
As the 2002 elections drew closer, Moi realized the prominence Odinga had assumed. He would be a true contender of the Presidency. This could not be allowed. And Uhuru was nominated as an MP and elevated to be both a minister of Local Government and one of the four deputy chairmen of KANU. Finally, there came the declaration; Uhuru would be Moi’s favored successor.
The man, Raila, occasioned a mass exodus. There came the Liberal Democratic Party, which had all the KANU trusted lieutenants, Kalonzo who for over a decade had been the Foreign Affairs minister charged with spicing the hideous image of the regime, Saitoti, Kenya’s longest serving VP. KANU was brought to its knees.
LDP would later merge with N
AK to form the rainbow Euphoria NARC. Then the Uhuru park Declaration of Kibaki Tosha; this annihilated KANU and handed Kibaki the presidency. Then, Wamalwa coined, Railaphobia, a phenomena that captured the extend Odinga’s presence elicited fear.
True, opponents of Raila can only be relatively at ease when he speaks. He is a man shrouded in suspicion, a man whose purest of intention would be scrutinized to the tiniest of its fibers.
Pollsters have rightly placed him as a front runner in the forthcoming elections. Haunted by endless fallouts with allies now turned foes, maintaining the lead must have been the toughest of all assignments.
But, as a man, would Odinga be a good president? Would his presidency deliver the expectations that it is likely to bring forth. Is Odinga a reformist by heart or just a smart politician who sings tunes, sweetest to the electorate’s ear?
It would be ungrateful of someone of my generation to chide his eminent role in democratizing Kenya. But equally, he could bear considerable blame in scuttling the very democracy. Clearly, history says that he stands out, but if occurrences in the recent past are anything to go by, Odinga is a pale shadow of his principled self. He comes forth as a man, keen on realizing an ambition rather than deliver anything substantial to the country.
Whereas no criminal responsibility has been attached to him, it is prudent to note that ODM in 2007 was never an idea based party, but a conglomerate of interests, largely personal. And that ODM’s approach to the election to a greater extent was founded on “ethnic feelings.” It brought forth those who were striving to regain relevance after being relegated into the cold by the 2002 revolution and those who intended to hand Kibaki a defeat for biting the hand that fed it.
The greatest card on the table was tribal. I would view the pentagon as a group of tribal or regional heads with no compatibility of ideas designed to ensure regions felt like they owned the ODM and would therefore own the presidency. This lack of ideology serves as the greatest reason for the speedy disintegration of the camaraderie.
ODM’s composition betrays what it purported to stand for. In fact, ODM, in 2007 never embodied any possibility of change whatsoever. It had Ruto, an YK92 baron who took comfort in the bosom of power while reformists strained to liberate the country, Dalmas Otieno, Henry Kosgey, Musalia Mudavadi all trusted lieutenants in the Moi regime.
This would only point to one thing; Raila is capable of joining hands with however, as long as his chances are furthered. Otherwise, why would Carol Omondi, be such a trusted lieutenant when he was against reforms as part of the YK92.
Today, Raila Odinga’s official facebook page has these words boldly embodied, “CHANGE IS COMING”. This is a fallacy, the best Odinga can offer today is continuity, not change. He has the baggage of incumbency and the failures of the coalition government lie as strongly on him as they do on Kibaki.
Born within the ruling elite, he is a master of the art of governance, and after the miscarriage in 2007; he became even an ardent disciple of the lessons of power. He understood that you negotiate for power not just with the masses, but with the instruments that tilt “real power.”
He has done this pretty well, look at the Prime Minister’s round table with manufacturers and industry heads deliberate to dispel notions that he was a socialist who would infringe on tenets of free enterprise and threaten private investment. It is understood, that one thing that could have embolden the regime in 2007 was the fact that Kibaki was in the “good books” of the moneyed in the country.
The greatest concern though would be Odinga’s ability to deliver in the new dispensation. While he accuses his opponents of being incapable to work with a constitution they opposed, he has not come forth as an objective defender of the document save where he has a chance to flex his power as a result of; “in consultation with the prime minister” provision.
Before postulating on an Odinga presidency, let us regard his performance as a Prime Minister. While this gives him the status of a principal, we appreciate that all things were against him. Largely Odinga has maintained his role as the opposition. Sometimes his efforts have hit by sabotage from the PNU camp, but to date, he might be incapable of having anything to show as a Prime Minister.
His office has prominently featured in the Mau Conservation efforts, Kazi Kwa Vijana Initiative and the Elder care initiatives. While the Elder people care initiative has realized a reasonable success, the other two have not.
The Kazi Kwa Vijana initiative was dogged by multiple claims of inefficiency. While his office was absolved from any misappropriation, the fact that the program has not realized its intentions stands out. While his stance on Mau earned him credit as a man who would sacrifice his political fortunes for a noble cause, time has eroded this assumption. He actually succumbed to the fear of being tagged anti-Kalenjin and has dragged in the later stage of ridding the tower off invaders.
His involvement in national strikes have largely flopped, may be since he lacked capacity, in terms of proposing a comprehensive solution, but this serves to make him appear as incapable of offering conclusive leadership.
Raila appears as largely inconclusive, incapable of being an effective manager as you would expect the next Chief Executive to be. With mega and ambitious projects hitting the economy, you need a president who yes, is political responsive, but equally has the organizational capacity to hold all the facets of the country in coordination. Odinga lacks this.
The scandals that have hit his ODM faction of the government, The Maize Scandal, The abuse of Power charges facing Henry Kosgey, The inefficiency in the ministry of Immigration point a finger to a principal who did not know who was in his camp.
I am almost certain, that if Odinga was to taken out of the picture, the office of the Prime Minister would almost be nonexistent. He is a man bigger that the institution, a description that could betray the expectations of the new Constitution.
Odinga, just like the entire ruling elite, is accustomed to a freehand executive. That would explain his demonstrable discomfort with a biting legislature. In the new constitution, all presidential prerogatives as subject to; either, “approval of the National assembly, or would be exercised in accordance with advise from certain committees or commissions.”
As such, for an effective functioning government, you would need a president capable of appreciating this autonomy and able to non-combatively create a working relationship with the other organs. Hi tendencies to pick fights with the legislature and judiciary could see executive efforts frustrated and as such government operations crippled.
This trait attaches to Uhuru. He equally has an amazing discomfort when the parliament flexes its muscle.
While Raila is likely to protect the Constitution, the reality of being president in the new dispensation, the person who time and tradition has shaped Odinga to become, and the expectations of time could conspire to wretch his presidency.
And say, if Raila wins the presidency, it is almost a certainty that he would be eying a second term. He has spend these five years making political calculations, he could do just that again, a first five year term of combative politics; without much to deliver.
This is a long informed discourse that misses the point that the true liberation of kenya goes hand in hand with a good constitution.
The Idea at the foundation of a good constitution is that no matter how bad I am as a leader. I allow my people to be governed in the way that they want. To me that is the only dfinition of liberation and true patriotism.
Migingo
this is nice it will encourage young people