Excerpt from: “Raila Odinga Stolen Presidency”
Among politicians who aligned themselves with Raila Odinga in ODM to begin a war against Kibaki after the MoU fiasco, Kalonzo Musyoka had the longest political history. After graduating with a Bachelor of Law degree at Nairobi University in 1977, it took Kalonzo Musyoka at least six years to venture into politics. That was in 1983 when he took advantage of the snap general elections that was called by Moi after the “Njonjo Affair” to unsuccessfully contest the Kitui North Parliamentary seat on a KANU ticket. Kalonzo did not wait long because in 1985, the Kitui seat fell vacant following the shooting of the area’s MP, Mr. Philip Manandu, who won the seat in 1983.
Consequently, a by-election was called and Kalonzo scooped the seat. At thirty-two, Kalonzo became one of the youngest MPs in Kenyan Parliament. After studying the political landscape in Kamba land, Kalonzo decided to align himself with the powerful Kitili Mwendwa who was the MP of Kitui West and Kenya’s first African Chief Justice. Kitili was basically the “power broker” in Ukambani besides being very close to Moi and Kalonzo’s alignment with him was not accidental. After this new connection, Kalonzo was appointed an Assistant Minister for Works, Housing and Physical Planning, a post he held up to the 1988 elections. The 1988 elections was held through the infamous queue-voting system and Kalonzo is believed to have been responsible for blocking his opponent, Mr. Joseph Mulingui, the Development Coordinator of the local Catholic Diocese. Mulingui posed a serious threat to Kalonzo but on the eve of nominations, Mulingui’s nomination papers disappeared mysteriously, causing him to be disqualified. This opened the way for Kalonzo to be re-elected unopposed at the 1988 elections.
Once in Parliament after voters were denied their right to cast their votes to candidates of their choice, Kalonzo’s star continued to rise. He was soon elected Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and as he worked his way up the ladder, he was crowned KANU’s National Organizing Secretary. This promotion helped expose Kalonzo’s brand of real politik. In 1989, Kalonzo moved an unprecedented motion seeking to bar The Daily Nation from covering House business, arguing that the newspaper was anti-government. This motion came at a time when Kalonzo was steadily transforming himself into a leading pro-establishment politician and engaging in public outbursts that were consistently taking a sycophantic slant.
At this time, Kalonzo was also a senior partner in Musyoka and Wambua Advocates, a firm that was later implicated in a scandalous land deal that prompted a High Court judge to commit Kalonzo to jail in May 1991 and calling the crime “a serious and appalling fraud.”299 In a lengthy expose in The Standard Newspaper, Journalist Sarah Elderkin, formerly of Weekly Review Newspaper, narrated how Justice Frankshield “castigated Kalonzo and his legal partner, Paul Musili Wambua, for transferring and registering a piece of land that had been the subject of a longstanding dispute – despite having received a court order to surrender the title deeds of the land in question.”300 At the height of the struggle for political pluralism that was being headed by the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kalonzo was the sycophant who was honoured with the task of moving a motion in Parliament after the July 7, 1990, “Saba Saba uprising” that forced the Moi dictatorship to repeal section 2A of the Constitution and open the way for multipartism in Kenya.
In his presentation in Parliament, Kalonzo delivered a serious attack on multiparty advocates and the then US Ambassador, Smith Hempstone, who was supporting demands for reforms to allow for more political Parties to compete in the marketplace. US Imperialism was growing uneasy with the Moi dictatorship because of corruption and Moi’s authoritarianism, vices that were undermining US support for Kenya because the undemocratic direction of leadership under Moi was putting the US government in an awkward situation. When Oginga Odinga tried to register the National Democratic Party just before the repeal of section 2A of the Constitution in 1990 that opened the way for political pluralism, it was Kalonzo who was sent by KANU hawks to attack the senior Odinga and he did it in typical KANU style.
Kalonzo warned Odinga against engaging in a “Treasonable act,” the kind of talk that KANU used repeatedly to scare its critics and to send a message that people engaging in these kinds of acts could be sent to jail. Then came the incident where Vice President George Saitoti went out of his way while addressing UK Parliamentarians in London to accuse Odinga of being a Communist. Odinga threatened to sue Saitoti for libel and when the news reached Kalonzo, he “…jumped in to call a press conference at Kanu headquarters, where he described Odinga’s actions as ‘the height of bad manners aimed at bringing the office of the Vice President into disrepute.”301 Raila could still work with Kalonzo after these cheap attacks on his father, Oginga Odinga, all in the name of gaining the Presidency.
In July 1990, the country eventually reverted to political pluralism and although numerous political parties sprouted with a realignment of forces, Kalonzo chose to remain in KANU because that is where his fortunes rested. His calculation paid enormously because after the 1992 elections, Kalonzo was appointed by Moi as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. It was after the entry of Raila Odinga in KANU under the New KANU that Kalonzo developed the guts to ditch KANU. When the crisis in KANU erupted before the 2002 General Elections as a result of the “Uhuru Project,” Kalonzo decamped from KANU together with Raila’s supporters and joined the Liberal Democratic Party where Kalonzo linked with forces that began to fight Moi. This change of political parties because of favourable circumstances and advantages as opposed to ideological differences gives Kalonzo away as one of the leading opportunists in Kenyan politics.
Although Kalonzo tried to publicly cultivate a pious image as he prepared to make a shot at the Presidency, he was simply aping Moi who went to church persistently to try to reconstruct the image of a God-loving leader even though he managed a corrupt government that was violating the human rights of Kenyans, sometimes ordering his trigger-happy policemen to shoot suspected criminals on sight. When it comes to work with Raila Odinga, Kalonzo’s case is special because he is one opportunist who managed to openly expose his opportunism thereby splitting ODMKenya, a reckless move that temporarily destabilized the Party and sent shockwaves across ODM-Kenya supporters who began to ask questions as to whether the Party was capable of winning the December 2007 elections. After Raila’s Presidency was stolen, Kalonzo’s opportunism was confirmed when he accepted to work with Kibaki who appointed him Vice President as Kenyans died in the streets. After the December 2007 election rigging, the tag of a “traitor” was added to Kalonzo’s political profile, making him both an opportunist and traitor.
Raila Odinga’s Stolen Presidency: Consequences and the Future of Kenya (pgs 168-171)
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About the Author
The Kalonzo Musyoka I know is haunted by the 2007/08 dead innocence people and their blood is on his hands. God has given him little time to repent or else will perish soon.
Without Kalonzo’s jumping from ODM party to ODM.K party Kenyan could not have experienced the violence which left many dead and some displaced as we witnessed.The last solution for him is to resign and seek the true salvation from God,but not the fake born again he is hidding in.His action has proved him and his master to be the source of the event.
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Revealing sinister unconstitutional plots around the deferral ploy.
Using Kalonzo Musyoka the traitor!
The ploy is intricate and clever. The plot is well mapped. The strategy is assumed to be airtight. But the execution appears unrefined, even amateurish. That’s perplexing because the deferral ploy has been under consideration by the merchants of impunity for at least one year.
Most of the strategy sessions have been held in government facilities, private homes and even within the precincts of one prominent seat of power. The authority to proceed with the ploy is blatantly unconstitutional and immoral. The Vice President has claimed that the authority came from the President himself.
However, it is important to underline, like Hons. Musalia Mudavadi and Mutula Kilonzo have done, that the deferral campaign was never discussed and approved by cabinet.
More than a dozen exorbitantly rewarded lawyers, including one being touted as a potential Chief Justice, plus numerous self-appointed policy wonks and tribal strategists have been meeting weekly to fine-tune the plan. The big hitters on the PNU side of the coalition are elated by it.
Although the VP has been given the skunk to carry around Africa, this is a belated assignment. Initially, he wasn’t even supposed to know about the plan. He isn’t trusted well enough by the KKK inner circle. But after patriotic Kenyans smoked them out, the conspirators rethought their strategy and roped in the ever opportunistic presidential pretender. Now, for all practical purposes, the dirty skunk is his and he has been running around Africa with it around his neck.
For the deferral campaigners, it is immaterial what the constitution says. They were never for this constitution anyway. They have never supported devolution, the entrenchment of the bill of rights, the separation of powers, integrity, transparency and accountability in governance. These egalitarian principles and practices are designed to check the excessive powers the merchants of impunity have abused over the years.
The idea that public land and wealth will no longer be easily and fraudulently converted into private property isn’t something that Kenyans should have expected the merchants of impunity to accept and they haven’t.
The merchants of impunity don’t respect the public interest. Nor do they care about public good. To them, the victims of the post election violence either deserved what they got or they were collateral damages. For them, power and ill gotten wealth trump human life. That’s why they’ve run down the country for the past fifty years. They know and respect nothing else. During the constitutional referendum, Kenyans called these merchants of impunity “the red brigade” and “watermelons.” Now they have united under the KKK ethnic jingoistic banner.
They want to subvert the implementation of the constitution to perpetuate impunity. Dubiously, they argue that stability, security and peace override justice. But the four principles must go together in a democratic system. Without justice, peace and security are meaningless. There is no reason why it must either be stability, peace and security or justice. Moreover, it’s the public that should determine when or if one principle may be tempered due to certain exigencies.
The marauding armed and organized gangs that perpetrated the mass killings, maiming, rapes, torture and displacements caused maximum insecurity, instability and injustice. The prevailing situation during the period under examination by the ICC wasn’t peaceful; it was replete with chaos, flagrant human rights abuses and barbarism inflicted on innocent Kenyans.
Do the merchants of impunity now squandering our money on useless trips around Africa know the spelling and meaning of peace, stability and security? Why didn’t they guarantee stability, security and peace to the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims?
But here is the big deal. The merchants of impunity and ethnic jingoists aren’t really interested in the deferral of the case facing the Ocampo Six. They know that the UN Security Council will not accede to their request even if coated in chocolate and gold.
The Security Council has never done so under similar circumstances. The UN Security Council has no jurisdiction over active cases before the ICC. The Pre-Trial Chamber is now fully seized of the Kenyan Situation. The Security Council isn’t an organ of the ICC. Even if it was, it wouldn’t have the power to recall a case before the judges.
Proper administration of justice requires the independence, impartiality and integrity of the court and judges. A deferral under the circumstances would be deemed as interference by the Security Council in the operation of the ICC. When that occurs, the anti-ICC advocates would find “reason” to call the court “imperialist.”
The merchants of impunity are only interested in an AU resolution supporting the deferral of the cases facing the Ocampo Six. They intend to use the resolution as an excuse for not cooperating with Moreno-Ocampo if or when he obtains arrest warrants against the six.
The idea is to obtain an AU resolution and use it as the basis for refusing to execute the ICC arrest warrants and hand over the six indictees purportedly in deference to the AU. That’s the argument they used when refusing to arrest Al-Bashir in Nairobi, going as far as demonstrating their disregard of the new Constitution and Kenya’s international obligations by inviting an international fugitive to the constitutional inauguration.
Once they obtain the AU resolution, the merchants of impunity would escalate the implementation of their 2012 schemes in concert with and for the KKK tribalists.
Soon, cases facing some of the KKK members will “disappear” from the courts. That explains the unconstitutional reappointment of Gichangi as the Director General of the NSIS. The abrogation of the constitution may continue with all the pending constitutional appointments.
Ultimately, the plan is to render the new Constitution useless and revert to the old system they are used to. The idea is to turn Kenya into a true banana republic. We must never allow that to happen.
Miguna is the PM’s advisor on Coalition Affairs. The views expressed here are his own.
Miguna Miguna
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Musyoka huyu naye ni msaliti wa nchi kweli
Kalonzo Musyoka is not only a political fence-sitter who always rides on the coattails of other politicians to succeed, but is also prince of double-speak.
His infamous “passing in the middle” of Kibaki and Raila in 2007 to secure the vice presidency, has awarded him the tag of “Betrayer”. He was called “Water melon” for not taking a clear position during the campaigns for a new Cosntitution in 2010.
Kalonzo has lately been on a shuttle diplomacy to convince African leaders to support Kenya in postponing the Hague ICC cases on the Ocampo Six for one year, claiming that Kenya has reformed her Judiciary and is capable of handling them. However, it is a political strategy to have Uhuru and Ruto remain in Kenya for the 2012 presidential elections.
Kalonzo is now vehemently denying having promoted KKK yet below is an excerpt citing him in bad light for promoting it:
The Chief Mediator Kofi Annan’s words that Kenyan leaders have lost touch with the Mwananchi could be true, with leaders showing more interest in advancing their political careers at the expense of the electorate. Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka now enters the bad books for fronting a political alliance between Rift Valley Province, Central Province and Eastern Province.
Musyoka intends to unite the Kikuyus, Kalenjins and the Kambas, ahead of the 2012 election, using the alliance as a tool to slip him between the other candidates without being noticed.
But as the Vice President who represents the whole country, is he supposed to be pushing for a regional alliance? His recent plans may not go down well with the rest of the country.
The Vice President claims that the alliance aims at uniting the country in the wake of the post-election violence. The KK alliance first emerged between the Kikuyu and the Kalenjins, and now Kalonzo has added his K to it, but in a swift reaction to the new alliance, Kalenjin point man William Ruto has for the up-teenth time denied the existence or his involvement in the KK alliance.
http://www.k24.co.ke/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=261:kalonzo-musyoka-fronting-a-kkk-alliance&Itemid=82
It’s now revealed that Kalonzo Musyoka’s Shuttle Diplomacy to defer the ICC case of the Ocampo Six, has cost the poor Kenyan taxpayer Ksh 31 million. This is at a time when the country is undergoing serious drought.It is about defending Uhuru and Ruto to be the next top leaders in 2012.