“Epic Protest” Demo Planned at Uhuru Park’s “Freedom Corner” on February 13th
Poverty in Kenya has reached alarming levels
There is no doubt that Kenyans have been patient with the otherwise insensitive and erratic leadership since independence. But in their patience, and thanks to this leadership, they have watched as the dreams of the entire nation and the aspirations of individual Kenyans at independence get shattered. Kenya is yet to conquer the three enemies so succinctly spelt out at independence as poverty, ignorance and disease.
Slightly over 50 percent of Kenyans still live below the poverty line; the health sector is on its knees – thanks to underfunding and corruption, as a result of which most Kenyans can no longer access basic healthcare; although illiteracy levels have risen over the years, education sector faces numerous challenges, including underfunding and lack of infrastructural development that has stunted the sector.
The protest will highlight the above mentioned issues and many others. It is the responsibility of every citizen to play their role and hold their government accountable if our country is to become a middle income economy in the foreseeable future.
The peaceful protest is scheduled for Thursday, February 13th 2014 at 10.00am at Uhuru Park’s Freedom Corner in Nairobi. Rev. Timothy Njoya has graciously agreed to give a sermon about the state of the nation outside parliament on that day.
We have thought about the protest almost everyday for the last six months and l can assure you if all goes well, it shall be EPIC. Kind regards.
Boniface Mwangi
Living my life to make a difference
Kenya Stockholm Blog 
This is a great initiative from Boniface Mwangi and group. It will be a test on the tolerance level of the fake “digital-government” on how to deal with a peaceful protest. Will they use live bullets and tear gas on the protestors?
Ordinary Wananchi are not reaping tangible benefits from the high taxes and VAT which they pay to the thieving Jubilee government. The presidency is more interested in rewarding cronies mostly from the Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities, than appointing competent people from other tribes to reflect regional balance. Kenya is back to the old KANU-style of leadership where descent is not allowed and tyranny of numbers is used to block the Opposition in Parliament.
Parents are paying dearly to have their children in public schools yet there is a policy of Free Primary Education. Some parents in Nairobi now opt to send their children to slum schools which are cheaper.
The misplaced laptop dream for Class One children from January 2014, is yet to be achieved as promised by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Deputy President Ruto’s official home in Karen will after all be renovated at the cost of Ksh100 million, yet it was certified as ready and opened by former President Kibaki in November 2012.
Corruption is still highly prevalent especially in Government, through non-transparent procurement processes. We await for example, the outcome of the ongoing interrogation of officers concerned with the controversial standard gauge railway contract awarded to the Chinese.
Free maternity in public hospitals offered by Jubilee is merely a nightmare with women getting the worst services. As usual, this was a political promise that never considered the limited number of qualified personnel in public hospitals and health centers. Last week, a then-pregnant woman neglected by nurses who were napping at a hospital in Nyeri, ended up losing the baby who dropped from her birth canal onto the concrete floor as she stood.
Population
8,636,263: Kenya’s population in 1962, a year before independence. This number has steadily been rising with the current figure standing a few digits shy of 40 million. And just like it was the case in the 2009 census, the first post-independent Kenya headcount indicated that the ratio of men to women was one to one.
Healthcare in Kenya:
908: The number of registered doctors in Kenya at independence compared to the 7,129 indicated in the government records as of 2010. Despite the increase in doctor numbers, the patient-doctor ratio remains low at 18:100,000.
4,132: Number of registered nurses in 1963 which had grown to 29,678 by 2010. But just like the doctors, the patient-nurse ratio still hovers around the uncomfortable figure of 75:100,000. The huge number of patients that a single doctor or nurse attends to is one of the reasons why personnel from the two professions have been resorting to strikes in recent times.
177: The number of hospitals in 1966 which has grown to more than 400 today62: Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) at independence. The current figure stands at 52 per 1,000 live births. However, this figure has been fluctuating over the years with one of the highest rates recorded being 78 in 2003. Also, note that many infant births and deaths went unrecorded in the early 1960s. (SOURCE: Daily Nation).
Mwangi hata ulikuwa karibu ksahaulika. lakini naona kazi lazima iedndelee. Malipo ni lini?????
Mr Wainaina is a freedom fighter .Gayism/Lesbianism is in Kenya to stay! Kenya ruling elites are Gays!but hypocratic >
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Binyavanga-drops-gay-bombshell/-/1056/2155250/-/ev2e1vz/-/index.html
Reblogged this on ambulivictor's Blog.
Sodum Soodum mzoodo Zoodom>
http://www.kenya-today.com/news/raw-video-binyavanga-wainaina-confession-total-gay-kwani
Kenya The Leading Country in Raping both boys and girls. Kenya has bi-passed India in Raping>To the Editor:
Re “In This Rape Case, the Victim Was 4” (column, Jan. 12):
Thanks to Nicholas Kristof for exposing the truth about rape in Kenya. I have been fighting this battle in the slums of Nairobi for two years. There has been so much written about rape in India, but it’s much worse in Kenya. As a lawyer, I have represented dozens of child rape victims. Most of the time the girls, all in primary school, are raped by a father, an uncle or a neighbor.
Over and over again my Kenyan staff and I run up against a brick wall when we try to report these crimes to the police. They want you to go away. They have a million ways to stall you. You go to court and they continue with the stalling tactics. I have sat days and days in court with my little girls waiting for the justice that I know will never come. I have refused to pay the bribes demanded by the police and the judiciary, but I doubt even a bribe would accomplish anything.
Kenya has human rights laws, but they are rarely enforced. No one really cares. The prisons are filled with thieves and murderers, but the police are loath to investigate and arrest rapists. I have had numerous families of victims drop the cases because they are terrified of the police. Or they simply accept a bribe negotiated by the police, the child welfare officers and the rapists. One family settled a rape case for a little over a dollar while another settled for a blanket.
These institutions — the government, the police, the judiciary, the community, the religious, the families, the schools — all, in one way or another, support the culture of rape in Kenya.
L. SUSAN SLAVIN
Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 14, 2014
In fact it is high time to call mamoth demos in all streets of Kenya. come everybody come all !lets show our solidarity with the oppressed people of Kenya.Let it be the mother of all demos in kenya!
Raila Simba Dume>
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/africa/South-Sudan-abuses-as-bad-as-Syria/-/1066/2157516/-/86bmh2/-/index.html
We live on Propaganda Era>
The Jubilee administration is facing increasing pressure over corruption allegedly taking root at high levels and influencing tenders worth billions of shillings.
The latest salvo was fired Sunday when Uongozi, an advocacy group associated with the former anti-corruption czar John Githongo, wrote an open letter to President Uhuru Kenyatta asking him to suspend the Sh425 billion Mombasa-Malaba railway project until all questions that have been raised over the tender are answered.
“We write to you as patriot citizens in good faith, to share our deepening concerns regarding a number of issues which in our humble view threaten the soul of our beloved nation,” the group said in the letter signed by Mr Githongo, Dr PLO Lumumba and Mr Tom Mboya.
“We have reached a critical tipping point hence our decision to address you… Given the whiff of irregularity, it is our submissions that it would be prudent to immediately terminate the current process and begin a transparent process afresh, so as to ensure efficiency and value for money.”
COMMITTED TO FIGHTING GRAFT
But on Sunday, the spokesman for the Presidency, Mr Manoah Esipisu, said Mr Kenyatta was committed to the fight against corruption.
“The President has even launched a website on which to report any cases. He is always in touch with anti-corruption agencies,” he said.
Deputy President William Ruto also declared that the government would neither engage in business with corrupt cartels nor accept to be held to ransom.
“We are here to serve all Kenyans, not a few greedy individuals,” Mr Ruto said at St Monica ACK church, Dandora during a thanksgiving service for Embakasi North MP James Mwangi Kaguya.
“No one and nothing will stop us from building the railway, building the roads, giving children laptops and doing irrigation among other pledges as enunciated in our manifesto.”
Earlier, the Consumer Federations of Kenya warned that the rising number of corruption cases could make the cost of living too high for Kenyans as cartels will block the flow of cheaper services to the public.
“This is no longer just about the government because it has demonstrated that it has a weak ability to fight corruption,” said Cofek secretary-general Stephen Mutoro.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) said some of the cases could take long to be concluded.
“These scandals seem to be in succession, but the EACC is very much aware. If we get a good case, we will let everyone know,” said Mr Yasin Amaro, the commission’s public communications officer.
Since May, questions have been raised on some of the government’s investment and expenditure decisions. Among the most prominent was the controversial hiring of a luxury jet for the Deputy President, the airport expansion project, repair works on the Deputy President’s official house in Karen and the multi-billion-shilling railway tender.
This month, the controversial Tassia NSSF project has come to light after Mr Francis Atwoli, the Central Organisation of Trade Unions secretary-general called it “the scandal of the year” for supposedly going forward without a formal board approval.
Yesterday, Mr Atwoli, who has since written to the Ombudsman to complain about the project, said every participant in the scandal should be punished regardless of status.
“Cotu wishes to see any individual involved in defrauding Kenyans dealt with irrespective of his/her political persuasions,” he told journalists in a statement.
SUSPENDED PROJECT
Last week, Labour Cabinet Secretary Kazungu Kambi suspended the Sh5.053 billion housing venture to allow time to address Cotu’s complaints.
The renewed focus on corruption comes just a day after key Jubilee coalition figures led by National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale and Senate Majority leader Kithure Kindiki gave President Kenyatta an ultimatum to expose corruption cartels tainting his administration.
Speaking at a funeral in Kieni, Nyeri, the leaders claimed that corruption networks were blackmailing the government by pretending to expose graft after losing out on lucrative procurement deals.
The leaders seemed to be targeting critics of the railway project led by Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter, who has claimed that the tender was riddled with corruption.
The MPs accused Mr Keter and other Jubilee critics of being used by merchants and wheeler-dealers who were out to discredit the government and derail important projects after losing out on tenders.
They cited the networks inherited from the Kibaki government, such as those behind the Anglo-Leasing scandal, which they claimed were still in government and trying to resume their activities.
The railway deal is the subject of investigations by two parliamentary committees.
Starehe MP Maina Kamanda, who chairs the Transport Committee, hit out at unnamed individuals who have allegedly infiltrated the government to try and influence decision-making.
Mr Kamanda accused the individuals of seeking to hold the government to ransom.
Speaking to the Nation on condition of confidentiality, a State House official agreed with the claims made by the Jubilee MPs.
“It is a motley of groups that have had long interest in government. They are so deep in government that nothing can happen without them having their hands on it,” the source said. “They are the reason some of the projects have not taken place even though money was released.
They are now back seeking to demonise the grand projects like the railway.”
CARTELS
Senator Kipchumba Murkomen also spoke of cartels who he accused of seeking to hold the government to ransom.
Senate Majority leader Kithure Kindiki had earlier said a few wealthy people were using their connections to intimidate people in government to award them tenders.
“You can intimidate some people some time, but you cannot intimidate all the people all the time,” he said.
And Mr Duale cautioned the cartels against using the courts to achieve their goals, saying Kenya now has a reformed Judiciary that did not condone corruption.
Reports by Bernard Namunane, Aggrey Mutambo and Ouma Wanzala