You Missed This

• Curtailing Civic Education Benefits NO Campaigners

  Posted: May 31, 2010, 5:43 am by Phil

  Nyamu-led Kadhi Court Ruling Boomerang
  
  This past weekend, Infotrack released opinon poll results touching on the referendum and the effects of the Kadhi court ruling on voters. Only a mere two out of ten voters confirmed having been influenced by the ruling.
  
  The Infotrack poll also put the YES-ers at 63% and the NO-ers at 21%. The poll reveals there are significant incidences of katiba ignorance in Rift Valley and Eastern provinces the same areas where the NO-ers get most of their 21% support.
  
  Knowledge is power and it is sad in this day and age, a large portion of these populated provinces have little knowledge on what is on the cards in the katiba. The need to educate these voters is important for it will help them make informed decisions at the time of voting at the referendum. In the short term, it will help them heckle and tell of the likes of ex-President Moi and the Ruto-Mithika axis who have made it a habit of misinforming and distorting the provisions of the draft whenever they address their rent-a-crowd rallies. Moi has suddenly gained notoriety for stoking ethnic passions instead of using his status to educate the RVP peasants on the individual chapters or provisions they purport to be retrogressive. Moi’s opposition to the draft stems from the fact that he wants to keep his huge swathes of idle grabbed land tax free.
  
  It is regrettable that the status quoist are using Uhuru Kenyatta (YES daytime and NO nigh time) to deny these populous areas the right to civic education. For instance, some areas of Eastern and Rift Valley can only be reached by helicopters, which the CoE have to hire daily to traverse the remote areas. The CoE also have to run expensive daily roadshows and media campaigns all over Kenya so as to effectively disseminate their educational messages. But without money, they cannot do it. The same tactics which the colonial government used in the 1950s in resisting the struggle for independence are the same ones Uhuru is now using to deny Kenya the right to information on the new constitution.
  
  Instead it is the office of the Prime Minister which has so far donated Kshs. 90million for the CoE to use in civic education. For a national assignment as important as this, why not the Office of the President, or even why not the Treasury?
  
  Back to the poll and not surprisingly, the two leading YES provinces coincidentally also happen to be the same ones worst affected by deliberate marginalization of the Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki governments. NEP at is YES at 96% and Nyanza is at 93%. They two are also the most informed about the contents of the draft and the least influenced by the recent bizarre ruling of the constitutional court on Kadhi courts.
  
  Obviously these two regions are attracted to the proposed draft due to prospects of devolved government. After decades of paying tax to national government and watching helplessly as the same government overlooks their interests, there is hope at last in the new draft. Am looking at nearly 15% devolved funds comprising the national allocation to the County governments, powers to borrow and raise revenue, the equalization fund, the CDF and other forms of local resources will be put in the hands of the local people to decide for themselves at the grassroots what is best for themselves in the regions that they live. Too good to be true? What is more, the governor and county committee remains and are directly accountable to the people who elected them to these positions. In this case, there will be no PC or DC or even chief involved. It will be strictly by the people themselves.
  
  What most ethnic kingpins and latter day politicians fear most about the counties is that the governors will overnight be transformed to become the new local political kingpins. The MP or even the power bokers will no longer be the ones calling the shots or hosting delegations. The governors will be. That will be on top of being on the development driving seat. Can you see the end of people like perennial fence-sitter Kalonzo and PEV masterminds Ruto, Uhuru Kenyatta – those who do not have a political constituency beyond their ethnic enclaves?? You bet!! The era of 'our people this our people that' is GONE.
  
  Back to our pet question: Do you approve the proposed new Constitution?
  
  Mine is BIG YES.Kumekucha

  
  

• Dark faces behind secret YES campaign revealed

  Posted: May 31, 2010, 2:54 am by Chris

  Kumekucha exclusive
  
  For days now our politicians have been telling us that there are some dark evil powerful forces bent on ensuring that Kenyans do not get a new constitution. Today in Kumekucha we reveal some of these big names. Sneaky fellows who are allegedly in the YES camp but are secretly fighting day and night to ensure that Kenyan’s efforts for a new constitution are frustrated.
  
  Make no mistake about it. These guys are ready to do ANYTHING to make sure that we continue with the old constitution which has served them well. Too well, I dare say.
  
  John Michuki gives the NSIS orders and the president can do nothing.
  
  At the top of this list is star minister John Michuki. I have it from three independent sources that Michuki was behind the insertion of the infamous national security addition to the bill of rights at the Government press. Apparently Michuki used people like the solicitor general Muchemi to organize the bizarre changes at the government press. Some sources claim that he was also aided by Moi/Ruto contacts at the government press.
  
  The other big name in the secret NO campaign is Uhuru Kenyatta. It is said that the Kenyatta fortune will be wiped out literally overnight if and when the new constitution comes into force. For starters the limit on the amount of land an individual can own (to be set by parliament) will affect the Kenyatta family before any other. The truth is that the full land holdings of this family is not really known. People keep on talking about land the size of Nyanza province, but that is only the land that is widely known. There are vast tracts of land not known about littered all over the country. The truth is that there was no nice piece of land that Jomo kenyatta laid his eyes on that he did not “acquire” during his presidency.
  
  But an even bigger Motive for both Michuki and Kenyatta to be wary of a new constitution that promises too much justice to the ordinary folk has to do with the post election troubles of January 2008. These two individuals are top suspects on the Ocampo list and one does not need to be a lawyer to conclude that they are much better protected under the old constitution. The proposed constitution to them is like a hand grenade that has had the safety pin already removed.
  
  Moi’s motives are easy to decipher. He has vast tracts of land and a new constitution would enforce the truth and reconciliation process which would also bring out all kinds of skeletons from closets that Moi has sealed and is eager never to have opened in his lifetime or that of his children. Those who underestimate Moi’s influence and potential to do harm should think again. Moi has always been a hard systematic worker and remember that at the moment he has nothing else on his plate but defeating the new constitution.
  
  Amazingly Kibaki’s exit strategy is hard to believe. But then I am quickly reminded that most Kenyans laughed when it was suggested that Kibaki would rig the 2007 presidential elections. And so for now I will not laugh. Kibaki plans to be the first president under the new constitution.
  
  Earlier in this blog we talked about the NSIS involvement in inserting the controversial National security addition in the bill of rights. To me the orders would only have come from Kibaki. I just could not contemplate the thought of the president not being in full control of such a vital organ like the NSIS. Facts emerging now prove that Michuki (whom Kibaki has always delegated certain sensitive NSIS matters to) took advantage of things and used the NSIS to do damage at the government press. Michuki knew that the president would do nothing. In other words the commander in chief is NOT in full control.
  
  My big fear is what else these desperate Kenyans will do, knowing full well that the president will do nothing? Brace yourselves Kenyans, it’s going to be a pretty rough ride from here to that place called a new constitution.Kumekucha

  
  

• Orbituary: Tony Msalame of Sheki Legi is Dead

  Posted: May 29, 2010, 12:18 pm by Taabu

  The rampant CHEST epidemic has robbed Kenya yet another of her illustrious sons. Veteran Kenya broadcaster Tony Msalame, 57, passed away Friday morning after suddenly collapsing at his Sheki Studios in Mombasa complained of chest pains. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Pandya Memorial Hospital where he was rushed.
  
  The death of Msalame robs Kenya of an authentic entertainer both at radio studios and on TV, Tushauriane. The not-so young Kenyans will recall Tony as the signature voice of infant Metro FM radio off KBC. Teaming with youngster DJs like Lucy Nduta, Angela Obino, Anne Lamayan and Kenyan-Congolese Harry Kabecha, African Music/Lingala and Benga music grew its own wings at Metro.
  
  Tony was an accomplished broadcaster at ease acting in TV, presenting Jazz hour on radio and Rhythm and Blues with Fayaz Qureishi. His Zum Zum Kipindi cha Kuongeza Maarifa, which he co-hosted with Kenyan-Tanzanian Tido Mhando was in a league of its own. Come Sunday evening and Msalame na dada Mrembo Khadija Ali would rock you off your seat with scintillating and often provocative Taarabu ballads.
  
  Tony Msalame trail blazed modern FM Radio entertainment in Kenya with his Sheki Legi program. His ilk includes the evergreen Freddy Obachi Machoka (the blackest man in black Africa), Khadija Ali, Eddy Fondo and Abdull Haq not to forget Mwalimu JOJ (Kenyan Franco), John Karani and Jeff Mwangemi. Tony's death is a golden feather off Kenya's national entertainment wing.
  
  A true Kenyan, Burudani with Tony at Sheki FM was the best. His fans spanned all the corners of Kenya. He would start with a call from Kip in Eldoret, follow it with Kasivu from Mwala, spice it with Nyongesa from Bungoma before invitting, Busia, Kisumu dala, Kisii, Kakamega, Muranga, Lunga Lunga na Kenya yote to Sheki legi.
  
  Rest in peace Tony, we loved you. And may your Skeki FM studio in Mombasa live long in flying your flag/legacy. You were a true Kenyan who warmed our hearts when you lived. Thank you Tony for a life fully lived and enjoyed, we can only repay you by celebrating yours.Kumekucha

  
  

• Kibaki is NOT A BRILLIANT ECONOMIST

  Posted: May 27, 2010, 7:46 am by Phil

  By Mwarang'ethe
  
  Recently, Chris wrote this. “One of the few things that Kenyans already knew about Mwai Kibaki early on and had known for decades was the fact that he was a brilliant scholar. Of that there is no doubt. ...” See his piece here. Chris is in good company in perpetuation of this myth. Read any mainstream media and you will find the same stuff. In view of this, we think that, time has come to demonstrate with irrefutable with facts that, the idea that, Kibaki is a “brilliant economics scholar” amounts to nothing but, feeding an ignorant nation with cow dung mixed with saccharin. We shall use Kibaki’s government (which includes Raila, Kalonzo, Uhuru etc) statistics to demolish this trash once and for all.
  
  Let us first note this. In 1991, a committee from the American Economic Association noted that universities have been producing “WELL EDUCATED IDIOT ECONOMISTS.” It added that graduate programmes in economics may be turning out a generation of too many IDIOTS SERVANTS, skilled in technique but innocent in REAL ECONOMIC ISSUES. According to the report, one unnamed “leading” university graduate students could not figure out why barbers’ wages have risen over time, but, they could easily solve a two sector general equilibrium model with disembodied technical progress in one sector. Source: Report on the Commission on Graduate Education in Economics in Journal of Economic Literature, September 1991, page 1044-5.
  
  Economic development (wealth creation) is about aligning the public interests of a nation with the private interests of the capitalists. However, the failure of standard economics since 1945 which men like Kibaki are schooled in, has led to a catastrophic failure in understanding the essence of colonialism. The essence of colonialism was and is to prevent colonies from developing manufacturing industries which are subject to INCREASING RETURNS. Having prevented development of industrial sector which are the source of HIGHER WAGES, and sources of high growth potential, they then, fasten on us the Malthusian activities which are subject to DIMINISHING RETURNS.
  
  To fasten this yoke of slavery on us, they use “brilliant” economists like Kibaki. Let us now factor statistics from Kenya Monthly Economic Review, February 2010 issued by another “brilliant” economist calling himself Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya. The report is found here.
  
  Inflation Statistics
  
  Let us bear in mind this. Inflation is LOSS OF PURCHASING POWER. Bearing this in mind, let us now turn to page 7 -8 of this report (we were unable to lift the graphs). On these pages, we have statistics on loss of purchasing power for the previous 12 month for each of the three income groups in Nairobi. We expect the same trend all over the nation. As we go forward, let us bear in mind that, these inflation figures are a falsification of Kibaki/Raila government and the real inflation figures are over 20%. We demonstrated this in the article: EPZs and Modern Slavery: Who Shall Tell Wanjiku the Ugly Truth?.
  
  Now, according to this report, for the previous 12 months, the lower income group (hoi polloi in Korogocho and Kibera) lost their purchasing power by 6.2%, for the middle income, by 3% and the upper income group, by 5.6%. Mark you, the low income group is on fixed incomes. Thus, under Kibaki and Raila’s government, the POOREST and the most vulnerable Kenyans lost more purchasing power than the middle class and the super rich. If you turn to page 9 of this report, you will see that, food prices were second to Tusker and Sportman in price increment. Ironically and tragically, it was the food’s component in the inflation “basket” that, this government has reduced so as to calculate inflation in accordance with “international standards” as if people of Kibera eat as per international standards, whatever that means. Is this how a “brilliant” economist runs a nation? How can a man who runs a government that subjugates the poorest due to its monetary and energy policies be termed as a brilliant scholar? We ask scholar of what?
  
  Leaving all the bull shit in this report, let us now jump to page 12. Therein, we find what the gods of money under the leadership of our “brilliant scholar” does with our money. The first thing to note is that, trade (read imports) was given Ksh 28 billion so as to import used women under wears. The second highest recipient of our credit is private households to buy imported mobile phones, TVs and beds with Ksh 28 billion. The third beneficiary of our credit is consumer durables which received Ksh 18 billion. We need to note that, these debts on households are a direct result of low wages which force Kenyans to become serfs of the banks. Thereafter, we find land speculators were given Ksh 15 billion. Jumping all the other lucky sectors of our wonderful economy under a “brilliant scholar,” we manage to locate what should have been at the top, i.e. manufacturing and agriculture. We are told every independence day that, agriculture is the main stare of our economy at 23.4% of our GDP. However, we see that, this crucial sector received only Ksh 3.3. Billion. When you add the miserable Ksh 4.8 billion the manufacturing sector received, we see that, the two MOST critical sectors of our economy received only Ksh 8 billion. Brilliant!
  
  On page 16, we find something about major crops such as horticulture, coffee, sugarcane and milk. We may note that, apart from sugar and milk (if not spoilt) which we consume locally, our tea, coffee, flowers, fruits and vegetables are in most cases meant for export so as to raise dollars for our debts which we are taking to build toilets. From these facts, we can see that, under Mr Kibaki, we dedicate much of our credit to consumption of imported stuff for consumption as well. And, even when we give some credit to our most vital industry, i.e. agriculture, we dedicate that credit to export stuff like flowers. Genius!
  
  In very simple words, under the guidance of our “brilliant scholar,” who has been with us since 1963, Kenya is now locked into comparative advantage in economic activities subject to DIMINISHING RETURNS given that, land supply is fixed. A combination of population growth due to improved hygiene, vaccines etc, and diminishing return activities means that, our efforts are yielding less and less as our specialisation deepens. As we sink deeper into poverty thereof, many Kenyans, just to survive must go back to the nature to eke a living. In this we see the real cause of the ongoing destruction of our fragile environment, such as Mau forest is not greed, but, survival. Although destruction of our environment is in search of individual survival, it eventually becomes a collective destruction. From this standpoint, we hope the stupidity of Mau and other forests reclamation becomes obvious without a change of our economic structure.
  
  Apart from the diminishing returns curse, we are also faced with PERFECT COMPETITION situation for all 3rd world governments sell same stuff. Under perfect competition conditions, there is no profit, i.e. the economic surplus necessary for future investments. This also translates to LOW WAGES and low taxes for the government. We dealt with this matter in the article: Even Dead Fish Goes with the Flow
  
  Another tragedy we face is PRICE VOLATILITY of our products. By relying on flower, tea, coffee exports, it means that, our national wage levels and the level of economic activities tends to fluctuate with the world market of these exports. This means that, our wages are always reversible with very serious consequences.
  
  Thus, under Kibaki’s watch, we are now locked into a double trap of resource curse. Even if we improve our tapping of the natural resources, it only leads to more disaster. As an example, improved fishing methods in Lake Victoria only leads to faster depletion of the fish stocks. Even if we introduce technical innovations like tea harvesting machines that Atwoli hates so much, the increasing returns part comes embedded in the machines we import and not as a result of knowledge created locally. As a result, there are few spills over effects to the rest of the economy from knowledge created in a resources based economy. Such an economy can only bring about zero sum game society of static rent seekers, i.e. land grabbers and stealing of aids. Such a nation is on the way to failure because such habits bring about feudal patterns of political and socio – economical behaviour as we see today in Kenya.
  
  If we are not dealing with these Malthisian activities, we are busy building “special” EPZs, i.e. more slavery wage system as we documented in EPZs and Modern Slavery cited above. In these EPZs, we specialise in manufacturing low end activities which the developed nations outsource when they become subject to PERFECT COMPETITION. As a result, we specialise in areas subject to negative returns and have little scope of learning. We ask again, how does a man who has contributed so much to locking a defeated and vanquished nation to such a weird economic system, be called brilliant?
  
  Instead of trapping Kenyans this way, if Kibaki was really brilliant as we are told, he could have come up with enlightened policies to move the nation to what Michael Porter calls created comparative advantage in activities not subject to diminishing returns, i.e. manufacturing activities. With industrial development, we would be able to develop our agricultural sector because, without a fully functioning industrial system, agricultural developments are impossible. More so, for those who tell us that, we can specialise in the in the services sector, we ask, services to serve who? Specialised services can only exist to serve high tech manufacturing and agricultural sectors of an economy.
  
  By moving the nation towards manufacturing, he would have moved our economy to the economic activities subject to: (a) increasing returns, (b) imperfect competition, i.e. innovation rents, (c) large scale for learning and (d) technical changer. It is precisely these activities; colonialism was and is established to derail. To achieve these satanic aims, they use “brilliant economists” like Kibaki and the control of the “independent” central bank. It is precisely for these reasons; we have said so many times on this blog that, the so called “independence” of the central bank in our “new constitution” is the most dangerous clause and is treason.
  
  However, since Kenyans rely on their “brilliant” economists like Kibaki, they ask, why are you talking about money all the time? We do so, because, money is the blood of the economy and if you take over the heart, i.e. the central bank, you will control the “blood flow” for personal as opposed to public interest. By controlling our “blood flow,” you can kill us any time you want by refusing to “pump enough blood” unless you are paid a tribute just when we are “running Boston Marathon and precisely when we need a lot of oxygen and maximum concentration to win” or you might just create unnecessary poverty to humiliate us by “releasing blood” when you want and reducing it whenever you fancy just to satisfy your satanic instincts of power and domination of other men, a characteristic of vipers and thieves.
  
  In other words, to those who think we can reform our nation without reforming the monetary system, we say like Jesus, may the Lord forgive thee, for you do not know what you are talking about. A sound monetary system provides a basis for the people, NOT our private bankers and NOT our government, to control the very value of the money in our monetary system. This is why sound money is of such utter importance. Sound money means money will not be created as debt as it is today. We must say ENOUGH of this slavery.
  
  As a matter of urgency, Kenyan needs well thought laws (not this draft constitution please) and policies to redirect our credit from imports and useless consumption to MANUFACTURING and AGRICULTURE so as to create the needed synergy for wealth creation. Instead of Kenyans doing this, they come up with weird ideas of CDF with borrowed money while accepting colonial welfare in the name of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). What developments are mad men like Sachs talking about when we are directing all our credit to imports, i.e. creation of jobs and wealth to foreigners? In simple words, the vicious circle of NO PURCHASING POWER and NO PRODUCTIVE POWER must be broken. Not by CDF, MDG’s, or “Vision” 2030 which has only managed to increase policemen, i.e. brutality as we hear here, or the so called socio – economic human rights, but a complete restructuring of our economy. Anything else is word play, disguise, deception, deliberate use of nonsense and absurdity to distract the masses.
  
  To break this vicious circle, we need leaders (Jeremiah 5: 1) who can see Kenyan as an entrepreneur organisation. In other words, leaders keenly aware of the need to restructure the country as a collection of resources which includes capital/money, people and productive assets and more so, able to regularly identify new and additional combinations of these resources based on a network of relations, information with the objective of sharing economic growth at all levels. This must be so because; there is a relation between economic structure and the political stability and peace or instability and armed strife.
  
  That’s why we find in the Bible these words. “And the land was not able to bear/support them that they may dwell together.” Genesis 13:6. If they had machines in those days, the land would have been sufficient for their families. Thus, in the Bible, we read about one of the most important economic laws, i.e. DIMINISHING RETURNS and its corrosive effect on human relations. The only way of ensuring that, this law does not destroy a nation is to industrialise because this creates higher dynamic rents for future investments in research and knowledge acquisition for the capitalists, higher wages for labour and higher taxes for the government. And more so, industrialisation increases the carrying capacity of a nation as we see in Holland etc.
  
  However, our “brilliant economists” in the 21st Century cannot understand what was known during the Renaissance Era. Now, if this is the case, would one dispute if we said Kibaki is not a brilliant economist as we have been told, but, he is just another “WELL EDUCATED IDIOT ECONOMIST,” or just another IDIOT SAVANT, skilled in technique but innocent in REAL ECONOMIC ISSUES?Kumekucha

  
  

• Can the constitution be stopped?

  Posted: May 25, 2010, 11:12 am by Chris

  ...as Atwoli seeks presidency
  
  Francis Atwoli wants to be president of Kenya
  
  The recent court ruling declaring the Kadhi courts in the current constitution illegal has shocked many. But what I found even more interesting are the rumour mills in Nairobi pointing an accusing fingers at some prominent people on the YES camp as being the ones behind the court ruling.
  
  It would seem that there are some people working around the clock to ensure that finally one of the many spanners they are throwing into the works to stop the train that is called a new constitution will work and bring it to a grinding halt.
  
  First it was the NSIS alterations in the draft at the printing stage. Now comes this bizarre court ruling.
  
  The big question is; will they finally succeed?
  
  I don’t think so. But what worries me most is that the rich and powerful are greatly underestimating the resolve of the Kenyan people to get a new constitution. The last time when Mwai Kibaki underestimated the resolve of the Kenyan people for change, the world saw the repercussions as Kenya exploded. I don’t want to think what would happen if for some reason the constitutional process was stopped on some technicality.
  
  The constitutional court ruling left many legal professionals surprised. To the ordinary Kenyan it was yet another reason why Kenyans don’t trust our courts. Majority of those I surveyed in a quick survey I have done over the last day or so are convinced that money changed hands to influence the strange court verdict.
  
  Meanwhile Francis Atwilo wants to be the next president of Kenya. Who is Atwoli?
  
  Francis Atwoli is a long serving trade unionist who is the current secretary general of the Central Organization of Trade Unions (Kenya). He was elected to the board in 2002 having worked for several years as a member of the Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union. He has consistently presented himself as a vocal advocate for workers rights frequently making his famous animated speeches in events such as Labour Day criticizing politicians on issues such as their refusal to pay taxes on their allowances, and dabbling in corruption. He has also been critical of Non-Governmental bodies interfering with labour disputes, and global institutions including the World Bank and their policies in Kenya.
  
  Since last year Atwoli has been holding meetings all over country (exclusively televised by Citizen TV each time without fail) ostensibly to put pressure on the political class to deliver a new constitution to the people of Kenya. Now it seems that his motives were much deeper than that. He told his latest meeting in Kikuyu (to raise funds for a church) that he will later be going around the country to ask the people for their support for a certain office in the next government. He then told the meeting that he was sure he will be in the next government. There are not many offices you can seek countrywide support for. In fact it is only one, the presidency.
  
  In recent times those close to Atwoli have been insisting that he is going for the presidency. Now a section of the media has recently confirmed this.
  
  Some people think that Atwoli is a big joke and not fit for the office of the presidency. I don’t agree. But what should excite Kenyans is not whether he can win or not, but the new kind of politics he is using to campaign for the office completely devoid of tribalism and tribal pointmen.Kumekucha

  
  

• The land does not speak Kalenjin

  Posted: May 24, 2010, 12:33 am by kumekucha

  Retired president Daniel arap Moi: Stirring up trouble for selfish reasons.
  
  If, as some allied to the NO campaign are preaching, my little piece of land will be taken over by the government upon passage of the proposed constitution, then I’ll need little or no incentive to activate the Sabaot Land Defence Forces (SLDF) and related Kalenjin militia to battle Nairobi.
  
  Battle Nairobi, because my ancestors suffered from what has come – in Kenyanese – to be known as “historical injustices.”
  
  As witnessed in 2007/8, either only a foolish or callous regime would want to court massive unrest, predicated on “historical injustices.”
  
  Historical injustices, because my great grandfather was a man of means, occupying land and several heads of cattle in the area surrounding Mt. Elgon.
  
  When some British settler came around, the family lost the wealth, and its members were appropriated as farm-hands in the new enterprise. Two generations later, the clan had been scattered into Bungoma, Uasin Gishu, West Pokot and – in my instance – the wider Trans-Nzoia District, in addition to other parts of the country. I cannot return to my “ancestral” home and claim anything, were I to lose what I call home in Trans-Nzoia. Other people moved in following my grandfather’s displacement, - there’s no telling where the livestock is, and locals have developed new narratives, devoid of our past or immediate presence. The new inhabitants even think colonial history gave us a better lot in Trans-Nzoia, and that we have no business seeking to look back.
  
  Few care to know that the colonial legacy and compromises that gave birth to settlement schemes in Trans-Nzoia, as indeed elsewhere in the Rift Valley province, birthed chronic land problems, now cannon fodder to some in the NO campaign. Few care to know that the land no longer speaks Kalenjin, and that several among us cannot trace our way back to Egypt, Sudan, Shungwaya, the Congo or West Africa. Few care to know that some in the NO campaign – alongside their surrogates in the YES camp - propped up a privileged, propertied elite in Trans-Nzoia, as indeed the rest of the province, at the expense of the rural poor.
  
  When I was in Cherangany to get my vote a few weeks ago, local concerns centered on a powerful elite seeking to dispose off some community land in Chebarus – a major trading center - before the proposed constitution becomes law, when it is feared such deals might be impossible. Taken to its logical end, the NO gospel that individual pieces of land may be taken away can only serve to stoke up embers, and awaken demons of the region’s troubled past.
  
  Thus, former President Moi’s recent warning that stability and peace in the province are contingent on a NO vote ought to be seen for what it is: a coded message for Rift Valley residents to either fuata nyayo, or prepare for the worst. On other occasions, I would have laughed off Moi, and likened his concern for peace and stability to Tony Soprano talking about law and order.
  
  Similarly, I would have easily asked him – as indeed others who have become the political face of NO in the Rift Valley - to take anger management classes from Julius Malema, for their ire at the manner in which the proposed constitution has decidedly re-configured local politics along Moi-era district boundaries. But the time and occasion is such that we just might be witnessing a revolution in Rift Valley politics, so peaceful that those who make periodic violence inevitable could well be on their way to irrelevance. Skewed as it is, the chapter on devolution particularly gives a glimmer of hope for those in the province who have repeatedly been considered “Kenyans in the Diaspora.”
  
  Creating desolation of the kind witnessed in the province in 2007/8, calling it peace and seeking to build electoral alliances around the same is going to be tenuous, particularly if transitional justice in the grander scheme of things runs its course.
  
  Thus I’ll neither laugh at, nor scorn Moi and company: they have a right to be on the other side of history, and to believe that it will absolve them. Instead, I would that both the Kalenjin and non-Kalenjin intelligentsia in the province imagine and labor for a shared future, that’s honest about both the past and present, yet even more hopeful about the future. The effort must be clear, bold, with social justice at its heart and so visionary as to consider a tomorrow grounded on a knowledge economy and less on land as the primary factor of production. It might also be time for a new crop of leaders to emerge in the Rift Valley, over which hovers an unforgettable cloud of witnesses: Jean-Marie Seroney, Chelagat Mutai, Bishop Alexander Muge, Masinde Muliro and others.
  
  Of course all this is predicated on social renewal, and the hope that Wanjiku will genuinely outgrow the narrow ends of ethnic nationalism.
  
  Guest post by Jesse Masai. The writer directs the Institute for Faith, Law and Society in Nairobi
  
  Are you an old boy of Lenana School? Are you interested in rugby? If the answer to both questions is YES, then this brand new blog could be fascinating for you.
  Kumekucha

  
  

• Who is Mwai Kibaki?

  Posted: May 23, 2010, 12:25 pm by kumekucha

  generated by an Adobe application 11.5606 Normal 0 34 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} One of the few things that Kenyans already knew about Mwai Kibaki early on and had known for decades was the fact that he was a brilliant scholar. Of that there is no doubt. Ever since his much older brother in-law a Paul Muruthi had insisted that the young Mwai go to school instead of grazing his father’s herd of sheep and cattle, the young lad seemed a permanent feature right at the very top of his class wherever he went. It is widely know that he was the first African to get the maximum 6 points in his O-levels.
  
  Mwai was the last born son of peasant farmers in Othaya, Gatoyaini village and his father was called Kibaki Githinji and his mother Teresia Wanjiku. Both are long deceased.
  
  It is instructive that on taking over the presidency, the very first thing Kibaki did was to declare free primary school education to all even when the government did not know how it was all going to be financed. It was not like Kibaki a world renowned economist to make such a reckless move.
  Mwai Kibaki: Kenyans still don't really know him.
  
  In an ABC Prime Time TV interview in the US in 2004 former US President Bill Clinton identified Kibaki as the one living person he would most like to meet “because of the Kenyan government’s decision to abolish school fees for primary education”. Clinton added that, by providing free and compulsory primary education, what Kibaki had done would affect more lives than any president had done or would ever do by the end of the first year. The free education programme saw nearly 1.7 million more pupils enrol in school by the end of that year. Clinton’s wish was granted when he visited Kenya and met Kibaki on 22nd July 2005.
  
  But to those who knew Kibaki a little better, it is no surprise that education would be so close to the president’s heart. After all a decision to take him to school so many years earlier had made the whole difference. In deed if there was ever a person for whom it would be said that education had opened all political doors for them, then Mwai Kibaki has to be at the top of that list.
  
  For starters Kanu fetched him from Makerere University, Uganda for him to be Kenya’s first executive officer because it was felt that the Kanu leadership lacked enough depth due to the poor educational background of most. Even Tom Mboya, the most brilliant politician Kenya has seen, did not have a university degree. After independence in 1963 Kibaki quickly found himself at the heart of the country’s financial and economic planning. A parliamentary seat was found for him and won for him by Mboya (this was for Donholm Constituency, subsequently called Bahati and now known as Makadara, in Nairobi) and he was quickly appointed assistant minister and chairman of the powerful Economic Planning Commission in 1963 before he was even 32 years old. He was in the cabinet a short three years later as Minister of commerce and industry and in 1969 became the powerful Finance minister. By any standards this was a very rapid climb. All these doors were opened by his solid educational credentials which were rare in those days and badly required by the young Kenyan nation.
  
  Kibaki himself recognizes this and greatly values educational credentials as we have already seen.
  
  However the down side of this rapid climb which many have still not seen is that Kibaki never had the chance to cut his teeth properly as a bare knuckled politician. This glaring weakness was to show itself many years later when he climbed to the very top of Kenyan politics and became president. It is true to say that of all the three Kenyan presidents, Kibaki was the least qualified as a politician to hold the office.
  
  In many ways this explains the way he has always ended up in the kind of troubles that a more savvy politician would easily have avoided. It also explains why Kibaki has always been the reluctant politician terrified of mudding himself in the normal political mud wrestling that goes with the trade. In fact many times he has gone to great lengths to avoid the “politics”. Odd for a man who has been a politician for so long.
  
  Fascinatingly this characteristic served him very well in two important stepping stones to the presidency.
  
  The first was as Daniel arap Moi’s vice president (1978 to 1988). It is important to note that Moi had greatly preferred Jeremiah Nyagah and was determined to appoint him as his Vice president on taking over power in August 1978 from Jomo Kenyatta. But Charles Njonjo, then the AG and whom we have seen held Moi’s hand through his first uneasy steps as president, advised him to appoint Kibaki instead. And Njonjo knew the right arguments to use to convince Moi. He knew that Moi was terrified of the Kikuyu as a political threat and Njonjo told him, Kibaki would be the perfect “window dressing” for Kikuyus to feel that nothing had changed much for them even after the death of Jomo.
  
  Kibaki settled into the Vice presidency and literally “disappeared.” Which meant that there was absolutely no possibility of him ever overshadowing Moi? In those early years Kibaki concentrated on his Finance docket and visitors to Kenya would have found it hard to guess that he was actually also the Vice president.
  
  The second time his hatred of bare-knuckle politics helped him out was as leader of the official opposition in 1998. Kibaki became leader of the opposition by virtue of his DP (Democratic Party of Kenya) political party being the opposition party with most seats in parliament. Most DP legislators hailed from the Kikuyu tribe who are usually loud and controversial in their politics by nature. Kibaki’s quite, sober character that avoided petty politics at all costs gave the party a much better image than it deserved and raised Kibaki’s profile immensely as a voice of reason in the usually radical opposition. This served him considerably well and later helped Kenyans across the political divide quickly warm to him as the opposition candidate in 2002. This was in itself amazing because before Kibaki took the helm the country had been served by only two presidents and one of them had been Kikuyu. And therefore it stood to reason that the third president should NOT be a Kikuyu. More blunt Kenyans would have told you that they had already had their turn to eat. This is one of the reasons why Moi was so sure of himself in selecting Uhuru Kenyatta as the Kanu candidate because he was certain that the opposition candidate would not be a Kikuyu and he would therefore have a huge advantage and an easy win in fronting Uhuru for the presidency. No serious presidential candidate in Kenya can ever afford to ignore the sheer numbers of the Kikuyu community.
  
  But in retrospect Kenyans now know that they elected a man that they hardly knew to be their third president. And yet many mistakenly felt that they knew him well enough because he had been in politics for so long. Nobody wanted to remember that he was the longest serving non-politician in Kenyan politics and that the country would pay a very high price mainly because of this fact.
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• How fear has always driven the presidency

  Posted: May 23, 2010, 4:18 am by Chris

  
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  We have studied the character of Kenyatta in great detail and the evidence all points to a meek old harmless man who was arrested in 1952 and later imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. It was an even older man humbled by a long prison sentence who took over the leadership of Kenya in 1963.

  Zanzibar stone town today: In January 1964 the tiny sleepy island not far from Mombasa suddenly exploded. Eyewitnesses described the bloody coup in Zanzibar with chilling words like "Arab blood flowed on the streets of the stone town as if from a great river." The effect of that coup so close to home had a major impact on the infant Kenyatta administration and was one of the foundation stones of the impunity that followed.

  
  The question we must busy ourselves with answering now is how this meek old man of the church was transformed into the feared president everybody wants to remember? Young folks change all the time but Kenyatta was at least 68 years old when he became Kenya’s first prime Minister. How does such an old man change from what he has been all his life?

  
  

  There is no doubt that the long prison sentence had hardened the old man considerably. Still evidence suggests that Kenyatta entered office with high ideals and a genuine determination to make good and impact the lives of ordinary Kenyans. Ironically every single president after him has started with the same high ideals. We shall see in this book what brought their dreams crashing down.

  
  For Kenyatta the honey moon was quickly and rudely brought to an end as crisis after crisis hit the infant administration. There was the scary army mutiny at Lanet in 1964 just a few months into the Kenyatta administration. Even today there is very little information on what really happened at the biggest military barracks in the country. But it was serious enough for the Kenyatta government to seek outside military assistance to quell which they received mostly from Britain.

  
  

  Then there were numerous coups in other African countries. Nigeria was particularly notorious. But not all the troubles were so far away. Closer to home there was the extremely bloody coup and revolution in January 1964 in neighbouring Zanzibar, a sleepy tiny Island off the Tanzanian Coast and not far from Dar-es-salaam and Mombasa in Kenya. What must have really frightened Kenyatta and his inner circle was the obvious foreign involvement in that coup. Even the leader was not a Zanzibari but a Ugandan policeman known as Okello. There were whispers that some foreign western powers had sanctioned the change in regime in Zanzibar. The truth is that after years of great cruelty by Arabs against the non-Arab population on the island, the revolution had been simmering for decades and just needed a mad policeman like Okello to ignite the slaughter that ensued. It was later said of that mutiny that Arab blood flowed on the streets of Zanzibar like water from a great river.

  
  

  It soon became very clear that there were plenty of potential threats to the presidency which had to be addressed immediately. It was a question of survival and the only way to survive was to crash all opposition even before it had a chance of raising its’ head properly. The president would need people he could trust completely around him and in all key positions in the country especially in the disciplined forces.

  
  

  Kenyatta promptly started appointing close relatives and village mates to sensitive positions in government and the security forces. Later after the assassination of Tom Mboya the Kenyatta administration went even further and launched secret oath-taking amongst senior officials in government. I remember my dad telling me stories of how he resisted several invitations to these oath-taking sessions where one had to strip completely naked and do all kinds of weird things. He was assured that promotion to very senior positions anywhere in Kenya was impossible without taking these oaths.

  
  

  Fear is a very powerful emotion that has been known to transform people’s characters completely. It is no secret that despite the absolute power in State House which we are told corrupts absolutely; few have appreciated the fact that the occupants of this great house on the hill have always had to live with great fear. For Kenyatta and Moi it was fear of being overthrown and seeing those close to them raped and murdered in cold blood or executed by firing squad by the successful coup leaders. For Kibaki it has been more about ending up in some prison with a long list of charges, some of them trumped up by his political opponents and pretenders to the presidency.

  
  

  Clearly Kenyatta also feared assassination to the point of being paranoid. For instance during his entire time as president Kenya’s founding father avoided flying at all costs. This was one reason why he was always represented in conferences and functions out of the country by his Vice president. Even in trips to the Coast Kenyatta would always prefer the 8 hour long trip by road, even when his health was at its’ worst. It was only after his death that Kenyatta’s body enetered a plane after very many years. The body was flown back to Nairobi from Mombasa. Fear was undoubtedly a strong driving behind numerous executive decisions then and some of these quickly ushered in impunity and shaped the office of the presidency for many years to come.

  
  

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• Jomo Kenyatta and the witchdoctor link

  Posted: May 22, 2010, 11:25 am by Chris

  Read Part 1 of the Kumekucha weekend book special
  
  The early 50s were a time of unprecedented turmoil and violence in Kenya. The wind of change that was sweeping across much of Africa did not spare this previously peaceful terrain. Many people even at the time suspected quite rightly that these were the birth pangs prior to the birth of a new order, a different Kenya, and this included those who did not want to imagine in their worst nightmare a government run by “the natives” as they called them.
  Jomo Kenyatta top and Louis Leakey participated in a public debate in London in 1935 that went on in Kikuyu. Kenyatta argued strongly in favour of the circumcision of women. Hardly surprisng for a man who had been brought up by a witchdoctor from a very tender age.
  
  The violence in Kenya was provoked by the Mau mau who were fighting for their land rights after the colonial settlers had grabbed prime land mainly from Central Kenya.
  
  The man who was to later become Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta always had a frosty relationship with the Mau mau. This is contrary to popular opinion. In fact the Mau mau threatened his life on several occasions. It was rather ironic that he ended up on trial trying to prove to a compromised court his innocence in NOT being involved with the Mau mau. Kenyatta was not only accused of being a member but of being one of its’ leaders. The only word that could come close to describing such an allegation against Kenyatta is preposterous! If the charges had not been that serious, even Jomo himself would have found that charge a big joke. And you will too when we dig deeper into the true character of Kenya’s first president. The chief witness in that sham of a trial Rawson Macharia admitted only in recent years that he had been bribed into giving false evidence against Kenyatta.
  
  Obviously Kenyatta must have had some very powerful enemies in the colonial government. What had built up such hatred towards? One clue can be found in the fact that Kenyatta firmly believed in tradition and African customs like female circumcision. This disgusted many in the colonial administration and may have been the reason why he became a marked man, whatever he did or said. It is recorded that Kenyatta took part in a public debate in Kikuyu in 1935 over the issue of female circumcision (the irua of girls). Kenyatta passionately argued in favour of the brutal custom being retained against the like of Louis Leakey.
  
  But Kenyatta was never a violent man at heart and did not believe in violent means and yet when he became president he worked hard to glorify the Mau mau as the chief freedom fighters of Kenya and always emphasized that independence was won with a violent resistance and he was at the centre of it himself. In a way he was insinuating that the colonials had rightly charged him with being leader of the Mau mau. He was telling the Kenyan people that he had been part of a violent struggle that had landed him in jail where he had suffered for many years for the sake of the people. All this was pure fairy tale. But it was undoubtedly very romantic and the kind of thing that gave the old man just the right kind of image to tower like a giant well above any other politician. It is the same image he retains in the eyes of many younger Kenyans who still greatly admire him as a man who fought violently for what he believed in.
  
  It was all part of a very deliberate effort to lift the office of the presidency to a pedestal that Kenyans would look up to. One that nobody would dare challenge.
  
  Kenyatta was born Kamau wa Muigai to parents Muigai and Wambui in the village of Uranus, Gatundu, Kiambu but his father died when Jomo was very young after which, as per Kikuyu custom, he was adopted by his uncle Ngengi, who also inherited his mother as his wife. But tragedy struck yet again and his mother died while giving birth. The young Jomo then moved from Ng’enda to Muthiga to live with his medicine man grandfather Kingu wa Magana. Magana was a very famous witchdoctor of the time. The two are said to have become very close. It is no accident that in later years Kenyatta called his son with Briton wife, Edna Clarke, Peter Magana. He was born in August 11th 1943.
  
  And so the story goes that Jomo was told very early (when he was still a child) by his witchdoctor grandfather that he was going to be a very famous leader. I am not a superstitious man and the witchcraft story (told earlier) is virtually impossible to verify but this “knowledge” of him being destined to be a great leader seems to be confirmed by many of his actions including the launching of his Kikuyu newspaper. It was strange because although it was clear that Kenyatta was fighting for something he was too much of a moderate and was almost apologetic as he went about this business of liberation. Little wonder that the then extremely sensitive colonial government tolerated the newspaper that he briefly published from May 1928 called Mwigwithania (the Kikuyu weekly whose name meant, The Reconciler) since they found it mostly harmless.
  
  In many respects the man was an unlikely first president of Kenya for anybody who knew his character well.

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• Kumekucha weekend special: The book everybody is talking about

  Posted: May 22, 2010, 5:12 am by Chris

  If you love surprises, you will love this weekend. My weekend book special today and tomorrow features sections from the book everybody is talking about; Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency.
  
  In this post I start with the book jacket, dedication page and introduction. Later today I will post more mouth-watering sections of this book many have told me is ground-breaking. ENJOY!!!!
  
  
  Book Jacket
  
  Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency explores the office
  the presidency through some rarely-told (and some
  never-before-told) incidences surrounding this bigger than
  life office created by Jomo Kenyatta and the founders of the
  Kenyan nation. “This thing” they created grew and became
  an enormous un-tameable beast that has caused untold distress,
  suffering and death to Kenyans.
  
  Kumekucha’s account is mostly angry and dissects this
  subject ruthlessly without fear or favour. The tone is very much
  that one of his blog which has received worldwide attention
  sometimes in praise and at other times in condemnation but is
  certainly a blog that cannot be ignored. The result here is a
  thought-provoking account that will forever change your
  views about this all powerful office which has the kind of
  powers under the constitution Kenyans have lived with for
  decades that would be the envy of any god.
  
  The Kumekucha blog was launched in May 2005 by a blogger
  who only reveals his first name, Chris. The site continues to
  shape political opinion for many Kenyans locally and spread
  all over the world. This is the first in a series of books that
  will be published from information researched and written
  by the blogger known to his adoring readers and sharp critics
  alike as Chris Kumekucha.
  
  Book Dedication
  
  To all my very dear readers of Kumekucha especially the very early ones who left comments and helped me continue on the journey to discover that I could actually write politics in my own unique way. Folks like Taabu, Phil, Vee, Luke, Vicky, Kenya one and all the others whose names I cannot remember. But also am indebted to those who came later like Beth, Mugo (M.G.), Mrembo wa ODM, Wanjiku Unlimited, tnk, Sam Okello, Mwarangethe etc.
  
  Special mention to JG my biggest fan and supporter.
  
  This book is to you and all Kumekucha readers. Read it proudly knowing that without you it would never have happened.
  
  
  CONTENTS
  
  Introduction.........................................................................Pg 7
  
  Chapter one: The old man who stopped drinking..........Pg 11
  
  Chapter two: The early bloody years..............................Pg 23
  
  Chapter three: Suffering Moi..... ......................................Pg 43
  
  Chapter four: Without a president for 12 hours....................................................................................Pg 62
  
  Chapter five: A brand new Moi is born..........................Pg 70
  
  Chapter six: Professor Kimya..........................................Pg 82
  
  Chapter seven: Proud Makerere Don.............................Pg 89
  
  Chapter eight: Who is Mwai Kibaki?...............................Pg 108
  
  Chapter nine: Raising cash for a presidential
  campaign.............................................................................Pg 126
  
  No Conclusion..................................................................Pg 154
  
  Introduction
  I cannot quite remember how old I was when it happened (but I was not yet 7).
  And yet the memory is still so vivid on my mind. Very telling because I have forgotten so many other things from my childhood but this little incident.
  
  My dad had come from work at the end of a long hard day and was changing from his imposing police uniform to casual wear so that he could go our for his usual drink. I questioned him persistently over something that had been disturbing me for a number of days.
  
  I wanted to know how many steps he was in the hierarchy away from the presidency. He tried to explain that the president was not a policeman (he was an assistant commissioner of police then) but I insisted that he give me a number which he finally did. Many years later I learnt that the number took into account the parliamentarians and the policemen above him in rank but was given more out of desperation so that I give him peace. It was the kind of answer that you give a child when the question they ask is too complex for their young immature minds to grasp.
  
  Still the point is, like many Kenyans, even at 7 years old I was awe-struck by the Kenyan presidency. I had watched many times on TV as the president arrived for various functions. Complete with a motorcade with numerous motorcycles and vehicles. I watched as the military parade stood to attention and the smart respectful salutes. Even as a naive youngster it blew my mind away. There and then I decided that I wanted my dad to be president of Kenya and then I would take over as president myself from him when I grew up.
  
  Although the presidency was has always been an elective office at the beginning, many African presidents modelled it after royalty in a kingdom and did everything to surround the office with mystique and grandeur. As well as spilling plenty of blood to ensure that they remained in office until death snatched them away. They succeeded big time and quickly became life presidents and gods who straddled the entire way of life of their countries. To this day too many Kenyans still look at the office of the president with awe and will be quick to remind you that not anybody can be president. If the second coming were to happen today it would be found that most Kenyans fear the presidency more than they fear their creator God almighty. Very sad but true. As a result numerous things remain hidden about the presidency past and present.
  
  In writing this book I hope to begin a journey of discovery for Kenyans. More so in discovering how we have suffered and been held in bondage by some mystique created for mostly selfish reasons.
  
  I have been to State House Nairobi. Once.
  
  It is such an anticlimax this revered house on the hill. The sacrifices, the murders, the killings and all the crazy things Kenyans have done in the name of wanting to live at this address (or remain there definitely); you would have thought that it would be a much grander place than what you end up seeing. Alas the red carpet is clean and well maintained but it is rather old. In fact the whole place looks like it needs an interior designer badly.
  
  In the 46 years that Kenya has been independent only three men have called this place their official residence and held the office of President of the republic of Kenya. Johnstone Kamau (aka Jomo Kenyatta) for 15 years, Daniel Toroitich arap Moi for 24 years and the rest of the years to date, Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki. Interestingly whatever happens Kibaki will be the man who has occupied that office for the shortest time and yet history will record that his presidency has caused the most damage. His supporters will be quick to argue that Kibaki was only a victim in that he bore the brunt of all the cumulative evils of the presidency before him that boiled over during his watch. Others including this writer will think otherwise.
  
  But even more fascinating is the fact that these three men have all been very ordinary simple good men who were transformed into something very different shortly after taking office. Kenyatta was a humble teetotaller after publicly promising church elders in the 1920s that he would never touch alcohol again in his life. 30 years later there was evidence that Kenyatta not only kept his vow to the church but detested alcohol and strongly believed that the drinking of beer was hindering the coming of Uhuru. Moi grew up walking extremely long distances to school and developed into a strong patient and tolerant man who could forgive almost anything. Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki was a staunch Catholic and brilliant economist who attracted the attention of the young Kanu party because of his educational background at a time when it was very rare for an African to have a high school education let alone be a university lecturer. This prompted Tom Mboya to drive from Nairobi all the way to Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda in an air cooled VW beetle to persuade Kibaki that his country needed him more than Makerere University did. Mboya is said to have come back with Kibaki in the VW. Always the reluctant politician and determined to retain his dignity and stick to his principals, Kibaki became a very different person when he entered State House. Kenyans got a glimpse of his other side when the post election crisis of December 2007 and January 2008 unfolded. A friend of mine was so shocked that he just kept on muttering under his breath… This is not Kibaki, this is not Kibaki, over and over again.
  
  In this book we shall try to understand these three men intimately and the magical transformations they underwent better. Because in understanding this we will understand our beloved country and the institution of the presidency completely. Trust me on that and hold me to account for it when we finish our journey right at the end of this book. We shall dig into the true characters of these men and reveal many never-told-before secrets in their lives.
  This book is deliberately written to be a quick entertaining read. It is my hope that this will provoke huge readership amongst Kenyans and get all of us thinking very deeply, more so as we prepare to usher in a new constitution which despite our best efforts still has a powerful presidency. It is my sincere prayer that later somebody will be inspired by my work to do a much more detailed thesis.
  
  Go to Part 2
  
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• YES, Even Dead Fish Goes With the Flow

  Posted: May 21, 2010, 10:50 am by Taabu

  By Mwarang'ethe
  
  In his latest piece, Chris has written this: “how long do you think we will be able to flout our cash around even as our fellow countrymen starve and struggle to survive”? The implied meaning in this statement is that, the yawning gap in wealth between the few rich and majority dirty poor will be reduced or eliminated by the “new constitution.” As we have stated previously, a constitution is an economic document. As such, a constitution drafted without clear understanding of economics, i.e. natural laws of wealth creation and distribution is rubbish. We shall demonstrate with real examples.
  
  Let us first note two crucial, but, little known facts. In the “classical age” politics and economics were studied under the rubric of political economy as the science of wealth. Science in this manner meant the systematical classification and arrangement of the natural laws of social prosperity. However, so as to produce one dimensional idiot who cannot see the whole picture, this subject was divided into political science and economics. The reason given by Neo Classical economists was that, economics had now become a science like physics and astronomy. However, the main aim was to fool mankind for the benefit of few.
  
  About a hundred years ago, a group of socialists established a society called Fabian Society. Taking their name and strategy from Quintus Fabius, the Roman general who advocated a war of attrition against Hannibal of Carthage, they sought to impose socialism on mankind by stealth. To do so, they founded the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1895 (by the way, isn’t Kibaki and many other economists not graduates of this prestigious school?). For those of us who are awake in these dangerous times, we can see their dream of socialism is close to realization all over the world. Yes, we hear the right to food, decent housing and everything else to be provided by the government. The masses completely ignorant of long historical plans are deceived by this monkey language. In this collective ignorance, we hear them say hallelujah. We say woe unto you for we are on the road to serfdom worse than any other in the human history. While at it, remember this. It is socialism for the rich and free markets for the poor. If you doubt the definition of socialism, please tell us what you make of this.
  
  This year Citigroup just announced that its profits for just the first three months of this year totalled an incredible $4.4 billion, Goldman Sachs' haul was $3.5 billion, JPMorgan Chase grabbed $3.3 billion, and Bank of America took $3.2 billion. How did these geniuses make this fortune? It is this. The Fed has deliberately held short-term interest rates to historic lows -- less than one half of a percent. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department is paying almost 4 percent interests on longer-term loans that banks make to the government. This might sound complicated. However, it's really a very simple transfer of public wealth to the giant banks owned by a few thousand people out of 6 billion people. The Fed loans, let's say, a billion dollars (public money) to a bank at a half-percent interest. The bank then turns right around and loans that billion dollars to the Treasury Department, collecting 4 percent interest. In short, the banks take citizen’s money and loan it back to them for a sweet 3.5 percent profit. Apart from loaning the citizens back their own money at interest, they are using the same funds to short including naked short selling shares and government bonds in Greece, Europe and globally. To prevent the collapse of land values, shares and government bonds and currencies (which is a futile exercise where we are now), governments must come up with money bailout (more public debts on the shoulders of the poor) and the game goes on and on. Sheer genius!
  
  Question for YES people
  Have we entrenched such a system in your wonderful constitution? And, if yes, can we be educated how such a piratical monetary arrangement will help in bridging the wealth gap you talk about when we know as a matter of fact, that, it is a means of transferring wealth from the poor to the super rich, i.e. the rentier class?
  In a recent article on this blog we stated something like this. “The productive activities that can make a nation wealthy must meet two tests. (a) Such activities should lead to production of valuable tangible/intangible stuff. (b) Such activities should be surplus generating economic activities that can be made available for future re- investment. Ignoring the distribution aspect of this surplus for the moment, we can say that, since our economic activities do not meet test (b), in other words, we specialise in unproductive economic activities (special EPZ's and coffee growing - Malthusian activities) we are going NOWHERE. “
  
  We added this. “Furthermore, even if there is some little surplus revenue for re- investment we also have a major problem of its distribution. Under the private land ownership (absolute title to land), land absorbs almost all of the surplus revenue in form of rent. In addition to this, we have piratical monetary system that also extracts a very large portion of the surplus revenue from our economy. This extraction of wealth by the idle class is at the expense of the class that create real wealth. This class is composed of the labour and the real economy/industrial/agriculture economy. Once the industrialist/farmer who creates commodities we need and exchange with each other is starved of revenue for future investments, it follows that, there are no jobs for the labour. And even if there are jobs, so as to meet the unjust demands of land owners and the financial capitalists, the wages must be low as we see in the EPZ’s. Low wages cannot create an environment for industrialists to invest.”
  
  Question for YES people
  So, if this is the condition of our economy and the “new constitution” has not fixed it, how do you meet the economic and social rights as well as devolution demands?
  More so, there is something else we seem not to understand. It is the real meaning of “free trade” under which we are operating. This is a simple analysis. The imperial nations export capital to our nations for two reasons. These are the development of low cost sources of food (coffee, tea, fruits) and raw materials required by developed nation’s factories (copper, oil etc). By exporting capital to us, these nations can keep wages for their labour a bit low because basics/food is cheap. This ensures that, their profits for future investments are not squeezed too much. If free trade for the rich is meant to preserve their profits, what do we seek to preserve on our part? We answer debt, poverty and ignorance and conflicts over shrinking cake.
  
  Question for YES people
  To what extent does this wonderful constitution come even close to appreciating this reality, and therefore, come up with innovative means of escaping these arrangements? And, since it has not done so, can we be taught how prosperity of the poor will come about when wages must be kept low such that, we lack purchasing power and the profits for future investments?
  
  We seek to write as little as possible, but, we are attempted to say more. In Article 41 (3) of the proposed constitution, we read this: “Every employer has the right – to form and join an employer’s organisation, and to participate in the activities and programmes of an employer organisation.” May God save Kenya. In the USA, we hear that, lobbyists make it impossible to make the necessary reforms. However, here we are, seeking to entrench such rights in our “new constitution.”
  Let us see what Adam Smith said about employers and let the reader judge whether the drafters of this document and the Kenyans in general know anything they are talking about. He wrote this:
  
  “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices... The interest of dealers ... in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public... The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.”
  
  In the end, it seems as if one thinker who also a journalist was right. He argued that, people, including journalists were more interested in believing the pictures in their heads (housing for all, wealth distribution etc) rather than come to judgment by critical thinking. He added that, the function of journalists and news in this sense is only to signalize an even while the function of truth is to bring to light the hidden facts and thereby, set them in relation with each other so as to make a picture of reality upon which men can act. The news is that, we have a new constitution. The truth is that, it is the same old wine in new wine skins. In this case, news and truth are not synonymous. Even worse, he noted that, even if journalists could be effective in educating the public about important issues, the masses are never interested in learning and assimilating the results of accurate investigations. Thus, like a dead fish, they go with the flow.
  
  In conclusion, no, we are not motivated by fear, but, the truth. However, we are aware that, today, there is little regard for the truth, little access to it and even little ability to recognise it. Truth is unwelcome entity. It is very disturbing. Truth is an inconvenience for governments and the interest groups who benefit from so called governments. Even worse, those, whose goal was once discovery of the truth about just wealth creation and just distribution thereof, are now paid very well to hide it. In other words, truth has fallen to the gods of mammon.Kumekucha

  
  

• The dangers of the new constitution NOT passing

  Posted: May 20, 2010, 10:32 pm by Chris

  In my eventful life so far I have seen how devastating fear can be.
  
  Fear is a terribly powerful emotion. It causes people to be desperate and to behave in very strange ways.
  
  I have seen people freeze in fear even as imminent danger hurtles towards them. I have seen intelligent people freeze in fear and stage fright and make a complete fool of themselves trying to speak in public.
  
  And so I really fear fear itself. That is probably one of the reasons why I have always tried hard to fight fear in all its’ forms. Many times I have ended up making decisions which have horrified others. Don’t you fear this and that, some have asked me?
  
  Currently in Kenya I see fear in many of our dear brothers and sisters who are going to vote No. Some people fear (quite rightly) that they will lose their ill-gotten wealth. Many of the older folks just have a fear of the unknown. Many others fear change and prefer to remain suffering rather than to risk change.
  
  But the truth is that what Kenyans should really fear is the draft constitution failing to be passed. You do not want to imagine the consequences of that happening.
  
  For years I have talked in this blog about the growing hopelessness in Kenyans. Hardly anybody has linked the election troubles of 2007 to this hopelessness and yet it was a major catalyst. Not many people appreciate the daily struggles most Kenyans have to go through just to get by. Most fascinatingly church leaders have failed to appreciate this important point in their decision to campaign for a no vote. It is probably the best illustration of how the prosperity gospel has taken over so much so that church leaders living in great luxury have failed to fully appreciate what their flocks are up against in their daily struggle for survival.
  
  My analysis on the ground is that the International community was absolutely spot on in their determination to do everything in their power to ensure that Kenyans do not go to the polls again without major reforms first. To them this was a recipe for disaster and the kind of trouble that would have made 2007 look like child’s play. The pressure thye have brought to bear has done a lot in helping Kenyans reach where they are today, literally on the verge of a brand new constitution.
  
  I am well aware that in writing this post I have lost many avid Kumekucha readers and so let me end it with just one every day illustration to drive my point home.
  
  In a supermarket in Nairobi, a man walks in on impulse to pick a few things and ends up spending Kshs 10,000 just like that. He meets at the counter with another harassed looking Kenyan who has walked all the way from Kibera to town to purchase an item costing less than Kshs 30/- because it is Kshs 5/- cheaper in town (a 40 minutes walk) than it is in his local neighborhood duka in Kibera. The man has never handled Kshs 5,000 as a lump sum in his pocket in his entire miserable lifetime and is amazed that anybody should spend Kshs 10,000 in a supermarket and would have probably fainted if he realized that it was spent impulsively without any pre-meditated plan.
  
  Simple question; how long do you think we will be able to flout our cash around even as our fellow countrymen starve and struggle to survive? It does not matter how high the fences are around our exclusive apartments in good neighbourhoods and it does not matter that we use the latest technology and security electronics and then swagger to our favourite watering hole on Saturdays wearing designer red t-shirts to look intelligent arguing with friends why we will vote NO, without fail.
  
  It doesn’t matter because if we succeed it will come back to haunt us. Guaranteed!!!
  
  I will be distributing a summary of my hot new book, Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency, plus a handful of chapters from the book for free to Kumekucha readers only. Get it by subscribing to my list for the book. Simple send an email now to; Dark-secrets-kenyan-presidency-subscribe@yahoogroups.comKumekucha

  
  

• Why Christ Would Vote Yes

  Posted: May 20, 2010, 10:31 pm by Sam Okello

  With tears in my eyes, I want to state here that the Christian leaders who have taken a hard line stance against the new constitution are no better than Islamic fundamentalists in the mold of Osama bin Laden; men and women who will never compromise unless one hundred percent of their demands are met. I don't understand where such men and women get their marching orders from. The Bible? It can't be; the Bible is a sober, reasoned book that calls on each of us to exercise tolerance. Indeed, in one of my favourite verses it says, "How wonderful it is when brothers live in harmony." Ever read that verse? If you have, tell me how harmony can be achieved when the dictatorial whims of the pastors must be shoved down our throats for the nation to move forward.
  
  The danger with fundamentalism is that it always degenerates into demagoguery. I have been to various forums where my dear brothers and sisters who wish to see the constitution defeated have behaved in very unique ways. They behave as if listening to the reasoned arguments of those in the YES camp amount to listening to the devil himself. Why are they afraid of reason? Does not the Bible say, "Come let us reason together?" Why then are our church leaders insistent that reason can only take shape on their terms? And while they choose such intolerance, what makes them think the other side won't match intolerance with intolerance?
  
  Of course the NO team will say that the YES team is just an intolerant, and they maybe right. There was absolutely no excuse for the supporters of the constitution to boo the Vice President on Saturday. The VP has been a man that is difficult to understand because of his brand of politics. By now, however, Kenyans should have leanrt to live with his double-speak. At Uhuru Park, we should have let him play the only game he understands best...taking no binding decision. To have booed him only made him subject this nation to whining of the kind we can't afford to entertain at a time we have pressing matters on our mind.
  
  So, what would Jesus do were He a voter?
  
  I know for certain that He would vote. It was Him who said, "Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." Because of this profound statement, I know that Jesus would recognize the fact that Kenya is a diverse nation where a spirit of give and take is absolutely essential. How could Christians want a constitution that accommodates the sensitivities of a Judeo-Christian tradition while denying the Muslims a chance to carry out justice in Kadhis Courts? Where is justice in that? And how could Christians elect to shoot down this document on the basis that it permits abortion? After reading the way that abortion clause is structured, what an open-minded christian must ask is this...would Christ support this?
  
  The answer is YES!
  
  Christ would support this constitution because He would recognize the fact that what we are about to vote on is Caesar's, not Gods. It is my guess that after He would have voted for the document, He would then go to the synagogues and cathedrals and churches across Kenya to urge His followers, who we all are, to live within the confines of the Ten Commandments. If we did, He would say, issues like abortion, land grabbing,sectarian disunity and other divisive elements would either be minimized or not arise at all.
  
  As we approach voting day, fellow Kenyans, let us be tolerant of the worldview of our fellow countrymen whose views we don't share. they are just as patriotic as we all are; just that they have a different vision. Indeed, there may come a time in future when they may persuade some of us to support their vision. I just hope that the vision they have does not come anywhere close to a Theocracy because that would be a recipe for permanent disunity...endless religious war-mongering.
  
  That's not Kenya.
  
  Let's campaign peacefully and urge love, justice and peace wherever we are.
  
  God bless Kenya!Kumekucha

  
  

• Referendum: Draft Chocking in Shameful Errors

  Posted: May 19, 2010, 10:30 pm by Taabu

  It may sound trivial or even an exercise in hair-splitting. But going through the draft leaves you wondering what a shoddy job of editing it was. Even cutting and pasting in any MS word document would highlight these shameful errors.
  
  Sample this:
  
  24 (2) (b) ...fundmental freedom....
  
  92 (i) ....politcal parties.......
  
  95 (4) (c)...expediture.
  
  115 (3)......emendeds the bill.......
  
  173 (4) .....judicary.......
  
  216 (4).....comission shall determine.....
  
  250 (8) ....an indepenedent.....
  
  254 (3)...a commisssion....
  
  260 county legistlation 'under under'- repeated word ppg 182- oath or Solemn Affirmation of Due Execution of office for a cabinet secretary.....Presidentfor.....Kumekucha

  
  

• Why Kalonzo Musyoka is NOT really a politician

  Posted: May 17, 2010, 1:38 pm by Chris

  It is extremely annoying that at a time when Kenyan minds should be sharply focused on the new constitution the side show provoked by one Kalonzo Musyoka has shifted all the attention to the wrong place. My firm belief is that Kenyans have not put this petty incident in its’ right perspective and yet it is important that we do.
  
  The most important point to note is that it proves beyond any reasonable doubt that Kalonzo Musyoka is NOT presidential material and seems to lack the very basics of politics. Here’s why. Picture Kalonzo Musyoka as president after 2012 and then imagine a situation where wananchi get impatient with him and his presidential speech as they often have with president Kibaki. What will he do? Call a presidential press conference to say that Raila is finishing him politically? Or that he has instructed his followers to embarrass the president? Or maybe ask the presidential escort to arrest the rowdy youths immediately? Come on!!!
  
  If Kalonzo Musyoka doesn’t have the very basic political skills to handle a small section of the crowd at Uhuru Park how the hell is he going to be president? And to make it worse with a new constitution that will require smart folks who can think quickly on their feet?
  
  Admittedly the fact that Kalonzo does not have the very basic “kindergarten political skills” of dealing with a hostile crowd is hardly surprising. The man cut his teeth as a Kanu politician where the most important credentials were how loud you could shout mama na baba while waving the one finger salute. And of course the ability to kneel before one Mulu Mutisya. Hardly the kind of skills that require much mental strain.
  
  When you add the style of politics in Ukambani during the Kanu era into the mix, Kalonzo Musyoka’s behaviour after a few rowdy youths asked him to wind up his speech is not surprising at all. Many younger Kumekucha readers may NOT be aware of the kind of terror that Kalonzo Musyoka and his Godfather Mulu Mutisya used to visit on anybody in Ukambani who did not acknowledge their power. This is definitely not the kind of environment that would promote any skills for competitive politics.
  
  Now you understand why the VP goes ballistic every time some rowdy schoolboy jeers at him from the crowd. How dare they?!!!! Remember the incident in Mombasa in 2007 when the VP reacted by trying to grab a hammer from a rowdy Raila Odinga supporter during a ODM rally? Remember how William Ruto at the same meeting quickly gauged the mood of the crowd and changed tact to his advantage?
  
  Politicians are booed all the time. Jomo Kenyatta faced a very hostile crowd in Nyeri in 1952 but soldiered on with his speech (details are in Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency). At another incident a rowdy crowd threw rotten eggs in the face of Jomo Kenyatta. President Barack Obama faced rowdy hostile booing crowds a few times during his recent successful presidential campaign. Mostly from radical African Americans who felt his campaign was a betrayal to the black race. Tom Mboya had a very difficult time when he arrived at the Limuru Conference centre in 1960 and was loudly booed by a section of the crowd while another section cheered him on. It was obvious which of his many political enemies had organized the booing and the whole scheme was to exclude him from the formation of a new national political party that came to be known as Kanu, but Mboya did not call a press conference to castigate his enemies. How the hell do you expose yourself in that manner? Interestingly Mboya always did his homework and knew in advance that he would face a hostile reception and so he prepared his counter strategy (the section of the crowd that wildly cheered him so that everybody would know that he was not unpopular and that only a section of the crowd was hostile. Now that is how a politician plays his cards. And I can go on and on.
  
  You see politics is about thinking quickly on your feet and turning a bad situation to your advantage. As well as lots of damage control behind the scenes. That is the very nature of competitive politics anywhere in the world. Sadly all this must be Greek to the VP, as well read as he is.
  
  I have just been reviewing tapes of the booing incident and I must say that Musyoka looks ridiculous waving back the time out signs that the youth were flashing in his direction. Every presidential candidate needs to look "presidential" all the time. The VP amazingly played right into their hands. Burly Fred Gumo gave him a perfect exit strategy when stood up and pointed out that the youth were complaining that it was about to rain and that is why they wanted him to hurry his speech. A smarter politician would have grabbed the que and quickly just laughed off the whole situation and sat down, apologizing about the rain. If the VP was stung, there are numerous other ways he would have dealt with the rowdy youths and those he is sure sent them.
  
  Let us for a moment assume that the whole thing was a smear campaign organized by his political rival Raila Odinga with 2012 in mind (I still don’t see what Raila would gain from organizing such a childish charade, somebody please make me see it). What would be the right response if you were Kalonzo Musyoka? I would certainly not handle it the way the VP has. Assuming that I did not think fast enough on my feet at Uhuru park when it happened and I was taken completely by surprise (terrible for a seasoned politician) instead of calling a press conference to whine and attract attention to my own embarrassment I would have completely ignored the incident and worked hard to show that the youths had achieved nothing and my feelings were not hurt in any way. Instead I would have concentrated all my energies into repositioning myself as a more firm and resolute member of the YES campaign camp. Voters hate indecisive politicians especially after the Mwai Kibaki presidency in Kenya.
  
  Instead, by behaving the way he did Kalonzo has portrayed himself as a whining coward who is easily cowed by a few heckling youths. And in the minds of many kenyans his stand on the new constitution is still Yes, No, No, Yes. It seems his stand would be firmer if Raila odinga was in the the "NO" camp. Kalonzo seems to be obsessed with the fellow. And if I was a heckler I would now have a field day at every opportunity in future knowing how sensitive the VP is to some little heckling. If I was his political opponent I would organize a heckling campaign through the 2012 presidential campaign just to unsettle him. You don’t show people your weakness in politics like that. You just don’t. It is suicidal.
  
  P.S. I laugh heartily when I read all these tribal theories being peddled in the comments section here in Kumekucha on how the new constitution will be defeated in the referendum because of Raila this and Raila that. Or because of this tribe supporting it and that other tribe opposing it. Every Kenyan has a right to an opinion even if it is grossly ignorant and outdated (I dare say this right is better covered in the draft constitution). I will say no more. Let’s just wait for the results after August 4th and we’ll see just how tribal Kenyans really are. And how ignorant the people of Kenya are on the ground. And who told you Raila will win the presidency in 2012?
  
  Poor ignorant armchair analysts they won’t know what hit them.
  
  
  ABUSE OF POWER AS STATE FUNDS YES CAMPAIGNS
  
  Guest post by Daniel Waweru
  
  In 2005 referendum campaigns, one of the biggest complaint of the politicians behind the then NO group now ODM was the fact that the YES campaigns were bankrolled by the government. Raila and other politicians in the then NO campaigns called this ABUSE OF POWER and FRAUD. Their argument was that the taxpayers monies should not be used to support a cause that was was not yet constitutional and which in addition was not supported by a majority of Kenyans.
  
  Fast forward to 2010, the ODM party which is now in government has joined hands with the then government and has CLONED AND ACTIVELY PROPAGATED THE SAME SINS they preached against 5 years ago. State funds are now being used to bankroll the 2010 YES campaigns which are being led by Kibaki and Raila. This is a clear case of HYPOCRICY and it should be called out and condemned. Unfortunately, the public kitty is not just being used for the referendum. It is an open secret that these campaigns are being used as a platform to market the 2012 presidential candidates. Most speakers in these rallies are spending more time glorifying their presidential candidates of choise and very little on the constitution. The sad reality is that accountability of these campaign funds is almost impossible and knowing our politicians, it means that most of the monies are being siphoned to private accounts. If Kenyans were shocked by Goldenberg and Anglo leasing, they should then be very afraid since the YES group is a congregation of WHO IS WHO in the CORRUPTION HISTORY OF KENYA.
  
  Kenyans need to demand more of civic educators and less of political rallies since the former are the ones mandated with teaching about the contents of the draft constitution. Its sad that even the money for hiring, training and commissioning these civic educators have been diverted by the government to bankroll their YES campaigns. The time to demand fairness and sanity in this constitutional process is yesterday. But will Kenyans listen or are they already intoxicated by their favourite politicians?
  
  PS.
  Have you noticed the same politicians enjoying unlimited access to the public Kitty to fund the YES campaigns are the same ones accusing the church of using DONOR funding in their NO campaigns?
  As they say, Nyani haoni Kundule.Kumekucha

  
  

• Green and Red: Referendum Reduced to Colours

  Posted: May 17, 2010, 8:00 am by Taabu

  
  
  Kivuitu and his defunct ECK made us beat two fruits, oranges and bananas, to pull. And now the interim independent electoral commission (IIEC) has gone a notch higher by giving us GREEN and RED as the colours to hug or kick. And the choices couldn't have been more telling
  
  Green is the universal colour of acceptance. But red is love and danger depending on your take. So is IIEC playing games or they are already irreparably partisan by inadvertently stroking the tension of 2005 back? Either the IIEC is a genius or suffering acute intellectual laziness depending on which side you support.
  
  The colour RED is universally associated with danger. Either the IIEC is giving YES camp the green light or wants NO supporters to see red. Better still IIEC is simply painting Kenyan streets red. IIEC had all the time to come with authentic symbols and their superlative wisdom directed them to the two primary colours.
  
  One only hopes and pray that the busybodies will not take IIEC to court in regard to colour blindness. Wikipedia will tell you most men are colour blind to the two colours.
  
  And oh! MELLOW YELLOW is the intermediate colour separating green from red. Any takers out there?Kumekucha

  
  

• The drama at the Yes and No rallies yesterday

  Posted: May 16, 2010, 5:53 am by kumekucha

  Why is Kumekucha a new fan of Caroline Mutoko?
  
  They say that in politics anything is possible. And this was proved yesterday when the likes of William Ruto enthusiastically shared the very same platform with church folks like the respected Pastor Mark Kariuki of Redeemed Gospel church Nakuru.
  
  Even the extremely unlikely alliance in the UK after the recent general elections, between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats does not compare. By the way for those unfamiliar with UK politics, this would be like Daniel arap Moi returning to politics and forming an alliance with Martha Karua’s Narc Kenya. Or Moi forming a government with the likes of Mwalimu Mati.
  Meanwhile at Uhuru park an equally unlikely alliance of PNU hardliners mixed freely with ODM diehards selling exactly the same message. Admittedly the gathering at Uhuru park evoked poignant memories of the epic National Rainbow coalition (Narc) rally at the same venue in 2002 where Raila Odinga uttered the two words that decided the presidency; “Kibaki Tosha.” So in a way it was not so strange. At least not as strange as the gathering at Mulu Mutisya grounds in Machakos.
  
  In my view the church would have done a lot better campaigning on its’ own rather than having respected church leaders freely brushing shoulders with some of the characters that have caused our beloved Kenya just too much grief in the past. William Ruto and Cyrus Jirongo’s Youth for Kanu 92 (YK92) was responsible for dishing out tons of Kshs 500 notes unleashing unprecedented inflationary pressures which will still affect your great grand children 100 years from now. I think the church has completely lost it this time. For instance in Machakos yesterday a few speakers told blatant lies about the new constitution and the respected church leaders did not stand up to correct the lies or tell their flock the truth. One speaker (A Kamba politician) told the Akamba people that if they voted YES to the constitution all the numerous Kamba people living at the Coast and elsewhere would have to pack their bags and come back home to Machakos.
  
  Church leaders are also putting themselves in a very tricky position bearing in mind the dodgy sources of financing being used in the NO campaign. I am reliably informed that the money proper is yet to come. Hii ni kionjo tuu, mambo bado. Kenyans (including those who are going to vote NO on principal) need to understand a couple of things about those leading the No campaign. They need to be informed even as they vote NO. Without boring you with too much detail, you need to ask yourself when is the last time that Cyrus Jirongo teamed up with William Ruto and what the results were for the Kenyan people. It was in 1992 and I have already told you what happened (and continues to happen). I have a feeling that our fragile economy which is just starting to recover from the post election troubles is going to be hit very hard in the next two months or so as money is literally poured to deny Kenyans the best chance they have had to make good since independence in 1963. Although all the money in the world will not dent the resolve of the Kenyan people, it will certainly affect the economy.
  
  Incidentally something else that I found very interesting happened at Uhuru Park yesterday. The crowd got bored with Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s speech and urged him to finish pronto and take his seat. It is easy to start making accusations and suggestions that somebody organized this or somebody’s supporters wanted to embarrass the VP. But the truth is that the Kenyan public on the ground are a lot wiser than they used to be. Don’t forget that we have been fooled too many times and have these days gotten a lot wiser with the hypocrisy that has been the trade mark of Kenyan politicians. Remember the words of that young Rookie who became president in 1960 called J.F. Kennedy. He said you can fool some people all the time and you can fool others most of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
  
  It is clear that the general mood on the ground is that Kalonzo Musyoka is NOT really settled and comfortable in the YES camp. Indeed William Ruto started his speech in Machakos yesterday by telling the people that he was bringing them greetings from “wiper”. Wiper was the slogan Kalonzo Musyoka used in his presidential campaign of 2007. Ruto then added that there were many in the YES camp who were really in the NO camp. Wow!!!
  
  This brings me to yet another interesting development I have recently noted. My antennae is still very much on the ground and unbelievingly the so-called second draft has had the unexpected reaction of causing a number of “NO” voters to switch camp to the YES side. It is as if they were waiting for a signal that the rich and powerful are truly against the draft constitution to hurl all their doubts out of the window and shift camps to the YES side. In a way this is should not be surprising because the level of poverty in the country is such that there are way too many Kenyans who always wait to see where the sentiments of the rich and powerful really lie for them to take the opposite position. As I have said many times here, if this situation is not checked, the next trouble we will have in Kenya will be the poor looting the homes of the rich.
  
  By the way I still don’t buy Phil’s explanation in his post in this blog alleging that Daniel arap Moi and those in the No camp like William Ruto were responsible for the alterations in some copies of the draft constitution. He finishes his long-winded claim by saying that the culprits cannot be arrested at this time for political reasons. Sorry but I don’t buy that. I believe I am fairly familiar with the operations of the NSIS and have been familiar with those of its’ predecessor the Special branch for many years. I don’t believe that Moi or anybody else other than the president is capable of giving the NSIS orders. And if they are, then we have an even more serious crisis in our hands because my next question would be who is running Kenya? Do we have a defacto president operating from behind the shadows? Quite unlikely. I still stick to my story that the alterations were ordered from the highest authority in the land. As to the motives, only time will tell but if you have read my landmark book Dark secrets of the presidency, you will know of many other bizarre actions ordered by past presidents of the republic of Kenya and executed by the intelligence community that have impacted Kenyans tremendously. So it is nothing really new.
  
  I will end this post by paying glowing tribute to Kiss FM’s Caroline Mutoko. I have not been listening to this radio station for years, but these days I am an avid listener of Mutoko’s breakfast show where she has been regularly digesting the draft constitution for Kenyans. And she does it in an ingenious way. By comparing the current constitution to the draft. For example a recent show compared the current constitution where all executive powers are vested in the presidency with the draft where executive powers are with the people to be exercised by the president (with limitations and checks by parliament).
  
  The point we must all bear in mind is that if you vote NO in the referendum on August 4th you will be saying that the current constitution is better than the draft. Mutoko’s show is clearly giving plenty of evidence that that is not the case. Whatever you do don’t forget that.
  
  In a way I wish we could record the names of all those who will vote NO so that our great grandchildren can be shown one day many years from now those who hindered change. I believe that 200 years from now people will have access to this blog and its’ posts and it will be recorded that Kumekucha and Caroline Mutoko amongst many others not only voted YES but campaigned vigorously for the YES camp and for change in our beloved motherland.
  
  P.S. I have been looking everywhere for a statement from the VP distancing himself from Ruto's remarks in Machakos yesterday that implied he was secretly in the NO camp. By the time I posted this I had yet to find one. Take careful note my brothers and sisters and don't be fooled by what you hear politicians say. Not even Kibaki or Raila. Politics is the art of lying convincingly in broad daylight.Kumekucha

  
  

• The drama at the Yes and No rallies yesterday

  Posted: May 16, 2010, 5:53 am by kumekucha

  Why is Kumekucha a new fan of Caroline Mutoko?
  
  They say that in politics anything is possible. And this was proved yesterday when the likes of William Ruto enthusiastically shared the very same platform with church folks like the respected Pastor Mark Kariuki of Redeemed Gospel church Nakuru.
  
  Even the extremely unlikely alliance in the UK after the recent general elections, between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats does not compare. By the way for those unfamiliar with UK politics, this would be like Daniel arap Moi returning to politics and forming an alliance with Martha Karua’s Narc Kenya. Or Moi forming a government with the likes of Mwalimu Mati.
  Meanwhile at Uhuru park an equally unlikely alliance of PNU hardliners mixed freely with ODM diehards selling exactly the same message. Admittedly the gathering at Uhuru park evoked poignant memories of the epic National Rainbow coalition (Narc) rally at the same venue in 1992 where Raila Odinga uttered the two words that decided the presidency; “Kibaki Tosha.” So in a way it was not so strange. At least not as strange as the gathering at Mulu Mutisya grounds in Machakos.
  
  In my view the church would have done a lot better campaigning on its’ own rather than having respected church leaders freely brushing shoulders with some of the characters that have caused our beloved Kenya just too much grief in the past. William Ruto and Cyrus Jirongo’s Youth for Kanu 92 (YK92) was responsible for dishing out tons of Kshs 500 notes unleashing unprecedented inflationary pressures which will still affect your great grand children 100 years from now. I think the church has completely lost it this time. For instance in Machakos yesterday a few speakers told blatant lies about the new constitution and the respected church leaders did not stand up to correct the lies or tell their flock the truth. One speaker (A Kamba politician) told the Akamba people that if they voted YES to the constitution all the numerous Kamba people living at the Coast and elsewhere would have to pack their bags and come back home to Machakos.
  
  Church leaders are also putting themselves in a very tricky position bearing in mind the dodgy sources of financing being used in the NO campaign. I am reliably informed that the money proper is yet to come. Hii ni kionjo tuu, mambo bado. Kenyans (including those who are going to vote NO on principal) need to understand a couple of things about those leading the No campaign. They need to be informed even as they vote NO. Without boring you with too much detail, you need to ask yourself when is the last time that Cyrus Jirongo teamed up with William Ruto and what the results were for the Kenyan people. It was in 1992 and I have already told you what happened (and continues to happen). I have a feeling that our fragile economy which is just starting to recover from the post election troubles is going to be hit very hard in the next two months or so as money is literally poured to deny Kenyans the best chance they have had to make good since independence in 1963. Although all the money in the world will not dent the resolve of the Kenyan people, it will certainly affect the economy.
  
  Incidentally something else that I found very interesting happened at Uhuru Park yesterday. The crowd got bored with Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s speech and urged him to finish pronto and take his seat. It is easy to start making accusations and suggestions that somebody organized this or somebody’s supporters wanted to embarrass the VP. But the truth is that the Kenyan public on the ground are a lot wiser than they used to be. Don’t forget that we have been fooled too many times and have these days gotten a lot wiser with the hypocrisy that has been the trade mark of Kenyan politicians. Remember the words of that young Rookie who became president in 1960 called J.F. Kennedy. He said you can fool some people all the time and you can fool others most of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
  
  It is clear that the general mood on the ground is that Kalonzo Musyoka is NOT really settled and comfortable in the YES camp. Indeed William Ruto started his speech in Machakos yesterday by telling the people that he was bringing them greetings from “wiper”. Wiper was the slogan Kalonzo Musyoka used in his presidential campaign of 2007. Ruto then added that there were many in the YES camp who were really in the NO camp. Wow!!!
  
  This brings me to yet another interesting development I have recently noted. My antennae is still very much on the ground and unbelievingly the so-called second draft has had the unexpected reaction of causing a number of “NO” voters to switch camp to the YES side. It is as if they were waiting for a signal that the rich and powerful are truly against the draft constitution to hurl all their doubts out of the window and shift camps to the YES side. In a way this is should not be surprising because the level of poverty in the country is such that there are way too many Kenyans who always wait to see where the sentiments of the rich and powerful really lie for them to take the opposite position. As I have said many times here, if this situation is not checked, the next trouble we will have in Kenya will be the poor looting the homes of the rich.
  
  By the way I still don’t buy Phil’s explanation in his post in this blog alleging that Daniel arap Moi and those in the No camp like William Ruto were responsible for the alterations in some copies of the draft constitution. He finishes his long-winded claim by saying that the culprits cannot be arrested at this time for political reasons. Sorry but I don’t buy that. I believe I am fairly familiar with the operations of the NSIS and have been familiar with those of its’ predecessor the Special branch for many years. I don’t believe that Moi or anybody else other than the president is capable of giving the NSIS orders. And if they are, then we have an even more serious crisis in our hands because my next question would be who is running Kenya? Do we have a defacto president operating from behind the shadows? Quite unlikely. I still stick to my story that the alterations were ordered from the highest authority in the land. As to the motives, only time will tell but if you have read my landmark book Dark secrets of the presidency, you will know of many other bizarre actions ordered by past presidents of the republic of Kenya and executed by the intelligence community that have impacted Kenyans tremendously. So it is nothing really new.
  
  I will end this post by paying glowing tribute to Kiss FM’s Caroline Mutoko. I have not been listening to this radio station for years, but these days I am an avid listener of Mutoko’s breakfast show where she has been regularly digesting the draft constitution for Kenyans. And she does it in an ingenious way. By comparing the current constitution to the draft. For example a recent show compared the current constitution where all executive powers are vested in the presidency with the draft where executive powers are with the people to be exercised by the president (with limitations and checks by parliament).
  
  The point we must all bear in mind is that if you vote NO in the referendum on August 4th you will be saying that the current constitution is better than the draft. Mutoko’s show is clearly giving plenty of evidence that that is not the case. Whatever you do don’t forget that.
  
  In a way I wish we could record the names of all those who will vote NO so that our great grandchildren can be shown one day many years from now those who hindered change. I believe that 200 years from now people will have access to this blog and its’ posts and it will be recorded that Kumekucha and Caroline Mutoko amongst many others not only voted YES but campaigned vigorously for the YES camp and for change in our beloved motherland.
  
  P.S. I have been looking everywhere for a statement from the VP distancing himself from Ruto's remarks in Machakos yesterday that implied he was secretly in the NO camp. By the time I posted this I had yet to find one. Take careful note my brothers and sisters and don't be fooled by what you hear politicians say. Not even Kibaki or Raila. Politics is the art of lying convincingly in broad daylight.Kumekucha

  
  

• Advertiser's Announcement

  Posted: May 15, 2010, 2:38 pm by luke

  
  
  Fellow Kenyans,
  
  frustrated by powerful unchecked moribund presidency?
  
  sick of bloated expensive cabinets?
  
  angered at inability to recall ineffective unproductive loudmouth MPs?
  
  tired of countyless regions and essential services being far from you?
  
  unamused by televised city council wrestling matches?
  
  disillusioned with centralised decision making?
  
  fed up with trampling by state of your human rights?
  
  unsatisfied with your ability to demonstrate haki yetu peacefully without police brutality?
  
  disgusted with run away institutionalised rampant corruption?
  
  unhappy with ineffective prime ministers?
  
  troubled with past decisions made by President Kenyatta/Moi?
  
  Then vote YES for the draft constitution on August 4th 2010!
  
  YES-You Excel Successfully
  
  This Announcement has been paid for by the friends and supporters of the YES campaignKumekucha

  
  

• REFERENDUM: Is the YES Camp Underestimating the NO Camp?

  Posted: May 14, 2010, 5:36 am by Phil

  A random survey at Machakos Airport, KENCOM/Ambassador Square, Gikomba/Toi and Kawangware markets plus other notorious hotspots in Nairobi this week reveals that the current wet weather appears not to be a threat towards getting Kenyans attend tomorrows YES rally in large numbers. Many people have vowed to attend whether it rains cats and dogs. It is possible a million man march may be seen in Uhuru Park tomorrow. That is how important young Kenyans view the reform battle.
  
  Even the IIEC has surpassed its own target of registering 10million voters. They have so far registered 12.5million voters, and still counting as the e-voters are still getting registered in select constituencies including ODM nerve-centre in Nairobi, Langata constituency.
  
  In my view, the bigger threat to the constitutional reform (not just the YES rally only) is the resolve by the NO camp to use whatever method they will to win this political war (read referendum). Powerful and very rich unseen forces are sponsoring the NO camp, whose political face is William Ruto, Cyrus Jirongo and most of those misguided ODM and ODM-K Mps from Rift Valley and Eastern provinces. Apart from guerrilla tactics, the NO camp is sparing no efforts and are employing under hand methods, fear-mongering, propaganda and incitement to achieve their goals.
  
  The first shocker was when Amos Wako was accused of producing two drafts. Contrary to allegations published earlier that the NSIS were involved, this move was actually clinically conducted by the NO camp. The extensive networks established by former president Arap Moi during his 24 year tyranny still exist in the civil service, the provincial administration and security apparatus. You underestimate Arap Moi’s KANU machinery at your own peril.
  
  William Ruto should stop fooling Kenyans on the two drafts. He knows precisely where the second draft came from. In case many of you have forgotten, Ruto was once an Assistant Minister at OP (in charge of Government Press) during which time he employed a Mr Simotwo ( current MD of his insurance firm AMACO) as Under Secretary in charge of Government Press! Ruto has used his own network in the abortive attempt at subverting the review process by printing a fake draft and thereby setting the stage for confusion that would make it easier for a court ruling to halt the review process.
  
  Interestingly, and believe it or not, two of Ruto’s surrogates are already in court contesting the referendum question alleging that the questions released yesterday are infringing their rights to freedom of expression which is enshrined in the current constitution. As you can see at that link, depending on how the judge views the argument, a stupid lawsuit like this can actually put the brakes on the whole referendum process, and return Kenya’s protracted reform struggle back to square one!
  
  The NSIS know who the culprit is and have given the information to the relevant authorities. You can take take to the bank. However, the fact that Ruto is currently a pawn in the explosive grand coalition politics chess game as well as that the delicate referendum is Kenya's last card for peace or for civil war, all these factors make it impossible to take the culprit out. But believe you me, Ruto is a marked man.
  
  As a matter of fact, Ruto and Simotwo are currently running Salanic Printers in Eldoret, a firm suspected of printing leaflets in North Rift warning ‘outsiders’ to move away from the area ostensibly because North Rift is not their ancestral land. During the duos tenure at OP, they vandalised Government Press just as they did KTMT (Kenya Times). One does not need to be a rocket scientist to figure out where hundreds of NO paper caps, posters and other printed stuff came from during the NO crusade at Uhuru Park, which first begun as a prayer meeting before being hijacked by the political class.
  
  As if all this is not enough, today no less a person than president Kibaki, his V-P Kalonzo and Local Government Minister Mudavadi were thoroughly embarrassed in front of media cameras by councillors who chanted NO! and PESA! at a meeting called to educate them on the need to support the Katiba. Kibaki struggled to control his anger, but the damage had already been done. NO campers must be rolling on the floor with laughter.
  
  Apparently, Ruto and some NO side MPs had already met the councillors last night and poisoned their minds (read bribed them). They asked the councillors to demand for a payrise and also protest their long neglect by the national government. The trick worked. The councillors even rejected an impromtu payrise announced by Mudavadi of Kshs. 5,000/-. It did not occur to the YES strategist (currently operating from Muthaura’s office in Harambbe House) that upcountry councillors in the city would be vulnerable to being poisoned by political forces just as political party delegates attending NDC meetings. I wonder why the ODM cannot take charge of these arrangements!!! Is it because it is currently being seen as a presidential function? Perhaps even more importantly, both camps had received intelligence that the councillors would behave the way they did this morning. Is this the reason the sly PM kept away and let Kibaki feel the heat from grassroot leaders? He normally would not miss a prominent political stage as this and the fact remains ODM councillors were the majority at this meeting.
  
  Time will tell, especially tomorrow when the compromised councillors are expected to be outnumbered by hundreds of youth currently making their way from all over Kenya to Nairobi to attend the inaugural YES rally. Security will be tight given the president is expected to be in attendance together with the PM and the VP and other prominent persons.
  
  Looking at all the propaganda coming from the No side, especially the lies on the LAND and ABORTION clauses, it is clear that the NO side wants to use propaganda to get as much support to No side as possible.
  
  The unfortunate thing is that the campaigns for the referendum have not officially started and events of this week are already raising temperatures, prompting the YES organisers to carefully vet individuals who will be allowed to address the gathering without stoking passions.
  
  Whichever way you look at it, the NO side means business and they have the money. The YES side, which has brought back strange bedfellows PNU and ODM into one camp, have yet to get their house in order. Allowing PNU’s Muthaura to head the YES secretariat is suicide. ODM, of all people should know this. Defeating impunity and reforming this country was never going to be child’s play. 30 years and counting. Jaramogi, Anyona, JM, et al (RIP) must be turning in their graves.Kumekucha

  
  

• Kibaki ordered changes to draft constitution

  Posted: May 14, 2010, 5:35 am by Chris

  AG Amos Wako has always been a very careful man. But recently the pressure was so much that he was forced to name names. By doing so he has put the executive on the spot and probably saved Kenyans from a lot of grief.
  
  Folks, judging by how the government has reacted to some very serious allegations, it is more evidence that the changes made in the draft constitution at the government printers were ordered by President Kibaki himself. This is hardly surprising when you consider that the NSIS cannot do anything without executive approval, more so if that particular thing is illegal. (Sadly these kind of executive games happen all over the world with spy agencies. Remember the recent case where Mossad assassinated somebody in a Dubai hotel?)
  
  If anybody else were responsible the NSIS officers who approached Wako to make changes and he declined have already committed a criminal offence and should be arrested immediately. Those less naïve Kenyans know that this will never happen. Instead fraud squads and all kinds of smoke screens have been put in place (if they had their way yet another commission of enquiry would have been appointed to investigate the matter).
  
  And yet it should be an open and shut case. If the altered document had been printed in River Road that would be a different matter. But the fact is that it was printed at the Government press. Who has access to the government press? ONLY the government of the republic of Kenya and the messenger in this case was from the NSIS, and so it is crystal clear where the order came from.
  
  We brought out the champagne way too early my dear fellow reform-minded Kenyans. We forgot about the powerful and terribly wealthy anti-reformists. These guys will do anything. And I mean ANYTHING, to ensure that the new constitution is NEVER passed.
  You see as I have said here many times before, the new constitution is NOT about Kadhis courts or abortion as some of our extremely naïve brothers and sisters have been fooled into believing. That explosive document is about changing the status quo and way of life of the filthy rich and influential in Kenya.
  
  Indeed William Ruto’s “No” campaign needs to be looked at in new light. For those who look to make money during political campaigns, kindly note that the money is not going to be in the YES camp. It is in the NO camp and the sly Ruto may just have found the perfect way to raise funds for his 2012 campaigns. Just watch and see the kind of money these guys will pour to defeat the new constitution.
  
  So what is Mwai Kibaki’s motive this time? Could it be that he is under considerable pressure from those who own Kenya and will lose grip with the passing of the new constitution? I am currently digging around in search of the answer to that question.
  
  P.S. President Kenyatta played similar “executive games” in the late 60s when he at one point heavily financed both the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga camp and the Mboya camp within Kanu. He was of course with the Mboya camp but did not want the Odinga camp to know what was happening. And so Kibaki is not the first Kenyan president to publicly support something and secretly route for something else. My book Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency talks about aspects of the Kibaki character and presidency that many Kenyans have never known. I will be distributing a summary of the book and a number of chapters from the book for free to Kumekucha readers only. Get it by subscribing to my list for the book. Simple send an email now to; Dark-secrets-kenyan-presidency-subscribe@yahoogroups.comKumekucha

  
  

• EPZs and Modern Slavery: Who Shall Tell Wanjiku the Ugly Truth - Part II

  Posted: May 13, 2010, 2:04 pm by Phil

  By Mwarang'ethe
  
  Continued... But, what makes USA such a high cost nation which forces the industry out? The natural cost of a product is dependent on land rent, wages plus taxes, regulatory costs and profits. On may 1 2010, the DN reported this. "Revealed: How Kenya lost Sh700m in embassy land deal". Ignoring all other juicy stuff, let us focus on this statement. "On February 10, 2009, a valuation report by Teresia Kimondiu of the Ministry of Lands put the value of the land on which Kenya’s mission stands at Sh1.392 billion and the buildings at Sh129 million". Mark you, this after the land speculation disaster of the late 1980's which made Tokyo land more valuable than all of the real estate in the USA. We can see that, the land rent is almost 10 times the value of the bricks and mortars. So, who pockets this rent? The land lord (read land devil). Has he toiled so as to demand this tax from investors and workers? No. It is to afford this private rent the worker in Japan must be paid very highly which makes him unable to compete with Haitian worker. Consequently, so, as to avoid this private taxation, the investor moves his manufacturing to Haiti. It is for this reason, Singapore, whose land tenure is according to the natural law, is the magnet for capital from Japan, USA, Germany etc. (see Esau and Jacob Story at James Gichuru Road.
  
  Likewise, in the USA, this offshore guy contracts a marketing company to sell the baseball in the rich American market. Just like the Haiti manufacturer, the American marketer is tasked to do the very least. As a result, the American marketer gets little payment as well. However, if the USA, UK governments collects VAT, it makes a lot of money when the sellers sell expensively stuff that costs cents to make in Kenya or Haiti. More so, since the UK government is a beneficiary of these arrangements via VAT, they can come around and fund the free education programme for children of the EPZ's worker. What a cruel deception is this?
  
  So, we can see that, in this triangle, only a few guys sitting in the offshore who get over 80% of wealth produced are benefiting in the so called globalisation because via these complicated arrangements since these offshore guy pockets around 80% of the $ 15. If you have been asking why the top 1% dogs in the USA now control over 55% of wealth, the formula is here. In 1995, the Gap sold shirts "made in El Salvador" at $ 20 with El Salvadoran slave getting $ 18 cents. When the El Salvadorian slaves tried to ask for more in commensurate with their humanity, the Asian slaves called Gap.
  
  The story does not end here though. In the USA, when a manufacturer moves to Haiti, he must sack some American workers. Simply, this is economic insanity of capital destroying capital. When they lose jobs, they either remain jobless or get other low paying so called service jobs of washing each other dogs, massaging each other and may be prostitution. For others who have jobs, wages must remain stagnant which has been the case since 1973 as Greenspan, the high priest at the FED confirmed at the "boom" time of Mr Clinton. This is nothing new though. The more slaves Roman Empire soldiers brought to Rome as prisoners of war, the more wages fell and more difficult it became to find work for “free citizens.” Who said history does not repeat itself?
  
  To keep up with rising cost of living (remember that question of energy, money capture for speculation at the source which brings inflation?), the American worker has been forced to go into debts to buy the baseball, jeans etc from 3rd world. However, now, the American worker finds himself committing much of his income to debts given by the same bankers who finance outsourcing such that, he cannot consumer industrial goods. When this happens, the whole ponzi scheme collapses and these debts gets transferred to the already tired taxpayers in the name of public debt as we see now in the USA, Europe and elsewhere. What is interesting is that, the money given to these bankers is loaned again to the government at interest. In this scheme, we have witnessed the GREATEST TRANSFER of wealth in human history from the poor to the rich. In Britain, the 1,000 super-rich saw their wealth increase by one-third – or £77 billion – to a total £334 billion during 2009 alone. In other words, Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s £1,000 billion stimulus package all it achieved was stimulating the assets of the already wealthy. Translated, this is socialism for the rich, free markets for the vanquished masses.
  
  As the Americans capacity to consume evaporates, some workers in the EPZ's must lose jobs. For those who are lucky to retain jobs, they must compete, i.e. further lower their wages to get the few jobs available. And, since our governments must pay their dollar loans which they take to buy local stones or create jobs for the restless young men, they must create more special trace zones to facilitate export of new clothes so as to import mitumba later. How can we call these free markets when the power of the state is used to vanquish workers? We are back to the age of mercantilism.
  
  When all this is going, the American worker cannot see the reality because he spends more time in the shiny shopping temples of godless capitalism buying jeans and ipods to stick in his ears to drown his sorrows. Nothing new here once again. As the Roman Empire collapsed, the Roman citizens had a lot of bread and entertainment. By the time the masses woke up, around 1800 men were holding the wealth of the whole world as the world plunged into Dark Ages. After all, the Havard economist/priest preaches daily on the BBC, Fox News that, this is the most efficient way of conducting our affairs. In this "efficient" way of doing things, we sack the American worker and we transfer his work to a Haitian. In other words, we have capital destroying capital. However, since the Haitian worker has no need for pension, health care or education for his kids, which the American worker would have been paid, the guys sitting in Switzerland pockets the difference.
  
  With a straight face, the pocketing of what in front of man and God and in justice and in equity belongs to the poor workers, they call this profit. That’s why the Forbes Magazine can announce to the mesmerised humanity how many billionaires we have created in the last two- three decades. Using these "profits" these evil men who eat bread of sorrow start speculating in stocks, commodities such as oil, food (as you talk about debe, another food crisis is on the way by the way) and land. In the midst of such orgy of speculation which completely neglects and destroys the real economy, the G7/8, World Economic Forum and other such useless gatherings where a few of African leaders are invited to add the dark colour, they announce to the struggling masses that, "we have high sustainable economic growth." We have read the same nonsense on this blog. Never mind that, we are wasting valuable energy as we noted here, to transport toys from China to the USA. But, who cares, the new technology is around the corner to enable the continuation of this economic insanity.
  
  In the midst of this madness and ECONOMIC GENOCIDE, we are assured that, with the new constitution combined with Vision 2030, we will be a wealthy nation soon. For every reality, there is a fantasy. Let us investigate these claims. Let us recall the division of labour we mentioned above. In this sense, the productive activities that can make a nation wealthy must meet two tests. (a) Such activities should lead to production of valuable tangible/intangible stuff. (b) Such activities should be surplus generating economic activities that can be made available for future re- investment. Ignoring the distribution aspect of this surplus for the moment, we can say that, since our economic activities do not meet test (b), in other words, we specialise in unproductive economic activities (special EPZ's and coffee growing - Malthusian activities) we are going NOWHERE.
  
  Furthermore, even if there is some little surplus revenue for re- investment we also have a major problem of its distribution. Under the private land ownership (absolute title to land), land absorbs almost all of the surplus revenue in form of rent. In addition to this, we have piratical monetary system that also extracts a very large portion of the surplus revenue from our economy. This extraction of wealth by the idle class is at the expense of the class that create real wealth. This class is composed of the labour and the real economy/industrial/agriculture economy. Once the industrialist/farmer who creates commodities we need and exchange with each other is starved of revenue for future investments, it follows that, there are no jobs for the labour. And even if there are jobs, so as to meet the unjust demands of land owners and the financial capitalists, the wages must be low as we see in the EPZ’s. Low wages cannot create an environment for industrialists to invest.
  
  So, if this is the condition of our economy and the “new constitution” has not fixed it, how do you meet the economic and social rights as well as devolution demands? With all honesty, it is impossible to meet these demands. To believe otherwise, is to be stupid for it amounts to asking the question without bothering to answer it. We say it again. We are going NOWHERE until our Constitutions, Vision 2030's are constructed with this reality in the mind and not delusions and wild fantasies. Cheki vile huyu supuu wetu anacheka akisoma mambo ya economic and social rights.
  
  Let us make some issue absolutely very clear. No form of government including so called welfare state can create wealth. All these systems of government do is to redistribute wealth. However, redistribution is not creation of wealth. It only shuffles wealth around from its most economically suitable uses toward purposes that serve the needs of the political class. If any property is forcibly made to serve anything other than its first most suitable purpose, its value is reduced. When it is channeled into purposes that serve the interest of the state, it is done at the cost of freedom as well. Now, we have crafted the economic and social rights. Fine, but, let us think through these delusions.
  
  In introducing economic and social rights all we are saying is that, all should be wealthy for to have a decent house is being wealthy. We have also devolved some funds to the local areas. We are 100% in favour of devolution. But, it must be done in a more thoughtful manner. This calls for two things for sure. Massive taxation and debt pyramid. For the moment, don’t mind that, taxation and debt (public curse) are inimical to wealth creation. At the same time, we know this. Prosperity that will be taxed to build decent houses does not depend on having a saintly president or devolution, but, well thought out economic structures of a nation. If this is so, have we created the necessary economic structures? We have answered this question with emphatic No. If so, how do you provide decent houses? It is a delusion.
  We know that, fools love their calamity and they call their prophets lunatics. Nevertheless, we must give you a stern warning. We are giving thee, a hint of the past and the future that awaits us or even better, which is with us. In 1770, the East Indian Company starved 10 million Indians in a cruel famine made worse by the company's hoarding of limited grain stocks and its decision to raise the rate of taxation to maintain its revenues. With London (read Kenya/Africa) facing financial difficulties, it had to get bailout from this monster. This meant the government takeover by this monster of a company. It was in horror of things to come when in 1773, one American in the America colonies warned that: "America is faced with the most powerful trading company in the universe, an institution well versed in tyranny, plunder, oppression and bloodshed." And, whose tea was dumped in Boston in 1773 at the start of the American Revolution? It was this monster's tea.
  
  If the average Joe in America was not spending all his time in the shopping temples, buying with borrowed money "cheap" stuff, he would have saved the humanity by dumping the jeans from special Athi River EPZ's into the Boston sea. Unfortunately, if the Western average citizen is not in the shopping temples, he is watching the American idol; Britain has Talent and Desperate Housewives. Consequently, he cannot hear the trumpet warning of the coming economic strangulation issued by the gods of money at the IMF. The Fund has calculated that almost all advanced economies need to tighten fiscal policy (increase poverty) significantly in the coming decade in order to stabilise debt at 60 per cent of national income by 2030 and the tightening needed in the US, Japan and the UK is just as bad as that required in Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal. In other words, Greece is the opening short of coming feudalism for we are back to the past. This we see in the FT "Dangers loom beyond eurozone.
  
  From this, we see that, the American independence was sparked as much by hostility to corporate monopoly which included money monopoly as it was to taxation without representation. Are we today not dominated by modern corporate monopolies which are nothing but the East Indian Company? Doesn't the Kibaki/Raila/Kalonzo, Uhuru, Musalia, Obama’s government constitute taxation without representation (read taxation with impoverishment)? Therefore, since the conditions that fuelled the American Revolution have been met, let us perpetuate an honest indignation against these enemies of mankind.
  
  Humanity is at crossroad for financial capitalism has killed its host, i.e. industrial capitalism/real free economy. If the ongoing economic collapse is not handled with appropriate wisdom which unfortunately Nero, oh, no, Obama has completely failed to show, it will plunge humanity in to a deadly 3 World War. The consequences will be too devastating to contemplate with so many nations armed with nuclear weapons. Just watch how the Euro zone is now jumping from the Titanic ship to Lusitania ship. There is nothing new here because; we saw these same games in the 3rd century after Christ with the monetary collapse of the Roman Empire.
  
  In these uncertain times, there is too much to say, but, let us end with the wisdom of Martin Luther King who said, that, it comes a time when silence is betrayal. Time has come for men and women of goodwill to be maladjusted to an economic system that takes the necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few as Martin Luther said. See his speech here.
  
  While at it bear in mind two very important things:
  
  (a) The fight against Moi, Kibaki, Raila, and Mbeki is all in vain. What we have in place is an Invisible Government of Monetary Power which is worse than monarchical power for it is well versed in tyranny, plunder, oppression and bloodshed. Moi, Kibaki, Raila’s are mere figure heads. In other words, politics and political analysis dominated by personality analysis is a total waste of time and energy which only leads to frustrations.
  
  (b) How is your wealth portfolio? Do you own fictitious wealth (stocks, derivatives, inflated land/houses in London, New York, Nairobi) or real wealth (food, fuel, timber, cows etc).
  
  You can't educate us
  For no equal opportunity
  (Talkin' 'bout my freedom) Talkin' 'bout my freedom,
  People freedom (freedom) and liberty!
  Yeah, we've been trodding on the winepress much too long:
  Rebel, rebel!
  
  Babylon system is the vampire,
  Me say: de Babylon system is the vampire, falling empire
  Suckin' the blood of the sufferers
  
  Building church and university,
  Deceiving the people continually
  Me say them graduatin' thieves and murderers
  Look out now: they suckin' the blood of the sufferers
  
  Tell the children the truth
  we've been taken for granted much too long
  Now we know everything we got to rebel
  Somebody got to pay for the work
  We've done, rebel.
  
  By the late Bob N. Marley
  Kumekucha

  
  

• Shocker: Could this be the person behind the illegal changes in the draft constitution?

  Posted: May 13, 2010, 2:03 pm by Chris

  Who does this man report to?
  
  What do bank robbers do when they want to rob a well-guarded bank? They divert attention from their target. They could for instance start a fire in a nearby building so that when everybody’s attention is diverted they go about their mission. About three years ago I was in Mombasa during the annual Diwali celebrations where lots of fireworks explode in the night sky. Some robbers robbed a night club right next to the Mombasa Sports club and they actually went in when the fireworks were loudest. So when they fired into the air to scare patrons. People nearby assumed it was all part of the fireworks.
  
  Methinks that somebody is trying to pull off a similar move with the draft constitution and as usual Kenyans have fallen for the bait and ignored the really important issues.
  
  So somebody sneaked in two words into the draft constitution. Legally that sentence is NOT correct. Actually what happened is that somebody produced an illegal version of the draft constitution. The law is clear. The only legal draft is the one produced by the COE, approved by parliament and published by the AG. In other words you can go ahead and produce 100 different versions of the draft constitution and it will not matter, except that those producing the different versions will be breaking the law.
  
  So the questions Kenya should be asking is not how the latest move removed credibility from the draft constitution. Instead the questions we should be asking in order of importance are;
  
  1. What was the motive of the person or person who did this?
  2. The AG already has a suspect in the form of the NSIS so who gives the NSIS orders? In other words who do they report to?
  3. Will the person who has thrown this spanner into the works succeed?
  
  Let us try to answer these questions.
  
  Could the motive have been to sneak in those changes in to the final draft approved by Kenyans? Although this is possible assuming that the NSIS are the guilty party you would also need to assume that they are idiots. This is because it would have been obvious that such a move would NOT have gone undetected. Not in today’s Kenya. We all know that the NSIS are many things but they are certainly NOT stupid. Admittedly our intelligence services like many others in the world have always had a history of coming up with very crazy schemes that are doomed to failure long before they leave the drawing boards. Still it is highly unlikely that this was the motive.
  
  The more likely motive would have been to take away steam from the YES camp and somehow throw a spanner in the works as a first step to halting the new constitution. When you look around at the people who would love to stop the new constitution, this option becomes even more plausible. Family fortunes are going to be wiped out, family political careers brought to a ruthlessly rude end etc.
  
  So who gives the NSIS its’ orders? The answer to that question throws in even more confusion into this bizarre development. NSIS takes orders from one person and only one person and that is the president of the republic of Kenya. Indeed it would NOT make sense for the NSIS to approach the AG without the blessings of the president. So the question now is, is the president playing games? Those who are familiar with the Kibaki administration will argue that the president has delegated part of the task of liaising with the NSIS to one of his cabinet ministers. That minister has been for a long time John Michuki (and not George Saitoti, interestingly). We know that despite his strengths, Michuki is old school and is capable of getting a fit just thinking about the kind of new Kenya that will dawn with the new constitution. Especially where matters of state security (whatever that means) are concerned. Still the question is, would a minister act on their own in this way without approval from the president. That is highly unlikely.
  
  The last question is crucial. Will the person behind this mischief (whoever they are) succeed? Based on what I have seen on the ground the answer to that question is a resounding NO. What many old school chaps still can’t see is that this is a very different Kenya. Just ask the marketing department of any major company and they will tell you that they are mostly grappling to understand a market that has changed and continues to change too rapidly. Politically the writing is on the wall in bold. Kenyans are sick and tired of the old order and they will do anything, including selling their own souls to bring about change. Already the price that has been paid is colossal, so Kenyans have really put absolutely everything they have and more into the card called change. This focus is good and is probably what will save Kenya. Let us not forget that change is always resisted and the people resisting change in Kenya are pretty powerful. Fortunately stopping change this time will be a Herculean task.
  
  The cheeky alteration in the draft constitution also brings out something else that is well worth noting. The minimal reforms that have gradually seeped into the country ever since the repel of the notorious section 2a in 1991 (allowing the re-introduction of a multi-party democracy) that was the beginning of the end of the Kanu monopoly on Kenyan politics hit the security forces in the country most. The intelligence community was at the top of that list. For many years the then Special branch was virtually above the law. They could pick up anybody and detain them endlessly and even make them disappear forever and there was very little anybody could do about it. This was an efficient way of dealing with threats without too much thinking. The truth is that our intelligence community has been struggling to find a new footing. The feeling amongst many within NSIS is that they have completely lost grip on things and when the draft constitution is passed, it will just make matters a lot worse.
  
  My personal view is that minimal changes are sometimes much more difficult to operate under than the kind of sweeping changes that a totally new constitution will bring. The truth of the matter is that our spooks will now have to operate according to International standards. Admittedly the problems they have already had a taste of are the very same problems that have faced Mi5, Mossad, the CIA and others for decades now. They just need to put their thinking caps on and change tact.
  
  In this entire saga one question remains at the top of my mind. Was AG Amos Wako aware of what he was implying when he named the NSIS as suspects in introducing the National security clause into the constitution? The NSIS is NOT the police or any other department. In fact the best way to describe the department is the president’s personal police. So Wako is telling Kenyans that the president’s personal police approached him and “ordered him” to make changes. Wow!!!
  
  My book Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency details some of the dirtiest presidential secrets involving the intelligence community under Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki. I will be distributing a summary of the book and a number of chapters from the book for free to Kumekucha readers only. Get it by subscribing to my list for the book. Simple send an email now to; Dark-secrets-kenyan-presidency-subscribe@yahoogroups.comKumekucha

  
  

• Karanja Gatiba’s sudden death: Could there be foul play?

  Posted: May 11, 2010, 4:04 am by kumekucha

  Kumekucha Exclusive
  
  Even as we await the results of the post mortem carried out by the government pathologist on the late CID chief, Gatiba Karanja investigations by Kumekucha have unearthed some interesting information.
  
  Gatiba was the first CID chief in Kenya to die while still in office and this has raised a lot of speculation and suspicion amongst many. Some Kumekucha writers have even suggested that the man was a threat to the powers that be. This suggestion is laughable when you consider the facts.
  
  Gatiba Karanja was such a stooge and he was a mere figure-head in CID that he “virtually disappeared” while in office and very few people were even aware of who the CID chief was. This is in sharp contrast to some of his very high profile predecessors.
  
  Part of the reason for this is President Kibaki’s management style where he deals directly with the police commissioner and has no time for his underlings like the CID chief. President Moi in sharp contrast always had a very close working relationship with his CID chief so much so that many times when he fired the police commissioner, the CID chief would always remain in office. It is highly unlikely that Gatiba met Kibaki in person more than once. His predecessor Joseph Kamau met Kibaki only twice and they never had a single telephone conversation during his entire time in office.
  
  If there was anybody to be eliminated in connection to the post election violence troubles then it can only be people like Maj Gen Ali who still hold many of Kibaki’s dark secrets.
  
  So what may have caused Gatiba’s sudden death? Investigations by this blogger reveal that the former CID chief has been dogged by poor health for a number of years now. One of his main ailments has been high blood pressure. Despite this problem, those close to him have revealed some very disturbing news. That Gatiba was using some sexual performance enhacing drugs like Viagra and others to help with erectile dysfunction problems that are usually common with men who reach his age. He was 56 years old. Using these kind of drugs when one has high blood pressure is usually extremely dangerous and can easily lead to a heart attack. To make matters worse the late Gatiba had two wives.
  
  Interestingly the first reports on his death indicated that when he was woken up in the morning he failed to wake up. A heart attack in the night before could have been the cause of death in such a scenario. Strangely this initial report was later changed to state that he developed breathing problems in the morning and was then rushed to hospital.
  
  It is important to remember that nothing conclusive can be stated at this point about his cause of death until we have the results of the post mortem which are expected to be released today. My sources on the ground have assured me that I will have the report as soon as it is released to the press. But at this point the information I have seems to rule out any possibility of foul play.Kumekucha

  
  

• EPZs and Modern Slavery: Who Shall Tell Wanjiku the Ugly Truth - Part I

  Posted: May 10, 2010, 2:01 pm by Phil

  By Mwarang'ethe
  
  On 15 January, 1759, Voltaire started distributing his book, Candide or Optimism. It was a chronicle of journey of young Candide who had left home involuntarily (like the African Diaspora) to experience the world he had been taught by the wise professor Pangloss, he the teacher of 'meta-physico-theologico-cosmo-codology, believed to be "best of all possible worlds." Instead of finding wondrous world that professor Pangloss had taught him, he encountered a murderous world of poverty, marauding armies, religious wars in a world where his fiancé, the lovely Cunegonde was cut open by soldiers after they had raped her before selling her into slavery. All while, Pangloss continued to preach that, this was the 'best of all possible worlds.' This led Candide to inquire, 'if this is the best of all possible worlds, then what the others must be like?' Through this book, he sought to emancipate Europe from the mental slavery imposed by wise professor Pangloss.
  
  Likewise, today, the managers of the "global political economy" are in the grip of a similar and very disastrous optimism of the "globalisation" of the economy. This calls for an urgent need to emancipate the masses from today's Panglossian economic theory which is based on arbitrary assumptions and metaphors from physics and astronomy. No doubt, we have all heard the benefits of the so called globalization. In this article, we shall lay bare the real meaning of so called globalization in a way that many will be shocked. The reader will be left with no doubt that, slavery that we are taught was abolished is thriving in the 21st Century and more so, in our own nation.
  
  Let us begin with what is familiar. The first is the NTV's video on Kenya, entitled "Taxation Burden". In this video, a number of things are to be noted. There is Mr Atwoli crying for more pay, the Kenyan women who we are told will be emancipated by the Affirmative Action provided in the new constitution toiling at our Export Promotion Zones (EPZ’s) where they make clothes for the children of a higher god on slavery wages and then wait for these the same clothes to come back as mitumba. They do this hoping for better pay one day as Kara Wainana ignorantly tells a vanquished nation whose elite and the masses are unable to pierce through this Matrix. We also have the FKE (includes owners of textile factories at the EPZ) saying these wages are sufficient given the "low inflation" brought by the “wise governance” of Kibaki and Raila these days.
  
  Then we have the government of Kibaki, Raila, Kalonzo, Uhuru, Musalia the present and the future "leaders" who are all committed to this ECONOMIC GENOCIDE. In this kind of economy, with a stone face, they tell us that, since a master of universe in the Wall Street who is doing God's work spends 35% of his unearned huge income on food; Wanjiku in Kibera does the same. In truth, Wanjiku spends over 60% of her meagre income on food. Where do we get these statistics from? Well, it is here: "About 40 to 70 per cent of household expenditure in the Comesa region accounts for purchases of domestic food," said Dr. Kalibata. Who is Dr. Kalibata? She is the Rwandese Agriculture Minister. Where was she saying this? At an expert’s two-day workshop on food prices in the Comesa bloc, in Kigali, Rwanda. When was this? In early May, 2010. See the full story here: "Kenya cited as case study at food price talks".
  
  So by Kibaki, Raila, Kalonzo, Uhuru, Musalia making inflation seem low when it is not in reality, the Wanjiku's wages can be suppressed further down "scientifically." With suppression of Wanjiku's income a mission accomplished, it is time to invite the foreign infestors into this paradise where Hakuna Matata, with their free dollars from the FED into our EPZ's. If you ask these "leaders" why we must sell our souls to get these dollars, they will tell you with a stone face that, "we need the mighty dollars so to pay for foreign mortgage loans denominated in dollars which are incurring to buy stones and sand produced in Mbeere to build houses in Korogocho and the dollars we must borrow from the WB so as to create temporary jobs for our young people." (Forget Class Wars, Its Economic Coup d'e'tat , also see "World Bank’s Sh12bn boost for jobs").
  
  If you doubt these "leaders" commitments to this ECONOMIC GENOCIDE you need to read this: "Kenya to roll out special trade zones in six months". The word special here means two things. No tax for foreign infestors and even lower wages for Wanjiku. In other words, more exploitative trade zones in a casino state. Nothing surprising here though. During the Vietnam war, spokespersons for the National Liberation Front coined the phrase "country-selling governments", to describe the series of governments headed by former French mercenary officers like Marshal Ky and General Thieu, put in place by the United States, who were willing to participate in the destruction of their country on behalf of the United States in order to "save it" from communist control. We also heard Clinton call Suharto who was a ruthless dictator, a grand larcenist and a mass killer with as many victims as Cambodia's Pol Pot, "our kind of guy." Even Pol Pot was their kind of a guy who only continued from where Kissinger had left.
  
  Before we embark on full analysis, please watch these videos interviews by an Haitian trade unionist entitled: "US military enforces attacks on Haitian unions", also here and here . Once you watch the Haitian video, please watch this about USA and especially the first part.
  
  So, what do we make of all disjointed information? The best way to understand what is going on is to draw a triangle like that of the Atlantic Slave Trade only this time, they see no need for putting us into slave ships. In one corner of the triangle, put the USA. The other corner put Switzerland. On the third corner, put Haiti, that African nation which the ministers of propaganda of this Babylonian system label the "poorest nation on the Western hemisphere." Translated, Africans are poor wherever they find themselves. We shall not dwell on the tragic and heart wrenching history of this nation. We only note in passing that, Haiti never had a chance. It has been treated as a standing threat since its revolution in 1804. How could these Africans challenge the powers that be? First, they had to compensate France for loss of their "property," i.e. slaves. In other words, France owes Haiti around $ 20 billion today.
  
  Having been milked dry to "compensate" the vampire, so as to be “recognised” by France with USA flatly refusing to recognise the first nation to end slavery, it had to be crushed and therefore, real democracy was never to be permitted to it. For instance, since the 1980s, its leading democratic leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was twice removed from his democratic office by the United States. When he came back to power in 1994, it was under the most benighted conditions, these set by the Clinton White House and Wall Street. They wanted Haiti to become a maquiladora, not a country. Today, the Haiti’s debt has spiralled out of control. One Trinidadian intellectual summarised this tragedy in simple words: "The transformation of slaves, trembling in hundreds before a single white man, into a people able to organize themselves and defeat the most powerful European nations of their day is one of the great epics of revolutionary struggle and achievement," Thus, the transformation of that achievement into a nation riven by political violence, ravaged by Aids and devastated by poverty is a tragedy of epic proportions. You may remove word Haiti and put Kenya or any other African nation and the story would be the same.
  
  Before we go further, let us mention something economists call division of labour. When Adam Smith talked about division of labour, he not only talked about it in terms of job specialization, but, also crucially, in terms of productive labour and unproductive labour. However, today, as part of obfuscation of the reality, economists are not taught to see some jobs as productive while others as unproductive. Consequently, as long as labour is employed and there is a buyer for its products or services, such a labour, to a modern brainwashed idiot calling himself an economist one is employed productively. However, in this small intellectual deceit, lies the tragedy of the 21st Century.
  
  Let us now proceed to show the division of labour in our wonderful globalised world of professor Pangloss who tells us that, the world is flat. To do so, we take the case of American baseball which are made in Haiti. In the "study" of economics and MBA's to manage EPZ's, we are taught (read brainwashed) that nations should rely on the comparative advantage in the "free trade" we have in international trade today. Let us follow this theory and see where we end up. The most efficient producers of American baseballs are the Haitians, Honduras and Costa Rica people. The baseballs are still hand sewn as they were when they were invented since engineers have been unable to mechanise the work. The Haitians who work on these balls earn around 30 cents an hour and in mid - 1990's was around 14 cents an hour. Every baseball is stitched by hand 108 stitches. Each worker is able to make 4 baseballs per hour and they do it with the precision requirements of a machine - made product. When President Jean Aristide tried to raise these wages to $ 50 cents per hour, he was removed from power. Then, much of this production was moved to Honduras and Costa Rica where the pay is about $ 1 per hour. Here is something to note.
  
  For Haiti to attract these jobs back, i.e. be competitive, it must lower its wages and expand the freedom to poison its Lake Naivasha so as to grow flowers for Western "lovers". For how to do this, Kibaki, Raila, Uhuru, Kalonzo's government can offer consultancy services on setting special EPZ's and the AGOA which Mrs Clinton came to celebrate with us the other day in Nairobi. However, note the definition of OECD's competitiveness is this. To the OECD, a nation's competitiveness is TO RAISE REAL WAGES while still remaining competitive on the world market. So, on the Haitian corner, put $ 30 cents per hour. When these balls reach the USA, they retail at around $ 15 each. So, on the USA corner, put $ 15.
  
  However, there is more. As opposed to baseballs, golf balls are high - tech products and which America dominates. Please note this. In the golf balls production, research and development plays a major role in production and in spite of high labour costs of about $ 14 - 16 an hour, these costs only represent 15% of the production costs. Given such low labour costs and thereby, low impact on total production costs, and the need for qualified labour, engineers and specialised suppliers, it becomes difficult to move production to low wages nations like Haiti. The differing wage levels in these two industrial sectors, i.e. baseball and golf ball manufacturers are a result of uneven technological development.
  
  This brings us to the comparative advantage theory. The poverty in Haiti and the wealth in the USA are, for both countries, simultaneously a cause of and a result of the choice of what they produce. In other words, Haiti has specialised in useless productive sector and thereby, "made the choice" of being poor and ignorant. Mr market in a ruthless way, has chosen to reward the most efficient producer of golf balls with an income of $ 16 while rewarding the most efficient producer of baseballs with mere $ 30 cents an hour. This means that, an Haitian must work more than 25 hours to buy what an American makes in 1 hr while an American need only work 1 hr. to buy what an Haitian must toil for over 25 hrs. What do you call this? Wealth appropriation by means of unequal trade. Does the USA viceroy in Kenya tell you this? No, no. He talks about African corruption and why we must end it to develop. Since they control what we think, we say, yes. In other words, they say jump, and we jump and then while in the sky we ask, how high Sir? They even bring the Transparency International to brainwash us. They LIE my brothers and sisters to hide the truth.
  
  So, what about that corner for Switzerland? This is where it gets really interesting. What happens is this. The owner of the baseball manufacturing company sets an offshore company here. This offshore company owns all intellectual property for his business. This is crucial because, IPRs is the major component in capitalistic system. With his IPRs here, this offshore corporation contracts with a manufacturer in Haiti to do the bare minimum in Haiti whereby, the Haitian guys takes no risks, owns no IP etc. Now, under contract law (they never teach these stuff in law schools), payment is determined by how much risk, task one undertakes or how much IPRs one owns. Since the Haitian manufacturer does the bare minimum, he gets paid very little. This explains why the EPZ guys cannot afford to pay the Kenyan women even if Atwoli cries blood.
  
  Also, the Haitian state can collect very little tax in such an arrangement. Having been unable to collect enough tax on work that is done on its soil through low pay and tax breaks for foreign infestors, the Haiti/Kenya government must turn to the gods of money at the IMF and WB. And, for these gods at the IMF and WB to hear our prayers for mighty dollar, they demand as a sacrifice, more special trade zones like the ones Kibaki and Raila are introducing. In other words, we lower wages, remove taxes on the foreign infestors while increasing tax on our nurses and doctors who must then move to the USA etc (did some foolish guy ask why Africans in the Diaspora attack their hosts? We hope he is now better informed). In other words, money from "rich world" and the poor from the South pass each other in the night. When money arrives, it is greeted on our shores with kisses, flowers and fanfare as the messiahs of progress. However, in contrast, many Africans sink with their boats as they try to enter Italy. What a contrast?Kumekucha

  
  

• Orbituary: CID Boss Gatiba Karanja Dead

  Posted: May 10, 2010, 2:00 pm by Taabu

  Kenya has lost her top sleuth. CID boss Simon Gatiba Karanja reportedly died at Thika Nursing Home where he was rushed by family members. And what a great loss to the country for a man who headed such a sensitive position during the dark 2007/8 PEV period?
  
  Already speculation galore of how a top policeman would just collapse and die like that. Spice it with the speculation that Gatiba and Iteere were to have a date with ICC's Ocampo later in the day and the mix becomes so lethal. While that is typical Kenyans' cynicism about such high profile deaths, one cannot fail to recall the mysterious death of former police commissioner Philip Kilonzo.
  
  Kilonzo reigned during the late Ouko's murder investigation just like Karanja did over the PEV. Granted, he must have been privy to very sensitive information. The suspicion is even compounded more with Karanja's death coming hot in the heels of former AP deputy boss leaving the country for Germany fearing for his life.
  
  For now Karanja's family needs all the comforting words with the hope that his death was a natural one. At 56, such sudden calamities are rare but who knows? Maybe a policeman's physical fitness exponentially deteriorates as he climbs the ladder in the force hence the ill health.Kumekucha

  
  

• Kalonzo Musyoka’s Yes-No-No-Yes-stance on the draft constitution

  Posted: May 10, 2010, 3:09 am by Chris

  
  As Kumekucha celebrates 5th brithday
  On Saturday 8th May 2010, Kumekucha quietly celebrated its’ 5th birthday.
  
  It was a day for quiet reflection but I got the time to do a post based on an intensive survey I have been doing over the last two weeks or so.
  
  I never started this blog for any accolades or recognition. I was just very focused on the mission to help bring about change in my beloved Kenya. It was not important to me if any credit was ever going to be given to Kumekucha. I am happy to report that if I were to shut down this blog now, it will have helped accomplished much more than I ever thought it would. Kenya has changed forever and is also on the threshold of enormous changes. The job is almost done and it is not important how small or big a role Kumekucha played. What is terribly important is that change has come and more change is coming.
  
  The best way to illustrate how these sudden people-driven changes have caught politicians with their pants down is to carefully consider two individuals and their stance on the new constitution. Vice president Kalonzo Musyoka has been dubbed the Yes-No-No-Yes man. Uhuru Kenyatta’s stance on the draft constitution is No, Yes, No, Yes. Very funny but also very true. The indecision in both is very selfish.
  
  Mr Musyoka hates the fact that a victory for yes would result in PM Raila Odinga upstaging him politically. And so he had to attract attention to himself with his Yes but… stance. The motives are even more selfish for Uhuru Kenyatta. His electorate is itching to crucify anybody who dares oppose a new constitution but on the other hand is his vast family wealth mainly based on massive tracts of land grabbed by his late father Jomo Kenyatta. If the draft constitution were to be enacted, it will almost certainly mean that the family fortune will be wiped out literally overnight.
  
  Kalonzo Musyoka is also shrewd enough to realize that the new political order brought about by a new constitution will mean that the highest political office he will ever hold will be that of Vice President. His dreams of being mtukufu rais will fade into the sunset with the old constitution. Fascinatingly and eeringly too, the old constitution seemed to have greatly favoured cowards for the presidency (read my book Dark secrets of the Kenyan presidency and you will be amazed) and that is why Jomo Kenyatta became president rather than General Dedan Kimathi and Daniel Moi rather than J.M. Kariuki or Tom Mboya. And Kibaki rather than Ken Matiba or Charles Rubia. And therefore chances were that Kalonzo Musyoka or Uhuru Kenyatta would have ended up as president rather than Raila Odinga or William Ruto. I have used those names just as examples and nobody should interpret it as my preference for any of those individuals to be president.
  
  My point is that now with a new constitution, Kenya will have a truly new dawn where I see the new political faces being totally unrecognizable for those used to the old order of things.Kumekucha

  
  

• Ocampo Jets Straight Into Eye of the Storm

  Posted: May 8, 2010, 4:00 pm by Taabu

  
  Poor Prof Moreno-Ocampo is landing when the political heat is intensifying just like what generated the near-Armageddon whose mess he is coming to investigate.
  
  But again just like Annan, Ocampo must be warned that Kenya needs no baby-siting. We are sovereign and independent. And who knows, this ICC monster will soon dissolve if Africa's academics and ruling elite have their way in petitioning the UN.
  
  We can handle the bloodshed and don't need ex-UN envoys or non-practicing Argentinian lawyers. Kenya is not a failed state and will never be.Kumekucha

  
  

• Kumekucha survey: How Kenyans will vote in the referendum

  Posted: May 8, 2010, 4:10 am by kumekucha

  
  
  
  In the last referendum in 2005, Kumekucha was a very new blog and I must admit that I was pretty inexperienced. The result is that I predicted a win then for the yes camp after a very brief poll across only 3 provinces. That mistake still haunts me to this day.
  
  And so this time I was taking no chances. When I started out, surveying Kenyans all over the country, the initial impression was that the vote was going to be pretty close, though still in favour of YES. Mainly because of the voter registration. It emerged that many of those in the “No” camp were much more passionate and had registered to vote in the referendum. Many of those loudly announcing that they would vote YES had not registered as voters and had no intention of doing so. I suspected that the churches were doing a good job getting their followers to register to defeat the Kadhi courts draft constitution.
  
  However the situation quickly changed. The most stunning realization was just how much more aware the Kenyan voting public is today. They are pretty difficult to mislead. Folks I was absolutely amazed. Those politicians spreading falsehoods should realize that those old tricks are no longer viable with the vast majority of Kenyans.
  
  I can now authoritatively report that the Yes vote will win by a massive landslide. The feeling amongst Kenyans is that the new constitution is much better than the current one because it empowers the ordinary mwananchi much more. Many Kenyans feel that although it is not perfect it is a good beginning in changing Kenya in the right direction. Prepare yourselves for a massive 75% YES vote when the vote is over and the results start coming in.
  
  My heart goes out to the church in Kenya. They have some very legitimate concerns. The problem is that they did not have an effective strategy. The church found itself in the very unfamiliar territory of the new Kenya politics and did not even look for a consultant to advice them accordingly. The feeling was that the same old tricks used during the Moi era of calling press conferences would have the desired effect. It did not. Part of the reason is the massive loss of credibility in the church and its’ leaders after the post election troubles of early 2008 where the church divided Kenyans and helped fan the violence. In fact there is a section in the long KNHRC list of post election violence suspects that is headed “Men of God” and lists a number of ordained church ministers.
  
  But all is not lost (and this is one of the things that I love most about the draft constitution). What the church has to do now is to prepare to oppose the clauses they do not like when the new constitution is enacted. I would advice that they put the abortion clause aside for the time being (besides in my view there is nothing wrong with this clause) and focus on the Kadhi courts. All they need is a million signatures to trigger the process of changing that and when it comes to the referendum they should easily be able to win that one. Although there will be the question of insensitivity against the rights of a minority group, in this case the muslims.
  
  The mood in many parts of Kenya at the moment is the same one you get shortly before a general election when the president has dissolved parliament and called a general election and all that people are waiting for is the election date. Sadly there are many parts of the country where Kenyans feel deeply traumatized as they approach another ballot box situation after the last one caused so much death and suffering. In the last few days I have talked to many Kenyans who lost loved ones and others who described harrowing experiences that they still cannot wipe out of their minds. When you hear a small pop-like explosion inside a burning building, what does the sound mean? It usually means a human stomach exploding as a result of the heat from the flames. I am told it is a terrible haunting sound that can never really leave you.
  
  There is no doubt on my mind that the troubles of 2008 are one of the main catalysts that has helped push for reforms before the next general elections. Had it not happen, it is unlikely that we would now be on the verge of a new constitution. So in a way all those poor Kenyans who died such terrible deaths did not die in vain.
  
  This is a reminder that the price we have paid for this new constitution is way too high. So high that I will not hesitate to vote YES, YES.Kumekucha

  
  

• Draft Published: How'd Muge and Okullu Vote?

  Posted: May 7, 2010, 11:00 pm by Taabu

  A country without history is one devoid of a soul. Publication of the draft constitution makes those not-so young Kenyans ask themselves very tough counterfactual (what if) questions. For starters, one is left raking his head which side of the draft divide Alexander Muge and Henry Okulu would support. Well, it is easy to guess but difficult to know.
  
  Only one thing is for sure, these two Anglican firebrands were very brave Kenyans who dared questioned baba na mama when it was treasonable voicing any letters of opposition to the ruling class. But voicing they did and loudly so. They stood their ground no matter the heat from cockerel party and its sycophantic youth wingers.
  
  Granted, Kenya is making history by enacting a constitution in peace time. But how things have changed in the last 20 years from the time Mwai Kibaki was tear-gassed at All Saints Cathedral to Moi now deriding the exercise as academic. The present church has metamorphosed into many shades unlike years gobe by.
  
  Make no mistake, every Kenyan has the right to vote YES or NO otherwise the referendum's democratic creed would be in tatters. The only prayer is that both sides go into the campaign with Kenya elevated above all their political leanings.
  
  A really tall order but never the less mandatory if we are to become civilized citizens who can disagree without necessarily being disagreeable. Shall we?Kumekucha

  
  

• Why We Reject the Proposed New Constitution

  Posted: May 5, 2010, 10:56 am by Phil

  By Mwarang'ethe
  
  In our considered opinion, what Kenya needs is a document that would establish a Free Enterprise/Market System, which we believe is the Key to Political and Economic Liberty/Prosperity. A Free Market System as we understand it is a governance system tailored to ensure that, those who honestly toil keep the fruits of their toil. The other option is a governance system whereby; we divorce the honest toil from the resultant fruits. This is what we call socialism. Very unfortunate, this draft constitution takes us to socialism route.
  
  A governance system that enshrines the unjust claim of a few on the economic surplus of a nation produced by all through the monopolisation of land is not a Free Market System, but, socialism. A governance system that, legalises a conspiracy between a man decorating himself as a central banker and another calling himself Barclays or Equity to put some ink on a paper and thereby, demand from those who create wealth to part with 15% - 20 % of the wealth they create, in exchange for this useless paper which costs these conspirators cents to produce, is not a Free Markey System, but, socialism. When these two conspirators are not "loaning" Wanjiku their useless paper so as to rob her, the central banker issues another paper he calls a government bond. The conspirator calling himself Equity takes this bond and in return, he gives back the useless paper he originally got from the central banker. In this modern magic, these modern medicine men tell us, the mere mortars, that, this is open market operation. By this abracadabra, they create so called public domestic debt which must be paid with usury. So as to pay back the banker, Wanjiku’s little wealth that was spared by the first ngeta/robbery, must be robbed via taxation. To dare believe that, a document which enshrines such devilish principles of socialism and fascism will emancipate Wanjiku, is the most dangerous delusion we know of.
  
  Firmly believing that the state should and must not be a dispenser of privileges, we propose that, the proposed constitution ought to have been guided by some key principles:
  
  Natural Rights of Man
  
  A Free Market System can only be based on acceptance and adherence to the principles of Natural Law and Natural Rights of mankind. In this way, the drafters of this constitution ought to have known and acknowledged that, the preservation of economic and political freedoms can only be founded on the firm belief in God and therefore, the existence of moral law. As Hamilton taught us, "Good and wise men, in all ages, have ... have supposed, that the deity, from the relations, we stand in, to himself and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is, indispensably, obligatory upon all mankind, prior to any human institution whatever."
  
  It is for this reason on the vital land question, we beseeched the drafters of the proposed constitution to expressly state that, land is a God given birthright to all Kenyans. Thus, whenever this sacred right of man is violated, as this document does, we violate Divine and Natural Laws. We blatantly violate this sacred right of mankind because in our arrogance of little education we believe that, the basic principles that governed natural resources/land before the formation of the Kenyan state are dead. This can only be so, if one believes that, the sole objective of the formation of the Kenyan state was to take away this sacred right. On the contrary, the sole purpose of formation of Kenyan state should be the preservation of this sacred right. For those who may dispute this, all we shall ask is the location of the Creator’s land office which has issued right to land to some while denying others. Yes, we may say the colonial state which was formed by evil men, had this single objective in mind. But, was it not the objective of our independence to deny and reject this inequity? If not so, it shall be an admission that, we shed blood not to remove oppression, but, merely to install black oppressors. In simple words, the equal right to land for all that existed before the formation of the Kenyan state, is the appropriate standard to measure the proposed land tenure. On this score, we miserably fail.
  
  We firmly hold the view that, a stable, just; equitable and peaceful nation cannot arise from foundations that negate the Natural Law and Natural Rights of mankind. In this sense, we find ourselves in agreement with Calvin Coolidge who said that, "Men do not make laws. They do but discover them. Laws must be justified by something more than the will of the majority. They must rest on the eternal foundation of righteousness. That state is most fortunate in its form of government which has the aptest instruments for the discovery of law."
  
  Rule of Law
  
  Throughout mankind’s history, with a few exceptions, man has been ruled by the whims of few powerful evil men rather than by the law. Having a written constitution is no guarantee or a sufficient condition to the establishment the rule of law. We argue this because, the validity of our laws cannot merely rest on what law makers decide or the majority may decide is law. The validity of laws must be based or judged on their compatibility with common sense and their ability to safeguard the public interest. The proposed constitution does not meet these two requirements. As such, it cannot be the basis for the rule of law in Kenya required for establishment of Free Enterprise System.
  
  Morality and Ethics
  
  A Free Market System requires virtue, honour, truthfulness, fairness, honesty and self reliance. As we find in the Bible, a false balance is an abomination to the Lord. But a JUST WEIGHT is His delight. You need not believe in the Bible to accept such teachings. Now, in a modern economy, money is the blood of the economy. This being the case, it is not an exaggeration to state that, the most important fundamental law in any nation is that which institutes money; for money governs the distribution of property, and thus affects in a thousand ways the relations of man to man. If wrongly instituted, it cannot be rightly governed by any subsequent laws; and the wrong distribution of property consequent upon it must corrupt society in all its branches.
  
  If this is the case, what do we find in the proposed constitution? In s. 231, we find this: "The [CBK] shall not be under the direction or control of any person or authority in the exercise of its powers or in the performance of its functions." Translated, this means that, the CBK shall not be answerable to the Kenyan people. Therefore, we have surrendered the greatest power, i.e. MONEY as Esau surrendered his birthright. So, who shall it be answerable to then? A brief look at history will tell us.
  
  In 1929, Montagu Norman, then the world’s most influential central banker as the governor of the Bank of England, precipitated the Wall Street stock market crush when he asked the governor of the New York FED, George Harrison to raise U.S. interest rate levels. Since Harrison complied, we witnessed one of the most dramatic financial and economic collapses in the U.S. history in the following months. In 1931, the New York FED governor demanded the German central bank, i.e. Reichsbank headed by Hans Luther to impose rigorous CREDIT AUSTERITY and tightening of the German capital markets so as to "stop foreign capital flight." What ensured was the collapse of the German banking and industry in the winter of 1931-32 in what was said to be the hardest winter in one hundred years. When the German government (any person or authority) headed by Bruning requested the Reichsbank to seek emergency stabilization credit from other central banks to contain the national banking crisis, it refused. Having destroyed German economic and social structure through the control of its central bank, the same forces turned around and supported Hitler.
  
  When one appreciates the world history since 1971 when Nixon destroyed the Bretton Woods system, one cannot but fail to see the obvious. Since 1971, it has been the policy of the Anglo - American banking/financial elite (who are monopolists) to impose Versailles treaty like conditions on humanity. Let us recall that, the Versailles treaty reparation against Germany was meant to loot Germany and thereby, destroy its industrial and military power that comes with ability to manufacture. Therefore, we seek to warn Kenyans that, by making the central bank unanswerable to the Kenyan people, we have permanently and effectively ceded our monetary sovereignty to IMF, WB and other hostile nations. Having done this, we can forget ever modernising our nation for money creation shall be in the hands of private interests. As such, whenever money is created not in the broad public interest, but, to secure private interests, we have an unjust measure and a Free Market System cannot be run under such arrangements for there is no equal opportunity to all.
  
  If you doubt what we are saying, sample this.
  
  (a) For the Americans who control WB/IMF, so as to arrest current economic mess and help “stabilize” the broader financial system, the Fed had to invoke a seldom-used emergency lending authority under Section 13 (3) of the 1932 Federal Reserve Act (as amended by the Banking Act of 1935 and the FDIC Improvement Act of 1991), not used since the Great Depression, to provide short-term backup funding to select non-depository institutions through a number of temporary facilities.
  
  (b) On our part, under the "guidance" of the WB/IMF, we inserted s.49 of the CBK Act inserted in 1996 which outlaws the ability of the CBK to extend credit to any public entity. In other words, if we want to build a latrine in Garissa, we must beg for money, but, when these people we beg from want to build theirs, they just print their papers which we call reserves and in return, we surrender Wanjiku’s coffee to them. What a nice f$$%% arrangements for people who call themselves educated to accept?
  
  More so, as we noted sometimes back, under the monetary system proposed in this document, we will have established a monopolistic structure which allows a few connected thugs to corner all the money from the source (remember YK 1992?). Once they corner this money, they do not invest this money in the productive sectors of the economy. No, they buy governments debts, speculate in land and stocks. Since such money creation does not meet real value creation, it creates inflation. This inflation affects those on fixed wages and the poor most. Having messed their ability to earn for themselves, we turn around and create a welfare state to take care of these people. What a deception!
  
  Limited Government
  
  A limited government is only possible where the governance structure is framed in accordance with Natural Law and Natural Rights of man. A government framed with these laws and rights in mind, does not need to be a welfare state. This means that, only those with serious mental and physical disabilities ought and must be cared by the whole community. However, since the proposed constitution trashes Natural Law and Natural Rights of man, we shall be forced to create a welfare state to take care of those whose natural rights shall be violated. A welfare state is an unlimited government.
  
  An unlimited government is a call for arbitrary government via taxation. Arbitrary taxation is not conducive to protection of our property because, such a government has arbitrary powers to decide how much of our property it will confiscate via taxation so as to provide the so called welfare. Since such a government must resort to borrowing, it ceases to be a government in the service of the citizens, but, a vessel or an agency for collecting debts via taxation from the struggling masses to pay the monopolists who have cornered money from the source and as well as land.
  
  As such, by failing to secure absolutely the security of our property we shall have forfeited our economic liberty. Once you forfeit your economic liberty, you have also effectively forfeited your political liberty. Thus, all that shall remain is useless motions of voting every five years. Even worse, all welfare states will sooner than later end up as socialistic/communistic states. If you doubt, check what % the USA or the UK GDP is now in the hands of the government. Humanity is on the tarmacked road to serfdom.
  
  Property Rights
  
  A Free Market System can only work where property rights are protected. However, a clear definition of private property must be adhered to. Private property from the Natural Law perspective is that which man has produced with his sweat for it is written that, man shall eat bread from his sweat of his brow. It is when seen from this perspective, we agree with John Adams that, "The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God . . . anarchy and tyranny commence. Property must be secure or liberty cannot exist.” As we have noted above, under the proposed taxation system, our property is not secure. To this extent, we shall not constitute a just government which shall impartially secure the right to every person’s property. This is an invitation to tyranny.
  
  Voluntary Exchange of Goods & Services
  
  Free Market System requires a system of voluntary exchange of goods and services. Freedom is one of the God's greatest gifts to mankind and in the economic arena it should allow any person to make choices out of own self - interest. It allows voluntary setting of price. As Jefferson asked on his inaugural address, what is "necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens—a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.... "
  
  We also read Adam Smith saying that, To prohibit a great people . . . from making all that they can of every part of their own produce, or from employing their [capital] and industry in the way that they judge most advantageous to themselves, is a manifest violation of the most sacred rights of mankind."
  
  As we have noted previously, terrible mistakes were made on land issue after independence. The best way to rectify this mistake is to equalize the right to land and not through equalization of fortune as we find in Article 68 (1). The best way forward would have been the Singaporean model whereby, people compete to use public places. In such a system, the winner decides what price he is willing to pay for the privilege of using public space. Similarly, instead of arbitrarily limiting land sizes which has never worked and will never work, (what if the next parliament sets 5000 hectares as the limit or even refuses to set the limits?) we would have allowed those who hold land to voluntarily decide the price/rent they are willing to pay to keep them. If they are unwilling to pay open market price, through an auction, others willing to pay the price would acquire them while compensating the previous owners any improvements done on these lands.
  
  Profit Motive
  
  Profit is the individual reward for honest work. It is this honest reward which enables individuals to risk their time, capital and other resources to create business so as to provide services to others. When you provide good and services to others, apart from paying you back the cost of production, they say thank you (profit). From many thank you, you create great wealth. In other words, and this is the CRUCIAL POINT, business is nothing but, a public service. Once you accumulate wealth through such honest toil, you are in a position to create more opportunities. More opportunities do further create greater levels of wealth and prosperity. The best way to ensure this profit motive is thriving is to protect honest toil from private taxation via monopolies/cartels and the unnecessary taxation which comes along with unnecessary welfare state.
  
  More so, by refusing to reform land and money systems, we encourage speculation so as to capture unearned incomes. These unearned income/profits which come from speculation erode work ethics while corrupting the ethical foundations of the nation. In other words, we have put rent seeking instead of profit motive. The difference between these two is this. To capture rents, you need not do anything. However, to earn profits, you are forced to be use or service to fellow mankind. And, as Jesus said, he who must be the greatest must be a servant. It was for a reason, He never said the greatest shall be the rent seeker such as the money changers He chased from the Temple.
  
  Competition
  
  Another principle/spirit that ought to be enshrined in the proposed constitution is competition. Competition helps to bring about quality products and services for buyers to choose. This competition ensures that business people are forced to devise better ways of serving the public. However, when we create monopolies and cartels as we have done, the buyers/public are the losers because they have to pay a higher price or go without the product or service. Thus, we should have promoted competition by restructuring natural monopolies like land, money, telecommunications etc. Instead of doing this, we have entrenched the monopolies which is nothing but private taxation. More so, since this private taxation is affordable to large corporations, it is only a burden to the small business and thereby, put them out of business. And, when small businesses are crushed, the whole economy is crushed.
  
  Stiff-necked fools, you think you are cool
  To deny me for simplicity.
  Yes, you have gone for so long
  With your love for vanity now.
  Yes, you have got the wrong interpretation
  Mixed up with vain imagination.
  
  The lips of the righteous teach many,
  But fools die for want of wisdom.
  
  The rich man's wealth is in his city;
  The righteous' wealth is in his Holy Place.
  Destruction of the poor is in their poverty
  
  But I don't wanna rule ya!
  I don't wanna fool ya!
  I don't wanna school ya:
  Things you - you might never know about!
  
  By the late Bob N. Marley.
  Kumekucha

  
  

• Raila: I Say 'YES' - A Photo Essay

  Posted: May 4, 2010, 9:01 pm by Phil

  
  
  
  
  Kumekucha

  
  

• We Must All Vote Yes for Kenya

  Posted: May 2, 2010, 9:02 pm by Taabu

  Russian Roulette: praying for holy shot.
  
  The daggers are out of their sheaths. The church are out in full swing planning POLITICAL NO rallies. This time round the MEN of clothe have vowed to lead by example unlike 2005.
  
  And to politicians the year 2010 will be to 2012 what 2005 was to that dark year 2007. Make no mistake, 2005 the referendum changed Kenya's political landscape forever and was clearly the political rehearsal for 2007 bloodbath.
  
  Kenyans must not make that mistake again with the 2010 referendum. Before voting YES or NO, we must all agree to vote only one way, YES, for Kenya. The referendum will come and go but Kenya remains generations. It is within our powers to stop the present polarization which will only succeed as the best spark for Kenya's sure self-destruction.
  
  There is no worse dictatorship that uniformity of thought. Granted, the church and any other Kenyan has all the constitutional right to vote NO just as the GCG have resolved to support the draft constitution. Trying to convince the other party to give up would defeat the very rubric of democracy. The referendum question can only be answered in one of two ways.
  
  Conducing civilized campaigns by either party is key to holding Kenya together. We must learn to agree without being disagreeable. Come on, it is 2010 and we can and must only fight armed with facts and not misinformation laced in propaganda whose only selfish objective is to achieve short-term goals.
  
  There is no need foul-mouthed campaigns. No need for politicians to call others names. Equally the church must stand up to its byline as the bastion truth. Men of collar must not engage in propaganda and misinformation. True, religion is founded on dogma but the flock have brains of their own and must be allowed free conscience.
  
  After all those voting NO in the referendum will still have to be governed by the very Constitution if the YES team wins. We must be ready to lead the orchestra by turning our backs to the crowd (read politicians). So vote yes or no in the forth-coming referendum but before that please vote only YES for Kenya for she is bigger than all of us singularly or collectively.
  
  Kenya remains after the vote. So seize the opportunity, do your bit and shame the perennial scoundrels.Kumekucha

  
  

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes