Items by Sam Okello

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• This Is Our Last Chance To Get It Right

  Posted: January 18, 2011, 1:55 am by Sam Okello

  I have watched with increasing alarm the unfolding events in Kenya. On just about every front, we seem to be hurtling toward a destination no one can define with clarity right now. If ours was a stable, mature democracy, I wouldn't be too worried. I would look my two boys in the eye and tell them that at the end of this brouhaha, there will emerge a leader who will be sworn in as President in 2012. But can anyone count on such an outcome today? Therein lies my discomfort.
  
  As this new year begins, it is time for those who love this nation and wish to see her prosper to act and say words that will enhance unity rather than act and say words that will foster hate and division. What we must all realize, as thought-leaders in the spheres God has put us in, is that we sit at the apex of a triangle whose base is made of millions of illiterate and poor Kenyans. What they are yearning for from us is hope and a sense that a better tomorrow is within reach. When what they see from us is the kind of schemes that seem to have taken center-stage in the political arena today, who can blame them for fearing that the stage is being set for intrigue and a possible repeat of the mischief in 2007?
  
  One of the most powerful pronouncements of the Lord in the Holy Scriptures is found in the book of Genesis 1:28-31. In that text, the Lord says He gave mankind dominion over this world. You may read the four verses in the quietness of your office or home. The message is clear. God wanted man to take care of what He had created. That included animals, fish, birds and fellow man. It is crucial that those who aspire to lead this nation understand that theology of leadership. There is no way people who seek to lead this nation can want to do so by coming up with something as dreadfully divisive as the KKK Alliance. Where is God's voice in that? And there is no way a man who has failed to take a firm position on crucial national matters can now present himself as a leader; how will he lead? Like a sunflower?
  
  Fellow Kenyans, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have led this nation thus far. It will be said many years to come that they tried their best...gave us better roads and set this nation on a path to expanding democratic space. It is now our time to move the ball toward the opponent's goal-post. Our opponent remains ignorance, poverty and disease. But now there is a new one. Godlessness. Could it be that our lack of seeking God's wisdom is what may lead this nation to danger again?
  
  The time for Christians to be on our knees to seek intervention for Kenya is now. We have to plead with God to intervene as Ocampo swoops in, as alliances form, as the campaigns begin, and as voting will take place in 2012. It is my opinion that this is our chance to once and for all defeat the forces that want Kenya to permanently remain beholden to a form of politics and leadership fashioned out of tribal arithmetic and selfishness. Ideology and a sense of purpose should be the new forces that shape political discourse in this nation.
  
  So from our airwaves to newspapers, and from our pulpits to political events, and from out funerals to weddings, let each of us tone down our rhetoric. We can discuss Raila in Nyeri without name-calling. We can disagree with Ruto in Kisumu without hurling insults at him. And we can wonder about Uhuru's intentions without seeing him as an evil man. Democracy and civility demand that we respect each other's opinions, and like my good friend Chris would always remind us, be willing to die defending their right to hold such opinions.
  
  Where do I go wrong, my friends?
  
  Blessings is what I wish on each of you this year and let's pray for one another!Kumekucha

  
  

• 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

  
  

• I knew this day was coming.

  Posted: December 14, 2009, 11:44 pm by Sam Okello

  I knew this day was coming.
  
  I came back to Kenya about eight months ago intent on laying groundwork for a political run. With a couple of friends, I went to Rarieda and surveyed the landscape. For my run, things looked pretty good and my friends abroad urged me to go for it. I thought I would until this past Sunday.
  
  On Sunday, after deep introspection, I decided to go in an entirely different direction. Since my first love has always been books, it was easy for me to decide to work for my church as a book man in a territory that will comprise the nations in East and Central Africa.
  
  This will mark my last posting on this authoritative blog. I thank Chris, Phil, Sayra, Taabu and all the friends who have put up with me over the period I've been here. Indeed, I thank Chris for graciously inviting me to be one of the contributors. I have enjoyed every moment of it. I will read Kumekucha everyday and know that every Kenyan who wants to know what is going on around will too.
  
  For those who may have been offended by anything I said while here, I ask your forgiveness. We are all human and prone to mistakes. But I ask that together we pray for our nation. I'm encouraged by the unity that seems to have taken root and hope this will sustain deep into the future. What we have to avoid like a plague is those politicians who still want our top consideration for electing them to be some crude tribal arithmetic that meshes into a formula called KKK. Men of that ilk have nothing to offer this nation other than doom.
  
  And though my good friend Chris believes Raila will fade before 2012, I want to predict today that Mr. Odinga will be this nation's next President and he will be the best President this nation will have ever had. Just like Chris asked us to hold him to his words, I say hold me to mine.
  
  It pains me to say good bye, folks, but that it has to be.
  
  I love you all and God bless Kenya!
  
  Sam Okello
  Sahel Publishing
  South Bend, London, Nairobi
  www.sahelpublishing.netKumekucha

  
  

• Is There Anything Like A Kenyan Dream?

  Posted: September 14, 2009, 2:15 am by Sam Okello

  What American dream?
  
  Of course I would love to talk about the American dream, but having lived out there I find nothing realistic about it. Indeed, it is dead. If dreams were made of pain, then what folks go through to achieve the dream in America is just what a man does not need. In Europe the pain is even more acute given the secretly racist nature of folks in that continent to the north of us.
  
  Which brings me to what I hope we can and must choose to work on for the sake of our children and posterity. I'm talking here about the Kenyan dream. By invoking the term dream, I'm not talking about a utopia or an essentially perfect little island here in East Africa. No. What I'm actually about to envision for your consideration is a nation united by a set of principles and governed by a core of goals that all her citizens will work to achieve...since the goals will be understood as the mark of success.
  
  Before I lay out the goals, let me warn here that seasoned democracies in the West have struggled over the years to create nations that were truly living the dream, yet as any Diasporian will tell you, that dream can remain a dream for a long long time. Take America, for example, can anybody tell me that struggling with bigotry and xenophobia is something a great nation like that one would want to be confronting this deep into the history of the world? Wasn't it the dream of the Founding Fathers and even Dr. King that one day the children of America would all be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin?
  
  Makes me wonder.
  
  But so much for that.
  
  Here is the Kenyan Dream:
  
  1. That all Kenyans who want to work will find jobs that pay enough for them to take care of their children and provide a warm nest for their spouses in the form of a reasonable home.
  
  2. That Kenyans will learn to see fellow Kenyans as members of one big family, where the pain of one brother or sister hurts us all.
  
  3. That this nation will be governed democratically by men and women who place the Lord first in everything they do.
  
  Fellow Kenyans, on this beautiful Monday morning in Nairobi, I'm back to my office humbled by a ride I took deep into a zone where my Kalenjin brothers live. I felt deeply inspired by the love extended to me and my team out there. Those are the moments that make it hard for me to lose hope in the future of this nation. It may be long in coming, but we have a bright future. In spite of the many problems we face, we can and must work to overcome them one at a time.
  
  It is a blessing to have a dream.
  
  Let it be the Kenyan dream!Kumekucha

  
  

• The Old Man Never Killed Ouko

  Posted: September 9, 2009, 1:59 am by Sam Okello

  Moi never did it.
  
  I have written two novels, one with my good friend Marriane Brinner, in which I claimed Moi was the mind behind the murder of the late Dr. Robert Ouko. I'm aware that this is a matter most Kenyans have forgotten about, but I have not. I just don't find the crazy stuff Kibaki is doing with Ali and Ringera very sexy. In fact, the games the President is playing at State House just stink.
  
  Back to Moi and Ouko.
  
  I have come by new and compelling evidence that exonerate Moi on the Ouko issue. It takes a big man like me to own up when new evidence refutes allegations made earlier. So since the premise of those two books, The Night Bob Died and A Shining Star in darkness was that Moi killed Ouko, I want to state categorically that Moi never did it.
  
  I have been walked through the chronology of events that led up to Ouko's death, including the key players...and how the same man who masterminded Bob's death eventually staged a commando raid at the late Hezekiah Oyugi's Kileleshwa home. What is fascinating is the way the murderer staged the event to look like an inside job in the Moi administration.
  
  It wasn't.
  
  The killer wasn't Moi...and neither was it Biwott.
  
  Stay tuned!Kumekucha

  
  

• This Is The Time For A Clean Break With Ruto And Company

  Posted: August 26, 2009, 7:02 am by Sam Okello

  Let the man go!
  
  The Mau has never been the issue. For Ruto, who would have rather lined up behind Kalonzo Musyoka in the 2007 elections, it has all along been about bringing Raila down. To his credit, he has done a masterful job in using the Mau issue to rally the Rift Valley MPs and their electorate against the Prime Minister.
  
  It will not last.
  
  For starters, the Mau can only be a short-term political winner for Ruto and his brand of politics. The Mau has and will continue to be a divisive issue, which Ruto judges correctly will polarize debate in this country and embitter his Kalenjin tribe against Mr. Odinga. Such tactics always work very well. Indeed, they are now being applied against President Barack Obama in the States by xenophobic groups hell bent on denying him a second term by making it untenable for the whites to vote for him in the next elections.
  
  The trouble with this kind of politics is that it inevitably leads to bitterness, fights, and in our case, bloodshed. When Isaac Ruto repeatedly warns us about bloodshed, it is this kind of scenario that plays in his mind. He understands that the Ruto game plan is about using hate as a weapon and has been made its prophet. What sober Kenyans must ask the two Rutos and their supporters is...after the Mau, then what? Will they come up with another wedge issue to divide us? And could it be that the dance they played around the Hague issue was just an effort to be on the other side of Raila for the sake of playing this game they are playing now?
  
  Here is what I would tell the Prime Minister if he sought my advice. Let this dead weight go now. For a man who was elected to lead the nation, leading is what you must do.
  
  Of course Mr. Odinga can't walk away from the fact that he got where he is through the support of our brothers and sisters from the Rift Valley, but that support never meant he was obligated to support everything the folks from that province threw his way. For example, why would he allow himself to look so indecisive by being like Ruto who now supports the Hague, now not? Or the Ruto who now wants people out of the Mau, now not? Is this a man who can lead his people, leave alone Kenya?
  
  As Ruto enters his alliances in the future, we can only wish him well. I hope such an alliance will draw in the likes of Kenyatta...another man wanted by the Hague, and Kalonzo Musyoka...that traitor who sold Kenya for thirty pieces of silver when the nation was reeling. If that trio is the new leaders we must face in 2012, then let's walk with our heads held high. Maybe they'll be at the Hague, save for Kalonzo, answering for their crimes in funding and providing inspiration to tribal militias that killed over a thousand Kenyans.
  
  And one other thing. Ruto will find out, just like Raila did, that the Kenyan voter is just one element in the leadership equation of Kenya. There is that other constituency called the international community. When that constituency stands against you, it is difficult to win Kenya. Indeed, at times I think that is why Raila has played safe with that entity. It is a lot easier to fix the thinking of the Kenyan electorate than fix the worldview of the world community about Candidate X.
  
  So if I were Raila and those who mean well for Kenya, this is the time to seek and form alliances that draw in men and women who won't whip up tribal animosity and hate against other groups, men and women who will move this nation forward as a united Kenya, not those who will perpetually trap us in the old, discredited politics of tribal alliances.
  
  It is a time to think issue not tribe.
  
  Let the man go now!Kumekucha

  
  

• Is It Time To Drop Equity Bank?

  Posted: August 18, 2009, 4:09 am by Sam Okello

  The evidence is no longer anecdotal. Equity Bank is not for us all!
  
  Over the years, since this bank started operating in Kenya, there have been recurrent complaints from a growing section of the Kenyan populace who feel the bank serves only the interests of a certain community. In keeping with my practice to breath fire when I think things aren't going right, let me say that the community folks refer to is our brothers and sisters from Central Province. It doesn't help matters that the bank is heavily staffed by men and women from that region. So if perception is anything to go by, it is time for people across the country, who feel the bank does not serve their interests, to close their accounts and walk away.
  
  A secret analysis of the bank's trends was conducted by folks I won't name here after complaints about the bank's lending patterns reached a crescendo early this year. The findings are indeed troubling. First and foremost, it is now clear that the bank generally lends larger sums of money to Kikuyus than it does to folks from elsewhere, unless those folks are supper-rich and would pay back the money lent to them within a few days. according to that study, this amounts to the bank using funds from communities across the country, who bank with it, to enrich the region from where its top management emanates. This is a morally indefensible practice.
  
  Then there is the practice of loading key positions within the banks hierarchy with members of the House of Mumbi. In another lifetime, we used to call that kind of thing tribalism. The problem with this practice is that the decision-making committees are automatically dominated by folks from Central Province. Given that state of affairs, chances that loan applications from non-Central Kenyans are scrutinized and turned down at a higher rate than would be ordinarily acceptable if the decision-makers were a lot more mixed.
  
  If you add the fact that Equity Bank's ATMs are down at the end of every month to the troubling lending trends, and the fact that the bank boasts some of the longest lines in the history of Kenyan banking, what you have is a bank that people should be fleeing, not celebrating. And by the way, those rumors you've heard about the bank's political connection are not unfounded. Looking at where the donor funds to the government are pumped and where top politicians from Central Province bank, you can't deny this political-connection reality. Lest I sound naive, let me say that in and of itself, the fact that Central political and corporate heavyweights bank at Equity is not a problem; the problem is whether the bank will survive when President Kibaki is no longer its unofficial patron.
  
  Can Equity Bank be trusted to get it right?
  
  As it's presently constituted and run, NO!
  
  Fellow Kenyans, what I'm saying is that the time to walk away from a bank that does not serve the interests of this nation's people is now. From Kisumu to Nakuru to Kakamega to Isiolo, the time to reassess our allegiance to this institution is today, not tomorrow. If we wait till tomorrow, we'll have unwittingly participated in the empowerment of one community at the expense of the ones we come from. That is not what we set out to do when we opened accounts at Equity.
  
  So let's work with banks that will empower Kenyans equally. Unless Equity meets the Lord and gets baptized!Kumekucha

  
  

• Something Important Happened in Bondo...So Do We still Need The Hague?

  Posted: July 26, 2009, 1:11 am by Sam Okello

  That lunch was good. When Ida's food is on the table, you always wanna be there.
  
  But it wasn't the lunch that was important. It was the fact that it took place deep in Luo Nyanza. The easy and cordial atmosphere within which it took place made it even more significant. But again, all those will mean nothing if that critical gesture by Raila is not reciprocated by Kibaki and the community he comes from.
  
  Admittedly, it will largely be upon Raila to woo the Kikuyu community, make that community comfortable with his style of leadership and temperament. But it will also be up to the Kikuyu to watch Raila's steps and evaluate soberly whether he is someone they can vote for and eventually support his presidency. The past, where he was dismissed merely because he didn't come from the House of Mumbi, should firmly be behind us. That is why I think something important happened in Bondo. I think a new chapter, one that must be guarded by our brothers from the Lake and those from the Hill, was opened.
  
  So what's the way forward?
  
  Mau Forest
  
  Just last week I lamented the fact that Raila seemed to be the only one concerned about the Mau. It seemed like a set up. To hear Kibaki come out resolutely about the Mau was truly refreshing. And though Michuki's colonial style approach to issues sometimes scares the hell out of me, I agree with him that there can be no backing down on this critical matter. Let the government find a humane but firm way to move those who occupy that zone. Ruto and company must be told in no uncertain terms that we will not tie a noose around our necks for political expediency.
  
  The Hague
  
  This is where Raila and Kibaki are still on the wrong side of an issue. By a wide margin, the Kenyans who want perpetrators and enablers of the post-poll violence tried at the Hague have spoken. What Kenyans are saying is that we have no faith in the Gicheru-led Judiciary. And not only that. We also have no faith in our other institutions as presently constituted. Does that mean we will forever be skeptical of these institutions? By no means. It means when they are streamlined and can act with credibility, we will have faith in them again. So let the camaraderie that started in Bondo, and must spread through the nation, not blind us. We must punish those among us who committed acts that led to massive deaths. That's why the Hague is the choice of most Kenyans to accomplish this goal.
  
  The TJRC
  
  I would have dismissed this thing as a waste of time, but something tells me it may end up doing some good if given a chance. With the humility of a man who understands the fragile nature of his past, Ambassador Kiplagat has asked Kenyans to support his team. I will do so for now. In the long run it may turn out that this TJRC thing is a waste of everybody's time. When that time comes, the support Kenyans may give it will slowly erode. What I find curious is this habit of always dismissing people, calling them names when they are appointed. Can Muite show us a Kenyan without blemish so we can appoint them? Can Koigi show us such a woman? We've all done things that we wish we never did in the past. If Ambassador Kiplagat learned from his mistake and past associations and wants to use his experience to heal this nation...give the man a chance.
  
  Migingo
  
  The President finally came out and declared that Migingo belongs to Kenya. He couldn't have picked a better venue to make this dramatic statement. With those few words, what President Kibaki did was tell the folks from his Prime Minister's backyard that he listens to their concerns. Since this matter has not been resolved with Uganda yet, it helps to know that the commander-in-chief will do whatever it takes to protect the sovereignty of Kenya.
  
  Does this Mean We've Turned a Corner?
  
  Folks, how we handle ourselves from now on will largely determine whether a corner has been turned or not. Relations are nurtured, they don't just happen. So let's give the TJRC a chance, let the Hague punish the evildoers, let the President and Prime Minister take their friendship from Bondo to every corner of this nation, and let's worry about the Kenya we turn over to our kids by taking care of the Mau Forest situation. Should we do this...and fix that colonial constitution that perpetually fails to protect our collective interests...I'll say we've turned a corner.
  
  And it will be said Kenya was reborn in Bondo.
  
  How sweet!Kumekucha

  
  

• What Do You Tell A Friend When There's A Brick Wall Ahead

  Posted: July 20, 2009, 3:23 am by Sam Okello

  That friend is Raila Odinga.
  
  I've agonized about the increasingly fragile situation this masterful politician from my backyard finds himself in. Because of his stand on various issues, he faces what is beginning to look like a quagmire, a situation he will be unable to extricate himself from when the time to run for president rolls around in 2012.
  
  The range of issues that the Prime Minister needs to worry about are growing. Obviously he is at the point where he has just about successfully alienated the Kalenjin. We all know that the Mau situation needs to be carefully handled, and that a solution must immediately be found that takes into account the interests of the folks there at the same time as the interests of the wider Kenyan, and indeed East African community, is taken care of. But this is a landmine. Should Raila have played politics on this issue and placed the future of a region in jeopardy?
  
  What do you tell a friend?
  
  Then there is the growing perception that a certain group of people is setting up the PM for failure. According to this theory, it is believed that this group has curved out only the most politically difficult issues for Raila to deal with and not Kibaki. For instance, they say, why has Kibaki not been as forceful in handling the Mau issue as Raila has been? Why hasn't he been seen to be vocal about a new constitution? And why has he appeared so disinterested in the Migingo issue when he knows that Migingo is an issue that deeply troubles the folks from his own Prime Minister's backyard? And just wait. Does it look strange that when the Hague now looks inevitable the conniving group has brought in Raila to plead with Kenyans for a local tribunal? Why can't Kibaki crisscross the nation campaigning for that dead-horse idea, the theorists ask?
  
  What do you tell a friend?
  
  If a friend is a man or a woman you love and trust, you will always tell them the truth. I've read accounts of well-meaning men and women who have advised Raila to go slow on Mau, to let the perpetrators of ethnic killings roast at the Hague, to be more defiant in the face of the charged assignments slapped on his desk by the group hell bent on making him catch the flak when things go wrong. My fear is that such people are not Raila's friends.
  
  Friends tell the truth.
  
  The truth is that Raila, as a leader, must stand firm for what is right. When those who understand the environmental issues at play at Mau tell us that we face a disaster if the activities currently ongoing there are not addressed, why would Raila choose political expediency and play to the ignorant lot that don't seem to care what will happen in just five to ten years? And since Raila signed on to work with Kibaki as a partner, why would he now turn around and cause upheaval in the coalition a good three years before the next presidential campaign season? Isn't it right for the PM to keep his end of the bargain till the time comes to say, "Let's present a new vision to the Kenyan people?"
  
  What do you tell a friend?
  
  Tell the friend to lead with conviction and wisdom. In all that you do, Hon. Prime Minister, ensure that you put the interests of this nation first and all will be just fine. And even if I should disagree with you about the local tribunal, I give you the fact that you have...at this point in time...weighed the options and decided that the local tribunal route is the best for Kenya. I hope soon you'll sense its retrogressive nature and join those of us who are pushing for the Hague.
  
  I hope you also tell your friend you are praying for them!Kumekucha

  
  

• Will Kenya Survive The Hague Trials?

  Posted: July 12, 2009, 1:09 am by Sam Okello

  Since Independence, nothing as significant as this has happened in Kenya.
  
  Over the next few months, we are all going to be witnesses to a situation where our political class, and those who handle them, will work tirelessly to invent ways to scuttle the legal process Annan and Ocampo have set in motion at the Hague. What these perpetually blinded folks will be forgetting is that this game is over. Their best way forward at this point is to hire the best attorneys money can buy and have them start work on a defense strategy that will at least minimize the damage the presence of their name in the Waki envelop will have caused.
  
  As these events unfold, Kenyans should require that those mentioned in the envelop resign immediately to pave way for further investigation. It should also be made clear to such folks that they will never hold any public position in this nation until they are cleared of the charges against them. Like I said last week, this may well be God's answer to the cry of Kenyans to be delivered from the tyranny of a ruling class that has turned out worse than the colonialist.
  
  But here is my fear.
  
  My fear is that when these folks sense that the Hague will go down with them, they may set in motion a state of affairs that may well plunge this nation into worse chaos than what we witnessed two Decembers ago. Just consider for a moment the guys whose names we know are in the envelop for sure. Ali, Uhuru, Ruto, Michuki. Those four guys, even if we left out everybody else, command terror machines in the name of Mungiki for Uhuru, Kalenjin Warriors for Ruto, the police force for Ali, and top brass in the armed forces for Michuki. If those guys sensed that they are going down at the Hague, the evil they demonstrated to be capable of in the past will repeat itself...only this time they'll want Kenya to burn with them.
  
  That said, I want to call on the members of Parliament to stand firm against a local tribunal. It is now clear that such a tribunal will not go anywhere. We have successfully demonstrated to the world how immature we still are by being incapable of doing as simple a thing as merely punishing goons who masterminded the mass murder of their fellow countrymen. Even worse is the political posturing going on for 2012v while IDPs continue to languish in the unforgiving seasonal cold weather. Two years later? May Parliament unite in defeating the pleas of Raila and Kibaki for a local tribunal. Let those of us who have worried about Kenya's sovereignty swallow this harsh pill and turn over our boys and girls to the Hague. And the first girl hurled there should be that woman in Kisumu who gave a shoot-to-kill order. I hear she's now in a comfortable office here in Nairobi. And we wonder why Annan don't trust these folks?
  
  I pray that once these evil men and women are withdrawn from circulation, this nation will have an opportunity to start afresh. I pray that we will cultivate a culture where impunity is frowned upon and integrity encouraged. A culture where corruption will not be tolerated, and God feared for what He has done. It is only when men and women of solid character run the affairs of this nation that Kenya will move toward Vision 2030 with surefootedness.
  
  We shall be free!
  
  I know we shall because out there where God lives, those who watch over us don't sleep. Woe unto those accused when the cry of an entire nation has reached the ear of the Almighty.
  
  Woe unto them!Kumekucha

  
  

• Could The Hague Be God's Answer To The Cry Of Kenyans?

  Posted: July 5, 2009, 1:15 am by Sam Okello

  I've been thinking about the Hague lately.
  
  I'm one of those folks who my friend Mutahi Ngunyi has berated as hiding behind sovereignty when the nation is under the scrutinizing spotlight of the international community. Of course I've always resented the hypocritical stance of foreign institutions that have one set of riles for Africa and another for the West. As it were, nobody can tell me to date why Ocampo has not gone after the murderous neo-cons in the States while coming after our own murderers. Such double standards are why I support Africa's drive to hold the ICC accountable for how it does business. Indeed, if it can't handle its affairs impartially, Africa might as well walk away from it. We won't miss it.
  
  That said, I hope that the ICC can get its act together and start coming after all world leaders who commit atrocities against their people. Starting with Bush and Rumsfeld, Mugabe and henchmen and on to our own folks here, it would send a powerful message if the world's only court of this importance is seen to act decisively against powerful individuals around the globe.
  
  Coming to Kenya, it seems to me that the Hague may well turn out to be God's answer to the cry of Kenyans. For years Kenyans have been burdened by the unending rule of a few families. Indeed, the Kenyattas, Mois, Kibakis and a few others have made sure that only those who agree with their brand of politics can ever make it in this country. Land and property is owned by those who are in their with them on just about everything. This is wrong.
  
  So how is the Hague God's answer?
  
  You will ask me how I know this, but that I won't answer now. What I'll tell you for sure is that I know Uhuru, Saitoti, Ruto, Ali and a few other folks have their names in the Waki list. I also know for a fact that if this thing was pursued to its logical conclusion, it would romp in Kibaki and Raila. What I'm not clear about is to what extent the ICC is willing to gamble of Kenya's security by coming after the big two. Time will tell.
  
  So my point is simple. By charging and successfully prosecuting Uhuru, Saitoti, Ali and then coming after the big two, God will have used the Hague to cleanse this land. He'll have given us a chance to begin afresh.
  
  But do we believe in Him?Kumekucha

  
  

• Affairs in Nairobi? I thought We Were Christians

  Posted: June 28, 2009, 1:25 am by Sam Okello

  In the beginning God created Adam.
  
  Okay, I won't bore you with a theological discussion on morality or give my own take on how married folks should live their lives. I don't want to give my friend Taabu a chance to come down on me with that "sermon thing." But I had a very interesting discussion with a group of ladies and gentlemen in one restaurant here in Nairobi that left me reeling. These folks insisted that affairs have become so common in Nairobi. A way of life. In fact, one lady said that what is shocking today is that anybody should be shocked if they find out their wife or husband is seeing someone out there.
  
  Really?
  
  I still remember the day I first met my beautiful Hellen. It was a sunny afternoon under the unforgiving heat of Kendu Bay. From the time we met, I knew I'd met a remarkable lady, one I wanted to know better...and even marry someday. I played my cards right and everything worked just fine. Nearly two decades later, it feels just like that first time.
  
  Love!
  
  When you think back at your own experiences with that sweet lady you call your wife, or fiancee, or girlfriend, what comes to your mind? Do you think of the moments you brought her roses and rolled a sweet kiss down her lip or do you wince at the thought of the painful things she's done to you? Do you pray for another four decades of life with her or do you wish a thunderbolt would shoot from the sky and end her life? Has your love remained undiminished by the roll of the years?
  
  I'm not naive to deny that many times people have gotten into relationships that turned out wrong and painful. I'm also aware that straying is possible. But can someone explain the growing epidemic of affairs in Nairobi? Is it the cell phone? Is it our sense that morality is a thing of the past? Is it a failure of the church to instill its relevance in our lives? Or is this just where a nation that loves everything Western (Hollywood) must inevitably find itself?
  
  C'mon, guys, I think affairs are for cowards. Why keep a sweet lady at home and go after another elsewhere? And just why would a lady switch men over a single weekend like it's something normal?
  
  Hhmmm...
  
  Let's talk about this. We'll talk war with Somalia next week.
  
  Breaking News added by Chris
  
  After denials over the weekend, the Kenyan government has finally confirmed the first case of Swine flu in the country, a student who traveled from the UK over the weekend. A public health alert is to be issued later today.Kumekucha

  
  

• Can The Mungiki Lead A Revolution?

  Posted: June 21, 2009, 1:08 am by Sam Okello

  I've avoided talking about the Mungiki because I'm terrified of those guys.
  
  Over the past few days I've been thinking about this group of hardworking, industrious and extremely dangerous guys. I've wondered what motivates them, what grievances they have...and what solution could be found to stem the rising insecurity they pause to Central Province and eventually to the country. Like many organizations without a discernible public face, the Mungiki is difficult to figure out. What is clear is that by the gruesome nature of their murderous exploits, they are sending a stern message to us that business will not be as usual until their demands are met.
  
  For starters, it is clear that this group of guys (do they have women in their ranks?) are extremely bitter with a Kenya they feel their forefathers fought for yet they can't even get jobs in. They frown at a government that does not seem to have a solution to their increasing frustrations...where they can't start businesses, can't raise decent families, can't afford the basic necessities of life, yet they see their leaders retire to expansive bungalows in tree-lined streets across the city. Why do we then wonder why they've resorted to tough tactics?
  
  I recently traveled to Nyeri and saw for myself the difficulties some of the youth of that region face. Joblessness. Poverty. Hopelessness. What struck me was the similarity of their plight to what I've often seen in Nyanza, the Rift Valley and Western Kenya. Should I go to Mombasa and other parts of Kenya, I know the story will be the same. In a word, our youth are disillusioned and are ready for a revolution. They are ready to take on the leaders and create a situation where the nation's wealth won't be concentrated in the hands of just a few folks at the expense of everybody else. In fact, what do you expect the Mungiki youth to do when they see the Kenyattas with land the size of Nyanza Province while they coil in squalids? Should they sing Glory Hallelujah? And what should they do when Kibaki used them at the 2007 elections with promises to form the core of the Kenya Army then dumped them? Sing Hail to the Chief? I don't think so.
  
  So what's the way forward?
  
  Me thinks the time has come for the Mungiki to spread its wings across Kenya. I say so because this nation is ready for a revolution and I have seen that the Mungiki has the capability and the zeal to make it happen. What the Mungiki leaders need to do is broaden the scope of their mission to include liberating Kenya from the bondage of elitism and inheritance politics. They must act to keep Kenya from falling into the hands of Uhuru, Gideon, Jimmy and other big-name kids. By so doing, they'll be creating a level playing field for tough girls like Martha Karua and untainted brilliant men who've been kept from running for office by a system that glorifies sycophancy and ridicules penniless courage.
  
  I abhor the murderous tactics of the Mungiki, but I'm also aware that we all take them seriously because of their success at intimidating communities. I hope they can turn their attention to using that success to free this nation.
  
  My word to the Mungiki is...don't kill the small man. The small does not ride in a guzzler Mercedes or Prado. The small man does not live in a gated bungalow. And as sure as the sun rises in the East, the small man does not eat in the Serena and Safari Park. Those are the toys of your enemy!
  
  Toys!
  
  I know the Mungiki can be the new Mau Mau against the black rulers who've turned out to be even worse than colonial rulers. I personally think it's time to give our brothers from Central Province a chance to kick the hell out of this deaf system. Shake the system by going after the toys.
  
  Go get them, folks!Kumekucha

  
  

• Kenyatta's Boy May Be A Good Reader But He's No Leader

  Posted: June 14, 2009, 1:05 am by Sam Okello

  The man is a drunkard.
  
  I never cease to be amused by my fellow Kenyans, especially those in the press. Reading the newspapers since that superb reading of the budget by Uhuru, you'd think the press just discovered the existence of a masterful politician in our midst. You'd think that reading, in and of itself, constitutes what makes one great. No, it doesn't. But lest I be accused of diminishing the value of oratorical skills in leadership, let me say that such skills are very necessary for an effective leader to possess.
  
  So, has Uhuru's oratory washed away his glaring weaknesses?
  
  For those who are easy to hoodwink, it seems like that one reading was what it took. For folks like me who consider the totality of a man's character, based on his history, I find the sweet music we are playing close to Uhuru's ear appalling. This is the man who grew up under the protective walls of the State House, mansions in Gatundu and who knows where else, then he went to the States to study political science, right? So what's wrong with that, you ask? For starters, I know that such overfed, blissful sons of big shots cannot feel my pain. They have never had to fight to be where they are. They are always handed everything under the direction of Mama or Papa. There is no difference between Uhuru and that fat boy president of North Korea who inherited the presidency from his dad...and is now set to slap it on his son. Talk of stench!
  
  But that's not what really bothers me.
  
  The biggest fear in me is that Kenyans can be hoodwinked into supporting a man who has not be sufficiently investigated and cleared of his alleged involvement with the Mungiki. Weren't questions raised about his presence at a State House event where plans were hatched to use that violent organization to spread terror in Kenya, ostensibly to help Kibaki retain the presidency? Wasn't his presence in Naivasha at the height of the clashes read by some as a general out in the field to bless his soldiers? And isn't this the same dude who has been accused of being perpetually drunk? How can he now be a politician reborn just by reading a budget?
  
  Fellow Kenyans, we must not allow folks like Uhuru reinvent themselves as great leaders when their past actions tell a story so different from what they try to bring to us now. Before we glorify this man, we must remember that he has questions to answer. Was he tied to the Mungiki? Is he a drunkard? Does he feel the pain of the little man? And what qualifies him to be president other than his being a son of a former president?
  
  Until Uhuru answers those questions and dispels the fears of those of us who suspect him to have a hidden agenda in seeking the presidency, I want to remind my fellow countrymen that all Uhuru did was read. Now let's watch him implement what he read. If he can turn Kenya, over the next three years into a version of that rosy picture he painted in the budget, he just might be the guy to watch.
  
  Until then, I have to wonder.Kumekucha

  
  

• Take the Kids Home First, Dammit

  Posted: June 7, 2009, 12:56 am by Sam Okello

  I had a beautiful ride to Karen the other day.
  
  When you are new in a city as expansive as Nairobi, sometimes you learn a few things the hard way. A friend asked me to visit her in the Karen area. Well, since we hadn't seen each other for long I said I'd be glad to. She asked me if I knew how to get to that side of town and I said Of course I did. But since I wasn't sure I could drive there, I decided I'd catch a Number 24.
  
  That was a mistake.
  
  Turns out Number 24 goes out on a major excursion. When I told one of those dudes who hangs at the door as the bus cruises along where I would get off, he looked at me strangely, then asked, "Why did you take a 24?"
  
  "Won't it take me to Karen?" I asked.
  
  "Yes, but you should have gone through Langata."
  
  Deng!
  
  So I was in for a longer ride than I planned. And it didn't help that just fifteen minutes into the ride my friend started calling...wondering why it was taking so long. "Is it the rains?" she demanded.
  
  I said, "Nope."
  
  "Then what's the matter?"
  
  The matter was...I was in the wrong bus, but being there made me see something that completely messed up the rest of my evening. As our bus came to a stop at one of those places where they empty folks and fill up, I saw a bevvy of excited school kids ready to jump in and head home. And by then it had started drizzling. I looked into the bus and could tell that there wasn't enough room for all of them. Was I going to have to get out of the bus to let in two more?
  
  Man, imagine my surprise when the bus stopped, let out two passengers, then started off without the kids. Not a single one. Instead of the kids, the dude who hangs at the door allowed in two women and a hefty man! To my further dismay, nobody in the bus seemed to mind this sorry picture.
  
  I rushed to the dude who hangs at the door and asked him to stop the bus. "The kids," I said.
  
  "Wachana nao."
  
  Leave the kids?
  
  I couldn't take this. I told him to let four kids in and I'd pay the adult rate for them. To my sweet surprise, other parents in the bus took a child each and before long our bus was filled with happy children heading home to their parents and to do their homework.
  
  In spite of the touching ending of that drama, I was left with many questions on my mind. How can it be that we would let parents ride home ahead of their children? I understand the right of the matatus to maximize profits, but are those profits worth our telling the young, helpless Kenyans that we don't give a damn about them? Can we treat the kids like they don't matter and still wonder why they turn out so angry and disillusioned in this society?
  
  Someone needs to act, to work out a policy that forces the matatus to take the children home ahead of their parents. Until then, my fellow Kenyans, if you are in a matatu and a child is about to be left behind because he/she won't pay as an adult, step in and pay for that child.
  
  Take the kids home first, dammit!Kumekucha

  
  

• Mutula, Tell Those Hypocrites We Can Handle Our Affairs

  Posted: June 1, 2009, 1:03 am by Sam Okello

  Mutula, Saitoti and Wako are off to an important meeting. Those three guys are going out there to defend the Kenyan government against accusations of orchestrated police brutality, bordering on heninous acts like extra-judicial killings and other acts so despicable they've warranted the intervention of the international community.
  
  As the three gentlemen go out there, I've been stunned by the discord displayed by the government regarding Professor Helston's report. It is true that the ODM should have been consulted over this matter so that a coordinated and agreed upon response be formulated. I however think it was wrong for the ODM to come out and essentially walk away from what initial response of the government. There must be matters that we can handle differently, especially where we deal with hypocritical entities like the Western watchdog institutions.
  
  Before anybody accuses me of condoning the mass killings that went on in Kenya and the troubling extra-judicial killings that may still be going on, let me say that I deplore any acts that are not in comformity with the laws of our land. What I can't stand is the hypocricy of an international community that will let a man like George Bush go free after killing thousands of Iraqis and flaggrantly trampling on international law to attack another state while calling on Kibaki to defend himself. Why is Kenya called to account and not the United States?
  
  And wasn't it just recently that they arrested Ms. Kabuye, the aide to President Kagame, accusing her of involvement in the unfortunate acts that sparked the killings in Rwanda? Tell me again why they would want to come after this lady and not Donald Rumsfeld and the bunch of Neo-cons in the U.S. who thought out and sanctioned the war that has left the Middle East in flames. What is the difference.
  
  Look, Kenya is a sovereign state that can hadnle its affairs just fine. This crap about Kenya walking on the brink of collapse and becoming a failed state is rubbish. Our democratic institutions are alive even though they need to be streamlined and made to work in a more efficient manner. What we need to do is make the Judiciary, Parliament and the Press function in a manner reflective of the existance of a vibrant free-market democracy.
  
  We will do it.
  
  So, Bwana Mutula, go look those hypocrites in the eye and tell them to go to hell. But you may want to know that when you come back home we will demand answers from you, Saitoti and Wako over what reallly happened? We will want to know who instituted the silent policy of killings within the police force and how many Kenyans have lost their lives in such a fashion. In the end, we will demand that the chief of police and all those who knew about this matter but kept quiet be held accountable...here in Kenya.
  
  For now, show those hypocrites what we are made of, will you?
  
  God bless Kenya!Kumekucha

  
  

• It's Just Two Minutes to Midnight in Nairobi

  Posted: May 24, 2009, 1:08 am by Sam Okello

  I've read accounts of a doomsday clock in the Oval Office, Washington D.C. According to those unverified accounts, that clock is actually on the floor and can only been seen by those who are keen to detail. In Dan Brown's political thriller, Deception Point, the clock is supposed to be carefully interwoven in the fabric of the sprawling carpet that gives that office the look and feel of the most important office in the world.
  
  But I'm not here to tell you about the Oval Office clock. What I want to tell you is that there is another doomsday clock ticking in Nairobi as we speak. Everywhere I look, I see storm clouds gathering. The minute hand of our own doomsday clock stands at just two minutes to midnight. And the seconds are ticking incessantly. Is anybody else alarmed by what we see around us?
  
  MUSEVENI:
  
  I can't remember another time when Uganda so bodly challenged Kenya's territorial integrity. And I can't recall a time when our President let that landlocked neighbour behave as if it was the regional superpower. How can it be that our Commander-in-chief will let the pride of Kenya be sullied in the mad this long? Don't we have generals who can stand up and tell the Commander-in-chief enough is enough? I miss Mulinge and Opande, man!
  
  KIKWETE:
  
  And now suddenly we have Jakaya Kikwete feeling like he can go to the United States and discuss Kenya. What the hell does that Tanzanian know about Kenya? The fact that Bush sent him here with a stern message for our leaders a year ago does not make him some maharishi on matters Kenyan. If he doesen't think it funny for our leader to discuss his nation anywehere at its midnight hour, he should desist from discussing Kenya at our midnight hour. We are and will always be lightyears ahead of TZ.
  
  OBAMA:
  
  Then there is Obama. The man is not coming to Kenya. I've heard many people castigate Kibaki and Odinga, folks saying that our nation is in turmoil so Obama couldn't visit. Crap. Here is what I say...if he is the kind of a guy who would only visit us because everything was okay, let him stay the hell away. Like his nation that is grappling with racism, classism and periodically the madness of the Bush type, our nation will have issues it grapples with from time to time. Does it mean when we face those issues we should be shunned?
  
  I feel that Barack Obama, by shunning Kenya, has missed a golden opportunity to stand in the middle of Nairobi and proclaim his wishes for Kenya right in the face of Kibaki and Odinga. It would have been a powerful symbol that this son of Kogelo would come here and make it known that he is solidly for reforms. To send some dude called Johnny Carson...and an ambassador who is partly responsoble for the mess we are in makes me sick to my stomach. And may Obama be told that we will have no use for him should he come here after his presidency is over.
  
  KENYANS:
  
  As a nation, I feel the right response to the foreign challenges we face must be to rally around His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki and the Rt Honourable Prime Minister Raila Odinga. As fervently as I disagree with Kibaki on just about everything, when the nation is under siege on multiple fronts, we must rally solidly behind him. We must all stand ready to follow his directives whenever he feels Uganda must be taken head on, and Tanzania must be calmed down, and Obama must be told we can handle our affairs...even when the process looks chaotic sometimes.
  
  Fellow Kenyans, we may have our family fights that sometimes manifest themselves in the form of raw tribalism and other isms, but at the end of the day we will always be Kenyans. One big family. Let's not let our family feuds weaken us to the point where dependent nations like Uganda and Tanzania begin to feel they have a leg on our throat. We must always work hard to remain the regional superpower.
  
  So at just two minutes to midnight, let's give our President and Prime Minister the support they need to confront the nation's foreign issues. It's that kind of a time when we must stand bega kwa bega, as Phil would say, and proclaim to the world that we are Kenya...and we stand ready to move our nation forward.
  
  Those trying to mess with us...be warned.
  
  God bless Kenya!Kumekucha

  
  

• We Are Now Two Nations Under God

  Posted: May 17, 2009, 1:29 am by Sam Okello

  The blind won't see it, but it's the sad reality.
  
  Allow me to be candid again today. My retired old man always told me that when things go wrong don't sugarcoat anything. Talk candidly and talk with force until the wrong is corrected. I intend to do just that, but I must wonder about Kenya. Have we finally reached the point where nobody can bring this nation back to the unity we once experienced under the dictatorial regimes of Kenyatta and Moi?
  
  Last week I watched with gloom as an event that should have been solemn was turned into just another sickening political show. I watched as the Kikuyu elite in the PNU led their pretend supporters like Noah Wekesa, Wokoli and others to the mass funeral of victims of the post election violence. In an instant an event that should have stopped each Kenyan for a few moments of reflection was turned into a Kikuyu affair. By so doing, I had to wonder what the intention of Kibaki and his handlers was. Were they calling for unity or reminding the Kikuyu Kingdom that there is an enemy out there? If so, was that funeral a call for Kenyan unity or a blatant call for GEMA unity? I'll let you be the judge.
  
  The failure by the ODM, the coalition that brings Kenyans together against Kikuyu hegemony, also spoke volumes. What you saw was another case of Kenya being split right down the middle. You may choose to see it differently for fear of dealing with the consequences of the direction this nation is headed, but I see it for what it is. This nation is now two nations under God. We have Kenya, the bloc of six provinces that voted ODM and takes its marching orders from the Prime Minister. Then we have Central and Eastern, the bloc that voted PNU and now feels surrounded by an increasingly agitated fellow Kenyans.
  
  I've taken calls from friends abroad who shake their heads at what they see as the inexplicable intransigence of Kenyans. Why are you so keen on destroying your country, they ask. But they don't understand. They don't understand that after the theft of elections last year, Kenya lost her innocence. We now feel just like another African country headed straight for the doldrums. Even that crap about Kenya being an island of peace sounds hollow to our ears...it doesn't hold the power to unite us for a purpose as it once did.
  
  Two nations under God?
  
  I invite you to a sober debate. I'm aware too that the Big Boys will come here in droves to dilute the impact of this post. They will fail. And may I just warn that I no longer use the blogger name Sam Okello, which the Big Boys have acquired as their own. What an honor.
  
  We shall overcome, but what will it take?
  
  On this sunny morning in Nairobi, I wish on each of you a cool breeze.Kumekucha

  
  

• The Big Boys Are Watching Us

  Posted: May 11, 2009, 1:35 am by Sam Okello

  It was the big boys impersonating me.
  
  Two days ago I dropped a post here about a contemptuous Kikuyu Kingdom. Many bloggers responded with fire, called me the juiciest names they could recall from their days before they got saved. Obviously there were others who attempted a rational discussion and I appreciated that very much. The free flow of thought is always a good thing.
  
  Today I'm writing to confirm what my good friend Chris has always claimed here. The Big Boys are indeed watching this space. My folks who always track down cyber threats to my work and words carried out a check on who had successfully broken into my profile. When they gave me the report, it brought a chill at first, then another smile, just like the one I had at the Kenya National Library. It occurred to me that The Big Boys are watching us here at KK.
  
  By impersonating me and using a string of anonymous, they wanted to derail the healthy discussion that should have followed my post. They failed. In between the noise, you found men and women who saw my post for what it was...a provocative piece that called on us to look around and see what was going on.
  
  It makes me feel pretty good that through the tireless efforts of Chris and other sharp bloggers on KK, this space has been molded into an authoritative voice for the millions of Kenyan at home and abroad. For those who have friends and relatives who don't read us yet, call them today and let them know what they are missing.
  
  Seriously, if the big boys are reading us, why wouldn't every Kenyan want to know what we are saying? Forget the Daily Nation commentators, read Chris and Taabu and Sayra and Kalamari and Urlnx and our other great minds. The only guy you may want to avoid reading like a plague is my friend Phil...at least until he honors his pledge to buy me that lunch at Kosewe.
  
  Oh, and avoid reading Sam Okello by all means. That guy, like one blogger said, is bure kabisa.
  
  On this sweet morning in Nairobi, I wish on each of you a cool breeze.Kumekucha

  
  

• This Is Not About Uhuru, Its About A Contemptuous Kikuyu Kingdom

  Posted: May 10, 2009, 11:11 am by Sam Okello

  Wait.
  
  So the Minister of Finance is Uhuru Kenyatta? The Permanent Secretary is a Mr. Kinyua? The folks at the Central Bank are from Central Province? And the line up at the Kenya Revenue Authority is top-heavy with folks from that same zone? Hhmmm..why are we stunned that 9.2 billion shillings are the subject of a growing scandal now?
  
  Look, the folks from Central Province who frequent this site will accuse me of tribalism, but this is the one time I don't really care what they say. What I see is an increasingly corrupt and inept Kibaki government, one where top officials are engaging in the kind of looting that makes everybody in this administration look drunk and utterly contemptuous of Kenyans. It's almost as if these guys have detected the end of Kenya and want to line their pockets ahead of the coming deluge. What I must ask is...where do they intend to spend this money after the ruins they'll have left behind?
  
  Folks, let me tell you something about the Luo. We Luos have something called temperance. We have a sense of shame. If a Luo was president, I can guarantee you that the nation's treasury would not be manned by members of one community like is the case now. A Luo would not allow a situation where everybody at the Central Bank, and at the State House, and at the KRA, and at the Ministry of Finance had names that reflected the texture of one region. Don't our brothers from Central have a sense of shame?
  
  The other day I was at the Kenya National Library for a service. In the department where I sought service, I found five sweet women talking in that deep Kikuyu that some of the Kikuyu children born and bred here in Nairobi wouldn't even understand. For a moment I felt mad, then I started laughing. It was right there that what has been going on in Kenya hit me. Here it is: In this Kibaki presidency, Kenya has slowly transformed into a Kikuyu Kingdom. Everywhere you go you find top and mid-level managers who might as well speak that deep Kikuyu at work. Why would they want to speak English or Swahili when everybody around is some kind of a House of Mumbi descendant? Indeed, why not just nationalize Agikuyu, they may ask themselves.
  
  The question this state of affairs begs is this: Are the Kikuyu in Kenya who are leaders and managers in the public and private sectors hiring only Kikuyus to work for them? How can it be that the KRA is full of Kikuyus? How can it be that at the State House only Kikuyus feel welcome? Didn't the Luo apply? Didn't the Luhya?
  
  Man!
  
  I've dropped all pretenses today because I want to say that this nation cannot afford another Kikuyu presidency. We want a Kenyan presidency, one where all the people of this great land will feel like they are part of a system that works for them. Uhuru is part of a cruel and shameless tradition that's been raping this nation since independence. Did you see him say with a straight face that it was a typing error? Even his own kids didn't buy that crap.
  
  It's enough, folks. Kimunya, Michuki, Uhuru...and Who Next?
  
  I can't wait for the end of this kingdom. It stinks.Kumekucha

  
  

• At 1:30 PM, Monday 20th 2009, KIBAKI MUST ANNOUNCE OUR MILITARY'S OPTIONS ON MIGINGO

  Posted: April 19, 2009, 4:14 am by Sam Okello

  This is what I want His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki to say tomorrow:
  
  Fellow Kenyans, the hour is 1:30 p.m. On this Monday, April 20 2009, I have instructed our nation's military commanders to begin working on a war plan with Uganda over Migingo Islands. By taking such an action, I'm calling on the Uganda government one final time to pull its troops out of the sovereign territory of Kenya or be prepared for military action.
  
  Due to the drastic nature of a potential war in this region, my government has worked tirelessly over the past weeks and months to get the Ugandan government to respect the territorial integrity of Kenya, but as you may have noticed our goodwill efforts have been met with sustained provocation from the Uganda military and the highest levels of that government. In fact, only a few days ago, after I personally spoke with President Yoweri Museveni and it seemed like this matter may be peacefully resolved, the Ugandan side responded by sending more troops into Migingo, arresting fishing Kenyans and flying reconnaissance planes over the island.
  
  This is unacceptable.
  
  As it is my duty to prepare Kenyans for every eventuality, and to protect the security of this nation as the commander in chief, I hereby exercise my constitutional duty by warning the Ugandan government that should these acts of provocation continue, the Kenyan military will launch an attack at a time of our choosing to defend the rights of the Kenyans on Migingo Island and to safeguard the timeless boundaries of our nation.
  
  I still hope common sense will prevail and the Ugandan government will take this final opportunity to do the right thing. But should that fail to happen within the next few days, my government has elected not to take war as an option off the table.
  
  God bless Kenya!Kumekucha

  
  

• The Cold Nairobi Nights

  Posted: April 9, 2009, 12:07 pm by Sam Okello

  The nights in Nairobi can be really cold.
  
  Many nights in this capital I go to sleep at around ten and crawl under my covers when the temperatures are still pretty sweet. In fact, I'm into this habit of staying outdoors to suck in the sensuous air with my rambunctious sons. They've fallen deeply in love with the land of their father.
  
  What I always find shocking is the heat of the day. Look, I just came back from Indiana and shouldn't have to complain about the swinging temperatures in these equatorial lands, but I do, man. That said, I still love Kenya better. The weather here is fantastic, the food is awesome and the people are so sweet.
  
  Today as I walked down Koinange Street and had to get into a store/shop to escape the heat, I thought of the erratic Kibaki leadership. We have been through a perpetual ride that takes us high then low. What has been noticeable through this man's cursed presidency is that the nation is only cool when others make it so. What would have have happened had Raila not taken a bullet in his chest for Kenya after the stolen elections? Indeed, what good have we seen in this nation where Kibaki acted alone?
  
  All I'm saying tonight, as you take this Easter break, is that we are tired of the now-cold now-hot Kibaki presidency. Can't this man from Othaya ever make it cool for a prolonged period of time.
  
  Make Kenya cool, man!Kumekucha

  
  

• Storm Clouds Gathering Over Nairobi

  Posted: April 5, 2009, 10:11 am by Sam Okello

  When all hell breaks loose in Nairobi, I'll be right here to die with my fellow countrymen. I'll drive down to the JKIA to kiss good bye Kenyans who will have renewed visas to foreign lands and kept their passports ready. After seeing the cowards off, I'll drive back to the city to help this nation figure out where we went wrong and how to get back on track.
  
  You see, I'm getting increasingly pessimistic about the possibility of a meaningful truce between the ODM and PNU. It looks as if the accord signed between Odinga and Kibaki was a silly stop-gap measure, one the PNU side had no intention of honoring. How is it that we are unable to implement Agenda Four? Who is it that stands to gain by keeping the country tied to our moribund constitution? And who is it that stands to gain by remaining adamant in the face of urgent calls to institute sustainable land reforms?
  
  Folks, it is easy to write from the States or Europe or anywhere else and sound tough as hell, but when you are within these borders and you see the faces of destitute, hungry mothers and children, when you talk to a security guard and they tell you that they have to walk from their assignment at a CBD complex to a squalid they call home in Ngomongo because they can't afford the fare, that's when you begin to understand why the games Kibaki's inner circle is playing with our security are not funny at all.
  
  As I write this article, I'm sitting in my office, just across from Uhuru Park. There is a beautiful worship service going on there. Men, women and children are dancing and praising God for Kenya. They are calling upon God to bless our nation. But is God listening? How come just yesterday a meeting meant to heal the coalition government blew up in the faces of our leaders? And how come there is palpable angst all over this nation? Have we come to a point where we can't resolve our differences because Uhuru Kenyatta must be made president of Kenya? Have we come to a point where perpetrators of the post-election violence have determined that they will lead this country...even by force...or let it burn?
  
  Enough!
  
  Kenya belongs to all of us. The time has come to tell those who think they are more Kenyan than the rest of us that we will not take their crap anymore. The Prime Minister was gracious enough to save this nation when it was clear victory was snatched from him. At what point will Kibaki and his team reciprocate that gesture? What kind of greed drives the men around this leader?
  
  Enough!
  
  Either Kenya is for us all or it must be for none of us.Kumekucha

  
  

• The Bitter Truth...An Obama in Kenya Won't Happen in 2012

  Posted: March 18, 2009, 8:16 am by Sam Okello

  No, I've not met Prime Minister Raila Odinga as some have claimed.
  
  Not too long ago I and a couple of friends in the Diaspora brought in a team to Kenya to study and give us a report on the viability of a people-driven change, one that would closely emulate the miraculous election of President Barack Obama in the United States. The team carried out studies and employed some of the best approaches to a matter of this nature, even where I thought their methodology would lead to suspect conclusions. In the long run, their findings have proved sound and fortified within solid reason.
  
  After careful analysis of the massive data the team slapped on the table for our consideration, we all arrived at the conclusion that it would be impossible for Kenya to replicate what happened in the United States. There are simply too many logistical, political and historical obstacles that stand in the way of realization of this dream in 2012. For me, the most disturbing finding of the team was the fact that most people who admire Obama and wish for a repeat of his achievements here in Kenya were the very ones who categorically said they wouldn't vote for that person if they were not from "My tribe!"
  
  Hhmm...!
  
  Faced with this state of affairs, my friends and I asked the team to study the history of Kenya and its leadership and give us a report on who best qualifies to lead the nation in a post-Kibaki Kenya if a younger, charismatic leader can't emerge. Without hesitation, the team gave us this name: Raila Odinga.
  
  I'm aware of all the names I'll be called for stating the findings of this team, but I have to go with my conscience on this one. There is only one leader in Kenya today who can and will work hard to push reforms. There is only one leader who will look out for the interests of all Kenyans. And there is only one leader who will ensure that perpetrators of the heinous acts that were visited on innocent Kenyans after the elections are punished.
  
  That leader is Raila Amolo Odinga.
  
  Uhuru, Martha, Saitoti and Kalonzo are a recipe for disaster.
  
  Where were they when Raila risked his life to expand the freedoms we enjoy in Kenya today? And on what side did they stand when Kenya faced her darkest hour? Were they with progressive forces or with those who would deny Kenyans their democratic rights?
  
  Traitors will always be traitors!
  
  And with that, my fellow countrymen, I bow out of presidential politics and present to you, for renewed consideration, the Langata MP, the Rt Honorable Raila Amolo Odinga. I've not said I'm out of contention for Honourable Member from Rarieda. More on that later. For now, my word is...for a prosperous, peaceful and united Kenya to emerge, I call upon the Diaspora Kenyans and our compatriots within this great land to help build Raila and help sustain the dream and reforms he promised to deliver were he elected in 2007.
  
  Let's keep the dream alive.
  
  It's Raila 2012...or sooner!Kumekucha

• God Help Us If We Still Don't Know The Kenya We Want

  Posted: February 5, 2009, 12:55 am by Sam Okello

  A conference on the Kenya we want?
  
  This should have been a grand idea just shortly before independence. At that time, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Arap Moi and other Kenyan freedom fighters should have gone around the nation seeking opinion on the Kenya Kenyans wanted. As a matter of fact, they did. They went around the nation listening to the humiliating stories Kenyans had to tell about working as servants in white homes and fields, caring for the brutish children of Asians who called grown men "boyi", and toiled in their own little shambas that never yielded food enough to feed their perpetually threatened families. After listening to the anguish of fellow Kenyans, these leaders acted. They mobilized the folks and took back this nation from the colonialists.
  
  Our founding fathers' goals were not grand by any stretch of the imagination. They wanted to eradicate poverty, hunger and disease. That these three goals have not been met...and seem to have exponentially grown...is testament to the fact that our post-independence leaders have failed to lead this nation. How do we expalain the fact that while Kenyans have sank deeper into poverty, the Mois, the Kenyattas, the Odingas and the Kibakis have grown wealthier in equal measure? And how is it that while Kenyans are today going hungry we are learning daily of the culpability of men like Ruto and Fidel in causing the biting maize problem? Still, how are we to explain the fact that while most Kenyans can't afford insurance and are saddled with crushing medical bills, our leaders are healthy, overfed and boast some of the grandest perks in the world?
  
  The Kenya we want?
  
  Who the hell came up with this idea? When Kibaki campaigned last year, was he campaigning without a vision for Kenya? Did Raila campaign without knowing where he wanted to take this nation? And did Kalonzo Musyoka promise to do A and B and C for Kenyans without knowing what we wanted? Or is this just our leaders' way of telling us that they've been so disconected from the rest of us...that they have no clue what we want? These guys never cease to amaze me.
  
  But this I must say. That if after all these years these folks don't know what we want, they have no business leading us. If they truly wanted to know what Kenyans want they didn't have to call in Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim and Renneberger and Lidner and the bunch of Cabinet ministers and our don't-give-a-damn MPs to that forum. What they needed to do was go to the people. They should have gone to Kibera, Nyeri, Kisumu, Chavakali, Voi, Lodwar and other towns across this nation. Or better still, why not look at the face of that starving, crying woman on the frontpage of the Standard newspaper or the traumatizing pictures of fellow Kenyans burning to death at Sachangwan just to fetch some gas/petrol that might be sold so food can be put on the table?
  
  The Kenya we want?
  
  Bullshit.
  
  All I know is that the Kenya we want has no place for clueless men like Kibaki, Raila, Musyoka, Uhuru, Ruto and the band of MPs who have lost touch with their constituents. Next time they call a conference like this, they will find better answers if they can hold it in Berlin or Toronto. Why? Because rather than make the dignitaries from around the globe come here to tell us what kind of Kenya we want, why not make it easy on them and go to the counties they live in?
  
  Listen...
  
  Kenyans know the Kenya they want. Just wait till 2012. You will see!Kumekucha

• It's Been A Week of Death And Horror Here At Home

  Posted: February 1, 2009, 1:37 am by Sam Okello

  No, God is not punishing Kenyans like I heard some preachers say. Why would He? The God I know has never held poverty against those who are in that situation. What happened at Nakumatt was an accident whose impact would have been tremendously minimized had people been trained to deal with such emergencies. What I still find troubling was that thousands of curious wananchi actually stood right within the area of the ravaging inferno even as the gas tanks exploded right in front of them. How could it be that they didn't sense the present and active danger they were exposing themselves to? And how can it be that my fellow Kenyans could expose themselves to the deadly fumes emanating from the burning building?
  
  I'm still stunned.
  
  The Sachangwan tragedy is easier to explain. Over there, it was a case of poverty-stricken Kenyans trying to lay hands on some badly needed mafuta at home. My heart goes out to them for running right into a death trap. The sad thing is that these two tragedies within a week, coming so soon after the horrible weeks we've had with the incessant bangles and irresponsible behaviour of our politicians and corporate heads, has left Kenyans with a sense that something has gone gravely wrong. Indeed, it's because of this sense of a gathering storm that some preachers are tempted to think God is not happy with us.
  
  Not so.
  
  To say it like it is, there are tragedies that however prepared we make ourselves will always catch us off guard. Accidents happen. However, I still think the Nakumatt leadership must be charged with criminal negligence and made to pay for the lives that were lost unnecessarily by the reckless behaviour of some of their guards. Just how stupid were these guards? How could they block people who were running for dear life? The fact Nakumatt could hire such idiots is enough to charge them and make them take responsibility for their actions.
  
  As for the tankers, I'm speechless. Those monsters are all over the place, cruising down the streets, even within the cities, with their deadly cargo. We simply have no road-network designed to keep these monsters from residential and city premises. So is there anything the government can do to minimize trouble? To begin with, it would be prudent if a massive safety campaign is launched. Kenyans must be told to keep away from fires. As soon as smoke is detected, folks have no more than five minutes to get out of danger. Don't think of your kipande or birth certificate or your boom box which you just brought home. Think of your life.
  
  Run!
  
  That said, I was gratified to see the leaders of the nation out there with wananchi. And you could see the strain and pain in some of them. I hope the images they saw at Nakumatt and Sachangwan goad them to take actions that will keep Kenyans safe in the face of accidents of the kind we've had to deal with.
  
  My condolences to all the families who've lost loved ones, and may the Lord have mercy on us if those preachers should be right.

• It Rained In Nairobi Through The Night

  Posted: January 27, 2009, 3:35 am by Sam Okello

  Rain shouldn't be a big deal, right?
  
  Wrong.
  
  There's something about rain that just makes me excited. When it rains at daytime, I mean the soft, silent type, the gentle tap taps of the drops always pull me to the window to watch and marvel at the sudden freshness the waters from the sky bring down upon us. The effect of that freshness is always a renewal on a thirsty, dusty earth. But more so, it's a way of nature reminding us of the need for us to appreciate the beauty of the greenery around us, the blooming of colourful flowers and the delicate dance of succulent fruits as they sprout off the branches of guava and mango trees.
  
  Rain.
  
  So as I slept my night away in a Nairobi suburb, I felt sweet to be in a nation the Lord has blest with so much. We have some of the most beautiful people in the world. In fact, yesterday as I walked down Moi Avenue in the city, I took my time to admire my fellow countrymen. I watched the men in their elegant suits, the women dangling on high heels and dressed to kill, the adolescents catching matatus that promised the indulgence of the loudest Jua Cali, Wahu and some Western music, and the mamas/mothers in a hurry, anxious to get home to their children, the ones they left at home with the maids in the morning.
  
  In moments such as these, I always stop to thank God for Kenya. Yes, we have one of the most wretched governments in the world, and yes our people are starving in the countryside, and yes our children are not in school because their teachers are fighting for better pay, and yes corruption has come back to us full-force, but look on the brighter side with me this morning. Isn't it a blessing that we could wake up to a renewed city because the heavens sent rain upon us?
  
  As we enjoy the calm and freshness of this day, may it be our hope and prayer that our leaders can see themselves in the role of rain...so that their actions may have a renewing and refreshing effect on the people of our beloved nation.
  
  God bless Kenya!

• This Is A Quagmire

  Posted: January 25, 2009, 1:06 am by Sam Okello

  We are stuck!
  
  Tell me, what in the world happened to Prime Minister Raila Odinga? Is this the same man we thought was a democrat and voted for in droves? Is this the man the Diaspora Kenyans welcomed to cities across the globe, hailing as the man to bring needed change to Kenya? How can it now turn out that he is railing against the media, threatening to deal with "...a certain media house?" And how did it happen that his party was not in Parliament to stop the passage of a bill that was to gag the media? Incidentally, have you heard the PM or any of his brigades talk about reversing that dreadful signature the President scribbled somewhere to bring the law to life? In my opinion, all these incidents amount to this: Raila Amollo Odinga is no democrat, and neither is he a reformer. This man may well be a dangerous dictator hiding his true colors from us until we make the big mistake of electing him president.
  
  Let us rehearse for a moment the Raila we've come to know since he became Prime Minister. He started off by trying to betray his friend and erstwhile fighter, William Ruto. It took the threat of a serious rift in the ODM for him to change his mind. Next came the issue of unga. He went out of his way to assure us that prices would immediately go down. Tell me if they have. Then came the gas/petrol mess. Apparently we should be reassured by the fact that he didn't know what was going on there, so he is clean. And the corruption that's now roiling the Kibaki-Raila administration? The two principals have found a way to deal with it: Collective responsibility. If this is not a quagmire, what is?
  
  In fact, what should we make of Raila's son's alleged involvement in shifting of corn/maize from its intended point of delivery to Southern Sudan? And what should we make of his younger son's involvement in crashing a government BMW when the rest of us were asleep? What, I ask, should we make of the Prime Minister's increasing agitation and his wish to shut us up? Is it because he doesn't want his increasing goofs to hit the headlines? Or is this just a man who being in the government has finally exposed his true character?
  
  We have four more years to go with this painful load we're carrying called the Coalition Government. In that time, the full character of all the key players in this Kenyan version of a Russian Roulette will be revealed. But if what we have seen in all of them, especially my brother Raila, is anything to go by, we're in deep trouble. As we have called for in this and other forums, the time to seek new leadership has come. We must be prepared to lock horns with Kibaki's man, Uhuru Kenyatta, or we will watch as Kenya goes to the dogs in the year of our Lord 2012.
  
  And just like Mutahi Ngunyi yesterday, let me pledge my support and admiration for the teachers who are fighting for "Haki Yetu." Teach us how to deal with and defeat the insensitivity of this cartel that has its grip tightly on Kenya's throat.
  
  We shall overcome!

• Why Renneberger Must Leave Nairobi

  Posted: January 21, 2009, 1:53 am by Sam Okello

  Ambassador Renneberger disgraced himself.
  
  Growing evidence has shown that Ambassador Renneberger was part of the colossal failure that was our elections. It is not a secret that American ambassadors are usually sent to foreign capitals to safeguard the interests of America, which include democratic ideals. The fact that Ambassador Renneberger could decide to go against what he was sent to Nairobi to do is a breach of the trust the United States government bestowed on him.
  
  It is now clear that the ambassador was instrumental in misleading American agencies about the true picture of events in Kenya, both prior to and after the elections. It was because of him that the State Department hurriedly congratulated Kibaki when just about everybody with any common sense knew that the Othaya MP had not won the election. Indeed, according to exit polls by a Republican institute, Raila Odinga had beaten Kibaki by no less than seven percentage points. But through determined treachery, the ambassador saw to it that the polls were withheld till August last year. He asked that the poll results be sat on.
  
  As if that were not bad enough, the ambassador followed this disgraceful act with a campaign of deceit that most Kenyans have not come to terms with todate. He was the man who made Jendayi Frasier look so confused when she came to Nairobi. He was the one who initially made Condy seem so out of the loop until she got a briefing from more credible sources than the partisan ambassador. It was this same ambassador who saw to it that the three-way structure that bundled in Kibaki-Raila-Kalonzo was put in place to calm the waters after he realized the scale of his screw up.
  
  Whenever I meet Kenyans who praise Renneberger for saving Kenya I feel like throwing up. He didn't save Kenya. He set Kenya on fire. He made it possible for folks who'd rigged elections to find a safety valve. I can only hope that there are people with sufficient resources and the urge to find out the true role of this ambassador in the election debacle.
  
  Until then, it is time for President Obama to ask this dude to pack up. And when he gets home, may he send our regards to George W. Bush should he pay a courtesy call on him in Dallas.
  
  So long, Mr. Ambassador.

• Still The White Man's Burden...What A Shame!

  Posted: January 18, 2009, 1:26 am by Sam Okello

  This makes me sick to my stomach.
  
  Something happened in Nairobi on Friday that made me cringe with shame. I watched with dismay as our President and Prime Minister took a tongue lashing from the donors, led by Lidner and Renneberger, over the corrupt tendencies brazenly creeping up in government departments. But what stunned me more than anything was the temerity of the President to ask for aid within the same week that The Daily Nation listed six mega scandals involving the swindling of billions of shillings. Imagine what the donors must have been thinking of our leaders. And did you see the flashy cars they came in to beg? Sometimes it shames me to be led by such idiots.
  
  About a year ago I lamented, right here on Kumekucha, the fact that we Africans have chosen to remain at a very elemental level when it comes to administering ourselves and conducting our affairs with posterity in mind. How can it be that so many years after independence we still can't feed a population of less than fifty million? What's gonna happen when we are seventy or one hundred million? How long do we intend to go down on our knees to Westerners after mismanaging our resources? To be blunt, how long will we remain the white man's burden?
  
  I have been vociferously opposed to the constant watchman role played by the foreigners in my country. I've always seen what they do as a way of telling us that we are not equal to the task of governing ourselves. Today I have to swallow my pride and say that as long as we are led by this group of fossils, we need the donors and the foreign governments with leverage to plant a foot firmly on the neck of the Kibaki-Raila administration. These two men are leading the most corrupt government in history of Kenya.
  
  I'm well aware of the fact that this week will be dominated by the Obama events in Washington D.C., where our corrupt government has sent Wetangula and others. It would have been nice if they had gone there to honor a man whose ideals inspire what's going on in Kenya. The shame is that everything Obama stands for, our government sneers upon. It wold have been better if Wetangula had led this delegation to the inauguration of Hugo Chavez.
  
  The good news is that we will stop being the white man's burden by 2012. The way to do it is to elect a man of integrity, one who has mingled with white thinking and knows the psychology behind action, one who knows how to get things done, and who will make the nation's people proud to be called Kenyan again.
  
  We can elect such a man.
  
  We must elect him in 2012 or forever hold our...

• Martha, Admitting Failure Dosen't Help Anything...Stepping Aside Might

  Posted: January 14, 2009, 9:34 am by Sam Okello

  Martha says we're losing the war on corruption.
  
  Really?
  
  I have to wonder when she found that out. Is this her way of finally admitting that her office has failed to carry out one of its core duties of fighting corruption? I still recall that sometime last year the good lady from Gachugu called on the necessary authorities to slash the hefty pay the government was paying a man called Ringera to fight corruption. One year later Ringera is still paid the same amount...and this at a time when he has nothing to show for all that burden his salary has dumped on the Kenyan taxpayer. In fact, if a man who is supposed to fight corruption can't have the moral compass to sense that accepting a pay of 2.5 Million is in itself corrupt, then how do we expect him to stop those who share his kind of mentality?
  
  Back to Martha. I was amused when I heard her say that we are losing the war on corruption. No. We are not losing the war. She is losing the war. And Ringera is losing the war. They are the two top officials in government charged with the responsibility to protect the taxpayer from the mammoth appetite of corrupt officials. So when Martha publicly says we have failed, I have to ask her this question: Martha, what do you expect us...the common man...to do?
  
  It is becoming evident that Martha's attention has been diverted from her duties as the Minister for Constitutional Affairs to that of a full time candidate for president of Kenya. But if she can't stem corruption now, as a powerful minister with goodwill among many Kenyans, how will she do it when she is president? And if she can admit failure on the smaller matter of prosecuting obvious criminals, why should the nation thrust upon her bigger responsibilities?
  
  Guys, Kenya stinks right now. A sense of hopelessness is creeping slowly on the people of the good nation. Just when we start complaining about taxes, they hit us with unga. When we complain about unga, they hit you with gas/petrol. We complain about petrol, they hit us with the media bill. And as we start grumbling about the media bill, they unleash the messes at the Kenya Tourism Board and Kenya Pipeline. Isn't this enough to make a man dizzy? And yet it took Martha this long to sense that we are losing this war?
  
  No, Martha, this war is lost!
  
  It would be nice if you can step aside and let a tougher woman/man take the fight to these sleazy thieves.
  
  Can you, Martha?

• My Challenge To The Kenyan Youth...Are We Any Different?

  Posted: January 12, 2009, 3:21 am by Sam Okello

  Are we really ready?
  
  For a nation as small as Kenya, I'm stunned by the magnitude of corruption going on. In a span of less than two months, various degrees of corruption have been revealed to the public. But by far the most troubling remain the shenanigans that went down at the Kenya Pipeline and at the Tourism Board. I single out these two because the nation is on track to lose billions of shillings to cartels that have blatantly worked with government officials to line their pockets at the expense of the Kenyan people.
  
  How could thirty five million shillings have been paid to a company that never delivered services? And just how could Permanent Secretary Nyoike have failed to notice that Triton was teetering on the brink of collapse at the time the Ministry of Energy was pumping billions of shilling in awarded tenders to them? Something is gravely wrong in a nation where within such a short time billions of shilling are lost...and apparently without much of a fight from Kenyans.
  
  But if you thought these are bad, consider the growing evidence that the hunger and starvation being experienced by many Kenyans now is actually the work of a cartel within the Ministry of Agriculture. These sleazy folks have consciously decided that the mass starvation of Kenyans does not mean anything to them as long as they make a little money. How can these guys sleep at night? What do they think when they watch the emaciated bodies of little children and the withering breasts of mothers who can't feed those helpless Kenyans? Martha Karua, if you truly know who these folks are, let Kenyans know with you. Then let us collectively ask how such cruel people can remain in office.
  
  Then there are the people we call the police. I have never seen more blatant corruption in my life. These guys have perfected the art of grabbing money from the hand of a tout into theirs in the twinkle of an eye. I've even heard stories of senior officers who have worked a deal with the matatu owners so that for a fee of about one hundred shillings per day, the lucky matatus will never ever be stopped. The troubling thing about this state of affairs is that Kenyans seem perfectly okay with what's going on. Nobody is complaining. Just how did we come to sink so low?
  
  But even in the face of such blistering corruption, I have hope that things will get better. I have seen a lot of Kenyan youths who are eager to take the helm and help steer Kenya toward what her real potential is. Before we stake our claim to leadership, however, we as the youth must answer a fundamental question: Are we any different than the people who have brought Kenya to her knees? What will we do about the police? What will we do about corrupt men like Okungu and Achien'g? Will we be content to just jail them, or will we go a step further and make them return the money stolen from Kenyans? And finally, what will we do about these cartels that are making life a nightmare for Kenyans?
  
  Fellow Kenyan youth, are we any different?

• I Announce My Intent To Form An Exploratory Committee

  Posted: January 5, 2009, 2:12 am by Sam Okello

  I trust we've all rested and are ready for hard work this new year.
  
  As the year begins, we must all be on notice that there is no time to waste. We must now move with deliberate speed and put in place a formula for measuring our progress on a periodic basis. Obviously many within the Diaspora and within our beloved nation will want to know how we proceed. To this end, I announce today my intent to form an exploratory committee. Like usually happens in the States, this committee, which must start its work on the 10th and report back its findings by January 25th, will be tasked to study the logistical and all other issues we will face in our quest to win Kenya back from the oligarchies and the power cartels that have stagnated the progress and cohesion of our nation.
  
  If anybody still doubted the intransigence of this government, all you have to do is look at the signing of the media bill. I was assured by an authoritative source that it wouldn't be signed. Raila was assured by an even higher authority that it wouldn't be assented to. Kalonzo was given the assurance that it would be returned to Parliamnet for further deliberation. How good is these people's word? Right from Kibaki down to the last scoundrel in his State House, their word is worth crap. In fact, I was so infuriated by the assent that when I was woken up by my frantic wife Hellen about the breaking news in Mombasa, where the President was on vacation, I picked up the phone and called my authoritative source. Can you imagine my disgust when he told me that a KTN programme that catalogued Kibaki's Coup was the reason some strategists around him used to box him into assenting to the bill?
  
  The question now is not what this bill means. The question is what is the intention of the folks who so desperately wanted to see it signed. I must warn that what is going on is the beginning of another round of rigging. The power barons around Kibaki have set in motion an elaborate plan to deny the nation a president the people will have elected in 2012. Under this scenario, what these folks hope to do is rig, then beat and terrorize us into submission, under the guise of state security...which will force the minister in charge of internal security to invoke this very law Kibaki has now signed. The effect will be a total blackout as Kibaki's preferred heir is installed as President of Kenya. By the time the ban is lifted, we will have a new President.
  
  No, folks. We must defeat this plan. The exploratory committee will give us a detailed report on the range of scenarios our opponents might throw at us. I will bring them to you here at Kumekucha, leaving out what will constitute the classified strategic plan.
  
  The folks around President Kibaki have a knack for making Kenya look very bleak indeed. Just when you thought a new year might make things better, that common sense might prevail, they make things even worse. Did they have to coax Kibaki into opening a new year with a big fight? What's his assent to this bill a signal of? Dramatic impunity? And suddenly Raila and the ODM want to fight for the media? These guys should all go to the caves where they belong and let us build a Kenya that will work for all of us, not just for them. By the way, if he was so pissed at Kibaki, why was he in Mombasa eating a pumpkin pie with him? Or was he called to hoodwink Kenyans one more time like he did with unga? This man is reaching a point where he's beginning to look pitiful.
  
  It's a lot I've had to say, but the big deal here is that an exploratory committee is in place in the next few days. We are going to work with speed, but we shall not rush anything. You never beat a dug in power structure like the one we have in Kenya by screaming out your plans.
  
  When they see what we do, they'll know they are finally facing a worthy opponent. A fight they shall have.
  
  Let's get ready!

• It's Beginning To Feel A lot Like The End of An Era

  Posted: December 21, 2008, 1:59 am by Sam Okello

  You saw it with your own eyes last week.
  
  First it was the ODM. It ran a picture-perfect coronation of it's handpicked officials at Bomas. It called that charade democracy. Then it was the PNU. Full of incredible energy, it completed the ODM picture by following suit, picking a leadership top-heavy with old men in spite of the healthy presence of the youth and women. That was democracy. If anybody still expects such parties to be avenues for ideological, issue-driven democracy, think again. These parties have become comfortable with tribal politics and the shameless babysitting of mass movements without a discernible purpose other than as vehicles to access state power for the sake of it. If they cared any bit about Kenyans, there wouldn't be Kenyans shedding tears in the IDP camps, others stuck in Uganda, while we celebrate Christmas...a full year later. How can these folks sleep at night?
  
  Like I said last week, Kenyans have now learnt who the real enemies of progress in this nation are. They are aware that they have MPs who don't care about them, who bring home some 250,000 shillings to the constituency every weekend and distribute it...then gladly call it representation. They are aware that their MPs voted not to pay taxes, and are never there for them when the prices of essentials like unga go up, gas/petrol disappears just when we should be heading home for the deserved break, work to curtail press freedoms, and say nothing when Kenyans are clobbered in full view of dignitaries and the international media.
  
  This shall end.
  
  Starting next year, all like-minded Kenyans must come together to actively seek ways to get our country back. We will lay out strategies for lawfully educating Kenyans on the shape and vision of an alternative form of democracy, one where people are elected not because they are Kikuyu or Luo or Kalenjin, but because they have a vision that works for Kenya. We will lay out a blueprint that will detail our progressive politics and answer in numbing detail how we will tackle Kenya's problems when our time comes.
  
  I'm aware that the Odingas and the Mois and the Kenyattas and the Kibakis will do everything in their power to stop Kenya from going the way of an issue-oriented democracy where the nation is paramount, but we will go toe to toe with these oligarchies. We will defeat them and usher in a new era, where the institutions of our nation will be reformed and the nation's leaders made answerable to the people who elected them...in every sense of the word.
  
  So as this year closes down, let's take this deserved break aware that the journey to finally and fully liberate Kenya cannot actively start any later than June next year. June 2009. From where I stand, the mood in Kenya has revealed to me that it's beginning to look a lot like the end of an era in Kenya...the era of big family politics in Kenya. The end of dynasties and birthright politics. The beginning of nation-building, where Kenya doesn't feel like two nations...one called NAIROBI, where the money is and everybody wants to go...the other called KENYA where poverty and hopelessness are turning our sons and daughters into militiamen.
  
  Folks, this is our moment. Let's seize it.
  
  Merry Christmas to Kenyans at home and around the world.

• Kibaki Couldn't Have Asked For A Better Christmas Gift

  Posted: December 14, 2008, 1:56 am by Sam Okello

  The President won't sign the damn bill.
  
  Suddenly Kenyans are dealing with one of the worst Parliaments in history, to the point where a majority of the nation's suffering people are beginning to see in Kibaki a common sense modorate. That the country has come to this point within eleven months is an indictment of the the Kenyan electorate that perpetually accepts handouts from these scoundrels, just as much as it is a thumbs down on what is shaping up to be the most insensitive, authoritarian Parliaments in the history of this republic. It's indeed regretable that some of us hailed these youthful leaders as the right people to lead Kenya after last year's elections. How wrong we were!
  
  Within a year these men and women, hell bent on enriching themselves, have gone from refusing to pay taxes, to playing games with unga, to passing one of the most draconian bills this side of post-Moi Kenya. What is even more stunning is that the ODM, the party most Kenyans were looking up to for progress, was part of this withering betrayal. Where was James Orengo when this law was passed? Where was William Ruto and Musalia? Why didn't the Prime Minister voice his outrage? Don't you find it disingenuous that these men are suddenly distancing themselves from the bill? They can try all they want, but I know that when Kenya needed them, they turned the other way and voted for oppression. Coming from Orengo and Imanyara and Raila and the other second liberation titans, this is a biting betrayal. Should we now be comforted that they will stop the bill? Jesus Christ, what do these people take us for?
  
  So is Kenya ready for a revolution as I hear some pundits beginning to forecast? Not really. We haven't reached the point where the pressing matters this nation is dealing with are without solutions. Unga can and must be fixed. The MPs taxes will be fixed. As for the media supression bill, the President WON'T sign it. I have that from an authoriative source. And when you come to think of it, the incessant overeach of this bungling Parliemant has handed President Kibaki the best Christmas gift of his career. While the MPs now look like power-drunk dictators, Kibaki...by not signing this bill...emerges from this brouhaha looking like a consumate democrat. Whenever things go wrong in Kenya now, all he has to do is point a finger at Parliament. How these roles have changed within a year is one of the most fascinating political occurences this closing year. If I were Kibaki, I'd milk this trend for all it's worth.
  
  Maybe not a revolution, but the government must sense that Kenyans are in no mood to accept crap from anyone anymore. It's now imperative that out leaders, at all levels, do the right thing or watch as the magnitude of grievances in Kenya grows exponentially to the point where a revolution becomes inevitable. In case they doubt that this can happen, all they need to do is harken back to the disheartening events of last Friday, when furiuos Kenyans, across the board, disapproved of the direction the nation is going. To a man, you could sense the collective No from Kenyans. To make this clearer let me put it this way. Kenyans have laernt that their problems are not caused by the poor Kikuyu, poor Luo, poor Kalenjin, poor Luhya or the poor Kisii next door. No. They now know that these problems, including the unending divisions in this country, are caused by the unscrupulous MPs and successive governments that have never shed colonial tactics.
  
  Kenyans now know who the enemy is.
  
  Our minds have been liberated ahead of 2012.
  
  In just four years we will join hands, after these enemies of Kenya are defeated, and we will sing Free at last, Free at last, thank God Almighty, we're Free at last.
  

• To Avoid Acrimony On Waki, Here's The Way Forward

  Posted: December 8, 2008, 3:34 am by Sam Okello

  Big names are about to drop.
  
  By now we all know that a pretty decent number of names are sealed in an envelop that Judge Waki submitted to the Hon. Kofi Anan. That the names are there is neither an indication of guilt nor a witch-hunt. What the judge is saying is that in the course of his hurried and time-pressed investigation, he reached the conclusion that there are some Kenyans who need to be further investigated because their names came up in relation to the funding and abetting of the post-election fracas. It is only fair that they be given a chance to defend themselves...and be cleared or convicted and punished for causing such a serious loss of life and property.
  
  As one who has strongly called for a local tribunal, to preserve and strengthen our sovereignty and our nascent institutions, I'm gratified that President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga have found a formula to give our judicial system a stab at resolving this matter. I hope we all realize that the credibility of our nation is on the line here. Whoever is selected to lead this tribunal will need the full support and the goodwill of all Kenyans. We will follow closely how he/she leads the tribunal and decide whether the body will do Kenya proud or will embarrass us and set us on the demeaning path to the Hague.
  
  Given the gravity of the charges the people who's names will drop face, it is time to agree on the way forward. This is important if we are to avoid unnecessary acrimony within our perpetually fractious parties and the nation in general.
  
  This is what must be done:
  
  1. Immediate and unconditional Resignation. This is the honorable thing to do. The ladies and gentlemen mentioned need to pave the way for effective and thorough investigations to take place. To achieve this, they must resign as a matter of principle. Their voluntary resignation will make their absence in Government palatable to their rowdy followers and avoid the impression of persecution of any group of people.
  
  2. The Process Must be seen To Be Free And Fair. Kenyans will be watching very closely how this tribunal is handled. As sad as this is to say, there are thousands of Kenyans who lost their relatives and property and are still trapped in the unending cruelty of the IDP camps. Equally disturbing, there are Kenyans in refugee camps in Uganda who are too traumatized to even contemplate a return to Kenya. This is sad and unacceptable. To such people, this nation owes a credible tribunal, one that will fairly convict the culprits and fairly dispense justice. We must be sensitive to the fact that should this thing be perceived to be bungled, we'll have created an opportunity for our unscrupulous politicians to present themselves as martyrs to their gullible followers, who will seek vengeance and create a situation where animosity and grievance is recycled without end.
  
  3. Outstanding Grievances Must Be Simultaneously Dealt With. I sense an inexplicable foot-dragging when it comes to matters related to land and the constitution. One year after the electoral fiasco how can we explain this slowness? Are we waiting to start handling these matters in the run up to the 2012 elections? We have to realize that by then Kenya will be too charged up for anything to be done effectively. So at this time, when we are in the mood for dealing with our problems head on, let's ruthlessly deal with the issues of land distribution and the unbalanced constitution. Waiting is an option we don't have.
  
  4. The Hague Must Be Our Last Resort. Fellow Kenyans, going to the Hague will be one of the most humiliating things to happen to Kenya in recent memory. It will be a tacit admission of failure on our part, a statement to the world that we are incapable of handling our affairs. Even so, we must agree that if our local tribunal is seen to be failing, the ICC will have to step in. In the end, what we are saying as a nation is that we will no longer tolerate impunity.
  
  5. Reconciliation Must Follow Punishment. Like most trials, the verdict of the tribunal...or God forbid, the ICC...will inevitably create animosity in the country. President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga will have to move swiftly, literally hours after the verdict, to unify the nation. They will need to lead the nation to bury the past and see in the verdict a necessary cleansing, an atonement for the sins of the nation.
  
  My fear, Fellow Countrymen, is that if we carelessly handle this tribunal, a perception that certain communities were targeted will emerge. That would be regrettable. Indeed, it would be better if we neither formed the tribunal nor went to the ICC if all we end up accomplishing is setting the stage for future animosities...that will lead to fresh antagonisms.
  
  I pray for Kenya!
  
  
  Has Obama not stopped smoking?
  
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• It Would Be Nice If Lucy Came Out And Said Jambo To Us

  Posted: December 2, 2008, 2:49 am by Sam Okello

  I miss Lucy.
  
  No, I'm not crazy. It's just that when I look at Michelle Obama I sometimes wonder why Kenyans are okay with a situation where our first lady doesn't ever come out to say jambo to us. Wouldn't it be nice if she walked down the street every two or three months to tell us what's going on with her? I'd like to know that the nation's first lady is okay and that she's happy. Knowing that makes all of us feel good about the state of affairs in the State House, in Muthaiga and back in Nyeri.
  
  Lucy, I hope to see you somewhere in Nairobi soon.
  
  Having said that, I have to wonder why Kenyans, especially the press, never scrutinize the wives of the men who want to lead us. What, for instance, did we know about Mrs. Musyoka? And what did we know about Mrs. Ruto? Tell me what we knew about Mrs. Mudavadi? Granted we knew a lot about Lucy, but that was only because we'd come to fall in love with her dramatic ways in her husband's first term. By the time Kibaki was sworn in in that secretive ceremony at the lawns of the State House, we all knew exactly what we were getting. Another turbulent term. But Lucy has behaved herself. She's allowed the President and the Premier to grapple with the myriad problems facing this nation without distractions. So I think we need to clap for her.
  
  In 2012, here is what I'll be looking for in a first lady. It's wise to throw this out there so we can start watching the wives of the men who want to lead us.
  
  1. A photogenic woman. Once we elect a President, we are stuck with the man for years. At the very least, the woman he presents as the mother of the nation needs to be beautiful, and must look sweet in pictures. A tired, mean face is fodder for comedians and fireside prattles, but it eventually depresses the nation. So beauty is a critical factor.
  
  2. A Godly Woman. I know somebody is getting ready to jump me for not placing this factor first. The reason is simple. When you meet somebody for the first time, what you instantly see is their looks. Matter of fact, most people judge us by their first impression of us. Given that state of affairs, a potential first lady must prove to us, after we've determined that she's cute, that she loves her God. If a first lady is prayerful, it's a good indicator that her husband is too.
  
  3. A Simple Woman. Remember Imelda Marcos? Three hundred pairs of shoes! Remember Sarah Palin? U.S. $150,000 in stylish clothes and a hairdo. Talk of frugality. The point is...a woman who has the guts to dress like Cleopatra or Cindy Crawford at a time when most Kenyans are struggling is probably going to become a fashion statement in the State House. Is that what we want? The time to scrutinize their wardrobe is now.
  
  4. A Single Wife. This is not something most women have control over, but as a nation we must insist that our presidents have one wife. I'm not saying this because of the Lucy-Mary wars. I'm just suggesting that as a Christian nation we need to be true to the biblical principle of one man one wife. In any case, there is no provision for a first and second lady in our constitution. A man with two wives must be disqualified. Period.
  
  5. Well Educated. Having a ding dong as a first lady can be a traumatic experience. Whenever there are state visits, our Head of State is "required" to be accompanied by his wife. Now just imagine our ding dong first lady in Paris with Carla Bruni, or in the States with the stylish Michelle Obama, or in Uganda with the well traveled Janet Museveni. Get my point? We can't afford to embarrass Kenya, so let's avoid presidential candidates with wives who think South America is the bottom half of the United States.
  
  I need not go on. Obviously there are other crucial factors to consider. Let's hear them from you.
  
  In the mean time, I hope that when First Lady Lucy Kibaki steps out to greet the nation we will all accord her the respect and the adulation she deserves.

• Let Me Tell You Why This Is So Funny

  Posted: November 27, 2008, 10:08 am by Sam Okello

  Have you noticed the way Kenyans are screaming themselves hoarse about the parliamentarians' taxation issue? It's so amusing. Just in case you forgot how this works, let me jog your memory. Last year, just before the elections, the electorate in Kenya was out there stalking the parliamentary candidates' cars. In fact, some of the candidates who ran last year have told me that some voters were in their homes by 5:30 a.m. asking this: How can a man/woman who wants to be an MP be asleep at this hour? You know why the voters were there? They wanted money. Pesa. Is that raw enough? Let me put it another way. They wanted their vote bought by the candidate.
  
  ---------------------------
  Some people have made millions from the Obama name... how unfair
  0000000000000000000
  
  That candidate, over the five years before the elections, had worked hard at his/her business and made good money to run for Parliament. In his/her mind, the calculation was that this money would be put back when he/she made it to the August House. In other words, he/she consciously decided that Parliament was an extension of his/her business empire. So he/she was going to use money to make money. You get the drift?
  
  Fast forward.
  
  That man or woman who the Kenyan electorate ambushed at his/her home, in the local bar, by the wayside and in the churches across the constituency, is now in Parliament. He/she is now called Mheshimiwa, and he/she is supposed to be looking out for the needs of the desperate constituents. But he/she is not doing so. According to Mheshimiwa, looking out for the people wasn't part of the deal. It never even came up. In fact, when the Mheshimiwa is in his/her bathroom adjusting his tie or her skirt just before riding to Parliament in the morning, he/she sometimes carries out this conversation with him/herself.
  
  What's wrong with Kenyans? Why do hey want my salary and benefits taxed? Don't they remember that when I campaigned I never discussed any substantive issues? Don't they recall that when I was at the rallies it was all about small talk and fun? And don't they remember that I gave each of them one hundred shillings? Wait a minute, wasn't it I who bought and distributed bhang to that band of youth who acted as my security? Oh, how can I forget that it was I who invented the plan that was implemented to cause chaos as the votes were being counted so that the returning officers would declare me the winner? It was hard work, and I did it all for the people. How can they now be so mean as to want my hard-earned money taxed? And can you imagine that they want to tax it in my first year...not even the fourth? Why can't these idiots understand that I've got to put back the money I gave them, plus make a little profit? To hell with them.
  
  That's Mheshimiwa talking. And who can blame them? When the voters were collecting bribe money from these guys, what were they thinking? And when they allowed the MPs to buy their votes, what kind of an MP did they expect to have? Couldn't they see that a man or a woman who was willing to pay to buy a vote was never going to be a moral leader? You'd hope that after this tax betrayal by Mheshimiwa, the folks would learn. But will they? Just watch 2011. You'll see the process repeat itself. The man or woman who'll go out there to campaign on ideas and a promise to actively and honestly seek solutions to the myriad problems faced by the people will be shunned for the chap who shows up with money.
  
  So the question pollsters should ask the Kenyan voter is this...Are you aware that our MPs are the way they are because of you?
  
  To that question, most Kenyans will say No. That will be a lie.
  
  So this is the circus we must deal with, folks. We eat during the campaigns. The MPs eat in Parliament. And the song plays on and on like we are that proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand. But surely, with an electorate like this, why do I hear people talk of a Kenyan Obama? I have a feeling that if an Obama showed up in our midst and started asking Kenyans who are fed up with the status quo to donate to his/her campaign for change, people will laugh and walk away. Mjinga gani huyu, they'll say.
  
  Hhmmm!
  
  With an electorate like this, who needs an enemy?
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• A Letter to Kenyans In The Diaspora

  Posted: November 24, 2008, 4:06 am by Sam Okello

  Dear "Diasporians",
  
  
  
  I hope you are doing well in the States, Europe, Australia, India or wherever you are on the face of this planet. Judging by the volume of e-mails I've received from some of you on topical issues in Kenya, it seems like you think Kenya is about to explode in violence, and that our nation is just moments away from going the Somalia way. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Before you adjust your weight in that cozy Minneapolis or Arlington or New York chair, let me tell you why you need to rethink how you view Kenya.
  
  
  
  I'll start with the Waki Report. You've seen our politicians debate this matter with incredible intensity. You've heard some call for full implementation, while others plead that it be shredded and fed to the nearest trash can. You've interpreted that lively debate as a sign that Kenyans are about to squeeze their grip around each other's throat. That's not the case. If this kind of debate happened in London or Washington D.C. you'd call it democracy. Now that it's happening in Nairobi you call it...the guilty run when nobody is chasing them. Truth is, what sober Kenyans have been asking for is that there be a local tribunal, and that it be guided by a Kenyan judge of impeccable integrity. And you know what, we seem to have a consensus now. A local tribunal it is. Does that sound to you like a nation in peril?
  
  
  
  Let me move on to the state of the roads. To say that the roads in Nairobi and Kisumu and Nakuru and Eldoret and Mombasa and other towns are horrible is an understatement. There are gaping potholes all over the place. In fact, there are roads that have ceased to exist in the way you last saw them. But here is the news you need to hear. Thika Road is about to be made a superhighway with four lanes. And the government is set to give each constituency seventeen million shillings for roads upgrade. Now, should you come home and find the roads in your constituency in a deplorable state, ask your Member of Parliament what he did with the money. Matter of fact, if you wanted a place to channel your energies, let it be in tracking the progress of the roads upgrade all over the country. Can you do that?
  
  Now to rural electrification. Last time I was in shags, I saw with my own eyes the incredible progress the Rural Electrification Board...or whatever it's called...has made. Deep in the valley that I come from, I saw an electric poll. When I asked how soon power will be available for my retired Mama and Papa, who've been using solar panel, the man in charge told me that it would not be another six months before we're good to go. I was assured that this is the case in most of the country. It seems a little slow, but umeme is on the way, folks. Isn't that something to be proud of? Kenya is on the march!
  As for the economy, I'm simply astounded. This country has vastly expanded its economy, and you can sense that the expansion will continue. The nation is getting rich. We've become the hub of regional communication, transport, peace initiatives and all kinds of issues that go on around here. So other than our political disagreements, this nation's people are optimistic, and there's a sense in the air that if our politicians and government officials use the public funds they control for the purposes they are intended to be used, sky is the limit for Kenya. The only downside, which I hope our leaders will address, is the sizable number of Kenyans who are being left behind by our march to a developed nation status. The government must ensure that we're all in this together. The first place to start of course is with our brothers and sisters in the IDP camps.
  
  Moving on. Did you know that we now have several TV channels? Ok, I can see you laughing...saying to yourself: How long has this guy been gone from Kenya? Truth be told, it's been a while. When I was last in Kenya, President Moi had us hooked to KBC, where news was all about him. Not anymore. This is one regard in which President Kibaki must be commended. He's truly expanded freedom in Kenya. You can now watch local singers, actors, and even effective talk programmes like that of Julie Gichuru on Citizen, my friend Jeff Koinange on K-24 and that other dude called Loise Otieno...hope I spelled his first name right. The newspapers are not left behind. There are a number, and they are free to write whatever they want...as long as their facts are sound. And by the way, our women anchors are incredible. Not too thin, not too fat. And they dress like tomorrow will never come.
  
  Need I go on? I think I've given you the picture. What I'm trying to tell you is this...be proud of Kenya. The nation appreciates the millions of shillings you remit every year, but what she doesn't appreciate is the constant whining about this or that. How do some of you expect Kenya to be like the States or Europe when we've been around for just forty five years? America has been going for more than two hundred years, most of Europe for longer than that. So cut Kenya some slack, guys. Check us out in fifty years and tell us what you see then.
  
  Look, I just thought I might share with you my impressions of the nation some of you left behind many years ago, just like I did. Things are okay, and once we deal with Waki, it will get even better. The teething problems we have, all nations went through them. The last thing we need is those nations who experienced them earlier telling us how to experience ours now. We are now a sovereign state...and we will defend our right to self-determination from foreigners, be they Americans, Europeans or Kenyans who look down on the motherland.
  
  Yours sincerely,
  
  Sam Okello
  
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• Why Has Raila Veered Off So Badly?

  Posted: November 18, 2008, 2:00 am by Sam Okello

  I am baffled.
  
  I want to speak in very raw terms here because I think something has gone gravely wrong. I watched the Prime Minister speak at the Safari Park Hotel yesterday, literally fortifying his stance that the Waki Report be implemented to a T. As I watched, I had to scratch my head in amazement at what the man's strategy is. Where is he going with this fervent call to implement a report that his support base in the Rift Valley is vociferously opposed to? And when that full implementation takes place, where will he find new allies to help him realize his lifelong dream of being president of Kenya? Does he intend to revert to the painful old alliances that have been fraught with jealousy, treachery and outright betrayal?
  
  The way I see it, there are two sides to the Waki Report. There's the political side. And there's the legal side. Prime Minister Odinga is obviously winning the legal side handsomely, and in the process he is driving his supporters away. Because he is driving his supporters away in the Rift Valley and elsewhere, he is losing the political side of this equation in a spectacular way. For a politician of his stature, that is an astounding failure. Many ardent followers of this man have been with him because they saw in him someone who had his ear on the ground, who detected the direction of the political winds, who knew when to make tactical retreats. What has gone wrong? Is it the men and women around him who have insulated him from the groundswell of opposition to his leadership style? Has the power of his office suddenly blinded him?
  
  I'm disturbed that it turns out to be President Kibaki who now calls for forgiveness and reconciliation. This was a matter the Prime Minister would have had more moral authority to call for than the president. But since this is something I've championed in the past, I salute President Kibaki for going in that direction. Indeed, I maintain that it's the only viable way to deal with the disunity occasioned by the failed elections of 2007.
  
  But it's never too late.
  
  The Prime Minister is an intelligent man who understands the power of perception. Our Rift Valley brothers and sisters are not defending one of their own because they think anybody is guilty, they are reacting to the perception that since becoming Prime Minister Raila has not seemed very attentive to their issues. Incidentally, vast swathes of Luo Nyanza voters feel the exact same way as their Rift Valley counterparts. If this trend crosses over to Western Province and the Coast, tell me where the Prime Minister will get his votes from in 2012. An alliance with Martha Karua? Maybe Uhuru? My God! Maybe it's because of the possibility of this scenario playing out that the Luo Council of Elders called on the PM to rethink his strategy. I concur.
  
  I'm aware that I'll be called a tribalist for addressing this issue as I have. But I go off on the premise that six out of eight provinces voted for the Prime Minister. What that means is that more than half the nation is looking up to him for direction, inspiration and an understanding of where this nation is going. Advocating that we turn over our sons to the Hague is not how to play this game. A local tribunal is the way to go. It strengthens our faith in our nascent institutions and affirms our hard-won independence. The kind of blackmail the European Union wants to subject our country to is unacceptable. They need to be told in no uncertain terms that we're no longer a colony. We have to come to a point where we say no to the monies they give us, because they are using those funds to blackmail us. How low can they sink?
  
  Mr. Prime Minister, the time to hit a U-turn is now. I've spoken candidly because this is a time for a brother to whisper to a brother that the zipper of his pants are down. I hope you pull that zipper up before the children come storming into the living room and chuckling at the peeping sight of your red undergarments.
  
  ------------------------------------
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• Why This Drive To Surrender Our Sovereignty?

  Posted: November 14, 2008, 4:44 am by Sam Okello

  Forgive me for being naive, but I thought Kenya was a sovereign nation. After years of white rule, our founding fathers fought hard, shed a lot of blood and did away with certain comforts,whatever little they had, so that they'd replace white rule with black rule in Kenya. In 1963 President Jomo Kenyatta and his colleagues achieved that feat for us all. Every year we come together to celebrate the turn of events that placed us squarely in charge of our destiny...for better for worse.
  
  At this point, we are going through one of the most challenging times in Kenya. With the Waki Report causing increasing anxiety in the nation, there have been loud calls by sober and thoughtful Kenyans to turn over our destiny and place it in the hands of the ICC. Just like the IMF and the World Bank, which have perfected the art of control of Africa's emerging economies and the Continent's people, the ICC is now being courted to do what the Westerners think the dumb Africans can't do for themselves.
  
  And we are cheering!
  
  I've always said we need homegrown solutions to our problems. We need solutions that are a reflection of our troubled political history, that respect our dignity as people with brains, and places us in equal footing with out Western brothers. Can anybody look me in the eye and tell me that the judge at the ICC will better accomplish this than our own judges? What makes him more qualified than our guys here? Is it the color of his skin?
  
  Once again I'm aware of the unpopularity of what I'm saying here, but I reject this headlong plunge in the direction of placing the destiny of my nation in the hands of foreigners. Let me explain. Are we now happy that yesterday nearly twenty five ambassadors took to the hills to tell our leaders how to run Kenya? Are we excited that some Western security officials may jet in here to arrest our native sons? Where is our self-respect?
  
  No, I don't condone what our leaders did. I don't condone the fact the elections were stolen, that the ECK is still playing games, that the constitution has not been brought in compliance with the prevailing realities in Kenya, that the question of land distribution is not being handled. But even in the face of all that, I can't surrender my dignity by calling on foreigners to help me figure out justice in my own land. I don't pretend to have the answers, but I know that if we soberly put our minds to it, we can come up with mutually acceptable ways to handle Waki and the future.
  
  I commend the Cabinet for going easy on this matter yesterday. I may not see eye to eye with President Kibaki and all the men who planned the murder of Kenyans, but I must stand by my President to defend the right of this nation in deciding what's best for Kenya. If we carry out a nonpartisan investigation and find out which people actually funded and abetted the violence, let's crucify those people right here. That's what Independence means, folks.
  
  Uhuru.
  
  Jamhuri.
  
  Tell me where I'm going wrong, my fellow countrymen.
  
  Let the ambassadors shut up. Let's figure out how we can best handle this matter as Kenyans.
  
  A tribute to Miriam Makeba- The departed songbird Africa will never forget
  
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• Waki's Is A Hit Job

  Posted: November 9, 2008, 8:00 am by Sam Okello

  About four months ago I called upon our political leaders to initiate measures to bring Kenyans to the Uhuru Park with the sole purpose of spearheading a national forgiveness campaign. The way I envisioned it, this would have been a time and a place where people who were massively wronged would look deep in their hearts and utter those difficult words: I Forgive You. Okay, I know you're about to say...how can you forgive a person who has not asked for forgiveness or even acknowledged their wrongdoing?
  
  You have a point.
  
  But this is eleven months since the debacle that was our elections and look at where things are going. We have a man named Waki, who has produced a report that suggests some prominent Kenyans decided to suddenly start planning to kill and maim other Kenyans. This is incredulous coming from a man of this judge's stature. Has Waki ever heard of the shameful distribution of land in Kenya? Has he ever heard of the blatant tribalism that characterised Kibaki's first term? Has he said anything about Kivuitu and gang? And has he bothered to warn the country of the potential bloodletting that may follow the full implementation of his report?
  
  Here is where I come down on this matter. We have to see the Waki Report as nothing but a carefully packaged hit job. I don't know who's name appears on it, but I know for a fact that the blame for the events of December and January lie squarely with President Kibaki. This is the man Kenyans elected to protect them and ensure the security of the nation. Where was he when, as is widely reported, a meeting of a known gang was held in the State House, ostensibly to plan how to deny Hon. Odinga the presidency and terrorize Kenyans? Where was he when the Kalenjin warriors were organizing themselves into a force that would later kill many innocent Kenyans and destroy property worth millions of shillings? Indeed, where was the commander-in-chief when the forces he controlled killed and maimed people in Kisumu, Naivasha and Nakuru? Don't you think Waki should have probed these issues?
  
  Like I said last week, we Kenyans created the situation we went through and must find ways to correct it. We don't need Kofi Annan and the U.S. ambassador, or anybody else for that matter, to tell us how, when and at what pace to do things. Had it not been for the troika that comprised Kibaki, Renneberger and Kofi, Raila Odinga would today be president and Kenya would have been the better off for it. So when Waki zeroes in on some two months worth of events and asks us to punish people who did things within that narrow window, conveniently ignoring years of injustices on Kenyans, he's asking us to practically succumb to the whims of those who have perfected the art of manipulation.
  
  We will not do it.
  
  Fellow Kenyans, time is rapidly running out. We can still save the nation we all love while we still can. Forgiveness. Atonement. That's the answer. The alternative is this misguided call for justice, which if you ask me looks a lot like revenge. State-sponsored revenge. What I find very disturbing is that pastors from various churches are also preaching this brand of justice! Can they look Kenyans in the eye and tell us where they've been for forty five years while the nation was descending into the mess we are in today? Can they look us in the eye and tell us why the Kenyan youth who participated in the demonstrations are guilty while men like Kibaki and Kivuitu are not?
  
  I have to end this piece with a warning today: There can be no justice that the Kikuyu see as just while the Kalenjin see as a witch-hunt. There can be no justice that the Luo see as serving the interests of one community and not Kenya as a nation. And there can be no justice where the interests of Kenya are decided in foreign capitals. That's the raw truth.
  
  There is a better way to have a fresh start. Let's go to Uhuru Park. Let's ask Kenyans to bury the hatchet. You'll all be surprised how much Kenyans are longing for that day.
  
  The day of atonement.
  
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• the political class is walking on eggs

  Posted: October 31, 2008, 4:16 am by Sam Okello

  Far be it from me to condone impunity. We all know that what happened after the elections was one of the most devastating events to have occured in Kenya. In a perfect world, it would be wise and prudent to ferociously come after the men who orchestrated the mayhem that was visited on Kenyans. But this is not a perfect world. In deciding to walk away from the Waki findings, our elected leaders took only one thing into consideration...the impact of implementing the report.
  
  There were two possible outcomes here:
  
  1. By trying to implement this monster, the gentlemen who have been adversely mentioned in the report would not have taken it lying down. So what, you ask? Well, have you considered that these men are at the helm of tribal chieftaincies? Have you considered that as of now they retain the influence to destabilize major parties...and by extension the nation? That is a fact we can't just wish away. So if we come after these men we risk antagonizing whole communities and creating another round of ill feeling at a time when Kenya is evidently healing.
  
  Let the healing prevail.
  
  2. The other outcome would be that we drive the nails in the coffins of these guys and let nature take its course. If Kenya ignites afresh in an orgy of bloodletting, so be it. The problem with that thinking is that it undermines the peace we've worked hard to restore. I don't care what the U.S. and the German ambassadors say. What I know for sure is that when Kenya ignites, they'll send in American and German planes to whisk their nationals to safety. We don't have the luxury of listening to their misguided sermons. In anycase, when was the last time you heard ambassador Ogego tell the Americans how to run their affairs? And when was the last time you saw any of our ambassadors pretend to understand somebody's country better than the people who were born and bred there?
  
  I detest the role these two men have played since the debacle that was our elections. I may disagree with Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka on other matters, but on this one I call on Kenyans to heed his advice...let's not open another can of worms foolishly. We must proudly take out matching orders from our understanding of our issues, our background and how they affect us. That's why we have brains.
  
  Kudos to our leaders for calling this right!
  
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• A National Day of Forgiveness Revisited

  Posted: September 8, 2008, 10:29 pm by Sam Okello

  This is the only subject I'll ever write twice on.
  
  About two weeks ago, I humbly proposed that our leaders, President Mwai Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, call Kenyans to Uhuru Park and lead the nation in a national day of forgiveness. I did so because it's evident that there comes a time when justice just isn't the answer.
  
  Before you attack me for being naive, let me say that I understand the need for the rule of law and justice to be the guiding light in all our national endeavours and interactions. But I also think that at this point we've all sank so deep in a hole that justice can't pull us out of. In the interest of fostering the spirit of forgiveness, I won't drop any names of the people our nation feels have wronged us. I will, however, draw a map of what a bright future would look like if we started off at the point of brotherly embrace.
  
  Why Forgiveness?
  
  Kenyans have stored pain in their hearts. Most of our fellow countrymen were witnesses to the murderous rampage that washed away any of our claim to innocence...after the elections. Children saw their parents killed, brothers saw their fathers kill, mothers cried as their sons failed to return home, and daughters wailed when their husbands' bodies were found in a trench somewhere. The psychological impact of what Kenyans dealt with will never go away just because a couple of boys are tried and locked up or killed. The only way to deal with a matter like this is to call friends and foes together and watch as they embrace in a spirit of forgiveness.
  
  The matters that need to be forgiven are murders, assassinations, corruption, detention without trial, tribalism, and all the wrongs that have been committed against Kenyans by our leaders of the past. But while our leaders own up to their wrongs, we as Kenyans must also own up to the fact that we've failed to be our brother's keeper. Where are the stories of the Luo heroes who saved a Kikuyu friend when Kisumu erupted? Where are the Kikuyu heroes who hid a Luo woman when Limuru went up in plumes? And where are the Kalenjin heroes who pleaded with their fellow warriors not to burn a house of God where helpless people sought shelter? Do we really think mere justice can wash away the pain Kenyans feel?
  
  The answer is no.
  
  Forgiveness is a better way. It will free all of us and give us a chance to start afresh!
  
  IDP Settlement
  
  Once forgiveness is born in our hearts, let the three leaders actively seek a way to settle the IDPs. It's disgraceful that those poor Kenyans are still in the camps. Why does it seem to me like the nation has decided to move on and forget the plight of those people? How can some of our leaders start campaigning earnestly for elections that are four years away when our brothers and sisters sleep in the cold? It's wrong!
  
  A New Constitution
  
  Of course the next pressing matter is the constitution. I'm not an expert in constitution-making, so I won't pretend to know how long it will take to comprehensively deal with this matter. I do know, however, that the longer we wait, the more we lose time. It's in the best interest of the nation that this exercise be started very soon and be done fairly, in the spirit of forgiveness.
  
  Ending the ECK
  
  Finally that matter of the Electoral Commission of Kenya. It's a body that has served Kenya well before, but failed spectacularly last year. In a nation with increasingly polarized politics, it would be supremely unwise to go into another election with this body in place. Let it be disbanded immediately, since it lacks credibility.
  
  That's the map.
  
  If these matters are not handled well before the next elections, I fear that one day those of us left alive will have to meet President Paul Kagame in Kigali to ask him how he put Rwanda back together after unprecedented bloodletting, so we can do the same in Kenya.
  
  Is anybody listening?
  
  It starts with forgiveness.

• When Age Suddenly Mattered

  Posted: September 2, 2008, 10:10 pm by Sam Okello

  Age?
  
  I keep telling myself that the guys who are frantically trying to change the law to bar Prime Minister Raila Odinga from running for president again are kidding. If they were not, when did it occur to them that age is a liability to effective governance? Did you hear any of these guys worry about Moi's age when he repeatedly sought reelection? Did they stay up late to agonize about President Kibaki's age? There's a reason they didn't.
  
  I'm not going to bore you with a chronology of cultural evolution, where African communities placed a high premium on age. Indeed, grayness was equated with wisdom. When adolescent boys were around the elderly folk, they were required to be still and absorb the wisdom that emanated from years of experience...years of watching the world. The elders were supposed to be wise. And they were. Why is that we'd suddenly view such a noble cultural blessing as a liability?
  
  The answer in cynicism.
  
  If these people who are now calling for a change of the laws had a track record of pushing for this change over the years, we'd have taken them seriously. As it is, we have to believe they are doing this only for the sake of blocking an eventual Odinga candidacy. The sad thing about an approach like this is that it's profoundly stupid. It reflects poorly on the people who are for such draconian measures, and it exposes them for the charlatans they are. Do they think politics is an eternal game? At some point they have to realize that once they are elected they carry people's lives in their hands. Children and mothers and struggling fathers look up to them daily, yet they are spending their time scheming how to deny some people a chance to lead.
  
  How outrageous is this!
  
  Common sense should of course dictate that at a certain age a man or a woman is too old to seek the highest office in the land. That age is debatable, so I won't be firm on a figure. I would put it at anywhere between sixty-eight and and seventy-two for anybody seeking a first term. And for the sake of molding a vibrant, working society, it would be wise to engrave an agreed upon age limit in the constitution. That way we'll not be sidetracked by people who never saw a tunnel they didn't want to crawl under.
  
  Indeed, the MPs who are wasting our time with this matter need to be reminded that their constituents are looking to them for development, not perpetual politicking. 2012 is four years away, just imagine how much they could do if they focused their energies on themes that unite the nation and build their constituencies rather than always looking for an angle to score points.
  
  But can a bat start flying in broad daylight?
  
  Mmhhh....
  
  Some of these guys have no clue what it means to be a representative.
  
  They shame themselves!

• Why Githongo Does Not Matter Anymore

  Posted: August 28, 2008, 9:15 am by Sam Okello

  Kibaki was right to snub John Githongo.

  I'll be the first to categorically say that John was a patriot when he took on the Kibaki administration for its corrupt ways. Indeed, we must all hope that there will be many more Kenyans who are not afraid to blow the whistle on the corrupt tendencies they see in their offices. That said, I have to question why John felt the need to go to London to tell us about the rot in our own backyard. And after he did it, why did he come back home and frantically try to have an audience with President Kibaki? I don't like the way President Kibaki has run Kenya, but I agree with him that for the sake of our nation's integrity and his office, he couldn't agree to meet a man who soiled the image of Kenya abroad.

  After three years of trying to save Kenya by telling the Brits and the rest of the West about our sleazy leaders, what can he tell us is the practical impact of his actions? Can he look Kenyans in the eye and point to what has changed because of his sit-down with the BBC and all the other Western networks that gave him audience?

  Folks, here is where I come down on such matters. We can't allow ourselves to run with our problems to the West every time we have them. The announcement we make by doing things like that is this: We can't handle our affairs. Please, help us.

  I'm aware John left because he had reason to worry about his security. I don't begrudge him that. But I detest whenever any patriotic Kenyan, and any self-respecting African, goes out there and slams the motherland. We all know how highly esteemed we are before the world community. Why continue to feed the negative stereotypes by running out there and screaming to the world to see just how incapable we are...many years after independence?

  To the extent that John successfully brought this matter to the attention of Kenyans, his work is done. If he can come back to help sort out the mess, kudos to him. If he wants to keep yapping about how ugly the motherland is, I must say that he has ceased to be helpful or relevant. We have mechanisms in Kenya to deal with corrupt entities...and if those who are tasked to deal with corruption can't handle it, then there are mechanisms in place to deal with that too. That's how it's supposed to work. We can handle it. We must handle it. And we must demonstrate our maturity and the strength of our institutions by taking this matter on.

  Let's not continue to be the white man's burden.

  It shames us!

• Can We Have A National Day Of Forgiveness?

  Posted: August 26, 2008, 8:54 pm by Sam Okello

  • I want to invite each of you to take a harrowing walk with me.

  Our walk must start in Eldoret, only because when I was a student at the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton, I loved going to that town. It was there that, like I revealed here once, I met the late Bishop Alexander Kipsang Arap Muge. He left a permanent impression in my life. Every day of my life I wake up and hope that I can have the courage and dignity that he projected. Even these many years later, I still miss him.

  • But that's not gonna be the focus of our conversation as we walk.

  We are taking this walk because I want to demonstrate the power of forgiveness. Let's start our walk right in the town center. As we walk, you and I know that an army of seething men is ahead of us with arrows and spears. They've painted their faces black and are carrying twigs. You and I have been warned that these furious warriors have been tasked to drive out of their land anybody from the Mt. Kenya Region that they encounter. Whoever refuses to leave must be killed.

  • As we follow these warriors, we see them approach a church where we know that women and children have sought shelter. You and I hold our breath, wondering what's gonna happen. We freeze when we see one of the warriors hurl a can of paraffin at the church. We didn't even know they had paraffin. Now we do. Then we watch in horror as another warrior tosses a red-hot object at the church and it explodes in gigantic flames.

  The church is burning.People are burning.Your nose catches the smell of raw flesh burning.You hear children crying.Women wailing.

  • And within minutes, there is quiet. The church crumbles. And we stand there wondering whether this is a dream or reality. But we don't have to wonder long because the warriors start to move on, sounding off war cries. They are ready to drive out all the Kikuyu!

  I turn to you and say, "I can't handle this. We have to go back to town."

  • We go back.

  Two days later we take a walk in Naivasha. This time we follow another group of warriors who seek out the Luo and the Luhya and the Kalenjin. This group slashes and burns people. They destroy homes and property. But when they approach a home and we see them slash a man and his wife, then set their home on fire and the couple burns to shells, you and I decide we can't take any more walks. We are traumatized by what we've seen.

  • A week later we are strong enough to ask what happened in Eldoret and Naivasha. We are told that in Eldoret and in Naivashsa people died cursing those who killed them. We don't hear a single story of anybody who died with these words on their lips: I forgive you!

  Being human, as you and I are, we know that it's never easy to forgive those who do us wrong. Yet there is nothing that feels as good as taking the moral high ground, forgiving those who don't deserve forgiveness from us. Take Nelson Mandela for example, how would South Africa have turned out if he'd come out of prison seething and intent on exacting revenge?

  • Wretched things have happened in Kenya. There have been assassinations. Deceit. Corruption. Name it. But I also know that we all retain the capacity to look deep inside ourselves and make amends where we went wrong. It's in this vein that I call for a national day of forgiveness. Kenya desperately needs to start afresh. We all need to hear the agonizing cry of those kids in that Eldoret church and seek each other's hand in forgiveness and a pledge to never let anything so despicable happen in Kenya again.

  In like manner, I hope that our brothers and sisters held in prisons across the nation because of the post-election clashes can be released. I'm not calling for amnesty here. I'm saying they should be forgiven. Yes, let Kenya forgive them so we can all move forward as brothers and sisters bound by a common destiny.

  • I'm waiting for the day when President Mwai Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka will invite Kenyans to Uhuru Park and lead the nation to a place of heartfelt healing on that national day of forgiveness.

  Let the blood of our brothers and sisters bind us together in love and unity.

• To Cut Or Not To Cut, That Is The Question

  Posted: August 18, 2008, 9:52 am by Sam Okello

  AIDS. AIDS. AIDS.
  
  We don't think about this scourge very much anymore because it's been with us for years, right? But for nearly thirty years the world's leading scientists have struggled to come up with a cure or a form of antidote that would slow down its devastating symptoms. The good news is, there has been a measure of success on the latter front. In most developed nations, AIDS is no longer an automatic kiss of death. In swaths of Africa, however, the march has been slower.
  
  Yesterday I watched as Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, called upon the nation to embrace the cut. I have to assume his comments were directed at a certain group of people from the Lake Victoria region who still flee when they are confronted with the possibility of a knife kissing the tip of their.......fill in the blank. What was striking about his comments was the fact that he called for an act that was a radical departure from years of cultural practice. Was the Prime Minister saying that the scourge has been so devastating that a fundamental rethink of culture is called for? Was he bravely stating that radically new approaches needed to be part of the overall effort to combat the continuing scorched-earth effects of AIDS?
  
  I come to this matter with the humility of a man who realizes that thousands of Kenyans have lost their lives, and many others, like me, have lost relatives and friends to this debilitating disease. Because of the horrendous effects of AIDS, and the impact it has on the nation's vibrancy, I agree with the Prime Minister that whatever can be done must be done to slow down this disease. We must also thank the hundreds of NGOs, churches, government entities and private citizens who have worked tirelessly to slow down the determined encroachment of this scourge.
  
  But you'll have noticed that the Prime Minister went out in broad strokes. He said let's do the cut. I agree with him. But who should do the cut? The kids in standard one? Form One? College freshmen? Should a husband do it? How about a priest?
  
  And by the way, do all Kenyan communities do the cut except those people from the lake who run away at the sight of a knife? In case you didn't know it, the Luos had their own form of a cut, only it took the six lower teeth of our forefathers. It was a measure put in place to fight what was called lockjaw disease. The premise was simple. If one was inflicted with the disease and their jaws locked, they could still be fed through that hole created by pulling down the six teeth. Wasn't that smart? That was Luo ingenuity.
  
  So why did certain communities cut the foreskin?
  
  Fellow countrymen, what the Prime Minister called on Kenyans to do must be seen in the context of his willingness to be pragmatic about the issues facing Kenya. New approaches must be embraced in order to fight diseases and other ills. Where tradition and culture stands in the way of saving lives and moving the nation forward, those traditions must be discarded for the good of everyone.
  
  Lastly, I hope we are all smart enough today to ask the person we plan to marry to take a test. Don't walk that man or woman down the aisle until he/she slaps a medical record on the table that clears him/her of the disease. And for those who are in relationships, there is only one sure way to keep safe...integrity. Respect yourself enough to wait until you are married to take that beautiful woman/handsome man to bed. Is that easy to do? No, but you have years of togetherness after getting married, what would a little wait hurt?
  
  So my friends who run away at the sight of a knife, take courage, look the knife in the eye and tell it you are ready to tango. Once that piece is sliced off, run with it to the lake and watch as the waves sail away with it. Or you may ask our friends from Sotik and Bungoma and Voi and Nyeri and Kangundo what they did with theirs.
  

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

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

The end of the fish cakes