 |
| Kenyan Politicians v/s the Media, Wanjiku, Bloggers, FB/Twitter Lynch mobs ... yet they keep going |
The Greyhorn of late has been reticent about writing political pieces that focus on the never ending drama in Kenyan politics. Not so much because his well of sarcasm has run dry or even because of the siege mentality that is being fostered by the mainstream media to the real risks of defamation (Nguyai an MP skewered a certain disaffected fellow who trashed him on Facebook by having him arrested as some sort of example to other cyber blabberers) ergo reserving the lucrative right to rubbish and defame exclusively to the 'knowledgeable' bores in the fourth estate.
Wake up and smell the coffee. In the very least the Kenyan media should structure their on-line interaction to include less formal, curled sleeves kind of topical blogs as the leading media houses in the world already have -- i.e. they should be joining us, not trying to muzzle and dampen the mood by hero-worshipping those who use grey areas in the law to trample on the silly amongst us (cyber-activists).
Getting scared of the inevitable is stupid. No one can prevent a whole generation, a giant wave of anger really, of politically conscious people in Kenya that is enraged with what is going on -- from shouting from every rooftop and platform that they will not take the lies and hypocrisies any longer. With or without the mainstream media they will be exposed; for we are here in the first place because of the kid glove handling of really grimy issues by the media.
I don't need fabricated documents with proper letterheads and what-not to express the opinion that I honestly do feel there is something really 'fishy' with Harun Mwau or that when I have nightmares I see Stanley Livondo as a 'muppet' president proclaiming in an executive policy directive that it is actually Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth, the Pope and George Bush jnr. who are drug kingpins in this region.
What am saying is that am throwing the gauntlet to the barons of impunity, the days of playing around with the rule books and paid up crooks in the judiciary to keep everybody all scared and mum are over. Your armies of venal goons could very well have to murder half the country just to shut up cyber activists within Kenya. But I could just as well be doing this from Tanzania, Uganda or some toilet in Australia. Get it right -- we are watching, we are talking and we are not our fathers we will paint you black and blue with your own filth.
Of course I am only mortal and being murdered is a real risk, but you see this (yes, this annoying blog) -- it will be here forever as a testimony as to who has the motive for my murder and who sanctioned it. And then more people, thousands this time, will write the same stuff about you and your murdering ways. All your relatives, children and business associates will be named, exposed, taunted on the streets and shamed as associates and offspring of a vile murderer. Perhaps you will have to murder a couple more bloggers just to show these 'kids' who is really the boss. Ultimately what you will end up having are your palatial roofs being burnt over your own heads. That is 21st Century Revolution for you.
Anyway, that is not my subject today -- it is something that had just to be said, I very well know opinions have consequences and am not trying to be a martyr; but if that is the price that has to be paid for expressing my mind (in this digital diary) then so be it. The fight for our personal freedoms as history clearly shows -- from the Mau Mau to Wangari Maathai -- is and always will be a loud, murky and unavoidably a perilous struggle. Change will not drop itself onto our laps like a fat over-contented cat (or cat poop) , somebody has to pay the price when masses challenge powerful vested interests amongst the ruling elites -- it is a horrible thought, but am only as good as the next man. I have no better reason why I shouldn't die for the rest if that kind of bill should happen to fall on my plate.
Now as I was saying, in recent days the Geryhorn has preferred to stay away from politics -- not so much that his views are more esoteric, rarefied and inspired than that of other citizens in this country and that by keeping mum coconuts will start cracking themselves open and pouring their content into cocktail glasses with nice little umbrellas at the coast. It is that it just doesn't add any value to anything really to keep saying the same things everybody else is ranting about. And with the incredible increase of political analysts and commentators I can tell you pretty much most of the ground has been covered . . . mowed to the point of barrenness.
So what I will be stating here is nothing really new . . . it is what everybody is thinking, but no one wants to say any of it out loud. Surely Abdullahi Ahmednassir can't be the only patriot in this country- yes he is rich, a lawyer and all that, but the kind of fellows he is rubbing the wrong way can as easily snuff him out too. This blog may lack the professional thresh-hold he maintains in his published works, but there will be no peace, relief and hiding place for hypocrites in public life as long as there is the Internet. This much I can assure all aspiring political candidates and incumbents.
The first reality that has dawned on the Greyhorn is that the short-term political trends in Kenya are now more than ever shaped by the media. Particularly the three most moneyed and influential media houses --Nation Media Group, Standard Media Group and the vernacular hub Royal Media Services. The rest serve only niche markets and they are not as credible and cross-cutting as these three. If you want to know what the top presidential contenders will be talking and battling in the coming week all you need to do is read today's and the two preceding days' newspapers.
More alarmingly it seems to me that the media only calls experts, queries them in a certain way and even edits their opinions to buttress what conclusions hacks and senior political columnists have already arrived at. It is a farcical game that is only temporarily defeated when politicians make unprecedented moves, like Raila's recent lashing out at the Hague suspects and Moi's faux pas at the Njenga Karume burial in endorsing Uhuru Kenyatta for the presidency yet again. It is a controversy churning machine that we have. A money machine that has taken a ruthless, destructive life of it's own.
The media's obsession even with political trivia is not by choice. It is the only thing that is guaranteed to rouse interest, rake in the numbers and most importantly make the money. This shouldn't be a surprise, it has been the trend all over the world and even here in Kenya since independence. But the facade that had been created over the past decade that the Kenyan media has finally become the people's watchman (first and foremost) is suddenly beginning to show some ugly cracks. The game in play at the media houses is subtly different -- flow with the money, the damned costly truth may come at it's own pace.
To circumvent this pitfall of artificially generated controversies, I usually tend to look at things from a long term perspective and at a lower baseline than the hectic trot the media is keeping political analysts running at; analyzing why Raila coughed in a certain way at a burial Uhuru was the MC and such like. I still wonder why these otherwise smart people fail to refuse to be involved in these stupid games that are wholly meant to push up ratings. Seriously what long-term implications can be gained by re-analyzing the company of a politician within 24 hours by the same political analyst? Cooking and effecting plans doesn't take days, at times it takes weeks for something even mildly significant to pop-up. The rest is empty newspaper-selling chatter.
For instance ever since Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto were fatefully thrown into the same boat of the ICC misfortune, the media has been all abuzz with their alliance, their joint strategy etc. In the crazy controversy-dependent cycle of the media it seems there is indeed something really substantial there; but jumping onto the slower baseline -- the long-term view, this Uhuru-Ruto alliance quickly becomes clear is one based on the flimsiest of grounds. The electoral blocs and constituencies these two gentleman are purporting to represent and thus unite, are at the moment implacable enemies. The issues that make them so, none of them is even willing to delve into. Besides the Hague, what alliance is there really besides one between two desperate individuals who are accused of orchestrating atrocities against each other? I say little to nothing.
Ruto surely can't miss the fact that whenever he goes to certain places in Central Kenya there are more scowls and snickering than smiles. The same goes for Uhuru Kenyatta when he goes to certain tricky areas in Rift valley. In fact their supporters at times can't even stand to mention the leader of the other side of this unseemly alliance. When rambling about issues such as the Hague, the mostly rural grassroots-folk will keep saying 'our people', 'my leader' so and so, and such like and reflexively overlook the other side of the equation as if it does not even exist. They probably even head off from the all too common 'prayer meetings' straight to a threat-mongering session at some nearby IDP camp or witnesses' homestead.
Saying that the Kalenjin are more than angry with Raila for his betrayal of the Kalenjin interests is a pathetic understatement. Particularly with regard to land matters and the Mau Forest evictions. This still stands and persists even in the face of the fact that the entire Nation's survival is pegged on the restitution of the Mau Complex. Despite this powerful feeling of having been short-changed, this does not mean that the Kalenjin out of anger will jump willy-nilly through every hoop and loop that Ruto tells them to jump through.
No community wants to be on the losing side of national issues and debates into perpetuity. In the Mau Forest saga the Kalenjin were practically pitted against the rest of the country. Again in the 2010 constitutional referendum they were urged by this Ruto fellow to vote in the negative while a majority of the country was projected and was passionately enthused to vote in a new constitution. Fortunately there was a saving grace in that the clergymen (though seemingly not their flock) were also in the forefront in rejecting the new constitution.
So the question that would be lingering in the minds of the Kalenjin voters is where precisely is William Ruto leading them? What has come out of what has so far been a decade of Ruto's tumultous fruitless leadership? Is he fighting for them all or is he really fighting for himself and his family? Why does Ruto's strategies only seem to lead to further isolation and animosity towards the Kalenjin community? Is it his characteristic short-term calculations or is it simply political myopia? I tell you there are many questions that are running in the minds of the Kalenjin.
But the Kalenjin are not the only ones with a problem. Their wary Kikuyu allies have a problem of their own. During the 2007-2008 crisis the Kikuyus for the first time in their long proud history felt utterly isolated in the national fabric by a palpable, visceral cloud of hatred. It was the poor innocent Kikuyus who then went on to carry the bitter baggage of disillusionment and disaffection that their political leaders and the Kikuyu elites had imprudently fostered amongst the other tribes through various actions since independence. This had sufficiently been made toxic by the tribal umbrella known as GEMA, which had been insensitively resurrected at the inception of the second Kikuyu presidency under Mwai Kibaki.
At the peak of the 2008 crisis it was not uncommon to hear some sections of the Kikuyu community openly advocating for the support of a non-Kikuyu presidential candidate to lessen the anti-Kikuyu sentiments in the national psyche. A destructive under-current that had suddenly become a real threat to the entire community.
The Kikuyu community is the most populous, the most powerful and the most sophisticated community in Kenya. But that would mean little if the Kikuyu are consciously isolated politically, even worse if they are pitted in a violent conflict with everybody else. The Kikuyu are only as wealthy and powerful as the rest of the country is, they can no longer grow wealthy, happy, powerful etc at the expense of the other communities. Persistence on that dangerous delusional path will be equivalent to genocidal self-annihilation. Who said only a Kikuyu can be president in Kenya, and that the national resources should always be pooled in their favour? The feelings are raw and ugly and someone needs to take heed.
I almost laugh at myself in self-pity at how things have changed little. We are practically all back to the same tribal configurations, the Kikuyu as everybody else back to sticking to their guns in support of another Kikuyu president. Personally am afraid this is not healthy and it maybe one road that may lead to far much greater anti-Kikuyu consciousness, something akin to the Xenophobia against Kenyans in Tanzania.
In a past post in this blog, I stated openly my support for Peter Kenneth (whom I still support), a Kikuyu, although what I think as my less deserving tribesman (William Ruto) is also running. Amongst other things I believe this is a conscious act of intellectual self-deprecation and appreciation of our diverse cultures. What is beginning to annoy me is the realization that a lot more Kikuyus than I was willing to acknowledge have this god-complex (not just Martha Karua).
Even my former colleagues and intimate friends in campus cannot bring themselves to support on any ground a non-Kikuyu candidate! These are my brothers for all intents and purposes, yet their cursory dismissal of non-Kikuyu candidates leaves me feeling cheap, infuriated and a pandering dog to keep singing about Peter Kenneth while it is becoming apparent there is no Kikuyu amongst them or on the face of this planet who will ever support a member of another tribe. (That is why I still haven't published part two of that article -- my faith is wavering, and despite my gallant efforts it seems my ancestors will be the one's who will be laughing last at my naive idealism).
Just listening to Tony Gachoka and all his putrid pan-Kikuyu rhetoric makes me nauseous and feeling like puking on my food. It is as if the Kikuyu are the only humans in Kenya the rest of us are the trees in the vegetable garden of Mumbi -- to provide shades for Kikuyus. I desperately need to hear someone credible, of high integrity, of good intellectual and social standing (other than old Charles Njonjo) coming out and supporting a non-Kikuyu candidate, or am done with a Kikuyu president in my lifetime. If by election time I hear nor see such person, just one, I will robotically vote for any other person other than a Kikuyu candidate for life and urge other non-Kikuyu Kenyans to do so as well.
My point? I am begging -- yes urgently begging -- just one patriotic high profile Kikuyu man/ woman of integrity to salvage me and hundreds of other intellectual hopefuls from a bellowing cloud of despair and disillusionment by supporting a non-Kikuyu candidate for president. That is it. As of now am nothing more than a laughing stalk and a turn-coat, simply because there is no reciprocity for my earlier tribe-blind prognostications.
Through the prism of long-term trends one can easily perceive and understand why Musalia Mudavadi feels compelled for his political survival to bluff Raila with a bellicose fight for the party's nomination. The Luhya have grown tired of being the door-keepers and sentinels for other people to either stay or get to state house. Therefore to retain any veil of legitimacy amongst the people the Luhya leaders must put up a strong stake for the presidency, not the half-hearted shenanigans that were only orchestrated to get bargaining chips in the formation of successive governments.
Any Luhya leader who is seen to best fulfill this most poignant wish of the Luhya will receive Masinde Muliro-like support this time around.
All the other pretenders would be sacrificed or trampled into oblivion if they are perceived to be stumbling blocks and are simply serving to bring back the old divisive tactics. In this there is also nothing new or insightful -- then why does the media make all the hullabaloo about Musalia sticking his neck out in the ODM's nomination race while his reasons and motives are no secret? In Luhyaland everyone knows Mudavadi's time is neigh, he must metamorphose into a credible presidential material in Luhya eyes or his political career is as good as dead. Therefore the media's behaviour can be easily explained by . . . yes, you guessed it . . . the papers are creating a controversy to sell more adverts and get higher ratings.
What of the other regions? This coming election can't just be a big-tribe phenomenon again. Am happy to say, that with the new higher thresh-hold for getting into the presidency, local politicians will get to seriously appreciate the concept of swing voters. Those people who are not your usual suspect supporters. The marginalized kind of people who were mostly ignored in the past like the people of North Eastern, Northern and the Coast region.
The insularity of big tribe politics in my view will begin to be worn down under this new constitutional arrangement. Being a Luo, Kikuyu, Kalenjin or Luhya may not mean much without the Somali, Mijikenda and Turkana. I only hope Raila and the other contenders will be made to sweat for the support of these now super important and what were marginalized communities.
Leaving the tribal politics aside (hopefully forever) I will focus on a certain cabal of MPs that is spray painting parliament, the presidency and this country's foreign policy with diarrhea. This is the earlier mentioned Haroun Mwau, MP for Kilome. His rabble rousing front-man Charles Kilonzo (Yatta MP) and Juja MP Kabogo.
Now this Harun Mwau has been black-listed by the US and president Obama personally named him as a suspected king pin in an international drug trafficking ring. Unsurprisingly this has been a thorn in his flesh in recent years, but it has been so with less intensity over the last decade.
Mwau on his part has made it clear that there is an international conspiracy against him based on innuendos and business rivalry that is being orchestrated by agents in the state apparatus of Western governments.
By roping in the president -- Mwai Kibaki -- into the ICC 'conspiracy' and pitting the president and the ICC suspects against the prime minister, Raila Odinga and all the respective communities, it is clear that Mwau is trying to manoeuvre a significant portion the Kenyan constituency and state apparatus against those whom he perceives as his nemesis.
Believe it or not, this elaborate scheme only hinges on a fabricated document that purports the British government is plotting with the ICC to have Kibaki arrested and arraigned at the Hague based court once he leaves office. This somehow is supposed to help the international community's golden boy -- Raila Odinga to succeed Kibaki. From the outset the logic is flawed - wouldn't Raila in any case have to be in in office if this 'plan' is to come in to fruition? Somehow it is imagined this reputedly forged document would hurt Raila's chances. Unfortunately it seems it would hurt even more the ICC suspects.
Consciously or inadvertently Mwau, Charles Kilonzo, Kabogo and Co. are flagrantly driving the Ocampo 4's case further into murky waters just to loosen the noose around the neck of the desperately frantic Harun Mwau. By all means Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto should not accept to be lulled into believing that their grievances against the West are in any way related to the drug trafficking allegations against Mwau. Mwau is a deadly Trojan Horse for Kalonzo if not other more nefarious characters -- one piece of lethal political malware. They should indeed come out and strongly distance themselves from the diplomatic row that Charles Kilonzo and Haroun Mwau have callously cooked up.
Climbing aboard the same boat as Mwau would not be detrimental -- it would be a major catastrophe -- legally, politically and morally for they will add onto their names the tags of drug dealers, traffickers etc. that the name of the Kilome MP currently carries.
Their disaffection with the West's hand in Kenyan affairs and particulary their case at the ICC (and let's not be coy or hypocritical about this, the West is neck deep in this) should be expressed independently of Mwau's woes.
All I can say about Charles Kilonzo is that we now know on whose side he is on, he is fooling nobody. The stripes and smell of a hyena on him are irrefutably and clearly out. We should have known with the reeking first fart of the hyena in the pro-Charterhouse Bank manouevres he orchestrated in parliament.
In conclusion as you see there is nothing unique in this artcile, but there is a lot in it people dare not to say even though it is all out in the open. I urge you again to do something positive, other than asking Mr. Kibunja and Mr. Iteere to persecute me for these uncomfortable views. Prosecution does not apply for Greyhorn trully believes he has broken no law, satire and weird sense, that is all is here and will ever be.
*****************
Mutahi Ngunyi has done it again -- he has superseded my posting by presenting the issues in this post on Jeff's bench, a favourite show of mine. I have just watched the repeat this morning. Ngunyi, a Kikuyu, even endorsed Mudavadi for the presidency in his protracted way. I think too many people are drawing from the same source or that the underlying political realities are more clear than I dared believe because he was talking my mind on the bench.
It has been years since I have read something written by Mutahi Ngunyi, I do not know him personally neither have I ever engaged with him in any way -- yet am surprised how his views so closely mirror mine.
Am utterly convinced Mutahi is a dangerous man. He is so eerily perceptive that am beginning to wonder if he can remotely read my mind. Which raises the uncomfortable question > how much more can he do if I actually met him? Wouldn't I come out of his office writing my will and eulogy since the seer would have told me what would be in the remaining part of my life? Anyway I think even Raila can only ignore this man at his own peril.
PS: Kony 'makes' detractor to wank
The Kony phenomenon in cyberspace has attained a high level of attention in such a short time span that it's ubiquity is actually becoming exasperating. Therefore I wont belabour what is bound to be an irritation, itchiness and fatigue with the issue (even though the Kony campaign has mostly served to shock and misinform you i.e. if you knew nothing about Kony, factually you are only marginally better off)
Thus I will give my two cents worth on the artificial and orchestrated obsession with the macabre eccentric known as Kony.
First, this is a classic example of armpit-smell or stinky-sock activism. This is whereby somebody takes a pet project that needs tonnes of money -- usually in some remote place where nobody could account for the money -- then they rub onto it as much stench as they possibly can and then damp it on rich people's faces. Like a reeking sock you are bound to notice and quickly do something (dish out cash) to be rid of the guilt on your conscience.
More importantly there are two important things we are missing. The Americans are not all itchy and excited about Northern Uganda all of a sudden for nothing. This attention in this part of Uganda ironically comes just when Museveni has already brought law and order to the place after decades and decades of anarchy. Where were the American's then?
Most of the oil fields in Uganda are in the North West. Unfortunately that is the neighbourhood where that pesky rat called Joseph Kony and LRA are roaming about. They ran off into this remote region straddling three countries after the collapse of the peace talks in South Sudan some six years ago.
Before the white expatriates who would be working the oil fields can start streaming in. Or before the oil fields can be safe enough to build tennis courts in them, the LRA must first be put permanently to rest.
Otherwise what expatriate would want to lose his nose and the genitalia of his girlfriend/wife to the knives of LRA's child soldiers? Worse yet to be sodomized by armed kids and be carried off as a hostage into the forest? Kony's and LRA's time has come to an abrupt end and they are no longer welcome or have a place in oil rich Uganda. That is why even more American soldiers will be sent after them if need be.
Besides that, somebody had to find something for the social networks' activists who in recent times had jumped from cyberspace onto the streets of Western cities and capitals. A cause had to be given to the "Occupy" twitterers, facebookers and what-have-you so that they and their girlfriends can have something outside the Western and Northern hemisphere to rant and be all passionate about -- at least for a few weeks. Joseph Kony was good enough.
Finally, one of the two key men (Jason) behind the Kony 2012 video is under arrest. He was caught on video committing obscene sexual acts in public i.e. he was fiddling with his male member in the open. The reason given? Malnutrition . . . and over-exhaustion with the Kony campaign. Now it is official -- there was a nut behind the Kony video, one who was so engrossed with Kony that he starved himself and masturbated in public to ease some of that Kony inspired pressure.
M. Wycliff,
Nairobi.
No comments:
Post a Comment