Sugar and Long-Maturing Politicians

One of the most pressing and high-ranked problems facing Kenya's sugar sector is the problem of low-yielding long-maturing crop varieties. Ironically, the most pressing and high-ranked impediment to economic growth and social progress in Kenya is also political immaturity. We have a pressing and high-ranked problem of narrow-minded low-yielding long-maturing politicians.

My Advice to President Uhuru

Mr President, after several years of writing opinion pieces for the SIASA pullout, this will be the first time I address myself to you in person. I trust you will find my thoughts most helpful.

I'm not a prophet, but long before you and your deputy Ruto were an item, while both of you were for all intents and purposes nemesis, I knew you would team up in order to fight the ICC and even wrote about it in this very pullout.

Back then, I foresaw that the only way to defeat the ICC was for you to team up with Ruto and fight the ICC. I will admit that I don't know whether it was my opinion piece that opened your eyes to this fact or not, but the fact is that you teamed up and successfully seized power - fairly and squarely.

And just as I thought would happen, you out maneuvered the ICC prosecutor and she was left with no choice but to withdraw the case against you citing a lack of sufficient evidence to proceed with the case, never mind that she cited a lack of cooperation from you.

The Middle East Culture Wars

The tragedy of how the elite media failed catastrophically in Iraq is living proof of just how little the West understands the Middle East. From Iraq to Libya and from Syria to Yemen, the region is encumbered with strife and the issues underlying the conflicts are rather complex. The complexity of the issues is perhaps only matched with the savagery of the hostilities and quite frankly, nobody seems to know exactly how to intervene and stop the bloodshed and resolve the underlying issues.

Recently, President Obama admitted that his administration didn't have a strategy for dealing with the Islamic State group which is based in Syria and which in July made foray into Iraq seizing control of almost a third of that country. That stunning admission by the President underscored just how ignorant the Western world's is concerning the Middle East and the trigger-happy knuckle heads clamouring for yet another US-led intervention in Iraq and Syria are further proof of this ignorance.

To be sure, putting a stop to the violent conflicts across the region is relatively easy but the crux of the matter is in resolving the underlying issues causing the conflicts in the first place. There is no doubt that the US military can respond in a moment's notice should it be called to action anywhere in the Middle East but resolving the underlying issues fueling the conflict is not something that can be resolved militarily. If anything, military action has in the recent past served to fan the embers of hatred for the West and the ongoing vicious cycle of violence.

Seeing the Big Picture

Thanks to new-found oil wealth and the ensuing interchange of good and services, Muslim Arabs today have access to highest standards of living that money can buy. Along with that, the traditional Arab way of life has undergone a complete makeover thanks to the exchange of world views, ideas, and culture that takes place in the marketplace and the global public square. Traditional Arab values and attitudes have been greatly modified and in some cases replaced while in others lost all together. Arabs now proudly live in ultramodern cities and towns, where family and tribal ties tend to break down and where women, as well as men, have equal access to education and employment opportunities.

This trade-off and rapid integration of the Muslim Arabs world into the global scheme of things is highly welcome and unwelcome in equal measure. Whereas the advantages and irresistible comforts of mordern life are highly welcome, the attendant social political and cultural shifts are in some cases diametrically opposed to Arab people's sacred way of life that has hitherto remained untouched for centuries. Unfortunately for the good people of Middle East, the abhorrent changes that have come with modern life in the 21st century are inevitable as much as they are a fact of life.

For the ruling elite in all the autocratic states across the region and especially Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Baharain, the social political change has served to enlighten and empower their populace to stand up for their rights and democratic governance. In the UAE, for example, where the ruling elite are just as paranoid about their grip on power as the House of Saud is across the border, innocent activists are labelled terrorists and coup plotters and hardly a month goes by without Emirati activists being tried and convicted often in absentia to prevent them from going back home.

For the religious types across the region, the guardians of everything moral, the socio cultural change sweeping across the region has sparked in some rekigious leaders an extremely dangerous militant reaction that has led to the horrific 'holy wars' that we are witnessing across the region. For these religious fundamentalists and their followers, anyone who does not subscribe to their doctrines and values and beliefs simply has no right to live. Al-Qa'ida (AQ), Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Al-Shabaa, Ansar al-Islam, Boko Haram, and Islamic State are prime examples of jihadist groups which believe that their way of life is the only acceptable way of and the must become the way of life for everybody else and they stop at nothing in their efforts to impose it on others.

Elements of a Solution

The jihadists across the region and other parts of the world must howevrr be helped to come to terms with the inevitability of the socio political and cultural change and the folly of their crude resistance to it. Contrary to the widely-held belief, the change sweeping across the globe, not just the Middle East, is not the product of American machination or the West as it were, but rather is something that is actually driven by economic and technological forces and as many religious people will agree, spiritual forces, that are well beyond the control of America and all Western governments put together. 

There simply is no amount of bloodshed or acts of terrorism, no matter how vile, that can slow down much less reverse the paranormal process bringing change across the globe. If anything the jihadist resistance to change has rendered the Middle East arguably the worst casualty of the change sweeping across the world.

The jihadists and the region as a whole must accept and learn how to co-exist in the same society with other people with whom they have sharp religious cultural and political differences. It is not reasonable for anyone in this 'new civilized' world which is anything but civilized, to impose their values, beliefs, and attitudes on everybody else, that only ends in conflict. The only acceptable way of propagating one's views in this new age is by being living by your values and beliefs and being a good specimen of their effects and alternatively by gently persuading others to adopt one's values and beliefs.

World powers working to find lasting solutions to the crises in Iraq and Syria and other parts of the Middle East, must realize that the sectarian conflicts are primarily a struggle between elements seeking to use state machinery to resist cultural change and whereas the extremist' murderous campaign must be stopped effort must be put in place to help them accept and cope with change. 

On the other hand, autocratic governments should be helped to navigate the transition into democratic societies. A thorough understanding of the undercurrents in the various conflicts across the region is essential to crafting the appropriate response. Limited military intervention might be necessary in some cases but if only to stop wanton bloodshed, but sustainable solutions to these conflicts will require a totally different approach that takes cognizance of the facts at play and that avoids the counterproductive use of force.

The Politics of Land Reform

It is highly regrettable that we Kenyans simply cannot have an intelligent conversation on land reform. It was deeply troubling for the Inspector-General of police to purport to warn us against having a national discourse on the issue yet land reform is one of the foundations in which the Vision 2030 pillars are anchored on. Ours is an agrarian economy in which land is the primary source of wealth and the most productive resource. Our land-tenure system however is faulty and has been identified as an impediment to economic development.

To be sure, the driving force for undertaking land reform is usually political, not economic. Don’t be fooled by the irony; whereas the driving force for undertaking land reform is political, the purpose for undertaking land reform is underpinned by sound economics. The irony only serves to prove that in every true democracy there is more politics than economics in economic policy formulation.

Politics Most Foul

For all of its denials, it was an open secret that State House was secretly propping up Musalia Mudavadi to succeed President Kibaki. The word on the street was that Musalia was as a ‘compromise candidate’ for the Gema community. Despite Uhuru Kenyatta having what seemed like good prospects of succeeding President Kibaki, his indictment at the ICC with crimes against humanity was for all intents and purposes an insuperable millstone around Uhuru neck. Apparently, the level headed State House operatives had long since come to grips with Uhuru’s predicament at The Hague and they were intent on handing over the reins of power to an acquiescent moderate that is Musalia and the Gema community understood it thus.

Everything seemed to have fallen in place when Musalia, who had earlier been cajoled to ditch Raila’s ODM party, signed a pact with Uhuru and William Ruto in which Uhuru agreed to step down for him as their coalition’s presidential candidate. And then, out of the blue, Uhuru pulled a fast one on Mudavadi and backtracked on his promise citing manipulation by ‘dark forces.’ Poor Mudavadi was short-changed and in effect consigned to the political junkyard where he fittingly belongs depending of course on which side of the political divide you look at it from. The operatives behind project Mudavadi were none the wiser even though they were left with egg on their faces. With the benefit of hindsight, it was a total escapade.

We Must Learn to Concede Defeat

A truly historic and highly publicized presidential debated in which all the presidential candidates will take part is slated for the day after tomorrow, 11^th February 2013, and I have to say that I have both good and bad feelings about it. Good feelings because not only is the presidential debate merely a first in our fledgling democracy, but primarily because political debates of this nature are an essential part of the electoral process. The debate is expected to greatly help voters in their evaluations of the candidates and hopefully the voter decision come 4^th of March 2013, will be more informed. Bad feelings because it is a debate that will be ruinously cluttered, defeating the very purpose of the presidential debate.

There are eight candidates in the race to State House but as we all know, Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta are the only two serious contenders in the race; the other six: Musalia Mudavadi, Martha Karua, Peter Kenneth, James ole Kiyapi, Paul Muite and Mohammed Duba are all peripheral candidates who for all intents and purposes do not stand a cat in hell’s chance of winning the election. Be that as it may, these peripheral candidates are expected to take part in the debate simply because it is politically incorrect to not have them take part in the debate. Well, I beg to differ!

Courting Ambivalence in Politics and the Elections

There is simmering ambivalence among many Kenyans over the monkey business that was party nominations, the mayhem it sparked in various parts of the country evoking bitter memories of the 2007/08 post election violence, and the predictable political fallout that followed. Party nominations have always been a passage of great danger for politicians and political parties alike but with all the electoral reforms that have been enacted, Kenyans somehow expected party nominations to be conducted with utmost care and decorum; but that was not to be. The nominations were in words of one syllable shambolic. Certainly, logistical challenges were partly to blame and that is easy to fix but what was also clear and which is a matter of grave concern, was that politicians and their supporters flatly refused to give the nominations exercise the respect it deserves leading to the fracas that were witnessed in several parts of the country.

Why Sonko Could Win ...at Least in Theory

The film ‘Rebel Without a Cause' released in 1955 was a rude awakening to many American parents because it vividly brought them to terms with the reality of their disaffected urban youth who were resisting parental authority for no apparent reason despite coming from what were otherwise considered good well-to-do families. Today, the disaffected urban youth phenomenon is global thanks to globalization and that all too familiar rural-urban migration. It is said that music is a universal language and the language of disaffected urban youth is gangsta rap. Gangsta rap is a type of rap music, typically with words about violence, guns, drugs and sex. The lovers of gangsta rap who are mostly urban youth consider gangsters, hardened criminals, drug dealers, and their ilk as heroes. Heck! Many outside the U.S. even considered Osama bin Laden, the world’s most infamous terrorist, a hero.

According to official statistics the youth constitute 70 per cent of the Kenyan population and the overwhelming majority of them live in urban areas throughout the country. The Kenyan urban youth, just like their contemporaries around the world, are also a disenfranchised lot. They are disaffected by the debilitating lack of opportunities and they are disenchanted with the Establishment which they figure somehow is the greatest impediment to their upward mobility. This is why change and reforms have remained the foremost election issues in every election cycle since 1992 after the successful struggle for multiparty democracy in Kenya. Uncannily though, change and reforms have remained frustratingly elusive and it feels as though the democratic process simply isn’t working or if it is, it is rigged and this, my friends, is the source of Mike Sonko’s popularity.

What is Wrong with our Politics?

Something is very wrong with our politics. Why do politicians have such an obscene sense of entitlement to our votes and what gives presidential aspirants the audacity to expect our votes yet they are not clearly defining the issues that affect us and spelling out how they will address them? Just as it has always been, the Kenyan public is taking the forthcoming general election very seriously not because the electorate is acutely aware of the importance of quality leadership in nation building but because it still matters to a vast majority of Kenyans from which ethnic community the president is going to come from.

Tribalism therefore is readily considered what is wrong in our politics. I am however of a different opinion. The strong desire people have of seeing someone from their own ethnic community at the centre of power is no different from the passionate desire we all have of seeing our fellow countrymen winning a gold medal in international athletic competitions even though the individual athlete comes from a different ethnic community than ours and they alone and their families get the direct benefits of the accomplishments. In much the same way, the desire to see our kinsmen ruling the nation is legitimate and proper and demonising that desire and labelling it tribalism is misplaced and rather simplistic.

Hon. Imanyara's Ordeal was an Occult Ritual

Last week, the legendary Imenti Central legislature, Hon. Gitobu Imanyara suffered an eerie ordeal that has defied explanation. He was waylaid by the gang as he was driving along State House Crescent and bundled him out of his car. His assailants then ordered him to lift his hands and kneel down facing Mount Kenya. They then threaten to kill him and his two sons if he defied their orders to cease and desist from supporting the Prime Minister Raila Odinga. They also ordered him to neither attend the Limuru II (b) conference nor accompany the Premier in his tour of the Mount Kenya region which took place last weekend. But before they could let him go, they ordered him to say ‘Tuko pamoja na Uhuru’ three times.

The way I see it, the bizarre incident which involved chanting with lifted hands while kneeling down facing a specific direction –Mount Kenya which is of spiritual significance to the House of Mumbi, was for all intents and purposes part of an occult ritual. The Imenti Central legislature should thank his God he has lived to tell the tale. He could have been ordained as a human sacrifice. The ordeal was nonetheless horrifying and when he recounted it to his fellow legislatures in the House, they were all dumbfounded.

Uhuru Kenyatta’s Leadership Appraisal

Its official, Uhuru Kenyatta is now a political IDP. Last week, KANU held its long awaited National Delegates Conference (NDC) which was convened amidst controversy in a desperate bid to puts its house in order and save the independence party from imminent deregistration on account of failing to comply with the new law on political parties. The Deputy Premier Uhuru Kenyatta, who was hitherto the party’s chairman, snubbed the conference alleging that it was not convened procedurally but be that as it may, the NDC was well-attended and duly transacted its business and as was expected, its immediate former chairman was ousted in absentia rendering him a political IDP.

It is undeniable that the independence party has completely lost its former glory and Uhuru’s failed leadership is responsible for the sorry state the party is in today. The party’s never-ending leadership wrangles had gotten in the way of its compliance with the new law on political parties –a situation that was threatening to have the party deregistered. In view of the foregoing, the Deputy Premier simply had to be replaced. It is expected that the latest political IDP will become a squatter in Mr. Kiraitu Murungi’s ‘political bus’ although there are rumours he is putting together a makeshift political house. Incidentally, his comrade William Ruto has suffered similar fate; becoming a squatter in UDM and eventually being kicked out to form a makeshift political house –URP.

G7 on the Verge of Collapse

The writing is on the wall for the enigmatic G7 Alliance that has defied all the odds since its faltering inception and grown to become a dominant force in the political arena. The alliance which was founded in defiance to the Premier Raila Odiga and the ICC process is on the verge of a collapse that is likely to be a calamitous disintegration. For the longest time the alliance succeeded in staving off the sooner-than-expected breakup by fashioning itself as an alliance of peers. However, the politically savvy Deputy Premier Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr. William Ruto have edged out Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka to become the leading lights of the alliance.

The alliance which committed itself to fielding a single presidential candidate from within its ranks through a democratic process is going through a watershed moment. The search for its preferred presidential candidate has turned out to be a show of might between its two leading lights and what is emerging is that the nomination process will by default be based on the principle that ‘right is might’. Needless to say, the politically impotent Vice-President, Kalonzo Musyoka, who had hoped for a civil and democratic nomination process is a disillusioned man while the new justice minister Eugene Wamalwa has cut his losses and is more than happy to settle for a plum ministerial position.

Making Sense of the Cabinet Reshuffle

One of the reasons Kibaki’s presidency remains an enigma to Kenyans is not because of his notoriously incoherent off-the-cuff remarks but rather because his actions speak so loud we can never hear what he is actually saying. In the surprise minor cabinet reshuffle that took place last week, the President made a political statement on his stand on the ICC process and the fate of the Ocampo Four but surprisingly, it is a statement that seems to have eluded our attentiveness.

There is no doubt that the recent cabinet reshuffle was made long before it was announced but given that the reshuffle was vindictive and smacked of arrogance, such an announcement had the potential of generating serious political backlash.

GEMA Is Suffering Siege Mentality

Institutions are created for the purpose of resisting change, that’s their main function. And they preserve all kinds of things that one doesn’t want. But how you get rid of them I do not know.

Professor A. J. P. Taylor

Last week, Gikuyu, Embu, and Meru Association (GEMA) convened a conference for leaders from its various communities in Limuru and the ostensible objective of the meeting dubbed Limuru II was to endorse Uhuru Kenyatta as their presidential candidate and to explore possible ways and means way of delaying the ICC process to enable Uhuru to vie for the presidency in the forthcoming general elections. In the end, the leaders adopted a human rights argument for postponing the ICC process and gave a thinly veiled threat of violence should the ICC process jeopardise Uhuru’s chances of vying the presidency.

The Mass Media and Politics

Finally, the long-awaited election year is here and politicians –veterans and rookies alike–are gearing up for the forthcoming make-or-break general elections. At the heart of all campaign strategies by any serious politician eying especially the presidency, is management of the mass media. The mass media is the centre stage of any democracy’s political drama and even though they are indispensable to politicians and to a democratic political process, politicians adore and dread it in equal measures. To improve their prospects for election, politicians need the mass media to portray them favourably even when they are unpopular something which makes their campaign strategy somewhat of a ritual dance before the media.

2012 Electoral Manifestos and Vision 2030

Somebody asked me an interesting and valid question the other day. Will there be any need for manifestos and should we expect them from those who will be vying the presidency in 2012 given that we’re implementing Vision 2030 -our nation’s long-term development plan that transcends every government for the next 18 years? In answer to that question, we need to have a proper perspective on precisely what Vision 2030 is and what an electoral manifesto is and its purpose.

Scramble for Votes in the Diaspora

The 2012 General Election will the first under the new constitutional dispensation and it will be historic on many accounts. For the first time, Kenyans in the Diaspora will take part in the elections. It is estimated that there are about three million Kenyans in the Diaspora and out of these three million Kenyans in the Diaspora, it is guesstimated that at least half of them are eligible voters which makes the Diaspora vote a significant voting bloc capable of deciding the outcome of the General Election. The Diaspora voting bloc is unique in several ways though.

The Kibaki Succession Politics are Hopelessly Bankrupt

With every Tom, Dick and Harry declaring their bid for the highest office in the land, the menu of those aspiring for the presidency in the next General Elections has now become ridiculously rich. It remains to be seen what impact this will have on the General Elections. Nonetheless, most everyone with an honest opinion agrees that the Right Honourable Prime Minister, Raila Amolo Odinga is still the man to beat in the next General Elections; a political reality that is notoriously

Kenyan Leaders’ Deadly Obsession with Power

It’s ironic. Col. Muammar Gaddafi called those protesting against him ‘rats’ but when he met his brutal death, he was hiding in a culvert like a rat. The heartbreaking irony in the life of the late Professor Wangari Maathai was that her greatness of was a function of President Moi’s excesses and when she died, an overwhelming sense of shame and guilt prevented the former president from joining the rest of humanity in celebrating her illustrious life and it could not even permit him to join fellow dignitaries at her State Funeral. Such is the regret and humiliation the

The ICC Suspects and Defence Teams Mistakes

The International Criminal Court (ICC) established by the Rome Statute, is the world’s first permanent treaty based international criminal court established for the purpose of ending impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. H.E. Dr. Kofi Annan accurately observed that prior to the establishment of the ICC, powerful men committed crimes against humanity knowing all too well that as long as they remained powerful