Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Kibaki -and not the Kikuyu- is doing the eating

It sure is a blessing to be born a Gema. As Cheruiyot puts it, "It is hard to succeed today in Kenya unless you are a Kikuyu." Being born Kikuyu means you don't have to chew food and you may not need to swallow it. You simply demand that it be digested by others then pumped into your blood. http://www.timesnews.co.ke/05dec06/insight/ins4.html

If you are a Kikuyu businessman you should not stock your shop. All you need to do is open your doors in the morning and be driven back to your house a rich man.

If you are a Kikuyu and you live in the slums, you are wasting your life. Haven't you realized that you are born with a Midas touch!! In addition they give you a magical lamp with a Jini who has endless offers to grant your wishes.

How soon has Cheruiyot forgotten that the same was said about Kalenjins. It is hardly 5 years since the Kalenjins' time to eat expired!

Tribalism in Kenya is a reality. But claiming that the Kikuyus, Merus and Embus met hand hatched a plot to dominate other Kenyans is simply taking it too far. In my opinion, it is classism and political dynasties that rule the country. The notions of "it is our time to eat" and "they have been eating for a long time" is a creation of politicians as they seek to keep their tribesmen in lumps. During the Nyayo era, a common man in Nyanza may have been better of than his brother from Baringo.

The MoU

I find it silly when Kenyans come out to defend the interests of politicians in the rubbished MoU. To them, the MoU was a pact between Kibaki and the people of Kenya. The reality is the MoU was between Kibaki and other politicians on how they were to share the spoils of war. Wanjiku did not feature in that document. Politicians are now using it to pull their tribesmen's heartstrings by telling them the evil Kikuyu stole the PM post and 50% of political appointments from them.

It is our assumption that had Raila been made a PM, Kenya will be a mini-heaven. That is not the case. Raila will have taken care of his own interests first, then the interests of his campaign donors, then the interests of his close friends. Your interests do not feature in his grand plan. That Kibaki denied him a job should be the least of Wanjiku's worries.

A majority of the politicians who claim that they were short changed are MPs. Ask them how they have used their powers in Bunge and you will risk losing your neck. Their record in Bunge stinks. They are professional politicians who rant 24/7 and do nothing to rectify the mistakes they rant about.

Wanjiku has more to ask from Kibaki and his ministers than the selfish MoU that he rubbished. Corruption is still rampant, the security situation is not getting any better, and our healthcare system is still in ICU etc. Why then should we rush to the rescue of politicians! Have they ever come to our rescue? Show me one politician who stood against the obscene tax free pay hikes they gave themselves and I will show you a man or woman who is on the side of Wanjiku.

The Constitution

Cheruiyot brings up the issue of the constitution and uses it show that Kikuyus are tribalist who are out to dominate on other Kenyans. He says that the constitution was pro-Kikuyu and that Kikuyu voted with their legs in the referendum.

The truth is 45% of Kenyans voted YES and 55% Voted NO. A close analysis will show you that in areas dominated by Luos, the vote was close to 100% NO. In Kikuyu dominated areas the vote was close to 100% YES. Therefore the Luo and Kikuyu dominated areas voted overwhelmingly for the No and Yes sides respectively. They were way off when you pit them against the national average. Why then is it in order for him to point out that Kikuyus were motivated by tribalism and not the Luo? Does he know that Prof. Olweny went around Luo Nyanza telling citizens not to read the constitution because Raila has read it and found it to be defective?

The fallacy of 2002 unification of Kenya

Voting along tribal blocks is and has been part of culture for a long time. Some people who want to stir balkanization of Kenyans are telling us that in 2002 Kenyans threw tribal blocks out of the window and joined to vote for a Kikuyu. They go on to tell us that the Kikuyus are now eating by themselves. This is a fallacy.

If indeed it is true that Kenyans -especially Luos- saw Kibaki in 2002 and just voted then it is only logical to have even 5% of Luos still supporting Kibaki. This is not the case.

What happened in 2002 was the same old tribal blocks thing. Tribal chiefs came together and hammered out a MoU. The MoU shared out big seats and created new seats. The tribal chiefs then went to their tribal base and told their followers that they will be made something should they vote for Kibaki. And it was done.

The same trick is now being played out. All parties are shopping for tribal chiefs as they try to create new coalitions. We have seen new tribal chiefs being created the latest being Ruto who was crowned the Kalenjin Elder. We saw Raila try to woo Ngilu and Kombo. The Kikuyu and Luo Ker are holding talks on how to bring Kikuyus into ODM. In Narc, Kibaki is offering carrots as he seeks to pocket tribal chiefs. The winner of the next election will not be the best leader for Kenya but a person who beats the rest in tribal math.

It is time we stopped our stupidity and practiced politics that is guided by interests as opposed to "it is our time to eat." We should realize that it is the rich and the well connected who are eating and not the Kikuyu. Kamani, Patni etc are neither Kikuyu nor Kalenjin but they ate before ordinary Kiprotich and Njoroge did.

It is stupid to assume that Kisiis abroad were shipped there by Nyachae and those in Kenya who own Matatus were given the Matatus by Nyachae. It is stupid to say that Kalenjins are thick by nature and only got admissions to the university through Moi. It is even stupider (sic) to think that you will have a chance to eat when your tribal chief ascends to power.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are right about Kisii's being brought to the US by Nyachae and them ownig Matatus because of him.

Unknown said...

Well, its a big pity it is election time so we like during hurricane season we will have to brace ourselves for a lot of ukabila in the coming months.

My biggest worry is that the immunity we had previously been convinced the youth had is a thing of the past. As it wore off, they seem to have taken on a hatred even greater than of their fathers.

emmo

emmo.

Anonymous said...

It looks increasingly like President Kibaki will run and win a second term. Kibaki’s victory will be a triumph of pragmatism and progress over ethnic division and hatred. We could even simplify this further and say that it will be a triumph of good over evil.

By this I do not mean to label the opposition evil, opposition is a central and necessary ingredient in a healthy democracy. The evil is in the tactics adopted by the most virulent section of the opposition. This section led by LDP base their campaign against the President on fanning the flames of ethnic hatred and regionalism.

LDP and their de-facto leader Raila Odinga were once members of the ruling coalition NARC. Soon after NARC came into power LDP devised a plan to take over power for themselves, seeking what Raila Odinga referred to as “a luo presidency”. Early on in the new goverment LDP was introducing a tribal or ethnic component to its politics. In LDP’s agenda published shortly after NARC came to power, LDP stated “4. The government must be isolated and shown as a Mt. Kenya backed government without national appeal.” This simple statement signaled LDP’s intention to create regional division and to ride the consequent wave of ethnic hatred to power(Raila’s tsunami).

But is this evil you may ask. The answer is a blunt yes. The deadliest conflicts in the twentieth century all occurred in areas of great ethnic diversity, where politicians exploited ethnicity as a weapon to achieve political power. The byproduct in all these areas has been a paroxysm or “tsunami” of ethnic violence and ethnic cleansing that left millions dead. So when LDP lights the match of tribalism and tosses it into the tinderbox that is Kenya, they are displaying a callous disregard for life in their gluttonous quest for power.

Ethnic hatred is a powerful weapon and that is why LDP chose that route to power. But how are they deploying it and why won’t it work. The first thing that LDP’s and their apologists have done is to try and paint the government as a Mount Kenya affair just like their agenda plotted.

LDP have used lies like the cabinet and civil service are mostly from the Kikuyu tribe of President Mwai Kibaki even though this is public information and easily disproved. LDP has beaten this drum repeatedly raising ethnic sensitivity to unrealistic levels especially among their supporter. The result is that any Kikuyu or other Kenyan with a Kikuyu sounding name who happens to be in government is viewed as proof of Kibaki’s tribalism. By promoting this view LDP seeks to create ethnic grievance and therefore try to isolate Kikuyus and rally other tribes behind their leader Raila.

There have been a myriad other lies promoted by LDP all designed to promote a sense of ethnic grievance and all thoroughly debunked but yet repeated endlessly by LDP’s tribal warriors. We all know allegations that the majority of government scholarships go to Kikuyus easily debunked when the list was produced in Parliament. The allegation that 70% of DC’s are Kikuyus , that only Kikuyus are benefiting from the economy, that Nyanza failed KCPE because education money was allocated to central province and not Nyanza. That Kikuyus are stealing and robbing the country blind and a thousand other pernicious lies.

Interestingly at the height of LDP’s ethnic campaign they accuse the President some saying “Kibaki has never missed a chance to remind us of his intense tribal leanings”. Despite this kind of patently false statements the LDP ethnic hatred campaign is coming to naught. Even though LDP have succeeded in polarizing the country along tribal lines they have been unable to harness that tribal hatred they have generated to propel Raila to power. Instead other regions have come up with their own champions and it is not clear that they will support Raila in the end.

A major problem with LDP’s ethnic campaign is that it is based on lies. It generates ethnic division but destroys Raila and LDP’s credibility. LDP has maintained that Kibaki has done nothing for Kenya, he has been asleep, incompetent etc. LDP has persisted in this fiction for almost 4 years but in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary they appear increasingly delusional.

Recently LDP leader Raila Odinga has been forced to grudgingly admit the gains the government has made. Raila lauds govt development effort an incongruous statement on Raila's part. Raila did not recently discover what the government had done, rather his lies were becoming increasingly exposed in the face of unassailable evidence of economic and social progress.

Now Raila’s is treating us to ridiculous contortionist tricks as he tries to lay claim to the governments development record even as he trashes the President. Lang’ata MP Raila Odinga wants some of the achievements made by the Government credited to ODM-K.. Obviously ODM-K has never been in goverment so he must be reffering to LDP. If ODM-K (LDP) want to claim the governments successes are they willing to claim it’s failures?

Even the Presidents staunchest and most unfair critics the Standard Newspaper were forced by the weight of facts to admit the governments great progress. Economy promising despite political heat . It is the cognitive dissonance between LDP’s message of hatred and ethnic grievance and actual events that is responsible for the failure of LDP's campaign against the goverment.

Recent polls indicate that a majority of Kenyans support the President and recognize the governments achievements. This will be a unique occurrence in the world finally pragmatism will defeat the forces of ethnic prejudice. Another incredible triumph for the man from Othaya who has all along preached hard work and a Working Nation while leading the way by keeping his mouth shut and his foot on the pedal..