Number 1, Ushahidi is already getting good traffic since it’s launch and already gone through a number of updates. Hash, has put up a great post highlighting the changes. Keep spreading the word and encouraging people to submit stories.
Number 2, a number of people responded to my rant about Kibaki’s appointment of a new Cabinet prior to mediation talks by saying it appropriate because it was time to move on. Move on? Really? This is the kind of thinking that has contributed to where we are today. “Moving on” from those who fought for independence but were neglected post 1963, “moving on” from the evils committed in the Moi years, “moving on” from ’92 and ’97 clashes, “moving on” from the massive gap between the rich and the poor, “moving on” from our fellow young Kenyans who are living lives that lack hope…I have a cousin holed up at a police station in Kericho, he’s Kalenjin but spent most of his life growing up in different towns in Nairobi, he ended up in Kericho because it was the only place he could make a living, when the violence broke out his life was threatened because was living with his Kikuyu girlfriend and he can’t speak the local language so how do guys know he is Kalenjin anyway. Moving on? What are people smoking? Thinker puts it much more eloquently that I ever could.
Number 3, you MUST read this post by Gukira. As we begin to think of how the country will heal, it is important to think not just about tribal divisions but about class divisions. How easy has it been for us to condemn “them”? I
AOB: Mama Mikes has set up a donations page where you can assist the Kenyan Red Cross with their efforts and buy vouchers for Kenyans in distress.
It is easy to say that moving on is an inane idea. That is all what people can do, that is what they know to do. I personally would like a concrete, concise explanation of your idea of what people are expected to do other than move on. When you think of ‘NOT MOVING ON’ what is it exactly you are telling people to do. Seriously am at a loss.
Barely four years ago, Mutahi Ngunyi, arguably one of Kenya’s top scribes wrote a very thought provoking article which appeared on Sunday Nation Newspaper. I have appended this article below..
In this article, Ngunyi foresees Kibaki becoming becoming insensitive, breaking one promise after another, exhibiting arrogance beyond believe, adopting the infamous ways of his predecessor, Mr. Moi and ultimately getting ‘hatched’ in to a dictator. Mr. Ngunyi asks, ‘ how low will Kibaki have sunk by 2007 elections?’
I would like to know your answer to Ngunyi’s question.
For me, fast forward, 2007, the lowest of all lows. Rigging, using the police to satisfy his power craving loins, displaying arrogance beyond believe when Kenyan citizens are dying..
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Sunday Nation, Dec 2003
Why our second liberation is yet to be completed
By MUTAHI NGUNYI
This week I want to give a suggestion to President Mwai Kibaki: He should fire his speechwriter! If we lived in a â€banana republic,†these people would have actually been charged with sabotage. What they gave the President to read on Jamhuri Day was flat and shoddy.
In fact, his speech on this day sounded like recycled material from the Madaraka Day and Kenyatta Day addresses. And what is worrying is that his speechwriters did not even seem to notice the repetitions. The question we should ask here is why?
The answer to this is simple: Maybe they also slept through the speeches! The long and short of things is therefore that someone is being negligent.
Let us now turn to the fact that the President has finally put his portrait on our currency. In my view, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, there would be nothing wrong if he put a family portrait on one of the currency notes.
What we must understand here is that President Kibaki is a human being. He has urges and excesses. To deny him some things is therefore ridiculous. It is like placing a pot full of honey in front of a little boy and expecting him not to dip his finger into the stuff! In other words, our new President is cuddling in the warmth and comfort of the institutions that shaped former President Daniel arap Moi. And, if this is the case, why should we be surprised if he â€hatched†into a dictator?
What we have witnessed in the last one year is the degeneration of President Kibaki from a reformer to a â€Toad Kingâ€. This process begins with the President becoming insensitive. At this point, he breaks one pledge after another without feeling a thing. And, as he does this, the question in his mind is: Where can you take me?
In the case of the MoU for instance, we took him nowhere. The begrudged politicians yapped until the cows came home. Now the President has put his portrait on our currency and we will take him nowhere. The general attitude here is this: If you do not like it, you can sit on a pin!
Numbing his sense to popular voices will definitely degenerate into a state of paranoia. At this point, the President will make one blunder after another. And instead of correcting his mistakes, he will increase his speed in the direction of the wrong. This is where former President Moi was when he introduced â€Project Uhuru†to the country. The crowds booed him, his loyal followers in Kanu abandoned him and even his own people questioned his wisdom. But the more we rejected his â€projectâ€, the more determined he became.
There is a lesson for President Kibaki here. He is increasingly becoming like Mr Moi during the 2002 elections. He is not yet paranoid, but his insensitivity could develop into â€political blindnessâ€. Who knows how low he will have sunk by the 2007 elections? And this is what worries me.
Consider a hypothetical situation here. What would happen if President Kibaki decided to run for re-election in 2007 and lost? Would he and his men have the grace to hand over power peacefully? From the way they have behaved in the last one year, I doubt it. And where would that leave the country? At the risk of sounding crazy, I want to suggest the following: If we thought that Mr. Moi would plunge the country into civil strife, he proved us wrong. Narc is the party to plunge the country into civil strife. You just have to listen to the FM stations and the call-in television programmes to see a pattern. From the name of the caller, you can almost predict
what they will say and what side of the divide they will take. In a disputed election, such polarity would certainly take ugly proportions.
But there are two possible ways out of this. The first one has to do with the agenda of the second liberation. This process was meant to achieve two things – to remove Mr. Moi from power and replace him with reform-minded leaders. This was done successfully. However, as we are beginning to realise, Mr. Moi was not the problem. The problem was the institutions he inherited from the Kenyatta. To change the leadership without changing the institutions is like treating cancer with Malaraquin. This is partly why the â€institutional cancer†in the presidency is beginning to affect President Kibaki.
Putting his portrait on our currency and junking the pre-election MoU are just manifestations of this cancer. This is why the other agenda of the second liberation was institutional reforms. Until this is completed, the second liberation will not have happened. More specifically, this refers to the constitutional review process. And, at this point I would want to address the delegates preparing for Bomas III on January 12, 2004 .
It is my hope that you have had time to reflect on the issues at hand in Bomas III. We are also told that the politicians have spent this long break to bribe you. In my view you should take the bribes and use the money to enjoy your Christmas. You must realise at this point that you are involved in politics and that in this game there is no morality. As such, you should have fun on someone else’s account! However, when it comes to voting, you must reject the â€bribe givers†and vote for the country.
This is important because of the following reasons. If the second liberation had two phases, the first phase of replacing the leadership had to be carried out by 3.1 million voters. Replacing Mr Moi and his cronies was in my view the easy part. The second phase is the tough one. And this is where you come in. You are only 600 people, and the future of our country depends on you. I have two questions for you at this point. One, as you vote for
issues, will you be thinking of your â€tribal chief†or your children? In my view, your tribe is your children. If you make a constitution for your children, you will have made a constitutionfor Kenya .
Two, consider the question of the Prime Minister’s post. And the question to you is this: If this post had been created before the 2002 elections, do you think President Kibaki would have â€trashed†the MoU? Do you think he would have put his portrait on our currency and retained corrupt ministers in his Cabinet? If the answer to
these questions is no, then the cure to the â€institutional cancer†in the presidency is the creation of this post. Do think about it! The second possible way out of civil strife has to do with the Kikuyu. Now that the presidency has returned to the â€House of Mumbiâ€, some people from the community are convinced that it is there to stay. In my view, this kind of thinking is retrogressive and could result in ethnic animosity.Kikuyus should come to terms with the possibility that they could lose the presidency in 2007. As such, they should do two things: One, â€bank†with the other communities. This is important because they cannot survive alone in future. Two, they should disown the Kikuyu ‘’sharks†in the Kibaki government.
Unless they do so, the entire community will be blacklisted simply on account of a few people. In future, a Kikuyu presidential candidate would be rejected because of the misdeeds of isolated people. My submission therefore is: They should not support this regime blindly!
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HOW RIGHT NGUNYI WAS
Ory excellent summary. Watching you motivate and move Kenyans worldwide is amazing…your idea of ushahidi…was born in less than two – watching you work inspires me and many around the world – you are destined for great things as you are already BIG things.
I have a message I will send to you hopefully you can post it – I think it will be insightful – as have many Kenyans/non-Kenyans thoughts and input on this current crisis, have been.
Glad to personally know you and regards to your family!!
Rallying Cry
I’m afraid,
So I busy myself with things that can wait.
I don’t want to see Kenyans die,
Kenyans cry, Kenyans lose hope.
I don’t want to see the look of despair on their faces,
As they sift through the charcoaled belongings of their lives
A silent reminder that they are me
Afraid, alone and human
I’m afraid,
So I don’t give voice to the deep anger I feel
Fueled each day by the injustices that swirl around me
I refuse to cry, refuse to let hope vanish
Instead, I nurse anger ,each day protecting it from the powers that be
Pretending that as it grows, it doesn’t leave me shaken and uncomfortable with others and the silence around me
I need to do something,
To stay silent is to let fear break my spirit
To let family die without the hope that things will get better,
To deny that I was ever a witness to the horror that wrongly labeled fellow Kenyans poor and unimportant.
We are human!
We have dignity!
We have dreams!
We have a right to vote for leaders
And to see our vote counted!
I don’t have to be afraid
I choose not to be,
Today, I’ll claim my right,
I’ll defend it
I will fight, I will fight, I will fight
And I will survive….
I AM a Kenyan….
I read that Ngunyi article last week. I read it with my mouth open. What makes this whole situation even sadder, is that it was predicted and could have been prevented. People have blamed ECK for plunging Kenya into chaos. Fair enough. But if it was not the 2007 elections, it would have been something else that would have caused the hell Kenya has gone through the last 2 weeks.
I have hope for Kenya. We will come out of this. But we need to deal with the problems we have NOW. I don’t even know how we can do that. I am worried about the Kenyan state of mind. I could care less about the politicians.. they have shown what their interests lie. But what can Kenyans do to heal?
Whatever direction Kenyans take, it is a moving on. It may be a moving on towards a more polarised society but movement is inexorable. The only question is who has a say in the mechanics of the moving on – the actual techniques and mechanisms (following Foucault) in which power is exercised. However much we wish for a miracle of a united and fair Kenya, the fact remains that we remain beholden to the politicians. Kibaki has actual power at the moment – in the sense of coercive power – Raila has pseudo-power – hopeful that the bourgeoisie will join him in the streets. The bourgeoisie will not do so and Raila has no alternative to negotiate with Kibaki, and unfortunately for him on Kibaki’s terms. Then we wait for another day when power may be configured differently. That is the reality of politics.
Ory,
We are moving on because neither side can help Kenyans in any way. I hope you do not take this the wrong way, but anyone who is at all crusading for those like Raila, Ruto, Musalia, Kwach, Mwaita, Kosgey, Cheruiyot, Ntimama, Gumo and so on; does not care about Kenyans.
I understand we all want our tribesmen to be in office, but the ODM would not help Kenyans in any way. Their entire manifesto and their careers in leadership set the ODM side apart as incapable of delivery to the mwananchi. The ODM is part of the great problem with Kenya, please tell us why you believe Kenyans should be agitating in the streets on their behalf.
If we had something of value stored up in the loosing party, if the ODM had not committed gross atrocities in the Rift Valley, if the election had been more decisive, if the ODM had not also rigged, if the ODM had shown themselves to be better than your average band of merry carpetbaggers then maybe we would have a reason to agitate on their behalf. Do you realise at all just how much executive authority already rests with the ODM, not just in the LAs but also in the constituencies? If they cannot deliver there why should we believe they would deliver elsewhere? If we did NOT move on, what do you suppose we should do? Is there a moral imperative to it? Why would a Kenyan, any Kenyan (tribal affiliation and the vestiges of the ODM mania aside) campaign for William Ruto to be Prime Minister? Are you planning on bringing Richard Kwach back to office? You are still proposing the idea that we march in defense of a party that believes in Majimbo???
Now please, let’s Kenyans get back to work. We are seriously damaging our country’s image with all the kelele and the subsequent violence. Is Mfangano inhabited? Please can all those who want to keep demonstrating can make their way there. Cities like Kisumu need urgent rebuilding, the country is losing billions every day, people have NO money, NO food. Do you not think people like Raila are being extremely selfish, have always been selfish?
By the way, I’m very curious. Please explain what it is you have against Kalonzo, you really tore into him in one of your posts.
P.S. Recommended reading,
Mukoma wa Ngugi, Let us not find revolutionaries where there are none.
John Ogot, Why hate Kalonzo Musyoka?
Maina Gichangi, We are Kenyans too – all of these at KenyaImagine.com
Also Barrack Muluka’s , When the voter’s card become dangerous tool at the East African Standard.
BigBen, thanks for posting that. I re<d it a few days ago in Kumekucha and wanted to post it here but was being lazy. But I must admit, I was absolutely amazed by the prophecy of Ngunyi and how everything he said came to pass. There are commentators, then there is one Ngunyi.
Ory, my respect and admiration for all your work thus far. Keep it up! One thing though, what do you suggest Kenyans do if not move on? Okay we can take a militant view but my palate does not quite agree with blood and tears being the Kenyan theme for years to come as we try to become the utopia of all democracies, seeking the right conclusion to all this. I for one would prefer to have my family (back home) safe and well…(did I say alive) after this whole election nightmare. We can fight to the death but surely if the US could not do it after the wrongs of slavery, the growing disparity between rich and poor here, the assassination of Kennedy, MLK and even the rigging in of W, are we trying to say Kenya should do it.?At what cost I ask?
Btw I trust you will not dump this post bcoz of my differing view! Lets pray for peace.
I have just visited Ushahidi.com for the first time. I think it is well meaning. However, thinking ahead, it may turn into the witchhunting site of the Kibaki government in the not too distant future.
Look at recent press reports. The only thing Kibaki has spoken about with passion and conviction recently is getting hold of the perpatrators of violence in Rift Valley province.
Don’t get me wrong – the violence is most unfortunate. However, sites like Ushahidi may only be encouraging future criminal prosecutions without the addressing of the question WHY?
Justice in my opinion will not be adequate if it is not accompanied by the relevant constitutional and institutional reforms which this country so badly needs for genuine peace in the long term.
Let us not fall into Kibaki’s narrowly focused post-election action map.
KENYANS AND OTHER WELL WISHERS
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Brothers & Sisters, the genie is out of the bottle, unfortunately. The meaning of “Move on” carries different meanings depending on who/where you are.
Headlines in Uganda say “Kenyan refugees survive poisoning” are to be relocated from Malaba Primary School to Mulanda a semi-permanant inland location. Is that Moving on?
Kibaki to start parliament meetings. Is this Moving on?
Odinga’s ODM to resume demonstrations. Moving on to where?
The outside world calls for Odinga and Kibaki to meet. Moving on how?
Only Time will tell.
Congratulations on launching Ushahidi.
However i must disagree respectfully with your idea of moving on. We can find answers to our problems but we have to sit down and think. In the chaos and mess we are in, logical thought is extremely impossible.
While at it, we have Members of Parliament (the buck stops with them btw) whose moral integrity is very low. To pass a bill all you have to do is to take them for a retreat and they vote for/against your bill case in point Tobacco Bill.
Parliament can through enacting socially sensitive bills solve our quagmire; but as you can see it is impossible to have good MPs because every Kenyan votes blindly.
I am yet to recover from the loss of Mutahi Kagwe for example and other good stuff.
If you tell us not to move on we will sit in our villages and social gatherings and keep preaching anti-whatever tribe you are against.
We can push for disbandment of ECK, we can push for re distribution of resources e.t.c. but that can only happen in parliament.
my personal diary on the 2007 Kenyan elections:
I have lost faith in the ability of my country to be a progressive, socio-economically vibrant nation state;
I have lost faith in myself and my fellow citizens to be positive influences and agents of change;
I am content to be a coward and disengage from the civic process in Kenya, my emotional and spiritual reservoir is empty……
LASTLY I AM ASHAMED TO BE KENYAN and see no place for myself in its future…….
I thought the same Ngunyi is still Kibaki’s advisor.
Could he have been sending a message to some quarters ( as opposed to warning people)
I understand that Kibaki and his officials are no longer interested in any form of negotiations and this means each side is digging their heels for a continued fight to nowhere. I kept asking why wouldn’t Raila and his MP’s go to the parliament and fight it out there since they are the majority but turns out they are not actually the majority since Kibaki govenment can side with all the other non ODM members who without a doubt have an opportunity to benefit from positions of power instead of siding with the alleged losers of ODM. I feel saddened that integrity, honesty and love care for people and one’s nation will always come second if at all to power and money lust. Another thing Michuki said on the standard that it will be difficult to repair roads in Nyanza since some equipment was destroyed in skirmishes. You know this is sad that he could imply to Nyanza people that in the next five years they will have nothing out this government. This definately will not help in healing or moving forward. We will always live this way and those that feel that are outside will keep their anger and hatred lit. Tit for tat is not only deathly to all kenyans but it will never help us in any way. I hope that our pseudo leaders will learn that they cannot push down the masses for a long time.
More Evidence of Rigging
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/24743.html
The wish to “move on” is human and expectable. Condemn not the wish, but the language used to convey it. People had their lives disrupted, even torn and shattered to pieces. How can you condemn them for wishing to return to these lives or to rebuilt them?
Obviously, the desire should not be about forgetting what was and abput continuing in old trot, old sloth, old corruption, old dependency (the PNU card). Neither should it be a return to Egypt (Moi’ism), as ODM stood for.
If you dislike the idea of “moving on”, thenn condemn the language instead; the same abusive and abused language that incessantly yaps about liidaahsheep, that makes Kenyans slaves to bigmen, makes them unable to understand that a polictician first and foremost is a servant to the people, not a “leader”.
Osas
This is an amazing blog
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