11/19/2003
WECHE MOKADHO
JEXJALUO ****
;
P.O. Box 58972
00200 City Square
Nairobi
Kenya
12th November 2003
INDEPEN CENTS
Kenya’s National Security Minister, Dr Chris
Murungaru, announced on 11th November 2003 that this
year's Independence Day celebrations of Kenya at 40
will be celebrated over 12 days of pomp and pageantry.
An elaborate program and budget incorporating both the
government and the private sector, has been put in
place to cater for the event.
It completely beats reason why the ruling National
Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government, would want to
host such a wasteful event in the face of unfulfilled
pledges, dashed hopes and growing frustration. The
year gone by can hardly be described in any other way.
It would have been much more logical if NARC had used
the occasion of our 40th anniversary independence
celebrations to reflect and reconcile with the
electorate over the years gone by.
NARC has lost credibility before it has even built it.
It has become sickening to keep on hearing and reading
all ills in this country blamed on the previous KANU
regimes. When taken to task on literally everything,
NARC and it’s supporters conveniently invoke “years of
misrule under the KANU regime”. Part of NARC’s brief
is to discard with the culture of consumption and
evolve a culture of productivity. It is difficult to
see how this will be achieved with twelve days of
unnecessary expenditure ahead, and it will be
interesting to see who and how NARC blames this time.
The events of the past week have been a tale of
mismanagement, misdirection and ineptitude. On the 6th
of November 2003 the high profile Othaya Bursary
Fundraiser scheduled for 29th November 2003, was
abruptly cancelled after blatant contraventions were
exposed. President Mwai Kibaki would have been the
guest of honour at the event, in open contravention of
the The Public Officer Ethics Act which bars public
officers from organising or officiating at such fund
raisers. It was further established that invitation
cards for the function were embellished with a gold
copy of Kenya's official coat of arms, which is also
against the law.
On 8th November 2003 a fund raiser for the South
Imenti Sustainable Education Fund in which Justice and
Constitutional Affairs minister Kiraitu Murungi played
a key role, was held in contravention of The Public
Officer Ethics Act. Curiously, Hon. Murungi made very
derogatory remarks earlier this year when he said that
former president Moi should retire to his farm from
where he can look after his goats and see good
governance practised by the newly elected NARC
government.
On 8th November 2003 it was reported that three
cabinet ministers had been summoned to appear before
the parliamentary Public Investments Committee over a
contentious US $ 20,000,00 tender for dockyard cranes.
On the same 8th of November 2003 one person tragically
died and two others were hospitalised in critical
condition, after consuming the banned local alcoholic
spirit, “changaa”, at the homecoming party of NARC
Ikolomani MP Dr Bonny Khalwale. In attendance were two
cabinet ministers and one assistant minister.
On 9th November 2003 Vice-President Moody Awori was
the guest of honour at a fundraising rally in aid of
Ruiru Prison Staff Training College, adding to
confusion surrounding the new law which restricts
leaders' participation in public fund raising
functions.
Earlier, on the 26th of October 2003, “The Sunday
Standard”, drawing from state sources such as the
Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and the Central
Bank of Kenya (CBK), revealed that ten months after
the NARC administration took power with the promise of
economic prosperity, the average Kenyan was worse off
than at any other time in the past five years (see
http://www.eastandard.net/archives/October/sun26102003/reports/report26102003011.htm).
Inspite of all this and much more, the NARC government
still deems it necessary to throw a lavish and
expensive bash over the period of twelve days in
December 2003. How it is that NARC perceives a
celebratory mood, is inconceivable.
This country will discover it’s too late when it’s too
late. This casual and lethal approach to governance
will supposedly be blamed on KANU once more. Where
KANU cannot be excused however, is in it’s failure to
transform itself into formidable and unified
opposition. KANU’s downfall presented it with a prime
opportunity to rebuild. It emerges that KANU is just
as divided, discordant and in disarray as the ruling
NARC coalition. Leadership and politicking in this
country have terribly lost direction and the people of
Kenya continue to find themselves in the same familiar
forsaken state.
NARC seems determined to crown it’s first disastrous
year in office with a grand bash under the theme "A
New Beginning for a Working Nation." Nothing could be
further from the truth as this country continues to
slide deeper and deeper into obscurity, ineptitude and
inevitable doom. A case in point is the shocking
September 2003 revelation by the head of the National
Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA),
that a big percentage of high school students had
resorted to chewing on a combination of hair gel and
ballons to get intoxicated. What it is that could be
driving us to such desperate levels is what should be
the central concern of this country, and not
unnecessary partying.
Michael Mundia Kamau
Ka in gi mari moro ma di wandik ka to
orni
Akelo nyar Kager
jaluo@jaluo.com
Daher winjo dwondi in bende,
iwinjo?
Inyalo oro twak kod weche manyien ne: Mig. Ajos wuod Atiga
WuonAbila@jaluo.com
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