Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:40:23 -0800 (PST)
From: Odhiambo Okecth
Subject: Re: [Jambo] Fwd: The Kibaki Story

One Charity tried to reinvent the Kibaki we all know. And she painted a real cozy picture of the man we all know has failed, not once, not twice, but in all directions.

She tried with some feel good theory about agriculturist smiling all the way to I do not know where. But simple truths cannot be wished away. Just recently, sugar was in the news. Not because the sugarcane farmers were smiling all the way to where, but because, despite their sweat, Kibaki and his merchants wanted to offload their sugar into the Kenyan Market.

Sugar had to be made scarce, and what Kenyans could lay their hands on became so expensive. But immediately sugar from the sugar barons was sold out, then Kirwa woke up and started giving meaningless ultimatum to Chief Executives in the sugar industry.

Such is the genius of Kibaki and his team that Kenyans will surely smile all the way to the ballot box. They will only remember the inflated sugar prices, at a time when Kibaki is busy spinning some economic phantoms.

Charity also pointed at sanity brought about at the ministry of Transport by one John Muchuki. I want to agree. Michuki made Kenyans learn the art of walking to work. He wanted all matatus fitted with safety belts and speed governors, a noble idea indeed.

But was this for the good of Kenyans, or Kibaki and his team, were at business again? They had imported safety belts and speed governors, and a market had to be created for the same. Who was better placed than Muchuki to give that order.

The moment they sold their stock, it was back to the same old ways. Kenyans were used as conduits to further the business interests of Kibaki and his team. This was a clear case of abuse of office. And Kenyans will be smiling all the way to the ballot box to even things out.

At this point, I might not need to reply to all that deadly spin by Charity, because, it leads to a very simple question; what has Kibaki achieved in his 5 years at the presidency?

I want to tell you plainly, the man has failed in all fronts. Because, when we gave him the job, we were very clear on what we wanted him to do for us Kenyans.

If you look at Moi and his first five years, there are a lot of things you can associate Moi with. he built for Kenyans both Nyayo and Moi stadiums. he built for Kenyans Nyayo wards with bed capacity of 144 in all the districts. Though this was killed by the people who were managing for him the finance ministry then.

He attempted to open up Kenya by building roads. He expanded our education system by building many schools, colleges and creating more universities. He expanded agriculture.

He did all these and achieved a lot with his modest education. But our man, who is normally celebrated as an economic genius has turned the economy around, not to the benefit of Kenyans, but to his own benefit.

Moi was let down chiefly by his lieutenants, people he trusted with key responsibilities, chief among them, his then minister for finance. But still, when Kenyans voted him out, we knew what we wanted as a country, and we gave Kibaki that clear mandate to do things our way, for us Kenyans. But instead, he had his own ideas, and all his ideas are falling back on his face.

Sample the following areas;
1] Constitution; do we have a new constitution? No. Despite Kibaki having entered into a covenant with some man of God called Rev Mutava Musyimi. He said categorically that he will enact a new constitution within 100 days.

2] Tribalism; has Kibaki fought tribalism? No. He has entrenched the same instead.

3] Corruption; has he fought corruption? No. And the man has a thick skin, he pretends that Githongo does not exist.

4; Financial fidelity; has our money been safe under Kibaki presidency? No. Just look at all sorts of commission this man set up, where he appointed his friends, just for financial reward. Because all those commissions have just wasted our money; we have nothing to show for them. Again, our money was paid to ghosts under Kibaki. He pretends he does not know whom he paid our money in the Anglo leasing and other scams. Again, it is during his tenure that Central Bank for the first time in history made a loss of 4.8 billion Kenya shilling.

5] Immunity; Does your man respect the law? He gave the Ogieks title deeds against a court order. If the president does not obey the law, who should?

6] Dishonesty; is yours truly honest? He disregarded the MOU. He has now trashed IPPG.

7] Respect; is he respectful? what with the pumbavu slang every day.

8] Fairness; is Kibaki a fair president? He is only busy creating a Kikuyu empire, where all senior appointments, middle level appointments, all procurement jobs, and all manual jobs are channeled to his tribesmen, and not to other Kenyans. Is this a fair president?

So, as you say, Kenyans will smile all the way to the election booths, but not to vote for Kibaki, but to ensure that the man leaves the Kenyan leadership scene forever on that day.

My vote is all set. Make no mistake, it does not belong to Kibaki and the current gravy train.

Odhiambo T Oketch,
Komarock Nairobi