Tue, 1 Jan 2008 03:30:25 -0800 (PST)
From: Gitomeh Njoroge

Lets support peaceful change and not violence. Stop this dangerous propaganda

Wenzangu,

Let me anza by registering my deep sympathies for our the families who have lost their loved ones back home.

Truly, both Kibaki and Raila are squarely responsible for these deaths. How does a school boy contribute to the voting counting irregularities? How does a Luo or Kikuyu jua kali artisan contribute in the said irregularities? How does any poor Kenyan contribute to this? Surely, we must by now know that this is PURELY GREED FOR POWER for both RAILA and KIBAKI.

Yes, both these leaders whipped the emotions of their tribesmen to come out in large numbers and vote. The voters obliged. Both of them decided to stuff ballot papers in their strongholds (Yes ODM and PNU are both guilty. We now know that ODM did it in Nyanza and some sections of Nairobi while PNU did it in Central and Eastern..we know it). Yet they both want us to believe they are innocent. Hiyo wamendanganya. I support none of them. PERIOD!

Lakini wewe na mimi tunaendelea kupigana. LO! Check this: wakora na wahuni wanatawala Kenya in violence and not PNU or ODM. So both these leaders should stop this "STUPIDITY" of assuming that they are indeed the aggrieved Kenyans. I am sure that if Kenya degenerates to a state of anarchy both these leaders will take their helicopters and run away to safe havens. Then they will continue pointing an accusing finger to each. In the meantime, mwananchi wa kawaida anaumizwa na criminals.

Yes, you may think that you are entitled to supporting your leaders..whichever side you belong I dont care...ndugu zako wanaumizwa nyumbani. Many of us here in the diaspora are spending time and money trying to call back home and ensure that their kins are safe. And yet wewe unaendelea kupiga ndomo tu kama hauelewi the implications.

I WISH TO REQUEST THOSE OF US WHO SUPPORT PEACE AND TRANQUILITY TO RISE UP AND STOP THIS SENSELESS BUT VERY DANGEROUS PROPAGANDA, ESPECIALLY ON THIS FORUM (ON BOTH SIDES).

Hawa wanaoendelea kuongea carelessly hapa hawaNA ndugu nyumbani ambaye amefariki. They are in their safe havens here and would like Kenya to degenerate into chaos. Now see what is happening in Kisumu or Nairobi. There is no food nor is there transport. In a few days from now, school going children will be affected. Do you think RAILA or KIBAKI loses anything? Nope. Those who voted peacefully in both Luo Nyanza and Kikuyu central did not want this kind of situation. They wanted a change by peaceful means. They demonstrated that by giving Kenya a clean parliament. Yes, we may not have secured the presidency but lets learn how to operate within the law because hata kama Raila akichukua hatamu wakati huu he will still be held responsible for setting Kenya on fire. And others will definitely fight him. He will not govern appropriately. So it is a LOSS-LOSS situation for both PNU or ODM.

Gitomeh
Mzalendo halisi

odhiambo okecth wrote:

I do not find solace in the use of such words;

'But this should be the time for statesmanship, not brinkmanship. Mr Odinga may well have been robbed of electoral victory, but this is the time to demonstrate leadership in the interest of the nation. Nobody right now is better placed than Mr Odinga and his key ODM lieutenants, Mr William Ruto and Mr Musalia Mudavadi, to do what the Government is unable to do – save this country from total destruction, and President Kibaki's people from the threat of genocide.

The ODM leaders must rise above the political fray and call off their people who have reacted with such anger against what they see as a stolen election. If their intervention can restore a peace the Government is unable to, that will be the real demonstration of who has the people's mandate.'

Macharia Gaitho, just like one Chris Kirubi are very good at double speak when they see that they are on the comfortable side.

If they believed in what they are talking about, and that they want to rise beyond any average tribal jingoist, they know whom to address; Mwai Kibaki.

They must not turn on Raila Odinga to show statesmanship. What about the real thief? What honour does Kibaki have in stealing the peoples mandate?

When one steals from you, do you become the victim or the villian?

Such twists with words do not confuse me. They must ask Kibaki to vacate. Or else, the people across Kenya will still take charge and demand for our victory.

No police force will counter the peoples revolution which is imminent

Odhiambo T Oketch
Komarock Nairobi

joab_omondi wrote:

Fellow Kenyans;

Macharia Gaitho has some really good points and at this sad moment, we need people like him who will be bold enough to speak out and help salvage Kenya. Many other writers especially in the Nation Newspaper behave as though they and the government are in bed together in an embrace so intimate and wrong, they could spoon on a twin mattress and still have room for Michuki. During Moi's time, many of these people used to question his leadership and the reasons for ethnic clashes.....talk of abuse of power, etc.

Now, together with their agents, foul mouthed computer politicians like Ms. Joe [Thankfully this jerk will rise no further up the political ladder] are silent like toothless babies on the stolen election, they suckle on the sugary teat of misinformation and poop it into the diaper we call the KBC News. We expect and must demand more of our journalists.

On the other hand, Mr Macharia must remember this, a time comes when people have to rise up against the oppressors for a better future. Don't forget how Romania was changed forever when just a few people decided to say enough is enough. It was that tradition of tolerance like we Kenyans have which prepared the ground for the revolution to break out in 1989 in Romania. When the secret police came to arrest a Hungarian priest, Laszlo Tokes, they had to contend with a rare outbreak of Romanian-Hungarian solidarity, as crowds gathered in front of his house to defend him. Their resistance soon spread to Bucharest and, within days, the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu was toppled.

We Kenyans must stand together and change the course of this country now or never. Luos must embrace their Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Kenyan Arab, etc as we try and restore democracy to our land. What has happened in the elections is not a Kikuyu vs Luo affair but a Kenyan vs Mafia thing. In fact our brothers from Central Province must know that we love them and congratulate them for working hard to remove these mafias [many congrats to Kabando Wa Kabando; a truly patriotic guy and my former roommate at the UON, we worked hard to bring back SONU92].

Kenyans are sad and weeping to see innocent people being killed just because they belong to certain tribes. There is nothing wrong voting Kibaki but messing with the results is totally unacceptable. We must say no now to these small clique of people [be they Mt Kenya mafia, Lake Victoria Mafia, etc] and save our country.

Oh,by the way; Ms Joe and all Kenyans and friends, happy New Year if you are lucky to be alive that is.

===============================================

--- "Obed Nyaribo" obed2003@... wrote:

Who will save Kenya from the brink? Raila must try

Story by MACHARIA GAITHO
Publication Date: 01/01/2008

EVEN RIGGING REQUIRES a little intelligence. Those were the immortal words of Mwai Kibaki in September 1988 when then President Moi tried to rig him out of the Kanu leadership right down in his own village in Othaya.

Some more urgent issues first. The country is ablaze. The blood of innocent people is on the hands of those who mismanaged electoral process that returned President Kibaki for a second and final term at State House.

A reaction that could leave this country deeply wounded is playing itself out in various parts of the country. Innocent people are being slaughtered on the basis of their tribe, because they are perceived to be a particular political persuasion.

Thugs are taking advantage to go on looting sprees that have nothing to do with politics. The security forces are completely unable to offer protection to those targeted. A president who had to retreat to a swearing-in at State House simply does not carry the mandate or the authority to personally visit the affected areas and plead for peace.

So who will save Kenya from the brink?

Mr Raila Odinga may be rightfully aggrieved at the election outcome. He may be enjoying the paralysis facing the newly-installed president, and salivating at the prospect of an Orange Revolution that will run the president out of town and pave the way for his own triumphant entry into State House.

But this should be the time for statesmanship, not brinkmanship. Mr Odinga may well have been robbed of electoral victory, but this is the time to demonstrate leadership in the interest of the nation.

Nobody right now is better placed than Mr Odinga and his key ODM lieutenants, Mr William Ruto and Mr Musalia Mudavadi, to do what the Government is unable to do – save this country from total destruction, and President Kibaki's people from the threat of genocide.

The ODM leaders must rise above the political fray and call off their people who have reacted with such anger against what they see as a stolen election. If their intervention can restore a peace the Government is unable to, that will be the real demonstration of who has the people's mandate.

Back to 1988. Things had become really blatant when President Moi introduced the infamous queue-voting system. The spin was that queues in the open represented the ultimate transparency, not secret voting on slips of paper which could be miscounted or made to disappear. Transparency, it brought. Everybody saw it in broad daylight when the count was ignored and returning officers declared candidates with the shortest queues the winners. The embarrassments out of the 1988 daylight robbery forced President Moi to abandon mlolongo and go back to the secret ballot and good old-fashioned ballot stuffing.

BY THE TIME THE 2002 POLLS CAME around, new measures had been put in place that we all thought made rigging almost impossible. The main innovation was that there would be no more transportation of ballot boxes. Counting would go on right at the polling station in full view of candidates, their agents, the media, observers and anybody else.

When ODM started raising the alarm ahead of the just-concluded elections, I was highly sceptical. What would one do with pre- marked ballot papers if they could not be introduced at any stage without detection?

Well, they say they were robbed of victory by the results recorded at the polling stations simply being altered at the ECK headquarters.

They, indeed, produced one return from Molo where the vote recorded for President Kibaki was much lower than the one announced by the ECK. Independent election observers also cited the Molo case where they say Kibaki's vote was highly inflated.

ODM officials were on Sunday insisting they had in their possession copies of the results from many constituencies signed by returning officers and poll agents of the various candidates. They also said they had copies of the result forms from ECK files which had been clearly altered.

ODM also produced what looked like potent evidence in testimony from an ECK officer who said he had witnessed with his own eyes figures being altered. He said he had the evidence, but did not produce any such papers. Curiously, the ODM leaders had, at the time of writing, not bothered to make public any of the documents they claimed to have in their possession, save for the Molo returns.

I personally spoke to Mr Odinga on Sunday shortly after the statement issued at the KICC. He promised to have the documents delivered to me at Nation Centre within the half hour. No show.

I know that many of my colleagues seeking the same documents also spoke to other members of the ODM Pentagon, campaign aides, party officials and anybody else who could help. Blanks.

The ODM leaders would help their cause a great deal if they provided that documentary evidence. If they have it, it need not await the filing of any election petition. They battle right now is in the public court.

This is my fist column for 2008, and it fortuitously falls on New Year's Day. Under the circumstances, I am not wishing anybody a Happy New Year