Action To Support Kenya’s Struggle For Democracy

    Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2008 12:58:30 -0800 (PST)
    From: Tegi Obanda

  Action To Support
  Kenya’s Struggle For Democracy

Demonstration Against

KIBAKI MILITARY COUP OF DECEMBER 30, 2007
+
  “Shoot to Kill” Order

WE DEMAND: KIBAKI RESIGN IMMEDIATELY!
Transitional Government to oversee Constitutional Reforms
and Free and Fair Elections within one (1) year

Support
Democratic Transformation in Kenya


  DEMONSTRATION
  Monday, January 7th, 2008
10am - 4pm
at
  Kenya High Commission
  415 Laurier Avenue East
  Ottawa, Canada
  &


  DEMONSTRATION
  Friday, January 11th, 2008
10am - 4pm
  415 Laurier Avenue East
  Ottawa, Canada
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  Information Forum on Kenya’s Current Political Crisis
  KENYA: A HOSTAGE OF MULTINATIONAL EXPOLITATIVE FORCES
  The Neocolonial Roots of Kenya’s Constitutional Crisis 
  WHEN: Friday, 11th January 2008
  TIME: 6-9pm  WHERE: University of Ottawa, Canada (Room, speakers and agenda details will be posted at www.ccr-kenya.com on Monday, January 7th, 2008)
    &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

December 27 Elections was a fraud
Kibaki is in Office Illegally
We demand immediate expulsion of Kenyan High Commissioner from Canada since there is no legally constituted government in Kenya
Trade Embargo and sanctions until demands are met
  Canada should ratify the U.N Declaration on the Rights Of Indigenous People
to domesticate
  “Free Prior and Informed Consent” as opposed to “Free Entry”

We urge Canada to focus on the root cause of election crisis in Kenya - the larger deep-seated and long running problem of a stalled transition. The elite, who served during the previous Moi dictatorial regime, hijacked the process of moving Kenya from one-party dictatorship to a true functioning democracy. They are the ones who amassed wealth illegally, grabbed land, practiced corruption, and used ethnicity for personal political gain. (For example, the colonialists alienated the land belonging to the Maasai and Kikuyu, but after a negotiated independence the land was not returned to its rightful owners, but grabbed by the elite and multinational corporations. The Government forced the landless Kikuyus to seek land in the Kalenjin’s traditional homeland, the Rift Valley, creating simmering ethnic tensions, which have erupted at this time). The average citizen of Kenya is a captive victim of this charade of pseudo-reformists, who are only interested in ascending to positions of leadership.

What is being fought over is who will have a say in granting mining and oil prospecting rights, and becomes partners of multinational corporations. The constitution that can guarantee the people the right to their natural resources, and thus political and economic sustainability, has been frustrated. The political elite frustrate reforms because it would threaten the ongoing plunder by multinational exploitative forces. As a result, basic things that are taken for granted in functioning democracies, such as free and fair elections, are not constitutionally streamlined, because it might give the people undue influence over the affairs of their country.

CCR-Kenya has warned many times over the last two years about the dangers of holding elections using the current constitution. It is reckless, opportunistic, negligent, and callous for anybody to think again of holding elections in Kenya under a constitution that has so many booby traps for political and constitutional crises that it is a miracle that Kenya has made it safely this far.

The fact that Kenya has held relatively peaceful elections in the last 15 years does not mean that Kenya is capable of holding free and fair elections or that Kenya cannot revert to one-person dictatorship or ethnic clashes or even full scale civil war. Kenya’s current constitution is a disaster waiting to happen.

Kenyans cannot afford to count votes, tally results or hold another election (runoff) under the current constitution. The human cost would be too high.

Only a new constitution can protect Kenyans from the murderous wrath of an all, powerful executive seeking to retain power by any means. Only a new constitution can ensure that Kenyans can control their internal democracy to determine how they use their natural resources, and external sovereignty to withstand blackmail from multinational exploitative forces. (For example, the Kenyan elite hands a mineral like titanium, which has immense economic potential to get Kenyans out of poverty, to Canada-based Tiomin Resources Inc., literally free of charge under the “free entry” system).

www.ccr-kenya.com

For more information on the link between natural resource plunder and mass poverty, violent conflicts, wars, environmental degradation, pandemics, and social collapse, please visit www.madaraka.com