Re: Thank you Nd.Matunda

 From: odhiambo okecth

'Moreover, as the ordinary folks kill each other, political leaders, driven by greed, continue their daily lives in the security of their homesteads where, perhaps, they sleep soundly without caring that innocent people were being hunted and burnt alive, as happened in Eldoret! And for what other than being of a different ethnic group?'

I do not believe this kind of shift analysis. The political leaders never called out anybody to revolt, so not greed comes into play.

This was a spontaneous reaction from a people who were cheated of their vote.

Do not play holier than thou here. We have a serious problem that needs honest tackling, not escapism.

We live here and we know how it pinches to be robbed of your victory. Any other feeling is an attempt at medication without diagnosis.

Odhiambo T Oketch
Komarock Nairobi

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Margaret Gichuki  wrote:


Phew! Daktari Matunda,

My, my my.....What an experience.Glad you made it back to Canada in one piece.

Thanks for sharing and may peace prevail in our beloved nation.

Wams

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On 1/5/08, nmatunda  wrote:


Williams,

The Economist article has substantial truth.

I have just arrived in North America and tired to make clear comment on what is happening on the ground. Forgive me if this sounds like rumbling! It may well be so!

The violence I saw was confounding; I am angry at such wanton murder, maiming others and destruction of property. This madness must be stopped regardless of which side of the political divide one is. Moreover, as the ordinary folks kill each other, political leaders, driven by greed, continue their daily lives in the security of their homesteads where, perhaps, they sleep soundly without caring that innocent people were being hunted and burnt alive, as happened in Eldoret! And for what other than being of a different ethnic group?

I was in Nyamira when the presidential results were announced. And the reaction was immediate, especially among the young people that had largely supported ODM's call for change. Then we heard that there had been shootings in Kisii town of people that had attempted to set fire to property belonging to Kibaki supporters! I marveled at this attempt even as ODM had won big in parliamentary races in Gusii, accompanied with the defeat of one of Kibaki staunchest supporters, Simeon Nyachae. Raila also got a substantial share of the presidential vote, trouncing Kibaki in some constituencies!

Soon we heard of blockading of roads through Kericho and Bomet, and that Kisiis couldn't be allowed through! And I wondered why? And someone suggested that Kisiis had given Kibaki a lifeline with respect to the 25% of the provincial tally! I wondered even more: if indeed we are building a democracy, why should people vote as a block, like sheep that blinding close the road; regardless of whether it is safe to close or not!

In Kisumu, my cousin's hardware store was looted dry; there were attempts to set his building and cars on fire but were thwarted by the security guards and the tenants (mainly Luo) in the compound. Police reinforcements did come later to help evacuate the family. My cousin has lived in Kisumu for more than 30 years; his children are more fluent in Luo than Kisii; the family largely supported ODM! But for being Kisii, they were targeted, as was Nyachae's business in Kisumu town!

Call it ethnic madness! And nothing to do with elections!

Our journey to Nairobi, through hundreds of "roadblocks" was the most scary; and never doubt that we would have been killed but for the 40+ GSU escort that accompanied our 10+ cars procession; the GSU was fully armed and shepherded us from district headquarters to the next; first it was Borabu to Sotik; then Sotik to Bomet and Bomet to Narok! In the distance that usually takes 1 hour, we spent 4+ hours.

The thugs had erected roadblocks, almost every km (or so) of the distance we covered; these were made of stones (nay boulders!), felled electric poles (some nailed together with metal), burnt shells of cars/minivans and the like, felled trees, and burning tires! At bridge crossings the favourite tool of blockade was the metal guards that were torn down and laid across the road, and nailed together using the wooden poles with tires burning on the side.

At each blockade, the GSU would scare of the gangs after which we would all disembark from our vehicles and clear sufficient space for cars and buses to pass. Then we would repeat the process at every such blockade, some that were as close as half a km. And once we crossed a district boundary, the head of the GSU team would duly report to the local DC and get the next orders.

We had one GSU in our car who indicated the gangs went back to work as soon as we passed their blockades and that the process of reopening would be repeated on the return trip!

And who were the gangs: tens (and perhaps hundreds) of young men who scampered in all directions when they saw the GSU, some hiding in bushes and peeking at us while we dismantled their blockades. The GSU in our car told us that there were thousands of unemployed youth in the area, idling and itching for action. That said, however, I was amazed to see elderly people (men and women) at some of these locations that appeared to do nothing to dissuade the young men from doing what they were doing! The same GSU in our car suggested that these were the people directing the events, telling the young people where to put the roadblocks and even lending them tractors to carry boulders to the road for the purpose!

We arrived in Narok past 12:00 pm, having started earlier than 6:00 am! This was relatively safe, at least on the roads. In town, however, it was a different story. Here a building that belonged to a Kikuyu businesswoman had been looted and torched the previous night; another building, belonging to a Maasai but with a Kikuyu tenant, had just been looted and spared the fire! We heard stories of people raiding homes belonging to non-Maasai's (mainly Kisii and Kikuyu!); and we heard that a number of Kikuyus had been hacked to death the previous night! There were also stories of forced circumcision of adult Luo men and rumour had it that one of them had died from excessive bleeding!

We drove to the police station to check the security situation past Narok towards Nairobi. The entire place was full of parked vehicles - buses, matatus, cars, motor cycles, name it! And many, many people sleeping in vehicles and shades at the police station! We later were told that many non-Maasais had left their homes and were spending their days and nights at the police station. A policemen I talked to indicated that they had intelligence on planned raids that evening, which they were busy disrupting with the arrest of ring leaders!

We traced a friend to a government property in town and discovered even more people in the compound; men, women and children that had abandoned their homes for the safety of the government property; they told of threats to set their homes on fire that night and the killing of any non-Maasai found in the process; some people said they chose to sleep in the bush rather than be caught in their houses.

We heard more stories (not confirmed) of the torching of wheat shambas of PNU supporters; and I marveled why that had to be so! Burning food just to punish a PNU supporter!

Others told us of the pre and post-election tension! Some politicians had whipped up ethnic sentiments with one promising to shut down Kikuyu-owned businesses in town. Indeed, one such politician (an ODMer) had promised to get rid of Equity Bank out of town as a first act! Yet, for those in the know, the bank had the best lending terms of all the banks in town! It is said that others expressed grievances of such nature as: such as such a person (usually a non-Maasai) came to town recently, started selling mandazis and look, now they own a building! Pure jealousy, I would say! But there was also gloating once ECK announced that Kibaki had won! Some of his supporters went around gloating and taunting their opponents! So you have envy/jealousy mixed with incentive gloating at the PNU win!

I spoke to and heard from many people about this. In one case, a close relative spoke of the anger that overcame him when put aside a Kikuyu in an office. And I asked why? He could not explain, except for the fact that he felt resentment at their success. And I asked whether he had asked how they succeeded? He didn't reply!

Kikuyus are 23% of the Kenyan population, more than double the next most populous ethnic group. As such, their numbers are going to be felt everywhere: in jail, business, pimping, prostitution, politics and all! They are also a step ahead of most ethnic groups with business sophistication (being close to Nairobi is one factor contributing to this) and were given a "leg up" by the government of the late Jomo Kenyatta!

My take is this: learn from them; educate yourselves in business and do some catching up. Fighting them is only detrimental to our collective well-being because a better-off Kikuyu is a better-off Kenyan. Work hard to catch up! We forget that the Asian population (a tiny minority) and other foreign interests have a larger section of the Kenyan economy than many ethnic groups combined; and people are not whining about it! Take the example of Equity Bank: in its place we would have the Barclays and Standard banks take the business! And who the hell owns Barclays and Standard banks?

My other take is this: the Kikuyu need to do something about perceived insensitivity to others' concerns; some claim the Kikuyu leadership is arrogant and need to learn that we are a nation of 41 ethnicities. And we must live together! It is work we must partake as a nation, making it our collective responsibility.

My other take is this: murder and destruction of others' property merely takes us back as a nation; we should learn from Mexico: they protested a flawed election with neither killing each other nor destroying others' property. My cousin's hardware shop served the Kisumu population; his housing united accommodated the local community. The wheat torched in Narok was food for Kenyans, regardless of tribe and class. And hacking people to death doesn't advance the cause for justice that arose of the rigged election.

This is getting too long. However, here are some observations pertaining to the elections:

This election wasn't about issues in many places; tons of money was spent by both sides to get voters to polling stations; I visited some of these and saw a number of candidate agents dishing out money to voters; many voters lurked in woods and bushes around polling stations waiting to be given "something small" before they voted! In many locations, voters who thought we were part of the campaign, asked us to "free them" so that they can vote before polls closed.

Both sides rigged the elections, especially in the presidential poll. Molo was perhaps the highlight where there was clear discrepancy between the tally from the returning officer and what was read by ECK! Molo, in my view, is a tip of the iceberg. My own intuition is that examination of all returns will reveal massive discrepancies, making the outcome too close to call! That said, in this respect, ODM was more vigilant, more vocal and their complaints got all the attention that came out. Whatever the case, the presidential vote outcome was substantially impacted by the low integrity of the electoral process.

The stalemate was bound to happen! Kivuitu needed to announce the day he did as Kibaki's term was expiring midnight that night; failure to swear in a president would have left a power vacuum. I wish that the ECK had been more vigilant, more thorough and ensured that discrepancies in tallying had been caught in a timely manner. An inquiry may establish the extent of rigging and it may show that (indeed) there was massive rigging on both sides. However, that will be too late as those who feel aggrieved wouldn't have attained power that they feel they rightly won.

As the early results came in, many of us had resigned to the fact that ODM would form the next government. In one conversation I had with an ODM insider, I suggested that this may be a blessing in disguise for us who never supported ODM. And for good reasons: the many promises made by the party and its presidential candidate would be extremely difficult to fulfill; examples: a constitution in six months when you don't have 2/3 majority in parliament; implementing majimbo and spending 60% of revenue in the jimbos! insuring Maasai cattle with the unpredictable conditions in which they are kept, let alone convincing Maasais to pay a premium for the coverage,; growing the economy by 10% (some utterances suggested 20%); implementing the Kroll and Ndungu reports, etc. etc. Too many promises with low likelihood of success.

etc etc.So what next:

Both Kibaki and Raila need to realize that they hold the nation's future in their hands; they should climb down the high horses and work out a plan that would restore peace to the nation;

Neither Kibaki nor Raila alone can govern the country without the cooperation of the other. With the poll differences degenerating to ethnic wardom, I doubt any of them would want to preside over a degenerating Kenya.

We need an independent examination of all the votes that were cast and the tallying of them all to determine what happened and whether the outcome would have been otherwise. In any case, we should consider the possibility of a repeat poll (even is simply presidential) within a period of six months.

Regardless of that poll outcome, both leaders should consider a government of national unity; for PNU to form a government and leave out large sections of the country unrepresented would be unacceptable; the same applies for ODM with its lack of representation in key areas.

As Kenyans, we should tone down our rhetoric that fuels ethnic animosity. Over the past few years, some of us have been warning about demonizing others simply because of where they were born into; in a way, this rhetoric, some fueled by the Internet and FM stations, is responsible for the senseless murder of innocent people and destruction of their properties. Surely, we can do better; and surely, there are better ways to get along.

Enough for now.

Unedited.

Matunda Nyanchama

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williams_ogle wrote:

The truth about Kikuyu clandestine plans are coming out.
Read on...

http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10422157

This is what we call robbery without violence. No wonder people responded with violence to humuliate the thief.