Re: Luo Community Way Forward

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:45:00 +0000

Ochichi,

I had hoped that you would not be brave enough to ask me to show facts about the need for a political struggle to free the Kenyan people from their economic struggles. You have attacked President Amolo Raila Odinga without giving a clear discourse indicating why Luos and Kenyans in general should ditch his politics. I will give you a few reminders and please listen up:

   1. Raila's monumental REFORMS pledge-There can be no proactive changes in Kenya without a person leading the country towards that goal. Raila's economic and socio-political pledges are captured in manifesto. Go to Raila007.org (Please read between the lines, be a substantive Kenyan with strong claims to your arguments on the issue of elections within a democracy).I'd imagine from your limited anecdotal and theoretical wording, you must be even struggling from a bout of amnesia of the history of the liberation struggle (read Jaramogi, Not Yet Uhuru) and the second and third liberation (Raila, an Enigma in Kenyan Politics). Please read and if you can't reach these texts, i will prepare some useful information that you can assess about President Raila Odinga's strong contribution to the Kenyan economy and the international platform (this within the short time of his freedom from political detention). I would also indulge you to read the book KENYA 1982 by James Dianga; a Sweden based former Officer at the Kenya Air Force Air Defence Unit.

   2. I will start by mentioning a few parts of Dianga's commendable work on the near revolution that patriotic Kenyans brought in 1982. You lament with great individual resentment that the Odinga family and its dynastic influence on Kenyan or Luo politics is obscene and that Luos and the rest of Kenya should change tack. Let me alert you and do listen, Dianga reports very well in his book that one of the stagnating factors of Kenya's history was the explicit 'yes' Jaramogi Oginga Odinga gave to Johnstone Kamau to be the beacon of the struggle against the supremacist British rule. Dianga asks, what did Jaramogi see in Johnstone Kamau that even the latter's own community and friends like Ngei did not see? That was Jaramogi's own individual mistake to Kenyans. The theft of massive parcels of land (almost the size of Nyanza province-land belonging to the Kamau family) was one of the principal points of struggle Jaramogi was committed to work against. Kamau went against the independence manifesto and Lancaster House agreements. In fact Moi, the political turncoat was so immersed in his majimbo ideology that Jaramogi (his family currently being accused of dividing Kenyans) was less enthusiastic then. My mission here is to level this anecdote to any Kenyan who thinks the struggle against the dominant feudal clan of Johnstone Kamau. Kamau was the first major thief in post-colonial Kenya. I stand to be corrected on this. What Jaramogi was struggling against was a system that was even deadlier than colonial ideologies. If is start mentioning the list of those who succumbed to Johnstone Kamau's political and structural terror, we might be here for the next few weeks just going through the catalogue. Alternatively, you may want to call one James Kanyotu for any intimate or even eccentric details on the murderous regime of Johnstone Kamau. Unfortunately, Jaramogi was one of those leading politicians who elevated Johnstone Kamau to a second God. Dianga's book says and I quote: Odinga's close associate Chief John Paul Olola asked Jaramogi 'what god do you see in Kenyatta?' You may want to reply, well that was a similar response we got in 2002 when Raila Odinga declared Kibaki, the 'Tosha' candidate. De ja vu, if you asked me. But clearly, this is not a family issue or one of hollow anecdotes. The anecdotes only help to elaborate the situation we are all in firsthand.

   3. Presidential powers in Kenya are all supreme and this is why Raila Odinga wants to dismember this colonial legacy. Immediately after Jaramogi formed KPU and a host of patriotic Kenyan senators crossed the floor of the house to join this party, Kamau, the Kenyan dictator got pathologically furious. He announced on the same day that parliament would be recalled to pass a Bill forcing the dissident MPs to resign their seats and seek re-election. All the 30 MPs who supported Jaramogi after the infamous GEMA-project, the Limuru conference had to begin thinking twice. While the more patriotic MPs soldiered on against Kamau's thieving government, a few were compromised my Kamau's money obtained from the public purse. Masinde Muliro was one of them. The constitutional amendment was done with speed. The Kamau dictatorship was propped by the de jure constitutional instruments that address the powers of the presidency. Kamau abruptly ended the session of parliament 6 months before it was due. Ochicho, those are the extreme presidential powers we want clipped. Kamau, the first official elections thief, rigged 21 seats out of the 30 during the KPU defectors by elections. Kamau's use of supreme powers trickled down to Moi's rule and now Kibaki's Raila will be in Office sooner rather than later. Just watch the silent truth.

   4. It is not Raila or his family that stole these elections ni kibaki na family yake ndiyo waliiba bwana wacha mambo

 Ochicho, i must be brief you on Raila Amolo Odinga's role in the struggle. Talk soon

elly