Monthly Archives: November 2013

Like my wise mother continues to remind me every chance she gets:

Wuoda (my son), show me you friends and I will show you your character – an endearing take on “birds of a feather…” or as only the good book can put it: He that walketh with wise [men] shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Proverbs 13:20.

According to Kenya’s deputy president, the United Nation Security Council’s (UNSC) rejection of the country’s ridiculously expensive and increasingly desperate and embarrassing efforts to defer the crimes against humanity cases facing Mr. Kenyatta and his deputy at The Hague “…was a clear testimony of who the true friends of Kenya were…” Mr. Ruto went on to assert that the Friday November 16 eight-to-seven vote by the UNSC against the “digital” duo’s request for a deferral of their cases was “…a clear testimony of genuine friends who can stand with us when it is shining or raining…” The DP then thanked the soon-to-be-50year-old polity’s new “best friends forever” (BFFs) for standing with them claiming that the “digital” duo has “a plan” to work and “endure any difficulties.”

http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/America-betrayed-us-over-ICC-vote-fumes-Jubilee-/-/1064/2076266/-/ha7iag/-/index.html

The junior partner in the “digital” duo and his Jubilee counterparts in the parliament went on to excoriate the main targets of the party’s ire and wrath United States, United Kingdom, France and Ghanaian Kofi Annan complaining that the former Secretary General of the United Nations was “…behind ‘a well-orchestrated international plot’ to have President Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto jailed by the ICC”. I want to believe that the deputy president has evidence to support this rather outlandish claim.
Also included on the list of countries that torpedoed the duo’s attempts to have their charges deferred were Australia, Argentina, Guatemala, Luxembourg and South Korea.

Breathing fire and casting aspersions one minute and lathering effusive praise the very next, Mr. Ruto went on to shower praise on Kenya’s newest and “bestest” of friends Azerbaijan, Morocco, Pakistan, and Togo – all who voted in favor of the deferral. The other three countries that voted in favor of deferring the charges – China, Russia and Rwanda – were already inside Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto’s “circle of BFFs”: The former two, China and Russia, playing their usual and expected role of opposing anything their fellow UNSC veto-welding counterparts US, UK and France supported!

So in summary, Jubilee’s revised Kenya@50 “Taking Our Country Back” guest list reads as follows:

DO NOT INVITE:
Kenya’s “cowardly enemies”: Australia, Argentina, France*, Guatemala, Luxembourg, South Korea, UK*, USA*

VIPs:
Kenya’s “true and genuine friends”: Azerbaijan, China*, Morocco, Pakistan, Rwanda, Russia*, Togo.

* – Permanent members of the UN Security Council.

At the risk of posing a rhetorical question, has Kenya, a country once described as an “oasis of peace in a troubled region…” http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66470/john-githongo/fear-and-loathing-in-nairobi become bosom buddies with countries that are the very antithesis of what it aspires to be; countries that are all synonymous with repressive regimes, corrupt government official and less-than-democratic forms of government?

I would NOT describe myself as a dyed-in-the-wool “westophile” i.e. an anglophile, Francophile or Amerophile given some of my pieces – http://www.thetwoninetyonetracker.com. On the other hand, I do not consider the governments of China, Russia, Pakistan or Azerbaijan representative of the types of government I want the country of my birth to emulate. Similarly, I do not have anything against Presidents Xi Jinping (China), V. Putin (Russia), Mamnoon Hussain (Pakistan), or Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijan) but they lead governments that do not have a track-record on democracy and good governance that the “digital” government of Kenya should be aspiring to mimic.

A simple key word search on the internet using any combination of Kenya’s newest BFFs along with the words “corruption”, “human rights violation”, “media suppression” or any other less-than-appealing non-democratic quality will tell one all they need to know about Kenya’s latest motley crew of “genuine friends who can stand with us when it is shining or raining.” It is ironic that the duo’s self-proclaimed Christian faith takes a back seat as they seek “friends” of all strips, some who persecute the very faith the two practice, in their selfish attempts to avoid being held to account:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/february-web-only/persecution-in-china-is-very-real.html

Under the headings Desperate times calls for desperate measures, The enemy of my enemy is my friend or The friend of my enemy is my enemy, the Jubilee administration is lurching the country from one extreme and bizarre partnership to the next all in pathetic and selfish attempts to save the two suspects, Kenyatta in particular, from answering charges of crimes against humanity at The Hague. The Kenyatta government is doing this even though his deputy’s case is well underway!

In a prior piece titled “The Enemy of My Enemies” written early this year for the blog http://www.thetwoninetyonetracker.com, I argue that Uhuru and his deputy “…will get legitimacy, not by cavorting with the Chinese, Russians, Syrians, Cubans or other countries that are eager to thumb their nose at the west or that are pariah states, but by being exonerated of the charges they…face for the sickening crimes against the very people who provided the two with their margin of victory in the just concluded presidential elections.” My position has not changed and their antics since they took power have only reinforced said position.

https://thetwoninetyonetracker.com/2013/03/13/the-enemy-of-my-enemies/

I further write that the desperate and expensive efforts by Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto to have their cases deferred may give them short-term gains as their try to avoid the embarrassment of being the first sitting president and deputy president ever to face charges at The Hague for crimes against humanity! The one thing their global gallivance and odd alliances will not do is erase the permanence of the pain and suffering Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto are accused of fomenting on the very people who elected them into office.

It is very sad that Kenyans gave Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto the “gravitas” and “bully pulpit” – as a sitting president and deputy president – the two, Mr. Kenyatta in particular, are shamelessly using as a shield against being held accountable for crimes – committed against the same Kenyans!

In my book “Wuodha: My journey from Kenya to these United States” published by Friesen Press, I write that there is an unusually strong and incestuous relationship between political power and wealth in Africa/Kenya (pge 22). This relationship is illustrated by the high number of wealthy Kenyans who also happen to be politicians, family members of said politicians and/or those close to said politicians. To be clear, I also write that this complementary relationship between political power and “mbesha” is not unique to Kenya. My adopted home America has its share of wealthy individuals who have transformed their economic wealth into political power and vice versa. The Kennedys and Bushes parlayed the wealth of their respective patriarchs Joe Kennedy and George Prescott Bush into three occupancies of the White House. Conversely, Bill Clinton, notoriously less-than-wealthy when he became president in 1992 now sits atop a foundation – Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation – worth a quarter billion dollars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Global_Initiative#Clinton_Global_Initiative_.28CGI.29. Finally, the current occupant of the White House Barack H. Obama (and his wife Michelle) famously paid off their student loans in 2004; the same year he made his well-received speech at the July 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Mr. Obama went on to author the block-buster memoir “Dreams of my father” and the more wonkish “The Audacity of Hope”; a detailing of his vision on how Americans can tackle everyday societal problems. Royalties from the books form the basis of the former community organizer’s familial wealth.

Unlike Kenya, the one thing that most developed countries have that does not make the relationship between political office and wealth accumulation near-immutable is a system of checks-and-balances that tempers the avarice that is a function of being human AND having (political) power! The checks-and-balances that compel those seeking political office, indeed most prominent political/public figures in the west to put their wealth in a “blind trust” is almost non-existent in Kenya. Wikipedia defines a “blind trust” thus:

“A….trust in which the trustees…..have been given power of attorney (and)….have full discretion over the assets and the….beneficiaries (owners) of the trust have no knowledge of the holdings of the trust and no right to intervene in their handling. Blind trusts are generally used…….to keep the beneficiary unaware of the specific assets in the trust, such as to avoid conflict of interest between the beneficiary and the investments. Politicians or others in sensitive positions often place their personal assets (including investment income) into blind trusts, to avoid public scrutiny and accusations of conflicts of interest when they direct government funds to the private sector.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_trust

It thus comes as no surprise when the publication “Business Daily” publishes the article “Kenyatta Business Empire Goes into Expansion Drive”; an article whose message is pretty simple and straightforward: With Uhuru as president, it is indeed the Kenyatta family’s turn to eat – again!

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Kenyatta-business-empire-goes-into-expansion-drive/-/539550/2069704/-/g4fwge/-/index.html.

The following quote is from said article and underscores the point on the uniquely Kenyan trait of political power and the rabid accumulation of wealth sans any regards for considerations such as conflict of interest!

“It also helps that Uhuru is now president, providing the family with a strong shield against any risks arising from unfavorable and unpredictable government policies that send fear down the spines of many investors in Africa.”

The quote from the article, in a nutshell says it all: The marriage of politics and business interests in Kenya is complete in a process first set in motion after independence when the country’s first president and Uhuru’s father Jomo Kenyatta allegedly taunted former Mau Mau veteran Bildad Kaggia for having little (material wealth) to show for his liberation war even as he, Jomo “generously helped himself” to healthy portions of “matunda ya uhuru” or “fruits of independence – “It’s our turn to eat” by Wrong et Githongo; (pge 50). If anyone ever wondered why those in power are willing to go to any lengths to maintain their hold on said power, the fore-going article, summarized by the foregoing quote should put the wonderment to rest. Similarly, anyone who doubted that the brutality these paragons of the Kenyan society would deign to sink to just needs to look at the sickening amount of money/wealth some of them have accumulated over the years they have been in or close to the country’s political power.

While I am not against the legal and fair accumulation of wealth, it is not inconceivable to draw the chilling, indeed rather dark conclusion that those already owning boatloads of cash are willing to allow/facilitate the death and displacement of hundreds of thousands with nothing so as to protect said wealth. Kenyans are quick to point out that the US invaded Iraq because its oil…but are curiously silent when asked to delve into the true reasons behind the tribal violence that one can almost set their clock by every 5 years!

It is equally telling that the publication Business Daily can make the assertion that Uhuru’s presidency is a boon for his family’s businesses without being called out by the parliament or the fourth estate. The claim that Mr. Kenyatta’s presidency “…provides the family with a strong shield against any risks arising from unfavorable and unpredictable government policies…” embodies the very definition of insider trading, a charge the Kenyan-equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Capital Markets Authority (CMA); certainly the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) would be very interested in – I think!