Why President Obama is going to Tanzania

Shipyard Cranes, Norfolk.
Photo credit: shoebappa / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

“The good news? U.S. President Barack Obama is making his second trip to Africa, the continent of his father’s birth. The ummm… ‘other’ news? He’s not coming to Kenya. What’s that? Yes, other news. Not bad news thanks, we’re Kenyans. We don’t really care whether he comes here or not (sniff). We don’t need the West. We have other trading partners… like China. And have you already forgotten what we did to Botswana? Leave us alone with our Uhurus and our Rutos, Kenyans know what’s best for Kenya…”

The paragraph above summarizes Kenyans’ reaction to the news that Air Force One will not be touching down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport during President Obama’s upcoming trip to Africa. The President’s trip is scheduled for June 26^th 2013 to July 3^rd 2013 and will take in Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa. Undoubtedly, Obama’s avoidance of his father’s land is a snub – the second such snub if we count his trip to Ghana in 2009. What seems to rankle most is that Obama felt it wise to accord our neighbours to the South, Tanzania, a State visit. Why would he do this? If we dig a little deeper, we can start to understand (in particular) why Tanzania.

It may surprise most Kenyans to know that foreign direct investment inflows (FDI inflows) to Tanzania and Uganda have exceeded FDIs coming in to Kenya for most of the last decade. The table below shows FDI inflows to the three countries from 2001-2010 (figures in USD):

Year	Kenya	Tanzania	Uganda
2001	5,302,623	388,800,000	151,496,100
2002	20,202,580	396,244,800	184,648,100
2003	79,662,930	364,258,900	202,192,600
2004	41,647,830	226,732,400	295,416,500
2005	11,524,460	935,520,600	379,808,400
2006	26,717,030	403,039,000	644,262,500
2007	693,011,400	581,511,800	792,305,800
2008	51,819,060	400,047,200	728,860,900
2009	70,269,790	414,544,600	788,694,300
2010	184,215,300	433,441,900	817,178,700
Total	1,184,373,003	4,544,141,200	4,984,863,900

Source: http://www.indexmundi.com

This table is a sobering read. It shows that Tanzania and Uganda have both attracted about 4 times the foreign investment that Kenya did during the 2000s. In other words, because of Tanzania’s natural gas, Uganda’s oil, and both nations’ relative stability, for every 1 million dollars foreign investors have invested in Kenya, the same investors have invested another 8 million dollars in Uganda and Tanzania, shared roughly equally. Although the fact that Kenya has now discovered oil deposits may change the broad outlook of this table over the course of the current decade, there is still cause for concern about these figures. And if we do have oil, shouldn’t that be enough to make the US/China fall over themselves to visit us?

The second point is this: remember the Chinese we said we’d trade with instead of the West? Well, China’s (new) President Xi recently went on a state visit that took in Russia, the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), and South Africa. Oh, and Tanzania. Yes, China’s (new) President Xi also visited Tanzania recently. While it is true that socialist Tanzania has a long history of ties with China, it is still instructive that President Xi paid Dar-es-Salaam a visit; President Obama actually appears to be playing catch-up to the Chinese in this regard.

Thirdly, those selfsame Chinese recently pledged to help build a port at Bagamoyo, northwest of Dar, that’ll make Mombasa look like a small puddle. This week’s article in the East African on the matter states that the Bagamoyo port is set to cost USD 11 billion (nearly one trillion shillings). In tandem with this, Tanzania is revamping her rail network as well. If we are not careful, we ourselves will be importing and exporting via Tanzania before long.

The nation of Kenya has lost crown after crown economically speaking. We were on a par with Singapore and South Korea at independence. We’ve let them go. Fifty years later, our last remaining crown is “East Africa’s largest economy”. What are we doing to retain this status? Not much, it would seem. Here we are playing tribal games and thumbing our noses at the world by electing questionable “watu wetu“, and yet it is merely a matter of time before we lose our final claim to fame: that of “economic capital of East Africa”. Already Rwandan importers are saying that it takes them 3 days to import via Dar es Salaam, and 7 days to import via Mombasa. In all likelihood, our kids may study Economics knowing East Africa’s largest economy to be Tanzania.

President Obama’s snub should be waking us up to these realities. But much as we did during the Botswana incident, and instead of asking ourselves why the Presidents of the world’s two largest economies are queueing up to visit our southern neighbours (a nation we have grown up labelling an “economic backwater”), we’re busy saying “Kwani Obama ni nani? (Who is Obama anyway?)”. I urge us to realize that this is bigger than Uhuru. This is bigger than Ruto. This is bigger than Kogelo and Mama Sarah and serkal. It’s not a joke folks, this is about our land, our nation, and where we all are headed.

God bless Kenya.

 

It’s over… and it’s not

Sunset at the Maasai Mara

Well folks, the sun has set on the March 2013 elections, and here is my take.

I think there were irregularities in the elections; I think the margin of error was so fine (around 8,000 votes) that these irregularities may have fraudulently led to the avoidance of a run-off; and yes, I think, in summary, that the term “free and fair” cannot conclusively be applied to the poll (Mars Group Kenya is carrying out a pretty thorough audit of the results). However, the former Prime Minister pursued the right (legal) channels for contesting the elections, the Supreme Court has handed down its ruling, most (if not all) of the challengers have accepted defeat, and here we are.

We have a new President.

The uncertainties are legion. One of the first indicators of the direction Kenya will now take will be the first cabinet. In a nation where “who was left out” is at times a more important question than “who was put in”, all of us are wondering: what will the Cabinet look like? Will it really show the intention to heal a fractured nation? Or will “the national cake” be shared, winner-take-all, between Central and Rift Valley? Will there be an effort to bring in credible technocrats with proven track records of performance? Or will tribes and regional factions be “rewarded” by putting the same old, inept, corrupt leaders in positions of influence that neither we nor they deserve?

Then there is the small matter of the International Criminal Court. Uhuru and Ruto were not brought together by any confluence of ideologies, but by the ICC. The cases against the President and his Deputy appear to be weakening by the day, but if the time should come that they will have to present themselves in Court, will they even attend? And if they do make it to Court, will their union survive a ruling? What if one is sentenced, and one is acquitted?

Despite all these unknowns, I am taking it upon myself to tweet Uhuru Kenyatta daily until the end of April urging him to fix our electricity and our railway. I started tweeting the day after the inauguration under the hashtag #FixKE. Will it work? I don’t know. I wish Peter Kenneth was the President, then maybe I wouldn’t have to do it. Friends, our current leadership has many flaws. But if a better Kenya is what we really want, we have to be willing to work with what’s available to us, for life is rarely perfect. We just have to work within the boundaries that reality gives us.

We cannot lie down and accept defeat in our quest to leave this nation better than we found it simply because of a less than desirable electoral outcome. If we are to achieve anything of note, we must surmount obstacles, climb over walls, crawl under ledges… in short do EVERYTHING we can to make something happen. Defeat manifests itself as an internal phenomenon long before it becomes an external one. For this reason we can not, we must not, we dare not admit defeat.

No, we must remain undeterred. We must soldier on.

Thanks for listening. And may God bless the nation of Kenya.

Photo credit: eir@si / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

 

On Historical Injustices (the Land Problem in Kenya)

Kenyan Sunset (Photo credit: angela7dreams / Foter.com )

In recent weeks, the COalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD) campaign team has chosen to make land an election issue by speaking of historical injustices. This has been seen as pointing a finger at the Jubilee coalition, whose leading lights Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto are believed to own significant tracts of land. In light of this, one of my friends posted on Facebook:

“What are these historical injustices we keep hearing about. My maternal grandfather was jailed by the colonial powers on suspicion of being pro- Mau Mau. Is this a historical injustice? Should reparations be made and by whom for these historical injustices? Methinks we are treading on very dangerous waters on this historical injustices matter.”

This is my take. It is a historical injustice for the Kenyatta family to own (it is said) half a million acres of land, all over this country (including thousands of acres in Coast Province). The defence that this land was bought is no defence at all, because the critical factor is not that the land was bought. The critical factor is that Jomo Kenyatta was President; the Kenyattas would not currently be the owners of that land had that not been the case (i.e. the land could not have been “otherwise obtained”). Now that’s the truth, and I don’t know why we’re afraid of saying it.

(Parenthetically, the same family, in league with others of ill-repute who have their own land cases in court as we speak, and other land cases that ended in unclear circumstances, is in the middle of visiting yet another injustice upon Kenyans, by standing for election while standing accused at the ICC of crimes against humanity.)

Nor are the Kenyattas the sole culprits in this regard; it is alleged that Kalonzo Musyoka stands accused of stealing public land meant for squatters, and that is before mentioning the Koriatas, Criticos’s, and ole Ntutus of this world. I sincerely hope that those who read this are willing to at least admit that these issues are a problem for our nation.

From the foregoing, I hope we can see that CORD itself, although it raised this issue, will bring us no nearer to a solution than the Jubilee coalition. Quite apart from Kalonzo Musyoka’s allegedly fraudulent acquisition of public assets, the Lands Ministry has been under the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) for the last half a decade. Zero land reforms have come of this. Even the far simpler matter of a title deed search is done exactly the same way it has been done for decades – yet by now this data should be online and we should be carrying out title searches from the comfort of our homes. But that has not happened.

How can we solve the problem of these historical injustices, and deal with the issue of vast tracts of land that are held by a privileged few? I believe the Government should charge an annual tax of say KES 1,000 per year per acre on all land, freehold or leasehold. This is manageable if you hold 1 acre of maize in Western or a ka-quarter in Kitengela (KES 250 per year). But if one has 100,000 acres, one would have to pay KES 100 million annually. Such landowners would have to either

(1) Sell that land, or

(2) Lease it, or

(3) Somehow make it produce that KES 1,000 per year, thereby creating employment.

Another benefit is that land prices would fall, due to a sudden excess of supply over demand. All of these outcomes are helpful, are they not?

The tax rate itself need not be fixed, e.g. land can be categorized based on location and the uses to which it is being put. But the broad brushstrokes of a land policy that would result in equalization and re-distribution would be in place.

I would add that the Government should have the first right-of-purchase on the sale of land by large landowners, at the price they purchased that land, without adjusting for inflation. Thereafter the National Land Commission can issue policy on how this land should be used, because land fragmentation is another issue that pulls in the opposite direction of what the KES 1,000 tax would achieve.

Getting this done wouldn’t be easy. Frankly I don’t even know whether my preferred candidate, Peter Kenneth, would be able to tackle it; because getting Parliament to pass such laws (even with a Parliamentary majority) would be difficult. But the problem with Kenya has never been how to solve our problems. The problem has always been whether we want to solve our problems. And from the current poll rankings, we do not.

Caveat/Disclosure:

This thinking (a land tax) is not original; personally I first heard it in Form Two or so from my Ethics teacher, a Mr Silvano Borruso, a wise man who taught that land should belong to the people; the Government should hold it in trust, and landowners should pay the Government for the right to use the land (the land tax). The man had other noble ideas, such as the idea that housewives should get a stipend from the Government for their work, but that is a discussion for another day.

 

The Kenya We Lost

Folks,

I am not an old man, by any stretch of the term. Far from it. In fact, by our own nation’s definition, I am a young man. I am part of its “youth.” Life, with all its myriad joys, stretches out in front of me (or so they tell me). And I am looking forward to it. But I am not so young that I do not have memories. I am not so young that I have nothing to remember (or forget, for that matter). My memory may desert me at times, but I have many treasured recollections. And this morning, I am remembering.

Yes. Thousands of miles away from home, I am remembering the verdant slopes of Uhuru Park, a place I have walked through from the Haile Selassie Avenue entrance to the Kenyatta Avenue/Uhuru Highway exits many, many times. I am remembering how lovely those grass-clad slopes look after a week of refreshing rain. I am remembering how that same hill looks when juxtaposed against the Government buildings on Community Hill.

I am remembering how forbidding the Park looks when black clouds, heavy with imminent rain, hang low over its brow. How many times I have rushed by, oblivious to the dark beauty in the scene, bent only on beating the rain! Anyway, this morning, I am remembering.

What we had

I am remembering how apt the name “Uhuru” Park must have seemed that glorious afternoon in the late December of 2002. I am remembering what the country felt like, now that the second liberation had actually occurred. I am thinking, now, how fitting it must have been to hold the new President’s inauguration there. Truly there could have been no other venue. No stadium, no other site was fit to hold that inauguration ceremony.

I am remembering how the usually grass-clad slopes were alive that day – alive with people. Photos in the eagerly-awaited paper the next day seemed unreal. Never was the phrase “Kenyans from all walks of life” used more fittingly. Thousands upon thousands of Kenyans had made the pilgrimage to Uhuru Park. Perhaps for some, it was to confirm for themselves whether it was really true that we had toppled KANU and replaced it with NARC. Kenyans stood, sat down, and stood up again. A small number of Kenyans scaled the few available trees to get a better view of the proceedings. There were Kenyans everywhere! Happy Kenyans. Impatient Kenyans. Even a few irate Kenyans – irate that Moi still had any part to play at all in the ceremony. Such was the momentousness of the occasion that even those of us who had hitherto been apolitical were drawn to the spectacle. I recall that some fellow Campuserians, including a Ugandan medical student, actually made their way to Uhuru Park. It seemed the nation had made the impossible possible, and that the improbable had come to pass.

I am remembering sitting close to the little two-tape-deck Goldstar radio at home, and listening to the Inauguration ceremony. I remember hearing the President-Elect swear to protect the Constitution. I remember the conviction in his voice as he delivered what has elsewhere been called “a soaring speech full of regime-change passion and dynamics.” Unable to rely on a TV to follow proceedings, I looked out over the shamba at home and watched the green maize fronds frolic in the breeze, as the sounds of the inauguration ceremony filtered into the sitting-room.

I remember that it was not a cripple I listened to that afternoon, either. No, that was no wheelchair-bound, neck-braced cripple. After decades of Moi, our generation was now listening to/watching – not a President that the fates had forced upon us, but rather – someone an overwhelming majority of Kenyans had put in power. The idea of a President who was “ours” – novel concept! – was imprinting itself onto a Kenyan consciousness that responded with wonder. It was a stupendous moment! So it was very easy to believe, that day, as he spoke with a power in his words that belied his temporary physical state.

I particularly remember how I felt as he said: “…corruption will now CEASE to be a WAY OF LIFE in Kenya.” In all of that speech, that is the one phrase that will never leave me. It was, and is, the one phrase I can never forget. That phrase enthused me. It enlivened me. It galvanized me. That for me was the moment I knew that “change had come.” The delicious vehemence in the President’s tone was filed away in the labyrinthine libraries of my memory forever.

I am remembering the Kenya we all woke up to in early January 2003. I remember how when an extra public holiday after New Year’s Day was announced, it chimed right in with the feelings of national joy and euphoria that swelled in our collective breast. I am remembering those long-lost, heady, now-distant days when a Gallup International Annual End of Year Survey said we Kenyans were the most optimistic people on God’s green earth. If you have ever had the pleasure of taking large gulps of clean, cold, rarefied, early-morning, out-of-town air, then you know what the political atmosphere was like in Kenya in early 2003. It felt like it was dawn in our country. And, perhaps, it was.

This morning, I am remembering a Kenya where the entire Presidential motorcade consisted of three cars. Yes. Just three. And in fact, only two were Government vehicles. The other long wheelbase S-Class Mercedes (I loved those cars) was the President’s personal car. And it had been modified to take his wheelchair.

I am remembering how for six months at least, we were one. There were strikes at export-processing zones, I remember, because folks wanted the change they had voted for yesterday to show up inside their wallets today. But we were one. There was freshness in the air. Oneness.

And most of all, I am remembering a Kenya where corruption was fought not just by Kenya’s Government, but by her own citizens as well. A Kenya where at least one policeman who thought that he could still stop matatus for bribes and get away with it received a rude awakening as incensed passengers descended from the matatu, staggered him with a short but pithy lecture on the concept of a “New Kenya”, forcibly dispossessed him of bribes he had taken up to that point, and proceeded on their journey. This incident in particular represents the high-water mark of my entire existence as a Kenyan citizen. As I said, I am not an old man. But I still remember.

Alas. It was all of it a lie.

What we’ve got

In less than 10 months (by October 2003), no lesser publication than The Economist was reporting that Kenyans were disappointed in their new Government. The article was occasioned by the “apparent assassination” of Dr Crispin Odhiambo Mbai, a man who at that time had been involved in drafting the new Constitution. In the article, that worthy periodical reported: “…the speed with which Mr Kibaki’s presidency has become synonymous with the interests of a small group of his Kikuyu tribe, Kenya’s largest, and its cousins from the Mount Kenya region is extraordinary.”

Perhaps we have forgotten that Kibaki had promised Kenyans a new Constitution in 100 days. Dr Mbai’s violent death was merely a sign of things to come, for we all know that that we only got a new Constitution over 3,500 days later, and that because it was forced upon the Principals by the terms of Agenda IV of the National Peace Accord.

We all know that nearly 10 years after the Goldenberg Commission of Inquiry, no-one is behind bars for their role in that scandal. Actually some of those who are said to have been involved were given a hero’s sendoff upon their untimely demise. Others of those who are said to have been involved are running for the Presidency today. All this, fellow Kenyans, we know.

We also know, from the contents of The Githongo Dossier and the book It’s Our Turn To Eat (Michela Wrong, 2009), that the NARC Government by this time had rolled up its sleeves and was knee- and elbow-deep in the mucky business of stealing KES 21 Billion from taxpaying Kenyans through Anglo Leasing, with the current President’s complicity. That looting started on May 29 2003, a scant five months (almost to the day) after that glorious afternoon on December 30^th 2002.

And that Presidential motorcade, @Roomthinker tells me, is now not 3, but 23 cars long, not counting outriders.

We were deceived

True deception, I discovered earlier this year, occurs when you don’t even know you’re being deceived. It is when you don’t know what’s happening that deception is complete and total. And folks, in 2002-3, we were deceived. The morning and the promise of early 2003 did not lead to the bright day of prosperity that we all expected. Nay, that morning has instead given way to a long and protracted darkness. That rarefied atmosphere of hope has been replaced by the fetid stench of a rotting, nameless, shapeless filth, Augean in its proportions. The dawn is long gone, and in its place is a soiled and Stygian night that has lingered far too long: a night of rampant, pervasive, and Government-sponsored corruption, the fevered and clannish protection of narrow tribal interests by the political class and some of this nation’s citizens, and the looming spectre of ever-deepening poverty for far too many of our nation’s people. Today, Kenya staggers under the burden of the thousands of transgressions that have been visited upon her undeserving citizens by a remote and distant political class. What is worse, a distressingly large number of small-minded citizens are perpetuating this cycle, both wittingly and unwittingly.

Yes, we were deceived. And we are being deceived again.

What next

Before we vote again, next year, before we return unhelpful, harmful and downright dangerous politicians to positions of power, we must ask ourselves: WHAT HAPPENED? That in Kenyans’ souls that made them forcibly dispossess policemen of their bribes – where did it go? Where is that force that relegated tribe to the back of our thinking for at least half a year? That essence that made us proud and happy citizens of one nation for six short months, where did it go? Is it gone for good? Can we get it back?

Will we ever trust one another again? Will a belief in a common ideal of what Kenya should be, and not what she is, ever unite us again? Will we as a Kenyan people ever be energized, catalyzed, enervated – one – again? Or are we doomed to stagger through another decade led by distant, self-serving and self-seeking leadership, even as the Tana burns, the Coast erupts, and scandal after filthy scandal hits our headlines?

Will we trust any leader, ever again? If so, upon whom are we going to bestow the precious gift of that trust? Are we going make it expensive for leaders to win our trust, or will we sell it cheaply and repent at leisure even as that trust is cruelly betrayed? Will the cheap politics of costly handouts continue to appeal to us, or will the March 2013 election encounter an altogether more mature electorate? Will we think before we vote, or will we vote first and think later?

That Kenya we had – and lost. Can we get her back?

 

We Are All Kenyans

(or: What “Us” vs “Them” really means in Kenya)

And so today I finally post this article. I started to write it around the time the inflammatory Kikuyu songs were publicized in this excellent article. I commend the author for having the courage to write it. But perhaps it is Providence, after all, that I am posting this article on the day when we all unite around our celebrated and talented track athletes as they represent our nation at the 2012 London Olympics. On this day, it’s not “hao waKalenjin.” Today, you will not see #TeamMaasai or #TeamKaleoz or #TeamRift hashtags. No today, as it has been for the past one week, and as it will be for the next one week or so, it will be #TeamKenya.

Expect this unity to be short-lived.

For seven years now it has been a source of constant wonderment to me just how much success our politicians have enjoyed when it comes to putting us all in tribal pigeonholes and then making us all put one another in tribal pigeonholes as well. I wonder at it, honestly. I wonder at how tainted a word sisi has become in Kenya. I wonder at how much more tainted a word hao has become. I wonder how we are able to celebrate and befriend the Kalenjin when he is winning glamorous Grands Prix in ritzy European capitals, and then resent the same Kalenjin when he is our neighbour. I wonder at it.

Let me wax political. I wonder how two Hague suspects, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, can declare their respective interests in the Presidency, and receive the support of millions for their flawed bids. I wonder how it is that any of these candidatures can be robustly defended on middle class forums such as the The Daily Nation/East African Standard/Capital FM news sites and on Twitter and Facebook. Perhaps I will wonder even at the comments on this article, even though I promise here and now to answer each comment as patiently as I can. It appears to me that much of the middle class in Kenya has managed to attain a middle class economic status while remaining steadfastly “below the poverty line” intellectually speaking. How can anyone rule when defending themselves for months at a time at The Hague? Why should we expose ourselves to the peril, the embarrassment, and the stigma of having a President in international courts for months at a time? Or a President who is unable to make any foreign trips for the fear of being jailed? But I digress.

Anybody can stand on a podium and say anything, within limits. That’s called Freedom of Speech. For example, I can stand behind a pulpit and say if you touch my great-grandmother’s tombstone (may she rest in peace), within two hours from aforementioned contact you will receive news of great personal wealth. Now that is all kinds of un-Scriptural. Yet supposing there were queues of people waiting to touch said tombstone. Who should be blamed, myself (the liar) or the congregation (who believed it)? Yes, I’ve told them a lie. But they’ve believed it. Is the congregation entirely blameless?

Because in quite similar fashion our politicians have pulled the wool over our own eyes. “It’s them!” they say. “They are the ones stealing NHIF money!” Or: “It’s them, they stole the Anglo Leasing money!” As I’ve pointed out in a poem, things are now at the point where it is less about the stealing, and more about who did the stealing. The stealing no longer troubles people. We have sunk to such depths that we only really care to know who benefitted from it. The fact that it was stolen is neither here nor there. As soon as we can ascertain that “they” did it, however, we leap to our feet, with the decibels pouring out of our throats.

What has led to the success of this divisive kind of politics? It is the perception that when mtu wetu is in power watu wetu benefit. [Frankly part of the reason some of the Kikuyu feel so close to Uhuru Kenyatta is because (I hear them say) “At least Uhuru stood up for us when were being finished.”] This perception that watu wetu benefit when mtu wetu is in power is perhaps the biggest deception on the Kenyan political scene. When mtu wetu is in power, what he/she does is to busy himself or herself looking out for the interests of – wait for it - mtu wetu. “Not watu wetu?” I hear you ask. No. Mtu wetu. Best believe it is mtu wetu first, mtu wetu last, and mtu wetu always. Anything mtu wetu does for watu wetu is done either accidentally or solely as a way of keeping mtu wetu in power so that mtu wetu can then continue stealing from everybody up to and including watu wetu. Now that is the truth, and if you’re fidgeting, calm down while I try to give some examples. I will give two instances where Kenyans have had to live like animals because of their so-called leaders’ failings – and the culprits may surprise you.

I am reminded of the time when our current Mtu-Wetu-in-Chief, President Kibaki, had just come back into power after a flawed election. It is a documented fact that people in Nyeri were eating pig food at the height of the 2009 drought. I remind us that Nyeri happens to be President Kibaki’s home district. What good had it done watu wetu that mtu wetu had retained power? Had that sneaky swearing-in stopped those poor Kikuyus, our countrymen, from having to eat the food of swine? Were they benefitting in any way from all the scandals that have occurred during the reign of mundu witu the President? Or perhaps let us take the example of Mr Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, the current Vice-Mtu-Wetu-in-Chief, and a man who has done precious little for the people of Mwingi in over a quarter of a century as a Member of Parliament. It is yet another documented fact that his people were drinking water straight out of the ground like cattle as recently as 2010. What good has it done these poor Kambas, our countrymen, that the Vice President is a wa kwitu?? I use the phrase “his people” quite loosely here, for they are not his people. They are merely his intellectual slaves, and he uses them for his own ends. It ought to be a criminal offence to treat one’s constituents like that. You see, this is the end-result of the mtu wetu argument for the watu wetu: misery, dehumanisation and utter, abject lack. That is the mtu wetu argument distilled to its essence.

Who “they” really are

You know what? Despite all this, we actually believe the politicians!  After we have eaten pig food, washed it down with filthy groundwater, and endured all the myriad cruelties, large and small, that we suffer due to inept leadership, we then behave exactly like the dumb cattle they make us out to be. Because we still believe that “us” and “them” is about Kikuyu vs Luo and/or Kikuyu vs Kalenjin and/or Kamba vs Meru and/or Luhya vs Luo and/or Kisii vs Luo. They pit us against each other and make us even fight each other. They watch as we die. And while we are dying for them, they are busy escaping the local problems that they have themselves created. Seldom do you hear that a senior politician was injured in a demonstration. Their cancers are treated in foreign hospitals even as their local Health ministries are involved in scandal after scandal (I do not wish cancer on anybody at all). Their children study in foreign schools, or schools here that are so exclusive that it is like another Kenya altogether (I saw with my own eyes the airstrip at St. Andrew’s Turi during the Madaraka Day weekend, and I have seen an eye-watering fees invoice from the school). Then when their children marry each other – across the tribal divide, mind – they will invite one another to the ceremony. And all the while we argue for them, defend them and at times die for the so-called cause.

I will be frank. I must be frank. I cannot be otherwise but frank. A thief of public funds is a thief of public funds be he a Luo thief, a Maasai thief, a Meru thief, a Kalenjin thief, a Digo thief, a Kikuyu thief, a Dorobo thief, a Luhya thief, an Arab thief, a Somali thief, or a white thief. The long and short is this: he/she is stealing and we are suffering. That is the real “us” and “them”; that is the real “we” and “they”.

Who “we” really are

You know who we are? Well, we’re the fools who are supposed to gulp down swine-feed and feel privileged that our man is in power even as we chew the stuff. Yes; we’re the guys who’re supposed to smile for the cameras while we munch. We’re the ones who get to enjoy drinking dirty water out of the ground, like cows. We’re the dirt-poor, NGO-fuelling, indigent wananchi who can’t afford a KES 125 packet of unga but who will believe the politician who gives us 500 shillings after doing nothing for 2 decades of both his and our lives. We’re so destitute that when the price of the matatu goes up by 10 bob in the morning, we have to cut back on lunch. We get to “feel it” every time fuel goes past KES 100 a litre. That’s our role in the grand scheme of things. And let’s not be naïve either; that’s the way the politicians look at us, too. They know us to be this. Let me ask this: when the price of fuel rises, does it remember who voted for President Kibaki or who voted for Prime Minister Raila? When the shilling plummets to KES 107 to the US dollar, does it remember who voted for Kibaki or who voted for Raila? No, it doesn’t. The shilling hits 107 for everyone. Fuel prices rise for everyone. Yet it is true that fuel could hit KES 200 to the litre, and these guys would never know. Why? Because our taxes give them cars, pay for their fuel, pay them a mileage allowance and add a driver on top for good measure. We pay for their opulence, as we suffer through our indigence. Right now, our taxes are even paying their taxes (one of the most ridiculously absurd ideas ever to emanate from a system of Government). Why? Because that’s who we are, that’s what we do. And then after all that, we line up at 5:00 in the morning and vote them all back in.

What can we do?

In case it isn’t clear by now (and it ought to be) this is isn’t really about Kikuyus vs Luos. It is not about Kalenjins vs. Kikuyus. It is not about Luhyas vs. Kambas. No, my friends. We suffer from a failure to discern the real enemy here. This thing is about the dizzy, staggering gazelle vs the patient, circling vulture. It is about the wounded impala, with torn flank, that is valiantly trying to fend off that dogged hyena that believes that it is now just a matter of time. It is about impunity vs justice. It is about the lives of 1,032 Kenyans vs. justice for 4. It is about the IDP vs. the politician. It is about transparency vs corruption. It is about right vs. wrong. It is about “us” the wananchi, and the citizens of this nation vs “them” the tribal leaders who want nothing to change except how much access they have to power and wealth.

I strongly urge us to start thinking for ourselves, because while our leaders do our thinking for us, we cannot, we will not, and we shall never benefit. In fact we will end up going to war against fellow Kenyans like we did last time for no tangible/valid reason. Then, after the hue and cry has died down and the politicians have paid themselves for their sins with a 40-minister cabinet, we all suffer together while the economy “recovers from post election violence.” It is urgent, it is imperative, and, as we look ahead to yet another election, it is critical that we remember that we have passed this way before. That we remember that we have paid dearly for our past indiscretions, and that perhaps we are still paying. That we remember that our so-called leaders will not be there to suffer with us when things go wrong (have you ever heard of clashes in Lavington/Runda/Muthaiga?). It is critical that we bestir ourselves out of our sleep and remember that:

we are all Kenyans.

And not just for the next one-and-a-half weeks, either.

To those sons and daughters of our nation who will be representing Kenya in the Olympic track and field events starting today I would like to say: All the very, very best. Some of our best talent left these shores because this nation didn’t do enough for them. I can’t blame them. But we all recognize that you decided to stay. Godspeed, ladies and gentlemen. And may God bless the nation of Kenya for she certainly needs it.

 

Evening, then Morning

And God said, Let there be Light: and there was Light. And God saw the Light, that it was good: and God divided the Light from the darkness. And God called the Light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Gen 1:3-5 (KJV)

Introduction

The first 3 verses of Scripture, as compared to II Corinthians 4:6, are themselves the subject of an entirely separate study, for in the first Acts of Creation Jehovah establishes His template for His work of redemption in the human heart. However, that particular parallel is not the subject of this study. In this analysis, we concern ourselves with the concept of “Evening, then morning.”

A counter-intuitive reversal

The 5^th verse of Genesis contains the first mention of the word “morning” in the Holy Scriptures. However, as early as this word appears, its particular mention is preceded by mention of “evening.” I never realized it until I saw it in a video sent me by a friend, but in Creation, and indeed throughout the first chapter of the Scriptures, God chronicled the days as starting from evening and then proceeding to morning. Now, we should pay attention to that. From the beginning of Time on earth, the human experience has been, is, and forever will be about a journey, not from Light to darkness, but from darkness to Light, from death to Resurrection, from sickness to Healing, and ultimately from sin to everlasting Redemption. This journey is what Jehovah primarily concerns Himself with in His dealings with us, His creatures. He alludes to it, as we have seen, in the first three verses of Scripture. If it is possible to think of God as being passionate, then He is passionate about this. Frankly, by the Third Chapter of Genesis, the entire Plan of Redemption has been set out on God’s great canvas.

Likewise, in our primitive dealings with Jehovah as His frail creatures, we must remember this to be the case: that He is primarily concerned about our transition from the evenings of our lives, to our mornings. I do not mean this in a shallow, financial, materialistic way. I mean this primarily as it concerns our souls, and secondarily our health: we come to Him in our nights, and He makes them our mornings; we come to Him in our darknesses, and He floods them with His Light; we come to Him in our moral and our physical sicknesses, and He inundates us with His Healing.

The order of our approach to God

As human beings, who are deeply conscious of our sin, there is a natural desire to want to get clean, and then face God. This is futile. It is futile because it is a morning-then-evening approach. The darkness in our lives necessary precedes the Light, for we are all “shapen in iniquity” (Psalms 51:5). We are personally, intrinsically incapable of the cleansing needed to stand before God. A short while spent merely observing God in His temple in Heaven caused Isaiah, a God-called Prophet, to cry out “Woe is me!” (The exclamation mark is Scriptural, by the way.) What we are forever trying to do in attempting a morning-then-evening approach is impossible, for it is part of our very constitution as humans, part of the very fabric of our nature and makeup, that we are sinful. We are as dirty as mud. And we are as able to free ourselves of our sinful nature by our own agency as we are able to wash the dirt out of a pile of mud. Where you have the mud, there you have the dirt. You throw the dirt away, the mud goes with it. You say: “I’ll let the dirt settle at the bottom.” You walk away, and come back, and somehow the mud has settled with it. You could wait on that mud 50 years and nothing would change. Why? The mud, you see, is dirty. The dirt is in the mud. If you could get the dirt out, it wouldn’t be mud any more. But it is mud, so it is dirty! It can’t be anything else but dirty, because it’s mud. And so it is with us and sin. We are human, and so we are sinful.

Now, the desire to be right and pure and holy is not wrong. It is God-given, and it is what drives us to seek. It is in our methods that we often falter. The first steps in coming to God cannot be puny, frantic attempts at self-cleansing; no. It was God Who spoke the first Light into the pre-existing darkness, and it is God Who must speak the Light into the darknesses of our own lives.

It was while yet in the pig-pen that the prodigal said: “I will arise, and go to my Father.” Darkness. He arrived at his Father’s house with the stench of the swine upon him, and still clad in his filthy, pigherder’s clothes. Darkness. Finally he stood in the august Presence of his Father, with all the tell-tale signs and smells of what he had been doing and the life that he had been living glaringly apparent. Darkness. For “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” But it was his confession of his sins – an agreement with his Father’s assessment of him – that caused his Father to say: “Bring the best robe.” Light. Evening, thus, preceded morning in this instance as well. We need to realize that we are as incapable of clothing ourselves with holiness as that penniless pigherd was of buying a new robe. We are about as worthy of a clean new robe as he was, too. As long as we think this robe is something we have to get before even starting the journey towards our Father, or even standing in His Presence, so long shall we discover by frustrated experience that “…all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6)

In like fashion, the publican in the Temple (as contrasted with the Pharisee) shows us that we need not be afraid that our current state is unpalatable to God. In the first, God knows it already (I feel the need to stress again the pressing, present need for present agreement with God about present status). And in the second, to pretend our state is different from what both He and we really know it to be is to be dishonest. Both men went to church. Both men prayed in the same Temple. Both men prayed to the same God. Both men’s prayers were heard. But one was in darkness, and knew himself to be so, whilst the other stood in pretended light:

And He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.”

And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto Heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified [with God's approval / absolved from guilt / declared righteous] rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Luke 18:9-14 (KJV)

Righteousness and cleansing is something freely given by God when we come to Him, shorn of pretence, insensate of any pretensions to righteousness, and with a certain effective helplessness (not equal with a lack of faith) about our ability to cleanse ourselves. We must agree with His assessment of our lives as shown in His Word. We must make an end of struggling to appear presentable before Him.  We must lastly submit to His own intervention. The rest – speaking Light into darkness – is God’s business. After which we shall stand where Paul stood, when he said:

For God, Who commanded the Light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Cor 4:6 (KJV)

God’s attitude about all this

We have seen, above, that Jehovah has concerned Himself with the translation of mere, mortal, ordinary men and women from darkness to Light as per Colossians 1:13 & I Peter 2:9 (to the consternation of men of God in times past per Job 7:17 & Psalms 8:4). You ask: “Is this really for me? How can God want This for me, after all I’ve been to Him and all I’ve done…? I have been too bad and too wicked and too insensate to His call for far too long for me to matter to God.”

Or maybe mentally, you’re looking around and saying: “Surely this was meant for folks like Paul, or Peter and them. But This kind of Thing just doesn’t happen any more.”

Or perhaps you have a bit more faith and can say: “This is meant for Pastor so-and-so in church, Pastors need This kind of Thing. Or so-and-so in that other church, they’re far more deserving than I am. How can I really be the one that all This was meant for?”

Or maybe you’re saying: “Is it God’s will? How can I know God wants it for me? Does God want me to have that that kind of access to His glorious salvation? Is God still interested? “

The Scripture below describes what God’s attitude is to us, and He has never changed it from the day He spoke it to this minute when you are reading it. It is as He Himself stated in His commission to Paul. When God sent Paul to preach the Gospel, these were His aims:

But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to Light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.

Acts 26:16-18 (KJV)

There are no exceptions in that Commission. He wants it for you. Do you want it, for Him?

 

Corruption in Kenya: A Lament

For a long time I laboured under the delusion that most Kenyans want to eradicate corruption. It was only recently that I came to see that people actually long for corruption’s illicit fruits – if they or someone near them can benefit.

There’s a new normal in town.

This realization has finally led me to write a poem. I am not often moved to write poetry, and I am sure I am not as good at it as I used to be. But here goes:

For a long time I thought
That no one had bought
The lies and untruths of corruption
But now I can see
That the lure of things free
Has led to a widespread deception:

That it’s wrong when it’s he
But right when it’s me
Or someone of kindred extraction;
“My people and I”
May now justify
All manner of cruel exploitation.

Wrong is now right!
Black’s the new white!
(So long as my tribesmate has done it)
Darkness is light!
The unrighteous upright -
An appointment? My clansman can run it!

But – some feeling stirs
When it’s not one of ours
And with a colossal log in each eye
We point the long finger
Let our mutterings linger
Then we open our mouths and let fly:

“Politicians!” we shout
“The larcenous louts -
They’re the cause of our nation’s downfall!”
I bring us a mirror
Let’s see ourselves clearer:
There’s politician inside of us all.

The truth should be plain:
That nobody gains!
When our nation is chock full of theft
Tis but a matter of time
‘Til fraud, vice and crime
Cause collapse, and there’s nothing left

It’s time someone said
Enough blood’s been bled
Enough of this cannibalization!
Let a nation stillborn
Become a people reborn
It’s time: for revitalization.

The day after I posted this poem I read this quote (edited slightly) which I thought explains how it all works quite succinctly:

“Corruption rarely begins with grandly named schemes. Rather, it starts with a series of minor compromises, small bows to the exigencies of reality. These capitulations add up, as do the number of other people with whom they are made. Favors are owed; logs are kept. This is the kind of corruption to watch out for.”

 

On the Passing of Professor George Saitoti

(Most of this was originally written as a lengthy status update on 19^th June 2012. It is not a light read; I can feel its weight. It’s made me think, too. Let’s be sober, let’s be honest, and most of all, let’s be READY.)

If one was paying a visit to Kenya between 10^th June 2012 and 17^th June 2012, one could be forgiven for thinking that Professor George Saitoti singlehandedly fought for, and obtained, Kenya’s independence. I feel genuinely sorry for his grieving widow (a lady about whom I have heard only good things), and for his now fatherless son. Nobody would like to lose a husband/father.

On the other hand, if the late Professor is to be judged on the basis of what he did for (to!) his country, as a national leader, then let us talk plainly. The way in which politicians and the media whitewashed his reputation was disappointing, it was weak, it showed a lack of principle and it was a colossal, monumental lie of omission. It would appear that there are no depths to which one can sink, from which one cannot be magically raised and eulogized as a hero. As Kenyans, let us make a habit of calling a spade a spade. Even aside from Goldenberg, have we already forgotten that the late Professor did not even make it to Parliament in a credible manner this time? He had to flee for his life when irate voters stoned him after it was alleged that mysterious ballot boxes (some even with personal effects like lesos inside them) were appearing during vote-tallying. Before the chaos erupted, his main opponent, the Reverend Moses ole Sakuda, was leading with 9,412 votes. The late minister was “trailing by 4,127 votes from about 40 stations tallied“. The rest is now history. In short, this man in all likelihood cheated his way into Parliament and a ministerial post. In fact, he might not even have died, if he’d been more honest. Yet we bow obsequiously to his memory. We are serfs in our minds, a nation of intellectual slaves.

I also think we are very superstitious; we fear condemning the wrong actions of those who are dead. Why? Shouldn’t we be learning from that, and taking lessons as to how we can better live our own lives? Do we fear being haunted at night? If so, why then do we call ourselves a nation with an 80% Christian population? If it’s the truth, and if it is said with the aim of bringing light and clarity to the matter (not just out of malice/bitterness), there will no harm come to us. Let us be clear, let us be frank, let us be honest, and let us be fearless about the truth.

How did we, as the church, manage to bury the late Professor and not say anything about how he lived his life? Wasn’t this a golden opportunity to remind both ourselves and our fellow citizens that “every one of us shall give account of himself to God?” Where is the truth to be found, any more, if not in the church? Is there no-one left for whom black is black and white is white? No matter how large or how thick the clouds of incense we may have wafted over the late Professor’s coffin, the mists of untruth and falsehood shall never becloud the facts of his public life before a holy God. They shall not becloud the facts of our lives either – whether public or private. May God give us men who can draw that line in the sand between good and bad with neither fear nor favour.

Perhaps we make excuses for others in the hope that excuses will be made for us, when we die. Let me say it again: excepting that Professor George Saitoti repented and sought God before he died, his case is not unique; he is in hell right now for what he did to the people of this nation, among his other sins. And, folks, except we ourselves repent, we “shall all likewise perish.” There is one place where the rules cannot be bent Kenyan-style folks, and that is before the Almighty. Let the late Professor’s passing have two effects upon us:

1. Let it make us think deeply about whether it is really worthwhile to live as he lived, amassing wealth (especially at poor people’s expense). All his wealth counts for nothing before God, and anyway, he left it all behind.
2. Let it make us reflect on whether we are ready to die as suddenly as he died, and face God ourselves.

Oh God, have mercy upon us. Like Elijah, we say that we are not better than our fathers. Have mercy upon us all! Help us to live lives that can stand up before the scrutiny not only of our fellow man, but also before Your all-seeing scrutiny. The Scripture says that “there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.” That hour must come for us all, and we know not when it shall come. May the fear of God return to this nation before all is lost. May we learn from Professor Saitoti’s untimely passing that we ought always to be ready. We ask You to help us be ready, always. In Jesus Christ’s Name, Amen.

 

Why I will vote for Peter Kenneth

Before I start

This is an intensely personal article.

For some time I have wrestled with whether to post such a patently political post on this blog. I have done so before, in August 2006 and December 2008, writing on tribalism and on what Obama’s chances would have been in Kenya.  I am first a Christian and only later a Kenyan. There are those who would say that a Christian should sit down and keep quiet about the evils going on in his/her country. Secondly, from what I have read about the Welsh Revival of 1904-5, from my study of church history and from personal conviction, I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be the greatest force for social change in any community. For this reason it is highly unlikely that I will ever seek political office. It is not my place.

On the other hand, it is also hypocritical of me to pretend to be apolitical for the sake of appearances when in fact this is not the case. Further, some of the greatest crusaders for social justice that this world has ever known have been Christians. I am reminded of William Wilberforce, a man whose conversion led to a lifelong crusade against slavery. I am reminded of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., who used his gifts for rhetoric to further the cause for racial equity in a racially-divided nation. It begins to seem to me that my silence would be an exacerbation of the problem. Our gifts are not given to us for nothing. If something I say, or something I write, can lead to the alleviation of a few of the many, many evils facing the nation of Kenya, then I ought to do it.

Along the way it is possible that I may make enemies. But I am determined that if somebody decides to be my enemy he/she will have to be very determined to remain so. On the other hand I must do my best to remain intractable as far as right, justice and progress for all the people of this nation are concerned. If this causes enmity, it is an enmity I must endure.

For these reasons I am now going on public record to back a Presidential candidate.

Achievements/Action

In enumerating the candidate’s actions, I am not going to go by anything he has told me, or by anything I have read. I would like to use the personal experiences of myself and others who have talked to me about him, as I feel this is more authentic.

The name Peter Kenneth began to mean more to me at a personal level in late 2009, when through sheer happenstance I had lunch with a colleague who happened to be a member of his CDF committee. This gentleman displayed such a depth of knowledge about the problems facing his constituency that I was astounded. We were specifically discussing how they were using CDF funds to improve education in Gatanga Constituency. The gentleman pointed out that Standard 7 boys were being hired to harvest fruit on farms at KES 100 or 200 (USD 1.20/2.40) per day. As a result these boys were skipping school – KES 100 is a small fortune for a child that age, living in Gatanga. That’s chips and a sausage every day, with some left over! So this gentleman was pointing out that it would be pointless to build classrooms at that stage, only for them to be empty. He said the first thing that needed to be sorted out was awareness as to why school was important, and making children aware that they were sacrificing long-term benefits for extremely short-term gains. This in-depth knowledge of the problems facing the constituents of Gatanga impressed me.

Some time later I spoke to a taxi driver who had worked on a USAID-funded program to assess the utilization of funds that had been spent by the Agency on education in several constituencies. He let me know that it took him and the person he was with around 1 week to cover 96 schools in Gatanga constituency. Skeptical, I have called him to confirm this (that is an astonishing rate of 19 schools per day) and he is adamant that they visited at least 16 schools per day. It took the same driver 3 weeks to cover the same number of schools in neighbouring Gatundu South, although it is a smaller constituency. Folks, I implore you not to take this as a mudslinging affair, but rather as an attempt to convey the honest opinion of a taxi driver. The fact is, this is not about the demigods and demagogues that have so far run this country. Rather, it’s about the taxi drivers, the vegetable stall owners and the shoe-polishers that make this country run. Their health, their wives’ health, and the education of and opportunities for their children matter above all else.

Lastly, I also spoke to yet another colleague who had worked in the Bermuda/Cayman Islands and had come home to settle down. He comes from the neighbouring Kandara constituency (again no mudslinging is intended here, friends). He informed me that at night he can tell where his constituency ends and where Peter Kenneth’s Gatanga constituency starts, because electricity (and therefore lighting) only goes up to the border of Gatanga and no further.

Accessibility

When you join Peter Kenneth’s Facebook page (if you join the right one!), you get weekly articles from him. I used that email address to repeatedly urge him to unite with (what I believed to be) other progressives like Professor James ole Kiyiapi and perhaps Mutava Musyimi and form one progressive ticket. I told him in no uncertain terms that politics in Kenya is tribal and to think he would make it on his own is to guarantee failure. I wrote to him several times without a response but one day he actually responded.

I wrote back:

He wrote back:

I was amazed that he could be so free with his phone number, and I wrote back telling him it was an honour to get it and that I appreciated the gesture. I was on assignment in Malawi at the time; so I told him that I’d call him when I got back. One day amidst my errands I tried to call the number (not very hopefully). His phone was off so I purposed to call later.

Wonder of wonders, I was sitting in a noisy Citi Hoppa coming from Eastlands, when a Presidential candidate dialled my number! This was epochal for me. He apologized for not being able to take my call, explaining that he’d been participating in a marathon and that as a result his phone had been switched off. We had a good long chat. He told me that he is not going to form any coalitions with anybody as this will (1) dilute his message and (2) compromise his ability to effect change due to the vested interests of those he would form coalitions with. He said he has a committee that is doing a (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats) SWOT analysis on him and finding out his weaknesses in order to identify a complimentary running mate. I began to think that if this man could run a CDF Committee as well as I have just explained, and if he could have another committee actually working on identifying his weaknesses in order to identify a running mate, then it was possible that this nation could benefit from seeing him in charge of a Cabinet.

Accountability

One thing that is a big pointer to the kind of man Peter Kenneth is, is that he has always paid his taxes. This criterion alone would eliminate most candidates at a stroke. Even those who have now paid taxes since this became an issue only did so as a PR exercise. It was not something they have consistently been doing, and in fact since that time a law has been passed for MPs’ taxes to be paid by the taxpayer (these kinds of absurdities we can do without!). As someone who has also had to make the same (extremely difficult) decision about whether to declare income (fully, correctly) and whether to pay my taxes (to a particularly corrupt, inept and inefficient Government), I salute Peter Kenneth for this, if nothing else. For me this decision was painful enough that I can remember exactly where I was when I made it. I was on or approaching that walkway outside Posta Sacco towers on University Way in Nairobi when I said in my heart, “Ok, God, because You said ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s’ I will pay my taxes, in obedience to You.” Speaking personally I only did it because of my faith; I cannot for the life of me tell how Mr Kenneth arrived at this same conclusion and level of integrity.

Among the things I asked Peter Kenneth was a rather difficult, touchy question about his links with Dr. Sally Kosgei, the current Minister for Agriculture. I believe that if someone puts himself forward to be a leader, he should be willing both to be asked and to answer these types of questions. So I asked him point-blank about allegations I had heard that he was at one time Sally Kosgei’s boy toy, and that this is how he obtained the Managing Director job at Kenya ReInsurance.

Peter Kenneth did not insult me. He did not call me names. He did not say I lacked respect for my elders, or dodge the matter by stating that my question was “not pertinent in the larger context”, even though to some extent this is true. He (1) actually replied to me and (2) told me that “even if I was (and I am not saying I was) if after 16 years people are talking about one woman, that is a very good record”. Frankly that he replied my question at all shows what the man is made of. We have tried asking other candidates rather more germane questions regarding their candidatures and/or past conduct and mostly what we get is a stony silence or a tongue-lashing from either them and/or their followers that does not answer the question. That to me does not represent being accountable to the public.

Conclusion

Because of his achievements (which I did not hear from him, but from people on the ground), because of his accessibility to me, a common citizen, and because of his honest accountability, I consider Peter Kenneth to be the most viable candidate for President in the next general election. It is foolhardy to support most politicians, and perhaps some scepticism still persists among the people. But assuming he remains consistent in his message, continues to prove that he is untainted (I am more than willing to ask him any question on this matter and I can relay his response), and maintains a forward-thinking outlook, I intend to vote for him.

I wish every citizen of this nation was able to write 1,400 honest, heartfelt words about their preferred Presidential candidate. Or even 200 words. But honest words. Heartfelt words. Objective words. Un-tribal words.

This nation would be a better place, if we could.

And we can.

All comments – including dissenting views! – are welcome.

 

That First Good Friday (An Easter Message)

Although Christmas is the more heavily celebrated holiday, probably by virtue of its position in the human calendar, Easter is the weightier holiday in meaning, for without Easter, Christmas has less or no meaning; some will say there could have been no Easter without Christmas, surely the more accurate statement is that there could be no real Christmas had Easter not occurred; for the birth would have had far less meaning, except the sacrificial death had occurred.

Now therefore on this day around 2,000 years ago, the Christ yielded up His Life, exchanging it for death, that we who deserved death may have instead of deserved death, His Life, an exchange at once made the more beautiful (and un-understandable to the devil our accuser) for its seeming inequity. So we see that the Creator forfeited His Life for His creation, and the King became a subject to His own subjects, for their sakes; the Master became a servant for His Own servants, the Worthy One made Himself unworthy for we unworthy ones’ sakes; and “that Just One” was made unjust that we unjust might be counted just.

On that day when a sinless Christ was nailed to the Cross, paradox after paradox was thereby displayed, for He Himself created the tree of whose wood that Cross was made; He had nourished it from a seed, and had preserved it. In times of heat He had caressed the sapling’s boughs with gentle breezes, in times of cold He had smiled upon it with His own free sunshine. He had known of its primitive thirsts, and slaked them with the rain of His Heaven (for a tree’s thirst, primitive though it may be, still moves the heart of He Who clothes the grass of the field). Having taken such care over it, He was aware when they hewed it down, and foreknew its crude use; yea He was aware when one limb was shaped into crossbeam and another was shaped into stake.

The iron of the Romish hammer, and of those gruesome spikes, the Saviour Himself had forged; tens, maybe hundreds of millennia antecedent. Infernos of a nameless heat had melted stone and rock and crust into fiery magma, and by a great and violent belching the earth had spewed out of its belly the very rock from whence the iron for His nails was taken.

The Romish soldiers themselves He had fashioned in their mother’s wombs, perhaps not 60 years before. He knew their every sinew, He knew the manner of the beating of their heart. He knew their loves, their desires, their circumstance, their ancestry and their eventual end. Even as He hung on the Cross whose wood He had made, fastened thereon by nails that He had made, nailed thereupon by men that He had made, it was for the hearts of these men that a great compassion came over His own heart, and it was for their forgiveness that He cried out, beseeching His Father this grace on account of their ignorance.

That stygian afternoon as He hung between earth and sky, a black and awful silence came over natural creation. It was not the silence of peace, for peace had yet to be made. Nor was it the silence of awe. Nay, what stole over creation was the silence of utter, abject horror. Sun and Moon fled, un-chased, from the scene. Dovesong, breeze, and windsbreath, all ceased. Creation lay inert as its Creator hung dying, perhaps insensate that only by the death of that Wonderful One could its redemption be complete.

And so it was that when at last an end had been made of His great sacrifice, this Sinless One, this Just One cried out, “It is finished.” He of Whom all the Prophets had prophesied, and to Whom all true Prophets now point, He Whose coming the law made necessary, and Whose life – and death – the Law fulfilled (fulfills); at last He had finished His task. Listed below are a few of the things that came to an end at 3:00pm that afternoon so many years ago:

1. The enmity between God and man – finished (Matthew 27:51a, Romans 5:10, Colossians 1:21-22).
2. The distance between God and man – finished (Ephesians 2:12-13).
3. The price that needed to be paid to pay for sin – finished (I John 2:2).
4. The sin of the world – finished (John 1:29, I John 2:2).
5. Our own sins – finished (I Corinthians 15:3).
6. The sin in the heart of man – finished (I John 1:7).
7. The difference in God’s eyes between Jew and Gentile – finished (Ephesians 2:14-19).
8. The devil – finished (Hebrews 2:14).
9. The dispensation of the law – finished (John 1:17).
10. The power of death over just men who had died before Christ’s death – finished (Matthew 27:52-53).
11. The power of death over just men who died after Christ’s death – finished (I Corinthians 15:21-22).

Such that this morning, it is indeed finished, and an end has been made of all these things; it only remains, therefore, for an end to be made of all these things for us, at a personal level.

Jesus paid it all
All to Him we owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow