Questions:
How much do Kibaki know of the ‘collapsed’ Kenya Meat commission?
What role did he play in aiding its collapse?
Why didn’t he unearth/exposed (as VP and Finance Minister to boot), the ‘beneficiaries’ of Ksh.13
million (equivalent of Ksh.250 million today) acrued from the sale of KR land which disinherited the
workers of Kenya railway in 1980?
What relationship is there between the ‘past event’ and the sale of ‘the two’ parastatals during his
reign?
The following is an excerpt of an investigative article”Mr. Moneybags” a headline story appearing in ‘The
Standard’ newspaper Saturday January 8th 2005.
….Kibaki has been ‘faulted’ for turning a blind eye when ‘his friends’ are caught with their
‘little hands’ in the ‘cookie jar’ (read state coffers)’.
A case in point was in 1980 when he was the Vice President and Minister of Finance. At that
time, his friend of many years, Mr. F.T.J. Nyamu was Managing Director, Kenya Reinsurance
Company+, a parastatal under the Ministry of Finance.
In April that year, the government directed the Kenya Railways++ to put up decent houses
for its workers living in the shanties of Muthurwa and Landi-Mawe railway quarters.
Subseqently, the Kenya railway set aside the land next to the Railway Training School, RTS
(Railway Training Institute, RTI, as is known today ) in Nairobi South-B for the project. But
hardly before the housing project could take off, a dummy company, Tass properties, was
hurriedly formed.
The Kenya railways, then under another of Kibaki’s buddies, Mr. Davidson Ngini, sold the
land set aside for the railway estate to a dummy company (Tass properties) at only Ksh.690,
000. Two weeks later, the dummy company sold the same land to Nyamu’s Kenya Reinsurance
at Ksh. 14 million.
Instead of the Kenya railways building low-cost houses for its workers as the government
had directed, the Kenya Re-insurance company constructed what is today Plainview and
Golden-gate estates and purported to sell houses to railway workers living in Muthurwa and
Landi-Mawe. Of course it was a crazy joke as none of them could afford to buy the newly
built houses. They ended up in the hands of anybody who could afford to pay.
The Ministry of Finance never bothered to find out who made a cool Ksh. 13 million
(equivalent of Ksh.250 million today) - buying railway land for Ksh. 690,000 and selling it to
another parastatal for Ksh. 14 million in just a fortnight. Mr. F.T.J.Nyamu and Kibaki own
Finance House, a prestigous addresss in the central business district. The family company
that manages Kibaki’s businesses, Lucia limited, is housed at finance house.
Another of Kibaki’s friends, businessman, Nat Kangethe of Saatchi & Saaatchi associates
was the Finance Director at the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) when it collapsed. During
that time, KMC entered into a queer contract with a dummy company called Halal Ltd to
construct an abbatoir for the company at Ngong. According to the 1978 Auditor-General’s
report, no abbatoir was constructed even after the government poured Ksh.50 million
(equivalent of Ksh.1 billion today) into the project. The dummy company and its ‘sole director’,
one ‘Mohamed Yusuf’ have never been heard of ever since.
Though Kibaki is not in the same wealth league as his two predecessors (Jomo Kenyatta and
Daniel Moi), he too has had interesting motley of businesses associates: He is with Mr.
Nicholas Biwott in the Deacons chain of clothes shops now re-named Woolsworth. He is
with Mr. Charles Njonjo in Heri Ltd* and with Dr. Njoroge Mungai in a real estate firm that
owns, among others, Union Towers building on Moi avenue, Paramount Plaza and Marple
Courts in Milimani. Kibaki is also with Mr. Chris Kirubi in the International Life
house.**[Prime buildings in Nairobi belongs to a few-Little wonder a unitary system of government
serves them well].
*Heri limited was formed in the 70’s with sole aim of getting a ‘piece’ of lucrative goverment contracts but
who’s shareholding read like a roll of who was who in Kenya at that time. Heri’s breakthrough came when it
was awarded a contract to supply the Kenya Armed Forces with mercedes Lorries in 1973.
+ Kenya Re-insurance Company has since been sold to the ‘public’-2007. ++ Kenya Railways has been takenover
by ‘RVR’
** Comment.
(The full article covers 4 pages of the Saturday newspaper_The Standard, authored by leading investigative journalist Kamau
Ngotho).
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Kumekucha Latest Polls
Kumekucha Latest Polls
Compare these estimates to the actual election resultsRaila - 67%Kalonzo Musyoka - 17%Mwai Kibaki - 15%These are my findings and a reflection of exactly what the situation is like on the ground. Kindly restrain yourself for a few days and then make your comments after the 27th as the results are trickling in.The big surprise is the big margin Raila is expected to win with and the other is Kalonzo Musyoka defeating Kibaki.Interestingly if you check the so-called NSIS figures tied to voter turn out they are some similarities assuming high voter turn out.What the opposition need to be very careful about is the fact that PNU and the Kibaki think tank are now playing a game of pure mathematics in a last gasp attempt to win the elections. Meaning that the higher the voter turn out in President Kibaki’s strongholds, the bigger a chance he has of somehow stealing these elections from Raila.Naturally the lower a turn out in Raila's strongholds the better for PNU.Internal Security minister John Michuki has directed chiefs to identify sickly, elderly and disabled voters with a view of providing transport for them to go and vote. Michuki even suggested that whistles be used to wake up people on the 27th so that they go out and vote.Naturally certain tactics will be used in ODM strongholds to limit the number of people who will vote. The whole process can be deliberately slowed down with voting starting late. There can be deliberate shortages of ballot papers etc.If the NSIS figures are to be believed then this is very serious business and the election can be won or lost by PNU totally based on voter turn out. And if you were PNU you would use every trick in the book would you not?
"The only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history." Churchil
Compare these estimates to the actual election resultsRaila - 67%Kalonzo Musyoka - 17%Mwai Kibaki - 15%These are my findings and a reflection of exactly what the situation is like on the ground. Kindly restrain yourself for a few days and then make your comments after the 27th as the results are trickling in.The big surprise is the big margin Raila is expected to win with and the other is Kalonzo Musyoka defeating Kibaki.Interestingly if you check the so-called NSIS figures tied to voter turn out they are some similarities assuming high voter turn out.What the opposition need to be very careful about is the fact that PNU and the Kibaki think tank are now playing a game of pure mathematics in a last gasp attempt to win the elections. Meaning that the higher the voter turn out in President Kibaki’s strongholds, the bigger a chance he has of somehow stealing these elections from Raila.Naturally the lower a turn out in Raila's strongholds the better for PNU.Internal Security minister John Michuki has directed chiefs to identify sickly, elderly and disabled voters with a view of providing transport for them to go and vote. Michuki even suggested that whistles be used to wake up people on the 27th so that they go out and vote.Naturally certain tactics will be used in ODM strongholds to limit the number of people who will vote. The whole process can be deliberately slowed down with voting starting late. There can be deliberate shortages of ballot papers etc.If the NSIS figures are to be believed then this is very serious business and the election can be won or lost by PNU totally based on voter turn out. And if you were PNU you would use every trick in the book would you not?
"The only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history." Churchil
OUR CASE FOR RAILA ODINGA FOR PRESIDENT 2007
OUR CASE FOR RAILA ODINGA FOR PRESIDENT 2007
It’s been more than forty seven years since our freedom fighters died for our country. But since then our freedom fighters dreams have been turned into nightmares by the last corrupt regimes. The experience of Kenya since it gained independence can objectively be called a failure. Kenyans have gotten poorer year after year since independence and the human rights crises that have been occurring are almost unspeakable. Events in post-colonial Kenya have followed a disturbingly predictable path. After independence, which was achieved with blood and sweat by our grandparents and eviction of white settlers who lived privileged lives, our former leaders assumed power and they turned into despots. They imposed draconian rules, ruthlessly silencing dissent and using the national treasury as their own personal bank account, paying off the tribal chieftains for protection and building worthless monuments to ego. Meanwhile the people starve, taxes are obscenely high. At this point our fellow countrymen, two routes can be taken. We can choose the easy wrong, just keep quiet burry our heads like ostriches and hope that fate will take care or we can choose the harder right, take the law into our own hands during general elections vote our conscience and elect a revolutionary, Raila Odinga.It is with profound sadness that our fellow Wananchi have been conditioned to believe that the only trust that can be relied on in Kenya is to trust in one’s own tribal region or ethnic group. People are extremely reticent to believe that anyone from outside their ethic, tribal, religious, etc. group can be trusted. Unfortunately people feel this way because it has been cultivated by former leaders and perfected by Kibaki regime. If you are not a member of the ruling tribe you will not be showered with the ill-gotten perks of the state. Your region will not receive massive building projects, the leaders in your area will not be given blank checks to spend as they please, and you will stand a much lower chance of receiving some sham state job that sustains you and your family. Corruption runs rampant partly because it has to. There is no way you can trust the state so people start looking out for themselves at all costs. It is time to break this axis of evil my fellow Kenyans.This election year is another window of opportunity for all Kenyans who seek liberalization, security, respect and prosperity. We call upon you to join us on this course to steer our country towards that dream. It is the calling for our generation to change Kenya into a country of all Kenyans but not for those who were born to privilege only. It is for this reason that our organization, Kenyans Abroad For Raila was born. Dr Martin Luther King JR once said, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." This is our time to demand that freedom.There are questions that we as like minded Kenyans here in KAFR have been pondering. These questions are: Did Koitalel Arap Samoei die so that President Kibaki's wife gets the freedom to slap journalists with impunity? Did Kapenguria six languish in jail so that some few people get the freedom to rape the Kenya treasury and siphon off money abroad while average Kenyan live in abject poverty? Was the second liberation of Kenya nothing but a mirage? Did Mzee Mekatili wa Menza take the mantle and fight against the colonialists so that Mungiki can roam free mutilating our women and children? If your answer is yes, vote for Kibaki and MoiMy answer to these questions was categorically NO. And thus we came up as Kenyans of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities and resolved to volunteer to be part of change for Kenya . We believe that if you don’t like the way things are done change it. We also believe that the only person who is able to bring positive change for Kenya is Hon. Raila Odinga. He has talked the talk and walked the walk about this change for the last twenty five years. He has spent more than seven years of his life in jail so that you and I can exercise our God given human rights. Raila is both Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King JR for Kenya. Honorable Odinga has a dream for all Kenyans irrespective of age, tribe, race and culture. He is a leader who has transcended bitterness and crossed monumental bridges in his fights for democracy and progressive politics in Kenya.He has worked with those who detained him and political opponents without malice. He is the only Kenyan leader who commands respect all over the world. He is the only Presidential candidate who has pledged to introduce dual citizenship for Kenyans abroad and Federal System of Government. . He is the leader who will put together a government of the people but not government of rattle snakes as John Michuki once said.There is a wall which has been separating people in Kenya. That wall separates the few megarich from the majority poor. Honorable Raila Odinga is the only leader who has the will to tear down that wall. The wall was erected over thirty years ago by the past brutal leaders. As you have been reading on the press those brutal leaders have joined hands, they want to maintain the status quo. Moi and Kibaki as you know them are nothing but two sides of the same coin. They have nothing new to offer but to scare you to retreat into your tribal cocoons. As you might remember Moi’s favorite catch phrase has always been, kaeni hivyo hivyo. That simply means may the status quo remain the same. They will tell you that don’t judge Raila by his leadership potential but by his foreskin. My fellow countrymen I call upon you today to tell the status quo enough is enough. The time for trusting on human genitalia is gone. It is the time to judge our leaders on their cognitive abilities and the content of their character. It remains true to date as MKL once said no one can ride you unless your back is bent. My fellow Wananchi, my back is not bent and I hope yours is not bent too. And for that reason no one should ride us again after this year’s elections. I thus call upon you to join hands and help elect Raila Odinga for President 2007. Thank you and God Bless You.By KAFR
It’s been more than forty seven years since our freedom fighters died for our country. But since then our freedom fighters dreams have been turned into nightmares by the last corrupt regimes. The experience of Kenya since it gained independence can objectively be called a failure. Kenyans have gotten poorer year after year since independence and the human rights crises that have been occurring are almost unspeakable. Events in post-colonial Kenya have followed a disturbingly predictable path. After independence, which was achieved with blood and sweat by our grandparents and eviction of white settlers who lived privileged lives, our former leaders assumed power and they turned into despots. They imposed draconian rules, ruthlessly silencing dissent and using the national treasury as their own personal bank account, paying off the tribal chieftains for protection and building worthless monuments to ego. Meanwhile the people starve, taxes are obscenely high. At this point our fellow countrymen, two routes can be taken. We can choose the easy wrong, just keep quiet burry our heads like ostriches and hope that fate will take care or we can choose the harder right, take the law into our own hands during general elections vote our conscience and elect a revolutionary, Raila Odinga.It is with profound sadness that our fellow Wananchi have been conditioned to believe that the only trust that can be relied on in Kenya is to trust in one’s own tribal region or ethnic group. People are extremely reticent to believe that anyone from outside their ethic, tribal, religious, etc. group can be trusted. Unfortunately people feel this way because it has been cultivated by former leaders and perfected by Kibaki regime. If you are not a member of the ruling tribe you will not be showered with the ill-gotten perks of the state. Your region will not receive massive building projects, the leaders in your area will not be given blank checks to spend as they please, and you will stand a much lower chance of receiving some sham state job that sustains you and your family. Corruption runs rampant partly because it has to. There is no way you can trust the state so people start looking out for themselves at all costs. It is time to break this axis of evil my fellow Kenyans.This election year is another window of opportunity for all Kenyans who seek liberalization, security, respect and prosperity. We call upon you to join us on this course to steer our country towards that dream. It is the calling for our generation to change Kenya into a country of all Kenyans but not for those who were born to privilege only. It is for this reason that our organization, Kenyans Abroad For Raila was born. Dr Martin Luther King JR once said, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." This is our time to demand that freedom.There are questions that we as like minded Kenyans here in KAFR have been pondering. These questions are: Did Koitalel Arap Samoei die so that President Kibaki's wife gets the freedom to slap journalists with impunity? Did Kapenguria six languish in jail so that some few people get the freedom to rape the Kenya treasury and siphon off money abroad while average Kenyan live in abject poverty? Was the second liberation of Kenya nothing but a mirage? Did Mzee Mekatili wa Menza take the mantle and fight against the colonialists so that Mungiki can roam free mutilating our women and children? If your answer is yes, vote for Kibaki and MoiMy answer to these questions was categorically NO. And thus we came up as Kenyans of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities and resolved to volunteer to be part of change for Kenya . We believe that if you don’t like the way things are done change it. We also believe that the only person who is able to bring positive change for Kenya is Hon. Raila Odinga. He has talked the talk and walked the walk about this change for the last twenty five years. He has spent more than seven years of his life in jail so that you and I can exercise our God given human rights. Raila is both Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King JR for Kenya. Honorable Odinga has a dream for all Kenyans irrespective of age, tribe, race and culture. He is a leader who has transcended bitterness and crossed monumental bridges in his fights for democracy and progressive politics in Kenya.He has worked with those who detained him and political opponents without malice. He is the only Kenyan leader who commands respect all over the world. He is the only Presidential candidate who has pledged to introduce dual citizenship for Kenyans abroad and Federal System of Government. . He is the leader who will put together a government of the people but not government of rattle snakes as John Michuki once said.There is a wall which has been separating people in Kenya. That wall separates the few megarich from the majority poor. Honorable Raila Odinga is the only leader who has the will to tear down that wall. The wall was erected over thirty years ago by the past brutal leaders. As you have been reading on the press those brutal leaders have joined hands, they want to maintain the status quo. Moi and Kibaki as you know them are nothing but two sides of the same coin. They have nothing new to offer but to scare you to retreat into your tribal cocoons. As you might remember Moi’s favorite catch phrase has always been, kaeni hivyo hivyo. That simply means may the status quo remain the same. They will tell you that don’t judge Raila by his leadership potential but by his foreskin. My fellow countrymen I call upon you today to tell the status quo enough is enough. The time for trusting on human genitalia is gone. It is the time to judge our leaders on their cognitive abilities and the content of their character. It remains true to date as MKL once said no one can ride you unless your back is bent. My fellow Wananchi, my back is not bent and I hope yours is not bent too. And for that reason no one should ride us again after this year’s elections. I thus call upon you to join hands and help elect Raila Odinga for President 2007. Thank you and God Bless You.By KAFR
Arrogance of regime will see it forced out of power
By Dominic Odipo
The fact of the matter is that the President gave me a job to advise him on corruption, especially when grand corruption threatened the Presidency.
"I found out that grand corruption did exist and it was being perpetrated by my very own colleagues. It was an absurd situation.
"At the end of the day, I had no one to report to since the President ignored my advice — and ultimately flat out opposed me. Yet it was our people doing the very things I had spent my career in the anti-corruption field fighting.
"I had campaigned against the blatant corruption of former President Moi and his cronies; I had written about it. Yet now I found our fellows — some of them once great reformers — were the very ones doing what Moi had been doing.
"They also inherited a sense of impunity from the Moi regime — the idea that Kenyans are idiots who can be fooled repeatedly."
These are excerpts from an interview given by Mr John Githongo, the former Governance and Ethics Permanent Secretary, which appeared in The Sunday Standard, yesterday.
When Githongo says "our people", he means mainly those people who were close to the President at the time, many of whom now operate under the umbrella of the Party of National Unity (PNU) on whose ticket the President is seeking re-election.
Githongo continues: "The tragedy of the forthcoming elections is the tremendous ethnic polarisation that has been encouraged by leaders on both sides as they try to mobilise their tribes to vote for them. This polarisation has been helped along because a significant number of Kenyans have been deeply angered — and with good reason — by the endemic corruption, conspicuous consumption and sheer arrogance of a ruling elite that is predominantly from one part of this nation. This elite often speaks as if Kenyans from other tribes can never rule."
Who will win the 2007 presidential elections? There are many commentators who are avoiding posing this question, let alone venturing an answer. Fortunately or unfortunately, I suffer from no such reservations.
As someone who has closely and keenly observed the ‘great game’ for many years, I have no doubt whatsoever that, barring a political earthquake or heavy mass rigging, the ODM torch-bearer, Mr Raila Odinga, will win hands down.
He will win no matter what the latest opinion poll says. He will win no matter what Finance minister, Mr Amos Kimunya, says about him and his ODM Pentagon colleagues. And he will win in all provinces except Central and Eastern, no matter what President Kibaki does between now and election day.
Why is Raila poised to push the President out of power? The answer, incidentally, has been perceptively captured by Githongo in the few paragraphs quoted above.
I don’t know how many of the President’s close advisors happen to be familiar with Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion. For those who may not be familiar with it, here it is: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. To put this simply, if you throw a stone, the stone pushes you back in the opposite direction with a force equal to what you used to throw it.
No one has yet refined this law for politics and society in general as Sir Isaac did for dynamics. Yet it is not hard to see that this law, or some crude version of it, applies widely in the political sphere and in society in general. If you attack or strike somebody, he will do something to hit back at you, if he has the means or the capacity to do so.
If there is one issue more likely than any other to doom the President’s re-election bid, it is the ethnic factor.
After he took over the presidency, Kibaki moved, by omission or commission, to structure his Government along markedly ethnic lines.
He looked but did not see as the Treasury, the Ministry of Education, the Kenya Revenue Authority and other top State organs were blatantly tribalised. He failed to notice that the other Kenyan communities were closely watching.
On December 27, the President’s chickens will come home to roost. The majority of the other people of Kenya will strike back with their most potent weapon, their vote.
In tandem with Newton’s thesis, they will strike back with a force, not necessarily equal to, but certainly opposite. It is this Newtonian reaction that I see driving Raila to State House.
And, as Githongo said, "the sheer arrogance of a ruling elite that is predominantly from one part of this nation" will come back to haunt the President’s re-election bid.
"The only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history." Churchil
The fact of the matter is that the President gave me a job to advise him on corruption, especially when grand corruption threatened the Presidency.
"I found out that grand corruption did exist and it was being perpetrated by my very own colleagues. It was an absurd situation.
"At the end of the day, I had no one to report to since the President ignored my advice — and ultimately flat out opposed me. Yet it was our people doing the very things I had spent my career in the anti-corruption field fighting.
"I had campaigned against the blatant corruption of former President Moi and his cronies; I had written about it. Yet now I found our fellows — some of them once great reformers — were the very ones doing what Moi had been doing.
"They also inherited a sense of impunity from the Moi regime — the idea that Kenyans are idiots who can be fooled repeatedly."
These are excerpts from an interview given by Mr John Githongo, the former Governance and Ethics Permanent Secretary, which appeared in The Sunday Standard, yesterday.
When Githongo says "our people", he means mainly those people who were close to the President at the time, many of whom now operate under the umbrella of the Party of National Unity (PNU) on whose ticket the President is seeking re-election.
Githongo continues: "The tragedy of the forthcoming elections is the tremendous ethnic polarisation that has been encouraged by leaders on both sides as they try to mobilise their tribes to vote for them. This polarisation has been helped along because a significant number of Kenyans have been deeply angered — and with good reason — by the endemic corruption, conspicuous consumption and sheer arrogance of a ruling elite that is predominantly from one part of this nation. This elite often speaks as if Kenyans from other tribes can never rule."
Who will win the 2007 presidential elections? There are many commentators who are avoiding posing this question, let alone venturing an answer. Fortunately or unfortunately, I suffer from no such reservations.
As someone who has closely and keenly observed the ‘great game’ for many years, I have no doubt whatsoever that, barring a political earthquake or heavy mass rigging, the ODM torch-bearer, Mr Raila Odinga, will win hands down.
He will win no matter what the latest opinion poll says. He will win no matter what Finance minister, Mr Amos Kimunya, says about him and his ODM Pentagon colleagues. And he will win in all provinces except Central and Eastern, no matter what President Kibaki does between now and election day.
Why is Raila poised to push the President out of power? The answer, incidentally, has been perceptively captured by Githongo in the few paragraphs quoted above.
I don’t know how many of the President’s close advisors happen to be familiar with Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion. For those who may not be familiar with it, here it is: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. To put this simply, if you throw a stone, the stone pushes you back in the opposite direction with a force equal to what you used to throw it.
No one has yet refined this law for politics and society in general as Sir Isaac did for dynamics. Yet it is not hard to see that this law, or some crude version of it, applies widely in the political sphere and in society in general. If you attack or strike somebody, he will do something to hit back at you, if he has the means or the capacity to do so.
If there is one issue more likely than any other to doom the President’s re-election bid, it is the ethnic factor.
After he took over the presidency, Kibaki moved, by omission or commission, to structure his Government along markedly ethnic lines.
He looked but did not see as the Treasury, the Ministry of Education, the Kenya Revenue Authority and other top State organs were blatantly tribalised. He failed to notice that the other Kenyan communities were closely watching.
On December 27, the President’s chickens will come home to roost. The majority of the other people of Kenya will strike back with their most potent weapon, their vote.
In tandem with Newton’s thesis, they will strike back with a force, not necessarily equal to, but certainly opposite. It is this Newtonian reaction that I see driving Raila to State House.
And, as Githongo said, "the sheer arrogance of a ruling elite that is predominantly from one part of this nation" will come back to haunt the President’s re-election bid.
"The only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history." Churchil
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
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