Diary 18 – My heart bleeds for my beloved country

By BILLY OWINO

This will be long so brace yourself! As I write this, I have tears welling in my eyes once more. I thought I was through with that until I reported back to the office today after a 3 weeks break. I live and work in Khartoum, Sudan and every single person I have met so far in the office today is asking me РWhat Happened??. The Sudanese who have had civil war for over 2 decades have always looked up fondly to Kenya as a haven of peace in Africa. How could a country that helped them end their civil war degenerate into a near ̤ivil war in just a few days?

What broke my heart was when one of my clients who is a respected figure in the society walked into my office, embraced me and broke into a long emotional prayer for Kenya to regain it’s “rightful place in Africa” and end the babaric killings! How could things go so wrong for Kenya? Did you know that Sudanese have even named their children and one city “Naivasha”after the peace accord that was signed there?

I used to hold my head high here due to the respect they gave Kenyans. Within weeks now we have to hold our heads down in shame trying to explain why we are killing each other viciously??? All that because we have greedy leaders willing to cling on to or gain power at all costs while sacrificing Kenya at the altar of Greed and Deceit? Why dear Lord I ask? Why? What did we do to deserve this?

I’m a Luo who was born and brought up in Kericho (Kalenjin land), schooled in Kikuyuland, lived and worked in many regions of Kenya and married a wife who has Kamba, Meru and Somali blood. WHY SHOULD I SUDDENLY BE MADE SO AWARE OF MY TRIBE? I shudder when I try to think of how long it will take to heal the wounds of this past week’s events. What will I tell my children when they grow up? That once upon a time we all used to live peacefully as one nation until one day the goverment tried to steal the elections and we started killing each other based on what tribe we are from! Would they understand that?

On the political front our leaders should get their act together. Kenyans should demand that! It was such a shameful act and gross notoriety for the current government to steal the elections blatantly in broad daylight. The ECK and especially Kivuitu should bear the brunt for helping this government to abet such a henious crime against Kenyans. The blood of all killed in the aftermath will haunt him day and night! The reality however is this: The moment Kibaki and his cabal of friends decided to rig the elections, that was the time we should have realised that he has become totally numb and his conscience was long DEAD! (it was in a coma before that). Therefore Raila and the ODM team as well as all those calling for demos, mass rallies, protests etc to put pressure on him are just wasting their time! That won’t move them as they are in a comatose stage conscientiously and in a state of hypnosis to greed and power.

A negotiated end to the current stalemate should be given high priority and Raila and Kibaki brought face-to-face. However I believe the purpose should be to put together an interim government that would prepare for fresh presidential elections in 3-6 months. A GNU just wont work and Kenyans and the international stake holders should just stop dreaming. The only reason Kibaki announced that he is ready to form a GNU is this – and I must say it was a very clever ploy: Announce that he wants to form a GNU and catch the ears of the greedy and selfish elements in ODM who do not appreciate the fundamentals of the cause…play on their desire to want to be ministers….eventually creating division and cracks in ODM!

What should be next if option if an interim government doesn’t see the light of day? I feel that instead of ODM resorting to protest and other antagonistic measures they should instead take up their place in the opposition in parliament. Now before ODMers skin me alive let me explain myself:

1. If ODM believes they have the interest of Kenyans at heart then they can help constitutionally to seal all loopholes that were used by the Kibaki regime to rig the elections.

2. They will be best placed to do the above because an existing regime will not bother to seal loopholes that they can use to this to their benefit whenever needed e.g. in 2012.

This will be a long-term plan with long-term benefits for the country as it will be a fallacy to even try after 3 months to run the elections again under the same constitutional and institutional status. Some of the areas that ODM can use their might (albeit slim) in the parliament to help make things right are:

1. Pass the IPPG “rules” and entrench them in the constitution to strengthen the institutions that have a direct bearing on the running of elections i.e. ECK, Judiciary etc to make them TRULY independent and well respresentative. This will include passing bills that abolish the powers of the president to directly nominate Comissioners and pass this on to an independent body subject to ratification by the parliament (Chapter III Sec 41 of the constitution)

2. Make laws under the Electoral Commision act that will ensure the electoral votes are declared at polling stations and the final votes for each constituency declared publicly and copies given to the party agents PLUS accredited observers and the media. Failure to do so by any Returning Officer would be punishable by law.

3. Pass bills allocating funds from the treasury to develop the ICT infrastructure of the ECK (instead of paying shady contractors!) This will avoid cases of lame excuses like “The Returning Officers have switched off their phones’!! OMG Kivuitu! In this day and age when CNN, BBC et al can report ‘LIVE’ from Burnt Forest to Atlanta???

4. Pass laws barring the ECK Chairman from announcing Presidential poll results as long as one contesting party has raised in writing to the commission (not courts!) credible issues that will put doubt to the announcement of results that will be seen to be free and fair.

5. Pass appropriate laws giving a reasonable timeline to conclusion of election petitions (6 months?)

6. Pass laws preventing legislators jumping from one party to another and keeping their seats as long as they have not written to the Speaker to declare this. The party leader should be given the powers in law to declare in writing to the Speaker that a legislator in his party has defected as long as he can prove this e.g. by associations, pronouncements, joining the cabinet without the Party Leaders approval etc. He will then be required to seek re-election afresh!
This will prevent the president poaching on ODM legislators to build a majority in parliament or frustrate passing of bills that are of constitutional nature.

All these may take long but for the sake of the country’s peace and survival it might be a sacrifice worth taking for the benefit of our beloved Kenya. It’s time for all the elected leaders that Kenyans are looking up to to stand up and be counted. I’m tired of seeing the heart-rending scenes coming out of Kenya! Who will explain to those poor kids why they are refugees sleeping in the cold in their own country? How will we teach the young orphans to trust humanity and love one another when they saw their parents brutally murdered or even burnt alive. You just need to watch the movie Hannibal Rising and the thought of what we have done to these children will send a cold chill up your spine!

While we are imploring our fellow citizens to stop the killings, the government should also immediately stop the shoot-to-kill order to the police! Does Michuki still think that he is hunting down Mau Maus so as to be rewarded by colonialists? How archaic! And to think the country is in their hands! These leaders (you know them) belong to the Museums of Infamity as fossils!!!

I cry for my country….don’t take us down this treacherous path. I’m a Kenyan and will forever be. Don’t judge me by my tribe, no, never!

As for now I’ll just keep on having to repeat myself trying to answer the question on everyone’s lips…….What Happened to our role model Kenya?

PS: On a lighter note – One of the Sales Managers (a Sudanese) in my company was talking to a team member who had reported his sales achievement figures wrongly. He told him “not to do a Kibaki on him”and get his fugures right! Kibaki has made us the laughing stock of the world because he is soo incompetent he cannot even rig an election “quietly”!