Is this Kenya's definition of 'coalition'?

In the dictionary, the word is listed as follows;

co·a·li·tion (k-lshn)

n.

1. An alliance, especially a temporary one, of people, factions, parties, or nations.

2. A combination into one body; a union.

I'm sorry, but I think our Mr Orengo missed that memo.
He has just been quoted on KTN evening news talking about those people who were arrested during the skirmishes after the elections at the beginning of the year;

"If those people who STOLE the election from us are walking free, then all those who reacted to the theft of this election with violence should also be set free."

And they call this government a 'union' ???

Now Showing ! (unsuitable for developed countries)

Cartoon from The Standard this morning.

Conjecture from the Mzungu Chick

There is of course much speculation all over with regards to the violence we are experiencing here in Kenya, and seeing as we’re all going in for a bit of conjecture, I thought I’d add my own in too as I’ve been thinking about exactly this for ages.

I had a comment on a recent post that said that if the elections had been completely transparent then this violence would not have happened at all, and another train of thought is that this violence is tribal and has been simmering for years and has now erupted into what we are experiencing now.

Personally I think both views hold some truth in them.

I do believe that this current outbreak of tribal violence that we are seeing right now would not have started if the elections had been seen to be free, fair and totally transparent. This certainly did not happen and although it was all geared to go that way, with all of the big media houses having agents all around the country who were ringing in the results as they were provisionally released at a constitutional level, they seemed to be keeping a running tally that showed Raila with a large lead on the first day of counting with a slimmer lead on the second day when the Central province results were coming in (which is as expected), but they still had Raila in the lead until people started getting excited about the process taking so long and not all of the official results being released at the ECK tallying with the ones being provisionally released at provincial level.

That was then the media seemed to stop releasing results. In some provinces came allegations of rigging and some trouble which caused them to stop counting altogether. Then there was the closed door overnight retallying that took place with representatives of both Raila and Kibaki’s party, and although there were still questions there, it seems Samuel Kivuitu, the Chairman of the ECK, (or so he said and then later retracted), was pressurised into releasing a result, and was told what he would release, and it didn’t correspond to anything that the media had been collating along the way.

Just before Kivuitu announced the ‘final’ tally of the Presidential results, all of the media was thrown out of the KICC, which was at the time, the Electoral Commissions headquarters. John Muchuki, who was the former Internal Security Minister, had issued a written order to shut down all TV and radio stations in the country which was not acted against, although the live broadcast ban came into affect and is still in situ today, although it has been blatantly flouted a few times in the past couple of days by some of the TV stations and to no consequence to them.

Now the violence that is currently gripping this country is, whether we like it or not, tribal conflict. It is tribe against tribe, and I think the reason we are in shock here is that we have never before seen this tribal violence spread from the villages where in some areas it has been a constant threat long before these elections. What I think we are amazed by is that it has spread into major towns where various different ethnic tribes have lived in peace for many years, but ultimately, it has become a question of perceived inequality between the tribes, that has simmered under the surface for many years.

Nick Wadhams, a journalist based here in Nairobi, has written this post today

http://nwadhams.typepad.com/nwadhams/2008/01/age-old-rivalri.html

outlining most of this and, like he says, tribal conflict and electoral violence has been going on for years and is not new to us. What is new to us though is this targeting of the large towns in all this, starting with Kisumu, spreading to Eldoret – which then the government thought be removing all the Kikuyu’s from that town it would ease the tension. But surely it has done the opposite, who should decide that one tribe should move and why the Kikuyu’s? Now the Kikuyu’s want revenge and they are taking it out on the other tribes in Nakuru which is where they were taken and where now they must hold a majority. Today this has spread down as far as Naivasha, and here in Nairobi it has been going on within the slums sporadically throughout the past four weeks.

As references in Nick Wadhams post says, Kikuyu’s are perceived as to have taken the lions share over the past few years with a Kikuyu in charge in the form of Kibaki, and the Luo’s now feel it is their turn to garner some of this wealth and have their people in power and reap some of these rewards. Because of the way the final results in the Presidential election were released in such a clandestine manner, and the fact that up until that point, the media had Raila leading the race. Of course the people who voted for Raila feel cheated, and that means it has turned into a war of Luo vs. Kikuyu with all the other tribes taking their sides as per how the majority of their tribesmen were perceived to have voted.

One thing is, that a lot of people are tending to ignore at this stage, is that some of this violence had already broken out before the results were announced in Western Kenya which tells me that the Luo’s thought they had won and the looting and chaos that erupted in Kisumu started with those people trying to get a head start on the wealth that they felt was coming to them with a Raila win. People were then killed when the police opened fire as they could not control the situation any more. Perhaps if Raila had then been declared the winner and would have been then in charge of the police, it may be that people would have let those police killings go, as it has happened many times before. As Kibaki won, it was then seen that those police were acting directly on Kibaki’s orders and then it became a case of Kikuyu’s (as the police, no matter what tribe they actually were from, were in Kibaki’s hands in their opinion, so therefore acting on behalf of a Kikuyu,) vs. the other tribes.

What this shows is that having a President of whatever tribe giving out various government posts and therefore (how it generally ends up), unequal distribution of funds to his cronies, certain tribes feel missed out in this distribution of wealth and this has to change before we will ever get anywhere surely.

It most definitely ends up being all about money and who benefits. Whatever they decide to do and however it is done, the most important thing in all this is that a long term plan of sorting out this incredible inequality between Kenyans needs to be most definitely be on top of the agenda. And whatever is done, it must be done so in a totally transparent way, so that Kenyans can feel that those big wigs are actually thinking of them and not just themselves, as per usual.

Which way forward for Kenya?

Every day we wake up, we have to have some kind of optimism deep in our hearts that makes us want to drag ourselves out of bed and continue with this endless uncertainty that we have to live with, as it seems we no longer have a clue what each day may bring.

Just Thursday I met up with one of ex-staff who lives in Nakuru and when I asked her if everything was ok up her way, she said “Yes, she was very well, and where she lives they had had no trouble at all and it was only further north from her where things were bad.” Imagine what it was like for her waking up Friday morning, luckily still in Nairobi, but to hear that total mayhem had broken out in her home town and that she no longer had a home to return to.

One of my regular readers has his parents and younger sisters living in Nakuru town and had been trying all day Friday to get in touch with them but to no avail and was in turmoil. He finally got hold of his father and he left me this comment this afternoon that I hope he doesn’t mind that I share with you all as it really tells you what exactly is happening on the ground in Nakuru right now;

“nakuru is in a bad way. what people saw is scary. what they didn't is scarier i am told. mungiki have been sent up there to revenge. the luo and luhya are joining up with kalenjin militia(yes that word) who now have AKs and have also descended on the city. that i am told is the reason the army is out there. So both groups proceeded to wreck havoc in their tried and tested modus operandi…mungiki decapitating people in the town centre and kalenjins burning perceived kikuyu estates to flush out kyuks who were then either stoned, shot at with arrows and AKs. The one difference is the estates that were wiped out-bangladesh and githima (near total junction) are lower middle class estates. So it’s not just a slum problem as in nbi. and far as I know there are lots of asians in the former and lots of non kyuks in the latter-just collateral damage I suppose. where my parents live most of our neighbours are kyuks. Sitting ducks? needless to say my dad and us out here are kinda scared but we’ll keep praying.”

(To fill you in a little here to explain some of what he has been told – ‘mungiki’ are a Kikuyu gang that is well known for murder, extortion and racketeering, and ‘kyuks’ is the sheng name for the Kikuyu tribe of people.)

Kofi Annan went out early this morning and flew over the Nakuru, Eldoret and Molo areas in the western regions of Kenya where there has been the most trouble. He held a press conference when he got back into Nairobi and said he was heartbroken by what he saw. He said there were “gross and systematic human rights abuses” and he urged the government “to do all it can to increase security and ensure those responsible for perpetuating these acts are held to account.” He also asked the government to seek redress for the victims of this violence, compensate them and assist them to return to their homes. (All great ideas but surely we need to know which direction is forward first?)

On Thursday when Kofi Annan finally got Kibaki and Raila to meet face to face, I understand that one of the only things they really all agreed on was that the force used by the police in order to try and quell this violence was excessive. I now hear that in Nakuru the residents were complaining that the police did nothing to help save their homes and their people but just stood by and watched.

The thing is that, although I am certainly not endorsing the way the police have been reacting to try and control the violence that has been going on, I’m not really sure what they are now expected to do in these situations. I totally agree that in the beginning when there were protests, they really where mainly peaceful and I do believe the police did most definitely fire live rounds unnecessarily and innocent people lost their lives when they certainly shouldn’t have. But now this is completely different surely. I understand from a friend’s driver the other day who was in a bus being escorted by police, that when they were attacked by a mob of about 200 wielding machetes and bows and arrows, even when the police opened fire on them, they couldn’t care less and just kept running at them and actually hacked to death two passengers before the bus could get away.

So now the police are afraid to open fire, tear gas does nothing to disperse these people as they have all learnt that (apparently – please do NOT try this at home), if you put Vicks Vapour Rub under your eyes, it combats the effects of the tear gas, if they use their batons to beat anyone, chances are if they are that close to these perpetrators, they will be hacked to death or shot with a poisoned arrow, so how on earth do they stop this continuous murder?

What slightly worries me also, although I should probably not let thoughts like this come out of my head, lest they come true, but surely not all of the police force or army voted Kibaki for President, and if that is the case, there must be some disgruntlement within the ranks of who is right and who is wrong in all of this. Now if those who do disagree get together and fight back, what happens then?

Goodness I should stop all this speculating and not let these thoughts escape from the recesses of my brain, but hey if I can’t tell you lot, who can I say it to?

Please always remember that whatever I write here is just what I hear and what I think and I cannot verify anything apart from what I have seen with my own eyes (as I’m not sure the press always get its 100% either). It is entirely my own opinion and you may agree or disagree as you wish as I would like to say that as Kenyans, we shall live in a democracy no matter what these b…….s do to us!

This calls for some serious action!

Right that's it, I've had quite enough of this "I will speak to him", "No, I won't speak to him", "Yes I might", but then again "No, I just might not!"

If Mr Odinga and Mr Kibaki will not get on with talking to each other then I'm afraid we have absolutely no choice but to call .......

................ SUPERNANNY !

If you boys won't behave like grown ups then it is completely impossible to treat you like grown ups, so ;

"If you won't play nicely then both of you will go right now and sit on the 'naughty' step! - and you'll stay there for at least five minutes per year of your age, so Raila, you'll be there at least a week, and as for you Mr Kibaki, well you could be there an awfully long time so i suggest you take a good book with you!"

"When you're both good and ready, you'll both come and apologise to each other properly, and if you are not prepared to do that, then I'm afraid there will be no dinner for either of you, and then perhaps you may get just a slight inkling of what the half a million displaced Kenyans are going through just because of your inane bickering!"

- Move over Mr. Annan, we can do this without you after all, (as I do realise from reading the new headline on your imminent arrival; "Kofi Annan MAY jet in sometime next week", that we perhaps shouldn't rely on you too much Sir. And if there's a chance of a spot of bother between now and whenever it is your flight is booked for, (and seeing as tonight's headline is '3 more hacked to death in a Nairobi slum'), I'm sure chances are you'll be diving straight back under that duvet.)


PS. If you happen to be reading this Ms Frost, I'll be quite happy to be your advisor, for a large fee of course.
(Only thing is honey, I do actually have a child so imagine that could be a bit of a disadvantage as I do realise that you're not overly keen on the little blighters.)

See post I did last year of the marvellous, child loving woman .......
http://lostwhitekenyan.blogspot.com/2007/10/supernanny-jo-frost.html

Absolutely shocking.

I know that this video has been posted all over the web and I wasn't sure I was going to put it on my site but I really do think that those people with their head buried in the sand about what is really going on in this country should actually watch this.

Please NOTE it is horrific and people are killed - although police spokesman Eric Kiraithe tried to tell us that this video was actually just made up by the press and was just them attempting a remake of "Rambo" - perhaps to get themselves more viewers?

Funnily enough, the dead man's brother retorted that if Mr Kiraithe would just like to explain why his brother is now in the morgue and not at home where he should be, that would be great.

TGIF !!

Well, thank god it's Friday.

The three days of protesting by the ODM party are officially over, which is a relief. As you may (or may not, if you've just had quite enough of my opinion on all this), have gathered, I did no midday posting today with my Blackberry as things were really kind of quiet here in Nairobi and actually, I’m finding this continuous daily violence so incredibly depressing and I just couldn’t really face sharing out that misery.

There was a bit of a cat and mouse chase game going on around lunchtime in the Central Business District when one of the 'Pentagon' members (which is Raila's team of big wigs), Charity Ngilu, was dropped off outside a cosmetics shop a couple of doors down from where I was having lunch.

The police got a little twitchy and a group of about 20 Ninja Turtles were summoned in their full regalia to stand on the street opposite the entrance to the shop she was in, and meanwhile it seemed, Charity shopped, (as any woman would of course, if free in her Friday lunch hour.)

Anyway this went on for about half an hour - with us joking about how Charity Ngilu's been wearing a head scarf for the last few days, and so she was obviously just shopping for extensions or a bit of a weave - as the shop she was in is well know for great prices on those kinds of things. Then, when her large four wheel drive with dark tinted windows turned up, she casually strolled out of the shop with her three or so bodyguards in tow, crossed the road right in front of the riot police, and hopped back into her car, with one of the riot police waving her goodbye – which I thought was priceless!

It was all quite theatrical really, and after Raila going on the news last night and telling the press that they had 'hidden tactics' for their protests each day, and that each day this would change, I have to assume that Charity was probably a decoy. Anyway she proved a point as she put the whole of Nairobi on high alert for who might turn up where next and everyone (not only the police I might add) started to get incredibly twitchy and there was a lot of rushing away from the area, and the moving of cars out of town.

We left not long after this and then ran into yet more of the ODM team, James Orengo and Martin Shikuku, who had come from Friday prayers at the mosque in the centre of town and led a small group of around 50 or 60 people through the street chanting the usual “Kibaki must go” and “No Raila, No Peace”.

We followed along behind for a while in the car as they happened to be going the same way as us and what I found very interesting was as they walked, they came across PNU supporters who started shouting at them to stop the protests and let them live in peace.

We left them after a short while but I understand they were soon dispersed with the usual few cans of tear gas and I heard that they arrested the veteran MP Martin Shikuku, and that was kind of that for the city centre as far as I could see.

Apparently there were some bonfires lit on the Mombasa road to try and block the traffic and some few people ran around with signs supporting Raila.

Later in the afternoon we swung by the Kibera slums where we were yesterday but apart from a few police, things looked relatively quiet on the outskirts. Then we drove further down the road and could hear a lot of shooting going on very close by within the slum, but I certainly did not venture in to find out what that was all about. I later found out that at least 6 were shot dead and god only knows how many injured, as the police said these people were the perpetrators of the hijacking and the subsequent looting of a train in Kibera yesterday evening.

Meanwhile in other places in Kenya things were not as quiet. My manager called from Mombasa to say they were trapped in the shop with rioting on the street right outside the building for over 2 hours, but they shut down and managed to escape out of the back and get themselves all home safely. He sent me a text to say he was home but things were not good in town and at least one person was shot dead.

In Kisumu, which is Raila’s home town, we hear there was trouble throughout the day and again at least one killed, but in Eldoret (which has had a lot of trouble in the past few days), things were very quiet with people telling the press there that they were tired and hungry from the continuous skirmishes and just couldn't bring themselves to protest yet again today.

In Narok town, which is to the west of here, on the way to the Maasai Mara, I’ve heard that at least 5 people were killed when the different tribes in the area turned against each other and in turn against the police with machetes and bows and arrows.

Someone I overheard this evening who was looking up at the black cloudy sky overhead summed up the day:
“Well it looks like we’ll have some good heavy rain tonight.
It will be good to put out the bonfires and wash all the blood away.”