are these guys serious?

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Quoting the Daily Nation, “Kenya will lease out 40,000 hectares (about 100,000 acres) of land to a Gulf state to grow food at a time when the country is facing serious food shortages.”

Like seriously? could we not just grow the food and then sell it to these people from the desert? Is it really worth it for a port at Lamu? Can we not get that money from somewhere else? How about a joint ownership venture with the government owning like 90%. Wouldn’t this be more beneficial to the tax payer?

You know, this story reminds of a concept about state formation: It is only those leaders who have at one time had to defend and fight for their borders that really care about them. It has only been forty years and Kenyan leaders have completely forgotten how the Mau Mau had to fight and die for national freedom. Yes they were no match for the mighy UK and yes the UK would have stayed if they really wanted (HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE), but the fact remains that they fought and died for their country. The same country that some half-baked rascals are now eagerly leasing away with alacrity. I am pissed off to the bones by this. We are facing a food shortage and instead of using our land to grow our food we are leasing it off for other people to grow their own food?? Like where does this even begin to make sense????

Why, Kibaki, why???

So what happens after we’ve parceled off most of Kenya to Qatar, China, India, UAE, the Saudis and just about anyone willing to pay the goons that we’ve entrusted with our political leadership? Are we gonna become squatters again? Are we gonna start being called “boy” again? Are we gonna revert to being nothing but farm workers and clerks again? And what kind of children will we be raising when all the bosses employing all the parents are from somewhere else? Are NOT Kenyan?? Now don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating for an autarky by that statement. It just bothers me to think that we are risking a case where employment in the farms, in the factory, in the city all belong to foreigners. This will be a big dent to our national psyche. We need to make Kenyans feel like they can amount to something more than being the drivers of some Saudi tycoon.

And where exactly are the Kenyan millionaires? Can’t they afford to invest in such ventures? What are they waiting for? They could get government guarantees of whatever kind and have parliamentary oversight (these thieves to check on corruption?? – hey I know this is ludicrous but please allow me to dream for that is the only way to remain sane in moments like these) and grow food and feed Kenyans so we can stop reading and seeing those disturbing images of fellow Kenyans starving. How hard can it be? Am I delusional for thinking it can’t be that hard? I ask again, how hard can it be?

ps: The comedy that is Kenyan politics never ceases to make me laugh. So ODM, instead of holding proper elections just creates posts for everyone. As many vice presidents as there are serious contenders. As many secretaries as there are serious contenders and so on and so forth. Does anybody ever think of how this looks to someone who is just a little bit more curious and questioning than the very gullible proverbial Wanjiku?

And the PNU crowd. They elected a name that as a kid I thought was synonymous with “Vice President.” Can we get new faces and names please?

happy Jamuhuri Day!

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It has been 45 years since Kenya attained independence from the United Kingdom in 1963. In the 45 years we have avoided the descent to civil war that has blotted the histories of nearly all of Africa’s states. We nearly descended into chaos in 1982, 1991-2, 1997 and 2007-8 but we did not. The Kenyan people were able to stand firm against those who were pushing the country towards anarchy for their own selfish ends.

That said, we still have a long way to go. Sometimes I even wonder whether our biggest achievement as a nation thus far has been to merely maintain our borders as they are. Our economy is still largely 12th century or before that. Our politics is as tribal as it can get and our socio-cultural progress has been dismal to say the least. We are yet to forge an all-encompassing nationla consciousness. There is not yet a myth of Kenyanhood.

As we celebrate our independence from arbitrary rule by foreigners we should renew our vigilance against arbitrary rule by Kenyans. God bless Kenya!

ps: I think as a Jamuhuri day gift to all of us President Kibaki should veto the media bill just passed by parliament. Press freedom is the real test of a nation that claims to be a liberal democracy. We cease to be a true democracy when information is not easily shared. It is no secret that whoever contrlols information flow possesses power.

will someone please take this mad man away

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Robert Mugabe is a delusional mad man bent on destroying himself and his entire country. Ok, may be I am overplaying it, but what do you make of a man who is denying that there is cholera in his country while hundreds continue to die and flee into other countries? A man who continues to cling to power when the economy of his country is a total mess with super-hyper-inflation and no prospect of recovery? A man whose strongman rule and outright thuggery has sent an estimated more than three million people fleeing to neighboring countries and beyond? What do you make of this man than to conclude that there is something seriously wrong with his head?

12 million human beings should never have to suffer because of the selfishness and greed of one man. Humanity has failed and continues to fail in allowing Robert Mugabe to continue being the president of Zimbabwe. It is time someone in SADC or the AU or the UN or the EU or NATO grew a pair and sent this old man a serious message with details about his departure from the helm. Previously, I was of the opinion that he should be accorded amnesty in some country somewhere, far away from Zim but not anymore. This man should be arrested and tried for crimes against humanity. The international community should stop pretending and see the Zimbabwean political, health and economic crises for what they really are  – tools of war being used by this mad man Rob against his own people.

Why is Mbeki not being as serious as he ought to be about this? Where is Kofi Annan? Where is the UN on this? Enough with the toothless resolutions. Do something. Innocent people are dying.

And I am not being delusional myself. I am not in any way insinuating that the departure of Mugabe will be the panacea to all of Zim’s problems. Far from that. The damage has been done and it will take a generation or two to fix it. But the departure of Mugabe will definitely be the beginning of the end of the many ills that have plagued Zimbabwe since the mid 1990s.

time to start telling it like it is in the DRC

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So the UN just accused the DRC and Rwanda of directly helping the rebels in the conflict in Eastern Congo which continues to kill, main or dislocate hundreds of thousands of people. I say it is about time. This has been the Great Lakes Region’s worst kept secret. I could have told the UN this months ago. I wonder what took them so long to see this for what it is and say so in the media. But better late than never, now that the cat is out of the bag it is time for someone to take some action.

(CAUTION: I know this is a gross simplification of the conflict, I just wanted to highlight the gist of it)

I must say that I am deeply disappointed in Paul Kagame. Why did he have to get bogged down in this mess again? Why not concentrate on getting aid money and making Rwanda the IT capital of the continent? Why get involved with the criminal Nkunda? Is the coltan that attractive?

As for Kabila, I have no regrets. This is a man who has failed to show leadership or the guts to run a country as large as the DRC. He seems to still believe in the outdated notion that if you control the capital you control the country. Kabila, wake up and smell the coffee – or whatever it is you drink when you wake up. Does Chad, Sudan and Mauritania ring a bell. These situations should inform you on what happens when you allow rebel activities within your territory. Sudan and Chad may have survived but their governments continue to face existential threats as long as the rebels are allowed to exist. So grow a pair Kabila and take the fight to Nkunda, and if you can’t own up to your weakness and negotiate for some decentralisation arrangement. Your country is too big to be as centralised as it is anyway.

I am pleased by the UN’s move. It now remains to be seen what it will do about its claim. Sanctions on both governments? Not likely. Perhaps a slap on the wrist and a threat of cessation of aid. (Don’t you just hate the bullshitting that goes on in New York?) In the meantime Congolese women and children will continue to be killed, raped and denied a normal livelihood as Kabila, Nkunda, Kagame and all the other clowns involved in this mess continue in their little dance of guns, dollars and coltan.

the state of global human rights

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“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”

These are quotations from articles I and III of the declaration of human rights, that famous document that was adopted by the United Nations on 10th December, 1948. It has been 60 years since the declaration was made, in an attempt to guarantee humanity to all peoples of the world. The sad thing, however, is that not much has changed since then. Hitler’s concentration camps are no more but Guantanamo still exists. Fascism no longer poses a global threat but millions of human beings – mainly in the third world but in the so cold first world as well – continue to live under the yoke of oppressive governments.

The liberal ideas and hopes for the demise of the all-powerful nation-state to usher in a post-statist human rights respecting new world order have all died. Instead, the state has become more and more powerful as humanity tries to grapple with 21st century problems of terrorism and the economic uncertainties associated with too much integration in the global economy – as is being seen in the current global financial crisis.

The 1948 declaration set the ball rolling, and we should celebrate this great achievement. However, we should forever be vigilant against the emergent challenges to society that have managed to push the respect for human rights to the back seat. The war on terror has brought about enormous challenges to the idea of universal human rights. Should terrorists be accorded these rights? what about those merely suspected of being terrorists? and how about corrupt regimes that help in the “war on terror”? should millions of third world citizens be condemned to a life of misery simply because their unworthy leaders are cooperating in the “war” to save Westerners from attacks?

ghana does Africa proud, again

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It was the idealism of the founding fathers of the Gold Coast, now Ghana, that brought to reality the idea that African nations would one day become independent and be able to govern themselves. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of political independence,” Said the Osagyefo. Although in between things got bloody messy – with Nkrumah’s failed presidency and the ensuing chaos that lasted until Rawlings brought some semblance of calm and then handed over to the largely successful Kufuor – Ghana has re-emerged to be one of the few countries in Africa with  a functional pluralist liberal democracy.

With the elections over this past weekend, it seems likely that the incumbent party’s Akufo-Addo will win with more than 50% to obviate the need for a run-off. Regardless of the outcome, Ghana’s election was impressive, coming after the madness that marked the Nigerian, Kenyan and Zimbabwean elections. I am still not too happy with Ghana for its dismal performance on the modernizatin front. But I am happy that I am watching news which show that an African country held peaceful and fair elections and that there is no specter of violence and chaos as the country awaits the final results.

I hope that with the scheduled production of oil in the next few months Ghana will embark on a serious development plan to make it not just an exporter of cocoa but an industrialised nation in its own right.

And may this be a lesson to crazies who run elections in places like Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

ps: why are we being held hostage by Kivuitu and his gang? This is a group of men and women whose incompetence nearly plunged our country into civil war. If anything they deserve to be charged with gross negligence and slapped with heavy fines.

three cheers to Tutu

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Finally someone is saying something that can move things a bit in Zimbabwe. The Nobel laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has called for the arrest or forceful ouster of Mugabe if he does not resign ang go home – or wherever he wants. Right now Harare’s people are faced with a cholera epidemic in the wake of total economic collapse. You know we have come to think of Zimbabwe as a failed state but it was not that long ago – even though Rob’s madness had already began then – that this country had great prospects. Zimbabwe could have been great. It still can, if someone acts now.

Which reminds me of the other day in a class on International Aid that I am taking. We were talking about humanitarian intervention and international law. Repeatedly, respect for sovereignty came up as a reason to not intervene in places like Somalia, Chad, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, the DRC and all the other near failed states on the continent. Now I know there is no money to intervene in all these places. But we don’t need to. All we need is to set a precedent in one African country. A precedent that you cannot get away with killing or starving your own people. A precedent that you cannot get away with stealing your people’s money like Obiang’ and all the thieves in leadership positions are doing across the continent. Then everyone will think twice before they rig elections, kill innocent people or steal money out of state coffers.

Africans need to realise that they are in the only region of the world that still remains objectified. The only region that has not risen up to claim local agency in its history. Latin America, East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa – all former colonies of Western Europe – have risen up to become actors in world history in their own right. The Chinese have a giant economy. South East Asia has considerable clout too. India has the atom bomb and massive amounts of top notch human resources. The Middle East is managing its oil and transforming the desert. Latin America is a middle income region by all means. And Western Europe and its off shoots continues to be ahead of everyone else – this is purely a historical accident and should not be imputed to anything else (read Jared Diamond).

Africa on the other hand remains to be the poster child of failure. Soon enough we shall be receiving aid from the Indians and the Mexicans and the Brazilians and may be some day even the Afghanis. Why don’t African leaders see what they are doing to the African people and their collective consciousness? Why don’t they see how detrimental to future generations of Africans their actions are? Why don’t they seem to mind the fact that when one says Africa or Africans the first things that come to people’s minds are Aids, Poverty, Hunger, Disease, and all manner of evils. Why?

The middle East has dictators. Pinochet was a dictator, but not a mindless buffoon like Samuel Doe, or Amin or Mugabe. Suharto was a corrupt thief, but not the moron that was Abacha. Why I ask. Why can’t any of our leaders, dictators or not get anything right? Why?

TOTAL SHAME

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THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. TALK OF BEING OUT OF TOUCH. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY IS HURTING. KENYANS ARE PAYING MORE THAN SHS.100 FOR UNGA AND THESE LEECHES STILL HAVE THE GUTS TO REFUSE TO PAY TAXES ON THEIR ALLOWANCES. I THINK IT IS TIME WE AMENDED THE CONSTITUTION AND STRIPPED THESE CLOWNS OF THE POWER TO PAY THEMSELVES WHATEVER AND HOWEVER THEY WANT. ALL KENYANS MUST PAY TAXES. THAT IS WHAT CONNECTS US TO THE GOVERNMENT. THAT IS THE CONTRACT WE HAVE WITH IT. YOU REMOVE TAXES AND YOU REMOVE THIS CONNECTION. A BAD EXAMPLE AND TOTAL SHAME THIS IS.

africa continues to be myopic and ready for the picking

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So I keep reading stories about foreign governments like China, the Gulf States and South Korea that are planning on buying millions of acres of Africa’s arable land in order to provide food security for their citizens. From what I gather, most African governments are eager to sell 100 year leases in order to make a quick buck and then for 100 years condemn their countrymen and women to being near-slaves to foreigners in their own countries. How more stupid can our leaders get?

As a continent, Africa is the most food insecure place on the planet. Millions depend on food aid, even in supposedly more developed countries like Ghana, Kenya and Senegal. Some countries like Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, and nearly all of the Francophone Sahel have never known food security for decades. They have been permanent recipients of aid from the US and the World Food Program. It makes you wonder why it is not these governments making deals with their fellow African countries to guarantee the continent some food security.

Food production is what propelled human civilization. Mesopotamia, the Indus-Gangetic Valley, the Nile Valley, were all organised with an aim of improving food production so as to free up talent for other more meaningful human endeavors. Africa, nearly 12,000 years later, still cannot afford to feed its own people. It is not a question of land or water. The great lakes regions can feed the entire continent and still have a surplus. With the exception of the South West African countries and the Sahelian states, all of Sub-Saharan African countries ought to be food-secure. The fact that they are not is simply and squarely because of poor leadership.

And now these same inadequate leaders want to sell the land to foreigners. I am assuming that when foreign governments buy land they’ll treat it like they do with their embassies – provide their own security and run the show by their own rules. I wonder how different this will be from an outright recolonization of the African continent by more developed and better run countries.

We are still in the woods. And we are screwed for the foreseeable future. Like it is not even funny anymore. Our Mugabes, Obiangs and Zenawis continue to fail us big time. How hard can it be to run a country? Like seriously.

mps should pay taxes…… and look at the poverty figures

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I was not particularly surprised when I read that Kenyan MPs had yet again threatened to cripple the government by denying it funds if the Minister of Finance mandated them to pay taxes. I was not surprised because our MPs are mostly selfish, vision-less clowns. They are leaders by name and nothing else. Kenya is a third world country with a dismal economic record and yet they earn salaries comparable to those of MPs in the developed world. And it is not a question of rewarding talent. These clowns do not show up for work most of the time. Many of them are not particularly smart – judging by the nonsense they constantly spew on tv and by their lifestyles. They have failed to forge a national identity or patch up a Kenyan national narrative to make us all feel like we are one people with one teleological trajectory.

I am disappointed at Raila and Kibaki. These two men have sat on the sidelines and let the MPs refuse once again to pay taxes. They can raise their salaries at will but refuse to pay taxes. It is time we took away their power to pay themselves or determine whether they paid taxes or not.

And as we do that we should make sure that all of them have an idea about just how poor Kenyans really are. I don’t think these clowns have an idea about this. Otherwise they would be ashamed into doing something about it. If they knew Ruto and Raila would not be talking at each other through the media like they do not have each other’s phone numbers. If they knew PNU would get its act together and finally serve the people instead of having weird power plays four years out of the next election. If they knew God knows they would bury the ghost of tribalism once and for all. But they don’t. They really don’t. And because of that 97% of members of Turkana Central live below the poverty line. The figures from many other districts are not any different. It is a sad dystopia we live in.

when will we have lasting political parties?

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True democracy is not just about holding elections every five years. It is also about having a constructive deliberative process. A process that focuses on issues. This is only possible with the creation of important institutions to mediate this process. In a true democracy, political parties are just as important as the legal provision for loyal opposition. Disorganized and unarticulated opposition is just as bad as, if not worse than, having a single party state. It breeds instability and degenerates into politics of contingency.

Sadly, Kenya’s democratic experiment is once again emerging as having failed. With the formation of PNU and ODM, I was hopeful that these two parties would consolidate and dig in their heels to become the peddlers of policies to the people. But sooner than later PNU started unravelling. Now we have ODM going throught the same trials. Members of parliament from the Rift Valley are threatening to quit the party – on what appears to be purely tribal grounds.

That Kenyan politicians are tribalistic is not a secret. It baffles me how nearly all MPs from a given area can always have the same positions on issues. Kenyan politics is such that just by knowing someone’s last name you can accurately predict their position on any political issue. This is total buffoonery. Absolute insanity. And at the very least extremely shameful.

I am disappointed in William Ruto. For a while I thought that he would be the man that detribalises the Rift Valley. While appreciating the concerns he may have over the implementation on the Waki report, he should not have come so publicly against it. He could have been more subtle and negotiated with the government – which he is a part of – from within.

Strictly speaking, I think the members of the Rift Valley have a point. The youth that were detailed for having engaged in violence were mere pawns of the political class. They should be freed. The people that should be in jail are the leaders who incited the youth. And Raila, Kibaki and Kalonzo should own up on their mess. Kibaki for not providind Kenyans with an open electoral process and Raila and Kalonzo for reacting to Kibaki’s mischief with mischief of their own.

miriam makeba passes on

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Africa lost one of her brightest daughters. For over 40 years, the continent was blessed with the melodious voice of Miriam Makeba, a strong African woman who for many years sang against the horrible regime that reigned in the land of Chaka until the early 1990s.

She will be missed by all, and especially by those who enjoyed her tunes. Many know her for her most famous tune – Pata pata. Makeba started singing at the age of 13 and rose to international stardorm by the help of the Manhattan brothers and Harry Belafonte.

I join the South Africans and her fans across the world in paying tribute to this wonderful daughter of Africa and citizen of the world. Rest in peace Mama Africa.

can we stop being clowns? please….

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You’ve got to give to the Kenyan government for acting clownish. The declaration of Thursday as a national holiday to celebrate Obama’s election victory was as silly as it was irresponsible. I am the first person to admit that Obama’s election was a huge milestone, not just for racially divided America but also for humanity. And Kenya deservedly ought to be proud that the son of a Kenyan will soon be the most powerful man in the world.

This Thursday holiday is too much though. America did not even have the day off from work on election day. To imagine that the government would suspend schools and all work just for celebration makes me sick. No wonder we are still a low income country. Why promote this culture of work evasion? Where is the work ethic Mr. President?

I think this was a clown move on the part of the government and in the future we should perhaps reduce the number of holidays we get off the calendar. Work, work, work. That is the only way we are going to get out of poverty as a nation, and not by taking holidays at every opportunity.

PRESIDENT OBAMA!

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For a moment that seemed like eternity everyone in the room was quiet. We all watched with amazement and speechless at the site of jubilation and pride that rocked America when Wolf Blitzer of CNN declared that Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a Kenyan, would be the next president of the United States and the most powerful man in the world.

Obama’s win is a win for humanity. It is a win for humanity because for the first time, a country that was founded on the back of slaves and over the dead bodies of native Americans finally got around to electing the son of an African to the presidency. Obama’s election is a symbol of reconciliation between the United States and the sons and daughters of Africa, long dead, who were treated like property during the first hundred years of the nation’s existence.

But Obama’s win was not just about race. Most importantly it was about the future and hope. It was about the idea that anything is possible for anyone, if you work hard at it – regardless of where you begin.

As a Kenyan I am most proud. As a human being and a self-declared citizen of the world I am even more proud for the possibilities that the Obama win opens up for all Americans and all of humanity to come together as one. As Obama likes to say in his speeches, “out of many we are one.” Long live the idea of one humanity, and long live the United States, a country founded on an idea of the equality of all men under one God.

whatever happens tomorrow

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The people of the United States head to the polls tomorrow to elect their next president. Being the political junkie that I am I have been following the election like my life depends on it. Sites like Huffingtonpost, politico, the nation, salon and even the national review have been my hourly staples – not forgetting pollster and 270towin.

But the election would not have been this exciting without two candidates. One of them was the first woman to ever run with a serious chance to win. The other was the first black man to ever make the attempt, with  a serious chance of winning. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama brought to this campaign more than all the other candidates combined.

Tonight, America holds its breath in readiness for a long day of voting and news cycles that never end. It is going to be a day filled with tension. A part of me really wants Obama to win. But I am not yet sold on the idea without a doubt. Some of the polls are too close for comfort. And I keep dreading the possibility of Obama underperforming the polls.

Whatever happens tomorrow, the world and America will learn a lot from it. An Obama win will energize America and progressives all over the world. A McCain win will affirm America’s conservative streak. Either way America will get to know itself better. On November 5th everyone will know where the country stands. Whether it is a centre right state or a centre left state.

All my best wishes to the Obama campaign.