Muigwithania 2.0

Queen Elizabeth’s decision to withdraw an honorary knighthood bestowed on President Mugabe in 1994 is actually a blessing in disguise as it removes one of the last vestiges of colonial titles on an outstanding African statesman and revolutionary, Mugabe’s supporters have said. While the rabid western media ranted and raved about the event because of their warped value system, progressive Zimbabweans saw it as signifying the further decolonization of Africa, they said, according to Friday’s The Herald, a state-owned newspaper.

A social commentator was quoted as saying Zimbabwe was independent and has its own value systems that protect African humanism, integrity and empowerment.”The decolonization process was a rejection of British value systems and so as Zimbabweans we simply see this as the removal of one of the last vestiges of colonialism. No one has ever referred to our President as ‘Sir’ Robert Mugabe. He is known as ‘Comrade’ Robert Mugabe and that says it all,” he said.The supporters said the move should be seen as further proof of the British Empire’s brazen interference in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs, as if the country is still their colony.They said it was shameful that the Queen still thinks the knighthood has more meaning to Zimbabweans than the 100 percent black empowerment program that President Mugabe has embarked on.

The Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity Bright Matonga laughed off the development, saying the continued existence of the knighthood had given the British the mistaken impression that they still held some form of sway over the country. “My President never used that knighthood. It meant nothing to him and it means nothing to us as Zimbabweans and this is why it was never talked about here,” he said. British Queen Elizabeth II stripped Mugabe of his ceremonial knighthood on Wednesday on the advice of Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who said Mugabe should have the honor revoked following widespread violence and intimidation of the southern African country’s opposition before the presidential run-off.

Mugabe has repeatedly slashed Britain and other Western countries for trying to interfere into Zimbabwean politics.He said the Western powers are angered by Zimbabwe’s land reform program, under which the government acquired land from white farmers for re-distribution to landless blacks.Zimbabwe held presidential run-off Friday, with Mugabe being the sole candidate after his rival, the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, pulled out, though the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has dismissed his withdrawal, saying his submission of the withdrawal letter on Tuesday is too late.

“Was it not enough punishment and suffering in history that we were uprooted and made helpless slaves not only in new colonial outposts but also domestically.”

“We don’t mind having sanctions banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans.”

“We have said we will never collapse, never ever. We may have our droughts, our poverty, but as a people we shall never collapse, never ever.”

“The voice of The United States and the voice of the British can’t decide who shall rule in Zimbabwe, who shall rule in Africa, who shall rule in Asia, who shall rule in Venezuela, who shall rule in Iran, who shall rule in Iraq.”

Robert G. Mugabe (Uncle Bob)

Before someone becomes a Kikuyu elder, One must must meet the following conditions.

i)The Candidate and his last born son must be circumcised.
ii) A candidate from another tribe, must denounce his tribe(This is done by offer of 3 sheep)and an Elder (muchuha) of his choice will become his/her God father.The person is not entitled to any dowry for his daughters and the dowry goes to the ‘Muchuha’.
iii)He must be recommended by ‘athuri a matathi and Athuri a maturango(Elders of Matathi and those of Maturango.)These two recommend the person to Arathi.
iv) the Arathi (12 in number) then verifies the persons past to see if he/she has been involved in any murder or general crime against the community.

If the person has met those conditions, he is given two mithigi’s(Sticks).One is straight (signifying one God) while the other is two pronged at the end Signifying Ngoma (Kikuyu right word for Ancestoral spirits, not satan)

The muthigi was taken to Kirinyaga by the arathi for 40 days where they were to speak with God.its then that they come up with a decision of whether to make a person an Elder.

when all this is done the person receives the following items

1 Muthigi (stick-two pronged)-signifying power to lead
2 Rwenji (Circumcisers knife)-power to circumcise
3.Kioho kia migathi (stringed Beads)-Power to choose what other elders and agemates will be adorning.
4.Ruhiu (Panga/sword)-power to slaughter a goat

5.Coro (Blowing horn)-power to rally people together

6.Itimu na ruhiu rwa njora (Spear and sword)-power to call his people to war.

What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? —Micah 6:8

I once heard interviews with survivors from World War II. The soldiers recalled how they spent a particular day. One sat in a foxhole; once or twice, a German tank drove by and he shot at it. Others played cards and frittered away the time. A few got involved in furious firefights. Mostly, the day passed like any other. Later, they learned they had just participated in one of the largest, most decisive engagements of the war, the Battle of the Bulge. It didn’t feel decisive at the time because none had the big picture.

Great victories are won when ordinary people execute their assigned tasks.

When followers of Ignatius (1491–1556) endured periods of futility, he always prescribed the same cure: “In times of desolation we must never make a change, but stand firm and constant in the resolutions and determination in which we were the day before the desolations.” Spiritual battles must be fought with the very weapons hardest to wield at the time: prayer, meditation, self-examination, and repentance.

Perhaps you sense you’re in a spiritual rut. Stay at your assigned task! Obedience to God—and only obedience—offers the way out of our futility.
— Philip Yancey

When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after rain. —Cowper

If you sense your faith is unraveling, go back to where you dropped the thread of obedience

NAIROBI, Kenya — “We hurriedly buried the seven in the shallow grave and fled due to fears of attacks,” explained cattle farmer Joseph Mwangi-Macharia last month as armed police accompanying him went through the motions of unearthing the bodies of his entire family, unwitting victims of the violence that followed Kenya’s disputed December 2007 election.

“This was my lovely wife. They decapitated her when she pleaded that they spare her 18-year-old granddaughter,” said the 52-year old Mwangi-Macharia amid sobs, “Why in God’s name did they have to kill her in this fashion?”

As the seven bodies were interred in Kenya’s Rift Valley province, a flashpoint of some of the deadliest intertribal skirmishes, a moral dilemma was also confronting Kenya’s people and leaders: Would a blanket amnesty for perpetrators of crimes against humanity — such as those who wiped out Macharia’s entire family — be a pragmatic way for the country to get past recent events? Or would it constitute an injustice of epic proportions, given the circumstances that led to the formation of the now two-month-old coalition government?About 1,500 people were killed and 355,000 others displaced from their homes soon after the controversial results of Kenya’s presidential elections were announced in December. Now the country is wrestling with how to deal with that reality while preserving a fragile peace.

“The remote perpetrators, leaders and planners of the type of violations witnessed in Kenya must never be exempted under any circumstances. To do so would be a travesty of justice,” said Maina Kiai, executive director of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC), a government-funded organization.

According to Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe, 12,000 people are awaiting trial for crimes related to the post-election violence, while another 340 suspects whose identity is known are yet to be apprehended.Georgette Gagnon, Africa program director at Human Rights Watch, says her organization has evidence against leaders of Prime Minister Rail Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) for helping to incite the ethnic violence, and she cautions against playing the amnesty card.The violence was triggered by the widespread perception that Kibaki, an alumnus of the prestigious London School of Economics, stole the election from opposition politician Raila Odinga, an East German-trained mechanical engineer.

According the government-appointed Electoral Commission of Kenya, Kibaki won 4.5 million votes compared to the Odinga’s 4.3 million. But independent observers accused the commission of engaging in fraud to put Kibaki over the top.To stem the spiral of violence that threatened to tear the country asunder, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan attempted to negotiate an acceptable political settlement between the two parties.In April, Kibaki and Odinga settled for a power-sharing arrangement that saw the former grudgingly give up some of his executive power to the latter, who now serves as prime minister in the so-called “grand coalition” government of the country’s two largest rival parties, a first such coalition in Africa.But the power-sharing by the two antagonists has been anything but calm as their respective camps have disagreed on practically everything, including amnesty. The battle for political succession in 2012, when the next polls are scheduled, continues to undermine the cohesiveness of the government.

On the amnesty question, Odinga’s ODM favors an unconditional release of all those suspected of taking part in the violence, while Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU) seeks due process for all suspects.
“Many of those being held were acting as our vigilantes whose only crime was to ensure that a free and fair election took place. But the police force has been biased in the whole issue. Only ODM people were picked up. I have raised the issue with President Kibaki severally and we expect the matter to be resolved expeditiously,” Odinga told a public rally in late May.He added: “I don’t think we should be talking about giving amnesty to those already in custody because they committed no crime. Is it a crime to fight for your democratic rights? Or is it a crime to stand and say that last year’s elections were rigged?”

Henry Kosgey, ODM chairman and the country’s minister for industrialization, also believes genuine reconciliation will only be achieved if the government releases the suspects unconditionally.”There should be no double application of the law,” Kosgey said recently. “Youths that butchered people in the name of defending Kibaki have never been arrested but ours are rotting in the cells.”Meanwhile, others, including world-renowned Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong’o, say the reality of election rigging cannot justify the violence committed in retaliation for that crime, and are urging the U.N. to probe the killings.

“I . . . call upon the United Nations to act and investigate the massacres that took place in Kenya as crimes against humanity and let the chips fall where they may,” Thiong’o told the BBC in January.

“For the sake of justice, healing and peace now and in the future I urge all progressive forces not too be so engrossed with the political wrongs of election tampering that they forget the crimes of hate and ethnic cleansing — crimes that led to untimely deaths and displacement of thousands,” he added.Conspicuously, President Kibaki has so far remained above the fray, though his PNU allies are unanimously agreed that nothing should get in the way of justice for the perpetrators.

“Whether the investigations come from the international scene or from our own jurisdiction does not really matter. What is important is that they are done and those found guilty charged accordingly,” said Martha Karua, minister for justice, national cohesion and constitutional affairs.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, who is also in agreement with his fellow party members, has a message for those who committed violence: “You can run for 20 years but the law will still catch up with you,” he said. “Take for instance the case of Felecian Kabuga, the fugitive Rwandan who is still being pursued for having had a role in the genocide that took place in 1994. Those who were involved in crimes against humanity here are undeserving of amnesty.”

Meanwhile, some arguably more independent observers contend that the nation’s political culture must be cleansed of its tradition of deception if Kenya is to move forward.

“Kenya is a country that is built on a shaky foundation of half-truths with regard to its past,” said human rights lawyer Njonjo Mui. “If we are to survive and reinvent ourselves as a nation, we must discover our truth and urgently deploy it to the task of truly setting us free.”

Indeed, the most recent violence is part of a well-established history of interethnic strife, particular at election time. Such clashes also have occurred in 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2006.

Paul Wanyande, a lecturer of political science at the University of Nairobi, traces the roots of election-related violence to former President Daniel Arap Moi, who he says pursued a political strategy of balkanizing the country “into tribal fiefdoms.”

“Unfortunately, when a new administration ascended to power in 2002, it encouraged impunity when it dithered on acting on myriad official reports that had named and shamed individuals linked to past human rights violations,” said Wanyande.

Amnesty International also has added its voice to those who want a full investigation of the post-election abuses and killings.

“Amnesty International wants the African Commission and the Kenya Government to prioritize an investigation into the human rights violations and abuses perpetrated during the post-election period,” said the organization’s Africa program director, Erwin van der Borght. “Impunity for human rights violations will only store up problems for Kenya’s future.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating whether to bring charges against those involved in the violence.

Kenya’s annual inflation soared to 31.5 percent in May from 26.6 percent for the previous month, led by a hike in food prices which have been affected by a global trend and the east African nation’s post-election crisis.”Overall inflation rate increased from 26.6 per cent in April 2008 to 31.5 per cent in May 2008,” the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on Tuesday.The May rate was the highest in four years, according to Central Bank data that only has monthly inflation figures going back to 2004.

The food and non-alcoholic drinks’ index led the overall rise, up 44.2 percent year-on-year.Underlying inflation, which excludes food, rose to 10.5 percent in May from 9.6 percent in April.The statistics bureau said the fuel and power index rose 17.9 percent year-on-year, while transport and communication was up 20.3 percent.Like other developing countries, Kenya has been hard hit by global food price rises. Police in Nairobi fired teargas on Saturday at hundreds of people protesting against high prices.

The Kenyan situation has been exacerbated, however, by post-election violence in January and February that affected agricultural production and planting.The statistics bureau collects data every second and third week of the month from shops in 13 towns in the country.Its basket is intended to be representative of the spending behaviour of urban Kenyan households.