Muigwithania 2.0

kelly.brewington@baltsun.com

Over grilled goat meat and Amstel Light, the men banter in a rapid-fire blend of Swahili and English. It’s hot, humid and loud on the gravel patio of this Northeast Baltimore bar, where the tables are covered with thatched umbrellas and Kenyan-style Lingala tunes pulse from a nearby TV.Friday nights at Charlie Brown’s are typically reserved for partying. But on this recent night, it’s all about politics, as conversation centers on Kenya’s most famous son – Barack Obama.

It doesn’t matter that Obama was neither born nor raised in Kenya (his father, also named Barack, was from a small village in Kenya’s Nyanza province). And whether he wins the race for the presidency is somewhat irrelevant. Among this circle of friends, Obama’s nomination alone is cause for celebration, reflection and intense debate.”In Kenyan culture, they consider Barack their son,” said Mike Mugo, a 34-year-old nurse from Baltimore who grew up in Nairobi. “You are a son of Kenya, no matter where you live. And because of that, Kenyans feel immense pride.”But if he is president, how does it help Kenya?” William Gachiri interjected, playing the self-described devil’s advocate.

The exchange reflects a mix of pride, hope and trepidation about Obama’s run for president. The pride is easy to articulate – Obama shares their lineage and appears to care deeply about the east African nation. An Obama presidency could boost Kenya’s reputation in the U.S. and the world, they hope.They also acknowledge that their dreams for an Obama presidency might be too lofty. Surely, Obama alone can’t end ethnic tensions in Kenya, improve diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the world, and run the most powerful nation, they say.

Joe Wachira (left), Jackson Nganga and Mike Mugo

In January, Kenya’s flawed presidential election resulted in ethnic violence between Luos and ethnic Kikuyus, the nation’s most populous ethnic group (which includes President Mwai Kibaki). Obama’s father was a Luo.While many in Kenya reject tribalism, tensions remain, even among Kenyans in the United States, said Mugo, who grew up in Nairobi and moved to Baltimore for college 12 years ago.”It’s very subtle; you see it in the places people choose to hang out,” he said. “I, personally, hate the tribal sentiment, but it is there.”Mugo and the others – all Kikuyu – said Obama’s ethnic ancestry doesn’t matter to them, nor to most Kenyans.At the pool table, Steve Maina of Parkville said he wished Obama spoke out more forcefully against the ethnic strife several months ago.

“Being a presidential candidate in the most powerful country in the world, he needed to do something more to condemn the killing,” said Maina, who is half Kikuyu, half Masai and has lived in Baltimore for 13 years.Gachiri is the first of the four to say he fears Obama’s race will be his chief barrier to the White House.”Race is a huge factor here,” he said, the other men nodding in agreement. “It’s a part of the American social fabric. Just look at Hurricane Katrina.” “Remember what happened to Harold Ford?” chimed in Muchiri Kiiru, a teacher from Cockeysville, referring to the black Tennessee congressman who lost his bid for Senate in 2006 amid allegations of racially tinged ads. “We know about how complicated the South is.”Mugo agreed, saying he feared that Obama will be unable to shake the “black candidate” label, hurting his chances with white voters. Still, Mugo is hopeful.”I believe there is a majority of Americans who are willing to do the right thing, black and white,” he said.Mugo is the constant optimist among his friends and family. His parents, who live in Kenya, have few expectations of an Obama presidency.

“Over the years, they have been disappointed by so much, even by the local politicians next door,” he said. “Why would they expect anything of someone 10,000 miles away?”Nevertheless, like many Kenyans, they see are Obama as an extension of themselves, Mugo said.”If he can do it,” Mugo said, “that means that little boy in the village can aspire to the greatest dream of allIn neighborhoods straddling Baltimore’s northeast border with Baltimore County, Mugo has found a small but tightly knit community of Kenyans of various ethnic groups. About 4,700 Kenyans called Maryland home in 2006, according to the Migration Police Institute. Mugo and others say jokingly that nearly all of them hang out at the patio of Charlie Brown’s.

They come for NyamaChoma, which translates to “grilled meat” in Swahili, a hugely popular Kenyan specialty served in heaping piles on styrofoam plates. The smoky scent of goat ribs wafts between the crowded tables of the dimly lit back patio. Meanwhile, in the front room of the bar – popular with a diverse bunch of native Baltimoreans and Kenyans alike – hip-hop music thumps through speakers.

In a conversation that touched on Kenya’s economic and social problems and the complexities of race in America, the group expressed worries that Obama has a rough campaign ahead and that even if he wins the presidency, his administration might be unable to fulfill their expectations.

Gachiri dryly wonders aloud if too many Kenyans in America support Obama simply because of his lineage.

His three other friends scoff and chide him with laughter. Mugo shakes his head – no way.

“My support for Obama has nothing to do with him being black or Kenyan,” Mugo said. “When I heard his speech at the Democratic National Convention, I started standing. I started cheering. Anybody, black, white, green or yellow, who spoke like this, I would have to identify with them. He appeals to a sense of decency.”

Days after watching Obama’s break-out speech in 2004, Mugo purchased his book, Dreams FromMy Father. He was impressed with Obama’s accomplishments and how candidly he described being raised by a white mother from Kansas, longing to know his father in Kenya and ultimately finding his racial identity.

Obama also expressed deep affection for Kenya, said Joe Wachira, a high school teacher from Middle River. Wachira remembers a photo that appeared in the Kenyan newspaper, The Standard, showing a young Obama on the first of three visits to the country.”He was helping his grandmother carry things, hanging out in the market, just doing the things that we do,” said Wachira intensely. “He blended fairly easy in this Third World country, and that meant a lot to Kenyans.”

And even though Kenyans affectionately call Obama “point 5″ as in 0.5, to connote being half-Kenyan, they consider him every bit one of them, Wachira and others said.Back home, Obama is considered such a hero that some people expect the impossible from him, Wachira said.”They think Kenya has a rich friend in the U.S.,” said Mugo. “For so many years, all we hear about Africa is negative things. Any person who goes and becomes famous and important and is contributing in this nature, they are proud.”

The presumptive Democratic Party nominee receives rock-star treatment in Kenya, where a popular beer called Senator is known simply as “Obama.” His popularity permeates a nation fractured along ethnic lines.

A power-sharing agreement here that brought peace in the wake of controversial elections in December that sparked political violence that killed at least 1,500 people, has been hailed as a model by the African Union for countries like Zimbabwe struggling to deal with the aftermath of a disputed vote. In February, President Mwai Kibaki named opposition leader Raila Odinga to the newly created post of prime minister. Kibaki and Odinga – the latter had accused the incumbent president of rigging the election – then agreed to parcel out top government posts among their allies and expand the Cabinet from 34 ministries to 41 to better represent Kenya’s 42 ethnic groups.At the time, it seemed diplomacy had worked, damping a blazing political rivalry with a handshake and a smile.

Violence soon ended. But five months later, many analysts say little has been done to remedy the conditions of impunity and corruption at the heart of Kenya’s political crisis. Among the country’s new ministers are men accused of inciting election violence and being key players in corruption scandals that have swindled taxpayers of more than $1 billion since the 1990s, according to Kroll Inc., an international risk-assessment firm. And a look at this year’s national budget suggests that the new parliament has returned to business as usual, these same analysts say.

“The script remains the same,” said Barach Muluka, a political commentator in the capital, Nairobi. “The cast is largely the same. A few players have come on board but everything is largely the same.”Not far from the site in the small village of Kiambaa where Kalenjin tribal fighters set a church alight, burning more than 30 Kikuyus alive in January, Kalenjin elders pointed to the man who they say could have stopped the violence.

“If William Ruto says stop, it will stop,” the elders told Human Rights Watch. Ruto, who denies involvement in ethnic violence, is the new minister of agriculture.In February, police investigated William ole Ntimama, the new minister of national heritage, after finding gasoline canisters in his vehicle in the town of Narok. Members of his Masai ethnic group had killed and raped Kikuyu residents, before burning their homes to the ground. Ntimama denies the allegations. “This is a warlord Cabinet,” said Muluka. “The citizens, the voters, are gun fodder. Once the warlords get what they want, the guns fall silent.”

To be sure, there are signs that Kenya is returning to normal. In the lakeside town of Naivasha, safari vehicles are filled with foreign tourists gawking at hippos and drinking tea at lakeside estates that were once the stomping grounds of Kenya’s colonial class. Across the road, sagging white tents, and trampled savannah grass are reminders of a displacement camp for thousands of refugees who had fled election violence. Chairs still cluster around a tin-roof building where the Kenya Red Cross handed out food and medicines. Today, only a few hundred people remain, fearful of going home and still waiting for the $158 government stipend for resettlement. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights estimates that there are 190,000 displaced people still living in camps across Kenya.

But there are signs that Kenya is heading for another political calamity.

Kenya has requested $1.1 billion from international donors to avert a looming food crisis caused by rising prices, and just 15 percent of the national budget has been allocated for development programs, according to the Mars Group, a Kenyan anti-corruption watchdog organization. Moreover, the newly created Cabinet positions will cost at least $800 million in office space, staff, bodyguards and state-issued luxury cars, more than a tenth of the national budget. Another $30 million, nearly the amount of the entire education budget, has been set aside for water and power utilities at the presidential estate. And more than $100 million has been allocated for debt payments on so-called ghost projects, including $70 million for a naval ship that has never been delivered and $100 million for a nonexistent fertilizer company, according to the Mars Group.

Why? Parliament has yet to debate the budget. Instead, lawmakers have spent much of their time fighting a plan to tax their annual salaries of $160,000. In contrast, a U.S. senator earns $169,300. “If they dillydally, and invoke political dishonesty as we have seen in the past – take advantage of power to reintroduce tribalism, corruption, and benefit a nucleus of friends – then there is a likelihood that this will not be a lasting peace,” said Omar Hassan, a commissioner with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. “The portrayal that Kenya was a unified, dignified, peaceful country, that same myth will be challenged and deconstructed a second time.”

Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Justice Minister Martha Karua on Wednesday tore into the anti-corruption policy of the very Government they serve.By the virtue of their positions, the statements only added to the confusion that has characterized the war on corruption.As Prime Minister, Raila is charged with supervising and coordinating functions of Government, which has been the breeding ground for corruption. On her part, Karua is the custodian of the Justice machinery. In principle, the two should serve as the fulcrum around which the battle must be fought.
On his part, Raila appeared to plead lack of political will, but Karua attacked the Executive, accusing it of failing to live up to its promises.

And by calling for the return of celebrated anti-corruption czar John Githongo, who fled the country in 2005 amid claims that his life was in danger, Raila appeared to openly express dissatisfaction with the individuals and institutions charged with the task. Karua challenged the Grand Coalition to take the unique opportunity and bi-partisan approach and suggest policy and legal options to rid Kenya of corruption once and for all.“So long as we have pending cases of old corruption arising from transactions of Goldenberg, Anglo-Leasing and the Ndung’u Report, we cannot clear the backlog. The perception will be that the Government is still tolerating corruption,” Karua noted.

However, Raila and Karua admitted that the Government faced legal and policy hurdles in the fight against corruption.“While the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission tries to freeze assets acquired corruptly in foreign jurisdictions, our own courts have issued injunctions against the same,” Raila said.
Backing Karua’s stand on unfinished business of old corruption, Raila said it was embarrassing to see people named in corruption cases reports of Public Accounts Committee and Public Investments Committee of Parliament demonstrating and accusing others of the vice.

By Susan Chipanga

MARK Twain, an acclaimed American author wrote: “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt”.

This timeless quote was brought to mind after intolerable criticism of Zimbabwe by Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of the Kenyan Government of National Unity whose ticket to power was signed by the blood of innocent people. Odinga’s moral right to condemn Zimbabwean elections is overshadowed by his coming into office as a result of the death of 1 500 people and the displacement of over 600 000 people.

On December 30, 2007 the chairman of the Kenyan election commission declared Odinga’s opponent, incumbent president Mwai Kibaki, the winner by a margin of about 230 000 votes. Raila challenged the results alleging fraud by the commission, but refused an election petition before the courts and urged protests, which plunged the country into one of the brutal and bloody post-election violence ever to be witnessed in recent history. Shamefacedly, the poor fellow has been blabbering on about Zimbabwe’s elections, violence, peacekeepers and for the country to be barred from regional bodies; a case some may attribute to being overwhelmed by the glare of the media after being in political obscurity for so long. Consequently, the whole of Africa and the world are regaled by the antics of a witless and hypocritical African politician whose propensity to expose himself unearths his want of tact and maturity in African politics.

Some who are not so harsh in their criticism of Odinga’s unwarranted utterances on Zimbabwe are easy to forgive him as he is a product of incarcerations, flights into exile and betrayal by erstwhile political allies which undoubtedly has made him a bitter man mad at the whole of Africa for not intervening on his behalf. Odinga, as a result, has made himself a champion of opposition politics in Africa after his backdoor entry to leadership in Kenya making him an emperor without clothes after Kenya’s recent history which someone said reads like a Shakespearian tale; full of dramatic intrigue, intricate conspiracies and king making plots.

Odinga’s unwarranted criticism of Zimbabwe might be borne from a need to outshine Mwai Kibaki, the Kenyan president who trounced him in the December election. But, Zimbabwe cannot bear the brunt of his inferiority complex in a bid to gain recognition in African politics. Someone should advise Odinga that the route he has taken is a dead end and neither is it going to absolve him of the blood that is on his hands as rightly pointed by the presidential spokesperson, George Charamba, during the recent African Union Summit in Egypt.

Maybe Odinga’s weakness is more to do with not acquainting himself with African history. He should start to appreciate that more is at stake than meets the eye in the Zimbabwean situation. If the sentiments he echoed during his inauguration are anything to go by, then he is in for a rude awakening in his quest to liberate Kenyans from neo-colonialism.

When Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister of Kenya on April 18 2008, he told the gathering that “we will ensure that power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of many, not the few”. Robert Mugabe whom he is now alleging is a dictator was once the darling of the West until he decided to empower his people by distributing land, which was in the hands of a few whites to the majority of the landless blacks Kenya, like all other African countries, is no exception. It would want to address these historical imbalances and some have alluded that the chaos that Kenya witnessed is the result of historic injustices including land tenure systems and the unequal sharing of resources between the country’s more than 40 ethnic groups.

Other African leaders know that addressing the injustices born out of colonialism is at the core of all African problems and that sooner or later, these issues have to be addressed by each member country. The decisions made by African leaders at the AU summit, that is, wanting Africans to solve their own problems is born out of a realisation that abandoning Zimbabwe at this critical stage will set a bad precedent.

Some delusional African politicians like Odinga might not understand that sticking together with Zimbabwe is also for their future well-being. That, Mr Odinga, is the definition of Pan Africanism. It is not about calling yourself a Pan Africanist when your deeds are devoid of “ubuntu” as you were able to countenance the beheading, skinning, raping, murdering and torturing of innocent people for your own political gain.I am no religious fanatic but I do believe the good book offers sound advice in the case of looking at a straw in another’s eye whilst not considering the rafter in your own eye. It is evident Odinga is singing for the few morsels that the United States is dropping on his lap whilst mortgaging Kenya in the process. Reports indicate that the US government is negotiating base access agreements with the government of Kenya that will allow American troops to use military facilities when the United States wants to deploy its own army in Africa. So at the right intervals Odinga has to make the right noises on Zimbabwe so as to appease his benefactors. Shame on you Odinga!

Odinga is a disgrace to the continent, which has produced notable statesmen like Nelson Mandela who spent all his life fighting for the liberation of his people and Robert Mugabe who is fighting for the total emancipation of his people. What has Odinga to show for himself, except bloody hands, which no doubt soiled his reputation of ever being regarded as a statesman. Instead of being fixated with what is happening in Zimbabwe, Odinga should be concerned with healing his own country where thousands still remain displaced, traumatised and reluctant to return to the their former homes because the horrors they witnessed are forever etched in their minds. Odinga will remain an overly ambitious politician who would stop at nothing to achieve his political ends. He should keep his tainted hands off Zimbabwe.

BREAKING NEWS: China and Russia Veto Zim Sanctions.

Exodus 6

¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”² God also said to Moses, “I am the LORD. ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, ^[a] but by my name the LORD  I did not make myself known to them. ^{[c] 4} I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they lived as aliens. ⁵ Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.⁶ “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. ⁷ I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. ⁸ And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.’ “⁹ Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage.¹⁰ Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹¹ “Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country.”

Exodus 12

The Exodus

³¹ During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested. ³² Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”³³ The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” ³⁴So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. ³⁵ The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. ³⁶ The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷ The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. ³⁸ Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. ³⁹ With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.⁴⁰ Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt ^[b] was 430 years. ⁴¹ At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions left Egypt. ⁴² Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come.

Six months after post election clashes brought this country to its knees, life in Kenya appears back to normal — for better and for worse.

Ethnic fighting that killed more than 1,000 people has subsided. Political enemies are working together in a coalition government. Kenyans have returned to work and school “We’re slipping back into trivia while the central issues are not being addressed,” said Richard Leakey, chairman of the Kenya branch of Transparency International, a government watchdog group. “We have not gone very far in addressing the fundamental problems. The government isn’t showing any realism.”A fragile coalition government, cobbled together by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, has inspired little confidence. The bloated 93-member Cabinet is the most expensive in Kenyan history, and critics accuse parliament members of being more concerned with preserving their tax-free $10,000-a-month pay packages than the plight of their constituents.

Frosty ties

Relations between President Mwai Kibaki and his rival, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, are sometimes so frosty that their security guards nearly came to blows at a government rally in June. Meanwhile, Odinga and the vice president are fighting over which man comes second to Kibaki in the pecking order, resulting in tiffs over who should speak first in public and whose motorcade gets right of way.Hopes that the painful clashes might usher in overdue reforms and encourage Kenyans to tackle long-standing historical grievances and tribal tensions are fading.

“It would seem, then, that these politicians had finally got what they wanted: power, or, to be precise, a share of it,” read a recent front-page editorial in the Standard newspaper. “Other matters were quickly relegated to the bottom of their priorities agenda.”Even the controversial electoral commission, which was widely criticized by local and international observers for failing to prevent vote fraud, remains intact and recently oversaw another round of polling for parliament members.The government’s first test was coping with an estimated 350,000 displaced people living in squalid camps after postelection violence drove them from their homes. Riots engulfed much of the country after the electoral commission, handpicked by Kibaki, ignored evidence of tallying fraud after the election and hastily declared him the victor. Violence quickly turned into ethnic warfare as Kenya’s tribes vented long-standing frustrations over competition for land, jobs and political power. Entire villages were burned to the ground.

In May, the government announced a campaign to resettle Kenyans, sometimes by force, in their villages. Government officials say nearly 200,000 people returned home.But in reality, very few have returned to the homes they fled, aid workers say. Most have simply shifted to new, smaller camps, moved in with relatives, returned to ancestral homelands or are squatting on empty land or church grounds.”It wasn’t really a resettlement — it was just a transfer,” said Charles Kariuki, who leads a group of displaced people in central Kenya.Critics say the government not only failed to provide the promised monetary compensation to help victims rebuild homes, but it also ignored the most crucial component: reconciliation. Legislation to create a national reconciliation commission is tied up in parliament.

As a result, many displaced people say they remain too afraid or too angry to go home.Virginia Wangari, 62, a divorced mother of eight, said she was persuaded by government officials to leave a displacement camp in May and return to her Rift Valley village. She said she was promised tents, food and other supplies, and told that local officials would be waiting to welcome her.Instead, she and other returnees found no one to greet them and spent their first night on a bus by the side of the road. In the morning, local officials told her she was on her own, suggesting that she pitch a tent on the charred remains of her house.She quickly learned that going home was not an option. The same rival tribe members who had chased her away six months earlier were attacking and raping women who attempted to return. Not far away, returnees were greeted with threatening leaflets, making it clear they were not welcome.

“I’m not going to take my neck to the butcher,” Wangari said. “If I went home now, I’d be killed.” She returned to the displacement camp.Humanitarian aid experts say the government needs to lay the groundwork for resettlement by bringing tribes together to vent their frustrations and forgive one another.”You have to have reconciliation before resettlement,” said Daniel Were, a peace activist in the city of Eldoret. “The government wants to be seen as doing something, but they are only doing part of the job.”U.S. Ambassador Michael E. Ranneberger expressed optimism that the new government would produce results in coming months, saying Kibaki and Odinga are committed to the process.”People need to keep their eye on the president and prime minister, and listen to what they are saying,” Ranneberger said. “They realize they need each other to fulfill their agendas.”But others say Kenya’s leaders may be reluctant to tackle the most controversial issues, such as land reform and constitutional review, because they worry that a debate could rekindle tensions, possibly leading to a collapse of the coalition or renewed fighting.

Perils for politicians

Many politicians now serving in top posts also may find themselves implicated in investigations of corruption, election fraud and post-election violence, creating another disincentive, experts said.“Most of the people in this government are the product of 40 years of corruption, violence and impunity,” said Ben Rawlence, a Kenya researcher for Human Rights Watch.“They are all involved. The coalition government itself is what needs to be brought to book.”

He expressed pessimism that government officials would push for reforms or prosecutions that might curtail their powers, hit their pocketbooks or implicate their supporters.Odinga, for example, recently called for amnesty for jailed supporters accused of participating in riots. Kibaki is insisting that they be tried in court.”If this is the face of the ‘new’ Kenya,” Rawlence said, “it’s worrying.”

The zimbabwe government has responded to kenyan prime minister, raila odinga’s calls for military action on zimbabwe and for the african union to expel the country from the group by saying he is not qualified to speak on zimbabwe as his hands ‘drip of blood’. In response to questions about recent utterances by prime minister odinga presidential spokesman, george charamba said: “you follow politics carefully.

I hope you follow kenyan politics closely. Prime minister raila odinga’s hands drip with blood,” said charamba. He continued, ”raw african blood, and that blood is not going to be cleansed by any amount of abuse of zimbabwe.”odinga has become one of the harshest critics of the zimbabwean government. He called for zimbabwe to be suspended from the african union until president robert mugabe allows ‘free and fair elections’ adding that the au would be making a grave mistake if it recognized president mugabe as a legitimately-elected president.he also asked the african union (au) to deploy peacekeeping forces in zimbabwe to protect opposition supporters from alleged harassment and torture.charamba’s response referred to kenya’s recent which saw raila odinga declared prime minister after coalition talks with president mwai kibaki.

The kenyan election was marred by the worst election violence ever seen on the continent, with 300 pre election deaths and over 1 500 people dying post election.the government of president kibaki accused odinga’s party of unleashing “genocide” on the kenyan people. The coalition government in kenya has not been without problems as violence has continued in kenya.kenyan politics is deeply embedded in tribalism with most members of parliament elected on the basis of tribal and community votes.recently tension has been rising in kenya’s rift valley, the epicentre of last january’s post-election chaos

Finance Minister Amos Kimunya remained defiant last night, rebuffed calls for his resignation and denied acting with impunity over the secret sale of the Grand Regency Hotel.The minister insisted the Sh2.9 billion the Government received from the Libyans was the best value for the national asset and that the deal was clean.Kimunya, who spoke to The Standard on the telephone, said the deal did not involve President Kibaki and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.”It was a clean deal that was directly between the Libyan Embassy in Nairobi and the Central Bank of Kenya,” said the minister as he sought to distance the two presidents from the sale that has sparked controversy and calls for his resignation.Despite the barrage of condemnation and protests by Cabinet ministers, religious leaders, civil society and other Kenyans to resign, Kimunya said the calls were not justified and some of his colleagues were making utterances from a point of ignorance.He threw brickbats at his Cabinet colleague, Constitutional Affairs Minister Martha Karua, accusing her of emotionally whipping propaganda to misinform the public.Kimunya suggested it was Karua and other ministers of her ilk who should be resigning and not himself. He said they were “incompetent to serve as ministers”.”If a minister can accuse me on the sale of Grand Regency without clarifying from me the details of the same, it is really unfortunate, and that is why they should resign first because they are incompetent,” said Kimunya.

Its mere politics

He added: “This deal was so official that I cannot understand why ministers would want to demonise it without even knowing the facts,” said Kimunya.The minister said calls for his sacking and resignation were “pure propaganda” and that his colleagues were a let down to the Government and Kenyans for commenting on issues before verifying facts “which are in the open”.”The highest value for the purchase of Grand Regency was Sh2.1 billion, but it was sold for Sh2.9 billion last week after the sale was finalised and the transfer made,” explained Kimunya.He said claims that the hotel was sold for Sh7 billion were malicious and a plot by some politicians in Government to demonise him.Kimunya also defended claims against single sourcing, saying the Libyans registered their interest for the Grand Regency since April and nobody else came up with any other offer.”The issue of single sourcing does not arise because no other country was interested. Again, there are no complaints from any country that had shown interest in purchasing Grand Regency,” the minister said.He said several brokers and agents had been cut off from the deal and this had not gone down well with many parties, including some politicians now making accusations.

“My colleagues are busy making comments on an issue they seem not to understand. None of them has asked me to explain the details, and again, it’s all in the open. Theirs is political propaganda which does not help anybody,” he said.The minister also denied allegations of corruption and money changing hands between senior officials and the Libyans. He said no government could bribe another in such a deal.”It was the Libyan government that wanted to deal directly with Central Bank. I could not have said anything until the deal had been done. It’s on record and in the open,” said Kimunya.

MPs are malicious

Kimunya introduced another dimension to the saga, claiming that he had suddenly become unpopular among MPs in Parliament after introducing taxes on their allowances.”They think by making malicious statements on serious issues they will cut me down to size. I challenge anybody who has evidence that the hotel was sold at Sh7 billion to produce it,” said Kimunya.And Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula, speaking from Egypt where he is attending the African Union summit, said he knew of the deal between the Libyan Embassy and the Central Bank.Wetangula, however, said he had long left Wetangula, Adam Makhokha and Company Advocates, the firm said to have handled the sale transaction.The minister said he retired from the firm in January after he was appointed to the Cabinet. But the law firm retained the name for purposes of business.