________Omar Ahmed Ali, Philadelphia, USA__
In his effort to reduce crime and murder rates in Philadelphia, the new police commissioner Mr. Charles Ramsey, who is the city of brotherly love’s top cop, recently commented that the new tactics he wishes to impose are not a departure from basic police work. He added that the tactics won’t be Batman or Robin Hood suddenly coming out of a cave somewhere to solve all the city’s problems.
This is exactly what is not going to happen in Kenya. The former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who is leading the mediation talks is not going to come up with a solution, to our country’s political stalemate, out from a hat as many Kenyans perhaps suspect. The fact of the matter is that, it is the principals of this political stalemate, namely President Mwai Kibaki and the Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga through their appointed mediation teams together with the assistance of Annan and his group are the one who combined will come up with the solution.
With due respect to the finest Ghanaian diplomat and his team of eminent persons, they know that they are not in any position to impose a long lasting solution to the Kenyan political problem. That is why this column finds it to be very unfair for a section of the press to demonize the Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Martha Karua on her firm stand when it come to the mediation talks. The way I see it is that as a team leader of the Government/PNU side, Karua has every reason and every right to defend her side. Of course this applies to the Vihiga MP Musalia Mudavadi who is leading the ODM side to do the same.
This is exactly what is not going to happen in Kenya. The former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who is leading the mediation talks is not going to come up with a solution, to our country’s political stalemate, out from a hat as many Kenyans perhaps suspect. The fact of the matter is that, it is the principals of this political stalemate, namely President Mwai Kibaki and the Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga through their appointed mediation teams together with the assistance of Annan and his group are the one who combined will come up with the solution.
With due respect to the finest Ghanaian diplomat and his team of eminent persons, they know that they are not in any position to impose a long lasting solution to the Kenyan political problem. That is why this column finds it to be very unfair for a section of the press to demonize the Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Martha Karua on her firm stand when it come to the mediation talks. The way I see it is that as a team leader of the Government/PNU side, Karua has every reason and every right to defend her side. Of course this applies to the Vihiga MP Musalia Mudavadi who is leading the ODM side to do the same.
Demonizing Karua is not helping the situation but making it worse. For instance, while addressing an informal session of the National Assembly, the former UN chief, who is the lead mediator of the Kenya mediation talks, while briefing the legislators on the developments of ending the political impasse, said amongst other things that ‘the team had agreed to have a transitional government for two years after which the country shall hold presidential elections.’
Now this matter was evidently never discussed in the talks and Karua being who she is, came out and publicly stated that was not the case. That the issue of transitional government and presidential elections in two was never discussed, at least as she puts it, her team was not a part to those discussions.
The no nonsense Gichugu MP issued a statement clarifying Kofi Annan position; she was within her jurisdiction as the Government/PNU Team Leader to the mediation talks. Whether Karua is a hawk or not in the Kibaki government or a status quo-proponent or is a close confidant of President Kibaki is immaterial. What she did was she summarily, albeit correctly, described the respected Ghanaian diplomat’s briefing as "inaccurate".
The extract of the Karua’s strongly worded letter obtained by media houses read: "My team is alarmed at some serious inaccurate statement made by Your Excellency at the briefing of parliamentarians today. Namely, you stated that ‘the dialogue team had agreed to have a transitional government for two years after which we shall hold presidential elections.”
Although the press had already demonized her even before letting Annan explain his side of the story. Interestingly it has now been clarified by Mr. Annan that, the proposal of the transitional government to oversee an election in two years was his own personal proposal and or idea and not that of the mediation talks and that the matter was never discussed.
I am sure the press cannot wait to pounce on her recent comments that diplomats accredited to Nairobi are indeed very junior officers in the pecking order in their governmental organizational chart. Karua could not have been right on the mark when she made this statement.
In the United States, the department of state organization chart shows the Secretary of State is the department head, followed by the Deputy Secretary of State, under this position is that of the Under Secretary for Political Affairs. Reporting to this position are eight assistant secretaries of state for specific regions, i.e East Asian & Pacific Affairs; South & Central Asian Affairs; and African Affairs to name but three. The ambassadorial positions doesn’t even surface in the “senior officials “organization chart, at least as posted in their website. Yet in Kenya both the US and UK diplomats Michael Ranneberger and Adam Woods behaves as if they are more senior than our cabinet ministers. Get this, the US President George W. Bush is visiting Benin and he will accord the Benin President Thomas Yayi Boni the respect of a head of state although Benin is slightly smaller and definitely poorer than the state of Pennsylvania.
Boldly speaking I can say with certainty that Kenya is not going to be a failed a state like Somalia as many western governments wish it should. We know better. In addition we need political leaders with no nonsense attitude such as Martha Karua; who without mincing any words remind these diplomats of the rank they truly belong to in their pecking order lest they have all but forgotten because they are serving in poor African countries.
******************
Decolonized minds
While in still in the subject of the diplomacy and diplomats, let’s look at the reason why the Nairobi based diplomats, i.e. ambassadors and high commissioners are playing with the issuance of their respective countries visas to our politicians and their families. It is because they know that slapping the denials of issuance of visa it touches those individuals’ nerves. It is a fact that we Africans have never been truly liberated in the truest meaning of the word. We might have been politically and physically liberated; now self-ruling our sovereign countries, but the Mzungu was and seems to continue to be very successful in decolonizing our minds.
Where I am going with this? Before I go any further, can one explain to me, how come the US ambassador Michael Ranneberger had the audacity to write a letter to one of our lawmakers, asking him to write an essay explaining his (the MP’s) effort and achievements in peace building? This MP Kabando wa Kabando representing Mukwureini claims he has not even applied for a visa and he rightly declined the US Embassy request to write the easy. My question comes, in what capacity and what criteria was Ranneberger or his junior staffers using when they wrote this letter to Hon. Kabando and nine other individuals? Isn’t this an insult to our dignity as a people?
Some of these diplomats still think they are ‘viceroys’ serving their respective countries’ African colonies and sadly we let them believe that to be the case. For instance, our media enjoys to publish banner headlines that the US, UK, Swiss and Canada all are threatening not to issue visas to certain Kenyan politicians because as they put it, considered to be subverting democracy. What would that ban to enter their respective countries really do to the displaced Kenyans or the 1,000 souls that perished in the post-lection violence? Nothing.
The problem we have in our African society is that the affluent and wealthy, plus politicians and senior government bureaucrats (although I might add that this is not restricted to Kenya) tend to like to shop in Europe or North America. They bank and invest all their money in those countries financial institutions –they buy properties in those countries et al. In addition they love to visit those countries with the slimmest of the reason to do so, for showoff.
Where I am going with this? Before I go any further, can one explain to me, how come the US ambassador Michael Ranneberger had the audacity to write a letter to one of our lawmakers, asking him to write an essay explaining his (the MP’s) effort and achievements in peace building? This MP Kabando wa Kabando representing Mukwureini claims he has not even applied for a visa and he rightly declined the US Embassy request to write the easy. My question comes, in what capacity and what criteria was Ranneberger or his junior staffers using when they wrote this letter to Hon. Kabando and nine other individuals? Isn’t this an insult to our dignity as a people?
Some of these diplomats still think they are ‘viceroys’ serving their respective countries’ African colonies and sadly we let them believe that to be the case. For instance, our media enjoys to publish banner headlines that the US, UK, Swiss and Canada all are threatening not to issue visas to certain Kenyan politicians because as they put it, considered to be subverting democracy. What would that ban to enter their respective countries really do to the displaced Kenyans or the 1,000 souls that perished in the post-lection violence? Nothing.
The problem we have in our African society is that the affluent and wealthy, plus politicians and senior government bureaucrats (although I might add that this is not restricted to Kenya) tend to like to shop in Europe or North America. They bank and invest all their money in those countries financial institutions –they buy properties in those countries et al. In addition they love to visit those countries with the slimmest of the reason to do so, for showoff.
It seems me that they always get a feeling of satisfaction when their children go to European or North American institutes of higher learning, universities and colleges. When one returns home with a college degree from a US or a UK university with a failing average, this person’s certificate (degree) will be taken and considered to be of a higher value than that of the say a passing University of Nairobi graduate. People sadly tend assume the Mzungus have the best education with the greatest of teachers and professors in the world.
These bourgeoisie societies even like to take their vacations and spend holidays in those cold weather lands, while the Wazungus themselves are looking for Africa on their vacation schedule. Now these Nairobi based embassies are not stupid; they know this mentality exist hence they continue to colonize our willing “inferior” minds.
Unless we liberate ourselves from them, they will continue to play with our minds to their advantage. I can tell you this, the only reason they cannot impose sanction on the Kibaki government is because, Kibaki’s trade policy ventured elsewhere and is now geared towards to East and not the West as has been case for many years. Something the UK is yet to get a grasp on, hence David Miliband, the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is seen to be behaving like a school child when it comes to his government recognizing the government of President Mwai Kibaki.
These bourgeoisie societies even like to take their vacations and spend holidays in those cold weather lands, while the Wazungus themselves are looking for Africa on their vacation schedule. Now these Nairobi based embassies are not stupid; they know this mentality exist hence they continue to colonize our willing “inferior” minds.
Unless we liberate ourselves from them, they will continue to play with our minds to their advantage. I can tell you this, the only reason they cannot impose sanction on the Kibaki government is because, Kibaki’s trade policy ventured elsewhere and is now geared towards to East and not the West as has been case for many years. Something the UK is yet to get a grasp on, hence David Miliband, the UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is seen to be behaving like a school child when it comes to his government recognizing the government of President Mwai Kibaki.
*********************
A balanced list of MPs
The twelve names presented to the Electoral Commission of Kenyan (ECK) by the four political parties, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Party of National Unity (PNU), Orange Democratic Movement Kenya (ODM—K ), and Kenya African National Union (KANU) as their choices for Nominated Members of Parliament is as a balanced a list as it can ever be.
This column lauds all the parties that presented the list of names. The column particularly praise all the respective political parties’ leadership for their bold move in presenting those names where women were given the lions’ share.
Out of the 12 nominees the group includes six women nominees. In addition the list took care of the crucial regional, ethnic and religious balance.
On the women side out of six names that were presented includes two Muslim women from two different communities and or provinces namely, Shakila Abdalla of ODM Kenya hailing from the Coast, and Amina Abdalla (no relation with Shakila) from North Eastern, re-nominated again to the National Assembly by KANU. Re nominating Ms. Amina was a bold move by KANU leadership under the stewardship of the Local Government Minister Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta considering the fact that the party had only one slot for such an appointment. And they gave it to a woman.
ODM on its part apportioned fifty percent of their six slots appointments to women named Janet Ongera, Milliy Odhiambo, and Rachel Shebesh. PNU gave one of its three slots to a woman, namely Maison Leshoono, the chairperson of Samburu District Maendeleo Ya Wanawake organization. Although it may pass unnoticed because of the post-election violence and the on going Kofi Annan-led mediation talks, but by having the majority of appointments to the National Assembly women, is unprecedented in our country.
I boldly laud the Vice President’s Kalonzo Musyoka-led ODM Kenya that went ahead to pick individuals (as the nominees) outside Musyoka’s native Eastern province as would have been expected in our ethicized politics.
Speaking boldly, notwithstanding my support of the two women earlier proposed by the PNU as their nominees, I would have thought that PNU should have nominated former Foreign Affairs minister Raphael Tuju. Although Tuju and the former Local Government Minister Musikari Kombo (whose name has since been added in the PNU list to replace a Ms. Wasike) campaigned for Kibaki in a truest sense of the word. Although shocking to many observers that Kombo lost his re-election bid in Webuye, as for Tuju it would have been a bigger shocker had he retained his Rarieda seat in an ODM and Raila Odinga zone. Kibaki needs or needed not only an Mp from Luoland but also a minister and Tuju would have been a perfect choice. _______________________
omarahmedali@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment