Why all this anti-Mwakwere agenda by the media?

Minister Mwakwere

Since the era of the John Michuki when he headed the Ministry of Transport, Kenyans were erroneously made to associate the Ministry’s core duty and responsibility to be that of supervising the Matutu industry. First and foremost, there is a need for everyone to understand and appreciate the fact that the supervision of the matatu menace is not the core duty of the Ministry of Transport alone. In addition, for the most efficient management of the Matatu industry requires the work of at least three ministries — a tripartite factor. The Ministry of Transport is responsible for the formulation of transport rules and regulations.

Next comes in the Provincial Administration and National Security docket for effective traffic police law enforcement of those rules and regulations. The then Roads and Public Works portfolio is crucial because it is this Ministry’s responsibility to building and maintaining the roads. Transport Minister Chirau Mwakwere’s achievements are underestimated because the Matuga MP does not go out of his way to publicize them. The excellent work being done by the Ministry under his watch is not being highlighted by the local media because it will paint the Minister positively.

When admirable work is done by this docket under its various departments, agencies and parastatals, the media always go at every length to give credit to the individuals heading those departments, agencies and parastatals and totally ignoring the Minister. But when censure is to be made on the Ministry, then that blame is heaped on the Minister in a form of banner headlines. Take the case of the multi-billion shillings airports expansions at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Moi International, and Kisumu Airport. We hardly see the Minister given credit.
Even bigger strides have been achieved at the Mombasa port. Kenya Ports Authority recently announced the completion of the automation of waterfront cargo operations at the Mombasa port. This waterfront project, according the KPA, kicked off in 2006 and was developed at a cost of Sh200 million and is now complete. But we don’t read this accomplishment being credited to the Minister for Transport. But when other Ministers speak only on their intensions, when they just think of something they intend to do in their respective ministries, the public is showered with the news of these Ministers “intentions” as if they have already achieved what they intend to do.

In fact in some extreme instances, the media even ignore real breaking news that positively reflects the Mwakwere, steal his thunder and in a biased move give it to one of their darlings. An excellent example of stealing the thunder was a story in one of the local dailies titled; “Raila reaps more goodies for Kenya.” The story read in part: “Prime Minister Raila Odinga reaped more goodies for Kenya during his American trip when he signed an agreement that opens the route for Kenya Airways direct flights to the US.

Raila and American Secretary of Transport Mary Peters signed the US-Kenya Open Skies Agreement for direct flights for airlines from both countries…Raila signed the agreement with Peters just a day after the approval by congressmen, agencies and key US financiers to endorse Sh5.8 billion funding for rehabilitation following post-election violence.” The fact of the matter is that if you remove Raila’s name, the rest is true. Sadly, with a hidden agenda, the particular daily gave the unsuspecting public a total fabrication of facts; Prime Minister Raila did not sign the agreement with the US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters.

Our Transport Minister Mwakwere did, because by law only the Transport Minister can sign such an agreement. But another daily had a photo that clearly showed Ms Peters and Mwakwere signing the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (Basa), also known as US-Kenya Open Skies Agreement that will provide for direct flights for airlines from both countries. This Open Skies Agreement was not just an agreement secured and signed during Raila’s three day visit to the US as the newspaper would like us to believe.

It was a project that the Narc government’s Ministry of Transport (yes, under Mwakwere) has been working on for sometime. As attested by Mwakwere who noted: “It’s been a long process of negotiations.” Earlier in the year then newly appointed Transport Permanent Secretary Abdulrazaq Adan was in the US to tie up the final touches and set the ground for the official signing by the two countries’ ministers.

With every European country demanding Kenyans in transit (through their respective airports) obtain transit visas, this Open Skies Agreement which will start direct flights between the two countries will come along way in alleviating this hassle of obtaining visas and of course the cost of getting it. But the story made it appear that, it was only PM Raila who brought goodies to Kenya during his three day visit to the US; as opposed to have been the work of Mwakwere who was responsible for the Open Skies agreement. It is one thing to love to hate a politician or politicians, but it is completely another when media people change facts to suit their hidden agenda.

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Updated on: Sunday, June 29, 2008

Story by: OMAR ALI

Come clean on Grand Regency deal, Mr Kimunya

Minister Kimunya

Since it has emerged that the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel, was in fact a deal discussed between President Mwai Kibaki and Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, there should be less cause for alarm. That is if it is true what the Finance Minister Amos Kimunya is telling Kenyans now. My only issue with the sale of the hotel to the Libyans is in the manner of which the Finance Minister handled the matter.
Kimunya is a very brilliant individual but he has not been forthright with his fellow legislators and the public. Kimunya, kept on insisting that the hotel had not been sold. In addition, he has been seen to be behaving arrogantly. I think the reason Kimunya is very arrogant is the fact that the Kipiriri MP is very young and holding a very powerful ministry with immense powers. In addition he has the ears and the attention of the President and thinks he is untouchable.

He is so egotistical such that you would think that anything that pertains to the Finance Ministry belongs to him personally or his family and not the government. If the sale of the hotel was sealed during President Kibaki’s visit to Libya, as Kimunya is now trying to tell Kenyans, then I have no doubt that there was no corruption involved. My question comes, why hide the matter not only to the public but even to the Lands Minister James Orengo or the Parliamentary Finance, Tourism and Trade committee members.

What is the point of having parliamentary committees that can and are ignored by ministers as they deem fit. It is highly possible that, may be in a quid pro quo (something for something) our Government agreed to the sale of the prestigious five star hotel in exchange for cheap crude oil from the North African nation and the much needed investments. Kenyans should have been told of this arrangement once the sale deal was sealed.
And as long as there was no suspicion of corruption or under the table deals there would have been no problem. Now it is hard to tell Kenyans that there was no corruption in this deal because it smells corruption of the highest order. Although there may be no corruption involved in this transaction, but the Government cannot blame individuals such as Chris Okemo, the chairman of parliamentary committee on Finance, Tourism and Trade and others like Richard Leakey for suspecting corruption in this sale.

Boldly speaking, I can say that it is the condescending attitude of Kimunya that failed the Government and no one else. He is behaving worse than some former president Daniel arap Moi era ministers who thought they were above everyone if not the laws. Kimunya better be aware that in this day and age no one is invulnerable no matter how close one might think is close to the powers that be.

omarahmedali@gmail.com

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Commentary & Analysis

Updated on: Sunday, June 29, 2008

Story by: OMAR ALI

Let ministers take cue from Kibaki, Raila

While launching the country’s development roadmap, christened Vision 2030, President Mwai Kibaki paid glowing tribute to Prime Minister Raila Odinga on agreeing to take the country to a manageable way. The Head of State expressed confidence that the future of the Grand Coalition Government he is leading was bright.
It was excellent news for Kenyans. At the same function, Prime Minister Raila Odinga challenged the Grand Coalition Government ministers to end squabbles and forge ahead together so as to make Vision 2030 a reality. The prime minister also asked political leaders to demonstrate courageous leadership, best performance and uncompromising integrity to transform the country into a prosperous, democratic, equitable and modern nation.

Encouraging and statesmanship like statements and attitude on the part of both the president and prime minister. The cabinet ministers need to follow the example of their two principals and work together in their service deliveries and in making the Vision 2030 dream a reality. You don’t need a political scientist or student of politics to understand that the Grand Coalition Government is not a coalition of the willing.
It was the best option that could have come out of the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan-led mediation talks. The alternative would have been continued mayhem, anarchy and bloody bath and in a couple of weeks a collapsed country. A collapsed Kenya would have destroyed our beautiful nation. And as the President noted while paying tribute to his prime minister, “let us thank Raila for leading us to this right direction.
Let us thank him for making up his mind that we go a manageable way and I agreed.” Those involved in the GCG, not necessarily restricting to the two principals, will need not only to make it work but be seen to making it work. We all know that the two main factions that make up the GCG despise each other. There is no secret about that.

Aside from the existing loathe, there is a compelling need for the politicians on both side of the political divide to act like grown ups in public, and heed the prime minister’s call to demonstrate courageous leadership because they are indeed grown-ups and not school children. They are not secondary school children doing the best they can to outwit and outdo the other to impress a girl or a boy for that matter. Mwai KIbaki, Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Muysoka are respectively the president, prime minister and vice president of the country and not of their respective political organisations.

The GCG cabinet is for the entire country and not for Party of National Unity, or Orange Democratic Movement. This brings me to the recent ugly incident where the Water & Irrigation Minister Charity Ngilu showcased her lack of respect for Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka in an embarrassing situation.
The Kitui Central MP confronted the VP and as one newspaper put it ‘ Ngilu went at the VP in full glare of orderlies and other politicians and accused him of abusing State resources to campaign for PNU candidates.’ Were Ngilu’s actions compromising integrity? Was Wilson Airport the appropriate place for Ngilu to question the VP? The reality is that the long serving Mwingi North MP is the country’s VP and he deserve respect.

At least Ngilu should respect the office of the vice presidency as an institution even if she abhors the current occupier of the office. Madam Ngilu needs to come to her little senses and accept the political and factual reality that Kalonzo is Kenya’s VP and not Ukambani VP. It is the backward behaviors of ministers such as Ngilu that would bring this country down. Another problem is when Kenyans are being showered with media blitz of what certain ministers tends to do in their respective dockets. Take the case of the perennial land problem in the country.

Land issue is a major problem facing the country, not necessarily those sympathetic to ODM. The Lands Minister James Orengo just like his Nairobi Metropolitan Development counterpart Mutula Kilonzo – who was a subject of this column two weeks ago – need to do more work and less talking. Operating through the media is not the best way of executing ministerial duties.
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Leaders should stop using plane tragedy for mileage

e join fellow Kenyans in mourning the death of the two politicians, Roads Minister Kipklya Kones and the Homes Affairs Assistant Minister and first time Sotik MP Ms. Lorna Laboso. It is a great loss not only to their respective families, their constituents, Rift Valley or their political party, ODM, but the entire country.
Our prayers go out to their respective families and friends. While it was an excellent gesture by their parliamentary colleagues for the National Assembly to postpone business following the demise of its two members, politicians should not try to earn any political mileage at the expense of the demise of their colleagues.

The ill-fated Cessna 210E plane that crashed on a hill in forested Kojong’a in Nairegi-Enkare, Narok District, where the two politicians plus the pilot and a security officer perished has been declared a tragic accident. The plane had its required paperwork in order, and a record of having been inspected by the appropriate aviation authorities and was declared to be in a sound mechanical condition. The plane could not have been in a better condition than that.

As the Swahili saying goes, ‘Ajali haikimbiliki’. The pilot might have had experience in in-flight-hours but was perhaps not familiar with the area and the terrain he was flying. The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCA) does not need to be told by any one to conduct thorough investigations on this crash. Conducting thorough investigations in any air crash is the standard procedure.

The calls by some little known MPs for setting up of a commission to investigate the aviation industry is to say the very least a cheap publicity seeking stunt. Nothing more. These publicity seeking lawmakers want the licensing of operators to be regulated to ensure they maintained high safety records. It is as if it is not the case currently. The MPs went on to call for the upgrading of airstrips, runways and other emergency facilities. Talk is cheap, unless these MPs do not know what they are talking about because upgrading of all airstrips and runways is not possible.

Money is needed to do so. And in addition some of the airstrips are not being used on regular basis. Similar small Cessna planes such as this one are privately owned in the US, a country with the most stringent of any regulations and they crash regularly. I am not saying because it is the case in the US then it should be okay in Kenya. What happened at Kojong’a was just an accident and it should be investigated not because Kones and Laboso were the victims but because like any other air crash with loss of lives it needs to be investigated.

omarahmedali@gmail.com
Updated on: Sunday, June 15, 2008 Story by: OMAR ALI

Kalonzo’s political clout overrated

Letters To The Editor

I read with dismay Omar Ali’s article in the Sunday Times of June 8, in which he attempted to equate Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s political fortunes to those of US Democratic party presidential nominee Barack Obama. What Ali fails to understand is that Obama inspires hope and prosperity in his people while Kalonzo does not.

Obama stands for change that his people can believe in but I doubt if Kenyans can believe anything Kalonzo says given his flip-flop character. Ali tries to convince his audience that Kalonzo is the undisputed leader of Ukambani politics and that this makes him a front-runner in the Kibaki succession. This kind of spin is laughable and I think Ali has been getting his ideas from cartoons.

I remember sometime in March an editorial cartoon in one of the daily newspapers placing Kalonzo at an advantage in a track relay race that included Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Deputy Prime Ministers Musalia Mudavadi and Uhuru Kenyatta. There is no doubt Ali got his ideas about Kalonzo’s superiority from this particular cartoon.

But all these conceded, assuming that being Vice President and Ukambani’s most senior politician makes one a future king, how do these credentials make Kalonzo most favourite Kibaki successor? I think Ali has been living out of the country for too long to realise how unpopular Kalonzo is. I hope Ali knows somebody called Moody Awori who is Kalonzo’s predecessor.

During the 2007 election campaigns, Kalonzo became his own enemy when he failed to read the mood of the country and realise that Kenyans would vote for real change and they would still do so in 2012. For selfish interests or political miscalculation, Kalonzo chose to scuttle what would have been a winning combination in the Orange family to pursue his own presidential ambition.

He failed and went ahead to accept from Kibaki the very Vice Presidency that he would have been offered had he remained in a united Orange family. This move earned Kalonzo the tag of a traitor and there are no indications he will have washed off that tag by the next general election in 2012. Infact many Kenyans today blame Kalonzo for the post-election crisis, saying that had he chosen to remain in a united Orange family or backed Kibaki, there would have been a clear winner at the election and no bloodshed.More In Print Edition

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Kenya Times
John Onyando,

Nairobi

Updated on: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 Story by:

Kalonzo critics will not halt his match to ‘House on the Hill’

Despite all the political tactics to undermine Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka in his endevour to positioning himself to succeed President Mwai Kibaki, there is a compelling need to for all political pundits to get this political reality in its right perspective. The fact of the matter is that Kalonzo is the undeniable king of Ukambani politics, whether his critics like it or not. This reality has nothing to do with the fact that the Mwingi North legislator is the highest ranking Ukambani politician in the unity ‘Grand Coalition Government, although a very important fact in its own right.

As the V-P, he is technically second in the command to the Head of State, no other Ukambani politician have had the privilege to ascend to such a coveted position. In the last General Election, all but three parliamentary seats in Ukambani sub-region of Eastern province were captured Klonzo-led Orange Democratic Movement Kenya. Lest people forget, it is a political actuality that no other major political party (ODM, PNU, and Kanu) won a single parliamentary seat in the expansive province’s sub-region.

The darling of the media, Water and Irrigation Minister Charity Ngilu-led Narc party was only able to retain Ngilu’s Kitui Central parliamentary seat and nothing more from the sub-region. Even those few disgruntled Ukambani legislators who have since switched their allegiance to ODM leadership cannot erase this political realism.

The legislators do not erase the political realism because interestingly the same legislators (who claimed they lost out in cabinet appointments) navigated their way to Parliament in the last Election with the assistance of the strong Kalonzo/ODM Kenya political wave that swept the region. It is the political wave that witnessed big political names being shown the door from their constituencies. Three former Cabinet Ministers failed to recapture their seats, namely, John Munyao, Kivutha Kibwana and Mutua Katuku amongst other former region’s lawmakers.

Whether or not you’re a Kalonzo supporter, by landing on the Vice-Presidency position was neither a fluke nor a betrayal on his part but a strategic political move. Whereas some pundits might want to ignore a crucial role Kalonzo played in assisting Kenya to start to heal after the disputed presidential election and although truly in the end it was President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga agreeing to the final peace deal and a unity government that halted the country going down the drain, but it must be appreciated that it all started with Kalonzo in entering into an alliance with Kibaki-led PNU and its allies to form a coalition government. It can also be argued that ODM Kenya alliance with PNU not only courageously saved the Kibaki presidency but it also saved the country from anarchy and bloodbath that would have ensued.

Neither Ngilu nor Kilome MP and Transport Assistant Minister Harun Mwau is in any position to keep in check the rise of Kalonzo in their native region. It is the people who make politicians popular and not their fellow politicians. Ngilu did not cause any political wave that saw politicians allied to her elected to Parliament through it.

In fact, Ngilu was not so sure and could not dare join Prime Minister Raila Odinga-led ODM to seek re-election. And when it came to ODM-Kenya appointing two nominated MPs slots the party had earned, Kalonzo showed true national leadership when everyone thought he could play favouritism and tribalism as in the norm in the country. He went ahead and appointed one politician from the Coast (a woman) and another one from North Eastern province as opposed appointing from Eastern province and or his native sub-region to the chagrin of his party two senior officials.

It is safe to predict that in the current political landscape, Kalonzo is the politician best positioned to succeed President Kibaki in the next general election with or without the support of the few disgruntled Ukambani politicians.

It must be noted that in the United States some very powerful African-American politicians did not back Senator Barack Obama in the just concluded Democratic Party primaries. But it did not hinder Obama from clinching his party nomination by beating one of the most powerful and well known political names in the American politics –the Clintons—in one of the toughest primaries in recent memory.

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BOLD Scripts lead story

http://www.kenyatimesonline.com/content.asp?catid=5&articleId=1411

Updated on: Sunday, June 08, 2008

Story by: OMAR ALI

Coast MPs need to get down to work

This column congratulates the Bahari MP Ben Fondo Gunda for his election as the new chairman of the Coast Parliamentary Group, a bipartisan regional parliamentary caucus. It was very encouraging and it gave the caucus’ election some sort of legitimacy when it saw 16 out of the 21 lawmakers from the region participating in the election.One would hope that this time around the region’s legislators, both veterans and first timers, will resolve to seriously and genuinely work together for the interest of their constituents in particular and the region in general. In his acceptance speech the first term Bahari MP aptly noted, “My biggest challenge now is to ensure that all the MPs stick together. If we push things as a group, the Government will have to act because we have a big bloc that can make a lot of difference in 2012.”

I must add that it doesn’t do the region any good when the area MPs are affiliated with different political parties, and they are usually seen to be fighting ‘other peoples’ wars’ the same way African presidents used to fight the two superpowers wars in their regions. Our lawmakers are scattered everywhere, in PNU, ODM, KANU, ODM- Kenya, Narc-Kenya and KADU-Asili, the only home grown party. It is against this backdrop that I would remind the Coast MPs to read and ponder seriously the comments penned by columnist Njuguna Mutonya in one of the local dailies titled “Coast MPs had better be serious”.

I thought the columnist was hit the mark on the nail and was right on the money when noted: “Every beginning of a parliamentary term since the advent of political pluralism in the early 1990s, Coast politicians declare their independence from the rest of the country to make some nice-sounding declarations about how they wish to change the region’s politics and boost its economy. “ There was no need for Mutonya to apologize by saying ‘Forgive my scepticism, but we have heard all this drivel before.’ Many Coast people agree with the columnist that they have heard that drivel before. I say no apologies needed because the columnist who is not even a Coastal native did the lawmakers a favour by telling them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Talking about ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’, for instance, ‘why would the Magongo-Jomvu road, which is lined by some of the largest industrial parks in Mombasa, is impassable almost 20 years since Ramadhan Kajembe first became an MP’ as noted by the columnist. Other issues the columnist raised, is ‘why the fishermen of Faza, Kiwayuu, Pate and Lamu Kisiwani cannot have cold storage facilities’ while the area MP Abu Chiaba was and still remains Fisheries assistant minister. With four full Cabinet ministers and seven assistant ministers the region has never had such political achievement in terms of Cabinet appointments.

The region’s backbenchers need to work with their colleagues who are in the cabinet to deliver for the region. I would boldly remind them that ‘while successive MPs keep complaining about what the rest of the country owes Coast province, their colleagues from other areas tackle local issues.’

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Commentary & Analysis
http://www.kenyatimesonline.com/content.asp?catid=5&articleId=933
Updated on: Sunday, June 08, 2008
Story by: OMAR ALI

Obama on threshold of re-writing history

In Barack Obama’s triumph clinching the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, one thing is for sure, Americans from different backgrounds can take pride in the United States Senator from Illinois overcoming one of the US most enduring racial barriers. Obama’s historical win was best described by one Philadelphia newspaper when in it notes in editorial: “His groundbreaking step is an extraordinary achievement for a candidate, for the Democratic Party, and for anyone who ever believed that this day would come. Obama broke through a colour barrier that has existed in this nation for 219 years.

The United States has had 43 presidents – whitemen. Now Obama is in position to break the commander-in-chief barrier. “ Obama’s win did not come easy. He won the primaries in one of the hotly contested primaries in recent memory. Apart from being a very historical event, it is the fact the man whose umbilical cord hail from Alego, beat the Clinton machine. Kenyans need to appreciate the fact that it is no mean feat for any politician in the United States, white or black, to beat the ‘Clinton Brand’. Obama was running against two Clintons. Clinton the candidate, Hillary, a two-term senior workaholic senator from the state of New York, and the country’s immediate former very influential First Lady. The other Clinton, William Jefferson (a.k.a Bill), a former two-term popular president of the United States, and a longtime governor of Arkansas. Obama, who has been on the national stage for less than 3 years, ran one of best campaigns in the history of the United States presidential primaries.

He created a movement where everyone has been interested to join as volunteer. The Democratic Party primaries was indeed good for America, it generated record voter turn out and spoke for minorities and women who have traditionally been left out during elections. Let us not forget that the benefit of competing with the two Clintons for Obama was that it has sharpened the junior senator to become a strong presidential candidate to face Republican Party’s candidate Senator John McCain, a celebrated war hero but with nothing new to offer. Now Obama is standing on the threshold of making history of becoming the first non-whiteman to be the president of the world’s most powerful nation in the history of the world.

omarahmedali@gmail.com

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Commentary & Analysis

http://www.kenyatimesonline.com/content.asp?catid=5&articleId=38

Updated on: Sunday, June 08, 2008

Story by: OMAR ALI