A Political Kenya: Latest Politics and Kenya Economy News

ALMOST EVERYONE I MEET these days has something to complain about our self-admiring coterie of politicians.

There is almost universal consensus that our unlovely bunch of politicians, irrespective of the dizzying plume they hide behind, continue living at our expense in a sealed world – while all around them the unattended massive problems we elected them and pay them loads to solve continue getting worse.

Most Kenyans have also realised and are angry that though our politicians can plot viciously against each other, they are all self-seekers who use us as stepping-stones to power, but care nothing about Kenya’s strategic interests.

But what baffles most is that whereas in democracies around the world citizens as informed as we are take to the street to demand certain minimums of their leadership, we are too meek and resigned, pretending that the pain we feel about poor political leadership will either dissipate of its own accord or will lie hidden in our collective soul forever.

WE WILL HAVE OURSELVES TO blame if the post-election violence that engulfed the country and exposed the myths that inform the mantra of change and good governance, chanted ceaselessly by opportunists who periodically hijack the reform agenda to ascend to high office, is not a wake-up call that jolts us into action to demand proper leadership.

Right now, we are watching helplessly, doing absolutely nothing, to stop this bunch of characters bleeding our coffers dry.

At best, we are calling press conferences to denounce, or whispering to each other our disapprovals of, their self-serving plans to burden us with a 34-44 member Cabinet, when ideally a 10-15 member one is all we need.

But we have absolutely no plans to counter them should they name a 122-member Cabinet. Why can’t we demand that President Mwai Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga, who just the other day were extending a beggar’s bowl to the international community, do not burden us with a bloated Cabinet, especially at this time when our economy is in decline and we hardly have the massive funds required to reconstruct the country.

Why are we watching helplessly as our overpaid MPs go on recess ostensibly because they have no House business to transact, yet there is no coherent plan to resettle the 500,000 plus IDPs living in inhuman conditions around the country.

This is also happening when prices of basics have gone through the roof; when farm inputs are skyrocketing this planting season, and our food security is threatened.

It is precisely because we have become spectators in our own lives that the likes of National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende, the erstwhile face of what some of us hoped against hope was new both to and in our politics, have the audacity to defend the obscenely huge sums they legally loot from our taxes.

But we should not allow Mr Marende’s self-serving ilk to equate legalism with legitimacy. The fact that their abnormal pay perks are pegged on the Cockar Report does not change the fact that Kenya, one of the poorest countries on earth, is too poor to afford the hefty MP salaries that are among the highest paid anywhere in the world.

Further, the Cockar Report itself is no gospel truth since it is premised on a major doctrinal distortion: it regards politics as a career, rather than a duty.

WHEREAS THE PRACTICE IN parliamentary systems such as ours is for it to be almost impossible to make a living out of politics alone, and is the reason MPs don’t work 40-hour weeks like other public servants so they can pursue other sources of livelihood, the Cockar Report holds the contrary view – that our MPs should live extremely luxurious lives out of politics alone while retaining their extremely generous work schedule.

Ideally, people should not go into politics to make money but to represent interests, and they should keep strong personal links with those interests.

That’s why their best qualities should be public service and incorruptibility; their worst being amateurism and snobbery as is the case with our MPs.

But unless the masses act, we will be burdened with rulers who epitomise the barbaric primitiveness of trough feeders.

Mr Okoiti is a playwright and human rights activist .

The Tenth Parliament has an opportune moment to pull through radical legislative reforms. It should adopt and implement new proposals on House procedures, which were tabled before the MPs caucus at the weekend by Mwingi South MP David Musila.

The proposals seek to review Standing Orders to raise Parliament’s performance in terms of debates and legislation.

For the record, the proposals are not new. They were discussed extensively last year but were never passed by the Ninth Parliament.

One of the proposals is to increase parliamentary sessions from four to five a week. Besides Wednesday, it is proposed that MPs should also work full day on Thursday.

This is necessary to give them adequate time to debate and enact policies. In fact, the proposal should have provided for six sessions every week, so that MPs work full day from Tuesday to Thursday.

Related to this, the number of vacations and days should be slashed. It does not make sense, for instance, for Parliament to go for a three-month Christmas break when everyone resumes work in January.

Most importantly, it is critical to revisit the broader proposal of a constitutional review to allow Parliament to control its own calendar so that it can effectively plan for its activities.

The number of MPs who constitute a quorum should also be raised. Currently, the quorum is pegged at 30, yet we have a House of 222 MPs. The figure constituting a quorum should be raised proportionately.

House procedures require urgent change to reflect the emerging realities of governance, the economy and technology. Concepts like electronic voting, live media coverage and interrogating the co-ordinator of government affairs (Prime Minister) are essential elements of democracy and good governance.

Even so, the proposed changes will not make a difference if the MPs do not change their ways. The perennial problems of lack of quorum or ministers failing to turn up to answer questions are attitude issues that cannot be eliminated through procedural reforms. It is for the MPs themselves to change their attitudes.

It is official now, Safaricom IPO goes on as scheduled starting today, Friday the 28th of March to April 23rd 2008. ODM's call for protests to stop the launch were fruitless. ODM's concerns about Mobitelea, 35% sale to foreigners and Jimnah Mbaru tri-roles in the IPO went unheeded. Kenyans and the world at large fight for the most profitable company in East Africa. President Kibaki opened Safaricom IPO this morning. The President and Finance Minister, Amos Kimunya slammed critics of the deal. Raila was notably absent during the launch. Kimunya further added that Safaricom's AGM will be held online. Kibaki asked CMA to firmly apply rules to deal with rogue stockbrokers.

It is now emerging that Ruto's exclusion from the cabinet list is the reason as to why Kenya does not have a Grand Coalition cabinet. Until space is found for the Kalenjin emperor, there will be no cabinet. Events revolving around the formation of the cabinet also demonstrates that nothing in ODM and PNU has changed despite the publicity facades and that wrangling over this and that will be the order of the day in this era of Kibaki and Raila partnership.

I would like to meet Mr. Kabogo I am a businessman but I dont have has contacts please be kind to send me his contacts or book for me and I appointment and let me know. Godwin

RIFT VALLEY IS THE ONLY PROVINCE (besides Nairobi) that is a true representation of Kenya since all communities can be found there. Frequent conflicts have also characterised the province.

Many people have talked of serious underlying issues that were only triggered by the disputed presidential poll. Such issues include land, historical injustices, economic disempowerment, ethnic mistrust, and unemployment.

There is no dispute that the electioneering process right up to the voting day was largely peaceful. Many Kenyans were satisfied with the process of voting, counting and declaration of results at the polling centres.

The unprecedented violence that rocked most parts of the country was precipitated by the announcement of disputed presidential results by the Electoral Commission of Kenya.

Most people who watched the announcement of the presidential tallied votes live on TV and heard it on radio were concerned about the unexplained withholding of results from certain constituencies and subsequent differences in the results announced at constituency level and at KICC tallying centre, which led them to suspect that there was manipulation of presidential elections in the tallying process.

THE VIOLENCE WAS THEREFORE spontaneous and NOT premeditated as has been reported by some. The theory of the violence having been planned is just that – a theory.

Yet it has been so well spun that even the international community have bought it wholesale! One diplomat was recently quoted as saying “it may have been spontaneous in Western, Nyanza and Coast but at least in the Rift Valley, it was clearly planned”.

Why this singling out of one community for selective condemnation? What would make it spontaneous in all other parts of the country “except” in the Rift Valley?

It is a complete fabrication that there was any form of planning, training or financing of youth to engage in violence. Let me give you just a few points why the violence could NOT have been planned.

Kenya is reputed to have one of the best intelligence networks in the region. Indeed, together with the military intelligence and police network including that of informants, nothing escapes the watchful eye of Big Brother.

Claims have been made that the violence was planned as far back as six months in advance. It is utterly unbelievable that such planning involving probably thousands of people could have escaped this elaborate network. Otherwise we may have to ask why the Government failed to beef up security in Rift Valley when it “expected trouble”.

There were many PNU candidates and voters in Kalenjinland. If, perhaps, the whole community was in a conspiracy of silence so that the intelligence network missed this vital information, how about the numerous parliamentary, civic candidates and voters in PNU, their family, friends and relatives within the community? Didn’t even one person learn of the planning and whisper a warning to the authorities?

The majority of Kalenjin youth who participated in the violence in most urban areas of Rift Valley were unarmed and carried little more than sticks and stones. Only a few had arrows or other weapons. Any Kalenjin man can demonstrate that it will take less than 15 minutes to make an arrow. If this thing was planned for six months, why didn’t the youth just make as many arrows as they needed?

If people were paid for “ethnic cleansing” why not use just a little of that money to buy a few kilos of six-inch nails and make enough arrows before the elections?

These planners must have been so naïve that they did not understand the repercussions of the war they were starting. Otherwise they should have known the importance of evacuating their own from areas where there was likely to be revenge attacks from the affected community.

THERE WAS NO SIGN THAT KALENJINS living outside their ancestral land were evacuated or prepared to evacuate at short notice.

If the Kalenjins planned a war before the elections, someone should have noticed panic-buying and stocking of these essential items amongst the planners. I was in Eldoret during the first one week of this fateful year and saw the desperation of everybody as people were grounded for lack of fuel, could not communicate by phone, and almost all essential items went missing in most homes. Poor planners these people!

Many Kalenjins risked their lives protecting, hiding and assisting Kikuyus to escape death.

Why did people who had planned all these not warn their Kikuyu friends and neighbours to flee before instead of risking their own lives by protecting them after the violence began?

There are over two million Kikuyus in the Rift Valley. If anyone had planned an ethnic cleansing targeting them then surely the death toll would have been much higher.

Mr Bett is the chairman of EMO, a community organisation serving people in Rift Valley. This is an excerpt of a speech read during an interdenominational prayers and peace rally in Eldoret.

JUST HOW SAFE IS THE MONEY which you leave with a stockbroker to buy you shares? Which of these brokers is trustworthy and how can an ordinary mwananchi differentiate between a financially solid firm and one about to disappear with his money?

These are pertinent questions, indeed. The collapse of Nyaga Stockbrokers and the news that more such brokers may be facing difficulties has sent shockwaves among investors.

Market confidence has been dealt a severe blow. It is saddening to see panic-stricken folk queuing for days on end in front of the offices of Nyaga Stockbrokers, seeking to know the fate of the hard-earned savings they had entrusted with this troubled house.

How were these ordinary folks to know that they were dealing with a broker they shouldn’t have trusted?

Nyaga Stockbrokers was not one of those upstart brokerages that popped out the other day. The firm was among what is known as the “original six” — the members of a cartel that used to meet in a hotel lobby in Nairobi to trade shares without having to disclose prices to their principals.

The managing director of Nyaga Stockbrokers, Mr Patrick Gikiavi, is not your ordinary bloke. He is a director of the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) where he sits on key committees.

He is a member of the trading and compliance committee, a member of the finance committee, and former member of the central depository system implementation committee.

How was the ordinary man from Thika, Nyeri, Kiambu or Kisumu to know that such solid credentials meant nothing, and that the man they were entrusting their hard-earned savings with would abuse that trust?

And, if you looked at the audited accounts of Nyaga Stockbrokers, there was nothing to warn you that the financial health of the company was in doubt.

Stockbroking firms have over the years perfected the art of masking their blemishes by employing accounting gimmicks. Millions of shillings illegally owed to wananchi are hidden away in their books by simply disguising it as money owed to creditors.

Lately, the preferred gimmick has been to include the value of the seat they own at the floor of the NSE in the books to shore up their balance sheets.

Who is to blame for all this mess? The watchman of the market, Capital Markets Authority (CMA), has been in deep slumber. Yet I choose not to accuse Mr William Chelashaw, Mr Paul Melly or Mr Edward Ntalami, the previous chief executives of the authority in that order.

Nor do I accept the argument that the laws are inadequate. Indeed, the existing legal framework for regulating the capital markets has all the required elements — requirements for licensing, minimum capitalisation, and disclosure.

THE ISSUE HERE IS NOT JUST individuals. Regulation of the capital markets has failed mainly because we have not allowed the CMA to operate autonomously.

We have made this important institution subject to an anachronistic corporate governance that makes it impossible for the CMA to exercise the influence and clout that the Central Bank of Kenya wields over commercial banks.

The CMA is treated and regarded by the Government as any other parastatal. Both its chief executive and board members are political appointees, serving in office at the whim of individuals.

The chief executive accounts not only to its board, but also to the permanent secretary of the parent ministry, in this case, Finance.

And, under the State Corporations Act, the chief executive is responsible to the Office of the President.

In that position, you can wake up one morning and find out that the Inspectorate of State Corporations, the Efficiency Monitoring Unit, or the Results Office — all under the Office of the President — have appointed auditors to conduct an impromptu special audit of your books, ready to recommend your sacking.

I need not belabour the point. If the CMA is to be effective, it must be exempted from the State Corporations Act. A regulatory body that accounts to multiple Government departments cannot operate effectively.

Once this is done, we can then work on strengthening its capacity to enforce the law by allowing it to recruit enough top-notch auditors to conduct on-site and off-site inspections.

Without doubt, Nyaga Stockbrokers has damaged the reputation of the stock exchange. But all is not lost. Several years ago, we went through a banking crisis when several commercial banks collapsed one after another.

We tightened the Banking Act, introducing high capitalisation requirements, new capital-to-deposits ratios, and rules to deal with risk concentration and insider lending. We amended the Central Bank Act to introduce security of tenure to the Central Bank Governor.

Stockbrokers operate with money collected from the public. I don’t see why they should not be subjected to such strict rules.

Parliament Tuesday passed two crucial Bills crafted after the power-sharing deal signed last month by President Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga.

The Constitutional Amendment Bill provides for the creation of the post of prime minister and two deputies, their functions and roles.

The other entrenches the National Reconciliation Accord which is aimed at ending the political stalemate that engulfed the country soon after the disputed December presidential elections.

The debate was emotive as it was historic. Members who spoke were unanimous that the spirit and the letter of the Bill and the next one to come were crucial to national healing, unity and development.

Historic it was since this was one of the rare moments when a sitting President participated in a debate in the House as an MP, and not a symbolic figure presiding over a State function.

Speakers were categorical that the two Bills were a precursor to a constitutional review which should provide an anchor for the creation of a new, modern, vibrant, prosperous and democratic state.

President Kibaki and Mr Odinga exhorted the MPs to pass the Bills which provided the framework for a new constitutional dispensation, social, economic and infrastructure reforms.

The most important lesson was the realisation that the problems afflicting this country require a constitutional solution, because the current governance, economic and social structures were untenable in a multi-ethnic and multi-party state.

For now, the challenge remains in first actualising the letter and spirit of the Bills and second, carrying through constitutional review within a year.

It is gratifying that both sides of the House underscored their commitment to a working coalition. We hope they will live true to that commitment and urge the Government to set in motion the reform agenda.

While acknowledging that the prevailing circumstances required the unanimity witnessed Tuesday, we must also take care that Parliament is not reduced into a mere voting machine.