A Political Kenya: Latest Politics and Kenya Economy News

RETIRED President Moi said yesterday that replacing forests with tea estates does not impact on climate change. Moi is just plain wrong.

You cannot compare a tea estate with a 100-foot high forest with at least 50 times as many leaves, all absorbing carbon and emitting oxygen during photosynthesis.

The argument that there are other tea estates is also fallacious. Most Kenyan farmland would have been forest or woodland 200 years ago but no-one says this should all be returned to nature. However, gazetted forests like the Mau should be sacrosanct.

Moi should remember that Mau is not the only forest being destroyed in the world. Many forests, including the Amazon and Congo, globally are rapidly vanishing.

The destruction of the Mau is part of a worldwide process that has to be reversed.

Moreover, the Mau is Kenya's largest water tower, providing half the country's hydropower and rivers to half the country.

Even if there was no drought, Kenya needs the Mau Forest to store rainfall and release it evenly during the dry season.

Moi has been in politics for 50 years and we should respect his experience. But he is wrong on the Mau. It needs to be fully restored.

Last week I pointed out that any hope for what we now call Coast Province seceding to form a new mini-state or semi-autonomous region would be heavily compromised by the fact that the ethnic groups indigenous to the "Lower Coast" have an abiding fear of being dominated by those from the "Upper Coast".

And that the only condition on which the people from the Lower Coast would join such a project of secession would be if there was a guarantee that the new geopolitical entity would be led by someone from the Lower Coast.

But that is only the beginning of the problem: within the Lower Coast, there is an equally severe political division between the Muslims and the Christians.

This is essentially because there is an ethnic as well as a religious division here: What we refer to generally as "the Mijikenda communities" of the Lower Coast are chiefly composed of various sub-ethnic groups, including the almost entirely Muslim Digo and Duruma, of Kwale District, and the mostly Christian Giriama, Kambe, Jibana, Chonyi, Kauma, and Rabai of Kilifi , and Malindi Districts.

And there is just as much political mistrust between the "South of Mombasa" Mijikenda communities and the "North of Mombasa" Mijikendas. Complicating matters yet further is the bit¬ter political rivalry between the so-called "black Muslims" (i.e. the Swahili, Bajun, Barawa, etc) and the so-called "white Muslims" who are of relatively pure Arab blood, and can in many cases trace their roots to Oman.

The "white Muslims" are in general very much richer than the "black Muslims", and so have most of the economic power. But they are relatively few and so the "black Muslims" tend to be the decisive force in politics.

As such, what many up-country people see as "Coast Province" is not a homogenous and unified political entity, which could reasonably remain cohesive if it seceded.

In the totally improbable event of such a secession, what we now know as Coast Province would break up into three or four smaller units, none of which would be a viable semi-autonomous region, much less a mini-state.

This is why past out-standing Coastal leaders never considered secession as a strategy to empower their people. They have at-tempted instead to solve these problems within the existing political boundaries.

The last politician to be a serious contender for the designation of "Coast political kingpin" was Emmanuel Karissa Maitha, who died a year after attaining his dream of serving in the Cabinet.

His political strategy was not to run for President or to lead the people of the Coast away from the rest of the country. His goal was to unite the Coastal communities.

He liked to point out that Coast Province had roughly 20MPs much the same as what we generally term as "Luo Nyanza".

Also that the Coast had just a little more than one million voters which was the same as what "Luo Nyanza" had in 2003 when Maitha served in the Cabinet.

He would then ask why it was that "Luo Nyanza" had been a potent force in national politics from the moment that Kenya returned to multiparty politics in 1992, while the
Coast was still a political backwater, fought over by the contending presidential candidates.

The answer, of course, was that while Luo Nyanza was united, Coast Province was not. So where in one case you would be certain to have roughly 20 votes in Parliament working as one to advance the causes dear to the residents of Nyanza Province, and a million presidential votes to contend with at every General Election, the Coast did not present either the same threat or the same opportunity because it was so hopelessly divided.

His conclusion from all this was that Coastal leaders would only be taken seriously by the rest of the country when they learned to speak with one voice, and to support one regional leader who could bargain for them with the central government.

Of course he said this with the idea in mind that he alone was capable of holding the position of regional leader for the Coast. But the fact that this logic was intended to serve his personal ambitions does not mean that his calculations were false.

More importantly, he at least had the courage to look for real solutions to the problems unique to Coast Province, and to recognise that these problems could only be solved through unity. He did not succumb to the cheap politics of demanding secession.

Muga Comments on topical issues.

The second review conference on the Mine Ban Treaty opened in Cartagena, Colombia, last Sunday. Conspicuously missing is Kenya's political leadership. To confirm her apathy, Kenya instead chose to send a junior diplomat for the very high-level talks. This despite Kenya having hosted the first review conference in Nairobi five years ago.

The review conference, held every five years during the lifetime of a treaty, is being attended by hundreds of representatives of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, some states not party, international organisations, UN agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Handicap International and the International Coalition to Ban Landmines.

This Review Conference aims at assessing challenges in the universalisation and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, and taking stock of progress made since the First Review Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2004.

The 1997 treaty has been a landmark accomplishment. For the first time in hi story,'a group of governments and civil institutions joined together to ban a conventional weapon that had been used by virtually every fighting force in the world for decades.

Today, 156 nations are party to the treaty — including Af-ghanistan, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, all of Europe except Finland (Poland has signed but not yet ratified), all of sub-Saharan Africa except Somalia, almost half of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa (including Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and Algeria), and the entire Western Hemisphere, except for the United States and Cuba.

Kenya's leaders absence at the talks means the country has missed an opportunity to show unflagging support for the campaign against the insiduous weapons.

At the end of the conference, Kenya will have missed an opportunity to reaffirm her political commitment to ban and prohibit the use of land mines. For starters, the Government of Kenya ratified the Mine Ban Treaty nearly nine years ago — January 23, 2001 — but has failed miserably to domesticate it hence making the treaty inoperational locally.

In the run up to the Cartagena Conference, a leader of my organisation, Handicap International, called both the Prime Minister's office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to confirm Kenya's inability to register for the conference despite earlier reports of Prime Minister Raila Odinga's attendance. As usual he was taken round and round with no concrete response.

Could it really be true that Kenya would tinker in making a political statement in one of the most inclusive and comprehensive treaties put together in the last 50 years? This is absurd.

And given the closed, hush-hush nature of Kenya's legislation process of the Mine Ban Treaty excluding almost everyone involved in the land mine issue, the real reasons remain unclear. Surely the administration has no intention of defending the homeland with antipersonnel land mines?

Kenya s position on land mines calls into question our country's non-expressed views on multilateralism, respect for international humanitarian law and disarmament. How can we, with total credibility, lead the region to display commitment to the ban on use, transfer and stockpiling of land mines and cluster munitions when we cannot even sit down with our neighbours to collectively give directions on what we are doing to rid the world of land mines?

This administration has seemed all too willing to put aside human rights in the service of political expediency. Its response to the entire process of domestication of the mine ban treaty is so far wishy-washy; its response to ratify the cluster munitions convention is shrouded in mystery and invisibility.

A shrinking number of countries — including China, Russia, India and Pakistan — have not joined the Mine Ban Treaty.

However, the majority of these countries are in fact complying with key treaty provisions such as no use, trade, or production of mines.

Myanmar and Russia are the only states using antipersonnel mines in recent years, along with non-state armed groups in about seven countries.

When will Kenya join the rest of the world in reaffirming her commitment to ban these insidious weapons of terror that have caused so much heartbreak and devastation?

Despite Kenya's lethargy, antipersonnel mines have been stigmatised in less than ten years, as an unacceptable worldwide, even for countries that remain outside of the treaty.

The author is the advocacy and campaigns officer, Handicap International, Kenya/Somalia programme, Nairobi.

A senior Cabinet minister met six councillors two weeks ago and pledged to give them Sh7 million to mobilise people to demonstrate against those trying to "distract" him in his 2012 plans. We are told the councillors have received the first instalment of Sh2.3 million and they are required to prove their worth before getting the rest of the money.

We are privy to the details of a meeting which resolved to "identify and ruthlessly" deal with people who testified against a senior Cabinet minister in connection with the post-election violence. We are informed that the high profile meeting held three weeks ago was funded by the senior Cabinet minister and attended by his close allies, who also asked the minister to extend to them "an opportunity to make money in government".

The maize shortage and the subsequent scam and the importation of fertiliser proved to be a cash cow for three companies whose proprietors and directors are now being asked to pay back the favour through contributions to a politician's mobilisation kitty.

We hear that writers at a vernacular radio station have ganged up against one of their bosses, who they believe has received preferential treatment from a Cabinet minister. The minister's handlers have now set aside close to Sh5 million to pacify the writers. The funds are reportedly coming from close to 15 parastatal heads, who are contribut¬ng Sh350,000 each for the 'project.'

We hear a prominent Cabinet minister from Rift Valley is contemplating starting a TV station and a vernacular radio station with its main office in Nairobi. We have been informed that the minister has twice been seen at Transnational Plaza along Mama Ngina Street surveying one of the floors being considered as a possible location for the new station.

The CEO of a local university has paid himself Sh2.3 million gratuity amid fears that he will soon be relieved of his responsibilities. We are told that the chief executive officer wants to get out as much of the money due to him as possible and before the university council meets to avoid any future litigation over the dues.

A media consultant was told to leave the studios of a local media house where he had accompanied a political personality who asked to give his opinion about the draft constitution. The media house chief was not amused by the consultant's audacity to presume he could appear in front of the cameras at the station. He asked the consultant to leave the premises and never to return to the station until he sorted out his financial obligations. The consultant had no choice but to leave the building and head to his car and speed off.

Some people who claim to be from a constituency in south Nyanza have been camping out at the gates of the National Assembly waiting to see their Member of Parliament. They said they had been on the streets for six days waiting to see the legislator who asked them to come to the city but can now not be reached on phone.

A prominent MP from Central Kenya is behaving badly. Corridors of Power has it that the legislator has been hiring and firing his assistants at will. The legislator is said to be giving no explanations when dismissing his hapless employees who leave without knowing the reasons of their dismissal. That the man has given his wife a free hand to harass, intimidate and even abuse the staff seconded to him has not helped matters.

A senior detective is among those being investigated in connection with the Sh24 million cash that went missing as G4S guards were loading ATMs at the Yaya Centre. The man reportedly pocketed a big chunk of the cash that was recovered when two suspects were stopped and held at a roadblock at Kikopey in Gilgil. The man reported that only a fraction of the cash was recovered and took the rest. Now a special team has been established to investigate the theft which has prompted a rethink in the manner in which cash is transported.

Residents of Mlolongo along Mombasa Road are angry with a certain Rift Valley MP who is said to have business interests in the area. The bone of contention is that the 'big man' has been making numerous visits to the area not only to supervise a building he and his cronies are putting up but also to "hunt" for beautiful girls and women. The MP is said to be using his bodyguards to threaten any of his 'prey' who reject or resist his advances.

Who is recruiting ghost workers at the office of the Prime Minister Raila Odinga? Corridors has gathered that a top civil servant in the human resource department has hired over 50 non-existent staff members, who are "paid for services they have not delivered". The matter has now caused concern and we hear key personalities involved want it addressed before Raila learns of it.

An MP from South Nyanza has fled his home. The legislator, who has said very little in Parliament since he was elected, has been sleeping in hotels to avoid meeting his constituents, who have been visiting his home to discuss matters affecting their constituency. The legislator is now running the constituency from hotels in Migori and Homa-Bay while constituents queue at his home.

Three MPs who had no money to take to the Mau funds drive borrowed Sh200,000 from a top Cabinet minister from North Rift promising to repay in a week's time. Before donating the funds, we are are told, the MPs made toxic statements. It's almost a week now and corridors will let you know whether they have paid the debt.

Corridors is aware of two lawyers who have Sh6 billion between them in their accounts. We hear the funds belong to a prominent Cabinet minister, who is accumulating the money as a war chest for elections. We are now told that the lawyers have invoked client confidentiality as the reason for failing to declare the source of funds and now sleuths are watching the movement of the funds with interest.

We told you yesterday of a Sh6 billion election warchest belonging to a Cabinet minister and held in trust by two lawyers. We have just learnt that the money is more than Sh6 billion. It is Sh 17 billion, generated mainly from corrupt dealings in the past few years and the owner has told those who care to listen that he is ready to do battle with anyone.

Former Baringo Central MP Gideon Moi wants the Waki Envelope made public. We are told by those in the know that the son of the former President is convinced that making the contents of the envelope public "will be enough to deal with some politicians who are making noise all over". He also wants Prime Minister Raila Odinga to let President Kibaki "carry his own cross" on the Mau issue otherwise "if the Kalenjins go, they go forever".

You must have heard by now talk of generational change. We are told the Uhuru Kenyatta-William Ruto axis is planning to make this its rallying point as it seeks to popularise the new alliance. We are told that people working for the two are designing a political strategy that will revolve around young people and why older politicians need to be kicked out.

A former senior official of the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry is battling with alcoholism. We are told the situation has become so bad that the once high-profile businessman has now been taken into rehab at Nairobi Hospital and there is a plan to fly him out of the country.

Were some MPs duped into giving money for the Mau evictees? MPs Ayiecho Olweny and Shakeel Shabir have told Corridors that they appended their names and signatures pledging contributions in good faith. But now that the issue has turned out to be a political contest between PM Raila and Agriculture Minister William Ruto the two are sparing no effort to clear their names. We are told the to MPs have been spending a lot of time in their constituencies explaining why they sent contributions to the Mau harambee.

The latest tirades pitting Prime Minister Raila Odinga and a cabal of MPs led by Agriculture minister William Ruto over the government's plan to restore the Mau Forest complex are now taking on dangerous proportions that could spark off another round of ethnic passions that could hurtle the country back into chaos.

Yet the Mau Forest restoration exercise is a government policy—period! It has nothing to do with the political ambitions of any one person in government. Hence any attempt by anyone to politicise the Mau restoration should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.

The Agriculture minister and his cabal of MPs have missed the point and should do some soul-searching over their stand on the Mau.

First and foremost, the controversy of the Mau restoration should not be seen as an issue pitting Prime Minister Raila Odinga against the people of Rift Valley and their leaders.

Anybody who knows the geography of Kenya can appreciate that the Rift Valley
Province is a vast province that stretches from Turkana in the north to Narok and Kajiado in the south.

Not all Rift Valley people have a problem with the government's efforts over Mau conservation.

For example, the Maasai people who were pushed to the extreme south of the Rift Valley would like the Mau to be restored at all costs because this vital water tower sustains their cattle.

A section of Kalenjin MPs led by Ruto have turned the Mau Forest restoration issue into an ethnically-motivated political arm-wrestling contest. All reasonable Kenyans understand that the restoration of the Mau has far-reaching legal, political, economic and humanitarian ramifications.

To restore the Mau, it is inevitable that some people who have settlements in this catchment area will have to be evicted. Of all people, Ruto must know this. The centre of gravity of this whole issue is the apparent failure by Ruto and his colleagues to understand what it means to be a member of government.

Government is the group of people responsible for controlling a country or state. This definition of government presupposes a sense of unity and teamwork in order to undertake this enormous but noble task.

'Parliament' however refers to a group of people who are elected to make the laws of a country and represent certain interests.

The decision to restore the Mau Forest Complex was mooted by government, of which Ruto is a member. Despite legitimate concerns from affected people, it was agreed that the environmental outweighs any other socio-political and economic interests — and Ruto was part of this consensus.

The matter was later brought to Parliament and MPs, including Ruto, agreed that the need to restore the water tower was an urgent matter of national importance. So it came as a, surprise when the Agriculture minister, despite attending a Cabinet retreat for bonding in Mombasa, tore into the government plan to restore the Mau.

The Mombasa communique which the Cabinet committed itself to was very clear:

"Cabinet ministers and assistant ministers will foster unity and cohesion within government by refraining from making adverse public utterances against fellow Cabinet ministers and assistant ministers and those which could cast a bad image of the government."

Hours after committing himself to this communique, Ruto breached it while meeting 'his people' who were honouring a voluntary government quit notice from the Mau.

The minister ranted over the 'eviction of his people' without giving them alternative settlement or compensation.

But while the issue of compensation or re-settlement of Mau evictees is entirely a matter of government policy, it surprised many when Ruto and his echo-chambers became unreasonably personal by directing tirades at Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The Mau restoration policy involves at least half-a-dozen ministries of which the PM's office only performs coordinating functions. Why would the minister single out the Premier for his criticisms?

It is unfortunate that our leaders have not learnt the lessons of early 2008 and are hell-bent on pushing the country to the brink of the precipice. But this time round they must be contained before they succeed in their dangerous mission.

The writer is a Chevening Fellow, CEO of Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance and deputy secretary general of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims.

The new draft constitution leaves a lot to be desired and requires more than a radical surgery before the referendum. The document by the Committee of Experts is a cut, copy and paste with few amendments from the cur-rent constitution.

At least two drafts — one on a purely parliamentary and another on presidential system of government — were expected at this stage or at the referendum. The coalition government, a mixed grill, is already controversial and has led to political bickering.

The history of constitution making in the country dating back to the colonial times has not been a bed of roses. The Bomas drafts and others were trashed by feuding political class.

The nation's founders could not agree on a constitution at Lancaster House until the British Government intervened resulting in a document that has been mutilated beyond recognition.

But even then, the independence constitution was clear on the distinct roles of the head of state and government in a new Kenya. The Governor General was the head of state and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Jomo Kenyatta was the PM and head of government because his party, Kanu, won the majority of parliamentary seats in the first General Election.

In the ensuing period, political parties were hoodwinked into dissolving ostensibly to forge national unity. Consequently, Kenya became a defacto one-party state. That is when the rain started beating us.

The proposed formula of picking a President who will also be the Command-er-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in a parliamentary system like India is not acceptable.

The next President who will not be an MP is expected to go round the country to look for votes and eventually cede authority to the PM. On which platform would such a person be elected if not on any of the existing parties and what happens if the President and the PM come from different parties?

In the new draft, the President shall have powers to dismiss the PM. You cannot rule out a collusion between the President and MPs to remove the PM in such an arrangement.

To avoid conflict between the President and the PM, a group of eminent persons should be proposed and subjected to an electoral college to elect one as President from the list.

The President should be, above all, a symbol of national unity and serve for one term of seven years that does not coincide with a General Election.

In a purely presidential system, the President is elected by the people and runs the country with the two chambers of deputies. The appointments made are vetted by MPs.

Unlike in the parliamentary system, MPs in a presidential system concentrate on committees and subcommittees and legislative agenda as well representing the constituents.

In the current system, the constituents are under-represented and legislative work suffers because the ministers who are also MPs are under obligation to support the Executive at all times under collective responsibility.

The new draft proposes that out of the 20 ministers to be appointed by the PM, 50 per cent should be drawn from outside the Legislature. This won't add value to the functions of the Executive.

Going by history, we are likely to see and hear more of bickering in the Cabinet than ever before.

The committee identified areas where reforms should be undertaken but surprisingly avoided the Legislature that needs radical surgery. For instance, there is a Parliamentary Service Commission comprising MPs, the Speaker and the Clerk as members.

One cannot expect fairness from a commission dominated by elected persons especially when it comes to recruitment of staff.

For purposes of transparency and accountability, half of the commission's membership should come from outside the Legislature to forestall abuses and excesses by lawmakers.

The experts should look at the draft afresh and ensure that the document is not rejected again — its rejection would mean a rehearsal for worse things to come.

The writer is a former Cabinet minister and secretary general of Kanu and LDP.

Kenya has had imperial presidents since Independence. All started out as men of little means and ended up as tycoons.

Everyone knows the history. Jomo Kenyatta's home in Gatundu was a community project, because he had lost years to jailing and detention, and yet he died as the country's single largest landowner.

All Parliaments during his presidency remained silent, and the few Kenyans who challenged his acquisitive style found themselves in detention or worse. The genesis of the landgrabbing mania of Kenya's political elite was epitomised by the Kenyatta era.

His successor Moi continued this trend and the land corruption of both eras has been extensively documented by the Ndungu Commission.

The Mau Forest story is there. So it's not at all ironical that among the potential evictees from the Mau complex is a large scale tea farmer from Kiptagich who once was the President of Kenya and the leader of Uhuru Kenyatta's political party Kanu.

Kiptagich Tea Estates Limited owned by Moi is prominent in the Ndungu Report.

However it appears that Moi's tenure at Kiptagich may be ending soon.

The Standard on Sunday newspaper reported that Prime Minister Raila Odinga's office has said: "On Monday we are sending emissaries to Moi to surrender the Kiptagich Tea Plantation or we take it by force."

That's fighting talk but what remains true is that Moi has no right to profit another day more from a tea factory that he illegally set up by abusing his presidential prerogatives.

Kenyans should not be confused by the hypocrtical and emotional calls by Uhuru, Zakayo Cheruiyot, Franklin Bett, William Ruto, Mutula Kilonzo and Kiema Kilonzo for poor people's taxes to be used to compensate such large-scale land grabbers.

Elements of the neo-Kanu leadership are desperate to avoid having to face the poor people who they deceived into believing that they were being given the land with legitimate titles.

Paul Ndungu who chaired the Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Land Grabbing this year publicly stated that the Kiptagich Tea Estates farm is on illegally grabbed forest land, and that his Commission recommended in 2004 that the government repossess it.

It started in the mid 1980s as a well-meaning campaign to settle the landless. The government decided that the Ogiek community should not be homeless anymore.

They were to be resettled permanently. So government ordered an excision of part of Mau Forest Complex for r settlement.

Ndung'u told the Nation in July that corruption crept in. "Instead of carving out say, 2,000 hectares, those handling the exercise would excise 10,000 hectares and allocate the extra hectares to themselves and other influential individuals in government," he said.

Ndung'u gave the example of Kiptagich settlement, to which some residents from Baringo were moved when their land was taken for construction of a college. Kiptagich, in the southern part of , Mau Forest, started as a very small settlement scheme. And since the area was virgin land and close to Kericho, the new arrivals ventured into growing tea.

According to Ndung'u, Moi, while touring the area, realised tea was doing very well and conceived plans to expand its production. He got himself a huge chunk of land. "The tea growers used to deliver it to the factories near Kericho which was not only far but through very bad road network. Eventually, Moi decided to build a private factory there for them," said Ndung'u.

The report's verdict was that former President's children, who were illegally allocated land, including former Baringo Central MP Gideon Moi and his wife Zahra, Raymond Kiprotich, Doris Choge and Jonathan Toroitich, should return it.

And an audit report of the Mau forests appointed by PM Raila Odinga, which has already been approved by the Cabinet, shows that the Ogiek people were never the beneficiaries of the Mau allocations.

Later in 1997, the government decided to establish in Nakuru another settlement scheme - Olenguruone and extension of Kiptagich for which 1,812 ha were set aside. The intention was to establish an outgrower tea zone for Kiptagich Tea Estates. All these excisions had not been gazetted.

Ndung'u says that because all the settlements were created in the forest before it was de-gazetted to farmland, everything was done illegally.

"It does not matter who gave the directive, including the President... the titles should be revoked, everybody should be evicted and the forest to be replanted," he said.

The writer is the CEO, Mars Group.