On November 17, Kenya set out on a path that may go a long way to determine its future. This marked the start of a 30-day public interaction with the Harmonised Draft Constitution. I marked the beginning of the only chance that the ordinary Kenyan will have to interact with the document and make suggestions on how it can be improved.

This morning, there was this conversation that made me think whether the public is ready to be engaged on the making of the country’s supreme law. One guy brought up a notion that the country has a large population that is illiterate but also added that there are those who can read but are too lazy to do it.

And since there is nothing I can really do to increase the literacy level in the 30 days, I want to focus on the latter part of my friend’s concern.

During the 2005 quest for a new constitution, Kenyans (I included) left it to the politicians to read the draft for them and interpret it for them. The country was  then divided into an orange and a banana and that culminated in the death of more than 1,000 Kenyans in 2008 due to the highly polarised atmosphere.

Counting on history to have taught us something, my hope is that Wanjiku will this time read the constitution before listening to the arguments by the politicians, civil society groups and religious leaders. We have a duty to ensure that we get it right before all the confusion starts.

Already there are those who are arguing against some aspects of the constitution without having even had a look at the document. Some shout loudest with arguments based on hearsay and without any basis in fact.

For instance one newspaper had to shameless give some politicians a platform to trash the proposals on the executive just hours after the document was unveiled. Even if they had an advance copy, it was prudent to let us all read it first and then open up the debate.

Having read the document, I believe it is one of the most advanced step that the country has made in the quest for a new constitution. All the legal jargon may be somehow confusing but it makes more sense than when you get explanations from someone – some who may have heard from someone else.

And that’s my call to Wanjiku… Read it this time!

In Kenya, we live life in a strange pseudo reality.
A state where we do not trust our vision, feel our emotion, we hear but do not listen and find meaning in words. We touch but we do not move, act like we care but do not share.

An amazingly stupid incident is the cause of this rant.

It’s a Friday night and I’m on my way home.

I have turned down the company of an amazing girl because new work rules dictate that Saturday is half day.

I’m used to doing a jig on Friday nights at this nice spot with her but today I must pass.

So here I am minutes from home tweeting as I walk towards my place when this charming stranger stops me. He tells me never to use the phone at night, and how his got stole in the same area a few months before.

I appreciate his directness and I introduce myself. Hand him my card. He tells me he is in tourism and an interesting conversation begins. Two jovial guys chatting away. Oh, did I forget to mention Koi, his girlfriend? This is what “networking” is meant to be about.

They are headed to the local round the bend. I let them know all I have to do is drop off my work stuff (herein being laptop and my suit) before I can join them for one.

I have been on an attempted beer diet. No actually I am trying to quit drinking altogether. The cause of this is the subject of another FISHY story unrelated to this .

So I go ahead and quickly dump my stuff.

Head to the local. This place is amazing. Whatever day of the week, pilots, execs,makangas, you name it, it’s packed to the brim. Totally unbelievable. And they say ati uchumi ni mbaya.

And what greats me is a request that I throw a rao. I promptly do so coz the idea is we each throw a rao and thereafter head digs, to each his own. Wamboi doesn’t count as she is taken. I have forgotten the much sweeter old school version of that phrase. If you know it hebu remind me.[i]

Their best friend was already there by the way.

So three guys one chick. One rao later and my beer is not forthcoming. They have gotten their own rao and I’m seated there looking and feeling sheepish. Not that I cannot buy my own beer. In any case I was only planning for one for the bed.

It’s about integrity.

You guy that is one thing many Kenyans lack. Very few Kenyans have.

If I say that things are going this way they should go that way.

If I tell you each one of us is throwing a rao each one is throwing a rao.

If I tell you baby lets meet at one for lunch, it should be at one for lunch.

If I say dude let’s have a power sharing agreement and you are the prime minister and I the president and things are fifty fifty, let it be so.

But alas. This is Kenya as Churchill would put it.

Everyone acts like they are the stereotypical Nigerian.

And so I left the pub, angry at myself, feeling like “the mark” that just got hustled due to his own greed.

It would have felt comforting and rather expected were I shafted by a fly demu. That is rather kawa and expected.

But to be shafted by a guy, tena one with whom you have had an apparently meaningful business discussion with?

Dare he send me email kesho expecting me to throw business his way!

Foko Jembe!

Goodnight guys.

I am a tad the wiser.

BY JAMES RATEMO

Ratemo saw the trophy land

Jubilation and excitement greeted the arrival, of the authentic Fifa World trophy in Nairobi under super-tight security with President Mwai Kibaki calling on all teams that would be headed to the tournament in South Africa next year to make a stop in Kenya.

Leading the sports fraternity to officially receive the trophy at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga called on Kenya’s sports management to put their house in order if Kenya is to qualify for the 2014 World Cup and realize dream of winning the cup.

“It is a historic moment that heralds great things to come in promoting sports in our country…it is an epic journey that started in Cairo two months ago…it is an opportunity to reconnect to the dream of winning,” said an excited Kibaki.

This is the biggest global tour in the sports history and Kenya is the 35^th nation to hold the symbol of football supremacy in the journey that started in Cairo on September 24 and will end in South Africa next month.

For three days the Cup will be in the country thousands of fans will have a rare closer look opportunity to view the magnificient trophy coveted by all lovers of football.

Kibaki arrived shortly after a special plane carrying the trophy landed at JKIA before he was led into the plane to devour the beauty of the Trophy and be guided on how to handle it.

Journalists flooded the scene and were anxious to see the President come out of the plane carrying the trophy only for the president to step out empty handed. Time had not come.

Kibaki lifted the trophy high

Journalists and other onlookers were left at a loss as all were anxious to see the much-coveted pure golden trophy.

After the President and his entourage had left and the crowd subsided, a Fifa official surrounded by armed security officials stepped out carrying a black plastic briefcase,that could easily be mistaken for a camera.

“Where has the trophy gone to? Where have they hid it, or it is not there afterall?” Some journalists and onlookers cold be heard conversing.

Like a god the security officials drawn from G4S and Kenya police both in uniform and civilian clothes kept an eagle eye on the trophy.

As per the Fifa traditions, it was only the President, as head of state, who was allowed to hold the trophy with Prime Minister Raila Odinga only managing to touch it as he posed alongside Kibaki for the memorable photo session.

“That the World Cup has landed in Nairobi…It was a dream. Kenya may not be going for the World Cup tournament in South Africa next year…Rome was not built in one day… we have made a lot of progress. Let us build on that progress,” said Raila

“The real gold Fifa World trophy has landed in Kenya and history is being made…we must aspire to play there soon” said Sports Minister, Prof Helen Sambili.

Chief Executive Officer of Coca Cola, East and Central Africa, Nathan Kalumbu and Fifa Africa Ambassador, Mr Emmanuel Maradas were at hand to ensure all went as planned.

The trophy landed in Kenya and stayed for 3 days...Jubilation and excitement marked its arrival

Traditional dancers unleashed echoes of joy as they entertained guests in the three-hour ceremony.

 This is the first time the trophy has come to Kenya courtesy of Coca colas and Fifa sponsored trophy tour ahead of the Worl Cup tournament in South Africa next year.

There is a lot of noise on Kenya not doing anything right. And it is noise that I am so tired of hearing. My humble opinion is that Kenya is not doing as badly as some people want to portray us. We have a long way to go but we are getting there.

The international community seems to think we are such a failed nation more often than not pouring money to encourage NGOs to push the government. And this is the source of the pollution that is leaving the country with no focus.

Yes, a lot is to be done in the same way that a lot is being done. We are reforming various institutions in this country and my take is that we have done pretty well.

Look at parliament that could be silence by a single statement in the past. It has now become a major beacon of hope for this country due to the reforms, some of which however have made it dictatorial.

A draft constitution will be published in the second week of November and I believe Kenyans will have a good 30 days to discuss it and arrive at a consensus.

Registration of voters starts next months and the interim electoral commission is planning to automate things including introduction of electronic voting.

The boundaries commission, the TJRC and the national cohesion teams are up and walking if not running.America, EU and the rest should give Kenyans the space to complete this reforms.

As I have argued before, reform is not about removing individuals from certain positions and replacing them with others. Did we not record cases of electoral malpractices in the August by-elections even after kicking Kivuitu and company out after the disputed 2007 elections?

Instead of giving NGOs money to continue making noise over nothing, help this country feed itself. Help it build its infrastructure. Offer its traders favourable markets. Lift those travel advisories so that tourism grows if you really want this country to be stable.

Even as you argue the major problem in Kenya is governance, you must realise that it is struggling like any third world country. Struggling to have proper roads and hospitals. Struggling to fight poverty. Struggling to fight impunity and corruption.

You can advice us, but do not rub it on us!

El certamen FOTOPRES, organitzat per l’Obra Social “la Caixa”, va néixer als 80 i constitueix un “mirall de les transformacions que viu el món contemporani: les guerres i les migracions, l’impacte de la globalització en els costums i maneres de viure, i també l’aparició de noves formes de convivència per fer front al dolor i al desarrelament“.

Aquesta exposició presenta les obres dels premiats de l’edició d’enguany, que tracta temes d’actualitat com la violència de gènere o la guerra del Líban, o mirades particulars sobre realitats llunyanes però pròximes com els khusra de Pakistan.

Els fotògrafs premiats tornen a impactar amb les seves sèries. Fotoperiodisme que actua com un cop de puny a l’estòmac d’una realitat edulcorada pels mitjans de comunicació i polítics. FOTOPRES busca la realitat tal com és, i la mostra mitjançant reportatges denúncia.

El primer premi és per Emilio Morenatti, andalús que va perdre un peu per l’explosió d’una mina a Afganistan i va estar segestrat durant 15 hores a Gaza; presenta una sèrie de retrats horitzontals anomenada Violència de gènere al Pakistán. Són retrats de dones que han vist la seva vida destrossada per culpa del seu marit o un familiar que li ha tirat àcid a la cara; són retrats amb colors vius i un contrast que accentua una mirada de dolor i coratge que impacta a l’espectador.

El segon premi és per Walter Estrada i la sèrie d’instantànies de la violència entre tribus electoralista que va viure Kenya el passat 2008. Els mitjans ens van anar informant sobre els conflictes a conseqüència de la victòria amanyada del president Kibaki però Estrada recull el sofriment en les mirades dels keniates.

El tercer premi és per Alfonso Moral i el fotoreportatge sobre la guerra del Líban, que ens mostra la quotidianetat dels libanesos i el context social en el que esdevé el conflicte armat.

Sis fotògrafs més han rebut una beca per a la realització de projectes fotogràfics documentals.

Ocampo’s arrival in Nairobi is being waited with dread. His agenda, it turns out, is already on President Kibaki’s Desk. He wants the Masterminds of the 2007 Presidential Election violence given him to prosecute either in Kenya or at any other venue the ICC choses. Read more at the standard.

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=1144027554&cid=4&ttl=Ocampo’s secret letter to Kibaki

The government’s decision to reinstate Mr. Umuro Wario to continue serving as the Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund should be highly lauded. It’s a point of victory for public officers who risk their jobs by committing themselves to fight corruption. Kenya’s biggest problem with the war against corruption has always been having the corrupt have their day whenever they fight back. This has happened to so many competent people before. A number of committed and hardworking officers have often lost their jobs whenever they showed determination to fight graft. A few years back it was confirmed that in Kenya, corruption fights back. It happened to Goldenberg whistle blower David Munyakei who lost his job and died in agony after he revealed how Kenyans had lost billions of shillings through the Goldenberg scandal. The same nature of machinations worked so hard to remove true anti corruption crusaders from transparency international. It was such kind of behind the scene political games by some board members that two very competent CEO’s Mwalimu Mati and Gladwell Otieno were consecutively removed from TI Kenya. Transparency International is just one example among many where officers committed to sincerity end up losing their jobs because of the greed and immorality of some of the board members of those institutions. The minister in charge must be lauded for taking a bold action and making the truth carry its day by re appointing Mr. Wario. The minister has shown that if we all work for the truth, the just will always get justice too. The initial sacking of Mr. Wario was like condemning those who fight corruption within the institutions where they work. This is because the ground of dismissal was based on the fact that he didn’t cooperate in the approval of some questionable deals pushed by the board. He must be lauded for standing strong in the interest of Kenyan youth when he refused to approve a ‘loan’ of ksh.300million to a Canadian NGO. Its noticeable that some politically connected board members wanted to use their political influence to blackmail the CEO into approving projects that mattered to their own selfish interests and not in the interest of the Kenyan youth. It’s important that the minister was able to rescind her own earlier move of sacking the YEDF CEO after finding out the truth. As the minister appoints new board members it’s important to ensure that new faces are put on the board to make the YEDF operate without any external coercion from various political interests as it has been before. The minister should now move to ensure that the board is fully reconstituted to include people who will work in the interest of the Kenyan youth and not those who will end up arm-twisting the CEO to give’ loans’ to foreign NGOs. A new board I believe will come up with a new way of implementing the youth projects and also oversee the funding of the youth groups by merit and not through political manipulations. Wario is one of the competent young people who are emerging in providing leadership in different sectors of our economy and it’s wrong for individuals to use tribalism or any other form of bigotry to sabotage such talents. He is also is famed for having rolled out the audit of the Kenya’s free primary education when he worked for the ministry of education. I really wish that other ministers and government officials emulate the youth and sports minister Prof. Hellen Sambili and stand and support the truth always whenever circumstances of this nature arise. Through this, we shall achieve a lot in our war against nepotism and all other forms of corruption. It must be fought from all corners and sacking public officers who help fight it is not one of the methods of ridding our society of graft. FWAMBA NC FWAMBA NAIROBI +254721779445

I will tell you why Kenyans are lying to themselves every time they scream, huff and puff about Young effin’ Leadership.

Apart from the obvious reason that it’s not gonna happen-yes, I said it. IT’S. NOT. GONNA. HAPPEN.

Deal With It.

Leadership by young people in Kenya is, what’s worse than a pipe dream? Yeah, that. Why?

I will illustrate this with an event I attended on Friday. Some youth group in a certain part of Kenya had requested an audience with their local leader who was accompanied by some high-ranking diplomat. The youth group wanted to field questions about things they cared about.

Don’t even hold your breath because if you think that they were asking, no, if you think that they were demanding accountability from their local MP, you are, dead. wrong.

They fielded most of their stupid-ass-questions to the diplomat asking him whether HIS government was going to help them build a school here, a computer college there or, wait for it, Bring Water in their constituency!

How Now?? And don’t get me started on their oratory skills.

You have your area MP there, You are in a country that has a sitting President, a PM, you have a minister in charge of Water, another in charge of planning and shit like that, (here I’m going to give you credit and assume that you went to some school) and you stand there, trembling and reading  some scribbled ass question and worse, direct it to the wrong person. All these on Camera??

That’s not the worst of it. Some smart ass who claimed to have ran for the Westlands seat last year and lost to the incumbent thug you-know-who, stood up and yes, I’ll give it to his US educated eloquence but, my God, why do these US/UK educated cartoons think that we will vote for them based on where they went to university if they cannot attempt to even get rid of their stooopid-ass-wengs while talking to the locals? 

The smart ass stood up and talked to the locals in American English.

I think he was trying to impress the diplomat, but nigga, the diplomat, he don’t own a vote in Kenya! To make matters even worse, and like many such smart assess, he talked big English words as in reforms, change, bla, bla, bla without really saying a thing.

FUCK YA’LL!  There’ll only be ONE Obama in the World. Start looking for your own Catch Phrases.

His colleague, some older guy, who took the mics after him, had the audacity to give a speech in his lame ass cowboy hat and shades! Who the fuck are these people and mind you, we were deep in Kitui Land.

Later they drove off in their huge four-wheel drive LX.

So you see my point and this is been repeated in many areas around the country. How dare we think that there is young leadership in Kenya? How dare we think that there’ll be an Obama in the making come 2012, when we let such shows go on? How dare we flock to rallies held by underperfoming-maizestealing-mungiki supporting-land grabbing-publicity hungry-verbal diarrhoering Ministers and MP’s and not question or hold them accountable for their actions or lack of?

As a result, every 2012 wannabe candidate use what I see as youth banter in all their speeches. And guess what, we are buying it and standing behind them, whether it’s because they have paid us or because as usual, we are spineless, we. are. actually. buying it.

Ati we’ll have our own Obama.

Hold me while I crack-up in painful laughter!

Tell me why you’re not laughing with me.

You know who itis

The GeeKeiy

Macharia Gaitho has a rather hard hitting editorial piece in the Daily Nation today. His rather utopian idealization of the revolutionary Kenyan peasantry aside (they are very complicit in the creation of the mess that is Kenya today), I think he raises some serious questions that the country – and especially the ruling class – needs to revisit as it celebrates Kenyatta Day.

Happy Kenyatta Day!!

As Ugandan MP David Bahati spearheads a campaign around the adoption of the homophobic ‘Bahati’s bill’, Solome Nakaweesi-Kimbugwe and Frank Mugisha call for an unwavering rejection of a piece of legislation entirely against the interests of wider Ugandan society.

With strong suspicions of Bahati’s financial backing by extreme-right Christian groups in the US, the bill seeks not only to establish draconian punishments for homosexual acts but also to actively encourage Ugandans to snoop on one another indefinitely for the supposed good of the nation.

If homophobes like Bahati were really worried about ‘protect[ing] the traditional family’, Nakaweesi-Kimbugwe and Mugisha argue, they’d concern themselves with tackling the conditions keeping so many Ugandans in poverty, rather than making scapegoats of homosexual people. The authors conclude that with an election approaching in 2011, the momentum behind the bill smacks of a none-too-subtle attempt to divert attention away from Uganda’s true issues.

Pambazuka – Bahati?s bill: A convenient distraction for Uganda’s government

Shared via AddThis

I’LL STOP FUCKING SISTAS WHEN YOU STOP SLEEPING WITH RIGHT WING “CHRISTIAN” FUNDAMENTALISTS!

to the rest of the world.

did you hear the latest?

the bomb that went off at that mosque, in Pakistan earlier this morning?

en a couple of days ago… that anti homosexuality bill, the one that was coming for many moons now,

 that got tabled in the parliament of Uganda, on Wednesday October 14^th.  Have you heard about Bill 18?

we’d like to get your feedback.

I uploaded the bill onto the a is for pages….read it (again)

and no! spammers, or anyone confused by the brashness and vulgarity….this post does not depict (live) sex acts or images.

(although I wish it did, I would really rather be watching good porn than writing about how my sistren and bredrin have had a witch hunt called on them, this persecution is not new. but it’s enough of it already. time’s up! as another warrior sista said)

Wathint abafazi!
Wathint` imbokodo uzo kufa!

read the lines of the bill, and, then read between the lines. Who wrote those words? What is the context? what are the real issues at play?

Feefifofum, wethinks we smell a U.S fundamentalist Christian. They are after all one of the most likely suspects.

We propose that Family Life Network issues an official retraction to Obama en the people of Uganda, because they are the ones that have paid for this bill. these are their ideologies. take your “foreign”-ness, en we don’t want your money.

it is  YOU PEOPLE,  who are the PROBLEM.

Do you remember that anti-gay conference from March 5-8 that they organised? do you remember all that backlash, en the subsequent arrests and death(s)? Do you remember George/ina? and do you remember when Burundi introduced similar laws? It was jus’ a few moons ago……..google it…we propose a class action suit by all queers & trannies in the States against the Family Life Network. they are the ones that masterminded this bill. that is their brand of christianity.

George/ina was not just a harbinger of the heightened backlash to queer/trans organising, but a symptom en consequence of the unsupportive climate for queer/trans rights. Google the stories. There are many more incidents we can share with you…..

 about the assaults en murders of queer & trans people in East Afrika. unfortunately, many of those very people who’ve been abused are also, often, too scared of the backlash, to advocate for our full human rights. it’s a vicious cycle.

This time it’d be much worse, in my view this is the ”white” ages, the Victorian & McCarthy era all rolled into one dali-esque nightmare of extreme wight wing ideologies. the logical extension of imperialist ideology.

 because, this time,  even activists will lose the precious few rights we have to advocate en organise for queer/trans rights.  This shit is for real……..

There will be more imposed silence. And the people who can, will run away.

En there’ll be many more who’ll stay…..en then what?

At some point we have to question how long we can sanction state sponsored homophobia. en we have to address the big elephant in the room. neo-colonialism…….

we propose that this is one of those times when the (divided) LEFT in Ifrica, and throughout the diaspora, should have a massive orgy. seriously! and we’ll refute the bill based on just one argument. that these laws are not our own. and those identities they explicate are not indigenous. we have the evidence. we have U people. and, most importantly, we have the TRUTH.

OUR bias should be made clear. i’m writing with the assumption that we’re organising in solidarity with the queer/trans activists and communities of Uganda. I would like to pretend that this is all a hoax. a really bad joke. but that’s the shit folks.

we ain’t gonna agonise too much though, been getting organised for a long time now…..soobax

en there’s many of us people…

and we’re not going to tolerate complacency en wilful ignorance, anymore…..

This post is in protest of Bill 18.

These views are (not)  my own.

these words are not supposed to be taken as endorsed by wordpress or any organisation in particular.

that should be a given.

but I warn you, there are many people behind these words.

(there are many sistas en brothas working on solidarity.

why jus’ yesterday a group of (mostly) sistas,  talked and organised in response to this very bill.

This post is jus’ a prelude to a sustained campaign….a check in, a call to arms)

Wathint abafazi!
Wathint` imbokodo uzo kufa!

that is what we have to say in response to your dividing and oppressive tactics

 we will not stand for this blatant violation of all our rights.

the bill has WESTERN. CONSTRUCTION. Emblazoned.

The arguments are imported.

paid for en sealed with the blood of our people.

the origins of those (very/specific)  laws you’re upholding are imperialist.

Infact the mama of these sodomy laws,

first tried out, (as a colonial/imperialist project) by the British in India,

jus got repealed a few days after it was official that Uganda was working on tabling this very bill.

Thursday July 2nd.

that’s a fact.

dear bahati,

your weak arguments wouldn’t hold up in any (true) court of law.

your claims are bogus.

your intentions are dubious.

and that private members bill is

again, in full violation of  (global) human rights,

en, of our rights as Afrikan ctizens.

it’s simple as that.

we’re just ordinary people, and you’re using all a dis “foreign” terms to describe us.

homosexual? yes, i know many. but i’m not one. i still want the right to promote OUR rights.

lesbian? not for me anymore. but I don’t want you to tell people to (curative) rape en murder my sistas.

bisexual?  that’s SOOO GAY!

get over the binaries already. I am (much more than) a  wo/m/yn.

i prefer two spirited. or try mukhanatun, khanith or sangoma.

to each one their own, and we’re  adamant about all our rights in this “rainbow soup” of identities.

and bahati, while you’re on that pot of poison you’re cooking for  LGB,  let us also introduce you to T & I…

I know you don’t much like their transgressions either, let’s burn en kill us all

because..tell us bahati, who told you all these facts about US? who told you so?

we don’t need another stonewall. leave that to “a people’s hirstory of the U.S”

what we need is to stop being exploited in this fight for power.

we need to reclaim our (indigenous) afrikan identities. need to know our true cultures.

because we are INDIGENus. and this ‘ting we do’ is not new.

it is also true that we need allies.

we need you (en I).

we’re recruiting…(sistas in solidarity, en, brothas in solidarity, protesting this anti-homosexuality bill on the grounds of afrikan liberation.)

big brother.

Obama..

you jus’  waxed poetically political about LGBT  rights at the fundraiser gala dinner hosted by the Human Rights Campaign.

Saturday October 11.

that’s a fact. 

dear obama, i throw you the challenge. pay attention.

we are U people.

you know…..Kogello is historically connected with Uganda. all us Afrikans are.

you should do something more about your apparent support for queer/trans rights.

here’s something else to add on to your list……publicly denounce Bill 18! and demand an apology from Family Life Network.

we’re taking them to task in their meddling and corruption of our affairs.

we want them banned from Uganda.

here, some thing else for you add to that list, another chance

to actually do something (more) to deserve that prize.

this one won’t even take that much.

en it’s your country’s mess too. it is  OUR  problem.

 as it’s American citizens who were involved in organising that anti-gay conference in March, actually they were instrumental in it’s convening. It’s public knowledge.

you need to speak truth to power. and actually do something about some of your promises. but we ain’t gonna hold our breath.

En  we’re not going to wait for our sistren en bredrin to die in response.

And  we really don’t want to be fighting you. 

our fight is not (just) with our people, it is with all oppressors.

In our opinion, in this, as with many other, matter/s, QPOC must unite.

Afrika must unite!

For you see we got our enemies confused, en we’re distracted en scattered.

that’s all we’re saying.

But wait, there’s the hope to express (still)

we wish parliament instead would table a bill on criminalising capitalism and neo colonialism with such conviction and ease.

know thy self. en know thine enemy.

WE are (not) the problem.

This post is in solidarity with the peoples of Uganda, in solidarity with queer/trans Afrikans everywhere.

This post is the logical response to a neo-colonial regime that takes on western constructions of homophobia in the persecution of it’s own people.

IT’S BEEN SAID BEFORE,

en it’s worth repeating….

(it’s important to speak truth. to power)

we  will be the one of the first to agree that…. 

these identities, homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, sodomite, transsexual, transgender….those are all just (considered) english words, birthed in particular contexts.

lesbian is just another word for  that island of lesbos. the poet sappho.

en, queer, is just reclaimed language. transformed through time with imperialism, globalisation en resistance.

 those are terms we’ve used to describe ourselves, and that have been thrust upon us

All identities carry political meaning. They are provisional.

And they’re being used in deadly ways in this bill.

Read through all the words, and you got (say it with us now),

 the western construction of homophobia.

that’s the (bigger) point and we’re sticking with it.

It’s illogical, to use the (very) western constructs that shape your understanding  of the abominations and perversions inherent in “homosexuality”,  to uphold the official insistence that WE are alien to our lands.

which is it? the foreign presumption of our need to be wiped out from existence, or our (apparent) non-existence in continental afrikan discourse? (en the intense modern need to therefore safeguard the peace of “straight” people. your position, dear bahati, is ultimately contradictory. and that is also a fact.

we know this.  I/we exist. en therefore….

I/we know many others who do too….

and we know that, to put it concisely, this  bill is  nothing more than bull shit.

We are working on zero tolerance for such corruption, lies, en blatant exploitation of our precious resources.

I/we can say that, because I/we are not in Uganda.

And I/we are  saying it, as queer/trans Afrikan activists, and  QPOC IN SOLIDARITY.

because I/WE are worried about the consequences for comrades en family of ours.

those in kampala and throughout Uganda.

because that is ME, that you are targeting.

 but it’s not, because I was one of those who ran away.

I had to….for my own safety, survival and wellbeing.

This protest is personal as our lives and work. 

we’re worried about the ripple effect for queer/trans Afrikans on the continent.

in the diaspora(s)…

 we are organising ourselves,

in the spirit of working on our own unity first.

 because if we don’t take up this fight,

who will?

so I’ll  pass some ideas that sistas gave me yesterday..there are many things we can do…

learn more about the situation. Talk about it with others. Talk to your mp. Write to Harper. Jack Layton. Michael Ignatieff. Get on radio. Write those op-eds on your blog, to theToronto Star, to Now…..do something more…

Roll those boycotts. Ban all Ugandan officials from travelling to Canada. And expedite the process for Ugandan refuges, if the worst happens. Get Egale to officially pay for all a dis, and have queer/trans afrikans in Canda lead the campaign. Work in solidarity with groups in Uganda.

(The official contacts in Uganda are SMUG &  Freedom & Roam Uganda. The numbers are in the previous post)

Start where you are.

en for our comrades en allies…stay tuned for the launch of the pan-afrikan (queer/trans) activist listserv.

We’ll continue building solidarity in more focused spaces. And we’ll work on sharing resources.

 Because it’s not just about this bill.

the bigger point is to re/build healthy, loving, sustaining and sustainable communities.

Afrika Huru!

It’s not a secret. Spread the word. We’re recruiting.

We’re working on our own petitions, and we’re planning ahead…

We’re  

SISTAS.in.SOLIDARITY.

(another name for the working group) 

with Uganda. and all (u) afrikan people

I just read this on the BBC and can’t stop wishing that it is all hype. The report quotes a number of Kenyans – mostly from the Rift Valley – who seem to be acknowledging that segments of the Kenyan population are arming ahead of the 2012 elections. And this time round instead of machetes and bows and arrows they are getting guns, machine guns. A Kenyan working for an NGO in Eldoret confirmed the BBC report.

I am assuming, or rather hoping that the Kenyan intelligence community is not sleeping on the job like they did in the run-up to the 2007 elections. If people are buying machine guns it can only mean one thing. If Kenya is ever to have a civil war it will be fought in the Rift Valley. Other political conflicts in Kenya have always been over the sharing of divisible goods – mainly payoffs in terms of good jobs and chances for sleaze among the many ethnic entrepreneurs that populate the Kenyan political landscape. But the conflict in the Rift Valley will be about a somewhat indivisible good – LAND. Those that own the land will not let go or share it easily, more so if they have machine guns. And those that think that the land was taken from them wrongly will perhaps  also be willing to fight for the land, more so if they also have machine guns.

The contest in 2012 just seems to get messier and messier. Kibaki should consider calling a snap election and then stepping down. That may catch the plotters unawares and bring a decisive victory to one party or the other. May be then the government will be able to deal with all these issues – land, judicial reforms, security etc – without the many distractions that the current government faces.

And in other news, Jaindi Kisero (one of my favorite columnists) has a piece on the slightly positive signs the Kenyan economy has shown so far. If only the nation’s political class would get its act togehter…

I also found this discussion on the IMF and WB interesting.

One, more thing.  Last week I attended a talk by Paul Romer on Charter cities. The idea is as exciting as it is provocative. I still don’t know what to make of it though. Read more about it here.

A boy walks past Mawingu IDP camp in Gilgil, Rift Valley province in August 20, 2009. President Kibaki has ordered the closure of all such camps in two weeks. (Photo: file)

Kenya President Kibaki has directed the resettlement of all internal refugees in two weeks.

The President ordered the ministries of Finance, Special Programmes, Lands, Internal Security and Agriculture to move with speed in ensuring that land is made available for the resettlement exercise.

“We should move with speed to resettle the IDPs who are still in camps. This matter has dragged on for too long. We must deal with it and ensure that we do not have persons still living in camps,” he said.

“We also need to help those who are going back to their land to resettle and undertake their farming. I also appeal to all communities to live peacefully and co-exist harmoniously.”

President Kibaki was speaking Friday at his Harambee House office where he chaired a meeting of the committee overseeing resettlement of IDPs.

During the meeting, it was resolved that all IDP camps should be closed down within two weeks once the IDPs are resettled on the land purchased by the government.

It was also agreed that the Ministry of Finance should provide adequate funds for the purchase of land for the resettlement programme while the Ministry of Land identifies arable land for the same purpose.

The Ministry of Internal Security was directed to ensure that no new camps crop up after the genuine IDPs are resettled.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Special Programmes was ordered to continue with the exercise of paying Sh 25,000 to the integrated IDPs who are accommodated by other families.

The committee also agreed that the purchase of land by the government for the purpose of resettling the IDPs should be conducted in a transparent manner to ensure that government gets value for its money while the IDPs are resettled on arable land.

The meeting was attended by Special Programmes minister Dr Naomi Shaban, Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Internal Security minister Prof George Saitoti and Lands minister James Orengo and Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Muthaura among others.

The IDPs became refugees in their own country following the post election violence that rocked Kenya after a disputed presidential poll.

Source: Nation

The Justice Minister, Mr. Mutula Kilonzo, with the blessings of the Kenyan Cabinet tells the Hague to take over the prosecution of those political actors who planned, financed and encouraged the post-election Violence of 2007/2008. Just like that. The justice minister says that the TJRC and the local courts can hand the smaller criminal elements.

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=1144024560&cid=4&

Kenyan politicians, watch out. There is some one more scary that Ringera’s KAAC, more secretive that Githogo, louder than Kamotho, more enigmatic than Raila Agwambo Odinga. That someone is the empowered electorate wielding a cellphone while out in the shamba, or in the fields with cattle, in his boat fishing Omena in the dead of night.

The story goes that Mr. Ruto, the Agriculture Minister and Mr. Kenyatta the Finance Minister had schemed to barter-trade with the Rifty Valley and Central Kenya MPs over the Mau Saga (which Ruto wanted scuttled) and Kibaki’s Ringera Appointment (Which Mr. Kenyatta wanted backed). The story goes that Mr. Kenyatta delivered his side of the bargain, supported motions to sweeten the Mau Deal to the liking of Mr. Ruto and his friends, but when the Ringera Vote came up late at night, Mr. Ruto and his MPs were nowhere in the August House. Parliament proceeded to give Mr. Kibaki the equivalent of a Red Card in Soccer.

Rumours have it that Mr. Ruto and his MPs received a lot of cellphone calls and text messages that their Mailboxes got full. Each message  was clear, “Toe the ODM Party line, the party knows what is good for the party and Kenyans.”

The cellphone saved the day, again. Remember in 2007 the text message was the antidote to the Government’s Propaganda Machine!

The people have spoken.

President Kibaki has created about 180 districts over the last 6 years. The logic behind the creation of the many districts, according to the president and his men, has been that there is a need to bring government services closer to the people. One obvious question then is what government services? Are we talking about registration of births and deaths, motor vehicle registration, licensing, issuance of title deeds, judicial services and all that stuff? Because these services are still mostly highly centralised, requiring one to travel either to Nairobi or to far off provincial headquarters. Critics of the new districts have oftentimes highlighted their high cost and non-viability (The president thinks such critics are “backward”).

It was therefore welcome news when yesterday the president announced the halting of the creation of new districts – citing financial reasons. For some reason this fact (high costs) never crossed the minds of the president’s advisers somewhere between new district # 1 and # 180.

And now that we have over 180 new and expensive districts – most of them dished out for political reasons and “people’s demands” – I think it is time we require the new districts, being local governments, to do what governments do: TAX EVERYONE. Each district should be required to raise a percentage of its expenses from local populations (it is quite unfair for Nairobians to pay for non-viable districts in remote parts of the country created purely for political reasons). This minimum requirement need not be uniform across the board – people in West Pokot need districts too, you know – but should be geared towards making local people bear some responsibility for their local governments. With local funding for local districts, Kenyans may be persuaded to care more about who gets appointed to be DC and what their DC and the many district committees do. And to add to the positives, the DC’s will have an incentive to promote local economic activity to generate revenues.

Eventually, one hopes, this idea of local taxation for local services will make Kenyans demand that they get to elect their local DC’s instead of having State House appoint them.

This may sound like a pipe-dream but there is hope. Given parliament’s increasing assertiveness and power-grab from the executive and judiciary it is conceivable that such an idea can successfully be passed into law by the august House. Does someone know a crafty MP with nothing to lose who can champion this cause?

ps: I never thought I’d ever say this but I am actually missing the Standard online edition. What happened to them? Can’t they afford a website?

In an ideal world the ranking of an institution as the most corrupt in a country is enough reason for the head of that institution to resign or initiate radical reforms to mitigate the situation. But this has never been true for the Kenya Police Force. Every year,  the Kenya Police Force has emerged as the most corrupt institution in the country without serious repercussions at Vigilance House. It therefore came as welcome news when the president announced today the replacement of Major General Ali with Mathew Iteere as Police Commissioner.

Ali tried to rein in organized crime and to tame the proscribed Mungiki sect. The executive lacked the political will to let him finish the job and Ali lacked the spine to take the fight to those who stood in his way. He was also anti-reform, which must be the main reason why the president has chosen to show him the door. His legacy will forever be tarnished by the force’s extra-judicial killings that took place on his watch. But he will also be remembered as the no-nonsense commissioner who moved the force from the backward days of the Nyayo era police state towards a force befitting a quasi-democracy. Many would agree that for a reformer he lasted for too long at the helm and therefore failed  (kind of like what will become the fate of his former boss, President Kibaki).

Mr. Iteere, from the paramilitary GSU, comes in at a time when the force needs urgent structural and operational reforms (as recommended by the Ransley report). I know nothing about the man but I hope he is strong enough to stand up to the president’s  men (and increasingly the Premier’s men too) who might stand in his way. We wish him well.

Yes Aaron Ringera lazima aendelee kuwa mkuu KACC because you Kenyans are just fools. What with Raila ever dreaming of achieving anything by hiding his cards close to his chest?

What Kibaki has just done has potaryed how Kenyans are cheap and stupid in mind and will never achieve any much with un planned resistance.

Ringera, Wanjala and Sichale have achieved much. They have protected the intesrest of Kibaki and his ministers and I want just to tell Kenyans that Nynyi ni Mavi ya Kuku

Mr. Ruto has an important appointment with his ODM party notables this morning. On the agenda is Mau forest, the tribunal vs tjrc vs the Hague on Kenya’s 2007 post-election Violence. When ODM meets, every notable will be required to take a stand or declare that he or she stands by the party resolutions of the day.

On the way to today’smeeting, Mr. Ruto talked to kalenjin elders, then drank tea with young Kibaki, who is experimenting with an Obama-type youth movement as most dreamers do these days. Now, Mr. Ruth was a youth in 1992 with Mr. Jirongo— close to 3 decades later, he can’t still be a youth. So any right-thinking pundit must assume that he had either gone to young Kibaki to be briefed before the meeting or some morale-boosting carrots and hellish alternatives were dangled at him. If Mr. Ruto had any credibility left as the Kalenjin leader of today, he lost it yesterday. If he intended to use the meeting as a warning to Mr. Odinga and his ODMbrigade, then he mistook his ODM and Rift Valley audience- – - there is nothing as damaging in Kenyan politics as the perception that one is eating “ugali” with the opposition.

Who benefits in Ruto-Kibaki deal?

PNU or rather elements within PNU, who are scared of the great Imanyara Tribunal Bill (blessed by the Justice Minister Kilonzo—a protege of VP Kalonzo of ODM-Kenya) on the 2007 post-election violence tribunal. Mr. Ruto is being used to scuttle the imanyara bill because success of the bill would disturb the political waters of significant persons in central kenya politics, as it would Mr. Ruto himself. Any unity in ODM for the Mau and the Tribunal is MR. Ruto’s nightmare. This unity is the more likely because he ate “ugali” with PNU on a day when the Chairman of the Kalenjin Council of Elders was in the print news on the 2007 Post-Election Violence. Mr. Ruto’s supporters and fellow ODM MPs in the greater Rift Valley must be looking at him anew this morning. What Mr. Ruto will meet at ODM’s gathering this morning is a very skeptical audience known for straight talk. Take-home lesson: one cannot constantly fight the man they call Agwambo without risks.

On July31, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga betrayed the millions of Kenyans who put them in those positions. The failed to successively defend their agreement and ensure that they offered leadership to the country.

They allowed their ministers to arm-twist them into giving the international community an opportunity to call Kenya a failed state. The two backtracked on their promise to Kenyans that they would do all they can to help fight impunity.

On December 16 last year, the two so called principals signed an agreement on the implementation of the recommendations of the Waki Report. The agreement bearing the signature of President Kibaki and that of Prime Minister Raila Odinga is divided into six articles.

Article one clear states that the two agreed to establish the Special Tribunal for Kenya to try post-election violence suspects. What more evidence does one need that these two fellows do not deserve to be at the helm of this government?

Article two says that they would lobby parliament towards the enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill and take such administrative measures as may be necessary to fully operationalise the Witness Protection Act and the International Crimes Act. The law on the freedom of information is yet to be enacted and the the other Acts are  yet to be operationalised.

Article three called on the comprehensive reform of the Kenya Police and Administration Police. A task force on the same has finalised their work and we will have to wait and see where the government heads on this one. We expect an independent Police Service Commission  and an Independent Police Conduct Authority as stipulated in the agreement.

Under Article four, the two leaders agreed that they shall ensure that any person holding public office or any public servant charged with a criminal offence related to 2008 post-election violence shall be suspended from duty until the matter is fully adjudicated upon. They also promised that they shall ensure that any person convicted of a post-election violence offence is barred from holding any public office or contesting any electoral position.

Under Article five, Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga committed themselves to ensuring that the Conflict and Disaster Early Warning and Response Systems as articulated in the First Medium Term Plan (2008-2012) are developed and implemented as a matter of priority. Well we are always moving in late in all aspects including launching disaster appeals for food and water like it is happening today.

Article six on the was on setting up of a framework for implementation of the agreement.

The short of this is that the two have failed in showing leadership. The two must rise to the occasion and save this country or they will be remembered as the two leaders who burnt Kenya.

Impunity refers to the failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and is therefore said to constitute a denial of the victim’s right to justice and redress. One will find that impunity is especially common in countries that lack a tradition of the rule of law, suffer from corruption or where the judiciary is weak or members of the security forces are protected by special jurisdictions.

Unfortunately this is the state of affairs as they stand in Kenya today. After the 2007-2008 elections and the eruptions that followed swiftly after the highly contested elections which left the country marred with ethnic violence and death all around.  Beneath these simplistic tribal battle-lines lie the historic patterns of uneven resource distribution in Kenya.

Far from what the world pereceived as what was simply tribal violence. It is much deeper than that. The fundamental issues underlying the disturbances were not limited to equitable distribution of resources. Access to land, housing, and water are still the real issues that appear in the guise of ethnicity and are triggered by political disputes.

Only one category of people came out to protest against the electoral irregularities: the poorest of the poor, the jobless, and the landless. In Nairobi, the only sites of trouble throughout the post-election spree of violence have been the slums of Kibera, Mathare, and other shantytowns.

Another big issue is that of housing and water in the localities where the poorest people live. The issue is directly related to corruption. “The gap between the few rich and the majority poor has widened so greatly over the last decade that even if a common Kenyan is able to raise resources and wants to build a proper house, he finds bureaucratic hurdles at every step which cannot be overcome without extra money for corrupt officials.

After the peaceful transition of power in 2002, most Kenyans actually had faith that they can bring about another change through their vote. That faith was irreparably dented.