Maybe this is not the note with which to walk into America’s Thanksgiving day with. But back in Kenya, Political Vultures are gathering over The Great Rift Valley, where votes are won or lost over the perils of Internally displaced Persons (IDPS) and Mau Evictees. The former were victims of post-election violence, the latter are victims of a recent cabinet decision to clear Mau Forest (a Water catchment zone that feeds most Kenyan Rivers and lakes) of people. As it turns out, and as is always the case in Kenyan politics, one other victim is the Prime Minister, Mr Odinga, the man who must enforce cabinet decisions, in this case the evacuation and restoration of the Mau, pleasnat or not. The vultures here are the usual suspect: Mr. Kenyatta, Mr. Rutto and their buddy, Mr. Kalonzo the Vice President—a man who gave Mr. Kibaki his party and MPs and a moral legitimacy to stay on as President as Kenyans fought a senseless bloody war over the validity of the corrupted results of the last election. Now Mr. Kalonzo sees a divided Rift Valley with its historical problems and its maltitudes of helpless displaced persons as the stepping stones to his presidential victory in 2012. Mr. Kalonzo is reported to be heading there with his friends Ruto and Kenyatta (he calls them the “KKK brigade”) to raise funds for the Mau Evacuees—telling them, “your government does not love you”—yet he is part of the same government that has failed to allocate money to relocate the same evacuees. Mr. VP, this is political vulturism and preying on the suffering of human souls at its best.
Kenyans, wake up!

Watch this space:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Watch this space:

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=1144028983&cid=4&ttl=Is Raila losing grip of Rift Valley?

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

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&

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/-/1064/660590/-/xueds7z/-/

Before the election, I had a sign in my yard which was stolen by an Obamanut in a white Mercedes that said : “Google Obama + Kenya + Odinga”

Odinga was responsible for the death of hundreds of Christians after he did not win the election.   He is a known communist.   Kind of interesting that Obama does not want to be seen anywhere near Odinga now that his poll numbers are down.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2344232/posts

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.

PLEASE READ ALL THREE PARTS TO “OBAMA’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE.

Two questions need answers:

1.  Why won’t Obama release his real birth certificate?

2.  Why did Obama travel to Kenya and campaign for Raila Odinga as Prime Minister?

The dots may be connecting themselves as more and more people  investigate the mysterious man from Chicago, Hawaii and yes, Kenya.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/12/obamas-kenya-ghosts/

“Initially, Mr. Odinga was not the favored opposition candidate to stand in the 2007 election against President Mwai Kibaki, who was seeking his second term. However, he received a tremendous boost when Sen. Barack Obama arrived in Kenya in August 2006 to campaign on his behalf. Mr. Obama denies that supporting Mr. Odinga was the intention of his trip, but his actions and local media reports tell otherwise.

Mr. Odinga and Mr. Obama were nearly inseparable throughout Mr. Obama’s six-day stay. The two traveled together throughout Kenya and Mr. Obama spoke on behalf of Mr. Odinga at numerous rallies. In contrast, Mr. Obama had only criticism for Kibaki. He lashed out against the Kenyan government shortly after meeting with the president on Aug. 25. “The [Kenyan] people have to suffer over corruption perpetrated by government officials,” Mr. Obama announced.

“Kenyans are now yearning for change,” he declared. The intent of Mr. Obama’s remarks and actions was transparent to Kenyans – he was firmly behind Mr. Odinga.

Mr. Odinga and Mr. Obama had met several times before the 2006 trip. Reports indicate Mr. Odinga visited Mr. Obama during trips to the U.S. in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Mr. Obama sent his foreign policy adviser Mark Lippert to Kenya in early 2006 to coordinate his summer visit. Mr. Obama’s August trip coincided with strategizing by Orange Democratic Movement leaders to defeat Mr. Kibaki in the upcoming elections. Mr. Odinga represented the ODM ticket in the presidential race.”

So why did Obama take such pains to get Odinga elected in Kenya?  Why did Obama want Odinga to be president and serve in the highest office in Kenya?

THE ANSWER MAY HAVE BEEN PRESENTED TO US BY MR. LUCAS DANIEL SMITH.

Continued in “Obama’s Birth Certificate – Part 3

PLEASE READ ALL THREE PARTS OF “OBAMA’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE”.

First off please let me state for the record, if you leave a sing-songy, mookie, talking point comment, you will receive one in reply.

After working in healthcare well over 20 years of my now 30 year career, I became a victim of employee provided plans, I made the decision to be a contract employee when possible, and even when I would take a full time position in any facility, I would not accept their plan.  Why?

In the 90’s, hospitals one after the other closed.  Some merged and mostly there were one acquisition after another and changing health plans sometimes 3 and 4 times in one year, it was disruptive to my care to the point it was not worth it!  At one point in the hiring process of healthcare workers, per-diem employees were paid slightly higher on hourly wages to adjust for the lack of benefits (which increased evened out the pay to individuals) however that was in an employee favored market.  They pay you less now if you do not take benefits for some stupid reason no which I cannot figure out, which is another reason I contracted my services.

We are still in an employee favored market, that is if the government had not involved themselves in it to redraw the picture (bailouts and stimulus), and outside influences had not placed undue pressure to rob Medicare and Medicaid (AAAcorn and Cloward-Piven Strategy).  It was a perfect storm.

The healthcare system has always favored and used the healthcare crisis to their favor no matter what, especially in public run facilities.  In the last two decades we have been told of a “nursing crisis”…well we still have the crisis, but hiring is no where near the fever pitch it was two years ago.  However, even at that time hospitals did nothing toward retention of their employees, and used the shortage to overwork the employees they had.  So when they hired someone it only replaced someone who had quit.  Still to this day we are in an extreme shortage.  They are not hiring allied healthcare nor ancillary services employee, and have experienced lay-off in some areas, which is an indication of democrats in office.

The “Enron of healthcare” were also exposed.  Such as Tenet , and Columbia …..They made their profit sheets look great, slacked on patient care and kept payroll low using “the nursing crisis” as a reason.  (Capitalism has its problems).  Enter Aaacorn to push this system to the limits, and boiling over.  Filing frivolous lawsuits from the outside, abusing procedure numbers and usage from the inside, making inappropriate policy changes that tripled the paperwork.  (Now most charting is done by computer, but it is done in triplicate and through multiple programs and is still time consuming and redundant.)

All the factors above and so much more has given way to ever changing provider services in Florida.  You can gain employment in a facility and stay there for 20 years and end up working for 4-6 different companies without moving.  That is what caused me to seek my own insurance, as well as contract my services.

When I did, initially I had to pay slightly more than the hospital plan, but within a year my healthcare insurance premiums came down to below what the employee plan offered, and I had no worries that it would change.

Also my insurance expanded more services offering more than the employee plan.

In my opinion, I had coverage when I needed it.  I did not gouge the system, I know the company made money, and I felt secure in my choices.

Look!  Congress will not in any way consider improving the system already in place because they want the cash flow of American household income, coming thorough the front door of the FED pure and simple

So what do I think should happen??  I say the more competition the better.   If the government will offer regulation to expand coverage to children to say 24 or 26, that would be great.  Jobs are not exactly stable in the beginning.  If you can afford the premiums, who should say who you can pay for health insurance, anyway??

They can also regulate pre-existing condition coverage.  Kentucky has such measures ensuring that no policies offered could exclude pre-existing conditions.  Many companies dropped out, but other companies filled in.  In fact there would be more companies to specialize in pre-existing, or higher risk insurance if de-regulation would happen.

I can say that even physicians who want to compete should also be allowed in  cases where they can offer complete care for a monthly payment, or segments of care, or procedurally, they can offer lower prices for their services.  This is one area where I have taken advantage of offers during time of an insurance gap.  If my physician were more expensive I have gone to urgent care centers.

Speaking of standard of care, this is really where the savings and stabilization of cost can truly occur because although we have standards of care, LOL…they are different everywhere, not only in the nation but physician to physician, hospital, clinic, nursing home, region, city town, community.  So until a standard can be agreed on coast to coast outcomes and costs are difficult to control.

Competition will lower insurance costs and will generally increase services.  We do not really have competition now.  We have an insurance regulated offering that are tied to each state.  If health insurance opened up to true competition over state lines, employer offered plans maybe seen being turned down.

More un-insured would be able to afford their own insurance plans.  The US could then open the doors to Medicaid by increasing the wage limits, …..and for those who own property who have faced sudden changes,…. offer them a “time limited service” say up to six months after gainful employment if needed to further stabilize and foster independence.  They could expand Medicare adding another level of coverage, below Medicare, offered to those who have paid in to social security and Medicare, and offer it as a temporary measure until gainful employment.  Offering “Gap” coverage would cover most Americans.

• Extending offered benefits of private insurance to currently un-insured family members.
• De-regulating insurance according to geographic location.
• Ensure portability of private coverage
• Increasing Medicaid participants by changing income and property ownership rights on temporary “time limited” care, on an income sliding scale with a maximum income beyond which it is not available. Review quarterly based on employment.
• Offering Gap coverage as another layer of Medicare also a temporary time limited basis and on an income sliding scale basis beyond a minimum which would require Medicaid.  Review quarterly based on employment.

If brother Barack is so concerned about providing healthcare to all Americans, then extend the programs we have in place to accommodate those who do not have insurance or healthcare coverage.  In addition provide mandates to existing insurance companies.

One other addition, as I have stated before the government could provide the first wellness benefits EVER!  If everyone took part in wellness care we could truly lower insurance and healthcare costs all the way around.  That would make far too much sense.

Here is another idea…if the wealthy are so inclined to be taxed, well, allow them to contribute what “would be taxed” to a public health trust under the operation of those corporations that contribute to control costs and prevent abuse of the funds.  No contributions to any politician ant any time or any reason. Period!  Use as gap coverage only!

We must have Tort Reform.  Frivolous law suits have cost us dearly!

We must have policies that allow for fraudulent or trust abuse issues to be flagged through standards.

We need to allow those who want and can compete…to compete.  Look, a physician in New York, who offered discount medical care to his low income patients for a monthly fee.  He  was stopped by none other than the government for acting as insurance…bull crap…he was providing services, to fill a need!!!!! That is the free market, see a need and fill it!  If we practice that, we would not be in the shape we are in.

Barack Obama is “supposedly” the same age as I am, and trust me when I tell you, people in my generation are quite aware of government abuse, and I believe he is banking on getting to use and abuse it , along with the power trip he would ultimately be on, perpetually!  We need public audits of every branch of government!  Our government belongs to us as citizens of the United States.

It is my personal opinion that this particular president only wants the government control of the monthly residual income that can be collected from every citizen alive for healthcare, and you will not see the care.  I can assure you that he would be re-elected because he would have greased so many palms it would be staggering and corruption would be on par with Mexico and his cousin Odinga in Kenya.  In addition every healthcare worker would be unionized, pumping in power to union bosses through dues, in return, pumping in manpower to the government, which as we have seen is nothing but pure thugary.

I can assure you that if you support this measure you will see the United States brought low to the level of a third world country.  The wealthy will LEAVE!

That is what I think, now what do you think??

When I was in Kenya earlier this year I conducted many interviews about the 2008 post-election violence. Primarily I focused on the role Christians played. The following is a lengthy report on what I learned.

Like most Kenyans, Emily Choge [Choh-gay] was anxious about the state of her country when she went to church on Sunday, December 29, 2007. A week had passed since national elections, and after initial tallies showed opposition leader Raila Odinga with a sizeable lead over incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, results had slowed to a stop. For several days the Electoral Commission of Kenya had offered little information, and little explanation for their silence. Kenyans stayed glued to television news, broadcast live from national election headquarters at the Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC) in Nairobi. Rumors and reports of all kinds were rife. Something was going on behind the scenes, and no one knew just what.

Choge, a lecturer in religious studies at Moi University in Eldoret, and a Langham Scholar who did her Ph.D. at Fuller Seminary, had spent the entire night in a home prayer meeting with neighbors and houseguests from different tribal communities. She had seen tribal violence before in her village of Kesses, in which a variety of communities live close together. She feared a repeat.

At Choge’s university church that Sunday, a young man from the local Kalenjin community preached on the theme, “When Hopes are Dashed.” He drew on biblical examples of God’s sovereignty over disappointments. Choge went home feeling encouraged by his words and by the experience of warm worship in a mixed congregation uniting different communities.

That evening, just about dusk, an extraordinary drama began to unfold on her television. At the KICC, the Electoral Commission announced that Kibaki had won another term in office. A huge hullabaloo ensued, with shouting and protests filling the large assembly hall. Television broadcasts were suddenly cut off, leaving only the government channel. Journalists and other observers were ordered to leave. Then, a short time later, the government broadcast a rushed swearing-in ceremony of the President before a small, select audience.

While Choge watched on television, she could hear angry shouting begin outside her door. Venturing to a nearby shopping center, she found that a bar had been looted and all the beer, stored up for New Years Eve, distributed. A sign for a bank associated with the Kikuyu tribe—President Kibaki’s tribe–was burning.

Later, on her way to pick up a friend at a medical clinic, Choge met a man with a bloody wound on his head. He had been looting when the property owner, armed with a machete, assaulted him. Amid increasing confusion and excitement she realized that wholesale looting and burning was occurring all over the region.

Over the next week, Choge divided her time between praying at home, where a mix of people from different tribal communities gathered for refuge, and driving or bicycling through the region trying to help people under attack. Those who had taken refuge in a church or government compound had no food or water, bedding or clothing. Many had left their homes and businesses on fire. They lived under constant fear of further violence. Choge, whose Kalenjin ethnicity put her on the side of the attackers, found that her status as a disabled woman and a Kalenjin gave her safe passage. She was mostly tolerated as she ferried people and food. It was the first time she had found some advantage in her artificial leg.

**

Since independence from Great Britain in 1963, Kenya has been known as a peaceful and stable country. That reputation was shattered in a single night, when electoral euphoria turned to rage and violence broke out almost wherever Kikuyu lived near other communities. Eldoret, a compact farming town, was the epicenter of trouble. It lies at the heart of the Rift Valley, where white farmers once owned vast tracts of land. Many Kikuyu bought land from departing whites, moving to the area to live alongside the Kalenjin who consider it their natural territory. Other tribes also filled the vacuum; thus the area is a mixing ground for different ethnicities, with many historic animosities particularly over land.

Nevertheless, “we never expected violence,” Choge says. “The election had brought so much optimism we were caught off balance.”  Many Kenyans believed that the Kikuyu, an industrious people who have held most of the power since independence, had stolen the election. They reacted in rage, blaming the whole group for the perceived sins of Kikuyu politicians. Though exact numbers will never be known, a study by PeaceNet Kenya estimated that more than 1,300 people lost their lives. Half a million people ran from their homes, and more than a year later many still live in tented camps, supported by the Red Cross. Most of these Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were Kikuyus. For their part, Kikuyus responded to the violence with calls for law and order and in some cases organized violent counterattacks. Violence and turmoil continued for several months and threatened to become civil war, until an international effort led by Kofi Annan jawboned the opposing parties into a coalition government, where they now live in an uneasy peace.

Kenya has many Christians—85% of the population, by some reports—and in the aftermath the church was strongly and publicly blamed for its failure to provide leadership. The National Christian Council of  Kenya issued a public statement of apology. As World Relief Kenya put it in its 2008 annual report, “It was evident that the church was as wounded as most other institutions that Kenyans used to trust.” All agree that the church mirrored society in its tribalism.

In fact many churches served as support bases for particular politicians and through them for particular tribal allegiances. Money and politics often intersect at the doors of churches in Kenya, partly because of the poverty of most churches. When a church needs to raise money, local politicians will inevitably be invited to a fundraising event. He or she will bring not only celebrity, but a sizeable contribution. John Gichinga, a well-known pastor now working with World Relief in Kenya, tells of one church fundraiser where politicians were allotted time slots strictly on a cash basis. Fifteen thousand shillings (about $180) bought fifteen minutes; twenty thousand shillings bought twenty minutes. When one politician sent his wife with a contribution of merely ten thousand, she was treated with scorn.

During electoral campaigns, contributing politicians return to the church, to speak on Sunday morning and to receive the blessing of the church leaders. In some cases, pastors announced that God had anointed these politicians to lead the nation.

Most churches in Kenya are dominated by one ethnicity, and all Kenyan politicians are seen as representing their own ethnic community. Politicians often use these ethnic loyalties to solidify support—us versus them—in a way reminiscent of how segregationist politicians in America once cast every issue as black versus white. Few churches in Kenya endorsed tribalistic thinking, but most did very little to warn against it, either.

**

Practically everyone in Kenya will tell you that the church failed to rise above tribalism in the run-up to the election. Less well known is the church’s record after violence broke out. Most church leaders had failed to anticipate tribal violence, but when they saw people suffering many knew exactly how to respond.

Martin Shikuku is pastor of Glory Baptist Church, which meets in a mud-wattle tin-roof building in the small, poor settlement of Mailinne a few miles from the town of Eldoret. Shikuku is from the Luhyia community, a relatively neutral player in the tribal controversies, but his wife is Kikuyu and so were some members of his congregation. The night of the election announcement, none of his family got any sleep. They heard Kalenjin youth on the hills above the church singing, shouting and “preparing for war.” About thirty Kikuyu church members arrived through the night, seeking refuge. By 9:00 a.m. the church was surrounded by hostile forces; at 11:00 the mob outside tried to break through the gate and threw stones, breaking church windows. Shikuku met them at the gate and told them they could not enter the church bearing weapons.

“I heard a voice say, ‘This is our pastor.’ That saved us.” The mob backed away.

Thirty minutes later Shikuku heard gunfire and correctly surmised that it was the police, seeking to restore order. Taking a chance on a break in the fighting, Shikuku led his little congregation through the neighborhood, past burning houses, to the main road. The scene was chaotic. He glimpsed his father in law, a local elder, trying to calm angry teenagers, then being hit with rocks and falling down. In the confusion, Shikuku managed to get his flock (including his wife and children) started down the main road, hoping that police protection would accompany them safely into town. He returned to his church, to guard it.

All that week he divided his time, walking four miles from town to church in the pre-dawn hours, staying through the day providing what shelter he could to a continuing flood of refugees, then at night walking back to his family, who were sleeping on the ground at a police station. Part of his time was spent searching for his father in law in hospitals and refugee centers; he finally found him, dead, in some bushes near where he had fallen.

“I really prayed for peace in our country,” Shikuku remembers. “I began to talk to some of the Kalenjin elders, and eventually things began to cool down.” Much of his congregation has disappeared, and may never return, but Shikuku has continued Sunday services in Mailinne, beginning to rebuild his congregation.

Philip Chumo, an Anglican pastor, oversaw seven congregations in the Sandy Falls parish of Eldoret—two predominately Kalenjin, his own ethnicity, and the rest mixed. He had worried over tribal mistrust before the election, but election day was peaceful, with people voting in huge numbers. “There was a passionate feeling, but people went home joyfully, with a lot of expectation.”

Immediately after he watched the election results finalized, however, he began to hear shouting in the streets. “The Kikuyu have stolen our victory!” “These Kikuyu must go!” On the streets he found restless, roving gangs of angry youth, stopping cars, searching for Kikuyu. Coming upon one such car, surrounded by shouting young men, he found a Kikuyu family inside. The driver was trembling. Chumo’s clerical collar gained him some respect, and he managed to convince the young men to let him get in the car and drive the family to a nearby police station. Afterwards he accompanied a local police patrol in their Land Cruiser, seeing houses and vehicles burned. “People were furious,” he says. “I had to convince the police to leave, because they were overpowered and ineffective.”

The next day hundreds of Kikuyu refugees came streaming into his church. Chumo convened a meeting of his elders. Some offered sacks of grain for food. Others organized better security. Refugees came with only the possessions they could carry. By the fourth day they numbered 320. The church sheltered and protected them for a week, until the Red Cross had established a secure camp. “Please keep praying for us,” the IDPs told Chumo as they left. “Please come and visit us in the camp.”

**

Another Anglican pastor in Eldoret, Maritim Rirei, had expected trouble and, unlike many, discussed with other church leaders what they might do in a crisis. “We had phone numbers available—for each other, for bishops, for politicians, police, chiefs.” When violence erupted, it helped immeasurably to know whom to contact.

One mixed family—Kalenjin husband and Kikuyu wife—ran to Rirei’s house the night of the election announcement. Such mixed marriages were often special targets.  “I hid them in my bedroom and went out to talk to the boys.” Temporary calm was restored. In the early hours before dawn, Rirei loaded the family into his pickup and took them to the Holy Family Catholic Cathedral, whose spacious grounds would become a camp for thousands of refugees. Soon Rirei was running regular missions. Other Kalenjin families were sheltering Kikuyus and called him for help; he hired village boys to go with him and, shielding the refugees within a protective screen of Kalenjin youth, transported them to safety. “I knew my life was in danger,” he remembers. “I saw bodies by the road. I saw the head of a human being on a post.”

Once the families were in safe places, he used his pickup to carry food to them. Emily Choge called about bags of corn that needed to be ground before it could be eaten. The road was blocked; Rirei talked his way through with a story of a grandmother’s funeral.

Then he began applying for grants to provide long-term help to the victims, and initiated talks to bring together key leaders in troubled villages for peacebuilding talks. “In the beginning, people could not talk. They did not even shake hands.” Gradually, though, serious dialogue began on how to heal wounds and restore a shattered community.

**

Similar stories are told throughout the Rift Valley. Many churches, perhaps most, became places of refuge. In one village, Kitambaa, a mob burned down a church with refugees inside, and forty people were killed. In most places, though, churches succeeded in protecting fleeing Kikuyus, saving their lives if not their property. Many Christians helped their terrified neighbors—some openly, many secretly, for fear of being targeted themselves. Many also tried to calm rioting young men and stop violence, although in most cases their voices went unheeded. During the first week of violence, before the police and the Red Cross could gain control, many Christians provided what food, shelter and sanity they could.

Beyond such tangible help, Christian leaders recognized spiritual needs. Eldoret pastors knew immediately that they needed to meet together. The day after violence broke out, about 100 pastors gathered at a local hotel. “Everybody was there, from all the communities,” Boniface Mutiso from the Chrisco Church remembers. “We cried to God.” Recognizing their failures, they determined to meet every day to search their hearts together. They began to organize a larger meeting embracing more pastors. It met on the 10th of January and involved 500 pastors and leading bishops from several denominations. One result of these meetings was the institution of a daily non-denominational prayer meeting, rotating between various Eldoret churches, and a weekly Sunday afternoon worship service that brought all the churches—and all the tribes—together throughout 2008. A 24-hour prayer chain was initiated, which continued for more than two months, until peace was established. The pastors fellowship Prayer Task Force also visited some of the most blood-soaked areas to pray, confess, and beg God’s mercy.

Sports tournaments were organized for hundreds of youth in which entering teams were required to have players from both Kikuyu and Kalenjin. Prayer rallies, peacebuilding and reconciliation workshops, ministry to IDP camps where hundreds of thousands of Kikuyus lived in tents—these and other church activities became common attempts to respond to the nightmare.

“It was a wakeup call,” says Mutiso. Adds Pastor Boniface Runji of Happy Church, a Kikuyu who had to hide with his family for two days in a missionary’s home, whose children have had to leave the area to go to a school where they are not the only Kikuyu, whose formerly majority-Kikuyu church is now majority-Kalenjin, “We had never realized how tribalism can affect the church. We had taken these things for granted. We took it lightly that we belonged together. In the midst of the fighting we didn’t know who to trust. We started asking ourselves, ‘What kind of Christian is this?’ The transforming realities of Christianity, or lack of them, became very clear.” He adds that “there has been growth in the spiritual leadership of the city. There is some maturity that came to the pastors.” However, “politics will always throw us off, and push us into our tribal cocoons.”

**

Eldoret was the most violent area of Kenya, but in many parts of the country death and destruction took place, often in ways unique to the area’s ethnic and economic makeup. In Kisumu, the heartland of the government’s opposition, Luos attacked and drove out Kikuyu who were traders and businessmen. In Naivasha, Kikuyu gangs counterattacked in extremely violent fashion. Nakuru, where a pastor’s fellowship had found itself unable to pray together before the election because of political/tribal differences, became a free-for-all of looting and fighting. In Nairobi, gangs drove Kikuyu from the slums of Kibera and Mathare, then tried to march on downtown. Armed government officers kept them penned in the slums and killed many.

“In Mathare,” Gichinga remembers, “people were running to churches for safety. People jumped walls into theological schools, into churches, into Christian NGOs.” Near the gigantic Kibera slum, refugees took shelter in Jamhuri Park. Nairobi Chapel, a nearby church, began feeding them and providing for their needs. Other churches joined in. “I was getting calls from as far away as Machakos, saying, ‘can we bring food?’” remembers Gichinga. “[In one Kikuyu area] churches offered to provide food for Luos trapped in Thika [a small city in Kikuyu territory]. I was actually taking eight lorries of food a day, seven tons each, into Kibera. Other slums were similar.” The Red Cross eventually took over relief operations, partly because providing food became increasingly dangerous. The first line of spontaneous aid came from local churches, however.

Church leaders in Nairobi, like pastors in Eldoret, instinctively recognized their need to meet across ethnic and denominational lines. But when they came together at the interdenominational Ufungamano House on the second day of the violence, the results were fiery. “I can still almost hear people screaming,” says Pastor Gichinga. The leaders blamed each other for causing the violence by their political stands; almost inevitably, their politics reflected their ethnicity. Shouting and name calling were sometimes bitter and loud, but the group of over one hundred Catholic and Protestant leaders kept talking over several days and eventually agreed on a strategy of action. One of their first public events was a service of repentance held at All Saints Anglican Cathedral in central Nairobi. It was attended by opposition leader Raila Odinga, but he was given no platform, and the news media were asked to keep their cameras at a distance. In the service a Kikuyu pastor and a Luo pastor repented on behalf of their communities, naming historical events and stereotypical attitudes that had allowed hostility to reach such a peak.

Church leaders knew, of course, that true repentance and reconciliation would take more time and work, so they set up an new organization, Hope for Kenya, to organize reconciliation workshops for church leaders in every region of the country. These weeklong sessions have brought together church leaders from all the warring factions for extensive dialogue, often frank and sometimes confrontational, that have helped to forge lines of understanding and communication between communities. Besides Hope for Kenya, other church groups and Christian NGOs have initiated peacebuilding efforts that bring contending factions together.

**

“Will it happen again?”

Kenya is now stuck in a stalemate, with a coalition government that pleases nobody. An active, reforming government could do a lot to diminish the antagonism over land, money and power that fuel ethnic and political rivalry, but so far little has been done. Kenyans readily talk about 2012, when President Kibaki’s term will be up, as the next opportunity for real change. When asked whether that election could replay 2007 chaos, they are divided between optimists and pessimists, with pessimists holding the upper hand. The chief hope that Kenyans cite, when asked, is that people simply won’t choose to repeat the horror of the last go-round.

“I dread the next election,” says Wambui Kimathi of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission. “I shudder to think of it. Nobody wants to feel that fear again—but there are no guarantees.”

One can conceive of ordinary Kenyans decisively rejecting us-versus-them political ploys, refusing to let their neighbors be made into objects and rejecting us-versus-them politics. If that is to happen, it will probably require that the church play a role in the change in consciousness. The vast majority of Kenyans go to church and respect their spiritual leaders. The church’s penetration of society is amazing to an American.

“I am 50/50 regarding the possibility of violence returning,” says Boniface Runji. “The people who can undo the tribal trap are the spiritual leaders, working with the political leaders.” But he notes that churches choose their leaders along ethnic lines, not much differently from society at large. “The people in my church read very well. When they see tribalism promoted [in the way the church conducts business,] they go home and become tribalists.”

“In my [AIC] church, there has been an exodus of believers,” says Pastor Samson Samwoei of the Africa Inland Church (AIC) Fellowship in Eldoret. “They are asking God why [such violence happened.] We were a church that didn’t want anything to do with politics, but now we are seeing that something must be done. I realized that the issues of leadership are not in the hands of politicians, they are in our hand.” Adds Pastor Evans Shipala of Eldoret, “The rebuke from the congregations has been very clear. The church must take up its responsibility to disciple the politicians.

“Although peace has come,” says Boniface Mutiso,  “the work is not yet finished. We pray for a lassing peace that will spark revival. We [also] are praying for the structures of this nation to be changed.”

Radical Islamists Slip Easily Into Kenya – NYTimes.com

A thin, dusty line is about the only thing separating Kenya, one of the Western world’s closest allies in Africa, from the Shabab, a radical Islamist militia that has taken over much of southern Somalia, beheading detractors, stoning adulterers and threatening to kill any Americans or Europeans who get in their way.In most places this line, the official international border, is not even marked, let alone protected. In the village of Hulugho, there is simply a tattered Kenyan flag and a cinderblock schoolhouse with chicken-wire windows. Then a meadow of thorn trees and donkey dung. Then Shabab country.

Kenya is widely seen as a frontline state against the Islamist extremism smoldering across the Horn of Africa. Few expect the Shabab to make good on its threats to march en masse across the border. But the creeping fear, the one that keeps the security staffs at Western embassies awake at night, is that the Shabab or its foreign jihadist allies will infiltrate Kenya and attack some of the tens of thousands of Westerners living in the country, possibly in a major strike like Al Qaeda did in 1998.

Last month, Western counterterrorism experts in Kenya sent out text messages warning expatriates to stay away from malls in Nairobi, Kenya’s usually laid-back capital, because of possible suicide attacks by the Shabab. A few weeks later, the group threatened to destroy Nairobi’s “tall, glass
buildings.”

The Shabab has already penetrated refugee camps inside Kenya, according to camp elders, luring away dozens of young men with promises of paradise — and $300 each. It has carried out cross-border attacks, kidnapping an outspoken cleric in May from a refugee camp 50 miles inside Kenya. Last Wednesday, in one of its boldest cross-border moves yet, a squad of uniformed, heavily armed Shabab fighters stormed into a Kenyan school in a remote town, rounding up all the children and telling them to quit their classes and join the jihad.

Anyone remembers Odinga’s relation to Kenyan Jihad? Anyone remembers that Obama’s cousin is Prime Minister of Kenya? Anyone surprised at these news? Me, not.

Tags Technorati: Kenya, Obama, Islamism, Odinga, Horn of Africa, terrorism, Islamism, Al-Shabab, Al-Qaeda,

The committee of experts charged with steering the process of giving Kenya a new constitution has come up with two contentious issues that they think should be ironed out before Kenyans can finally have  a new constitution – after over 20 years of waiting. The issues are:

1) whether to have a presidential, parliamentary or hybrid system  of government

2) whether the term of the current parliament should expire with the adoption of the new constitution.

To resolve these issues, the Attorney General, Amos Wako, wants Kenyans to submit their suggestions to his office. I say this is nonsense. The original idea to involve Wananchi in the writing of a new constitution was a mistake (I agreed with Moi, even back then as a high school kid) and any further involvement of “wanjiku” will remain an exercise in futility. Some of the best constitutions of the world – like the American one, for instance – were drafted by experts. Villagers in Siaya or Maragua do not care whether we have a presidential or parliamentary system. These are issues only in the heads of Kenya’s power-hungry ruling elite. All Wanjiku cares about is the number of sufurias in her kitchen. Period. Whatever system promises more sufurias she’ll be for it.

For full disclosure, I am not a fan of either PNU or ODM. President Kibaki is a living example of the excesses of an all powerful presidential system and a form of government lacking any separation of powers – the president and all members of his cabinet are also members of parliament. PNU wants to perpetuate such a system judging by what its talking heads are voicing.

That said, I think ODM’s call for a parliamentary system of government is also misguided. Kenya is a young democracy that needs stable government. Parliamentary systems, especially in fractious states like ours, are highly unstable. Look at Italy, Israel and Lebanon. They hold elections almost every few months and take forever to form governments. We need a stable and functional executive if we are going to accelerate Kenya’s economic development.

My two cents on this is that the solution lies in having a presidential system strengthened by a complete separation of powers. The president should be head of the executive and not a member of parliament. His cabinet ministers should also not be sitting members of parliament. Parliament should be independent. To acknowledge the ethnic realities of the country we need to have a two-tier legislature. The lower house should be composed of representatives from constituencies. The upper house should represent Kenya’s ethnic mix, with equal representatives from the major ethnic groups and regions.  The judiciary should be independent of the executive without any compromise whatsoever. Judges should have life tenure and have their pay regulated by an independent public servants remuneration commission.

And on the second point. 2012 is close enough. Let President Kibaki serve the rest of his term and go in peace.

Let’s talk about an email I received: (and keep ‘em coming)

GhostRider, I admire your stand, and as Christian we have no right to judge. The Muslims as well as Jews, and so forth are all under the heavens with only one God. The problem is not the Muslims; the problem is the Radical Muslims which are the ones that are waiting feverishly for their messiah. I listened diligently to a journalist that was held back in Kenya some time back because he had evidence that Obama was tied into the radical Muslim Odinga whom he helped personally raise 1 million American dollars for his campaign in Kenya. This same man brutally killed no, Murdered many Christian believers in Kenya when he was not elected as president.

This is the president to the great FREE nation of the USA who wants to have a talk with the president of Iran who has very publicly announced the inhalation of the US and the coming of the Muslim Messiah. We are all God’s children, but it is not only our right, but our duty to shine our light, stay evidently in prayer and glorify Jesus Christ as the only messiah worth Glory and praise. If we don’t stand up right now and advise our brother and sisters, we fail to pass on to all, who is the one and only true God whom I will defend always. There have been way to many ties in the president’s life to the radical Muslims, and as the old saying goes ” where there is smoke there is fire”

There have been way to many ties in this man’s life to the radical muslims, and as the old saying goes ” where there is smoke there is fire”   We need to pray and be very wise about our decisions, personally I don’t like either of them, but the country is split in two right now and I don’t want to risk –not advising everyone I know the details I am learning.

 Madame X

And I, Madame X, admire, that you “take” a stand, but I do not admire “stands”. I neither admire my stand, nor do I admire your stand. Stands are an artificially created point of view, a perspective, a set of believes, in an individual. They are created by the programming we get from our parental units, the geographical environments we’re raised in, the religion we’re born, not chose, in to. The way I see it, about having a stand, is this. By genetics, I am not a sheep, and by choice, unfortunately bad choices, I am not a shepherd, even had I wanted to be one. Of the two, sheep and shepherds, sheep do not have or take a “stands”; they just follow blindly, being led by others, and it sounds to me that right now you are being led by others.

Ok, where to start…where to start… Let’s start with your opening: You opened with, “As a Christian we have no right to judge”. You continue by saying how the Muslims, as well as Jews and so forth, are all under the heavens with only one God. Very true. There can only be one God, only one Creator. Regardless of how that God manifests himself, how God chooses to reveal himself as, to you or I, or to a Muslim, or to a Jew, or to a Buddhist, it is the same God, for there can only be one God.

It was like BAMM, you judged right after saying we had no right to judge. Like when someone says I’ll be honest to you. Weren’t they being honest previously? So, I said to my self, “Self, is this a group of humans that is not under the heavens of God”. Could it possibly be that I can judge, that I have a right to judge, those humans, which are not under the heavens. No, that can’t be for we have already agreed that we are all under the heavens of one God. Then you write, “The problem is not the Muslims, the problem is the Radical Muslims”.

So the ones you are judging are the Radical Muslims. So now I think, ”I have a right to judge, those humans that are radical? Do I maybe have a right to judge a Radical Jew? Do I maybe have a right to judge a Radical Christian? As I contemplated, I thought, maybe I do have a right to judge any radical even if they are those of my own religion, for was it not, my Church, the Roman Catholic Church, that murdered millions with its inquisitions? Boy, did they clean house or what? They thought it was going so well in their own initial area that they expanded the franchise. There was the Medieval Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition, the Portuguese Inquisition, the Roman Inquisition. Incredibly, Portugal and Spain consisted largely of multi-cultural territories conquered, taken away, stolen, from Muslim control, but did that stop our beloved Roman Catholic Church inquisitors? Not at all. They gave them selves the right to judge. So, from the 1100’s, to the late 1800’s, The Church rained unmerciful terror and murder. When it comes to religions, my Church, the Roman Catholic Church, were the Super Bowl Champs for a thousand years, give or take a couple of hundred. But, hey, lets give credit to the Protestants, lest we forget, they too, are Christians.

As recently as in 2000, Pope John Paul II called for an “Inquisition Symposium” and opened the Vatican to external historians. Their findings called into question certain long-held beliefs. It emerged that more women accused of witchcraft died in the Protestant countries than under the Inquisition. For example, the Inquisition burned a little less than 100 women in Spain, less than 50 in Italy and only four in Portugal, but 50,000 in Europe and 25,000 persons condemned as witches died in Germany. Madame X, the person I am right today, is not a fan of any religion, be it Christian, Muslim, or Jewish. Religions were all designed, crafted, made up, by us. But I’ll tell you this. I am a fan of Jesus Christ and a fan of His Sermon on The Mount.

Let me finish  by correcting that you are not being led by, rather, you are being mis-lead. Baptized as an Anglican in his youth Odinga became a Born-Again Christian after he had been baptized in Nairobi by David Owuor, a man known for being a self-proclaimed prophet known for his doomsday warnings particularly those were he foretold of half of Nairobi being destroyed in a massive earthquake, which never happened, of the National Repentance and Holiness Ministry on Sunday 3rd of May 2009, Odinga had previously announced that he had been born again on stage alongside David Owuor during a mass prayer meeting in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru in April 2009 and a handful of journalists and evangelical Christians were invited to attend Odinga’s baptism ceremony at a private residence in Nairobi.

So much for all the religious bullshit either way.  The Sermon on the Mount next time.

Politics all around the world had been, for the most part dominated by Men. No matter how fast the feminist movement has progressed over the past few years, there always seem to be a glass ceiling for them to progress to the upper echelons of the political world.

Not anymore.

It seems that the women folks have stumbled on a way to topple our way of life as we know it… The method is so low and yet so blindingly brilliant, not to mention obvious that it’s a wonder no one thought about it earlier. I have a friend in Kenya and he must not be responding well to this little piece of news:

“Women’s activist groups in Kenya have called for a seven-day sex ban on the country’s men in an attempt to shock the political class into overcoming bitter feuds and working together.“

I’m sure some of you are thinking to yourselves (by some of you, I meant Women). Would this work? Would Men really succumb to such childish tactics? Would powerful Men give up their quest for power just so they can get into some girls’ panties? Are we so sex-crazed that we would be so easily manipulated?

Speaking as someone who has years of experience being a man, I would say… No doubt about it.

I am not proud of it, but once, in my younger days, I’ve snucked into the Campus swimming pool in the dead of night, and jumped, fully clothed into the pool in the hopes that a specific Girl would let me get into her panties and bear my babies. Of course, I did not count on the fact that most sane women would not want to perpetuate “breaking-and-entering,pool-jumping” genes.

I digress.

Rukia Subow of Maendeleo ya Wanawake of the G10 umbrella of Kenyan women’s organisations was quoted as saying, “This is a national boycott to show that the women of this country have resolved to push for reforms”

If that was not a magnificent pun, I don’t know what is.

“We want an urgent solution to the political problems facing this country,” Subow said, urging the wives of quarrelling coalition partners President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to support the movement.

Of course, my sympathies go to the Prime Minister, who was unknowingly caught in the middle of this discourse. Because in spite of being able to lead an entire country, planning out the various policies to lead the country through this economic crisis, he will not be able to enjoy some Sexytime.

The premier’s wife, Ida Odinga, said she supported the strike body and soul.

Maybe he should try sneaking into local pool and take a cold shower instead.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, left, is all smiles with PM Raila Odinga during last year's swearing-in ceremony but since then relations have soured

Activists in the East African country are urging women to withhold sex for a week. We are asking even sex workers to join the cause, even if we have to pay them ourselves,” said Patricia Nyaundi, executive director of the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya.   The fragile coalition is breaking at the seams and women know instinctively that in any fall out they will be holding the shorter end of the stick.  Women in Kenya need their leaders to work together for the good of the country. They claim coalitions are happening in other countries and working why can’t theirs work.

“We cannot allow our leaders to argue over non-issues while relegating the issues that affect this country to the back burner. When this happens, women suffer the most,” said Ann Njogu, director of Centers for Rights Education and Awareness, which describes itself as a non-partisan organization that “seeks to empower the society on women’s human rights.”

    Imagine if women start using this tactic all across the world… imagine what could result. A whole new spate of homosexuals or a hasty deal to settle the dispute.