NEVER AGAIN, EVER

Fellow Kenyan,
Didn’t we all sing
Change is in the air
As the wise ones
Stirred the magic pot:
Divining, praying and prophesying in search
of the way forward?

Fellow Kenyan,
We all sang
And yearned for change,
The third liberation
Appeared to have been on course:
We hoped it would be
The liberation from tribalism;
We hoped it would be
The liberation from corruption;
We hoped it would be
The liberation from sycophancy;
We hoped it would be
The liberation from the politics
Of kickbacks and rewards.


Fellow Kenyan,
All that would not be,
Even as the people had willed
Change at the ballot-box
Because an evil cabal of oligoks
Would subvert the people’s will,
Yet again;
And turn you against me,
And I against you,
And wife against husband,
And doctor against patient,
And turn our ballots
Into weapons of mutual death.

Fellow Kenyan,
Wake up, my brother
Wake up, my sister
Do not be cheated into bearing
Arms ONE AGAINST ANOTHER.

Fellow Kenyan,
Wake up, my brother;
Wake up, my sister
Never again ever
Shall we allow ourselves
To be played ONE AGAINST ANOTHER
By a manipulative, powerful
Cabal of evil elites.

Fellow Kenyan,
Wake up, my brother;
Wake up, my sister,
Lest we again become
Mere expendable pawns
In this war of a manipulative cabal
of voracious, evil-and-powerful elites.

Fellow Kenyan,
Wake up, my brother;
Wake up, my sister,
Never, never again should we
Allow our ballots to be turned
Into child-killing
weapons of death.

Fellow Kenyan,
Wake up my brother;
Wake up my sister,
There is only one mother
between us, and that mother
is our Dear Kenya;
And we must not allow her
To go to these manipulative
Crows of Nairobi.

Source: RATENG' AND BRIDE (a poem)
by Joseph R. Alila, June

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QD5TDM

RAILA ODINGA'S WORD

Listen to our "Ker," (this Luo word has no accurate English translation! so bare with me) Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the man who says that he has been teargassed so many times that he has permanent eye damage. That is part of the tragic price the modern warrior has paid for valor. (It this kind of downpayment for freedom and democracy made in a warrior's blood and health that makes the poet's pen and voice quiver as he implores Rateng' to let the Bride Go in "RATENG' AND BRIDE"). PM Odinga mourns the lives needlessly sacrificed during the struggle to have people's votes and voices respected after the 2007 Kenya Presidential Election. He says that existing relics of a (colonial) civic structure and occupying (PNU) functionaries have frustrated the implementation of agreed points in his coalition government with President Kibaki.

Read the Standard:
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144003675&cid=4&
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144003676&cid=4&

I am Kenyan: A word of Caution in Poetry

Here are some lines of poetry dedicated to the upcoming anniversary of the bungled Kenyan Presidential Election of 2007, specifically mourning those who lost their lives in the tragic events that would follow. The country is moving ahead with reforms, thanks to a few brave men and women who heeded Dr. Kofi Annan's call for peace and reconciliation at the negotiation table, and the efforts of two men, Kriegler and Waki whose commissions gave us report recommendations on the way forward. Prime Minister Odinga and President Kibaki must be commended for their courage to stand against partisan interests, and stake out their personal honor for peace and Kenya.

But Kenya is for Kenyans not a few individuals. A new constitutional arrangement that serves all Kenyans, big and small, rich and poor, man or woman, able-bodied or physically challenged, will only be a reality if all Kenyans insist on it--not as tribes but as Kenyans. Parliament has set the process in motion, and what document comes out of it must be seen to be Kenyan and by Kenyans.

Fellow Kenyan

I am Kenyan,
My mother is a Kikuyu
And my father is a Luo
My great-grandfathers
Were Kamba and Maasai;
Now you are telling me
To leave Narok, Kisumu,
Nyandarua, Kakamega and Nakuru
And go back
To my ancestral land:
To which ancestral land
Should I return?



Fellow Kenyan,
We always shared
in our poverty and misery;
Why then have we turned
One against another?

Fellow Kenyan,
Will this destructive war
Help us extricate ourselves
Out of the quagmire
Of filth and poverty in which
We have found ourselves?

Fellow Kenyan,
This wasteful war
Won’t quench your child’s hunger
Neither will it provide
Any decent shelter
To my child;

Fellow Kenyan,
This wasteful war
Won’t put food on your table
And neither will it
pay my house rent;

Fellow Kenyan,
This wasteful war
Won’t pay your bus-fare,
Neither will it buy
My child’s malaria medication.

Fellow Kenyan,
Yes, the tribe
Is part of our DNA,
But Dear Kenya—
As imperfect a vessel as it is–
Is part of our existence;

And So, Fellow Kenyan,
We must refuse
To be tagged with such divisive,
And self-serving labels as
A Luyia lawyer,
or a JaLuo Judge;

A Kikuyu cook,
An Ishimus in-keeper,
A Maasai mathematician,
A Mjikenda magician
or a Gusii gunsmith;

A Kuria cleric,
An Oriek orator,
A Borana banker,
A Somali swordsmith,
or a Teso tax-collector;

Because when hunger
Struck during the last drought
Kikuyu, Luyia, and JaLuo
in Nairobi; We all starved;
And pangs of hunger
And incidents of malnutrition
Did not discriminate
On the basis of tribe;

And if the tables
were full in Woodley,
Runda and Muthaiga;
And empty in Mathare,
Korogocho and Kibera;
It wasn’t because
Of anybody’s DNA.


So, Fellow Kenyan
Why tag me with a label
Which cannot put food
On the table
For my starving daughter?

Why tag me with a label
Which can not buy
Badly needed medication
For my sick child?

Why tag me with a label
Which only has value
To a geneticist?

Fellow Kenyan,
What happened to the Kenya
We used to know
That now you laugh
Through my tribulations,
And can’t suffer my pain
Because I am a Turgen
And you are a JaLuo?

From RATENG' AND BRIDE (A POEM)By Joseph R. Alila https://www.createspace.com/3346481

ISBN/EAN13:
1438251092 / 9781438251097

KIVUITU Vs KIVUITU

At the Kruger Commission sitting in Nairobi early today, Election Commission of Kenya Chairman, Mr. Kivuitu, admits to having been rushed, under armed escort, to President Kibaki's swearing in ceremony hardly a minute after he, KIVUITU, announced the flawed resuts in favor of Mr. Kibaki of PNU--- a move that denied Mr Raila Odinga of ODM the coveted bride --- the Presidency. Kivuitu further admited that his internal audit had detected several cases of doctured results to the last Presidential Election.

JR Alila (Author: RATENG' AND BRIDE)

http://www.createspace.com/
http://www.amazon.com/

http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1143992911&cid=4&

Kenya: A Long, Perilous Year Ahead

I. Kibaki is a Prisioner to PNU Affiliates

There may be no quick agreement between ODM’s Odinga and PNU’s Kibaki because, while the former has shown a willingness to move away from his earlier positions such as “Kibaki must resign,” Kibaki has become a prisioner of the constituent parties which have propped-up his government and for which power is the end and the means. This view is reinforced by what Kalonzo said when he landed from abroad (any deal must be constitutional), and Mr. Poghosio’s announcement that any deal brokered by HE Annan will not affect ODM-K’s power-sharing agreement with the minority PNU government.

II. ODM must go for Executive Prime Minister

The emerging deal is so far in favor of Kibaki– he is the President. ODM should not sacrifice further than it has done. Recognizing Kibaki’s Presidency has been a bitter enough pill for ODM to have swallowed. With this in mind, nothing less than an Executive Prime Minister for ODM (based on BOMAS and executed quickly by Parliamentary legislation) is agreeable. This would ensure that ODM, as the majority party, will be Head of the Government; it would also preserve ODM’s identity as a party for 2012, and multi-party democracy will have won. Mr. Kibaki can remain a ceremonial President in charge of the Defense and State affairs.

III. Ideally, an interim Gov’t must be reasonably short

While the a prolonged Interim Government (six-month one called by ODM has been shot down by negotiators at City Hall) would allow the country to heal and allow the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to resettle, it would prove to be a slow-killing pill that would in the long run neuter ODM, in particular, and multiparty democracy, in general, as the boundary between Opposition and Government becomes blurred in the eyes of the people.

IV. ODM must think long-term

As the Annan negotiations move towards its critical stage, ODM must think long-term because its image of a Movement ended with the 12/27/2007 elections. That is why it should prefer a constitutionally mandated (through parliamentary legislation) and quick Executive Prime Minister Deal to any other form of power-sharing arrangement. Otherwise, it is better to remain in the opposition than be in a long-term, coalition arrangement –a multiparty democracy killer.

V. ODM should not bank on any elections being called before 2012

Fact: As long as the internal refugees are still in the camps in Kibera, Kondele and the Rift Valley, and their plight shamelessly played to every tourist visiting Kenya, Kibaki will not call any election whatever the Annan Deal. The helpless IDPs have become mere pawns in what is emerging as a political sport among the protagonists in Nairobi. I am very pessimistic about Kenya’s future; I am looking at 2012 for the next electoral face-off.

JR Alila

ODM in Power Sharing Arrangement with Kibaki?

Here it comes:
The news out of Nairobi (Kenya) indicates that ODM has agreed to "a power-sharing arrangement" with Kibaki's government. Will it be a coalition? Will it be a GNU? For how long will it be in place? Who will be the President, V-President? What will be Odinga's role? What will it mean to multi-party democracy in Kenya?
Check this space .....

JR Alila

http://politics.nationmedia.com/inner.asp?cat=TOP&sid=1447

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&news...

Which Way ODM?

Let us face facts here. You should find this assertion rather simplistic and naive, but in my view, the talks in Nairobi are aimed at "baby-sitting" ODM as Kibaki settles into his seat. I may be wrong, but listen to the latest word from Annan: under the present circumstances in Kenya, a re-run of the Presidential vote is not feasible for at least one year. Now, this statement comes after he has received ODM's evidence as to how the Presidential tally was rigged. Prior to this, Kalonzo, that pretty face from Masaku, is stomping world capitals promising that peace has returned in Kenya, and Kibaki is in control, and chairing IGAD.
Meanwhile, ODM is being told by PNU that, indeed, ECK membership messed up, and will be reconstituted. Secondly, ODM is being advised by "alien friends" to swallow the bitter pill and take ministerial positions (Agriculture and Fisheries!) in a Kibaki Government (Coalision Arrangement!) as a new constitutional order for 2012 is being worked under WAKO, Karua and Parliament. To show that they are serious, these Western Friends have given a number of ODM MPs (and PNU too) DO-NOT-ADMIT cards so that they accept a coallition arrangement.
ODM has been trapped; if it walks off City Hall in a huff, the label "Rebel" will follow it quickly. It will be miraculous for ODM to leave these talk as a solid entity: It accepts a coalition, and it dies as a Party of any relevence in 2012, and multi-party democracy with it. It walks off in protest, and the country burns with it, which ODM will not do.
I have known African dictators who gleefully inspected guards of honor mounted by skulls and bones. The PNU band appears to be the dangerous sweet-talking type that can declare that there are floods in Garissa in the middle of a drought. This PNU band will not compromise its position, and will be willing to sit it out long and play the plight of IDPs in Kibera and Rift Valley to the international media. That land has become the contentious matter makes this scenerio the more likely (Look at Zimbabwe).
In the unfolding tragedy, the noblest thing ODM will do is to decide that too much suffering has visited the people; and that it does not want "a bride with blood on her hands," and becomes a formidable opposition in parliament. For this to happen, the leadership and MPs must be in it together, and the people must be willing to join them on this long journey to 2012. Bitter? Yes. But it is for the same reason that our men do not mourn the deaths of infants.

JR Alila

http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143981602&cid=4

http://politics.nationmedia.com/inner.asp?pcat=NEWS&cat=TOP&sid=1443


http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=116296

Kenyan Electoral Crisis

Odinga and ODM should go to court if they feel they won the Presidential Election in Kenya, says Kibaki in Addis.
UN Secretary General Moon orders the warring parties to bring the violence to an end.
Annan's team promises political solution with 7-15 days! One must wonder how this will be possible when Kibaki believes there is no serious problem in Kenya, and that the current crisis is the creation of the opposition?
JR Alila
Read Link
http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143981270&cid=4
http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143981269&cid=4

Kenya in Crisis

Two thoughts on the future of Kenya. The first (read link below) has a philosophical appeal and goes right to the heart of the Kenyan Dilema. The author decries the Power Vacuum that exists, failed or biased national institutions, and a polarized Church. He leaves us wondering as to whom we should turn for dear peace?
Meanwhile the Kibaki Administration claims that the crisis can be solved internally; AU or UN should not intervene even as the Annan committee has laid down the ground rules, to which ODM has responded, while the overly-lawyered three-man team from PNU is still mulling over them (time wasting?).
http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143981157&cid=15
AU insists Kenya will be discussed in Addis this week, of course against protestations from Kenya. Kibaki is attending (will he be recognized? If you have read my poetry collection "Thirteen Curse on Mother Africa," lulu (www.lulu.com) your guess should be that he will be recognized by his fellow Chiefs: AU Eating Chiefs never never disowned one of their member, however tainted he or she is.
Thanks to the South African delegation, Kenyan Crisis is number one item on this week's agenda at AU Headquarters in Addis.

Now, a very radical view (I say treasonable if entertained by a Kenyan) is that of the Rwandese Leader, Kagame: He opines that the Kenyan Army should take over before a downward civil spiral into the like of Rwanda of the recent past. Interestingly The Daily Nation (Kenya) had the guts to have printed it (Read Link Below to Daily Nation Kenya). This a bold and unusual statement from an African Leader against a sitting other. But remember that Rwanda is landlocked and has a Kenyan Export-Import Lifeline. We hope Uganda which also relies on Kenyan roads and rail to export and import good, does not think along the same lines.
We must pray for Kenya because even the ARMY is Ethincized.

JR Alila

http://politics.nationmedia.com/inner.asp?cat=TOP&sid=1385

Kenya in Crisis

The public stop a Lorry full of Uganda Army Uniforms at Kenya's Malaba crossing point. The purpose of the Military Uniforms remain mysterious. Kenyans have accused Uganda's Museveni for having sent soldiers into Kenya to help Kibaki quel riots during the recent post-election crisis.

Read Link...

J.R. Alila

http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143980835&cid=4

Must Britain Recognize the Disputed Kibaki Presidecy?

THE Kenyan Govt demands to be recognized by the British Gov't, declared Kenyans Foreign Minister Mr. Moses Watengula. He demands were as a result of matters arising out of a House-of-Commons debate on the Kenyan election gridlock. Pundits wonder how the British Govt can be forced to declare the recognition of Mr. Kibaki's Presidency, that even the beleaugured ECK Chairman, Mr. Kivuiti, doubts.
If you have fogotten, this is the same Kivuitu who was frogmatched out of KICC poll-tallying center at gunpoint, with TV camers rolling, only to reemerge on State-controlled KBC-TV declaring Mr. Kibaki the winner and within the hour he would appear at Mr. Kibaki's rushed swearing ceremony.
Hon. Raila Odinga and his ODM and supporters continue to protest the decision which those in the know have declared to have been won by Hon Raila Odinga by at least 130000 votes.
Parliament in Britain is sacrosanct and the British Foreign Ministry cannot control what it deliberates up, Kenya and all. Hon Watengula needs to know that the same British Parliament can dictate British policy posture against Kenya, the same way the European Parliament did the other day. Joseph Alila. (Author: The Wise One of Ramogiland)

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=115060

The Last Straw That Broke the Camel's Back

"We only have stones!"
This cry, from young man amidst a battle with GSU paramilitary police in Kisumu, captures the current tragedy in Nyanza in the current electoral crisis. In the Rift Valley we have read of the dreaded GSU personnel being detained by locals at roadblocks; in Kisumu, unarmed kids are practice targets of some police officers, as a recent TV footage doing the rounds on the Web taught us. What makes Rift Valley different than Nyanza? The answer is that unlike Rift Valley, Luo Nyanza is irrelevant to the nation of Kenya: it is farflung and landlocked; Anyuongi has killed navigation and fishing on Lake Victoria; Kisumu is in ruins, sugar can be imported; no other ethnicities live there; only her electoral vote matters to any politician after every five years. The Gov't forces will continue to operate in Luo Nyanza with impunity to teach the locals to "vote otherwise" next time.
Which way Luo Nyanza?
Would this election be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back in Luo Politics?
I believe so.
If Hon. Raila Odinga fails to sit on the covetted seat (the Presidency), or fails to agitate for and get the Premiership before 2012, most Luo Nyanza voters will sit out the 2012 elections, and it will not matter who runs in ODM, which will have died anyway.
I'd rather watch Gor Mahia FC matches, commiserate with fellow elders than vote again in a fatally-cursed process that only generates anguish and gnashing of teeth among the people. We were there before in the '60s and '70s, and may survive it, again. But if not managed well, this elctoral mess may be the last straw that broke the camel's back in Luo Nyanza because pride to the point of apathy is a virtue, at least in a Luo psyche.
Ask yourself this: why are there no Luo names in Kibaki's National Dialogue and Reconciliation Committee? The answer is that Luo Nyanza is irrelevant to his political schemes; he never campaigned there anyway.

Joseph R. Alila

(Author: "The Wise One of Ramogiland," ISBN 978-14303-2554-3)

Read this for AE Standard, Kenya ....

http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143980596&cid=16

Kenya in Crisis

Kiai Report on Kenyan Elections A bungled Tally (Kiai, East A frican Standard).

J. Alila


http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143980628&cid=4

Wisdom From Kenya Elections

Word of Wisdom to you my friends:

In our collective experience a bride does not just walk into the bridegroom's bedroom, however rich the bride price purse; men have to wrestle their way home with her on their backs. That is what separated PNU form ODM. The former PNU grabbed the bride as her fierce brothers slept; the latter kept sweet-talking and showering the bride and her grandmother with goodies. Words, unless divine, will never move a mountain, leave alone an earthly bride (The Wise One declares). Didn't PNU's greatest Scribe offer the following Epistle to all the Churches in Central Province: "Never allow the spotted Leopard to guard your goats"?In Ramogi Alila's Novel, "The Wise One of Ramogiland," The Seer asks the Preeminent Warrior, " Can you be happy to be the Premier in two months, but from a wheel chair?" ODM never bruised itself before the elections. Electoral Lists were being doctored in broad daylight, but ODM's mournful words were ignored. At that stage of ECK's complicity, ODM should have gone to court to stop the elections or order a public review of all electoral lists. Instead of The Warrior coordinating forces on the morning of 27/12/2007, he found himself fighting to be a registered voter! One must Want the Bride so badly that he killed the spotted Leopard to secure her. That was the respected Scribe's point in his Ethnic Epistle, and it worked in PNU's favour. Don't we say in Luo, YUORO LAW KWACH (The Bride is as valuble as the Leopard's cloth)? The Presidency is a Bride: The world over, people go the extra distance in the use of rare wisdom and technology to win her over: Ask President Bush or Nobel Laureat Gore; they will tell you exactly the same thing.
My friends, I am not crying over spilled milk. No. We must be smarter, more tactical in 2012-- be it for Ruto or Mudavadi; we have to be more tactical in 20017-- be it for Orengo, Nyon'go or yourself .
Unfortunately, some of us in the blogs saw what was comming, but who read the blogs, and who would act on them? Just before the election (O my troubled Visions!) I blogged in the Daily Nation warning that IF ON ELECTION NIGHT, PRESIDENTIAL RETURNS FROM PNU BEDROCKS OF CENTRAL AND UPPER EASTERN ARE NOT IN, WHILE ODM'S NYANZA, WESTERN AND RIFT VALLEY ARE TALLIED, THEN KNOW THAT THE ELECTION IS BEING RIGGED. This blog was a response to an Omari Kenya Election2007 blog, to my knowledge, it was not published.In the same troubling prophetic book, The Wise One of Ramogiland, The Seer tells the Preeminent Warrior "The Seer also sees a traumatic path; a path so traumatic at the beginning, only to be very bright at the end."

In the last paragraph of the same book, "The Wise One of Ramogiland," the Seer gives the Warrior a shepherds stick and commands him to head north to the land of the Long River where Ramogi's cousins remain in grave peril.
My troubled writings, inspired by forces beyond my grasp, force me to declare that The Preeminewnt Warrior is going to be great, but not in the manner, and not through the path you and I had envisioned.Keep the candle of hope burning.

Dr. Joseph R. Alila
(Author of the Political Satire: The Wise One of Ramogiland)

THE KENYAN REFUGEE

Fellow Kenyans at Home and in the Diaspora,

1. Does it occur to you that by announcing a fumbled electoral tally in favor of the incumbent (President Mwai Kibake) the Chairman of The Electoral Commission of Kenyan (Mr. Kivuitu) has made some of you refugees either at Home (As Internally Displaced Person), in a neighboring country (like those who have fled to Uganda and Tanzania) and in the Diaspora (because they have no home to return to) ?
2. Do you see the sense to work extra hard to avoid this getting worse than it already is to about 500, 000 Kenyans?

3. What can you do to reverse the chaos that threaten to make Kenya another Failed State?

4. What can you do to help those displaced?

5. Do you know that SILENCE does not help in this situation?

6. Do you understand that careless talk in the blogs and chatrooms can worsen the situation?
Let me hear your views on the Next Step.

J.R. Alila (Author: The Wise One of Ramogiland)

watch and listen to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vvbUFrU7dM