ODM'S ORANGE COUP

On the struggle over who would be the leader of Government Business in the cureent Kenyan Parliament, and thus control the Parliamentary Agenda, it would appear that ODM has staged a civil coup over President Kibaki's PNU.
The Speaker of the House, Hon. Marende, after a brilliant obfuscation and legal wizardry, all but declared that anybody, even a stranger in parliament can be the Leader of Government Business under Commonwealth Parliamentary Practices, which tend to set precedence for all member states, declared himself the Acting Leader of Government Business until President Kibaki and PM Odinga give him the new leader.
Now, Hon. Marende, before he got his job as Speaker of the House, was an ODM MP. Even if we assume that the speaker is independent minded, ODM must be feeling good out of this manoeuvre, which everyone including Annan and fellow African Eminences have declared wise and brilliant.
PNU must be planning other moves, but with all Kenyan women test-driving a seven-day sex holiday until Parliament passes reform measures in line with Annan's Agenda 4, it may be too late for political foot-dragging.
JR Alila

Kenyan Men: WOMEN ON BOYCOTT!

Kenyan women lobbyists have ordered sex boycott, until parliament legislates constitutional reforms.

http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144012904&cid=4&ttl=Women declare sex boycott

IS KENYA A LOST CAUSE?

Kenya is a lost cause. 2012 will be worse than what we saw in 2007. There are reasons to make this assertion.
The tigers of freedom of yesterday have all been compromised. Raila and his ODM have been roped in then neutered. They are part of the system, not only in name, but also in action. Unchecked Corruption is not just a PNU thing. If an ODM minister is tainted and has not been sacked, it is because the PM who is from ODM finds him a political holy cow who cannot be touched.
Kenya is a lost cause: The ghosts of post election violence have not been appeased. Those implicated in various offences have skilfully employed Parliamentary Procedures to block the setting up of Local Tribunals to try suspects. Kenyans face the prospects of approaching the next General Election (in 2012) before the victims of the last elections are appeased.
It appears that there may be no New Constitution before the 2012 Elections. The opponents of Agenda 4 are forming ethnic alliances to fit an already evolving Transition Agenda, which can only work if the current President retains his absolute powers by election day. There may be a new referendum on the Constitution, and there may be another BOMAS, but their outcomes will be different because of new Constituencies and Districts!
Even getting a credible Kenyan to chair a transitory Electoral body has become a problem because of ethnicity and transition politics.
When will Kenyan be a Nation and not a union of tribes?

BOOK RELEASE: THE LUO DREAMERS" ODDYSSEY

THE LUO DREAMERS’ ODYSSEY: From the Sudan to American Power
(ISBN: 144148311x ISBN 13: 9781441483119)
Novel by Joseph R. Alila
www.creatspace.com/3373494
In the historical novel, THE LUO DREAMERS’ ODYSSEY: From the Sudan to American Power, a journey that started more than five centuries ago in the Sudan, has ended in the White House. Along the way, a child and a troubled dreamer, Ajwang’ the Dreamer (a.k.a. Ramogi, the father of the Luo) survives the knife of ire of a man who has been robbed of a bead of wisdom. Years later, the sons of Ajwang’ must part ways with a child dead between them because of vengeance over a bead and a spear. Centuries later, an orphan must "develop wings," fly out of Colonial Kenya to Alaska, and plant his seed, a boy. This boy, Hassan Ajwang’, is a dreamer who lives to be the President of the United States of America. In THE LUO DREAMERS’ ODYSSEY, author Joseph R. Alila (Author: "The Milayi Curse") pens yet another drama of life, of survival against great odds, and of victories as improbable as the sun rising from the west.
This book is inspired by the perils afflicting Luo Nations in East Africa, and the improbable Presidency of President Barack Hussein Obama of the United States of America.

BOOK RELEASE

COMING SOON

THE LUO DREAMERS' ODYSSEY:

from the Sudan to American Power

(A Novel)

By Joseph R. Alila

www.createspace.com

POLYGAMY: ETHICS, SPIRITUALITY AND MARRIAGE, A TRAGEDY

I am Joseph R. Alila, the author of Sunset on Polygamy (ISBN 1424166845).Sunset on Polygamy is the first of six novels and two collections of poems that I have written. This novel speaks to the sociological, spiritual as well anthropological underpinnings of governance, courtship, marriage, polygamy, remarriage, conflicts, death and disease among the Luo of East Africa. I have also addressed how these aspects of life affect the understanding and management of the New Disease epidemic (read AIDS epidemic) among my people (the Luo).

As a social critic, I believe that my role is to blow the horn, to warn, to praise, to mourn, and to ask questions whenever there is an emergent cultural problem. In this role, I have tried to be an innocent presenter (and sometimes an active presenter) of facts as I see them, and calling human folly what it is.It may come as a surprise to some of my readers that my female heroines (Felicia the Nyadendi, Nyapora, Megan and Gina) tend to influence the destiny of their homes and husbands and a whole people. But this is a natural consequence of the fact that, among the Luo, marriage is a spiritual institution, and the woman is at the center of worship within the home. When polygamy is factored into the marriage equation, marriage becomes one complex religious institution with its own dos and don’ts. Now, when the ethical references and goalposts are frayed and weakened by social decay, marriage in general (and polygamy in particular) becomes a complex deathtrap in the face of emergent disease epidemics such as AIDS. When the symptoms of AIDS are confused for that of chira (deadly curse), the tragedy of our human folly becomes immeasurable.

SUNSET ON POLYGAMY

By Joseph R. Alila

www.publishamerica.com

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.

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