Air Tanzania Revival: Tender for Provision of Indvidual Consultancy Service to Prepare a Comprehensive Five Year Business Plan for Air Tanzania Company Limited (21.03.2017)

Communiqué of the Consultative Meeting of IGAD Member States on the Current Drought Situation in the Region (31.03.2017)

MBS Espisu defends Secretaries role at rallies; Is the Secretaries role to be loyal to the President or to the People?

It isn’t everyday there is election and that the Spokesperson for the Presidency of Kenya are benign and default by the values of governance and who the government are. Therefore, the defense from the spokesperson proves how little they care for accountability and transparency, as the Cabinet Secretaries and Permanent Secretaries takes parts of Election Rallies in Kenya, as the Jubilee Government doesn’t care about their neglect of opposition and that they are supposed to represent all Kenyans, not just the voters of the Jubilee Party. But hey! Manoah Esipisu the spokesperson is clearly seeking a pay-rise and bonuses for his loyalty to Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy William Ruto.

The Kenyan Public Service Act of 2015 says this in the Subsection 8 (1A and 1B):

“Transparency and provision to the public of timely accurate information

(1) A public officer shall not—

(a) give information that the public officer knows or ought to know to be inaccurate; or

(b) unduly delay the provision of any information where required to provide that information” (Laws of Kenya, 2015).

Why do I start with that enacted law of Public Service, since the Manoah Esipisu, feels like it is okay that the ones in Public Office, as Principal Secretaries and Cabinet Secretaries attending the Election rallies, as they are still giving away information that counters with the Public Service Act of 2015, would that be justified by the Spokesperson of the State House. Please take a look at his genius reasoning!

Public servants participating in politics

Second, Let me respond to your questions on whether public servants are playing politics by speaking at public barazas or interacting with citizens and talking about the direction our country is heading. First, public servants, including Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and other senior staff cadre have a duty of accountability to the Kenyan people. They have to account on the progress the administration of President Uhuru Kenyatta has made since taking office; they have to account for the trillions of shillings in taxes collected from the Kenyan people and invested in infrastructure development and other services; and they have to account for the confidence invested in them by the Kenyan people. Why are they supporting the President and the Jubilee administration, some of you have asked? Because they are accountable to the President who appointed them in the first place, and whose vision of service to the Kenyan people it is their duty to operationalise. And why would they appear to be directly campaigning for the President? No, they are not campaigning. They are merely describing the investments made under President Kenyatta and the impact thereof, and why therefore it is important for the President to be re-elected to continue with the task of transforming Kenya. For us, it is really a question of accountability. It is precisely because public officers are speaking more that the country acknowledges that Kenya is irreversibly transforming” (President.co.ke, 2017).

I agree with the State House Spokesperson that the Cabinet and Principal Secretaries has to account to the citizens. That is necessary and is expected. Therefore, they have other duties than standing on stage and promoting their jobs, instead of working tireless for the citizens. It is hard to say they are not campaigning, when they are taking parts and participating at the rallies. Are the appointed secretaries fish out of water? Since they are swimming in the sea, but not feeling the water. That is the reasoning of the Spokesperson, wouldn’t they defend Kenyatta and Ruto on the podium in Eldoret, Nakuru or Thika.

The disrespectful idea that they first have to be accountable for the President and therefore has to show up at rallies, is what he said at one point. A point he used before “no, they are not campaigning”, still they are firstly representing the people, secondly their appointed by the President. The President is also representing people and gotten his place because of the citizens. So they are all not really playing their parts, as secretaries as they supposed to be there as civil servants and not as subjects under the President.

As the Constitution of Kenya of 2010 Stems for Section 152. (3) says: “A Cabinet Secretary shall not be a Member of Parliament”. With this statement in the law, means that the Cabinet Secretaries nomination as all a favor of their merits and their judgment in their field. If they we’re qualified, the President wouldn’t appoint the person. Therefore, the decision to take part of the rallies, show they are more loyal to the President, than to the Kenyan people.

Because if they take part of Jubilee Rallies only and not even parts of Cord/NASA rallies, than their respect as representing all citizens of Kenya is gone, than they are just loyal subjects to Kenyatta who appointed them. Is the message the Kenyan voters needs to know months ahead of the coming elections? That they are not obligated to inform the Cord/NASA electorate, only the Jubilee? Isn’t that the mere effort and effect of having the Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries attending rallies, to show flex and have the strength that the opposition parties doesn’t have?

I have to ask a very stupid question to the Spokesperson Manoah Esipisu, who pays the Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries? Is the President and his Political Party or is it the State Coffers and the tax-payers monies? Since the initial loyalty shouldn’t be to only the man who saw faith in you, but also to where the paycheck comes from. The Secretaries are paid by the guidelines of Public Service, means they are serving the public first with needed services. They are not existing because Kenyatta needs people to greet and pose with at Voi, Kitui or Lodwar. That could happen, but shouldn’t be their sole mission as public servants.

That the Secretaries has a mission to the state, as effect of the works of the ministries, because of that be accountable to the citizens, is clear-cut, since they represent the people in the works and their efforts at their respected fields. Still, they shouldn’t be participating in partisan rallies for either the ones seeking re-election or the ones trying to force them out.

So I cannot support the efforts made by MBS Manoah Esipisu, who serves Kenyatta diligently, but does not serve his purpose as civil servant. Esipisu shows loyalty to Kenyatta, before the best of knowledge to the Kenyan people. Peace.

Reference:

President.go. – ‘Spokesperson’s Weekly Briefing, Eldoret State Lodge, 2nd April 2017’ (02.04.2017) link: http://www.president.go.ke/2017/04/02/spokespersons-weekly-briefing-eldoret-state-lodge-2nd-april-2017/

Laws of Kenya – ‘PUBLIC SERVICE (VALUES AND PRINCIPLES) ACT’ – No.1A of 2015

 

 

South Sudan: SPLM-IO statement on the meeting between Dr. Riek Machar and Festus Mogae (01.04.2017)

RDC: Declaration de la Societe Civile du Sud-Kivu relative au drame socio politique en cours en RDC (31.03.2017)

Judge Garland’s ghost will now follow the vacant Supreme Court seat!

I said I would take this process seriously — and I did. I chose a serious man and an exemplary judge, Merrick Garland. Over my seven years as President, in all my conversations with senators from both parties in which I asked their views on qualified Supreme Court nominees — this includes the previous two seats that I had to fill — the one name that has come up repeatedly, from Republicans and Democrats alike, is Merrick Garland” (…) “Now, I recognize that we have entered the political season — or perhaps, these days it never ends — a political season that is even noisier and more volatile than usual. I know that Republicans will point to Democrats who’ve made it hard for Republican Presidents to get their nominees confirmed. And they’re not wrong about that. There’s been politics involved in nominations in the past. Although it should be pointed out that, in each of those instances, Democrats ultimately confirmed a nominee put forward by a Republican President” – Barrack Obama (16.03.2016 – White House – Rose Garden – from the Obama Archives).

I hate to say it, it doesn’t matter how the creature and individual judge Neil Gorsuch, the nominated person to fill the empty seat in the Supreme Court of the United States. Why I don’t care? It is because of the process he has been entangled into, that has been created by the Republican Party taking away the Executive right for former President Barrack Obama. So, there is certainly no will to give that the new President Donald Trump, as he is just a new politician and President Obama was in his second term as the Executive. There haven’t even gone a 100 days of his presidency, it should take more time, as it soon is election and primary season for the Senate election in 2018. That is if I stand by the same rules the Republicans used against Obama, to not nominate and hired someone to the last remaining seat in the Supreme Court.

I don’t care if is Neil Gorsuch is a mix of Mother Theresa, Pope Francis and Baby Jesus. He can be the best American since John Wayne, he can be mix Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, still not be the man for the Supreme Court seat. To me he is just the trick of the Republican party, to thief away a spot from the Democratic Party elected President. Therefore, I see nothing else than a theft.

The Republicans like Lindsay Graham, the Senator of South Carolina can talk the game he wants about the judge and his profound knowledge of judgment. Still, Sen. Graham doesn’t consider the constitutional rights of Obama, as he neglect the preposterous attempts of filibustering and stopping the sessions at play for months, to give way to Trump so he could nominate someone. The Republicans are hereby saying they are entitled to elected who they please, but other parties has to beg to do so. The Republic can only have Presidents who has the love of the Republican party, if not they are not constitutional. That is the state that Sen. Graham profess to.

Mitch McConnell, Senator of Kentucky and the Majority Leader of the Senate, has said that he does not accept that the Democratic Party representatives to Block Gorsuch, but my initial problem with that sort of statement from a Majority leader is that he blocked Garland all through the 2016 year and until President Trump got into office. Not like he didn’t use all sorts of tricks and pushed the buttons to stop the process of getting an Obama nominated fellow inside the Supreme Court. That is because Obama was not righteous enough, but the pussy-grabbing, shallow-snake-oil-salesman and the fake University owner Trump has the legal mind to pick someone. McConnell himself by October 2016, than suspending the nomination of Garland, said it was a lame-duck, that was only 7 months after vacancy was open.

The seat of the Supreme Court in the total months that Barrack Obama was president was about 12, that is a year, that is one fourth of his last term. That means that the Republican Senators and Representatives suspended and postponed the vacancy through major parts of his presidency. So that they could claim the seat as the Election was on horizon. Because they feared a liberal or a progressive candidate filling Judge Scalia’s place. It is clear this is ignorance and disregard of the ones electing President Obama, that they could not spare him his duty as the Executive or understand his judgment for the picking of Garland.

So if Speaker Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell feels they are disrespected and feels that the Democratic representatives isn’t working within the perimeter of the Constitution and the rights of the Republican President Trump. If they conduct such behavior and claims that the Democratic Party is dissolving the Supreme court vacancy. Than, they are hypocrites.

As Paul Ryan himself stated on the 16th March 2016:

This has never been about who the nominee is. It is about a basic principle. Under our Constitution, the president has every right to make this nomination, and the Senate has every right not to confirm a nominee. I fully support Leader McConnell and Chairman Grassley’s decision not to move forward with the confirmation process. We should let the American people decide the direction of the court.” (Paul Ryan, 16.03.2016).

Therefore, if the Republicans can suspend hearings and voting for Garland, why cannot Democrats do it now? The Tea Party representatives and Freedom Caucus representatives have had no issues with stifling the process of Capitol Hill. So if the resistance and the Democrats decides to stop Gorsuch nomination, that would be filibustering and stopping Trumps will. If they would accept it, is it like Republicans only have rights to nominate and the only ones who knows how to pick people for important positions?

Since President Trump has already hired his son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump, so it not like we can question his own methods of picking Gorsuch. The Education Minister Betty De Vos family has been a big donor to the Republican Party and also Trump Campaign. So it not like the donations from big spenders change the ethical perspective of appointments under the Trump Era. It isn’t all white-supremacist and right-wing representatives, more on the financial backdrop and who’s favor Trump has gotten or hoping to get.

Than, with this in mind, what sort of favors has Gorsuch promised to do for Trump? Let’s be clear I don’t care if he is the softest most gentle judge ever existing, if he is the Marvin Gaye of judges. Still, he is the man stealing the possible seat of Garland. Ghost of Merrick will always follow Neil. No matter what happens, the one taking the seat now in the Supreme Court will always have the illegitimate picked person working in the most important legal job of the republic. That shows how low the legal system and the elected representatives of the United States has sunk down too.

President Obama wasn’t given the right to appoint because of people like Senator McConnell and Representative Ryan are the leadership that put forward reasoning for stopping the nominations. So now that they have Republican President and he has made a nomination, which happens to be Gorsuch.

We could talk fair and justice, but this is a sinister political ploy from the Republican party and using the laws to cherry-pick the ones supporting their will. The reality of it all is that the Obama administration was weaken by the control of the senate and the representatives house. The chambers did what they could to silence and stop his policies. Instead of building by bi-partisan ways. Now the Republican party want that from the Democratic Party and their members in the chambers. That train has left the station and hasn’t a plan to return.

The Ghost of Garland, even as he never entered the Supreme Court as an official judge or gotten the seat. Still, the will of President Obama and the denial of process of the appointment has proven that the Congress, the house or the senate didn’t want to fill the seat. The reality cannot be swayed away from this and the current state of affairs. That Trump should fill this seat is justified, as much as he can have ability to fill more if their time on earth stops. That is the rules. So Trump can fill even more in his time. They would have been correct! The appointment of possibly Gorsuch isn’t, and the Republican Party senators and representatives knows this perfectly well. All of them and most of them know they we’re part of the theft.

The grand theft and the perfect crime was orchestrated all through an election year, though all sorts of display and disregard of the President Obama and the Constitution, that they are supposed to keep in high regard. Instead they are propping up all tools and spin-control to let the Democrats leave it alone. That they did not to lose face during the Presidential Election, but here we are and we should know that the ghost of Garland will now overshadow the Supreme Court. Peace.

European Council: Draft Guidelines following the United Kingdom’s notification under Article 50 TEU (31.03.2017)