Kenya: Kenya Police Service – Al-Shabaab Plans to Launch Attacks during Christmas Festivities (13.12.2022)

Kenya: Solomon Kuria letter to the National Chairman of Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party Council – Resignation as Chairman, Azimio Youth League (08.12.2022)

Central Bank of Kenya (CBK): Reintroduction of Charges for Mobile Money Wallet and Bank Account Transactions (06.12.2022)

Kenya: Police Reforms Working Group – Kenya (PRWG-K) – The Social Justice Movement Press Statement on the Prosecution of Ahmed Rashid (25.11.2022)

Kenya: OCHA – United Nations and partners call for $472.6 million to respond in 2023 as the drought in Kenya deepens (21.11.2022)

Kenya: Statement of the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Hon Soipan Tuya, CBS, on the Ongoing Uprooting of Baobab Trees in Kilifi County (21.11.2022)

Kenya: The Social Justice Movement – Press Statement on the Escalating instances of Insecurity Witnessed across the Country (21.11.2022)

Opinion: Salah Yakub MP is opening up a Pandora’s Box…

We want to tell Kenyans that the limit on two terms should be relooked. We want it to be changed to an age limit where when one gets to 75 years then he or she cannot contest. We will come up with an amendment Bill to try to change this because we want the requirement to be on age limit and not terms. If a president is doing a good job, then he or she should not be limited by the terms”Salah Yakub MP (05.11.2022)

The revelation that Fufi MP Salah Yakub has been very vocal. He is issuing the case of amending the constitution and stop the possible limitations of a presidency. If Salama Yakub MP got his way, a President got rule for life and could be in office until his last breath. That is opening up a can of worms.

When you abolish or amend a constitution to favour the President. You are not doing that for the will of the people. No, that is done to serve the current President. Everywhere that has happened… it is the incumbent who prolongs its reign. The current President is the one who has gained on the merits of the legal ramifications.

If the term limits are abolished. That means the current President don’t have to step down after 2 terms. This means that the Article 142(b) would be amended or be revised. Because that is the case here. In the 2010 Constitution there is no age requirement currently. So, if there was a change of that. It could give leeway to the current President.

The current President, William Ruto is 55 years old and after two terms he would be 65 years old. With the proposal of the MP he would get a possible 4 terms in office. Meaning an additional 2 terms or 10 years in office. That is if his announced and declared the winner in the up-coming elections.

Certainly, the amended constitution would be in favour of Ruto. That’s why an ally is proposing this and saying it now. This is to prepare the public and the national assembly itself. It is sort of making people used to the idea and later come with the legislation. The Kenya Kwanza Alliance has the majority in the House and the Senate. Therefore, a law could be passed like this and no one should be shocked. We know the Azimio MPs and Senators would be against it.

Nevertheless, this sort of idea is to push a life presidency. There is nothing else to it. It is to launch the idea of a President for Life. That’s the gist and that’s the memo. Peace.

A look into the leaked SGR Agreement

Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen releases SGR agreement for public scrutiny. Some key loan terms:

~ Loan amount not exceeding $1.6Bn

~ 2.0% per annum interest

~ 0.25% management fee

~ 20-year tenure with a 7yr grace period

~ preference for the purchase of goods from China” (Kenyan Wallstreet, 06.11.2022).

The SGR Agreement decides that the Kenyan Government has 13 years to repay the loans for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). This is happening after the 7 year grace period. The agreement was signed off on the 14th May 2014 and 7 years after that is last year May 2021.

There been speculations about this agreement ever since the Jubilee government signed it and accepted it’s terms. It was even at one point, rumours that the Kenyan government had signed off the Mombasa Port operations to the China EXIM Bank.

What it instead says in addition to the terms of the direct financial manner. It says something very interesting…

A key parts of the SGR Agreement is this, as well as the other mentioned terms: “The Borrower undertakes to procure that the Government of Kenya or the relevant authorities of Kenya shall stipulate and issue preferential policies, regulations or approvals in relation to RDF which could be applied in priority to make the repayment of loans in relation to the Project as owning to the Lender, the Long Term Service Agreement and its due performance, the revenues generated from the Project which will be applied in priority to make the repayment of loans in relation to the Project as owing to the Lender (except for the expenditures of operation and management of the Project), the Inlander Container Depot (inland port) established in Nairobi and its mandatory customs clearance, and all other necessary policies or approvals, with an aim to ensuring the due operation of the Project and the repayment of such loans in relation to the Project as owing to the Leader” (SGR Agreement, 2014).

Here the borrower is setting the terms of usage and how the transport policies are set. This is now in print and in public. It now makes perfect sense why the authorities and the government ordered all goods or movement of cargo is directed to the SGR. That is done in accordance with the agreement actually. Because the stipulation is actually there…

Certainly, you can wonder if Beijing or the China Exim Bank is happy with the leakage of the agreement between them and the Kenyan Government. They would most likely be happy to have it under seal and hidden from the public space. Because, now the realities of this agreement is in the public domain.

The SGR is already a sort of failure and lack of creating revenue. That’s why the SGR haven’t been profitable or had the ability be viable. That’s why the Kenyan Government had to direct all cargo to go through the SGR and to the Navisha or Inland Port in Nairobi. Therefore, this agreement is just showing how bad this deal was.

The one winning here is China and they are getting lots of interests out of it. They are able to get the Kenyan government on their side. The Kenyan Government accepted a huge loan for an expensive railway. A railway that will take forever to be a feasible enterprise. That’s why these terms will be a liability and an expensive expense for the taxpayers in the years to come. While the SGR will not deliver or be able to re-coup the debt. That’s what is tragic here… Peace.

Kenya: National Integrity Alliance – The Red Card Campaign – Approval of Cabinet Nominees with Tainted Integrity is a Mockery of Chapter 6 of the Constitution (26.10.2022)