Opinion: “I don’t need your vote” message from President Kenyatta is insulting!

It is getting closer to the polls and the secret ballots to be dropped in the boxes at the polling stations on the 8th August 2017. Certainly, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto are confident of their role and to become incumbent in power. This seems for them to be within reach.

In a republic full of tribes and with a former problem of ethnic squabbles, that has created tensions between the tribes. You should think that the political being and second generation leader like Uhuru Kenyatta knew better. Still, he uses tricks of Kikuyu to control, the same is done by the other big ethnic groups like Kalenjin and Luo. The discussion I will bring into, is not the difference between Uhuru and the predecessors like Jomo Kenyatta, Mwai Kibaki and Daniel Arap Moi.

But what he has done that is insulting. He has told them he doesn’t need their votes. That their secret ballots and their voice into the government didn’t matter to him. This is what have told the people of Turkana, Makueni (Kamba) and Kakamega (Luhya). These people deserve better, they all are as important as the Kalenjin, Kikuyu and Luo. They are all part of the republic. This should be basic for the man in charge and for the man who has run the republic for a term already.

Still, it isn’t visible to him. When he can insult them on the campaign trial. Be so proud and so cocky, just tell them-off. Thanks, but no thanks brothers and sisters. You don’t count and I don’t need you. I will sit in SUV and ride my Presidential Convoy without you. I might do some government projects, but that is more for PR, not because you matter to me. That is what he could have said to the people of Turkana, the Kambas and the Luhya. Since initial that what it means when he don’t need their votes.

As a leader for the whole republic and someone who has been the highest official for the republic, he should say he wants anyone to vote for him and fight for that vote. He could have told in a rally in Nairobi: “I don’t need the people of Kibera”, later in the speech say: “I only needs the people of Karen and Langata”. Let’s be clear, President Kenyatta hasn’t said that, but he could have at this point. Since he has already disrespected three tribes and counties.

A man who has a run a republic should know better and should be more humble. Show some humility and know that he is there because of them. Even if they didn’t vote for him last time, he still represented them for the years of the term. That should go into his veins and changed his mind. Because the way he act, he act so entitled and lacks respect of the people.

I wish it was different, I wish that President Kenyatta showed the people some humility and respect…

Is that to much to ask for the leader and the representative, that the person actually feels he needs every single vote and every single tribe? Is it in 2017 to expect that the leadership of Nairobi doesn’t care about where in Kenya your reside, but still wants to see after your needs? Is that too much?

Seems so, since he can disrespect so many people. Hope the Kenyans make a good decisions in their coming election. Also, we shall hope that the IEBC extra-judicial killing Chris Msanda isn’t to secure the possible rigging together with the 1,3 million extra ballots printed for the election. Peace.

RDC: Communique du Gouvernement – “Sur le rapport nouvellement publié de l’OCHA sur la violence à Kasai” (04.08.2017)

Opinion: President Kagame was predetermined to win; there were no other outcome!

Let us be honest for minute, let us be clear, there are not any misunderstanding. However, anyone else on the Presidential Ballot in Rwanda is there for show. It is there so the play of “democracy” and “secret ballots” can be put in order and fix a new “term” to President Paul Kagame. He knows this and those who know the Republic knows this.

It is not like the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), the former Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) came into Rwandan history with glory and peace. They went in at its dire worst and broke peace through bullets and harsh killing sprees. They did so while the airplane of former President fell down from the sky and no-one has taken responsibility for it. Until this day, decades later. There is a grim darkness overshadowing the rule of Kagame.

Former associates and generals who has fled has died of poison and been assassinated. This while reports and opposition are lingering in jails or detained. The real-opposition had better be in Exile like Moise Katumbi of Democratic Republic of Congo. Since Kagame does the same and claim “treason” to stand against him. If not he leaks sensitive information, discredit their candidacy and let the Electoral Commission not accept their candidacy at all. Diane Rwigara got this treatment; surely, Victorie Ingabire Umuhoza already knows the price of standing-up against the big-man and commander-in-chief.

So with this in mind, with the real opposition either in exile, house-arrest or prison. You know the fellas on the ballot together with Kagame are stooges and people trusted by him. If not they would not be there. He would have flogged them and harassed them. Their families might even grieve before the treason trials begins. It is fake and flawed, there aren’t any sort of digression or concern of how foul play it is. Even if Kagame says, “Rwandese decides their future now”. Well, to counter what you say, I say, “you already decided their future”.

At this moment the election is a façade and a farce at the same time. It is play for the gallery and trying to create an image that President Kagame, that he is universally loved and cherished by all citizens in Rwanda! Like that is even possible. Surely, many has earned fortunes on the illegal mining and rebel activity in the DRC. That has had proxy wars there and exported minerals in quantities that we cannot imagine. However, this what keeps the RPF a float and pays for the master to have TED talks and look brilliant in the West.

The elections and campaigning might be peaceful, but the total control from Kagame should scare you. He controls everything and his army has it tight-knit. Just like the results of today’s exercise will be around 90% to 95%, the others are just cast for play. To make it seem like they had a chance, when everyone knows there is only one winner and one leader, that is Kagame.

So today, is nothing more but a façade, a shell and forgery of what could have been! It is nice that is peaceful and no-one get hurt. It is great that the polling stations are in order and electoral officials are keeping things humming. The result is nevertheless predestined to be in favor of Kagame and the RPF. To say something else and you have not followed class of 94’ and the whole RPA insurgency. Peace.

DRC: Victims’ harrowing accounts indicate Government complicity in ethnic-based massacres in Kasai – UN report (04.08.2017)

GENEVA (4 August 2017) – Violence in the Kasai provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo appears to be taking on an increasing and disturbing ethnic dimension, a report by the UN Human Rights Office has warned. Information gathered by a team of UN human rights investigators* suggests that some of the violations and abuses committed in the Kasais may amount to crimes under international law.

The report is based on interviews with 96 people who had fled to neighbouring Angola to escape the violence in Kamonia territory in Kasai. The UN team was able to confirm that between 12 March and 19 June some 251 people were the victims of extrajudicial and targeted killings. These included 62 children, of which 30 were aged under eight. Interviewees indicated that local security forces and other officials actively fomented, fuelled, and occasionally led, attacks on the basis of ethnicity. The UN Mission in the DRC has identified at least 80 mass graves in the Kasais.

The team saw people who had been seriously injured or mutilated, including a seven-year-old boy who had had several fingers cut off and his face totally disfigured. A woman whose arm had been chopped off recounted how she managed to escape, hiding for several days in the forest before reaching the Angolan border and being airlifted to hospital. Some of the refugees pleaded with the UN team to be heard, and two of the people they interviewed died shortly afterwards from their injuries.

“Survivors have spoken of hearing the screams of people being burned alive, of seeing loved ones chased and cut down, of themselves fleeing in terror. Such bloodletting is all the more horrifying because we found indications that people are increasingly being targeted because of their ethnic group,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. “Their accounts should serve as a grave warning to the Government of the DRC to act now to prevent such violence from tipping into wider ethnic cleansing.” 

“I call on the Government to take all necessary measures to fulfil its primary obligation to protect people from all ethnic backgrounds in the greater Kasai area,” he added.

The fighting began in August 2016 between the Kamuina Nsapu militia and the Government. The UN team was able to confirm that another militia, called the Bana Mura, was formed around March/April 2017 by individuals from the Tshokwe, Pende and Tetela ethnic groups. It was allegedly armed and supported by local traditional leaders and security officials, including from the army and the police, to attack the Luba and Lulua communities who are accused of being accomplices of the Kamuina Nsapu.

According to the report, “the Bana Mura allegedly undertook a campaign aimed at eliminating the entire Luba and Lulua populations in the villages they attacked.” In many of the incidents reported to the team, FARDC soldiers were seen leading groups of Bana Mura militia during attacks on villages.

“The Government’s responsibility includes ensuring that those who organised, recruited and armed the Bana Mura or other militias are identified and prosecuted,” the High Commissioner stressed.

Many Luba and Lulua witnesses and victims said that the Bana Mura militia carried out what appeared to be well-planned attacks on several villages in Kamonia territory in April and May. Wearing white bandanas made from mosquito nets and bracelets of leaves, the Bana Mura attacked Luba and Lulua inhabitants, beheading, mutilating and shooting victims; in some cases burning them alive in their homes.

In one of the most shocking attacks, in the village of Cinq, 90 patients, colleagues and people who had sought refuge in a health centre were killed, including patients who could not escape when the surgical ward was set on fire.

Victims’ accounts included a woman who told the team how the militia killed her husband, attacked her daughter with machetes, and shot her and her 22-month-old son, who later had to have his leg amputated at a hospital in Angola. The team also heard accounts of rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence.

People also told the UN team that the Kamuina Nsapu militia carried out targeted killings, including against the military, police, and public officials.

In all incidents documented by the team, the Kamuina Nsapu were reported to have used boys and girls, many aged between seven and 13, as fighters. Witnesses also said groups of girls called “Lamama” accompanied the militia, shaking their straw skirts and drinking victims’ blood as part of a magic ritual that was supposed to render the group invincible. All the refugees interviewed by the team said they were convinced of the magical powers of the Kamuina Nsapu.

“This generalised belief, and resulting fear, by segments of the population in the Kasais may partly explain why a poorly armed militia, composed to a large extent of children, has been able to resist offensives by a national army for over a year,” the report says.

Given the situation in the Kasais, the report highlights the need for the team of international experts on the situation in the Kasais, established in June by the UN Human Rights Council, to be granted safe and unrestricted access to information, sites and individuals deemed necessary for their work.

This report will be put at the disposal of the international experts, as well as any other judicial institution addressing the human rights situation in the Kasais, in an effort to advance accountability efforts in this regard.

RDC: Communique du Rassemblement – “Memo a l’Attention de Monsieur Corneille Nanga, President de la Commission Electorale Nationale Independante (CENI).” (03.08.2017)

MP aspirant for Emgwen Constituency Meshack Kimutai shot in Kapsabet!

In a race of five aspirant MPs in Emgwen Constituency, there are now only four lefts just five days from the polls. There are possible MPs left behind these are Elias Ngetich, Wilfred Bugei, Alex Kimutai Kosgei and Dr. Kenneth Meli. The one that has left the race is Meshack Kimutai. Not because the person wanted to leave his political ambition, but because a violent attack on happen today. He might survive today, but that can only the doctors and the healing of the wounds say. 

Meshack Kimutai was today shot four or five times in Kapsabet, this was the Jubilee MP candidate. The killers left in a Toyata Maroon Premio.

There are conflicting reports which says this:

Reports reaching my desk says that Meshack Kimutai MP aspirant Emgwen Constituency was today beaten senselessly by his supporters that he had not paid and currently in ICU. We are still following on this reports” (Kiplangat Abraham Mutai, 03.08.2017).

So some says he is beaten other says he was killed by four shots. The other says he is injured after a beating by people he had promised or owed monies to.

Later report came this:

It is important to note that Meshack Kimutai Jubilee parliamentary candidate for Emgwen constituency has not passed on yet though in critical condition fighting for his life at Mediheal Eldoret.

He was shot five times this evening by unknown people in Kapkangani area while on campaign trail” (Fred Ochieng’ Madanje, 03.08.2017).

What the end of game of melee that happe n in Kapsabet and who did what. Is not easy to know, but the MP aspirant are hurt and shot. It is now in the hands of the medical staff and God to decided his destiny. That is as he is at the Mediheal Eldoret and more news will come, either positive note or yet another death by force during the final days of this Kenyan Election. Peace.

Kenya: Senior Counsel Bar letter to Justice David Maraga – “Re: The Honourable Mr. Justice George Odunga” (02.08.2017)

RDC: CENI – “Portant Suspension du Processus de l’Election des Gouverneur et Vice-Gouverneur dans les Provinces du Kasai” Central et de la Mongala (02.08.2017)

It’s insulting that the great people of Kisumu are not allowed to legally demonstrate, when the law says so!

Kisumu and Nyanza are Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) strongholds, where the opposition party has had big support over long time; Therefore the protests done in the recent two years has been powerful. Now the Jubilee and the government in the final week of the campaigns are banning all protest and demonstrations in Kisumu, which is insulting to the people there. This is also going against the constitution of 2010.

Which states as follow:

In the Article of 37 it says: Every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities” (Constitution of Kenya 2010).

So when you know Article 37, the Kisumu County Commissioner Maalim is insulting the Article 37, when he says what he says to the media today. Just take a look!

Kisumu County Commissioner Mohammed Maalim banned any protests citing security breach witnessed in the past” (…) “Mr Maalim said the move is part of the security preparedness his team had put in place ahead of the next week’s elections. Addressing journalists in his office after a county security intelligence committee meeting, Mr Maalim said the ban will stop criminals from taking advantage to destroy property within the town. “We have witnessed in the past that hooligans take advantage of peaceful demonstrations to cause havoc in the city, this is what we are avoiding,” said the commissioner” (Oudia, 2017).

Mr. Maalim, I am sure your quest is noble and your will is of peaceful congregation in the streets of Kisumu. This should be allowed and demonstration notified the authorities and the Police. Should be allowed, that some has taken it to far in the Anti-IEBC rallies might be true. But that doesn’t mean the next one will have the same sort of people as a part of it. That is doubling down and making sure the public dissidents cannot walk the streets in disbelief of the result of the election or other maladministration. This should be okay and within reason.

As long as every person carry themselves in peace, they are unarmed and they assemble to demonstrate, while they notify the authorities on the planned activity in Kisumu. The Commissioner Maalim clearly doesn’t see this, because he is biased on their behavior and expect everyone to be a villain and hooligans. This is insulting to citizens of Kisumu and Kenyans in general.

If it was like this, than there should never be allowed to demonstrate anywhere, since there been looting and vandalism in other parts and in other towns. But alas, no-one else has said so, except in one of the ODM strongholds, which is part of NASA. Seems like the Jubilee want to use all methods to crowd control and take away freedoms from the people. Since they cannot manage to have peaceful demonstrations in Kisumu.

Stop in insulting the people, work for them and not against them. Peace.

Reference:

Oudia, Rushdie – ‘Protests before, after polls banned in Kisumu’ (02.08.2017) link: http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/Protests-polls-banned-Kisumu/1064-4042344-dh8ui0z/index.html

NASA Statement: Fazul’s letter on Rosemary Odinga is a fraud (02.08.2017)