OPEN LETTER TO HON. RAILA ODINGA

To
Hon. Eng. Raila Odinga, EGH, MP

I would like to thank you for creating an opportunity for Kenyans to talk to you on matters that affect us and our country. As the year 2006 comes to a close I would like to address you on a number of issues that I believe are of great concern to our country and yourself. I beg your indulgence and patience because I will be candid and blunt to the core. I sincerely hope that your minders will not edit this message with a view of shielding you from the truth. It is tragic that almost all politicians in Kenya hire and maintain obscure political hirelings who go in the name of personal assistants and aides. They are in reality just mere court jesters and vain messenger boys who believe that they give their principals competitive leverage by shielding them from the truth. Nothing can be further from the truth. I sincerely hope you will not surround yourself with such characters as we get into the election year.

Political ideology

Hon. Odinga you are indeed an astute politician and all your admirers and detractors acknowledge this fact. Your ability to mobilise and galvanise people towards a singular political agenda is a great asset not only to yourself but to those who are close to you. That you have near fanatical following in some parts of this country is a fact no single politician in this country can afford to ignore. However politics for the sake of politics is not good for you or for the country. Why? Politics is about influence, successful politics is power. Power is all about economics, more fundamentally about money, who has what and what goes where. The process of acquisition of political power is not entirely legal, but the exercise of power must be legal in a country that is devoid of civil strife. Law is about power, who can order, direct or authorise actions and who has the duty to obey, submit and acquiesce to the one who exercises power. Hon. Odinga, you have for a long time been playing the politics of influence. It is high time that you translated that influence to power, not for other people (read politicians) but for yourself and for the benefit of this country. You also need to clearly indicate to all Kenyans what ideology informs your current political thought. The media has in the past depicted you as a socialist Marxist but your public comments in the last one decade indicate that you may have abandoned that ideology altogether. You did not raise a finger when Kenyan members of parliament increased their pay to become the most expensive law makers in Africa. That our MPs earn a basic pay of KSh. 6,000,000/- plus other hefty benefits per annum is something that does not seem to bother you. This is something a socialist of any shade (including an “African Socialist”) would consider immoral because our MPs go to work for less than 4 (four) months in any given calendar year. Mheshimiwa, do you still believe in socialism? Are you still a comrade? This is a very important matter at this moment of our history when our political elite live in affluent grandeur and opulence while over 80% of the population live in squalor and abject poverty. A tour around the entire countryside depicts a country and a people that are neglected. This is symptomatic of a political leadership that does not care about the people. Raw capitalism as a political-economic ideology does not seem to have worked for Kenya. You were recently quoted advocating federalism (majimbo) as an alternative political system for Kenya. How does socialism interface with federalism? The concept of majimbo has been associated with the establishment of ethnic homelands and communal conflict in Kenya. Ethiopia has 14 regional governments created along ethnic nationalities and linguistic affinity but the central (federal) government is still facing internal rebellion and insurrection. Are you advocating a similar system? Your recent political comments have left many of us confused. Please shed some light on your new-found political ideology and the kind of political-economy system you envisage for this country.

Economics

You recently acknowledged that there has been some noticeable economic growth in Kenya since the current government took over power. The appreciation of the Kenyan shilling against major international currencies and the robust trade at the NSE are indicators of an economy that is on its way to recovery. You should take credit for this growth too. You served this government in the cabinet for a considerable period and you must have made some contribution before your exit from cabinet in December 2004. You have also made comments that the robust activity at the Nairobi Stock Exchange could be linked to drug trafficking and money laundering. The business community in Kenya took note but did not seem keen to engage you on this matter. They simply ignored you and this should have bothered you. To be very honest, the common people who have been queuing for days to purchase shares at the NSE during Initial Public Offers (IPO’s) do not appear to be drug traffickers, racketeers or money launderers to me. There must be other economic fundamentals that are driving the business at the NSE and the appreciation of the Kenyan shilling but if you do have facts on drug trafficking and money laundering I would urge you to share them with all of us. My comments on the threat of money laundering in East Africa, quoted in the ThisDay newspaper in Dar es Salaam on 2nd November 2006 elicited not too flattering reactions from a number of players in the financial sector. This issue should bother our political and business leaders since we have a cash-based economy which makes East Africa easy prey to terrorist attacks. This region urgently requires a uniform law to deal with the prevalent threat of trans- national crimes such as drug trafficking, corruption and economic crimes, gun running and human trafficking. I would like to urge you mheshimiwa to mobilise MPs and see to it that the Proceeds of Crime and Money Laundering Bill that was recently published by the Minister of Finance is debated and passed into law without further delay. Political statements made at public rallies will not help us deal with trans-national crime. It is this law that we need urgently. You will do this country a lot of good if you mobilise MPs to pass this legislation as soon as parliament reconvenes. The Kenyan shilling has been appreciating against the dollar and the world crude oil prices have been falling for some time. In spite of this, oil companies have continued to fleece motorist and Kenyan who consume fuel oil for energy. What is your view on this?

Corruption

You have a good history of fighting for social justice in this country. You have impeccable credentials in the fight against graft. Corruption is the worst vice facing this country and most of our problems can be traced to past and present corrupt networks. The vice has denied Kenyans their basic rights and access to good healthcare, education and infrastructure. The NARC government and president Kibaki were elected on anti corruption platform among other things. The president and his government have performed dismally on this point. Corruption continues unabated in this country and the corrupt continue to enjoy the proceeds of their crime as many Kenyans languish in abject poverty. Run-away corruption is the greatest threat to security and political stability in this country. It is tragic that our leadership is not ready to deal with corruption head-on. True, the government has set up systems and institutions that are supposed to fight corruption but the vice continues to hurt our people. Why? The answer lies with the political leadership. The government’s score card on corruption is a poor D-. The gate keepers who were appointed by the president to deal with corruption have done a great disservice to this country. The Kenya Ant-Corruption Commission (KACC) in its present form and structure is of little value to this country. The present leadership of the Commission has demonstrated ineptitude and incapacity in dealing with past and present corruption once and for all. Hon. Justice Aaron Gitonga Ringera may have been excellent as a law professor and a judge but his stewardship of the KACC is questionable. If the comments of some Ministers, MPs, anti graft activists, ordinary Kenyans and some of officers who served under him are anything to go by, then his leadership of KACC is nothing to write home about. The mess at the State Law Office makes the situation even glimmer. You know as well as I do that most Kenyans lost faith in the AG’s office a long time ago. The other institution in this arena is the judiciary which has not changed at all even after the disgraceful radical surgery. Our judiciary is still staffed with a lot of judges, magistrates and other officials who are corrupt, out-rightly ignorant of the law, lazy and incompetent. It is no wonder that since the passing of the Anti- Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, 2003, not a single anti- corruption case of significance has been concluded. You cannot send a thief to catch a thief. The radical surgery did not achieve anything in our judiciary. Nothing short of a revolution will change the way things are done in our courts. When are we getting your view on this matter? How do you intend to reform the KACC, the State Law Office and the Judiciary?
The opposition is not fairing any better in the war against graft. Hon. Odinga, you should honestly and clearly tell Kenyans where you stand on this matter. Some of the court poets hanging on the laurels of your good record in the ODM are currently facing charges of corruption in court. Some of them were apologists of a regime that was corrupt to the core and they participated in the economic ruin of this country. They even defended a corrupt regime which put you in detention. Others are “paper millionaires” who were unknown before the infamous 1992 elections when the former regime printed money and proceeded to rig the general elections. You know these characters very well and their record in the fight for social justice is extremely poor. They are opportunists who a riding on your back. These people do not deserve to compete with you for the ODM presidential ticket. You don’t need these characters on your side at all. They represent the worst kind of politicians this country has ever had. I get very worried whenever I see you in public forum with them. You will earn a lot of points the day you will make a statement dissociating yourself with land grabbers, past transgressors of human rights, corruption suspects and apologist of the former regime who are now in the ODM and riding on your back. If these are the people you must deal with to get the leadership of this country, then our country is doomed. They will frustrate your efforts to apply the law uniformly and force you to cut deals to cushion themselves against prosecution. My greatest fear is that one of these days you may just declare one of them “tosha”. You should equally not receive in your ranks any of the characters serving in this government who have been associated with corruption and abuse of the basic rights of Kenyans.

Political parties and Tribalism

The cancer of negative ethnicity is a threat to the very foundation of our society. Whereas the common folk in this country live, go to school, worship, work and suffer poverty together, the political elite have always used and manipulated them on the basis of ethnic affiliation. The situation will not change easily because we do not have a critical mass of political elites who can rise above their tribal cocoons in the competition for power. Almost every political party in this country is organised around a tribal chieftain and has its “owners”. Each tribal chief is supposed to represent the interests of his community in the party. This was the cause of the break - up of NARC. The Summit was nothing more but a Council of tribal chieftains. The situation has not changed and the new parties, ODM included have fallen into the same trap. There is an argument that ODM represents everybody because each province has a presidential candidate. This school of thought is myopic and a political canard. A political party that employs ethnicity as is its basis for political mobilisation is doomed to fail in the long run. Any party without a structure that is well defined cannot survive personal political interest driven by the greed for power. The acid test for these parties will come when they conduct their elections and or nominations for their flag bearers. NARC, ODM- Kenya and Narc- Kenya do not appear to be any close to holding elections. At one point you headed a party known as NDP, it never held elections. More recently you were associated with the LDP. It is yet to hold national elections following its grassroots elections which were riddled with complaints in many branches. It would be prudent and instructive for the ODM and other parties seeking national leadership to register members and hold party elections before conducting nominations for presidential candidates. All talk about party unity before such elections is nothing but hot air. A good political party should be defined by its structures and leadership but not by the supposed tribal backing identifiable only by the personality and number of tribal chieftains who promote it. You owe it to Kenyans, Hon. Odinga to ensure that the ODM holds its elections before the search for a presidential candidate. Some of the leading lights in your party, ODM, have also argued that the party should only conduct its primaries in the constituencies which voted “NO” during the ill fated referendum to the exception of a close to 80 (eighty) constituencies where the vote was “YES”. This is the greatest political absurdity I have heard in our recent history and I am deeply concerned that you have not condemned it. The 47% or 2.6 million who voted “YES” are Kenyans and have an inalienable right to determine the destiny of this country. Members and supporters of your party who are advancing such absurd, isolationist and divisive politics are not assets to your presidential bid. It is also a political fallacy to assume that all the people who voted “NO” during the referendum did automatically become supporters of the ODM. Those in the ODM who are still riding on the euphoria of the referendum vote should go for a walk around the country and take a reality check. The referendum was about two choices, “YES”, or “NO”. There were no political parties, candidates and emotions that characterise a general election. I did not support the Wako draft but I will reserve my reasons on that for another day. Soon after the results of the referendum were out, you, Hon. Eng. Raila Odinga used some very choice words to describe and deride those who had voted “YES”. You described the entire Mount Kenya populace as “adui” (enemies). I will bid my time with the hope that one day you will elaborate or withdraw that unfortunate statement you made at Uhuru park during the rally to celebrate the win by the “NO” supporters. That statement will always cast a long ominous shadow in your political career.

Security

Insecurity is a serious problem in this country. The rampant corruption across all the ranks of the Kenya Police is the greatest cause of this state of affairs. The lethargy, incompetence and corruption in the judiciary have increased the problem two- fold. The political class has not helped the situation either. Why? They form and use political militias during electoral campaigns. It is a good example of the rich and the affluent taking advantage of the children of the poor. Your recent comments on matters touching on security are of major concern here. Hon. Odinga, you desire to be the president of this Republic and to be more precise to assume the position of the Commander-in-Chief of the all the Armed Forces of the Republic. I will tell you out of experience that the worst thing that can befall a country is a situation where officers, men and women who serve in the uniformed forces stop believing in their Commander-in-Chief. States enjoy the privilege and power of the monopoly of violence. They and their agents have the legal mandate to procure, bear and use articles of war, arms and other tools of violence. That is why they have a cardinal responsibility to protect the lives and property of their citizens. Members of the disciplined forces are trained to obey, follow and believe in their superiors. This is the very basis of regiment and command and it entertains no doubts and vacuum in leadership. Why is this important for you mheshimiwa? In the course of this year the Kenya Police has issued a number of statements to deny some reports you have made regarding your personal security and that of the state. The media has also for a long time depicted you as a violent person. This is not good for you and our country. Since you have declared your interest for the position of the president and commander-in-chief, you should at all costs avoid making inflammatory statements and creating an impression in the rank and file of the Kenya Police and other uniformed forces that you are not a person to be believed or taken seriously. In the same vein I would like to urge you to ignore the former mungiki leader who has declared interest in the Langatta parliamentary seat. That fellow is not worth your while. He should not detract you from much more important issues. You give him and his sponsors a lot of mileage when you engage in argument with him. Do not give him that privilege. You should urge your supporters to ignore him and let him have as many rallies as he wishes. Ignoring him will vex his sponsors because whenever you engage him, you fall right into their trap. I cannot even put his name here because he does not deserve it. I want to urge you to take exercise caution while commenting on matters regarding your personal security and that of the state. Desist from issuing unsubstantiated claims regarding security matters because this only serves the media who get another sensational story to sell. The media are not your friends in this regard. They sell by blowing your comments out of proportion and depicting you as a violent person. You are an important person in this country and the things you will say and do starting from January 2007 to the time for the next general elections could greatly affect the safety of the ordinary people and the future of our motherland.


Infrastructure

The state of our infrastructure is the best testimony of the high cost of corruption. There is not a single road in the entire country which does not need repairs or rehabilitation. Hon. Odinga, you have travelled a lot. Why do we have the worst roads in the region? I want to confess that I hold the engineering profession in Kenya in the highest possible contempt. The contempt increases any time I travel around East and Central Africa. Roads that are riddled with pot holes are the norm in Kenya but are the exception all the way from Dar es Salaam, through Kampala, Kigali to Bujumbura. The topography, rock formations and the soils in the region are similar yet Kenya has the worst of the tarred roads. There are professionals, engineers for that matter who check and do quality control of the works. They also approve standards and quality before the roads are commissioned yet most of them wear off even before 6 months are over! If they carried out an audit into the cost of all accidents, breakages, delays and material damage caused by the poor workmanship in our road network and other civil works, engineers would appreciate the loss they cause our country. Many ordinary Kenyans now question the quality of training given to engineering graduates from local universities. There are many people in the urban centres who live in fear that their houses could collapse at any moment yet some engineer approved and certified the works. The profession does not seem to have any ethics and standards in this country. You made good effort in dealing with cow-boy contactors but you need to give a clear message on what you intend to do about the engineering profession in Kenya. Since you were trained elsewhere (in Germany), you stand a good chance of suggesting radical reforms in the engineering profession. In Rwanda, a former Minister for Public Works and all the top engineers who were involved in a scandal involving a major road in Kigali City are now in detention. Would support such a move in Kenya?

Social Services

Your views on education, health, water and housing are not very clear. The current government is riding high on education but they are no there yet. They have a fair score on healthy and a poor grade in housing. What are you going to do differently as far as education and health are concerned? Do you have new ideas substantially different from what we have at the moment? You represent an area with the most humble dwellings in the African continent. The squatter problem in Kibera is as a result of bad land policies which we have pursued since independence. What do you intend to do about it? Is land redistribution and addressing the historical injustices meted to our people by the colonial state part of your agenda? The ODM has in its ranks people who own extensive swathes of land all over the country. They cringe every time the issue of taxing or redistributing idle land is mentioned. I think you should start there and ask them to come clean on this matter. Water resources are becoming scarce with each new day and competition for land and water rights have been a source of communal conflict in the recent past. Kenya is not utilising its water bodies yet the bigger part of the country is semi arid and marginal. I would like to hear your views on the Nile Agreement and National Water and irrigation Policy.

Conclusion

I have addressed these issues to you because you have declared your interest to lead Kenya. I consider your bid to be the CEO of this country a serious one. ODM has so far the highest number of candidates who are seeking the presidency of this country. Some have no track record of their own and others are currently under probe for corruption or facing charges in court. They are not reformists or crusaders for social causes. Some are apologists of past dictatorship. Alone, they are colourless, rudderless and have nominal influence in the country. Your track record in the fight for democracy, social justice and basic freedoms speaks for itself. You stand shoulders above all your competitors in the ODM. Honestly, some of your competitors are not genuine and you don’t need them at all. They need you more. Do not fall into the trap of keeping them in your ranks just to give an appearance that your party has a wide ethnic base. Go for party elections and separate the wheat from the chaff. This will give you the right team from every province and keep away opportunists and pretenders. In 2002 you displayed selflessness by declaring “Kibaki Tosha”. This time around I would expect the pretenders to reciprocate the gesture and declare you “tosha”. This is your moment Hon. Odinga, not theirs. You have set the tempo and you deserve to be the soloist. I wish you success in your quest for the presidency.


Capt. (Rtd) Collins Wanderi Munyiri, LL.B (Hons), PGD (HRM), Nbi, Dip. Law, KSL, CPS (K), ACFE Advocate, Commissioner for Oaths, Notary Public.NAIROBI.KENYA.