रेला वेर्सुस थे मुस्लिम्स MOU

RAILA SHOULD HONOR HIS MOU WITH MUSLIMS

In 2007, Raila, then the leading opposition leader and now the second prime minister of the republic of Kenya, signed the controversial Memorandum of Understanding with the Muslim community. Through NAMLEF, the Muslims unanimously agreed to support Raila�s bid for presidency and in return they expected a lasting solution to some of their long standing grievances on human rights and justice.
Despite the fierce criticism and negative publicity that the pact drew, the Muslims community stood their ground openly and massively supported the Orange Democratic Movement.
They were dissatisfied with Kibaki�s Administration which they alleged was but not limited to collaborating with Ethiopian forces, Somali transitional government and the United States of America in violating the rights of innocent citizens in pretext of fighting terrorism. A report released then by The Muslim Human Rights Forum, dubbed the �Horn of Terror� had indicated instances of torture of suspects and holding of Kenyan citizen in foreign lands, with one Abdulmalik Mohammed, a citizen of Kenya being held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
Initiatives and pleas by the Muslim community at that time to President Kibaki had fallen on deaf ears. Thus in supporting Raila, they were simply expressing their desire for change, end of torture and comprehensive address to their grievances. Though Raila never �won� the elections he shares the government with Kibaki on 50:50 agreements.
Today, nobody knows what happened of the agreement. Just it was made public during its signing, so should its implementation or failure to implementation be made public. It is unfortunate that unlike other Kenyans, the Muslim Community had to enter into agreement or even a plea to have their rights upheld and their grievances heard.

Indeed, it should not be a favor. Muslims like any other Kenyans deserve a better life, respect to their rights and religion. They ought not to be classified, vilified or even be looked down upon by any one on the basis of their religion. This country is a secular nation and every one has a right, deep rooted in the Kenyan Constitution, which parliament pledge to protect that every one has freedom of worship and choice of religion.
Little, if any has been implemented out of NAMLEF �ODM truce and even though one year has passed, Muslims have not gotten their full share of cake. While the nomination to parliament of the Sheikh by ODM was a good gesture more has to be done. Muslims will appreciate justice over token of inclusion.
Hon. Raila understands best the pains of unimplemented MOU. After the 2002 election, Raila was a primary victim of a turncoat memorandum of understanding between him and President Kibaki. The aftermath of this failed understanding almost torn apart this nation into irreparable pieces. It divided the nation vertically in tribes and it had something to do with actions that we saw at the end of 2007 general elections. It is a mere desire that Kenyans get to know how their leaders take their own promises and own word seriously.
As a nation, we need leaders who will remember what they say, implement what they promise and understand the desire and dreams of the people they lead.
The recent attacks and human rights violation of the security forces to the warring residents of Mandera, the reports of police brutality and suppression at the coast in pursuit of terror suspects and the overwhelming historical injustices on the Muslim community need an urgent attention.
It is therefore prudent that Raila honors his pact with the Muslims Community. The greatest test for the Prime Minister is whether he will be able to act the messiah we have always thought him to be. We, pray that he would not bring his voice too late, as he did with the Media gagging bill. My advice to him is that he ought to remember the saying that goes �a stitch in time saves nine.� And that his good intentions must be accompanied with great actions.

Yours faithfully
Signed
OULU GPO
P.O Box 4598-00200
Nairobi
0722214869
oulugpo@yahoo.com

NO WE CAN’T

NO WE CAN’T
This Piece I did it to all the Kenyans and the Kenyan youth who were Celebrating the President Elect of United States, Sen. Barrack Obama’s Victory. It was a reminder that we can not conduct business as usual and expect different results. The piece borrows and negates Obama’s line “Yes we can” and lay bare how Kenyan youth need an urgent change in thoughts and action to bear the audacity to Utter Obama’s words. ( Dated 5/11/2008)

This is to all Kenyans youth.

Today marks a historical moment in man’s existence. The victory of Barrack Obama in the USA polls has proved to us that never before, have we as a people dedicated our lives and pursuit on anything and went unsuccessful. That when we are determined we will succeed. That positive thinking alone will not take us there unless we spice it up with enthusiasm.

But this very day is of no importance, if the Kenyan youth will not go beyond the limits of celebration. We are almost forgetting the moment, and head back to our usual places of comfort. Yet we want the world to believe that “Yes. We Can! “ . I say no, unless we change right now, right here we remain “No. We can’t”.

Today we are silent like graves, quite like tombs on Waki’s report.
Today we have allowed Raila and Kibaki combined to take us for a ride
Today we have allowed our government to kill and maim her people in Mandera.
Today we watch us Ministry of health services officials feasts on our Ksh. 13 billions
Today we are forgetting to ask who Mobiltelea was.
Today we refuse to remember the NSSF saga.
Today we don’t know who the Artur brothers were.
Today we are not interested in constitution anymore
Today we are not keen on Grand Regency
Today we don’t care about who killed Pinto, Mboya and JM
Today we don’t want to know who killed over 500 young people in Ngong Forest, Mt
Elgon and many parts of this country; we refuse to condemn the police brutality.
Today we don’t care to ask why Kenyans are squatters in their own land
Today we are accepting the fact that Ndung’u report on land still lies unimplemented.

This is why I believe that unless I see more from you and me, you are wasting your time by celebrating Obama’s victory. No. We can’t. He did not just wish or celebrate others victory, he pursued it; dedicated and willing to go as far as he believed he may go. Have you ever asked yourselves why Mungiki make sense to young people? It is because it identifies itself with a common man. It makes sense to the youth. It knows what it wants, and it would be willing to go for it no matter what. It pays all prices to get wherever it wants to be. Mungiki never rest, they never despair. This is the kind of determination we need. Young people can borrow the determination and say’ to hell’ to tokens from this government and organize themselves and say we want it now. Yes this way change may come our way.
This country problem is leadership. From the residence of the president to palatial homes of our ministers, from the comfort zones of our MPs to the corners of civil servants and religious men, we remain led by blind, selfish and rotten leaders. Most of them have blood on their hands, some corrupt, others just sleep and for some is just to grab. What a shame! And you as a young person, you are silent and hoping things to change. Then you cheat yourself with Obama’s Slogan that yes you can. No. You Can’t.
Obama has won. He has sent me and you to a soul search mission among ourselves, to believe that we can, and to act as we can. This calls for us to find one another and organize ourselves. Young people you can’t afford to sit down there. Wishes will take you no where.
Let us agree that on this and that day, that on this and that place, we will meet and start a campaign of joining the Obama “ movement” that will declare that we must “CAN” before the year 2012.
Let us say that we will not go anymore to Uhuru Park to clap for these political thugs who have brainwashed us for years and years.
We must rise fast and draw our charter of operation. We don’t need so academic wording; all we need is the power to mobilize our communities and let them know that our war in 2012 will be generational. That the old if they wish, will elect their fellow old and selfish lot but for us we are going for nothing less than our fellow youth.
That is the spirit. Obama is not a president for Africa, not even America. He is a worldwide movement that we must embrace to make a new world order possible. If we fail to take this root, then we may as well go to hell if not Hague.
I hope someone will hear me. As for me I remain

Yours Trully Ever Ready

OULU GPO

This Piece was done and dedicated for the Youth of Kenya. Those who attended the National Youth Convention and made clear Resolution on where they would like to see Kenya ( Dated 3-11-2008)

Dear Heroes and Patriots of this great nation.
I hope this mail finds you well.
I call you heroes and patriots because I believe in the strength that lies in us. I believe in the wisdom and courage that we all hold. And I know that this nation can be better and will be better at any moment that we decide to make it so. We have spoken at times when many fear to do so. We have offered hope to this nation when the old hyenas are busy tearing it apart. In our great numbers we have defended the independence of this nation; in most times, armed with nothing beyond our bare chest. We have paid the ultimate price, to the extent of exchange with our own lives. That is the courage that has kept this nation moving; the courage that dwells in our voice when we speak and our actions when we act.
I have been keen on the opinions and comments that are being made since the launch of Waki Report. The political class as usual has made itself busy, making false statements with no directions, opening their mouth without caution; practicing their usual culture of impunity. And we have yet allowed it to happen under our watch. What a shame!
Raila and Kibaki have failed this nation. I may forgive Kibaki because I gave up on him several years ago when he failed to curb Anglo-leasing, failed to give us a new constitution, and failed to appreciate our democracy through clean election and respect of the power of our vote. But am shocked with Raila. Is this what small power can do by making him to forget so soon of the wishes of Kenyans?
Raila has shown us that he can not take a national stand and is now reduced into prisoner of his political party. His interest has shifted from nation to individual. His focus has changed from justice now to politics 2012. So he has chosen to listen to a gang of some narrow minded MPs who thinks that they control our vote and voice by the virtue of their regional belonging.
So those who were orphaned widowed, raped, hacked to death; the children that were burnt alive, the innocent Kenyans whose heads and torsos formed a human road block along our highway can still not access justice. Burnt houses, bleeding nation and down trodden internally displaced persons are not symbolic enough to silence the interest of our political class. Today, the Collusion Government has shown us that the poor lot can never enjoy justice in this nation. They are shocked and disappointed with Waki, because they believe that he is a liar. They believe that he never did his job well by protecting to protect them most.
And now that the political class have colluded to silence our voice, what do we intend to do? We are known to forget so fast and sometimes not interested in matters that do not concern us as long as we have bread on our tables and a pay cheque at the end of the month. Is this the road we intend to take? I hope not.
The nation is at crossroads, and it needs leadership so urgently like now. In all of us lies a leader. In all of us there is a voice that convinces us that we can do something. There is a voice in you and me and there is a conscience too. We have spoken on the internet, written and read in papers, but now is the time that we must act. We must save our generation and generations to come from the exploits of the political class.

We must strive to ensure that justice is availed to all. And we must stand up to show our leaders that this nation belongs to all of us all. Where are the Pio Gama Pintos’,the Dedan Kimathis’, the Mwalimu Matis’, the JM Kariukis’,Wambui Otienos the Martin Luthers’, the Mahatma Gandhis,’ Patrice Lumumbas,’ the Steve Bikos and the Nelson Mandelas’ among us must stand now for this nation.
We must start a national campaign against the interference on Waki Report by our political class. We must show dedication and will to sacrifice with all our best for this nation to sprout and spring with plenty and abundance of justice.
Waki Report provides us with the best opportunity to make change a reality in our nation. We must corner the deceits and lies of our political class and demand truth, justice and permanent end to the culture of impunity.
I therefore submit this mail to you with a request that if you feel and convinced that you can be that change that can stand and be counted, then get back to me. Let us plan to offer leadership to this nation, by taking a step to push for implementation of Waki Report.
Let us reach as many people as possible. And let us be convinced that when we are right, we have nothing to fear. Wangari Maathai stood up for the trees and land grabbing, so we can stand for the people of this nation.
As young people who attended the Fourth National Youth Convention, I feel that it is a high time we organize ourselves into a force of change and show our leadership through expressing our disappointment with this government by getting involved in Active Non- Violent Activities, protests and engagements.

Let us do it!

From
OULU GPO
+254 722 214 869
www.oulugpo.blogspot.com

WAKI REPORT MAY NOT SURVIVE THE POLITICS OF INTERFERANCE, DENIAL AND DIVERSION

WAKI REPORT MAY NOT SURVIVE THE POLITICS OF INTERFERANCE, DENIAL AND DIVERSION

The greatest threat to Waki report is not where and when it would be implemented. It is not even whether an action will be taken on it or not. The greatest threat is that the people we expect to expedite the implementation of this report seem to be smeared with blood and some of them have their names contained and sealed in that little envelope that Kofi Annan handed to the UN headquarters. A section of our leaders have made statements amounting to denial or indicating that they are ready to face the law. Some have rubbished the report terming it shoddy. And this is exactly what Kenyans should weary about.
Signs are all over that we are not headed for better days ahead. Names of the mentioned are yet to be made available and known to the public, but the uproar that the report has created can tell the extent it is likely to be deformed and distorted by the interested groups. The approach and responses that our leaders have given on this report, falls short of the glory of spirit of nationalism and patriotism and like any other commissions findings, implementation of or acting on Waki report may not see the light of day.
The President is still quite about the report and the Prime minister’s position is still shaky at the face value. But our common fear is that these men who hold the highest position in the governance of this land may not have the sufficient courage to take a nationalist stand and stance. After all Kibaki and Raila are the people whose names and contest brewed and sparked the violence that rocked this nation. And none of them is courageous enough to put this country first without fearing future repercussions on their political career from their tribal, regional or parties support.
Worse still the greatest threat to Waki report lies in the nature and culture of our political class. History has taught us that the political class has creative ways of diverting the attention of Kenyans from the issues of national importance. Today we seem to have forgotten about Kriegler report, the IDP issue, the Grand Regency fraud, the Artur brothers’ saga, and many other more. If this is what to go by, then soon or later, the political class will come up with another agenda that will confuse or divert the attention of this country.
It is now upon Kenyans to decide what kind of the future they want. They will have to take it upon themselves to ensure that justice is done for Waki report grants Kenya an opportunity in which it can bring to a permanent end, the culture of impunity and set free the wheels of justice. It is the bridge that can lead this nation to true reconciliation and restoration of the power and order of rule of law. But to the contrary, if nothing is done now, then we can as well forget about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sad enough, if we opt to bring our tribal lies, selfish interest and political interference on Waki report, we may as well embrace to prepare and be ready for worse impunities and political disturbances in the coming future. That is the kind of test that our country will have to pass in order to reclaim its place in the eyes of the citizen of this nation.
So the question remains; will Waki report survive the turmoil? Time will tell. But Kenyans must remember that no matter how much we may bury our heads in the sand, the pains of those who perished, those who were displaced, and those who burnt alive to death, those orphaned, and those who lives with the scars will remain a permanent wound in the conscience of our minds, life, posterity, and duty bearers.
Justice is demanded now and Kenya urgently requires a leader who will resist and desist from politics of diversion, confusion and denial and move this nation to hope, equality and equity. Kibaki and Raila are you ready for the challenge? That is the question of a common hapless man.


Yours faithfully,
Signed
OULU GPO

P.O Box 4598-00200
Tel 0722 214 869
Nairobi

What Kenya must do to attain the Vision 2030 growth goal

What Kenya must do to attain the Vision 2030 growth goal
Posted Friday, August 15 2008 at 19:04
After launching Vision 2030, many Kenyans have started making it a reality through various initiatives and personal involvement. And analysts are either supporting or criticising the Government’s socio-economic development blueprint.
But what is encouraging is that it has generated interest among almost every Kenyan, and the nation is talking about or taking stock of the much-touted strategy.
But reading through the medium-term plan and the popular version of its policy paper, it is clear that realising the objectives will need the support of all the interested parties and the public in general.
However, Kenya has a negative history, grounded on the culture of impunity that must first be addressed to psyche the entire populace to work together along the slippery road to Vision 2030.
To achieve the vision, Kenya will need to expand its democratic space and guarantee legal fairness for all. Grand corruption must be punished as severely as petty corruption. There should also be a wage policy for a fair rewarding system that will narrow down the gaping income gap.
Historical injustices must be addressed, so must the land issue so that the landless are settled. People who gained from the past disorderly regimes must be willing to own up to their actions and surrender the loot.
Young people must be put in the central knob that will twist open the door of the engine running the vision’s vehicle. Without meaningful involvement of young people the vision is doomed to failure. For as it stands now, a large percentage of youths has been pushed to the periphery of development and condemned to the dustbin of despair and hopelessness.
The political leadership must begin to do what they preach. For instance, it annoys one to hear them condemn the mayhem in secondary schools when they have been the cause of negative modelling of the youth. Politicians must declare their wealth and stop using young people as a shield as they quench their political thirst.
In the past, they have fronted the youth to fight their battles, only to dump them at the table of sharing power and the benefits.
The recommendations of various probe committees instituted by the President and Parliament to address past and present injustices must be enacted. And the Ndung’u land report and the others must be made public to renew our faith in governance and the power of transparency.
We need motivation and inspiration to feel equal and harness our doubts and fears. Kenya is not growing economically as fast as is expected not because the people are lazy. It is the state of disorder that has demoralised them. Kenyans need a natural respect founded on the understanding that any of them is equal to and as important as the other.
OULU GPO, Nairobi.

POST ELECTION VIOLENCE: THE YOUTH ARE VICTIMS OF POLITICAL SHENANIGANS

POST ELECTION VIOLENCE: THE YOUTH ARE VICTIMS OF POLITICAL SHENANIGANS
The politics that has manned the “Amnesty for the youth” debate is getting nasty on a daily basis and the momentum it has gained clearly reveals the nature and the nurture of our political class. One wonders whether both parties from the political divide: PNU and ODM have a genuine concern about these youths or whether their portrayed positions are formed and informed by their respective hidden political mission and vision.
To the extreme, this debate seemed to have posed a brittle fodder for departure and delinquent breakdown of the much touted Grand Coalition. Thanks to the Budget reading, the plane crash that claimed our two law makers, the by- election and the launch of the vision 2030 by the president; for they temporarily shifted the nations focus away from the much heated Amnesty debate.
As it was, it seemed that there had been no genuine concern to push for or against the amnesty for these youths. The initial signs have shown that the political class is concerned at the moment about 2012 more than any other thing. And as much they may deny this, they know well that the fate of those youth and the position they take now upon it may be of benefit or detriment to them come next general election.
The other day, the debate took a literary angle, when the Prime Minister, His Excellency Raila Amolo Odinga wrote an article in the same page with the Constitutional Affairs Minister Hon. Martha Karua in one of our local dailies on the topic of the amnesty for the Youths. Reading both articles, it was crystal clear that the two are actually reading from a different script. The latter took a legal angle, while the former opted to what may be classified under a moral angle. Surprisingly, all the arguments they put forward makes sense to Kenyans but derive a divided support depending on the political ridge upon which you lean.
The truth is that there more to what our eyes can see and ears can hear. Each group seems to be out to impress certain quarters of their communities or core supporters, a ceiling whose limits equates to an act of trade where the medium of exchange in this case remain the very youth whose fate not only hung unknown behind the bars but also thorny beyond entrustment unto the hands and terrain of our judicial system.
Awkwardly, Kenyans on the other hand have been dragged into this debate via a wrong route of perception and worse still drugged to believe that it is the youth who needs the amnesty more than any other person in this country. The gullible citizen have been made to believe that the youth who brought "sorrow" to this nation must be punished and that once this is done we, as a nation would have exercised justice. For those who take this deep debate on this shallow face value should note that this is a serious misgiving that should not blindfold our eyes as a nation. The political class has used such kind of tricks for so long to absolve themselves from all forms of accountabilities. In fact, at minimum, the sole intention of any political class in directing and distorting such contentious national debate is to end up hiding their own role.
The Youth are alleged to have committed a rainbow of crimes including but not limited to rape, destruction of properties, burnings, killings and looting. This clusters them as perpetrators but leaves vacant the names and whereabouts of the real architectures, facilitators, financers, planners and beneficiaries of such crime.
A report by Kenya National Human Rights Commission, A government’s own agency indicates that the violence were planned long time ago even before the Election. An equal report done by The Youth Agenda and named “Who Is Guilty?” launched late last month on Pre- Election violence has equal verdict; that the youth were just but the tail and not the head in the violence. The financiers were the old, those in leadership or a combination of both.
Unconfirmed reports also indicates that young men were being trained for war, in preparedness for the second phase of serious battle, were the Kofi Annan led talks hit a deadlock or fails. Further allegation has it that the young people who caused mayhem in Nakuru and Naivasha were transported there from Nairobi and other parts of the country. If this is what to go by, then it is a common knowledge that these young men were acting on behalf and for the benefit of the big and the mighty.
Rwanda case is a good example, while the people who caused mayhem or perpetrated the crimes against humanity, were hunted and apprehended those who are thought to have planned or financed the genocide are still being sought; a good example is one Felicen Kabuga who is still on the run over the genocide. Our own post election violence in Kenya may not compare to the Rwandan genocide but where are our Kabuga’s? And why are they still free if they are not on the run?
Kenyans need to be told why some of our legislators and prominent persons were issued with a visa ban by some western countries on the cases and at the epic of the Election violence? Could the ban have been related to their role in the violence?
The Amnesty Debate has been squeezed to sound as a favor for the youth but the reality is that those in power today, those sharing the same power and those in PNU and ODM today, deserve the Amnesty more than the youth. And if they are above it, so why not the youth?
The other side of the coin may display the accused youth as someone who need a payback more than the amnesty, deserving a reward and not a condemnation. After all, it can be argued that they protected our national democracy when those who are less interested about it wanted to deform it with impunity. They gave hope to the power of our vote. And they stood firm to say that we cannot lose our democratic gains that we painfully earned as a nation for the greed of the power hungry leaders. The youth and fear of their actions produced the grand coalition and brought the two leaders namely Raila and Kibaki to a serious negotiating table.
Amnesty or no amnesty, the following must prevail: fairness and justice must and should not only be spoken to or applied in favor of the few select or to the detriment of many arrested; The hand of law should not only be long when it comes to the arrest and accountability of the weak and the least and finally we have to learn to rise above our national crises devoid of political inclination.
Yours faithfully

Signed
OULU GPO
P.O Box 4598-00200
NAIROBI

Obama’s victory reflects the power of diversity

Obama’s victory reflects the power of diversity
Published on June 8, 2008, 12:00 am
Barack Obama is the world-man of the moment. His win as Democratic Party nominee has been splashed widely in the world news headlines as the maker of a world history, especially in US.
His victory is being celebrated all over. Indeed he has become more than a Democrat candidate but the world candidate of the year.
He is a true testimony of the Martin Luther King’s dream and a perfect heir of Malcolm X struggle of an American society void of racism.
His primaries campaigns showed that politics need not be marketed by politicians, packaged by pollsters and pundits and that politics can be a moral arena where people come together to find common ground. His candidature has expanded, unified, directed, and inspired the entire world towards the noble mission of identity with the mission to teach the illiterate; to provide jobs for the jobless; and to choose the human race over the nuclear race.
It holds a greater lesson; that we need not to talk tough, wage war on nations and play race or tribal cards on humanity to gain our political aspiration. It shows that we can stand on truth and be different if need be as long as we can do that, based on our inner believe for the common good of all.
We have watched of a good mind fast at work, with steel nerves, guiding his campaign out of the competitive and financially challenging field without appeal to the worst in us. We have seen his toughness and tenacity.
He has set a lasting tower of hope as a testament to the struggles of those who have gone before him; those to come after him; as a tribute to the endurance, the patience, the courage of the world forefathers and mothers especially from the black community; as an assurance that their prayers are being answered, their work, wish and suffering has not been in vain, and, that hope is eternal.
Obama’s win reveals of a leader who acknowledges that a generation may not choose the age or circumstance in which it is born, but through leadership it can choose to make the age in which it is born.
But above all, it shows that this leadership must be that of intangible combination of gifts, the discipline, information, circumstance, courage, timing, will and divine inspiration.
This is the kind of leadership that Obama has offered and believes in to mitigate the misery of America and that of the world.
Obama took into greater consideration that America is not like a blanket; of one piece of unbroken cloth, the same colour, the same texture, and the same size. America, and by extension the world, is more like a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colours, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread – the true picture of the beauty of diversity.
The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled make up the American quilt and so is the world. He has proved that he talked and appealed to all these groups and he stands to be their voice.
So the groups have spoken back, the delegates made their decision and the dice is now cast in favour of the son of African father and American mother. The American society has come forward to reconcile with the world that as much as they have been preaching democracy, a time has come for them to put it into practice. They have spoken and acted in the will and creed of their constitution.
Soon he (Obama) would travel the second tavern of journey — that of ensuring that he takes head on and brings into the rubble the fame and frame of the republican candidate, Senator John McCain.
The world now holds its breath with hope that the end will tally with the beginning. Obama’s candidature will go beyond the nomination but through to election. The wind of change is blowing and if the time has come, so be it. No one will stop this positive menace from clinching the coveted White House prize – that of presidency.
The campaigns were great; full of speeches and wisdom, energy and optimism and the world must learn that change lies in diversity. Time will tell, but the battle ahead is now between those for change and those against it.
The battle of course has surpassed the walls of blacks and whites – it is now at the level of the young and the old.
Oulu GPO,
Nairobi.