No. 11, January 18, 2010

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Season of insults as media expose the real Kibaki

Months ago, veteran politician John Keen was on “the bench” with Jeff Koinange of K24 TV. He told ‘Capital Talk’ how he founded the Democratic Party of Kenya with one Mwai Kibaki. The two DP chiefs - Kibaki as chairman and Keen as secretary general - were returning from Nakuru one day when Keen asked the big man what he would do about the thieves of the Moi kleptocracy if Kibaki, as party presidential candidate, won the 1992 election. “I will let them go back to their wives and children,” Keen recalled his party leader and close buddy saying. Keen had not hoped Kibaki would order the thieves executed by firing squad at Uhuru Park. He told Jeff that Kibaki’s defining trait is indecisiveness. He could not decide what to do about two fighting rats, or so Keen said.

That tragic indecisiveness was in full display last week, thanks to commendable media coverage of the Mau Forest issue. Kibaki has made all the right noises about restoring the Mau. His recent speeches, portions of which the media recalled last week, are full of good words. But when it came to demonstrating resolve by launching tree planting in the Mau, Kibaki, true to character, couldn’t make up his mind. He ended up as a hostage of 2012 succession politics at the expense of saving Kenya and the region from environmental disaster and literally sat on the fence of the Mau Forest.

A certain Sunday Nation pundit sometimes wastes newspaper space trying to show that inside the breast of the apparently dazed Kibaki lies the heart of a lion; that inside the President’s head is to be found the restless brain of a master tactician working 24/7 for the good of Kenya. That pundit once tried to convince us that Kibaki is a great statesman whose name will be written in gold in the annals of Kenyan history. Puh! What journalists, the writers of the first draft of history, succeeded in bringing out last week was the image of a plutocrat incapable of making up his mind about two fighting rats. In the process he surrendered the handlebars of the state to the stewardship of PM Raila Odinga, who relished every moment of it as he demonstrated his resolve by going to Mau.

The Bulletin sticks its thumbs up for the media for exposing the real Kibaki to Kenyans. Congrats on great coverage of the Mau! That was patriotism.

KTN man let down viewers

Kenya’s ‘most wanted’ public official under President Kibaki’s humdrum regime appeared live on KTN Prime last Tuesday. Chirau Ali Mwakwere, the Transport Minister, sat smug before the cameras. Before answering every question, he would glance sideways at his interviewer with the cold disdain of a colonial DO. No KTN viewer expected Mwakwere to leave the studio alive. Journalists at “Kenya’s independent and authoritative news channel” are supposed to promptly strangle any appallingly inept and casual government official they lay their hands on. If he survives, the official should be so traumatized that he would faint every time he stared into a camera.

Mwakwere’s first words to Michael Oyier’s question about the resumed matatu madness were to clarify – as if that mattered - that he took over from Chris Murungaru and not John Michuki. He then proceeded to say that the problem with the matatu people, no the entire nation, is that Kenyans habitually disregard laws and guidelines issued by the government. His ministry has issued rules for matatu crews, passengers, pedestrians, private motorists, cyclists and motorcyclists. But the problem is not - as Kenyans are fond of complaining – lack of enforcement. That is an excuse for laxity. It is Kenyans who should enforce the transport rules. They should blame themselves whenever things go wrong.

The annoying thing was not so much Mwakwere’s pouring out this sickening hogwash on live TV. Many Kenyans gave up on him a while back. The tragedy was that his interviewer, the extremely refined Michael Oyier who should get a PR job at Kenya Meat Commission or a diplomatic posting to Mogadishu, let him get away with it! Mwakwere arrogantly presumed to redefine government, blaming the victims of his own negligence. The KTN man let him do that.
Mike, why did you let Mwakwere get away with a flimsy excuse for the many Kenyans who have died on the roads, are maimed, overcharged and continue to be hassled by the matatu people, while the Police watch? In which book did you read that it is the responsibility of citizens to implement government laws, policies and regulations? Why do we employ the Police and all other law enforcement agencies, if human beings are so civil they obey laws? Who enforced the ‘Michuki rules’, which for a while reined in the matatu people? Why didn’t you take Mwakwere to task on this? Why did you treat him like the waiter at his favourite joint would the musician in him? Etc?

A journalist should not suck up to a disastrous public official while the matatu people brutalize Kenyans with impunity because he fails the profession and his countrymen and women. A scribe’s job is to question authority in the public interest, to ask the hard questions on behalf of citizens and to speak truth to power. That is our unique contribution to democracy. Please, Mike, why did you squander that chance to strangle Mwakwere? I feel like strangling you.

We abhor attacks on journalists

A journalist was attacked by a politician last week. NTV Managing Editor Linus Kaikai was confronted by Kamkunji MP Simon Mbugua who insulted and threatened him. This is the second time the MP has attacked an NTV journalist. News of the attack on Kaikai came at a time when President Kibaki’s bodyguards have reportedly been harassing journalists at events attended by the Head of State. On January 9, some journalists were barred from covering the President as he attended a funeral service in his Othaya constituency. Cameramen were ejected from Karima Catholic Church where the service was conducted.

Earlier, Elkana Jacob of The Star and Willis Oketch of The Standard were hassled and detained by presidential security during Kibaki’s Christmas/New Year holiday at the Coast. Jacob was accosted by the bodyguards during the New Year party hosted by the First Family in Mombasa. Kibaki and his wife Lucy were about to take to the dance floor to usher in the New Year when security personnel reportedly attacked Jacob. They whisked him out and took away his camera. They held him until the First Couple finished dancing.

On January 5 when the First Couple was leaving Mombasa, presidential guards ordered Police to lock up Standard’s Oketch for over an hour at the airport cells for unspecified reasons.

We call upon the Police to investigate the attack on Kaikai and ensure the law takes its course. An impression should not be created that anybody is above the law. Secondly, while the President’s security is paramount, it can not be used as an excuse to frustrate and illegally detain journalists who are simply doing their job. If President Kibaki’s bodyguards have reason to believe a journalist endangers the safety of the Head of State, why not have him or her arrested and charged in accordance with the law?

And how come these things are going on in the view of Presidential Press Service director Isaya Kabera? Isn’t it his job to advice the President and his handlers and not just take instructions?

Star turned into battlefield

What exactly does Prime Minister Raila Odinga think of Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and vice versa? The answer is in two articles published in The Star on January 9 and 12. The first was written by Miguna Miguna, Raila’s adviser on coalition affairs, and the second by Kaplich Barsito and Pharis Kimaru, the VP’s spokesman and ODM-Kenya’s communications adviser respectively. Because the articles carried the writers’ designations and no disclaimers, we assume the authors spoke for their bosses.

Miguna started it all with a feisty piece that rubbished an axis of “four political minions” led by the VP, whose declared objective is to bring about Kenya’s final revolution. Kalonzo, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Ministers William Ruto and Najib Balala are not revolutionaries of any hue but are “unrepentant Moi orphans” who stood against the second liberation by enlisting as “Moi’s spanner boys,” Miguna charged.

When true revolutionaries fought the one party dictatorship, “the four puppeteers hid under the Big Man’s bed eating crumbs.” And in 1992 “they led a ruthless team of buccaneers that specialized in bone-breaking, voter bribery and intimidation” to keep Moi in power. Now the minions who “hunkered under Moi’s blankets” want to frustrate Raila, “a Kenyan Madiba”, by orchestrating a law that would ban persons over 65 years from contesting the presidency in 2012.

The VP’s aides fired back. Barsito and Kimaru diagnosed Miguna as suffering from “acute intellectual bankruptcy” whose main symptom is his overly paranoid perception of the Kalonzo, Uhuru, Ruto and Balala league. But it is not only Miguna who is unwell. There is a popular belief in Raila’s office that he is “this huge 2012 force that sends shivers among other politicians.”

And then Kalonzo’s men left Miguna for a while to tackle his boss. “Raila is from any perspective a spent force and it is only fitting that when his fellow principal retires the PM, who claims equality with President Kibaki, does the same.” The third liberation is on the way and will not be led by principals. The revolution will be a peaceful one, like those led by Gandhi, Mandela and Jesus Christ. “Revolutionaries are not necessarily those who shout the loudest or those who can mobilize the most stone throwers.”

End of the fight? Not yet. A PNU press statement and advert followed, claiming Miguna Miguna is Canadian. Aha, and we are only in the second week of 2010! We pray the media manages to remain sober throughout the silly season ahead.
By the way, those writers are employees of the same Great Grand Coalition Government.