The government is playing the Russian roulette with the IDPs. Since 2008 the government has failed to come up with a clear concise resettlement plan for the IDPs. There were very informed ideas that were being suggested after the unfortunate violence of 2007-08 but which the government never took into account. Now all its efforts have come to not. Although I sympathise with the IDPs I also empathise with those who are opposed to them being resettled in their midst.
First as in case of all emergencies the need to provide a roof for the victims overshadows anything else. After establishment of refugee camps the government should have established a resettlement department with clear mandate of finding a long term solution. Money should have been availed to build proper houses in the camps. After providing decent houses the department would then be free from pressure to resettle quickly the IDPs.
The department first mandate should have been to establish a register of peoples, land and properties (both destroyed and undestroyed). Thereafter a field survey to identify and secure such properties should have commenced. Hand in hand a consultation period should have been set. This should have brought all stakeholders in a round table.
Interested groups would be able to present their views. Afterwards decisions would be arrived at whether to resettle these victims back into their original land, buy the land off them, encourage them to build in one secure area and farm in the rest etc.
What we are currently seeing is a one tribe affair that is generating hatred and bitterness (before you curse me I know majority of victims were Kikuyus but we need a settlement plan for all victims regardless of tribe). The kind of leaders like Wa Murugi (minister in charge of resettlement) will only make these victims more vulnerable to future attacks and deaths. All her efforts will end in tears and more sorrow.
Kenyan divisive society continues not to invest in peaceful resolutions but more on more discordant and frictional policies. All stakeholders i.e. the government, new settlers and indigenous inhabitants must come to terms before any new settlements are established.
Last but not least the post-election displacement of 1000’s should have become a blue print of solving our land tenure system. The government should have used this chance to encourage victims to form farming cooperatives where land is group owned and farmed communally. This would ensure no more sub division of land as this practice has led to a starvation cycle even in places where food used to be abundant. The government too seems stuck in this outdated peasant practice. Or else how does it justify buying a 2000 acre piece of land in Mau and trying to subdivide it into 2.5 acre pieces.
The government is playing the Russian roulette with the IDPs. Since 2008 the government has failed to come up with a clear concise resettlement plan for the IDPs. There were very informed ideas that were being suggested after the unfortunate violence of 2007-08 but which the government never took into account. Now all its efforts have come to not. Although I sympathise with the IDPs I also empathise with those who are opposed to them being resettled in their midst.
First as in case of all emergencies the need to provide a roof for the victims overshadows anything else. After establishment of refugee camps the government should have established a resettlement department with clear mandate of finding a long term solution. Money should have been availed to build proper houses in the camps. After providing decent houses the department would then be free from pressure to resettle quickly the IDPs.
The department first mandate should have been to establish a register of peoples, land and properties (both destroyed and undestroyed). Thereafter a field survey to identify and secure such properties should have commenced. Hand in hand a consultation period should have been set. This should have brought all stakeholders in a round table.
Interested groups would be able to present their views. Afterwards decisions would be arrived at whether to resettle these victims back into their original land, buy the land off them, encourage them to build in one secure area and farm in the rest etc.
What we are currently seeing is a one tribe affair that is generating hatred and bitterness (before you curse me I know majority of victims were Kikuyus but we need a settlement plan for all victims regardless of tribe). The kind of leaders like Wa Murugi (minister in charge of resettlement) will only make these victims more vulnerable to future attacks and deaths. All her efforts will end in tears and more sorrow.
Kenyan divisive society continues not to invest in peaceful resolutions but more on more discordant and frictional policies. All stakeholders i.e. the government, new settlers and indigenous inhabitants must come to terms before any new settlements are established.
Last but not least the post-election displacement of 1000’s should have become a blue print of solving our land tenure system. The government should have used this chance to encourage victims to form farming cooperatives where land is group owned and farmed communally. This would ensure no more sub division of land as this practice has led to a starvation cycle even in places where food used to be abundant. The government too seems stuck in this outdated peasant practice. Or else how does it justify buying a 2000 acre piece of land in Mau and trying to subdivide it into 2.5 acre pieces.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Mourning the Oscar Foundation martyrs
The deaths of Oscar Foundation grassroot mobilizers brings to the fore the sad state our country is in!
Kenyans seem to underrate the situation we are in. Most witnesses of failed states have noted the advanced stage
Going back to today’s topic, Kenyans have failed to address the genesis of the problem we are facing.Mungiki without justifying their existence have raised fundamental issues which must be addressed. Their methods sometimes have been barbaric to say the least but that does not illegitimize their demands.
Oscar foundation has been at the forefront in trying to create a forum for those who have no platform. In a more civil way they had asked the same issues raised by Mungiki.If I was to turn myself to the devil’s advocate just like the Oscar foundation may I ask what’s wrong with organising Mungiki widows to demonstrate against the killings of their husbands? Don’t we pride ourselves as a democratic society? What options are left for these people if they cannot be allowed to vent their anger in public?
The many topics Oscar foundation raised touch the centre of our failures. By so doing he challenged the status quo.The powers that be felt it was just a matter of time before Kingara and GPO become a force within the poor masses. Their dining with the Mungiki gave them the chance to finish them once and for all.
Mutua without echoing Raila must eat the apple pie.Okondo did the same in 1990.GPO and Kingara’s deaths remind us of Muge’s road accident!
In today's nation Jecinta Mwatela is asking the Kenyan women "where do we go from here?"The same question seems to trouble my mind.What do we do?How can we stop the decay that is our country today?How do we change the many Kenyans who have grown up thinking their tribe,eating their tribe,sleeping their tribe etc.How can Kenyans debate a national issue without protecting their tribal interests?
These and other pressing issues must be dealt with so to have a common ground for our struggle.
Friday, 16 January 2009
Kibaki,Raila and Kalonzo people's enemy No 1
Only a people's led revolution can save Kenya from the political demagogues we have in the name of Kenyan politicians.
The People's parliament is a good way of bring people together irrespective of their tribes. It fills the vacuum left by a failed leadership. Given time it can offer an alternative leadership with a clear and concise solution to the many problems our population face.
Kibaki, Raila and Kalonzo are a waste of space. People should start to look for a solution past them. When you look at their political parties there is non with an economic blueprint to the way forward. Although they pride themselves having brainpowers within their ranks it pains me when I look at the economics they pursue.
A country that fails to empower its masses cannot break the cycle of poverty. Our people must be offered solutions to the crises facing them.
Shockingly no single political party in Kenya today seems to have a solution to the problems that face us.
The People's parliament is a good way of bring people together irrespective of their tribes. It fills the vacuum left by a failed leadership. Given time it can offer an alternative leadership with a clear and concise solution to the many problems our population face.
Kibaki, Raila and Kalonzo are a waste of space. People should start to look for a solution past them. When you look at their political parties there is non with an economic blueprint to the way forward. Although they pride themselves having brainpowers within their ranks it pains me when I look at the economics they pursue.
A country that fails to empower its masses cannot break the cycle of poverty. Our people must be offered solutions to the crises facing them.
Shockingly no single political party in Kenya today seems to have a solution to the problems that face us.
Monday, 12 January 2009
I keep on saying we need public executions the “China way”
We are just dreamers if we believe our jails will teach our corrupt lot anything. Our courts have been conduits for corruption. Our politicians are the source of our divisions. 95% of us outside Kenya have been turned to a welfare agency to subsidize for our government’s negligence and failures in provision of basic services to our people.
The system our country clinches on is rotten and today the world is on the verge of economic Armageddon for believing that unchecked capitalism is the panacea of the world’s malady.
In a country like ours and Africa as a whole we must be prepared to make a break from the past. Only “informed revolution” will save us from the kind of life most of our people find themselves in. The kind of politics that cut across the plains and valleys of our land can only equal poison being administered to a starving body!
Our youths have agreed to eat from the crumbs of the corrupt lot. The educated and especially those living abroad are just as guilt. They live and dream wealth. To them the end justifies the means. They care less when their brothers back home have no fees for their children. They see nothing wrong when they can educate their children in private schools while majority of their nieces and nephews attend makeshifts schools. Or else how will they displace their new found status?
As no night is too long not to see daybreak believe you me a day is coming when the slum dwellers, squatters, poor farmers and pastoralists will say enough is enough. As being witnessed in parts of Central province, Rift Valley, western, Nyanza and mostly Nairobi slums we are headed for a bloody revolution unless those with brains and human feelings join hands to manage the changes. The gang culture taking root in our society is a social phenomenon reflecting dissatisfaction within the society.
To let criminal politicians hijack this change is to abdicate our role as citizens. We must be prepared to sacrifice for the common good. Kenyans wealth belongs to all Kenyans wherever they are.
A system that will redistribute the little we have and ensure each child has enough to eat is the only acceptable solution to some of us. The current system that each day fails to punish the economic saboteur cannot be allowed to continue.
Therefore we advocate for a Chinese-like penal code. We want to see blood of those economic suckers. This is the only language they might understand!
We must engage the youth to become part of this change. Just like Gaza the youth must rise and fight for justice irrespective of the price they and families must have to pay. It will be in their interest to liberate themselves from the shackles of those who want to reap where they never plant.
We are just dreamers if we believe our jails will teach our corrupt lot anything. Our courts have been conduits for corruption. Our politicians are the source of our divisions. 95% of us outside Kenya have been turned to a welfare agency to subsidize for our government’s negligence and failures in provision of basic services to our people.
The system our country clinches on is rotten and today the world is on the verge of economic Armageddon for believing that unchecked capitalism is the panacea of the world’s malady.
In a country like ours and Africa as a whole we must be prepared to make a break from the past. Only “informed revolution” will save us from the kind of life most of our people find themselves in. The kind of politics that cut across the plains and valleys of our land can only equal poison being administered to a starving body!
Our youths have agreed to eat from the crumbs of the corrupt lot. The educated and especially those living abroad are just as guilt. They live and dream wealth. To them the end justifies the means. They care less when their brothers back home have no fees for their children. They see nothing wrong when they can educate their children in private schools while majority of their nieces and nephews attend makeshifts schools. Or else how will they displace their new found status?
As no night is too long not to see daybreak believe you me a day is coming when the slum dwellers, squatters, poor farmers and pastoralists will say enough is enough. As being witnessed in parts of Central province, Rift Valley, western, Nyanza and mostly Nairobi slums we are headed for a bloody revolution unless those with brains and human feelings join hands to manage the changes. The gang culture taking root in our society is a social phenomenon reflecting dissatisfaction within the society.
To let criminal politicians hijack this change is to abdicate our role as citizens. We must be prepared to sacrifice for the common good. Kenyans wealth belongs to all Kenyans wherever they are.
A system that will redistribute the little we have and ensure each child has enough to eat is the only acceptable solution to some of us. The current system that each day fails to punish the economic saboteur cannot be allowed to continue.
Therefore we advocate for a Chinese-like penal code. We want to see blood of those economic suckers. This is the only language they might understand!
We must engage the youth to become part of this change. Just like Gaza the youth must rise and fight for justice irrespective of the price they and families must have to pay. It will be in their interest to liberate themselves from the shackles of those who want to reap where they never plant.
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