Raila Odinga: Actions Of Uhuru Government Point To Return of Repression

[Dr. Job]

Actions Of Uhuru Government Point To Return of Repression

“What began as a disciplinary hearing against an employee of the Judiciary has now matured into a major inter-branch conflict within the government, engulfing the Judiciary, the Presidency and the Legislature, and culminating in the appointment yesterday of a tribunal to look into the suitability of six members of the Judicial Service Commission to continue in office.

The situation has reached here because of a failure of leadership at every point. There was a failure of leadership when the Speaker of the National Assembly allowed the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee to assume jurisdiction over the dispute between the Judicial Service Commission and the former Chief Registrar of the Judiciary despite the fact that this was an internal issue of the Judiciary and, secondly, notwithstanding the fact that the matter was still under deliberation within the JSC.

There was also a failure of leadership when the National Assembly adopted the report of the Legal Affairs Committee calling for a tribunal for the removal of the six members. Better counsel would have led to the search for a more amicable way of dealing with this matter at that point.

The President had a choice to accept the recommendation of the National Assembly for the appointment of a tribunal or to reject the recommendation. He could have used the opportunity presented to him to bring about dialogue among the concerned branches with a view to averting the crisis that we are now experiencing.

However, he has failed to do so and has chosen to appoint a tribunal whose effect would be to dismember the Judiciary and to leave it as an appendage of the Presidency and the Legislature. Again, the failures by the President have been failures in judgement, and in leadership. It is now clear that the President is a willing participant in the scheme to destroy the Judiciary.

The appointment of the tribunal must be viewed in the wider scheme of what is going on in the country at the moment. The National Assembly has already enacted the Kenya Information and Communication Bill, which contains severe limitations on the freedom of the media in Kenya.

Currently, the National Assembly is debating amendments to the Public Benefits Organisations Bill, the passage of which will severely limit funding for civil society organisations, and bring an end to the culture of civic vigilance which is an important source of the freedoms that we enjoy.

Insecurity reigns in the country with the bandits holding free reign in northern Kenya while the promise to institute inquiry into Westgate attack remains just that; a promise.

Viewed together, these three developments lead to the conclusion that the Jubilee Government is determined to bring an end to all autonomous institutions in the country. A pattern of a return to repression is taking shape.

What is being attempted currently is to establish a country of presidential and legislative tyranny, and where no other institution in and out of the government will be allowed a voice. The people of Kenya must wake up to the fact that the new Constitution which they enacted and which they cherish, is now under threat because of the actions of this government.

The choice of members of the tribunal to look into the suitability of the six members of the JSC merits comment. All four have close ties with the ruling party. The inescapable conclusion is that their selection is motivated by a desire to reach a pre-determined outcome.

The proposed tribunal is, therefore, an act of deception, clothed in the formalities of a constitutional process. CORD rejects both the individuals selected and the idea of the tribunal, and calls upon the President to revoke the appointments.

As the country knows, CORD has taken blows in the hands of the Judiciary, whose decision in the presidential election petition we did not agree with but which we still accepted. We did so because we believe in the rule of law, which is now under attack through the actions of the President and the National Assembly.

Our belief in the rule of law brings us to the defence of the Judiciary, even though we do not admire its record. We call upon the Judiciary to remain steadfast in the face of this blatant bullying by the Presidency and the Legislature.

It is not too late to find an amicable resolution to this matter. CORD also calls upon the President to lead in the search for such a resolution of the crisis that he and the National Assembly have created.”

Actions of Uhuru government point to return of repression

 

[Dr. Job]

Interesting editorial by the Daily nation....a Jubilee mouthpiece. Even they think Uhuru is sending worrying signals to the rest of the country...

==========================================================================================

WORRYING SIGNALS FROM THE PRESIDENT

PHOTO | FILE President Uhuru Kenyatta addresses East Africa Legislative Assembly members at the National Assembly in Nairobi on November 26, 2013. NATION MEDIA GROUP

President Uhuru Kenyatta is on record as stressing that he is a firm believer in the rule of law. His assurance that he will fully co-operate with the International Criminal Court, which has indicted him on crimes against humanity charges, has often been cited as proof of this.

However, recent developments tell another story. This is rather unfortunate, as the President must always show a good example to those he leads. He must, therefore, never be associated with actions that would seem to subvert justice.

The launch of the new railway project is a great development, indeed, as it is bound to have a huge impact on the country’s and the region’s development. However, it was the subject of a court case, which has not yet been determined. Just a little delay would have been better than going ahead with the launch and appearing to disobey the law.

Another worrying indication that the President could be going onto the wrong track is his handling of the controversial media Bill. Indeed, he has been praised for rejecting the proposed law and sending it back to Parliament. However, he appears to have endorsed or even enhanced the more punitive proposals the media had pointed out to him.

The President has also gone ahead and appointed a tribunal to investigate the conduct of six members of the Judicial Service Commission, again, apparently overlooking the fact that the matter is in court.

What’s more worrying is that he has kept quiet as a Parliament dominated by his Jubilee coalition strikes at the core of the liberties enjoyed by Kenyans, including seeking control over funding of NGOs.

As the custodian of the supreme law of the land, the President must avoid actions and decisions that are bound to enhance impunity.

Worrying signals from the President - Editorials - nation.co.ke

 

[Dr. Job]

YOU HAVE GAGGED US, JOURNALISTS TELL PRESIDENT

Editors Guild vice-chairman David Ohito (left) and Kenya Correspondents Association chairman Oloo Janak during a past press briefing in Nairobi. PHOTO/FILE

[h=3]In Summary
[/h]

• President Kenyatta has asked Parliament to include in the Bill a provision that would empower the Information and Communications Cabinet Secretary to issue policy guidelines to the Communications Authority, the successor of the Communications Commission of Kenya.
• Critics point out that while President Kenyatta accepts that sections of the Bill are unconstitutional, he does not recommend their deletion, but instead goes ahead to modify the related penalties or to strengthen them.
• The argument from both the media practitioners and the owners has been that the Communications Authority and related tribunals should regulate the use of frequencies and the broadcast spectrum and the Media Council deal with matters of media ethics and professional standards.

You


=======================================================================================

KENYA'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL STIFFLING OF MEDIA FREEDOMS

1. The main task of the first government elected after passage of the new Constitution was to simply implement it.This Kenyatta led Jubilee government is doing the exact opposite – dismantling the popularly endorsed Constitution chapter by chapter!
   
2. Take the media freedoms guaranteed under the new Constitution for instance. While Article 34 of the Constitution mandates the government to keep off media, Kenyatta is discombobulating it word by word and replacing it with clauses entrenching repression and censorship. The government must have no business determining media content – any self regulation (not by government) should only regard ethics and professional standards!
3. In a classic con game, Kenyatta recently deceived the public that he was "changing" the draconian electronic media Bill passed by his Jubilee sycophants in parliament when in fact all he has done is dictate a reworded and still repressive (& unconstitutional) bill back to the same Jubilee-controlled parliament. This conmanship exposes plain presidential dictatorship –which Kenyatta expect to be endorsed by his rubber-stamp parliament.
4. Through an authoritarian power-grab, Kenyatta has arrogated himself (Presidency) the power to punish unfriendly journalists and media houses via a government-controlled tribunal (that he himself appoints). This is not what Kenyans passed in their new Katiba!
5. Himself a media owner, and through blatant conflict-of-interest, Kenyatta has also proposed to also grab the powers to make policy guidelines to the Communications Authority (the replacement of the former Communications Commission of Kenya). This he intends to do via his hand-picked Information and Communications Cabinet Secretary. This proposal will give Kenyatta – a competitor in the broadcast industry – the powers to singularly issue broadcasting licenses and the power to manage use of airwaves. We are essentially allowing the creation of an Imperial Presidency right in front of our eyes – paradoxically under the brand new Constitution!
6. How Kenyatta proposes to "weed out" his competitors and unfriendly media houses is by simply having the power to control who sits in the Communications Authority board and the new media ngoroko (police) called the Communications and Multimedia Tribunal. If the Star Newspaper, for instance, reports something Kenyatta does not like, he would simply have someone complain to the Kenyatta-appointed board, which then forwards the complaint to Kenyatta's tribunal, which then mets out punishment to Star's reporters and the newspaper itself. Fines for individual journalists are in the range of Shs 500,000 while Kenyatta's competitor media houses are to be fined 20 million shillings per "offense". It's as simple as that – plain censorship and authoritarianism.
7. There is also a serious anti-trust business element by the Kenyatta family. Like its dominance in the milk sector, Kenyatta is aiming to use his position as president to monopolize media over his competitors.

​

Dr. Job

 

[Dr. Job]

Standard Digital News - Kenya : Raila: Keep your word on Westgate attack

 

[Jammu Africa]

The President had a choice to accept the recommendation of the National Assembly for the appointment of a tribunal or to reject the recommendation.

Yes,,the president had a choice,,according to the constitution,,,to accept or,,reject the
recommendation by parliament.


So,,he accepted. Which crime did he commit??????????,,,,,,NONE.

He could have used the opportunity presented to him to bring about dialogue among the concerned branches with a view to averting the crisis that we are now experiencing.

The biggest problem with CORD,,,,,is that,,they see crisis everywhere. There is no
crisis,,,,for god sake.:smile-big:

The truth is that the president had a very lengthy discussions with,CJ
Mutunga and speaker Muturi,,,three of them,,,together,,, at statehouse.

Nobody knew what they talked about,,,and after this,, is when,,the president
went for the,,JSC.

 

[Jammu Africa]

YOU HAVE GAGGED US, JOURNALISTS TELL PRESIDENT

Editors Guild vice-chairman David Ohito (left) and Kenya Correspondents Association chairman Oloo Janak during a past press briefing in Nairobi. PHOTO/FILE

In Summary

• President Kenyatta has asked Parliament to include in the Bill a provision that would empower the Information and Communications Cabinet Secretary to issue policy guidelines to the Communications Authority, the successor of the Communications Commission of Kenya.
• Critics point out that while President Kenyatta accepts that sections of the Bill are unconstitutional, he does not recommend their deletion, but instead goes ahead to modify the related penalties or to strengthen them.
• The argument from both the media practitioners and the owners has been that the Communications Authority and related tribunals should regulate the use of frequencies and the broadcast spectrum and the Media Council deal with matters of media ethics and professional standards.

You


=======================================================================================

KENYA'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL STIFFLING OF MEDIA FREEDOMS

1. The main task of the first government elected after passage of the new Constitution was to simply implement it.This Kenyatta led Jubilee government is doing the exact opposite – dismantling the popularly endorsed Constitution chapter by chapter!
   
2. Take the media freedoms guaranteed under the new Constitution for instance. While Article 34 of the Constitution mandates the government to keep off media, Kenyatta is discombobulating it word by word and replacing it with clauses entrenching repression and censorship. The government must have no business determining media content – any self regulation (not by government) should only regard ethics and professional standards!
3. In a classic con game, Kenyatta recently deceived the public that he was "changing" the draconian electronic media Bill passed by his Jubilee sycophants in parliament when in fact all he has done is dictate a reworded and still repressive (& unconstitutional) bill back to the same Jubilee-controlled parliament. This conmanship exposes plain presidential dictatorship –which Kenyatta expect to be endorsed by his rubber-stamp parliament.
4. Through an authoritarian power-grab, Kenyatta has arrogated himself (Presidency) the power to punish unfriendly journalists and media houses via a government-controlled tribunal (that he himself appoints). This is not what Kenyans passed in their new Katiba!
5. Himself a media owner, and through blatant conflict-of-interest, Kenyatta has also proposed to also grab the powers to make policy guidelines to the Communications Authority (the replacement of the former Communications Commission of Kenya). This he intends to do via his hand-picked Information and Communications Cabinet Secretary. This proposal will give Kenyatta – a competitor in the broadcast industry – the powers to singularly issue broadcasting licenses and the power to manage use of airwaves. We are essentially allowing the creation of an Imperial Presidency right in front of our eyes – paradoxically under the brand new Constitution!
6. How Kenyatta proposes to "weed out" his competitors and unfriendly media houses is by simply having the power to control who sits in the Communications Authority board and the new media ngoroko (police) called the Communications and Multimedia Tribunal. If the Star Newspaper, for instance, reports something Kenyatta does not like, he would simply have someone complain to the Kenyatta-appointed board, which then forwards the complaint to Kenyatta's tribunal, which then mets out punishment to Star's reporters and the newspaper itself. Fines for individual journalists are in the range of Shs 500,000 while Kenyatta's competitor media houses are to be fined 20 million shillings per "offense". It's as simple as that – plain censorship and authoritarianism.
7. There is also a serious anti-trust business element by the Kenyatta family. Like its dominance in the milk sector, Kenyatta is aiming to use his position as president to monopolize media over his competitors.

​

Dr. Job

Yes we need freedom of expression,,,freedom of worship,,freedom of the press
but everything has it's own limit.

During Moi's time,,,,we were all,,crying for all these things.

Came the NARC government,,,,,there was freedom for everything and got
beyond the limits during the government of NUSU MKATE.

Where,,,people could even go against the court rulings,,shouting,,haki
yangu,,,,news papers writting all kind of trash without even doing
any research for they were excising,,haki yangu.

In the mornings,,,radio stations were broadcasting,,pure phonography
even not caring that we have many children in this country who
are supposed to be the adults of this country in the future.

All these,,in the name of,,Haki yangu.

Kenyan press has been of its kind,,,ever in this world.

What they do in Kenya,,,, cannot be practiced,, even in the more
advanced societies of this world.

You cannot demand the government of US,,Britain,, Germany
or elsewhere,,to be told,,eti,,how many of their soldiers died,,,as
during the west gate incident where the Kenyan press
wanted to be told the number of Kenyan soldiers who
had,, died.

 

[Jammu Africa]

These radio stations,,TV and press,,are always apologizing,,,,that,,the story
we showed yesterday was not accurate,,,,,yes it is good to do so,,but
the damage has,,already been done.

The standard newspaper carried a story,,,some time ago,,,where Uhuru
Kenyatta was carrying a bag containing 10,000,000, then the story
just went away and we do not know what happened.

We want to be informed but not be misinformed.

They had,,the press,,enough time to regulate themselves but couldn't.

Press is just press and no more than that.

They are not the government,,nobody elected them,,,just bussinessmen and
women making money,,misleading poor Kenyans in the name of,,,Money and
Haki yangu.

What the Kenyan press,,,the Kenyan NGO's do not understand,,,is that,,you cannot
take the jubilee government,,to any hague.

The government will deal you,,if you go against it and the wishes of Kenyans,,and
nobody will do anything about it.

Not Americans,,,not even their small brothers.

Not,,even the so called,,,amnesty international,,for they can bark very loudly
but will never bite.

Better behave while in Kenya,,well,,,, or be punished.

This country will never grow,,if we allow people to behave like little
children.

A free for all,,,,,,,society,,,,where drivers are driving in any direction,,haki yangu????
press writting all kind of trash,,,haki yangu,,,,,,NEVER AGAIN.

Kwani,,why do we have to have a government?????just for the sake of it???????

Wacheni nyinyi.

 

[SHERRIF ARPAIO]

Raila is going to be a big headache for UK for many years to come

 

[Ab-Titchaz]

​

 

[Kabaridi]

Raila is going to be a big headache for UK for many years to come

it is hard to understand where raila's conviction really lies....barely six months ago after loss of the elections he was sinking teeth into the judiciary saying it was never reformed, what changed?

 

[Dhuks]

it is hard to understand where raila's conviction really lies....barely six months ago after loss of the elections he was sinking teeth into the judiciary saying it was never reformed, what changed?

A new advisor, @Dr Job

 

[Dr. Job]

ALREADY IN A HOLE, WHY IS UHURU STILL DIGGING?

Saturday, December 7, 2013 - 00:00 -- BY JOE ADAMA

What does it mean when a key amendment Bill taken to a Parliament that was acting independently, and in defence of its own interests, is defeated in circumstances that also, for the first time, overturn a lock-on-the-House factor like the ‘Tyranny of Numbers’?

Another question: What does it mean when the President, moving at the same Parliament’s prompting, suspends selected members of the Judicial Service Commission, despite an existing court order that the Legislature not infringe on the Judiciary, and a court swiftly sets the Presidential order aside?And not only that, the court actually bars a tribunal appointed by the President to probe the errant JSC members from taking its oath of office preliminary to discharging its terms of reference.

When Parliament shot down the Miscellaneous Amendments Bill 2013’s amendments to the Public Benefits Organizations Act, 2013 (No. 18 of 2013) on Wednesday, there were gasps of surprise on all sides. The ruling Jubilee Coalition of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s TNA a nd Deputy President William Ruto’s URP and affiliated parties had put such a lock on Parliament through the 'tyranny of numbers' factor that Kenyans were beginning to stop expecting any surprises from the floor of the House.

And then, the truly unexpected happened on Wednesday.

But the tyranny of numbers factor was quickly restored in only a matter of hours, at high noon on Thursday, when Parliament passed the President’s Memorandum to the Kenya Information and Communications (KICA) (Amendment) Bill No 19, 2013, in a House with only 140 MPs present. In barely six minutes, with Nairobi Women’s Representative Rachel Shebesh chairing the Committee of the Whole House, the ' Ayes' had it, approving five clauses in the President’s Memorandum (clauses 7, 17, 37, 39, and 41), and thereby passing KICA without amendment.

The anatomy of what has happened to the Presidency in recent days in Parliament, the courts, the multimedia newsrooms (journalists marched in Nairobi in a large protest demo) and inside the civil society sector is eye-opening.

The vote against the NGO Act set a precedent; it signaled it could happen again and happen on a vote that is much more strategic, from Jubilee’s standpoint at the top, than the whole question of reining in the civil society sector. Other governments have successfully, but still controversially, moved draconian legislation in recent times against much bigger civil society sectors than the Kenyan (barely 10,000 NGOs), including India, which has 3.3 million NGOs, and Russia (277,000).

Another Kenyatta, Another Era of Amendments?
The Jubilee government’s failure to move its own version of Russia’s July 2012 Draft Legislation 102766-6, which requires NGOs and other non-profit organizations that receive foreign funding to register as Foreign Agents, was a major blow, but largely self-inflicted.

The second dawning realisation is the discovery on all sides that Jubilee is not a monolith – some members of the Kikuyu frontline side of the ruling alliance actually voted against the amendments to the Public Benefits Organizations Act, 2013, as did some Kalenjin MPs.

The Act sought to bar NGOs from receiving more than 15 per cent of their funding from foreign sources, a proposal which was simply laughed out of the House, beginning with Jubilee hawk and Leader of the Majority Aden Duale , who hails from an arid and semi-arid area, when he declared that he is himself “a good recipient of donor funding”. Duale also announced the throwing out of an amendment that sought to make the Salaries and Remunerations Commission (SRC) a permanent commission.

Also chucked out was an amendment to the National Security Intelligence Service Act that would have empowered the Director General of the NSIS to intercept digital communications without seeking warrants.
General (Rtd) Michael Gichangi must have viewed this major snub very dimly indeed, particularly as the amendment sought to strengthen his hand in other ways. Suffering such a setback in the aftermath of September’s terror attack on the Westgate Mall was a body blow.

The Miscellaneous Amendments Bill 2013 is an omnibus Bill seeking to amendment 49 different Acts in one fell swoop. It would appear, then, that the second President Kenyatta has begun his first term much like his dad half-a-century before him, with a legislative agenda that engineers amendments to the Constitution that alter dozens of laws in one go.

But the PBO Act was an absolute no-brainer – it clearly failed to consider where 85 per cent of NGO funding could possibly be sourced from within Kenya. A placard brandished by a protester in one of many demonstrations against the amendment asked simply, “Who built the toilets in Kibera?”

NGOs ‘know every village, road,field’

The more a neighbourhood or region counts as a hardship area, the handier NGO and other donor interventions prove to be. Not all members of ruling the Jubilee Coalition, even at the very top, come from non-hardship areas. It therefore follows that this coalition cannot possibly be like-minded on a subject as controversial as reigning in NGO activities and micro-managing the sector right down to finances.

Worldwide, NGOs take the slack and go where governments fear to tread, in terms of expertise, capacity and financing, making humanitarian interventions to relieve poverty, conflict and natural calamities, environmental concerns and issues of civil liberties.

In order to deliver, NGOs must be able to reach any part of a country, under any conditions, including the most dire disaster conditions immediately following civil wars and genocides and even major earthquakes and floods, including the immediate aftermath of tsunamis, the largest mega-death single events so far known to humankind.

In a tirade against NGOs portraying the entire sector in Zimbabwe and elsewhere as little more than nests of spies working for Western intelligence, the Sunday Mail of Harare recently exposed its own, and its masters ' deepest fears when it made the following observation: “NGOs are better at facilitating the setting up of local ‘human terrain teams’ based on the dictum: ‘know every village, road, field, population group, tribal leader and ancient governance’ ”.

Why is this remarkable, given that NGOs confront many of the most adverse situations known to humans? According to the Sunday Mail, it is all “in preparation for effective military and other intervention”.
Too many governments, in countries both big and small, fairly advanced and not, including the Jubilee regime at the very top, prefer to view the NGO sector with as jaundiced an eye as the Sunday Mail of Zimbabwe.

Folly of taking media sector head-on

As for the media sector, few nations have as tough a regulatory regime as the most open democracies – the United States and the United Kingdom. In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) polices even community, decency and moral standards, and has imposed record-setting fines over the decades since it was founded in 1934.

The FCC’s enforcers are actually presidential nominees and appointees, but their conduct and interventions have rarely, if ever, been perceived to be politically partisan.

In Britain, as of this writing, a titanic struggle is on between the government of Prime Minister David Cameron and the Guardian newspaper group, concerning its serial exposes based on the vast collection of secret documents that the American National Security Agency whistleblower and self-exile Edward Norton is leaking.

The Kenyan media sector simply won’t hear of a state-managed regulator filled with government nominees, whatever international best-practice elsewhere might be. Memories of the control-freak Kanu era are still too fresh, even at a dozen years’ remove since President Daniel arap Moi’s exit.

The KICA Bill sailed through, yes, but it will now be challenged by a still irate and forthright Media Owners Association, Editors’ Guild, and other stakeholder caucuses. As far as the combined journalism sector is concerned, whichever way it turns, the Presidency must not and indeed can’t, win against the media on this one.
From the point of view of the newsrooms and their boardrooms, it is an existential struggle, and the threat is to a free, diverse and more vibrant media sector.

A few months ago when the President hosted journalists to a breakfast at State House, few could have foreseen the kind of fallout between his now eight-month-old administration and the media. One of the ugliest aspects of the now escalating face-off is the abrupt switch off of analogue broadcasting signals in Nairobi County scheduled for December 13, 2013, five days from now. This is almost as boneheaded a decision as the abortive 15% cap on NGO foreign funding. In a variety of ways, the Government is actually cutting off its nose to spite its own face.

Thursday, December 13, is the day after the 50th Jamhuri Day, the climax of festivities in the capital city that have presumably been in the making for five decades. Thursday has even been declared a public holiday.

All the feel-good factors of the bread-and-circus paradigm known to enlightened rulers since the heyday of the Roman Empire will be squandered by Jubilee as far as millions of Kenyan TV viewers are concerned. Unless one has a set-top box that will cost in the region of KSh5,000 and a monthly subscription of KSh500 you had better fork out the money for a digital TV, something that the vast majority of viewers in Nairobi and its environs, who comprise the largest viewing demographic and advertisers’ target market nationwide, will not have by that date. In any case less than 150,000 of the devices are available.

The Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology, under Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i, has been impervious to all pleas from both broadcasting media houses, and audiences as well as other stakeholders, to postpone the switch-off to a more appropriate time than the 50th Festive season and school holidays since Independence.

If the adversarial and implacable flavor of the face-off over the KICA Act and the insensitive timing of the analogue switch-off are characteristic of relations between the Jubilee regime and the multimedia journalism sector, going forward, then very hard winds will blow in both directions in the course of 2014.

The Big Picture: Image is everything

When Daily Nation columnist Macharia Gaitho wrote early in the week, “Once the independent media is neutralised, ‘evil society’ [civil society] silenced and an independent Judiciary crippled, the stage will be fully set for reincarnation of the Kanu regime clothed in digital colours.

The late President Jomo Kenyatta must be looking on with satisfaction, and President Moi purring with satisfaction. The children of Kanu are in charge”, he mightily upset a whole spectrum of Jubilee supporters.
But he also got them wondering. Whatever their real agenda, President Kenyatta and Deputy President Ruto are certainly not having an easy time of it.

On the evidence of the events of the last fortnight, inside Kenya, their strategy seems to be convoluted in the extreme. Uhuru’s tactic and strategy of bouncing the KICA Bill off a Parliament that clearly cannot possibly muster 233, or two-thirds, of its Members to defeat it, was a move of the deepest cunning but it fooled only a few.
Given their engagements with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the international hullabaloo it has kicked up, both pro and contra, it would seem that the last thing the two leaders should want is a Parliament, Judiciary, civil society and media that are actively ranged against their agenda.

The Presidency is in a hole, but it appears to want to continue digging. Is there method to this seeming illogic? Until the ICC matter is settled definitively and results in the removal and retirement of that particular albatross from around both their necks, President Kenyatta and Deputy President Ruto need a minimum of institutional and democratic fuss within their own borders.

Having such pillars of democracy and good governance as their home Judiciary, media and civil society sectors in indignant and forthright opposition to their administration is a strange way of moving forward.

If anything, what the Kenyan Presidency needs most at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014 is a massive reputational image rebranding – and so does the nation brand called Kenya, both internally and internationally.
This internal seething and turbulence across too many crucial sectors is giving out all the wrong signals externally.





ALREADY IN A HOLE, WHY IS UHURU STILL DIGGING? | The Star

 

[Dr. Job]

it is hard to understand where raila's conviction really lies....barely six months ago after loss of the elections he was sinking teeth into the judiciary saying it was never reformed, what changed?

Your obsession with Raila will hinder you from seeing the bigger picture.

 

[Dr. Job]

Raila is going to be a big headache for UK for many years to come

Uhuru, as advised by his diehard handlers, is trying to precipitate a Constitutional crisis. This strategy is supposed to be his best bet for postponing, or getting deferred, his inevitable date with the ICC since all tricks in his lawyers' bags have been exhausted in pursuit of evading it.

His defiance of court orders, his mindless tightening of screws on the media bill, his party's strained relations with the DP's on matters of their MOU in respect of top public service appointments and the down-grading of the DP's office to just a passive spectator, and a host gof other surreptitious actions unbecoming of a a president who is expected to behave more gentlemanly while heading a coalition government point to this possibility.

He desperately needs the country in turmoil to justify his staying back purportedly to put things back in order.
The strangling of the press, attempts to emasculate the NGOs, the relegation of the senate to be mere flower girls to the parliament where he has tyranny of numbers courtesy of his partner's URP, are also telling.

Dr Job.

 

[SHERRIF ARPAIO]

At least Kenyan politics is not as boring as ours

 

[Kabaridi]

Your obsession with Raila will hinder you from seeing the bigger picture.

I am not obsessed.....i talked of convictions

 

[Dr. Job]

I am not obsessed.....i talked of convictions

You did not 'talk of convictions'...you just said the word 'conviction'. So what convictions does Raila have?