KENYA STORIES......Siasa za wiki...
Do as I say, but not as I do seems to be Maina Kiai’s stock-in-trade. He has jarred our ears lately with a crusade for pay cuts for public servants who earn astronomical salaries — more than Sh400,000 a month. When a gathering took him to task recently, he confessed he earns ‘about Sh500,000’. Have the Sh100,000 extra slashed as from this month and then we can try and begin to take you seriously, Mr Kenya's Human Rights!
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Remaining with Maina Kiai. He’s the brain behind Mopa, a movement that wants parliamentary and presidential aspirants to sign an agreement to fulfil certain demands. One of them is declaration of wealth. Good. But what’s new about wealth declaration? Public servants already declare their wealth though not in public. All you need is to seek a High Court order and voila, you get the details. So, there’s little need for much ado about nothing on this.
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Welcome to His Future Excellency President Najib Balala’s tenure as Kenya’s chief executive where education will be free all the way from kindergarten as will be health. But His Future Excellency won’t stop there — he will ensure perpetual regeneration and refinement to suit the social, economic and technological changes. What?!
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Over the years, politicians have perfected the art of imagery. Remember William ole Ntimama’s 1990s’ ‘lie low like an envelope’ and Raila Odinga’s donkeys and horses? Now, Moses Wetangula adds his own gem. He describes a fellow Bungoma politician as an ox for hire, busy ploughing a stranger’s farm. By the time the ox is through, the planting season will be over and the animal weak, emaciated and overused. Guess who?
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A dictator is tolerated on only one condition: Your country is an oil producer. Ask Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. This is a credential Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe doesn’t have.
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And finally …
When Uganda's Yoweri Museveni’s goons stormed the courts, judges and lawyers made withdrew their services. When the Pakistani Chief Justice was suspended, seven judges resigned and lawyers, in legal garb, and ran riot in the streets, stoning the police. But when our Kenyan judges have gripes, they organise Open Days!
