Document implicates Raila Odinga in chaos

In the past week, I have been busy doing many things and I have not had time to blog as much. I between everything, someone mailed this blog a document that I have found quite interesting. If you have been in Kenya or reading stuff about the country, you probably may have seen some MPs saying Prime Minister Raila Odinga's ODM party had a role in the 2008 violence.

MPs Isaac Ruto and Charles Keter this month said the party's top organ, The Pentagon held several meetings to plan mass protests that resulted in deaths. The two said Odinga should present to the International Criminal Court minutes of the ODM meetings that planned the post-election chaos.

The Pentagon included Raila Odinga, Musalia Mudavadi, William Ruto, Najib Balala, Joe Nyaga and Charity Ngilu, who all serve in the coalition government. Ruto has since been suspended from government over fraud case.

Now, a document claiming to be from the files of ODM has been circulated by e-mail by someone with a gmail account calling itself Hon Charles Keter. In the introduction of the email, the person wrote: ''It is necessary that the Kenyan people know the truth of the events at the meetings that took place at Orange house in Kilimani, and also at Karen, Raila's residence, in January and February 2008.

''Many people will shout, deny and oppose these facts. I do not claim that the Pentagon are murderers, or are more guilty than PNU. But the fact remains that we raised funds to be sent to Rift Valley, and everything that happened was done with the knowledge and approval of the chairman, Raila Odinga.

''If anyone thinks this is not true, let Anyang' Nyong'o submit the exact laptop computer he had at the time to the ICC for forensic testing. He and Raila together with William Ruto, should voluntarily take polygraph tests. Then Kenyans will know who is lying and what really happened. Also check the attached clip of Raila's BBC interview in which he defends the events at Kiambaa as recommended in the preceding meeting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_VhoiDmHmU&feature=user.''
(The YouTube clip will not play if you are not in the UK)

Below is the document I converted to word from PDF. I have no idea if it is authentic.

Yo think this document is for real?

Only the court can save William Ruto

It now appears that only the courts can save the political career of the flamboyant Kenyan politician, William Ruto, hours after being suspended from his ministerial position over a corruption case.

Ruto has told one of his closest friends that he is taking everything in stride, and that he is seeking to maintain huge media coverage even when his fraud cases gets underway. He is seeking to use his network with top journalists to get massive coverage of his activities when in suspension.

Meanwhile, an adviser has asked Prime Minister Raila Odinga to use Ruto's blow to consolidate his ODM party and ensure that he stamps his authority. You may remember the frustrations that Odinga has had with Ruto in recent months. Odinga tried to suspend Ruto earlier this year when he was the agriculture minister in connection with a subsidized maize scam, but President Kibaki blocked the suspension.

It is really difficult to tell how the trial of Ruto over the 2001 fraud cases arising from land sale will go. On one side, the judges have been under massive pressure from politicians to resign or be vetted before being reappointed since the passage of the new constitution, at the same time, it is not clear if indeed Ruto received the 96m shillings from the land sale. Of course, judges opposed the new constitution. Ruto too was against this new basic law.

In the past several months, judges have been quickly disposing of election petition of MPs, most of them (petitions) succeeding.

Judges do not take bribes now anymore and their salaries alone is what keep them going. This case may then largely depend on how the lawyers will articulate this case, and show how politics is linked to the Ngong Forest land purchase involving Ruto.
I have no idea if Ruto received the money, maybe he did, maybe not. Ruto is adding two lawyers to handle his case. Katwa Kigen will continue.

If he is found guilty, his career will probably end, but if he is cleared, then he will wake up to a massive popularity surge.

Kenyan media houses plagiarize Reuters

Kenya's Daily Nation, Capital FM and tabloid The Star have picked an exclusive story from Reuters news agency, twisting and rewriting it, but clearly underscoring the fact that newsrooms are still staffed with people who do not understand anything about plagiarism.

On 9 October, Reuters carried a story (news feed) they titled : ''KENYA-ECONOMY/ (INTERVIEW), INTERVIEW-Kenyan finance minister doesn't fear court'', in which Kenyan Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said that neither he nor his country had anything to fear from pending International Criminal Court arrest warrants over 2007 election violence. The agency later on published the story on its website.

The UK news agency clearly said in the story that Kenyatta spoke to Reuters, and not a press conference. Basically, the story was exclusive to Reuters.

Now, on Monday 11 October and hours earlier, Daily Nation, Kenyan's biggest newspaper and Capital FM radio website and the sensationalist The Star carried the story but without attribution that the story was from Reuters.
 

The story is in the front page of the Daily Nation, The Star and also the main story on Capital FM web. The closest the Daily Nation came to attributing the story was in saying , ''in an interview with a news agency''. But it can only be fair to just attribute the story to the source, even if you pay Reuters to access the story.

The three media outlets rewrote sections of the story, giving their reporters bylines for the story, implying that their own reporters interviwed Kenyatta in Washington.

They also said Kenyatta spoke to the media in the USA; which is a lie. The minister spoke exclusively to Reuters. Journalists and editors need to understand the conditions of using wire copy.

Kenyan Muslims abandon Raila Odinga

Kenyan Muslims have just stopped short of completely disassociating themselves with Prime Minister Raila Odinga, but clearly underscoring their bitterness with the hypocrisy of the country's second powerful individual.

In a word, Muslim leaders have given Odinga an ultimatum: to press for the return of Kenyans sent to Uganda for trials over 11 July bombs, or they withdraw the political support they have given him.

The leaders communicated the message through a front-page editorial on Friday Bulletin (8 October), a weekly 8-page journal that often strongly reflects the opinions of Kenyan Muslim leaders.

In the editorial, the leaders bemoaned apparent hypocrisy of Odinga towards Muslim issues, despite having promised that he will press for the rights of the Muslims in the country in 2007.

Titled : ''RAILA where is your voice of reason?'', the paper said: ''Raila, Muslims saw you as the voice of the oppressed but your silence if it continues to persist ,at their time of need, it will be a pointless act in 2012 for you to visit mosques pleading for support from the community'', referring to 2012 elections in which Odinga is a front-runner for president.

It pointed to a 2007 Memorandum of Understanding with Muslims where in return for the community support, Odinga pledged to ensure that the fundamental rights of Muslims are respected, which he has not honoured.

Two things have irked the Muslims.

1) Arrest of several Kenyans (most of them Muslims) and their transfer to Uganda over 11 July bombs. Odinga has kept quite despite Muslim leaders recently asking for his intervention that the arrested be returned to Kenya. The paper said Odinga seems to be sending a signal that he approves the detention of the 13 people.

2) Recently during Ramadan iftar, Odinga asked Muslims not to defend people they don’t know. This was in reference to the Uganda renditions. The Friday Bulleting said of the issue, that Odinga casually brushed off the matter when it was brought to his attention by Muslim leaders, bluntly telling them not to expect justice for those whom he termed as ''killers'', yet no one has been convicted yet.

Generally, the editorial summarised the issue thus: ''Regrettably, since his appointment as the prime minister, the myriad of pledges he had made to Muslims remain a pipe dream'', and concluded, ''according to a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, a believer is not bitten by a snake twice from the same hole''.

Odinga has not spoken to any contributor to this blog about the subject.

A few days ago, the Friday Bulletin gave the names of Kenyans being held in Uganda over the 11 July bombing as:

1.Idriss Magondu 2.Hussein Hassan Agade 3.Mohamed Abdow 4.Muhammad Hamid 5.Habib Suleiman Njoroge 6.Yahya Mbuthia Suleiman 7.Omar Awadh Omar 8.Ismail Abubakar 9.Al-Amin Kimathi 10.Hassan Abdu Issack 11.AbdulAziz Ali 12.Abdullahi Mohamud Abdu 13.Hussein Aliow Abdi.

But, beyond the Friday Bulletin editorial, some Muslim leaders have been calling for the end of relationship between the community and Odinga. Some Muslims leaders have told contacts who contribute to this blog that even if Odinga indeed intervenes in the matter of renditions, they don’t trust him anymore.

KQ managers browbeat staff over strike

Kenya Airways (KQ) managers are using intimidation to press its 3,000-plus staff into canceling a strike set for 13 October, even as union representatives meet to finalize details of how to go ahead with work boycott.

Members of the Aviation and Allied Workers Union (AAWU) are meeting later today (Sunday) to insist that members be told that the strike will go on unless KQ managers are ready to drop intimidation and threats and promise to implement disputed back pay.

In the meeting, union representatives will also be seeking to launch another campaign to press for the sacking/resignation of CEO Titus Naikuni.

Some are considering some more outright action - like sabotage of operations - to draw attention of the public, media and the government of alleged incompetence of Mr Naikuni as well as HR and other top managers at the besieged firm.

Meanwhile, Sunday, for the third day running, KQ placed full-page advertisement in nation's two biggest newspapers, seeking to recruit other in-flight attendants; presumably to replace the current staff who are planning on going on strike. Most of the KQ staff, understandably, are Kenyans, and now, KQ is seeking to recruit across east Africa in a clear strategy of seeking to avoid dealing with a similar strike situation in the future.

It is a desperate situation indeed. Some staff have complained that the management has been sending emails to specific union members and staff, telling them that if they go on strike, they will be fired.

At the KQ head office, some managers were last night considering contingency plans as it becomes clear that the strike will go ahead, although others were asking that the strike be stopped from going ahead - in every way possible; including court action or pay concession.

This issue at hand is pay rise and other issues arising from agreement or subsequent lack of it since KQ staff went back to work after going on strike for two days.

KQ and the AAWU in April this year signed an agreement to increase employee salaries, backdated several moths back. KQ said the backdate goes back to October 2009, while AAWU said it goes back 15 months back from April 2010. And that is the problem.

In August 2009, about 3,000 staff of KQ went on strike demanding better pay. The strike ended after the two parties agreed a pay plan that included an interim wage award of 10 percent in each of the first two years.

French-Dutch carrier Air France-KLM owns 26 percent of Kenya Airways, while the Kenya government has a 23 percent-stake.

Gay comment highlights Kenya hypocrisy

Kenya is a nation of massive number of senseless hypocrites and educated idiots. Recent comments by a cabinet minister has illustrated this point.

The brutally bold Minister Esther Murugi recently said that gays and lesbians in the country must be involved in HIV/AIDS programmes. 

After an uproar, with some people asking her to apologize over the remarks, the minister said she will not be cowed by calls to retract her comments.
Murugi had said that the gay/lesbian people who are classified under high risk HIV/AIDS populations also had a right to healthcare like all other Kenyans and should not be stigmatized.

She added that 33 percent of new HIV infections annually came from the high risk populations who include commercial sex workers, intravenous drug users, gays and lesbians.

And now, some mis-educated Christian and Muslim leaders have faulted her comments.

More than 70 church leaders asked President Kibaki to sack her over the remarks. The chair of Kenya National Muslim Advisory Council, Sheikh Juma Ngao, demanded that Murugi resigns or be sacked, saying that the minister ''should create their own country which allows homosexual, lesbian and prostitution acts''.

Now that is where the nonsense begins. Even if gays and lesbians are not integrated into health programmes, they will still engage in their activities, helping push up HIV infection rate in Kenya.

HIV/AIDS is not an issue of moral debate. It is about health!

ICC after Kenyatta, Ruto and Michuki

The ICC is keen on speaking to three Kenyan ministers, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto and John Michuki, as it continues with investigations into the country's deadly 2008 violence. 

The ICC is interested in hearing the side of the story of these three before assessing whether to seek their indictment.

ICC chief Ocampo wants to meet them in private when he travels to Nairobi soon, but the three have given indications that they are not interested in speaking with the man.

Uhuru Kenyatta is worried about if the media gets wind of a meeting between him and the ICC prosecutor; Ruto is conscious about how the story will be spun by the press (read Daily Nation) that is against him; while Michuki does not give a damn about meeting the ICC man.
The three men are crucial to ICC investigations into Kenya violence, or else ICC probe into the country's violence will collapse.

The ICC, relying on a UN report and reports by Kenyan NGOs, believes that Mr Kenyatta is key to understanding about a meeting held at the State House Nairobi where Mungiki were mandated to start revenge attacks in Naivasha.

The ICC too believes that Ruto knows something about possible planning of the violence in the Rift valley and other instances of violence in the area. Ruto is the top Kalenjin leader. The ICC prosecutor wants to ask him if he had any role in the violence; or any pre-plan before the start of the violence.

John Michuki was in charge of police during the time of the violence. The ICC wants to ask him if he was the one who gave shoot-to-kill orders to the police. If he meets ICC officials, it is understood that he will tell Ocampo that there was no such order, that police are trained to deal with various escalating situations, differently.

Rage as Kenya cancels deal on pirate trials

Western and Chinese diplomats to Kenya are frustrated over the decision by Nairobi to cancel an agreement to try captured Somali pirates.

The diplomats are reportedly under pressure from their countries as well for not doing enough to safeguard the implementation of the agreement.

Today, the envoys have tasked the US ambassador the responsibility of seeking a meeting with President Kibaki and technocrats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to see whether anything can be done. But, a contact at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it is quite unlikely that Kenya will go back on the cancellation of the deal.

In 2009, Kenya signed an agreement with the USA, the UK, the EU, Denmark, Canada and China, in which Kenya agreed to accept pirates seized by foreign warships, and after due trial, jail them. In exchange, these countries pledged to assist Kenya with money for trials of the suspected pirated, to build courts and generally do more business with Nairobi.

When terminating the agreement on 30 September, Kenya said the foreign partners did not keep their side of the bargain. And from people who have been following this story, these nations indeed could have done more to support Kenya in trying the pirates.

Before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ended the agreement, the EU envoy to Kenya was telling a contact that they have done as much for Kenya, including building holding cell for pirates at the coast and also judicial support for piracy trials.

Washington is concerned that lack of facilities to try captured pirates will only give room for pirates to operate, and also, attract Al-Qaeda fighters to east Africa (read Somalia).

Some of the envoys had suggested that ambassadors release a statement on what they have done for Kenya, but they chose to consult outside the view of the media.

Since last year, Kenya has tried and sentenced about 30 pirates, while over 100 are in congested prison cells.

Fight over pay at Kenya Airways escalates

Another bitter round of bout over pay at the Kenyan national carrier, Kenya Airways, (KQ) has escalated; and it is a fight that Titus Naikuni, the CEO of the firm, may not easily win.

It appears that this latest fight may claim the career of Mr Naikuni at KQ, as well as those of other managers who are reportedlty under intense pressure.

On one side, the managers are being pressed by the shareholders, (read KLM) to save the firm from another strike; while on the other, more pressure is coming from staff who want honest implementation of pay offer agreed several months ago.

This is the issue at hand.

KQ and the Aviation and Allied Workers Union (AAWU) in April this year signed an agreement to increase employee salaries, backdated several moths back. KQ said the backdate goes back to October 2009, while AAWu said it goes back 15 months back from April 2010.

Some union members say the issue in clause 'J' (of the CBA?) is not new. KQ said this demand is unprocedural and illegal.

In full-page newspaper statement publuisehd in two Sunday newspapers in Kenya on 3 October, Naikuni accused the AAWU of dishonesty.

Now, the good will of the staff on the company and the managers has hit the lowest point yet. Junior workers are not hiding that the dissapointment with the managers, and some are already looking for jobs elsewhere.

Some staff have complained on the social media that the management has been sending emails to specific union members and staff in sales and ticketing, telling them that if they go on strike, they will be fired.

Some even suggested that managers had warned them that the firm can be closed. Of course this is impossible.

A meeting has now been set for 5 October betweeb the KQ managers and AAWU (I understand bringing on board other umbrella unions) to see if a strike can be averted.
But is appears there is really bad blood between leaders of the AAWU and KQ managers.

In August 2009, about 3,000 staff of KQ went on strike demanding better pay. The strike ended after the two parties agreed a pay plan that included an interim wage award of 10 percent in each of the first two years.

French-Dutch carrier Air France-KLM owns 26 percent of Kenya Airways, while the Kenya government has a 23 percent-stake.