New comment on your post #2223 “A political message to Martin Mule from Dr McOminde”
Author : Sam K (IP: 62.24.111.247 , nms1.telkom.co.ke)

Commentary:
I feel obliged to respond to Ominde or Dr.. as he calls himself. I think it is very wrong for us to be bitter about nothing in this forum. Mule was just trying to make his contribution and I think he should be allowed to say whatever he thinks. Ominde seems to think that he knows too much about responding to issues than others. I could not understand his response either.

People like Ominde are bitter because to me, they are the crop of people who thought that they would be able to get other people’s sweat through the back door without really working for it. I can stand up every time and say, as much as Kikuyus are being sacrificed, called names, its not all of them that are thieves, Mungiki or whatever and you can not crucify a whole community just because of a few errant ones. Kina Otieno’s and Oluoch’s are known to also engage in small time stealing and no-one seems to see that. Why is it all about Kikuyu?

You talk of Mungiki, Who are the Taliban? Arent they the ones killing innocent people in the name of bringing justice for your “presumed people’s president”? Aren’t they hired by the “presumed people’s president’s men” to distabilise the whole country and economy? How can you pose there and tell us that your “presumed people’s president” is clean? We all know what happened with the Kisumu Molasses plant,, Is that being clean in your terms?? Did the Kenyan people get the kind of money that, that plant would have fetched if it was put on the market for everyone to bid?

To me, Raila has no moral authority to run this country and neither are his clonies who have all been tainted elsewhere. Can a “people’s president” stand up to address a congregation in his native language especially in Nairobi? What was that rubbish he said anyway? Were we all supposed to hear what he was saying? If Raila is your man, defend him and use pointers that can not be challenged.

I am sure the rent you thought was going to be waived is what is giving you jitters, Skuma prices were to come down and   I have never seen Luo’s cultivating sukuma’s, so where were we getting the cheap sukuma from, France? Don’t you know that all the burden was to come back to Kenyans who sweat day and night to pay their taxes?

I believe that Kikuyus do not need Ominde’s sympathy to coexist anywhere they feel they have the money to invest and kina Ominde’s will pay RENT or buy that cabbage/sukuma coming from the Kikuyu farms for ever IF THEY DONT CHANGE THEIR ATTITUDES because their’s is a wait for an opportunity to enjoy eating from other people’s sweat. It will not happen my brother, not in this lifetime.

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Cabinet dissolved
 
2008-02-08 09:11:00
By Angel Navuri, Dodoma

President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete has dissolved the cabinet, a terse State House press release said yesterday. The move follows Premier Edward Lowassa`s resignation yesterday, which the President had accepted.

Earlier, Lowassa had told the National Assembly that he had tendered his resignation to the President, hardly a day after a damning report of a parliamentary select committee implicated him in the Richmond scandal.

Lowassa told the House that due to the fact that he had been linked to the allegations, he had asked the President to allow him to step down.

Findings of the select committee, formed last year to investigate circumstances which led the government to enter into a power generating contract with Richmond Development Company LLC in 2006, have implicated Lowassa as one of the architects of the controversial deal.

Announcing his decision yesterday, Lowassa said although the committee, under Kyela MP Harrison Mwakyembe, did not give him a chance to respond to charges that his office had violated the bidding process by awarding the tender to an American company; he had decided to step down for the sake of his party and the government.

“With great honour to my party (CCM), fellow ministers, members of parliament and the public, I have decided to tender my resignation to President Jakaya Kikwete.

I thank him for his confidence in my person, appointing me to this post and the cooperation he extended to me during the two years I served this nation as prime minister,“ said Lowassa.

Silence reigned in the House as the PM read his speech and accused the committee of violating principles of natural justice by condemning him unheard, despite the fact that the allegations leveled against him were serious.

“I would like to thank Dr. Harrison Mwakyembe for his presentation. Mwakyembe, a university lecturer in the department of law is aware of the law of natural justice, yet he refused to seek my response over the allegations,“ Lowassa said.

The report of the select committee, which implicated Lowassa and other high ranking officials, was presented to Parliament on Wednesday by Dr Mwakyembe and was supposed to be discussed by legislators for two days.

At the end of the morning session yesterday, the Speaker of the National Assembly Samuel Sitta, announced he already received names of 51 legislators who wanted to debate on the issue.

In a solemn mood, the Prime Minister sprang to his feet and approached the microphone which was positioned close to the Speaker`s podium.

“I am standing here in this House where we all gather to uphold good governance and democracy.

I want to put on record the way the select committee, comprising of credible members who travelled as far as the United States to seek evidence, but deliberately refused to call me for interrogation and instead passed judgement against me on the basis of gossip.

We are all politicians. If we are judged so unfairly, then who will be spared, and how will justice be dispensed to ordinary people?“ asked Lowassa.

He said his office was located hardly a walking distance from the Bunge offices, adding, “I could have walked there if there was no vehicle to take me to the place for the questioning. Quite unfortunately, that did not happen. I am deeply humiliated and oppressed.“

In the presence of his wife Regina, who took her seat in the visitors` gallery – in clear and sharp voice� Lowassa said: “There is a wish that I am going to grant. That is nothing other than resigning from my post of Prime Minister.“

As he returned to his seat, the Speaker said the Prime Minister�s statement had taken him by surprise. Sitta then sought for advice from fellow legislators on how to proceed.

Responding to the request, Chadema MP Zitto Kabwe said according to the country`s constitution, the Prime Minister represented the executive powers and was the head of government business in the House.

“If the Prime Minister has expressed his wish to resign, will the cabinet be allowed to remain intact while there is no Prime Minister to advise the President on government matters?,“ asked Zitto.

Sitta said President Kikwete was yet to communicate to him to confirm whether he had accepted Lowassa`s resignation, therefore Lowassa was still the PM.

CCM MP Wilson Masillingi called for patience among legislators while studying the unfolding situation before jumping to conclusions. “Serious issues are always judged by patient people,“ he said.

He made the entire House burst into laughter when he said; “For the first time in history, the Speaker is seeking advice from MPs. This shows how serious the matter is. We need time to contemplate on the situation because the Prime Minister, whose appointment we endorsed, has now tendered his resignation,“ suggested Masillingi.

Dr. Wilbrod Slaa (Chadema) said claims by the Prime minister that the select committee was unjust to him were unfounded as the committee had attached copies of official communication from his office instructing officials in the ministry of Energy and Minerals to disqualify other bidders and award the tender to Richmond Development Company LLC.

The committee`s report indicated that Richmond, which signed the contract with TANESCO on June 23, 2006 for generating 100 megawatts of electricity during power crisis in 2006, had no track record, lacked expertise and was financially incapacitated.

SOURCE: Guardian

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Tanzanian PM to resign over graft 
 
Mr Lowassa told MPs his decision had not been an easy one
Tanzania’s Prime Minister Edward Lowassa has tendered his resignation after being implicated in an energy deal corruption scandal.
He has denied that his office was involved in improperly awarding a contract to US-based electricity company Richmond Development in 2006.

The firm failed to provide emergency power during a power crisis in 2006.

Following Mr Lowassa’s announcement to parliament, two other ministers linked to the scandal resigned.

The BBC’s Africa analyst Mary Harper says the offer of resignation from such a senior member of government for alleged links with corruption is unprecedented in Tanzania, and unusual in Africa.

But Tanzania has been getting more serious about corruption since President Jakaya Kikwete was elected in 2005.

Just last month, the governor of the central bank was sacked following the disappearance of public funds from the bank.

‘Lacked expertise’

The BBC’s Vicky Ntetema in Dar es Salaam says Richmond was contracted to bring in generators to provide 100 megawatts of electricity each day after a drought early in 2006 left low water levels in dams leading to severe power cuts.

  I’ve offered my resignation… to register my disagreement with the manner in which the committee misled parliament

Edward Lowassa
Tanzanian prime minister

But a parliamentary inquiry, launched in November, found that the generators failed to arrive on time and when they did, they did not work as required.

By the time the company was ready to start operations, Tanzania’s power problems had been resolved.

Despite these failings, the government was contracted to pay Richmond more than $100,000 a day.

Mr Lowassa’s office later influenced the government’s decision to extend Richmond’s contract despite advice to the contrary from the state-run energy company Tanesco, the inquiry alleges.

Richmond “lacked experience, expertise and was financially incapacitated”, ruling party MP Harrison Mwakyembe, who headed the investigation, is quoted by Tanzania’s Guardian newspaper as telling parliament on Wednesday.

Richmond transferred its tender to another company, Dowans, last year.

Emotion

Mr Lowassa, who has denied any links to the scandal, has suggested the parliamentary committee investigating the energy deal was given the wrong information.

“I’ve thought long and hard about this issue. I’ve offered my resignation without any ill motive,” he said in an emotional speech to parliament on Thursday morning.

“I’ve done it to as a sign of my responsibility and to register my disagreement with the manner in which the committee misled parliament.”

Energy and Minerals Minister Nazir Karamagi and Ibrahim Msabaha – a former energy minister and now in the East African Community ministry – resigned on Thursday afternoon.

Our correspondent says Mr Lowassa, who entered politics in the 1980s, is a very close ally of President Kikwete.

But the president is likely to accept his resignation in light of public anger over the scandal, she says.

This is not Mr Lowassa’s first brush with controversy.

Under President Ali Mwinyi, he was relieved of his duties as a land minister because of allegations of corruption – a scandal that reportedly infuriated Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s respected independence leader.

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No re-run on the presidential elections, says the dialogueging man, the Ghanaian Kofi Annan in Nairobi.

<Annan (left on the photo) and Kibaki strolling on the road to peace.

Annan’s decision to come out boldly in support of peace and reconciliation strengthens President Kibaki’s government.

Annan hoped Raila and his ODM will now get the message loud and clear. He was right. They got the message and now has bowed down dropping all their major demands. This is a way of showing maturity by a man with a great deal of experience from the United Nations. He decided to let the cat out of the bag, instead of giving time to ODM pentagonists to continue dreaming of taking over power within a few months.

TIRED AND DISAPPOINTED LEADERS ABSORB THE REALITY OF THINGS

Things have now come out in the open. There is no way this time for Raila Odinga (<left photo) becoming Kenya’s president and William Ruto (right photo>) becoming prime minister (a position promised to him by Raila if Ruto supported the Luo community to take over the top seat). Raila now says he is ready to forget the presidential seat, the demand to have a transitional government and his claim that President Kibaki should resign giving way for a re-run.

It was not immediately clear whether Raila’s change of heart to drop the demands is due to Kofi Annan’s direct message that there will be no presidential elections in the near future, a thing ODM and Raila was hoping to get from the lead negotiator.

Calling for mass demonstrations by the ODM and Raila this time around, will damage their image totally. The courts will not allow any case challenging the presidency now that 28 days required to file a petition has passed. Things has now become tough for the opposition and they should understand that this time around, things has gone in favour of Kibaki and his government. ODM should do as ODM-Kenya if they have to get anywhere in their gesture for power.

HARDLINERS AND THEIR AMBITIONS 

This is good news for peace-uilding in Kenya. What next for Ruto and pentagonists now? The problem will arise when ODM hardliners like William Ruto (Rift Valley), Najib Balala (Coast) and Musalia Mudavadi (Western), the men who were promised highest positions by Raila should he become Kenya’s president, realise that they have only been used to get votes in their provinces without fulfilling their own ambitions to lead Kenya one way or another.

Kofi Annan decided to take the bull by the horns instead of sweet-talking teh parties, when he knows that the government and President Mwai Emilio Kibaki will not surrender to ODM’s pressure.

RIGGING WILL ALWAYS BE THERE 

The Kenya politics of today is not different from that of Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi. That is not to say Kenyatta’s, Moi’s and now Kibaki’s politics is faulty. It is a matter of style and timing. Election rigging will always be there one way or another, in small or big scale, as long as leaders are power hungry

For those who understand the game of politics, there is nothing to fight for by the ODM now. They can, however, do the fighting in parliament because they have the majority of the MPs. If they, the ODM have the people who elected them at heart, they will not block decisions that favour the government and the people simply to show their voting might in the house. They have been elected to parliament. That is giving them opportunity to guide the people and that does not mean they are ireplacable should they just think of their own wellbeing. 

<President Mwai Emilio Kibaki being sworn in for the second term in office.

Kibaki was sworn in the day the results were announced. Many are saying that was a hasty move. That was the best thing for the country, they thought, and that is why the swearing in was done quickly. And nothing is now proving them wrong.

The clashes that followed the announcement of the winner and the swearing in shows that the swearing in was right because no one wanted to have a vacuum where the country had no leader.

Those who are power hungry from whichever party could easily have engineered some kind of coup in the night and taken over the country. Kenyans would wake up to a big mess and chaos that would have seen many lives lost. Kenyans should look back and analyse what has happened the last weeks, people dying, people being hacked to death, people getting burnt and all in name of leaders fighting for power. Can they imagine what a power vacuum would have done to the country?

NEGOTIATIONS TAKES A NEW TURN 

The fact that the negotiations has taken a new turn after Annan told the world not to expect a presidential re-run, there are those in the west who would have liked to see Raila succeed and yet observers do not think the west is really interested in him, but to put him in power and use him to establish businesses in Kenya, businesses that will benefit their people in the west.

It is sad that western leaders are looking at things this way. Many are forgetting that many Kenyans have lost their lives because of the games the leaders enjoy to play.

Unity is now very important for Kenya and the Kenyan people. PNU, Kibaki’s party should now do the best to ensure that the president is given all the dsupport he needs so that he rules the country without further bloodshed.

By Korir, Chief Editor, API africanpress@getmail.no +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525