Posted on July 17, 2012 by Editor Eric Nyakagwa, Hard Talk Kenya

· Posting for March 17, 2012 re-posted: Lest you forget the real Sarah Elderkin…

· Sarah Elderkin came to Kenya as a young lady; she is a Kenyan of British extraction; she became Hilary Ngweno’s girlfriend and worked at Ngweno’s Weekly Review publication; the relationship developed into the variety loosely called mpango wa kando; the relationship later assumed a semblance of permanency, et cetera. The rest as they say is history. The lady works for Raila Odinga; and is the key person behind Raila’s recent violent statements.

· Let us try and understand her thought process, her thinking. Elderkin (Weekend Star, February 11-12, 2012) said: “I was inspired by Jaramogi. We hit it off immediately, and soon had me doing all sorts of work for him. I knew him only for a few (too few!) short years before his death in January, 1994, but it was enough to understand that this was a man unlike anyone else I had met…

· Over those years and the next few that followed, I also got to know Raila Odinga, and discovered he was a chip off the old block. Like his father, he is different from other people. His commitment, patience, understanding and sheer energy and tenacity to keep struggling for what he believes in are things I see nowhere else…

· I have nothing personal to gain. But I support these persons because I believe what they offer is genuine, selfless and focused, and vested in nothing other than working to ensure that every person in Kenya ends up with a better life, so that we all enjoy a better life together…

· We have become morally bankrupt in this country. People speak with forked tongues, saying one thing out of one side of their mouths, and something different from the other. We have no conscience…

· Politicians tell terrible lies, make monstrous self-serving choices, (and) care nothing for national need. Humility, truth, comradeship, sacrifice, compassion, appreciation, fidelity, mercy, honesty, service, loyalty – these words have lost all meaning in our political life.”

· Good people, you will be forgiven for thinking this lady is actually out of her mind; what is really, and clearly, shocking is her propensity for bad manners, shamelessness, platitudinous nonsense, a total disregard for commonsense, a frightening appetite for lies, tasteless arrogance and contempt, and recklessness that borders on insanity if not racism!

· By and by, all the negativities she talks about perfectly describe her boss, Mr. Kigeugeu!

· Sarah Elderkin wrote a very disrespectful piece on former Vice-President, the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa (weekend Star, March 3-4, 2012) which we chose to ignore; but a former commissioner with the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) Jack Tumwa and Nominated MP Musikari Kombo (both from Kijana Wamalwa’s gallant Bukusu sub-tribe of the Luhya) did respond in the weekend Star, March 10-11, 2012. We shall start by listening to what Tumwa said, inter alia, before listening to Kombo.

· Tumwa said: “Just what is Sarah Elderkin, one-time editor of the now-defunct Weekly Review magazine up to? Her abrasive article headlined “How Raila Fell Out with Kijana Wamalwa” cannot pass unchallenged as an insult to the late leader, his family, the people of Western Kenya (especially Bungoma and Trans Nzoia Counties, where Hon. Wamalwa was born, raised and buried), and all Kenyans everywhere…

· From where I am writing, in Bungoma, her four-page-long rant on the late Vice-President of Kenya, Michael Wamalwa Kijana, was written in the worst possible taste. Early on in her abusive piece she informs Kenyans that they have no idea of what the Queen’s English sounds like and gives the impression that neither did Wamalwa…

· Ms. Elderkin will no doubt insist that she told no lie about Wamalwa, however negative, in her sustained insult of an article. But there are such things as inconvenient truths, bad timing, bad manners, disrespect and formidably bad taste. She has lived in Africa long enough to know that we Africans do not subscribe to the Western claim that you cannot libel the dead; we neither defame nor demean the dead…

· Here in Bungoma County, those of us who read the Star are aghast at the extremely embarrassing spectacle of the abusive antics of this lady from another culture who has nevertheless spent most of her life among Kenyans but who seems to think that you can erect one leader’s good name and reputation on the ruins of another leader’s good name and reputation. This time she has gone too far. I believe her basic problem is that she does not really understand politics…

· The fact remains that Wamalwa was a much more substantial man and political leader than Elderkin would have us believe. There is a huge good side of Hon. Wamalwa which Elderkin would rather not see. He served this country and humanity generally well and to the best of his ability…

· She is pouring vitriol on his legacy following remarks made by Hon. Musikari Kombo and Hon. Bonny Khalwale. The two Honourable Members are very much still among the living and can completely respond to issues if challenged…

· Elderkin owes Kenya and the Wamalwa family an apology for insulting him so comprehensively and seeking to besmirch his legacy so malignantly. Leave the late Hon. Wamalwa alone and let him rest peacefully in his grave.” Well done!

· Let us listen to Hon. Musikari Kombo: “I wish on my own behalf and on behalf of Mike’s (Kijana Wamalwa’s) friends and family to set the record straight after a vicious and unwarranted assault on his person and career by an overzealous writer, friend, advisor and ally of the Prime Minister one Sarah Elderkin carried in the March 3-4, Weekend Star…

· From the outset, I must say that the said article was full of half truths and outright lies that cannot go unchallenged as it amounts to a deliberate and malicious distortion of the history of a great man and a distinguished, selfless public servant. I must also say the article was in bad taste as it grossly offends long established African traditions and norms that do not allow one to speak ill of the dead who cannot speak for themselves and if she or her boss had any bone to pick with me or Hon. Khalwale, she should have taken us on directly, instead of making such outrageous and unpalatable allegations about one of the great leaders of our nation…

· The basis for the vicious attacks according to the offensive article was my remarks and those of Hon. Khalwale that Raila, after the death of his father, betrayed Mike who stood by and fought for Jaramogi all along and not only abandoned him but fought him viciously over the leadership of FORD Kenya, instead of reciprocating the support the late Wamalwa and the Luhya community had given his father…

· I can also state without any fear of contradiction that Wamalwa was not the only victim of Raila’s betrayal because in fact, Raila’s political career is a boulevard of broken promises, broken dreams and betrayal of those he encountered politically like Moi after he left FORD Kenya, formed NDP and took it to KANU, only to lead a walkout leaving Uhuru and Moi’s KANU a much weakened party. He then joined Kibaki’s NARC in 2002 only to lead another walkout to form ODM after 2005 leaving Kibaki’s a weakened team in the run up to the 2007 elections…

· When in 2007 I said ODM meant ‘One Dangerous Man’, many thought I was joking but as the list of his victims continues to grow, some are believing me now, so it is not only Wamalwa who was his victim. His power hungry nature is what has made him break party friendships and governments, so to say…

· Even before Jaramogi was cold in his grave, Raila had already started fighting Wamalwa. What escalated the war in FORD Kenya was when Wamalwa preferred James Aggrey Bob Orengo, his former law student at the University of Nairobi, to be his deputy. Wamalwa and Orengo were very close to Jaramogi during his last days and they were both lawyers and birds of a feather who did not consider Raila their intellectual equal because of his unclear academic background from Maranda High School to East Germany to the University of Nairobi…

· At least Sarah Elderkin confirms that Wamalwa studied law at Kings College and went (as did Kibaki) to the London School of Economics and was admitted as barrister at Lincolns Inn though she denies he was in Oxford but what about her hero? Why didn’t she say how she has been struggling to write speeches for him and teaching him (Raila) some Shakespeare and so on?

· So the genesis of the Wamalwa-Raila break up was not PAC or Goldenberg but was as a result of Wamalwa choosing Orengo who was also Jaramogi’s favourite over Raila. But things came to a head when Wamalwa decided to bite the bullet and face Raila in elections presided over by the late Archbishop Manasses Kuria…

· By the time we arrived at Thika Stadium, both sides were prepared to do battle but it was obvious Wamalwa had more delegates than Raila. Realising this, Raila ferried in goons with briefcases posing as delegates but carrying stones and as soon as the late Archbishop started to address the gathering, they shouted him down and wanted to rough him up so he called off the elections until the next day for proper security to be arranged. Soon after, a fight broke out…

· History will bear us out in spite of the distortions attempted by Sarah Elderkin that when Wamalwa faced Raila eyeball to eyeball at Thika Stadium, it is Raila who not only blinked first but went under the table and hurriedly left the stadium to Wamalwa who remained calm and unmoved and was thereafter elected the chairman…

· Raila thereafter defected from FORD Kenya to NDP and (thereafter) led all the Luo out of the party except for a few principled leaders like Ramogi Achieng Oneko, James Orengo, Joe Donde, Otieno Kopiyo and others who stood by Wamalwa and remained in Jaramogi’s party…

· So it is not that we want to use this sad part of our history as a stick with which to hit Raila but because it is the truth and the truth will set us free, especially those who are likely to fall victim to Raila’s politics of betrayal!” Well done, Bwana Kombo! Kindly, please see also our posting entitled “How Moi Used Raila against Kibaki and Kijana Wamalwa!” dated March 2, 2012. Nothing to add: Enough said! Everything is in black and white. Alluta Continua.