ACTING TOGETHER FOR KENYA: AGREEMENT ON THE PRINCIPLES OF PARTNERSHIP OF THE COALITION GOVERNMENT.

Preamble:

The crisis triggered by the 2007 disputed presidential election has brought to the surface deep-seated and long-standing divisions within Kenyan society. If left unaddressed, these divisions threaten the very existence of Kenya as a unified country. The Kenyan people are now looking to their leaders to ensure that their country will not be lost.

Given the current situation, neither side can realistically govern the country without the other. There must be real power-sharing to move the country forward and begin the healing and reconciliation process.
With this agreement, we are stepping forward together, as political leaders, to overcome the current crisis and to set the country on a new path. As partners in a coalition government, we commit ourselves to work together in good faith as true partners, through constant consultation and willingness to compromise.

This agreement is designed to create an environment conducive to such a partnership and to build mutual trust and confidence. It is not about creating positions that reward individuals. It seeks to enable Kenya’s political leaders to look beyond partisan considerations with a view to promoting the greater interests of the nation as a whole. It provides the means to implement a coherent and far-reaching reform agenda, to address the fundamental root causes of recurrent conflict, and to create a better, more secure, more prosperous Kenya for all.To resolve the political crisis, and in the spirit of coalition and partnership, we have agreed to enact the National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008, whose provisions have been agreed upon in their entirety by the parties hereto and a draft copy is appended hereto.

Its key points are:
* There will be a Prime Minister of the Government of Kenya, with authority to coordinate and supervise the execution of the functions and affairs of the Government of Kenya.

* The Prime Minister will be an elected member of the National Assembly and the parliamentary leader of the largest party in the National Assembly, or of a coalition, if the largest party does not command a majority.

* Each member of the coalition shall nominate one person from the National Assembly to be appointed a Deputy Prime Minister.

* The Cabinet will consist of the President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister, the two Deputy Prime Ministers and the other Ministers. The removal of any Minister of the coalition will be subject to consultation and concurrence in writing by the leaders.

* The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers can only be removed if the National Assembly passes a motion of no confidence with a majority vote.

* The composition of the coalition government will at all times take into account the principle of portfolio balance and will reflect their relative parliamentary strength.

* The coalition will be dissolved if the Tenth Parliament is dissolved; or if the parties agree in writing; or if one coalition partner withdraws from the coalition.

* The National Accord and Reconciliation Act shall be entrenched in the Constitution.Having agreed on the critical issues above, we will now take this process to Parliament. It will be convened at the earliest moment to enact these agreements. This will be in the form of an Act of Parliament and the necessary amendment to the Constitution.

We believe by these steps we can together in the spirit of partnership bring peace and prosperity back to the people of Kenya who so richly deserve it.

Source 

Kenya’s new President has offered the job of Prime Minister to his bitter rival in order to end the political unrest that has seen more than 1,000 Kenyans die in inter-tribal bloodshed.

President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga signed the deal on live television today, watched by Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general who has led efforts to mediate between the two men.

As aides leapt to clear the table away on which the deal was signed, the piece of furniture collapsed. Kenyans who have been keenly watching the progress of weeks of tortuous and bitter negotiations between the two political leaders will be hoping that the deal itself does not prove equally fragile.

“For the last two months, Kenyans have known nothing but sadness,” Mr Odinga said after signing the deal. He referred to his rival courteously as “my countryman, President Mwai Kibaki.”

Mr Kibaki added: “This process has reminded us that as a nation there are more issues that unite than that divide us.”

Under the deal, the role of prime minister will be occupied by Mr Odinga as the leader of the largest party in the Kenyan National Assembly. He will have a say in the appointment of ministers, and cannot be removed except by a no confidence vote by parliament.

It is understood that the terms of the deal answer most of the demands of the opposition.

There had been signs yesterday that the two political rivals might be nearing agreement. Mr Odinga’s supporters called off planned protests, and Mr Kibaki offered his first public commitment to creating the prime ministerial post that his rivals have been demanding.

It is not the first time that Mr Kibaki has offered Mr Odinga the job of prime minister, but the last time he did so, five years ago, he went back on his word.

Mr Annan said that there will be international monitoring this time to make sure that the terms of the deal are kept. Further details are expected to emerge later today.

Mr Odinga appeared stern-faced throughout as he sat to sign his name to the document. He nonetheless is the one who appears to have won the greater political concessions out of the wrangling.

Mr Kibaki appeared more relaxed and jovial at the signing ceremony. Mr Annan, who has seemed very stressed in the last couple of weeks, looked more relaxed than before.

Observers say that the fact that a deal has been done at all is largely due to the skilled negotiation of Mr Annan, who kept hopes alive when in reality both sides were intransigent and it was a struggle to keep going.

He made a series of small announcements that gave the impression that the talks had some momentum. He finally became so exasperated by the obstructive attitude of the two negotiating teams that he dismissed them and demanded face to face meetings with Mr Kibaki and Mr Odinga themselves, where he appears to have knocked heads together.

It is understood that there was agreement at the start of the week about the creation of a prime ministerial post – a position previously unknown in Kenya, where the President wields executive power. The final hours of wrangling appear to have been about how much power the post should have.

It was left to Mr Annan to announce the breakthrough. “We have come to an understanding on the coalition agreement,” he told reporters.

“I am pleased to be able to tell you and the citizens of Kenya that the two leaders this afternoon completed work on … how to overcome the political crisis. I commend all those whose efforts have made this possible.”

Mr Annan urged parliament to convene soon to enact the necessary laws to flesh out the deal.

First reactions from Kenyans were cool. Robert Mwaniki, 26, a salesman for a cable TV company in Nairobi, said that a deal between the politicians was only the start.

“Once they sign this agreement, everything will be OK for them, but not for us,” he said.

“Before we get that confidence back of living together as different tribes, it may take time. We have no respect for each other anymore. All you care about is you.”

More than 1,000 people have died, hundreds of thousands have been made homeless and Kenya’s economy has been gravely damaged in the violence that erupted after December’s disputed presidential election.

The killing began amid a government crackdown on opposition street demonstrations, as both men claimed to have won the country’s December 27 presidential election. Election observers have said the results were rigged, making it unclear who actually won.

Much of the bloodshed had an ethnic tinge, pitting supporters of Mr Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe against Mr Odinga’s Luo. The killing has largely subsided, but the country remains on edge.

The conflict has tarnished the reputation of the once-stable and prosperous East African country.

Source

It is now exactly two months since Kenyans enthusiastically came out in their masses to cast ballots in favour of their preferred political leaders. What should have been a straight forward electoral process has turned out to be our worst nightmare. The general elections have polarised the country ethnically.

After wasting more than 1500 lives and displacing nearly half a million others, the general elections have left many a Kenyan with deep regret as to why they even bothered to vote in the first place and many others are frustrated to the point of vowing never ever to vote again.

Nairobi has now become a global VIP destination with visitors including nobel price winners, presidents, diplomats, peace-makers, etc. The Kenya crisis has also been in the headlines since December. This just goes to say how high the stakes are. Interestingly, few of these high-profile visitors have made it to State House – Mwai Kibaki’s preferred work station. Most have met Kibaki at the official Harambee House offices.

On the other hand, the current political impasse shows just how powerful the so-called old order forces are in this country that claims to have been independent for nearly half a century and that which, as we have always been reminded, is a sovereign state. Threats of visa ban and asset freeze do not seem to be producing any results towards a resolution of the elections impasse.

Whereas the Orange Democratic Movement led by Raila Odinga have made significant concessions in the crisis arising out of the disputed elections, the Party of National Unity led by Mwai KIbaki have made none at all – in terms of acknowledging the concerns of their rivals or even ceding executive powers. Instead, PNU has been changing positions each time they are requested to show commitment on agreed issues and in the process playing deadly political gambling with the very livelihoods of the people of Kenya – all in the name of retaining political power.

Ever since the crisis started, the ODM have played their political cards much better than the PNU. To begin with, PNU forget that this crisis is all about politics and NOT about what the constitutional law says. In any case, everyone is in agreement, it is this very constitution that has led us to this hole we find ourselves in. Secondly, it is clear to all that PNU’s line-up on the mediation table is not what one would call negotiators but ‘defenders’ – no wonder they have failed to reach a compromise! Thirdly, it is PNU that is in control of state instruments and it is them who will ultimately determine whether the crisis will degenerate into anarchy or peace. Perhaps it is this state power that has made PNU become too reckless in its pronouncements and so amateurish in its dealings with people who matter in global affairs.

Whether rightly or wrongly, ODM have managed to depict themselves as the victims and it appears the civil society, the press, the international community and even the majority of the Kenyan population agree that power-sharing as opposed to an MOU-type of arrangement. As a matter of fact, Kofi Annan was taken aback by PNU hardliners who accused him of siding with killers (ODM) something which clearly shocked him and that which prompted him to suspend the Serena talks and opt to engage directly with the principals.

The big question is: After hastily taking oath of office on 30th December, is Mwai Kibaki truly in charge of this country or are there some unseen forces that are actually ruling this country by proxy? Who is holding our leaders hostage? Looking at the history of both ODM and PNU leaders, and the backers they had during their intensive campaign periods; it is easy to tell who between the two is lying in bed with the OLD ORDER and who has been out there advocating for CHANGE. It is also easy to tell who is sweeping historical injustices under the carpet.

Although the country has returned to an uneasy calm in recent weeks, many observers opine that this has only given private militias the opportunity to re-arm because PNU and ODM are unlikely to reach an agreement and therefore matters will have to be sorted out physically.

Sources now say, as a last resort, Kenya’s military is on high alert awaiting orders of deployment to contain civil strife that is sure to follow the failure of Annan’s mediation mission. A strong pointer to this was the unusual attendance of the Chief of General Staff, General Kianga, at yesterday’s meeting between Kibaki together with his PNU team and Kofi Annan with his eminent persons team. In other words, Gen. Kianga was part of the PNU team that met with Kofi Annan who is on a AU sanctioned mission to Kenya.

Source

The passion with which millions of wananchi valued their presidential vote in the stolen 2007 presidential elections can be reflected in scenes of the bloody post-election clashes today that engulf Rift Valley, Nyanza, Coast, Nairobi, Western and to a less extent in other parts of the country. Nakuru is now the latest epicenter of inter ethnic murders.

The violent reactions to rigged elections may reflect the pain of deep and historically rooted injustices some of which predate Kenya’s independence in 1963.

They are in fact motivated and exacerbated by landlessness, joblessness, and poverty believed to be heavily contributed towards by the prevailing political status quo that has dominated Kenya since independence. This is a system that has continuously perpetrated, in successive fashion, socio-economic injustices that have been seamlessly transferred from one power regime to the next.

The Land Issue With a fast growing population in Kenya, limited resources including land and jobs, have severely been put in extreme pressure. Responsive political operatives cognizant of this reality have appreciated the importance of incorporating progressive policies that seek to aggressively address poverty, landlessness, unequal distribution of resources and unemployment, as a matter of priority (in their party manifestoes) if any social stability is to be maintained in Kenya. Without doubt, the opposition party ODM sold an attractive campaign package that sought to address historic land injustices, unemployment, inequitable resource sharing and poverty through a radical constitutional transformation, under the framework of the people-tailored Bomas Constitution Draft.

ODM proposed to tackle the land problem through clauses in the Bomas draft, captured under devolution and land chapters, with specific plans to form a National Land Commission to address the issue of landlessness and historic injustices of expropriation of native land by colonial and post-colonial powers.

The roots of the land conflicts in Rift Valley land lie with the former colonial power, Britain; post-independence land policies by the Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki administrations; and the tendency for ethnic favouritism and patronage by power wielders.

Colonial expropriation of native lands in Rift Valley and Coast

In a nutshell, the British settlers literally grabbed native Maasai and Kalenjin lands in Rift Valley and Miji-Kenda, Taita and Taveta land at the Coast. At the Coast, there was also the added grabbing hand of the Middle-East Sultans who lay claim to another Coastal strip. Millions of voters from these communities (now deeply affected by landlessness and poverty) are today largely drawn towards ODM’s reform policies that seek to address these INJUSTICES.

Long before Independence, vast arable tracts of the Rift Valley were designated as White Highlands, reserved for European settlers. The pastoralist communities, mainly Kalenjin and Maasai, were simply moved away.

The 1904 and 1911 Anglo-Maasai land “Agreements” details the unjust grabbing of Maasai lands in Laikipia, Naivasha, Ngong, Karen, and tracts along the Uganda Railway line whereby uneducated Maasai Laibons either friendly to, or fearful of the British (christened Paramount Chiefs) like Lanana Ole Mbatian, were cajoled and intimidated into giving away native fertile Maasai land to the colonialists.

The words in the “Agreements” read like ……”we the undersigned, being the Laibons of clans of Maasai, have of our own free will, decided that it is for OUR best interests to REMOVE OUR PEOPLE, FLOCKS, AND HERDS into definite reservations away from the Railway line and away from European settlements…..” and “…..In conclusion, we wish to state that we are quite satisfied with the foregoing arrangement, and we bind ourselves and our successors, as well as OUR PEOPLE, to observe them as long as the Maasai as a race shall exist..”

The next thing we knew was that the Maasai were crumbled into arid portions of present day Kajiado and Narok districts. Grazing fields, and the very pastoral lifestyle of the Maasai instantly became threatened and continues to do so as we speak, without any restitution, compensation or pro-active rehabilitation into another life.

100 years later, when asked to address this burning Maasai land issue, former Lands Minister appointed by Mwai Kibaki, Mr. Amos Kimunya, once told the Maasai that there was nothing to address since the wise Maasai forefathers had given away their land to the British in a BINDING AGREEMENT which continues to apply to date.

Well, similar horrid but true stories applied in Kalenjin lands of Rift Valley and at the Coast too.Before independence, Kenyan political parties argued over whether the native land should be returned to the indigenous population under a federalist system of government or kept firmly under the control of a centralised state. Needless to add, those who favoured the latter option, in the form of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), which went on to form a government under Jomo Kenyatta, prevailed.

1963 Independence, enter Jomo Kenyatta and GEMA Land-buying companies

Trouble is, we had a majimbo constitution at independence. Jennifer Widner explained in her 1992 book, The Rise of A Party-State in Kenya: From “Harambee!” to “Nyayo!” that KANU “urged central control of all regions in an effort to forestall local majimbo legislation restricting land transfer to those born in the area, and to maintain the foothold of the party’s Kikuyu supporters in the Rift Valley land market”.

Many settlers were returning to Britain. Kenyatta and his cronies quickly formed the Settlement Transfer Fund Schemes (STFS) and asked the British for a loan to the Kenyan government, to buy off land from colonial settlers returning to Britain. Good idea up to this point.

Britain, having been reassured by Kenyatta that those settlers still wishing to stay on in Kenya would not have their land repossessed, advanced the money. This money was used to buy settler land which was officially sold into the Kenyatta initiated Settlement Transfer Fund Schemes (STFS).

Next, Kenyatta began to give away and sell for peanuts, these government (STFS)-acquired, former colonial land parcels, to himself, his family and cronies around 1964 and 1965. This is the point when the rain started beating Kenya. Kenyatta’s then Vice President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, cried foul and rejected these acts of wanton land grabbing.

The opportunity to choose nationalism and selflessness over greed and ethnic tendencies was lost. Rather than address this land issue once and for all, Kenyatta opted to REPLACE the settler colonialsist in land they had initially grabbed from natives. We have began harvesting the seeds of the mustard sown by Kenyatta in the 1960s. It will not be sweet at all.

The Seroneys and other Nandi and Kipsigis leaders immediately cried foul when Kenyatta ensued in his land grabbing tendencies. So were many Maasai and Miji-Kenda leaders like Ronald Ngala. Their cries were feeble and over run. Today and tomorrow, their descendants will demand justice and restitution in an exercise that threatens to tear apart Kenya’s social fabric.

Who will shoulder the burden of the fruits enjoyed by Kenyatta and his cronies, Moi and his cronies, and Kibaki and his latter day cronies? Will it be the poor Kenyan taxpayer taking the bill in form of blood, and more taxes?

Going back,…. down memory lane….. in the immediate post-independence era, the moment, the Seroneys and Ogingas started crying foul, and nothing was done, we entered a dangerous phase of our nation’s socio-political path.
The political leadership of Kenya began carving out into two distinct groups. The pro-Kenyatta land beneficiaries, sycophants and apologists where Tom Mboya, Daniel Moi, Paul Ngei and others trooped towards,….and another force resisting the greedy post-Independence governance by Kenyatta which was led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, and included several former KADU operatives like Ronald Ngala, Jean Marie Seroney, Masinde Muliro, Martin Shikuku and others.

Kenyatta soldiered on with his grabbing. He concurrently went ahead with the help of Tom Mboya to change the constitution to give immense imperial powers to the Presidency. He further began using such powers to allocate more land to his cronies and sycophants. His salivating appetite for Rift Valley land largely motivated his choice of Rift Valley natives as Vice President after Oginga Odinga.

First he chose a Maasai, Joseph Murumbi, who read the scheme of land-betrayal on his people and resigned in a huff, then Kenyatta selected Daniel Arap Moi, a Tugen not drawn in the Nandi and Kipsigis land battles, as his next loyal VP. He then descended upon grabbing Rift Valley and Coastal land in a business as usual and “mtafanya nini” attitude that Kibaki is trying to emulate today.

Kenyatta cronies including Mbiyu Koinange, Njoroge Mungai and others devised a clever scheme to further benefit themselves from the land transferred from the colonialists. They formed land buying companies through loans which were actually funded with tax-payer money. At the height of land buying companies, most of the power brokers acquired huge chunks of land at the expense of the landless who were meant to be the initial beneficiaries of the scheme.

According to Widner (in her book), by 1971, more than 60 % large-scale farms around Nakuru and 40% of small scale settler farms, were held by Kikuyu, who fared very well from this arrangement, at the expense of other Kenyan communities.

Another scholar noted that “Using the political and economic leverage available to them during the Kenyatta regime, the Kikuyu, took advantage of the situation and formed many land-buying companies. These companies would, throughout the 1960s and 1970s, facilitate the settlement of hundreds of thousands of Kikuyu in the Rift Valley,” wrote Walter Oyugi in Politicised Ethnic Conflict in Kenya: A Periodic Phenomenon.

In 1969, Jean Marie Seroney, a leading Nandi politician and MP, issued the Nandi Hills Declaration, laying claim to all settlement land in the district for the Nandi. His demands went unheeded. Aping the British Kenyatta government used a policy of divide-and-rule to neutralise such opposition by parcelling out land to other ethnic groups and thus winning their allegiance. Daniel arap Moi, the then Tugen vice-president was allocated the settler farms of the Lembus Forest and the Essageri Salient to divide the Tugen from the Nandi like Seroney.

Most of the power brokers in the Kenyatta regime who formed land-buying companies established huge farms in the Rift Valley either jointly or on their own. They included Njenga Karume, the then Chairman of Gema Holdings, who acquired 20,000 acres in Molo where he is growing tea, coffee, pyrethrum and potatoes and 16,000 acres in Naivasha.

GG Kariuki acquired his 5,000 acres at Rumuruti, Laikipia Division, while former Attoney-General Charles Njonjo bought into the 100,000 acre Solio Ranch. Don’t forget, grabbing of settler land in Central by many colonial collaborators, at the expense of the Mau Mau fighters, was part of the scheme. Senior Chief Munyinge from Muiga took 400 acres. Initially, senior chief Munyinge was allocated only 70 acres but with time he managed to acquire 330 more acres.

Mwai Kibaki acquired 20,000 acres in Nanyuki, Former MP Munene Kairu has 32,000 acres at Rumuruti. Mr Isaiah Mathenge, the former powerful Provincial Commissioner under Kenyatta and an MP under Moi, is arguably the largest land owner in Nyeri municipality.

He owns Seremwai Estate, which is 10,000 acres. Kibaki’s friend, Kim Ngatende, a former government engineer, has 500 acres too.Mathenge also owns—jointly with former Provincial Commissioner Lukas Daudi Galgalo—the 10, 000-acre Manyagalo Ranch in Meru.

Back in Rift Valley, as Jaramogi and the rest of Kenyans were saying, Not Yet Uhuru, it was land grabbing business as usual. Land-buying companies were heisting big. There result was big acquisitions, for instance, Munyeki Farm—which stands for Murang’a, Nyeri, Kiambu – (4,000 acres), Wamuini Farm (6,000 acres), Amuka Farm (2,000 acres), Gituaraba Farm and Githatha Farm (1,000 acres each) and GEMA Holdings 12,000 acres. A few of them are being utilized, today with the owners growing various crops ranging from coffee, tea, maize and dairy keeping.

The other big farms include Chepchomo Farm (18, 000 acres), owned by the former Provincial Commissioner Ishmael Chelang’a. The family of the late Peter Kinyanjui, who was a close friend of President Mwai Kibaki and a former DP Chairman in Trans Nzoia between 1998 and 1999 owns 1,800 acres.
In Nakuru, several politically connected individuals have acquired many acres of prime land within the town—they include lawyer Mutula Kilonzo, who owns an 800-acre farm for dairy farming. The immediate former Auditor General, D S Njoroge, owns 500 acres, while Biwott’s Canadian son-in-law & co-owner of Safaricom (Mobitelea) a Mr. Charles, boasts a 100-acre piece where he is growing roses.

D. S. Njoroge also owns the extensive Kelelwa Ranch in Koibatek, which is less than 10km from Kabarak, where he rears cattle and goats. The 10,000 acre Gitomwa Farm—acronym for Gichuru, Tony and Mwaura—is owned by the family of the former Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC) managing director, Samuel Gichuru. Tony and Mwaura are his sons.

Another 10,000 acre farm in Mau Narok belongs to the family of the late Mbiyu Koinange, Kenyatta’s side-kick and powerful minister of state in the Office of the President. His Muthera Farm (4,000ha) is leased to different people to grow wheat, while a group of squatters is demanding a piece of it. The owners are yet to clear the Sh7 million Settlement Transfer Fund loan.

Ford-People leader Simeon Nyachae’s Kabansora Holdings owns 4,000ha in the area. Former Rongai MP Willy Komen’s family owns 10,000 acres — 5,000ha adjacent to Moi’s Kabarak Farm and another 4,800ha near Ngata in Njoro.

Coast Province was not spared. Kenyatta family owns almost 15% the prime resort land in the province, besides a huge sisal plantation spanning both Taita and Taveta districts, safely watched by his son-in-law and former MP Marsden Madoka, and another close friend to Uhuru Kenyatta, and current Minister in Kibaki’s illegitimate government, Naomi Shaban.

Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki land holdings

Kenya’s two former First Families and the family of President Mwai Kibaki are among the biggest landowners in the country. The extended Kenyatta family alone owns an estimated 500,000 acres — approximately the size of Nyanza Province — according to estimates by independent surveyors and Ministry of Lands officials. (This report first appeared in the Standard Newspaper report by Mr. Otsieno Namwaya)

The Kibaki and Moi families also own large tracts, most held in the names of sons and daughters and other close family members, all concentrated within the 17.2 % of Kenya that is arable or valued. Remember that 80 per cent of all land in Kenya is mostly arid and semi arid land.

According to the Kenya Land Alliance, more than a 65% of all arable land in Kenya is in the hands of only 20 per cent of the 35 million Kenyans. That has left millions absolutely landless while another 67 per cent on average own less than an acre per person.

The building land crises in the country, experts say, will be difficult to solve because the most powerful people in the country are also among its biggest landowners.The tracts of land under the Kenyatta family are so widely distributed within the numerous members in various parts of the country that it is an almost impossible task to locate all of them and establish their exact sizes.

During Kenyatta’s 15-year tenure in State House, he used the elaborate STFS scheme funded by the World Bank and the British Government, to acquired large pieces of land all over the country. Other tracts, he easily allocated to his family.

Among the best-known parcels owned by Kenyatta’s family, for instance, are the 24, 000 acres in Taveta sub-district adjacent to the 74, 000 acres owned by former MP Basil Criticos.

Others are 50, 000 acres in Taita that is currently under Mrs Beth Mugo, an Assistant minister of Education and niece of Kenyatta, 29, 000 acres in Kahawa Sukari along the Nairobi—Thika highway, the 10, 000 acre Gichea Farm in Gatundu, 5, 000 acres in Thika, 9,000 acres in Kasarani and the 5, 000-acre Muthaita Farm.

These are beside others such as Brookside Farm, Green Lee Estate, Njagu Farm in Juja, a quarry in Dandora in Nairobi and a 10, 000-acre ranch in Naivasha. There is another 200 acres in Mombasa, and 250 acres in Malindi.

Other pieces of land owned by the Kenyatta family include the 52,000-acre farm in Nakuru and a 20,000-acre one, also known as Gichea Farm, in Bahati under Kenyatta’s daughter, Margaret. Besides, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, widow of the former President, owns another 10, 000 acres in Rumuruti while a close relative of the Kenyatta family, a Mrs Kamau, has 40,000 acres in Endebes in the Rift Valley Province.

Uhuru owns 5,000 acres in Eldoret, 3,000 acres in Rongai and 12,000 acres in Naivasha, 100 acres in Karen, and 200 acres in Dagoretti. A 1,000-acre farm in Dagoretti is owned by Kenyatta’s first wife Wahu.

It is also understood that part of the land on which Kenyatta and Jomo Kenyatta Universities are constructed initially belonged the Criticos family. The government bought the land from him in 1972 under the Settlement Transfer Fund Scheme and transferred to the Kenyatta family the same day Criticos sold it to the government. Land for the two universities was subsequently sold partly and a portion donated by the family.

One of President Kibaki’s earliest grabs is the 1,200-acre Gingalily Farm along the Nakuru-Solai road. And in the 1970s, Kibaki, who was then the minister for Finance under Kenyatta, via STFS transferred to himself, 10, 000 acres in Bahati from the then Agriculture minister Bruce Mckenzie.

Kibaki also owns another 10, 000 acres at Igwamiti in Laikipia and 10, 000 acres in Rumuruti in Naivasha. These are in addition to the 1,600 acre Ruare Ranch.

Just next to Kibaki’s Bahati land are Moi’s 20, 000 acres although his best known piece of land is the 1,600 Kabarak Farm on which he has retired. It is one of the most well utilised farms in the area, with wheat, maize and dairy cattle.

The former President owns another 20, 000 acres in Olenguruoni in Rift Valley, on which he is growing tea and has also built the Kiptakich Tea Factory (recently torched). He also has some 20, 000 acres in Molo. He also has another 3, 000-acre farm in Bahati on both sides of the Nakuru/Nyahururu road where he grows coffee and some 400 acres in Nakuru on which he was initially growing coffee.

The former President also owns the controversy ridden 50, 000 acre Ol Pajeta Farm—part of which has Ol Pajeta ranch in Rumuruti, Laikipia. Some time in 2004 Moi put out an advert in the press warning the public that some unknown people were sub-dividing and selling it.

Can solutions can be offered to address these land problems? This is clearly a socio-political problem that requires a political solution. It involves digging up the archives, consulting experts, policy makers, local politicians and community elders to find a comprehensive solution.

Such formulated blueprints can then be sold to Kenyans of all creed, race, religion and ethnicity in a publicity campaign that seeks to draw in as many supporters as possible. A responsive political party genuinely keen to tackle this tough problem can actually sell a comprehensive and just land reform policy as part of its manifesto.

These must be cognizant of the constitutional implications concerned in addressing past and present land issues.

Guess what. This incidentally happened already. ODM party, using the Bomas draft constitution which proposes to establish a National Land Commission sold this idea to Kenyans during the referendum campaigns and at the 2007 General election campaigns.

Many Kenyans especially those directly affected by landlessness chose to give this idea a test. That party attributed to ODM’s resounding win over Kibaki’s PNU which prefers to sleep over the land issue quietly.

But before the coronation of ODM into government, Kivuitu and his ECK had other ideas. Blatant and daylight robbery of an outright electoral win by ODM was executed by Kivuitu and ECK to illegitimately hand over power to Kibaki.

None of the confident voters who were determined to start demanding results and accountability with regards to land and other biting issues such as unemployment and poverty, from the NEW government they elected seem ready to take Kibaki’s attempted robbery lightly.

What we are witnessing in Rift Valley, lately in Nakuru, may just escalate to new heights considering the fundamental weight of the underlying blood and soil issue of land.

The genesis of all head and no light at the PNU-ODM mediation talks can be squared traced to our past that is replete with political dishonesty. No deal will be binding unless it is felt watertight, structured and documented in front of the whole world.

Our Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai saw it coming long time ago. Politicians all over the world make deals to survive. But trashing all your agreements once in power is the height of costly expediency. Now we are all roped in this ugly journey to political abyss.

Proclaiming sanctity to Kenya’s tattered constitution is to continue the destructive bumpy ride along the deceptive path. You cannot partially acknowledge a crisis and premise your pledge to resolve it on the same empty edifice you abused to cause the crisis in the first place. There are no half measures here and time is of essence too. Human patience is no elastic and Kenyans are threatening to snap soon.

You can’t rule unwilling people
You cannot fool a country and the world all the time. Kibaki’s buying of time will be very costly to all Kenyans in the long run. In the minds of his handlers he has succeeded in weathering the global pressure and can now revert to old and time tested Kenyan gimmicks of grandstanding and brinkmanship.

Tomorrow AU boss Jean Ping is coming to town. See the world is not giving up on Kenya. Not just yet. Collaterally we must not abuse not betray their concern and reduce it to patronage. Our immediate neighbours have left us to stew in our own oil thanks to brand of cheap capitalism doled I primitive material accumulation.

You CANNOT rule an unwilling population. Not in the 21st Century, never. Kibaki must move in haste to politically resolve the present crisis. Failing which even him he will not be spared the resulting devastation. Time is running out and Kenyans’ patience is no rubber band. We cannot lose our beautiful country to a bunch of old tribalists.

The embers are menacing glancing at the Kenyan fabric. The inferno is eminent and it is not a matter of if but when. We want our country back NOW. And that is no just a wish. It is a right for which more than 1000 Kenyans have already lost their lives for. Enough is enough. No more red herrings and splitting of hairs please.

OPENING STATEMENT BY H.E. KOFI ANNAN

PRESS CONFERENCE

Serena Nairobi Hotel, 15 February 2008

Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen.

We have just returned from 48 hours of intense and fruitful negotiations at a secret location outside of Nairobi, which all of you now know was the Kilaguni Lodge in the Tsavo West Game Reserve.

I want to thank you for letting us work there in peace, even after you discovered where we were.

The parties worked well together during their two days at Kilaguni– often in mixed groups and by themselves – showing their strong commitment to peace and reconciliation in Kenya.

They reached agreement on a range of issues, and narrowed considerably the options for a governance structure.

Some of the points of agreement are:

–The creation of an Independent Review Committee.

–This Committee would be mandated to investigate all aspects of the 2007 Presidential Election and make findings and recommendations to improve the electoral process.

–The Committee will be a non-judicial body made up of Kenyan and non-Kenyan recognized electoral experts of the highest professional standing and personal integrity.

–The Committee will submit its report within 3-6 months and it should be published within 14 days of submission. It should start its work not later than 15 March 2008.

–The findings of the Independent Review Committee must be factored into the comprehensive electoral reforms that are envisaged.

Through the discussion, it became apparent that there is no viable way, either by re-count, re-tally or any other measure, to determine the outcome of the 2007 election in a way that would be expeditious and that would not further divide Kenyan society..

However, the facts have to come out and Kenyans have to know what happened. We agreed that the system must be reformed so that such a crisis never happens again.

The Independent Review Committee will allow for this to take place in an environment of tranquility and transparency, thus contributing to further healing and reconciliation of the country.

We did consider the options of a re-count or re-tally and concluded that:

–A delay of the several months needed for a recount could significantly increase existing tensions and delay resolution of the current crisis, and we recognize that the result of a re-count might not further Kenyan unity.

–A re-tally could not determine the correct result in stations or constituencies where problems or irregularities were identified.

On the need for a political settlement to resolve the current crisis, we agreed on the following:

–Recognizing that there is a serious crisis in the country we concluded that a political settlement is a necessary and effective way to promote national reconciliation and unity.

–We also agree that such a political settlement must be one that reconciles and heals the nation and reflects the best interests of all Kenyans. A political settlement is necessary to manage and implement expeditiously a broad reform agenda and other mechanisms that will address the root causes of the crisis and deepen and broaden Kenyan democratic foundations.

Such reforms and mechanisms will comprise, but are not limited to, the following:
Comprehensive Constitutional reforms;
Comprehensive electoral reform – including of the electoral laws, the electoral commission and dispute resolution mechanisms;
A truth, justice and reconciliation commission;
Identification and prosecution of perpetrators of violence;
Respect for human rights;
Parliamentary reform;
Police reform;
Legal and Judicial reforms;
Commitment to a shared national agenda in Parliament for these reforms;
Other legislative, structural, political and economic reforms as needed.

On the issue of governance arrangements, the parties discussed the matter intensively and have developed a number of options, on which they have agreed to consult their principals and leadership and come back to continue negotiations on Monday, with the hope that a final conclusion will be reached shortly after that.

This is the only outstanding issue on Agenda Item 3—How to Resolve the Political crisis. In summary, we have defined the reform agenda for a new government and are now discussing the “how” and the mechanisms required for implementation.

While we are making considerable progress on Agenda Item 3, we have also agreed that settlement of the issues in Agenda Item 4—Long-Term Issues and Solutions–are fundamental to a viable long-term solution of the crisis.

The implementation of the following reforms should commence urgently in concert with reforms of Agenda Item 3.

· Consolidating national cohesion and unity;
· Land reform;
· Tackling poverty and inequity, as well as combating regional development imbalances, particularly promoting equal access to opportunity;
· Tackling unemployment, particularly among the youth;
Reform of the Public Service;
Strengthening of anti-corruption laws and public accountability mechanisms;
Reform of Public Finance and Revenue Management Systems and Institutions;
· Addressing issues of accountability and transparency.

The parties agreed that this settlement is not about the sharing of political positions but about addressing the fundamental root causes of recurrent conflict. Therefore, the parties have reaffirmed their commitment to address the issues within Agenda Item 4 quickly and comprehensively.

Milestones and benchmarks for the implementation of the reform agenda will be defined in our continuing discussions.

I know that many of you have been eager to write the headline, “We have a deal” on all the political issues. But I again advise patience. The issues are complex; reaching compromise is difficult. But let me assure you that there is real momentum. We are at the water’s edge and the last difficult and frightening step will be taken. I am confident that, in the interests of Kenya and its people, the parties will show the wisdom, flexibility and foresight to conclude an agreement.

Let me now say a word about my own involvement in this process. [ad lib]

I will now take your questions.

* * *

Source

H.E. Ban Ki Moon
UN Secretary General
Nairobi, Kenya

1 February 2008

Republic of Kenya

It is with utter sadness that I welcome you to Kenya. Our country, whose enduring stability made it a host for mediating conflicts in so many neighbouring countries, has now itself been plunged into chaos, bringing death and untold suffering to hundreds of thousands. Your presence here is an immense source of hope for our terrified people, and provides reassurance that the world is united in wanting the bloodshed to end and democracy restored in Kenya.

Your own concern over our crisis has been evident from the moment it erupted, when you issued a strong statement about the imperative need to end the violence that followed what every national and independent monitoring group termed as a deeply flawed election. Enclosed please find a dossier that summarises details of the fraud.

Excellency, you have now rightly warned that catastrophe looms, and that both leaders must act together to restore security for our people. I would like to assure you that my colleagues and I have repeatedly condemned the violence, asserting that no grievance, no matter how legitimate, can be justified, and that violence in any event is fruitless and counterproductive, since it only begets more violence. Mr. Kibaki has also condemned the violence.

But the fact remains that however categorical each side’s commitment to restoring peace, it is only those who control the instruments of state who can end the murderous rampages and provide security for all our people. Indeed, there is ample evidence that sections of the security forces are themselves abetting this violence, including through supporting a much-feared militia which relentlessly pursues communities which supported ODM.

So insecurity, rather than being contained, is actually growing, with the murders of two elected ODM Members of Parliament heightening fears that others are targeted as well. Indeed, a number of international groups have asked that government ensures the security of Mr. Maina Kiai, the government appointed Chairman of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission. There have been death threats against journalists and other civil society actors, as well as other political leaders.

H.E. Kofi Anan’s mission has given Kenyans great hope that violence will end and the political crisis, centred around the fraudulent presidential election, resolved rapidly. Your own presence to show full support for this mission and for Kenyans has further boosted the people’s resolve.

But the fact remains that even since Mr. Anan’s mission started, intense new violence has been initiated. These included last weekend’s attacks in Naivasha, in which scores were killed, some in full view of the police and television cameras. One ghastly attack saw 19 people, mostly women and children, burned alive, with 11 members of one family wiped out. A similar horific incident took place in an Eldoret church nearly a month ago.

So even as we remain firmly focussed on ensuring success for the mediation mission, we clearly cannot await its successful conclusion before the attacks and assaults Kenyans are suffering are brought to an end. The security forces clearly are not capable of providing security to the people.

We therefore appeal to you to use your good offices to find a way to provide such protection to the people of Kenya, too many of whom live in dread of being attacked and murdered every night. We are pleased that this crisis has engaged not only you but the entire international community and world leaders. We particularly welcome the African Union’s serious concern over the situation, and also the new proposal by France to engage the Security Council more fully in our crisis.

We sincerely hope that within these various international efforts, a way can be found to provide protection to threatened Kenyans.

We again thank you for your personal visit to Kenya, and assure that we will leave no stone unturned to reach a peaceful settlement.

Accept, Excellency, the assurance of our highest consideration.

Eng. Raila Amolo Odinga
Leader,
Orange Democratic Party
Nairobi, Kenya

It can be authoritatively revealed that three members of president Kibaki’s part cabinet and his two close advisors have made it their business priority to ensure that the Annan  led mediation to resolve the post-election crisis is still-born. Sadly, one of the cabinet ministers is the PNU Team lead negotiator of what is now known as the Kenyan National Dialogue and Reconciliation Team. These unpatriotic individuals represent the interests of powerful business cartels which supported Kibaki’s re-election campaign and those which dread the prospects of transferring government operations into the office of the yet to be created Prime Minister, even worse when the holder of this office is one Raila Odinga. What is interesting is that some of these hardliners including the cowboys in cartels whose interests they represent form up to two thirds of those who have received letters from the US State Department about imminent asset freeze and visa bans.

The Minister for Justice & Constitutional Affairs Martha Wangari Karua and her Transport and Finance colleagues, John Njoroge Michuki and Amos Kimunya respectively are the main stumbling blocks in the mediation efforts. Unlike other members of cabinet who have to seek appointments before seeing President Mwai Kibaki, these three individuals have unhindered 24-7 access to Kibaki and have variously advised the president to adopt uncompromising positions that end up undermining international attempts at mediation. To begin with, after ODM rejected their insistence on local mediation, they are said to detest use of the term ‘mediation’ and prefer ‘negotiation’. Secondly, they are directly responsible for the failure of President Kufuor’s mission earlier in the crisis to bring the two protagonists together. Other efforts they have successfully frustrated include that of retired African heads of state as well as that of Desmond Tutu. Kimunya is so confident that he has dismissed threats of donor aid freeze by assuring kibaki ‘over 90% of the Kenyan budget is financed internally and our Chinese friends will never let us down in our time of need’.

The other two individuals responsible for the deepening of Kenya’s worst quagmire in independent history are his long-time golfing buddy , Joe Wanjui as well as the State House based PS in charge of Strategy, Stanley Murage. The former is the ‘general’ who brought in Amos Kimunya into Kibaki’s inner circle and campaigned for his appointment as Daudi Mwiraria’s replacement at the Finance ministry. On his part, Murage has in recent weeks had ‘minor’ problems with respect to fighting his detractors at the hill, but that appears to be water under the bridge as the man has outmaneuvered his and still remains in his influential position at state house. These two individuals have repeatedly urged Kibaki to totally reject all international intervention aimed at resolving Kenya’s political crisis saying that there is a government in charge and it has everything under control. They opine international intervention is akin to admitting that PNU government lacks legitimacy and to an extent allowing foreigners take control of Kenya’s sovereignty. International pressure and the fact that government has not had total control in the country appears to have forced Kibaki to accept Annan’s mediation mission, but that now seems to be under serious threat from the hardliners.

After half-heartedly accepting Kofi Annan’s mediation mission, the PNU have adopted a strategy in which they intend to concede as little ground as possible to ODM in the on-going talks least of all agree to a transitional government under a grand coalition.

This probably explains why Martha Karua was quick to send a protest letter to Annan after he told Parliament that a “grand coalition” could oversee reforms in Kenya to pave the way for elections in two years. Karua’s letter went on to say “My team is alarmed at some serious inaccurate statement made by your excellency.” Forming a transitional government to prepare elections “has not been discussed or agreed upon” in the mediation talks, now in their third week and nearing the deadline fixed by Kofi Annan at the start of the talks.

In other words, political observers and diplomats are interpreting the protest letter by Martha Karua that PNU are not ready to make any concessions and still stand by their belief that Kibaki is the duly elected president of Kenya after having won presidential vote fairly and having been constitutionally sworn-in, and should therefore not have to share power with ODM under whatever circumstances. So what is next for this country?

While Annan sees a grand-coalition as the only workable political solution to Kenya’s crisis, PNU are trying to push the argument that the move is like introducing single-party dictatorship through the back door.

Meanwhile, interesting news from Kilaguni Lodge (unknown location my foot!) where the mediation team is based, say that ODM have demanded that the coalition be crafted in terms of parliamentary strength and that ODM should therefore have 55% of cabinet seats while the rest share 45%! Interestingly, Kibaki’s heir apparent and the hardliner’s choice to inherit Kibaki’s mantle KANU’s Uhuru Kenyatta has been quoted as saying he does not have any qualms with a grand coalition government arrangement.

Anyone with their ears to the ground in Nairobi must have heard that the mediation talks are doomed to fail and residents are being urged to stock-up now to avoid next week’s violence and inconveniences of street protests that will break-out following the announcement of the postponement (diplo- speak for failure) of the mediation talks.

What follows after this announcement will disappoint a lot of people…….

(to be continued as we monitor events and pray for this country)

Source

So Kofi Annan will tomorrow deliver some form of SIGNED agreement between ODM and PNU yet the talks have been adjourned to Monday next week? That statement leaves more questions than answers. Solving the paradox doesn’t require the brains of a genius.

Annan is taking his responsibilities seriously. He knows the whole weight of Kenya rests on his shoulders and any vacuum for speculation will open the floodgates for another round of bloodbath. The good diplomat has therefore enlisted his experience and knowledge to condition an expectant nation for devastating news tomorrow.

The truth of the matter is that Annan will NOT announce anything worth the label news or breakthrough. Granted, Kenyans have been through hell these last five weeks and HOPE remains the only treasured asset in their souls. I have been labelled an alarmist by simply reminding my dear countrymen/women of the grim prospects in these talks given the principal’s past.

Truth never mutates and speaking it does not make you a doomsayer. The talks have predictably failed the way Kibaki and his cronies planned. Annan is only giving himself time to exhale and consult further while throwing a straw at Kenyans to keep them afloat. Annan is a polished gentleman. He promised us good news in less than 72 hours and so he had to give us something to ruminate after the talks flopped.

Rumour therapy
The intensity of international pressure in the last two days betrays any hope of a truce. Behind the stern warning and threats from the UK and Switzerland lies intelligence pointing no deal. Bush would never send Condoleezza Rice to Nairobi to beef Annan’s efforts if a deal has been reached. Add to that the sight of Kenya armed forces and GSU taking strategic positions in potential trouble spots and you get a peep into the impeding chaos.

Substituting optimism for reality in the face of a crisis is to unwittingly court a heart attack when the truth finally hits home. The two words are NOT synonymous and CANNOT be used interchangeably especially on anything involving Kenyan politicians. Annan is simply conditioning us for bad news.

The script is that when Annan finnally reports NOTHING substantive tomorrow, the national disappointment shall have mellowed thanks to 24 hours window for speculation and rumour therapy. How I wish this was only a bad dream.

Source

Christian convert and PNU politician Ndura Waruinge and imprisoned mungiki chief Maina Njenga have not “properly deserted mungiki”, we can now report. A leader of the gang in Central Nairobi, a Mathenge (Mnyama) was asked by a reporter why his dreaded gang had not beheaded the duo. His answer was curt, “They are alive because we know they have not moved, there are clear structures on how resignations of top leaders are handled, look they were once Muslims remember that conversion? Now they are Christians, maybe tomorrow they will be Hindu but the bottom line is that they are still part of us”.

From the interview, it emerged that some of mungiki’s followers are the educated middle-class who contribute a whooping KShs 2 billion a year to sustain the gang. Consequences for defaulting are scary, the gang says.

Asked whether they kill people, Mathenge retorted, “True we have been killing people but you have to understand us, even God in the Old Testament killed people who did not toe the line of the Law. We have been killing defectors, and those who refuse to pay their dues for our services and that will not stop”.

Asked how many mungiki members are in Kenya and abroad, “We had our last National Convention in April 2007 in Thogoto and we realized we had recruited 45,000 new members we are now about 2.8 million, of course excluding Women and Children”.

The group is currently led by one Joe Waiganjo (General) and draws membership from some of the politicians in parliament.

Meanwhile, a plan by the outlawed Mungiki, a sect which is slowly transforming into an Italian like Mafia, was to blame for most of the crimes committed in early 2007 in the East African nation, a confidential twenty-four page police report indicates. The report details a shocking blow-blow account of a Mungiki that is not only running real estate and transport businesses but one that is now boasting of making a number of poor people instant millionaires and one that was preparing to sponsor a number of candidates to parliament in last year’s general elections – which they did.

The report says that the crime wave that had hit the country at the time the report was compiled under the spotlight was directly funded by the Mungiki and is intentionally aimed at the rich and prominent in the society and police officers.The report even lists recently fallen Kenya’s most wanted Criminal Simon Matheri Ikeere as one of the prominent members of the dreaded cult. “Out of the 26 criminals whose photo’s police have circulated over the last six months, 18 belong to the Mungiki,” the report says.

So organized is the Mungiki, that the report approximates the net worth of the outlawed religious sect at Shs. 4.5 billion as at January 15 this year. Interestingly, the report says the Mungiki are currently preparing to have its first budget in May this year – a month before the National budget usually presented by Finance Ministers in parliament. Just like any other serious Mafia organization, the Mungiki runs six armouries – five less than what the state runs, across the country. The headquarters, the report says, is in Laikipia and that’s where all the sources of weapons direct their donations.

“The Mungiki Laikipia armory is large and runs about 15 feet deep, those who steal guns from the police are rewarded with ranks within the organization and are branded heroes,” the report reveals.Other armouries are in Dandora, Tigoni area, Kayole, Njiru and Kitengela. “Each armoury exists for a reason; the Tigoni one is a back-up for highway crime, while Kayole and Njiru exist so as to offer refuge to gangsters and those commanding the transport sector.” “The Kitengela armoury is the main source of weapons and manpower to spread fear and panic, basically it is meant to organize and dispatch assignments,” the report reads.

The sources of weapons for the organization has been directly linked to the beef business where guns are wrapped together with the meat as it makes its way from North-Eastern to the country, other sources include th Oromo Liberation Front in Ethiopia and North Uganda.

In the armouries, the main weapons available are AK 47’s with a cache of bullets and G3 rifles.“The ultimate goal,” reads the report stamped highly confidential, “is to make sure that both the Police Commissioner and the Minister for Internal Security are sacked.

“The attack on foreigners is so as to affect the booming tourism industry and to increase the pressure of the sackings from abroad countries housed in Kenya, attacks on the rich and the prominent is a strategy to unify Kenyans around the same cause, while that strategy of killing police officers is meant to scare the law enforcers, and those are all characteristics of a Mafia Organization,” the report chillingly reads on.

“They have established a clear broad network and with the laws on money laundering still very weak they are able to access lots of money through charity like events and others directly from Kenyans with a die hard association with the group, a channel that cannot be stopped, because they educate hundreds of children and even run three credible children’s home,” the report says.

Mungiki, the report further reveals has already adopted a flag that’s coloured white, yellow, green, red and black – hues associated with the sect.

Links are also being drawn to an international organization the Universal Miracle Centre, little information about the mother body were forthcoming by the time of going to press. “The resurgence of the sect comes after a failed attempt to revive under the guise of the National Youth Alliance Party,” the report further reads.

Young unemployed people are lured into Mungiki through practical pledges of employment and life changing fortune making assignments, “graduates pass through a rite that involves ingesting human urine and umbilical cords, before undergoing a public baptism, where English (or Christian) names are dropped in favour of authentic names”.

Elaborate Ritual

The report further details how conversion to Mungiki happens, “Initially held at their shrine in Karandi area of Laikipia District, the oathing ceremony is an elaborate process, which begins late in the evening, goes on through the night to end at dawn.”

Black sheep and goats are slaughtered and their blood mixed with some mixture said to be made out of wild plant roots. Other independent sources explained to our reporters that, “Traditional Kikuyu beer, Muratina, whose main component is honey is served in plenty as the initiates engage in singing and chanting slogan in praise of their gods and the movement.”

Paraphernalia, which include walking sticks painted in red, green, black and white, gourds and small tobacco containers are passed around to members and a flag in the same colours is normally hosted outside the shrine. “We are Mungiki and we shall stick together and guard the secrets of our sect. We shall protect one another and remain united under our leaders…” the initiates chant as they sip a bloody concoction that is passed around to everyone present. They also sing traditional songs.

“Roast meat is also passed around to members who take bites in turns after their leaders, and tobacco, in small containers, is passed around for members to sniff,” says a former member who requested anonymity.

The man, who co-ordinated Mungiki activities in Rift Valley since the sect was founded until it was declared illegal, says the aim of the elaborate ritual is to unify the group. “All we wanted to achieve was strong unity and to be identified by the society,” he says. The sole purpose of the oath, he says, is to ensure that the initiates abide to our doctrines of coming together to form a society that respects the Kikuyu culture and the ancient practices.

As morning comes, the new initiates are “baptised” in the wee hours of the morning at a dam near the shrine. The then sect spiritual leader Maina Njenga conducted the ceremonies. The converts are immersed in the murky waters before passing over a goatskin, which is spread on the ground where the spiritual leader stood. The sad thing about those who joined the sect after being coerced was that there was no turning back after the oath, our source revealed.

“Anyone who joined the sect would be allowed to know all the secrets including our sources of funds our operations and other internal matters. That is why some people were killed once they denounced the sect,” he reveals. There is no turning back once you are a true Mungiki, he says, adding that no one has ever performed a reversal ritual.

“This explains why those who join us disappear from the public domain once they feel like not continuing to be members,” he explains.

Juma Kwayera | Nairobi

A quiet rebellion and near-total collapse of the chain of command has exposed Kenya’s police force as incapable of dealing with the growing national crisis in the country, amid growing fears that it has also been infiltrated by the outlawed pro- government Mungiki sect.

Speaking to the Mail & Guardian on condition of anonymity following the chilling murder on last Tuesday of an opposition MP, a senior police inspector and an officer in the criminal investigations department admitted that all was not right in the police force.

“The police are angry that they are being used to solve a political problem. Our remit is maintenance of law and order, but we are being dragged into politics. It is known that the election outcome was manipulated; who does not know that?” asked the officer.

Despondency in the force is the latest twist in Kenya’s political imbroglio, which former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan said was an international priority on Tuesday when he formally launched the mediation process between the government and the opposition.

Annan, who is heading an African Union panel of eminent persons, said that the escalating violence put the country on the precipice of large-scale upheaval, which the “state must use all the means at its disposal to forestall”. Annan added that the electoral dispute was now mutating into ethnic hostility and inflaming long-suppressed passions. The AU-mandated team also includes former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa and Graça Machel.

Gangs of youths believed to be members of the Mungiki sect claimed responsibility for the killing of Mellitus Mugabe Were, the opposition MP. Youths suspected of being members of Mungiki also took control of the highway linking Nairobi with the nearby town of Nakuru, a scene of much of the recent violence.

Most members of the much-feared Mungiki sect hail from the Kikuyu tribe, the same ethnic group as President Mwai Kibaki. They rose to prominence last year after a string of grisly killings, particularly in Nairobi’s slums. Police efforts to break up the gangs late last year led to days of violent clashes in which several people were killed.

Were’s death on Tuesday co-incided with the formal launch of international mediation and reinforced the perception that Mungiki, which allegedly enjoys the patronage of influential politicians and businessmen in the government, is on the rampage again after a six-month lull.

Police have confirmed that 20 out of the 115 people killed in Nakuru and Naivasha towns in the Rift Valley province were beheaded in grisly circumstances reminiscent of Mungiki’s decapitation of 200 people in Nairobi early last year. Human rights groups, including United States-based Human Rights Watch, estimated last week that nearly a quarter of the 900 people shot dead post-election were executed by Mungiki gang members disguised as police. The senior police officer complained that the infiltration of the police by the criminal gang had exacerbated tensions in the force, leading to fears of an imminent falling out.

“We are being misused. We are resisting the public perception [that] we mop up politicians’ dirty work,” the inspector said. Two other police officers said last week’s reshuffle in the police force was precipitated by growing tension among high-ranking police officers who felt they were being misused to crack down on opposition supporters.

The opposition says that it has also received reports of Mungiki’s infiltration of the police force.

“We have been receiving reports about despondency in the police force and the military that has been forcing the government to resort to criminal gangs to control escalating violence,” Orange Democratic Movement MP Omingo Magara said.

He added: “The same sources told us about how two weeks ago the government acquired 4 000 guns and armed Mungiki to kill protesters in Rift Valley. I leave it to you to judge who is running the show in the police force,” he said.

Tensions in the security forces began to appear after Internal Security Minister George Saitoti told the police to refrain from using live ammunition, only for police to open fire on unarmed mourners in Nairobi last week, injuring several.

“The chain of command has collapsed,” Magara said. The government began deploying the military at violence flashpoints last week, fuelling the public perception that the police force is no longer obeying the command structure.

Responding to charges that the police force was no longer capable of maintaining law and order prompting the intervention of the military Police Commissioner Major General Hussein Ali said the presence of the army is “temporary.” According to the Kenyan constitution, the army can only be called out of the barracks after a state of emergency is declared.

Source

By Fiona Forde

The Kenyan peace talks are in tatters after it was discovered that Kofi Annan’s hotel room in Nairobi has been bugged.

Independent Newspapers has learnt from multiple reliable, impartial sources – both in Kenya and abroad – that the former UN Secretary General’s business and personal conversations were being intercepted during the ongoing negotiations after a thorough search was carried out on his Serena Hotel room on Tuesday evening. For how long the room has been planted or by whom is unclear.

“Kofi’s security aides found the device yesterday,” one source explained, while the talks were in session. Annan is said to be “livid”, but it is not yet known how he intends to act on Tuesday night’s revelations or whether he will walk away from the already troubled negotiations.

Annan arrived in the Kenyan capital on January 15 on an African Union (AU) invitation to head up the talks around Mwai Kibaki’s disputed election victory.

He was joined by Graca Machel and the former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, under the banner of the Panel of Prominent African Personalities.

Together they brought members of both sides of the political divide to the table at the Serena Hotel, where Annan was also staying.

Athough a breakthrough had been announced last Friday, when a four-point framework was agreed upon to curb the violence and address the December 27 poll, Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga continued to wage a war of words on the sidelines.

News of the bugging comes just 24 hours after Cyril Ramaphosa withdrew as the intended chief negotiator when the government of Kibaki made it be known that they would not trust the South African’s intervention.

Ramaphosa was not the first South African to receive his walking papers. Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu’s efforts to broker a deal last month were also met with a luke-warm reaction.

Meanwhile, more than 1 000 lives have been lost, some 300 000 people are internally displaced and billions of shillings worth of damage has been carried out on properties and businesses throughout the country, home to the third largest UN headquarters in the world.

Machel is due to arrive in Nairobi on Wednesday after a brief trip home to Johannesburg.

Meanwhile, Fresh violence in western Kenya on Wednesday left 12 dead, nine of whom were shot by police cracking down on gangs of youths who have attacked houses and other property, police sources said.

Weeks of turmoil have delivered a major blow to Kenya’s tourism industry, the top foreign currency earner, while tea production and agriculture have also been hard hit.

About 300 business leaders issued a statement supporting Annan’s mediation effort and warned that the economy faced a meltdown if the crisis was not resolved quickly.

Uganda, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia decided to dispatch their foreign ministers to Nairobi today to show support for “government efforts to restore stability”.

Annan has set a deadline of seven to 15 days to resolve the crisis.

Source

FOXNews

2008-02-04 08:44:56

By Guardian Reporter

Peace talks enter the make-or-break stage on Monday even as international pressure for a quick end to the firestorm of destruction, deaths and displacement, intensifies.

It will also be race against time as the parties involved have committed themselves to a programme of action that could end the skirmishes in the next seven and 15 days.

The crucial day could be Wednesday when the negotiators are expected to discuss Orange`s stand that Kibaki is in office through an act of electoral fraud.

From the African Union appointed mediator, former UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan, and his predecessor Mr Ban Ki-Moon, the message is the same – violence and impunity must stop.

The representatives of the parties to the dispute – the Party of National Unity – exhibit mounting confidence in each other and have made an important agreement on the first step.

The talks took a break as violence popped up in the Kisii-Kericho border, triggered mainly by the killing of Ainamoi MP David Kimutai Too on Thursday in Eldoret.

Youths burned hundreds of homes in a local market on Friday night, sending residents fleeing.

In Eldoret, a mob ringed the Great Harvest Evangelical Church, where two people were sheltering, and burnt it.

Those inside fled. On Saturday, the death toll of 800 the President gave on Friday rose by six.

The talks weathered its first storm on Friday when the President said ODM should seek legal redress over its claims of a stolen mandate in the presidential election.

President Kibaki also blamed the Opposition for instigating widespread violence.

On mediation, Kibaki noted that the solution does not lie in power sharing, but in a long-term solution addressing the underlying problems.

But on Saturday, the Raila team accused Kibaki of undermining the peace process, but said they would not pull out of it.

The party said its representatives in the Annan talks would raise the issue with the convener.

From Monday, the parties are expected to tackle the disputed presidential election, seen to be the substantive issue in the talks and the trigger of the chaos that has ravaged the land.

The Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Team is expected to tackle the emotional issue of the presidential poll this week, after clearing what were considered as preliminary issues like agreeing on the rules of engagement and the mandate of the panel.

On Friday, the team sat late to deal with violence so that tomorrow it discuss the humanitarian crisis that has sprung out of the violence.

Talks on the humanitarian aspects are expected to take not more than a day, but could take two.

By Tuesday or Wednesday, the team is expected to delve into the alleged electoral fraud.

The talks proceed with the weight of the world heavily on Kenya, amid political posturing, seen to be meant to give Kibaki an edge over his opponents, casting doubts on the peace talks.

Under watchful eye

The arrivals and departures by high profile world leaders tell the story of a nation under the watchful eyes of the world.

Mr Ki-Moon jetted in on Friday. On hand to receive him was Annan. With Annan is former South African President Mr Nelson Mandela`s wife, Mrs Graca Machel.

Former Tanzanian President Mr Benjamin Mkapa is still around, weeks after Ghana\’s President John Kufuor came and left.

South Africa’s Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, a businessman who helped negotiate an end to apartheid and was thought to be eyeing the presidency, is expected soon.

Such an array of top world leaders has never converged in Kenya before to help out a nation once taking pride in being island of peace.

One more time, the European Union said it would stand by Annan in his effort to resolve the crisis.

French Ambassador in Kenya Elizabeth Barbier, who is the Head of the EU team, said the EU will “do everything it can to help Mr Annan in his delicate task”.

Saying the EU is in close contact with Mr Annan and all Kenyan players.

Ms Barbier said she is keen to make sure that “a legitimate solution can be agreed swiftly and that Kenya can come back to peace”.

“I think that, as Mr Annan said, there are many factors to this conflict. That the announcement of the results of the elections triggered the violence is a fact. If we want peace, Kenyans must address all the issues fuelling the conflict. That is what Mr Annan is trying to do by bringing together the two sides. We urge Kenyan politicians from all sides to quickly find a sustainable and consensual political solution to the crisis,” she said.

How that stand sits with Kibaki`s position that ODM should go to court over the disputed elections remains unclear.

“In such situations, the accepted rule is to resort to the established constitutional and legal mechanisms,” Kibaki said.

Kibaki told African presidents and members of the international community that; “For us in Kenya, the Judiciary has over the years arbitrated many electoral disputes, and the current one should not be an exception.”

On Saturday, in an interview with The Sunday Standard, Ms Barbier said France and the EU fear that the violence could worsen alongside the humanitarian crisis.

She said EU and France believe there has to be a political solution to the dispute.

“The origin of the present crisis lies in the immense disappointment of the Kenyan people in the face of an election result marred by irregularities. The solution is political and must be swift.

Both parties now face a historic responsibility: choose dialogue or bear responsibility for a political and human catastrophe,” Barbier said.

Barbier said it was also France’s position the United Nations should get involved.

“France reaffirms its confidence in Mr Kofi Annan to pursue mediation.

It also reaffirms its support for the efforts of the African Union and the United Nations Secretary-General to end the violence and find a political solution to the crisis.

In the name of the responsibility to protect, it is urgent to help the people of Kenya. The United Nations Security Council must take up this question and act,” Ms Barbier said.

Those involved in the talks reported that the hard line positions politicians are taking in public do not exist in the boardroom negotiations and representatives of PNU are open to all ideas.

But they also say that ultimately, it is the support of the world Annan enjoys that will make a difference, especially when the thorny issue of the political causes of the chaos is put on the table.
Emerging stand-off

The weight the world has brought to bear on Kenya played itself out the County Hall last week, when seats had to be rearranged as Kenyans remained glued to their televisions sets, waiting for Kibaki and Raila to arrive, to take their seats and launch the peace teams.

Unknown to the public, a stand-off was emerging between the chief negotiator and Kenya’s Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Mr Francis Muthaura, over who should chair the day’s meeting.

Sources told The Sunday Standard Muthaura insisted that Kibaki be the one to chair the meeting, and ordered the State chair be placed in the middle, awaiting Kibaki’s arrival.

Muthaura further insisted that Kenya is a sovereign State and would not allow a foreign dignitary to chair a meeting, which the President is attending.

He argued that even diplomatic protocol would not allow that.

The Head of Civil Service is said to have cautioned that if the President would not sit in the middle, with Annan and Raila on both sides, he would not attend.

With Kibaki’s re-election being the bone of contention, the talks ran into danger of stalling.

In the first meeting, ODM had complained that Kibaki changed his speech and used the occasion to assert that he was the “duly elected” Head of State, a position even Annan’s secretariat is said to have been uneasy with.

ODM also complained that in the earlier talks, Muthaura ’sneaked in’ the presidential public address system, while the leaders had been briefed that they would speak from the same microphone.

Observers believe it is the weight of the world that is solidly behind Annan, which forced Muthaura to back down after the former UN chief threatened to ease off the process.

“Annan told Muthaura that he had spent most of his life in protocol related matters and knew better what is consistent with protocol and what was not. He took Kibaki aside as soon as he arrived at County Hall and explained. That is how Kibaki ended up not chairing the meeting,” the source said.

The two parties agreed to prioritise ending the violence and tackling the international crisis before embarking on the political issues largely due to pressure from the international community.

Consensus has also built at the talks that speed is of essence. When a member suggested last week that the team spends two weeks discussing the violence, others objected, ignoring party lines.

“There is a realisation that Kofi is not just after coffee on the table. There is a realisation that he comes with tremendous goodwill of the international community and whichever position he takes will be supported across the world,” a member of the Dialogue and Reconciliation Team said.

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BY PATRICK OKEYO

Those politicians who are saying that the ODM pre-planned violence are misleading Kenyans. Logically, the opposition was planning to form a government because they expected to win Violence was pre-planned by rigging elections.

The opposition side doesn’t command police, guns or military to use to kill. The violence was the outcome of rigging. But lets delve into a little bit of background. The colonialists settled, among other places, in Rift valley’s fertile land after displacing the native populations.

When they left the founding father of this nation Mzee Jomo Kenyatta mishandled the land issue. Instead of restoring landownership to the original owners, he instead apportioned the same to people who were not natives of Rift Valley.

Kenyatta may not have necessarily had bad intentions but the end result is that settlers from Central Province inherited land that belonged to some other people. But there was also gluttony. Huge tracts of land were apportioned by only a handful of families.

Those who deny that this is the genesis of the land crisis in Rift Valley are burying their heads in sand, The current situation exploded because both the Moi and Kibaki governments opted to gloss over the land issue and even where there were clear pointers that a conflagration was in the horizon chose to look the other way. Kenyans are doomed if they continue to argue that anybody can buy land and settle anywhere.

Yes in theory this is applicable but in the context of Kenya where resource distribution has been far from equitable, there is raging bitterness, which clouds such ideals as owning property anywhere. Kalenjins in Rift Valley feel that their land was given to the Kikuyu. Passions were high as were the stakes in the December elections. Rift Valley residents had invested hope in ODM victory and with change promised saw the prospects of Raila Odinga rule as providing a solution.

When the elections were instead rigged, something snapped. The account of planned attacks is an illusion being peddled by people who are groping for answers to what they know very well. There were high expectations of land reform policy but with ECK controversially declaring Kibaki the winner, the fuse, which had been the land question, blew. People in the Rift Valley saw Kibaki as least likely to reform land policy.

The pent up frustrations found vent in the rigged poll. This is not to justify not to justify the horror of, among others, setting women and children ablaze as they took sanctuary inside a church or burning 14 families locked up in a residential estate in Naivasha as witnessed recently. If President Kibaki finds it easier to buy the explanation of opposition manipulating the passions of people in the Rift Valley as the most plausible cause of the blood-letting then we are far from real solutions.

He can build a police station in every home but that will not restore the mutual respect that neighbours should have for each other. In any case if the fleeing communities are forced back to land where they have been uprooted without specific issues being addressed then he will only be postponing the next round of blood-letting.

During President Moi’s reign, he avoided tackling the land problem and instead found other means to restrain Kalenjins from pressing the land issue by giving them (Kalenjins) certain goodies and ensuring amenities and jobs in civil service as a quid pro quo to avoid confronting the Kikuyu community about land. It all amounted to postponing tackling the real problem. Land reform can no longer be postponed.

There are people and communities in Rift valley and Coast who are either squatters or were displaced. Unfortunately, there are few families who own huge tracts of land. Is this contradiction too difficult to see? One is bound to pity the Kikuyu peasants who had been uprooted from Central and today bear the brunt of hostilities.

Those who took their land from the departing White settlers are culpable and should not point fingers at Kalenjins. Legitimacy of land ownership must be addressed. Hundreds of people have lost lives and property. The government must step in and address the root causes of the explosion.

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When some of the Kenya military chiefs wanted to put in place an interim government, but the military police was placed outside their home to prevent them from carrying out the plan.

The interim government was to be headed by neither Kibaki or Odinga, its main mandate was to resolve the election dispute and avoid the bloodshed.

Lt Gen Augustino Njoroge, the Kenya Army Commander is believed to be a key Kibaki ally, and allegedly has been bypassing the Chief of General Staff, Gen Jeremiah Mutinda Kianga.

Mon 4 Feb 2008, 12:57 GMT

NAIROBI, Feb 4 (Reuters) – A Kenyan legislator accused First Lady Lucy Kibaki of physically assaulting him at a meeting at the official State House residence three weeks ago and said he planned to sue her.

Government-allied legislator Gitobu Imanyara, a lawyer who unsuccessfully sued the first lady on behalf of a television cameraman who said she slapped him in 2005, told reporters he had been the latest target of Lucy Kibaki’s ire.

The president is currently wrestling with a national crisis over disputed elections that have ignited opposition calls for his removal and widespread ethnic bloodshed. On the accusations against his wife, his office had no immediate comment.

“I will be bringing proceedings against her this week, so we can give her an opportunity to come to court and tell the Kenyan people why she thinks that she has control of State House, that she can run amok,” Imanyara told reporters.

He said he was in State House for a meeting about the race for parliament speaker when the first lady became angry at his presence because he had been involved in the earlier lawsuit.

“She was in pyjamas and not wearing any shoes. She immediately started throwing punches at me shouting ‘nobody goes here without my permission’,” Imanyara said.

PROTECTIVE

Imanyara said President Kibaki had apologised and he had initially decided to keep quiet. But he said Lucy Kibaki had been “screaming and talking about it”.

Lucy Kibaki, known to be fiercely protective of her husband, has been at the centre of controversy on several occasions.

In December, local media reported that she slapped a protocol official who called her by the name of a woman widely reported to be the president’s second wife.

In 2005, she stormed Nation Media’s newsroom to complain about a story and slapped cameraman Clifford Derrick while her security detail and police looked on helplessly as she kept journalists there for hours.

In fact she had the wrong newsroom, as the source of her anger was a story by the rival Standard media group.

In 2004, she publicly upbraided Vice President Moody Awori, who called her the “second lady.” She also shouted down a former World Bank country director for playing loud music at a party at the home he had rented from the Kibaki family. (Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Writing by Bryson Hull, editing by Ralph Boulton)

Sources

Nairobi/Johannesburg – Prominent South African businessman and experienced negotiator Cyril Ramaphosa was asked by the government to withdraw from mediation talks to resolve Kenya’s crisis, an official said Monday. Ramaphosa was set to join a panel of eminent Africans, including former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, in finding an end to the brutal conflict over disputed elections that has plunged Kenya into violence.

“Kofi Annan reluctantly accepts the withdrawal of Cyril Ramaphosa from role of chief mediator. Withdrawal is a result of reservations expressed by the government,” the UN said in a statement to the media.

Johannesburg’s The Star newspaper reported that Ramaphosa was due to return to South Africa Monday, only days after he arrived in Kenya at Annan’s behest.

Reports said the government had raised concerns about Ramaphosa’s alleged links with opposition leader Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party, which confirmed the exit.

“I don’t know why the government is afraid of Ramaphosa. The former secretary general chose him because of his competence and reputation,” ODM secretary Anyang Nyong’o said.

Former trade union leader Ramaphosa led South Africa’s African National Congress in negotiations with the National Party to end apartheid in the early 1990s.

His skills as a negotiator have taken him to Northern Ireland in the past to oversee the peace process in the British province.

Despite Ramaphosa’s departure, fresh talks between Kenya’s rival political sides kicked off Monday after being suspended for the weekend which saw continued death and destruction that has plagued the East African nation since disputed elections in December.

Youths burned down dozens of homes in Kenya’s Rift Valley province, leaving scores dead, as Ramaphosa arrived in Kenya to assist Annan in his mediation efforts.

Much hangs on the success of the talks, which last week saw both sides agree on a framework to end the unrest within two weeks of January 29, when the talks began and address the humanitarian crisis triggered by the violence.

Opposition leader Odinga, 63, in a visit to his rural home in western Kenya Sunday, said that if the government were to deploy the military to deal with the violence, he would call instead upon the African Union or the UN to send “neutral” peacekeepers.

Meanwhile, the government of President Mwai Kibaki, 76, charged with rigging December’s polls, affirmed its commitment to the Annan mediation. “We cannot afford to be a permanent feature on television screens around the world for the wrong reasons,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula.

Some 300,000 people have been displaced by the relentless violence and nearly 900 killed in what has marked a disturbing change in the country known for its pristine coastline and fabled game parks.

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As the post-election death toll nears 1,000 and towns go up in flames, more Kenyans are saying the ‘holy’ President and his elite advisers are to blame

Xan Rice in Othaya
Sunday February 3, 2008
The Observer

Mount Kenya rises in the distance, its glaciers reflecting the sharp morning light. Tea bushes cover the slopes around the huge estate, with its high walls and three separate entrances, one manned by heavily armed policemen. If the pre-election predictions had been followed, the 76-year-old golf-loving, aloof owner of the estate in Othaya should have been strolling in its neat gardens, enjoying his first month of retirement and reflecting on his legacy of furthering Kenya’s passage towards democracy.

But instead Mwai Kibaki is holed up in State House in Nairobi, three hours’ drive away, fighting to entrench his presidential power following a highly contentious election victory that has plunged Kenya into its worst crisis since independence. In little over a month more than 900 people have been killed, 300,000 people displaced, and entire towns split along ethnic lines.

Yesterday the violence continued. In the town of Kericho in the Rift Valley, hundreds of homes belonging to people of Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe were being set alight by gangs of youths.

Kibaki’s handling of the crisis, so far limited to one brief visit to displaced people and reading out a few pre-written statements insisting he won fairly, has invited fierce criticism. The normally pro-government Daily Nation newspaper warned Kibaki: ‘If Kenya disintegrates, history books will record that the collapse of a once great, united and prosperous country happened on your watch’. The Nairobi Star was headlined: ‘Where is Kibaki? … as Kenya slips into anarchy’.

Other questions come from millions of Kenyans struggling to understand what is happening in their country. How could people have misread a man who has been in government since independence, regarded as the gentleman of Kenyan politics? What motivated an already wealthy President, with little apparent ego, caricatured in newspapers as enjoying afternoon naps, to stage what the opposition has called a ‘civilian coup’?

‘I have spoken to nearly every prominent columnist in this country and asked “Did you see this coming?”‘ said Wycliffe Muga, one of Kenya’s best-known journalists. ‘None of them did. From being a detached, almost aristocratic President, Kibaki suddenly seemed to change overnight into a scheming, duplicitous leader willing to see bloodshed in his thirst for power.’ Some are looking into Kibaki’s past to see whether they missed the warning signs of a leader who would take more than 40 years to reveal his true colours.

A brilliant student at the London School of Economics, Kibaki entered Kenya’s first post-independence government in 1963. Six years later he stood in Nairobi’s Bahati constituency against Jael Mbogo, the popular head of Kenya’s biggest women’s association. He won by a wafer-thin margin in remarkably similar circumstances to December’s election; behind in the early tallying, the verdict was delayed for days and a crack squad of police officers swarmed around the vote-counting centre when the result was announced. ‘I was so far ahead in early vote counting that even the BBC even reported that a young woman had felled a government minister,’ Mbogo, now a civil society activist in Nairobi, told The Observer. ‘Kibaki stalled the result, and then robbed me of victory. Because he looks so holy, people are still asking if he really was capable of stealing this election. What I say is “Of course, he has done it before”.’

As Vice-President under Daniel arap Moi, Kibaki was well regarded. His family become rich through his contacts, but he was never tainted by corruption. He was happiest on the golf course and in the colonial-era Muthaiga Club where he held court with Nairobi’s elite Kikuyus; politicians and businessmen, the lines between them often blurred.

His reluctance to press for multipartyism earned him the nickname General Coward. But by the 2002 election, after 24 years of Moi’s misrule, a strongman was the last thing Kenyans were looking for. Kibaki was a safe pair of hands.

‘Kibaki is the one politician I have always trusted in Kenya,’ said Philip Machila, 67, who used to attend party meetings with Kibaki. ‘The only problem he has always had is some of the people around him.’

The ‘bad-influence’ theory is always used to excuse Kibaki. Throughout his first term in office he was surrounded and shielded by old friends, virtually all Kikuyu. Initially Kibaki needed protecting. Badly injured in a car accident a few weeks before he was sworn in in 2002, he was then reported to have had a stroke. For much of 2003 it was unclear whether Kibaki would complete his term. His memory was as shaky as his walk. His health improved but access to him has not. He has not given a single media interview since he became President in 2002 and does not take questions at rare news conferences.

Several of Kibaki’s Kikuyu golfing friends have assumed significant influence at State House in recent years. ‘Some of these people hold very strong thoughts about the superiority of the Kikuyus and their inherent right to govern,’ said a former government minister. ‘It’s a case of “We helped end British rule using the Mau Mau, and we are the ones that keep the economy ticking over. The other 42 ethnic groups are welcome to live in Kenya, but only we can rule”.’ He said he did not believe ‘the President is calling the shots at all. He always has to consult the hardliners around him’.

‘It was not until September last year that we could even get him out on the campaign trail,’ said an adviser to Kibaki’s PNU party. ‘He seemed very reluctant for a long time.’ But the adviser rejected the assertion that Kibaki is not completely in charge: ‘He attends a security briefing even morning. He understands his legacy will be hurt if this current crisis does not end well.’

Even with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in Nairobi this weekend, supporting mediation efforts chaired by Kofi Annan, Kibaki made a speech to the African Union that could hardly have been more antagonistic towards opposition supporters, already on edge after the murder of two opposition MPs last week. He reiterated that the election result was fair and that the opposition was to blame for the violence. It should take its election grievances to the courts, he said, and blamed unnamed foreign countries for suggesting a power-sharing. This hardline stance at a time when towns like Kericho are in flames – and his quiet dismissal of Murage a fortnight ago – means there is an increasing body of people who now believe that Kibaki alone must take the blame for the country’s mess. ‘I honestly believe he is the man driving the whole operation; the ineptly rigged election and the aftermath,’ said David Ndii, a Nairobi-based analyst. ‘Kibaki very much knows what is happening, and must be held responsible.’

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