LET COALITION PARTNERS NOT LIVE IN DENIAL, THEY HAVE BETRAYED KENYANS!

By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
March 2, 2009

All media are in agreement; that this coalition government has come a cropper. The men of faith are saying the same thing. Even members of parliament including some cabinet ministers concur that the coalition has let Kenyans down.
The whole country is grumbling. No part of the country feels satisfied that this regime has delivered on its promises.

Anger against hunger, graft and greed has united ordinary Kenyans like never before. Finally Kenyans have come to know the bitter truth; that there are only two tribes that J M Kariuki preached about in the 1970s.

Now ordinary Kikuyus know that their real enemies are not the ordinary Kalenjins, Luos and Luhyas that they have fought against every voting season since this country returned to multi-party politics 17 years ago. Now Kisiis know that their real enemies are not the ordinary Kambas, Kalenjins and Luos but rather, the real enemy is from within; that man or woman they voted for, fought for and even died for.

That is the real enemy that has now refused to pay his taxes yet taxes their meagre incomes to death. That is the real enemy that has conspired to export maize to neighboring countries while they are scrounging for wild fruits and rats in the wilderness in order to survive. That is the real enemy who knows and feels no hunger when they have to beg for handouts from well wishers to survive the next morning.

As Kibaki, Raila and Kalonzo continue to delude themselves that the coalition is working, populations all over the country are getting restless. It is no longer Rift Valley and Nyanza versus Mt. Kenya. It is no longer Coast province versus Eastern or North Eastern Province. Kenyans have woken up to the reality that the elite; the ruling class belong together and that those public outbursts against one another are mere smoke screens. In reality there is a secret deal among the political class to rule and exploit this country forever, share the spoils and continue to abuse and misuse the common man for eternity.

If we say that this coalition has failed to deliver and cheated Kenyans, what exactly do we mean? Did we have specific expectations that we wanted them to meet in a specific time frame? I would say, yes we had those expectations and we needed them delivered within a time frame but they have failed to do so.

Forget about those grandiose manifestoes from ODM, ODMK and KANU that are now gathering dust in some deserted party offices. Let us zero in on the Kofi Annan Accord that had four agenda to be accomplished by the coalition partners within the five year period.

Of the four agenda items, only peace has returned to the country without corresponding reconciliation initiatives that were supposed to be carried out countrywide.

In other words; guns are silent but the militias have not been disarmed or immobilized. They are still intact, ready to explode when occasion demands or as the need arises. If you listened to whispers from people in Rift Valley during the William Ruto vote of no confidence vote in Parliament last week, you would understand that the flashpoint was gearing up for another round of war. If you saw a Luhya chief guest ejected from a church fundraising in Eldoret by irate Kalenjin youths about the same time; you would understand what I am talking about. Ethnic violence is real and possible again in most parts of the country.
This coalition has failed because it has refused to deal with impunity, inequality, abject poverty, landlessness, and joblessness.

It has refused to deal decisively with official corruption even as cabinet ministers and public servants loot billions of Kenyan oil money and raid our national granaries as inflation hits the roof while famine ravages our villages.

It has refused to take action against the Attorney General and Police Commissioner even as evidence builds against them as the chief architects of impunity in this country. As Kenyans cry for justice, the grand coalition is busy feeding on the miseries of its citizens.

This coalition has failed because Kenyans who were chased from their farms have not gone back despite a “rudi nyumbani” government operation that flopped badly.
This coalition has not met any deadlines it set out to achieve the four agendas it signed with peace negotiators. It has not set up a local tribunal, an interim electoral commission and enacted a new constitution in the first 12 months. Now is when it is struggling to set them up 12 months behind schedule.

The truth is; this coalition has failed Kenyans and it will not deliver a new constitution before 2012. It should be disbanded to allow Kenyans go for fresh elections.

jerryokungu@gmail.com