The Intricate SONU Politic Versus Future Leadership-SIGNIOR STEVE BIKO Organizining Secretary-SONU

You might be asking yourself, "Why do university students spend so much money on students union campaigns year-in year-out. "Hold it! The money might not even be theirs in the first place. They are holding politicians at ransom! The respective Governors, Senators and MPs are an endangered species. Whichever way they go, they are in a catch-22 situation. Whether they give the money to the aspiring student leaders or not, the bottom line is what the student want will always carry the day. It is not a surprise that of every ten visitors to the  Continental House Offices, six are always University Students. This is hypothetical but plausible statistics that even National leaders like, Prof. Anyang' Nyong'o, Senator Mike Sonko, James Orengo, Kabogo, Deputy President, William Ruto amongst others have experienced.
The aspiring young politicians storm the offices each morning looking for handouts ranging from CDF money to political campaign funds. The MPs, governors and senators would wish to be on the good books of the students, so they'll have to part with whatever little money they can get to give as handout. The students suddenly win their election, establish a name, for themselves in the national political arena, and then go ahead and challenge them in the National Election. On the other hand, if they are not given money for campaign, they end up losing election, re-strategies by working with the opponents of the MPs or so and use that as an excuse to campaign against the MPs in their constituencies.
The "jackpot politics" is not a new phenomenon in Kenyan politics for having started during the Kenyatta era, escalated during Moi's regime, perfected during the Kibaki's administration and  digitalized in the Uhuru's tenure. The university community has not been left behind. You will hear a student innocently asking a student leader, to buy them lunch since they get something good from SONU, the Executive SONU official is assured of carrying home around  Ksh. 16,000 per month as their monthly as their remuneration and meeting allowances which are paid depending on the number off sittings. The 10 executive members also divide ksh. 31,000,000 amongst themselves in the name of holding events. More often than ever do the student’s leaders create a crisis in the campus, and a meeting to iron out the issue where the pay package is increased. The SONU executive members constitutes 10 top executive members and 11-campus representatives. The KUSO, MUSO, TuKSO are among the students bodies in the Kenyan political limelight, but SONU have always turned to  be a nightmare to the government of the day and the university administration. Speaking of leadership and morality, speak of respect to your elders, speak of respecting your lecturers, speak of respecting the public, and most importantly self discipline.  The leaders will even go as far as stoning lecturers’ cars,  motorcade along the University Way and the Uhuru Highway as well as fighting the police officers who are always brought to intervene but ends up defending themselves as well. Surely are we leaders or heckler! Are we the intellects everyone would wish to emulate as their role-models or opportunists who have forgotten of their societies for greed of money!
"The villainy you taught me I will execute a d better the instructions" were the words of one motorist along the university way purported to be an CEO in one of the leading companies in the nation, whose care was vandalised and even deflected. We have a life to live as a student, a sibling to someone, a child to some parents, the future of the nation, a future parents to some children and a future spouse to someone and an employee to the motorists along the Uhuru Highway and The University Way. We are crashing our own destiny.
Let the wisest of all students and most importantly, students leaders capture this "A SUCCESSFUL MAN  BECOME SUCCESSFUL NOT BECAUSE THEY DO DIFFERENT THINGS, BUT BECAUSE THEY DO THE SAME THINGS IN DIFFERENT WAYS"

Uhuru and Raila: Let my people go!-Anyona Robert,Pwani University

Kenya is a state at war with itself, the underlying issues that affect its people are mere political tools used for campaigns. Many citizens have no hope of facing tomorrow barely living less than a dollar per day and the young graduates are disillusioned out of the universities because of lack of jobs . A country that boasts of ten per cent of its people controlling nighty per cent of its resources is a divided one.This has made its people to suffer as they try to make ends meet. The political elite who had the sole responsibility to give Kenya a good beginning  squandered the available resources  dividing it among there families, tribesmen and cronies.Many who fought for Independence were left bleeding at the new art and act of colonization from the very people who promised to set them free. Large tracks of land were taken from the hopeless and government positions awarded to cronies and tribes men .

Kenya must go back to where they missed the  socioeconomic highway or else we are sitting on a time bomb.Uhuru Kenyatta the incumbent president and his family is a beneficiary of the ills, that make it very hard to solve the problems his father brought to this country. He cannot solve the problems that makes him among the top 100  rich people in Africa according to Forbes.

The Kalenjin leaders are feeling short changed because they enter in a pre-election pact with the Kikuyu leaders to divide government positions amongst themselves at the expense of the other communities but the deal seem to have gone sour. The sons and daughters of the poor peasant farmers of Meru , the fishermen of lake Victoria ,the poverty stricken people of Turkana , the hustlers of Nairobi and other parts of the country should raise their heads and see beyond their tribes and regions to liberate this country. If Esther of the Biblical times could not have risen at such trying times in the foreign land that generation would  have been wiped out.The affluent are continuing being rich with the draconian policies passed by the government  to stifle the hunger stricken  .We cannot afford to look East or West for  our solutions must be homegrown because they will come for our natural resources after our leaders have pocketed their money .The political elites the likes of Raila,Uhuru,Ruto and Kalonzo mobilize us in our ethnic groups as goats to achieve their insatiable thirst for power .They have been in government and the country is always worse than they found it.

It cannot always be about the tribes yet we all shed blood when pricked.The Uhuru, Raila, Moi dynasties must go for this country to know posterity.

New Year Message to my Fellow Compatriots-Oyola David, NUPOSA Chair, UoN

From the bottom and the deepest part of my heart, i want to wish all my friends the very best of the blessings tarried into the new year.
You kept giving me more reasons to find happiness,you have been my family,you have helped me better my career, you made me play very sensitive roles of counseling through various challenges via my inbox faced be the youths,various buddies got occupations in various organizations through my interactions with them, i received very high callings by being influential in the web and on the ground,throughout the republic,wherever i go, someone must have heard about David Oyola, thanks to you i enlarged my territories within us and other parts of the world.
I met so many folks,businessmen/women, politicians, pastors, students, ordinary youths, orphans, physically challenged and normal online fanatics.
Right here i have known what it means by 'online dating', am indeed all-rounded young,enthusiastic, hopeful, progressive, passionate and upfront young man. If there was any orphan out there or anybody who thinks that no orphan can make it, tell them Oyola David is a witness and a living example.
We can take our country to the next level,Kenya has such a potential, so rare i any parts of the world with its resources, beautiful women and handsome men, hardworking adults and very intelligent students.This endowment of human great resource can turn our economy around for the better.
I believe in the spirit of Africanism,we only have to work in fixing our leadership at every level, finding men and women who have the truest spirit of our country and the continent at heart.
I believe in our President and his Deputy,they posses such a potential tht we haven't witnessed in the past,i have no doubt in my heart that they  shall overcome,they will take our nation to the next level. I am grateful to the Prime Minister, he has shaped my life and taught me the meaning of courage and having a big heart.
My advise to the youths of Kenya, kindly reduce sycophancy, it's never good for you, work hard in anything little the Lord has put before your hand. Take education seriously, diversify your interests, pursue excellence,create networks, go over your phone-book,thoroughly VET those contacts and get rid of those that makes you err,they add no value to anyone,not even themselves.  If i wronged any of you,forgive me kindly, i have done it too.
Finally, Remember your creator in the days of your youth, He is the source of all wisdom,excellence and abundance.
May the Lord of Wisdom see us into the year 2014 and add into our trays many more years till the end.
God bless you,God bless Kenya God bless the world. Happy new Year!!
HD Oyola.

Nyakiya Nyakiyaism to represent Intellectus in East Africa Peace Summit,Rwanda

This is a special publication: On behalf of Intellectus Consultancy, I take this opportunity to congratulate Nyakiya Nyakiyaism on his appointment to represent Kenya and Intellectus Consultancy in particular in a peace and diplomatic mission in Rwanda. This comes after the political instability that has been witnessed in  South Sudan, the continued militarism in Uganda and Congo and the Alshabaab Threat that has affected Somalia and Kenya. Nyakiya is a reknowned Political Scientist from the University of Nairobi and an established writer and political critic. He is increasingly creatting critics in the political theory circles as he champions his school of thought named 'Nyakiyaism' after his Luo-Suba name.We wish him luck and may he continue championing the progressive debate in the East and Horn of Africa.

Kennedy Mwangi
CEO
Intellectus Consultancy

STUDENTS DIE LIKE CHICKEN: SO SAD! VERY SAD! EXTREMELY SAD!-Steve Biko (Organizing Secretary,SONU,UoN)

The university of Nairobi senate has decided to kill her own students, the same people who has made them sit in Gandhi Wing. They recently introduced article 18(f) of the senate rules and regulations that requires that in the medical school, students who fail or get a re-sit in any paper shall repeat a whole
academic year. This is done in total disregard to the ripple effect the students are going to have once it comes to action. The trend started in medical school and no one protested, it has slowly started moving to American wing for the engineers and the School of Engineering dean has even pressurized the campus rep to give him the names of the students who complained, and hopefully to Parklands, Chiromo and finally to Main campus. The saddest part is that, during the proposal of that particular article, students were not represented by the SONU executive officials, whom the senate tends to ignore forgetting that it is the only body which can give crucial directions to anxious students to calm any eruption of riots. I can't say what happened at the engineering wing recently, they can best tell you. Some of the result of this particular move of mental torture and depression targeted at students is the loss of one of our comrades, a fourth year medical students who before his death, is said to have been disturbed at his poor performance in some of the papers he didn't perform well at which then, since no one cared, isolated himself. Sadly there are no counseling services or the people entrusted with that particular service are not up-to-the-task for students who have a lot to cope up with like the medical school, engineering wing, school of law and vet med school and the college of biological and physical science (Chiromo Campus) . The officers entrusted with this particular job are so unwelcoming and mostly absent, this leaves most students disillusioned and resort to deadlier moves, like committing suicide or engaging in drug and substance abuse, as well as deferring their courses
The student leaders who are in authority led by Chairman-Zack Kinuthia, Secretary General Edith Mwirigi, Organizing Secretary Steve Biko (Signior) have always made legal efforts with the top administration to address the plights of students that, the calling is so high, the senate are not in touch with reality. "We are the voice of the comrades, and our key role is to give them information and ensure that the administration understand their plight, We also have a responsibility of ensuring peace and peace in the university, we cannot risk betraying students when they all know that something is astray, the world all over knows that leading intellects ain't easy because they are a lot which can neither be blackmailed or fooled on something they clearly know doesn't suit their interest, LET NOT STUDENTS CONTINUE TO DIE UNDER MISTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES,the resultant effect might not always go well with the university and its environs. The senate will not,shall never or has never been the voice of
students" Said Signior Steve Biko the organizing Secretary-SoNU. The recent alarming death of Students have see the most vibrant SoNU leaders like Signior Steve Biko, Zack Kinuthia and Edith Mwirigi take charge of the situation and even go an extra-mile to e sure things are put back to order. But the recent killing at the CENTRAL POLICE STATION, seemed to be unbearable and the students forces, commonly known as the strongest power on earth after Jesus Christ, had to retaliate but the outcome was one more death of a student of engineering who was shot by a live bullet while rioting at night. "The senate must do something either now, right now, this moment, suddenly and if they can't then they have to immediately do something" Signior Steve Biko.

KETER:YOU ARE FIGHTING A LOSING BATTLE-Steve Biko(Organizing Secretary, SONU)

After all the acrimony that preceded President Uhuru Kenyatta's visit to Rift Valley last week, Deputy President William Ruto now admit the claims by the great Jubilee alliance rebel and Nandi Hills MP, Alfred Keter, that the URP wing was only fed by the fragments of power in the coalition government are near-truths. He, the Deputy President, recently assured the incited Rift Valley MPs that issues raised by the youthful Nandi Hills MP are amicably settled. The big question is "Is Ruto still playing his ODM departure tune?" Just before the historical and massive exodus from ODM which was key to the downfall of of Raila's influence in the Rift valley, Isaac Ruto severally criticized the Nyanza wing, led by Raila Odinga, for giving their region a raw deal and frustrating their people. But William Ruto, then minister for agriculture, was severally quoted to be warning Isaac to stop creating a rift between him and RAO. It only came to appear as the war of the damns when Ruto finally admitted that there were irreconcilable differences in the ODM. This move by Keter could be a signal that the Jubilee Government might not work together come 2017 but these are just learned projections. We are all in terms of what an incumbent president is capable of if the Nyayo era is anything to go by. It would be wise for Mr. Ruto to maintain the status quo and let the son of Jomo rule for ten years while he is busy winning friends in the government. He should project himself as a friendly candidate and never be a hostile one, especially towards the Mt Kenya Mafia and the entire region of the Kikuyu. This is a tribal country where tribal arithmetic is core to access and maintain power. The notion that the Kikuyu cannot vote for anyone else apart from their own will be put to test then. At tis juncture its advisable to note no one tribe that does not vote for their tribesman is in existence in this republic. In 2002 it would be simplistic to say that the Luo voted for Kibaki; its only that they saw an opportunity for Raila to grab the premiership once Kibaki was in power. The Kisii have at one time voted for Nyachae and so did the Kamba. Proceeding, I can freely advise Ruto o keep the Kikuyu close to power and dangle the carrot come 2022, until then, he should hold his horses.

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED-Dennis Kabutha(Linguistics Specialist and Political Scientist, University of Nairobi)

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, goes a line in a popular song; that withstanding we are all in consensus that after the ICC indictments against Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto failed to kill them, politically at least, made them stronger something that eventually culminated into the jubilee coalition despite the fact that the cases project the two as arch-rivals. If we say the camaraderie of the prince in Uhuru Kenyatta and the hustler in William Ruto was not founded on the rocky grounds of their respective ICC cases among other reasons, we shall be lying to ourselves. In fact, this is one things that shall not be obliterated from our history even when everything else vanquishes to antiquity. I need not mention that these cases have also been pivotal in international politics, to say but the least. They have given other African leaders a mouth-piece through which they can shout at the top of their voices. For some reason they are justified, no one is yet to give a clear explanation whether crimes against humanity are only committed in Africa, but we must acknowledge that Africa’s is a grave situation especially now that we have just witnessed the world’s youngest nation slip into a civil war overnight!

I have watched in awe at what was personal problem mature into a national problem ending in parliament and eventually to a continental one in the hands of the United Nations Security Council. It is either Kenya or the scion of Jomo is too influential otherwise this issue would have escalated to such unprecedented proportions the moment Sudan’s Al Bashir was handed an arrest warrant, or even when Gbagbo’s case commenced. If we are to view The Hague based court as imperial, Ivory Coast is the most ideal example to use! We all heard the office of the prosecutor relentlessly insist that there has to be a lesson made out of the Kenyan case. I am from the school of thought that out of that out of the three cases, the prosecutor has will have to nail one or two, if she fails; she will have nailed the three! Given the political nature of these cases, there might be collateral damage (not justice) at the end. All along we all have witnessed that the deputy president has literally taken the bull by its horns while the president has seemed to cower. Don’t be quick to judge him; we haven’t yet heard from the horse’s mouth that he won’t attend. Remember the presidential debate?It never came from his mouth that he wouldn’t attend but there were all indications only for him to resurface in the last minute. While the son of Jomo enjoys his early Christmas gift, methinks arap Ruto should be a worried man. He needs to remember how the ‘don’t be vague, go to Hague’ phrase boomeranged on him. I would prescribe to him a little caution when it comes to matters on ICC lest he gets beaten in his own Waterloo. I might have no prowess in legal matters, looking at the cases you’d be forgiven to think Uhuru Kenyatta is swimming deeper in the murky waters of The Hague but actually Ruto could be.

To begin with,how admissible are these cases? In his dissenting opinion, ICC judge and international law scholar, Hans-Peter Kaul was evidently squandering about the admissibility of the Kenyan situation in Ruto’s case, as stipulated in article 7(2)a of the Rome statute. Ruto’s case has been marred by setback after another each falling like a sledgehammer. Where he was lucky to have the time he was required in the court waived, the prosecutor pinned him through the appeals chamber, terming it as “a blanket excusal.” Earlier when the case was beginning, the prosecutor managed to get an extra week to organize witnesses, despite the fact that the commencement of the case was long overdue. Now the prosecutor needs time to gather more evidence, in a case whose commencement is also long overdue. I still find it difficult to understand how two witnesses could knock a case of as heavy magnitude as the president’s off balance. She has come back with the same story she had a few months ago when she needed the case of Muthaura dropped. Remember the day Uhuru’s case was pushed to 5^th February 2014? Did it have to coincide with the UNSC deliberations on the same while the two were totally independent? One must have been pre-empting the other in a well thought and orchestrated manner!Am yet to hear a radio recording of arap Sang presented in the court. This could be part of the collateral damage already! How, in three months, will the Gambian attorney fish more evidence from Kenya?  For such a short time, I think I need optimism lessons from her. It essentially sounds like a nolle prosequi declaration. It’s evident that there are more setbacks in the case against Ruto than there are reprieves in the one against Kenyatta. As a result, my constant fear has been and is still; the fate of these cases is pre-determined!

With all this noise of witness procurement by the OTP and witness bribery by the defence, we ought to be a worried lot if we are actually seeking justice. I can only admire the resilience of that man at the heart of Uasin Gishu County, who had the courage to put up another house besides the ruins of the one that was burnt 5 years ago. Shall we trust the OTP while Matsaanga is still walking scot-free, shouting witnesses’ names at the top of his voice? In fact, he has dared the ICC to issue an arrest warrant. Well he could be right after all; he is now having the last laugh. The Walter Barasa case, could it have been a deal gone sour if in deed witnesses were procured?

At the end of the day we seem to be having more questions than answer but we need to be even more worried, justice delayed is justice denied,it’s now more than ever we need these cases concluded logically for the sake of the victims at least, or dropped if it is pointless politics and seek justice elsewhere! How I wish we had gone the Rwanda or Yugoslavia way, perhaps an ad hoc tribunal would have served justice. We had better realise that expecting justice from The Hague is no different from expecting a voluntary retirement from Mugabe or a voluntary surrender to the same court by Al Bashir! I now choose to exonerate Kenyans from any blame for choosing The Hague court to seek justice; it is the ICC that has failed for not reciprocating our trust!