I have hope for Main Campus-Steve Antony(Malips),UoN

The peaceful elections saw a smooth transition of power and the ongoing deliberate efforts by the Jubilee government to form an inclusive government has rekindled a sense of national exuberance. Our nation turning 50 is an icing on the national cake, thanks to our founding fathers whose struggle has seen us soar this far.

However, such jubilations, hope and euphoric expectations are being tamed by the economic realities of poverty and unending rise in price of basic commodities; social inequalities such as unemployment are unmatched; and political drumbeats never cease to brew Ethnicity, Violence and Hatred amongst us. This beckons the question: as a nation where did the rain begin beating us? Moreover, what legacy will history tell of us to the future generations?

Kenya is a land of plenty and abundance, you have to labor hard if you want to earn a living and if you find yourself living on the verge, you live at the brink of – hand to mouth. Opportunities abound in Kenya but grasping them requires well-earned skills for seeing the profit beyond the obstacles. Alarmingly, unemployment rates have risen absurdly with the youths making up 70% of this unfortunate lot when things are neither promising for those who are employed but still grapple with the idea of making ends meet since it is either you are exploited, underemployed or doing an indecent job which you already might have earned a name or a scorn from. Here, of importance is proof of the chronic neglect Youths have fallen prey to, hence bringing forth the thorny issue of the existing large social inequalities in Kenya, which goes hand in hand with social cohesion- this throws to doubt the idea of building trust across all these antagonizing groups.

Amidst all these trials and tribulations facing the Kenyan Youth, signs of triumph of the future are elusive. We have succumbed to manipulation and have been entangled in the shackles of tribalism and hatred; poverty and exploitation; pitiable victims of moral decadence and disease. We have been reduced to slaves- guns for hire by our hero -worshiped leaders who like duck to water, take to gross graft and condone a vicious system of exploitation and privilege because it is rewarding and profitable.

Consequently, it’s important for us to embark on an inclusive and collective effort whose course means well to all and sundry for in us lays great wealth and potential which if well channeled, great strides shall be realized in the realization of our Vision2030. This will aid us play a pivotal role in the world’s map. It is in this regard that we all have a moral inclination and obligation in ensuring that we help make a country that is a safe haven to both us and future generations in all spheres of our activities.

My clarion call is that we then have to avoid practices that evoke insensitivity, inequity and hatred in others. This may sound an arduous task but it takes optimism as your fuel of life, hard work as your recipe and above all, determination and dignity as the hallmark of your actions. With these you may be an inch closer to an Oscar like Lupita, a second away from breaking the world record like Rudisha or even ride in the high pedestals in the corridors of power like Sakaja; for IF A CHILD WASHES HIS HANDS, HE COULD EAT WITH KINGS(This I’ve known ever since I was a child). So I guess it’s time you ceased that showy-worship of your favorite avaricious politician and engaging in unnecessary rhetoric  to seeing the bigger picture-Horizon Beyond, for it’s all within you because You Have The Yam And You Have The Knife. Forget your woes, unburden your soul and live a life for you. No matter how dark the cloud may seem, there’s always a thin silver lining that we must look for; that silver lining will come, if not for us then for the next generation or the one after that and maybe with that generation the lining will no longer be thin. Furthermore, is the darkest hour not before dawn??

A LUTA CONTINUA.

 Major In Literature & Political Science

Author & Poet

Vice Chair SADASA.

STEVE ANTONY OUGO ALIAS MALIPS.

DYNASTIES OR DICTATORSHIP? AFRICAN PRESIDENTS STILL BELIEVE IN PASSING POWER TO THEIR FAMILIES.- Steve Biko

 

Clearly, the sages were wrong, when they declared that a son whose only ambition is to be like his father is a loser in the making. This, you see, applies only if the dad in question is a good- for-nothing kumi kumi connoisseur. But if an old man is loaded, or is a big shot in government, or is a big thief anywhere, there is nothing wrong with his son, or indeed daughter, following in his footsteps. Kenya is only just getting used to political inheritance. In a few instances, sons have taken over their fathers’ vacant positions directly, usually after the old man passes away. But elsewhere in the world, political power is like family wealth; it is handed down from one generation to the other. It is jealously guarded against dilution or intrusion from unwelcome quarters, and can be grounds for unfriendly actions. In Uganda, President Museveni has been hanging onto power as he prepares his son, Brigadier Muhoozi Kainerugaba, for the presidency. Kampala wags reckon that old man Museveni will finally step down in 2016, once Muhoozi is ready to sit in the big house on the hill.

Across the border in Rwanda, there is a bit of a conundrum for President Paul Kagame. His country’s constitution makes it clear that he must step down in 2017, having served the maximum two terms in office. The problem is that, even from an outsider’s perspective, there does not appear to be anyone in sight with the vision and personal gravitas to continue the astonishing recovery that Rwanda has made from the genocide in 1994, in which a million of its citizens were butchered. The Kigali rumour mill has kicked into high gear, with various scenarios whispered over quiet sips of Primus, Rwanda’s answer to our Tusker Lager. Some say President Kagame will bow to pressure and change the constitution to win a third term in 2017.

 But the man is not immortal, and more than a few whispers in Kigali point to the military and political preparation that Kagame’s son, Ivan, has quietly been undergoing. By the time Kagame Senior’s third term comes to an end in 2024, the younger Kagame should be ready to take over.

Of course, Africans are not alone in this. In India, the Gandhis have run a celebrated dynasty, handing power from parent to child like it were a preserve of their family. The latest incarnation is Rahul Gandhi, widely expected to win the premiership in the country’s next elections. And in neighbouring Pakistan, Bilawal Bhutto, son of assassinated ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has decided to enter the poisonous and dangerous world of that country’s politics. He wants to be Prime Minister. Karachi wags say this is like saying he wants to be dead.

VENDETTAS

Passing power to descendants also passes on curses and vendettas. In Kenya, development has taken a back seat as the heirs of our founding fathers assume the ideological and political positions of their fathers. This is a preoccupation that has left the country in a lurch, as opposing camps focus on containing each other.

The power might be sweet and the political mud-fights interesting, but in the process, no one is left to look after the country, with corruption and bad governance holding sway.

The Standard, 4th Feb 2014

We are not drug addicts, we have issues!-Maina Dubois,SONU student leader,UoN

Trickery, deceit, anarchy etc are among the many words that have been constantly used to describe today’s student leadership. In fact, many have gone ahead to argue that betrayal, goonship and unfounded pride are indeed the three side of the same coin when it comes to matters of students and power.

Owing to this, many have gone an extent further to rubbish even the strongest and able of the student’s bodies. The Kenyan media has been instrumental in this smear campaign with unrivalled level of success. It will not be surprising to come across (in the local dailies) phrases such as “rowdy Moi university students engage the police in running battles damaging private properties...” , “Traffic in halt as UoN students extort and harm motorists along Uhuru Highway...”

Whether it is just a reckless and deliberate move by journalists seeking to sell more; or collusion of the varsity administrations with the media to silence the students’ voices of reason, it is now an incontestable truth that the student leadership in this country has been mispresented and consequently misperceived. The Kenyan public has incessantly been made to believe that those students who participate in riots are errants, drug addicts whose only rightful place ought to be behind the bars.

However negative the student leadership has recently been made to appear, it would only be myopic to wish away the immense contribution strong student unions has made.  For instance, SONU, during its vibrant of times, was hugely involved in the fight for increased democratic space when Kenya was under tyrannical undemocratic regimes. The front liners in the march towards a democratic state were, more often than not, university student leaders. Their selfless focus for a better nation cannot be wished away even up to this very day.

But where did the rain start beating the student leaders? Is it that the modern times we live in have nothing worth a fight from these intellectual giants? Methinks the university administration set out to weaken the student bodies in a bid to cover up management malpractices and gross financial misconducts rive in these institutions. No wonder anybody with financial might can easily and safely secure a degree from most of these institutions. The results? Students are left disenfranchised and to fight their own fight. It is not surprising to learn that majority of student’s strikes are not even led by the student leaders but students who feel pressed against the wall. These joint frustrations culminate into street protests whose results you know better.

The media on its side goes ahead and present the students’ strikes as criminal acts terming them unfounded and unacceptable. Instead of giving their audience an independent, non-biased account of why the students took to the streets, they contrarily feed the masses with biased information rendering the student leadership unable and ineffective. This has bred restrictive stereotypes and negative aspects of student leadership which consume,

rather than productively use, students’ brainpower, energy and

Resources in advocating for a just society. Even worse, they may inhibit and stifle the talent and potential of the very people, this country can

Most ill-afford to waste, or lose.

It is worth emphasis that the contribution of these youthful citizens is inevitably needed so as to align them in tandem with the mood, spirit and the aspirations of Kenya and Africa as a region.Demonizing their course will only lead us back to where we all dread to be.

Dubois Maina is a student leader and a scholar in economics, the University of Nairobi.

Right of Reply:Article was hateful and malicious-Benard Moseti,UoN

I rarely read  Ngunjiri Wambugu’s articles in the Nation but his  article titled ‘Only Africa Leaders Will Right Wrongs’ though nothing implying critical analysis of the phrase was captured, lost the real core of journalism- objectivity- seeing the truth whole and being fair about it . This is the line of bigotry that he has opined to undertake in his writing and his article only end up as mere vivid description of events and substantively fall short of any critical analysis of those events. It is such titles with nothing new to the body of knowledge that renders his opinion writing amusing, begging more questions than answers.

 All these coupled by the harsh response, bashing and criticism  the NGO community  have received from modern day ‘holier than thou’ shallow, biased and arrogant ICC opponents, it is of signal importance to me that I participate in this dialogue about ICC and Africa, I have no interests in pandering to the western stereotypes that portray Africans as  failures, as Wambugu would thinly aver, rather ,my intention is to draw attention to the alarming rise of Wambugu’s ilk sponsored anti-ICC crusade. When the basic rights of individuals are being violated because of their race, colour, creed, gender, in this case victims of post-election violence, those committed to justice and equality cannot remain silent. I raise this fundamental issue at stake, in the rise of Wambugu’s ilk sponsored anti-ICC crusade and the threat it poses to the unassailable nature of rights.

 I would argue, that the ICC is itself an African issue because of two fundamental reasons  First, of the 122 countries that ratified the Rome Statute under which the ICC was formed, 34, including Kenya, are African, making Africa the largest regional block in ICC. World powers such as USA, China, Russia, France, etc., deliberately chose not to submit to it and African rulers, including your President, did not muster the courage to ask why.

Second, the motherland of criminal impunity for which the ICC was formed is Africa, the cradle of bad governance. The call for African solutions to African problems is not new: Ask Thandika Mkandawire. However, the premises upon which the ICC was founded were not only correct but also remain tenable. It is logical to preserve the status quo, for the ICC to decisively deal with criminals masquerading as political leaders, who paradoxically Wambugu would want us believe they have the solutions to our problems.

Your claim to fame in this article is that Kenya’s ICC issue should have been listened to because it was a decision made by all the 54 sovereign states, one would then question, whether sovereignty is a passport to sovereign thieves  murderers etc. True, the ICC like any institution of record is not perfect. However, even a clock that is out of order is right twice a day. For all intents and purposes, the reputation of the ICC is arguably much better than that of virtually all African countries put together.

Your article is not only malicious and hateful but it’s also unworthy of response if it were not published in the ‘Star’ which has a wide circulation in the country.  Argument used by anti-ICC crusaders Wambugu- in their support, is that ICC is anti-African or an imposition from the west, its inception history would answer in the affirmative, but without asking whether corruption and civil wars in Africa is African, I beg to argue,Mr Wambugu, the framers of Kenya’s’s Constitution, of which I was part by enacting Article 143(4) thereof had in mind the notion that a sitting President can become a criminal. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any person or groups of people (NGOs) resisting any ruler intent on violating our Constitution. Such resistance may take the form of lobbying to obtain the necessary criminal liability and this would be constitutional

The ‘Star’ should hold even opinion and critic authors to the same standards of scholars likeYash Pal Ghai and  Waikwa Wanyoike who write columns which engage what is happening in our society rather than simply displaying academic prowess which I highly doubt whether  Wambugu’s articles have either.

Mr Wambugu, you have good reason to change your opinion about the ICC because well, you never know. After all, your opinion about many things have been changing since the CORD defeat in March 4^thgeneral elections. In fact, what seems not to change is the opinion you have about yourself. I doubt the political actors to whom you chose to render the unsolicited advice on complex African issues take you seriously, and if they are,well, Kenya is down the self-destruct path, if I may use your words.

I don’t expect us to think uniformly about everything. We may have to agree to disagree on some issues, such as ICC and Africa, but we cannot remain silent while columnists fail to speak truth to power. I hope this marks the beginning, rather than the end, of an important dialogue we, as global citizens, need to have amongst ourselves about ICC and Africa.

BenardMoseti,

benmoseti2010@gmail.com

A postgraduate Student, Institute of Development Studies, UoN