This is an email sent to a friend of mine from someone in Kenya yesterday. Read it and weep for a country whose future suddenly looks very bleak indeed.
Today (Thursday) the Opposition (or Winners of the election if you prefer the truth) have called for a rally in Uhuru Park. The Government (or illegal regime who stole the election if we are to be completely factual) has decided it is not to be so they have ringed the city with police, para-military and army units and blocked anyone from moving into the city. For anyone who understands Nairobi this means the city and the rest of the country has been cut off. We can't move out - just like the povo or Wanachi can't move in. All the roads to the major slums (which house 60% of the city's population) are blocked by gun totting folk who have order from our beloved President (who doesn't feel like having only 5 years with his nose in the feeding though) to shoot to kill.
My maid lives in Kageme and 2 days ago one of her neighbours fell seriously ill - they persuaded the other neighbour to use his car to rush her to hospital - the local clinic is overwhelmed with folks dying of gun shot wounds and can't cope with someone complaining about a sore stomach (the lady actually had acute septicemia from an infected uterus). The neighbour asked his nephews to clear a couple of large rocks off the road from the previous night's road blocks - as they were doing this, and with not so much as a warning, they were shot by the para-military police (presumable because they we perceived to be placing rocks on the road). One died and the other will no doubt lose his leg - pretty heavy punishment for their suspected crime - blocking a road. Typical heavy handed treatment from the powers that be.
I dread to think what has happened to day to anyone determined to exercise their democratic right to free asembly. If they don't allow people to protest the pressure is just going to explode. These racist bastard Kukuyus (as bad as any Boer in South Africa) believe they have a God given right to rule - the uncircumcised (read 'dirty' in Afrikaans) Luos (read Kaffir) can't be allowed to rule us - we are so clever and such good business people only we can manage the economy - They (the Kaffirs / Luos) will just F it up for all of us Kenyans (read Kukuyus).
They wish us to suspend belief - they had an election (free and fair by all reckoning) - 19 Ministers (and Assistant Ministers) and the Vice President lost their seats - Kibaki only won 2 of the 8 provinces (Central and Eastern) and HE WON the Presidency. The MAJOR flaw being the tallying process. It has spawned a great number of jokes like - How do Kikuyus add? - what is 2000 plus 5000? the answer 52,000.
These dumb arsed IDIOTS used the following strategy - delay the announcement of the results from secure Kikuyu seats close to Nairobi - wait for the results to come in from the other Provinces and then balance the deficit - adding votes during the tallying process and then in case of a re-count also stuff the extra votes in the ballot boxes they are still holding. Their only mis-calculation was the enormity of the rejection of this corrupt and useless Government made up of old farts. They had pre-marked ballot papers but the massive rejection of the old guard in Rift Valley province - the most populous Province - caught them out completely. They had to chopper in more ballot papers to stuff the ballot boxes - in their panic they lost touch with the numbers some constituencies achieved a 115% turn-out of voters. Also why would someone go to the polls and vote for a President but not vote for an MP - so extra MP ballots had to be added - hence the delay. BUT by this stage everyone had smelt a RAT. Also as the results from Nyanza, Western and Rift Valley flooded in Raila Odinga started to increase his lead - at the peak he was almost a million votes ahead. Then the doctored Kikuyu results started to kick in the jubilant Westerns saw the lead of Raila narrow down to 38,000 - then the shit hit the fan.
There were calls for a re-tally - the Election Commission were having to read out results of constituencies which for hundred of thousand of folk who stayed up all night watching results coming in from different part of the country (like myself) - had magically change - One tallying centre just south of the City - Kajiado had a disturbance and the process was suspended - the sitting MP George Siatoti (one of the architects of the Goldenberg scandal under Moi) and now Kibaki's Minister of Education had 21,000 votes - after the process was re-started and results announced at 6 the following morning his count had miraculously jumped to 59,000 (the source of the Kukuyu addition joke).
The Juja constituency had announce a parliamentary vote where the winner had got 52,000 - when the results were read out at ECK (in error too early) they were 65,000 and when they were finally and formally given out the winner had 95,000. (The source of the other joke - One Kenyan one vote - one Kukuyu - TWO votes or aren't the Kikuyu good they way they quickly double their money).
Carried live on TV we had the Chairman of the Election Commission trying to explain how come results from places as far away as Northern Turkana (on the Sudanese border), Mt. Elgon (on the Ugandan border) and Garissa (on the Somalia border) had arrived in Nairobi before those from constituencies 20 to 40 minutes drive away (on a main road) from their headquarters. The opposition started to object at the news briefings - the population in rural areas had already started to shout FRAUD and RIGGING - by the Saturday innocent civilians like me - (out buying organic milk for their pregnant girlfriend) were running into gangs of frustrated youth throwing stones at cars (quick U-turn and drive like shit in the other direction).
Tensions were running so high by the time Kibaki had pulled back to just 38,000 behind - the Government orders the process of announcement to be stopped - everyone even the dumb arsed Luo are now really suspecting something. Raila Odinga appears on Television to explain that the Orange Democratic Movement, which has a sophisticated communication system funded by one of the German Foundations, has been tracking and correlating results direct from individual polling booth announcements and doing it own tallying and says we KNOW we have WON - step back Mr. Ex-President don't do what we know you are about to do - they produce officials from within the Commission who say "I've walked out because I'm being asked to sign off on forged results and I'm gonna lose my job and maybe be killed but I'm a Loyal Kenyan who can't bear to see what is happening".
Then the Chairman appears on TV to announce that Kibaki has actually won by 231,000 - Half an hour later - there is a swearing in ceremony at State House - but guess what everyone is already in their finery - Heads of Army and Police in full dress uniform - a Chief Justice in wig and gown - Kibaki's wife Lucy - who has even managed to get flowers delivered which match her dress plus all the Presidents men - who have all just lost their Parliamentary seats in the ground swell of change which was sweeping the country - and he then thanks the country for voting for him.
But hold on. Isn't the Commission meant to be Independent and announce the results to the Kenyan people before telling anyone (including the President). EXPLOSION - things just take off. Retribution and vengeance is taken out on any Kukuyu they can get their hands on. Stores start to burn - people start to attack their neighbours, the businessman caught with some marked ballot papers is beaten to death. THINGS GET OUT OF HAND. The rest is History as they say.
I'm at work having driven here through eerily empty streets - none of my staff can get to work - the fuel stations have run out of petrol and LPG, food is running short in many stores, and this ain't gonna end soon. People are pissed off.
You should see the stuff considered too offensive for public broadcast - the Kikuyu lady gang raped by 60 youth who bleed to death where they left her - 35 kids cooked in a church - they look strangely like roasted piglets covered in crackling. 11 severed heads impaled on stick as revenge killings by Mungiki (the new version of the old Mau Mau secret Kikuyu sect - they drink blood and semen from a raped and killed female victim as part of their initiation) - How come African women get such a bad deal? A bit of gender equality - Luo men who have been dragged off buses and had their foreskins cut off with a Panga. Ain't AFRICA just the greatest place in the world to be - even a country as sophisticated as Kenya has all this seething hatred just a few inches below the surface.
But it is a great place to be macho - a guy I know who works for a UN humanitarian agency ran over and killed two youths who were stoning cars and he got a personal congratulations from the Head of Police in Nairobi.
We are staying safe and out of harms way. This won't end early the only thing which is going to make these arrogant Kukuyu see the error of their ways is for their business to suffer and they are so rich it is going to take a month or so of mayhem to achieve that.
25 comments:
I have to be honest and say I'm not sure that this racist tirade (and attitude) is doing much to help the situation in Kenya.
Both the Luos and the Kikuyus are acting as badly as each other - as is the way with tribal warfare. Unfortunately, forgive me for relying on an old adage, it is the victors who will write the history books.
Personally, I am not sure how the situation will be resolved. If a re-election is called and Odinga wins, then Kibaki and his supporters will be up in arms claiming a rigged result and we're back where we started.
Of course the PC brigade, liberals etc will be in total denial that this kind of behaviour is par for the course in Africa.
Of course, it could never happen here.
After all, there is no tribal voting, or mass electoral rigging, or incitement to murder in Liebours multicultural England.
I'm sorry Ian, but this post is not helping the situation and it demeans your blog. I don't deny that the things mentioned are happening (I've spent 13 of the last twenty years in Africa and I'm far from naive about the place) but the lack of balance and blatant racism of this piece are a far cry from your usual standards.
Do yourself a favour and remove it.l
All this comment about 'racism' is very interesting. Any views about Tribalism?
What we're witnessing here is, simply, tribal warfare with a remarkably thin veneer of 'democracy'.
I don't think this is anything new. It's been the history of Africa, anyway. There are few countries on the African continent where real democracy in a Western sense actually exists.
There you go- it's pure 'bongo bongo land' out there (as with the middle east)! Just the sort of people Labour think will make good citizens once they apply for asylum or immigration! I for one will just continue to ignore them! Dialogue with Africa and the middle east should only start once they evolve from their current cro-magnon state. Wait for it- kenya aid concert to be shown on BBC1 later on in the year. Yuk.
This should make us cherish what we have but I fear it won't.
With regards to asylum I think we should be afraid. But yes, the bloody do-gooders will want to import the lot on the Victorian assumption (long since exposed as utterly naive) that once given the example of our culture they will immediately change. Like the leopard.
Is Eddie quite mad? Iain's post racist? Ugh, Eddie's post is lily-livered liberalism at its worst.
How long will it take people like Eddie realise that for most part, Africa, like the Middle East is tribal and corrupt? Corruption on a scale that makes Italy look like slow learners. The rest of Africa has stood by in tacit approval as Mugabe has raped and pillaged Zimbabwe and all West can do is wring their hands in beat their chests in apology for 'colonialism' and not do a damn thing. The whole thing stinks.
The tone of this post makes me highly suspicious - did the writer ask for your friend's bank account number so he could get his money out of the country?
This post definitely leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
Eddie: Should we send a deputation of the good and the great to assist? On your reading of this very sad but vibrant post we could dispatch Lord Malloch-Brown. Perhaps with Shitty Varda (she can't speak english but would be a token black, and female to boot)assisted by Peter Hain (Orange man from South Africa (covers all sorts of helpful backgrounds) and perhaps Shaun Woodwards butler?
Whadoya think?
Hmmm...not the greatest of posts. Looks fake to me...agree with sentiments of Cecil Rhodes.
Keep out of the Dark Continent it's nothing to do with us. Of course they will all be living here soon.
Democracy is just the least worst means to another end - Rule of Law.
Without Rule of Law, Democracy is Mob Rule waiting to happen.
@Eddie: I don't think Iain is endorsing every word in this article, just supplying it as evidence of why the violence is unlikely to abate.
@Calais: have you heard of anyone in the UK getting their John Thomas remodelled with a panga?
Even the word sounds painful. Panga!
Sorry I must be being dense - could one of the commenters who said the post was racist tell what about it was racist. It may be biased or only giving one point of view - but racist? In what way?
Interesting that the people commenting on this piece don't seem to think that tribalism is the same as racism.
I don't have a dictionary on me but a quick google search comes up with the following definition "A strong feeling of identity with and loyalty to one's tribe or group." A search on racism comes up with "The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others."
Now, correct me if I'm wrong (which I am sure you will!) but aren't statements like "arrogant Kikuyus" therefore "racist"?
Whats new in Africa. Kenya bloodfeast the 31st act of a fifty act play The Death and Rape of Africa by the Bigmen. The play commenced in 1961 with the handover of the Belgian Congo to Patrice Lumumba(a good if misguided man).
There are no practical solutions that would be acceptable:
1 Recolonise Africa. 95% of populations would turn back the Uhuru if they could.
2 White man gets out of Africa lock stock and barrel and cuts off all aid. Africans will then sort themselves out. It will take a century.
But look at the destruction of Africa's peoples in last 50 years. Our aid and support of the Mobutu's, Kenyattas Arap Mois et al have exacerbated the rape and pillage that is too painful to contemplate.
Weeping , breast beating, live aid, Oxfam 4x4's, conferences, technical aid, arms, Africa Commissions, visits by ----wits like Blair/Clinton/Brown help not jot.
The only humanitarian aid worth noting is undertaken by the micro charities.
of course the letter from Kenya will seem one sided. Its one persons perception of what has happened.
To put this down to racism misses the point an election was rigged, people are killed because they object to this failed process.
Funny how the only people who came out and supported the result was Bush.
Perhaps this is how he likes his democracy
It's not who votes,that counts.
It's who counts the votes, that counts.
@ Nuttycow
Are the Kikuyu a race or a tribe?
Based on the some of the contents of this letter, one can tell that it has been written by a foreigner. The biggest tribe in Kenya is known as the Kikuyu’s. They are a hard working lot and that is how they have been able to acquire what they have. They have not depended on any one’s and anyone saying to the contrary is a big liar. It is Wananchi and not wanachi! The President did not order the police on what to do. If you listened carefully to the Police commissioner he said that anyone that tries to harm another citizen would be met with the full force of the law. Did you know that the same people that you are saying are being killed indiscriminately went to church and burnt it together with the occupants. Do you know that since then the senseless goons have burnt another 2 churches. Open your eyes and ears and stop peddling falsehoods form Kenya, after all if you do not like the country you can go back to whichever country you came from. We do not need your likes meddling in the affairs of our country. There is no place called Kageme it is called Kangemi. Also I find it curious that your maid doesn’t live in your premises. Most of the Kenyans people that have maids have them living in their servants quarters or in their house. Are you being practicing Apartheid and being a Kaburu? These are some of the figures for the voter turn out in the Raila Odinga and William Ruto strongholds that were in the Nation Newspapers. Sigor 115%, Eldoret North (Ruto) 116%, Mosop 97%, Emgwen 103%, Baringo North 92%, Narok South 120%, Bondo (Raila) 102%, Kisumu Rural102%, Karachuonyo 94%, Ndhiwa 93%, Nyatike 95%, Mbita 95%. Your friend is pissed off because their days as an expatriate earning exhorbitant salaries are numbered because why should we have people being paid ten times what we would pay a Kenyan to do the job. Your friend should also refrain from using dirty, uncouth and uncivilised language against the Kikuyu’s because they are not there at our behest and if they left I doubt that Kenya would be any worse off.
Lastly ask your friend to go home because it is these kind of people with their warped minds that we definitely don’t need in Kenya. All the erroneous information, the glee at people being killed and gang raped just tells you that the person probably wrote the Email while under the influence of smoething that is surely illicit in Kenya. Once again THE IDIOT WHO SENT THE EMAIL SHOULD GO HOME!!
The person that sent that Email seems to know very little about Kenya. The person cannot even spell Kikuyu or Kangemi. This tells you that these are just half baked, one sided and myopic stance on the issue about the post election violence. I wish such people should resist the urge to write stuff that is full of Bigotry, epithets and leave Kenyans alone. They do not need one morwe person fanning and fuelling the fire.
Savonarola, It is people like you you that still seem to think that Africa still needs the First World that are still leaving in the dark ages. Kenya does not factor foreign into her budget, the reason being that we not need to be given aid and then people think that they can piss on us or dictate to us. We used to get aid from Britain and part of the aid was used to buy their expensive Landrovers and other stuff. We said NO. Keep your aid we will use our own money and go and shop where it is cheaper. That is why the British are so pissed off with Kenya. Mwai Kibaki has been emphatic that he does not need international mediatorts to sort our problems. Did the British or French Prime Minister offer to go and mediate when there was an impasse in the US after the 2000 elections? Soem of the African countries have come of age and we do need to be dictated to by some imperial powers. We can think for ourselves and if we were not raped and plundered during the days of colonialism we would be much better off. Savanorola or whatever your name is I bet you that you know very little about Kenya and it would be best that you stop displaying your ignorance by purpoting to blog about Kenya.
THe more that come here the more it is likely to start happening here.
http://uk.wrs.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geumd.bSxHzxIA2VlLBQx.;_ylu=X3oDMTFjNjlhZTk0BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMjkEY29sbwNhYzIEdnRpZANVSzAyNjNfMjYzBGwDV1Mx/SIG=11osv4b7l/EXP=1194180350/**http%3A//blog.ilanamercer.com/%3Fp=378
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/news/opeds/2003/power_kill_country_am_1203.htm
http://deathofjohannesburg.blogspot.com/
http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2007/09/onethird_of_sas.php
http://isupporttheresistance.blogspot.com/2007/12/john-cruddas-gets-something-right.html
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