"My Government pledges to support this process in every way. We shall not interfere with the review process.”
President Mwai Kibaki speaking on April 30, 2003 when he opened the Bomas talks. A few months later, on November 17, the Narc Government sent mounted police to stop Prof Yash Pal Ghai and a group of delegates from reopening the third sitting of the national conference at the Bomas of Kenya
4 comments:
nice cartoons man
Gathara I have read a few of your posts, most which I must say I disagree with. It seems that many urban based Kenyans are still out of touch with the realities of Kenya. You gathara represent the middle classes in Kenya that think media freedom and street protest is all democracy is about. You represent and distort what democracy is all about .Democracy may I remind you is an ideal. There is no such thing are as a perfect democracy .May I put it to you that what the people want is food in their tummies and hope for their children. It is not the constitution or a change in government that will achieve this but a working nation. There are far too many non democratic countries in the world that are prospering and moving forward .ask the people of Hong Kong or any of the Arab states .democracy and constitutions in themselves do not improve the lives of the people .ask the million is America that live in abject poverty. What’s my point you might ask .what Kenyan needs is not reforms or new constitutions what we need is working leadership and a change of attitude. Since the saboteurs were fired the economy has grown by 8% all sectors of the economy are showing positive improvement. We don’t need new rallies and street protests as called for by ODM. Where were those calls when they promised a tsunami that would sweep NARC-K away before the Nauru elections? We don’t have time for this we need to settle down and build our nation .cheap politics and lots of noise never grew a GDP not in Kenya and not in any other country. Let’s get down to work!
Joseph Walking,
I accept that democracy and the rule of law are not ends in themselves, rather a means to, as you put it, put "food in [the people's] tummies and [to give them] hope for their children".
However, how do you suppose we would get the "working leadership" you speak off? Should we sit back and hope for a benevolent dictator to emerge? You quote the examples of Hong Kong and a few of the Arab States (the 22 member nations of the Arab league have a combined population larger than the USA's and almost as large as the EU's (300 million), a land area greater than the two and plenty of natural resources most notably oil. With all these, their total combined GDP is less than half the GDP of the state of Carlifornia and less than the combined GDPs of the Netherlands and Belgium, the number of books translated by the entire Arab World is less than that of Greece alone, and the 300 million Arabs produce fewer scientific publications than 6 million Israelis -not exactly a working league, eh?). For every example of benign authoritarianism, I can point to ten of corrupt, kleptocratic, murderous and inept dictatorships. And, in Kenya, how, may I ask, were the "soboteurs" fired? Wasn't it as a result of "media freedom and street protest?" (To be fair, I have not anywhere suggested that democracy is only about these two aspects).
I am not holding fort for either ODM or Narc-K or any other party. In my considered opinion, they are all a bunch of hypocrites. All I am interested in is the good and proper governance of this country and if either one happens by a position that extends and entrenches our hard won democratic freedoms, then to that extent they will get my full support.
Finally, since you chose to characterise me as representative of the middle-class, let me return the favour. You, Joseph Walking, are representative of the rich in Kenya, who live off the sweat and tears of the rest of us and have no interest in "rocking the boat". Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against good old-fashioned capitalism. Hey 8% growth... that's fine by me. However, financial saboteurs, such as those behind Anglo-Leasing, are sucking the lifeblood from Kenyans and it is time we all rise up, excercise our democratic rights and boot them out of office.
@ Joseph Walking: middle class Kenyans are citizens too.
Gathara, thought-provoking posts.
Post a Comment