Kenya elections whistleblower in flight

He could easily pass as one of the many junior and mid-career African students braving the winter cold and rushing through classes at a prestigious institute in The Netherlands. His calm demeanor and quiet exterior belie the inner turmoil and tension of a man forced to abandon his family, friends and career and flee to a foreign land in fear of his life. Still, his eyes have that earnest look that attests to his bravery and determination to speak out in the face of what he terms blatant injustice and outright violation of the will of a majority of his fellow countrymen and women.

The Institute that has for the last 50 years trained thousands of development-oriented professionals, scholars and practitioners from the developing world has been his temporary refuge for almost three months now since he fled Nairobi in early January. He is completing a three-month course on human rights, at the end of which he will have to look for a new place to call home. Such has been his rootless existence since he made that singly bold stand on the evening of 30 December 2007 to speak out on national and international television about the fiasco that was the tallying process at the Electoral Commission of Kenya. He immediately had to go into hiding, moving only in the cover of darkness or hidden in anonymous cars with tinted windows as he sought refuge. At the time, the entire country was gripped with tension and fear.

I first met Mr. Kirui in 1987 when we were both students at Kapsabet Boys High school in the then larger Nandi District to the west of Kenya’s Rift Valley. He was my senior in A level, quiet, unassuming and down to earth. We struck up a cordial though not particularly close friendship. We shared a common heritage, coming from a humble rural background. As first-born boys in typical African families, we both felt the weight of responsibility, not only to excel in school, but also to set a good example for those to follow. We were expected to assume responsibility for our younger siblings and were instilled with a strong sense of purpose, ambition and discipline. Little did I know that after completion of his A level studies; I would neither see nor hear from him again until more than ten years later.

Like many motivated Kenyan students unable to afford a more expensive and prestigious university education in Europe or America, Mr. Kirui turned east and enrolled in a law degree at Bangalore University in India in 1991. The defining moment in his life came when he met a member of the Indian state legislative assembly and an advocate. Mr. M. V. Rajashekaran became his mentor and introduced him to the world of legislative law and practice. Mr. Rajashekaran had a profound influence on Mr. Kirui’s career choice after graduation two years later in 1996. While working as an intern at Mr. Rajashekaran’s office, he was struck by how the Indian state legislatures were performing: “quite efficient and democratic, with high-quality staffing and facilities and good working conditions,” marvels Mr. Kirui.

It was then that he decided to focus on legislative work, as opposed to the traditional core legal training. Upon his return to Kenya in 1998, Mr. Kirui embarked on a journey that would see him rise quickly as a well-respected and accomplished parliamentary official. He became one of a handful of experts in the details of parliamentary rules and procedure working in Kenya today. While at the Kenya School of Law, he became interested in the research capacity of members of parliament and sought to find out whether parliament provided resources and research capability for MPs to do their work effectively. He then sought a research permit from the office of the president to study the Kenyan parliament.

This was an unusual request at the time, since no member of the public, not even former MPs, were allowed into the parliament’s library. The serious lacunae in research and law-making capacity soon became obvious to Mr. Kirui. He made it his life mission to seek every opportunity to assist in improving the quality of parliamentary work by providing expert support for members of parliament and parliamentary staff. In his determination, he decided to double as a parliamentary commentator for Kenya Times newspaper and, in the year 2000, started a parliamentary political talk show on Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation TV. “At the time it was very difficult to allow MPs to appear on shows on KBC,” Mr. Kirui admits.

“I convinced the minister who was then Hon. Joe Nyaga that it was possible to have a TV show with politicians coming in to talk about what’s going on in Parliament.” This was a significant historical moment in the country’s political process. The country was gearing itself for the decisive 2002 elections. Civil society involvement in the political process was at its peak, and Mr. Kirui’s passion for bridging the gap between parliamentary processes and the public found fertile ground. He started supporting civil society organisations and donor agencies involved in electoral, governance and, in particular, legislative issues. As a result, he worked with such organisations as the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and USAID, among others. After the opposition victory in the 2002 elections and the subsequent cooption of hitherto critical sections of civil society in government, Mr. Kirui turned his attention to consulting for interest groups and stakeholders lobbying parliament on specific bills before the house.

“Many of them would like to understand the implications of the legislation, participate in the law making process and lobby to ensure their interests were protected,” Mr. Kirui admitted. As his involvement in parliamentary procedures deepened and his involvement with a cross-section of influential sections of society widened, he steadily gained respect from all interested parties in the parliamentary process. Mr. Kirui contributed in varying degrees to landmark bills that later became key pieces of legislation in Kenya, such as the Central Bank of Kenya Amendment Bill (Donde Bill), the Industrial Property Bill on issues relating to access to essential medicines and the Tobacco Control Bill. He also worked with the Association of Kenya Insurers and other stakeholders.

“Through all this, my experience was to ask, do we have sufficient capacity for the public, the common people to get to know what law is being enacted? Are they participating? I am a believer in public participation in law-making. I do not believe that people just assume that MPs, the elected representatives should carry out house processes without consultation or reference to the public,” he asserts.It was in recognition of his expert knowledge of parliamentary procedure, his dedication and unparalleled commitment to the legislative process that, in 2003, the Parliamentary Services Commission invited him to apply for a position as a fulltime member of staff. It was none less than Hon. Oloo Aringo, the architect of the PSC who extended the invitation.

Although at the time Mr. Kirui had just been appointed to a lucrative position as deputy country director for a USAID parliamentary assistance programme run by the State University of New York, he chose the less glamorous path to join the public service as a clerk of parliament. “I abandoned the USAID project and with it a very lucrative job, but I have never regretted my decision,” he states confidently. Owing to his extensive experience, determination and strong work ethic, he quickly rose through the ranks to become the first staff member in the history of parliament to be posted to the chamber before confirmation. While probation in the civil service takes two years, and promotion to the chamber, a process called ‘robing’ in parliament, takes up to ten years for other staff, Mr. Kirui was robed within a year.

It was his secondment to the Electoral Commission of Kenya as a tallying supervisor that set the stage that propelled Mr. Kirui to the centre of the intrigue, manipulation and mayhem that bedeviled the critical final steps of the electoral process in Kenya. As a tallying supervisor, Mr. Kirui was responsible for the vote tallying process for one of ten regions comprised of 21 constituencies. This involved supervising junior staff who were meant to be in direct contact with returning officers at the constituency level, to receive and tally poll results by phone, verify them via faxed copies of original documents and finally confirm them by receiving the actual physical copies of original documents (form 16) countersigned by presiding officers and polling agents at the polling stations before the results could be announced by the commission chairman.

What transpired however, according to Mr. Kirui was utter confusion, a breach of the laid down procedures, complete disregard of the need for verification and proper and accurate documentation of the results and what appeared to be a deliberate manipulation of the entire process. It now emerges that none of the tallying and data entry officials recruited by the Electoral Commission received adequate training if at all on how to handle the exercise. Mr. Kirui insists that the recruitment exercise continued to the very day of the election and at the very last minute, people were literally being recruited from the streets.

“They had school leavers from the streets joining the ECK tallying teams. I thought it was questionable, not because they didn’t know what to do, but because they came very late, totally untrained and unprepared. We were then as team leaders asked to train people, yet we didn’t receive any training ourselves.” The Independent Review Committee into the conduct of the elections, according to Mr. Kirui needs to focus in part on structural weaknesses in the ECK that led to such a high level of incompetence of those who were handling the tallying of the results. “The level of incompetence right from the junior officers picked from the streets and put to the job right away, seeing the forms and documents for the first time, without any training, to the highest officials and supervisors who seemed not to understand their roles and duties.”

He adds,” The lack of organisation and lack of training was not just a failure to plan; it was deliberate to create chaos and confusion so it could be easy to manipulate the process.”It was these glaring systemic weaknesses that allowed the process to be flawed, as well as deliberate manipulation of the tallying process that led Mr. Kirui to leave the ECK tallying centre and speak to the press just hours before the presidential results were announced and Mr. Kibaki sworn in as president. Knowing full well the repercussions of his actions, despite the real fear that it could well cost him his life, Mr. Kirui chose to go public.

“The reason I went public was because of what I saw in Rwanda. The consequence of denying and robbing the people of their basic democratic rights, against a situation where you have skeletons of thousands of people buried in one grave. At some stage, I saw the skeleton of a baby, almost 40cm, with diapers still on and the skull had a big hole in it…you ask yourself how and why that level of animal behaviour could happen. I saw our country sliding down that road and I knew I had to do something to prevent that slide, the certain and horrifying prospect of the consequence of a presidency being snatched from a winner. I could see that the country was already in a tense trance. I thought we were getting drunk, and I could see a slaughter and serious massacres 40 or so hours later.

It could have been worse.”In his zeal to try and forestall what he thought was a national catastrophe looming over the land, Mr. Kirui faced the press and made his now famous speech. “It mattered to me that my coming out would make a difference and I am convinced that it did. When I went to KICC to address the press, the situation was already tense; the paramilitary police GSU had surrounded the place. I was sure a bullet would go through my head any time. I believed my intervention would save the situation. I thought Mr. Kivuitu would announce that the elections are nullified, that he would order a recount, or that we would have another election in 12 months or so. I was convinced some action would be taken; little did I know that Mr. Kibaki was preparing to be sworn in at the same time. I thought I was acting at the nick of time.Instead, from then on, Mr. Kirui was a marked man on the run. I hadn’t seen or been in touch with him since the year 2000.

I had been living in Holland since 2001, but happened to be in Kenya at the time. Two days after his press appearance, Mr. Kirui called me in the dead of night. I could tell he was clearly shaken and scared. He confessed to needing any help he could get to leave the country asked if I had any contacts with any foreign embassy that might be willing to help. I made some phone calls and put him in touch with an embassy official I knew, and so begun his extraordinary flight through Tanzania to the Netherlands. It was not as easy to leave Nairobi. His two daughters aged ten and twelve were up country in the village visiting their grandparents.

His wife could not immediately leave with him as she had to fetch the girls from the village. He worried silently about leaving them behind, but knew he would be no use to them at home and dead; he had to go ahead and was comforted by the assurance that they would join him soon. According to him, many friends in the NGO sector and more than one foreign mission came to his rescue, first hiding him in an ambassadorial residence after another, then being driven in cars with tinted windows across town to record his statement and swear an affidavit before a commissioner for oaths and eventually planning an escape route.

By then, his contacts in the police and the National Security Intelligence Service had warned him that certain sections of the police were hunting him down and that his best hope was to leave the country. Some diplomats suggested leaving through Sudan, but the national airspace was under tight surveillance then and small aircraft flights from every single airstrip in the country were grounded. The only option was to leave by road. Uganda was at the time suspected to be supporting Mr. Kibaki. That left Tanzania as the least risky of the available options. What followed was a harrowing, eighteen-hour drive from Nairobi under the cover of darkness and disguise, through Namanga border, via Arusha, to Dar es Salaam.

A week after he went underground, he was finally able to breathe a little air of freedom, but sadly, not in his own country. His well-wishers in Kenya immediately organised an air ticket for him and, after being holed up in an embassy in Dar es Salaam, he was driven straight to Mwalimu Julius Nyerere International Airport, from which he took an overnight flight to relative safety in Amsterdam. When he landed at Schiphol airport, the director of the Institute that was to host him was ready to receive him. A place had been secured for him to enroll straight away as a student in a human rights certificate program.

The diplomatic community in The Hague gave him a warm welcome, especially those who had had any contact with or field experience in Kenya. Most of them were eager to hear his first-hand experiences. These discussions served to embolden the Dutch Foreign ministry’s and, by extension, the European Union’s strong policy position during the negotiation process that Kofi Annan mediated. At the time of this interview, Mr. Kirui was completing the final papers for his course and intended to leave the Netherlands shortly, bound for a new destination (which shall remain undisclosed for the sake of his safety and that of his family).

He still fears for his life and is not assured that he can be guaranteed adequate security in Kenya. His informants in the police force and NSIS maintain that his life is still in danger. Contrary to popular opinion, the opposition leadership was not involved at all in his flight and had no idea of his whereabouts, even weeks after his departure. According to him, “I wouldn’t rely on protection from politicians; I didn’t go public because of politicians. It was my conscience. Who would ensure my security in Nairobi? The government has no control over and has been alleged to lend support to Mungiki. Two members of parliament were killed like dogs in the streets, who am I to survive?”Asked about the witness protection act that was passed during his time as clerk at the national assembly, Mr. Kirui dismisses it as one of the weakest pieces of legislation ever passed by parliament, having been watered down by MPs, who, through their selfish and shortsighted considerations, failed the nation yet again.

The Independent Review Committee on the election debacle will thus have to do without his testimony, at least in person, unless they are able to arrange a videoconference, or accept a signed statement from Mr. Kirui. Asked about his future, Mr. Kirui says he will not depart from his career in legislative issues, but wants to continue doing rigorous research, publishing and building a critical body of knowledge that he thinks is needed in order to improve legislative processes in Africa, and particularly in Eastern Africa, including Kenya. That will be his contribution for the foreseeable future. For now, Kenya’s parliament will have to do without his skills and expertise at a time when perhaps it needs him.

Human Rights watch releases their report but fails to name names.

The Human Rights Watch has released their report on the post-election violence in Kenya. As expected, they have mentioned the aspect of organised crime. But who are the organizers/funders of those goons who ran amok in Nakuru and Naivasha killing innocent Kenyans. Who gave money to Mungiki and how much was it?

The report is quoted elsewhere as saying, and we reproduce the summary here:

In the Rift Valley, where Kikuyus were attacked, the violence was meticulously organised by local leaders. But so too, were the reprisal attacks against non-Kikuyus - largely thought to be opposition supporters. The violence in flashpoint areas such as Naivasha and Nakuru allegedly followed meetings with local businessmen and politicians from the president's Party of National Unity, which directed youths in their attacks. “For the new government to function well and earn the people’s trust, it needs to first heal the wounds by prosecuting those behind the violence,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Inciting violence along ethnic lines almost destroyed Kenya. The new government now has a chance to repair those fractures.”

In Eldoret, located in the Rift Valley, attacks on Kikuyu homes were planned by local leaders. As one Kalenjin elder present at organizing meetings explained to Human Rights Watch, “[The elders] said that if there is any sign that Kibaki is winning, then the war should break … They were coaching the young people how to go on the war [sic].” A young Kikuyu man who participated in reprisal attacks on Luo in Naivasha also pointed to the role of local leaders in organizing the violence. He told Human Rights Watch, “This was not done by ordinary citizens, it was arranged by people with money; they bought the jobless like me. We need something to eat each day.”

Human Rights Watch also investigated the use of excessive force by police that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of protesters and innocent bystanders. In one instance, police admitted using lethal force to control crowds in Kisumu, resulting in the deaths of more than 30 people. A 15-year-old boy described to Human Rights Watch how police shot him in the back of the leg as he was running away from a police car: “They had put off the headlights of the car. I realized that I was near because I heard a gunshot. I started running. Then I heard a second one. When I tried to step forward, my leg had no power, I fell down.”

Who are the funders? Read the summary report here and the detailed report here.

“Kenya’s leaders, Kenyan civil society, and international actors deserve praise for uniting and bringing the country back from the brink,” said Gagnon. “But the hard work starts now. Confronting long-ignored human rights violations and historical injustices means investigations and prosecutions.”

But who paid Mungiki or their renegade detachments to kill?

In the center of town, a Kikuyu resident who was sheltering Luo children in her home described watching local businessmen and PNU mobilizers, the same individuals mentioned by the youth at the meeting, directing militias on the street in blocking roads, telling them “good job” and arguing with policemen on Sunday afternoon.Later, she said, a Kikuyu mob led by one well-dressed man whom she did not recognize came to her building with a list of three Luo names. They wanted to know which apartments belonged to the Luos.

Out of town, in the settlements where Luo migrant workers from the large commercial flower farms reside, the pattern was distressingly familiar with mobs burning houses, killing men, and, in one case, throwing an old man into a burning house. Young men interviewed by Human Rights Watch claimed that they were offered 7,000 shillings ($100) for taking part and 10-15,000 ($200) for each Luo man beheaded. Luo victims and local human rights activists also mention similar figures. The official total killed as a result of the clashes in Naivasha was 41. Twenty-three were burned, including 13 children, seven were shot dead by police and the rest killed with machetes. There were four victims of forced male circumcision treated at the hospital, all of whom survived.

Kibaki's Top-up election rigging extended to Mitihani House?

Something is not adding up in the Kenya National Examinations Council, 2007 results for the fourth formers. After releasing the results in the thick of the haggling over a stolen election, the suave Prof Sam Ongeri and the discredited Kenya National Examinations Council has gone ahead and recalled some results. We are witnessing institutional collapse in Kenya, whether we like to face the truth or not.

Is KNEC another ECK? Are the institutions curtseying at the stinking feet of power mongers and influence peddlers who went behind our back to tamper with the results while the country was transfixed on a stolen democracy? Was there top-up for some candidates and regions which were PNU-positive? Questions for which we have no answers but which, nonetheless, our countless army of readers are asking for an explanation.

You may view the KCSE results here. Simply unzip the files, open with Ms Word and change the page set-up to landscape.

What shocked people was the slump in the performance of traditional academic powerhouses like Alliance High School, an Alma mater of many leading Kenya leaders in industry and academia. Alliance sank to position eight, barely making it to the top ten in the rankings. The school blamed it on alleged exam leaks. Wait a minute.

The best girl was ranked 17th nationally, Ms Muzna Hanif Abdulrazak of Agha Khan High School Mombasa has made history of some sorts. The top girl wants to study medicine, good news for the girl-child and the Muslim woman. We congratulate her and all the other girls who did it.

The top school, Mangu, had never been anything near to the apex of national glory for a very long time. Remember that the school produced the powerful individuals in the land, including, yeeeees, bandit president Mwai Kibaki. Alliance Boys has alleged that their competitors had unfair advantage. That they had access to the exam in advance. It is not new. In Moi's Kenya, this was done every year for schools in his native Baringo. But that was the dark era. What is now obvious is the fact that 2007 KCSE has been disputed pitying Alliance and KNEC/Ministry of Education.

It has been claimed in different fora that the KCSE leakage was rampant and nearly every school was aware. Some parents and candidates, not to be left behind, even scrambled and obtained the actual exam papers before they were offered to sit it. The examiners, who themselves may have been complicit in the 'rigging of exams' turned a blind eye on the theft and pilferage of exams. But how?

Claims of Top-ups and Top-downs
There have been claims which we could not verify, involving candidates who registered for, but did not take up the exams, receiving an A for a fictitious test. Mr Kibaki had a top-up of one million votes from constituencies like Maragwa where pregnant women and their unborn children voted. How else would you explain a turn-out of 115%? But what is our seeing a connection here?

Those people who stole the presidency for Mr Kibaki were inept, they failed to balance their books. Obviously, somebody borrowed the top-up magic from Kivuitu's cook-book and decided to cook and serve results. The outcome of that manipulation is that the results don't add up. Those who were known to be weak or had dropped out of school ended up surpassing their superior and hard-working students. How else could this happen? T-O-P-U-P. Remember that for every top-up, there was a T-O-P-D-O-W-N. Was Alliance High School a victim of adjusted 'sambaza' of marks?

The case of the student who registered and failed to take the exam but was awarded a beautiful 93% in maths was reported in a school in the Rift Valley. The headteacher was simply dumbstruck. In a dump move by the KNEC, a girl candidate at Kipsigis Girls High school was entered as a male (M) and nobody noticed this for a girls school in an institution like the KNEC where details are handled with a tooth-comb. No, it was not an error for the student (512103-092, Chepkemoi Judith). By entering her as an M, someone is imprisoning her in endless trips to Mitihani House to effect the correction. Were the ODM zones targeted for punishment by PNU-positive officials at KNEC? Are exam irregularities engineered and managed by computer geeks affiliated to PNU inflicting further damage to the ODM zones?

This blog was contacted by a well-wisher who supports a number of school children in Kenya. We all know that once in a while we come across people who can spare a dollar here and a pence there, which translates to a lot of money in Kenya shillings. The distraught benefactor was concerned and we reproduce their email for you to see why this exam fiasco is not a local village matter, the whole world is seeing what we are going through and the credibility of our school leavers will be called to question, believe us.

I'm a XXXXXX married to a Kenyan. I've followed Kenyan politics for quite a while and I congratulate you for the great part you played in restoring some sanity in Kenya. Your blog is absolutely great. However, my wife has relatives in Western Kenya and we are really saddened by the recent revelations of wrong KCSE results. I know for a fact that the lives of thousands of young adults have been messed but this. We have the benefit of paying our relatives an repeat year. But what about those who cannot afford this? They have now failed or gotten worse grades than needed for decent studies.Long story cut short: THIS IS A LEVEL 1 SCANDAL OF THE SAME MAGNITUDE AS THE SHOOT-TO-KILL ORDER.

So I wanted to ask you to post this story and some background on your blog so that the exam body and education ministry cannot cover-up the mess. Thank you very much, Tom.

Fellow Kenyans, you can now see where we are going. Education is a must-have in our current life, its life-changing potential cannot be gainsaid. By tampering with exam results through top-up or top-down, somebody has, with the stroke of a pen promoted an undeserving kid and killed the spirit of a patriotic and hard-working Kenyan.

How shall we stop this menace? One way is to name names and shame them. Just imagine the damage we did to the thieves and bandits that we tagged on the right of this blog (thief-in-chief, warlord-in-chief, traitor-in-chief, etc which we have received countless times in our private emails from people who consider the tagging to be lethal and very effective). This blog is dedicated to do that.

We cannot sit back and watch Kenyan children being graduated into criminal gangs because their progress has simply been reversed. That cannot happen in a Kenya where we want to belong to a country that guards the rights of the weakest while allowing the mighty to rule with responsibility. We are demanding an audit of the KNEC by an independent and credible body of auditors, the results and all the events that took place between the end of marking before Christmas and the release of the results. Were there any faceless criminals who had security passes to restricted areas in Mitihani House? Who are they, and at whose behest were they working? Who knew what, and who was told about it?

We invite anybody with information to share with us in confidence, blog here for Kenya to help right this wrong.

In a face-saving move, the KNEC has recalled some exams results. Read that story in the Standard again and pay attention to little geopolitical details. Now, did you notice where the recalled results are coming from? N-Y-E-R-I. Well, one Mwizi Kibaki comes from Othaya in that same N-Y-E-R-I. How about Njiri's High School, is it in Turkana district? Kenyans, what will they do with them? Readjust the results based on what, or is it going to be like the case for Maragwa where the ECK allowed the returning officer was allowed to alter the figures from the exorbitant 115% turnout to the 'arbitrarily acceptable' 84%? Remember that this was done at the ECK, how that figure was arrived at is not really important, it is the kienyeji nature of running institutions that is worrying us.

What is it about these institutions which are run by the Kamba and scandals? ECK is under Kivuitu, ODM-K is under Maanzo and bandit veep Kalooser while the KNEC is chaired by one Prof. Raphael Munavu. We will not forget, shall we, that the PNU bureau of disinformation is led by the Disinformationsmeister Dr Alfred Goebbels Njoroge Mutua. Is it coincidence?

Where is the first lady?

Parliament was officially opened by Mr Kibaki on Thursdays to usher in a very optimistic moment in Kenya reminiscent of the 2002 swearing in of the third president of the republic on a wheel chair. This optimism was captured in various pictorial displays, including Prime Minister Raila Odinga strolling into the chamber with bandit veep Kalonzo Musyoka, aka Judas Iscariot.

No one may have imagined this trouping of the politicians to the August House after the acrimonious first session during which the MPs-elect were sworn in a very entertaining and tense environment. The beginning of the second session of the 10th parliament.

The exuberance of the befitting occasion was denied the usual drama surrounding the choleric first lady who is reportedly tethered to her Muthaiga home after a series of embarrassing slapping episodes. Serial slapper Lucy has quite a collection in her gallery of victims, ranging from haranguing former veep the likeable Moody Awori to slapping a senior civil servant at the hallowed lawns of State House during a state function. Her latest victims include retired Mzee Moi and bandit veep Kalonzo who are reported to have avoided the slap but were left thoroughly embarrassed by the drama.

Mrs Kibaki, it will be recalled assaulted Mr Gitobu Imanyara whose Nchuri Ncheke elders have since sent out word for a he-goat. We reported right here earlier that Lucy had shot her son, Jimmy, following disagreements over whether bandit Kibaki should hand over power to ODM or not. Lucy saw Jimmy as a weakling whose knees were too weak to protect the family. Of course Jimmy was hospitalized, during which time he put on excessive weight.

What caught the observers of the state opening of parliament was the loud absence of a first lady that Kenyans have grown to hate and love with equal measure for her dress code (if she has any), hair wigs and steady gait beside Mr Kibaki in all state functions.

At the state opening of Parliament, it was her daughter Judy who sat close, but not next, to the Prime Lady Ida Odinga. Where was Lucy? Town is rife with rumors of her whereabouts including her open disdain for the non-Gema and obvious unease with the way her husband ceded power to Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Insiders report that the recent rise in activity by bandit Kibaki at his Harambee House offices is tied to an attempt to deflect attention from his schizophrenic wife. Mrs Kibaki, a humble primary school teacher who rose with her husbands stature has four children with Mr Kibaki. Mr Kibaki has another daughter by his second wife, Wamboi. Ms Mwai is dating one of the obnoxious Armenian brothers who ran amock in Nairobi in the recent past including causing a breach of security protocol at JKIA. The notorious drug dealers later revealed sensationally that they were hired to bring down some targeted politicians. Kenyans will remember that bandit veep Kalonzo had rushed to a photo session with the criminal brothers at the Grand Regency Hotel.

On a serious note, were Lucy to have attended that state function, we cannot fail to speculate the likelihood of her stretching her hand to 'greet' the Prime Lady Ida with a spank.

On a day like this when the world remembers women, on the international women's day, we cannot fail to ask two questions: One, where is Lucy Muthoni Kibaki? The second question is, what do we call Mrs Ida Odinga whose posture and clout is certain to eclipse the sadistic Lucy? We propose that the Prime Minister's wife be called the 'Prime Lady' to distinguish her from the bandit lady Lucy.

Wherever you are Lucy, happy women's day to you mama Jimmy. Na usiendelee na hiyo tabia mbaya ya kuwachapa wanaume kamwe.

Payback time as Mungiki now begin to hit at the Kibaki heart

Now is payback time as the Kibaki banditry and the conspirators of the electoral heist are targetted by Mungiki. In a hard-hitting expose and letter addressed to members of the recently launched GEMA "Renaissance" Movement, the gang has earmarked virtually all the members of the wealthy backers of Kibaki's banditry. God forbid but soon, we may see souls falling.

Read on.

Mungiki now lambasts TPRM/TPDF - CENTRAL COMMITTEE

You are NOT fooling anyone with your cowardly emails. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM and NOT THE Solution to the Community’s terrible situation or the country’s equally terrible mess.

In the first place, you are Kibaki's sycophants and cheer leaders. You have blindly supported him on his journey to destroy the community and the country with his lack of leadership.

In the 2nd place you continue to divide the Kikuyu community into "haves"and "have not", Ngati na Itungati, Royal Families and Commoners. Your sole mission now is to impose the children of those who have as leaders so that you can continue ruling the community from your graves.

Your children are beneficiaries of the enormous wealth, which you have stolen from 1963 and before ’63, benefits given to you as bribes by the colonialists with whom you were collaborating. All these years, you have sucked our blood. You live on our sweat and you now have the audacity to style yourselves the saviours of our community!

In 1992, you conspired to stop Hon. Kenneth Matiba who cares for the poor and has no time for your class system from taking over as President. You, the “Royal Families” rallied behind Kibaki and formed D.P. at the 11th hour to split the Kikuyu vote. To you Moi was preferable to Matiba and his supporters who were “tumundu tutu” You do not care at all about the thousands displaced from their farms, businesses and properties. If truth be told, you do not care how many more are killed.

All you care about is your hold on power to continue with your obscene accumulation. This is why even now you are leading the country to civil war and disintegration. You have killed thousands of our young men whose only crime is being poor and unemployed on the pretext that you are “crashing”and wiping out “mungiki”. Only recently, you murdered Boniface Maina and his wife Elizabeth Nyambura in cold blood and dumped their bodies at Karura forest.

Their young children are now orphans. And you entrusted the crashing to Kimendero the crusher to continue and finish the job he was doing in the 1950’s! You can rely on the pseudo mungiki youths who in truth are merchants on hire claiming the brand name mungiki.Before on behalf of the Community we confront those in the country who think they can isolate and exterminate the Kikuyu community, we shall sort you out first.

You are the Traitors to the community. Your stomachs is your only concern. When you are issuing your threats; do NOT for one moment think that you have the monopoly of violence. What you have is the wealth stolen from the masses and we shall come for that too.

Do not ostracize one of your own Charles Mugane Njonjo because of his personal differences with Kibaki. He is one of you. The others are Emilio Mwai Kibaki, John Njoroge Michuki, James Njenga Karume, George Kamau Muhoho, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, constituting the House of Lords and the recently constituted cast of Maina Kamanda, Amos Kimunya, Martha Karua, George Thuo, Dick Wathika, Lee Muchiri, Beth Mugo, na kanda cianyu cia moko, Murathe, Muigai Njoroge and Kamau Ngunjiri. There are others. We know them all.

Inyui Inyuoothe ni-inyui thaata cia Ruriri na cia Bururi.We are ready for you.

State 'sanctioned' Kenyan clashes and killings by Mungiki

Having been asked to defend the bandit government in its times of crisis, Mungiki now feels short-changed and abandoned, we can reliably report. This morning, members of the gang were caught up in police running battles in which tear gas cannisters were lobbed to disperse them. They were protesting the incaceration of their leader Maina Njenga. We recently reported that Njenga was still Mungiki, and not many people took us seriously.

And in what is likely to hurt the PNU thugs, the BBC has learnt of allegations of state-sanctioned violence in Kenya during the recent post-poll crisis. Sources allege that meetings were hosted at the official residence of the president between the banned Mungiki militia and senior government figures. The aim was to hire them as a defence force in the Rift Valley to protect the president's Kikuyu community. The government has declined to respond to the allegations which are likely to be investigated by a new commission.

The allegations come as parliament is due to open on Thursday preparing the way for a new coalition government. Although parliament's focus will be on healing ethnic divisions and creating a coalition government - allegations of state involvement with a banned Kikuyu militia, known as Mungiki, will not go ignored. Not least because of growing suspicion that some of the violence that led to 1,500 people being killed and hundreds of thousands displaced was orchestrated by both sides of the political divide.

Gangs with machetes The BBC source, who is a member of the Kikuyu tribe and who is now in hiding after receiving death threats, alleged: "Three members of the gang met at State House... and after the elections and the violence the militias were called again and they were given a duty to defend the Kikuyu in Rift Valley and we know they were there in numbers."

On the weekend of 25 January, the Rift Valley towns of Nakuru and then Naivasha were the focus of the some of the worst post-election violence. Eyewitnesses spoke of non-Kikuyu homes being marked, then gangs with machetes - who they claim were Mungiki - attacked people who were from other ethnic groups. Sources inside the Mungiki have told the BBC that it was a renegade branch of the outfit that was responsible for violence, not them.

A policeman who was on duty at the time, who has spoken to the BBC on condition of anonymity, has also pointed to clear signs of state complicity. He alleges that in the hours before the violence in Nakuru, police officers had orders not to stop a convoy of minibus taxis, called "matatus", packed with men when they arrived at police checkpoints. "When we were there... I saw about 12 of them [matatus] packed with men," he said.

"There were no females... I could see they were armed. "We were ordered not to stop the vehicles to allow them to go." The current and previous minister for internal security have both been invited to respond to the allegations. So far they have declined to do so. The allegations come at a time of growing concern that there was pre-planned violence on both sides of the political fence, in the aftermath of Kenya's disputed election result.

The International Crisis Group has already raised such concerns in their report and Human Rights Watch is expected to publish its report making similar claims shortly. There are plans to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the coming weeks to examine claims of election violence. The allegations are likely to be among the themes investigated by a commission created to address the issue of post-election skirmishes.

This may be the beginning of a long drawn out war between Mungiki and the Grand Coalition. It is believed that Mungiki adherents are fearing for a merciless clampdown by the police whose minister is likely to be from the ODM. Time to go look for the warlords who helped recruit the mungiki is now. The group has been hunted down and killed before including their bodies being dumped at the Ngong Forest.

Who owns the land? Blood and soil issue

The passion with which millions of wananchi valued their presidential vote in the stolen 2007 presidential elections can be reflected in scenes of the bloody post-election clashes today that engulf Rift Valley, Nyanza, Coast, Nairobi, Western and to a less extent in other parts of the country. Nakuru is now the latest epicenter of inter ethnic murders.

The violent reactions to rigged elections may reflect the pain of deep and historically rooted injustices some of which predate Kenya's independence in 1963.

They are in fact motivated and exacerbated by landlessness, joblessness, and poverty believed to be heavily contributed towards by the prevailing political status quo that has dominated Kenya since independence. This is a system that has continuously perpetrated, in successive fashion, socio-economic injustices that have been seamlessly transferred from one power regime to the next.

The Land Issue

With a fast growing population in Kenya, limited resources including land and jobs, have severely been put in extreme pressure. Responsive political operatives cognizant of this reality have appreciated the importance of incorporating progressive policies that seek to aggressively address poverty, landlessness, unequal distribution of resources and unemployment, as a matter of priority (in their party manifestoes) if any social stability is to be maintained in Kenya.

Without doubt, the opposition party ODM sold an attractive campaign package that sought to address historic land injustices, unemployment, inequitable resource sharing and poverty through a radical constitutional transformation, under the framework of the people-tailored Bomas Constitution Draft.

ODM proposed to tackle the land problem through clauses in the Bomas draft, captured under devolution and land chapters, with specific plans to form a National Land Commission to address the issue of landlessness and historic injustices of expropriation of native land by colonial and post-colonial powers.

The roots of the land conflicts in Rift Valley land lie with the former colonial power, Britain; post-independence land policies by the Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki administrations; and the tendency for ethnic favouritism and patronage by power wielders.

Colonial expropriation of native lands in Rift Valley and Coast

In a nutshell, the British settlers literally grabbed native Maasai and Kalenjin lands in Rift Valley and Miji-Kenda, Taita and Taveta land at the Coast. At the Coast, there was also the added grabbing hand of the Middle-East Sultans who lay claim to another Coastal strip. Millions of voters from these communities (now deeply affected by landlessness and poverty) are today largely drawn towards ODM's reform policies that seek to address these INJUSTICES.

Long before Independence, vast arable tracts of the Rift Valley were designated as White Highlands, reserved for European settlers. The pastoralist communities, mainly Kalenjin and Maasai, were simply moved away.

The 1904 and 1911 Anglo-Maasai land "Agreements" details the unjust grabbing of Maasai lands in Laikipia, Naivasha, Ngong, Karen, and tracts along the Uganda Railway line whereby uneducated Maasai Laibons either friendly to, or fearful of the British (christened Paramount Chiefs) like Lanana Ole Mbatian, were cajoled and intimidated into giving away native fertile Maasai land to the colonialists.

The words in the "Agreements" read like ……"we the undersigned, being the Laibons of clans of Maasai, have of our own free will, decided that it is for OUR best interests to REMOVE OUR PEOPLE, FLOCKS, AND HERDS into definite reservations away from the Railway line and away from European settlements….." and "…..In conclusion, we wish to state that we are quite satisfied with the foregoing arrangement, and we bind ourselves and our successors, as well as OUR PEOPLE, to observe them as long as the Maasai as a race shall exist.."

The next thing we knew was that the Maasai were crumbled into arid portions of present day Kajiado and Narok districts. Grazing fields, and the very pastoral lifestyle of the Maasai instantly became threatened and continues to do so as we speak, without any restitution, compensation or pro-active rehabilitation into another life.

100 years later, when asked to address this burning Maasai land issue, former Lands Minister appointed by Mwai Kibaki, Mr. Amos Kimunya, once told the Maasai that there was nothing to address since the wise Maasai forefathers had given away their land to the British in a BINDING AGREEMENT which continues to apply to date.

Well, similar horrid but true stories applied in Kalenjin lands of Rift Valley and at the Coast too.Before independence, Kenyan political parties argued over whether the native land should be returned to the indigenous population under a federalist system of government or kept firmly under the control of a centralised state. Needless to add, those who favoured the latter option, in the form of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), which went on to form a government under Jomo Kenyatta, prevailed.

1963 Independence, enter Jomo Kenyatta and GEMA Land-buying companies

Trouble is, we had a majimbo constitution at independence. Jennifer Widner explained in her 1992 book, The Rise of A Party-State in Kenya: From "Harambee!" to "Nyayo!" that KANU "urged central control of all regions in an effort to forestall local majimbo legislation restricting land transfer to those born in the area, and to maintain the foothold of the party's Kikuyu supporters in the Rift Valley land market".

Many settlers were returning to Britain. Kenyatta and his cronies quickly formed the Settlement Transfer Fund Schemes (STFS) and asked the British for a loan to the Kenyan government, to buy off land from colonial settlers returning to Britain. Good idea up to this point.

Britain, having been reassured by Kenyatta that those settlers still wishing to stay on in Kenya would not have their land repossessed, advanced the money. This money was used to buy settler land which was officially sold into the Kenyatta initiated Settlement Transfer Fund Schemes (STFS).

Next, Kenyatta began to give away and sell for peanuts, these government (STFS)-acquired, former colonial land parcels, to himself, his family and cronies around 1964 and 1965. This is the point when the rain started beating Kenya. Kenyatta's then Vice President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, cried foul and rejected these acts of wanton land grabbing.

The opportunity to choose nationalism and selflessness over greed and ethnic tendencies was lost. Rather than address this land issue once and for all, Kenyatta opted to REPLACE the settler colonialsist in land they had initially grabbed from natives. We have began harvesting the seeds of the mustard sown by Kenyatta in the 1960s. It will not be sweet at all.

The Seroneys and other Nandi and Kipsigis leaders immediately cried foul when Kenyatta ensued in his land grabbing tendencies. So were many Maasai and Miji-Kenda leaders like Ronald Ngala. Their cries were feeble and over run. Today and tomorrow, their descendants will demand justice and restitution in an exercise that threatens to tear apart Kenya's social fabric.

Who will shoulder the burden of the fruits enjoyed by Kenyatta and his cronies, Moi and his cronies, and Kibaki and his latter day cronies? Will it be the poor Kenyan taxpayer taking the bill in form of blood, and more taxes?

Going back,.... down memory lane..... in the immediate post-independence era, the moment, the Seroneys and Ogingas started crying foul, and nothing was done, we entered a dangerous phase of our nation's socio-political path.

The political leadership of Kenya began carving out into two distinct groups. The pro-Kenyatta land beneficiaries, sycophants and apologists where Tom Mboya, Daniel Moi, Paul Ngei and others trooped towards,….and another force resisting the greedy post-Independence governance by Kenyatta which was led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, and included several former KADU operatives like Ronald Ngala, Jean Marie Seroney, Masinde Muliro, Martin Shikuku and others.

Kenyatta soldiered on with his grabbing. He concurrently went ahead with the help of Tom Mboya to change the constitution to give immense imperial powers to the Presidency. He further began using such powers to allocate more land to his cronies and sycophants. His salivating appetite for Rift Valley land largely motivated his choice of Rift Valley natives as Vice President after Oginga Odinga.

First he chose a Maasai, Joseph Murumbi, who read the scheme of land-betrayal on his people and resigned in a huff, then Kenyatta selected Daniel Arap Moi, a Tugen not drawn in the Nandi and Kipsigis land battles, as his next loyal VP. He then descended upon grabbing Rift Valley and Coastal land in a business as usual and "mtafanya nini" attitude that Kibaki is trying to emulate today.

Kenyatta cronies including Mbiyu Koinange, Njoroge Mungai and others devised a clever scheme to further benefit themselves from the land transferred from the colonialists. They formed land buying companies through loans which were actually funded with tax-payer money. At the height of land buying companies, most of the power brokers acquired huge chunks of land at the expense of the landless who were meant to be the initial beneficiaries of the scheme.

According to Widner (in her book), by 1971, more than 60 % large-scale farms around Nakuru and 40% of small scale settler farms, were held by Kikuyu, who fared very well from this arrangement, at the expense of other Kenyan communities.

Another scholar noted that "Using the political and economic leverage available to them during the Kenyatta regime, the Kikuyu, took advantage of the situation and formed many land-buying companies. These companies would, throughout the 1960s and 1970s, facilitate the settlement of hundreds of thousands of Kikuyu in the Rift Valley," wrote Walter Oyugi in Politicised Ethnic Conflict in Kenya: A Periodic Phenomenon.

In 1969, Jean Marie Seroney, a leading Nandi politician and MP, issued the Nandi Hills Declaration, laying claim to all settlement land in the district for the Nandi. His demands went unheeded. Aping the British Kenyatta government used a policy of divide-and-rule to neutralise such opposition by parcelling out land to other ethnic groups and thus winning their allegiance. Daniel arap Moi, the then Tugen vice-president was allocated the settler farms of the Lembus Forest and the Essageri Salient to divide the Tugen from the Nandi like Seroney.

Most of the power brokers in the Kenyatta regime who formed land-buying companies established huge farms in the Rift Valley either jointly or on their own. They included Njenga Karume, the then Chairman of Gema Holdings, who acquired 20,000 acres in Molo where he is growing tea, coffee, pyrethrum and potatoes and 16,000 acres in Naivasha.

GG Kariuki acquired his 5,000 acres at Rumuruti, Laikipia Division, while former Attoney-General Charles Njonjo bought into the 100,000 acre Solio Ranch. Don't forget, grabbing of settler land in Central by many colonial collaborators, at the expense of the Mau Mau fighters, was part of the scheme. Senior Chief Munyinge from Muiga took 400 acres. Initially, senior chief Munyinge was allocated only 70 acres but with time he managed to acquire 330 more acres.

Mwai Kibaki acquired 20,000 acres in Nanyuki, Former MP Munene Kairu has 32,000 acres at Rumuruti. Mr Isaiah Mathenge, the former powerful Provincial Commissioner under Kenyatta and an MP under Moi, is arguably the largest land owner in Nyeri municipality.

He owns Seremwai Estate, which is 10,000 acres. Kibaki's friend, Kim Ngatende, a former government engineer, has 500 acres too.Mathenge also owns—jointly with former Provincial Commissioner Lukas Daudi Galgalo—the 10, 000-acre Manyagalo Ranch in Meru.

Back in Rift Valley, as Jaramogi and the rest of Kenyans were saying, Not Yet Uhuru, it was land grabbing business as usual. Land-buying companies were heisting big. There result was big acquisitions, for instance, Munyeki Farm—which stands for Murang'a, Nyeri, Kiambu – (4,000 acres), Wamuini Farm (6,000 acres), Amuka Farm (2,000 acres), Gituaraba Farm and Githatha Farm (1,000 acres each) and GEMA Holdings 12,000 acres. A few of them are being utilized, today with the owners growing various crops ranging from coffee, tea, maize and dairy keeping.

The other big farms include Chepchomo Farm (18, 000 acres), owned by the former Provincial Commissioner Ishmael Chelang'a. The family of the late Peter Kinyanjui, who was a close friend of President Mwai Kibaki and a former DP Chairman in Trans Nzoia between 1998 and 1999 owns 1,800 acres.

In Nakuru, several politically connected individuals have acquired many acres of prime land within the town—they include lawyer Mutula Kilonzo, who owns an 800-acre farm for dairy farming. The immediate former Auditor General, D S Njoroge, owns 500 acres, while Biwott's Canadian son-in-law & co-owner of Safaricom (Mobitelea) a Mr. Charles, boasts a 100-acre piece where he is growing roses.

D. S. Njoroge also owns the extensive Kelelwa Ranch in Koibatek, which is less than 10km from Kabarak, where he rears cattle and goats. The 10,000 acre Gitomwa Farm—acronym for Gichuru, Tony and Mwaura—is owned by the family of the former Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC) managing director, Samuel Gichuru. Tony and Mwaura are his sons.

Another 10,000 acre farm in Mau Narok belongs to the family of the late Mbiyu Koinange, Kenyatta's side-kick and powerful minister of state in the Office of the President. His Muthera Farm (4,000ha) is leased to different people to grow wheat, while a group of squatters is demanding a piece of it. The owners are yet to clear the Sh7 million Settlement Transfer Fund loan.

Ford-People leader Simeon Nyachae's Kabansora Holdings owns 4,000ha in the area. Former Rongai MP Willy Komen's family owns 10,000 acres — 5,000ha adjacent to Moi's Kabarak Farm and another 4,800ha near Ngata in Njoro.

Coast Province was not spared. Kenyatta family owns almost 15% the prime resort land in the province, besides a huge sisal plantation spanning both Taita and Taveta districts, safely watched by his son-in-law and former MP Marsden Madoka, and another close friend to Uhuru Kenyatta, and current Minister in Kibaki's illegitimate government, Naomi Shaban.

Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki land holdings

Kenya's two former First Families and the family of President Mwai Kibaki are among the biggest landowners in the country. The extended Kenyatta family alone owns an estimated 500,000 acres — approximately the size of Nyanza Province — according to estimates by independent surveyors and Ministry of Lands officials. (This report first appeared in the Standard Newspaper report by Mr. Otsieno Namwaya)

The Kibaki and Moi families also own large tracts, most held in the names of sons and daughters and other close family members, all concentrated within the 17.2 % of Kenya that is arable or valued. Remember that 80 per cent of all land in Kenya is mostly arid and semi arid land.

According to the Kenya Land Alliance, more than a 65% of all arable land in Kenya is in the hands of only 20 per cent of the 35 million Kenyans. That has left millions absolutely landless while another 67 per cent on average own less than an acre per person.

The building land crises in the country, experts say, will be difficult to solve because the most powerful people in the country are also among its biggest landowners.The tracts of land under the Kenyatta family are so widely distributed within the numerous members in various parts of the country that it is an almost impossible task to locate all of them and establish their exact sizes.

During Kenyatta's 15-year tenure in State House, he used the elaborate STFS scheme funded by the World Bank and the British Government, to acquired large pieces of land all over the country. Other tracts, he easily allocated to his family.

Among the best-known parcels owned by Kenyatta's family, for instance, are the 24, 000 acres in Taveta sub-district adjacent to the 74, 000 acres owned by former MP Basil Criticos.

Others are 50, 000 acres in Taita that is currently under Mrs Beth Mugo, an Assistant minister of Education and niece of Kenyatta, 29, 000 acres in Kahawa Sukari along the Nairobi—Thika highway, the 10, 000 acre Gichea Farm in Gatundu, 5, 000 acres in Thika, 9,000 acres in Kasarani and the 5, 000-acre Muthaita Farm.

These are beside others such as Brookside Farm, Green Lee Estate, Njagu Farm in Juja, a quarry in Dandora in Nairobi and a 10, 000-acre ranch in Naivasha. There is another 200 acres in Mombasa, and 250 acres in Malindi.

Other pieces of land owned by the Kenyatta family include the 52,000-acre farm in Nakuru and a 20,000-acre one, also known as Gichea Farm, in Bahati under Kenyatta's daughter, Margaret. Besides, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, widow of the former President, owns another 10, 000 acres in Rumuruti while a close relative of the Kenyatta family, a Mrs Kamau, has 40,000 acres in Endebes in the Rift Valley Province.

Uhuru owns 5,000 acres in Eldoret, 3,000 acres in Rongai and 12,000 acres in Naivasha, 100 acres in Karen, and 200 acres in Dagoretti. A 1,000-acre farm in Dagoretti is owned by Kenyatta's first wife Wahu.

It is also understood that part of the land on which Kenyatta and Jomo Kenyatta Universities are constructed initially belonged the Criticos family. The government bought the land from him in 1972 under the Settlement Transfer Fund Scheme and transferred to the Kenyatta family the same day Criticos sold it to the government. Land for the two universities was subsequently sold partly and a portion donated by the family.

One of President Kibaki's earliest grabs is the 1,200-acre Gingalily Farm along the Nakuru-Solai road. And in the 1970s, Kibaki, who was then the minister for Finance under Kenyatta, via STFS transferred to himself, 10, 000 acres in Bahati from the then Agriculture minister Bruce Mckenzie.

Kibaki also owns another 10, 000 acres at Igwamiti in Laikipia and 10, 000 acres in Rumuruti in Naivasha. These are in addition to the 1,600 acre Ruare Ranch.

Just next to Kibaki's Bahati land are Moi's 20, 000 acres although his best known piece of land is the 1,600 Kabarak Farm on which he has retired. It is one of the most well utilised farms in the area, with wheat, maize and dairy cattle.

The former President owns another 20, 000 acres in Olenguruoni in Rift Valley, on which he is growing tea and has also built the Kiptakich Tea Factory (recently torched). He also has some 20, 000 acres in Molo. He also has another 3, 000-acre farm in Bahati on both sides of the Nakuru/Nyahururu road where he grows coffee and some 400 acres in Nakuru on which he was initially growing coffee.

The former President also owns the controversy ridden 50, 000 acre Ol Pajeta Farm—part of which has Ol Pajeta ranch in Rumuruti, Laikipia. Some time in 2004 Moi put out an advert in the press warning the public that some unknown people were sub-dividing and selling it.

Can solutions can be offered to address these land problems?

This is clearly a socio-political problem that requires a political solution. It involves digging up the archives, consulting experts, policy makers, local politicians and community elders to find a comprehensive solution.

Such formulated blueprints can then be sold to Kenyans of all creed, race, religion and ethnicity in a publicity campaign that seeks to draw in as many supporters as possible. A responsive political party genuinely keen to tackle this tough problem can actually sell a comprehensive and just land reform policy as part of its manifesto.

These must be cognizant of the constitutional implications concerned in addressing past and present land issues.

Guess what. This incidentally happened already. ODM party, using the Bomas draft constitution which proposes to establish a National Land Commission sold this idea to Kenyans during the referendum campaigns and at the 2007 General election campaigns.

Many Kenyans especially those directly affected by landlessness chose to give this idea a test. That party attributed to ODM's resounding win over Kibaki's PNU which prefers to sleep over the land issue quietly.

But before the coronation of ODM into government, Kivuitu and his ECK had other ideas. Blatant and daylight robbery of an outright electoral win by ODM was executed by Kivuitu and ECK to illegitimately hand over power to Kibaki.

None of the confident voters who were determined to start demanding results and accountability with regards to land and other biting issues such as unemployment and poverty, from the NEW government they elected seem ready to take Kibaki's attempted robbery lightly.

What we are witnessing in Rift Valley, lately in Nakuru, may just escalate to new heights considering the fundamental weight of the underlying blood and soil issue of land.

Kalonzo slapped by Lucifer

Unconfirmed reports circulating in the city indicate that traitor-in-chief and bandit veep Kalonzo Musyoka was slapped by Lucifer. It is said that in her usual fits of anger Serial Slapper Lucifer could not understand why the whole world is still yelling that bandit president Kibaki stole the vote even after Kalooser burnt money in his recent trip abroad. Lucifer can't understand why iron lady Karua should be doing more spade work for the besieged bandit regime while Kalooser simply rocks in his seat. What does this mean for the embattled president?

Having survived several serial slapping entertainments including a threat to former dictator Moi and a junior civil servant Musyimi who has since been demoted, Lucy is yet to deliver a he-goat to the Nchuri Ncheke to appease them for slapping Gitobu Imanyara.

The mad bandit first lady is embarrassing the country while one of her potential slapping victims and US Secretary of State Condi Rice is set to arrive in Nairobi to give the stalled Annan talks some impetus. The world's superpowers are impatient that the bandit government is not ceding enough ground to the cheated winner, ODM's peoples' president Raila Odinga.

After moving to a secret location in Kilaguni for the last 48 hours, Annan was reported to have made little progress. Included in the deal is a new constitution to be written in one year. However, the most contentious issue of transitional power-sharing was stone-walled by Martha Karua of PNU. The talks resume on Monday. Annan is to hold a press conferrence today at the Serena Hotel at 5pm during which he is expected to make public the contents of an agreement that was signed by the parties in the dispute.