Elections Watch 2013: International Media bent on Reporting on Doom for Kenya

Tweet of the Week: President Obama Message to Kenyan's

Twitter was the new tool that was used by Candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama as they campaigned for office in the 2012 US elections. It was instrumental in sending out messages to supporters, conceding defeat and announcing the win.

The US administration has moved on with this trend when on February 5, 2013 the white house tweeted the below tweet.

President Obama's message to the people of Kenya on their upcoming elections: on.wh.gov/992xRVU Watch: on.wh.gov/aZLBKal
— The White House (@whitehouse) February 5, 2013

And as fate would have it it looks likely that the 4th president of Kenya will be on twitter. If he will continue to use that medium after the win is another thing all together. The two leading contenders for presidency have a presence on twitter going by the handles;

@RailaOdinga and

@UKenyatta

In fact one of the candidates went as far as to tweet this;

I welcome the statement made by The US president @barackobama. I personally & we as #CORD are in complete agreement with it.
— Raila Odinga (@RailaOdinga) February 6, 2013

Events: Multi Disciplinary Festival - Kesho Imefika [A Citizen’s Festival on elections and leadership], Jan. 28-Feb. 1 2013 @ Alliance

Kesho Imefika Festival

KESHO IME FIKA: A Citizen’s Festival on elections and leadership presented by Alliance Française in partnership with INFORM Action, The XYZ Show, Pitcha Mtaani & Dan ‘Chizi’ Aceda

Dates: January 28 to February 1, 2013

Time: Daily at 7 pm

Entrance: Free

This multidisciplinary festival will tackle issues of unity and diversity, corruption and impunity, land issues and reform, governance and leadership with critical eyes and voices, through the mediums of editorial cartoons, XYZ puppets, ‘Kenya Burning’ photographs, music and performing arts, documentaries and public service announcements. 

Cartoons by leading Kenyan cartoonists and ‘Kenya Burning’ photographs by Boniface Mwangi will graphically illustrate the path that must be avoided.

Cartoons on Display [Cartoon by Gado]

A series of short documentaries by ‘INFORM Action’ that specializes in film and community discussions, led by Maina Kiai, former Chairman of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission and UN Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Assembly and of Association, will engage Kenyans on the persistent need to demand political and social accountability.

Skits and voice talents from the XYZ show together with musicians and comedians including Dan ‘Chizi’ Aceda, Winyo and Larry Asego will use their artistic expressions to emphasize the essence of the festival.

Programme

Opening: Monday January 28, 2013
Venue & Time: AF gardens – 7pm
FILM: ‘Disputed Fields’ - 2012, 30min
OPENING LIVE PERFORMANCE by Eric Wainaina and The Best Band in Africa

Tuesday 29 January
AF auditorium – 7pm
FILM: ‘No Man’s Land. Ni Yetu’ - 2012, 30min

Wednesday 30 January
Venue & Time: AF gardens – 7pm
FILM: ‘Project Lamu: Development or Disaster?’ - 2012, 30min
PERFORMANCE by ‘The XYZ Show’ Voice talents

Thursday 31 January
Venue & Time: AF gardens – 7pm
FILM: ‘Getting Justice: Kenya’s deadly game of wait and see’ - 2009, 60 min

Closing: Friday 1 February
Venue & Time: AF gardens – 7pm
FILM: ‘Unfinished Business: in Central Kenya’- 2013, 30min
CLOSING LIVE PERFORMANCE and album launch by Winyo

Fat Cats in Kenya [Cartoon by Gado]

Elections Watch 2013: Nairobi Senator Aspirant Mike Sonko Live Studio Interview on Citizen TV

Mike Sonko is a senator aspirant of Nairobi county and currently the man to beat. he has captured the aspirations of the youths in this country who form the majority of the population. His campaign style and appearances are more of a rapper than a politicians. Is he going to influence how future aspirants campaign?

Watch his interview on Citizen Tv on January 23, 2013

Nairobi County Campaign Dispatches: Out of the Box Campaigning by Jimnah Mbaru [Is JM Kenya’s equivalent of London’s Boris Johnson?]

Campaign Slogan: Consider It Done Campaign

Nairobi has been turned into some sort of poster junk and all candidates are guilty of this offence. Everywhere you turn you will see posters of candidates vying for the March 4, 2013 elections. The problem has been made worse by the nominations which are currently taking place.  The irony I find in this is the same fellows appearing on these posters are promising heaven for Nairobi.

In fact the Nation Media Group chief has tweeted about the ongoing disaster on city streets

Nairobi city council should pass a by law pinning the responsibility of campaign posters on wrong places to the one whose picture appears.
— Linus Gitahi (@LGtwits) January 7, 2013

We are about to havehuge mess with posters from the chaps who want to lead us..someone has to be accountable for posters in wrong places.
— Linus Gitahi (@LGtwits) January 7, 2013

However, in all this mess I have been looking around for the new forms and creative means in which candidates are seeking the electorate vote. Jimnah Mbaru [and by pointing this out is by no means an endorsement] a candidate running for Nairobi governor is turning out to be the equivalent of London Mayor Boris Johnson. In terms of seeking that illusive vote he has gone on-line to engage the urban youth and middle class Nairobi.

London Mayor: Boris Johnson 

One of the thing doing the rounds is his curriculum vitae [see the impressive CV here] and compare it with what XYZ Show guys have come up with as Mike Sonko CV [Mike Sonko blog show be coming up soon…].

Mike Sonko purported CV [Source XYZ]

The two candidates seem to have focused their energies to different segments of the city. With Mike Sonko who is running for Senator of Nairobi appealing to the youth and people living in informal settlements. However, when you look at their posters none seems to be communicating to the so so called hustlers [By using Sheng like Safaricom or Kiswahili]. Most of the posters and billboards are in Kiswahili and the thing that seems to attract or bring the crowds are the lorry convoys/parades which have dancers on board.

Watch Nitatimiza [I will deliver] Video

Pertinent Questions

Who is going to be his running mate?
Can he delivers what he is promising?
Is Jimnah Mbaru consider running for higher office in 2017 IF elected as city Governor? 

Excellent read on Nation Newspaper on Nov. 15 2012: A National Agenda Elections 2013

The nation newspaper carried a great excerpt yesterday which in my opinion has been one of the most comprehensive and biased look at issues as we approach the election next year. I have been seeing politicians launch their party to great pomp and color but lacking has been substance in form of manifesto’s with a clear road map of what presidential candidates wish to do given a chance. Two of the politicians gunning for president have come up with their 5 point agenda’s. In my opinion some of these agenda’s are very shallow and are not informed by population needs but you can give these two politicians Charity Ngilu and Peter Kenneth for trying.

The following we’re the issues which according to nation newspaper should be addressed by the next chief executive;

1.       Job Creation

2.       Food Security

3.       Health Care

4.       Education

5.       Energy

6.       Water & Environment

7.       Social Protection

8.       Public Infrastructure

9.       National Security & Foreign Policy

10.   Boosting Exports

11.   Devolution & Public Service Reform

12.   Ethnicity

Compare this with what presidential aspirant Peter Kenneth wishes to address;

1.       Water

2.       Infrastructure

3.       Health care

4.       National Security

5.       Education

You will find he falls short in a great deal. The issue of job creation in my opinion is cardinal in this campaign which is lacking in peter Kenneth’s agenda. It is now four months to election date and other major presidential aspirants TNA’s Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM’s Raila Odinga are yet to present a clear agenda as to what they intend to do for this country.

So what have these aspirants been doing?

What I have been observing in the last few months;

·         Presidential candidates have been going across the country populising themselves

·         Coalition talks have been taking center stage with breakfast meetings & lunches and night meetings between different presidential candidates

·         Regional offensive travels. This has been true for TNA’s Uhuru Kenyatta who has visited Tanzania, Sothern Sudan and Burundi while Narc Kenya has been to Southern Sudan 

Politics: Hon. Charity Ngilu Tosses Her Hat into the Presidential Ring

Hon. Charity Ngilu [Current Water Minister] becomes the second woman after Martha Karua to toss her hat into the Presidential Contest ring.  Charity Ngilu launched her presidential bid yesterday at KICC. In a well orchestrated party delegates conference that saw her endorsed as the party's flag bearer on Narc party. 

This will be her second shot at the presidency after 1997 polls that saw her come number four. 

Many of us will remember Ngilu as being instrumental in the 2002 polls. She was the one of the leading lights who advocated for the then opposition to unite. Her efforts bore fruit and saw President Kibaki then head of opposition on Democratic Party ran on her party ticket Narc Kenya as a compromise party and saw the opposition through Kibaki clinching the presidency for the first time. 

She later fell out with the president and has been closely linked with the prime minister's ODM party.  In 2007 election she was the only woman pentagon member. She was given leeway by the ODM party  to contest her Kitui Central seat on her Narc Party.

Observers have pointed out that she is launching a presidential bid to increase her odds of being picked by the PM as a running mate.

The positive thing but her run for presidency is that it is igniting the ongoing campaign with fresh ideas especially on policy as opposed to name calling we have been getting. During her launch she set out the priority areas her administration would focus on. These are;

1. Eradicating poverty;
2. Fighting illiteracy;
3. Improving healthcare;
4. Women empowerment and
5. Enhancing food and water security in the country

However, this seemed like a well choreographed reading of her party manifesto as opposed to what she believes in.

Critics will be eager to point out that her ministry has not been one of the best performing and we have had instances of corruption pointed out in this ministry. 

She is also ranked as an average MP on Mzalendo platform

When the American’s were in Town: US Secretary of State Visit to Kenya and the after Shocks

A lot has been written on the US Secretary of State visit to Kenya earlier this month. However, as is the case most of it has been partisan and crucial questions and key observations have been left missing.

I like many other Kenyan’s was NOT privy to the secretary of State visit BUT I made a point to watching her visit unfold on television and read opinion pieces about her visit on our dailies.

One thing that emerges is one part of the coalition was angered by her visit because she outlined her government’s position on some presidential candidates. It is said that she made it clear that the US is NOT pleased with the two Presidential aspirants who are also ICC suspects contending for the country’s top position. She must have made this clear when she met with our president at State House. The TV footage of this visit showed that present on this meeting was the Chief of General Staff Kenya Gen. Julius Karangi.

Her delegation also met with the IEBC chairman Ahmed Issack and made an offer to secure BVR kits which was rejected by the commission.

Clinton with Raila. Source: PMPS

However, the interesting meeting was between the Secretary of State and our Prime Minister. The Secretary of State got a hug from our ‘western & media savvy’ Prime Minister and in his entourage was the Water Minister Ms Charity Ngilu! Maybe, the PM’s office did their homework and knew the Secretary of State being the second woman after Condoleezza Rice to hold the current office appreciates women in power.

However, the missing narrative in this discourse was the Secretary of State meeting with Somali President in Nairobi. I have seen few narratives on this issue mainly from the East African Standard [a weekly publication focusing on the region owned by nation Media Group]

.

The Secretary of State also met with the head of the Judiciary, CJ William Mutunga. This is the meeting that had some commentators raising eye brows because our Foreign Minister Hon. Ongeri was NOT present in the meeting. But the Secretary of State and her entourage we’re correct in locking out the FM because he is NOT a member of the Judiciary.

The interesting thing is that all this meetings occurred in one day and for that matter on a Saturday [August 4, 2012].

Other talking points of this visit were that the US was now getting to see Africa through the eyes of the Chinese. In fact during her trip in Africa the Secretary had made some comments which annoyed the Chinese and from her meeting with IEBC and Civil Society it appears the Chinese were on hand to question her.

Above all this visit by the Sec. of State highlights the importance the Obama administration attaches to Kenya especially as it approaches the elections in March 2013 and the region and as America changes its approach to Africa. 

Some of the silent features of this visit were the US Embassy in Kenya was not in order because of changes at the US Embassy in Kenya.

Recommended reading: 

http://www.nairobiwire.com/2012/08/hillary-clinton-kenyas-visit-crazy.html