Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
New Media Tools Play Pivotal Role in Kenya's Constitution-Making
http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2010/08/new-media-tools-play-pivotal-role-in-kenyas-constitution-making236.html
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
New Media – Face Bookers in Kenya call on their leader to Resign
New Media – Face Bookers in Kenya call on their leader to Resign
The Luhyas are shunning tribal politics as Hon.Wetangula muddles solo
The Luhyas are shunning tribal politics as Hon.Wetangula muddles solo
As an avid observer of the changing politics in Kenya…the resentment of Wetangula by the online Luhya bloggers and facebookers came as a shocker. The Luhyas aren’t playing the tribal politics anymore, but they have willfully and voluntarily left Wetangula to carry his own cross.
While the mainstream media may have reported this clearly, it is the alternative media that has demonstated it even better. Throughout the online discourses on facebook, Kenyan blogs such as Jukwaa and Kumekucha and websites such as abeingo.org, one can consistently read the reactions of the Luhyas about one of their own. They want Wetangula to carry his own cross. The Luhyas, and I do hope other Kenyans will follow, have now woken up and are taking charge of the foraging “ethnopolitics’ disease. Hence, today, I write proudly, because of what the Luhyas (and the Bukusus) have shown Kenya: That we must not always support one of our own, whatever the circumstances. We should all take control of our country's destiny by opposing corruption and ethnic-based tribal politics.
To expound on my argument, or rather to prove my thesis about the reinvented ‘anti-ours-politics’ Luhyas, I will give some excerpts from the online public discussions around the issues of Hon. Wetangula after a damning report tabled in Parliament by the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee recommending that Wetangula be sacked immediately to pave way for criminal investigations into alleged impropriety in the purchase of embassy property in Tokyo, Japan, early this year.
The most interesting and animated discourses were on face book;
On October 15th at 7.05am, a face booker, who goes by the name “Etwaya embukusu” (the Bukusu Cockerel) wrote this on his wall, Wetangula wefwe bamurangana namwe keba? (our Wetangula has been agitated, or did he actually steal?)
In response and in a span of two hours, the above post attracted about 60 comments, which were mainly written in the Bukusu language. The comments were such like;
..oyo omufwi namba mocha....reba babandu besirisia bakhubolele (he is the no.1 thief, ask the Sirisia people and the will tell you)
..Ohoo, wetangula must go jama oyo omwifwi serisia mbao nishakhokile taa (Ohoo, Wetangula must go, that guy is a thief, he has done nothing in Sirisia)
..Efwe babhukusu tumefika mwisho come 2o12 those bahayetanga ta yani omundu aka wetangula shld be voted out,kwanza omwifwi he stole d votes 4last election (We Bukusus have come to the end of the road. Come 2012, those who don’t help like Wetangula should be voted out).
..omwifi-omifwi wasee. Ese kwanza nalindile epetition eyewe kenyiwa alonde vavasio khuvele twa siosisiosi nisio khakhukholela kejali vusa yeng'ene bure kabisa (A thief is a thief. In fact, I am just waiting for his petition he should follow the other MPs who also lost because there is nothing he is doing for us. He only cares about himself. Very Useless man)
..Omwifwi niye.. Khache afwile etayi (A thief he is…let him go die far away)
..Akachula olifwana ali innosend nono lekhela paliamenderians babule (When he talks, you think he is innocent, now, let the parliamentarians uncover and reveal him)
..nothing like owefwe let him carry his own cross alikula na nani (there is nothing like he is ours, let him carry his own cross, who did he eat/steal with?)
Clearly, from the above internet discussions, we can see that the Luhya who contributed to the topics did actually not want Wetangula to go scot-free. They did not seem to care that he is a fellow Bukusu like them. And it is amzing that most of the comments on face book were from the youth, the leaders of tomorrow.
Elsewhere on other Kenyan bolgs such as jukwaa and kumekucha, the message is the same….that because the exchequer has lost Kshs. 1.1 billion under Wetangula’s watch; he should resign and pave way for investigation. And as the Standard daily reported on 15/10, even the Luhya legislators seem to be joining the momentum demonstrated by their electorates, that Wetangula should be left to carry his own cross. The western MPs were dubiously missing from parliament, despite of the uncharacteristically high attendance on Thursday, 14th. Even our mouthpiece Dr. Khalwale has conveniently been buttoned up on this Wetangula issue.
Essentially, what I am trying to rally my fellow Kenyans to, particularly the youth who are fundamental to the positive change that we envisage, is that, if we are to fight corruption, let us please not play the blind tribal politics. If we have thieves amongst our leaders, then let them face their Jury regardless of their ethnic or political affiliation or their 2012 schematics. If you are a luhya, or even a Sirisia Constituent, who is not related or known to Wetangula in any way, please shout if he “ate” with you or moreso, if he has benefitted you in any way in his position as a political leader charged with the duty of developing his constituency. If you count shout an “aye”, then please do not support his corruption case blindly but allow him to face the law. The same should be the case for other leaders with graft or human right cases…let them face their damnation on their own. And as for you leaders, Stop Robbing Us!!!
Let Kenyans unite and take control of their country's destiny by opposing corruption and ethnic-based tribal politics. We cannot allow Kenya to be further plunged in divisive and destructive ethnopolitics. It’s a high time we started the Tanzanian way of politics which is built upon the people’s sense of national unity, collective pride and brotherhood/sisterhood.
Chinta Musundi-Beez
Researcher in New Media Politics
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