Finally, Baba Yao makes a stunning come back, but wait…..

2013 was a year of mixed fortunes, and misfortunes for one Cliford Ferdinard waititu, better known as Baba yao.

It was the year that he was defeated in the gubernatorial race, though he could leave elective politics with his head held high. He had given Hon. Evans kidero, and a host of other moneyed giants with their well oiled campaign machinery, a run for their money.

With his humble campaign give a ways, the man had managed to rally the low income earners of the city, the hoi polloi behind him. But a reality check on 5^th of March 2013 dashed his personal, and his supporters’ hopes of bigger things. He had been squarely defeated by his rival, ODM’s Evans kidero.

All seemed like it was not lost. He challenged this outcome in the corridors of justice, where he went ahead to lay a spirited claim that he won the elections.

After months of waiting for justice, a court ruling on that September day sealed his fate. Evans Kidero was duly elected as Nairobi governor, the courts ruled.

Tempers flared outside High Court. His supporters had been denied justice, so they claimed.

Not one to give up easily, old Waititu, flanked by his supporters took to the streets, protesting the court’s move to nullify his petition.

Glimmer of hope. Glimmer of hope. Waititu believed that one day, the courts will give him a chance to explain himself.

That glimmer of hope took time to finally arrive. But when it did, Waititu was at the center of the hullabaloo.

It was yesterday in the afternoon when the Court of appeal nullified kidero’s election.

Waititu and his army of supporters were present at the courts, as expected. And minutes after the shocking ruling, they bolted to City Hall, the official abode of the now ousted (and probably beleaguered) Hon. Kidero.

A cocktail of events took place there. The supporters could be heard causing chaos at the hitherto silent city Hall, where they tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to smoke out the stunned workers.

Kenyans on Twitter woke from their slumber. Another governor has seen dust, Kidero out, they shouted.

And Baba Yao was all smiles as he gave an animated TV interview on how justice is sweet.

But! It’s not over until it’s done. Though he was given a new lease of life to vie again, the same courts had earlier barred him from holding public office. A bird whispered to this writer that that also means he cannot seek political mandate. Or is a governor not a state officer?

“He is not fit to hold state office,” the judgment went.

Perhaps this explains the coy smile on his lips, and the muted celebrations on his part. Maybe he knows something that his supporters do not know. Will he run for political office?

Only time will tell.

 Photos: Capitalfm and courtesy

Lessons from illicit brew, and why the buck stops at a corrupt police force

Lessons from illicit brew, and why the buck stops at a corrupt police force

Corruption has been, and continues to be etched in our systems for so many years that it is legendary. As they say, it is in our DNA. Everywhere you turn, left, right and center, it’s the same narrative. Matatu drivers and conductors will part with a few hundreds of shillings in order to bend traffic rules,(and put the lives of commuters at stake). Police will arrest just about anybody and threaten to charge them for commiting an imagined (and sometimes nonexistent felony)so as to get food on their tables(They call  the chains(pingu)- legal tender), the city council askaris will collude with unscrupulous housing developers to sell them licenses to build high-rise buildings with the speed of lighting(and we complain when the same buildings collapse and kill our people) and these and more vile activities, akin to selling people's souls when they are unaware, continue daily unabated.

Consequently, terrorists, muggers, thieves, poachers,fraudsters and all sorts of nobodies thrive in such an environment. And you ask why there is insecurity in Kenya?

That explains the cacophony of grenade attacks, wanton killings of rhinos and elephants, bombs and fiery day light robberies that have been synonymous with the country since independence. They only seem to have gained momentum, half a century later.

But the worst came early last week. More than 100 people perished after drinking illicit brew in a number of counties. A spine tingling 35 people died in Embu County, previously famous for hunting down an equally beleaguered governor and kicking him out of office, while scores of others succumbed to the same brew in Makueni, Muranga and Kiambu Counties. The brew was believed to have been adulterated with the lethal methanol, thereby blinding and killing revelers in its wake.

This begs the question, what role do the provincial administration, particularly chiefs, play in the fight against illicit brew?

Yes, they should ensure that unscrupulous brewers do not unleash killer brews to unsuspecting members of the public.

How do they do that? Is there an enabling environment to ensure that this happens?Let me cut you the slack.

A person whispered to me that the chiefs and their law enforcing police officers are always bought out by the brewers through heavy bribes.

What they do is they enable the brewers do their job, of killing Kenyans especially in beer thirsty highlands of Central Kenya, a population whose affinity for the frothy liquid, and most of the times the hard liquors that leave them stinking like skunks,  is infinite.

So where do the chiefs carry the blame?

Instead of doing what they were retained to do, they, in cohorts with the bribe hungry police, routinely visit the brewers to collect their share. Regardless of the dangers involved, they simply let the money hungry brewers, who can go to any length to make a kill pout of what they sell disguised as alcohol-go on a rampage and kill at will.

People die, and newspapers carry the usual headlines. Ten Killed after drinking illicit brew in Kiambu, 16 blinded by lethal alcohol, scores dead, others blind after drinking lethal brew….bla bla bla. End of story.

But when more than a hundred can perish after drinking alcohol, and the sellers of the killer alcohol cannot be traced, then, that is when we realize the pain of a corrupt system.

People go on a screamer. rest the chiefs, kill the chiefs, fire the counter commanders, and start trading tirades and shifting blame more than they can blink.

The result is a mixture of shock and disbelief. How can a drink kill so many people in various places of the country at the same time? Was it timed? What was the motive? Whose fault was it? Who should be sacked? What went wrong?

The answer is within us. We have adopted corruption as part of our lives. We will shout ourselves hoarse chanting away corrupt leaders (who are still made from the same fabric as us) but when it’s our hour of reckoning, we are the first to unleash a bribe to a police officer to avoid arrest over some freaky felonies that we are well aware that we did not commit.

So did the chiefs have to go? Yes and No for obvious reasons, but the larger devil lies with us Kenyans, it is the corruption that is so deeply rooted in our bodies, minds and souls that we eat corruption, think corruption, travel corruption, drink corruption and talk ill of corruption as we pretend to all run away from corruption.

Where are the police in all this? You might ask. The answer is well known by almost everyone. This rare breed of law enforcers is the most corrupt ever. If reports by the anti corruption watchdog, Transparency International are anything to go by.  If there were awards from the most corrupt people in Kenya, they emerge tops, with no imaginable competition within reach.

But the overall prize for Africa goes to their Naija counterparts who are always in the payrolls of the infamous rag tag militia terrorizing the oil rich country of Nigeria, the Boko Haram. But there is a tragic relationship. Death is always around the corner.

Away from that, if we want to put our house in order, we must do something to the police to lower their affinity for what is not theirs.

Allow me to, with all due respect, acknowledge all our corrupt policemen and women for a good job well done. YOU KILLED MORE THAN 100 with illicit brew!!!!
Photos: Courtesy