Why the orange revolution succeeded!

The success of the Ukrainian Orange Revolution, that led to a re-run of a fraudulent presidential election, is related to a unique coincidence of factors that prevented a violent oppression of the demonstrations. The popular revolt was the motive force behind the revolution, but also defections in the security forces and foreign interference were very important for its success. It was not political parties that constituted the core of the anti-regime forces. Decisive was the support of an important part of the business and political elite for the opposition. The fact that anti-regime forces united just before the presidential elections proved to be critical. The hardening of authoritarian rule under President Kuchma occurred after the opposition had already become too powerful to be dissipated by harassment. The Orange Revolution tried to enforce its demands in the framework of the law. The fact that the constitutional court and parliament still had some autonomy proved to be crucial. The Orange Revolution was mainly based in Western and Central Ukraine and revealed a deep cultural-political divide in Ukraine. The Orange Revolution gives a unique opportunity to create a culture of democracy and to establish the rule of law.

The fragile Coalition government of Kenya!

From: Akech

My fellow country men/women;
(By the way, I do not have PhD, so be kind to my rumbling below)

While most of you are taking shots at each other over the squabble between Raila and Ruto, the fragile Coalition government of Kenya is being run by the international bullies behind the scenes using paid hit men like Kofi Annan and Moreno Ocampo.

Annan and Ocampo are paid consultants representing the interests of NATO (United States, Great Britain, and Europe) in their war against terrorism. The US has invested a lot of capital in Mwai Kibaki since that State Dinner hosted by George W. Bush at Whitehouse in his honor in 2003. Because of this relationship with Mwai Kibaki, PNU is the US, Great Britain and European Union favored ruling party in Kenya.

The Mau saga and The Hague stick were merely ploys introduced to dismantle and put ODM out of commission. It would be a miracle if the Pentagon members can manage to sort out their differences and realize that those poor Kenyans who flocked their rallies were counting on them to bring real changes in Kenya! Apparently, it does not look like the big egos will allow them to do that. I wonder whether these people are not just concerned about themselves, immediate families and their close fiends.

What is more worrisome is that there are parallels between the implosion within ODM right now and what was happening in Rwanda a few months before the 1994 genocide.

(1)US has been a staunch supporter of Paul Kagame and his Rwanda Patriotic Front since its creation by Tutsi exiles in Uganda. The leaders in the RPF army were trained and equipped by US and its European allies.

(2)A year or two prior to Rwanda genocide of 1994, there were a series of power sharing negotiations between the government of Rwanda, under President Juvenal Habyarimana and the then leader of Rwanda Patriotic Front, Paul Kagame, held in Arusha, Tanzania.

(3)During these negotiations, the Rwandan government was pressured and threatened with international sanctions by the US and his European allies to grant power sharing concessions to RPF. Habyarimana granted so many concessions to RPF that made it difficult for the president to justify to his hard line supporters that he was not handing over ruling powers to a minority ethnic group, the Tutsis, under leader Paul Kagame.

During the colonial rule and shortly after independence from the Belgians, the Tutsi minority had supreme powers over the Hutus (85%) and other tribes.

(4)The last straw came just a day before the beginning of the genocide. The hardliners in Habyarimana party were unable to standby and watch what they saw as a military coup by Paul Kagame and his Tutsis minority, through continuous pressure from US and it allies. That day, the plane carrying the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana (Hutu), and Burundi President Cyprien Nitanyamira (Hutu), who were retuning from reconciliation meetings in Arusha, Tanzania, was brought down by a surface-to-air missile just, before its landing at Kigali Airport. The Rwanda genocide began a couple of hours later that night , April (6-7) 1994

(5)To date, the person or people responsible for the downing of the plane have never been identified. Yet there are international investigators in Rift Valley trying to talk to the locals to unearth who exactly incited the 2007 elections riot that killed 1,000 Kenyans.

Yet, US, France, Great Britain and the European Union have never seen it fit to employ their superior investigative methods to unearth who assassinated the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi on the eve of Rwanda genocide. They have left that single episode to speculations:- Could it have been the Hutu hardliners who were afraid of impending takeover of government by advancing Tutsis RPF, or was it Paul Kagame and it RPF, who wanted to take the power from the Hutus? The environment created was such that either side could have been responsible

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(1)ODM has been vilified by international press since the beginning of 2007 Kenyan election campaigns.

(2)To make the Coalition Government work, Raila and ODM have made many concessions to accommodate PNU and have been, deliberately, assigned tasks which put this political party members at odds with each other, as well as their supporting Kenyan voters, who are now left dangling in the air. Yet, through Kofi Annan, more pressure is being exerted by the international powers and directed primarily at the Prime Minister and his team. The pressure has definitely taken its toll!

(3)Raila has become the axe man in implementing policies which only help put him in conflicts with his base supporters in Kenya, particularly, Rift Valley.

(4)The current implosion within ODM has created an atmosphere in which anyone outside ODM party members can harm either Ruto or Raila or both. Should something like this happen, some ODM supporters will be blamed for a nightmare like that!

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While ODM attention is directed towards the squabbles within Kenya, a barrage of NEW laws and rules of engagement in the newly re-created East African Community (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi), with dire consequences to Kenya and Kenyans are taking shape. The continuous disagreements between PNU and ODM in Kenya make it difficult for anybody to determine who is representing ODM’s views or or the views of those who gave them support at these EAC negotiations!

One thing is clear; the well known proxy warriors in East Africa and Lake Victoria regions, Paul Kagame and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, are now the alpha dogs in the EAC. These are the same well trained, battle hardened Ugandan and Rwandan proxies who have been wreaking havoc in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where over a million Congolese have been killed, and a million others rotting in refugee camps!

This is the resources looting war the world is not interested talking about. Things are just getting worse with resource lootings in the Congo. New East African Community members are getting into the mineral act:

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/670830/-/qxs6gjz/-/index.html

The borders between these five EAC countries are becoming porous. One does not need a passport to go in and out of each territory! During the 2008 political turmoil in Kenya, it was rumored that Ugandan forces were seen in Western Kenya and Kisumu District, and there has been Migingo Island issue in Lake Victoria. Next time around, it will be the Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi army chaps who will be wreaking havoc in Western and Nyanza Provinces, and they will not need a permission to come in. This is already taking shape, while majority of Kenyans’ attention is focused elsewhere!

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/817786/-/py73rlz/-/index.html

Kofi Annan and Moreno Ocampo have not yet seen it fit to pay one visit to Laurent Nkunda, Paul Kagame’s right hand man, who is responsible for killing and damaging millions Congolese on behalf of multinational corporations. Nkunda is now living in Rwanda, negotiating the terms for his unconditional release.

What exactly did William Ruto do that has made Annan and Ocampo be hot on his trail? Is he worse than Kagame and Nkunda? I am not trying to minimize the deaths of 1,000 and displacement of 35,000 Kenyans during the 2007-2008 election turmoil. I am merely directing your attentions to what some members of EAC are doing in DRC, and what they may be capable of doing in Kenya should things fall apart!

REPEAT, WHILE KENYANS’ ATTENTION IS FOCUSSED ON POLITICAL TURMOILS WITHIN, THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY LAWS WITH DIRE MILITARY AND TRADE COSEQUENCES ARE BEING SHAPED BY THE RESOURCES WAR LORDS WHO ARE NOW MEMBERS OF EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY!

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/opOrEd/comment/-/434750/817950/-/bpuxnr/-/index.html

CALLING ON THOSE MENTIONED ADVERSLY IN THE SCANDALS TO STEP ASIDE

Today our country is facing a moral and leadership crisis. Kenyans are victims of corrupt governance; we ask those who have been mentioned adversely in the maize and education fund scandals to do the appropriate thing for Kenya. Step aside! This is the only thing that will restore confidence and trust in the Kenyan government. While this investigation is still ongoing, our country cannot afford to remain engulfed in endless unfolding bickering and shift-blaming. Our government’s ability to deal on a daily basis with the fiscal and economic crises we currently face demands leadership and integrity right from the State House.

We also ask the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission to act expeditiously and bring the corrupt officials to justice. Kenyans are tired of being taken for granted. They are tired of footing bills for people who show their gratitude by vomiting on the hands that feed them. They are tired of riding in rollercoasters of embarrassing scandals time and again.

The dire fiscal situation in Kenya demands that we have leaders who can devote their full attention to serving the people of Kenya. With this clouds now over their heads, those officials clearly are encumbered in the performance of their official duties and should step aside immediately!

Margaret Chepchumba Kimosop, Vice President
Kenyan Diaspora Pro-democracy Movement
USA

AFRICA: SAD BUT TRUE! CHANGE THE LEADERS!

The total income of all 55 African countries is a little more than that of Belgium.
· Africa is the world's most indebted and aid-dependent region.
· 17% of the African GNP goes towards debt repayment
· The whole continent has fewer paved roads than Poland alone.
· Africa is poorer than it was 40 years ago.
· African economies must grow at 5% annually just to maintain the current level of poverty.
· Africa looses 20,000 skilled professionals a year due to economic hardship.
· Africa has less than 10% of the world's population but 70% of the world's total HIV infection.
· 1999 world financial reports indicate that 39% of all African GNP is taken and deposited in foreign banks by selfish and corrupt leaders.
· Nigeria has more than 110 trillion standard cubic feet of gas reserve and about 10 trillion cubic feet of oil reserve, but also has an external debt of $50 billion.
· Nigeria alone produces 50% of the United States' petroleum needs.
· The continent has one of the largest water and river systems in the world, yet it suffers from drought and insufficient hydro electricity.
· A recent computer analysis of the economy of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) concluded that no one could survive there.
· By 1958, the DRC was producing 50% of the world's uranium, 75% of the world's cobalt, 70% of he world's industrial diamonds, and it was the world's largest producer of rubber. But the average income per capita in the DRC is less than 1% of that in the United States.
· With good leadership, and good resource management the DRC could feed up to 2/3 of Africa all by itself.
.With all of this potential, Africa has the world's poorest of the poor.
What is Africa lacking?

PRESS RELEASE: A CALL ON THE US GOVERNMENT TO HOLD FUNDS.

On February 6th The Current Vice-President of Kenya Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka was in Washington, D.C holding talks on issues ranging from Security Issues that affect both Kenya and the United States to the current Economic Climate in Kenya. The Vice-President also attended the National Prayer Breakfast as well.

While he was meeting with officials at the State Department the Vice-President sought to have the application for the Millennium Challenge Accounts (MCA) to be fast-tracked. Although we support the effort to have American Investments made in Kenya we feel that at this time such an effort should wait until there is improvement in the amount of Corruption in Kenya..

Gerald Baraza, President
Kenyan Diaspora Pro-democracy Movement

The principal problem facing African economies

The principal problem facing African economies is political, not economic in nature. Thus key in examining how Africa should respond is the question: How can one assist African leaders to make the right decisions? Or as the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown once put it, “What can Africa, empowered, do for herself?” One does not need to be a college graduate to realize that money is of itself not the sole problem facing Africa. If that was the case the continent would now be wealthy given both the volume of aid squandered and the amount of mon¬ey moved and hoarded offshore in oversees banks and businesses. Hard as it may sound, the reality is that the solution to Africa’s myriad problems goes beyond simple accounting to a rather intricate and critical-to-apply formula of-GOVERNANCE, POLITICAL MATURATION, and STATEMANSHIP. One can write volumes of books on any of these subjects but that’s not my goal today.

A second major need in Africa is the need to create productive capacity within African countries. Many of you may understand that the collapse of Africa’s trade did not happen because of trade barriers. It was due to a collapse in productive output. No country or continent can thrive economically if its productivity in the vital sectors is lacking. The critical aspect to trade is less concerned with “how” countries might trade than “what” they might trade. African countries MUST invest time, energy and resources on the study of what they might actually be making and trading in the future that they are not now. Those of us who have had the privilege of living in developed countries know how hard it is to penetrate Western markets. Even those who were born and raised here work hard to understand the markets before they can venture into serious business.

Another crucial thing that we need to pay attention to is African institutions. An efficient economy requires a free society. The institutions of a free society, including property rights, the rule of law, and democracy are critical to the thriving of any economy. In essence, this translates into putting in place the global rules of operation that make for such competitiveness and investor attractiveness, which make economies more competitive. This involves deregulation and de-subsidization while lessening the burdensome bureaucracy, improving the workers’ skills, and formulating policies and laws without vested interests. Competition and competitiveness matter to long-term economic health.

Let me be quick to point out that improving or growing the economy of each African country is going to require a strategy that is tailor-made for that country. There is a pre­sumption that improvements in governance in and of themselves will be sufficient in uplifting Africa. According to Lord Denis Healey, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, “Governance comes and goes, but the rules of arithmetic and geography remain the same. In other words, legislators should make laws bearing in mind what they want their country to achieve in 50-100 years to come not one year or one electio circle!

Indeed it is sad and regrettable that Kenya is still rightly lumped together with other poorly performing countries where growth rates are low (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Zambia) or where they face severe ecological problems (such as Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger). Kenya has had unequalled advantages in terms of academic intellectuals, political stability, great donor relations and unmatched entrepreneurial spirit among her people. It beats every logic to see how economic development could not be realized.

Kenyans have a chance to change their destiny in 2012 by electing a new breed of leaders who will not only live and perform above parochial and divisive politics but also help to nurture and promote the same on the whole continent. We in the diaspora are committed to working hand in hand with other Kenyans to ensure that only leaders with a vision for the country are elected.