OBURE WUOD TINA IS PALPABLY ANGRIER THAN ME. OBURE PENS A PIECE BELOW THAT MIRRORS PERHAPS ONLY TWO SPEECHES THAT I CAN REMEMBER. THE SPEECH BY GOVERNOR JAMES ORENGO IN 1994 AT JARAMOGI ODINGA’S FUNERAL AND THE 2018 JULIUS MALEMA SPEECH AT WINNIE MANDELA’S FUNERAL. THE TONGUE-LASHING BY BOTH REVOLUTIONARIES WAS PIERCING, IF NOT SCATHING. BOTH DIRECTED THEIR ANGER AT THE BETRAYERS WHO WERE PRESENT AND CALLED OUT THEIR HYPOCRISY. IN ORENGO’S WORDS ADAPTED FROM SHAKESPEARE, “HYPOCRITES, HE SAID “ARE FOREVER THE SWINE OF HUMAN CIVILISATION” OBURE WUOD TINA GOES FURTHER. EDITOR
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Ochieng, “I see you are mad! Seriously mad! Rightfully mad! You are justified, and I am as mad as you are”. Problem. We must be mad at our mad leaders and our mad People. The mad People we think are the alternative. “He he he! Paka olokore chamo gwendgi” (the cat has turned foe, and is devouring the family chicken).
“UDAists” believe they are our saviors. So they insist, “that they have joined the government to “bring development”… to their dead constituents? To them the killing of their people by police is justified because they are opposing the government of the day – the Kenya Kwanza government. The true meanings of the phrases “working with” and “working for” are certainly so blurred, no one can tell these two plain English phrases apart. I have been pondering the following questions that UDAists shall never answer, and neither do they want to be asked;
- Who was not working with the government of the time when that government descended on the citizens massacring hundreds at the opening of the Russia Hospital in Kisumu in 1969?
- Who was TJ Mboya demonstrating against when he was butchered like a butterfly in a Nairobi City Street? Wasn’t he a Government Minister, working with/for the government in the same year,1969? Was TJ Mboya supporting “Joka Odinga” or “Odingaism”?
- John Robert Ouko was a Cabinet Minister and a defender of the Government’s extrajudicial killings, detention without trial and all manner of Human Rights violations of the Nyayo Government. How come he was murdered and his body burnt by the same government? Was he demonstrating or opposing government or was he simply not working with the government?
When the people of Kenya, Luos included, protested against his murder, the Nyayo government descended on the Luos only, killing and maiming many in addition to other atrocious violations that included the rape of girls and women. Why couldn’t the government we were working with then, bring us development? For was it not the case that Raila was in detention and his father Jaramogi under house arrest then?
UDAists are not good at historicizing. They need Historians. They are deceptively color-blind. They see red as white. Killings and violations meted on Luo people, their people, cannot be so invisible as to be confused and equated to peace. equivalent to Peace. For more than twenty-four years the Kalenjins did not only work with/for government, they were government itself. But UDAists forget that Rivertex and Raymond Textile Industries collapsed during that time just like KICOMI and Miwani in Luoland. UDAists are not telling us that the people of Western Kenya have never disappointed any government. They have tried to work with/for every government of the day since 1963. Webuye Paper Mills died and has become a graveyard today even as they are still busy continuing to work with/for the government. Is Mumias Sugar working for everyone that you keep telling to stop carrying sufuria on their heads because food comes from the farm, that you have rendered useless having killed the factory?
Mudavadi and his father Mudamba have been in government for many years. As apologists, Wickliffe was appointed Cabinet Minister in 1991, at only 29 years. For thirty-two years Musalia has worked with/for the government in addition to his loyalty and that of his people during his father’s tenure. Despite all this it is sad to note that Musalia has not a single government or private development bearing his name in Vihiga County. So all our leaders, elected or otherwise, who blame Jaramogi and Raila for the underdevelopment in Luoland or total lack of development are like doctors who proceed to treat a patient on the basis of wrong diagnosis. Obviously, such doctor’s prescriptions come a cropper and has no chance of curing the ailment. Like the raucous Odoyo Owidi, what can he show in terms of track record for his three years at LBDA apart from blaming his other apologist predecessor, Onyango Oloo? These UDAists are not new to government positions, their development record during those stints is what we cannot find on any map.
On the flip side, what do we have in their opposite party, the Orange DemonsCrazy Movement by way of leadership? ODM is as bizarre as the UDAists. Like their UDA counterparts, they work for their stomachs and pretend they care about development. Both CDF and County Government projects are by design bungled, poorly planned and executed without regard to the end users to keep our people in perpetual poverty. The CDF landscape is dotted with projects billed “Renovations” of mostly Semi-Permanent Classrooms as CDF projects or building of Clan schools 20 years into the Fund. ODM members of parliament are the Patrons in these misadventures. Aren’t Luos Slaves in their God-given Lake Victoria more than ten years into Devolution when Fisheries is under Counties?
Nyong’o, and the entire ODM/Azimio leadership eventually made a disorganized visit to the victims of police shootings at JOOTRH. A good idea, for that should be the Biblical thing to do – visit the sick. After visiting the sick in their beds and the dead in the morgue, an impromptu “Empathy Rally” was quickly convened by ODM at JOOTRH parking lot. The blaring noise from Public Address systems mounted both on the ground and on top of Vehicles was to say the least an inconvenience. The choice of location was insensitive. First, they blocked access to the payments bay. Relatives of the sick who had been discharged found it difficult to weave their way through the sea of humanity, i.e. supporters of the various visiting politicians and their social media personnel angling to get pictures of their politicians showing “solidarity and empathy” with the victims of police shootings. The kind of noise that was emanating from the Rally was too much for the sick whom they went to console. One clear outcome for me was the promises made by the leaders, that they would undertake legal actions to press for accountability for these killings and pain as well as defray medical and other costs. What was missing for me was evidence that the leaders were engaged in data collection that can sustain any kind of actions they were promising. I dare say on data, None was apparent, Nil. Totally Zero. (On documentation and data collection on violations, I must hasten to congratulate Prof Nyong’o. He has tried)
