CAVEAT EMPTOR

While chatting with a friend in Nairobi on Facebook a few days a go, she enumerated the countless infrastructural changes that have taken place in our rural Tiania, and with a dose of elation concluded with the “…21^st century-Thika-Super-Highway.” I greatly appreciated these monumental transformations and in a rejoinder expressed my urgent wish to use Thika Highway. “ I can’t wait to use it when it is fully completed; those who are using it already (or part of it) are truly tasting the fruits of Kibaki’s presidency,” said I.  “Well, yes. In terms of roads, Kibaki has really done a good job. But in other areas, his leadership is debatable,” she wrote back in the usual rapid-fire Facebook way. “Thankyou sista. No one else could have put it more aptly. You have hit the snake on the head,” I observed. Moments later, I pondered her last statement and began wondering: Had the Constitution allowed, would Kenyans vote  Kibaki in a third term? (Or a second legal term for that matter?). And the answer, you know better than I do, would be, in my friend’s words “debatable.” Many Kenyans would. More wouldn’t.

It is an undeniable fact, like River Tana emptying its bowels into the Indian Ocean, that a great deal of things have changed under Kibaki’s leadership. Many transformations have been seen and witnessed, good and bad alike. What with the Free Primary Education, rural electrification and road constructions from Moyale to Mombasa, Kisumu to Garissa and many others? Under Kibaki’s watch, scandals like Angloleasing, Tritton, Maize, Free Primary Education, Foreign Affairs, and Water ministry ones have succeeded, don’t forget. And for these few reasons, I would not vote him in for a third term even if the constitution were to allow.

My gut tells me that Kibaki didn’t tarmac or construct roads. On the contrary, Kenyans did. They installed electricity, paid teachers, police force and nurses. The Donors also chipped in on FPE, African Development Bank on Thika Road etc. Kibaki, as the president was to oversee all these, and other, projects. We could have done more had the aforementioned scandals not been allowed to take place. Perhaps we could have had Vision 2015 instead of Vision 2030, and still  achieve all (if not more) of the projected outcomes. We have lost  “…a great ‘effing’ deal” in the words of Vice President Joe Biden of America. The taxes we toiled so hard to earn were carelessly lost within a short period of ‘two presidential terms’. Again, I could not vote in Kibaki for a third term. Leaders to me, are to be assessed or judged not by what they have done with the taxpayers’ money and condition-attached donor funds, but instead, by what opportunities their constituents/voters missed as a result of their inadequacy, complacency, belligerence, arrogance and lack of appropriate action while in office. To be an elected leader means to be on the side of “the people”, the voters, and not the wayward cronies whose interest is to embezzle public funds and resources and then insulate themselves from the ‘electric shock’ of justice by their close genealogy with, or close proximity to the president.

Coming closer home, the same case applies. Talk of ‘copy and paste’. Many people will vote for their current member of parliament (though a number are likely to lose) courtesy of the CDF accomplishments, not knowing that infact the CDF kitty is their taxes. It ain’t wrong to say there are MPs who have misappropriated CDFs and deserve nothing less than being taken to court. In the same vein, Kenyans should remember to acknowledge CDFs that have been wisely utilized, and as a consequent give credit to not only the corresponding MPs but more so to the Constituency development Funds Committee, for it is the engine that is largely charged with nitty grittys of the whole tempting fund. It either fails or fairs with this committee of men and women. It is wrong, though, to insinuate that CDF is an MPs single-handed effort. It is not. If it were, some MPs with more bargaining power would get more allocations for their constituencies than others. CDF is the constituency’s rightful share from the central government. Put another way, even without an MP, each of the current 212 constituencies in Kenya is entitled to its rightful share the CDF. MP is not equal to CDF, and the reverse is also not true. Come 2012, an MP who will be running on a CDF platform will not be any different from the midwife who after successfully helping a woman give birth to twins hastens to demand a token from the twins father ostensibly for ‘giving’  him twins, all this time forgetting he is their biological father, and the wife has been carrying them in her own womb all these nine months!

Much as I support the idea of sub-dividing and distributing parcels of land for the people of Muthara in Tiania, I am beginning to be highly suspicious, as many others are – and rightly so -  of the criteria being used. As a concerned resident, the method is neither transparent nor fair, and my worst fear is that the exercise has already been politicized. Sources close to the source are already intimating that some individual big-shots who are not bonafide Muthara residents are being allocated big chunks of land while the bonafide owners are getting ‘tongue-wide’ pieces of their own land –indeed their birthright – passed on to them courtesy of their forebearers’ flesh, blood and bones. The constitution guarantees any Kenyan to own and use property anywhere they wish, but of course not by encroaching and infringing on others’ property. This source has also confided that this move by allocating land to ‘undeserving outsiders’ is being read by many to be an affront on them as well as a plot to try and look for both political endorsements and solicit votes for the coming 2012 elections.

The unquestionable wisdom of Muthara people should not be underestimated, nor should their timidity be construed to mean cowardice. After all a rained on lion does not become a cat. They know very well who these undeserving allottees stealing their land under their very feet are, and who is abetting in this criminal activity against the peace-loving community. No one with a human heart and sane mind would trample on the poor landless by denying them their only source of livelihood (land) while appeasing his political gods and goddesses with the very stolen resource.  In the words of one Reuben Ndolo, “Ukiwaona hao….”

The people of Muthara ought to know that this land in question rightfully belongs to them and therefore any attempts from anyone to convince them they have in some way brought them ‘manna from heaven’ should be treated with the utmost contempt it  so deserves. People should not vote because community land has been sub-divided and distributed to them individually. The land has long been there, and theirs as well. Only it was communally owned and never put into active agricultural practice/use like all others in the upper zones of Muthara. More important is the fact that the people Muthara should jealously guard and protect their rightful property and by all means keep vigil in order to keep the corrupt thieves of the same at bay. When all is said and done, the people should demand an official document detailing all allotments,  and if necessary – and to avoid the example of absentee landowners – the real (physical) owner of each piece of land.

The current process is both suspect and sinister. Had it been transparent, it would be done in the open for the public to scrutinize – just like the ICC and judicial & Electoral body interviews. The number of total acreage would be computerized with the official names, and ID numbers and sub-location of each member allocated a parcel of land, and how big (or small) it is. The data would then be posted on some accessible official website, in the newspapers for all to read, or even posted at the Chief’s office for the whole public. There is nothing to hide.  We will, after all be ‘eating’ own kill after hunting. The Swahili people say “Mla chake hana aibu.” If this ain’t done, we are likely to witness feuds in future when it will come to the realization of many that their neighboring farm(s) is actually owned by a person(s) who was, and is not a bonafide Muthara person in the first place and therefore never merited the allotment by all means.

Martin Okariithi    "Inorakia area iwiite induu ikarea kumenyeerwa no inuunkie area iwiite."