WHY DR. WILLY MUTUNGA IS RIGHT ON A BANDIT SOCIETY

Day by day Kenya is sequentially undergoing metamorphosis to adapt to an Island that could probably be well described by Tony Cruise in some of his literature work. Despite the efforts by few Kenyans to sanctify the peak of the tower to appear to the world as well as viewers as clean, there are few dwellers found at the base who continue with the combustion of this tower forcing the smoke to emerge despite the cleansing at the peak.

It is recently that the chief Justice was on world news, including BBC Swahili for describing us as a bandit economy. Though the reception of these words was not warm enough at home, it was apparent that there was some truth in it. Mike Sonko. once warned politicians on yapping about everything that Raila came out to say.

Peter Kenneth once said there was some truth in everything that someone says including Raila. The time is proving these sentiments to be right. The scandals that have been rumors at one point after a matter of time turn out to be the truth of the society. It is less than a month when Duale treated us to theatrics with a bunch of MPs with a series of press statements defending Waiguru.

The press statements sanctified the NYS scandal suspects with intention to counter the the powerful statements from the opposition. It is recently again that the same Aden Duale came publicly to another press release, though this time with no "tyranny of numbers", to tell us how Ann Waiguru should pay the public money.

Before the storm calms down, H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta all the way from Israel reminded us that as Kenyans we are best experienced in stealing, hatred, tribalism and other myriad of vices. So exactly, what is the fabric of our society? Who are we?

By the way, is it by coincidence that top URP officials are always implicated in the corruption scandals mentioned in government? Is it by chance? why does it seem like the ruling coalition is between two faces of a coin. A corrupt face, and a holy side.

To make it simple, Leaders have at last agreed with what Mutunga said. Ours is a bandit economy. Who shall salvage this economy?

I rest my case.

A voice on the Neglected Justice; OKOTI Aluora Patrick

WHY THE WORLD MAY NOT ELIMINATE OUTBREAK OF VIRAL DISEASES SOONER.

Today I would like to share with you about something that my brains is engaged with daily. Something I am always thinking about. And these are viral infections.

It is apparent that nowadays doctors and paramedics can easily fool around patients with statements "You have a bacterial infection". This is usually to cut short the long questions that may need the professional to explain what is ailing the patient. The whole society, therefore, knows about bacterial infection.

It is evident that if there is any viral terminology that everyone knows is HIV/AIDS. It is apparent that if today I told my old mother that you have a viral infection, she will call my sister, who is a nutritionist, immediately and report I have told her she has "UKIMWI".

What is a viral infection? These are infections only caused by viruses. Viruses are some of the micro-organisms that took scientists relatively a longer time to understand. They caused a lot of suffering before people started learning these.

Sadly, the only better way that viral infections can be dealt with is through vaccines. Unlike most infections that are curable, viral infections are slightly different. Scientists agree that there's only one way to deal with this, do away with the affected organ, or manage it (Let us leave this topic for another day).

What should worry us now?

Several methods exist so far about control of viral infections and Viruses. Summarily, the challenge is that some of these viruses do not die. So where do these viruses go?

For easy comprehension, let me put it this way, Viruses exists as either DNA viruses or RNA Viruses. The most interesting and dangerous part is for the RNA viruses. This is not the end, there is this part where there is what we call Positive sense Single-stranded RNA viruses and Negative Sense Single-stranded RNA Viruses (I have cut short discussion on classes of viruses. Soon I will tackle that).

Now, what we call Positive sense ssRNA viruses have something that should worry you. These viruses do not necessarily require developing to full virions to cause infections.

At one stage in our formal education, we must have been taught about the genetic material. This is what we call DNA in humans. You must have heard in so many cases including where people are burnt to ashes, that their genetic material is retrieved and these people identified. This tells you that it can be a challenge to destroy the genetic material. Then you are told, this material can cause infection.

So, What Next?

As the world battles with some of the deadliest viruses in history, it can be recalled that after the celebrated eradication of polio, more lethal viruses have continued to strike, one after the other. These viruses have had one striking feature among them. Most of these viruses are RNA viruses. Starting from the Polio virus, HIV whose origin has remained entangled in theories, Ebola virus, Marburg virus and the now new story Zika virus. All these, I repeat, are RNA viruses. Sadly, Africa has always been involved. Africa has hosted trials of various virus vaccines and many discoveries have been made on this very continent.

The way we destroy these viruses is what may not satisfy any critical thinker. The end steps we take as a continent cannot guarantee 100% elimination of this menace. Remembering that genetic material can still interact, we cannot rule out the fact that these materials can still interact and create more new organisms, which we shall still call viruses.

Viruses can transform anytime to forms that remain infective regardless of the conditions. Unlike bacteria which can easily be handled by a change in environments, Viruses are a problem. Viruses can withstand extreme temperatures. They can withstand extreme conditions. These are viruses.

So, how shall we precisely eliminate this? How shall we?

I don't have an answer yet. Your contribution can be as good as mine.

Jubilee Coalition Presidency Extravagance, an Economic threat to Kenya

Based on the new Kenyan constitution promulgated by the former president Mwai Kibaki, The institution of presidency currently consists of the office of the President and that of the Deputy President. This institution shares a common budget in expenditure.
During the presentation of the 2015/2016 fiscal budget at the parliament building, the current cabinet secretary for finance issued a directive that required government offices to cut on their foreign travel and hospitality budget by at least 30%. This has however turned out to be the opposite in the office of the president.
Based on the fiscal audit in the public domain and that from the Bureau of the controller of the budget, the figures of this budget required to be cut by 30%, have inflated by 75%. The trips are characterized by escorts of presidential security personnel and close political friends who get an opportunity to know what it means to have a first class travel.
It is during these trips that the so-called state dignitaries siphon money from the poor taxpayers with no particular economic value. With all accommodation catered for, here I mean food and bed, the senior officials receive up to $400 in a day. Considering a familiar example of recent trips that started in The Hague, then to Malta followed by the Paris conference and finally in South Africa, Some of these officials have been outside the country for one month. This adds to $12000 in a month of travel allowances exclusive of their monthly salaries.
For the whole month, the wages of these officials lack use since their food and other personal needs have been catered for by the state. Despite this evidenced by the ailing economy and the endless lamentation from the key productive players in the tight economy, the institution has turned a deaf ear to this in the name of marketing the country’s economy.
The recent implementation of exercise duty from an act of parliament which the CS described as a means of cutting down on lifestyle problems, it is evident that life of the poor ordinary citizen is going to continue ailing and his tear glands should be set to shed more tears. No economy does not rely on the oil industry, imposing a tax on this product translates to the taxation of every service in a country.
Based on the reports from the same government, the presidency has already hit the recurrent budget estimate for travel and hospitality. There have been so far no any reasonable efforts to cut on this expenditure or reduce the effects of the continuously dwindling economy. Kenyans are therefore left wondering and asking the following questions;

1. Why can’t the presidency work on the mechanism of cutting on the delegation that accompanies any out of the country’s travel?
2. As much as it can be justified, what is the essence of huge travel allowances when food and bed are catered for the delegation?
3. Aren’t the several cabinet secretaries able to be delegated with some of these duties and president remaining at home to carry some duties?
4. Are all these trips necessary by the way?

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook; Kenyans deserve service, not expenditure.

A REFLECTION ABOUT MY FRIENDS;

As I have continued to grow and climb the ladder from one level to another, I have come across people who have planted a particular seed in my life. From my religious life to political life, academic life to social life, I have met several groups of people whose perspective and understanding of life has always imparted a particular watermark that remains engraved in me as we part ways with them.

Based on so many categories, today let share with you some of these traits based on attitude towards costs. Those who live real life and manage their own financial services will agree with me that life is about costs;

1. I have these friends who whenever I share with them anything I am going to do, the immediate answer is usually, "Aluora you will make it." They demonstrate a certain threshold of confidence in my capability that they always believe it is achievable. I always march ahead and go to face the situation. These are the friends I always go back to request for further support whenever am out of ideas in seeing my goal go through. Most of these friends will attest that whenever I tell them I am going to do anything, they are always prepared that I will be back.

2. The second category is friends whom whenever I tell them I am going to do so and so, the next question is usually, "How much will it cost?" This is a category of friends who do not judge the results of the project first. They value it in reference to expenditure. They will end up cautioning me to ensure I have enough money. They even go ahead to warn me not to return. These friends are so good that I always tell them even when I want to kill an ant.

3. The third category is these friends whenever I share with them what I wish to do, the next answer is a response in the form of a question, "And where will you get all that money from?" Yes, they value the cash, they may appreciate the value of the end results, but these friends are so pessimistic about my poor state that they are sure I cannot make a single step in life. They are always scared that they may have to spend on me. I love these friends, and I always report to them results of the project at the finishing stage. Telling them before commencing your project will demoralize you then finally fail.

But note one thing, I hate none of these friends, I love them all. They help in shaping my wisdom in one way or another and contribute to continued success. They are all a source of motivation.

Eventually, I count all of them among my friends.

Thank you for being a friend.

Join the Movement

In tough English Okiya Omtata Okoiti Hits hard at Uhuru over the Euro bond Stalemate

The famous activitist and champion of leadership integrity has written to key government officials in a rather what I will call harsh-polite tone demanding for some pertinent answers concerning the much disputed and defended Euro bond. Based on Okiya's interpretation and his counterpart, the Euro bond does not qualify to be a strate debt but a personal debt accrued by those incharge of the regime. He has given them a four day ultimatum within which the addrssed parties should provide detail access to the requested information or battle in a constitutional court.

Omtata states in the letter he is willing to pay for any charges that may arise from obtaining the requested information if it means so. Find the detailed first hand letter as jotted by the duo below;

We are citizens of the Republic of Kenya, and in this letter, we address you, with utmost respect, in your capacities, both collectively and individually, as agents of the Government of Kenya with a fiduciary duty to uphold the rule of law.
At the very onset, we categorically clarify that we humbly write this letter to your eminent persons to make a genuine demand anchored in law, in good faith and in the public interest, and not to cock a snook at the authorities of the aforesaid Republic.
We make the said request in relation to the unpleasant reality that, taken collectively, the communication reaching us, at times conflicting but always economising on the truth, mainly through the mass media, from various government offices on the above subject matter, amounts to terminological inexactitude.

We reasonably suspect that the money, which, at the time the Eurobond was floated, the Government said was ostensibly borrowed to pay off a demanding commercial loan and to finance big infrastructure projects, could have been channelled elsewhere and used against the Republic’s public policy and without consideration for the public interest.
Over the decades, runaway public debt has impoverished our country. The high cost of servicing it has taken scarce money away from development projects and vital services such as our struggling healthcare and education sectors. Hence, Kenyans should only pay back what was legitimately borrowed to benefit them.
In international law, odious debt, also known as illegitimate debt, is a legal theory that holds that the national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the best interests of the nation, should not be enforceable. Such debts are, thus, considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state. In some respects, the concept is analogous to the invalidity of contracts signed under coercion[1].
Under the rights and fundamental freedoms provided in Articles 24, 35, and 46(1)(a)&(3) as read with Articles 1, 2, 3, 4(2), 10, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 33(1)(a), 40(2)&(3), 43, 47, 50(1), 73, 75, 159, 165(3), 232, 249, 251, 258, 259, and others of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, we humbly but urgently request that you clear the air by providing hard evidence to support the Government’s publicly stated position that the Eurobond benefitted the people of Kenya.
Fiduciary duty imposed upon you and your offices by the very prescriptive Constitution of Kenya 2010, the Public Finance Management Act ( No. 18 of 2012), the various statutes, rules and regulations governing your offices, public policy of the aforesaid Republic, international best practice, the interests of Justice, and the legitimate expectation of Kenyans require that you provide the following information:
1. A comprehensive brief on the Eurobond process, including the exact amount of money that was raised;
2. Bank statements for all bank transactions providing evidence that the Central Bank of Kenya actually received the Eurobond;
3. Bank statements for all bank transactions providing evidence that the Central Bank actually transferred the Eurobond funds to the various ministries, departments, and agencies of the Government of Kenya;
4. Development (not recurrent) budgets of each ministry, department, or agency of the Government of Kenya which received the money;
5. A breakdown of specific projects which benefitted from the Eurobond money;
6. Bank statements showing, where applicable, that the Central Bank used the Eurobond to pay loans;
7. Evidence that the Eurobond money was budgeted for by Parliament;
8. Evidence that the Eurobond money was spent with the approval of the Controller of Budget of the Republic of Kenya.
It goes without saying that, where the state and its agencies and/or a person holds information whose release and publication would benefit the public; a public interest is created which trumps the privacy of the person or the confidentiality of the information.
The information we seek, which is in your possession, is necessary for the exercise and/or protection of our constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms, and those of other Kenyans, subject to the mandate of your office. The information is also necessary for protecting Articles 4(2), 10, 47, 73, 75, and 232 of the Constitution.
In the present situation, the public interest in obtaining and publishing the information requested arises from the fact that your offices have an obligation under the Constitution and other laws to ensure compliance with the Constitution and other laws of the Republic of Kenya in the running of public affairs.
We hope that you will honour our access to information request, as well as the letter and spirit of the Constitution, and avail to us, and to the Kenyan public, the information requested.
We undertake to settle any reasonable copying charges for any information for which copies are required.
I therefore request that you provide the said information to us within the next four days of receipt of this notice.
You may call or email us at our personal contacts given below, or have the same delivered to our office whose address is Room 4, Floor B1, Block A, Western Wing, NSSF Building, Bishops Road, P. O. Box 60286 – 00200, NAIROBI.
Kindly, note that failure to supply the information as requested will necessitate recourse to the Constitutional Court for the following:
(i) Orders to access to the requested information;
(ii) A declaration that the Eurobond is an odious debt, not a sovereign debt, which benefitted a clique in power not the Kenyan public, and which, therefore, must not be paid by the Kenyan taxpayers but by those in charge of the regime.
Yours faithfully,
Okiya Omtata Okoiti and Nyakina Whycliffe  Gisebe.

NEGLECTED JUSTICE FOR POOR KENYAN CHILDREN IN NATIONAL EXAMS.

There is more than enough evidence that any Kenyan would need to justify the truth that the ongoing KCSE exams has been massively rigged. In previous years, The reports from media houses used to come out later after the media had proven with exam papers if theirs were real or not. This used to create a gap where we could give the media a benefit of doubt on whether they were just playing a PR strategy or truly had the papers before the exam was done.

This year things have been different and the media houses have constantly brought out copies of exam before the papers are sat and informed Kenyans that they have exams. These copies have then been compared with real exam papers ascertaining that they are truly duplicates of the exam. From investigative series from different media houses, these papers are sold to students/parents who can part away with between ksh. 1500-3500 per paper. Calculating on a standard requirement of 21 papers for KCSE this translates to around Ksh. 20000 for the whole exam.

It is apparent that for these exam papers to get to the merchants and pass on to the students they originate from the close KNEC officials, employees and exam supervisors who either dilly dally on their duties or simply neglect their code of conduct.

Given that it is the very exam that will be used for university admission and shaping people's future, there is a group of students whose justice is not being done to them. This is the group of people who cannot afford to pay for the "Stolen exams."

A young boy in Mathayos in western Kenya, or in Mwashuma village in Taita goes for his morning exam possibly without a breakfast. This is a person who cannot access wats app and consequently relies on his handwork and intensive studying to pass the exam.

A son of a middle class parent in Muthaiga Nairobi or Action estate in Eldoret can confidently access his private WATS app and get these papers. Come February/March, these two people will be subjected to same admission criteria to university education. This is Injustice. Simply neglected service of justice.

With sobriety we request the government to own up this mess, motivate the teachers and recruit people with integrity to take care of the exams before we mold a society without moral. It is injustice for few students to access exams before exams and relax while others strive to work hard to pass the same exam.

This is our call for Justice.
A voice on Neglected Justice:Neglected justice is injustice

Give Tachers a A Reason to Listen to you; The will....

It is a culture that towards the end of a week I pour here my mind to get sorber minds tell me what they think and help understand the Kenyan situation. Today it is my wish that I get atleast five minutes of the Jubilee's duo H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta​ and a good friend as well as role model William Samoei Ruto​ on the matters pertaining the long teachers strike that on this morning marks the beginning of a second month in Strike.

It is probably a historic incident that has happened in 2015 with the teachers having stopped their strike in January 2015 for the better option of a court proceeding that was to determine the constitutionality of their demands. The case was presented when SRC was in place and the TSC was fully aware of the constitutional requirements for the wage management of this country. Good analysts like Zack Kinuthia​ Boniface Mwangi​ and others will attest to the process that has lasted for over half a year that finally saw a ruling in favour of teachers.

What grasps my attention here is not the fact that teachers were awarded a 50-60% salary increment, I am currently focussed on how the judge reached on a conclusion to award the teachers this amount. During the battle that is currently before the supreme court, the Kenya's attorney general Prof. Githu Muigai argued about the constitutionality of the judge in awarding the teachers the pay increment during his ruling. As the chief legal advisor to the government, this left me with numerous questions if at all TSC was aware of Attorney's presence in this country when they moved to court in January.

According to the arguements presented by the teacher's barristers, it is true that in January teachers wanted a 300% salary increment which we all agree is vague and economically a joke. The court process saw TSC engage in financial calculations and making submissions which indicated that the only sustainable increment government could offer was 50-60% increment. Legal minds like Otieno Arnold​ Okudo Arnold​ Lone Felix​ and Mutula Jr. will agree with me that a sitting judge relies on the presented facts and figures in making any judgement for the determination to be fair. The relying of the judge on the presented evidence by the accused and the complainant is usually independent of the judge's knowledge, view or opinion as pertaining the matter.

Based on this, the judge used the determined figures presented by the complainant, in this case TSC to award the teachers the increment which actually they did not challenge but agreed despite having demanded for 300% increment before. the numbers were economically hypothetical to any rational economist or any brain that passed through a lesson on introduction to economics.  If this judge was to be asked in his own independent opinion without having to serve as the judge I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that he would not support a 50-60% salary increment.

What Are the Consequences?

With all of us aware of the constitutionality of SRC, the awarding of the teachers a 50-60% salary increment would mean that all salaries of civil servants be harmonized. Taking an example of the president alone, this would mean at the end of the 5 years he would have a salary of approximately 3million as a result of the harmonization.
It is apparent that all Kenyans from all walks of life understand the effect of this only that they are trying to assume for political reasons. The economic impact would be an economic sabotage whose effects will be long lasting and probably irreparable.

What should Uhuru Do?
Solution to the stalemate is not for the president to keep quiet and assume all is well. Neither is it to talk tough and intimidate Kenyans. If there is something that should have happened by now is total overhaul of the TSC and replacement by a competent commission. The firm that was consulted for legal advice as well as economic determination of the 50-60% should as well be considered for punishment. The government was misled.

I consider teachers as one of the learned fellows of society who are underestimated. A teacher molds a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer and most of the heard professionals of this country. Engage these group of professionals on a table of talks and inject the truth into their heads and I believe they will listen. They will understand why the 50-60% is not sustainable and the need for review of their demands.

As I finish, let us appreciate that education is a constitutional right that we gave to ourselves by a vote on the new constitution which should not be watered down. Employing teachers on contract will not solve the problem, neither will sacking the teachers help since the court order is still in force.
This is justice that should be given out lawfully to our children.

God bless Kenya!

A voice on the Neglected Justice; OKOTI Aluora Patrick​