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Kenya: Suicide Not on the Cards
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Vanguard (Lagos)
COLUMN
25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008
Owei Lakemfa
I love Kenya. Its liberation struggles and subsequent victory over dictatorship are inspiring. When I made a stop over in Nairobi on July 7, I was naturally hungry for current news.
It was when I stared down on the newspapers for that morning I remembered that day was Saba Saba.
The words in Swahili mean seven seven. They refer to 7th July (7-7) 1990. That was the day democracy was reborn in Kenya, it was that day Kenyans began the final push against the Kenyatta-Moi dictatorship.
At least twenty Kenyans laid down their lives so that their blood could water the tree of freedom, fundamental human rights and democracy.
Back on that day, two former cabinet Ministers Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia had called Kenyans to attend an "illegal" rally for freedom and democracy at the Kamukunji grounds in Nairobi.
Kenya was then a one party state. The peoples fundamental human rights including press freedom were not respected and the negative effects of the IMF-administered Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) were biting hard.
To worsen matters, Foreign Minister Robert Ouko had been assassinated five months before adding to the list of political assassinations.
Rather than allow the peaceful rally, President Arap Moi released armed policemen who murdered twenty persons, injured many and detained the leaders including Matiba, Rubia, John Khaminwa a lawyer, Gitobu Imanyara now an MP and Raila Odinga now Prime Minister.
Saba Saba forced the dictatorship into retreat and it succumbed by allowing multipartyism from December 1991. In the first two general elections in 1992 and 1997 the ruling KANU using its incumbency powers and taking advantage of the fractious nature of the opposition won the elections.
In 2003 the opposition went into an alliance called the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), which defeated KANU Candidate Uhuru Kenyatta. But the coalition led by Mwai Kibaki soon disintegrated.
In the 2007 general elections, the former coalition partners squared off with incumbent President Kibaki claiming victory, and rival, Raila Odinga also proclaiming himself victor.
Violence broke out and a peace pact brokered by Kofi Annan gave birth to an unstable Grand Coalition Government with Kibaki as President and Odinga occupying the newly created office of Prime Minister.
But on this July 7, 2008 day, what captured the headlines was not the 18th year commemoration of Saba Saba or those who remain internally displaced due to the post 2007 election violence.
What did Finance Minister Amos Kimunya's public vow in which he told a huge rally in his Kipipiri constituency "I would rather die than resign".
His vow was his reaction to demands that he stepped down over the controversial sale of the 20-year old five star Grand Regency Hotel to the Libyan Arab African Investment.
When the controversy first broke on April 19, Kimunya had tried to cast doubts whether the hotel had been sold. But the newspaper had gone to town with details.
The next issue was whether it was sold in line with the law.
There is a Privatization Act in Kenya which lays down procedure for such sales. But apparently to circumvent it, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) claimed that the hotel was not under it, which means it is not being privatized and therefore the privatization Act does not apply. A third issue was whether the Bank in exercising its power of sale placed a correct value for it.
It turned out that while the CBK valued the land and machinery, it placed no price on the hotel as a very lucrative business with lots of customers.
A fourth issue was the actual price of the transaction. The lands Minister James Orengo had claimed it was sold for 1.8 billion Kenya shillings and not the 2.9 billion announced.
Later it has revealed that the 1.8 billion was for the land alone exclusive of the furnishing and machinery.
A fifth matter was, how much was actually paid? Prime Minister Odinga told parliament that the CBK Governor, Prof. Njuguna Ndung'u had informed him that the buyers had paid 28.3 million shillings or 10per cent of the cost. But the company said it had paid 100 per cent of the total sum.
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The main question was why the Treasury and Kenya Central Bank under the supervision of Finance Minister Kimunya bypassed the Attorney-General's office in the transactions even after it had been decided it be included.
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