ODM Insists Kenya Needs to Formulate Roadmap for Withdrawal From Somalia

A day after President Uhuru Kenyatta delivered his State of the Nation address, we in the Orange Democratic Movement asked the government to, among other things, present the country with a road map for the withdrawal of our troops from Somalia.

Today, in the aftermath of the second terror attack since the government launched what we advised was an ill conceived and poorly executed plan to rid the country of militants, we are forced to demand once again that the government presents us with a roadmap for withdrawal of our troops from Somalia.

We are forced to ask again; When are our troops getting out of Somalia What is the game plan for our exit?  Where is the roadmap for a secure Kenya and a stable Somalia?

It is our position as a party that as a country, Kenya has done its bit in Somalia and we have suffered enough for it. We are asking; why are we unable to rally development partners to stabilize Somalia with development support? That was always part of the plan as our troops moved into Somalia.

Today, we seem to be staying in Somalia without realizing the full costs and we are now paying for it. Families have lost bread winners and loved ones and KDF is not coming to their aid. In the middle of all this, the jubilee regime is tight lipped as the crisis gets from bad to worse.

What is it that the top brass in the military and government are getting out of Operation Linda Nchi? How can we justifiably talk of Linda Nchi when we are under attack day in day out because of our very presence in Somalia?

As a party, we believe Somalia has always been at peace with Kenya. We therefore demand that Kenyans be told why what was a friendly intervention led us into conflict.

While we recognize the courage and professionalism of our military that have made Somalia a much better place today, we also know that Somalia still has persistent insurgency to deal with and it continues to be a magnet for international terrorists.

But we feel it is time for the Government to present to us a clear plan for ending our presence in Somalia. We want a clear plan for transferring responsibility for Somalia's security to the Somalis. We are asking for the plan for expediting the training of the Somali forces to take charge of their country and for accelerating Somalia’s economic development, particularly through infrastructure that gives Somalis a stake in achieving a better future. 

That was always the plan when our sons and daughters moved into this territory where even the devil feared to tread.

We are concerned at the casual treatment that these attacks have been receiving from the government. We recall that when terrorists hit Likoni on March 23rd, the president proceeded with his trip to Tanzania the next day, March 24th.

When Eastleigh was attacked on March 31st, the president proceeded with his trip to Belgium and April the next day, April 1.

The latest attack in Mombasa comes only a day before the Presidents trip to Abuja, which we believe will proceed as if nothing has happened.

The people of Kenya are increasingly feeling that they are on their own on security at a time other indicators like cost of living are equally bleak. We, as a party, demand convincing action and answers.

Hon. Prof P. Anyang Nyongo

Ag. Party Leader,

ODM.

ODM Condemns Plans to Remit Anglo-Leasing Payments

ODM SEES LINK BETWEEN RETURN OF ANGLO LEASING COMPANIES, POACHING AND FRESH ATTEMPTS AT GRABBING OF KARURA FOREST:

The National Assembly will betray the people of Kenya if it colludes with the cartels of corruption in and outside the government to pay the fictitious outfit called Anglo Leasing Kshs 125 billion for no services rendered nor goods delivered to the nation.

Both the NARC and the Grand Coalition Governments refused to pay these fictitious debts. Why now?

The Attorney General Prof. Githu Muigai should realize that a transaction which is wrong, defective and fraudulent ab initio cannot be sanitized by exploiting the fine prints of legal procedure.

As a party, we appeal to members of the National Assembly to stand on the right side of history and refuse to be used to sanitize dirty deals and prepare them for illegal and fraudulent payment.

We also appeal to the people of Kenya to look back, ask themselves why certain things happen only under certain regimes, and collectively reject attempts to pay billions to firms that do not exist and for services never rendered. We must stand up against attempts to plunder and loot our country in our name, for the benefit of individuals.

Anglo-Leasing is back after ten years in which it was rejected by Narc and the Grand Coalition governments.

The last time poaching was witnessed on a grand scale in Kenya was in the mid-1970s. Poaching of our wildlife heritage is back in a big way, under Jubilee.

There is a fresh attempt to grab Karura Forest after Kenyans, led by the late Prof. Wangari Maathai, successfully fought off such attempts in the 1980s and 1990s.

Kenyans will hold the AG personally responsible if this grand corruption of paying for Anglo Leasing is fully consummated to the detriment of current and future generations. 

In any case the individuals who fraudulently committed the government to these fake transactions should be held personally responsible for any money that these Lords of corruption are laying claim to in the international arena.

We appeal to the people of Kenya to get ready to stand up against attempts to take the country to the past. We did not get where we are by accident or State benevolence. We fought to get where we are, we must fight to get where we set out to be.

Prof. P. Anyang' Nyong'o
Ag. Party Leader
ODM
Nairobi 26 April, 2014

ODM Statement on State of and Response to Insecurity

PRESS STATMENT

STATE OF AND RESPONSE TO INSECURITY

That we are in the middle of insecurity nightmare is no longer in doubt and not really new. Security has systematically degenerated in the last one year, from sporadic explosions in border towns of northern Kenya, to banditry, cattle rustling and gangs across different parts of the country,which have passed without much action from the government.

Kenyans will remember the wave of attacks that gripped parts of Western Kenya around this time last year, beginning in Bungoma, spreading to Busia, Mt Elgon and parts of Kakamega with no explanations to date.

The murders in Nyanza that claimed the parents of a Member of Parliament remain unexplained. The mayhem has spread to Nairobi, where previously safe neighborhoods like Karen have lately witnessed unprecedented crime wave. Those in lesser affluent estates long accepted it as their fate to be insecure. Shoot outs in the streets of Nairobi have become normal again.

Nairobi, Mombasa, Wajir, Garissa, Marsabit have lived with explosives and grenades going off everywhere for much of the past year without convincing explanations and without anyone being held to account.

The climax for all these was the attack on Westgate that left upto 70 people dead, hundreds injured and losses running into billions. No explanation has been offered to date. But we all remember that President Uhuru Kenyatta promised in broad daylight and in public that he would institute an inquiry into the attack. There was even an explosion at the airport which the authorities said, and want us to believe, was a falling light bulb. That is how ridiculous it has been in the last one year.

 The government has a duty, responsibility and right to protect the lives and property of citizens. In fact this is the only reason people agree to form governments. We however do not believe that reactive swoops and return to slumber thereafter as we have witnessed in the last one year, including what is going on today, presents some kind of well thought out and well designed response to the security challenges we face. There is an element of insecurity we are focusing on today called Al Shabaab which we believe ought to be handled better, though it ought not be treated as the only threat.

In recent days, hundreds of mostly young people have been arrested and detained in Nairobi, Mombasa and other parts of the country. Hundreds have been deported to Somalia for being illegally in Kenya. Tens have been shot dead across the country in the name of fighting terrorism and crime. Police continue to harass young jobless men in the name of maintaining law and order, in most cases demanding for cash to release the innocent young Kenyans.

Given the situation above, as a party, we are making the following demands:

1: The mere presence of hundreds of illegal immigrants within our borders, who entered without our notice, is in itself a manifestation of serious lapses in our security, intelligence and immigration system. We need a thorough audit of our security, intelligence and immigration agencies. Heads need and must to roll in the intelligence, police and immigration departments as part of a major effort to secure our country. It will not work that the very people who allowed the immigrants in, most times after collecting bribes from them, are then made to conduct swoops and deport the same after a crime has been committed. We need to get to the bottom of the corruption cartels in immigration, intelligence and police who are making our country insecure by allowing people illegally into our country in return for money.

2: We must get to the bottom of the biggest security lapse in our country in twenty years and that is the attack on Westgate Mall. All Kenyans remember that President Uhuru Kenyatta promised an inquiry. We welcomed this because understanding how Westgate happened is critical to unraveling how terror groups operate and the loopholes in our security, intelligence and social systems that they exploit and which need to be sealed. Close to a year later, there is no inquiry and there are no signs there shall ever be one. The expectation seems to be that Kenyans will just accept and move on.  We are asking, what does President Uhuru know about Westgate? Why does the president fear investigating this incident? We are demanding that investigations, preferably by a select committee of both Houses of Parliament be carried out without further delay.

 3: Talking about terrorism, we ask the government to take time and understand Al Shabaab in its many dimensions to be able to fight it effectively. Al Shabaabism has become a movement with at least three dimensions all of which cannot be dealt with by swoops, friskings and deportations as it is happening today.  There are Jihadist Al Shabaab that believe in converting everyone to Islam as the only way to save the world and to defeat the West.  There is the economic Al Shabaab, those who join this movement because of temporary hope it offers through handouts and forms of employment particularly to the desperate youth. There is the pure criminal and opportunistic Al Shabaab. These are people joining this movement to extort money and create opportunities for themselves by exploiting the failures of the state. These people are not necessarily religious, young or poor. They simply want to make hay while the sun shines. We need to address the political economy of Al Shabaabism. We have heard the president asking Kenyans to join him and help fight terrorism. The nation cannot help the president fight terrorism unless he joins us in analyzing and seeks our understanding Al Shabaabism. We will be firing in the dark if we think the war can be won through shoot to kill orders and chaotic round ups we are witnessing today.

4: The National Government must rethink its desire to monopolize security. This country is crying for an approach to security that does not have to rely on the gun or the police. The constitution has very clear provisions that would secure Kenya all the way to the villages if implemented honestly. If Village Councils were allowed to operate as envisaged, nobody would enter our country without being noticed. We would not need another layer called Nyumba Kumi either. Village councils were supposed to close the gap between the masses and the government. They must be put in place immediately and given the tools to operate effectively.

5: Police reform must proceed with a clear understanding of the needs of society. Promotions and deployments need to based on merit. There should be clear standards on who can enter the force with what level of education and what academic qualification assures one of what rank. The civilian wing of the force needs to be strengthened, not undermined.

 6: The issue of illegal immigrants in Kenya needs to be addressed urgently and independently of the insecurity we are witnessing. It has nothing to do with refugees. Kenya has had refugees for a very long time. We had long perfected a system of documenting refugees. It is therefore wrong to lump refugees with illegal immigrants. A purposeful implementation of devolution is critical in this regard. Village councils will know who the citizens are if they are allowed to operate and if they are sensitized to their security role.

 7: We reject attempts to reinvent the old colonial structures including the provincial administration using insecurity as an excuse. We went for devolution because the old structure failed. We appeal to the government to strengthen devolved units and cede some security roles so that we have a system, accountable to the people, and that runs all the way to the ground.

 8: We wish to express strong displeasure at the swoops going on today, which resemble Operation Anvil of the Mau Mau era or the Wagalla operation of the 1980s. Operation Anvil can easily lead to ethnic profiling. We do not think indiscriminate picking of Somalis is the answer. Al Shabaab is no longer a Somali issue. We wish to remind the government that in countries where the war on crime and terror has taken ethnic, racial or religious dimension, the conflicts has ended up being more complex and more protracted. We fear Kenya is taking that unfortunate route. We want to believe that in a country that upholds the rule of law and basic freedoms, if you’ve done nothing wrong, you deserve nothing but respect and courtesy from the authorities. We haven't seen that in the crackdown that looks modeled along operation Anvil of the Mau Mau era. Inspector Genera of Police, NIS director and CID director owe our country a better job or they should pack and leave.

 9: Given the Somalia aspect to our security problems, we are asking the government give us the time table of withdrawing from Somalia. We are not saying we should declare victory and leave. We are not saying we sneak out. We want to see a plan for a systematic handing over of Somalia to its citizens. We reject this chest thumping by the government about how we are in Somalia to stay. Kenya and AMISON must have a partnership for reconstruction of Somali state.

10: We want the government to share with Kenyans its plans for engaging the youth in meaningful activities for earning a living so that they do not have to turn to criminal networks like Al Shabaab to earn a living. Throwing money at the problem, like the creation of Uwezo Fund on top of the existing youth fund is not making any difference.

Thank you and God Bless Kenya.

Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o

Ag. Party Leader

10^th April 2014.

Prof Nyongo Sharply Criticizes President Uhuru's Three Week Absence

I am surprised that the President can choose to leave the country for 3 weeks at a time when Kenya is facing the most grievous security threats almost everywhere. Given the limited powers that the Deputy President can exercise constitutionally, I find the absence of the President reckless, adventurous and most uncalled for.

At a time like this, we need a National United Front of all parties, beliefs and persuasions, well structured at the National level, to deal with the insecurity crisis. The President has chosen to absent himself from the nation at a time when a hands on approach is most needed.

Rather than talk about the impending shake up of the security system, Kenyans want to see the result of action and not the intention of promises.

I must say however that the President seems to be immobilized by the feeling of entitlement that the security bosses have to their positions hence no doubt for their political debt the President owes them.

Prof. Anyang Nyong'o.
Ag. Party Leader.
ODM
1/4/2014

KENYANS DESERVE BETTER: Response by the ODM to the State of the Nation Address by the President of Kenya March 28, 2014

KENYANS DESERVE BETTER:
 
RESPONSE BY THE ORANGE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT TO THE STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA; MARCH 28, 2014:

President Uhuru Kenyatta makes his State of the Nation address at the National Assembly's Chamber in Parliament Buildings, Nairobi.

Fellow Kenyans, yesterday, you heard from the President on the state of our nation.

We urge you to spend a few minutes with us as we give our side of the story.
We are ODM. But it really should not matter because today, we are all hurting. One year after elections, millions of Kenyans are watching and asking; does this government want to stand on our side or in our way.
Ours is therefore a national call to action on behalf of all the struggling Kenyans. Our main point this morning is; Kenyans deserve far much better than this.

UNITY OF THE NATION:

We are too divided to build a nation ready to confront its challenges.

Jubilee has run the country as a collection of tribes, allies and enemies.
Every appointment to a public position has been handed down as a gift to supporters, along tribal and party lines. This skewed balance of power poses grave danger to our progress and it must not tilt any further in favour of one or two communities. It must be reversed.

ECONOMY AND COST OF LIVING:

Our economy requires urgent, immediate and sustained rethink.
The absurd policy of tax and spend has traumatised Kenyans.

Families can't pay rent, can't afford food, can't pay school fees and cannot afford bus fare.

In response, we are seeing and hearing the same-old ideology that we've heard before — over and over again: Salary cuts, retrenchment of workers, cleaning up the payroll of ghost workers and how there will be just a little more pain before it gets better. Kenyans are going through tremendous pain. It must not get worse.

We urge the government to focus on eliminating corruption, inefficiency and wastage. Savings from these areas would be sufficient to finance recovery and growth.
We advise that the government to put singular focus on food as the biggest driver of cost of living, particularly for the poor.

Let’s focus on pro-poor agricultural investment as this will result in jobs, containing poverty and reduction in cost of living. Let's pay particular attention to job creation, expansion of economic opportunities particularly for farmers, informal sector, and economically disadvantaged communities.

The time has come for the government to treat unemployment as a crisis.

We need a clear road map towards putting millions of Kenyans to work and encouraging companies to hire and not fire people. We have seen no such steps in the last one year.
Jubilee must use its numerical strength in the Houses of Parliament to come up with administrative, regulatory and legislative measures to help small firms start and expand.

The cost of bank loans remains unbelievably high despite so much rhetoric about it. But if we are to create job creators and not job seekers, the cost of loans have to fall. Jubilee must use its numbers to champion these positive measures.

The government must embrace and engage small contractors and change the way it does business with them. Startups cannot afford to chase payments for months. A simpler engagement would help turn many enterprising young Kenyans into job creators, not job seekers. Small businesses must be treated as the engine of growth, and essential to economic recovery.

CRIME: 

The greatest responsibility of any government is to protect its people and their property. Yet the last one year has brought us a lot of pain and loses. Lives and property have been lost; thousands have been wounded, businesses have underperformed or closed as a result of spiraling crime.
 
This comes after Kenyans worked so hard in the last ten years to create a largely secure nation. By the time Jubilee took over, we had a largely secure nation in which operating a 24 hour economy looked increasingly realistic, not rhetoric.

Today, criminals hunt us in the streets, from our houses, in churches, in mosques, in matatus and in schools.
 
We are approaching the first anniversary of the attack on the Westgate Mall. Our hopes and prayers remain with the families that fell victim to this attack. We stand with families who have lost loved ones to criminals across our country. Their pain and horror remain with us.
 
But as we moan, we are not convinced that the gaps in our security exposed by those attacks have been closed. The Government is saying the right words about the threat we face. But it has failed to take action commensurate with the threat.

When terrorists issue threats and act on them while the government issues threats and fail to track those it is threatening, we know we are on our own as citizens.
Goods and weapons still enter our borders unnoticed. Fire fighters are still pleading for the tools they need to prevent or respond to an attack.

Poachers have invaded our world famous wildlife heritage with abandon.

Police are still waiting for comprehensive insurance cover even as we ask them to stand in the line of fire on our behalf.
 
The Government has inexplicably refused to form an inquiry into how the attackers in Westgate got here, even after the president promised this. Yesterday, the National Assembly rejected the report by the National Assembly Security Committee on the attack.

We are therefore calling for the constitution of a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate the Westgate attack.

We are also calling for a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate the rising problem of poaching. We suspect there is more to it than meets the eye. In any case, poaching is part and parcel of our growing security, economic and corruption problems.

When a bomb that failed to detonate near the British Airways check-in counter at JKIA late last year, the government shrugged it off as an exploding light-bulb.
 
After the latest attack in Likoni, the Inspector General of Police considered it beneath him to offer an explanation to Kenyans. He let his juniors deal with it. The President and his deputy did not see this as a matter worth their urgent attention. They addressed it in passing on their way to Tanzania.

These are signs that the government is off track and does not care.

Any discussion of our national security must include recognition and respect for our men and women in uniform.

Whether they are fighting in Somalia or walking our increasingly dangerous streets and borders, we salute them.
 
These officers and troops have the gratitude of every Kenya for their courage and the sacrifice they are willing to make on our behalf.
 
But we decry the lack of modern equipment, the absence of opportunities for best training that our officers deserve and their dismal working conditions.
 
Above all, we ask the government to address the issues of deployments and promotions in the police force, especially now that we are under attack and we are counting on these men and women to be motivated enough to protect us.
 
Promotions and deployment in the police force is still dogged by tribalism, nepotism and cronyism, not merit.
 
We must also talk about our military whose prowess we are all too proud of.
Because of the courage of our military, Somalia is a much better place today. We know that Somalia still has persistent insurgency to deal with. It continues to be a magnet for international terrorists.
 
But we feel it is time for the Government to present to us a clear plan for ending our presence in Somalia. We are not suggesting that we simply declare the job done and pull out. We are not suggesting we sneak out through the back door.

We want a clear plan for transferring responsibility for Somalia's security to the Somalis. We believe training the Somali forces to take charge must be expedited. We must accelerate Somalia’s economic development, particularly through infrastructure that gives Somalis a stake in achieving a better future.

We must also intensify regional and international diplomacy that will deny fuel to the anti-western sentiments that power insurgency in Somalia.
 
We want the government to table before Kenyans a comprehensive plan to protect the nation from terrorism. We have only heard promises and more threats.
 
We want to see the government's plan to build a military, a police force and an intelligence gathering system that will be second to none. Kenyans are dying because we lack ability to collect timely and reliable intelligence to keep us safe at home.

EDUCATION:
Even as the government proceeds with the ill-conceived laptops project, we are yet to address the issue of cost of education.

It is now more than ten years since fees were abolished in public schools. But we know fees exist and are keeping many children out of school. Parents buy uniforms, text books, desks, school buses, pay motivation fees, and much more. We feel the government must climb the education tree from the bottom. Is education free or not? If it is, why are these many levies being imposed and when will they stop?
 
We continue to caution the government against the extravagant laptops project. It is not realistic. It is not sustainable and it is not a priority. We support IT in learning and we laud the government for championing it. But we advocate for computer labs in all schools instead of laptops for every child at this stage.

The cost and built in room for corruption in the acquisition of laptops aside, a bigger question is whether the laptops will actually improve learning. Will reading skills improve because the children have laptops instead of text books? Will children perform better in math and science? Will parents afford the cost of repairs and maintenance? Who will replace crashed or lost and stolen laptops?

CORRUPTION:
 
We are concerned about the corruption roulette in government, which Jubilee calls war on corruption. The government admits that thieves have invaded no higher place than the Office of the President.

But to date, there have been no sackings, no prosecutions, no naming of names. We have been treated to the drama of members of government publicly campaigning for a chance to fix contracts for grand infrastructure projects in return for bribes.
 
As we pay lip service and issue warnings at rallies and church functions, corruption is eating into government coffers, paying ghost workers and paying for services not rendered or way above market rates.
 
Yet today, the battle on wages is rated much more urgent by the Jubilee government than the war against corruption. The Jubilee government has now resolved to pay the so-called Anglo-Leasing debts, an outright conduit for corrupt deals. Warnings have run their course. We need action.

RULE OF LAW:
 
We must protect the Constitution and its promises. We must safeguard the rule of law, the media and civil liberties. All these are threatened today. Judges have been called names. Laws have been signed to curb the free media. There have been attempts to limit foreign funding for NGOs.

Jubilee government has failed to discontinue extrajudicial killings thus undermining the right to life. As we speak, there is an arbitrary shoot-to-kill order against terrorists as well as other criminals. The country has seen an alarming rise in religious intolerance and religious bigotry which the government has not in any way attempted to manage.

OUR PLEDGE:
 
One year of Jubilee Government has landed us in very uncertain times. How long they times last depends on the government. We want to assure Kenyans that when we believe the Government is on the right track, we will not allow partisan interests stand in the way of what's good for the country. We will be first in line to work with the Government. As at now, we repeat; a Government can do better. Kenyans deserve better.
 
We are losing patience with politics of tribalism, nepotism, favoritism, cronyism and rule by fiat. We are tired of incompetence and dishonesty in government.

HON PROF. ANYANG NYONGO
Ag. PARTY LEADER
ODM.
MARCH 28, 2014.

Unveiling of the ODM Candidate for Mathare Parliamentary Seat

Following a series of consultative meetings by members of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) in Nairobi County, both elected representatives and branch officials regarding the forthcoming Mathare Parliamentary by-election, an all-inclusive meeting was held today at a Nairobi Hotel and was graced by the Acting Party Leader Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o and the joint Secretaries to the Transitional Interim Executive Committee (TIEC) Hon. Ababu Namwamba and Sen. Dr. Agnes Zani.

During the meeting which also included the Governor of the City County of Nairobi Dr. Evans Kidero, ODM Members of the National Assembly from Nairobi and Members of the County Assembly of Nairobi, it was unanimously resolved that Mr. Steven Kariuki popularly known as K-1 be presented as the sole candidate for the party in the upcoming by-election in Mathare Constituency.

This was as a result of separate caucuses by party members of the National Assembly, Members of the County Assembly, Branch and Sub-Branches officials in the last one week which settled on Mr. Kariuki as the party’s flag-bearer.

Consequently, we have received assurances from the CORD coalition partners that they will not be fielding candidates for the seat. The meeting also agreed that the Nairobi Governor Dr. Kidero will be chairman of the 12 member campaign steering committee which was set up today.

We call upon all ODM and CORD supporters in Nairobi to join us in the campaigns to drum the support for Mr. Steven Kariuki once the seat is declared vacant by the Speaker of the National Assembly and the date for the by-election set by the IEBC.

Signed

27th March 2014

Ag. Party Leader – Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o

Joint Secretaries – TIEC – Hon. Ababu Namwamba & Sen. Dr. Agnes Zani

Video: Hon Raila Odinga to be in USA until end of May 2014