A victory of sorts: Are we ready for this?

‘’…… This is a major  victory for the Kenyan team’’, Foreign Affairs cabinet secretary Amina Mohamed announced  on phone after  Mr.Kenyatta  and his Deputy William Ruto got a reprieve from the Assembly of State Parties (ASP) Affirmative nod that they will put an insertion to rule number 134 of the rules of  procedure and evidence. This will see the president and his deputy skip some of their court sessions provided they are represented by say their lawyers or video link. US ambassador to the UN Ms. Samantha Power has also expressed her support towards the decision. According to Amina Mohamed, this is indeed a major victory.

Now with ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s witnesses suddenly not being ready when they are needed in court, many questions are bound to rise as to the fate of the cases which six years down the line, Kenyans are still waiting for justice. The victory as Amina Mohamed cherishes might not be for everyone and that’s for a fact. The place of post poll violence victims therefore will remain uncertain should Bensouda’s case fail to prevail. This raises the big question: is Kenya ready to forget it’s painful past if the cases fail at The Hague?

It strikes as hard as that I know, the confusion that could engulf a  citizens so peaceful they accepted and moved on. A section of Jubilee legislators did not surprise many when recently they practically instructed the president and his deputy not to step at The Hague whatsoever. Supposedly motivated by the crowd psychology and the urge to ‘dare the west’ the senators and members of parliament did dare the courts: right in the presence of the vice president himself. That shouldn’t be news any chance, both the government and the opposition have always-though not clearly at some point-indicated their stand on the cases save for the opposition CORD which recently had to hold a crisis meeting to deliberate on the party stand.

As you scroll through your channels everyday, enjoying an otherwise witty cast in parliament, ask yourself if you are ready to accept and move on should Bensouda fail to rise to the occasion and experience a collapse of the cases. You’ll probably realize that you’ve never thought beyond the ICC or rather less coarse manner, you’ve never imagined that the president and his deputy could somehow have their way in the cases. Whose victory really are we waiting for at the end of this course? Is it time to turn back and retrace our steps?

Contact the writer at     abu.fabian@gmail.com

MAN KILLS MOTHER, SISTER AND WIFE FOR RICHES. IS ILLUMINATY TAKING OVER OUR KENYANS

Is it worth the death of your loved ones? Here is a shocker. Story of a guy who thought wealth was much important than the family Be WARNED the story can cause emotional wreckage.

http://krazygossip.blogspot.com/2013/10/shocking-kenyan-man-who-is-devil.html

Mp's from both cord and jubilee seek deal over international criminal court

According to a local newspaper it seems that both party Mp's are seeking a deal to have the cases of the deputy president and the president suspended.

 "MPs from both coalitions are working on a bi-partisan plan to shore up Kenya’s bid to have International Criminal Court (ICC) cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto suspended."

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000095972&story_title=Kenya-cord-jubilee-mps-seek-deal-over-icc

The Expensive Price to be Paid

President Kenyatta(right) during an ICC hearing a while back

 By Gathoni Mutahi

There have been various debates and talks by the media and the Kenyan people at large on whether the  President should attend the ICC proceedings at the Hague or not. African leaders on Saturday during an AU meeting in Addis Ababa resolved that President Kenyatta should not attend the trial against him at the International Criminal Court as from November 12, 2013.

The reasons that have been laid out for the sudden change of mind by the president and the African Union in general include; refusal by the ICC to cooperate with Kenya and AU in the request for referral, the difficulties and dynamics involved in running an African government without their leaders, and the alleged disregard and disrespect for the sovereignty of African states by the ICC. President Kenyatta went further ahead to state that his government's decisive election should be seen as a categorical rebuke by the people of Kenya of those who wished to interfere with their internal affairs and infringe their sovereignty. So in simple terms us voting in the duo seemed to have implied that we believed in their innocence and consequently rubbished the whole ICC process concerning their cases. Well, perhaps this could be the truth. By voting them in, if they really did win through a fair and free election we unknowingly or knowingly, depending on how you look at it, showed considerable doubt in their involvement in the dreadful 2007 PEV. But we must remember that during the campaign period before the March 2013 general election the president and his deputy did promise to honor the International Court and its mandate on their cases as they claimed they had nothing to hide and that their innocence would soon be proven. Suddenly, that seems to have changed. What the president a while ago termed as a personal challenge has now become an issue to be dicsussed by all African heads of state at extra-ordinary meetings. I personally don't see any reasons as to why the president should not attend his trial at the Hague. The Deputy President will be present in the country during President Kenyatta's absence so there will be no power vacuum unless the DP greatly doubts his ability as a leader to take charge of matters pertaining to the country. That's what a DP is there for anyway, to assist the President in ruling the nation.

 I see no red flag raised here if the President chooses to attend the trial. Kenyans(read the youth) are slowly breaking free of politicians who only want to use them to do malicious acts on their behalf so the two leaders shouldn't be worried of anything unconstitutional and destructive to the peace we are trying to rebuild, happening during the President's absence. The President and his Deputy should honor their commitments to the court proceedings and indeed prove that they have the best interests of the citizens and not just their own selfish agendas. In any case I doubt they'll be convicted judging by the look of things.

South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu had some time back criticized Kenya and Sudan for urging African nations to shun the ICC, saying such a move would make the “world a more dangerous place.” And I agree with him totally and according to Ugunja legislator, Opiyo Wandayi,“The AU resolution is an attempt to shield impunity on the continent as it is certainly not in the interest of the African people”

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)- Ayn Rand

The life of the mystery 'White Widow' Westgate suspect.

Adapted from the Guardian.
For months, I'd been working quietly on a TV documentary about a missing 29-year-old woman. She was the widow of the July 7 London bomber Germaine Lindsay. Stories about her were mixed, and hard facts were proving elusive. Several weeks before the Nairobi attack, I'd booked to fly into Kenya on 22 September.
By the time I landed, militants had killed dozens of people and held countless others hostage. With the light failing, and police and soldiers roaming the streets, the foreign press corps gathered in a dingy underground car park within sight of the Westgate shopping centre.
I asked the journalists if they'd heard any news about the subject of my film, Samantha Lewthwaite. One told

I played dead to survive- Woman narrates her ordeal at Westgate.

Faith Wambua and her daughter Sy Faith Wambua.

During the Westgate siege in Kenya last month, one of the iconic images showed a mother lying on the floor, protecting her two children. Her name is Faith Wambua. She was in the shopping centre with her nine-year-old daughter Sy and her 21-month-old son Ty when the attack happened.

Faith spent four-and-a-half hours playing dead in the mall while keeping her young children quiet, before they were all finally rescued by a Kenyan policeman, Iyad Adan. She spoke to the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse about her experience that day:

"We walked in looking for the florist. We heard this very loud sound 'bang'. I thought the building was collapsing and the best thing to do is to lie in the open area.

I just told the children: 'Lie down, lie down'. I thought it must just be a normal robbery and within five to six

Raila Odinga- I don't regret saying Kibaki Tosha.

Excerpts of the interview with retired Prime Minister Raila Odinga on his new book Raila Odinga: Flame of Freedom and other wide ranging issues. Raila spoke to The Standard’s Associate Editor MACHUA KOINANGE.
Question: In your own assessment, what do you consider to be your autobiography’s most important contribution to democracy in this country?

ANSWER: I think that any struggle requires a record, because memories basically lapse and there is need for future generations to appreciate the historical journey of the society they live in. This is important to shape the culture and thinking of a people. I found it necessary to chronicle the history of the struggle of the people of Kenya.

Why should Kenyans look out for your book?
The book is from my own perspective an account of what we have gone through, but I have also gone beyond that and put it in context. It’s not just my story but some of it is from other material. I have tried to

Moses Wetangula could be disqualified from by-election.

Fresh from losing the senate seat, Mr. Moses Wetangula could get another hurdle. He could be barred from contesting the senate seat. Mr Wetang’ula faces legal complications arising from Justice Francis Gikonyo’s findings that he had treated voters (offence of corruptly giving a voter or voters money or refreshments before or during an election in order to vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate) and which

Why you should take the first job- even if it's not lucrative.

Adapted from Harvard Business Review. 
By Simon C. Young
Like many parents, I am troubled by the growing fixation with careers. We seem to be putting young people on the career treadmill at an earlier and earlier age. Choosing extracurricular activities, internships, and even preschool is increasingly undertaken with a calculating eye towards securing career success.

I held part-time jobs during college. While I did pursue an internship related to my field of study, I also worked as a busboy in a restaurant and as a cleaner in a luxury goods store in order to pay tuition, rent, and other living expenses. Looking back, there is no doubt that the non-professional jobs taught me more.
At the restaurant, working among a highly diverse group — the staff comprised a motley crew of varying

Police deny extra- judicial killing of Muslim cleric.

The police are searching for the killer of a popular Muslim cleric who was gunned down in a car with four other men in the port city of Mombasa late Thursday.  Close associates of Sheikh Ibrahim Omar, who preached at a mosque linked in the past to Somali Islamist militants, told Reuters he was the latest victim in a string of extra-judicial killings of Muslims by Kenyan security forces, an allegation strongly denied by the police.

Church set on fire after Muslim cleric death.

At least one person has been killed after angry crowds protesting the killing of a popular Muslim preacher.

The apparent assassination of Sheikh Ibrahim Omar follows last month's attack on a Nairobi shopping mall claimed by Somalia's al-Shabab group. Associates of Omar said he was the latest victim in a string of extra-judicial killings of Muslims by security forces, an allegation denied by the police.

UN Security Council visit Eastern Africa to discuss ICC.

The U.N. Security Council delegation on Thursday set on a trip that will take them to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia.

Their first stop is the DRC, where the ambassadors will meet in Kinshasa with President Joseph Kabila. Then they will travel to Goma, in eastern Congo, not far from where the Congolese army has clashed repeatedly with rebel group M23.

The last leg of the visit will be to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the delegation will meet with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and with the African Union Peace and Security Council.

The AU plans to hold a summit in Addis on October 10 to discuss the work of the International Criminal

Top Military officers to investigate Westgate looting claims.

More and more Kenyans believe that military soldiers methodically cleaned out the Westgate mall, and that the barrages of gunfire ringing out for days were being directed not at the last of the militants but at safes and padlocks to blast them open. Some business leaders even question whether the Kenyan Army deliberately prolonged the crisis by saying that shooters were still in the building when they were actually dead, to give themselves extra time to steal. 

Witnesses said that the most they saw militants loot was a couple of cans of soda, and shopkeepers cited no instances of panicked shoppers helping themselves to merchandise as they ran for their lives, leading to the widespread conclusion that the security forces must have been involved. 

Even though Kenyans are accustomed to corruption, the evidence of looting amid a national tragedy has

5 Major technology trends in Africa.

The African technology scene is changing, and here are the top five trends for now and in the future.

1. The scope of tech is getting deeper.
There are a number of newer technologies becoming more and more popular over and above the usual technology stacks one comes across. Due to the proliferation of open source hubs, and coding sites like GitHub, it’s now easier than ever to get up and running with something new.

2. Developers want to get onto the Cloud
More and more technologists are realising that running massive local infrastructure is inefficient, so they’re turning to cloud based services which allow them to provision on an “as needed” basis, with monthly billing.

3. Mobile money and ecommerce is growing
It seems pretty clear from any major African country you visit outside of South Africa that mobile money is going to be a part of everyday life sooner or later. So far, Mo De seem to be the best examples of innovation

Mukuru slum dwellers to sue for land ownership.

Strolling through the dirty red lanes of Mukuru, a sprawling informal settlement in Nairobi's industrialised south east, Dorice Bosibori Moseti, 31, stops and points to a small cluster of toilets, which she says she won't use after dark for fear of rape or violence.

"We have to go in the bushes near our homes and we are still very afraid," she says. "Living in Mukuru is difficult for women."

Moseti, who has lived in Mukuru for 12 years, is part of a small group of female residents who are planning legal action on behalf of the slum's estimated 400,000 inhabitants in an attempt to take ownership of the land

ICC wants Walter Barasa arrested for 'witness bribing'

Adapted from the BBC.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for a Kenyan journalist suspected of offering bribes to prosecution witnesses in the trial of Deputy President William Ruto.

There were reasonable grounds to believe that Walter Osapiri Barasa was "corruptly influencing" or trying to influence witnesses, a judge ruled.
This is the first time the ICC has issued such an arrest warrant.
Mr Barasa, 41, told the BBC he was ready to prove his innocence.
He told the Reuters news agency that police had so far not tried to detain him.
"I have not gotten in touch with any witnesses or anybody having any intention of asking them or bribing them to pull out of the case," he said, Reuters reports.

Kenyatta- Kenya to stay in Somalia.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of Kenya pulling its troops out of Somalia due to the Westgate attack. He said that Kenya has an international obligation to keep Somalia safe from Al-shabaab. The President maintained that if Somalia would have fixed its own affairs, Kenya would not have entered into the country in the first place. Kenya hosts the largest refugee camp in the world- Daadab

Did Kenyan Soldiers Loot Westgate Mall?

Adapted from National Public Radio.
More than a week after the Westgate attack, President Uhuru Kenyatta has vowed to set up a commission to look into lapses in intelligence and security. At least 67 people died in the four-day siege, which ended with dozens still unaccounted for.

Days after the attack, a man who manages a clothing store in the Westgate Mall sorts through damaged shoes, shirts and ties. He's visibly shaken from his trip back into the place he escaped under gunfire. Much of the damaged clothing is from bullet holes.

"These are all waste now," he says. "Even it if it is small hole, it is waste." He says there's no insurance for a terrorist attack, and some of the most expensive suits and shoes are missing.

Will Raila Odinga's memoirs reveal everything?

In Western countries, it is fashionable for retired politicians to release autobiographies, or memoirs, after their time in office. Many of them have juicy details of the inner corridors of power. With Raila Odinga's memoirs, Walk to freedom, will we witness the same revelations. In the past memoirs and autobiographies form the political elite have largely been a dress up. Simeon Nyachae, Njenga Karume, Kalonzo Musyoka and