PERSONAL STATEMENT ON PLANNED MASS ACTION BY CORD Honorable friends, allies and partners, Ladies and Gentlemen, as a youth leader born in Homa Bay County but working with communities in Kisumu County I want to vehemently oppose the direction being taken by CORD Coalition on account of the challenges facing Kenyans whether real, created, exaggerated or imagined. I have in many times in this and other forums pointed out key issues that The Jubilee Government must make urgent interventions including Insecurity, Youth Unemployment, High Cost of Living, Ethnic Exclusion and Profiling, Runaway Corruption among others. That is a pointer that indeed as a nation we are facing serious challenges to our nationhood, progress and prosperity. But I want to believe that we are not an isolated lot, that even other countries are also facing a varied or similar challenges in one form or another. Therefore the question is not what challenges are we facing but how and what interventions are we putting in place to meet them. A question that the Jubilee Government must answer conclusively. However, I feel irked by the direction being taken by CORD and wonder how going to the streets will help lower the cost of living, bring about employment for young people, secure our families, and take corrupt government officials to court. On insecurity, we must remember how things were bad last year especially in Bungoma County, and we must appreciate that the situation has reduced save for many incidents of terror attacks that were heightened just immediately towards the homecoming of CORD Ring Leader, Raila Odinga, with much speculation as to whether some of these attacks were subversive activities by a desperate Opposition Coalition to engineer yet another round of negotiations that would result into Power Sharing. Indeed when you analyze the manner in which some of these terror attacks were carried out and the fact that Al shabaad , Al-qaeda, or any other Terrorist Group never claimed responsibility, then your speculation can be forgiven. And if that could be the case, then as a nation without considering ethnic, religious and political affiliation we must condemn that with the strongest terms possible. On the matter of IEBC disbandment which has been raised by CORD, we must not forget that the same CORD has presented a petition to parliament through its member Mr. Wafula Buke, and as such it is only logical that the process of redress is carried out conclusively by institutions with relevant mandate, in this case, Parliament. For reasons that the IEBC notwithstanding its improprieties is an independent institution protected by the constitution and cannot be disbanded by mass action, unless we want to subvert the constitution. On the cost of living and Youth Unemployment, it must be remembered that CORD is not totally alienated from government. The Coalition has significant membership in the Senate, National Assembly, and County Assemblies. Besides, CORD is controlling the running of more than half of the County Governments through its allied Governors. We must interrogate what interventions in terms of Government Action and Policies they have put in place through those agencies and institutions. On Devolution, CORD has in many occasions lambasted the Jubilee Government for being indifferent about strengthening County Governments through adequate financing. But again let us remember that the threshold for sharing of the National Revenue as set by the Constitution is a minimum of 15% of ordinary Revenue. It is in the public domain that Jubilee has extended a share in excess of 30%. And how have these funds helped the common mwananchi? Isnt it in the public domain that much of these funds have gone into trips and allowances by County leaders and officials with CORD counties being as notorious in wastage as Jubilee. As I write this, some 15 CORD Ward Reps are spending Kshs 30 million in some agricultural exchange trip to Israel, notwithstanding the legal position that they are not implementers of development programs and projects and as such they have no capacity or authority to domesticate whatever they shall have learnt. In fact history has shown no correlation between actual development and the trips. Kisumu for example is still suffering from environmental degradation months after Ward Reps went to Germany to benchmark on Waste Management. Against this background of affairs, I find the mass action totally uncalled for, and view it as a call by a desperate opposition which has abdicated its mandate of checking the government and putting in place alternative policies and ideas to help the common mwananchi live a decent life. As as Kenyans, without profiling ourselves politically or tribally, we must rise up to put both sides of the Coalition in their proper place even as we work together to build our beloved nation. Thank you and God Bless you all.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 05:44:19 +0000
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