Tensions are running high in the country as three issues take the headlines. Forget the millions of shillings missing from the primary schools. Forget the dilapidated ferries that go regularly adrift in the channel south of Mombasa, all with failing engines, broken prows and seriously overloaded. Disasters waiting to happen. Forget the imminent arraignment of perpetrators of last year's violence at the Hague.
The main news is the stand off between the Prime Minister and the President. One is reminded of two small boys seeing how high they can aim against a wall (there is an expression for that) The government has been evicting settlers and squatters from the Mau Forest, the main water containment area for most of East Africa. It was easy to remove the squatters and burn their houses, except they are now in 'refugee' camps by the side of the road, refusing to return to their original homes. Some were given illegal title deeds to the land. More contentious are the wealthy, including ex president Moi, who 'own' hundreds of hectares including, in the case of Moi, a very large tea factory apparently situated on a critical water source.
The speeches and rallies have been flying for a couple of weeks. Prime Minister Odinga has maintained the forest must be cleared and replanted. Ruto who is rooting for President in 2012 is opposing everything Odinga wants on 'humanitarian' grounds. President Kibaki maintains his usual stoic silence.
Odinga organised a tree planting with Wangari Maathai in the Mau last weekend. Kibaki found he had 'another engagement' and Ruto and cronies stayed away. They planted 20,000 seedlings and most of the letters to the press seem to be positive in support.
Apart from the obvious political in-fighting many think there is a faction trying to prove that the country cannot work with a 'hybrid' system with both a President with powers and a Prime Minister.
The draft constitution is now in the hands of MPS. They are frantically trying to change things. Oh, by the way, last week a special commission delivered a report advocating a substantial raise in the salaries and perks of MPs. Talk about perfect timing! The response has been scathing. Some of the MPs really need their bodyguards. The report was preceded by an article showing that Obama, so much admired here, pays his own bills (food etc) in the White House!
Last week the anti-terrorist people arrested a Muslim cleric, Jamaican by birth, who slipped into the country at the weekend at a border crossing with no computer. He is on a terrorist watch list, served time in the UK and was stripped of his British citizenship. He was deported to Jamaica but is somehow circulating in Africa.
Kenya tried to deport him through Gambia but couldn't get a transit visa from anyone. UK & US (both of which would been route stops) have refused him. So he is in jail, but not charged with anything.
A protest in Nairobi at the weekend turned nasty with militants leading the charge against security forces. Bullets, flags, balaclava masks and tear gas were all evident. One police officer has since died of gunshot wounds. This is religious tension surfacing, in a country that prides itself on religious tolerance, just as it used to pride itself on ethnic mixing, before the last election and the subsequent violence.
Ordinary Kenyans do the only thing they can do--they get on with their lives and wait, so patiently.
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