Exeunt Kibaki, Enter Raila (but…)

(Exeunt...!)

(Enter...!)


I received this short message on my phone today:

“For Jaramogi hated Kenyans, that he gave his son Raila Amollo Odinga that whosoever believes in him shall live in eternal slavery, hunger, diseases and die in pain.”

Whoever is circulating this sms must be a sick fellow. That’s all I can say.

Kenyans now start ‘spewing’ excuses?

On Tuesday, September 11th, 2007, Habari Leo newspaper (a Tanzanian daily) carried a story titled “Wakenya waanza visingizio” (Kenyans now start spewing excuses) on its front page.

The article started by saying that Kenyans were complaining that they were finding it increasingly hard to cross the border into Tanzania as they were being mistreated by immigration officers at the borders.

For instance, at the Isebania border post, there is a heavy presence of immigration officers hell bent on checking the ‘insalubrious’ influx of Kenyans into Tanzania. Kenyans found without the requisite travel documents have had to go through harrowing experiences.

This has left a bad taste in the mouths of Kenyans as they rightly ask why they are being mistreated while the Tanzanians crossing the border do so without a fuss being raised.

In the past, Kenyan businessmen were crossing the border on their way to Tarime (which is 25 kilometres from the Isebania border post) without any problem whatsoever. But now, according to these businessmen, things have changed.

There are many Kenyans working in Tanzania, the newspaper continues, and hundreds of Tanzanians working in Kenya as small scale business people, bartenders and sellers of second hand clothes (Mitumba in East Africa speak). This is slowly becoming a thing of the past as mistrust stealthily creeps between peoples of the two countries.

This mistrust has further been amplified by the recent armed robberies on Tanzanian soil thanks to robbers of Kenyan descent. This state of affairs has received the full vent of Tanzanian President Mr. Kikwete and the Minister for Internal Security Mr. Bakari Mwapachu.

The good intention of the East Africa Community, where it behooves us to live as brothers and sisters, is being sacrificed at the altar of bureaucracy and misconstruction. In fact, things are being taken for what they are not – literally speaking.

That’s my take. What’s yours?

The killing of 14 Kenyans: Something just does not jell

It has been reported in some sections of the media in Tanzania that:
• Plans to execute them had long been planned
• Tanzanian police pretended to be robbers


The newspaper Sauti ya Watu Tanzania Daima (a Tanzanian daily) on Monday September 17th, 2007 carried a very controversial version of the story about the killing of 14 suspected robbers of Kenyan origin in Moshi a few days earlier.

According to the newspaper, the killing of the Kenyans was something that had been planned and staged. It is said that some Tanzanian police travelled to Kenya and posed as accomplices in criminal activities and succeeded in luring these people to Tanzanian soil

According to a source who divulged information about the whole plan, the ground where the police executed their heinous act was a clear ground with no obstructions. So the question is: If there was a shootout between the police and the robbers, why were there no police casualties?

It is alleged that these ‘robbers’ were taken to their supposed hideout in police cars that did not have number plates of the police force. Here the police sprayed their car and that of the ‘robbers’ with bullets in a bid to ‘hide’ the truth of what actually happened.

Just to show that the whole event was like a drama of sorts, a police car (registration number T 168 AEA Hiace GLX) was sprayed with bullets on the top of the body. Its windscreen was, incidentally, not broken. This is something that is very unlikely in the event of a shootout.

Questions arise here:

• If there really was a shoot out, why was there no glass that was broken in the vehicle of the police?
• In the alleged shoot out, why were there no casualties on the side of the police?
• If it really was a planned event, what was its aim?
• Was the aim of the ‘event’ intertwined with the supposed Tanzanian police’ heartfelt desire to show their president that they are working?
• Under whose direction was it?
• Is theTanzania Daima account a true representation of what happened on the ground? If it is true, what are its dynamics?

Can the Tanzanian police force come clean of these serious allegations? Kenya does not need nor does it deserve the heartrending bashing that it has been receiving from some quarters of Tanzania of late…