Talking Point

We are not in this country by invitation; we are in Kenya by right and we shall not fail to defend our space. By Armstrong K. Abala Some of my friends (sorry to say Kikuyu friends) just said to me that there will be war if Raila Odinga wins the 17th September 2017 election. Which war? I asked. I have made it clear to them that we shall not be intimidated into submission. Who told them we can't fight that war? We have made huge strides in our quest for freedom and we shall not be boxed into submission to any dictatorial regime. We are not in this country by invitation. We are in Kenya by right and we shall not fail to defend our space. Whether Raila wins this election or not, it must be very clear that we can never be silenced by mere threats. We shall defend our space and freedom to speech at all cost. We cannot be cowed. If scaring people to submission is what Moses Kuria and his ilk are fueling, they shall be in for a rude one. We might not hold instrume...

IT IS NOW INCUMBENT UPON NASA TO INVEST IN THE NEW PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION By Armstrong K. Abala The Supreme Court nullified the Presidential election of 2017 after a successful petition by NASA citing several massive rigging. As usual NASA has swung into action demanding they set the new electoral date and claiming that the new dates announced by the Independent Electoral and boundaries commission are in fact dates set by their opponent Jubilee party. The NASA has in fact threatened not to participate in the new presidential election if the IEBC is not reconstituted. My opinion and advice to the National super Alliance is that crying foul at all times sometimes can result into an anti climax to your supporters. We only have 41 days if not less to the election and you need to be getting your house in order to ensure you win the new election instead of spending all your time targeting the IEBC. There is no doubt that there are several employees or agents...

LETTER TO RAILA ODINGA Re published, written by Donald Kipkorir  Baba, no matter the outcome of the presidential elections, your place in the History of our country is cast in stone. No other leader, bar President Daniel Arap Moi has mentored leaders across the country. From Mombasa to Turkana to Garissa to Busia to Kajiado, and even in Meru, you picked nondescript and gave them national profile. Personally, I wanted you to be President and I voted for you. Many conveniently forget that without you, Kenya wouldn't have been a multi-party democracy. Moi, was there before Yoweri Museveni and Robert Mugabe. Hadn't you made possible for Kenya to be multi-party, Moi will still be President now. Your father also made sure that Jomo Kenyatta became our first Prime Minister then President. With time, our electoral process is getting better each election year, courtesy of your standing up for a credible process. Kenya is a beacon of democracy, thanks to you. N...

PEACE IS IMPORTANT BUT THEN, CREDIBLE , FAIR, FREE, VERIFIABLE ELECTION EQUALS PEACE. By Armstrong K. Abala It is good that we are preaching peace, but at what cost is this peace going to come? What must we pay to have this peace in this country during the election of 8 th of August 2017? It is my conclusion that Kenya is a peaceful country as it is now and that what we need is to maintain the peace that we have. However, not fighting also does not translate to availability of peace. The Kenyan society is a hugely divided nation. This nation is highly divided along tribal lines. Political coalitions are based on tribal mobilizations. There is a sharp divide in this country between the two major political formations in this country; National Super Alliance (NASA) on one side and Jubilee on the other side. In Kenya, you are either Jubilee or NASA.   If you are not fighting for Jubilee, then you are fighting for NASA. This sharp divide has gone a notch higher...

MIGUNA: SIMPLE COMEDIAN , WHOSE COMEDY HAS BORED THE ELECTORATE. By Armstrong K. Abala I do not support Mike Mbuvi Sonko for Nairobi Governor, but when I saw remarks by one of the candidates for Nairobi Gubernatorial race Miguna Miguna, I could not fail but question why the remarks. Miguna Miguna has an ego that is not required in politics. I do not understand why he cannot tolerate any person that opposes or challenges his thinking. He did block me on Twitter, and that did not come before he threw tantrums and abuses at me for asking him straight why he had to always refer to his opponents with harsh words that cannot be printable at times. Miguna has blocked quite many people who differ with him on policies and his unorthodox ways in which he sells his ideas. In this occasion Miguna was weighing on tweet by one Ciku Njeru who was accusing Mike Sonko of using palatable and unprintable words on live radio toward Caroline Mutoko, when he was challenged to ...

HON. RAILA ODINGA'S REMARKS AT THE NATIONAL ELECTIONS CONFERENCE By Raila Odinga (NASA FLAG BEARER) Kenyans have always desired free, fair and credible elections. We see this desire every five years in people waiting patiently in long and winding queues around schools, churches and all other places that serve as polling centres on Election Day. We see this desire in the patience our citizens who wait with fingers crossed and many resorting to prayers when the electoral body begins to fumble and prevaricate over declaration of results, with delays running into days and even a week as was the case in 2013. More often than not, this desire has largely been frustrated by a failure of institutions and the interference by individuals and the State. The failure to meet the general desire for free, fair, transparent and credible elections has left deep wounds in the soul of our nation. Kenyans are yet to fully recover from the effects of the bungled 2007 electi...

NASA DEVELOPMENT BLUEPRINT SPECIFIC TO EACH REGION A GOOD IDEA. By Armstrong K. Abala. The decision by the National Super Alliance (NASA) to have different developmental frame work for the different regions in Kenya is very smart bearing in mind that each region has a certain major problem that they encounter. In the last 50 and over years since Kenya started self-rule, there are several regions that have been left behind in development with few regions that have been associated to the top leadership of the nation getting slightly ahead of the rest.  It is in this light that the NASA idea of clustering regions per the major problems and underdevelopment is a nice and wise move. It would be meaningless to compare the North eastern or the Turkana part of Kenya to the Western part of the central part of Kenya, since they totally have different underdevelopment and/or different needs that they need solved. For example, NASA began by officially launching the...

NASA SHOULD NOT IGNORE THE CENTRAL VOTING BLOCK; SHOULD TALK AGENDA NOT TRY TO BE-DEVIL UHURU WHEN CAMPAIGNING THERE. By Armstrong K. Abala. There has been a perception that the central and Mount Kenya region cannot be convinced to vote for a different individual apart from their ‘own’. Having spoken to several friends from the region, they are all in agreement that what NASA needs to do is make inroads in the central region to seek support in the coming elections. However, they also agree that that while campaigning in the region, NASA should not give a perception that their main aim is to remove Uhuru/ Jubilee out of power but that they should sell their transformative agenda and leave the people to decide on who to vote for. It is not a hidden truth anymore that many of the central people feel dissatisfied by the Jubilee Government, it is not a lie that they are also affected by the high cost of living that has bedeviled the nation since the Jubilee regime t...

Functions of County Governments Part 2   (Fourth Schedule, Article 185 (2), 186 (1) and 187 (2) The functions and powers of the county are: 1. Agriculture, including- (a)  Crop and animal husbandry; (b)  Livestock sale yards; (c)   County abattoirs; (d)  Plant and animal disease control; and (e)  Fisheries. 2. County health services, including, in particular (a)  County health facilities and pharmacies; (b)  Ambulance services; (c)   Promotion of primary health care; (d)  Licensing and control of undertakings that sell food to the public; (e)  Veterinary services (excluding regulation of the profession); (f)    Cemeteries, funeral parlours and crematoria; and (g)  Refuse removal, refuse dumps and solid waste disposal. 3. Control of air pollution, noise pollution, other public nuisances and outdoor advertising. 4. Cultural activities, public entertainment and publ...

IF YOU CANT SEE DAMAGE DONE BY JUBILEE, THEN YOU CAN'T BE SAVED. By Armstrong K. Abala It is not our fault that some people are so ignorant to the facts that are on the table. It is not our concern that some people cannot tell between what Jubilee promised in 2013 and what they have delivered to us in 5 years. It is not our problem that some people cannot understand or see the state of common mwananchis' living conditions since jubilee took power. It is not our damn concern that you can’t see the level of corruption since jubilee took power. It is not our fault that some people continue to believe in your tribal chiefs as they have continued to sell to you the Idea that a Raila presidency would spell doom to you yet they have been in power since independence and members of the larger Mount kenya are still in poverty; makes me wonder who then is responsible for that poverty.  It is also not our fault that some people have decided to remain in their t...