STUDENT UNIONS SHOULD ASSERT THEIR ROLE IN THE SOCIETY

Ernesto Che Guevara de la Serna who is probably The unquestionable most prominent revolutionary figure of the 21st century, was able to have himself legendised after his encounter with the modern world’s most authoritative symbol of communism, Cuban leader; Fidel Alejandro Castro. Fidel Castro is famed for his prominence during his days as a student leader at the University of Havana in 1940s where he studied law and graduated in 1950.Che Guevara and Castro’s focus was aimed at redeeming Cuba from the hands of dictator Fulgencio Batista who was a puppet and dictator of American imperialism and other then enslaved states of Latin America. Although the first attempt to remove Batista was thwarted, Castro together with Che Guevara and the rest of the army (Marxists) managed to wrestle Batista from power and established a communist state of Cuba. It’s widely known that the majority of the leaders of the Cuban revolution were Castro’s university alumni colleagues.
In Indonesia it’s understood that through a student power protests, Dictator Mohammed Suharto relinquished the power he had held with an iron fist for a long time. Professor Horace Campbell of Syracuse University argues that the political leadership in Africa has been developed by morally weak leaders unlike the earlier objectives set by most of the African freedom heroes. Hence the political leadership in contemporary Africa especially Kenya has thus been criminalized. He therefore argues that the major challenge to upcoming leadership is to decriminalize the African leadership institutions. My understanding is that if any fruits have to be realized, then university and college students need to sensitize themselves be on the frontline in leading the student movement and join other civil society organizations to decriminalize our institutions.
The lesson from the Cuban revolution and Suharto exit from power teaches us that an opportunity of physical nearness of intellectual minds is a great resource that must be tapped for the purposes of transforming and recreating a criminal society to a great and popular leadership. Many modernists believe that the days of violent revolutions are long gone and thus revolutions can be realized through the ballot and not necessarily the bullet.
That brings the reason as to why our universities and other institutions of higher learning have a big responsibility to transform, recreate and organize our society as themed at the third national youth convention held in august in Nairobi this year. Students form such an important youth component in modern Kenya’s move towards good governance, agitation of freedom, justice, and equality.
Unfortunately the trend and significance of students and student unions like son and others have been pushed to the periphery of irrelevance because of well orchestrated plans to shut true leadership from running the affairs of student welfare. Student leadership has been compromised through short term favors so as to ensure that the leadership remains caged and focused on petty issues and highly prohibited from making contributions to advancement of democracy and good leadership at the national level. University student leaders have been reduced to manage crisis for embattled vice chancellors at the expense of the golden opportunity and platform to advance national reform agenda. the honored revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara once noted that
"Man really attains the state of complete humanity when he produces, without being forced by physical need to sell himself as a commodity.”
it is thus a trend that is not so new but its difficult to last in leadership for posterity with such tendencies.
It must be noted that the Kenyan youth is the main casualty and victim of bad governance, corruption, and tolerance of other forms of vices.
For example the grace period of repaying loan acquired through the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has been reduced because the government is so much constrained to fund high education. That makes it compulsory for any graduate to start paying loan as soon as he/she completes the degree. Such pressures are resultant of the corrupt systems that even students themselves have taken a back seat in criticizing with fear and intimidation by the powers that be and their agents in form of student leaders who win elections through questionable means. The continued fear will hence catch up with you when you fall victim of the evils you tolerated.
Cyprian Nyamwamu;the executive director of national convention executive council(NCEC)notes that the corrupt minds in authority have intentions and have already captured some institutions that may descent against injustices such as churches, mosques and student unions. The University of Nairobi is no exception under this category.
It must be noted that studentship is a serious opportunity that has already mobilized intellectual minds that should be able to use such opportunity to transform the society and stand to be counted.
Student organizations like SONU have a reach history with the likes of Hon. Wanyiri Kihoro,Hon.James Orengo and the late Titus Adungosi whose contribution in the student leadership of this country speaks volumes and worthy to emulate and I will not be shy to also praise the leadership up to our time. Unfortunately of late the student leadership has become another slave of the criminalized society.
That is why there is no surprise that when we protested against the media bill, members of parliaments intention to rob Kenyans 1.4 billion shillings and even Anglo leasing, no student union or its leadership came to authoritatively identify with the cause. Students must wake up indeed otherwise history will judge them by their actions.

Fwamba NC Fwamba—
A designer and defender of human rights is a former vice chairman of SONU&Chairman of the students’ parliament 2003/2004

RAILA EJECTION AND LESSON TO KENYAN VOTERS

The ejection of ODM presidential hopeful Raila Odinga and his entourage from a hotel owned by a relative of president Kibaki was a primitive act that should not only be condemned but has no place in the modern civilization. It must be noted that whatever the reason was such an action reflected on how polarized our country is along tribal lines. we can remember Raila himself proved that he was not a tribalism when he declared ‘Kibaki tussah’ in 2002.But now its coming to a point where some people in this country believe that the seat of the president is their preserve and whoever else seeks it is an enemy who doesn’t deserve any hospitality even if he is paying for it.
It is shame if at all Raila’s ejection was as a result of a tall order from a senior family member of Hon. Mwai Kibaki as its being speculated.
Such primitive characters have not had an opportunity to learn consequences of such primitive actions. Many will remember, the Nazi holocaust, racial hatred, the infamous Rwanda genocide which resulted from hatred between Tutsis and Hutus and the scenario where celebrated author and lecturer Prof.Ngugi wa Thiong’o was ejected from an hotel in California purportedly meant for whites only .Those ignorant of history and ignorant of global political trends do not know repercussions of such actions. Its time for Kenyans as elections approach to teach such people a lesson through the ballot. It doesn’t matter whether such people win or not but a statement should be made by us denying them our votes and rethinking on any other alternative.
If president Kibaki supporters and relatives can show such manners to his opponents, then they stand warned that even their candidate since they have decided to own him should not campaign outside Nyeri or Central province in that matter. Such actions easily convince me that Kenyans need to wake up (Amkeni Wakenya). I have been watching so many things going on in the Kibaki camp for the last few months, and this proves how tribalistic some of these people are. It will be as you have witnessed in the last five years that when they say they have a government of national unity, only a few political leaders from other communities benefit while other great opportunities such as high profile appointments and government tenders go to one specific community. It is a sad affair. Our earlier intentions to support Kibaki should be re considered basing on the fact that many things have happened since. Its time for political realignment and we must only go where we are respected and recognized. Not where we are going to rubberstamp other peoples fortunes. We have less than 100 days to election and that means we need to make a decision that makes sense to us and our interests, especially the young people both in western province and other parts of the country. If Kibaki team will be such a group, well if not we will certainly decide. We should not be as cheap like our leaders of national stature who are benefiting at our expense and promising Kibaki that they will mobilize us to vote for him.
It is a known fact that our political leaders in western were well contented when Kibaki cancelled debts for coffee farmers and tea farmers but when he came to western province he dilly dallied about the plight of the sugar cane and maize farmers. Then the leaders celebrated. Its corruption, tribalism and compromise of a few minority to manipulate the poor uninformed majority. It must also be noted that when Kibaki went to western province to create districts and start foundations for markets, some lobby group of made up of people from his province came and launched some outfit in Kakamega and declared that all western province is for Kibaki.they hereby stand warned that should they risk to go back to kakamega, whoever they should blame is only themselves. That is the trend they have created including appointing a person of central province to be a coordinator for western province. We are certainly against this kind of behavior and we promise to use any necessary force to deal with them should they ever attempt to continue with these actions. They have taken us for granted because our political leaders like Kombo and Kituyi and moody have decided to auction luhyas on the stake.
How could the president come to western province, leave without addressing the sugar cane issue and these guys are still singing that the Kibaki has a development record? Does it make sense if he gives everything to central province and we celebrate by getting the left over, just like what the field Negro (slaves) used to eat after being beaten from morning to night. Am informed that a Mr.Njoroge is the coordinator for western for a Kibaki campaign group. As I write this am hereby informing all you guys who support Kibaki and belong to this yahoo group and you come from western to refuse that kind of arrangement. All our networks in western province should share this information. Let us not rubberstamp the benefits the ministers have gained at our expense. We wanted to learn them and we actually discovered what they are. We will call you for a meeting soon to deliberate on this. We will only support whoever will show value to us and also have space for us. This decision comes after a series of deliberations and evidence that the people campaigning for Kibaki are nothing but a bunch of self centered bunch of tribalists.we have a vision to save the future of our people and not through Mwai Kibaki…we will tell you who. Forward this message to other contacts both in Kenya and outside. We will call a meeting soon over this…our initial support of Kibaki was important because without which we wouldn’t have known some of the evils these people commit. It will be time to spill the beans. While Kituyi, Kombo, and Awori, Kirwa trade with Kibaki they get compromised and pretend to be representing us. Young people wake up and save our country from scavengers, both old and others living amongst us, don’t be used as rubberstamps .Let them campaign in their villages since they think they can go far on their own.
Because we are trying to save Kenya as they struggle to rape her.

FWAMBA NC FWAMBA

PARLIAMENT OF WHORES, VOTE EM OUT.

Shameless they are. Daylight robbers.thieves.They shamelessly can’t hide their gluttonous nudity. They are whores.they call themselves waheshimiwas or are they wezi-miwas. Comrades, lovers of peace freedom justice and equality, you have only one opportunity to rise and fight against injustices hurdled upon the Kenyan peasant, the proletariat, the worker and the tax payer. Are we going to watch as a few individuals who work less and earn more continue accumulating material affluence at our expence.enough is enough. you got to stand and be counted….our country can not be run by hungry dogs and barking bitches who are ever insatiable. Kenyans wake up and stop this mess. They too want to create backdoor parliamentary representatives for their mistresses, wives, daughters, nieces and concubines. They hypocritically want to cheat you that they want to give you better representation by gerrymandering 40 constituencies and 50 nominations for women. Which women are these? Representing who. Some of these clowns are the old proponents of Social Democracy. Which has turned into opportunism and Social Hypocricy.kenyans, wake up from your slumberland.as you sleep don’t be surprised to wake up and find all your granaries dry and members of parliament licking your plates. Are you going to watch as they move to pass this into law? It could be a legal move. But the remain guilty as far as social justice is concerned. And if it happens that the courts doesn’t condemn them. Then as a patriot, a citizen and a focused individual especially the oppressed, sidelined and ignored youth, you need to give justice. We got to stop it. Its time to rise up and be counted. Now is the time. Our disquiet about this brand of actions should be as loud as possible because at this trend, you never know. Down with the looters in the 9th parliament. In December this year, the chickens have to cross the road. Whatever happens before roosting; only lord knows? Young people of Kenya, it could be a provocation for a generational revolution. We got to take action. Your advice on this if you feel affected please be free to comment on the way forward. Let’s not mourn. Organize. I don’t care what they feel, they should feel what we care.
NB lobby, canvass. blog and. forward this message to as many people as many possible.
FWAMBA NC FWAMBA

NARC KENYA WON’T GIVE KIBAKI VICTORY

Political parties are ideological institutions whose intentions of pursuing power are based on delivering election pledges in line with the party ideology. That’s why I believe coalitions which are the most popular political arrangements in Kenya today amount to abuse of democracy. Coalitions especially the post elections ones limit the electorate to elect groups of parties and individuals who do not necessarily uphold any common political principles. In most cases going by what happened in the 2002 elections Kenyans were limited to chose between only two serious contenders, kibaki and uhuru because most of other potential contenders had stepped down for president Kibaki to form a grand coalition,NARC.The wrangles that later bedeviled NARC were as a result of this, Leaders of different political ideologies. As far as a stable government with internal order unquestionable loyalty to the president is concerned, trade minister Dr.Mukhisa Kituyi is right to insist that NARC/Kenya will go it alone in the forth coming election. That is the most ideal situation.
However, the practical political situation in Kenya is far from Hon.Kituyis imagination. It’s unfortunate but also true that most of the political parties in Kenya have been ethnicised. Such kind of scenario has made most Kenyans to believe that for anyone to ascend to power her/him needs to form alliances with other parties that hold greater popularity where his/her party cannot.
Narc Kenya itself which initially had intentions of becoming a party with a national outlook failed the test because of such circumstances. It is a party to pride in for members from central province, while it’s so difficult to display NARC Kenya membership card in any other part of this country that does not have a large kikuyu population.
The only sure way of winning presidency if that is the priority of NARC Kenya, is to unite with other parties with the same priorities. Instead of spending time insisting that they go it alone, they should unite with other parties that are already arranging formation of a coalition. Otherwise arguing that NARC Kenya can go it alone and win presidential elections is day dreaming.
FWAMBA NC FWAMBA
BOX 41046,NAIROBI
+254721779445

LET A NEUTRAL COMMISSION BE SET UP TO REVIEW BOUNDARIES.

The crisis over creation of new constituencies has seen kenya go through serious political intrigues with members of the opposition accusing the government of gerrymandering for the sake of the forthcoming elections.its notable too that some members of the government of national unity have expressed dissatifaction on how and where the proposed constituencies should be created.therefore at such a trend it will be difficult to have any constituencies that will be created because of sincere need.it is evident that the incumbents are struggling to make sure that any created constituencies favour their re-election come the december general electioncs. Legislation to have a neutral electoral boundaries commission is the only way to ensure fairness in creation of new constituencies. The opposition is sensing gerrymandering by the government while some of the members of the government of national unity feel that if not well calculated, the process may lead to tullymandering (work at the detriment of the incumbent). Habitually such kind of opportunistic manouvres have left ordinary citizens without any improvement to service delivery.whenever gerrymandering has been rampant, only major political parties and the influential people of such parties have benefited at the expense of ordinary citizens. Such a conflict of interests about electoral boundaries is not a new issue in histrory. Although all electoral systems that use multiple constituencies as a basis for determining representation are susceptible to gerrymandering to various degrees, governments using single winner voting systems are the most vulnerable. Most notably, gerrymandering is particularly effective in nonproportional systems that tend towards fewer parties, such as first past the post. Most democracies in the world hate partly proportional electoral systems, where several political parties are proportionally represented in the national parliaments, in proportion to the total numbers of votes of the parties in the regional or national elections. Among Western democracies, states like Israel and the Netherlands are not susceptible to gerrymandering in the national government, as they employ electoral systems with only one (nationwide) voting constituency. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Canada, attempt to prevent gerrymandering by having the electoral boundaries set by non-partisan organisations such as the UK's Boundary Commission. Gerrymandering is most common in countries such as the United States of America where elected state politicians are responsible for drawing constituencies, with few exceptions. Gerrymandering should not be mistaken for malapportionment whereby the number of eligible voters per elected representative can vary widely, and which can also be used to predetermine the overall outcome of an election. Gerrymandering is effective because of the wasted vote effect by packing opposition voters into constituencies they will already win (increasing excess votes for winners) and by cracking the remainder among constituencies where they are moved into the minority (increasing votes for eventual losers), the number of wasted votes among the opposition can be maximized. Similarly, with supporters now holding minimal margins in the unpacked constituencies, the number of wasted votes among supporters is minimized. The most immediate and obvious effect of gerrymandering is for elections to become less competitive in most if not all constituencies, particularly packed ones. As electoral margins of victory become significantly greater and incumbent politicians have safe seats, the incentive for meaningful campaigning is reduced. In 2000, for example, only 57 of the 435 seats (13 percent) of the United States House of Representatives were decided by margins of 10 percent or less. Similarly, voter turnout is likely to be adversely affected as the chance of influencing electoral results by voting becomes badly reduced and, correspondingly, political campaigns are less likely to expend resources encouraging voter turnout. According to political scientists Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, the effect of gerrymandering on incumbents is particularly focused, as incumbents are far more likely to be reelected under such conditions. For example, in 2002, only four challengers were able to defeat incumbent members of Congress, the lowest number in modern American history. Gerrymandering also has significant effects on the representation received by voters in gerrymandered electoral areas. Since gerrymandering is designed to increase the number of wasted votes among the electorate, the relative representation of particular groups can be drastically altered from their actual share of the voting population. Such a case in Kenya may arise if the constituency boundaries are created in regard of two major opposing political forces. Sometimes, however, gerrymandering is advocated as a solution for improving representation amongst otherwise underrepresented groups by packing them into a single electoral area. This can be controversial, and may lead to those groups remaining marginalized in the government as they become confined to a single electoral area and representatives outside that area no longer need to represent them to win election. As an example much of the redistricting conducted in the United States in the early 1990s involved the intentional creation of additional "majority-minority" districts where racial minor)ties such as African Americans were packed into the majority. Curiously, this "maximization policy" was supported by elements of both the Republican Party (who had limited support among African Americans) and minority representatives elected as Democrats from these constituencies, who then had "safe seats". As a result of myriad issues associated with gerrymandering and the subsequent impact it has on competitive elections and democratic accountability, numerous countries have enacted reforms making the practice either more difficult or less effective. Countries such as the UK, Australia, Canada and most of Europe have moved the responsibility of drawing constituency boundaries to neutral or cross-party bodies. For fair creation of new constituencies, Kenya needs to adopt this kind of method to avoid such conflicts whenever we approach election. The most commonly advocated electoral reform proposal targeted at gerrymandering is to change the process used in creation of these boundaries. Under these proposals, an independent, and presumably objective, commission should be created and charged with creating fresh constituency boundaries rather than the legislature, the electoral commission of Kenya or the government. To help ensure neutrality, members of the board can come from relatively apolitical sources such as retired state judges or longstanding members of religious groups, possibly requiring adequate representation from competing political parties. Additionally, members of the board can be denied access to information that might aid in gerrymandering, such as the demographic makeup or voting patterns of the population. As a further constraint, consensus requirements can be imposed to ensure that the resulting constituency map reflects a wider perception of fairness, such as a requirement for a supermajority approval of the commission for any constituency proposal. However, in some American states (such as Missouri following 2000 census) this has led to deadlock where the equally numbered partisan appointees were unable to reach consensus in a reasonable timeframe resulting in the courts having to draw the lines. To ensure smooth running of such a commission, it should be formed by the same methods by which the Kenya anti/corruption commission(KACC )was formed whereby all players in the political field will feel represented and not necessarily for the benefit of incumbent members of parliament and the incumbent government., As the world advances in ways of governance, Kenyans must too adopt methods that can reflect good, fair and democratic ways of governance, and setting up an electoral boundaries commission is one such thing that can rid us of the prevailing suspicions and confusion. The commission will be able to only recommend creation of new electoral areas on the basis of merit and not political biasness. FWAMBA NC FWAMBA BOX 41046, 00100 NAIROBI +254721779445

NYCIII SHOULD ADDRESS THE PLIGHT OF A REVOLUTIONARY GENERATION.

Over the last one-decade, young people in Kenya have ventured into various political activities with an aim of shaping the future of this country and creating a niche for themselves to get into positions that affect policy formulation and governance.
The first national youth convention held in 1997 suggested possibilities and strategies of young people organizing themselves and bracing for leadership. At that time it was so common for most of senior politicians saying that the youth are leaders of tomorrow. It’s a big challenge today to the youth of that time to realize that yesterday’s tomorrow is today. Therefore its pertinent as we near the third national youth convention in august for the young people to look back and see how much has been achieved since the last convention was held. The matter of progress must be well scrutinized and assessed as young people especially those who participated in the first and second convention prepare for the next national youth convention.
It’s also important this being an election year for youths to know how many people are keen on advancing to national leadership as a result of this kind of civic education.
So far a number of young people have declared interests in vying for parliamentary seats, but it’s yet to be seen if such a move will help young people get to the helm of power. Its though a pity that a number of political parties and even presidential candidates have little attention to the issues concerning the youth within their manifestos and visions respectively. It’s however significantly noticeable that only Ford Kenya as a party has given room to full participation of young people in their activities. according to a report in one of the local newspapers its also commendable that some young people have resorted to forming and running their own political parties as ripe grounds for bargaining such groups include the Vijana Progressive Party(VIPA) and the Kenya youth movement(KYM) and youth lobby groups like the Kenya Young Voters Alliance(KYVA).
The biggest challenge during the convention should however focus on more serious avenues to power for the young people. It’s important to develop a National Youth Manifesto that should be the target of achievement for whoever will win the forthcoming general elections. It should also be noted that as the young people clamour for positive chance all political advances and support should be ideologically based and not necessarily assumed that age is an automatic qualification for one to cause positive change within the political, social and economic circles of this country. It’s however challenging that a number of young leaders have not embraced any specific ideology that can be sustained for years. The revolutionary generation should ensure that a policy paper for posterity is drawn, just like what the communist party under Fidel Castro did in Cuba after taking power in from Batista .they had sustainable policies and ideologies that have remained consistent to date.
Most of the professional and politically conscious young people who are ambitious are so determined that change from poverty, corruption, insecurity and negative ethnicity will only be realized through them. That is why the young people should be more aggressive and be more focused as we approach the elections for this is the only opportunity to exercise their democratic right by electing a president who will be conscious of handing power to a younger generation. Thus its main focus should be to develop a political ideology that can make Kenya an economic superpower through use of intellectual human and natural resources
The NYC III should therefore be able to come up with a unique and most practical way to realization of meaningful socio/economic/political change in line with modern challenges to governance.
FWAMBA NC FWAMBA
BOX 41046, NAIROBI
+254721779445

MULEMBE MWESI BAANA BABUKUSU

OSI OSI NIO OLI SUBIILA NDI MULI BALAAMU.SIMA KHURUMIKHILE BUKESI BUUNO KHUKABAANA CHINGANAKANI.ORIO MWEESI.