Posts

Let Africa Report For Africa

Image
I have from time to time come on spot over what I have strongly opposed in the public checks and balances in Africa. Today I happened to get criticism from a close friend and a blogger Emma Kwezi over my post on Africa needs advocacy journalism.  Emma argued that the west media is biased to report against Africa. He Felix Kilonzo in MKU studios cited that NBC and MSNBC in the USA are entirely Democrat and CNN and FOX entirely pro-Democrat. On that paradigm I don’t see any problem with a media house entirely supporting certain political affiliation for the best of its audience. To avoid contradicting my earlier post of ‘Why Africa Need Advocacy Journalism’ I underscore the need of our citizens to ignore a cluster of political parties and vest interest in 3 main political outfit that would provide leadership in either liberal or conservative manner. Journalism in Africa should play the pivotal role of checking these tyrannical presidents who have redefined monarchy that brings

Uhuru Kenyatta Cant Implement Land Reforms

Image
President Kenyatta Due to public demand, Felix Kilonzo will for the first time break the silence over the TJRC report that was released by the commission to unmask the historical injustices that has affected the country since 1963. Although my silence adversely comes about due to the report’s sensitivity and its tall orders and revisiting what I call the land reforms which I term as a mere joke of our time. The report in paragraph 199 says “During Kenyatta’s administration at independence and for several years thereafter, illegal dealings in land which left many individuals, families and communities landless and land-scarce took many forms.” The intro to the land alienation that existed after the independence that my grandparents fought for indiscriminately was confirmed that the 90% of Kenya is managed by 5% of Kenyans and not through transparent forms but through ill gotten wealth and abuse of office. The report says, “They [Kenyatta administration] included outright land

Why We Need Advocacy Journalism in Africa

Image
                                                                                                   Tweet When one mentions the term journalism, some wonder what that actually means. Is it the content that makes you a journalist? Is it your take on the contemporary issues that guarantees you to be referred to as ‘Journalist’? Well I refresh my mind back in 2006. By then I was in Form 2 in Machakos school, I bet it is still the best school in Eastern Province. The politics, constitutionalism and regional integration filled the air… as a young man of 16 years I could not make out what that actually meant for us, and by the ‘us’ I mean the so-called future leaders. Felix Kilonzo- Mku studios I dropped the idea of pursuing the Bio-Chemistry dream and deviated fully to the Journalism field and 7 years on, I am yet to see the entire ship. Talking of a process, I d o remember my Mathematics teacher back in the days. She used to say life is like a normal distribution curve or simpl

Raila Odinga ought to be Respected

Image
Tweet When one said that “Kenya ina wenyewe” I think he actually meant Kenya belongs to very few bureaucratic people who fly government flags. When I see, one man named Raila Odinga, I see a true face of Kenya. So humble and devoted to have Kenya maintain the democratic space that pre existed in minds of Kenyans before 1991. Like Kakamega Senator, Dr. Bonny Khalwale, I reiterate that you can wish Raila never exists but the bitter truth is that Raila Amolo Odinga has 5.3Million voters behind him. He also doubles up as the leader of Coalition for Reforms and Democracy and if you never knew, he is the leader of the party with majority of Members of Parliament in Kenya. And if that is not enough, Raila Odinga was voted by 26 out of the 47 counties in Kenya and therefore under all circumstances the politically motivated treatment at the JKIA by junior officers should be the last of their kind to happen. Raila is a man who believes in democratic change and loosing in an election does

Kenya Needs Change In Electoral Laws

Image
Tweet                                             Tweet to @Starkolix                       Follow @Starkolix   (Felix Kilonzo) Kenyans and Africans have several lessons to learn in the just concluded general elections in Kenya where Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta was declared winner. - See more at: According to an article [BBC] by Calestous Juma an International development professor at Harvard University, Africa's democratic transition is back in the spotlight. The concern is no longer the stranglehold of autocrats, but the hijacking of the democratic process by tribal politics. It was evident that Kenyans defied the issues and the policies put forward by the presidential candidates and went back to their tribal cocoons and voted along ethnic lines. One is forced to believe that only the Luhyia Community tried to vote for a leader while the rest voted for their tribal kings. In central Kenya the Kikuyu voted Uhuru Kenyatta almost 100 per cent. Luos in Nyanza voted for Rai

Realization of MDG's, is it a Tall Order?

With the lack of proper policies in leadership in African states, the attainment of major millennium development goals might not be possible by 2015. This is attributed to some major economical and political reasons that most African economies and leadership are currently running on. Swayed by lack of financial support, many African nations have moved the attainment target from 2015 to either 2020 or 2030 and this has from time to time affected the time frame in which many development projects in the countries suffer from lack of commitment by the agenda in question. In the early 2000 Kenya anticipated to have attained majority of the goals by 2020 but the period has since been moved to 2030 and as we speak is that many of the MDG's are very far from being attained. this is due to the policies and international agreements in form of treaties in  which have spelt doom for the growing economies in the developing and third world countries like that of Kenya and India. Although to som

County Commissioners in Office against the law

Kenya’s fourth President, Uhuru Kenyatta took over leadership which had an existing stand-off between the eminent governors and the Provincial administration in the office of County Commissioners. It would be remembered that It was during the Naivasha retreat that the Governors expressed that were not happy with the existence of the Government appointed County Chiefs. The issue led to a rocky end of the Grand Coalition Government which elapsed with the swearing in of Kenyatta as President. The law provides for interdependence between the county governments and the national governments and therefore some analysts argue that the County Commissioners are in office in various counties against the law.  According to a legal scholar, Silas Aluku, “The question of law that arises is whether or not restructuring as contemplated by Section 17 abolishes the system of provincial administration? Looked at in the context of the entire constitution and specifically so the substantive part thereof t