· Here and there: Serious food for thought: -
· 1) Charles Kanjama, an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, inked an interesting piece (Standard on Sunday, May 19, 2013).
· Kanjama said: “There are four numbers particularly linked with the Holy Spirit, who in Christian theology is understood to be the third Person of the Blessed Trinity, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Son. These numbers are three, seven, 12 and 50…
· Three because He is the Third Divine Person, Divine Love Personified who unites the Trinity. His three key attributes are Love, Union and Gift. And his great gift, called sanctifying grace, is ultimately a gift of Himself to us. This grace comes with three principal virtues, namely faith, hope and charity, called Theological because they have God as their proper object…
· Seven because the Holy Spirit gives seven gifts in Christian tradition: wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord. In Catholic (read the Adult Faith) theology, his gift of grace is also associated with seven sacraments…
· And 12 because the fruits of the Spirit’s indwelling in the soul are 12, and because he is sent as a gift to give life to the Church, which is in turn founded on 12 apostles…
· The feast of Pentecost, ‘fifty days after Easter’, which Christians celebrate today, is the great manifestation of the Holy Spirit. It is the day of Jubilee, which like the year of Jubilee is a time of renewal…
· Hence the Church sings “Come, Holy Spirit come! And from your celestial home; Shed a ray of light divine!”
· And because the Holy Spirit’s main job is to transform us from within, the Church adds, “Bend the stubborn heart and will; Melt the frozen, warm the chill; Guide the steps that go astray.”
· This profound latter stanza is relevant to all Christians and people of good will…
· Likewise, as Kenyan civil society grapples with an existential crisis, this stanza may help guide their steps to a sure destination…
· The elements of the growing crisis of Kenya’s civil society are several…
· One is a crisis of identity. Are they part of us, or are they foreign agents?
· Another is a crisis of alienation. Can they have a prophetic voice, when they reject the outcome of a democratic exercise they claim to believe in?
· A third is a crisis of credibility. Can we trust them to walk the talk, or will their partisan political views trump the pursuit of the common good, like when they expressed discontent that Kenyans had chosen peace despite political grievances?
· A fourth aspect of civil society’s crisis is a crisis of popularity. Every good leader faces the moment when a choice for the common good is unpopular. When previously quiescent followers talk back at you, challenge you, try to depose you and erode your presumed indispensability. And bad leaders likewise confront the moment when hubris is shattered on the rock of reality, when what you do to others is done unto you…
· The governance sector of civil society is used to attacking perceived ills in society. Can they accept with grace when they are likewise attacked?
· If they ask Members of Parliament to swallow the label ‘MPigs’, can they pretend to be martyrs when labelled ‘evil society’?
· Are they experts at removing the plank in their neighbour’s eye, but unable to remove the log in their own?
· Do they believe they are the only safeguards of democracy, or are they ready, like any good actor, to exit the scene whenever necessary?
· The fifth element in the crisis of civil society is its gravest element. It is a crisis of integrity…
· Has our civil society driven a Faustian bargain with the enemies of our moral and family values?
· How can one claim to focus on good governance and yet be joined at the hip with pro-abortion, pro-homosexual and pro-pornography groups that undermine our laws?
· If your performance contract includes both democratic governance and tolerance of drug culture, or health services and teen sexuality, can you really claim integrity?
· Kenya’s civil society has reached a turning point…
· We hope they realise it. Only then can they welcome the aid they need, to bend the stubborn heart and will; melt the frozen, warm the chill; guide the steps that go astray…
· And so we hope they may receive the gift of wisdom, to finally look in the mirror and have the humility to accept the need for reform!” Well done, Charles Kanjama: You are spot on!
· 2) Macharia Kamau, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Kenya’s Mission to the United Nations, New York (Daily Nation, May 21, 2013) penned an interesting piece.
· The focused Kamau said: “My recent communication to the UN Security Council requesting the cessation of weak cases against Kenyan officials by the International Criminal Court (read Europe’s Guantanamo Bay a.k.a. the Humiliating-Slaughterhouse for African leaders a.k.a. the ICC alias the Bloody bure kabisa kangaroo court) has caused considerable public commentary…
· What has been missing in the commentary is an understanding of the issue from the perspective of the Kenyan State…
· I was not making a defence of the ICC indictees, but instead was representing the interests of the State I serve…
· In the free and fair democratic elections of March of this year, the President (read Son of MAU MAU freedom fighters and MAU MAU detainees a.k.a. Son of Ngina) and the Deputy President (read Son of Sarah) were entrusted with executing the will of 40 million Kenyans…
· In pursuit of the Kenyan people’s domestic and international interests, State officials under the direction of the principals deal with multiple institutions whose work affects the ICC, and in which the Kenyan State is an active member…
· When matters of the ICC arise, are those officials to pull back from vigorously pursuing their responsibilities because there is a perception that they represent only the principals’ personal interest?
· Certainly not! The State is not on trial at the ICC despite the prosecutor’s continuous use of a media bullhorn to try and erase the important distinction between the indictees and State institutions…
· The State has an obligation to ensure that it operates from the strongest possible position, defending itself from foreign intimidation and manipulation, from attacks on its credibility and prestige, as well as any attempts to curtail its full participation in the community of nations…
· If, as is the case this month, the UN Security Council has a debate on the functioning of international tribunals and courts, Kenya must participate on the same footing as others and advance the nation’s interest without self-censure…
· My critique of the ICC prosecution is legitimate. And the fact is that my observations are not frivolous. There is overwhelming evidence that the cases are frail…
· The prosecution has suffered repeated censure from the ICC judges. It has even, by its own admission, used witnesses who are on record as confirming they were coached to lie…
· With increasing frequency witnesses are dropping out and the prosecution’s only response is to make unsubstantiated public attacks on the integrity of the accused. These irregularities should give pause to anyone concerned with due process…
· That the prosecution has continued to pursue the cases despite their evident weakness only gives credence to suspicions, both in Kenya and abroad, that the prosecution is using the cases in questionable faith to sustain the relevance of a failing institution…
· It is a matter of dismal record that the prosecution has only managed one conviction in a decade, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars…
· That all its indictees have been Africans, at a time when there have been multiple conflicts outside Africa leading to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths at the hands of repressive and oppressive State actors, indicates strongly that the prosecution lacks true legitimacy in the international community…
· The gap between its duty and its performance widens when we note that Kenyans made a sovereign electoral choice incompatible with the continuation of prosecutions that are purported to benefit them…
· Can the ICC still be said to be safeguarding the political rights of Kenyans, their freedom and democracy, when the cases threaten to consume the time and effort that Kenyans have tasked the principals with to improve the lives of Kenyans?
· This is not to attack the ideals and the aspirations of the ICC, but certainly the project as currently undertaken is not working and will not work without a concerted effort by the international community to revisit its fundamentals…
· In the meantime, the main purposes of the ICC seem to be to advance the career interests of a handful of jurists and academics, and to enrich international law jurisprudence. I can see no reason to sacrifice the interests of Kenyans to such vain ends…
· Finally, it should never be forgotten that the death of 1,133 Kenyans and displacement of 650,000 others remain deep wounds on the Kenyan psyche…
· Kenyans fear nothing more than a repeat of the 2007-2008 events, and the 2013 elections, peaceful, restrained, free, fair and universally acclaimed bear testament to that fact!” Well done, Focused Macharia Kamau: You are spot on!
· 3) Let us jog our minds. Our posting of November 18, 2012 was titled: “Fatou Bensouda: You can either redeem the future of the ICC or go down the annals of history as the last Chief Prosecutor of that court!” – Moses Kuria.”
· 4) We have said it before and we shall keep repeating till kingdom come: The stupid, useless Western racist neo-colonial beasts are selfish, malicious, cruel, primitive, idiotic, hateful, childish, manner-less, petty, tastelessly arrogant, blindly contemptuous, sadistic, envious, jealous, hypocritical, dishonest, immoral, demonic, satanic, and evil!
· And, yes, these thuggish silly goats are also dangerous economic rapists!
· 5) Let us jog our minds. Our posting of March 7, 2013 was titled: “Give thanks to the LORD, because He is good and His love is eternal. I was fiercely attacked and was being defeated, but the LORD helped me! I praise you, LORD, because you heard me; because you have given me victory! The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all! This is the day of the LORD’s victory. Let us be happy and celebrate. Give us success, O LORD!” – Psalms.”
· 6) Let us jog our minds. Our posting of March 15, 2013 was titled: “We wish to tell Hussein Obama, and his Western allies that the Supreme people of Kenya and their great country, Kenya, don’t need them! Obama and his allies need us more. It is, therefore, extremely foolish for them to throw juvenile tantrums! We are simply not interested in such nonsense; and they can go to hell on a one way ticket! Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is President-elect of the Republic of Kenya because Kenyans have made him President-elect! Simple commonsense!”
· 7) Let us jog our minds. Our posting of March 23, 2013 was titled: “The Western neo-colonial beasts are absolutely shameless. They will smile and laugh with you; but their hearts are filled with raw evil and pathological hatred. They are just like their preferred presidential candidate, Mr. Kigeugeu! They are incorrigible double-speakers and liars! They are consummate hypocrites; and no sane human being should, ever, take them seriously!!”
· 8) Let us jog our minds. Our posting of March 26, 2013 was titled: “President Barack Hussein Obama must respect the people of Kenya; he must treat the people of Kenya the same way he treats his step-mother, Sarah Obama! He must assume, for one moment, that he lives at K’ogelo in Siaya County; and treat the people of Kenya the same way he would wish Kenyans were treated had he remained in Kenya, as a Kenyan! Kenyans are neither sub-humans nor amnesiac idiots; and, surely, Obama should know better!”
· 9) Let us jog our minds. Our posting of April 3, 2013 was titled: “President Barack Hussein Obama must rethink his position very, very carefully; because his congratulatory message was not a good message, at all; taking cognizance of the fact that it was meant for his own real brothers and sisters, the people of Kenya, and his own real President, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta! He should have done it, personally, through a live broadcast. He must, surely, pull up his socks! Throwing tantrums won’t help him, at this moment in time!”
· 10) Let us jog our minds. Our posting of February 23, 2013 was titled: “We should not be threatening Kenyans, about their choice of leader, by pointing to an ICC case that is not proven. I think the ICC case against Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is a weak one based on hearsay! The ICC is a very manipulated institution, particularly, by the West. It is very reckless and irresponsible given that the elections are very close, for us to try to intervene or meddle in Kenya’s electoral decision; besides, what the Western nations are doing is very dangerous because Uhuru Kenyatta, certainly, has another option!” – Former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer.
· 11) Romans 8:31 (Good News Bible): “In view of all this, what can we say: If God is for us, who can be against us?” Nothing to add: Enough said! Everything is in black and white.