Kenya: Kkk Alliance Plans Simama Rally Hijack

Nairobi — THE Kikuyu-Kalenjin-Kamba alliance is planning to hijack a rally of Simama Kenya scheduled for January 31in Bungoma.

The KKK alliance wants to make Eugene Wamalwa its point man in Western province because it believes he can check the influence of Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy ODM Leader Musalia Mudavadi.

The plan has been hatched is to "test the waters" in western Kenya where Prime Minister Raila Odinga's ODM party still enjoys significant support, according to two key ministers in the KKK alliance.

"We are determined to build support for our alliance even though our opponents want to brand us tribalists. We want Eugene to join us so we will be in Bungoma to tell Kenyans that we have a national outlook," said one minister.

Agriculture Minister William Ruto is likely to attend the rally.

"I will be attending that meeting myself and all plans are on to have the minister attending but this is subject to confirmation at a later date," Cherengany MP Joshua Kutuny, a close confidante of Ruto, said yesterday.

The KKK alliance came to light last year with Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Agriculture Minister William Ruto and Tourism Minister Najib Balala as its leading lights.

The two ministers said yesterday that all four had yet to discuss the issue but there was a general consensus among their supporters that KKK people should make its presence felt at the Simama rally.

"If you won't see us, you will hear from us. I ask you to look at those who will attend and what interests they will be representing," said one of the ministers.

Simama Kenya was started last year by Jimmi Kibaki, son of the President, to mobilise the youth before 2012.

For more send your comments to radioshabelle@ymail.comThe Simama rally was organized by to declare Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa a presidential candidate but has caused controversy with some local MPs threatening to disrupt it.

Jimmi Kibaki is expected to attend the meeting.

Kamukunji MP Simon Mbugua, a close associate of Uhuru, warned Jimmi to stop holding rallies in constituencies where he was not invited.

"Who is Jimmy Kibaki? He is an imposter. He is hanging on his father's clothes and some of us are not happy about his maneuvers. We would rather Wamalwa takes keen interest on this," Mbugua said.

Wamalwa is battling for Ford Kenya chairmanship and has already declared he will run for President in 2012.

MPs allied to Kalonzo, Uhuru Kenyatta and Ruto are being encouraged to attend the rally.

"We have been asked to grace the rally in Bungoma. I have however decided that I will remain in my constituency to attend to other serious matters but I wish those who will be headed to Bungoma success," said Keiyio North MP Lukas Chepkitony.

Eugene Wamalwa traveled to Uganda this week with Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka on an official visit.

"Why do you think the VP flew to Uganda with him? I can tell you for sure that Eugene is part of the bigger KKK plan to penetrate western Kenya," said an MP close to Kalonzo.

Wamalwa denied that he was part of the KKK alliance and insisted that Simama Kenya is going to make an alliance with Ford-Kenya, a party he hopes to take over later this year.

"We do not want to be dragged into alliances we are not part of. What we are seeking to do is make an alliance with all young Kenyans so that we can achieve smooth generational change," said Wamalwa.

Jimmi has in the past denied that his father is grooming Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta as his successor.

But analysts say the President has strategically placed Uhuru at a vantage position to take over the central Kenya mantle once he retires in 2012.

Yesterday Tony Gachoka, Simama's spokesman, said they would not allow anyone to hijack their function.

"Simama Kenya is going to Bingaman to launch our National Campaign for Generational Change in the leadership of Kenya come 2012. No amount of threats or doomsayers will deter us from doing so," stated Gachoka.

"All our supporters will be heading to Bungoma on that day. We are going there to show solidarity with Wamalwa and from then onwards we shall stand side by side each other all the way to 2012," Kutuny said.

He said that plans were underway to ensure as many MP as possible from the Ruto camp attend the function to show their support.

Kutuny said they supported Ruto's presidential bid but will be in Bungoma to support Wamalwa before the two negotiate on whom to support in 2012.

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"Wamalwa is a good man, we are looking forward to working with him and so I will be very much willing to be in Bungoma on that day," Konoin MP Dr Julius Kones said.

However Kimilili MP Dr Eseli Simiyu warned Wamalwa to tread carefully.

"Wamalwa he is a young man but what befell Elijah Mwangale and recently Dr Mukhisa Kituyi is squarely coming to him. He is finished," Eseli said.

"This is a deliberate attempt by some people from Central Province to come and undermine the local leadership. We want to say to them, they can come, but they must know they are strange guests," Eseli said.

All MPs from Western Kenya have agreed to give the rally a wide berth, according to him.

Source:allafrica.com/

Kenyan courts on legal front line in battle to stop Somali pirates

Squeezed into the wood-panelled dock, the nine young men wilted in the tropical heat. Overhead a single ceiling fan battled against the crushing coastal humidity that left judge, lawyers, accused and witness sweating in the shabby Kenyan courtroom.

As the suited lawyers for the prosecution and defence parried legalistic blows, a translator changed each half-sentence from English to Somali for the accused men, while Judge Rose Makungu wrote down every word by hand. These sluggish proceedings are the front end of the global fight against piracy.

When suspected pirates are captured by some of the dozens of international warships that patrol the Gulf of Aden and seas off Somalia daily, they are brought to Mombasa to be tried in a Kenyan court.

Agreements signed between Kenya and Britain, the United States and the European Union over the past 12 months, permit the transfers of prisoners, with 107 on trial in 11 cases. A further ten were convicted in 2006 and given seven-year sentences, although the law allows life terms. After Tuesday’s hearing, Oruko Nyarwinda, a smooth Mombasa-based lawyer with matching tie and handkerchief, told The Times that his nine clients were innocent. “These guys had a speedboat with two motors because it bears passengers crossing from Yemen to Somalia. The reason they were carrying a gun is because that place is risky,” he said.

The gun in question, a weather-worn AK47 rifle, lay on the courtroom floor, next to the witness box where David Georgios, the Romanian captain of the 21,000-tonne cargo ship MV Maria K, was giving evidence.

Mr Georgios said that on May 22, nine Somali pirates in a light-blue skiff bore down on the vessel, armed with a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher and assault rifles. He told the court that he heard the whoosh of a rocket fired at his ship. He picked out one of the suspects, a slim gap-toothed man with a pointed goatee beard, as being the one wielding the RPG.

The pirate attack was foiled by Mr Georgios’s evasive manoeuvres, swinging the 175m (575ft) vessel from port to starboard, buying time until the arrival of a helicopter from the nearby Italian frigate Maestrale. Italian Marines say that the suspects threw most of their weapons overboard before being apprehended, but at an August hearing one of the alleged pirates, Said Abdalah Haji, said that he and his friends were attacked by the Italian Navy and abducted to Kenya.

The court hearings reveal how difficult it is to prosecute gangs suspected of piracy. The trickiness of securing a conviction is why so many suspects are simply disarmed and sent back to Somalia, prompting consternation and calls for tougher action. But RearAdmiral Peter Hudson, commander of the EU anti-piracy fleet, has little time for such criticisms. “The rules of engagement are fine,” he told The Times. “The issue is that when I detain a mother ship in the middle of the ocean how do I get those pirates into a court of law?

“My aircraft has flown over it, I’ve seen skiffs, fuel, ladders, 15 pirates and no fishing gear, so it’s not out there for a Sunday afternoon sail [but] they haven’t committed an act of piracy.”

The difficulty of proving conspiracy to commit piracy in a court meant that unless the pirates were caught actually engaged in piracy, there was little chance of a conviction. It was “intensely frustrating”. The EU has sent 75 suspects to trial in Kenya, on what Admiral Hudson called “direct linkages ... I could have trebled or quadrupled that if we could prosecute for conspiracy”. All are held at the 50-year old Shimo La Tewa prison where 2,000 inmates are incarcerated, just up the road from Mombasa’s famous beach resorts.

Wanini Kireri, the officer in charge, called the pirates “a blessing in disguise” because as part of the deal by which Kenya tries pirate suspects, the judiciary and prison system is getting a minor upgrade. About $7 million (£4 million) in funding is being provided to support piracy prosecutions in Kenya and other courts in the region, notably in the Seychelles. As part of that, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has provided mattresses and blankets, a new kitchen and a better sewerage system. The UN body has also provided support to the courts and lawyers.Mr Nyarwinda, who said he was providing his services without charge, criticised what he called a “lopsided” approach that he said stacked the odds against the suspects, with most funding going to prosecutors and magistrates.

Source:timesonline.co.uk/