As received>>>>>THERE was a nationwide live broadcast on TV at 8.40pm by President Uhuru Kenyatta on what he claims was a decision he has taken on Lamu. Behind him stood NOT his ADC but the man his government arrested and vilified as perpetrator of the Lamu violence - County Governor Issa Timamy who was with other Lamu leaders at State House tonight. But a notable absentee was Timamys chair of the Lamu County Public Service Board, Hassan Haji, who was nabbed by CID in Upper Hill area as he headed to State House for the same meeting. His arrest was a reverse of the arrest of Timamy who had been called away from a State House meeting by the Lamu security committee and flew back home straight into the slammer. Hassans arrest was meant as an intimidating reminder to Timamy that his troubles with the law were not yet over, unless of course he tagged along with the Jubilee governments game plan for Lamu. That game plan is centred on the Lapsset project. It is very significant that todays meeting between Uhuru & Timamy & Co. took place after a Lapsset summit hosted by Uhuru and attended by Museveni, Kiir and Desalegni of Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia. In his brief address, Uhuru promised a raft of measures to resolve the thorny land issue which triggered last months violence that saw close to 100 killed in Lamu & Tana counties. He said he will continue with his discussions with the Lamu county leaders tomorrow. If I were in Timamys shoes, being painfully aware of the humiliation of spending five days in police cells on trumped up charges, I would have refused to sit down for any talks with Uhuru unless my chairman of the Public Service Board, Hassan Haji, was released and brought to join me at State House. Hassan Haji was deliberately arrested as an affront to the dignity of Timamy. In fact, it was meant to remind him of what the state did to him last June. So now Jubilee wants to try the carrot instead of the stick approach. They have been fumbling in the dark not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. They have been going round in circles, from pinning the blame on Alshabaab to Cord to Lamu politicians and land owners to ODM and to Kikuyu vs Luos. In the process, the only success they achieved was to create growing numbers of Muslim political enemies for Jubilee - a vote bloc that might make a difference in the 2017 polls. That is from Eastleighs 100,000 Somalis to 50,000 indigenous Walamus not to mention most of Mombasa county. What could be more telling an indictment of the Jubilee Government than the failure of Uhuru to host the annual Iftar breakfast at State House Mombasa; he had to host a failed one in Kakamega and another in Kwale which he skipped to avoid a snub. Jubilee should look around the world. It will realise that the stick never works. On the contrary, it deepens opposition. Look at Israeli atrocities against Palestinians. They have been trying to crush them for decades, but they have never crushed the spirit of Palestinian resistance. If anything, each generation of Palestinians is braver and bolder than the previous one. Time was when Palestinians used to run away at the sight of approaching Israeli troops. That cowardly generation was replaced by the Intifada generation of stone throwing youngsters who stood their ground and hurled stones at Israeli troops and tanks. They died like flies. A more bolder generation equipped with guns and grenades took their place. And they and those who succeeded them are the ones who are giving sleepless nights to Netanyahu & his generals. Now the Palestinians are fighting defensive battles., But one day a new tougher generation will emerge which will take the offensive to Israeli towns.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 09:22:05 +0000
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