Miguna Miguna: Why I hit Raila below the belt

[Ab-Titchaz]

Miguna Miguna: Why I hit Raila below the belt

Mr Miguna Miguna. He dramatically fell out with his boss Raila Odinga and wrote a sensational book, which the former PM claimed was sponsored by the National Intelligence Service to hurt him. FILE | AFRICA REVIEW

[h=3]In Summary
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• This is one region whose leaders pride themselves as having delivered the return of multi-partyism, but they have not embraced it themselves. Look, for example, at the Kikuyus who supported him, they are going about their businesses normally.
• I got a lot of support from city residents especially from the young people after my book was launched, but I was going to run against billionaires whose source of money you don’t know.

He is probably the most cantankerous Kenyan alive. And while his critics see the rough-edged Miguna Miguna as an arrogant bully with a bloated sense of self-importance, his supporters think he is a brilliant lawyer fighting for the national good.


His expansive house, which sits on a three-quarter-acre plot in Runda depicts the man’s fat appetite. He stays here alone. And he won’t entertain the Nyumba Kumi intrusion. With the large number of books there, you can easily convert it into a library for your local town.


Mr Miguna dramatically fell out with his boss Raila Odinga and wrote a sensational book, which the former PM claimed was sponsored by the National Intelligence Service to hurt him. Nonsense, says Miguna.

The abrasive Canada-trained lawyer is excited that Odinga lost the March election. But he has no kind words for President Kenyatta either, and thinks the Jubilee government is clueless on the International Criminal Court, security and foreign policy.

What makes him so abrasive?


“I am the lastborn and I breastfed until I was in Standard One. Coming after five sisters made me defensive,” he told us.

Q: How do you stay alone in this massive house? Don’t you feel lonely?

A: No, my friend. A man who has been in exile and detention does not feel lonely. I am okay. I spirited my family away to safety in Canada as those criminals could have done anything to them. But I had to come back because ODM was spreading propaganda that I had fled the country. I returned just to show I had not run away.

Q: What is the root of your love for the written word?

A: It is difficult to say the genesis of my passion for books, but since my school days, I have loved books and perhaps it’s reinforcement from my mother, who respected education and insisted that I get one, despite being illiterate herself. I was very aggressive right from my primary school, and this also played a role, I was always eager to learn.

Q: Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya and Kidneys for the King are massive books. Where do you draw the energy to write such volumes within a short time?

A: Everybody has energy and can write, but in my case, it’s a question of priority and passion. As early as primary school, I learnt to keep a diary of everything that happens around me and this way, I can always reproduce all events and experiences, I do this to date.

Q: What body of knowledge most fascinates you?

A: I am what you can call an eclectic reader. I am a disciplined reader, but I don’t read one form of literature — I read everything that deals with the human condition. Recently, I have been reading a lot of memoirs and biographies and books dealing with political strategy and struggle. Of course, I also read law to earn a living.

Q: Which literature has made a lasting impression on you?

A: Grapes of Wrath by Bhabani Bhattacharya, Mwalimu D.O. Misiani’s music, a very practical commentary on social ills and issues. During the repressive Kanu regime, he had a metaphoric name for all our oppressors. I also found Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s I Will Marry When I want very awakening. Also Matigari and Barrel of the Pen, then books on and by Marcus Garvey and Malcom X.

Q: What are you reading now?

A: The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin and From Third World First by Lee Kuan Yew.

Q: Your critics accuse you of being Rasputin, the “evil genius” who always bites the finger that feeds him.

A: How would I survive if I did that? To survive in North America as an African and a black man with no godfather, start a law firm and stay afloat for more than 10 years, is success that one cannot achieve if he bites the finger that feeds him.

I am a successful man; I live in Runda, for God’s sake. Failures don’t live here and I don’t live here because of Raila, neither do I live here on mortgage or courtesy of the National Intelligence Service. Do you see auctioneers out there waiting to pounce on me?
Q: Some dismiss you as a big mouthed charlatan.

A: Even if they think I am just barking, I have the right to bark — these are some of the rights enshrined in the Constitution. But I wish they could listen to the substance of what I say because most of the time, I have been proven right. When Jaramogi Oginga Odinga wrote Not Yet Uhuru, he was not celebrated, he was instead vilified. What about now?

Q: So this talk that you were used by Jubilee to bring down Raila, that your book projects were bankrolled by the state has no truth?

A: That is nonsense. I was not paid to write the book. Writing a book is a lawful exercise and whoever is aggrieved with it should go to court.

Q: Talking of books, what is your take on Raila Odinga’s The Flame of Freedom?

A: The book is just a catalogue of events in a way that looks like a historical treatise. Everything in the book you can find in the old newspapers. Also, there are glaring falsehoods in it. The first time anybody heard of Raila Odinga was after the attempted coup of 1982. He should have told us how his political consciousness came about and shed light on his alleged involvement in the coup. He also lies about his detention. There is no detention in Kenya where inmates are given gardens to grow vegetables and flowers — here you just dig as a group. He is conveniently distorting history in this book.

Q: Ahead of the March 4 General Election, you wanted Uhuru to thrash Raila. Do you sleep easy now that he was defeated?

A: Yes he was thrashed. The defeat serves him right. Because of the kind of systems and structures we have, I advised Raila that he should oppose the quest to have the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission embrace technology. I knew that these things could be easily hacked. One can even sit in Beijing and hack it. I am not saying elections were rigged, but even if they were it serves him right.

Q: Do you sometimes regret that perhaps you have been a bit too hard on Mr Odinga?

A: How was I supposed to hit back after he kicked me in the groin? I was hitting at him to stay alive. He suspended me in the media when he had sent me to represent him in a strategy meeting the way Moi used to do. He thought I would turn the other cheek like James Orengo and the others? I don’t do that. In so doing, he demonstrated that he did not care about my reputation, my family; I had to take him head on as he had effectively become an enemy.

Q: How would you rate the performance of the Jubilee government?

A: If Uhuru was surrounded by intellectuals, he would not be messing up like they’re doing over the ICC issue. Their statements at the inauguration were very inspiring but they have now allowed the ICC to divert their attention and it has swept them away completely, particularly the President. For instance, the State Law Office grinds to a halt each time trips are made to The Hague or when they travel. Their foreign policy is completely wrong; you cannot fight the West and win. You don’t blackmail your way to success in international politics, you explain yourself intelligently, diplomatically and coherently.

The President’s failure to institute a judicial commission of inquiry into the Westgate attack despite an earlier promise also reflects badly on him; it is true that the military looted the damn place.
Q: What is your view of the Nyumba Kumi initiative?

That thing is a violation of our fundamental rights, particularly the Bill of Rights on freedom of association. Who told the President that this is the solution to insecurity? You know there are certain things which Raila says, and he may not say them as I would have said, but he is right on this. It is like prescribing medication before diagnosis. You cannot dictate to me the people I talk to. What if I say I don’t want to see my nine neighbours?

Q: At some point you said you had materials which could haul more people to the ICC.

A: I was speaking in response to those who were crying about what I had revealed. What I said was that there are so many things which, if I were to write about, would be really embarrassing for some of these people and that’s why Raila didn’t sue me for what I wrote. At times, it is just good to count your losses and go and that’s what he did. You have heard, for example, reports that TNA funds were misappropriated but you have not seen anybody being sacked or being taken to court. You know you might sack somebody thinking that he is just a driver, but the things he could say could bring everybody down. Look at the current scandal involving former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch.

Q: Have you stepped foot in Ahero since they burnt your effigy?

A: I have gone there but surreptitiously. You know a lot of people there are still very mad at me. In fact, there is now a weed which is destroying crops in South Nyanza. They have called it by my name. Raila has never come out to calm these people.
Q: Have you made peace with them?

A: This is one region whose leaders pride themselves as having delivered the return of multi-partyism, but they have not embraced it themselves. Look, for example, at the Kikuyus who supported him, they are going about their businesses normally. See the victims’ lawyer at the ICC, Wilfred Nderitu; he walks about town without coming into harm’s way.

Q: So which way for Nyanza politics?

A: Nyanza’s sickness is hero worshipping and because of that, they are among some of the poorest people in this country. The situation calls for a change of attitude so that one is not elected because they have been anointed by Raila but because they are their own women and men. Somebody like Raila has been in a leadership position for 20 years, most of them as a minister and Prime Minister. But he has nothing for his people despite the capability and massive connections beyond the borders. If he had done something for Nyanza and said look: ‘this is what I can do for the rest of the country,’ it might have helped him.

Q: What mischief are you up to? Any more exposes?

A: I am currently writing, but it does not have to be about Raila. But again, there are a lot of things I could still write about him but because of self-restraint, I choose not to. There are things which, if I were to write them, would be too shameful for him.

Q: You wanted to be governor of Nairobi, but did not make it to the ballot. Were you broke, unpopular or both?

A: Finances — that is the truth. I got a lot of support from city residents especially from the young people after my book was launched, but I was going to run against billionaires whose source of money you don’t know. I also realised that it was going to be a big risk on my life given the hostile reaction after my book launch in certain quarters. What many people don’t know about me is that I am a pragmatic person. I am realistic. Even before I sue I calculate properly. I don’t sue for sport.

Q: What next for Miguna Miguna?

A: Well, I am living. I’m not begging, I am not on my knee for a job. I’m licensed to practice law so when a client comes I represent them. I am also a draftsman and when I get a writing engagement I do it. I do a lot of that in this town for lawyers. But I would be lying to you if I told you that I am thriving.

Q: Would you accept a job from Uhuru?

A: Why not? Although I think people might not hire me because they know when push comes to shove, I would side with the country. And even if he gave me a job, Uhuru would not be doing it as Uhuru, but as the President, the representative of the people.

Miguna: Why I hit Raila below the belt - Politics - nation.co.ke

 

[Ab-Titchaz]

Miguna Miguna has reacted angrily by saying the above recorded/published interview in the Daily Nation by Julius Sigei
is a 'highly mangled and distorted version of the truth'. Here is what he claims is the true version word for word.

Compare and contrast:

CONVERSATION WITH MIGUNA MIGUNA

By Julius Sigei

Q: How do you stay alone in this massive house? Don't you feel lonely?

A: No, my friend. A man who has been in detention without trial and exile can not feel lonely my friend. In any event, what options do I have?As you recall, my family was compelled to stay in relative safety in Canada as Raila Odinga's goons had declared me a persona non grata because I had published a book they did not like. My wife and children were sitting ducks. They had become too vulnerable to stay in Kenya. But I had to come back because ODM's and Mr. Odinga's sycophants were spreading vile propaganda that I had fled the country. Obviously I had not. It was important that I exposed the falsehoods being spread against me. And as you know, they went into hiding as soon as I returned. The threats about law suits disappeared as soon as I arrived. But I miss my family very much, as you can imagine.

Q: You are a sharp-tongued English speaker and a prolific author whose newspaper column was rated as one of the top two favourites. What is the root of your love for the written word?

A: It is difficult to say the genesis of my passion for books but since my school days I have loved books. Perhaps it's because my mother whom I respected tremendously consistently encouraged me to pursue learning and education. Despite the fact that she did not know how to read or write, she had insisted that I had to get as much education as my little head could permit. I am the last born in a large family. I breastfed until I was in standard one. Coming after an older brother and five sisters automatically meant that I had to learn to fend after myself, especially when my mother was not around. I was very competitive right from my primary school. I always loved those final school celebrations when the first three pupils would be given presents for performing well. I loved being among the top three in class. And you couldn't sustain that without doing the extra work; by reading more than most of your fellow pupils. In addition, I have always been intrigued by ideas. I'm naturally a reflective, introspective and analytical person. But I later also developed love for writing. And as any writer will tell you, the skill only becomes better and more refined with time, extensive thinking, reading and solitude.

Q:Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya and Kidneys for the King are massive books. Where do you draw the energy to write such volumes within a short time?

A: Everybody has energy and time. We all can write small or large volumes if we prioritise our lives. In my case it's always been a question of priority, hard work and passion. These three make almost everything possible -and, of course, consistency. One cannot be a successful writer if one does not read widely and write consistently. As early as when I was in primary school, I learnt to keep a diary of most important things that happen around me. This way, I can always analyse or recount important events and experiences I have encountered. Coupled with my legal training, I have found writing articles and books as invaluable means of engaging with the material circumstances around me.

Q: What body of knowledge most fascinates you?

A: I am what you can call an eclectic and disciplined reader. I don't read one type of literature-I read everything that deals with the human condition; whether history, literature, political science, law - whatever. Recently, I have been reading a lot of memoirs,biographies and books on political strategy and struggle. Of course, I also read law to earn a living.

Q: Which literature has made a lasting impression on you?

A: In my formative years, when I was still groping for ideological clarity and philosophical balance and rootedness (before I met Marx, Lenin, Che Guevara, Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara and others), I read and re-read the following books: John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath;Bhabani Bhattacharya's So Many Hungers; John Ruganda's The Floods; Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks; Paulo Freire's The Pedagogy of the Oppressed; Alex Haley's The Autobiography of Malcolm X; George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984; Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals; William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner; Sembene Ousmane's God's Bits of Wood; Frederick Douglass' My Bondage and My Freedom; John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me; Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice; George Jackson's Soledad Brother and Blood in My Eye; Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's I Will Marry When I Want, Matigari; Barrel of a Pen and Decolonizing the Mind; Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa; D.M. Zwelonke's Robben Island; Assata Shakur's Assata: An Autobiography; Cheche Kenya's InDependent Kenya; and James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, Nobody Knows My Name and Notes of a Native Son; Rupert Lewis' Marcus Garvey;and Malcolm X's By Any Means Necessary.

When I joined the University of Nairobi in September 1986, I found Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, especially a chapter called, "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness", and Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, as compulsory reading to all first year students in humanities and social sciences. It did not matter what your majors were. I believe that was very instrumental in creating socio-political consciousness and rootedness in young students. Regrettably and tragically, they no longer do that at our local universities.

Closer to home, I have always been fascinated by Mwalimu D.O Misiani's music poetry and socio-political commentaries. If there is one person who helped me become socially and politically conscious, it must have been Mwalimu D.O Misiani's music, most of which were very incisive and practical commentaries on social ills, the struggle against injustice and the uncanny ability to speak Truth to power. During the repressive Kanu regime, Mwalimu D.O. Misiani was like a one man army against totalitarianism. He had a metaphors and parables for all our oppressors.

Along the way, I also discovered the marvelous Ayi Kwei Armah, M.G. Vassanji, Ben Okri and Rohinton Mistry.

Q: What are you reading now?

A: Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine:Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court and Lee Kuan Yew's From Third World To First.

Q: Are you Grigori Rasputin, the "evil genius" who always bites the finger that feeds him?

A: How would I have survived and succeeded to get an education, became a lawyer in a foreign land where Africans are less than one per cent of the population and practiced law for more than eighteen years if I had done that? That's a lie being peddled by desperate people. To survive in North America as an African and a black man for that matter who had no godfather; to have started a law firm and prospered – yes that's what I did - for more than 10 years there, required much more than what my enemies would want to acknowledge. I not only had a successful law firm and built my own home in Ontario; my wife and I were also raising a vibrant young family before we relocated to Kenya. And to rise to the level of a senior adviser to the Prime Minister entailed not just having academic and professional competencies; it also implied both emotional and psychological maturity. Remember that I grew up an orphan. My father died before I was born. My mother was a peasant who used her bare hands to dig her gardens. These are not successes one would have achieved if one bit the fingers of those that fed him.By all accounts, I am a successful man. I live in Runda for God's sake. If I bit the hands of those who fed me I would have been a failure and I would not live here. I don't live here because of Raila Odinga; neither do I live here on mortgage or courtesy of corruption or funding by some ubiquitous agency like Odinga would like people to believe. I built my house before I returned to Kenya in 2007! Do you see auctioneers out there waiting to pounce on me?

Secondly, people like Jakoyo Midiwo managed to go abroad for further education courtesy of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. He lived in New York for more than ten years driving taxis. He later returned to Kenya without anything t show for having lived in the US for more than a decade. With his blood relationship to the Odingas, he would be a total failure. Yet he behaves as if he is Einstein!

Third, there is no one in Kenya who bites the hands that feed him more than Raila Odinga. Kenyans must remember his dramatic fallout with Michael Wamalwa Kijana; how the cooperation and merge between his NDP and Kanu ended up; how his coalition with Mwai Kibaki ended in 2002-2005; how rocky the coalition he had with Kibaki after the 2007 elections were; and how his relationship with Najib Balala, Musalia Mudavadi and William Ruto ended most recently. I can go on. Yet, no one has ever suggested that because of his dubious record, Mr. Odinga does not deserve to be gainfully employed or to continue pursuing his ambition of becoming president one day. For me, I've only disagreed with Raila.

Why then the big adjectives being hurled at me? Do you see the double standards? In other words, your question assumes that Raila can disagree with everyone and it is OK but Miguna cannot disagree with one man called Raila Odinga. Why is that fair and reasonable?

Q: Some dismiss you as a big mouthed charlatan.

A: Who are those people? Why are they saying that only after my fall-out with Mr. Odinga? Why didn't they say that before? Even if they think I am just barking, I have the right to bark - these are some of the rights enshrined in the Constitution (hahaha!) But I wish they could listen to the substance of what I say because most of the time I have been proven right. When Jaramogi Oginga Odinga wrote Not Yet Uhuru barely a year after falling out with Mzee Kenyatta; was he celebrated? Wasn't he vilified? What about now? Are they still vilifying him? How about Socrates? Wasn't he forced to drink poison because the Athenians refused to accept the truth? Do you see any parallels? Throughout history, those telling the truth; those able to foresee the future are always cast aside or sacrificed. It has never transformed those prophets into villains.

Q: So this talk that you were used by Jubilee to bring down Raila, that your book projects were bank-rolled by the state has not truth?

A: That is utter nonsense. I was not paid a dime to write any book, or ever. Writing a book is a right and whoever is aggrieved with the exercise or product should go to court. Trying to defame me because I've written books one do not like is both primitive and intolerant. So who funded Raila's recent book?

Q: Talking of books what is your take on Raila Odinga's The Flame of Freedom?

A: I am a bit disappointed by it because the book is just a catalogue and mischaracterization of events in a way that resembles a historical text meant for primary or secondary school pupils. Nothing is analyzed closely. You can find most of the events narrated in the book in old newspapers.That is not what autobiographies should be. They are not simply catalogues of events. Readers deserved to see Raila's thoughts, reflections or involvements in important events such as the 1982 coup attempt; the NDP/Kanu cooperation and merge; what led to the Narc failure; the events surrounding the 2007 elections and the intricacies, decisions, successes or failures of the Grand Coalition Government; what happened to the KKV, Maize and other scandals; how he acquired the Kisumu Molasses Plant, et cetera. Readers deserve to know how Raila made certain decisions; what and who influenced them and why. Also, there are glaring falsehoods in it as well. Right from the outset in the Prologue, he cleverly claims that he launched his presidential candidature within ODM in May 2007 when we all know that at that time he was in ODM-K. Mugambi Imanyara only gave him ODM much later, in August 2007! Remember that the first time anybody heard of Raila Odinga was after the attempted coup of 1982. So, why hasn't he told us how his political consciousness came about?How or why he was involved in the coup? He claims that he is withholding information because he fears the reaction would be ugly. What kind of a leader is he if he cannot tell the truth? He lies about his detention; there is no detention in Kenya where inmates are given gardens to grow vegetables and flowers!He has also suppressed or tried to undermine other people's contributions to his own past successes in politics. For instance, he refuses to acknowledge significant contributions of Rateng' Oginga Ogego before, during and after the NDP/Kanu merger. Instead he props up names like Naikuni who wasn't there and made no contributions one way or the other. Contributions of Prof. Larry Gumbe, Prof. Edward Oyugi, Oduor Ong'wen and I are completely omitted. Surprisingly, he doesn't even acknowledge Salim Lone in the book! It's all about him and his artificial heroism. He wants to be worshipped. After all, he is The Flame of Kenya's Freedom; isn't he? Grotesque! He is conveniently distorting history in this book.

Look at the way he has messed up Nyanza politics. Twenty years in leadership and yet there is no multi-party democracy in Luo Nyanza. There has never been a free, fair and transparent party nomination in Nyanza in any party Raila has led. Why did he rig out most dynamic young leaders like William Oduol? Is it because he is planning a succession scheme for his daughter Rosemary Akeyo?

Why didn't he write about this ugly legacy he is leaving behind? To him, the end always justifies the means. A poor Machiavellian if you asked me.

Q: Ahead of the March 4 General Election You wanted Uhuru to thrash Raila. Do you sleep easy now that he was defeated?

A: Yes, very soundly. Wasn't he thrashed like I predicted?The defeat serves him right. Because of the kind of systems, and structures, institutions and individuals managing those systems, I had advised Raila that he should oppose the quest to have the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission embrace the use of technology during elections. That was as early as five years ago. I knew that these things could be easily manipulated or hacked. One can even sit in Beijing and hack them.In Canada, which is a developed country, they still use manual voting. Why? Because it is much easier to prevent electoral fraud through a manual system. All you need are honest electoral officials and agents. But they had dismissed me as being against technology… I also warned them about allowing Isack Hassan to lead the electoral commission going into the last elections. In addition, I warned him against allowing the status quo to prevail in the civil service, the police, the intelligence service and the military years before the 2013 elections. More significantly, I stood firm against the presidential system and warned him of being deluded that he would automatically become president therefore he should allow excessive executive powers to be vested in the Presidency. But Raila became upset with me. He thought, falsely, that since he was a ‘shoe-in' for the presidency, he needed all those imperial powers. I had advised that we should make a constitution as if his worst enemy would become president. Raila, Orengo, Nyong'o, Otieno Kajwang', Jakoyo– name the Charlatans – did not listen. The rest, as they say, is now history. I am not saying elections were rigged, but even if they were, it serves him right.

Q: Do you sometimes regret that perhaps you were a bit too hard on Mr. Odinga in your books and in your public statements?

A: How was I supposed to hit him after he kicked me in the groin? I was hitting at him to stay alive. He suspended me through the media when he had sent me to represent him in a strategy meeting the way Moi used to do. There was no due process. There were no complainants. Not even a kangaroo tribunal at which I could be advised of the allegations against me and I could respond. He thought I would turn the other cheek like James Orengo, Nyong'o and the others are doing? I don't do that. In so doing, he demonstrated that he did not care about my my rights, reputation, my family, my livelihood. I had to take him head on as he had effectively become and enemy. Why? Because he and his cronies thought that I had become too influential and might prevent them from implementing a choreographed succession in Luo Nyanza. The same NIS he later blamed had also made him believe that if he got rid of me, he would get the support of the system, some of the leading thieves and looters in Kenya. Well, you now know what happened; don't you?

Q: How would you rate the performance of the Jubilee government?

A: I think they have tried to do a lot of things right. For instance, their inauguration speeches were very inspiring. Their one-stop-shop for the most basic services like identity, travel documents and driver's license is quite good. But they have been side-swiped by the West-Gate, the labour unrests and the ICC trials. I'm not sure they are getting the benefit of the best, most rigorous, most professional and neutral advice. In my opinion, their international attitude and strategies especially on the ICC process, has been profoundly misadvised. Hurling abuse at the international community and some of our traditional friends is most unfortunate. Although it's very difficult to rate them as yet – after all, they have only been in power for nine months and because there are too many things happening at once – I still believe that they should mitigate their blunders. In my considered view, the controversial media and NGO bills were not necessary, nor were they a priority. These are very serious mistakes. Their statements at inauguration were very inspiring but they have now allowed the ICC to divert their attention and it has swept them completely, particularly the president. For instance many state institutions literally grind to a halt each time trips are made to The Hague, to New York, to Addis Ababa, or to wherever they often go to lobby in order to deal with the ICC. In my view, the Jubilee foreign policy – if that's what it is - is completely wrong; you cannot fight the West and win in this day and age. They cannot subdue the West through rhetoric and propaganda. You don't blackmail your way to success in international politics; you explain yourself intelligently, diplomatically and coherently. But that's not what they have been doing. Don't send people to negotiate for you at international fora if they have no intellectual heft, no traction and respect in the international sphere. Always negotiate through logic and reason. Shouting, threats, intimidation and blackmail aren't solutions to our national, regional or international problems.

We must always remember and remind them of this fact. Whatever they see as success in the recent ASP meeting isn't really substantive in my respectful opinion.

The president's failure to institute a judicial commission of inquiry into the Westgate attack despite an earlier promise also impacts badly on the government; it is true that the military looted the damn place.

Q: Talking of Westgate, what is your view of the The Nyumba Kumi initiative?

A: I don't like the Nyumba Kumi project. First, it is akin to prescribing and dispensing medicine before diagnosing the ailment. Who did the research and established that we need Nyumba Kumi? When was the research done? We must be very careful with knee-jerk reactions to very fundamental and serious issues. What the Government should have done, firstly, was to institute the judicial commission of inquiry. I emphasize the word judicial because we don't want another partisan political commission. It is this judicial commission of inquiry that would identify failures, gaps and ‘reasons' for the increasing insecurity problems all over the country. Solutions would follow as a matter of course.Nyumba Kumi is a violation of our fundamental rights, particularly the Bill of Rights. We have a right to associate with whomsoever we choose voluntarily. Who told them that that is the solution to insecurity?

You know there are certain things which Raila says, and he may not say them as I would have said, but he is right on this Nyumba Kumi thing. You cannot dictate to me the people I talk to or associate with. What if I say I don't want to see those ten neighbours? Would you arrest and charge me? That would be totalitarian and I would never accept that. Not now, not ever!

Q: At some point you came out guns blazing saying that you had earth-shaking information on the ICC which could help the OTP at the ICC, then you went silent. What went wrong?

A: No, No, I didn't say that. I was speaking in response to those who were crying about what I had revealed. What I said was that there are so many things which if I were to write about in my books would be really embarrassing for some of those people hurling abuse at me. In fact, that's why Raila didn't sue me.He knows that if he does, I would be forced to reveal some of the things I have not disclosed and that would be the end of him politically. At times it is just good to count your losses and move on and that's what he did. Of course, he and his sycophants called me names.Raila knows that he is a nepotist and that he presided over a looting spree at the Office of the Prime Minister. Ask him to reveal full details of the KKV and the Maize scandals as starters before we get to the ICC issue. You have heard, for example audit queries that the TNA funds were misappropriated but you have not seen anybody being sacked or being taken to court. You know you might sack somebody thinking that he is just a driver, but the things he could reveal in court under oath could bring everybody down. Look at the current scandal involving former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch.

Q: So which way the ICC?

A: Both the President and his Deputy are most likely going to be acquitted. Mr. Ruto most certainly from the little evidence we have all seen broadcast in the media. But I can infer on the quality of the evidence that the ICC Prosecutor seem to have collected based on what we have seen so far in the case against Mr. Ruto and Mr. Sang. I can give you that for free. My advice to both is to cooperate fully with the ICC. Attend the trials. Confront the evidence against you head-on. The whole ICC system was established to deal with impunity of the most powerful, the wealthy and most influential. It was not introduced for municipal crimes and petty criminals. The world will therefore not allow anything to succeed that might destroy the ICC, especially because of one individual even if that is the president of Kenya -never. Moreover, the ICC is good for Africa because for more than 50 years, millions of ordinary Africans have suffered serious atrocities in the hands of their own leaders-tens of millions have been butchered in the DRC-Congo alone. What the President must do now is to pay attention to his defence team and to listen only to the most neutral, professional, and rigorous advice. He cannot afford to listen to sycophants if he wants to get an absolute acquittal.So far, Mr. Ruto is doing a commendable job at the ICC.

Q: Have you stepped in Ahero since they burnt your effigy?

A: I have gone there surreptitiously. You know a lot of people in Luo Nyanza are still very unhappy with me. When Mr. Odinga encouraged them to demonstrate against me, to burn my effigy and to bury a mock coffin, it was like permission for his vigilantes to harm or kill me. Remember Rushdie? They went as far as naming a weed which is destroying crops in Luo Nyanza "Miguna Miguna". That's chilling! This is dehumanizing-creating an ogre which they can then do anything to. Raila has never come out to say that I have the right to speak and write books without being molested.Look, for example at members of the Kikuyu community who supported Raila or who have been critical of Kibaki or Uhuru Kenyatta; people like John Githongo, Maina Kiai, Njeri Kabeberi and the rest, no one has attacked them and burnt their effigies in Central Province. See the victims' lawyer at the ICC, Wilfred Nderitu: he walks around town without coming into harm's way. Why should I be treated differently? The answer is: Because unlike Mr. Kibaki or Mr. Kenyatta, Mr. Odinga is totalitarian!

Q: Have you made peace with them?

A: I've never been at war with them. But regarding those who want to harm me, how do you make peace with people you don't know? These are people who were paid by local politicians to do this and if I meet them today they might not even have a good reason why they were doing it. You see if you give each one of them Sh200 even now, they might demonstrate for you or against anyone. Luo Nyanza is one region whose leaders pride themselves as having made significant contributions towards the return of multi-partysm, but they have not embraced it themselves.The question is why!

Q: So which way for Nyanza politics?

A: Nyanza's main problem is poor, visionless leadership characterized by blind hero worshiping and because of that, they are among some of the poorest people in this country. So many bright children cannot go to secondary school and university school due to lack of fees. The result is unmanageable unemployment and poverty levels. Leaders who could have offered alternatives to this conundrum have failed to do so, as if by design. Look at James Orengo and Anyang Nyong'o-they have been reduced to sycophants. The situation calls for a change of attitude so that one is not elected because of the depth or size of their pockets or the shrillness of their sycophancy, but because of what they have to offer: their commitment, integrity, competence and vision; not because they have been anointed by Raila but because they are women and men of integrity. I can tell you that until or unless we rid ourselves of those leeches they call leaders, the situation will become dangerous. Dangerous because only a violent revolution will be a viable option.

Somebody like Raila has been in leadership position for 20 years, most of it as either a senior cabinet minister or prime minister. But he has done nothing for his people despite the massive human and material resources he has both locally and internationally. He has started no scholarships fund for bright but poor students; no foundations or charities to help in poverty alleviation; no development projects touching on fish, sugar cane and maize production. Nothing; just useless populism and negative politics. Noise instead of vision. Looting instead of productivity! If he had done something for Nyanza and said look: ‘this is what I can do for the rest of the country, it would have served him very well in the past elections.

Q: What mischief are you up to? Any more expose?

A: I am always observing, analyzing and writing. But whether what I'm writing will be published in book form is indeterminate. Definitely not about Mr. Odinga, even though there are a lot of things I could still write about him.

Q: Your friend Onyango Oloo was recently forced to put up a story saying you were as fit as a fiddle?

A: ODM people had written and widely published in the Internet that I was dying of throat cancer; that I had allegedly been seen on numerous occasions visiting the cancer section at The Nairobi Hospital and that I was seen at the South African Embassy seeking a visa to go for medical treatment in South Africa. It's amazing how ill-willed, malicious and vindictive some of the Raila Odinga sycophants can be. It was sickening to see people celebrating the prospect, even if only in their fertile imaginations, that I was dying. Even if I was ill (thank God I'm not), don't I have the same privacy rights as everyone else? After all, I'm a private citizen. I hold no public office. So, why the constant vile intrusions into my privacy? I can't rule out the fact that they could have been planning something criminal, as I believe they must always have been planning. Oloo had been with me the day before some of these vile publications started circulating and he could not understand where they were coming from. But you know anybody can fall sick anytime. So, he called me to be sure that what he had read was just pure manure. He just wanted to reassure my friends, supporters and others that I was not ill. He had my permission to do that.

Q: You wanted to be governor for Nairobi, but did not make it to the ballot. Were you broke, unpopular or both?

A: There is always time for everything. Having considered everything, I determined that I did not have adequate financial wherewithal to conduct a successful campaign, in view of the dirty money that was arrayed against me. I got a lot of support from city residents especially from the young people after my book was launched, but I was going to run against billionaires whose source of money you don't know. I also realised that it was going to big a security risk for me given the hostility Raila had generated because of my book. What many people don't appreciate about me is that I am a careful and pragmatic person. I am realistic. Before I do anything, I calculate properly. Even when I sue, I only do it having carefully weighed all the factors; I don't sue for sport.

Q: What next for Miguna Miguna?

A: Well, am alive and living. I'm not begging. I'm not on my knees for anything. I'm licensed to practice law in Kenya and in Canada. I am also a strategist, a policy analyst and a drafter. So, I'm open and available for any opportunity that comes my way.

Q: Would you accept a job from Uhuru Kenyatta?

A: Why not?I'm a Kenyan. I have skills and competencies that this country needs. When or if that opportunity avails itself, I'll, like any other Kenyan, embrace it as a chance to serve my fellow countrymen and women with dedication, to the best of my ability. If Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta offered me a job, it would not be as Uhuru Kenyatta, but as the President of the Republic of Kenya; the duly elected president of the people.But more importantly, I'm just happy that I'm free and healthy.

​

 

[Nyani Ngabu]

Too vengeful for me to take him seriously. If anything, he's just an attention heaux.

 

[simplemind]

You reap what you sow. Miguna is roughed up in Mombasa m.youtube.com/watch?v=gDQ4D4ZNpOY&desktop_uri=/watch?v=gDQ4D4ZNpOY

 

[Kabaridi]

raila's ego is jerked up enough. I do not think he would permit any corrections/consultations within cord hence the fall out with many within the political circles