Kenyan-Tanzanian
JF-Expert Member
- Nov 7, 2006
- 302
- 2
Zote mumejaribu kila hila na mbinu, mpendwa Rais Kibaki lakini wapi. Raila ashakolea kwa mioyo ya wengi. Rais Kibaki na PNU wacheni hofu nendeni retirement kwa amani jameni. Kila kuchao inabainika wazi WaKenya hawawataki. Sasa hebu angalia hii ripoti ya jana:
Source: http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143977248
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Kibakis bid to woo Muslims hits a snag
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By Athman Amran
President Kibakis efforts to woo Muslims to vote for him in next months General Election have been dealt a double blow.
While the National Muslim Leaders Forum (Namlef) is expected to officially launch its National Muslim Campaign Secretariat at Hurlingham in Nairobi ON Monday to co-ordinate support for ODM presidential candidate Mr Raila Odinga, the pro-Kibaki alliance of Muslims has ran into trouble. Some groups have withdrawn their support for the President.
Raila and Pentagon members are expected to attend the official launch of Namlefs National Campaign secretariat at Hurlingham.
Namlefs campaign secretariat offices have been operational for the past two months in Nairobi, Mombasa, Garissa, Isiolo, Machakos, Nyeri, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kakamega and Kisumu.
Sources, however, say that some pro-Kibaki Muslim leaders have opened a secretariat at the TSS Towers in Mombasa without the knowledge of other leaders, especially, the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) Coast boss, Sheikh Juma Ngao.
"Some Muslim politicians are cheating the President that he has Muslim support at the Coast. These leaders do not have the support of Muslims at the grassroots, especially through the madrassas and the mosques," Ngao says.
Disappointed over money
The pro-Kibaki Muslim team was disappointed when, last Tuesday, 2,200 Muslim leaders from all over the province received only Sh1,000 instead of the promised Sh5,000 after visiting President Kibaki at State House, Mombasa, to express their support for him.
"Every Muslim leader was to be given Sh5,000. How can a person who came all the way from Lamu, Tana River, Taita-Taveta and other far-flung areas get only Sh1,000 after all the trouble?" Ngao posed.
He alleges that after the meeting with the President and the dishing out of the money, the meeting organisers could not be reached .
He says that pro-Kibaki Muslim leaders in Mombasa, including himself, have been sidelined in the committee.
"We have not been given any responsibility. Im not aware of any campaign funds supposed to have been given out by the Kibaki team. I have not received any communication about the secretariat at TSS Towers," Ngao says.
He says he was involved in the proposal of a budget for the Muslims to campaign for Kibaki. He had proposed Sh1 million for each district in Coast from the Kibaki campaign team.
"Muslims have suspended campaigns for Kibaki until the officials solve this problem. We do not want to be led by politicians who are using religious leaders for their benefit," noted Ngao.
Supkems Organising Secretary, Mr Shariff Hussein, says he is not aware of the pro-Kibaki Mombasa secretariat. Supkem has always insisted that it is neutral politically but some of its officials like Secretary General Mr Adan Wachu and Ngao (Shirikisho Party of Kenya) have come out in full support for the re-election of Kibaki.
Hussein says Muslims have a democratic right to associate with any political party and presidential candidate. He, however, criticised the MoU Namlef signed with Raila on behalf of Muslims.
Namlef top officials said they settled on Raila after being angered by the Governments treatment of Muslims, especially the case of the 18 Kenyan Muslims allegedly hounded out of Kenya to Somalia, Ethiopia and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Sources say that Somalias interim President Mr Abdullahi Yusuf had declined to deal with the Kenyan Muslims handed over to him. Most of them had gone to Somalia to work as teachers in schools when the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) took control of Mogadishu and large sections of Somalia last year.
The Muslims had returned to Kenya to escape the war between ICU and the combined Ethiopian and Somali Interim Government forces. Somalias president allegedly handed over the Kenyan Muslims to Ethiopia, when he felt he could not handle them.
Namlef national officials had previously been operating from the Jamia Mosque offices but chose to move to avoid associating the mosque with its political activities.
"There are 70 constituency coordinators all over the country. In places where there are Muslim majority there is a coordinator for every constituency while in other areas one coordinator deals with several constituencies," Mr Said Athman, a member of Namlef National Executive Committee, says.
The secretariat aims at mobilising Muslims to vote for Raila. It will also be informing Muslims about the alleged Governments discrimination against Muslims.
Some Muslim volunteers have offered their services. A national coordinator to run the Hurlingham offices has been identified.
Athman says the secretariat is neither receiving money from ODM nor has it any corporate sponsor. He says Muslim individuals and some businessmen are its sponsors.
"We do not expect money from the ODM secretariat. In fact we hope to raise enough to fund the ODM secretariat," Athman says.
Namlef decided not to work with ODM-Kenyas presidential candidate Mr Kalonzo Musyoka after meeting him at a Muslim leaders residence in Nairobi.
Namlef deputy chairman, Alhaj Yusuf Murigu, said Kalonzo "failed the test" when they met him with a list of demands while President Mwai Kibaki allegedly failed to show interest in Muslim problems even after his (Kibakis) close associates were sent to talk to him on behalf of Muslim leaders.
Murigu says Muslims demanded to be treated equally as other Kenyans. The issues of accessibility to identity cards and passports to Muslims also came up.
Murigu says Kenyan Somali Muslims have to carry a pink card apart from their national identity cards because they come from the border. "The Maasai and a number of other Kenyan tribes also live along the border yet they do not face such a discrimination," Murigu said.
He says those are some of the issues which they agreed on with Raila and dismissed a document being circulated with forged signatures of Raila and Balala.
"We are not fools to draft such an MoU demanding the introduction of Sharia Law and other unthinkable demands," says Murigu. He said they would publish the original MoU to shame propagandists.
An MoU being circulated on the internet alleges that Raila has agreed to recognise Islam as the only true religion.
Namlef also dismisses claims that Islamic leaders would monitor activities of all other religions.
Other issues in the "MoU" are the alleged agreement to popularise Islam as the true religion in Coast and North Eastern provinces, the outlawing of gospel programmes on KBC television, ban on alcohol, the closing down of Farmers Choice and imposition of the wearing of hijab (female Islamic dress) for both Muslims and non-Muslims in areas where Muslims are the majority.
"We tried to talk with Kibaki and Kalonzo on issues affecting Muslims but we could not get anywhere," Murigu says. He says Muslim leaders met with Raila three times before signing the MoU with him.
Since Namlef signed an MoU with Raila, the President has been trying to play a catch-up game although some PNU people have let him down, especially on the alleged 18 Kenyan Muslims held in Ethiopia.
On September 8 a Kenyan Muslim scholar who was extradited to the Comoros, Mr Mohamed Sheikh Osman, returned to Kenya after being pardoned by President Kibaki.
The President also made a rare gesture when he hosted Muslims for breaking the fast (iftar) during the month of Ramadhan at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi on October 10. He wore a Muslim head cover (kofia) and Muslim white robe (kanzu) when he attended the Muslim Eid baraza in Mombasa to mark the end of Ramadhan.
Kibaki created a special committee to look into concerns raised by Muslims through an October 16 Kenya Gazette and also promised to make Eid-Ul-Hajj a public holiday.
But he could not meet the demands by Muslims, especially Namlef and human rights groups, that Kenyan Muslims extradited to Somalia, Ethiopia and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba be returned before October 13 to celebrate Id-Ul-Hajj with their relatives.
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Source: http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143977248
_________________________
Kibakis bid to woo Muslims hits a snag
________________________________________
By Athman Amran
President Kibakis efforts to woo Muslims to vote for him in next months General Election have been dealt a double blow.
While the National Muslim Leaders Forum (Namlef) is expected to officially launch its National Muslim Campaign Secretariat at Hurlingham in Nairobi ON Monday to co-ordinate support for ODM presidential candidate Mr Raila Odinga, the pro-Kibaki alliance of Muslims has ran into trouble. Some groups have withdrawn their support for the President.
Raila and Pentagon members are expected to attend the official launch of Namlefs National Campaign secretariat at Hurlingham.
Namlefs campaign secretariat offices have been operational for the past two months in Nairobi, Mombasa, Garissa, Isiolo, Machakos, Nyeri, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kakamega and Kisumu.
Sources, however, say that some pro-Kibaki Muslim leaders have opened a secretariat at the TSS Towers in Mombasa without the knowledge of other leaders, especially, the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) Coast boss, Sheikh Juma Ngao.
"Some Muslim politicians are cheating the President that he has Muslim support at the Coast. These leaders do not have the support of Muslims at the grassroots, especially through the madrassas and the mosques," Ngao says.
Disappointed over money
The pro-Kibaki Muslim team was disappointed when, last Tuesday, 2,200 Muslim leaders from all over the province received only Sh1,000 instead of the promised Sh5,000 after visiting President Kibaki at State House, Mombasa, to express their support for him.
"Every Muslim leader was to be given Sh5,000. How can a person who came all the way from Lamu, Tana River, Taita-Taveta and other far-flung areas get only Sh1,000 after all the trouble?" Ngao posed.
He alleges that after the meeting with the President and the dishing out of the money, the meeting organisers could not be reached .
He says that pro-Kibaki Muslim leaders in Mombasa, including himself, have been sidelined in the committee.
"We have not been given any responsibility. Im not aware of any campaign funds supposed to have been given out by the Kibaki team. I have not received any communication about the secretariat at TSS Towers," Ngao says.
He says he was involved in the proposal of a budget for the Muslims to campaign for Kibaki. He had proposed Sh1 million for each district in Coast from the Kibaki campaign team.
"Muslims have suspended campaigns for Kibaki until the officials solve this problem. We do not want to be led by politicians who are using religious leaders for their benefit," noted Ngao.
Supkems Organising Secretary, Mr Shariff Hussein, says he is not aware of the pro-Kibaki Mombasa secretariat. Supkem has always insisted that it is neutral politically but some of its officials like Secretary General Mr Adan Wachu and Ngao (Shirikisho Party of Kenya) have come out in full support for the re-election of Kibaki.
Hussein says Muslims have a democratic right to associate with any political party and presidential candidate. He, however, criticised the MoU Namlef signed with Raila on behalf of Muslims.
Namlef top officials said they settled on Raila after being angered by the Governments treatment of Muslims, especially the case of the 18 Kenyan Muslims allegedly hounded out of Kenya to Somalia, Ethiopia and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Sources say that Somalias interim President Mr Abdullahi Yusuf had declined to deal with the Kenyan Muslims handed over to him. Most of them had gone to Somalia to work as teachers in schools when the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) took control of Mogadishu and large sections of Somalia last year.
The Muslims had returned to Kenya to escape the war between ICU and the combined Ethiopian and Somali Interim Government forces. Somalias president allegedly handed over the Kenyan Muslims to Ethiopia, when he felt he could not handle them.
Namlef national officials had previously been operating from the Jamia Mosque offices but chose to move to avoid associating the mosque with its political activities.
"There are 70 constituency coordinators all over the country. In places where there are Muslim majority there is a coordinator for every constituency while in other areas one coordinator deals with several constituencies," Mr Said Athman, a member of Namlef National Executive Committee, says.
The secretariat aims at mobilising Muslims to vote for Raila. It will also be informing Muslims about the alleged Governments discrimination against Muslims.
Some Muslim volunteers have offered their services. A national coordinator to run the Hurlingham offices has been identified.
Athman says the secretariat is neither receiving money from ODM nor has it any corporate sponsor. He says Muslim individuals and some businessmen are its sponsors.
"We do not expect money from the ODM secretariat. In fact we hope to raise enough to fund the ODM secretariat," Athman says.
Namlef decided not to work with ODM-Kenyas presidential candidate Mr Kalonzo Musyoka after meeting him at a Muslim leaders residence in Nairobi.
Namlef deputy chairman, Alhaj Yusuf Murigu, said Kalonzo "failed the test" when they met him with a list of demands while President Mwai Kibaki allegedly failed to show interest in Muslim problems even after his (Kibakis) close associates were sent to talk to him on behalf of Muslim leaders.
Murigu says Muslims demanded to be treated equally as other Kenyans. The issues of accessibility to identity cards and passports to Muslims also came up.
Murigu says Kenyan Somali Muslims have to carry a pink card apart from their national identity cards because they come from the border. "The Maasai and a number of other Kenyan tribes also live along the border yet they do not face such a discrimination," Murigu said.
He says those are some of the issues which they agreed on with Raila and dismissed a document being circulated with forged signatures of Raila and Balala.
"We are not fools to draft such an MoU demanding the introduction of Sharia Law and other unthinkable demands," says Murigu. He said they would publish the original MoU to shame propagandists.
An MoU being circulated on the internet alleges that Raila has agreed to recognise Islam as the only true religion.
Namlef also dismisses claims that Islamic leaders would monitor activities of all other religions.
Other issues in the "MoU" are the alleged agreement to popularise Islam as the true religion in Coast and North Eastern provinces, the outlawing of gospel programmes on KBC television, ban on alcohol, the closing down of Farmers Choice and imposition of the wearing of hijab (female Islamic dress) for both Muslims and non-Muslims in areas where Muslims are the majority.
"We tried to talk with Kibaki and Kalonzo on issues affecting Muslims but we could not get anywhere," Murigu says. He says Muslim leaders met with Raila three times before signing the MoU with him.
Since Namlef signed an MoU with Raila, the President has been trying to play a catch-up game although some PNU people have let him down, especially on the alleged 18 Kenyan Muslims held in Ethiopia.
On September 8 a Kenyan Muslim scholar who was extradited to the Comoros, Mr Mohamed Sheikh Osman, returned to Kenya after being pardoned by President Kibaki.
The President also made a rare gesture when he hosted Muslims for breaking the fast (iftar) during the month of Ramadhan at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi on October 10. He wore a Muslim head cover (kofia) and Muslim white robe (kanzu) when he attended the Muslim Eid baraza in Mombasa to mark the end of Ramadhan.
Kibaki created a special committee to look into concerns raised by Muslims through an October 16 Kenya Gazette and also promised to make Eid-Ul-Hajj a public holiday.
But he could not meet the demands by Muslims, especially Namlef and human rights groups, that Kenyan Muslims extradited to Somalia, Ethiopia and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba be returned before October 13 to celebrate Id-Ul-Hajj with their relatives.
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