Closing Shop

I would like to inform my esteemed readers that I am making a switch to blogging on Wordpress. This has been occassioned a number of issues in blogger which have been bugging me for a while not least being unable to comment on my own blog among other blogs suchs as Wambui's and Nakeel's, Sorry si kuwalenga its just the bloody program.

My new address is:

http://mountkirima.wordpress.com

So to all who are still interested in by 2 bob worth of opinions please update your links

Thank you

Vote for Me! So I Can Get Rich

One of the promises I made to myself when starting this blog was to avoid writing political posts since I often don't have the passion to argue with the various shades of opinion that may arise from my views. That said I have been rudely awakened by some of the events that are occuring in our country over the last 2 weeks. Undoubtedly everyone has heard of the salary award in disguise of a winding up allowance that the Minister of Finance was trying to sneak into parliament. Many people have had alot about to say on this matter and almost all the commentators are understandably sick about this 9th Parliaments sheer greediness.Unfortunately alot of the political debate in this country is centred around personalities and parties which tends to cloud the issues and principles that should be at the centre of the business of government. I have long held the view that parties in Kenya are basically meaningless camps which politicians can use and misuse at leisure and are neither based on common values or visions the only purpose they serve is as vehicles to political power. Therefore to me the whole lot are basically just the same.My worry is that Kenyans have abdicated the role of being masters of their own destiny and handed it over to our leaders. The powerful Presidency has always been (mostly rightly) seen as the biggest hinderance to Kenya acheiving true democracy and economic development thus there has been constant clamour to reduce these powers.There have been moves to enhance the independence of the judiciary so as to serve as a check, There has also been a clamour to enhance the power of Parliament so that it can serve as a safeguard againist executive excess which are all good measures. A strong and independent Parliament since they are supposed to be representing the voice of the electorate. To enable them to be more independent a Parliamentary Service Commission was created which was to look into the terms and conditions parliament including renumeration. Although all these measures were enacted in good faith and with the intention of improving governance the current 'peoples representatives' have taken it as a vehicle to improving their personal worth.Where does that place the common mwananchi? Who will speak for him if his representative is busy speaking for himself? My belief is that we cannot complain about poor representation if we are the same ones who vote them in time and time again. It is high time we stopped being just mwananchi wa kawaida and become the masters of our own destiny by making the right choices.I strongly hold the view that the problem in Kenya is that we have tended to look up at the leadership to take us to promised land forgetting that it is we who should be the drivers. We must start making the right choice if we choose the right leaders according to their demonstrated values we will end up with the right leaders. Instead we tend to look at what tribe, party, family the aspirant comes from. It has been said that the problem we have is the flawed constitution but I don't think so. We cannot forget that in 2002 we were able to change the government by just our collective will even with all the oppressive forces brought on by the executive and a flawed constitution. So anything is possible if we as Kenyans have the will. Of course all did not go well after that but it at least demonstrated what we are capable of acheiving and from what we have learned from the leaders we must avoid making the same mistakes.Making the right choice shouldn't be too hard all it requires is for you to examine your most sincere values and if you think the candidate has demonstrated those values and will be honest to those values then you should vote for him/her and hold them againist those promises.So as we rant (rightly) againist the outrage that the greedy bunch at parliament are trying to achieve we must remember that it is you and me who hold the keys to their return. Let us all watch carefully how each and every MP will be voting on this manner and use that to help us make the RIGHT CHOICE!