The Anchor (Online Edition)

The Anchor, November 2008

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On the mark...Charity Ngilu sets eyes on issues that matter

By Martin Masai

SHE has set her eyes on the right targets. Water and Irrigation Minster Charity Ngilu is scaling new heights in leadership, emerging as heading the pack on issue based leadership.
Within months of her appointment to the Water and irri­gation ministry, Mrs Ngilu has made initiatives to rid Key local towns of perennial water shortage that has made life difficult and locked out investment oppor­tu­nities that can lead to jobs for the youth.
Mrs Ngilu’s eyes are cast far and wide with the spe­cific intention of changing peoples lives by availing safe water for drinking, irrigation and livestock in this drought prone province.
Currently, works are going on in Machakos, ar­guably the Capital City of Ukambani and Kenya’s Capital that never was, to rehabilitate the Maruba Water Supply at a cost of close to Sh 300m.
The Maruba dam is the first of a series of in­ter­ventions she has set her eyes on so as to deal a death blow to water scarcity. The Miwongoni Dam is listed as her next course of action. Works in Maruba include the reconstruction of the dam to raise its walls to accommodate more water and the reconstruction of the Treatment work and the piping net­work to reduce Unaccounted For Water( UFW), iden­tified with the aging pipes that were laid by the co­lo­nial government.
Her action in Machakos stands out as the biggest in­ter­vention ever taken to by any local leader to come with a practical solution to water problem.
In Wote town, the headquarters of Makueni District, tenders have been advertised for contracting of the es­tab­lishment of Wote Water Supply. It is the first se­rious intervention to rid the residents the use of donkeys in their daily water hunt.
The works include the sinking of five boreholes, the construction of a water reservoir on Unoa Hills and the laying of pipes to enable residents connect water di­rectly to their homes for the first time. The entire work s pro­jected to cost another Sh 300m, giving an assurance for the first time that there is a practical move to address water scarcity.
In Mwingi, Ngilu has already sunk some Sh 6m to con­struct 2 dams in Ukase area, which is arguably Ukambani’s driest spot that has never had promise for water.
Ukase, located in Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s Mwingi North Constituency is experiencing renewal as the girl child and women heave a sigh of relief at the sight of the two dams. It is an area where girls are married off between 12-14 years and a donkey is a must when one is paying dowry to stand in for the girl being married off.
Mrs Ngilu wants to cut the 20-40 Kms Mwingi women cover in pursuit of water, was quality no one can vouch for. In Mwingi Town, Tanathi Water Services Board have signed and agreement with the TARDA for the former to use the Kiambere Dam to supply water to Mwingi Town in abundant quantities. Mrs Ngilu has also secured Sh 1.2 Billion from the IDB to enlarge the Masinga Dam so as to expand water supply to Masinga, Matuu Township, Yatta and Kitui Municipality with fresh water.
In Kitui District, Sh 800 m work on Uumaa Dam is to be commissioned any time now. The Anchor established that contractors have been commissioned to begin work. This water works is to be located at Uumaa gorge and water is expected to be supplied to Mutomo down to Ikutha by gravity.
The minister has also set her eyes on the rehabilitation of the Nol-Turesh Water Pipeline that supplies water to lower parts of Makueni, Nzaui District, Machakos Town, Kajiado Township, Athi River municipality and Kyumbi area.
Work on this project with include the rehabilitation of the old Railway Pipeline to be used to supply residents along the pipeline so as to secure the main Nol-Turesh line to supply water to Kajiado, Machakos and Athi River towns.
Realizations by local leaders that Mrs. Ngilu is the most focused among those in the cabinet has led to silent shifts and building of alliances as civic leaders seek to work with her so as to help their people.
Already delegations from Makueni, Mwingi, Machakos and Kibwezi have been to see her so as to agree on how their water needs would be met. In Kibwezi for instance, this discovery has upset local MP Professor Phillip Kaloki. He has been dissuading the civic leaders not to meet Mrs Ngilu due to the ‘prevailing political arithmetic’- meaning his alliance with the VP- never mind the fact that Mr Musyoka’s track record for over 20 years has little, if anything, to showcase.
Mrs. Ngilu’s biggest signal that she wanted to face the water problem head-on was her decision to create an eighth water services board- Tanathi, that was hived off from Tana and Athi water boards, sparking protests from MPs and other players who had positioned themselves in the water sector to marginalize the semi arid areas within the Tana and Athi water board areas.
For instance, for the last five years, Athi Water Services Board did not invest in any water source in Ukambani, while it used proposals showing aridity in Ukambani to raise funds that were in turn invested in areas that do not face water shortages.
Besides, Mrs Ngilu is the first among current elected MPs to launch a practical anti- poverty initiative, aimed at food sufficiency so that he people would no longer rely on famine relief .
She launched the programme- dubbed Beyond Famine Relief. It entails a paradigm shift from cultivation of maize and beans to the introduction of drought resistant crops. She raised funds to buy dairy goats and chicken which were donated to the poorest communities to begin some exercise that could reverse their status.
The minister also mobilized for hundreds of tones of seeds from the ministry of agriculture that were in turn donated to her constituents so that they can grow food for themselves and not wait for handouts from the state.
Prodded to react to he new strategy, Mrs. Ngilu said; “ Gone are the time when we would keep on making pledges to wananchi on what we plan to do as leaders. Time has cme that each one of us stands by one’s achievements. That is why I do not want to waste time doing politic while poverty ravages our people.


Concern as woman bitten by Macha­kos lawyer cries for justice

DOCTORS at the Machakos General hospital have had to chop off the thumb of a woman that was bitten by a Machakos Lawyer.
Medical sources say the thumb had to go to save her life. It was the culmination of several surgical procedures undertaken by doctors at the hospital since the woman was admitted to the facility after her ordeal with the lawyer, whose exploits, The Anchor reveals, are sending shock waves among women in the municipality.
36 year old Ms Theresia Wawira was admitted to the hospital’s Ward Two after she was bitten by the lawyer who comes from Nyanza.
The medics say Ms.Wawira’s right thumb was rotting dangerously, an indication that the teeth were poisonous. It is an occurrence that is sur­prising many as the human species is not fabled for unleashing venom like reptiles do.
“We have amputated the thumb to see whether the rot will spread, If this happens, we may do a further chop”, said a doctor who did not want to be named.
Sources at the Machakos Police Station indicated that the lawyer had been reported to have assaulted another woman in yet unclear cir­cum­stances. When Wawira reported the attack, one police officer at the report office shouted “Again?”, meaning that police had received an earlier report of attacks by the advocate.
Those who know the lawyer say he sways from sanity whenever he gets intoxicated, a behaviour that was sending shock waves among his friends.
The lawyer, whose name we have is single and has been associated with in­dis­crimi­nate sex practices in the town, traits that are manifested after he has had one or too many for the road.
The hospital’s nurse in charge Mrs. Jacinta Kondo said bites such as the one with the woman may lead to infection with HIVaids. “That is why this is a very serious matter and we want to be very careful with the wound.”
Ms. Wawira told reporters that the lawyer bit her in an apparent attempt to force her into sex.
She said she had boarded a matatu headed for the Macha­kos-Nairobi turn off junction when the lawyer accosted her as she requested the driver to drop her near Machakos show grounds in Miwani estate.
Amid sobbing, the lady who said she once worked as a casual at the Machakos District Commissioner’s office said she was saved from the jaws of the lawyer by the Nissan matatu driver and another passen­ger.
Machakos CID boss M. Seif con­firmed the incident adding investigations into the matter have been launched.
“Yes, it is true we have a report of a woman who claims to have been bitten by a lawyer and we are investigating the case”. We also established that police had issued her with a P3 form as part of the actions that will lead to the lawyer’s prosecution. Even then, eye brows are being raised by the fact that no action has been taken a good two weeks since the woman reported at the station. It is even curious that the nature of attack has been amusing police officers at the station
The DCIO said the victim was issued with a police P3 form as required by the law as investigations got underway.

Anti Graft bosses quarrel publicly in Kitui

The National Anti-Corruption Campaign Steering Committee (NACCSC) is divided over alle­gations of corruption within its ranks.
Sharp differences amongst the committee members emerged during an awareness tour of Kitui with a section of members conceding that the anti-graft body lacked trans­parency in its op­erations.
The committee whose mandate is fight corruption within all sectors of the society through public education and awareness creation campaigns was appointed by Presi­dent Kibaki in May 2004.
Members differed openly over the manner the committee was spending its annual Sh 155 million budgetary allo­cation during an acrimonious press conference they convened at a Kitui hotel.
Confusion began when committee mem­ber Hassan Sheikh Ali alleged that the team had failed to abide by the ex­pected anti-corruption practices within in its ranks, sparking a shouting march in front of shocked journalists.
The committee was on a routine cam­paign tour of Kitui town to sensitize the public against corruption but ended up disagreeing over monitoring and evaluation of its accounts.
Acting NACSC chairperson Ruth Arungu-Olende was interrupted as she briefed reporters on the progress of the body when Mr Ali differed with her claims that it was a voluntary committee.
“The committee’s volunteer members have a huge task of bringing fundamental changes to peoples’ attitudes towards corruption and a planned mid term re­view will gauge the impact of our work” said Mrs Olende.
The press conference which was attended by members Francis Ng’ang’a, Adan Wachu, Rev. Ibrahim Omondi, Sophia Lepuchirit and acting director David Gathii among others turned chaotic as some accused Mr Hassan of lacking dis­ci­pline.
Efforts by Mr Ng’ang’a, the immediate former KNUT Secretary General tried to stop the enraged member fell on deaf ears as Mr Ali insisted that the committee had not done enough to fulfill its core man­date.
He said that he concurred with the con­cerns expressed in Parliament that the body needed to ‘pull up’ by declaring their budgetary allocation and instituting strict monitoring and evaluation.
“The body has even failed to make linkages with Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) or the Office of Om­budsman and despite having a bud­get, we have not managed to bring any im­pact in the society” said Mr Hassan as he walked out of the meeting.
However, Public Relations Officer Faynie Mwakio said that NACCSC was a public institution under the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and was thus gov­erned by the normal government fi­nan­cial systems.
Ms Mwakio said that the body was au­dited annually by internal and external auditors like any other state institutions and that claims of financial impropriety were unfounded.
The purpose of the campaign is to sensitise Kenyans on the negative effects of corruption with a view to effecting fun­da­men­tal changes in their behavior, culture, practices and attitudes toward corruption.

Stern warning to Mbooni teachers over misuse of bursary allo­cations


Teachers in Mbooni dis­trict who will be found mismanaging the free primary edu­cation money will be interdicted forth­with.
Sounding the warning, area district edu­cation officer Mr Peter Magiri, said his office will not entertain the old culture of impunity for head teachers who mis­appro­priate funds meant for the de­vel­opment of the schools and get away with it.
“Instead, if I find you having em­bezzled the funds, the next thing is to fire you through interdiction without any mercy’’ said the tough talking DEO.
Mr Magiri issued the warning while closing a one day seminar for project man­agement committees who included teachers, chiefs and councillors at Tawa market organised by the Mbooni Con­stituency Development Fund. He said many schools’ development had lagged behind after funds allocated to them landed to wrong hands.
“But I warn my head teachers especially those charged with the responsibility of handling the free primary education money that they risk their jobs if they tamper with it’’ he said.
During the seminar, the Mbooni CDF chairman Mr Peter Mwanthi, told the par­tici­pants to utilize the information gained at the seminar to better their projects.
Mbooni district development officer M/s Ann Mulea, said her office would be strict on committees who do not comply with the CDF Act on running of the projects’ money.



Change on way in school management
By Kilonzo Mwinzila

House Report on strikes lists ways of dealing with the menace

LIFE in secondary schools is expected to drastically change when Parliament adopts a re­port which recommends measures to address school unrests and strikes.
The report by the de­part­men­tal committee on Education, Re­search and Technology has made serious proposals that if imple­mented, education in sec­ondary schools will never be the same again.
The report puts on the spot principals and teachers for imposing strict rules on the students without due regard to demo­cratic involvement of students in their for­mu­lation. The rules become unpopular and are seen as oppressive by the stu­dents.
Some principals are accused of mis­appro­pri­ating and mis­man­aging school fi­nances due to un-pro­ce­dural pro­curements and continued im­po­sition of unexplained levies; this causes students to riot to expose the mal­prac­tices. The late dis­bursement of Free Sec­ondary Edu­cation monies has compounded the diffi­culties faced by schools in the pro­vision of facilities and services.
The report further rec­ommends that mem­bers of the Board of Governors be strictly constituted based on their aca­demic quali­fi­cations, competence and commitment and that board of governors be inducted on school management and ad­min­is­tration and also be empowered to deal with cases of indiscipline decisively.
Parents are urged by the report to take responsibilities in guiding and counseling their children during child-hood and schools regulate students’ pocket money which must be de­pos­ited with the school ad­min­is­tration and in boarding primary schools be discouraged and made to ca­ter for children aged 11 and above.
Complete overhaul of the Kenya Na­tional Examination Council (KNEC) and a stop to the ranking of schools in national ex­ami­nations are among other major rec­ommen­dations of the report awaiting debate and approval of the Parliament. The committee which went through round the country receiving views from edu­cation stakeholders and established that un­lawful sects and organizations such as Mungiki also played a part in schools unrests wants the government to keep them off from learning in­sti­tutions.
The report that was tabled by the chairman David Koech (Mosop, ODM) the committee says KNEC should be overhauled to re­store its credibility and the KNEC Act reviewed to provide for stiffer penalties for ex­ami­nation cheating and dishonest KNEC officials. It says the candidates should remain under the full control of the schools from the time of registration to when they sit examinations with the power to cause deregistration of those who become un­dis­ci­plined and expelled.
The report urges the KNEC to ensure vetting of all the personnel involved in the de­vel­opment of examinations to ensure strict confidentiality in examinations at all times.
The committee further recommends that the calendar for national examinations be reviewed to allow candidates sit for the examinations when schools close for the rest of students.
The recommendations by the Par­lia­men­tary committee comes against a background of reports of form four stu­dents being arrested with fake ex­ami­nation papers in the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination.
Parents are in the spotlight over child ne­glect, with the report recommending that they send their children to boarding schools only when they attain 11 years.
Some parents, according to the report take their children to boarding schools at ten­der ages, thus denying them family comfort and parental care.
The Parliamentary Committee rec­ommends that parents take their re­spon­si­bilities in guiding and counseling their children during childhood, and schools to regulate students’ pocket monies which must be deposited with the school administration, and boarding schools be discouraged and made to ca­ter for children aged 11 and above only.
The committee further recommends for the withdraw of a popular Television Swahili show ‘Tahidi High School’ as it urges Kenya Film Corporation, Media Coun­cil and other relevant institutions to vet all TV shows and programmes in or­der to give consumable and morally sound programs and ensure responsible jour­nalism and objective reporting.
The Parliamentary committee which iden­tified drug abuse as a major cause to schools unrests urges the Ministry of Edu­cation to work with National Co­or­di­nation on Drug and Abuse (NACADA) to make schools drug-free zones, and that schools lay strategies to initiate counseling programmes for drug addicts.
“Head teachers to undergo mandatory management training and that they be strictly appointed on merit and com­pe­tence and in accordance with the guidelines spelt out in the Teachers’ Ser­vice Commission (TSC) policy of se­lection and appointments of heads of post primary institutions”, says part of the recommendations.
The committee also urges the gov­ernment to review teachers salaries and fast track their harmonization with those of other civil servants without any further delay.
The TSC should implement the scheme of service for teachers and promote teachers to ensure there is no gap in their grading in school, says the report adding that the government moves fast to pro­vide adequate budgetary allocation for the TSC to recruit and deploy more teachers.
The report further recommends that the Code of Regulations governing the con­duct of teachers be strictly adhered to in en­suring teachers conform to the pro­fessional ethics and norms in dis­charging their duties and re­spon­si­bilities for which they have been employed.
The Legislators also want TSC to adopt a system of reshuffling teachers after every five years particularly if performance of such teachers warrants such action.
The committee compiled its report after receiving oral and written memoranda from stakeholders who included teachers, stu­dents, parents’ teachers’ associations (PTAs), boards of governors (BOGs) re­li­gious leaders/organizations and par­lia­men­tarians
The report signed by Mr Koech is also en­dorsed by committee members; Muturi Mwangi, Mwaura Kiburi David, Isaac Ruto, Peter Gitau, Mwazo Mwakulegwa, Alfred Odhiambo, Dache John Pesa, Shakilla Abdalla and Adan Keynan.
The report further recommends that each school establish ‘School Parliament’ and barazas where the students and the ad­min­is­tration can be able to interact freely.
The MPs who enact laws also want the Education Act reviewed to address many emerging issues in the education sector, which they however do not cite.
They also recommend that the gov­ernment through the ministry of edu­cation make public and implement the rec­ommen­dations of the Presidential Commission on Devil Worship.

Big fight brews at Machakos Knut branch


CHANGE can now come to the man­agement of Knut affairs in Macha­kos. A group opposed to current Executive Sec­re­tary Urbanus Mutisya was elected in a stiffly con­tested by-election to replace officials who left to seek election in newly created knut branches in Yatta, Kangundo and Mwala Districts.
The six new officials were elected in a hotly contested election include .Mr.Nicholas Musyoka polled 548 votes to beat his sole opponent Joseph Musau who got 504 votes for the post of Assistant Executive Secretary.
John Masila got 538 votes against Cyrus Makaus 504 to win the post of branch Trea­surer s position.Others elected were Patrick Muthee (Branch Executive Mem­ber)
The result was a setback to Mr Mutisya who has been running the branch in a style that has infuriated teachers. Mr Musyoka and Mr Masila are opponents of Mutisya and it remains to be seen how the branch will be managed in coming days.
The Anchor established that the new team was yet to hold a meeting, a cool one month after the election. Matters have not been helped by reports that some cash had been withdrawn after the elections and without the in­volvement of the new officials
The election was the stiffest challenge that Mr Mutisya has faced as the branch boss even when his seat was not being con­tested and may well be an indicator of what the coming elections portend.
Teachers are mad about the mis­man­agement of the Burial and Be­nevo­lent Fund and their Education Scheme and are calling for the accounting of millions of shillings that they allege can not be traced.
They are infuriated by lack of rebates from the BBF and Education scheme, coupled with the mismanagement of the Masaku Teachers Sacco that is on its death bed due to mismanagement under the watch of the Knut Branch.
Elections in Kibwezi district aborted following claims of rigging, forcing the pre­siding union official from the head­quar­ters to call off the exercise.
The acting National vice Secretary Gen­eral Mr.John Okuta suspended the election after the situation threatened to de­gen­erate into chaos.
Confusion was caused by parents and stu­dents of Moi Girls Kibwezi where the polls were held as claims of their par­tici­pation in the poll spread like bush fire.
The post of the chairman was contested by Mesrs Gedion Katolo and David Mwangani, former Makueni deputy Ex­ecutive Secretary Jackson Wambua was unopposed for the post of branch Ex­ecutive Secretary while the long serving Makueni knut branch Treasurer Mr.David Kioko faced challenge from mesrs Eliud Nzau and Kimotho Masila for the same post.

SPECIAL REPORT
Heavy pollution chokes Athi River


Communities living along the Athi-river in three districts want the government to divert the industrial chemical and sewage wastes directed to the river to elsewhere.
They also want the gov­ernment to come up with a master plan that will eradi­cate the problem once and for all to eliminate pollution that has been a nightmare to them for de­cades.
The communities most of whom depend on the river water for irrigation, fishing and other domestic use say the waste had se­rious health and economic implications on them.
They called for the in­ter­vention of the min­is­tries of Public health, Enviroment and that of the Nairobi m
Metropolitan Development to ease the menace.
An exclusive survey re­vealed that nega­tively affected communities are those close to Nairobi and Thika where the wastes spill from. They include Kangundo, Yatta and Mwala districts.
The communities who carry out in­ten­sive irrigation on the river complain of short­comings from the dirty and highly contaminated water that mostly affect the growth of the crops.
Along with the farmers, are the fish­ermen who say their business is cut short during rain reason when the sewage wastes is released to the river from Nairobi and Thika.
”We finally find ourselves not getting anything from the river as all the fish die as a result of the strong poisonous chemi­cals’’ said Mutinda Mutuve , a fish­erman at the river.
The fishermen said they depend on the fish for their domestic use and sell to cus­tomers at Donyo Sabuk market in Kangundo.
”But when the sewage waste is re­leased to the river, the fish are seen floating on the water dead, killing our livelihood too’’ adds another fisherman Mr Mueke Munuve.
They said they wanted a lasting so­lution to the menace lingered for years and there is no indication that action was forth­coming.
A farmer Mr Robert Kamau says at times the sewage makes his crops not to germinate as a result of the toxic effect from the harmful chemicals in the wa­ter.
Mr Kamau urges the government to sort out the water problem by either diverting it elsewhere or setting aside some funds to purify the waste to ease the con­tami­nation.
Most residents interviewed in the three districts who rely on the river water for domestic use said they have been con­tacting water borne diseases which are incurable and which actually result in death.
They pleaded for the treatment of the waste water since the government has the capacity to do so if there are no al­ter­native measures to the problem.
Also affected is the famous Fourteen Falls tourist attraction on the river just a few kilometers from Thika and Nairobi.
The tourist site has for years been attracting tourists both locally and in­ter­na­tionally until of late when the sewage problem started affecting the business.
The tourist destination which is a joint venture of Thika County and Kangundo Town councils have lately been ex­pe­ri­encing limited number of tourists as a result of the environmental conditions on the river marked with chocking sewage smell from the water.
Consequently, divers who entertain the tourists at the falls are unable to carry out their shows effectively as a result of health considerations.
The young boys mostly, school dropouts who depend on the business for their living say they have been subjected to a raw deal especially when raw sewage is re­leased to the river as this hampers their activity.
Cllr Peter Nzoka, who is the Chairman of Environment Committee of Kangundo Town Council expressed disappointment over the persisted spilling of the waste to the river.
‘’The waste does not only affect the lo­cals’ activities but also the councils’ rev­enue generating process’’ said the coun­cillor.
He said the revenue had tremendously dropped due to the sewage effect.
“Infact like last Kenyatta Day eve many tourists who had visited the falls were turned back by the chocking smell of the sewage waste which actually was felt more than ten kilometers away from the river’’ said Cllr Nzoka.
He said time had come for the gov­ernment to solve this problem once and for all to improve the health stan­dards of the affected communities.
“This should be addressed as a matter of agency to bail out the communities from the uncalled for health hazard’’ added the councillor.
Dr Joseph Muling’a of the Donyo Sabuk nursing home confirmed having treated a number of cases with skin and water borne diseases some of which he said were too complicated to diagnose.
”I have for years been handling such cases which as a resident of the area believe are related to the river water pollution’’, he said.
Local clinics say majority of the dis­eases treated at the facilities were of related to dirty water from the river.

Mwingi council boss vows on media


The Mwingi town council might become a no gone zone for jour­nalists following the chairman’s threats to kick out press who expose the council dirty linen to the pub­lic.
This follows claims by Mr. Festus Nzung’u Musya that the recently con­cluded council’s elections to fill the two newly created committees (audit and hiv-aids) were cov­ered negatively by a lady journalist.
The novice in politics had first raised the issue with the council’s treasurer Mr. Stephen Itunga and threatened to lock the lady outside once she steps in the coun­cils precincts. “If that girl comes here please notify me, I am not going to allow her here because she cov­ered us negatively” he re­torted.
Unknowingly the lady and a fellow pressman paid a courtesy call to Mr. Itunga where Mr. Musya emerged spitting fire on them before threatening to lock any me­dia person outside the council’s compound if he/she dares expose their ill doings.
Mr Musya told The Anchor there was no bad blood between elected councillors and the nominated ones even though the nminated ones lost chairmanship po­sitions in the council comitttees and alleged that such reports were media driven. But our sources say that the relationship have deteroriated by the day, making it futile to turn his wrath on innocent media people whose only sin is to tell the story as it is.
The Chairman may grab the power to lock the council’s gate from those he deems unfit to enter but he cannot forever con­ceal the councils in­for­mation be it good or bad.
Mr Musya may need to know media people have covered a line of wiser chairmen since the council was created in 1989 till to date. Besides, a council is a public office. Worse still, he is not assured of retaining the chair­manship through five years. Re-election is the gauge to mea­sure his performance and the verdict lies with the councillors he is humiliating in schemes and counter schemes at Town Hall..
Journalists are innocent massagers of both good and bad news and are, unfortunately for Mr Musya, never out to please by choosing to report only the rosy side of affairs.
Theirs is an obligation to factually relay events as they unfold to the Wananchi. Simple. These days, we also have to set the agenda foe leaders as they seem to be in permanent drunken stupor be­cause of too much power upon their hands.
Thus, locking pressmen from the council compound will not help at all. In many cases, journalists need not enter these offices. All they need is a lead and there is no doubt that they shall fry the goose thereafter even as the gates remain under lock and key.
This is because information leaks like a rainfall on a rusted iron sheet. Unless he gags all the council staff including the ‘trusted sources’, Mr Musya can rest assured that as long as he holds a public office and makes decisions that affects the lives f others in Mwingi township, the council’s secrets in­cluding, with a god measure, his personal conduct would be published again and again without malice.
For behind the desks in those offices are men and women, both big and small who will not allow buffoonery to guide the affairs of the council.

Villagers are rescued

Three villagers were marooned on island in swollen River Athi. The trio had gone to the island to retrieve their lost cow when the river burst is banks.
The incident occurred at Kathulumbi village in Kalawa division in Mbooni dis­trict. The trio who included a woman and two men screamed for help when they discovered they had been ma­rooned.
The cow was grazing in the succulent green patches of the riverbank grass un­aware of the mishap. Drought has de­pleted much of the pasture and most livestock graze in the islands.
Torrential rains that pounded the upper parts of district had caused freak floods. Although there was no rain downstream, the villagers were as­tounded and dumb­founded when the river burst its banks.
Death was beckoning them. They ran helter-skelter and scaled a tree. The villagers milled around the river banks to scheme the rescue mission.
Local councillor Peter Mwanthi was among the leaders present. Arrangements for a chopper to airlift the victims of the floods were mooted but before the plan was executed, some villagers risked heir lives and swam across the river and rescued the woman and a man.
The other victim who had climbed a tree in the island could not be rescued to­gether with his colleagues. He spent the night clung on the tree branches He was res­cued the following day.

Paralegals attack police

THE Kitui paralegals have blasted law en­forcers in Kenya for going contrary to the country’s laws. They con­demned the police for harassing members of the pub­lic, citing torture and forcing the victims to admit offences that they have not committed. They complained that the police are not responsive and that they are grossly violating the people’s rights in the country. The paralegals further de­cried the rate at which corruption, nepotism and bad gov­er­nance had destroyed the coun­try. The remarks were made during a three-day Kitui Paralegal Project (KPP) human rights education workshop organised by the International Commission of Jurists –Kenya Chapter.
And one of the workshop’s fa­cili­tators, Mr. Chris Wachira, told the workshop that the law enforcers know the law but they break it be­cause they do not respect it. Wachira is of the ICJ –Kenya Chapter’s Human Rights Education Programme.
Wachira said that the rule of law should be respected, adding that the leaders have a responsibility of setting a good example of good governance. The ICJ official talked about the monitoring and reporting of human rights in the world. He added that there are non gov­ern­men­tal or­ga­ni­zations that monitor and report human rights locally and internationally.
On democracy, Wachira said power be­longs to the people. “People’s will and consent are respected as part of de­moc­racy. Choosing or rejecting a leader is part of democracy. Bill of Rights, multi-partism and economic freedom are some of indicators of democracy in a country,” Wachira told the workshop.
He at the same time said that most basic rights should be included in the Kenya ’s Constitution and he cited housing, water and health care. He said that some of the human rights are reduceable and that others are unreduceable. He added: “There are emerging laws in the world, for ex­ample, the international peace and se­cu­rity.”
He told the workshop that the classi­fi­cations of human rights are the first generation rights, the second generation rights and the third generation rights. Wachira said that the Universal Dec­la­ration of Human Rights is a very good example of human rights protection. He added that the government implements things through the laws.
He said that Kenya can take part in the international governance because it (the country) is a member of many regional and international organisations, for example, the AU, the East Af­ri­can Community, the ILO, the UNEP, the WHO and the UN.
And on his part, Mr. Chris Gitari, of the ICJ –Kenya Chapter’s Human Rights Edu­cation Programme, said that the rule of law means that the law applies equally, adding that no one is above the law. Other facilitators include Rita Kijala Shako and Joseph Osoro, who are of the ICJ –Kenya Chapter’s Judiciary Programme. The 20 workshop participants include the Kitui Para­le­gal Project coordinator Josephat Kasina and the project chairman Retired-Major Mathew Maingi Mutunge.


100,000 villagers in danger as Mwingi DC sounds alert over famine


More than 100, 000 people in Mwingi district require urgent fam­ine relief food to save their lives the Mwingi District commissioner, Mr. Peter Kinuthia said. The Dc said these fami­lies need relief food in­ter­vention to save them from starvation adding that the 5500 sacks of maize, beans and green grams he had received so far from the gov­ernment was not enough to sufficiently feed such a large num­ber of people.
“The food that I have so far re­ceived is not enough and cases that deserve the food are many. We can only afford to feed the most de­serving cases that are far less the affected numbers.” The Dc said.
He said the families cut across the five divisions of Mwingi dis­trict namely Mwingi central, Migwani, Nguni, Mui, and Ngomeni with children under five years being affected the most.
The district steering committee singled out Thaana Nzau lo­cation of Migwani di­vision, Mwingi south con­stituency as the most affected with most of the chil­dren under five years being un­der­weight due to food scarcity following a local research done by Drought Man­agement Office (Arid lands) headed by Francis Koma.
Most of the 120 children iden­tified for aid from arid lands office were severely mal­nour­ished and the two ki­lo­grams of uji flour their par­ents received could not con­tain their hunger.
A young man with two severely malnourished boys be­low three years was one of the ben­efi­ciary. His wife could not make to Kiusyani shopping cen­tre, the aid venue because she was very weak and breastfeeding four months old girl on an empty stom­ach.
The Dc said the famine relief the government was giving out was too little and asked house­holds with at least a source of income or other means of getting live­lihood to leave the meager relief food aid to the most de­serving.
Mr. Kinuthia advised the people to start growing the cul­tural crops to fight the looming food in­se­cu­rity that had affected the region saying that the cli­mate had changed drastically and people needed to adopt drought re­sis­tant crops that could thrive in arid ar­eas.
“Sorghum, millet, green grams can be supported by the arid cli­mate. Forget about maize and beans because they require plenty of rainfall to mature.” Mr. Kinuthia said.
He cautioned the resi­dents against waiting for the gov­ernment to knock their doors to help but instead invest in fruits trees like mangoes, paw paws and passion fruit that had been doing well in areas of Ukambani unlike maize and beans.
“Stop giving excuses of failed rain­fall, mangoes trees do not need much rainfall and if you can grow them in large scale for eco­nomical purposes, your de­pen­dency to the government for relief food would be over. Juice companies would flock to buy them in large quantities.” Mr. Kinuthia said.
However the Dc blamed the ravaging famine to the unplanned poor families. He asked the residents to se­riously think of planning their families to ease the burden of feeding many mouths besides other needs.

Kyanzavi gives ultimatum

Shareholders of Kyanzavi coffee farmers company Ltd in Kangundo have given four former di­rectors up to De­cem­ber this year to withdraw all cases pending in court against the current man­agement or face their wrath.
The shareholders said they were fed up with the ongoing mean­ingless court tussles by the former directors which have crippled the company’s smooth op­erations.
The shareholders warned that if the former di­rectors do not abide by the ul­ti­ma­tum, they will pass a reso­lution to expel them from the company and cease to be share­holders.
‘’We will no longer tol­erate the meaningless court cases by these four people who do this not only at the ex­pense of the man­agement committee but also at the expense of the en­tire share­holders’’ they said.
The shareholders ex­pressed bitterness over the continued dis­ruption of the company’s op­erations by the court cases which the four former di­rectors have filed in a bid to oust the current legally elected man­agement.
‘’The four should un­der­stand that it is us who rejected and re­moved them from office and not the current directors’’ they said.
The shareholders said they will have no option other than to ex­pel the four from the company’s reg­is­ter and have their mem­bership fee re­funded for being a liabil­ity to the com­pany.
‘’The former officials should realise that the company is greater than the interests of four individuals and that we will not relent until we have them re­moved from the company’s reg­is­ter’’ they said.
The four former directors, Judas Mbili Ndawa, Patrick Mutune Katuvi, Jo­seph Kioko and Chris­to­pher Kyanyambu were re­placed by the current man­agement on June this year at an annual general meeting but have since then opposed their ouster and gone to court to claim their validity in office.
The move has since annoyed the share­holders who said after re­jecting them in broad day light they have no other way out to return to the running of the com­pany.
The shareholders have also pe­ti­tioned the area MP Johnson Muthama, to try to approach the Attor­ney General to ter­mi­nate such cases since they were aimed at running down the com­pany of more than 2,000 shareholders.
Those elected on June annual gen­eral meeting included the chairman James Muema, Crispas Nguma (secretary), Peter Muamba (treasurer), Mangu Ngolo (vice chairman), Juvenalis Musyoki, Wambua Kiveke and Edward Ndunda.
The current team has since their election been restless after the ousted officials persistently kept them busy in courts.
But the shareholders have vowed not to allow the four at any one given time in the leadership of the com­pany.
‘’It is clear that these four men are fighting a loosing and very un­for­tu­nate battle since eventually they will live to regret’’ said the share­holders.
‘’Let them know that the final con­clusion of the court cases will rest on our verdict which will be disappointing to them’’ they added.

More seed supplies to Kitui

KITUI District has been supplied with 100,000 tonnes of seeds by the government for this current planting season.
This is in addition to more seeds distributed under a programme to rid Kitui of famine relief under the leadership of Water and Irri­gation Minister Charity Kaluki Ngilu.
Kitui District Commissioner Mr Joshua Chepchieng advised farmers to wisely and properly use the seeds so as to get better yields. The DC disclosed that the government has a programme with the Equity Bank towards im­proving farming activities in Kitui District.
And he asked farmers to apply for farming loans from the bank. The DC lauded the local resi­dents for greatly assisting the au­thorities in the war against crime in the area. He said that the community policing there had helped a lot and he asked the public to keep up with the same spirit. “We alone can’t fight crime without the public assistance,” Chepchieng said.
He announced that they are going to regulate the small-scale trades in the district to ensure that the hawkers and Khat (miraa) dealers among others are conducting genuine businesses. He warned that the criminals can not be allowed to pose as traders and he added that idling at so­cial centres is not good.
The administrator further warned that all the taxis operating in the district must have yellow lines. Chepchieng said that they re­cently im­pounded a taxi that was being used for narcotic drugs business there. The DC asked the Mutitu and Mwitika divisions bor­der committees to be active as part of tackling perennial clashes between Somali pastoralists and the local Kamba community over pastures and water.
He said that the committees should be empowered, adding that they will facilitate the committees for the good of peace. Chepchieng announced that Kitui District leaders will soon meet with their coun­ter­parts in Garissa, Mwingi, Ijara and Tana River Ditricts over Somali pastoralists and Kamba con­flicts.
He called for respect among all calibers of leaders in Kitui dis­trict for the benefits of the public. The Kitui DC asked the public to monitor how their funds in­cluding the CDF and the LATF are uti­lized. He told them that they have a right to do so.
Other speakers included the Kitui Mayor Patrick Makasi Muindi. Present included Kitui District Officer 1 Fredrick Kitema, the District Edu­cation Officer Boniventure Wasikoyo and the District Adult Education Officer William Mwongela Kimeu and Bishops Daniel K. Kimwele and Daniel Mutunga Nzoka.

Honeymoon over for Prof Kaloki in Kibwezi


The honey moon is over. After eleven months at the helm Prof Philip Kaloki is seemingly unable to fit his feet in the shoes of his predecessor maverick Kalembe Ndile whom he ousted during last December polls.
Political storm is brewing in the constituency. The electorate complains openly that the MP is elusive and has abandoned the constituency. “We only see him on the TV screens in Nairobi “ a source said. They accuse the MP running away from the area.
But Kaloki denies these alle­gations and avers that he has been down to earth and present in Kibwezi. He blames the slan­der campiagn on his de­tractors and political foes who are undermining him.
The MP has successfully lobbied for Kibwezi university campus at Kasayani. The 6,000 acre land was earmarked for squatters who continue to languish in makeshift ramshackle struc­tures scattered all over the vast con­stituency.
President Mwai Kibaki is set to visit the constituency later this month and address the pe­rennial issue of landlessness .
Pro, Kaloki was bouyed to poll victory by clinging to ODM K Kalonzo Musyoka. He is a non­de­script and political green­horn who needs some time to grasp the rudiments of being a lawmaker.
The electorate were used to the antics of Ndile . They could dine and wine with their leader upto the wee hours of the night. But the incumbent who is a scholar is said to have distanced himself from populist politics.

Ndambuki roots for horticulture

FARMERS earned Ksh126 billion from estimated 7.8m metric tones of horticulture produce in the domestic market in 2007.
Agriculture assistant minister Gedion Ndambuki said exports of the same produce generated a staggering Ksh57 billion during the year.He said Horticultural Crop De­vel­opment Authority (HCDA) is ranked second for con­trib­uting the above foreign income to the GDP during the period. The minister revealed this during a farmers education fo­rum or­ga­nized by HCDA at Kilungu Day High school in his Kaiti constituency. The theme of the education day was to promote hor­ti­cul­ture and marketing in Arid and Semi Arid areas with a view to promoting pro­duction and marketing of the produce in the regions.
He noted that 80 per cent of the total production and earnings in the horticulture industry is from small scale farmers.
Ndambuki attributed the re­markable growth in the in­dus­try to a dynamic private sector which has developed and profitably marketed a wide range of hor­ti­cul­ture produce of diverse markets.
He said the HCDA is now fo­cusing on the domestic market due to its importance, with emphasis on production of safe and quality products.
“Recent developments indicate that there is more potential in local markets which consume over 95 percent, leaving 5 per cent for export”, said the min­is­ter.
He reiterated his ministry’s commitment to build the ca­pacity of farmers to enable them re­alize food security and generate in­comes.
The Kaiti MP encouraged farmers to take advantage of the ex­isting programmes and prospects that the government is initiating in their respective regions.
He pledged to lobby for in­creased funding to the ministry so that it could achieve its desired goals to help farmers.
The minister announced that the government had heard the cries of farmers over the high fertilizer prices adding that Ksh11 billion worth of fertiliser is being sold to farmers at subsidized prices.
HCDA General Manager Finance Mr James Nguku said the Au­thority has come up with a programme for the Semi Arid Regions whose fruits meet in­ter­na­tional markets stan­dards.
Mr Nguku who represented the MD the Authority is championing a new development of markets for the horticultural crops pro­duce.
General managers Ms Grace Kyalo (Technical Services) and Caro Mumbi (marketing) and other HCDA employees attended the forum.

EDITORIAL
Kenya's leaders must account for all their actions


THE whole country is cap­ti­vated by debate over what to do with the Report by Judge Phillip Waki on the causes the election vio­lence that engulfed this country immediately after the December 2007 elections.
First, it is good that there is a debate taking place over the report because such dis­course ventilates emotions that would oth­er­wise be manifested with disastrous result.
Indeed such debate is nec­essary so that the whole country understands where we are and why we are there. By debating openly different view points and positions will emerge and it is our hope that such debate would gain better meaning only if it fosters better understating that Kenyans belong to different ethnicity, thought and demeanor, all of which must be accommodated in this one county called Kenya.
It is because as a nation, Kenyans must develop reliable, tested and resilient mechanisms that can ventilate issues no matter how emotive they are, so that in the end, a better understanding is natured.
Therefore let no one stymie the debate that is raging on as long as it will not bamboozle this nation.
For in the end, it will be important to come alive to the fact that matters can never be taken for granted any further.
Taken for granted? Yes. Citizens of this country have for years been taken fro granted by their leaders- so much so that for over 45 years of independence not a single of the pledges made since independence have been fulfilled. Yet no one cares to explain- let alone apologize for a leadership that lies to its people and steals from them in shockingly predictable patterns.
Indeed, this raging debate says just one thing; that some one must take responsibility for one’s action at some point or other.
It is because tax payers can not just fund an election and sit back when they are told that the winner can never be known. Even if the winner will never be known, don’t Kenyans know the fellows who failed to utilize their taxes well enough to determine who was elected during the presidential election?
Arising from this dereliction of national duty, many Kenyans were killed by both their countrymen and the police in the mayhem that followed.
Thus the debate that is raging is seeking to identify where exactly the buck stops. And it must identiify this urgently. Does it stop with Kenya’s delinquent leadership under President Kibaki that had all the briefs that war was afoot and did nothing, the ruinous electoral Commotion led by wagging Samuel Kivuitu , or Raila Odinga, the Commander In Chief of the peoples’ Army- whose call for mass action was obeyed with calamitous outcome?
We at The Anchor believe that at the end of all this brouhaha, someone must be made to account- so that those who come after them will learn the lesson that there is a price to pay for every thing that one does.
It is unacceptable that a leadership can take things or granted- all for the purposes of self preservation. It is unacceptable that Kenyans slaughter one another and no one is ever held to account- even when those who led the process are known people.
It is unacceptable that a country can hold an election and the winner remains unknown. Indeed it is very criminal, if by any means one steals an election- stealing the will of the people.
It is unacceptable that Members of Parliament can legislate on tax rates and then turn around and refuse to pay the same. What a criminal leadership this is!
Its is unacceptable that as Kenya moves to a quarter century of independence, she can not secure and feed her people due to reckless planning, sheer theft of public resources and bad governance. In fact, the ‘unacceptables’ are shockingly many.
Of course all these things are possible if Kenya has taken the path of failed states- like Somalia.
So we ask: Is Kenya edging towards the status of a failed state or is it just one of them? Let the debate continue in the hope that accountability will be enhanced to irreversible positions.
- Martin Masai- EDITOR

Human Rights: Here are your en­titlements and ob­li­gations


Human rights are the basic stan­dards without which a per­son cannot live dignity. These rights are inherent, in­vio­lable and in­alienable. This means that you are born with them and that they should not be violated or taken away from you. Human rights are not bought, begged, inherited or earned. Every per­son is entitled to human rights re­gardless of age, sex, colour, race religion, culture, na­tion­ality, creed, language, ethnic group, political beliefs or socio-eco­nomic class. They represent human values that apply to all people in the world. Human rights can be grouped into three different categories: Civil and political rights, social, eco­nomic and cultural rights, and Group/solidarity rights

Civil and political rights
Civil and political rights are also referred to as first-gen­eration rights because they seek to pro­tect the original state and dig­nity of the in­di­vidual human being. They include the right to life, right to liberty, pro­tection from torture, in­human and degrading pun­ishment, freedom of assem­bly, freedom from dis­crimi­nation, freedom of ex­pression, equality before the law, etc.

Economic, social and cultural Rights
Economic, Social and Cul­tural rights seek to protect the con­ditions and standards that enable people to live in dig­nity as human beings. This means, among other things, the right to basic services, to health and edu­cation, to adequate shel­ter, to access to food and clean wa­ter, to reasonable standards of sanitation and waste dis­posal, and the right to lei­sure including reasonable limitation of working hours. Although the government bears the primary responsibility for the pro­vision of basic services, citi­zens also have a large re­spon­si­bility for making these social rights a reality and in keeping local services pro­visions accountable.

Group/solidarity Rights
The group or solidarity rights that though accruing it the individual, they can only be claimed in the con­text of the community/group. In this category are the rights to de­vel­opment, the rights to peace and the right to a clean and healthy en­vi­ronment.

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
Children’s rights are similar to those of adults. How­ever, some are of par­ticu­lar im­por­tance to chil­dren, based on the prin­ciple of ‘the best in­ter­ests of the child’. All of these are accom­pa­nied by re­spon­si­bilities that children should fulfill, such as re­spects for parents, other mem­bers of the family and the community. The rights can be clustered into four categories:

Survival Rights
These include the rights to life, in­di­cating that a child’s life is pro­tected before, during and after birth. The child also has the right to have access to health care services so as to reduce infant and child mortality. Pre-and post-natal health care for mothers is of essence in this context. The right ad­equate living standards cover nu­trition, clothing and shelter to nur­ture the child’s development.

Development rights
These rights aim to promote the child’s physical, emo­tional, men­tal and social de­vel­opment and in­clude the right to edu­cation, the right to leisure and play, and to think in­de­pen­dently.

Protection rights
These include:
The right of children to live with there parents or guardian (in­cluding safe adoption),the right to an iden­tity, name and nationality,the right to be pro­tected from child labour, the right of physically and mentally challenged chil­dren to be treated with respect and proper care, the right to be protected from physical and psychological abuse in­cluding corporal pun­ishment as well as all forms of begging, sale, trafficking or abduction, the right of protection from the female genital mutilation (FGM) and any other cultural practice that is harmful for the child, the right to be pro­tected from sexual abuse, the right to pro­tection from recruitment in armed con­flict and the right to protection in times of war.

Participation Rights
These rights cluster around the ability of children to ex­press their views freely. They in­clude; the right to freedom of Ex­pressions, the right to par­tici­pate in cultural ac­tivities of one’s commu­nity (unless they are of a nature harmful to the child),the right to receive and share ideas through a va­ri­ety of means (though the children have he right to be pro­tected from harmful lit­era­ture such as pornography and violent movies), the right to par­tici­pate in decisions that affect them in the family, school, community and so­ci­ety. Kenya signed the convention on the rights of the Child in 1990. In 2001, Kenya enacted a The Children’s Act that seeks to do­mes­ti­cate the pro­visions of this convention.

Persons with Disability Act and Human Rights
A person with disabilities has been defined by the UN General Assem­bly to include any person ‘unable to ensure by himself or herself , wholly or partly, the ne­cessities of a normal human in­di­vidual and/or social life, as a result of a deficiency, either con­geni­tal or not, in his or her physical or mental capabilities’.
The rights of disabled persons un­der the Act include: the right to em­ployment, the right against dis­crimi­nation, right to edu­cation, and the right to health.

FEATURE
Ghosts cause terror in Mwingi and Kyuso
By Betty Munyithya


“Kill them, kill them” the deaf­ening sound of pupils filled the air. Stones, planks of wood and metal bars were being thrown from all the di­rections. The rec­on­ciliation team stared death on the face. The ‘possessed’ pupils bayed for their blood. The unlucky got hit by the flying stones while the vehicle windows were shuttered by the missiles. The Tseikuru Primary School had suddenly turned into a den of madness.
The reconciliation meeting never kicked off. The pupils turned chaotic af­ter spotting the man they had accused of using jinn’s to terrorize them. The man, Mr. Mwasya Kimanzi, a prominent busi­nessman was in the company of Dis­trict security committee, the OCPD, Education offi­cials and the National se­cu­rity in­telli­gence service (NSIS) who had taken him back home after the pupils set on fire all his property at the Tseikuru village, his mother land.
Two shops at Tseikuru market, a granary with 102 sacks of assorted ce­reals and his Toyota Hilux double cabin pick-up were set on fire by the pupils who were alleged to have been incited by some teachers and villagers.
That fateful day the then Dis­trict Commissioner, Mr. A M. Lentoimaga and his entourage had escorted Mr. Mwasya home to reconcile with the pupils for the sake of his security.
Unknown to the DC the pupils had hurriedly closed all the school gates when they team entered the com­pound. As they prepared to commence the meeting the more than 500 pupils run from every cor­ner of the school and started pelting them with stones. The DC’s bodyguard fired in the air to scare them but they be­came more aggressive amid ‘Kill them all’ song. Mr. Lentoimaga and his group were forced to flee on foot with the pupils on hot pursuit. The drivers forced the way through the barbed fence deflating two tyres.
“Something must have gone wrong with our society. If young boys and girls could decide your fate by burning what you’ve rightfully in­vested without a slight evidence of the accu­sations leveled on you then the society has decayed com­pletely.” The shaken Mr. Mwasya said.
The retired primary school teacher who was a senior chief before being elected to Mwingi county council has since moved to Tana Delta where he has founded a new home.
After a short period of time the story was all over again but this time round at the family of Mr. Kiinga, a promi­nent farmer from Kathaalani village in Mivukoni- Kyuso district.
His hard earned wealthy was re­duced to ashes in broad day light. The villagers he had known since childhood descended on his family granary with 20 sacks of millet, 16 of maize and 16 of cowpeas and torched it before razing his modern house.
His cattle were not spared ei­ther; the irate villagers followed them to the grazing field and cut three of them with a machete. Reason? Ghosts he allegedly bought invaded the village leaving a trail of havoc.
It was like a day time drama, all what he had gained for many years was con­sumed by fire within a very short period of time reducing the once wealthy family to a pau­per.
He fled for his dear life with his ex­tended family to Kyuso town where he became an Internally Displaced Per­son housed in a roofless con­demned house burnt by a mys­te­rious fire some years ago.
Mr Kiinga became yet another victim of the imagined sin of owning jinns- having lost everything to fire started by envious neighbors. Mr. Mwasya in­ci­dent had not even died and yet another family few miles apart had ex­pe­ri­enced the same pangs of ha­tred.
The disease magnitude grew and took another root. From the villages the menace found shelter in education in­sti­tutions, especially pub­lic schools. Some teachers suffered for becoming easy targets of the Devil.
A suffering seen by many as a baby born out of witch hunting, hatred and rivalry among teachers them­selves and on the other hand parents. The shaming sce­nario has greatly con­trib­uted to the schools poor per­for­mance in the National ex­ami­nations besides other factors.
Public secondary and primary schools have become a fighting field where teachers and parents settle scores. “The ‘creation’ of Ghosts, the unseen spir­its, is one of the best way that has been improvised by feuding teachers and parents to settle long standing fights origi­nating from the villages or within the school fra­ter­nity” said Mr. M. Julius an educationist
So far more than 30 schools in the districts have reportedly been dis­rupted due to alleged ghost in­vasion. These cases cut across the divisions in the two dis­tricts with Migwani Division in Mwingi district reg­is­tering more cases.
Innocent pupils have born the brunt of these fights while others have been lured through coaching to im­pli­cate some teachers, a case that leaves many with doubts whether ghosts really exist.
Last year, a parent from Muumoni Division of Kyuso district was said to have coached her daughter to act as if possessed by ghosts when in school and then name her uncle while on that con­dition to show that he was re­spon­sible.
The head teacher informed the area chief to investigate and the pupil admitted to have been coached by her mother to implicate her rich uncle in or­der to tarnish his name.
Last month, more than 100 par­ents of Kasevi primary school in Mwingi Central division walked to the school while on session and forcefully removed their adamant children from the school. The pupils were said to have shut their classes from inside to oppose the move to dis­rupt their learning. The angry parents resorted to throwing stones through the classes’ windows to scare them out. Fearing for their lives the pupils scattered for their safety. The parents then held a peaceful dem­on­stration to petition the District Commissioner, Mr. Peter. Kinuthia, to trans­fer three female teachers they accused of being responsible for the ghosts invasion.
The school, since last year had been char­ac­terized by severe wars between parents and some teachers believed to be their (parents) relatives and neigh­bors. Generally
the pupils’ academy suffered immensely due teachers’ low morale to teach. The reason as to why the learners opposed their school being shut. A standard one pupil was reported to have loudly won­dered in kikamba ‘yu nimauka yingi kutwanangia sukulu witu- transilating- ‘Now the parents have come again to disrupt our school’. This showed that even the young in the lower classes new the parents were not right.
Out of 417 pupils a lone can­di­date defied parents’ orders to keep away from the school until par­ents demands were met by the education office. The standard eight boy was quietly preparing for the Kenya Cer­tifi­cate of Primary Education (KCPE), a quiet picture advising par­ents to think twice for the sake of education.
“The pupils went home unwillingly. They did not understand their par­ents’ motive to storm the school. Some pupils openly told their parents to seek redress at the district education office saying that the issue did not concern them in any way” said one of the two female teachers found at the deserted school.
The teacher who sought ano­nymity denied ever seeing any ghosts at the school but said there were two special cases of standard five and seven pupils who had history of falling down and behaving as if ‘possessed’ while at school, home and even at the church. She blamed the par­ents for magnifying the cases and associating them with three female teachers whom she believed were inno­cent.
The education office had ear­lier warned parents against teachers’ ha­rassment over ghost issues. The district education officer, Mr. Adano Salesa had threatened to remove the accused teachers to where education was needed most and when the Kasevi parents shut the school ille­gally, he remained steadfast over his prior warning. The DEO trans­ferred ten teachers out of twelve the school had con­trary to the parents demand to have only three transferred. He did not care much about the forthcoming standard eight na­tional examinations but proved the par­ents wrong.
But Mr. Peter Musyoka, a re­tired secondary school principal thinks oth­er­wise. “If the war between teachers and parents against the back­drop of Ghosts has to be worn, then education officials must not dis­miss parents without listening to their plight.” He said
Mr. Musyoka believed devil wor­shipping had found a place in schools and Jinn’s were one form of the worship. He said with the high cost of living, people were compelled by demands to secretly seek alternative demonic ways of getting richer that later prove costly to maintain. “How would you describe a case whereby a STD one pupil brought up in a remote place like Tseikuru would un­con­sciously fall down and fluently speak in coast Swahili and has never set foot in Mombasa ?” Mr. Musyoka asked.
“Let the officials scrutinize the parents complain keenly to see the genu­ineness of the cases before dis­missing them. The government should urgently intervene to save edu­cation by formulating acts that could settle such cases when reported in schools although the constitution of Kenya does not rec­og­nize the ex­istence of Ghosts” Mr. Musyoka added.
“Jinn’s issue is complicated issue that has gone out of hand in the district. When it started the leaders ig­nored to counter it with the attention it deserved. They assumed things would be well but now the Ghost prob­lem is threatening to tear families apart and finish education.” Mr. Gideon Sirai, the Mwingi Division Officer 1 said.
He said research to find the truth about the disturbing issue was the only solution to fix it once and for all. “Re­search could act as a guide to settle the issues. Everybody including the par­ents would be in a position to know the truth instead of blaming each other without concrete evidence.”
The Mr. Sirai ruled out the transfers of the affected teachers as an apt so­lution saying that such a move would set a bad precedence that would see par­ents in other schools follow suit. “This could give parents a loophole to demand from the government instead of giving dialogue chance for a consensus and this could lead to a showdown in the learning in­sti­tutions” he said
Councilor Josphine Mwilu of Thitani/Nguutani ward supported Mr. Sirai’s thoughts. She called the gov­ernment to form a commission of en­quiry to investigate the cases in the whole Ukambani region adding that many schools were experiencing the disease wave that becomes active during exam time. “‘Possessed’ pupils run from one place to other calling names of well known people in the village. The other pupils get attracted hence disrupting education. Can the government form a commission of en­quiry to get to the bottom of the matter? Children need to learn.” She said.
Mrs. B Muli (not his real name) a business lady in town said Ghost world was a modern bomb made in Ukambani by the lazy to bomb the hardworking lot. She described it as ‘technology’ that has replaced the fa­mous sorcery to finish painstaking lot saying ghost was that one million shillings loan in your pocket you took from the lending institutions to in­vest that has given relatives and friends sleepless nights to speculate the source.
However Father Marete- former Father Nguutani Catholic Church felt that the solution to Jinn’s invasion lied with the church leaders whom he de­scribed as having special anointing to exorcise the spirits through preaching love.
He said preaching love messages to the congregation to drum a positive change would stop hatred and rivalry in our society that has brought about the Jinn’s issues. “Unlike political leaders church leaders mingle with the society on daily basis and if they can take that oppor­tu­nity to preach love messages to­wards a positive change then the so­ci­ety would love one anther, the only solution to hatred and witch hunting.” The Catho­lic Father said.
Today is Mr. Mwasya and Mr. Kiinga’s day, tomorrow might be your relative, friend, neighbor or yourself. The worrying question is when is the date of the death of the killer disease?
Our people have suffered greatly and si­lently as emerging world of per­ceived Jinn’s consume their hood. Wealth accrued through untold suffering has been re­duced to ashes and their owners sent to silent IDPs near their homes.
Innocent children have ended up being traumatized to helplessly watch their future become a mirage. It has taken years for leaders in the two districts to raise their voices to con­demn the disease that has left fami­lies with tears and teachers de­mor­alized.
When Tseikuru primary school pupils rose against Mr. Mwasya and the Villagers against Mr. Kiinga’s property, the area MP Kalonzo Musyoka who is also the Vice President was busy shopping for a political party outfit that could see him capture the presidential seat come last year’s general elections. Even the most respected and hardworking MP for Mwingi South Mr. David Musila shut his eyes his when learning almost came to a stand still at Kavaliani primary school (a school next to his home) following Ghosts in­vasion issues.
He did not raise a voice to show concern over the issue. Only re­cently, he started showing worry over the alarming cases of Ghosts issues in Migwani Di­vision his home area. Kasevi primary school in­ci­dent was the talk of the town but the area Councilor Patricia K. Kimanzi, then Mwingi town council chairlady was no­where to be seen.
To her the saga was like a Holly­wood movie unfolding at the cen­ter of her ward. Pastors have catalysed the jinn’s issues that have exploded like a hand grenade. They’ve benefited tre­men­dously from the ig­no­rance of our community. The Kenya National Union of Teachers Mwingi branch officials has followed suit. Who will then save the commu­nity of Mwingi and Kyuso districts from the demonic world?

Traffic Police on the spot as Red Cross
install Emergency Response Units


The recent transfer and change of guard at the Machakos traffic police office has not stopped soliciting of bribes from mo­torists but has escalated the prac­tice by the officers.
Drivers and matatu operators along the roads in the region are complaining about the way the uniformed men and women officers are openly demanding and taking bribes as little as Kshs. 50 to as much as Sh 200, depending on the type of the vehicles.
This comes as the Red Cross stepped up a Road Safety Campaign to reduce road carnage on Nairobi-Mombasa Road especially in the run-up to the Christmas holidays. Eye brows were raised recently when Traffic Po­lice failed to attend a stake holders Steering Committee Meeting at the Red Cross offices to strategise on how to en­hance road safety in the region.
As we went to Press, Kenya Red Cross was training Traffic police Officers from the region on swift emergency re­sponse mechanism and enhanced road safety engagements. The Road Safety ini­tiative has seen the establishment of six Emer­gency Response Units (ERUs) be­tween the two road networks be­tween Machakos- Makindu and Kyumbi- down to Mtito Andei. ERUs on the Machakos Makindu road are situated at Mukuyuni, Kathonzweni and Mbuvo while Mtito Andei, Makindu and Emali host the other Red Cross ERUs.
It is alleged that traffic police officers share the bribes they collect with their bosses in a long line that traverses from districts, the provinces and up to Vigi­lance House. A police officer we spoke in confidence says he can not deny it. “How else do you explain the fact that brib­ery on the roads is not ending and there seems to be no action from either the traffic bosses or the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission?”, he asked. A matatu op­erator said part of their daily ex­penses include bribes to traffic po­lice to secure safe passage on the roads, which comes along with less strin­gent enforcement of the Traffic Act and low compliance with PSV regu­lations.
To sustain being posted to traffic Po­lice, the officers get to the roads as early as 6 a.m. and position themselves at stra­te­gic points away from public glare, taking the practice from the eyes of town residents but forgetting that matatu and passen­gers are watching them as they collect their loot, usually placed in the driving licenses which are the first thing they demand on stopping the public service vehicles.
The prac­tice has be­come so common that even school going chil­dren and other daily commuters always urge the drivers to clear with the traffic officers fast so that they do not get late.
Sand and charcoal Lorries along Mombasa-Nairobi high­way are also com­plaining about the occupants of high­way patrol cars one based at Kyumbi Trading Centre GKA 972K and another which operates between Athi River and Kyumbi GKA 973K for de­manding between Kshs. 200 and Kshs. 500 for every trip they make.
Besides traffic Police Administration po­lice officers also police the char­coal trade and reap heavily by collecting bribes early in the morning and at night, the best time for charcoal op­erators.
The practice is common place in roads in the entire region and there is hardly jus­ti­fi­cation of the early rising police officers for being on the road as there are no corresponding cases taken to court. Sources at the Law Courts say the traffic police is taking advantage of Cash bails they raise from those who are even­tually charged as it is not surren­dered to court as is the re­quirement once the suspects turn up in court.
Two weeks ago, a senior magistrate en­gaged in a wild goose chase with a traffic officer as she demanded to know why cash bail raised by suspects who had turned up in court had not been surren­dered and receipted at the court registry.

Hunger: Kalonzo's wife pledges to lobby VP to seek relief food

VICE Presi­dent Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka’s wife Pauline Kathini Kalonzo has appealed for co­op­eration among Kenyans. “With­out it we are going no­where,” she said and fur­ther asked people to fear God. She at the same time expressed her deep concern over the ex­or­bi­tantly hiking of essen­tial commodities prices in the country. And she therefore pe­ti­tioned the gov­ernment to reduce the prices to be affordable to the citizens. Mrs. Kalonzo regretted that the prices problem had caused unnec­essary suffering to the pub­lic. The Vice President’s wife de­cried myriad problems pul­veriz­ing the Ukambani region in­cluding pe­rennial water prob­lems.
She urged the locals to make sure that they engage in local de­vel­opment initiatives in­cluding church work. She added: “I am a devoted Christian. I am free to assist where all I will be re­quested to help.” She said that it is only the unity among the Kamba community which will forge the community ahead. “It is a concerted effort that will make us forge ahead. We are for development. We are not a privi­leged community to have development. We have no water among other basic needs,” she added. Kathini said that the fam­ine is for everybody and the Kamba community should not be despised for that. “Those who are abusing the Kamba commu­nity, God will help us. God is there and He will defend us,” she said. She said that the residents of the Ukambani region are hungry and that they need famine relief food.
She pledged that she is going to talk to her husband to request the government to provide the locals with the relief. Mrs. Kalonzo was speaking to thousands of people who attended a fund-drive in aid of the Kunikila Africa In­land Church in Matinyani location, Kitui District where she was the chief guest.
The fund-raiser netted a total of 1,672,628 shillings including Mrs. Kalonzo’s contribution of 283,000 shillings. The organising committee gave out 731,000 shillings, former cabinet minister and who is also the area’s former Member of Parliament, Winfred Nyiva Mwendwa, gave 47,000 shillings. Lawyer Paul Musili Wambua gave out 100,000 shillings among other con­tributors. Mrs. Mwendwa and Lawyer Wambua also addressed the gathering among other speakers. Several Kitui Mu­nici­pal councilors led by the acting Mayor, Kathukya Munguti , unani­mously threw their weight behind the Vice President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka .
They assured the Vice Presi­dent that the ODM-Kenya in Kitui Dis­trict will elect people of high integrity and with leadership quali­fi­cations as the party leaders during the party’s grassroot elections. “We will not allow anybody to dismantle our unity. Kalonzo is the pioneer of that unity we are talking about in the Ukambani region,” the civic leaders added. They included Kathukya, Elvis Muthui Muluvi, Pius Kilonzi Mutino, Geoffrey Mumo Kithae, Stephen Kiluu Wambua and Stephen Mumo Musyimi.

Mbooni row: Kalulu now goes to court
By Anchor Writer

The row over the location of Mbooni District Headquarters is far from over even as the High Court declined to quash a de­cision by the government to re-locate the new Mbooni district headquarters.
A former Mbooni MP Fredrick Mulinge Kalulu has moved to the court to seek the courts in­ter­vention in the matter.
Judge Justice Issac Lenaola said he could not quash a decision that the court was not aware of.
He asked Kalulu’s lawyer An­drew Makundi to show the court the law that allowed him (the judge) to act on a document not before the court.
The Judge noted that the four divisions that comprise the dis­trict are divided down the middle adding,” Why should I favour one against the other”.
Justice Lenaola gave the ad­vo­cate leave file further affi­da­vits and appear before him with the necessary docu­men­tation.
The court case follows last weeks decision by the gov­ernment to move the headquarters from Kikima in Mbooni division to Mbumbuni in Kisau.
The newly posted DC Mr.Fredrick Khisia confirmed Mbumbuni as the district headquarters when he led wananchi to mark this years Kenyatta day celebration there.
The move to re-locate the offices was in line with an earlier de­cision by delegates from the four divisions last July through voting.
However, the twenty delegates from Mbooni division abstained as twenty delagates each from Kalawa and Kisau voted in favour of Mbumbuni. Tulimani’s eigh­teen delegates present were split, with eight voting Mbumbuni and ten Kikima.
Even as Mr Kalulu goes to court, questions are being raised as to what mandate he wields to con­test the decision since he was not party to the decision making process that led to the selection of Mbumbuni.
The row over Mbooni head­quar­ters has split Mbooni leaders down the middle and is giving local MP Mutula Kilonzo sleepless nights as he is known to have favoured Kikima. His supporters in Kikima accuse him of not being able to influence the decision to retain the DC in Kikima, while pro­po­nents of Mbumbuni accuse him of be­traying them at the time of need even after voting for him in the last general election.(see re­lated story elsewhere)

Boy starves to death in Miangeni

A three year old child starved to death and three others are reportedly ailing as hunger strikes parts of Mbooni district.
Confirming the death, Miangeni sub-location assis­tant chief Mr Frederick Mulee, said the child died of malnutrition as the family had without enough food for days.
Also confirming the death, the mother of the child Ms Mbithe Mutisya, said the boy by the name Wambua Mbithe has been ailing for some time due to lack of balanced diet and adequate food before he succumbed to the untimely demise.
The mother of four said the re­maining three kids two girls and one boy were also in the danger of starving to death like their brother.
Addressing the press at the home of the diseased during the boy’s funeral arrangements, the assis­tant chief said at least 3000 people in the sub-location were in the danger of starving to death if urgent measures to provide them with relief food were not taken.
The Athi location chief where Miangeni sub location falls in Mr Patrick Mwanthi said, he had ear­lier written to his boss narrating how the hunger stricken residents would start dying if not supplied with relief food before June this year.
The chief said it was unfortunate that the location which com­prises Miangeni, Kavumbu and Kinze sub-locations with a population of more than 6000 people were at the verge of starving to death before the end of the year if no urgent help is extended to them.
He called upon the government to immediately move in and arrest the situation before it gets out of hand.
A nominated councillor Mr Peter Mwanthi, who is also the Per­sonal Assistant to the Nairobi Met­ro­poli­tan Development Min­is­ter Mutula Kilonzo, who’s the Mbooni MP said this is not the first time for people to die of hun­ger in the area as it has been like a culture of the area and no body cares.
“We are tired of our people dying yet no help is extended to them’’ he said.
Mr Mwanthi said if no relief is sent to the area more people will con­tinue dying. The boy was bur­ied in an emotional at­mo­sphere replete with all trappings of poverty.


Matatu-Council battles: Just who is fooling who?
By Nguma Kitone

SO what was this hullabaloo at the Machakos Bus Park? Could it be that the newly formed Ukambani Matatu Owners Asso­ciation (UMOA) are simply keen improve their own welfare or that of commuters?
Could it be that the Municipal Council of Machakos, by re­jecting the presence of UMOA at the Bus Park, is out to frustrate efforts by the group to improve the man­agement of the busiest bus terminus in this part of the world?
Those are the big questions. But on the face of it, Umoa claims to be championing the cause of commuters and at the same time rid the park of alleged corruption by council askaris manning the terminus.
They say they formed the asso­ciation to ensure that their matatus load passengers in an organized manner and that they had stationed four of their em­ploy­ees at the terminus to pursue this goal and ensure that vehicle follow a procedure to load passengers and not a free for all arrangement. That sounds good.
So who are these Umoa people? They are owners of the mini-lorries that have been build to carry passengers like mini-buses. Truly, they are the monied ilk of Machakos who contribute over 15 million of the annual revenue at the park due to the fact that they own nearly 200 such matatus, locally called Kulutas.
These diesel- propelled Kulutas are swift and versatile vehicles that traverse the rural parts of Ukambani and zoom through Machakos enroute to Nairobi, beating the smaller Nissans and Toyotas in the scramble for passen­gers.
They are known for their speed- most of them, if not all are not fitted with speed governors or if they have, they do not work. They are owned by well connected people who bribe the traffic po­lice fabulously on the roads they ply through and there is no record that they ever are charged in court for traffic offences.
In Matatu parlance, “ Makuaa Kumini”- which translates to they dish out money generously or even carry excess passengers just like all matatus on local routes anyway- making it possible to operate quite outside the law.
It is known that they mint millions on daily basis as they charge high fares to the rural folk who use the matatus daily.
As they alleged that they wanted to take care of commuters, the group announced that they had set a fare of Ksh 150 for the mini­buses from Machakos to Nairobi- a distance of 64 kms. This implies that for the Nissans, the fare would be a cool Ksh 200 to Nairobi- yet commuters trav­eling 165kms from Nairobi to Nakuru pay the same Ksh 200!
The Machakos-Nairobi fare is just an example. Residents of Ukambani are milked to death by matatu operators on all routes and there is no one to fight for them- so any claim by Umoa to be protecting interests of the commuter is a big lie, if not pre­pos­terous.
Insiders say Umoa’s game plan is to ensure that it operates a group that would exclude the use of the bus park to vehicles that do not belong to them. The idea is targeting buses belonging to City Hoppa and others that come from Nairobi to Machakos, a move that would deny the coun­cil revenue- which the local au­thority leadership has signed a per­for­mance contract to en­hance.
The setting is such that the coun­cil will fight tooth and nail any effort that may thwart their efforts to raise revenue and hence ensure its viability.
If the current madness plan pre­vails, commuters will find them­selves without the cheap option that comes with the city hopper buses and others from Nairobi who charge a flat rate of Ksh 100 and at time mush less as Ksh 50 for the same route that locals charge between Ksh 150 and 200.
Of course, there is no doubt that the municipality must perfect the way the bus park is managed. They must ensure order, se­cu­rity; minimize corruption spirited by the payment of Ksh. 20 for drivers to jump the queue and a habit by some operators to ring the askaris to falsify arrival times so as to betray order. And following the disagreement, the matatu men have taken six councilors to court, seeking to have a free hand to operate within the station.
They wanted councilors Dorothy Nduku,Timothy Kilonzo, Musyoka Kitheka and Benard Kisilu who are members of the councils rev­enue enhancement committee stopped from in­ter­fering with their business.
But the Machakos Principal Mag­is­trate Julie Oseko declined to grant the group the order as sought through their lawyer Francis Mulu.
Mulu had argued that the coun­cil­ors stood to lose nothing because they were not matatu operators but his clients would loose business if the councillors continued to ‘interfere’ with their operations.
He said his clients paid levies to the council as required and they had therefore not flouted any council by laws.
Lawyer for the council Mr.Morris Kimuli dismissed the application for the injunction orders, saying the plaintiffs were “simply touts looking for passengers at the bus station”.
He urged the court to dismiss the application, adding “this court cannot step in to assist the plain­tiffs manage their business”.
Kimuli told the court that if the group is allowed to manage the bus park, many more cartels would come and possible take over the bus park management.
“This court has a duty to protect the public and safe-guard their interests. The bus park is a pub­lic place where commuters pick their transport and they ought to be protected from insecure in­di­viduals”, he argued.


New Monastery in Wote as Catholics await Makueni diocese


A monastery built at the cost Shs 85 million has been opened in Wote town. Sixteen nuns from Spain have taken sanctuary for worship and prayer to God.
Elegantly built, the monastery is a master piece and mile­stone in the Catholic Church de­vel­opment.
Pope Benedict’s representative to Kenya officially opened the mon­as­tery. He con­demned poll violence that rocked the coun­try after the Presidential results were announced.
Allan Paul Lebeaupin said the violence worked against the te­nets of peace and urged leaders to reconcile. “I was worried after the country sunk into poll violence after the general elections” he said and said time had come for them to reconcile and embrace peace for the wel­fare of the people. The Apostolic Nuncio was addressing the con­gre­gation af­ter consecrating the mon­as­tery of Our Lady of Consolation Chapel at Wote in Makueni dis­trict. Six­teen Spaniard nuns from the Augustinina Rec­ollect entered the pre­mises for closed-day prayers.
Pope Benedict the 16th send a message of dedication to the Makueni Catholic church and wished the nuns well in their vo­cation.
The Monastery cost the church Kshs 85 million to construct and is of its only kind in the area.
Bishops Martin Kivuva (Macha­kos) and Antony Muheria (Kitui) assisted the Nun­cio in anointing the monastery, Also present was the Spaniard con­su­late mem­bers and Makueni DC James Mwaura, among other guests. The Nuncio stressed the need for unity among the Christian faithful. He appealed to the Catho­lic faithful to shun el­ements bend on causing di­visions among them He announced that Machakos Catholic dio­cese will soon be split to create an­other diocese of Makueni. He said the elevation Makueni into a diocese should not trigger division in the church.

14 new Bishops installed as AIC defrocks Rev. Mutiso

ULTRA Conservative Africa Inland Church ( AIC) has installed a new hierarchy com­plete with 14 new Bishops headed by a Pre­siding Bishop.
It is the culmination of a long process and the church only announced it after the Reg­is­trar of Societies accepted the changes and registered the new con­sti­tution and hi­er­ar­chy last week despite an attempt by a splinter group led by Rev David Mbuvi to block the new development.
The church will now have Kenya split into regions it recognizes as Areas that will be presided over by Bishops. The Head of the church, Rev Silas Yego is the new Presiding Bishop and will be assisted by a Deputy Presiding Bishop, the Rev Gichure.
Rev Yego pre­sided over the last or­di­nary Central Coun­cil popu­larly known as Baraza Kuu. In future, he will be chairing a Coun­cil of Bish­ops and the church is soon to issue a manual to edu­cate its following on the new structures. The key feature of the new changes is the abo­lition of branches right across the country.
Area Bishops will be heading a number of District Church Councils (DCCs) that have been clustered to make Areas- the equiva­lent of a diocese.
The Anchor inquired why the church had opted for the title of Presiding Bishop for the church head instead of Archbishop and was told that since the church adheres to conservative theology, it considers that the position of Archbishop was the position of Jesus Christ and could not be held by any living mortal.
“ Our Archbishop is Jesus Christ himself. Our head here will be a presiding bishop in keeping with our conservative position. We do not believe also that the Pope is the representative of Jesus in this world as is widely professed”, said the source that is usually well informed of church doctrine development.
The Presiding Bishop is the sixth head of the AIC since its inception under the Africa Inland Mission (AIM) banner in 1895.
Its first head was known by the title Presi­dent. He was the founder of the church, the Reverend Peter Cameron Scott. He led the church from 1895 to 1896 and it con­tin­ued existing as AIM till 1961 when Rev Andrew Gichuha was installed as Presi­dent of AIC till 1971. He was succeeded as President by the Rev Wellington E. Mulwa, who served from 1971 to 1979. By this time, the title had changed from Presi­dent to Bishop. He was succeeded by Rev Ezekiel Birech, who served between 1980 to 1996. Next on line was Bishop Dr. Titus Musili Kivunzi, who served from 1996 to 2001, when Bishop Yego was elected to head the church. He now becomes the first Pre­siding Bishop of AIC.
Records show that the church lead­ership begun using the gowns in 1978, following the death of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta when it was decreed that only church leaders wearing the gowns would be allowed entry to specific areas reserved for the church. Bishop Birech swiftly acquired one, ush­ering in a new phase of the church.
Meanwhile, the Machakos District Church Council has dismissed its chairman Rev Ri­ch­ard Kalan’gai Mutiso and relieved him from all pastoral re­spon­si­bilities.
His dismissal follows months of sus­pension from the chairmanship of the DCC following accusations of improper conduct that came to the fore as he forced his way to become Pastor in charge of Bomani AIC.
Mutiso had run down the DCC as he wielded a heavy hand that tormented pastors and shoved them left right and centre, creating a subdued revolt against his rule.
He had been eying Bomani, a much prized church due to its size and fabu­lous gen­er­osity of its flock to make a come-back.
This was preceded by constant pressure to remove pastors from the church to make way for him. His predecessor, Pastor Jeremiah Muoki had been threat­ened with many transfers a move that was resisted by Local Church el­ders who believed that Muoki was best suited for the Bomani Con­gre­gation.
When Muoki finally left, Mutiso finally posted himself to Bomani. By this time accusations were flying that his conduct at Mwanyani AIC was wanting and that he was not the right caliber to work in Bomani. Worse still, Mutiso faced accu­sations of indulgences that were improper and he readily denied them.
His fall became inevitable when he set the date to get to Bomani after rejecting advise not to report there. When he fi­nally arrived, Mutiso was greeted with graffiti and leaflets telling him off and once he left the church compound un­der es­cort from elders, the DCC promptly send him packing for two months.
Informed sources say his suspension was extended for another two months and it was not until Tuesday, No­vem­ber 11,2008 that he was called for the Day of Judgment following months of in­ves­ti­gations. Even then, Mutiso, a very strong willed char­ac­ter, went down fighting.
The five man panel told him to his face that a decision had been taken to defrock him until such a time that he had shown cause to be fit to return to the fold (Kusyoka Muambani). We shall dig in to get the specific accusations that Mutiso faced and exact findings that led to his conviction. But key to his conviction is a story revolving around a woman at Mwanyani AIC Church.
Similar accusations from Bomani were abandoned after those who had allegedly witnessed funny trends refused to come forward, a very telling statement about the Bomani con­gre­gation.
Mutiso reacted with a 40-minute rant during which the five officials remained silent for the man to empty his heart until he said he had finished what he had to say.
Mutiso emerged from the meeting and spoke to friends about his fate and said only one official- Mr Timothy Ikomba had ‘opted to die with him’. Ikomba is a friend of Mutiso and is believed to have been a lone voice in defense of Mutiso.
He will be paid some gratuity- one month’s salary for every year worked. Mutiso has a service of 28 years but the document upon which terms of his gra­tuity will be cal­cu­lated says one can not be paid for more than 12 years of service, a very dis­honest and unfair po­sition indeed for loyal pastors.
The DCC, The Anchor understood, had briefed the Area Bishop Bernard Nguyo of their findings and he could not approve of the findings until he listened again with his committee, during which it was re­solved that Mutiso be given the Marching Orders.
Mutiso confirmed that he had been dis­missed and asked: What more are you looking for? I’m now at home with God, the two of us”
We also verified that Mutiso was yet to get his termination letter because some­one was said to be unwilling to write it.

–Get Anchored

Masaku traders sacco changes name

MASAKU Traders sacco is baptizing itself for strategic purposes.
It is changing to Universal Traders Sacco, a strategy that will open doors to traders in all 12 districts of Ukambani and be­yond.
The name change comes as a solution to demands from traders from other dis­tricts to form saccos with names of their dis­tricts even as they know the advantages of sticking to the original sacco they formed before the split of the greater Macha­kos District.
The sacco’s general manager Mr Stephen Kisili, said the reason for the change of the name was for strategic approach to give it a broader per­spective and catchment area.
Since Machakos district has been split into new districts with different names, the sacco management devised a strategy to retain original membership, create room for more and halt the de­mands to have saccos sprouting to identify them­selves with names of new administrative areas. The treasurer Mr Jonah Malika said mem­bership of the sacco was now open to the entire country and not just Ukambani region.
The Machakos Bomani AIC band en­ter­tained guests during which more than 300 new members enrolled in Tala as the Bomani AIC Brass Band played religious melodies to entertain those attending
In another development, the Chairman Pastor Isaiah Mutungi announced that the sacco had set aside Sh20million to loan members buy the Co-operative bank shares.
Mr Mutungi said already arrangements had been finalized through the co-op­erative bank which has contracted the sacco an agency to sell the shares.
Mr Mutungi was speaking at Tala town, Kangundo district.
The occasion was also attended by the world council of credit unions( WOCCU) world project director Mr Jesus Chavez, who urged saccos in the country to con­sider reducing their interest rates to attract more members.

Kids get Red Cross cer­tifi­cates
By Boniface Mulu

THE Kitui branch of the Kenya Red Cross Society yesterday issued a total of 60 Kitui Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Primary and Secondary School children with some membership certificates.
The 60 are 30 primary pupils and 30 sec­ondary students. They were issued with the certificates by the Kitui branch of the Kenya Red Cross Society’s dissemi­nation-cum-public relations officer, Miss Chris­tine Vethi, where the ceremony was held at the school. The Kitui SDA School chil­dren have two clubs with two patrons. And during the colourful ceremony, the two school clubs patrons Hiram Munyua and J.Kirwa got life KRCS membership cer­tifi­cates. Miss Vethi disseminated to the gathering through video-showing of ‘The Story of an Idea’ that is on the origination of the Red Cross Movement in the world.
Vethi said that the 60 Kitui SDA School children are the first and the last to get individual KRCS mem­bership cer­tifi­cates. “In due future, the mem­bership cer­tifi­cates will come per clubs and not individual,” Vethi said. The KRCS official congratulated the Kitui SDA School chil­dren for forming clubs and she urged others to emulate them. She talked about the Kitui SDA School ’s clubs activities that they started early this year.
She regretted that the activities were dis­rupted by six times fire outbreaks in the school in June and July this year, forcing the early closing of the learning institution. Vethi and the school prin­ci­pal Martin Akoto said that the school fires caused a lot of damages to the school property worth millions of shillings.
They appealed to well-wishers to fi­nan­cially and materially assist the school. They appealed to the Water and Irrigation Minister Charity Kaluki Ngilu to provide them with water tanks. “We also need some food assistance for the school.
The Kitui SDA School is a non profit making institution under the Seventh Day Adventist Church ,” they added. They regretted that the school might be closed earlier any time from now due to lack of food for the children.

Wavinya demands action on killer vehicle
By Nguma Kitone

KATHIIANI MP Wavinya Ndeti is de­manding action against the owner and driver of a truck that collided with a matatu killing eight of her con­stitu­ents.
Ms Ndeti warns the police against foul play in investigations into the accident caused by sheer negligence.
Youth Affairs and Sports assistant min­is­ter Wavinya Ndeti demanded the arrest and prosecution of the lorry driver that killed the eight on the Machakos-Kitui road.
She said she had information the lorry was badly packed on the road at the time of the accident near Kaseve trading centre about 9kms from Machakos town.
“This is a matter that no one should play around with. It is not an easy thing to loose eight people in a single road accident out of carelessness”, quipped the irate Kathiani MP.
The minister spoke as she was on her way from the homes of the families who lost their kin in the grisly accident where she presented them with kshs.40, 000.00 to meet mortuary expenses.
She called on the traffic police to be more vigilant and ensure traffic rules were en­forced to the letter to help reduce road carnage.
“The traffic police department must en­sure motorist strictly adhered to traffic rules and regulations to avert road deaths”, she said.
Ms Wavinya appealed to Public Service Vehicle drivers to exercise caution in a bid to minimize accidents.
The eight perished when the matatu they were traveling in had its right side com­pletely ripped off by a cutter plate of a caterpillar being carried by the lorry which was headed for Macha­kos. The matatu was from Machakos town destined for Ithaeni in Kathiani con­stituency.
The question is why the lorry ferrying the killer vessel did not have a wide load sign if not escorted, to warn other motorists as required by law.
Media people were perplexed to hear a police officer shamelessly brief the OCPD that the lorry was not to blame even as it was evident that the load on the lorry was wide load and lingered dangerously be­yond the body of the lorry carrying it.
Eye witnesses say the matatu was ne­go­ti­ating a corner and did not an­tici­pate the wide load on the lorry and that it could not have been over speeding as the po­lice are alleging.
Worse still, the lorry was moving at night and was not escorted to warn other mo­torists of an oncoming wide load as is the practice.

Ngilu's fury over Kitui-Kibwezi Road
By Boniface Mulu

THE public consultative meeting to talk about tarmacking of the 191-kilometre long Kangonde- Kitui- Mutomo- Kibwezi road aborted again in Kitui District.
It was a repeat of another one that aborted due to the absence of officials they local leaders want to question over their actions.
Leaders from Kitui, Mwingi and Mutomo Districts led by Water and Irrigation Min­is­ter are demanding answers over the road from the Roads Ministry’s Permanent Secretary and Chief Roads Engineer.
The leaders who included Kitui South Mem­ber of Parliament Isaac M.Muoki and Kitui District Commissioner Joshua K.Chepchieng, had been led by the Water and Irrigation Minister Charity Kaluki Ngilu.
They roundly blasted the Kenya ’s successive governments for having no firm commitment towards the tarmacking of the road. The contractor who is doing the road’s feasibility study, Engineer Ken Founds of the Scetauroute International, was present.
The leaders postponed the last meeting because the PS, the Chief Roads En­gi­neer, the Eastern Provincial Roads Engineer and the Kitui District Roads Engineer were not there.
But the Provincial Roads Engineer Stephen Gichuru and the Kitui District Roads En­gi­neer Benson M.Masila attended the meeting. “The situation is as it was. En­gi­neers and consultants were present to answer questions. We are still not ready to move on with today’s meeting,” bitter Ngilu said. “No new information from the Roads Ministry’s top officials that could en­courage us to continue with the meeting. We are very disappointed. No answer from the ministry officials. How can we come here to spend another whole day?” Ngilu, who is also the Kitui Central MP, further complained.
And she announced that they (the leaders) are going to see the PS in Nairobi over the issue. The leaders wanted to know how much money has been put for the project. They also wanted to know what happened to the 2003 feasibility study on the road. “We also want to know why feasibility study on the road is being done again by the government,” the leaders lamented. But the project en­gi­neer, Engineer Juma Wambura, dis­closed that the first feasibility study costed 1.2 Euros(120 million shillings).
“This is a serious issue. The road has been a political campaigns tool by Presidents Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki. Kalonzo also campaigned through it in his last year’s Presidential campaigns. He (Kalonzo) is now number two and he should ensure that the road is going to be tarmacked by the government. It is another political gimmick,” Ngilu charged and added: “Don’t take us for granted. Why do we need an­other survey on the road?”
Kitui East (Mutitu) MP Julius Kiema Kilonzo and Kitui West MP Charles Mutisya Nyamai are out of the country and their apologies were given to the leaders and the mem­bers of the public by Ngilu and Muoki. “We all the local leaders are united,” Ngilu told the meeting. The minister com­plained: “The Roads Ministry’s top officials are joking with us. They had told us the report on the second feasibility study will be given as from 2015 or 2020.” The leaders enormously asked the gov­ernment to complete the re-carpeting work on the C97
Machakos -Kitui road and the tarmacking of the B7 Kangonde- Kitui road. They also asked the government to make the 143-kilometre long Kitui- Kibwezi road passable as the tarmacking of the road is being pre­pared. Also present included the Kitui District Roads Officer Rugene Warutere.

Kikima residents boycott fete over headquarters


RESIDENTS of Mbooni division boycotted the Kenyatta Day cel­ebrations protesting the moving of the Mbooni district head­quar­ters from Kikima to Mbumbuni in Kisau di­vision.
Only a handful of them mainly school chil­dren and civil servants turned up for the occasion held at Kenya In­dus­trial Es­tate grounds where Mbooni D.O Mrs. Beatrice Ndenga read the President’s speech.
The residents kept away saying they were totally opposed to the decision to the re-location of the offices to Mbumbuni.
The new Mbooni DC Mr.Fredrick Khisia led wananchi in marking this years Kenyatta day celebration at the new headquarters grounds.
Jubilant wananchi who had turned for the occasion sang and danced when Mr.Shisia confirmed Mbumbuni as the Mbooni head­quar­ters.
The DC regretted that the differences that bogged the district following the vote that favored Mbumbuni had led to stagnated development.
Mr.Khisia called for forgiveness and rec­on­ciliation among the people of the upper and lower Mbooni divisions following differences that arose over the head­quar­ters issue.
He said the district headquarters be­longed to all Mbooni residents he urged them to forget the past and work together in de­vel­oping the new district.
The District Commissioner challenged the local business community to rise to the occasion and develop Mbumbuni market to the level of a district headquarters town.
Area councillor Jackson Ngovi paid trib­ute to the government for honouring the wishes of the majority.

Water Trust Fund boss calls for pro­bity
By Boniface Mulu

THE support organisations in Kenya have been cautioned against attempts to de­fraud the water service boards of money under the guise of serving the commu­nity. The Water Service Trust Fund (WSTF) chief executive officer, Engineer Jackline Musyoki, sounded the warning in Kitui District on Friday.
The WSTF official said that all the money given to the SOs by the water service boards are for the water users asso­ciations. “That is the pub­lic money and it must be used for the benefits of the public,” she warned.
“We do dis­cover some cases of deception by SOs in their project proposals,” Musyoki said. “We in the WSTF are serving the poorest of the poor in the country. If the community has no water, they are poor. If the community is poor, we can’t talk of the 2030 development vision in the coun­try,” Engineer Musyoki told Support organisations and quality control agents.
She at the same time told them that they should act as consultants. The WSTF offi­cial was speaking to support organisations and quality control agents during the end of the two-day workshop organised by the Tanathi Water Service Board at the Kitui Parkside Villa.
Addressing the workshop participants, the Tanathi Water Service Board CEO, En­gi­neer Joseph Nzesya, said that being humble and committed are the best ways of serving the commu­nity. “You need to work with us to serve the poor. Writing project proposals to us is not to come for employment. You should not be mo­ti­vated by what you get in terms of money,” Nzesya told the SOs and QCAs. He fur­ther told them: “Two days training is not enough. You need more time to refresh whatever is in the Community Project Cycle (CPC) programme.”
Facilitators included Charity Gathuthi, Raphael Kabando, Engineer John Njue, Engineer John Mutua and Musili Ndingo. Kabando said He said that the quality of water requires some treatment with chlo­rine and water guard chemicals. The facilitator told the SOs and QCAs that writing proposals is a very powerful tool to look for funds from a donor.
The SOs and QCAs were drawn from all the 14 districts covered by the Tanathi Water Service Board.
The board’s headquarters are in Kitui Dis­trict. Kabando urged the SOs to try as much as possible to work with the commu­nities around them. “As a board, we are going to ensure that you have all the materials regarding the Community Project Cycle (CPC),” Kabando told them.
On her part, Mrs. Gathuthi lectured on the HIV/AIDS health problem. She taught about the importance of testing and coun­seling. Also, on the HIV/AIDS, Gathuthi talked about the relationship between the problem and tuberculosis.
She added that there is need for care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS. “To deal with HIV/AIDS, there are so many materials including condoms that are given to people for free by the gov­ernment,” she said. Gathuthi further spoke about water-borne diseases.
“If water is not used properly, it brings a lot of problems to the people including wa­ter-borne diseases. People drink dirty water with knowledge that they should not en­dan­ger their health through consuming the same,” she said.


Tragic end for search of water for Kyuso woman
By Betty Munyithya

A road to search for water for a 35 year old woman from Kakuyu village of Muumoni division, Kyuso dis­trict ended tragically when a croco­dile killed her in Kiambere dam.
The woman Mrs. Katindi Seve was in the company of her six children and four others when the crocodile attacked her moments after dipping her Jerrican in the dam to draw water.
According to the Kakuyu/ Mukong’a area councilor Mr. Joseph Kimanzi Musyimi alias ‘Kangara’, Ms Seve was said to have dis­missed the crocodile as small when she spotted it and went ahead with her mission to fill the Jerrican.
The crocodile immediately attacked her and dived into water amid shouts of help from her colleagues. Efforts to save her proved futile and her severely marred body was found 3 ki­lo­me­ters from the place of the attack by the Kenya Wild­life Service (KWS) wardens from Kora National park who had been called to save her. Her body was re­moved to Mwingi dis­trict hos­pi­tal mortuary.
As people continue to die and loose their livestock to reptiles at Kiambere dam, the war that had been launched by the area coun­cilor against Tana and Athi River De­vel­opment Authority (TARDA) to have the water pumped from the dam to a safer place for his people is yet to bear fruits.
Cllr Musyimi said that he had been painfully watching helplessly as people including children get mauled al­most ev­ery­day by the reptiles at the dam yet TARDA was doing nothing in financing the piping of the water to a place where his people could draw the water safely.
“I am blaming the TARDA for the many lives lost at the dam because it is their mandate to make sure people safely access water at all times to avert the loss of lives.” The angry councilor said.
The civic leader said Kiambere dam was the only source of water for the entire Muumoni division and water being an essen­tial commodity, TARDA was re­spon­sible for the locals’ security be­cause life was sacred.
”Since June, four people had been attacked and two lost their lives. Among the dead was a eight year old boy, Mutua Mwasya and we are tired of watching inno­cent people lose their loved ones to these reptiles, we are going to fight TARDA until the minute water will flow from a pipe outside the dam” said cllr Musyimi.
Last Month Mr. Muthui Mutalia – 56 years and his friend escaped death narrowly when the same crocodile attacked them while watering their cattle at the dam. KWS spend a day hunting for the reptile and killed it in the evening.
Cllr Musyimi told the Anchor that he was saddened by TARDA move to spent co­lossal amount of money to hire Better Globe Company limited to carry out affor­es­tation at the dam while his people were dying like houseflies at the reptile infested dam. “Is affor­es­tation a priority compared to the sacredness of lives?” he asked.
He said the locals were pained in counting their loses and the Better Globe company limited stand to deny them access the precincts of the dam to draw water was an insult. “Let TARDA pipe the water from the dam if they want peace with us, we cannot live without it. The people shall continue to trespass to have it.” He said
Councilor Musyimi called on the Vice presi­dent Kalonzo Musyoka to in­ter­vene to force TARDA to pump water from the dam to a safer place where the people could access it without risking their lives.


EPZ quits Mavoko Water firm
By Martin Masai

THE EPZ has quit the board of the Mavoko EPZ Water and Sew­erage Com­pany (MEWSCO).
They announced their res­ig­nation at the first Annual General Meeting of MEWSCO at the Portland Sports club in Athi River.
The resignation follows an eventful month where th chief Executive Officer of Tanathi Mr Joseph Nzesya posted a news­pa­per no­tice outlining that the water com­pany had the mandate of supplying wa­ter to Mavoko and not the EPZ.
During the AGM, the res­ig­nation was noted and approval given that a new wa­ter company be re­con­sti­tuted to re­flect new realities. The company is now owned by the Mu­nici­pal Coun­cil of Mavoko and the Ol-kejuado County Council and the issue of share holding was among the matters to be re­solved.
The AGM was presided over by the Chairman Mr George Kithika and attended by out­going Managing Di­rector Engineer Wilfred Wangari, Mavoko Mayor Councillor Mwikali, Acting Man­aging Di­rector Mr Michael Mangeli and other members of the board among them former Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary Mr Zachary Ogongo.
Mr Kithika noted that the com­pany had expanded its water reticulation net­work by approximately 15Km over the said period. “This has also been aug­mented by building of approximately 30 water kiosks mainly to cater for the urban poor”, he added
The sewerage service has been ex­panded by approximately 5 km whilst 1 km of dilapidated in­fra­struc­ture has been up­graded and renewed.
It is anticipated that the 10Km Kapa and 2Km Slaughter Sewer Lines will be op­era­tional in the next few months. This will increase sew­erage coverage for this area.
Mr Kithika said the company remained compliant to the water act regulations as well as to the requirements of effective and efficient cor­po­rate gov­er­nance.

“ However company’s per­for­mance has been hindered by EPZA failure to comply with the law by handing over its in­fra­struc­ture to the com­pany. This problem has now been handed over to TAWSB who have promised to resolve it soonest possible with the mandate of service delivery within our ju­ris­diction being reverted to the company.”, he concluded

Saudi prince funds big dam in Makueni

It might sound impossible for someone to part with billion shillings to charity de­vel­opment projects. This is so es­pe­cially in Kenya where majority of the citizens are reeling in abject poverty.
But one man has done it. Fredrick Katumo has donated billions of shillings to assist alleviate perennial water shortage in Makueni and the environs.
A Saudi Arabian billionaire has donated Shs 5 billion to install water in Makueni district, Makueni MP Peter Kiilu has dis­closed.
The funds have been released to con­struct a dam across River Athi,, the MP said when he addressed elated residents at Senda market in his constituency.
The dam will be build on the confluence of rivers Kaiti and Thwake along River Athi. The water project is billed to alleviate perennial water shortage biting the area as a result of erratic rains.
The funds had been donated to Katumo Foundation by a son of Saudia Prince. It took time to clear some hurdles before the Central Bank of Kenya allowed the money to be deposited in the Foundation’s account.
The Saudia tycoon is scheduled to jet in the country to inspect the water project next month. The contractor of the massive water project is on site at Kathonzweni and Mavindini markets.
Mr Kiilu donated Shs 3.9 million from the CDF to 19 schools in his constituency, He warned CDF committees against misuse of the funds, saying that the money should be utilized on the designated projects,
The MP put embezzlers of the CDF money on notice , saying that those caught mis­using the money will not only be arrested , prosecuted but also made to return the loot.

Report uncovers abuse and theft by di­rectors
A probe report on Muka Mukuu shockingly reveals how the society lost millions of shillings and property to some former corrupt officials.
The probe which was carried out in 40 days by the Commissioner of Co-op­eratives follows 12 years of court battles detrimental to the society and an outcry of alleged mismanagement from the mem­bers.
The report which was read to the mem­bers at a special general meeting by senior co-operative officer Mr Peter Wanoji and Vinicent Nyongesa from the commissioner’s office cov­ered the pe­riod between 1990 and 2007.
The report indicated that the areas ad­versely affected by the mis­man­agement included the fi­nances where a whooping Sh5.1million was misappropriated and chunks of the society’s land and illegally allocated to none members.
The report also showed how the former officials sold the society’s staff houses and moving machinery in­cluding lorries and tractors without authority from the mem­bers.
Also affected was the allo­cation of the society’s both commercial and resi­den­tial plots to individuals fraudu­lently.
The members were shocked when the two officials re­vealed that, payment for the lease of 480 acres of land to an Asian farming company was channeled through an individual’s bank account other than that of the society.
The report recommended that all those adversely mentioned in the report be sur­charged and the society’s property in their possession be re­cov­ered.
In addition, the report recommended that all illegally allocated plots and land be revoked and re-possessed by the so­ci­ety.
The report urged the present man­agement officials to implement the recommendations without further a de­lay.
The concerned members demanded imme­diate action on the report urging the current management to implement the report as per its instruction with­out any delay.
”We are fed up with previous probe re­ports that have been read to us and never implemented’ said an angry share­holder.

The woes facing Muka Mukuu


MUKA MUKUU, literally trans­lated means the Eldest Wife. In a polygamous setting, tradition has it that the eldest wife bears some big re­spon­si­bilities in a home­stead. Indeed, they are essentially the ones who led the pack in search of other co-wives in the belief that they would be enhancing stability in the home.
Such is the name given to one of the oldest and largest Farming Co-operative So­ci­eties in Kangundo. Its pioneers led by the late Mutuku Kyungu, then Chief of Matungulu Location and Mr Ngosi and Mr Muinamya- all diseased- se­lected the name to mark their first key in­vestment.
Villagers, mainly squatters in the farm initially owned by British settler Mr MacMillan and later by another call Sally met in 1968 and purchased the farm in the hope that some day, they would be proud owners of the budding coffee estate. 40 years later, Muka Mukuu stands in barren distinction. Indeed its founders were indeed pro­phetic. They foresaw the possibility that their eldest wife would be barren and gave her the clear title possibly due to the responsibility that lay ahead – seeking other ‘wives’ to bear fruit.
As at now, its has the dubious distraction of having over a dozen cases in court, most of them un­known to members.
Besides, Muka Mukuu faces the possibility of auction anytime as a result of a case where Co-operative Bank is seeking millions of shillings from a loan that is laced with issues that may never be resolved.
The cases arise out of sheer greed, struggle for power, deceitful directors, gluttonous officials of the Ministry of Cooperatives De­vel­opment and the entire scene at Muka Mukuu resembles a spot struck by a powerful blast.
So when and what happened? In 1982, officials of the farm engaged a German based firm- Kredit Anstalt Fiir Wrederaufbau(KFW), who together with the Government of Kenya planned to ad­vance the society a loan so that each member could expand coffee farming by between 5-10 acres.
KFW came in with 18 million DM which trans­lated to about Sh 100m. GOK was to give Sh 60m as part of the deal and the Cooperative Bank was to handle the facility at an interest rate of six percent.
As usual, GOK did not honour its part. By 1990, Muka Mukuu found itself running what looked like two loans from the bank even when they never borrowed directly from the bank. Interests accruing from the KFW loan arrears stood at Sh 82m in 1990. The State came in and paid off Sh 78m to bail out Muka Mukuu.
It transpires that the cooperative had not been advanced the entire Sh100m from KFW and had a balance of Sh 29m, which they claimed was still in the custody of the bank. The bank would hear nothing of it and soon a dispute developed and the closest each ran to was the Kenyan Courts- places where justice is neither here or there.
Co-op bank moved to auction Muka-Mukuu in 1995 and the latter rushed and obtained injunctory orders- opening up a new litigation regime that is long, winding, intriguing and crippling- so much so that the number of cases in court many never quite be known.
Kenya’s tired and increasingly unpredictable ju­di­ciary where the highest bidder gets justice delivered the verdict a good 12 years later- that is in 2007, validating a claim of the bank on Muka Mukuu to the tune of Sh 73million.
By this time a civil war had erupted in the co­op­erative, with members split down the middle, some aligning themselves with the bank in pur­suit of auctioning Muka Mukuu while other sought to defend the farm against what they saw as a plot to cash in on crippling corruption levels in the country so as to reap where they had never sowed. In one instance, Muka Mukuu’s 28,000 acres were facing the auctioneer’s hammer. Out of these, 957 acres comprise the central farm with a coffee plantation. 250 others are leased to Kantara Hor­ti­cul­tural Producers and the rest belong to members.
Those seeking to auction Muka Mukuu know that there are treasures therein. Its past lead­ership has developed 18 primary Schools and 18 nurs­ery schools. There are at least 4 secondary schools and the entire turf has 20 market centers.
The entire land is held under two Title Deeds- one for 500 acres and another for the rest. If the auc­tion­eers come calling any time now, they will be targeting the 937 acres of coffee and the 250 currently on lease and sole source of income to Muka Mukuu at for the time being. It raises Sh. 3m annually out of the lease. The biggest fear now is that if the gluttonous bank does not fetch the Sh.73m plus from these 1,300 acres, it will have to set its eyes on people’s farms. This is what is sending shivers down the spines of the innocent shareholders of Muka Mukuu, many of whom are not privy to the game of eating that has made a few of the society leaders stinking rich, leading to the current state of affairs.Even as Muka Mukuu grapples with auc­tion­eers, records they hold show that Co-operative Bank never advanced the full amount loaned by KFW.
Besides, there are the quarrels over leadership which the ministry of cooperative development fuels by taking sides or being unable to take the right decisions. It is these wrangles that pose the biggest threat to Muka Mukuu. If proper lead­ership is in place, they members can tackle other threats singularly. But as at now, some ,mem­bers are encouraging Co-op bank to sell of the farm while others are resisting.
One old hand at Muka Mukuu Mr Phillip Vyalu accuses ministry officials of handling the con­tro­versy with glee, along with some current officials.
He says the ministry relishes in sending probes to Muka Mukuu without taking action on pre­vious probes. What interests the, he thinks, are the allowances that come with the assignments and not the success of the co-operative.
What would happen if the founders of Muka Mukuu were to rise from their graves today to find their dreams so frustrated? You can keep guessing.


Its back to square one for company

MUKA Mukuu Farmers Company is back to square one. After years of a lead­ership stalemate, the same old offi­cials were re­in­stalled in a chaotic Special Annual General Meeting.
This saw the return of the nine mem­ber management committee led by Dr.Frederick Karanja to office with simi­lar move extended to the su­per­vi­sory committee led by Mr David Munyae.
Two rival groups clashed after dis­agreeing on whether to return the former man­agement committee to office un-opposed as proposed by a section of the members.
Trouble started when an officer from the Eastern provincial co-operative office Mr Joseph Mbue, presiding over the society’s annual general meeting dissolved the outgoing committee and ordered for fresh elections.
But members allied to the committee ob­jected to this and insisted that the former team be returned to office un-opposed something which sparked anger to rival group which de­manded elections.
This resulted to a fierce con­fron­tation as both groups sought to have their way.
One man was injured as the groups attacked one another forcing the po­lice to intervene and arrest a number of the rowdy members.
As the violence escalated, ma­jority mem­bers hurriedly proposed and sec­onded the motion to return to office the former committee which sailed through after the presiding officer succumbed to their pressure amid pro­test from the rival group. The protesting members accused the pre­siding officer of having been com­pro­mised by the other group to vio­late the election procedure, a usual practice by co-operative officers in the region which is bleeding to death the co-operative movement.
Mounting pressure from the charged farmers saw the co-operative officer dis­missed the rival group’s accu­sations daring them to go anywhere they think they would get justice.
Defending himself, Mr Mbue who was accom­pa­nied by the Kangundo dis­trict co-operative officer Mrs Esther Kivindyo, said in any elections there should be winners and losers who are free to seek legal re­dress in court if dissatisfied- a route that cooperative officials relish as it provides them with latitude to ma­nipu­late running of so­ci­eties to the advantage of in­di­viduals during the time f litigation
The protesting group vowed to go to court to disqualify the elections which they termed as un-procedural.
Police later released violent mem­bers who had been earlier arrested during the scuffle.( see related stories else­where in this paper).

Panic as fresh investigations begin at the troubled Masaku Teachers' Sacco


A Fresh probe is taking place at Masaku Teachers Sacco.
The probe comes as evidence of em­bezzlement of funds remains unpursued by both the police and Anti corruption authorities. The probe, our sources say, was ordered by the Commissioner for Co-operatives to as­cer­tain the sacco's financial status since the forced exit of former Gen­eral Man­ager Solomon Ngomo. It is un­der­stood that the probe bacame nec­essary due to pressure from the Co-operative Bank of Kenya whose cash kept the sacco afloat in the Ngomo days and with the new de­vel­opment that the sacco had opened a new account at Equity Bank and borrowed again, com­pli­cating its chances of suvival.
Our sources say the investigators summoned Mr Ngomo to their offices and quizzed hom over his man­agement styles and decissions while at the helm of the quasi bank where teachers have been wailing over reckless handling of their fi­nances and open theft. The in­ves­ti­gators have been questioning workers at the sacco including the new General Manager- Mr Kyelenzi, the long serving Deputy of Mr Ngomo.
This is the umpteenth time that the Cmmissioner of Cooperatives is probing the Sacco and members are curious to know what findings he comes up with unless the probes are used also to pilfer funds in the co-op­erative society that is on its death bed.
The probe comes as thousands of teachers in the newly created Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) branches are de­manding split of the amorphous Masaku Teachers Savings Society.
Pressure is expected to mount on the sacco leadership to deliver of pack up due to the recent Knut elections in Macha­kos Branch where reform minded teachers led by Mr Nicholas Musyoka were elected. (See story elsewhere) A section of the new leaders were eleted on a change platform, pledging to make things work at the sacco and other teachers' fi­nance based institutions so that teachers can benefit from the labour of their hands.
Talking during their recent elections held in Kibwezi, Mbooni, Yatta , Kangundo, Nzaui and Mwala union branches , the teachers accused the sacco of financial mismanagement.
Kibwezi KNUT chairman Jackson Makovu Wambua was categorical when he addressed the teachers at Mbui Nzau imme­di­ately he was elected un­opposed as the branch executive secretary.
“The teachers demand the split of the sacco. The society has turned out to be a guzzler of our money. Besides, we want efficiency, accountability and trans­parency from the society” he told the cheering teachers.
The polls had aborted after the teachers allegedly sensed rigging by some out­side forces. The election at Moi Girls School saw the teachers flex their muscle and trade nasty words before the labour officers called it off.
Supervised by the National KNUT chairman George Wesonga, the last polls were peaceful and went on smoothly to install new union officials .Others who attended the elections in­cluded the na­tional vice treasurer Benson Kithuku, among others.

Keli, councillors end dispute


Councillor James Keli has re­sumed duty as nominated coun­cillor. The Anchor es­tab­lished that civic leaders from the Municipal Council of Machakos held a meeting with Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and reconciled Mr Keli and his colleagues during which an agreement was reached that the councillors pass a resolution to reverse an earlier one that sought to have him relocated.
The impact of the earlier reso­lution was such that he could not attend council meetings let alone earn allowances.
After the Kalonzo meeting, coun­cillors met and voted to re­scind their earlier vote and work with Mr Keli.
In another development, Macha­kos Mayor councilllor Fidelis Kimuyu has had to en­dure with sleaze through the Short Messaging Service( SMS). But the civic leader has dis­missed the sms as “smear” campaign claims intending to depict him as corrupt.
He challenged anyone with evi­dence that he is engaging in corrupt deals to table evidence instead of spreading malicious rumours or report to the police.
Mayor Kimuyu was reacting to a SMS text message being cir­cu­lated in the town pur­porting he had been bribed by Matatu owners to allow them to man the local bus station.
We will not divulge the exact words forwarded to our reporter as used since they are ex­tremely scandalous.
In the SMS message the alleged matatu owners threat­ened to ex­pose the mayor in news­pa­pers if he failed to return some alleged cash running into several thousands.
But when contacted, the Mayor dismissed the issue terming it as the work of some disgruntled el­ements out to tarnish his char­ac­ter.
He said would take the matter with the CID to establish the source of the text message with a view to taking action.
Matatu operators are locked in a court battle with the council over their attempts to station their own workers to man the Mu­nici­pal Bus Park. A spokesman of the Matatu owners told The Anchor that it is not true that they had given any money to the mayor as an in­ducement and said those sending the messages were mis­guided.

Celebrations to mark 100 yrs for Machakos Town


PREPARATIONS for the cen­tennial celebration for Kenya’s first capital city that never was have begun.
Various sub committees to spear­head the preparations were constituted during the meeting attended by a stakeholders at the Masaku County Council Cham­bers.
The celebrations dubbed “Macha­kos 100” will be held in Machakos town between De­cem­ber 17-19 and will include cultural activities, sports and other entertainment programmes. Early explorers arrived in Macha­kos in 1897 when Dr Krapf and F Luggard build a fort in Machakos under the Imperial British East Africa Company. It was not until 1908 when the first District Commissioner was posted to Machakos to establish the British version of Law and order.
It was from Machakos that the colonialists es­tab­lished colonial rule over Kenya. A quarrel between the first DC ensued and those erecting the railway line skipped Machakos town, forcing the DC to locate to Nairobi, also within Macha­kos district at the time, and fortunes have never been the same again for the town. Machakos DC Mr.Benard Kinyua who will chair the coordinating committee revealed his resi­den­tial house is among other buildings which have been gazzeted as Museums by the National Museums of Kenya.
The Nairobi Metropolitan De­vel­opment minister Mutula Kilonzo has already donated three bulls among the 20 that are proposed to be slaugh­tered during the cel­ebrations.
He termed Machakos town as “very important” in the country’s history and appealed to co-orporate companies and well-wishers to support the event.

Mwingi police nab key suspects
By Betty Munyithya

Police in Mwingi arrested two armed gagsters sus­pected to have been involved in the wave of robberies that had recently taken place in Machakos, Makueni, Mbeere and Kitui dis­tricts.
The two Kyalo Kalili and Ed­ward Kyalo were among five gagsters that raided the home of Ndaluni sec­ondary school Principal Mr. Musili Mukulo last month armed with a browning pistol and other crude weap­ons.
According to the Mwingi police boss Mr. David Muthuri, the five first invaded Mr. Mukulo’s shop at Musukini Market, 7 ki­lo­me­ters from Mwingi town and comman­deered the watchman at gun point to lead them to the Principal’s house.
On their way a Good Samaritan spotted them and alerted Mr. Mukulo who immediately woke up his wife, hid their children to their master bedroom and rushed out to take cover after locking the house.
The thugs cut window grills to access the house where they ran­sacked and stole two Motorolla C118 mobile phones valued at Shs 6000. On their way out they met a distress caller Mr. Munywoki Ngandi – 56years and cut him with a panga when he tried to confront them. He was admitted at Mwingi District hos­pi­tal with a deep cut on the head.
The villagers followed footmarks and got up with the two at Tyaa River where they senselessly beat Edward Kyalo when he refused to co-operate. . Police recovered one browning pistol with nine rounds of ammunition and one spent cartridge.
He was taken to Mwingi district hospital in tight security following reports that his accomplice could storm the hospital to rescue him.
The Mwingi DCIO, Mr. Samson Iha Thoya, described the gang­sters as dangerous adding that the police were in­ves­ti­gating leads that could link the two with a string of robberies that had taken place within the districts of Ukambani. Mr. Thoya confirmed that the Machakos, Makueni, Mbeere, and Kitui DCIOs visited Mwingi to identify the suspects. The two suspects Kyalo Kalili-25yrs and Edward Kyalo-35yrs were later taken to Machakos, Kitui, Makueni and Mbeere for police identification and were positively identified by their vic­tims.
Meanwhile the two suspected gangsters which police in Mwingi arrested last month were taken to a Mwingi court amid tight se­cu­rity.
The two suspects Kyalo Kalili and Edward were brought before Mwingi Principal Mag­is­trate Daniel Ochenja to answer three counts of robbery with violence committed in Mwingi that in­cluded robbing a Mwingi business man shs 200,000. The two who were not rep­re­sented denied the charges and were hurriedly packed into a police waiting Landrover to be taken to Machakos court to an­swer yet another robbery with violence charges. The Mwingi DCIO Mr. Samson Iha Thoya told the Anchor the two suspects would in turn appear before the Kitui and Makueni courts re­spec­tively to answer similar charges of robbery with violence.
Mr. Iha Thoya said that the Mwingi police had enough evidence that the two suspects were linked with the wave of robbery with vio­lence reported across the Eastern Prov­ince .
Kyalo Kalili (25) alias “The Boss” and Edward Kyalo (35) alias “Reggae mafia” were arrested by the police last month at Musukini area some seven Ki­lo­me­ters East of Mwingi town after breaking into a house of Mr. Musili Mukulo where they stole two mobile phones.