Raila Odinga and President William Ruto talked of a meeting they will have starting Monday July 15, 2024 and going for six days.
My first question would be what is the agenda for that meeting and that it be made public and also ask representatives of Gen Z to contribute to that agenda and also have their representatives in the meetings. It is a good thing the forum will encompass 150 members, 50 of them youth, while 100 will be drawn from religious institutions, civil society, professional organizations, and political parties, among other stakeholders.
Please let nobody forget that the biggest stakeholders in this process are the victims killed and abducted as well as their families and colleagues.
That is what the National Multi-Sector Forum (NMSF) has to be all about and then solutions for Kenyans suffering the economic meltdown in the country today.
Youths flocked Uhuru Park grounds on Sunday.
The Gen Z protestors organized of one the most peaceful and huge rally at Uhuru Park on Saba Saba day on July 7, 2024. The group definitely have people that they can appoint to go to that meeting once they agree on the agenda with Raila Odinga and President William Ruto and the rest of the team.
Gen Z is very capable of providing their own representatives to the NMSF to come with practical solutions on the issues that are affecting the lives of young people in Kenya.
What will not help anybody including the Gen Z is people just screaming at Raila, particularly by people who have not even been involved in the youth battles this whole time.
So a lot of people who have not done anything in the last three weeks of the Gen Z movement are now yelling at Raila in their own effort to be relevant politically. That doesn’t help Gen Z and does not help the country either.
I am one of those who want the Ruto government to be dissolved for Kenyans to heads to a new election and get a new government but I am not going to lie to myself just to try to look tough. Ruto will only be forced to dissolve his government when the country becomes ungovernable and that may happen but it is only the president who can dissolve the government.
Even if the Ruto regime was dissolved today majority of Gen Z out there now will not vote because many of them do not have national IDS and voting cards.
Those are serious issues that have to be addressed first so when Kenya gets that chance for General Elections there will be millions of new young voters and Ruto will be gone plus most of his MPs and senators.
Right now the IEBC 2024 laws have been put in place and the next thing is to appoint the commissioners Kenyans know how that is always manipulated by those in power. One thing that could be sorted right this time to avoid the endless election riggings disappear is to make sure the appointments for IEBC commissioners is done in a fair and professional way with all political parties involved including Gen Z representatives.
After that the meeting at the National Multi-Sector Forum (NMSF) with the Gen Z with President Ruto and Raila the whole team need to agree that a voter registration be started as soon as IEBC appointments are done. Let Kenya have three months of voter registration and by December 2024 Kenya will be ready for elections.
If that is achieved at the NMSF meetings Kenya will be telling the youth that with the voter card in their hands they will determine who will be their presidents and who will be their MPs. That could be the biggest achievement at this point by the Kenyan youth that will ensure real opportunities will henceforth exist for them to help run their country by voting.
Improving youth participation in political and civic life will be focused on helping civil society they promote a peaceful election cycle.
“The government has noted with concern claims of abductions and enforced disappearances allegedly perpetrated by security personnel.
On human rights and security, Kithure Kindiki is talking the usual nonsense which means they don’t care. “Independent Constitutional and statutory agencies will investigate and prosecute any person or official who may be implicated with violating the Constitution by perpetrating confinement of any person outside the law,” Kindiki said.
The Interior CS added that all persons within the territory of Kenya are protected from unlawful arrests, abductions, and enforced disappearances.
That brings us to the second big issue that must be on NMSF meetings. Kenyans know many young people have been killed by police and plain clothed thug cops who don’t answer to any laws in the country.
One of the most important agenda items for that meeting is to lay open everything that has happened in the last three weeks in Kenyan streets and urban centers. How many people exactly have been killed by the Ruto, IG Koome, and Kindiki police officers?
At this meeting, the Kenya government must provide a full list of those killed and where their bodies are. Gen Z will also provide the numbers they have and groups like KNCHR, KHRC, LSK, and Amnesty International have been talking about 41 Kenyans killed by police. William Ruto says the number of those killed is 25. Which is which?
And here is a message for President Ruto from a Kenyan.
William Ruto, when you were campaigning, you vowed never to allow extra-judicial killings under your watch. This young man from Karachuonyo (a student at JKUAT) was abducted by police during protests last week. His lifeless body has been found in a quarry in Juja.
JKUAT Denzel Omondi student drowned, autopsy shows
Third-year JKUAT student Denzel Omondi.
Denzel Omondi, a third-year student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), who went missing during the anti-finance Bill protests in Nairobi, died by drowning, according to a postmortem report released today.
Pathologists conducting autopsy at Thika-based General Kago Funeral Home established that Omondi, 23, had bruises on the back of his head and legs.
Although the pathologists did not address journalists, Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director Irungu Houghton confirmed that Omondi’s body was discovered on July 6, 2024, floating in the deserted Mashinani quarries in Juja. From media reports Denzel Omondi was last seen alive during the protests at Parliament Building in Nairobi where he took videos.
The government criminals abducted him from there and took him to drown and kill him in Juja. These are the true stories of the Kenya police killing protestors and the country needs to get the details on each one of them.
After all the numbers and names of victims are put on the table, the NMSF must provide a platform for family members, parents, witnesses and human rights and civil society groups to come forward and talk directly to Kenyans about what has happened to the families and colleagues.
Kenyans would want that process done in public and we need to listen to family members talking live to the whole country. That has to be the first big phase for the NMSF for it to earn credibility with Kenyans.
To achieve that the NMSF must lay out a program where all evidence of the crimes committed by police against Kenyans are exposed and action taken against the killers, abducters and other criminals working with Kenya police to kill protestors. The killers have to be exposed by name and thrown to jail as well as their big bosses sending them to kill Kenyans.
The NMSF human rights agenda focusing on the Gen-Z protests cannot be addressed in the 6 days of the NMSF meetings in Nairobi. The NMSF just needs to set up a smaller group to carry out the complete public hearings on the massacre and abductions of Gen Z Kenyans. If that Human Rights Abuses Committee is set up now, it can start the full hearings right away and move Kenya into a formula where real solutions can be found and not just talking.
The last thing I would suggest to the NMSF in their proceedings is to adopt a voting system for the 150 members who will represent families and many diverse groups to decide the resolutions.
Such will ensure that the NMSF voting process will ensure that decisions on how to proceed taking the country forward are not just made by President Ruto or Raila Odinga but by the full membership of NMSF. That will be democracy at work right there in those meetings. Otherwise, there would be no need to have a big forum like this when just a few individuals make decisions of what to do next.
Listening to family members of those killed and brutalized by the police is not going to take a few days. That is a process that needs time for everybody to get a chance.
The killers need to be locked up and the parents and families of those killed and abducted will with issues of compensation for their loved ones, and medical care for those injured and still crippled from police terrorism.
After we clean the political and electoral system in the country it will be time to head to the polls and December 2024 would be perfect for the next election. If William Ruto thinks Kenyans love him then sure enough go to the polls. On the Azimio side and others, they will sort their issues out.
Personally, I have no problem with people saying the Ruto and Raila meeting is wrong thing to do. Kenyans are fighting for democracy everywhere and that means more often than not sometimes we cannot agree on everything.
The only real issue for those who want different options is to put their stuff on the table and if they win the Gen-Z population then that is great for them. Doing nothing is not an option at this time in our country and that is why young Kenyans are in the streets fighting for change to improve the lives of all Kenyans.
Karua Dismisses Calls For Proposed Multi-Sectoral National Dialogue
She stated that the proposed dialogue could only be meaningful if the players have good faith and are guided by the best interests of the people.
In a statement on her X account, Karua termed the proposed talks as a “trap” and warned that the process could be hijacked by the political class out to benefit from the call for reforms by the GenZ.”
“I agree with those who say Action Now on the clear and attainable demands of the GenZ to enhance accountability and make the state work for the masses rather than for a handful elites,” Karua said.
If Martha Karua has any specific plans of action how what the country wants achieved let her bring them forward and seek the support of Kenyans.
For those who say Kenyans must overthrow the government, I will tell you the only country where I have seen the public get so mad with their president and just knocked him out without an armed rebellion was Sri Lanka under President Rajapaksa who had ruled the country for decades and was super rich.
In 2022 the Sri Lankans went to the streets because of the collapsing economy and they completely overwhelmed President Rajapaksa’s police and army.
The demonstrators took over the president’s palace which was bigger than that of the Queen of England. The Sri Lankan people took everything and they were swimming in pools in the president’s palace with their children. When Rajapaksa looked around from where he was hiding in the country he ran away from Sri Lanka and did not even have time to bring his family with him.
Every country has its own revolution plan and nothing is ever the same but taking out a sitting president will go up and down and right now the GEN Z in Kenya has done a wonderful job to save their country. How to take it a step up is the issue now. It can be done.
There are a lot of Kenyan politicians who are not even part of the Gen Z protests telling Kenyans that they don’t need a dialogue this time. Well if you do not need national dialogue then set up an armed rebellion and lead it from the frontline and Kenyans will follow you. The Gen Z have marched their words with action. Can the Kenya politicians who do not want dialogue also march their words with action?
Here is how the Sri Lankan public took down their government in 2022 with no war. Kenyans can try that too and they are doing it now.
