[ By: Charles Onyango-Obbo ] The other week we had that seemingly bizarre story from Zimbabwe. Police Sergeant Alois Mabhuno was jailed for 10 days for using a toilet reserved for President Robert Mugabe. His ordeal didn’t end there, as he was also demoted and banished to a remote rural police post.
The story sparked off an avalanche of jokes, but the one that best struck at the meaning of Mabhuno’s misfortune was by a fellow Tweep on the mini-blogging site Twitter.
He wrote of the irony that Mugabe could forgive Zimbabwe Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono for allegedly having an affair with First Lady Grace Mugabe, but couldn’t find it in him to forgive a poor cop who used his toilet.
For the record, Gono and Grace Mugabe flatly denied the allegations that were first reported by South African and British newspapers, then went viral on the Internet like a fire on accelerators.
It’s the gist of Tweep’s remarks, rather than whether Gono and Mrs Mugabe had an improper relationship, which interests us. For it correctly makes the point that in most political societies, particularly developing ones, the trappings and symbols of power often matter more than the unseen but real exercise of power.
Thus to the masses, a president’s signature to authorise the execution of 10 prisoners on death row, which is power over life, is not as impressive as having exclusive use of the First Toilet.
Bob Mugabe ‘Prancing’ The First Toilet is a conspicuous item of privilege, and in a country where millions of people have none and cannot begin to fathom how a man can have an expensive one all to himself, it sets you apart more than some rumour about a governor having an affair with the First Lady. After all, infidelity is common, and even a poor villager will have some experience or knowledge of it.
The Commander-in-Chief’s washroom, on the other hand, belongs up there with other talismans like presidential whisks (Kenya founding Father Jomo Kenyatta’s comes to mind); the presidential staff (the most famous in East Africa being that of Kenya’s former president Daniel arap Moi’s); the Conqueror’s Leopard Cap (Mobutu Sese Seko’s); the VVIP White Handkerchief (former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda’s); the First Bowler Hat (as with Malawi’s Kamuzu Banda); the list is long.
These props and talismans are much discussed and many ordinary folks will swear that they have magical powers that send conspirators in disarray, wad off assassin’s bullets, and can detect traitors in State House.The power structure in most of our countries is built around this exclusive use and access.
Thus when a president is going to the airport, the road is closed to all other users until he has passed. The president will have his own plate and coffee mug.
His own chef (and here everyone, from the Queen of England to crowd-hugging presidents like America’s Barack Obama, will go on foreign trips with their own cooks). And his own jet, needless to say. Power of course derives from many sources; the vote, the army, control of taxpayers’ money, patronage, to name a few.
But public awe, the perception of how Big a Big Man is, and the fear factor that all men of power need to intimidate competitors, that comes from things like exclusive First Toilets.
About The Author: Charles Onyango-Obbo — is Uganda’s leading political commentator. He is Nation Media Group‘s managing editor for convergence and new products. Charles writes for The Monitor, Uganda’s only independent daily and most influential newspaper and The East African, a Nation-Media publication. Be sure to check out his Article Archive featuring hundreds of Charles’s greatest publications. More Articles By Mr. Onyango Obbo: [ CLICK HERE ]
By: Gwada Ogot In Kenya, assassinations have been a regular feature of its succession politics. Kenyan scholar, Charles N. Mwaura in a study paper titled – ‘Political Succession and Related Conflicts in Kenya,’ notes that when elite interests broaden, violent conflict does manifest itself through assassinations of leading political figures.
The conflicts, he writes, often relatively restrain and characterize by competition among elites for political power and restrict within the status-quo. Assassinations and murder, he says, become alternative instruments of elite competition against those who threaten the ruling faction and he mentions Pio Pinto, Tom Mboya, Ronald Ngala, J.M. Kariuki, Robert Ouko and Alexander Muge, as key casualties in the first three decades of elite contest.
Tom Mboya was just 39 years old when he was shot dead by a lone gunman in 1969 while Josiah Mwangi Karuiki was barely 42 years old in 1975 when he was murdered by suspected state agents in horrid circumstances.
Public suspicion for their murders was largely directed at heirs-apparent within the Kenyatta government. Mboya and Karuiki emanated from Kenya’s two rival ethnic groups- the Luo and Kikuyu but despite this, both remained popular in each other’s ethnic backyards.
Several factors however eradicate murder as a plausible action today. Above the fact that the nation’s newly promulgated constitution bars any presidential candidate with pending criminal charges from contesting elections, the ongoing actions against senior members of the status quo by the International Criminal Court at The Hague and the unfolding events in the Middle East and North Africa also contribute.
Independent Kenya Leaders(Early sixties) – From Left: Paul Ngei, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboya and Njoroge Mungai
So in the fourth decade, play in the Kibaki succession manifests through Courts of Law, Media and Parliament. The variation is that while the assassinations of the first three decades’ were executed as early pre-emptive actions, the fourth decade is typified by new media character assassination and criminal proceedings. Yet, in spite of this, murder cannot be completely ruled out in the Kibaki succession.
In his study of Conflict in Africa, T. William Zartman, identifies attempts by post-colonial regimes to self-consolidate and to control national political space as a primary cause of conflict including external forces with vested interest in who captures state power.
The chilling assassination of Dr. Robert Ouko in 1982 provides sufficient illustration. Dr. Ouko was found murdered hardly a month after a trip to America, during which he was supposedly identified by American government officials as a possible successor to then president Moi.
Currently, several presidential contenders face serious criminal allegations- most from the status quo, in effect validating Mwaura’s contention of an exclusive contest. The main alter of sacrifice has been the internet including the traditional media, courts and of course parliament.
Hon. Moses Wetangula, the immediate former Minister for Foreign Affairs and new leader of the Ford Kenya Party, was compelled to step down from office after serious corruption accusations were tabled against him in parliament. Regardless of this, formal charges have yet to be instituted against him.
Another contender, Eugene Wamalwa, the 43 year old Member of Parliament for Saboti constituency and younger brother to former vice president, the late Michael Wamalwa also faced mention in parliament on allegations of drug dealing just as he was trying to kick start his presidential bid.
Likewise, secondary aspirants like Jazz player Joseph Hellon and his friend turned foe Quincy Timberlake haven’t been spared internet sleaze and court action either. Roundly shred on the internet, Hellon was in addition humiliated in a much publicized house eviction while Timberlake was locked up for days before being arraigned in court as a suspected illegal alien. Both actions followed their launch of the Placenta Party and declaration to contest the presidency.
However, the matter of William Ruto, 44 and 48 years old Uhuru Kenyatta, son to Kenya’s independence leader, Jomo Kenyatta attracts particular mention. Both face criminal charges at The Hague and therefore stand technically barred from contesting the presidency in 2012 unless acquitted. Besides, there is the historical irony of Uhuru’s case owing to events surrounding his father’s succession and the potential impact of their trials on the Kibaki succession.
Rightly or wrongly, both fault presidential rival and status quo compatriot Prime Minister Odinga for their predicament, in circumstances they directly link to the Kibaki succession.
Messrs. Ruto, Uhuru and Raila share a knotty history since the 1998 cooperation and subsequent merger between the Kenya African National Union (KANU) and the National Democratic Party (NDP) in 2002. All could lose out on the presidency in related but nevertheless completely different circumstances courtesy of their present quandary.
Whether by design or default, with the exception of Uhuru Kenyatta, all the Kibaki succession casualties hail from the larger Western Kenya. The issue here is not the guilt or innocence of these individuals- for that is the courts business-but rather the indication of a regional consolidation stratagem when beamed from Kenya’s fractured political and ethno-geographic fabric.
Likewise, frequent accusations from a house of representatives littered with men and women of straw, raises eyebrows, principally in regard to the current Rota of who is tied first and next for guillotine.
As the Kibaki succession date draws closer, the message, especially to young presidential aspirants is clear- Beware!
Yet in practice, admonition hardly counts where political ambitions are concerned and more candidates are expected. As Marcus Garvey once fittingly opined- ‘Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences’- and the trillion dollar question is- Who next?
Kenya’s current President Mwai Kibaki is sheltering a fellow looter, former President Daniel Arap Moi. In 2007 these two crooks reached a pact: an electorally desperate Mwai Kibaki promised to protect Moi if he (Moi) backed Kibaki for a second term. The deal would ensure that Moi’s political base — a group comprised of several Kalenjin sub-tribes — would support Kibaki, ….so they thought.
The rest is history — Kibaki clearly lost the election, and like his predecessors proceeded to steal it, leading to the worst eruption of tribal violence in the history of Kenya.
Most Kenyans do not have the resources with which to unearth the extent of the vast criminal enterprise that dictator Moi’s regime ran during his 24 year tenure as the second president of Kenya, from August 22, 1978 to December 30, 2002. Even though press freedom has improved significantly in Kenya, journalists still fear for their lives — if and when they “cross the path” of some well-monied crooks with ties to the political elite.
The massive theft conducted by Moi, his family and cronies spilled over to the Kibaki regime, aided and abetted by western companies(with their neo-colonialist governments looking the other way). Typically, fraud on the Kenyan taxpayer is perpetrated through non-delivery of goods and services and incredibly massive overpricing.
Philip Moi was mostly associated with motor vehicle tax fraud and other low-down economic vices, whereas Gideon would mainly wait for government-funded projects to broker deals. At the local level there is(was) no single company in which Philip held(holds) shares directly. He used(uses) proxies who range from low key Asians and houseboys who know(knew) little about the wealth in their names.
The breathtaking extent of corruption perpetrated by Daniel Toroitich arap Moi and his hoodlum-offsprings is(was) breathtaking. Like his predecessor, the first president of Kenya, the ruthless and murderous Jomo Kenyatta, Moi was determined to be the biggest thief and landowner in the Republic. The “Professor of Politics” robbed his people with reckless disregard.
A 110-page report by the international risk consultancy Kroll in 2004, “alleges” that relatives and associates of Mr Moi siphoned off more than £1bn+ of government money. That puts the Mois on a par with Africa’s other great kleptocrats, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) and Nigeria’s Sani Abacha.
The Moi Family: The Biggest Thieves in The History of Kenya
Daniel arap Moi and Son Gideon Moi
The assets accumulated included multi-million pound properties in London, New York and South Africa, as well as a 10,000-hectare ranch in Australia and bank accounts containing hundreds of millions of pounds.
The report, commissioned by the Kenyan government, was submitted in 2004, but never acted upon. It details how:
• Mr Moi’s sons – Philip and Gideon – were reported to be worth £384m and £550m respectively;
• His associates colluded with Italian drug barons and printed counterfeit money;
• His clique owned a bank in Belgium;
• The threat of losing their wealth prompted threats of violence between Mr Moi’s family and his political aides;
• £4m was used to buy a home in Surrey (England) and £2m to buy a flat in Knightsbridge. (England)
The Kroll investigation into the former regime was commissioned by President Mwai Kibaki shortly after he came to power on an anti-corruption platform in 2003. It was meant to be the first step towards recovering some of the money stolen during Mr. Moi’s 24-year rule, which earned Kenya the reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
But soon after the investigation was launched, Mr Kibaki’s government was caught up in its own scandal, known as Anglo Leasing, which involved awarding huge government contracts to bogus companies.
Below is the copy of the leaked report by the Kroll associates on the extent of looting in Kenya by the Moi regime. The Current leadership under president Mwai Kibaki has kept this report under lock and key, reneging on the promise given to Kenyans for zero tolerance on corruption.
1.The Githongo Dossier [PDF] — Whistle Blower John Githongo’s Anatomy of The Anglo-Leasing Scandala.k.a Anglo-Fleecing Scandal. President Mwai Kibaki received Githongo’s dossier containing details of corruption in the government. However, no one was punished and the case slipped from the public eye.
3.The Alston Report [Microsoft Word DOC] — Prof. Philip Alston, a UN human rights official, released his final report on Thursday, May 28 2009, in which he accused top Kenyan police officials of running death squads and describes Kenyan courts as “slow and corrupt“.
4.The Waki Report [PDF] — The Waki Commission, officially The Commission of Inquiry on Post Election Violence(CIPEV), was an international commission of inquiry established by the Government of Kenya in February 2008 to investigate the clashes in Kenya following the disputedKenyan presidential election of 2007.
5.It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower — In her book, journalist Michela Wrong (In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz) tells the story of John Githongo (see item#1 above), a journalist and activist (and Wrong’s personal friend) who joined newly elected Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki’s administration in 2003 as anti-corruption czar. Githongo’s reformist hopes were betrayed when his investigation of a contracting scandal earned him the enmity of colleagues, death threats and smear campaigns. He fled to Britain in 2005, taking along secret recordings of conversations in which powerful officials implicated themselves in the scam. Githongo, a charming idealist with an intransigence bordering on egomania, is a magnetic protagonist for Wrong’s exposé of the machinery of corruption. She dissects the deeper problem of Kenya’s patronage system, which exploits the state as a source of loot and makes allowances for the tribal parties in power. The resulting graft and discrimination–which Wrong argues fueled the communal slaughter surrounding Kenya’s 2007 election–reinforces Kenyans’ view of existence as a merciless contest, in which only ethnic preference offers hope of survival. Githongo’s saga highlights this pan-African problem and addresses possibilities for change.
NOTES: Theft of Nigerian Wealth Aided and Abetted By Halliburton, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs & Other American Companies
Africa Confidential Reports: A corruption case in Geneva snares some of Nigeria’s political elite, and judges order the return of stolen state assets — The conviction in a Swiss Court on 19 November of Abba Abacha, son of former military leader General Sani Abacha, for participating in a criminal organisation together with the confiscation of US$350 million in assets stolen from Nigeria provide important clues to the corruption linked to the $6 billion Bonny Island gas scheme, according to legal experts in Geneva.
Swiss investigators showed how Abacha family members and their advisors set up front companies and channelled hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen state funds through established Western banks including Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, with few questions asked.
Detectives say several corporate entities used by the Abacha family to plunder state assets from 1993-1998 also featured in the bribery scheme run by the United States’ Halliburton to distribute millions of dollars to individuals and companies working on the Bonny gas project. [ READ MORE ]
By: Jerry Okungu I have been forced to respond to the Washington Post story on Kenya that was filed by one Stephanie McCrummen supposedly working for the same paper’s Foreign Service department.
It is my hope that despite the contents of this rejoinder, the Editor of the Washington Post will still find it professional to give me as a Kenyan, the write of reply on behalf of all Kenyans at home and abroad so that falsehoods, innuendoes and rumors contained in the article are corrected.
I am not here to defend the obvious weaknesses of the present regime nor am I here to take a partisan stand on the events of December 2007 when Kenya erupted in an orgy of violence.
I am here to correct the falsehoods that the Western Press is fond of visiting on Kenya and Africa in general.
McCrummen believes that “ethnic gangs burnt to death 28 people inside a church” in Kenya’s Rift Valley region. Yes, many people perished in a Kiambaa church whose numbers we will never know.
We will never know the true numbers because the figures have been changing from time to time depending on who one actually talks to. Others have put it at 35, 40 or even 50.
More importantly, the cause of the fire, according to eye witnesses is still in contention with others talking of a cigarette smoker inside the church inadvertently starting the fire.
This is the single reason why Kenyans have been demanding for a thorough inquest into the Kiamba fire and other killings in Nairobi, Naivasha and Nyanza in order to deal with conflicting rumors if peace is to be restored in Rift Valley and Kenya in general.
McCrummen needs to be educated on the history of land conflict in Kenya, particularly in the Rift Valley and coastal regions of Kenya before making sweeping statements about the cause of the conflicts.
She needs to know that Kenya is a multi-ethnic society just like the United States of America. The difference is, you call us tribes when you prefer to refer to various American ethnic communities as races or nationalities.
Groups that caused mayhem in Kenya soon after elections were not “thugs” as McCrummen would like to call them. They were normal human beings with grievances that had lasted nearly half a century. They were ordinary people that had become fed up with lies, conmanship and blatant abuse of their rights to exist with dignity.
The 2007 election campaign was a special one in Kenya’s history. For the first time in more than 40 years, Kenyans were ready to elect a truly democratic government purely on the basis of the popular vote in all of the 8 provinces.
When this obvious theft of votes and abuse of the rights of citizens became apparent, the peasantry rose up in arms to claim what they believed to be truly theirs.
Kenya Election Violence (Dec. 2007 into 2008)
Four types of violence erupted.
First was the State organized terrorism by deploying armed police to ensure votes were tampered with in ODM strongholds. These police officers were deployed in their thousands in Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western regions where ODM had the largest number of supporters. However, what the state was not aware of was the counter intelligence network that ODM had put in place that monitored every government’s move.
With each passing day, these officers were spotted, arrested and handed over to the nearest police stations and mysteriously released even though they were “civilians with dangerous weapons.”
These events built tensions all over the country long before the ballot day.
As a Kenyan, I voted 200 miles away from the capital and returned to the city to wait for results.
The whole day had been extremely peaceful and for the next 24 hours, Kenyans already knew which party was winning the elections. The exit poll conducted by the International Republican Institute and paid for by American tax payer’s funds can testify to this.
However, with counting in progress, ODM had won 6 of the 8 provinces by a landslide.
Suddenly the Electoral Commission claimed it could not receive votes from Central and Eastern Kenya where Kibaki had his base support.
With such delays, panic and tension gripped the entire nation. What with careless humor from the Election Commission chairman quipping that some of his returning officers had disappeared with ballot papers from Central Province and were probably still “cooking the results!”
When suddenly the Press Center where the results were to be announced was cleared by armed forces, Kenyans knew something was amiss. When they saw a few minutes later that the results had been announced in Kibaki’s favor with just 43 parliamentary seats against the ODM’s 105 seats, Kenyans went in a rage.
But worse was to come. Within minutes of announcing the results, Kibaki was taking the oath office as the sun was setting at his palace lawn!
That swearing in was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
Spontaneously, the country erupted in chaos; chaos that even State security could not handle.
If the Kalenjins attacked the Kikuyus in Rift Valley, it was not because they had planned it. They saw them as members of the Kibaki tribe that would do anything to steal their land, votes and even their rights. It was like saying, ” we are tired of being neighbors with people who can stop at nothing to have their way.”
Were they right in doing so? No, I don’t think so because many ordinary innocent Kikuyus suffered for no fault of their own.
But this suffering cannot be analyzed in isolation no matter how self righteous we may want to sound.
We have to see it in terms of the Civil Rights Movement in America in the 1960s, the King riots in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, Rwanda and Hitler’s Germany.
It is natural for a human being to react angrily if injustice is visited upon him. It is called self-preservation instinct. And in most cases, the aggressor is not necessarily right. It is an emotive thing.
This was the second type of violence was seen in Rift Valley, Kiambaa church included.
The Kalenjins found a perfect excuse to reclaim their ancestral lands that were forcibly occupied by the Kikuyu tribe when Jomo Kenyatta was president between 1963 and 1978.
It must also be remembered that the Kikuyus that settled in Rift Valley had lost their ancestral lands in Central Province to the Kenyatta family and his ruling elite to the extent that to date, the Kenyatta family alone owns land equivalent to one province in Kenya.
Another thing; the current killings going on in Mt. Kenya area by Mungiki militias has a direct link to the Kenyatta era’s land grabbing spree. These are descendants of Mau Mau fighters who came from the bush to find their land taken by new leaders. That is why Mungikis are causing mayhem in Central province to destabilize the ruling class.
The third type of violence erupted in Nyanza, Western and Coast provinces.
In their nature, they were a class uprising when the have-nots found an opportunity to rise up against the haves in Kenya. It was an uprising occasioned by years of deprivation, inequality and lack of opportunities for young people to earn a decent living.
To illustrate my point; my car was destroyed by marauding youths right in Kisumu my home town where I grew up. They saw me as a symbol of what had deprived them of a bright future! In other words, they wanted me to explain why I was driving a 4 wheel car when they could not afford a bicycle! And I understood their frustration.
The fourth violence was when prominent politicians and businessmen from Central Province, and their names are with Kofi Annan, actually paid and transported Mungiki militias to go and carry out reprisal killings in Naivasha town, 50 miles from Nairobi. In that town, members of the Luo, Luhya and Kalenjin communities were flashed out of public transport buses and hacked to death in broad day light as other gangs locked families in their shanty dwellings and set them ablaze. In one case of James Ndege, he lost 9 children and 2 wives in one fire!
The last type of violence is related to the first, organized by the State and carried out by its armed police.
It targeted mainly Luos, Luhyas and Kalenjins in Nyanza, Western, and Kibera slums in Nairobi. The police alone shot to death unarmed youths, some as young as 15 years of age on the run. Most of them were shot at the back from close range according to government pathologists.
In this operation, 450 were shot in Kisumu, 119 in Kakamega, 39 in Kibera slums in Nairobi and many more in Nakuru and Eldoret in Rift Valley. A simple Arithmetic would tabulate police killings at 600 known deaths out of the 1500 casualties that McCrummen is quoting. The police therefore accounted for 40% of the deaths we are talking about here.
The reason why the Kiambaa funeral service and its planned monument is causing concern and raising tension is the way it has been planned and organized. Kenyans are asking the wisdom of reconciling Kenya by celebrating the deaths of 28 souls of a single tribe while ignoring the other 1000 plus.
They are seeing preferential treatment being given to a handful of one tribe that happens to belong to President Kibaki when nobody is talking of those 450 police killings in Kisumu or those that perished in a similar fire in Naivasha.
They are seeing the usual hypocrisy when leaders talk of reconciliation yet the wielders of state power still would love to discriminate against other communities as they use state resources to mourn and bury their dead.
They know they are lying to the public and the public know it too. That is why than lone voice looked at Kibaki and the 28 coffins and told Kibaki to his face that among those coffins, he could not see any of Kibaki’s or Raila’s children.
It was a statement that spoke volumes for ordinary Kenyans; Kikuyus, Luos and Kalenjins alike.
There is more to Kenya’s problems than the gossips and rumors in Nairobi’s pubs.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) — Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was in stable condition and recovering from head injuries Friday night after a car wreck that killed his wife, Susan, medical sources told CNN.
The crash, on a busy two-lane highway between Tsvangirai’s hometown of Buhera and the capital city of Harare, comes just weeks after the start of a power-sharing agreement between Tsvangirai and his political rival, President Robert Mugabe.
Analysts say the crash is bound to raise suspicion of foul play, with one former U.S. diplomat calling for an outside investigation, saying it is not the first time that a political foe of Mugabe has been killed or injured in a car crash.
Members of Tsvangirai’s political party, the Movement for Democratic Change, said Friday that it was too early to tell whether the crash is anything other than an accident.
Tsvangirai’s aide and driver also were injured in the head-on collision with a large truck, according to his spokesman, James Maridadi.
Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa said he spoke to Tsvangirai at the hospital, and the party leader was in “relatively stable” condition. [ MORE ]
Zimbabwean traffic police stand guard over the wreckage of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s vehicle, south of the capital Harare, Friday, March 7 2009.
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We have witnessed this mode of political assassination before — in Africa
Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi, both of Kenya, Idi Amin of Uganda and many other African dictators killed their detractors by staging accidents.
Victims of Kenyatta’s assassinations include — Pio Gama da Pinto, Ronald Ngala (a land rights crusader), C. M. G. Argwings Kodhek (MP and human rights lawyer), and the populist MP from Nyandarua Josiah Mwangi (JM) Kariuki, fierce critic of Kenyatta’s land grabbing disease.
Daniel Arap Moi, Kenyatta’s vice president for many years, picked up the killing after Jomo died, when he became president of Kenya — murdering and then burning the body of Dr. Robert Ouko, the then Foreign Minister in his government.
Idi Amin of Uganda, who was perhaps the most brutal military dictator to wield power in post-independence Africa, “staged” numerous accidental deaths too — Anglican Archbishop, Janani Luwum, was killed in a simulated car crash in Kampala — a fate suffered by many other political opponents.
I have a very strong feeling that Mugabe wants Morgan Tsvangirai DEAD!
Therefore his visit to Tsvangirai’s bedside immediately after the “ACCIDENT,” smells every bit as devious as Jomo Kenyatta attending Thomas Joseph Mboya’s memorial in Nairobi, in 1969 — after hiring the assassin who gunned him down.
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Tom Mboya Funeral
Tom Mboya & Dr. Martin L King at a civil rights rally in DC
African Nationalist Thomas Joseph Mboya coordinated an “airlift” in 1959 of 81 Kenyan students to the USA to attend college. With the help of Dr. King, the African American Students Foundation and its sponsors, Harry Belafonte, Jackie Robinson, and Sidney Poitier, Mboya raised sufficient funds to cover the students’ travel expenses. One of the students was a certain Barack Husein Obama snr., the late father of US President Barack Obama. This rally was in Washington DC, 1959
The other week we had that seemingly bizarre story from Zimbabwe. Police Sergeant Alois Mabhuno was jailed for 10 days for using a toilet reserved for President Robert Mugabe. His ordeal didn’t end there, as he was also demoted and banished to a remote rural police post.
The First Toilet is a conspicuous item of privilege, and in a country where millions of people have none and cannot begin to fathom how a man can have an expensive one all to himself, it sets you apart more than some rumour about a governor having an affair with the First Lady. After all, infidelity is common, and even a poor villager will have some experience or knowledge of it.
I have been forced to respond to the Washington Post story on Kenya that was filed by one 
