IS MURANGA UHURU AND PETER KENNETH'S BATTLEFIELD?

Deputy prime minister, finance minister and king of the slopes, Uhuru Kenyatta has visited Murang'a county over the recent past, more times probably than any other place in Kenya. The most memorable visit was the mammoth crowd where he was proclaimed King in Murang'a town in late March. It was during the run up to the Hague appearance and since the momentum was nationwide, it was only fair for Murang'a not to be left behind. However, he had been in the same county just a few weeks prior to the visit.

After coming back from the Hague, Uhuru has been in Murang'a at least thrice. So what is in this county that catches the eye of the deputy premier? The most logical answer is Peter Kenneth. Peter Kenneth hails from Gatanga constituency, Murang'a county. He is probably the biggest political export from Murang'a after matiba. He may not hail from Kiharu constituency, where Murang'a town is located, but he is known to be well loved there and throughout the county. The leaders from Murang'a  with the exception of Michuki are known to be in Uhuru's camp halfheartedly. Mbau almost wrestled Kabogo when that was reminded to him.

It is no secret that the kikuyu love this man Uhuru. Those from Murang'a love him more, and that is supported by the number that turned up for his mega rally. The problem however is that they also love Peter Kenneth. The respect given to him is mainly because of his soft spoken nature, and lack of directly and with use of hard words attacking Kenyatta. This has made Uhuru lack something to finally finish Peter Kenneth. Use of harsh words on kenneth by Uhuru may bring disastrous results on the latter since in the eyes of the public Kenneth is an innocent angel who they may well vote for to punish his attackers.

For camp Uhuru , central province unity is paramount for him to have any chance of election in the event he is on the ballot. Central province also incorporates all the Kikuyu in other provinces. A split brought about by Kenneth is the last thing Uhuru wants. The key preventing such an occassion, is taming Kenneth right from his turf in Murang'a. That may explain why uhuru can't miss a chance to be in this county. If Kenneth fails to get favour from his own backyard, chances are he will not get any votes from elsewhere. He may even not be in a position to bargain for a running mate position as has been rumoured. If Uhuru can somehow win over total support from this county, then central is his to lose.

Despite Martha Karua been another challenger, the feeling is that Kenneth can emerge stronger considering his ability to win over  top political leaders and members of parliament as opposed to Karua who has failed to get endorsement of any mp.

Uhuru may also have some hope that Peter Kenneth will finally jump to his camp, when options run out. Murang'a  and Kenneth will surely continue to be on Kenyatta's diary between now and 2012.

KENYAN POLITICIANS WHO OWN MEDIA STATIONS

2012 is calling and politicians are getting ready. With no exceptions, any mp with plans of been in parliament post 2012 is clearing the way for himself or herself. As with any country, Kenyans are influenced so much by the media that the media now literally thinks for Kenyans. A case example is Citizen TV which has a religious following upcountry. Anything appearing on the station is law and if you doubt it, just ask anybody and the response will be, it was on TV. Mind you TV is Citizen. A different station with a conflicting side of the story will not be given a chance to complete it without the dial been invoked. By the way, by upcountry, I meant Central Kenya.

With politicians fully understanding the power wielded by the media especially TV and radio, it is no doubt that some of them have positioned themselves strategically to utilize this avenue. The 'positioning' comes in different ways, either by acquiring established stations, creating new ones or even befriending top managers and editors in certain media houses. The 'positioning' has spared no side of the political divide. Here is a list of media stations some of our mps control.

UHURU KENYATTA :- K24, People, Kameme, STV

        Through TV Africa Holdings, the DPM acquired Matiba's People newspaper and Rose Kimotho's media max. Back in 2007, TV Africa had bought STV from veteran Hilary Ng'weno. STV airs foreign news but speculations that it can be rebranded into a local stations are rife. It is not clear the percentage ownership in K24 and Kameme, but it clear the % is enough to give him live coverage, or to even fire Luis Otieno if he fails to tow the line.

MOI'S FAMILY :- Mzee Moi and his son Gideon are the largest shareholder in Standard group,owning KTN, Standard newspaper and lately Radio Maisha. The other shareholders are Joshua Kulei and some very minor shareholders. Whoever gets Gideons favour is expected to leap the benefits but the likelyhood of Raila been the one are very minimal considering his history with the old Moi.

SK. MACHARIA :- Definitely the most recognized media owner in Kenya. He owns The Royal Media family that does not need any introduction. One TV station and over ten radio stations. All this are expected to be for Uhuru to use as the elections approach. This is guided by the open secret of SK's support for the old man Kibaki.

WILLIAM RUTO :- Surprisingly, many Kenyans are unaware that Kass fm is firmly in Ruto's arms. According to sources, Ruto's stake in the stations is said to be in the 40's %. This will definitely come in handy as we progress.

CHIRAU MWAKWERE :- Kaya fm

NAJIB BALALA :- Sheki fm

HENRY KOSGEY :- One fm

JOHN MUTUTHO :- Unconfirmed reports say that he has a stake in Countryside fm, formerly Bahasha fm .

RAILA ODINGA :- Has not invested much in the airwaves and that may cost him dearly. He however owns a not so popular Radio Umoja and Namlolwe fm.  He is however said to enjoy close contacts at the nation centre and whether that will translate to favourable print and airtime is yet to be seen.

CHARITY NGILU :- Said to own a Kamba station, Mbaitu fm. She is also said to have a stake in Syokimau fm

                         

JAKOYO MIDIWO :- Lake Victoria fm

It is widely believed that several undocumented mps own slices of other small stations or are members of the board. This influx of politicians in the media industry is alarming and may transform the Kenyan media to be for the politicians, of the politicians and by the politicians.

OCAMPO TWO ARE NOT JESUS AS THEY CLAIM, SAYS TIMOTHY NJOYA

According to Rev. Timothy Njoya, Kenyans are mistaking the two thieves on the cross for Jesus Christ and the two thieves are working hard to make people believe that they are in deed the sons of  God, going down because of the sins of others and will eventually come out heads high. According to Njoya, they are making us believe they will have suffered not for their sins but for the sins of one man they love referring to as Kimundu.

That was Njoya on Capital talk, and his words, though said in a rather radical manner should get Kenyans of goodwill thinking and reasoning. Njoya appeared very disappointed in the men of cloth who have been offering prayers to the Ocampo 3. I use 3 because I have listened to the voice of Kenyans who have raised concern over the victimization of the whole bunch of Ocampo 6, yet it is only one half that has the guts to open their mouths and feed Kenyans what they themselves don't even believe in. Njoya went ahead and commended Cardinal Njue and cannon Karanja for not joining those in the entourage. That opened my eyes to the fact that on national holidays, or when an event beneficial to the nation is taking place, that is the caliber of religious men who will be invited. For the dirty works however, only those business men hiding behind the pulpit plus a few select men from the mainstream church who are after building royal contacts, will be invited. As all this is happening, a group of IDP's is on their way to Nairobi from Gilgil on foot. No religious leader is waiting to meet them.

What has Kenya become? Where in the world would priests compromise their faith to such an extent. Dining with sinners was Jesus' hobby but for the sole purpose of converting them to believers. The opposite is true for our case. 'Bishops' are dining with 'tax collectors', who by the way collected all the tax in '92 and spread it in 2008 for obvious reasons, not to convert them but to receive favours and maybe some of the tax from them. I would love to see a follow up by our mainstream media on the credentials of some of these pastors, but with stations like Citizen which will give suspects of crimes against humanity a whole free 5 hours of airtime as their homecoming gift, then I may never see that happening any time soon.

It is time Kenyans single out the crosses of the two criminals and stop deliberately mistaking them for Jesus' cross. It is time Kenyans crucify Barnabas.

THE MATH BEHIND A POLITICAL RALLY

How much does it cost to hold a political rally in Kenya. It can be looked at in different perspectives depending on the influence of the politicians and the intended gains from the rally. A political rally two years after an election will cost far less than one two years before an elections. In this calculations, the latest political rallies by PNU wing are case examples and particularly two rallies, the Murang'a rally and the Uhuru Park rally.

Now, for the deputy premier, he enjoys massive support in central thus quite little is spent than in the much cosmopolitan Nairobi. In Murang'a two weeks ago, a massive rally was witnessed in Ihura stadium, the venue of crowning UK king of central. It is however quite funny that despite the support he enjoys from that place, hundreds of people were ferried to the venue from different parts of the country. An average of 100 fourteen seater matatus were used for that job. It is worth noting that 100 is an approximation and the number could be much higher but according to accounts of Muranga residents, it can't be any lower. Surprising is that some of those matatus made more than one trip. Now, lets work with a hundred, assuming that each was been paid sh 5000, That is without much mathematical involvement half a million shillings on the matatus alone.

Working closely with the 14 seaters, were the larger 50-60 seater buses. About 10 were used and assuming each takes home sh 20,000 per day, they all take home sh 200,000 collectively. Both the matatus and the buses take home at least Sh. 700,000.

Now the more complicated part, every ferried soul has to be paid. With the calculations above, at least 2000 persons were ferried by both the matatus and the buses, i.e. 1400 for the matatus and 600 for the buses. Working with a downrated price of Sh 500 for a soul, that adds up to Sh 1,000,000. This amount is very much downrated and can easily be double or even triple since the ferried people could be much more, and some are not necessarily ferried but are paid to bring themselves.

Come to the miscellanous, the committee organising the people's attendance in the grassroot needs to be paid, the tents, if any need to be paid for, the stadium itself is paid for, the public address is hired, the roadshow truck is hired, the posters and placards are paid for plus a host of other undocumented items including the mineral water lying idle on their tables. All this will take at least another Sh1,000,000 with the bulk to the grassroot organising secretary who by the way are village men and women who are not going to let all that money pass them and leave them in full.

Sh 1,000,000 for the ferried crowd, Sh 700,000 for the ferries and Sh 1,000,000 for miscellaneous. That adds up to Sh 2,700,000. Lets make it 3,000,000 since I have not included the tens of boda bodas that form the outriders of the convoy. Believe me the amount is much higher considering the money that ends up in the wrong hands during all this process.

Those were the figures of Murang'a town. Now lets come to the capital, Nairobi. Stakes are very high here and the strongest show of might must be displayed. You will expect the number of those ferried to be multiple times that of Murang'a. Lets put it at x seven. Definitely, every thing else will be much higher and will probably be multiplied by seven. Please note that seven is a random number but is realistic considering crowds in the two venues. The 3 million shillings for Murang'a will round off to over Sh 20,000,000 in Nairobi.

You will note that we are only one year to the elections and the price is higher than it was last year. Next year we should expect the money used in a rally to be much higher.

IS PETER KENNETH CORNERED?

Peter Kenneth is by the day been cornered by the Uhuru camp. Sources close to the deputy premier say that the weekend rally at Muranga town was meant to whip the central Kenya leaders behind the son of Jomo. It is no coincident that the rally was hosted by Muranga which is the backyard of Peter Kenneth. I've just watched a clip of the rally and leaders were openly been asked to pledge their support for the DPM. The task was assigned to none other than Kabogo.
It was no secret that the MPs from Muranga county were strongly behind Peter Kenneth. Among them were Kiharu's Muturi Mwangi, Maragua's Elias Mbau, Mathioya's Clement Muchiri, etc. This were among those who were asked to pledge their support for UK on the podium. Kabogo went a step further to warn any of them of the consequences of breaking that 'oath'.
It is also not surprising that millions were poured on the Muranga rally. Multiple sources tell us that the number of imported people could easily surpass that of the true residents of the town. It was reported on TV that the crowd was mammoth, and yes it was just that. Not even the president had received such a welcome in the town. On the clip  was viewing, Amos Kimunya had to step in to prevent a potential embarassment. He told the 14 seaters operators who had ferried people to the venue not to discuss payment issues there but to wait for Friday.

Also keen in the Muranga rally was the crowning of UK king of central. Some men were heard wondering aloud how some men well known to them became members of the kikuyu council of elders. This was  a very tactical move because incidentally, Ihura stadium was the same venue where the late Jomo got his first ticket to parliament. The late Njiiri resigned in favour of Kenyatta for representation of Muranga in the early years and the ceremony was held there.
Another key occurrence in the meeting was UK's speech. He gave case examples of how the Kalenjin had been united by one Ruto, but how some Kikuyu's, driven by jealousy had failed to acknowledge  him as their leader. This was clearly hitting at Peter Kenneth and Martha Karua. At the end of the day, the weekend rally at Muranga was out to whip central Kenya's leaders behind UK and no one would be allowed to question.

ALCOHOL DEFINES UHURU KENYATTA

The question has hit me again on my face. How much does Uhuru drink? As I was listening to yesterday's news, I heard of a wikileaks cable where ambassador Michael Ranneberger described Uhuru as a heavy drinker and a lazy brat.That took some people by surprise but not those who read between the lines like me. About a week ago, prime minister Raila Odinga had made related remarks when he was addressing a crowd in Nairobi. In his own words, he said that Uhuru's work when he go up was to drink and smoke bhang. It is worth noting that he did not refer to him by his name. This statement was however overshadowed by the statement of Ruto and his court cases.At that moment, anyone would have ignored the prime minister but remarks that Ranneberger made, now leaked, made me think twice. So how much does Uhuru drink? I can now bet its a lot.In an article I had submitted elsewhere, I expressed my worry about Uhuru's deep red eyes. Meeting him in person will make you see as if its a different Uhuru from the one we see on TV. Now I can tell you confidently that it is in fact alcohol and plenty of it for that matter, that defines UK's eyes. The other question now comes in, was the prime minister serious when he claimed his deputy smokes weed? |I think he was. In the years I have lived, I've seen many drunkards who never get their eyes to the level of UK's redness unless there is another drug been used. The possibility of the finance minister smoking weed is very high and I don't expect the prime minister to make such an allegation in public if he can't prove it. I would have expected UK to threaten the prime minister of court action but that has not happened.
With all that, Kabogo comes to the scene. He has all along claimed that there are drug dealers in the cabinet. Maybe his claims are very true and without pointing fingers let me stop there.