In the run up to the February 2006 presidential and parliamentary elections in Uganda, renowned Pastor Robert Kayanja, the founder and head of Miracle Centre churches, told the nation that he had received a vision from God. He (the Pastor, not God) informed Ugandans that one of the five presidential candidates would die before the elections and, as if that wouldn’t be tragic enough, violence would erupt after results had been declared.
None of that had happened by the time President Yoweri Museveni was sworn-in to office in May, in the process arming Kampala’s cartoonists and humorists with enough ammunition to laugh off the Pastor’s prophesy for several months.
Two years since those visions were first revealed, Pastor Kayanja’s prophesies have apparently come true, at least according to one Ugandan. The catch is that each of the two prophesies have happened, not in Uganda, but in two countries that are oceans apart.
The first prophesy, according to this Ugandan, came true in the death of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was running for the same job in an election that was slated to take place early January. The second was fulfilled by the violence sparked off by the contested results showing that incumbent Mwai Kibaki had beaten his rival Raila Odinga, although Raila’s party had won the majority seats in parliament.
It is of course sad for someone to use the misfortunes of others to justify their own faulty predictions of what happens in times ahead. But, in all fairness to Pastor Kayanja, he was not the one who tried to justify his 2006 predictions with the events in Pakistan and Kenya.
What was equally sad was the sight of Mr Kibaki shamelessly taking the Bible in a hastily arranged swearing in ceremony and promising to uphold the rule of law in Kenya (when he had just broken some of those very laws to get his hand on that Bible) – and that was even before Kenyans had run riot in a series of protests that (at the last count) had claimed at least 600 lives.
The world over (except our very own President Museveni, who congratulated Mr Kibaki on his ‘victory’) has since acknowledged that there were a series of irregularities in that election – the kind of irregularities that are likely to drag Kenya’s democracy several years back, if not killed it altogether.
The elderly Kibaki meanwhile continues to further his own selfish interests at the expense of the very Kenyans who he claims to want to serve. How shameless can a man get when he can close his eyes and ears to the fact that his selfishness has not just led to the death of democracy, but more than half a million of his own people?
None of that had happened by the time President Yoweri Museveni was sworn-in to office in May, in the process arming Kampala’s cartoonists and humorists with enough ammunition to laugh off the Pastor’s prophesy for several months.
Two years since those visions were first revealed, Pastor Kayanja’s prophesies have apparently come true, at least according to one Ugandan. The catch is that each of the two prophesies have happened, not in Uganda, but in two countries that are oceans apart.
The first prophesy, according to this Ugandan, came true in the death of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was running for the same job in an election that was slated to take place early January. The second was fulfilled by the violence sparked off by the contested results showing that incumbent Mwai Kibaki had beaten his rival Raila Odinga, although Raila’s party had won the majority seats in parliament.
It is of course sad for someone to use the misfortunes of others to justify their own faulty predictions of what happens in times ahead. But, in all fairness to Pastor Kayanja, he was not the one who tried to justify his 2006 predictions with the events in Pakistan and Kenya.
What was equally sad was the sight of Mr Kibaki shamelessly taking the Bible in a hastily arranged swearing in ceremony and promising to uphold the rule of law in Kenya (when he had just broken some of those very laws to get his hand on that Bible) – and that was even before Kenyans had run riot in a series of protests that (at the last count) had claimed at least 600 lives.
The world over (except our very own President Museveni, who congratulated Mr Kibaki on his ‘victory’) has since acknowledged that there were a series of irregularities in that election – the kind of irregularities that are likely to drag Kenya’s democracy several years back, if not killed it altogether.
The elderly Kibaki meanwhile continues to further his own selfish interests at the expense of the very Kenyans who he claims to want to serve. How shameless can a man get when he can close his eyes and ears to the fact that his selfishness has not just led to the death of democracy, but more than half a million of his own people?
3 comments:
Benon,
I actually think that Kenya's democracy will emerge stronger, not weaker, from this episode. Whatever happens with the presidential matter (I have this numb feeling it might eventually ebb out), ODM's parliamentary numbers will ensure that Kibaki, if he retains State House, will have to make major concessions just to govern.
This might just give Kenya's parliament, usually known for its greedy inhabitants, a chance to earn their keep by keeping the government on its toes. If they fail to do that then I will contribute to your expenses to go cover the last funeral rites for Kenya's democracy.
Daniel,
The Kenyan parliament is certainly bound to get stronger. However, my fear is that Kibaki has, by orchestrating election fraud, set a bad precedent for Kenya, whose democracy we all thought was maturing. As a result of what he has done, the next incumbent - if Kenyans happen to reject him for an opposition candidate - is likely to try to steal the election and expect to ride the storm of public protests, which will eventually die out and leave in him/her enjoying the spoils of the robbery.
So, while the developments in the recent election could ultimately see a turn for the better in the Kenyan parliament, I think the presidency Kenya (which, like in the rest of Africa, is vested with enormous power) will suffer for sometime to come. To borrow a phrase, it is bound to get worse before it gets better.
We have seen something of that kind happen right here in Uganda where the robbers of the presidential election 'ensure' that the fraudulent activities in the process are "not gross enough to affect the overall outcome" so that when they are taken before the courts, they are castigated but then exonerated.
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