Wajir: Know Your County Executive Committee Members

As Wajirians, we have had the opportunity to experience firsthand the "ins","outs", and frustrations of our county government.  We acknowledge that some county personnel and employees do a terrific job with the tools and conditions they work under. Unfortunate6ly, there are departments and individuals within the county system that need to be scrutinized for their public relations, accountability to their function, personal and professional integrity and management style.

There has been too much wrangling going on, too many defensive discussions, and not enough collaborating together.

Now lets us know about our County Executive Committee Members. List their names and profile and rank them according to their performance. That can be done in the comments section here under but observe restraint, maturity and respect for all.

WAJIR; RESOLVING THE POLITICAL CRISIS

Wajir Governor 

Whatever way you choose to look at the political quagmire in Wajir county government, it is obvious that a political crisis looms large in the eyes of the residents.

Political leaders have focused more closely on internal politics and wrangles than on reality and on development. Tribal supremacy between the West and the East means Wajirians have to wait until a political miracle happens to protect them from the poisonous concoctions of bad-politics led by inexperienced leadership.

The government of Wajir has not comprehensively completed a single blue print project since its inception; in fact it has used less than 20 percent of the allocated funds. Much of its executive sittings have ended up coming up with blue print paper work without actions.

We are told to understand that much of the county ministers do not know their roles and have not yet secured their respective budget and work plans.  They wait to be given orders by the executives who are focusing much of their strength in settling political scores.

An endless political storm has not only put the executive branches of government at loggerheads, it has also eroded the public’s trust amid ongoing controversies over improper lobbying and illegal wiretapping involving the Governor on one hand and the Speaker on the other.

If the emerging signals are anything to go by, the political typhoon is between the West and the East, whereas the North and South fuel the flames sometimes leading into a complete standoff paralyzing the activities of the fledgling county government.

And the ensuing political stalemate between Wajir County Governor and County Speaker is set to continue until 2017 general election when perhaps a new government will replace the beleaguered authority of Governor Ahmed Mohamed.

Both the speaker and the governor have been seen overstepping their constitutional mandate in terms of basic checks on power and accountability. For instance a recent fracas has damaged the reputation of the local county assembly after a house-sitting ended up in a feast fight.

That shame and brazen impunity was shown on television stations all over the country and these people are not done yet. In the circles of Wajir Politics it is a do or die affair between the Speaker and the Governor. It is not a wonder if we see a vote of no confidence against both the governor and the speaker tabled in the local assembly.

Many have criticized how the speaker dealt with the election of the new assembly clerk when he unconstitutionally undermined the voting strength of the house by opposing the wishes of the majority.  Many others have criticized the proposition of the governor in trying to use the back door of the assembly in trying to fill up the influential vacancy.

They have both overstepped their roles, their actions cannot be corrected If they have no interest in taking responsibility for their political incorrectness and they choose to sit in the sidelines and watch the situation unfold, the public has no alternative but to look on as well, not knowing how long they will have to endure the tense drama involving a poker-faced governor and a speaker awkwardly carrying on in his role.

RESOLVING THE CRISIS

My greatest fear is that the characters in Wajir quagmire do not know how we got to where we are today. They do not know the number of people in wajir who live on less than a dollar a day or even without a dollar a day, perhaps they do not know they have sworn by the holy Quran.

Handling the current crisis needs a lot more concerted effort both from the speaker and Governor. In order to set Wajir’s democracy and government back on track, both of the men ought to cease their posturing and show a little wisdom and integrity by apologizing to the public, as well as brokering a compromise between the office of the governor and that of the speaker.

Dialogue must be given an upper hand so that the governor and the speaker can handle crisis from one angle. A governor cannot do without a loyal speaker. Smooth running of government depends on smooth running of the county assembly. A disenfranchised assembly means a distraught and inefficient government.

The governor and his team of officers should understand that they were elected directly by the people unlike that of the office of the speaker. We have no excuse to explain and show any weakness of the speaker at this point in time but we have all the excuses to show the inefficiency of your government Mr. Governor because we have elected you. 

The unholy alliance in Somalia: Media, donors and aid agencies

The season of giving has started — and it not even Christmas yet. Leading international aid agencies, including the United Nations, Oxfam, Save the Children and Islamic Relief UK, have launched massive campaigns to save the thousands of Somalis who are facing hunger in their own country and in refugee camps in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked donors for $1.6 billion in aid for Somalia and the World Bank has already pledged more than $500 million towards the relief efforts. Read More

Pro. Amutabi teaches tribalism and hatred against ethnic Somalis at Catholic University of Eastern Africa

I don’t know this writer anyway but they call him professor Amutabi and he teaches tribalism and hatred against ethnic Somalis at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa.

His article in the Daily Nation recently titled ‘There’s urgent need to arrest Somali threat’ is just but another attempt to express hatred against ethnic Somalis.

He wrote ‘It makes many Kenyans feel nostalgic about Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s resolve while dealing with border menaces’ meaning that the infamous emergencies and massacres against Somalis should continue even to this contemporary days.

By the way professor, you are talking of Somali threat, did you acquaint yourself with the security of Kenya. Did Somalis resulted the post-election violence, are Somalis the founders, financiers, ranks and files of militias like Sungu sungu, Mungiki, Baghdad boys, Chiafu and Saboat Land Denfence Forces.You are just but a hater. And your sentiments cannot influence the goodwill of Kenyans.

To read Amutabi’s ill-perceived resentments click here

Wajir: 'It's because of the drought'

Whether you ask about the carcasses of livestock baked white in the sun, the gaggle of people crowding around the district commissioner's door, or the wards of malnourished children lying listlessly in hospital beds, the explanation given is always the same.

"It's because of the drought", they say.

The failure of rains across arid parts of East Africa has brought misery to millions of people, affecting almost every aspect of life.

In this dry, dusty part of the world, every drop that falls helps people scrape a living from the land. If the rains don't come for a season people go hungry. If they fail twice in a row, as they have in Kenya's impoverished north eastern province, they begin to starve.

At the hospital in Wajir town, the paediatric ward is full of young mothers clutching the tiny, wasted forms of their children.

Doctors estimate admissions for severe malnutrition in children have risen by at least 25 per cent in recent months, and fear that the dozens of referrals they have seen could be the tip of a large and deadly iceberg.

"Some parents are reluctant to bring their children to the hospital because it is such a long journey, or they don't recognise the symptoms of malnutrition. Some think they can cure the problem by praying - they don't realise the children need treatment. Children could be dying because of this and we wouldn't know about it," says Dr Moses Menza, the chief medical officer at the hospital. Read more

writes Andrew Wander Save the Children's emergency media manager and a former  Al Jazeera Journalist 

Somalia: The worst places in the world for women

Fatima Osman Bulle lives in an internally displaced ppeople's camp in Mogadishu. Her makeshift house consists of cloths and sticks and has no running water, electricity or toilet. She and her husband, seven children and three relatives are crammed into one room.

Fatima Osman Bulle with her family. Photo/ Guardian

"I feel that I am a low-class member of the family," Bulle says. "I am the most disrespected person in the home."

The 35-year-old has been sexually harassed, tortured and abducted by people she worked for in the past . She now earns $40 (£24) a month as a housemaid and cook.

"I started working as housemaid when I was eight, I was married by force when I was 13 and I am a victim of domestic violence since then," she says.

"The abuses start from early childhood. I was circumcised when I was five. It is a lifetime wound that I live with all the time. I experienced child labour and forced marriage and I never went into a class."
Read more

ANALYSIS-Seizing Mogadishu will not end Somali conflict

African Union troops in Somalia are slowly tightening the noose around the nerve-centre of rebel operations in the capital, but seizing control of Mogadishu will not bring peace to the Horn of Africa nation.

A two-week offensive has seen the peacekeepers advance close to the southern and western edges of Bakara market, the capital's economic hub that has served as a human shield for the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist insurgents.

Controlling Bakara is a crucial step towards expelling al Shabaab militants from Mogadishu, depriving them of a key source of funding and a base from which they can strike key government positions with mortars.Read More

By Richard Lough, Reuters