Kenyan activists gathered to peacefully urge the Kenyan government not to increase cabinet ministerial posts as a way of accommodating the power-sharing deal because this adds to an already bloated bureaucracy - instead power should be shared meaningfully within the posts that exist. Onyango Oloo here below is writing shortly after the Kenyan government tear-gassed the activists.

It is around three minutes to one in the afternoon here in Nairobi.

Slightly over forty minutes ago, I was part of a group of civil society activists who were sent scampering all over Uhuru Park after being tear gassed by the Kenyan riot police.

Among those dozens forced to shed sudden involuntary tears were Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, well known Kenyan human rights lawyer Harun Ndubi, Kenya National Commission for Human Rights Chair Maina Kiai, Africog head honcho Gladwell Otieno, Awaaz Managing Editor Zahid Rajan, Bunge la Mwananchi regulars Samson Ojiayo and Gacheke; Open Society East Africa Director Binaifer Nowrojee; independent documentary film maker/activist Mbugua Kaba; singer/dancer/drummer/actor/activist "Toothbrush" Ooko; ODM Secretariat member Dr. Jospeh Misoi; feminist/GBLT activist " Ms. P"; NCEC Coordinator Ndung'u Wainaina; minority rights activist Ms. Patita; Fahamu staffer Stella Chege and even the colourful Orie Rogo Manduli.

The cops did not discriminate in their distribution of the noxious canisters: I saw Anne Mawadhe of the BBC and several other local and international media folks choking from the ubiquitous gas fumes.

Later, as we were exiting Uhuru Park-with some still trying to access Harambee Avenue, the ultimate destination of the protest march- I could not resist throwing a broadside a the clutch of askaris, headed by an Assistant Commissioner who were looking for an opportunity to clobber us with their over used rungus. Directing my ire and fire at their presumed boss, I berated them for thwarting the efforts of democracy loving, corruption hating Kenyans like us who were there to fight against a bloated cabinet precisely we were thinking of underpaid public servants like the police and prison warders who still lived in hovels and earned a pittance even as they put their lives on the line for the greedy fat cats lining up for big jobs at the expense of the poor mwananchi tax payers. For a moment, given his vicious ferocious glare, I thought the Assistant Commissioner would unleash his goons on me.

Whatever violent thought was passing through his mind, he let that thought pass and let me, pass too, through them to the other end, towards the Hotel Inter Continental.

Ironically, the rest of the rally had gone smoothly, peacefully and without an incident.

Statements were read and speeches were made by Maina Kiai, Gladwell Otieno and Wangari Maathai; the patriotic songs including the militant national anthem were sung by all of us. We all had our "No More Than 24!" placards and we all intoned our slogans.

What is intriguing is WHO gave the police instructions to disrupt our legal, peaceful, democratic and constitutionally protected right to assembly, freedom of expression and association?

Was it just the police bureaucracy acting on their own and obeying their blood thirsty instincts?

Or was it an order from the "government" trying to keep a lid on dissent?

Freedom Corner is of course associated in the public mind with protests againt the status quo.

At any rate, for such a routine civil society action, I was somewhat taken aback by the number of helmeted riot cops on hand to"welcome" us to Uhuru Park with their traditional feisty hospitality.

The question that needs to be posed to PNU and ODM is whether or not power sharing extends to the Kenyan people.

After all, it is the ordinary Wanjiku and the Achieng who ensured that these two major parties have so much political clout.

It is our votes which propelled them to parliament.

It is our taxes which sustain them-whether as backbenchers or full cabinet ministers.

When they want to demonstrate to their opposite numbers about their strength, it is to us their turn when it comes to mass mobilization.

Presumably, we should be their political bosses because we are the ones who keep them in power.

In other words, we have a direct stake in their power sharing wrangles between PNU and ODM.

Obviously, we may never be invited to those hush hush negotiations because some of the political players view us as irrelevant to the process.

But since this is OUR Kenya that they are talking about, we do not their word of approval to participate in the process.

We have a right to be involved in determining not just WHO governs us HOW, but what kind of policies and action points will ensue.

It is not just about PNU haggling over positions with ODM.

At the moment all praises are going to Kofi Annan as the man who saved Kenya.

We have quickly forgotten that long before Kofi Annan set foot in Kenya, there were already Kenyans from all walks of life- from Ambassador Bethwell Kiplagat to Muthoni Wanyeki and the youth in the informal settlements- who were busy calling for Peace, Democracy, Truth and Justice.

I feel that two main players-ODM especially- should take their time to study how the ANC kept in touch with its popular and social base even as it top leadership anchored by Nelson Mandela kept ordinary ANC members informed and involved in the details of the power sharing process even as they dialogued with the De Klerks and the Pik Bothas.

There is a need for the Kenyan people to step up to the plate and seize this historic moment in our country's political development and push through a thorough going agenda for constitutional and democratic reform and shake our mainstream politicians from their comfort zone.

We should redefine power sharing to mean the right of the poor to share power with the rich; the right of women to share power with men; the right of the vijana to share power with the wazee...

To do this we must have a battering ram, an organized voice- a force that brings together civil society, smal political parties, trade unions and other social forces.

Today we saw that the Kenyan neo-colonial STATE as opposed to the "government" has no qualms about reasserting its essential violent and coercive nature. It means that even after elections, even after the bloody carnage which followed after it and all those heart rendering peace songs and exhortations for reconciliation and national harmony, we still need to redefine the power dynamics expressed by the daily actions of the state in the lives of Kenyans.

Yesterday (at least according to the front page of the Daily Nation today, April 1, 2008) cops trying to disperse a similar peaceful communiy protest in Njiru, on the peripheries of Nairobi shot dead an unarmed woman who was not even in the protest but sitting as a passenger in a public service vehicle. As we speak, units of the Kenya Army are busy torturing peasants in Mt. Elgon and shooting dead innocent civilians in an attempt to "restore peace" in that western Kenyan region that has been rocked and wracked with state and militia violence.

As Kenyans with a democratic conscience we need to tell the powers that be that there are effective alternatives to those Rambo intrusions- whether it is tear gassing peaceful protestors in downtown Nairobi; shooting in cold blood a woman in a matatu in Njiru or torturing villagers in Mt. Elgon.

In the meantime let me go back to two Sixties/Seventies slogans:

A Lutta Continua!

Un Pueblo Unido, Hamas Sera Vencido!

*Onyango Oloo, a Kenyan political activist and ex political prisoner.

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