Major events that shaped the year 2013

Inaugural presidential debate

By DANIEL WESANGULA

The year 2013 started out with a split personality. On the one hand there was excitement and high energy brought about by the looming presidential elections that were only three months away. But on the other hand, there was the lingering shadow of death.

Kenyans crossed into the New Year commemorating five years since the bloody post-poll chaos of 2008.

And as the memories were awakened once more, violence and ethnic killings in the Tana River region that had started the previous year spilt over into 2013. Tens of the Pokomo and Orma continued the massacres in bloody revenge attacks.

As this continued, the curse of the road accidents continued to stalk commuters as in a span of two days, 33 people perished in two separate road accidents involving public transport vehicles. A Molo bound matatu left 19 people dead, while another one left 14 dead at Salgaa.

On a lighter note, however, one of Kenya’s most recognisable football clubs sought to make national history as club officials announced the signing of a Brazilian player.

Gor Mahia was later on meant to eat humble pie as it emerged their Brazilian “super star” lacked not only the skill associated with his country, but was not even fit to straddle Kenyan turf.

Election fever

February, traditionally the month of love, came with heated exchanges between members of opposing political parties.

Election fever completed its stranglehold in Kenya’s discourse leading to the historic first live televised presidential debates bringing together all the candidates. This is also the month that the famous “choices have consequences” phrase was born, courtesy of American envoy Johnny Carson.

Worldwide, Pope Benedict XVI resigned amidst a flurry of allegations of corruption and sex abuse scandals against the church. The official Vatican position cited ill health as a reason for his stepping down. Pope Francis, 77, the first from Latin America, filled his position.

The biggest event in Kenya’s calendar came to pass, and after the election dust had settled, Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner of the March 4 election.

President Kenyatta’s party, the Jubilee Coalition, did just enough to clinch victory in one round, thus avoiding a run-off election.  A Supreme Court ruling later cemented the victory after Odinga’s CORD coalition filed a petition against the earlier declaration by the electoral commission.

The month of March also brought good tidings for one of the International Criminal Court’s accused, as all charges against former Cabinet Secretary Francis Muthaura were dropped.

In April, Uhuru Kenyatta was officially sworn in as Kenya’s fourth president, taking over from Mwai Kibaki. Raila Odinga, Moses Wetangula and Kalonzo Musyoka were in the official opposition.

Atrocities

Obituaries were also written for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and newly elected Senator for Makueni Mutula Kilonzo. The former died of a stroke while the latters cause of death remains unknown.

Insecurity hogged the headlines in May. Deadly attacks in Bungoma and Busia left scores dead and many more injured. The government was forced to deploy additional personnel to western Kenya to stop the bleeding.

After years of hearings and sessions, Bethwell Kiplagat’s the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission finally released a much-hyped report on the atrocities committed in Kenya since independence.

Recommendations in the report were far ranging including the prosecution of former and current government officers for various crimes. Despite touted as having a self-implicating mechanism, the country waits, without bated breath, for the recommendations to be implemented.

This is also the month when the National Oil Cooperation announced its decision to gift former president Mwai Kibaki with a petrol station.

In June, Kenya and Somalia reached a tentative repatriation agreement that would see hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees voluntarily return to their homeland.

The British government made an unprecedented payout, to the tune of Sh1.8 billion to Mau Mau veterans. The UK government also apologised for atrocities committed over the period of the Mau Mau insurgency.

For the first time, Kenya’s budget crossed the trillion shilling mark for the second time and Kenya’s very own Victor Wanyama changed teams and completed a much coveted move from his Scottish side Celtic to Southampton football club in the English Premier League.

July saw the ending of the teacher’s strike.

In August two Kenyans abducted by Somali Al Shabaab insurgents in January 2011 were released following successful negotiations. The two Edward Mule and Frederick Irungu Wainaina rejoined their families. Another mockery of our disaster preparedness was to come our way as a fire, later adjudged to have been caused by an electrical fault, razed down the international arrival’s terminal resulting in massive losses.

September came with one of the darkest days in Kenya’s history. Armed terrorists attacked Nairobi’s upmarket Westagate Mall in what authorities claimed to be a four-day siege. After the guns fell silent, 67 civilians were left dead. And a further 7 security personnel also lost their lives.

A trail of distraction running to the hundreds of millions was left behind. Untold suffering, physical and emotional, was the mark left on the survivors of the ordeal.

Away from the pain of the Westgate Attack, the ICC was forced to adjourn over inconsistencies among the witnesses.

The month also came with the captivating tale of one Faith Wairimu accused of hiring hitmen to assassinate his husband John Muthee. Muthee later dropped all charges against his wife and told the court that he had decided to “forgive and forget” the incident.

Resignation

September was also the month of the infamous “Kidero Slap”. In a moment of madness, Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, seemingly incensed by the shenanigans of the city’s Women’s Representative Rachel Shebesh, slapped her in the full glare of the camera’s during a confrontation at City Hall.

Although rights groups came up demanding his resignation, nothing much has come out of the incident – yet. “Despite hearing the train’s horn, the driver just continued driving,” these were the words echoed by several survivors of the Umoinner accident that left at least 10 people dead when the bus driver tried to jump a train at an intersection.

The early morning incident led to a knee jerk reaction that resulted in the demolition of all structures around the intersection. Days later, those same structures were rebuilt.

In Kenya’s coastal resort city of Mombasa militant supporters of slain Muslim cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Ismail, the perceived successor of another murdered cleric Ibrahim Rogo battled police for hours protesting his death. The confrontation resulted in the death of four people. Ibrahim was killed in a drive by shooting in circumstances similar to those that led to Rogo’s death.

Media muzzling

October also marked the month in which CEOs of telecoms companies were summoned by the Criminal Investigations Department to explain the existence of unregistered sim cards.

In the same month, veteran politician Raila Odinga launched his autobiography.

November saw the introduction of the infamous media-muzzling Bill in Parliament. The Bill, later passed into an Act after the presidential assent, outlines punitive measures for journalists and media houses. Media owners and journalists continue to fight what has been termed as a “draconian” Act aimed at “muzzling the media”.

As the year came to a close, another leading light in the world forever went off. After 95 years, Nelson Rohilhalha Mandela breathed his last on December 5 and was buried ten days later in his family home of Qunu.

He was eulogised by the world’s great as a once in a lifetime individual who not only changed the course of his nation, but also swayed the opinion of the whole world.

The month also saw the beginning of a crippling doctors’ strike that lasted more than 11 days.