Palaver

JM tells Palaver that Juja’s George Thuo has been accused of aloofness and lost his re-election bid because he had disconnected with his voters. The 20,000 votes he got were due to Uhuru Kenyatta’s clout. JM adds that Thuo’s councillors were also to blame due to graft and land grabbing in Thika. However, UK stood by him just like he stuck with Nyayo in 1997 and even went on to lose his seat because of his dalliance with Kanu. UK, stands by friends through good and bad times like on the Mau Forest saga. JM wonders why the PNU chairman and top party brass had to let the Kanu boss shoulder all of Thuo’s by-election burden.

Where did Canon Peter Karanja and John Cardinal Njue disappear to? They were the face and voice of a vociferous ‘No’ campaign before the referendum and then... silence. Speak brothers, speak. Your silence is becoming too loud.

MB queries the conspicous silence of civil society and Government critics on the refusal to hand over to the ICC, minutes of security meetings in late 2007 and early 2008. Even the Cabinet sub-committee on ICC that often talks at cross-purposes is unanimous that ICC won’t get a peek at the minutes because Kenya is "sovereign state". We think the message is: No more envelopes, get cracking on the one Justice Philip Waki so graciously provided to one Lui Moreno-Ocampo.

Such news as Usain Bolt considering playing for Manchester United is startling, but only for the entertainment value. Other revelations that are not your run-of-the mill comic relief occur when Speaker Kenneth Marende ‘reluctantly’ accepts to run for President in 2012 or 2017. It was long in coming, now that it has, watch this space.

And finally...

Pope Benedict XVI’s woes are unending. He thought he had sorted the paedophile clerics’ matter, now the pontiff’s headache is being aggravated by two things: One, a probe into the goings-on at the Vatican Bank over some missing millions, and two, an investigation of consecrated women amid allegations centering on abuse of authority.

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