Makokha Wanjala M’s Remarks ON OCCASION OF CELEBRATING OULU G.P.O, OSCAR KANG’ARA AND GODWIN OGATO'S FIRST ANNIVERSARY

Makokha Wanjala M’s Remarks ON OCCASION OF CELEBRATING OULU G.P.O, OSCAR KANG’ARA AND GODWIN OGATO'S FIRST ANNIVERSARY AT THE SHOOTING SITE, STATEHOUSE ROAD, NAIROBI.

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Republic of Kenya

Citizen No. 22045386

For Immediate Release

March 5, 2010

Makokha Wanjala M’s Remarks
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ON OCCASION OF CELEBRATING OULU G.P.O, OSCAR KANG’ARA AND GODWIN OGATO'S FIRST ANNIVERSARY AT THE SHOOTING SITE, STATEHOUSE AVENUE, NAIROBI.
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My good friend Crispus Fwamba, a faithful soldier in the struggle

My very good friends Otambo, Cyprian, Booker Ngesa, Mamluki and others



A year ago, March 5, was to be just another day. It will never be so again. This afternoon is worth of our memory for on this day 366 days ago, bullets rained at Oulu and Oscar snuffing life out of their bodies. Another Kenyan whose only crime was to see all these Godwin Ogato received the balance of bullets to turn the day into a sad reminder yet a milestone in the struggle. Oulu , Oscar and Ogato what a coincidence triple O, comrades in death.

We gather here today to remember Oulu , Oscar and Ogato these are in list of many other heroes and heroines that have fallen in the struggle for a better Kenya . In a way, our gathering mirrors the celebration in South Africa on the student uprising of 1975. Our nation suffers a collective hate to those who persevere, those who toil away, those who slave as prisoners of conscience, those who suffer broken promises, broken limps and shattered lives so that we could have a better nation. A majority of these youthful yet gallant sons and daughters of Kenya met their bullets right at or from universities, tertiary and other institutions. They spared nothing in their love for their mother land Kenya .

It is refreshing that this meeting, a congregation of largely young minds found it worth to celebrate GPO. George Paul Oulu, many of us thought it was General Post Office. We took it for granted that we had such a long time and a long company in his life. March 5, 2009 proved us wrong.

We celebrate many others who lived like these three and become compatriots in death for all of us. It is even more humbling that I was chosen to give a speech at this maiden anniversary. I am alive to the high standards expected of me so that this annual event begins to speak to our nation. In discharging this tall order I have no doubts that I fall short of your expectations but then, I am yet to see a man who pleases everyone.

Maybe I was selected to speak because at the time of GPO’s death, I was staring at another calamity at family level. News that GPO is no more reached me at the bedside of Webuye District Hospital where another fine Kenyan, the Late Charles Makokha Wambulwa lay comatose. My Dad succumbed to spinal cancer on March 7, 2009. In a way my family will always unite with GPO’s and their friends in sorrow as we commemorate these anniversaries. These twin tragedies help to explain my very loud absence at Oulu ’s graveside. I get to pay my homage to him a year later.

In the cabinet in which I served as the Secretary General, God has been so generous in calling us home. He called to his fold Onkoba Marube, a fine young Doctor and my Secretary for Health & Accommodation. He again called for his keep; no I think an assassin forced him to accept for his safe keep another patriot named GPO who was the Governor- Kikuyu Campus in my student government, SONU. Since the executive council was only 18 in number, I guess myself and the remaining 15 must always be ready. If they don’t force me or you to meet our maker that soon, let us continue to draw on God’s oasis of infinite blessings and surrender ourselves to the service of our great nation Kenya .

A good speech rarely changes a nation, a life well lived does. The life of GPO teaches all of us that you don’t have to grow to a ripe old age to contribute to your nation. If you are among the many who expect that I share much on the life of GPO; in that I am afraid I will disappoint. I knew GPO almost in the same way as you did. I may not have any special knowledge about this gallant son of Kenya . Indeed I must confess that some of you shared a life with him, lived with him, worked with him and knew him in a way none of us did. To me GPO came through as a sincere, charming and courageous young man.

He wasn’t to be cowed with his not-so –eloquent speech. In fact I believe for what he may have lacked in eloquence it was well made up by courage and lots of it.

I will return to his life shortly, but I believe in a forum like this Kenya is listening. I see in front of me the very essence of Kenya . I see the enthusiasm, the beauty and the hope of our nation. I see the energy that will take Kenya to a new level; I want to speak to this promising future of our nation. I want to be brutally honest with my audience, I do so in the firm faith that the good Lord set aside a time like this for a message like this. I am animated to be part of Kenya ’s future, I am proud to be speaking back to myself for I believe I am part of the hope that will transform our nation.

I believe this day will be wasted if we fail to talk through the struggles that GPO fought. We will have squandered this moment if we do not size up and face the challenges that pre-occupied GPO’s days. I want to look straight into our civil society; an arena in which Oulu was a lead character. Civil society plays an integral role in our society. They play watchdog and interrogate our leaderships at all levels. They demand much from those in positions of leadership and it is in the same vein that a lot must be demanded from them. Leadership is not just presidency, leadership is not only government, and leadership never ends elective, competitive and oftentimes divisive politics.

Kenya will not be changed from statehouse; In fact it won’t be changed by happenings at that prestigious address on Harambee Avenue . Kenya is unmoved by the bickering and mostly confused 220 fellows in the August house. And yet statehouse, that office on Harambee Avenue and the character of those two-hundred and twenty fellows explains much of where we are today. It explains why truthfulness and honesty are no longer hallmarks of public service. And that is why today is poignant. Today is so important to me for I get to meet the people who each day put their lives on the roll in the streets for us. I get to speak to the people who occupy the moral high ground from which they beckon at us. I get to speak to the civil society.

As I said Kenya is here, Kenya is listening and Kenya wishes to hear the brutal truth if not for anything for the sake of the life of Oulu and the suffering of Kang’ara’s widow and the grieving of Ogato’s family

Why have we not changed this nation?

Why is it taking us too long to take the leadership of this nation?

Why do Kenyans not trust our intentions to transform their lives for the better?

Is it us or is it them who are failing this nation?

In memory of a very courageous son of Kenya , why not just pick a bit of it and ask just how many of us in the civil movement have succumbed to guns-for –hire?

It should jog our minds but leave no hatred to establish how many of our demonstrations are privately funded by a select corrupt at night and aimed at other corrupt fellows during the day?

In our search for justice for our fallen brother, can’t we pose and ponder justice for those who can’t be appointed to certain positions because of their mother tongue? Is it a coincidence that 47 years after independence we have some talent that can’t be replaced occasioning grey haired pensioners in key state offices?

Can’t we as we search for justice seek justice for our primary school children whose free primary education is now very free of any meaningful education?

Does it hurt and should it hurt in asking where the truth that we so fondly announce on rooftops is?

Are we ready to choose the responsibility of a new just and prosperous nation or would we rather remain in the present confusion for which we are the architects? Would it be wrong to question an apparent government policy that talent, competence and indeed incompetence is also tribal?

If we can’t live the narrow path of accountability, we loose the moral ground to demand it from others. We have to confront the venom that constantly poisons all youth initiatives. We must confront the differences that make it impossible for the youths of this nation to speak as one voice. It is never easy but the young people of this nation must lead the way. We must ask those difficult questions, we must ask why Kenyans cannot trust us and prefer their present lives.

We have to look within and exorcise the venom that has slowly but surely de-activated the Otambo’s, Munovi’s, Khauka’s and Osido’s of student activism?

We are not going to do so if we all admire Mercedes Benz irrespective of how it was acquired.

We won’t fight corruption if we are part and parcel of ethnic cocoons that rise to defend our tribesmen whenever they are found with their hands in the honey jar. Corruption is personal and political, those telling us otherwise; we know what they are saying. I hear them. If you hear them as I do, they are asking us to trust government agencies to deal with corruption when these agencies are known more in failure than success. Trust government as presently constituted when no where else provides a fertile ground for graft to sprout than in government agencies themselves. I dare say again, if you ask us to forgo a genuine need for to step aside to allow for independent and impartial investigations, then we hear you. We know that you are asking us to burn the church so that the gospel can be preached. You are asking us to break the sanctuary of ethics as the first step in fighting corruption, you are asking us to give up virtue and replace it with value. You are asking us to doubt our education. You are asking us to re-check our civility and in all these endevours our un-equivocal answer is this. We refuse. We refuse your convenient confusion as a medium of exchange in transacting public affairs in our nation Kenya .

We will not overcome the small thinking that characterizes the leadership of our nation if we fight corruption to attract invitation to the very table of corruption. Corruption has to be fought from within. We must search within our souls and create a resolve to quickly replace the punctured tyre that keeps the youths of this country off road.

But we must ask in all honesty, is it just them? Are things, I mean everything in our national psyche going wrong because of those in leadership? We must accept our share of blame. We are to blame. Oscar, Oulu & Ogato’s lives and other lives lost are actually a loss and not an indication of progress in the struggle because of our greed. We have terribly let ourselves down. We cut deals on campaign money then dish it among ourselves in a fashion no different from the workings of the corrupt tentacles that raise campaign funds in the first place. We are the problem. I should just say it as it is, we derive comfort in company of thieves. We have fallen short of our expectations; we need to reform ourselves first.

I will not attempt a catalogue of our nation’s problems, for that is common place. I will also not detail solutions for those are never in short supply. The only worthy project for us, the only option for our nation is to invert this pyramid of leadership. I am tired; I am frustrated and am annoyed that many of our youths are being promoted on the very convoluted pyramid of leadership once they soak their hands in illicit honey. What will become of us? Are we prepared to sacrifice our ideals, our ethics and everything we hold dear so that we are allowed to climb the pyramid? The choice that Oulu made is before us today. Lets choose the way for Kenya ’s brighter future not our own. Those who pulled the trigger and took away the life of Oulu will never muster the courage to tell us why they did so. They will not tell us, what Oulu ’s life threatened in them, they will never tell us why killing him was the only option. We will never know for sure why GPO and Oscar had to die. We are left only with memories we had of them, we are only left with the impressions we had of the three comrades, with these memories we can only postulate on why they wanted them dead.

They wanted them dead for they were not part of them

They wanted them dead for they operated differently

They wanted them dead for thier thoughts were not theirs

They wanted them dead for they terrified them

They wanted them dead for it worried them, Oulu’s plans, Oscar’s dreams, his ambitions and the steadfastness of Ogato. They knew their flock will flatter, they knew in killing Oulu they will disorganize us, they knew in killing Kang’ara we will scatter. They wanted to kill Oulu’s dream, to maim Kang’ara’s ambition and frighten their disciples.

Today, I look into your eyes and I ask are we frightened? Are we cowed? Are we so afraid of them? I don’t know but for me my path is cut out. I know I have made mistakes, I have been tempted like everyone else but I refuse to form company with known thieves.

I may have sinned but I call upon all the young people of this nation to resonate to the higher calling of leadership with an affirmation that Kenya will live on.

We the youth, may have made mistakes but I refuse to be condemned by my history

We refuse the habit of mistakes

We refuse the snare of corruption

The young people of this nation have heard many things; they have been told they will lead tomorrow. Their mistake is they have accepted all this without question. They have been condemned that they are too many for the jobs in the market as if they gave birth to themselves. They have been abused and all they ever did was to accept the humiliation in silence. Of course, with rare exceptions in the mould of GPO & Oscar

It is time now, not just to say enough is enough for that has been said before. It is time not just to say, it is our turn, because as well that has been said before. It is not in order to say we will chase the corrupt out of town, for we could as well be the very corrupt. We shouldn’t say the time for roadside declarations will end, for we have seen those who condemn are the very ones who indulge.



What then is our way forth. Why then are Oscar and Oulu dead? Why then do people pay the ultimate prize in their quest for a better society? What should the young people of this nation do? What strategy will work? Will our past failure become a permanent feature of our future struggles? The genuine answer to all these is “I don’t know”

I don’t know how we will reform this country, but reform it we will

I don’t know how we will deal with a government that worships at the alter of brotherhood in thievery but deal with it we must

I don’t know how we will deal with our tribal warlords but yet we must confront them

I don’t know what we will do with our docile church whose indulgence is to forsake its people and let lies reign.

Friends, there is so much I don’t know, but the little I know is that the great future of ourselves and our children will not arrive on the shores of our nation as did the British colonialists. I don’t know how we will ensure that there is better accountable leadership for our country but what I do know is waiting patiently, obediently to the current status quo will not take us far. I don’t know just who or how we could manage our taxes better but I do know that no solutions will alight aboard a Boeing at JKIA irrespective of how well we pray. What I do know and know so well is that:

We must be heard or we will increase our voices

We must be listened to or we will break into the boardroom

We must be understood or we will take over the discussion

We must be involved or we will supplant the current leadership

But friends no one will give it to us. We will grab the leadership of this nation. We must create awareness among our people never to settle for less. We must engage in all fronts, in all ways, the young people of this nation must arise.

To do so we must live the change we wish for. We must not condemn on basis of tribe, we must never disengage however long the night might seem. We pray to God to hold the sun high so that we continue the battle. I believe from wherever he is GPO is urging us on

He is urging us on to contemplate then complete his works. We must now proceed in honesty, firm in faith that no one knows it all. We must give way for a brother who has better skill; we must leave way for a sister who is more experienced than us. We must begin to engage on the basis of truth. We must run our affairs differently; we must begin to live in the new Kenya we wish to see. We must live true to the creed that disobedience to tyranny is obedience to God. We must forge love among us.

I wish to conclude by reminding you and myself that we will not be young forever. That being young ascribes no special benefits to us for reason of age alone. I wish it dawned on all of us that this nation owes us nothing just because we are young. Youth is just a phase. It is up to us to utilize it to the greatest of benefits to our collective stay as a nation.

I pray that God keeps and blesses you. I pray that in his redemption spirit, may he allow us to live a new. May he keep in you a sense of urgency to surmount and summon all the energies for good of our nation?

Kenya is great,

Kenya is marwa

Its leaders have small heads,

And, it is so because we have accepted it to be so

To those who killed GPO, Oscar and Godwin, they messed up March 5th, their cowardice gave us yet another day on which we pause and reflect on the struggle this far. By killing the three, you made the cause louder, by killing O, O & O you made us bolder; by killing, you united us further, by their blood our resolve got even much tighter. As you stilled their voices, you made the voice of the struggle louder.

Kenyan state may never tell us the truth; it may never tell us who pulled the trigger. It remains their duty. President Kibaki and his co-principal Raila must now share information so far gathered. It was their duty to protect GPO, Oscar and Godwin, a sacred duty in name of our nation in which they failed. We ask them to attest that they indeed are not part of the conspirators by hauling before justice the real conspirators. We wait, but not forever, for sooner than later they stand guilty in the court of public opinion in a duty not to protect the killers. If they fail then we know it is not their inability to do so.


Asanteni sana

BY MAKOKHA WANJALA:REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE OF OULU GPO

REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE OF OULU GPO
Generations after us will always ask who Oulu GPO was. Our answers will be varied depending on which side of which side of the game we played. For me I had the opportune of seeing Oulu at close range. He served in the same student government as I did. He was at that time the Campus Rep Kikuyu campus. I recall during my own campaigns when I had been threatened by the Summit in Kikuyu that I was not going to be able to address the last Kamukunji…. It was GPO who came to my rescue. In fact I recall vividly that my clarion call of the right to be heard does not include to the right to be taken seriously was coined then.

GPO was to be a regular in our student parliament chaired by Mr. Speaker the Hon. Daktari Murage. He had problems with this thing of collective responsibility and many times though speaking from the executive benches he spoke more or less like an independent minded Member of Parliament. My memory could fail but I faintly recall that he must have joined forces with Fwamba when the latter wanted to Head PAC and PIC committees yet he was the Deputy SONU President. We went through a whole a year with our struggles sometimes serving students and at other times regrettably we served ourselves. Oulu was no angel; he too made his fair share of mistakes then. His mistakes however never took him away from a ground of fighting for human rights.
We must have been with Oulu in Mbarara University when SONU went calling for a two weeks seminar. There like anyone who has been out of the country we all became patriotic defending the nation. Many of us retired from student service when GPO upped up his scale to the position of vice-chairperson. Personally when I took up employment with the University, Oulu sought me out and I had to explain to him. The upshot is that I had taken up a job for which I was qualified and had gone through the interview process. I do not pretend that those who interviewed me were not known to me before hand but their decision remains theirs only.
When he earned a suspension from the University, Oulu joined a group of a few but very dedicated individuals who believe injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. That he had fallen out with university management was remarkable, but that he had fallen out with a regime that is headed by his tribesman was truly inspirational. I was at the inauguration of SONU officials where the University management ordered security to make Oulu leave. Oulu had come dressed in a white suit, and he joined in coming straight to main dais. As he was escorted out I wondered whether or not his white suit was not symbolic. It was. It reminded us of two things that the silence of the current students had combined with the leadership of the institution in choosing a very dark colour by repelling the white suit Oulu had carefully chosen for the day.

As with all suspensions, the management granted amnesty and Oulu was readmitted back but of course with a condition that he never vies for a SONU position. I thought Oulu would not accept such injustice and in fact when he reported to campus I sought him out. His response lingers on. He intimated that he had discovered the University was such a small theater in which to fight for human rights. He had expanded his horizon to the nation. He had joined the human rights forum at the national front. His horizon was bigger and UON had receded and he saw no reason to cry over a microcosm. But he maintained an active role and interest in student affairs. Tragedy would have it that at time of his death Oulu was still a student at UON. In a way the journey to a degree parallels his fight for human rights. Both the struggles stalled mid term.
As fate would have it, I could not be at his graveside to witness the journey of Oulu back to the earth. I had shared many struggles with him that it was painful not to be there and participate in the ceremonies of burying yet again picking the baton from this gallant son of Kenya. Twin fateful coincidence was that on the same day I was laying to rest the remains of another great Kenyan. My Dad. The phonecall that Oulu had passed on way relayed to me by Lillian. She had seen a news flash that a former student leader had been gunned down. She had assumed it was me. Not long later Mbogori called and asked me to clarify at least to my friends that I had not been gunned down. I placed a call to Fwamba and the sad news weighed in that our GPO was no more. Much of the following hours were spent on phone relaying and at times confirming that indeed Oulu had gone before us.
This morning as I looked at my Album I was astounded to see a photograph of myself, Oulu and Hussein Ali. It occurred to me that at the Machakos retreat for new SONU leaders Oulu had come so close to man whose boys would later be accused of slaying him in cold blood. It has never been concluded and I know stories of vanguards never escape ambiguity. We will never know for sure who killed Osar Kang’ara and Oulu but we can use a method of interpolation to at least arrive at a culpable group.
As his birthday anniversary comes up this week, it behoves all of to remember that God allowed us to eulogize this great soul so that we can pick up the battle. A careful reading of the bible has led me to conclude that God never works through committees. There is no task greater than one person. What Oulu was fighting for falls on your shoulders as an individual, pick up the task for you are equal to it. Among my friends who would make a cabal around me but who have proceeded before us is another strong and determined medical doctor Onkoba Marube. He too was in the same SONU cabinet. God may be calling on us but those who remain must as always carry on. I will mourn the twin coincidence of the deaths of Oulu and my Dad in fruitful knowledge that in their company I learnt much. I reserve these words for my Comrade Oulu.
“GPO, you will be remembered as a man who had a presence of mind to overcome his immediate challenges of seeking education, looking for rent, looking for money for ailing parents,
As a man whose debilitating poverty was no reason to take a shortcut to wealth.
As a man who though not eloquent was succinctly clear on what was important not for his being but for the unborn generation of Kenyans.
We will remember you not because we choose to, not because it is an honour but because in facing and securing a better future for Kenya’s children we see you everywhere. Personally I see you in any quest for justice.

Go ye… in remembrance of those before us who did so much and paid the ultimate in a quest for a better life for our children to play our various roles in shaping the nation