The Cutting Edge

How come the Christian clerics ranting about kadhi’s courts don’t realise that this is the best chance to get a new constitution that has eluded Kenyans for nearly two decades? asks Jim Webo. “On this one, we must part company with the clerics, as rejecting the draft will mean we continue under the current Constitution, in which the kadhi’s courts are also entrenched. Let’s not allow these people to mislead us again,” he says.

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The nullification of Chirau Mwakwere’s election as Matuga MP, which has knocked him out of the Cabinet, is a major setback for him, but Lucy Nyambura is happy that it presents an opportunity to President Kibaki to pick a minister who can curb the carnage on our roads. “After some hair-raising matatu rides with blatant overloading and speeding. I hope Mr John Michuki gets the job back.”

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On January 11, Meatymite Shaw saw a classified advert on US companies offering home-based jobs that one could do from Kenya, and wrote to the email address given, kazitele@gmail.com, receiving an immediate response from a Mr Mwangi, of Nyeri, who asked for a Sh300 fee payable by M-Pesa. “We communicated for a week or so before I sent him the money. But Mr Mwangi has now gone quiet. I have been conned,” says Shaw, whose email is meatymite@gmail.com.

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KRA has decided that employers should now produce quarterly PAYE returns in addition to the monthly and annual ones, says J.L. Dixon, adding: “But why can’t we take all the returns to the same office? Instead, we have to take monthly returns to Times Tower, and quarterly ones to Forodha House, increasing our travel expenses and adding to traffic congestion. Can they not all be dealt with at the same office?” asks Dixon.

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The abuse of a good gesture is a source of agony for Geoffrey K. Kariithi, who lives in Nairobi’s Fuata Nyayo slums. It started in 2008, when he and his neighbours applied for electricity and KPLC connected them to unmetered power, some 40 watts per household, but which some people tampered with, leading to disconnection. However, the billing was not stopped and he is now said to owe Sh16,000, an issue he has tried to clear in vain. His account is No 2618827-01.

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If having ODM treasurer Omingo Magara take part in a nomination in his bid to recapture his Mugirango South seat is pitting him against busybodies as Tourism minister Najib Balala put its, then “we know who the true democrats in ODM” are, remarks Victor Abuka. It’s a shame, he adds, that some leaders do not even respect their own parties’ constitution. “These are no busybodies but leaders seeking elective positions. Let members pick the ODM candidate.”

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Those killing competition in politics include the leaders pushing for Magara to be given an automatic ticket to vie for his old seat, just because he’s a top party official, says Ken Butiko. “Party nominations for the 2007 elections confirmed just how stifled democracy in these organisations is. Parties have become the preserve of a few. This is hardly the way to democratise the country,” Ken adds.

Have a democratic day, won’t you!

E-mail: watchman@nation.co.ke or write to Watchman, POB 49010, Nairobi 00100. Fax 2213946.