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Last Sunday I was on the phone with two of my closest friends- a senior academic in one of the north eastern American states and a thirtysomething professional residing in southern Ontario. Both of them have roots planted on the slopes of Mount Kenya and we were yakking about the newly fangled MEGA Initiative. They actually do not know each other and our conversations took place at different times, but their reaction was identical:

Hoots of laughter at the lack of originality in the name.

Now, let's get real.

Some wizened GEMA diehards delegate a task to their younger ethnic kinsfolk to come up with a new name for the tribal grouping and what do they come up with?

MEGA?

Yawa!

Surely Njenga Karume and Peter Kuguru could do better than that.

Think about it.

No. Do not think about it. Keep saying repeating the words in the next sentence for the next two minutes and contemplate the results:

MEGAGEMAMEGAGEMAMEGAGEMAMEGAGEMAMEGAGEMAMEGAGEMAMEGAGEMA

Was Nduati Kariuki trying to be subtle, hoping Kenyans would be fooled into not linking GEMA with MEGA?

That is why I just the caption of this essay was READY MADE the moment I read the story:

GEMA's MEGA GAME PLAN is a “KUMEGA” GEM!

Kwani, within the vaults of GEMA-MEGA’s talent pool they could not find SOMEONE who has done advertising copy for a television or radio jingle?

MEGA-GEMA is a DOOMED attempt to organize Kenyans from the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru communities into one giant FASCIST movement in Kenya that will be built on ethnic supremacy and tribal hatred. It is therefore by definition, a HATE GROUP that is geared towards regional and ethnic conflict. It is the Kenyan edition of Interamhwe- the Hutu terrorist organization that supervised the slaughter of almost a million Rwandese nationals eleven years ago.

I will not be surprised if MEGA MERGES with MUNGIKI-with MUNGIKI forming the violent armed wing” of this GEMA ethnic supremacist reactionary force.

By definition, MEGA is an UNDEMOCRATIC organization that has what I can only describe as a very SINISTER agenda for Kenya and especially Kenyans who happen NOT to be Gikuyus, Embus and Merus.

The fact that former homungati police torturers like John Michuki (who happens to be Internal Security minister) are part of its secret leadership convinces me that MEGA is plotting a FASCIST TRIBAL COUP to thwart Kenyans from getting a new democratic constitution that will definitely mean the end of the road for the Mount Kenya mafia that has been controlling DP, NAK and the Kibaki Presidency since January 2003.

We should see the formation of MEGA as the opening salvo of a looming civil war that will be unleashed by some selfish, cynical power mongers who happen to be huddling in Mwai Kibaki’s kitchen as we speak.

Let us take a closer look at MEGA.

Here is a link to one of the press reports that heralded the arrival of this tribal/fascist outfit.

Who can be a member of MEGA?

Well, read the following excerpt to find out:

According to the brochure, admission to membership in MEGA is by invitation only and is limited to the central Kenya community. However, Mr. Muchuha and Mr. Kariuki say MEGA has nothing to do with GEMA or politics and is purely an economic development forum.

Who comprises the central Kenya community? Kenyans living in central Kenya? That would include thousands of Luos, Kisiis, Luhyias, Somalis, Wahindi, Wazungu, Kalenjins and other nationalities.

No, MEGA is open ONLY to Gikuyus, Merus and Embus.

Now, if this was an ethno-cultural association, there would be NOTHING WRONG with limiting membership to certain tribes. But this MEGA touts itself in explicitly POLITICAL terms. Now what kind of a “political”organization in contemporary Kenya would EXCLUDE from membership other Kenyans who do not come from the GEMA base communities? Only a TRIBAL, backward, reactionary and BANKRUPT outfit driven by ethnic supremacist ideas, regional paranoia and myopic narcissism.

Here is one more excerpt:

Designed as a mass movement, its membership and leadership structure is designed to accommodate ordinary "Kiama" members who pay Sh200 annual membership fee. The next level is Ordinary Membership, whose annual fee is Sh1,000, while life membership Sh10,000.Only life members can sit on the National Executive Council.
The brochure says that any person from the community over 18 is eligible for membership, subject to approval by a vetting committee. Membership fees are payable through an account in the Equity Bank.

So, “any person from the community over 18 is eligible for membership, subject to approval by a vetting committee...”ama namna gani?

So on what grounds would someone who is over 18 and from “the community” be disqualified? How about if you are like my son Sankara who has a Meru mother and a Luo father? Can he join? How about my niece B. who has a Gikuyu father and a Luo mother? How about my good friend WM’s daughter who has a Congolese father? How about my fiancée who has a Gikuyu father, a Dawida mother and a Luo mshikaji? How about my comrades Micere, Ng'ang'a Thiong'o, Njuguna Mutahi and many others who have Gikuyu parents and a KENYAN identity? Can they join?

What does the “vetting committee” actually vet?

Allegiance to a raft of clandestine andu aitu mantras?

Is there going to be a resumption of mass oathing ceremonies to confirm membership?

Will people pray facing Mount Kenya or will they simply have to hand over an unmarked brown envelope stuffed with muthendi to Messrs Kuguru, Nduati and sijui nani tena?

What are MEGA’s stated objectives?

Well, I know you can read-that is why you have reached this far:

Objectives stated on the group's brochure include:
To help the community in all sectors to reach their full potential in life through leadership in business, economic, political, social and cultural spheres;
To develop a forum for cross-engagement among leaders and institutions within the community;
To engage similar groups with similar missions from other communities in order to achieve a united country.

That last objective, “To engage similar groups with similar missions from other communities in order to achieve a united country”is supposed to be the fig leaf that shields the nakedness of this odious tribal outfit.

Let me just say that Onyango Oloo is NOT among the GULLIBLE FOOLS who will be misled by that empty phrase.

Press reports indicate that MEGA is already seeking its tribal storm troopers and financial donors from among the GEMA Diaspora outside Kenya. For instance the ethnic recruiters are already in London, UK, according to this story filed by the Standard's Gitau Wa Njenga.

I am very proud of Uhuru Kenyatta for his principled and patriotic repudiation of the MEGA tribal fascist grouping.

Kudos also go to other sane and http://allafrica.com/stories/200505230879.html
Kenya-minded politicians from the Mount Kenya region who have rejected MEGA and its GEMA narrow chauvinism.

For the last two years I have been hearing rumours of a MEGA in the making- with claims of strategic recruitment of certain Mount Kenya communities into the GSU and other elite paramilitary forces; of increasingly overt ethnic propaganda on radio stations such as Kameme FM; of a war chest in the making coordinated by some of Kibaki’s top lieutenants; when Njenga Karume was appointed as the Minister for “Special Projects” some of my Gikuyu friends said only half-jokingly that Kenyans should not be surprised to see a revival of GEMA; in the last few months we have seen public rallies by politicians from the GEMA communities speaking to their constituents in openly tribal terms; a few months ago Chris Murungaru went on Kameme FM to lash out at Edward Clay for launching a war against the Agikuyu because Kenya had now a Kikuyu president; the other day, a Nairobi based netter who happens to be a Mgikuyu and SUPPORTER of the NAK clique revealed that GEMA had been having a series of meetings in Nairobi with ominous implications..

One chooses to leave out the wild rumours which are too outlandish to repeat minus further corroboration.

At the end of the day, MEGA will die a swift and natural death for a very simple reason:

Ordinary Kenyans, including the Agikuyu, Meru and Embu REJECTED the politics of UKABILA decades ago and any leader who tries to rally people on a narrow ethnic agenda will find himself or herself facing the people’s wrath.

Kenyans today are worried about the devastating effects of the adverse policies of the IMF, the World Bank and the transnational corporations on our economy and flowing from that, the cost of living and quality of life. They want jobs, they want housing, they want food, they want clean water, they want decent education, they want access to affordable health services, they want security from marauding criminals, they want the roads to be safe for traveling, they want to live in peace with their neighbours, they want stability, they want social progress, they want democracy, they want justice.

If a government led by a Mgikuyu, Mmeru or a Membu can help usher in the above, they will support it. On the other hand, if anyone, irrespective of their ethnicity stands in the way of the above, they will be swept aside.

Many of those things cited above are captured in a document that the Kibaki government prefers to sit on and that is the Zero Draft passed at Bomas.

In my opinion, it borders on the CRIMINAL for people like Njenga Karume, Nduati Kariuki, Peter Kuguru and other GEMA gang leaders to try and recruit innocent Kenyans from the Mount Kenya communities into this doomed tribal outfit called MEGA.

In 1935, Georghi Dimitrov a Bulgarian communist who happened to lead the anti-fascist forces in his country cautioned his compatriots that the best time to fight fascism is BEFORE it takes root.

In the year 2005, Onyango Oloo, a Kenyan communist who happens to support the democratic and patriotic forces within and outside Kenya is warning all Kenyans, especially those indigenous to the central part of the country that the best time to confront the tribal and fascist danger of MEGA is NOW.

Onyango Oloo
Toronto