In the epic poem, “RATENG’ AND BRIDE,” Joseph R Alila (Author of such novels as “Whisper to My Aching Heart” and Sunset on Polygamy”) pleads with the hero (Rateng’) to abandon a lifelong ambition of reigning in a killer, illusive Bride, and redeeming his honor and Ramogi people’s collective pride.
Of Rateng’s illusive Bride-call her Power, Leadership or The Presidency-Alila reminds his hero of her corrupting, material allure and deadly charms. Like a gem, a Powerful Presidency corrupts everybody it touches, and its corrupting effects linger like the nauseating smell of a scared skunk.
Employing rich imagery and proverbs, and never shy to go Luo vernacular with proverbs, in “RATENG’ AND BRIDE,” Alila has played his satirical hand, again, and demonstrated his knowledge of the political landscape of Kenya.
Category Archives: Kenyan Politics
Quote of the Day: Parable of Rats
”Rats once had plan of putting a bell around the cat’s neck to alert them whenever danger lurked. However, no one volunteered to take up the task of tying up the bell around the cat’s neck,”
PM RAILA ODINGA
Why are these Kenyan Ministers Acting Presidential?
A number of Kenyan Ministers and MPs (Members of the Alliance)executed a mini regional shuttle diplomacy into Uganda, the land of the late Idi Amin, and Tanzania. The delegation led by Mr. William Ruto appeared to be molded on a Moi political book, going by who was in it and who wasn’t: Coast, Western, RV, North Eastern, Eastern were well-represented. Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Kalonzo must be wondering what is going on. Mr. Odinga appeared to have know what was afoot. Agwambo was in Ruto’s “political backyard” receiving redefectors as Ruto’s delegation dined in Uganda and then Tanzania, and he has been seen inside every known political beehive in Kenya “cutting the dog” (forgive my Luo spiritual sense) with previously declared foes, and even going into record books as the first Prime Ministerof Kenya to have visited a Nairobi comedy den, his whole family in tow. These exploits appear to have given his opponents sleepless nights. But would any Kenyan run for the Presidency with help from Tanzania and Uganda? Haven’t the latter land of Museveni entertained hegemonistic interest on Kenya’s fishing waters in Lake Victoria, where its militia and police pilliage Kenyan Fishermen at will against constant protests from Nairobi? Why would a sane Kenyan politican seek Mr. Museveni’s blessings to run for President? Or do the Kenyan political magicians think that this move would rattle Agwambo wuo Odinga? As I said before in this blog, fighting with Agwambo can be traumatic, leading his victims to behave like political novices. The reported Museveni’s pieces of counsel to the group to seek “to be self-reliant” and aim “to reconcile Kenyans” were to the point.
OR is this about Ocampo’s ICC politics? Did some of these Kenyan politicians, who were in the delegation, know who really was driving their political vehicle?
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000037469&cid=4&ttl=Why Ruto is courting Museveni and Kikwete
JUSTICE WAKI THE MAN
Here the man who set Kenya on a path to reform with justice. He is Justice Waki of the famous Waki Commission Report on 2007 Post-Election Violence. He is the common Kenyans’ man of the century.
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000036696&cid=4&
Who is afraid of a possible Chief Justice Dr. Mutunga?
Why the buzz about Dr. Mutunga’s ear decore? What if he got it at birth? Meaning that he was a “special child.” Kenyans, churches and all, let us grow up! Kenya is for “believers” of many faiths (religious and otherwise); Let the new nominee for Chief Justice serve. It is justice for all and not for the church; that should be the spirit.
ICC: 6 Kenyans Have a Case
Ocampo prevails; ICC Court on Kenya invite 6 Kenyans to appear before it on April 7. Kenya’s Daily Nation reports
Blog is Alive
JR Alila’a blog is still alive; he has been inactive due to work pressure. Jr has been trying to finish writing the novel BIRTHRIGHT (A Luo Tragedy) before end of 2010.
Otherwise JR is very much concerned for Kenya where, by our dithering, we have allowed ourselves to be the subjects of international justice. But what do we expect with the plight of victms of impunity, dead or alive, still not assuaged?
Write!
http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-R.-Alila/e/B002QD5TDM
In my poetry, I am not a protest artist, but rather I am an unwilling, untrained artist disillusioned with the world, Africa and Kenya; I am imperfect yet I find myself calling AU, Africa, Kenya to reform their ways. I have done this at a disadvantage because I have no training to “poetize,” if there is such a word. But I am not alone; my inspiration are our village poets–the soloists who sing their hearts out like birds of the field; they were born with the same voice as any of us; the difference is that they answered the call to mourn or praise in song. The widows in my village sang their hearts out for their departed; we called the timid who never opened their mouths to their departed husbands “mon ma numu” (half-baked or raw wives), and doubted their love for their departed. Then we considered the man who never sang a war song a boy. What I have said is that poetry like singing is as natural as sneezing. Write.
Kenyan Politician: It is Political Cruntch Time
It is crunch time in Kenyan politics; 2012 is upon us. Warrior A from L House is vying for the “Premiership,” his following in L House is rock solid; his national image is emerge immense. But Kenya is a tribal animal, and the rules of the hunt have changed recently; the politics of patronage and “ndeta to ndeti” (grease my palm as I grease yours) is a thing of the past. Even then tribe still dominates the political DNA of Kenyans. Who is Warrior A of L House going to form a partnership as a running mate? Is Warrior B of K House or Warrior C of KK House, either of whom come from voter-rich areas, the ideal running mate? Must warrior A worry about the moral credentials of either Warriors B or C or should he tap into the fanatic following Warrior C enjoys from KK House? Can Warior B, a man of royal blood, tranfer the loyalty of his voters to Warrior A? There will be a lot of dead political stars in Kenya’s gallaxy after 2012, that is a given, thanks to new rules of the political game, and a man known as Ocampo and his ICC Judges. But as a political counselor, what must the Wise One tell politicians whose stars are runing out of the metaphorical fusion-fuel gas? Such are the issues the Wise One has to struggle with as she midwifes politicians in political peril.
Read JR Alila’s The Wise One of Ramogiland (A Novel)
http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-R.-Alila/e/B002QD5TDM
THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND (A Novel)
In the Novel, THE WISE ONE OF RAMOGILAND, Joseph R. Alila addresses the role of spirituality in life and politics in a society under cultural and political transitions. As a battery of ‘colonial forces’ conspire against Africa’s old way of life, wizards and prophets, who are loosing clients of the ordinary kind to New Way Churches, are forced to adapt to the new spiritual reality, even if it means taking funny-sounding Greek names.
In this work of fiction, Alila exposes the work of a woman of wisdom (Angelina Nyangi), her Ramogi people, their ways, their political leadership, and the perils of political cohabitation in Kenya’s young, multiethnic, multiparty democracy.
Nyangi’s lifetime experiences remind the reader that modern religious dispensations might have robbed soothsayers and wizards of many clients of the ordinary kind, but not the important ones: She discovers that the new political and business elites love to have their ancestors’ “sixth sense” watching over their backs. She is the elites’ sixth sense; only she is no prophet.
Now, in her sunset years, Nyangi reminisces about a life well lived, but one which had seen many antsy professional close calls shared between corrupt politicians and such strange clients as a professor of knowledge. If Angelina’s longevity has become abusive, the unseemly conducts of her eldest son and heir-apparent (Thomas) continues to hang around her neck like a bad dream.
