The Kroll Report... The Prezzie Defence... Cartoon...

LOL... u gotta see this cartoon...

Patrick Gathara rocks! Lakini he better stay away from Kenya (or go into hiding) until Raila is elected prez!

Injustice in Kenya... Fact is stranger than fiction

Injustice...

I have reproduced the story from The Daily Nation dated 28 July 2007.

COMMENTARY

It's sometimes advisable to plead guilty even if innocent Story by PETER MWAURA Publication Date: 7/28/2007

Last week Joseph Muthii, a student, wrote to me telling me how, along with others, he was bundled into a police vehicle after he was arrested by Wanguru police in Mwea, at around 8.30pm while returning from a local shopping centre. On the way to the police station those with money bought their freedom. Mr Muthii did not have any money so he had to spend the night in the police cells. Fellow cellmates told him that those who fail to bribe are taken to court and charged with being DAD (drunk and disorderly). They advised him, wisely, to plead guilty “to avoid 14 days in the cells for pleading innocent”. So, although he had “never taken alcohol or any form of abused drugs”, he pleaded guilty and “spent seven hours working around the courthouse”. Pleading guilty when you are innocent is often the better option. That way you regain your liberty sooner, especially if you are charged with an offence that does not attract heavy sentences, such as DAD, loitering, common assault, or a traffic infraction. YOU MIGHT EVEN BE ABLE TO GO home the same day after paying a small fine, doing some community work, or getting a suspended sentence. But if you insist on your innocence, you might stay in remand prison for weeks, even months, for an offence that could easily have been disposed of by lying to the court that you are guilty. Please discard any notions you might have that if you just tell the truth the court will listen and set you free. It doesn’t work that way. That is the awful truth about our justice system. Lie and plead guilty and you will live longer as a free person. Insist on your innocence and you will probably rot in remand jail. Please forget everything you’ve seen on the weekly KBC comedy Vioja Mahakamani. Court cases don’t happen that way. Going through a trial is unnerving, expensive, protracted, and never hilarious. When you first appear in court, the offence is read out to you and you are then asked to plead “Guilty” or “Not guilty”. If you plead “guilty” the court will convict you on your own plea of guilty, without a trial, and normally sentence you on the spot. This means in most cases that you can go home after paying a fine, doing some community work, or after getting a suspended sentence or probation. “Guilty”, by the way, is a technical term; it does not necessarily mean “It’s true” or “I did it”. The fines for minor offences in most cases range between Sh500 and Sh5,000. Community work is usually no more than a day — effectively an afternoon — sweeping or cutting grass around the courthouse or the chief’s office. If you don’t plead guilty, the court sets a date for a mention or hearing of your case, grants you bail, or remands you in prison, to await trial. The date set for trial could be weeks, even months, away. Sometimes innocent people accused of minor offences spend more time in remand than they would have spent in jail if they had pleaded guilty, been convicted and sentenced right away. “Even though I wasn’t guilty, I pleaded guilty because I wanted to go home to my children,” a single mother once told me. “My three-year-old daughter was sick with pneumonia.” She was among many others caught in a police swoop over the weekend for various offences including DAD and peddling chang’aa but who made it back home after appearing in court on Monday morning because they pleaded guilty even though innocent. If you are charged with an offence punishable by a fine or imprisonment of six months or less, it is often advisable to plead guilty. THAT WAY YOU AVOID THE DELAYS and inconveniences of a trial and possible long periods of incarceration in remand prison. You could appear in court in the morning and be back home in the afternoon after paying a small fine or doing minimal communal work. Monday morning magistrates’ courts are illustrative. They are jam-packed by people picked up by the police over the weekend for offences ranging from DAD to possessing chang’aa. However, those who are well versed with the system, invariably plead “Guilty” to avoid the inconvenience of being remanded (unless they can afford bail) and a protracted trial. In such cases, if you plead guilty you might even be rewarded with a lighter sentence including a suspended one. Judges look kindly at accused persons who plead guilty because they save court’s time.

Why I respect the Karengata Association...

The members of Karengata (Karen & Langata) Association were fed up of paying taxes for either poor or non-existent services by the Nairobi City Council. So they set up a parallel authority that collected the rates/taxes but used the funds collected to provide services.

Most of the founding members were Wazungus (read "White"... whether Kenyan citizens or not) who had the balls to say enough is enough! They refused to buckle under pressure then fought & won a court case brought against them by the NCC. Unlike the corruption in City Hall, Karengata publishes their Annual Report (which the NCC fails to do regularly) in a timely manner showing when & where funds were collected & utilised.

Furthermore, they are (mainly) united in their quest. I do not know what the composition of the membership is but there are indications of increasing numbers of Asians & Africans (please note this is not meant to denote any "racial" divisions as I will explain later) have joined the ranks.

Why is is that the (Kenyan) Asian & African minds can't rebel (peacefully) against a repressive authority? Mahatma Gandhi (Non-violent Movement) cut his teeth in S.Africa. Mandela - the pre-eminent political figure of Africa - was a fan of Gandhi's policies.

What do these communities fear?
Surely there are smart folks among them who can organise other such associations?

Imagine if the residents of Parklands or Buru Buru ganged up to challenge the NCC. We would have a much cleaner city, better roads & safer neighbourhoods!

How Nairobi City Council bosses will steal millions...

Hmm... the by-laws "banning" plastic bags in well-meaning in theory BUT it's really a scheme to fleece the public!

• How does a (generally) illiterate Nairobi City Council askari know the difference between a 20-micron bag & a 30-micron bag?
• What stops these corrupt bastards from "planting" a bag on an innocent victim?
• How does a shopper know he is getting a 30-micron+ bag from the supermarket/shop?

So there will be "quotas" for the NCC employees/askaris with corruption being the hallmark with some kitu kidogo going to the bosses upstairs!

I would rather a designated tax be charged at the factory/import level & deposited into a "Recycling Fund" to fund collection & recycling. Pay garbage collectors to collect & re-use/recycle these bags.

There is a firm in Kenya that makes fencing posts from recycled plastics by grinding the various plastics, melting them & use extrusion technology. These posts are resistant to water & termites. I am confident that Kenyans will come up with uses for plastic bag waste given enough incentive.

What they teach in madrassas!

We are always told that Christians (& Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, etc) discriminate against Muslims. This is so in Kenya, USA, UK... you name it...

The BBC reports - I wonder if this is newsworthy for Al-Jazeera - that British Muslim kids are being taught that Christians & Jews are monkeys & pigs...

Here is the BBC link... And no bullshit about someone mis-interpreted the book... This is what the saudis teach their kids in saudi arabia! These books were produced by the saudi Ministry of (Mis) Education.
The saudis probably export the same bullshit to other countries including India, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, etc!
And now they expand that to UK? Then the USA?

I am concerned about what these Muslim-funded schools teach in Kenya where the level of oversight by the Ministry of Education is minimal at best!

And these are same folk who killed a Nun in Somalia while proclaiming that Islam is the religion of peace! Am I missing something?

Samples:

A textbook dated 2005/2006 allegedly asks the reader to "give examples of worthless religions... such as Judaism, Christianity, idol worship and others".

In another textbook for 12 and 13 year olds, dated 2004/2005, the author allegedly says that a Koranic verse, which talks of turning people into monkeys and pigs, is about Jews and Christians.

The author quotes an early Islamic scholar as saying: "The monkeys are the Jews. And the pigs, they are the Christian infidels at Jesus's table."

Obama or Not Obama?

Apparently, according to this CNN Story Obama is more popular among "white" Americans then "African-Americans" coz he is of "mixed" parentage and the "African" in him is real African i.e. an educated African from Kenya...

So who are these doubters waiting for?
The Rev jesse "hold on while I father more children" jackson, jr?
The Rev al "lying" sharpton?

Another Land Grab - When will it stop?

http://coldtusker.blogspot.com/2006/12/land-grab-in-progress.html

Africa & Grand Corruption - Aluta Continua

And it goes on....

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