Hardtalk: State funerals
Let me be clear right from the start. I respect dead people and this does not in way refer to any dead person specifically. I am just asking a moral question. Should the government be bankrolling funerals for ministers?

What does the law say? As best as I know it is only the president and his two assistants who should enjoy this. Others who have distinguished themselves in certain fields, both at home and abroad, should also be recognized and given a state send off. Wangari Maathai is a good example. Why should the government pay for funeral services of men who have amassed such huge wealth when IDPs are suffering in the camps? When children in Ukambani sit under trees for lack of classrooms, when men and women in Kakamega and elsewhere can’t walk because their feet have been ravaged by jiggers? Does anyone ever bother to know how those who die in the IDP camps are buried?

I have heard many say that Hon. Michuki transformed our transport sector. Did you know that he was on a monthly salary to do that? He just did what he was supposed to do and if I was to appraise his performance at the end of the year, I would give him an A. If anything he should have been accountable for what he did which he was not supposed to do. The raid at KTN by the Artur brothers in his efforts to stifle freedom of the media is a case in point.

My point is that tax payers’ money is used to pay ministers to work. If families of ministers feel that they should not use the wealth left by the deceased to give him a proper send off, they should hire some space at Garden Square like everybody else to collect money for a proper send off but not ask the government to finance their funeral. Here we are setting a very bad precedence. What criteria will be used to determine who gets a state send-off? Or does it mean that all seating ministers will get a state send-off?

I know I am treading on a topic regarded as a taboo to discuss. But I am not scared of death. When God feels that my time on earth is over, I will go and it does not matter whether I will be buried in a sack or in a gold casket. I know MPs can’t dare debate this in parliament for reasons they best know.

michuki will even get a gun salute and he was enviroment minister we live it to the historians

Some animals are more equal than others.

I can see you are inline with the popular myth promoted by kenyatta...
"Uhuru tulipigania ama tulipewa?"...TULIPEWA... the people you attribute with "nyakua-ring" had already been sorted out by 1956 and the leader of the struggle killed and buried in a grave that we have not discovered until now. The maumau resistance resulted in the deaths of 70 settlers and thousands of Africans before it was quelled. the US is the only country that "Nyakuwa-d" uhuru from the "mgereza". Uhuru was being given to colonies after world war 2 and the beginning of the cold war. we did not even need to fight, we would have gotten independence none the less - who fought for Ghanian independence? considering they got it 8 years before us!
I think the legend of the maumau is nice to tell to our kids. it falls within the requirement that a nation forms a common narrative for uniting its future citizens (that narrative does not have to be 100% true)...its not unique to us (http://fsi.stanford.edu/events/confronting_the_yugoslav_controversies_can_scholars_make_a_difference/) everyone does it :)

well...these are good things he did if you ask me!

I am not surprised by this move, we have an inept government led by an idiot. He does not not have the intelligence to consider directing that money to improving health care or training a few cancer specialist in the country. It is interesting that when looking reviewing Michuki's 'illustrious' career we are reminded that he was our treasury PS when Kenya had the same GDP as Malaysia and Korea. 40 years later, the country is by far poorer than Korea while his ilk are richer than the government. As we celebrate his achievements we should remember that his financial success and his friends' success came as a cost to our nation.... 'pesa yetu, pesa yetu!!
Our hypocrisy is exposed when we support such stupidity while we have IDPs in camps, shortage of medicine in Kiambu District Hospital and Muranga Hospital, malfunctioning mortuary refridgirator at City Mortuary.
On a light note, if it takes a state funeral to bury this ilk and their negative effect, so be it. We need a new start. Whether in life or death, sickness or health, these guys lived on our sweat, blood and taxes. They are the reason we are what we are.
Let the dead bury the dead.

So - who said Independence is the place to start "measuring stuff" considering - Uhuru mulipewa? how many people were employed or educated then? boss, I have discussed this until my voice became hoarse due to the myth of "independence" is the place to start counting things. our GDP at independence was all Kahawa and majani based! Korea had already started doing manufacturing electronics equipment (LG was founded in 1958, Samsung 1938) - and not government led. you idiots keep on believing that everything must come from the gava and to this day bado mambo ni mashamba tu! until now you are still believing that 'good governance' and 'democracy' are the way out! You need to recognize that even at that time Asia was not disconnected to the rest of the world as as sub-Saharan Africa was. The GDP at independence was from exports of tea and coffee to the UK. What about the role of the US after the Korean war in South East Asia? you cannot deny these facts.

enlighten me masukuma, are u saying gava would nt have done better with less land grabbing, more education focused on sciences and engineering? more infrastructure projects, more electrification, training more doctors..... are u suggesting if these things were done systematically we ll still be where we are?

i really find it hard to believe u are convinced with your arguments yourself, it seems plausible that you are reluctantly doing this for someone else.

What about singapore? were they manufacturing in the 50s too?

All this focus on land is what is messing us up! BUILD STUFF!!

the problem with us is that a good leader cannot even plan ahead due to the undercutting siasa. to develop we have to take bitter pills they are:
- give a leader space to breathe!
- believe that foreign powers do not want Africa to succeed.
- believe that we owe our people the dignity of living a human beings.
- believe we are intellectually equal to anyone.
- use our own model to develop.
- do something to improve your fate!

development is not heaven that there is only one way to it...tengeneza panya route!