President Uhuru Kenyatta, accompanied by his deputy William Ruto (not in the photo), addresses residents of Malindi during Jubilee Party's tour of Kilifi County on July 16, 2017. PHOTO | PSCU
In Summary
President Kenyatta said Nasa leaders had nothing to show for the years they were in government.
Mr Kenyatta said people who will be displaced following expansion of Malindi airport would be compensated.
By NATION TEAM
By PSCU
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto on Sunday intensified efforts to wrestle Coast votes from the opposition by urging Kilifi and Mombasa residents to re-elect them due to development initiated in the region.
The President exuded confidence of beating Nasa presidential candidate Raila Odinga with a wider margin on August 8 than in 2013 “due to what we have done for Kenyans in the last four years”.
FREE MATERNITY Describing Mr Odinga’s politics as backward, President Kenyatta listed his achievements such as waiving of examination fees for Standard 8 and Form IV candidates.
He added that maternity charges had been waived in public hospitals.
FAILURE Singling out former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and former Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Musavadi as failures, President Kenyatta said Nasa leaders had nothing to show for the years they were in government.
“What new thing could they do that they didn’t for a total of 100 years that they were in government?” President Kenyatta said during a rally at Malindi Municipal Stadium.
DEFECTION Coast residents overwhelmingly voted for ODM in the 2013 elections but Jubilee leaders have made attempts to reverse the trend by dishing out goodies and initiating various projects.
President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto were emboldened by the defection of various politicians from ODM and Wiper to Jubilee.
DRY PORT
At the same time, the President criticised Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho for “engaging in ignorance” with claims that the government wants to relocate the port of Mombasa to Naivasha.
He said the port of Mombasa would expand and more ships would use it following the launch of the standard gauge railway, contrary to false allegations by some local leaders.
ECONOMIC ZONE Deputy President William Ruto said Naivasha would become an industrial city and the dry portwould serve the factories that will be set up in the Special Economic Zone.
“There is a difference between a port and an industrial town and anyone who does not understand that should know that education is now free. They can go back to school and learn,” the DP said.
STREET LIGHTS President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto paraded Jubilee candidates and urged the locals to vote for them.
President Kenyatta said: “I plead with Kilifi residents to vote for us this time.”
He cited various roads initiated in the county, equipment in hospitals and erection of street lights as efforts by the government to develop the region.
TITLE DEEDS He said Kilifi residents had also received title deeds to end land problems in the county.
In Mombasa, he said, Waitiki squatters had been given title deeds, saying Kilifi residents would also be considered.
“You should choose between development and mere propaganda,” he said, adding that his opponents had resorted to mudslinging him because they had no development agenda.
AIRPORT He added: “Kindly Kilifi residents let us join hands ...please vote for us.”
He dismissed claims that he was out to grab land from locals, including the earmarked for airport expansion.
He said people who will be displaced following expansion of Malindi airport would be compensated.
“We have an agenda to make lives of our people better and prosper.. Our agenda is not to divide Kenyans on tribal lines,” he said.
JUDICIARY Meanwhile, DP Ruto accused the opposition of trying to use courts to stop the August elections after sensing defeat.
He urged locals to vote for Jubilee due to development initiated in Kilifi.
Mr Ruto said: “You should not play with your votes.”
TOURISM President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto were accompanied by Cabinet Secretaries Dan Kazungu and Najib Balala.
Kilifi Jubilee gubernatorial candidate Gideon Mung’aro said his priority if elected governor would be to revive tourism.
He accused Governor Amason Kingi of poor use of money allocated to the county.
He also promised to help resettle squatters.
Reports by Lucas Barasa, Charles Lwanga and Kazungu Samuel
The decade-long human rights battle to extradite a man calling himself the ‘Archbishop of Peckham’ to Kenya was described as ‘scandalous’ by a judge yesterday.
Gilbert Deya, 65, has been on the brink of being sent back to East Africa several times to stand trial for allegedly stealing five children.
But aided by human rights laws, the Kenyan self-proclaimed ‘miracle worker’ has repeatedly come up with new ways to prevent his return.
The man who may have secretly fathered 200 children
When Esther-Louise Heij’s son asked if she could trace his genetic father, she began a battle to find out whether she was deceived by her late doctor, Jan Karbaat, who is suspected of fathering up to 200 of his patients’ children
Twenty five years ago, when she was 35, Esther-Louise Heij made two decisions that would shape the rest of her life. The first decision went entirely to plan: it gave her the children she longed for. But the second decision would play out in a bizarre twist she could never have imagined, and would plunge her family into a sea of heartache that continues to this day.
Both decisions were brave to make a quarter of a century ago, and are testament to Heij’s judgment as well as her tenacity. First, she decided that although she was single, and had recently ended a 12-year relationship, she would forge ahead with her plans to become a mother by opting for IVFwith donor sperm.
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Second, and no less unusual at the time, she would make sure that her children would be able to trace their genetic father.
“Back then, the accepted wisdom was that donor children didn’t need to know,” she says. “But I felt it was their right to know. Where we come from, who our parents are – these things are important in anyone’s life, and I wanted them for my children.”
She heard about a clinic near Rotterdam whose director sounded forward-thinking, went along for a consultation, and was impressed.
“The doctor seemed very good at what he did,” she says. “He was a pioneer in his attitudes. He talked me through what it would be like to raise children on my own; he seemed very serious and professional.”
And he was supportive, too, of her hope that any children she had would be able to know their father. “He assured me that would be possible. He was an important doctor in a white coat. I trusted him; it never crossed my mind that I couldn’t.”
The doctor, Jan Karbaat, told Heij that he would find a donor whose physical attributes fitted into her family. “He asked me for pictures of my relatives, so he could find a good match. And he said he would make sure the donor was a man who would be open to being traced later.”
The Heij family. Photograph: Joanna Moorhead
Heij and her children live in the southernmost tip of the Netherlands: their village, she tells me proudly, is on the only mountain in the country. “You won’t see scenery anywhere else in Holland like this,” she says, as we drive up the hill towards their house. Its hilltop position is fitting, because there have been many peaks and troughs to navigate for the Heij family.
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During a long relationship with a partner, the one that lasted 12 years, she was pregnant twice; both times it ended in a stillbirth. Once she got the go-ahead for IVF from Karbaat, there would be nine unsuccessful attempts before she got a positive result. A daughter, Lotte, now 23, was born in 1994. Almost two years later, in 1995, Heij gave birth to a second child, Yonathan; Karbaat assured her the sperm was from the same donor.
Being a single mother of two was tough; but it was also the life she had wanted, and Heij has no complaints. The family moved around, supported by her work as a physiotherapist: living first in a village on an island in the north of Holland, then on an island in Norway.
She tried to be as open as possible with the children about their roots. “I told them: ‘A man gave his seed and that’s how you were born: if you want to know who he is you will get the chance to do that one day.’”
There were many children in the neighbourhood who didn’t live with both parents; but people asked questions that weren’t always easy to deal with, particularly for Yonathan. “They would say, ‘Where is your father?’ I made up a story about him being a man called Peter from Rotterdam, who was the captain of a ship, which explained why he was never around.”
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One of the things that brought them back to Holland was Yonathan’s academic prowess: he was bright, and teachers at the small school in Norway felt they couldn’t challenge him sufficiently. Back in Holland, though, he flourished; Lotte, too.
When Lotte reached 16, she turned out not to have a burning desire to contact their father. Two years later, Yonathan took a different view. “For a boy to grow up without a father figure is a big thing; a father is important, especially for a boy. I wanted to know who he was: there were things I wanted to ask him. And I wanted to find out whether certain ways I behaved were connected with him – things that made me seem different from my mother and my sister, like that I’m much more laid back than they are.”
In 2011, Yonathan and his mother approached the organisations that should have been able to get the information she needed from Karbaat’s clinic. The news that came back was worrying: the files were in disarray, records had not been properly kept, and it was going to be difficult to find out who their donor was. What had originally seemed like an easy quest was going to be a much tougher haul; but they pressed on, making phone calls and filling in forms and requesting information.
Yonathan and Lotte speak to journalists prior to a court decision last month. Photograph: Remko de Waal/EPA
At the same time, though, they became aware of growing suspicions about Karbaat’s clinic. “Rumours were rife,” says Yonathan. There were stories starting to circulate that the sperm donors had been fellow doctors, medical students; but the biggest upset of all were rumours that Jan Karbaathimself had provided much of the sperm that had impregnated his patients.
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“We were in shock – it was a feeling of total disbelief. Karbaat was a doctor, and to use his own sperm to get women pregnant would have been totally prohibited. It was difficult to process the enormity of what this meant. But right away I thought: ‘This man could be my father.’ I was scouring pictures of him, looking for physical similarities.”
Yonathan was thrown into emotional turmoil. He had previously written to Karbaat asking for information about his father, and the letters had been returned unopened. “I thought, is that how little he cares? He seemed so cold, so arrogant. And this man could be my father – it was all very hard to come to terms with.”
Then a documentary about the clinic, shown on Dutch TV, raised the disturbing possibility that as many as 200 children could have been fathered by the same sperm donor.
“Yonathan was watching the television, saying: ‘These could be our brothers and sisters,’” says Heij. “A lot of them were very intelligent, just like him; and we were looking at them thinking: ‘Do they look like Yonathan and Lotte?’”
The family was thrown into a quandary, and found themselves at the centre of a very public controversy: eventually, both children gave DNA samples to find out whether they were related to any of the others conceived at the clinic who were now seeking answers.
Groups of individuals were found who were related to each other, but there seemed to be no sibling match for Yonathan and Lotte. “It was disappointing,” says Yonathan. “I hoped I would find at least some siblings. But I still wanted to know who my father was. Some people were saying: ‘If your father was Karbaat, maybe it would be better not to know.’ After all, he’s turned out to be an unscrupulous man. But I said no, I still want to know – however bad he was, he must have had some good qualities. It was like part of my identity was missing. I knew I needed to find out the truth.”
Over the past 18 months, a group of families whose children were born via IVF at Karbaat’s clinic have started legal proceedings to allow them to do DNA tests using cells from Karbaat.
Karbaat opposed the move, but he died, aged 89, in April this year. Police seized personal objects from his home, including his toothbrush, and a ruling on whether the DNA taken can be released to the families is expected shortly. In the meantime, though, the Heij family’s own DNA tests have proved Yonathan and Lotte are definitely full siblings, and that their father is most likely to come from central Europe.
The Heij family. Photograph: Courtesy Esther-Louise Heij
The situation is changing all the time, says Yonathan: one of Karbaat’s acknowledged children has now been DNA-tested, and the results of that test suggest it’s less likely the Heij children are Karbaat’s, though by no means certain.
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“Everything is up in the air now. I’m conscious that I may get a phone call tomorrow telling me who my father was, or I might have to wait 20 years,” he says. “It feels like waiting to find out whether you’ve won the lottery, but knowing you probably will.”
Indeed, according to Laura Bosch, of Defence for Children in Leiden – the legal organisation representing the Heijes and other families – that is precisely the point: technological advances, she says, have made ethical issues concerning paternity identification redundant.
“The existence of large DNA databases mean it’s getting easier and easier to trace a donor parent – it’s no longer feasible for anyone to say donors have the right to anonymity. I would argue that in any case the child’s right to information should prevail, and takes precedence over the donor’s right to anonymity, but the landscape is shifting.”
The health minister of the Netherlands, Edith Schippers, has asked men who donated sperm pre-2005, when the right to anonymity was lifted, to do “a second good deed” and come forward to make it easier for their children to trace them.
The emotional turmoil has taken its toll on 58-year-old Heij, who seems tired, and is tearful discussing all she’s been up against. But when it comes to Karbaat, she finds it impossible to condemn him out of hand. “He made me a mother,” she says simply. “He gave me these wonderful children. But he was also arrogant and narcissistic. He seems to have thought he was better than other donors, that he was doing women a favour to get them pregnant using his sperm.”
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For Yonathan, meanwhile, the saga has led to what might seem a surprising decision. “I’ve decided to become a sperm donor myself,” he says.
As he explains it, it makes perfect sense. “I know that any children born as a result will be able to find me in the future. And I feel I will be able to help them, I will understand their situation in a way some donors can’t, because I’ve been through everything they’re going through. I will be able to relate.”
On Karbaat, his feelings are mixed. “He was a clever man but it’s dangerous to allow someone to work with no brakes; he had a lot of power, and a big ego. He wasn’t honest with my mother or with other patients – he didn’t tell the whole truth. I feel he had good intentions but his methods were wrong – he didn’t do things the way they should have been done, and some of the things he should never have done at all.”
Tony Blair has warned that the combination of Brexit followed by a Jeremy Corbyn government would soon leave Britain “flat on our back”, arguing that a deeply divided country needs a fundamental rethink of its political ideas.
In another demonstration of his partial return to domestic politics, the former prime minister praised Corbyn’s performance in the general election, but argued that greater scrutiny of the Labour leader’s policies could derail the next campaign. In a lengthy article released by his own political institute, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Blair said an “unchanged Corbyn programme” introduced at the same time as Brexit would prove disastrous for the country.
“If a rightwing populist punch in the form of Brexit was followed by a leftwing populist punch in the form of unreconstructed hard-left economics, Britain would hit the canvas, flat on our back and be out for a long count,” he wrote.
Blair warned the party he led for 13 years that, however unexpectedly good the party’s showing in the 8 June election, it could not automatically expect victory soon. “The Labour party should be cautious in thinking ‘one more heave’ will deliver victory next time,” Blair said. “The Corbyn campaign was a positive factor in the election result; but the determining factor was the Tory campaign.
“The Corbyn enthusiasm, especially amongst the young, is real, but I would hesitate before saying that all those who voted Labour voted to make him prime minister, or that they supported the body of the programme rather than its tone. I think they thought that the likelihood was that the Tories would be the government, but were determined to neuter the mandate.”
In the next election, Labour’s economic policies “will come under vastly greater scrutiny”, Blair warned. However, he conceded he “did not foresee” the Labour gains made in the election, and hailed Corbyn’s role in this.
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“I pay tribute to Jeremy Corbyn’s temperament in the campaign, to the campaign’s mobilisation of younger voters, and to the enthusiasm it generated,” he said. “His supporters shouldn’t exaggerate it; but his critics, including me, shouldn’t understate it. He tapped into something real and powerful, as Bernie Sanders has in the USA and left groups have done all over Europe.”
He said the British people should be made aware of the possibility of Europe meeting the UK “half way” on a range of issues, predicting that Europe “will comprise an inner and outer circle” in the coming years.
The former prime minister claimed that if the UK didn’t abandon the single market, European leaders would be willing to relax their stance on freedom of movement – one of the central principles of single market membership – and let Britain have control.
Blair said political changes on the continent, including the election of Emmanuel Macron in France, have made an alternative to a hard Brexit more likely. Macron’s victory “changes the political dynamics of Europe”.
“Reform is now on Europe’s agenda,” he said. “The European leaders, certainly from my discussions, are willing to consider changes to accommodate Britain, including around freedom of movement.”
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Along with the comments, Blair’s institute has released polling conducted on its behalf which shows, among other findings, that the majority of Britons are split on whether they would like a so-called soft or hard Brexit. “The British people’s attitude to Europe is ambivalent,” Blair said. “They do think Brexit means Brexit and, for now, there is no groundswell for a second referendum.
“But they want a strong relationship with Europe. A majority oppose hard Brexit. The opposition to free movement of people, once you break it down, is much more nuanced.”
Overall, he concludes, the UK “is deeply divided – between young and old, metropolitan and outside the cities, better off and worse off”.
President Uhuru Kenyatta addresses residents of Mbita after opening the Mbita Causeway in Homa Bay County on July 12, 2017. PHOTO | DPPS
In Summary
The Coast, former Western province, Narok and Kajiado counties, Kisii and Baringo have emerged as the areas where the election could be lost or won.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his main challenger Raila Odinga have both visited western Kenya six and five times respectively in just one month.
Jubilee and Nasa have similarly visited Nyamira and Kisii counties twice and thrice respectively.
The Jubilee Party and opposition’s National Super Alliance have held more rallies in five regions than in any other part of the country, convinced the areas could hold the key to a victory in the August 8 General Election.
The Coast, former Western province, Narok and Kajiado counties, Kisii and Baringo have emerged as the areas where the election could be lost or won if the frequency with which both political sides have held rallies there is anything to go by.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his main challenger Raila Odinga have both visited western Kenya six and five times respectively in just one month, signifying how crucial the voting bloc could be to both sides.
SIX TIMES
In the month of June alone, Mr Odinga has followed in President Kenyatta’s footsteps, visiting each of the region’s five counties, hoping to consolidate the base that has over time been unable to unite behind the elusive Luhya unity.
President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have cumulatively campaigned in the Coast three times from the end of May, seeking to get a slice of votes in an area that overwhelming cast its lot with Mr Odinga in 2013.
Narok and Kajiado counties have also become a play ground for the vote seeking machines, with Jubilee visiting the former five times and the latter twice.
BARINGO COUNTY
Jubilee and Nasa have similarly visited Nyamira and Kisii counties twice and thrice respectively. The two rivals have campaigned twice in Baringo County.
On Wednesday, Jubilee Party vice-chairman David Murathe said the President and his deputy have been targeting areas that were opposition strongholds in 2013 but have since showed signs of warming up to the government.
He named the areas as western Kenya, Coast and Kisii counties.
“It is the potential for harvesting votes, particularly in former hostile areas, which we can now convert into swing areas.
You can see what we are doing in western Kenya, Coast and Kisii areas,” he said on the telephone.
Regarding Narok County, he said the party had eliminated the obstacle which cost them votes in the last elections.
SPLITTING VOTES
“Narok is now okay because our challenge last time was splitting votes between TNA and URP. Now we are one party,” he said.
Nasa’s national campaign committee executive director Kibisu Kabatesi explained that the number of rallies in a region were determined by information received from campaign team coordinators across the country.
“We draw the campaign schedule based on the analysis we have made based on information from our team on the ground,” he said.
The Nairobi office, he explained, operates on a 24-hour basis and always communicates with the regional leaders.
ATTEND RALLY
Before the principals attend a rally in any place, they meet with area leaders to fine-tune the relevant message for the voters.
In his vote hunting forays in western Kenya, President Kenyatta visited Bungoma on June 11, Busia (June 14), Kakamega (June 17), and Vihiga on June 23, while Mr Odinga toured the same counties on June 23, 25 and 24 respectively.
“In 2013, you slipped from our fingers and voted for the other side. This time in 2017, we will not let you vote differently from us. We are not going to let you stay in the cold,” Deputy President William Ruto has consistently told western voters.
755,525 VOTES
In 2013, Mr Odinga garnered 755,525 votes from the region followed by Mr Mudavadi with 353,864, both accounting for 92.6 per cent of the 1,197,632 valid votes cast. Mr Kenyatta got 66,185.
Nasa presidential candidate Raila Odinga addressing a crowd at Kabarnet town in Baringo County during a campaign rally on July 12, 2017. PHOTO | CHEBOITE KIGEN | NATION MEDIA GROUP
President Kenyatta is clearly looking for critical top-up support, while Mr Odinga hopes to completely lock him out of the 1.9 million votes.
Since then, Jubilee has been using the reopening of Webuye’s Pan paper, now operating under the name Rai Paper and the rejuvenation of the sugar industry to reach out to the electorate.
Besides visiting the region on many occasions, Jubilee has been banking on the support of Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka, Mumias East MP Benjamin Washiali and more recently Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba.
The arch-rivals are also in a bruising battle for the Maasai vote, particularly in Narok and Kajiado counties.
KAJIADO
In 2013, President Kenyatta won in Kajiado County by a slim margin (138,851 against Mr Odinga’s 117,856), but lost to Mr Odinga in Narok (109,413 against 118, 623), despite his Jubilee coalition winning the governor, senator and all MPs seats in the vast, wealthy county.
In Baringo, a traditional Jubilee zone that voted 138, 488 for Mr Kenyatta against Mr Odinga’s 14,824, the ODM leader has been making inroads touring the area on May 25 and yesterday, when he campaigned in Kabarnet and Eldama Ravine.
The Jubilee duo pitched tent in the area on Sunday and declared it a Jubilee zone with the endorsement of Senator Gideon Moi, a man at loggerheads with DP Ruto.
HECTIC DAY
At the Coast, Mr Ruto has been to the region twice since the start of the official campaign period.
Mr Odinga and his Nasa team have been there twice, the latest being last weekend when the opposition flagbearer was briefly taken ill after a hectic day of campaigning.
President Kenyatta was in the region during the launch of the standard gauge railway on June 1, which was preceded by a two-day stay.
In 2013, there were 1,171,240 voters in the six counties that make up the coast region.
SLIM ADVANTAGE
That number has since grown to 1,713,151, an increase of more than half a million voters.
In 2013, the region leaned heavily towards Mr Odinga, with the exception of Lamu, where he had a slim advantage over President Kenyatta.
Mr Odinga had 69.77 per cent of the vote in Mombasa, 80.74 per cent in Kwale, 83.74 per cent in Kilifi, 61.41 per cent in Tana River, 51.98 per cent in Lamu and 81.56 per cent in Taita-Taveta.
President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto headed to the coast on a working tour after winning the election in what would become an annual routine at the end of each year.
Their frequent visits to the region have resulted in several run-ins with Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho, a staunch Nasa supporter and insider.
RAILA ODINGA
In the Gusii region, which has in the past mostly voted for Mr Odinga, President Kenyatta has dangled political carrots to the voters, recently dishing out Sh800 million to resettle the integrated internally displaced people after the 2007/08 post-election violence.
The President made a two-day tour of Kisii and Nyamira Counties on June 7, while Mr Odinga has visited the region thrice.
In the 2013 elections, Mr Odinga got 236,831 votes in Kisii, while President Kenyatta garnered 95,596 of the 412,945 votes cast. In Nyamira, Uhuru got 54,071 as Raila harvested 121,590 votes.
Kisii County currently has the highest number of voters in Nyanza, standing at 546,580 followed by Kisumu County at 539,210, Homa Bay 476,875, Siaya 457,953, Migori 388,633 and Nyamira 278,853
The former Nyanza region now has six counties — Kisumu, Siaya, Homa Bay, Migori, Kisii and Nyamira — which have a combined 2,688,104 voters up from 1,942,138 in 2013.
Reported by John Ngirachu, Patrick Lang’at and Samwel Owino
