Comments on: Let Matiba have his dignity

By: Farouq Muiruri

Farouq Muiruri — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:14:23 +0000

I agree we should honor the great hero that Mr.Matiba is and he should now be protected by his family if the government cannot.Its such a pity that the current government pays debts of fallen ministers and buys their families mansion after they are gone and they cant even try to sort Mr.Matiba’s financial woes and we all know his businesses suffered,tryin to sort out the problems kenya was facin under Moi.Mr.Matiba may God Bless u and ur family abundantly.You are a hero to many of us even if the government wont recognise your efforts some of us will never forget or stop appreciating.

By: bemused

bemused — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:59:01 +0000

It could be that Matiba’s family is also in denial, and cannot bring themselves to stop him, who can tell their father, brother, cousin, husband that they are not competent to go out into public? I Even if you do, the only way to make sure you do that is too lock them up, and I don’t think there are many who can do that.

I think there is a silver lining, he is a public testament to what torture does to a human being. Torture is ussually an academic subject, and when people are confronted with it’s after-effects it really hits home. Unfortunately, Matiba is one of the “lucky” ones, there are others who are living through the after effects. I would the media to do an indepth series of the physical and psychological effects of torture.

By: Mentalacrobatics

Mentalacrobatics — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 09:14:54 +0000

Zee, I get the feeling you read the first few lines, saw a red button labelled Thatcher (actually maybe a blue button) and launched straight into comment mode without getting to the essence of what I was saying. What I said about Thatcher is this:

• A dominating public figure for over 30 years in British and international politics
• Won three general elections in a row
• Was a formidable Prime Minister
• Influenced a generation of politics
• After her elected political career she still commanded great respect

Those are facts whether you like her or not. She did win those elections. She did redraw global politics. She did influence a generation of politicians. Whether or not those are good things is not something I get into in this post because this post is not about Thatcher. And you can be assured that Thatcher is not my most favourite person either. Oh and we could launch into the whole “were Thatcher’s policies more harmful to Africans in Africa than Africans in the UK” but again that is for another day. My post was not some kind of praise sheet on Thatcherism. My post was not even about Thatcher. It was about the attitude of Thatcher’s family and friends to her stroke as opposed to the position taken by Matiba’s family. Thatcher crying on TV that her son was lost in the desert while she was sending British men to die in the Falklands is really irrelevant to this debate (as is the pro or cons of all her other crazy policies).

By: Zee Harrison

Zee Harrison — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:36:49 +0000

Margaret Thatcher? A woman who caused irreparable harm to the UK. A woman who caused non-white people to feel afraid, who condoned and covertly condoned prejudice and ignorance, who promoted greed for the sake of greed. A woman who protected her son from being identified publicly as the work-shy mercenary that he is, who protected him in order to prevent him from spending many years in prison.
Thank you for sharing your opinions, but as a person who lived through the Thatcherite era, it was gloom and doom for the masses and watch the fall out from her legacy play out over the next few months and years as Britain falls headlong into a recession.
Zee.
http://www.blackwomanthinks.blogspot.com

By: Ms K

Ms K — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:44:04 +0000

Well in!

By: 3N

3N — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:52:08 +0000

I completely agree with your sentiments on Matiba and I am disappointed that his family has not urged him to stay away from public life.

He served the country well and he deserves to be honoured as an elder and accorded that respect.