Why Boniface Mwangi, Picha Mtaani and His Projects Are Dangerous for Kenya

So today Sunday, 4th September, we went to Dandora dumpsite for a tour with Juliani, Emmanuel Jal and a host of other Kenyans, The project was supposedly organised and funded by Boniface Mwangi (he of one CNN award fame) and his organisations. Before the event I received the invitation from Boniface Mwangi whom I have known and supported for a while. He wanted to be accompanied to Dandora with Juliani and Emmanuel Jal.

So we went to Dandora and had a great time. People were talking how they can change the country and how we should ignore the current leadership. It was a civic initiative and was suppose to be political. I suspected something was wrong when Vision 2030 kept being shoved down our throats. Then I asked Boniface and the MC, Mwaseki, if the event was being used to market Vision 2030 because I have serious issues with the Vision. I later asked others when we were leaving the event venue if the trip was sponsored by Vision 2030. Some guy was non-commital but he suspected it was. But I still gave it benefit of doubt. Vision 2030 is a political document and you cannot market a political document in the same meeting where you are talking of changing the status quo.

Trouble actually started when in the evening, Mugo Kibati, started demanding for debrief of the event in Dandora. Mugo Kibati who is a political appointee of Kibaki and a known PNU strategist was demanding answers and reports from Boniface Mwangi. I then asked Boniface Mwangi why Mugo was demanding a report. I told him that he should not confirm to me that I participated in a political event disguised as a civic event.

Boniface Mwangi was not giving any answers and when he did he said that he funded the meeting himself. I then asked him why Mugo Kibati was demanding answers. Then he said that I should not pick fights with everything. I then asked him how it I was such a useful entity to go to Dandora and be rained on and even stop all I was doing while when I demand accountability then I am “picking fights”. He said that infact he has done “picha mtaani” and I have done nothing.

Let me tell you about Picha Mtaani. It has been a doctored photography exhibition showcased all over to show how one community was killed in the 2007/2008 violence in Kenya. The same photo exhibition is not out of the sole work of Boniface Mwangi. In fact Boniface Mwangi did not go beyond Kibera during the violence. The pictures are works of different journalists. The same pictures lacks the evidence of the killings we saw in Kibera, Naivasha, Limuru and Subukia. When I went to Limuru police station during the PEV, we found mothers with open bowels after being slashed in farms they were working on. We saw at least two ladies whom we had to call the RedCross ambulance to take away. Those ones could not make it to the Boniface Mwangi exhibition. In fact during the first Kenya Burning exhibition at KICC, the photos and videos of Naivasha, Subukia, Juja, Ruiru, Nakuru and Kibera massacre were shown. In Picha Mtaani they have been carefully edited.

If you remember the video which Kalonzo Musyoka roamed the world. It was done by a producer at Picha Mtaani with great submission from Boniface Mwangi himself.

I told Boniface these things even on this LinkedIn update.

FACT

Don’ call a civic event which is suppose to be non-partisan and then you want to market a certain political leaning. I wont accept that and you can only force your family to accept such crap