Fifty one years ago this month, on August 28, 1963 to be exact, the world was gifted what has come to be universally acknowledged as perhaps the most riveting, most transformational, most inspirational speeches in recorded history.

Edmund Burke, the celebrated 18th Century British statesman, was setting very high standards indeed when he said:

When Messer Annibale Bentivogli was ruler in Bologna, the Canneschi clan formed a conspiracy and murdered him; and even though no members of his family survived except the infant Giovanni, the people rose up and slew all of the Canneschi.

In a month’s time, we will be celebrating the fourth anniversary of the promulgation of our Constitution, the symbolic birth of Kenya’s “Second Republic”.

Mr President, I salute you, and do pray this finds you well. I write to you both as a patriotic citizen of our land, and as a leader duly elected to represent the people of Budalang’i in our National Assembly. Please grant me your indulgence to address you on this unfolding referendum debate.

My bodyguard since I first entered Parliament seven years ago is a fine police officer called Jonah Rotich, a pure bred Nandi gentleman from Uasin Gishu County. My Personal Assistant is a young lady of Gusii extraction from Nyamira County, MarieClara Mayaka. I’m always amused by the eyebrows raised virtually instinctively whenever it is revealed that I have “strangers” working with me so up close!

These past seven weeks, millions of sober-minded Kenyans have quietly nursed mounting apprehension over possibility of another deadly implosion akin to the 2008 post-election pogroms. God forbid! This fear is borne of a series of signs pointing to a nation not at ease with herself, yet.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, a horrified world watched in shock live images of the most daring and devastating terror assault in history, as al-Qaeda delivered a series of four deadly blows right at the heart of America, killing 3,000 people and causing at least $10 billion in property damage.

At Sh 1.76 trillion, the 2014/15 Budget is historic by its sheer size and the apparent deliberate effort to directly address prevailing national challenges.

With mounting challenges from virtually all points of the compass, amid deepening ethnic fissures and rising political temperatures, President Uhuru Kenyatta may want to pick some lessons from the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

The world acclaimed poem, The Second Coming, was composed by famed Irish poet and politician, William Butler Yeats in 1919.

As a legislator, and more so as head of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), I intimately appreciate the value of accountability and individual political responsibility in the conduct of public affairs. Indeed accountability is a constitutional tenet.

Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay! That must be our national chorus to anything Anglo Leasing. Because to pay even a single penny to the phantoms behind this vile rip-off is to reward impunity and offer a new lease of life to the serpent of grand corruption — which we should be asphyxiating, not resuscitating!

Last July, I was in Banjul, Gambia for the Africa Accountability Conference with delegates from Public Accounts Committees of Parliaments across Africa, hosted by the Western Africa Association of Public Accounts Committees (WAAPAC).

On August 28, 1963, atop the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, before a mass of 250,000 civil rights activists, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered what is universally acknowledged as perhaps the most riveting, most transformational, most inspirational speeches in recorded history. “I Have a Dream”.

Security is paramount. Absolutely. No doubt about that. In fact the primary duty of any government is to protect life and property of citizens.

Thursday, March 27, 2014 has entered the annals of history as the day Kenya’s fourth President, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, delivered the country’s first-ever State of the Nation Address from the sanctum of the august House.

At the height of clamour for a constitutional referendum mid last year, I wrote a piece here expressing some serious reservations, informed by two fundamentals.

In 191 BC, Antiochus III, King of Syria, invaded Greece, invited there by the Aetolians in order to drive out the Romans. Antiochus sent envoys to the Achaeans, who were allies of the Romans, to advise them to remain neutral. On the other hand, the Romans urged them to take up arms on their behalf.

This Robert Green gem has pricked my conscience as I reflect on the state of our nationhood in this historic 50th year of our independence.

In 415 BC, the ancient Athenians attacked Sicily, believing their expedition would bring them riches, 16-year Peloponnesian War.

This week I have been quietly reflecting on a past visit to Oslo, Norway, during which I attended a truly illuminating training programme for political party leaders, including interaction with members of the Stortinget (Norwegian Parliament), leading political parties and high ranking government officials.

Edmund Burke, the celebrated 18th Century British Statesman, was setting very high standards indeed when he said “Parliament is not a Congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate

During an important battle in the War of the Three Kingdoms, in the third century AD, advisers to commander Ts’ao Ts’ao discovered documents showing that certain of his generals had conspired with the enemy, and urged him to arrest and execute them.

To tax is a sovereign prerogative, a constitutional fiat inherent in government. To pay tax is a civic imperative incumbent upon every citizen, one acknowledged even by Christ, in Mathew 22:21

In one of his simple yet striking fables, Leo Tolstoy tells of two cockerels that fought on a dungheap. One cockerel vanquished the other and drove him from the dungheap. All the hens gathered around the cockerel, and began to laud him.

It is not raining in the house of Jubilee. It is pouring! In nine short months, the mood has dizzyingly swung from jubilation to tribulation, as the UhuRuto duo increasingly seem more dramatic than dynamic.

I write this from Štrbské Pleso, a breathtaking Slovakian resort in Vysoké Tatry in the Tatra Mountains of the Carpathian range, which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. A favourite for tourists and winter sports, this is the heart of the Tatra National Park, Slovakia’s tourism crown jewel.

“First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Socialist.

The opposition of today is the government of tomorrow, the government of today the opposition of tomorrow! This is brutal political reality, whether in mature democracies like here in the UK from where I am filing this piece, or emergent ones like India and Ghana.

A Lion was chasing a chamois along a valley. He had all but caught it, and with longing eyes was anticipating a certain and satisfying meal. It seemed as if it were utterly impossible for the victim to escape: for a deep ravine appeared to bar the way for both the hunter and the hunted.

My son will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just, all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for every selfish politician, there is a dedicated leader. Teach him that for every enemy there is a friend.

The sultan of Persia had sentenced two men to death. One of them, knowing how much the sultan loved his stallion, offered to teach the horse to fly within a year in return for his life. The sultan, fancying himself as the rider of the only flying horse in the world, agreed.

When Messer Annibale Bentivogli…was ruler in Bologna, the Canneschi clan formed a conspiracy and murdered him; and even though no members of his family survived except the infant Giovanni, the people rose up and slew all of the Canneschi.

“We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors.

Two years ago I joined Americans in my alma mater city, Washington DC, to mark the 26th Martin Luther King Day.

Kenyans want decisive action by a government that takes responsibility and a commander-in-chief not afraid to say “the buck stops here”

Horatio G. Spafford could well be described as a latter-day Job. Born on October 20, 1828 in Lansingburgh, New York, Horatio had it all by the late 1860s. A Presbyterian Church elder and devout Christian, he was wealthy with a thriving legal practice.

Six months on, the 11th Parliament is still struggling to cut a defining identity. The predominant image in the minds of many Kenyans seems to be that of querulous partisanship, shortsighted parochial posturing, unimpressive quality of debate, greed and insensitivity to public plight and doubtful fidelity to constitutionalism and rule of law.

Jubilee or CORD. Kalenjin or Duruma. Victim or accused. Whatever your political affiliation, ethnic extraction, sentiment or emotion. If you are Kenyan, and you have any semblance of a conscience... you cannot help but feel a searing sense of national shame.